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

6 months to
1 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 42 42 45
Rank change year-on-year 0 +3 -27
Contract jobs citing Linux 273 151 196
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 5.73% 4.31% 4.24%
As % of the Operating Systems category 37.04% 28.98% 29.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 200 81 117
10th Percentile £313 £356 £316
25th Percentile £400 £453 £416
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £485 £550 £500
Median % change year-on-year -11.91% +10.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £550 £640 £588
90th Percentile £680 £750 £630
England median daily rate £513 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -6.82% - -4.35%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 5 11
10th Percentile - £43.10 £21.25
25th Percentile - £47.00 £29.40
Median hourly rate £41.94 £63.79 £45.88
Median % change year-on-year -34.25% +39.03% +0.72%
75th Percentile £50.02 £80.59 £55.31
90th Percentile £64.56 £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 737 521 657
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 15.47% 14.88% 14.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 531 294 426
10th Percentile £150 £159 £163
25th Percentile £198 £224 £257
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £370 £400 £422
Median % change year-on-year -7.50% -5.21% -6.22%
75th Percentile £500 £550 £529
90th Percentile £609 £634 £588
England median daily rate £450 £470 £475
% change year-on-year -4.26% -1.05% -6.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 32 32 45
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.22 £16.69
25th Percentile £18.87 £16.19 £17.72
Median hourly rate £21.98 £18.44 £22.00
Median % change year-on-year +19.20% -16.18% -2.22%
75th Percentile £46.77 £24.18 £45.88
90th Percentile £69.35 £50.05 £70.25
England median hourly rate £25.15 £50.00 £32.50
% change year-on-year -49.70% +53.85% +30.00%

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 1 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 1 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 1 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 +11 172 £500 -20.00% 42
North West -12 97 £468 -10.86% 83
North East -11 10 £550 +8.64% 18
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 (7.33%) Apache
2 14 (5.13%) JBoss
3 13 (4.76%) WebSphere
4 11 (4.03%) IIS
4 11 (4.03%) WebSphere Application Server
5 10 (3.66%) iPlanet
6 8 (2.93%) TPMS
7 7 (2.56%) Microsoft Exchange
8 6 (2.20%) OpenStack
8 6 (2.20%) SharePoint
9 4 (1.47%) Tomcat
10 3 (1.10%) Apache Airflow
10 3 (1.10%) Apache Spark
11 2 (0.73%) CICS
12 1 (0.37%) CMS
12 1 (0.37%) Confluence
12 1 (0.37%) Documentum
12 1 (0.37%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 11 (4.03%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (0.37%) Finacle
Cloud Services
1 101 (37.00%) AWS
2 65 (23.81%) GCP
3 42 (15.38%) Azure
4 38 (13.92%) Serverless
5 34 (12.45%) OpenShift
6 26 (9.52%) GitHub
7 17 (6.23%) GitHub Actions
8 14 (5.13%) AWS CloudFormation
9 11 (4.03%) Google Workspace
10 9 (3.30%) Amazon EC2
10 9 (3.30%) AWS KMS
10 9 (3.30%) Entra ID
11 8 (2.93%) AWS Lambda
11 8 (2.93%) IaaS
11 8 (2.93%) PaaS
11 8 (2.93%) SaaS
12 7 (2.56%) Amazon ECS
13 5 (1.83%) Virtual Private Cloud
14 4 (1.47%) Azure DevOps
14 4 (1.47%) Datadog
Communications & Networking
1 73 (26.74%) Firewall
2 19 (6.96%) Network Security
