GitLab Contract Job Trends

GitLab
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring GitLab skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 15 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 111 139 229
Rank change year-on-year +28 +90 -43
Contract jobs citing GitLab 911 607 448
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.46% 1.91% 1.06%
As % of the Development Applications category 16.83% 14.22% 8.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 683 409 339
10th Percentile £377 £362 £406
25th Percentile £431 £450 £478
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £550 £551
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% -0.18% -8.17%
75th Percentile £583 £663 £638
90th Percentile £671 £731 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £550
% change year-on-year - -9.09% +1.85%
Number of hourly rates quoted 27 5 1
10th Percentile £39.53 £65.60 -
25th Percentile £52.50 £74.00 £58.75
Median hourly rate £57.50 £74.44 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -22.76% +24.07% +9.09%
75th Percentile £66.00 £87.50 £61.25
90th Percentile £82.40 £92.00 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £56.25 £74.44 £60.00
% change year-on-year -24.44% +24.07% +9.09%

All Development Application Skills
UK

GitLab falls under the Development Applications category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring development application skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for development application skills 5,413 4,269 5,251
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 14.59% 13.41% 12.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,711 2,694 3,674
10th Percentile £338 £331 £363
25th Percentile £406 £413 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £501 £538
Median % change year-on-year -0.15% -6.84% -4.02%
75th Percentile £594 £626 £638
90th Percentile £688 £725 £717
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £477 £513
% change year-on-year -0.42% -6.93% -2.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 138 72 199
10th Percentile £39.00 £28.88 £43.93
25th Percentile £52.50 £46.25 £51.25
Median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -3.85% +5.69%
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.75 £77.50
90th Percentile £85.00 £76.15 £90.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £65.00
% change year-on-year +4.00% -3.85% -

GitLab
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing GitLab relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

GitLab job vacancy trend in the UK

GitLab
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing GitLab.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing GitLab

GitLab
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing GitLab over the 6 months to 15 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for GitLab in the UK

GitLab
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing GitLab.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing GitLab

GitLab
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing GitLab over the 6 months to 15 January 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for GitLab in the UK

GitLab
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 GitLab within the UK over the 6 months to 15 January 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 +17 751 £519 -8.71% 264
UK excluding London +33 459 £500 - 231
London -5 304 £525 -12.50% 58
Work from Home +21 242 £500 -8.09% 131
North of England +3 211 £500 -1.48% 53
Yorkshire +4 92 £513 -2.38% 23
Midlands +26 89 £525 +10.06% 25
North West -1 89 £413 -17.50% 26
West Midlands +28 81 £525 +7.25% 12
South East -8 57 £500 - 68
South West +10 47 £523 -22.45% 42
Scotland +19 37 £418 -4.02% 13
North East -9 36 £488 -7.14% 4
East of England -4 26 £478 +27.47% 24
East Midlands -22 8 £400 +30.08% 12
Northern Ireland -1 5 - - 2
Wales -4 5 £435 -18.12% 7

