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

6 months to
24 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 372 234 291
Rank change year-on-year -138 +57 -30
Contract jobs citing Open Source 282 345 320
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.55% 1.15% 0.74%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.65% 1.26% 0.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 134 199 213
10th Percentile £422 £395 £363
25th Percentile £487 £436 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £525 £570
Median % change year-on-year +4.76% -7.89% -5.00%
75th Percentile £648 £600 £675
90th Percentile £750 £725 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £513 £470 £585
% change year-on-year +9.20% -19.66% +1.21%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 14
10th Percentile - - £20.12
25th Percentile - - £21.25
Median hourly rate £85.00 - £26.97
75th Percentile - - £57.50
90th Percentile - - £72.90
UK excluding London median hourly rate - - £37.62

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 43,234 27,342 36,961
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.93% 91.04% 85.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 26,976 17,315 23,545
10th Percentile £325 £300 £300
25th Percentile £413 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £502 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.09% -4.38% -4.55%
75th Percentile £620 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,595 1,301 2,587
10th Percentile £14.82 £14.20 £12.65
25th Percentile £20.09 £17.79 £16.06
Median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +74.79% -32.93% +7.14%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.00 £61.30
90th Percentile £81.25 £72.50 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £44.50 £25.08 £38.12
% change year-on-year +77.47% -34.22% +17.29%

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 24 June 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
Top 13 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 24 June 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 -168 208 £550 +1.20% 91
London -134 109 £598 -0.42% 37
UK excluding London -104 106 £513 +9.20% 85
Work from Home -93 105 £550 -4.35% 64
Scotland -26 21 £675 +35.00% 7
North of England -88 20 £506 +9.16% 22
South West -17 19 £550 +11.68% 11
West Midlands -47 18 £472 -5.60% 6
Midlands -52 18 £472 -5.60% 6
South East -65 16 £459 -8.20% 19
East of England -21 13 £550 +52.49% 10
Yorkshire -48 11 £506 - 6
North West -57 8 £450 -2.70% 10

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 (6.38%) Confluence
2 8 (2.84%) Apache
2 8 (2.84%) SharePoint
3 7 (2.48%) Appian
4 5 (1.77%) SAS
5 3 (1.06%) nginx
5 3 (1.06%) OpenStack
6 2 (0.71%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.71%) Apache Spark
7 1 (0.35%) Apache Pulsar
7 1 (0.35%) Apache Superset
7 1 (0.35%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 3 (1.06%) Chatbot
Cloud Services
1 139 (49.29%) AWS
2 85 (30.14%) Azure
3 43 (15.25%) GCP
4 35 (12.41%) GitHub
5 33 (11.70%) Amazon S3
6 26 (9.22%) Serverless
7 25 (8.87%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 22 (7.80%) Amazon EC2
9 18 (6.38%) AWS Lambda
9 18 (6.38%) Azure AI
10 14 (4.96%) Anthropic Claude
10 14 (4.96%) GitHub Actions
11 13 (4.61%) Azure DevOps
11 13 (4.61%) Route 53
12 12 (4.26%) Amazon SQS
13 11 (3.90%) AWS KMS
14 10 (3.55%) Azure Cognitive Services
14 10 (3.55%) Vertex AI
15 9 (3.19%) Amazon Bedrock
15 9 (3.19%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 9 (3.19%) Firewall
2 7 (2.48%) Reverse Proxy
