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

6 months to
27 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 413 267 255
Rank change year-on-year -146 -12 +13
Contract jobs citing Shell Script 271 319 360
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.50% 0.97% 0.93%
As % of the Programming Languages category 1.93% 2.97% 2.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 188 194 243
10th Percentile £325 £327 £336
25th Percentile £400 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £471 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.75% - -4.76%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £603
90th Percentile £705 £638 £710
UK excluding London median daily rate £440 £493 £450
% change year-on-year -10.71% +9.51% -10.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 12 6
10th Percentile £30.85 £62.60 £62.63
25th Percentile £38.50 - £63.50
Median hourly rate £52.50 £68.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -22.79% +4.62% -7.14%
75th Percentile £63.21 - £66.50
90th Percentile £68.88 £92.30 £82.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £52.50 £68.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year -22.79% +4.62% -7.14%

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 14,022 10,725 12,235
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 26.12% 32.74% 31.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,124 7,149 8,472
10th Percentile £363 £343 £350
25th Percentile £425 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £519 £501 £530
Median % change year-on-year +3.70% -5.57% -3.64%
75th Percentile £620 £625 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 519 299 376
10th Percentile £28.50 £28.25 £27.00
25th Percentile £49.50 £36.25 £46.14
Median hourly rate £65.00 £55.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +18.18% -15.38% +5.11%
75th Percentile £70.00 £67.38 £70.00
90th Percentile £78.15 £79.00 £75.63
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 27 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 27 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 27 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 -122 224 £475 -5.00% 36
UK excluding London -151 139 £440 -10.71% 30
London -66 112 £550 +4.76% 11
Work from Home -87 73 £470 -1.05% 14
North of England -102 32 £375 -23.78% 10
South East -58 31 £424 -29.38% 6
Scotland -45 26 £425 -10.53% 2
Midlands -46 23 £470 -1.05% 3
West Midlands -40 21 £470 -6.00% 2
Yorkshire -74 18 £403 -19.50% 2
East of England -22 16 £350 -12.50% 1
North West -54 12 £312 -15.81% 5
South West -50 8 £544 +8.75% 7
North East - 3 £463 - 3
Northern Ireland +2 2 £190 -
East Midlands -17 2 £466 +29.31% 1
Wales -15 1 £265 -6.19% 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 18 (6.64%) Apache
2 13 (4.80%) Apache Airflow
3 12 (4.43%) SAS
4 8 (2.95%) Apache Spark
5 6 (2.21%) Oracle Workflow
5 6 (2.21%) WebLogic
