Open Source Contract Job Trends

Open Source
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Open Source skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 31 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
31 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 299 271 270
Rank change year-on-year -28 -1 -11
Contract jobs citing Open Source 356 264 383
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.80% 0.91% 0.87%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.93% 1.00% 1.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 160 194 250
10th Percentile £350 £400 £362
25th Percentile £437 £457 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £575 £575
Median % change year-on-year -4.35% - -4.17%
75th Percentile £650 £684 £675
90th Percentile £805 £838 £776
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £585
% change year-on-year -5.00% -14.53% +9.93%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 2 4
10th Percentile - £32.90 £58.04
25th Percentile £15.25 £43.25 £66.35
Median hourly rate £15.50 £60.50 £71.93
Median % change year-on-year -74.38% -15.89% -4.09%
75th Percentile £39.75 £77.75 £74.36
90th Percentile £54.15 £88.10 £76.99
UK excluding London median hourly rate £15.50 - £71.93

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK

Open Source falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 38,122 26,294 38,266
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 85.61% 90.44% 86.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,155 17,082 24,859
10th Percentile £313 £308 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £485 £488 £500
% change year-on-year -0.51% -2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,251 966 2,351
10th Percentile £14.96 £15.00 £12.84
25th Percentile £18.87 £20.24 £16.00
Median hourly rate £35.50 £31.88 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +11.36% -1.91% -10.48%
75th Percentile £65.00 £63.75 £57.50
90th Percentile £77.50 £76.72 £70.66
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.00 £31.50 £31.50
% change year-on-year +4.76% - -12.50%

Open Source
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Open Source job vacancy trend in the UK

Open Source
Daily Rate Trend

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

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Open Source

Open Source
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Open Source over the 6 months to 31 March 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Open Source in the UK

Open Source
Hourly Rate Trend

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

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Open Source

Open Source
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Open Source over the 6 months to 31 March 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Open Source in the UK

Open Source
Top 14 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Open Source within the UK over the 6 months to 31 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
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England -57 290 £550 -8.33% 149
London -55 153 £625 - 78
Work from Home -22 128 £550 -8.33% 59
UK excluding London -56 126 £475 -5.00% 93
North of England -51 36 £450 -2.70% 21
South East -40 25 £413 -17.50% 20
Scotland +4 21 £663 +26.19% 10
South West -14 20 £365 -41.60% 12
North West -22 20 £450 -2.70% 9
West Midlands -48 15 £475 +10.08% 5
Midlands -65 15 £475 +10.08% 6
Yorkshire -46 13 £525 -1.50% 8
East of England -36 9 £550 +22.22% 21
North East -13 3 - - 4

