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

6 months to
9 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 38 31 25
Rank change year-on-year -7 -6 0
Contract jobs citing Linux 1,962 1,976 2,960
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.41% 5.53% 6.51%
As % of the Operating Systems category 41.04% 39.26% 43.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,209 1,161 1,986
10th Percentile £316 £350 £350
25th Percentile £405 £450 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% - -4.68%
75th Percentile £621 £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 90 87 133
10th Percentile £12.50 £45.00 £27.25
25th Percentile £43.02 £62.50 £48.47
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year - +4.00% -3.85%
75th Percentile £67.00 £68.75 £70.00
90th Percentile £68.20 £70.40 £77.31
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 4,781 5,033 6,851
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 13.18% 14.09% 15.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,092 3,100 4,660
10th Percentile £175 £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 £560 £588 £608
90th Percentile £662 £688 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £400 £440 £440
% change year-on-year -9.09% - -2.22%
Number of hourly rates quoted 361 200 347
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.96 £14.86
25th Percentile £18.87 £22.00 £17.75
Median hourly rate £25.00 £50.00 £32.00
Median % change year-on-year -50.00% +56.25% +28.00%
75th Percentile £52.58 £67.25 £65.00
90th Percentile £67.84 £70.00 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.00 £50.00 £27.50
% change year-on-year -50.00% +81.82% +22.22%

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 9 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 9 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 9 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 1,671 £513 -6.82% 1,421
UK excluding London 0 1,113 £475 -9.52% 1,321
London -4 680 £575 -4.17% 272
Work from Home -7 555 £500 -4.76% 688
South East +5 284 £475 -5.00% 430
North of England +2 273 £480 -15.04% 258
Midlands +3 191 £507 -3.43% 195
West Midlands +5 177 £520 -5.45% 117
Yorkshire +5 159 £500 -19.16% 93
Scotland +5 152 £465 -4.52% 60
South West -25 121 £550 - 174
North West +4 110 £450 -18.18% 140
East of England -7 100 £450 - 206
East Midlands -22 14 £420 -2.89% 71
North East -6 10 £550 +8.64% 26
Northern Ireland +2 9 £375 -31.82% 15
Wales -6 6 £300 -42.86% 21

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 (4.84%) Confluence
2 73 (3.72%) Apache
3 49 (2.50%) nginx
4 33 (1.68%) Microsoft Exchange
5 32 (1.63%) Apache Spark
6 26 (1.33%) Apache Airflow
6 26 (1.33%) JBoss
7 24 (1.22%) OpenStack
8 21 (1.07%) WebSphere
9 18 (0.92%) WebLogic
10 16 (0.82%) SharePoint
11 14 (0.71%) Mattermost
11 14 (0.71%) SAS
11 14 (0.71%) Skype for Business
11 14 (0.71%) Tomcat
12 11 (0.56%) IIS
12 11 (0.56%) WebSphere Application Server
13 10 (0.51%) iPlanet
14 7 (0.36%) TPMS
15 6 (0.31%) NetWeaver
Applications
1 56 (2.85%) Microsoft Office
