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 2 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
2 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 44 31 38
Rank change year-on-year -13 +7 -9
Contract jobs citing Linux 283 209 201
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 4.62% 6.33% 4.23%
As % of the Operating Systems category 38.82% 37.32% 27.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 188 124 141
10th Percentile £353 £350 £350
25th Percentile £400 £393 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £472 £544 £480
Median % change year-on-year -13.20% +13.28% -9.00%
75th Percentile £539 £625 £582
90th Percentile £650 £750 £638
England median daily rate £513 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -6.82% - -8.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 3 11
10th Percentile £28.94 £46.44 -
25th Percentile - £55.35 £21.25
Median hourly rate £41.94 £75.40 £48.00
Median % change year-on-year -44.37% +57.07% +20.00%
75th Percentile £47.99 £83.18 £55.88
90th Percentile £62.13 £84.74 £65.00
England median hourly rate £63.14 £65.00 £62.50
% change year-on-year -2.87% +4.00% -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 729 560 725
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 11.90% 16.97% 15.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 499 354 495
10th Percentile £143 £161 £167
25th Percentile £204 £210 £275
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £402 £400 £425
Median % change year-on-year +0.50% -5.88% -10.53%
75th Percentile £500 £547 £531
90th Percentile £613 £634 £650
England median daily rate £450 £475 £463
% change year-on-year -5.26% +2.70% -9.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 30 21 80
10th Percentile £16.15 £13.00 -
25th Percentile £22.29 £16.25 £10.95
Median hourly rate £41.94 £18.00 £16.00
Median % change year-on-year +133.00% +12.50% -43.06%
75th Percentile £70.00 £19.75 £19.44
90th Percentile £178.75 £41.50 £30.68
England median hourly rate £47.50 £24.00 £22.00
% change year-on-year +97.92% +9.09% -42.11%

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 2 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 6 months to 2 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 6 months to 2 May 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 -19 153 £450 -18.18% 34
North West -22 120 £485 -4.98% 47
North East -23 10 £413 -23.26% 20
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 (4.95%) Confluence
2 9 (3.18%) CICS
3 8 (2.83%) TPMS
4 5 (1.77%) Apache
5 3 (1.06%) nginx
6 1 (0.35%) Apache Airflow
6 1 (0.35%) CMS
6 1 (0.35%) JBoss
6 1 (0.35%) Tomcat
Applications
1 9 (3.18%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.35%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 1 (0.35%) Cloudability
1 1 (0.35%) Odoo
1 1 (0.35%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 79 (27.92%) AWS
2 49 (17.31%) Azure
3 45 (15.90%) OpenShift
4 33 (11.66%) GCP
5 22 (7.77%) GitHub
6 11 (3.89%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 10 (3.53%) Serverless
8 9 (3.18%) AWS Lambda
9 8 (2.83%) Amazon EC2
9 8 (2.83%) Amazon EKS
9 8 (2.83%) Amazon S3
9 8 (2.83%) AWS CloudFormation
9 8 (2.83%) GitHub Actions
10 7 (2.47%) Amazon ECS
11 6 (2.12%) Google Workspace
12 5 (1.77%) Amazon SQS
12 5 (1.77%) IaaS
13 4 (1.41%) Amazon EventBridge
13 4 (1.41%) Google Kubernetes Engine
13 4 (1.41%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 57 (20.14%) Firewall
2 22 (7.77%) SAN
3 20 (7.07%) DNS
4 16 (5.65%) TCP/IP
5 15 (5.30%) Network Security
6 14 (4.95%) SSL
7 9 (3.18%) SNMP
7 9 (3.18%) VSAN
8 8 (2.83%) SSH
9 7 (2.47%) NAS
9 7 (2.47%) VPN
