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 2 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
2 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 35 30 18
Rank change year-on-year -5 -12 +3
Contract jobs citing Linux 314 182 437
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 4.97% 5.73% 7.68%
As % of the Operating Systems category 40.94% 32.16% 43.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 230 140 289
10th Percentile £308 £402 £350
25th Percentile £414 £461 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £518 £525 £533
Median % change year-on-year -1.43% -1.50% +2.55%
75th Percentile £595 £600 £608
90th Percentile £644 £626 £639
England median daily rate £513 £540 £549
% change year-on-year -5.09% -1.59% -7.89%
Number of hourly rates quoted 19 7 28
10th Percentile £27.45 £38.98 £26.25
25th Percentile £43.81 £51.78 £49.06
Median hourly rate £50.00 £57.50 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -13.04% -17.86% +7.69%
75th Percentile £57.50 £59.44 -
90th Percentile £68.30 £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 767 566 1,009
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 12.14% 17.82% 17.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 506 396 641
10th Percentile £204 £198 £203
25th Percentile £320 £319 £331
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £490 £475
Median % change year-on-year -3.06% +3.16% +5.56%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £595
90th Percentile £643 £655 £660
England median daily rate £459 £465 £475
% change year-on-year -1.29% -2.11% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 50 43 67
10th Percentile £16.00 £14.38 £15.95
25th Percentile £19.49 £15.50 £17.85
Median hourly rate £32.50 £18.82 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +72.69% -60.38% -13.64%
75th Percentile £53.46 £28.00 £69.84
90th Percentile £60.00 £58.45 £71.50
England median hourly rate £29.48 £19.36 £24.93
% change year-on-year +52.27% -22.33% -41.35%

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 2 July 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 2 July 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 2 July 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 +15 188 £492 -1.65% 57
Hampshire -11 93 £550 - 85
Berkshire -8 86 £414 -17.20% 24
Buckinghamshire +9 63 £536 +2.17% 8
Oxfordshire +1 39 £513 -6.82% 25
Surrey -19 23 £208 -56.32% 37
West Sussex -21 4 £442 -17.77% 11
East Sussex - 3 £459 - 1
Middlesex - 2 £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 (4.78%) Microsoft Exchange
2 6 (1.91%) OpenStack
3 5 (1.59%) Apache Airflow
4 4 (1.27%) Apache
4 4 (1.27%) WebSphere
4 4 (1.27%) WebSphere Application Server
5 3 (0.96%) Confluence
5 3 (0.96%) IIS
5 3 (0.96%) nginx
5 3 (0.96%) Tomcat
6 2 (0.64%) Appian
6 2 (0.64%) IBM HTTP Server
6 2 (0.64%) JBoss
6 2 (0.64%) Oracle HTTP Server
6 2 (0.64%) SharePoint
6 2 (0.64%) WebSphere Portal
7 1 (0.32%) SAS
Applications
1 4 (1.27%) Microsoft Project
2 1 (0.32%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 1 (0.32%) Houdini
2 1 (0.32%) NUKE
Cloud Services
1 70 (22.29%) Azure
2 64 (20.38%) AWS
3 25 (7.96%) Entra ID
4 20 (6.37%) Microsoft 365
5 14 (4.46%) OpenShift
6 12 (3.82%) SaaS
7 11 (3.50%) GCP
8 10 (3.18%) GitHub
9 9 (2.87%) GitHub Actions
10 7 (2.23%) Azure Sentinel
10 7 (2.23%) IaaS
10 7 (2.23%) PaaS
11 6 (1.91%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 5 (1.59%) Amazon EKS
12 5 (1.59%) Azure DevOps
13 4 (1.27%) Serverless
14 3 (0.96%) Cloudflare
14 3 (0.96%) Sauce Labs
15 2 (0.64%) Amazon EC2
15 2 (0.64%) Amazon ECS
Communications & Networking
1 26 (8.28%) DNS
2 21 (6.69%) Firewall
3 13 (4.14%) VSAN
3 13 (4.14%) WAN
4 11 (3.50%) LAN
4 11 (3.50%) Network Security
5 9 (2.87%) Cisco ASA
5 9 (2.87%) Cisco Firepower
