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 15 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 270 310 253
Rank change year-on-year +40 -57 -14
Contract jobs citing Open Source 356 235 405
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.96% 0.74% 0.96%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.09% 0.83% 1.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 165 151 251
10th Percentile £333 £325 £262
25th Percentile £413 £450 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £568
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% -3.08% -5.42%
75th Percentile £644 £688 £650
90th Percentile £771 £838 £744
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £500 £565
% change year-on-year -10.00% -11.50% +7.62%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 6 14
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 £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 32,585 28,260 37,041
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 87.84% 88.76% 87.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,582 17,185 24,531
10th Percentile £304 £306 £304
25th Percentile £406 £413 £415
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £614 £638 £650
90th Percentile £723 £742 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,992 898 1,578
10th Percentile £14.50 £15.62 £14.17
25th Percentile £17.50 £20.56 £18.04
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £40.50
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -19.75% +15.71%
75th Percentile £55.89 £62.24 £65.00
90th Percentile £68.75 £75.00 £76.53
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.83 £30.45 £43.33
% change year-on-year -21.76% -29.73% +46.88%

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 15 January 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 15 January 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 15 January 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 +33 307 £533 -5.12% 344
London +6 155 £600 -4.00% 95
UK excluding London -16 124 £450 -10.00% 297
Work from Home +26 119 £500 -16.67% 124
North of England -12 43 £435 -21.30% 54
South East +1 29 £565 +22.83% 105
North West -6 21 £423 -8.65% 28
Yorkshire -34 20 £525 -10.64% 20
Scotland +7 18 £575 +10.05% 6
South West -14 15 £365 -39.67% 40
West Midlands -26 13 £440 -20.00% 10
Midlands -29 13 £440 -20.00% 38
East of England -28 5 £553 +72.81% 45
North East -9 3 - - 6
Wales -5 1 - - 9

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 16 (4.49%) Apache
2 11 (3.09%) JBoss
2 11 (3.09%) WebLogic
3 9 (2.53%) Apache Spark
3 9 (2.53%) Appian
4 7 (1.97%) Confluence
5 4 (1.12%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 4 (1.12%) Apache Airflow
6 3 (0.84%) Ethereum
6 3 (0.84%) Hyperledger
7 2 (0.56%) Liferay
7 2 (0.56%) OpenStack
7 2 (0.56%) Tomcat
8 1 (0.28%) ArcGIS
8 1 (0.28%) Cloud Foundry
8 1 (0.28%) GeoServer
8 1 (0.28%) Mattermost
8 1 (0.28%) nginx
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
1 168 (47.19%) AWS
2 66 (18.54%) Azure
3 34 (9.55%) GitHub
4 30 (8.43%) GCP
5 22 (6.18%) GitHub Actions
6 17 (4.78%) Serverless
7 16 (4.49%) Amazon S3
8 14 (3.93%) CloudFront
9 12 (3.37%) Cloud Computing
10 11 (3.09%) Amazon Bedrock
10 11 (3.09%) Azure AI
11 9 (2.53%) Amazon SageMaker
11 9 (2.53%) Google Gemini
11 9 (2.53%) Vertex AI
12 8 (2.25%) Anthropic Claude
12 8 (2.25%) Azure DevOps
13 7 (1.97%) AWS Lambda
14 6 (1.69%) Azure AKS
15 5 (1.40%) Cloud Run
15 5 (1.40%) Google Kubernetes Engine
Communications & Networking
1 16 (4.49%) Firewall
