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 26 May 2026.

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

6 months to
26 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 168 170 150
Rank change year-on-year +2 -20 -15
Contract jobs requiring a Senior Developer 768 497 685
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.58% 1.74% 1.61%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.71% 1.88% 1.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 481 355 500
10th Percentile £406 £400 £408
25th Percentile £475 £466 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £575 £575
Median % change year-on-year -4.35% - -8.00%
75th Percentile £675 £725 £750
90th Percentile £888 £825 £875
UK excluding London median daily rate £513 £525 £475
% change year-on-year -2.38% +10.53% -15.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 1 11
10th Percentile £37.25 - £40.00
25th Percentile £44.93 - £47.42
Median hourly rate £45.56 £77.19 £58.91
Median % change year-on-year -40.98% +31.04% -5.75%
75th Percentile £46.18 - £72.50
90th Percentile £95.00 - £82.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.56 £77.19 £58.91
% change year-on-year -40.98% +31.04% -5.75%

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 44,822 26,395 39,583
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.33% 92.28% 92.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,378 17,183 25,758
10th Percentile £325 £289 £280
25th Percentile £413 £405 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £508 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.99% -3.33% -2.78%
75th Percentile £619 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +5.26% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,956 1,008 2,746
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.00 £12.81
25th Percentile £20.49 £18.12 £16.30
Median hourly rate £42.50 £27.52 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +54.46% -24.62% -18.89%
75th Percentile £67.06 £60.00 £61.30
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.69 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +73.72% -37.13% -5.88%

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 26 May 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
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Senior Developer over the 6 months to 26 May 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Senior Developer 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 26 May 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 -6 648 £575 -4.17% 191
London 0 420 £625 -3.85% 70
UK excluding London -30 241 £513 -2.38% 139
Work from Home -24 205 £588 -2.08% 100
North of England -10 96 £525 - 48
Yorkshire -15 52 £575 +9.52% 12
North West -12 44 £494 -17.71% 27
Midlands -41 40 £513 -6.82% 14
South East -47 39 £560 +8.74% 44
West Midlands -45 32 £513 -6.82% 9
South West -20 26 £410 -31.67% 14
East of England -27 20 £500 -23.08% 13
Scotland -24 17 £411 -3.24% 2
East Midlands -25 7 £525 +28.05% 5
Northern Ireland +2 5 £650 +30.00% 2
North East -21 2 £538 +43.33% 9
Wales -14 1 - - 3

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

For the 6 months to 26 May 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.

1 239 (31.12%) Java
2 221 (28.78%) AWS
3 200 (26.04%) CI/CD
4 183 (23.83%) Agile
5 168 (21.88%) Python
6 145 (18.88%) Microservices
7 144 (18.75%) Azure
8 136 (17.71%) SQL
9 122 (15.89%) Docker
10 121 (15.76%) Security Cleared
11 114 (14.84%) DevOps
11 114 (14.84%) SC Cleared
12 113 (14.71%) Kubernetes
13 104 (13.54%) JavaScript
14 100 (13.02%) React
15 94 (12.24%) Spring
16 92 (11.98%) Kafka
17 90 (11.72%) .NET
18 87 (11.33%) Containerisation
19 83 (10.81%) Full-Stack Development
19 83 (10.81%) Spring Boot
20 82 (10.68%) C#
21 80 (10.42%) TDD
22 79 (10.29%) Git
22 79 (10.29%) Test Automation
23 77 (10.03%) Software Engineering
23 77 (10.03%) TypeScript
24 74 (9.64%) RESTful
25 67 (8.72%) Problem-Solving
26 63 (8.20%) REST

