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 25 December 2025.

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

6 months to
25 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 165 147 173
Rank change year-on-year -18 +26 -63
Contract jobs requiring a Senior Developer 627 609 633
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.69% 1.80% 1.46%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.85% 1.94% 1.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 462 385 456
10th Percentile £400 £396 £425
25th Percentile £450 £495 £499
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £575 £589
Median % change year-on-year -8.70% -2.34% -9.42%
75th Percentile £670 £700 £700
90th Percentile £788 £825 £831
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £538
% change year-on-year - -6.98% -8.28%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 0 7
10th Percentile - - £53.25
25th Percentile - - £56.25
Median hourly rate - - £60.00
75th Percentile - - £67.50
90th Percentile - - £73.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate - - £52.50
% change year-on-year - - -34.38%

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 33,803 31,437 40,517
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.09% 92.75% 93.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,362 19,311 27,163
10th Percentile £294 £300 £283
25th Percentile £405 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £616 £638 £640
90th Percentile £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £488 £500
% change year-on-year -2.56% -2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,992 980 1,517
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.50 £14.86
25th Percentile £18.19 £21.03 £19.25
Median hourly rate £25.20 £33.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -23.64% -26.67% +45.77%
75th Percentile £57.50 £63.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £71.00 £73.75 £77.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £46.18
% change year-on-year -22.62% -29.62% +84.72%

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 25 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 25 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 -25 536 £550 -4.35% 758
London -20 317 £625 +2.04% 169
Work from Home -3 224 £589 +2.48% 402
UK excluding London -8 218 £500 - 678
North of England -29 69 £550 +10.00% 160
South West +25 56 £475 -13.64% 75
Yorkshire -21 38 £631 +23.77% 61
South East -33 36 £473 +3.67% 205
North West -26 28 £500 - 76
Midlands -30 25 £513 +2.50% 99
East of England -16 22 £500 +7.53% 81
West Midlands -25 18 £525 +5.00% 47
Scotland -19 11 £475 +5.56% 47
North East -1 9 £488 -17.37% 23
East Midlands -17 7 £510 +11.78% 46
Northern Ireland -2 4 £544 +40.32% 6
Wales -4 3 £638 +27.50% 15

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

For the 6 months to 25 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.

1 215 (34.29%) Java
2 209 (33.33%) Agile
3 202 (32.22%) AWS
4 165 (26.32%) CI/CD
5 163 (26.00%) DevOps
6 162 (25.84%) Azure
7 155 (24.72%) Microservices
7 155 (24.72%) SQL
8 146 (23.29%) Python
9 134 (21.37%) Security Cleared
10 131 (20.89%) Problem-Solving
11 126 (20.10%) Kafka
12 123 (19.62%) Docker
13 120 (19.14%) Kubernetes
14 117 (18.66%) JavaScript
15 116 (18.50%) SC Cleared
16 96 (15.31%) Spring
17 88 (14.04%) C#
18 83 (13.24%) React
19 80 (12.76%) .NET
19 80 (12.76%) Containerisation
19 80 (12.76%) Git
20 76 (12.12%) Spring Boot
21 75 (11.96%) Full-Stack Development
21 75 (11.96%) Software Engineering
22 74 (11.80%) RESTful
23 73 (11.64%) Scrum
23 73 (11.64%) TDD
24 71 (11.32%) Azure DevOps
25 69 (11.00%) Test Automation

