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

6 months to
8 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 418 262 266
Rank change year-on-year -156 +4 +14
Contract jobs citing Shell Script 286 339 334
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.52% 1.03% 0.88%
As % of the Programming Languages category 2.00% 3.12% 2.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 201 192 211
10th Percentile £325 £305 £341
25th Percentile £413 £390 £383
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £493 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +3.68% -5.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £610 £576 £588
90th Percentile £715 £625 £708
UK excluding London median daily rate £470 £475 £420
% change year-on-year -1.05% +13.10% -16.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 16 6
10th Percentile £30.44 £65.00 £62.63
25th Percentile £37.48 - £63.50
Median hourly rate £49.58 £68.00 £80.00
Median % change year-on-year -27.09% -15.00% +14.29%
75th Percentile £61.31 - £97.50
90th Percentile £68.12 £102.50 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £49.58 £68.00 -
% change year-on-year -27.09% - -

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 14,313 10,852 12,150
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 26.24% 32.83% 32.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,297 7,126 8,002
10th Percentile £363 £340 £350
25th Percentile £425 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £505 £525
Median % change year-on-year +3.96% -3.81% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £647
90th Percentile £725 £733 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £490
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.06% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 554 300 330
10th Percentile £22.15 £29.00 £26.22
25th Percentile £45.00 £40.94 £46.05
Median hourly rate £65.00 £55.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +18.18% -15.38% +3.17%
75th Percentile £70.00 £67.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £81.28 £75.13 £77.63
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £64.50 £65.00
% change year-on-year +0.78% -0.77% -

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 October 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 8 October 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 8 October 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 -125 237 £524 +10.26% 201
UK excluding London -149 144 £470 -1.05% 109
London -78 119 £550 +7.32% 111
Work from Home -103 78 £470 +0.86% 85
North of England -88 36 £419 -12.30% 26
Midlands -38 29 £525 +5.00% 21
Scotland -44 28 £440 -9.09% 17
West Midlands -31 27 £525 +1.74% 17
South East -73 25 £513 +21.30% 16
Yorkshire -56 19 £425 -15.00% 9
South West -47 13 £540 +694.12% 13
North West -55 13 £313 -30.13% 14
East of England -42 11 £350 -13.58% 6
North East - 5 £463 - 3
Northern Ireland +10 2 £190 - 7
Wales -7 2 £265 -6.19% 4
East Midlands -14 2 £466 +29.31% 4

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 13 (4.55%) Apache
