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 29 July 2026.

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

6 months to
29 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 165 173 113
Rank change year-on-year +8 -60 +29
Contract jobs requiring a Senior Developer 870 535 797
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.66% 1.63% 2.00%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.79% 1.78% 2.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 554 389 563
10th Percentile £400 £400 £400
25th Percentile £456 £450 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £554 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.72% +0.73% -12.00%
75th Percentile £706 £713 £706
90th Percentile £938 £813 £838
UK excluding London median daily rate £513 £525 £500
% change year-on-year -2.38% +5.00% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 0 9
10th Percentile £37.25 - £39.00
25th Percentile £43.01 - £54.85
Median hourly rate £45.56 - £58.91
75th Percentile £46.18 - £62.96
90th Percentile - - £83.90
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.56 - £58.91

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 48,690 30,025 37,043
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.66% 91.50% 92.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,369 19,114 23,981
10th Percentile £331 £282 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.87%
75th Percentile £625 £623 £638
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,338 1,460 2,193
10th Percentile £15.50 £13.69 £14.05
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.30 £19.09
Median hourly rate £43.61 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +73.38% -40.82% -1.88%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.10 £73.75 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +78.93% -41.51% +7.50%

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 29 July 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 29 July 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 +4 719 £575 - 226
London 0 436 £625 -3.85% 112
UK excluding London +23 323 £513 -2.38% 144
Work from Home -45 235 £525 -8.70% 108
North of England +10 118 £575 +9.52% 44
Yorkshire +7 63 £563 +7.14% 14
Midlands -25 53 £513 -6.82% 26
North West -20 48 £588 +6.82% 25
Scotland +7 47 £410 +2.50% 8
South East -56 44 £525 -0.80% 36
West Midlands -29 43 £513 -10.87% 12
South West -23 42 £500 -9.09% 16
East of England -14 15 £500 - 6
East Midlands -9 9 £525 +5.00% 14
North East - 9 £875 - 5
Northern Ireland 0 4 £650 +30.00% 4
Wales -17 1 £525 +61.54% 4

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

For the 6 months to 29 July 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.

1 272 (31.26%) CI/CD
2 268 (30.80%) Java
3 258 (29.66%) Agile
4 189 (21.72%) AWS
5 180 (20.69%) Azure
6 179 (20.57%) Python
7 174 (20.00%) Microservices
8 170 (19.54%) SQL
9 155 (17.82%) JavaScript
10 150 (17.24%) DevOps
11 148 (17.01%) C#
12 144 (16.55%) Security Cleared
13 139 (15.98%) TypeScript
14 138 (15.86%) React
15 132 (15.17%) SC Cleared
16 124 (14.25%) Docker
17 123 (14.14%) REST
18 119 (13.68%) Full-Stack Development
19 118 (13.56%) .NET
20 109 (12.53%) Git
21 108 (12.41%) RESTful
22 106 (12.18%) Test Automation
23 105 (12.07%) Kubernetes
24 99 (11.38%) Spring
25 95 (10.92%) Software Engineering
26 89 (10.23%) Problem-Solving
27 87 (10.00%) Containerisation
28 86 (9.89%) AI
29 84 (9.66%) TDD
30 83 (9.54%) Spring Boot

