Linux Developer Contract Job Trends

Linux Developer
UK

The median Linux Developer daily rate in the UK is £500, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 12 January 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
12 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 530 488 545
Rank change year-on-year -42 +57 +195
Contract jobs requiring a Linux Developer 44 36 54
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.12% 0.11% 0.13%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.13% 0.12% 0.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 1 7 25
10th Percentile - £313 £325
25th Percentile - £419 £506
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £550 £750
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% -26.67% +33.27%
75th Percentile - £625 £1,163
90th Percentile - £635 -
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £325 £750
% change year-on-year +53.85% -56.67% +7.14%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 3 5
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile - - -
Median hourly rate - £65.00 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year - -7.14% -
75th Percentile - - -
90th Percentile - - £85.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate - £65.00 £70.00
% change year-on-year - -7.14% -

All Contract IT Job Roles
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 33,096 29,209 40,038
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.31% 92.69% 93.23%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,909 17,885 26,705
10th Percentile £300 £291 £280
25th Percentile £406 £408 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £618 £638 £638
90th Percentile £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £479 £500
% change year-on-year -0.73% -4.30% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,948 878 1,679
10th Percentile £14.38 £15.52 £14.16
25th Percentile £18.25 £21.05 £18.93
Median hourly rate £26.50 £32.50 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -18.46% -23.53% +28.79%
75th Percentile £60.00 £62.24 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £73.75 £76.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £30.88 £45.00
% change year-on-year -18.54% -31.39% +66.65%

Linux Developer
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Linux Developer' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Linux Developer job vacancy trend in the UK

Linux Developer
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Linux Developer job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Linux Developer job vacancies in the UK

Linux Developer
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Linux Developer job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Linux Developer job vacancies in the UK

Linux Developer
Top 6 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Linux Developer within the UK over the 6 months to 12 January 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
England -52 35 £500 -9.09% 3
London +12 34 - - 3
Work from Home -5 28 - - 2
UK excluding London -62 10 £500 +53.85%
Scotland +1 9 - -
East of England -29 1 £500 +53.85%

Linux Developer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 12 January 2026, Linux Developer contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring Linux Developer in the job title.

1 44 (100.00%) Linux
2 25 (56.82%) Java
3 24 (54.55%) Multithreading
4 23 (52.27%) Python
5 19 (43.18%) Low Latency
5 19 (43.18%) SQL
6 18 (40.91%) C++
6 18 (40.91%) Spring
7 17 (38.64%) Problem-Solving
8 15 (34.09%) Computer Science
9 13 (29.55%) Relational Database
10 12 (27.27%) Kafka
11 11 (25.00%) Asynchronous Programming
11 11 (25.00%) Automated Trading
11 11 (25.00%) Benchmarking
11 11 (25.00%) OOP
11 11 (25.00%) Order Management
11 11 (25.00%) Quantitative Research
11 11 (25.00%) Test Automation
11 11 (25.00%) Ultra-Low Latency
12 9 (20.45%) Agile
12 9 (20.45%) Database Tuning
12 9 (20.45%) DB2
12 9 (20.45%) JMS
12 9 (20.45%) JUnit
12 9 (20.45%) MongoDB
12 9 (20.45%) Open Source
12 9 (20.45%) Performance Tuning
12 9 (20.45%) SDLC
12 9 (20.45%) Shell Script

Linux Developer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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:

Cloud Services
1 4 (9.09%) Azure
2 3 (6.82%) AWS
2 3 (6.82%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 4 (9.09%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (29.55%) Relational Database
2 9 (20.45%) DB2
2 9 (20.45%) MongoDB
3 3 (6.82%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 9 (20.45%) JUnit
General
1 19 (43.18%) Finance
2 13 (29.55%) Social Skills
3 9 (20.45%) Analytical Skills
3 9 (20.45%) Banking
3 9 (20.45%) Investment Banking
4 3 (6.82%) Financial Institution
5 1 (2.27%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (40.91%) Spring
2 12 (27.27%) Kafka
3 9 (20.45%) JMS
4 3 (6.82%) AngularJS
4 3 (6.82%) CSS
4 3 (6.82%) Electron
4 3 (6.82%) HTML
4 3 (6.82%) JNI
4 3 (6.82%) Node.js
4 3 (6.82%) React
Miscellaneous
1 24 (54.55%) Data Structures
2 20 (45.45%) Equities
3 11 (25.00%) Algorithms
4 9 (20.45%) Linux Command Line
5 4 (9.09%) FPGA
5 4 (9.09%) Management Information System
6 3 (6.82%) Hedge funds
Operating Systems
1 44 (100.00%) Linux
2 4 (9.09%) Unix
3 3 (6.82%) CentOS
3 3 (6.82%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 24 (54.55%) Multithreading
2 19 (43.18%) Low Latency
3 17 (38.64%) Problem-Solving
4 15 (34.09%) Computer Science
5 11 (25.00%) Asynchronous Programming
5 11 (25.00%) Automated Trading
5 11 (25.00%) Benchmarking
5 11 (25.00%) OOP
5 11 (25.00%) Order Management
5 11 (25.00%) Quantitative Research
5 11 (25.00%) Test Automation
5 11 (25.00%) Ultra-Low Latency
6 9 (20.45%) Agile
6 9 (20.45%) Database Tuning
6 9 (20.45%) Open Source
6 9 (20.45%) Performance Tuning
6 9 (20.45%) SDLC
7 6 (13.64%) Software Engineering
8 4 (9.09%) Risk Management
9 3 (6.82%) Business Analysis
Programming Languages
1 25 (56.82%) Java
2 23 (52.27%) Python
3 19 (43.18%) SQL
4 18 (40.91%) C++
5 9 (20.45%) Shell Script
6 7 (15.91%) C
7 3 (6.82%) JavaScript
7 3 (6.82%) Perl
8 1 (2.27%) C#
8 1 (2.27%) MATLAB
8 1 (2.27%) R
System Software
1 1 (2.27%) Docker
1 1 (2.27%) Lustre
1 1 (2.27%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 1 (2.27%) Ansible
1 1 (2.27%) Kubernetes
1 1 (2.27%) Packer
Vendors
1 9 (20.45%) Sybase
2 3 (6.82%) Oracle
2 3 (6.82%) Red Hat