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 10 March 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
10 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 385 210 257
Rank change year-on-year -175 +47 +3
Contract jobs citing Derivative 242 376 419
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.57% 1.27% 0.94%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 1.72% 3.80% 3.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 169 305 374
10th Percentile £513 £500 £550
25th Percentile £613 £638 £609
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £750 £725 £700
Median % change year-on-year +3.45% +3.57% -6.67%
75th Percentile £925 £888 £809
90th Percentile £1,000 £938 £860
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £333 £625
% change year-on-year +57.89% -46.80% -21.88%
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 14,065 9,902 13,575
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.15% 33.49% 30.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,857 6,207 8,679
10th Percentile £288 £281 £255
25th Percentile £406 £409 £411
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £530
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -0.94% -3.64%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £738 £775 £763
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 655 345 883
10th Percentile £15.28 £16.95 £12.64
25th Percentile £18.87 £22.27 £15.89
Median hourly rate £35.00 £32.50 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year +7.69% +8.33% +33.42%
75th Percentile £66.50 £65.00 £57.50
90th Percentile £82.40 £83.20 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £34.50 £31.76 £27.50
% change year-on-year +8.63% +15.49% +25.00%

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 10 March 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 10 March 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 -160 233 £750 - 48
London -92 224 £750 - 28
Work from Home -136 78 £800 +10.34% 15
UK excluding London -104 10 £525 +57.89% 10
North of England -62 3 £525 -10.64% 1
East of England - 3 £681 -
Yorkshire - 3 £525 -
Scotland +3 2 £470 +16.34% 1
Northern Ireland -16 2 £315 -3.08%
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 (3.72%) Apache Spark
2 7 (2.89%) Confluence
3 3 (1.24%) Apache
3 3 (1.24%) Apache Airflow
4 2 (0.83%) WebSphere
5 1 (0.41%) Microsoft Exchange
5 1 (0.41%) Oracle SOA Suite
5 1 (0.41%) SharePoint
Applications
1 21 (8.68%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (1.65%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 3 (1.24%) MS Visio
4 2 (0.83%) Microsoft Office
4 2 (0.83%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 8 (3.31%) Aladdin
2 5 (2.07%) Loan IQ
2 5 (2.07%) Temenos T24
3 3 (1.24%) Advent Geneva
3 3 (1.24%) Summit
4 2 (0.83%) Algo Collateral
4 2 (0.83%) Bloomberg TOMS
4 2 (0.83%) Oracle General Ledger
4 2 (0.83%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
5 1 (0.41%) FLEXCUBE
5 1 (0.41%) Oracle FAH
5 1 (0.41%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
Cloud Services
1 57 (23.55%) AWS
2 34 (14.05%) Azure
3 23 (9.50%) GCP
4 9 (3.72%) Snowflake
