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

6 months to
22 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 47 32 40
Rank change year-on-year -15 +8 -9
Contract jobs citing Linux 277 196 187
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 4.31% 5.96% 4.06%
As % of the Operating Systems category 37.89% 36.64% 27.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 180 121 129
10th Percentile £358 £350 £350
25th Percentile £400 £385 £415
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £478 £525 £475
Median % change year-on-year -9.05% +10.53% -13.44%
75th Percentile £550 £597 £588
90th Percentile £650 £725 £650
England median daily rate £513 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -6.82% - -8.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 0 11
10th Percentile £31.54 - -
25th Percentile - - £21.25
Median hourly rate £41.94 - £48.00
75th Percentile £49.38 - £55.88
90th Percentile £59.70 - £65.00
England median hourly rate £62.82 £64.50 £65.00
% change year-on-year -2.61% -0.77% -

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 731 535 691
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 11.37% 16.28% 15.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 485 339 471
10th Percentile £143 £163 £165
25th Percentile £256 £213 £268
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £400 £423
Median % change year-on-year +6.25% -5.33% -11.05%
75th Percentile £525 £538 £523
90th Percentile £613 £625 £650
England median daily rate £450 £466 £470
% change year-on-year -3.38% -0.90% -8.29%
Number of hourly rates quoted 38 19 78
10th Percentile £16.40 £13.00 -
25th Percentile £19.21 £13.60 £10.95
Median hourly rate £27.75 £17.44 £16.00
Median % change year-on-year +59.12% +9.00% -39.62%
75th Percentile £63.50 £18.75 £19.80
90th Percentile £178.75 £19.55 £34.53
England median hourly rate £41.94 £21.28 £22.15
% change year-on-year +97.09% -3.93% -42.47%

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 22 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 22 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 22 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 -19 149 £465 -14.48% 28
North West -19 114 £484 -2.42% 67
North East -25 14 £446 -18.12% 24
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 16 (5.78%) Confluence
2 9 (3.25%) CICS
3 6 (2.17%) TPMS
4 3 (1.08%) nginx
5 2 (0.72%) Apache
5 2 (0.72%) Apache Airflow
5 2 (0.72%) Oracle SOA Suite
5 2 (0.72%) WebLogic
6 1 (0.36%) CMS
6 1 (0.36%) JBoss
6 1 (0.36%) Tomcat
Applications
1 6 (2.17%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.36%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.36%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (0.72%) Oracle EBS
2 1 (0.36%) Cloudability
2 1 (0.36%) Odoo
2 1 (0.36%) SAP S/4HANA
2 1 (0.36%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 79 (28.52%) AWS
2 52 (18.77%) Azure
3 46 (16.61%) OpenShift
4 35 (12.64%) GCP
5 23 (8.30%) GitHub
6 12 (4.33%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 9 (3.25%) Amazon EC2
7 9 (3.25%) Amazon EKS
7 9 (3.25%) Amazon S3
7 9 (3.25%) Serverless
8 8 (2.89%) AWS Lambda
8 8 (2.89%) GitHub Actions
9 6 (2.17%) Amazon ECS
9 6 (2.17%) AWS CloudFormation
10 5 (1.81%) Amazon SQS
10 5 (1.81%) Google Kubernetes Engine
11 4 (1.44%) Amazon CloudWatch
11 4 (1.44%) AWS KMS
11 4 (1.44%) Azure DevOps
11 4 (1.44%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 48 (17.33%) Firewall
2 24 (8.66%) SAN
3 18 (6.50%) DNS
4 16 (5.78%) TCP/IP
5 11 (3.97%) SSL
6 9 (3.25%) VSAN
7 8 (2.89%) Network Security
8 7 (2.53%) NAS
8 7 (2.53%) SNMP
9 6 (2.17%) SSH