10 6 (2.12%) HTTP
11 4 (1.41%) 3GPP
11 4 (1.41%) iSCSI
11 4 (1.41%) RTP
11 4 (1.41%) Wireshark
12 3 (1.06%) DHCP
13 2 (0.71%) Reverse Proxy
13 2 (0.71%) VLAN
14 1 (0.35%) Intrusion Detection
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (7.07%) MongoDB
2 18 (6.36%) PostgreSQL
3 13 (4.59%) NoSQL
3 13 (4.59%) SQL Server
4 9 (3.18%) DataStage
4 9 (3.18%) Oracle Database
5 7 (2.47%) Elasticsearch
6 6 (2.12%) DB2
6 6 (2.12%) Relational Database
7 4 (1.41%) DynamoDB
7 4 (1.41%) Oracle Database 12c
8 3 (1.06%) Amazon Aurora
8 3 (1.06%) RDBMS
9 2 (0.71%) Amazon RDS
9 2 (0.71%) Apache Cassandra
10 1 (0.35%) Data Lake
10 1 (0.35%) InfluxDB
10 1 (0.35%) Power BI
10 1 (0.35%) SAP BW
10 1 (0.35%) Sybase ASE
Development Applications
1 32 (11.31%) Jenkins
2 28 (9.89%) JIRA
3 24 (8.48%) GitLab
4 17 (6.01%) Git
5 11 (3.89%) Mockito
6 9 (3.18%) Jaeger
7 4 (1.41%) TeamCity
8 3 (1.06%) Bitbucket
8 3 (1.06%) CircleCI
8 3 (1.06%) Liquibase
9 2 (0.71%) Octopus Deploy
9 2 (0.71%) Sonatype Nexus
10 1 (0.35%) Gradle
10 1 (0.35%) Hudson
10 1 (0.35%) JUnit
10 1 (0.35%) Maven
General
1 86 (30.39%) Social Skills
2 68 (24.03%) Finance
3 30 (10.60%) Public Sector
4 27 (9.54%) Banking
5 21 (7.42%) Documentation Skills
6 18 (6.36%) Analytical Skills
7 9 (3.18%) Financial Institution
7 9 (3.18%) Influencing Skills
8 7 (2.47%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 4 (1.41%) Aviation
9 4 (1.41%) Fire and Rescue
9 4 (1.41%) Legal
9 4 (1.41%) Police
10 3 (1.06%) Investment Banking
10 3 (1.06%) Law
11 2 (0.71%) Advertising
12 1 (0.35%) Manufacturing
12 1 (0.35%) Military
12 1 (0.35%) Private Banking
12 1 (0.35%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 37 (13.07%) Senior
2 30 (10.60%) Developer
3 20 (7.07%) DevOps Engineer
3 20 (7.07%) Java Developer
4 17 (6.01%) Software Engineer
5 16 (5.65%) Security Engineer
6 15 (5.30%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 15 (5.30%) Lead
7 13 (4.59%) Linux Engineer
8 12 (4.24%) Analyst
8 12 (4.24%) Platform Engineer
9 10 (3.53%) Data Centre Engineer
10 9 (3.18%) Designer
10 9 (3.18%) Infrastructure Designer
11 8 (2.83%) Administrator
11 8 (2.83%) AWS Engineer
11 8 (2.83%) Cryptography Engineer
11 8 (2.83%) Full-Stack Engineer
11 8 (2.83%) Senior Developer
11 8 (2.83%) VMware Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 23 (8.13%) Kafka
2 18 (6.36%) Middleware
3 12 (4.24%) Elastic Stack
3 12 (4.24%) OpenTelemetry
4 11 (3.89%) JAX-RS
4 11 (3.89%) REST
5 10 (3.53%) .NET
5 10 (3.53%) ActiveMQ
5 10 (3.53%) LDAP
5 10 (3.53%) YAML
6 9 (3.18%) Spring Boot
7 8 (2.83%) Redfish
8 4 (1.41%) .NET Core
9 3 (1.06%) Flash
9 3 (1.06%) RESTful
9 3 (1.06%) SOAP
9 3 (1.06%) WebSockets
9 3 (1.06%) XML
10 2 (0.71%) HTML
10 2 (0.71%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 35 (12.37%) Data Centre
2 23 (8.13%) Cloud Native
3 17 (6.01%) Linux Command Line
3 17 (6.01%) Security Posture
4 16 (5.65%) Distributed Systems
5 14 (4.95%) Hybrid Cloud
6 13 (4.59%) Management Information System
7 12 (4.24%) Data Protection Act
7 12 (4.24%) Mainframe
8 10 (3.53%) Cloud Security Posture
9 9 (3.18%) BYOD
9 9 (3.18%) Legacy Systems
9 9 (3.18%) Replication
9 9 (3.18%) VSAM
10 6 (2.12%) Onboarding
10 6 (2.12%) Product Ownership
11 5 (1.77%) Enterprise Storage
11 5 (1.77%) FlexPod
12 4 (1.41%) Public Cloud
12 4 (1.41%) Robotics
Operating Systems
1 108 (38.16%) Windows
2 72 (25.44%) Unix
3 54 (19.08%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 26 (9.19%) Windows Server
5 24 (8.48%) AIX
6 15 (5.30%) Solaris
7 14 (4.95%) Ubuntu
8 12 (4.24%) Mac OS X
8 12 (4.24%) VMS
9 9 (3.18%) CentOS
10 7 (2.47%) CoreOS
10 7 (2.47%) Oracle Linux
11 5 (1.77%) Data ONTAP
