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

6 months to
5 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 51 32 34
Rank change year-on-year -19 +2 -8
Contract jobs citing Linux 1,900 1,688 2,206
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.87% 5.83% 5.14%
As % of the Operating Systems category 39.70% 42.06% 38.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,170 1,085 1,459
10th Percentile £350 £375 £340
25th Percentile £413 £440 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £538 £550
Median % change year-on-year -6.98% -2.27% -4.35%
75th Percentile £600 £628 £638
90th Percentile £688 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £490 £501 £540
% change year-on-year -2.10% -7.31% +2.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 117 37 117
10th Percentile £33.95 £46.34 £42.45
25th Percentile £43.81 £55.00 £52.50
Median hourly rate £62.50 £65.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% - -
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 4,786 4,013 5,763
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.75% 13.87% 13.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,048 2,631 3,873
10th Percentile £188 £200 £185
25th Percentile £314 £313 £300
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £460 £467 £470
Median % change year-on-year -1.45% -0.74% -6.00%
75th Percentile £575 £586 £588
90th Percentile £650 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £450
% change year-on-year - - -3.23%
Number of hourly rates quoted 348 187 400
10th Percentile £14.85 £15.12 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.19 £17.33 £15.50
Median hourly rate £32.50 £22.00 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year +47.73% -2.22% -47.06%
75th Percentile £65.00 £49.63 £61.60
90th Percentile £72.60 £68.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.50 £18.94 £22.79
% change year-on-year +71.64% -16.92% -40.81%

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 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 5 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 5 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 -20 1,592 £510 -7.27% 949
UK excluding London -16 1,132 £490 -2.10% 712
London -48 550 £545 -6.84% 305
Work from Home -31 486 £500 -4.76% 459
South East -3 304 £505 -8.18% 239
North of England -13 296 £469 -10.67% 109
South West -5 163 £538 -10.42% 131
Yorkshire -16 153 £480 -10.70% 27
Midlands -11 149 £485 -3.00% 68
North West -13 129 £466 -5.34% 64
West Midlands -14 129 £477 -4.60% 38
Scotland -24 96 £500 +5.26% 37
East of England -14 90 £475 +0.53% 105
Wales -2 27 £465 -20.65% 22
East Midlands -25 17 £530 +17.78% 30
North East -23 14 £446 -6.54% 18
Northern Ireland +8 13 £425 +30.77% 14

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 81 (4.26%) Confluence
2 48 (2.53%) Apache
3 33 (1.74%) nginx
4 28 (1.47%) Microsoft Exchange
5 22 (1.16%) Tomcat
6 20 (1.05%) Apache Airflow
7 18 (0.95%) WebLogic
8 17 (0.89%) Apache Spark
9 12 (0.63%) OpenStack
9 12 (0.63%) SAS
9 12 (0.63%) WebSphere
10 11 (0.58%) CICS
11 9 (0.47%) NetWeaver
12 8 (0.42%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 7 (0.37%) IIS
