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 8 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
8 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 393 239 313
Rank change year-on-year -154 +74 -51
Contract jobs citing Open Source 282 359 319
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.54% 1.12% 0.74%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.64% 1.24% 0.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 138 203 206
10th Percentile £425 £395 £359
25th Percentile £500 £436 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £525 £570
Median % change year-on-year +4.76% -7.89% -5.00%
75th Percentile £650 £603 £675
90th Percentile £761 £723 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £514 £480 £599
% change year-on-year +7.08% -19.83% +4.13%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 11
10th Percentile - - £20.12
25th Percentile - - £20.68
Median hourly rate £85.00 - £21.86
75th Percentile - - £27.96
90th Percentile - - £57.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate - - £20.24

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 44,398 28,953 36,844
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 85.10% 90.63% 85.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,615 18,257 23,517
10th Percentile £325 £300 £300
25th Percentile £415 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £517 £505 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.28% -3.81% -4.55%
75th Percentile £623 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,640 1,439 2,494
10th Percentile £14.80 £14.20 £12.74
25th Percentile £20.00 £17.70 £16.06
Median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +74.79% -32.93% -6.25%
75th Percentile £68.00 £53.75 £61.30
90th Percentile £82.25 £70.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £44.50 £24.66 £38.12
% change year-on-year +80.45% -35.31% +1.65%

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 8 July 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
Top 13 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 8 July 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 -168 209 £550 - 251
London -132 111 £608 +1.25% 131
Work from Home -87 109 £550 -4.35% 170
UK excluding London -123 106 £514 +7.08% 173
North of England -87 23 £510 +8.51% 29
South West -21 20 £550 +34.15% 28
Scotland -30 18 £675 +35.00% 13
West Midlands -49 18 £472 -5.60% 4
Midlands -58 18 £472 -5.60% 9
East of England -18 14 £550 +52.49% 26
Yorkshire -37 14 £510 +3.45% 12
South East -73 14 £500 - 37
North West -56 8 £450 -5.26% 16

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 17 (6.03%) Confluence
2 11 (3.90%) Apache
3 8 (2.84%) SharePoint
4 6 (2.13%) Apache Spark
4 6 (2.13%) SAS
5 5 (1.77%) Apache Airflow
5 5 (1.77%) Appian
6 3 (1.06%) Apache Superset
6 3 (1.06%) nginx
6 3 (1.06%) OpenStack
7 1 (0.35%) Apache Pulsar
7 1 (0.35%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 3 (1.06%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 2 (0.71%) Oracle EBS
Cloud Services
1 138 (48.94%) AWS
2 83 (29.43%) Azure
3 50 (17.73%) GCP
4 35 (12.41%) GitHub
5 31 (10.99%) Amazon S3
6 26 (9.22%) Amazon CloudWatch
7 24 (8.51%) Serverless
8 20 (7.09%) Amazon EC2
9 16 (5.67%) AWS Lambda
10 14 (4.96%) Azure AI
10 14 (4.96%) GitHub Actions
11 13 (4.61%) Route 53
12 12 (4.26%) Amazon SQS
12 12 (4.26%) Anthropic Claude
12 12 (4.26%) Azure DevOps
13 11 (3.90%) AWS KMS
13 11 (3.90%) Vertex AI
14 10 (3.55%) SaaS
15 9 (3.19%) Google Gemini
16 8 (2.84%) Amazon Bedrock
Communications & Networking
1 9 (3.19%) Firewall
