Senior Developer Contract Job Trends

Senior Developer
UK

The median Senior Developer daily rate in the UK is £525, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 13 January 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
13 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 167 150 170
Rank change year-on-year -17 +20 -59
Contract jobs requiring a Senior Developer 621 553 613
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.70% 1.76% 1.43%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.86% 1.90% 1.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 445 357 438
10th Percentile £404 £422 £425
25th Percentile £450 £500 £480
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £575 £575
Median % change year-on-year -8.70% - -11.54%
75th Percentile £650 £700 £698
90th Percentile £845 £840 £838
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £525
% change year-on-year - -4.76% -8.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 0 9
10th Percentile - - £43.55
25th Percentile - - £56.25
Median hourly rate - - £60.00
75th Percentile - - £72.50
90th Percentile - - £75.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate - - £52.50
% change year-on-year - - -16.00%

All Contract IT Job Roles
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 33,423 29,063 39,970
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.34% 92.68% 93.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,125 17,795 26,676
10th Percentile £300 £289 £280
25th Percentile £405 £408 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £616 £638 £638
90th Percentile £719 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £477 £500
% change year-on-year -0.42% -4.60% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,961 876 1,672
10th Percentile £14.38 £15.49 £14.16
25th Percentile £18.25 £21.03 £18.93
Median hourly rate £26.50 £32.50 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -18.46% -23.53% +26.87%
75th Percentile £60.00 £61.69 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £73.75 £76.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £30.62 £45.00
% change year-on-year -17.85% -31.97% +64.38%

Senior Developer
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Senior Developer' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Senior Developer job vacancy trend in the UK

Senior Developer
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Senior Developer job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Senior Developer job vacancies in the UK

Senior Developer
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Senior Developer over the 6 months to 13 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Senior Developer in the UK

Senior Developer
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Senior Developer job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Senior Developer job vacancies in the UK

Senior Developer
Top 17 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Senior Developer within the UK over the 6 months to 13 January 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 -22 530 £550 -6.78% 456
London -25 320 £625 +1.42% 120
Work from Home +9 213 £591 -1.50% 265
UK excluding London -8 212 £500 - 410
North of England -27 72 £550 +6.28% 86
South West +20 55 £475 -13.64% 49
Yorkshire -20 38 £631 +20.24% 32
North West -18 31 £500 - 40
South East -27 31 £473 +2.27% 140
Midlands -31 26 £513 +2.50% 42
West Midlands -25 19 £525 +5.00% 17
East of England -19 17 £500 -13.42% 47
Scotland -18 12 £513 +15.49% 24
North East -2 9 £488 -17.37% 14
East Midlands -15 7 £510 +11.78% 24
Northern Ireland - 4 £544 - 6
Wales -2 3 £638 +27.50% 24

Senior Developer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 13 January 2026, Senior Developer contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring Senior Developer in the job title.

1 216 (34.78%) Java
2 205 (33.01%) AWS
3 200 (32.21%) Agile
4 161 (25.93%) Microservices
5 157 (25.28%) Azure
6 155 (24.96%) CI/CD
7 154 (24.80%) DevOps
8 148 (23.83%) SQL
9 144 (23.19%) Security Cleared
10 143 (23.03%) Python
11 127 (20.45%) Kafka
12 126 (20.29%) Docker
12 126 (20.29%) SC Cleared
13 122 (19.65%) Kubernetes
14 120 (19.32%) Problem-Solving
15 113 (18.20%) JavaScript
16 96 (15.46%) Spring
17 84 (13.53%) React
18 81 (13.04%) Containerisation
19 79 (12.72%) C#
19 79 (12.72%) Spring Boot
20 76 (12.24%) Software Engineering
21 75 (12.08%) TDD
22 74 (11.92%) Git
23 72 (11.59%) .NET
24 71 (11.43%) Full-Stack Development
25 70 (11.27%) Scrum
25 70 (11.27%) Test Automation
26 67 (10.79%) Azure DevOps
27 66 (10.63%) RESTful

