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

6 months to
1 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 43 32 34
Rank change year-on-year -11 +2 +5
Contract jobs citing Linux 318 226 190
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 4.33% 5.75% 4.52%
As % of the Operating Systems category 38.88% 37.54% 31.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 196 155 125
10th Percentile £358 £343 £375
25th Percentile £407 £374 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £520
Median % change year-on-year - -3.85% -1.89%
75th Percentile £615 £600 £619
90th Percentile £650 £665 £670
England median daily rate £525 £528 £548
% change year-on-year -0.57% -3.56% -5.19%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 1 7
10th Percentile £19.90 - £47.60
25th Percentile £25.84 - £48.00
Median hourly rate £47.50 £70.00 £49.00
Median % change year-on-year -32.14% +42.86% +84.91%
75th Percentile £50.00 - £60.63
90th Percentile £64.56 - £71.24
England median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £67.50
% change year-on-year - -3.70% +3.85%

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 818 602 594
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 11.14% 15.32% 14.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 538 397 387
10th Percentile £180 £181 £181
25th Percentile £250 £268 £300
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £435 £400 £450
Median % change year-on-year +8.75% -11.11% -
75th Percentile £538 £538 £579
90th Percentile £627 £613 £738
England median daily rate £469 £460 £480
% change year-on-year +1.96% -4.17% -4.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 35 20 70
10th Percentile £16.66 £13.00 -
25th Percentile £17.25 £13.90 £10.95
Median hourly rate £22.80 £17.72 £16.19
Median % change year-on-year +28.67% +9.45% -26.41%
75th Percentile £38.38 £18.87 £19.80
90th Percentile £178.75 £19.75 £34.05
England median hourly rate £32.50 £23.00 £27.50
% change year-on-year +41.30% -16.36% -35.29%

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 1 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 1 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 1 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 -11 165 £489 +21.82% 76
Yorkshire -16 136 £500 -4.76% 34
North East -20 24 £490 -14.78% 27
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 (6.60%) Confluence
2 8 (2.52%) CICS
3 3 (0.94%) Microsoft Exchange
4 2 (0.63%) Apache
4 2 (0.63%) Apache Airflow
4 2 (0.63%) OpenStack
4 2 (0.63%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 2 (0.63%) WebLogic
5 1 (0.31%) CMS
5 1 (0.31%) nginx
5 1 (0.31%) SAS
Applications
1 7 (2.20%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.31%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.31%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (0.63%) Oracle EBS
2 1 (0.31%) Cloudability
2 1 (0.31%) Odoo
2 1 (0.31%) SAP S/4HANA
2 1 (0.31%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 111 (34.91%) AWS
2 79 (24.84%) Azure
3 52 (16.35%) GCP
4 35 (11.01%) OpenShift
5 27 (8.49%) GitHub
6 17 (5.35%) Google Kubernetes Engine
6 17 (5.35%) OCI
6 17 (5.35%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 12 (3.77%) Amazon EKS
7 12 (3.77%) Azure DevOps
8 10 (3.14%) AWS CloudFormation
9 9 (2.83%) Amazon ECS
9 9 (2.83%) GitHub Actions
10 8 (2.52%) AWS Lambda
10 8 (2.52%) Serverless
11 7 (2.20%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 6 (1.89%) Amazon EC2
12 6 (1.89%) Amazon S3
12 6 (1.89%) Azure AKS
12 6 (1.89%) Azure Sentinel
Communications & Networking
1 41 (12.89%) Firewall
2 23 (7.23%) SAN
3 17 (5.35%) DNS
4 16 (5.03%) Network Security
5 12 (3.77%) TCP/IP
6 9 (2.83%) VSAN
7 6 (1.89%) 3GPP
7 6 (1.89%) RTP
7 6 (1.89%) SSL
