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 27 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
27 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 53 32 33
Rank change year-on-year -21 +1 -8
Contract jobs citing Linux 1,926 1,740 2,282
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.78% 5.74% 5.26%
As % of the Operating Systems category 39.74% 41.46% 38.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,195 1,119 1,473
10th Percentile £344 £374 £340
25th Percentile £413 £425 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £540
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -2.78% -6.09%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £638
90th Percentile £688 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £540
% change year-on-year - -7.41% +2.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 106 43 140
10th Percentile £35.44 £43.21 £48.00
25th Percentile £47.19 £54.63 £57.50
Median hourly rate £63.14 £65.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -2.87% - -
75th Percentile £68.00 £68.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £72.25 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00

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 4,847 4,197 5,886
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.51% 13.84% 13.58%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,093 2,732 3,870
10th Percentile £190 £200 £190
25th Percentile £313 £313 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £463 £463 £475
Median % change year-on-year - -2.63% -5.00%
75th Percentile £575 £581 £588
90th Percentile £650 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £463
% change year-on-year - -2.70% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 330 212 434
10th Percentile £14.50 £15.50 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.00 £17.41 £16.25
Median hourly rate £26.83 £22.25 £24.34
Median % change year-on-year +20.58% -8.59% -44.59%
75th Percentile £63.75 £41.48 £63.75
90th Percentile £70.26 £65.98 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.47 £18.87 £30.50
% change year-on-year +40.28% -38.13% -18.67%

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 27 June 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 27 June 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 27 June 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 -26 1,622 £513 -6.18% 620
UK excluding London -18 1,140 £500 - 536
London -50 569 £525 -9.09% 152
Work from Home -32 506 £500 - 263
South East -5 306 £513 -2.71% 176
North of England -15 302 £483 -7.07% 102
South West -7 169 £538 -7.33% 88
Yorkshire -20 151 £500 -4.76% 22
Midlands -11 150 £475 -5.00% 51
North West -26 134 £472 +11.06% 67
West Midlands -16 126 £471 -5.85% 24
East of England -20 93 £475 -0.78% 93
Scotland -29 91 £450 -5.26% 19
Wales +3 27 £465 +64.60% 11
East Midlands -8 21 £528 +16.06% 27
North East -23 20 £406 -14.92% 13
Northern Ireland -2 8 £425 +25.93% 13

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 84 (4.36%) Confluence
2 48 (2.49%) Apache
3 30 (1.56%) nginx
4 29 (1.51%) Microsoft Exchange
5 24 (1.25%) Apache Airflow
6 21 (1.09%) Tomcat
7 18 (0.93%) Apache Spark
8 16 (0.83%) WebLogic
9 11 (0.57%) CICS
9 11 (0.57%) SAS
10 10 (0.52%) OpenStack
