Senior Developer Contract Job Trends

Senior Developer
UK

The median Senior Developer daily rate in the UK is £550, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 22 August 2026.

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

6 months to
22 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 178 174 107
Rank change year-on-year -4 -67 +36
Contract jobs requiring a Senior Developer 862 528 819
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.60% 1.61% 2.11%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.73% 1.76% 2.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 561 381 576
10th Percentile £400 £400 £400
25th Percentile £456 £450 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year - - -12.00%
75th Percentile £701 £700 £700
90th Percentile £938 £813 £828
UK excluding London median daily rate £515 £518 £500
% change year-on-year -0.48% +3.50% -3.15%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 0 9
10th Percentile £37.25 - £39.00
25th Percentile £43.01 - £54.85
Median hourly rate £45.56 - £58.91
75th Percentile £46.18 - £62.96
90th Percentile - - £83.90
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.56 - £58.91

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 49,757 29,939 36,107
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.45% 91.25% 92.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,837 18,916 23,063
10th Percentile £325 £280 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.69%
75th Percentile £625 £621 £638
90th Percentile £729 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,525 1,560 1,966
10th Percentile £14.98 £13.65 £14.16
25th Percentile £20.53 £17.29 £19.52
Median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +67.00% -41.51% +1.55%
75th Percentile £67.84 £53.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £71.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% +14.67%

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 22 August 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 22 August 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 -6 708 £588 +2.17% 189
London -5 427 £625 -3.85% 72
UK excluding London +1 323 £515 -0.48% 156
Work from Home -35 227 £525 -5.79% 91
North of England +10 122 £575 +9.52% 34
Yorkshire -1 62 £550 - 12
Midlands -8 58 £500 - 35
North West -14 52 £625 +25.00% 16
Scotland +11 48 £410 +1.49% 10
West Midlands -11 46 £513 -6.82% 15
South West -22 44 £513 -6.61% 19
South East -65 38 £440 -16.75% 47
East Midlands -13 11 £500 +9.89% 19
North East -36 10 £750 +53.85% 7
East of England -24 8 £500 - 8
Northern Ireland +1 4 £650 +30.00% 2
Wales -20 2 £469 +44.23% 6

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

For the 6 months to 22 August 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.

1 279 (32.37%) CI/CD
2 265 (30.74%) Agile
3 262 (30.39%) Java
4 184 (21.35%) Azure
5 177 (20.53%) Python
6 176 (20.42%) SQL
7 175 (20.30%) AWS
8 160 (18.56%) Microservices
9 158 (18.33%) C#
9 158 (18.33%) DevOps
10 149 (17.29%) JavaScript
11 145 (16.82%) Security Cleared
12 137 (15.89%) TypeScript
13 134 (15.55%) REST
14 133 (15.43%) React
14 133 (15.43%) SC Cleared
15 122 (14.15%) .NET
16 119 (13.81%) Full-Stack Development
17 118 (13.69%) Git
18 114 (13.23%) Docker
19 110 (12.76%) Test Automation
20 109 (12.65%) RESTful
21 106 (12.30%) Spring
22 99 (11.48%) Kubernetes
22 99 (11.48%) Software Engineering
23 88 (10.21%) Problem-Solving
24 86 (9.98%) AI
24 86 (9.98%) Spring Boot
25 82 (9.51%) Containerisation
25 82 (9.51%) Continuous Improvement

