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

6 months to
18 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 36 28 19
Rank change year-on-year -8 -9 -1
Contract jobs citing Linux 287 181 442
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 4.68% 6.00% 7.68%
As % of the Operating Systems category 39.21% 32.50% 43.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 202 136 295
10th Percentile £300 £407 £350
25th Percentile £404 £461 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £525 £533
Median % change year-on-year -1.90% -1.50% +2.55%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £608
90th Percentile £655 £626 £638
England median daily rate £513 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -6.82% - -8.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 7 27
10th Percentile £27.88 £38.98 £26.25
25th Percentile £43.81 £51.78 £48.13
Median hourly rate £50.00 £57.50 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year -13.04% -8.00% -5.08%
75th Percentile £55.00 £59.44 £70.00
90th Percentile £66.00 £61.08 £75.00
England median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00

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 732 557 1,017
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 11.93% 18.46% 17.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 480 389 652
10th Percentile £204 £200 £205
25th Percentile £313 £325 £331
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £490 £475
Median % change year-on-year -3.06% +3.16% +5.56%
75th Percentile £575 £594 £588
90th Percentile £650 £660 £663
England median daily rate £459 £463 £475
% change year-on-year -0.76% -2.63% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 51 41 63
10th Percentile £16.00 £14.20 £15.90
25th Percentile £20.41 £16.95 £17.85
Median hourly rate £32.50 £18.82 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +72.69% -60.38% -17.39%
75th Percentile £53.17 £28.00 £69.38
90th Percentile £60.00 £58.75 £73.75
England median hourly rate £32.50 £18.94 £23.00
% change year-on-year +71.64% -17.67% -50.80%

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 18 June 2026.

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 18 June 2026.

