Lead Contracts with Hybrid/Remote/WFH Options

Leader
UK > Work from Home

The median Leader daily rate for remote or hybrid work is £600, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2025.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 29 28 34
Rank change year-on-year -1 +6 +4
Contract jobs requiring a Lead 629 954 1,539
As % of all contract jobs with a WFH option 6.35% 6.22% 5.95%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.77% 6.65% 6.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 454 623 1,038
10th Percentile £425 £425 £425
25th Percentile £508 £500 £503
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £575 £600
Median % change year-on-year +4.35% -4.17% +2.56%
75th Percentile £713 £700 £700
90th Percentile £800 £850 £775
UK median daily rate £575 £575 £600
% change year-on-year - -4.17% +4.35%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 55 28
10th Percentile £66.50 £26.75 £52.45
25th Percentile £72.50 £49.38 £60.00
Median hourly rate £90.00 £70.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +28.57% +7.69% +85.71%
75th Percentile £100.28 £74.00 £65.75
90th Percentile £102.00 £75.25 -
UK median hourly rate £70.00 £60.00 £55.00
% change year-on-year +16.67% +9.09% +57.14%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
Work from Home

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies with WFH or hybrid options. 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 Work from Home with a recognized job title 9,288 14,354 24,650
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 93.77% 93.54% 95.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,350 9,595 17,415
10th Percentile £337 £325 £360
25th Percentile £414 £425 £444
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £540
Median % change year-on-year - -2.69% +2.76%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £650
90th Percentile £763 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £515 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -1.90% -2.78% +2.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 228 579 565
10th Percentile £14.00 £14.38 £18.50
25th Percentile £18.19 £23.39 £26.00
Median hourly rate £38.00 £44.74 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -15.06% -18.65% +57.14%
75th Percentile £66.00 £63.00 £68.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.25 £80.25
UK median hourly rate £29.00 £36.42 £45.00
% change year-on-year -20.37% -19.07% +91.49%

Lead
Trend for Jobs with a WFH Option

Job vacancies with remote working options which featured Lead in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Lead trend for jobs with Hybrid/Remote/WFH options

Lead
Daily Rate Trend for Jobs with a WFH Option

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in job vacancies with remote working options citing Lead.

Lead daily rate for jobs with a WFH option

Lead
Daily Rate Histogram for Jobs with a WFH Option

Daily rate distribution for jobs with remote working options citing Lead over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Lead daily rate histogram for jobs with a WFH option

Lead
Hourly Rate Trend for Jobs with a WFH Option

3-month moving average hourly rate quoted in job vacancies with remote working options citing Lead.

Lead hourly rate for jobs with a WFH option

Lead
Hourly Rate Histogram for Jobs with a WFH Option

Hourly rate distribution for jobs with remote working options citing Lead over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Lead hourly rate histogram for jobs with a WFH option

Lead Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in Job Vacancies with WFH Options

For the 6 months to 1 May 2025, Lead contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract jobs with a WFH option featuring Lead in the job title.

1 173 (27.50%) Agile
2 170 (27.03%) Social Skills
3 158 (25.12%) Finance
4 110 (17.49%) Security Cleared
5 106 (16.85%) Azure
5 106 (16.85%) Problem-Solving
6 104 (16.53%) Migration
7 100 (15.90%) SC Cleared
8 99 (15.74%) DevOps
9 90 (14.31%) SAP
9 90 (14.31%) Roadmaps
10 89 (14.15%) Stakeholder Management
11 81 (12.88%) AWS
12 78 (12.40%) CI/CD
13 75 (11.92%) SQL
14 69 (10.97%) Public Sector
15 66 (10.49%) Microsoft
16 65 (10.33%) Analytical Skills
17 61 (9.70%) Project Management
17 61 (9.70%) Java
18 60 (9.54%) Mentoring
18 60 (9.54%) Data Governance
19 56 (8.90%) Analytics
19 56 (8.90%) Python
20 51 (8.11%) JavaScript
21 50 (7.95%) SAP S/4HANA
22 49 (7.79%) Degree
23 46 (7.31%) Data Management
23 46 (7.31%) Technical Leadership
24 44 (7.00%) Azure DevOps

