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 3 December 2025.

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

6 months to
3 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 181 132 175
Rank change year-on-year -49 +43 -67
Contract jobs requiring a Senior Developer 571 688 659
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.58% 1.92% 1.46%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.73% 2.07% 1.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 417 452 473
10th Percentile £401 £391 £425
25th Percentile £450 £475 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £568 £600
Median % change year-on-year -3.08% -5.42% -6.25%
75th Percentile £675 £700 £719
90th Percentile £788 £824 £848
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £550
% change year-on-year - -9.09% -6.46%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 0 7
10th Percentile - - £53.25
25th Percentile - - £56.25
Median hourly rate - - £60.00
75th Percentile - - £68.13
90th Percentile - - £75.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate - - £52.50

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
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 32,959 33,240 42,117
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.98% 92.81% 93.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,905 20,226 28,386
10th Percentile £284 £300 £293
25th Percentile £402 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £645
90th Percentile £725 £738 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £495 £500
% change year-on-year -4.04% -1.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,918 1,167 1,500
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.48 £15.24
25th Percentile £17.91 £20.75 £19.11
Median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -28.14% -21.35% +48.33%
75th Percentile £57.50 £64.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £71.47 £73.53 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £44.50
% change year-on-year -22.62% -26.97% +78.00%

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 3 December 2025.

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 3 December 2025. 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 -39 512 £550 -4.35% 303
London -42 295 £638 +6.25% 100
UK excluding London -24 219 £500 - 290
Work from Home -18 214 £588 +0.64% 206
North of England -43 65 £550 +10.00% 74
South West +38 57 £475 -11.63% 18
South East -1 44 £500 -4.76% 105
Yorkshire -18 36 £638 +23.19% 20
North West -32 25 £510 +2.00% 48
Midlands -24 24 £513 +2.50% 23
East of England -16 16 £535 +33.75% 19
West Midlands -28 16 £525 +5.00% 17
Scotland -23 12 £475 -3.85% 30
North East -5 8 £544 +27.94% 6
East Midlands -13 8 £510 +11.78% 6
Northern Ireland -3 3 £544 +8.10% 8
Wales -6 3 £638 +27.50% 20

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

For the 6 months to 3 December 2025, 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.

1 232 (40.63%) Agile
2 203 (35.55%) Java
3 171 (29.95%) AWS
4 166 (29.07%) SQL
5 163 (28.55%) Azure
6 160 (28.02%) DevOps
7 157 (27.50%) CI/CD
7 157 (27.50%) Microservices
8 138 (24.17%) Python
9 137 (23.99%) Problem-Solving
10 122 (21.37%) Kafka
11 119 (20.84%) Security Cleared
12 110 (19.26%) Docker
13 102 (17.86%) JavaScript
13 102 (17.86%) Kubernetes
13 102 (17.86%) SC Cleared
14 95 (16.64%) Spring
15 93 (16.29%) C#
16 81 (14.19%) Scrum
17 79 (13.84%) RESTful
18 78 (13.66%) .NET
19 76 (13.31%) Git
20 75 (13.13%) Spring Boot
21 72 (12.61%) Software Engineering
22 71 (12.43%) React
23 70 (12.26%) TDD
24 68 (11.91%) Analytics
24 68 (11.91%) Azure DevOps
24 68 (11.91%) Containerisation
25 63 (11.03%) Full-Stack Development