3 18 (6.59%) DNS
4 15 (5.49%) SSL
4 15 (5.49%) TCP/IP
5 12 (4.40%) SNMP
6 10 (3.66%) Kerberos
7 8 (2.93%) SSH
7 8 (2.93%) VPN
8 7 (2.56%) VLAN
9 6 (2.20%) BGP
9 6 (2.20%) Software-Defined Networking
9 6 (2.20%) WebEx
10 5 (1.83%) NAS
11 4 (1.47%) HTTP
11 4 (1.47%) SAN
12 3 (1.10%) DHCP
13 2 (0.73%) HTTPS
13 2 (0.73%) VSAN
14 1 (0.37%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (12.82%) NoSQL
2 31 (11.36%) PostgreSQL
3 25 (9.16%) Oracle Database
4 22 (8.06%) MongoDB
5 21 (7.69%) SQL Server
6 10 (3.66%) Relational Database
7 5 (1.83%) Amazon RDS
7 5 (1.83%) Apache Cassandra
7 5 (1.83%) MySQL
8 3 (1.10%) Apache Hive
8 3 (1.10%) DynamoDB
8 3 (1.10%) Hadoop
8 3 (1.10%) 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%) RDBMS
9 1 (0.37%) Redis
Development Applications
1 78 (28.57%) Jenkins
2 51 (18.68%) GitLab
3 40 (14.65%) Git
4 22 (8.06%) Liquibase
5 18 (6.59%) Mockito
6 15 (5.49%) Sonatype Nexus
7 13 (4.76%) JIRA
8 11 (4.03%) Bitbucket Server
8 11 (4.03%) CA Release Automation
9 8 (2.93%) CircleCI
10 5 (1.83%) Bitbucket
10 5 (1.83%) Jaeger
11 3 (1.10%) Rational DOORS
12 2 (0.73%) Gradle
12 2 (0.73%) Maven
12 2 (0.73%) Octopus Deploy
13 1 (0.37%) Eclipse
13 1 (0.37%) JUnit
13 1 (0.37%) Oracle Forms
13 1 (0.37%) TeamCity
General
1 90 (32.97%) Social Skills
2 73 (26.74%) Finance
3 46 (16.85%) Banking
4 31 (11.36%) Public Sector
5 28 (10.26%) Financial Institution
6 20 (7.33%) Analytical Skills
7 14 (5.13%) Documentation Skills
8 7 (2.56%) Legal
9 4 (1.47%) Games
10 3 (1.10%) Law
11 2 (0.73%) Organisational Skills
11 2 (0.73%) 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 47 (17.22%) Senior
2 42 (15.38%) Developer
3 32 (11.72%) Java Developer
4 29 (10.62%) DevOps Engineer
5 27 (9.89%) Platform Engineer
6 25 (9.16%) Software Engineer
7 20 (7.33%) AWS Engineer
7 20 (7.33%) Cloud Engineer
8 18 (6.59%) Lead
9 16 (5.86%) Senior Developer
9 16 (5.86%) Senior Java Developer
10 14 (5.13%) GCP Engineer
11 13 (4.76%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 13 (4.76%) Linux Engineer
12 12 (4.40%) IT Engineer
12 12 (4.40%) IT Support
12 12 (4.40%) IT Support Engineer
12 12 (4.40%) Support Engineer
13 10 (3.66%) Administrator
13 10 (3.66%) Senior Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 43 (15.75%) Elastic Stack
2 37 (13.55%) REST
3 31 (11.36%) RESTful
4 26 (9.52%) Kafka
5 18 (6.59%) ActiveMQ
5 18 (6.59%) JAX-RS
6 16 (5.86%) LDAP
7 13 (4.76%) OAuth
8 11 (4.03%) OpenID
8 11 (4.03%) SAML
9 10 (3.66%) FastAPI
9 10 (3.66%) Middleware
10 9 (3.30%) Spring Boot
11 8 (2.93%) Node.js
12 6 (2.20%) OpenTelemetry
12 6 (2.20%) Spring
12 6 (2.20%) XMPP
13 5 (1.83%) AngularJS
14 4 (1.47%) YAML
15 3 (1.10%) Spring Security
Miscellaneous
1 33 (12.09%) Distributed Systems
2 30 (10.99%) Public Cloud
3 29 (10.62%) Cloud Native
4 15 (5.49%) Product Ownership
5 13 (4.76%) Data Centre
5 13 (4.76%) Onboarding
6 9 (3.30%) Hybrid Cloud
7 7 (2.56%) NHS
8 6 (2.20%) Management Information System
8 6 (2.20%) Security Posture
9 5 (1.83%) Data Protection Act
9 5 (1.83%) Legacy Systems
10 3 (1.10%) Analytical Mindset
10 3 (1.10%) Cloud Security Posture
10 3 (1.10%) Cyber Threat
11 2 (0.73%) Derivative
11 2 (0.73%) Enterprise Cloud
11 2 (0.73%) Legacy Applications
11 2 (0.73%) PKI
11 2 (0.73%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 98 (35.90%) Windows
2 58 (21.25%) Unix
3 32 (11.72%) Windows Server
4 30 (10.99%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 22 (8.06%) Mac OS X
