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

6 months to
22 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 57 32 35
Rank change year-on-year -25 +3 +9
Contract jobs citing Linux 289 239 178
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 3.83% 5.98% 4.26%
As % of the Operating Systems category 33.92% 38.12% 32.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 177 162 124
10th Percentile £358 £319 £375
25th Percentile £407 £368 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -
75th Percentile £613 £610 £620
90th Percentile £650 £680 £671
England median daily rate £525 £525 £548
% change year-on-year - -4.11% -5.07%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 1 3
10th Percentile £18.90 - £47.35
25th Percentile £23.36 - £47.88
Median hourly rate £36.67 £70.00 £52.50
Median % change year-on-year -47.61% +33.33% +114.29%
75th Percentile £49.06 - £68.42
90th Percentile £49.63 - £75.72
England median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £67.50
% change year-on-year - -3.70% +8.00%

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 852 627 544
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 11.28% 15.68% 13.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 574 416 352
10th Percentile £180 £177 £190
25th Percentile £236 £268 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £421 £400 £475
Median % change year-on-year +5.19% -15.79% +7.95%
75th Percentile £525 £538 £588
90th Percentile £615 £625 £784
England median daily rate £469 £450 £488
% change year-on-year +4.22% -7.69% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 36 24 60
10th Percentile £16.22 £13.00 -
25th Percentile £17.16 £15.93 £10.95
Median hourly rate £21.32 £18.10 £15.46
Median % change year-on-year +17.77% +17.09% -27.45%
75th Percentile £33.19 £18.87 £18.86
90th Percentile £178.75 £19.77 £24.18
England median hourly rate £34.68 £24.00 £35.00
% change year-on-year +44.48% -31.43% -12.50%

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 August 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 August 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 August 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 -20 146 £493 +23.25% 54
Yorkshire -26 125 £500 -4.76% 28
North East -24 25 £471 -18.04% 21
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 17 (5.88%) Confluence
2 4 (1.38%) Microsoft Exchange
3 3 (1.04%) Apache
3 3 (1.04%) CICS
3 3 (1.04%) OpenStack
4 2 (0.69%) Apache Airflow
4 2 (0.69%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 2 (0.69%) WebLogic
5 1 (0.35%) CMS
5 1 (0.35%) nginx
5 1 (0.35%) SAS
5 1 (0.35%) SharePoint
5 1 (0.35%) WebSphere
Applications
1 9 (3.11%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.35%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.35%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (0.69%) Oracle EBS
2 1 (0.35%) Odoo
2 1 (0.35%) SAP S/4HANA
2 1 (0.35%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 104 (35.99%) AWS
2 83 (28.72%) Azure
3 51 (17.65%) GCP
4 26 (9.00%) GitHub
4 26 (9.00%) OpenShift
5 18 (6.23%) OCI
6 17 (5.88%) Azure DevOps
6 17 (5.88%) Google Kubernetes Engine
7 13 (4.50%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 12 (4.15%) Amazon ECS
8 12 (4.15%) AWS CloudFormation
9 11 (3.81%) Amazon EKS
10 10 (3.46%) GitHub Actions
10 10 (3.46%) Serverless
11 9 (3.11%) AWS Lambda
12 8 (2.77%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 7 (2.42%) Azure Sentinel
13 7 (2.42%) Entra ID
13 7 (2.42%) Microsoft 365
14 6 (2.08%) AWS KMS
Communications & Networking
1 29 (10.03%) Firewall
2 22 (7.61%) SAN
3 16 (5.54%) DNS
4 15 (5.19%) Network Security
5 9 (3.11%) VSAN
6 8 (2.77%) TCP/IP
7 6 (2.08%) 3GPP
7 6 (2.08%) iSCSI
7 6 (2.08%) RTP
7 6 (2.08%) Wireshark
