Linux Contract Job Trends

Linux
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Linux skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 20 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 50 31 34
Rank change year-on-year -19 +3 -8
Contract jobs citing Linux 1,887 1,712 2,172
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.92% 5.87% 5.10%
As % of the Operating Systems category 40.47% 42.18% 38.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,175 1,087 1,433
10th Percentile £335 £375 £333
25th Percentile £407 £440 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £540 £550
Median % change year-on-year -7.41% -1.82% -5.98%
75th Percentile £610 £638 £644
90th Percentile £688 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £490 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -6.67% -2.33% -0.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 117 43 110
10th Percentile £32.41 £41.40 £36.58
25th Percentile £43.81 £55.00 £53.13
Median hourly rate £62.50 £65.00 £63.75
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% +1.96% -0.39%
75th Percentile £68.00 £68.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £72.60 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £62.50 £65.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year -3.85% - -

All Operating Systems
UK

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.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for operating system skills 4,663 4,059 5,675
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.69% 13.92% 13.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,996 2,668 3,836
10th Percentile £185 £200 £185
25th Percentile £313 £313 £300
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £456 £469 £470
Median % change year-on-year -2.72% -0.27% -6.50%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £588
90th Percentile £654 £688 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £450
% change year-on-year -0.11% - -5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 324 176 392
10th Percentile £15.72 £15.24 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.25 £17.44 £15.44
Median hourly rate £41.94 £22.25 £22.00
Median % change year-on-year +88.49% +1.14% -43.66%
75th Percentile £65.00 £57.50 £60.75
90th Percentile £74.18 £68.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.94 £20.94 £22.50
% change year-on-year +100.29% -6.93% -25.00%

Linux
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Linux relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Linux job vacancy trend in the UK

Linux
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Linux.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Linux

Linux
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Linux over the 6 months to 20 May 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Linux in the UK

Linux
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Linux.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Linux

Linux
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Linux over the 6 months to 20 May 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Linux in the UK

Linux
Top 17 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 within the UK over the 6 months to 20 May 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 -21 1,572 £513 -6.82% 763
UK excluding London -9 1,134 £490 -6.67% 630
London -46 536 £550 -5.58% 198
Work from Home -30 474 £500 -4.76% 297
South East -4 322 £500 -9.09% 225
North of England -13 277 £478 -9.05% 105
South West -12 158 £543 -9.58% 119
Midlands -10 152 £500 +0.05% 56
Yorkshire -19 149 £463 -14.94% 34
West Midlands -2 132 £485 -7.62% 23
North West -20 115 £489 -2.30% 54
Scotland -23 95 £463 -1.07% 31
East of England -10 92 £475 - 89
Wales +6 28 £465 -20.65% 12
East Midlands -30 17 £528 +16.06% 33
Northern Ireland +6 15 £425 +30.77% 6
North East -22 13 £480 -8.57% 19

Linux
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:

Application Platforms
1 75 (3.97%) Confluence
2 48 (2.54%) Apache
3 29 (1.54%) nginx
4 26 (1.38%) Microsoft Exchange
5 20 (1.06%) Apache Airflow
5 20 (1.06%) Apache Spark
6 17 (0.90%) Tomcat
6 17 (0.90%) WebLogic
7 14 (0.74%) SAS
8 12 (0.64%) OpenStack
9 11 (0.58%) CICS
9 11 (0.58%) WebSphere
10 9 (0.48%) NetWeaver
11 8 (0.42%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 7 (0.37%) JBoss
12 7 (0.37%) TPMS
13 6 (0.32%) WebSphere Application Server
14 4 (0.21%) Adobe Experience Manager
14 4 (0.21%) CMS
14 4 (0.21%) SharePoint
Applications
1 20 (1.06%) Microsoft Office
2 10 (0.53%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.21%) Microsoft Project
3 4 (0.21%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.16%) Simulink
5 2 (0.11%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.053%) Adobe Illustrator
6 1 (0.053%) InDesign
6 1 (0.053%) Photoshop
6 1 (0.053%) Weka
Business Applications
1 12 (0.64%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (0.32%) Remedy ITSM
3 4 (0.21%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 3 (0.16%) Actimize
4 3 (0.16%) Oracle EBS
5 2 (0.11%) BusinessWorks
5 2 (0.11%) Oracle General Ledger
5 2 (0.11%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 1 (0.053%) Cloudability
6 1 (0.053%) FLEXCUBE
6 1 (0.053%) Odoo
6 1 (0.053%) Oracle 11i
6 1 (0.053%) Oracle Applications
6 1 (0.053%) Oracle EBS R12
6 1 (0.053%) Oracle FAH
6 1 (0.053%) Oracle Payables
6 1 (0.053%) Oracle Receivables
6 1 (0.053%) Shopify
6 1 (0.053%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 528 (27.98%) AWS
2 378 (20.03%) Azure
3 166 (8.80%) GitHub
4 119 (6.31%) OpenShift
5 109 (5.78%) GCP
6 95 (5.03%) GitHub Actions
7 83 (4.40%) Amazon EC2
8 81 (4.29%) Amazon S3
9 71 (3.76%) Azure DevOps
10 67 (3.55%) Amazon EKS
11 66 (3.50%) AWS CloudFormation
11 66 (3.50%) Serverless
12 59 (3.13%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 55 (2.91%) AWS Lambda
14 44 (2.33%) IaaS
15 42 (2.23%) Amazon ECS
15 42 (2.23%) Entra ID
16 41 (2.17%) Microsoft 365
17 40 (2.12%) PaaS
18 37 (1.96%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 174 (9.22%) Firewall
2 130 (6.89%) DNS
3 92 (4.88%) TCP/IP
4 73 (3.87%) VPN
5 63 (3.34%) SAN
6 57 (3.02%) Network Security
7 49 (2.60%) WAN
8 42 (2.23%) DHCP
9 41 (2.17%) LAN
10 36 (1.91%) VSAN
11 35 (1.85%) SNMP
12 34 (1.80%) SSH
13 31 (1.64%) HTTP
14 28 (1.48%) SSL
15 24 (1.27%) NAS
16 22 (1.17%) Ethernet
17 19 (1.01%) Wireless
18 18 (0.95%) BGP
18 18 (0.95%) Kerberos
18 18 (0.95%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 116 (6.15%) PostgreSQL
2 109 (5.78%) SQL Server
3 72 (3.82%) MySQL
4 67 (3.55%) Oracle Database
5 63 (3.34%) Relational Database
6 61 (3.23%) MongoDB
7 51 (2.70%) Amazon RDS
8 43 (2.28%) Elasticsearch
9 38 (2.01%) Amazon Aurora
10 28 (1.48%) NoSQL
11 25 (1.32%) DynamoDB
12 20 (1.06%) SAP HANA
13 19 (1.01%) Big Data
13 19 (1.01%) Data Warehouse
13 19 (1.01%) KDB
14 16 (0.85%) DB2
14 16 (0.85%) Kdb+
15 12 (0.64%) Sybase ASE
16 11 (0.58%) Data Lake
16 11 (0.58%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 201 (10.65%) Jenkins
2 170 (9.01%) Git
3 166 (8.80%) GitLab
4 135 (7.15%) JIRA
5 34 (1.80%) Maven
6 27 (1.43%) SonarQube
7 26 (1.38%) Mockito
8 23 (1.22%) Eclipse
9 22 (1.17%) JUnit
10 19 (1.01%) Bitbucket
10 19 (1.01%) Sonatype Nexus
11 15 (0.79%) Artifactory
12 14 (0.74%) DbUnit
12 14 (0.74%) Rational Rhapsody
