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

6 months to
18 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 226 173 116
Rank change year-on-year -53 -57 -18
Contract jobs citing Unix 639 525 772
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.19% 1.60% 1.99%
As % of the Operating Systems category 12.23% 12.08% 14.26%
Number of daily rates quoted 396 350 518
10th Percentile £350 £331 £325
25th Percentile £415 £409 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £494 £500 £515
Median % change year-on-year -1.20% -2.91% -6.36%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £600
90th Percentile £700 £710 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £464 £475 £470
% change year-on-year -2.37% +1.06% -10.48%
Number of hourly rates quoted 24 6 7
10th Percentile £21.50 £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% -58.96%
75th Percentile £54.25 £55.00 £50.00
90th Percentile £55.35 £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 5,224 4,345 5,413
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.75% 13.22% 13.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,316 2,770 3,594
10th Percentile £193 £190 £200
25th Percentile £318 £308 £335
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £461 £475
Median % change year-on-year +2.98% -2.89% -5.00%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £588
90th Percentile £668 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £475
% change year-on-year - -5.26% +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 357 263 331
10th Percentile £14.50 £15.50 £12.42
25th Percentile £17.60 £18.13 £17.00
Median hourly rate £26.00 £24.50 £27.50
Median % change year-on-year +6.12% -10.91% -30.56%
75th Percentile £65.00 £57.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £72.70 £67.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.33 £23.00 £38.50
% change year-on-year +18.83% -40.26% +40.00%

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 18 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 18 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 18 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 -42 527 £491 -1.75% 282
UK excluding London -47 354 £464 -2.37% 110
London -68 208 £550 +7.32% 200
Work from Home -14 175 £500 +5.26% 82
North of England -34 110 £475 -5.43% 26
South East -38 103 £431 -4.17% 35
Midlands -6 86 £461 -3.91% 4
North West -8 81 £475 +6.26% 17
West Midlands -2 78 £460 -8.00% 3
Scotland -49 42 £367 -22.74% 10
Yorkshire -43 22 £500 -23.08% 6
East of England -25 10 £700 +40.00% 8
North East - 10 £480 - 3
South West -43 8 £600 - 22
East Midlands -17 7 £463 +17.83% 1
Wales -14 6 £383 +35.40% 1
Northern Ireland -2 1 - - 5

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 34 (5.32%) Confluence
2 31 (4.85%) SAS
3 17 (2.66%) Apache Airflow
4 14 (2.19%) SharePoint
5 13 (2.03%) Apache
6 12 (1.88%) Apache Spark
7 10 (1.56%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 8 (1.25%) WebLogic
9 7 (1.10%) NetWeaver
9 7 (1.10%) OpenStack
10 6 (0.94%) Tuxedo
11 5 (0.78%) Oracle Workflow
