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 29 September 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
29 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 434 302 210
Rank change year-on-year -132 -92 0
Contract jobs citing Derivative 266 276 447
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.49% 0.85% 1.18%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 1.42% 2.36% 3.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 157 223 371
10th Percentile £417 £521 £600
25th Percentile £565 £613 £663
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £710 £750 £800
Median % change year-on-year -5.33% -6.25% +14.29%
75th Percentile £788 £825 £888
90th Percentile £880 £988 -
UK excluding London median daily rate £473 £550 £650
% change year-on-year -14.09% -15.38% +10.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 1 0
10th Percentile £59.13 - -
25th Percentile £63.44 £86.25 -
Median hourly rate £71.25 £87.50 -
Median % change year-on-year -18.57% - -
75th Percentile £78.44 £88.75 -
90th Percentile £82.38 - -
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 18,695 11,683 11,559
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 34.23% 35.84% 30.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,200 7,152 6,961
10th Percentile £320 £293 £285
25th Percentile £425 £408 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £519 £538
Median % change year-on-year +1.20% -3.49% -2.27%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £673
90th Percentile £750 £750 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,241 597 431
10th Percentile £14.04 £14.78 £15.34
25th Percentile £17.85 £18.87 £22.50
Median hourly rate £37.50 £29.00 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year +29.31% -42.00% +11.73%
75th Percentile £67.50 £52.50 £70.00
90th Percentile £82.25 £72.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £38.25 £29.27 £57.35
% change year-on-year +30.68% -48.96% +14.70%

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 29 September 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
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Derivative over the 6 months to 29 September 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Derivative in the UK

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 29 September 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 -138 238 £725 -3.33% 325
London -94 230 £710 -5.33% 304
Work from Home -113 68 £753 +0.33% 85
UK excluding London -91 30 £473 -14.09% 53
Scotland -14 20 £402 -23.43% 13
North of England -73 6 £725 +18.46% 6
Yorkshire -37 5 £725 -
Northern Ireland +1 3 £510 -2.86% 16
Midlands -42 1 - - 1
North West -52 1 £198 -67.65% 6
West Midlands - 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 (2.26%) Confluence
2 2 (0.75%) Apache
2 2 (0.75%) Apache Airflow
3 1 (0.38%) Apache Spark
Applications
1 4 (1.50%) MS Visio
2 2 (0.75%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.38%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.38%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 10 (3.76%) Aladdin
2 3 (1.13%) Orchestrade
3 2 (0.75%) Oracle FAH
