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 28 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
28 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 42 30 41
Rank change year-on-year -12 +11 -10
Contract jobs citing Linux 303 219 196
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 4.39% 6.14% 4.06%
As % of the Operating Systems category 39.35% 38.42% 28.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 185 148 133
10th Percentile £358 £350 £352
25th Percentile £400 £375 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £483 £520 £513
Median % change year-on-year -7.07% +1.41% -3.30%
75th Percentile £586 £588 £619
90th Percentile £650 £676 £656
England median daily rate £513 £541 £550
% change year-on-year -5.31% -1.59% -7.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 1 10
10th Percentile £26.34 - £44.43
25th Percentile £41.94 - £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 - £61.88
90th Percentile £64.56 - £66.56
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 770 570 682
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 11.17% 15.97% 14.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 504 371 454
10th Percentile £180 £181 £178
25th Percentile £300 £279 £275
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £444 £400 £425
Median % change year-on-year +11.00% -5.88% -10.53%
75th Percentile £538 £538 £560
90th Percentile £625 £622 £688
England median daily rate £459 £465 £475
% change year-on-year -1.29% -2.11% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 33 21 81
10th Percentile £16.58 £13.00 -
25th Percentile £17.25 £14.20 £10.95
Median hourly rate £22.81 £17.50 £16.00
Median % change year-on-year +30.34% +9.38% -28.60%
75th Percentile £48.75 £18.87 £20.00
90th Percentile £178.75 £19.75 £48.00
England median hourly rate £32.50 £19.32 £25.00
% change year-on-year +68.26% -22.74% -41.18%

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 28 June 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 28 June 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 28 June 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 -21 151 £500 -5.88% 23
North West -23 135 £472 +11.06% 65
North East -23 20 £406 -14.92% 13
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 (6.93%) Confluence
2 9 (2.97%) CICS
3 4 (1.32%) TPMS
4 3 (0.99%) Microsoft Exchange
4 3 (0.99%) nginx
5 2 (0.66%) Apache
5 2 (0.66%) Apache Airflow
5 2 (0.66%) Oracle SOA Suite
5 2 (0.66%) WebLogic
6 1 (0.33%) CMS
Applications
1 7 (2.31%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.33%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.33%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (0.66%) Oracle EBS
2 1 (0.33%) Cloudability
2 1 (0.33%) Odoo
2 1 (0.33%) SAP S/4HANA
2 1 (0.33%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 90 (29.70%) AWS
2 64 (21.12%) Azure
3 43 (14.19%) GCP
4 40 (13.20%) OpenShift
5 25 (8.25%) GitHub
6 18 (5.94%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 13 (4.29%) Google Kubernetes Engine
8 9 (2.97%) Amazon EC2
8 9 (2.97%) Amazon EKS
8 9 (2.97%) Amazon S3
9 7 (2.31%) GitHub Actions
9 7 (2.31%) OCI
9 7 (2.31%) Serverless
10 6 (1.98%) AWS Lambda
10 6 (1.98%) Azure DevOps
11 5 (1.65%) Amazon SQS
11 5 (1.65%) IaaS
11 5 (1.65%) Microsoft 365
12 4 (1.32%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 4 (1.32%) Amazon ECS
Communications & Networking
1 44 (14.52%) Firewall
2 25 (8.25%) SAN
3 16 (5.28%) DNS
4 12 (3.96%) Network Security
5 11 (3.63%) TCP/IP
6 9 (2.97%) SSL
6 9 (2.97%) VSAN
7 7 (2.31%) NAS
8 6 (1.98%) 3GPP
8 6 (1.98%) RTP
8 6 (1.98%) VPN
8 6 (1.98%) Wireshark
