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 16 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 199 131 130
Rank change year-on-year -68 -1 -48
Contract jobs citing Unix 564 632 844
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.41% 2.06% 1.89%
As % of the Operating Systems category 11.80% 14.38% 13.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 371 351 573
10th Percentile £204 £350 £363
25th Percentile £391 £424 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £460 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -12.38% -4.55% -0.09%
75th Percentile £614 £650 £665
90th Percentile £738 £750 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £433 £465 £500
% change year-on-year -6.89% -7.10% -7.41%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 7 22
10th Percentile £22.48 £38.70 £22.01
25th Percentile £25.72 £40.50 £24.54
Median hourly rate £27.50 £41.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -32.93% +2.50% -38.22%
75th Percentile £28.75 £59.00 £52.50
90th Percentile £29.20 £69.50 £67.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.44 £47.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year -43.74% +17.50% -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 4,780 4,396 6,256
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 11.98% 14.33% 13.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,169 2,754 4,193
10th Percentile £177 £200 £181
25th Percentile £263 £313 £280
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £438 £475 £463
Median % change year-on-year -7.89% +2.70% -10.63%
75th Percentile £560 £588 £594
90th Percentile £675 £688 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £404 £425 £425
% change year-on-year -4.97% - -10.53%
Number of hourly rates quoted 336 149 385
10th Percentile £15.00 £16.22 £14.00
25th Percentile £17.91 £20.94 £16.92
Median hourly rate £23.25 £29.00 £25.25
Median % change year-on-year -19.83% +14.85% -1.94%
75th Percentile £53.75 £63.75 £62.50
90th Percentile £69.37 £69.00 £72.26
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.50 £27.50 £25.25
% change year-on-year -18.18% +8.91% -2.42%

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 16 February 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
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 16 February 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 -47 487 £472 -13.49% 93
UK excluding London -69 285 £433 -6.89% 75
London -34 229 £539 -6.30% 38
Work from Home -77 159 £454 -7.86% 59
North of England -28 98 £465 -20.85% 15
South East -18 82 £208 -54.30% 21
North West 0 60 £460 -16.36% 13
Midlands -38 58 £448 -2.62% 18
West Midlands -27 55 £449 -2.42% 16
Scotland -40 37 £420 -6.67% 8
Yorkshire -54 35 £478 -24.21%
South West -36 11 £700 +33.33% 5
North East -11 5 £563 +50.00% 2
East Midlands -25 3 £430 +1.78% 2
Wales -4 1 £265 +62.04% 2
East of England -37 1 £440 -2.22% 6

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 31 (5.50%) Apache
2 30 (5.32%) WebLogic
3 21 (3.72%) Confluence
4 16 (2.84%) JBoss
4 16 (2.84%) SharePoint
5 10 (1.77%) Tuxedo
