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 3 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
3 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 26 25 23
Rank change year-on-year -1 -2 +2
Contract jobs citing Linux 307 225 390
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 6.69% 7.11% 7.05%
As % of the Operating Systems category 42.64% 39.82% 37.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 221 136 252
10th Percentile £204 £378 £305
25th Percentile £363 £448 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £524 £525
Median % change year-on-year -9.31% -0.24% -4.55%
75th Percentile £545 £613 £575
90th Percentile £638 £675 £638
England median daily rate £510 £551 £550
% change year-on-year -7.44% +0.18% -6.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 23 14 41
10th Percentile - £54.85 £31.25
25th Percentile £12.50 £59.94 £54.00
Median hourly rate £16.00 £62.50 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year -74.40% - -3.85%
75th Percentile £48.75 £64.69 £70.00
90th Percentile £76.05 £69.98 £76.53
England median hourly rate £63.14 £65.75 £60.00
% change year-on-year -3.98% +9.58% -7.69%

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 720 565 1,046
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 15.69% 17.86% 18.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 518 374 691
10th Percentile £190 £200 £170
25th Percentile £255 £260 £213
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £438 £425
Median % change year-on-year +2.86% +2.94% -12.46%
75th Percentile £545 £575 £575
90th Percentile £638 £650 £638
England median daily rate £447 £475 £463
% change year-on-year -5.89% +2.70% -10.19%
Number of hourly rates quoted 65 26 87
10th Percentile £12.50 £22.33 £16.25
25th Percentile £15.50 £34.69 £24.00
Median hourly rate £20.79 £59.13 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -64.84% +7.50% +131.19%
75th Percentile £48.75 £63.44 £68.63
90th Percentile £75.00 £73.13 £76.53
England median hourly rate £22.54 £49.50 £25.06
% change year-on-year -54.47% +97.55% -2.54%

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 3 February 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 3 February 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 3 February 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 +7 144 £430 -9.95% 70
Berkshire +7 120 £420 -11.58% 36
Hampshire -7 96 £500 -13.04% 55
Surrey +4 44 £208 -58.50% 30
Buckinghamshire -1 18 £613 +44.12% 7
Sussex - 9 - - 1
West Sussex -10 6 £513 -29.31% 7
Oxfordshire -10 6 £388 -27.91% 27
East Sussex - 5 - - 4
Middlesex - 4 - - 3
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 (2.28%) Mattermost
1 7 (2.28%) Microsoft Exchange
1 7 (2.28%) Skype for Business
2 2 (0.65%) Apache
2 2 (0.65%) Confluence
2 2 (0.65%) JBoss
3 1 (0.33%) Appian
3 1 (0.33%) SharePoint
Applications
1 22 (7.17%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.33%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.33%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 7 (2.28%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.65%) 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 (27.04%) AWS
2 61 (19.87%) Azure
3 35 (11.40%) OpenShift
4 27 (8.79%) GitHub
5 20 (6.51%) GCP
6 19 (6.19%) SaaS
7 16 (5.21%) Sauce Labs
8 14 (4.56%) AWS CloudFormation
8 14 (4.56%) GitHub Actions
8 14 (4.56%) Google Workspace
9 13 (4.23%) Cloud Computing
9 13 (4.23%) IaaS
10 8 (2.61%) Amazon ECR
10 8 (2.61%) Microsoft 365
10 8 (2.61%) OCI
10 8 (2.61%) Serverless
11 7 (2.28%) Amazon EKS
11 7 (2.28%) AWS Lambda
12 6 (1.95%) Amazon EC2
13 5 (1.63%) Amazon S3
Communications & Networking
1 39 (12.70%) DNS
2 31 (10.10%) TCP/IP