10 10 (0.52%) WebSphere
11 9 (0.47%) NetWeaver
12 8 (0.42%) IIS
13 6 (0.31%) JBoss
13 6 (0.31%) SharePoint
13 6 (0.31%) WebSphere Application Server
14 5 (0.26%) CloudStack
14 5 (0.26%) CMS
14 5 (0.26%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 19 (0.99%) Microsoft Office
2 9 (0.47%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.21%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 4 (0.21%) Microsoft Project
4 3 (0.16%) Simulink
5 2 (0.10%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.052%) Adobe Illustrator
6 1 (0.052%) InDesign
6 1 (0.052%) Photoshop
6 1 (0.052%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.052%) Weka
Business Applications
1 11 (0.57%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (0.31%) Remedy ITSM
3 3 (0.16%) Actimize
4 2 (0.10%) FLEXCUBE
4 2 (0.10%) Oracle Applications
4 2 (0.10%) Oracle EBS
4 2 (0.10%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 1 (0.052%) Cloudability
5 1 (0.052%) Odoo
5 1 (0.052%) Oracle ERP
5 1 (0.052%) Oracle General Ledger
5 1 (0.052%) Oracle Payables
5 1 (0.052%) Oracle Receivables
5 1 (0.052%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
5 1 (0.052%) Payment Gateway
5 1 (0.052%) Shopify
5 1 (0.052%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 563 (29.23%) AWS
2 402 (20.87%) Azure
3 155 (8.05%) GitHub
4 131 (6.80%) GCP
5 108 (5.61%) OpenShift
6 90 (4.67%) GitHub Actions
7 86 (4.47%) Amazon S3
8 83 (4.31%) Amazon EC2
9 70 (3.63%) Entra ID
10 66 (3.43%) Azure DevOps
11 62 (3.22%) Amazon CloudWatch
11 62 (3.22%) Amazon EKS
12 55 (2.86%) Serverless
13 51 (2.65%) AWS CloudFormation
14 49 (2.54%) IaaS
15 46 (2.39%) AWS Lambda
15 46 (2.39%) Virtual Private Cloud
16 44 (2.28%) Microsoft 365
16 44 (2.28%) PaaS
17 42 (2.18%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 180 (9.35%) Firewall
2 139 (7.22%) DNS
3 79 (4.10%) TCP/IP
4 74 (3.84%) VPN
5 72 (3.74%) SAN
6 68 (3.53%) Network Security
7 52 (2.70%) DHCP
8 46 (2.39%) WAN
9 37 (1.92%) SSL
10 36 (1.87%) LAN
11 35 (1.82%) SNMP
12 31 (1.61%) HTTP
12 31 (1.61%) SSH
12 31 (1.61%) VSAN
13 27 (1.40%) NAS
14 24 (1.25%) Ethernet
14 24 (1.25%) VLAN
15 19 (0.99%) IPsec
16 17 (0.88%) BGP
16 17 (0.88%) Intrusion Detection
Database & Business Intelligence
1 116 (6.02%) SQL Server
2 112 (5.82%) PostgreSQL
3 77 (4.00%) Oracle Database
4 76 (3.95%) MySQL
5 67 (3.48%) Relational Database
6 62 (3.22%) MongoDB
7 53 (2.75%) Amazon RDS
8 41 (2.13%) Elasticsearch
9 38 (1.97%) Amazon Aurora
10 29 (1.51%) DynamoDB
11 28 (1.45%) NoSQL
12 21 (1.09%) Big Data
12 21 (1.09%) RDBMS
13 20 (1.04%) SAP HANA
14 19 (0.99%) KDB
15 16 (0.83%) Sybase ASE
16 15 (0.78%) Data Warehouse
16 15 (0.78%) Db2
16 15 (0.78%) Kdb+
17 14 (0.73%) Oracle Database 12c
Development Applications
1 214 (11.11%) Jenkins
2 192 (9.97%) GitLab
3 158 (8.20%) Git
4 148 (7.68%) JIRA
5 32 (1.66%) Maven
6 31 (1.61%) SonarQube
7 28 (1.45%) Mockito
8 21 (1.09%) Bitbucket
8 21 (1.09%) Eclipse
9 18 (0.93%) Artifactory
10 17 (0.88%) JUnit
10 17 (0.88%) Sonatype Nexus
11 15 (0.78%) Visual Studio
12 14 (0.73%) DbUnit
12 14 (0.73%) Rational Rhapsody
13 13 (0.67%) jMock
14 11 (0.57%) Bitbucket Server
15 9 (0.47%) Atlassian Bamboo
15 9 (0.47%) Cucumber
15 9 (0.47%) Jaeger
General
1 382 (19.83%) Social Skills
2 275 (14.28%) Finance
