Linux Contracts in the UK excluding London

Linux
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the UK excluding London requiring Linux skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Linux over the 6 months leading up to 30 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 26 25 24
Rank change year-on-year -1 -1 +2
Contract jobs citing Linux 895 1,254 1,694
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 6.93% 6.06% 7.43%
As % of the Operating Systems category 40.22% 37.93% 39.03%
Number of daily rates quoted 562 813 1,129
10th Percentile £358 £342 £350
25th Percentile £425 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £550 £525
Median % change year-on-year -7.27% +4.76% +2.94%
75th Percentile £589 £613 £638
90th Percentile £662 £700 £700
UK median daily rate £538 £550 £575
% change year-on-year -2.27% -4.35% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 36 115 128
10th Percentile £51.16 £40.55 £27.35
25th Percentile £55.28 £52.50 £51.25
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
75th Percentile £68.00 £70.00 £71.90
90th Percentile - - £78.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year - - +13.04%

All Operating Systems
UK excluding London

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 UK excluding London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for operating system skills 2,225 3,306 4,340
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 17.22% 15.97% 19.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,447 2,199 2,980
10th Percentile £181 £175 £163
25th Percentile £250 £275 £250
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £450 £465
Median % change year-on-year - -3.23% +9.41%
75th Percentile £560 £575 £588
90th Percentile £625 £672 £675
UK median daily rate £467 £475 £500
% change year-on-year -1.68% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 156 335 309
10th Percentile £15.11 £12.30 £13.29
25th Percentile £16.95 £14.57 £17.25
Median hourly rate £18.94 £22.50 £39.60
Median % change year-on-year -15.84% -43.18% +98.00%
75th Percentile £45.06 £63.13 £65.00
90th Percentile £68.00 £70.00 £73.90
UK median hourly rate £22.00 £22.50 £44.11
% change year-on-year -2.22% -48.99% +100.50%

Linux
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Job postings citing Linux as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Job vacancy trend for Linux in the UK excluding London

Linux
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Linux in the UK excluding London.

Daily rate trend for Linux in the UK excluding London

Linux
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Linux in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 30 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Linux in the UK excluding London

Linux
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Linux in the UK excluding London.

Hourly rate trend for Linux in the UK excluding London

Linux
Hourly Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Linux in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 30 May 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Linux in the UK excluding London

Linux
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Linux within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 30 May 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
Scotland +13 228 £475 -8.83% 244
North of England +7 199 £525 +5.00% 1,050
South East -10 182 £531 -0.75% 1,464
South West -4 114 £600 +3.72% 631
North West +34 100 £459 +1.89% 547
Yorkshire +4 91 £538 +7.50% 388
Midlands -20 83 £500 -9.09% 840
East of England +8 77 £474 -13.86% 765
West Midlands -5 66 £500 -9.09% 458
East Midlands -14 17 £455 -9.10% 327
North East -2 11 £545 -5.22% 118
Wales -12 11 £586 +4.09% 129
Northern Ireland -6 9 £325 - 85
Linux
UK

