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

6 months to
29 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 310 289 295
Rank change year-on-year -21 +6 -32
Contract jobs citing Shell Script 316 265 323
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.82% 0.84% 0.74%
As % of the Programming Languages category 2.69% 2.52% 2.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 200 136 224
10th Percentile £325 £356 £400
25th Percentile £400 £413 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £471 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year -5.90% -4.76% -2.78%
75th Percentile £550 £576 £630
90th Percentile £625 £694 £712
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £470 £470
% change year-on-year +1.06% -0.05% -12.92%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 9 5
10th Percentile £52.82 £67.10 £34.49
25th Percentile £63.50 £68.75 £55.00
Median hourly rate £68.00 £92.50 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year -26.49% +48.00% -14.38%
75th Percentile - £97.50 £75.00
90th Percentile £96.50 - £76.80
UK excluding London median hourly rate £68.00 £68.00 £62.50
% change year-on-year - +8.80% -14.38%

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 11,768 10,523 13,019
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 30.58% 33.43% 29.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,801 6,657 9,220
10th Percentile £350 £356 £350
25th Percentile £413 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £503 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -4.29% -2.42% -4.78%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £483 £490 £500
% change year-on-year -1.37% -2.00% -2.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 444 245 492
10th Percentile £39.72 £21.25 £35.50
25th Percentile £52.50 £35.75 £46.25
Median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% +4.17% -7.69%
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.00 £69.62
90th Percentile £76.25 £85.00 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £63.00 £62.50
% change year-on-year +3.17% +0.80% -3.85%

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 29 January 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 29 January 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Shell Script in the UK

Shell Script
Top 16 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 29 January 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 -40 247 £475 -8.21% 49
UK excluding London +4 181 £475 +1.06% 52
London -52 95 £450 -14.29% 15
Work from Home -17 91 £454 -9.20% 33
North of England -37 42 £473 -15.35% 2
Midlands -33 37 £525 +28.68% 10
Scotland +2 35 £493 +7.17% 11
West Midlands -13 35 £525 +14.13% 6
South East -28 28 £420 -12.95% 20
Yorkshire -35 27 £480 -19.83% 1
South West -4 20 £525 -4.55% 2
East of England +4 19 £473 +19.39% 9
North West -17 15 £453 +25.83% 1
