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

6 months to
3 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 227 169 120
Rank change year-on-year -58 -49 -23
Contract jobs citing Unix 637 564 765
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.19% 1.74% 2.00%
As % of the Operating Systems category 12.12% 12.82% 14.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 400 371 493
10th Percentile £342 £304 £350
25th Percentile £418 £404 £404
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £520
Median % change year-on-year - -3.85% -5.45%
75th Percentile £592 £610 £600
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £450
% change year-on-year - +5.56% -16.04%
Number of hourly rates quoted 19 6 6
10th Percentile £39.35 £43.87 -
25th Percentile £43.81 £52.00 £23.80
Median hourly rate £52.50 £54.75 £25.65
Median % change year-on-year -4.11% +113.45% -62.21%
75th Percentile £55.00 £55.00 £28.75
90th Percentile £73.63 £62.50 £50.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £52.50 £54.75 £27.50
% change year-on-year -4.11% +99.09% -57.28%

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 5,255 4,398 5,378
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.80% 13.53% 14.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,335 2,804 3,505
10th Percentile £190 £190 £200
25th Percentile £313 £308 £331
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £469 £460 £475
Median % change year-on-year +1.96% -3.16% -5.00%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £584
90th Percentile £675 £675 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £450
Number of hourly rates quoted 366 269 303
10th Percentile £14.50 £15.55 £12.75
25th Percentile £17.25 £18.51 £18.13
Median hourly rate £25.77 £25.15 £36.17
Median % change year-on-year +2.47% -30.46% -14.91%
75th Percentile £65.00 £58.69 £66.01
90th Percentile £74.00 £67.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.00 £25.15 £47.50
% change year-on-year +3.38% -47.05% +28.21%

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 3 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 3 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 3 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 -42 521 £500 - 414
UK excluding London -75 337 £475 - 175
London -68 215 £550 +4.76% 297
Work from Home -7 186 £500 +5.26% 130
North of England -17 116 £475 -8.83% 36
South East -51 95 £459 +2.34% 50
North West -2 83 £475 +6.26% 21
Midlands -17 71 £471 -8.50% 9
West Midlands -18 64 £474 -8.89% 8
Scotland -57 42 £367 -22.74% 19
Yorkshire -51 25 £500 -23.08% 8
South West -37 14 £663 -1.85% 35
North East -33 11 £475 - 7
East of England -25 8 £700 +40.00% 13
East Midlands -19 6 £456 +16.24% 1
Wales -13 4 £383 +35.40% 4
Northern Ireland -4 1 - - 12

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 (5.18%) Confluence
2 28 (4.40%) SAS
3 17 (2.67%) Apache Airflow
4 14 (2.20%) SharePoint
5 12 (1.88%) Apache Spark
