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

6 months to
10 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 233 163 117
Rank change year-on-year -70 -46 -11
Contract jobs citing Unix 621 592 777
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.14% 1.79% 2.05%
As % of the Operating Systems category 11.72% 13.03% 14.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 416 387 483
10th Percentile £342 £281 £350
25th Percentile £420 £400 £401
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £492 £508
Median % change year-on-year +1.63% -3.05% -7.73%
75th Percentile £600 £618 £625
90th Percentile £725 £738 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £481 £454 £450
% change year-on-year +5.95% +0.89% -10.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 4 6
10th Percentile - £29.32 -
25th Percentile £43.81 £33.92 £23.80
Median hourly rate £52.50 £46.91 £25.65
Median % change year-on-year +11.92% +82.88% -65.20%
75th Percentile £72.66 £58.56 £28.75
90th Percentile £77.50 £65.43 £33.38
UK excluding London median hourly rate £52.50 £54.50 £27.50
% change year-on-year -3.67% +98.18% -63.33%

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 5,297 4,542 5,324
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.70% 13.71% 14.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,338 2,903 3,293
10th Percentile £193 £185 £200
25th Percentile £313 £281 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £470 £450 £475
Median % change year-on-year +4.44% -5.26% -4.04%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £575
90th Percentile £675 £653 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £425 £448
% change year-on-year +5.88% -5.03% -0.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 404 305 252
10th Percentile £14.10 £15.50 £16.25
25th Percentile £17.25 £18.87 £22.95
Median hourly rate £25.77 £25.15 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +2.47% -54.27% +25.47%
75th Percentile £65.00 £43.75 £68.75
90th Percentile £74.00 £67.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.77 £25.00 £57.50
% change year-on-year +3.08% -56.52% +38.85%

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 10 October 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 10 October 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 10 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 -79 514 £500 +1.32% 444
UK excluding London -76 313 £481 +5.95% 161
London -86 226 £550 +2.52% 305
Work from Home -27 182 £525 +10.53% 139
North of England -36 125 £482 +1.47% 39
North West -9 90 £484 +7.56% 21
South East -70 77 £459 +22.40% 36
Midlands -29 61 £481 -2.83% 19
West Midlands -31 56 £484 -6.07% 12
Scotland -57 35 £450 -5.26% 17
Yorkshire -39 27 £500 -19.35% 11
South West -24 17 £650 -13.33% 18
North East -35 11 £475 -5.00% 7
East of England -34 7 £700 +40.00% 11
East Midlands -15 4 £456 +16.24% 7
Wales -10 3 £383 +35.40% 7
Northern Ireland +2 1 - - 16

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 35 (5.64%) Confluence
2 23 (3.70%) SAS
3 19 (3.06%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 15 (2.42%) SharePoint
4 15 (2.42%) WebLogic
5 13 (2.09%) Apache Airflow
