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 3 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
3 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 406 271 253
Rank change year-on-year -135 -18 +19
Contract jobs citing Shell Script 278 321 353
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.52% 0.99% 0.92%
As % of the Programming Languages category 1.98% 3.01% 2.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 191 192 236
10th Percentile £325 £310 £345
25th Percentile £413 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £497 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.33% -0.70% -5.66%
75th Percentile £617 £600 £600
90th Percentile £715 £638 £710
UK excluding London median daily rate £459 £483 £445
% change year-on-year -4.87% +8.43% -12.75%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 13 6
10th Percentile £30.85 £63.20 £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 - £89.75
90th Percentile £68.88 £107.00 £97.50
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 14,008 10,674 12,103
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 26.12% 32.84% 31.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,115 7,100 8,347
10th Percentile £363 £342 £350
25th Percentile £425 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £503 £525
Median % change year-on-year +3.48% -4.29% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £650
90th Percentile £725 £745 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 520 301 355
10th Percentile £27.98 £29.00 £30.00
25th Percentile £46.79 £36.69 £46.18
Median hourly rate £65.00 £55.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +18.18% -15.38% +4.00%
75th Percentile £70.00 £67.50 £70.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £80.00 £78.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £65.00
% change year-on-year +4.00% -3.85% +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 3 September 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 3 September 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 3 September 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 -140 229 £500 - 157
UK excluding London -148 141 £459 -4.87% 96
London -64 116 £550 +4.76% 87
Work from Home -72 77 £470 -1.05% 47
North of England -83 37 £425 -11.46% 28
South East -72 28 £464 -22.71% 19
Scotland -52 26 £425 -10.53% 13
Midlands -41 23 £470 -3.59% 11
West Midlands -39 21 £470 -6.00% 4
Yorkshire -60 20 £463 -7.50% 8
East of England -22 15 £388 -3.13% 9
North West -53 14 £344 -10.65% 15
South West -44 11 £563 +12.50% 10
North East - 4 £469 - 5
Northern Ireland +4 2 £190 - 5
East Midlands -21 2 £466 +29.31% 7
Wales -16 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 (6.47%) Apache
2 13 (4.68%) Apache Airflow
3 12 (4.32%) SAS
4 8 (2.88%) Apache Spark
5 6 (2.16%) WebLogic
6 5 (1.80%) Oracle Workflow
6 5 (1.80%) WebSphere
7 4 (1.44%) CICS
7 4 (1.44%) Confluence
8 3 (1.08%) JBoss
8 3 (1.08%) OpenStack