6 8 (2.55%) DHCP
6 8 (2.55%) SAN
6 8 (2.55%) SSH
6 8 (2.55%) TCP/IP
6 8 (2.55%) VPN
6 8 (2.55%) Wireless
6 8 (2.55%) Wireshark
7 7 (2.23%) Software-Defined Radio
7 7 (2.23%) SSL
8 6 (1.91%) Cisco Nexus
8 6 (1.91%) Radio Access Network
8 6 (1.91%) VoLTE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 32 (10.19%) SQL Server
2 19 (6.05%) MySQL
3 12 (3.82%) Relational Database
4 10 (3.18%) Oracle Database
5 7 (2.23%) PostgreSQL
6 5 (1.59%) Oracle Database 12c
7 4 (1.27%) Elasticsearch
8 3 (0.96%) DataStage
8 3 (0.96%) Oracle Database 11g
8 3 (0.96%) Redis
9 2 (0.64%) Amazon RDS
9 2 (0.64%) Electronic Patient Records
9 2 (0.64%) MongoDB
9 2 (0.64%) RDBMS
9 2 (0.64%) Vitess
10 1 (0.32%) Amazon Redshift
10 1 (0.32%) DynamoDB
10 1 (0.32%) Oracle Reports
10 1 (0.32%) Pentaho
10 1 (0.32%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 17 (5.41%) GitLab
2 13 (4.14%) JIRA
3 12 (3.82%) Jenkins
4 9 (2.87%) Git
5 7 (2.23%) Eclipse
6 5 (1.59%) Maven
6 5 (1.59%) MLflow
7 4 (1.27%) Jaeger
7 4 (1.27%) SonarQube
7 4 (1.27%) Subversion
8 3 (0.96%) Android Studio
8 3 (0.96%) Browser DevTools
8 3 (0.96%) Xcode
9 2 (0.64%) Burp Suite
9 2 (0.64%) Introscope
9 2 (0.64%) JUnit
9 2 (0.64%) Robot Framework
10 1 (0.32%) Bitbucket
10 1 (0.32%) Metasploit
10 1 (0.32%) Mockito
General
1 48 (15.29%) Social Skills
2 38 (12.10%) Public Sector
3 23 (7.32%) Analytical Skills
4 19 (6.05%) Documentation Skills
5 15 (4.78%) Military
6 10 (3.18%) Finance
7 7 (2.23%) Retail
8 6 (1.91%) Manufacturing
9 4 (1.27%) Financial Institution
9 4 (1.27%) Organisational Skills
9 4 (1.27%) Telecoms
10 3 (0.96%) Law
11 2 (0.64%) Aerospace
11 2 (0.64%) Legal
12 1 (0.32%) Advertising
12 1 (0.32%) Electronics
12 1 (0.32%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 1 (0.32%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 45 (14.33%) Senior
2 44 (14.01%) Linux Engineer
3 35 (11.15%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 18 (5.73%) Architect
4 18 (5.73%) Developer
4 18 (5.73%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
5 17 (5.41%) Analyst
6 14 (4.46%) Platform Engineer
6 14 (4.46%) Technical Support
7 13 (4.14%) Linux Infrastructure Engineer
7 13 (4.14%) Network Engineer
7 13 (4.14%) Software Engineer
7 13 (4.14%) Support Engineer
8 12 (3.82%) Technical Architect
9 11 (3.50%) Citrix Engineer
9 11 (3.50%) Citrix Infrastructure Engineer
9 11 (3.50%) Technical Engineer
9 11 (3.50%) Technical Support Engineer
10 10 (3.18%) DBA
11 9 (2.87%) Embedded Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (4.46%) Kafka
2 12 (3.82%) YAML
3 8 (2.55%) Middleware
4 7 (2.23%) .NET
4 7 (2.23%) Keycloak
4 7 (2.23%) LDAP
4 7 (2.23%) Yocto
5 6 (1.91%) Loki
6 5 (1.59%) Elastic Stack
6 5 (1.59%) GraphQL
6 5 (1.59%) OpenTelemetry
7 4 (1.27%) 802.1X
7 4 (1.27%) CSS
7 4 (1.27%) gRPC
7 4 (1.27%) LAMP
7 4 (1.27%) Protocol Buffers
7 4 (1.27%) React
7 4 (1.27%) RESTful
7 4 (1.27%) Web Services
7 4 (1.27%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 37 (11.78%) Onboarding
2 21 (6.69%) PKI
3 16 (5.10%) Public Cloud
4 15 (4.78%) Data Centre
4 15 (4.78%) Management Information System
5 13 (4.14%) Product Ownership
6 12 (3.82%) Hybrid Cloud
7 10 (3.18%) Security Posture
8 9 (2.87%) Legacy Systems
9 8 (2.55%) Embedded Systems
9 8 (2.55%) Operational Technology
10 7 (2.23%) Device Driver
10 7 (2.23%) SCADA
10 7 (2.23%) Security Operations Centre
11 6 (1.91%) Cloud Native
11 6 (1.91%) Cyber Defence
11 6 (1.91%) MicroBlaze
11 6 (1.91%) Replication
11 6 (1.91%) RISC-V
12 5 (1.59%) Distributed Systems
Operating Systems
1 144 (45.86%) Windows
2 66 (21.02%) Unix
3 42 (13.38%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 38 (12.10%) Windows Server
5 14 (4.46%) Ubuntu
6 11 (3.50%) Embedded Linux
7 8 (2.55%) Debian
8 6 (1.91%) CentOS
9 5 (1.59%) Windows Server 2016