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 10 (1.30%) Apache Spark
2 8 (1.04%) Apache
2 8 (1.04%) Confluence
3 6 (0.78%) CMS
3 6 (0.78%) nginx
4 4 (0.52%) Ethereum
4 4 (0.52%) Headless CMS
4 4 (0.52%) Hyperledger
4 4 (0.52%) Mendix
4 4 (0.52%) Oracle Workflow
5 3 (0.39%) Apache Airflow
5 3 (0.39%) IIS
5 3 (0.39%) Oracle SOA Suite
5 3 (0.39%) Tomcat
6 2 (0.26%) Cloud Foundry
6 2 (0.26%) SAS
6 2 (0.26%) SharePoint
6 2 (0.26%) WebLogic
6 2 (0.26%) WordPress
7 1 (0.13%) Oracle Application Server
Applications
1 9 (1.17%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.26%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 17 (2.21%) Teamcenter
2 5 (0.65%) Endur
3 3 (0.39%) Aladdin
3 3 (0.39%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
3 3 (0.39%) SimCorp Dimension
4 1 (0.13%) Adobe Campaign
4 1 (0.13%) Dynamics CRM
4 1 (0.13%) FLEXCUBE
4 1 (0.13%) IBM Planning Analytics
4 1 (0.13%) NetSuite
4 1 (0.13%) Oracle Assets
4 1 (0.13%) Oracle Cash Management
4 1 (0.13%) Oracle ERP
4 1 (0.13%) Oracle General Ledger
4 1 (0.13%) Oracle Payables
4 1 (0.13%) Oracle Receivables
4 1 (0.13%) R3 Corda
4 1 (0.13%) Salesforce CRM
4 1 (0.13%) SAP S/4HANA
4 1 (0.13%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 221 (28.78%) AWS
2 144 (18.75%) Azure
3 60 (7.81%) GitHub
4 47 (6.12%) Serverless
5 38 (4.95%) Power Platform
6 36 (4.69%) Azure DevOps
7 35 (4.56%) GitHub Actions
8 31 (4.04%) GCP
9 30 (3.91%) Amazon SQS
10 26 (3.39%) AWS Lambda
11 24 (3.13%) Power Automate
12 21 (2.73%) Amazon EC2
13 19 (2.47%) Amazon S3
13 19 (2.47%) PowerApps
14 18 (2.34%) Azure Service Bus
15 16 (2.08%) Amazon CloudWatch
16 15 (1.95%) Amazon ECS
17 14 (1.82%) Amazon EKS
17 14 (1.82%) Copilot Studio
18 13 (1.69%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 8 (1.04%) HTTP
2 6 (0.78%) Multicast
3 4 (0.52%) Reverse Proxy
4 2 (0.26%) Ethernet
4 2 (0.26%) NFC
4 2 (0.26%) RTP
5 1 (0.13%) DNS
5 1 (0.13%) Firewall
5 1 (0.13%) SSL
5 1 (0.13%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 57 (7.42%) PostgreSQL
2 42 (5.47%) SQL Server
3 38 (4.95%) Relational Database
4 37 (4.82%) MongoDB
5 33 (4.30%) Power BI
6 31 (4.04%) NoSQL
7 24 (3.13%) Apache Cassandra
8 22 (2.86%) DynamoDB
9 17 (2.21%) MySQL
10 15 (1.95%) Amazon RDS
10 15 (1.95%) Data Warehouse
11 10 (1.30%) KDB
12 7 (0.91%) Amazon Aurora
12 7 (0.91%) Azure SQL Database
12 7 (0.91%) Kdb+
12 7 (0.91%) Oracle BI EE
13 6 (0.78%) Data Hub
13 6 (0.78%) Oracle Database
13 6 (0.78%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 5 (0.65%) Redis
Development Applications
1 79 (10.29%) Git
2 39 (5.08%) Jenkins
3 26 (3.39%) GitLab
4 25 (3.26%) Maven
5 23 (2.99%) JUnit
6 21 (2.73%) JIRA
7 20 (2.60%) Mockito
8 18 (2.34%) SonarQube
9 13 (1.69%) Gradle
10 5 (0.65%) Snyk
11 4 (0.52%) Bitbucket
11 4 (0.52%) Cypress.io
11 4 (0.52%) git-flow
11 4 (0.52%) Xcode
12 3 (0.39%) Atlassian Bamboo
12 3 (0.39%) Cucumber
12 3 (0.39%) DbUnit
12 3 (0.39%) jMock
12 3 (0.39%) Team Foundation Server
12 3 (0.39%) TeamCity
General
1 138 (17.97%) Finance
2 119 (15.49%) Public Sector
3 102 (13.28%) Social Skills
4 101 (13.15%) Banking
5 39 (5.08%) Investment Banking
6 37 (4.82%) Analytical Skills
7 34 (4.43%) Front Office
8 22 (2.86%) Financial Institution
9 13 (1.69%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 10 (1.30%) Retail
11 9 (1.17%) Military
12 7 (0.91%) Legal
12 7 (0.91%) Manufacturing
13 5 (0.65%) Telecoms
14 4 (0.52%) Games
14 4 (0.52%) Health Technology
14 4 (0.52%) Law
14 4 (0.52%) Organisational Skills
15 3 (0.39%) Documentation Skills
15 3 (0.39%) Police
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 100 (13.02%) React
2 94 (12.24%) Spring
3 92 (11.98%) Kafka
4 90 (11.72%) .NET
5 83 (10.81%) Spring Boot
6 74 (9.64%) RESTful
7 63 (8.20%) REST
8 57 (7.42%) Node.js
9 54 (7.03%) AngularJS
10 49 (6.38%) HTML
11 45 (5.86%) CSS
12 30 (3.91%) Redux