9 5 (1.65%) SNMP
10 4 (1.32%) iSCSI
10 4 (1.32%) SSH
11 3 (0.99%) FTP
12 2 (0.66%) BIG-IP
12 2 (0.66%) DHCP
12 2 (0.66%) HTTP
12 2 (0.66%) Intrusion Detection
Database & Business Intelligence
1 18 (5.94%) Oracle Database
2 16 (5.28%) MongoDB
3 13 (4.29%) NoSQL
4 12 (3.96%) SQL Server
5 10 (3.30%) PostgreSQL
5 10 (3.30%) Relational Database
6 9 (2.97%) DataStage
6 9 (2.97%) RDBMS
7 7 (2.31%) Elasticsearch
8 6 (1.98%) Db2
8 6 (1.98%) Oracle Exadata
9 5 (1.65%) DynamoDB
10 4 (1.32%) Oracle Database 12c
10 4 (1.32%) Sybase ASE
11 3 (0.99%) Amazon Aurora
11 3 (0.99%) BusinessObjects
12 2 (0.66%) Amazon RDS
12 2 (0.66%) Apache Cassandra
12 2 (0.66%) Azure SQL Database
12 2 (0.66%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 34 (11.22%) JIRA
2 32 (10.56%) Jenkins
3 29 (9.57%) GitLab
4 21 (6.93%) Git
5 11 (3.63%) Mockito
6 6 (1.98%) TeamCity
7 5 (1.65%) Jaeger
8 3 (0.99%) Bitbucket
8 3 (0.99%) Cucumber
8 3 (0.99%) Liquibase
8 3 (0.99%) Sonatype Nexus
9 2 (0.66%) Burp Suite
9 2 (0.66%) Gatling
9 2 (0.66%) Gradle
9 2 (0.66%) LoadRunner
9 2 (0.66%) REST Assured
9 2 (0.66%) SonarQube
10 1 (0.33%) Hudson
General
1 74 (24.42%) Social Skills
2 69 (22.77%) Finance
3 32 (10.56%) Banking
4 30 (9.90%) Public Sector
5 21 (6.93%) Analytical Skills
6 13 (4.29%) Documentation Skills
7 9 (2.97%) Influencing Skills
8 8 (2.64%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 7 (2.31%) Legal
10 5 (1.65%) Aviation
10 5 (1.65%) Financial Institution
10 5 (1.65%) Fire and Rescue
10 5 (1.65%) Police
11 4 (1.32%) Military
12 3 (0.99%) Investment Banking
12 3 (0.99%) Organisational Skills
12 3 (0.99%) Telecoms
13 2 (0.66%) Advertising
14 1 (0.33%) Law
14 1 (0.33%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 39 (12.87%) Senior
2 31 (10.23%) Developer
3 28 (9.24%) DevOps Engineer
4 22 (7.26%) Linux Engineer
5 21 (6.93%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 20 (6.60%) Security Engineer
7 19 (6.27%) Java Developer
8 17 (5.61%) Consultant
8 17 (5.61%) Software Engineer
9 13 (4.29%) DBA
10 12 (3.96%) Data Centre Engineer
10 12 (3.96%) Platform Engineer
11 11 (3.63%) Analyst
11 11 (3.63%) Cloud Engineer
11 11 (3.63%) Security Consultant
12 10 (3.30%) Lead
13 9 (2.97%) AWS Engineer
13 9 (2.97%) Designer
13 9 (2.97%) Infrastructure Designer
13 9 (2.97%) Senior Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (6.27%) Middleware
2 16 (5.28%) Kafka
3 11 (3.63%) JAX-RS
3 11 (3.63%) LDAP
3 11 (3.63%) REST
4 10 (3.30%) ActiveMQ
4 10 (3.30%) Redfish
4 10 (3.30%) YAML
5 9 (2.97%) .NET
6 8 (2.64%) Elastic Stack
6 8 (2.64%) OpenTelemetry
7 6 (1.98%) .NET Core
7 6 (1.98%) Oracle GoldenGate
7 6 (1.98%) RabbitMQ
7 6 (1.98%) Spring Boot
8 4 (1.32%) Flash
8 4 (1.32%) Node.js
8 4 (1.32%) XML
9 3 (0.99%) JSON
9 3 (0.99%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 40 (13.20%) Data Centre
2 32 (10.56%) Cloud Native
3 28 (9.24%) Linux Command Line
4 24 (7.92%) Security Posture
5 16 (5.28%) Mainframe
6 15 (4.95%) Management Information System
6 15 (4.95%) Replication
7 13 (4.29%) Data Protection Act
8 12 (3.96%) Distributed Systems
8 12 (3.96%) Hybrid Cloud
9 11 (3.63%) Legacy Systems
10 10 (3.30%) Cloud Security Posture
10 10 (3.30%) PKI
10 10 (3.30%) Public Cloud
11 9 (2.97%) BYOD
11 9 (2.97%) VSAM
12 7 (2.31%) Enterprise Storage
13 5 (1.65%) FlexPod
13 5 (1.65%) Onboarding
13 5 (1.65%) Robotics
Operating Systems
1 111 (36.63%) Windows
2 72 (23.76%) Unix
3 71 (23.43%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 31 (10.23%) AIX
5 27 (8.91%) Windows Server
6 16 (5.28%) Solaris
7 13 (4.29%) Ubuntu
8 12 (3.96%) VMS
9 11 (3.63%) Mac OS X
10 7 (2.31%) CentOS
10 7 (2.31%) CoreOS
