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

6 months to
4 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 421 279 284
Rank change year-on-year -142 +5 -40
Contract jobs citing Shell Script 248 301 346
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.48% 0.95% 0.80%
As % of the Programming Languages category 1.79% 2.83% 2.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 160 175 245
10th Percentile £325 £325 £324
25th Percentile £392 £403 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £466 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -6.82% - -5.66%
75th Percentile £539 £600 £606
90th Percentile £638 £642 £710
UK excluding London median daily rate £453 £480 £450
% change year-on-year -5.73% +6.67% -14.29%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 13 8
10th Percentile £28.30 £65.60 £62.98
25th Percentile £32.13 - £64.63
Median hourly rate £39.50 £68.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -41.91% +4.62% -5.45%
75th Percentile £47.13 - £68.63
90th Percentile £51.10 £75.60 £76.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £39.50 £68.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year -41.91% +4.62% -2.35%

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 13,883 10,624 13,270
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 26.90% 33.68% 30.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,009 7,164 9,321
10th Percentile £360 £350 £350
25th Percentile £420 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £511 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year -0.29% -2.38% -4.55%
75th Percentile £606 £625 £650
90th Percentile £720 £750 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £490 £475 £490
% change year-on-year +3.16% -3.06% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 539 254 537
10th Percentile £34.01 £26.52 £31.25
25th Percentile £53.53 £34.55 £46.25
Median hourly rate £65.00 £55.00 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year +18.18% -12.00% -
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £78.15 £79.61 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £62.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year +4.84% -4.62% +4.00%

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 July 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 July 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 July 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 -128 212 £469 -6.25% 66
UK excluding London -147 123 £453 -5.73% 50
London -69 103 £525 - 23
Work from Home -89 62 £470 -1.05% 32
South East -55 33 £396 -34.00% 12
Midlands -44 28 £467 +1.56% 5
West Midlands -50 27 £467 -2.74% 3
North of England -92 26 £475 -3.61% 20
East of England -29 18 £350 +7.69% 1
Yorkshire -65 14 £500 - 6
Scotland -56 11 £468 -1.58% 3
North West -49 10 £450 +12.50% 13
South West -47 3 £550 +5.52% 6