6 5 (1.83%) CentOS
6 5 (1.83%) Ubuntu
7 4 (1.47%) Solaris
7 4 (1.47%) VMS
8 3 (1.10%) Amazon Linux
9 2 (0.73%) Mac OS
9 2 (0.73%) zOS
10 1 (0.37%) MVS
Processes & Methodologies
1 117 (42.86%) DevOps
2 116 (42.49%) CI/CD
3 88 (32.23%) Containerisation
4 72 (26.37%) Agile
5 71 (26.01%) Problem-Solving
6 70 (25.64%) Infrastructure as Code
7 67 (24.54%) Microservices
8 53 (19.41%) Cybersecurity
9 46 (16.85%) Observability
10 43 (15.75%) Infrastructure Automation
10 43 (15.75%) Root Cause Analysis
11 39 (14.29%) Test Automation
12 36 (13.19%) Computer Science
12 36 (13.19%) Software Engineering
13 35 (12.82%) Cryptography
13 35 (12.82%) High Availability
14 33 (12.09%) Data Security
15 31 (11.36%) Continuous Integration
15 31 (11.36%) Task Automation
16 30 (10.99%) Platform Engineering
Programming Languages
1 143 (52.38%) Python
2 70 (25.64%) Bash
3 66 (24.18%) Java
4 43 (15.75%) PowerShell
5 37 (13.55%) Go
6 29 (10.62%) Shell Script
7 25 (9.16%) SQL
8 20 (7.33%) Perl
9 14 (5.13%) Groovy
10 12 (4.40%) PHP
11 10 (3.66%) Ruby
12 7 (2.56%) C++
13 6 (2.20%) Rust
14 4 (1.47%) C#
15 3 (1.10%) C
15 3 (1.10%) Delphi
15 3 (1.10%) Search Processing Language
16 2 (0.73%) JavaScript
16 2 (0.73%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 62 (22.71%) Security Cleared
2 49 (17.95%) SC Cleared
3 38 (13.92%) Degree
4 29 (10.62%) Computer Science Degree
5 27 (9.89%) Master's Degree
6 20 (7.33%) AWS Certification
7 16 (5.86%) BPSS Clearance
8 8 (2.93%) CCDP
8 8 (2.93%) CCNA
8 8 (2.93%) CCNP
8 8 (2.93%) Cisco Certification
8 8 (2.93%) FFIEC
9 7 (2.56%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 7 (2.56%) CISSP
10 6 (2.20%) CompTIA Security+
11 5 (1.83%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
12 4 (1.47%) CISM
12 4 (1.47%) Microsoft Certification
12 4 (1.47%) RHCE
13 3 (1.10%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (3.66%) GDPR
2 9 (3.30%) NIST
3 8 (2.93%) GLBA
3 8 (2.93%) PCI DSS
4 6 (2.20%) SLA
5 3 (1.10%) HIPAA
5 3 (1.10%) SOC 2
6 2 (0.73%) Cyber Essentials
7 1 (0.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 99 (36.26%) Docker
2 35 (12.82%) Active Directory
3 33 (12.09%) VMware Infrastructure
4 12 (4.40%) vSphere
5 10 (3.66%) Oracle RAC
6 8 (2.93%) Tivoli Directory Server
7 6 (2.20%) KVM
7 6 (2.20%) Virtual Machines
8 5 (1.83%) Hyper-V
9 4 (1.47%) VMware NSX
10 3 (1.10%) HDFS
10 3 (1.10%) Virtual Desktop
10 3 (1.10%) VMware ESXi
11 2 (0.73%) Virtual Servers
12 1 (0.37%) Ceph
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
1 109 (39.93%) Kubernetes
2 88 (32.23%) Ansible
3 83 (30.40%) Terraform
4 66 (24.18%) Grafana
5 53 (19.41%) Prometheus
6 14 (5.13%) Progress Chef
7 11 (4.03%) CA Single Sign-On
8 10 (3.66%) CA Wily
8 10 (3.66%) Data Guard
8 10 (3.66%) Puppet
8 10 (3.66%) yum
9 8 (2.93%) Single Sign-On
9 8 (2.93%) Tivoli
10 6 (2.20%) NetBackup
10 6 (2.20%) Oracle RMAN
11 5 (1.83%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 5 (1.83%) EMC NetWorker
11 5 (1.83%) Packer
11 5 (1.83%) vCenter Server
11 5 (1.83%) vRealize
Vendors
1 72 (26.37%) Splunk
2 50 (18.32%) Oracle
3 44 (16.12%) Microsoft
4 43 (15.75%) VMware
5 35 (12.82%) Google
6 26 (9.52%) Red Hat
7 21 (7.69%) AppDynamics
8 13 (4.76%) Cisco
9 12 (4.40%) Citrix
9 12 (4.40%) IBM
10 11 (4.03%) Broadcom
11 10 (3.66%) CyberArk
11 10 (3.66%) F5
12 7 (2.56%) Thales
13 6 (2.20%) Veritas
14 5 (1.83%) Palo Alto
15 4 (1.47%) EMC
15 4 (1.47%) Juniper
15 4 (1.47%) ServiceNow
16 3 (1.10%) NetApp