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 3 months leading up to 7 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

3 months to
7 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 36 28 25
Rank change year-on-year -8 -3 +3
Contract jobs citing Linux 165 119 121
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 4.71% 6.39% 5.80%
As % of the Operating Systems category 43.42% 39.53% 35.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 99 73 88
10th Percentile £358 £352 £350
25th Percentile £400 £375 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £485 £525 £506
Median % change year-on-year -7.62% +3.70% -4.03%
75th Percentile £599 £600 £600
90th Percentile £652 £722 £650
England median daily rate £513 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -6.82% - -8.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 0 2
10th Percentile £22.75 - £56.52
25th Percentile £32.97 - £58.80
Median hourly rate £50.00 - £67.70
75th Percentile £62.13 - £76.69
90th Percentile £69.41 - £79.03
England median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £67.50
% change year-on-year - -3.70% +3.45%

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 380 301 344
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 10.85% 16.17% 16.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 240 179 238
10th Percentile £149 £158 £200
25th Percentile £295 £244 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £400 £450
Median % change year-on-year +6.25% -11.11% -5.26%
75th Percentile £532 £522 £592
90th Percentile £617 £623 £825
England median daily rate £459 £463 £489
% change year-on-year -0.76% -5.42% -2.20%
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 14 38
10th Percentile £16.97 £13.00 -
25th Percentile £21.33 £14.78 -
Median hourly rate £39.00 £17.44 £10.95
Median % change year-on-year +123.62% +59.27% -58.68%
75th Percentile £178.75 £18.46 £15.61
90th Percentile - £19.68 £22.00
England median hourly rate £52.50 £18.82 £21.50
% change year-on-year +178.96% -12.47% -55.21%

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 3 months to 7 May 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 3 months to 7 May 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 3 months to 7 May 2026. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 3 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 3 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
North West 0 81 £500 - 58
Yorkshire -19 78 £413 -23.26% 42
North East -17 7 £456 -4.45% 21
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 (5.02%) Confluence
2 9 (3.23%) CICS
3 8 (2.87%) TPMS
4 5 (1.79%) Apache
5 3 (1.08%) nginx
6 1 (0.36%) Apache Airflow
6 1 (0.36%) CMS
6 1 (0.36%) JBoss
6 1 (0.36%) Tomcat
Applications
1 6 (2.15%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.36%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 1 (0.36%) Cloudability
1 1 (0.36%) Odoo
1 1 (0.36%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 79 (28.32%) AWS
2 49 (17.56%) Azure
3 46 (16.49%) OpenShift
4 33 (11.83%) GCP
5 21 (7.53%) GitHub
6 11 (3.94%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 9 (3.23%) Amazon EKS
7 9 (3.23%) Serverless
8 8 (2.87%) Amazon EC2
8 8 (2.87%) Amazon S3
8 8 (2.87%) AWS CloudFormation
8 8 (2.87%) AWS Lambda
8 8 (2.87%) GitHub Actions
9 6 (2.15%) Amazon ECS
10 5 (1.79%) Amazon SQS
11 4 (1.43%) AWS KMS
11 4 (1.43%) Google Kubernetes Engine
11 4 (1.43%) IaaS
12 3 (1.08%) Amazon EventBridge
12 3 (1.08%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 52 (18.64%) Firewall
2 22 (7.89%) SAN
3 18 (6.45%) DNS
4 16 (5.73%) TCP/IP
5 14 (5.02%) SSL
6 13 (4.66%) Network Security
7 9 (3.23%) SNMP
