Shell Script Contract Job Trends

Shell Scripting (Shell Programming)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Shell Script skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 4 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
4 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 418 250 265
Rank change year-on-year -168 +15 +12
Contract jobs citing Shell Script 283 339 337
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.52% 1.02% 0.89%
As % of the Programming Languages category 1.99% 3.11% 2.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 198 191 214
10th Percentile £324 £309 £342
25th Percentile £413 £400 £385
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £480 £500
Median % change year-on-year +1.56% -4.00% -5.66%
75th Percentile £614 £583 £588
90th Percentile £715 £625 £708
UK excluding London median daily rate £470 £475 £420
% change year-on-year -1.16% +13.10% -16.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 18 6
10th Percentile £30.44 £66.20 £62.63
25th Percentile £37.48 - £63.50
Median hourly rate £49.58 £68.00 £80.00
Median % change year-on-year -27.09% -15.00% +14.29%
75th Percentile £61.31 - £97.50
90th Percentile £68.12 £99.50 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £49.58 £68.00 -
% change year-on-year -27.09% - -

All Programming Languages
UK

Shell Script falls under the Programming Languages category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring coding skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for coding skills 14,235 10,917 12,212
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 26.05% 32.89% 32.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,241 7,185 8,076
10th Percentile £363 £344 £350
25th Percentile £425 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £506 £525
Median % change year-on-year +3.86% -3.71% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £645
90th Percentile £725 £735 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £490
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.06% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 545 302 333
10th Percentile £23.95 £29.00 £26.40
25th Percentile £46.25 £41.25 £46.18
Median hourly rate £65.00 £55.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +18.18% -15.38% +4.00%
75th Percentile £70.00 £67.19 £70.00
90th Percentile £79.00 £75.00 £78.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00

Shell Script
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Shell Script job vacancy trend in the UK

Shell Script
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Shell Script.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Shell Script

Shell Script
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Shell Script over the 6 months to 4 October 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Shell Script in the UK

Shell Script
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Shell Script.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Shell Script

Shell Script
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Shell Script over the 6 months to 4 October 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Shell Script in the UK

Shell Script
Top 17 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Shell Script within the UK over the 6 months to 4 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 -157 233 £523 +8.85% 239
UK excluding London -148 143 £470 -1.16% 148
London -80 116 £550 +7.32% 117
Work from Home -108 77 £470 -1.05% 108
North of England -93 36 £419 -12.76% 33
Midlands -33 28 £525 +5.00% 28
Scotland -52 28 £440 -10.75% 16
West Midlands -33 26 £525 +1.74% 21
South East -70 25 £513 +21.30% 22
Yorkshire -60 19 £425 -15.00% 9
North West -55 13 £313 -30.13% 20
East of England -27 12 £350 -13.58% 15
South West -43 12 £540 +210.34% 20
North East - 5 £463 - 4
Northern Ireland +5 2 £190 - 6
East Midlands -11 2 £466 +29.31% 6
Wales -13 2 £265 -6.19% 9

