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 December 2025.

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

6 months to
2 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 182 134 172
Rank change year-on-year -48 +38 -62
Contract jobs requiring a Senior Developer 567 688 669
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.58% 1.93% 1.47%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.73% 2.08% 1.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 416 452 481
10th Percentile £401 £391 £425
25th Percentile £450 £475 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £560 £600
Median % change year-on-year -1.79% -6.67% -6.07%
75th Percentile £675 £700 £720
90th Percentile £788 £813 £850
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 32,727 33,118 42,499
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.97% 92.81% 93.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,756 20,117 28,647
10th Percentile £284 £300 £294
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 £724 £738 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £496 £500
% change year-on-year -4.14% -0.90% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,905 1,179 1,517
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.32 £15.21
25th Percentile £17.96 £20.63 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £44.00
Median % change year-on-year -28.14% -20.45% +44.26%
75th Percentile £57.50 £64.61 £65.00
90th Percentile £71.50 £73.75 £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 2 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 2 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 -38 510 £550 -4.35% 387
London -33 293 £638 +6.25% 117
UK excluding London -35 219 £500 - 372
Work from Home -26 213 £588 +0.64% 239
North of England -46 65 £550 +10.00% 85
South West +35 57 £475 -11.63% 29
South East -1 44 £500 -4.76% 128
Yorkshire -21 36 £638 +23.19% 26
North West -30 25 £510 +2.00% 51
Midlands -27 24 £513 +2.50% 41
East of England -13 16 £535 +33.75% 35
West Midlands -30 16 £525 +5.00% 24
Scotland -22 12 £475 -3.85% 32
North East -5 8 £544 +27.94% 8
East Midlands -12 8 £510 +11.78% 16
Northern Ireland -3 3 £544 +8.10% 7
Wales -4 3 £638 +27.50% 23

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

For the 6 months to 2 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 (40.92%) Agile
2 202 (35.63%) Java
3 168 (29.63%) AWS
4 166 (29.28%) SQL
5 163 (28.75%) Azure
6 159 (28.04%) DevOps
7 157 (27.69%) Microservices
8 156 (27.51%) CI/CD
9 137 (24.16%) Problem-Solving
9 137 (24.16%) Python
10 122 (21.52%) Kafka
11 118 (20.81%) Security Cleared
12 110 (19.40%) Docker
13 101 (17.81%) JavaScript
13 101 (17.81%) Kubernetes
13 101 (17.81%) SC Cleared
14 94 (16.58%) Spring
15 93 (16.40%) C#
16 81 (14.29%) Scrum
17 79 (13.93%) RESTful
18 78 (13.76%) .NET
19 76 (13.40%) Git
20 74 (13.05%) Spring Boot
21 72 (12.70%) Software Engineering
22 70 (12.35%) React
22 70 (12.35%) TDD
23 68 (11.99%) Analytics
23 68 (11.99%) Azure DevOps
24 67 (11.82%) Containerisation
25 63 (11.11%) 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 (3.00%) Confluence
2 8 (1.41%) CMS
2 8 (1.41%) SharePoint
