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 10 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
10 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 418 243 317
Rank change year-on-year -175 +74 -54
Contract jobs citing Open Source 264 353 265
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.48% 1.07% 0.69%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.57% 1.18% 0.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 144 175 145
10th Percentile £413 £363 £350
25th Percentile £463 £428 £419
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £535 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year +1.90% - -12.50%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £630
90th Percentile £755 £690 £720
UK excluding London median daily rate £518 £493 £520
% change year-on-year +5.12% -5.19% -7.14%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 1 14
10th Percentile - - £20.12
25th Percentile £13.09 £51.75 £21.25
Median hourly rate £74.00 £56.50 £25.68
Median % change year-on-year +30.97% +120.02% +20.85%
75th Percentile £79.00 £61.25 £27.72
90th Percentile £82.60 - £27.96
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.67 - £25.36

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 46,112 29,840 32,750
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.63% 90.46% 85.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,098 18,520 20,299
10th Percentile £325 £300 £312
25th Percentile £425 £403 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.78%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,038 1,780 1,507
10th Percentile £13.87 £14.23 £14.70
25th Percentile £17.38 £17.30 £20.12
Median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +59.05% -41.51% +2.87%
75th Percentile £67.50 £45.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £67.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.03 £22.63 £43.00
% change year-on-year +76.89% -47.37% +8.65%

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 10 September 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 10 September 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 10 September 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 -199 186 £550 +3.58% 462
Work from Home -100 101 £507 -7.82% 212
UK excluding London -129 101 £518 +5.12% 168
London -146 97 £600 - 335
North of England -80 30 £485 +0.99% 33
South West -23 24 £550 +15.79% 26
Scotland -56 18 £525 +5.00% 26
Yorkshire -43 15 £500 -1.77% 12
East of England -17 12 £552 - 29
West Midlands -39 11 £459 -8.20% 5
Midlands -51 11 £459 -8.20% 6
South East -78 9 £459 -16.55% 41
North West -68 8 £638 +35.64% 15
North East -43 7 £425 -8.60% 6

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 (5.30%) Confluence
2 11 (4.17%) Apache
3 8 (3.03%) SharePoint
4 7 (2.65%) Apache Airflow
4 7 (2.65%) Apache Spark
5 6 (2.27%) SAS
6 4 (1.52%) Apache Superset
7 1 (0.38%) Apache Pulsar
7 1 (0.38%) CMS
7 1 (0.38%) Drupal
7 1 (0.38%) GeoServer
7 1 (0.38%) Microsoft Exchange
7 1 (0.38%) OpenStack
7 1 (0.38%) WordPress
Applications
1 3 (1.14%) Chatbot
2 2 (0.76%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 2 (0.76%) Oracle EBS
2 1 (0.38%) Magento
Cloud Services
1 123 (46.59%) AWS
2 70 (26.52%) Azure
3 55 (20.83%) GCP
4 44 (16.67%) GitHub
5 24 (9.09%) GitHub Actions
6 23 (8.71%) Amazon S3
7 22 (8.33%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 20 (7.58%) Serverless
9 14 (5.30%) Vertex AI
10 13 (4.92%) Amazon EKS
10 13 (4.92%) IaaS
11 12 (4.55%) Amazon EC2
11 12 (4.55%) AWS Lambda
12 9 (3.41%) Google Gemini
13 8 (3.03%) Amazon Bedrock
13 8 (3.03%) Anthropic Claude
13 8 (3.03%) SaaS
