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 7 February 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
7 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 368 211 262
Rank change year-on-year -157 +51 -7
Contract jobs citing Derivative 232 374 416
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.59% 1.20% 0.92%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 1.75% 3.67% 3.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 169 292 388
10th Percentile £513 £500 £550
25th Percentile £610 £638 £609
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £733 £725 £700
Median % change year-on-year +1.03% +3.57% -6.67%
75th Percentile £988 £888 £800
90th Percentile £1,000 £938 £850
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £325 £513
% change year-on-year +61.54% -36.59% -26.79%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 1 0
Median hourly rate - £77.50 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate - - -

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 13,252 10,185 13,866
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.95% 32.75% 30.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,387 6,061 9,016
10th Percentile £268 £263 £255
25th Percentile £402 £405 £411
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £530
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -0.94% -3.64%
75th Percentile £625 £651 £650
90th Percentile £738 £775 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 641 309 819
10th Percentile £15.22 £19.71 £13.05
25th Percentile £18.50 £24.15 £16.69
Median hourly rate £29.00 £35.00 £32.12
Median % change year-on-year -17.14% +8.98% +42.83%
75th Percentile £63.00 £65.00 £58.73
90th Percentile £75.00 £82.44 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £29.24 £32.50 £33.61
% change year-on-year -10.03% -3.29% +58.07%

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 7 February 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 11 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 7 February 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 -147 225 £741 +2.24% 50
London -83 216 £750 +3.45% 50
Work from Home -128 68 £800 +10.34% 25
UK excluding London -86 11 £525 +61.54% 10
Northern Ireland -15 3 £320 -1.54%
North of England -59 3 £525 -12.50% 1
East of England - 3 £681 -
Yorkshire - 3 £525 -
Scotland +5 2 £470 +16.34%
Midlands - 2 £525 -
West Midlands - 2 £525 -

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 9 (3.88%) Apache Spark
2 8 (3.45%) Apache
2 8 (3.45%) Apache Airflow
3 6 (2.59%) Confluence
4 2 (0.86%) WebSphere
5 1 (0.43%) HCL Notes
5 1 (0.43%) Oracle SOA Suite
5 1 (0.43%) SharePoint
Applications
1 26 (11.21%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (1.72%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 3 (1.29%) Microsoft Office
4 2 (0.86%) Microsoft Project
4 2 (0.86%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 6 (2.59%) Aladdin
2 5 (2.16%) Temenos T24
3 3 (1.29%) Summit
4 2 (0.86%) Algo Collateral
4 2 (0.86%) Bloomberg TOMS
4 2 (0.86%) Oracle General Ledger
4 2 (0.86%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
5 1 (0.43%) Fidessa
5 1 (0.43%) FLEXCUBE
5 1 (0.43%) ION MarketView
5 1 (0.43%) Loan IQ
