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

6 months to
16 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 27 27 19
Rank change year-on-year 0 -8 +11
Contract jobs citing Linux 263 281 436
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 6.63% 6.81% 7.99%
As % of the Operating Systems category 37.73% 38.39% 40.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 187 175 289
10th Percentile £204 £234 £306
25th Percentile £358 £420 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -9.52% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £535 £611 £612
90th Percentile £600 £672 £672
England median daily rate £513 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -6.82% - -5.98%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 19 36
10th Percentile - £48.95 £42.30
25th Percentile £12.50 £62.50 £54.88
Median hourly rate £13.00 £70.00 £64.75
Median % change year-on-year -81.43% +8.11% +17.73%
75th Percentile £13.50 - £70.47
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 697 732 1,066
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 17.57% 17.73% 19.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 473 487 704
10th Percentile £190 £200 £167
25th Percentile £219 £313 £210
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £430 £450 £425
Median % change year-on-year -4.44% +5.88% -9.09%
75th Percentile £538 £588 £564
90th Percentile £600 £661 £638
England median daily rate £450 £475 £486
% change year-on-year -5.26% -2.26% -4.71%
Number of hourly rates quoted 78 35 80
10th Percentile £12.50 £23.85 £19.22
25th Percentile £15.50 £36.79 £27.00
Median hourly rate £18.94 £62.50 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -69.70% +13.64% +197.30%
75th Percentile £25.00 £70.00 £68.66
90th Percentile £64.68 £72.75 £76.53
England median hourly rate £23.00 £58.00 £39.08
% change year-on-year -60.34% +48.41% +56.31%

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 16 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 16 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 16 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 +13 115 £475 -9.52% 163
Berkshire +17 97 £425 -19.05% 86
Hampshire -10 77 £500 -13.79% 80
Surrey +1 49 £208 -53.89% 34
Buckinghamshire +2 11 £550 +1.85% 51
Sussex - 8 - - 25
Oxfordshire -13 7 £381 -21.79% 29
West Sussex -11 5 £500 -16.67% 30
Middlesex - 5 - - 8
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 (2.66%) Mattermost
1 7 (2.66%) Skype for Business
2 5 (1.90%) Apache
3 4 (1.52%) Microsoft Exchange
3 4 (1.52%) OpenStack
4 2 (0.76%) JBoss
5 1 (0.38%) Anypoint
5 1 (0.38%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.38%) Apache Spark
5 1 (0.38%) Gunicorn
5 1 (0.38%) nginx
Applications
1 20 (7.60%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.38%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.38%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 7 (2.66%) Remedy ITSM
2 3 (1.14%) Payment Gateway
3 1 (0.38%) SAP MDG
3 1 (0.38%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 67 (25.48%) AWS
2 42 (15.97%) Azure
3 31 (11.79%) OpenShift
4 28 (10.65%) GitHub
5 19 (7.22%) SaaS
6 18 (6.84%) Sauce Labs
7 14 (5.32%) GCP
8 12 (4.56%) Google Workspace
9 11 (4.18%) Cloud Computing
10 10 (3.80%) GitHub Actions
10 10 (3.80%) IaaS
11 9 (3.42%) AWS Lambda
11 9 (3.42%) Serverless
12 8 (3.04%) Amazon ECR
13 7 (2.66%) AWS CloudFormation
13 7 (2.66%) OCI
14 5 (1.90%) Amazon S3
15 3 (1.14%) Amazon Kinesis
15 3 (1.14%) Entra ID
15 3 (1.14%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 27 (10.27%) DNS
2 20 (7.60%) SAN
2 20 (7.60%) TCP/IP
2 20 (7.60%) Wireless
3 16 (6.08%) DHCP
3 16 (6.08%) Firewall
4 13 (4.94%) VLAN
5 8 (3.04%) NFC
5 8 (3.04%) PPP
