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

6 months to
12 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 56 34 49
Rank change year-on-year -22 +15 0
Contract jobs citing Linux 289 239 149
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 3.78% 6.01% 3.59%
As % of the Operating Systems category 32.95% 38.00% 28.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 177 163 101
10th Percentile £358 £317 £356
25th Percentile £415 £369 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £480 £550
Median % change year-on-year +4.17% -12.73% +3.53%
75th Percentile £615 £612 £638
90th Percentile £650 £700 £700
England median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -4.35%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 1 4
10th Percentile £18.90 - -
25th Percentile £23.36 - £47.00
Median hourly rate £36.67 £70.00 £50.75
Median % change year-on-year -47.61% +37.93% +125.56%
75th Percentile £49.06 - £62.33
90th Percentile £49.63 - £73.29
England median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £67.50
% change year-on-year - -3.70% +8.00%

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 877 629 520
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 11.49% 15.83% 12.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 590 421 335
10th Percentile £185 £178 £186
25th Percentile £250 £281 £309
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £400 £470
Median % change year-on-year +6.25% -14.89% +6.82%
75th Percentile £525 £538 £594
90th Percentile £615 £625 £800
England median daily rate £465 £450 £475
% change year-on-year +3.33% -5.26% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 39 26 41
10th Percentile £13.89 £13.00 £13.87
25th Percentile £16.90 £15.50 £15.63
Median hourly rate £19.00 £17.98 £17.50
Median % change year-on-year +5.69% +2.73% -17.28%
75th Percentile £38.38 £18.87 £22.00
90th Percentile £178.75 £20.54 £32.50
England median hourly rate £37.50 £25.15 £54.00
% change year-on-year +49.11% -53.43% +17.70%

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 12 September 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 12 September 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 12 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
North West -17 144 £497 +23.63% 69
Yorkshire -26 122 £515 +1.43% 28
North East -21 30 £475 -17.39% 31
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 14 (4.84%) Confluence
2 4 (1.38%) Apache
2 4 (1.38%) Microsoft Exchange
3 3 (1.04%) nginx
3 3 (1.04%) OpenStack
3 3 (1.04%) WebSphere
4 2 (0.69%) Apache Airflow
4 2 (0.69%) Apache Spark
4 2 (0.69%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 2 (0.69%) WebLogic
5 1 (0.35%) CICS
5 1 (0.35%) CMS
5 1 (0.35%) SAS
5 1 (0.35%) SharePoint
5 1 (0.35%) Traefik
Applications
1 7 (2.42%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.35%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.35%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (0.69%) Oracle EBS
2 1 (0.35%) SAP S/4HANA
2 1 (0.35%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 102 (35.29%) AWS
2 84 (29.07%) Azure
3 51 (17.65%) GCP
4 30 (10.38%) GitHub
5 20 (6.92%) Azure DevOps
5 20 (6.92%) OpenShift
6 18 (6.23%) Google Kubernetes Engine
7 17 (5.88%) OCI
8 14 (4.84%) Amazon ECS
8 14 (4.84%) Amazon EKS
8 14 (4.84%) AWS CloudFormation
9 13 (4.50%) Serverless
9 13 (4.50%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 12 (4.15%) GitHub Actions
11 11 (3.81%) Amazon CloudWatch
11 11 (3.81%) AWS Lambda
11 11 (3.81%) Entra ID
12 9 (3.11%) Azure Monitor
13 8 (2.77%) AWS KMS
14 7 (2.42%) Azure Sentinel
Communications & Networking
1 31 (10.73%) Firewall
2 18 (6.23%) DNS
2 18 (6.23%) Network Security
3 14 (4.84%) SAN
4 10 (3.46%) TCP/IP
5 7 (2.42%) SD-WAN
5 7 (2.42%) VSAN
5 7 (2.42%) WAN
5 7 (2.42%) Wireless
6 6 (2.08%) 3GPP
