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 8 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
8 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 30 28 19
Rank change year-on-year -2 -9 +11
Contract jobs citing Linux 259 285 442
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 6.67% 6.88% 8.14%
As % of the Operating Systems category 37.43% 38.31% 41.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 182 175 294
10th Percentile £204 £234 £307
25th Percentile £358 £416 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% -4.76% -4.11%
75th Percentile £537 £608 £613
90th Percentile £600 £660 £675
England median daily rate £514 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -6.59% - -5.98%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 19 34
10th Percentile - £48.95 £46.59
25th Percentile £12.50 £62.50 £55.00
Median hourly rate £13.00 £70.00 £66.88
Median % change year-on-year -81.43% +4.66% +21.60%
75th Percentile £13.50 - £71.42
90th Percentile £55.58 £74.00 £76.53
England median hourly rate £65.00 £67.50 £62.50
% change year-on-year -3.70% +8.00% -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 692 744 1,053
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 17.82% 17.97% 19.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 471 491 697
10th Percentile £190 £200 £170
25th Percentile £219 £313 £210
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £450 £425
Median % change year-on-year -5.56% +5.88% -7.41%
75th Percentile £537 £584 £575
90th Percentile £600 £650 £644
England median daily rate £450 £475 £488
% change year-on-year -5.26% -2.56% -3.03%
Number of hourly rates quoted 77 35 80
10th Percentile £12.50 £23.85 £18.38
25th Percentile £15.50 £36.79 £24.26
Median hourly rate £18.87 £62.50 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -69.81% +13.64% +223.53%
75th Percentile £25.00 £70.00 £68.66
90th Percentile £43.76 £72.25 £76.53
England median hourly rate £23.00 £57.50 £36.25
% change year-on-year -60.00% +58.62% +45.00%

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 8 November 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 8 November 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 8 November 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 +8 114 £479 -8.81% 307
Berkshire +20 96 £430 -18.10% 246
Hampshire -12 72 £500 -13.04% 88
Surrey 0 50 £208 -53.89% 34
Buckinghamshire +1 11 £550 +0.92% 21
Sussex - 8 - - 4
Oxfordshire -13 7 £381 -19.74% 40
West Sussex -12 5 £500 +11.73% 16
Middlesex - 5 - - 3
East Sussex - 2 - - 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 (2.70%) Mattermost
1 7 (2.70%) Skype for Business
2 5 (1.93%) Apache
2 5 (1.93%) OpenStack
3 4 (1.54%) Microsoft Exchange
4 2 (0.77%) JBoss
5 1 (0.39%) Anypoint
5 1 (0.39%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.39%) Apache Spark
5 1 (0.39%) Gunicorn
5 1 (0.39%) nginx
Applications
1 20 (7.72%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.39%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.39%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 7 (2.70%) Remedy ITSM
2 3 (1.16%) Payment Gateway
3 1 (0.39%) SAP MDG
3 1 (0.39%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 63 (24.32%) AWS
2 44 (16.99%) Azure
3 27 (10.42%) OpenShift
4 23 (8.88%) GitHub
5 19 (7.34%) SaaS
6 18 (6.95%) Sauce Labs
7 14 (5.41%) GCP
8 12 (4.63%) Google Workspace
9 10 (3.86%) Cloud Computing
9 10 (3.86%) IaaS
10 9 (3.47%) AWS Lambda
10 9 (3.47%) Serverless
11 7 (2.70%) Amazon ECR
11 7 (2.70%) AWS CloudFormation
11 7 (2.70%) OCI
12 6 (2.32%) GitHub Actions
13 5 (1.93%) Amazon S3
14 4 (1.54%) Entra ID
15 3 (1.16%) Amazon EMR
15 3 (1.16%) Amazon Kinesis
Communications & Networking
1 27 (10.42%) DNS
2 20 (7.72%) TCP/IP
2 20 (7.72%) Wireless