2 16 (0.82%) Microsoft Excel
3 13 (0.66%) MS Visio
4 11 (0.56%) Mozilla Thunderbird
5 6 (0.31%) 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 (0.051%) OmniGraffle
10 1 (0.051%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 8 (0.41%) Remedy ITSM
2 6 (0.31%) 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 (0.051%) Bloomberg TOMS
5 1 (0.051%) Finacle
5 1 (0.051%) ION MarketView
5 1 (0.051%) Oracle Applications
5 1 (0.051%) Oracle EBS
5 1 (0.051%) Oracle EBS R12
5 1 (0.051%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 1 (0.051%) RMDS
5 1 (0.051%) SAP GRC
5 1 (0.051%) SAP MDG
5 1 (0.051%) SAP SCM
Cloud Services
1 605 (30.84%) AWS
2 389 (19.83%) Azure
3 191 (9.73%) GitHub
4 163 (8.31%) GCP
5 124 (6.32%) OpenShift
6 116 (5.91%) Amazon EC2
7 115 (5.86%) Serverless
8 113 (5.76%) AWS CloudFormation
9 101 (5.15%) Amazon S3
10 94 (4.79%) GitHub Actions
11 73 (3.72%) Amazon ECS
12 71 (3.62%) Virtual Private Cloud
13 67 (3.41%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 67 (3.41%) Azure DevOps
14 65 (3.31%) AWS Lambda
15 64 (3.26%) SaaS
16 63 (3.21%) IaaS
17 62 (3.16%) Amazon EKS
18 48 (2.45%) Microsoft 365
19 44 (2.24%) Entra ID
Communications & Networking
1 222 (11.31%) Firewall
2 167 (8.51%) DNS
3 146 (7.44%) TCP/IP
4 72 (3.67%) Network Security
5 60 (3.06%) HTTP
6 59 (3.01%) SSL
7 58 (2.96%) SSH
8 56 (2.85%) DHCP
9 50 (2.55%) SAN
10 37 (1.89%) VPN
11 34 (1.73%) SMTP
11 34 (1.73%) VLAN
12 29 (1.48%) Wireless
13 26 (1.33%) VSAN
14 25 (1.27%) Ethernet
14 25 (1.27%) Kerberos
15 24 (1.22%) Skype
16 22 (1.12%) WAN
17 21 (1.07%) FTP
18 20 (1.02%) LAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 138 (7.03%) PostgreSQL
2 119 (6.07%) Relational Database
3 101 (5.15%) SQL Server
4 91 (4.64%) Amazon RDS
5 89 (4.54%) MongoDB
5 89 (4.54%) NoSQL
6 85 (4.33%) Oracle Database
7 71 (3.62%) MySQL
8 45 (2.29%) Elasticsearch
9 41 (2.09%) DB2
10 31 (1.58%) Hadoop
11 30 (1.53%) Big Data
12 23 (1.17%) Data Warehouse
13 18 (0.92%) Amazon Aurora
13 18 (0.92%) KDB
13 18 (0.92%) Redis
14 17 (0.87%) Apache Cassandra
14 17 (0.87%) RDBMS
15 15 (0.76%) Apache Hive
16 14 (0.71%) Data Lake
Development Applications
1 306 (15.60%) Jenkins
2 273 (13.91%) Git
3 188 (9.58%) GitLab
4 161 (8.21%) JIRA
5 65 (3.31%) JUnit
6 59 (3.01%) Sonatype Nexus
7 55 (2.80%) Bitbucket
8 51 (2.60%) Eclipse
9 41 (2.09%) Visual Studio
10 29 (1.48%) Liquibase
11 26 (1.33%) Artifactory
11 26 (1.33%) Maven
12 24 (1.22%) Cucumber
12 24 (1.22%) Vagrant
13 22 (1.12%) Mockito
14 20 (1.02%) Browser DevTools
14 20 (1.02%) SonarQube
14 20 (1.02%) Xcode
15 19 (0.97%) Android Studio
16 17 (0.87%) Burp Suite
General
1 613 (31.24%) Social Skills
2 408 (20.80%) Finance
3 220 (11.21%) Analytical Skills
4 185 (9.43%) Banking
4 185 (9.43%) Public Sector
5 72 (3.67%) Investment Banking
6 56 (2.85%) Documentation Skills
6 56 (2.85%) Financial Institution
6 56 (2.85%) Front Office
7 50 (2.55%) Presentation Skills
8 43 (2.19%) Military
9 27 (1.38%) Manufacturing
10 22 (1.12%) Legal
10 22 (1.12%) Organisational Skills
10 22 (1.12%) Telecoms
11 18 (0.92%) Aerospace
