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

6 months to
15 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 47 32 38
Rank change year-on-year -15 +6 -9
Contract jobs citing Linux 278 203 189
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 4.44% 6.18% 4.09%
As % of the Operating Systems category 38.34% 37.45% 27.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 181 124 131
10th Percentile £358 £350 £350
25th Percentile £400 £390 £416
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £525 £480
Median % change year-on-year -9.52% +9.38% -12.73%
75th Percentile £550 £600 £588
90th Percentile £650 £750 £650
England median daily rate £513 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -6.82% - -8.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 0 11
10th Percentile £28.94 - -
25th Percentile - - £21.25
Median hourly rate £41.94 - £48.00
75th Percentile £47.99 - £55.88
90th Percentile £62.13 - £65.00
England median hourly rate £63.14 £65.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year -2.87% - -

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 725 542 693
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 11.57% 16.49% 14.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 485 344 469
10th Percentile £143 £161 £165
25th Percentile £250 £209 £275
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £415 £400 £425
Median % change year-on-year +3.75% -5.88% -10.53%
75th Percentile £514 £538 £525
90th Percentile £615 £625 £650
England median daily rate £450 £469 £470
% change year-on-year -4.00% -0.27% -8.29%
Number of hourly rates quoted 33 19 78
10th Percentile £16.24 £13.00 -
25th Percentile £21.33 £13.60 £10.95
Median hourly rate £41.94 £17.44 £16.00
Median % change year-on-year +140.48% +9.00% -39.62%
75th Percentile £70.00 £18.75 £19.81
90th Percentile £178.75 £19.55 £34.53
England median hourly rate £47.50 £21.59 £22.00
% change year-on-year +120.01% -1.86% -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 15 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 15 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 15 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 -18 149 £463 -15.91% 36
North West -17 119 £484 -3.20% 57
North East -21 10 £413 -21.43% 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 (5.04%) Confluence
2 9 (3.24%) CICS
3 7 (2.52%) TPMS
4 3 (1.08%) nginx
5 2 (0.72%) Apache
6 1 (0.36%) Apache Airflow
6 1 (0.36%) CMS
6 1 (0.36%) JBoss
6 1 (0.36%) Tomcat
Applications
1 5 (1.80%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.36%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 1 (0.36%) Cloudability
1 1 (0.36%) Odoo
1 1 (0.36%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 80 (28.78%) AWS
2 50 (17.99%) Azure
3 46 (16.55%) OpenShift
4 34 (12.23%) GCP
5 22 (7.91%) GitHub
6 11 (3.96%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 9 (3.24%) Amazon EKS
7 9 (3.24%) Serverless
8 8 (2.88%) Amazon EC2
8 8 (2.88%) Amazon S3
8 8 (2.88%) AWS CloudFormation
8 8 (2.88%) AWS Lambda
8 8 (2.88%) GitHub Actions
9 6 (2.16%) Amazon ECS
10 5 (1.80%) Amazon SQS
10 5 (1.80%) Google Kubernetes Engine
11 4 (1.44%) AWS KMS
12 3 (1.08%) Amazon EventBridge
12 3 (1.08%) Azure DevOps
12 3 (1.08%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 48 (17.27%) Firewall
2 23 (8.27%) SAN
3 18 (6.47%) DNS
4 16 (5.76%) TCP/IP
5 13 (4.68%) SSL
6 10 (3.60%) Network Security
6 10 (3.60%) VSAN
7 8 (2.88%) SNMP
8 7 (2.52%) NAS
8 7 (2.52%) SSH
9 6 (2.16%) VPN
10 4 (1.44%) 3GPP
10 4 (1.44%) iSCSI
10 4 (1.44%) RTP
10 4 (1.44%) Wireshark
11 3 (1.08%) HTTP
12 2 (0.72%) DHCP
12 2 (0.72%) Reverse Proxy
