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

6 months to
19 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 51 31 34
Rank change year-on-year -20 +3 -8
Contract jobs citing Linux 1,882 1,712 2,168
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.92% 5.86% 5.09%
As % of the Operating Systems category 40.40% 42.16% 38.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,170 1,085 1,429
10th Percentile £335 £375 £325
25th Percentile £406 £440 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £538 £550
Median % change year-on-year -6.98% -2.27% -5.98%
75th Percentile £610 £638 £645
90th Percentile £688 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £490 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -6.67% -2.33% +0.14%
Number of hourly rates quoted 117 42 110
10th Percentile £32.41 £40.95 £36.58
25th Percentile £43.81 £55.00 £53.13
Median hourly rate £62.50 £64.50 £63.75
Median % change year-on-year -3.10% +1.18% -0.68%
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 4,658 4,061 5,668
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.70% 13.91% 13.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,994 2,671 3,828
10th Percentile £185 £200 £185
25th Percentile £313 £313 £300
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £456 £468 £470
Median % change year-on-year -2.46% -0.53% -6.01%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £588
90th Percentile £656 £688 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £448 £450 £450
% change year-on-year -0.35% - -4.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 321 175 392
10th Percentile £15.62 £15.24 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.25 £17.44 £15.44
Median hourly rate £42.50 £22.50 £22.00
Median % change year-on-year +88.89% +2.27% -42.86%
75th Percentile £65.00 £56.25 £60.75
90th Percentile £74.68 £68.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.94 £21.11 £22.50
% change year-on-year +98.67% -6.18% -23.21%

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 19 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 19 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 19 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 -23 1,569 £513 -6.82% 822
UK excluding London -13 1,131 £490 -6.67% 671
London -49 534 £550 -4.35% 217
Work from Home -29 473 £500 -4.76% 305
South East -3 320 £500 -9.09% 236
North of England -12 278 £478 -9.05% 110
South West -8 158 £546 -8.96% 128
Midlands -10 152 £513 +2.55% 65
Yorkshire -20 148 £463 -14.90% 35
West Midlands -3 133 £500 -6.89% 28
North West -20 117 £485 -3.00% 55
Scotland -20 94 £463 -1.07% 29
East of England -15 91 £475 - 97
Wales +4 28 £465 -20.65% 13
East Midlands -31 17 £528 +16.06% 37
Northern Ireland +7 15 £425 +30.77% 6
North East -20 13 £480 -8.57% 22

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 75 (3.99%) Confluence
2 47 (2.50%) Apache
3 29 (1.54%) nginx
4 26 (1.38%) Microsoft Exchange
5 20 (1.06%) Apache Airflow
5 20 (1.06%) Apache Spark
6 17 (0.90%) Tomcat
6 17 (0.90%) WebLogic
7 14 (0.74%) SAS
8 12 (0.64%) OpenStack
9 11 (0.58%) CICS
9 11 (0.58%) WebSphere
10 9 (0.48%) NetWeaver
11 8 (0.43%) Oracle SOA Suite
11 8 (0.43%) TPMS