Linux
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 39 (4.36%) Confluence
2 30 (3.35%) Apache
3 27 (3.02%) Microsoft Exchange
4 22 (2.46%) JBoss
5 16 (1.79%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 13 (1.45%) Tomcat
7 10 (1.12%) WebLogic
8 9 (1.01%) nginx
8 9 (1.01%) Skype for Business
9 8 (0.89%) CMS
9 8 (0.89%) Mattermost
9 8 (0.89%) WebSphere
10 7 (0.78%) SharePoint
11 6 (0.67%) IIS
11 6 (0.67%) NetWeaver
11 6 (0.67%) OpenStack
11 6 (0.67%) WebSphere Application Server
12 4 (0.45%) Drupal
12 4 (0.45%) OpenROAD
12 4 (0.45%) WordPress
Applications
1 15 (1.68%) Microsoft Office
2 9 (1.01%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (0.56%) MS Visio
4 2 (0.22%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 7 (0.78%) Kondor
2 5 (0.56%) Payment Gateway
3 4 (0.45%) SAP IBP
4 2 (0.22%) Oracle Applications
5 1 (0.11%) Oracle EBS
Cloud Services
1 195 (21.79%) AWS
2 146 (16.31%) Azure
3 59 (6.59%) OpenShift
4 41 (4.58%) GCP
5 32 (3.58%) GitHub
6 26 (2.91%) IaaS
7 24 (2.68%) Amazon S3
7 24 (2.68%) Entra ID
8 23 (2.57%) Microsoft 365
9 22 (2.46%) Amazon EC2
10 18 (2.01%) Azure DevOps
11 16 (1.79%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 15 (1.68%) Serverless
13 14 (1.56%) AWS CloudFormation
14 13 (1.45%) AWS KMS
14 13 (1.45%) Azure Sentinel
14 13 (1.45%) Cloud Computing
14 13 (1.45%) PaaS
15 11 (1.23%) Amazon SQS
16 10 (1.12%) AWS Lambda
Communications & Networking
1 100 (11.17%) DNS
2 67 (7.49%) Firewall
3 62 (6.93%) DHCP
4 61 (6.82%) SAN
5 52 (5.81%) TCP/IP
6 45 (5.03%) LAN
7 41 (4.58%) VPN
7 41 (4.58%) WAN
8 32 (3.58%) HTTP
9 24 (2.68%) Ethernet
10 22 (2.46%) Network Security
11 19 (2.12%) NAS
11 19 (2.12%) Wireless
12 16 (1.79%) ATM
12 16 (1.79%) Frame Relay
12 16 (1.79%) GPRS
12 16 (1.79%) MPLS
12 16 (1.79%) SDH
12 16 (1.79%) SMTP
12 16 (1.79%) UMTS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 66 (7.37%) Relational Database
2 47 (5.25%) MongoDB
3 45 (5.03%) SQL Server
4 38 (4.25%) DB2
4 38 (4.25%) Oracle Database
5 26 (2.91%) PostgreSQL
6 21 (2.35%) Amazon RDS
6 21 (2.35%) Elasticsearch
6 21 (2.35%) MySQL
7 19 (2.12%) Big Data
8 18 (2.01%) RDBMS
9 16 (1.79%) KDB
9 16 (1.79%) Kdb+
10 10 (1.12%) Data Warehouse
10 10 (1.12%) NoSQL
11 9 (1.01%) DynamoDB
12 8 (0.89%) Amazon Aurora
13 7 (0.78%) Amazon Redshift
13 7 (0.78%) Siebel EIM
14 6 (0.67%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 133 (14.86%) Jenkins
2 128 (14.30%) Git
3 82 (9.16%) JIRA
4 58 (6.48%) GitLab
5 47 (5.25%) Bitbucket
6 45 (5.03%) JUnit
7 26 (2.91%) Maven
8 25 (2.79%) Eclipse
9 21 (2.35%) Bitbucket Server
10 19 (2.12%) SonarQube
11 17 (1.90%) GoogleTest
12 16 (1.79%) Sonatype Nexus
13 15 (1.68%) Robot Framework
14 13 (1.45%) TeamCity
15 10 (1.12%) CA Release Automation
15 10 (1.12%) Subversion
15 10 (1.12%) Visual Studio
16 8 (0.89%) Artifactory
16 8 (0.89%) Mockito
17 7 (0.78%) Cucumber
General
1 279 (31.17%) Social Skills
2 125 (13.97%) Finance
3 112 (12.51%) Analytical Skills
4 78 (8.72%) Banking
4 78 (8.72%) Public Sector
5 39 (4.36%) Investment Banking
6 32 (3.58%) Telecoms
7 28 (3.13%) Front Office
