Derivative Contract Job Trends

Derivatives
UK

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Derivative in contract job vacancies. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Derivative over the 6 months leading up to 18 April 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 391 197 234
Rank change year-on-year -194 +37 +19
Contract jobs citing Derivative 239 406 447
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.52% 1.38% 1.02%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 1.61% 4.09% 3.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 158 347 399
10th Percentile £457 £511 £550
25th Percentile £613 £638 £625
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £736 £725 £725
Median % change year-on-year +1.55% - -3.33%
75th Percentile £875 £875 £850
90th Percentile £988 £938 £888
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £377 £638
% change year-on-year +25.99% -40.86% -20.31%

All Generic Skills
UK

Derivative falls under the General and Transferable Skills category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring generic IT skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for generic IT skills 14,884 9,928 13,341
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 32.27% 33.74% 30.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,296 6,370 8,559
10th Percentile £300 £300 £263
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% -2.27%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £738 £775 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £495 £500
% change year-on-year -4.04% -1.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 709 382 907
10th Percentile £16.01 £16.95 £12.25
25th Percentile £21.00 £22.33 £15.17
Median hourly rate £45.00 £32.50 £27.50
Median % change year-on-year +38.46% +18.18% +22.30%
75th Percentile £70.00 £64.51 £57.50
90th Percentile £85.40 £83.20 £67.43
UK excluding London median hourly rate £47.50 £32.28 £26.00
% change year-on-year +47.17% +24.13% +18.18%

Derivative
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Derivative relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Derivative job vacancy trend in the UK

Derivative
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Derivative.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Derivative

Derivative
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Derivative over the 6 months to 18 April 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Derivative in the UK

Derivative
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Derivative.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Derivative

Derivative
Top 9 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Derivative within the UK over the 6 months to 18 April 2026. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England -193 223 £745 -0.67% 50
London -108 216 £750 - 49
Work from Home -146 81 £800 +10.34% 21
UK excluding London -112 15 £475 +25.99% 7
Scotland +3 9 £470 +16.34% 1
East of England - 3 £681 -
Northern Ireland -13 2 £395 +21.54% 1
North of England -72 1 - -
Yorkshire - 1 - -