Shell Script
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 13 (4.59%) Apache
2 11 (3.89%) SAS
2 11 (3.89%) WebLogic
3 10 (3.53%) Apache Airflow
4 6 (2.12%) Apache Spark
5 5 (1.77%) Confluence
5 5 (1.77%) WebSphere
6 4 (1.41%) OpenStack
6 4 (1.41%) Oracle Workflow
7 3 (1.06%) CICS
7 3 (1.06%) JBoss
8 2 (0.71%) nginx
8 2 (0.71%) SharePoint
8 2 (0.71%) WebSphere Application Server
9 1 (0.35%) Tomcat
Applications
1 3 (1.06%) Notepad++
2 1 (0.35%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 6 (2.12%) Front Arena
1 6 (2.12%) Summit
2 4 (1.41%) Oracle Assets
2 4 (1.41%) Oracle EBS
2 4 (1.41%) Oracle E-Business Tax
2 4 (1.41%) Oracle FAH
2 4 (1.41%) Oracle General Ledger
2 4 (1.41%) Oracle Internet Expenses
2 4 (1.41%) Oracle iProcurement
2 4 (1.41%) Oracle Payables
2 4 (1.41%) Oracle Receivables
3 3 (1.06%) Oracle Financials
4 2 (0.71%) Oracle ERP
5 1 (0.35%) FLEXCUBE
5 1 (0.35%) Oracle EBS R12
5 1 (0.35%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 110 (38.87%) AWS
2 67 (23.67%) GCP
3 62 (21.91%) Azure
4 52 (18.37%) GitHub
5 32 (11.31%) Serverless
6 27 (9.54%) AWS Lambda
7 22 (7.77%) Amazon S3
8 20 (7.07%) GitHub Actions
9 15 (5.30%) Amazon EC2
10 14 (4.95%) Amazon CloudWatch
11 12 (4.24%) dbt
11 12 (4.24%) GitHub Copilot
12 11 (3.89%) OpenShift
13 9 (3.18%) AWS CloudFormation
13 9 (3.18%) Google Kubernetes Engine
13 9 (3.18%) Power Platform
13 9 (3.18%) Virtual Private Cloud
14 8 (2.83%) Amazon SQS
14 8 (2.83%) Datadog
15 7 (2.47%) Cloud Computing
Communications & Networking
1 19 (6.71%) DNS
2 17 (6.01%) TCP/IP
3 13 (4.59%) HTTP
4 11 (3.89%) SSL
5 10 (3.53%) Firewall
6 7 (2.47%) Network Security
6 7 (2.47%) VPN
7 5 (1.77%) 5G
7 5 (1.77%) SAN
7 5 (1.77%) SSH
8 4 (1.41%) 4G
8 4 (1.41%) MQTT
9 3 (1.06%) BGP
9 3 (1.06%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
9 3 (1.06%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
9 3 (1.06%) Multicast
9 3 (1.06%) PuTTY
9 3 (1.06%) WinSCP
10 2 (0.71%) HTTPS
10 2 (0.71%) tcpdump
Database & Business Intelligence
1 28 (9.89%) Data Warehouse
2 26 (9.19%) Oracle Database
3 22 (7.77%) MySQL
4 20 (7.07%) MongoDB
4 20 (7.07%) Relational Database
5 18 (6.36%) Db2
5 18 (6.36%) PostgreSQL
6 15 (5.30%) NoSQL
7 14 (4.95%) SQL Server
8 12 (4.24%) PowerCenter
9 10 (3.53%) BigQuery
9 10 (3.53%) Oracle Reports
9 10 (3.53%) Redis
10 9 (3.18%) DynamoDB
10 9 (3.18%) Elasticsearch
10 9 (3.18%) Star Schema
11 8 (2.83%) Amazon RDS
11 8 (2.83%) Data Lake
11 8 (2.83%) Power BI
12 7 (2.47%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 90 (31.80%) Git
2 56 (19.79%) Jenkins
3 46 (16.25%) GitLab
4 35 (12.37%) Maven
5 22 (7.77%) JUnit
6 15 (5.30%) JIRA
7 14 (4.95%) Mockito
8 11 (3.89%) Claude Code
9 10 (3.53%) SonarQube
9 10 (3.53%) Sonatype Nexus
10 8 (2.83%) Gradle
11 7 (2.47%) Bitbucket
12 6 (2.12%) Selenium
13 5 (1.77%) Oracle Forms
14 4 (1.41%) Cucumber
14 4 (1.41%) JDeveloper
14 4 (1.41%) Visual Studio Code
15 3 (1.06%) Team Foundation Server
15 3 (1.06%) webpack
15 3 (1.06%) Xcode
General
1 94 (33.22%) Finance
2 55 (19.43%) Banking
3 44 (15.55%) Social Skills