7 9 (3.23%) VSAN
8 8 (2.87%) SSH
9 7 (2.51%) NAS
9 7 (2.51%) VPN
10 6 (2.15%) HTTP
11 4 (1.43%) 3GPP
11 4 (1.43%) iSCSI
11 4 (1.43%) RTP
11 4 (1.43%) Wireshark
12 2 (0.72%) DHCP
12 2 (0.72%) Reverse Proxy
12 2 (0.72%) VLAN
13 1 (0.36%) FTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (7.17%) MongoDB
2 17 (6.09%) PostgreSQL
3 13 (4.66%) NoSQL
3 13 (4.66%) SQL Server
4 9 (3.23%) DataStage
4 9 (3.23%) Oracle Database
5 7 (2.51%) Elasticsearch
6 6 (2.15%) DB2
7 5 (1.79%) Relational Database
8 4 (1.43%) Oracle Database 12c
9 3 (1.08%) Amazon Aurora
9 3 (1.08%) DynamoDB
9 3 (1.08%) RDBMS
10 2 (0.72%) Apache Cassandra
11 1 (0.36%) Amazon RDS
11 1 (0.36%) Azure SQL Database
11 1 (0.36%) Oracle Exadata
11 1 (0.36%) SAP BW
11 1 (0.36%) Sybase ASE
11 1 (0.36%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 31 (11.11%) Jenkins
2 28 (10.04%) JIRA
3 25 (8.96%) GitLab
4 17 (6.09%) Git
5 11 (3.94%) Mockito
6 9 (3.23%) Jaeger
7 4 (1.43%) TeamCity
8 3 (1.08%) Bitbucket
8 3 (1.08%) CircleCI
8 3 (1.08%) Liquibase
9 2 (0.72%) Octopus Deploy
9 2 (0.72%) Sonatype Nexus
10 1 (0.36%) Gradle
10 1 (0.36%) Hudson
10 1 (0.36%) JUnit
10 1 (0.36%) Maven
General
1 83 (29.75%) Social Skills
2 69 (24.73%) Finance
3 31 (11.11%) Public Sector
4 28 (10.04%) Banking
5 21 (7.53%) Documentation Skills
6 17 (6.09%) Analytical Skills
7 9 (3.23%) Financial Institution
7 9 (3.23%) Influencing Skills
8 7 (2.51%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 5 (1.79%) Legal
10 4 (1.43%) Aviation
10 4 (1.43%) Fire and Rescue
10 4 (1.43%) Police
11 3 (1.08%) Investment Banking
11 3 (1.08%) Law
12 2 (0.72%) Advertising
13 1 (0.36%) Manufacturing
13 1 (0.36%) Military
13 1 (0.36%) Private Banking
13 1 (0.36%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 39 (13.98%) Senior
2 30 (10.75%) Developer
3 21 (7.53%) DevOps Engineer
4 20 (7.17%) Java Developer
5 17 (6.09%) Software Engineer
6 16 (5.73%) Security Engineer
7 15 (5.38%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 15 (5.38%) Lead
8 14 (5.02%) Linux Engineer
9 12 (4.30%) Analyst
10 11 (3.94%) Platform Engineer
11 10 (3.58%) Data Centre Engineer
12 9 (3.23%) Designer
12 9 (3.23%) Infrastructure Designer
13 8 (2.87%) AWS Engineer
13 8 (2.87%) Cryptography Engineer
13 8 (2.87%) Full-Stack Engineer
13 8 (2.87%) Senior Developer
13 8 (2.87%) VMware Engineer
14 7 (2.51%) DBA
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 23 (8.24%) Kafka
2 18 (6.45%) Middleware
3 12 (4.30%) Elastic Stack
3 12 (4.30%) OpenTelemetry
4 11 (3.94%) JAX-RS
4 11 (3.94%) REST
5 10 (3.58%) .NET
5 10 (3.58%) ActiveMQ
5 10 (3.58%) LDAP
5 10 (3.58%) YAML
6 9 (3.23%) Spring Boot
7 8 (2.87%) Redfish
8 4 (1.43%) .NET Core
9 3 (1.08%) Flash
9 3 (1.08%) RESTful
9 3 (1.08%) SOAP
9 3 (1.08%) WebSockets
9 3 (1.08%) XML
10 2 (0.72%) HTML
10 2 (0.72%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 35 (12.54%) Data Centre
2 23 (8.24%) Cloud Native
3 17 (6.09%) Linux Command Line
3 17 (6.09%) Security Posture
4 16 (5.73%) Distributed Systems
5 14 (5.02%) Hybrid Cloud
6 13 (4.66%) Mainframe
6 13 (4.66%) Management Information System
7 12 (4.30%) Data Protection Act
8 10 (3.58%) Cloud Security Posture
9 9 (3.23%) BYOD
9 9 (3.23%) Legacy Systems
9 9 (3.23%) Replication
9 9 (3.23%) VSAM
10 6 (2.15%) Onboarding
10 6 (2.15%) Product Ownership
11 5 (1.79%) Enterprise Storage
11 5 (1.79%) FlexPod
12 4 (1.43%) Public Cloud
12 4 (1.43%) Robotics
Operating Systems
1 103 (36.92%) Windows
2 72 (25.81%) Unix
3 55 (19.71%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 26 (9.32%) Windows Server
5 24 (8.60%) AIX
6 15 (5.38%) Solaris
7 14 (5.02%) Ubuntu
8 12 (4.30%) Mac OS X
8 12 (4.30%) VMS
9 9 (3.23%) CentOS