Wales -17 2 £305 +7.96% 3
Northern Ireland - 2 £190 -
East Midlands -17 1 £525 +45.83% 2
North East - 1 £413 - 1

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 14 (5.65%) Apache
2 12 (4.84%) Confluence
3 9 (3.63%) Apache Airflow
4 8 (3.23%) Apache Spark
5 6 (2.42%) CICS
6 4 (1.61%) WebLogic
7 3 (1.21%) nginx
7 3 (1.21%) WebSphere
7 3 (1.21%) WebSphere Application Server
8 2 (0.81%) ArcGIS
8 2 (0.81%) JBoss
8 2 (0.81%) Oracle Spatial
8 2 (0.81%) Oracle Workflow
8 2 (0.81%) SharePoint
8 2 (0.81%) Tomcat
9 1 (0.40%) IBM HTTP Server
9 1 (0.40%) SAS
Applications
1 7 (2.82%) Notepad++
2 2 (0.81%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 1 (0.40%) FLEXCUBE
1 1 (0.40%) Oracle ERP
1 1 (0.40%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 81 (32.66%) AWS
2 46 (18.55%) Azure
3 39 (15.73%) GitHub
4 33 (13.31%) Serverless
5 28 (11.29%) GitHub Actions
6 24 (9.68%) AWS Lambda
7 23 (9.27%) Amazon S3
8 22 (8.87%) GCP
9 20 (8.06%) Amazon EC2
9 20 (8.06%) OpenShift
10 13 (5.24%) Amazon CloudWatch
11 10 (4.03%) Azure DevOps
11 10 (4.03%) Power Platform
12 8 (3.23%) Amazon EKS
12 8 (3.23%) PaaS
12 8 (3.23%) Virtual Private Cloud
13 7 (2.82%) AWS CloudFormation
13 7 (2.82%) AWS CodePipeline
14 6 (2.42%) Azure Key Vault
14 6 (2.42%) dbt
Communications & Networking
1 9 (3.63%) DNS
2 8 (3.23%) Network Security
3 7 (2.82%) PuTTY
3 7 (2.82%) SAN
3 7 (2.82%) WinSCP
4 5 (2.02%) SSH
5 4 (1.61%) MQTT
5 4 (1.61%) VPN
6 3 (1.21%) Firewall
6 3 (1.21%) HTTPS
6 3 (1.21%) Multicast
6 3 (1.21%) NAS
6 3 (1.21%) Reverse Proxy
6 3 (1.21%) SSL
7 2 (0.81%) AMQP
7 2 (0.81%) HTTP
7 2 (0.81%) iSCSI
7 2 (0.81%) OpenVPN
7 2 (0.81%) TCP/IP
8 1 (0.40%) BIG-IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 27 (10.89%) SQL Server
2 23 (9.27%) Oracle Database
3 21 (8.47%) Relational Database
4 17 (6.85%) Data Warehouse
5 15 (6.05%) Metadata
5 15 (6.05%) PostgreSQL
6 14 (5.65%) Db2
6 14 (5.65%) MongoDB
6 14 (5.65%) MySQL
7 12 (4.84%) Amazon RDS
8 10 (4.03%) BusinessObjects
9 9 (3.63%) Data Lake
9 9 (3.63%) DynamoDB
10 8 (3.23%) Amazon Aurora
11 7 (2.82%) Elasticsearch
11 7 (2.82%) Power BI
12 6 (2.42%) Apache Cassandra
12 6 (2.42%) Kdb+
12 6 (2.42%) NoSQL
12 6 (2.42%) Oracle Database 12c
Development Applications
1 52 (20.97%) Jenkins
2 45 (18.15%) Git
3 35 (14.11%) GitLab
4 17 (6.85%) JIRA
5 10 (4.03%) JUnit
5 10 (4.03%) Maven
6 8 (3.23%) SonarQube
7 6 (2.42%) Mockito
8 5 (2.02%) Atlassian Bamboo
8 5 (2.02%) Bitbucket
8 5 (2.02%) JMeter
9 4 (1.61%) Claude Code
9 4 (1.61%) Sonatype Nexus
10 3 (1.21%) Artifactory
10 3 (1.21%) Gradle
10 3 (1.21%) PyCharm
10 3 (1.21%) PyUnit
10 3 (1.21%) Terragrunt
10 3 (1.21%) Xcode
11 2 (0.81%) Gatling
General
1 64 (25.81%) Finance
2 54 (21.77%) Social Skills
3 45 (18.15%) Banking
4 24 (9.68%) Public Sector
5 16 (6.45%) Analytical Skills
6 12 (4.84%) Investment Banking
7 10 (4.03%) Front Office
