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

6 months to
30 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 223 167 115
Rank change year-on-year -56 -52 -7
Contract jobs citing Unix 656 583 761
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.20% 1.78% 2.02%
As % of the Operating Systems category 12.17% 13.10% 14.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 432 383 470
10th Percentile £341 £288 £350
25th Percentile £418 £400 £408
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £492 £509
Median % change year-on-year +1.63% -3.29% -7.50%
75th Percentile £592 £615 £614
90th Percentile £725 £738 £765
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £466 £450
% change year-on-year +1.88% +3.61% -10.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 4 6
10th Percentile £43.81 £29.32 -
25th Percentile £45.67 £33.92 £23.80
Median hourly rate £52.50 £46.91 £25.65
Median % change year-on-year +11.92% +82.88% -63.54%
75th Percentile £55.38 £58.56 £28.75
90th Percentile £76.05 £65.43 £33.38
UK excluding London median hourly rate £52.50 £54.50 £27.50
% change year-on-year -3.67% +98.18% -63.02%

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 5,391 4,452 5,287
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.82% 13.56% 14.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,404 2,843 3,296
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% -5.00%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £575
90th Percentile £675 £662 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £425 £450
% change year-on-year +5.88% -5.56% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 405 294 252
10th Percentile £14.10 £15.50 £16.03
25th Percentile £17.25 £18.87 £21.95
Median hourly rate £26.00 £25.15 £52.50
Median % change year-on-year +3.38% -52.10% +19.77%
75th Percentile £65.00 £57.50 £69.77
90th Percentile £74.00 £67.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.29 £25.15 £56.75
% change year-on-year +28.39% -55.68% +37.02%

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 30 September 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 30 September 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 30 September 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 -57 541 £500 - 345
UK excluding London -70 343 £475 +1.88% 164
London -74 226 £550 +1.29% 223
Work from Home -23 194 £510 +7.42% 135
North of England -40 128 £481 -2.34% 29
North West -3 91 £482 +7.11% 14
South East -53 87 £459 +21.11% 29
Midlands -11 74 £474 -5.25% 25
West Midlands -15 69 £475 -8.48% 19
Scotland -53 41 £450 -5.26% 13
Yorkshire -51 28 £500 -23.08% 8
South West -38 15 £675 - 26
North East -31 12 £470 -6.00% 7
East of England -25 8 £700 +40.00% 17
East Midlands -19 4 £456 +16.24% 6
Wales -11 3 £383 +35.40% 10
Northern Ireland -3 1 - - 18

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 33 (5.03%) Confluence
2 29 (4.42%) SAS
3 19 (2.90%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 15 (2.29%) SharePoint
4 15 (2.29%) WebLogic
5 13 (1.98%) Apache Airflow
6 10 (1.52%) Apache Spark
7 7 (1.07%) Apache
7 7 (1.07%) OpenStack
8 6 (0.91%) WebLogic Portal