GitLab
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 58 (6.37%) Confluence
2 35 (3.84%) Apache Airflow
3 31 (3.40%) SAS
4 24 (2.63%) Apache
5 18 (1.98%) Apache Spark
6 14 (1.54%) OpenStack
7 13 (1.43%) nginx
8 7 (0.77%) Appian
9 6 (0.66%) Microsoft Exchange
10 4 (0.44%) CMS
10 4 (0.44%) Oracle Workflow
11 3 (0.33%) Ethereum
11 3 (0.33%) Hyperledger
12 2 (0.22%) Anypoint
12 2 (0.22%) Jupyter
12 2 (0.22%) Mule
12 2 (0.22%) SharePoint
13 1 (0.11%) Documentum
13 1 (0.11%) MQSeries
13 1 (0.11%) Tomcat
Applications
1 2 (0.22%) Adobe XD
2 1 (0.11%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.11%) Oracle Smart View
Business Applications
1 3 (0.33%) Oracle Applications
1 3 (0.33%) SAP BRIM
2 2 (0.22%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.11%) Actimize
3 1 (0.11%) Aladdin
3 1 (0.11%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.11%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.11%) SAP BPC
3 1 (0.11%) SAP CO
3 1 (0.11%) SAP FS
Cloud Services
1 557 (61.14%) AWS
2 254 (27.88%) Azure
3 250 (27.44%) GitHub
4 173 (18.99%) GCP
5 171 (18.77%) GitHub Actions
6 154 (16.90%) Serverless
7 126 (13.83%) Amazon CloudWatch
7 126 (13.83%) Amazon S3
8 117 (12.84%) Amazon EKS
9 115 (12.62%) AWS CloudFormation
10 113 (12.40%) Amazon EC2
11 109 (11.96%) AWS Lambda
12 87 (9.55%) OpenShift
13 86 (9.44%) Virtual Private Cloud
14 85 (9.33%) Azure DevOps
15 77 (8.45%) Amazon ECS
16 39 (4.28%) Azure AKS
17 32 (3.51%) Datadog
18 25 (2.74%) Route 53
19 23 (2.52%) Amazon ELB
Communications & Networking
1 63 (6.92%) Firewall
2 49 (5.38%) DNS
3 43 (4.72%) VPN
4 33 (3.62%) TCP/IP
5 22 (2.41%) Network Security
6 20 (2.20%) SSL
7 6 (0.66%) Kerberos
8 5 (0.55%) BGP
8 5 (0.55%) HTTP
8 5 (0.55%) OpenLDAP
8 5 (0.55%) SD-WAN
8 5 (0.55%) WAN
9 4 (0.44%) Reverse Proxy
9 4 (0.44%) VXLAN
10 3 (0.33%) DHCP
10 3 (0.33%) Ethernet VPN
10 3 (0.33%) Multicast
10 3 (0.33%) OSPF
10 3 (0.33%) Software-Defined Networking
10 3 (0.33%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 92 (10.10%) PostgreSQL
2 82 (9.00%) MongoDB
3 80 (8.78%) NoSQL
4 70 (7.68%) Amazon RDS
5 32 (3.51%) Data Lake
6 28 (3.07%) DynamoDB
7 25 (2.74%) MySQL
7 25 (2.74%) Redis
8 21 (2.31%) Amazon Athena
8 21 (2.31%) Relational Database
9 19 (2.09%) SQL Server
10 17 (1.87%) Big Data
11 15 (1.65%) Data Warehouse
12 14 (1.54%) Apache Cassandra
13 13 (1.43%) Oracle Database
14 12 (1.32%) Power BI
15 11 (1.21%) SAS Enterprise Guide
16 10 (1.10%) BigQuery
17 8 (0.88%) Delta Lake
18 7 (0.77%) Aerospike
Development Applications
1 441 (48.41%) Jenkins
2 223 (24.48%) Git
3 130 (14.27%) JIRA
4 84 (9.22%) Selenium
5 61 (6.70%) Cucumber
6 59 (6.48%) JUnit
7 41 (4.50%) Postman
8 40 (4.39%) Maven
9 36 (3.95%) Artifactory
10 33 (3.62%) SonarQube
11 32 (3.51%) Cypress.io
11 32 (3.51%) JMeter
12 31 (3.40%) Gradle
13 30 (3.29%) Bitbucket
14 29 (3.18%) Sonatype Nexus
15 26 (2.85%) REST Assured
16 25 (2.74%) CircleCI
16 25 (2.74%) Liquibase
17 24 (2.63%) Gatling
18 17 (1.87%) Mockito
General
1 228 (25.03%) Social Skills
2 146 (16.03%) Finance
3 123 (13.50%) Public Sector
4 101 (11.09%) Banking
