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

6 months to
6 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 212 150 141
Rank change year-on-year -62 -9 -59
Contract jobs citing Unix 549 557 740
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.15% 1.90% 1.71%
As % of the Operating Systems category 11.72% 13.61% 12.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 335 335 489
10th Percentile £260 £363 £350
25th Percentile £400 £421 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £469 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year -6.20% -9.09% -
75th Percentile £555 £600 £656
90th Percentile £688 £725 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £472 £488
% change year-on-year -4.66% -3.18% -9.72%
Number of hourly rates quoted 24 9 21
10th Percentile £21.50 £39.70 £22.08
25th Percentile £27.34 £40.50 £23.80
Median hourly rate £52.50 £52.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year - +31.25% -31.09%
75th Percentile £53.75 £55.00 £48.75
90th Percentile £54.70 £67.25 £67.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £47.54 £52.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year -9.45% +31.25% -30.43%

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 4,683 4,093 5,764
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.83% 13.96% 13.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,035 2,689 3,886
10th Percentile £185 £200 £185
25th Percentile £313 £320 £300
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £470
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% +1.06% -6.84%
75th Percentile £575 £589 £588
90th Percentile £655 £699 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £432 £450 £450
% change year-on-year -3.94% - -5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 321 184 394
10th Percentile £16.01 £16.15 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.54 £18.10 £15.50
Median hourly rate £47.50 £24.09 £22.08
Median % change year-on-year +97.18% +9.13% -42.66%
75th Percentile £67.25 £62.50 £60.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £68.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £47.50 £22.88 £22.50
% change year-on-year +107.65% +1.67% -24.11%

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 6 May 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 6 May 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Unix in the UK

Unix
Top 16 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 6 May 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 -62 469 £469 -7.58% 116
UK excluding London -58 327 £450 -4.66% 83
London -75 173 £565 +2.73% 54
Work from Home -57 167 £469 -2.29% 63
South East -6 100 £373 -25.45% 24
North of England -35 99 £469 -10.76% 17
Midlands -14 86 £459 -0.22% 16
West Midlands -1 80 £457 -2.35% 12
North West -1 78 £475 +6.15% 12
Scotland -51 35 £425 -8.99% 2
Yorkshire -71 18 £460 -29.23% 4
Wales -11 5 £265 +58.62% 3
East Midlands -30 5 £525 +15.64% 4
South West -37 4 £638 +40.88% 10
East of England -48 4 £300 -33.33% 8
North East -19 3 £413 -26.67% 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 19 (3.46%) Apache
