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 1 January 2026.

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

6 months to
1 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 170 151 170
Rank change year-on-year -19 +19 -63
Contract jobs requiring a Senior Developer 631 587 625
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.70% 1.77% 1.45%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.86% 1.91% 1.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 461 369 448
10th Percentile £400 £418 £425
25th Percentile £450 £500 £499
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £575 £575
Median % change year-on-year -8.70% - -11.54%
75th Percentile £675 £700 £700
90th Percentile £838 £825 £829
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £538
% change year-on-year - -6.98% -7.80%
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 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 33,835 30,753 40,099
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.20% 92.71% 93.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,431 18,857 26,859
10th Percentile £300 £298 £281
25th Percentile £405 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £638
90th Percentile £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £485 £500
% change year-on-year -2.06% -3.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,964 949 1,554
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.50 £14.43
25th Percentile £18.24 £21.05 £19.25
Median hourly rate £26.00 £32.50 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -20.00% -27.78% +41.93%
75th Percentile £58.75 £62.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £71.50 £73.75 £77.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £31.52 £46.18
% change year-on-year -20.21% -31.75% +80.14%

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 1 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 1 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 -19 538 £550 -6.18% 504
London -28 320 £625 +3.09% 221
Work from Home +10 227 £588 -2.08% 333
UK excluding London -14 218 £500 - 334
North of England -29 68 £550 +6.28% 111
South West +33 57 £475 -13.64% 30
Yorkshire -29 38 £631 +20.24% 30
South East -16 34 £473 +2.27% 105
North West -24 27 £500 - 67
Midlands -24 26 £513 +2.50% 31
East of England -12 22 £500 -5.66% 29
West Midlands -21 19 £525 +5.00% 16
Scotland -13 12 £513 +13.89% 29
North East -1 9 £488 -17.37% 14
East Midlands -15 7 £510 +11.78% 14
Northern Ireland - 4 £544 - 1
Wales -2 3 £638 +27.50% 6

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

For the 6 months to 1 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.