13 7 (0.37%) JBoss
13 7 (0.37%) SharePoint
14 6 (0.32%) TPMS
14 6 (0.32%) WebSphere Application Server
15 5 (0.26%) CMS
Applications
1 21 (1.11%) Microsoft Office
2 10 (0.53%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.21%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 4 (0.21%) Microsoft Project
4 3 (0.16%) Simulink
5 2 (0.11%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.053%) Adobe Illustrator
6 1 (0.053%) InDesign
6 1 (0.053%) Photoshop
6 1 (0.053%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.053%) Weka
Business Applications
1 12 (0.63%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (0.32%) Remedy ITSM
3 4 (0.21%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 3 (0.16%) Actimize
5 2 (0.11%) BusinessWorks
5 2 (0.11%) FLEXCUBE
5 2 (0.11%) Oracle EBS
5 2 (0.11%) Oracle General Ledger
5 2 (0.11%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 1 (0.053%) Cloudability
6 1 (0.053%) Odoo
6 1 (0.053%) Oracle Applications
6 1 (0.053%) Oracle ERP
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
1 533 (28.05%) AWS
2 391 (20.58%) Azure
3 163 (8.58%) GitHub
4 124 (6.53%) GCP
5 114 (6.00%) OpenShift
6 93 (4.89%) GitHub Actions
7 83 (4.37%) Amazon S3
8 81 (4.26%) Amazon EC2
9 70 (3.68%) Azure DevOps
10 66 (3.47%) Amazon EKS
11 60 (3.16%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 58 (3.05%) Serverless
13 52 (2.74%) Entra ID
14 50 (2.63%) AWS CloudFormation
15 49 (2.58%) AWS Lambda
16 46 (2.42%) IaaS
17 44 (2.32%) PaaS
18 43 (2.26%) Virtual Private Cloud
19 41 (2.16%) Microsoft 365
20 37 (1.95%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 187 (9.84%) Firewall
2 145 (7.63%) DNS
3 93 (4.89%) TCP/IP
4 79 (4.16%) VPN
5 65 (3.42%) Network Security
5 65 (3.42%) SAN
6 52 (2.74%) DHCP
7 49 (2.58%) WAN
8 41 (2.16%) LAN
9 36 (1.89%) SNMP
9 36 (1.89%) SSL
10 33 (1.74%) SSH
11 32 (1.68%) VSAN
12 29 (1.53%) HTTP
13 26 (1.37%) NAS
14 23 (1.21%) Ethernet
15 21 (1.11%) VLAN
16 19 (1.00%) BGP
16 19 (1.00%) IPsec
17 17 (0.89%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 112 (5.89%) SQL Server
2 111 (5.84%) PostgreSQL
3 73 (3.84%) MySQL
4 72 (3.79%) Oracle Database
5 62 (3.26%) MongoDB
5 62 (3.26%) Relational Database
6 52 (2.74%) Amazon RDS
7 45 (2.37%) Elasticsearch
8 37 (1.95%) Amazon Aurora
9 26 (1.37%) DynamoDB
9 26 (1.37%) NoSQL
10 20 (1.05%) SAP HANA
11 19 (1.00%) Big Data
12 18 (0.95%) Data Warehouse
13 17 (0.89%) KDB
14 16 (0.84%) Db2
15 14 (0.74%) Kdb+
15 14 (0.74%) Power BI
15 14 (0.74%) Sybase ASE
16 13 (0.68%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 211 (11.11%) Jenkins
2 176 (9.26%) GitLab
3 168 (8.84%) Git
4 141 (7.42%) JIRA
5 33 (1.74%) Maven
6 30 (1.58%) SonarQube
7 26 (1.37%) Mockito
8 23 (1.21%) Eclipse
9 21 (1.11%) JUnit
10 20 (1.05%) Bitbucket
11 19 (1.00%) Sonatype Nexus
12 17 (0.89%) Artifactory
13 14 (0.74%) DbUnit
13 14 (0.74%) Rational Rhapsody
13 14 (0.74%) Visual Studio
14 13 (0.68%) Jaeger
14 13 (0.68%) jMock
15 11 (0.58%) Bitbucket Server
16 10 (0.53%) Cucumber
17 9 (0.47%) Atlassian Bamboo
General
1 390 (20.53%) Social Skills
2 267 (14.05%) Finance
3 196 (10.32%) Public Sector
4 152 (8.00%) Analytical Skills
5 126 (6.63%) Banking