6 9 (1.60%) Apache Spark
6 9 (1.60%) Tomcat
7 7 (1.24%) IIS
7 7 (1.24%) WebSphere
8 6 (1.06%) CICS
8 6 (1.06%) iPlanet
8 6 (1.06%) WebSphere Application Server
9 5 (0.89%) nginx
9 5 (0.89%) Oracle SOA Suite
9 5 (0.89%) SAS
10 4 (0.71%) Microsoft Exchange
11 3 (0.53%) Oracle Workflow
12 2 (0.35%) ArcGIS
12 2 (0.35%) Oracle Spatial
Applications
1 15 (2.66%) Microsoft Office
2 11 (1.95%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.71%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.35%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.18%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 6 (1.06%) Oracle EBS
1 6 (1.06%) Oracle EBS R12
2 5 (0.89%) Oracle 11i
3 4 (0.71%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 3 (0.53%) Oracle BRM
5 2 (0.35%) ION MarketView
5 2 (0.35%) Kondor
5 2 (0.35%) Oracle Applications
5 2 (0.35%) Oracle ERP
5 2 (0.35%) Summit
6 1 (0.18%) Oracle Assets
6 1 (0.18%) Oracle BPM
6 1 (0.18%) Oracle Cash Management
6 1 (0.18%) Oracle CRM
6 1 (0.18%) Oracle Payables
6 1 (0.18%) Oracle Receivables
Cloud Services
1 136 (24.11%) AWS
2 86 (15.25%) Azure
3 31 (5.50%) GCP
4 26 (4.61%) GitHub
5 21 (3.72%) AWS CloudFormation
5 21 (3.72%) SaaS
6 15 (2.66%) Sauce Labs
6 15 (2.66%) Serverless
7 14 (2.48%) AWS Lambda
7 14 (2.48%) OpenShift
8 11 (1.95%) Cloud Computing
9 10 (1.77%) Amazon S3
10 9 (1.60%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 9 (1.60%) Entra ID
10 9 (1.60%) OCI
10 9 (1.60%) Snowflake
11 8 (1.42%) Azure DevOps
11 8 (1.42%) Azure Monitor
11 8 (1.42%) Microsoft 365
12 7 (1.24%) Amazon EC2
Communications & Networking
1 32 (5.67%) Firewall
2 22 (3.90%) DNS
3 20 (3.55%) HTTP
4 19 (3.37%) Wireless
5 16 (2.84%) SSH
5 16 (2.84%) TCP/IP
6 9 (1.60%) Network Security
7 7 (1.24%) FTP
7 7 (1.24%) InfiniBand
7 7 (1.24%) Kerberos
8 6 (1.06%) Ethernet
8 6 (1.06%) NetScaler
8 6 (1.06%) Wireshark
9 5 (0.89%) NAS
9 5 (0.89%) SAN
9 5 (0.89%) SSL
9 5 (0.89%) VPN
10 4 (0.71%) DHCP
10 4 (0.71%) Ethernet VPN
10 4 (0.71%) FIX Connectivity
Database & Business Intelligence
1 53 (9.40%) MongoDB
2 52 (9.22%) Relational Database
3 48 (8.51%) MySQL
4 41 (7.27%) Oracle Database
5 29 (5.14%) NoSQL
6 25 (4.43%) PostgreSQL
7 24 (4.26%) SQL Server
8 23 (4.08%) Elasticsearch
9 17 (3.01%) KDB
9 17 (3.01%) Kdb+
10 16 (2.84%) Data Warehouse
11 14 (2.48%) Big Data
12 13 (2.30%) Amazon RDS
13 11 (1.95%) Data Lake
14 9 (1.60%) Tick Data
15 8 (1.42%) Amazon Redshift
15 8 (1.42%) Hadoop
16 7 (1.24%) DataStage
16 7 (1.24%) DB2
16 7 (1.24%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 51 (9.04%) Jenkins
2 44 (7.80%) Git
3 32 (5.67%) GitLab
4 31 (5.50%) JIRA
5 24 (4.26%) Eclipse
6 21 (3.72%) Mockito
7 19 (3.37%) JUnit
8 16 (2.84%) Browser DevTools
8 16 (2.84%) Xcode
9 15 (2.66%) Android Studio
10 13 (2.30%) Selenium
10 13 (2.30%) Sonatype Nexus
11 10 (1.77%) Bitbucket
12 9 (1.60%) IntelliJ
12 9 (1.60%) Maven
12 9 (1.60%) MSI
13 6 (1.06%) Bitbucket Server
13 6 (1.06%) CA Release Automation
14 5 (0.89%) Gradle
14 5 (0.89%) SoapUI
General
1 154 (27.30%) Social Skills
2 147 (26.06%) Finance
3 71 (12.59%) Analytical Skills
