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

6 months to
1 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 409 274 269
Rank change year-on-year -135 -5 +3
Contract jobs citing Shell Script 274 315 357
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.51% 0.96% 0.92%
As % of the Programming Languages category 1.95% 2.93% 2.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 187 186 240
10th Percentile £325 £319 £349
25th Percentile £413 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -5.66%
75th Percentile £605 £600 £606
90th Percentile £719 £638 £710
UK excluding London median daily rate £459 £490 £450
% change year-on-year -6.33% +8.89% -11.76%
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 14,032 10,758 12,213
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 26.15% 32.85% 31.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,117 7,162 8,420
10th Percentile £363 £343 £350
25th Percentile £425 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £501 £525
Median % change year-on-year +3.90% -4.67% -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 524 299 357
10th Percentile £28.15 £29.00 £30.00
25th Percentile £48.75 £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 £67.38 £70.00
90th Percentile £78.53 £79.00 £78.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £62.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year +4.84% -4.62% +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 1 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 1 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 1 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 -137 226 £483 -3.50% 139
UK excluding London -141 138 £459 -6.33% 91
London -66 115 £550 +4.76% 75
Work from Home -75 76 £470 -1.05% 45
North of England -96 34 £394 -17.97% 25
South East -66 28 £464 -22.71% 19
Scotland -51 26 £425 -10.53% 12
Midlands -46 23 £470 -3.59% 9
West Midlands -39 21 £470 -6.00% 3
Yorkshire -58 19 £425 -15.00% 7
East of England -23 15 £388 -3.13% 9
North West -64 12 £312 -15.81% 13
South West -45 9 £544 +8.75% 10
North East - 4 £469 - 5
Northern Ireland +5 2 £190 - 5
East Midlands -16 2 £466 +29.31% 6
Wales -15 1 £265 -6.19% 2

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 (6.57%) Apache
2 13 (4.74%) Apache Airflow
3 12 (4.38%) SAS
4 8 (2.92%) Apache Spark
5 6 (2.19%) WebLogic
6 5 (1.82%) Oracle Workflow
6 5 (1.82%) WebSphere
7 4 (1.46%) CICS
7 4 (1.46%) Confluence
8 3 (1.09%) JBoss
8 3 (1.09%) OpenStack
8 3 (1.09%) WebSphere Application Server
9 2 (0.73%) nginx
9 2 (0.73%) SharePoint
9 2 (0.73%) Tomcat
10 1 (0.36%) IBM HTTP Server
Applications
1 7 (2.55%) Notepad++
Business Applications
1 4 (1.46%) Oracle Assets
1 4 (1.46%) Oracle EBS
1 4 (1.46%) Oracle E-Business Tax
1 4 (1.46%) Oracle FAH
1 4 (1.46%) Oracle General Ledger
1 4 (1.46%) Oracle Internet Expenses
1 4 (1.46%) Oracle iProcurement
1 4 (1.46%) Oracle Payables
1 4 (1.46%) Oracle Receivables
2 3 (1.09%) Oracle Financials
3 2 (0.73%) Front Arena
3 2 (0.73%) Oracle ERP
3 2 (0.73%) Summit
4 1 (0.36%) FLEXCUBE
4 1 (0.36%) Oracle EBS R12
4 1 (0.36%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 98 (35.77%) AWS
2 63 (22.99%) Azure
3 54 (19.71%) GCP
4 49 (17.88%) GitHub
5 33 (12.04%) Serverless
6 27 (9.85%) AWS Lambda
6 27 (9.85%) GitHub Actions
7 26 (9.49%) Amazon S3
8 18 (6.57%) Amazon EC2
9 12 (4.38%) dbt
9 12 (4.38%) OpenShift
10 11 (4.01%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 11 (4.01%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 9 (3.28%) Azure DevOps
11 9 (3.28%) Power Platform
12 8 (2.92%) AWS CloudFormation
13 7 (2.55%) Amazon SQS
13 7 (2.55%) GitHub Copilot
14 6 (2.19%) Google Kubernetes Engine
