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

6 months to
29 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 50 32 34
Rank change year-on-year -18 +2 -8
Contract jobs citing Linux 1,923 1,677 2,212
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.93% 5.83% 5.16%
As % of the Operating Systems category 40.24% 42.19% 38.26%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,192 1,083 1,475
10th Percentile £345 £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 £607 £638 £638
90th Percentile £688 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £490 £510 £548
% change year-on-year -3.92% -6.85% +4.29%
Number of hourly rates quoted 118 39 115
10th Percentile £33.99 £43.85 £40.55
25th Percentile £43.81 £55.00 £53.75
Median hourly rate £61.42 £65.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -5.52% - -
75th Percentile £68.00 £68.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £70.86 - -
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 4,779 3,975 5,781
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.77% 13.82% 13.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,055 2,624 3,916
10th Percentile £188 £200 £185
25th Percentile £313 £313 £300
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £459 £467 £475
Median % change year-on-year -1.66% -1.74% -5.00%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £588
90th Percentile £650 £688 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £450
% change year-on-year - - -3.12%
Number of hourly rates quoted 347 176 403
10th Percentile £15.30 £15.17 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.25 £17.44 £15.50
Median hourly rate £35.00 £22.00 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year +59.09% -2.22% -47.06%
75th Percentile £65.00 £54.06 £60.75
90th Percentile £74.00 £68.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £34.07 £19.14 £22.50
% change year-on-year +78.02% -14.96% -40.00%

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 29 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 29 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 29 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 1,610 £513 -6.82% 679
UK excluding London -12 1,153 £490 -3.92% 550
London -47 553 £550 -5.98% 195
Work from Home -29 484 £500 -4.76% 263
South East -4 321 £500 -4.76% 182
North of England -12 293 £475 -9.52% 86
South West -8 162 £538 -10.42% 119
Midlands -10 151 £493 -1.50% 49
Yorkshire -16 151 £480 -10.70% 18
West Midlands -9 131 £481 -6.15% 27
North West -13 128 £469 +10.35% 51
Scotland -22 99 £475 - 32
East of England -14 91 £475 +0.26% 74
Wales +4 27 £465 -20.65% 17
East Midlands -26 17 £530 +16.61% 22
Northern Ireland +8 14 £425 +30.77% 7
North East -24 14 £446 -18.12% 18

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 78 (4.06%) Confluence
2 52 (2.70%) Apache
3 31 (1.61%) nginx
4 25 (1.30%) Microsoft Exchange
5 23 (1.20%) Apache Airflow
6 20 (1.04%) Tomcat
7 18 (0.94%) Apache Spark
8 17 (0.88%) WebLogic
9 13 (0.68%) SAS
10 12 (0.62%) OpenStack
10 12 (0.62%) WebSphere
11 11 (0.57%) CICS
12 9 (0.47%) NetWeaver
13 8 (0.42%) Oracle SOA Suite
14 7 (0.36%) JBoss
14 7 (0.36%) SharePoint
15 6 (0.31%) IIS
