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

6 months to
13 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 403 259 261
Rank change year-on-year -144 +2 +26
Contract jobs citing Shell Script 289 342 328
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.53% 1.04% 0.87%
As % of the Programming Languages category 2.00% 3.18% 2.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 203 196 203
10th Percentile £325 £307 £338
25th Percentile £413 £381 £379
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £493 £475 £475
Median % change year-on-year +3.68% - -9.52%
75th Percentile £613 £576 £556
90th Percentile £712 £625 £708
UK excluding London median daily rate £470 £475 £420
% change year-on-year -1.05% +13.10% -16.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 15 6
10th Percentile £35.13 £64.40 £63.50
25th Percentile £49.21 - £64.63
Median hourly rate £72.66 £68.00 £81.50
Median % change year-on-year +6.85% -16.56% +16.43%
75th Percentile £79.46 - £97.50
90th Percentile £83.53 £104.00 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £72.66 £68.00 £68.00
% change year-on-year +6.85% - -2.86%

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 14,429 10,756 12,002
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 26.27% 32.66% 32.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,366 7,069 7,849
10th Percentile £363 £345 £350
25th Percentile £425 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £505 £525
Median % change year-on-year +3.91% -3.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £650
90th Percentile £725 £734 £774
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £490
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.06% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 559 298 321
10th Percentile £21.62 £29.00 £25.99
25th Percentile £44.75 £41.25 £41.25
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 £77.88 £75.00
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 13 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 13 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 13 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 -146 241 £524 +10.26% 170
UK excluding London -140 145 £470 -1.05% 106
London -68 121 £550 +7.32% 87
Work from Home -93 80 £470 -0.11% 69
North of England -88 37 £425 -10.53% 29
Midlands -35 29 £525 +7.69% 18
Scotland -51 28 £440 -10.75% 16
West Midlands -39 27 £525 +5.00% 14
South East -78 24 £525 +24.26% 19
Yorkshire -56 20 £463 -7.50% 11
South West -39 14 £540 +694.12% 10
North West -61 13 £313 -30.13% 15
East of England -32 11 £350 -13.58% 4
North East - 5 £463 - 3
Northern Ireland +5 2 £190 - 8
East Midlands -13 2 £466 +29.31% 4
Wales -15 2 £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 12 (4.15%) Apache
1 12 (4.15%) SAS
2 11 (3.81%) WebLogic
3 10 (3.46%) Apache Airflow
4 7 (2.42%) Apache Spark
5 5 (1.73%) Confluence
5 5 (1.73%) WebSphere