8 20 (2.23%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 17 (1.90%) Organisational Skills
10 16 (1.79%) Documentation Skills
11 15 (1.68%) Law
12 14 (1.56%) Presentation Skills
13 13 (1.45%) Legal
14 11 (1.23%) Military
15 10 (1.12%) Manufacturing
16 9 (1.01%) Electronics
17 7 (0.78%) Aerospace
17 7 (0.78%) Pharmaceutical
18 6 (0.67%) Financial Institution
Job Titles
1 158 (17.65%) Developer
2 97 (10.84%) Linux Engineer
3 81 (9.05%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 73 (8.16%) Java Developer
5 67 (7.49%) Senior
6 63 (7.04%) Architect
7 52 (5.81%) DevOps Engineer
8 50 (5.59%) Support Engineer
9 46 (5.14%) Software Engineer
10 42 (4.69%) Analyst
11 39 (4.36%) Administrator
11 39 (4.36%) Linux Developer
12 38 (4.25%) Platform Engineer
13 33 (3.69%) Python Developer
14 31 (3.46%) Lead
15 28 (3.13%) Test Engineer
16 25 (2.79%) Python Engineer
17 22 (2.46%) Consultant
17 22 (2.46%) Embedded Engineer
18 21 (2.35%) Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 62 (6.93%) Spring
2 47 (5.25%) Middleware
3 44 (4.92%) REST
4 42 (4.69%) SOAP
5 40 (4.47%) Kafka
6 33 (3.69%) JMS
6 33 (3.69%) Web Services
7 31 (3.46%) Spring Boot
8 25 (2.79%) HTML
9 24 (2.68%) CSS
9 24 (2.68%) LDAP
10 21 (2.35%) Elastic Stack
11 20 (2.23%) RESTful
12 18 (2.01%) AngularJS
13 17 (1.90%) Node.js
14 15 (1.68%) .NET
15 10 (1.12%) ActiveMQ
16 9 (1.01%) pytest
16 9 (1.01%) Spring Cloud
17 8 (0.89%) Spring Batch
Miscellaneous
1 57 (6.37%) Data Centre
2 44 (4.92%) Linux Command Line
3 40 (4.47%) Management Information System
4 38 (4.25%) Data Structures
5 29 (3.24%) Enterprise Software
6 28 (3.13%) Equities
7 27 (3.02%) Product Ownership
8 26 (2.91%) Self-Motivation
9 23 (2.57%) Data Protection Act
10 20 (2.23%) Public Cloud
10 20 (2.23%) Virtual Team
11 19 (2.12%) Clustering
11 19 (2.12%) Replication
12 18 (2.01%) Algorithms
12 18 (2.01%) PKI
13 17 (1.90%) Distributed Systems
14 16 (1.79%) Cloud Native
14 16 (1.79%) Derivative
14 16 (1.79%) Hybrid Cloud
15 14 (1.56%) Verilog
Operating Systems
1 372 (41.56%) Windows
2 187 (20.89%) Unix
3 143 (15.98%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 136 (15.20%) Windows Server
5 51 (5.70%) Ubuntu
6 30 (3.35%) Solaris
7 24 (2.68%) CentOS
8 23 (2.57%) AIX
9 19 (2.12%) VMS
10 18 (2.01%) Windows Server 2019
11 16 (1.79%) Embedded Linux
11 16 (1.79%) Windows Server 2016
12 15 (1.68%) Mac OS
13 12 (1.34%) Android
14 10 (1.12%) HPUX
14 10 (1.12%) Windows 10
15 9 (1.01%) Apple iOS
16 8 (0.89%) Amazon Linux
17 6 (0.67%) Windows Server 2003
17 6 (0.67%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 229 (25.59%) Problem-Solving
2 226 (25.25%) Agile
3 168 (18.77%) DevOps
4 132 (14.75%) Software Engineering
5 131 (14.64%) CI/CD
6 122 (13.63%) Containerisation
7 102 (11.40%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 80 (8.94%) ITIL
9 76 (8.49%) SDLC
10 72 (8.04%) Microservices
11 71 (7.93%) High Availability
11 71 (7.93%) Migration
12 67 (7.49%) Infrastructure as Code
13 64 (7.15%) Performance Tuning
14 57 (6.37%) Continuous Integration
14 57 (6.37%) Test Automation
15 55 (6.15%) Validation
16 50 (5.59%) Scrum
