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

6 months to
2 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 274 301 267
Rank change year-on-year +27 -34 -36
Contract jobs citing Open Source 360 243 404
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.94% 0.78% 0.90%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.07% 0.88% 1.03%
Number of daily rates quoted 170 161 248
10th Percentile £347 £350 £300
25th Percentile £411 £456 £456
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £575 £568
Median % change year-on-year -8.70% +1.32% -5.26%
75th Percentile £644 £713 £650
90th Percentile £775 £838 £739
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £513 £568
% change year-on-year -12.20% -9.69% +8.10%
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% -59.72%
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% +294.14%

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 33,490 27,717 39,322
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 87.15% 89.21% 87.23%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,205 16,795 25,884
10th Percentile £305 £307 £300
25th Percentile £406 £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 £479 £499 £500
% change year-on-year -4.06% -0.15% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,020 865 2,103
10th Percentile £14.50 £15.62 £13.29
25th Percentile £17.69 £21.00 £16.50
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -7.14% +7.69%
75th Percentile £58.75 £62.50 £61.25
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £24.71 £30.98 £35.25
% change year-on-year -20.23% -12.12% +21.55%

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 2 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 2 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 2 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 +3 306 £543 -5.65% 145
London -7 151 £600 -4.00% 62
UK excluding London -9 132 £450 -12.20% 97
Work from Home +16 126 £478 -23.48% 92
North of England -16 47 £433 -18.86% 28
South East -8 29 £565 +13.00% 27
North West -9 24 £415 -10.27% 15
Scotland +8 20 £669 +27.33% 5
Yorkshire -42 20 £513 -14.19% 11
South West -11 15 £365 -40.89% 11
West Midlands -33 14 £440 -20.00% 4
Midlands -47 14 £440 -12.00% 10
East of England -26 6 £552 +34.29% 14
North East -12 3 - - 2
Wales -3 1 - - 2

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 (4.72%) Apache
2 11 (3.06%) Appian
2 11 (3.06%) JBoss
2 11 (3.06%) WebLogic
3 9 (2.50%) Apache Spark
4 7 (1.94%) Confluence
5 4 (1.11%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 4 (1.11%) Apache Airflow
5 4 (1.11%) nginx
6 3 (0.83%) Ethereum
6 3 (0.83%) Hyperledger
6 3 (0.83%) OpenStack
7 2 (0.56%) Liferay
7 2 (0.56%) Tomcat
8 1 (0.28%) Apache Superset
8 1 (0.28%) ArcGIS
8 1 (0.28%) Cloud Foundry
8 1 (0.28%) GeoServer
8 1 (0.28%) Oracle Coherence
8 1 (0.28%) Oracle Spatial
Applications
1 1 (0.28%) Microsoft Office
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
1 162 (45.00%) AWS
2 73 (20.28%) Azure
3 40 (11.11%) GitHub
4 29 (8.06%) GCP
5 25 (6.94%) GitHub Actions
6 16 (4.44%) Serverless
7 15 (4.17%) Amazon S3
7 15 (4.17%) Azure AI
8 13 (3.61%) Cloud Computing
9 12 (3.33%) Amazon Bedrock
9 12 (3.33%) CloudFront
10 11 (3.06%) Azure DevOps
11 10 (2.78%) Anthropic Claude
11 10 (2.78%) Google Gemini
12 9 (2.50%) Vertex AI
13 8 (2.22%) Amazon SageMaker
14 7 (1.94%) Azure Data Factory
15 6 (1.67%) Azure AKS
15 6 (1.67%) Cloud Run
15 6 (1.67%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 16 (4.44%) Firewall
2 6 (1.67%) DHCP
2 6 (1.67%) DNS
3 5 (1.39%) Internet
4 4 (1.11%) Reverse Proxy
5 3 (0.83%) Ethernet
5 3 (0.83%) SSH
5 3 (0.83%) VLAN
