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 8 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
8 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 379 285 318
Rank change year-on-year -94 +33 -88
Contract jobs citing Shell Script 254 265 289
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.54% 0.91% 0.67%
As % of the Programming Languages category 1.98% 2.67% 2.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 174 152 210
10th Percentile £325 £376 £350
25th Percentile £400 £451 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £466 £525 £510
Median % change year-on-year -11.25% +2.94% -5.56%
75th Percentile £538 £600 £629
90th Percentile £624 £675 £710
UK excluding London median daily rate £457 £500 £475
% change year-on-year -8.60% +5.37% -11.80%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 15 8
10th Percentile £46.75 £66.20 £59.73
25th Percentile £47.50 - £64.19
Median hourly rate £50.00 £68.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -26.47% +4.62% +0.97%
75th Percentile £52.50 £72.13 £67.69
90th Percentile £53.25 £87.25 £76.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £50.00 £68.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year -26.47% +4.62% +5.58%

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 12,831 9,909 12,749
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 27.04% 34.05% 29.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,448 6,729 9,065
10th Percentile £353 £358 £350
25th Percentile £413 £415 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £530
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -0.94% -3.64%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £650
90th Percentile £713 £774 £763
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £488
% change year-on-year - -2.71% -2.35%
Number of hourly rates quoted 563 247 489
10th Percentile £41.94 £25.01 £32.25
25th Percentile £54.55 £35.00 £46.25
Median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% +1.46% +2.20%
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £77.50 £85.00 £79.34
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £64.00 £62.50
% change year-on-year +1.56% +2.40% +2.97%

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 8 May 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
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 8 May 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 -94 216 £474 -9.76% 62
UK excluding London -127 121 £457 -8.60% 38
London -55 100 £510 -7.27% 23
Work from Home -54 70 £500 -7.41% 17
Midlands -51 34 £470 +2.17% 4
West Midlands -38 33 £469 +1.90% 2
South East -61 29 £392 -34.67% 17
North of England -65 28 £455 -10.76% 10
East of England -21 22 £470 +44.62% 7
North West -39 13 £450 -13.42% 6
Yorkshire -53 13 £480 -4.00% 3
Scotland -56 4 - -
Wales -8 2 £305 -
South West -53 2 £638 +22.30%
East Midlands -28 1 £525 +10.53% 2