6 4 (1.38%) OpenStack
6 4 (1.38%) Oracle Workflow
7 3 (1.04%) CICS
7 3 (1.04%) JBoss
8 2 (0.69%) nginx
8 2 (0.69%) SharePoint
8 2 (0.69%) WebSphere Application Server
9 1 (0.35%) IIS
9 1 (0.35%) Tomcat
Applications
1 1 (0.35%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 6 (2.08%) Front Arena
1 6 (2.08%) Summit
2 4 (1.38%) Oracle Assets
2 4 (1.38%) Oracle EBS
2 4 (1.38%) Oracle E-Business Tax
2 4 (1.38%) Oracle FAH
2 4 (1.38%) Oracle General Ledger
2 4 (1.38%) Oracle Internet Expenses
2 4 (1.38%) Oracle iProcurement
2 4 (1.38%) Oracle Payables
2 4 (1.38%) Oracle Receivables
3 3 (1.04%) Oracle Financials
4 2 (0.69%) Oracle ERP
5 1 (0.35%) FLEXCUBE
5 1 (0.35%) Oracle EBS R12
5 1 (0.35%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 112 (38.75%) AWS
2 67 (23.18%) GCP
3 63 (21.80%) Azure
4 54 (18.69%) GitHub
5 33 (11.42%) Serverless
6 28 (9.69%) AWS Lambda
7 22 (7.61%) Amazon S3
8 19 (6.57%) GitHub Actions
9 16 (5.54%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 14 (4.84%) Amazon EC2
11 12 (4.15%) dbt
11 12 (4.15%) GitHub Copilot
12 10 (3.46%) OpenShift
13 9 (3.11%) Amazon SQS
13 9 (3.11%) AWS CloudFormation
13 9 (3.11%) Google Kubernetes Engine
13 9 (3.11%) Power Platform
13 9 (3.11%) Virtual Private Cloud
14 8 (2.77%) Datadog
15 7 (2.42%) Azure DevOps
Communications & Networking
1 20 (6.92%) DNS
2 18 (6.23%) TCP/IP
3 14 (4.84%) HTTP
4 12 (4.15%) SSL
5 11 (3.81%) Firewall
6 8 (2.77%) Network Security
7 7 (2.42%) VPN
8 5 (1.73%) 5G
8 5 (1.73%) SAN
8 5 (1.73%) SSH
9 4 (1.38%) 4G
9 4 (1.38%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
9 4 (1.38%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
9 4 (1.38%) MQTT
10 3 (1.04%) BGP
10 3 (1.04%) Multicast
11 2 (0.69%) BIG-IP
11 2 (0.69%) HTTPS
11 2 (0.69%) tcpdump
12 1 (0.35%) Reverse Proxy
Database & Business Intelligence
1 27 (9.34%) Oracle Database
2 26 (9.00%) Data Warehouse
3 22 (7.61%) MySQL
4 21 (7.27%) MongoDB
5 19 (6.57%) Relational Database
6 18 (6.23%) Db2
7 17 (5.88%) PostgreSQL
8 16 (5.54%) NoSQL
9 15 (5.19%) SQL Server
10 12 (4.15%) PowerCenter
11 10 (3.46%) BigQuery
11 10 (3.46%) DynamoDB
11 10 (3.46%) Oracle Reports
11 10 (3.46%) Redis
12 9 (3.11%) Star Schema
13 8 (2.77%) Amazon RDS
13 8 (2.77%) Data Lake
13 8 (2.77%) Elasticsearch
13 8 (2.77%) Power BI
14 7 (2.42%) Amazon Redshift
Development Applications
1 91 (31.49%) Git
2 58 (20.07%) Jenkins
3 48 (16.61%) GitLab
4 35 (12.11%) Maven
5 23 (7.96%) JUnit
6 16 (5.54%) JIRA
7 15 (5.19%) Mockito
8 11 (3.81%) Claude Code
9 10 (3.46%) SonarQube
9 10 (3.46%) Sonatype Nexus
10 7 (2.42%) Gradle
11 6 (2.08%) Bitbucket
11 6 (2.08%) Selenium
12 5 (1.73%) Cucumber
12 5 (1.73%) Oracle Forms
13 4 (1.38%) JDeveloper
13 4 (1.38%) Visual Studio Code
14 3 (1.04%) Subversion
14 3 (1.04%) webpack
14 3 (1.04%) Xcode
General
1 96 (33.22%) Finance
2 58 (20.07%) Banking
3 46 (15.92%) Social Skills
4 42 (14.53%) Analytical Skills
5 21 (7.27%) Public Sector
