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 1 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 286 291 263
Rank change year-on-year +5 -28 -21
Contract jobs citing Open Source 373 254 385
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.90% 0.83% 0.86%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.04% 0.93% 0.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 173 175 232
10th Percentile £350 £392 £356
25th Percentile £425 £456 £465
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £575 £570
Median % change year-on-year -8.70% +0.88% -3.39%
75th Percentile £648 £738 £675
90th Percentile £785 £838 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £500 £570
% change year-on-year -10.00% -12.28% +8.57%
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% -67.31%
75th Percentile £39.75 £26.88 £48.75
90th Percentile £54.15 £61.00 £72.90
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 35,946 27,398 38,816
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 86.59% 90.01% 86.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,812 17,104 25,306
10th Percentile £313 £305 £300
25th Percentile £412 £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 £723 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £482 £492 £500
% change year-on-year -1.93% -1.70% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,146 887 2,267
10th Percentile £14.66 £15.62 £13.25
25th Percentile £18.25 £21.24 £16.25
Median hourly rate £27.50 £32.50 £33.00
Median % change year-on-year -15.38% -1.52% -5.71%
75th Percentile £63.48 £64.50 £59.44
90th Percentile £73.46 £75.35 £72.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £31.76 £34.21
% change year-on-year -20.81% -7.16% -2.26%

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 1 March 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 1 March 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 1 March 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 -2 311 £550 -8.33% 341
London -22 154 £610 -6.15% 94
UK excluding London -25 144 £450 -10.00% 282
Work from Home +15 136 £500 -20.00% 116
North of England -26 46 £430 -7.03% 57
South East -20 33 £525 +5.00% 69
North West -21 25 £409 -11.62% 24
Scotland +13 21 £675 +25.58% 12
South West -12 20 £440 -29.60% 43
Yorkshire -50 18 £513 -3.85% 24
West Midlands -39 17 £440 +1.97% 14
Midlands -47 17 £440 +1.97% 39
East of England -35 6 £552 +71.60% 49
North East -12 3 - - 9
Wales -9 1 - - 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 18 (4.83%) Apache
2 11 (2.95%) Appian
2 11 (2.95%) JBoss
2 11 (2.95%) WebLogic
3 10 (2.68%) Apache Spark
3 10 (2.68%) Confluence
4 5 (1.34%) Apache Airflow
4 5 (1.34%) OpenStack
5 4 (1.07%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 4 (1.07%) nginx
6 3 (0.80%) Ethereum
6 3 (0.80%) Hyperledger
7 2 (0.54%) Liferay
7 2 (0.54%) SharePoint
7 2 (0.54%) Tomcat
8 1 (0.27%) ArcGIS
8 1 (0.27%) Cloud Foundry
8 1 (0.27%) GeoServer
8 1 (0.27%) Oracle Coherence
8 1 (0.27%) Oracle Spatial
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
1 170 (45.58%) AWS
2 83 (22.25%) Azure
3 41 (10.99%) GitHub
4 29 (7.77%) GCP
5 24 (6.43%) GitHub Actions
6 22 (5.90%) Amazon S3
7 20 (5.36%) Azure AI
7 20 (5.36%) Serverless
8 14 (3.75%) Azure DevOps
9 13 (3.49%) Amazon EC2
9 13 (3.49%) Anthropic Claude
10 12 (3.22%) Cloud Computing
11 11 (2.95%) Amazon Bedrock
11 11 (2.95%) CloudFront
12 10 (2.68%) Amazon SageMaker
12 10 (2.68%) Azure Cognitive Services
12 10 (2.68%) Azure Data Factory
12 10 (2.68%) Google Gemini
13 9 (2.41%) AWS Lambda
14 8 (2.14%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 17 (4.56%) Firewall