6 5 (1.85%) WebSphere
7 4 (1.48%) CICS
7 4 (1.48%) Confluence
8 3 (1.11%) JBoss
8 3 (1.11%) OpenStack
8 3 (1.11%) WebSphere Application Server
9 2 (0.74%) nginx
9 2 (0.74%) SharePoint
9 2 (0.74%) Tomcat
10 1 (0.37%) IBM HTTP Server
Applications
1 7 (2.58%) Notepad++
Business Applications
1 4 (1.48%) Oracle Assets
1 4 (1.48%) Oracle EBS
1 4 (1.48%) Oracle E-Business Tax
1 4 (1.48%) Oracle FAH
1 4 (1.48%) Oracle General Ledger
1 4 (1.48%) Oracle Internet Expenses
1 4 (1.48%) Oracle iProcurement
1 4 (1.48%) Oracle Payables
1 4 (1.48%) Oracle Receivables
2 3 (1.11%) Oracle Financials
3 2 (0.74%) Oracle ERP
4 1 (0.37%) FLEXCUBE
4 1 (0.37%) Front Arena
4 1 (0.37%) Oracle EBS R12
4 1 (0.37%) Summit
4 1 (0.37%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 97 (35.79%) AWS
2 62 (22.88%) Azure
3 50 (18.45%) GCP
4 47 (17.34%) GitHub
5 32 (11.81%) Serverless
6 26 (9.59%) AWS Lambda
6 26 (9.59%) GitHub Actions
7 25 (9.23%) Amazon S3
8 17 (6.27%) Amazon EC2
9 13 (4.80%) OpenShift
10 12 (4.43%) dbt
11 10 (3.69%) Amazon CloudWatch
11 10 (3.69%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 9 (3.32%) Azure DevOps
12 9 (3.32%) Power Platform
13 8 (2.95%) AWS CloudFormation
14 7 (2.58%) Amazon SQS
15 6 (2.21%) GitHub Copilot
16 5 (1.85%) Azure Key Vault
16 5 (1.85%) Cloud Composer
Communications & Networking
1 16 (5.90%) DNS
2 12 (4.43%) TCP/IP
3 10 (3.69%) HTTP
3 10 (3.69%) SSL
4 7 (2.58%) PuTTY
4 7 (2.58%) VPN
4 7 (2.58%) WinSCP
5 6 (2.21%) Network Security
5 6 (2.21%) SSH
6 5 (1.85%) Firewall
6 5 (1.85%) SAN
7 4 (1.48%) 5G
7 4 (1.48%) MQTT
7 4 (1.48%) Multicast
8 3 (1.11%) 4G
8 3 (1.11%) BGP
8 3 (1.11%) HTTPS
9 2 (0.74%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
9 2 (0.74%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
9 2 (0.74%) tcpdump
Database & Business Intelligence
1 32 (11.81%) Data Warehouse
2 28 (10.33%) Oracle Database
3 23 (8.49%) SQL Server
4 19 (7.01%) Relational Database
5 18 (6.64%) MySQL
6 17 (6.27%) PostgreSQL
7 16 (5.90%) Db2
8 15 (5.54%) Metadata
9 14 (5.17%) MongoDB
10 12 (4.43%) NoSQL
11 11 (4.06%) Data Lake
11 11 (4.06%) PowerCenter
12 10 (3.69%) Amazon Aurora
12 10 (3.69%) Amazon RDS
12 10 (3.69%) BusinessObjects
12 10 (3.69%) Oracle Reports
13 9 (3.32%) Elasticsearch
13 9 (3.32%) Star Schema
14 8 (2.95%) BigQuery
15 7 (2.58%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 68 (25.09%) Git
2 54 (19.93%) Jenkins
3 35 (12.92%) GitLab
4 22 (8.12%) Maven
5 16 (5.90%) JUnit
6 11 (4.06%) Claude Code
7 10 (3.69%) JIRA
8 9 (3.32%) Sonatype Nexus
9 8 (2.95%) Mockito
9 8 (2.95%) SonarQube
10 5 (1.85%) Bitbucket
10 5 (1.85%) Gradle
10 5 (1.85%) Oracle Forms
11 4 (1.48%) Artifactory
11 4 (1.48%) JDeveloper
12 3 (1.11%) Selenium
12 3 (1.11%) webpack
12 3 (1.11%) Xcode
13 2 (0.74%) JMeter
13 2 (0.74%) Terragrunt
General
1 89 (32.84%) Finance
2 56 (20.66%) Banking
3 46 (16.97%) Social Skills
4 28 (10.33%) Analytical Skills
5 21 (7.75%) Public Sector