3 2 (0.75%) Oracle Financials
3 2 (0.75%) Oracle General Ledger
3 2 (0.75%) Oracle Payables
3 2 (0.75%) Oracle Receivables
4 1 (0.38%) Actimize
4 1 (0.38%) Bloomberg TOMS
4 1 (0.38%) Front Arena
4 1 (0.38%) Global One
4 1 (0.38%) Markit EDM
4 1 (0.38%) MultiFonds
4 1 (0.38%) SimCorp Dimension
4 1 (0.38%) Summit
Cloud Services
1 22 (8.27%) Azure
2 17 (6.39%) AWS
3 15 (5.64%) GCP
4 10 (3.76%) ChatGPT
5 8 (3.01%) Anthropic Claude
5 8 (3.01%) GitHub
6 7 (2.63%) GitHub Copilot
7 5 (1.88%) Azure DevOps
8 4 (1.50%) Power Platform
8 4 (1.50%) Snowflake
9 3 (1.13%) Google Kubernetes Engine
9 3 (1.13%) Microsoft Copilot
10 2 (0.75%) Amazon S3
10 2 (0.75%) AWS Lambda
10 2 (0.75%) Serverless
11 1 (0.38%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 12 (4.51%) FIX Connectivity
2 7 (2.63%) HTTP
3 2 (0.75%) Multicast
4 1 (0.38%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 18 (6.77%) Relational Database
2 17 (6.39%) MongoDB
3 15 (5.64%) Metadata
4 14 (5.26%) SQL Server
5 9 (3.38%) Db2
6 8 (3.01%) Redis
7 7 (2.63%) PostgreSQL
8 6 (2.26%) Data Lake
8 6 (2.26%) Data Warehouse
9 5 (1.88%) RDBMS
10 4 (1.50%) KDB
10 4 (1.50%) NoSQL
10 4 (1.50%) Power BI
10 4 (1.50%) Tableau
11 3 (1.13%) Kdb+
12 2 (0.75%) Amazon RDS
13 1 (0.38%) Big Data
13 1 (0.38%) Delta Lake
13 1 (0.38%) Snowflake Schema
13 1 (0.38%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 20 (7.52%) JIRA
2 8 (3.01%) Git
3 6 (2.26%) Octopus Deploy
4 5 (1.88%) ER Studio
4 5 (1.88%) ERwin
4 5 (1.88%) PowerDesigner
4 5 (1.88%) TeamCity
5 3 (1.13%) Jenkins
5 3 (1.13%) VTune
6 1 (0.38%) Cypress.io
6 1 (0.38%) GitLab
6 1 (0.38%) GoogleTest
6 1 (0.38%) Visual Studio
General
1 191 (71.80%) Finance
2 153 (57.52%) Banking
3 137 (51.50%) Front Office
4 104 (39.10%) Investment Banking
5 73 (27.44%) Social Skills
6 39 (14.66%) Analytical Skills
7 19 (7.14%) Financial Institution
8 12 (4.51%) Private Banking
9 11 (4.14%) Back Office
10 8 (3.01%) Legal
11 4 (1.50%) Organisational Skills
12 3 (1.13%) Documentation Skills
12 3 (1.13%) General Ledger
12 3 (1.13%) Influencing Skills
12 3 (1.13%) Public Sector
13 2 (0.75%) Corporate Banking
14 1 (0.38%) Agriculture
14 1 (0.38%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 1 (0.38%) International Banking
14 1 (0.38%) Legal Technology
Job Titles
1 118 (44.36%) Developer
2 65 (24.44%) Analyst
3 56 (21.05%) Business Analyst
4 43 (16.17%) Senior
5 34 (12.78%) Python Developer
6 30 (11.28%) Front Office Developer
7 27 (10.15%) C# Developer
8 25 (9.40%) Java Developer
9 18 (6.77%) Quantitative Developer
10 14 (5.26%) Project Manager
11 13 (4.89%) Electronic Trading Developer
12 12 (4.51%) Algorithmic Trading Developer
12 12 (4.51%) Electronic Trading Java Developer
12 12 (4.51%) Java Developer - Algorithmic Trading
12 12 (4.51%) Low Latency Java Developer
12 12 (4.51%) Senior Developer
12 12 (4.51%) Software Engineer
13 11 (4.14%) Pricing Developer
14 10 (3.76%) Banking Analyst
14 10 (3.76%) Data Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 26 (9.77%) FIX Protocol
2 17 (6.39%) React
3 12 (4.51%) WebSockets
4 11 (4.14%) NumPy
5 10 (3.76%) .NET
5 10 (3.76%) Django
5 10 (3.76%) FastAPI
5 10 (3.76%) Pandas