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 18 June 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
Thames Valley +6 180 £500 - 67
Berkshire -12 79 £405 -19.00% 34
Hampshire -16 75 £575 +4.55% 67
Buckinghamshire +6 65 £536 +2.17% 8
Oxfordshire 0 36 £450 -18.18% 25
Surrey -8 24 £208 -56.32% 21
West Sussex -20 3 £459 -14.60% 4
East Sussex - 3 £459 - 5
Middlesex - 1 £198 - 2
Isle of Wight - 1 - -
Sussex - 1 - - 2
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 15 (5.23%) Microsoft Exchange
2 6 (2.09%) OpenStack
3 4 (1.39%) Apache
3 4 (1.39%) WebSphere
3 4 (1.39%) WebSphere Application Server
4 3 (1.05%) Confluence
4 3 (1.05%) IIS
4 3 (1.05%) nginx
4 3 (1.05%) Tomcat
5 2 (0.70%) Appian
5 2 (0.70%) IBM HTTP Server
5 2 (0.70%) JBoss
5 2 (0.70%) Oracle HTTP Server
5 2 (0.70%) SharePoint
5 2 (0.70%) WebSphere Portal
6 1 (0.35%) SAS
Applications
1 4 (1.39%) Microsoft Project
Cloud Services
1 67 (23.34%) Azure
2 55 (19.16%) AWS
3 25 (8.71%) Entra ID
4 21 (7.32%) Microsoft 365
5 13 (4.53%) OpenShift
6 12 (4.18%) SaaS
7 11 (3.83%) GitHub
8 10 (3.48%) GCP
8 10 (3.48%) GitHub Actions
9 7 (2.44%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 7 (2.44%) Azure Sentinel
9 7 (2.44%) IaaS
9 7 (2.44%) PaaS
10 6 (2.09%) Amazon EKS
11 5 (1.74%) Azure DevOps
12 4 (1.39%) Serverless
13 3 (1.05%) Amazon ECS
13 3 (1.05%) Cloudflare
13 3 (1.05%) Sauce Labs
14 2 (0.70%) Amazon EC2
Communications & Networking
1 26 (9.06%) DNS
2 21 (7.32%) Firewall
3 14 (4.88%) WAN
4 13 (4.53%) VSAN
5 12 (4.18%) LAN
6 10 (3.48%) Network Security
7 9 (3.14%) Cisco ASA
7 9 (3.14%) Cisco Firepower
7 9 (3.14%) TCP/IP
8 8 (2.79%) SSH
8 8 (2.79%) Wireless
8 8 (2.79%) Wireshark
9 7 (2.44%) SAN
9 7 (2.44%) Software-Defined Radio
9 7 (2.44%) VPN
10 6 (2.09%) DHCP
10 6 (2.09%) Diameter Protocol
10 6 (2.09%) Radio Access Network
10 6 (2.09%) SSL
10 6 (2.09%) VoLTE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 30 (10.45%) SQL Server
2 21 (7.32%) MySQL
3 14 (4.88%) Relational Database
4 9 (3.14%) Oracle Database
5 7 (2.44%) PostgreSQL
6 5 (1.74%) Oracle Database 12c
7 4 (1.39%) Elasticsearch
8 3 (1.05%) Oracle Database 11g
8 3 (1.05%) Redis
9 2 (0.70%) Amazon RDS
9 2 (0.70%) DataStage
9 2 (0.70%) Electronic Patient Records
9 2 (0.70%) MongoDB
9 2 (0.70%) RDBMS
9 2 (0.70%) Vitess
10 1 (0.35%) Amazon Redshift
10 1 (0.35%) DynamoDB
10 1 (0.35%) Oracle Reports
10 1 (0.35%) Pentaho
10 1 (0.35%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 12 (4.18%) GitLab
1 12 (4.18%) JIRA
2 11 (3.83%) Jenkins
3 8 (2.79%) Git
4 7 (2.44%) Eclipse
5 5 (1.74%) Maven
6 4 (1.39%) Jaeger
6 4 (1.39%) SonarQube
6 4 (1.39%) Subversion
7 3 (1.05%) Android Studio
7 3 (1.05%) Browser DevTools
7 3 (1.05%) Xcode
8 2 (0.70%) Burp Suite
8 2 (0.70%) Introscope
8 2 (0.70%) JUnit
8 2 (0.70%) Robot Framework
9 1 (0.35%) Bitbucket
9 1 (0.35%) Metasploit
9 1 (0.35%) Sonatype Nexus
9 1 (0.35%) Storybook
General
1 42 (14.63%) Social Skills
2 35 (12.20%) Public Sector
3 20 (6.97%) Analytical Skills
4 18 (6.27%) Documentation Skills
4 18 (6.27%) Military
5 9 (3.14%) Finance
6 6 (2.09%) Manufacturing
6 6 (2.09%) Retail
7 4 (1.39%) Financial Institution
7 4 (1.39%) Organisational Skills
8 3 (1.05%) Law
8 3 (1.05%) Telecoms
9 2 (0.70%) Aerospace
10 1 (0.35%) Advertising
10 1 (0.35%) Electronics
10 1 (0.35%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 1 (0.35%) Legal
10 1 (0.35%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 42 (14.63%) Senior
2 40 (13.94%) Linux Engineer
3 31 (10.80%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 18 (6.27%) Analyst
4 18 (6.27%) Architect
5 17 (5.92%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
6 16 (5.57%) Technical Support
7 14 (4.88%) Developer
7 14 (4.88%) Software Engineer
7 14 (4.88%) Support Engineer
8 13 (4.53%) Network Engineer
8 13 (4.53%) Technical Architect
9 11 (3.83%) Citrix Engineer
9 11 (3.83%) Citrix Infrastructure Engineer
9 11 (3.83%) Linux Infrastructure Engineer
9 11 (3.83%) Technical Engineer
9 11 (3.83%) Technical Support Engineer
10 10 (3.48%) DBA
10 10 (3.48%) DevOps Engineer
10 10 (3.48%) Lead
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (3.14%) Kafka
1 9 (3.14%) Middleware
1 9 (3.14%) YAML
2 7 (2.44%) .NET
2 7 (2.44%) Keycloak
2 7 (2.44%) Loki
2 7 (2.44%) Yocto
3 6 (2.09%) XML
4 5 (1.74%) Elastic Stack
4 5 (1.74%) GraphQL
4 5 (1.74%) OpenTelemetry
5 4 (1.39%) 802.1X
5 4 (1.39%) CSS
5 4 (1.39%) gRPC
5 4 (1.39%) JSON
5 4 (1.39%) LAMP
5 4 (1.39%) LDAP
5 4 (1.39%) Protocol Buffers
5 4 (1.39%) RESTful