13 13 (0.69%) Jaeger
13 13 (0.69%) jMock
13 13 (0.69%) Visual Studio
14 11 (0.58%) Bitbucket Server
15 10 (0.53%) Cucumber
16 9 (0.48%) Atlassian Bamboo
General
1 378 (20.03%) Social Skills
2 251 (13.30%) Finance
3 199 (10.55%) Public Sector
4 146 (7.74%) Analytical Skills
5 108 (5.72%) Banking
6 73 (3.87%) Documentation Skills
7 43 (2.28%) Military
8 25 (1.32%) Financial Institution
8 25 (1.32%) Front Office
9 23 (1.22%) Telecoms
10 22 (1.17%) Aerospace
10 22 (1.17%) Retail
11 21 (1.11%) Investment Banking
12 20 (1.06%) Presentation Skills
13 19 (1.01%) Law
14 17 (0.90%) Influencing Skills
15 15 (0.79%) Manufacturing
16 14 (0.74%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 14 (0.74%) Legal
17 10 (0.53%) Police
Job Titles
1 238 (12.61%) Senior
2 201 (10.65%) Developer
3 177 (9.38%) DevOps Engineer
4 164 (8.69%) Linux Engineer
5 137 (7.26%) Software Engineer
6 121 (6.41%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 110 (5.83%) Architect
8 106 (5.62%) Analyst
9 95 (5.03%) Lead
10 80 (4.24%) Administrator
11 77 (4.08%) Java Developer
12 69 (3.66%) Site Reliability Engineer
13 67 (3.55%) AWS Engineer
14 59 (3.13%) Platform Engineer
14 59 (3.13%) Site Engineer
15 52 (2.76%) Consultant
16 51 (2.70%) Security Engineer
17 48 (2.54%) AWS DevOps
18 45 (2.38%) Embedded Engineer
18 45 (2.38%) Senior Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 97 (5.14%) Kafka
2 85 (4.50%) REST
3 78 (4.13%) Elastic Stack
4 71 (3.76%) Middleware
5 52 (2.76%) LDAP
6 50 (2.65%) Node.js
7 49 (2.60%) Spring Boot
8 48 (2.54%) Spring
9 43 (2.28%) Web Services
10 40 (2.12%) RESTful
11 37 (1.96%) .NET
12 32 (1.70%) YAML
13 28 (1.48%) AngularJS
13 28 (1.48%) XML
14 26 (1.38%) JSON
15 25 (1.32%) ActiveMQ
16 24 (1.27%) React
16 24 (1.27%) SOAP
17 22 (1.17%) CSS
17 22 (1.17%) Flash
Miscellaneous
1 147 (7.79%) Data Centre
2 104 (5.51%) Cloud Native
3 80 (4.24%) Linux Command Line
4 73 (3.87%) Onboarding
5 68 (3.60%) Distributed Systems
6 66 (3.50%) Management Information System
7 59 (3.13%) PKI
8 56 (2.97%) Replication
9 48 (2.54%) Hybrid Cloud
9 48 (2.54%) Public Cloud
10 43 (2.28%) Legacy Systems
11 35 (1.85%) Security Posture
12 32 (1.70%) Enterprise Storage
12 32 (1.70%) Product Ownership
13 31 (1.64%) Data Protection Act
14 30 (1.59%) Security Operations Centre
15 29 (1.54%) Embedded Systems
16 25 (1.32%) Operational Technology
17 22 (1.17%) Clustering
17 22 (1.17%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 716 (37.94%) Windows
2 372 (19.71%) Unix
3 272 (14.41%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 174 (9.22%) Windows Server
5 88 (4.66%) Ubuntu
6 51 (2.70%) AIX
7 39 (2.07%) CentOS
8 38 (2.01%) Solaris
9 34 (1.80%) Embedded Linux
10 31 (1.64%) VMS
11 26 (1.38%) Android
12 23 (1.22%) Windows Server 2016
13 22 (1.17%) Debian
13 22 (1.17%) Windows Server 2019
14 21 (1.11%) Mac OS
15 13 (0.69%) SUSE
16 12 (0.64%) Mac OS X
17 11 (0.58%) Windows 10
18 10 (0.53%) Oracle Linux
18 10 (0.53%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 528 (27.98%) CI/CD
2 443 (23.48%) DevOps
3 354 (18.76%) Agile
4 296 (15.69%) Problem-Solving
5 280 (14.84%) Infrastructure as Code
6 250 (13.25%) Containerisation
7 211 (11.18%) Software Engineering
8 182 (9.64%) Observability
9 180 (9.54%) Migration
10 178 (9.43%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 151 (8.00%) Performance Tuning
