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 24 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
24 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 109 140 231
Rank change year-on-year +31 +91 -50
Contract jobs citing GitLab 938 594 452
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.47% 1.88% 1.03%
As % of the Development Applications category 17.12% 13.92% 8.37%
Number of daily rates quoted 707 394 339
10th Percentile £380 £363 £400
25th Percentile £425 £450 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £550 £558
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% -1.35% -7.08%
75th Percentile £576 £663 £638
90th Percentile £675 £734 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £525
% change year-on-year - -4.76% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 26 5 1
10th Percentile £39.53 £65.60 -
25th Percentile £52.50 £74.00 £58.75
Median hourly rate £56.25 £74.44 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -24.44% +24.07% -7.69%
75th Percentile £65.00 £87.50 £61.25
90th Percentile £82.50 £92.00 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £55.00 £74.44 £60.00
% change year-on-year -26.11% +24.07% -7.69%

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 5,480 4,266 5,399
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 14.42% 13.49% 12.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,767 2,682 3,767
10th Percentile £344 £331 £363
25th Percentile £406 £410 £432
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £530
Median % change year-on-year - -5.66% -5.36%
75th Percentile £589 £625 £634
90th Percentile £697 £725 £719
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £478 £500
% change year-on-year -0.52% -4.50% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 138 73 212
10th Percentile £39.00 £26.70 £41.25
25th Percentile £52.50 £46.25 £50.00
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 £76.53
90th Percentile £82.30 £76.05 £89.88
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 24 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 24 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 24 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 +12 777 £513 -10.09% 296
UK excluding London +53 478 £500 - 275
London +1 314 £525 -12.50% 64
Work from Home +8 249 £484 -11.61% 183
North of England +6 231 £488 -5.34% 56
North West +7 108 £431 -13.80% 34
Yorkshire -2 92 £506 -11.96% 18
Midlands +23 90 £525 +8.70% 23
West Midlands +13 82 £525 +7.25% 8
South East -21 51 £500 -2.44% 89
South West +14 48 £525 -22.08% 43
Scotland +17 41 £447 +3.35% 22
North East -8 37 £488 -7.14% 4
East of England +2 24 £478 +1.97% 31
East Midlands -20 8 £400 +20.57% 14
Northern Ireland 0 6 - - 4
Wales -6 5 £435 -19.07% 11

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 61 (6.50%) Confluence
2 33 (3.52%) Apache Airflow
3 31 (3.30%) SAS
4 21 (2.24%) Apache
5 18 (1.92%) OpenStack
6 17 (1.81%) Apache Spark