12 2 (0.72%) VLAN
13 1 (0.36%) Intrusion Detection
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (7.19%) MongoDB
2 17 (6.12%) PostgreSQL
3 13 (4.68%) NoSQL
3 13 (4.68%) SQL Server
4 9 (3.24%) DataStage
5 8 (2.88%) Oracle Database
6 7 (2.52%) Elasticsearch
7 6 (2.16%) DB2
8 5 (1.80%) Relational Database
9 4 (1.44%) Oracle Database 12c
10 3 (1.08%) Amazon Aurora
10 3 (1.08%) DynamoDB
10 3 (1.08%) RDBMS
11 2 (0.72%) Apache Cassandra
12 1 (0.36%) Amazon RDS
12 1 (0.36%) Azure SQL Database
12 1 (0.36%) InfluxDB
12 1 (0.36%) Oracle Exadata
12 1 (0.36%) SAP HANA
12 1 (0.36%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 32 (11.51%) Jenkins
2 28 (10.07%) JIRA
3 25 (8.99%) GitLab
4 18 (6.47%) Git
5 11 (3.96%) Mockito
6 9 (3.24%) Jaeger
7 4 (1.44%) TeamCity
8 3 (1.08%) Bitbucket
8 3 (1.08%) CircleCI
8 3 (1.08%) Liquibase
8 3 (1.08%) Sonatype Nexus
9 2 (0.72%) Gradle
9 2 (0.72%) Octopus Deploy
10 1 (0.36%) Burp Suite
10 1 (0.36%) Cucumber
10 1 (0.36%) Hudson
10 1 (0.36%) JUnit
10 1 (0.36%) LoadRunner
10 1 (0.36%) Maven
10 1 (0.36%) SonarQube
General
1 79 (28.42%) Social Skills
2 63 (22.66%) Finance
3 31 (11.15%) Public Sector
4 30 (10.79%) Banking
5 21 (7.55%) Documentation Skills
6 16 (5.76%) Analytical Skills
7 9 (3.24%) Financial Institution
7 9 (3.24%) Influencing Skills
8 8 (2.88%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 5 (1.80%) Legal
10 4 (1.44%) Aviation
10 4 (1.44%) Fire and Rescue
10 4 (1.44%) Law
10 4 (1.44%) Police
11 3 (1.08%) Investment Banking
12 2 (0.72%) Advertising
13 1 (0.36%) Manufacturing
13 1 (0.36%) Military
13 1 (0.36%) Private Banking
13 1 (0.36%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 39 (14.03%) Senior
2 30 (10.79%) Developer
3 23 (8.27%) DevOps Engineer
4 20 (7.19%) Java Developer
5 17 (6.12%) Software Engineer
6 16 (5.76%) Linux Engineer
6 16 (5.76%) Security Engineer
7 15 (5.40%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 15 (5.40%) Lead
8 13 (4.68%) Analyst
9 12 (4.32%) Platform Engineer
10 10 (3.60%) Data Centre Engineer
11 9 (3.24%) Designer
11 9 (3.24%) Infrastructure Designer
12 8 (2.88%) AWS Engineer
12 8 (2.88%) Full-Stack Engineer
12 8 (2.88%) Senior Developer
12 8 (2.88%) VMware Engineer
13 7 (2.52%) Cryptography Engineer
13 7 (2.52%) Senior DevOps
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 23 (8.27%) Kafka
2 18 (6.47%) Middleware
3 12 (4.32%) Elastic Stack
3 12 (4.32%) OpenTelemetry
4 11 (3.96%) JAX-RS
4 11 (3.96%) REST
4 11 (3.96%) YAML
5 10 (3.60%) .NET
5 10 (3.60%) ActiveMQ
5 10 (3.60%) LDAP
5 10 (3.60%) Spring Boot
6 8 (2.88%) Redfish
7 4 (1.44%) .NET Core
7 4 (1.44%) Flash
7 4 (1.44%) RabbitMQ
8 3 (1.08%) RESTful
8 3 (1.08%) SOAP
8 3 (1.08%) WebSockets
8 3 (1.08%) XML
9 2 (0.72%) HTML
Miscellaneous
1 35 (12.59%) Data Centre
2 23 (8.27%) Cloud Native
2 23 (8.27%) Linux Command Line
3 17 (6.12%) Security Posture
4 16 (5.76%) Distributed Systems
5 14 (5.04%) Hybrid Cloud
6 13 (4.68%) Data Protection Act
6 13 (4.68%) Mainframe
6 13 (4.68%) Management Information System
7 10 (3.60%) Cloud Security Posture
7 10 (3.60%) Replication
8 9 (3.24%) BYOD
8 9 (3.24%) Legacy Systems
8 9 (3.24%) VSAM
9 7 (2.52%) PKI
10 6 (2.16%) Onboarding
10 6 (2.16%) Product Ownership
11 5 (1.80%) Enterprise Storage
11 5 (1.80%) FlexPod
12 4 (1.44%) EMC VMAX
Operating Systems
1 104 (37.41%) Windows
2 67 (24.10%) Unix
3 57 (20.50%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 30 (10.79%) Windows Server
5 24 (8.63%) AIX
6 15 (5.40%) Solaris
7 14 (5.04%) Ubuntu
8 12 (4.32%) Mac OS X
9 11 (3.96%) VMS
10 9 (3.24%) CentOS
11 7 (2.52%) CoreOS
11 7 (2.52%) Oracle Linux
12 5 (1.80%) Data ONTAP