15 5 (1.82%) Azure Databricks
Communications & Networking
1 16 (5.84%) DNS
2 13 (4.74%) TCP/IP
3 10 (3.65%) HTTP
3 10 (3.65%) SSL
4 7 (2.55%) Firewall
4 7 (2.55%) PuTTY
4 7 (2.55%) VPN
4 7 (2.55%) WinSCP
5 6 (2.19%) Network Security
5 6 (2.19%) SAN
5 6 (2.19%) SSH
6 4 (1.46%) 5G
6 4 (1.46%) MQTT
6 4 (1.46%) Multicast
7 3 (1.09%) 4G
7 3 (1.09%) BGP
7 3 (1.09%) HTTPS
8 2 (0.73%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
8 2 (0.73%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
8 2 (0.73%) tcpdump
Database & Business Intelligence
1 32 (11.68%) Data Warehouse
2 26 (9.49%) Oracle Database
3 19 (6.93%) Relational Database
4 18 (6.57%) MySQL
4 18 (6.57%) SQL Server
5 17 (6.20%) PostgreSQL
6 16 (5.84%) Db2
7 15 (5.47%) Metadata
8 14 (5.11%) MongoDB
9 12 (4.38%) NoSQL
10 11 (4.01%) Data Lake
10 11 (4.01%) PowerCenter
11 10 (3.65%) Amazon Aurora
11 10 (3.65%) Amazon RDS
11 10 (3.65%) BusinessObjects
11 10 (3.65%) Oracle Reports
12 9 (3.28%) Elasticsearch
12 9 (3.28%) Star Schema
13 8 (2.92%) BigQuery
14 7 (2.55%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 73 (26.64%) Git
2 57 (20.80%) Jenkins
3 36 (13.14%) GitLab
4 24 (8.76%) Maven
5 16 (5.84%) JUnit
6 11 (4.01%) Claude Code
6 11 (4.01%) JIRA
6 11 (4.01%) Sonatype Nexus
7 10 (3.65%) SonarQube
8 8 (2.92%) Mockito
9 5 (1.82%) Bitbucket
9 5 (1.82%) Gradle
9 5 (1.82%) Oracle Forms
10 4 (1.46%) Artifactory
10 4 (1.46%) JDeveloper
11 3 (1.09%) Selenium
11 3 (1.09%) webpack
11 3 (1.09%) Xcode
12 2 (0.73%) Terragrunt
12 2 (0.73%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 91 (33.21%) Finance
2 56 (20.44%) Banking
3 44 (16.06%) Social Skills
4 29 (10.58%) Analytical Skills
5 20 (7.30%) Public Sector
6 16 (5.84%) Investment Banking
7 7 (2.55%) Documentation Skills
7 7 (2.55%) Front Office
8 6 (2.19%) Telecoms
9 4 (1.46%) Aerospace
9 4 (1.46%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 4 (1.46%) Retail
10 3 (1.09%) General Ledger
11 2 (0.73%) Advertising
11 2 (0.73%) Prime Brokerage
11 2 (0.73%) Publishing
12 1 (0.36%) Electronics
12 1 (0.36%) International Banking
12 1 (0.36%) Legal
12 1 (0.36%) Military
Job Titles
1 68 (24.82%) Developer
2 39 (14.23%) Senior
3 35 (12.77%) Data Engineer
4 29 (10.58%) Python Developer
5 18 (6.57%) DevOps Engineer
5 18 (6.57%) Senior Developer
6 17 (6.20%) Java Developer
7 16 (5.84%) Architect
7 16 (5.84%) Cloud Engineer
8 14 (5.11%) GCP Engineer
8 14 (5.11%) Java Engineer
9 12 (4.38%) Administrator
10 11 (4.01%) Analyst
11 10 (3.65%) Support Engineer
12 9 (3.28%) AWS DevOps
12 9 (3.28%) AWS Engineer
12 9 (3.28%) DBA
12 9 (3.28%) Linux Administrator
12 9 (3.28%) Software Engineer
13 8 (2.92%) Senior Python Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 66 (24.09%) Terraform
2 36 (13.14%) RESTful
3 24 (8.76%) REST
4 23 (8.39%) FastAPI
4 23 (8.39%) Kafka
5 22 (8.03%) Flask
5 22 (8.03%) Spring
6 21 (7.66%) Spring Boot
7 18 (6.57%) Pandas
8 14 (5.11%) CSS
8 14 (5.11%) HTML
8 14 (5.11%) JSON
8 14 (5.11%) Middleware
9 12 (4.38%) PySpark
10 11 (4.01%) Elastic Stack
10 11 (4.01%) RabbitMQ
11 10 (3.65%) Django
11 10 (3.65%) JPA
12 9 (3.28%) Web Services
13 7 (2.55%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 30 (10.95%) Linux Command Line
2 17 (6.20%) Cloud Native
3 14 (5.11%) Management Information System
4 11 (4.01%) Fixed Income
5 9 (3.28%) Data Centre
6 8 (2.92%) Replication
7 7 (2.55%) Derivative
7 7 (2.55%) Enterprise Cloud
7 7 (2.55%) Enterprise Software
7 7 (2.55%) Hedge funds
7 7 (2.55%) Public Cloud
7 7 (2.55%) Self-Motivation
8 6 (2.19%) Distributed Systems
8 6 (2.19%) Legacy Systems
8 6 (2.19%) Mainframe
8 6 (2.19%) Market Risk
8 6 (2.19%) Product Ownership
9 5 (1.82%) AI Agents