3 6 (2.13%) SNMP
4 5 (1.77%) DNS
4 5 (1.77%) WAN
5 3 (1.06%) Intrusion Detection
5 3 (1.06%) Network Security
6 2 (0.71%) DHCP
6 2 (0.71%) NaaS
7 1 (0.35%) 4G
7 1 (0.35%) 5G
7 1 (0.35%) Cisco IOS
7 1 (0.35%) HTTPS
7 1 (0.35%) LTE
7 1 (0.35%) MQTT
7 1 (0.35%) NAS
7 1 (0.35%) NGFW
7 1 (0.35%) SAN
7 1 (0.35%) SSH
7 1 (0.35%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 44 (15.60%) PostgreSQL
2 28 (9.93%) Apache Cassandra
3 21 (7.45%) Amazon RDS
4 17 (6.03%) DynamoDB
5 14 (4.96%) MongoDB
6 11 (3.90%) Amazon Aurora
7 10 (3.55%) Pinecone
8 9 (3.19%) Amazon Athena
8 9 (3.19%) Amazon Redshift
8 9 (3.19%) BigQuery
8 9 (3.19%) Relational Database
8 9 (3.19%) SQL Server
9 8 (2.84%) Data Warehouse
10 7 (2.48%) Amazon QuickSight
10 7 (2.48%) NoSQL
11 6 (2.13%) Big Data
11 6 (2.13%) Data Lake
11 6 (2.13%) Metadata
12 5 (1.77%) Apache Iceberg
12 5 (1.77%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 58 (20.57%) Git
2 28 (9.93%) GitLab
3 25 (8.87%) JUnit
4 21 (7.45%) Jenkins
5 19 (6.74%) JIRA
6 18 (6.38%) SonarQube
7 14 (4.96%) Sonatype Nexus
8 11 (3.90%) Bitbucket Server
8 11 (3.90%) DbUnit
8 11 (3.90%) jMock
8 11 (3.90%) Maven
8 11 (3.90%) Mockito
9 10 (3.55%) MLflow
10 8 (2.84%) IntelliJ
11 7 (2.48%) CircleCI
11 7 (2.48%) Gradle
12 5 (1.77%) Artifactory
12 5 (1.77%) PowerDesigner
13 2 (0.71%) JMeter
13 2 (0.71%) Liquibase
General
1 66 (23.40%) Social Skills
2 59 (20.92%) Finance
3 44 (15.60%) Public Sector
4 22 (7.80%) Legal
5 21 (7.45%) Banking
6 20 (7.09%) Analytical Skills
7 11 (3.90%) Law
8 7 (2.48%) Military
9 6 (2.13%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 5 (1.77%) Documentation Skills
10 5 (1.77%) Front Office
11 3 (1.06%) Presentation Skills
11 3 (1.06%) Retail
12 2 (0.71%) Billing
12 2 (0.71%) Influencing Skills
12 2 (0.71%) Police
12 2 (0.71%) Publishing
12 2 (0.71%) Telecoms
13 1 (0.35%) Automotive
13 1 (0.35%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 71 (25.18%) Developer
2 59 (20.92%) Architect
3 46 (16.31%) Senior
4 30 (10.64%) Solutions Architect
5 27 (9.57%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
6 26 (9.22%) Senior Developer
7 25 (8.87%) AWS Architect
7 25 (8.87%) Software Engineer
8 22 (7.80%) Data Engineer
9 17 (6.03%) AWS Solution Architect
10 14 (4.96%) Consultant
10 14 (4.96%) Java Developer
11 12 (4.26%) Senior Data Engineer
12 11 (3.90%) Android Developer
12 11 (3.90%) AWS Engineer
12 11 (3.90%) Cloud Engineer
13 10 (3.55%) Cloud Architect
13 10 (3.55%) Lead
13 10 (3.55%) Python Developer
14 9 (3.19%) Artificial Intelligence Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 65 (23.05%) Kafka
2 44 (15.60%) REST
3 30 (10.64%) RESTful
4 29 (10.28%) gRPC
5 24 (8.51%) React
6 19 (6.74%) Node.js
6 19 (6.74%) Spring
6 19 (6.74%) Spring Boot
6 19 (6.74%) Web Services
7 16 (5.67%) .NET
7 16 (5.67%) Android Jetpack
7 16 (5.67%) AngularJS
7 16 (5.67%) Jetpack Compose
8 15 (5.32%) Hugging Face
8 15 (5.32%) LangChain
8 15 (5.32%) PyTorch
8 15 (5.32%) TensorFlow
9 13 (4.61%) SOAP
10 11 (3.90%) ActiveMQ
10 11 (3.90%) Hibernate
Miscellaneous
1 51 (18.09%) Distributed Systems
2 42 (14.89%) Cloud Native
3 16 (5.67%) AI Agents
4 15 (5.32%) Product Ownership
5 9 (3.19%) Enterprise Software
5 9 (3.19%) Legacy Systems
5 9 (3.19%) Mobile App
6 8 (2.84%) Data Protection Act
6 8 (2.84%) Self-Motivation
7 7 (2.48%) Low-Code
7 7 (2.48%) Management Information System
7 7 (2.48%) Virtual Team
8 6 (2.13%) Data Centre
8 6 (2.13%) Legacy Code
8 6 (2.13%) Onboarding
9 5 (1.77%) Cyber Threat
9 5 (1.77%) Security Posture
10 3 (1.06%) Clustering
10 3 (1.06%) Cyber Kill Chain