10 7 (2.51%) CoreOS
10 7 (2.51%) Oracle Linux
11 5 (1.79%) Data ONTAP
12 4 (1.43%) HPUX
12 4 (1.43%) SUSE
12 4 (1.43%) zOS
13 3 (1.08%) Mac OS
14 1 (0.36%) Embedded Linux
14 1 (0.36%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 87 (31.18%) CI/CD
2 84 (30.11%) DevOps
3 57 (20.43%) Problem-Solving
4 49 (17.56%) Observability
5 47 (16.85%) Agile
6 42 (15.05%) Infrastructure as Code
7 39 (13.98%) Microservices
8 37 (13.26%) Containerisation
9 36 (12.90%) Migration
10 34 (12.19%) Roadmaps
10 34 (12.19%) Test Automation
11 32 (11.47%) Cybersecurity
12 29 (10.39%) Continuous Improvement
13 27 (9.68%) Root Cause Analysis
14 25 (8.96%) Data Protection
14 25 (8.96%) Infrastructure Engineering
15 24 (8.60%) Infrastructure Automation
16 22 (7.89%) Capacity Planning
16 22 (7.89%) Performance Tuning
16 22 (7.89%) Vulnerability Management
Programming Languages
1 107 (38.35%) Python
2 53 (19.00%) Bash
3 50 (17.92%) SQL
4 49 (17.56%) Java
5 42 (15.05%) PowerShell
6 15 (5.38%) Rust
6 15 (5.38%) Shell Script
7 13 (4.66%) Go
7 13 (4.66%) Ruby
8 12 (4.30%) JavaScript
9 10 (3.58%) C#
9 10 (3.58%) Perl
10 9 (3.23%) COBOL
11 8 (2.87%) TypeScript
12 7 (2.51%) PHP
13 4 (1.43%) JCL
13 4 (1.43%) Kotlin
14 3 (1.08%) Delphi
15 2 (0.72%) Bicep
15 2 (0.72%) Search Processing Language
Qualifications
1 46 (16.49%) Security Cleared
2 30 (10.75%) SC Cleared
3 25 (8.96%) Degree
4 22 (7.89%) CISSP
5 15 (5.38%) RHCE
6 13 (4.66%) CompTIA Security+
7 11 (3.94%) AWS Certification
8 8 (2.87%) FFIEC
9 7 (2.51%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 7 (2.51%) BPSS Clearance
9 7 (2.51%) DV Cleared
10 6 (2.15%) Microsoft Certification
10 6 (2.15%) OCP
10 6 (2.15%) Oracle Certification
11 5 (1.79%) Azure Certification
11 5 (1.79%) CISM
11 5 (1.79%) Computer Science Degree
11 5 (1.79%) MCSA
11 5 (1.79%) MCSE
12 2 (0.72%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (5.38%) GDPR
2 11 (3.94%) NIST
3 10 (3.58%) PCI DSS
4 9 (3.23%) HIPAA
5 8 (2.87%) GLBA
6 7 (2.51%) SLA
7 5 (1.79%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 5 (1.79%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 4 (1.43%) GRC
9 3 (1.08%) QA
9 3 (1.08%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 1 (0.36%) Cyber Essentials
10 1 (0.36%) GxP
10 1 (0.36%) SOC 2
System Software
1 56 (20.07%) Docker
2 45 (16.13%) VMware Infrastructure
3 37 (13.26%) Virtual Machines
4 18 (6.45%) Hyper-V
4 18 (6.45%) vSphere
5 17 (6.09%) Active Directory
5 17 (6.09%) KVM
6 15 (5.38%) NFS
7 13 (4.66%) Firmware
8 12 (4.30%) VMware ESXi
9 7 (2.51%) VMware NSX
10 4 (1.43%) Time Sharing Option
11 3 (1.08%) GPFS
12 2 (0.72%) SRDF
13 1 (0.36%) Ceph
13 1 (0.36%) Embedded Firmware
13 1 (0.36%) Oracle RAC
13 1 (0.36%) Slurm Workload Manager
13 1 (0.36%) Veritas Volume Manager
13 1 (0.36%) zsh
Systems Management
1 84 (30.11%) Ansible
2 78 (27.96%) Kubernetes
3 71 (25.45%) Terraform
4 37 (13.26%) Grafana
5 28 (10.04%) Prometheus
6 12 (4.30%) Puppet
7 11 (3.94%) vCenter Server
8 8 (2.87%) Dell DRAC
8 8 (2.87%) Kiali
8 8 (2.87%) Progress Chef
9 7 (2.51%) PowerCLI
10 6 (2.15%) IBM BigFix
10 6 (2.15%) Nessus
10 6 (2.15%) Packer
10 6 (2.15%) vRealize
11 5 (1.79%) CASB
11 5 (1.79%) Oracle RMAN
11 5 (1.79%) SnapMirror
11 5 (1.79%) Tivoli Storage Manager
12 4 (1.43%) Argo
Vendors
1 55 (19.71%) VMware
2 39 (13.98%) Red Hat
3 35 (12.54%) Splunk
4 28 (10.04%) Microsoft
5 26 (9.32%) IBM
5 26 (9.32%) Oracle
6 15 (5.38%) Google
7 12 (4.30%) ServiceNow
8 11 (3.94%) CyberArk
9 8 (2.87%) Broadcom
9 8 (2.87%) Cisco
9 8 (2.87%) Dell
9 8 (2.87%) HP
9 8 (2.87%) Thales
10 7 (2.51%) Tenable
11 6 (2.15%) NetApp
11 6 (2.15%) Remedy
12 5 (1.79%) Varonis
13 4 (1.43%) Brocade
13 4 (1.43%) Dynatrace