3 23 (7.49%) Firewall
4 20 (6.51%) DHCP
5 16 (5.21%) Wireless
6 13 (4.23%) VLAN
7 10 (3.26%) SAN
8 8 (2.61%) WAN
8 8 (2.61%) Wireshark
9 7 (2.28%) LAN
9 7 (2.28%) Network Security
9 7 (2.28%) Skype
10 5 (1.63%) NAS
11 3 (0.98%) BGP
11 3 (0.98%) Ethernet VPN
11 3 (0.98%) NFC
11 3 (0.98%) OSPF
11 3 (0.98%) PPP
11 3 (0.98%) VPN
12 2 (0.65%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 33 (10.75%) Relational Database
2 31 (10.10%) MySQL
3 17 (5.54%) PostgreSQL
4 12 (3.91%) Amazon RDS
5 10 (3.26%) NoSQL
5 10 (3.26%) SQL Server
6 7 (2.28%) Oracle Database
7 6 (1.95%) Amazon Redshift
7 6 (1.95%) Couchbase
8 3 (0.98%) Oracle Reports
8 3 (0.98%) RDBMS
8 3 (0.98%) Redis
8 3 (0.98%) SAP HANA
9 2 (0.65%) Elasticsearch
9 2 (0.65%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 1 (0.33%) Amazon Aurora
10 1 (0.33%) GIS
10 1 (0.33%) Oracle Exadata
10 1 (0.33%) SQL Server Analysis Services
10 1 (0.33%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 39 (12.70%) Jenkins
2 19 (6.19%) Eclipse
2 19 (6.19%) Git
3 17 (5.54%) Browser DevTools
4 16 (5.21%) Android Studio
4 16 (5.21%) Xcode
5 14 (4.56%) GitLab
6 11 (3.58%) Burp Suite
6 11 (3.58%) JIRA
7 10 (3.26%) JMeter
7 10 (3.26%) JUnit
8 9 (2.93%) Cucumber
8 9 (2.93%) Sonatype Nexus
9 8 (2.61%) Metasploit
10 7 (2.28%) Artifactory
11 3 (0.98%) Valgrind
12 2 (0.65%) Subversion
12 2 (0.65%) Visual Studio
13 1 (0.33%) Bitbucket
13 1 (0.33%) LoadRunner
General
1 93 (30.29%) Social Skills
2 34 (11.07%) Analytical Skills
3 20 (6.51%) Public Sector
4 18 (5.86%) Military
5 17 (5.54%) Finance
6 13 (4.23%) Organisational Skills
7 4 (1.30%) Documentation Skills
7 4 (1.30%) Legal
8 3 (0.98%) Aerospace
8 3 (0.98%) Law
9 2 (0.65%) Back Office
9 2 (0.65%) Banking
9 2 (0.65%) Front Office
10 1 (0.33%) Advertising
10 1 (0.33%) Electronics
10 1 (0.33%) Retail
10 1 (0.33%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 41 (13.36%) Support Engineer
2 34 (11.07%) Architect
3 31 (10.10%) Analyst
3 31 (10.10%) Technical Support
4 29 (9.45%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 28 (9.12%) Senior
6 20 (6.51%) DevOps Engineer
7 19 (6.19%) Infrastructure Support
7 19 (6.19%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
7 19 (6.19%) Software Engineer
7 19 (6.19%) Tester
8 18 (5.86%) Technical Engineer
8 18 (5.86%) Technical Support Engineer
9 17 (5.54%) UX Engineer
10 14 (4.56%) Developer
10 14 (4.56%) Infrastructure Architect
10 14 (4.56%) SOC Analyst
11 13 (4.23%) Front-End Engineer (Client-Side Engineer)
11 13 (4.23%) IT Support
12 12 (3.91%) Support Officer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (6.84%) Kafka
2 18 (5.86%) CSS
2 18 (5.86%) React
3 17 (5.54%) Ajax
3 17 (5.54%) AngularJS
3 17 (5.54%) GraphQL
4 15 (4.89%) Elastic Stack
5 10 (3.26%) Loki
5 10 (3.26%) Spring
5 10 (3.26%) XML
6 9 (2.93%) JSON
7 8 (2.61%) Hibernate
7 8 (2.61%) YAML
8 7 (2.28%) REST
9 6 (1.95%) Middleware
10 4 (1.30%) Web Services
11 3 (0.98%) Keycloak
11 3 (0.98%) Swagger
12 2 (0.65%) Jinja
12 2 (0.65%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 20 (6.51%) Cloud Native
2 17 (5.54%) Mobile App
3 14 (4.56%) Analytical Mindset
3 14 (4.56%) Security Operations Centre
4 13 (4.23%) Enterprise Software
5 12 (3.91%) Replication
6 11 (3.58%) PKI
7 8 (2.61%) Virtual Team
8 7 (2.28%) Cyberattack
8 7 (2.28%) Management Information System
9 6 (1.95%) Data Centre
9 6 (1.95%) Onboarding
9 6 (1.95%) Security Posture
10 5 (1.63%) CAN bus
10 5 (1.63%) Cyber Threat
11 4 (1.30%) Linux Command Line
11 4 (1.30%) Public Cloud
12 3 (0.98%) Clustering
12 3 (0.98%) Smartcard
13 2 (0.65%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 156 (50.81%) Windows
2 53 (17.26%) Unix
