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

6 months to
14 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 34 32 22
Rank change year-on-year -2 -10 -2
Contract jobs citing Linux 350 190 374
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 5.20% 5.40% 7.60%
As % of the Operating Systems category 42.53% 31.93% 42.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 256 145 256
10th Percentile £322 £325 £350
25th Percentile £425 £425 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £505 £525
Median % change year-on-year +3.96% -3.81% +5.00%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £608
90th Percentile £642 - £638
England median daily rate £525 £525 £546
% change year-on-year - -3.89% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 28 5 22
10th Percentile £43.81 £32.94 £35.18
25th Percentile £50.00 £51.06 £57.19
Median hourly rate £60.00 £55.00 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -21.43% +16.67%
75th Percentile £67.47 £58.75 -
90th Percentile £73.25 - £73.38
England median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £67.50
% change year-on-year - -3.70% +5.88%

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 823 595 882
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 12.23% 16.90% 17.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 550 420 582
10th Percentile £204 £190 £205
25th Percentile £363 £250 £331
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £484 £475 £473
Median % change year-on-year +1.79% +0.37% +11.35%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £588
90th Percentile £638 £650 £638
England median daily rate £475 £450 £488
% change year-on-year +5.56% -7.69% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 64 52 46
10th Percentile £16.00 £15.12 £16.32
25th Percentile £21.23 £16.95 £23.50
Median hourly rate £45.12 £18.87 £57.87
Median % change year-on-year +139.12% -67.39% +5.22%
75th Percentile £60.00 £28.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £67.47 £58.75 £71.88
England median hourly rate £35.22 £23.00 £36.17
% change year-on-year +53.13% -36.40% -9.59%

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 14 August 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 14 August 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 14 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
Thames Valley +16 190 £518 +8.95% 86
Hampshire -9 111 £550 - 60
Berkshire -12 81 £440 -2.22% 29
Buckinghamshire +11 67 £560 +5.96% 16
Oxfordshire +6 42 £525 +44.83% 41
Surrey -12 35 £304 -36.05% 24
West Sussex -16 8 £425 -22.73% 13
Middlesex -15 4 £198 - 1
East Sussex - 1 £459 - 6
Isle of Wight - 1 - - 1
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 9 (2.57%) Apache
2 8 (2.29%) Confluence
2 8 (2.29%) Microsoft Exchange
2 8 (2.29%) nginx
3 6 (1.71%) Apache Airflow
3 6 (1.71%) OpenStack
4 4 (1.14%) WebSphere
4 4 (1.14%) WebSphere Application Server
5 3 (0.86%) IIS