Open Source
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 15 (4.21%) Apache
2 11 (3.09%) Apache Spark
2 11 (3.09%) Confluence
3 8 (2.25%) Appian
4 6 (1.69%) JBoss
4 6 (1.69%) WebLogic
5 5 (1.40%) OpenStack
5 5 (1.40%) SharePoint
6 4 (1.12%) nginx
7 3 (0.84%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 3 (0.84%) Apache Airflow
8 2 (0.56%) Liferay
8 2 (0.56%) Tomcat
9 1 (0.28%) Apache Superset
9 1 (0.28%) ArcGIS
9 1 (0.28%) GeoServer
9 1 (0.28%) Oracle Spatial
Applications
1 1 (0.28%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 2 (0.56%) Oracle EBS
1 2 (0.56%) Oracle EBS R12
2 1 (0.28%) Magento
2 1 (0.28%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 175 (49.16%) AWS
2 83 (23.31%) Azure
3 40 (11.24%) GitHub
4 32 (8.99%) GCP
5 25 (7.02%) Amazon S3
6 24 (6.74%) Serverless
7 20 (5.62%) Azure AI
7 20 (5.62%) GitHub Actions
8 15 (4.21%) Amazon EC2
9 14 (3.93%) Azure DevOps
10 13 (3.65%) Anthropic Claude
11 11 (3.09%) AWS Lambda
12 10 (2.81%) Amazon SageMaker
12 10 (2.81%) Azure Cognitive Services
12 10 (2.81%) Azure Data Factory
12 10 (2.81%) CloudFront
12 10 (2.81%) Google Gemini
13 9 (2.53%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 8 (2.25%) Power Automate
14 8 (2.25%) Route 53
Communications & Networking
1 14 (3.93%) Firewall
2 7 (1.97%) DNS
3 6 (1.69%) DHCP
4 5 (1.40%) Reverse Proxy
4 5 (1.40%) WAN
5 3 (0.84%) VLAN
6 2 (0.56%) Internet
6 2 (0.56%) NaaS
6 2 (0.56%) SSH
6 2 (0.56%) TCP/IP
7 1 (0.28%) HTTPS
7 1 (0.28%) Intrusion Detection
7 1 (0.28%) iSCSI
7 1 (0.28%) Kerberos
7 1 (0.28%) LAN
7 1 (0.28%) Network Security
7 1 (0.28%) RTP
7 1 (0.28%) SAN
7 1 (0.28%) SNMP
7 1 (0.28%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 61 (17.13%) Apache Cassandra
2 48 (13.48%) PostgreSQL
3 21 (5.90%) MongoDB
4 19 (5.34%) NoSQL
5 17 (4.78%) SQL Server
6 12 (3.37%) DynamoDB
6 12 (3.37%) Pinecone
6 12 (3.37%) Redis
7 11 (3.09%) BigQuery
8 10 (2.81%) Relational Database
9 9 (2.53%) Amazon RDS
10 8 (2.25%) Metadata
11 7 (1.97%) Big Data
12 6 (1.69%) Amazon Aurora
12 6 (1.69%) Flink
13 5 (1.40%) Amazon QuickSight
13 5 (1.40%) GIS
13 5 (1.40%) Oracle Database
13 5 (1.40%) RDBMS
14 4 (1.12%) DB2
Development Applications
1 51 (14.33%) Git
2 25 (7.02%) GitLab
3 24 (6.74%) Jenkins
4 22 (6.18%) JUnit
5 16 (4.49%) JIRA
6 11 (3.09%) MLflow
7 9 (2.53%) SonarQube
8 7 (1.97%) Gradle
8 7 (1.97%) IntelliJ
8 7 (1.97%) Maven
8 7 (1.97%) Sonatype Nexus
9 6 (1.69%) Bitbucket Server
9 6 (1.69%) CircleCI
9 6 (1.69%) DbUnit
9 6 (1.69%) jMock
9 6 (1.69%) Mocha
9 6 (1.69%) Mockito
10 5 (1.40%) Cucumber
10 5 (1.40%) Selenium
11 4 (1.12%) Cypress.io
General
1 71 (19.94%) Social Skills
2 67 (18.82%) Finance
3 49 (13.76%) Public Sector
4 31 (8.71%) Banking
5 27 (7.58%) Analytical Skills
6 15 (4.21%) Legal
7 13 (3.65%) Front Office
8 11 (3.09%) Investment Banking
9 7 (1.97%) Retail
10 6 (1.69%) Financial Institution
10 6 (1.69%) Presentation Skills
10 6 (1.69%) Publishing