3 199 (10.33%) Public Sector
4 166 (8.62%) Analytical Skills
5 132 (6.85%) Banking
6 76 (3.95%) Documentation Skills
7 41 (2.13%) Military
8 28 (1.45%) Front Office
9 27 (1.40%) Retail
10 26 (1.35%) Investment Banking
11 24 (1.25%) Telecoms
12 22 (1.14%) Legal
13 20 (1.04%) Aerospace
13 20 (1.04%) Law
14 19 (0.99%) Financial Institution
14 19 (0.99%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 19 (0.99%) Presentation Skills
15 18 (0.93%) Influencing Skills
16 17 (0.88%) Manufacturing
17 12 (0.62%) Police
Job Titles
1 244 (12.67%) Senior
2 193 (10.02%) Developer
3 190 (9.87%) Linux Engineer
4 185 (9.61%) DevOps Engineer
5 142 (7.37%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 124 (6.44%) Software Engineer
7 98 (5.09%) Analyst
8 95 (4.93%) Architect
9 84 (4.36%) Lead
10 72 (3.74%) Java Developer
11 68 (3.53%) AWS Engineer
12 67 (3.48%) Consultant
13 63 (3.27%) Platform Engineer
14 61 (3.17%) Administrator
15 60 (3.12%) Support Engineer
16 56 (2.91%) Site Reliability Engineer
17 52 (2.70%) Cloud Engineer
17 52 (2.70%) Security Engineer
18 49 (2.54%) AWS DevOps
19 48 (2.49%) Site Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 89 (4.62%) Kafka
2 87 (4.52%) REST
3 80 (4.15%) Middleware
4 70 (3.63%) Elastic Stack
5 52 (2.70%) LDAP
6 51 (2.65%) Spring
7 48 (2.49%) Spring Boot
8 45 (2.34%) Web Services
9 44 (2.28%) RESTful
10 43 (2.23%) Node.js
11 41 (2.13%) .NET
12 30 (1.56%) YAML
13 28 (1.45%) ActiveMQ
14 26 (1.35%) React
14 26 (1.35%) SOAP
15 25 (1.30%) AngularJS
16 24 (1.25%) JSON
17 20 (1.04%) Keycloak
17 20 (1.04%) XML
18 19 (0.99%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 146 (7.58%) Data Centre
2 118 (6.13%) Cloud Native
3 92 (4.78%) Onboarding
4 85 (4.41%) Linux Command Line
5 74 (3.84%) PKI
6 71 (3.69%) Distributed Systems
7 66 (3.43%) Management Information System
8 65 (3.37%) Replication
9 53 (2.75%) Security Posture
10 52 (2.70%) Public Cloud
11 49 (2.54%) Hybrid Cloud
12 48 (2.49%) Legacy Systems
13 37 (1.92%) Product Ownership
14 29 (1.51%) Embedded Systems
15 28 (1.45%) Data Protection Act
16 27 (1.40%) Clustering
16 27 (1.40%) Enterprise Software
16 27 (1.40%) Enterprise Storage
17 24 (1.25%) Operational Technology
18 23 (1.19%) Legacy Applications
Operating Systems
1 732 (38.01%) Windows
2 395 (20.51%) Unix
3 308 (15.99%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 189 (9.81%) Windows Server
5 106 (5.50%) Ubuntu
6 62 (3.22%) AIX
7 50 (2.60%) Solaris
8 39 (2.02%) CentOS
9 29 (1.51%) Embedded Linux
10 28 (1.45%) VMS
11 24 (1.25%) Windows Server 2019
12 23 (1.19%) SUSE
13 19 (0.99%) Android
14 17 (0.88%) Windows Server 2016
15 16 (0.83%) Debian
16 15 (0.78%) Mac OS
17 13 (0.67%) Mac OS X
17 13 (0.67%) Oracle Linux
17 13 (0.67%) Windows 10
18 12 (0.62%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 535 (27.78%) CI/CD
2 471 (24.45%) DevOps
3 360 (18.69%) Agile
4 304 (15.78%) Infrastructure as Code
5 285 (14.80%) Problem-Solving
6 255 (13.24%) Containerisation
7 204 (10.59%) Migration
8 203 (10.54%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 202 (10.49%) Software Engineering
10 172 (8.93%) High Availability
11 171 (8.88%) Observability
12 169 (8.77%) Continuous Improvement
13 159 (8.26%) Performance Tuning
14 147 (7.63%) ITIL
