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

6 months to
9 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 389 234 310
Rank change year-on-year -155 +76 -49
Contract jobs citing Open Source 281 359 320
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.54% 1.11% 0.74%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.63% 1.23% 0.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 138 203 207
10th Percentile £425 £395 £360
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 £600
% change year-on-year +7.08% -20.00% +4.35%
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 44,694 29,246 37,042
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 85.15% 90.54% 85.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,812 18,436 23,663
10th Percentile £325 £300 £300
25th Percentile £415 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £518 £505 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% -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 2,657 1,477 2,496
10th Percentile £14.94 £14.20 £12.75
25th Percentile £20.09 £17.61 £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 £53.50 £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% -3.62%

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 9 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 9 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 -182 208 £550 - 247
London -134 110 £608 +1.25% 149
Work from Home -87 109 £550 -4.35% 97
UK excluding London -130 106 £514 +7.08% 157
North of England -87 23 £510 +8.51% 17
South West -20 20 £550 +34.15% 44
Scotland -25 18 £675 +35.00% 14
West Midlands -55 18 £472 -5.60% 11
Midlands -59 18 £472 -5.60% 11
East of England -16 14 £550 +52.49% 18
Yorkshire -46 14 £510 +3.45% 6
South East -64 14 £500 - 29
North West -49 8 £450 -5.26% 11

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 (6.05%) Confluence
2 11 (3.91%) Apache
3 8 (2.85%) SharePoint
4 6 (2.14%) Apache Spark
4 6 (2.14%) SAS
5 5 (1.78%) Apache Airflow
6 4 (1.42%) Appian
7 3 (1.07%) Apache Superset
7 3 (1.07%) nginx
7 3 (1.07%) OpenStack
8 1 (0.36%) Apache Pulsar
8 1 (0.36%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 3 (1.07%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 2 (0.71%) Oracle EBS
Cloud Services
1 138 (49.11%) AWS
2 82 (29.18%) Azure
3 50 (17.79%) GCP
4 35 (12.46%) GitHub
5 31 (11.03%) Amazon S3
6 26 (9.25%) Amazon CloudWatch
7 24 (8.54%) Serverless
8 20 (7.12%) Amazon EC2
9 16 (5.69%) AWS Lambda
10 14 (4.98%) GitHub Actions
11 13 (4.63%) Azure AI
11 13 (4.63%) Route 53
12 12 (4.27%) Amazon SQS
12 12 (4.27%) Azure DevOps
13 11 (3.91%) Anthropic Claude
13 11 (3.91%) AWS KMS
13 11 (3.91%) Vertex AI
14 10 (3.56%) SaaS
15 9 (3.20%) Google Gemini
16 8 (2.85%) Amazon Bedrock
Communications & Networking
1 9 (3.20%) Firewall
2 7 (2.49%) Reverse Proxy
2 7 (2.49%) SNMP
3 5 (1.78%) DNS
3 5 (1.78%) WAN
4 3 (1.07%) Intrusion Detection
4 3 (1.07%) Network Security
5 2 (0.71%) DHCP
5 2 (0.71%) NaaS
6 1 (0.36%) 4G
6 1 (0.36%) 5G
6 1 (0.36%) Cisco IOS
6 1 (0.36%) HTTPS
6 1 (0.36%) LTE
6 1 (0.36%) MQTT
6 1 (0.36%) NAS
6 1 (0.36%) NGFW
6 1 (0.36%) SAN
6 1 (0.36%) SSH
6 1 (0.36%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 43 (15.30%) PostgreSQL
2 21 (7.47%) Amazon RDS
