Unix Contract Job Trends

Unix
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Unix skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 21 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 228 171 117
Rank change year-on-year -57 -54 -16
Contract jobs citing Unix 629 532 778
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.17% 1.62% 2.00%
As % of the Operating Systems category 12.10% 12.08% 14.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 389 352 514
10th Percentile £350 £313 £327
25th Percentile £418 £408 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £515
Median % change year-on-year - -2.91% -6.36%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £600
90th Percentile £715 £709 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £469 £475 £459
% change year-on-year -1.26% +3.54% -13.03%
Number of hourly rates quoted 24 6 7
10th Percentile £28.19 £43.87 -
25th Percentile £43.81 £52.00 £23.80
Median hourly rate £52.50 £54.75 £27.50
Median % change year-on-year -4.11% +99.09% -58.14%
75th Percentile £55.00 £55.00 £50.00
90th Percentile £67.51 £62.50 £73.95
UK excluding London median hourly rate £52.50 £54.75 £47.50
% change year-on-year -4.11% +15.26% -25.78%

All Operating Systems
UK

Unix falls under the Operating Systems category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring operating system skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for operating system skills 5,200 4,403 5,434
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.71% 13.43% 13.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,294 2,806 3,569
10th Percentile £193 £190 £200
25th Percentile £316 £308 £333
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £470 £450 £475
Median % change year-on-year +4.44% -5.26% -5.00%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £588
90th Percentile £663 £675 £687
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £470
% change year-on-year - -4.26% +4.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 357 268 331
10th Percentile £14.50 £15.54 £12.42
25th Percentile £17.50 £18.48 £17.22
Median hourly rate £26.00 £24.83 £27.50
Median % change year-on-year +4.71% -9.71% -31.25%
75th Percentile £65.00 £56.26 £65.00
90th Percentile £72.80 £67.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £30.25 £23.50 £38.25
% change year-on-year +28.72% -38.56% +39.09%

Unix
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Unix relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Unix job vacancy trend in the UK

Unix
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Unix.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Unix

Unix
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Unix over the 6 months to 21 August 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Unix in the UK

Unix
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Unix.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Unix

Unix
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Unix over the 6 months to 21 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Unix in the UK

Unix
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 Unix within the UK over the 6 months to 21 August 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 -49 519 £500 - 87
UK excluding London -51 342 £469 -1.26% 58
London -66 210 £550 +7.32% 40
Work from Home -19 178 £500 +5.26% 40
North of England -35 110 £478 -2.95% 17
South East -39 99 £459 +2.00% 14
North West -4 82 £475 +5.91% 10
Midlands -6 80 £469 -5.73% 6
West Midlands -8 72 £469 -9.28% 5
Scotland -57 41 £367 -22.74% 2
Yorkshire -42 21 £500 -23.08% 5
East of England -16 10 £700 +40.00% 2
North East - 10 £480 - 2
South West -50 8 £650 +8.33% 18
East Midlands -17 7 £463 +17.83% 1
Wales -13 5 £383 +35.40%
Northern Ireland -5 1 - -