8 3 (1.08%) WebSphere Application Server
9 2 (0.72%) nginx
9 2 (0.72%) SharePoint
9 2 (0.72%) Tomcat
10 1 (0.36%) IBM HTTP Server
Applications
1 7 (2.52%) Notepad++
Business Applications
1 4 (1.44%) Oracle Assets
1 4 (1.44%) Oracle EBS
1 4 (1.44%) Oracle E-Business Tax
1 4 (1.44%) Oracle FAH
1 4 (1.44%) Oracle General Ledger
1 4 (1.44%) Oracle Internet Expenses
1 4 (1.44%) Oracle iProcurement
1 4 (1.44%) Oracle Payables
1 4 (1.44%) Oracle Receivables
2 3 (1.08%) Front Arena
2 3 (1.08%) Oracle Financials
2 3 (1.08%) Summit
3 2 (0.72%) Oracle ERP
4 1 (0.36%) FLEXCUBE
4 1 (0.36%) Oracle EBS R12
4 1 (0.36%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 100 (35.97%) AWS
2 63 (22.66%) Azure
3 56 (20.14%) GCP
4 54 (19.42%) GitHub
5 33 (11.87%) Serverless
6 31 (11.15%) GitHub Actions
7 27 (9.71%) AWS Lambda
8 24 (8.63%) Amazon S3
9 16 (5.76%) Amazon EC2
10 12 (4.32%) dbt
10 12 (4.32%) OpenShift
11 11 (3.96%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 9 (3.24%) AWS CodeBuild
12 9 (3.24%) Azure DevOps
12 9 (3.24%) Power Platform
12 9 (3.24%) Virtual Private Cloud
13 8 (2.88%) AWS CloudFormation
13 8 (2.88%) AWS CodePipeline
13 8 (2.88%) GitHub Copilot
14 7 (2.52%) Google Kubernetes Engine
Communications & Networking
1 16 (5.76%) DNS
2 13 (4.68%) TCP/IP
3 10 (3.60%) HTTP
3 10 (3.60%) SSL
4 8 (2.88%) Firewall
5 7 (2.52%) PuTTY
5 7 (2.52%) VPN
5 7 (2.52%) WinSCP
6 6 (2.16%) Network Security
6 6 (2.16%) SAN
6 6 (2.16%) SSH
7 4 (1.44%) 5G
7 4 (1.44%) MQTT
7 4 (1.44%) Multicast
8 3 (1.08%) 4G
8 3 (1.08%) BGP
8 3 (1.08%) HTTPS
9 2 (0.72%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
9 2 (0.72%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
9 2 (0.72%) tcpdump
Database & Business Intelligence
1 32 (11.51%) Data Warehouse
2 26 (9.35%) Oracle Database
3 19 (6.83%) Relational Database
4 18 (6.47%) MySQL
4 18 (6.47%) SQL Server
5 17 (6.12%) Db2
6 16 (5.76%) PostgreSQL
7 15 (5.40%) Metadata
7 15 (5.40%) MongoDB
8 12 (4.32%) NoSQL
9 11 (3.96%) Data Lake
9 11 (3.96%) PowerCenter
10 10 (3.60%) Amazon Aurora
10 10 (3.60%) BusinessObjects
10 10 (3.60%) Oracle Reports
11 9 (3.24%) Elasticsearch
11 9 (3.24%) Star Schema
12 8 (2.88%) Amazon RDS
12 8 (2.88%) BigQuery
13 7 (2.52%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 79 (28.42%) Git
2 55 (19.78%) Jenkins
3 36 (12.95%) GitLab
4 25 (8.99%) Maven
5 16 (5.76%) JUnit
6 12 (4.32%) Sonatype Nexus
7 11 (3.96%) Claude Code
7 11 (3.96%) JIRA
8 9 (3.24%) SonarQube
9 8 (2.88%) Mockito
10 6 (2.16%) Gradle
11 5 (1.80%) Bitbucket
11 5 (1.80%) Oracle Forms
12 4 (1.44%) JDeveloper
13 3 (1.08%) Selenium
13 3 (1.08%) webpack
13 3 (1.08%) Xcode
14 2 (0.72%) Artifactory
14 2 (0.72%) Terragrunt
14 2 (0.72%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 94 (33.81%) Finance
2 57 (20.50%) Banking
3 44 (15.83%) Social Skills
4 31 (11.15%) Analytical Skills
5 20 (7.19%) Public Sector
6 16 (5.76%) Investment Banking
7 7 (2.52%) Documentation Skills
8 6 (2.16%) Front Office
8 6 (2.16%) Telecoms
9 4 (1.44%) Aerospace
