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

6 months to
7 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 25 25 23
Rank change year-on-year 0 -2 +3
Contract jobs citing Linux 308 221 388
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 6.63% 7.00% 7.04%
As % of the Operating Systems category 43.08% 39.96% 37.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 220 136 248
10th Percentile £204 £397 £305
25th Percentile £366 £457 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £524 £525
Median % change year-on-year -9.31% -0.24% -4.55%
75th Percentile £545 £613 £576
90th Percentile £638 £675 £641
England median daily rate £500 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -9.09% - -6.14%
Number of hourly rates quoted 23 12 42
10th Percentile - £55.79 £32.13
25th Percentile £12.50 £60.81 £54.12
Median hourly rate £16.00 £62.50 £62.75
Median % change year-on-year -74.40% -0.40% -3.46%
75th Percentile £48.75 £64.06 £71.42
90th Percentile £76.05 £70.63 £76.53
England median hourly rate £63.14 £66.50 £60.00
% change year-on-year -5.06% +10.83% -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 715 553 1,031
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 15.40% 17.51% 18.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 512 363 680
10th Percentile £190 £200 £173
25th Percentile £260 £263 £213
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £450 £425
Median % change year-on-year - +5.88% -15.00%
75th Percentile £540 £575 £575
90th Percentile £638 £650 £638
England median daily rate £447 £475 £463
% change year-on-year -5.89% +2.70% -11.06%
Number of hourly rates quoted 64 24 88
10th Percentile £12.50 £21.40 £16.25
25th Percentile £15.50 £30.44 £23.91
Median hourly rate £20.79 £59.13 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -64.84% +7.50% +131.19%
75th Percentile £48.75 £62.81 £68.97
90th Percentile £75.00 £73.88 £76.53
England median hourly rate £22.69 £45.00 £25.00
% change year-on-year -49.57% +80.00% -3.85%

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 7 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 7 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 7 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 +9 147 £431 -10.53% 72
Berkshire +7 122 £423 -12.16% 35
Hampshire -7 97 £500 -13.04% 53
Surrey +1 42 £208 -58.50% 27
Buckinghamshire +3 18 £613 +44.12% 7
Sussex - 9 - - 1
Oxfordshire -12 7 £388 -27.91% 30
West Sussex -15 5 £500 -31.03% 6
East Sussex - 5 - - 2
Middlesex - 4 - - 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 7 (2.27%) Mattermost
1 7 (2.27%) Microsoft Exchange
1 7 (2.27%) Skype for Business
2 3 (0.97%) Apache
3 2 (0.65%) Confluence
3 2 (0.65%) JBoss
4 1 (0.32%) Appian
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 84 (27.27%) AWS
2 62 (20.13%) Azure
3 35 (11.36%) OpenShift
4 27 (8.77%) GitHub
5 20 (6.49%) GCP
6 18 (5.84%) SaaS
7 15 (4.87%) Sauce Labs
8 14 (4.55%) AWS CloudFormation
8 14 (4.55%) GitHub Actions
8 14 (4.55%) Google Workspace
9 13 (4.22%) Cloud Computing
9 13 (4.22%) IaaS
10 8 (2.60%) Amazon ECR
10 8 (2.60%) Microsoft 365
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
13 5 (1.62%) Amazon S3
Communications & Networking
1 38 (12.34%) DNS
2 31 (10.06%) TCP/IP
3 23 (7.47%) Firewall
4 19 (6.17%) DHCP
5 15 (4.87%) Wireless
6 13 (4.22%) VLAN
7 9 (2.92%) SAN
7 9 (2.92%) WAN
8 8 (2.60%) LAN
8 8 (2.60%) Network Security
8 8 (2.60%) Wireshark
9 7 (2.27%) Skype
10 4 (1.30%) BGP
10 4 (1.30%) Ethernet VPN
10 4 (1.30%) NAS
10 4 (1.30%) OSPF
10 4 (1.30%) VPN