12 7 (0.37%) JBoss
13 6 (0.32%) WebSphere Application Server
14 4 (0.21%) Adobe Experience Manager
14 4 (0.21%) CMS
14 4 (0.21%) SharePoint
Applications
1 20 (1.06%) Microsoft Office
2 10 (0.53%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.21%) Microsoft Project
3 4 (0.21%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.16%) Simulink
5 2 (0.11%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.053%) Adobe Illustrator
6 1 (0.053%) InDesign
6 1 (0.053%) Photoshop
6 1 (0.053%) Weka
Business Applications
1 12 (0.64%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (0.32%) Remedy ITSM
3 4 (0.21%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 3 (0.16%) Actimize
4 3 (0.16%) Oracle EBS
5 2 (0.11%) BusinessWorks
5 2 (0.11%) Oracle General Ledger
5 2 (0.11%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 1 (0.053%) Cloudability
6 1 (0.053%) FLEXCUBE
6 1 (0.053%) Odoo
6 1 (0.053%) Oracle 11i
6 1 (0.053%) Oracle Applications
6 1 (0.053%) Oracle EBS R12
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
1 523 (27.79%) AWS
2 376 (19.98%) Azure
3 165 (8.77%) GitHub
4 120 (6.38%) OpenShift
5 108 (5.74%) GCP
6 94 (4.99%) GitHub Actions
7 80 (4.25%) Amazon EC2
8 78 (4.14%) Amazon S3
9 71 (3.77%) Azure DevOps
10 67 (3.56%) Amazon EKS
11 66 (3.51%) Serverless
12 64 (3.40%) AWS CloudFormation
13 55 (2.92%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 55 (2.92%) AWS Lambda
14 44 (2.34%) IaaS
15 42 (2.23%) Amazon ECS
15 42 (2.23%) Entra ID
15 42 (2.23%) Microsoft 365
16 40 (2.13%) PaaS
17 37 (1.97%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 172 (9.14%) Firewall
2 128 (6.80%) DNS
3 93 (4.94%) TCP/IP
4 73 (3.88%) VPN
5 62 (3.29%) SAN
6 58 (3.08%) Network Security
7 48 (2.55%) WAN
8 41 (2.18%) DHCP
8 41 (2.18%) LAN
9 36 (1.91%) SNMP
9 36 (1.91%) VSAN
10 35 (1.86%) SSH
11 31 (1.65%) HTTP
12 28 (1.49%) SSL
13 24 (1.28%) NAS
14 22 (1.17%) Ethernet
15 19 (1.01%) Wireless
16 18 (0.96%) BGP
16 18 (0.96%) Kerberos
17 17 (0.90%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 113 (6.00%) PostgreSQL
2 109 (5.79%) SQL Server
3 72 (3.83%) MySQL
4 67 (3.56%) Oracle Database
5 64 (3.40%) Relational Database
6 62 (3.29%) MongoDB
7 49 (2.60%) Amazon RDS
8 43 (2.28%) Elasticsearch
9 35 (1.86%) Amazon Aurora
10 28 (1.49%) NoSQL
11 22 (1.17%) DynamoDB
12 20 (1.06%) SAP HANA
13 19 (1.01%) Big Data
13 19 (1.01%) Data Warehouse
13 19 (1.01%) KDB
14 16 (0.85%) DB2
14 16 (0.85%) Kdb+
15 12 (0.64%) Sybase ASE
16 11 (0.58%) Data Lake
16 11 (0.58%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 198 (10.52%) Jenkins
2 167 (8.87%) Git
3 166 (8.82%) GitLab
4 133 (7.07%) JIRA
5 31 (1.65%) Maven
6 24 (1.28%) Mockito
6 24 (1.28%) SonarQube
7 23 (1.22%) Eclipse
8 19 (1.01%) Bitbucket
8 19 (1.01%) JUnit
8 19 (1.01%) Sonatype Nexus
9 15 (0.80%) Artifactory
10 14 (0.74%) Rational Rhapsody
11 13 (0.69%) Jaeger
11 13 (0.69%) Visual Studio
12 11 (0.58%) DbUnit
12 11 (0.58%) jMock
13 10 (0.53%) Cucumber
14 9 (0.48%) Atlassian Bamboo
14 9 (0.48%) Selenium
General
1 381 (20.24%) Social Skills
2 252 (13.39%) Finance
3 193 (10.26%) Public Sector
4 143 (7.60%) Analytical Skills
5 109 (5.79%) Banking
6 77 (4.09%) Documentation Skills
7 44 (2.34%) Military