5 7 (2.89%) Power Platform
6 6 (2.48%) Amazon S3
6 6 (2.48%) AWS Lambda
6 6 (2.48%) Serverless
7 5 (2.07%) SaaS
8 4 (1.65%) Azure DevOps
9 3 (1.24%) Amazon ECS
9 3 (1.24%) dbt
9 3 (1.24%) npm
9 3 (1.24%) OpenShift
9 3 (1.24%) Yarn
10 1 (0.41%) AWS CloudFormation
10 1 (0.41%) AWS CodePipeline
10 1 (0.41%) AWS Step Functions
10 1 (0.41%) Azure Machine Learning
10 1 (0.41%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 13 (5.37%) FIX Connectivity
2 4 (1.65%) Multicast
3 1 (0.41%) RTMP
3 1 (0.41%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 33 (13.64%) PostgreSQL
2 10 (4.13%) Redis
2 10 (4.13%) SQL Server
3 7 (2.89%) Power BI
4 4 (1.65%) Big Data
4 4 (1.65%) KDB
4 4 (1.65%) NoSQL
4 4 (1.65%) Relational Database
4 4 (1.65%) Tableau
5 3 (1.24%) Amazon Athena
5 3 (1.24%) Amazon RDS
5 3 (1.24%) Apache Arrow
5 3 (1.24%) Apache Iceberg
5 3 (1.24%) Apache Ignite
5 3 (1.24%) Data Lake
5 3 (1.24%) Dremio
5 3 (1.24%) Metadata
6 2 (0.83%) Apache Cassandra
6 2 (0.83%) Oracle Database
6 2 (0.83%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 17 (7.02%) Git
2 11 (4.55%) JIRA
3 9 (3.72%) Jenkins
4 8 (3.31%) Octopus Deploy
5 5 (2.07%) Visual Studio
6 4 (1.65%) GitLab
6 4 (1.65%) Maven
6 4 (1.65%) TeamCity
7 3 (1.24%) Bitbucket
7 3 (1.24%) IntelliJ
7 3 (1.24%) webpack
8 2 (0.83%) Cucumber
8 2 (0.83%) Gradle
9 1 (0.41%) Crucible
9 1 (0.41%) Eclipse
9 1 (0.41%) NUnit
9 1 (0.41%) REST Assured
General
1 175 (72.31%) Finance
2 117 (48.35%) Banking
3 103 (42.56%) Front Office
4 80 (33.06%) Investment Banking
5 73 (30.17%) Social Skills
6 39 (16.12%) Analytical Skills
7 21 (8.68%) Financial Institution
8 8 (3.31%) Back Office
9 4 (1.65%) Influencing Skills
9 4 (1.65%) Organisational Skills
9 4 (1.65%) Presentation Skills
10 3 (1.24%) Documentation Skills
10 3 (1.24%) Legal
10 3 (1.24%) Spanish Language
10 3 (1.24%) Telecoms
11 2 (0.83%) General Ledger
11 2 (0.83%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 1 (0.41%) Japanese Language
12 1 (0.41%) Law
12 1 (0.41%) Retail
Job Titles
1 117 (48.35%) Developer
2 48 (19.83%) Senior
3 44 (18.18%) Analyst
4 41 (16.94%) Java Developer
5 34 (14.05%) Business Analyst
6 28 (11.57%) Senior Developer
7 24 (9.92%) Lead
8 22 (9.09%) Python Developer
9 19 (7.85%) Senior Java Developer
10 17 (7.02%) Electronic Trading Developer
11 16 (6.61%) Analytics Developer
11 16 (6.61%) AWS Developer
11 16 (6.61%) Electronic Trading Java Developer
11 16 (6.61%) Kafka Developer
11 16 (6.61%) Lead Developer
11 16 (6.61%) PostgreSQL Developer
11 16 (6.61%) Software Engineer
12 14 (5.79%) Algorithmic Trading Developer
12 14 (5.79%) Java Developer - Algorithmic Trading
12 14 (5.79%) Low Latency Java Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 36 (14.88%) React
2 22 (9.09%) Kafka
3 21 (8.68%) Redux
4 20 (8.26%) FIX Protocol
5 16 (6.61%) Node.js
6 13 (5.37%) RESTful
7 11 (4.55%) HTML
8 10 (4.13%) .NET
9 9 (3.72%) Dask
9 9 (3.72%) Pandas
10 8 (3.31%) CSS
10 8 (3.31%) NumPy
10 8 (3.31%) REST
10 8 (3.31%) Spring
11 7 (2.89%) HTML5
11 7 (2.89%) SciPy
11 7 (2.89%) WebSockets
12 5 (2.07%) AngularJS
13 4 (1.65%) RxJS