Senior Developer Skill Set
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 17 (2.74%) Confluence
2 6 (0.97%) nginx
3 5 (0.81%) SharePoint
4 4 (0.64%) CMS
4 4 (0.64%) Jupyter
5 3 (0.48%) SAS
6 2 (0.32%) Mendix
6 2 (0.32%) Microsoft Exchange
7 1 (0.16%) Anypoint
7 1 (0.16%) Headless CMS
7 1 (0.16%) Oracle Application Server
7 1 (0.16%) Smallworld
7 1 (0.16%) Tomcat
7 1 (0.16%) WordPress
Applications
1 10 (1.61%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 4 (0.64%) Dynamics CRM
2 3 (0.48%) Endur
3 2 (0.32%) Remedy ITSM
3 2 (0.32%) SAP S/4HANA
4 1 (0.16%) FLEXCUBE
4 1 (0.16%) IBM Planning Analytics
4 1 (0.16%) Oracle ERP
4 1 (0.16%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 1 (0.16%) Oracle Retail
4 1 (0.16%) Payment Gateway
4 1 (0.16%) SAP BRIM
4 1 (0.16%) SAP FI
4 1 (0.16%) SAP Travel Management
Cloud Services
1 205 (33.01%) AWS
2 157 (25.28%) Azure
3 67 (10.79%) Azure DevOps
4 54 (8.70%) GitHub
5 37 (5.96%) Serverless
6 35 (5.64%) GCP
7 26 (4.19%) Power Platform
8 19 (3.06%) AWS Lambda
9 17 (2.74%) Amazon EC2
9 17 (2.74%) GitHub Actions
10 16 (2.58%) Amazon SQS
10 16 (2.58%) Azure Service Bus
10 16 (2.58%) Dynamics 365
11 15 (2.42%) Power Automate
12 14 (2.25%) Amazon EKS
13 13 (2.09%) Azure AKS
13 13 (2.09%) SaaS
14 12 (1.93%) Amazon S3
15 11 (1.77%) Amazon ECS
15 11 (1.77%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 5 (0.81%) Kerberos
2 4 (0.64%) SSL
3 3 (0.48%) Reverse Proxy
4 2 (0.32%) Firewall
4 2 (0.32%) HTTP
4 2 (0.32%) VPN
5 1 (0.16%) FTP
5 1 (0.16%) Internet
5 1 (0.16%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 62 (9.98%) PostgreSQL
2 50 (8.05%) MongoDB
3 41 (6.60%) Relational Database
4 37 (5.96%) NoSQL
4 37 (5.96%) SQL Server
5 30 (4.83%) Apache Cassandra
6 16 (2.58%) Power BI
7 15 (2.42%) DynamoDB
8 14 (2.25%) Data Hub
8 14 (2.25%) DB2
9 12 (1.93%) Data Warehouse
10 11 (1.77%) MySQL
10 11 (1.77%) Redis
11 10 (1.61%) Amazon RDS
12 8 (1.29%) Data Lake
13 7 (1.13%) Oracle BI EE
13 7 (1.13%) RDBMS
14 6 (0.97%) HBase
15 5 (0.81%) Couchbase
15 5 (0.81%) Delta Lake
Development Applications
1 74 (11.92%) Git
2 41 (6.60%) Jenkins
3 38 (6.12%) JUnit
4 35 (5.64%) Oracle APEX
5 34 (5.48%) GitLab
6 29 (4.67%) JIRA
7 23 (3.70%) Mockito
8 13 (2.09%) Maven
9 12 (1.93%) Gradle
10 9 (1.45%) Artifactory
10 9 (1.45%) Cucumber
11 8 (1.29%) Postman
12 7 (1.13%) Sonatype Nexus
12 7 (1.13%) SpecFlow
13 6 (0.97%) Cypress.io
13 6 (0.97%) Mocha
13 6 (0.97%) SonarQube
14 5 (0.81%) Bitbucket
15 4 (0.64%) TeamCity
16 3 (0.48%) QUnit
General
1 151 (24.32%) Finance
2 149 (23.99%) Social Skills
3 91 (14.65%) Banking
4 81 (13.04%) Public Sector
5 50 (8.05%) Analytical Skills
6 37 (5.96%) Investment Banking
7 24 (3.86%) Front Office
8 13 (2.09%) Financial Institution
9 6 (0.97%) Manufacturing
10 5 (0.81%) Military
10 5 (0.81%) Presentation Skills
11 4 (0.64%) Documentation Skills
11 4 (0.64%) Law
11 4 (0.64%) Pharmaceutical
12 3 (0.48%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 3 (0.48%) Marketing
12 3 (0.48%) Retail Banking
12 3 (0.48%) Telecoms
13 2 (0.32%) Organisational Skills
13 2 (0.32%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 127 (20.45%) Kafka
2 96 (15.46%) Spring
3 84 (13.53%) React
4 79 (12.72%) Spring Boot
5 72 (11.59%) .NET
6 66 (10.63%) RESTful
7 54 (8.70%) Node.js
8 52 (8.37%) AngularJS
9 51 (8.21%) REST
10 50 (8.05%) HTML
11 42 (6.76%) CSS
12 32 (5.15%) Web Services
13 24 (3.86%) gRPC
13 24 (3.86%) JSON
14 23 (3.70%) RabbitMQ
15 20 (3.22%) .NET Framework
16 19 (3.06%) Next.js
17 17 (2.74%) Jest
18 16 (2.58%) .NET Core
18 16 (2.58%) Playwright
Miscellaneous
1 49 (7.89%) Cloud Native
2 48 (7.73%) Distributed Systems
