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 25 October 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 24 28 20
Rank change year-on-year +4 -8 +9
Contract jobs citing Linux 251 283 456
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 6.84% 6.69% 8.24%
As % of the Operating Systems category 37.86% 37.68% 42.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 177 170 305
10th Percentile £204 £252 £305
25th Percentile £363 £420 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £538 £608 £613
90th Percentile £600 £660 £675
England median daily rate £514 £550 £557
% change year-on-year -6.59% -1.33% -4.30%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 20 32
10th Percentile - £51.79 £51.25
25th Percentile £12.50 £62.50 £55.00
Median hourly rate £13.00 £70.00 £67.27
Median % change year-on-year -81.43% +4.07% +22.30%
75th Percentile £13.50 - £71.90
90th Percentile £65.58 £73.88 £76.53
England median hourly rate £65.00 £67.50 £65.00
% change year-on-year -3.70% +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 663 751 1,074
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 18.08% 17.76% 19.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 458 491 707
10th Percentile £188 £200 £170
25th Percentile £219 £325 £211
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £435 £450 £425
Median % change year-on-year -3.33% +5.88% -5.56%
75th Percentile £538 £585 £575
90th Percentile £600 £650 £650
England median daily rate £450 £475 £495
% change year-on-year -5.26% -4.04% -1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 68 36 84
10th Percentile £12.50 £24.25 £16.73
25th Percentile £15.50 £37.40 £24.26
Median hourly rate £18.87 £62.50 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -69.81% +13.64% +223.53%
75th Percentile £25.04 £70.00 £68.66
90th Percentile £41.01 £71.88 £76.53
England median hourly rate £23.00 £58.00 £43.75
% change year-on-year -60.34% +32.56% +75.00%

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 25 October 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 25 October 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 25 October 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 +16 111 £483 -10.65% 247
Berkshire +21 93 £450 -18.18% 176
Hampshire -10 70 £500 -13.79% 84
Surrey +1 48 £208 -48.13% 37
Buckinghamshire -3 11 £550 +0.92% 54
Oxfordshire -11 7 £381 -19.74% 17
Sussex - 6 - - 27
Middlesex - 5 - - 9
West Sussex -11 4 £488 +8.33% 25
East Sussex - 2 - - 8
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 (2.79%) Mattermost
1 7 (2.79%) Skype for Business
2 5 (1.99%) Apache
2 5 (1.99%) OpenStack
3 4 (1.59%) Microsoft Exchange
4 2 (0.80%) JBoss
5 1 (0.40%) Anypoint
5 1 (0.40%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.40%) Apache Spark
5 1 (0.40%) Gunicorn
5 1 (0.40%) nginx
Applications
1 18 (7.17%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.40%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.40%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 7 (2.79%) Remedy ITSM
2 3 (1.20%) Payment Gateway
3 1 (0.40%) SAP MDG
3 1 (0.40%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 55 (21.91%) AWS
2 44 (17.53%) Azure
3 24 (9.56%) OpenShift
4 18 (7.17%) GitHub
5 17 (6.77%) SaaS
6 16 (6.37%) Sauce Labs
7 13 (5.18%) GCP
8 10 (3.98%) Google Workspace
9 9 (3.59%) AWS Lambda
9 9 (3.59%) IaaS
9 9 (3.59%) Serverless
10 7 (2.79%) Cloud Computing
10 7 (2.79%) OCI
11 6 (2.39%) AWS CloudFormation
12 5 (1.99%) Entra ID
13 4 (1.59%) Amazon ECR
13 4 (1.59%) Amazon S3
13 4 (1.59%) GitHub Actions
14 3 (1.20%) Amazon EMR
14 3 (1.20%) Amazon Kinesis
Communications & Networking
1 27 (10.76%) DNS
2 20 (7.97%) TCP/IP
3 18 (7.17%) SAN
3 18 (7.17%) Wireless
4 16 (6.37%) DHCP
5 13 (5.18%) Firewall