12 4 (0.63%) CICS
12 4 (0.63%) WebSphere
13 3 (0.47%) Adobe Experience Manager
13 3 (0.47%) IBM HTTP Server
13 3 (0.47%) WebSphere Application Server
14 2 (0.31%) CMS
14 2 (0.31%) IIS
14 2 (0.31%) WebSphere Portal
Applications
1 14 (2.19%) Microsoft Office
2 8 (1.25%) Microsoft Excel
3 7 (1.10%) Notepad++
4 2 (0.31%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.31%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 8 (1.25%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (0.94%) Oracle EBS
2 6 (0.94%) SAP PSCD
3 4 (0.63%) Oracle Assets
3 4 (0.63%) Oracle E-Business Tax
3 4 (0.63%) Oracle FAH
3 4 (0.63%) Oracle General Ledger
3 4 (0.63%) Oracle Internet Expenses
3 4 (0.63%) Oracle iProcurement
3 4 (0.63%) Oracle Payables
3 4 (0.63%) Oracle Receivables
3 4 (0.63%) Summit
4 3 (0.47%) FLEXCUBE
4 3 (0.47%) Oracle Financials
5 2 (0.31%) Oracle Applications
5 2 (0.31%) 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
1 132 (20.66%) AWS
2 86 (13.46%) Azure
3 42 (6.57%) GitHub
4 32 (5.01%) GCP
5 25 (3.91%) GitHub Actions
5 25 (3.91%) IaaS
6 23 (3.60%) AWS Lambda
6 23 (3.60%) Serverless
7 22 (3.44%) Entra ID
8 21 (3.29%) Amazon S3
9 18 (2.82%) PaaS
10 17 (2.66%) SaaS
11 15 (2.35%) OpenShift
11 15 (2.35%) Power Platform
12 14 (2.19%) Azure DevOps
13 12 (1.88%) Snowflake
14 9 (1.41%) Amazon EC2
14 9 (1.41%) Amazon ECS
14 9 (1.41%) Azure Data Factory
14 9 (1.41%) GitHub Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 27 (4.23%) DNS
1 27 (4.23%) Firewall
2 23 (3.60%) SAN
3 22 (3.44%) TCP/IP
4 15 (2.35%) HTTP
5 11 (1.72%) DHCP
5 11 (1.72%) NAS
5 11 (1.72%) SSH
5 11 (1.72%) SSL
6 7 (1.10%) LAN
6 7 (1.10%) LTE
6 7 (1.10%) Network Security
6 7 (1.10%) PuTTY
6 7 (1.10%) WAN
6 7 (1.10%) WinSCP
7 6 (0.94%) 5G
7 6 (0.94%) Diameter Protocol
7 6 (0.94%) Internet
7 6 (0.94%) VoWiFi
7 6 (0.94%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 65 (10.17%) SQL Server
2 52 (8.14%) Oracle Database
3 43 (6.73%) Relational Database
4 41 (6.42%) PostgreSQL
5 32 (5.01%) Data Warehouse
6 28 (4.38%) MySQL
7 24 (3.76%) MongoDB
8 19 (2.97%) Metadata
9 17 (2.66%) Db2
10 16 (2.50%) BusinessObjects
10 16 (2.50%) DataStage
10 16 (2.50%) Oracle Database 11g
10 16 (2.50%) Sybase ASE
11 15 (2.35%) NoSQL
11 15 (2.35%) Power BI
11 15 (2.35%) RDBMS
12 14 (2.19%) Amazon Aurora
12 14 (2.19%) Oracle Database 12c
12 14 (2.19%) Oracle Reports
13 12 (1.88%) KDB
Development Applications
1 71 (11.11%) Jenkins
2 62 (9.70%) Git
3 58 (9.08%) JIRA
4 51 (7.98%) GitLab
5 23 (3.60%) Artifactory
6 13 (2.03%) Bitbucket
7 12 (1.88%) Mockito
8 11 (1.72%) Sonatype Nexus
9 10 (1.56%) JUnit
10 9 (1.41%) Maven
10 9 (1.41%) Oracle Forms
10 9 (1.41%) Selenium
11 8 (1.25%) eggPlant
11 8 (1.25%) SonarQube
12 5 (0.78%) HP UFT
12 5 (0.78%) JMeter
12 5 (0.78%) LoadRunner
12 5 (0.78%) Postman
12 5 (0.78%) SoapUI
13 4 (0.63%) JDeveloper
General
1 157 (24.57%) Finance
2 145 (22.69%) Social Skills
3 100 (15.65%) Banking
4 95 (14.87%) Analytical Skills
5 51 (7.98%) Public Sector
6 30 (4.69%) Investment Banking
7 23 (3.60%) Front Office
8 21 (3.29%) Documentation Skills