8 5 (1.73%) DHCP
8 5 (1.73%) NAS
8 5 (1.73%) VPN
9 3 (1.04%) FTP
9 3 (1.04%) HTTP
9 3 (1.04%) SD-WAN
9 3 (1.04%) SSL
9 3 (1.04%) WAN
9 3 (1.04%) Wireless
10 2 (0.69%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 28 (9.69%) Oracle Database
2 17 (5.88%) RDBMS
2 17 (5.88%) Relational Database
3 15 (5.19%) Oracle Exadata
4 13 (4.50%) MongoDB
5 12 (4.15%) NoSQL
6 8 (2.77%) PostgreSQL
7 7 (2.42%) SQL Server
8 6 (2.08%) Elasticsearch
8 6 (2.08%) Oracle Database 12c
9 5 (1.73%) DynamoDB
9 5 (1.73%) Sybase ASE
10 3 (1.04%) Amazon Aurora
10 3 (1.04%) Amazon RDS
10 3 (1.04%) BusinessObjects
10 3 (1.04%) DataStage
11 2 (0.69%) Azure SQL Database
11 2 (0.69%) Big Data
11 2 (0.69%) Data Lake
11 2 (0.69%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 33 (11.42%) Git
2 27 (9.34%) JIRA
3 23 (7.96%) GitLab
4 19 (6.57%) Jenkins
5 11 (3.81%) Mockito
6 6 (2.08%) TeamCity
7 5 (1.73%) Sonatype Nexus
8 4 (1.38%) Cucumber
9 3 (1.04%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.69%) Burp Suite
10 2 (0.69%) Gatling
10 2 (0.69%) Gradle
10 2 (0.69%) LoadRunner
10 2 (0.69%) REST Assured
10 2 (0.69%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.69%) Toad
11 1 (0.35%) Claude Code
11 1 (0.35%) Hudson
11 1 (0.35%) Jaeger
General
1 62 (21.45%) Social Skills
2 58 (20.07%) Finance
3 31 (10.73%) Banking
4 24 (8.30%) Public Sector
5 23 (7.96%) Analytical Skills
6 10 (3.46%) Legal
7 5 (1.73%) Aviation
7 5 (1.73%) Fire and Rescue
7 5 (1.73%) Military
7 5 (1.73%) Police
8 4 (1.38%) Documentation Skills
8 4 (1.38%) Law
8 4 (1.38%) Telecoms
9 3 (1.04%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 3 (1.04%) Influencing Skills
9 3 (1.04%) Investment Banking
9 3 (1.04%) Organisational Skills
10 2 (0.69%) Corporate Banking
11 1 (0.35%) Financial Institution
11 1 (0.35%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 45 (15.57%) Senior
2 33 (11.42%) Linux Engineer
3 31 (10.73%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 25 (8.65%) Developer
4 25 (8.65%) Security Engineer
5 18 (6.23%) Cloud Engineer
6 17 (5.88%) Consultant
6 17 (5.88%) DevOps Engineer
7 16 (5.54%) DBA
7 16 (5.54%) Unix Engineer
8 15 (5.19%) Java Developer
9 12 (4.15%) Lead
10 11 (3.81%) Cloud Security Engineer
10 11 (3.81%) Security Consultant
10 11 (3.81%) Software Engineer
11 10 (3.46%) AWS Engineer
11 10 (3.46%) Data Centre Engineer
11 10 (3.46%) Platform Engineer
11 10 (3.46%) Senior Developer
11 10 (3.46%) Unix Linux Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 98 (33.91%) Terraform
2 15 (5.19%) Kafka
2 15 (5.19%) Oracle GoldenGate
3 13 (4.50%) .NET
4 11 (3.81%) ActiveMQ
4 11 (3.81%) JAX-RS
5 10 (3.46%) Redfish
6 9 (3.11%) Middleware
6 9 (3.11%) REST
7 8 (2.77%) YAML
8 6 (2.08%) .NET Core
8 6 (2.08%) ARM Templates
8 6 (2.08%) JSON
8 6 (2.08%) RabbitMQ
9 5 (1.73%) LDAP
10 4 (1.38%) Flash
10 4 (1.38%) Node.js
10 4 (1.38%) OpenID
10 4 (1.38%) RESTful
10 4 (1.38%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 34 (11.76%) Cloud Native
2 30 (10.38%) Data Centre
3 23 (7.96%) Linux Command Line
4 20 (6.92%) Security Posture
5 19 (6.57%) Replication
6 16 (5.54%) PKI
7 14 (4.84%) Legacy Systems
7 14 (4.84%) Public Cloud
8 13 (4.50%) Hybrid Cloud
9 12 (4.15%) Data Protection Act
9 12 (4.15%) Management Information System
10 11 (3.81%) Mainframe
11 10 (3.46%) Distributed Systems
12 8 (2.77%) Enterprise Cloud
13 6 (2.08%) Cloud Security Posture
13 6 (2.08%) Enterprise Storage
14 5 (1.73%) Private Cloud
14 5 (1.73%) Robotics
15 4 (1.38%) EMC VMAX
16 3 (1.04%) BYOD
Operating Systems
1 95 (32.87%) Windows
2 71 (24.57%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 68 (23.53%) Unix
4 29 (10.03%) AIX
5 24 (8.30%) Windows Server
6 22 (7.61%) Solaris
7 9 (3.11%) Ubuntu
7 9 (3.11%) VMS
8 8 (2.77%) Oracle Linux
9 7 (2.42%) CentOS