1 19 (3.46%) Confluence
2 18 (3.28%) WebLogic
3 17 (3.10%) Apache Spark
4 16 (2.91%) Tuxedo
5 15 (2.73%) SAS
6 11 (2.00%) Apache Airflow
7 10 (1.82%) CICS
8 7 (1.28%) SharePoint
9 6 (1.09%) NetWeaver
10 5 (0.91%) Oracle SOA Suite
11 4 (0.73%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 4 (0.73%) OpenStack
11 4 (0.73%) Oracle Workflow
11 4 (0.73%) Tomcat
12 3 (0.55%) IBM HTTP Server
12 3 (0.55%) WebSphere
12 3 (0.55%) WebSphere Application Server
13 2 (0.36%) Oracle Spatial
13 2 (0.36%) WebSphere Portal
Applications
1 12 (2.19%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (1.28%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (1.28%) Notepad++
3 4 (0.73%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.36%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.18%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 6 (1.09%) SAP S/4HANA
1 6 (1.09%) Summit
2 4 (0.73%) Oracle 11i
2 4 (0.73%) Oracle EBS
2 4 (0.73%) Oracle EBS R12
3 3 (0.55%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 2 (0.36%) Oracle BRM
4 2 (0.36%) Oracle ERP
5 1 (0.18%) Oracle Applications
5 1 (0.18%) Oracle Assets
5 1 (0.18%) Oracle Cash Management
5 1 (0.18%) Oracle CRM
5 1 (0.18%) Oracle Payables
5 1 (0.18%) Oracle Receivables
Cloud Services
1 93 (16.94%) AWS
2 73 (13.30%) Azure
3 30 (5.46%) GitHub
4 23 (4.19%) AWS Lambda
5 22 (4.01%) Serverless
6 21 (3.83%) GitHub Actions
7 20 (3.64%) Amazon S3
8 19 (3.46%) Entra ID
9 17 (3.10%) GCP
10 14 (2.55%) Azure DevOps
10 14 (2.55%) OpenShift
10 14 (2.55%) SaaS
11 12 (2.19%) IaaS
11 12 (2.19%) PaaS
12 10 (1.82%) Snowflake
13 9 (1.64%) Amazon EC2
13 9 (1.64%) Power Platform
14 8 (1.46%) AWS CloudFormation
14 8 (1.46%) Azure Data Factory
14 8 (1.46%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 35 (6.38%) Firewall
2 21 (3.83%) DNS
3 18 (3.28%) HTTP
4 15 (2.73%) SAN
5 14 (2.55%) TCP/IP
6 13 (2.37%) Network Security
7 10 (1.82%) Wireless
8 9 (1.64%) NAS
9 8 (1.46%) InfiniBand
10 7 (1.28%) Ethernet
10 7 (1.28%) NetScaler
10 7 (1.28%) PuTTY
10 7 (1.28%) SSH
10 7 (1.28%) SSL
10 7 (1.28%) VPN
10 7 (1.28%) WinSCP
11 6 (1.09%) FTP
11 6 (1.09%) Wireshark
12 5 (0.91%) Ethernet VPN
12 5 (0.91%) RTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 64 (11.66%) SQL Server
2 49 (8.93%) Relational Database
3 39 (7.10%) MySQL
4 36 (6.56%) Oracle Database
5 34 (6.19%) PostgreSQL
6 33 (6.01%) MongoDB
7 19 (3.46%) Metadata
8 17 (3.10%) Big Data
8 17 (3.10%) Data Warehouse
8 17 (3.10%) NoSQL
9 15 (2.73%) KDB
10 13 (2.37%) Amazon Aurora
10 13 (2.37%) BusinessObjects
10 13 (2.37%) DataStage
10 13 (2.37%) Kdb+
11 12 (2.19%) DB2
12 10 (1.82%) RDBMS
13 9 (1.64%) Data Lake
13 9 (1.64%) Elasticsearch
13 9 (1.64%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 52 (9.47%) Jenkins
2 41 (7.47%) Git
3 40 (7.29%) GitLab
4 35 (6.38%) JIRA
5 12 (2.19%) Artifactory
5 12 (2.19%) Mockito
6 11 (2.00%) MSI
7 9 (1.64%) Sonatype Nexus
8 8 (1.46%) Maven
9 7 (1.28%) Bitbucket
10 6 (1.09%) Android Studio
10 6 (1.09%) Browser DevTools
10 6 (1.09%) Eclipse
10 6 (1.09%) Xcode
11 5 (0.91%) SonarQube
11 5 (0.91%) Toad
12 4 (0.73%) CA Gen
12 4 (0.73%) JUnit
13 3 (0.55%) Ant
13 3 (0.55%) Introscope