6 7 (2.66%) NAS
6 7 (2.66%) Skype
6 7 (2.66%) Wireshark
7 5 (1.90%) Network Security
8 4 (1.52%) VSAN
9 3 (1.14%) Intrusion Detection
9 3 (1.14%) LAN
9 3 (1.14%) SSL
9 3 (1.14%) WAN
10 2 (0.76%) HTTP
10 2 (0.76%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 28 (10.65%) Relational Database
2 26 (9.89%) MySQL
3 19 (7.22%) PostgreSQL
4 16 (6.08%) NoSQL
5 9 (3.42%) Amazon Redshift
6 8 (3.04%) SQL Server
7 7 (2.66%) Amazon RDS
7 7 (2.66%) Redis
8 6 (2.28%) Couchbase
9 5 (1.90%) Oracle Database
10 3 (1.14%) Data Warehouse
10 3 (1.14%) Oracle Exadata
10 3 (1.14%) RDBMS
10 3 (1.14%) SAP HANA
11 2 (0.76%) Elasticsearch
11 2 (0.76%) MongoDB
11 2 (0.76%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 1 (0.38%) Big Data
12 1 (0.38%) Oracle Database 12c
12 1 (0.38%) Parquet
Development Applications
1 34 (12.93%) Jenkins
2 26 (9.89%) Eclipse
3 19 (7.22%) Browser DevTools
4 18 (6.84%) Android Studio
4 18 (6.84%) Xcode
5 14 (5.32%) Git
6 13 (4.94%) Sonatype Nexus
7 12 (4.56%) GitLab
8 10 (3.80%) JMeter
9 9 (3.42%) Burp Suite
9 9 (3.42%) Cucumber
9 9 (3.42%) JUnit
10 8 (3.04%) JIRA
10 8 (3.04%) Valgrind
11 7 (2.66%) Artifactory
11 7 (2.66%) Metasploit
12 4 (1.52%) MSI
12 4 (1.52%) Robot Framework
13 2 (0.76%) Subversion
13 2 (0.76%) Visual Studio
General
1 117 (44.49%) Social Skills
2 32 (12.17%) Analytical Skills
3 23 (8.75%) Finance
4 19 (7.22%) Public Sector
5 11 (4.18%) Organisational Skills
6 9 (3.42%) Legal
7 8 (3.04%) Military
8 6 (2.28%) Banking
9 5 (1.90%) Documentation Skills
10 4 (1.52%) Telecoms
11 3 (1.14%) Presentation Skills
12 2 (0.76%) Aerospace
12 2 (0.76%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 2 (0.76%) Investment Banking
12 2 (0.76%) Retail
13 1 (0.38%) Automotive
13 1 (0.38%) Electronics
13 1 (0.38%) French Language
13 1 (0.38%) German Language
13 1 (0.38%) Law
Job Titles
1 44 (16.73%) Support Engineer
2 30 (11.41%) Senior
3 29 (11.03%) Technical Support
4 27 (10.27%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 22 (8.37%) Architect
6 21 (7.98%) Technical Engineer
6 21 (7.98%) Technical Support Engineer
7 19 (7.22%) Developer
7 19 (7.22%) UX Engineer
8 18 (6.84%) Analyst
8 18 (6.84%) Front-End Engineer (Client-Side Engineer)
9 17 (6.46%) Infrastructure Support
9 17 (6.46%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
10 16 (6.08%) DevOps Engineer
11 13 (4.94%) C++ Software Engineer
11 13 (4.94%) Software Engineer
12 12 (4.56%) Administrator
12 12 (4.56%) IT Support
12 12 (4.56%) Linux Engineer
13 10 (3.80%) IT Support Assistant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 26 (9.89%) Kafka
2 19 (7.22%) Ajax
2 19 (7.22%) AngularJS
2 19 (7.22%) CSS
2 19 (7.22%) GraphQL
2 19 (7.22%) React
3 16 (6.08%) Elastic Stack
4 11 (4.18%) JSON
4 11 (4.18%) REST
5 9 (3.42%) Spring
5 9 (3.42%) Web Services
5 9 (3.42%) XML
6 8 (3.04%) Hibernate
6 8 (3.04%) Loki
7 7 (2.66%) Middleware
7 7 (2.66%) YAML
8 6 (2.28%) Keycloak
9 3 (1.14%) Oracle GoldenGate
9 3 (1.14%) Swagger
10 2 (0.76%) Jinja
Miscellaneous
1 19 (7.22%) Mobile App
2 14 (5.32%) Replication
3 13 (4.94%) Cloud Native
3 13 (4.94%) Enterprise Software
3 13 (4.94%) PKI
4 11 (4.18%) Analytical Mindset
5 10 (3.80%) Management Information System
6 8 (3.04%) Security Operations Centre
6 8 (3.04%) Smartcard
6 8 (3.04%) Virtual Team
7 7 (2.66%) Enterprise Storage
8 6 (2.28%) Onboarding
8 6 (2.28%) Security Posture
9 5 (1.90%) CAN bus
9 5 (1.90%) Cyber Threat
9 5 (1.90%) Data Centre
10 3 (1.14%) Clustering
10 3 (1.14%) FPGA
10 3 (1.14%) HP Storage
10 3 (1.14%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 126 (47.91%) Windows
2 54 (20.53%) Unix
3 43 (16.35%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 21 (7.98%) Ubuntu
5 19 (7.22%) Android
