Red Hat Contract Job Trends

Red Hat
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies requiring knowledge or experience of Red Hat products and/or services. It includes a benchmarking guide to contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Red Hat over the 6 months leading up to 29 September 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

The figures below represent the IT contractor job market in general and are not representative of contractor rates within Red Hat, Inc.

6 months to
29 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 385 305 260
Rank change year-on-year -80 -45 -74
Contract jobs citing Red Hat 328 273 352
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.60% 0.84% 0.93%
As % of the Vendors category 1.44% 1.76% 2.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 196 174 222
10th Percentile £400 £342 £363
25th Percentile £449 £418 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £519 £513 £520
Median % change year-on-year +1.27% -1.44% -8.61%
75th Percentile £630 £600 £621
90th Percentile £725 £650 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £515
% change year-on-year - -2.91% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 34 13 8
10th Percentile £48.64 - £71.30
25th Percentile £61.56 - £74.00
Median hourly rate £69.75 £68.00 £74.22
Median % change year-on-year +2.57% -8.38% +41.37%
75th Percentile £70.00 - £84.25
90th Percentile - - £112.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £70.00 £68.00 £74.00
% change year-on-year +2.94% -8.11% +40.95%

All Vendors
UK

Red Hat falls under the Vendor Products and Services category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring knowledge or experience of all vendor products and services.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for knowledge or experience of vendor products and services 22,749 15,514 16,874
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 41.65% 47.59% 44.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,847 9,563 9,961
10th Percentile £310 £275 £288
25th Percentile £413 £403 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% -4.76% -
75th Percentile £618 £613 £625
90th Percentile £705 £700 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £480 £500
% change year-on-year +4.17% -4.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,319 804 634
10th Percentile £14.00 £14.75 £14.59
25th Percentile £16.44 £17.74 £15.65
Median hourly rate £25.75 £25.15 £31.25
Median % change year-on-year +2.39% -19.52% -28.57%
75th Percentile £57.50 £42.50 £64.25
90th Percentile £78.30 £68.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.00 £21.30 £30.00
% change year-on-year +17.37% -29.00% -30.23%

Red Hat
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Red Hat relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Red Hat job vacancy trend in the UK

Red Hat
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Red Hat.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Red Hat

Red Hat
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Red Hat over the 6 months to 29 September 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Red Hat in the UK

Red Hat
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Red Hat.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Red Hat

Red Hat
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Red Hat over the 6 months to 29 September 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Red Hat in the UK

Red Hat
Top 16 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Red Hat within the UK over the 6 months to 29 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 -91 286 £525 +2.44% 279
UK excluding London -73 209 £500 - 196
Work from Home -63 92 £525 -1.87% 160
London -72 91 £575 +4.55% 145
North of England -49 74 £497 -3.02% 42
South East -63 65 £500 - 26
South West -34 36 £525 +5.00% 44
North West -41 31 £479 +7.16% 24
North East -25 24 £510 -7.27% 12
Yorkshire -38 20 £519 +1.27% 6
Midlands -42 19 £450 -10.00% 26
West Midlands -40 16 £438 -22.22% 23
East of England -20 15 £438 +25.00% 8
Scotland -20 14 £450 -14.29% 13
East Midlands -21 3 £488 +16.07% 3
Wales - 1 £475 - 6