Derivative
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Application Platforms
1 6 (2.51%) Apache Spark
1 6 (2.51%) Confluence
2 1 (0.42%) Microsoft Exchange
2 1 (0.42%) Oracle SOA Suite
2 1 (0.42%) SharePoint
2 1 (0.42%) WebSphere
Applications
1 16 (6.69%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (1.26%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 3 (1.26%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.42%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 8 (3.35%) Aladdin
2 7 (2.93%) Summit
3 5 (2.09%) Loan IQ
3 5 (2.09%) Temenos T24
4 3 (1.26%) Advent Geneva
5 2 (0.84%) Algo Collateral
5 2 (0.84%) Bloomberg TOMS
5 2 (0.84%) Front Arena
5 2 (0.84%) Global One
5 2 (0.84%) Oracle General Ledger
5 2 (0.84%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 1 (0.42%) Bloomberg AIM
6 1 (0.42%) FLEXCUBE
6 1 (0.42%) Oracle FAH
6 1 (0.42%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 1 (0.42%) Orchestrade
Cloud Services
1 48 (20.08%) AWS
2 33 (13.81%) Azure
3 22 (9.21%) GCP
4 9 (3.77%) Power Platform
5 7 (2.93%) ChatGPT
6 6 (2.51%) Anthropic Claude
7 5 (2.09%) Amazon S3
7 5 (2.09%) AWS Lambda
7 5 (2.09%) GitHub
7 5 (2.09%) GitHub Copilot
7 5 (2.09%) Serverless
8 4 (1.67%) Azure DevOps
9 3 (1.26%) Amazon ECS
9 3 (1.26%) npm
9 3 (1.26%) SaaS
9 3 (1.26%) Snowflake
9 3 (1.26%) Yarn
10 2 (0.84%) Collibra
10 2 (0.84%) Microsoft Copilot
10 2 (0.84%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 17 (7.11%) FIX Connectivity
2 4 (1.67%) HTTP
3 1 (0.42%) RTMP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 30 (12.55%) PostgreSQL
2 15 (6.28%) Relational Database
3 14 (5.86%) Metadata
4 10 (4.18%) Redis
5 9 (3.77%) Power BI
5 9 (3.77%) Tableau
6 8 (3.35%) SQL Server
7 7 (2.93%) MongoDB
7 7 (2.93%) RDBMS
8 6 (2.51%) DB2
9 4 (1.67%) NoSQL
10 3 (1.26%) Oracle Database
11 2 (0.84%) Amazon RDS
11 2 (0.84%) Big Data
11 2 (0.84%) Crystal Reports
11 2 (0.84%) Data Mart
11 2 (0.84%) Data Warehouse
11 2 (0.84%) Power Query
11 2 (0.84%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 1 (0.42%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 16 (6.69%) Git
2 12 (5.02%) JIRA
3 7 (2.93%) Octopus Deploy
4 6 (2.51%) Jenkins
5 5 (2.09%) TeamCity
6 4 (1.67%) Visual Studio
7 3 (1.26%) Bitbucket
7 3 (1.26%) webpack
8 2 (0.84%) Gradle
8 2 (0.84%) Maven
9 1 (0.42%) Eclipse
9 1 (0.42%) GitLab
9 1 (0.42%) IntelliJ
9 1 (0.42%) NUnit
9 1 (0.42%) REST Assured
General
1 162 (67.78%) Finance
2 118 (49.37%) Banking
3 103 (43.10%) Front Office
4 86 (35.98%) Investment Banking
5 63 (26.36%) Social Skills
6 43 (17.99%) Analytical Skills
7 19 (7.95%) Financial Institution
8 12 (5.02%) Back Office
9 6 (2.51%) Legal
10 4 (1.67%) Presentation Skills
11 3 (1.26%) Documentation Skills
11 3 (1.26%) Influencing Skills
11 3 (1.26%) Spanish Language
11 3 (1.26%) Telecoms
12 2 (0.84%) General Ledger
12 2 (0.84%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 2 (0.84%) Organisational Skills
13 1 (0.42%) Japanese Language
13 1 (0.42%) Private Banking
13 1 (0.42%) Retail
Job Titles
1 114 (47.70%) Developer
2 54 (22.59%) Analyst
3 45 (18.83%) Business Analyst
4 44 (18.41%) Java Developer
5 41 (17.15%) Senior
6 29 (12.13%) Python Developer
7 24 (10.04%) Lead
7 24 (10.04%) Senior Developer
8 21 (8.79%) Electronic Trading Developer
9 20 (8.37%) Electronic Trading Java Developer
10 18 (7.53%) Algorithmic Trading Developer
10 18 (7.53%) Java Developer - Algorithmic Trading
11 17 (7.11%) Low Latency Java Developer
11 17 (7.11%) Software Engineer
12 16 (6.69%) Lead Developer
12 16 (6.69%) Senior Java Developer
13 12 (5.02%) Analytics Developer
13 12 (5.02%) Kafka Developer
