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

6 months to
14 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 402 276 242
Rank change year-on-year -126 -34 +14
Contract jobs citing Shell Script 272 306 365
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.51% 0.93% 0.94%
As % of the Programming Languages category 1.93% 2.83% 2.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 191 186 247
10th Percentile £325 £319 £325
25th Percentile £397 £400 £392
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £470 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -6.00% - -5.66%
75th Percentile £594 £600 £600
90th Percentile £700 £638 £710
UK excluding London median daily rate £446 £500 £450
% change year-on-year -10.85% +11.11% -13.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 12 8
10th Percentile £28.30 - £62.98
25th Percentile £32.13 - £63.50
Median hourly rate £39.50 £68.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -41.91% +4.62% -6.31%
75th Percentile £47.13 - £66.50
90th Percentile £51.10 £92.30 £70.55
UK excluding London median hourly rate £39.50 £68.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year -41.91% +4.62% -5.45%

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 14,093 10,795 12,196
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 26.40% 32.80% 31.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,163 7,218 8,538
10th Percentile £363 £340 £350
25th Percentile £425 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £505 £530
Median % change year-on-year +1.98% -4.76% -3.59%
75th Percentile £618 £625 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £495 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +4.21% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 523 277 406
10th Percentile £30.10 £28.22 £27.00
25th Percentile £51.25 £36.00 £46.05
Median hourly rate £65.00 £56.50 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +15.04% -13.08% +8.33%
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £78.95 £83.58 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £63.75 £65.00
% change year-on-year +1.96% -1.92% +8.33%

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 14 August 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 14 August 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 14 August 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 -116 224 £475 -5.00% 70
UK excluding London -136 141 £446 -10.85% 55
London -65 110 £550 +4.76% 30
Work from Home -67 77 £470 -1.05% 31
South East -64 34 £400 -33.33% 5
North of England -94 33 £425 -15.00% 19
Scotland -40 26 £425 -12.64% 8
Midlands -34 24 £470 +14.63% 9
West Midlands -38 21 £470 +2.07% 5
Yorkshire -60 20 £425 -16.05% 6
East of England -17 15 £350 +7.69% 1
North West -53 11 £413 +7.14% 11
South West -60 6 £550 +5.52% 6
East Midlands -21 3 £481 +33.61% 4
North East - 3 £463 - 2
Northern Ireland +7 2 £190 - 4
Wales -16 1 £265 -6.19% 3

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 20 (7.35%) Apache
