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

6 months to
16 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 44 30 41
Rank change year-on-year -14 +11 -6
Contract jobs citing Linux 314 222 199
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 4.38% 5.86% 4.25%
As % of the Operating Systems category 38.77% 38.08% 29.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 195 155 134
10th Percentile £358 £343 £365
25th Percentile £402 £375 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £492 £500 £513
Median % change year-on-year -1.60% -2.58% -2.24%
75th Percentile £600 £588 £617
90th Percentile £650 £665 £656
England median daily rate £520 £537 £539
% change year-on-year -3.17% -0.32% -8.30%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 1 8
10th Percentile £25.03 - £47.70
25th Percentile £38.67 - £48.00
Median hourly rate £48.75 £70.00 £48.50
Median % change year-on-year -30.36% +44.33% +115.56%
75th Percentile £56.07 - £58.44
90th Percentile £66.98 - £69.68
England median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £66.25
% change year-on-year - -1.89% +1.53%

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 810 583 677
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 11.29% 15.38% 14.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 538 382 442
10th Percentile £180 £181 £178
25th Percentile £256 £264 £275
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £429 £400 £431
Median % change year-on-year +7.24% -7.19% -9.26%
75th Percentile £538 £538 £564
90th Percentile £625 £614 £688
England median daily rate £463 £463 £475
% change year-on-year - -2.63% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 34 20 88
10th Percentile £16.62 £13.00 £10.95
25th Percentile £17.25 £13.90 £11.04
Median hourly rate £21.32 £17.47 £16.10
Median % change year-on-year +22.04% +8.54% -25.14%
75th Percentile £43.56 £18.87 £20.38
90th Percentile £178.75 £19.75 £29.88
England median hourly rate £32.50 £23.00 £24.34
% change year-on-year +41.30% -5.51% -42.73%

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 16 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 16 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 16 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 -14 155 £484 +20.40% 70
Yorkshire -22 144 £500 -4.76% 30
North East -23 21 £480 +0.52% 19
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 (6.69%) Confluence
2 9 (2.87%) CICS
3 3 (0.96%) Microsoft Exchange
3 3 (0.96%) nginx
4 2 (0.64%) Apache
4 2 (0.64%) Apache Airflow
4 2 (0.64%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 2 (0.64%) WebLogic
5 1 (0.32%) CMS
5 1 (0.32%) SAS
5 1 (0.32%) TPMS
Applications
1 7 (2.23%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.32%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.32%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (0.64%) Oracle EBS
2 1 (0.32%) Cloudability
2 1 (0.32%) Odoo
2 1 (0.32%) SAP S/4HANA
2 1 (0.32%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 99 (31.53%) AWS
2 70 (22.29%) Azure
3 45 (14.33%) GCP
4 41 (13.06%) OpenShift
5 26 (8.28%) GitHub
6 16 (5.10%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 14 (4.46%) Google Kubernetes Engine
7 14 (4.46%) OCI
8 8 (2.55%) Amazon EKS
8 8 (2.55%) Azure DevOps
8 8 (2.55%) Serverless
9 7 (2.23%) Amazon EC2
9 7 (2.23%) Amazon S3
9 7 (2.23%) AWS Lambda
9 7 (2.23%) GitHub Actions
10 5 (1.59%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 5 (1.59%) Amazon ECS
10 5 (1.59%) Amazon SQS
10 5 (1.59%) IaaS
11 4 (1.27%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 41 (13.06%) Firewall
2 25 (7.96%) SAN
3 17 (5.41%) DNS
4 15 (4.78%) Network Security
5 11 (3.50%) TCP/IP
6 9 (2.87%) VSAN
7 7 (2.23%) NAS
