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 30 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 279 302 259
Rank change year-on-year +23 -43 -19
Contract jobs citing Open Source 353 247 412
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.95% 0.74% 0.95%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.08% 0.84% 1.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 168 153 251
10th Percentile £350 £325 £250
25th Percentile £413 £449 £439
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £570
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% -3.51% -3.39%
75th Percentile £644 £650 £650
90th Percentile £771 £838 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £555
% change year-on-year - -9.91% +5.71%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 6 12
10th Percentile - £25.43 -
25th Percentile £15.25 £25.63 £19.99
Median hourly rate £36.00 £26.25 £21.25
Median % change year-on-year +37.14% +23.53% -59.72%
75th Percentile £61.88 £26.88 £22.52
90th Percentile £63.00 £61.00 -
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 32,589 29,397 38,047
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 88.09% 88.30% 88.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,542 17,920 25,365
10th Percentile £300 £308 £306
25th Percentile £406 £413 £419
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £615 £638 £650
90th Percentile £724 £738 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,036 949 1,516
10th Percentile £14.61 £15.62 £14.25
25th Percentile £17.69 £20.30 £19.00
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £43.95
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -26.05% +25.57%
75th Percentile £52.52 £62.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £69.00 £74.77 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.58 £30.62 £45.00
% change year-on-year -23.00% -31.97% +42.45%

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 30 December 2025.

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 30 December 2025.

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 30 December 2025. 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 +27 303 £525 -6.46% 1,067
London +9 150 £605 -2.22% 166
UK excluding London -6 132 £500 - 973
Work from Home +15 118 £481 -18.09% 492
North of England -16 52 £450 -21.40% 207
South East -2 28 £600 +29.03% 260
North West -3 26 £443 -4.32% 107
Yorkshire -28 24 £525 -10.64% 88
Scotland +10 21 £556 +6.92% 43
South West +2 14 £350 -42.15% 106
West Midlands -21 12 £435 -20.91% 90
Midlands -36 12 £435 -20.91% 176
East of England -27 4 £553 +50.99% 160
North East -5 3 - - 12
Wales -3 1 - - 25

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 14 (3.97%) Apache
2 11 (3.12%) JBoss
2 11 (3.12%) WebLogic
3 9 (2.55%) Apache Spark
4 7 (1.98%) Appian
5 6 (1.70%) Confluence
6 4 (1.13%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 4 (1.13%) Apache Airflow
7 3 (0.85%) Ethereum
7 3 (0.85%) Hyperledger
8 2 (0.57%) Liferay
8 2 (0.57%) OpenStack
8 2 (0.57%) Tomcat
9 1 (0.28%) ArcGIS
9 1 (0.28%) Cloud Foundry
9 1 (0.28%) CMS
9 1 (0.28%) Mattermost
9 1 (0.28%) nginx
9 1 (0.28%) Oracle Coherence
9 1 (0.28%) Oracle Spatial
Applications
1 2 (0.57%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 2 (0.57%) Oracle EBS
1 2 (0.57%) Oracle EBS R12
2 1 (0.28%) Magento
2 1 (0.28%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 160 (45.33%) AWS
2 67 (18.98%) Azure
3 32 (9.07%) GitHub
4 30 (8.50%) GCP
5 22 (6.23%) GitHub Actions
6 15 (4.25%) Amazon S3
6 15 (4.25%) Serverless
7 14 (3.97%) CloudFront
8 12 (3.40%) Amazon Bedrock
8 12 (3.40%) Cloud Computing
9 10 (2.83%) Azure AI
9 10 (2.83%) Azure DevOps
10 9 (2.55%) Azure AKS
10 9 (2.55%) Vertex AI
