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

6 months to
1 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 225 171 116
Rank change year-on-year -54 -55 -9
Contract jobs citing Unix 657 585 766
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.20% 1.77% 2.02%
As % of the Operating Systems category 12.20% 13.06% 14.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 436 384 472
10th Percentile £342 £290 £350
25th Percentile £418 £400 £406
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% -10.89%
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 5,387 4,480 5,321
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.81% 13.55% 14.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,401 2,858 3,320
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 £663 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £425 £450
% change year-on-year +5.88% -5.56% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 405 297 254
10th Percentile £14.10 £15.50 £16.08
25th Percentile £17.25 £18.87 £21.85
Median hourly rate £26.00 £25.15 £52.50
Median % change year-on-year +3.38% -52.10% +20.00%
75th Percentile £65.00 £57.50 £69.45
90th Percentile £74.00 £67.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.29 £25.15 £56.20
% change year-on-year +28.39% -55.25% +39.93%

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 1 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 1 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 1 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 -56 543 £500 - 397
UK excluding London -71 342 £475 +1.88% 199
London -69 228 £550 +2.52% 246
Work from Home -17 196 £510 +7.42% 150
North of England -26 129 £481 -2.34% 38
North West -2 91 £482 +7.11% 21
South East -57 86 £459 +21.11% 42
Midlands -21 73 £474 -5.25% 31
West Midlands -10 68 £475 -8.48% 25
Scotland -56 40 £450 -5.26% 12
Yorkshire -47 29 £500 -23.08% 11
South West -33 16 £663 -1.85% 30
North East -29 12 £470 -6.00% 7
East of England -25 8 £700 +40.00% 20
East Midlands -17 4 £456 +16.24% 6
Wales -13 3 £383 +35.40% 11
Northern Ireland +1 1 - - 19

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 34 (5.18%) Confluence
2 28 (4.26%) SAS
3 19 (2.89%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 15 (2.28%) SharePoint
4 15 (2.28%) 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%) Tomcat
12 1 (0.15%) Traefik
Applications
1 14 (2.13%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (1.07%) Notepad++
3 6 (0.91%) Microsoft Excel
4 2 (0.30%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 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
1 151 (22.98%) AWS
2 91 (13.85%) Azure
3 57 (8.68%) GCP
4 36 (5.48%) GitHub
5 28 (4.26%) Serverless
6 27 (4.11%) AWS Lambda
7 25 (3.81%) Amazon S3
8 23 (3.50%) IaaS
9 21 (3.20%) Entra ID
10 20 (3.04%) GitHub Actions
11 18 (2.74%) OpenShift
12 17 (2.59%) SaaS
13 15 (2.28%) AWS CloudFormation
13 15 (2.28%) PaaS
14 14 (2.13%) Azure DevOps
14 14 (2.13%) Power Platform
15 12 (1.83%) Amazon EC2
16 10 (1.52%) Amazon ECS
16 10 (1.52%) Snowflake
17 9 (1.37%) GitHub Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 32 (4.87%) Firewall
2 31 (4.72%) DNS
2 31 (4.72%) TCP/IP
3 18 (2.74%) SAN
4 14 (2.13%) DHCP
4 14 (2.13%) HTTP
4 14 (2.13%) SSH
5 13 (1.98%) 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%) VLAN