8 9 (3.63%) Documentation Skills
9 8 (3.23%) Retail
10 5 (2.02%) Advertising
11 3 (1.21%) Aerospace
11 3 (1.21%) Telecoms
12 2 (0.81%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 2 (0.81%) Organisational Skills
13 1 (0.40%) Electronics
13 1 (0.40%) Financial Institution
13 1 (0.40%) Influencing Skills
13 1 (0.40%) International Banking
13 1 (0.40%) Manufacturing
13 1 (0.40%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 62 (25.00%) Developer
2 31 (12.50%) Data Engineer
3 22 (8.87%) Python Developer
3 22 (8.87%) Senior
4 20 (8.06%) Java Developer
5 17 (6.85%) DBA
5 17 (6.85%) Support Engineer
6 16 (6.45%) Administrator
7 14 (5.65%) Oracle DBA
8 12 (4.84%) DevOps Engineer
8 12 (4.84%) Linux Administrator
9 11 (4.44%) Consultant
10 10 (4.03%) Analyst
10 10 (4.03%) Software Engineer
11 9 (3.63%) Architect
11 9 (3.63%) Database Engineer
12 8 (3.23%) AWS Engineer
12 8 (3.23%) Lead
12 8 (3.23%) Oracle Database Engineer
12 8 (3.23%) Senior Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 28 (11.29%) RESTful
2 19 (7.66%) Spring
3 18 (7.26%) JSON
3 18 (7.26%) Spring Boot
4 15 (6.05%) Oracle GoldenGate
5 14 (5.65%) Kafka
6 13 (5.24%) Middleware
7 11 (4.44%) FastAPI
8 10 (4.03%) Flask
8 10 (4.03%) HTML
8 10 (4.03%) LDAP
8 10 (4.03%) REST
9 9 (3.63%) Django
9 9 (3.63%) Pandas
10 8 (3.23%) CSS
10 8 (3.23%) Elastic Stack
10 8 (3.23%) JPA
10 8 (3.23%) Node.js
10 8 (3.23%) React
10 8 (3.23%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 17 (6.85%) Linux Command Line
1 17 (6.85%) Management Information System
2 13 (5.24%) Cloud Native
2 13 (5.24%) Data Centre
3 9 (3.63%) Fixed Income
4 8 (3.23%) Mainframe
5 7 (2.82%) Enterprise Software
5 7 (2.82%) Hedge funds
5 7 (2.82%) Public Cloud
6 6 (2.42%) Data Structures
6 6 (2.42%) DataPower
6 6 (2.42%) Derivative
6 6 (2.42%) Legacy Systems
6 6 (2.42%) Online Banking
6 6 (2.42%) Product Ownership
6 6 (2.42%) Replication
6 6 (2.42%) Self-Motivation
7 5 (2.02%) Equities
7 5 (2.02%) Equity Derivative
7 5 (2.02%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
Operating Systems
1 142 (57.26%) Linux
2 111 (44.76%) Unix
3 30 (12.10%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 21 (8.47%) Windows
5 7 (2.82%) CentOS
5 7 (2.82%) Solaris
5 7 (2.82%) zOS
6 6 (2.42%) Apple iOS
6 6 (2.42%) Windows Server
7 3 (1.21%) AIX
7 3 (1.21%) Android
8 2 (0.81%) OpenVMS
8 2 (0.81%) Oracle Linux
8 2 (0.81%) VMS
9 1 (0.40%) Amazon Linux
9 1 (0.40%) Rocky
9 1 (0.40%) SUSE
9 1 (0.40%) Windows Server 2008
9 1 (0.40%) Windows Server 2016
9 1 (0.40%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 97 (39.11%) CI/CD
2 66 (26.61%) DevOps
3 50 (20.16%) Problem-Solving
4 47 (18.95%) Agile
5 43 (17.34%) Infrastructure as Code
6 41 (16.53%) Containerisation
7 38 (15.32%) Performance Tuning
8 37 (14.92%) Analytics
9 35 (14.11%) Migration
10 31 (12.50%) Microservices
