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 11 January 2026.

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

6 months to
11 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 170 144 176
Rank change year-on-year -26 +32 -67
Contract jobs requiring a Senior Developer 618 559 607
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.70% 1.76% 1.41%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.86% 1.90% 1.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 445 360 432
10th Percentile £400 £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 £700
90th Percentile £845 £838 £838
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £525
% change year-on-year - -4.76% -9.48%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 0 8
10th Percentile - - £40.95
25th Percentile - - £54.38
Median hourly rate - - £58.75
75th Percentile - - £65.00
90th Percentile - - £72.88
UK excluding London median hourly rate - - £38.50
% change year-on-year - - -51.88%

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 33,229 29,465 40,074
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.31% 92.70% 93.26%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,002 18,045 26,741
10th Percentile £300 £291 £280
25th Percentile £405 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £618 £638 £638
90th Percentile £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £480 £500
% change year-on-year -1.04% -4.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,953 888 1,677
10th Percentile £14.38 £15.60 £14.16
25th Percentile £18.25 £21.22 £18.93
Median hourly rate £26.50 £32.50 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -18.46% -23.53% +28.79%
75th Percentile £60.00 £62.31 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.60 £73.75 £76.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £31.51 £44.78
% change year-on-year -20.18% -29.63% +65.05%

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 11 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 11 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 -17 526 £550 -6.78% 415
London -17 314 £625 +0.81% 112
Work from Home -1 213 £589 -1.79% 268
UK excluding London -12 213 £500 - 371
North of England -11 72 £550 +6.28% 84
South West +23 55 £475 -13.64% 45
Yorkshire -23 38 £631 +20.24% 29
South East -15 32 £473 +2.27% 125
North West -19 31 £500 - 36
Midlands -26 26 £513 +2.50% 35
West Midlands -19 19 £525 +5.00% 15
East of England -19 17 £500 -13.42% 40
Scotland -20 12 £513 +13.89% 23
North East -2 9 £488 -17.37% 19
East Midlands -19 7 £510 +11.78% 19
Northern Ireland - 4 £544 - 5
Wales +2 3 £638 +27.50% 22

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

For the 6 months to 11 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.

