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 14 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 286 283 266
Rank change year-on-year -3 -17 -35
Contract jobs citing Open Source 370 265 391
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.92% 0.86% 0.87%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.06% 0.96% 1.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 168 176 233
10th Percentile £350 £365 £350
25th Percentile £413 £456 £465
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £533 £575 £570
Median % change year-on-year -7.39% +0.88% -4.84%
75th Percentile £650 £700 £655
90th Percentile £775 £838 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £500 £569
% change year-on-year -10.00% -12.09% +8.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 6 14
10th Percentile - £25.43 -
25th Percentile £15.25 £25.63 £19.99
Median hourly rate £15.50 £26.25 £21.25
Median % change year-on-year -40.95% +23.53% -61.36%
75th Percentile £39.75 £26.88 £22.52
90th Percentile £54.15 £61.00 £68.28
UK excluding London median hourly rate £15.50 £26.50 £71.93
% change year-on-year -41.51% -63.16% -

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 34,907 27,716 39,026
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 86.98% 89.51% 87.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,112 17,001 25,591
10th Percentile £310 £306 £300
25th Percentile £409 £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 £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £495 £500
% change year-on-year -3.03% -1.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,104 852 2,127
10th Percentile £14.61 £15.62 £13.25
25th Percentile £17.87 £21.00 £16.25
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £33.50
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -2.99% +2.15%
75th Percentile £60.00 £63.75 £60.32
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £73.69
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £30.62 £35.00
% change year-on-year -17.85% -12.53% +7.69%

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 14 February 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 14 February 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Open Source in the UK

Open Source
Top 15 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 14 February 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 -1 309 £550 -6.38% 139
London -32 149 £625 -3.85% 33
UK excluding London -14 139 £450 -10.00% 105
Work from Home +15 135 £525 -16.00% 96
North of England -23 46 £430 -7.03% 36
South East -9 33 £558 +11.50% 24
North West -14 23 £409 -11.62% 14
Scotland +6 22 £663 +26.19% 6
Yorkshire -40 20 £513 -3.85% 16
South West -3 17 £380 -39.20% 17
West Midlands -42 14 £440 -20.00% 3
Midlands -52 14 £440 -12.00% 5
East of England -29 6 £552 +71.60% 11
North East -13 3 - - 6
Wales -7 1 - - 5

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 (4.59%) Apache
2 13 (3.51%) Appian
3 11 (2.97%) JBoss
3 11 (2.97%) WebLogic
4 9 (2.43%) Apache Spark
5 8 (2.16%) Confluence
6 5 (1.35%) OpenStack
7 4 (1.08%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 4 (1.08%) Apache Airflow
7 4 (1.08%) nginx
8 3 (0.81%) Ethereum
8 3 (0.81%) Hyperledger
9 2 (0.54%) Liferay
9 2 (0.54%) Tomcat
10 1 (0.27%) ArcGIS
10 1 (0.27%) Cloud Foundry
10 1 (0.27%) GeoServer
10 1 (0.27%) Oracle Coherence
10 1 (0.27%) Oracle Spatial
10 1 (0.27%) SharePoint
Applications
1 1 (0.27%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 2 (0.54%) Oracle EBS
1 2 (0.54%) Oracle EBS R12
2 1 (0.27%) Magento
2 1 (0.27%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 165 (44.59%) AWS
2 81 (21.89%) Azure
3 44 (11.89%) GitHub
4 26 (7.03%) GCP
4 26 (7.03%) GitHub Actions
5 21 (5.68%) Azure AI
6 18 (4.86%) Serverless
7 17 (4.59%) Amazon S3
8 13 (3.51%) Amazon Bedrock