Lead Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities with WFH Options by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 7 (1.11%) Confluence
2 6 (0.95%) Apache Spark
2 6 (0.95%) SharePoint
3 4 (0.64%) Microsoft Exchange
3 4 (0.64%) MTS
4 3 (0.48%) Apache
4 3 (0.48%) JBoss
4 3 (0.48%) OpenStack
4 3 (0.48%) Tomcat
5 2 (0.32%) Anypoint
5 2 (0.32%) Apache Airflow
5 2 (0.32%) Camunda
5 2 (0.32%) nginx
6 1 (0.16%) Appian
6 1 (0.16%) CMS
6 1 (0.16%) Drupal
6 1 (0.16%) Headless CMS
6 1 (0.16%) TPMS
6 1 (0.16%) Traefik
Applications
1 10 (1.59%) Microsoft Excel
2 9 (1.43%) Microsoft Project
3 7 (1.11%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 6 (0.95%) Microsoft Office
5 3 (0.48%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.16%) Acrobat
6 1 (0.16%) CATIA
6 1 (0.16%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 50 (7.95%) SAP S/4HANA
2 7 (1.11%) SAP MDG
3 6 (0.95%) Oracle EBS
3 6 (0.95%) Oracle ERP
4 5 (0.79%) Dynamics CRM
5 4 (0.64%) SAP CAR
5 4 (0.64%) SAP EWM
5 4 (0.64%) SAP IBP
5 4 (0.64%) SAP Retail
6 3 (0.48%) SAP Oil and Gas
7 2 (0.32%) NetSuite
7 2 (0.32%) SAP EHS
7 2 (0.32%) SAP SD
7 2 (0.32%) Teamcenter
7 2 (0.32%) Workday HCM
8 1 (0.16%) Oracle Assets
8 1 (0.16%) Oracle Cash Management
8 1 (0.16%) Oracle Payables
8 1 (0.16%) Oracle Receivables
8 1 (0.16%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 106 (16.85%) Azure
2 81 (12.88%) AWS
3 44 (7.00%) Azure DevOps
4 31 (4.93%) Power Platform
5 24 (3.82%) GitHub
6 18 (2.86%) GitHub Actions
7 17 (2.70%) Entra ID
7 17 (2.70%) GCP
8 13 (2.07%) Dynamics 365
8 13 (2.07%) Serverless
9 11 (1.75%) Microsoft 365
9 11 (1.75%) SaaS
10 9 (1.43%) Cloud Computing
10 9 (1.43%) dbt
10 9 (1.43%) Snowflake
11 8 (1.27%) OCI
11 8 (1.27%) SuccessFactors
12 7 (1.11%) Azure Data Factory
13 6 (0.95%) PowerApps
14 5 (0.79%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 10 (1.59%) Firewall
2 8 (1.27%) SSL
2 8 (1.27%) TCP/IP
3 7 (1.11%) DNS
3 7 (1.11%) S/MIME
4 6 (0.95%) VPN
5 5 (0.79%) DHCP
6 4 (0.64%) HTTP
6 4 (0.64%) Network Security
7 3 (0.48%) BGP
7 3 (0.48%) LAN
7 3 (0.48%) WAN
7 3 (0.48%) Wi-Fi
8 2 (0.32%) Bluetooth
8 2 (0.32%) Cisco ASA
8 2 (0.32%) EIGRP
8 2 (0.32%) Ethernet
8 2 (0.32%) OSPF
8 2 (0.32%) SMS
8 2 (0.32%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 32 (5.09%) Data Lake
2 31 (4.93%) PostgreSQL
3 22 (3.50%) Power BI
4 16 (2.54%) Data Warehouse
4 16 (2.54%) Relational Database
5 13 (2.07%) Redis
6 12 (1.91%) MySQL
6 12 (1.91%) SQL Server
7 11 (1.75%) MongoDB
8 10 (1.59%) Big Data
8 10 (1.59%) Metadata
9 6 (0.95%) Elasticsearch
9 6 (0.95%) Oracle Database
10 5 (0.79%) Neo4j
11 4 (0.64%) Amazon RDS
11 4 (0.64%) Tableau
12 3 (0.48%) DynamoDB
12 3 (0.48%) Hadoop
12 3 (0.48%) NoSQL
13 2 (0.32%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 38 (6.04%) JIRA
2 22 (3.50%) Jenkins
3 14 (2.23%) Git
4 13 (2.07%) GitLab