3 31 (4.99%) Derivative
4 28 (4.51%) Equities
5 24 (3.86%) Greenfield Project
6 20 (3.22%) Product Ownership
7 19 (3.06%) Algorithms
7 19 (3.06%) Market Risk
8 18 (2.90%) Data Structures
8 18 (2.90%) Management Information System
9 16 (2.58%) Fixed Income
10 11 (1.77%) Legacy Systems
11 10 (1.61%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
12 9 (1.45%) Mobile App
13 8 (1.29%) Equity Derivative
14 7 (1.13%) Legacy Applications
14 7 (1.13%) Onboarding
15 6 (0.97%) Linux Command Line
15 6 (0.97%) NHS
16 5 (0.81%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 52 (8.37%) Linux
2 26 (4.19%) Unix
3 16 (2.58%) Android
4 14 (2.25%) Mac OS X
5 8 (1.29%) Apple iOS
6 3 (0.48%) Windows
7 2 (0.32%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 200 (32.21%) Agile
2 161 (25.93%) Microservices
3 155 (24.96%) CI/CD
4 154 (24.80%) DevOps
5 120 (19.32%) Problem-Solving
6 81 (13.04%) Containerisation
7 76 (12.24%) Software Engineering
8 75 (12.08%) TDD
9 71 (11.43%) Full-Stack Development
10 70 (11.27%) Scrum
10 70 (11.27%) Test Automation
11 63 (10.14%) Analytics
12 58 (9.34%) Open Source
13 47 (7.57%) Event-Driven
13 47 (7.57%) Infrastructure as Code
14 46 (7.41%) SDLC
15 41 (6.60%) Front End Development
15 41 (6.60%) Performance Tuning
16 40 (6.44%) Unit Testing
17 39 (6.28%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 216 (34.78%) Java
2 148 (23.83%) SQL
3 143 (23.03%) Python
4 113 (18.20%) JavaScript
5 79 (12.72%) C#
6 46 (7.41%) TypeScript
7 42 (6.76%) PL/SQL
8 37 (5.96%) Go
9 22 (3.54%) Kotlin
10 16 (2.58%) C++
10 16 (2.58%) Ruby
11 14 (2.25%) Shell Script
12 13 (2.09%) Bash
13 11 (1.77%) PowerShell
14 10 (1.61%) PHP
15 4 (0.64%) T-SQL
16 3 (0.48%) ABAP
16 3 (0.48%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 3 (0.48%) Objective-C
16 3 (0.48%) Swift
Qualifications
1 144 (23.19%) Security Cleared
2 126 (20.29%) SC Cleared
3 42 (6.76%) Degree
4 30 (4.83%) BPSS Clearance
5 22 (3.54%) Computer Science Degree
6 8 (1.29%) Numerate Degree
7 6 (0.97%) AWS Certification
7 6 (0.97%) Master's Degree
7 6 (0.97%) OCP
7 6 (0.97%) Oracle Certification
8 3 (0.48%) AWS Certified Developer
8 3 (0.48%) MCP
9 2 (0.32%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 2 (0.32%) Azure Certification
9 2 (0.32%) DV Cleared
10 1 (0.16%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
10 1 (0.16%) Microsoft Certification
10 1 (0.16%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (4.83%) Accessibility
2 20 (3.22%) QA
3 12 (1.93%) WCAG
4 11 (1.77%) Data Quality
5 3 (0.48%) EU AI Act
5 3 (0.48%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 3 (0.48%) NIST
6 1 (0.16%) GDPR
System Software
1 126 (20.29%) Docker
2 5 (0.81%) zsh
3 1 (0.16%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.16%) GridGain
3 1 (0.16%) Lustre
3 1 (0.16%) OpenAM
3 1 (0.16%) OpenDJ
3 1 (0.16%) OpenIDM
3 1 (0.16%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 122 (19.65%) Kubernetes
2 40 (6.44%) Terraform
3 20 (3.22%) Grafana
4 15 (2.42%) Ansible
5 8 (1.29%) Prometheus
5 8 (1.29%) Single Sign-On
6 3 (0.48%) Kibana
7 1 (0.16%) Argo
7 1 (0.16%) CloudHub
7 1 (0.16%) Control-M
7 1 (0.16%) HAProxy
7 1 (0.16%) Packer
7 1 (0.16%) Rundeck
7 1 (0.16%) Sysdig
Vendors
1 59 (9.50%) Oracle
2 26 (4.19%) Microsoft
3 22 (3.54%) Google
4 15 (2.42%) Sybase
5 12 (1.93%) ServiceNow
6 10 (1.61%) Databricks
7 6 (0.97%) Atlassian
8 5 (0.81%) Guidewire
8 5 (0.81%) SAP
9 4 (0.64%) Apple
9 4 (0.64%) IBM
9 4 (0.64%) Salesforce
10 3 (0.48%) BMC
10 3 (0.48%) Cognizant
10 3 (0.48%) Dataiku
10 3 (0.48%) Foundry
11 2 (0.32%) CA Agile Central
11 2 (0.32%) Confluent
11 2 (0.32%) Informatica
11 2 (0.32%) Red Hat