Unix
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 36 (5.72%) Confluence
2 32 (5.09%) SAS
3 17 (2.70%) Apache Airflow
4 14 (2.23%) SharePoint
5 13 (2.07%) Apache
6 12 (1.91%) Apache Spark
7 9 (1.43%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 8 (1.27%) WebLogic
9 7 (1.11%) NetWeaver
9 7 (1.11%) OpenStack
10 5 (0.79%) Oracle Workflow
11 4 (0.64%) CICS
11 4 (0.64%) Tuxedo
11 4 (0.64%) WebSphere
12 3 (0.48%) IBM HTTP Server
12 3 (0.48%) WebSphere Application Server
13 2 (0.32%) CMS
13 2 (0.32%) IIS
13 2 (0.32%) nginx
13 2 (0.32%) WebSphere Portal
Applications
1 14 (2.23%) Microsoft Office
2 8 (1.27%) Microsoft Excel
3 7 (1.11%) Notepad++
4 2 (0.32%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.32%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 8 (1.27%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (0.95%) Oracle EBS
2 6 (0.95%) SAP PSCD
3 4 (0.64%) Oracle Assets
3 4 (0.64%) Oracle E-Business Tax
3 4 (0.64%) Oracle FAH
3 4 (0.64%) Oracle General Ledger
3 4 (0.64%) Oracle Internet Expenses
3 4 (0.64%) Oracle iProcurement
3 4 (0.64%) Oracle Payables
3 4 (0.64%) Oracle Receivables
3 4 (0.64%) Summit
4 3 (0.48%) FLEXCUBE
4 3 (0.48%) Oracle Financials
5 2 (0.32%) Oracle Applications
5 2 (0.32%) Oracle Retail
6 1 (0.16%) Oracle ERP
6 1 (0.16%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 1 (0.16%) Payment Gateway
6 1 (0.16%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 134 (21.30%) AWS
2 89 (14.15%) Azure
3 42 (6.68%) GitHub
4 35 (5.56%) GCP
5 25 (3.97%) GitHub Actions
5 25 (3.97%) IaaS
6 24 (3.82%) AWS Lambda
7 23 (3.66%) Serverless
8 22 (3.50%) Amazon S3
8 22 (3.50%) Entra ID
9 18 (2.86%) PaaS
10 17 (2.70%) Power Platform
10 17 (2.70%) SaaS
11 14 (2.23%) Azure DevOps
11 14 (2.23%) OpenShift
12 12 (1.91%) Snowflake
13 9 (1.43%) Amazon ECS
13 9 (1.43%) Azure Data Factory
13 9 (1.43%) GitHub Copilot
14 8 (1.27%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 27 (4.29%) DNS
1 27 (4.29%) Firewall
2 22 (3.50%) SAN
2 22 (3.50%) TCP/IP
3 15 (2.38%) HTTP
4 11 (1.75%) DHCP
4 11 (1.75%) SSH
4 11 (1.75%) SSL
5 10 (1.59%) NAS
6 7 (1.11%) LAN
6 7 (1.11%) LTE
6 7 (1.11%) Network Security
6 7 (1.11%) PuTTY
6 7 (1.11%) WAN
6 7 (1.11%) WinSCP
7 6 (0.95%) 5G
7 6 (0.95%) Internet
7 6 (0.95%) Radio Access Network
7 6 (0.95%) VoLTE
7 6 (0.95%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 62 (9.86%) SQL Server
2 51 (8.11%) Oracle Database
3 43 (6.84%) Relational Database
4 42 (6.68%) PostgreSQL
5 35 (5.56%) Data Warehouse
6 27 (4.29%) MySQL
7 25 (3.97%) MongoDB
8 19 (3.02%) Metadata
9 17 (2.70%) Db2
9 17 (2.70%) NoSQL
9 17 (2.70%) Power BI
10 16 (2.54%) BusinessObjects
10 16 (2.54%) DataStage
10 16 (2.54%) Sybase ASE
11 15 (2.38%) Oracle Database 11g
11 15 (2.38%) RDBMS
12 14 (2.23%) Amazon Aurora
13 13 (2.07%) Oracle Reports
14 12 (1.91%) Data Lake
14 12 (1.91%) KDB
Development Applications
1 71 (11.29%) Jenkins
2 65 (10.33%) Git
3 61 (9.70%) JIRA
4 51 (8.11%) GitLab
5 23 (3.66%) Artifactory
6 14 (2.23%) Bitbucket
7 12 (1.91%) Mockito
8 11 (1.75%) JUnit
8 11 (1.75%) Sonatype Nexus
9 9 (1.43%) Oracle Forms
9 9 (1.43%) Selenium
10 8 (1.27%) eggPlant
10 8 (1.27%) Maven
10 8 (1.27%) SonarQube
11 5 (0.79%) HP UFT
