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 2 June 2026.

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

6 months to
2 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 160 160 135
Rank change year-on-year 0 -25 0
Contract jobs requiring a Senior Developer 789 515 728
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.62% 1.78% 1.69%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.75% 1.93% 1.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 500 362 531
10th Percentile £406 £400 £408
25th Percentile £475 £470 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £575 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.35% +4.55% -12.00%
75th Percentile £700 £725 £726
90th Percentile £894 £825 £863
UK excluding London median daily rate £515 £525 £475
% change year-on-year -1.90% +10.53% -14.03%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 1 14
10th Percentile £37.25 - £36.50
25th Percentile £44.93 - £43.71
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 - £82.85
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 45,020 26,719 39,975
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.30% 92.34% 92.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,415 17,307 25,875
10th Percentile £325 £289 £280
25th Percentile £413 £405 £409
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £505 £525
Median % change year-on-year +1.49% -3.81% -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 3,003 1,068 2,841
10th Percentile £15.05 £14.00 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.51 £17.87 £16.30
Median hourly rate £42.69 £28.08 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +52.04% -25.13% -16.67%
75th Percentile £67.25 £59.23 £61.60
90th Percentile £79.00 £75.00 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.72 £40.00
% change year-on-year +74.96% -35.70% -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 2 June 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 2 June 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 2 June 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 -15 667 £575 -4.17% 230
London +9 433 £625 -3.85% 100
UK excluding London -27 248 £515 -1.90% 169
Work from Home -32 206 £560 -4.68% 119
North of England -13 98 £525 - 44
Yorkshire -20 52 £575 +9.52% 10
North West -16 44 £494 -1.25% 23
Midlands -35 42 £513 -6.82% 12
South East -48 38 £560 +8.74% 56
West Midlands -43 34 £513 -6.82% 7
South West -22 28 £475 -13.64% 20
East of England -24 20 £500 -23.08% 16
Scotland -22 18 £411 -3.24% 14
East Midlands -24 7 £525 +28.05% 5
Northern Ireland +4 5 £650 +30.00% 4
North East -23 4 £750 +100.00% 11
Wales -14 2 £525 +61.54% 4

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

For the 6 months to 2 June 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.

1 251 (31.81%) Java
2 215 (27.25%) AWS
3 202 (25.60%) CI/CD
4 187 (23.70%) Agile
5 165 (20.91%) Python
6 157 (19.90%) Azure
7 145 (18.38%) Microservices
8 137 (17.36%) SQL
9 121 (15.34%) Security Cleared
10 119 (15.08%) DevOps
10 119 (15.08%) Docker
11 118 (14.96%) JavaScript
12 115 (14.58%) React
13 114 (14.45%) SC Cleared
14 108 (13.69%) Kubernetes
15 100 (12.67%) C#
16 97 (12.29%) TypeScript
17 95 (12.04%) Spring
18 92 (11.66%) .NET
19 90 (11.41%) Kafka
20 84 (10.65%) Full-Stack Development
21 83 (10.52%) Containerisation
21 83 (10.52%) Spring Boot
22 81 (10.27%) TDD
23 80 (10.14%) Git
23 80 (10.14%) RESTful
23 80 (10.14%) Software Engineering
24 79 (10.01%) Test Automation
25 69 (8.75%) REST
26 66 (8.37%) Problem-Solving