13 12 (5.02%) Lead Software Developer
13 12 (5.02%) Lead Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 33 (13.81%) React
2 27 (11.30%) FIX Protocol
3 20 (8.37%) Redux
4 18 (7.53%) Kafka
5 16 (6.69%) Node.js
6 12 (5.02%) WebSockets
7 11 (4.60%) RESTful
8 10 (4.18%) .NET
9 9 (3.77%) HTML
10 7 (2.93%) HTML5
10 7 (2.93%) XML
11 6 (2.51%) CSS
11 6 (2.51%) Dask
11 6 (2.51%) NumPy
11 6 (2.51%) Pandas
11 6 (2.51%) REST
12 5 (2.09%) AngularJS
12 5 (2.09%) Spring
13 4 (1.67%) RxJS
13 4 (1.67%) SciPy
Miscellaneous
1 87 (36.40%) Equities
2 55 (23.01%) Fixed Income
3 39 (16.32%) Equity Derivative
4 37 (15.48%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
5 26 (10.88%) Market Risk
6 19 (7.95%) TWAP
6 19 (7.95%) VWAP
7 18 (7.53%) Algorithms
8 17 (7.11%) Credit Risk
9 14 (5.86%) Data Protection Act
9 14 (5.86%) Distributed Systems
9 14 (5.86%) Management Information System
10 13 (5.44%) Hedge funds
11 10 (4.18%) Data Structures
12 9 (3.77%) OTC Derivatives
13 8 (3.35%) Product Ownership
14 7 (2.93%) Cloud Native
15 6 (2.51%) Analytical Mindset
16 5 (2.09%) Credit Derivative
16 5 (2.09%) Exotic Derivative
Operating Systems
1 14 (5.86%) Unix
2 7 (2.93%) Linux
3 3 (1.26%) Debian
3 3 (1.26%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 3 (1.26%) Ubuntu
3 3 (1.26%) VMS
4 1 (0.42%) Windows
4 1 (0.42%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 68 (28.45%) Agile
2 59 (24.69%) Risk Management
3 42 (17.57%) Problem-Solving
4 40 (16.74%) Low Latency
4 40 (16.74%) TDD
5 37 (15.48%) Electronic Trading
6 31 (12.97%) Asset Management
6 31 (12.97%) Multithreading
7 30 (12.55%) Analytics
7 30 (12.55%) CI/CD
8 29 (12.13%) Software Engineering
8 29 (12.13%) User Acceptance Testing
9 27 (11.30%) Design Patterns
9 27 (11.30%) Mathematics
10 24 (10.04%) DevOps
10 24 (10.04%) Mentoring
11 23 (9.62%) Stakeholder Management
12 22 (9.21%) AI
12 22 (9.21%) Algorithmic Trading
13 21 (8.79%) OO
Programming Languages
1 106 (44.35%) Python
2 83 (34.73%) SQL
3 65 (27.20%) Java
4 33 (13.81%) C++
5 31 (12.97%) TypeScript
6 28 (11.72%) C#
7 24 (10.04%) JavaScript
8 7 (2.93%) Rust
9 6 (2.51%) Perl
10 4 (1.67%) PL/SQL
10 4 (1.67%) Scala
10 4 (1.67%) Shell Script
11 3 (1.26%) PowerShell
12 2 (0.84%) F#
12 2 (0.84%) VBA
13 1 (0.42%) R
13 1 (0.42%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 37 (15.48%) Degree
2 13 (5.44%) Computer Science Degree
3 11 (4.60%) Master's Degree
3 11 (4.60%) Numerate Degree
4 7 (2.93%) PhD
5 3 (1.26%) ISTQB
6 2 (0.84%) PMI Certification
6 2 (0.84%) PMP
7 1 (0.42%) CBAP
7 1 (0.42%) FFIEC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (7.11%) QA
2 12 (5.02%) Data Quality
3 11 (4.60%) EMIR
4 7 (2.93%) IFRS
5 5 (2.09%) MiFID
6 4 (1.67%) Basel III
6 4 (1.67%) IFRS 9
7 3 (1.26%) IAS 32
7 3 (1.26%) IAS 39
7 3 (1.26%) SLA
8 2 (0.84%) GAAP
9 1 (0.42%) Accessibility
9 1 (0.42%) Disclosure Scotland
9 1 (0.42%) FINRA
9 1 (0.42%) IFRS 17
9 1 (0.42%) PMO
9 1 (0.42%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 9 (3.77%) Docker
2 3 (1.26%) QEMU
Systems Management
1 6 (2.51%) Kubernetes
2 5 (2.09%) Ansible
3 4 (1.67%) Grafana
3 4 (1.67%) ITRS Geneos
4 3 (1.26%) Control-M
4 3 (1.26%) Podman
4 3 (1.26%) Prometheus
4 3 (1.26%) Terraform
Vendors
1 21 (8.79%) Murex
2 18 (7.53%) Bloomberg
3 17 (7.11%) Oracle
4 6 (2.51%) Charles River
4 6 (2.51%) IBM
4 6 (2.51%) ION Trading
4 6 (2.51%) Sybase
5 5 (2.09%) Calypso
5 5 (2.09%) jBASE
5 5 (2.09%) Temenos
5 5 (2.09%) Tradeweb
6 3 (1.26%) Advent
6 3 (1.26%) Apple
6 3 (1.26%) Google
6 3 (1.26%) NVIDIA
7 2 (0.84%) MarketAxess
7 2 (0.84%) Microsoft
7 2 (0.84%) Reuters
7 2 (0.84%) SmartStream
7 2 (0.84%) Splunk