2 5 (1.40%) DHCP
2 5 (1.40%) Internet
3 4 (1.12%) DNS
4 3 (0.84%) Ethernet
4 3 (0.84%) SSH
4 3 (0.84%) VLAN
5 2 (0.56%) TCP/IP
5 2 (0.56%) WAN
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%) Reverse Proxy
6 1 (0.28%) RTP
6 1 (0.28%) SMTP
6 1 (0.28%) Software-Defined Networking
6 1 (0.28%) STUN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 67 (18.82%) Apache Cassandra
2 32 (8.99%) PostgreSQL
3 31 (8.71%) MongoDB
4 26 (7.30%) Relational Database
5 22 (6.18%) NoSQL
6 19 (5.34%) DB2
7 15 (4.21%) Redis
8 12 (3.37%) SQL Server
9 11 (3.09%) Pinecone
10 10 (2.81%) BigQuery
11 6 (1.69%) Couchbase
11 6 (1.69%) Metadata
12 5 (1.40%) DynamoDB
12 5 (1.40%) RDBMS
12 5 (1.40%) Weaviate
13 4 (1.12%) Apache Hive
13 4 (1.12%) Data Hub
13 4 (1.12%) Hadoop
13 4 (1.12%) Impala
14 3 (0.84%) QGIS
Development Applications
1 39 (10.96%) Git
2 33 (9.27%) JUnit
3 26 (7.30%) GitLab
4 25 (7.02%) Jenkins
5 15 (4.21%) Selenium
6 12 (3.37%) MLflow
7 11 (3.09%) JIRA
8 9 (2.53%) Cucumber
8 9 (2.53%) Eclipse
8 9 (2.53%) IntelliJ
9 8 (2.25%) SonarQube
10 7 (1.97%) Mocha
11 5 (1.40%) Gradle
11 5 (1.40%) Robot Framework
12 4 (1.12%) CircleCI
13 3 (0.84%) ESLint
13 3 (0.84%) Hardhat
13 3 (0.84%) Hudson
13 3 (0.84%) Jasmine
13 3 (0.84%) KGDB
General
1 88 (24.72%) Social Skills
2 63 (17.70%) Finance
3 44 (12.36%) Analytical Skills
4 38 (10.67%) Public Sector
5 37 (10.39%) Banking
6 25 (7.02%) Investment Banking
7 19 (5.34%) Front Office
8 11 (3.09%) Influencing Skills
9 9 (2.53%) Telecoms
10 8 (2.25%) Marketing
11 7 (1.97%) Documentation Skills
11 7 (1.97%) Presentation Skills
12 6 (1.69%) Financial Institution
12 6 (1.69%) Legal
13 5 (1.40%) Retail
14 4 (1.12%) Organisational Skills
14 4 (1.12%) Publishing
15 3 (0.84%) Electronics
15 3 (0.84%) Manufacturing
15 3 (0.84%) Military
Job Titles
1 130 (36.52%) Developer
2 96 (26.97%) Senior
3 59 (16.57%) Senior Developer
4 37 (10.39%) Software Engineer
5 35 (9.83%) Architect
6 23 (6.46%) Platform Engineer
7 21 (5.90%) Java Developer
8 19 (5.34%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
9 18 (5.06%) Investment Banking Java Developer
9 18 (5.06%) SQL Developer
10 16 (4.49%) Android Developer
11 13 (3.65%) Solutions Architect
12 12 (3.37%) Data Scientist
13 11 (3.09%) Artificial Intelligence Architect
13 11 (3.09%) Lead
13 11 (3.09%) Software Developer
14 10 (2.81%) Front-End Developer (Client-Side Developer)
14 10 (2.81%) Python Developer
14 10 (2.81%) Senior Java Developer
14 10 (2.81%) Senior Platform Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 115 (32.30%) Kafka
2 79 (22.19%) gRPC
3 38 (10.67%) Spring
4 36 (10.11%) REST
5 32 (8.99%) React
6 29 (8.15%) HTML
7 24 (6.74%) Node.js
8 23 (6.46%) LangChain
9 20 (5.62%) CSS
10 19 (5.34%) PyTorch
11 18 (5.06%) HTML5
11 18 (5.06%) JMS
12 16 (4.49%) .NET
12 16 (4.49%) JSON
13 15 (4.21%) Hugging Face
13 15 (4.21%) RESTful
13 15 (4.21%) TensorFlow
14 14 (3.93%) Android SDK
14 14 (3.93%) XML
15 13 (3.65%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 66 (18.54%) Distributed Systems
2 25 (7.02%) Equities
3 20 (5.62%) Cloud Native
3 20 (5.62%) Data Structures
4 14 (3.93%) Product Ownership
5 12 (3.37%) Distributed Computing
5 12 (3.37%) PKI
6 11 (3.09%) Fat Client
6 11 (3.09%) Thin Client
7 9 (2.53%) AI Agents
8 7 (1.97%) Fixed Income
8 7 (1.97%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
8 7 (1.97%) Onboarding
8 7 (1.97%) Virtual Team
9 6 (1.69%) Cyber Threat
9 6 (1.69%) Derivative
9 6 (1.69%) Enterprise Software
9 6 (1.69%) Hedge funds
9 6 (1.69%) Mobile App