5 3 (0.83%) WAN
6 2 (0.56%) TCP/IP
7 1 (0.28%) HTTP
7 1 (0.28%) InfiniBand
7 1 (0.28%) iSCSI
7 1 (0.28%) Kerberos
7 1 (0.28%) NAS
7 1 (0.28%) Radio Access Network
7 1 (0.28%) RTP
7 1 (0.28%) SAN
7 1 (0.28%) SMTP
7 1 (0.28%) Software-Defined Networking
Database & Business Intelligence
1 63 (17.50%) Apache Cassandra
2 36 (10.00%) PostgreSQL
3 27 (7.50%) MongoDB
4 22 (6.11%) NoSQL
4 22 (6.11%) Relational Database
5 15 (4.17%) DB2
5 15 (4.17%) SQL Server
6 14 (3.89%) Redis
7 12 (3.33%) Pinecone
8 11 (3.06%) BigQuery
9 7 (1.94%) Metadata
10 6 (1.67%) Couchbase
11 5 (1.39%) DynamoDB
11 5 (1.39%) Weaviate
12 4 (1.11%) Apache Hive
12 4 (1.11%) Data Hub
12 4 (1.11%) Hadoop
12 4 (1.11%) Impala
12 4 (1.11%) RDBMS
13 3 (0.83%) GIS
Development Applications
1 39 (10.83%) Git
2 32 (8.89%) GitLab
3 28 (7.78%) JUnit
4 26 (7.22%) Jenkins
5 15 (4.17%) Selenium
6 13 (3.61%) MLflow
7 12 (3.33%) JIRA
8 9 (2.50%) Cucumber
8 9 (2.50%) Eclipse
8 9 (2.50%) IntelliJ
9 8 (2.22%) SonarQube
10 7 (1.94%) Mocha
11 5 (1.39%) CircleCI
11 5 (1.39%) Gradle
11 5 (1.39%) Robot Framework
12 4 (1.11%) Cypress.io
12 4 (1.11%) ESLint
13 3 (0.83%) Hudson
13 3 (0.83%) KGDB
13 3 (0.83%) Subversion
General
1 86 (23.89%) Social Skills
2 64 (17.78%) Finance
3 42 (11.67%) Analytical Skills
3 42 (11.67%) Public Sector
4 33 (9.17%) Banking
5 21 (5.83%) Investment Banking
6 17 (4.72%) Front Office
7 12 (3.33%) Influencing Skills
8 9 (2.50%) Marketing
8 9 (2.50%) Telecoms
9 7 (1.94%) Documentation Skills
9 7 (1.94%) Presentation Skills
10 6 (1.67%) Financial Institution
10 6 (1.67%) Legal
10 6 (1.67%) Publishing
10 6 (1.67%) Retail
11 5 (1.39%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 4 (1.11%) Military
12 4 (1.11%) Organisational Skills
13 3 (0.83%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 131 (36.39%) Developer
2 92 (25.56%) Senior
3 58 (16.11%) Senior Developer
4 41 (11.39%) Architect
5 36 (10.00%) Software Engineer
6 24 (6.67%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
7 18 (5.00%) Java Developer
8 17 (4.72%) Platform Engineer
8 17 (4.72%) Solutions Architect
9 16 (4.44%) Android Developer
10 14 (3.89%) Investment Banking Java Developer
10 14 (3.89%) SQL Developer
11 12 (3.33%) Artificial Intelligence Architect
11 12 (3.33%) Lead
12 11 (3.06%) Data Scientist
12 11 (3.06%) Python Developer
12 11 (3.06%) Software Developer
13 10 (2.78%) Front-End Developer (Client-Side Developer)
13 10 (2.78%) Senior Platform Engineer
14 9 (2.50%) Senior Java Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 105 (29.17%) Kafka
2 71 (19.72%) gRPC
3 39 (10.83%) REST
4 35 (9.72%) React
4 35 (9.72%) Spring
5 29 (8.06%) HTML
6 26 (7.22%) LangChain
7 24 (6.67%) Node.js
8 20 (5.56%) CSS
8 20 (5.56%) PyTorch
9 19 (5.28%) RESTful
10 18 (5.00%) .NET
10 18 (5.00%) HTML5
11 17 (4.72%) Hugging Face
12 16 (4.44%) JSON
12 16 (4.44%) TensorFlow
13 15 (4.17%) AngularJS
13 15 (4.17%) Web Services
14 14 (3.89%) JMS
14 14 (3.89%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 63 (17.50%) Distributed Systems
2 21 (5.83%) Cloud Native
2 21 (5.83%) Equities
3 15 (4.17%) Data Structures
4 14 (3.89%) Product Ownership
5 12 (3.33%) Distributed Computing
5 12 (3.33%) PKI
6 11 (3.06%) Fat Client
6 11 (3.06%) Thin Client
7 10 (2.78%) AI Agents
8 9 (2.50%) Onboarding
9 8 (2.22%) Legacy Systems
9 8 (2.22%) Virtual Team
10 7 (1.94%) Data Centre
10 7 (1.94%) Enterprise Software
10 7 (1.94%) Fixed Income
10 7 (1.94%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
10 7 (1.94%) Legacy Code
10 7 (1.94%) Mobile App
11 6 (1.67%) Derivative
Operating Systems
1 54 (15.00%) Linux
2 26 (7.22%) Windows
3 23 (6.39%) Android
4 17 (4.72%) Unix
5 11 (3.06%) Windows 7
