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

6 months to
28 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 25 31 23
Rank change year-on-year +6 -8 +7
Contract jobs citing Linux 308 234 378
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 6.97% 6.46% 7.56%
As % of the Operating Systems category 41.90% 37.32% 38.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 218 152 253
10th Percentile £204 £350 £309
25th Percentile £360 £424 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £538 £613 £608
90th Percentile £627 £675 £675
England median daily rate £513 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -6.82% - -5.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 23 13 35
10th Percentile - £55.60 £41.84
25th Percentile £12.50 £61.25 £55.00
Median hourly rate £16.00 £62.50 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -74.40% -3.85% +21.50%
75th Percentile £48.75 £67.02 £70.95
90th Percentile £76.05 £71.00 £76.53
England median hourly rate £63.32 £66.50 £62.00
% change year-on-year -4.79% +7.26% -4.62%

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 735 627 984
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 16.64% 17.32% 19.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 519 430 661
10th Percentile £190 £200 £161
25th Percentile £250 £278 £210
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £447 £435 £400
Median % change year-on-year +2.85% +8.65% -15.79%
75th Percentile £538 £575 £568
90th Percentile £638 £650 £638
England median daily rate £450 £470 £475
% change year-on-year -4.26% -1.05% -7.32%
Number of hourly rates quoted 80 27 74
10th Percentile £12.50 £23.00 £19.04
25th Percentile £15.62 £35.00 £28.13
Median hourly rate £20.79 £57.25 £55.50
Median % change year-on-year -63.69% +3.15% +196.00%
75th Percentile £48.75 £64.38 £69.66
90th Percentile £80.20 £72.75 £76.53
England median hourly rate £25.15 £52.50 £32.50
% change year-on-year -52.10% +61.54% +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 28 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 28 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 28 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 +16 141 £450 -6.25% 229
Berkshire +14 121 £425 -10.53% 152
Hampshire -7 91 £500 -13.04% 90
Surrey +2 54 £208 -58.50% 48
Buckinghamshire +8 14 £600 +41.18% 37
Sussex - 9 - - 1
West Sussex -9 6 £513 -29.31% 22
Oxfordshire -11 6 £388 -22.50% 40
Middlesex - 5 - - 1
East Sussex - 3 - - 20
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 (2.27%) Mattermost
1 7 (2.27%) Skype for Business
2 4 (1.30%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (0.65%) Apache
3 2 (0.65%) JBoss
4 1 (0.32%) Apache Airflow
4 1 (0.32%) Apache Spark
4 1 (0.32%) Confluence
4 1 (0.32%) Gunicorn
4 1 (0.32%) nginx
4 1 (0.32%) SharePoint
Applications
1 22 (7.14%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.32%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.32%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 7 (2.27%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.65%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.32%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.32%) Oracle EBS R12
3 1 (0.32%) SAP MDG
Cloud Services
1 83 (26.95%) AWS
2 60 (19.48%) Azure
3 33 (10.71%) OpenShift
4 27 (8.77%) GitHub
5 24 (7.79%) SaaS
6 21 (6.82%) Sauce Labs
7 20 (6.49%) GCP
8 14 (4.55%) AWS CloudFormation
8 14 (4.55%) Cloud Computing
8 14 (4.55%) Google Workspace
9 13 (4.22%) GitHub Actions
9 13 (4.22%) IaaS
10 8 (2.60%) Amazon ECR
10 8 (2.60%) OCI
10 8 (2.60%) Serverless
11 7 (2.27%) Amazon EKS
11 7 (2.27%) AWS Lambda
12 6 (1.95%) Amazon EC2
12 6 (1.95%) Amazon S3
12 6 (1.95%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 37 (12.01%) DNS
