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 29 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
29 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 45 30 35
Rank change year-on-year -15 +5 +5
Contract jobs citing Linux 318 226 191
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 4.40% 5.79% 4.46%
As % of the Operating Systems category 39.26% 37.73% 31.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 198 155 125
10th Percentile £358 £335 £375
25th Percentile £407 £372 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £520
Median % change year-on-year - -3.85% -0.95%
75th Percentile £615 £600 £619
90th Percentile £650 £665 £670
England median daily rate £525 £536 £548
% change year-on-year -2.05% -2.10% -4.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 1 8
10th Percentile £19.90 - £47.70
25th Percentile £25.84 - £48.00
Median hourly rate £47.50 £70.00 £48.50
Median % change year-on-year -32.14% +44.33% +83.02%
75th Percentile £50.00 - £58.44
90th Percentile £64.56 - £69.68
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 810 599 614
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 11.22% 15.34% 14.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 534 393 398
10th Percentile £181 £183 £178
25th Percentile £255 £268 £300
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £436 £400 £445
Median % change year-on-year +8.88% -10.11% -1.11%
75th Percentile £538 £538 £576
90th Percentile £629 £614 £729
England median daily rate £467 £460 £478
% change year-on-year +1.41% -3.66% -4.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 35 20 73
10th Percentile £16.66 £13.00 -
25th Percentile £17.25 £13.90 £10.95
Median hourly rate £22.80 £17.72 £16.19
Median % change year-on-year +28.67% +9.45% -27.09%
75th Percentile £38.38 £18.87 £20.00
90th Percentile £178.75 £19.75 £44.90
England median hourly rate £32.50 £23.00 £27.50
% change year-on-year +41.30% -16.36% -35.29%

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 29 July 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 29 July 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 29 July 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 -8 168 £485 +20.82% 72
Yorkshire -21 133 £500 -4.76% 29
North East -29 23 £490 +2.62% 24
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 21 (6.60%) Confluence
2 9 (2.83%) CICS
3 3 (0.94%) Microsoft Exchange
3 3 (0.94%) nginx
4 2 (0.63%) Apache
4 2 (0.63%) Apache Airflow
4 2 (0.63%) OpenStack
4 2 (0.63%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 2 (0.63%) WebLogic
5 1 (0.31%) CMS
5 1 (0.31%) SAS
Applications
1 7 (2.20%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.31%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.31%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (0.63%) Oracle EBS
2 1 (0.31%) Cloudability
2 1 (0.31%) Odoo
2 1 (0.31%) SAP S/4HANA
2 1 (0.31%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 110 (34.59%) AWS
2 79 (24.84%) Azure
3 50 (15.72%) GCP
4 35 (11.01%) OpenShift
5 27 (8.49%) GitHub
6 17 (5.35%) Google Kubernetes Engine
6 17 (5.35%) OCI
6 17 (5.35%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 12 (3.77%) Amazon EKS
7 12 (3.77%) Azure DevOps
8 10 (3.14%) AWS CloudFormation
9 9 (2.83%) Amazon ECS
9 9 (2.83%) GitHub Actions
10 8 (2.52%) AWS Lambda
10 8 (2.52%) Serverless
11 7 (2.20%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 6 (1.89%) Amazon EC2
12 6 (1.89%) Amazon S3
12 6 (1.89%) Azure AKS
12 6 (1.89%) Azure Sentinel
Communications & Networking
1 42 (13.21%) Firewall
2 23 (7.23%) SAN
3 17 (5.35%) DNS
4 16 (5.03%) Network Security
5 12 (3.77%) TCP/IP
6 9 (2.83%) VSAN
7 6 (1.89%) 3GPP
7 6 (1.89%) RTP
7 6 (1.89%) SSL