11 8 (2.27%) Amazon SageMaker
11 8 (2.27%) Google Gemini
12 7 (1.98%) OpenShift
13 6 (1.70%) Anthropic Claude
14 5 (1.42%) Amazon EKS
14 5 (1.42%) Google Kubernetes Engine
Communications & Networking
1 13 (3.68%) Firewall
2 5 (1.42%) Internet
3 4 (1.13%) DHCP
4 3 (0.85%) Ethernet
4 3 (0.85%) SSH
4 3 (0.85%) VLAN
5 2 (0.57%) DNS
5 2 (0.57%) TCP/IP
6 1 (0.28%) HTTP
6 1 (0.28%) InfiniBand
6 1 (0.28%) iSCSI
6 1 (0.28%) Kerberos
6 1 (0.28%) LAN
6 1 (0.28%) Radio Access Network
6 1 (0.28%) SMTP
6 1 (0.28%) Software-Defined Networking
6 1 (0.28%) Spanning Tree
6 1 (0.28%) STUN
6 1 (0.28%) VXLAN
6 1 (0.28%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 61 (17.28%) Apache Cassandra
2 36 (10.20%) PostgreSQL
3 35 (9.92%) MongoDB
4 31 (8.78%) Relational Database
5 23 (6.52%) DB2
6 21 (5.95%) NoSQL
7 14 (3.97%) Redis
8 10 (2.83%) SQL Server
9 9 (2.55%) BigQuery
9 9 (2.55%) Pinecone
10 6 (1.70%) Couchbase
10 6 (1.70%) Metadata
10 6 (1.70%) RDBMS
11 5 (1.42%) DynamoDB
11 5 (1.42%) Weaviate
12 4 (1.13%) Apache Hive
12 4 (1.13%) Hadoop
12 4 (1.13%) Impala
13 3 (0.85%) Big Data
13 3 (0.85%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 37 (10.48%) JUnit
2 34 (9.63%) Git
3 27 (7.65%) Jenkins
4 23 (6.52%) GitLab
5 15 (4.25%) Selenium
6 10 (2.83%) Eclipse
6 10 (2.83%) IntelliJ
6 10 (2.83%) JIRA
6 10 (2.83%) MLflow
7 9 (2.55%) Cucumber
8 8 (2.27%) SonarQube
9 7 (1.98%) Mocha
10 5 (1.42%) Gradle
10 5 (1.42%) Robot Framework
11 3 (0.85%) CircleCI
11 3 (0.85%) Cypress.io
11 3 (0.85%) ESLint
11 3 (0.85%) Hardhat
11 3 (0.85%) Hudson
11 3 (0.85%) KGDB
General
1 86 (24.36%) Social Skills
2 68 (19.26%) Finance
3 48 (13.60%) Analytical Skills
4 41 (11.61%) Banking
5 32 (9.07%) Public Sector
6 29 (8.22%) Investment Banking
7 22 (6.23%) Front Office
8 11 (3.12%) Influencing Skills
9 9 (2.55%) Telecoms
10 8 (2.27%) Marketing
11 7 (1.98%) Presentation Skills
12 6 (1.70%) Documentation Skills
12 6 (1.70%) Financial Institution
13 5 (1.42%) Legal
13 5 (1.42%) Retail
14 4 (1.13%) Organisational Skills
14 4 (1.13%) Publishing
15 3 (0.85%) Electronics
15 3 (0.85%) Manufacturing
16 2 (0.57%) Military
Job Titles
1 133 (37.68%) Developer
2 97 (27.48%) Senior
3 58 (16.43%) Senior Developer
4 34 (9.63%) Architect
4 34 (9.63%) Software Engineer
5 26 (7.37%) Java Developer
5 26 (7.37%) Platform Engineer
6 22 (6.23%) Investment Banking Java Developer
6 22 (6.23%) SQL Developer
7 19 (5.38%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
8 15 (4.25%) Android Developer
9 14 (3.97%) Lead
9 14 (3.97%) Solutions Architect
10 13 (3.68%) Senior Java Developer
11 12 (3.40%) Artificial Intelligence Architect
12 11 (3.12%) Linux Developer
12 11 (3.12%) Senior Investment Banking Java Developer
12 11 (3.12%) Senior SQL Developer
12 11 (3.12%) Sybase Developer
13 10 (2.83%) Software Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 115 (32.58%) Kafka
2 74 (20.96%) gRPC
3 43 (12.18%) Spring
4 35 (9.92%) React
5 34 (9.63%) REST
6 30 (8.50%) HTML
7 25 (7.08%) LangChain
7 25 (7.08%) Node.js
8 23 (6.52%) JMS
9 20 (5.67%) CSS
9 20 (5.67%) PyTorch
10 18 (5.10%) HTML5
11 16 (4.53%) Hugging Face
11 16 (4.53%) JSON
11 16 (4.53%) TensorFlow
12 15 (4.25%) .NET
12 15 (4.25%) XML
13 14 (3.97%) Android SDK
14 13 (3.68%) Jest
15 12 (3.40%) Jetpack Compose
Miscellaneous
1 63 (17.85%) Distributed Systems
2 30 (8.50%) Equities
3 24 (6.80%) Data Structures
4 20 (5.67%) Cloud Native
5 12 (3.40%) Distributed Computing
6 11 (3.12%) PKI
6 11 (3.12%) Product Ownership
7 10 (2.83%) Fat Client
7 10 (2.83%) Onboarding
7 10 (2.83%) Thin Client
8 8 (2.27%) AI Agents
8 8 (2.27%) Fixed Income
8 8 (2.27%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
9 7 (1.98%) Cyber Threat
9 7 (1.98%) Private Cloud