3 20 (7.12%) Apache Cassandra
4 17 (6.05%) DynamoDB
5 14 (4.98%) MongoDB
6 11 (3.91%) Amazon Aurora
7 10 (3.56%) BigQuery
8 9 (3.20%) Amazon Athena
8 9 (3.20%) Amazon Redshift
8 9 (3.20%) Data Warehouse
8 9 (3.20%) Relational Database
9 8 (2.85%) Big Data
10 7 (2.49%) Amazon QuickSight
10 7 (2.49%) Data Lake
10 7 (2.49%) Pinecone
11 6 (2.14%) SQL Server
12 5 (1.78%) BusinessObjects
12 5 (1.78%) Flink
12 5 (1.78%) Pentaho
12 5 (1.78%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 61 (21.71%) Git
2 28 (9.96%) GitLab
3 23 (8.19%) JUnit
4 22 (7.83%) Jenkins
5 18 (6.41%) JIRA
5 18 (6.41%) SonarQube
6 14 (4.98%) Sonatype Nexus
7 11 (3.91%) Bitbucket Server
7 11 (3.91%) DbUnit
7 11 (3.91%) jMock
7 11 (3.91%) Maven
7 11 (3.91%) Mockito
8 8 (2.85%) IntelliJ
9 7 (2.49%) MLflow
10 6 (2.14%) CircleCI
11 5 (1.78%) Artifactory
11 5 (1.78%) Gradle
11 5 (1.78%) PowerDesigner
12 2 (0.71%) Cucumber
12 2 (0.71%) JMeter
General
1 71 (25.27%) Social Skills
2 56 (19.93%) Finance
3 40 (14.23%) Public Sector
4 23 (8.19%) Analytical Skills
5 21 (7.47%) Banking
6 20 (7.12%) Legal
7 11 (3.91%) Law
8 7 (2.49%) Military
9 6 (2.14%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 5 (1.78%) Documentation Skills
10 5 (1.78%) Front Office
11 3 (1.07%) Influencing Skills
11 3 (1.07%) Presentation Skills
11 3 (1.07%) 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 (0.36%) Automotive
Job Titles
1 63 (22.42%) Architect
2 61 (21.71%) Developer
3 46 (16.37%) Senior
4 33 (11.74%) Solutions Architect
5 27 (9.61%) AWS Architect
6 24 (8.54%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
7 23 (8.19%) Data Engineer
7 23 (8.19%) Software Engineer
8 22 (7.83%) Senior Developer
9 19 (6.76%) AWS Solution Architect
10 15 (5.34%) Consultant
11 14 (4.98%) Java Developer
12 12 (4.27%) Cloud Engineer
12 12 (4.27%) Senior Data Engineer
13 11 (3.91%) AWS Engineer
14 10 (3.56%) Cloud Architect
14 10 (3.56%) Lead
15 9 (3.20%) Analyst
15 9 (3.20%) Android Developer
15 9 (3.20%) Python Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 62 (22.06%) Kafka
2 42 (14.95%) REST
3 24 (8.54%) RESTful
4 21 (7.47%) gRPC
4 21 (7.47%) React
5 19 (6.76%) Spring
5 19 (6.76%) Spring Boot
6 18 (6.41%) LangChain
6 18 (6.41%) Node.js
7 16 (5.69%) AngularJS
7 16 (5.69%) Web Services
8 14 (4.98%) Android Jetpack
8 14 (4.98%) Jetpack Compose
8 14 (4.98%) PyTorch
8 14 (4.98%) SOAP
8 14 (4.98%) TensorFlow
9 13 (4.63%) Hugging Face
10 12 (4.27%) .NET
11 11 (3.91%) ActiveMQ
11 11 (3.91%) Hibernate
Miscellaneous
1 46 (16.37%) Distributed Systems
2 45 (16.01%) Cloud Native
3 18 (6.41%) AI Agents
4 12 (4.27%) Enterprise Software
5 11 (3.91%) Data Protection Act
5 11 (3.91%) Product Ownership
6 10 (3.56%) Mobile App
6 10 (3.56%) Self-Motivation
7 9 (3.20%) Cyber Threat
8 8 (2.85%) Management Information System
9 7 (2.49%) Legacy Systems
10 6 (2.14%) Data Centre
10 6 (2.14%) Onboarding
10 6 (2.14%) Security Posture
11 5 (1.78%) Virtual Team
12 4 (1.42%) Legacy Code
12 4 (1.42%) Low-Code
13 3 (1.07%) Clustering
13 3 (1.07%) Cyber Kill Chain
14 2 (0.71%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 49 (17.44%) Linux
2 17 (6.05%) Android
3 5 (1.78%) Apple iOS
3 5 (1.78%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 5 (1.78%) Unix