2 6 (1.61%) DHCP
2 6 (1.61%) DNS
3 5 (1.34%) Internet
3 5 (1.34%) Reverse Proxy
4 4 (1.07%) WAN
5 3 (0.80%) VLAN
6 2 (0.54%) TCP/IP
7 1 (0.27%) Ethernet
7 1 (0.27%) Intrusion Detection
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%) Network Security
7 1 (0.27%) RTP
7 1 (0.27%) SAN
7 1 (0.27%) SNMP
7 1 (0.27%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 64 (17.16%) Apache Cassandra
2 46 (12.33%) PostgreSQL
3 26 (6.97%) MongoDB
4 22 (5.90%) NoSQL
5 17 (4.56%) SQL Server
6 16 (4.29%) Relational Database
7 14 (3.75%) Pinecone
8 13 (3.49%) Redis
9 12 (3.22%) BigQuery
10 11 (2.95%) DynamoDB
11 9 (2.41%) DB2
11 9 (2.41%) Metadata
12 7 (1.88%) Amazon RDS
13 6 (1.61%) Couchbase
13 6 (1.61%) Weaviate
14 5 (1.34%) Amazon Aurora
14 5 (1.34%) Big Data
15 4 (1.07%) Data Hub
15 4 (1.07%) GIS
15 4 (1.07%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 51 (13.67%) Git
2 32 (8.58%) GitLab
3 29 (7.77%) JUnit
4 27 (7.24%) Jenkins
5 15 (4.02%) JIRA
6 14 (3.75%) MLflow
7 13 (3.49%) Selenium
8 9 (2.41%) Eclipse
8 9 (2.41%) IntelliJ
8 9 (2.41%) SonarQube
9 8 (2.14%) Gradle
10 7 (1.88%) CircleCI
10 7 (1.88%) Cucumber
11 6 (1.61%) Maven
11 6 (1.61%) Mocha
11 6 (1.61%) Mockito
12 5 (1.34%) Bitbucket Server
12 5 (1.34%) DbUnit
12 5 (1.34%) jMock
13 4 (1.07%) ESLint
General
1 82 (21.98%) Social Skills
2 63 (16.89%) Finance
3 50 (13.40%) Public Sector
4 38 (10.19%) Analytical Skills
5 33 (8.85%) Banking
6 15 (4.02%) Investment Banking
7 14 (3.75%) Front Office
8 12 (3.22%) Influencing Skills
9 10 (2.68%) Legal
10 7 (1.88%) Marketing
10 7 (1.88%) Presentation Skills
10 7 (1.88%) Telecoms
11 6 (1.61%) Financial Institution
11 6 (1.61%) Publishing
11 6 (1.61%) Retail
12 5 (1.34%) Documentation Skills
12 5 (1.34%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 4 (1.07%) Organisational Skills
14 3 (0.80%) Military
15 2 (0.54%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 130 (34.85%) Developer
2 88 (23.59%) Senior
3 56 (15.01%) Senior Developer
4 49 (13.14%) Architect
5 38 (10.19%) Software Engineer
6 26 (6.97%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
7 22 (5.90%) Solutions Architect
8 19 (5.09%) Android Developer
9 16 (4.29%) Java Developer
10 13 (3.49%) Lead
10 13 (3.49%) Platform Engineer
11 12 (3.22%) AWS Architect
11 12 (3.22%) Data Scientist
12 11 (2.95%) Artificial Intelligence Architect
12 11 (2.95%) Python Developer
13 10 (2.68%) Automation Engineer
13 10 (2.68%) Data Engineer
13 10 (2.68%) Senior Platform Engineer
14 9 (2.41%) AWS Solution Architect
14 9 (2.41%) Cloud Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 104 (27.88%) Kafka
2 69 (18.50%) gRPC
3 54 (14.48%) REST
4 37 (9.92%) React
5 34 (9.12%) Spring
6 30 (8.04%) Node.js
7 28 (7.51%) HTML
7 28 (7.51%) RESTful
8 26 (6.97%) LangChain
9 22 (5.90%) AngularJS
9 22 (5.90%) Web Services
10 20 (5.36%) .NET
10 20 (5.36%) PyTorch
11 19 (5.09%) Android Jetpack
11 19 (5.09%) CSS
11 19 (5.09%) Jetpack Compose
12 18 (4.83%) HTML5
13 17 (4.56%) Android SDK
13 17 (4.56%) Spring Boot
14 16 (4.29%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 72 (19.30%) Distributed Systems
2 25 (6.70%) Cloud Native
3 19 (5.09%) Product Ownership
4 14 (3.75%) Equities
5 12 (3.22%) Distributed Computing
6 11 (2.95%) PKI
7 10 (2.68%) Fat Client
7 10 (2.68%) Legacy Code
7 10 (2.68%) Legacy Systems
7 10 (2.68%) Thin Client
8 9 (2.41%) AI Agents
8 9 (2.41%) Data Structures
8 9 (2.41%) Mobile App
8 9 (2.41%) Onboarding
8 9 (2.41%) Virtual Team
9 8 (2.14%) Low-Code
9 8 (2.14%) Security Posture
10 7 (1.88%) Cyber Threat
10 7 (1.88%) Data Centre