6 8 (2.22%) Apple iOS
7 7 (1.94%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 5 (1.39%) Windows Server
9 3 (0.83%) CentOS
10 2 (0.56%) Ubuntu
10 2 (0.56%) VMS
11 1 (0.28%) Debian
11 1 (0.28%) Kali Linux
11 1 (0.28%) Oracle Linux
11 1 (0.28%) Rocky
Processes & Methodologies
1 122 (33.89%) Software Engineering
2 103 (28.61%) Microservices
3 91 (25.28%) Agile
4 89 (24.72%) CI/CD
5 85 (23.61%) AI
6 81 (22.50%) Problem-Solving
7 61 (16.94%) DevOps
8 56 (15.56%) Machine Learning
9 54 (15.00%) LLM
10 51 (14.17%) Containerisation
11 47 (13.06%) Infrastructure as Code
12 46 (12.78%) Generative AI
13 38 (10.56%) Test Automation
14 36 (10.00%) Clean Code
15 35 (9.72%) Observability
15 35 (9.72%) Retrieval-Augmented Generation
16 33 (9.17%) Data Pipeline
17 32 (8.89%) Performance Tuning
18 29 (8.06%) Data Science
19 27 (7.50%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 165 (45.83%) Python
2 85 (23.61%) Go
3 79 (21.94%) Java
4 65 (18.06%) SQL
5 38 (10.56%) JavaScript
6 32 (8.89%) TypeScript
7 24 (6.67%) C#
8 18 (5.00%) Kotlin
9 16 (4.44%) Bash
9 16 (4.44%) Shell Script
10 14 (3.89%) Scala
11 13 (3.61%) Ruby
12 12 (3.33%) PowerShell
13 4 (1.11%) C
13 4 (1.11%) Delphi
13 4 (1.11%) Perl
13 4 (1.11%) PHP
13 4 (1.11%) PL/SQL
13 4 (1.11%) Solidity
14 3 (0.83%) C++
Qualifications
1 68 (18.89%) Security Cleared
2 39 (10.83%) SC Cleared
3 33 (9.17%) Degree
4 19 (5.28%) DV Cleared
5 18 (5.00%) Computer Science Degree
6 15 (4.17%) BPSS Clearance
7 11 (3.06%) Master's Degree
8 6 (1.67%) PhD
9 3 (0.83%) AWS Certification
9 3 (0.83%) OSCP
10 2 (0.56%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 2 (0.56%) GPEN
10 2 (0.56%) GWAPT
11 1 (0.28%) Azure Certification
11 1 (0.28%) CCIP
11 1 (0.28%) CCSAS
11 1 (0.28%) Cisco Certification
11 1 (0.28%) CISSP
11 1 (0.28%) GXPN
11 1 (0.28%) OSCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (5.00%) Accessibility
2 11 (3.06%) QA
2 11 (3.06%) WCAG
3 9 (2.50%) Data Quality
3 9 (2.50%) NIST
4 7 (1.94%) GDPR
5 6 (1.67%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 5 (1.39%) Cyber Essentials
6 5 (1.39%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 3 (0.83%) NCSC
8 2 (0.56%) GPG for Computer-Based Electronic Evidence
8 2 (0.56%) HIPAA
8 2 (0.56%) ISO/IEC 17025
8 2 (0.56%) ISO17020
8 2 (0.56%) SLA
9 1 (0.28%) GxP
9 1 (0.28%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 134 (37.22%) Docker
2 17 (4.72%) Active Directory
3 8 (2.22%) Virtual Machines
4 4 (1.11%) QEMU
5 3 (0.83%) Ceph
5 3 (0.83%) ISA Server
5 3 (0.83%) KVM
6 2 (0.56%) HDFS
6 2 (0.56%) Oracle Clusterware
6 2 (0.56%) Oracle RAC
7 1 (0.28%) Apache ZooKeeper
7 1 (0.28%) Firmware
7 1 (0.28%) iptables
7 1 (0.28%) Lustre
7 1 (0.28%) NFS
7 1 (0.28%) Samba
7 1 (0.28%) Slurm Workload Manager
7 1 (0.28%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 122 (33.89%) Kubernetes
2 36 (10.00%) Terraform
3 26 (7.22%) Prometheus
4 24 (6.67%) Grafana
5 17 (4.72%) Ansible
6 12 (3.33%) Puppet
7 11 (3.06%) WMI
8 8 (2.22%) Istio
9 7 (1.94%) Argo
10 3 (0.83%) HAProxy
11 2 (0.56%) Data Guard
11 2 (0.56%) Kibana
11 2 (0.56%) Knative
11 2 (0.56%) Oracle RMAN
11 2 (0.56%) Progress Chef
12 1 (0.28%) Nessus
12 1 (0.28%) QRadar
12 1 (0.28%) Salt
12 1 (0.28%) SELinux
Vendors
1 35 (9.72%) Microsoft
2 27 (7.50%) Google
3 20 (5.56%) OpenAI
4 16 (4.44%) VMware
5 14 (3.89%) Sybase
6 10 (2.78%) Oracle
7 9 (2.50%) Splunk
7 9 (2.50%) webMethods
8 8 (2.22%) Red Hat
9 7 (1.94%) UiPath
10 6 (1.67%) Atlassian
10 6 (1.67%) Automation Anywhere
10 6 (1.67%) Cisco
10 6 (1.67%) SAP
11 5 (1.39%) Databricks
11 5 (1.39%) Foundry
11 5 (1.39%) Veracode
12 4 (1.11%) Adobe
12 4 (1.11%) Xamarin
13 3 (0.83%) Computacenter