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

6 months to
20 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 39 31 27
Rank change year-on-year -8 -4 -2
Contract jobs citing Linux 1,983 1,891 2,812
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.38% 5.55% 6.39%
As % of the Operating Systems category 41.62% 39.52% 42.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,218 1,121 1,899
10th Percentile £315 £350 £350
25th Percentile £404 £450 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% - -5.58%
75th Percentile £619 £656 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -8.57% - -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 97 72 121
10th Percentile £14.00 £45.20 £31.25
25th Percentile £41.94 £62.50 £50.00
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 £71.70 £71.23 £76.53
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £65.75 £63.00
% change year-on-year -1.14% +4.37% -3.08%

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 4,765 4,785 6,622
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 12.93% 14.04% 15.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,093 2,985 4,509
10th Percentile £175 £200 £181
25th Percentile £263 £317 £300
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £475
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% - -7.32%
75th Percentile £560 £588 £600
90th Percentile £655 £688 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £406 £425 £430
% change year-on-year -4.41% -1.16% -4.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 358 184 326
10th Percentile £15.50 £16.33 £14.25
25th Percentile £18.87 £21.05 £17.73
Median hourly rate £25.15 £43.75 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year -42.51% +34.62% +34.02%
75th Percentile £63.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £68.00 £70.00 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.11 £43.00 £27.25
% change year-on-year -41.60% +57.80% +23.86%

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 20 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 20 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 20 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 -9 1,686 £513 -6.82% 590
UK excluding London 0 1,128 £480 -8.57% 553
London -8 673 £550 -8.33% 154
Work from Home -8 552 £496 -5.52% 221
South East +6 303 £475 -5.00% 183
North of England +1 272 £480 -15.04% 104
Midlands +2 193 £515 -1.90% 63
West Midlands +5 178 £525 -4.55% 38
Yorkshire +7 167 £489 -20.57% 31
Scotland +4 150 £465 -5.10% 42
South West -22 123 £550 - 84
North West -4 101 £462 -14.05% 64
East of England -11 96 £450 +5.88% 95
East Midlands -19 15 £420 -1.18% 25
North East -11 10 £550 +8.64% 10
Northern Ireland +1 9 £375 -31.82% 4
Wales -6 5 £600 +12.94% 9

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 85 (4.29%) Confluence
2 68 (3.43%) Apache
3 44 (2.22%) nginx
4 38 (1.92%) Microsoft Exchange
5 34 (1.71%) Apache Spark
6 28 (1.41%) Apache Airflow
7 25 (1.26%) OpenStack
8 23 (1.16%) JBoss
9 21 (1.06%) WebSphere
10 18 (0.91%) WebLogic
11 17 (0.86%) SharePoint