13 4 (1.44%) HPUX
13 4 (1.44%) SUSE
13 4 (1.44%) zOS
14 3 (1.08%) Mac OS
15 1 (0.36%) Embedded Linux
15 1 (0.36%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
15 1 (0.36%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 88 (31.65%) CI/CD
2 86 (30.94%) DevOps
3 53 (19.06%) Problem-Solving
4 47 (16.91%) Agile
5 45 (16.19%) Observability
6 41 (14.75%) Infrastructure as Code
7 39 (14.03%) Microservices
8 37 (13.31%) Migration
9 35 (12.59%) Containerisation
10 34 (12.23%) Test Automation
11 33 (11.87%) Roadmaps
12 31 (11.15%) Cybersecurity
13 28 (10.07%) Continuous Improvement
14 26 (9.35%) Data Protection
14 26 (9.35%) Root Cause Analysis
15 25 (8.99%) Infrastructure Engineering
16 24 (8.63%) Infrastructure Automation
16 24 (8.63%) Performance Tuning
17 22 (7.91%) Mentoring
17 22 (7.91%) Vulnerability Management
Programming Languages
1 110 (39.57%) Python
2 54 (19.42%) Bash
3 51 (18.35%) SQL
4 50 (17.99%) Java
5 45 (16.19%) PowerShell
6 15 (5.40%) Rust
6 15 (5.40%) Shell Script
7 13 (4.68%) Go
7 13 (4.68%) JavaScript
7 13 (4.68%) Ruby
8 11 (3.96%) Perl
9 10 (3.60%) C#
10 9 (3.24%) COBOL
11 8 (2.88%) TypeScript
12 4 (1.44%) JCL
12 4 (1.44%) Kotlin
12 4 (1.44%) PHP
13 3 (1.08%) Delphi
14 2 (0.72%) C
14 2 (0.72%) Search Processing Language
Qualifications
1 46 (16.55%) Security Cleared
2 30 (10.79%) SC Cleared
3 25 (8.99%) Degree
4 22 (7.91%) CISSP
5 15 (5.40%) RHCE
6 13 (4.68%) CompTIA Security+
7 11 (3.96%) AWS Certification
8 7 (2.52%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
8 7 (2.52%) BPSS Clearance
8 7 (2.52%) DV Cleared
8 7 (2.52%) FFIEC
8 7 (2.52%) Microsoft Certification
9 6 (2.16%) OCP
9 6 (2.16%) Oracle Certification
10 5 (1.80%) Azure Certification
10 5 (1.80%) CISM
10 5 (1.80%) Computer Science Degree
10 5 (1.80%) MCSA
10 5 (1.80%) MCSE
11 2 (0.72%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (5.04%) GDPR
2 10 (3.60%) NIST
3 9 (3.24%) HIPAA
3 9 (3.24%) PCI DSS
4 7 (2.52%) GLBA
4 7 (2.52%) SLA
5 5 (1.80%) California Consumer Privacy Act
5 5 (1.80%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 4 (1.44%) GRC
7 3 (1.08%) QA
7 3 (1.08%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 1 (0.36%) Cyber Essentials
8 1 (0.36%) GxP
8 1 (0.36%) SOC 2
System Software
1 57 (20.50%) Docker
2 46 (16.55%) VMware Infrastructure
3 37 (13.31%) Virtual Machines
4 19 (6.83%) vSphere
5 18 (6.47%) Active Directory
5 18 (6.47%) Hyper-V
6 17 (6.12%) KVM
7 16 (5.76%) NFS
8 13 (4.68%) Firmware
8 13 (4.68%) VMware ESXi
9 7 (2.52%) VMware NSX
10 4 (1.44%) GPFS
10 4 (1.44%) Time Sharing Option
11 2 (0.72%) SRDF
12 1 (0.36%) Ceph
12 1 (0.36%) Embedded Firmware
12 1 (0.36%) Oracle RAC
12 1 (0.36%) Slurm Workload Manager
12 1 (0.36%) Veritas Volume Manager
12 1 (0.36%) zsh
Systems Management
1 88 (31.65%) Ansible
2 80 (28.78%) Kubernetes
3 71 (25.54%) Terraform
4 34 (12.23%) Grafana
5 28 (10.07%) Prometheus
6 12 (4.32%) Puppet
6 12 (4.32%) vCenter Server
7 8 (2.88%) Dell DRAC
7 8 (2.88%) Kiali
7 8 (2.88%) Progress Chef
8 7 (2.52%) PowerCLI
8 7 (2.52%) vRealize
9 6 (2.16%) IBM BigFix
9 6 (2.16%) Nessus
9 6 (2.16%) Packer
10 5 (1.80%) CASB
10 5 (1.80%) Oracle RMAN
10 5 (1.80%) SnapMirror
10 5 (1.80%) Tivoli Storage Manager
11 4 (1.44%) Argo
Vendors
1 57 (20.50%) VMware
2 41 (14.75%) Red Hat
3 34 (12.23%) Splunk
4 27 (9.71%) IBM
4 27 (9.71%) Microsoft
5 26 (9.35%) Oracle
6 14 (5.04%) Google
7 13 (4.68%) ServiceNow
8 11 (3.96%) CyberArk
9 10 (3.60%) Cisco
10 8 (2.88%) Broadcom
10 8 (2.88%) Dell
10 8 (2.88%) HP
11 7 (2.52%) Tenable
11 7 (2.52%) Thales
12 6 (2.16%) NetApp
12 6 (2.16%) Remedy
13 5 (1.80%) Dynatrace
13 5 (1.80%) Varonis
14 4 (1.44%) Brocade