5 3 (0.86%) Tomcat
6 2 (0.57%) IBM HTTP Server
6 2 (0.57%) JBoss
6 2 (0.57%) Oracle HTTP Server
6 2 (0.57%) SharePoint
6 2 (0.57%) WebSphere Portal
7 1 (0.29%) Oracle Service Bus
7 1 (0.29%) SAS
7 1 (0.29%) WebLogic
Applications
1 4 (1.14%) Microsoft Project
2 3 (0.86%) Houdini
2 3 (0.86%) NUKE
3 2 (0.57%) Adobe Creative Suite
4 1 (0.29%) CINEMA 4D
4 1 (0.29%) Microsoft Excel
4 1 (0.29%) Microsoft Office
4 1 (0.29%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 101 (28.86%) Azure
2 75 (21.43%) AWS
3 33 (9.43%) Entra ID
4 22 (6.29%) Microsoft 365
5 20 (5.71%) OpenShift
6 14 (4.00%) Azure Sentinel
7 13 (3.71%) Azure Monitor
8 12 (3.43%) SaaS
9 10 (2.86%) GCP
10 9 (2.57%) GitHub
10 9 (2.57%) IaaS
11 8 (2.29%) Azure DevOps
11 8 (2.29%) GitHub Actions
12 7 (2.00%) PaaS
13 6 (1.71%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 5 (1.43%) Amazon EKS
15 4 (1.14%) Cloudflare
15 4 (1.14%) Serverless
16 3 (0.86%) Azure ExpressRoute
16 3 (0.86%) Sauce Labs
Communications & Networking
1 44 (12.57%) DNS
2 42 (12.00%) Firewall
3 28 (8.00%) DHCP
4 22 (6.29%) VPN
5 21 (6.00%) TCP/IP
6 16 (4.57%) LAN
6 16 (4.57%) WAN
7 14 (4.00%) Network Security
8 13 (3.71%) VSAN
9 10 (2.86%) Cisco ASA
9 10 (2.86%) Cisco Firepower
10 9 (2.57%) SAN
10 9 (2.57%) Software-Defined Radio
10 9 (2.57%) SSH
10 9 (2.57%) SSL
10 9 (2.57%) Wireless
11 7 (2.00%) LTE
12 6 (1.71%) Radio Access Network
12 6 (1.71%) VoLTE
12 6 (1.71%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 28 (8.00%) SQL Server
2 18 (5.14%) Oracle Database
3 12 (3.43%) MySQL
4 7 (2.00%) DataStage
5 6 (1.71%) Oracle Database 12c
6 5 (1.43%) Oracle Database 11g
6 5 (1.43%) PostgreSQL
6 5 (1.43%) Relational Database
7 4 (1.14%) Elasticsearch
8 2 (0.57%) Electronic Patient Records
8 2 (0.57%) MongoDB
8 2 (0.57%) Oracle Database 10g
8 2 (0.57%) Redis
8 2 (0.57%) Vitess
9 1 (0.29%) Amazon RDS
9 1 (0.29%) Amazon Redshift
9 1 (0.29%) Metadata
9 1 (0.29%) Oracle Reports
9 1 (0.29%) Pentaho
9 1 (0.29%) SQLite
Development Applications
1 23 (6.57%) JIRA
2 22 (6.29%) GitLab
3 15 (4.29%) Jenkins
4 14 (4.00%) Git
5 6 (1.71%) MLflow
6 5 (1.43%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 5 (1.43%) Bitbucket
6 5 (1.43%) Eclipse
7 4 (1.14%) Jaeger
7 4 (1.14%) SonarQube
8 3 (0.86%) Android Studio
8 3 (0.86%) Browser DevTools
8 3 (0.86%) Xcode
9 2 (0.57%) Introscope
9 2 (0.57%) Maven
9 2 (0.57%) Robot Framework
9 2 (0.57%) Subversion
10 1 (0.29%) Octopus Deploy
10 1 (0.29%) Rational DOORS
10 1 (0.29%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 58 (16.57%) Social Skills
2 33 (9.43%) Analytical Skills
3 31 (8.86%) Public Sector
4 19 (5.43%) Documentation Skills
5 10 (2.86%) Finance
6 9 (2.57%) Aerospace
6 9 (2.57%) Military
7 7 (2.00%) Retail
8 6 (1.71%) Manufacturing
9 5 (1.43%) Organisational Skills
10 4 (1.14%) Financial Institution
10 4 (1.14%) Telecoms
11 1 (0.29%) Automotive
11 1 (0.29%) Electronics
11 1 (0.29%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 1 (0.29%) Legal