10 6 (1.70%) Derivative
10 6 (1.70%) Hedge funds
10 6 (1.70%) Mobile App
10 6 (1.70%) Public Cloud
10 6 (1.70%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 57 (16.15%) Linux
2 27 (7.65%) Windows
3 22 (6.23%) Android
4 17 (4.82%) Unix
5 10 (2.83%) Windows 7
6 6 (1.70%) Apple iOS
6 6 (1.70%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 5 (1.42%) Windows Server
8 3 (0.85%) CentOS
9 1 (0.28%) Kali Linux
9 1 (0.28%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.28%) Oracle Linux
9 1 (0.28%) Ubuntu
9 1 (0.28%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 126 (35.69%) Software Engineering
2 94 (26.63%) Microservices
3 89 (25.21%) Agile
3 89 (25.21%) Problem-Solving
4 84 (23.80%) CI/CD
5 77 (21.81%) AI
6 56 (15.86%) DevOps
7 54 (15.30%) Machine Learning
8 49 (13.88%) Infrastructure as Code
9 43 (12.18%) LLM
10 41 (11.61%) Containerisation
11 40 (11.33%) Generative AI
11 40 (11.33%) Observability
11 40 (11.33%) Performance Tuning
12 35 (9.92%) Clean Code
13 31 (8.78%) Test Automation
14 29 (8.22%) SDLC
15 28 (7.93%) Mentoring
16 27 (7.65%) Data Science
16 27 (7.65%) Retrieval-Augmented Generation
Programming Languages
1 172 (48.73%) Python
2 90 (25.50%) Java
3 85 (24.08%) Go
4 75 (21.25%) SQL
5 35 (9.92%) JavaScript
6 28 (7.93%) TypeScript
7 22 (6.23%) C#
7 22 (6.23%) Shell Script
8 17 (4.82%) Kotlin
9 14 (3.97%) Bash
9 14 (3.97%) PowerShell
9 14 (3.97%) Scala
10 12 (3.40%) Ruby
11 7 (1.98%) C++
12 5 (1.42%) C
12 5 (1.42%) PHP
13 4 (1.13%) Delphi
13 4 (1.13%) Perl
13 4 (1.13%) PL/SQL
13 4 (1.13%) Solidity
Qualifications
1 60 (17.00%) Security Cleared
2 33 (9.35%) SC Cleared
3 29 (8.22%) Degree
4 19 (5.38%) DV Cleared
5 16 (4.53%) Computer Science Degree
6 11 (3.12%) BPSS Clearance
6 11 (3.12%) Master's Degree
7 6 (1.70%) PhD
8 3 (0.85%) MCP
8 3 (0.85%) OSCP
9 2 (0.57%) GPEN
9 2 (0.57%) GWAPT
10 1 (0.28%) AWS Certification
10 1 (0.28%) Azure Certification
10 1 (0.28%) CCIP
10 1 (0.28%) CCSAS
10 1 (0.28%) Cisco Certification
10 1 (0.28%) CISSP
10 1 (0.28%) GXPN
10 1 (0.28%) OSCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (4.53%) Accessibility
2 11 (3.12%) QA
3 10 (2.83%) WCAG
4 8 (2.27%) NIST
5 6 (1.70%) GDPR
5 6 (1.70%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 5 (1.42%) Cyber Essentials
6 5 (1.42%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 4 (1.13%) Data Quality
7 4 (1.13%) NCSC
8 2 (0.57%) GPG for Computer-Based Electronic Evidence
8 2 (0.57%) ISO/IEC 17025
8 2 (0.57%) ISO17020
8 2 (0.57%) SLA
9 1 (0.28%) GxP
9 1 (0.28%) HIPAA
9 1 (0.28%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 124 (35.13%) Docker
2 13 (3.68%) Active Directory
3 8 (2.27%) Virtual Machines
4 4 (1.13%) QEMU
5 3 (0.85%) Ceph
5 3 (0.85%) ISA Server
5 3 (0.85%) KVM
6 2 (0.57%) HDFS
6 2 (0.57%) Oracle Clusterware
6 2 (0.57%) 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
1 121 (34.28%) Kubernetes
2 37 (10.48%) Terraform
3 30 (8.50%) Grafana
4 29 (8.22%) Prometheus
5 18 (5.10%) Ansible
6 11 (3.12%) Puppet
7 10 (2.83%) WMI
8 7 (1.98%) Argo
9 6 (1.70%) Istio
10 3 (0.85%) HAProxy
11 2 (0.57%) Data Guard
11 2 (0.57%) Kibana
11 2 (0.57%) Knative
11 2 (0.57%) Oracle RMAN
11 2 (0.57%) Progress Chef
12 1 (0.28%) Kubeflow
12 1 (0.28%) Nessus
12 1 (0.28%) QRadar
12 1 (0.28%) SCOM
12 1 (0.28%) SELinux
Vendors
1 37 (10.48%) Microsoft
2 28 (7.93%) Google
3 22 (6.23%) Sybase
4 15 (4.25%) VMware
5 13 (3.68%) OpenAI
6 11 (3.12%) Red Hat
6 11 (3.12%) Splunk
7 9 (2.55%) webMethods
8 8 (2.27%) Oracle
9 6 (1.70%) Atlassian
9 6 (1.70%) Cisco
9 6 (1.70%) Foundry
9 6 (1.70%) SAP
10 5 (1.42%) Databricks
10 5 (1.42%) Veracode
11 4 (1.13%) Adobe
12 3 (0.85%) Computacenter
12 3 (0.85%) Dynatrace
12 3 (0.85%) UiPath
12 3 (0.85%) Xamarin