9 4 (1.44%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 4 (1.44%) Retail
10 3 (1.08%) General Ledger
11 2 (0.72%) Advertising
11 2 (0.72%) Prime Brokerage
11 2 (0.72%) Publishing
12 1 (0.36%) International Banking
12 1 (0.36%) Legal
12 1 (0.36%) Manufacturing
12 1 (0.36%) Military
Job Titles
1 73 (26.26%) Developer
2 44 (15.83%) Senior
3 34 (12.23%) Data Engineer
4 31 (11.15%) Python Developer
5 23 (8.27%) Senior Developer
6 19 (6.83%) DevOps Engineer
7 18 (6.47%) Java Developer
8 16 (5.76%) Architect
8 16 (5.76%) Cloud Engineer
9 15 (5.40%) GCP Engineer
10 14 (5.04%) Java Engineer
11 12 (4.32%) Administrator
11 12 (4.32%) Analyst
12 10 (3.60%) Senior Python Developer
13 9 (3.24%) AWS Engineer
13 9 (3.24%) DBA
13 9 (3.24%) Linux Administrator
13 9 (3.24%) Software Engineer
13 9 (3.24%) Support Engineer
14 8 (2.88%) AWS Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 65 (23.38%) Terraform
2 35 (12.59%) RESTful
3 23 (8.27%) FastAPI
3 23 (8.27%) REST
3 23 (8.27%) Spring
4 22 (7.91%) Flask
4 22 (7.91%) Kafka
4 22 (7.91%) Spring Boot
5 18 (6.47%) Pandas
6 14 (5.04%) CSS
6 14 (5.04%) Django
6 14 (5.04%) HTML
6 14 (5.04%) JSON
6 14 (5.04%) Middleware
7 12 (4.32%) PySpark
8 11 (3.96%) RabbitMQ
9 10 (3.60%) JPA
9 10 (3.60%) Web Services
10 9 (3.24%) Elastic Stack
11 7 (2.52%) React
Miscellaneous
1 29 (10.43%) Linux Command Line
2 18 (6.47%) Cloud Native
3 14 (5.04%) Management Information System
4 11 (3.96%) Fixed Income
5 9 (3.24%) Data Centre
6 8 (2.88%) Enterprise Software
6 8 (2.88%) Public Cloud
6 8 (2.88%) Replication
7 7 (2.52%) Derivative
7 7 (2.52%) Enterprise Cloud
7 7 (2.52%) Hedge funds
7 7 (2.52%) Self-Motivation
8 6 (2.16%) Distributed Systems
8 6 (2.16%) Hybrid Cloud
8 6 (2.16%) Legacy Systems
8 6 (2.16%) Mainframe
8 6 (2.16%) Market Risk
8 6 (2.16%) Product Ownership
9 5 (1.80%) AI Agents
9 5 (1.80%) Distributed Applications
Operating Systems
1 154 (55.40%) Linux
2 130 (46.76%) Unix
3 24 (8.63%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 19 (6.83%) Windows
5 10 (3.60%) Solaris
6 6 (2.16%) AIX
7 5 (1.80%) CentOS
7 5 (1.80%) Windows Server
7 5 (1.80%) zOS
8 4 (1.44%) VMS
9 3 (1.08%) Apple iOS
9 3 (1.08%) Rocky
10 2 (0.72%) HPUX
10 2 (0.72%) Oracle Linux
10 2 (0.72%) Ubuntu
11 1 (0.36%) Amazon Linux
11 1 (0.36%) Embedded Linux
11 1 (0.36%) SUSE
11 1 (0.36%) Windows Server 2008
11 1 (0.36%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 125 (44.96%) CI/CD
2 81 (29.14%) DevOps
3 65 (23.38%) Infrastructure as Code
4 62 (22.30%) Containerisation
5 53 (19.06%) Agile
6 45 (16.19%) AI
6 45 (16.19%) Data Pipeline
7 42 (15.11%) Migration
7 42 (15.11%) Performance Tuning
8 39 (14.03%) ETL
8 39 (14.03%) Problem-Solving
9 38 (13.67%) Performance Optimisation
10 36 (12.95%) Analytics
10 36 (12.95%) Observability
11 33 (11.87%) Root Cause Analysis
12 32 (11.51%) Code Quality
13 29 (10.43%) Configuration Management
13 29 (10.43%) SDLC
14 28 (10.07%) Microservices
15 27 (9.71%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 152 (54.68%) Python