7 14 (1.49%) nginx
8 7 (0.75%) Appian
9 4 (0.43%) Microsoft Exchange
9 4 (0.43%) Oracle Workflow
10 3 (0.32%) CMS
10 3 (0.32%) Ethereum
10 3 (0.32%) Hyperledger
11 2 (0.21%) SharePoint
12 1 (0.11%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 1 (0.11%) Cloud Foundry
12 1 (0.11%) Documentum
12 1 (0.11%) FileNet
12 1 (0.11%) Jupyter
12 1 (0.11%) Luigi
Applications
1 2 (0.21%) Adobe XD
2 1 (0.11%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.11%) Oracle Smart View
Business Applications
1 3 (0.32%) Oracle Applications
1 3 (0.32%) SAP BRIM
2 2 (0.21%) 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
1 575 (61.30%) AWS
2 259 (27.61%) Azure
3 256 (27.29%) GitHub
4 176 (18.76%) GitHub Actions
5 171 (18.23%) GCP
6 157 (16.74%) Serverless
7 130 (13.86%) Amazon S3
8 121 (12.90%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 120 (12.79%) Amazon EKS
10 118 (12.58%) AWS CloudFormation
11 117 (12.47%) Amazon EC2
12 113 (12.05%) AWS Lambda
13 89 (9.49%) OpenShift
14 88 (9.38%) Azure DevOps
15 83 (8.85%) Virtual Private Cloud
16 79 (8.42%) Amazon ECS
17 37 (3.94%) Azure AKS
18 32 (3.41%) Datadog
19 24 (2.56%) Route 53
20 23 (2.45%) Amazon ELB
Communications & Networking
1 64 (6.82%) Firewall
2 48 (5.12%) DNS
3 43 (4.58%) VPN
4 35 (3.73%) TCP/IP
5 26 (2.77%) Network Security
6 20 (2.13%) SSL
7 6 (0.64%) Kerberos
7 6 (0.64%) WAN
8 5 (0.53%) BGP
8 5 (0.53%) HTTP
8 5 (0.53%) Multicast
8 5 (0.53%) SD-WAN
9 4 (0.43%) Reverse Proxy
9 4 (0.43%) SAN
9 4 (0.43%) VXLAN
10 3 (0.32%) DHCP
10 3 (0.32%) FTP
10 3 (0.32%) NAS
10 3 (0.32%) OSPF
10 3 (0.32%) Software-Defined Networking
Database & Business Intelligence
1 91 (9.70%) PostgreSQL
2 80 (8.53%) MongoDB
3 79 (8.42%) NoSQL
4 71 (7.57%) Amazon RDS
5 31 (3.30%) Data Lake
6 29 (3.09%) DynamoDB
7 26 (2.77%) MySQL
8 24 (2.56%) Redis
9 23 (2.45%) Amazon Athena
9 23 (2.45%) Relational Database
10 19 (2.03%) Big Data
11 18 (1.92%) SQL Server
12 15 (1.60%) Data Warehouse
13 14 (1.49%) Apache Cassandra
13 14 (1.49%) Oracle Database
14 12 (1.28%) Power BI
15 11 (1.17%) SAS Enterprise Guide
16 10 (1.07%) Elasticsearch
17 9 (0.96%) BigQuery
18 8 (0.85%) Delta Lake
Development Applications
1 451 (48.08%) Jenkins
2 222 (23.67%) Git
3 137 (14.61%) JIRA
4 91 (9.70%) Selenium
5 65 (6.93%) Cucumber
6 64 (6.82%) JUnit
7 45 (4.80%) Postman
8 39 (4.16%) Maven
9 37 (3.94%) SonarQube
10 32 (3.41%) Cypress.io
11 31 (3.30%) Artifactory
11 31 (3.30%) JMeter
12 30 (3.20%) Bitbucket
12 30 (3.20%) Gradle
12 30 (3.20%) Sonatype Nexus
13 28 (2.99%) CircleCI
13 28 (2.99%) REST Assured
14 22 (2.35%) Gatling
14 22 (2.35%) Liquibase
15 20 (2.13%) Mockito
General
1 231 (24.63%) Social Skills
2 155 (16.52%) Finance
3 137 (14.61%) Public Sector
4 101 (10.77%) Banking
5 69 (7.36%) Analytical Skills
6 25 (2.67%) Financial Institution
7 22 (2.35%) Documentation Skills
8 19 (2.03%) Telecoms
9 14 (1.49%) Military
10 11 (1.17%) Aerospace
11 10 (1.07%) Investment Banking
12 9 (0.96%) Retail
