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 5 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
5 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 38 31 26
Rank change year-on-year -7 -5 0
Contract jobs citing Linux 1,987 1,996 2,928
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.44% 5.53% 6.51%
As % of the Operating Systems category 41.28% 39.22% 43.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,228 1,162 1,964
10th Percentile £316 £350 £350
25th Percentile £404 £450 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £549 £550
Median % change year-on-year -8.97% -0.14% -4.35%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -9.52% - -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 91 90 132
10th Percentile £12.50 £45.00 £26.75
25th Percentile £44.10 £62.50 £49.62
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.75 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year -1.14% +5.20% -3.85%
75th Percentile £67.00 £70.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £68.00 £71.03 £77.40
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £66.50 £65.00
% change year-on-year -2.26% +2.31% -

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 4,813 5,089 6,782
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 13.19% 14.09% 15.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,116 3,119 4,612
10th Percentile £180 £200 £181
25th Percentile £263 £325 £300
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £475
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% - -7.32%
75th Percentile £563 £586 £608
90th Percentile £662 £688 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £400 £440 £441
% change year-on-year -9.09% -0.23% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 361 205 345
10th Percentile £15.50 £16.10 £14.66
25th Percentile £18.87 £22.50 £17.75
Median hourly rate £25.08 £50.00 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year -49.85% +66.67% +20.00%
75th Percentile £54.75 £67.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £67.84 £70.00 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.00 £51.25 £27.00
% change year-on-year -51.22% +89.81% +20.00%

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 5 December 2025.

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 5 December 2025.

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 5 December 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
England -8 1,694 £513 -6.82% 898
UK excluding London -2 1,128 £475 -9.52% 839
London -4 691 £575 -4.17% 194
Work from Home -7 568 £500 -4.76% 394
South East +5 285 £475 -5.00% 301
North of England +4 279 £476 -15.47% 153
Midlands -2 191 £500 -4.76% 106
West Midlands +6 176 £520 -5.55% 70
Yorkshire +10 161 £495 -19.51% 52
Scotland +5 156 £465 -3.02% 40
South West -26 124 £550 - 124
North West +3 114 £446 -18.91% 83
East of England -11 101 £450 - 129
East Midlands -20 15 £420 -2.89% 33
North East -8 10 £550 +8.64% 19
Northern Ireland +5 9 £375 -31.82% 9
Wales -12 6 £300 -42.86% 11

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 95 (4.78%) Confluence
2 71 (3.57%) Apache
3 49 (2.47%) nginx
4 33 (1.66%) Microsoft Exchange
5 31 (1.56%) Apache Spark
5 31 (1.56%) JBoss