11 3 (0.97%) NFC
11 3 (0.97%) PPP
12 2 (0.65%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 31 (10.06%) Relational Database
2 30 (9.74%) MySQL
3 17 (5.52%) PostgreSQL
4 12 (3.90%) Amazon RDS
5 10 (3.25%) NoSQL
6 9 (2.92%) SQL Server
7 7 (2.27%) Oracle Database
8 6 (1.95%) Amazon Redshift
8 6 (1.95%) Couchbase
9 3 (0.97%) Oracle Reports
9 3 (0.97%) RDBMS
9 3 (0.97%) Redis
9 3 (0.97%) SAP HANA
10 2 (0.65%) Elasticsearch
10 2 (0.65%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 1 (0.32%) Amazon Aurora
11 1 (0.32%) GIS
11 1 (0.32%) Oracle Exadata
11 1 (0.32%) SQL Server Analysis Services
11 1 (0.32%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 39 (12.66%) Jenkins
2 19 (6.17%) Git
3 18 (5.84%) Eclipse
4 16 (5.19%) Browser DevTools
5 15 (4.87%) Android Studio
5 15 (4.87%) Xcode
6 14 (4.55%) GitLab
7 11 (3.57%) Burp Suite
7 11 (3.57%) JIRA
8 10 (3.25%) JMeter
8 10 (3.25%) JUnit
9 9 (2.92%) Cucumber
9 9 (2.92%) Sonatype Nexus
10 8 (2.60%) Metasploit
11 7 (2.27%) Artifactory
12 3 (0.97%) Valgrind
13 2 (0.65%) Subversion
13 2 (0.65%) Visual Studio
14 1 (0.32%) Bitbucket
14 1 (0.32%) LoadRunner
General
1 92 (29.87%) Social Skills
2 34 (11.04%) Analytical Skills
3 21 (6.82%) Public Sector
4 19 (6.17%) Military
5 17 (5.52%) Finance
6 13 (4.22%) Organisational Skills
7 5 (1.62%) Legal
8 4 (1.30%) Documentation Skills
9 3 (0.97%) Aerospace
9 3 (0.97%) Law
10 2 (0.65%) Banking
11 1 (0.32%) Advertising
11 1 (0.32%) Back Office
11 1 (0.32%) Electronics
11 1 (0.32%) Front Office
11 1 (0.32%) Retail
11 1 (0.32%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 40 (12.99%) Support Engineer
2 33 (10.71%) Architect
3 31 (10.06%) Analyst
4 30 (9.74%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 29 (9.42%) Technical Support
6 28 (9.09%) Senior
7 20 (6.49%) DevOps Engineer
8 19 (6.17%) Infrastructure Support
8 19 (6.17%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
8 19 (6.17%) Software Engineer
8 19 (6.17%) Tester
9 17 (5.52%) Technical Engineer
9 17 (5.52%) Technical Support Engineer
10 16 (5.19%) UX Engineer
11 15 (4.87%) Developer
12 14 (4.55%) SOC Analyst
13 13 (4.22%) Infrastructure Architect
13 13 (4.22%) IT Support
14 12 (3.90%) Linux Engineer
14 12 (3.90%) Support Officer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (6.82%) Kafka
2 17 (5.52%) CSS
2 17 (5.52%) React
3 16 (5.19%) Ajax
3 16 (5.19%) AngularJS
3 16 (5.19%) Elastic Stack
3 16 (5.19%) GraphQL
4 10 (3.25%) Loki
4 10 (3.25%) Spring
4 10 (3.25%) XML
5 9 (2.92%) JSON
6 8 (2.60%) Hibernate
6 8 (2.60%) YAML
7 7 (2.27%) REST
8 5 (1.62%) Middleware
9 4 (1.30%) Web Services
10 3 (0.97%) Keycloak
10 3 (0.97%) Swagger
11 2 (0.65%) Jinja
11 2 (0.65%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 20 (6.49%) Cloud Native
2 16 (5.19%) Mobile App
3 14 (4.55%) Analytical Mindset
3 14 (4.55%) Security Operations Centre
4 13 (4.22%) Enterprise Software
5 12 (3.90%) Replication
6 11 (3.57%) PKI
7 8 (2.60%) Virtual Team
8 7 (2.27%) Cyberattack
8 7 (2.27%) Management Information System
8 7 (2.27%) Onboarding
9 6 (1.95%) Data Centre
9 6 (1.95%) Linux Command Line
9 6 (1.95%) Security Posture
10 5 (1.62%) CAN bus
10 5 (1.62%) Cyber Threat
11 4 (1.30%) Public Cloud
12 3 (0.97%) Clustering
12 3 (0.97%) Smartcard
13 2 (0.65%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 154 (50.00%) Windows
2 52 (16.88%) Unix
3 40 (12.99%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 15 (4.87%) Android
4 15 (4.87%) Windows Server
5 11 (3.57%) Kali Linux
5 11 (3.57%) Ubuntu
6 5 (1.62%) Windows Server 2016
7 4 (1.30%) CentOS
