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

6 months to
13 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 38 36 44
Rank change year-on-year -2 +8 -25
Contract jobs citing Linux 291 177 191
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 5.59% 5.26% 3.87%
As % of the Operating Systems category 37.94% 32.12% 26.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 208 104 117
10th Percentile £325 £345 £316
25th Percentile £400 £407 £415
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £478 £550 £495
Median % change year-on-year -13.09% +11.11% -10.00%
75th Percentile £550 £625 £582
90th Percentile £688 £738 £623
England median daily rate £507 £551 £550
% change year-on-year -7.99% +0.18% -6.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 5 11
10th Percentile - £43.10 -
25th Percentile - £47.00 £21.25
Median hourly rate £41.94 £63.79 £48.00
Median % change year-on-year -34.25% +32.89% +7.05%
75th Percentile £66.18 £80.59 -
90th Percentile £74.26 £83.70 £63.75
England median hourly rate £63.14 £66.50 £61.84
% change year-on-year -5.06% +7.54% -4.86%

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 767 551 714
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 14.74% 16.36% 14.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 544 333 472
10th Percentile £142 £171 £160
25th Percentile £190 £235 £231
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £386 £400 £400
Median % change year-on-year -3.44% - -11.11%
75th Percentile £500 £550 £500
90th Percentile £621 £635 £586
England median daily rate £449 £475 £452
% change year-on-year -5.50% +5.20% -13.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 33 22 59
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.22 £15.20
25th Percentile £18.87 £16.25 £16.25
Median hourly rate £22.50 £18.13 £17.72
Median % change year-on-year +24.14% +2.29% -31.85%
75th Percentile £41.94 £27.80 £25.25
90th Percentile £68.70 £66.46 £51.15
England median hourly rate £22.50 £42.75 £25.18
% change year-on-year -47.37% +69.78% -3.15%

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 13 February 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 13 February 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 13 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
Yorkshire -3 175 £500 -13.04% 33
North West -15 108 £462 -9.85% 72
North East -17 13 £550 +16.83% 20
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 16 (5.50%) Apache
2 11 (3.78%) TPMS
3 9 (3.09%) JBoss
4 7 (2.41%) IIS
4 7 (2.41%) iPlanet
4 7 (2.41%) WebSphere
4 7 (2.41%) WebSphere Application Server
5 6 (2.06%) CICS
5 6 (2.06%) Microsoft Exchange
5 6 (2.06%) SharePoint
6 5 (1.72%) OpenStack
7 3 (1.03%) Apache Airflow
7 3 (1.03%) Apache Spark
7 3 (1.03%) nginx
8 2 (0.69%) Confluence
9 1 (0.34%) CMS
9 1 (0.34%) Documentum
9 1 (0.34%) SharePoint Server
9 1 (0.34%) Tomcat
Applications
1 11 (3.78%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (0.34%) Cloudability
Cloud Services
1 95 (32.65%) AWS
2 59 (20.27%) GCP
3 42 (14.43%) Azure
4 36 (12.37%) OpenShift
5 33 (11.34%) Serverless
6 29 (9.97%) GitHub
7 15 (5.15%) GitHub Actions
8 14 (4.81%) AWS CloudFormation
9 12 (4.12%) Amazon EC2
10 11 (3.78%) Google Workspace
11 10 (3.44%) Entra ID
12 9 (3.09%) AWS KMS
12 9 (3.09%) AWS Lambda
13 8 (2.75%) Virtual Private Cloud
14 7 (2.41%) Amazon ECS
14 7 (2.41%) Amazon S3
14 7 (2.41%) SaaS
15 6 (2.06%) IaaS
15 6 (2.06%) PaaS
16 5 (1.72%) Azure DevOps
Communications & Networking
1 77 (26.46%) Firewall
2 21 (7.22%) Network Security
