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 17 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 26 29 22
Rank change year-on-year +3 -7 +8
Contract jobs citing Linux 304 247 375
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 6.96% 6.53% 7.50%
As % of the Operating Systems category 41.36% 38.29% 38.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 218 159 250
10th Percentile £204 £218 £306
25th Percentile £360 £416 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £523 £525
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% -0.48% -4.55%
75th Percentile £538 £613 £611
90th Percentile £608 £675 £675
England median daily rate £513 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -6.82% - -6.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 14 34
10th Percentile - £56.09 £41.38
25th Percentile £12.50 £61.56 £55.00
Median hourly rate £16.00 £62.50 £65.75
Median % change year-on-year -74.40% -4.94% +27.96%
75th Percentile £48.75 £69.26 £71.42
90th Percentile £80.00 £70.88 £76.53
England median hourly rate £64.50 £66.50 £62.50
% change year-on-year -3.01% +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 735 645 984
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 16.83% 17.06% 19.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 511 443 655
10th Percentile £190 £200 £160
25th Percentile £250 £278 £210
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £435 £438 £400
Median % change year-on-year -0.57% +9.38% -15.79%
75th Percentile £538 £582 £564
90th Percentile £625 £660 £638
England median daily rate £450 £475 £475
% change year-on-year -5.26% - -7.32%
Number of hourly rates quoted 82 28 78
10th Percentile £12.50 £16.32 £17.03
25th Percentile £15.62 £37.40 £24.09
Median hourly rate £20.79 £58.88 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -64.69% +7.05% +197.30%
75th Percentile £44.76 £65.51 £68.63
90th Percentile £79.50 £70.38 £76.53
England median hourly rate £25.15 £57.25 £32.50
% change year-on-year -56.07% +76.15% +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 17 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 17 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 17 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 +16 137 £450 -10.00% 68
Berkshire +14 118 £425 -11.69% 31
Hampshire -5 92 £500 -13.04% 46
Surrey +4 53 £208 -56.77% 19
Buckinghamshire +9 12 £560 +1.82% 21
Sussex - 9 - - 1
Oxfordshire -14 7 £375 -25.00% 16
West Sussex -7 6 £513 -29.31% 10
Middlesex - 5 - - 3
East Sussex - 3 - - 4
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 (2.30%) Mattermost
1 7 (2.30%) Skype for Business
2 5 (1.64%) Microsoft Exchange
3 3 (0.99%) Apache
4 2 (0.66%) JBoss
5 1 (0.33%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.33%) Apache Spark
5 1 (0.33%) Confluence
5 1 (0.33%) Gunicorn
5 1 (0.33%) nginx
5 1 (0.33%) SharePoint
Applications
1 22 (7.24%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.33%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.33%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 7 (2.30%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.66%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.33%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.33%) Oracle EBS R12
3 1 (0.33%) SAP MDG
Cloud Services
1 83 (27.30%) AWS
2 59 (19.41%) Azure
3 35 (11.51%) OpenShift
4 28 (9.21%) GitHub
5 24 (7.89%) SaaS
6 21 (6.91%) Sauce Labs
7 20 (6.58%) GCP
8 14 (4.61%) AWS CloudFormation
8 14 (4.61%) Google Workspace
9 13 (4.28%) IaaS
10 12 (3.95%) Cloud Computing
10 12 (3.95%) GitHub Actions
11 8 (2.63%) Amazon ECR
11 8 (2.63%) OCI
11 8 (2.63%) Serverless
12 7 (2.30%) AWS Lambda
13 6 (1.97%) Amazon EC2
13 6 (1.97%) Amazon EKS
13 6 (1.97%) Amazon S3