6 16 (5.90%) Investment Banking
7 7 (2.58%) Documentation Skills
7 7 (2.58%) Front Office
8 6 (2.21%) Telecoms
9 4 (1.48%) Aerospace
9 4 (1.48%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 4 (1.48%) Retail
10 3 (1.11%) Advertising
10 3 (1.11%) General Ledger
11 2 (0.74%) Prime Brokerage
11 2 (0.74%) Publishing
12 1 (0.37%) International Banking
12 1 (0.37%) Legal
12 1 (0.37%) Manufacturing
12 1 (0.37%) Military
Job Titles
1 68 (25.09%) Developer
2 36 (13.28%) Senior
3 35 (12.92%) Data Engineer
4 29 (10.70%) Python Developer
5 18 (6.64%) Senior Developer
6 17 (6.27%) Java Developer
7 16 (5.90%) Architect
7 16 (5.90%) Cloud Engineer
8 14 (5.17%) DevOps Engineer
8 14 (5.17%) Java Engineer
8 14 (5.17%) Support Engineer
9 13 (4.80%) DBA
10 12 (4.43%) GCP Engineer
11 11 (4.06%) Administrator
11 11 (4.06%) Oracle DBA
12 10 (3.69%) Analyst
13 9 (3.32%) AWS DevOps
13 9 (3.32%) AWS Engineer
14 8 (2.95%) Linux Administrator
14 8 (2.95%) Senior Python Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 61 (22.51%) Terraform
2 36 (13.28%) RESTful
3 24 (8.86%) REST
4 23 (8.49%) Kafka
5 22 (8.12%) Spring
6 21 (7.75%) FastAPI
6 21 (7.75%) Flask
6 21 (7.75%) Spring Boot
7 18 (6.64%) Pandas
8 14 (5.17%) CSS
8 14 (5.17%) HTML
8 14 (5.17%) JSON
8 14 (5.17%) Middleware
9 12 (4.43%) PySpark
10 11 (4.06%) Elastic Stack
10 11 (4.06%) Oracle GoldenGate
10 11 (4.06%) RabbitMQ
11 10 (3.69%) Django
11 10 (3.69%) JPA
12 7 (2.58%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 30 (11.07%) Linux Command Line
2 14 (5.17%) Cloud Native
2 14 (5.17%) Management Information System
3 11 (4.06%) Fixed Income
4 8 (2.95%) Data Centre
4 8 (2.95%) Enterprise Software
4 8 (2.95%) Replication
5 7 (2.58%) Derivative
5 7 (2.58%) Enterprise Cloud
5 7 (2.58%) Hedge funds
5 7 (2.58%) Legacy Systems
5 7 (2.58%) Self-Motivation
6 6 (2.21%) Distributed Systems
6 6 (2.21%) Mainframe
6 6 (2.21%) Market Risk
6 6 (2.21%) Product Ownership
7 5 (1.85%) Distributed Applications
7 5 (1.85%) Public Cloud
8 4 (1.48%) AI Agents
8 4 (1.48%) Legacy Code
Operating Systems
1 149 (54.98%) Linux
2 125 (46.13%) Unix
3 23 (8.49%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 19 (7.01%) Windows
5 9 (3.32%) Solaris
6 5 (1.85%) AIX
6 5 (1.85%) CentOS
6 5 (1.85%) Windows Server
6 5 (1.85%) zOS
7 3 (1.11%) Apple iOS
8 2 (0.74%) HPUX
8 2 (0.74%) Oracle Linux
8 2 (0.74%) Ubuntu
9 1 (0.37%) Amazon Linux
9 1 (0.37%) Embedded Linux
9 1 (0.37%) OpenVMS
9 1 (0.37%) SUSE
9 1 (0.37%) VMS
9 1 (0.37%) Windows Server 2008
9 1 (0.37%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 113 (41.70%) CI/CD
2 76 (28.04%) DevOps
3 57 (21.03%) Infrastructure as Code
4 53 (19.56%) Containerisation
5 45 (16.61%) Agile
6 44 (16.24%) Data Pipeline
6 44 (16.24%) Performance Tuning
7 41 (15.13%) AI
7 41 (15.13%) Migration
8 39 (14.39%) ETL
8 39 (14.39%) Problem-Solving
9 37 (13.65%) Performance Optimisation
10 36 (13.28%) Analytics
11 33 (12.18%) Observability