7 6 (1.89%) VPN
7 6 (1.89%) Wireshark
8 5 (1.57%) NAS
9 4 (1.26%) iSCSI
10 3 (0.94%) FTP
10 3 (0.94%) SD-WAN
10 3 (0.94%) WAN
10 3 (0.94%) Wireless
11 2 (0.63%) BIG-IP
11 2 (0.63%) Intrusion Detection
11 2 (0.63%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 27 (8.49%) Oracle Database
2 19 (5.97%) MongoDB
3 18 (5.66%) Relational Database
4 17 (5.35%) RDBMS
5 14 (4.40%) Oracle Exadata
6 13 (4.09%) NoSQL
7 12 (3.77%) PostgreSQL
7 12 (3.77%) SQL Server
8 10 (3.14%) Elasticsearch
9 9 (2.83%) DataStage
10 6 (1.89%) Oracle Database 12c
11 5 (1.57%) DynamoDB
11 5 (1.57%) Sybase ASE
12 4 (1.26%) Db2
13 3 (0.94%) Amazon Aurora
13 3 (0.94%) BusinessObjects
14 2 (0.63%) Amazon RDS
14 2 (0.63%) Azure SQL Database
14 2 (0.63%) Data Lake
14 2 (0.63%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 33 (10.38%) JIRA
2 31 (9.75%) Git
2 31 (9.75%) GitLab
3 29 (9.12%) Jenkins
4 15 (4.72%) Mockito
5 6 (1.89%) TeamCity
6 4 (1.26%) Cucumber
6 4 (1.26%) Sonatype Nexus
7 3 (0.94%) Bitbucket
8 2 (0.63%) Burp Suite
8 2 (0.63%) Gatling
8 2 (0.63%) Gradle
8 2 (0.63%) Liquibase
8 2 (0.63%) LoadRunner
8 2 (0.63%) REST Assured
8 2 (0.63%) SonarQube
8 2 (0.63%) Toad
9 1 (0.31%) Hudson
9 1 (0.31%) Jaeger
General
1 68 (21.38%) Finance
1 68 (21.38%) Social Skills
2 34 (10.69%) Banking
3 32 (10.06%) Public Sector
4 20 (6.29%) Analytical Skills
5 9 (2.83%) Influencing Skills
6 8 (2.52%) Legal
7 6 (1.89%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 5 (1.57%) Aviation
8 5 (1.57%) Fire and Rescue
8 5 (1.57%) Military
8 5 (1.57%) Police
9 4 (1.26%) Investment Banking
9 4 (1.26%) Telecoms
10 3 (0.94%) Documentation Skills
10 3 (0.94%) Organisational Skills
11 2 (0.63%) Advertising
12 1 (0.31%) Financial Institution
12 1 (0.31%) Law
12 1 (0.31%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 48 (15.09%) Senior
2 34 (10.69%) Developer
3 33 (10.38%) Linux Engineer
4 27 (8.49%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 27 (8.49%) Security Engineer
5 24 (7.55%) DevOps Engineer
6 22 (6.92%) Java Developer
7 19 (5.97%) Software Engineer
8 17 (5.35%) Cloud Engineer
8 17 (5.35%) Consultant
9 16 (5.03%) DBA
9 16 (5.03%) Unix Engineer
10 13 (4.09%) Senior Developer
11 12 (3.77%) Platform Engineer
11 12 (3.77%) Senior Java Developer
12 11 (3.46%) Data Centre Engineer
12 11 (3.46%) Security Consultant
13 10 (3.14%) Analyst
13 10 (3.14%) Unix Linux Engineer
14 9 (2.83%) Infrastructure Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (5.66%) Kafka
2 15 (4.72%) JAX-RS
2 15 (4.72%) Middleware
3 14 (4.40%) ActiveMQ
3 14 (4.40%) Oracle GoldenGate
4 12 (3.77%) REST
5 11 (3.46%) .NET
6 10 (3.14%) LDAP
6 10 (3.14%) Redfish
7 8 (2.52%) YAML
8 7 (2.20%) Elastic Stack
9 6 (1.89%) .NET Core
9 6 (1.89%) RabbitMQ
10 5 (1.57%) JSON
10 5 (1.57%) XML
11 4 (1.26%) ARM Templates
11 4 (1.26%) Flash
11 4 (1.26%) Node.js
12 3 (0.94%) LangChain
12 3 (0.94%) OpenTelemetry
Miscellaneous
1 37 (11.64%) Data Centre
2 36 (11.32%) Cloud Native
3 28 (8.81%) Linux Command Line
3 28 (8.81%) Security Posture
4 18 (5.66%) Replication
5 17 (5.35%) Mainframe
6 15 (4.72%) Hybrid Cloud
6 15 (4.72%) Public Cloud
7 14 (4.40%) Legacy Systems
8 13 (4.09%) Management Information System
9 12 (3.77%) Cloud Security Posture
9 12 (3.77%) Data Protection Act
9 12 (3.77%) PKI
10 9 (2.83%) BYOD
10 9 (2.83%) Distributed Systems
10 9 (2.83%) VSAM
11 7 (2.20%) Enterprise Cloud
12 6 (1.89%) Enterprise Storage
13 5 (1.57%) FlexPod
13 5 (1.57%) Robotics
Operating Systems
1 101 (31.76%) Windows
2 88 (27.67%) Unix
3 74 (23.27%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 38 (11.95%) AIX
5 28 (8.81%) Solaris
6 24 (7.55%) Windows Server
7 12 (3.77%) Mac OS X
7 12 (3.77%) VMS
8 9 (2.83%) Ubuntu
9 8 (2.52%) Oracle Linux
