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 11 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
11 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 314 264 272
Rank change year-on-year -50 +8 -16
Contract jobs citing Open Source 347 284 382
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.76% 0.97% 0.87%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.89% 1.07% 1.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 160 207 248
10th Percentile £350 £400 £360
25th Percentile £448 £456 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £575 £580
Median % change year-on-year -4.35% -0.86% -3.33%
75th Percentile £650 £675 £675
90th Percentile £801 £838 £758
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £486 £591
% change year-on-year -2.26% -17.80% +7.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 2 5
10th Percentile - £32.90 £36.59
25th Percentile £15.25 £43.25 £52.50
Median hourly rate £15.50 £60.50 £71.93
Median % change year-on-year -74.38% -15.89% -4.09%
75th Percentile £39.75 £77.75 £72.90
90th Percentile £54.15 £88.10 £76.41
UK excluding London median hourly rate £15.50 - £71.93

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 39,019 26,482 37,961
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 85.25% 90.62% 86.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,692 17,180 24,590
10th Percentile £315 £308 £300
25th Percentile £413 £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 £725 £744 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £487 £488 £500
% change year-on-year -0.10% -2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,316 1,006 2,380
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.99 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.38 £19.05 £16.00
Median hourly rate £36.71 £31.04 £33.07
Median % change year-on-year +18.27% -6.12% -8.15%
75th Percentile £65.00 £63.75 £57.58
90th Percentile £77.75 £75.38 £70.66
UK excluding London median hourly rate £37.00 £29.12 £33.03
% change year-on-year +27.08% -11.86% -6.76%

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 11 April 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 11 April 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Open Source in the UK

Open Source
Top 14 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 11 April 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 -56 282 £550 -8.33% 149
London -82 150 £625 - 78
Work from Home -42 123 £550 -8.33% 59
UK excluding London -65 123 £475 -2.26% 93
North of England -52 34 £450 -2.96% 21
South East -45 22 £413 -17.50% 20
Scotland 0 20 £663 +40.96% 10
South West -15 20 £365 -40.16% 12
North West -20 20 £450 -2.70% 9
West Midlands -54 16 £475 +10.08% 5
Midlands -63 16 £475 +10.08% 6
Yorkshire -42 13 £475 - 8
East of England -29 11 £550 +22.22% 21
North East -19 1 - - 4

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 15 (4.32%) Apache
2 11 (3.17%) Confluence
3 10 (2.88%) Apache Spark
4 8 (2.31%) Appian
5 6 (1.73%) JBoss
5 6 (1.73%) WebLogic
6 5 (1.44%) OpenStack
6 5 (1.44%) SharePoint
7 4 (1.15%) nginx
8 3 (0.86%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 3 (0.86%) Apache Airflow
9 2 (0.58%) Liferay
9 2 (0.58%) Tomcat
10 1 (0.29%) Apache Superset
Applications
1 3 (0.86%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 2 (0.58%) Oracle EBS
1 2 (0.58%) Oracle EBS R12
2 1 (0.29%) Magento
2 1 (0.29%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 170 (48.99%) AWS
2 79 (22.77%) Azure
3 44 (12.68%) GitHub
4 41 (11.82%) GCP
5 29 (8.36%) Amazon S3
6 26 (7.49%) Serverless
7 20 (5.76%) Azure AI
8 19 (5.48%) GitHub Actions
9 18 (5.19%) Amazon EC2
10 14 (4.03%) Azure DevOps
10 14 (4.03%) Google Gemini
11 13 (3.75%) Anthropic Claude
11 13 (3.75%) AWS Lambda
12 11 (3.17%) Amazon SageMaker