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 16 (1.84%) Confluence
2 12 (1.38%) Apache Spark
3 9 (1.03%) Apache
3 9 (1.03%) Oracle Workflow
4 8 (0.92%) CMS
5 7 (0.80%) WordPress
6 6 (0.69%) SharePoint
7 4 (0.46%) Headless CMS
8 3 (0.34%) Ethereum
8 3 (0.34%) Hyperledger
8 3 (0.34%) Mendix
8 3 (0.34%) Moodle
9 2 (0.23%) Apache Airflow
9 2 (0.23%) Appian
9 2 (0.23%) Cloud Foundry
9 2 (0.23%) IIS
9 2 (0.23%) Oracle Application Server
9 2 (0.23%) Oracle SOA Suite
9 2 (0.23%) WebLogic
10 1 (0.11%) HCL Notes
Applications
1 9 (1.03%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (0.34%) Spreadsheet
3 1 (0.11%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 17 (1.95%) Teamcenter
2 11 (1.26%) Oracle EBS
3 7 (0.80%) NetSuite
4 6 (0.69%) Dynamics CRM
4 6 (0.69%) Endur
5 5 (0.57%) Oracle Financials
5 5 (0.57%) Oracle General Ledger
5 5 (0.57%) Oracle Payables
5 5 (0.57%) Oracle Receivables
6 4 (0.46%) Oracle FAH
7 3 (0.34%) Aladdin
7 3 (0.34%) Oracle Applications
7 3 (0.34%) Oracle Assets
7 3 (0.34%) Quorum
7 3 (0.34%) R3 Corda
7 3 (0.34%) Ripple
7 3 (0.34%) Shopify
7 3 (0.34%) SimCorp Dimension
8 2 (0.23%) Oracle iProcurement
8 2 (0.23%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
Cloud Services
1 189 (21.72%) AWS
2 180 (20.69%) Azure
3 73 (8.39%) GitHub
4 51 (5.86%) Power Platform
5 48 (5.52%) Serverless
6 45 (5.17%) GitHub Actions
7 44 (5.06%) GCP
8 43 (4.94%) Azure DevOps
9 36 (4.14%) Power Automate
10 26 (2.99%) PowerApps
11 23 (2.64%) AWS Lambda
12 21 (2.41%) Amazon S3
12 21 (2.41%) Amazon SQS
13 17 (1.95%) Dynamics 365
14 16 (1.84%) Amazon CloudWatch
15 15 (1.72%) Amazon ECS
16 13 (1.49%) Amazon EC2
16 13 (1.49%) Copilot Studio
17 12 (1.38%) Azure Service Bus
17 12 (1.38%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 6 (0.69%) Multicast
2 3 (0.34%) HTTP
2 3 (0.34%) NFC
3 2 (0.23%) Broadband
3 2 (0.23%) RTP
4 1 (0.11%) CTI
4 1 (0.11%) Ethernet
4 1 (0.11%) MQTT
4 1 (0.11%) Reverse Proxy
Database & Business Intelligence
1 66 (7.59%) PostgreSQL
2 56 (6.44%) SQL Server
3 49 (5.63%) Relational Database
4 43 (4.94%) Power BI
5 36 (4.14%) MongoDB
6 27 (3.10%) NoSQL
7 19 (2.18%) DynamoDB
8 17 (1.95%) Oracle Database
9 15 (1.72%) Data Warehouse
9 15 (1.72%) MySQL
10 12 (1.38%) Amazon RDS
10 12 (1.38%) Apache Cassandra
11 11 (1.26%) Azure SQL Database
11 11 (1.26%) Redis
12 10 (1.15%) KDB
13 9 (1.03%) RDBMS
14 8 (0.92%) Amazon Aurora
14 8 (0.92%) Oracle Reports
15 7 (0.80%) Geospatial Data
15 7 (0.80%) Kdb+
Development Applications
1 109 (12.53%) Git
2 59 (6.78%) Jenkins
3 29 (3.33%) Maven
3 29 (3.33%) Mockito
4 28 (3.22%) JIRA
5 27 (3.10%) GitLab
6 25 (2.87%) JUnit
7 15 (1.72%) SonarQube
8 14 (1.61%) Gradle
9 9 (1.03%) Oracle Forms
10 6 (0.69%) Bitbucket
10 6 (0.69%) Claude Code
11 5 (0.57%) Snyk
11 5 (0.57%) Visual Studio Code
11 5 (0.57%) Xcode
12 4 (0.46%) Cucumber
12 4 (0.46%) MSI
12 4 (0.46%) Vite
12 4 (0.46%) XCTest
12 4 (0.46%) XCUITest
General
1 186 (21.38%) Finance
2 148 (17.01%) Social Skills
3 138 (15.86%) Public Sector
4 128 (14.71%) Banking
5 65 (7.47%) Investment Banking
6 64 (7.36%) Front Office
7 59 (6.78%) Analytical Skills
8 35 (4.02%) Retail
9 21 (2.41%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 14 (1.61%) Financial Institution
11 13 (1.49%) Military
12 9 (1.03%) Games
13 8 (0.92%) Legal
14 7 (0.80%) Back Office
14 7 (0.80%) Law
15 6 (0.69%) Manufacturing
16 5 (0.57%) Local Government
16 5 (0.57%) Telecoms
17 3 (0.34%) Organisational Skills
17 3 (0.34%) Police
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 138 (15.86%) React
2 123 (14.14%) REST
3 118 (13.56%) .NET
4 108 (12.41%) RESTful
5 99 (11.38%) Spring
6 83 (9.54%) Spring Boot
7 76 (8.74%) Kafka
8 59 (6.78%) Redux
9 58 (6.67%) Node.js
10 57 (6.55%) HTML
11 50 (5.75%) CSS
12 46 (5.29%) AngularJS
13 39 (4.48%) SOAP
14 33 (3.79%) Django
14 33 (3.79%) Web Services
15 30 (3.45%) HTML5
