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 25 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 56 32 41
Rank change year-on-year -24 +9 +5
Contract jobs citing Linux 279 239 167
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 3.71% 5.97% 3.97%
As % of the Operating Systems category 33.02% 38.12% 31.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 169 161 113
10th Percentile £358 £319 £355
25th Percentile £406 £368 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £494 £500 £540
Median % change year-on-year -1.20% -7.41% +2.86%
75th Percentile £613 £609 £622
90th Percentile £650 £680 £685
England median daily rate £525 £525 £543
% change year-on-year - -3.31% -5.73%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 1 3
10th Percentile £18.90 - £47.35
25th Percentile £23.36 - £47.88
Median hourly rate £36.67 £70.00 £52.50
Median % change year-on-year -47.61% +33.33% +98.11%
75th Percentile £49.06 - £68.42
90th Percentile £49.63 - £75.72
England median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £67.50
% change year-on-year - -3.70% +3.85%

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 845 627 538
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 11.24% 15.66% 12.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 567 415 345
10th Percentile £180 £176 £188
25th Percentile £230 £265 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £415 £400 £463
Median % change year-on-year +3.75% -13.51% +5.11%
75th Percentile £524 £538 £588
90th Percentile £614 £624 £795
England median daily rate £465 £450 £475
% change year-on-year +3.33% -5.26% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 36 24 60
10th Percentile £16.22 £13.00 -
25th Percentile £17.16 £15.93 £10.95
Median hourly rate £21.32 £18.10 £15.46
Median % change year-on-year +17.77% +17.09% -27.45%
75th Percentile £33.19 £18.87 £18.86
90th Percentile £178.75 £19.77 £24.18
England median hourly rate £32.50 £24.00 £36.17
% change year-on-year +35.42% -33.64% -10.32%

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 25 August 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 25 August 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 25 August 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 -25 141 £484 +21.00% 81
Yorkshire -26 120 £500 -4.76% 32
North East -20 25 £471 -18.04% 26
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 15 (5.38%) Confluence
2 4 (1.43%) Microsoft Exchange
3 3 (1.08%) Apache
3 3 (1.08%) CICS
3 3 (1.08%) OpenStack
4 2 (0.72%) Apache Airflow
4 2 (0.72%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 2 (0.72%) WebLogic
5 1 (0.36%) CMS
5 1 (0.36%) nginx
5 1 (0.36%) SAS
5 1 (0.36%) SharePoint
5 1 (0.36%) WebSphere
Applications
1 9 (3.23%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.36%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.36%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (0.72%) Oracle EBS
2 1 (0.36%) Odoo
2 1 (0.36%) SAP S/4HANA
2 1 (0.36%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 97 (34.77%) AWS
2 77 (27.60%) Azure
3 47 (16.85%) GCP
4 26 (9.32%) GitHub
5 22 (7.89%) OpenShift
6 18 (6.45%) OCI
7 17 (6.09%) Azure DevOps
8 15 (5.38%) Google Kubernetes Engine
9 12 (4.30%) Amazon ECS
9 12 (4.30%) AWS CloudFormation
10 11 (3.94%) Amazon EKS
10 11 (3.94%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 10 (3.58%) GitHub Actions
11 10 (3.58%) Serverless
12 9 (3.23%) AWS Lambda
13 8 (2.87%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 7 (2.51%) Azure Sentinel
14 7 (2.51%) Entra ID
14 7 (2.51%) Microsoft 365
15 6 (2.15%) AWS KMS
Communications & Networking
1 27 (9.68%) Firewall
2 18 (6.45%) SAN
3 16 (5.73%) DNS
4 15 (5.38%) Network Security
5 9 (3.23%) VSAN
6 8 (2.87%) TCP/IP
7 6 (2.15%) 3GPP
7 6 (2.15%) RTP
7 6 (2.15%) Wireshark