9 6 (1.69%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 55 (15.45%) Linux
2 27 (7.58%) Windows
3 23 (6.46%) Android
4 17 (4.78%) Unix
5 11 (3.09%) Windows 7
6 7 (1.97%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 6 (1.69%) Apple iOS
8 5 (1.40%) Windows Server
9 3 (0.84%) CentOS
10 2 (0.56%) Ubuntu
11 1 (0.28%) Debian
11 1 (0.28%) Kali Linux
11 1 (0.28%) Mac OS
11 1 (0.28%) Oracle Linux
11 1 (0.28%) Rocky
11 1 (0.28%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 130 (36.52%) Software Engineering
2 102 (28.65%) Microservices
3 88 (24.72%) Agile
4 86 (24.16%) CI/CD
4 86 (24.16%) Problem-Solving
5 76 (21.35%) AI
6 56 (15.73%) DevOps
7 53 (14.89%) Machine Learning
8 48 (13.48%) Infrastructure as Code
9 45 (12.64%) Containerisation
9 45 (12.64%) LLM
10 40 (11.24%) Generative AI
11 38 (10.67%) Observability
12 36 (10.11%) Clean Code
12 36 (10.11%) Performance Tuning
13 33 (9.27%) Test Automation
14 30 (8.43%) Retrieval-Augmented Generation
15 29 (8.15%) Data Pipeline
16 27 (7.58%) Data Science
17 26 (7.30%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 168 (47.19%) Python
2 91 (25.56%) Go
3 83 (23.31%) Java
4 70 (19.66%) SQL
5 35 (9.83%) JavaScript
6 27 (7.58%) TypeScript
7 21 (5.90%) C#
8 18 (5.06%) Kotlin
8 18 (5.06%) Shell Script
9 16 (4.49%) Bash
10 14 (3.93%) Scala
11 13 (3.65%) Ruby
12 12 (3.37%) PowerShell
13 5 (1.40%) C++
14 4 (1.12%) C
14 4 (1.12%) Delphi
14 4 (1.12%) Perl
14 4 (1.12%) PHP
14 4 (1.12%) PL/SQL
14 4 (1.12%) Solidity
Qualifications
1 63 (17.70%) Security Cleared
2 35 (9.83%) SC Cleared
3 30 (8.43%) Degree
4 20 (5.62%) DV Cleared
5 17 (4.78%) Computer Science Degree
6 12 (3.37%) BPSS Clearance
7 11 (3.09%) Master's Degree
8 6 (1.69%) PhD
9 4 (1.12%) MCP
10 3 (0.84%) OSCP
11 2 (0.56%) AWS Certification
11 2 (0.56%) GPEN
11 2 (0.56%) GWAPT
12 1 (0.28%) CCIP
12 1 (0.28%) CEH
12 1 (0.28%) Cisco Certification
12 1 (0.28%) CISSP
12 1 (0.28%) GIAC
12 1 (0.28%) GXPN
12 1 (0.28%) OSCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (4.78%) Accessibility
2 12 (3.37%) QA
3 10 (2.81%) WCAG
4 8 (2.25%) NIST
5 6 (1.69%) Data Quality
5 6 (1.69%) GDPR
5 6 (1.69%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 5 (1.40%) Cyber Essentials
6 5 (1.40%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 3 (0.84%) NCSC
8 2 (0.56%) GPG for Computer-Based Electronic Evidence
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%) HIPAA
9 1 (0.28%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 135 (37.92%) Docker
2 16 (4.49%) Active Directory
3 6 (1.69%) Virtual Machines
4 4 (1.12%) QEMU
5 3 (0.84%) Ceph
5 3 (0.84%) ISA Server
5 3 (0.84%) 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
1 126 (35.39%) Kubernetes
2 37 (10.39%) Terraform
3 30 (8.43%) Prometheus
4 29 (8.15%) Grafana
5 18 (5.06%) Ansible
6 12 (3.37%) Puppet
7 11 (3.09%) WMI
8 7 (1.97%) Argo
8 7 (1.97%) Istio
9 3 (0.84%) HAProxy
10 2 (0.56%) Data Guard
10 2 (0.56%) Kibana
10 2 (0.56%) Knative
10 2 (0.56%) Oracle RMAN
10 2 (0.56%) Progress Chef
11 1 (0.28%) Kubeflow
11 1 (0.28%) Nessus
11 1 (0.28%) QRadar
11 1 (0.28%) SCOM
11 1 (0.28%) SELinux
Vendors
1 32 (8.99%) Microsoft
2 27 (7.58%) Google
3 18 (5.06%) Sybase
4 16 (4.49%) OpenAI
4 16 (4.49%) VMware
5 10 (2.81%) Splunk
6 9 (2.53%) Oracle
6 9 (2.53%) Red Hat
6 9 (2.53%) webMethods
7 6 (1.69%) Atlassian
7 6 (1.69%) Cisco
7 6 (1.69%) SAP
8 5 (1.40%) Databricks
8 5 (1.40%) UiPath
8 5 (1.40%) Veracode
9 4 (1.12%) Adobe
9 4 (1.12%) Automation Anywhere
9 4 (1.12%) Dynatrace
9 4 (1.12%) Foundry
10 3 (0.84%) Computacenter