6 8 (1.29%) Apache Spark
7 7 (1.13%) OpenStack
8 6 (0.97%) WebLogic Portal
9 5 (0.81%) Apache
10 4 (0.64%) Oracle Workflow
11 3 (0.48%) IIS
11 3 (0.48%) WebSphere
12 2 (0.32%) Microsoft Exchange
12 2 (0.32%) nginx
12 2 (0.32%) Oracle Service Bus
13 1 (0.16%) CMS
13 1 (0.16%) JBoss
13 1 (0.16%) NetWeaver
13 1 (0.16%) Tomcat
Applications
1 14 (2.25%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (0.97%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (0.32%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 2 (0.32%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.16%) Notepad++
Business Applications
1 14 (2.25%) Oracle EBS
2 7 (1.13%) Oracle EBS R12
3 6 (0.97%) SAP PSCD
4 4 (0.64%) Oracle Assets
4 4 (0.64%) Oracle E-Business Tax
4 4 (0.64%) Oracle FAH
4 4 (0.64%) Oracle General Ledger
4 4 (0.64%) Oracle Internet Expenses
4 4 (0.64%) Oracle iProcurement
4 4 (0.64%) Oracle Payables
4 4 (0.64%) Oracle Receivables
5 3 (0.48%) FLEXCUBE
5 3 (0.48%) Oracle Applications
5 3 (0.48%) Oracle Financials
6 2 (0.32%) Oracle ERP
6 2 (0.32%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 2 (0.32%) Oracle Retail
6 2 (0.32%) SAP S/4HANA
7 1 (0.16%) Payment Gateway
7 1 (0.16%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 145 (23.35%) AWS
2 89 (14.33%) Azure
3 58 (9.34%) GCP
4 36 (5.80%) GitHub
5 24 (3.86%) AWS Lambda
5 24 (3.86%) Serverless
6 22 (3.54%) Amazon S3
6 22 (3.54%) Entra ID
7 21 (3.38%) IaaS
8 19 (3.06%) GitHub Actions
9 17 (2.74%) SaaS
10 16 (2.58%) OpenShift
11 14 (2.25%) AWS CloudFormation
12 13 (2.09%) Azure DevOps
12 13 (2.09%) PaaS
12 13 (2.09%) Power Platform
13 11 (1.77%) Amazon EC2
14 10 (1.61%) Amazon ECS
15 9 (1.45%) Amazon EMR
15 9 (1.45%) GitHub Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 32 (5.15%) TCP/IP
2 30 (4.83%) Firewall
3 28 (4.51%) DNS
4 18 (2.90%) SAN
5 15 (2.42%) SSH
6 14 (2.25%) DHCP
7 13 (2.09%) HTTP
8 12 (1.93%) Network Security
9 9 (1.45%) NAS
9 9 (1.45%) SSL
9 9 (1.45%) WAN
10 8 (1.29%) LAN
11 7 (1.13%) LTE
12 6 (0.97%) 5G
12 6 (0.97%) Diameter Protocol
12 6 (0.97%) Radio Access Network
12 6 (0.97%) VLAN
12 6 (0.97%) VoLTE
12 6 (0.97%) VoWiFi
12 6 (0.97%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 59 (9.50%) Oracle Database
2 52 (8.37%) PostgreSQL
3 49 (7.89%) Relational Database
4 45 (7.25%) SQL Server
5 36 (5.80%) Data Warehouse
6 27 (4.35%) MongoDB
7 24 (3.86%) MySQL
8 22 (3.54%) Db2
9 19 (3.06%) NoSQL
9 19 (3.06%) Oracle Database 11g
10 16 (2.58%) RDBMS
11 15 (2.42%) DataStage
11 15 (2.42%) Oracle Database 12c
12 13 (2.09%) Data Lake
12 13 (2.09%) Oracle Database 10g
12 13 (2.09%) Power BI
12 13 (2.09%) PowerCenter
13 12 (1.93%) KDB
14 11 (1.77%) Amazon RDS
14 11 (1.77%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 83 (13.37%) Git
2 65 (10.47%) Jenkins
3 51 (8.21%) JIRA
4 50 (8.05%) GitLab
5 20 (3.22%) Artifactory
6 15 (2.42%) JUnit
6 15 (2.42%) Maven
7 14 (2.25%) Gradle
7 14 (2.25%) SonarQube
8 11 (1.77%) Bitbucket
8 11 (1.77%) Mockito
9 9 (1.45%) Oracle Forms
9 9 (1.45%) Selenium
9 9 (1.45%) Sonatype Nexus
10 8 (1.29%) Cucumber
10 8 (1.29%) eggPlant
11 7 (1.13%) HP UFT
12 5 (0.81%) JMeter
12 5 (0.81%) LoadRunner
12 5 (0.81%) SoapUI
General