12 14 (0.71%) Mattermost
12 14 (0.71%) Skype for Business
13 13 (0.66%) Tomcat
14 11 (0.55%) IIS
14 11 (0.55%) SAS
14 11 (0.55%) WebSphere Application Server
15 10 (0.50%) iPlanet
16 7 (0.35%) TPMS
17 6 (0.30%) NetWeaver
Applications
1 58 (2.92%) Microsoft Office
2 17 (0.86%) Microsoft Excel
3 13 (0.66%) 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 2 (0.10%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 1 (0.050%) Bloomberg TOMS
6 1 (0.050%) Finacle
6 1 (0.050%) ION MarketView
6 1 (0.050%) Oracle Applications
6 1 (0.050%) Oracle EBS
6 1 (0.050%) Oracle EBS R12
6 1 (0.050%) RMDS
6 1 (0.050%) SAP GRC
6 1 (0.050%) SAP MDG
Cloud Services
1 613 (30.91%) AWS
2 404 (20.37%) Azure
3 195 (9.83%) GitHub
4 168 (8.47%) GCP
5 130 (6.56%) OpenShift
6 120 (6.05%) Serverless
7 118 (5.95%) Amazon EC2
8 112 (5.65%) AWS CloudFormation
9 101 (5.09%) Amazon S3
10 100 (5.04%) GitHub Actions
11 76 (3.83%) Amazon ECS
12 72 (3.63%) Azure DevOps
12 72 (3.63%) Virtual Private Cloud
13 71 (3.58%) AWS Lambda
14 68 (3.43%) Amazon EKS
15 66 (3.33%) Amazon CloudWatch
16 61 (3.08%) SaaS
17 59 (2.98%) IaaS
18 51 (2.57%) Microsoft 365
19 42 (2.12%) Entra ID
Communications & Networking
1 223 (11.25%) Firewall
2 177 (8.93%) DNS
3 146 (7.36%) TCP/IP
4 72 (3.63%) Network Security
5 59 (2.98%) SSH
6 58 (2.92%) SSL
7 57 (2.87%) HTTP
8 56 (2.82%) DHCP
9 40 (2.02%) VPN
10 39 (1.97%) SAN
11 33 (1.66%) SMTP
11 33 (1.66%) VLAN
12 30 (1.51%) Wireless
13 27 (1.36%) VSAN
14 25 (1.26%) Kerberos
15 24 (1.21%) Skype
16 23 (1.16%) Ethernet
16 23 (1.16%) WAN
17 22 (1.11%) LAN
18 20 (1.01%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 144 (7.26%) PostgreSQL
2 112 (5.65%) Relational Database
3 101 (5.09%) SQL Server
4 95 (4.79%) Amazon RDS
5 86 (4.34%) Oracle Database
6 85 (4.29%) MongoDB
7 84 (4.24%) NoSQL
8 73 (3.68%) MySQL
9 50 (2.52%) Elasticsearch
10 36 (1.82%) DB2
11 33 (1.66%) Hadoop
12 31 (1.56%) Big Data
13 24 (1.21%) Data Warehouse
14 17 (0.86%) Amazon Aurora
14 17 (0.86%) Apache Cassandra
14 17 (0.86%) KDB
14 17 (0.86%) RDBMS
14 17 (0.86%) Redis
15 16 (0.81%) Apache Hive
16 14 (0.71%) HBase
Development Applications
1 310 (15.63%) Jenkins
2 264 (13.31%) Git
3 192 (9.68%) GitLab
4 150 (7.56%) JIRA
5 66 (3.33%) JUnit
6 58 (2.92%) Sonatype Nexus
7 55 (2.77%) Bitbucket
8 47 (2.37%) Eclipse
9 37 (1.87%) Visual Studio
10 29 (1.46%) Liquibase
11 28 (1.41%) Maven
12 26 (1.31%) Artifactory
13 25 (1.26%) Cucumber
14 22 (1.11%) Browser DevTools
14 22 (1.11%) Mockito
14 22 (1.11%) Vagrant
14 22 (1.11%) Xcode
15 21 (1.06%) Android Studio
15 21 (1.06%) SonarQube
16 16 (0.81%) JMeter
General
1 621 (31.32%) Social Skills
2 399 (20.12%) Finance
3 216 (10.89%) Analytical Skills
4 188 (9.48%) Banking
5 180 (9.08%) Public Sector
6 68 (3.43%) Investment Banking
7 57 (2.87%) Financial Institution
8 55 (2.77%) Front Office
9 54 (2.72%) Documentation Skills
10 46 (2.32%) Presentation Skills
11 43 (2.17%) Military
12 23 (1.16%) Manufacturing
12 23 (1.16%) Organisational Skills
13 20 (1.01%) Aerospace
13 20 (1.01%) Legal
14 18 (0.91%) Telecoms
15 15 (0.76%) Law