North East - 1 £413 - 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 14 (5.51%) Apache
2 11 (4.33%) Confluence
3 8 (3.15%) Apache Spark
4 6 (2.36%) Apache Airflow
5 4 (1.57%) CICS
5 4 (1.57%) WebLogic
6 3 (1.18%) JBoss
6 3 (1.18%) nginx
6 3 (1.18%) Oracle Workflow
6 3 (1.18%) SharePoint
6 3 (1.18%) Tomcat
6 3 (1.18%) WebSphere
6 3 (1.18%) WebSphere Application Server
7 2 (0.79%) ArcGIS
7 2 (0.79%) Oracle Spatial
8 1 (0.39%) IBM HTTP Server
8 1 (0.39%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 1 (0.39%) SAS
Applications
1 7 (2.76%) Notepad++
2 4 (1.57%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (0.79%) Microsoft Office
3 2 (0.79%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 3 (1.18%) Oracle 11i
1 3 (1.18%) Oracle Applications
2 2 (0.79%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.39%) Oracle Assets
3 1 (0.39%) Oracle Cash Management
3 1 (0.39%) Oracle EBS R12
3 1 (0.39%) Oracle Payables
3 1 (0.39%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
3 1 (0.39%) Oracle Receivables
Cloud Services
1 97 (38.19%) AWS
2 53 (20.87%) Azure
3 42 (16.54%) GitHub
4 37 (14.57%) Serverless
5 35 (13.78%) GitHub Actions
6 29 (11.42%) Amazon S3
7 28 (11.02%) Amazon EC2
7 28 (11.02%) AWS Lambda
8 27 (10.63%) OpenShift
9 21 (8.27%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 17 (6.69%) Amazon EKS
11 14 (5.51%) AWS CloudFormation
11 14 (5.51%) Azure DevOps
12 10 (3.94%) GCP
12 10 (3.94%) PaaS
13 9 (3.54%) AWS CodePipeline
13 9 (3.54%) IaaS
14 8 (3.15%) Virtual Private Cloud
15 7 (2.76%) Azure AKS
15 7 (2.76%) Pulumi
Communications & Networking
1 12 (4.72%) SSH
2 11 (4.33%) DNS
3 9 (3.54%) SAN
4 8 (3.15%) Network Security
5 7 (2.76%) PuTTY
5 7 (2.76%) TCP/IP
5 7 (2.76%) WinSCP
6 5 (1.97%) Firewall
7 4 (1.57%) HTTP
8 3 (1.18%) HTTPS
8 3 (1.18%) NAS
8 3 (1.18%) Reverse Proxy
9 2 (0.79%) AMQP
9 2 (0.79%) iSCSI
9 2 (0.79%) Multicast
9 2 (0.79%) OpenVPN
9 2 (0.79%) VPN
10 1 (0.39%) BIG-IP
10 1 (0.39%) Kerberos
10 1 (0.39%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 25 (9.84%) SQL Server
2 24 (9.45%) Oracle Database
2 24 (9.45%) Relational Database
3 20 (7.87%) PostgreSQL
4 18 (7.09%) Amazon RDS
5 16 (6.30%) Data Warehouse
5 16 (6.30%) MongoDB
6 13 (5.12%) Metadata
7 9 (3.54%) DynamoDB
8 8 (3.15%) NoSQL
9 7 (2.76%) Amazon Aurora
9 7 (2.76%) BusinessObjects
9 7 (2.76%) MySQL
10 6 (2.36%) Data Mart
10 6 (2.36%) DB2
10 6 (2.36%) InfluxDB
10 6 (2.36%) Oracle Reports
11 5 (1.97%) Data Lake
11 5 (1.97%) KDB
11 5 (1.97%) Kdb+
Development Applications
1 63 (24.80%) Jenkins
2 48 (18.90%) GitLab
3 39 (15.35%) Git
4 23 (9.06%) JIRA
5 8 (3.15%) Maven
6 6 (2.36%) JUnit
6 6 (2.36%) Mockito
7 5 (1.97%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 5 (1.97%) JMeter
7 5 (1.97%) Sonatype Nexus
8 4 (1.57%) Bitbucket
8 4 (1.57%) PyCharm
8 4 (1.57%) PyUnit
8 4 (1.57%) SonarQube
9 3 (1.18%) Artifactory
9 3 (1.18%) CircleCI
10 2 (0.79%) Gatling
10 2 (0.79%) Gradle
10 2 (0.79%) Postman
10 2 (0.79%) Terragrunt
