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

6 months to
15 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 433 254 329
Rank change year-on-year -179 +75 -70
Contract jobs citing Open Source 276 354 244
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.50% 1.07% 0.65%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.59% 1.18% 0.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 150 158 128
10th Percentile £361 £363 £319
25th Percentile £431 £426 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £518 £525 £501
Median % change year-on-year -1.29% +4.88% -12.94%
75th Percentile £623 £617 £627
90th Percentile £739 £729 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £518 £504 £488
% change year-on-year +2.93% +3.28% -11.36%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 1 13
10th Percentile - - £20.12
25th Percentile £13.09 £51.75 £21.25
Median hourly rate £43.67 £56.50 £25.36
Median % change year-on-year -22.71% +122.79% +19.34%
75th Percentile £76.75 £61.25 £27.00
90th Percentile £80.80 - £27.96
UK excluding London median hourly rate £13.34 - £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 46,870 30,047 32,387
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.76% 90.49% 86.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,156 18,700 19,515
10th Percentile £325 £294 £308
25th Percentile £425 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.42%
75th Percentile £638 £623 £638
90th Percentile £738 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,444 1,888 1,247
10th Percentile £13.53 £14.38 £15.00
25th Percentile £16.94 £17.30 £20.12
Median hourly rate £37.50 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +49.11% -37.13% -10.11%
75th Percentile £65.00 £42.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.18 £65.25 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £37.50 £22.27 £40.33
% change year-on-year +68.43% -44.79% -8.14%

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 October 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 October 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 15 October 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 -202 191 £525 - 90
UK excluding London -111 117 £518 +2.93% 66
Work from Home -93 105 £500 - 59
London -142 92 £565 +3.29% 32
North of England -76 37 £511 +2.25% 20
South West -19 25 £550 -4.35% 19
Scotland -30 23 £525 - 1
Yorkshire -46 16 £513 -2.24% 7
South East -80 16 £350 -38.05% 12
East of England -20 11 £551 -0.36% 9
North East -29 11 £425 - 4
North West -56 10 £675 +55.17% 9
West Midlands -46 8 £450 -10.10% 2
Midlands -51 8 £450 -10.10% 3

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 (5.07%) Confluence
2 10 (3.62%) SharePoint
3 9 (3.26%) Apache
4 8 (2.90%) Apache Spark
5 7 (2.54%) Apache Airflow
6 6 (2.17%) SAS
7 5 (1.81%) Apache Superset
8 2 (0.72%) CMS
9 1 (0.36%) Apache Pulsar
9 1 (0.36%) Drupal
9 1 (0.36%) GeoServer
9 1 (0.36%) IIS
9 1 (0.36%) Microsoft Exchange
9 1 (0.36%) OpenStack
9 1 (0.36%) WordPress
Applications
1 4 (1.45%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.36%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (0.72%) Oracle EBS
2 1 (0.36%) Magento
Cloud Services
1 115 (41.67%) AWS
2 77 (27.90%) Azure
3 47 (17.03%) GitHub
4 46 (16.67%) GCP
5 30 (10.87%) GitHub Actions
6 18 (6.52%) Amazon CloudWatch
7 16 (5.80%) Amazon EKS
8 15 (5.43%) Amazon S3
8 15 (5.43%) IaaS
8 15 (5.43%) Serverless
9 11 (3.99%) Anthropic Claude
10 10 (3.62%) Vertex AI
11 9 (3.26%) Amazon Bedrock
12 8 (2.90%) AWS Lambda
12 8 (2.90%) Azure Monitor
13 7 (2.54%) Google Kubernetes Engine
13 7 (2.54%) Power Platform
14 6 (2.17%) Azure DevOps
