Linux Contract Job Trends in the North of England

Linux
England > North of England

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the North of England requiring Linux skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 6 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
6 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 40 45 42
Rank change year-on-year +5 -3 -23
Contract jobs citing Linux 270 149 197
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 5.68% 4.38% 4.27%
As % of the Operating Systems category 36.68% 28.99% 29.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 197 81 117
10th Percentile £315 £356 £316
25th Percentile £400 £453 £419
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £490 £550 £500
Median % change year-on-year -10.91% +10.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £550 £640 £588
90th Percentile £685 £750 £630
England median daily rate £510 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -7.27% - -4.35%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 5 12
10th Percentile - £43.10 -
25th Percentile - £47.00 £21.25
Median hourly rate £41.94 £63.79 £44.82
Median % change year-on-year -34.25% +42.33% -0.41%
75th Percentile - £80.59 £51.09
90th Percentile £61.33 £83.70 £63.75
England median hourly rate £63.14 £66.50 £60.00
% change year-on-year -5.06% +10.83% -7.69%

All Operating Systems
North of England

Linux 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 in the North of England.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for operating system skills 736 514 660
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 15.49% 15.10% 14.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 531 292 428
10th Percentile £144 £158 £163
25th Percentile £191 £223 £257
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £370 £400 £425
Median % change year-on-year -7.50% -5.88% -5.56%
75th Percentile £500 £550 £526
90th Percentile £613 £636 £588
England median daily rate £450 £475 £475
% change year-on-year -5.26% - -6.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 33 31 45
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.22 £16.69
25th Percentile £18.87 £16.13 £17.72
Median hourly rate £22.50 £18.13 £22.00
Median % change year-on-year +24.10% -17.59% -2.22%
75th Percentile £41.94 £24.18 £45.88
90th Percentile £68.70 £51.00 £70.25
England median hourly rate £25.15 £47.00 £31.00
% change year-on-year -46.49% +51.61% +24.00%

Linux
Job Vacancy Trend in the North of England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Linux relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England.

Linux job vacancy trend in the North of England

Linux
Daily Rate Trend in the North of England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing Linux.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing Linux

Linux
Daily Rate Histogram in the North of England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Linux in the North of England over the 6 months to 6 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Linux in the North of England

Linux
Hourly Rate Trend in the North of England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing Linux.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing Linux

Linux
Hourly Rate Histogram in the North of England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Linux in the North of England over the 6 months to 6 January 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Linux in the North of England

Linux
Contract Job Locations in the North of England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Linux within the North of England region over the 6 months to 6 January 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
Yorkshire +9 170 £500 -20.00% 46
North West -17 96 £473 -9.90% 72
North East -15 10 £550 +8.64% 24
Linux
England