9 4 (0.61%) Oracle Workflow
10 3 (0.46%) IIS
10 3 (0.46%) nginx
10 3 (0.46%) WebSphere
11 2 (0.30%) CICS
11 2 (0.30%) CMS
11 2 (0.30%) Microsoft Exchange
11 2 (0.30%) Oracle Service Bus
12 1 (0.15%) NetWeaver
12 1 (0.15%) Tomcat
Applications
1 14 (2.13%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (1.07%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (1.07%) Notepad++
3 2 (0.30%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 2 (0.30%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 14 (2.13%) Oracle EBS
2 7 (1.07%) Oracle EBS R12
3 6 (0.91%) SAP PSCD
4 4 (0.61%) Oracle Assets
4 4 (0.61%) Oracle E-Business Tax
4 4 (0.61%) Oracle FAH
4 4 (0.61%) Oracle General Ledger
4 4 (0.61%) Oracle Internet Expenses
4 4 (0.61%) Oracle iProcurement
4 4 (0.61%) Oracle Payables
4 4 (0.61%) Oracle Receivables
5 3 (0.46%) FLEXCUBE
5 3 (0.46%) Oracle Applications
5 3 (0.46%) Oracle Financials
6 2 (0.30%) Oracle ERP
6 2 (0.30%) Oracle Retail
6 2 (0.30%) SAP S/4HANA
7 1 (0.15%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
7 1 (0.15%) Payment Gateway
7 1 (0.15%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 150 (22.87%) AWS
2 89 (13.57%) Azure
3 54 (8.23%) GCP
4 37 (5.64%) GitHub
5 29 (4.42%) Serverless
6 28 (4.27%) AWS Lambda
7 26 (3.96%) Amazon S3
8 23 (3.51%) IaaS
9 21 (3.20%) Entra ID
9 21 (3.20%) GitHub Actions
10 18 (2.74%) OpenShift
11 17 (2.59%) SaaS
12 15 (2.29%) AWS CloudFormation
12 15 (2.29%) PaaS
13 14 (2.13%) Azure DevOps
13 14 (2.13%) Power Platform
14 13 (1.98%) Amazon EC2
15 10 (1.52%) Amazon ECS
15 10 (1.52%) Snowflake
16 9 (1.37%) GitHub Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 30 (4.57%) DNS
1 30 (4.57%) Firewall
1 30 (4.57%) TCP/IP
2 18 (2.74%) SAN
3 14 (2.13%) HTTP
4 13 (1.98%) DHCP
4 13 (1.98%) SSH
5 12 (1.83%) Network Security
6 9 (1.37%) NAS
6 9 (1.37%) SSL
6 9 (1.37%) WAN
7 8 (1.22%) LAN
8 7 (1.07%) LTE
8 7 (1.07%) PuTTY
8 7 (1.07%) WinSCP
9 6 (0.91%) 5G
9 6 (0.91%) Diameter Protocol
9 6 (0.91%) Radio Access Network
9 6 (0.91%) VoLTE
9 6 (0.91%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 59 (8.99%) Oracle Database
2 54 (8.23%) SQL Server
3 53 (8.08%) PostgreSQL
4 50 (7.62%) Relational Database
5 44 (6.71%) Data Warehouse
6 28 (4.27%) MongoDB
7 24 (3.66%) MySQL
8 21 (3.20%) Db2
9 20 (3.05%) Oracle Database 11g
10 19 (2.90%) NoSQL
11 17 (2.59%) DataStage
12 16 (2.44%) RDBMS
13 15 (2.29%) Oracle Database 12c
14 14 (2.13%) Power BI
15 13 (1.98%) BusinessObjects
15 13 (1.98%) Data Lake
15 13 (1.98%) KDB
15 13 (1.98%) Oracle Database 10g
16 12 (1.83%) Oracle Reports
16 12 (1.83%) PowerCenter
Development Applications
1 83 (12.65%) Git
2 64 (9.76%) Jenkins
3 53 (8.08%) GitLab
4 51 (7.77%) JIRA
5 20 (3.05%) Artifactory
6 13 (1.98%) JUnit
6 13 (1.98%) Maven
7 12 (1.83%) Gradle
7 12 (1.83%) SonarQube
8 11 (1.68%) Mockito
9 10 (1.52%) Bitbucket
10 9 (1.37%) Oracle Forms
10 9 (1.37%) Selenium
10 9 (1.37%) Sonatype Nexus
11 8 (1.22%) eggPlant
12 7 (1.07%) HP UFT
13 6 (0.91%) Cucumber
14 5 (0.76%) LoadRunner
14 5 (0.76%) Postman
14 5 (0.76%) SoapUI
General
1 173 (26.37%) Finance
2 146 (22.26%) Social Skills
3 112 (17.07%) Banking