3 16 (5.50%) SSL
4 15 (5.15%) DNS
4 15 (5.15%) SNMP
5 14 (4.81%) TCP/IP
6 11 (3.78%) SSH
7 10 (3.44%) VPN
8 8 (2.75%) Kerberos
8 8 (2.75%) VLAN
9 7 (2.41%) BGP
10 6 (2.06%) Software-Defined Networking
10 6 (2.06%) WebEx
11 4 (1.37%) DHCP
11 4 (1.37%) HTTP
11 4 (1.37%) SAN
12 2 (0.69%) HTTPS
12 2 (0.69%) NAS
12 2 (0.69%) Reverse Proxy
12 2 (0.69%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 32 (11.00%) PostgreSQL
2 30 (10.31%) NoSQL
3 28 (9.62%) MongoDB
4 13 (4.47%) Oracle Database
4 13 (4.47%) SQL Server
5 7 (2.41%) Relational Database
6 6 (2.06%) DataStage
7 5 (1.72%) Amazon RDS
7 5 (1.72%) Apache Cassandra
7 5 (1.72%) MySQL
8 4 (1.37%) Elasticsearch
9 3 (1.03%) Apache Hive
9 3 (1.03%) DB2
9 3 (1.03%) DynamoDB
9 3 (1.03%) Hadoop
9 3 (1.03%) HBase
10 1 (0.34%) Data Lake
10 1 (0.34%) DocumentDB
10 1 (0.34%) GIS
10 1 (0.34%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 70 (24.05%) Jenkins
2 53 (18.21%) GitLab
3 24 (8.25%) Git
4 22 (7.56%) Mockito
5 17 (5.84%) Liquibase
6 14 (4.81%) JIRA
7 11 (3.78%) Sonatype Nexus
8 9 (3.09%) Jaeger
9 7 (2.41%) Bitbucket Server
9 7 (2.41%) CA Release Automation
10 6 (2.06%) CircleCI
11 4 (1.37%) Bitbucket
12 2 (0.69%) Gradle
12 2 (0.69%) Maven
12 2 (0.69%) Octopus Deploy
13 1 (0.34%) Artifactory
13 1 (0.34%) JUnit
General
1 90 (30.93%) Social Skills
2 75 (25.77%) Finance
3 43 (14.78%) Banking
4 38 (13.06%) Public Sector
5 27 (9.28%) Financial Institution
6 23 (7.90%) Documentation Skills
7 22 (7.56%) Analytical Skills
8 8 (2.75%) Legal
9 7 (2.41%) Influencing Skills
10 4 (1.37%) Games
11 3 (1.03%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 3 (1.03%) Law
12 2 (0.69%) Organisational Skills
12 2 (0.69%) Telecoms
13 1 (0.34%) Advertising
13 1 (0.34%) Presentation Skills
13 1 (0.34%) Private Banking
Job Titles
1 57 (19.59%) Senior
2 49 (16.84%) Developer
3 36 (12.37%) Java Developer
4 31 (10.65%) Platform Engineer
5 28 (9.62%) DevOps Engineer
6 27 (9.28%) Software Engineer
7 20 (6.87%) Cloud Engineer
7 20 (6.87%) Lead
7 20 (6.87%) Senior Developer
7 20 (6.87%) Senior Java Developer
8 19 (6.53%) AWS Engineer
9 16 (5.50%) GCP Engineer
9 16 (5.50%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 12 (4.12%) Administrator
11 11 (3.78%) Cryptography Engineer
11 11 (3.78%) IT Engineer
11 11 (3.78%) IT Support
11 11 (3.78%) IT Support Engineer
11 11 (3.78%) Senior Software Engineer
11 11 (3.78%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 37 (12.71%) Elastic Stack
2 34 (11.68%) Kafka
2 34 (11.68%) REST
3 25 (8.59%) RESTful
4 22 (7.56%) JAX-RS
5 21 (7.22%) ActiveMQ
6 15 (5.15%) Middleware
7 13 (4.47%) OpenTelemetry
8 12 (4.12%) Spring Boot
9 9 (3.09%) LDAP
9 9 (3.09%) OAuth
9 9 (3.09%) YAML
10 7 (2.41%) OpenID
10 7 (2.41%) SAML
11 6 (2.06%) Spring
11 6 (2.06%) XMPP
12 5 (1.72%) Node.js
13 3 (1.03%) Spark Streaming
13 3 (1.03%) Spring Security
13 3 (1.03%) WebSockets
Miscellaneous
1 35 (12.03%) Distributed Systems
2 26 (8.93%) Cloud Native
2 26 (8.93%) Public Cloud
3 24 (8.25%) Data Centre
4 17 (5.84%) Product Ownership
5 13 (4.47%) Onboarding
6 12 (4.12%) Hybrid Cloud
7 7 (2.41%) Management Information System
8 6 (2.06%) BYOD
8 6 (2.06%) Legacy Systems
8 6 (2.06%) Mainframe
8 6 (2.06%) VSAM
9 5 (1.72%) Data Protection Act
9 5 (1.72%) NHS
10 4 (1.37%) Cyber Threat
10 4 (1.37%) Security Posture
11 3 (1.03%) Analytical Mindset
11 3 (1.03%) Enterprise Software
11 3 (1.03%) Linux Command Line
11 3 (1.03%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 101 (34.71%) Windows
2 74 (25.43%) Unix
