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

6 months to
18 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 342 248 283
Rank change year-on-year -94 +35 -21
Contract jobs citing Open Source 306 316 328
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.64% 1.08% 0.77%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.76% 1.18% 0.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 146 204 216
10th Percentile £400 £400 £363
25th Percentile £471 £454 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £570
Median % change year-on-year - -3.51% -5.00%
75th Percentile £644 £652 £675
90th Percentile £781 £838 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £470 £585
% change year-on-year +6.38% -19.66% +1.21%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 1 8
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £61.25 - £25.99
Median hourly rate £62.50 £95.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -34.21% +72.73% -26.67%
75th Percentile £63.75 - £72.90
90th Percentile - - £74.65
UK excluding London median hourly rate - - £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 40,423 26,734 36,712
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.29% 90.97% 86.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,371 17,185 23,631
10th Percentile £325 £305 £300
25th Percentile £413 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £515 £525
Median % change year-on-year -1.94% -1.90% -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £493 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +3.68% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,395 1,096 2,442
10th Percentile £14.82 £14.35 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.72 £18.22 £16.00
Median hourly rate £42.50 £28.18 £36.02
Median % change year-on-year +50.82% -21.77% +1.04%
75th Percentile £67.50 £60.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.23 £37.50
% change year-on-year +78.39% -32.73% +7.14%

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 18 May 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 18 May 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 -111 243 £550 -4.35% 173
London -92 129 £600 - 104
Work from Home -55 115 £550 -8.33% 84
UK excluding London -89 110 £500 +6.38% 84
North of England -74 28 £450 -3.23% 9
South West -10 18 £550 +34.15% 18
West Midlands -45 18 £475 +4.11% 3
Midlands -58 18 £475 +4.11% 5
Scotland -10 17 £675 +28.57% 3
North West -37 17 £450 -2.70% 7
South East -61 17 £400 -20.00% 33
East of England -25 13 £550 +37.50% 14
Yorkshire -55 10 £485 - 2

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 17 (5.56%) Confluence
2 9 (2.94%) Apache
3 8 (2.61%) Appian
3 8 (2.61%) SharePoint
4 5 (1.63%) SAS
5 4 (1.31%) Apache Airflow
5 4 (1.31%) nginx
5 4 (1.31%) OpenStack
6 3 (0.98%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 3 (0.98%) Apache Spark
7 2 (0.65%) JBoss
7 2 (0.65%) Liferay
7 2 (0.65%) Tomcat
7 2 (0.65%) WebLogic
8 1 (0.33%) Apache Superset
Applications
1 3 (0.98%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 2 (0.65%) Oracle EBS
1 2 (0.65%) Oracle EBS R12
Cloud Services
1 158 (51.63%) AWS
2 81 (26.47%) Azure
3 41 (13.40%) GitHub
4 40 (13.07%) GCP
5 36 (11.76%) Amazon S3
6 29 (9.48%) Serverless
7 22 (7.19%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 20 (6.54%) Amazon EC2
8 20 (6.54%) Azure AI
9 18 (5.88%) GitHub Actions
10 17 (5.56%) AWS Lambda
11 14 (4.58%) Google Gemini
12 13 (4.25%) Azure DevOps
13 12 (3.92%) Anthropic Claude
14 11 (3.59%) Route 53
15 10 (3.27%) Amazon SQS
15 10 (3.27%) Azure Cognitive Services
16 9 (2.94%) Amazon SageMaker
16 9 (2.94%) AWS KMS