5 1 (0.43%) Oracle FAH
5 1 (0.43%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 1 (0.43%) thinkFolio
Cloud Services
1 46 (19.83%) AWS
2 26 (11.21%) Azure
3 11 (4.74%) Power Platform
3 11 (4.74%) Snowflake
4 10 (4.31%) GCP
5 8 (3.45%) dbt
6 6 (2.59%) Serverless
7 5 (2.16%) Amazon S3
7 5 (2.16%) AWS Lambda
7 5 (2.16%) Azure DevOps
7 5 (2.16%) SaaS
8 3 (1.29%) Amazon ECS
9 2 (0.86%) npm
9 2 (0.86%) OpenShift
9 2 (0.86%) Yarn
10 1 (0.43%) AWS CloudFormation
10 1 (0.43%) Azure Machine Learning
10 1 (0.43%) Collibra
10 1 (0.43%) IaaS
10 1 (0.43%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 9 (3.88%) FIX Connectivity
2 4 (1.72%) Multicast
3 1 (0.43%) RTMP
3 1 (0.43%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (9.91%) PostgreSQL
2 15 (6.47%) SQL Server
3 11 (4.74%) Power BI
4 9 (3.88%) Data Lake
5 8 (3.45%) Amazon Athena
5 8 (3.45%) Apache Arrow
5 8 (3.45%) Apache Iceberg
5 8 (3.45%) Apache Ignite
5 8 (3.45%) Dremio
5 8 (3.45%) Redis
6 5 (2.16%) Relational Database
7 4 (1.72%) Big Data
7 4 (1.72%) KDB
7 4 (1.72%) NoSQL
7 4 (1.72%) Tableau
8 3 (1.29%) Amazon RDS
8 3 (1.29%) Metadata
9 2 (0.86%) Data Mart
9 2 (0.86%) MongoDB
9 2 (0.86%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 17 (7.33%) Git
2 10 (4.31%) JIRA
3 9 (3.88%) Jenkins
4 6 (2.59%) Octopus Deploy
4 6 (2.59%) Visual Studio
5 5 (2.16%) Maven
6 4 (1.72%) GitLab
6 4 (1.72%) IntelliJ
7 3 (1.29%) Bitbucket
7 3 (1.29%) Gradle
8 2 (0.86%) Cucumber
8 2 (0.86%) Eclipse
8 2 (0.86%) webpack
9 1 (0.43%) Crucible
9 1 (0.43%) NUnit
9 1 (0.43%) REST Assured
9 1 (0.43%) TeamCity
General
1 172 (74.14%) Finance
2 124 (53.45%) Banking
3 96 (41.38%) Front Office
4 83 (35.78%) Investment Banking
5 70 (30.17%) Social Skills
6 34 (14.66%) Analytical Skills
7 25 (10.78%) Financial Institution
8 8 (3.45%) Back Office
9 4 (1.72%) Organisational Skills
10 3 (1.29%) Documentation Skills
10 3 (1.29%) Legal
10 3 (1.29%) Spanish Language
10 3 (1.29%) Telecoms
11 2 (0.86%) General Ledger
11 2 (0.86%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 2 (0.86%) Influencing Skills
11 2 (0.86%) Presentation Skills
12 1 (0.43%) Japanese Language
12 1 (0.43%) Law
12 1 (0.43%) Retail
Job Titles
1 110 (47.41%) Developer
2 54 (23.28%) Senior
3 43 (18.53%) Analyst
4 39 (16.81%) Java Developer
5 31 (13.36%) Business Analyst
5 31 (13.36%) Senior Developer
6 21 (9.05%) Senior Java Developer
7 18 (7.76%) Analytics Developer
7 18 (7.76%) AWS Developer
7 18 (7.76%) Kafka Developer
7 18 (7.76%) PostgreSQL Developer
8 15 (6.47%) Quantitative Developer
9 14 (6.03%) C# Developer
10 13 (5.60%) Python Developer
11 12 (5.17%) C++ Developer
11 12 (5.17%) Electronic Trading Developer
11 12 (5.17%) Electronic Trading Java Developer
11 12 (5.17%) Java Engineer
11 12 (5.17%) Software Engineer
12 11 (4.74%) Algorithmic Trading Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 23 (9.91%) Kafka
2 19 (8.19%) FIX Protocol
2 19 (8.19%) React
3 13 (5.60%) RESTful
4 12 (5.17%) NumPy
4 12 (5.17%) Pandas
5 11 (4.74%) .NET
5 11 (4.74%) SciPy
6 10 (4.31%) HTML
7 9 (3.88%) Dask
7 9 (3.88%) Protocol Buffers
8 8 (3.45%) gRPC
8 8 (3.45%) REST
9 7 (3.02%) Redux
9 7 (3.02%) Spring
10 6 (2.59%) CSS
10 6 (2.59%) WebSockets
11 5 (2.16%) HTML5