12 146 (7.74%) High Availability
13 140 (7.42%) Continuous Improvement
13 140 (7.42%) SIEM
14 138 (7.31%) Root Cause Analysis
15 134 (7.10%) Microservices
16 133 (7.05%) Computer Science
17 132 (7.00%) Incident Response
18 128 (6.78%) Platform Engineering
19 127 (6.73%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 621 (32.91%) Python
2 328 (17.38%) SQL
3 261 (13.83%) Bash
4 260 (13.78%) Java
5 254 (13.46%) PowerShell
6 160 (8.48%) Shell Script
7 123 (6.52%) C++
8 103 (5.46%) JavaScript
9 64 (3.39%) Perl
10 60 (3.18%) C#
11 56 (2.97%) C
12 46 (2.44%) Go
13 43 (2.28%) PL/SQL
14 30 (1.59%) Ruby
15 27 (1.43%) TypeScript
16 23 (1.22%) PHP
16 23 (1.22%) Rust
17 21 (1.11%) Ada
17 21 (1.11%) MATLAB
18 19 (1.01%) Search Processing Language
Qualifications
1 742 (39.32%) Security Cleared
2 541 (28.67%) SC Cleared
3 216 (11.45%) DV Cleared
4 177 (9.38%) Degree
5 79 (4.19%) BPSS Clearance
6 78 (4.13%) Computer Science Degree
7 53 (2.81%) Cisco Certification
8 45 (2.38%) AWS Certification
9 44 (2.33%) CISSP
10 42 (2.23%) CompTIA Security+
11 36 (1.91%) RHCE
12 32 (1.70%) Azure Certification
13 25 (1.32%) CCNA
14 23 (1.22%) CCNP
15 19 (1.01%) Oracle Certification
16 18 (0.95%) Microsoft Certification
16 18 (0.95%) OCP
17 17 (0.90%) CompTIA CySA+
18 15 (0.79%) CISM
18 15 (0.79%) GIAC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 79 (4.19%) NIST
2 69 (3.66%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 51 (2.70%) QA
4 47 (2.49%) SLA
5 29 (1.54%) Cyber Essentials
6 28 (1.48%) GDPR
7 24 (1.27%) NCSC
8 17 (0.90%) PCI DSS
9 11 (0.58%) Disclosure Scotland
9 11 (0.58%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 10 (0.53%) Data Quality
10 10 (0.53%) HIPAA
11 9 (0.48%) GRC
12 8 (0.42%) NIST 800
13 7 (0.37%) Accessibility
13 7 (0.37%) GLBA
14 6 (0.32%) ISO 31000
15 5 (0.26%) California Consumer Privacy Act
15 5 (0.26%) DICOM
15 5 (0.26%) SOC 2
System Software
1 314 (16.64%) Docker
2 220 (11.66%) VMware Infrastructure
3 185 (9.80%) Active Directory
4 79 (4.19%) Virtual Machines
5 69 (3.66%) vSphere
6 67 (3.55%) Hyper-V
7 63 (3.34%) VMware ESXi
8 49 (2.60%) NFS
9 42 (2.23%) VMware NSX
10 40 (2.12%) Firmware
11 29 (1.54%) KVM
12 24 (1.27%) GPFS
13 19 (1.01%) Oracle RAC
14 17 (0.90%) Postfix
15 15 (0.79%) Slurm Workload Manager
16 13 (0.69%) Ceph
17 9 (0.48%) Microsoft App-V
18 7 (0.37%) BitLocker
18 7 (0.37%) Embedded Firmware
19 6 (0.32%) Lustre
Systems Management
1 390 (20.67%) Kubernetes
2 376 (19.93%) Ansible
3 350 (18.55%) Terraform
4 177 (9.38%) Grafana
5 144 (7.63%) Prometheus
6 70 (3.71%) Puppet
7 42 (2.23%) vCenter Server
8 41 (2.17%) Progress Chef
9 34 (1.80%) Oracle RMAN
10 30 (1.59%) vRealize
11 29 (1.54%) Kibana
11 29 (1.54%) Podman
12 28 (1.48%) Red Hat Satellite
13 24 (1.27%) Nagios
13 24 (1.27%) ZABBIX
14 23 (1.22%) Packer
15 22 (1.17%) Data Guard
16 21 (1.11%) Argo
17 20 (1.06%) Single Sign-On
17 20 (1.06%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 307 (16.27%) VMware
2 256 (13.57%) Oracle
3 253 (13.41%) Microsoft
4 215 (11.39%) Red Hat
5 188 (9.96%) Splunk
6 116 (6.15%) Cisco
7 93 (4.93%) IBM
8 80 (4.24%) ServiceNow
9 50 (2.65%) Palo Alto
10 45 (2.38%) CyberArk
11 39 (2.07%) Dell
12 35 (1.85%) Google
12 35 (1.85%) SolarWinds
13 34 (1.80%) HP
14 32 (1.70%) NVIDIA
15 31 (1.64%) Citrix
15 31 (1.64%) F5
16 29 (1.54%) SAP
17 28 (1.48%) BeyondTrust
18 26 (1.38%) Atlassian