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 (1.27%) Apache Spark
2 8 (1.01%) Apache
2 8 (1.01%) Confluence
3 7 (0.89%) Ethereum
3 7 (0.89%) Hyperledger
4 6 (0.76%) CMS
5 5 (0.63%) Mendix
5 5 (0.63%) nginx
6 4 (0.51%) Headless CMS
6 4 (0.51%) Oracle Workflow
7 3 (0.38%) Apache Airflow
7 3 (0.38%) IIS
7 3 (0.38%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 3 (0.38%) Tomcat
8 2 (0.25%) Cloud Foundry
8 2 (0.25%) Moodle
8 2 (0.25%) SAS
8 2 (0.25%) SharePoint
8 2 (0.25%) WebLogic
9 1 (0.13%) Oracle Application Server
Applications
1 9 (1.14%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.25%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 17 (2.15%) Teamcenter
2 5 (0.63%) Endur
3 4 (0.51%) R3 Corda
4 3 (0.38%) Aladdin
4 3 (0.38%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 3 (0.38%) Quorum
4 3 (0.38%) Ripple
4 3 (0.38%) SimCorp Dimension
5 2 (0.25%) Shopify
6 1 (0.13%) Adobe Campaign
6 1 (0.13%) Dynamics CRM
6 1 (0.13%) FLEXCUBE
6 1 (0.13%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.13%) Oracle Assets
6 1 (0.13%) Oracle Cash Management
6 1 (0.13%) Oracle General Ledger
6 1 (0.13%) Oracle Payables
6 1 (0.13%) Oracle Receivables
6 1 (0.13%) Salesforce CRM
6 1 (0.13%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 215 (27.25%) AWS
2 157 (19.90%) Azure
3 60 (7.60%) GitHub
4 44 (5.58%) Serverless
5 40 (5.07%) Azure DevOps
5 40 (5.07%) Power Platform
6 34 (4.31%) GitHub Actions
7 31 (3.93%) GCP
8 27 (3.42%) Amazon SQS
8 27 (3.42%) Power Automate
9 24 (3.04%) AWS Lambda
10 21 (2.66%) PowerApps
11 19 (2.41%) Amazon EC2
11 19 (2.41%) Amazon S3
11 19 (2.41%) Azure Service Bus
12 16 (2.03%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 15 (1.90%) Amazon ECS
13 15 (1.90%) Dynamics 365
14 14 (1.77%) Copilot Studio
15 13 (1.65%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 8 (1.01%) HTTP
2 6 (0.76%) Multicast
3 3 (0.38%) Reverse Proxy
4 2 (0.25%) Ethernet
4 2 (0.25%) NFC
4 2 (0.25%) 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 (7.22%) PostgreSQL
2 43 (5.45%) SQL Server
3 39 (4.94%) Relational Database
4 35 (4.44%) MongoDB
5 33 (4.18%) Power BI
6 29 (3.68%) NoSQL
7 23 (2.92%) Apache Cassandra
8 20 (2.53%) DynamoDB
9 16 (2.03%) MySQL
10 15 (1.90%) Amazon RDS
10 15 (1.90%) Data Warehouse
11 10 (1.27%) KDB
12 7 (0.89%) Amazon Aurora
12 7 (0.89%) Azure SQL Database
12 7 (0.89%) Kdb+
12 7 (0.89%) Oracle BI EE
13 6 (0.76%) Oracle Database
13 6 (0.76%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 5 (0.63%) Big Data
14 5 (0.63%) Redis
Development Applications
1 80 (10.14%) Git
2 39 (4.94%) Jenkins
3 25 (3.17%) Maven
4 23 (2.92%) GitLab
5 22 (2.79%) JUnit
6 21 (2.66%) JIRA
7 20 (2.53%) Mockito
8 18 (2.28%) SonarQube
9 13 (1.65%) Gradle
10 5 (0.63%) Snyk
10 5 (0.63%) Xcode
11 4 (0.51%) Bitbucket
11 4 (0.51%) Cypress.io
11 4 (0.51%) git-flow
11 4 (0.51%) XCTest
11 4 (0.51%) XCUITest
12 3 (0.38%) Cucumber
12 3 (0.38%) DbUnit
12 3 (0.38%) jMock
12 3 (0.38%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 156 (19.77%) Finance
2 117 (14.83%) Public Sector
3 116 (14.70%) Banking
4 111 (14.07%) Social Skills
5 52 (6.59%) Investment Banking
6 47 (5.96%) Front Office
7 38 (4.82%) Analytical Skills
8 22 (2.79%) Financial Institution
9 15 (1.90%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 12 (1.52%) Retail
11 10 (1.27%) Military
12 7 (0.89%) Legal
12 7 (0.89%) Manufacturing
13 5 (0.63%) Law
13 5 (0.63%) Telecoms
14 4 (0.51%) Documentation Skills
14 4 (0.51%) Games
14 4 (0.51%) Health Technology
15 3 (0.38%) Organisational Skills
15 3 (0.38%) Police
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 115 (14.58%) React
2 95 (12.04%) Spring
3 92 (11.66%) .NET
4 90 (11.41%) Kafka
5 83 (10.52%) Spring Boot
6 80 (10.14%) RESTful