Red Hat
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 (5.18%) JBoss
2 15 (4.57%) nginx
3 10 (3.05%) Apache
3 10 (3.05%) SharePoint
4 9 (2.74%) Tomcat
5 7 (2.13%) Confluence
6 3 (0.91%) IIS
6 3 (0.91%) Microsoft Exchange
7 2 (0.61%) WebLogic
7 2 (0.61%) WebSphere
7 2 (0.61%) WebSphere Application Server
8 1 (0.30%) Apache Airflow
8 1 (0.30%) Apache Spark
8 1 (0.30%) OpenStack
8 1 (0.30%) Oracle Coherence
8 1 (0.30%) Red Hat Fuse
Applications
1 1 (0.30%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (0.30%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 107 (32.62%) OpenShift
2 75 (22.87%) AWS
3 68 (20.73%) Azure
4 32 (9.76%) GCP
5 31 (9.45%) GitHub
6 19 (5.79%) AWS CloudFormation
7 16 (4.88%) GitHub Actions
7 16 (4.88%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 15 (4.57%) Google Kubernetes Engine
9 13 (3.96%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 12 (3.66%) Amazon EKS
10 12 (3.66%) Serverless
11 11 (3.35%) Amazon EC2
12 9 (2.74%) AWS CloudTrail
12 9 (2.74%) AWS KMS
12 9 (2.74%) AWS Lambda
12 9 (2.74%) Azure DevOps
12 9 (2.74%) Entra ID
12 9 (2.74%) IaaS
13 8 (2.44%) Datadog
Communications & Networking
1 38 (11.59%) DNS
2 32 (9.76%) Firewall
3 20 (6.10%) SAN
4 18 (5.49%) DHCP
5 16 (4.88%) TCP/IP
6 12 (3.66%) BGP
7 11 (3.35%) SSL
8 10 (3.05%) Ethernet VPN
8 10 (3.05%) NX-OS
8 10 (3.05%) VXLAN
9 9 (2.74%) Kerberos
10 8 (2.44%) VPN
11 7 (2.13%) Network Security
11 7 (2.13%) SSH
11 7 (2.13%) TACACS
11 7 (2.13%) VoIP
11 7 (2.13%) WAN
12 6 (1.83%) VLAN
13 5 (1.52%) NAS
14 4 (1.22%) OpenVPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 18 (5.49%) SQL Server
2 9 (2.74%) Oracle Database
3 7 (2.13%) SAP HANA
4 6 (1.83%) Big Data
4 6 (1.83%) Hadoop
5 5 (1.52%) Data Warehouse
5 5 (1.52%) MySQL
5 5 (1.52%) PostgreSQL
6 4 (1.22%) Elasticsearch
7 3 (0.91%) Data Lake
7 3 (0.91%) Oracle Database 12c
8 2 (0.61%) GIS
8 2 (0.61%) Relational Database
9 1 (0.30%) Dremio
9 1 (0.30%) DynamoDB
9 1 (0.30%) MariaDB
9 1 (0.30%) Metadata
9 1 (0.30%) MongoDB
9 1 (0.30%) NoSQL
9 1 (0.30%) Sybase ASE
Development Applications
1 38 (11.59%) Jenkins
2 32 (9.76%) Git
3 29 (8.84%) SonarQube
4 26 (7.93%) GitLab
5 7 (2.13%) JIRA
6 6 (1.83%) Sonatype Nexus
7 3 (0.91%) Artifactory
7 3 (0.91%) Toad
8 2 (0.61%) Maven
9 1 (0.30%) Cucumber
9 1 (0.30%) JUnit
9 1 (0.30%) Mockito
9 1 (0.30%) PVCS
9 1 (0.30%) Robot Framework
9 1 (0.30%) Selenium
9 1 (0.30%) Serenity BDD
General
1 59 (17.99%) Social Skills
2 53 (16.16%) Finance
3 26 (7.93%) Analytical Skills
4 22 (6.71%) Public Sector
5 20 (6.10%) Banking
6 19 (5.79%) Documentation Skills
7 8 (2.44%) Telecoms
8 7 (2.13%) Aerospace
9 6 (1.83%) Military
10 4 (1.22%) Financial Institution
11 3 (0.91%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 3 (0.91%) Law
11 3 (0.91%) Retail
12 2 (0.61%) Aviation
12 2 (0.61%) Legal
12 2 (0.61%) Manufacturing
13 1 (0.30%) Local Government
13 1 (0.30%) Publishing