8 26 (1.38%) Financial Institution
9 25 (1.33%) Front Office
10 23 (1.22%) Telecoms
11 22 (1.17%) Aerospace
12 21 (1.12%) Investment Banking
12 21 (1.12%) Retail
13 19 (1.01%) Law
13 19 (1.01%) Presentation Skills
14 17 (0.90%) Influencing Skills
15 15 (0.80%) Manufacturing
16 14 (0.74%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 14 (0.74%) Legal
17 10 (0.53%) Police
Job Titles
1 234 (12.43%) Senior
2 200 (10.63%) Developer
3 175 (9.30%) DevOps Engineer
4 161 (8.55%) Linux Engineer
5 137 (7.28%) Software Engineer
6 116 (6.16%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 110 (5.84%) Architect
8 107 (5.69%) Analyst
9 95 (5.05%) Lead
10 81 (4.30%) Administrator
11 75 (3.99%) Java Developer
12 70 (3.72%) Site Reliability Engineer
13 65 (3.45%) AWS Engineer
14 60 (3.19%) Site Engineer
15 59 (3.13%) Platform Engineer
16 52 (2.76%) Consultant
16 52 (2.76%) Security Engineer
17 47 (2.50%) AWS DevOps
18 45 (2.39%) Embedded Engineer
19 44 (2.34%) Senior Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 98 (5.21%) Kafka
2 84 (4.46%) REST
3 78 (4.14%) Elastic Stack
4 71 (3.77%) Middleware
5 52 (2.76%) LDAP
6 49 (2.60%) Node.js
7 46 (2.44%) Spring Boot
8 45 (2.39%) Spring
9 40 (2.13%) Web Services
10 37 (1.97%) .NET
10 37 (1.97%) RESTful
11 32 (1.70%) YAML
12 28 (1.49%) XML
13 26 (1.38%) AngularJS
13 26 (1.38%) JSON
14 24 (1.28%) React
15 23 (1.22%) ActiveMQ
15 23 (1.22%) Flash
16 22 (1.17%) CSS
17 21 (1.12%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 145 (7.70%) Data Centre
2 103 (5.47%) Cloud Native
3 80 (4.25%) Linux Command Line
4 72 (3.83%) Onboarding
5 66 (3.51%) Management Information System
6 65 (3.45%) Distributed Systems
7 59 (3.13%) PKI
8 57 (3.03%) Replication
9 48 (2.55%) Hybrid Cloud
9 48 (2.55%) Public Cloud
10 42 (2.23%) Legacy Systems
11 34 (1.81%) Security Posture
12 32 (1.70%) Product Ownership
13 31 (1.65%) Data Protection Act
13 31 (1.65%) Enterprise Storage
14 30 (1.59%) Security Operations Centre
15 29 (1.54%) Embedded Systems
16 25 (1.33%) Operational Technology
17 23 (1.22%) Clustering
18 21 (1.12%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 714 (37.94%) Windows
2 373 (19.82%) Unix
3 273 (14.51%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 174 (9.25%) Windows Server
5 86 (4.57%) Ubuntu
6 51 (2.71%) AIX
7 39 (2.07%) CentOS
8 37 (1.97%) Solaris
9 34 (1.81%) Embedded Linux
10 31 (1.65%) VMS
11 27 (1.43%) Android
12 23 (1.22%) Windows Server 2016
13 22 (1.17%) Windows Server 2019
14 21 (1.12%) Debian
14 21 (1.12%) Mac OS
15 13 (0.69%) Mac OS X
15 13 (0.69%) SUSE
16 10 (0.53%) Oracle Linux
16 10 (0.53%) Windows 10
16 10 (0.53%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 525 (27.90%) CI/CD
2 439 (23.33%) DevOps
3 352 (18.70%) Agile
4 297 (15.78%) Problem-Solving
5 279 (14.82%) Infrastructure as Code
6 249 (13.23%) Containerisation
7 212 (11.26%) Software Engineering
8 181 (9.62%) Observability
9 180 (9.56%) Migration
10 174 (9.25%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 150 (7.97%) Performance Tuning
12 148 (7.86%) High Availability
13 140 (7.44%) Continuous Improvement
14 139 (7.39%) SIEM
15 136 (7.23%) Root Cause Analysis
16 133 (7.07%) Computer Science