16 28 (3.22%) .NET Core
17 27 (3.10%) JSON
18 25 (2.87%) RabbitMQ
19 24 (2.76%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 61 (7.01%) Cloud Native
2 60 (6.90%) Distributed Systems
3 49 (5.63%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
4 48 (5.52%) Fixed Income
5 47 (5.40%) Product Ownership
6 40 (4.60%) Equities
7 36 (4.14%) Greenfield Project
8 21 (2.41%) Enterprise Software
9 18 (2.07%) Algorithms
9 18 (2.07%) Data Structures
10 16 (1.84%) CMDB
10 16 (1.84%) Mobile App
11 14 (1.61%) Derivative
12 13 (1.49%) AI Agents
12 13 (1.49%) Onboarding
13 12 (1.38%) Legacy Systems
14 7 (0.80%) Low-Code
14 7 (0.80%) Market Risk
15 5 (0.57%) Virtual Team
16 4 (0.46%) Sports Betting
Operating Systems
1 55 (6.32%) Linux
2 44 (5.06%) Unix
3 23 (2.64%) Windows
4 12 (1.38%) Android
4 12 (1.38%) Apple iOS
5 9 (1.03%) Mac OS
6 7 (0.80%) Mac OS X
7 3 (0.34%) AIX
7 3 (0.34%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 272 (31.26%) CI/CD
2 258 (29.66%) Agile
3 174 (20.00%) Microservices
4 150 (17.24%) DevOps
5 119 (13.68%) Full-Stack Development
6 106 (12.18%) Test Automation
7 95 (10.92%) Software Engineering
8 89 (10.23%) Problem-Solving
9 87 (10.00%) Containerisation
10 86 (9.89%) AI
11 84 (9.66%) TDD
12 75 (8.62%) Mentoring
13 74 (8.51%) Data Modelling
14 71 (8.16%) Continuous Improvement
15 68 (7.82%) Event-Driven
16 67 (7.70%) Code Quality
16 67 (7.70%) Scrum
17 62 (7.13%) Business Intelligence
18 57 (6.55%) Migration
19 56 (6.44%) Front End Development
Programming Languages
1 268 (30.80%) Java
2 179 (20.57%) Python
3 170 (19.54%) SQL
4 155 (17.82%) JavaScript
5 148 (17.01%) C#
6 139 (15.98%) TypeScript
7 22 (2.53%) Ruby
8 20 (2.30%) C++
8 20 (2.30%) Kotlin
8 20 (2.30%) PL/SQL
9 19 (2.18%) Apex Code
10 17 (1.95%) Go
11 15 (1.72%) Shell Script
12 11 (1.26%) SOQL
13 9 (1.03%) Swift
14 8 (0.92%) C
14 8 (0.92%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 8 (0.92%) PHP
14 8 (0.92%) Scala
15 7 (0.80%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 144 (16.55%) Security Cleared
2 132 (15.17%) SC Cleared
3 28 (3.22%) Degree
4 16 (1.84%) BPSS Clearance
4 16 (1.84%) Computer Science Degree
5 7 (0.80%) DV Cleared
6 4 (0.46%) Microsoft Certification
7 3 (0.34%) AWS Certification
7 3 (0.34%) AWS Certified Developer
7 3 (0.34%) Master's Degree
8 2 (0.23%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 1 (0.11%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
9 1 (0.11%) DBS Check
9 1 (0.11%) Numerate Degree
9 1 (0.11%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 48 (5.52%) Accessibility
2 42 (4.83%) QA
3 27 (3.10%) WCAG
4 23 (2.64%) Data Quality
5 5 (0.57%) GDPR
6 4 (0.46%) NCSC
7 2 (0.23%) PCI DSS
8 1 (0.11%) Basel III
8 1 (0.11%) Disclosure Scotland
8 1 (0.11%) GRC
8 1 (0.11%) ISO 20022
8 1 (0.11%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 1 (0.11%) SEPA
8 1 (0.11%) Solvency II
System Software
1 124 (14.25%) Docker
2 7 (0.80%) Active Directory
3 3 (0.34%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (0.23%) Apache ZooKeeper
4 2 (0.23%) GridGain
4 2 (0.23%) Oracle RAC
4 2 (0.23%) Postfix
5 1 (0.11%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 105 (12.07%) Kubernetes
2 60 (6.90%) Terraform
3 20 (2.30%) Grafana
4 15 (1.72%) Prometheus
5 14 (1.61%) Ansible
6 4 (0.46%) Argo
7 3 (0.34%) Single Sign-On
8 2 (0.23%) Bosun
8 2 (0.23%) Consul
8 2 (0.23%) Zipkin
9 1 (0.11%) Microsoft Intune
9 1 (0.11%) SELinux
9 1 (0.11%) systemd
Vendors
1 81 (9.31%) Microsoft
2 55 (6.32%) Oracle
3 35 (4.02%) Salesforce
4 31 (3.56%) ServiceNow
5 16 (1.84%) Avaloq
5 16 (1.84%) Databricks
6 14 (1.61%) Google
7 11 (1.26%) MuleSoft
7 11 (1.26%) SAP
8 8 (0.92%) Blue Prism
9 6 (0.69%) Jaspersoft
9 6 (0.69%) Solace
10 5 (0.57%) IBM
11 4 (0.46%) ForgeRock
11 4 (0.46%) New Relic
11 4 (0.46%) OpenAI
11 4 (0.46%) Sybase
12 3 (0.34%) Atlassian
12 3 (0.34%) BeyondTrust
12 3 (0.34%) Okta