6 78 (4.11%) Documentation Skills
7 44 (2.32%) Military
8 24 (1.26%) Front Office
9 23 (1.21%) Aerospace
9 23 (1.21%) Financial Institution
9 23 (1.21%) Telecoms
10 22 (1.16%) Law
10 22 (1.16%) Retail
11 21 (1.11%) Investment Banking
12 19 (1.00%) Presentation Skills
13 18 (0.95%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 17 (0.89%) Influencing Skills
14 17 (0.89%) Legal
15 14 (0.74%) Manufacturing
16 12 (0.63%) Police
Job Titles
1 245 (12.89%) Senior
2 191 (10.05%) Developer
3 184 (9.68%) Linux Engineer
4 175 (9.21%) DevOps Engineer
5 132 (6.95%) Software Engineer
6 128 (6.74%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 106 (5.58%) Architect
8 99 (5.21%) Analyst
9 96 (5.05%) Lead
10 73 (3.84%) Administrator
10 73 (3.84%) Java Developer
11 71 (3.74%) AWS Engineer
12 65 (3.42%) Consultant
13 57 (3.00%) Site Reliability Engineer
14 56 (2.95%) Platform Engineer
15 55 (2.89%) Security Engineer
16 49 (2.58%) AWS DevOps
16 49 (2.58%) Site Engineer
16 49 (2.58%) Support Engineer
17 47 (2.47%) Embedded Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 88 (4.63%) Kafka
2 82 (4.32%) REST
3 76 (4.00%) Middleware
4 71 (3.74%) Elastic Stack
5 51 (2.68%) LDAP
5 51 (2.68%) Spring Boot
6 50 (2.63%) Spring
7 46 (2.42%) Node.js
7 46 (2.42%) Web Services
8 43 (2.26%) RESTful
9 41 (2.16%) .NET
10 34 (1.79%) YAML
11 27 (1.42%) AngularJS
11 27 (1.42%) JSON
12 26 (1.37%) SOAP
12 26 (1.37%) XML
13 25 (1.32%) ActiveMQ
14 22 (1.16%) React
15 20 (1.05%) Flash
16 19 (1.00%) CSS
Miscellaneous
1 154 (8.11%) Data Centre
2 107 (5.63%) Cloud Native
3 79 (4.16%) Onboarding
4 75 (3.95%) Linux Command Line
5 73 (3.84%) Management Information System
6 70 (3.68%) PKI
7 69 (3.63%) Distributed Systems
8 59 (3.11%) Replication
9 47 (2.47%) Legacy Systems
9 47 (2.47%) Security Posture
10 46 (2.42%) Hybrid Cloud
10 46 (2.42%) Public Cloud
11 35 (1.84%) Product Ownership
12 33 (1.74%) Enterprise Storage
13 31 (1.63%) Embedded Systems
14 30 (1.58%) Data Protection Act
15 29 (1.53%) Security Operations Centre
16 25 (1.32%) Clustering
16 25 (1.32%) Enterprise Software
16 25 (1.32%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 732 (38.53%) Windows
2 374 (19.68%) Unix
3 301 (15.84%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 189 (9.95%) Windows Server
5 97 (5.11%) Ubuntu
6 55 (2.89%) AIX
7 49 (2.58%) Solaris
8 44 (2.32%) CentOS
9 35 (1.84%) Embedded Linux
10 29 (1.53%) VMS
11 24 (1.26%) Windows Server 2019
12 23 (1.21%) Android
13 21 (1.11%) Windows Server 2016
14 19 (1.00%) Debian
14 19 (1.00%) Mac OS
15 15 (0.79%) SUSE
16 13 (0.68%) Windows 10
17 12 (0.63%) Mac OS X
17 12 (0.63%) Windows Server 2008
18 11 (0.58%) Oracle Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 533 (28.05%) CI/CD
2 459 (24.16%) DevOps
3 351 (18.47%) Agile
4 285 (15.00%) Infrastructure as Code
5 283 (14.89%) Problem-Solving
6 242 (12.74%) Containerisation
7 204 (10.74%) Software Engineering
8 188 (9.89%) Migration
9 183 (9.63%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 179 (9.42%) Observability
11 158 (8.32%) High Availability
12 157 (8.26%) SIEM
13 153 (8.05%) Continuous Improvement
13 153 (8.05%) Performance Tuning
14 146 (7.68%) Root Cause Analysis
15 136 (7.16%) ITIL