17 132 (7.01%) Microservices
18 131 (6.96%) Incident Response
19 128 (6.80%) Platform Engineering
20 127 (6.75%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 621 (33.00%) Python
2 327 (17.38%) SQL
3 260 (13.82%) Bash
4 259 (13.76%) Java
5 253 (13.44%) PowerShell
6 161 (8.55%) Shell Script
7 123 (6.54%) C++
8 104 (5.53%) JavaScript
9 66 (3.51%) Perl
10 60 (3.19%) C#
11 56 (2.98%) C
12 47 (2.50%) Go
13 43 (2.28%) PL/SQL
14 30 (1.59%) Ruby
15 27 (1.43%) TypeScript
16 23 (1.22%) PHP
16 23 (1.22%) Rust
17 21 (1.12%) Ada
17 21 (1.12%) MATLAB
18 19 (1.01%) Search Processing Language
Qualifications
1 738 (39.21%) Security Cleared
2 536 (28.48%) SC Cleared
3 218 (11.58%) DV Cleared
4 176 (9.35%) Degree
5 80 (4.25%) BPSS Clearance
6 78 (4.14%) Computer Science Degree
7 53 (2.82%) Cisco Certification
8 44 (2.34%) AWS Certification
8 44 (2.34%) CISSP
9 42 (2.23%) CompTIA Security+
10 36 (1.91%) RHCE
11 31 (1.65%) Azure Certification
12 25 (1.33%) CCNA
13 23 (1.22%) CCNP
14 19 (1.01%) Oracle Certification
15 18 (0.96%) Microsoft Certification
15 18 (0.96%) OCP
16 17 (0.90%) CompTIA CySA+
17 15 (0.80%) CISM
17 15 (0.80%) GIAC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 80 (4.25%) NIST
2 69 (3.67%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 51 (2.71%) QA
4 47 (2.50%) SLA
5 29 (1.54%) Cyber Essentials
5 29 (1.54%) GDPR
6 24 (1.28%) NCSC
7 18 (0.96%) PCI DSS
8 11 (0.58%) Disclosure Scotland
8 11 (0.58%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 10 (0.53%) Data Quality
9 10 (0.53%) HIPAA
10 9 (0.48%) GRC
11 8 (0.43%) GLBA
11 8 (0.43%) NIST 800
12 7 (0.37%) Accessibility
13 6 (0.32%) ISO 31000
14 5 (0.27%) California Consumer Privacy Act
14 5 (0.27%) DICOM
14 5 (0.27%) SOC 2
System Software
1 310 (16.47%) Docker
2 219 (11.64%) VMware Infrastructure
3 183 (9.72%) Active Directory
4 79 (4.20%) Virtual Machines
5 70 (3.72%) vSphere
6 67 (3.56%) Hyper-V
7 64 (3.40%) VMware ESXi
8 49 (2.60%) NFS
9 42 (2.23%) VMware NSX
10 39 (2.07%) Firmware
11 28 (1.49%) KVM
12 26 (1.38%) GPFS
13 19 (1.01%) Oracle RAC
14 16 (0.85%) Postfix
15 15 (0.80%) Slurm Workload Manager
16 12 (0.64%) Ceph
17 9 (0.48%) Microsoft App-V
18 7 (0.37%) BitLocker
18 7 (0.37%) Embedded Firmware
19 6 (0.32%) Lustre
Systems Management
1 390 (20.72%) Kubernetes
2 376 (19.98%) Ansible
3 347 (18.44%) Terraform
4 176 (9.35%) Grafana
5 145 (7.70%) Prometheus
6 70 (3.72%) Puppet
7 42 (2.23%) Progress Chef
7 42 (2.23%) vCenter Server
8 34 (1.81%) Oracle RMAN
9 31 (1.65%) vRealize
10 29 (1.54%) Kibana
10 29 (1.54%) Podman
11 28 (1.49%) Red Hat Satellite
12 24 (1.28%) Nagios
12 24 (1.28%) ZABBIX
13 22 (1.17%) Data Guard
13 22 (1.17%) Packer
14 21 (1.12%) Argo
15 20 (1.06%) Single Sign-On
15 20 (1.06%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 304 (16.15%) VMware
2 257 (13.66%) Oracle
3 254 (13.50%) Microsoft
4 216 (11.48%) Red Hat
5 190 (10.10%) Splunk
6 117 (6.22%) Cisco
7 95 (5.05%) IBM
8 81 (4.30%) ServiceNow
9 50 (2.66%) Palo Alto
10 45 (2.39%) CyberArk
11 40 (2.13%) Dell
12 35 (1.86%) HP
12 35 (1.86%) SolarWinds
13 34 (1.81%) Google
14 32 (1.70%) NVIDIA
15 31 (1.65%) F5
16 29 (1.54%) Citrix
16 29 (1.54%) SAP
17 28 (1.49%) BeyondTrust
18 25 (1.33%) NetApp