4 52 (9.22%) Banking
5 45 (7.98%) Public Sector
6 25 (4.43%) Front Office
7 19 (3.37%) Influencing Skills
8 15 (2.66%) Documentation Skills
9 14 (2.48%) Investment Banking
10 12 (2.13%) Financial Institution
11 7 (1.24%) Legal
11 7 (1.24%) Military
11 7 (1.24%) Telecoms
12 5 (0.89%) Law
13 4 (0.71%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 3 (0.53%) Billing
14 3 (0.53%) Manufacturing
15 2 (0.35%) Marketing
15 2 (0.35%) Organisational Skills
15 2 (0.35%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 119 (21.10%) Developer
2 99 (17.55%) Senior
3 54 (9.57%) Java Developer
4 41 (7.27%) Analyst
4 41 (7.27%) Technical Support
5 33 (5.85%) Unix Engineer
6 32 (5.67%) Site Reliability Engineer
6 32 (5.67%) Support Engineer
7 30 (5.32%) DevOps Engineer
8 28 (4.96%) Linux Engineer
8 28 (4.96%) Senior Developer
9 26 (4.61%) Site Engineer
10 25 (4.43%) Technical Engineer
11 24 (4.26%) Software Engineer
12 23 (4.08%) Technical Support Engineer
13 22 (3.90%) Kafka Engineer
13 22 (3.90%) Lead
14 21 (3.72%) Consultant
15 20 (3.55%) Senior Software Engineer
15 20 (3.55%) Unix Linux Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 81 (14.36%) Kafka
2 41 (7.27%) REST
3 35 (6.21%) React
4 33 (5.85%) SOAP
5 28 (4.96%) XML
6 26 (4.61%) Middleware
7 24 (4.26%) CSS
8 22 (3.90%) AngularJS
9 21 (3.72%) HTML
9 21 (3.72%) JSON
10 20 (3.55%) ActiveMQ
10 20 (3.55%) JAX-RS
11 17 (3.01%) Elastic Stack
11 17 (3.01%) Spring
12 16 (2.84%) Ajax
12 16 (2.84%) GraphQL
13 14 (2.48%) HTML5
14 12 (2.13%) J2EE
14 12 (2.13%) LDAP
15 11 (1.95%) Hibernate
Miscellaneous
1 33 (5.85%) Management Information System
2 22 (3.90%) Onboarding
3 19 (3.37%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
3 19 (3.37%) Linux Command Line
4 18 (3.19%) Mobile App
5 17 (3.01%) Cloud Native
6 15 (2.66%) Data Centre
7 13 (2.30%) Equities
7 13 (2.30%) Security Posture
8 12 (2.13%) Algorithms
8 12 (2.13%) Fixed Income
9 11 (1.95%) Derivative
9 11 (1.95%) Greenfield Project
10 9 (1.60%) Data Protection Act
10 9 (1.60%) Enterprise Software
10 9 (1.60%) Replication
11 8 (1.42%) Enterprise Cloud
11 8 (1.42%) Legacy Systems
11 8 (1.42%) Tandem
12 7 (1.24%) Legacy Applications
Operating Systems
1 383 (67.91%) Linux
2 172 (30.50%) Windows
3 27 (4.79%) Mac OS X
3 27 (4.79%) Solaris
3 27 (4.79%) Windows Server
4 25 (4.43%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 17 (3.01%) Android
6 14 (2.48%) AIX
6 14 (2.48%) Mac OS
7 12 (2.13%) CentOS
8 4 (0.71%) Ubuntu
9 2 (0.35%) Apple iOS
10 1 (0.18%) VMS
10 1 (0.18%) Windows 10
10 1 (0.18%) Windows 7
10 1 (0.18%) Windows Server 2003
10 1 (0.18%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 158 (28.01%) Agile
2 119 (21.10%) Problem-Solving
3 107 (18.97%) DevOps
4 97 (17.20%) CI/CD
5 67 (11.88%) Microservices
6 63 (11.17%) Computer Science
6 63 (11.17%) Incident Response
7 57 (10.11%) Observability
8 56 (9.93%) OO
9 55 (9.75%) Software Engineering
10 54 (9.57%) Infrastructure as Code
11 53 (9.40%) TDD
11 53 (9.40%) Test Automation
12 49 (8.69%) Containerisation
13 48 (8.51%) Migration
14 47 (8.33%) Data Modelling