9 6 (0.91%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 58 (8.83%) Oracle Database
2 55 (8.37%) SQL Server
3 54 (8.22%) PostgreSQL
4 50 (7.61%) Relational Database
5 44 (6.70%) Data Warehouse
6 29 (4.41%) MongoDB
7 23 (3.50%) MySQL
8 22 (3.35%) Db2
9 20 (3.04%) NoSQL
10 19 (2.89%) Oracle Database 11g
11 17 (2.59%) DataStage
12 16 (2.44%) RDBMS
13 15 (2.28%) Oracle Database 12c
14 14 (2.13%) BusinessObjects
14 14 (2.13%) Power BI
15 13 (1.98%) Data Lake
15 13 (1.98%) Oracle Database 10g
16 12 (1.83%) KDB
16 12 (1.83%) Oracle Reports
16 12 (1.83%) PowerCenter
Development Applications
1 84 (12.79%) Git
2 66 (10.05%) Jenkins
3 54 (8.22%) GitLab
4 51 (7.76%) JIRA
5 20 (3.04%) Artifactory
6 13 (1.98%) JUnit
6 13 (1.98%) Maven
7 12 (1.83%) Gradle
7 12 (1.83%) SonarQube
8 11 (1.67%) Bitbucket
8 11 (1.67%) Mockito
9 9 (1.37%) Oracle Forms
9 9 (1.37%) Selenium
9 9 (1.37%) Sonatype Nexus
10 8 (1.22%) eggPlant
11 7 (1.07%) HP UFT
12 6 (0.91%) Cucumber
13 5 (0.76%) JMeter
13 5 (0.76%) Oracle APEX
13 5 (0.76%) SoapUI
General
1 174 (26.48%) Finance
2 146 (22.22%) Social Skills
3 112 (17.05%) Banking
4 111 (16.89%) Analytical Skills
5 51 (7.76%) Public Sector
6 30 (4.57%) Investment Banking
7 22 (3.35%) Front Office
8 21 (3.20%) Documentation Skills
9 12 (1.83%) 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
1 136 (20.70%) Developer
2 105 (15.98%) Senior
3 70 (10.65%) Unix Engineer
4 58 (8.83%) Data Engineer
5 50 (7.61%) Senior Developer
6 47 (7.15%) Java Developer
7 41 (6.24%) DBA
8 37 (5.63%) Linux Engineer
9 31 (4.72%) Consultant
10 28 (4.26%) Python Developer
10 28 (4.26%) Support Engineer
11 27 (4.11%) Oracle DBA
12 24 (3.65%) Analyst
13 23 (3.50%) Architect
14 20 (3.04%) Administrator
15 19 (2.89%) DevOps Engineer
16 18 (2.74%) Senior Java Developer
17 17 (2.59%) Applications Support
18 16 (2.44%) Lead
19 15 (2.28%) Automation Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 73 (11.11%) Kafka
2 57 (8.68%) Terraform
3 54 (8.22%) REST
4 45 (6.85%) Middleware
5 41 (6.24%) RESTful
6 40 (6.09%) Spring
7 37 (5.63%) Spring Boot
8 26 (3.96%) XML
9 25 (3.81%) Web Services
10 23 (3.50%) HTML
11 22 (3.35%) .NET
12 21 (3.20%) CSS
12 21 (3.20%) SOAP
13 15 (2.28%) Flask
14 13 (1.98%) JDBC
14 13 (1.98%) RabbitMQ
15 12 (1.83%) ActiveMQ
15 12 (1.83%) Django
15 12 (1.83%) Pandas
16 11 (1.67%) JAX-RS
Miscellaneous
1 46 (7.00%) Onboarding
2 36 (5.48%) Distributed Systems
3 35 (5.33%) Legacy Systems
3 35 (5.33%) Linux Command Line
4 33 (5.02%) Data Centre
5 29 (4.41%) Cloud Native
6 22 (3.35%) Replication
7 21 (3.20%) Clustering
8 19 (2.89%) Management Information System
9 17 (2.59%) Fixed Income
10 16 (2.44%) Derivative
11 14 (2.13%) Mainframe
12 13 (1.98%) Data Protection Act
12 13 (1.98%) PKI
12 13 (1.98%) Private Cloud
13 12 (1.83%) Enterprise Software
13 12 (1.83%) Legacy Applications
13 12 (1.83%) Market Risk
13 12 (1.83%) Product Ownership
13 12 (1.83%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 445 (67.73%) Linux
2 146 (22.22%) Windows
3 78 (11.87%) Solaris
4 44 (6.70%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 43 (6.54%) Windows Server
6 33 (5.02%) AIX
7 10 (1.52%) 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
1 166 (25.27%) CI/CD
2 133 (20.24%) Agile
3 125 (19.03%) Migration