6 25 (1.26%) Apache Airflow
6 25 (1.26%) OpenStack
7 21 (1.06%) WebSphere
8 19 (0.96%) Tomcat
9 18 (0.91%) WebLogic
10 16 (0.81%) SharePoint
11 14 (0.70%) Mattermost
11 14 (0.70%) Skype for Business
12 13 (0.65%) SAS
13 11 (0.55%) IIS
13 11 (0.55%) WebSphere Application Server
14 10 (0.50%) iPlanet
15 7 (0.35%) TPMS
16 6 (0.30%) NetWeaver
Applications
1 56 (2.82%) Microsoft Office
2 16 (0.81%) Microsoft Excel
3 12 (0.60%) MS Visio
4 11 (0.55%) Mozilla Thunderbird
5 6 (0.30%) Weka
6 5 (0.25%) Microsoft PowerPoint
7 4 (0.20%) Spreadsheet
8 3 (0.15%) Simulink
9 2 (0.10%) Microsoft Project
9 2 (0.10%) Windchill
10 1 (0.050%) OmniGraffle
10 1 (0.050%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 8 (0.40%) Remedy ITSM
2 6 (0.30%) SAP S/4HANA
3 4 (0.20%) Oracle 11i
3 4 (0.20%) SAP IBP
3 4 (0.20%) Temenos T24
4 3 (0.15%) Teamcenter
5 1 (0.050%) Bloomberg TOMS
5 1 (0.050%) Finacle
5 1 (0.050%) ION MarketView
5 1 (0.050%) Oracle Applications
5 1 (0.050%) Oracle EBS
5 1 (0.050%) Oracle EBS R12
5 1 (0.050%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 1 (0.050%) RMDS
5 1 (0.050%) SAP GRC
5 1 (0.050%) SAP MDG
5 1 (0.050%) SAP SCM
Cloud Services
1 621 (31.25%) AWS
2 388 (19.53%) Azure
3 195 (9.81%) GitHub
4 164 (8.25%) GCP
5 129 (6.49%) OpenShift
6 121 (6.09%) Amazon EC2
7 119 (5.99%) Serverless
8 115 (5.79%) AWS CloudFormation
9 103 (5.18%) Amazon S3
10 95 (4.78%) GitHub Actions
11 72 (3.62%) Amazon ECS
12 71 (3.57%) Virtual Private Cloud
13 68 (3.42%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 68 (3.42%) Azure DevOps
14 66 (3.32%) AWS Lambda
15 65 (3.27%) SaaS
16 63 (3.17%) IaaS
17 62 (3.12%) Amazon EKS
18 48 (2.42%) Microsoft 365
19 44 (2.21%) Entra ID
Communications & Networking
1 225 (11.32%) Firewall
2 171 (8.61%) DNS
3 147 (7.40%) TCP/IP
4 72 (3.62%) Network Security
5 61 (3.07%) HTTP
5 61 (3.07%) SSL
6 59 (2.97%) DHCP
7 58 (2.92%) SSH
8 50 (2.52%) SAN
9 39 (1.96%) VPN
10 35 (1.76%) SMTP
11 34 (1.71%) VLAN
12 29 (1.46%) Wireless
13 26 (1.31%) Ethernet
14 25 (1.26%) Kerberos
15 24 (1.21%) Skype
15 24 (1.21%) VSAN
16 23 (1.16%) WAN
17 22 (1.11%) FTP
18 21 (1.06%) LAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 141 (7.10%) PostgreSQL
2 122 (6.14%) Relational Database
3 101 (5.08%) SQL Server
4 92 (4.63%) Amazon RDS
4 92 (4.63%) MongoDB
5 89 (4.48%) NoSQL
6 85 (4.28%) Oracle Database
7 72 (3.62%) MySQL
8 45 (2.26%) Elasticsearch
9 43 (2.16%) DB2
10 30 (1.51%) Hadoop
11 29 (1.46%) Big Data
12 21 (1.06%) Data Warehouse
13 20 (1.01%) Redis
14 18 (0.91%) Amazon Aurora
14 18 (0.91%) KDB
15 17 (0.86%) Apache Cassandra
15 17 (0.86%) RDBMS
16 15 (0.75%) Apache Hive
17 14 (0.70%) Data Lake
Development Applications
1 315 (15.85%) Jenkins
2 281 (14.14%) Git
3 191 (9.61%) GitLab
4 168 (8.45%) JIRA
5 72 (3.62%) JUnit
6 64 (3.22%) Sonatype Nexus
7 56 (2.82%) Bitbucket
8 53 (2.67%) Eclipse
9 43 (2.16%) Visual Studio
10 31 (1.56%) Maven
11 29 (1.46%) Liquibase
12 26 (1.31%) Artifactory
13 25 (1.26%) Vagrant
14 24 (1.21%) Cucumber
15 22 (1.11%) Mockito
16 20 (1.01%) Browser DevTools
16 20 (1.01%) SonarQube
16 20 (1.01%) Xcode
17 19 (0.96%) Android Studio
18 17 (0.86%) Gradle
General
1 625 (31.45%) Social Skills
2 415 (20.89%) Finance
3 226 (11.37%) Analytical Skills
4 190 (9.56%) Banking