10 7 (2.31%) Oracle Linux
11 5 (1.65%) Data ONTAP
11 5 (1.65%) zOS
12 4 (1.32%) HPUX
12 4 (1.32%) SUSE
13 3 (0.99%) Mac OS
14 2 (0.66%) OpenVMS
15 1 (0.33%) Embedded Linux
15 1 (0.33%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 91 (30.03%) CI/CD
2 88 (29.04%) DevOps
3 60 (19.80%) Agile
4 49 (16.17%) Infrastructure as Code
5 46 (15.18%) Migration
6 44 (14.52%) Problem-Solving
7 39 (12.87%) Observability
8 37 (12.21%) Test Automation
9 36 (11.88%) Roadmaps
10 34 (11.22%) Continuous Improvement
10 34 (11.22%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 33 (10.89%) Change Management
11 33 (10.89%) Performance Tuning
12 32 (10.56%) Microservices
13 31 (10.23%) Cloud Security
13 31 (10.23%) Containerisation
14 30 (9.90%) ITIL
15 28 (9.24%) Infrastructure Automation
16 25 (8.25%) High Availability
16 25 (8.25%) Vulnerability Management
Programming Languages
1 118 (38.94%) Python
2 67 (22.11%) Bash
3 60 (19.80%) PowerShell
4 48 (15.84%) Java
4 48 (15.84%) SQL
5 16 (5.28%) Shell Script
6 14 (4.62%) JavaScript
7 11 (3.63%) Go
7 11 (3.63%) Rust
8 9 (2.97%) C#
8 9 (2.97%) COBOL
9 8 (2.64%) Perl
9 8 (2.64%) TypeScript
10 6 (1.98%) Ruby
11 5 (1.65%) JCL
12 4 (1.32%) Bicep
12 4 (1.32%) Kotlin
13 2 (0.66%) C++
13 2 (0.66%) REXX
13 2 (0.66%) Search Processing Language
Qualifications
1 46 (15.18%) Security Cleared
2 35 (11.55%) Degree
3 31 (10.23%) CISSP
4 30 (9.90%) SC Cleared
5 18 (5.94%) AWS Certification
6 14 (4.62%) CompTIA Security+
7 13 (4.29%) Azure Certification
8 12 (3.96%) RHCE
9 7 (2.31%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 7 (2.31%) BPSS Clearance
9 7 (2.31%) DV Cleared
9 7 (2.31%) Microsoft Certification
10 6 (1.98%) Computer Science Degree
10 6 (1.98%) OCP
10 6 (1.98%) Oracle Certification
11 5 (1.65%) CISM
11 5 (1.65%) MCSA
11 5 (1.65%) MCSE
12 4 (1.32%) FFIEC
13 3 (0.99%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (2.97%) GDPR
1 9 (2.97%) HIPAA
2 8 (2.64%) NIST
3 7 (2.31%) PCI DSS
4 6 (1.98%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 5 (1.65%) California Consumer Privacy Act
6 4 (1.32%) GLBA
6 4 (1.32%) GRC
7 3 (0.99%) QA
7 3 (0.99%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 3 (0.99%) SLA
8 1 (0.33%) GxP
8 1 (0.33%) SOC 2
System Software
1 61 (20.13%) Docker
2 49 (16.17%) Virtual Machines
2 49 (16.17%) VMware Infrastructure
3 22 (7.26%) KVM
4 19 (6.27%) NFS
4 19 (6.27%) vSphere
5 18 (5.94%) Active Directory
6 16 (5.28%) Hyper-V
7 15 (4.95%) Firmware
8 12 (3.96%) VMware ESXi
9 7 (2.31%) Oracle RAC
9 7 (2.31%) VMware NSX
10 5 (1.65%) Time Sharing Option
11 4 (1.32%) GPFS
12 3 (0.99%) Veritas Volume Manager
13 2 (0.66%) SRDF
14 1 (0.33%) Ceph
14 1 (0.33%) Embedded Firmware
14 1 (0.33%) Slurm Workload Manager
14 1 (0.33%) zsh
Systems Management
1 89 (29.37%) Ansible
2 82 (27.06%) Terraform
3 77 (25.41%) Kubernetes
4 22 (7.26%) Prometheus
5 21 (6.93%) Grafana
6 17 (5.61%) Progress Chef
7 12 (3.96%) Oracle RMAN
8 11 (3.63%) vCenter Server
9 10 (3.30%) Dell DRAC
10 9 (2.97%) Puppet
11 8 (2.64%) Data Guard
11 8 (2.64%) Packer
11 8 (2.64%) Tivoli Storage Manager
12 7 (2.31%) PowerCLI
12 7 (2.31%) vRealize
13 6 (1.98%) IBM BigFix
13 6 (1.98%) Nessus
14 5 (1.65%) CASB
14 5 (1.65%) SnapMirror
15 4 (1.32%) Argo
Vendors
1 57 (18.81%) VMware
2 49 (16.17%) Red Hat
3 35 (11.55%) Oracle
4 31 (10.23%) IBM
5 28 (9.24%) Microsoft
6 24 (7.92%) Google
7 23 (7.59%) Splunk
8 12 (3.96%) Cisco
9 11 (3.63%) ServiceNow
10 10 (3.30%) CyberArk
11 9 (2.97%) Broadcom
11 9 (2.97%) Dell
12 8 (2.64%) Dynatrace
12 8 (2.64%) HP
13 7 (2.31%) Tenable
14 6 (1.98%) NetApp
14 6 (1.98%) Remedy
15 5 (1.65%) Brocade
15 5 (1.65%) Varonis
16 4 (1.32%) Juniper