15 6 (0.31%) TPMS
15 6 (0.31%) WebSphere Application Server
16 5 (0.26%) CMS
Applications
1 23 (1.20%) Microsoft Office
2 11 (0.57%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.21%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 4 (0.21%) Microsoft Project
4 3 (0.16%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.16%) Simulink
5 2 (0.10%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.052%) Adobe Illustrator
6 1 (0.052%) InDesign
6 1 (0.052%) Photoshop
6 1 (0.052%) Weka
Business Applications
1 12 (0.62%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (0.31%) Remedy ITSM
3 4 (0.21%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 3 (0.16%) Actimize
4 3 (0.16%) Oracle EBS
5 2 (0.10%) BusinessWorks
5 2 (0.10%) FLEXCUBE
5 2 (0.10%) Oracle General Ledger
5 2 (0.10%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 1 (0.052%) Cloudability
6 1 (0.052%) Odoo
6 1 (0.052%) Oracle Applications
6 1 (0.052%) Oracle EBS R12
6 1 (0.052%) Oracle ERP
6 1 (0.052%) Oracle FAH
6 1 (0.052%) Oracle Payables
6 1 (0.052%) Oracle Receivables
6 1 (0.052%) Shopify
6 1 (0.052%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 542 (28.19%) AWS
2 392 (20.38%) Azure
3 166 (8.63%) GitHub
4 121 (6.29%) GCP
5 117 (6.08%) OpenShift
6 97 (5.04%) GitHub Actions
7 83 (4.32%) Amazon EC2
7 83 (4.32%) Amazon S3
8 70 (3.64%) Azure DevOps
9 67 (3.48%) Amazon EKS
10 62 (3.22%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 62 (3.22%) Serverless
11 61 (3.17%) AWS CloudFormation
12 54 (2.81%) AWS Lambda
13 48 (2.50%) Entra ID
14 44 (2.29%) IaaS
15 42 (2.18%) Virtual Private Cloud
16 41 (2.13%) Microsoft 365
17 40 (2.08%) PaaS
18 39 (2.03%) Amazon ECS
Communications & Networking
1 186 (9.67%) Firewall
2 144 (7.49%) DNS
3 94 (4.89%) TCP/IP
4 79 (4.11%) VPN
5 66 (3.43%) SAN
6 63 (3.28%) Network Security
7 49 (2.55%) DHCP
7 49 (2.55%) WAN
8 42 (2.18%) LAN
9 35 (1.82%) SNMP
9 35 (1.82%) SSL
9 35 (1.82%) VSAN
10 33 (1.72%) SSH
11 28 (1.46%) HTTP
12 26 (1.35%) NAS
13 23 (1.20%) Ethernet
14 19 (0.99%) BGP
14 19 (0.99%) IPsec
15 18 (0.94%) VLAN
16 17 (0.88%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 114 (5.93%) SQL Server
2 113 (5.88%) PostgreSQL
3 74 (3.85%) MySQL
4 70 (3.64%) Oracle Database
5 63 (3.28%) MongoDB
5 63 (3.28%) Relational Database
6 51 (2.65%) Amazon RDS
7 42 (2.18%) Elasticsearch
8 37 (1.92%) Amazon Aurora
9 27 (1.40%) NoSQL
10 25 (1.30%) DynamoDB
11 20 (1.04%) Data Warehouse
11 20 (1.04%) SAP HANA
12 18 (0.94%) Big Data
13 17 (0.88%) DB2
13 17 (0.88%) KDB
14 15 (0.78%) Power BI
15 14 (0.73%) Kdb+
16 13 (0.68%) Sybase ASE
17 12 (0.62%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 203 (10.56%) Jenkins
2 172 (8.94%) GitLab
3 169 (8.79%) Git
4 138 (7.18%) JIRA
5 33 (1.72%) Maven
6 29 (1.51%) SonarQube
7 26 (1.35%) Mockito
8 24 (1.25%) Eclipse
9 21 (1.09%) JUnit
10 19 (0.99%) Sonatype Nexus
11 18 (0.94%) Bitbucket
12 16 (0.83%) Artifactory
13 14 (0.73%) DbUnit
13 14 (0.73%) Rational Rhapsody
13 14 (0.73%) Visual Studio
14 13 (0.68%) Jaeger
14 13 (0.68%) jMock
15 11 (0.57%) Bitbucket Server
16 10 (0.52%) Cucumber
17 9 (0.47%) Atlassian Bamboo
General
1 387 (20.12%) Social Skills
2 266 (13.83%) Finance