5 4 (1.39%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 33 (11.50%) Onboarding
2 20 (6.97%) PKI
3 16 (5.57%) Public Cloud
4 15 (5.23%) Data Centre
5 14 (4.88%) Management Information System
6 12 (4.18%) Product Ownership
7 11 (3.83%) Hybrid Cloud
8 10 (3.48%) Security Posture
9 9 (3.14%) Legacy Systems
9 9 (3.14%) Security Operations Centre
10 8 (2.79%) Operational Technology
11 7 (2.44%) Device Driver
11 7 (2.44%) Embedded Systems
11 7 (2.44%) SCADA
12 6 (2.09%) Cloud Native
12 6 (2.09%) Cyber Defence
12 6 (2.09%) Cyberattack
12 6 (2.09%) MicroBlaze
12 6 (2.09%) Replication
12 6 (2.09%) RISC-V
Operating Systems
1 142 (49.48%) Windows
2 65 (22.65%) Unix
3 38 (13.24%) Windows Server
4 32 (11.15%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 13 (4.53%) Ubuntu
6 11 (3.83%) Embedded Linux
7 7 (2.44%) Debian
8 6 (2.09%) CentOS
8 6 (2.09%) Windows Server 2016
9 5 (1.74%) Windows Server 2019
10 4 (1.39%) Windows Server 2012
11 3 (1.05%) Android
12 2 (0.70%) Kali Linux
12 2 (0.70%) Oracle Linux
12 2 (0.70%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
13 1 (0.35%) Mac OS
13 1 (0.35%) OpenVMS
13 1 (0.35%) VMS
13 1 (0.35%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 54 (18.82%) CI/CD
2 53 (18.47%) SIEM
3 36 (12.54%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 35 (12.20%) DevOps
5 34 (11.85%) Cybersecurity
5 34 (11.85%) Problem-Solving
6 32 (11.15%) Agile
6 32 (11.15%) ITIL
7 31 (10.80%) Computer Science
8 30 (10.45%) Runbook
9 27 (9.41%) High Availability
9 27 (9.41%) Infrastructure as Code
10 26 (9.06%) ITSM
11 24 (8.36%) Change Control
11 24 (8.36%) Containerisation
11 24 (8.36%) Migration
12 22 (7.67%) Root Cause Analysis
13 21 (7.32%) Privileged Access Management
14 20 (6.97%) Platform Engineering
14 20 (6.97%) Security Operations
Programming Languages
1 91 (31.71%) Python
2 63 (21.95%) PowerShell
3 36 (12.54%) Bash
4 23 (8.01%) SQL
5 20 (6.97%) Java
6 19 (6.62%) JavaScript
7 17 (5.92%) Perl
8 16 (5.57%) C
9 14 (4.88%) C++
10 11 (3.83%) Shell Script
11 7 (2.44%) Rust
12 5 (1.74%) Go
13 4 (1.39%) Embedded C++
14 3 (1.05%) Ada
14 3 (1.05%) Embedded C
14 3 (1.05%) Korn
14 3 (1.05%) PL/SQL
14 3 (1.05%) TypeScript
15 2 (0.70%) Jython
15 2 (0.70%) Scala
Qualifications
1 182 (63.41%) Security Cleared
2 127 (44.25%) SC Cleared
3 70 (24.39%) DV Cleared
4 50 (17.42%) Degree
5 18 (6.27%) Computer Science Degree
6 14 (4.88%) Cisco Certification
7 13 (4.53%) RHCE
8 10 (3.48%) BPSS Clearance
9 8 (2.79%) CCNP
10 7 (2.44%) AWS Certification
10 7 (2.44%) CISSP
10 7 (2.44%) GIAC
10 7 (2.44%) RHCSA
11 6 (2.09%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 6 (2.09%) CESG Certified Professional
11 6 (2.09%) CISM
11 6 (2.09%) CRISC
11 6 (2.09%) LFCS
11 6 (2.09%) SANS
12 5 (1.74%) CCSM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 42 (14.63%) NIST
2 31 (10.80%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 14 (4.88%) Cyber Essentials
4 11 (3.83%) SLA
5 9 (3.14%) NCSC
6 6 (2.09%) ISO 31000
7 5 (1.74%) GDPR
7 5 (1.74%) PCI DSS
8 4 (1.39%) GRC
9 3 (1.05%) JSP 440
9 3 (1.05%) NIST 800
10 1 (0.35%) Data Quality
10 1 (0.35%) DICOM
10 1 (0.35%) Disclosure Scotland
10 1 (0.35%) HL7
10 1 (0.35%) OpenSCAP
10 1 (0.35%) QA
System Software
1 65 (22.65%) Active Directory
2 43 (14.98%) VMware Infrastructure
3 24 (8.36%) VMware NSX
4 11 (3.83%) Docker
5 10 (3.48%) Firmware
5 10 (3.48%) Hyper-V
6 9 (3.14%) VMware ESXi
7 6 (2.09%) Embedded Firmware
7 6 (2.09%) vSphere
8 5 (1.74%) Oracle RAC
9 3 (1.05%) Dovecot
9 3 (1.05%) Postfix
9 3 (1.05%) UAG
10 1 (0.35%) Citrix Hypervisor
10 1 (0.35%) Virtual Desktop
10 1 (0.35%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 36 (12.54%) Ansible
2 31 (10.80%) Kubernetes
2 31 (10.80%) Terraform
3 18 (6.27%) Grafana
3 18 (6.27%) Prometheus
4 11 (3.83%) Puppet
5 9 (3.14%) Oracle RMAN
6 7 (2.44%) vCenter Server
7 6 (2.09%) Rancher
8 5 (1.74%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 5 (1.74%) Red Hat Satellite
9 4 (1.39%) Argo
9 4 (1.39%) Data Guard
9 4 (1.39%) Istio
9 4 (1.39%) Podman
9 4 (1.39%) Progress Chef
9 4 (1.39%) WSUS
10 3 (1.05%) HAProxy
10 3 (1.05%) Nessus
10 3 (1.05%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 70 (24.39%) VMware
2 52 (18.12%) Microsoft
3 42 (14.63%) Red Hat
4 41 (14.29%) Oracle
5 24 (8.36%) BeyondTrust
6 23 (8.01%) Cisco
7 21 (7.32%) CyberArk
8 18 (6.27%) Splunk
9 17 (5.92%) Citrix
10 14 (4.88%) Palo Alto
11 13 (4.53%) ServiceNow
12 9 (3.14%) NVIDIA
13 7 (2.44%) SolarWinds
14 6 (2.09%) BT
14 6 (2.09%) CheckPoint
14 6 (2.09%) Ericsson
14 6 (2.09%) Fortinet
14 6 (2.09%) Huawei
14 6 (2.09%) IBM
14 6 (2.09%) Nokia