16 12 (0.61%) Back Office
17 9 (0.45%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 9 (0.45%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 319 (16.09%) Developer
2 233 (11.75%) Senior
3 189 (9.53%) DevOps Engineer
4 138 (6.96%) Software Engineer
5 125 (6.30%) Java Developer
6 107 (5.40%) Analyst
7 102 (5.14%) Architect
8 99 (4.99%) Support Engineer
9 98 (4.94%) Linux Engineer
10 97 (4.89%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 93 (4.69%) Platform Engineer
12 82 (4.14%) Administrator
13 75 (3.78%) AWS Engineer
14 69 (3.48%) Security Engineer
15 60 (3.03%) AWS DevOps
15 60 (3.03%) C++ Software Engineer
16 59 (2.98%) Site Reliability Engineer
17 58 (2.92%) Site Engineer
18 56 (2.82%) Senior Developer
19 55 (2.77%) Python Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 168 (8.47%) Kafka
2 141 (7.11%) Elastic Stack
3 139 (7.01%) REST
4 78 (3.93%) Middleware
4 78 (3.93%) Spring
5 75 (3.78%) Node.js
6 72 (3.63%) RESTful
7 63 (3.18%) React
8 58 (2.92%) AngularJS
9 53 (2.67%) LDAP
10 49 (2.47%) JSON
11 41 (2.07%) CSS
11 41 (2.07%) XML
12 38 (1.92%) SOAP
13 33 (1.66%) FIX Protocol
14 32 (1.61%) FastAPI
14 32 (1.61%) JMS
14 32 (1.61%) OAuth
14 32 (1.61%) Web Services
15 30 (1.51%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 117 (5.90%) Cloud Native
2 92 (4.64%) Linux Command Line
3 77 (3.88%) Replication
4 73 (3.68%) Distributed Systems
5 71 (3.58%) Data Centre
6 66 (3.33%) Management Information System
7 63 (3.18%) Public Cloud
8 61 (3.08%) Equities
9 56 (2.82%) Data Structures
10 52 (2.62%) PKI
11 51 (2.57%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
12 47 (2.37%) Onboarding
13 38 (1.92%) Data Protection Act
14 35 (1.77%) Fixed Income
15 34 (1.71%) Algorithms
15 34 (1.71%) Security Posture
16 32 (1.61%) Private Cloud
17 28 (1.41%) Product Ownership
17 28 (1.41%) Security Operations Centre
18 27 (1.36%) Hedge funds
Operating Systems
1 733 (36.96%) Windows
2 416 (20.98%) Unix
3 254 (12.81%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 143 (7.21%) Windows Server
5 77 (3.88%) Ubuntu
6 50 (2.52%) CentOS
7 44 (2.22%) Android
8 42 (2.12%) VMS
9 36 (1.82%) Mac OS
10 29 (1.46%) Solaris
11 27 (1.36%) Mac OS X
12 23 (1.16%) Windows 10
13 22 (1.11%) Amazon Linux
14 21 (1.06%) AIX
14 21 (1.06%) Windows Server 2016
15 20 (1.01%) Windows Server 2019
16 12 (0.61%) Kali Linux
17 10 (0.50%) Apple iOS
17 10 (0.50%) Debian
18 8 (0.40%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 611 (30.81%) CI/CD
2 528 (26.63%) DevOps
3 483 (24.36%) Agile
4 405 (20.42%) Problem-Solving
5 334 (16.84%) Containerisation
6 332 (16.74%) Infrastructure as Code
7 264 (13.31%) Software Engineering
8 186 (9.38%) Observability
9 174 (8.77%) Test Automation
10 171 (8.62%) Cybersecurity
11 168 (8.47%) Computer Science
12 160 (8.07%) Microservices
13 145 (7.31%) Infrastructure Engineering
14 144 (7.26%) Configuration Management
15 142 (7.16%) Incident Response
16 138 (6.96%) High Availability
17 136 (6.86%) Performance Tuning
17 136 (6.86%) Platform Engineering
18 130 (6.56%) Continuous Improvement
19 123 (6.20%) SIEM