10 6 (2.08%) Mac OS X
11 5 (1.73%) CoreOS
11 5 (1.73%) HPUX
11 5 (1.73%) SUSE
11 5 (1.73%) zOS
12 3 (1.04%) Data ONTAP
13 2 (0.69%) Mac OS
13 2 (0.69%) OpenVMS
13 2 (0.69%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
13 2 (0.69%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 96 (33.22%) CI/CD
2 83 (28.72%) Infrastructure as Code
3 73 (25.26%) DevOps
4 65 (22.49%) Agile
5 53 (18.34%) Migration
6 49 (16.96%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 46 (15.92%) Continuous Improvement
8 41 (14.19%) High Availability
8 41 (14.19%) Observability
9 38 (13.15%) Change Management
10 36 (12.46%) Cloud Security
10 36 (12.46%) Infrastructure Automation
11 35 (12.11%) Test Automation
12 34 (11.76%) Performance Tuning
13 32 (11.07%) Problem-Solving
14 30 (10.38%) Disaster Recovery
14 30 (10.38%) Runbook
15 29 (10.03%) ITIL
15 29 (10.03%) Platform Engineering
16 28 (9.69%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 111 (38.41%) Python
2 75 (25.95%) Bash
3 72 (24.91%) PowerShell
4 46 (15.92%) Java
5 42 (14.53%) SQL
6 16 (5.54%) Shell Script
7 15 (5.19%) Bicep
8 12 (4.15%) C#
9 11 (3.81%) JavaScript
10 7 (2.42%) Go
11 5 (1.73%) JCL
12 4 (1.38%) Kotlin
12 4 (1.38%) Rust
12 4 (1.38%) TypeScript
13 3 (1.04%) COBOL
13 3 (1.04%) Kusto Query Language
14 2 (0.69%) C++
14 2 (0.69%) DCL
14 2 (0.69%) Perl
14 2 (0.69%) REXX
Qualifications
1 53 (18.34%) Security Cleared
2 42 (14.53%) SC Cleared
3 34 (11.76%) Degree
4 28 (9.69%) CISSP
5 20 (6.92%) Azure Certification
6 19 (6.57%) AWS Certification
7 7 (2.42%) CompTIA Security+
8 6 (2.08%) BPSS Clearance
8 6 (2.08%) RHCE
9 5 (1.73%) CISM
9 5 (1.73%) Computer Science Degree
9 5 (1.73%) DV Cleared
10 4 (1.38%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 4 (1.38%) Microsoft Certification
10 4 (1.38%) Microsoft Certified Professional
10 4 (1.38%) OCP
10 4 (1.38%) Oracle Certification
11 3 (1.04%) CEH
11 3 (1.04%) Cisco Certification
11 3 (1.04%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (2.77%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 6 (2.08%) HIPAA
3 5 (1.73%) NIST
4 4 (1.38%) GRC
4 4 (1.38%) SLA
5 3 (1.04%) PCI DSS
5 3 (1.04%) QA
5 3 (1.04%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 2 (0.69%) California Consumer Privacy Act
6 2 (0.69%) GDPR
7 1 (0.35%) Accessibility
7 1 (0.35%) Data Quality
7 1 (0.35%) SOC 2
7 1 (0.35%) WCAG
System Software
1 53 (18.34%) Docker
2 45 (15.57%) VMware Infrastructure
3 33 (11.42%) Virtual Machines
4 20 (6.92%) Active Directory
5 19 (6.57%) vSphere
6 18 (6.23%) Oracle RAC
7 16 (5.54%) NFS
8 14 (4.84%) KVM
8 14 (4.84%) VMware ESXi
9 13 (4.50%) Firmware
10 9 (3.11%) Hyper-V
11 8 (2.77%) VMware NSX
12 5 (1.73%) Time Sharing Option
13 4 (1.38%) Ceph
13 4 (1.38%) GPFS
14 3 (1.04%) Veritas Volume Manager
15 2 (0.69%) SRDF
16 1 (0.35%) Microsoft Virtual Server
16 1 (0.35%) NetIQ eDirectory
16 1 (0.35%) zsh
Systems Management
1 86 (29.76%) Ansible
2 76 (26.30%) Kubernetes
3 23 (7.96%) Oracle RMAN
4 22 (7.61%) Progress Chef
5 19 (6.57%) Data Guard
5 19 (6.57%) Prometheus
6 17 (5.88%) Grafana
7 10 (3.46%) Dell DRAC
8 8 (2.77%) Tivoli Storage Manager
9 7 (2.42%) Packer
9 7 (2.42%) PowerCLI
9 7 (2.42%) vCenter Server
9 7 (2.42%) vRealize
10 6 (2.08%) Istio
11 5 (1.73%) Argo
11 5 (1.73%) Puppet
12 4 (1.38%) Oracle ZFS
12 4 (1.38%) Tivoli
12 4 (1.38%) vMotion
13 3 (1.04%) Nagios
Vendors
1 50 (17.30%) VMware
2 49 (16.96%) Oracle
3 44 (15.22%) Red Hat
4 41 (14.19%) Microsoft
5 24 (8.30%) Google
6 20 (6.92%) IBM
7 18 (6.23%) Cisco
8 11 (3.81%) Dell
8 11 (3.81%) ServiceNow
8 11 (3.81%) Splunk
9 9 (3.11%) Broadcom
9 9 (3.11%) HP
10 7 (2.42%) Dynatrace
11 5 (1.73%) Brocade
11 5 (1.73%) Juniper
11 5 (1.73%) Sybase
12 4 (1.38%) CyberArk
12 4 (1.38%) Databricks
12 4 (1.38%) SAP
13 3 (1.04%) Varonis