12 4 (1.41%) HPUX
12 4 (1.41%) SUSE
12 4 (1.41%) zOS
13 3 (1.06%) Mac OS
14 1 (0.35%) Amazon Linux
14 1 (0.35%) Embedded Linux
14 1 (0.35%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 86 (30.39%) CI/CD
2 83 (29.33%) DevOps
3 61 (21.55%) Problem-Solving
4 49 (17.31%) Observability
5 47 (16.61%) Agile
6 43 (15.19%) Infrastructure as Code
7 39 (13.78%) Microservices
8 36 (12.72%) Containerisation
8 36 (12.72%) Migration
9 35 (12.37%) Roadmaps
10 34 (12.01%) Test Automation
11 32 (11.31%) Cybersecurity
12 29 (10.25%) Continuous Improvement
13 28 (9.89%) Root Cause Analysis
14 25 (8.83%) Data Protection
14 25 (8.83%) Infrastructure Engineering
15 24 (8.48%) Infrastructure Automation
16 22 (7.77%) Capacity Planning
16 22 (7.77%) Performance Tuning
16 22 (7.77%) Vulnerability Management
Programming Languages
1 107 (37.81%) Python
2 51 (18.02%) Bash
3 50 (17.67%) SQL
4 49 (17.31%) Java
5 43 (15.19%) PowerShell
6 15 (5.30%) Rust
7 14 (4.95%) Shell Script
8 13 (4.59%) Go
8 13 (4.59%) Ruby
9 12 (4.24%) JavaScript
10 10 (3.53%) C#
10 10 (3.53%) Perl
11 9 (3.18%) COBOL
12 8 (2.83%) TypeScript
13 7 (2.47%) PHP
14 4 (1.41%) JCL
14 4 (1.41%) Kotlin
15 3 (1.06%) Delphi
16 2 (0.71%) C
16 2 (0.71%) Search Processing Language
Qualifications
1 47 (16.61%) Security Cleared
2 31 (10.95%) SC Cleared
3 25 (8.83%) Degree
4 22 (7.77%) CISSP
5 15 (5.30%) RHCE
6 13 (4.59%) CompTIA Security+
7 11 (3.89%) AWS Certification
8 8 (2.83%) FFIEC
9 7 (2.47%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 7 (2.47%) BPSS Clearance
9 7 (2.47%) DV Cleared
10 6 (2.12%) Microsoft Certification
10 6 (2.12%) OCP
10 6 (2.12%) Oracle Certification
11 5 (1.77%) Azure Certification
11 5 (1.77%) CISM
11 5 (1.77%) Computer Science Degree
11 5 (1.77%) MCSA
11 5 (1.77%) MCSE
12 2 (0.71%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (5.30%) GDPR
2 11 (3.89%) NIST
3 10 (3.53%) PCI DSS
4 9 (3.18%) HIPAA
5 8 (2.83%) GLBA
6 7 (2.47%) SLA
7 5 (1.77%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 5 (1.77%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 4 (1.41%) GRC
9 3 (1.06%) QA
9 3 (1.06%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 1 (0.35%) Cyber Essentials
10 1 (0.35%) GxP
10 1 (0.35%) SOC 2
System Software
1 56 (19.79%) Docker
2 45 (15.90%) VMware Infrastructure
3 36 (12.72%) Virtual Machines
4 18 (6.36%) Active Directory
4 18 (6.36%) Hyper-V
4 18 (6.36%) vSphere
5 17 (6.01%) KVM
6 15 (5.30%) NFS
7 13 (4.59%) Firmware
8 12 (4.24%) VMware ESXi
9 7 (2.47%) VMware NSX
10 4 (1.41%) Time Sharing Option
11 3 (1.06%) GPFS
12 2 (0.71%) SRDF
13 1 (0.35%) Ceph
13 1 (0.35%) Embedded Firmware
13 1 (0.35%) Oracle RAC
13 1 (0.35%) Slurm Workload Manager
13 1 (0.35%) Veritas Volume Manager
13 1 (0.35%) zsh
Systems Management
1 82 (28.98%) Ansible
2 77 (27.21%) Kubernetes
3 72 (25.44%) Terraform
4 37 (13.07%) Grafana
5 28 (9.89%) Prometheus
6 12 (4.24%) Puppet
7 11 (3.89%) vCenter Server
8 8 (2.83%) Dell DRAC
8 8 (2.83%) Kiali
8 8 (2.83%) Progress Chef
9 7 (2.47%) PowerCLI
10 6 (2.12%) IBM BigFix
10 6 (2.12%) Nessus
10 6 (2.12%) Packer
10 6 (2.12%) vRealize
11 5 (1.77%) CASB
11 5 (1.77%) Oracle RMAN
11 5 (1.77%) SnapMirror
11 5 (1.77%) Tivoli Storage Manager
12 4 (1.41%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 55 (19.43%) VMware
2 39 (13.78%) Red Hat
3 36 (12.72%) Splunk
4 31 (10.95%) Microsoft
5 26 (9.19%) Oracle
6 25 (8.83%) IBM
7 18 (6.36%) Google
8 12 (4.24%) ServiceNow
9 11 (3.89%) CyberArk
10 9 (3.18%) Dell
11 8 (2.83%) Broadcom
11 8 (2.83%) Cisco
11 8 (2.83%) HP
11 8 (2.83%) Thales
12 6 (2.12%) NetApp
12 6 (2.12%) Remedy
12 6 (2.12%) Tenable
13 5 (1.77%) Varonis
14 4 (1.41%) Brocade
14 4 (1.41%) Dynatrace