2 151 (54.32%) SQL
3 73 (26.26%) Java
4 53 (19.06%) Bash
5 47 (16.91%) PL/SQL
6 17 (6.12%) Groovy
6 17 (6.12%) JavaScript
6 17 (6.12%) PowerShell
7 14 (5.04%) Perl
8 9 (3.24%) C#
9 8 (2.88%) Korn
10 6 (2.16%) Scala
10 6 (2.16%) TypeScript
11 5 (1.80%) Go
11 5 (1.80%) JCL
11 5 (1.80%) Ruby
12 4 (1.44%) C
12 4 (1.44%) C++
12 4 (1.44%) MATLAB
12 4 (1.44%) Rust
Qualifications
1 82 (29.50%) Security Cleared
2 62 (22.30%) SC Cleared
3 26 (9.35%) Degree
4 20 (7.19%) BPSS Clearance
5 11 (3.96%) DV Cleared
6 10 (3.60%) Computer Science Degree
7 6 (2.16%) AWS Certification
8 5 (1.80%) Master's Degree
8 5 (1.80%) Oracle Certification
9 2 (0.72%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
9 2 (0.72%) Azure Certification
9 2 (0.72%) Cisco Certification
9 2 (0.72%) CISSP
10 1 (0.36%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 1 (0.36%) CISM
10 1 (0.36%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
10 1 (0.36%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 1 (0.36%) OCP
10 1 (0.36%) PMI Certification
10 1 (0.36%) RHCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 34 (12.23%) Data Quality
2 16 (5.76%) QA
3 7 (2.52%) SLA
4 6 (2.16%) Accessibility
5 3 (1.08%) Disclosure Scotland
5 3 (1.08%) ISO 20022
6 2 (0.72%) ISO 15022
7 1 (0.36%) Basel III
7 1 (0.36%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 1 (0.36%) DICOM
7 1 (0.36%) GDPR
7 1 (0.36%) HIPAA
7 1 (0.36%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 1 (0.36%) NIST
7 1 (0.36%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 1 (0.36%) SEPA
System Software
1 73 (26.26%) Docker
2 9 (3.24%) Active Directory
3 8 (2.88%) Virtual Machines
4 7 (2.52%) Oracle RAC
5 6 (2.16%) VMware Infrastructure
6 5 (1.80%) zsh
7 4 (1.44%) NFS
8 3 (1.08%) GridGain
8 3 (1.08%) Postfix
8 3 (1.08%) Sendmail
8 3 (1.08%) Varnish
8 3 (1.08%) VMware ESXi
9 2 (0.72%) KVM
9 2 (0.72%) vSphere
10 1 (0.36%) Hyper-V
10 1 (0.36%) Veritas Cluster Server
10 1 (0.36%) Veritas Volume Manager
Systems Management
1 78 (28.06%) Kubernetes
2 56 (20.14%) Ansible
3 28 (10.07%) Grafana
4 23 (8.27%) Prometheus
5 11 (3.96%) Oracle RMAN
6 10 (3.60%) Kibana
6 10 (3.60%) Podman
7 9 (3.24%) Control-M
8 8 (2.88%) Data Guard
9 7 (2.52%) Puppet
10 6 (2.16%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
11 5 (1.80%) Check_MK
11 5 (1.80%) NetBackup
12 4 (1.44%) HP ALM
12 4 (1.44%) Packer
12 4 (1.44%) Red Hat Satellite
13 3 (1.08%) HAProxy
13 3 (1.08%) ITRS Geneos
13 3 (1.08%) logstash
13 3 (1.08%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 90 (32.37%) Oracle
2 36 (12.95%) Google
3 20 (7.19%) Informatica
4 19 (6.83%) Splunk
5 17 (6.12%) IBM
5 17 (6.12%) Red Hat
6 13 (4.68%) Microsoft
6 13 (4.68%) Sybase
7 12 (4.32%) VMware
8 9 (3.24%) New Relic
9 8 (2.88%) Murex
10 7 (2.52%) Dynatrace
10 7 (2.52%) ServiceNow
10 7 (2.52%) Solace
11 6 (2.16%) Checkmarx
11 6 (2.16%) HP
11 6 (2.16%) Tenable
11 6 (2.16%) Teradata
12 5 (1.80%) SAP
12 5 (1.80%) Veritas