8 3 (0.97%) Debian
8 3 (0.97%) Mac OS
9 2 (0.65%) SUSE
9 2 (0.65%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
9 2 (0.65%) Windows Server 2019
10 1 (0.32%) Embedded Linux
10 1 (0.32%) Solaris
10 1 (0.32%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 92 (29.87%) CI/CD
2 64 (20.78%) DevOps
3 51 (16.56%) Problem-Solving
4 47 (15.26%) Agile
5 40 (12.99%) ITIL
6 38 (12.34%) Infrastructure as Code
7 37 (12.01%) Containerisation
7 37 (12.01%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 29 (9.42%) OO
8 29 (9.42%) SIEM
9 27 (8.77%) Cybersecurity
10 26 (8.44%) Incident Response
11 25 (8.12%) Continuous Improvement
12 24 (7.79%) Software Engineering
13 23 (7.47%) Computer Science
13 23 (7.47%) Observability
14 22 (7.14%) DevSecOps
14 22 (7.14%) High Availability
14 22 (7.14%) Platform Engineering
15 20 (6.49%) Performance Tuning
Programming Languages
1 115 (37.34%) Python
2 51 (16.56%) PowerShell
3 50 (16.23%) Bash
3 50 (16.23%) Java
4 38 (12.34%) SQL
5 37 (12.01%) JavaScript
6 35 (11.36%) Perl
7 16 (5.19%) Shell Script
8 13 (4.22%) C#
8 13 (4.22%) C++
9 7 (2.27%) C
10 5 (1.62%) Embedded C++
11 4 (1.30%) Ada
11 4 (1.30%) Search Processing Language
12 3 (0.97%) Go
12 3 (0.97%) MATLAB
12 3 (0.97%) Rust
13 2 (0.65%) Assembly Language
13 2 (0.65%) PHP
13 2 (0.65%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 171 (55.52%) Security Cleared
2 101 (32.79%) SC Cleared
3 66 (21.43%) DV Cleared
4 26 (8.44%) Degree
5 21 (6.82%) Computer Science Degree
6 15 (4.87%) Azure Certification
7 12 (3.90%) Microsoft Certification
8 11 (3.57%) CISSP
8 11 (3.57%) Network+ Certification
8 11 (3.57%) Server+ Certification
9 10 (3.25%) CEH
10 9 (2.92%) OSCP
11 8 (2.60%) AWS Certification
11 8 (2.60%) GCFA
11 8 (2.60%) GCIH
11 8 (2.60%) GPEN
12 7 (2.27%) Cisco Certification
12 7 (2.27%) ITIL Certification
12 7 (2.27%) RHCE
13 6 (1.95%) GCIA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (2.92%) GDPR
2 8 (2.60%) NIST
2 8 (2.60%) QA
3 7 (2.27%) HIPAA
4 6 (1.95%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 4 (1.30%) SOC 2
6 2 (0.65%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.32%) Cyber Essentials
7 1 (0.32%) Def Stans
7 1 (0.32%) NIST 800
7 1 (0.32%) SLA
System Software
1 61 (19.81%) VMware Infrastructure
2 32 (10.39%) Docker
3 25 (8.12%) Active Directory
4 21 (6.82%) vSphere
5 18 (5.84%) Hyper-V
6 11 (3.57%) Virtual Machines
7 9 (2.92%) VMware NSX
8 5 (1.62%) VMware ESXi
9 3 (0.97%) Firmware
10 2 (0.65%) KVM
11 1 (0.32%) GPFS
11 1 (0.32%) NDS
11 1 (0.32%) NetIQ eDirectory
11 1 (0.32%) NFS
11 1 (0.32%) Oracle RAC
11 1 (0.32%) UAG
Systems Management
1 73 (23.70%) Ansible
2 59 (19.16%) Kubernetes
3 56 (18.18%) Terraform
4 26 (8.44%) Grafana
5 24 (7.79%) Prometheus
6 17 (5.52%) Argo
7 14 (4.55%) Red Hat Satellite
8 13 (4.22%) Progress Chef
9 12 (3.90%) vCenter Server
10 11 (3.57%) Nmap
11 9 (2.92%) Puppet
12 8 (2.60%) Kustomize
12 8 (2.60%) SCOM
13 7 (2.27%) HP SiteScope
13 7 (2.27%) Sysdig
14 6 (1.95%) Podman
14 6 (1.95%) Proxmox
15 4 (1.30%) Data Guard
15 4 (1.30%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
15 4 (1.30%) Oracle RMAN
Vendors
1 91 (29.55%) VMware
2 78 (25.32%) Microsoft
3 60 (19.48%) Red Hat
4 49 (15.91%) Splunk
5 38 (12.34%) Oracle
6 16 (5.19%) ServiceNow
7 12 (3.90%) Cisco
8 7 (2.27%) IBM
8 7 (2.27%) Remedy
9 6 (1.95%) Confluent
9 6 (1.95%) CrowdStrike
9 6 (1.95%) NetApp
9 6 (1.95%) Pure Storage
10 5 (1.62%) ArcSight
10 5 (1.62%) Google
10 5 (1.62%) Mellanox
11 4 (1.30%) HP
11 4 (1.30%) LogRhythm
11 4 (1.30%) MuleSoft
11 4 (1.30%) SAP