1 216 (34.23%) Java
2 208 (32.96%) Agile
2 208 (32.96%) AWS
3 164 (25.99%) CI/CD
4 162 (25.67%) DevOps
5 161 (25.52%) Azure
6 156 (24.72%) Microservices
7 154 (24.41%) SQL
8 149 (23.61%) Python
9 137 (21.71%) Security Cleared
10 130 (20.60%) Kafka
11 128 (20.29%) Problem-Solving
12 124 (19.65%) Docker
13 121 (19.18%) Kubernetes
14 119 (18.86%) SC Cleared
15 117 (18.54%) JavaScript
16 97 (15.37%) Spring
17 86 (13.63%) React
18 84 (13.31%) C#
19 81 (12.84%) Containerisation
20 80 (12.68%) Git
21 78 (12.36%) Spring Boot
22 77 (12.20%) .NET
22 77 (12.20%) Full-Stack Development
23 76 (12.04%) Software Engineering
24 74 (11.73%) TDD
25 72 (11.41%) Scrum
26 70 (11.09%) Azure DevOps
26 70 (11.09%) RESTful
26 70 (11.09%) 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 (2.69%) Confluence
2 6 (0.95%) nginx
2 6 (0.95%) SharePoint
3 5 (0.79%) CMS
4 4 (0.63%) Jupyter
5 3 (0.48%) SAS
6 2 (0.32%) Anypoint
6 2 (0.32%) Mendix
6 2 (0.32%) Microsoft Exchange
7 1 (0.16%) Apache Spark
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 (1.58%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 4 (0.63%) 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
1 208 (32.96%) AWS
2 161 (25.52%) Azure
3 70 (11.09%) Azure DevOps
4 55 (8.72%) GitHub
5 38 (6.02%) GCP
6 37 (5.86%) Serverless
7 30 (4.75%) Power Platform
8 18 (2.85%) AWS Lambda
8 18 (2.85%) GitHub Actions
9 17 (2.69%) Power Automate
10 16 (2.54%) Amazon SQS
11 15 (2.38%) Amazon EC2
11 15 (2.38%) Amazon EKS
12 14 (2.22%) Azure AKS
13 13 (2.06%) Amazon S3
13 13 (2.06%) SaaS
14 12 (1.90%) Azure Service Bus
14 12 (1.90%) Dynamics 365
14 12 (1.90%) PowerApps
15 10 (1.58%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 5 (0.79%) Kerberos
1 5 (0.79%) 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 68 (10.78%) PostgreSQL
2 53 (8.40%) MongoDB
3 46 (7.29%) Relational Database
4 38 (6.02%) SQL Server
5 35 (5.55%) NoSQL
6 28 (4.44%) Apache Cassandra
7 17 (2.69%) Power BI
8 15 (2.38%) DynamoDB
9 14 (2.22%) Data Hub
9 14 (2.22%) DB2
10 13 (2.06%) MySQL
11 12 (1.90%) Data Warehouse
11 12 (1.90%) Redis
12 9 (1.43%) Data Lake
12 9 (1.43%) RDBMS
13 8 (1.27%) Amazon RDS
14 6 (0.95%) Big Data
14 6 (0.95%) HBase
14 6 (0.95%) Oracle BI EE
15 5 (0.79%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 80 (12.68%) Git
2 40 (6.34%) Jenkins
3 38 (6.02%) JUnit
4 35 (5.55%) Oracle APEX
5 34 (5.39%) GitLab
6 30 (4.75%) JIRA
7 23 (3.65%) Mockito
8 13 (2.06%) Maven
9 12 (1.90%) Gradle
10 9 (1.43%) Artifactory
10 9 (1.43%) Cucumber
11 8 (1.27%) Postman
12 7 (1.11%) Sonatype Nexus
12 7 (1.11%) SpecFlow
13 6 (0.95%) Bitbucket
13 6 (0.95%) Cypress.io
13 6 (0.95%) Mocha
14 5 (0.79%) SonarQube
14 5 (0.79%) webpack
15 4 (0.63%) TeamCity
General
1 161 (25.52%) Finance
2 155 (24.56%) Social Skills
3 96 (15.21%) Banking
4 87 (13.79%) Public Sector
5 53 (8.40%) Analytical Skills
6 44 (6.97%) Investment Banking
7 26 (4.12%) Front Office
8 12 (1.90%) Financial Institution
9 6 (0.95%) Manufacturing
10 5 (0.79%) Military
10 5 (0.79%) Presentation Skills
11 4 (0.63%) Documentation Skills
11 4 (0.63%) Law
11 4 (0.63%) Pharmaceutical
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%) Local Government
13 2 (0.32%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 130 (20.60%) Kafka
2 97 (15.37%) Spring
3 86 (13.63%) React
4 78 (12.36%) Spring Boot