9 5 (1.82%) Distributed Applications
9 5 (1.82%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 152 (55.47%) Linux
2 124 (45.26%) Unix
3 24 (8.76%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 20 (7.30%) Windows
5 10 (3.65%) Solaris
6 6 (2.19%) AIX
6 6 (2.19%) Windows Server
7 5 (1.82%) CentOS
7 5 (1.82%) zOS
8 3 (1.09%) Apple iOS
8 3 (1.09%) Rocky
8 3 (1.09%) VMS
9 2 (0.73%) HPUX
9 2 (0.73%) Oracle Linux
9 2 (0.73%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.36%) Amazon Linux
10 1 (0.36%) Embedded Linux
10 1 (0.36%) Windows Server 2008
10 1 (0.36%) Windows Server 2016
10 1 (0.36%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 121 (44.16%) CI/CD
2 81 (29.56%) DevOps
3 62 (22.63%) Infrastructure as Code
4 56 (20.44%) Containerisation
5 48 (17.52%) Agile
6 44 (16.06%) Data Pipeline
7 43 (15.69%) AI
8 42 (15.33%) Migration
8 42 (15.33%) Performance Tuning
9 39 (14.23%) ETL
10 38 (13.87%) Performance Optimisation
10 38 (13.87%) Problem-Solving
11 36 (13.14%) Analytics
12 35 (12.77%) Observability
13 33 (12.04%) Root Cause Analysis
14 31 (11.31%) Code Quality
15 29 (10.58%) Configuration Management
15 29 (10.58%) Microservices
15 29 (10.58%) SDLC
16 28 (10.22%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 150 (54.74%) SQL
2 144 (52.55%) Python
3 71 (25.91%) Java
4 52 (18.98%) Bash
5 47 (17.15%) PL/SQL
6 17 (6.20%) JavaScript
6 17 (6.20%) PowerShell
7 16 (5.84%) Groovy
8 14 (5.11%) Perl
9 9 (3.28%) C#
10 8 (2.92%) Korn
11 6 (2.19%) Scala
11 6 (2.19%) TypeScript
12 5 (1.82%) Go
12 5 (1.82%) JCL
12 5 (1.82%) Ruby
13 4 (1.46%) C
13 4 (1.46%) C++
13 4 (1.46%) MATLAB
13 4 (1.46%) Rust
Qualifications
1 81 (29.56%) Security Cleared
2 61 (22.26%) SC Cleared
3 25 (9.12%) Degree
4 19 (6.93%) BPSS Clearance
5 10 (3.65%) Computer Science Degree
5 10 (3.65%) DV Cleared
6 6 (2.19%) AWS Certification
7 5 (1.82%) Oracle Certification
8 4 (1.46%) Master's Degree
9 2 (0.73%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
9 2 (0.73%) Azure Certification
9 2 (0.73%) Cisco Certification
9 2 (0.73%) 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 33 (12.04%) Data Quality
2 16 (5.84%) QA
3 7 (2.55%) SLA
4 6 (2.19%) Accessibility
5 3 (1.09%) Disclosure Scotland
5 3 (1.09%) ISO 20022
6 2 (0.73%) ISO 15022
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 70 (25.55%) Docker
2 9 (3.28%) Active Directory
3 7 (2.55%) Oracle RAC
3 7 (2.55%) Virtual Machines
4 6 (2.19%) VMware Infrastructure
5 5 (1.82%) zsh
6 4 (1.46%) NFS
7 3 (1.09%) GridGain
7 3 (1.09%) Postfix
7 3 (1.09%) Sendmail
7 3 (1.09%) Varnish
7 3 (1.09%) VMware ESXi
8 2 (0.73%) KVM
8 2 (0.73%) vSphere
9 1 (0.36%) Hyper-V
9 1 (0.36%) Veritas Cluster Server
9 1 (0.36%) Veritas Volume Manager
Systems Management
1 78 (28.47%) Kubernetes
2 55 (20.07%) Ansible
3 27 (9.85%) Grafana
4 23 (8.39%) Prometheus
5 11 (4.01%) Oracle RMAN
6 10 (3.65%) Kibana
6 10 (3.65%) Podman
7 9 (3.28%) Control-M
8 8 (2.92%) Data Guard
9 7 (2.55%) Puppet
10 6 (2.19%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
11 5 (1.82%) Check_MK
11 5 (1.82%) NetBackup
12 4 (1.46%) HP ALM
12 4 (1.46%) Packer
12 4 (1.46%) Red Hat Satellite
13 3 (1.09%) Consul
13 3 (1.09%) HAProxy
13 3 (1.09%) ITRS Geneos
13 3 (1.09%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 90 (32.85%) Oracle
2 35 (12.77%) Google
3 20 (7.30%) Informatica
4 19 (6.93%) Splunk
5 17 (6.20%) Red Hat
6 16 (5.84%) IBM
7 13 (4.74%) Microsoft
8 12 (4.38%) Sybase
8 12 (4.38%) VMware
9 9 (3.28%) New Relic
10 7 (2.55%) Dynatrace
10 7 (2.55%) Murex
10 7 (2.55%) ServiceNow
10 7 (2.55%) Solace
11 6 (2.19%) HP
11 6 (2.19%) Tenable
11 6 (2.19%) Teradata
12 5 (1.82%) Checkmarx
12 5 (1.82%) Databricks
12 5 (1.82%) NVIDIA