13 28 (3.65%) Web Services
14 24 (3.13%) Django
15 23 (2.99%) gRPC
16 20 (2.60%) .NET Core
16 20 (2.60%) OAuth
16 20 (2.60%) SOAP
17 16 (2.08%) .NET Framework
18 15 (1.95%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 63 (8.20%) Distributed Systems
2 56 (7.29%) Cloud Native
3 29 (3.78%) Product Ownership
4 23 (2.99%) Greenfield Project
5 20 (2.60%) Derivative
6 19 (2.47%) Fixed Income
6 19 (2.47%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
7 17 (2.21%) Equities
8 16 (2.08%) Algorithms
8 16 (2.08%) Mobile App
9 11 (1.43%) Onboarding
10 9 (1.17%) Management Information System
11 8 (1.04%) Market Risk
12 7 (0.91%) Data Structures
12 7 (0.91%) Equity Derivative
13 6 (0.78%) AI Agents
13 6 (0.78%) Legacy Systems
14 5 (0.65%) NHS
15 4 (0.52%) Low-Code
15 4 (0.52%) Sports Betting
Operating Systems
1 45 (5.86%) Linux
2 27 (3.52%) Unix
3 17 (2.21%) Windows
4 11 (1.43%) Android
4 11 (1.43%) Apple iOS
5 9 (1.17%) Mac OS
6 5 (0.65%) Mac OS X
7 2 (0.26%) Windows Server
8 1 (0.13%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 200 (26.04%) CI/CD
2 183 (23.83%) Agile
3 145 (18.88%) Microservices
4 114 (14.84%) DevOps
5 87 (11.33%) Containerisation
6 83 (10.81%) Full-Stack Development
7 80 (10.42%) TDD
8 79 (10.29%) Test Automation
9 77 (10.03%) Software Engineering
10 67 (8.72%) Problem-Solving
11 58 (7.55%) Data Modelling
12 56 (7.29%) Code Quality
13 55 (7.16%) Mentoring
14 52 (6.77%) Event-Driven
15 49 (6.38%) Infrastructure as Code
15 49 (6.38%) Migration
16 48 (6.25%) Business Intelligence
16 48 (6.25%) Front End Development
17 47 (6.12%) Analytics
17 47 (6.12%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 239 (31.12%) Java
2 168 (21.88%) Python
3 136 (17.71%) SQL
4 104 (13.54%) JavaScript
5 82 (10.68%) C#
6 77 (10.03%) TypeScript
7 36 (4.69%) Go
8 26 (3.39%) Ruby
9 23 (2.99%) Kotlin
10 19 (2.47%) C++
11 9 (1.17%) Apex Code
12 8 (1.04%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 8 (1.04%) PL/SQL
12 8 (1.04%) Shell Script
12 8 (1.04%) Swift
13 7 (0.91%) Bash
13 7 (0.91%) PowerShell
14 4 (0.52%) PHP
14 4 (0.52%) R
14 4 (0.52%) VBA
Qualifications
1 121 (15.76%) Security Cleared
2 114 (14.84%) SC Cleared
3 26 (3.39%) Degree
4 22 (2.86%) BPSS Clearance
5 11 (1.43%) Computer Science Degree
6 7 (0.91%) DV Cleared
7 5 (0.65%) AWS Certification
8 4 (0.52%) AWS Certified Developer
8 4 (0.52%) Numerate Degree
9 3 (0.39%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 2 (0.26%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
11 1 (0.13%) Azure Certification
11 1 (0.13%) CISSP
11 1 (0.13%) Master's Degree
11 1 (0.13%) Microsoft Certification
11 1 (0.13%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (3.91%) Accessibility
2 27 (3.52%) QA
3 18 (2.34%) WCAG
4 12 (1.56%) Data Quality
5 2 (0.26%) GDPR
5 2 (0.26%) PCI DSS
6 1 (0.13%) Basel III
6 1 (0.13%) HMG Security Policy Framework
6 1 (0.13%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 1 (0.13%) Solvency II
System Software
1 122 (15.89%) Docker
2 3 (0.39%) Active Directory
3 2 (0.26%) GridGain
3 2 (0.26%) Oracle RAC
3 2 (0.26%) Postfix
4 1 (0.13%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 113 (14.71%) Kubernetes
2 54 (7.03%) Terraform
3 25 (3.26%) Grafana
4 19 (2.47%) Prometheus
5 16 (2.08%) Ansible
6 7 (0.91%) Single Sign-On
7 4 (0.52%) Argo
8 2 (0.26%) Consul
8 2 (0.26%) Zipkin
9 1 (0.13%) HAProxy
9 1 (0.13%) SELinux
9 1 (0.13%) Sysdig
9 1 (0.13%) systemd
Vendors
1 49 (6.38%) Microsoft
2 30 (3.91%) Oracle
3 17 (2.21%) Salesforce
4 14 (1.82%) ServiceNow
5 12 (1.56%) Avaloq
6 11 (1.43%) Databricks
6 11 (1.43%) Google
7 9 (1.17%) SAP
8 6 (0.78%) Guidewire
8 6 (0.78%) Jaspersoft
8 6 (0.78%) Sybase
9 4 (0.52%) ForgeRock
9 4 (0.52%) Okta
9 4 (0.52%) Pega
9 4 (0.52%) Solace
10 3 (0.39%) Apple
10 3 (0.39%) Atlassian
10 3 (0.39%) Cognizant
10 3 (0.39%) New Relic
10 3 (0.39%) Splunk