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

6 months to
10 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 413 265 291
Rank change year-on-year -148 +26 -51
Contract jobs citing Shell Script 242 291 338
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.49% 0.99% 0.77%
As % of the Programming Languages category 1.83% 2.91% 2.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 161 170 242
10th Percentile £325 £349 £331
25th Percentile £392 £425 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £463 £506 £500
Median % change year-on-year -8.64% +1.20% -7.36%
75th Percentile £525 £600 £622
90th Percentile £638 £650 £710
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £500 £459
% change year-on-year -10.00% +8.99% -13.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 14 8
10th Percentile £28.30 £65.90 £59.73
25th Percentile £32.13 - £64.19
Median hourly rate £39.50 £68.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -41.91% +4.62% -2.35%
75th Percentile £47.13 - £67.69
90th Percentile £51.10 £77.13 £76.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £39.50 £68.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year -41.91% +4.62% +0.97%

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 13,257 10,013 13,127
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 26.79% 34.09% 30.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,653 6,790 9,257
10th Percentile £358 £355 £350
25th Percentile £416 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year -1.46% -2.38% -4.55%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £650
90th Percentile £715 £752 £764
UK excluding London median daily rate £488 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +2.63% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 539 234 531
10th Percentile £36.25 £26.52 £31.25
25th Percentile £53.64 £34.05 £46.25
Median hourly rate £65.00 £55.00 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year +18.18% -12.00% -
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.75 £70.00
90th Percentile £77.60 £85.00 £76.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £62.50
% change year-on-year +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 10 June 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 10 June 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 10 June 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 -124 212 £468 -10.05% 33
UK excluding London -139 119 £450 -10.00% 22
London -81 97 £525 -2.33% 13
Work from Home -78 59 £500 +5.26% 29
South East -64 31 £392 -34.67% 11
North of England -88 30 £455 -8.34% 4
Midlands -54 26 £466 +1.29% 3
East of England -14 25 £470 +44.62% 2
West Midlands -42 25 £465 +1.09% 3
Yorkshire -65 15 £480 -4.00% 2
North West -44 13 £450 +12.22% 2
South West -38 2 £556 +6.71% 3
Scotland -65 2 - - 1
Northern Ireland - 2 £190 -
Wales -13 1 £345 -
East Midlands -28 1 £525 +25.75%
North East - 1 £413 -

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 (4.96%) Apache
1 12 (4.96%) Confluence
2 7 (2.89%) Apache Airflow
3 6 (2.48%) Apache Spark
3 6 (2.48%) CICS
4 4 (1.65%) WebLogic
5 3 (1.24%) JBoss
5 3 (1.24%) nginx
5 3 (1.24%) Tomcat
5 3 (1.24%) WebSphere
5 3 (1.24%) WebSphere Application Server
6 2 (0.83%) ArcGIS
6 2 (0.83%) Oracle Spatial
6 2 (0.83%) Oracle Workflow
6 2 (0.83%) SharePoint
7 1 (0.41%) IBM HTTP Server
7 1 (0.41%) SAS
Applications
1 7 (2.89%) Notepad++
2 2 (0.83%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 3 (1.24%) Oracle Applications
2 1 (0.41%) FLEXCUBE
2 1 (0.41%) Oracle EBS
2 1 (0.41%) Oracle ERP
2 1 (0.41%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 82 (33.88%) AWS
2 45 (18.60%) Azure
3 41 (16.94%) GitHub
4 36 (14.88%) GitHub Actions
5 35 (14.46%) Serverless
6 24 (9.92%) AWS Lambda
7 21 (8.68%) Amazon S3
8 19 (7.85%) Amazon EC2