14 7 (2.65%) Amazon SQS
14 7 (2.65%) Azure Monitor
14 7 (2.65%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 7 (2.65%) Intrusion Detection
2 6 (2.27%) HTTPS
2 6 (2.27%) SNMP
3 5 (1.89%) DNS
4 4 (1.52%) Network Security
4 4 (1.52%) SSH
4 4 (1.52%) SSL
5 3 (1.14%) Firewall
6 2 (0.76%) 4G
6 2 (0.76%) Cisco IOS
6 2 (0.76%) HTTP
6 2 (0.76%) Reverse Proxy
6 2 (0.76%) TCP/IP
6 2 (0.76%) WAN
7 1 (0.38%) Asterisk PBX
7 1 (0.38%) Broadband
7 1 (0.38%) MQTT
7 1 (0.38%) VoIP
7 1 (0.38%) Wi-Fi
7 1 (0.38%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 24 (9.09%) PostgreSQL
2 16 (6.06%) Amazon RDS
3 13 (4.92%) MongoDB
4 12 (4.55%) DynamoDB
5 9 (3.41%) Data Warehouse
6 8 (3.03%) Amazon Redshift
6 8 (3.03%) Big Data
6 8 (3.03%) BigQuery
6 8 (3.03%) Data Lake
7 7 (2.65%) Amazon Athena
7 7 (2.65%) Amazon QuickSight
7 7 (2.65%) Relational Database
8 6 (2.27%) Amazon Aurora
8 6 (2.27%) Apache Cassandra
9 5 (1.89%) Apache Iceberg
9 5 (1.89%) BusinessObjects
9 5 (1.89%) Pentaho
9 5 (1.89%) Power BI
9 5 (1.89%) Redis
9 5 (1.89%) Trino
Development Applications
1 56 (21.21%) Git
2 25 (9.47%) Jenkins
3 22 (8.33%) GitLab
4 15 (5.68%) JIRA
4 15 (5.68%) JUnit
5 13 (4.92%) SonarQube
6 10 (3.79%) Sonatype Nexus
7 7 (2.65%) IntelliJ
8 6 (2.27%) Bitbucket Server
8 6 (2.27%) DbUnit
8 6 (2.27%) JMeter
8 6 (2.27%) jMock
8 6 (2.27%) Maven
8 6 (2.27%) Mockito
9 5 (1.89%) Cucumber
10 4 (1.52%) Cypress.io
11 3 (1.14%) LoadRunner
11 3 (1.14%) Postman
11 3 (1.14%) PowerDesigner
11 3 (1.14%) Selenium
General
1 68 (25.76%) Social Skills
2 42 (15.91%) Finance
3 37 (14.02%) Public Sector
4 19 (7.20%) Analytical Skills
5 15 (5.68%) Banking
6 13 (4.92%) Legal
7 11 (4.17%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 10 (3.79%) Law
9 5 (1.89%) Influencing Skills
9 5 (1.89%) Military
9 5 (1.89%) Retail
10 4 (1.52%) Front Office
10 4 (1.52%) Presentation Skills
11 3 (1.14%) Documentation Skills
11 3 (1.14%) Publishing
12 2 (0.76%) Organisational Skills
12 2 (0.76%) Police
12 2 (0.76%) Polish Language
12 2 (0.76%) Public Speaking
12 2 (0.76%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 49 (18.56%) Architect
1 49 (18.56%) Developer
1 49 (18.56%) Senior
2 27 (10.23%) Solutions Architect
3 24 (9.09%) AWS Architect
4 19 (7.20%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
5 17 (6.44%) AWS Solution Architect
6 16 (6.06%) Senior Developer
6 16 (6.06%) Software Engineer
7 15 (5.68%) Analyst
8 13 (4.92%) Consultant
8 13 (4.92%) Data Engineer
9 12 (4.55%) Software Developer
9 12 (4.55%) Threat Intelligence Analyst
10 11 (4.17%) Cloud Engineer
10 11 (4.17%) Cyber Threat Analyst
10 11 (4.17%) Cyber Threat Intelligence Analyst
11 10 (3.79%) AWS Engineer
11 10 (3.79%) Platform Engineer
12 9 (3.41%) Java Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 50 (18.94%) Terraform
2 44 (16.67%) Kafka
3 31 (11.74%) REST
4 15 (5.68%) Spring
4 15 (5.68%) Spring Boot
5 14 (5.30%) LangChain
6 13 (4.92%) React
6 13 (4.92%) RESTful
7 12 (4.55%) Node.js
7 12 (4.55%) PyTorch
8 11 (4.17%) LangGraph
8 11 (4.17%) SOAP
9 10 (3.79%) eBPF
9 10 (3.79%) OpenTelemetry
9 10 (3.79%) TensorFlow
10 8 (3.03%) Android Jetpack
10 8 (3.03%) gRPC
10 8 (3.03%) Jetpack Compose
10 8 (3.03%) Playwright
11 7 (2.65%) AWS CDK
Miscellaneous
1 48 (18.18%) Cloud Native
2 25 (9.47%) Distributed Systems
3 23 (8.71%) AI Agents
4 20 (7.58%) Cyber Threat
5 12 (4.55%) Private Cloud
6 11 (4.17%) Enterprise Software
7 10 (3.79%) Management Information System
8 9 (3.41%) Data Protection Act
8 9 (3.41%) Product Ownership
9 8 (3.03%) Self-Motivation
10 7 (2.65%) Blog
10 7 (2.65%) Data Structures
10 7 (2.65%) Mobile App
11 6 (2.27%) Legacy Applications