12 15 (0.76%) Law
13 13 (0.66%) Marketing
14 11 (0.56%) Back Office
14 11 (0.56%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 329 (16.77%) Developer
2 216 (11.01%) Senior
3 185 (9.43%) DevOps Engineer
4 139 (7.08%) Software Engineer
5 127 (6.47%) Java Developer
6 104 (5.30%) Analyst
7 98 (4.99%) Architect
7 98 (4.99%) Support Engineer
8 96 (4.89%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 94 (4.79%) Linux Engineer
10 93 (4.74%) Platform Engineer
11 79 (4.03%) Administrator
12 73 (3.72%) AWS Engineer
13 62 (3.16%) C++ Software Engineer
14 61 (3.11%) Security Engineer
15 59 (3.01%) Lead
16 57 (2.91%) AWS DevOps
16 57 (2.91%) Senior Developer
17 56 (2.85%) Python Developer
18 54 (2.75%) Python Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 166 (8.46%) Kafka
2 141 (7.19%) REST
3 134 (6.83%) Elastic Stack
4 81 (4.13%) Spring
5 80 (4.08%) Node.js
6 77 (3.92%) Middleware
7 75 (3.82%) RESTful
8 62 (3.16%) AngularJS
8 62 (3.16%) React
9 50 (2.55%) LDAP
10 49 (2.50%) JSON
11 41 (2.09%) SOAP
11 41 (2.09%) XML
12 39 (1.99%) CSS
13 37 (1.89%) Web Services
14 36 (1.83%) FIX Protocol
15 34 (1.73%) JMS
16 33 (1.68%) FastAPI
17 32 (1.63%) OAuth
18 28 (1.43%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 111 (5.66%) Cloud Native
2 95 (4.84%) Linux Command Line
3 82 (4.18%) Replication
4 70 (3.57%) Data Centre
4 70 (3.57%) Distributed Systems
5 64 (3.26%) Management Information System
5 64 (3.26%) Public Cloud
6 60 (3.06%) Data Structures
6 60 (3.06%) Equities
7 54 (2.75%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
8 53 (2.70%) PKI
9 48 (2.45%) Onboarding
10 41 (2.09%) Data Protection Act
11 34 (1.73%) Fixed Income
12 33 (1.68%) Algorithms
13 32 (1.63%) Private Cloud
13 32 (1.63%) Security Posture
14 28 (1.43%) Hedge funds
15 27 (1.38%) Clustering
16 26 (1.33%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 721 (36.75%) Windows
2 423 (21.56%) Unix
3 250 (12.74%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 147 (7.49%) Windows Server
5 85 (4.33%) Ubuntu
6 55 (2.80%) CentOS
7 42 (2.14%) VMS
8 41 (2.09%) Android
9 34 (1.73%) Mac OS
10 30 (1.53%) Solaris
11 27 (1.38%) Mac OS X
12 24 (1.22%) Amazon Linux
13 23 (1.17%) Windows 10
13 23 (1.17%) Windows Server 2016
14 21 (1.07%) AIX
15 20 (1.02%) Windows Server 2019
16 15 (0.76%) Debian
17 13 (0.66%) Kali Linux
18 10 (0.51%) Apple iOS
19 8 (0.41%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 585 (29.82%) CI/CD
2 505 (25.74%) DevOps
3 498 (25.38%) Agile
4 392 (19.98%) Problem-Solving
5 328 (16.72%) Containerisation
6 322 (16.41%) Infrastructure as Code
7 265 (13.51%) Software Engineering
8 178 (9.07%) Observability
9 170 (8.66%) Test Automation
10 156 (7.95%) Computer Science
11 154 (7.85%) Microservices
12 150 (7.65%) Cybersecurity
13 145 (7.39%) Configuration Management
13 145 (7.39%) Infrastructure Engineering
14 141 (7.19%) High Availability
15 139 (7.08%) Performance Tuning
15 139 (7.08%) Platform Engineering
16 127 (6.47%) Continuous Improvement
17 125 (6.37%) Incident Response
18 121 (6.17%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 854 (43.53%) Python