11 5 (2.16%) XML
12 4 (1.72%) Node.js
Miscellaneous
1 85 (36.64%) Equities
2 54 (23.28%) Fixed Income
3 52 (22.41%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
4 36 (15.52%) Equity Derivative
5 25 (10.78%) Market Risk
6 20 (8.62%) Algorithms
7 19 (8.19%) Management Information System
8 17 (7.33%) Distributed Systems
8 17 (7.33%) Hedge funds
9 12 (5.17%) TWAP
9 12 (5.17%) VWAP
10 11 (4.74%) Cloud Native
10 11 (4.74%) Credit Risk
10 11 (4.74%) Data Protection Act
11 10 (4.31%) Distributed Computing
12 9 (3.88%) Interest Rate Derivative
12 9 (3.88%) Onboarding
12 9 (3.88%) Product Ownership
13 8 (3.45%) Pricing Data
14 7 (3.02%) Analytical Mindset
Operating Systems
1 15 (6.47%) Linux
2 11 (4.74%) Unix
3 7 (3.02%) Windows
4 3 (1.29%) Debian
4 3 (1.29%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 3 (1.29%) Ubuntu
4 3 (1.29%) VMS
5 1 (0.43%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 69 (29.74%) Agile
2 68 (29.31%) Risk Management
3 42 (18.10%) Mathematics
4 40 (17.24%) Analytics
4 40 (17.24%) Problem-Solving
5 36 (15.52%) TDD
6 34 (14.66%) CI/CD
7 30 (12.93%) Low Latency
8 25 (10.78%) Design Patterns
8 25 (10.78%) Stakeholder Management
9 24 (10.34%) DevOps
9 24 (10.34%) Electronic Trading
9 24 (10.34%) Software Engineering
10 23 (9.91%) Computer Science
10 23 (9.91%) Data Pipeline
11 21 (9.05%) Multithreading
12 20 (8.62%) Physics
12 20 (8.62%) Quantitative Finance
12 20 (8.62%) Validation
13 19 (8.19%) Asset Management
Programming Languages
1 95 (40.95%) Python
2 68 (29.31%) SQL
3 63 (27.16%) Java
4 38 (16.38%) C++
5 32 (13.79%) C#
6 22 (9.48%) JavaScript
7 20 (8.62%) TypeScript
8 6 (2.59%) VBA
9 4 (1.72%) Shell Script
10 3 (1.29%) PowerShell
11 2 (0.86%) Perl
11 2 (0.86%) Rust
11 2 (0.86%) Scala
12 1 (0.43%) PL/SQL
12 1 (0.43%) R
12 1 (0.43%) VC++
Qualifications
1 44 (18.97%) Degree
2 17 (7.33%) Master's Degree
3 15 (6.47%) Numerate Degree
4 11 (4.74%) Computer Science Degree
5 10 (4.31%) PhD
6 3 (1.29%) PMI Certification
6 3 (1.29%) PMP
7 2 (0.86%) ISTQB
8 1 (0.43%) CBAP
8 1 (0.43%) FFIEC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (5.60%) QA
2 12 (5.17%) EMIR
3 8 (3.45%) IFRS
4 7 (3.02%) Data Quality
4 7 (3.02%) MiFID
5 4 (1.72%) IFRS 9
5 4 (1.72%) SLA
6 3 (1.29%) Basel III
6 3 (1.29%) IAS 32
6 3 (1.29%) IAS 39
7 2 (0.86%) GAAP
7 2 (0.86%) PMO
8 1 (0.43%) Accessibility
8 1 (0.43%) Disclosure Scotland
8 1 (0.43%) FINRA
8 1 (0.43%) IFRS 17
8 1 (0.43%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 1 (0.43%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 8 (3.45%) Docker
2 3 (1.29%) QEMU
Systems Management
1 8 (3.45%) Kubernetes
2 7 (3.02%) Ansible
3 3 (1.29%) Grafana
3 3 (1.29%) Podman
3 3 (1.29%) Thomson Reuters DACS
4 2 (0.86%) ITRS Geneos
4 2 (0.86%) Prometheus
4 2 (0.86%) Terraform
5 1 (0.43%) Control-M
Vendors
1 17 (7.33%) Murex
2 16 (6.90%) Bloomberg
2 16 (6.90%) Oracle
3 8 (3.45%) Microsoft
4 6 (2.59%) ION Trading
4 6 (2.59%) Tradeweb
5 5 (2.16%) jBASE
5 5 (2.16%) Sophis
5 5 (2.16%) Temenos
6 4 (1.72%) Calypso
6 4 (1.72%) Charles River
7 3 (1.29%) Databricks
7 3 (1.29%) IBM
7 3 (1.29%) NVIDIA
7 3 (1.29%) NYFIX
7 3 (1.29%) Refinitiv
8 2 (0.86%) Apple
8 2 (0.86%) Google
8 2 (0.86%) MarketAxess
8 2 (0.86%) SmartStream