11 1 (0.29%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 53 (15.14%) Linux Engineer
2 48 (13.71%) Senior
3 47 (13.43%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 24 (6.86%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
5 23 (6.57%) Platform Engineer
6 22 (6.29%) Architect
7 18 (5.14%) Developer
8 16 (4.57%) Linux Infrastructure Engineer
9 15 (4.29%) Cloud Engineer
10 14 (4.00%) Support Engineer
11 13 (3.71%) Embedded Engineer
11 13 (3.71%) Software Engineer
12 12 (3.43%) Analyst
12 12 (3.43%) DBA
13 11 (3.14%) Azure Engineer
13 11 (3.14%) Citrix Engineer
13 11 (3.14%) Network Engineer
13 11 (3.14%) Technical Engineer
13 11 (3.14%) Technical Support
13 11 (3.14%) Technical Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (4.00%) Kafka
2 13 (3.71%) YAML
3 11 (3.14%) ARM Templates
4 10 (2.86%) Middleware
4 10 (2.86%) Yocto
5 8 (2.29%) LDAP
6 6 (1.71%) Keycloak
6 6 (1.71%) Loki
7 5 (1.43%) .NET
7 5 (1.43%) GraphQL
7 5 (1.43%) OpenTelemetry
8 4 (1.14%) gRPC
8 4 (1.14%) Protocol Buffers
8 4 (1.14%) RESTful
9 3 (0.86%) 802.1X
9 3 (0.86%) AngularJS
9 3 (0.86%) CSS
9 3 (0.86%) LEMP Stack
9 3 (0.86%) React
9 3 (0.86%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 44 (12.57%) Onboarding
2 26 (7.43%) Hybrid Cloud
3 24 (6.86%) PKI
4 18 (5.14%) Public Cloud
5 16 (4.57%) Management Information System
6 14 (4.00%) Cloud Native
7 13 (3.71%) Device Driver
7 13 (3.71%) Embedded Systems
7 13 (3.71%) Product Ownership
8 10 (2.86%) Operational Technology
9 9 (2.57%) Data Centre
9 9 (2.57%) SCADA
10 8 (2.29%) MicroBlaze
10 8 (2.29%) Replication
10 8 (2.29%) RISC-V
10 8 (2.29%) Security Posture
11 7 (2.00%) ARM Cortex
12 6 (1.71%) Cyber Defence
12 6 (1.71%) Enterprise Cloud
13 5 (1.43%) Distributed Systems
Operating Systems
1 158 (45.14%) Windows
2 66 (18.86%) Unix
3 52 (14.86%) Windows Server
4 50 (14.29%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 20 (5.71%) Embedded Linux
6 18 (5.14%) Ubuntu
7 11 (3.14%) CentOS
7 11 (3.14%) Windows 10
8 8 (2.29%) Debian
9 7 (2.00%) Oracle Linux
10 6 (1.71%) Mac OS
11 5 (1.43%) Windows Server 2019
12 3 (0.86%) Android
12 3 (0.86%) Solaris
12 3 (0.86%) Windows Server 2016
13 2 (0.57%) AIX
13 2 (0.57%) HPUX
13 2 (0.57%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
13 2 (0.57%) Windows Server 2012
14 1 (0.29%) Rocky
Processes & Methodologies
1 71 (20.29%) CI/CD
2 56 (16.00%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 53 (15.14%) ITIL
4 51 (14.57%) DevOps
5 45 (12.86%) Infrastructure as Code
5 45 (12.86%) SIEM
6 44 (12.57%) Agile
7 41 (11.71%) Containerisation
8 40 (11.43%) Cybersecurity
8 40 (11.43%) Problem-Solving
9 38 (10.86%) Platform Engineering
10 35 (10.00%) Runbook
11 33 (9.43%) Continuous Improvement
12 32 (9.14%) ITSM
12 32 (9.14%) Migration
13 30 (8.57%) DevSecOps
13 30 (8.57%) Root Cause Analysis
14 28 (8.00%) High Availability
14 28 (8.00%) Software Engineering