13 8 (0.85%) Retail Banking
14 7 (0.75%) Games
14 7 (0.75%) Influencing Skills
15 4 (0.43%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 4 (0.43%) Presentation Skills
16 3 (0.32%) Corporate Banking
16 3 (0.32%) Law
16 3 (0.32%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 225 (23.99%) DevOps Engineer
2 189 (20.15%) Developer
3 151 (16.10%) Senior
4 102 (10.87%) AWS Engineer
5 77 (8.21%) AWS DevOps
6 72 (7.68%) Lead
7 65 (6.93%) AWS DevOps Engineer
8 60 (6.40%) Java Developer
8 60 (6.40%) Software Engineer
9 44 (4.69%) Cloud Engineer
9 44 (4.69%) Data Engineer
9 44 (4.69%) Senior DevOps
9 44 (4.69%) Senior DevOps Engineer
10 43 (4.58%) Test Engineer
11 40 (4.26%) Architect
12 35 (3.73%) Automation Engineer
13 34 (3.62%) Senior Developer
14 31 (3.30%) Platform Engineer
15 28 (2.99%) GCP Engineer
16 27 (2.88%) Full-Stack Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 150 (15.99%) REST
2 133 (14.18%) Kafka
3 116 (12.37%) Spring
4 109 (11.62%) Spring Boot
5 101 (10.77%) Elastic Stack
5 101 (10.77%) RESTful
6 100 (10.66%) Node.js
7 60 (6.40%) React
8 52 (5.54%) Playwright
9 35 (3.73%) HTML
10 33 (3.52%) JSON
11 32 (3.41%) OpenTelemetry
11 32 (3.41%) PySpark
11 32 (3.41%) RabbitMQ
12 31 (3.30%) OpenID
13 28 (2.99%) Jest
13 28 (2.99%) pytest
14 27 (2.88%) LDAP
15 26 (2.77%) YAML
16 24 (2.56%) CSS
Miscellaneous
1 142 (15.14%) Cloud Native
2 68 (7.25%) Distributed Systems
3 52 (5.54%) Product Ownership
4 46 (4.90%) Public Cloud
5 25 (2.67%) Onboarding
6 17 (1.81%) Data Centre
6 17 (1.81%) Private Cloud
7 16 (1.71%) Hybrid Cloud
8 13 (1.39%) Legacy Systems
8 13 (1.39%) Linux Command Line
9 12 (1.28%) PKI
10 9 (0.96%) Enterprise Software
10 9 (0.96%) Management Information System
10 9 (0.96%) Security Posture
10 9 (0.96%) Synthetic Data
11 8 (0.85%) Algorithms
11 8 (0.85%) Data Protection Act
12 7 (0.75%) Distributed Computing
12 7 (0.75%) Legacy Applications
12 7 (0.75%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 191 (20.36%) Linux
2 56 (5.97%) Windows
3 31 (3.30%) Unix
4 26 (2.77%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 16 (1.71%) Windows Server
6 11 (1.17%) CentOS
7 10 (1.07%) Android
7 10 (1.07%) Apple iOS
8 7 (0.75%) VMS
9 3 (0.32%) Solaris
9 3 (0.32%) Ubuntu
9 3 (0.32%) Windows Server 2016
9 3 (0.32%) Windows Server 2019
10 1 (0.11%) Debian
10 1 (0.11%) Oracle Linux
10 1 (0.11%) Rocky
10 1 (0.11%) Windows 10
10 1 (0.11%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 749 (79.85%) CI/CD
2 578 (61.62%) DevOps
3 371 (39.55%) Infrastructure as Code
4 351 (37.42%) Containerisation
5 338 (36.03%) Agile
6 268 (28.57%) Test Automation
7 203 (21.64%) Microservices
8 171 (18.23%) Problem-Solving
9 156 (16.63%) Observability
10 139 (14.82%) Software Engineering
11 116 (12.37%) Scrum
12 105 (11.19%) Continuous Improvement
13 93 (9.91%) Analytics
14 86 (9.17%) DevSecOps
14 86 (9.17%) Infrastructure Automation
15 79 (8.42%) Migration
16 76 (8.10%) Platform Engineering