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 (1.97%) Confluence
2 12 (1.39%) Apache Spark
3 9 (1.04%) Apache
3 9 (1.04%) Oracle Workflow
4 8 (0.93%) WordPress
5 7 (0.81%) CMS
6 5 (0.58%) SharePoint
7 3 (0.35%) Ethereum
7 3 (0.35%) Hyperledger
7 3 (0.35%) Moodle
8 2 (0.23%) Appian
8 2 (0.23%) Cloud Foundry
8 2 (0.23%) Headless CMS
8 2 (0.23%) IIS
8 2 (0.23%) Mendix
8 2 (0.23%) Oracle Application Server
8 2 (0.23%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 2 (0.23%) WebLogic
9 1 (0.12%) HCL Domino
9 1 (0.12%) HCL Notes
Applications
1 5 (0.58%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.12%) Chatbot
2 1 (0.12%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 17 (1.97%) Teamcenter
2 11 (1.28%) Oracle EBS
3 8 (0.93%) Dynamics CRM
4 7 (0.81%) NetSuite
5 6 (0.70%) Endur
6 5 (0.58%) Oracle Financials
6 5 (0.58%) Oracle General Ledger
6 5 (0.58%) Oracle Payables
6 5 (0.58%) Oracle Receivables
7 4 (0.46%) Oracle FAH
8 3 (0.35%) Aladdin
8 3 (0.35%) Oracle Applications
8 3 (0.35%) Oracle Assets
8 3 (0.35%) Quorum
8 3 (0.35%) R3 Corda
8 3 (0.35%) Ripple
8 3 (0.35%) Shopify
8 3 (0.35%) SimCorp Dimension
9 2 (0.23%) Oracle iProcurement
9 2 (0.23%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
Cloud Services
1 184 (21.35%) Azure
2 175 (20.30%) AWS
3 80 (9.28%) GitHub
4 53 (6.15%) GitHub Actions
5 52 (6.03%) Power Platform
6 47 (5.45%) Azure DevOps
7 45 (5.22%) GCP
8 40 (4.64%) Serverless
9 34 (3.94%) Power Automate
10 22 (2.55%) PowerApps
11 19 (2.20%) Amazon SQS
11 19 (2.20%) Dynamics 365
12 18 (2.09%) Amazon S3
13 16 (1.86%) AWS Lambda
14 13 (1.51%) GitHub Copilot
15 12 (1.39%) OpenShift
16 11 (1.28%) Amazon CloudWatch
16 11 (1.28%) Azure Service Bus
17 10 (1.16%) Amazon EC2
17 10 (1.16%) Azure AKS
Communications & Networking
1 6 (0.70%) Multicast
2 4 (0.46%) Broadband
3 3 (0.35%) HTTP
3 3 (0.35%) NFC
4 2 (0.23%) RTP
5 1 (0.12%) CTI
5 1 (0.12%) Ethernet
5 1 (0.12%) MQTT
5 1 (0.12%) Reverse Proxy
Database & Business Intelligence
1 69 (8.00%) PostgreSQL
2 60 (6.96%) SQL Server
3 55 (6.38%) Relational Database
4 42 (4.87%) Power BI
5 35 (4.06%) MongoDB
6 26 (3.02%) NoSQL
7 20 (2.32%) Oracle Database
8 18 (2.09%) DynamoDB
9 16 (1.86%) Data Warehouse
10 14 (1.62%) MySQL
11 12 (1.39%) RDBMS
11 12 (1.39%) Redis
12 11 (1.28%) Azure SQL Database
13 10 (1.16%) Amazon RDS
13 10 (1.16%) KDB
14 8 (0.93%) Amazon Aurora
14 8 (0.93%) Apache Cassandra
14 8 (0.93%) Geospatial Data
14 8 (0.93%) Oracle Reports
15 7 (0.81%) Kdb+
Development Applications
1 118 (13.69%) Git
2 60 (6.96%) Jenkins
3 31 (3.60%) JIRA
3 31 (3.60%) Maven
4 28 (3.25%) GitLab
5 27 (3.13%) Mockito
6 26 (3.02%) JUnit
7 16 (1.86%) SonarQube
8 14 (1.62%) Gradle
9 9 (1.04%) Oracle Forms
10 7 (0.81%) Bitbucket
10 7 (0.81%) Claude Code
11 6 (0.70%) Visual Studio Code
12 5 (0.58%) Cucumber
12 5 (0.58%) MSI
12 5 (0.58%) REST Assured
12 5 (0.58%) Xcode
13 4 (0.46%) Cypress.io
13 4 (0.46%) Vite
13 4 (0.46%) XCUITest
General
1 184 (21.35%) Finance
2 159 (18.45%) Social Skills
3 139 (16.13%) Public Sector
4 122 (14.15%) Banking
5 69 (8.00%) Front Office
6 64 (7.42%) Analytical Skills
7 61 (7.08%) Investment Banking
8 37 (4.29%) Retail
9 27 (3.13%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 14 (1.62%) Financial Institution
10 14 (1.62%) Military
11 11 (1.28%) Games
12 10 (1.16%) Back Office
13 8 (0.93%) Legal
14 7 (0.81%) Law
14 7 (0.81%) Telecoms
15 6 (0.70%) Manufacturing
16 5 (0.58%) Local Government
17 3 (0.35%) Organisational Skills
17 3 (0.35%) Publishing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 134 (15.55%) REST
2 133 (15.43%) React
3 122 (14.15%) .NET
4 109 (12.65%) RESTful
5 106 (12.30%) Spring
6 86 (9.98%) Spring Boot
7 67 (7.77%) Kafka
8 59 (6.84%) Node.js
9 58 (6.73%) Terraform
10 56 (6.50%) HTML
10 56 (6.50%) Redux
11 48 (5.57%) CSS
12 46 (5.34%) AngularJS
13 45 (5.22%) SOAP
14 36 (4.18%) Django
15 34 (3.94%) Web Services
16 33 (3.83%) JSON