13 10 (2.88%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 10 (2.88%) Azure Cognitive Services
13 10 (2.88%) Azure Data Factory
14 9 (2.59%) Route 53
14 9 (2.59%) Vertex AI
15 8 (2.31%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 15 (4.32%) Firewall
2 7 (2.02%) DNS
2 7 (2.02%) Reverse Proxy
3 6 (1.73%) DHCP
3 6 (1.73%) WAN
4 3 (0.86%) VLAN
5 2 (0.58%) Internet
5 2 (0.58%) NaaS
5 2 (0.58%) SSH
5 2 (0.58%) TCP/IP
6 1 (0.29%) HTTPS
6 1 (0.29%) Intrusion Detection
6 1 (0.29%) iSCSI
6 1 (0.29%) Kerberos
6 1 (0.29%) LAN
6 1 (0.29%) Network Security
6 1 (0.29%) RTP
6 1 (0.29%) SAN
6 1 (0.29%) SNMP
6 1 (0.29%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 56 (16.14%) Apache Cassandra
2 50 (14.41%) PostgreSQL
3 19 (5.48%) MongoDB
4 16 (4.61%) SQL Server
5 15 (4.32%) NoSQL
6 14 (4.03%) BigQuery
7 13 (3.75%) DynamoDB
8 12 (3.46%) Pinecone
9 10 (2.88%) Amazon RDS
10 9 (2.59%) Redis
10 9 (2.59%) Relational Database
11 8 (2.31%) Metadata
12 7 (2.02%) Amazon Aurora
12 7 (2.02%) Amazon QuickSight
12 7 (2.02%) Big Data
13 6 (1.73%) Flink
13 6 (1.73%) RDBMS
14 5 (1.44%) Amazon Redshift
15 4 (1.15%) GIS
15 4 (1.15%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 59 (17.00%) Git
2 27 (7.78%) GitLab
3 26 (7.49%) JUnit
4 24 (6.92%) Jenkins
5 16 (4.61%) JIRA
6 15 (4.32%) SonarQube
7 12 (3.46%) IntelliJ
8 11 (3.17%) MLflow
9 7 (2.02%) Bitbucket Server
9 7 (2.02%) DbUnit
9 7 (2.02%) jMock
9 7 (2.02%) Maven
9 7 (2.02%) Mockito
9 7 (2.02%) Sonatype Nexus
10 6 (1.73%) CircleCI
10 6 (1.73%) Gradle
11 5 (1.44%) Artifactory
11 5 (1.44%) Selenium
12 4 (1.15%) Eclipse
12 4 (1.15%) PowerDesigner
General
1 68 (19.60%) Social Skills
2 67 (19.31%) Finance
3 47 (13.54%) Public Sector
4 30 (8.65%) Banking
5 28 (8.07%) Analytical Skills
6 15 (4.32%) Legal
7 12 (3.46%) Front Office
8 8 (2.31%) Investment Banking
9 7 (2.02%) Retail
10 6 (1.73%) Documentation Skills
10 6 (1.73%) Publishing
11 5 (1.44%) Financial Institution
11 5 (1.44%) Influencing Skills
11 5 (1.44%) Military
12 4 (1.15%) Telecoms
13 3 (0.86%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 3 (0.86%) Law
13 3 (0.86%) Marketing
14 2 (0.58%) Police
14 2 (0.58%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 105 (30.26%) Developer
2 74 (21.33%) Senior
3 61 (17.58%) Architect
4 47 (13.54%) Senior Developer
5 38 (10.95%) Software Engineer
6 28 (8.07%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
6 28 (8.07%) Solutions Architect
7 20 (5.76%) AWS Architect
8 16 (4.61%) Data Engineer
9 15 (4.32%) Cloud Engineer
9 15 (4.32%) Python Developer
10 14 (4.03%) Android Developer
10 14 (4.03%) AWS Solution Architect
11 13 (3.75%) Java Developer
12 11 (3.17%) Artificial Intelligence Architect
13 10 (2.88%) Automation Engineer
13 10 (2.88%) GCP Engineer
13 10 (2.88%) Java Engineer
13 10 (2.88%) Lead
13 10 (2.88%) Platform Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 99 (28.53%) Kafka
2 62 (17.87%) gRPC
3 50 (14.41%) REST
4 35 (10.09%) React
5 31 (8.93%) Node.js
5 31 (8.93%) Spring
6 29 (8.36%) RESTful
7 25 (7.20%) Spring Boot
8 24 (6.92%) LangChain
9 22 (6.34%) AngularJS
9 22 (6.34%) Web Services
10 21 (6.05%) .NET
11 18 (5.19%) PyTorch
12 17 (4.90%) Hugging Face
13 16 (4.61%) TensorFlow
14 14 (4.03%) Android Jetpack
14 14 (4.03%) HTML
14 14 (4.03%) Jetpack Compose
15 13 (3.75%) Android SDK
16 12 (3.46%) Django
Miscellaneous
1 76 (21.90%) Distributed Systems
2 36 (10.37%) Cloud Native
3 21 (6.05%) Product Ownership
4 12 (3.46%) AI Agents
5 10 (2.88%) Legacy Systems
6 9 (2.59%) Enterprise Software
6 9 (2.59%) Legacy Code
7 8 (2.31%) Distributed Computing
7 8 (2.31%) Low-Code
7 8 (2.31%) Onboarding
8 7 (2.02%) Data Protection Act
8 7 (2.02%) Equities
8 7 (2.02%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
9 6 (1.73%) Data Centre
9 6 (1.73%) Fat Client
9 6 (1.73%) Mobile App
9 6 (1.73%) PKI
9 6 (1.73%) Thin Client