8 5 (1.79%) DHCP
8 5 (1.79%) NAS
8 5 (1.79%) VPN
9 4 (1.43%) iSCSI
10 3 (1.08%) FTP
10 3 (1.08%) HTTP
10 3 (1.08%) SD-WAN
10 3 (1.08%) SSL
10 3 (1.08%) WAN
10 3 (1.08%) Wireless
11 2 (0.72%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 28 (10.04%) Oracle Database
2 17 (6.09%) RDBMS
2 17 (6.09%) Relational Database
3 15 (5.38%) Oracle Exadata
4 12 (4.30%) MongoDB
4 12 (4.30%) NoSQL
5 8 (2.87%) PostgreSQL
6 7 (2.51%) SQL Server
7 6 (2.15%) Oracle Database 12c
8 5 (1.79%) DynamoDB
8 5 (1.79%) Elasticsearch
8 5 (1.79%) Sybase ASE
9 3 (1.08%) Amazon Aurora
9 3 (1.08%) Amazon RDS
9 3 (1.08%) BusinessObjects
9 3 (1.08%) DataStage
10 2 (0.72%) Azure SQL Database
10 2 (0.72%) Big Data
10 2 (0.72%) Data Lake
10 2 (0.72%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 33 (11.83%) Git
2 25 (8.96%) JIRA
3 23 (8.24%) GitLab
4 17 (6.09%) Jenkins
5 10 (3.58%) Mockito
6 6 (2.15%) TeamCity
7 5 (1.79%) Sonatype Nexus
8 4 (1.43%) Cucumber
9 3 (1.08%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.72%) Burp Suite
10 2 (0.72%) Gatling
10 2 (0.72%) Gradle
10 2 (0.72%) LoadRunner
10 2 (0.72%) REST Assured
10 2 (0.72%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.72%) Toad
11 1 (0.36%) Claude Code
11 1 (0.36%) Hudson
11 1 (0.36%) Jaeger
General
1 61 (21.86%) Social Skills
2 54 (19.35%) Finance
3 27 (9.68%) Banking
4 23 (8.24%) Analytical Skills
4 23 (8.24%) Public Sector
5 10 (3.58%) Legal
6 5 (1.79%) Aviation
6 5 (1.79%) Fire and Rescue
6 5 (1.79%) Military
6 5 (1.79%) Police
7 4 (1.43%) Documentation Skills
7 4 (1.43%) Law
7 4 (1.43%) Telecoms
8 3 (1.08%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 3 (1.08%) Influencing Skills
8 3 (1.08%) Investment Banking
8 3 (1.08%) Organisational Skills
9 2 (0.72%) Corporate Banking
10 1 (0.36%) Manufacturing
10 1 (0.36%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 44 (15.77%) Senior
2 33 (11.83%) Linux Engineer
3 29 (10.39%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 24 (8.60%) Developer
5 21 (7.53%) Security Engineer
6 18 (6.45%) Consultant
7 17 (6.09%) DevOps Engineer
8 16 (5.73%) Cloud Engineer
8 16 (5.73%) DBA
8 16 (5.73%) Unix Engineer
9 14 (5.02%) Java Developer
10 12 (4.30%) Lead
11 11 (3.94%) Security Consultant
12 10 (3.58%) AWS Engineer
12 10 (3.58%) Cloud Security Engineer
12 10 (3.58%) Platform Engineer
12 10 (3.58%) Senior Developer
12 10 (3.58%) Software Engineer
12 10 (3.58%) Unix Linux Engineer
13 9 (3.23%) VMware Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 93 (33.33%) Terraform
2 15 (5.38%) Oracle GoldenGate
3 14 (5.02%) Kafka
4 13 (4.66%) .NET
5 10 (3.58%) ActiveMQ
5 10 (3.58%) JAX-RS
6 9 (3.23%) Middleware
6 9 (3.23%) Redfish
6 9 (3.23%) REST
7 8 (2.87%) YAML
8 6 (2.15%) .NET Core
8 6 (2.15%) ARM Templates
8 6 (2.15%) JSON
8 6 (2.15%) RabbitMQ
9 5 (1.79%) LDAP
10 4 (1.43%) Flash
10 4 (1.43%) Node.js
10 4 (1.43%) OpenID
10 4 (1.43%) RESTful
10 4 (1.43%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 30 (10.75%) Cloud Native
2 29 (10.39%) Data Centre
3 21 (7.53%) Linux Command Line
4 19 (6.81%) Replication
5 17 (6.09%) Security Posture
6 16 (5.73%) PKI
7 14 (5.02%) Legacy Systems
7 14 (5.02%) Public Cloud
8 12 (4.30%) Data Protection Act
9 11 (3.94%) Hybrid Cloud
9 11 (3.94%) Mainframe
9 11 (3.94%) Management Information System
10 10 (3.58%) Distributed Systems
11 8 (2.87%) Enterprise Cloud
12 6 (2.15%) Enterprise Storage
13 5 (1.79%) Cloud Security Posture
13 5 (1.79%) Private Cloud
13 5 (1.79%) Robotics
14 4 (1.43%) Onboarding
15 3 (1.08%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 90 (32.26%) Windows
2 65 (23.30%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
2 65 (23.30%) Unix
3 29 (10.39%) AIX
4 24 (8.60%) Windows Server
5 22 (7.89%) Solaris
6 9 (3.23%) Ubuntu
7 8 (2.87%) Oracle Linux
8 7 (2.51%) CentOS
8 7 (2.51%) VMS