Wales -2 2 £305 - 3
East Midlands -26 2 £425 +19.38% 4
Northern Ireland - 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 17 (5.38%) Apache
2 11 (3.48%) Apache Spark
2 11 (3.48%) JBoss
3 8 (2.53%) Apache Airflow
3 8 (2.53%) IIS
3 8 (2.53%) iPlanet
3 8 (2.53%) WebSphere
3 8 (2.53%) WebSphere Application Server
4 3 (0.95%) Confluence
4 3 (0.95%) SharePoint
4 3 (0.95%) Tomcat
5 2 (0.63%) ArcGIS
5 2 (0.63%) Oracle Spatial
5 2 (0.63%) SAS
6 1 (0.32%) nginx
6 1 (0.32%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 1 (0.32%) Oracle Workflow
6 1 (0.32%) WebLogic
Applications
1 9 (2.85%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (2.22%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (2.22%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 5 (1.58%) Oracle Applications
2 4 (1.27%) Oracle EBS
3 3 (0.95%) Oracle 11i
3 3 (0.95%) Oracle EBS R12
3 3 (0.95%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
3 3 (0.95%) SAP S/4HANA
4 1 (0.32%) ION MarketView
4 1 (0.32%) Oracle Assets
4 1 (0.32%) Oracle Cash Management
4 1 (0.32%) Oracle Payables
4 1 (0.32%) Oracle Receivables
4 1 (0.32%) Oracle Retail
Cloud Services
1 106 (33.54%) AWS
2 52 (16.46%) Azure
3 47 (14.87%) GitHub
4 38 (12.03%) OpenShift
5 29 (9.18%) Serverless
6 26 (8.23%) Amazon EC2
6 26 (8.23%) Amazon S3
7 23 (7.28%) Amazon CloudWatch
7 23 (7.28%) AWS CloudFormation
8 20 (6.33%) AWS Lambda
9 18 (5.70%) Amazon EKS
9 18 (5.70%) GCP
10 16 (5.06%) GitHub Actions
11 12 (3.80%) Azure DevOps
11 12 (3.80%) PaaS
12 8 (2.53%) Amazon ECS
12 8 (2.53%) OCI
13 7 (2.22%) Azure AKS
13 7 (2.22%) IaaS
13 7 (2.22%) Pulumi
Communications & Networking
1 16 (5.06%) SSH
2 11 (3.48%) DNS
2 11 (3.48%) TCP/IP
3 9 (2.85%) Kerberos
4 8 (2.53%) Firewall
5 7 (2.22%) HTTP
6 5 (1.58%) SAN
7 4 (1.27%) Network Security
8 2 (0.63%) SSL
9 1 (0.32%) AMQP
9 1 (0.32%) BGP
9 1 (0.32%) FTP
9 1 (0.32%) HTTPS
9 1 (0.32%) IPsec
9 1 (0.32%) LAN
9 1 (0.32%) NAS
9 1 (0.32%) SMTP
9 1 (0.32%) SNMP
9 1 (0.32%) VLAN
9 1 (0.32%) VRRP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 45 (14.24%) Oracle Database
2 41 (12.97%) MongoDB
3 30 (9.49%) Amazon RDS
4 26 (8.23%) Relational Database
5 20 (6.33%) NoSQL
6 18 (5.70%) DB2
6 18 (5.70%) PostgreSQL
7 14 (4.43%) Data Warehouse
8 11 (3.48%) Hadoop
8 11 (3.48%) SQL Server
9 10 (3.16%) MySQL
10 9 (2.85%) Elasticsearch
11 8 (2.53%) Apache Hive
12 6 (1.90%) Big Data
12 6 (1.90%) Couchbase
12 6 (1.90%) HBase
12 6 (1.90%) InfluxDB
12 6 (1.90%) Oracle Reports
13 5 (1.58%) Amazon Redshift
13 5 (1.58%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 84 (26.58%) Jenkins
2 53 (16.77%) Git
3 47 (14.87%) GitLab
4 24 (7.59%) JUnit
5 16 (5.06%) JIRA
6 11 (3.48%) Sonatype Nexus
7 10 (3.16%) Maven
8 8 (2.53%) Bitbucket Server
8 8 (2.53%) CA Release Automation
8 8 (2.53%) ClearCase
9 7 (2.22%) Mockito
10 5 (1.58%) PyCharm
10 5 (1.58%) PyUnit
10 5 (1.58%) Subversion
10 5 (1.58%) Terragrunt