15 46 (8.16%) Site Reliability Engineering
16 42 (7.45%) Analytics
16 42 (7.45%) Performance Tuning
17 41 (7.27%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 216 (38.30%) Python
2 202 (35.82%) SQL
3 160 (28.37%) Java
4 96 (17.02%) Shell Script
5 77 (13.65%) Bash
6 70 (12.41%) Perl
7 51 (9.04%) JavaScript
8 46 (8.16%) C++
9 40 (7.09%) PowerShell
10 30 (5.32%) C#
11 25 (4.43%) PL/SQL
12 14 (2.48%) Korn
12 14 (2.48%) Scala
13 13 (2.30%) Go
14 9 (1.60%) PHP
15 7 (1.24%) Groovy
16 6 (1.06%) COBOL
16 6 (1.06%) Search Processing Language
17 5 (0.89%) TypeScript
18 4 (0.71%) C
Qualifications
1 119 (21.10%) Security Cleared
2 89 (15.78%) Degree
3 84 (14.89%) SC Cleared
4 48 (8.51%) Computer Science Degree
5 25 (4.43%) BPSS Clearance
6 9 (1.60%) DV Cleared
6 9 (1.60%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
7 8 (1.42%) AWS Certification
8 7 (1.24%) CISSP
9 6 (1.06%) OSCP
10 5 (0.89%) GPEN
10 5 (0.89%) GWAPT
10 5 (0.89%) ISTQB
10 5 (0.89%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
10 5 (0.89%) RHCE
11 3 (0.53%) CISM
11 3 (0.53%) CompTIA Security+
11 3 (0.53%) MCSA
11 3 (0.53%) MCSE
11 3 (0.53%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 19 (3.37%) SLA
2 16 (2.84%) QA
3 9 (1.60%) Data Quality
4 8 (1.42%) NIST
5 6 (1.06%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 4 (0.71%) GMP
6 4 (0.71%) NCSC
7 3 (0.53%) Disclosure Scotland
7 3 (0.53%) FATCA
7 3 (0.53%) HIPAA
7 3 (0.53%) PCI DSS
7 3 (0.53%) SEPA
7 3 (0.53%) SOC 2
8 1 (0.18%) Accessibility
8 1 (0.18%) GDPR
8 1 (0.18%) ISO 15022
8 1 (0.18%) ISO 20022
8 1 (0.18%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 80 (14.18%) Docker
2 20 (3.55%) Active Directory
3 11 (1.95%) VMware Infrastructure
4 6 (1.06%) KVM
4 6 (1.06%) Tivoli Directory Server
5 4 (0.71%) GPFS
5 4 (0.71%) NFS
5 4 (0.71%) Oracle RAC
5 4 (0.71%) VMware NSX
6 3 (0.53%) Hyper-V
6 3 (0.53%) Virtual Machines
7 2 (0.35%) GridGain
7 2 (0.35%) QEMU
8 1 (0.18%) Ceph
8 1 (0.18%) HDFS
8 1 (0.18%) iptables
8 1 (0.18%) Lustre
8 1 (0.18%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 1 (0.18%) Varnish
8 1 (0.18%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 81 (14.36%) Kubernetes
2 64 (11.35%) Ansible
3 61 (10.82%) Terraform
4 34 (6.03%) Grafana
5 31 (5.50%) Puppet
6 25 (4.43%) Prometheus
7 15 (2.66%) Kibana
8 12 (2.13%) Progress Chef
9 7 (1.24%) Single Sign-On
9 7 (1.24%) Tivoli
10 6 (1.06%) CA Single Sign-On
10 6 (1.06%) CA Wily
10 6 (1.06%) NetBackup
10 6 (1.06%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
10 6 (1.06%) Red Hat Satellite
10 6 (1.06%) SCCM
11 5 (0.89%) Dell DRAC
11 5 (0.89%) ITRS Geneos
11 5 (0.89%) Jamf Pro
11 5 (0.89%) Salt
Vendors
1 168 (29.79%) Oracle
2 89 (15.78%) Splunk
3 71 (12.59%) Microsoft
4 43 (7.62%) IBM
5 35 (6.21%) ServiceNow
6 22 (3.90%) Red Hat
7 21 (3.72%) VMware
8 16 (2.84%) Cisco
9 15 (2.66%) AppDynamics
10 9 (1.60%) CyberArk
10 9 (1.60%) Dynatrace
10 9 (1.60%) webMethods
11 8 (1.42%) Confluent
11 8 (1.42%) CrowdStrike
12 7 (1.24%) Ab Initio
12 7 (1.24%) Aruba
12 7 (1.24%) Dell
12 7 (1.24%) Fujitsu
12 7 (1.24%) Tenable
12 7 (1.24%) Veritas