3 42 (13.68%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 16 (5.21%) Android
4 16 (5.21%) Windows Server
5 11 (3.58%) Kali Linux
5 11 (3.58%) Ubuntu
6 7 (2.28%) Windows Server 2016
7 4 (1.30%) CentOS
7 4 (1.30%) Windows Server 2019
8 3 (0.98%) Debian
8 3 (0.98%) Mac OS
9 2 (0.65%) SUSE
9 2 (0.65%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
10 1 (0.33%) Embedded Linux
10 1 (0.33%) Solaris
10 1 (0.33%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 92 (29.97%) CI/CD
2 65 (21.17%) DevOps
3 51 (16.61%) Problem-Solving
4 48 (15.64%) Agile
5 40 (13.03%) ITIL
6 38 (12.38%) Infrastructure as Code
7 37 (12.05%) Containerisation
8 36 (11.73%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 31 (10.10%) OO
10 27 (8.79%) SIEM
11 26 (8.47%) Cybersecurity
11 26 (8.47%) Incident Response
12 25 (8.14%) Continuous Improvement
13 24 (7.82%) Computer Science
13 24 (7.82%) Software Engineering
14 23 (7.49%) High Availability
14 23 (7.49%) Observability
15 22 (7.17%) DevSecOps
15 22 (7.17%) Platform Engineering
16 21 (6.84%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 115 (37.46%) Python
2 53 (17.26%) Java
3 50 (16.29%) Bash
3 50 (16.29%) PowerShell
4 39 (12.70%) SQL
5 38 (12.38%) JavaScript
6 36 (11.73%) Perl
7 16 (5.21%) Shell Script
8 13 (4.23%) C#
8 13 (4.23%) C++
9 7 (2.28%) C
10 5 (1.63%) Embedded C++
11 4 (1.30%) Ada
11 4 (1.30%) Search Processing Language
12 3 (0.98%) Go
12 3 (0.98%) MATLAB
12 3 (0.98%) Rust
13 2 (0.65%) Assembly Language
13 2 (0.65%) PL/SQL
13 2 (0.65%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 166 (54.07%) Security Cleared
2 97 (31.60%) SC Cleared
3 65 (21.17%) DV Cleared
4 27 (8.79%) Degree
5 22 (7.17%) Computer Science Degree
6 14 (4.56%) Azure Certification
7 12 (3.91%) Microsoft Certification
8 11 (3.58%) CISSP
8 11 (3.58%) Network+ Certification
8 11 (3.58%) Server+ Certification
9 10 (3.26%) CEH
10 9 (2.93%) OSCP
11 8 (2.61%) GCFA
11 8 (2.61%) GCIH
11 8 (2.61%) GPEN
12 7 (2.28%) AWS Certification
12 7 (2.28%) ITIL Certification
12 7 (2.28%) RHCE
13 6 (1.95%) Cisco Certification
13 6 (1.95%) GCIA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (2.93%) GDPR
2 8 (2.61%) QA
3 7 (2.28%) HIPAA
3 7 (2.28%) NIST
4 6 (1.95%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 4 (1.30%) SOC 2
6 2 (0.65%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.33%) Accessibility
7 1 (0.33%) Cyber Essentials
7 1 (0.33%) Def Stans
7 1 (0.33%) SLA
System Software
1 61 (19.87%) VMware Infrastructure
2 32 (10.42%) Docker
3 25 (8.14%) Active Directory
4 21 (6.84%) vSphere
5 18 (5.86%) Hyper-V
6 12 (3.91%) Virtual Machines
7 8 (2.61%) VMware NSX
8 4 (1.30%) VMware ESXi
9 3 (0.98%) Firmware
10 2 (0.65%) KVM
11 1 (0.33%) GPFS
11 1 (0.33%) NDS
11 1 (0.33%) NetIQ eDirectory
11 1 (0.33%) NFS
11 1 (0.33%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 72 (23.45%) Ansible
2 59 (19.22%) Kubernetes
3 55 (17.92%) Terraform
4 26 (8.47%) Grafana
5 24 (7.82%) Prometheus
6 17 (5.54%) Argo
7 14 (4.56%) Red Hat Satellite
8 13 (4.23%) Progress Chef
9 11 (3.58%) Nmap
9 11 (3.58%) vCenter Server
10 9 (2.93%) Puppet
11 8 (2.61%) Kustomize
11 8 (2.61%) SCOM
12 7 (2.28%) HP SiteScope
12 7 (2.28%) Sysdig
13 6 (1.95%) Podman
13 6 (1.95%) Proxmox
14 4 (1.30%) Data Guard
14 4 (1.30%) Oracle RMAN
14 4 (1.30%) SCCM
Vendors
1 90 (29.32%) VMware
2 79 (25.73%) Microsoft
3 60 (19.54%) Red Hat
4 50 (16.29%) Splunk
5 41 (13.36%) Oracle
6 17 (5.54%) ServiceNow
7 10 (3.26%) Cisco
8 7 (2.28%) IBM
8 7 (2.28%) Remedy
9 6 (1.95%) Confluent
9 6 (1.95%) CrowdStrike
9 6 (1.95%) NetApp
9 6 (1.95%) Pure Storage
10 5 (1.63%) ArcSight
10 5 (1.63%) Google
11 4 (1.30%) HP
11 4 (1.30%) LogRhythm
11 4 (1.30%) Mellanox
11 4 (1.30%) MuleSoft
11 4 (1.30%) SAP