2 400 (20.39%) Java
3 388 (19.78%) SQL
4 352 (17.94%) Bash
5 302 (15.39%) PowerShell
6 224 (11.42%) C++
7 218 (11.11%) Shell Script
8 153 (7.80%) JavaScript
9 144 (7.34%) Perl
10 122 (6.22%) C#
11 87 (4.43%) Go
12 62 (3.16%) C
13 42 (2.14%) Groovy
14 38 (1.94%) TypeScript
15 34 (1.73%) Ruby
16 31 (1.58%) PHP
17 25 (1.27%) PL/SQL
18 24 (1.22%) Rust
19 19 (0.97%) Kusto Query Language
20 14 (0.71%) Ada
Qualifications
1 570 (29.05%) Security Cleared
2 420 (21.41%) SC Cleared
3 202 (10.30%) Degree
4 125 (6.37%) DV Cleared
5 104 (5.30%) Computer Science Degree
6 70 (3.57%) AWS Certification
7 68 (3.47%) BPSS Clearance
8 42 (2.14%) Master's Degree
9 36 (1.83%) Azure Certification
10 35 (1.78%) CISSP
10 35 (1.78%) Microsoft Certification
11 31 (1.58%) Cisco Certification
12 24 (1.22%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 20 (1.02%) CCNP
14 19 (0.97%) CCNA
14 19 (0.97%) OSCP
15 16 (0.82%) GPEN
16 15 (0.76%) GCIH
16 15 (0.76%) RHCE
17 14 (0.71%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 53 (2.70%) NIST
2 46 (2.34%) QA
3 37 (1.89%) GDPR
4 35 (1.78%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 21 (1.07%) Data Quality
6 16 (0.82%) PCI DSS
7 15 (0.76%) HIPAA
7 15 (0.76%) NCSC
8 12 (0.61%) SLA
9 9 (0.46%) SOC 2
10 8 (0.41%) Cyber Essentials
10 8 (0.41%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 7 (0.36%) GLBA
12 6 (0.31%) Accessibility
13 5 (0.25%) Disclosure Scotland
14 4 (0.20%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 3 (0.15%) NIST 800
15 3 (0.15%) SEPA
16 2 (0.10%) Actionable Recommendations
17 1 (0.051%) Def Stans
System Software
1 425 (21.66%) Docker
2 202 (10.30%) VMware Infrastructure
3 194 (9.89%) Active Directory
4 63 (3.21%) vSphere
5 52 (2.65%) Virtual Machines
6 36 (1.83%) VMware ESXi
7 35 (1.78%) Hyper-V
8 27 (1.38%) Oracle RAC
9 23 (1.17%) GPFS
10 22 (1.12%) NFS
11 21 (1.07%) Postfix
12 20 (1.02%) DFS Replication
12 20 (1.02%) VMware NSX
13 19 (0.97%) Slurm Workload Manager
14 18 (0.92%) KVM
15 17 (0.87%) Dovecot
16 13 (0.66%) Firmware
16 13 (0.66%) HDFS
17 12 (0.61%) Squid
17 12 (0.61%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 479 (24.41%) Kubernetes
2 426 (21.71%) Terraform
3 376 (19.16%) Ansible
4 219 (11.16%) Grafana
5 190 (9.68%) Prometheus
6 80 (4.08%) Progress Chef
7 75 (3.82%) Puppet
8 48 (2.45%) Packer
9 37 (1.89%) Argo
10 35 (1.78%) Kibana
11 34 (1.73%) vCenter Server
12 33 (1.68%) vRealize
13 32 (1.63%) Red Hat Satellite
14 30 (1.53%) Nessus
14 30 (1.53%) SCOM
15 28 (1.43%) SCCM
16 27 (1.38%) ITRS Geneos
17 26 (1.33%) Data Guard
18 25 (1.27%) Consul
18 25 (1.27%) NetBackup
Vendors
1 312 (15.90%) Microsoft
2 283 (14.42%) VMware
3 278 (14.17%) Oracle
4 227 (11.57%) Splunk
5 222 (11.31%) Red Hat
6 113 (5.76%) Cisco
7 81 (4.13%) ServiceNow
8 74 (3.77%) IBM
9 67 (3.41%) Google
10 60 (3.06%) AppDynamics
11 48 (2.45%) CyberArk
12 44 (2.24%) Dell
13 37 (1.89%) CrowdStrike
14 34 (1.73%) Sybase
15 32 (1.63%) Citrix
15 32 (1.63%) HP
15 32 (1.63%) Solace
16 30 (1.53%) F5
16 30 (1.53%) SAP
17 29 (1.48%) NetApp