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

6 months to
4 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 43 30 37
Rank change year-on-year -13 +7 -5
Contract jobs citing Linux 308 223 196
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 4.39% 6.03% 4.07%
As % of the Operating Systems category 38.69% 38.51% 28.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 187 152 132
10th Percentile £358 £340 £351
25th Percentile £400 £375 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £500 £513
Median % change year-on-year -4.00% -2.58% -3.16%
75th Percentile £587 £588 £619
90th Percentile £650 £675 £656
England median daily rate £513 £538 £548
% change year-on-year -4.65% -1.83% -8.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 1 9
10th Percentile £25.03 - £41.85
25th Percentile £38.67 - -
Median hourly rate £48.75 £70.00 £48.00
Median % change year-on-year -30.36% +45.83% +81.13%
75th Percentile £56.07 - £56.25
90th Percentile £66.98 - £68.12
England median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00

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 796 579 680
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 11.34% 15.66% 14.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 524 377 448
10th Percentile £173 £181 £178
25th Percentile £273 £270 £275
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £400 £425
Median % change year-on-year +6.25% -5.88% -10.53%
75th Percentile £538 £538 £566
90th Percentile £625 £622 £688
England median daily rate £459 £463 £475
% change year-on-year -0.81% -2.58% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 32 20 81
10th Percentile £16.54 £13.00 -
25th Percentile £17.16 £13.90 £10.95
Median hourly rate £22.81 £17.47 £16.00
Median % change year-on-year +30.54% +9.19% -27.94%
75th Percentile £49.06 £18.87 £20.00
90th Percentile £178.75 £19.75 £48.00
England median hourly rate £29.48 £20.00 £24.86
% change year-on-year +47.40% -19.53% -41.52%

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 4 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 4 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 4 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
Yorkshire -24 146 £500 -4.76% 31
North West -21 145 £475 +18.16% 84
North East -20 22 £406 -14.92% 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 21 (6.82%) Confluence
2 9 (2.92%) CICS
3 3 (0.97%) Microsoft Exchange
3 3 (0.97%) nginx
3 3 (0.97%) TPMS
4 2 (0.65%) Apache
4 2 (0.65%) Apache Airflow
4 2 (0.65%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 2 (0.65%) WebLogic
5 1 (0.32%) CMS
Applications
1 7 (2.27%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.32%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.32%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (0.65%) 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 95 (30.84%) AWS
2 66 (21.43%) Azure
3 43 (13.96%) GCP
4 40 (12.99%) OpenShift
5 25 (8.12%) GitHub
6 18 (5.84%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 13 (4.22%) Google Kubernetes Engine
8 10 (3.25%) OCI
9 9 (2.92%) Amazon EC2
9 9 (2.92%) Amazon EKS
9 9 (2.92%) Amazon S3
10 7 (2.27%) GitHub Actions
10 7 (2.27%) Serverless
11 6 (1.95%) AWS Lambda
11 6 (1.95%) Azure DevOps
12 5 (1.62%) Amazon SQS
12 5 (1.62%) IaaS
12 5 (1.62%) Microsoft 365
13 4 (1.30%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 4 (1.30%) Amazon ECS
Communications & Networking
1 42 (13.64%) Firewall
2 25 (8.12%) SAN
3 16 (5.19%) DNS
4 13 (4.22%) Network Security
5 11 (3.57%) TCP/IP
6 9 (2.92%) SSL
6 9 (2.92%) VSAN
7 7 (2.27%) NAS
8 6 (1.95%) 3GPP
8 6 (1.95%) RTP
8 6 (1.95%) VPN