14 5 (1.64%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 36 (11.84%) DNS
2 28 (9.21%) TCP/IP
3 22 (7.24%) Firewall
4 21 (6.91%) DHCP
5 20 (6.58%) Wireless
6 16 (5.26%) SAN
7 13 (4.28%) VLAN
8 7 (2.30%) Network Security
8 7 (2.30%) Skype
8 7 (2.30%) Wireshark
9 5 (1.64%) LAN
9 5 (1.64%) NAS
9 5 (1.64%) NFC
9 5 (1.64%) PPP
9 5 (1.64%) WAN
10 3 (0.99%) HTTP
10 3 (0.99%) SSL
11 2 (0.66%) Internet
11 2 (0.66%) Intrusion Detection
11 2 (0.66%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 33 (10.86%) Relational Database
2 32 (10.53%) MySQL
3 20 (6.58%) PostgreSQL
4 12 (3.95%) Amazon RDS
5 11 (3.62%) NoSQL
5 11 (3.62%) SQL Server
6 10 (3.29%) Oracle Database
7 6 (1.97%) Amazon Redshift
7 6 (1.97%) Couchbase
7 6 (1.97%) Redis
8 4 (1.32%) Oracle Exadata
9 3 (0.99%) Oracle Reports
9 3 (0.99%) RDBMS
9 3 (0.99%) SAP HANA
10 2 (0.66%) Elasticsearch
10 2 (0.66%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 1 (0.33%) Big Data
11 1 (0.33%) Hadoop
11 1 (0.33%) Oracle Database 12c
11 1 (0.33%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 39 (12.83%) Jenkins
2 26 (8.55%) Eclipse
3 22 (7.24%) Browser DevTools
4 21 (6.91%) Android Studio
4 21 (6.91%) Xcode
5 20 (6.58%) Git
6 14 (4.61%) GitLab
7 10 (3.29%) JIRA
7 10 (3.29%) JMeter
7 10 (3.29%) Sonatype Nexus
8 9 (2.96%) Burp Suite
8 9 (2.96%) Cucumber
8 9 (2.96%) JUnit
9 7 (2.30%) Artifactory
9 7 (2.30%) Metasploit
10 5 (1.64%) Valgrind
11 2 (0.66%) Subversion
11 2 (0.66%) Visual Studio
12 1 (0.33%) LoadRunner
12 1 (0.33%) MSI
General
1 110 (36.18%) Social Skills
2 30 (9.87%) Analytical Skills
3 21 (6.91%) Finance
4 20 (6.58%) Public Sector
5 13 (4.28%) Organisational Skills
6 12 (3.95%) Military
7 8 (2.63%) Legal
8 5 (1.64%) Banking
8 5 (1.64%) Documentation Skills
9 3 (0.99%) Aerospace
10 2 (0.66%) Back Office
10 2 (0.66%) Front Office
10 2 (0.66%) Investment Banking
11 1 (0.33%) Electronics
11 1 (0.33%) French Language
11 1 (0.33%) German Language
11 1 (0.33%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 1 (0.33%) Law
11 1 (0.33%) Retail
Job Titles
1 45 (14.80%) Support Engineer
2 35 (11.51%) Technical Support
3 30 (9.87%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 27 (8.88%) Analyst
4 27 (8.88%) Architect
5 26 (8.55%) Senior
6 24 (7.89%) Technical Engineer
6 24 (7.89%) Technical Support Engineer
7 22 (7.24%) UX Engineer
8 21 (6.91%) DevOps Engineer
9 18 (5.92%) Front-End Engineer (Client-Side Engineer)
9 18 (5.92%) Infrastructure Support
9 18 (5.92%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
10 15 (4.93%) Software Engineer
11 14 (4.61%) Developer
11 14 (4.61%) IT Support
12 13 (4.28%) Administrator
12 13 (4.28%) Linux Engineer
12 13 (4.28%) SOC Analyst
13 12 (3.95%) Support Officer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 23 (7.57%) Kafka
2 22 (7.24%) Ajax
2 22 (7.24%) AngularJS
2 22 (7.24%) CSS
2 22 (7.24%) GraphQL
2 22 (7.24%) React
3 17 (5.59%) Elastic Stack
4 10 (3.29%) JSON
4 10 (3.29%) XML
5 9 (2.96%) Loki
5 9 (2.96%) REST
5 9 (2.96%) Spring
6 8 (2.63%) Hibernate
6 8 (2.63%) YAML
7 6 (1.97%) Middleware
7 6 (1.97%) Web Services
8 5 (1.64%) Keycloak
9 4 (1.32%) Oracle GoldenGate
10 3 (0.99%) Swagger
11 2 (0.66%) Jinja
Miscellaneous
1 22 (7.24%) Mobile App
2 20 (6.58%) Cloud Native
3 16 (5.26%) PKI
4 14 (4.61%) Analytical Mindset
4 14 (4.61%) Replication
5 13 (4.28%) Enterprise Software
6 11 (3.62%) Security Operations Centre
7 10 (3.29%) Management Information System
8 8 (2.63%) Virtual Team
9 7 (2.30%) Enterprise Storage
10 6 (1.97%) Cyber Threat
10 6 (1.97%) Onboarding
10 6 (1.97%) Security Posture
11 5 (1.64%) CAN bus
11 5 (1.64%) Smartcard
12 4 (1.32%) Data Centre
13 3 (0.99%) Clustering
13 3 (0.99%) HP Storage
13 3 (0.99%) Hybrid Cloud
13 3 (0.99%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 150 (49.34%) Windows
