Linux Contract Job Trends in the South East

Linux
England > South East

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the South East requiring Linux skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 6 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
6 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 26 31 23
Rank change year-on-year +5 -8 +6
Contract jobs citing Linux 286 262 385
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 6.71% 6.56% 7.41%
As % of the Operating Systems category 39.72% 38.19% 38.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 205 167 255
10th Percentile £204 £203 £305
25th Percentile £358 £413 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £538 £613 £612
90th Percentile £600 £675 £672
England median daily rate £513 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -6.82% - -6.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 17 36
10th Percentile - £57.55 £42.30
25th Percentile £12.50 £62.50 £55.00
Median hourly rate £13.00 £67.02 £66.88
Median % change year-on-year -80.60% +0.21% +21.60%
75th Percentile £51.63 £70.00 £70.47
90th Percentile £83.00 £72.75 £76.53
England median hourly rate £65.00 £66.50 £62.50
% change year-on-year -2.26% +6.40% -3.85%

All Operating Systems
South East

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 South East.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for operating system skills 720 686 1,005
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 16.89% 17.19% 19.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 492 456 665
10th Percentile £190 £200 £161
25th Percentile £231 £278 £208
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £430 £439 £400
Median % change year-on-year -1.99% +9.69% -15.79%
75th Percentile £538 £575 £575
90th Percentile £606 £658 £638
England median daily rate £450 £475 £480
% change year-on-year -5.26% -1.04% -6.34%
Number of hourly rates quoted 81 32 81
10th Percentile £12.50 £16.91 £17.25
25th Percentile £15.50 £43.25 £24.00
Median hourly rate £20.18 £61.50 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -67.19% +11.82% +193.33%
75th Percentile £25.15 £70.00 £68.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £71.13 £76.53
England median hourly rate £24.00 £60.00 £32.50
% change year-on-year -60.00% +84.62% +30.00%

Linux
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Linux relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East.

Linux job vacancy trend in the South East

Linux
Daily Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Linux.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Linux

Linux
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Linux in the South East over the 6 months to 6 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Linux in the South East

Linux
Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Linux.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Linux

Linux
Hourly Rate Histogram in the South East

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Linux in the South East over the 6 months to 6 December 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Linux in the South East

Linux
Contract Job Locations in the South East

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Linux within the South East region over the 6 months to 6 December 2025. 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
Thames Valley +12 130 £450 -8.86% 92
Berkshire +22 108 £425 -13.92% 44
Hampshire -10 83 £500 -13.04% 65
Surrey 0 52 £208 -53.89% 32
Buckinghamshire +9 15 £550 +13.99% 20
Sussex - 8 - - 4
Oxfordshire -14 7 £375 -23.08% 30
West Sussex -12 5 £500 -31.03% 10
Middlesex - 5 - - 2
East Sussex - 3 - - 6
Linux
England