4 40 (14.13%) Analytical Skills
5 20 (7.07%) Public Sector
6 16 (5.65%) Investment Banking
7 8 (2.83%) Telecoms
8 5 (1.77%) Documentation Skills
9 4 (1.41%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 4 (1.41%) Retail
10 3 (1.06%) General Ledger
11 2 (0.71%) Aerospace
11 2 (0.71%) Financial Institution
11 2 (0.71%) Prime Brokerage
11 2 (0.71%) Publishing
12 1 (0.35%) Advertising
12 1 (0.35%) Electronics
12 1 (0.35%) Front Office
12 1 (0.35%) Legal
12 1 (0.35%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 76 (26.86%) Developer
2 43 (15.19%) Senior
3 33 (11.66%) Python Developer
4 23 (8.13%) Data Engineer
5 21 (7.42%) Java Developer
5 21 (7.42%) Senior Developer
6 20 (7.07%) DevOps Engineer
7 19 (6.71%) Java Engineer
8 16 (5.65%) Cloud Engineer
9 15 (5.30%) GCP Engineer
10 14 (4.95%) Architect
11 13 (4.59%) Analyst
12 11 (3.89%) AWS Engineer
13 10 (3.53%) Software Engineer
14 8 (2.83%) Administrator
14 8 (2.83%) Consultant
14 8 (2.83%) Lead
14 8 (2.83%) Senior Java Developer
14 8 (2.83%) Senior Python Developer
14 8 (2.83%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 73 (25.80%) Terraform
2 38 (13.43%) RESTful
3 34 (12.01%) REST
4 30 (10.60%) Spring
5 29 (10.25%) Kafka
5 29 (10.25%) Spring Boot
6 26 (9.19%) Flask
7 22 (7.77%) FastAPI
8 20 (7.07%) CSS
8 20 (7.07%) HTML
9 19 (6.71%) JSON
10 17 (6.01%) Pandas
11 15 (5.30%) Django
12 14 (4.95%) JPA
13 13 (4.59%) Middleware
13 13 (4.59%) Web Services
14 12 (4.24%) OpenAPI
14 12 (4.24%) RabbitMQ
14 12 (4.24%) React
14 12 (4.24%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 30 (10.60%) Linux Command Line
2 20 (7.07%) Cloud Native
3 13 (4.59%) Enterprise Software
3 13 (4.59%) Management Information System
4 9 (3.18%) Derivative
5 8 (2.83%) Fixed Income
5 8 (2.83%) Replication
6 7 (2.47%) Data Centre
6 7 (2.47%) Distributed Systems
6 7 (2.47%) Enterprise Cloud
6 7 (2.47%) Hybrid Cloud
6 7 (2.47%) Market Risk
7 6 (2.12%) AI Agents
7 6 (2.12%) Algorithms
7 6 (2.12%) Legacy Systems
7 6 (2.12%) Mainframe
7 6 (2.12%) Onboarding
7 6 (2.12%) Product Ownership
7 6 (2.12%) Public Cloud
8 5 (1.77%) Credit Risk
Operating Systems
1 158 (55.83%) Linux
2 117 (41.34%) Unix
3 23 (8.13%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 18 (6.36%) Windows
5 12 (4.24%) Solaris
6 6 (2.12%) AIX
7 4 (1.41%) VMS
7 4 (1.41%) zOS
8 3 (1.06%) Apple iOS
8 3 (1.06%) CentOS
8 3 (1.06%) SUSE
8 3 (1.06%) Windows Server
9 2 (0.71%) HPUX
9 2 (0.71%) Rocky
9 2 (0.71%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.35%) Embedded Linux
10 1 (0.35%) Oracle Linux
10 1 (0.35%) Windows Server 2008
10 1 (0.35%) Windows Server 2016
10 1 (0.35%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 132 (46.64%) CI/CD
2 82 (28.98%) DevOps
3 72 (25.44%) Infrastructure as Code
4 71 (25.09%) Containerisation
5 57 (20.14%) Agile
6 53 (18.73%) AI
7 48 (16.96%) Problem-Solving
8 44 (15.55%) Data Pipeline
9 43 (15.19%) Performance Tuning
10 41 (14.49%) Migration
11 39 (13.78%) Code Quality
11 39 (13.78%) Root Cause Analysis
12 38 (13.43%) Observability
13 35 (12.37%) ETL
13 35 (12.37%) Microservices