3 202 (10.50%) Public Sector
4 152 (7.90%) Analytical Skills
5 119 (6.19%) Banking
6 77 (4.00%) Documentation Skills
7 45 (2.34%) Military
8 24 (1.25%) Financial Institution
8 24 (1.25%) Front Office
9 23 (1.20%) Aerospace
9 23 (1.20%) Telecoms
10 22 (1.14%) Retail
11 21 (1.09%) Investment Banking
12 20 (1.04%) Law
12 20 (1.04%) Presentation Skills
13 17 (0.88%) Influencing Skills
14 16 (0.83%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 16 (0.83%) Legal
15 14 (0.73%) Manufacturing
16 12 (0.62%) Police
Job Titles
1 247 (12.84%) Senior
2 192 (9.98%) Developer
3 183 (9.52%) Linux Engineer
4 179 (9.31%) DevOps Engineer
5 136 (7.07%) Software Engineer
6 125 (6.50%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 109 (5.67%) Analyst
8 108 (5.62%) Architect
9 99 (5.15%) Lead
10 78 (4.06%) Administrator
11 75 (3.90%) AWS Engineer
12 74 (3.85%) Java Developer
13 66 (3.43%) Site Reliability Engineer
14 61 (3.17%) Consultant
15 56 (2.91%) Platform Engineer
15 56 (2.91%) Site Engineer
16 53 (2.76%) Security Engineer
17 52 (2.70%) AWS DevOps
18 48 (2.50%) AWS DevOps Engineer
19 47 (2.44%) Embedded Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 92 (4.78%) Kafka
2 80 (4.16%) REST
3 75 (3.90%) Elastic Stack
4 71 (3.69%) Middleware
5 51 (2.65%) LDAP
6 50 (2.60%) Spring Boot
7 49 (2.55%) Node.js
7 49 (2.55%) Spring
8 44 (2.29%) Web Services
9 42 (2.18%) RESTful
10 38 (1.98%) .NET
11 35 (1.82%) YAML
12 28 (1.46%) AngularJS
13 27 (1.40%) JSON
14 26 (1.35%) XML
15 25 (1.30%) ActiveMQ
16 24 (1.25%) React
16 24 (1.25%) SOAP
17 22 (1.14%) CSS
18 21 (1.09%) Flash
Miscellaneous
1 154 (8.01%) Data Centre
2 109 (5.67%) Cloud Native
3 78 (4.06%) Linux Command Line
4 77 (4.00%) Onboarding
5 71 (3.69%) Management Information System
6 69 (3.59%) Distributed Systems
7 66 (3.43%) PKI
8 59 (3.07%) Replication
9 48 (2.50%) Hybrid Cloud
9 48 (2.50%) Public Cloud
10 47 (2.44%) Legacy Systems
11 44 (2.29%) Security Posture
12 36 (1.87%) Product Ownership
13 32 (1.66%) Enterprise Storage
14 31 (1.61%) Embedded Systems
15 30 (1.56%) Data Protection Act
15 30 (1.56%) Security Operations Centre
16 25 (1.30%) Operational Technology
17 24 (1.25%) Cyber Threat
17 24 (1.25%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 733 (38.12%) Windows
2 373 (19.40%) Unix
3 298 (15.50%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 183 (9.52%) Windows Server
5 99 (5.15%) Ubuntu
6 55 (2.86%) AIX
7 44 (2.29%) CentOS
8 43 (2.24%) Solaris
9 35 (1.82%) Embedded Linux
10 29 (1.51%) VMS
11 25 (1.30%) Android
12 24 (1.25%) Windows Server 2019
13 22 (1.14%) Debian
13 22 (1.14%) Windows Server 2016
14 19 (0.99%) Mac OS
15 14 (0.73%) SUSE
16 12 (0.62%) Mac OS X
16 12 (0.62%) Windows 10
17 11 (0.57%) Oracle Linux
18 10 (0.52%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 542 (28.19%) CI/CD
2 464 (24.13%) DevOps
3 362 (18.82%) Agile
4 296 (15.39%) Problem-Solving
5 292 (15.18%) Infrastructure as Code
6 245 (12.74%) Containerisation
7 207 (10.76%) Software Engineering
8 187 (9.72%) Migration
8 187 (9.72%) Observability
9 185 (9.62%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 161 (8.37%) High Availability
11 160 (8.32%) Performance Tuning
12 154 (8.01%) SIEM