11 5 (1.40%) Influencing Skills
11 5 (1.40%) Organisational Skills
11 5 (1.40%) Telecoms
12 4 (1.12%) Documentation Skills
12 4 (1.12%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 4 (1.12%) Marketing
13 3 (0.84%) Military
14 2 (0.56%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 111 (31.18%) Developer
2 84 (23.60%) Senior
3 59 (16.57%) Architect
4 52 (14.61%) Senior Developer
5 38 (10.67%) Software Engineer
6 27 (7.58%) Solutions Architect
7 24 (6.74%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
8 18 (5.06%) AWS Architect
9 15 (4.21%) Data Engineer
9 15 (4.21%) Python Developer
10 14 (3.93%) Android Developer
11 13 (3.65%) AWS Solution Architect
11 13 (3.65%) Java Developer
12 12 (3.37%) Platform Engineer
13 11 (3.09%) Artificial Intelligence Architect
13 11 (3.09%) Cloud Engineer
13 11 (3.09%) Consultant
14 10 (2.81%) Automation Engineer
14 10 (2.81%) Senior Platform Engineer
15 9 (2.53%) Lead
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 108 (30.34%) Kafka
2 69 (19.38%) gRPC
3 48 (13.48%) REST
4 36 (10.11%) React
5 34 (9.55%) Node.js
6 28 (7.87%) RESTful
7 27 (7.58%) Spring
8 22 (6.18%) .NET
8 22 (6.18%) AngularJS
8 22 (6.18%) LangChain
9 21 (5.90%) Web Services
10 20 (5.62%) HTML
11 19 (5.34%) Spring Boot
12 16 (4.49%) CSS
13 15 (4.21%) PyTorch
14 14 (3.93%) Android Jetpack
14 14 (3.93%) Hugging Face
14 14 (3.93%) Jetpack Compose
15 13 (3.65%) Jest
15 13 (3.65%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 82 (23.03%) Distributed Systems
2 33 (9.27%) Cloud Native
3 21 (5.90%) Product Ownership
4 10 (2.81%) AI Agents
4 10 (2.81%) Equities
4 10 (2.81%) Legacy Systems
5 9 (2.53%) Distributed Computing
5 9 (2.53%) Legacy Code
6 8 (2.25%) Fat Client
6 8 (2.25%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
6 8 (2.25%) Low-Code
6 8 (2.25%) Onboarding
6 8 (2.25%) PKI
6 8 (2.25%) Thin Client
7 7 (1.97%) Data Protection Act
7 7 (1.97%) Enterprise Software
7 7 (1.97%) Mobile App
7 7 (1.97%) Security Posture
8 6 (1.69%) Data Centre
8 6 (1.69%) Hedge funds
Operating Systems
1 51 (14.33%) Linux
2 23 (6.46%) Android
3 18 (5.06%) Windows
4 9 (2.53%) Unix
5 8 (2.25%) Windows 7
6 7 (1.97%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 6 (1.69%) Apple iOS
8 4 (1.12%) Ubuntu
9 3 (0.84%) Debian
9 3 (0.84%) Rocky
9 3 (0.84%) Windows Server
10 2 (0.56%) CentOS
10 2 (0.56%) VMS
11 1 (0.28%) Oracle Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 111 (31.18%) Software Engineering
2 101 (28.37%) Microservices
3 88 (24.72%) CI/CD
4 82 (23.03%) AI
5 79 (22.19%) Agile
6 62 (17.42%) DevOps
7 57 (16.01%) Containerisation
7 57 (16.01%) LLM
8 54 (15.17%) Problem-Solving
9 48 (13.48%) Infrastructure as Code
9 48 (13.48%) Machine Learning
10 43 (12.08%) Generative AI
11 40 (11.24%) Data Pipeline
12 37 (10.39%) Stakeholder Management
13 33 (9.27%) Observability
14 32 (8.99%) Computer Science
15 31 (8.71%) Retrieval-Augmented Generation