11 5 (0.79%) JMeter
11 5 (0.79%) LoadRunner
11 5 (0.79%) Postman
11 5 (0.79%) SoapUI
12 4 (0.64%) Gradle
General
1 158 (25.12%) Finance
2 141 (22.42%) Social Skills
3 100 (15.90%) Banking
4 94 (14.94%) Analytical Skills
5 51 (8.11%) Public Sector
6 30 (4.77%) Investment Banking
7 23 (3.66%) Front Office
8 21 (3.34%) Documentation Skills
9 11 (1.75%) Telecoms
10 10 (1.59%) Retail
11 7 (1.11%) Influencing Skills
12 6 (0.95%) Financial Institution
13 5 (0.79%) Military
14 4 (0.64%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 3 (0.48%) Advertising
15 3 (0.48%) General Ledger
16 2 (0.32%) Back Office
16 2 (0.32%) Billing
16 2 (0.32%) Law
16 2 (0.32%) Legal
Job Titles
1 131 (20.83%) Developer
2 94 (14.94%) Senior
3 68 (10.81%) Data Engineer
4 63 (10.02%) Unix Engineer
5 48 (7.63%) Java Developer
6 46 (7.31%) Senior Developer
7 38 (6.04%) Support Engineer
8 36 (5.72%) DBA
9 32 (5.09%) Analyst
10 31 (4.93%) Python Developer
11 26 (4.13%) Linux Engineer
12 25 (3.97%) Consultant
13 24 (3.82%) Oracle DBA
14 22 (3.50%) Architect
15 21 (3.34%) Administrator
16 19 (3.02%) Senior Java Developer
17 18 (2.86%) Applications Support
18 14 (2.23%) Lead
19 12 (1.91%) DevOps Engineer
19 12 (1.91%) Unix Linux Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 67 (10.65%) Kafka
2 45 (7.15%) REST
3 41 (6.52%) Middleware
3 41 (6.52%) RESTful
4 40 (6.36%) Terraform
5 32 (5.09%) Spring
6 28 (4.45%) Spring Boot
7 27 (4.29%) XML
8 21 (3.34%) .NET
8 21 (3.34%) Web Services
9 19 (3.02%) CSS
9 19 (3.02%) HTML
9 19 (3.02%) SOAP
10 16 (2.54%) RabbitMQ
11 15 (2.38%) Flask
11 15 (2.38%) Pandas
12 13 (2.07%) ActiveMQ
12 13 (2.07%) FastAPI
12 13 (2.07%) JDBC
12 13 (2.07%) PySpark
Miscellaneous
1 46 (7.31%) Onboarding
2 37 (5.88%) Linux Command Line
3 35 (5.56%) Legacy Systems
4 34 (5.41%) Data Centre
5 29 (4.61%) Distributed Systems
6 25 (3.97%) Cloud Native
7 21 (3.34%) Fixed Income
8 20 (3.18%) Management Information System
9 19 (3.02%) Replication
10 18 (2.86%) Derivative
11 16 (2.54%) Clustering
12 15 (2.38%) Mainframe
13 13 (2.07%) Enterprise Software
13 13 (2.07%) Virtual Team
14 12 (1.91%) PKI
15 11 (1.75%) Data Protection Act
15 11 (1.75%) Market Risk
16 10 (1.59%) Data Structures
16 10 (1.59%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
16 10 (1.59%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 414 (65.82%) Linux
2 148 (23.53%) Windows
3 70 (11.13%) Solaris
4 40 (6.36%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 36 (5.72%) Windows Server
6 33 (5.25%) AIX
7 10 (1.59%) Oracle Linux
8 8 (1.27%) HPUX
9 7 (1.11%) SUSE
10 6 (0.95%) Mac OS X
11 5 (0.79%) CentOS
11 5 (0.79%) VMS
12 3 (0.48%) Android
12 3 (0.48%) Check Point GAiA
12 3 (0.48%) OpenVMS
13 2 (0.32%) Mac OS
13 2 (0.32%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
13 2 (0.32%) zOS
14 1 (0.16%) Windows Server 2012
14 1 (0.16%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 145 (23.05%) CI/CD
2 124 (19.71%) Agile
3 109 (17.33%) Migration
4 105 (16.69%) Problem-Solving
5 101 (16.06%) DevOps
6 99 (15.74%) Test Automation
7 82 (13.04%) High Availability
8 81 (12.88%) Root Cause Analysis
9 74 (11.76%) ITIL
10 65 (10.33%) Performance Tuning
11 64 (10.17%) Data Modelling
12 58 (9.22%) ETL