1 215 (34.79%) Java
2 204 (33.01%) AWS
3 198 (32.04%) Agile
4 158 (25.57%) Microservices
5 156 (25.24%) Azure
6 155 (25.08%) CI/CD
6 155 (25.08%) DevOps
7 146 (23.62%) SQL
8 144 (23.30%) Python
8 144 (23.30%) Security Cleared
9 126 (20.39%) SC Cleared
10 125 (20.23%) Kafka
11 123 (19.90%) Docker
12 121 (19.58%) Problem-Solving
13 120 (19.42%) Kubernetes
14 115 (18.61%) JavaScript
15 94 (15.21%) Spring
16 84 (13.59%) React
17 80 (12.94%) C#
17 80 (12.94%) Containerisation
18 77 (12.46%) Spring Boot
19 75 (12.14%) Git
19 75 (12.14%) Software Engineering
20 73 (11.81%) .NET
20 73 (11.81%) TDD
21 71 (11.49%) Full-Stack Development
22 69 (11.17%) Scrum
22 69 (11.17%) Test Automation
23 67 (10.84%) Azure DevOps
24 65 (10.52%) 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 (2.75%) Confluence
2 6 (0.97%) nginx
3 5 (0.81%) SharePoint
4 4 (0.65%) CMS
4 4 (0.65%) Jupyter
5 3 (0.49%) 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 (1.62%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 4 (0.65%) Dynamics CRM
2 3 (0.49%) 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
1 204 (33.01%) AWS
2 156 (25.24%) Azure
3 67 (10.84%) Azure DevOps
4 53 (8.58%) GitHub
5 36 (5.83%) Serverless
6 35 (5.66%) GCP
7 26 (4.21%) Power Platform
8 18 (2.91%) AWS Lambda
9 16 (2.59%) Amazon SQS
9 16 (2.59%) GitHub Actions
10 15 (2.43%) Amazon EC2
10 15 (2.43%) Azure Service Bus
10 15 (2.43%) Dynamics 365
10 15 (2.43%) Power Automate
11 14 (2.27%) Amazon EKS
12 13 (2.10%) Azure AKS
12 13 (2.10%) SaaS
13 11 (1.78%) Amazon S3
13 11 (1.78%) PowerApps
14 10 (1.62%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 5 (0.81%) Kerberos
2 4 (0.65%) SSL
3 3 (0.49%) 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 63 (10.19%) PostgreSQL
2 51 (8.25%) MongoDB
3 42 (6.80%) Relational Database
4 37 (5.99%) SQL Server
5 35 (5.66%) NoSQL
6 29 (4.69%) Apache Cassandra
7 16 (2.59%) Power BI
8 15 (2.43%) DynamoDB
9 14 (2.27%) Data Hub
10 12 (1.94%) Data Warehouse
10 12 (1.94%) DB2
10 12 (1.94%) MySQL
11 11 (1.78%) Redis
12 8 (1.29%) Amazon RDS
12 8 (1.29%) Data Lake
12 8 (1.29%) RDBMS
13 7 (1.13%) Oracle BI EE
14 6 (0.97%) HBase
15 5 (0.81%) Couchbase
15 5 (0.81%) Delta Lake
Development Applications
1 75 (12.14%) Git
2 40 (6.47%) Jenkins
3 36 (5.83%) JUnit
4 35 (5.66%) Oracle APEX
5 34 (5.50%) GitLab
6 29 (4.69%) JIRA
7 23 (3.72%) Mockito
8 13 (2.10%) Maven
9 12 (1.94%) Gradle
10 9 (1.46%) Artifactory
10 9 (1.46%) Cucumber
11 8 (1.29%) Postman
12 7 (1.13%) Sonatype Nexus
12 7 (1.13%) SpecFlow
13 6 (0.97%) Bitbucket
13 6 (0.97%) Cypress.io
13 6 (0.97%) Mocha
14 5 (0.81%) SonarQube
15 4 (0.65%) TeamCity
16 3 (0.49%) QUnit
General
1 152 (24.60%) Finance
2 149 (24.11%) Social Skills
3 91 (14.72%) Banking
4 80 (12.94%) Public Sector
5 50 (8.09%) Analytical Skills
6 37 (5.99%) Investment Banking
7 24 (3.88%) Front Office
8 13 (2.10%) Financial Institution
9 6 (0.97%) Manufacturing
10 5 (0.81%) Military
10 5 (0.81%) Presentation Skills
11 4 (0.65%) Documentation Skills
11 4 (0.65%) Law
11 4 (0.65%) Pharmaceutical
12 3 (0.49%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 3 (0.49%) Marketing
12 3 (0.49%) Retail Banking
12 3 (0.49%) Telecoms
13 2 (0.32%) Organisational Skills
13 2 (0.32%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 125 (20.23%) Kafka
2 94 (15.21%) Spring
3 84 (13.59%) React
4 77 (12.46%) Spring Boot
5 73 (11.81%) .NET
6 65 (10.52%) RESTful
7 56 (9.06%) Node.js
8 51 (8.25%) AngularJS