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 (2.71%) Confluence
2 6 (0.96%) CMS
2 6 (0.96%) nginx
2 6 (0.96%) SharePoint
3 4 (0.64%) Jupyter
4 3 (0.48%) SAS
5 2 (0.32%) Anypoint
5 2 (0.32%) Microsoft Exchange
6 1 (0.16%) Apache Spark
6 1 (0.16%) Headless CMS
6 1 (0.16%) Mendix
6 1 (0.16%) Oracle Application Server
6 1 (0.16%) Smallworld
6 1 (0.16%) Tomcat
6 1 (0.16%) WordPress
Applications
1 9 (1.44%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.16%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 4 (0.64%) Dynamics CRM
2 3 (0.48%) 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
1 202 (32.22%) AWS
2 162 (25.84%) Azure
3 71 (11.32%) Azure DevOps
4 57 (9.09%) GitHub
5 39 (6.22%) GCP
6 37 (5.90%) Serverless
7 30 (4.78%) Power Platform
8 20 (3.19%) GitHub Actions
9 18 (2.87%) AWS Lambda
10 17 (2.71%) Power Automate
11 16 (2.55%) Amazon SQS
12 15 (2.39%) Amazon EC2
12 15 (2.39%) Amazon EKS
12 15 (2.39%) SaaS
13 14 (2.23%) Azure AKS
14 13 (2.07%) Amazon S3
15 12 (1.91%) Azure Service Bus
15 12 (1.91%) Dynamics 365
15 12 (1.91%) PowerApps
16 10 (1.59%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 5 (0.80%) Kerberos
1 5 (0.80%) SSL
2 3 (0.48%) Reverse Proxy
3 2 (0.32%) Firewall
3 2 (0.32%) HTTP
3 2 (0.32%) VPN
4 1 (0.16%) FTP
4 1 (0.16%) Internet
4 1 (0.16%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 67 (10.69%) PostgreSQL
2 53 (8.45%) MongoDB
3 45 (7.18%) Relational Database
4 39 (6.22%) SQL Server
5 35 (5.58%) NoSQL
6 25 (3.99%) Apache Cassandra
7 17 (2.71%) Power BI
8 15 (2.39%) DynamoDB
9 14 (2.23%) Data Hub
9 14 (2.23%) DB2
10 13 (2.07%) Redis
11 12 (1.91%) MySQL
12 11 (1.75%) Data Warehouse
13 9 (1.44%) Data Lake
13 9 (1.44%) RDBMS
14 8 (1.28%) Amazon RDS
15 6 (0.96%) Big Data
15 6 (0.96%) HBase
15 6 (0.96%) SQL Server Integration Services
16 5 (0.80%) KDB
Development Applications
1 80 (12.76%) Git
2 40 (6.38%) Jenkins
3 39 (6.22%) JUnit
4 35 (5.58%) Oracle APEX
5 34 (5.42%) GitLab
6 31 (4.94%) JIRA
7 24 (3.83%) Mockito
8 13 (2.07%) Maven
9 12 (1.91%) Gradle
10 9 (1.44%) Artifactory
10 9 (1.44%) Cucumber
11 8 (1.28%) Postman
11 8 (1.28%) SpecFlow
12 7 (1.12%) Sonatype Nexus
13 6 (0.96%) Bitbucket
13 6 (0.96%) Mocha
14 5 (0.80%) Cypress.io
14 5 (0.80%) webpack
15 4 (0.64%) TeamCity
16 3 (0.48%) QUnit
General
1 159 (25.36%) Finance
2 156 (24.88%) Social Skills
3 94 (14.99%) Banking
4 85 (13.56%) Public Sector
5 55 (8.77%) Analytical Skills
6 44 (7.02%) Investment Banking
7 28 (4.47%) Front Office
8 11 (1.75%) Financial Institution
9 6 (0.96%) Manufacturing
10 5 (0.80%) Military
10 5 (0.80%) Presentation Skills
11 4 (0.64%) Documentation Skills
11 4 (0.64%) Law
11 4 (0.64%) Pharmaceutical
12 3 (0.48%) Automotive
12 3 (0.48%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 3 (0.48%) Marketing
12 3 (0.48%) Retail Banking
12 3 (0.48%) Telecoms
13 2 (0.32%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 126 (20.10%) Kafka
2 96 (15.31%) Spring
3 83 (13.24%) React
4 80 (12.76%) .NET
5 76 (12.12%) Spring Boot
6 74 (11.80%) RESTful
7 58 (9.25%) Node.js
8 52 (8.29%) REST
9 50 (7.97%) HTML
10 48 (7.66%) AngularJS
11 41 (6.54%) CSS
12 32 (5.10%) Web Services
13 26 (4.15%) JSON
14 23 (3.67%) RabbitMQ
15 22 (3.51%) .NET Framework
16 21 (3.35%) .NET Core
17 20 (3.19%) gRPC
18 19 (3.03%) Next.js
19 17 (2.71%) Playwright
20 16 (2.55%) Jest
Miscellaneous
1 48 (7.66%) Cloud Native
2 45 (7.18%) Distributed Systems