1 168 (27.05%) Finance
2 142 (22.87%) Social Skills
3 109 (17.55%) Analytical Skills
4 106 (17.07%) Banking
5 42 (6.76%) Public Sector
6 29 (4.67%) Investment Banking
7 22 (3.54%) Front Office
8 16 (2.58%) Documentation Skills
9 10 (1.61%) Telecoms
10 9 (1.45%) Retail
11 6 (0.97%) Financial Institution
11 6 (0.97%) Military
12 5 (0.81%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 5 (0.81%) Legal
13 4 (0.64%) Corporate Banking
13 4 (0.64%) Law
13 4 (0.64%) Presentation Skills
14 3 (0.48%) General Ledger
14 3 (0.48%) Influencing Skills
15 2 (0.32%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 131 (21.10%) Developer
2 101 (16.26%) Senior
3 67 (10.79%) Unix Engineer
4 48 (7.73%) Senior Developer
5 44 (7.09%) Data Engineer
6 41 (6.60%) Java Developer
7 40 (6.44%) DBA
8 36 (5.80%) Linux Engineer
9 30 (4.83%) Consultant
10 28 (4.51%) Python Developer
10 28 (4.51%) Support Engineer
11 26 (4.19%) Oracle DBA
12 22 (3.54%) Analyst
13 21 (3.38%) Administrator
13 21 (3.38%) Architect
14 18 (2.90%) Applications Support
14 18 (2.90%) DevOps Engineer
15 16 (2.58%) Lead
15 16 (2.58%) Senior Java Developer
16 15 (2.42%) Automation Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 71 (11.43%) Kafka
2 57 (9.18%) REST
3 56 (9.02%) Terraform
4 44 (7.09%) Middleware
5 40 (6.44%) RESTful
6 37 (5.96%) Spring
7 35 (5.64%) Spring Boot
8 27 (4.35%) XML
9 26 (4.19%) Web Services
10 24 (3.86%) HTML
11 23 (3.70%) .NET
11 23 (3.70%) SOAP
12 22 (3.54%) CSS
13 15 (2.42%) Flask
14 13 (2.09%) Django
14 13 (2.09%) JDBC
14 13 (2.09%) RabbitMQ
15 12 (1.93%) ActiveMQ
15 12 (1.93%) AngularJS
15 12 (1.93%) Pandas
Miscellaneous
1 42 (6.76%) Onboarding
2 37 (5.96%) Distributed Systems
3 34 (5.48%) Legacy Systems
4 31 (4.99%) Cloud Native
5 29 (4.67%) Data Centre
6 27 (4.35%) Linux Command Line
7 22 (3.54%) Replication
8 21 (3.38%) Clustering
9 17 (2.74%) Fixed Income
9 17 (2.74%) Management Information System
10 16 (2.58%) Derivative
11 14 (2.25%) Data Protection Act
12 13 (2.09%) Enterprise Software
12 13 (2.09%) Mainframe
12 13 (2.09%) Market Risk
12 13 (2.09%) PKI
12 13 (2.09%) Private Cloud
12 13 (2.09%) Product Ownership
13 12 (1.93%) Data Structures
13 12 (1.93%) Legacy Applications
Operating Systems
1 418 (67.31%) Linux
2 140 (22.54%) Windows
3 74 (11.92%) Solaris
4 41 (6.60%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 41 (6.60%) Windows Server
5 30 (4.83%) AIX
6 8 (1.29%) SUSE
7 7 (1.13%) VMS
8 6 (0.97%) CentOS
8 6 (0.97%) HPUX
9 5 (0.81%) Mac OS X
9 5 (0.81%) Oracle Linux
9 5 (0.81%) zOS
10 3 (0.48%) Android
10 3 (0.48%) Check Point GAiA
11 2 (0.32%) Mac OS
11 2 (0.32%) OpenVMS
12 1 (0.16%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.16%) Windows Server 2008
12 1 (0.16%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 161 (25.93%) CI/CD
2 125 (20.13%) Agile
3 116 (18.68%) DevOps
4 114 (18.36%) Migration
5 113 (18.20%) Problem-Solving
6 97 (15.62%) Test Automation
7 81 (13.04%) High Availability
8 80 (12.88%) Root Cause Analysis
9 70 (11.27%) Performance Tuning
10 69 (11.11%) Data Modelling
11 68 (10.95%) Continuous Improvement
12 64 (10.31%) Infrastructure as Code
13 61 (9.82%) Stakeholder Management
14 59 (9.50%) Containerisation