11 6 (2.27%) LIMS
11 6 (2.27%) Linux Command Line
11 6 (2.27%) Security Posture
12 5 (1.89%) Replication
12 5 (1.89%) Security Operations Centre
13 4 (1.52%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 60 (22.73%) Linux
2 18 (6.82%) Unix
3 12 (4.55%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 10 (3.79%) Windows
5 9 (3.41%) Android
6 3 (1.14%) Debian
6 3 (1.14%) Rocky
6 3 (1.14%) Ubuntu
7 2 (0.76%) Apple iOS
8 1 (0.38%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 106 (40.15%) CI/CD
2 72 (27.27%) Agile
3 66 (25.00%) Software Engineering
4 65 (24.62%) AI
5 63 (23.86%) DevOps
6 51 (19.32%) Infrastructure as Code
7 49 (18.56%) Observability
8 43 (16.29%) Containerisation
9 39 (14.77%) Microservices
9 39 (14.77%) Test Automation
10 38 (14.39%) Event-Driven
11 36 (13.64%) Stakeholder Management
12 34 (12.88%) LLM
13 32 (12.12%) Event-Driven Architecture
14 29 (10.98%) Cybersecurity
14 29 (10.98%) Data Pipeline
15 28 (10.61%) Machine Learning
15 28 (10.61%) Problem-Solving
16 27 (10.23%) Platform Engineering
17 26 (9.85%) Continuous Integration
Programming Languages
1 108 (40.91%) Python
2 48 (18.18%) Java
3 32 (12.12%) SQL
4 21 (7.95%) Bash
4 21 (7.95%) Go
5 14 (5.30%) C++
5 14 (5.30%) JavaScript
5 14 (5.30%) TypeScript
6 12 (4.55%) Scala
7 11 (4.17%) Perl
8 10 (3.79%) C
9 9 (3.41%) Kotlin
10 6 (2.27%) MUMPS
10 6 (2.27%) Shell Script
11 3 (1.14%) C#
11 3 (1.14%) PowerShell
12 2 (0.76%) Rust
13 1 (0.38%) PL/SQL
13 1 (0.38%) Ruby
13 1 (0.38%) Swift
Qualifications
1 100 (37.88%) Security Cleared
2 73 (27.65%) SC Cleared
3 21 (7.95%) Degree
4 18 (6.82%) DV Cleared
5 12 (4.55%) Computer Science Degree
6 9 (3.41%) CISSP
7 8 (3.03%) CISM
8 5 (1.89%) AWS Certification
9 4 (1.52%) BPSS Clearance
10 3 (1.14%) Azure Certification
10 3 (1.14%) Master's Degree
11 2 (0.76%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
11 2 (0.76%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 2 (0.76%) CEH
11 2 (0.76%) DBS Check
11 2 (0.76%) GIAC
11 2 (0.76%) LFCS
11 2 (0.76%) OSCP
11 2 (0.76%) RHCE
11 2 (0.76%) RHCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (5.68%) Accessibility
2 13 (4.92%) QA
3 7 (2.65%) GDPR
4 6 (2.27%) WCAG
5 4 (1.52%) Disclosure Scotland
6 3 (1.14%) Data Quality
6 3 (1.14%) GRC
6 3 (1.14%) NIST
7 1 (0.38%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.38%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 1 (0.38%) NCSC
System Software
1 60 (22.73%) Docker
2 10 (3.79%) VMware Infrastructure
3 5 (1.89%) Postfix
4 4 (1.52%) Ceph
4 4 (1.52%) Hyper-V
4 4 (1.52%) VMware ESXi
5 2 (0.76%) Active Directory
5 2 (0.76%) Firmware
5 2 (0.76%) Slurm Workload Manager
5 2 (0.76%) Virtual Servers
6 1 (0.38%) Oracle RAC
6 1 (0.38%) Squid
Systems Management
1 65 (24.62%) Kubernetes
2 38 (14.39%) Grafana
3 30 (11.36%) Prometheus
4 29 (10.98%) Ansible
5 10 (3.79%) Puppet
6 8 (3.03%) Progress Chef
7 4 (1.52%) Cilium
7 4 (1.52%) Istio
7 4 (1.52%) Salt
8 2 (0.76%) Docker Swarm
8 2 (0.76%) Kibana
8 2 (0.76%) linkerd
9 1 (0.38%) Amdocs OSS
9 1 (0.38%) Argo
9 1 (0.38%) Control-M
9 1 (0.38%) Data Guard
9 1 (0.38%) Oracle RMAN
9 1 (0.38%) QRadar
9 1 (0.38%) Single Sign-On
9 1 (0.38%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 28 (10.61%) Google
2 21 (7.95%) Microsoft
3 20 (7.58%) Splunk
4 17 (6.44%) Dynatrace
5 16 (6.06%) OpenAI
6 12 (4.55%) Oracle
7 11 (4.17%) SaltStack
8 10 (3.79%) Red Hat
8 10 (3.79%) VMware
9 7 (2.65%) Checkmarx
9 7 (2.65%) Cribl.io
10 6 (2.27%) Atlassian
10 6 (2.27%) Databricks
10 6 (2.27%) Informatica
10 6 (2.27%) InterSystems
10 6 (2.27%) Jaspersoft
11 5 (1.89%) Black Duck
11 5 (1.89%) Denodo
12 3 (1.14%) Mistral
12 3 (1.14%) Sonatype