Derivative Contracts

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 6 July 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
6 Jul 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 239 200 217
Rank change year-on-year -39 +17 +64
Contract jobs citing Derivative 344 509 686
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 1.08% 1.18% 1.21%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 3.12% 3.88% 3.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 296 450 588
10th Percentile £537 £588 £525
25th Percentile £638 £663 £613
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £725 £800 £725
Median % change year-on-year -9.38% +10.34% +7.41%
75th Percentile £841 £888 £863
90th Percentile £938 - £1,000
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £638 £800
% change year-on-year -33.33% -20.31% +51.66%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 1
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £86.25 - -
Median hourly rate £87.50 - £47.73
75th Percentile £88.75 - -
90th Percentile - - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate - - £47.73
% change year-on-year - - +47.31%

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 11,019 13,114 18,625
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 34.60% 30.28% 32.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,823 8,318 12,820
10th Percentile £300 £281 £310
25th Percentile £406 £413 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £538 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.42% -2.18% -
75th Percentile £650 £663 £678
90th Percentile £775 £800 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 510 908 571
10th Percentile £15.48 £12.25 £10.63
25th Percentile £18.87 £15.39 £12.56
Median hourly rate £30.25 £36.02 £25.50
Median % change year-on-year -16.02% +41.26% -5.49%
75th Percentile £57.50 £62.00 £63.00
90th Percentile £77.50 £72.50 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £30.00 £35.83 £27.00
% change year-on-year -16.26% +32.69% +25.58%

Derivative
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing Derivative as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Derivative in the UK

Derivative
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Derivative.

Daily rate trend for Derivative in the UK

Derivative
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Derivative over the 6 months to 6 July 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Derivative in the UK

Derivative
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Derivative.

Hourly rate trend for Derivative in the UK

Derivative
Top 11 Contract 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 6 July 2025. 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 -45 318 £750 -6.25% 799
London -34 304 £750 -6.25% 762
Work from Home -42 180 £725 -9.38% 238
UK excluding London +70 35 £425 -33.33% 80
Northern Ireland - 13 £416 - 19
Scotland - 11 £404 - 7
North of England +6 9 £603 -5.41% 9
North West +9 7 £603 -5.41% 8
East Midlands - 2 £600 - 1
Midlands - 2 £600 - 4
Yorkshire - 2 - - 1