12 31 (11.44%) Code Quality
12 31 (11.44%) Root Cause Analysis
13 29 (10.70%) Microservices
14 28 (10.33%) SDLC
15 27 (9.96%) Data Modelling
15 27 (9.96%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 148 (54.61%) SQL
2 137 (50.55%) Python
3 68 (25.09%) Java
4 47 (17.34%) PL/SQL
5 45 (16.61%) Bash
6 17 (6.27%) JavaScript
7 16 (5.90%) PowerShell
8 14 (5.17%) Groovy
9 13 (4.80%) Perl
10 12 (4.43%) Korn
11 9 (3.32%) C#
12 6 (2.21%) Scala
12 6 (2.21%) TypeScript
13 5 (1.85%) Go
13 5 (1.85%) JCL
13 5 (1.85%) Ruby
14 4 (1.48%) C
14 4 (1.48%) C++
14 4 (1.48%) MATLAB
14 4 (1.48%) Rust
Qualifications
1 79 (29.15%) Security Cleared
2 62 (22.88%) SC Cleared
3 26 (9.59%) Degree
4 18 (6.64%) BPSS Clearance
5 10 (3.69%) Computer Science Degree
6 7 (2.58%) DV Cleared
7 6 (2.21%) AWS Certification
7 6 (2.21%) Oracle Certification
8 5 (1.85%) Master's Degree
9 2 (0.74%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
9 2 (0.74%) Azure Certification
9 2 (0.74%) Cisco Certification
9 2 (0.74%) CISSP
9 2 (0.74%) OCP
10 1 (0.37%) CCNA
10 1 (0.37%) CISM
10 1 (0.37%) GIAC
10 1 (0.37%) ITIL Certification
10 1 (0.37%) MOS
10 1 (0.37%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (12.18%) Data Quality
2 15 (5.54%) QA
3 7 (2.58%) SLA
4 6 (2.21%) Accessibility
5 3 (1.11%) Disclosure Scotland
5 3 (1.11%) ISO 20022
6 2 (0.74%) ISO 15022
7 1 (0.37%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 1 (0.37%) DICOM
7 1 (0.37%) GDPR
7 1 (0.37%) HIPAA
7 1 (0.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 1 (0.37%) NIST
7 1 (0.37%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 1 (0.37%) SEPA
System Software
1 63 (23.25%) Docker
2 11 (4.06%) Oracle RAC
3 9 (3.32%) Active Directory
4 6 (2.21%) Virtual Machines
5 5 (1.85%) zsh
6 4 (1.48%) VMware Infrastructure
7 3 (1.11%) GridGain
7 3 (1.11%) NFS
7 3 (1.11%) Postfix
7 3 (1.11%) Sendmail
7 3 (1.11%) Varnish
8 2 (0.74%) KVM
9 1 (0.37%) Hyper-V
9 1 (0.37%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 75 (27.68%) Kubernetes
2 48 (17.71%) Ansible
3 24 (8.86%) Grafana
4 22 (8.12%) Prometheus
5 16 (5.90%) Oracle RMAN
6 11 (4.06%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
7 10 (3.69%) Kibana
8 9 (3.32%) Control-M
9 8 (2.95%) Data Guard
9 8 (2.95%) Podman
10 6 (2.21%) Puppet
11 4 (1.48%) Check_MK
11 4 (1.48%) HP ALM
11 4 (1.48%) NetBackup
11 4 (1.48%) Red Hat Satellite
12 3 (1.11%) Consul
12 3 (1.11%) HAProxy
12 3 (1.11%) logstash
12 3 (1.11%) Packer
12 3 (1.11%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 94 (34.69%) Oracle
2 31 (11.44%) Google
3 20 (7.38%) Informatica
4 18 (6.64%) Splunk
5 17 (6.27%) Red Hat
6 16 (5.90%) IBM
7 13 (4.80%) Microsoft
8 12 (4.43%) Sybase
9 9 (3.32%) New Relic
9 9 (3.32%) VMware
10 7 (2.58%) Dynatrace
10 7 (2.58%) ServiceNow
10 7 (2.58%) Solace
11 6 (2.21%) HP
11 6 (2.21%) Murex
11 6 (2.21%) Tenable
11 6 (2.21%) Teradata
12 5 (1.85%) Databricks
12 5 (1.85%) NVIDIA
12 5 (1.85%) SAP