Linux
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North of England 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 20 (7.41%) Apache
2 13 (4.81%) JBoss
2 13 (4.81%) WebSphere
3 11 (4.07%) IIS
3 11 (4.07%) WebSphere Application Server
4 10 (3.70%) iPlanet
5 9 (3.33%) TPMS
6 7 (2.59%) Microsoft Exchange
7 6 (2.22%) OpenStack
7 6 (2.22%) SharePoint
8 4 (1.48%) Tomcat
9 3 (1.11%) Apache Airflow
9 3 (1.11%) Apache Spark
10 2 (0.74%) CICS
11 1 (0.37%) CMS
11 1 (0.37%) Confluence
11 1 (0.37%) Documentum
11 1 (0.37%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 11 (4.07%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (0.37%) Finacle
Cloud Services
1 98 (36.30%) AWS
2 64 (23.70%) GCP
3 42 (15.56%) Azure
4 37 (13.70%) Serverless
5 33 (12.22%) OpenShift
6 26 (9.63%) GitHub
7 17 (6.30%) GitHub Actions
8 14 (5.19%) AWS CloudFormation
9 11 (4.07%) Google Workspace
10 9 (3.33%) Amazon EC2
10 9 (3.33%) AWS KMS
10 9 (3.33%) Entra ID
11 8 (2.96%) AWS Lambda
11 8 (2.96%) IaaS
11 8 (2.96%) PaaS
11 8 (2.96%) SaaS
12 7 (2.59%) Amazon ECS
13 5 (1.85%) Virtual Private Cloud
14 4 (1.48%) Azure DevOps
14 4 (1.48%) Datadog
Communications & Networking
1 75 (27.78%) Firewall
2 19 (7.04%) Network Security
3 18 (6.67%) DNS
4 16 (5.93%) SSL
4 16 (5.93%) TCP/IP
5 13 (4.81%) SNMP
6 10 (3.70%) Kerberos
7 9 (3.33%) SSH
8 8 (2.96%) VPN
9 7 (2.59%) VLAN
10 6 (2.22%) BGP
10 6 (2.22%) Software-Defined Networking
10 6 (2.22%) WebEx
11 5 (1.85%) NAS
12 4 (1.48%) HTTP
12 4 (1.48%) SAN
13 3 (1.11%) DHCP
14 2 (0.74%) HTTPS
14 2 (0.74%) VSAN
15 1 (0.37%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 34 (12.59%) NoSQL
2 31 (11.48%) PostgreSQL
3 25 (9.26%) Oracle Database
4 22 (8.15%) MongoDB
5 21 (7.78%) SQL Server
6 9 (3.33%) Relational Database
7 5 (1.85%) Amazon RDS
7 5 (1.85%) Apache Cassandra
7 5 (1.85%) MySQL
8 3 (1.11%) Apache Hive
8 3 (1.11%) DynamoDB
8 3 (1.11%) Hadoop
8 3 (1.11%) HBase
9 1 (0.37%) GIS
9 1 (0.37%) Oracle Database 10g
9 1 (0.37%) Oracle Database 11g
9 1 (0.37%) Oracle Database 12c
9 1 (0.37%) Oracle Reports
9 1 (0.37%) Redis
Development Applications
1 76 (28.15%) Jenkins
2 50 (18.52%) GitLab
3 39 (14.44%) Git
4 21 (7.78%) Liquibase
5 18 (6.67%) Mockito
6 14 (5.19%) Sonatype Nexus
7 13 (4.81%) JIRA
8 11 (4.07%) Bitbucket Server
8 11 (4.07%) CA Release Automation
9 8 (2.96%) CircleCI
10 6 (2.22%) Jaeger
11 4 (1.48%) Bitbucket
12 3 (1.11%) Rational DOORS
13 2 (0.74%) Gradle
13 2 (0.74%) Maven
13 2 (0.74%) Octopus Deploy
14 1 (0.37%) Artifactory
14 1 (0.37%) Eclipse
14 1 (0.37%) JUnit
14 1 (0.37%) Oracle Forms
General
1 91 (33.70%) Social Skills
2 73 (27.04%) Finance
3 45 (16.67%) Banking
4 31 (11.48%) Public Sector
5 28 (10.37%) Financial Institution
6 21 (7.78%) Analytical Skills
7 17 (6.30%) Documentation Skills
8 7 (2.59%) Legal
9 4 (1.48%) Games