General
1 138 (25.14%) Finance
2 124 (22.59%) Social Skills
3 76 (13.84%) Banking
4 60 (10.93%) Analytical Skills
5 57 (10.38%) Public Sector
6 24 (4.37%) Investment Banking
7 19 (3.46%) Documentation Skills
8 17 (3.10%) Front Office
9 10 (1.82%) Influencing Skills
10 9 (1.64%) Financial Institution
11 8 (1.46%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 8 (1.46%) Telecoms
12 6 (1.09%) Advertising
12 6 (1.09%) Retail
13 5 (0.91%) Military
14 4 (0.73%) Law
15 3 (0.55%) Billing
16 2 (0.36%) Local Government
16 2 (0.36%) Manufacturing
16 2 (0.36%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 96 (17.49%) Developer
2 74 (13.48%) Senior
3 51 (9.29%) Data Engineer
4 46 (8.38%) Unix Engineer
5 43 (7.83%) Analyst
6 38 (6.92%) Java Developer
7 37 (6.74%) Support Engineer
8 27 (4.92%) DBA
8 27 (4.92%) Site Reliability Engineer
9 26 (4.74%) Senior Developer
9 26 (4.74%) Technical Support
10 24 (4.37%) Site Engineer
11 23 (4.19%) Oracle DBA
12 22 (4.01%) Architect
13 21 (3.83%) Administrator
14 19 (3.46%) DevOps Engineer
14 19 (3.46%) Linux Engineer
15 18 (3.28%) Software Engineer
16 17 (3.10%) Consultant
16 17 (3.10%) Python Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 57 (10.38%) Kafka
2 27 (4.92%) REST
3 26 (4.74%) Middleware
4 23 (4.19%) RESTful
5 21 (3.83%) XML
6 16 (2.91%) CSS
7 15 (2.73%) Spring
8 14 (2.55%) Elastic Stack
8 14 (2.55%) Oracle GoldenGate
8 14 (2.55%) Spring Boot
9 13 (2.37%) React
10 12 (2.19%) JAX-RS
11 11 (2.00%) ActiveMQ
11 11 (2.00%) AngularJS
11 11 (2.00%) HTML
12 10 (1.82%) LDAP
12 10 (1.82%) SOAP
12 10 (1.82%) Web Services
13 9 (1.64%) JSON
14 8 (1.46%) Pandas
Miscellaneous
1 33 (6.01%) Onboarding
2 30 (5.46%) Linux Command Line
3 26 (4.74%) Management Information System
4 23 (4.19%) Data Centre
5 21 (3.83%) Cloud Native
6 20 (3.64%) Legacy Systems
7 15 (2.73%) Derivative
7 15 (2.73%) Fixed Income
7 15 (2.73%) Mainframe
8 11 (2.00%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
9 10 (1.82%) BYOD
9 10 (1.82%) Clustering
9 10 (1.82%) Equities
9 10 (1.82%) Public Cloud
9 10 (1.82%) Replication
9 10 (1.82%) Virtual Team
9 10 (1.82%) VSAM
10 8 (1.46%) Greenfield Project
10 8 (1.46%) Operational Technology
11 7 (1.28%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 365 (66.48%) Linux
2 152 (27.69%) Windows
3 39 (7.10%) Solaris
4 33 (6.01%) Windows Server
5 30 (5.46%) AIX
6 20 (3.64%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 13 (2.37%) Mac OS X
8 7 (1.28%) Oracle Linux
9 6 (1.09%) Android
10 5 (0.91%) HPUX
11 4 (0.73%) Mac OS
11 4 (0.73%) SUSE
12 2 (0.36%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
12 2 (0.36%) VMS
13 1 (0.18%) CentOS
13 1 (0.18%) OpenVMS
13 1 (0.18%) Rocky
13 1 (0.18%) Ubuntu
13 1 (0.18%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 121 (22.04%) Agile
2 101 (18.40%) CI/CD
3 99 (18.03%) Problem-Solving
4 83 (15.12%) Migration
5 79 (14.39%) DevOps
6 63 (11.48%) Observability
7 61 (11.11%) High Availability
7 61 (11.11%) ITIL
8 53 (9.65%) Disaster Recovery
8 53 (9.65%) Root Cause Analysis
9 51 (9.29%) Performance Tuning
10 48 (8.74%) Containerisation
11 47 (8.56%) Test Automation
12 46 (8.38%) Data Modelling