2 30 (9.74%) TCP/IP
3 23 (7.47%) Firewall
4 20 (6.49%) DHCP
4 20 (6.49%) Wireless
5 16 (5.19%) SAN
6 13 (4.22%) VLAN
7 8 (2.60%) Network Security
8 7 (2.27%) LAN
8 7 (2.27%) Skype
8 7 (2.27%) WAN
8 7 (2.27%) Wireshark
9 5 (1.62%) NAS
10 4 (1.30%) NFC
10 4 (1.30%) PPP
11 3 (0.97%) HTTP
11 3 (0.97%) SSL
12 2 (0.65%) Internet
12 2 (0.65%) VoIP
12 2 (0.65%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 34 (11.04%) Relational Database
2 33 (10.71%) MySQL
3 18 (5.84%) PostgreSQL
4 12 (3.90%) Amazon RDS
5 11 (3.57%) NoSQL
5 11 (3.57%) SQL Server
6 10 (3.25%) Oracle Database
7 6 (1.95%) Amazon Redshift
7 6 (1.95%) Couchbase
8 4 (1.30%) Oracle Exadata
8 4 (1.30%) Redis
9 3 (0.97%) Oracle Reports
9 3 (0.97%) RDBMS
9 3 (0.97%) SAP HANA
10 2 (0.65%) Elasticsearch
10 2 (0.65%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 1 (0.32%) Big Data
11 1 (0.32%) Hadoop
11 1 (0.32%) Oracle Database 12c
11 1 (0.32%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 39 (12.66%) Jenkins
2 25 (8.12%) Eclipse
3 22 (7.14%) Browser DevTools
4 21 (6.82%) Android Studio
4 21 (6.82%) Xcode
5 20 (6.49%) Git
6 14 (4.55%) GitLab
7 10 (3.25%) JIRA
7 10 (3.25%) JMeter
8 9 (2.92%) Burp Suite
8 9 (2.92%) Cucumber
8 9 (2.92%) JUnit
8 9 (2.92%) Sonatype Nexus
9 7 (2.27%) Artifactory
9 7 (2.27%) Metasploit
10 4 (1.30%) Valgrind
11 2 (0.65%) Subversion
11 2 (0.65%) Visual Studio
12 1 (0.32%) LoadRunner
12 1 (0.32%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 107 (34.74%) Social Skills
2 30 (9.74%) Analytical Skills
3 21 (6.82%) Public Sector
4 20 (6.49%) Finance
5 14 (4.55%) Military
6 13 (4.22%) Organisational Skills
7 8 (2.60%) Legal
8 5 (1.62%) Banking
9 4 (1.30%) Documentation Skills
10 3 (0.97%) Aerospace
11 2 (0.65%) Back Office
11 2 (0.65%) Front Office
11 2 (0.65%) Investment Banking
12 1 (0.32%) Electronics
12 1 (0.32%) French Language
12 1 (0.32%) German Language
12 1 (0.32%) Law
12 1 (0.32%) Retail
Job Titles
1 46 (14.94%) Support Engineer
2 36 (11.69%) Technical Support
3 31 (10.06%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 29 (9.42%) Analyst
4 29 (9.42%) Architect
5 26 (8.44%) Senior
6 24 (7.79%) Technical Engineer
6 24 (7.79%) Technical Support Engineer
7 22 (7.14%) DevOps Engineer
7 22 (7.14%) UX Engineer
8 19 (6.17%) Infrastructure Support
8 19 (6.17%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
9 18 (5.84%) Front-End Engineer (Client-Side Engineer)
10 16 (5.19%) Software Engineer
11 15 (4.87%) SOC Analyst
12 14 (4.55%) Developer
12 14 (4.55%) IT Support
12 14 (4.55%) Tester
13 12 (3.90%) Administrator
13 12 (3.90%) Infrastructure Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (7.14%) Ajax
1 22 (7.14%) AngularJS
1 22 (7.14%) CSS
1 22 (7.14%) GraphQL
1 22 (7.14%) React
2 21 (6.82%) Kafka
3 15 (4.87%) Elastic Stack
4 11 (3.57%) XML
5 10 (3.25%) JSON
5 10 (3.25%) Loki
6 9 (2.92%) Spring
7 8 (2.60%) Hibernate
7 8 (2.60%) REST
7 8 (2.60%) YAML
8 7 (2.27%) Middleware
9 5 (1.62%) Web Services
10 4 (1.30%) Oracle GoldenGate
11 3 (0.97%) Keycloak
11 3 (0.97%) Swagger
12 2 (0.65%) Jinja
Miscellaneous
1 22 (7.14%) Mobile App
2 20 (6.49%) Cloud Native
3 15 (4.87%) PKI
4 14 (4.55%) Analytical Mindset
4 14 (4.55%) Replication
5 13 (4.22%) Enterprise Software
5 13 (4.22%) Security Operations Centre
6 10 (3.25%) Management Information System
7 8 (2.60%) Virtual Team
8 7 (2.27%) Cyber Threat
8 7 (2.27%) Enterprise Storage
9 6 (1.95%) Onboarding
9 6 (1.95%) Security Posture
10 5 (1.62%) CAN bus
10 5 (1.62%) Data Centre
11 4 (1.30%) Cyberattack
11 4 (1.30%) Linux Command Line
11 4 (1.30%) Public Cloud
11 4 (1.30%) Smartcard
12 3 (0.97%) Clustering
Operating Systems
1 154 (50.00%) Windows
2 57 (18.51%) Unix