5 13 (5.18%) VLAN
6 9 (3.59%) NFC
6 9 (3.59%) PPP
7 8 (3.19%) Wireshark
8 7 (2.79%) Skype
9 6 (2.39%) LAN
9 6 (2.39%) WAN
10 5 (1.99%) Network Security
11 4 (1.59%) NAS
11 4 (1.59%) VSAN
12 3 (1.20%) SSL
13 2 (0.80%) HTTP
13 2 (0.80%) VoIP
13 2 (0.80%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 25 (9.96%) Relational Database
2 23 (9.16%) MySQL
3 13 (5.18%) NoSQL
3 13 (5.18%) PostgreSQL
4 9 (3.59%) Amazon Redshift
5 7 (2.79%) Redis
5 7 (2.79%) SQL Server
6 6 (2.39%) Amazon RDS
6 6 (2.39%) Couchbase
6 6 (2.39%) Oracle Database
7 3 (1.20%) Data Warehouse
7 3 (1.20%) Oracle Exadata
7 3 (1.20%) RDBMS
8 2 (0.80%) Elasticsearch
8 2 (0.80%) MongoDB
8 2 (0.80%) Oracle Database 12c
8 2 (0.80%) SAP HANA
8 2 (0.80%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 1 (0.40%) Big Data
9 1 (0.40%) Parquet
Development Applications
1 27 (10.76%) Jenkins
2 25 (9.96%) Eclipse
3 17 (6.77%) Browser DevTools
4 16 (6.37%) Android Studio
4 16 (6.37%) Xcode
5 13 (5.18%) Git
6 9 (3.59%) Burp Suite
6 9 (3.59%) Valgrind
7 8 (3.19%) JIRA
8 7 (2.79%) GitLab
8 7 (2.79%) Metasploit
8 7 (2.79%) Sonatype Nexus
9 4 (1.59%) MSI
9 4 (1.59%) Robot Framework
10 3 (1.20%) Artifactory
10 3 (1.20%) Cucumber
10 3 (1.20%) JMeter
10 3 (1.20%) JUnit
11 2 (0.80%) Visual Studio
12 1 (0.40%) Subversion
General
1 107 (42.63%) Social Skills
2 27 (10.76%) Analytical Skills
3 19 (7.57%) Finance
4 18 (7.17%) Public Sector
5 9 (3.59%) Military
5 9 (3.59%) Organisational Skills
6 8 (3.19%) Legal
7 6 (2.39%) Banking
7 6 (2.39%) Telecoms
8 4 (1.59%) Documentation Skills
9 3 (1.20%) Presentation Skills
10 2 (0.80%) Aerospace
10 2 (0.80%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 2 (0.80%) Investment Banking
10 2 (0.80%) Retail
11 1 (0.40%) Automotive
11 1 (0.40%) Back Office
11 1 (0.40%) Electronics
11 1 (0.40%) Front Office
11 1 (0.40%) Law
Job Titles
1 42 (16.73%) Support Engineer
2 29 (11.55%) Senior
3 27 (10.76%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 26 (10.36%) Technical Support
5 22 (8.76%) Architect
6 19 (7.57%) Technical Engineer
6 19 (7.57%) Technical Support Engineer
7 18 (7.17%) Analyst
8 17 (6.77%) Infrastructure Support
8 17 (6.77%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
8 17 (6.77%) UX Engineer
9 16 (6.37%) DevOps Engineer
9 16 (6.37%) Front-End Engineer (Client-Side Engineer)
10 14 (5.58%) C++ Software Engineer
10 14 (5.58%) Developer
10 14 (5.58%) Software Engineer
11 11 (4.38%) Cloud Engineer
11 11 (4.38%) Linux Engineer
12 10 (3.98%) IT Support
12 10 (3.98%) Senior C++ Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (7.97%) Kafka
2 18 (7.17%) CSS
2 18 (7.17%) React
3 17 (6.77%) Ajax
3 17 (6.77%) AngularJS
3 17 (6.77%) GraphQL
4 12 (4.78%) Elastic Stack
4 12 (4.78%) JSON
4 12 (4.78%) REST
5 10 (3.98%) Web Services
5 10 (3.98%) XML
6 9 (3.59%) Middleware
7 7 (2.79%) Loki
7 7 (2.79%) YAML
8 6 (2.39%) Keycloak
9 4 (1.59%) Swagger
10 3 (1.20%) Hibernate
10 3 (1.20%) Oracle GoldenGate
10 3 (1.20%) Spring
11 2 (0.80%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 17 (6.77%) Mobile App
2 13 (5.18%) PKI
3 11 (4.38%) Analytical Mindset
3 11 (4.38%) Cloud Native
3 11 (4.38%) Enterprise Software
3 11 (4.38%) Replication
4 9 (3.59%) Management Information System
4 9 (3.59%) Smartcard
5 7 (2.79%) Enterprise Storage
5 7 (2.79%) Security Operations Centre
5 7 (2.79%) Virtual Team
6 6 (2.39%) FPGA
6 6 (2.39%) Security Posture
6 6 (2.39%) Verilog
7 5 (1.99%) CAN bus
7 5 (1.99%) Cyber Threat
7 5 (1.99%) Data Centre
8 4 (1.59%) Onboarding
9 3 (1.20%) Product Ownership
9 3 (1.20%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 122 (48.61%) Windows
2 54 (21.51%) Unix
3 43 (17.13%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 23 (9.16%) Ubuntu