5 63 (6.92%) Analytical Skills
6 24 (2.63%) Financial Institution
7 22 (2.41%) Telecoms
8 20 (2.20%) Documentation Skills
9 14 (1.54%) Military
10 12 (1.32%) Aerospace
11 9 (0.99%) Investment Banking
12 8 (0.88%) Games
13 7 (0.77%) Retail
13 7 (0.77%) Retail Banking
14 6 (0.66%) Influencing Skills
15 4 (0.44%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 3 (0.33%) Law
16 3 (0.33%) Local Government
16 3 (0.33%) Marketing
16 3 (0.33%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 218 (23.93%) DevOps Engineer
2 177 (19.43%) Developer
3 152 (16.68%) Senior
4 97 (10.65%) AWS Engineer
5 71 (7.79%) Lead
6 70 (7.68%) AWS DevOps
7 63 (6.92%) Software Engineer
8 59 (6.48%) AWS DevOps Engineer
8 59 (6.48%) Java Developer
9 47 (5.16%) Cloud Engineer
10 45 (4.94%) Senior DevOps
10 45 (4.94%) Senior DevOps Engineer
11 44 (4.83%) Test Engineer
12 42 (4.61%) Architect
12 42 (4.61%) Data Engineer
13 35 (3.84%) Automation Engineer
14 34 (3.73%) Senior Developer
15 30 (3.29%) GCP Engineer
16 29 (3.18%) Platform Engineer
17 27 (2.96%) Test Automation Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 155 (17.01%) REST
2 133 (14.60%) Kafka
3 111 (12.18%) Spring
4 103 (11.31%) Spring Boot
5 101 (11.09%) Elastic Stack
6 99 (10.87%) Node.js
7 93 (10.21%) RESTful
8 57 (6.26%) React
9 48 (5.27%) Playwright
10 37 (4.06%) JSON
11 36 (3.95%) HTML
12 33 (3.62%) PySpark
13 32 (3.51%) OpenTelemetry
13 32 (3.51%) pytest
13 32 (3.51%) RabbitMQ
14 31 (3.40%) OpenID
15 29 (3.18%) LDAP
16 25 (2.74%) Jest
17 24 (2.63%) CSS
17 24 (2.63%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 136 (14.93%) Cloud Native
2 72 (7.90%) Distributed Systems
3 48 (5.27%) Product Ownership
4 45 (4.94%) Public Cloud
5 26 (2.85%) Onboarding
6 16 (1.76%) Private Cloud
7 15 (1.65%) Data Centre
7 15 (1.65%) Hybrid Cloud
8 14 (1.54%) Legacy Systems
9 13 (1.43%) Linux Command Line
9 13 (1.43%) PKI
10 10 (1.10%) Algorithms
11 9 (0.99%) Management Information System
11 9 (0.99%) Synthetic Data
12 8 (0.88%) Enterprise Software
12 8 (0.88%) Legacy Applications
12 8 (0.88%) Security Posture
13 7 (0.77%) Data Protection Act
13 7 (0.77%) Distributed Computing
14 6 (0.66%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 186 (20.42%) Linux
2 57 (6.26%) Windows
3 29 (3.18%) Unix
4 25 (2.74%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 17 (1.87%) Windows Server
6 11 (1.21%) CentOS
7 10 (1.10%) Android
7 10 (1.10%) Apple iOS
8 7 (0.77%) VMS
9 3 (0.33%) Solaris
9 3 (0.33%) Ubuntu
9 3 (0.33%) Windows Server 2016
9 3 (0.33%) Windows Server 2019
10 2 (0.22%) zOS
11 1 (0.11%) Debian
11 1 (0.11%) Oracle Linux
11 1 (0.11%) Rocky
11 1 (0.11%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 726 (79.69%) CI/CD
2 571 (62.68%) DevOps
3 367 (40.29%) Infrastructure as Code
4 343 (37.65%) Containerisation
5 332 (36.44%) Agile
6 251 (27.55%) Test Automation
7 201 (22.06%) Microservices
8 163 (17.89%) Problem-Solving
9 154 (16.90%) Observability
10 139 (15.26%) Software Engineering
11 112 (12.29%) Scrum
12 98 (10.76%) Continuous Improvement
13 93 (10.21%) Infrastructure Automation
14 88 (9.66%) Analytics