16 9 (2.94%) Vertex AI
Communications & Networking
1 12 (3.92%) Firewall
2 7 (2.29%) Reverse Proxy
3 6 (1.96%) SNMP
3 6 (1.96%) WAN
4 5 (1.63%) DNS
5 3 (0.98%) DHCP
5 3 (0.98%) Intrusion Detection
5 3 (0.98%) Network Security
6 2 (0.65%) NaaS
6 2 (0.65%) SSH
6 2 (0.65%) TCP/IP
6 2 (0.65%) VLAN
7 1 (0.33%) HTTPS
7 1 (0.33%) iSCSI
7 1 (0.33%) Kerberos
7 1 (0.33%) LAN
7 1 (0.33%) LTE
7 1 (0.33%) NGFW
7 1 (0.33%) SAN
7 1 (0.33%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 48 (15.69%) PostgreSQL
2 42 (13.73%) Apache Cassandra
3 20 (6.54%) DynamoDB
4 17 (5.56%) Amazon RDS
5 15 (4.90%) BigQuery
5 15 (4.90%) SQL Server
6 13 (4.25%) MongoDB
7 12 (3.92%) Pinecone
8 10 (3.27%) NoSQL
9 9 (2.94%) Amazon Athena
9 9 (2.94%) Amazon Aurora
9 9 (2.94%) Amazon Redshift
9 9 (2.94%) Data Warehouse
10 7 (2.29%) Amazon QuickSight
10 7 (2.29%) Relational Database
11 6 (1.96%) Data Lake
11 6 (1.96%) Metadata
11 6 (1.96%) RDBMS
11 6 (1.96%) Redis
12 5 (1.63%) Apache Iceberg
Development Applications
1 57 (18.63%) Git
2 30 (9.80%) GitLab
3 23 (7.52%) Jenkins
4 22 (7.19%) JUnit
5 20 (6.54%) JIRA
6 16 (5.23%) SonarQube
7 12 (3.92%) Sonatype Nexus
8 11 (3.59%) MLflow
9 9 (2.94%) Bitbucket Server
9 9 (2.94%) DbUnit
9 9 (2.94%) jMock
9 9 (2.94%) Maven
9 9 (2.94%) Mockito
10 8 (2.61%) IntelliJ
11 6 (1.96%) CircleCI
11 6 (1.96%) Gradle
12 5 (1.63%) Artifactory
13 4 (1.31%) PowerDesigner
14 3 (0.98%) Cucumber
14 3 (0.98%) Jasmine
General
1 67 (21.90%) Social Skills
2 61 (19.93%) Finance
3 45 (14.71%) Public Sector
4 21 (6.86%) Analytical Skills
5 19 (6.21%) Legal
6 18 (5.88%) Banking
7 8 (2.61%) Retail
8 7 (2.29%) Front Office
8 7 (2.29%) Law
9 6 (1.96%) Military
10 5 (1.63%) Documentation Skills
11 3 (0.98%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 3 (0.98%) Publishing
11 3 (0.98%) Telecoms
12 2 (0.65%) Billing
12 2 (0.65%) Marketing
12 2 (0.65%) Police
12 2 (0.65%) Presentation Skills
13 1 (0.33%) Influencing Skills
13 1 (0.33%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 81 (26.47%) Developer
2 58 (18.95%) Senior
3 56 (18.30%) Architect
4 34 (11.11%) Software Engineer
5 31 (10.13%) Senior Developer
6 29 (9.48%) Solutions Architect
7 27 (8.82%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
8 22 (7.19%) AWS Architect
8 22 (7.19%) Data Engineer
9 15 (4.90%) AWS Solution Architect
9 15 (4.90%) Cloud Engineer
10 14 (4.58%) Consultant
11 13 (4.25%) Python Developer
12 12 (3.92%) Java Developer
12 12 (3.92%) Senior Data Engineer
13 11 (3.59%) Lead
14 10 (3.27%) AWS Engineer
14 10 (3.27%) Cloud Architect
14 10 (3.27%) GCP Engineer
15 9 (2.94%) Automation Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 77 (25.16%) Kafka
2 45 (14.71%) gRPC
3 43 (14.05%) REST
4 31 (10.13%) RESTful
5 28 (9.15%) Node.js
5 28 (9.15%) React
6 27 (8.82%) Spring
6 27 (8.82%) Spring Boot
7 24 (7.84%) AngularJS
8 22 (7.19%) LangChain
8 22 (7.19%) Web Services
9 20 (6.54%) .NET
10 16 (5.23%) Hugging Face
10 16 (5.23%) PyTorch
11 15 (4.90%) OpenTelemetry
12 14 (4.58%) TensorFlow
13 13 (4.25%) Android Jetpack
13 13 (4.25%) Jetpack Compose
14 12 (3.92%) Django
15 11 (3.59%) FastAPI
Miscellaneous
1 62 (20.26%) Distributed Systems
2 43 (14.05%) Cloud Native
3 21 (6.86%) Product Ownership
4 10 (3.27%) Legacy Systems
5 9 (2.94%) Legacy Code
5 9 (2.94%) Onboarding
6 8 (2.61%) AI Agents
6 8 (2.61%) Enterprise Software
6 8 (2.61%) Low-Code
7 7 (2.29%) Data Protection Act
8 6 (1.96%) Virtual Team
9 5 (1.63%) Cyber Threat
9 5 (1.63%) Data Centre
10 4 (1.31%) Management Information System
10 4 (1.31%) Mobile App
10 4 (1.31%) Self-Motivation
11 3 (0.98%) Clustering
11 3 (0.98%) Cyber Kill Chain
11 3 (0.98%) Fat Client