5 77 (12.20%) .NET
6 70 (11.09%) RESTful
7 57 (9.03%) Node.js
8 53 (8.40%) REST
9 51 (8.08%) HTML
10 50 (7.92%) AngularJS
11 43 (6.81%) CSS
12 32 (5.07%) Web Services
13 26 (4.12%) JSON
14 23 (3.65%) gRPC
14 23 (3.65%) RabbitMQ
15 21 (3.33%) .NET Framework
16 20 (3.17%) Next.js
17 19 (3.01%) .NET Core
18 17 (2.69%) Jest
19 16 (2.54%) Playwright
Miscellaneous
1 48 (7.61%) Distributed Systems
2 47 (7.45%) Cloud Native
3 36 (5.71%) Derivative
4 31 (4.91%) Equities
5 24 (3.80%) Greenfield Project
6 21 (3.33%) Market Risk
6 21 (3.33%) Product Ownership
7 20 (3.17%) Data Structures
7 20 (3.17%) Management Information System
8 19 (3.01%) Algorithms
9 17 (2.69%) Fixed Income
10 14 (2.22%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
11 11 (1.74%) Legacy Systems
12 8 (1.27%) Equity Derivative
13 7 (1.11%) Legacy Applications
13 7 (1.11%) Onboarding
14 6 (0.95%) Linux Command Line
14 6 (0.95%) Mobile App
14 6 (0.95%) NHS
15 5 (0.79%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 54 (8.56%) Linux
2 26 (4.12%) Unix
3 16 (2.54%) Android
4 14 (2.22%) Mac OS X
5 10 (1.58%) Apple iOS
6 3 (0.48%) 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
1 208 (32.96%) Agile
2 164 (25.99%) CI/CD
3 162 (25.67%) DevOps
4 156 (24.72%) Microservices
5 128 (20.29%) Problem-Solving
6 81 (12.84%) Containerisation
7 77 (12.20%) Full-Stack Development
8 76 (12.04%) Software Engineering
9 74 (11.73%) TDD
10 72 (11.41%) Scrum
11 70 (11.09%) Test Automation
12 67 (10.62%) Analytics
13 59 (9.35%) Open Source
14 49 (7.77%) Event-Driven
14 49 (7.77%) Infrastructure as Code
14 49 (7.77%) SDLC
15 44 (6.97%) Mentoring
16 43 (6.81%) Front End Development
16 43 (6.81%) Performance Tuning
17 41 (6.50%) Unit Testing
Programming Languages
1 216 (34.23%) Java
2 154 (24.41%) SQL
3 149 (23.61%) Python
4 117 (18.54%) JavaScript
5 84 (13.31%) C#
6 53 (8.40%) TypeScript
7 42 (6.66%) PL/SQL
8 33 (5.23%) Go
9 18 (2.85%) Kotlin
10 16 (2.54%) C++
10 16 (2.54%) Shell Script
11 15 (2.38%) Ruby
12 13 (2.06%) Bash
13 11 (1.74%) PowerShell
14 10 (1.58%) PHP
15 4 (0.63%) Objective-C
15 4 (0.63%) Swift
15 4 (0.63%) T-SQL
16 3 (0.48%) ABAP
16 3 (0.48%) Apex Code
Qualifications
1 137 (21.71%) Security Cleared
2 119 (18.86%) SC Cleared
3 43 (6.81%) Degree
4 30 (4.75%) BPSS Clearance
5 22 (3.49%) Computer Science Degree
6 8 (1.27%) Numerate Degree
7 6 (0.95%) AWS Certification
7 6 (0.95%) Master's Degree
7 6 (0.95%) OCP
7 6 (0.95%) 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 31 (4.91%) Accessibility
2 22 (3.49%) QA
3 13 (2.06%) Data Quality
4 12 (1.90%) WCAG
5 4 (0.63%) 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
1 124 (19.65%) Docker
2 5 (0.79%) 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
1 121 (19.18%) Kubernetes
2 42 (6.66%) Terraform
3 20 (3.17%) Grafana
4 15 (2.38%) Ansible
5 9 (1.43%) Prometheus
6 7 (1.11%) 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 (9.35%) Oracle
2 30 (4.75%) Microsoft
3 22 (3.49%) Google
4 15 (2.38%) Sybase
5 14 (2.22%) Databricks
6 12 (1.90%) ServiceNow
7 8 (1.27%) Atlassian
8 6 (0.95%) Apple
8 6 (0.95%) Salesforce
9 5 (0.79%) SAP
10 4 (0.63%) Guidewire
10 4 (0.63%) IBM
11 3 (0.48%) BMC
11 3 (0.48%) Dataiku
11 3 (0.48%) Foundry
12 2 (0.32%) Cognizant
12 2 (0.32%) Computacenter
12 2 (0.32%) HP
12 2 (0.32%) Informatica
12 2 (0.32%) Red Hat