3 48 (15.58%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 21 (6.82%) Android
5 14 (4.55%) Ubuntu
5 14 (4.55%) Windows Server
6 10 (3.25%) Windows Server 2016
7 9 (2.92%) Kali Linux
7 9 (2.92%) Windows Server 2019
8 5 (1.62%) CentOS
8 5 (1.62%) Mac OS
9 4 (1.30%) Windows Server 2012
10 3 (0.97%) Debian
11 2 (0.65%) SUSE
11 2 (0.65%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
12 1 (0.32%) Solaris
12 1 (0.32%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 86 (27.92%) CI/CD
2 67 (21.75%) DevOps
3 53 (17.21%) Problem-Solving
4 50 (16.23%) ITIL
5 49 (15.91%) Agile
6 39 (12.66%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 38 (12.34%) Containerisation
7 38 (12.34%) Infrastructure as Code
8 33 (10.71%) OO
9 26 (8.44%) Continuous Improvement
9 26 (8.44%) Incident Response
9 26 (8.44%) SIEM
9 26 (8.44%) User Experience
10 24 (7.79%) Cybersecurity
10 24 (7.79%) Observability
11 23 (7.47%) Performance Tuning
12 22 (7.14%) Computer Science
12 22 (7.14%) High Availability
12 22 (7.14%) Mobile Application Development
12 22 (7.14%) Software Engineering
Programming Languages
1 120 (38.96%) Python
2 56 (18.18%) Java
3 53 (17.21%) PowerShell
4 52 (16.88%) Bash
5 43 (13.96%) SQL
6 41 (13.31%) JavaScript
7 39 (12.66%) Perl
8 22 (7.14%) Shell Script
9 14 (4.55%) C#
10 12 (3.90%) C++
11 5 (1.62%) Embedded C++
11 5 (1.62%) PL/SQL
12 4 (1.30%) C
12 4 (1.30%) Search Processing Language
13 3 (0.97%) Go
14 2 (0.65%) Ada
14 2 (0.65%) Assembly Language
14 2 (0.65%) MATLAB
15 1 (0.32%) Delphi
15 1 (0.32%) Tcl
Qualifications
1 153 (49.68%) Security Cleared
2 92 (29.87%) SC Cleared
3 57 (18.51%) DV Cleared
4 24 (7.79%) Degree
5 19 (6.17%) Computer Science Degree
6 14 (4.55%) Azure Certification
6 14 (4.55%) CISSP
7 12 (3.90%) Microsoft Certification
8 11 (3.57%) GCFA
8 11 (3.57%) GCIH
8 11 (3.57%) Network+ Certification
8 11 (3.57%) Server+ Certification
9 9 (2.92%) CEH
9 9 (2.92%) GCIA
10 8 (2.60%) CFCE
10 8 (2.60%) OSCP
11 7 (2.27%) AWS Certification
11 7 (2.27%) GIAC
11 7 (2.27%) GPEN
11 7 (2.27%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (4.87%) NIST
2 13 (4.22%) GDPR
3 11 (3.57%) QA
4 10 (3.25%) HIPAA
4 10 (3.25%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 4 (1.30%) SOC 2
6 2 (0.65%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.32%) Accessibility
7 1 (0.32%) Cyber Essentials
7 1 (0.32%) Def Stans
7 1 (0.32%) ISO/IEC 17025
7 1 (0.32%) SLA
System Software
1 57 (18.51%) VMware Infrastructure
2 34 (11.04%) Docker
3 22 (7.14%) Active Directory
4 20 (6.49%) vSphere
5 17 (5.52%) Hyper-V
6 12 (3.90%) Virtual Machines
7 8 (2.60%) VMware NSX
8 4 (1.30%) Oracle RAC
8 4 (1.30%) VMware ESXi
9 2 (0.65%) KVM
10 1 (0.32%) Firmware
10 1 (0.32%) GPFS
10 1 (0.32%) NDS
10 1 (0.32%) NetIQ eDirectory
10 1 (0.32%) NFS
Systems Management
1 72 (23.38%) Ansible
2 61 (19.81%) Kubernetes
3 55 (17.86%) Terraform
4 26 (8.44%) Grafana
5 24 (7.79%) Prometheus
6 18 (5.84%) Argo
7 14 (4.55%) Red Hat Satellite
8 13 (4.22%) Progress Chef
9 9 (2.92%) Nmap
9 9 (2.92%) Puppet
9 9 (2.92%) SCOM
9 9 (2.92%) vCenter Server
10 8 (2.60%) Kustomize
11 7 (2.27%) Data Guard
11 7 (2.27%) HP SiteScope
11 7 (2.27%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
11 7 (2.27%) Oracle RMAN
11 7 (2.27%) Sysdig
12 6 (1.95%) NetBackup
12 6 (1.95%) Proxmox
Vendors
1 89 (28.90%) Microsoft
2 85 (27.60%) VMware
3 68 (22.08%) Red Hat
4 55 (17.86%) Splunk
5 46 (14.94%) Oracle
6 22 (7.14%) ServiceNow
7 11 (3.57%) NetApp
8 10 (3.25%) CrowdStrike
8 10 (3.25%) HP
9 9 (2.92%) Cisco
10 8 (2.60%) ArcSight
10 8 (2.60%) Veritas
11 7 (2.27%) 3PAR
11 7 (2.27%) IBM
11 7 (2.27%) LogRhythm
11 7 (2.27%) Remedy
12 6 (1.95%) Confluent
12 6 (1.95%) Nimble Storage
12 6 (1.95%) Pure Storage
13 5 (1.62%) Dell