17 49 (5.47%) Multithreading
17 49 (5.47%) Service Management
Programming Languages
1 334 (37.32%) Python
2 196 (21.90%) SQL
3 186 (20.78%) Java
4 119 (13.30%) Bash
5 117 (13.07%) PowerShell
6 112 (12.51%) Shell Script
7 81 (9.05%) Perl
8 75 (8.38%) C++
9 63 (7.04%) JavaScript
10 45 (5.03%) PL/SQL
11 30 (3.35%) C
12 26 (2.91%) C#
13 18 (2.01%) Tcl
14 16 (1.79%) Ada
15 14 (1.56%) SystemVerilog
16 11 (1.23%) PHP
17 9 (1.01%) Groovy
17 9 (1.01%) Kusto Query Language
17 9 (1.01%) TypeScript
18 8 (0.89%) Erlang
Qualifications
1 257 (28.72%) Security Cleared
2 179 (20.00%) SC Cleared
3 77 (8.60%) DV Cleared
4 61 (6.82%) Degree
5 51 (5.70%) Cisco Certification
6 29 (3.24%) CCNP
7 23 (2.57%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 18 (2.01%) RHCE
9 17 (1.90%) ISTQB
9 17 (1.90%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
10 16 (1.79%) Computer Science Degree
10 16 (1.79%) ISEB
11 14 (1.56%) CISSP
12 12 (1.34%) AWS Certification
13 11 (1.23%) OCA
13 11 (1.23%) Oracle Certification
14 10 (1.12%) Microsoft Certification
14 10 (1.12%) RHCA
15 9 (1.01%) BPSS Clearance
16 8 (0.89%) GCIH
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (2.01%) Disclosure Scotland
1 18 (2.01%) SLA
2 15 (1.68%) QA
3 9 (1.01%) Accessibility
3 9 (1.01%) Cyber Essentials
4 7 (0.78%) Basel III
4 7 (0.78%) Data Quality
4 7 (0.78%) GDPR
4 7 (0.78%) MiFID
4 7 (0.78%) NCSC
4 7 (0.78%) NIST
4 7 (0.78%) PCI DSS
5 6 (0.67%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 5 (0.56%) GxP
6 5 (0.56%) HL7
7 4 (0.45%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 4 (0.45%) WCAG
8 3 (0.34%) MISRA
8 3 (0.34%) MISRA C
8 3 (0.34%) NIST 800
System Software
1 155 (17.32%) Docker
2 126 (14.08%) Active Directory
3 115 (12.85%) VMware Infrastructure
4 38 (4.25%) Hyper-V
5 28 (3.13%) VMware ESXi
6 21 (2.35%) vSphere
7 17 (1.90%) Virtual Servers
8 13 (1.45%) Veritas Cluster Server
8 13 (1.45%) Virtual Machines
9 12 (1.34%) VMware NSX
10 11 (1.23%) Firmware
11 8 (0.89%) BitLocker
11 8 (0.89%) Microsoft App-V
11 8 (0.89%) NFS
11 8 (0.89%) Oracle RAC
11 8 (0.89%) Terminal Services
12 7 (0.78%) Postfix
12 7 (0.78%) Samba
13 4 (0.45%) Apache ZooKeeper
14 3 (0.34%) KVM
Systems Management
1 181 (20.22%) Ansible
1 181 (20.22%) Kubernetes
2 118 (13.18%) Terraform
3 67 (7.49%) Puppet
4 47 (5.25%) Grafana
5 39 (4.36%) Prometheus
6 34 (3.80%) Progress Chef
6 34 (3.80%) vCenter Server
7 15 (1.68%) Kibana
7 15 (1.68%) Nagios
8 11 (1.23%) SCCM
9 10 (1.12%) SCOM
10 9 (1.01%) yum
11 8 (0.89%) Data Guard
11 8 (0.89%) Istio
11 8 (0.89%) SELinux
11 8 (0.89%) vMotion
12 7 (0.78%) NetBackup
12 7 (0.78%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
12 7 (0.78%) WSUS
Vendors
1 188 (21.01%) VMware
2 151 (16.87%) Red Hat
3 141 (15.75%) Microsoft
4 112 (12.51%) Oracle
5 87 (9.72%) Cisco
6 65 (7.26%) Splunk
7 46 (5.14%) Sybase
8 42 (4.69%) IBM
9 33 (3.69%) Atlassian
9 33 (3.69%) Google
9 33 (3.69%) HP
10 31 (3.46%) ServiceNow
11 23 (2.57%) Veritas
12 22 (2.46%) Dell
13 18 (2.01%) Symantec
14 17 (1.90%) AppDynamics
15 16 (1.79%) Citrix
15 16 (1.79%) Juniper
16 14 (1.56%) MuleSoft
16 14 (1.56%) NetApp