Linux
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East 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 7 (2.45%) Mattermost
1 7 (2.45%) Skype for Business
2 4 (1.40%) Apache
3 3 (1.05%) Microsoft Exchange
4 2 (0.70%) JBoss
5 1 (0.35%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.35%) Apache Spark
5 1 (0.35%) Gunicorn
5 1 (0.35%) nginx
5 1 (0.35%) OpenStack
Applications
1 21 (7.34%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.35%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.35%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 7 (2.45%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.35%) Oracle EBS
2 1 (0.35%) Oracle EBS R12
2 1 (0.35%) SAP MDG
2 1 (0.35%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 80 (27.97%) AWS
2 56 (19.58%) Azure
3 33 (11.54%) OpenShift
4 27 (9.44%) GitHub
5 21 (7.34%) SaaS
6 19 (6.64%) GCP
6 19 (6.64%) Sauce Labs
7 14 (4.90%) AWS CloudFormation
8 13 (4.55%) Google Workspace
9 11 (3.85%) GitHub Actions
9 11 (3.85%) IaaS
10 9 (3.15%) Cloud Computing
11 8 (2.80%) Amazon ECR
11 8 (2.80%) OCI
11 8 (2.80%) Serverless
12 7 (2.45%) AWS Lambda
13 5 (1.75%) Amazon EKS
14 3 (1.05%) Amazon EC2
14 3 (1.05%) Azure DevOps
14 3 (1.05%) Entra ID
Communications & Networking
1 32 (11.19%) DNS
2 29 (10.14%) TCP/IP
3 22 (7.69%) SAN
4 21 (7.34%) Firewall
5 20 (6.99%) DHCP
5 20 (6.99%) Wireless
6 14 (4.90%) VLAN
7 7 (2.45%) NFC
7 7 (2.45%) PPP
7 7 (2.45%) Skype
7 7 (2.45%) Wireshark
8 6 (2.10%) NAS
9 5 (1.75%) Network Security
10 4 (1.40%) LAN
10 4 (1.40%) WAN
11 3 (1.05%) HTTP
11 3 (1.05%) SSL
12 2 (0.70%) Cisco IOS
12 2 (0.70%) Internet
12 2 (0.70%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 31 (10.84%) Relational Database
2 29 (10.14%) MySQL
3 20 (6.99%) PostgreSQL
4 13 (4.55%) NoSQL
5 11 (3.85%) SQL Server
6 9 (3.15%) Amazon RDS
7 7 (2.45%) Oracle Database
8 6 (2.10%) Amazon Redshift
8 6 (2.10%) Couchbase
8 6 (2.10%) Redis
9 4 (1.40%) Oracle Exadata
10 3 (1.05%) RDBMS
10 3 (1.05%) SAP HANA
11 2 (0.70%) Elasticsearch
11 2 (0.70%) MongoDB
11 2 (0.70%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 1 (0.35%) Amazon Aurora
12 1 (0.35%) Delta Lake
12 1 (0.35%) Oracle Database 12c
12 1 (0.35%) Parquet
Development Applications
1 38 (13.29%) Jenkins
2 26 (9.09%) Eclipse
3 21 (7.34%) Git
4 20 (6.99%) Browser DevTools
5 19 (6.64%) Android Studio
5 19 (6.64%) Xcode
6 15 (5.24%) GitLab
7 11 (3.85%) Sonatype Nexus
8 10 (3.50%) JIRA
8 10 (3.50%) JMeter
9 9 (3.15%) Burp Suite
9 9 (3.15%) Cucumber
9 9 (3.15%) JUnit
10 7 (2.45%) Artifactory
10 7 (2.45%) Metasploit
10 7 (2.45%) Valgrind
11 2 (0.70%) MSI
11 2 (0.70%) Robot Framework
11 2 (0.70%) Subversion
11 2 (0.70%) Visual Studio
General
1 108 (37.76%) Social Skills
2 29 (10.14%) Analytical Skills
3 22 (7.69%) Public Sector
4 21 (7.34%) Finance
5 12 (4.20%) Organisational Skills
6 10 (3.50%) Military
7 9 (3.15%) Legal
8 5 (1.75%) Banking
8 5 (1.75%) Documentation Skills
9 3 (1.05%) Aerospace