14 6 (2.17%) GitHub Copilot
14 6 (2.17%) Google Gemini
Communications & Networking
1 7 (2.54%) Intrusion Detection
2 6 (2.17%) HTTPS
2 6 (2.17%) SNMP
3 4 (1.45%) DNS
3 4 (1.45%) Network Security
4 3 (1.09%) SSH
4 3 (1.09%) SSL
5 2 (0.72%) 4G
5 2 (0.72%) Asterisk PBX
5 2 (0.72%) Broadband
5 2 (0.72%) Cisco IOS
5 2 (0.72%) HTTP
5 2 (0.72%) Internet
5 2 (0.72%) RTCP
5 2 (0.72%) RTP
5 2 (0.72%) TCP/IP
5 2 (0.72%) VoIP
5 2 (0.72%) Wi-Fi
5 2 (0.72%) Wireshark
6 1 (0.36%) MQTT
Database & Business Intelligence
1 14 (5.07%) PostgreSQL
2 12 (4.35%) Amazon RDS
3 9 (3.26%) DynamoDB
3 9 (3.26%) MongoDB
4 8 (2.90%) Relational Database
4 8 (2.90%) Trino
5 7 (2.54%) Apache Iceberg
5 7 (2.54%) Big Data
5 7 (2.54%) Data Lake
5 7 (2.54%) Data Warehouse
6 6 (2.17%) Amazon Redshift
7 5 (1.81%) Amazon Athena
7 5 (1.81%) BusinessObjects
7 5 (1.81%) Pentaho
7 5 (1.81%) Power BI
8 4 (1.45%) BigQuery
8 4 (1.45%) Redis
9 3 (1.09%) Geospatial Data
9 3 (1.09%) QGIS
9 3 (1.09%) Spatial Data
Development Applications
1 43 (15.58%) Git
2 27 (9.78%) Jenkins
3 20 (7.25%) GitLab
4 15 (5.43%) JIRA
5 9 (3.26%) CircleCI
5 9 (3.26%) JMeter
6 8 (2.90%) Sonatype Nexus
7 7 (2.54%) Cypress.io
7 7 (2.54%) JUnit
8 6 (2.17%) Cucumber
8 6 (2.17%) Postman
8 6 (2.17%) XCTest
8 6 (2.17%) XCUITest
9 5 (1.81%) Claude Code
9 5 (1.81%) Gradle
10 4 (1.45%) MLflow
11 3 (1.09%) Bitbucket Server
11 3 (1.09%) Maven
11 3 (1.09%) ScalaTest
11 3 (1.09%) SonarQube
General
1 80 (28.99%) Social Skills
2 45 (16.30%) Finance
3 38 (13.77%) Public Sector
4 15 (5.43%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 14 (5.07%) Analytical Skills
6 13 (4.71%) Legal
7 12 (4.35%) Banking
8 8 (2.90%) Law
8 8 (2.90%) Telecoms
9 6 (2.17%) Influencing Skills
9 6 (2.17%) Retail
10 5 (1.81%) Presentation Skills
11 4 (1.45%) Military
12 3 (1.09%) Publishing
13 2 (0.72%) Documentation Skills
13 2 (0.72%) Front Office
13 2 (0.72%) Polish Language
13 2 (0.72%) Public Speaking
14 1 (0.36%) Financial Institution
14 1 (0.36%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 58 (21.01%) Senior
2 51 (18.48%) Developer
3 39 (14.13%) Architect
4 24 (8.70%) Solutions Architect
5 22 (7.97%) AWS Architect
6 20 (7.25%) Software Developer
7 19 (6.88%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
8 18 (6.52%) Software Engineer
9 16 (5.80%) AWS Solution Architect
10 14 (5.07%) Analyst
10 14 (5.07%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 13 (4.71%) Platform Engineer
11 13 (4.71%) Senior Developer
11 13 (4.71%) Threat Intelligence Analyst
12 12 (4.35%) Consultant
13 11 (3.99%) Cyber Threat Analyst
13 11 (3.99%) Cyber Threat Intelligence Analyst
13 11 (3.99%) Integration Engineer
13 11 (3.99%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
14 10 (3.62%) Data Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 50 (18.12%) Terraform
2 34 (12.32%) Kafka
3 33 (11.96%) REST
4 16 (5.80%) LangChain
5 15 (5.43%) RESTful
6 12 (4.35%) LangGraph
7 11 (3.99%) Android Jetpack
7 11 (3.99%) Jetpack Compose
7 11 (3.99%) Playwright
7 11 (3.99%) PyTorch
7 11 (3.99%) React
8 10 (3.62%) eBPF
9 9 (3.26%) LlamaIndex
9 9 (3.26%) OpenTelemetry
10 8 (2.90%) Node.js
10 8 (2.90%) Play Framework
10 8 (2.90%) RAML
10 8 (2.90%) SOAP
10 8 (2.90%) TensorFlow
11 7 (2.54%) .NET
Miscellaneous
1 46 (16.67%) Cloud Native
2 28 (10.14%) Distributed Systems
3 25 (9.06%) AI Agents
4 21 (7.61%) Cyber Threat
5 19 (6.88%) Private Cloud
6 15 (5.43%) Mobile App
7 12 (4.35%) Management Information System
7 12 (4.35%) Virtual Team
8 11 (3.99%) Product Ownership
9 10 (3.62%) Self-Motivation
10 9 (3.26%) Data Protection Act
10 9 (3.26%) Enterprise Software
10 9 (3.26%) Security Posture