2 14 (5.15%) Apache Airflow
3 9 (3.31%) SAS
4 8 (2.94%) Apache Spark
5 7 (2.57%) WebLogic
6 6 (2.21%) CICS
6 6 (2.21%) Oracle Workflow
7 5 (1.84%) Confluence
8 4 (1.47%) WebSphere
9 3 (1.10%) JBoss
9 3 (1.10%) WebSphere Application Server
10 2 (0.74%) nginx
10 2 (0.74%) OpenStack
10 2 (0.74%) SharePoint
10 2 (0.74%) Tomcat
11 1 (0.37%) IBM HTTP Server
Applications
1 7 (2.57%) Notepad++
Business Applications
1 4 (1.47%) Oracle Assets
1 4 (1.47%) Oracle EBS
1 4 (1.47%) Oracle E-Business Tax
1 4 (1.47%) Oracle FAH
1 4 (1.47%) Oracle General Ledger
1 4 (1.47%) Oracle Internet Expenses
1 4 (1.47%) Oracle iProcurement
1 4 (1.47%) Oracle Payables
1 4 (1.47%) Oracle Receivables
2 3 (1.10%) Oracle Financials
3 1 (0.37%) FLEXCUBE
3 1 (0.37%) Front Arena
3 1 (0.37%) Oracle EBS R12
3 1 (0.37%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.37%) Summit
3 1 (0.37%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 95 (34.93%) AWS
2 59 (21.69%) Azure
3 46 (16.91%) GCP
4 45 (16.54%) GitHub
5 32 (11.76%) Serverless
6 26 (9.56%) AWS Lambda
6 26 (9.56%) GitHub Actions
7 23 (8.46%) Amazon S3
8 17 (6.25%) Amazon EC2
9 15 (5.51%) OpenShift
10 11 (4.04%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 11 (4.04%) dbt
11 10 (3.68%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 9 (3.31%) AWS CloudFormation
13 8 (2.94%) Azure DevOps
13 8 (2.94%) Power Platform
14 7 (2.57%) Amazon SQS
15 6 (2.21%) Azure Key Vault
15 6 (2.21%) Cloud Composer
15 6 (2.21%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 15 (5.51%) DNS
2 10 (3.68%) SSL
3 9 (3.31%) HTTP
3 9 (3.31%) TCP/IP
4 7 (2.57%) Network Security
4 7 (2.57%) PuTTY
4 7 (2.57%) WinSCP
5 6 (2.21%) SAN
5 6 (2.21%) SSH
5 6 (2.21%) VPN
6 4 (1.47%) Firewall
6 4 (1.47%) MQTT
6 4 (1.47%) Multicast
7 3 (1.10%) 5G
7 3 (1.10%) BGP
7 3 (1.10%) HTTPS
8 2 (0.74%) 4G
8 2 (0.74%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
8 2 (0.74%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
8 2 (0.74%) OpenVPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (10.66%) Oracle Database
2 28 (10.29%) SQL Server
3 26 (9.56%) Data Warehouse
4 19 (6.99%) Relational Database
5 17 (6.25%) PostgreSQL
6 16 (5.88%) Db2
6 16 (5.88%) MySQL
7 15 (5.51%) Metadata
8 13 (4.78%) MongoDB
9 11 (4.04%) Data Lake
10 10 (3.68%) Amazon Aurora
10 10 (3.68%) Amazon RDS
10 10 (3.68%) BusinessObjects
10 10 (3.68%) Oracle Reports
11 9 (3.31%) BigQuery
11 9 (3.31%) NoSQL
12 8 (2.94%) DynamoDB
12 8 (2.94%) Elasticsearch
12 8 (2.94%) PowerCenter
12 8 (2.94%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 61 (22.43%) Git
2 54 (19.85%) Jenkins
3 31 (11.40%) GitLab
4 19 (6.99%) Maven
5 12 (4.41%) JUnit
6 11 (4.04%) JIRA
7 10 (3.68%) Claude Code
8 9 (3.31%) Sonatype Nexus
9 8 (2.94%) SonarQube
10 6 (2.21%) Mockito
11 5 (1.84%) Bitbucket
11 5 (1.84%) Gradle
11 5 (1.84%) Oracle Forms
12 4 (1.47%) JDeveloper
13 3 (1.10%) Artifactory
13 3 (1.10%) JMeter
13 3 (1.10%) webpack
13 3 (1.10%) Xcode
14 2 (0.74%) Gatling
14 2 (0.74%) Terragrunt