8 6 (1.95%) Wireshark
9 4 (1.30%) iSCSI
9 4 (1.30%) SNMP
10 3 (0.97%) FTP
10 3 (0.97%) SSH
10 3 (0.97%) Wireless
11 2 (0.65%) DHCP
11 2 (0.65%) HTTP
11 2 (0.65%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 21 (6.82%) Oracle Database
2 18 (5.84%) MongoDB
3 14 (4.55%) NoSQL
4 13 (4.22%) Relational Database
5 12 (3.90%) RDBMS
5 12 (3.90%) SQL Server
6 10 (3.25%) PostgreSQL
7 9 (2.92%) DataStage
7 9 (2.92%) Oracle Exadata
8 7 (2.27%) Elasticsearch
9 6 (1.95%) Db2
10 5 (1.62%) DynamoDB
10 5 (1.62%) Sybase ASE
11 4 (1.30%) Oracle Database 12c
12 3 (0.97%) Amazon Aurora
12 3 (0.97%) BusinessObjects
13 2 (0.65%) Amazon RDS
13 2 (0.65%) Apache Cassandra
13 2 (0.65%) Azure SQL Database
13 2 (0.65%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 34 (11.04%) JIRA
2 32 (10.39%) GitLab
2 32 (10.39%) Jenkins
3 25 (8.12%) Git
4 13 (4.22%) Mockito
5 6 (1.95%) TeamCity
6 4 (1.30%) Jaeger
7 3 (0.97%) Bitbucket
7 3 (0.97%) Cucumber
7 3 (0.97%) Liquibase
7 3 (0.97%) Sonatype Nexus
8 2 (0.65%) Burp Suite
8 2 (0.65%) Gatling
8 2 (0.65%) Gradle
8 2 (0.65%) LoadRunner
8 2 (0.65%) REST Assured
8 2 (0.65%) SonarQube
9 1 (0.32%) Hudson
General
1 71 (23.05%) Social Skills
2 68 (22.08%) Finance
3 32 (10.39%) Banking
4 31 (10.06%) Public Sector
5 20 (6.49%) Analytical Skills
6 9 (2.92%) Documentation Skills
6 9 (2.92%) Influencing Skills
7 8 (2.60%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 7 (2.27%) Legal
9 5 (1.62%) Aviation
9 5 (1.62%) Fire and Rescue
9 5 (1.62%) Police
10 4 (1.30%) Financial Institution
10 4 (1.30%) Military
11 3 (0.97%) Investment Banking
11 3 (0.97%) Organisational Skills
11 3 (0.97%) Telecoms
12 2 (0.65%) Advertising
13 1 (0.32%) Law
13 1 (0.32%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 42 (13.64%) Senior
2 35 (11.36%) Developer
3 28 (9.09%) DevOps Engineer
4 25 (8.12%) Linux Engineer
5 23 (7.47%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 21 (6.82%) Java Developer
7 20 (6.49%) Security Engineer
8 17 (5.52%) Consultant
8 17 (5.52%) Software Engineer
9 14 (4.55%) DBA
10 12 (3.90%) Data Centre Engineer
10 12 (3.90%) Platform Engineer
11 11 (3.57%) Cloud Engineer
11 11 (3.57%) Security Consultant
11 11 (3.57%) Senior Developer
12 10 (3.25%) Analyst
12 10 (3.25%) Senior Java Developer
13 9 (2.92%) AWS Engineer
13 9 (2.92%) Designer
13 9 (2.92%) Infrastructure Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (5.84%) Middleware
2 17 (5.52%) Kafka
3 13 (4.22%) JAX-RS
4 12 (3.90%) ActiveMQ
4 12 (3.90%) REST
5 11 (3.57%) LDAP
6 10 (3.25%) Redfish
7 9 (2.92%) .NET
7 9 (2.92%) Oracle GoldenGate
8 8 (2.60%) Elastic Stack
9 7 (2.27%) OpenTelemetry
9 7 (2.27%) YAML
10 6 (1.95%) .NET Core
10 6 (1.95%) RabbitMQ
11 5 (1.62%) Spring Boot
11 5 (1.62%) XML
12 4 (1.30%) Flash
12 4 (1.30%) JSON
12 4 (1.30%) Node.js
13 3 (0.97%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 39 (12.66%) Data Centre
2 32 (10.39%) Cloud Native
3 28 (9.09%) Linux Command Line
4 24 (7.79%) Security Posture
5 16 (5.19%) Mainframe
5 16 (5.19%) Replication
6 14 (4.55%) Legacy Systems
6 14 (4.55%) Management Information System
7 13 (4.22%) Data Protection Act
7 13 (4.22%) Public Cloud
8 12 (3.90%) Hybrid Cloud
9 11 (3.57%) Distributed Systems
9 11 (3.57%) PKI
10 10 (3.25%) Cloud Security Posture
11 9 (2.92%) BYOD
11 9 (2.92%) VSAM
12 7 (2.27%) Enterprise Storage
13 5 (1.62%) FlexPod
13 5 (1.62%) Onboarding
13 5 (1.62%) Robotics
Operating Systems
1 109 (35.39%) Windows
2 80 (25.97%) Unix
3 71 (23.05%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 34 (11.04%) AIX
5 27 (8.77%) Windows Server
6 20 (6.49%) Solaris
7 13 (4.22%) Mac OS X
8 12 (3.90%) VMS
9 10 (3.25%) Ubuntu