8 13 (3.51%) Azure DevOps
8 13 (3.51%) Cloud Computing
9 12 (3.24%) Anthropic Claude
9 12 (3.24%) CloudFront
10 10 (2.70%) Amazon SageMaker
10 10 (2.70%) Google Gemini
11 9 (2.43%) Azure Cognitive Services
11 9 (2.43%) Azure Data Factory
11 9 (2.43%) Vertex AI
12 8 (2.16%) AWS Lambda
12 8 (2.16%) Azure Cognitive Search
Communications & Networking
1 16 (4.32%) Firewall
2 6 (1.62%) DHCP
2 6 (1.62%) DNS
3 5 (1.35%) Internet
4 4 (1.08%) Reverse Proxy
5 3 (0.81%) Ethernet
5 3 (0.81%) VLAN
5 3 (0.81%) WAN
6 2 (0.54%) TCP/IP
7 1 (0.27%) InfiniBand
7 1 (0.27%) iSCSI
7 1 (0.27%) Kerberos
7 1 (0.27%) LAN
7 1 (0.27%) LTE
7 1 (0.27%) NAS
7 1 (0.27%) Radio Access Network
7 1 (0.27%) RTP
7 1 (0.27%) SAN
7 1 (0.27%) SNMP
7 1 (0.27%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 65 (17.57%) Apache Cassandra
2 39 (10.54%) PostgreSQL
3 26 (7.03%) MongoDB
4 22 (5.95%) NoSQL
5 20 (5.41%) Relational Database
6 17 (4.59%) SQL Server
7 14 (3.78%) Redis
8 13 (3.51%) DB2
8 13 (3.51%) Pinecone
9 11 (2.97%) BigQuery
10 9 (2.43%) Metadata
11 7 (1.89%) DynamoDB
12 6 (1.62%) Couchbase
13 5 (1.35%) Weaviate
14 4 (1.08%) Data Hub
14 4 (1.08%) GIS
14 4 (1.08%) RDBMS
15 3 (0.81%) Amazon RDS
15 3 (0.81%) Oracle Database
15 3 (0.81%) Oracle Database 12c
Development Applications
1 42 (11.35%) Git
2 33 (8.92%) GitLab
3 29 (7.84%) JUnit
4 25 (6.76%) Jenkins
5 15 (4.05%) Selenium
6 14 (3.78%) MLflow
7 13 (3.51%) JIRA
8 9 (2.43%) Cucumber
8 9 (2.43%) Eclipse
8 9 (2.43%) IntelliJ
9 8 (2.16%) Gradle
10 7 (1.89%) CircleCI
10 7 (1.89%) Mocha
10 7 (1.89%) SonarQube
11 5 (1.35%) Robot Framework
12 4 (1.08%) Cypress.io
12 4 (1.08%) ESLint
13 3 (0.81%) Hardhat
13 3 (0.81%) Hudson
13 3 (0.81%) KGDB
General
1 83 (22.43%) Social Skills
2 63 (17.03%) Finance
3 45 (12.16%) Public Sector
4 40 (10.81%) Analytical Skills
5 34 (9.19%) Banking
6 19 (5.14%) Investment Banking
7 16 (4.32%) Front Office
8 12 (3.24%) Influencing Skills
9 9 (2.43%) Legal
9 9 (2.43%) Marketing
9 9 (2.43%) Telecoms
10 7 (1.89%) Presentation Skills
11 6 (1.62%) Financial Institution
11 6 (1.62%) Publishing
11 6 (1.62%) Retail
12 5 (1.35%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 4 (1.08%) Documentation Skills
13 4 (1.08%) Military
13 4 (1.08%) Organisational Skills
14 3 (0.81%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 135 (36.49%) Developer
2 92 (24.86%) Senior
3 58 (15.68%) Senior Developer
4 44 (11.89%) Architect
5 37 (10.00%) Software Engineer
6 26 (7.03%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
7 19 (5.14%) Solutions Architect
8 18 (4.86%) Android Developer
9 16 (4.32%) Java Developer
10 15 (4.05%) Platform Engineer
11 13 (3.51%) Artificial Intelligence Architect
11 13 (3.51%) Lead
12 12 (3.24%) Investment Banking Java Developer
12 12 (3.24%) Python Developer
12 12 (3.24%) SQL Developer
13 11 (2.97%) Data Scientist
14 10 (2.70%) Automation Engineer
14 10 (2.70%) Front-End Developer (Client-Side Developer)
14 10 (2.70%) Senior Platform Engineer
14 10 (2.70%) Software Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 106 (28.65%) Kafka
2 72 (19.46%) gRPC
3 48 (12.97%) REST
4 37 (10.00%) React
5 34 (9.19%) Spring
6 29 (7.84%) HTML
7 27 (7.30%) Node.js
8 24 (6.49%) LangChain
8 24 (6.49%) RESTful
9 21 (5.68%) .NET
9 21 (5.68%) PyTorch
10 20 (5.41%) CSS
11 18 (4.86%) HTML5
11 18 (4.86%) JSON
11 18 (4.86%) Web Services
12 17 (4.59%) Android Jetpack
12 17 (4.59%) AngularJS
12 17 (4.59%) Hugging Face
12 17 (4.59%) Jetpack Compose
12 17 (4.59%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 66 (17.84%) Distributed Systems
2 23 (6.22%) Cloud Native
3 18 (4.86%) Equities
4 16 (4.32%) Product Ownership
5 13 (3.51%) Data Structures
6 12 (3.24%) Distributed Computing
6 12 (3.24%) PKI
7 11 (2.97%) Fat Client
7 11 (2.97%) Thin Client
8 10 (2.70%) AI Agents
8 10 (2.70%) Legacy Code
8 10 (2.70%) Legacy Systems