5 12 (1.88%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 11 (1.73%) Apache
7 7 (1.10%) OpenStack
7 7 (1.10%) WebLogic
8 6 (0.94%) WebSphere
9 4 (0.63%) Oracle Workflow
10 3 (0.47%) IBM HTTP Server
10 3 (0.47%) NetWeaver
10 3 (0.47%) WebSphere Application Server
11 2 (0.31%) CICS
11 2 (0.31%) CMS
11 2 (0.31%) IIS
11 2 (0.31%) nginx
11 2 (0.31%) Oracle HTTP Server
11 2 (0.31%) WebSphere Portal
Applications
1 14 (2.20%) Microsoft Office
2 8 (1.26%) Microsoft Excel
3 7 (1.10%) Notepad++
4 2 (0.31%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.31%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 7 (1.10%) 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%) SAP S/4HANA
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 EBS R12
5 2 (0.31%) Oracle ERP
5 2 (0.31%) Oracle Retail
6 1 (0.16%) Fidessa
6 1 (0.16%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 142 (22.29%) AWS
2 87 (13.66%) Azure
3 47 (7.38%) GitHub
4 41 (6.44%) GCP
5 30 (4.71%) GitHub Actions
6 25 (3.92%) AWS Lambda
6 25 (3.92%) Serverless
7 24 (3.77%) IaaS
8 23 (3.61%) Amazon S3
9 21 (3.30%) Entra ID
10 18 (2.83%) SaaS
11 16 (2.51%) Azure DevOps
11 16 (2.51%) PaaS
12 14 (2.20%) OpenShift
12 14 (2.20%) Power Platform
13 12 (1.88%) Snowflake
14 10 (1.57%) Azure Data Factory
15 9 (1.41%) Amazon ECS
15 9 (1.41%) AWS CloudFormation
15 9 (1.41%) GitHub Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 28 (4.40%) DNS
1 28 (4.40%) Firewall
2 26 (4.08%) TCP/IP
3 21 (3.30%) SAN
4 15 (2.35%) HTTP
5 12 (1.88%) DHCP
6 11 (1.73%) SSH
6 11 (1.73%) SSL
7 10 (1.57%) NAS
8 7 (1.10%) LAN
8 7 (1.10%) LTE
8 7 (1.10%) PuTTY
8 7 (1.10%) WAN
8 7 (1.10%) WinSCP
9 6 (0.94%) 5G
9 6 (0.94%) Diameter Protocol
9 6 (0.94%) Internet
9 6 (0.94%) Radio Access Network
9 6 (0.94%) VoLTE
9 6 (0.94%) VoWiFi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 56 (8.79%) SQL Server
2 54 (8.48%) Oracle Database
3 46 (7.22%) Relational Database
4 40 (6.28%) PostgreSQL
5 39 (6.12%) Data Warehouse
6 24 (3.77%) MongoDB
7 22 (3.45%) MySQL
8 20 (3.14%) Db2
9 19 (2.98%) Metadata
10 17 (2.67%) NoSQL
10 17 (2.67%) Oracle Database 11g
11 16 (2.51%) DataStage
11 16 (2.51%) RDBMS
12 14 (2.20%) Amazon Aurora
12 14 (2.20%) Data Lake
12 14 (2.20%) Power BI
13 13 (2.04%) BusinessObjects
13 13 (2.04%) Oracle Reports
14 12 (1.88%) KDB
14 12 (1.88%) Sybase ASE
Development Applications
1 76 (11.93%) Git
2 70 (10.99%) Jenkins
3 57 (8.95%) JIRA
4 51 (8.01%) GitLab
5 23 (3.61%) Artifactory
6 14 (2.20%) Sonatype Nexus
7 11 (1.73%) Bitbucket
7 11 (1.73%) JUnit
7 11 (1.73%) SonarQube
8 10 (1.57%) Maven
8 10 (1.57%) Mockito
9 9 (1.41%) Oracle Forms
10 8 (1.26%) eggPlant
10 8 (1.26%) Selenium
11 5 (0.78%) Gradle
11 5 (0.78%) HP UFT
11 5 (0.78%) JMeter
11 5 (0.78%) LoadRunner
11 5 (0.78%) Postman
11 5 (0.78%) SoapUI
General
1 165 (25.90%) Finance
2 147 (23.08%) Social Skills
3 106 (16.64%) Banking
4 103 (16.17%) Analytical Skills
5 51 (8.01%) Public Sector
6 30 (4.71%) Investment Banking
7 22 (3.45%) Front Office
8 21 (3.30%) Documentation Skills