11 4 (1.27%) Atlassian Bamboo
11 4 (1.27%) CircleCI
11 4 (1.27%) Postman
12 3 (0.95%) Gradle
12 3 (0.95%) Selenium
General
1 100 (31.65%) Social Skills
2 54 (17.09%) Analytical Skills
3 53 (16.77%) Finance
4 38 (12.03%) Banking
5 33 (10.44%) Public Sector
6 24 (7.59%) Investment Banking
7 14 (4.43%) Front Office
8 9 (2.85%) Retail
9 8 (2.53%) Documentation Skills
10 6 (1.90%) Aerospace
11 4 (1.27%) Financial Institution
11 4 (1.27%) Law
11 4 (1.27%) Multimedia
11 4 (1.27%) Telecoms
12 3 (0.95%) Local Government
12 3 (0.95%) Manufacturing
12 3 (0.95%) Military
12 3 (0.95%) Wearables
13 1 (0.32%) Back Office
13 1 (0.32%) Private Banking
Job Titles
1 86 (27.22%) Developer
2 42 (13.29%) Java Developer
3 37 (11.71%) DevOps Engineer
4 31 (9.81%) Senior
5 25 (7.91%) Administrator
6 22 (6.96%) Site Reliability Engineer
7 19 (6.01%) Site Engineer
8 18 (5.70%) AWS Engineer
9 17 (5.38%) DBA
9 17 (5.38%) SQL Developer
9 17 (5.38%) Support Engineer
10 16 (5.06%) Investment Banking Java Developer
11 13 (4.11%) Senior Developer
12 12 (3.80%) Oracle DBA
12 12 (3.80%) Product Engineer
12 12 (3.80%) Products Support Engineer
12 12 (3.80%) Software Support Engineer
13 11 (3.48%) AWS DevOps
13 11 (3.48%) AWS DevOps Engineer
13 11 (3.48%) Lead
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 47 (14.87%) Kafka
2 29 (9.18%) Spring
3 22 (6.96%) Middleware
4 21 (6.65%) Node.js
5 18 (5.70%) REST
6 17 (5.38%) Elastic Stack
6 17 (5.38%) JMS
6 17 (5.38%) RESTful
7 16 (5.06%) LDAP
8 12 (3.80%) SOAP
8 12 (3.80%) Spring Boot
9 10 (3.16%) OpenAPI
9 10 (3.16%) React
10 9 (2.85%) .NET
10 9 (2.85%) OpenID
11 8 (2.53%) HTML
11 8 (2.53%) JSON
11 8 (2.53%) OAuth
11 8 (2.53%) SAML
11 8 (2.53%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 21 (6.65%) Equities
2 19 (6.01%) Data Structures
3 16 (5.06%) Cloud Native
4 15 (4.75%) Management Information System
5 13 (4.11%) Data Centre
6 11 (3.48%) Data Protection Act
7 8 (2.53%) Replication
8 7 (2.22%) Enterprise Cloud
8 7 (2.22%) Legacy Applications
8 7 (2.22%) Linux Command Line
9 6 (1.90%) Distributed Systems
9 6 (1.90%) Enterprise Software
9 6 (1.90%) Onboarding
10 5 (1.58%) PKI
10 5 (1.58%) Security Operations Centre
11 4 (1.27%) DataPower
11 4 (1.27%) Derivative
11 4 (1.27%) Equity Derivative
11 4 (1.27%) Hedge funds
11 4 (1.27%) Mainframe
Operating Systems
1 221 (69.94%) Linux
2 102 (32.28%) Unix
3 39 (12.34%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 35 (11.08%) Windows
5 16 (5.06%) Ubuntu
6 15 (4.75%) CentOS
7 8 (2.53%) Windows Server
8 7 (2.22%) Android
8 7 (2.22%) Apple iOS
9 5 (1.58%) VMS
10 4 (1.27%) AIX
11 2 (0.63%) Debian
11 2 (0.63%) Solaris
12 1 (0.32%) Oracle Linux
12 1 (0.32%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 122 (38.61%) CI/CD
2 96 (30.38%) Agile
3 92 (29.11%) Problem-Solving
4 70 (22.15%) DevOps
5 54 (17.09%) Performance Tuning
6 49 (15.51%) Infrastructure as Code