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 (2.98%) Confluence
2 8 (1.40%) CMS
2 8 (1.40%) SharePoint
3 4 (0.70%) Jupyter
4 3 (0.53%) Anypoint
5 2 (0.35%) Microsoft Exchange
6 1 (0.18%) Apache Spark
6 1 (0.18%) Headless CMS
6 1 (0.18%) nginx
6 1 (0.18%) SAS
6 1 (0.18%) Smallworld
6 1 (0.18%) WordPress
Applications
1 8 (1.40%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.18%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.18%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 4 (0.70%) Dynamics CRM
1 4 (0.70%) Endur
2 2 (0.35%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.35%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.18%) IBM Planning Analytics
3 1 (0.18%) Oracle Retail
3 1 (0.18%) Payment Gateway
3 1 (0.18%) Salesforce CRM
3 1 (0.18%) SAP BRIM
3 1 (0.18%) SAP FI
3 1 (0.18%) SAP Travel Management
Cloud Services
1 171 (29.95%) AWS
2 163 (28.55%) Azure
3 68 (11.91%) Azure DevOps
4 51 (8.93%) GitHub
5 39 (6.83%) GCP
6 33 (5.78%) Serverless
7 32 (5.60%) Power Platform
8 21 (3.68%) GitHub Actions
9 20 (3.50%) AWS Lambda
10 17 (2.98%) Power Automate
11 15 (2.63%) Amazon S3
11 15 (2.63%) PowerApps
11 15 (2.63%) SaaS
12 14 (2.45%) Azure AKS
13 13 (2.28%) Amazon SQS
13 13 (2.28%) Dynamics 365
14 12 (2.10%) Amazon EC2
14 12 (2.10%) Amazon ECS
14 12 (2.10%) Azure Service Bus
15 9 (1.58%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 5 (0.88%) Kerberos
2 4 (0.70%) SAN
2 4 (0.70%) SSL
2 4 (0.70%) TCP/IP
2 4 (0.70%) VPN
3 2 (0.35%) Firewall
3 2 (0.35%) HTTP
4 1 (0.18%) BGP
4 1 (0.18%) Ethernet VPN
4 1 (0.18%) FTP
4 1 (0.18%) Internet
4 1 (0.18%) MPLS
4 1 (0.18%) Reverse Proxy
Database & Business Intelligence
1 63 (11.03%) PostgreSQL
2 54 (9.46%) MongoDB
3 49 (8.58%) Relational Database
4 38 (6.65%) SQL Server
5 37 (6.48%) NoSQL
6 21 (3.68%) Apache Cassandra
7 19 (3.33%) DB2
7 19 (3.33%) Power BI
8 17 (2.98%) DynamoDB
9 15 (2.63%) Redis
10 12 (2.10%) Data Hub
11 11 (1.93%) Data Lake
11 11 (1.93%) MySQL
11 11 (1.93%) RDBMS
12 9 (1.58%) Amazon RDS
12 9 (1.58%) Azure SQL Database
13 7 (1.23%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 6 (1.05%) Big Data
14 6 (1.05%) HBase
15 5 (0.88%) Delta Lake
Development Applications
1 76 (13.31%) Git
2 48 (8.41%) JUnit
3 42 (7.36%) Jenkins
4 34 (5.95%) Oracle APEX
5 31 (5.43%) JIRA
6 30 (5.25%) GitLab
7 24 (4.20%) Mockito
8 14 (2.45%) Gradle
8 14 (2.45%) Maven
9 10 (1.75%) Cucumber
10 9 (1.58%) Artifactory
10 9 (1.58%) SpecFlow
11 8 (1.40%) Postman
12 7 (1.23%) Bitbucket
12 7 (1.23%) Sonatype Nexus
13 6 (1.05%) Mocha
14 4 (0.70%) Cypress.io
14 4 (0.70%) Liquibase
14 4 (0.70%) TeamCity
14 4 (0.70%) webpack
General
1 159 (27.85%) Finance
1 159 (27.85%) Social Skills
2 91 (15.94%) Banking
3 68 (11.91%) Public Sector
4 63 (11.03%) Analytical Skills
5 48 (8.41%) Investment Banking
6 33 (5.78%) Front Office
7 6 (1.05%) Marketing
8 5 (0.88%) Military
8 5 (0.88%) Presentation Skills
9 4 (0.70%) Back Office
9 4 (0.70%) Financial Institution
9 4 (0.70%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 4 (0.70%) Manufacturing
10 3 (0.53%) Automotive
10 3 (0.53%) Law
10 3 (0.53%) Pharmaceutical
11 2 (0.35%) Documentation Skills
11 2 (0.35%) Retail Banking
11 2 (0.35%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 122 (21.37%) Kafka
2 95 (16.64%) Spring
3 79 (13.84%) RESTful
4 78 (13.66%) .NET
5 75 (13.13%) Spring Boot
6 71 (12.43%) React
7 57 (9.98%) REST
8 50 (8.76%) Node.js
9 42 (7.36%) AngularJS
10 38 (6.65%) HTML
11 32 (5.60%) Web Services
12 31 (5.43%) CSS
13 26 (4.55%) JSON
14 24 (4.20%) .NET Core
15 23 (4.03%) RabbitMQ
16 22 (3.85%) .NET Framework
17 19 (3.33%) JMS
18 18 (3.15%) Playwright
19 17 (2.98%) Jest
20 15 (2.63%) gRPC
Miscellaneous
1 39 (6.83%) Cloud Native
2 37 (6.48%) Distributed Systems
3 33 (5.78%) Derivative
4 30 (5.25%) Equities
5 23 (4.03%) Data Structures
6 21 (3.68%) Greenfield Project
6 21 (3.68%) Product Ownership