4 108 (16.46%) Analytical Skills
5 51 (7.77%) Public Sector
6 29 (4.42%) Investment Banking
7 22 (3.35%) Front Office
8 21 (3.20%) Documentation Skills
9 11 (1.68%) Telecoms
10 8 (1.22%) Retail
11 7 (1.07%) Military
12 5 (0.76%) Financial Institution
12 5 (0.76%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 5 (0.76%) Influencing Skills
12 5 (0.76%) Legal
13 4 (0.61%) Corporate Banking
13 4 (0.61%) Law
13 4 (0.61%) Presentation Skills
14 3 (0.46%) General Ledger
15 2 (0.30%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 137 (20.88%) Developer
2 105 (16.01%) Senior
3 70 (10.67%) Unix Engineer
4 59 (8.99%) Data Engineer
5 51 (7.77%) Senior Developer
6 47 (7.16%) Java Developer
7 42 (6.40%) DBA
8 36 (5.49%) Linux Engineer
9 29 (4.42%) Python Developer
10 28 (4.27%) Consultant
10 28 (4.27%) Oracle DBA
10 28 (4.27%) Support Engineer
11 25 (3.81%) Analyst
12 23 (3.51%) Architect
13 21 (3.20%) Administrator
14 19 (2.90%) DevOps Engineer
15 18 (2.74%) Senior Java Developer
16 17 (2.59%) Applications Support
17 16 (2.44%) Lead
18 15 (2.29%) Automation Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 72 (10.98%) Kafka
2 54 (8.23%) REST
2 54 (8.23%) Terraform
3 45 (6.86%) Middleware
4 41 (6.25%) RESTful
5 39 (5.95%) Spring
6 37 (5.64%) Spring Boot
7 26 (3.96%) XML
8 25 (3.81%) Web Services
9 22 (3.35%) .NET
9 22 (3.35%) HTML
10 21 (3.20%) SOAP
11 20 (3.05%) CSS
12 15 (2.29%) Flask
13 14 (2.13%) RabbitMQ
14 13 (1.98%) JDBC
14 13 (1.98%) Pandas
15 12 (1.83%) ActiveMQ
15 12 (1.83%) Django
15 12 (1.83%) FastAPI
Miscellaneous
1 46 (7.01%) Onboarding
2 36 (5.49%) Distributed Systems
3 35 (5.34%) Legacy Systems
3 35 (5.34%) Linux Command Line
4 33 (5.03%) Data Centre
5 27 (4.12%) Cloud Native
6 21 (3.20%) Clustering
6 21 (3.20%) Replication
7 19 (2.90%) Management Information System
8 18 (2.74%) Fixed Income
9 16 (2.44%) Derivative
10 14 (2.13%) Mainframe
11 13 (1.98%) Data Protection Act
11 13 (1.98%) PKI
11 13 (1.98%) Private Cloud
12 12 (1.83%) Legacy Applications
12 12 (1.83%) Product Ownership
12 12 (1.83%) Public Cloud
13 11 (1.68%) Enterprise Software
13 11 (1.68%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 441 (67.23%) Linux
2 145 (22.10%) Windows
3 78 (11.89%) Solaris
4 43 (6.55%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 42 (6.40%) Windows Server
6 33 (5.03%) AIX
7 9 (1.37%) SUSE
8 8 (1.22%) HPUX
9 7 (1.07%) Oracle Linux
9 7 (1.07%) VMS
10 6 (0.91%) CentOS
10 6 (0.91%) Mac OS X
11 4 (0.61%) zOS
12 3 (0.46%) Android
12 3 (0.46%) Check Point GAiA
13 2 (0.30%) OpenVMS
14 1 (0.15%) Ubuntu
14 1 (0.15%) Windows Server 2008
14 1 (0.15%) Windows Server 2016
14 1 (0.15%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 165 (25.15%) CI/CD
2 132 (20.12%) Agile
3 124 (18.90%) Migration
4 113 (17.23%) Problem-Solving
5 112 (17.07%) DevOps
6 99 (15.09%) Test Automation
7 83 (12.65%) Root Cause Analysis
8 82 (12.50%) High Availability
9 69 (10.52%) Data Modelling
10 68 (10.37%) Continuous Improvement
11 66 (10.06%) Performance Tuning
12 64 (9.76%) Infrastructure as Code
13 62 (9.45%) ITIL
14 61 (9.30%) ETL
15 59 (8.99%) Containerisation
15 59 (8.99%) Runbook
16 58 (8.84%) Data Pipeline
