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

6 months to
30 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 53 32 33
Rank change year-on-year -21 +1 -7
Contract jobs citing Linux 1,932 1,754 2,282
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.76% 5.73% 5.29%
As % of the Operating Systems category 39.53% 41.57% 38.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,197 1,127 1,475
10th Percentile £342 £374 £340
25th Percentile £413 £425 £430
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% -6.52%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £638
90th Percentile £688 £725 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £538
% change year-on-year - -6.98% +2.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 105 45 143
10th Percentile £35.18 £45.18 £48.00
25th Percentile £50.00 £55.00 £57.50
Median hourly rate £63.14 £65.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -2.87% - -
75th Percentile £68.00 £68.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £71.13 - -
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 4,888 4,219 5,865
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.52% 13.79% 13.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,114 2,739 3,860
10th Percentile £190 £200 £190
25th Percentile £313 £313 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £463 £465 £475
Median % change year-on-year -0.43% -2.21% -5.00%
75th Percentile £575 £581 £588
90th Percentile £650 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £463
% change year-on-year - -2.70% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 331 216 435
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.50 £12.75
25th Percentile £18.75 £17.41 £16.25
Median hourly rate £26.66 £22.25 £25.00
Median % change year-on-year +19.82% -11.00% -41.18%
75th Percentile £63.75 £42.56 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £66.25 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.44 £18.87 £31.25
% change year-on-year +40.12% -39.62% -6.72%

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 30 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 30 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 30 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 -26 1,629 £513 -5.31% 591
UK excluding London -18 1,146 £500 - 505
London -53 569 £525 -8.70% 160
Work from Home -33 507 £500 -1.23% 240
South East -4 308 £518 -1.43% 168
North of England -16 304 £482 -7.36% 91
South West -4 170 £538 -7.33% 82
Midlands -11 150 £474 -5.25% 45
Yorkshire -23 150 £500 -5.88% 22
North West -20 137 £472 +11.06% 57
West Midlands -13 126 £469 -6.20% 20
East of England -14 94 £475 -1.55% 88
Scotland -32 91 £450 -5.66% 21
Wales +4 27 £465 +64.60% 10
East Midlands -11 21 £528 +16.06% 25
North East -21 20 £406 -14.92% 12
Northern Ireland -1 8 £425 +25.93% 13