11 30 (12.10%) AI
12 27 (10.89%) Performance Optimisation
13 25 (10.08%) Data Pipeline
14 24 (9.68%) ETL
15 23 (9.27%) High Availability
16 22 (8.87%) Continuous Improvement
16 22 (8.87%) Infrastructure Engineering
16 22 (8.87%) Scrum
17 21 (8.47%) ITIL
17 21 (8.47%) Software Engineering
Programming Languages
1 122 (49.19%) SQL
2 118 (47.58%) Python
3 71 (28.63%) Java
4 32 (12.90%) PL/SQL
5 28 (11.29%) Bash
6 22 (8.87%) JavaScript
7 16 (6.45%) Korn
8 14 (5.65%) Perl
9 11 (4.44%) PowerShell
10 9 (3.63%) C#
11 8 (3.23%) C++
12 7 (2.82%) JCL
12 7 (2.82%) Ruby
12 7 (2.82%) TypeScript
13 6 (2.42%) C
13 6 (2.42%) Groovy
13 6 (2.42%) MATLAB
14 5 (2.02%) Go
15 4 (1.61%) Rust
16 3 (1.21%) Swift
Qualifications
1 93 (37.50%) Security Cleared
2 79 (31.85%) SC Cleared
3 25 (10.08%) Degree
4 16 (6.45%) BPSS Clearance
5 11 (4.44%) Computer Science Degree
6 8 (3.23%) DV Cleared
7 6 (2.42%) Oracle Certification
8 5 (2.02%) Master's Degree
9 3 (1.21%) AWS Certification
9 3 (1.21%) CISSP
10 2 (0.81%) OCP
11 1 (0.40%) CCNA
11 1 (0.40%) Cisco Certification
11 1 (0.40%) CISM
11 1 (0.40%) ITIL Certification
11 1 (0.40%) MOS
11 1 (0.40%) PMI Certification
11 1 (0.40%) RHCA
11 1 (0.40%) RHCE
11 1 (0.40%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (5.24%) Data Quality
2 11 (4.44%) QA
3 9 (3.63%) SLA
4 5 (2.02%) Accessibility
5 3 (1.21%) California Consumer Privacy Act
5 3 (1.21%) FATCA
5 3 (1.21%) GDPR
5 3 (1.21%) HIPAA
5 3 (1.21%) NIST
6 2 (0.81%) Disclosure Scotland
7 1 (0.40%) DICOM
7 1 (0.40%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 52 (20.97%) Docker
2 16 (6.45%) Oracle RAC
3 10 (4.03%) Active Directory
4 7 (2.82%) Virtual Machines
5 5 (2.02%) Postfix
5 5 (2.02%) Varnish
5 5 (2.02%) VMware Infrastructure
6 4 (1.61%) NFS
6 4 (1.61%) Sendmail
7 3 (1.21%) GridGain
7 3 (1.21%) zsh
8 2 (0.81%) KVM
8 2 (0.81%) SRDF
9 1 (0.40%) HDFS
9 1 (0.40%) Hyper-V
9 1 (0.40%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 58 (23.39%) Kubernetes
2 48 (19.35%) Terraform
3 44 (17.74%) Ansible
4 22 (8.87%) Grafana
5 21 (8.47%) Oracle RMAN
6 20 (8.06%) Prometheus
7 15 (6.05%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
8 10 (4.03%) Podman
9 9 (3.63%) Progress Chef
9 9 (3.63%) Puppet
10 7 (2.82%) Data Guard
11 6 (2.42%) Check_MK
11 6 (2.42%) Kibana
11 6 (2.42%) Red Hat Satellite
12 5 (2.02%) HAProxy
13 3 (1.21%) Control-M
13 3 (1.21%) Docker Swarm
13 3 (1.21%) NetBackup
14 2 (0.81%) Argo
14 2 (0.81%) ITRS Geneos
Vendors
1 83 (33.47%) Oracle
2 26 (10.48%) Red Hat
3 16 (6.45%) Microsoft
4 13 (5.24%) VMware
5 12 (4.84%) Google
6 11 (4.44%) Sybase
7 10 (4.03%) IBM
7 10 (4.03%) Murex
8 9 (3.63%) Informatica
9 8 (3.23%) Splunk
10 6 (2.42%) Solace
10 6 (2.42%) Talend
10 6 (2.42%) Tenable
11 5 (2.02%) Databricks
11 5 (2.02%) New Relic
11 5 (2.02%) NVIDIA
11 5 (2.02%) Veritas
12 4 (1.61%) Cloudera
12 4 (1.61%) Hortonworks
12 4 (1.61%) SAP