17 57 (8.69%) Validation
18 56 (8.54%) Stakeholder Management
19 54 (8.23%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 253 (38.57%) SQL
2 251 (38.26%) Python
3 136 (20.73%) Java
4 124 (18.90%) Shell Script
5 85 (12.96%) PL/SQL
6 69 (10.52%) Bash
7 56 (8.54%) PowerShell
8 41 (6.25%) Perl
9 38 (5.79%) JavaScript
10 29 (4.42%) C#
11 21 (3.20%) C++
12 15 (2.29%) C
13 9 (1.37%) Go
14 7 (1.07%) Korn
14 7 (1.07%) Kotlin
14 7 (1.07%) MUMPS
15 6 (0.91%) ABAP
15 6 (0.91%) Groovy
15 6 (0.91%) Scala
15 6 (0.91%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 240 (36.59%) Security Cleared
2 194 (29.57%) SC Cleared
3 69 (10.52%) Degree
4 34 (5.18%) BPSS Clearance
5 20 (3.05%) DV Cleared
6 18 (2.74%) Computer Science Degree
7 15 (2.29%) CISSP
8 9 (1.37%) Cisco Certification
8 9 (1.37%) CISM
9 7 (1.07%) CRISC
9 7 (1.07%) Master's Degree
9 7 (1.07%) Oracle Certification
10 6 (0.91%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 6 (0.91%) CESG Certified Professional
10 6 (0.91%) CompTIA Security+
10 6 (0.91%) GIAC
10 6 (0.91%) ISEB
10 6 (0.91%) ISTQB
11 5 (0.76%) RHCE
11 5 (0.76%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 36 (5.49%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 33 (5.03%) Data Quality
2 33 (5.03%) QA
3 32 (4.88%) NIST
4 12 (1.83%) GDPR
4 12 (1.83%) SLA
5 9 (1.37%) ISO 20022
6 7 (1.07%) Cyber Essentials
6 7 (1.07%) PCI DSS
7 6 (0.91%) ISO 31000
8 5 (0.76%) Basel III
8 5 (0.76%) GRC
8 5 (0.76%) ISO 15022
9 4 (0.61%) NCSC
10 3 (0.46%) Disclosure Scotland
11 2 (0.30%) SEPA
12 1 (0.15%) Accessibility
12 1 (0.15%) MIL-STD-1553
12 1 (0.15%) SOC 2
12 1 (0.15%) WCAG
System Software
1 64 (9.76%) Docker
2 38 (5.79%) Active Directory
3 27 (4.12%) VMware Infrastructure
4 17 (2.59%) Oracle RAC
5 15 (2.29%) NFS
6 10 (1.52%) Virtual Machines
7 5 (0.76%) VMware ESXi
8 4 (0.61%) Firmware
8 4 (0.61%) GPFS
8 4 (0.61%) Postfix
8 4 (0.61%) PowerHA
8 4 (0.61%) Varnish
8 4 (0.61%) Veritas Volume Manager
8 4 (0.61%) vSphere
9 3 (0.46%) Sendmail
9 3 (0.46%) VirtualBox
10 1 (0.15%) HDFS
10 1 (0.15%) RACF
10 1 (0.15%) Veritas Cluster Server
10 1 (0.15%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 83 (12.65%) Kubernetes
2 62 (9.45%) Ansible
3 41 (6.25%) Grafana
4 30 (4.57%) Oracle RMAN
5 28 (4.27%) Prometheus
6 20 (3.05%) Data Guard
7 18 (2.74%) Progress Chef
8 16 (2.44%) Control-M
9 14 (2.13%) Puppet
10 11 (1.68%) Kibana
11 8 (1.22%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
12 7 (1.07%) Tivoli Storage Manager
13 6 (0.91%) Single Sign-On
13 6 (0.91%) Tivoli
14 5 (0.76%) Failover Clustering
14 5 (0.76%) HAProxy
14 5 (0.76%) HP Fortify
14 5 (0.76%) ITRS Geneos
14 5 (0.76%) NetBackup
14 5 (0.76%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 247 (37.65%) Oracle
2 57 (8.69%) IBM
3 54 (8.23%) Splunk
4 48 (7.32%) Microsoft
5 38 (5.79%) BeyondTrust
6 32 (4.88%) Informatica
6 32 (4.88%) Red Hat
7 30 (4.57%) VMware
8 29 (4.42%) CyberArk
9 23 (3.51%) Talend
10 22 (3.35%) Sybase
11 21 (3.20%) ServiceNow
12 20 (3.05%) SAP
13 18 (2.74%) Denodo
13 18 (2.74%) Dynatrace
13 18 (2.74%) Google
14 12 (1.83%) HP
14 12 (1.83%) SaltStack
15 11 (1.68%) BT
16 10 (1.52%) AppDynamics