6 6 (2.08%) DHCP
6 6 (2.08%) RTP
6 6 (2.08%) VPN
6 6 (2.08%) Wireshark
7 5 (1.73%) NAS
8 4 (1.38%) iSCSI
9 3 (1.04%) Fibre Channel
9 3 (1.04%) FTP
9 3 (1.04%) HTTP
9 3 (1.04%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 24 (8.30%) Oracle Database
2 16 (5.54%) RDBMS
2 16 (5.54%) Relational Database
3 14 (4.84%) Oracle Exadata
4 12 (4.15%) MongoDB
4 12 (4.15%) NoSQL
5 8 (2.77%) SQL Server
6 6 (2.08%) DynamoDB
6 6 (2.08%) Elasticsearch
6 6 (2.08%) PostgreSQL
7 5 (1.73%) Sybase ASE
8 4 (1.38%) Data Lake
9 3 (1.04%) Amazon Aurora
9 3 (1.04%) Amazon RDS
9 3 (1.04%) Big Data
9 3 (1.04%) BusinessObjects
9 3 (1.04%) Data Warehouse
9 3 (1.04%) Oracle Database 12c
9 3 (1.04%) Power BI
10 2 (0.69%) Azure SQL Database
Development Applications
1 43 (14.88%) Git
2 25 (8.65%) GitLab
3 22 (7.61%) JIRA
4 20 (6.92%) Jenkins
5 9 (3.11%) Mockito
6 7 (2.42%) Sonatype Nexus
7 6 (2.08%) TeamCity
8 5 (1.73%) Cucumber
8 5 (1.73%) SonarQube
9 2 (0.69%) Bitbucket
9 2 (0.69%) Burp Suite
9 2 (0.69%) Gatling
9 2 (0.69%) Gradle
9 2 (0.69%) LoadRunner
9 2 (0.69%) Maven
9 2 (0.69%) REST Assured
9 2 (0.69%) Toad
10 1 (0.35%) Claude Code
10 1 (0.35%) Jaeger
10 1 (0.35%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 66 (22.84%) Social Skills
2 58 (20.07%) Finance
3 28 (9.69%) Banking
4 25 (8.65%) Analytical Skills
4 25 (8.65%) Public Sector
5 10 (3.46%) Legal
6 7 (2.42%) Military
7 6 (2.08%) Documentation Skills
8 5 (1.73%) Aviation
8 5 (1.73%) Fire and Rescue
8 5 (1.73%) Police
9 4 (1.38%) Corporate Banking
9 4 (1.38%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 4 (1.38%) Investment Banking
9 4 (1.38%) Law
10 3 (1.04%) Organisational Skills
10 3 (1.04%) Telecoms
11 1 (0.35%) Electronics
11 1 (0.35%) Influencing Skills
11 1 (0.35%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 46 (15.92%) Senior
2 30 (10.38%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 30 (10.38%) Linux Engineer
3 29 (10.03%) Developer
4 23 (7.96%) DevOps Engineer
5 21 (7.27%) Security Engineer
6 19 (6.57%) Cloud Engineer
7 16 (5.54%) Consultant
7 16 (5.54%) Unix Engineer
8 14 (4.84%) Lead
9 13 (4.50%) Java Developer
10 12 (4.15%) AWS Engineer
10 12 (4.15%) DBA
10 12 (4.15%) Senior Developer
11 11 (3.81%) Cloud Security Engineer
12 10 (3.46%) Platform Engineer
12 10 (3.46%) Software Engineer
12 10 (3.46%) Support Engineer
12 10 (3.46%) Unix Linux Engineer
13 9 (3.11%) Security Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 102 (35.29%) Terraform
2 16 (5.54%) Kafka
3 14 (4.84%) .NET
3 14 (4.84%) Oracle GoldenGate
3 14 (4.84%) REST
4 10 (3.46%) JSON
5 9 (3.11%) ActiveMQ
5 9 (3.11%) JAX-RS
6 8 (2.77%) ARM Templates
6 8 (2.77%) Django
6 8 (2.77%) YAML
7 7 (2.42%) Middleware
8 6 (2.08%) .NET Core
8 6 (2.08%) RabbitMQ
8 6 (2.08%) Redfish
9 5 (1.73%) Node.js
10 4 (1.38%) Flask
10 4 (1.38%) LDAP
10 4 (1.38%) RESTful
10 4 (1.38%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 36 (12.46%) Cloud Native
2 25 (8.65%) Data Centre
3 23 (7.96%) Linux Command Line
4 19 (6.57%) Security Posture
5 18 (6.23%) PKI
5 18 (6.23%) Replication
6 17 (5.88%) Public Cloud
7 14 (4.84%) Data Protection Act
7 14 (4.84%) Legacy Systems
8 13 (4.50%) Management Information System
9 12 (4.15%) Hybrid Cloud
10 11 (3.81%) Distributed Systems
11 10 (3.46%) Mainframe
12 9 (3.11%) Enterprise Cloud
13 7 (2.42%) Onboarding
14 6 (2.08%) Cloud Security Posture
15 5 (1.73%) Enterprise Storage
15 5 (1.73%) Private Cloud
15 5 (1.73%) Robotics
16 4 (1.38%) Clustering
Operating Systems
1 91 (31.49%) Windows
2 71 (24.57%) Unix
3 65 (22.49%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 26 (9.00%) AIX
4 26 (9.00%) Windows Server
5 20 (6.92%) Solaris
6 8 (2.77%) Ubuntu
6 8 (2.77%) VMS
7 7 (2.42%) CentOS
8 6 (2.08%) Oracle Linux
8 6 (2.08%) zOS
9 5 (1.73%) HPUX
9 5 (1.73%) SUSE
10 4 (1.38%) Mac OS
10 4 (1.38%) Mac OS X
11 2 (0.69%) CoreOS