13 1 (0.30%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 55 (16.77%) Linux Engineer
2 38 (11.59%) Architect
3 36 (10.98%) Senior
4 29 (8.84%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 27 (8.23%) Developer
6 25 (7.62%) DevOps Engineer
7 20 (6.10%) Cloud Engineer
7 20 (6.10%) Security Engineer
8 19 (5.79%) Administrator
9 16 (4.88%) Platform Engineer
10 15 (4.57%) Lead
10 15 (4.57%) Systems Engineer
11 14 (4.27%) Java Developer
12 13 (3.96%) Analyst
12 13 (3.96%) Linux Administrator
13 12 (3.66%) Linux Systems Engineer
14 11 (3.35%) Senior Linux Engineer
14 11 (3.35%) Solutions Architect
15 10 (3.05%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
15 10 (3.05%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 69 (21.04%) Terraform
2 27 (8.23%) AngularJS
3 26 (7.93%) Quarkus
4 17 (5.18%) YAML
5 15 (4.57%) REST
6 13 (3.96%) JSON
7 11 (3.35%) Node.js
8 10 (3.05%) Elastic Stack
9 8 (2.44%) Express.js
9 8 (2.44%) Middleware
10 7 (2.13%) ARM Templates
10 7 (2.13%) LDAP
10 7 (2.13%) React
11 6 (1.83%) Jakarta EE
11 6 (1.83%) Kafka
12 4 (1.22%) Azure Blueprints
12 4 (1.22%) boto
12 4 (1.22%) HTML
12 4 (1.22%) LAMP
12 4 (1.22%) OpenTofu
Miscellaneous
1 42 (12.80%) Cloud Native
2 35 (10.67%) Data Centre
3 20 (6.10%) Management Information System
4 18 (5.49%) Security Posture
5 15 (4.57%) Hybrid Cloud
6 14 (4.27%) Clustering
7 13 (3.96%) Data Protection Act
8 11 (3.35%) Linux Command Line
9 10 (3.05%) Onboarding
9 10 (3.05%) Replication
9 10 (3.05%) Virtual Team
10 9 (2.74%) Private Cloud
11 7 (2.13%) Enterprise Software
11 7 (2.13%) Legacy Systems
11 7 (2.13%) Public Cloud
12 6 (1.83%) Legacy Applications
13 5 (1.52%) Cloud Security Posture
13 5 (1.52%) Data Structures
13 5 (1.52%) Enterprise Storage
13 5 (1.52%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 222 (67.68%) Linux
2 175 (53.35%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 82 (25.00%) Windows
4 41 (12.50%) Windows Server
5 32 (9.76%) Unix
6 18 (5.49%) SUSE
7 16 (4.88%) Solaris
8 14 (4.27%) AIX
9 11 (3.35%) Ubuntu
10 9 (2.74%) CentOS
10 9 (2.74%) Windows Server 2019
11 6 (1.83%) Oracle Linux
12 5 (1.52%) HPUX
12 5 (1.52%) Windows Server 2008
13 4 (1.22%) VMS
14 3 (0.91%) Data ONTAP
14 3 (0.91%) Rocky
15 2 (0.61%) CoreOS
15 2 (0.61%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
15 2 (0.61%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 100 (30.49%) CI/CD
2 99 (30.18%) DevOps
3 77 (23.48%) Agile
4 61 (18.60%) Migration
5 56 (17.07%) Infrastructure as Code
5 56 (17.07%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 52 (15.85%) Test Automation
7 51 (15.55%) Problem-Solving
8 50 (15.24%) Containerisation
9 43 (13.11%) Continuous Improvement
9 43 (13.11%) DevSecOps
10 42 (12.80%) Platform Engineering
10 42 (12.80%) Scrum
11 41 (12.50%) Observability
12 40 (12.20%) Change Management
12 40 (12.20%) Configuration Management
12 40 (12.20%) Infrastructure Automation