Derivative
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 51 (14.83%) Apache
1 51 (14.83%) Apache Airflow
2 11 (3.20%) Confluence
3 2 (0.58%) MQSeries
4 1 (0.29%) IIS
4 1 (0.29%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.29%) SharePoint
Applications
1 23 (6.69%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.58%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (0.58%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (0.29%) Fusion 360
3 1 (0.29%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.29%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 43 (12.50%) Aladdin
2 21 (6.10%) thinkFolio
3 7 (2.03%) Kondor
4 3 (0.87%) Fidessa
4 3 (0.87%) Finacle
5 2 (0.58%) Misys Midas
6 1 (0.29%) Actimize
6 1 (0.29%) BusinessWorks
6 1 (0.29%) Endur
6 1 (0.29%) ION MarketView
6 1 (0.29%) Markit EDM
6 1 (0.29%) Orchestrade
6 1 (0.29%) Summit
6 1 (0.29%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 78 (22.67%) AWS
2 51 (14.83%) dbt
2 51 (14.83%) Snowflake
3 34 (9.88%) Azure
4 11 (3.20%) Amazon EC2
4 11 (3.20%) Amazon EKS
4 11 (3.20%) GCP
5 10 (2.91%) npm
5 10 (2.91%) Yarn
6 9 (2.62%) Azure DevOps
7 7 (2.03%) Amazon S3
7 7 (2.03%) Power Platform
8 6 (1.74%) Amazon ElastiCache
8 6 (1.74%) CloudFront
8 6 (1.74%) Route 53
9 5 (1.45%) Amazon ECS
9 5 (1.45%) Dagster
10 4 (1.16%) Cloud Computing
11 3 (0.87%) Kong
12 2 (0.58%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 6 (1.74%) TCP/IP
2 5 (1.45%) FIX Connectivity
3 2 (0.58%) BGP
3 2 (0.58%) Firewall
3 2 (0.58%) HSRP
3 2 (0.58%) IGMP
3 2 (0.58%) Multicast
3 2 (0.58%) OSPF
3 2 (0.58%) VRRP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 65 (18.90%) Data Lake
2 51 (14.83%) Amazon Athena
2 51 (14.83%) Apache Arrow
2 51 (14.83%) Apache Iceberg
2 51 (14.83%) Dremio
3 35 (10.17%) Apache Ignite
4 32 (9.30%) SQL Server
5 17 (4.94%) PostgreSQL
6 16 (4.65%) NoSQL
7 12 (3.49%) Redis
7 12 (3.49%) Relational Database
8 8 (2.33%) MongoDB
9 7 (2.03%) Power BI
10 6 (1.74%) Amazon Aurora
10 6 (1.74%) DocumentDB
11 5 (1.45%) Data Mart
11 5 (1.45%) DB2
11 5 (1.45%) Tableau
12 4 (1.16%) Data Warehouse
13 3 (0.87%) MS Access
Development Applications
1 18 (5.23%) Git
2 16 (4.65%) JIRA
3 10 (2.91%) webpack
4 7 (2.03%) Octopus Deploy
5 4 (1.16%) Jenkins
5 4 (1.16%) JUnit
5 4 (1.16%) Visual Studio
6 2 (0.58%) Ant
6 2 (0.58%) Maven
6 2 (0.58%) Subversion
7 1 (0.29%) Cucumber
7 1 (0.29%) Cypress.io
7 1 (0.29%) ERwin
7 1 (0.29%) Gradle
7 1 (0.29%) Hudson
General
1 287 (83.43%) Finance
2 202 (58.72%) Front Office
3 169 (49.13%) Banking
4 127 (36.92%) Investment Banking
5 59 (17.15%) Social Skills
6 45 (13.08%) Analytical Skills
7 12 (3.49%) Back Office
7 12 (3.49%) Financial Institution
8 7 (2.03%) Presentation Skills
9 6 (1.74%) Retail Banking
10 5 (1.45%) Private Banking
11 4 (1.16%) Influencing Skills
11 4 (1.16%) Wholesale Banking
12 2 (0.58%) Law
12 2 (0.58%) Legal
13 1 (0.29%) Corporate Banking
13 1 (0.29%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 1 (0.29%) Prime Brokerage
13 1 (0.29%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 132 (38.37%) Developer
2 90 (26.16%) Analyst
3 82 (23.84%) Business Analyst
4 72 (20.93%) Senior
5 54 (15.70%) Software Engineer
6 51 (14.83%) AWS Engineer
6 51 (14.83%) AWS Software Engineer
7 43 (12.50%) Java Engineer
7 43 (12.50%) Java Software Engineer
8 42 (12.21%) Business Manager
9 41 (11.92%) Fixed Income Business Analyst
10 39 (11.34%) Java Developer
11 38 (11.05%) Python Engineer
11 38 (11.05%) Python Software Engineer
12 33 (9.59%) Senior Java Engineer
12 33 (9.59%) Senior Java Software Engineer
12 33 (9.59%) Senior Software Engineer