11 2 (0.71%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 47 (16.67%) Linux
2 18 (6.38%) Android
3 5 (1.77%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 4 (1.42%) Debian
4 4 (1.42%) Rocky
4 4 (1.42%) Ubuntu
4 4 (1.42%) Unix
5 3 (1.06%) Apple iOS
5 3 (1.06%) Windows
6 1 (0.35%) VMS
6 1 (0.35%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 91 (32.27%) CI/CD
2 78 (27.66%) AI
3 69 (24.47%) Agile
3 69 (24.47%) Software Engineering
4 67 (23.76%) Microservices
5 65 (23.05%) DevOps
6 57 (20.21%) LLM
7 51 (18.09%) Containerisation
8 48 (17.02%) Stakeholder Management
9 43 (15.25%) Machine Learning
10 42 (14.89%) Infrastructure as Code
11 37 (13.12%) Data Pipeline
12 36 (12.77%) Observability
13 34 (12.06%) Event-Driven
14 33 (11.70%) Generative AI
14 33 (11.70%) Retrieval-Augmented Generation
15 31 (10.99%) Problem-Solving
16 28 (9.93%) Event-Driven Architecture
17 25 (8.87%) Continuous Integration
18 24 (8.51%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 126 (44.68%) Python
2 52 (18.44%) Java
3 40 (14.18%) Go
3 40 (14.18%) SQL
4 22 (7.80%) JavaScript
5 19 (6.74%) TypeScript
6 18 (6.38%) Bash
7 17 (6.03%) Kotlin
8 16 (5.67%) C#
9 6 (2.13%) Shell Script
10 5 (1.77%) C++
10 5 (1.77%) PowerShell
11 3 (1.06%) PL/SQL
11 3 (1.06%) Scala
12 2 (0.71%) Kusto Query Language
12 2 (0.71%) Ruby
13 1 (0.35%) Bicep
13 1 (0.35%) Groovy
13 1 (0.35%) Objective-C
13 1 (0.35%) Rust
Qualifications
1 84 (29.79%) Security Cleared
2 67 (23.76%) SC Cleared
3 31 (10.99%) Degree
4 15 (5.32%) Computer Science Degree
5 10 (3.55%) BPSS Clearance
6 9 (3.19%) DV Cleared
7 8 (2.84%) AWS Certification
8 5 (1.77%) Azure Certification
9 4 (1.42%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 3 (1.06%) CISM
10 3 (1.06%) CISSP
11 2 (0.71%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
11 2 (0.71%) Master's Degree
11 2 (0.71%) PhD
12 1 (0.35%) CEH
12 1 (0.35%) GCIA
12 1 (0.35%) GIAC
12 1 (0.35%) ISEB
12 1 (0.35%) MPhil
12 1 (0.35%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (5.32%) QA
2 11 (3.90%) Accessibility
3 9 (3.19%) Data Quality
4 6 (2.13%) WCAG
5 5 (1.77%) NIST
6 3 (1.06%) Disclosure Scotland
6 3 (1.06%) GRC
6 3 (1.06%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 1 (0.35%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.35%) GDPR
7 1 (0.35%) HIPAA
7 1 (0.35%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
7 1 (0.35%) ISO/IEC 42001
7 1 (0.35%) PCI DSS
7 1 (0.35%) SOC 2
System Software
1 87 (30.85%) Docker
2 9 (3.19%) Postfix
3 7 (2.48%) Active Directory
4 4 (1.42%) Virtual Machines
5 2 (0.71%) Ceph
5 2 (0.71%) Oracle RAC
5 2 (0.71%) Slurm Workload Manager
5 2 (0.71%) VMware Infrastructure
6 1 (0.35%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.35%) Squid
Systems Management
1 78 (27.66%) Kubernetes
2 39 (13.83%) Terraform
3 32 (11.35%) Grafana
4 26 (9.22%) Prometheus
5 18 (6.38%) Ansible
6 4 (1.42%) Istio
6 4 (1.42%) Puppet
6 4 (1.42%) Salt
7 2 (0.71%) Amdocs OSS
7 2 (0.71%) Data Guard
7 2 (0.71%) Oracle RMAN
7 2 (0.71%) Rancher
8 1 (0.35%) Argo
8 1 (0.35%) CASB
8 1 (0.35%) Control-M
8 1 (0.35%) Docker Swarm
8 1 (0.35%) MOM
8 1 (0.35%) QRadar
8 1 (0.35%) WMI
Vendors
1 32 (11.35%) OpenAI
2 26 (9.22%) Microsoft
3 25 (8.87%) Google
4 17 (6.03%) Dynatrace
5 12 (4.26%) Oracle
6 11 (3.90%) Atlassian
6 11 (3.90%) Jaspersoft
6 11 (3.90%) Splunk
7 7 (2.48%) Automation Anywhere
7 7 (2.48%) Checkmarx
7 7 (2.48%) UiPath
8 5 (1.77%) Black Duck
8 5 (1.77%) Cribl.io
8 5 (1.77%) Denodo
8 5 (1.77%) IBM
8 5 (1.77%) Informatica
8 5 (1.77%) ServiceNow
9 4 (1.42%) Fortinet
10 3 (1.06%) Sonatype
10 3 (1.06%) VMware