2 7 (2.48%) Reverse Proxy
2 7 (2.48%) SNMP
3 5 (1.77%) DNS
3 5 (1.77%) WAN
4 3 (1.06%) Intrusion Detection
4 3 (1.06%) Network Security
5 2 (0.71%) DHCP
5 2 (0.71%) NaaS
6 1 (0.35%) 4G
6 1 (0.35%) 5G
6 1 (0.35%) Cisco IOS
6 1 (0.35%) HTTPS
6 1 (0.35%) LTE
6 1 (0.35%) MQTT
6 1 (0.35%) NAS
6 1 (0.35%) NGFW
6 1 (0.35%) SAN
6 1 (0.35%) SSH
6 1 (0.35%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 43 (15.25%) PostgreSQL
2 21 (7.45%) Amazon RDS
3 20 (7.09%) Apache Cassandra
4 17 (6.03%) DynamoDB
5 14 (4.96%) MongoDB
6 11 (3.90%) Amazon Aurora
7 10 (3.55%) BigQuery
8 9 (3.19%) Amazon Athena
8 9 (3.19%) Amazon Redshift
8 9 (3.19%) Data Warehouse
8 9 (3.19%) Relational Database
9 8 (2.84%) Big Data
9 8 (2.84%) Pinecone
10 7 (2.48%) Amazon QuickSight
10 7 (2.48%) Data Lake
10 7 (2.48%) SQL Server
11 5 (1.77%) BusinessObjects
11 5 (1.77%) Flink
11 5 (1.77%) Pentaho
11 5 (1.77%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 61 (21.63%) Git
2 28 (9.93%) GitLab
3 23 (8.16%) JUnit
4 22 (7.80%) Jenkins
5 18 (6.38%) JIRA
5 18 (6.38%) SonarQube
6 14 (4.96%) Sonatype Nexus
7 11 (3.90%) Bitbucket Server
7 11 (3.90%) DbUnit
7 11 (3.90%) jMock
7 11 (3.90%) Maven
7 11 (3.90%) Mockito
8 8 (2.84%) IntelliJ
8 8 (2.84%) MLflow
9 6 (2.13%) CircleCI
10 5 (1.77%) Artifactory
10 5 (1.77%) Gradle
10 5 (1.77%) PowerDesigner
11 2 (0.71%) Cucumber
11 2 (0.71%) JMeter
General
1 72 (25.53%) Social Skills
2 57 (20.21%) Finance
3 40 (14.18%) Public Sector
4 23 (8.16%) Analytical Skills
5 21 (7.45%) Banking
6 20 (7.09%) Legal
7 11 (3.90%) Law
8 7 (2.48%) Military
9 6 (2.13%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 5 (1.77%) Documentation Skills
10 5 (1.77%) Front Office
11 3 (1.06%) Influencing Skills
11 3 (1.06%) Presentation Skills
11 3 (1.06%) Retail
12 2 (0.71%) Billing
12 2 (0.71%) Police
12 2 (0.71%) Public Speaking
12 2 (0.71%) Publishing
12 2 (0.71%) Telecoms
13 1 (0.35%) Financial Institution
Job Titles
1 63 (22.34%) Architect
2 61 (21.63%) Developer
3 46 (16.31%) Senior
4 33 (11.70%) Solutions Architect
5 27 (9.57%) AWS Architect
6 25 (8.87%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
7 23 (8.16%) Data Engineer
7 23 (8.16%) Software Engineer
8 22 (7.80%) Senior Developer
9 19 (6.74%) AWS Solution Architect
10 15 (5.32%) Consultant
11 14 (4.96%) Java Developer
12 12 (4.26%) Cloud Engineer
12 12 (4.26%) Senior Data Engineer
13 11 (3.90%) AWS Engineer
14 10 (3.55%) Cloud Architect
14 10 (3.55%) Lead
15 9 (3.19%) Analyst
15 9 (3.19%) Android Developer
15 9 (3.19%) Python Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 62 (21.99%) Kafka
2 43 (15.25%) REST
3 25 (8.87%) RESTful
4 21 (7.45%) gRPC
4 21 (7.45%) React
5 19 (6.74%) Spring
5 19 (6.74%) Spring Boot
6 18 (6.38%) LangChain
6 18 (6.38%) Node.js
7 17 (6.03%) Web Services
8 16 (5.67%) AngularJS
9 15 (5.32%) PyTorch
9 15 (5.32%) TensorFlow
10 14 (4.96%) Android Jetpack
10 14 (4.96%) Hugging Face
10 14 (4.96%) Jetpack Compose
10 14 (4.96%) SOAP
11 12 (4.26%) .NET
12 11 (3.90%) ActiveMQ
12 11 (3.90%) Hibernate
Miscellaneous
1 46 (16.31%) Distributed Systems
2 45 (15.96%) Cloud Native
3 18 (6.38%) AI Agents
4 12 (4.26%) Enterprise Software
5 11 (3.90%) Data Protection Act
5 11 (3.90%) Product Ownership
6 10 (3.55%) Mobile App
6 10 (3.55%) Self-Motivation
7 9 (3.19%) Cyber Threat
8 8 (2.84%) Legacy Systems
8 8 (2.84%) Management Information System
9 6 (2.13%) Data Centre
9 6 (2.13%) Onboarding
9 6 (2.13%) Security Posture
10 5 (1.77%) Low-Code
10 5 (1.77%) Virtual Team
11 4 (1.42%) Legacy Code
12 3 (1.06%) Clustering
12 3 (1.06%) Cyber Kill Chain