9 11 (1.73%) Telecoms
10 9 (1.41%) Retail
11 6 (0.94%) Financial Institution
12 5 (0.78%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 5 (0.78%) Influencing Skills
12 5 (0.78%) Military
13 4 (0.63%) Corporate Banking
13 4 (0.63%) Presentation Skills
14 3 (0.47%) General Ledger
14 3 (0.47%) Legal
15 2 (0.31%) Law
15 2 (0.31%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 139 (21.82%) Developer
2 104 (16.33%) Senior
3 65 (10.20%) Data Engineer
4 64 (10.05%) Unix Engineer
5 53 (8.32%) Senior Developer
6 48 (7.54%) Java Developer
7 34 (5.34%) DBA
8 33 (5.18%) Python Developer
9 32 (5.02%) Support Engineer
10 31 (4.87%) Analyst
11 30 (4.71%) Linux Engineer
12 25 (3.92%) Consultant
13 24 (3.77%) Architect
14 22 (3.45%) Oracle DBA
15 21 (3.30%) Administrator
16 20 (3.14%) Senior Java Developer
17 17 (2.67%) Applications Support
17 17 (2.67%) DevOps Engineer
18 15 (2.35%) Lead
19 13 (2.04%) Automation Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 68 (10.68%) Kafka
2 48 (7.54%) Terraform
3 43 (6.75%) REST
4 40 (6.28%) Middleware
4 40 (6.28%) RESTful
5 33 (5.18%) Spring
6 31 (4.87%) Spring Boot
7 26 (4.08%) XML
8 23 (3.61%) Web Services
9 21 (3.30%) .NET
10 19 (2.98%) HTML
10 19 (2.98%) SOAP
11 18 (2.83%) CSS
12 16 (2.51%) RabbitMQ
13 15 (2.35%) Django
13 15 (2.35%) Flask
14 14 (2.20%) Pandas
15 13 (2.04%) FastAPI
15 13 (2.04%) JDBC
15 13 (2.04%) PySpark
Miscellaneous
1 46 (7.22%) Onboarding
2 37 (5.81%) Linux Command Line
3 36 (5.65%) Legacy Systems
4 31 (4.87%) Data Centre
4 31 (4.87%) Distributed Systems
5 29 (4.55%) Cloud Native
6 21 (3.30%) Fixed Income
7 20 (3.14%) Management Information System
8 18 (2.83%) Derivative
8 18 (2.83%) Replication
9 15 (2.35%) Clustering
10 14 (2.20%) Mainframe
11 13 (2.04%) Virtual Team
12 12 (1.88%) Data Protection Act
12 12 (1.88%) Enterprise Software
12 12 (1.88%) PKI
12 12 (1.88%) Self-Motivation
13 11 (1.73%) Data Structures
13 11 (1.73%) Private Cloud
13 11 (1.73%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 429 (67.35%) Linux
2 147 (23.08%) Windows
3 69 (10.83%) Solaris
4 42 (6.59%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 40 (6.28%) Windows Server
6 31 (4.87%) AIX
7 10 (1.57%) Oracle Linux
8 8 (1.26%) HPUX
9 7 (1.10%) SUSE
9 7 (1.10%) VMS
10 5 (0.78%) CentOS
11 4 (0.63%) Mac OS X
12 3 (0.47%) Android
12 3 (0.47%) Check Point GAiA
12 3 (0.47%) zOS
13 2 (0.31%) Mac OS
13 2 (0.31%) OpenVMS
13 2 (0.31%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
14 1 (0.16%) Windows Server 2008
14 1 (0.16%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 156 (24.49%) CI/CD
2 129 (20.25%) Agile
3 108 (16.95%) DevOps
4 107 (16.80%) Migration
5 106 (16.64%) Problem-Solving
6 97 (15.23%) Test Automation
7 80 (12.56%) High Availability
8 79 (12.40%) Root Cause Analysis
9 68 (10.68%) Data Modelling
9 68 (10.68%) ITIL
10 65 (10.20%) Performance Tuning
11 61 (9.58%) Continuous Improvement
12 60 (9.42%) Infrastructure as Code
13 58 (9.11%) Data Pipeline
13 58 (9.11%) ETL