3 19 (7.34%) SAN
4 16 (6.18%) DHCP
5 15 (5.79%) Firewall
6 13 (5.02%) VLAN
7 9 (3.47%) NFC
7 9 (3.47%) PPP
8 7 (2.70%) Skype
8 7 (2.70%) Wireshark
9 6 (2.32%) NAS
10 5 (1.93%) Network Security
11 4 (1.54%) LAN
11 4 (1.54%) VSAN
11 4 (1.54%) WAN
12 3 (1.16%) SSL
13 2 (0.77%) Cisco IOS
13 2 (0.77%) HTTP
13 2 (0.77%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 28 (10.81%) Relational Database
2 26 (10.04%) MySQL
3 15 (5.79%) NoSQL
3 15 (5.79%) PostgreSQL
4 9 (3.47%) Amazon Redshift
5 8 (3.09%) SQL Server
6 7 (2.70%) Amazon RDS
6 7 (2.70%) Redis
7 6 (2.32%) Couchbase
8 5 (1.93%) Oracle Database
9 3 (1.16%) Data Warehouse
9 3 (1.16%) Oracle Exadata
9 3 (1.16%) RDBMS
9 3 (1.16%) SAP HANA
10 2 (0.77%) Elasticsearch
10 2 (0.77%) MongoDB
10 2 (0.77%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 1 (0.39%) Big Data
11 1 (0.39%) Oracle Database 12c
11 1 (0.39%) Parquet
Development Applications
1 30 (11.58%) Jenkins
2 27 (10.42%) Eclipse
3 19 (7.34%) Browser DevTools
4 18 (6.95%) Android Studio
4 18 (6.95%) Xcode
5 14 (5.41%) Git
6 11 (4.25%) GitLab
7 9 (3.47%) Burp Suite
7 9 (3.47%) Sonatype Nexus
7 9 (3.47%) Valgrind
8 8 (3.09%) JIRA
9 7 (2.70%) Metasploit
10 6 (2.32%) Artifactory
10 6 (2.32%) JMeter
11 5 (1.93%) Cucumber
11 5 (1.93%) JUnit
12 4 (1.54%) MSI
12 4 (1.54%) Robot Framework
13 2 (0.77%) Subversion
13 2 (0.77%) Visual Studio
General
1 113 (43.63%) Social Skills
2 29 (11.20%) Analytical Skills
3 20 (7.72%) Finance
4 19 (7.34%) Public Sector
5 11 (4.25%) Organisational Skills
6 9 (3.47%) Legal
7 8 (3.09%) Military
8 6 (2.32%) Banking
9 5 (1.93%) Telecoms
10 3 (1.16%) Documentation Skills
10 3 (1.16%) Presentation Skills
11 2 (0.77%) Aerospace
11 2 (0.77%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 2 (0.77%) Investment Banking
11 2 (0.77%) Retail
12 1 (0.39%) Automotive
12 1 (0.39%) Electronics
12 1 (0.39%) French Language
12 1 (0.39%) German Language
12 1 (0.39%) Law
Job Titles
1 44 (16.99%) Support Engineer
2 31 (11.97%) Senior
3 29 (11.20%) Technical Support
4 27 (10.42%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 22 (8.49%) Architect
6 21 (8.11%) Technical Engineer
6 21 (8.11%) Technical Support Engineer
7 19 (7.34%) Analyst
7 19 (7.34%) UX Engineer
8 18 (6.95%) Front-End Engineer (Client-Side Engineer)
9 17 (6.56%) Infrastructure Support
9 17 (6.56%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
10 16 (6.18%) DevOps Engineer
11 15 (5.79%) Developer
12 14 (5.41%) C++ Software Engineer
12 14 (5.41%) Software Engineer
13 13 (5.02%) Linux Engineer
14 12 (4.63%) IT Support
15 11 (4.25%) Cloud Engineer
16 10 (3.86%) IT Support Assistant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (8.49%) Kafka
2 19 (7.34%) Ajax
2 19 (7.34%) AngularJS
2 19 (7.34%) CSS
2 19 (7.34%) GraphQL
2 19 (7.34%) React
3 15 (5.79%) Elastic Stack
4 12 (4.63%) JSON
4 12 (4.63%) REST
5 10 (3.86%) Web Services
5 10 (3.86%) XML
6 8 (3.09%) Loki
6 8 (3.09%) Middleware
7 7 (2.70%) YAML
8 6 (2.32%) Keycloak
9 5 (1.93%) Hibernate
9 5 (1.93%) Spring
10 3 (1.16%) Oracle GoldenGate
10 3 (1.16%) Swagger
11 2 (0.77%) Jinja
Miscellaneous
1 19 (7.34%) Mobile App
2 13 (5.02%) Cloud Native
2 13 (5.02%) Enterprise Software
2 13 (5.02%) Replication
3 12 (4.63%) PKI
4 11 (4.25%) Analytical Mindset
5 10 (3.86%) Management Information System
6 9 (3.47%) Smartcard
7 8 (3.09%) Security Operations Centre
7 8 (3.09%) Virtual Team
8 7 (2.70%) Enterprise Storage
9 6 (2.32%) Security Posture
10 5 (1.93%) CAN bus
10 5 (1.93%) Cyber Threat
10 5 (1.93%) Data Centre
11 4 (1.54%) FPGA
11 4 (1.54%) Onboarding
11 4 (1.54%) Verilog
12 3 (1.16%) Clustering
12 3 (1.16%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 125 (48.26%) Windows
2 55 (21.24%) Unix
3 43 (16.60%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 22 (8.49%) Ubuntu