17 32 (3.71%) HTML5
18 27 (3.13%) OAuth
18 27 (3.13%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 60 (6.96%) Cloud Native
2 58 (6.73%) Distributed Systems
3 52 (6.03%) Product Ownership
4 49 (5.68%) Fixed Income
5 48 (5.57%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
6 41 (4.76%) Equities
7 36 (4.18%) Greenfield Project
8 24 (2.78%) Enterprise Software
9 18 (2.09%) Data Structures
10 17 (1.97%) CMDB
11 14 (1.62%) Legacy Systems
11 14 (1.62%) Mobile App
11 14 (1.62%) Onboarding
12 13 (1.51%) AI Agents
12 13 (1.51%) Derivative
13 12 (1.39%) Algorithms
14 7 (0.81%) Market Risk
15 5 (0.58%) Low-Code
15 5 (0.58%) Spread Betting
15 5 (0.58%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 48 (5.57%) Linux
2 46 (5.34%) Unix
3 21 (2.44%) Windows
4 12 (1.39%) Android
5 11 (1.28%) Apple iOS
6 7 (0.81%) AIX
7 6 (0.70%) Windows Server
8 5 (0.58%) Mac OS
9 4 (0.46%) Mac OS X
10 1 (0.12%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 279 (32.37%) CI/CD
2 265 (30.74%) Agile
3 160 (18.56%) Microservices
4 158 (18.33%) DevOps
5 119 (13.81%) Full-Stack Development
6 110 (12.76%) Test Automation
7 99 (11.48%) Software Engineering
8 88 (10.21%) Problem-Solving
9 86 (9.98%) AI
10 82 (9.51%) Containerisation
10 82 (9.51%) Continuous Improvement
11 77 (8.93%) Data Modelling
12 73 (8.47%) TDD
13 71 (8.24%) Event-Driven
13 71 (8.24%) Mentoring
14 70 (8.12%) Scrum
15 68 (7.89%) Business Intelligence
16 64 (7.42%) Code Quality
17 61 (7.08%) Migration
18 57 (6.61%) Low Latency
Programming Languages
1 262 (30.39%) Java
2 177 (20.53%) Python
3 176 (20.42%) SQL
4 158 (18.33%) C#
5 149 (17.29%) JavaScript
6 137 (15.89%) TypeScript
7 25 (2.90%) Apex Code
8 24 (2.78%) Ruby
9 22 (2.55%) PL/SQL
10 19 (2.20%) C++
11 18 (2.09%) Shell Script
12 16 (1.86%) Kotlin
13 14 (1.62%) SOQL
14 10 (1.16%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 10 (1.16%) Go
15 9 (1.04%) PHP
15 9 (1.04%) Scala
15 9 (1.04%) Swift
16 8 (0.93%) Bicep
16 8 (0.93%) SOSL
Qualifications
1 145 (16.82%) Security Cleared
2 133 (15.43%) SC Cleared
3 35 (4.06%) Degree
4 19 (2.20%) Computer Science Degree
5 16 (1.86%) BPSS Clearance
6 7 (0.81%) Microsoft Certification
7 5 (0.58%) DV Cleared
8 4 (0.46%) Numerate Degree
9 3 (0.35%) Master's Degree
10 2 (0.23%) AWS Certification
10 2 (0.23%) AWS Certified Developer
11 1 (0.12%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
11 1 (0.12%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 1 (0.12%) Azure Certification
11 1 (0.12%) DBS Check
11 1 (0.12%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 51 (5.92%) Accessibility
2 49 (5.68%) QA
3 26 (3.02%) WCAG
4 22 (2.55%) Data Quality
5 7 (0.81%) GDPR
6 5 (0.58%) NCSC
7 2 (0.23%) ISO 20022
7 2 (0.23%) PCI DSS
8 1 (0.12%) Basel III
8 1 (0.12%) Disclosure Scotland
8 1 (0.12%) GRC
8 1 (0.12%) ISO 15022
8 1 (0.12%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 1 (0.12%) SEPA
8 1 (0.12%) Solvency II
System Software
1 114 (13.23%) Docker
2 6 (0.70%) Active Directory
3 5 (0.58%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (0.23%) Apache ZooKeeper
4 2 (0.23%) GridGain
4 2 (0.23%) Oracle RAC
4 2 (0.23%) Postfix
5 1 (0.12%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 99 (11.48%) Kubernetes
2 21 (2.44%) Grafana
3 16 (1.86%) Prometheus
4 14 (1.62%) Ansible
5 4 (0.46%) Argo
6 2 (0.23%) Bosun
6 2 (0.23%) Consul
6 2 (0.23%) Single Sign-On
6 2 (0.23%) Zipkin
7 1 (0.12%) Microsoft Intune
7 1 (0.12%) SELinux
7 1 (0.12%) systemd
Vendors
1 79 (9.16%) Microsoft
2 67 (7.77%) Oracle
3 43 (4.99%) Salesforce
4 28 (3.25%) ServiceNow
5 21 (2.44%) Databricks
6 16 (1.86%) Google
7 14 (1.62%) Avaloq
7 14 (1.62%) MuleSoft
8 10 (1.16%) Blue Prism
9 9 (1.04%) IBM
10 8 (0.93%) SAP
11 6 (0.70%) Jaspersoft
11 6 (0.70%) Solace
12 5 (0.58%) BeyondTrust
12 5 (0.58%) Bomgar
12 5 (0.58%) VMware
13 3 (0.35%) Atlassian
13 3 (0.35%) Okta
13 3 (0.35%) OpenAI
13 3 (0.35%) SimCorp