5 19 (7.22%) Windows Server
6 13 (4.94%) CentOS
6 13 (4.94%) Windows Server 2016
6 13 (4.94%) Windows Server 2019
7 9 (3.42%) Kali Linux
8 5 (1.90%) Debian
9 4 (1.52%) Mac OS
9 4 (1.52%) Windows Server 2012
10 2 (0.76%) SUSE
10 2 (0.76%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
11 1 (0.38%) Rocky
11 1 (0.38%) Solaris
11 1 (0.38%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 72 (27.38%) CI/CD
2 59 (22.43%) DevOps
3 53 (20.15%) Agile
3 53 (20.15%) Problem-Solving
4 50 (19.01%) ITIL
5 31 (11.79%) Infrastructure as Code
6 30 (11.41%) Containerisation
6 30 (11.41%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 27 (10.27%) User Experience
8 26 (9.89%) Continuous Improvement
8 26 (9.89%) OO
9 24 (9.13%) Observability
10 22 (8.37%) Disaster Recovery
11 21 (7.98%) Test Automation
12 20 (7.60%) Software Engineering
13 19 (7.22%) High Availability
13 19 (7.22%) Incident Response
13 19 (7.22%) Mobile Application Development
14 18 (6.84%) Performance Tuning
14 18 (6.84%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 117 (44.49%) Python
2 55 (20.91%) Java
3 49 (18.63%) Bash
3 49 (18.63%) PowerShell
4 39 (14.83%) SQL
5 38 (14.45%) JavaScript
6 32 (12.17%) Perl
7 19 (7.22%) Shell Script
8 16 (6.08%) C#
8 16 (6.08%) C++
9 5 (1.90%) Embedded C++
9 5 (1.90%) PHP
10 4 (1.52%) C
10 4 (1.52%) PL/SQL
10 4 (1.52%) Search Processing Language
11 3 (1.14%) Go
11 3 (1.14%) Scala
11 3 (1.14%) SystemVerilog
11 3 (1.14%) Tcl
12 2 (0.76%) Assembly Language
Qualifications
1 108 (41.06%) Security Cleared
2 68 (25.86%) SC Cleared
3 37 (14.07%) DV Cleared
4 20 (7.60%) Degree
5 14 (5.32%) CISSP
6 13 (4.94%) Computer Science Degree
7 12 (4.56%) GCIH
7 12 (4.56%) Microsoft Certification
8 11 (4.18%) Azure Certification
8 11 (4.18%) GCFA
8 11 (4.18%) Network+ Certification
8 11 (4.18%) Server+ Certification
9 9 (3.42%) GCIA
10 8 (3.04%) CEH
10 8 (3.04%) CFCE
10 8 (3.04%) OSCP
11 7 (2.66%) GPEN
11 7 (2.66%) ITIL Certification
12 6 (2.28%) AWS Certification
12 6 (2.28%) GIAC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (5.70%) NIST
2 11 (4.18%) HIPAA
3 10 (3.80%) GDPR
4 9 (3.42%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 7 (2.66%) QA
6 4 (1.52%) SOC 2
7 3 (1.14%) Data Quality
8 1 (0.38%) Accessibility
8 1 (0.38%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.38%) AUTOSAR
8 1 (0.38%) Def Stans
8 1 (0.38%) ISO/IEC 17025
8 1 (0.38%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 50 (19.01%) VMware Infrastructure
2 28 (10.65%) Docker
3 24 (9.13%) vSphere
4 22 (8.37%) Active Directory
5 13 (4.94%) Hyper-V
6 11 (4.18%) Virtual Machines
7 8 (3.04%) VMware NSX
8 4 (1.52%) VMware ESXi
9 3 (1.14%) Oracle RAC
10 2 (0.76%) KVM
11 1 (0.38%) Firmware
11 1 (0.38%) GPFS
11 1 (0.38%) NDS
11 1 (0.38%) NetIQ eDirectory
11 1 (0.38%) NFS
Systems Management
1 64 (24.33%) Ansible
2 54 (20.53%) Kubernetes
3 44 (16.73%) Terraform
4 23 (8.75%) Grafana
5 22 (8.37%) Prometheus
6 15 (5.70%) Argo
7 11 (4.18%) Progress Chef
8 9 (3.42%) Nmap
8 9 (3.42%) Red Hat Satellite
8 9 (3.42%) SCOM
9 8 (3.04%) Kustomize
10 7 (2.66%) HP SiteScope
10 7 (2.66%) Sysdig
10 7 (2.66%) vCenter Server
11 6 (2.28%) NetBackup
11 6 (2.28%) Packer
11 6 (2.28%) Proxmox
12 5 (1.90%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
13 4 (1.52%) Podman
13 4 (1.52%) WMI
Vendors
1 82 (31.18%) Microsoft
2 79 (30.04%) VMware
3 53 (20.15%) Red Hat
4 46 (17.49%) Splunk
5 33 (12.55%) Oracle
6 22 (8.37%) ServiceNow
7 12 (4.56%) NetApp
8 11 (4.18%) Cisco
9 9 (3.42%) ArcSight
9 9 (3.42%) CrowdStrike
9 9 (3.42%) HP
10 8 (3.04%) IBM
10 8 (3.04%) Remedy
10 8 (3.04%) Veritas
11 7 (2.66%) 3PAR
11 7 (2.66%) LogRhythm
12 6 (2.28%) Confluent
12 6 (2.28%) Dell
12 6 (2.28%) Nimble Storage
12 6 (2.28%) Pure Storage