7 7 (2.23%) SSL
8 6 (1.91%) 3GPP
8 6 (1.91%) RTP
8 6 (1.91%) VPN
8 6 (1.91%) Wireshark
9 4 (1.27%) iSCSI
10 3 (0.96%) FTP
10 3 (0.96%) Wireless
11 2 (0.64%) DHCP
11 2 (0.64%) HTTP
11 2 (0.64%) Reverse Proxy
11 2 (0.64%) SNMP
11 2 (0.64%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 27 (8.60%) Oracle Database
2 19 (6.05%) MongoDB
3 16 (5.10%) Relational Database
4 15 (4.78%) RDBMS
5 14 (4.46%) SQL Server
6 13 (4.14%) NoSQL
7 12 (3.82%) Oracle Exadata
7 12 (3.82%) PostgreSQL
8 9 (2.87%) DataStage
9 8 (2.55%) Elasticsearch
10 6 (1.91%) Db2
10 6 (1.91%) Oracle Database 12c
11 5 (1.59%) DynamoDB
11 5 (1.59%) Sybase ASE
12 3 (0.96%) Amazon Aurora
12 3 (0.96%) BusinessObjects
13 2 (0.64%) Amazon RDS
13 2 (0.64%) Apache Cassandra
13 2 (0.64%) Data Lake
13 2 (0.64%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 34 (10.83%) JIRA
2 32 (10.19%) GitLab
3 30 (9.55%) Jenkins
4 28 (8.92%) Git
5 14 (4.46%) Mockito
6 6 (1.91%) TeamCity
7 3 (0.96%) Bitbucket
7 3 (0.96%) Cucumber
7 3 (0.96%) Liquibase
7 3 (0.96%) Sonatype Nexus
8 2 (0.64%) Burp Suite
8 2 (0.64%) Gatling
8 2 (0.64%) Gradle
8 2 (0.64%) Jaeger
8 2 (0.64%) LoadRunner
8 2 (0.64%) REST Assured
8 2 (0.64%) SonarQube
8 2 (0.64%) Toad
9 1 (0.32%) Hudson
General
1 69 (21.97%) Social Skills
2 68 (21.66%) Finance
3 34 (10.83%) Banking
4 32 (10.19%) Public Sector
5 19 (6.05%) Analytical Skills
6 9 (2.87%) Influencing Skills
7 8 (2.55%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 8 (2.55%) Legal
8 6 (1.91%) Documentation Skills
9 5 (1.59%) Aviation
9 5 (1.59%) Fire and Rescue
9 5 (1.59%) Police
10 4 (1.27%) Investment Banking
10 4 (1.27%) Military
11 3 (0.96%) Organisational Skills
11 3 (0.96%) Telecoms
12 2 (0.64%) Advertising
12 2 (0.64%) Financial Institution
13 1 (0.32%) Corporate Banking
13 1 (0.32%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 46 (14.65%) Senior
2 34 (10.83%) Developer
3 29 (9.24%) Linux Engineer
4 26 (8.28%) DevOps Engineer
5 25 (7.96%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 22 (7.01%) Java Developer
6 22 (7.01%) Security Engineer
7 17 (5.41%) Consultant
7 17 (5.41%) Software Engineer
8 16 (5.10%) DBA
9 14 (4.46%) Cloud Engineer
10 12 (3.82%) Data Centre Engineer
10 12 (3.82%) Platform Engineer
10 12 (3.82%) Senior Developer
10 12 (3.82%) Unix Engineer
11 11 (3.50%) Security Consultant
11 11 (3.50%) Senior Java Developer
12 10 (3.18%) Analyst
13 9 (2.87%) Designer
13 9 (2.87%) Infrastructure Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (5.41%) Kafka
2 16 (5.10%) Middleware
3 14 (4.46%) JAX-RS
4 13 (4.14%) ActiveMQ
5 12 (3.82%) Oracle GoldenGate
5 12 (3.82%) REST
6 11 (3.50%) LDAP
7 10 (3.18%) Redfish
8 9 (2.87%) .NET
9 8 (2.55%) Elastic Stack
10 6 (1.91%) .NET Core
10 6 (1.91%) RabbitMQ
10 6 (1.91%) YAML
11 5 (1.59%) OpenTelemetry
11 5 (1.59%) XML
12 4 (1.27%) Flash
12 4 (1.27%) JSON
12 4 (1.27%) Node.js
12 4 (1.27%) RESTful
13 3 (0.96%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 39 (12.42%) Data Centre
2 33 (10.51%) Cloud Native
3 30 (9.55%) Linux Command Line
4 25 (7.96%) Security Posture
5 19 (6.05%) Replication
6 17 (5.41%) Mainframe
7 15 (4.78%) Legacy Systems
7 15 (4.78%) Public Cloud
8 13 (4.14%) Data Protection Act
8 13 (4.14%) Hybrid Cloud
9 12 (3.82%) Management Information System
10 11 (3.50%) PKI
11 10 (3.18%) Cloud Security Posture
11 10 (3.18%) Distributed Systems
12 9 (2.87%) BYOD
12 9 (2.87%) VSAM
13 7 (2.23%) Enterprise Storage
14 5 (1.59%) Enterprise Cloud
14 5 (1.59%) FlexPod
14 5 (1.59%) Robotics
Operating Systems
1 106 (33.76%) Windows
2 85 (27.07%) Unix
3 73 (23.25%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 38 (12.10%) AIX
5 25 (7.96%) Windows Server
6 24 (7.64%) Solaris
7 13 (4.14%) Mac OS X
8 12 (3.82%) VMS