13 2 (0.71%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 49 (17.38%) Linux
2 17 (6.03%) Android
3 5 (1.77%) Apple iOS
3 5 (1.77%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 5 (1.77%) Unix
3 5 (1.77%) Windows
4 4 (1.42%) Debian
4 4 (1.42%) Rocky
4 4 (1.42%) Ubuntu
5 1 (0.35%) Mac OS
5 1 (0.35%) VMS
5 1 (0.35%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 95 (33.69%) CI/CD
2 77 (27.30%) AI
3 69 (24.47%) Agile
3 69 (24.47%) DevOps
4 67 (23.76%) Software Engineering
5 59 (20.92%) Microservices
6 54 (19.15%) LLM
7 52 (18.44%) Containerisation
8 51 (18.09%) Stakeholder Management
9 46 (16.31%) Infrastructure as Code
10 40 (14.18%) Event-Driven
11 39 (13.83%) Machine Learning
11 39 (13.83%) Observability
12 36 (12.77%) Data Pipeline
13 33 (11.70%) Event-Driven Architecture
13 33 (11.70%) Problem-Solving
14 30 (10.64%) Generative AI
14 30 (10.64%) Retrieval-Augmented Generation
15 25 (8.87%) Computer Science
15 25 (8.87%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 127 (45.04%) Python
2 56 (19.86%) Java
3 39 (13.83%) SQL
4 33 (11.70%) Go
5 20 (7.09%) JavaScript
6 19 (6.74%) Bash
7 17 (6.03%) TypeScript
8 16 (5.67%) Kotlin
9 13 (4.61%) C#
10 6 (2.13%) C++
10 6 (2.13%) Shell Script
11 5 (1.77%) PowerShell
12 4 (1.42%) Scala
13 3 (1.06%) PL/SQL
14 2 (0.71%) Objective-C
14 2 (0.71%) Ruby
14 2 (0.71%) Swift
15 1 (0.35%) Bicep
15 1 (0.35%) Groovy
15 1 (0.35%) Rust
Qualifications
1 89 (31.56%) Security Cleared
2 68 (24.11%) SC Cleared
3 32 (11.35%) Degree
4 16 (5.67%) Computer Science Degree
5 12 (4.26%) DV Cleared
6 8 (2.84%) AWS Certification
7 7 (2.48%) BPSS Clearance
8 6 (2.13%) Azure Certification
9 5 (1.77%) Master's Degree
10 4 (1.42%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 3 (1.06%) CISM
11 3 (1.06%) CISSP
11 3 (1.06%) PhD
12 2 (0.71%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
13 1 (0.35%) CEH
13 1 (0.35%) GCIA
13 1 (0.35%) GIAC
13 1 (0.35%) ISEB
13 1 (0.35%) MPhil
13 1 (0.35%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (4.96%) QA
2 8 (2.84%) Accessibility
3 7 (2.48%) Data Quality
4 5 (1.77%) NIST
4 5 (1.77%) WCAG
5 3 (1.06%) Disclosure Scotland
5 3 (1.06%) GDPR
5 3 (1.06%) GRC
5 3 (1.06%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 1 (0.35%) Actionable Recommendations
6 1 (0.35%) HIPAA
6 1 (0.35%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
6 1 (0.35%) ISO/IEC 42001
6 1 (0.35%) PCI DSS
6 1 (0.35%) SOC 2
System Software
1 80 (28.37%) Docker
2 9 (3.19%) Postfix
3 7 (2.48%) Active Directory
4 4 (1.42%) Virtual Machines
5 2 (0.71%) Ceph
5 2 (0.71%) Oracle RAC
5 2 (0.71%) Slurm Workload Manager
5 2 (0.71%) VMware Infrastructure
6 1 (0.35%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.35%) Squid
Systems Management
1 74 (26.24%) Kubernetes
2 42 (14.89%) Terraform
3 34 (12.06%) Grafana
4 28 (9.93%) Prometheus
5 21 (7.45%) Ansible
6 5 (1.77%) Puppet
7 4 (1.42%) Salt
8 3 (1.06%) Istio
9 2 (0.71%) Amdocs OSS
9 2 (0.71%) Data Guard
9 2 (0.71%) Oracle RMAN
9 2 (0.71%) Rancher
10 1 (0.35%) CASB
10 1 (0.35%) Control-M
10 1 (0.35%) Docker Swarm
10 1 (0.35%) MOM
10 1 (0.35%) Progress Chef
10 1 (0.35%) QRadar
10 1 (0.35%) Single Sign-On
10 1 (0.35%) WMI
Vendors
1 28 (9.93%) Microsoft
2 27 (9.57%) Google
2 27 (9.57%) OpenAI
3 18 (6.38%) Dynatrace
4 13 (4.61%) Oracle
4 13 (4.61%) Splunk
5 11 (3.90%) Atlassian
5 11 (3.90%) Jaspersoft
6 7 (2.48%) Checkmarx
7 6 (2.13%) Cribl.io
8 5 (1.77%) Automation Anywhere
8 5 (1.77%) Black Duck
8 5 (1.77%) Denodo
8 5 (1.77%) IBM
8 5 (1.77%) Informatica
8 5 (1.77%) ServiceNow
8 5 (1.77%) UiPath
9 4 (1.42%) Fortinet
10 3 (1.06%) Foundry
10 3 (1.06%) VMware