15 146 (7.58%) Root Cause Analysis
16 142 (7.37%) SIEM
17 132 (6.85%) Platform Engineering
18 129 (6.70%) Test Automation
19 127 (6.59%) Configuration Management
20 126 (6.54%) Microservices
Programming Languages
1 641 (33.28%) Python
2 320 (16.61%) SQL
3 298 (15.47%) Bash
4 287 (14.90%) PowerShell
5 236 (12.25%) Java
6 145 (7.53%) Shell Script
7 118 (6.13%) C++
8 89 (4.62%) JavaScript
9 61 (3.17%) C
10 60 (3.12%) C#
11 58 (3.01%) Perl
12 50 (2.60%) PL/SQL
13 49 (2.54%) Go
14 22 (1.14%) Ada
15 21 (1.09%) Rust
16 20 (1.04%) TypeScript
17 19 (0.99%) Search Processing Language
18 18 (0.93%) Bicep
18 18 (0.93%) MATLAB
19 16 (0.83%) PHP
Qualifications
1 739 (38.37%) Security Cleared
2 548 (28.45%) SC Cleared
3 206 (10.70%) DV Cleared
4 182 (9.45%) Degree
5 69 (3.58%) BPSS Clearance
6 67 (3.48%) AWS Certification
7 58 (3.01%) CISSP
8 56 (2.91%) Computer Science Degree
9 54 (2.80%) Cisco Certification
10 41 (2.13%) Azure Certification
11 35 (1.82%) CompTIA Security+
12 33 (1.71%) RHCE
13 24 (1.25%) CCNA
13 24 (1.25%) CCNP
14 20 (1.04%) Microsoft Certification
15 19 (0.99%) CISM
16 16 (0.83%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
16 16 (0.83%) GIAC
17 15 (0.78%) Oracle Certification
18 14 (0.73%) OCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 89 (4.62%) NIST
2 84 (4.36%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 57 (2.96%) QA
4 41 (2.13%) SLA
5 23 (1.19%) Cyber Essentials
5 23 (1.19%) GDPR
5 23 (1.19%) NCSC
6 18 (0.93%) PCI DSS
7 15 (0.78%) Disclosure Scotland
8 12 (0.62%) HIPAA
9 11 (0.57%) GRC
10 10 (0.52%) Data Quality
10 10 (0.52%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 10 (0.52%) SOC 2
11 7 (0.36%) NIST 800
12 6 (0.31%) ISO 20022
12 6 (0.31%) ISO 31000
13 5 (0.26%) California Consumer Privacy Act
13 5 (0.26%) DICOM
14 4 (0.21%) HL7
System Software
1 327 (16.98%) Docker
2 224 (11.63%) VMware Infrastructure
3 218 (11.32%) Active Directory
4 89 (4.62%) Virtual Machines
5 66 (3.43%) Hyper-V
5 66 (3.43%) vSphere
6 64 (3.32%) VMware ESXi
7 50 (2.60%) NFS
8 49 (2.54%) VMware NSX
9 36 (1.87%) Firmware
10 33 (1.71%) KVM
11 29 (1.51%) Oracle RAC
12 21 (1.09%) Postfix
13 19 (0.99%) GPFS
14 11 (0.57%) Slurm Workload Manager
15 10 (0.52%) Ceph
15 10 (0.52%) Microsoft App-V
16 8 (0.42%) BitLocker
17 7 (0.36%) Squid
17 7 (0.36%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 397 (20.61%) Ansible
2 387 (20.09%) Kubernetes
3 379 (19.68%) Terraform
4 166 (8.62%) Grafana
5 143 (7.42%) Prometheus
6 71 (3.69%) Puppet
7 53 (2.75%) Progress Chef
8 41 (2.13%) vCenter Server
9 40 (2.08%) Oracle RMAN
10 30 (1.56%) Red Hat Satellite
11 28 (1.45%) Packer
12 27 (1.40%) Nagios
13 26 (1.35%) Data Guard
14 25 (1.30%) ZABBIX
15 24 (1.25%) Podman
16 23 (1.19%) vRealize
17 22 (1.14%) Kibana
17 22 (1.14%) Tivoli
18 21 (1.09%) Argo
19 19 (0.99%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 299 (15.52%) VMware
2 275 (14.28%) Oracle
3 261 (13.55%) Microsoft
4 225 (11.68%) Red Hat
5 157 (8.15%) Splunk
6 123 (6.39%) Cisco
7 106 (5.50%) IBM
8 89 (4.62%) ServiceNow
9 62 (3.22%) Google
10 61 (3.17%) CyberArk
11 50 (2.60%) Palo Alto
12 41 (2.13%) SAP
12 41 (2.13%) SolarWinds
13 40 (2.08%) BeyondTrust
14 38 (1.97%) F5
15 33 (1.71%) HP
16 32 (1.66%) Citrix
17 30 (1.56%) Sybase
18 29 (1.51%) Dell
18 29 (1.51%) Dynatrace