9 6 (2.17%) VPN
10 5 (1.81%) 3GPP
10 5 (1.81%) RTP
10 5 (1.81%) Wireshark
11 4 (1.44%) iSCSI
12 2 (0.72%) DHCP
12 2 (0.72%) HTTP
12 2 (0.72%) Reverse Proxy
12 2 (0.72%) VLAN
13 1 (0.36%) Kerberos
Database & Business Intelligence
1 19 (6.86%) MongoDB
2 15 (5.42%) PostgreSQL
3 13 (4.69%) NoSQL
4 11 (3.97%) SQL Server
5 10 (3.61%) Oracle Database
6 9 (3.25%) DataStage
7 7 (2.53%) Elasticsearch
8 6 (2.17%) DB2
9 5 (1.81%) Relational Database
10 4 (1.44%) Oracle Database 12c
11 3 (1.08%) Amazon Aurora
11 3 (1.08%) DynamoDB
11 3 (1.08%) RDBMS
12 2 (0.72%) Amazon RDS
12 2 (0.72%) Apache Cassandra
12 2 (0.72%) Azure SQL Database
12 2 (0.72%) Power BI
13 1 (0.36%) Data Lake
13 1 (0.36%) DocumentDB
13 1 (0.36%) InfluxDB
Development Applications
1 34 (12.27%) Jenkins
2 31 (11.19%) JIRA
3 26 (9.39%) GitLab
4 19 (6.86%) Git
5 10 (3.61%) Mockito
6 9 (3.25%) Jaeger
7 5 (1.81%) 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
10 1 (0.36%) Burp Suite
10 1 (0.36%) Cucumber
10 1 (0.36%) Gatling
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 77 (27.80%) Social Skills
2 60 (21.66%) Finance
3 31 (11.19%) Public Sector
4 30 (10.83%) Banking
5 19 (6.86%) Analytical Skills
6 18 (6.50%) Documentation Skills
7 9 (3.25%) Financial Institution
7 9 (3.25%) Influencing Skills
8 8 (2.89%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 4 (1.44%) Aviation
9 4 (1.44%) Fire and Rescue
9 4 (1.44%) Law
9 4 (1.44%) Legal
9 4 (1.44%) Police
10 3 (1.08%) Investment Banking
11 2 (0.72%) Advertising
12 1 (0.36%) Manufacturing
12 1 (0.36%) Military
12 1 (0.36%) Private Banking
12 1 (0.36%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 39 (14.08%) Senior
2 28 (10.11%) Developer
3 23 (8.30%) DevOps Engineer
4 19 (6.86%) Java Developer
5 17 (6.14%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 16 (5.78%) Linux Engineer
6 16 (5.78%) Security Engineer
6 16 (5.78%) Software Engineer
7 15 (5.42%) Lead
8 12 (4.33%) Analyst
8 12 (4.33%) Platform Engineer
9 11 (3.97%) Data Centre Engineer
10 9 (3.25%) AWS Engineer
10 9 (3.25%) Designer
10 9 (3.25%) Infrastructure Designer
11 8 (2.89%) Consultant
11 8 (2.89%) DBA
11 8 (2.89%) Full-Stack Engineer
11 8 (2.89%) Senior Developer
11 8 (2.89%) VMware Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (7.94%) Kafka
2 21 (7.58%) Middleware
3 12 (4.33%) Elastic Stack
3 12 (4.33%) OpenTelemetry
4 11 (3.97%) REST
4 11 (3.97%) YAML
5 10 (3.61%) JAX-RS
5 10 (3.61%) LDAP
5 10 (3.61%) Spring Boot
6 9 (3.25%) .NET
6 9 (3.25%) ActiveMQ
6 9 (3.25%) Redfish
7 5 (1.81%) .NET Core
8 4 (1.44%) Flash
8 4 (1.44%) RabbitMQ
8 4 (1.44%) SOAP
9 3 (1.08%) RESTful
9 3 (1.08%) XML
10 2 (0.72%) Node.js
10 2 (0.72%) OpenID
Miscellaneous
1 37 (13.36%) Data Centre
2 24 (8.66%) Linux Command Line
3 23 (8.30%) Cloud Native
4 17 (6.14%) Security Posture
5 16 (5.78%) Distributed Systems
6 14 (5.05%) Hybrid Cloud
7 13 (4.69%) Data Protection Act
7 13 (4.69%) Mainframe
7 13 (4.69%) Management Information System
8 10 (3.61%) Cloud Security Posture
8 10 (3.61%) Replication
9 9 (3.25%) BYOD
9 9 (3.25%) Legacy Systems
9 9 (3.25%) VSAM
10 6 (2.17%) Enterprise Storage
10 6 (2.17%) Onboarding
10 6 (2.17%) PKI
10 6 (2.17%) Product Ownership
11 5 (1.81%) FlexPod
12 4 (1.44%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 103 (37.18%) Windows
2 66 (23.83%) Unix
3 58 (20.94%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 27 (9.75%) Windows Server
5 24 (8.66%) AIX
6 16 (5.78%) Ubuntu
7 14 (5.05%) Solaris
8 11 (3.97%) Mac OS X
8 11 (3.97%) VMS
9 10 (3.61%) CentOS
10 7 (2.53%) CoreOS
10 7 (2.53%) Oracle Linux
11 5 (1.81%) Data ONTAP
12 4 (1.44%) HPUX