General
1 60 (23.62%) Social Skills
2 51 (20.08%) Finance
3 37 (14.57%) Banking
4 29 (11.42%) Public Sector
5 14 (5.51%) Analytical Skills
6 10 (3.94%) Front Office
6 10 (3.94%) Retail
7 9 (3.54%) Documentation Skills
8 8 (3.15%) Investment Banking
9 7 (2.76%) Aerospace
10 5 (1.97%) Advertising
11 3 (1.18%) Law
11 3 (1.18%) Local Government
11 3 (1.18%) Telecoms
12 2 (0.79%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 2 (0.79%) Manufacturing
12 2 (0.79%) Organisational Skills
13 1 (0.39%) Influencing Skills
13 1 (0.39%) Military
13 1 (0.39%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 70 (27.56%) Developer
2 29 (11.42%) Data Engineer
3 26 (10.24%) Java Developer
4 21 (8.27%) Senior
5 20 (7.87%) Administrator
6 19 (7.48%) Python Developer
7 17 (6.69%) DBA
8 16 (6.30%) DevOps Engineer
8 16 (6.30%) Support Engineer
9 14 (5.51%) Linux Administrator
9 14 (5.51%) Oracle DBA
9 14 (5.51%) Site Engineer
9 14 (5.51%) Site Reliability Engineer
10 13 (5.12%) AWS Engineer
11 12 (4.72%) AWS DevOps
12 11 (4.33%) Analyst
12 11 (4.33%) Architect
13 10 (3.94%) AWS DevOps Engineer
13 10 (3.94%) Consultant
13 10 (3.94%) Database Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (7.87%) RESTful
2 17 (6.69%) Middleware
3 16 (6.30%) Kafka
4 15 (5.91%) Oracle GoldenGate
5 14 (5.51%) JSON
5 14 (5.51%) Spring
6 13 (5.12%) Elastic Stack
6 13 (5.12%) LDAP
6 13 (5.12%) Node.js
6 13 (5.12%) Spring Boot
7 9 (3.54%) REST
8 8 (3.15%) AWS CDK
8 8 (3.15%) Django
8 8 (3.15%) FastAPI
8 8 (3.15%) RabbitMQ
8 8 (3.15%) SOAP
9 7 (2.76%) .NET
9 7 (2.76%) Polars
9 7 (2.76%) Web Services
9 7 (2.76%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 20 (7.87%) Management Information System
2 19 (7.48%) Cloud Native
3 15 (5.91%) Data Centre
4 13 (5.12%) Linux Command Line
5 8 (3.15%) Fixed Income
5 8 (3.15%) Mainframe
6 7 (2.76%) DataPower
6 7 (2.76%) Hedge funds
6 7 (2.76%) Legacy Systems
6 7 (2.76%) Public Cloud
7 5 (1.97%) Data Protection Act
7 5 (1.97%) Data Structures
7 5 (1.97%) Distributed Systems
7 5 (1.97%) Enterprise Software
7 5 (1.97%) Equities
7 5 (1.97%) Legacy Code
7 5 (1.97%) Self-Motivation
7 5 (1.97%) Virtual Team
8 4 (1.57%) Derivative
8 4 (1.57%) Equity Derivative
Operating Systems
1 160 (62.99%) Linux
2 105 (41.34%) Unix
3 35 (13.78%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 24 (9.45%) Windows
5 11 (4.33%) CentOS
6 6 (2.36%) Windows Server
7 5 (1.97%) VMS
7 5 (1.97%) zOS
8 4 (1.57%) Android
8 4 (1.57%) Apple iOS
8 4 (1.57%) Ubuntu
9 3 (1.18%) AIX
10 2 (0.79%) Debian
10 2 (0.79%) OpenVMS
10 2 (0.79%) Solaris
11 1 (0.39%) Amazon Linux
11 1 (0.39%) Embedded Linux
11 1 (0.39%) Oracle Linux
11 1 (0.39%) Windows Server 2008
11 1 (0.39%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 101 (39.76%) CI/CD
2 63 (24.80%) DevOps
3 58 (22.83%) Problem-Solving
4 55 (21.65%) Agile
5 47 (18.50%) Containerisation
6 44 (17.32%) Performance Tuning
7 43 (16.93%) Infrastructure as Code