9 5 (1.79%) HPUX
9 5 (1.79%) Mac OS X
9 5 (1.79%) SUSE
9 5 (1.79%) zOS
10 3 (1.08%) CoreOS
11 2 (0.72%) Mac OS
11 2 (0.72%) OpenVMS
11 2 (0.72%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
11 2 (0.72%) Windows Server 2019
12 1 (0.36%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 92 (32.97%) CI/CD
2 80 (28.67%) Infrastructure as Code
3 69 (24.73%) DevOps
4 63 (22.58%) Agile
5 49 (17.56%) Migration
6 47 (16.85%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 46 (16.49%) Continuous Improvement
8 41 (14.70%) High Availability
8 41 (14.70%) Observability
9 38 (13.62%) Change Management
10 35 (12.54%) Infrastructure Automation
11 34 (12.19%) Performance Tuning
12 33 (11.83%) Cloud Security
13 31 (11.11%) Problem-Solving
13 31 (11.11%) Test Automation
14 29 (10.39%) ITIL
14 29 (10.39%) Platform Engineering
14 29 (10.39%) Runbook
15 28 (10.04%) Disaster Recovery
16 25 (8.96%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 104 (37.28%) Python
2 73 (26.16%) Bash
3 70 (25.09%) PowerShell
4 43 (15.41%) Java
5 40 (14.34%) SQL
6 15 (5.38%) Bicep
7 14 (5.02%) Shell Script
8 12 (4.30%) C#
9 10 (3.58%) JavaScript
10 7 (2.51%) Go
11 5 (1.79%) JCL
12 4 (1.43%) Kotlin
13 3 (1.08%) COBOL
13 3 (1.08%) Kusto Query Language
13 3 (1.08%) Rust
13 3 (1.08%) TypeScript
14 2 (0.72%) C++
14 2 (0.72%) Groovy
14 2 (0.72%) Perl
14 2 (0.72%) REXX
Qualifications
1 52 (18.64%) Security Cleared
2 42 (15.05%) SC Cleared
3 34 (12.19%) Degree
4 27 (9.68%) CISSP
5 18 (6.45%) Azure Certification
6 17 (6.09%) AWS Certification
7 7 (2.51%) CompTIA Security+
8 6 (2.15%) BPSS Clearance
8 6 (2.15%) RHCE
9 5 (1.79%) CISM
9 5 (1.79%) Computer Science Degree
10 4 (1.43%) DV Cleared
10 4 (1.43%) Microsoft Certification
10 4 (1.43%) Microsoft Certified Professional
11 3 (1.08%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 3 (1.08%) CEH
11 3 (1.08%) Cisco Certification
11 3 (1.08%) Network+ Certification
11 3 (1.08%) OSCP
12 2 (0.72%) RHCA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (2.87%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 5 (1.79%) HIPAA
2 5 (1.79%) NIST
3 4 (1.43%) GRC
3 4 (1.43%) SLA
4 3 (1.08%) PCI DSS
4 3 (1.08%) QA
4 3 (1.08%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 1 (0.36%) Accessibility
5 1 (0.36%) California Consumer Privacy Act
5 1 (0.36%) Data Quality
5 1 (0.36%) GDPR
5 1 (0.36%) SOC 2
5 1 (0.36%) WCAG
System Software
1 49 (17.56%) Docker
2 41 (14.70%) VMware Infrastructure
3 31 (11.11%) Virtual Machines
4 20 (7.17%) Active Directory
5 18 (6.45%) Oracle RAC
6 17 (6.09%) vSphere
7 14 (5.02%) KVM
7 14 (5.02%) NFS
7 14 (5.02%) VMware ESXi
8 12 (4.30%) Firmware
9 9 (3.23%) Hyper-V
10 8 (2.87%) VMware NSX
11 5 (1.79%) Time Sharing Option
12 4 (1.43%) Ceph
12 4 (1.43%) GPFS
13 3 (1.08%) Veritas Volume Manager
14 1 (0.36%) NDS
14 1 (0.36%) NetIQ eDirectory
14 1 (0.36%) Slurm Workload Manager
14 1 (0.36%) zsh
Systems Management
1 82 (29.39%) Ansible
2 70 (25.09%) Kubernetes
3 23 (8.24%) Oracle RMAN
4 19 (6.81%) Data Guard
4 19 (6.81%) Progress Chef
4 19 (6.81%) Prometheus
5 17 (6.09%) Grafana
6 9 (3.23%) Dell DRAC
7 8 (2.87%) Tivoli Storage Manager
8 7 (2.51%) Packer
8 7 (2.51%) PowerCLI
8 7 (2.51%) vCenter Server
8 7 (2.51%) vRealize
9 6 (2.15%) Istio
10 5 (1.79%) Argo
11 4 (1.43%) Oracle ZFS
11 4 (1.43%) Tivoli
11 4 (1.43%) vMotion
12 3 (1.08%) Nagios
12 3 (1.08%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 49 (17.56%) Oracle
2 46 (16.49%) VMware
3 40 (14.34%) Red Hat
4 39 (13.98%) Microsoft
5 20 (7.17%) Google
5 20 (7.17%) IBM
6 16 (5.73%) Cisco
7 12 (4.30%) Splunk
8 11 (3.94%) ServiceNow
9 9 (3.23%) Dell
10 7 (2.51%) Broadcom
10 7 (2.51%) Dynatrace
10 7 (2.51%) HP
11 5 (1.79%) Brocade
11 5 (1.79%) Juniper
11 5 (1.79%) Sybase
12 4 (1.43%) CyberArk
12 4 (1.43%) Databricks
12 4 (1.43%) SAP
13 3 (1.08%) F5