9 9 (2.87%) Ubuntu
10 8 (2.55%) Oracle Linux
11 7 (2.23%) CentOS
11 7 (2.23%) CoreOS
12 5 (1.59%) Data ONTAP
12 5 (1.59%) HPUX
12 5 (1.59%) SUSE
12 5 (1.59%) zOS
13 3 (0.96%) Mac OS
14 2 (0.64%) OpenVMS
15 1 (0.32%) Embedded Linux
15 1 (0.32%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 91 (28.98%) CI/CD
2 82 (26.11%) DevOps
3 66 (21.02%) Agile
4 60 (19.11%) Infrastructure as Code
5 55 (17.52%) Migration
6 42 (13.38%) Problem-Solving
7 40 (12.74%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 39 (12.42%) Test Automation
9 37 (11.78%) Performance Tuning
10 36 (11.46%) Change Management
11 35 (11.15%) Continuous Improvement
11 35 (11.15%) Observability
12 34 (10.83%) Roadmaps
13 33 (10.51%) Containerisation
14 32 (10.19%) Cloud Security
14 32 (10.19%) ITIL
14 32 (10.19%) Microservices
15 31 (9.87%) Infrastructure Automation
16 29 (9.24%) High Availability
17 27 (8.60%) TDD
Programming Languages
1 118 (37.58%) Python
2 71 (22.61%) Bash
3 63 (20.06%) PowerShell
4 49 (15.61%) SQL
5 48 (15.29%) Java
6 18 (5.73%) Shell Script
7 14 (4.46%) JavaScript
8 11 (3.50%) Go
9 9 (2.87%) C#
9 9 (2.87%) COBOL
10 8 (2.55%) Rust
10 8 (2.55%) TypeScript
11 6 (1.91%) Bicep
12 5 (1.59%) JCL
13 4 (1.27%) Kotlin
13 4 (1.27%) Perl
14 2 (0.64%) C++
14 2 (0.64%) PL/SQL
14 2 (0.64%) REXX
14 2 (0.64%) Search Processing Language
Qualifications
1 55 (17.52%) Security Cleared
2 36 (11.46%) SC Cleared
3 33 (10.51%) Degree
4 30 (9.55%) CISSP
5 19 (6.05%) AWS Certification
6 14 (4.46%) Azure Certification
7 13 (4.14%) CompTIA Security+
8 9 (2.87%) DV Cleared
9 8 (2.55%) RHCE
10 7 (2.23%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 7 (2.23%) BPSS Clearance
10 7 (2.23%) Microsoft Certification
11 6 (1.91%) Computer Science Degree
11 6 (1.91%) OCP
11 6 (1.91%) Oracle Certification
12 5 (1.59%) MCSA
12 5 (1.59%) MCSE
13 4 (1.27%) CISM
14 3 (0.96%) CEH
14 3 (0.96%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (2.87%) HIPAA
2 6 (1.91%) GDPR
2 6 (1.91%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 6 (1.91%) NIST
3 5 (1.59%) California Consumer Privacy Act
4 4 (1.27%) GRC
4 4 (1.27%) PCI DSS
5 3 (0.96%) QA
5 3 (0.96%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 3 (0.96%) SLA
6 1 (0.32%) Data Quality
6 1 (0.32%) GLBA
6 1 (0.32%) GxP
6 1 (0.32%) SOC 2
System Software
1 59 (18.79%) Docker
2 49 (15.61%) Virtual Machines
3 48 (15.29%) VMware Infrastructure
4 21 (6.69%) KVM
5 19 (6.05%) NFS
5 19 (6.05%) vSphere
6 18 (5.73%) Active Directory
7 15 (4.78%) Hyper-V
7 15 (4.78%) Oracle RAC
8 14 (4.46%) Firmware
9 12 (3.82%) VMware ESXi
10 7 (2.23%) VMware NSX
11 5 (1.59%) Time Sharing Option
12 4 (1.27%) GPFS
13 3 (0.96%) Veritas Volume Manager
14 2 (0.64%) SRDF
15 1 (0.32%) Ceph
15 1 (0.32%) Embedded Firmware
15 1 (0.32%) Slurm Workload Manager
15 1 (0.32%) zsh
Systems Management
1 92 (29.30%) Ansible
2 89 (28.34%) Terraform
3 75 (23.89%) Kubernetes
4 20 (6.37%) Oracle RMAN
4 20 (6.37%) Prometheus
5 19 (6.05%) Grafana
6 18 (5.73%) Progress Chef
7 16 (5.10%) Data Guard
8 11 (3.50%) vCenter Server
9 10 (3.18%) Dell DRAC
10 8 (2.55%) Packer
10 8 (2.55%) Tivoli Storage Manager
11 7 (2.23%) PowerCLI
11 7 (2.23%) vRealize
12 6 (1.91%) IBM BigFix
12 6 (1.91%) Nessus
13 5 (1.59%) CASB
13 5 (1.59%) Puppet
13 5 (1.59%) SnapMirror
14 4 (1.27%) Oracle ZFS
Vendors
1 56 (17.83%) VMware
2 48 (15.29%) Red Hat
3 46 (14.65%) Oracle
4 32 (10.19%) IBM
4 32 (10.19%) Microsoft
5 25 (7.96%) Google
6 17 (5.41%) Splunk
7 14 (4.46%) Cisco
8 12 (3.82%) ServiceNow
9 10 (3.18%) CyberArk
10 9 (2.87%) Broadcom
10 9 (2.87%) Dell
10 9 (2.87%) HP
11 8 (2.55%) Dynatrace
12 7 (2.23%) Tenable
13 6 (1.91%) NetApp
13 6 (1.91%) Remedy
14 5 (1.59%) Brocade
14 5 (1.59%) Sybase
14 5 (1.59%) Varonis