10 2 (0.70%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 2 (0.70%) Investment Banking
11 1 (0.35%) Back Office
11 1 (0.35%) Electronics
11 1 (0.35%) French Language
11 1 (0.35%) Front Office
11 1 (0.35%) German Language
11 1 (0.35%) Law
11 1 (0.35%) Retail
11 1 (0.35%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 44 (15.38%) Support Engineer
2 32 (11.19%) Senior
2 32 (11.19%) Technical Support
3 29 (10.14%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 24 (8.39%) Analyst
4 24 (8.39%) Architect
5 22 (7.69%) Technical Engineer
5 22 (7.69%) Technical Support Engineer
6 20 (6.99%) Developer
6 20 (6.99%) UX Engineer
7 18 (6.29%) DevOps Engineer
7 18 (6.29%) Front-End Engineer (Client-Side Engineer)
7 18 (6.29%) Infrastructure Support
7 18 (6.29%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
8 14 (4.90%) Software Engineer
9 13 (4.55%) Administrator
9 13 (4.55%) IT Support
9 13 (4.55%) Linux Engineer
10 12 (4.20%) C++ Software Engineer
11 11 (3.85%) Support Officer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 23 (8.04%) Kafka
2 20 (6.99%) Ajax
2 20 (6.99%) AngularJS
2 20 (6.99%) CSS
2 20 (6.99%) GraphQL
2 20 (6.99%) React
3 16 (5.59%) Elastic Stack
4 12 (4.20%) REST
5 10 (3.50%) JSON
6 9 (3.15%) Spring
6 9 (3.15%) XML
7 8 (2.80%) Hibernate
7 8 (2.80%) Loki
7 8 (2.80%) Web Services
8 6 (2.10%) YAML
9 5 (1.75%) Keycloak
9 5 (1.75%) Middleware
10 4 (1.40%) Oracle GoldenGate
11 3 (1.05%) Swagger
12 2 (0.70%) Jinja
Miscellaneous
1 20 (6.99%) Mobile App
2 17 (5.94%) PKI
3 16 (5.59%) Cloud Native
4 14 (4.90%) Replication
5 13 (4.55%) Enterprise Software
6 11 (3.85%) Analytical Mindset
7 10 (3.50%) Management Information System
8 9 (3.15%) Security Operations Centre
9 8 (2.80%) Virtual Team
10 7 (2.45%) Enterprise Storage
10 7 (2.45%) Smartcard
11 6 (2.10%) Onboarding
11 6 (2.10%) Security Posture
12 5 (1.75%) CAN bus
12 5 (1.75%) Cyber Threat
13 4 (1.40%) Clustering
13 4 (1.40%) Public Cloud
14 3 (1.05%) Data Centre
14 3 (1.05%) HP Storage
14 3 (1.05%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 144 (50.35%) Windows
2 55 (19.23%) Unix
3 43 (15.03%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 21 (7.34%) Ubuntu
5 19 (6.64%) Android
5 19 (6.64%) Windows Server
6 12 (4.20%) Windows Server 2016
7 10 (3.50%) Windows Server 2019
8 9 (3.15%) Kali Linux
9 8 (2.80%) Debian
10 7 (2.45%) CentOS
11 4 (1.40%) Mac OS
11 4 (1.40%) Windows Server 2012
12 2 (0.70%) SUSE
12 2 (0.70%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
13 1 (0.35%) Rocky
13 1 (0.35%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 81 (28.32%) CI/CD
2 60 (20.98%) DevOps
3 57 (19.93%) Agile
4 51 (17.83%) Problem-Solving
5 50 (17.48%) ITIL
6 39 (13.64%) Containerisation
6 39 (13.64%) Infrastructure as Code
7 36 (12.59%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 29 (10.14%) OO
9 27 (9.44%) Continuous Improvement
9 27 (9.44%) User Experience
10 24 (8.39%) Observability
10 24 (8.39%) Platform Engineering