3 34 (5.42%) Derivative
4 30 (4.78%) Equities
5 23 (3.67%) Greenfield Project
6 21 (3.35%) Product Ownership
7 20 (3.19%) Data Structures
7 20 (3.19%) Market Risk
8 19 (3.03%) Management Information System
9 18 (2.87%) Algorithms
9 18 (2.87%) Fixed Income
10 14 (2.23%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
11 11 (1.75%) Legacy Systems
12 7 (1.12%) Equity Derivative
12 7 (1.12%) Legacy Applications
12 7 (1.12%) Mobile App
13 6 (0.96%) Linux Command Line
13 6 (0.96%) NHS
13 6 (0.96%) Onboarding
14 5 (0.80%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 55 (8.77%) Linux
2 26 (4.15%) Unix
3 17 (2.71%) Android
4 14 (2.23%) Mac OS X
5 11 (1.75%) Apple iOS
6 4 (0.64%) Windows
7 2 (0.32%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 1 (0.16%) Mac OS
8 1 (0.16%) tvOS
8 1 (0.16%) watchOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 209 (33.33%) Agile
2 165 (26.32%) CI/CD
3 163 (26.00%) DevOps
4 155 (24.72%) Microservices
5 131 (20.89%) Problem-Solving
6 80 (12.76%) Containerisation
7 75 (11.96%) Full-Stack Development
7 75 (11.96%) Software Engineering
8 73 (11.64%) Scrum
8 73 (11.64%) TDD
9 69 (11.00%) Test Automation
10 67 (10.69%) Analytics
11 57 (9.09%) Open Source
12 47 (7.50%) Event-Driven
12 47 (7.50%) Infrastructure as Code
13 46 (7.34%) Mentoring
13 46 (7.34%) SDLC
14 42 (6.70%) Unit Testing
15 41 (6.54%) Front End Development
15 41 (6.54%) Performance Tuning
Programming Languages
1 215 (34.29%) Java
2 155 (24.72%) SQL
3 146 (23.29%) Python
4 117 (18.66%) JavaScript
5 88 (14.04%) C#
6 55 (8.77%) TypeScript
7 42 (6.70%) PL/SQL
8 30 (4.78%) Go
9 18 (2.87%) Kotlin
10 17 (2.71%) Ruby
11 16 (2.55%) C++
11 16 (2.55%) Shell Script
12 13 (2.07%) Bash
13 11 (1.75%) PowerShell
14 10 (1.59%) PHP
15 4 (0.64%) Apex Code
15 4 (0.64%) Objective-C
15 4 (0.64%) Swift
15 4 (0.64%) T-SQL
16 3 (0.48%) SOQL
Qualifications
1 134 (21.37%) Security Cleared
2 116 (18.50%) SC Cleared
3 45 (7.18%) Degree
4 30 (4.78%) BPSS Clearance
5 23 (3.67%) Computer Science Degree
6 7 (1.12%) Numerate Degree
7 6 (0.96%) AWS Certification
7 6 (0.96%) Master's Degree
7 6 (0.96%) OCP
7 6 (0.96%) Oracle Certification
8 3 (0.48%) AWS Certified Developer
8 3 (0.48%) DBS Check
8 3 (0.48%) MCP
8 3 (0.48%) Microsoft Certification
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%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (4.78%) Accessibility
2 23 (3.67%) QA
3 13 (2.07%) Data Quality
4 12 (1.91%) WCAG
5 4 (0.64%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 3 (0.48%) EU AI Act
6 3 (0.48%) NIST
7 1 (0.16%) GDPR
7 1 (0.16%) HMG Security Policy Framework
7 1 (0.16%) ISO 22301
7 1 (0.16%) ISO/IEC 20000
System Software
1 123 (19.62%) Docker
2 5 (0.80%) 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 (19.14%) Kubernetes
2 41 (6.54%) Terraform
3 20 (3.19%) Grafana
4 14 (2.23%) Ansible
5 9 (1.44%) Prometheus
6 6 (0.96%) Single Sign-On
7 3 (0.48%) 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 (9.41%) Oracle
2 31 (4.94%) Microsoft
3 22 (3.51%) Google
4 15 (2.39%) Databricks
4 15 (2.39%) Sybase
5 12 (1.91%) ServiceNow
6 8 (1.28%) Atlassian
7 7 (1.12%) Salesforce
8 6 (0.96%) Apple
9 5 (0.80%) SAP
10 4 (0.64%) IBM
11 3 (0.48%) BMC
11 3 (0.48%) Dataiku
11 3 (0.48%) Foundry
11 3 (0.48%) Virgin Media
12 2 (0.32%) CA Agile Central
12 2 (0.32%) Computacenter
12 2 (0.32%) Confluent
12 2 (0.32%) Guidewire
12 2 (0.32%) MuleSoft