Hire Java developersfor your team inthe UK
A senior Java hire in the UK costs about £112,236 a year once employer costs are in. Octogle engineers are vetted, contracted and working your hours for about £49,882 — 56% less, with a shortlist in 48 hours.
A senior Java hire in United Kingdom costs £112,236 a year. Octogle: £49,882.
That's the median advertised salary for backend engineers in United Kingdom plus the employer costs you're legally required to pay — before benefits, equipment, office space or a 20% recruiter fee (£19,420 on a senior hire). Hiring locally typically takes 51 days; Octogle sends a shortlist in 48 hours.
| Level | United Kingdom salary | Employer costs | Loaded cost / yr | Octogle / yr | You save |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mid-level | £71,028 | £11,225 | £82,253 | £31,176 | £51,077 (62%) |
| Senior | £97,100 | £15,136 | £112,236 | £49,882 | £62,354 (56%) |
| Staff / lead | £119,900 | £18,556 | £138,456 | £68,587 | £69,869 (50%) |
Employer costs: Employer NI (15%) £13,815 · Pension (3% minimum) £1,321 (senior). Octogle is our published hourly rate × 173 hours a month, all-in. Salaries are median advertised base pay; see sources below.
Working hours that overlap United Kingdom
Shared hours between a 09:00–17:30 day in United Kingdom and an engineer's local working day, in winter.
Portugal
Poland
Egypt
Romania
Ukraine
Argentina
Brazil
Colombia
Pakistan
India
Mexico
PhilippinesIR35 and overseas engineers
IR35 (the off-payroll working rules) applies when a worker supplies services through their own intermediary, usually a personal service company, and would be an employee if engaged directly. A medium or large UK client must then issue a Status Determination Statement and the fee-payer operates PAYE. The rules only apply where the worker is within the UK tax or NIC net: a non-UK-resident engineer working entirely outside the UK generally has no UK liability, so IR35 does not bite, and the location of the intermediary is irrelevant. When an Employer of Record employs the engineer on its own local payroll there is no intermediary engagement for IR35 purposes; the EOR is the legal employer under the engineer's home-country law. The analysis changes if the engineer becomes UK resident or works in the UK.
General information, not legal advice. Octogle handles contracts and payroll for every placement.
The United Kingdom market
- ITJobsWatch: 109,855 permanent IT vacancies with a recognised job title were advertised in the UK in the 6 months to 14 Oct 2026 (44,157 in the same period of 2025); median advertised IT salary £58,500 (+9.35% YoY).
- ONS ASHE 2025 (provisional): 343,000 full-time 'programmers and software development professionals' (SOC 2134), median gross annual pay £56,914; 75th percentile £75,794; 90th £102,860.
Pick the Java problem. See who we would send.
Jakub NowakSenior Java Engineer94/ 100
Dorota KamińskaSenior Backend91/ 100
Marek NovákStaff Engineer88/ 10025,000 applied. 1,000 got in.
Five scored stages, all finished before a profile reaches you. Nobody skips a stage to hit a deadline.
From £15 an hour. That is the whole pricing page.
One hourly rate with our margin printed on every invoice, billed monthly. No placement fee and no notice period beyond two weeks.
£8,314/ monthEquivalent to £48 an hourThe engagement, as a spec sheet
How OctogleHire compares
Vetting
Resume screening only
Self-reported skills
5-stage technical vetting (1 in 25 pass rate)
Time to Hire
6–12 weeks
Weeks of filtering
48 hours to first match
Cost
$20K–$40K placement fees
Low rates, variable quality
40–60% less, no placement fee
Compliance
You manage it
You manage it
Fully managed (30+ countries)
Replacement
30–90 days (if any)
None
14–30 day replacement guarantee
Support
Account rep (9-5)
Ticket system
Dedicated account manager
“We in need of a handful of developers for our internal CRM build after speaking with multiple agencies and receiving some quotations we sat down with Yaseen from Octogle and we were pleasantly surprised to see what was available for us within their talent pool. we took on three developers saving upwards of circa £6000 per month and developing the software in record time exactly how we wanted it. Highly suggest anyone to use octogle hire if you’re looking for a cost-effective high-quality software development solution.”
Questions engineering leaders ask
The median advertised salary for a senior Java engineer in the UK is about £97,100. With statutory employer costs (employer ni (15%), pension (3% minimum)) the loaded cost is about £112,236 a year, before benefits, equipment and a 20% recruiter fee.
An Octogle senior engineer costs about £49,882 a year at our published hourly rate — about 56% less than a loaded the UK hire — with no placement fee, a 14-day replacement guarantee and two weeks' notice.
Eastern Europe and Portugal share most or all of a United Kingdom working day; India overlaps about 3 hours. Octogle matches engineers with at least 4–6 hours of overlap with your team.
IR35 (the off-payroll working rules) applies when a worker supplies services through their own intermediary, usually a personal service company, and would be an employee if engaged directly. A medium or large UK client must then issue a Status Determination Statement and the fee-payer operates PAYE. The rules only apply where the worker is within the UK tax or NIC net: a non-UK-resident engineer working entirely outside the UK generally has no UK liability, so IR35 does not bite, and the location of the intermediary is irrelevant.
Hiring a software engineer locally typically takes around 51 days. Octogle shares a scored shortlist of 3–5 vetted Java engineers within 48 hours of your brief.
You'll receive 3–5 vetted candidate profiles within 48 hours of your demo call. Most companies go from first intro to signed contract in under 5 business days — compared to 6–12 weeks with traditional agencies.
Every developer passes a 5-stage process: application screening, stack-specific technical assessment, live system design interview, soft-skills evaluation, and reference checks. From over 25,000 applicants reviewed, only 1,000 have been accepted into our network.
OctogleHire engineers start at £15/hr (about $19), with senior engineers at about £24/hr. That is roughly 50–65% less than the loaded cost of an equivalent in-house hire in the UK, US or Australia — a senior UK hire costs about £48/hr once employer costs are included. There are no upfront fees or placement commissions; you pay one published hourly rate once your engineer starts.
Sources
- Indeed UK: Software Engineer pay (base median, postings, past 36 mo, updated Oct 2026)
- Indeed UK: Senior Software Engineer pay
- ITJobsWatch: Lead Software Engineer, UK (6 months to 14 Oct 2026)
- Indeed UK: Front End Developer pay
- Indeed UK: Back End Developer pay
- Indeed UK: iOS Developer pay
- Indeed UK: Android Developer pay
- Indeed UK: DevOps Engineer pay
- Indeed UK: Data Engineer pay
- Indeed UK: Machine Learning Engineer pay
- ITJobsWatch: Software Engineer, UK (incl. all permanent IT vacancies table)
- ONS ASHE 2025 provisional, Table 14.7a (annual gross pay by SOC 2020 4-digit)
- Robert Half UK 2026 Salary Guide (cross-check: Front-End £56,000, Back-End £54,250, DevOps £70,750, Data Engineer £65,250, ML Engineer £75,000, Lead Engineer £75,000 at 50th pct)
- GOV.UK: Understanding off-payroll working (IR35)
Send the brief. Meet Java engineers on Thursday.
Twenty minutes with an Octogle engineer, then three to five scored profiles inside 48 hours. Free to post, with a replacement guarantee on every placement.