15 86 (9.44%) DevSecOps
16 79 (8.67%) Migration
17 78 (8.56%) High Availability
18 75 (8.23%) Platform Engineering
19 71 (7.79%) Data Pipeline
20 68 (7.46%) Continuous Integration
Programming Languages
1 431 (47.31%) Python
2 262 (28.76%) Java
3 176 (19.32%) Bash
4 146 (16.03%) SQL
5 109 (11.96%) JavaScript
6 101 (11.09%) Go
7 79 (8.67%) PowerShell
8 75 (8.23%) TypeScript
9 46 (5.05%) Shell Script
10 21 (2.31%) C#
11 17 (1.87%) Ruby
12 16 (1.76%) Kotlin
13 14 (1.54%) PL/SQL
14 12 (1.32%) Perl
15 10 (1.10%) Rust
16 9 (0.99%) C
16 9 (0.99%) C++
16 9 (0.99%) Groovy
17 8 (0.88%) Scala
18 7 (0.77%) Korn
Qualifications
1 318 (34.91%) Security Cleared
2 256 (28.10%) SC Cleared
3 62 (6.81%) Degree
4 55 (6.04%) Computer Science Degree
5 40 (4.39%) BPSS Clearance
6 39 (4.28%) AWS Certification
7 37 (4.06%) DV Cleared
8 36 (3.95%) Master's Degree
9 21 (2.31%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 12 (1.32%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
11 11 (1.21%) CISSP
11 11 (1.21%) Oracle Certification
12 10 (1.10%) CISM
12 10 (1.10%) OCA
13 6 (0.66%) AWS Certified Developer
14 5 (0.55%) Azure Certification
15 4 (0.44%) Microsoft Certification
16 3 (0.33%) CCNP
16 3 (0.33%) Cisco Certification
16 3 (0.33%) ISTQB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 125 (13.72%) QA
2 47 (5.16%) Accessibility
3 23 (2.52%) GDPR
4 19 (2.09%) WCAG
5 18 (1.98%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 17 (1.87%) NIST
7 14 (1.54%) SLA
8 13 (1.43%) Data Quality
8 13 (1.43%) NCSC
8 13 (1.43%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 7 (0.77%) PCI DSS
10 4 (0.44%) Def Stans
11 2 (0.22%) HL7
12 1 (0.11%) Disclosure Scotland
12 1 (0.11%) IEC 61508
12 1 (0.11%) ISO 20022
12 1 (0.11%) JSP 440
12 1 (0.11%) MISRA
12 1 (0.11%) MISRA C
12 1 (0.11%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 404 (44.35%) Docker
2 25 (2.74%) Active Directory
3 15 (1.65%) VMware Infrastructure
4 8 (0.88%) Virtual Servers
5 7 (0.77%) Virtual Machines
6 4 (0.44%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
7 3 (0.33%) VMware NSX
7 3 (0.33%) vSphere
8 2 (0.22%) HDFS
8 2 (0.22%) Hyper-V
9 1 (0.11%) Apache ZooKeeper
9 1 (0.11%) KVM
9 1 (0.11%) Squid
Systems Management
1 491 (53.90%) Kubernetes
2 443 (48.63%) Terraform
3 247 (27.11%) Ansible
4 233 (25.58%) Grafana
5 188 (20.64%) Prometheus
6 47 (5.16%) Argo
7 24 (2.63%) Istio
8 23 (2.52%) Puppet
9 20 (2.20%) Podman
10 18 (1.98%) Progress Chef
11 15 (1.65%) Kibana
12 13 (1.43%) Fluentd
12 13 (1.43%) Packer
13 10 (1.10%) linkerd
13 10 (1.10%) NetBackup
14 8 (0.88%) Karpenter
15 7 (0.77%) Rancher
15 7 (0.77%) Red Hat Satellite
15 7 (0.77%) Sysdig
16 6 (0.66%) Check_MK
Vendors
1 109 (11.96%) Splunk
2 77 (8.45%) Microsoft
3 67 (7.35%) Oracle
4 51 (5.60%) Red Hat
5 48 (5.27%) Google
6 37 (4.06%) VMware
7 27 (2.96%) Dynatrace
8 24 (2.63%) Databricks
8 24 (2.63%) ServiceNow
9 21 (2.31%) Palo Alto
10 20 (2.20%) CheckPoint
11 19 (2.09%) F5
12 18 (1.98%) Atlassian
13 16 (1.76%) Cisco
14 13 (1.43%) Cribl.io
15 11 (1.21%) Commvault
15 11 (1.21%) IBM
15 11 (1.21%) Veritas
16 8 (0.88%) Veracode
17 7 (0.77%) SAP