9 11 (1.72%) Retail
9 11 (1.72%) Telecoms
10 7 (1.10%) Influencing Skills
11 6 (0.94%) Financial Institution
12 5 (0.78%) Advertising
12 5 (0.78%) Military
13 4 (0.63%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 3 (0.47%) General Ledger
15 2 (0.31%) Back Office
15 2 (0.31%) Billing
15 2 (0.31%) Law
15 2 (0.31%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 130 (20.34%) Developer
2 93 (14.55%) Senior
3 70 (10.95%) Data Engineer
4 64 (10.02%) Unix Engineer
5 47 (7.36%) Java Developer
6 45 (7.04%) Senior Developer
7 40 (6.26%) Support Engineer
8 38 (5.95%) DBA
9 33 (5.16%) Analyst
10 30 (4.69%) Python Developer
11 26 (4.07%) Oracle DBA
12 25 (3.91%) Consultant
12 25 (3.91%) Linux Engineer
13 23 (3.60%) Architect
14 21 (3.29%) Administrator
15 18 (2.82%) Applications Support
15 18 (2.82%) Senior Java Developer
16 14 (2.19%) Lead
17 13 (2.03%) Automation Engineer
18 12 (1.88%) Unix Linux Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 66 (10.33%) Kafka
2 46 (7.20%) REST
3 40 (6.26%) Middleware
3 40 (6.26%) RESTful
4 32 (5.01%) Spring
5 29 (4.54%) Spring Boot
6 28 (4.38%) XML
7 23 (3.60%) Web Services
8 21 (3.29%) .NET
9 19 (2.97%) CSS
9 19 (2.97%) SOAP
10 18 (2.82%) HTML
11 15 (2.35%) Pandas
11 15 (2.35%) RabbitMQ
12 14 (2.19%) Flask
13 13 (2.03%) ActiveMQ
13 13 (2.03%) FastAPI
13 13 (2.03%) JDBC
13 13 (2.03%) Oracle GoldenGate
14 12 (1.88%) JAX-RS
Miscellaneous
1 45 (7.04%) Onboarding
2 37 (5.79%) Legacy Systems
2 37 (5.79%) Linux Command Line
3 34 (5.32%) Data Centre
4 28 (4.38%) Distributed Systems
5 27 (4.23%) Cloud Native
6 21 (3.29%) Fixed Income
6 21 (3.29%) Management Information System
7 19 (2.97%) Replication
8 18 (2.82%) Derivative
9 16 (2.50%) Clustering
10 15 (2.35%) Mainframe
11 13 (2.03%) Enterprise Software
11 13 (2.03%) Virtual Team
12 12 (1.88%) PKI
13 11 (1.72%) Data Protection Act
13 11 (1.72%) Market Risk
14 10 (1.56%) Data Structures
14 10 (1.56%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
14 10 (1.56%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 415 (64.95%) Linux
2 150 (23.47%) Windows
3 69 (10.80%) Solaris
4 40 (6.26%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 37 (5.79%) Windows Server
6 32 (5.01%) AIX
7 10 (1.56%) Oracle Linux
8 8 (1.25%) HPUX
9 7 (1.10%) SUSE
10 6 (0.94%) Mac OS X
11 5 (0.78%) CentOS
11 5 (0.78%) VMS
12 3 (0.47%) Android
12 3 (0.47%) Check Point GAiA
12 3 (0.47%) OpenVMS
13 2 (0.31%) Mac OS
13 2 (0.31%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
13 2 (0.31%) Ubuntu
13 2 (0.31%) zOS
14 1 (0.16%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 142 (22.22%) CI/CD
2 124 (19.41%) Agile
3 109 (17.06%) Migration
4 108 (16.90%) Problem-Solving
5 98 (15.34%) DevOps
6 96 (15.02%) Test Automation
7 84 (13.15%) High Availability
8 81 (12.68%) Root Cause Analysis
9 79 (12.36%) ITIL
10 64 (10.02%) Performance Tuning
11 61 (9.55%) Data Modelling
12 55 (8.61%) Disaster Recovery
12 55 (8.61%) ETL
13 53 (8.29%) Continuous Improvement
13 53 (8.29%) Data Pipeline
13 53 (8.29%) Microservices
14 52 (8.14%) Runbook