13 4 (1.65%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 93 (38.43%) Equities
2 63 (26.03%) Fixed Income
3 43 (17.77%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
4 34 (14.05%) Equity Derivative
5 24 (9.92%) Market Risk
6 19 (7.85%) Algorithms
7 17 (7.02%) Management Information System
8 16 (6.61%) TWAP
8 16 (6.61%) VWAP
9 14 (5.79%) Distributed Systems
9 14 (5.79%) Hedge funds
10 12 (4.96%) Cloud Native
11 11 (4.55%) Data Protection Act
12 9 (3.72%) Credit Risk
12 9 (3.72%) Data Structures
12 9 (3.72%) Onboarding
12 9 (3.72%) Product Ownership
13 8 (3.31%) Distributed Computing
14 7 (2.89%) Analytical Mindset
14 7 (2.89%) OTC Derivatives
Operating Systems
1 10 (4.13%) Unix
2 9 (3.72%) Linux
3 3 (1.24%) Debian
3 3 (1.24%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 3 (1.24%) Ubuntu
3 3 (1.24%) VMS
4 2 (0.83%) Windows
5 1 (0.41%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 82 (33.88%) Agile
2 68 (28.10%) Risk Management
3 42 (17.36%) Problem-Solving
4 37 (15.29%) Analytics
5 36 (14.88%) Low Latency
5 36 (14.88%) Mathematics
5 36 (14.88%) TDD
6 33 (13.64%) CI/CD
7 32 (13.22%) Asset Management
8 31 (12.81%) Electronic Trading
9 30 (12.40%) Software Engineering
10 29 (11.98%) DevOps
11 27 (11.16%) Design Patterns
12 26 (10.74%) Computer Science
12 26 (10.74%) Mentoring
12 26 (10.74%) Stakeholder Management
13 24 (9.92%) Multithreading
14 23 (9.50%) Portfolio Management
14 23 (9.50%) Validation
15 22 (9.09%) User Acceptance Testing
Programming Languages
1 103 (42.56%) Python
2 76 (31.40%) SQL
3 64 (26.45%) Java
4 31 (12.81%) C++
4 31 (12.81%) TypeScript
5 30 (12.40%) C#
6 29 (11.98%) JavaScript
7 4 (1.65%) Shell Script
7 4 (1.65%) VBA
8 3 (1.24%) PowerShell
8 3 (1.24%) Rust
8 3 (1.24%) Scala
9 2 (0.83%) F#
9 2 (0.83%) Perl
10 1 (0.41%) PL/SQL
10 1 (0.41%) R
Qualifications
1 47 (19.42%) Degree
2 18 (7.44%) Master's Degree
3 15 (6.20%) Computer Science Degree
4 14 (5.79%) Numerate Degree
5 10 (4.13%) PhD
6 3 (1.24%) ISTQB
6 3 (1.24%) PMI Certification
6 3 (1.24%) PMP
7 1 (0.41%) CBAP
7 1 (0.41%) FFIEC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (6.20%) QA
2 12 (4.96%) EMIR
3 7 (2.89%) Data Quality
3 7 (2.89%) IFRS
3 7 (2.89%) MiFID
4 4 (1.65%) IFRS 9
4 4 (1.65%) SLA
5 3 (1.24%) Basel III
5 3 (1.24%) IAS 32
5 3 (1.24%) IAS 39
6 2 (0.83%) GAAP
6 2 (0.83%) PMO
7 1 (0.41%) Accessibility
7 1 (0.41%) Disclosure Scotland
7 1 (0.41%) FINRA
7 1 (0.41%) IFRS 17
7 1 (0.41%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 9 (3.72%) Docker
2 3 (1.24%) QEMU
Systems Management
1 8 (3.31%) Kubernetes
2 7 (2.89%) Ansible
3 4 (1.65%) Grafana
4 3 (1.24%) Podman
4 3 (1.24%) Prometheus
4 3 (1.24%) Terraform
4 3 (1.24%) Thomson Reuters DACS
5 2 (0.83%) ITRS Geneos
6 1 (0.41%) Control-M
Vendors
1 24 (9.92%) Murex
2 20 (8.26%) Bloomberg
3 14 (5.79%) Oracle
4 7 (2.89%) Charles River
5 6 (2.48%) ION Trading
6 5 (2.07%) jBASE
6 5 (2.07%) Temenos
6 5 (2.07%) Tradeweb
7 4 (1.65%) Calypso
7 4 (1.65%) Microsoft
8 3 (1.24%) Advent
8 3 (1.24%) Apple
8 3 (1.24%) Google
8 3 (1.24%) IBM
8 3 (1.24%) NVIDIA
8 3 (1.24%) NYFIX
8 3 (1.24%) Refinitiv
9 2 (0.83%) AppDynamics
9 2 (0.83%) MarketAxess
9 2 (0.83%) SmartStream