5 187 (9.41%) Public Sector
6 75 (3.77%) Investment Banking
7 59 (2.97%) Financial Institution
8 58 (2.92%) Front Office
9 55 (2.77%) Documentation Skills
10 50 (2.52%) Presentation Skills
11 44 (2.21%) Military
12 27 (1.36%) Manufacturing
13 23 (1.16%) Telecoms
14 22 (1.11%) Legal
14 22 (1.11%) Organisational Skills
15 18 (0.91%) Aerospace
16 15 (0.75%) Law
17 13 (0.65%) Marketing
18 11 (0.55%) Back Office
18 11 (0.55%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 345 (17.36%) Developer
2 218 (10.97%) Senior
3 187 (9.41%) DevOps Engineer
4 140 (7.05%) Software Engineer
5 135 (6.79%) Java Developer
6 104 (5.23%) Analyst
7 99 (4.98%) Architect
7 99 (4.98%) Support Engineer
8 98 (4.93%) Linux Engineer
9 96 (4.83%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 94 (4.73%) Platform Engineer
11 78 (3.93%) Administrator
11 78 (3.93%) AWS Engineer
12 63 (3.17%) C++ Software Engineer
13 62 (3.12%) Lead
14 61 (3.07%) Security Engineer
15 58 (2.92%) Python Developer
15 58 (2.92%) Senior Developer
16 57 (2.87%) AWS DevOps
17 54 (2.72%) Python Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 167 (8.40%) Kafka
2 146 (7.35%) REST
3 135 (6.79%) Elastic Stack
4 89 (4.48%) Spring
5 81 (4.08%) Node.js
6 79 (3.98%) Middleware
7 76 (3.82%) RESTful
8 63 (3.17%) AngularJS
8 63 (3.17%) React
9 51 (2.57%) JSON
9 51 (2.57%) LDAP
10 46 (2.32%) SOAP
11 42 (2.11%) XML
12 39 (1.96%) CSS
12 39 (1.96%) Web Services
13 37 (1.86%) FIX Protocol
14 36 (1.81%) JMS
15 34 (1.71%) FastAPI
16 33 (1.66%) OAuth
17 30 (1.51%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 110 (5.54%) Cloud Native
2 94 (4.73%) Linux Command Line
3 82 (4.13%) Replication
4 71 (3.57%) Data Centre
4 71 (3.57%) Distributed Systems
5 66 (3.32%) Management Information System
6 65 (3.27%) Public Cloud
7 64 (3.22%) Data Structures
8 62 (3.12%) Equities
9 56 (2.82%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
10 53 (2.67%) PKI
11 48 (2.42%) Onboarding
12 41 (2.06%) Data Protection Act
13 35 (1.76%) Algorithms
14 34 (1.71%) Fixed Income
15 32 (1.61%) Private Cloud
15 32 (1.61%) Security Posture
16 30 (1.51%) Hedge funds
17 26 (1.31%) Clustering
17 26 (1.31%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 723 (36.39%) Windows
2 428 (21.54%) Unix
3 253 (12.73%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 147 (7.40%) Windows Server
5 86 (4.33%) Ubuntu
6 56 (2.82%) CentOS
7 43 (2.16%) VMS
8 41 (2.06%) Android
9 34 (1.71%) Mac OS
10 30 (1.51%) Solaris
11 27 (1.36%) Mac OS X
12 25 (1.26%) Amazon Linux
13 23 (1.16%) Windows 10
13 23 (1.16%) Windows Server 2016
14 21 (1.06%) AIX
15 20 (1.01%) Windows Server 2019
16 14 (0.70%) Debian
17 13 (0.65%) Kali Linux
18 10 (0.50%) Apple iOS
19 8 (0.40%) Oracle Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 592 (29.79%) CI/CD
2 515 (25.92%) DevOps
3 504 (25.36%) Agile
4 395 (19.88%) Problem-Solving
5 330 (16.61%) Containerisation
6 324 (16.31%) Infrastructure as Code
7 269 (13.54%) Software Engineering
8 180 (9.06%) Observability
9 172 (8.66%) Test Automation
10 159 (8.00%) Microservices
11 157 (7.90%) Computer Science
12 150 (7.55%) Cybersecurity
13 148 (7.45%) Configuration Management
14 145 (7.30%) Infrastructure Engineering
15 142 (7.15%) High Availability
