High-Frequency Trading Job Trends

High-Frequency Trading
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs requiring High-Frequency Trading skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 1 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 633 655 740
Rank change year-on-year +22 +85 +223
Permanent jobs citing High-Frequency Trading 38 16 70
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.054% 0.034% 0.089%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.069% 0.037% 0.10%
Number of salaries quoted 27 14 67
10th Percentile - £90,000 £74,000
25th Percentile £90,000 £92,500 £100,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £100,000 £115,000 £140,000
Median % change year-on-year -13.04% -17.86% +40.00%
75th Percentile £117,500 £155,000 £163,750
90th Percentile £152,000 £208,125 £177,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £100,000 - £100,000

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK

High-Frequency Trading falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 55,161 43,489 68,939
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 78.71% 93.04% 88.07%
Number of salaries quoted 33,069 21,992 52,917
10th Percentile £29,000 £33,000 £29,440
25th Percentile £38,750 £45,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -12.00%
75th Percentile £76,250 £81,250 £75,000
90th Percentile £97,500 £102,500 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -9.09%

High-Frequency Trading
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing High-Frequency Trading relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised.

High-Frequency Trading job vacancy trend in the UK

High-Frequency Trading
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing High-Frequency Trading.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing High-Frequency Trading

High-Frequency Trading
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing High-Frequency Trading over the 6 months to 1 March 2026.

Salary histogram for High-Frequency Trading in the UK

High-Frequency Trading
Top 5 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing High-Frequency Trading within the UK over the 6 months to 1 March 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England +52 38 £100,000 -13.04% 20
London +47 36 £100,000 -13.04% 14
Work from Home +48 27 £90,000 -42.86% 5
East of England - 2 £100,000 - 2
UK excluding London - 2 £100,000 - 6

High-Frequency Trading
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:

Cloud Services
1 1 (2.63%) AWS
Communications & Networking
1 3 (7.89%) TCP/IP
2 1 (2.63%) BGP
2 1 (2.63%) Firewall
2 1 (2.63%) HSRP
2 1 (2.63%) IGMP
2 1 (2.63%) Multicast
2 1 (2.63%) OSPF
2 1 (2.63%) VRRP
General
1 11 (28.95%) Social Skills
2 5 (13.16%) Finance
3 3 (7.89%) Front Office
4 2 (5.26%) Analytical Skills
4 2 (5.26%) Banking
4 2 (5.26%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 16 (42.11%) Developer
2 12 (31.58%) Rust Engineer
2 12 (31.58%) Rust Software Engineer
2 12 (31.58%) Software Engineer
3 11 (28.95%) Junior
4 9 (23.68%) Rust Developer
5 7 (18.42%) Junior Software Engineer
6 6 (15.79%) Senior
7 5 (13.16%) C++ Software Engineer
7 5 (13.16%) Java Developer
8 4 (10.53%) Junior Developer
8 4 (10.53%) Junior Software Developer
8 4 (10.53%) Software Developer
9 3 (7.89%) C++ Developer
9 3 (7.89%) Java Developer - Fintech
9 3 (7.89%) Quantitative Developer
9 3 (7.89%) Senior C++ Developer
9 3 (7.89%) Senior C++ Software Engineer
9 3 (7.89%) Senior Developer
9 3 (7.89%) Senior Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (2.63%) gRPC
1 1 (2.63%) Node.js
Miscellaneous
1 12 (31.58%) Distributed Systems
2 11 (28.95%) Equities
3 4 (10.53%) Hedge funds
4 3 (7.89%) Algorithms
5 2 (5.26%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
6 1 (2.63%) FPGA
6 1 (2.63%) Renewable Energy
6 1 (2.63%) State Machine
Operating Systems
1 3 (7.89%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 18 (47.37%) Low Latency
2 17 (44.74%) Software Engineering
3 10 (26.32%) Algorithmic Trading
3 10 (26.32%) Data Analysis
3 10 (26.32%) Electronic Trading
4 9 (23.68%) Backtesting
4 9 (23.68%) Market Making
5 4 (10.53%) Fintech
5 4 (10.53%) Performance Tuning
5 4 (10.53%) Problem-Solving
6 3 (7.89%) Concurrent Programming
6 3 (7.89%) Garbage Collection
6 3 (7.89%) Memory Management
6 3 (7.89%) Multithreading
6 3 (7.89%) SDLC
6 3 (7.89%) Ultra-Low Latency
7 2 (5.26%) Automated Trading
7 2 (5.26%) Dependency Injection
8 1 (2.63%) Component Testing
8 1 (2.63%) IT Strategy
Programming Languages
1 21 (55.26%) Rust
2 16 (42.11%) Java
3 10 (26.32%) Python
4 9 (23.68%) C++
5 1 (2.63%) SQL
Qualifications
1 2 (5.26%) Degree
1 2 (5.26%) Master's Degree
1 2 (5.26%) PhD
2 1 (2.63%) CCIE
2 1 (2.63%) CCNA
2 1 (2.63%) Cisco Certification
Vendors
1 1 (2.63%) Arista
1 1 (2.63%) Cisco
1 1 (2.63%) Fortinet