2 11 (3.85%) SAS
2 11 (3.85%) WebLogic
3 10 (3.50%) Apache Airflow
4 6 (2.10%) Apache Spark
5 5 (1.75%) Confluence
5 5 (1.75%) WebSphere
6 4 (1.40%) OpenStack
6 4 (1.40%) Oracle Workflow
7 3 (1.05%) CICS
7 3 (1.05%) JBoss
8 2 (0.70%) nginx
8 2 (0.70%) SharePoint
8 2 (0.70%) WebSphere Application Server
9 1 (0.35%) IIS
9 1 (0.35%) Tomcat
Applications
1 2 (0.70%) Notepad++
2 1 (0.35%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 6 (2.10%) Front Arena
1 6 (2.10%) Summit
2 4 (1.40%) Oracle Assets
2 4 (1.40%) Oracle EBS
2 4 (1.40%) Oracle E-Business Tax
2 4 (1.40%) Oracle FAH
2 4 (1.40%) Oracle General Ledger
2 4 (1.40%) Oracle Internet Expenses
2 4 (1.40%) Oracle iProcurement
2 4 (1.40%) Oracle Payables
2 4 (1.40%) Oracle Receivables
3 3 (1.05%) Oracle Financials
4 2 (0.70%) Oracle ERP
5 1 (0.35%) FLEXCUBE
5 1 (0.35%) Oracle EBS R12
5 1 (0.35%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 109 (38.11%) AWS
2 67 (23.43%) GCP
3 63 (22.03%) Azure
4 53 (18.53%) GitHub
5 31 (10.84%) Serverless
6 26 (9.09%) AWS Lambda
7 21 (7.34%) Amazon S3
8 19 (6.64%) GitHub Actions
9 14 (4.90%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 14 (4.90%) Amazon EC2
10 12 (4.20%) dbt
10 12 (4.20%) GitHub Copilot
11 10 (3.50%) OpenShift
12 9 (3.15%) AWS CloudFormation
12 9 (3.15%) Google Kubernetes Engine
12 9 (3.15%) Power Platform
12 9 (3.15%) Virtual Private Cloud
13 8 (2.80%) Amazon SQS
13 8 (2.80%) Datadog
14 7 (2.45%) Cloud Computing
Communications & Networking
1 19 (6.64%) DNS
2 17 (5.94%) TCP/IP
3 13 (4.55%) HTTP
4 11 (3.85%) SSL
5 10 (3.50%) Firewall
6 7 (2.45%) Network Security
6 7 (2.45%) VPN
7 5 (1.75%) 5G
7 5 (1.75%) SAN
7 5 (1.75%) SSH
8 4 (1.40%) 4G
8 4 (1.40%) MQTT
9 3 (1.05%) BGP
9 3 (1.05%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
9 3 (1.05%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
9 3 (1.05%) Multicast
10 2 (0.70%) HTTPS
10 2 (0.70%) PuTTY
10 2 (0.70%) tcpdump
10 2 (0.70%) WinSCP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 28 (9.79%) Data Warehouse
2 26 (9.09%) Oracle Database
3 22 (7.69%) MySQL
4 21 (7.34%) MongoDB
5 20 (6.99%) Relational Database
6 18 (6.29%) Db2
7 17 (5.94%) PostgreSQL
8 16 (5.59%) NoSQL
8 16 (5.59%) SQL Server
9 12 (4.20%) PowerCenter
10 10 (3.50%) BigQuery
10 10 (3.50%) Oracle Reports
10 10 (3.50%) Redis
11 9 (3.15%) DynamoDB
11 9 (3.15%) Elasticsearch
11 9 (3.15%) Star Schema
12 8 (2.80%) Amazon RDS
12 8 (2.80%) Data Lake
12 8 (2.80%) Power BI
13 7 (2.45%) Amazon Athena
Development Applications
1 90 (31.47%) Git
2 55 (19.23%) Jenkins
3 46 (16.08%) GitLab
4 35 (12.24%) Maven
5 22 (7.69%) JUnit
6 15 (5.24%) JIRA
7 14 (4.90%) Mockito
8 11 (3.85%) Claude Code
9 10 (3.50%) SonarQube
9 10 (3.50%) Sonatype Nexus
10 8 (2.80%) Gradle
11 7 (2.45%) Bitbucket
12 6 (2.10%) Selenium
13 5 (1.75%) Oracle Forms
14 4 (1.40%) Cucumber
14 4 (1.40%) JDeveloper
14 4 (1.40%) Visual Studio Code
15 3 (1.05%) Subversion
15 3 (1.05%) Team Foundation Server
15 3 (1.05%) webpack
General
1 94 (32.87%) Finance
2 57 (19.93%) Banking