3 5 (1.78%) Windows
4 4 (1.42%) Debian
4 4 (1.42%) Rocky
4 4 (1.42%) Ubuntu
5 1 (0.36%) Mac OS
5 1 (0.36%) VMS
5 1 (0.36%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 94 (33.45%) CI/CD
2 76 (27.05%) AI
3 69 (24.56%) Agile
3 69 (24.56%) DevOps
4 67 (23.84%) Software Engineering
5 59 (21.00%) Microservices
6 53 (18.86%) LLM
7 51 (18.15%) Containerisation
8 50 (17.79%) Stakeholder Management
9 46 (16.37%) Infrastructure as Code
10 40 (14.23%) Event-Driven
11 39 (13.88%) Observability
12 38 (13.52%) Machine Learning
13 35 (12.46%) Data Pipeline
14 33 (11.74%) Event-Driven Architecture
14 33 (11.74%) Problem-Solving
15 29 (10.32%) Generative AI
15 29 (10.32%) Retrieval-Augmented Generation
16 25 (8.90%) Computer Science
16 25 (8.90%) Performance Optimisation
Programming Languages
1 126 (44.84%) Python
2 56 (19.93%) Java
3 38 (13.52%) SQL
4 33 (11.74%) Go
5 20 (7.12%) JavaScript
6 19 (6.76%) Bash
7 17 (6.05%) TypeScript
8 16 (5.69%) Kotlin
9 13 (4.63%) C#
10 6 (2.14%) C++
10 6 (2.14%) Shell Script
11 5 (1.78%) PowerShell
12 4 (1.42%) Scala
13 3 (1.07%) PL/SQL
14 2 (0.71%) Objective-C
14 2 (0.71%) Ruby
14 2 (0.71%) Swift
15 1 (0.36%) Bicep
15 1 (0.36%) Groovy
15 1 (0.36%) Rust
Qualifications
1 89 (31.67%) Security Cleared
2 68 (24.20%) SC Cleared
3 32 (11.39%) Degree
4 16 (5.69%) Computer Science Degree
5 12 (4.27%) DV Cleared
6 8 (2.85%) AWS Certification
7 7 (2.49%) BPSS Clearance
8 6 (2.14%) Azure Certification
9 5 (1.78%) Master's Degree
10 4 (1.42%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 3 (1.07%) CISM
11 3 (1.07%) CISSP
11 3 (1.07%) PhD
12 2 (0.71%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
13 1 (0.36%) CEH
13 1 (0.36%) GCIA
13 1 (0.36%) GIAC
13 1 (0.36%) ISEB
13 1 (0.36%) MPhil
13 1 (0.36%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (4.98%) QA
2 8 (2.85%) Accessibility
3 6 (2.14%) Data Quality
4 5 (1.78%) NIST
4 5 (1.78%) WCAG
5 3 (1.07%) Disclosure Scotland
5 3 (1.07%) GDPR
5 3 (1.07%) GRC
5 3 (1.07%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 1 (0.36%) Actionable Recommendations
6 1 (0.36%) HIPAA
6 1 (0.36%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
6 1 (0.36%) ISO/IEC 42001
6 1 (0.36%) PCI DSS
6 1 (0.36%) SOC 2
System Software
1 79 (28.11%) Docker
2 9 (3.20%) Postfix
3 7 (2.49%) 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 (0.36%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.36%) Squid
Systems Management
1 73 (25.98%) Kubernetes
2 42 (14.95%) Terraform
3 34 (12.10%) Grafana
4 28 (9.96%) Prometheus
5 21 (7.47%) Ansible
6 5 (1.78%) Puppet
7 4 (1.42%) Salt
8 3 (1.07%) 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 (0.36%) Argo
10 1 (0.36%) Control-M
10 1 (0.36%) Docker Swarm
10 1 (0.36%) MOM
10 1 (0.36%) Progress Chef
10 1 (0.36%) QRadar
10 1 (0.36%) Single Sign-On
10 1 (0.36%) WMI
Vendors
1 28 (9.96%) Microsoft
2 27 (9.61%) Google
3 26 (9.25%) OpenAI
4 18 (6.41%) Dynatrace
5 13 (4.63%) Oracle
5 13 (4.63%) Splunk
6 11 (3.91%) Atlassian
6 11 (3.91%) Jaspersoft
7 7 (2.49%) Checkmarx
8 6 (2.14%) Cribl.io
9 5 (1.78%) Black Duck
9 5 (1.78%) Denodo
9 5 (1.78%) IBM
9 5 (1.78%) Informatica
9 5 (1.78%) ServiceNow
10 4 (1.42%) Automation Anywhere
10 4 (1.42%) Fortinet
10 4 (1.42%) UiPath
11 3 (1.07%) Confluent
11 3 (1.07%) VMware