5 21 (8.37%) Windows Server
6 17 (6.77%) Android
7 15 (5.98%) Windows Server 2016
8 14 (5.58%) CentOS
8 14 (5.58%) Windows Server 2019
9 9 (3.59%) Kali Linux
10 5 (1.99%) Debian
10 5 (1.99%) Windows Server 2012
11 4 (1.59%) Mac OS
12 2 (0.80%) VMS
13 1 (0.40%) Oracle Linux
13 1 (0.40%) Rocky
13 1 (0.40%) Solaris
13 1 (0.40%) SUSE
13 1 (0.40%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
13 1 (0.40%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 60 (23.90%) CI/CD
2 56 (22.31%) DevOps
3 54 (21.51%) Problem-Solving
4 50 (19.92%) ITIL
5 45 (17.93%) Agile
6 31 (12.35%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 30 (11.95%) Containerisation
8 28 (11.16%) Infrastructure as Code
9 26 (10.36%) User Experience
10 23 (9.16%) OO
10 23 (9.16%) Software Engineering
11 22 (8.76%) Continuous Improvement
11 22 (8.76%) Disaster Recovery
12 20 (7.97%) Validation
13 19 (7.57%) Observability
14 18 (7.17%) High Availability
14 18 (7.17%) Performance Tuning
15 17 (6.77%) Cybersecurity
15 17 (6.77%) Mobile Application Development
15 17 (6.77%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 114 (45.42%) Python
2 50 (19.92%) PowerShell
3 48 (19.12%) Java
4 46 (18.33%) Bash
5 39 (15.54%) SQL
6 37 (14.74%) JavaScript
7 28 (11.16%) Perl
8 22 (8.76%) Shell Script
9 17 (6.77%) C#
9 17 (6.77%) C++
10 6 (2.39%) SystemVerilog
10 6 (2.39%) Tcl
11 5 (1.99%) Embedded C++
11 5 (1.99%) PHP
12 4 (1.59%) C
12 4 (1.59%) PL/SQL
12 4 (1.59%) Search Processing Language
13 3 (1.20%) Go
13 3 (1.20%) Scala
14 2 (0.80%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 99 (39.44%) Security Cleared
2 61 (24.30%) SC Cleared
3 37 (14.74%) DV Cleared
4 19 (7.57%) Degree
5 14 (5.58%) CISSP
6 12 (4.78%) GCIH
6 12 (4.78%) Microsoft Certification
7 11 (4.38%) Azure Certification
7 11 (4.38%) Computer Science Degree
7 11 (4.38%) Network+ Certification
7 11 (4.38%) Server+ Certification
8 10 (3.98%) GCFA
9 8 (3.19%) CEH
9 8 (3.19%) GCIA
9 8 (3.19%) OSCP
10 7 (2.79%) CFCE
10 7 (2.79%) GPEN
10 7 (2.79%) ITIL Certification
11 6 (2.39%) AWS Certification
12 5 (1.99%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (5.58%) NIST
2 10 (3.98%) HIPAA
3 8 (3.19%) GDPR
3 8 (3.19%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 5 (1.99%) QA
5 4 (1.59%) SOC 2
6 3 (1.20%) Data Quality
7 1 (0.40%) Accessibility
7 1 (0.40%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.40%) AUTOSAR
7 1 (0.40%) Def Stans
7 1 (0.40%) ISO/IEC 17025
7 1 (0.40%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 42 (16.73%) VMware Infrastructure
2 28 (11.16%) Docker
3 25 (9.96%) Active Directory
4 24 (9.56%) vSphere
5 14 (5.58%) Hyper-V
6 11 (4.38%) Virtual Machines
7 8 (3.19%) VMware NSX
8 4 (1.59%) Oracle RAC
8 4 (1.59%) VMware ESXi
9 2 (0.80%) KVM
10 1 (0.40%) Firmware
10 1 (0.40%) GPFS
10 1 (0.40%) NDS
10 1 (0.40%) NetIQ eDirectory
10 1 (0.40%) NFS
Systems Management
1 57 (22.71%) Ansible
2 46 (18.33%) Kubernetes
3 38 (15.14%) Terraform
4 16 (6.37%) Grafana
4 16 (6.37%) Prometheus
5 14 (5.58%) Argo
6 9 (3.59%) Nmap
6 9 (3.59%) SCOM
7 8 (3.19%) Red Hat Satellite
8 7 (2.79%) HP SiteScope
8 7 (2.79%) Kustomize
8 7 (2.79%) vCenter Server
9 6 (2.39%) NetBackup
9 6 (2.39%) Packer
9 6 (2.39%) Proxmox
10 5 (1.99%) Progress Chef
11 4 (1.59%) Data Guard
11 4 (1.59%) Oracle RMAN
11 4 (1.59%) SCCM
11 4 (1.59%) WMI
Vendors
1 76 (30.28%) Microsoft
2 71 (28.29%) VMware
3 55 (21.91%) Red Hat
4 43 (17.13%) Splunk
5 32 (12.75%) Oracle
6 20 (7.97%) ServiceNow
7 12 (4.78%) Cisco
8 9 (3.59%) ArcSight
8 9 (3.59%) CrowdStrike
8 9 (3.59%) NetApp
9 8 (3.19%) HP
9 8 (3.19%) IBM
9 8 (3.19%) Remedy
10 7 (2.79%) 3PAR
10 7 (2.79%) Veritas
11 6 (2.39%) Dell
11 6 (2.39%) LogRhythm
11 6 (2.39%) MuleSoft
11 6 (2.39%) Nimble Storage
11 6 (2.39%) Xilinx