10 3 (1.11%) Law
11 2 (0.74%) Organisational Skills
11 2 (0.74%) Telecoms
12 1 (0.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 1 (0.37%) Influencing Skills
12 1 (0.37%) Presentation Skills
12 1 (0.37%) Private Banking
12 1 (0.37%) Wholesale Banking
Job Titles
1 48 (17.78%) Senior
2 41 (15.19%) Developer
3 31 (11.48%) Java Developer
4 27 (10.00%) DevOps Engineer
4 27 (10.00%) Platform Engineer
5 25 (9.26%) Software Engineer
6 20 (7.41%) Cloud Engineer
6 20 (7.41%) Lead
7 19 (7.04%) AWS Engineer
8 16 (5.93%) Senior Developer
8 16 (5.93%) Senior Java Developer
9 14 (5.19%) GCP Engineer
9 14 (5.19%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 12 (4.44%) IT Engineer
10 12 (4.44%) IT Support
10 12 (4.44%) IT Support Engineer
10 12 (4.44%) Support Engineer
11 10 (3.70%) Administrator
11 10 (3.70%) Senior Software Engineer
12 9 (3.33%) Linux Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 41 (15.19%) Elastic Stack
2 36 (13.33%) REST
3 30 (11.11%) RESTful
4 27 (10.00%) Kafka
5 18 (6.67%) ActiveMQ
5 18 (6.67%) JAX-RS
6 16 (5.93%) LDAP
7 13 (4.81%) OAuth
8 11 (4.07%) Middleware
8 11 (4.07%) OpenID
8 11 (4.07%) SAML
9 10 (3.70%) FastAPI
10 9 (3.33%) Spring Boot
11 8 (2.96%) Node.js
12 7 (2.59%) OpenTelemetry
13 6 (2.22%) Spring
13 6 (2.22%) XMPP
13 6 (2.22%) YAML
14 5 (1.85%) AngularJS
15 3 (1.11%) WebSockets
Miscellaneous
1 33 (12.22%) Distributed Systems
2 29 (10.74%) Public Cloud
3 28 (10.37%) Cloud Native
4 15 (5.56%) Product Ownership
5 13 (4.81%) Data Centre
5 13 (4.81%) Onboarding
6 9 (3.33%) Hybrid Cloud
7 7 (2.59%) Management Information System
7 7 (2.59%) NHS
8 6 (2.22%) Security Posture
9 5 (1.85%) Data Protection Act
9 5 (1.85%) Legacy Systems
10 4 (1.48%) Cyber Threat
11 3 (1.11%) Analytical Mindset
11 3 (1.11%) Cloud Security Posture
12 2 (0.74%) Derivative
12 2 (0.74%) Enterprise Cloud
12 2 (0.74%) Legacy Applications
12 2 (0.74%) PKI
12 2 (0.74%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 99 (36.67%) Windows
2 58 (21.48%) Unix
3 33 (12.22%) Windows Server
4 29 (10.74%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 22 (8.15%) Mac OS X
6 7 (2.59%) CentOS
6 7 (2.59%) Ubuntu
7 4 (1.48%) Solaris
7 4 (1.48%) VMS
8 3 (1.11%) Amazon Linux
9 2 (0.74%) Mac OS
9 2 (0.74%) zOS
10 1 (0.37%) MVS
Processes & Methodologies
1 117 (43.33%) CI/CD
1 117 (43.33%) DevOps
2 87 (32.22%) Containerisation
3 73 (27.04%) Problem-Solving
4 71 (26.30%) Agile
5 69 (25.56%) Infrastructure as Code
6 66 (24.44%) Microservices
7 55 (20.37%) Cybersecurity
8 47 (17.41%) Observability
9 42 (15.56%) Infrastructure Automation
9 42 (15.56%) Root Cause Analysis
10 40 (14.81%) Test Automation
11 36 (13.33%) Computer Science
12 35 (12.96%) Cryptography
12 35 (12.96%) Software Engineering
13 34 (12.59%) High Availability
14 33 (12.22%) Data Security