11 8 (2.90%) Blog
12 7 (2.54%) Data Structures
12 7 (2.54%) Linux Command Line
13 6 (2.17%) Legacy Applications
13 6 (2.17%) LIMS
14 5 (1.81%) Onboarding
14 5 (1.81%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 64 (23.19%) Linux
2 16 (5.80%) Unix
3 12 (4.35%) Android
3 12 (4.35%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 11 (3.99%) Windows
5 7 (2.54%) Apple iOS
6 2 (0.72%) Debian
6 2 (0.72%) Rocky
6 2 (0.72%) Ubuntu
7 1 (0.36%) Amazon Linux
7 1 (0.36%) CentOS
7 1 (0.36%) macOS
7 1 (0.36%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 118 (42.75%) CI/CD
2 75 (27.17%) AI
3 73 (26.45%) Software Engineering
4 72 (26.09%) Agile
5 66 (23.91%) DevOps
6 59 (21.38%) Test Automation
7 56 (20.29%) Observability
8 53 (19.20%) Infrastructure as Code
9 43 (15.58%) Containerisation
10 36 (13.04%) Event-Driven
10 36 (13.04%) Platform Engineering
11 35 (12.68%) LLM
11 35 (12.68%) Microservices
12 34 (12.32%) Continuous Integration
13 33 (11.96%) Cybersecurity
13 33 (11.96%) Stakeholder Management
14 32 (11.59%) Problem-Solving
15 31 (11.23%) Continuous Improvement
15 31 (11.23%) Event-Driven Architecture
16 30 (10.87%) Machine Learning
Programming Languages
1 103 (37.32%) Python
2 47 (17.03%) Java
3 29 (10.51%) SQL
4 18 (6.52%) Perl
5 17 (6.16%) Bash
5 17 (6.16%) JavaScript
6 16 (5.80%) Go
7 15 (5.43%) C++
8 14 (5.07%) Kotlin
8 14 (5.07%) Scala
8 14 (5.07%) TypeScript
9 11 (3.99%) C
10 6 (2.17%) MUMPS
10 6 (2.17%) Objective-C
10 6 (2.17%) Swift
11 5 (1.81%) C#
12 4 (1.45%) PowerShell
12 4 (1.45%) Shell Script
13 2 (0.72%) Bicep
13 2 (0.72%) Rust
Qualifications
1 93 (33.70%) Security Cleared
2 70 (25.36%) SC Cleared
3 28 (10.14%) Degree
4 20 (7.25%) Computer Science Degree
5 18 (6.52%) DV Cleared
6 9 (3.26%) CISSP
7 8 (2.90%) AWS Certification
7 8 (2.90%) BPSS Clearance
7 8 (2.90%) CISM
8 6 (2.17%) Azure Certification
9 5 (1.81%) Master's Degree
10 2 (0.72%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
10 2 (0.72%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 2 (0.72%) CEH
10 2 (0.72%) DBS Check
10 2 (0.72%) GIAC
10 2 (0.72%) GSEC
10 2 (0.72%) LFCS
10 2 (0.72%) OSCP
10 2 (0.72%) RHCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (6.52%) Accessibility
2 14 (5.07%) QA
3 7 (2.54%) GDPR
3 7 (2.54%) WCAG
4 4 (1.45%) Disclosure Scotland
4 4 (1.45%) NCSC
5 3 (1.09%) Data Quality
5 3 (1.09%) GRC
5 3 (1.09%) NIST
6 2 (0.72%) Actionable Recommendations
6 2 (0.72%) PMO
7 1 (0.36%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 1 (0.36%) SOC 2
System Software
1 56 (20.29%) Docker
2 15 (5.43%) VMware Infrastructure
3 9 (3.26%) VMware ESXi
4 4 (1.45%) Virtual Servers
5 3 (1.09%) Ceph
5 3 (1.09%) Firmware
5 3 (1.09%) Hyper-V
6 2 (0.72%) Postfix
6 2 (0.72%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 72 (26.09%) Kubernetes
2 35 (12.68%) Ansible
3 34 (12.32%) Grafana
4 21 (7.61%) Prometheus
5 9 (3.26%) Progress Chef
5 9 (3.26%) Puppet
6 4 (1.45%) Cilium
7 2 (0.72%) Control-M
7 2 (0.72%) Docker Swarm
7 2 (0.72%) Istio
7 2 (0.72%) Kibana
7 2 (0.72%) linkerd
7 2 (0.72%) Salt
7 2 (0.72%) systemd
8 1 (0.36%) Argo
8 1 (0.36%) QRadar
8 1 (0.36%) Single Sign-On
8 1 (0.36%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 27 (9.78%) Google
2 23 (8.33%) Microsoft
3 22 (7.97%) Splunk
4 18 (6.52%) SaltStack
5 17 (6.16%) OpenAI
6 16 (5.80%) VMware
7 14 (5.07%) Dynatrace
8 12 (4.35%) Oracle
9 10 (3.62%) Red Hat
10 7 (2.54%) Cribl.io
10 7 (2.54%) Databricks
11 6 (2.17%) Informatica
11 6 (2.17%) InterSystems
12 5 (1.81%) Denodo
13 4 (1.45%) Black Duck
13 4 (1.45%) Foundry
13 4 (1.45%) Mistral
14 3 (1.09%) Jaspersoft
14 3 (1.09%) ServiceNow
14 3 (1.09%) Sonatype