11 2 (0.69%) OpenVMS
11 2 (0.69%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
11 2 (0.69%) Windows Server 2019
12 1 (0.35%) Check Point GAiA
Processes & Methodologies
1 106 (36.68%) CI/CD
2 93 (32.18%) Infrastructure as Code
3 80 (27.68%) DevOps
4 70 (24.22%) Agile
5 50 (17.30%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 49 (16.96%) Observability
7 48 (16.61%) Migration
8 47 (16.26%) Continuous Improvement
9 43 (14.88%) Change Management
10 40 (13.84%) Infrastructure Automation
11 39 (13.49%) High Availability
12 37 (12.80%) Cloud Security
13 34 (11.76%) Problem-Solving
14 31 (10.73%) ITIL
15 30 (10.38%) Platform Engineering
16 29 (10.03%) Containerisation
16 29 (10.03%) Disaster Recovery
16 29 (10.03%) Performance Tuning
16 29 (10.03%) Test Automation
17 28 (9.69%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 116 (40.14%) Python
2 79 (27.34%) Bash
3 77 (26.64%) PowerShell
4 48 (16.61%) Java
5 41 (14.19%) SQL
6 17 (5.88%) Bicep
6 17 (5.88%) Shell Script
7 13 (4.50%) C#
8 11 (3.81%) JavaScript
9 9 (3.11%) Go
10 5 (1.73%) JCL
10 5 (1.73%) Search Processing Language
11 4 (1.38%) Groovy
11 4 (1.38%) Kotlin
11 4 (1.38%) Kusto Query Language
12 3 (1.04%) Rust
12 3 (1.04%) TypeScript
13 2 (0.69%) C++
13 2 (0.69%) Perl
13 2 (0.69%) REXX
Qualifications
1 56 (19.38%) Security Cleared
2 44 (15.22%) SC Cleared
3 34 (11.76%) Degree
4 28 (9.69%) CISSP
5 20 (6.92%) AWS Certification
5 20 (6.92%) Azure Certification
6 7 (2.42%) BPSS Clearance
6 7 (2.42%) CompTIA Security+
7 6 (2.08%) CISM
7 6 (2.08%) Computer Science Degree
7 6 (2.08%) RHCE
8 5 (1.73%) Microsoft Certification
9 4 (1.38%) CEH
9 4 (1.38%) DV Cleared
9 4 (1.38%) Microsoft Certified Professional
10 3 (1.04%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 3 (1.04%) Cisco Certification
10 3 (1.04%) ITIL Certification
10 3 (1.04%) Network+ Certification
10 3 (1.04%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (2.77%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 5 (1.73%) HIPAA
2 5 (1.73%) NIST
3 4 (1.38%) GRC
3 4 (1.38%) SLA
4 3 (1.04%) PCI DSS
4 3 (1.04%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 1 (0.35%) Accessibility
5 1 (0.35%) California Consumer Privacy Act
5 1 (0.35%) Data Quality
5 1 (0.35%) Def Stans
5 1 (0.35%) GDPR
5 1 (0.35%) NCSC
5 1 (0.35%) QA
5 1 (0.35%) SOC 2
5 1 (0.35%) WCAG
System Software
1 55 (19.03%) Docker
2 40 (13.84%) VMware Infrastructure
3 34 (11.76%) Virtual Machines
4 23 (7.96%) Active Directory
5 17 (5.88%) Oracle RAC
5 17 (5.88%) VMware ESXi
6 15 (5.19%) vSphere
7 13 (4.50%) KVM
8 12 (4.15%) NFS
9 10 (3.46%) Firmware
10 7 (2.42%) Hyper-V
10 7 (2.42%) VMware NSX
11 5 (1.73%) Time Sharing Option
12 4 (1.38%) Ceph
13 3 (1.04%) GPFS
13 3 (1.04%) Veritas Volume Manager
13 3 (1.04%) Virtual Servers
14 2 (0.69%) Microsoft Virtual Server
15 1 (0.35%) NetIQ eDirectory
15 1 (0.35%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 82 (28.37%) Ansible
2 79 (27.34%) Kubernetes
3 22 (7.61%) Grafana
3 22 (7.61%) Prometheus
4 20 (6.92%) Progress Chef
5 19 (6.57%) Oracle RMAN
6 18 (6.23%) Data Guard
7 9 (3.11%) vCenter Server
8 8 (2.77%) Packer
8 8 (2.77%) Tivoli Storage Manager
9 7 (2.42%) Istio
10 6 (2.08%) Dell DRAC
11 5 (1.73%) PowerCLI
11 5 (1.73%) vMotion
11 5 (1.73%) vRealize
11 5 (1.73%) VxRail
12 4 (1.38%) Argo
12 4 (1.38%) Oracle ZFS
12 4 (1.38%) Tivoli
12 4 (1.38%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 46 (15.92%) Oracle
2 43 (14.88%) Microsoft
2 43 (14.88%) VMware
3 41 (14.19%) Red Hat
4 24 (8.30%) Google
5 20 (6.92%) Splunk
6 18 (6.23%) IBM
7 16 (5.54%) Cisco
8 13 (4.50%) Dell
9 9 (3.11%) ServiceNow
10 7 (2.42%) Dynatrace
11 6 (2.08%) Broadcom
11 6 (2.08%) HP
12 5 (1.73%) AppDynamics
12 5 (1.73%) Brocade
12 5 (1.73%) Databricks
12 5 (1.73%) Juniper
12 5 (1.73%) Sybase
12 5 (1.73%) Tenable
13 4 (1.38%) CyberArk