7 45 (14.24%) Containerisation
8 44 (13.92%) Task Automation
9 41 (12.97%) SDLC
10 33 (10.44%) Observability
10 33 (10.44%) Software Engineering
11 31 (9.81%) Migration
12 28 (8.86%) Root Cause Analysis
13 26 (8.23%) Site Reliability Engineering
14 25 (7.91%) Analytics
14 25 (7.91%) Microservices
15 24 (7.59%) Configuration Management
16 23 (7.28%) ITIL
17 21 (6.65%) Continuous Improvement
17 21 (6.65%) Data Modelling
Programming Languages
1 148 (46.84%) Python
2 123 (38.92%) SQL
3 99 (31.33%) Java
4 46 (14.56%) JavaScript
5 34 (10.76%) Bash
6 22 (6.96%) C
7 20 (6.33%) Perl
7 20 (6.33%) PL/SQL
8 19 (6.01%) TypeScript
9 17 (5.38%) C++
10 14 (4.43%) Go
11 12 (3.80%) Ada
12 10 (3.16%) Groovy
13 7 (2.22%) Korn
13 7 (2.22%) MATLAB
14 6 (1.90%) PowerShell
15 5 (1.58%) ProC
16 2 (0.63%) Bourne shell
16 2 (0.63%) PHP
16 2 (0.63%) Search Processing Language
Qualifications
1 85 (26.90%) Security Cleared
2 64 (20.25%) SC Cleared
3 22 (6.96%) BPSS Clearance
4 16 (5.06%) Degree
5 15 (4.75%) DV Cleared
6 11 (3.48%) Computer Science Degree
7 6 (1.90%) AWS Certification
7 6 (1.90%) OCP
7 6 (1.90%) Oracle Certification
8 4 (1.27%) Azure Certification
9 3 (0.95%) RHCE
10 2 (0.63%) RHCSA
11 1 (0.32%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
11 1 (0.32%) Master's Degree
11 1 (0.32%) RHCA
11 1 (0.32%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (6.65%) SLA
2 12 (3.80%) Data Quality
3 9 (2.85%) QA
4 4 (1.27%) GDPR
4 4 (1.27%) NCSC
5 2 (0.63%) Disclosure Scotland
6 1 (0.32%) Accessibility
6 1 (0.32%) Actionable Recommendations
6 1 (0.32%) WCAG
System Software
1 67 (21.20%) Docker
2 20 (6.33%) Active Directory
3 8 (2.53%) Tivoli Directory Server
3 8 (2.53%) Virtual Machines
4 7 (2.22%) HDFS
4 7 (2.22%) KVM
5 5 (1.58%) Oracle RAC
6 4 (1.27%) VMware Infrastructure
7 2 (0.63%) GridGain
8 1 (0.32%) Apache ZooKeeper
8 1 (0.32%) Postfix
8 1 (0.32%) Squid
8 1 (0.32%) Varnish
8 1 (0.32%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 78 (24.68%) Kubernetes
2 73 (23.10%) Ansible
2 73 (23.10%) Terraform
3 44 (13.92%) Grafana
4 39 (12.34%) Prometheus
5 24 (7.59%) Progress Chef
6 18 (5.70%) Red Hat Satellite
7 12 (3.80%) Puppet
8 9 (2.85%) Podman
8 9 (2.85%) Single Sign-On
8 9 (2.85%) Tivoli
9 8 (2.53%) CA Single Sign-On
9 8 (2.53%) CA Wily
9 8 (2.53%) Data Guard
10 7 (2.22%) Check_MK
10 7 (2.22%) Hadoop YARN
11 6 (1.90%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
11 6 (1.90%) Packer
12 5 (1.58%) Dell DRAC
13 4 (1.27%) Kibana
Vendors
1 87 (27.53%) Oracle
2 49 (15.51%) Red Hat
3 43 (13.61%) Splunk
4 28 (8.86%) Microsoft
5 23 (7.28%) Sybase
6 22 (6.96%) IBM
7 15 (4.75%) VMware
8 12 (3.80%) ServiceNow
9 11 (3.48%) AppDynamics
10 10 (3.16%) NetApp
11 9 (2.85%) Dell
11 9 (2.85%) Dynatrace
11 9 (2.85%) MuleSoft
12 8 (2.53%) Broadcom
12 8 (2.53%) Confluent
12 8 (2.53%) Google
13 6 (1.90%) Murex
14 5 (1.58%) Informatica
15 4 (1.27%) Okta
16 3 (0.95%) Pure Storage