16 132 (6.95%) Cybersecurity
17 130 (6.84%) Incident Response
17 130 (6.84%) Test Automation
18 126 (6.63%) Computer Science
Programming Languages
1 625 (32.89%) Python
2 324 (17.05%) SQL
3 283 (14.89%) PowerShell
4 275 (14.47%) Bash
5 253 (13.32%) Java
6 153 (8.05%) Shell Script
7 125 (6.58%) C++
8 98 (5.16%) JavaScript
9 62 (3.26%) Perl
10 61 (3.21%) C
11 60 (3.16%) C#
12 49 (2.58%) Go
13 47 (2.47%) PL/SQL
14 24 (1.26%) Rust
14 24 (1.26%) TypeScript
15 21 (1.11%) Ada
15 21 (1.11%) MATLAB
16 20 (1.05%) Ruby
17 19 (1.00%) Search Processing Language
18 16 (0.84%) PHP
Qualifications
1 742 (39.05%) Security Cleared
2 547 (28.79%) SC Cleared
3 209 (11.00%) DV Cleared
4 190 (10.00%) Degree
5 72 (3.79%) Computer Science Degree
6 68 (3.58%) BPSS Clearance
7 60 (3.16%) CISSP
8 58 (3.05%) AWS Certification
9 55 (2.89%) Cisco Certification
10 44 (2.32%) CompTIA Security+
11 41 (2.16%) Azure Certification
12 34 (1.79%) RHCE
13 25 (1.32%) CCNP
14 23 (1.21%) CCNA
15 21 (1.11%) CISM
16 20 (1.05%) Microsoft Certification
17 19 (1.00%) Oracle Certification
18 18 (0.95%) OCP
19 17 (0.89%) CompTIA CySA+
20 16 (0.84%) GIAC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 87 (4.58%) NIST
2 75 (3.95%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 58 (3.05%) QA
4 50 (2.63%) SLA
5 28 (1.47%) Cyber Essentials
5 28 (1.47%) GDPR
6 22 (1.16%) NCSC
7 17 (0.89%) PCI DSS
8 12 (0.63%) Disclosure Scotland
8 12 (0.63%) HIPAA
9 11 (0.58%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 9 (0.47%) Data Quality
10 9 (0.47%) GRC
11 8 (0.42%) NIST 800
11 8 (0.42%) SOC 2
12 6 (0.32%) GLBA
12 6 (0.32%) ISO 31000
13 5 (0.26%) California Consumer Privacy Act
13 5 (0.26%) DICOM
13 5 (0.26%) ISO 20022
System Software
1 320 (16.84%) Docker
2 225 (11.84%) VMware Infrastructure
3 199 (10.47%) Active Directory
4 82 (4.32%) Virtual Machines
5 68 (3.58%) Hyper-V
6 65 (3.42%) VMware ESXi
6 65 (3.42%) vSphere
7 51 (2.68%) NFS
8 48 (2.53%) VMware NSX
9 38 (2.00%) Firmware
10 29 (1.53%) KVM
11 23 (1.21%) Oracle RAC
12 21 (1.11%) GPFS
12 21 (1.11%) Postfix
13 12 (0.63%) Ceph
13 12 (0.63%) Slurm Workload Manager
14 11 (0.58%) Microsoft App-V
15 9 (0.47%) BitLocker
16 8 (0.42%) Squid
17 7 (0.37%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 394 (20.74%) Ansible
2 377 (19.84%) Kubernetes
3 352 (18.53%) Terraform
4 172 (9.05%) Grafana
5 142 (7.47%) Prometheus
6 70 (3.68%) Puppet
7 47 (2.47%) Progress Chef
8 43 (2.26%) vCenter Server
9 37 (1.95%) Oracle RMAN
10 30 (1.58%) Podman
11 28 (1.47%) Red Hat Satellite
12 26 (1.37%) Packer
13 25 (1.32%) Kibana
13 25 (1.32%) Nagios
14 24 (1.26%) vRealize
14 24 (1.26%) ZABBIX
15 23 (1.21%) Data Guard
16 22 (1.16%) Tivoli
17 21 (1.11%) Argo
18 20 (1.05%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 306 (16.11%) VMware
2 272 (14.32%) Oracle
3 260 (13.68%) Microsoft
4 225 (11.84%) Red Hat
5 186 (9.79%) Splunk
6 120 (6.32%) Cisco
7 96 (5.05%) IBM
8 87 (4.58%) ServiceNow
9 55 (2.89%) Palo Alto
10 52 (2.74%) CyberArk
11 51 (2.68%) Google
12 38 (2.00%) F5
13 35 (1.84%) Citrix
13 35 (1.84%) SAP
13 35 (1.84%) SolarWinds
14 34 (1.79%) Dell
15 33 (1.74%) NVIDIA
16 32 (1.68%) HP
17 30 (1.58%) BeyondTrust
18 27 (1.42%) Tenable