5 10 (3.76%) REST
6 8 (3.01%) Spring
7 7 (2.63%) Flask
7 7 (2.63%) Kafka
7 7 (2.63%) PySpark
7 7 (2.63%) RxJava
8 6 (2.26%) AngularJS
9 5 (1.88%) Middleware
10 4 (1.50%) Next.js
10 4 (1.50%) RESTful
11 3 (1.13%) gRPC
11 3 (1.13%) Redux
Miscellaneous
1 71 (26.69%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
2 68 (25.56%) Equities
3 55 (20.68%) Fixed Income
4 39 (14.66%) Equity Derivative
5 21 (7.89%) Distributed Systems
6 17 (6.39%) Exotic Derivative
7 16 (6.02%) Market Risk
7 16 (6.02%) OTC Derivatives
8 15 (5.64%) Algorithms
9 14 (5.26%) Credit Risk
10 13 (4.89%) Data Protection Act
10 13 (4.89%) Hedge funds
11 12 (4.51%) Onboarding
11 12 (4.51%) TWAP
11 12 (4.51%) VWAP
12 11 (4.14%) Data Structures
13 10 (3.76%) Management Information System
14 7 (2.63%) Credit Derivative
14 7 (2.63%) Interest Rate Derivative
14 7 (2.63%) Reference Data
Operating Systems
1 16 (6.02%) Unix
2 14 (5.26%) Linux
3 1 (0.38%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 53 (19.92%) Problem-Solving
2 44 (16.54%) Agile
2 44 (16.54%) Stakeholder Management
3 37 (13.91%) Analytics
4 36 (13.53%) CI/CD
5 35 (13.16%) Low Latency
6 34 (12.78%) Data Analysis
6 34 (12.78%) User Acceptance Testing
7 33 (12.41%) Software Engineering
8 30 (11.28%) Electronic Trading
9 29 (10.90%) Business Analysis
9 29 (10.90%) Multithreading
9 29 (10.90%) Validation
10 27 (10.15%) Risk Management
11 26 (9.77%) AI
11 26 (9.77%) Data Modelling
11 26 (9.77%) Microservices
12 25 (9.40%) DevOps
12 25 (9.40%) Requirements Gathering
13 24 (9.02%) Performance Optimisation
Programming Languages
1 100 (37.59%) Python
2 85 (31.95%) SQL
3 69 (25.94%) Java
4 53 (19.92%) C#
5 35 (13.16%) C++
6 19 (7.14%) TypeScript
7 10 (3.76%) Rust
8 8 (3.01%) PowerShell
8 8 (3.01%) Shell Script
9 5 (1.88%) PL/SQL
10 4 (1.50%) JavaScript
10 4 (1.50%) Perl
11 3 (1.13%) Scala
11 3 (1.13%) T-SQL
12 2 (0.75%) Bash
12 2 (0.75%) C
13 1 (0.38%) Korn
13 1 (0.38%) Kotlin
13 1 (0.38%) R
13 1 (0.38%) VBA
Qualifications
1 24 (9.02%) Degree
2 12 (4.51%) Master's Degree
3 10 (3.76%) PhD
4 7 (2.63%) Computer Science Degree
5 2 (0.75%) CFA
5 2 (0.75%) Numerate Degree
5 2 (0.75%) PMI Certification
5 2 (0.75%) PMP
5 2 (0.75%) Security Cleared
6 1 (0.38%) PRINCE2 Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (6.02%) Data Quality
2 10 (3.76%) MiFID
3 9 (3.38%) EMIR
4 7 (2.63%) QA
5 3 (1.13%) SLA
6 2 (0.75%) Basel III
6 2 (0.75%) COREP
6 2 (0.75%) Dodd-Frank
6 2 (0.75%) FINREP
6 2 (0.75%) GAAP
6 2 (0.75%) IFRS
7 1 (0.38%) ISO 20022
System Software
1 14 (5.26%) Docker
2 1 (0.38%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 6 (2.26%) Kubernetes
2 2 (0.75%) ITRS Geneos
2 2 (0.75%) Thomson Reuters DACS
3 1 (0.38%) Control-M
3 1 (0.38%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 20 (7.52%) Murex
2 16 (6.02%) Bloomberg
3 9 (3.38%) Calypso
3 9 (3.38%) Sybase
4 7 (2.63%) Oracle
5 6 (2.26%) Databricks
5 6 (2.26%) IBM
6 5 (1.88%) Charles River
7 3 (1.13%) Google
7 3 (1.13%) Microsoft
7 3 (1.13%) SimCorp
8 2 (0.75%) NYFIX
8 2 (0.75%) Refinitiv
8 2 (0.75%) Tradeweb
9 1 (0.38%) Alteryx
9 1 (0.38%) Dynatrace
9 1 (0.38%) eFront
9 1 (0.38%) FIS
9 1 (0.38%) Solace
9 1 (0.38%) Splunk