8 19 (7.85%) OpenShift
9 16 (6.61%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 16 (6.61%) GCP
10 15 (6.20%) Amazon EKS
11 13 (5.37%) Azure DevOps
12 12 (4.96%) AWS CloudFormation
13 10 (4.13%) Power Platform
14 9 (3.72%) AWS CodePipeline
15 8 (3.31%) PaaS
15 8 (3.31%) Virtual Private Cloud
16 6 (2.48%) Azure Key Vault
16 6 (2.48%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 11 (4.55%) DNS
2 8 (3.31%) SSH
3 7 (2.89%) Network Security
3 7 (2.89%) PuTTY
3 7 (2.89%) SAN
3 7 (2.89%) WinSCP
4 5 (2.07%) Firewall
4 5 (2.07%) TCP/IP
5 3 (1.24%) HTTPS
5 3 (1.24%) MQTT
5 3 (1.24%) NAS
5 3 (1.24%) Reverse Proxy
6 2 (0.83%) AMQP
6 2 (0.83%) HTTP
6 2 (0.83%) iSCSI
6 2 (0.83%) Multicast
6 2 (0.83%) OpenVPN
6 2 (0.83%) SSL
6 2 (0.83%) VPN
7 1 (0.41%) LAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 27 (11.16%) SQL Server
2 22 (9.09%) Oracle Database
3 19 (7.85%) PostgreSQL
3 19 (7.85%) Relational Database
4 18 (7.44%) MongoDB
5 17 (7.02%) Data Warehouse
6 13 (5.37%) Metadata
7 12 (4.96%) Db2
8 11 (4.55%) MySQL
9 10 (4.13%) Amazon RDS
9 10 (4.13%) BusinessObjects
10 9 (3.72%) Data Lake
10 9 (3.72%) DynamoDB
11 7 (2.89%) Amazon Aurora
11 7 (2.89%) Power BI
12 6 (2.48%) Apache Cassandra
12 6 (2.48%) Elasticsearch
12 6 (2.48%) NoSQL
13 5 (2.07%) Kdb+
13 5 (2.07%) Oracle Database 12c
Development Applications
1 63 (26.03%) Jenkins
2 49 (20.25%) Git
3 47 (19.42%) GitLab
4 20 (8.26%) JIRA
5 9 (3.72%) JUnit
6 7 (2.89%) Maven
6 7 (2.89%) SonarQube
7 5 (2.07%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 5 (2.07%) JMeter
7 5 (2.07%) Mockito
7 5 (2.07%) Sonatype Nexus
8 4 (1.65%) Bitbucket
9 3 (1.24%) Artifactory
9 3 (1.24%) CircleCI
9 3 (1.24%) Gradle
9 3 (1.24%) PyCharm
9 3 (1.24%) PyUnit
9 3 (1.24%) Terragrunt
10 2 (0.83%) Gatling
10 2 (0.83%) Xcode
General
1 57 (23.55%) Finance
2 56 (23.14%) Social Skills
3 42 (17.36%) Banking
4 28 (11.57%) Public Sector
5 18 (7.44%) Analytical Skills
6 14 (5.79%) Documentation Skills
7 10 (4.13%) Front Office
7 10 (4.13%) Retail
8 9 (3.72%) Investment Banking
9 8 (3.31%) Aerospace
10 5 (2.07%) Advertising
11 3 (1.24%) Law
11 3 (1.24%) Local Government
12 2 (0.83%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 2 (0.83%) Organisational Skills
12 2 (0.83%) Telecoms
13 1 (0.41%) Financial Institution
13 1 (0.41%) Influencing Skills
13 1 (0.41%) Manufacturing
13 1 (0.41%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 65 (26.86%) Developer
2 31 (12.81%) Data Engineer
3 25 (10.33%) Senior
4 23 (9.50%) Java Developer
5 21 (8.68%) Administrator
6 20 (8.26%) Python Developer
7 17 (7.02%) Linux Administrator
8 16 (6.61%) DBA
9 15 (6.20%) Support Engineer
10 14 (5.79%) DevOps Engineer
11 13 (5.37%) Oracle DBA
12 12 (4.96%) Analyst
13 11 (4.55%) Consultant
14 10 (4.13%) AWS DevOps
15 9 (3.72%) AWS Engineer
15 9 (3.72%) Database Engineer
15 9 (3.72%) Senior Developer
15 9 (3.72%) Support Analyst
15 9 (3.72%) Technical Support
16 8 (3.31%) Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 26 (10.74%) RESTful
2 17 (7.02%) Spring
3 16 (6.61%) Middleware
3 16 (6.61%) Spring Boot
4 15 (6.20%) JSON
4 15 (6.20%) LDAP
4 15 (6.20%) Oracle GoldenGate
5 14 (5.79%) Kafka
6 10 (4.13%) Elastic Stack
6 10 (4.13%) FastAPI
6 10 (4.13%) HTML
7 9 (3.72%) Django
7 9 (3.72%) Flask
7 9 (3.72%) Node.js
7 9 (3.72%) Pandas
8 8 (3.31%) AWS CDK
8 8 (3.31%) CSS
8 8 (3.31%) React
8 8 (3.31%) REST
8 8 (3.31%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 22 (9.09%) Management Information System
2 16 (6.61%) Data Centre
3 13 (5.37%) Linux Command Line
4 12 (4.96%) Cloud Native
5 8 (3.31%) Fixed Income
5 8 (3.31%) Mainframe
6 7 (2.89%) Hedge funds
7 6 (2.48%) Data Structures
7 6 (2.48%) DataPower
7 6 (2.48%) Derivative
7 6 (2.48%) Enterprise Software
7 6 (2.48%) Legacy Systems
7 6 (2.48%) Online Banking
7 6 (2.48%) Public Cloud