13 148 (7.70%) Continuous Improvement
14 147 (7.64%) Root Cause Analysis
15 138 (7.18%) ITIL
16 132 (6.86%) Computer Science
16 132 (6.86%) Incident Response
16 132 (6.86%) Microservices
17 128 (6.66%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 635 (33.02%) Python
2 322 (16.74%) SQL
3 279 (14.51%) Bash
4 272 (14.14%) PowerShell
5 253 (13.16%) Java
6 155 (8.06%) Shell Script
7 130 (6.76%) C++
8 102 (5.30%) JavaScript
9 63 (3.28%) Perl
10 60 (3.12%) C
11 58 (3.02%) C#
12 49 (2.55%) Go
13 47 (2.44%) PL/SQL
14 26 (1.35%) Ruby
14 26 (1.35%) TypeScript
15 23 (1.20%) Rust
16 21 (1.09%) Ada
16 21 (1.09%) MATLAB
17 19 (0.99%) Search Processing Language
18 16 (0.83%) PHP
Qualifications
1 751 (39.05%) Security Cleared
2 547 (28.45%) SC Cleared
3 221 (11.49%) DV Cleared
4 188 (9.78%) Degree
5 77 (4.00%) Computer Science Degree
6 73 (3.80%) BPSS Clearance
7 55 (2.86%) Cisco Certification
7 55 (2.86%) CISSP
8 54 (2.81%) AWS Certification
9 44 (2.29%) CompTIA Security+
10 36 (1.87%) Azure Certification
11 35 (1.82%) RHCE
12 25 (1.30%) CCNP
13 24 (1.25%) CCNA
14 20 (1.04%) Microsoft Certification
15 19 (0.99%) CISM
15 19 (0.99%) Oracle Certification
16 18 (0.94%) OCP
17 17 (0.88%) CompTIA CySA+
18 16 (0.83%) GIAC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 84 (4.37%) NIST
2 72 (3.74%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 55 (2.86%) QA
4 50 (2.60%) SLA
5 28 (1.46%) Cyber Essentials
5 28 (1.46%) GDPR
6 22 (1.14%) NCSC
7 17 (0.88%) PCI DSS
8 12 (0.62%) HIPAA
9 11 (0.57%) Disclosure Scotland
9 11 (0.57%) 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 7 (0.36%) Accessibility
13 6 (0.31%) GLBA
13 6 (0.31%) ISO 31000
14 5 (0.26%) California Consumer Privacy Act
14 5 (0.26%) ISO 20022
System Software
1 318 (16.54%) Docker
2 226 (11.75%) VMware Infrastructure
3 195 (10.14%) Active Directory
4 80 (4.16%) Virtual Machines
5 69 (3.59%) vSphere
6 67 (3.48%) Hyper-V
7 62 (3.22%) VMware ESXi
8 51 (2.65%) NFS
9 47 (2.44%) VMware NSX
10 39 (2.03%) Firmware
11 29 (1.51%) KVM
12 24 (1.25%) Oracle RAC
13 22 (1.14%) GPFS
14 21 (1.09%) Postfix
15 13 (0.68%) Ceph
15 13 (0.68%) Slurm Workload Manager
16 9 (0.47%) Microsoft App-V
17 8 (0.42%) Squid
18 7 (0.36%) BitLocker
18 7 (0.36%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 394 (20.49%) Ansible
2 386 (20.07%) Kubernetes
3 364 (18.93%) Terraform
4 177 (9.20%) Grafana
5 145 (7.54%) Prometheus
6 71 (3.69%) Puppet
7 47 (2.44%) Progress Chef
8 41 (2.13%) vCenter Server
9 38 (1.98%) Oracle RMAN
10 30 (1.56%) Podman
11 28 (1.46%) Red Hat Satellite
11 28 (1.46%) vRealize
12 27 (1.40%) Packer
13 26 (1.35%) Kibana
14 25 (1.30%) Data Guard
15 24 (1.25%) ZABBIX
16 23 (1.20%) Nagios
17 22 (1.14%) Tivoli
18 21 (1.09%) Argo
19 20 (1.04%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 313 (16.28%) VMware
2 264 (13.73%) Oracle
3 258 (13.42%) Microsoft
4 229 (11.91%) Red Hat
5 188 (9.78%) Splunk
6 125 (6.50%) Cisco
7 94 (4.89%) IBM
8 83 (4.32%) ServiceNow
9 54 (2.81%) Palo Alto
10 49 (2.55%) CyberArk
11 47 (2.44%) Google
12 40 (2.08%) Dell
13 37 (1.92%) F5
13 37 (1.92%) SolarWinds
14 33 (1.72%) Citrix
14 33 (1.72%) HP
14 33 (1.72%) NVIDIA
15 30 (1.56%) SAP
16 29 (1.51%) BeyondTrust
17 26 (1.35%) NetApp