16 141 (7.10%) Platform Engineering
17 139 (7.00%) Performance Tuning
18 128 (6.44%) Continuous Improvement
19 125 (6.29%) Incident Response
20 122 (6.14%) Migration
Programming Languages
1 866 (43.58%) Python
2 415 (20.89%) Java
3 391 (19.68%) SQL
4 354 (17.82%) Bash
5 301 (15.15%) PowerShell
6 229 (11.52%) C++
7 222 (11.17%) Shell Script
8 155 (7.80%) JavaScript
9 145 (7.30%) Perl
10 126 (6.34%) C#
11 87 (4.38%) Go
12 63 (3.17%) C
13 43 (2.16%) Groovy
14 38 (1.91%) TypeScript
15 34 (1.71%) Ruby
16 32 (1.61%) PHP
17 28 (1.41%) Rust
18 24 (1.21%) PL/SQL
19 19 (0.96%) Kusto Query Language
20 14 (0.70%) Ada
Qualifications
1 570 (28.69%) Security Cleared
2 422 (21.24%) SC Cleared
3 200 (10.07%) Degree
4 124 (6.24%) DV Cleared
5 103 (5.18%) Computer Science Degree
6 70 (3.52%) AWS Certification
7 66 (3.32%) BPSS Clearance
8 42 (2.11%) Master's Degree
9 36 (1.81%) Azure Certification
10 35 (1.76%) CISSP
10 35 (1.76%) Microsoft Certification
11 31 (1.56%) Cisco Certification
12 24 (1.21%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 20 (1.01%) CCNP
14 19 (0.96%) CCNA
14 19 (0.96%) OSCP
15 16 (0.81%) GPEN
16 15 (0.75%) GCIH
16 15 (0.75%) RHCE
17 14 (0.70%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 53 (2.67%) NIST
2 47 (2.37%) QA
3 37 (1.86%) GDPR
4 35 (1.76%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 21 (1.06%) Data Quality
6 16 (0.81%) PCI DSS
7 15 (0.75%) HIPAA
7 15 (0.75%) NCSC
8 12 (0.60%) SLA
9 9 (0.45%) SOC 2
10 8 (0.40%) Cyber Essentials
10 8 (0.40%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 7 (0.35%) GLBA
12 6 (0.30%) Accessibility
12 6 (0.30%) Disclosure Scotland
13 4 (0.20%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 3 (0.15%) NIST 800
14 3 (0.15%) SEPA
15 2 (0.10%) Actionable Recommendations
16 1 (0.050%) ISO/IEC 17025
System Software
1 427 (21.49%) Docker
2 203 (10.22%) VMware Infrastructure
3 197 (9.91%) Active Directory
4 62 (3.12%) vSphere
5 52 (2.62%) Virtual Machines
6 36 (1.81%) Hyper-V
7 35 (1.76%) VMware ESXi
8 26 (1.31%) Oracle RAC
9 22 (1.11%) GPFS
10 21 (1.06%) DFS Replication
10 21 (1.06%) NFS
10 21 (1.06%) Postfix
11 20 (1.01%) VMware NSX
12 19 (0.96%) Slurm Workload Manager
13 18 (0.91%) KVM
14 17 (0.86%) Dovecot
15 13 (0.65%) Firmware
15 13 (0.65%) HDFS
16 12 (0.60%) Squid
16 12 (0.60%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 484 (24.36%) Kubernetes
2 432 (21.74%) Terraform
3 382 (19.22%) Ansible
4 220 (11.07%) Grafana
5 192 (9.66%) Prometheus
6 80 (4.03%) Progress Chef
7 78 (3.93%) Puppet
8 49 (2.47%) Packer
9 38 (1.91%) Argo
10 35 (1.76%) Kibana
11 34 (1.71%) vCenter Server
12 32 (1.61%) Red Hat Satellite
13 31 (1.56%) vRealize
14 30 (1.51%) Nessus
14 30 (1.51%) SCOM
15 29 (1.46%) SCCM
16 27 (1.36%) ITRS Geneos
17 25 (1.26%) Consul
17 25 (1.26%) Data Guard
17 25 (1.26%) NetBackup
Vendors
1 313 (15.75%) Microsoft
2 284 (14.29%) Oracle
2 284 (14.29%) VMware
3 229 (11.52%) Splunk
4 221 (11.12%) Red Hat
5 112 (5.64%) Cisco
6 80 (4.03%) ServiceNow
7 72 (3.62%) IBM
8 67 (3.37%) Google
9 59 (2.97%) AppDynamics
10 48 (2.42%) CyberArk
11 43 (2.16%) Dell
12 37 (1.86%) CrowdStrike
13 36 (1.81%) Sybase
14 33 (1.66%) Solace
15 32 (1.61%) Citrix
16 31 (1.56%) HP
17 30 (1.51%) F5
17 30 (1.51%) SAP
18 28 (1.41%) NetApp