General
1 87 (31.99%) Finance
2 55 (20.22%) Banking
3 50 (18.38%) Social Skills
4 22 (8.09%) Analytical Skills
5 21 (7.72%) Public Sector
6 15 (5.51%) Investment Banking
7 7 (2.57%) Documentation Skills
7 7 (2.57%) Front Office
8 5 (1.84%) Advertising
9 4 (1.47%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 4 (1.47%) Retail
9 4 (1.47%) Telecoms
10 3 (1.10%) Aerospace
10 3 (1.10%) General Ledger
11 2 (0.74%) Publishing
12 1 (0.37%) Electronics
12 1 (0.37%) International Banking
12 1 (0.37%) Legal
12 1 (0.37%) Manufacturing
12 1 (0.37%) Military
Job Titles
1 67 (24.63%) Developer
2 37 (13.60%) Data Engineer
2 37 (13.60%) Senior
3 26 (9.56%) Python Developer
4 19 (6.99%) Java Developer
4 19 (6.99%) Senior Developer
5 17 (6.25%) Architect
6 16 (5.88%) Cloud Engineer
6 16 (5.88%) Support Engineer
7 14 (5.15%) DBA
8 13 (4.78%) DevOps Engineer
9 12 (4.41%) GCP Engineer
9 12 (4.41%) Oracle DBA
10 11 (4.04%) Administrator
10 11 (4.04%) Java Engineer
11 9 (3.31%) Analyst
11 9 (3.31%) Software Engineer
12 8 (2.94%) Database Engineer
12 8 (2.94%) Oracle Database Engineer
12 8 (2.94%) Senior Python Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 35 (12.87%) RESTful
2 20 (7.35%) Kafka
2 20 (7.35%) Spring
3 19 (6.99%) REST
3 19 (6.99%) Spring Boot
4 18 (6.62%) FastAPI
5 17 (6.25%) Flask
6 16 (5.88%) Pandas
7 15 (5.51%) JSON
8 14 (5.15%) Oracle GoldenGate
9 12 (4.41%) Middleware
10 11 (4.04%) CSS
10 11 (4.04%) Django
10 11 (4.04%) HTML
11 10 (3.68%) PySpark
12 9 (3.31%) RabbitMQ
12 9 (3.31%) Web Services
13 8 (2.94%) Elastic Stack
13 8 (2.94%) SOAP
14 7 (2.57%) React
Miscellaneous
1 30 (11.03%) Linux Command Line
2 14 (5.15%) Cloud Native
2 14 (5.15%) Management Information System
3 11 (4.04%) Fixed Income
4 9 (3.31%) Data Centre
5 8 (2.94%) Mainframe
5 8 (2.94%) Replication
6 7 (2.57%) Derivative
6 7 (2.57%) Enterprise Software
6 7 (2.57%) Hedge funds
6 7 (2.57%) Self-Motivation
7 6 (2.21%) DataPower
7 6 (2.21%) Enterprise Cloud
7 6 (2.21%) Legacy Systems
7 6 (2.21%) Market Risk
7 6 (2.21%) Online Banking
7 6 (2.21%) Product Ownership
7 6 (2.21%) Public Cloud
8 5 (1.84%) Data Structures
8 5 (1.84%) Distributed Systems
Operating Systems
1 151 (55.51%) Linux
2 123 (45.22%) Unix
3 25 (9.19%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 21 (7.72%) Windows
5 9 (3.31%) Solaris
6 7 (2.57%) zOS
7 5 (1.84%) AIX
7 5 (1.84%) CentOS
7 5 (1.84%) Windows Server
8 4 (1.47%) Apple iOS
9 2 (0.74%) HPUX
9 2 (0.74%) OpenVMS
9 2 (0.74%) Oracle Linux
9 2 (0.74%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.37%) Amazon Linux
10 1 (0.37%) Android
10 1 (0.37%) Embedded Linux
10 1 (0.37%) SUSE
10 1 (0.37%) VMS
10 1 (0.37%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 107 (39.34%) CI/CD
2 71 (26.10%) DevOps
3 54 (19.85%) Infrastructure as Code
4 52 (19.12%) Containerisation
5 43 (15.81%) Performance Tuning
6 42 (15.44%) Data Pipeline
7 41 (15.07%) Migration
7 41 (15.07%) Problem-Solving
8 40 (14.71%) Agile
8 40 (14.71%) AI
9 39 (14.34%) Performance Optimisation