13 30 (8.72%) Senior Developer
14 28 (8.14%) C# Developer
15 26 (7.56%) AWS Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 37 (10.76%) NumPy
1 37 (10.76%) Pandas
2 36 (10.47%) Protocol Buffers
2 36 (10.47%) SciPy
3 35 (10.17%) gRPC
4 22 (6.40%) PySpark
5 18 (5.23%) Kafka
6 16 (4.65%) React
7 14 (4.07%) .NET
8 12 (3.49%) FIX Protocol
9 11 (3.20%) REST
10 10 (2.91%) CSS
10 10 (2.91%) Spring
11 8 (2.33%) RESTful
11 8 (2.33%) XML
12 7 (2.03%) Middleware
12 7 (2.03%) SOAP
13 6 (1.74%) GraphQL
14 5 (1.45%) FpML
15 4 (1.16%) WPF
Miscellaneous
1 160 (46.51%) Fixed Income
2 139 (40.41%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
3 128 (37.21%) Equities
4 122 (35.47%) Hedge funds
5 38 (11.05%) Equity Derivative
6 30 (8.72%) Pricing Data
7 26 (7.56%) Onboarding
8 25 (7.27%) Market Risk
9 21 (6.10%) Distributed Systems
10 17 (4.94%) Product Ownership
11 12 (3.49%) Data Structures
11 12 (3.49%) Interest Rate Derivative
12 11 (3.20%) Management Information System
13 8 (2.33%) Algorithms
13 8 (2.33%) Credit Derivative
13 8 (2.33%) Data Protection Act
13 8 (2.33%) OTC Derivatives
14 7 (2.03%) Reference Data
15 6 (1.74%) Credit Risk
16 4 (1.16%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 23 (6.69%) Linux
2 15 (4.36%) Unix
3 3 (0.87%) Windows
4 2 (0.58%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 201 (58.43%) Agile
2 103 (29.94%) Asset Management
3 101 (29.36%) Investment Management
4 68 (19.77%) Software Engineering
5 61 (17.73%) Business Analysis
6 60 (17.44%) Risk Management
7 52 (15.12%) Analytics
8 50 (14.53%) Problem-Solving
9 46 (13.37%) Business Intelligence
9 46 (13.37%) Mathematics
10 45 (13.08%) Data Management
11 44 (12.79%) Portfolio Management
12 41 (11.92%) Migration
13 34 (9.88%) Data Governance
14 33 (9.59%) User Acceptance Testing
15 32 (9.30%) Regulatory Compliance
15 32 (9.30%) Roadmaps
16 30 (8.72%) CI/CD
17 29 (8.43%) Electronic Trading
18 28 (8.14%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 161 (46.80%) Python
2 137 (39.83%) SQL
3 106 (30.81%) Java
4 49 (14.24%) TypeScript
5 47 (13.66%) C#
6 46 (13.37%) JavaScript
7 31 (9.01%) C++
8 8 (2.33%) Haskell
9 7 (2.03%) Scala
10 4 (1.16%) OCaml
10 4 (1.16%) Shell Script
11 3 (0.87%) PowerShell
11 3 (0.87%) Rust
12 2 (0.58%) Kotlin
12 2 (0.58%) RPG
13 1 (0.29%) C
13 1 (0.29%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 1 (0.29%) Ruby
13 1 (0.29%) T-SQL
13 1 (0.29%) VBA
Qualifications
1 42 (12.21%) Degree
2 17 (4.94%) Numerate Degree
3 13 (3.78%) Master's Degree
4 8 (2.33%) PhD
5 6 (1.74%) Computer Science Degree
6 2 (0.58%) PMI Certification
6 2 (0.58%) PMP
7 1 (0.29%) ISTQB
7 1 (0.29%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 29 (8.43%) MiFID
2 13 (3.78%) QA
3 12 (3.49%) Basel III
4 6 (1.74%) Data Quality
4 6 (1.74%) EMIR
5 4 (1.16%) GDPR
6 3 (0.87%) COREP
6 3 (0.87%) Dodd-Frank
6 3 (0.87%) PMO
7 1 (0.29%) Accessibility
7 1 (0.29%) HIPAA
7 1 (0.29%) ISO 20022
7 1 (0.29%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 1 (0.29%) SEPA
7 1 (0.29%) SLA
System Software
1 6 (1.74%) Docker
Systems Management
1 2 (0.58%) Control-M
1 2 (0.58%) Kubernetes
1 2 (0.58%) ZABBIX
2 1 (0.29%) HP ALM
2 1 (0.29%) Terraform
Vendors
1 39 (11.34%) BISAM
2 22 (6.40%) Calypso
2 22 (6.40%) Charles River
3 19 (5.52%) SimCorp
4 15 (4.36%) Murex
5 14 (4.07%) Oracle
5 14 (4.07%) Sybase
6 11 (3.20%) Microsoft
7 10 (2.91%) Atlassian
8 8 (2.33%) Bloomberg
9 4 (1.16%) ION Trading
9 4 (1.16%) Reuters
9 4 (1.16%) ServiceNow
10 3 (0.87%) Avaloq
10 3 (0.87%) Cisco
10 3 (0.87%) Salesforce
10 3 (0.87%) Solace
10 3 (0.87%) Temenos
11 2 (0.58%) IBM
11 2 (0.58%) Red Hat