12 4 (1.44%) SUSE
12 4 (1.44%) zOS
13 3 (1.08%) Mac OS
14 1 (0.36%) Embedded Linux
14 1 (0.36%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
14 1 (0.36%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 88 (31.77%) CI/CD
2 86 (31.05%) DevOps
3 53 (19.13%) Problem-Solving
4 47 (16.97%) Agile
5 42 (15.16%) Infrastructure as Code
5 42 (15.16%) Observability
6 40 (14.44%) Migration
7 38 (13.72%) Microservices
8 34 (12.27%) Test Automation
9 33 (11.91%) Roadmaps
10 32 (11.55%) Containerisation
11 30 (10.83%) Cybersecurity
12 28 (10.11%) Continuous Improvement
12 28 (10.11%) Root Cause Analysis
13 27 (9.75%) Performance Tuning
14 26 (9.39%) Data Protection
15 25 (9.03%) Infrastructure Automation
15 25 (9.03%) Infrastructure Engineering
16 24 (8.66%) Vulnerability Management
17 23 (8.30%) Capacity Planning
Programming Languages
1 109 (39.35%) Python
2 55 (19.86%) Bash
3 51 (18.41%) SQL
4 49 (17.69%) Java
5 44 (15.88%) PowerShell
6 15 (5.42%) Rust
6 15 (5.42%) Shell Script
7 13 (4.69%) Go
7 13 (4.69%) JavaScript
8 11 (3.97%) Ruby
9 10 (3.61%) Perl
10 9 (3.25%) C#
10 9 (3.25%) COBOL
11 8 (2.89%) TypeScript
12 4 (1.44%) JCL
12 4 (1.44%) Kotlin
13 2 (0.72%) Bicep
13 2 (0.72%) C
13 2 (0.72%) Search Processing Language
14 1 (0.36%) C++
Qualifications
1 46 (16.61%) Security Cleared
2 30 (10.83%) SC Cleared
3 25 (9.03%) Degree
4 24 (8.66%) CISSP
5 15 (5.42%) CompTIA Security+
5 15 (5.42%) RHCE
6 11 (3.97%) AWS Certification
7 7 (2.53%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
7 7 (2.53%) CISM
7 7 (2.53%) DV Cleared
7 7 (2.53%) Microsoft Certification
8 6 (2.17%) Azure Certification
8 6 (2.17%) FFIEC
8 6 (2.17%) OCP
8 6 (2.17%) Oracle Certification
9 5 (1.81%) BPSS Clearance
9 5 (1.81%) Computer Science Degree
9 5 (1.81%) MCSA
9 5 (1.81%) MCSE
10 2 (0.72%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (4.33%) GDPR
2 9 (3.25%) HIPAA
2 9 (3.25%) NIST
3 8 (2.89%) PCI DSS
4 7 (2.53%) SLA
5 6 (2.17%) GLBA
6 5 (1.81%) California Consumer Privacy Act
6 5 (1.81%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 4 (1.44%) GRC
8 3 (1.08%) QA
8 3 (1.08%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 1 (0.36%) Cyber Essentials
9 1 (0.36%) GxP
9 1 (0.36%) SOC 2
System Software
1 55 (19.86%) Docker
2 46 (16.61%) VMware Infrastructure
3 40 (14.44%) Virtual Machines
4 19 (6.86%) vSphere
5 18 (6.50%) Active Directory
5 18 (6.50%) Hyper-V
6 17 (6.14%) KVM
7 16 (5.78%) NFS
8 14 (5.05%) Firmware
9 12 (4.33%) VMware ESXi
10 7 (2.53%) VMware NSX
11 4 (1.44%) GPFS
11 4 (1.44%) Time Sharing Option
12 2 (0.72%) SRDF
13 1 (0.36%) Ceph
13 1 (0.36%) Embedded Firmware
13 1 (0.36%) Oracle RAC
13 1 (0.36%) Slurm Workload Manager
13 1 (0.36%) Veritas Volume Manager
13 1 (0.36%) zsh
Systems Management
1 88 (31.77%) Ansible
2 79 (28.52%) Kubernetes
3 72 (25.99%) Terraform
4 33 (11.91%) Grafana
5 28 (10.11%) Prometheus
6 13 (4.69%) Puppet
7 11 (3.97%) vCenter Server
8 9 (3.25%) Dell DRAC
9 8 (2.89%) Kiali
9 8 (2.89%) Progress Chef
10 7 (2.53%) Oracle RMAN
10 7 (2.53%) Packer
10 7 (2.53%) PowerCLI
10 7 (2.53%) vRealize
11 6 (2.17%) IBM BigFix
11 6 (2.17%) Nessus
12 5 (1.81%) CASB
12 5 (1.81%) SnapMirror
12 5 (1.81%) Tivoli Storage Manager
13 4 (1.44%) Argo
Vendors
1 57 (20.58%) VMware
2 40 (14.44%) Red Hat
3 33 (11.91%) Splunk
4 28 (10.11%) Oracle
5 27 (9.75%) IBM
6 24 (8.66%) Microsoft
7 14 (5.05%) Google
8 13 (4.69%) ServiceNow
9 11 (3.97%) CyberArk
10 10 (3.61%) Cisco
11 8 (2.89%) Broadcom
11 8 (2.89%) Dell
11 8 (2.89%) HP
12 7 (2.53%) Tenable
13 6 (2.17%) NetApp
13 6 (2.17%) Remedy
13 6 (2.17%) Thales
14 5 (1.81%) Dynatrace
14 5 (1.81%) Varonis
15 4 (1.44%) Brocade