14 59 (9.50%) Validation
15 58 (9.34%) ITIL
16 56 (9.02%) Data Pipeline
17 53 (8.53%) Disaster Recovery
18 52 (8.37%) Analytics
19 51 (8.21%) ETL
Programming Languages
1 238 (38.33%) Python
2 237 (38.16%) SQL
3 128 (20.61%) Java
4 116 (18.68%) Shell Script
5 78 (12.56%) PL/SQL
6 70 (11.27%) Bash
7 48 (7.73%) PowerShell
8 40 (6.44%) JavaScript
8 40 (6.44%) Perl
9 28 (4.51%) C#
10 22 (3.54%) C++
11 15 (2.42%) C
12 8 (1.29%) Go
13 7 (1.13%) Groovy
13 7 (1.13%) MUMPS
13 7 (1.13%) T-SQL
14 6 (0.97%) ABAP
14 6 (0.97%) Korn
14 6 (0.97%) Kotlin
14 6 (0.97%) Scala
Qualifications
1 220 (35.43%) Security Cleared
2 175 (28.18%) SC Cleared
3 67 (10.79%) Degree
4 29 (4.67%) BPSS Clearance
5 24 (3.86%) DV Cleared
6 23 (3.70%) Computer Science Degree
7 12 (1.93%) CISSP
8 9 (1.45%) Cisco Certification
9 8 (1.29%) CISM
9 8 (1.29%) Master's Degree
10 7 (1.13%) CRISC
10 7 (1.13%) Oracle Certification
11 6 (0.97%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 6 (0.97%) CESG Certified Professional
11 6 (0.97%) GIAC
11 6 (0.97%) ISEB
11 6 (0.97%) ISTQB
12 5 (0.81%) SANS
13 4 (0.64%) CompTIA Security+
13 4 (0.64%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 34 (5.48%) QA
2 33 (5.31%) Data Quality
3 28 (4.51%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 24 (3.86%) NIST
5 12 (1.93%) GDPR
5 12 (1.93%) SLA
6 9 (1.45%) ISO 20022
7 7 (1.13%) Cyber Essentials
7 7 (1.13%) PCI DSS
8 6 (0.97%) ISO 31000
9 5 (0.81%) Basel III
9 5 (0.81%) ISO 15022
10 4 (0.64%) NCSC
11 3 (0.48%) GRC
12 2 (0.32%) Disclosure Scotland
12 2 (0.32%) SEPA
13 1 (0.16%) Accessibility
13 1 (0.16%) ISO 8583
13 1 (0.16%) SOC 2
13 1 (0.16%) WCAG
System Software
1 63 (10.14%) Docker
2 32 (5.15%) Active Directory
3 26 (4.19%) VMware Infrastructure
4 16 (2.58%) Oracle RAC
5 11 (1.77%) NFS
6 10 (1.61%) Virtual Machines
7 4 (0.64%) Firmware
7 4 (0.64%) PowerHA
7 4 (0.64%) VirtualBox
7 4 (0.64%) VMware ESXi
8 3 (0.48%) GPFS
8 3 (0.48%) Veritas Volume Manager
8 3 (0.48%) vSphere
9 2 (0.32%) Postfix
9 2 (0.32%) Varnish
10 1 (0.16%) HDFS
10 1 (0.16%) Sendmail
10 1 (0.16%) Veritas Cluster Server
10 1 (0.16%) Virtual Servers
10 1 (0.16%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 85 (13.69%) Kubernetes
2 65 (10.47%) Ansible
3 40 (6.44%) Grafana
4 28 (4.51%) Oracle RMAN
5 27 (4.35%) Prometheus
6 19 (3.06%) Control-M
6 19 (3.06%) Data Guard
7 17 (2.74%) Progress Chef
8 14 (2.25%) Puppet
9 11 (1.77%) Kibana
10 7 (1.13%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
10 7 (1.13%) Single Sign-On
11 6 (0.97%) Tivoli Storage Manager
12 5 (0.81%) Failover Clustering
12 5 (0.81%) HP Fortify
12 5 (0.81%) ITRS Geneos
12 5 (0.81%) NetBackup
12 5 (0.81%) Netcool
12 5 (0.81%) Tivoli
12 5 (0.81%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 222 (35.75%) Oracle
2 57 (9.18%) IBM
2 57 (9.18%) Splunk
3 49 (7.89%) Microsoft
4 29 (4.67%) Red Hat
4 29 (4.67%) VMware
5 27 (4.35%) BeyondTrust
6 25 (4.03%) Informatica
6 25 (4.03%) ServiceNow
7 23 (3.70%) Sybase
8 22 (3.54%) CyberArk
8 22 (3.54%) Talend
9 21 (3.38%) Google
9 21 (3.38%) SAP
10 19 (3.06%) Dynatrace
11 16 (2.58%) Denodo
12 12 (1.93%) SaltStack
13 11 (1.77%) AppDynamics
13 11 (1.77%) BT
14 10 (1.61%) HP