5 19 (7.34%) Android
6 18 (6.95%) Windows Server
7 13 (5.02%) CentOS
7 13 (5.02%) Windows Server 2016
7 13 (5.02%) Windows Server 2019
8 9 (3.47%) Kali Linux
9 5 (1.93%) Debian
10 4 (1.54%) Mac OS
10 4 (1.54%) Windows Server 2012
11 2 (0.77%) SUSE
11 2 (0.77%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
12 1 (0.39%) Rocky
12 1 (0.39%) Solaris
12 1 (0.39%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 68 (26.25%) CI/CD
2 59 (22.78%) DevOps
3 52 (20.08%) Problem-Solving
4 50 (19.31%) ITIL
5 47 (18.15%) Agile
6 31 (11.97%) Infrastructure as Code
7 30 (11.58%) Containerisation
7 30 (11.58%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 28 (10.81%) User Experience
9 26 (10.04%) Continuous Improvement
9 26 (10.04%) OO
10 23 (8.88%) Observability
11 22 (8.49%) Disaster Recovery
11 22 (8.49%) Software Engineering
12 20 (7.72%) Test Automation
13 19 (7.34%) High Availability
13 19 (7.34%) Mobile Application Development
13 19 (7.34%) Validation
14 18 (6.95%) Performance Tuning
15 17 (6.56%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 120 (46.33%) Python
2 52 (20.08%) Java
3 50 (19.31%) Bash
4 49 (18.92%) PowerShell
5 39 (15.06%) JavaScript
5 39 (15.06%) SQL
6 32 (12.36%) Perl
7 20 (7.72%) Shell Script
8 17 (6.56%) C#
8 17 (6.56%) C++
9 5 (1.93%) Embedded C++
9 5 (1.93%) PHP
10 4 (1.54%) C
10 4 (1.54%) PL/SQL
10 4 (1.54%) Search Processing Language
10 4 (1.54%) SystemVerilog
10 4 (1.54%) Tcl
11 3 (1.16%) Go
11 3 (1.16%) Scala
12 2 (0.77%) Assembly Language
Qualifications
1 104 (40.15%) Security Cleared
2 66 (25.48%) SC Cleared
3 36 (13.90%) DV Cleared
4 21 (8.11%) Degree
5 15 (5.79%) CISSP
6 13 (5.02%) Computer Science Degree
6 13 (5.02%) GCIH
7 12 (4.63%) Microsoft Certification
8 11 (4.25%) Azure Certification
8 11 (4.25%) GCFA
8 11 (4.25%) Network+ Certification
8 11 (4.25%) Server+ Certification
9 9 (3.47%) GCIA
10 8 (3.09%) CEH
10 8 (3.09%) CFCE
10 8 (3.09%) OSCP
11 7 (2.70%) GPEN
11 7 (2.70%) ITIL Certification
12 6 (2.32%) AWS Certification
12 6 (2.32%) GIAC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (5.79%) NIST
2 11 (4.25%) HIPAA
3 10 (3.86%) GDPR
4 9 (3.47%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 7 (2.70%) QA
6 4 (1.54%) SOC 2
7 3 (1.16%) Data Quality
8 1 (0.39%) Accessibility
8 1 (0.39%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.39%) AUTOSAR
8 1 (0.39%) Def Stans
8 1 (0.39%) ISO/IEC 17025
8 1 (0.39%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 45 (17.37%) VMware Infrastructure
2 28 (10.81%) Docker
3 25 (9.65%) vSphere
4 23 (8.88%) Active Directory
5 13 (5.02%) Hyper-V
6 11 (4.25%) Virtual Machines
7 8 (3.09%) VMware NSX
8 4 (1.54%) VMware ESXi
9 3 (1.16%) Oracle RAC
10 2 (0.77%) KVM
11 1 (0.39%) Firmware
11 1 (0.39%) GPFS
11 1 (0.39%) NDS
11 1 (0.39%) NetIQ eDirectory
11 1 (0.39%) NFS
Systems Management
1 61 (23.55%) Ansible
2 52 (20.08%) Kubernetes
3 43 (16.60%) Terraform
4 22 (8.49%) Grafana
5 21 (8.11%) Prometheus
6 15 (5.79%) Argo
7 9 (3.47%) Nmap
7 9 (3.47%) Red Hat Satellite
7 9 (3.47%) SCOM
8 8 (3.09%) Kustomize
9 7 (2.70%) HP SiteScope
9 7 (2.70%) Progress Chef
9 7 (2.70%) vCenter Server
10 6 (2.32%) NetBackup
10 6 (2.32%) Packer
10 6 (2.32%) Proxmox
10 6 (2.32%) Sysdig
11 5 (1.93%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
12 4 (1.54%) Podman
12 4 (1.54%) WMI
Vendors
1 80 (30.89%) Microsoft
2 73 (28.19%) VMware
3 53 (20.46%) Red Hat
4 46 (17.76%) Splunk
5 33 (12.74%) Oracle
6 22 (8.49%) ServiceNow
7 11 (4.25%) Cisco
7 11 (4.25%) NetApp
8 10 (3.86%) ArcSight
9 9 (3.47%) CrowdStrike
9 9 (3.47%) HP
10 8 (3.09%) IBM
10 8 (3.09%) Remedy
10 8 (3.09%) Veritas
11 7 (2.70%) 3PAR
11 7 (2.70%) LogRhythm
12 6 (2.32%) Confluent
12 6 (2.32%) Dell
12 6 (2.32%) Nimble Storage
12 6 (2.32%) Pure Storage