7 69 (8.75%) REST
8 55 (6.97%) AngularJS
8 55 (6.97%) Node.js
9 49 (6.21%) HTML
10 45 (5.70%) CSS
11 43 (5.45%) Redux
12 28 (3.55%) Web Services
13 25 (3.17%) Django
14 22 (2.79%) .NET Core
14 22 (2.79%) gRPC
15 21 (2.66%) SOAP
16 19 (2.41%) OAuth
17 16 (2.03%) RabbitMQ
18 15 (1.90%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 61 (7.73%) Distributed Systems
2 56 (7.10%) Cloud Native
3 35 (4.44%) Greenfield Project
4 34 (4.31%) Product Ownership
5 33 (4.18%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
6 31 (3.93%) Fixed Income
7 30 (3.80%) Equities
8 20 (2.53%) Derivative
9 19 (2.41%) Mobile App
10 16 (2.03%) Algorithms
11 10 (1.27%) Onboarding
12 9 (1.14%) Management Information System
13 8 (1.01%) Market Risk
14 7 (0.89%) AI Agents
14 7 (0.89%) Data Structures
14 7 (0.89%) Equity Derivative
15 6 (0.76%) Legacy Systems
16 5 (0.63%) Blockchain
16 5 (0.63%) NHS
17 4 (0.51%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 45 (5.70%) Linux
2 27 (3.42%) Unix
3 17 (2.15%) Windows
4 12 (1.52%) Apple iOS
5 11 (1.39%) Android
6 9 (1.14%) Mac OS
7 5 (0.63%) Mac OS X
8 2 (0.25%) Windows Server
9 1 (0.13%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 202 (25.60%) CI/CD
2 187 (23.70%) Agile
3 145 (18.38%) Microservices
4 119 (15.08%) DevOps
5 84 (10.65%) Full-Stack Development
6 83 (10.52%) Containerisation
7 81 (10.27%) TDD
8 80 (10.14%) Software Engineering
9 79 (10.01%) Test Automation
10 66 (8.37%) Problem-Solving
11 63 (7.98%) Data Modelling
12 57 (7.22%) Code Quality
12 57 (7.22%) Event-Driven
13 56 (7.10%) Mentoring
14 50 (6.34%) Front End Development
14 50 (6.34%) Scrum
15 48 (6.08%) Business Intelligence
16 47 (5.96%) Infrastructure as Code
16 47 (5.96%) Migration
17 46 (5.83%) Design Patterns
Programming Languages
1 251 (31.81%) Java
2 165 (20.91%) Python
3 137 (17.36%) SQL
4 118 (14.96%) JavaScript
5 100 (12.67%) C#
6 97 (12.29%) TypeScript
7 35 (4.44%) Go
8 25 (3.17%) Ruby
9 23 (2.92%) Kotlin
10 22 (2.79%) C++
11 10 (1.27%) Apex Code
11 10 (1.27%) Swift
12 8 (1.01%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 8 (1.01%) PL/SQL
12 8 (1.01%) PowerShell
12 8 (1.01%) Shell Script
13 6 (0.76%) Bash
14 4 (0.51%) R
14 4 (0.51%) SOQL
14 4 (0.51%) SOSL
Qualifications
1 121 (15.34%) Security Cleared
2 114 (14.45%) SC Cleared
3 27 (3.42%) Degree
4 22 (2.79%) BPSS Clearance
5 11 (1.39%) Computer Science Degree
6 7 (0.89%) DV Cleared
7 5 (0.63%) AWS Certification
8 4 (0.51%) AWS Certified Developer
8 4 (0.51%) Numerate Degree
9 3 (0.38%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 3 (0.38%) Microsoft Certification
10 2 (0.25%) 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%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 32 (4.06%) Accessibility
2 27 (3.42%) QA
3 18 (2.28%) WCAG
4 12 (1.52%) Data Quality
5 2 (0.25%) GDPR
5 2 (0.25%) 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
1 119 (15.08%) Docker
2 3 (0.38%) Active Directory
3 2 (0.25%) GridGain
3 2 (0.25%) Oracle RAC
3 2 (0.25%) Postfix
4 1 (0.13%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 108 (13.69%) Kubernetes
2 52 (6.59%) Terraform
3 23 (2.92%) Grafana
4 17 (2.15%) Prometheus
5 14 (1.77%) Ansible
6 7 (0.89%) Single Sign-On
7 4 (0.51%) Argo
8 2 (0.25%) Consul
8 2 (0.25%) Zipkin
9 1 (0.13%) HAProxy
9 1 (0.13%) SELinux
9 1 (0.13%) Sysdig
9 1 (0.13%) systemd
Vendors
1 53 (6.72%) Microsoft
2 31 (3.93%) Oracle
3 18 (2.28%) Salesforce
4 16 (2.03%) ServiceNow
5 12 (1.52%) Avaloq
6 11 (1.39%) Databricks
7 9 (1.14%) Google
7 9 (1.14%) SAP
8 6 (0.76%) Guidewire
8 6 (0.76%) Jaspersoft
8 6 (0.76%) Sybase
9 4 (0.51%) ForgeRock
9 4 (0.51%) Okta
9 4 (0.51%) Pega
9 4 (0.51%) Solace
10 3 (0.38%) Atlassian
10 3 (0.38%) Cognizant
10 3 (0.38%) New Relic
10 3 (0.38%) SimCorp
10 3 (0.38%) Splunk