6 18 (6.23%) Investment Banking
7 8 (2.77%) Telecoms
8 5 (1.73%) Documentation Skills
8 5 (1.73%) Retail
9 4 (1.38%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 3 (1.04%) Aerospace
10 3 (1.04%) General Ledger
11 2 (0.69%) Financial Institution
11 2 (0.69%) Prime Brokerage
11 2 (0.69%) Publishing
12 1 (0.35%) Automotive
12 1 (0.35%) Electronics
12 1 (0.35%) Front Office
12 1 (0.35%) Legal
12 1 (0.35%) Police
Job Titles
1 79 (27.34%) Developer
2 43 (14.88%) Senior
3 35 (12.11%) Python Developer
4 22 (7.61%) Data Engineer
5 21 (7.27%) Senior Developer
6 20 (6.92%) DevOps Engineer
6 20 (6.92%) Java Developer
7 19 (6.57%) Java Engineer
8 16 (5.54%) Cloud Engineer
9 15 (5.19%) GCP Engineer
10 14 (4.84%) Architect
11 13 (4.50%) Analyst
12 11 (3.81%) AWS Engineer
13 10 (3.46%) Lead
14 9 (3.11%) Software Engineer
14 9 (3.11%) Support Engineer
15 8 (2.77%) Administrator
15 8 (2.77%) Consultant
15 8 (2.77%) Senior Java Developer
15 8 (2.77%) Senior Python Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 76 (26.30%) Terraform
2 37 (12.80%) REST
2 37 (12.80%) RESTful
3 29 (10.03%) Spring
3 29 (10.03%) Spring Boot
4 28 (9.69%) Flask
4 28 (9.69%) Kafka
5 23 (7.96%) FastAPI
6 20 (6.92%) JSON
7 19 (6.57%) CSS
7 19 (6.57%) HTML
8 18 (6.23%) Pandas
9 17 (5.88%) Django
10 14 (4.84%) JPA
10 14 (4.84%) Web Services
11 13 (4.50%) Middleware
11 13 (4.50%) XML
12 12 (4.15%) OpenAPI
12 12 (4.15%) PySpark
12 12 (4.15%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 28 (9.69%) Linux Command Line
2 21 (7.27%) Cloud Native
3 15 (5.19%) Enterprise Software
4 14 (4.84%) Management Information System
5 11 (3.81%) Derivative
6 10 (3.46%) Fixed Income
7 9 (3.11%) Market Risk
8 8 (2.77%) Enterprise Cloud
9 7 (2.42%) Data Centre
9 7 (2.42%) Hybrid Cloud
9 7 (2.42%) Onboarding
9 7 (2.42%) Product Ownership
9 7 (2.42%) Replication
10 6 (2.08%) AI Agents
10 6 (2.08%) Algorithms
10 6 (2.08%) Distributed Systems
10 6 (2.08%) Legacy Systems
10 6 (2.08%) Mainframe
10 6 (2.08%) Public Cloud
11 5 (1.73%) Data Structures
Operating Systems
1 162 (56.06%) Linux
2 116 (40.14%) Unix
3 23 (7.96%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 19 (6.57%) Windows
5 12 (4.15%) Solaris
6 6 (2.08%) AIX
7 4 (1.38%) SUSE
7 4 (1.38%) VMS
7 4 (1.38%) Windows Server
7 4 (1.38%) zOS
8 3 (1.04%) Apple iOS
8 3 (1.04%) CentOS
9 2 (0.69%) HPUX
9 2 (0.69%) Rocky
9 2 (0.69%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
9 2 (0.69%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.35%) Amazon Linux
10 1 (0.35%) Windows Server 2008
10 1 (0.35%) Windows Server 2016
10 1 (0.35%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 136 (47.06%) CI/CD
2 85 (29.41%) DevOps
3 73 (25.26%) Infrastructure as Code
4 71 (24.57%) Containerisation
5 61 (21.11%) Agile
6 55 (19.03%) AI
7 51 (17.65%) Problem-Solving
8 48 (16.61%) Data Pipeline
9 43 (14.88%) Migration
9 43 (14.88%) Performance Tuning