14 57 (8.95%) Runbook
15 55 (8.63%) Containerisation
16 53 (8.32%) Microservices
17 50 (7.85%) Change Management
17 50 (7.85%) Disaster Recovery
Programming Languages
1 249 (39.09%) Python
2 248 (38.93%) SQL
3 132 (20.72%) Java
4 130 (20.41%) Shell Script
5 86 (13.50%) PL/SQL
6 63 (9.89%) Bash
7 51 (8.01%) PowerShell
8 44 (6.91%) Perl
9 34 (5.34%) JavaScript
10 28 (4.40%) C#
11 20 (3.14%) C++
12 15 (2.35%) C
13 8 (1.26%) Go
13 8 (1.26%) Korn
14 7 (1.10%) MUMPS
15 6 (0.94%) ABAP
15 6 (0.94%) Kotlin
15 6 (0.94%) Scala
15 6 (0.94%) T-SQL
16 5 (0.78%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 224 (35.16%) Security Cleared
2 184 (28.89%) SC Cleared
3 60 (9.42%) Degree
4 33 (5.18%) BPSS Clearance
5 20 (3.14%) DV Cleared
6 14 (2.20%) CISSP
7 13 (2.04%) Computer Science Degree
8 9 (1.41%) CISM
9 8 (1.26%) 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%) Oracle Certification
12 5 (0.78%) RHCE
12 5 (0.78%) SANS
13 4 (0.63%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 37 (5.81%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 35 (5.49%) NIST
3 32 (5.02%) QA
4 31 (4.87%) Data Quality
5 12 (1.88%) GDPR
5 12 (1.88%) SLA
6 9 (1.41%) ISO 20022
7 7 (1.10%) Cyber Essentials
8 6 (0.94%) ISO 31000
9 5 (0.78%) GRC
9 5 (0.78%) ISO 15022
9 5 (0.78%) PCI DSS
10 4 (0.63%) Disclosure Scotland
10 4 (0.63%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 3 (0.47%) NIST 800
12 2 (0.31%) NCSC
12 2 (0.31%) SEPA
13 1 (0.16%) Basel III
13 1 (0.16%) ISO 8583
13 1 (0.16%) MIL-STD-1553
System Software
1 67 (10.52%) Docker
2 39 (6.12%) Active Directory
3 25 (3.92%) VMware Infrastructure
4 19 (2.98%) Oracle RAC
5 16 (2.51%) NFS
6 8 (1.26%) Virtual Machines
7 5 (0.78%) Firmware
7 5 (0.78%) PowerHA
7 5 (0.78%) VMware ESXi
8 4 (0.63%) GPFS
8 4 (0.63%) Postfix
8 4 (0.63%) Varnish
8 4 (0.63%) Veritas Volume Manager
8 4 (0.63%) vSphere
9 3 (0.47%) GridGain
9 3 (0.47%) Sendmail
9 3 (0.47%) VirtualBox
10 1 (0.16%) RACF
10 1 (0.16%) Veritas Cluster Server
10 1 (0.16%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 77 (12.09%) Kubernetes
2 63 (9.89%) Ansible
3 36 (5.65%) Grafana
4 27 (4.24%) Oracle RMAN
5 24 (3.77%) Prometheus
6 20 (3.14%) Data Guard
7 17 (2.67%) Control-M
7 17 (2.67%) Progress Chef
8 16 (2.51%) Puppet
9 11 (1.73%) Kibana
10 9 (1.41%) Single Sign-On
11 7 (1.10%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
11 7 (1.10%) Tivoli Storage Manager
12 6 (0.94%) Tivoli
13 5 (0.78%) HP Fortify
13 5 (0.78%) ITRS Geneos
13 5 (0.78%) NetBackup
13 5 (0.78%) Oracle ZFS
14 4 (0.63%) HP ALM
14 4 (0.63%) vRealize
Vendors
1 244 (38.30%) Oracle
2 54 (8.48%) IBM
3 47 (7.38%) Splunk
4 44 (6.91%) Microsoft
5 40 (6.28%) BeyondTrust
6 31 (4.87%) Red Hat
7 30 (4.71%) CyberArk
7 30 (4.71%) Informatica
8 28 (4.40%) VMware
9 27 (4.24%) Sybase
10 23 (3.61%) Talend
11 22 (3.45%) SAP
12 20 (3.14%) ServiceNow
13 18 (2.83%) Denodo
14 15 (2.35%) Dynatrace
15 13 (2.04%) Google
16 11 (1.73%) AppDynamics
16 11 (1.73%) BT
16 11 (1.73%) SaltStack
16 11 (1.73%) Solace