4 115 (17.50%) Problem-Solving
5 114 (17.35%) DevOps
6 99 (15.07%) Test Automation
7 84 (12.79%) Root Cause Analysis
8 83 (12.63%) High Availability
9 69 (10.50%) Continuous Improvement
9 69 (10.50%) Data Modelling
10 67 (10.20%) Performance Tuning
11 66 (10.05%) Infrastructure as Code
12 61 (9.28%) Containerisation
12 61 (9.28%) ITIL
13 60 (9.13%) ETL
14 59 (8.98%) Runbook
14 59 (8.98%) Validation
15 57 (8.68%) Data Pipeline
15 57 (8.68%) Stakeholder Management
16 53 (8.07%) Disaster Recovery
Programming Languages
1 251 (38.20%) SQL
2 249 (37.90%) Python
3 136 (20.70%) Java
4 124 (18.87%) Shell Script
5 84 (12.79%) PL/SQL
6 74 (11.26%) Bash
7 56 (8.52%) PowerShell
8 41 (6.24%) Perl
9 39 (5.94%) JavaScript
10 28 (4.26%) C#
11 21 (3.20%) C++
12 15 (2.28%) C
13 9 (1.37%) Go
14 7 (1.07%) Groovy
14 7 (1.07%) Korn
14 7 (1.07%) Kotlin
14 7 (1.07%) MUMPS
15 6 (0.91%) ABAP
15 6 (0.91%) Scala
15 6 (0.91%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 239 (36.38%) Security Cleared
2 192 (29.22%) SC Cleared
3 70 (10.65%) Degree
4 33 (5.02%) BPSS Clearance
5 21 (3.20%) DV Cleared
6 20 (3.04%) Computer Science Degree
7 15 (2.28%) CISSP
8 9 (1.37%) Cisco Certification
8 9 (1.37%) CISM
9 8 (1.22%) Master's Degree
10 7 (1.07%) CRISC
10 7 (1.07%) Oracle Certification
11 6 (0.91%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 6 (0.91%) CESG Certified Professional
11 6 (0.91%) CompTIA Security+
11 6 (0.91%) GIAC
11 6 (0.91%) ISEB
11 6 (0.91%) ISTQB
12 5 (0.76%) RHCE
12 5 (0.76%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 36 (5.48%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 35 (5.33%) QA
3 33 (5.02%) Data Quality
4 32 (4.87%) NIST
5 12 (1.83%) GDPR
5 12 (1.83%) SLA
6 9 (1.37%) ISO 20022
7 7 (1.07%) Cyber Essentials
7 7 (1.07%) PCI DSS
8 6 (0.91%) ISO 31000
9 5 (0.76%) Basel III
9 5 (0.76%) GRC
9 5 (0.76%) ISO 15022
10 4 (0.61%) NCSC
11 3 (0.46%) Disclosure Scotland
12 2 (0.30%) SEPA
13 1 (0.15%) Accessibility
13 1 (0.15%) MIL-STD-1553
13 1 (0.15%) SOC 2
13 1 (0.15%) WCAG
System Software
1 66 (10.05%) Docker
2 38 (5.78%) Active Directory
3 28 (4.26%) VMware Infrastructure
4 17 (2.59%) Oracle RAC
5 15 (2.28%) 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%) VirtualBox
8 4 (0.61%) vSphere
9 3 (0.46%) Sendmail
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 87 (13.24%) Kubernetes
2 65 (9.89%) Ansible
3 42 (6.39%) Grafana
4 29 (4.41%) Oracle RMAN
4 29 (4.41%) Prometheus
5 19 (2.89%) Data Guard
6 18 (2.74%) Progress Chef
7 17 (2.59%) Control-M
8 14 (2.13%) Puppet
9 12 (1.83%) Kibana
10 8 (1.22%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
11 7 (1.07%) Tivoli Storage Manager
12 6 (0.91%) Single Sign-On
12 6 (0.91%) Tivoli
13 5 (0.76%) Failover Clustering
13 5 (0.76%) HAProxy
13 5 (0.76%) HP Fortify
13 5 (0.76%) ITRS Geneos
13 5 (0.76%) Netcool
13 5 (0.76%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 246 (37.44%) Oracle
2 58 (8.83%) IBM
3 55 (8.37%) Splunk
4 48 (7.31%) Microsoft
5 38 (5.78%) BeyondTrust
6 32 (4.87%) Red Hat
7 31 (4.72%) Informatica
7 31 (4.72%) VMware
8 29 (4.41%) CyberArk
9 23 (3.50%) ServiceNow
10 22 (3.35%) Sybase
10 22 (3.35%) Talend
11 21 (3.20%) SAP
12 19 (2.89%) Google
13 18 (2.74%) Dynatrace
14 17 (2.59%) Denodo
15 12 (1.83%) HP
15 12 (1.83%) SaltStack
16 11 (1.67%) BT
17 10 (1.52%) AppDynamics