10 39 (13.49%) Code Quality
10 39 (13.49%) Root Cause Analysis
11 38 (13.15%) Observability
12 34 (11.76%) Continuous Improvement
12 34 (11.76%) ETL
12 34 (11.76%) Test Automation
12 34 (11.76%) Validation
13 33 (11.42%) Microservices
13 33 (11.42%) Performance Optimisation
13 33 (11.42%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 161 (55.71%) Python
2 151 (52.25%) SQL
3 86 (29.76%) Java
4 71 (24.57%) Bash
5 35 (12.11%) PL/SQL
6 26 (9.00%) PowerShell
7 23 (7.96%) JavaScript
8 17 (5.88%) Groovy
9 14 (4.84%) Perl
10 9 (3.11%) Korn
10 9 (3.11%) TypeScript
11 8 (2.77%) Go
12 7 (2.42%) T-SQL
13 6 (2.08%) C#
13 6 (2.08%) Scala
14 4 (1.38%) JCL
14 4 (1.38%) Ruby
14 4 (1.38%) Rust
15 3 (1.04%) Cypher
15 3 (1.04%) Swift
Qualifications
1 82 (28.37%) Security Cleared
2 57 (19.72%) SC Cleared
3 30 (10.38%) Degree
4 26 (9.00%) BPSS Clearance
5 13 (4.50%) DV Cleared
6 12 (4.15%) Computer Science Degree
7 10 (3.46%) Master's Degree
8 7 (2.42%) AWS Certification
9 2 (0.69%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
9 2 (0.69%) Azure Certification
9 2 (0.69%) Cisco Certification
9 2 (0.69%) CISSP
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%) Oracle Certification
10 1 (0.35%) RHCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 38 (13.15%) Data Quality
2 20 (6.92%) QA
3 6 (2.08%) Accessibility
4 5 (1.73%) Basel III
4 5 (1.73%) SLA
5 3 (1.04%) Disclosure Scotland
5 3 (1.04%) ISO 20022
6 2 (0.69%) GDPR
6 2 (0.69%) ISO 15022
7 1 (0.35%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 1 (0.35%) DO-254
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 (26.30%) Docker
2 8 (2.77%) Virtual Machines
3 7 (2.42%) Active Directory
4 6 (2.08%) zsh
5 4 (1.38%) Oracle RAC
5 4 (1.38%) VMware Infrastructure
6 3 (1.04%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (0.69%) KVM
7 2 (0.69%) NFS
7 2 (0.69%) vSphere
8 1 (0.35%) HDFS
8 1 (0.35%) Postfix
8 1 (0.35%) Sendmail
8 1 (0.35%) Varnish
8 1 (0.35%) Veritas Cluster Server
8 1 (0.35%) Veritas Volume Manager
Systems Management
1 93 (32.18%) Kubernetes
2 59 (20.42%) Ansible
3 34 (11.76%) Grafana
4 26 (9.00%) Prometheus
5 13 (4.50%) Kibana
6 10 (3.46%) Control-M
7 8 (2.77%) Podman
8 6 (2.08%) Puppet
8 6 (2.08%) Single Sign-On
9 5 (1.73%) Data Guard
9 5 (1.73%) Oracle RMAN
10 4 (1.38%) HP ALM
10 4 (1.38%) NetBackup
10 4 (1.38%) Packer
11 3 (1.04%) Check_MK
11 3 (1.04%) Consul
11 3 (1.04%) ITRS Geneos
11 3 (1.04%) logstash
11 3 (1.04%) Netcool
11 3 (1.04%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 76 (26.30%) Oracle
2 39 (13.49%) Google
3 26 (9.00%) Splunk
4 20 (6.92%) IBM
5 17 (5.88%) Red Hat
6 16 (5.54%) Microsoft
7 14 (4.84%) Informatica
8 10 (3.46%) Sybase
9 9 (3.11%) New Relic
9 9 (3.11%) ServiceNow
9 9 (3.11%) VMware
10 8 (2.77%) Dynatrace
10 8 (2.77%) HP
11 7 (2.42%) Checkmarx
11 7 (2.42%) Murex
12 6 (2.08%) AppDynamics
12 6 (2.08%) Calypso
12 6 (2.08%) FIS
12 6 (2.08%) Tenable
12 6 (2.08%) Teradata