11 22 (7.69%) Incident Response
12 21 (7.34%) Disaster Recovery
13 20 (6.99%) Mobile Application Development
13 20 (6.99%) Performance Tuning
13 20 (6.99%) Software Engineering
13 20 (6.99%) Test Automation
14 19 (6.64%) High Availability
Programming Languages
1 120 (41.96%) Python
2 54 (18.88%) Bash
2 54 (18.88%) Java
3 53 (18.53%) PowerShell
4 40 (13.99%) JavaScript
5 39 (13.64%) SQL
6 36 (12.59%) Perl
7 19 (6.64%) Shell Script
8 16 (5.59%) C#
9 15 (5.24%) C++
10 5 (1.75%) Embedded C++
10 5 (1.75%) PL/SQL
11 4 (1.40%) C
11 4 (1.40%) Search Processing Language
12 3 (1.05%) Go
12 3 (1.05%) PHP
13 2 (0.70%) Ada
13 2 (0.70%) Assembly Language
13 2 (0.70%) MATLAB
14 1 (0.35%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 131 (45.80%) Security Cleared
2 78 (27.27%) SC Cleared
3 52 (18.18%) DV Cleared
4 20 (6.99%) Degree
5 14 (4.90%) Computer Science Degree
6 13 (4.55%) CISSP
7 12 (4.20%) Microsoft Certification
8 11 (3.85%) Azure Certification
8 11 (3.85%) GCFA
8 11 (3.85%) GCIH
8 11 (3.85%) Network+ Certification
8 11 (3.85%) Server+ Certification
9 9 (3.15%) GCIA
10 8 (2.80%) CEH
10 8 (2.80%) CFCE
10 8 (2.80%) OSCP
11 7 (2.45%) AWS Certification
11 7 (2.45%) GPEN
11 7 (2.45%) ITIL Certification
12 6 (2.10%) GIAC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (5.59%) NIST
2 11 (3.85%) GDPR
2 11 (3.85%) HIPAA
3 10 (3.50%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 8 (2.80%) QA
5 4 (1.40%) SOC 2
6 1 (0.35%) Accessibility
6 1 (0.35%) Actionable Recommendations
6 1 (0.35%) Cyber Essentials
6 1 (0.35%) Def Stans
6 1 (0.35%) ISO/IEC 17025
6 1 (0.35%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 55 (19.23%) VMware Infrastructure
2 36 (12.59%) Docker
3 24 (8.39%) Active Directory
4 19 (6.64%) vSphere
5 17 (5.94%) Hyper-V
6 9 (3.15%) Virtual Machines
7 8 (2.80%) VMware NSX
8 4 (1.40%) Oracle RAC
8 4 (1.40%) VMware ESXi
9 2 (0.70%) GPFS
9 2 (0.70%) KVM
10 1 (0.35%) Firmware
10 1 (0.35%) NDS
10 1 (0.35%) NetIQ eDirectory
10 1 (0.35%) NFS
Systems Management
1 70 (24.48%) Ansible
2 62 (21.68%) Kubernetes
3 53 (18.53%) Terraform
4 26 (9.09%) Grafana
5 24 (8.39%) Prometheus
6 16 (5.59%) Argo
7 13 (4.55%) Progress Chef
8 10 (3.50%) Red Hat Satellite
9 9 (3.15%) Nmap
9 9 (3.15%) SCOM
10 8 (2.80%) Kustomize
11 7 (2.45%) HP SiteScope
11 7 (2.45%) Puppet
11 7 (2.45%) Sysdig
11 7 (2.45%) vCenter Server
12 6 (2.10%) NetBackup
12 6 (2.10%) Podman
12 6 (2.10%) Proxmox
13 5 (1.75%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
14 4 (1.40%) Packer
Vendors
1 87 (30.42%) Microsoft
2 85 (29.72%) VMware
3 63 (22.03%) Red Hat
4 50 (17.48%) Splunk
5 38 (13.29%) Oracle
6 22 (7.69%) ServiceNow
7 12 (4.20%) NetApp
8 11 (3.85%) Cisco
9 10 (3.50%) CrowdStrike
9 10 (3.50%) HP
10 8 (2.80%) ArcSight
10 8 (2.80%) IBM
10 8 (2.80%) Remedy
10 8 (2.80%) Veritas
11 7 (2.45%) 3PAR
11 7 (2.45%) LogRhythm
12 6 (2.10%) Confluent
12 6 (2.10%) Dell
12 6 (2.10%) Nimble Storage
12 6 (2.10%) Pure Storage