7 6 (1.89%) VPN
7 6 (1.89%) Wireshark
8 5 (1.57%) NAS
9 4 (1.26%) iSCSI
10 3 (0.94%) FTP
10 3 (0.94%) SD-WAN
10 3 (0.94%) WAN
10 3 (0.94%) Wireless
11 2 (0.63%) BIG-IP
11 2 (0.63%) Intrusion Detection
11 2 (0.63%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 27 (8.49%) Oracle Database
2 19 (5.97%) MongoDB
3 17 (5.35%) RDBMS
3 17 (5.35%) Relational Database
4 14 (4.40%) Oracle Exadata
5 13 (4.09%) NoSQL
6 11 (3.46%) SQL Server
7 10 (3.14%) Elasticsearch
7 10 (3.14%) PostgreSQL
8 8 (2.52%) DataStage
9 6 (1.89%) Oracle Database 12c
10 5 (1.57%) DynamoDB
10 5 (1.57%) Sybase ASE
11 3 (0.94%) Amazon Aurora
11 3 (0.94%) BusinessObjects
11 3 (0.94%) Db2
12 2 (0.63%) Amazon RDS
12 2 (0.63%) Azure SQL Database
12 2 (0.63%) Data Lake
12 2 (0.63%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 34 (10.69%) JIRA
2 31 (9.75%) Git
3 29 (9.12%) GitLab
3 29 (9.12%) Jenkins
4 15 (4.72%) Mockito
5 6 (1.89%) TeamCity
6 4 (1.26%) Cucumber
6 4 (1.26%) Sonatype Nexus
7 3 (0.94%) Bitbucket
8 2 (0.63%) Burp Suite
8 2 (0.63%) Gatling
8 2 (0.63%) Gradle
8 2 (0.63%) Liquibase
8 2 (0.63%) LoadRunner
8 2 (0.63%) REST Assured
8 2 (0.63%) SonarQube
8 2 (0.63%) Toad
9 1 (0.31%) Hudson
9 1 (0.31%) Jaeger
General
1 68 (21.38%) Social Skills
2 67 (21.07%) Finance
3 34 (10.69%) Banking
4 33 (10.38%) Public Sector
5 21 (6.60%) Analytical Skills
6 8 (2.52%) Influencing Skills
6 8 (2.52%) Legal
7 5 (1.57%) Aviation
7 5 (1.57%) Fire and Rescue
7 5 (1.57%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 5 (1.57%) Military
7 5 (1.57%) Police
8 4 (1.26%) Investment Banking
8 4 (1.26%) Telecoms
9 3 (0.94%) Documentation Skills
9 3 (0.94%) Organisational Skills
10 2 (0.63%) Advertising
10 2 (0.63%) Law
11 1 (0.31%) Financial Institution
11 1 (0.31%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 50 (15.72%) Senior
2 34 (10.69%) Developer
3 33 (10.38%) Linux Engineer
4 28 (8.81%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 27 (8.49%) Security Engineer
6 24 (7.55%) DevOps Engineer
7 22 (6.92%) Java Developer
8 19 (5.97%) Software Engineer
9 18 (5.66%) Cloud Engineer
10 17 (5.35%) Consultant
11 16 (5.03%) DBA
11 16 (5.03%) Unix Engineer
12 14 (4.40%) Platform Engineer
13 13 (4.09%) Senior Developer
14 12 (3.77%) Senior Java Developer
15 11 (3.46%) Data Centre Engineer
15 11 (3.46%) Security Consultant
16 10 (3.14%) Analyst
16 10 (3.14%) Unix Linux Engineer
17 9 (2.83%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (5.66%) Kafka
2 15 (4.72%) JAX-RS
3 14 (4.40%) ActiveMQ
3 14 (4.40%) Middleware
3 14 (4.40%) Oracle GoldenGate
4 12 (3.77%) REST
5 11 (3.46%) .NET
6 10 (3.14%) LDAP
6 10 (3.14%) Redfish
7 8 (2.52%) YAML
8 7 (2.20%) Elastic Stack
9 6 (1.89%) .NET Core
9 6 (1.89%) RabbitMQ
10 5 (1.57%) JSON
10 5 (1.57%) XML
11 4 (1.26%) ARM Templates
11 4 (1.26%) Flash
11 4 (1.26%) Node.js
12 3 (0.94%) OpenTelemetry
12 3 (0.94%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 38 (11.95%) Cloud Native
2 36 (11.32%) Data Centre
3 28 (8.81%) Security Posture
4 27 (8.49%) Linux Command Line
5 18 (5.66%) Replication
6 16 (5.03%) Mainframe
7 15 (4.72%) Hybrid Cloud
7 15 (4.72%) Public Cloud
8 14 (4.40%) Legacy Systems
8 14 (4.40%) PKI
9 13 (4.09%) Data Protection Act
9 13 (4.09%) Management Information System
10 12 (3.77%) Cloud Security Posture
11 9 (2.83%) Distributed Systems
12 8 (2.52%) BYOD
12 8 (2.52%) VSAM
13 7 (2.20%) Enterprise Cloud
14 6 (1.89%) Enterprise Storage
15 5 (1.57%) FlexPod
15 5 (1.57%) Robotics
Operating Systems
1 100 (31.45%) Windows
2 86 (27.04%) Unix
3 74 (23.27%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 36 (11.32%) AIX
5 27 (8.49%) Solaris
6 23 (7.23%) Windows Server
7 12 (3.77%) Mac OS X
8 11 (3.46%) VMS
9 9 (2.83%) Ubuntu
10 8 (2.52%) Oracle Linux