9 6 (1.73%) Virtual Team
10 5 (1.44%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 49 (14.12%) Linux
2 23 (6.63%) Android
3 14 (4.03%) Windows
4 9 (2.59%) Unix
5 7 (2.02%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 6 (1.73%) Apple iOS
6 6 (1.73%) Windows 7
7 4 (1.15%) Ubuntu
8 3 (0.86%) Debian
8 3 (0.86%) Rocky
8 3 (0.86%) Windows Server
9 2 (0.58%) CentOS
9 2 (0.58%) VMS
10 1 (0.29%) Oracle Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 109 (31.41%) Software Engineering
2 97 (27.95%) Microservices
3 96 (27.67%) CI/CD
4 87 (25.07%) AI
5 75 (21.61%) Agile
6 66 (19.02%) DevOps
7 63 (18.16%) Containerisation
8 61 (17.58%) LLM
9 53 (15.27%) Infrastructure as Code
9 53 (15.27%) Problem-Solving
10 52 (14.99%) Machine Learning
11 47 (13.54%) Generative AI
12 41 (11.82%) Data Pipeline
13 40 (11.53%) Stakeholder Management
14 35 (10.09%) Retrieval-Augmented Generation
15 34 (9.80%) Observability
16 31 (8.93%) Computer Science
16 31 (8.93%) TDD
16 31 (8.93%) Test Automation
17 28 (8.07%) Clean Code
Programming Languages
1 150 (43.23%) Python
2 76 (21.90%) Java
3 75 (21.61%) Go
4 52 (14.99%) SQL
5 28 (8.07%) TypeScript
6 26 (7.49%) JavaScript
7 24 (6.92%) C#
8 19 (5.48%) Kotlin
9 18 (5.19%) Bash
10 11 (3.17%) Ruby
11 10 (2.88%) Scala
12 8 (2.31%) PowerShell
12 8 (2.31%) Shell Script
13 6 (1.73%) PL/SQL
14 4 (1.15%) C++
14 4 (1.15%) Delphi
14 4 (1.15%) PHP
15 2 (0.58%) Kusto Query Language
16 1 (0.29%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 1 (0.29%) R
Qualifications
1 84 (24.21%) Security Cleared
2 58 (16.71%) SC Cleared
3 35 (10.09%) Degree
4 15 (4.32%) Computer Science Degree
5 14 (4.03%) BPSS Clearance
5 14 (4.03%) DV Cleared
6 10 (2.88%) Master's Degree
7 7 (2.02%) PhD
8 4 (1.15%) AWS Certification
8 4 (1.15%) Azure Certification
9 2 (0.58%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 1 (0.29%) CCIP
10 1 (0.29%) Cisco Certification
10 1 (0.29%) ISEB
10 1 (0.29%) Microsoft Certified Professional
10 1 (0.29%) MPhil
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (5.76%) QA
2 14 (4.03%) Accessibility
3 11 (3.17%) Data Quality
4 7 (2.02%) WCAG
5 5 (1.44%) NIST
6 3 (0.86%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 2 (0.58%) GDPR
7 2 (0.58%) GPG for Computer-Based Electronic Evidence
7 2 (0.58%) ISO/IEC 17025
7 2 (0.58%) ISO17020
8 1 (0.29%) GRC
8 1 (0.29%) HIPAA
8 1 (0.29%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
8 1 (0.29%) ISO/IEC 42001
8 1 (0.29%) PCI DSS
8 1 (0.29%) SLA
8 1 (0.29%) SOC 2
System Software
1 125 (36.02%) Docker
2 15 (4.32%) Active Directory
3 6 (1.73%) Postfix
4 5 (1.44%) Ceph
4 5 (1.44%) Virtual Machines
5 4 (1.15%) Oracle RAC
6 3 (0.86%) ISA Server
6 3 (0.86%) KVM
7 2 (0.58%) Oracle Clusterware
8 1 (0.29%) Firmware
8 1 (0.29%) Hyper-V
8 1 (0.29%) iptables
8 1 (0.29%) Lustre
8 1 (0.29%) NFS
8 1 (0.29%) QEMU
8 1 (0.29%) Samba
8 1 (0.29%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 1 (0.29%) Squid
8 1 (0.29%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 114 (32.85%) Kubernetes
2 40 (11.53%) Terraform
3 30 (8.65%) Grafana
3 30 (8.65%) Prometheus
4 14 (4.03%) Ansible
5 10 (2.88%) Istio
6 8 (2.31%) Puppet
7 6 (1.73%) Argo
7 6 (1.73%) WMI
8 4 (1.15%) Data Guard
8 4 (1.15%) Oracle RMAN
8 4 (1.15%) Salt
9 3 (0.86%) HAProxy
10 2 (0.58%) Amdocs OSS
10 2 (0.58%) Knative
10 2 (0.58%) Rancher
11 1 (0.29%) CASB
11 1 (0.29%) MOM
11 1 (0.29%) SELinux
Vendors
1 31 (8.93%) Google
2 27 (7.78%) Microsoft
3 25 (7.20%) OpenAI
4 9 (2.59%) Atlassian
4 9 (2.59%) Dynatrace
4 9 (2.59%) Splunk
4 9 (2.59%) UiPath
5 8 (2.31%) Automation Anywhere
5 8 (2.31%) Oracle
5 8 (2.31%) VMware
6 7 (2.02%) Checkmarx
6 7 (2.02%) Jaspersoft
7 5 (1.44%) Confluent
7 5 (1.44%) Databricks
7 5 (1.44%) Red Hat
8 4 (1.15%) Cloudera
8 4 (1.15%) Fortinet
8 4 (1.15%) IBM
8 4 (1.15%) webMethods
8 4 (1.15%) Xamarin