8 39 (15.35%) Migration
9 29 (11.42%) Analytics
9 29 (11.42%) Observability
10 27 (10.63%) Microservices
10 27 (10.63%) Task Automation
11 25 (9.84%) High Availability
12 24 (9.45%) ITIL
13 23 (9.06%) Configuration Management
13 23 (9.06%) Infrastructure Engineering
14 22 (8.66%) ETL
14 22 (8.66%) Performance Optimisation
15 21 (8.27%) Root Cause Analysis
15 21 (8.27%) Software Engineering
Programming Languages
1 124 (48.82%) SQL
2 106 (41.73%) Python
3 77 (30.31%) Java
4 34 (13.39%) PL/SQL
5 25 (9.84%) JavaScript
6 22 (8.66%) Bash
7 20 (7.87%) Korn
8 15 (5.91%) Perl
9 12 (4.72%) TypeScript
10 10 (3.94%) Go
11 9 (3.54%) C#
11 9 (3.54%) MATLAB
12 8 (3.15%) C++
13 7 (2.76%) PowerShell
14 6 (2.36%) C
15 5 (1.97%) Groovy
15 5 (1.97%) JCL
16 4 (1.57%) ProC
16 4 (1.57%) Ruby
17 3 (1.18%) PHP
Qualifications
1 97 (38.19%) Security Cleared
2 84 (33.07%) SC Cleared
3 18 (7.09%) Degree
4 17 (6.69%) BPSS Clearance
5 12 (4.72%) Oracle Certification
6 10 (3.94%) DV Cleared
7 9 (3.54%) Computer Science Degree
8 8 (3.15%) OCP
9 4 (1.57%) Master's Degree
10 3 (1.18%) Azure Certification
10 3 (1.18%) CISSP
11 1 (0.39%) AWS Certification
11 1 (0.39%) AWS Certified Developer
11 1 (0.39%) CISM
11 1 (0.39%) ITIL Certification
11 1 (0.39%) MOS
11 1 (0.39%) PMI Certification
11 1 (0.39%) RHCA
11 1 (0.39%) RHCE
11 1 (0.39%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (6.30%) SLA
2 10 (3.94%) Data Quality
3 8 (3.15%) QA
4 6 (2.36%) GDPR
5 3 (1.18%) California Consumer Privacy Act
5 3 (1.18%) FATCA
5 3 (1.18%) HIPAA
5 3 (1.18%) NIST
6 1 (0.39%) DICOM
6 1 (0.39%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 55 (21.65%) Docker
2 15 (5.91%) Oracle RAC
3 12 (4.72%) Active Directory
4 11 (4.33%) Virtual Machines
5 5 (1.97%) Postfix
5 5 (1.97%) Varnish
5 5 (1.97%) VMware Infrastructure
6 4 (1.57%) NFS
6 4 (1.57%) Sendmail
7 3 (1.18%) GridGain
8 2 (0.79%) HDFS
8 2 (0.79%) SRDF
9 1 (0.39%) Apache ZooKeeper
9 1 (0.39%) Hyper-V
9 1 (0.39%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 58 (22.83%) Kubernetes
2 52 (20.47%) Terraform
3 51 (20.08%) Ansible
4 31 (12.20%) Grafana
5 30 (11.81%) Prometheus
6 22 (8.66%) Oracle RMAN
7 17 (6.69%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
8 14 (5.51%) Progress Chef
9 10 (3.94%) Podman
9 10 (3.94%) Red Hat Satellite
10 9 (3.54%) Check_MK
11 8 (3.15%) Data Guard
12 7 (2.76%) Puppet
13 6 (2.36%) Kibana
14 5 (1.97%) HAProxy
15 4 (1.57%) Docker Swarm
16 2 (0.79%) Consul
16 2 (0.79%) logstash
16 2 (0.79%) Sysdig
16 2 (0.79%) systemd
Vendors
1 90 (35.43%) Oracle
2 37 (14.57%) Red Hat
3 17 (6.69%) VMware
4 16 (6.30%) Microsoft
5 11 (4.33%) IBM
5 11 (4.33%) Murex
6 9 (3.54%) Informatica
7 8 (3.15%) Sybase
8 7 (2.76%) Dell
8 7 (2.76%) Splunk
9 6 (2.36%) ServiceNow
9 6 (2.36%) Talend
10 5 (1.97%) Cloudera
10 5 (1.97%) Databricks
10 5 (1.97%) Dynatrace
10 5 (1.97%) Veritas
11 4 (1.57%) Hortonworks
11 4 (1.57%) Solace
12 3 (1.18%) CyberArk
12 3 (1.18%) Pure Storage