12 40 (12.20%) ITIL
13 36 (10.98%) Software Engineering
14 35 (10.67%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 97 (29.57%) Python
2 70 (21.34%) Bash
3 63 (19.21%) Java
4 61 (18.60%) PowerShell
5 19 (5.79%) Shell Script
6 15 (4.57%) SQL
7 11 (3.35%) Perl
8 10 (3.05%) Bicep
9 8 (2.44%) C
10 7 (2.13%) C++
10 7 (2.13%) JavaScript
11 4 (1.22%) Go
11 4 (1.22%) MATLAB
12 3 (0.91%) PL/SQL
12 3 (0.91%) TypeScript
13 2 (0.61%) Groovy
14 1 (0.30%) ActionScript
14 1 (0.30%) ActionScript 2.0
14 1 (0.30%) R
14 1 (0.30%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 136 (41.46%) Security Cleared
2 96 (29.27%) SC Cleared
3 34 (10.37%) DV Cleared
4 30 (9.15%) Degree
5 29 (8.84%) Azure Certification
6 23 (7.01%) RHCE
7 21 (6.40%) CISSP
8 20 (6.10%) AWS Certification
9 12 (3.66%) RHCSA
10 9 (2.74%) Computer Science Degree
11 8 (2.44%) Microsoft Certification
12 7 (2.13%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 6 (1.83%) LFCS
14 5 (1.52%) CompTIA Security+
15 3 (0.91%) Cisco Certification
15 3 (0.91%) NCDA
15 3 (0.91%) NCIE
15 3 (0.91%) OCP
15 3 (0.91%) Oracle Certification
15 3 (0.91%) RHCA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (9.15%) QA
2 9 (2.74%) Accessibility
3 6 (1.83%) GRC
3 6 (1.83%) SLA
4 3 (0.91%) Disclosure Scotland
4 3 (0.91%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 2 (0.61%) NIST
6 1 (0.30%) HIPAA
6 1 (0.30%) JSP 440
6 1 (0.30%) NCSC
6 1 (0.30%) OpenSCAP
6 1 (0.30%) PCI DSS
6 1 (0.30%) PMO
6 1 (0.30%) SOC 2
System Software
1 68 (20.73%) VMware Infrastructure
2 52 (15.85%) Docker
3 36 (10.98%) Active Directory
4 15 (4.57%) vSphere
5 14 (4.27%) NFS
6 12 (3.66%) Hyper-V
6 12 (3.66%) Virtual Machines
7 10 (3.05%) VMware ESXi
7 10 (3.05%) VMware NSX
8 6 (1.83%) Corosync
8 6 (1.83%) Oracle RAC
9 4 (1.22%) Slurm Workload Manager
9 4 (1.22%) Veritas Volume Manager
10 3 (0.91%) Ceph
10 3 (0.91%) Dovecot
10 3 (0.91%) EMC RecoverPoint
10 3 (0.91%) Postfix
10 3 (0.91%) SRDF
11 2 (0.61%) Squid
12 1 (0.30%) Veritas Cluster Server
Systems Management
1 107 (32.62%) Kubernetes
2 95 (28.96%) Ansible
3 42 (12.80%) Argo
4 29 (8.84%) Progress Chef
4 29 (8.84%) Red Hat Satellite
5 27 (8.23%) Grafana
6 25 (7.62%) Puppet
7 19 (5.79%) Prometheus
8 15 (4.57%) Failover Clustering
8 15 (4.57%) Single Sign-On
9 8 (2.44%) Podman
10 7 (2.13%) Pacemaker
11 6 (1.83%) vCenter Server
12 5 (1.52%) Check_MK
12 5 (1.52%) EMC NetWorker
12 5 (1.52%) NetBackup
12 5 (1.52%) Oracle RMAN
12 5 (1.52%) Packer
12 5 (1.52%) SELinux
12 5 (1.52%) WSUS
Vendors
1 89 (27.13%) VMware
2 67 (20.43%) Microsoft
3 49 (14.94%) Oracle
4 39 (11.89%) Cisco
5 22 (6.71%) ServiceNow
6 20 (6.10%) Google
6 20 (6.10%) IBM
7 17 (5.18%) SAP
8 11 (3.35%) SaltStack
9 9 (2.74%) NetApp
10 8 (2.44%) MathWorks
10 8 (2.44%) Siemens
11 6 (1.83%) Splunk
12 5 (1.52%) Dell
12 5 (1.52%) EMC
12 5 (1.52%) HP
12 5 (1.52%) Infoblox
12 5 (1.52%) Veritas
13 4 (1.22%) McAfee
13 4 (1.22%) Veeam