Programming Languages
1 859 (43.32%) Python
2 404 (20.37%) Java
3 398 (20.07%) SQL
4 361 (18.20%) Bash
5 316 (15.94%) PowerShell
6 222 (11.20%) Shell Script
7 216 (10.89%) C++
8 153 (7.72%) JavaScript
9 144 (7.26%) Perl
10 116 (5.85%) C#
11 89 (4.49%) Go
12 65 (3.28%) C
13 40 (2.02%) Groovy
13 40 (2.02%) TypeScript
14 37 (1.87%) Ruby
15 27 (1.36%) Rust
16 25 (1.26%) PL/SQL
17 23 (1.16%) PHP
18 20 (1.01%) Kusto Query Language
19 14 (0.71%) Ada
Qualifications
1 595 (30.01%) Security Cleared
2 431 (21.73%) SC Cleared
3 217 (10.94%) Degree
4 134 (6.76%) DV Cleared
5 113 (5.70%) Computer Science Degree
6 74 (3.73%) BPSS Clearance
7 71 (3.58%) AWS Certification
8 41 (2.07%) CISSP
8 41 (2.07%) Master's Degree
9 40 (2.02%) Azure Certification
10 36 (1.82%) Microsoft Certification
11 32 (1.61%) Cisco Certification
12 25 (1.26%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 21 (1.06%) CompTIA Security+
14 19 (0.96%) CCNP
14 19 (0.96%) OSCP
15 17 (0.86%) CCNA
16 16 (0.81%) GCIH
16 16 (0.81%) GPEN
16 16 (0.81%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 56 (2.82%) NIST
2 49 (2.47%) QA
3 39 (1.97%) GDPR
4 37 (1.87%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 21 (1.06%) Data Quality
6 17 (0.86%) SLA
7 15 (0.76%) NCSC
8 14 (0.71%) HIPAA
8 14 (0.71%) PCI DSS
9 12 (0.61%) Cyber Essentials
10 9 (0.45%) SOC 2
11 8 (0.40%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 7 (0.35%) Accessibility
12 7 (0.35%) GLBA
13 4 (0.20%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 4 (0.20%) Disclosure Scotland
13 4 (0.20%) NIST 800
14 3 (0.15%) Actionable Recommendations
14 3 (0.15%) SEPA
15 1 (0.050%) ISO/IEC 17025
System Software
1 428 (21.58%) Docker
2 198 (9.98%) VMware Infrastructure
3 196 (9.88%) Active Directory
4 65 (3.28%) vSphere
5 56 (2.82%) Virtual Machines
6 37 (1.87%) Hyper-V
7 34 (1.71%) VMware ESXi
8 24 (1.21%) Oracle RAC
9 21 (1.06%) GPFS
9 21 (1.06%) NFS
9 21 (1.06%) Postfix
10 20 (1.01%) VMware NSX
11 19 (0.96%) KVM
12 18 (0.91%) DFS Replication
13 17 (0.86%) Dovecot
13 17 (0.86%) Slurm Workload Manager
14 14 (0.71%) HDFS
15 13 (0.66%) Squid
16 12 (0.61%) Lustre
16 12 (0.61%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 490 (24.71%) Kubernetes
2 427 (21.53%) Terraform
3 387 (19.52%) Ansible
4 223 (11.25%) Grafana
5 196 (9.88%) Prometheus
6 80 (4.03%) Progress Chef
7 72 (3.63%) Puppet
8 39 (1.97%) Packer
9 38 (1.92%) Argo
9 38 (1.92%) Kibana
10 34 (1.71%) Red Hat Satellite
10 34 (1.71%) vCenter Server
11 33 (1.66%) vRealize
12 32 (1.61%) Nessus
13 30 (1.51%) SCCM
14 28 (1.41%) SCOM
15 27 (1.36%) ITRS Geneos
16 26 (1.31%) Data Guard
17 25 (1.26%) NetBackup
18 23 (1.16%) Podman
Vendors
1 316 (15.94%) Microsoft
2 287 (14.47%) Oracle
3 280 (14.12%) VMware
4 254 (12.81%) Splunk
5 224 (11.30%) Red Hat
6 110 (5.55%) Cisco
7 83 (4.19%) ServiceNow
8 69 (3.48%) IBM
9 67 (3.38%) Google
10 56 (2.82%) AppDynamics
11 50 (2.52%) CyberArk
12 44 (2.22%) Dell
13 40 (2.02%) CrowdStrike
14 32 (1.61%) Citrix
14 32 (1.61%) HP
14 32 (1.61%) Solace
14 32 (1.61%) Sybase
15 31 (1.56%) F5
16 30 (1.51%) NetApp
17 26 (1.31%) SAP