10 38 (13.97%) Analytics
11 33 (12.13%) ETL
12 32 (11.76%) Code Quality
13 30 (11.03%) Observability
14 28 (10.29%) Microservices
15 27 (9.93%) Root Cause Analysis
16 25 (9.19%) Configuration Management
17 24 (8.82%) High Availability
17 24 (8.82%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 141 (51.84%) SQL
2 136 (50.00%) Python
3 67 (24.63%) Java
4 44 (16.18%) PL/SQL
5 43 (15.81%) Bash
6 16 (5.88%) JavaScript
6 16 (5.88%) PowerShell
7 15 (5.51%) Korn
8 14 (5.15%) Groovy
9 12 (4.41%) Perl
10 8 (2.94%) C#
11 7 (2.57%) JCL
11 7 (2.57%) TypeScript
12 6 (2.21%) Ruby
12 6 (2.21%) Scala
13 5 (1.84%) C
13 5 (1.84%) C++
13 5 (1.84%) Go
14 4 (1.47%) MATLAB
14 4 (1.47%) Rust
Qualifications
1 87 (31.99%) Security Cleared
2 69 (25.37%) SC Cleared
3 25 (9.19%) Degree
4 15 (5.51%) BPSS Clearance
5 8 (2.94%) Computer Science Degree
6 7 (2.57%) DV Cleared
7 6 (2.21%) Oracle Certification
8 5 (1.84%) Master's Degree
9 4 (1.47%) CISSP
10 3 (1.10%) AWS Certification
11 2 (0.74%) Azure Certification
11 2 (0.74%) Cisco Certification
11 2 (0.74%) CISM
11 2 (0.74%) OCP
12 1 (0.37%) GIAC
12 1 (0.37%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
12 1 (0.37%) ITIL Certification
12 1 (0.37%) MOS
12 1 (0.37%) PMI Certification
12 1 (0.37%) RHCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 29 (10.66%) Data Quality
2 10 (3.68%) QA
3 6 (2.21%) Accessibility
3 6 (2.21%) SLA
4 3 (1.10%) California Consumer Privacy Act
4 3 (1.10%) Disclosure Scotland
4 3 (1.10%) GDPR
4 3 (1.10%) HIPAA
4 3 (1.10%) NIST
5 1 (0.37%) DICOM
5 1 (0.37%) ISO 15022
5 1 (0.37%) ISO 20022
5 1 (0.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 1 (0.37%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 59 (21.69%) Docker
2 15 (5.51%) Oracle RAC
3 9 (3.31%) Active Directory
4 6 (2.21%) Virtual Machines
4 6 (2.21%) VMware Infrastructure
5 5 (1.84%) zsh
6 4 (1.47%) NFS
6 4 (1.47%) Postfix
6 4 (1.47%) Sendmail
6 4 (1.47%) Varnish
7 3 (1.10%) GridGain
8 2 (0.74%) KVM
8 2 (0.74%) SRDF
9 1 (0.37%) Hyper-V
9 1 (0.37%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 73 (26.84%) Kubernetes
2 57 (20.96%) Terraform
3 47 (17.28%) Ansible
4 21 (7.72%) Grafana
5 20 (7.35%) Oracle RMAN
6 19 (6.99%) Prometheus
7 14 (5.15%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
8 8 (2.94%) Data Guard
8 8 (2.94%) Podman
8 8 (2.94%) Puppet
9 7 (2.57%) Control-M
10 6 (2.21%) Kibana
11 5 (1.84%) Progress Chef
12 4 (1.47%) Check_MK
12 4 (1.47%) HAProxy
12 4 (1.47%) HP ALM
12 4 (1.47%) NetBackup
12 4 (1.47%) Red Hat Satellite
13 3 (1.10%) Consul
13 3 (1.10%) Packer
Vendors
1 91 (33.46%) Oracle
2 31 (11.40%) Google
3 19 (6.99%) Red Hat
4 17 (6.25%) Informatica
5 15 (5.51%) Microsoft
5 15 (5.51%) Splunk
6 13 (4.78%) IBM
7 11 (4.04%) Sybase
7 11 (4.04%) VMware
8 10 (3.68%) New Relic
9 8 (2.94%) HP
9 8 (2.94%) ServiceNow
10 7 (2.57%) Solace
11 6 (2.21%) Murex
11 6 (2.21%) Tenable
12 5 (1.84%) Cisco
12 5 (1.84%) Databricks
12 5 (1.84%) Dynatrace
12 5 (1.84%) NVIDIA
12 5 (1.84%) SAP