3 4 (0.71%) 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%) SAS
6 1 (0.18%) Smallworld
6 1 (0.18%) WordPress
Applications
1 8 (1.41%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.18%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.18%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 4 (0.71%) Dynamics CRM
1 4 (0.71%) 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
1 168 (29.63%) AWS
2 163 (28.75%) Azure
3 68 (11.99%) Azure DevOps
4 51 (8.99%) GitHub
5 39 (6.88%) GCP
6 32 (5.64%) Power Platform
6 32 (5.64%) Serverless
7 21 (3.70%) GitHub Actions
8 19 (3.35%) AWS Lambda
9 17 (3.00%) Power Automate
10 15 (2.65%) Amazon S3
10 15 (2.65%) PowerApps
10 15 (2.65%) SaaS
11 14 (2.47%) Azure AKS
12 13 (2.29%) Dynamics 365
13 12 (2.12%) Amazon ECS
13 12 (2.12%) Amazon SQS
13 12 (2.12%) Azure Service Bus
14 11 (1.94%) Amazon EC2
15 9 (1.59%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 5 (0.88%) Kerberos
2 4 (0.71%) SAN
2 4 (0.71%) SSL
2 4 (0.71%) TCP/IP
2 4 (0.71%) 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
Database & Business Intelligence
1 63 (11.11%) PostgreSQL
2 54 (9.52%) MongoDB
3 49 (8.64%) Relational Database
4 38 (6.70%) SQL Server
5 37 (6.53%) NoSQL
6 21 (3.70%) Apache Cassandra
7 19 (3.35%) DB2
7 19 (3.35%) Power BI
8 16 (2.82%) DynamoDB
9 15 (2.65%) Redis
10 12 (2.12%) Data Hub
11 11 (1.94%) Data Lake
11 11 (1.94%) MySQL
11 11 (1.94%) RDBMS
12 9 (1.59%) Amazon RDS
12 9 (1.59%) Azure SQL Database
13 7 (1.23%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 6 (1.06%) Big Data
14 6 (1.06%) HBase
15 5 (0.88%) Delta Lake
Development Applications
1 76 (13.40%) Git
2 48 (8.47%) JUnit
3 42 (7.41%) Jenkins
4 34 (6.00%) Oracle APEX
5 31 (5.47%) JIRA
6 29 (5.11%) GitLab
7 24 (4.23%) Mockito
8 14 (2.47%) Gradle
8 14 (2.47%) Maven
9 10 (1.76%) Cucumber
10 9 (1.59%) Artifactory
10 9 (1.59%) SpecFlow
11 8 (1.41%) Postman
12 7 (1.23%) Bitbucket
12 7 (1.23%) Sonatype Nexus
13 6 (1.06%) Mocha
14 4 (0.71%) Cypress.io
14 4 (0.71%) Liquibase
14 4 (0.71%) TeamCity
14 4 (0.71%) webpack
General
1 159 (28.04%) Finance
2 158 (27.87%) Social Skills
3 91 (16.05%) Banking
4 67 (11.82%) Public Sector
5 63 (11.11%) Analytical Skills
6 48 (8.47%) Investment Banking
7 33 (5.82%) Front Office
8 6 (1.06%) Marketing
9 5 (0.88%) Military
9 5 (0.88%) Presentation Skills
10 4 (0.71%) Back Office
10 4 (0.71%) Financial Institution
10 4 (0.71%) Manufacturing
11 3 (0.53%) Automotive
11 3 (0.53%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 3 (0.53%) Law
11 3 (0.53%) Pharmaceutical
12 2 (0.35%) Documentation Skills
12 2 (0.35%) Organisational Skills
12 2 (0.35%) Retail Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 122 (21.52%) Kafka
2 94 (16.58%) Spring
3 79 (13.93%) RESTful
4 78 (13.76%) .NET
5 74 (13.05%) Spring Boot
6 70 (12.35%) React
7 57 (10.05%) REST
8 49 (8.64%) Node.js
9 42 (7.41%) AngularJS
10 38 (6.70%) HTML
11 32 (5.64%) Web Services
12 31 (5.47%) CSS
13 26 (4.59%) JSON
14 24 (4.23%) .NET Core
15 23 (4.06%) RabbitMQ
16 22 (3.88%) .NET Framework
17 19 (3.35%) JMS
18 18 (3.17%) Playwright
19 17 (3.00%) Jest
20 15 (2.65%) gRPC
Miscellaneous
1 38 (6.70%) Cloud Native