15 31 (11.48%) Task Automation
16 30 (11.11%) Continuous Integration
16 30 (11.11%) Platform Engineering
Programming Languages
1 143 (52.96%) Python
2 70 (25.93%) Bash
3 65 (24.07%) Java
4 43 (15.93%) PowerShell
5 36 (13.33%) Go
6 29 (10.74%) Shell Script
7 26 (9.63%) SQL
8 21 (7.78%) Perl
9 14 (5.19%) Groovy
10 12 (4.44%) PHP
10 12 (4.44%) Ruby
11 7 (2.59%) Rust
12 6 (2.22%) C++
13 4 (1.48%) C#
14 3 (1.11%) Delphi
14 3 (1.11%) Search Processing Language
15 2 (0.74%) C
15 2 (0.74%) JavaScript
15 2 (0.74%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 63 (23.33%) Security Cleared
2 50 (18.52%) SC Cleared
3 38 (14.07%) Degree
4 28 (10.37%) Computer Science Degree
5 26 (9.63%) Master's Degree
6 19 (7.04%) AWS Certification
7 16 (5.93%) BPSS Clearance
8 9 (3.33%) FFIEC
9 8 (2.96%) CCDP
9 8 (2.96%) CCNA
9 8 (2.96%) CCNP
9 8 (2.96%) Cisco Certification
9 8 (2.96%) CISSP
10 7 (2.59%) CompTIA Security+
11 6 (2.22%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 6 (2.22%) RHCE
12 5 (1.85%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
12 5 (1.85%) CISM
13 4 (1.48%) Microsoft Certification
14 3 (1.11%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (4.07%) GDPR
2 10 (3.70%) NIST
3 9 (3.33%) GLBA
3 9 (3.33%) PCI DSS
4 6 (2.22%) SLA
5 3 (1.11%) HIPAA
5 3 (1.11%) SOC 2
6 2 (0.74%) Cyber Essentials
7 1 (0.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 98 (36.30%) Docker
2 35 (12.96%) Active Directory
3 33 (12.22%) VMware Infrastructure
4 12 (4.44%) vSphere
5 10 (3.70%) Oracle RAC
6 8 (2.96%) Tivoli Directory Server
7 6 (2.22%) KVM
7 6 (2.22%) Virtual Machines
8 5 (1.85%) Hyper-V
9 4 (1.48%) VMware NSX
10 3 (1.11%) HDFS
10 3 (1.11%) VMware ESXi
11 2 (0.74%) Virtual Servers
12 1 (0.37%) Ceph
12 1 (0.37%) Firmware
12 1 (0.37%) NFS
12 1 (0.37%) QEMU
12 1 (0.37%) SRDF
12 1 (0.37%) Veritas Cluster Server
12 1 (0.37%) Xen
Systems Management
1 106 (39.26%) Kubernetes
2 89 (32.96%) Ansible
3 82 (30.37%) Terraform
4 66 (24.44%) Grafana
5 53 (19.63%) Prometheus
6 13 (4.81%) Progress Chef
7 12 (4.44%) Puppet
8 11 (4.07%) CA Single Sign-On
9 10 (3.70%) CA Wily
9 10 (3.70%) Data Guard
9 10 (3.70%) yum
10 8 (2.96%) Single Sign-On
10 8 (2.96%) Tivoli
11 6 (2.22%) NetBackup
11 6 (2.22%) Oracle RMAN
12 5 (1.85%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 5 (1.85%) EMC NetWorker
12 5 (1.85%) Packer
12 5 (1.85%) vCenter Server
12 5 (1.85%) vRealize
Vendors
1 72 (26.67%) Splunk
2 50 (18.52%) Oracle
3 44 (16.30%) Microsoft
4 43 (15.93%) VMware
5 34 (12.59%) Google
6 27 (10.00%) Red Hat
7 20 (7.41%) AppDynamics
8 13 (4.81%) Cisco
9 12 (4.44%) IBM
10 11 (4.07%) Broadcom
11 10 (3.70%) CyberArk
11 10 (3.70%) F5
12 9 (3.33%) Citrix
13 8 (2.96%) Thales
14 6 (2.22%) Veritas
15 5 (1.85%) Palo Alto
16 4 (1.48%) EMC
16 4 (1.48%) Juniper
16 4 (1.48%) ServiceNow
17 3 (1.11%) NetApp