17 73 (7.78%) High Availability
17 73 (7.78%) TDD
18 70 (7.46%) Data Pipeline
Programming Languages
1 426 (45.42%) Python
2 279 (29.74%) Java
3 181 (19.30%) Bash
4 148 (15.78%) SQL
5 114 (12.15%) JavaScript
6 93 (9.91%) Go
7 82 (8.74%) TypeScript
8 78 (8.32%) PowerShell
9 45 (4.80%) Shell Script
10 22 (2.35%) C#
11 17 (1.81%) Ruby
12 16 (1.71%) Kotlin
13 14 (1.49%) PL/SQL
14 12 (1.28%) Perl
15 10 (1.07%) Rust
16 9 (0.96%) Groovy
17 8 (0.85%) C
17 8 (0.85%) C++
17 8 (0.85%) Scala
18 7 (0.75%) Korn
Qualifications
1 329 (35.07%) Security Cleared
2 264 (28.14%) SC Cleared
3 61 (6.50%) Degree
4 50 (5.33%) Computer Science Degree
5 39 (4.16%) AWS Certification
5 39 (4.16%) BPSS Clearance
6 34 (3.62%) DV Cleared
7 32 (3.41%) Master's Degree
8 20 (2.13%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 14 (1.49%) CISSP
10 13 (1.39%) CISM
11 12 (1.28%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
12 11 (1.17%) Oracle Certification
13 10 (1.07%) OCA
14 6 (0.64%) AWS Certified Developer
15 5 (0.53%) Azure Certification
16 4 (0.43%) Microsoft Certification
17 3 (0.32%) CCNP
17 3 (0.32%) Cisco Certification
17 3 (0.32%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 122 (13.01%) QA
2 48 (5.12%) Accessibility
3 23 (2.45%) GDPR
4 20 (2.13%) NIST
4 20 (2.13%) WCAG
5 18 (1.92%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 14 (1.49%) Data Quality
6 14 (1.49%) SLA
7 13 (1.39%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 12 (1.28%) NCSC
9 7 (0.75%) PCI DSS
10 4 (0.43%) Def Stans
11 2 (0.21%) 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%) MiFID
12 1 (0.11%) MISRA
12 1 (0.11%) MISRA C
System Software
1 416 (44.35%) Docker
2 22 (2.35%) Active Directory
3 16 (1.71%) VMware Infrastructure
4 8 (0.85%) Virtual Servers
5 7 (0.75%) Virtual Machines
6 4 (0.43%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
7 3 (0.32%) VMware NSX
7 3 (0.32%) vSphere
8 2 (0.21%) HDFS
8 2 (0.21%) Hyper-V
9 1 (0.11%) Apache ZooKeeper
9 1 (0.11%) KVM
9 1 (0.11%) Squid
9 1 (0.11%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 497 (52.99%) Kubernetes
2 444 (47.33%) Terraform
3 240 (25.59%) Ansible
4 234 (24.95%) Grafana
5 191 (20.36%) Prometheus
6 49 (5.22%) Argo
7 24 (2.56%) Istio
8 22 (2.35%) Puppet
9 21 (2.24%) Podman
10 18 (1.92%) Progress Chef
11 16 (1.71%) Kibana
12 13 (1.39%) Fluentd
13 12 (1.28%) Packer
14 10 (1.07%) linkerd
14 10 (1.07%) NetBackup
14 10 (1.07%) Red Hat Satellite
15 8 (0.85%) Karpenter
16 7 (0.75%) Check_MK
16 7 (0.75%) Rancher
16 7 (0.75%) Sysdig
Vendors
1 102 (10.87%) Splunk
2 74 (7.89%) Microsoft
3 67 (7.14%) Oracle
4 54 (5.76%) Red Hat
5 44 (4.69%) Google
6 38 (4.05%) VMware
7 25 (2.67%) ServiceNow
8 24 (2.56%) Databricks
9 22 (2.35%) Dynatrace
9 22 (2.35%) F5
10 21 (2.24%) Palo Alto
11 20 (2.13%) CheckPoint
12 17 (1.81%) Cisco
13 14 (1.49%) Atlassian
13 14 (1.49%) Veracode
14 13 (1.39%) Cribl.io
15 12 (1.28%) Salesforce
16 11 (1.17%) Commvault
16 11 (1.17%) Veritas
17 10 (1.07%) IBM