7 20 (3.50%) Fixed Income
7 20 (3.50%) Market Risk
8 19 (3.33%) Management Information System
9 18 (3.15%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
10 16 (2.80%) Algorithms
11 12 (2.10%) Legacy Systems
12 7 (1.23%) Mobile App
13 6 (1.05%) Legacy Applications
13 6 (1.05%) Linux Command Line
14 5 (0.88%) Enterprise Software
14 5 (0.88%) Hedge funds
15 4 (0.70%) Data Fabric
15 4 (0.70%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 58 (10.16%) Linux
2 27 (4.73%) Unix
3 18 (3.15%) Android
4 14 (2.45%) Mac OS X
5 13 (2.28%) Apple iOS
6 8 (1.40%) Windows
7 4 (0.70%) Debian
7 4 (0.70%) Ubuntu
7 4 (0.70%) Windows Server
7 4 (0.70%) Windows Server 2016
8 2 (0.35%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 1 (0.18%) CentOS
9 1 (0.18%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.18%) tvOS
9 1 (0.18%) watchOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 232 (40.63%) Agile
2 160 (28.02%) DevOps
3 157 (27.50%) CI/CD
3 157 (27.50%) Microservices
4 137 (23.99%) Problem-Solving
5 81 (14.19%) Scrum
6 72 (12.61%) Software Engineering
7 70 (12.26%) TDD
8 68 (11.91%) Analytics
8 68 (11.91%) Containerisation
9 63 (11.03%) Full-Stack Development
10 60 (10.51%) Test Automation
11 52 (9.11%) Open Source
12 49 (8.58%) Mentoring
13 46 (8.06%) Event-Driven
14 45 (7.88%) SDLC
15 44 (7.71%) Clean Code
16 42 (7.36%) Infrastructure as Code
16 42 (7.36%) Performance Tuning
17 41 (7.18%) Unit Testing
Programming Languages
1 203 (35.55%) Java
2 166 (29.07%) SQL
3 138 (24.17%) Python
4 102 (17.86%) JavaScript
5 93 (16.29%) C#
6 56 (9.81%) TypeScript
7 38 (6.65%) PL/SQL
8 22 (3.85%) Go
9 20 (3.50%) Kotlin
10 18 (3.15%) Shell Script
11 14 (2.45%) C++
11 14 (2.45%) Ruby
12 10 (1.75%) PHP
13 9 (1.58%) Bash
14 8 (1.40%) PowerShell
15 6 (1.05%) Apex Code
16 5 (0.88%) Swift
17 4 (0.70%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 4 (0.70%) Objective-C
18 3 (0.53%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 119 (20.84%) Security Cleared
2 102 (17.86%) SC Cleared
3 44 (7.71%) Degree
4 25 (4.38%) Computer Science Degree
5 17 (2.98%) BPSS Clearance
6 6 (1.05%) AWS Certification
6 6 (1.05%) Master's Degree
6 6 (1.05%) OCP
6 6 (1.05%) Oracle Certification
7 4 (0.70%) Numerate Degree
8 3 (0.53%) AWS Certified Developer
8 3 (0.53%) DBS Check
8 3 (0.53%) DV Cleared
8 3 (0.53%) MCP
8 3 (0.53%) Microsoft Certification
9 2 (0.35%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 2 (0.35%) Azure Certification
10 1 (0.18%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
10 1 (0.18%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (4.73%) Accessibility
1 27 (4.73%) QA
2 12 (2.10%) Data Quality
3 11 (1.93%) WCAG
4 4 (0.70%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 3 (0.53%) EU AI Act
5 3 (0.53%) NIST
6 1 (0.18%) GDPR
6 1 (0.18%) HMG Security Policy Framework
6 1 (0.18%) ISO 22301
6 1 (0.18%) ISO/IEC 20000
System Software
1 110 (19.26%) Docker
2 5 (0.88%) zsh
3 1 (0.18%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.18%) GridGain
3 1 (0.18%) Lustre
3 1 (0.18%) OpenAM
3 1 (0.18%) OpenDJ
3 1 (0.18%) OpenIDM
3 1 (0.18%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 102 (17.86%) Kubernetes
2 37 (6.48%) Terraform
3 14 (2.45%) Grafana
4 9 (1.58%) Ansible
5 5 (0.88%) Single Sign-On
6 4 (0.70%) Prometheus
7 3 (0.53%) Kibana
8 2 (0.35%) CloudHub
9 1 (0.18%) Argo
9 1 (0.18%) Control-M
9 1 (0.18%) Packer
9 1 (0.18%) Rundeck
Vendors
1 52 (9.11%) Oracle
2 31 (5.43%) Microsoft
3 23 (4.03%) Google
4 20 (3.50%) Databricks
4 20 (3.50%) Sybase
5 15 (2.63%) ServiceNow
6 14 (2.45%) Salesforce
7 8 (1.40%) Atlassian
8 6 (1.05%) Apple
8 6 (1.05%) Red Hat
9 5 (0.88%) Dataiku
9 5 (0.88%) SAP
9 5 (0.88%) Virgin Media
10 4 (0.70%) CA Agile Central
10 4 (0.70%) IBM
10 4 (0.70%) Salesforce Marketing Cloud
10 4 (0.70%) VMware
11 3 (0.53%) Foundry
11 3 (0.53%) HP
11 3 (0.53%) Remedy