3 40 (13.75%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 33 (11.34%) Windows Server
5 28 (9.62%) Mac OS X
6 9 (3.09%) AIX
6 9 (3.09%) CentOS
6 9 (3.09%) Ubuntu
7 8 (2.75%) Solaris
8 5 (1.72%) VMS
9 3 (1.03%) Amazon Linux
9 3 (1.03%) Mac OS
10 2 (0.69%) CoreOS
10 2 (0.69%) Data ONTAP
Processes & Methodologies
1 122 (41.92%) CI/CD
2 117 (40.21%) DevOps
3 83 (28.52%) Containerisation
4 74 (25.43%) Microservices
4 74 (25.43%) Problem-Solving
5 69 (23.71%) Infrastructure as Code
6 61 (20.96%) Agile
7 58 (19.93%) Cybersecurity
8 52 (17.87%) Observability
9 48 (16.49%) Test Automation
10 42 (14.43%) Root Cause Analysis
11 40 (13.75%) Infrastructure Automation
12 36 (12.37%) Platform Engineering
13 35 (12.03%) Computer Science
13 35 (12.03%) Cryptography
14 34 (11.68%) Software Engineering
15 33 (11.34%) Data Security
15 33 (11.34%) TDD
16 32 (11.00%) High Availability
17 31 (10.65%) BDD
Programming Languages
1 141 (48.45%) Python
2 75 (25.77%) Bash
3 69 (23.71%) Java
4 49 (16.84%) PowerShell
5 36 (12.37%) Go
6 31 (10.65%) SQL
7 24 (8.25%) Perl
8 18 (6.19%) Shell Script
9 15 (5.15%) Ruby
10 14 (4.81%) Rust
11 10 (3.44%) Groovy
12 9 (3.09%) PHP
13 6 (2.06%) COBOL
13 6 (2.06%) JavaScript
14 5 (1.72%) TypeScript
15 4 (1.37%) C#
16 3 (1.03%) Delphi
16 3 (1.03%) Search Processing Language
17 2 (0.69%) C
18 1 (0.34%) C++
Qualifications
1 72 (24.74%) Security Cleared
2 55 (18.90%) SC Cleared
3 38 (13.06%) Degree
4 23 (7.90%) Computer Science Degree
4 23 (7.90%) Master's Degree
5 17 (5.84%) AWS Certification
5 17 (5.84%) BPSS Clearance
6 11 (3.78%) FFIEC
7 9 (3.09%) CCDP
7 9 (3.09%) CCNA
7 9 (3.09%) CCNP
7 9 (3.09%) Cisco Certification
7 9 (3.09%) RHCE
8 7 (2.41%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
8 7 (2.41%) CISSP
9 6 (2.06%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
9 6 (2.06%) CISM
10 5 (1.72%) CompTIA Security+
11 4 (1.37%) AWS Certified Developer
12 3 (1.03%) DV Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (4.47%) GDPR
2 11 (3.78%) GLBA
2 11 (3.78%) NIST
2 11 (3.78%) PCI DSS
3 7 (2.41%) SLA
4 3 (1.03%) HIPAA
4 3 (1.03%) SOC 2
5 2 (0.69%) Cyber Essentials
6 1 (0.34%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 96 (32.99%) Docker
2 38 (13.06%) VMware Infrastructure
3 26 (8.93%) Active Directory
4 16 (5.50%) Virtual Machines
5 12 (4.12%) vSphere
6 11 (3.78%) KVM
7 9 (3.09%) Hyper-V
8 6 (2.06%) Tivoli Directory Server
9 4 (1.37%) Firmware
10 3 (1.03%) HDFS
10 3 (1.03%) NFS
10 3 (1.03%) VMware ESXi
11 2 (0.69%) Virtual Servers
12 1 (0.34%) Ceph
12 1 (0.34%) QEMU
12 1 (0.34%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 108 (37.11%) Kubernetes
2 93 (31.96%) Terraform
3 87 (29.90%) Ansible
4 62 (21.31%) Grafana
5 53 (18.21%) Prometheus
6 13 (4.47%) Puppet
7 10 (3.44%) Progress Chef
8 9 (3.09%) Single Sign-On
9 8 (2.75%) CA Single Sign-On
9 8 (2.75%) Kiali
10 7 (2.41%) CA Wily
10 7 (2.41%) NetBackup
11 6 (2.06%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 6 (2.06%) Oracle RMAN
11 6 (2.06%) Tivoli
12 5 (1.72%) EMC NetWorker
12 5 (1.72%) Packer
12 5 (1.72%) vCenter Server
13 3 (1.03%) IBM BigFix
13 3 (1.03%) SCCM
Vendors
1 67 (23.02%) Splunk
2 52 (17.87%) VMware
3 38 (13.06%) Microsoft
4 36 (12.37%) Red Hat
5 34 (11.68%) Google
6 32 (11.00%) Oracle
7 17 (5.84%) IBM
8 13 (4.47%) AppDynamics
9 11 (3.78%) Cisco
10 10 (3.44%) Citrix
10 10 (3.44%) Thales
11 8 (2.75%) CyberArk
12 7 (2.41%) Broadcom
13 6 (2.06%) Veritas
14 5 (1.72%) F5
14 5 (1.72%) Palo Alto
15 4 (1.37%) Juniper
15 4 (1.37%) NetApp
15 4 (1.37%) ServiceNow
16 2 (0.69%) EMC