13 45 (8.20%) Change Management
13 45 (8.20%) Incident Management
14 44 (8.01%) Software Engineering
15 43 (7.83%) Computer Science
15 43 (7.83%) Microservices
16 42 (7.65%) Infrastructure as Code
Programming Languages
1 215 (39.16%) SQL
2 206 (37.52%) Python
3 120 (21.86%) Java
4 103 (18.76%) Shell Script
5 59 (10.75%) PL/SQL
6 57 (10.38%) Bash
7 55 (10.02%) Perl
8 48 (8.74%) PowerShell
9 40 (7.29%) JavaScript
10 25 (4.55%) C#
10 25 (4.55%) C++
11 24 (4.37%) Korn
12 11 (2.00%) COBOL
13 10 (1.82%) PHP
14 9 (1.64%) Go
15 8 (1.46%) Scala
16 4 (0.73%) Kotlin
17 3 (0.55%) C
17 3 (0.55%) HiveQL
17 3 (0.55%) Jython
Qualifications
1 171 (31.15%) Security Cleared
2 142 (25.87%) SC Cleared
3 67 (12.20%) Degree
4 29 (5.28%) Computer Science Degree
5 23 (4.19%) BPSS Clearance
6 17 (3.10%) CISSP
7 9 (1.64%) CompTIA Security+
8 8 (1.46%) CISM
9 7 (1.28%) Cisco Certification
9 7 (1.28%) DV Cleared
10 6 (1.09%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 6 (1.09%) CESG Certified Professional
10 6 (1.09%) CRISC
10 6 (1.09%) GIAC
10 6 (1.09%) Microsoft Certification
11 5 (0.91%) MCSA
11 5 (0.91%) MCSE
11 5 (0.91%) RHCE
11 5 (0.91%) SANS
12 4 (0.73%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 29 (5.28%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 28 (5.10%) NIST
3 19 (3.46%) SLA
4 13 (2.37%) QA
5 9 (1.64%) Data Quality
6 7 (1.28%) Cyber Essentials
7 6 (1.09%) ISO 31000
8 4 (0.73%) GRC
8 4 (0.73%) NIST 800
8 4 (0.73%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 3 (0.55%) Disclosure Scotland
9 3 (0.55%) FATCA
10 2 (0.36%) GMP
10 2 (0.36%) ISO 15022
10 2 (0.36%) ISO 20022
10 2 (0.36%) NCSC
10 2 (0.36%) PCI DSS
10 2 (0.36%) SEPA
11 1 (0.18%) GDPR
11 1 (0.18%) MIL-STD-1553
System Software
1 66 (12.02%) Docker
2 32 (5.83%) Active Directory
3 18 (3.28%) Oracle RAC
4 12 (2.19%) NFS
4 12 (2.19%) VMware Infrastructure
5 8 (1.46%) Virtual Machines
6 7 (1.28%) GPFS
6 7 (1.28%) KVM
7 6 (1.09%) Hyper-V
8 4 (0.73%) HDFS
8 4 (0.73%) Postfix
8 4 (0.73%) Varnish
9 3 (0.55%) Firmware
9 3 (0.55%) GridGain
9 3 (0.55%) PowerHA
9 3 (0.55%) Sendmail
9 3 (0.55%) VMware ESXi
9 3 (0.55%) vSphere
10 2 (0.36%) SRDF
11 1 (0.18%) Ceph
Systems Management
1 68 (12.39%) Kubernetes
2 65 (11.84%) Ansible
3 45 (8.20%) Grafana
4 39 (7.10%) Terraform
5 25 (4.55%) Prometheus
6 24 (4.37%) Oracle RMAN
7 16 (2.91%) Kibana
7 16 (2.91%) Puppet
8 15 (2.73%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
9 8 (1.46%) Data Guard
9 8 (1.46%) Single Sign-On
10 7 (1.28%) NetBackup
10 7 (1.28%) Progress Chef
11 6 (1.09%) Control-M
11 6 (1.09%) IBM BigFix
11 6 (1.09%) vCenter Server
12 5 (0.91%) CASB
12 5 (0.91%) Nessus
12 5 (0.91%) Salt
12 5 (0.91%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 210 (38.25%) Oracle
2 55 (10.02%) Splunk
3 43 (7.83%) Microsoft
4 40 (7.29%) IBM
5 26 (4.74%) CyberArk
5 26 (4.74%) ServiceNow
6 25 (4.55%) BeyondTrust
7 22 (4.01%) Informatica
8 21 (3.83%) Talend
9 20 (3.64%) VMware
10 19 (3.46%) Cisco
11 16 (2.91%) Red Hat
12 15 (2.73%) Sybase
13 12 (2.19%) Denodo
14 9 (1.64%) CheckPoint
14 9 (1.64%) Dynatrace
14 9 (1.64%) F5
14 9 (1.64%) Fujitsu
15 8 (1.46%) Aruba
15 8 (1.46%) Veritas