9 9 (2.43%) Onboarding
9 9 (2.43%) Virtual Team
10 8 (2.16%) Low-Code
10 8 (2.16%) Mobile App
11 7 (1.89%) Data Centre
11 7 (1.89%) Enterprise Software
12 6 (1.62%) Cyber Threat
12 6 (1.62%) Hedge funds
Operating Systems
1 56 (15.14%) Linux
2 27 (7.30%) Android
3 24 (6.49%) Windows
4 18 (4.86%) Unix
5 11 (2.97%) Windows 7
6 8 (2.16%) Apple iOS
7 7 (1.89%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 3 (0.81%) CentOS
8 3 (0.81%) Windows Server
9 2 (0.54%) Ubuntu
9 2 (0.54%) VMS
10 1 (0.27%) Debian
10 1 (0.27%) Oracle Linux
10 1 (0.27%) Rocky
Processes & Methodologies
1 122 (32.97%) Software Engineering
2 106 (28.65%) Microservices
3 91 (24.59%) CI/CD
4 89 (24.05%) Agile
4 89 (24.05%) AI
5 77 (20.81%) Problem-Solving
6 60 (16.22%) Machine Learning
7 59 (15.95%) DevOps
8 58 (15.68%) LLM
9 50 (13.51%) Containerisation
10 48 (12.97%) Generative AI
11 47 (12.70%) Infrastructure as Code
12 39 (10.54%) Test Automation
13 36 (9.73%) Data Pipeline
13 36 (9.73%) Retrieval-Augmented Generation
14 35 (9.46%) Clean Code
15 32 (8.65%) Computer Science
15 32 (8.65%) Performance Tuning
16 31 (8.38%) Continuous Integration
17 30 (8.11%) Observability
Programming Languages
1 166 (44.86%) Python
2 87 (23.51%) Go
3 78 (21.08%) Java
4 63 (17.03%) SQL
5 39 (10.54%) JavaScript
6 32 (8.65%) TypeScript
7 27 (7.30%) C#
8 23 (6.22%) Kotlin
9 16 (4.32%) Bash
10 15 (4.05%) Shell Script
11 14 (3.78%) Scala
12 13 (3.51%) Ruby
13 10 (2.70%) PowerShell
14 4 (1.08%) C
14 4 (1.08%) Delphi
14 4 (1.08%) Perl
14 4 (1.08%) PHP
14 4 (1.08%) PL/SQL
14 4 (1.08%) Solidity
15 3 (0.81%) C++
Qualifications
1 75 (20.27%) Security Cleared
2 45 (12.16%) SC Cleared
3 39 (10.54%) Degree
4 21 (5.68%) Computer Science Degree
5 20 (5.41%) DV Cleared
6 14 (3.78%) BPSS Clearance
7 13 (3.51%) Master's Degree
8 8 (2.16%) PhD
9 3 (0.81%) AWS Certification
10 2 (0.54%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 2 (0.54%) Azure Certification
10 2 (0.54%) GPEN
10 2 (0.54%) GWAPT
10 2 (0.54%) OSCP
11 1 (0.27%) CCIP
11 1 (0.27%) CCSAS
11 1 (0.27%) Cisco Certification
11 1 (0.27%) GXPN
11 1 (0.27%) MPhil
11 1 (0.27%) OSCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (5.41%) Accessibility
2 12 (3.24%) QA
3 11 (2.97%) WCAG
4 10 (2.70%) Data Quality
5 9 (2.43%) NIST
6 7 (1.89%) GDPR
7 5 (1.35%) Cyber Essentials
7 5 (1.35%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 5 (1.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 3 (0.81%) NCSC
9 2 (0.54%) GPG for Computer-Based Electronic Evidence
9 2 (0.54%) ISO/IEC 17025
9 2 (0.54%) ISO17020
9 2 (0.54%) SLA
10 1 (0.27%) HIPAA
10 1 (0.27%) ISO/IEC 42001
System Software
1 135 (36.49%) Docker
2 17 (4.59%) Active Directory
3 8 (2.16%) Virtual Machines
4 4 (1.08%) Ceph
4 4 (1.08%) QEMU
5 3 (0.81%) ISA Server
5 3 (0.81%) KVM
6 2 (0.54%) Oracle Clusterware
6 2 (0.54%) Oracle RAC
7 1 (0.27%) Firmware
7 1 (0.27%) iptables
7 1 (0.27%) Lustre
7 1 (0.27%) NFS
7 1 (0.27%) Postfix
7 1 (0.27%) Samba
7 1 (0.27%) Slurm Workload Manager
7 1 (0.27%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 126 (34.05%) Kubernetes
2 36 (9.73%) Terraform
3 26 (7.03%) Prometheus
4 24 (6.49%) Grafana
5 15 (4.05%) Ansible
6 12 (3.24%) Puppet
7 11 (2.97%) WMI
8 8 (2.16%) Istio
9 7 (1.89%) Argo
10 3 (0.81%) HAProxy
11 2 (0.54%) Data Guard
11 2 (0.54%) Knative
11 2 (0.54%) Oracle RMAN
12 1 (0.27%) MOM
12 1 (0.27%) Rancher
12 1 (0.27%) Salt
12 1 (0.27%) SELinux
Vendors
1 35 (9.46%) Microsoft
2 27 (7.30%) Google
3 23 (6.22%) OpenAI
4 16 (4.32%) VMware
5 12 (3.24%) Sybase
6 10 (2.70%) Oracle
7 9 (2.43%) UiPath
7 9 (2.43%) webMethods
8 8 (2.16%) Automation Anywhere
8 8 (2.16%) Red Hat
8 8 (2.16%) Splunk
9 7 (1.89%) Atlassian
10 6 (1.62%) Cisco
10 6 (1.62%) SAP
11 5 (1.35%) Databricks
11 5 (1.35%) Foundry
11 5 (1.35%) Veracode
12 4 (1.08%) Adobe
12 4 (1.08%) Xamarin
13 3 (0.81%) Computacenter