9 5 (1.59%) Windows Server 2019
10 4 (1.27%) Oracle Linux
10 4 (1.27%) Windows Server 2012
11 3 (0.96%) Android
12 2 (0.64%) Kali Linux
12 2 (0.64%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
12 2 (0.64%) Windows 10
13 1 (0.32%) Mac OS
13 1 (0.32%) OpenVMS
13 1 (0.32%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 62 (19.75%) CI/CD
2 53 (16.88%) SIEM
3 41 (13.06%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 41 (13.06%) Problem-Solving
4 40 (12.74%) DevOps
5 39 (12.42%) ITIL
6 35 (11.15%) Runbook
7 34 (10.83%) Cybersecurity
8 33 (10.51%) Agile
8 33 (10.51%) Containerisation
9 31 (9.87%) Computer Science
10 29 (9.24%) DevSecOps
10 29 (9.24%) High Availability
10 29 (9.24%) ITSM
11 28 (8.92%) Migration
12 27 (8.60%) Change Control
12 27 (8.60%) Infrastructure as Code
13 25 (7.96%) Platform Engineering
14 24 (7.64%) Privileged Access Management
14 24 (7.64%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 101 (32.17%) Python
2 67 (21.34%) PowerShell
3 47 (14.97%) Bash
4 22 (7.01%) SQL
5 19 (6.05%) C
5 19 (6.05%) Java
6 17 (5.41%) JavaScript
7 15 (4.78%) C++
7 15 (4.78%) Perl
8 12 (3.82%) Shell Script
9 7 (2.23%) Rust
10 5 (1.59%) Go
11 4 (1.27%) Embedded C++
12 3 (0.96%) Ada
12 3 (0.96%) Embedded C
12 3 (0.96%) Korn
12 3 (0.96%) PL/SQL
12 3 (0.96%) TypeScript
13 2 (0.64%) Scala
13 2 (0.64%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 205 (65.29%) Security Cleared
2 150 (47.77%) SC Cleared
3 70 (22.29%) DV Cleared
4 50 (15.92%) Degree
5 15 (4.78%) Cisco Certification
5 15 (4.78%) Computer Science Degree
6 14 (4.46%) RHCE
7 13 (4.14%) BPSS Clearance
8 8 (2.55%) CCNP
9 7 (2.23%) AWS Certification
9 7 (2.23%) CISSP
9 7 (2.23%) GIAC
9 7 (2.23%) RHCSA
10 6 (1.91%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 6 (1.91%) CESG Certified Professional
10 6 (1.91%) CISM
10 6 (1.91%) CRISC
10 6 (1.91%) ISTQB
10 6 (1.91%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
10 6 (1.91%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 44 (14.01%) NIST
2 33 (10.51%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 14 (4.46%) Cyber Essentials
4 11 (3.50%) SLA
5 9 (2.87%) NCSC
6 6 (1.91%) ISO 31000
7 5 (1.59%) GDPR
7 5 (1.59%) PCI DSS
8 4 (1.27%) GRC
9 3 (0.96%) JSP 440
9 3 (0.96%) NIST 800
10 2 (0.64%) Data Quality
11 1 (0.32%) DICOM
11 1 (0.32%) Disclosure Scotland
11 1 (0.32%) HL7
11 1 (0.32%) OpenSCAP
System Software
1 72 (22.93%) Active Directory
2 46 (14.65%) VMware Infrastructure
3 25 (7.96%) VMware NSX
4 22 (7.01%) Docker
5 12 (3.82%) Hyper-V
6 10 (3.18%) Firmware
6 10 (3.18%) VMware ESXi
7 6 (1.91%) Embedded Firmware
7 6 (1.91%) vSphere
8 5 (1.59%) Oracle RAC
9 3 (0.96%) Dovecot
9 3 (0.96%) Postfix
9 3 (0.96%) UAG
10 2 (0.64%) KVM
11 1 (0.32%) Citrix Hypervisor
11 1 (0.32%) Virtual Desktop
11 1 (0.32%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 43 (13.69%) Ansible
2 42 (13.38%) Kubernetes
3 34 (10.83%) Terraform
4 17 (5.41%) Grafana
4 17 (5.41%) Prometheus
5 12 (3.82%) Red Hat Satellite
6 10 (3.18%) Puppet
7 9 (2.87%) Oracle RMAN
8 7 (2.23%) vCenter Server
9 6 (1.91%) Rancher
10 5 (1.59%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 4 (1.27%) Data Guard
11 4 (1.27%) Istio
11 4 (1.27%) Podman
11 4 (1.27%) Progress Chef
11 4 (1.27%) WSUS
12 3 (0.96%) Argo
12 3 (0.96%) HAProxy
12 3 (0.96%) Nessus
12 3 (0.96%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 78 (24.84%) VMware
2 53 (16.88%) Microsoft
3 49 (15.61%) Red Hat
4 44 (14.01%) Oracle
5 26 (8.28%) BeyondTrust
6 24 (7.64%) Cisco
6 24 (7.64%) CyberArk
7 18 (5.73%) Citrix
8 17 (5.41%) Splunk
9 14 (4.46%) Palo Alto
10 13 (4.14%) ServiceNow
11 10 (3.18%) NVIDIA
12 8 (2.55%) SolarWinds
13 7 (2.23%) IBM
13 7 (2.23%) Nokia
14 6 (1.91%) BT
14 6 (1.91%) CheckPoint
14 6 (1.91%) Ericsson
14 6 (1.91%) Google
14 6 (1.91%) Huawei