10 7 (2.20%) CoreOS
11 6 (1.89%) CentOS
12 5 (1.57%) Data ONTAP
12 5 (1.57%) HPUX
12 5 (1.57%) SUSE
12 5 (1.57%) zOS
13 3 (0.94%) Mac OS
14 2 (0.63%) OpenVMS
15 1 (0.31%) Embedded Linux
15 1 (0.31%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 94 (29.56%) CI/CD
2 84 (26.42%) DevOps
3 71 (22.33%) Agile
4 70 (22.01%) Infrastructure as Code
5 52 (16.35%) Migration
6 45 (14.15%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 43 (13.52%) Continuous Improvement
8 41 (12.89%) Test Automation
9 39 (12.26%) Change Management
9 39 (12.26%) Observability
10 38 (11.95%) Cloud Security
10 38 (11.95%) Problem-Solving
11 36 (11.32%) Roadmaps
12 35 (11.01%) Performance Tuning
13 34 (10.69%) Infrastructure Automation
14 33 (10.38%) ITIL
15 32 (10.06%) High Availability
16 31 (9.75%) Containerisation
17 30 (9.43%) Microservices
18 28 (8.81%) BDD
Programming Languages
1 121 (38.05%) Python
2 74 (23.27%) Bash
3 65 (20.44%) PowerShell
4 52 (16.35%) Java
5 45 (14.15%) SQL
6 18 (5.66%) Shell Script
7 17 (5.35%) JavaScript
8 13 (4.09%) Bicep
9 10 (3.14%) C#
10 9 (2.83%) COBOL
10 9 (2.83%) Go
10 9 (2.83%) Rust
10 9 (2.83%) TypeScript
11 5 (1.57%) JCL
12 4 (1.26%) Kotlin
13 3 (0.94%) Perl
14 2 (0.63%) C++
14 2 (0.63%) DCL
14 2 (0.63%) REXX
14 2 (0.63%) Search Processing Language
Qualifications
1 61 (19.18%) Security Cleared
2 42 (13.21%) SC Cleared
3 33 (10.38%) CISSP
3 33 (10.38%) Degree
4 23 (7.23%) AWS Certification
5 17 (5.35%) Azure Certification
6 13 (4.09%) CompTIA Security+
7 9 (2.83%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
7 9 (2.83%) DV Cleared
7 9 (2.83%) Microsoft Certification
8 7 (2.20%) BPSS Clearance
9 6 (1.89%) MCSE
9 6 (1.89%) OCP
9 6 (1.89%) Oracle Certification
9 6 (1.89%) RHCE
10 5 (1.57%) Computer Science Degree
10 5 (1.57%) MCSA
11 4 (1.26%) Cisco Certification
11 4 (1.26%) CISM
11 4 (1.26%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (2.83%) HIPAA
2 6 (1.89%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 5 (1.57%) California Consumer Privacy Act
3 5 (1.57%) GDPR
3 5 (1.57%) NIST
4 4 (1.26%) GRC
5 3 (0.94%) PCI DSS
5 3 (0.94%) QA
5 3 (0.94%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 2 (0.63%) SLA
7 1 (0.31%) Accessibility
7 1 (0.31%) Data Quality
7 1 (0.31%) GxP
7 1 (0.31%) SOC 2
7 1 (0.31%) WCAG
System Software
1 60 (18.87%) Docker
2 46 (14.47%) VMware Infrastructure
3 44 (13.84%) Virtual Machines
4 19 (5.97%) Active Directory
4 19 (5.97%) vSphere
5 18 (5.66%) KVM
5 18 (5.66%) NFS
6 17 (5.35%) Oracle RAC
7 12 (3.77%) Firmware
7 12 (3.77%) Hyper-V
7 12 (3.77%) VMware ESXi
8 8 (2.52%) VMware NSX
9 5 (1.57%) Time Sharing Option
10 4 (1.26%) GPFS
11 3 (0.94%) Ceph
11 3 (0.94%) Veritas Volume Manager
12 2 (0.63%) SRDF
13 1 (0.31%) NetIQ eDirectory
13 1 (0.31%) Slurm Workload Manager
13 1 (0.31%) zsh
Systems Management
1 101 (31.76%) Terraform
2 91 (28.62%) Ansible
3 82 (25.79%) Kubernetes
4 22 (6.92%) Oracle RMAN
5 21 (6.60%) Progress Chef
6 20 (6.29%) Prometheus
7 19 (5.97%) Grafana
8 18 (5.66%) Data Guard
9 10 (3.14%) Dell DRAC
10 9 (2.83%) vCenter Server
11 8 (2.52%) Packer
11 8 (2.52%) Tivoli Storage Manager
12 7 (2.20%) PowerCLI
12 7 (2.20%) vRealize
13 6 (1.89%) Nessus
14 5 (1.57%) Argo
14 5 (1.57%) CASB
14 5 (1.57%) Puppet
14 5 (1.57%) SnapMirror
15 4 (1.26%) Istio
Vendors
1 54 (16.98%) VMware
2 47 (14.78%) Oracle
2 47 (14.78%) Red Hat
3 36 (11.32%) Microsoft
4 30 (9.43%) IBM
5 26 (8.18%) Google
6 16 (5.03%) Cisco
7 14 (4.40%) Splunk
8 13 (4.09%) ServiceNow
9 10 (3.14%) CyberArk
10 9 (2.83%) Broadcom
10 9 (2.83%) Dell
10 9 (2.83%) HP
11 8 (2.52%) Dynatrace
12 7 (2.20%) Tenable
13 6 (1.89%) Remedy
14 5 (1.57%) Brocade
14 5 (1.57%) NetApp
14 5 (1.57%) Sybase
14 5 (1.57%) Varonis