3 44 (15.38%) Social Skills
4 42 (14.69%) Analytical Skills
5 20 (6.99%) Public Sector
6 17 (5.94%) Investment Banking
7 8 (2.80%) Telecoms
8 5 (1.75%) Documentation Skills
8 5 (1.75%) Retail
9 4 (1.40%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 3 (1.05%) General Ledger
11 2 (0.70%) Aerospace
11 2 (0.70%) Financial Institution
11 2 (0.70%) Prime Brokerage
11 2 (0.70%) Publishing
12 1 (0.35%) Advertising
12 1 (0.35%) Front Office
12 1 (0.35%) International Banking
12 1 (0.35%) Legal
12 1 (0.35%) Military
Job Titles
1 78 (27.27%) Developer
2 43 (15.03%) Senior
3 34 (11.89%) Python Developer
4 23 (8.04%) Data Engineer
5 21 (7.34%) Java Developer
5 21 (7.34%) Senior Developer
6 20 (6.99%) DevOps Engineer
7 19 (6.64%) Java Engineer
8 16 (5.59%) Cloud Engineer
9 15 (5.24%) GCP Engineer
10 14 (4.90%) Architect
11 13 (4.55%) Analyst
12 11 (3.85%) AWS Engineer
13 9 (3.15%) Lead
13 9 (3.15%) Software Engineer
13 9 (3.15%) Support Engineer
14 8 (2.80%) Administrator
14 8 (2.80%) Consultant
14 8 (2.80%) Senior Java Developer
14 8 (2.80%) Senior Python Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 75 (26.22%) Terraform
2 37 (12.94%) RESTful
3 36 (12.59%) REST
4 30 (10.49%) Spring
5 29 (10.14%) Kafka
5 29 (10.14%) Spring Boot
6 27 (9.44%) Flask
7 22 (7.69%) FastAPI
8 20 (6.99%) CSS
8 20 (6.99%) HTML
8 20 (6.99%) JSON
9 17 (5.94%) Pandas
10 16 (5.59%) Django
11 14 (4.90%) JPA
12 13 (4.55%) Middleware
12 13 (4.55%) Web Services
12 13 (4.55%) XML
13 12 (4.20%) OpenAPI
13 12 (4.20%) RabbitMQ
13 12 (4.20%) React
Miscellaneous
1 29 (10.14%) Linux Command Line
2 20 (6.99%) Cloud Native
3 15 (5.24%) Enterprise Software
4 13 (4.55%) Management Information System
5 10 (3.50%) Derivative
6 9 (3.15%) Fixed Income
7 8 (2.80%) Market Risk
7 8 (2.80%) Replication
8 7 (2.45%) Data Centre
8 7 (2.45%) Distributed Systems
8 7 (2.45%) Enterprise Cloud
8 7 (2.45%) Hybrid Cloud
8 7 (2.45%) Product Ownership
9 6 (2.10%) AI Agents
9 6 (2.10%) Algorithms
9 6 (2.10%) Legacy Systems
9 6 (2.10%) Mainframe
9 6 (2.10%) Onboarding
9 6 (2.10%) Public Cloud
10 5 (1.75%) Distributed Applications
Operating Systems
1 159 (55.59%) Linux
2 117 (40.91%) Unix
3 23 (8.04%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 19 (6.64%) Windows
5 12 (4.20%) Solaris
6 6 (2.10%) AIX
7 4 (1.40%) VMS
7 4 (1.40%) Windows Server
7 4 (1.40%) zOS
8 3 (1.05%) Apple iOS
8 3 (1.05%) CentOS
8 3 (1.05%) SUSE
9 2 (0.70%) HPUX
9 2 (0.70%) Rocky
9 2 (0.70%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.35%) Amazon Linux
10 1 (0.35%) Oracle Linux
10 1 (0.35%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
10 1 (0.35%) Windows Server 2016
10 1 (0.35%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 135 (47.20%) CI/CD
2 83 (29.02%) DevOps
3 73 (25.52%) Infrastructure as Code
4 70 (24.48%) Containerisation
5 58 (20.28%) Agile
6 54 (18.88%) AI
7 50 (17.48%) Problem-Solving
8 45 (15.73%) Data Pipeline
9 44 (15.38%) Performance Tuning
10 42 (14.69%) Migration
11 39 (13.64%) Code Quality
11 39 (13.64%) Root Cause Analysis
12 38 (13.29%) Observability