8 51 (8.25%) HTML
9 50 (8.09%) REST
10 43 (6.96%) CSS
11 31 (5.02%) Web Services
12 24 (3.88%) JSON
13 23 (3.72%) gRPC
13 23 (3.72%) RabbitMQ
14 20 (3.24%) .NET Framework
15 19 (3.07%) Next.js
16 17 (2.75%) .NET Core
16 17 (2.75%) Jest
17 16 (2.59%) Playwright
Miscellaneous
1 48 (7.77%) Cloud Native
1 48 (7.77%) Distributed Systems
2 31 (5.02%) Derivative
3 28 (4.53%) Equities
4 24 (3.88%) Greenfield Project
5 20 (3.24%) Product Ownership
6 19 (3.07%) Algorithms
6 19 (3.07%) Market Risk
7 18 (2.91%) Data Structures
7 18 (2.91%) Management Information System
8 16 (2.59%) Fixed Income
9 11 (1.78%) Legacy Systems
10 10 (1.62%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
11 9 (1.46%) Mobile App
12 8 (1.29%) Equity Derivative
13 7 (1.13%) Legacy Applications
13 7 (1.13%) Onboarding
14 6 (0.97%) Linux Command Line
14 6 (0.97%) NHS
15 5 (0.81%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 52 (8.41%) Linux
2 26 (4.21%) Unix
3 16 (2.59%) Android
4 14 (2.27%) Mac OS X
5 8 (1.29%) Apple iOS
6 3 (0.49%) Windows
7 2 (0.32%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 198 (32.04%) Agile
2 158 (25.57%) Microservices
3 155 (25.08%) CI/CD
3 155 (25.08%) DevOps
4 121 (19.58%) Problem-Solving
5 80 (12.94%) Containerisation
6 75 (12.14%) Software Engineering
7 73 (11.81%) TDD
8 71 (11.49%) Full-Stack Development
9 69 (11.17%) Scrum
9 69 (11.17%) Test Automation
10 63 (10.19%) Analytics
11 57 (9.22%) Open Source
12 47 (7.61%) Infrastructure as Code
12 47 (7.61%) SDLC
13 45 (7.28%) Event-Driven
14 40 (6.47%) Front End Development
14 40 (6.47%) Performance Tuning
14 40 (6.47%) Unit Testing
15 39 (6.31%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 215 (34.79%) Java
2 146 (23.62%) SQL
3 144 (23.30%) Python
4 115 (18.61%) JavaScript
5 80 (12.94%) C#
6 48 (7.77%) TypeScript
7 42 (6.80%) PL/SQL
8 36 (5.83%) Go
9 22 (3.56%) Kotlin
10 16 (2.59%) C++
11 15 (2.43%) Ruby
12 14 (2.27%) Shell Script
13 13 (2.10%) Bash
14 11 (1.78%) PowerShell
15 10 (1.62%) PHP
16 4 (0.65%) T-SQL
17 3 (0.49%) ABAP
17 3 (0.49%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 3 (0.49%) Objective-C
17 3 (0.49%) Swift
Qualifications
1 144 (23.30%) Security Cleared
2 126 (20.39%) SC Cleared
3 42 (6.80%) Degree
4 30 (4.85%) BPSS Clearance
5 22 (3.56%) 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 (0.49%) AWS Certified Developer
8 3 (0.49%) 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 (4.85%) Accessibility
2 21 (3.40%) QA
3 12 (1.94%) WCAG
4 11 (1.78%) Data Quality
5 3 (0.49%) EU AI Act
5 3 (0.49%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 3 (0.49%) NIST
6 1 (0.16%) GDPR
System Software
1 123 (19.90%) 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
1 120 (19.42%) Kubernetes
2 40 (6.47%) Terraform
3 20 (3.24%) Grafana
4 15 (2.43%) Ansible
5 9 (1.46%) Prometheus
6 8 (1.29%) Single Sign-On
7 3 (0.49%) Kibana
8 1 (0.16%) Argo
8 1 (0.16%) CloudHub
8 1 (0.16%) Control-M
8 1 (0.16%) HAProxy
8 1 (0.16%) Packer
8 1 (0.16%) Rundeck
8 1 (0.16%) Sysdig
Vendors
1 59 (9.55%) Oracle
2 26 (4.21%) Microsoft
3 22 (3.56%) Google
4 13 (2.10%) Sybase
5 12 (1.94%) ServiceNow
6 10 (1.62%) Databricks
7 6 (0.97%) Atlassian
8 5 (0.81%) SAP
9 4 (0.65%) Apple
9 4 (0.65%) Guidewire
9 4 (0.65%) IBM
9 4 (0.65%) Salesforce
10 3 (0.49%) BMC
10 3 (0.49%) Dataiku
10 3 (0.49%) Foundry
11 2 (0.32%) Cognizant
11 2 (0.32%) HP
11 2 (0.32%) Informatica
11 2 (0.32%) Red Hat
11 2 (0.32%) Remedy