13 55 (8.74%) Data Pipeline
14 54 (8.59%) Continuous Improvement
14 54 (8.59%) Microservices
15 53 (8.43%) Runbook
16 51 (8.11%) Disaster Recovery
17 49 (7.79%) Analytics
17 49 (7.79%) Infrastructure as Code
17 49 (7.79%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 246 (39.11%) SQL
2 241 (38.31%) Python
3 131 (20.83%) Java
4 125 (19.87%) Shell Script
5 84 (13.35%) PL/SQL
6 56 (8.90%) Bash
7 49 (7.79%) PowerShell
8 44 (7.00%) Perl
9 35 (5.56%) JavaScript
10 28 (4.45%) C#
11 20 (3.18%) C++
12 15 (2.38%) C
13 12 (1.91%) Korn
14 8 (1.27%) Go
15 6 (0.95%) ABAP
15 6 (0.95%) COBOL
15 6 (0.95%) Kotlin
15 6 (0.95%) MUMPS
15 6 (0.95%) Scala
15 6 (0.95%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 224 (35.61%) Security Cleared
2 189 (30.05%) SC Cleared
3 60 (9.54%) Degree
4 30 (4.77%) BPSS Clearance
5 15 (2.38%) CISSP
5 15 (2.38%) DV Cleared
6 13 (2.07%) Computer Science Degree
7 10 (1.59%) CISM
8 8 (1.27%) Cisco Certification
9 7 (1.11%) CRISC
10 6 (0.95%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 6 (0.95%) CESG Certified Professional
10 6 (0.95%) CompTIA Security+
10 6 (0.95%) GIAC
10 6 (0.95%) ISEB
10 6 (0.95%) ISTQB
11 5 (0.79%) RHCE
11 5 (0.79%) SANS
12 4 (0.64%) GSEC
12 4 (0.64%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 36 (5.72%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 35 (5.56%) NIST
3 31 (4.93%) QA
4 28 (4.45%) Data Quality
5 13 (2.07%) SLA
6 12 (1.91%) GDPR
7 7 (1.11%) Cyber Essentials
7 7 (1.11%) ISO 20022
8 6 (0.95%) ISO 31000
9 5 (0.79%) GRC
10 4 (0.64%) Disclosure Scotland
10 4 (0.64%) PCI DSS
10 4 (0.64%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 3 (0.48%) ISO 15022
11 3 (0.48%) NIST 800
12 2 (0.32%) NCSC
12 2 (0.32%) SEPA
13 1 (0.16%) ISO 8583
13 1 (0.16%) MIL-STD-1553
13 1 (0.16%) SOC 2
System Software
1 55 (8.74%) Docker
2 40 (6.36%) Active Directory
3 25 (3.97%) VMware Infrastructure
4 22 (3.50%) Oracle RAC
5 17 (2.70%) NFS
6 7 (1.11%) Firmware
6 7 (1.11%) PowerHA
7 6 (0.95%) VMware ESXi
8 5 (0.79%) GPFS
8 5 (0.79%) Postfix
8 5 (0.79%) Varnish
8 5 (0.79%) Virtual Machines
8 5 (0.79%) vSphere
9 4 (0.64%) Sendmail
10 3 (0.48%) GridGain
10 3 (0.48%) HDFS
10 3 (0.48%) Veritas Volume Manager
10 3 (0.48%) VirtualBox
11 2 (0.32%) SRDF
12 1 (0.16%) RACF
Systems Management
1 67 (10.65%) Kubernetes
2 59 (9.38%) Ansible
3 33 (5.25%) Grafana
4 30 (4.77%) Oracle RMAN
5 20 (3.18%) Prometheus
6 19 (3.02%) Data Guard
7 18 (2.86%) Control-M
7 18 (2.86%) Progress Chef
8 16 (2.54%) Puppet
9 11 (1.75%) Kibana
9 11 (1.75%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
10 10 (1.59%) Single Sign-On
11 7 (1.11%) Tivoli Storage Manager
12 6 (0.95%) Tivoli
13 5 (0.79%) HAProxy
13 5 (0.79%) HP Fortify
13 5 (0.79%) ITRS Geneos
13 5 (0.79%) Oracle ZFS
13 5 (0.79%) vRealize
13 5 (0.79%) VxRail
Vendors
1 244 (38.79%) Oracle
2 53 (8.43%) IBM
3 45 (7.15%) Microsoft
4 42 (6.68%) Splunk
5 40 (6.36%) BeyondTrust
6 34 (5.41%) Informatica
7 31 (4.93%) CyberArk
8 30 (4.77%) Sybase
8 30 (4.77%) VMware
9 29 (4.61%) Red Hat
10 27 (4.29%) Talend
11 26 (4.13%) SAP
12 21 (3.34%) Denodo
13 20 (3.18%) ServiceNow
14 16 (2.54%) Dynatrace
15 12 (1.91%) Cisco
15 12 (1.91%) HP
16 11 (1.75%) BT
16 11 (1.75%) Solace
17 10 (1.59%) SaltStack