15 50 (7.82%) Analytics
16 49 (7.67%) Infrastructure as Code
17 46 (7.20%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 247 (38.65%) SQL
2 239 (37.40%) Python
3 132 (20.66%) Java
4 124 (19.41%) Shell Script
5 87 (13.62%) PL/SQL
6 54 (8.45%) Bash
7 48 (7.51%) PowerShell
8 46 (7.20%) Perl
9 35 (5.48%) JavaScript
10 28 (4.38%) C#
11 20 (3.13%) C++
12 15 (2.35%) C
12 15 (2.35%) Korn
13 8 (1.25%) Go
14 6 (0.94%) ABAP
14 6 (0.94%) COBOL
14 6 (0.94%) Kotlin
14 6 (0.94%) MUMPS
14 6 (0.94%) Scala
14 6 (0.94%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 230 (35.99%) Security Cleared
2 196 (30.67%) SC Cleared
3 60 (9.39%) Degree
4 29 (4.54%) BPSS Clearance
5 15 (2.35%) CISSP
6 14 (2.19%) DV Cleared
7 13 (2.03%) Computer Science Degree
8 10 (1.56%) CISM
9 8 (1.25%) Cisco Certification
10 7 (1.10%) CRISC
11 6 (0.94%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 6 (0.94%) CESG Certified Professional
11 6 (0.94%) CompTIA Security+
11 6 (0.94%) GIAC
11 6 (0.94%) ISEB
11 6 (0.94%) ISTQB
12 5 (0.78%) RHCE
12 5 (0.78%) SANS
13 4 (0.63%) GSEC
13 4 (0.63%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 37 (5.79%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 35 (5.48%) NIST
3 29 (4.54%) QA
4 25 (3.91%) Data Quality
5 14 (2.19%) SLA
6 12 (1.88%) GDPR
7 7 (1.10%) Cyber Essentials
7 7 (1.10%) ISO 20022
8 6 (0.94%) ISO 31000
9 5 (0.78%) GRC
9 5 (0.78%) PCI DSS
10 4 (0.63%) Disclosure Scotland
10 4 (0.63%) ISO 15022
10 4 (0.63%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 3 (0.47%) NIST 800
12 2 (0.31%) NCSC
13 1 (0.16%) ISO 8583
13 1 (0.16%) MIL-STD-1553
13 1 (0.16%) SEPA
13 1 (0.16%) SOC 2
System Software
1 55 (8.61%) Docker
2 40 (6.26%) Active Directory
3 25 (3.91%) Oracle RAC
4 24 (3.76%) VMware Infrastructure
5 17 (2.66%) NFS
6 7 (1.10%) Firmware
6 7 (1.10%) PowerHA
7 6 (0.94%) VMware ESXi
8 5 (0.78%) GPFS
8 5 (0.78%) Postfix
8 5 (0.78%) Varnish
8 5 (0.78%) Virtual Machines
8 5 (0.78%) vSphere
9 4 (0.63%) Sendmail
10 3 (0.47%) GridGain
10 3 (0.47%) HDFS
10 3 (0.47%) Veritas Volume Manager
10 3 (0.47%) VirtualBox
11 2 (0.31%) SRDF
12 1 (0.16%) RACF
Systems Management
1 68 (10.64%) Kubernetes
2 59 (9.23%) Ansible
3 39 (6.10%) Terraform
4 34 (5.32%) Oracle RMAN
5 33 (5.16%) Grafana
6 20 (3.13%) Data Guard
6 20 (3.13%) Prometheus
7 18 (2.82%) Progress Chef
8 17 (2.66%) Control-M
9 16 (2.50%) Puppet
10 14 (2.19%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
11 11 (1.72%) Kibana
12 10 (1.56%) Single Sign-On
13 7 (1.10%) Tivoli Storage Manager
14 6 (0.94%) Tivoli
15 5 (0.78%) HAProxy
15 5 (0.78%) HP Fortify
15 5 (0.78%) Oracle ZFS
15 5 (0.78%) vRealize
15 5 (0.78%) VxRail
Vendors
1 247 (38.65%) Oracle
2 54 (8.45%) IBM
3 45 (7.04%) Microsoft
4 41 (6.42%) Splunk
5 40 (6.26%) BeyondTrust
6 33 (5.16%) Informatica
7 31 (4.85%) CyberArk
8 30 (4.69%) Sybase
9 29 (4.54%) Talend
9 29 (4.54%) VMware
10 28 (4.38%) Red Hat
11 26 (4.07%) SAP
12 21 (3.29%) Denodo
12 21 (3.29%) ServiceNow
13 15 (2.35%) Dynatrace
14 12 (1.88%) Cisco
14 12 (1.88%) HP
15 11 (1.72%) BT
15 11 (1.72%) Solace
16 10 (1.56%) SaltStack