2 56 (18.42%) Unix
3 51 (16.78%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 21 (6.91%) Android
5 15 (4.93%) Ubuntu
6 14 (4.61%) Windows Server
7 10 (3.29%) Windows Server 2019
8 9 (2.96%) Kali Linux
8 9 (2.96%) Windows Server 2016
9 6 (1.97%) CentOS
10 5 (1.64%) Mac OS
11 4 (1.32%) Windows Server 2012
12 3 (0.99%) Debian
13 2 (0.66%) SUSE
13 2 (0.66%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
14 1 (0.33%) Rocky
14 1 (0.33%) Solaris
14 1 (0.33%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 85 (27.96%) CI/CD
2 67 (22.04%) DevOps
3 55 (18.09%) Problem-Solving
4 53 (17.43%) Agile
5 50 (16.45%) ITIL
6 39 (12.83%) Containerisation
6 39 (12.83%) Infrastructure as Code
7 38 (12.50%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 32 (10.53%) OO
9 27 (8.88%) Continuous Improvement
9 27 (8.88%) User Experience
10 25 (8.22%) Observability
11 24 (7.89%) Incident Response
11 24 (7.89%) SIEM
12 23 (7.57%) Performance Tuning
12 23 (7.57%) Platform Engineering
13 22 (7.24%) Cybersecurity
13 22 (7.24%) DevSecOps
13 22 (7.24%) Mobile Application Development
14 21 (6.91%) High Availability
Programming Languages
1 118 (38.82%) Python
2 56 (18.42%) Java
3 55 (18.09%) PowerShell
4 53 (17.43%) Bash
5 43 (14.14%) SQL
6 41 (13.49%) JavaScript
7 38 (12.50%) Perl
8 22 (7.24%) Shell Script
9 15 (4.93%) C#
10 13 (4.28%) C++
11 5 (1.64%) Embedded C++
11 5 (1.64%) PL/SQL
12 4 (1.32%) C
12 4 (1.32%) Search Processing Language
13 3 (0.99%) Go
14 2 (0.66%) Ada
14 2 (0.66%) Assembly Language
14 2 (0.66%) MATLAB
14 2 (0.66%) PHP
15 1 (0.33%) Tcl
Qualifications
1 147 (48.36%) Security Cleared
2 87 (28.62%) SC Cleared
3 56 (18.42%) DV Cleared
4 22 (7.24%) Degree
5 17 (5.59%) Computer Science Degree
6 14 (4.61%) Azure Certification
6 14 (4.61%) CISSP
7 12 (3.95%) Microsoft Certification
8 11 (3.62%) GCFA
8 11 (3.62%) GCIH
8 11 (3.62%) Network+ Certification
8 11 (3.62%) Server+ Certification
9 9 (2.96%) CEH
9 9 (2.96%) GCIA
10 8 (2.63%) CFCE
10 8 (2.63%) OSCP
11 7 (2.30%) AWS Certification
11 7 (2.30%) GIAC
11 7 (2.30%) GPEN
11 7 (2.30%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (5.26%) NIST
2 13 (4.28%) GDPR
3 10 (3.29%) HIPAA
3 10 (3.29%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 10 (3.29%) QA
4 4 (1.32%) SOC 2
5 2 (0.66%) Actionable Recommendations
6 1 (0.33%) Accessibility
6 1 (0.33%) Cyber Essentials
6 1 (0.33%) Def Stans
6 1 (0.33%) ISO/IEC 17025
6 1 (0.33%) SLA
System Software
1 57 (18.75%) VMware Infrastructure
2 34 (11.18%) Docker
3 24 (7.89%) Active Directory
4 19 (6.25%) vSphere
5 17 (5.59%) Hyper-V
6 13 (4.28%) Virtual Machines
7 8 (2.63%) VMware NSX
8 4 (1.32%) Oracle RAC
8 4 (1.32%) VMware ESXi
9 2 (0.66%) KVM
10 1 (0.33%) Firmware
10 1 (0.33%) GPFS
10 1 (0.33%) NDS
10 1 (0.33%) NetIQ eDirectory
10 1 (0.33%) NFS
Systems Management
1 74 (24.34%) Ansible
2 62 (20.39%) Kubernetes
3 56 (18.42%) Terraform
4 27 (8.88%) Grafana
5 25 (8.22%) Prometheus
6 17 (5.59%) Argo
7 14 (4.61%) Red Hat Satellite
8 13 (4.28%) Progress Chef
9 9 (2.96%) Nmap
9 9 (2.96%) SCOM
10 8 (2.63%) Kustomize
10 8 (2.63%) Puppet
10 8 (2.63%) vCenter Server
11 7 (2.30%) Data Guard
11 7 (2.30%) HP SiteScope
11 7 (2.30%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
11 7 (2.30%) Oracle RMAN
11 7 (2.30%) Sysdig
12 6 (1.97%) NetBackup
12 6 (1.97%) Podman
Vendors
1 92 (30.26%) Microsoft
2 86 (28.29%) VMware
3 71 (23.36%) Red Hat
4 55 (18.09%) Splunk
5 45 (14.80%) Oracle
6 22 (7.24%) ServiceNow
7 11 (3.62%) NetApp
8 10 (3.29%) CrowdStrike
8 10 (3.29%) HP
9 9 (2.96%) Cisco
10 8 (2.63%) ArcSight
10 8 (2.63%) Veritas
11 7 (2.30%) 3PAR
11 7 (2.30%) IBM
11 7 (2.30%) LogRhythm
11 7 (2.30%) Remedy
12 6 (1.97%) Confluent
12 6 (1.97%) Nimble Storage
12 6 (1.97%) Pure Storage
13 5 (1.64%) Dell