13 35 (12.24%) ETL
14 34 (11.89%) Continuous Improvement
14 34 (11.89%) Microservices
15 33 (11.54%) SDLC
15 33 (11.54%) Test Automation
16 32 (11.19%) Analytics
16 32 (11.19%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 156 (54.55%) Python
2 151 (52.80%) SQL
3 86 (30.07%) Java
4 70 (24.48%) Bash
5 37 (12.94%) PL/SQL
6 26 (9.09%) PowerShell
7 24 (8.39%) JavaScript
8 17 (5.94%) Groovy
9 14 (4.90%) Perl
10 9 (3.15%) Korn
10 9 (3.15%) TypeScript
11 8 (2.80%) Go
12 7 (2.45%) T-SQL
13 6 (2.10%) C#
13 6 (2.10%) Scala
14 4 (1.40%) JCL
14 4 (1.40%) Ruby
14 4 (1.40%) Rust
15 3 (1.05%) Cypher
15 3 (1.05%) Swift
Qualifications
1 82 (28.67%) Security Cleared
2 57 (19.93%) SC Cleared
3 30 (10.49%) Degree
4 26 (9.09%) BPSS Clearance
5 13 (4.55%) DV Cleared
6 12 (4.20%) Computer Science Degree
7 10 (3.50%) Master's Degree
8 6 (2.10%) AWS Certification
9 2 (0.70%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
9 2 (0.70%) Azure Certification
9 2 (0.70%) Cisco Certification
9 2 (0.70%) CISSP
10 1 (0.35%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 1 (0.35%) CCNA
10 1 (0.35%) CISM
10 1 (0.35%) GIAC
10 1 (0.35%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
10 1 (0.35%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 1 (0.35%) Oracle Certification
10 1 (0.35%) RHCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 37 (12.94%) Data Quality
2 20 (6.99%) QA
3 6 (2.10%) Accessibility
4 5 (1.75%) Basel III
4 5 (1.75%) SLA
5 3 (1.05%) Disclosure Scotland
5 3 (1.05%) ISO 20022
6 2 (0.70%) ISO 15022
7 1 (0.35%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 1 (0.35%) GDPR
7 1 (0.35%) HIPAA
7 1 (0.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 1 (0.35%) NIST
7 1 (0.35%) SEPA
System Software
1 76 (26.57%) Docker
2 8 (2.80%) Virtual Machines
3 6 (2.10%) Active Directory
3 6 (2.10%) zsh
4 4 (1.40%) Oracle RAC
4 4 (1.40%) VMware Infrastructure
5 3 (1.05%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (0.70%) KVM
6 2 (0.70%) NFS
6 2 (0.70%) vSphere
7 1 (0.35%) HDFS
7 1 (0.35%) Postfix
7 1 (0.35%) Sendmail
7 1 (0.35%) Varnish
7 1 (0.35%) Veritas Cluster Server
7 1 (0.35%) Veritas Volume Manager
Systems Management
1 93 (32.52%) Kubernetes
2 59 (20.63%) Ansible
3 35 (12.24%) Grafana
4 27 (9.44%) Prometheus
5 14 (4.90%) Kibana
6 10 (3.50%) Control-M
7 8 (2.80%) Podman
8 6 (2.10%) Puppet
9 5 (1.75%) Data Guard
9 5 (1.75%) Oracle RMAN
9 5 (1.75%) Single Sign-On
10 4 (1.40%) HP ALM
10 4 (1.40%) NetBackup
10 4 (1.40%) Packer
11 3 (1.05%) Check_MK
11 3 (1.05%) Consul
11 3 (1.05%) ITRS Geneos
11 3 (1.05%) logstash
11 3 (1.05%) Netcool
11 3 (1.05%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 77 (26.92%) Oracle
2 39 (13.64%) Google
3 25 (8.74%) Splunk
4 20 (6.99%) IBM
5 16 (5.59%) Informatica
5 16 (5.59%) Microsoft
5 16 (5.59%) Red Hat
6 10 (3.50%) Sybase
7 9 (3.15%) New Relic
7 9 (3.15%) ServiceNow
7 9 (3.15%) VMware
8 8 (2.80%) Dynatrace
8 8 (2.80%) HP
9 7 (2.45%) Checkmarx
9 7 (2.45%) Murex
10 6 (2.10%) AppDynamics
10 6 (2.10%) Calypso
10 6 (2.10%) FIS
10 6 (2.10%) Tenable
10 6 (2.10%) Teradata