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 19 February 2026.

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

6 months to
19 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 167 155 177
Rank change year-on-year -12 +22 -64
Contract jobs requiring a Senior Developer 677 544 590
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.66% 1.77% 1.34%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.81% 1.90% 1.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 473 358 419
10th Percentile £400 £425 £413
25th Percentile £450 £501 £477
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £600 £575
Median % change year-on-year -12.50% +4.35% -8.73%
75th Percentile £650 £700 £713
90th Percentile £850 £838 £838
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -8.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 1 11
10th Percentile - - £40.00
25th Percentile £85.00 - £52.50
Median hourly rate £90.00 £77.19 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year +16.60% +28.65% -4.00%
75th Percentile £95.00 - £72.50
90th Percentile - - £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate - £77.19 £52.50
% change year-on-year - +47.03% -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 37,333 28,630 41,042
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.70% 92.94% 93.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,462 17,805 26,973
10th Percentile £305 £288 £275
25th Percentile £406 £406 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £719 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £478 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +0.63% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,275 814 2,320
10th Percentile £14.61 £16.25 £13.15
25th Percentile £18.87 £21.46 £16.50
Median hourly rate £31.18 £34.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -8.31% -2.86% -9.09%
75th Percentile £63.32 £63.75 £60.75
90th Percentile £73.75 £75.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £30.00 £32.50 £35.25
% change year-on-year -7.69% -7.80% -0.48%

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 19 February 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 19 February 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 -9 576 £550 -8.33% 324
London -10 365 £613 -2.78% 118
Work from Home +20 246 £600 - 177
UK excluding London -26 219 £500 -4.76% 255
North of England -52 71 £550 +4.76% 94
South West +18 55 £475 -20.83% 25
Yorkshire -31 38 £600 +14.29% 33
South East -32 32 £500 +11.11% 78
North West -29 31 £500 -4.76% 52
Midlands -52 28 £525 +0.48% 29
West Midlands -50 20 £525 -4.55% 19
East of England -25 19 £500 -23.08% 11
Scotland -19 14 £475 +5.56% 13
North East -10 8 £525 +8.81% 10
East Midlands -20 8 £520 - 10
Wales -2 4 £638 +27.50% 5
Northern Ireland +1 3 £638 +6.25% 2

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

For the 6 months to 19 February 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.

1 223 (32.94%) Java
2 218 (32.20%) AWS
3 200 (29.54%) Agile
4 164 (24.22%) Microservices
5 158 (23.34%) Azure
5 158 (23.34%) CI/CD
6 157 (23.19%) SQL
7 154 (22.75%) Python
8 145 (21.42%) Security Cleared
9 140 (20.68%) DevOps
10 131 (19.35%) Kafka
11 130 (19.20%) SC Cleared
12 127 (18.76%) JavaScript
13 124 (18.32%) Docker
14 120 (17.73%) Kubernetes
15 119 (17.58%) Problem-Solving
16 95 (14.03%) Spring
17 86 (12.70%) React
18 85 (12.56%) TDD
19 81 (11.96%) Spring Boot
20 80 (11.82%) Software Engineering
21 79 (11.67%) Test Automation
22 78 (11.52%) Containerisation
23 72 (10.64%) Git
23 72 (10.64%) Scrum
24 69 (10.19%) .NET
25 68 (10.04%) C#
26 66 (9.75%) Analytics
26 66 (9.75%) Full-Stack Development
27 60 (8.86%) Azure DevOps