4 13 (2.07%) JUnit
5 12 (1.91%) Gradle
6 8 (1.27%) Mockito
7 7 (1.11%) Cypress.io
7 7 (1.11%) JMeter
7 7 (1.11%) Liquibase
8 5 (0.79%) Maven
8 5 (0.79%) Selenium
9 4 (0.64%) Postman
9 4 (0.64%) SonarQube
10 3 (0.48%) Ant
10 3 (0.48%) Cucumber
10 3 (0.48%) Oracle Forms
10 3 (0.48%) REST Assured
11 2 (0.32%) Eclipse
11 2 (0.32%) IntelliJ
General
1 170 (27.03%) Social Skills
2 158 (25.12%) Finance
3 69 (10.97%) Public Sector
4 65 (10.33%) Analytical Skills
5 33 (5.25%) Banking
5 33 (5.25%) Front Office
6 21 (3.34%) Manufacturing
7 18 (2.86%) Investment Banking
8 17 (2.70%) Legal
8 17 (2.70%) Marketing
8 17 (2.70%) Presentation Skills
8 17 (2.70%) Retail
9 15 (2.38%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 14 (2.23%) Pharmaceutical
11 12 (1.91%) Influencing Skills
12 11 (1.75%) Organisational Skills
13 10 (1.59%) Telecoms
14 9 (1.43%) Back Office
15 8 (1.27%) Automotive
16 7 (1.11%) Law
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 31 (4.93%) Spring
2 29 (4.61%) Spring Boot
3 28 (4.45%) .NET
4 26 (4.13%) Kafka
5 22 (3.50%) AngularJS
5 22 (3.50%) React
6 20 (3.18%) HTML
7 16 (2.54%) Node.js
8 15 (2.38%) Oracle Fusion
8 15 (2.38%) REST
9 14 (2.23%) CSS
9 14 (2.23%) OpenAPI
9 14 (2.23%) Swagger
10 13 (2.07%) OAuth
10 13 (2.07%) RESTful
11 11 (1.75%) .NET Core
11 11 (1.75%) Web Services
12 9 (1.43%) LDAP
13 7 (1.11%) ActiveMQ
13 7 (1.11%) JWT
Miscellaneous
1 25 (3.97%) Derivative
1 25 (3.97%) Fixed Income
1 25 (3.97%) Hedge funds
1 25 (3.97%) Product Ownership
2 24 (3.82%) Equities
2 24 (3.82%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
3 21 (3.34%) Data Centre
4 19 (3.02%) Greenfield Project
4 19 (3.02%) Onboarding
5 11 (1.75%) Algorithms
5 11 (1.75%) Legacy Systems
6 10 (1.59%) Management Information System
6 10 (1.59%) PKI
6 10 (1.59%) Self-Motivation
7 8 (1.27%) CMDB
7 8 (1.27%) Life Science
7 8 (1.27%) NHS
8 7 (1.11%) Security Posture
9 6 (0.95%) Analytical Mindset
10 5 (0.79%) Data Structures
Operating Systems
1 29 (4.61%) Linux
2 20 (3.18%) Windows
3 10 (1.59%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 7 (1.11%) Windows Server
5 5 (0.79%) Windows Server 2019
6 3 (0.48%) Unix
7 1 (0.16%) Android
7 1 (0.16%) CentOS
7 1 (0.16%) Mac OS
7 1 (0.16%) VyOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 173 (27.50%) Agile
2 106 (16.85%) Problem-Solving
3 104 (16.53%) Migration
4 99 (15.74%) DevOps
5 90 (14.31%) Roadmaps
6 89 (14.15%) Stakeholder Management
7 78 (12.40%) CI/CD
8 61 (9.70%) Project Management
9 60 (9.54%) Data Governance
9 60 (9.54%) Mentoring
10 56 (8.90%) Analytics
11 46 (7.31%) Data Management
11 46 (7.31%) Technical Leadership
12 41 (6.52%) Continuous Improvement
12 41 (6.52%) Microservices
12 41 (6.52%) Project Delivery
13 38 (6.04%) TDD
14 36 (5.72%) Data Modelling
15 34 (5.41%) ERP
16 33 (5.25%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 75 (11.92%) SQL