10 7 (1.88%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 52 (13.94%) Linux
2 29 (7.77%) Android
3 22 (5.90%) Windows
4 15 (4.02%) Unix
5 10 (2.68%) Windows 7
6 8 (2.14%) Apple iOS
6 8 (2.14%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 3 (0.80%) CentOS
7 3 (0.80%) Ubuntu
7 3 (0.80%) Windows Server
8 2 (0.54%) Debian
8 2 (0.54%) Rocky
8 2 (0.54%) VMS
9 1 (0.27%) Oracle Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 120 (32.17%) Software Engineering
2 107 (28.69%) Microservices
3 92 (24.66%) CI/CD
4 90 (24.13%) Agile
5 89 (23.86%) AI
6 70 (18.77%) Problem-Solving
7 63 (16.89%) LLM
8 62 (16.62%) DevOps
9 56 (15.01%) Machine Learning
10 55 (14.75%) Containerisation
11 49 (13.14%) Generative AI
11 49 (13.14%) Infrastructure as Code
12 38 (10.19%) Retrieval-Augmented Generation
13 37 (9.92%) Data Pipeline
14 36 (9.65%) Test Automation
15 35 (9.38%) Computer Science
15 35 (9.38%) Continuous Integration
16 33 (8.85%) Performance Tuning
17 32 (8.58%) Clean Code
18 31 (8.31%) Data Science
Programming Languages
1 159 (42.63%) Python
2 84 (22.52%) Go
3 82 (21.98%) Java
4 65 (17.43%) SQL
5 36 (9.65%) JavaScript
6 32 (8.58%) TypeScript
7 26 (6.97%) C#
8 25 (6.70%) Kotlin
9 14 (3.75%) Bash
9 14 (3.75%) Scala
10 12 (3.22%) Ruby
11 11 (2.95%) Shell Script
12 9 (2.41%) PowerShell
13 5 (1.34%) PL/SQL
14 4 (1.07%) C++
14 4 (1.07%) Delphi
14 4 (1.07%) PHP
14 4 (1.07%) Solidity
15 3 (0.80%) Swift
16 2 (0.54%) Rust
Qualifications
1 84 (22.52%) Security Cleared
2 52 (13.94%) SC Cleared
3 41 (10.99%) Degree
4 22 (5.90%) Computer Science Degree
5 21 (5.63%) DV Cleared
6 15 (4.02%) BPSS Clearance
7 13 (3.49%) Master's Degree
8 8 (2.14%) PhD
9 4 (1.07%) AWS Certification
9 4 (1.07%) Azure Certification
10 2 (0.54%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
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 19 (5.09%) Accessibility
2 12 (3.22%) QA
3 10 (2.68%) Data Quality
3 10 (2.68%) NIST
3 10 (2.68%) WCAG
4 7 (1.88%) GDPR
4 7 (1.88%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 5 (1.34%) Cyber Essentials
5 5 (1.34%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 3 (0.80%) NCSC
7 2 (0.54%) GPG for Computer-Based Electronic Evidence
7 2 (0.54%) ISO/IEC 17025
7 2 (0.54%) ISO17020
7 2 (0.54%) SLA
8 1 (0.27%) HIPAA
8 1 (0.27%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
8 1 (0.27%) ISO/IEC 42001
8 1 (0.27%) PCI DSS
8 1 (0.27%) SOC 2
System Software
1 136 (36.46%) Docker
2 17 (4.56%) Active Directory
3 7 (1.88%) Virtual Machines
4 4 (1.07%) Ceph
4 4 (1.07%) Postfix
5 3 (0.80%) ISA Server
5 3 (0.80%) KVM
5 3 (0.80%) Oracle RAC
6 2 (0.54%) Oracle Clusterware
6 2 (0.54%) QEMU
7 1 (0.27%) Firmware
7 1 (0.27%) iptables
7 1 (0.27%) Lustre
7 1 (0.27%) NFS
7 1 (0.27%) Samba
7 1 (0.27%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 126 (33.78%) Kubernetes
2 36 (9.65%) Terraform
3 27 (7.24%) Grafana
4 26 (6.97%) Prometheus
5 14 (3.75%) Ansible
6 12 (3.22%) Puppet
7 10 (2.68%) WMI
8 8 (2.14%) Istio
9 7 (1.88%) Argo
10 3 (0.80%) Data Guard
10 3 (0.80%) HAProxy
10 3 (0.80%) Oracle RMAN
11 2 (0.54%) Knative
11 2 (0.54%) Rancher
11 2 (0.54%) Salt
12 1 (0.27%) Amdocs OSS
12 1 (0.27%) CASB
12 1 (0.27%) MOM
12 1 (0.27%) SELinux
Vendors
1 36 (9.65%) Microsoft
2 27 (7.24%) Google
3 24 (6.43%) OpenAI
4 12 (3.22%) VMware
5 11 (2.95%) Atlassian
5 11 (2.95%) Oracle
6 9 (2.41%) UiPath
6 9 (2.41%) webMethods
7 8 (2.14%) Automation Anywhere
7 8 (2.14%) Splunk
7 8 (2.14%) Sybase
8 7 (1.88%) Red Hat
9 5 (1.34%) Databricks
9 5 (1.34%) Jaspersoft
9 5 (1.34%) SAP
10 4 (1.07%) Adobe
10 4 (1.07%) Cisco
10 4 (1.07%) Dynatrace
10 4 (1.07%) Xamarin
11 3 (0.80%) Veracode