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 13 (1.92%) Confluence
2 6 (0.89%) nginx
3 5 (0.74%) CMS
3 5 (0.74%) SharePoint
4 4 (0.59%) Ethereum
4 4 (0.59%) Hyperledger
4 4 (0.59%) Jupyter
5 3 (0.44%) Mendix
5 3 (0.44%) SAS
5 3 (0.44%) Tomcat
6 2 (0.30%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.30%) Microsoft Exchange
7 1 (0.15%) Appian
7 1 (0.15%) Headless CMS
7 1 (0.15%) LiveCycle
7 1 (0.15%) Oracle Application Server
7 1 (0.15%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 1 (0.15%) Smallworld
7 1 (0.15%) Umbraco
7 1 (0.15%) WordPress
Applications
1 14 (2.07%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.30%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 5 (0.74%) Dynamics CRM
2 3 (0.44%) Endur
3 2 (0.30%) SAP S/4HANA
4 1 (0.15%) FLEXCUBE
4 1 (0.15%) IBM Planning Analytics
4 1 (0.15%) Oracle ERP
4 1 (0.15%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 1 (0.15%) Oracle Retail
4 1 (0.15%) R3 Corda
4 1 (0.15%) Salesforce CRM
4 1 (0.15%) SAP BRIM
4 1 (0.15%) SAP FI
4 1 (0.15%) SAP Travel Management
Cloud Services
1 218 (32.20%) AWS
2 158 (23.34%) Azure
3 60 (8.86%) Azure DevOps
4 46 (6.79%) GitHub
5 41 (6.06%) Serverless
6 35 (5.17%) Power Platform
7 33 (4.87%) GCP
8 23 (3.40%) AWS Lambda
8 23 (3.40%) Power Automate
9 19 (2.81%) PowerApps
10 18 (2.66%) Dynamics 365
11 17 (2.51%) Amazon EKS
11 17 (2.51%) Amazon SQS
11 17 (2.51%) Azure Service Bus
12 16 (2.36%) Amazon EC2
13 14 (2.07%) Amazon ECS
13 14 (2.07%) SaaS
14 13 (1.92%) GitHub Actions
15 10 (1.48%) Amazon S3
15 10 (1.48%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 6 (0.89%) HTTP
2 5 (0.74%) Kerberos
3 3 (0.44%) Reverse Proxy
4 2 (0.30%) Firewall
4 2 (0.30%) SSL
4 2 (0.30%) VPN
5 1 (0.15%) DNS
5 1 (0.15%) Ethernet
5 1 (0.15%) FTP
5 1 (0.15%) Internet
5 1 (0.15%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 58 (8.57%) PostgreSQL
2 52 (7.68%) MongoDB
3 40 (5.91%) NoSQL
4 39 (5.76%) Relational Database
5 38 (5.61%) SQL Server
6 35 (5.17%) Apache Cassandra
7 23 (3.40%) Power BI
8 16 (2.36%) Data Hub
9 15 (2.22%) DynamoDB
10 13 (1.92%) MySQL
11 12 (1.77%) Data Warehouse
12 11 (1.62%) DB2
13 9 (1.33%) Data Lake
14 8 (1.18%) Amazon RDS
15 7 (1.03%) Oracle BI EE
15 7 (1.03%) Redis
16 6 (0.89%) HBase
16 6 (0.89%) SQL Server Integration Services
17 5 (0.74%) Delta Lake
17 5 (0.74%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 72 (10.64%) Git
2 35 (5.17%) JUnit
3 34 (5.02%) Jenkins
3 34 (5.02%) Oracle APEX
4 30 (4.43%) GitLab
5 27 (3.99%) JIRA
6 23 (3.40%) Mockito
7 14 (2.07%) Maven
8 11 (1.62%) Gradle
9 9 (1.33%) Cucumber
10 8 (1.18%) Artifactory
11 7 (1.03%) SonarQube
11 7 (1.03%) Sonatype Nexus
12 6 (0.89%) SpecFlow
13 5 (0.74%) Cypress.io
13 5 (0.74%) Mocha
14 4 (0.59%) Bitbucket
14 4 (0.59%) Postman
15 3 (0.44%) git-flow
15 3 (0.44%) Lerna
General
1 146 (21.57%) Social Skills
2 142 (20.97%) Finance
3 99 (14.62%) Banking
4 96 (14.18%) Public Sector
5 50 (7.39%) Analytical Skills
6 41 (6.06%) Investment Banking
7 23 (3.40%) Front Office
8 12 (1.77%) Financial Institution
9 5 (0.74%) Law
9 5 (0.74%) Presentation Skills
10 4 (0.59%) Health Technology
10 4 (0.59%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 4 (0.59%) Military
10 4 (0.59%) Retail Banking
10 4 (0.59%) Telecoms
11 3 (0.44%) Legal
11 3 (0.44%) Manufacturing
11 3 (0.44%) Pharmaceutical
11 3 (0.44%) Police
12 2 (0.30%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 131 (19.35%) Kafka
2 95 (14.03%) Spring
3 86 (12.70%) React
4 81 (11.96%) Spring Boot
5 69 (10.19%) .NET
6 59 (8.71%) Node.js
7 56 (8.27%) REST
8 55 (8.12%) HTML
9 54 (7.98%) RESTful
10 51 (7.53%) AngularJS
11 50 (7.39%) CSS
12 31 (4.58%) gRPC
12 31 (4.58%) Web Services
13 19 (2.81%) Jest
14 18 (2.66%) .NET Framework
15 17 (2.51%) Next.js
15 17 (2.51%) RabbitMQ
16 15 (2.22%) JAX-RS