2 37 (6.53%) Distributed Systems
3 33 (5.82%) Derivative
4 30 (5.29%) Equities
5 23 (4.06%) Data Structures
6 21 (3.70%) Greenfield Project
7 20 (3.53%) Fixed Income
7 20 (3.53%) Market Risk
7 20 (3.53%) Product Ownership
8 19 (3.35%) Management Information System
9 18 (3.17%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
10 16 (2.82%) Algorithms
11 12 (2.12%) Legacy Systems
12 7 (1.23%) Mobile App
13 6 (1.06%) Legacy Applications
13 6 (1.06%) Linux Command Line
14 5 (0.88%) Enterprise Software
14 5 (0.88%) Hedge funds
15 4 (0.71%) Data Fabric
15 4 (0.71%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 58 (10.23%) Linux
2 27 (4.76%) Unix
3 18 (3.17%) Android
4 14 (2.47%) Mac OS X
5 13 (2.29%) Apple iOS
6 8 (1.41%) Windows
7 4 (0.71%) Debian
7 4 (0.71%) Ubuntu
7 4 (0.71%) Windows Server
7 4 (0.71%) 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 (40.92%) Agile
2 159 (28.04%) DevOps
3 157 (27.69%) Microservices
4 156 (27.51%) CI/CD
5 137 (24.16%) Problem-Solving
6 81 (14.29%) Scrum
7 72 (12.70%) Software Engineering
8 70 (12.35%) TDD
9 68 (11.99%) Analytics
10 67 (11.82%) Containerisation
11 63 (11.11%) Full-Stack Development
12 60 (10.58%) Test Automation
13 52 (9.17%) Open Source
14 47 (8.29%) Mentoring
15 46 (8.11%) Event-Driven
16 45 (7.94%) SDLC
17 44 (7.76%) Clean Code
18 42 (7.41%) Performance Tuning
19 41 (7.23%) Infrastructure as Code
19 41 (7.23%) Unit Testing
Programming Languages
1 202 (35.63%) Java
2 166 (29.28%) SQL
3 137 (24.16%) Python
4 101 (17.81%) JavaScript
5 93 (16.40%) C#
6 56 (9.88%) TypeScript
7 38 (6.70%) PL/SQL
8 22 (3.88%) Go
9 20 (3.53%) Kotlin
10 18 (3.17%) Shell Script
11 14 (2.47%) C++
11 14 (2.47%) Ruby
12 10 (1.76%) PHP
13 8 (1.41%) Bash
13 8 (1.41%) PowerShell
14 6 (1.06%) Apex Code
15 5 (0.88%) Swift
16 4 (0.71%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 4 (0.71%) Objective-C
17 3 (0.53%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 118 (20.81%) Security Cleared
2 101 (17.81%) SC Cleared
3 44 (7.76%) Degree
4 25 (4.41%) Computer Science Degree
5 16 (2.82%) BPSS Clearance
6 6 (1.06%) AWS Certification
6 6 (1.06%) Master's Degree
6 6 (1.06%) OCP
6 6 (1.06%) Oracle Certification
7 4 (0.71%) 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 (4.76%) Accessibility
1 27 (4.76%) QA
2 12 (2.12%) Data Quality
3 11 (1.94%) WCAG
4 4 (0.71%) 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 (19.40%) 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
1 101 (17.81%) Kubernetes
2 36 (6.35%) Terraform
3 13 (2.29%) Grafana
4 8 (1.41%) Ansible
5 5 (0.88%) Single Sign-On
6 3 (0.53%) Kibana
6 3 (0.53%) Prometheus
7 2 (0.35%) CloudHub
8 1 (0.18%) Argo
8 1 (0.18%) Control-M
8 1 (0.18%) Packer
8 1 (0.18%) Rundeck
Vendors
1 52 (9.17%) Oracle
2 31 (5.47%) Microsoft
3 23 (4.06%) Google
4 20 (3.53%) Databricks
4 20 (3.53%) Sybase
5 15 (2.65%) ServiceNow
6 14 (2.47%) Salesforce
7 8 (1.41%) Atlassian
8 6 (1.06%) Apple
8 6 (1.06%) Red Hat
9 5 (0.88%) Dataiku
9 5 (0.88%) SAP
9 5 (0.88%) Virgin Media
10 4 (0.71%) CA Agile Central
10 4 (0.71%) IBM
10 4 (0.71%) Salesforce Marketing Cloud
10 4 (0.71%) VMware
11 3 (0.53%) Foundry
11 3 (0.53%) HP
11 3 (0.53%) Remedy