15 27 (7.71%) Computer Science
Programming Languages
1 112 (32.00%) Python
2 90 (25.71%) PowerShell
3 68 (19.43%) Bash
4 25 (7.14%) C
5 22 (6.29%) SQL
6 21 (6.00%) C++
7 14 (4.00%) Shell Script
8 12 (3.43%) Java
9 11 (3.14%) Bicep
9 11 (3.14%) JavaScript
10 10 (2.86%) Perl
11 7 (2.00%) Embedded C++
12 6 (1.71%) Embedded C
12 6 (1.71%) PL/SQL
13 5 (1.43%) Go
14 4 (1.14%) Rust
15 3 (0.86%) Korn
16 2 (0.57%) C#
16 2 (0.57%) Jython
16 2 (0.57%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 213 (60.86%) Security Cleared
2 156 (44.57%) SC Cleared
3 79 (22.57%) DV Cleared
4 45 (12.86%) Degree
5 14 (4.00%) RHCE
6 13 (3.71%) Cisco Certification
7 11 (3.14%) BPSS Clearance
7 11 (3.14%) Computer Science Degree
8 7 (2.00%) AWS Certification
8 7 (2.00%) CISM
8 7 (2.00%) CISSP
8 7 (2.00%) ISTQB
8 7 (2.00%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 7 (2.00%) RHCSA
9 6 (1.71%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 6 (1.71%) CCNP
9 6 (1.71%) CESG Certified Professional
9 6 (1.71%) CRISC
9 6 (1.71%) GIAC
9 6 (1.71%) LFCS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 43 (12.29%) NIST
2 31 (8.86%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 13 (3.71%) Cyber Essentials
4 12 (3.43%) SLA
5 10 (2.86%) NCSC
6 6 (1.71%) GDPR
6 6 (1.71%) ISO 31000
6 6 (1.71%) JSP 440
7 5 (1.43%) GRC
7 5 (1.43%) PCI DSS
8 2 (0.57%) Data Quality
8 2 (0.57%) Disclosure Scotland
8 2 (0.57%) NIST 800
9 1 (0.29%) DICOM
9 1 (0.29%) HL7
9 1 (0.29%) OpenSCAP
9 1 (0.29%) QA
System Software
1 84 (24.00%) Active Directory
2 49 (14.00%) VMware Infrastructure
3 31 (8.86%) Docker
4 25 (7.14%) VMware NSX
5 16 (4.57%) Hyper-V
5 16 (4.57%) VMware ESXi
6 14 (4.00%) Firmware
7 9 (2.57%) Embedded Firmware
8 7 (2.00%) Oracle RAC
9 5 (1.43%) vSphere
10 4 (1.14%) KVM
10 4 (1.14%) Virtual Machines
11 3 (0.86%) Dovecot
11 3 (0.86%) Postfix
11 3 (0.86%) Virtual Desktop
12 2 (0.57%) Microsoft Virtual Server
12 2 (0.57%) UAG
12 2 (0.57%) Virtual Servers
13 1 (0.29%) Citrix Hypervisor
Systems Management
1 61 (17.43%) Kubernetes
2 59 (16.86%) Terraform
3 56 (16.00%) Ansible
4 19 (5.43%) Grafana
4 19 (5.43%) Prometheus
5 14 (4.00%) Puppet
6 11 (3.14%) Oracle RMAN
7 10 (2.86%) SCCM
7 10 (2.86%) vCenter Server
8 9 (2.57%) Red Hat Satellite
9 8 (2.29%) Progress Chef
10 7 (2.00%) Microsoft Intune
10 7 (2.00%) Rancher
11 6 (1.71%) Data Guard
11 6 (1.71%) Istio
11 6 (1.71%) Packer
11 6 (1.71%) WSUS
12 5 (1.43%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 5 (1.43%) SCOM
13 4 (1.14%) Podman
Vendors
1 84 (24.00%) VMware
2 75 (21.43%) Microsoft
3 49 (14.00%) Red Hat
4 48 (13.71%) Oracle
5 23 (6.57%) CyberArk
6 22 (6.29%) BeyondTrust
6 22 (6.29%) Cisco
7 21 (6.00%) ServiceNow
8 19 (5.43%) Citrix
9 17 (4.86%) Splunk
10 16 (4.57%) Palo Alto
11 12 (3.43%) IBM
12 11 (3.14%) SolarWinds
13 8 (2.29%) CrowdStrike
13 8 (2.29%) NVIDIA
14 7 (2.00%) Google
14 7 (2.00%) Nokia
15 6 (1.71%) BT
15 6 (1.71%) Ericsson
15 6 (1.71%) Huawei