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

6 months to
18 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 43 31 39
Rank change year-on-year -12 +8 -9
Contract jobs citing Linux 278 198 188
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 4.40% 5.96% 4.04%
As % of the Operating Systems category 38.13% 36.33% 27.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 180 121 130
10th Percentile £358 £350 £350
25th Percentile £400 £385 £415
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £525 £478
Median % change year-on-year -9.52% +9.95% -12.98%
75th Percentile £550 £588 £588
90th Percentile £651 £712 £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 £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 729 545 690
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 11.53% 16.40% 14.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 485 344 466
10th Percentile £144 £161 £165
25th Percentile £256 £212 £275
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £422 £400 £425
Median % change year-on-year +5.38% -5.88% -10.53%
75th Percentile £519 £538 £529
90th Percentile £615 £618 £650
England median daily rate £450 £468 £475
% change year-on-year -3.74% -1.58% -7.32%
Number of hourly rates quoted 35 19 79
10th Percentile £16.30 £13.00 -
25th Percentile £19.92 £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 £66.75 £18.75 £19.63
90th Percentile £178.75 £19.55 £32.60
England median hourly rate £47.50 £21.59 £22.00
% change year-on-year +120.01% -1.86% -41.33%

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 18 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 18 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 18 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 -21 148 £463 -14.90% 35
North West -18 117 £484 -3.20% 56
North East -19 13 £480 -8.57% 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%) Oracle SOA Suite
5 2 (0.72%) WebLogic
6 1 (0.36%) Apache
6 1 (0.36%) Apache Airflow
6 1 (0.36%) CMS
6 1 (0.36%) JBoss
6 1 (0.36%) Tomcat
Applications
1 4 (1.44%) Microsoft Office
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
Cloud Services
1 82 (29.50%) 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%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 46 (16.55%) 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%) VSAN
7 8 (2.88%) Network Security
7 8 (2.88%) SNMP
8 7 (2.52%) NAS
8 7 (2.52%) SSH
9 6 (2.16%) VPN
10 5 (1.80%) 3GPP
10 5 (1.80%) RTP
10 5 (1.80%) 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 20 (7.19%) MongoDB
2 17 (6.12%) PostgreSQL
3 13 (4.68%) NoSQL
3 13 (4.68%) SQL Server
4 10 (3.60%) Oracle Database
5 9 (3.24%) DataStage
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%) Oracle Exadata
12 1 (0.36%) SAP BW
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 19 (6.83%) Git
5 11 (3.96%) Mockito
6 9 (3.24%) Jaeger
7 5 (1.80%) 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%) Gatling
10 1 (0.36%) Hudson
10 1 (0.36%) JUnit
10 1 (0.36%) REST Assured
10 1 (0.36%) SonarQube
General
1 78 (28.06%) Social Skills
2 61 (21.94%) 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 18 (6.47%) 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%) DBA
12 8 (2.88%) Full-Stack Engineer
12 8 (2.88%) Senior Developer
12 8 (2.88%) VMware Engineer
13 7 (2.52%) Senior DevOps
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 23 (8.27%) Kafka
2 20 (7.19%) Middleware
3 12 (4.32%) Elastic Stack
3 12 (4.32%) OpenTelemetry
4 11 (3.96%) .NET
4 11 (3.96%) JAX-RS
4 11 (3.96%) REST
4 11 (3.96%) YAML
5 10 (3.60%) ActiveMQ
5 10 (3.60%) LDAP
5 10 (3.60%) Spring Boot
6 8 (2.88%) Redfish
7 5 (1.80%) .NET Core
8 4 (1.44%) Flash
8 4 (1.44%) RabbitMQ
9 3 (1.08%) RESTful
9 3 (1.08%) SOAP
9 3 (1.08%) WebSockets
9 3 (1.08%) XML
10 2 (0.72%) OpenID
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%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 103 (37.05%) 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 89 (32.01%) CI/CD
2 86 (30.94%) DevOps
3 51 (18.35%) Problem-Solving
4 48 (17.27%) Agile
5 44 (15.83%) Observability
6 41 (14.75%) Infrastructure as Code
7 39 (14.03%) Microservices
7 39 (14.03%) Migration
8 34 (12.23%) Containerisation
8 34 (12.23%) Test Automation
9 33 (11.87%) Roadmaps
10 31 (11.15%) Cybersecurity
11 28 (10.07%) Continuous Improvement
11 28 (10.07%) Root Cause Analysis
12 26 (9.35%) Data Protection
12 26 (9.35%) Performance Tuning
13 25 (8.99%) Infrastructure Engineering
14 24 (8.63%) Infrastructure Automation
15 23 (8.27%) Software Engineering
16 22 (7.91%) Task Automation
Programming Languages
1 109 (39.21%) Python
2 54 (19.42%) Bash
3 52 (18.71%) 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%) C#
8 11 (3.96%) Perl
9 9 (3.24%) COBOL
10 8 (2.88%) TypeScript
11 4 (1.44%) JCL
11 4 (1.44%) Kotlin
12 3 (1.08%) Delphi
12 3 (1.08%) PHP
13 2 (0.72%) C
13 2 (0.72%) Search Processing Language
Qualifications
1 47 (16.91%) Security Cleared
2 31 (11.15%) 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%) RHCA
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 79 (28.42%) Kubernetes
3 71 (25.54%) Terraform
4 33 (11.87%) 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%) Oracle RMAN
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%) 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 28 (10.07%) Oracle
5 27 (9.71%) IBM
6 26 (9.35%) Microsoft
7 13 (4.68%) 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