11 7 (2.20%) CoreOS
12 6 (1.89%) CentOS
13 5 (1.57%) Data ONTAP
13 5 (1.57%) HPUX
13 5 (1.57%) SUSE
13 5 (1.57%) zOS
14 3 (0.94%) Mac OS
15 2 (0.63%) OpenVMS
15 2 (0.63%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
16 1 (0.31%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 95 (29.87%) CI/CD
2 82 (25.79%) DevOps
3 72 (22.64%) Agile
4 71 (22.33%) Infrastructure as Code
5 53 (16.67%) Migration
6 46 (14.47%) Continuous Improvement
7 44 (13.84%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 42 (13.21%) Observability
9 41 (12.89%) Test Automation
10 39 (12.26%) Change Management
10 39 (12.26%) Cloud Security
11 38 (11.95%) Problem-Solving
12 36 (11.32%) Roadmaps
13 35 (11.01%) High Availability
13 35 (11.01%) Infrastructure Automation
13 35 (11.01%) Performance Tuning
14 33 (10.38%) ITIL
15 30 (9.43%) Microservices
16 29 (9.12%) Containerisation
17 28 (8.81%) Platform Engineering
Programming Languages
1 120 (37.74%) Python
2 73 (22.96%) Bash
3 64 (20.13%) PowerShell
4 52 (16.35%) Java
5 44 (13.84%) SQL
6 17 (5.35%) JavaScript
7 16 (5.03%) Shell Script
8 13 (4.09%) Bicep
9 10 (3.14%) C#
10 9 (2.83%) Go
10 9 (2.83%) Rust
10 9 (2.83%) TypeScript
11 8 (2.52%) COBOL
12 5 (1.57%) JCL
13 4 (1.26%) Kotlin
14 3 (0.94%) Perl
15 2 (0.63%) C++
15 2 (0.63%) DCL
15 2 (0.63%) REXX
15 2 (0.63%) Search Processing Language
Qualifications
1 61 (19.18%) Security Cleared
2 43 (13.52%) SC Cleared
3 33 (10.38%) CISSP
3 33 (10.38%) Degree
4 23 (7.23%) AWS Certification
5 17 (5.35%) Azure Certification
6 13 (4.09%) CompTIA Security+
7 9 (2.83%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
7 9 (2.83%) DV Cleared
7 9 (2.83%) Microsoft Certification
8 8 (2.52%) BPSS Clearance
9 6 (1.89%) MCSE
9 6 (1.89%) OCP
9 6 (1.89%) Oracle Certification
9 6 (1.89%) RHCE
10 5 (1.57%) Computer Science Degree
10 5 (1.57%) MCSA
11 4 (1.26%) Cisco Certification
11 4 (1.26%) CISM
11 4 (1.26%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (2.83%) HIPAA
2 6 (1.89%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 5 (1.57%) California Consumer Privacy Act
3 5 (1.57%) GDPR
3 5 (1.57%) NIST
4 4 (1.26%) GRC
5 3 (0.94%) PCI DSS
5 3 (0.94%) QA
5 3 (0.94%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 2 (0.63%) SLA
7 1 (0.31%) Accessibility
7 1 (0.31%) Data Quality
7 1 (0.31%) GxP
7 1 (0.31%) SOC 2
7 1 (0.31%) WCAG
System Software
1 58 (18.24%) Docker
2 46 (14.47%) VMware Infrastructure
3 42 (13.21%) Virtual Machines
4 19 (5.97%) Active Directory
4 19 (5.97%) vSphere
5 18 (5.66%) NFS
6 17 (5.35%) KVM
6 17 (5.35%) Oracle RAC
7 12 (3.77%) Firmware
7 12 (3.77%) VMware ESXi
8 11 (3.46%) Hyper-V
9 8 (2.52%) VMware NSX
10 5 (1.57%) Time Sharing Option
11 4 (1.26%) GPFS
12 3 (0.94%) Ceph
12 3 (0.94%) Veritas Volume Manager
13 2 (0.63%) SRDF
14 1 (0.31%) NetIQ eDirectory
14 1 (0.31%) Slurm Workload Manager
14 1 (0.31%) zsh
Systems Management
1 102 (32.08%) Terraform
2 92 (28.93%) Ansible
3 85 (26.73%) Kubernetes
4 22 (6.92%) Oracle RMAN
5 21 (6.60%) Progress Chef
6 20 (6.29%) Prometheus
7 19 (5.97%) Grafana
8 18 (5.66%) Data Guard
9 10 (3.14%) Dell DRAC
10 8 (2.52%) Packer
10 8 (2.52%) Tivoli Storage Manager
10 8 (2.52%) vCenter Server
11 7 (2.20%) PowerCLI
11 7 (2.20%) vRealize
12 6 (1.89%) Istio
12 6 (1.89%) Nessus
13 5 (1.57%) Argo
13 5 (1.57%) CASB
13 5 (1.57%) Puppet
13 5 (1.57%) SnapMirror
Vendors
1 53 (16.67%) VMware
2 47 (14.78%) Oracle
2 47 (14.78%) Red Hat
3 36 (11.32%) Microsoft
4 28 (8.81%) IBM
5 27 (8.49%) Google
6 16 (5.03%) Cisco
7 14 (4.40%) Splunk
8 13 (4.09%) ServiceNow
9 10 (3.14%) CyberArk
10 9 (2.83%) Broadcom
10 9 (2.83%) Dell
10 9 (2.83%) HP
11 8 (2.52%) Dynatrace
12 7 (2.20%) Tenable
13 6 (1.89%) Remedy
14 5 (1.57%) Brocade
14 5 (1.57%) NetApp
14 5 (1.57%) Sybase
14 5 (1.57%) Varonis