14 34 (12.01%) Continuous Improvement
15 33 (11.66%) SDLC
15 33 (11.66%) Test Automation
16 32 (11.31%) Batch Processing
16 32 (11.31%) Performance Optimisation
Programming Languages
1 154 (54.42%) Python
2 151 (53.36%) SQL
3 85 (30.04%) Java
4 69 (24.38%) Bash
5 37 (13.07%) PL/SQL
6 24 (8.48%) PowerShell
7 23 (8.13%) JavaScript
8 17 (6.01%) Groovy
9 14 (4.95%) Perl
10 9 (3.18%) Korn
10 9 (3.18%) TypeScript
11 7 (2.47%) Go
11 7 (2.47%) T-SQL
12 6 (2.12%) C#
12 6 (2.12%) Scala
13 4 (1.41%) C
13 4 (1.41%) JCL
13 4 (1.41%) Ruby
13 4 (1.41%) Rust
14 3 (1.06%) Swift
Qualifications
1 80 (28.27%) Security Cleared
2 57 (20.14%) SC Cleared
3 29 (10.25%) Degree
4 26 (9.19%) BPSS Clearance
5 12 (4.24%) DV Cleared
6 11 (3.89%) Computer Science Degree
7 9 (3.18%) Master's Degree
8 6 (2.12%) AWS Certification
9 2 (0.71%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
9 2 (0.71%) Azure Certification
9 2 (0.71%) Cisco Certification
9 2 (0.71%) CISSP
9 2 (0.71%) Oracle Certification
10 1 (0.35%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 1 (0.35%) CCNA
10 1 (0.35%) CISM
10 1 (0.35%) GIAC
10 1 (0.35%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
10 1 (0.35%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 1 (0.35%) RHCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 36 (12.72%) Data Quality
2 19 (6.71%) QA
3 6 (2.12%) Accessibility
4 5 (1.77%) Basel III
4 5 (1.77%) SLA
5 3 (1.06%) Disclosure Scotland
5 3 (1.06%) ISO 20022
6 2 (0.71%) ISO 15022
7 1 (0.35%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 1 (0.35%) GDPR
7 1 (0.35%) HIPAA
7 1 (0.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 1 (0.35%) NIST
7 1 (0.35%) SEPA
System Software
1 76 (26.86%) Docker
2 8 (2.83%) Virtual Machines
3 6 (2.12%) Active Directory
3 6 (2.12%) zsh
4 4 (1.41%) Oracle RAC
4 4 (1.41%) VMware Infrastructure
5 3 (1.06%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (0.71%) KVM
6 2 (0.71%) NFS
6 2 (0.71%) vSphere
7 1 (0.35%) HDFS
7 1 (0.35%) Postfix
7 1 (0.35%) Sendmail
7 1 (0.35%) Varnish
7 1 (0.35%) Veritas Cluster Server
7 1 (0.35%) Veritas Volume Manager
Systems Management
1 91 (32.16%) Kubernetes
2 59 (20.85%) Ansible
3 35 (12.37%) Grafana
4 27 (9.54%) Prometheus
5 14 (4.95%) Kibana
6 10 (3.53%) Control-M
7 8 (2.83%) Podman
8 6 (2.12%) Data Guard
8 6 (2.12%) Oracle RMAN
8 6 (2.12%) Puppet
9 5 (1.77%) Single Sign-On
10 4 (1.41%) HP ALM
10 4 (1.41%) NetBackup
10 4 (1.41%) Packer
11 3 (1.06%) Check_MK
11 3 (1.06%) Consul
11 3 (1.06%) logstash
11 3 (1.06%) Netcool
11 3 (1.06%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
11 3 (1.06%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 77 (27.21%) Oracle
2 39 (13.78%) Google
3 25 (8.83%) Splunk
4 20 (7.07%) IBM
5 17 (6.01%) Informatica
6 16 (5.65%) Microsoft
6 16 (5.65%) Red Hat
7 10 (3.53%) Sybase
8 9 (3.18%) New Relic
8 9 (3.18%) VMware
9 8 (2.83%) Dynatrace
9 8 (2.83%) HP
9 8 (2.83%) ServiceNow
10 7 (2.47%) Checkmarx
10 7 (2.47%) Murex
11 6 (2.12%) AppDynamics
11 6 (2.12%) Calypso
11 6 (2.12%) FIS
11 6 (2.12%) Tenable
11 6 (2.12%) Teradata