2 61 (9.70%) Java
3 56 (8.90%) Python
4 51 (8.11%) JavaScript
5 29 (4.61%) TypeScript
6 27 (4.29%) C#
7 21 (3.34%) PowerShell
8 8 (1.27%) Bash
9 7 (1.11%) Apex Code
9 7 (1.11%) R
9 7 (1.11%) Scala
10 5 (0.79%) ABAP
11 4 (0.64%) Shell Script
12 3 (0.48%) C++
12 3 (0.48%) PL/SQL
13 2 (0.32%) Bicep
13 2 (0.32%) Go
13 2 (0.32%) Kotlin
13 2 (0.32%) SOQL
13 2 (0.32%) VB
Qualifications
1 110 (17.49%) Security Cleared
2 100 (15.90%) SC Cleared
3 49 (7.79%) Degree
4 13 (2.07%) BPSS Clearance
4 13 (2.07%) Computer Science Degree
4 13 (2.07%) Master's Degree
4 13 (2.07%) PMI Certification
5 10 (1.59%) PMP
6 8 (1.27%) Azure Certification
7 7 (1.11%) AWS Certification
7 7 (1.11%) Numerate Degree
8 6 (0.95%) Microsoft Certification
9 5 (0.79%) DV Cleared
10 3 (0.48%) ISTQB
10 3 (0.48%) RHCSA
11 2 (0.32%) APMG
11 2 (0.32%) CTC Cleared
11 2 (0.32%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 2 (0.32%) MRICS
11 2 (0.32%) SAP Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 38 (6.04%) QA
2 24 (3.82%) MiFID
3 22 (3.50%) Data Quality
4 14 (2.23%) PMO
5 11 (1.75%) Accessibility
6 8 (1.27%) GDPR
7 6 (0.95%) ISO/IEC 20000
7 6 (0.95%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 5 (0.79%) NIST
8 5 (0.79%) PCI DSS
9 4 (0.64%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 3 (0.48%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 3 (0.48%) NCSC
11 2 (0.32%) Basel II
11 2 (0.32%) Disclosure Scotland
11 2 (0.32%) GRC
11 2 (0.32%) GxP
11 2 (0.32%) WCAG
12 1 (0.16%) Actionable Recommendations
12 1 (0.16%) Basel III
System Software
1 42 (6.68%) Docker
2 15 (2.38%) Active Directory
3 9 (1.43%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (0.32%) VMware ESXi
4 2 (0.32%) vSphere
5 1 (0.16%) Firmware
5 1 (0.16%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.16%) OpenAM
5 1 (0.16%) OpenDJ
5 1 (0.16%) OpenIDM
5 1 (0.16%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (0.16%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 41 (6.52%) Kubernetes
1 41 (6.52%) Terraform
2 13 (2.07%) Single Sign-On
3 11 (1.75%) Ansible
4 4 (0.64%) Grafana
4 4 (0.64%) NetBackup
4 4 (0.64%) PingFederate
5 3 (0.48%) Packer
5 3 (0.48%) Prometheus
6 2 (0.32%) Argo
6 2 (0.32%) Istio
6 2 (0.32%) Microsoft Intune
7 1 (0.16%) CloudHub
7 1 (0.16%) Cloudify
7 1 (0.16%) Consul
7 1 (0.16%) HAProxy
7 1 (0.16%) Jamf Pro
7 1 (0.16%) linkerd
7 1 (0.16%) Rancher
7 1 (0.16%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 90 (14.31%) SAP
2 66 (10.49%) Microsoft
3 42 (6.68%) Oracle
4 23 (3.66%) ServiceNow
5 19 (3.02%) Google
6 18 (2.86%) Ariba
6 18 (2.86%) Databricks
7 17 (2.70%) VMware
8 15 (2.38%) Salesforce
9 12 (1.91%) Cisco
10 11 (1.75%) Red Hat
11 8 (1.27%) CyberArk
11 8 (1.27%) Workday
12 7 (1.11%) Dell
12 7 (1.11%) Okta
12 7 (1.11%) Splunk
13 6 (0.95%) MuleSoft
14 4 (0.64%) 3PAR
14 4 (0.64%) Palo Alto
14 4 (0.64%) Ping Identity