15 31 (8.71%) Test Automation
16 30 (8.43%) Clean Code
17 27 (7.58%) Performance Tuning
Programming Languages
1 152 (42.70%) Python
2 79 (22.19%) Go
3 74 (20.79%) Java
4 57 (16.01%) SQL
5 32 (8.99%) JavaScript
6 30 (8.43%) TypeScript
7 25 (7.02%) C#
8 19 (5.34%) Kotlin
9 15 (4.21%) Bash
10 11 (3.09%) Ruby
10 11 (3.09%) Scala
11 10 (2.81%) Shell Script
12 9 (2.53%) PowerShell
13 7 (1.97%) PL/SQL
14 4 (1.12%) C++
14 4 (1.12%) Delphi
14 4 (1.12%) PHP
15 2 (0.56%) Kusto Query Language
16 1 (0.28%) Bicep
16 1 (0.28%) Solidity
Qualifications
1 87 (24.44%) Security Cleared
2 58 (16.29%) SC Cleared
3 36 (10.11%) Degree
4 17 (4.78%) DV Cleared
5 15 (4.21%) BPSS Clearance
5 15 (4.21%) Computer Science Degree
6 11 (3.09%) Master's Degree
7 8 (2.25%) PhD
8 4 (1.12%) AWS Certification
8 4 (1.12%) Azure Certification
9 2 (0.56%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 1 (0.28%) CCIP
10 1 (0.28%) Cisco Certification
10 1 (0.28%) ISEB
10 1 (0.28%) MPhil
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (4.78%) Accessibility
2 16 (4.49%) QA
3 11 (3.09%) NIST
4 10 (2.81%) Data Quality
4 10 (2.81%) WCAG
5 8 (2.25%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 7 (1.97%) GDPR
7 5 (1.40%) Cyber Essentials
7 5 (1.40%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 2 (0.56%) GPG for Computer-Based Electronic Evidence
8 2 (0.56%) ISO/IEC 17025
8 2 (0.56%) ISO17020
8 2 (0.56%) SLA
9 1 (0.28%) GRC
9 1 (0.28%) HIPAA
9 1 (0.28%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
9 1 (0.28%) ISO/IEC 42001
9 1 (0.28%) PCI DSS
9 1 (0.28%) SOC 2
System Software
1 126 (35.39%) Docker
2 15 (4.21%) Active Directory
3 5 (1.40%) Ceph
3 5 (1.40%) Postfix
3 5 (1.40%) Virtual Machines
4 4 (1.12%) Oracle RAC
5 3 (0.84%) ISA Server
5 3 (0.84%) KVM
6 2 (0.56%) Oracle Clusterware
7 1 (0.28%) Firmware
7 1 (0.28%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.28%) iptables
7 1 (0.28%) Lustre
7 1 (0.28%) NFS
7 1 (0.28%) QEMU
7 1 (0.28%) Samba
7 1 (0.28%) Slurm Workload Manager
7 1 (0.28%) Squid
7 1 (0.28%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 115 (32.30%) Kubernetes
2 39 (10.96%) Terraform
3 30 (8.43%) Grafana
4 27 (7.58%) Prometheus
5 12 (3.37%) Ansible
6 8 (2.25%) Istio
6 8 (2.25%) WMI
7 6 (1.69%) Argo
7 6 (1.69%) Puppet
8 4 (1.12%) Data Guard
8 4 (1.12%) Oracle RMAN
9 3 (0.84%) HAProxy
10 2 (0.56%) Amdocs OSS
10 2 (0.56%) Knative
10 2 (0.56%) Rancher
10 2 (0.56%) Salt
11 1 (0.28%) CASB
11 1 (0.28%) MOM
11 1 (0.28%) SELinux
Vendors
1 28 (7.87%) Microsoft
2 26 (7.30%) Google
3 24 (6.74%) OpenAI
4 10 (2.81%) Splunk
4 10 (2.81%) VMware
5 9 (2.53%) Oracle
5 9 (2.53%) UiPath
6 8 (2.25%) Atlassian
6 8 (2.25%) Automation Anywhere
7 6 (1.69%) Dynatrace
7 6 (1.69%) Jaspersoft
8 5 (1.40%) Confluent
8 5 (1.40%) Databricks
8 5 (1.40%) Red Hat
9 4 (1.12%) Cloudera
9 4 (1.12%) SAP
9 4 (1.12%) ServiceNow
9 4 (1.12%) Sybase
9 4 (1.12%) webMethods
9 4 (1.12%) Xamarin