11 3 (0.98%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 49 (16.01%) Linux
2 15 (4.90%) Android
3 9 (2.94%) Windows
4 6 (1.96%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 5 (1.63%) Unix
6 4 (1.31%) Debian
6 4 (1.31%) Rocky
6 4 (1.31%) Ubuntu
7 3 (0.98%) Apple iOS
7 3 (0.98%) Windows 7
8 2 (0.65%) VMS
8 2 (0.65%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 88 (28.76%) CI/CD
2 87 (28.43%) Software Engineering
3 82 (26.80%) Microservices
4 79 (25.82%) AI
5 69 (22.55%) Agile
6 66 (21.57%) DevOps
7 61 (19.93%) Containerisation
8 55 (17.97%) LLM
9 48 (15.69%) Stakeholder Management
10 43 (14.05%) Generative AI
10 43 (14.05%) Machine Learning
11 42 (13.73%) Data Pipeline
11 42 (13.73%) Infrastructure as Code
12 39 (12.75%) Observability
13 36 (11.76%) Problem-Solving
14 35 (11.44%) Retrieval-Augmented Generation
15 28 (9.15%) TDD
16 27 (8.82%) Event-Driven
16 27 (8.82%) Prompt Engineering
17 26 (8.50%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 132 (43.14%) Python
2 57 (18.63%) Go
3 55 (17.97%) Java
4 49 (16.01%) SQL
5 22 (7.19%) TypeScript
6 21 (6.86%) Bash
6 21 (6.86%) C#
7 20 (6.54%) JavaScript
8 14 (4.58%) Kotlin
9 7 (2.29%) PowerShell
9 7 (2.29%) Ruby
10 6 (1.96%) PL/SQL
10 6 (1.96%) Shell Script
11 4 (1.31%) Delphi
11 4 (1.31%) PHP
12 3 (0.98%) C++
13 2 (0.65%) Kusto Query Language
13 2 (0.65%) Scala
14 1 (0.33%) Bicep
14 1 (0.33%) R
Qualifications
1 90 (29.41%) Security Cleared
2 70 (22.88%) SC Cleared
3 26 (8.50%) Degree
4 12 (3.92%) BPSS Clearance
5 11 (3.59%) Computer Science Degree
6 10 (3.27%) DV Cleared
7 4 (1.31%) AWS Certification
7 4 (1.31%) Azure Certification
8 3 (0.98%) CISM
8 3 (0.98%) CISSP
8 3 (0.98%) Master's Degree
8 3 (0.98%) PhD
9 2 (0.65%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 1 (0.33%) CEH
10 1 (0.33%) GCIA
10 1 (0.33%) GIAC
10 1 (0.33%) ISEB
10 1 (0.33%) Microsoft Certified Professional
10 1 (0.33%) MPhil
10 1 (0.33%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (5.23%) QA
2 10 (3.27%) Data Quality
3 9 (2.94%) Accessibility
4 4 (1.31%) NIST
4 4 (1.31%) WCAG
5 3 (0.98%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 1 (0.33%) GDPR
6 1 (0.33%) GRC
6 1 (0.33%) HIPAA
6 1 (0.33%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
6 1 (0.33%) ISO/IEC 42001
6 1 (0.33%) PCI DSS
6 1 (0.33%) SLA
6 1 (0.33%) SOC 2
System Software
1 103 (33.66%) Docker
2 10 (3.27%) Active Directory
3 8 (2.61%) Postfix
4 5 (1.63%) Virtual Machines
5 4 (1.31%) Ceph
5 4 (1.31%) Oracle RAC
6 3 (0.98%) ISA Server
7 2 (0.65%) KVM
7 2 (0.65%) Oracle Clusterware
8 1 (0.33%) Hyper-V
8 1 (0.33%) iptables
8 1 (0.33%) Lustre
8 1 (0.33%) NFS
8 1 (0.33%) Samba
8 1 (0.33%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 1 (0.33%) Squid
8 1 (0.33%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 93 (30.39%) Kubernetes
2 41 (13.40%) Terraform
3 36 (11.76%) Grafana
4 30 (9.80%) Prometheus
5 16 (5.23%) Ansible
6 10 (3.27%) Istio
7 6 (1.96%) Argo
8 4 (1.31%) Data Guard
8 4 (1.31%) Oracle RMAN
8 4 (1.31%) Puppet
8 4 (1.31%) Salt
9 3 (0.98%) WMI
10 2 (0.65%) Amdocs OSS
10 2 (0.65%) HAProxy
10 2 (0.65%) Knative
10 2 (0.65%) Rancher
11 1 (0.33%) CASB
11 1 (0.33%) MOM
11 1 (0.33%) QRadar
11 1 (0.33%) SELinux
Vendors
1 26 (8.50%) Google
1 26 (8.50%) OpenAI
2 22 (7.19%) Microsoft
3 18 (5.88%) Dynatrace
4 13 (4.25%) Splunk
5 12 (3.92%) Oracle
6 9 (2.94%) Atlassian
6 9 (2.94%) Jaspersoft
6 9 (2.94%) UiPath
7 8 (2.61%) Automation Anywhere
8 7 (2.29%) Checkmarx
9 5 (1.63%) Cribl.io
9 5 (1.63%) Denodo
9 5 (1.63%) Informatica
9 5 (1.63%) VMware
10 4 (1.31%) Databricks
10 4 (1.31%) Fortinet
10 4 (1.31%) IBM
10 4 (1.31%) Red Hat
10 4 (1.31%) ServiceNow