16 15 (2.22%) Playwright
16 15 (2.22%) Redux
Miscellaneous
1 53 (7.83%) Cloud Native
2 46 (6.79%) Distributed Systems
3 30 (4.43%) Derivative
4 26 (3.84%) Equities
4 26 (3.84%) Greenfield Project
4 26 (3.84%) Product Ownership
5 24 (3.55%) Algorithms
6 20 (2.95%) Market Risk
7 19 (2.81%) Management Information System
8 17 (2.51%) Data Structures
9 12 (1.77%) Fixed Income
9 12 (1.77%) Mobile App
10 11 (1.62%) Legacy Systems
11 9 (1.33%) Onboarding
12 8 (1.18%) Equity Derivative
12 8 (1.18%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
13 7 (1.03%) Legacy Applications
14 6 (0.89%) Enterprise Software
14 6 (0.89%) Linux Command Line
15 5 (0.74%) AI Agents
Operating Systems
1 54 (7.98%) Linux
2 28 (4.14%) Unix
3 16 (2.36%) Android
4 14 (2.07%) Mac OS X
5 10 (1.48%) Windows
6 9 (1.33%) Apple iOS
7 4 (0.59%) Mac OS
8 2 (0.30%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 2 (0.30%) Windows Server
9 1 (0.15%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 200 (29.54%) Agile
2 164 (24.22%) Microservices
3 158 (23.34%) CI/CD
4 140 (20.68%) DevOps
5 119 (17.58%) Problem-Solving
6 85 (12.56%) TDD
7 80 (11.82%) Software Engineering
8 79 (11.67%) Test Automation
9 78 (11.52%) Containerisation
10 72 (10.64%) Scrum
11 66 (9.75%) Analytics
11 66 (9.75%) Full-Stack Development
12 58 (8.57%) Open Source
13 51 (7.53%) SDLC
14 48 (7.09%) Infrastructure as Code
15 47 (6.94%) Code Quality
15 47 (6.94%) Mentoring
16 45 (6.65%) Front End Development
17 39 (5.76%) Unit Testing
17 39 (5.76%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 223 (32.94%) Java
2 157 (23.19%) SQL
3 154 (22.75%) Python
4 127 (18.76%) JavaScript
5 68 (10.04%) C#
6 58 (8.57%) TypeScript
7 43 (6.35%) Go
8 39 (5.76%) PL/SQL
9 26 (3.84%) Kotlin
10 20 (2.95%) Ruby
11 17 (2.51%) C++
12 14 (2.07%) Bash
13 13 (1.92%) Shell Script
14 11 (1.62%) PowerShell
15 6 (0.89%) PHP
16 4 (0.59%) ABAP
16 4 (0.59%) VBA
17 3 (0.44%) Apex Code
17 3 (0.44%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 3 (0.44%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 145 (21.42%) Security Cleared
2 130 (19.20%) SC Cleared
3 33 (4.87%) Degree
4 26 (3.84%) BPSS Clearance
5 16 (2.36%) Computer Science Degree
6 8 (1.18%) Numerate Degree
7 6 (0.89%) OCP
7 6 (0.89%) Oracle Certification
8 5 (0.74%) AWS Certification
9 3 (0.44%) Azure Certification
9 3 (0.44%) Master's Degree
9 3 (0.44%) Microsoft Certified Professional
10 2 (0.30%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
10 2 (0.30%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 2 (0.30%) DV Cleared
11 1 (0.15%) AWS Certified Developer
11 1 (0.15%) CISSP
11 1 (0.15%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 29 (4.28%) Accessibility
2 17 (2.51%) Data Quality
3 16 (2.36%) QA
3 16 (2.36%) WCAG
4 4 (0.59%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 3 (0.44%) EU AI Act
5 3 (0.44%) NIST
6 2 (0.30%) GDPR
7 1 (0.15%) HMG Security Policy Framework
System Software
1 124 (18.32%) Docker
2 5 (0.74%) zsh
3 2 (0.30%) Active Directory
4 1 (0.15%) GridGain
4 1 (0.15%) OpenAM
4 1 (0.15%) OpenDJ
4 1 (0.15%) OpenIDM
Systems Management
1 120 (17.73%) Kubernetes
2 37 (5.47%) Terraform
3 21 (3.10%) Grafana
4 14 (2.07%) Ansible
5 9 (1.33%) Prometheus
5 9 (1.33%) Single Sign-On
6 3 (0.44%) Kibana
7 1 (0.15%) Argo
7 1 (0.15%) CloudHub
7 1 (0.15%) Control-M
7 1 (0.15%) HAProxy
7 1 (0.15%) Sysdig
Vendors
1 58 (8.57%) Oracle
2 41 (6.06%) Microsoft
3 20 (2.95%) Google
4 12 (1.77%) ServiceNow
4 12 (1.77%) Sybase
5 10 (1.48%) Databricks
5 10 (1.48%) SAP
6 9 (1.33%) Salesforce
7 6 (0.89%) Guidewire
8 5 (0.74%) Atlassian
9 4 (0.59%) IBM
9 4 (0.59%) Pega
10 3 (0.44%) Apple
10 3 (0.44%) Cognizant
10 3 (0.44%) Dataiku
10 3 (0.44%) Foundry
11 2 (0.30%) CA Agile Central
11 2 (0.30%) ForgeRock
11 2 (0.30%) New Relic
11 2 (0.30%) OpenAI