10 7 (2.27%) CentOS
10 7 (2.27%) CoreOS
10 7 (2.27%) Oracle Linux
11 5 (1.62%) Data ONTAP
11 5 (1.62%) zOS
12 4 (1.30%) HPUX
12 4 (1.30%) SUSE
13 3 (0.97%) Mac OS
14 2 (0.65%) OpenVMS
15 1 (0.32%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
15 1 (0.32%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 90 (29.22%) CI/CD
2 84 (27.27%) DevOps
3 62 (20.13%) Agile
4 53 (17.21%) Infrastructure as Code
5 50 (16.23%) Migration
6 43 (13.96%) Problem-Solving
7 38 (12.34%) Observability
7 38 (12.34%) Test Automation
8 37 (12.01%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 35 (11.36%) Roadmaps
10 33 (10.71%) Change Management
10 33 (10.71%) Microservices
10 33 (10.71%) Performance Tuning
11 31 (10.06%) Cloud Security
11 31 (10.06%) Containerisation
11 31 (10.06%) Continuous Improvement
12 30 (9.74%) Infrastructure Automation
12 30 (9.74%) ITIL
13 27 (8.77%) High Availability
14 26 (8.44%) TDD
Programming Languages
1 116 (37.66%) Python
2 67 (21.75%) Bash
3 59 (19.16%) PowerShell
4 50 (16.23%) Java
5 48 (15.58%) SQL
6 17 (5.52%) Shell Script
7 14 (4.55%) JavaScript
8 11 (3.57%) Go
9 10 (3.25%) Rust
10 9 (2.92%) C#
10 9 (2.92%) COBOL
11 8 (2.60%) TypeScript
12 5 (1.62%) JCL
12 5 (1.62%) Perl
13 4 (1.30%) Bicep
13 4 (1.30%) Kotlin
14 3 (0.97%) Ruby
15 2 (0.65%) DCL
15 2 (0.65%) REXX
15 2 (0.65%) Search Processing Language
Qualifications
1 49 (15.91%) Security Cleared
2 34 (11.04%) Degree
3 32 (10.39%) SC Cleared
4 30 (9.74%) CISSP
5 18 (5.84%) AWS Certification
6 13 (4.22%) Azure Certification
6 13 (4.22%) CompTIA Security+
7 9 (2.92%) RHCE
8 7 (2.27%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
8 7 (2.27%) BPSS Clearance
8 7 (2.27%) DV Cleared
8 7 (2.27%) Microsoft Certification
9 6 (1.95%) Computer Science Degree
9 6 (1.95%) OCP
9 6 (1.95%) Oracle Certification
10 5 (1.62%) MCSA
10 5 (1.62%) MCSE
11 4 (1.30%) CISM
12 3 (0.97%) CEH
12 3 (0.97%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (2.92%) HIPAA
2 8 (2.60%) GDPR
2 8 (2.60%) NIST
3 6 (1.95%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 6 (1.95%) PCI DSS
4 5 (1.62%) California Consumer Privacy Act
5 4 (1.30%) GRC
6 3 (0.97%) GLBA
6 3 (0.97%) QA
6 3 (0.97%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 3 (0.97%) SLA
7 1 (0.32%) GxP
7 1 (0.32%) SOC 2
System Software
1 60 (19.48%) Docker
2 48 (15.58%) Virtual Machines
2 48 (15.58%) VMware Infrastructure
3 21 (6.82%) KVM
4 19 (6.17%) NFS
4 19 (6.17%) vSphere
5 17 (5.52%) Active Directory
6 15 (4.87%) Hyper-V
7 14 (4.55%) Firmware
8 12 (3.90%) VMware ESXi
9 10 (3.25%) Oracle RAC
10 7 (2.27%) VMware NSX
11 5 (1.62%) Time Sharing Option
12 4 (1.30%) GPFS
13 3 (0.97%) Veritas Volume Manager
14 2 (0.65%) 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 (29.87%) Ansible
2 86 (27.92%) Terraform
3 76 (24.68%) Kubernetes
4 21 (6.82%) Prometheus
5 20 (6.49%) Grafana
6 17 (5.52%) Progress Chef
7 15 (4.87%) Oracle RMAN
8 11 (3.57%) Data Guard
8 11 (3.57%) vCenter Server
9 10 (3.25%) Dell DRAC
10 8 (2.60%) Packer
10 8 (2.60%) Tivoli Storage Manager
11 7 (2.27%) PowerCLI
11 7 (2.27%) vRealize
12 6 (1.95%) IBM BigFix
12 6 (1.95%) Nessus
12 6 (1.95%) Puppet
13 5 (1.62%) CASB
13 5 (1.62%) SnapMirror
14 4 (1.30%) Argo
Vendors
1 56 (18.18%) VMware
2 46 (14.94%) Red Hat
3 39 (12.66%) Oracle
4 31 (10.06%) IBM
5 28 (9.09%) Microsoft
6 24 (7.79%) Google
7 21 (6.82%) Splunk
8 13 (4.22%) Cisco
9 12 (3.90%) ServiceNow
10 10 (3.25%) CyberArk
11 9 (2.92%) Broadcom
11 9 (2.92%) Dell
12 8 (2.60%) Dynatrace
12 8 (2.60%) HP
13 7 (2.27%) Tenable
14 6 (1.95%) NetApp
14 6 (1.95%) Remedy
15 5 (1.62%) Brocade
15 5 (1.62%) Sybase
15 5 (1.62%) Varonis