8 5 (2.07%) Data Protection Act
8 5 (2.07%) Equities
8 5 (2.07%) Legacy Code
8 5 (2.07%) Product Ownership
8 5 (2.07%) Self-Motivation
8 5 (2.07%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 148 (61.16%) Linux
2 106 (43.80%) Unix
3 34 (14.05%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 26 (10.74%) Windows
5 12 (4.96%) CentOS
6 7 (2.89%) zOS
7 6 (2.48%) Windows Server
8 5 (2.07%) Apple iOS
8 5 (2.07%) Solaris
9 3 (1.24%) Android
10 2 (0.83%) AIX
10 2 (0.83%) OpenVMS
10 2 (0.83%) Oracle Linux
10 2 (0.83%) VMS
11 1 (0.41%) Amazon Linux
11 1 (0.41%) Embedded Linux
11 1 (0.41%) Rocky
11 1 (0.41%) Windows Server 2008
11 1 (0.41%) Windows Server 2016
11 1 (0.41%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 99 (40.91%) CI/CD
2 63 (26.03%) DevOps
3 53 (21.90%) Problem-Solving
4 50 (20.66%) Agile
5 42 (17.36%) Infrastructure as Code
6 39 (16.12%) Containerisation
6 39 (16.12%) Performance Tuning
7 34 (14.05%) Analytics
8 33 (13.64%) Migration
9 29 (11.98%) Microservices
10 24 (9.92%) Performance Optimisation
11 23 (9.50%) Data Pipeline
11 23 (9.50%) Observability
12 22 (9.09%) AI
12 22 (9.09%) Continuous Improvement
12 22 (9.09%) ETL
12 22 (9.09%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 21 (8.68%) Scrum
14 20 (8.26%) High Availability
15 19 (7.85%) Software Engineering
Programming Languages
1 120 (49.59%) SQL
2 106 (43.80%) Python
3 69 (28.51%) Java
4 35 (14.46%) PL/SQL
5 23 (9.50%) Bash
5 23 (9.50%) JavaScript
6 16 (6.61%) Korn
7 14 (5.79%) PowerShell
8 12 (4.96%) Perl
9 11 (4.55%) MATLAB
10 9 (3.72%) C#
11 8 (3.31%) C++
11 8 (3.31%) TypeScript
12 7 (2.89%) C
12 7 (2.89%) Go
13 6 (2.48%) JCL
13 6 (2.48%) Ruby
14 5 (2.07%) Groovy
15 4 (1.65%) ProC
16 3 (1.24%) Rust
Qualifications
1 95 (39.26%) Security Cleared
2 81 (33.47%) SC Cleared
3 22 (9.09%) Degree
4 15 (6.20%) BPSS Clearance
5 10 (4.13%) Computer Science Degree
6 7 (2.89%) DV Cleared
7 6 (2.48%) Oracle Certification
8 5 (2.07%) Master's Degree
9 3 (1.24%) CISSP
10 2 (0.83%) AWS Certification
10 2 (0.83%) OCP
11 1 (0.41%) AWS Certified Developer
11 1 (0.41%) Azure Certification
11 1 (0.41%) CISM
11 1 (0.41%) ITIL Certification
11 1 (0.41%) MOS
11 1 (0.41%) PMI Certification
11 1 (0.41%) RHCA
11 1 (0.41%) RHCE
11 1 (0.41%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (7.02%) SLA
2 10 (4.13%) Data Quality
3 8 (3.31%) QA
4 3 (1.24%) California Consumer Privacy Act
4 3 (1.24%) FATCA
4 3 (1.24%) GDPR
4 3 (1.24%) HIPAA
4 3 (1.24%) NIST
5 2 (0.83%) Accessibility
6 1 (0.41%) DICOM
6 1 (0.41%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 50 (20.66%) Docker
2 16 (6.61%) Oracle RAC
3 15 (6.20%) Active Directory
4 6 (2.48%) Virtual Machines
5 5 (2.07%) Postfix
5 5 (2.07%) Varnish
5 5 (2.07%) VMware Infrastructure
6 4 (1.65%) NFS
6 4 (1.65%) Sendmail
7 3 (1.24%) GridGain
8 2 (0.83%) SRDF
9 1 (0.41%) HDFS
9 1 (0.41%) Hyper-V
9 1 (0.41%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 51 (21.07%) Kubernetes
2 48 (19.83%) Ansible
3 46 (19.01%) Terraform
4 25 (10.33%) Grafana
5 24 (9.92%) Prometheus
6 20 (8.26%) Oracle RMAN
7 14 (5.79%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
7 14 (5.79%) Podman
8 11 (4.55%) Check_MK
8 11 (4.55%) Red Hat Satellite
9 9 (3.72%) Progress Chef
10 7 (2.89%) Puppet
11 6 (2.48%) Data Guard
12 5 (2.07%) HAProxy
13 4 (1.65%) Kibana
14 3 (1.24%) Docker Swarm
15 2 (0.83%) Argo
15 2 (0.83%) Packer
15 2 (0.83%) Sysdig
15 2 (0.83%) Thomson Reuters DACS
Vendors
1 89 (36.78%) Oracle
2 31 (12.81%) Red Hat
3 17 (7.02%) VMware
4 14 (5.79%) Microsoft
5 9 (3.72%) Informatica
5 9 (3.72%) Murex
5 9 (3.72%) Sybase
6 8 (3.31%) IBM
6 8 (3.31%) Splunk
7 6 (2.48%) Google
7 6 (2.48%) ServiceNow
7 6 (2.48%) Talend
8 5 (2.07%) Databricks
8 5 (2.07%) Dynatrace
8 5 (2.07%) Tenable
8 5 (2.07%) Veritas
9 4 (1.65%) New Relic
9 4 (1.65%) NVIDIA
9 4 (1.65%) SAP
9 4 (1.65%) Solace