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 83 (4.30%) Confluence
2 48 (2.48%) Apache
3 30 (1.55%) nginx
4 29 (1.50%) Microsoft Exchange
5 24 (1.24%) Apache Airflow
6 21 (1.09%) Tomcat
7 18 (0.93%) Apache Spark
8 16 (0.83%) WebLogic
9 11 (0.57%) CICS
9 11 (0.57%) OpenStack
9 11 (0.57%) SAS
10 10 (0.52%) WebSphere
11 9 (0.47%) NetWeaver
12 8 (0.41%) IIS
13 6 (0.31%) JBoss
13 6 (0.31%) SharePoint
13 6 (0.31%) WebSphere Application Server
14 5 (0.26%) CloudStack
14 5 (0.26%) CMS
14 5 (0.26%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 19 (0.98%) Microsoft Office
2 9 (0.47%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.21%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 4 (0.21%) Microsoft Project
4 3 (0.16%) Simulink
5 2 (0.10%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.052%) Adobe Illustrator
6 1 (0.052%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.052%) InDesign
6 1 (0.052%) Photoshop
6 1 (0.052%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.052%) Weka
Business Applications
1 11 (0.57%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (0.31%) Remedy ITSM
3 3 (0.16%) Actimize
4 2 (0.10%) FLEXCUBE
4 2 (0.10%) Oracle Applications
4 2 (0.10%) Oracle EBS
4 2 (0.10%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 1 (0.052%) Cloudability
5 1 (0.052%) Odoo
5 1 (0.052%) Oracle ERP
5 1 (0.052%) Oracle General Ledger
5 1 (0.052%) Oracle Payables
5 1 (0.052%) Oracle Receivables
5 1 (0.052%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
5 1 (0.052%) Payment Gateway
5 1 (0.052%) Shopify
5 1 (0.052%) SunGard Martini
5 1 (0.052%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 567 (29.35%) AWS
2 405 (20.96%) Azure
3 153 (7.92%) GitHub
4 131 (6.78%) GCP
5 106 (5.49%) OpenShift
6 89 (4.61%) GitHub Actions
7 88 (4.55%) Amazon S3
8 85 (4.40%) Amazon EC2
9 70 (3.62%) Entra ID
10 65 (3.36%) Azure DevOps
11 61 (3.16%) Amazon CloudWatch
11 61 (3.16%) Amazon EKS
12 55 (2.85%) Serverless
13 51 (2.64%) AWS CloudFormation
14 48 (2.48%) IaaS
15 47 (2.43%) AWS Lambda
15 47 (2.43%) Virtual Private Cloud
16 44 (2.28%) Microsoft 365
17 43 (2.23%) PaaS
17 43 (2.23%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 180 (9.32%) Firewall
2 139 (7.19%) DNS
3 80 (4.14%) TCP/IP
4 74 (3.83%) VPN
5 72 (3.73%) SAN
6 70 (3.62%) Network Security
7 52 (2.69%) DHCP
8 47 (2.43%) WAN
9 37 (1.92%) SSL
10 36 (1.86%) LAN
11 34 (1.76%) SNMP
12 31 (1.60%) VSAN
13 30 (1.55%) HTTP
13 30 (1.55%) SSH
14 27 (1.40%) NAS
15 24 (1.24%) Ethernet
15 24 (1.24%) VLAN
16 20 (1.04%) IPsec
17 17 (0.88%) BGP
17 17 (0.88%) Intrusion Detection
Database & Business Intelligence
1 116 (6.00%) SQL Server
2 111 (5.75%) PostgreSQL
3 78 (4.04%) Oracle Database
4 75 (3.88%) MySQL
5 67 (3.47%) Relational Database
6 63 (3.26%) MongoDB
7 55 (2.85%) Amazon RDS
8 42 (2.17%) Elasticsearch
9 38 (1.97%) Amazon Aurora
10 29 (1.50%) DynamoDB
10 29 (1.50%) NoSQL
11 22 (1.14%) RDBMS
12 21 (1.09%) Big Data
13 20 (1.04%) SAP HANA
14 19 (0.98%) KDB
15 16 (0.83%) Sybase ASE
16 15 (0.78%) Data Warehouse
16 15 (0.78%) Db2
16 15 (0.78%) Kdb+
17 14 (0.72%) Oracle Database 12c
Development Applications
1 212 (10.97%) Jenkins
2 191 (9.89%) GitLab
3 160 (8.28%) Git
4 147 (7.61%) JIRA
5 32 (1.66%) Maven
6 31 (1.60%) SonarQube
7 29 (1.50%) Mockito
8 21 (1.09%) Bitbucket
8 21 (1.09%) Eclipse
9 18 (0.93%) Artifactory
10 17 (0.88%) JUnit
10 17 (0.88%) Sonatype Nexus
11 15 (0.78%) Visual Studio
12 14 (0.72%) DbUnit
12 14 (0.72%) Rational Rhapsody
13 13 (0.67%) jMock
14 11 (0.57%) Bitbucket Server
15 9 (0.47%) Atlassian Bamboo
15 9 (0.47%) Cucumber
15 9 (0.47%) Jaeger
General
1 385 (19.93%) Social Skills
2 274 (14.18%) Finance
3 198 (10.25%) Public Sector
4 167 (8.64%) Analytical Skills
5 133 (6.88%) Banking
6 75 (3.88%) Documentation Skills
7 41 (2.12%) Military
8 29 (1.50%) Front Office
9 27 (1.40%) Investment Banking
9 27 (1.40%) Retail
10 24 (1.24%) Telecoms
11 22 (1.14%) Legal
12 20 (1.04%) Law
13 19 (0.98%) Financial Institution
13 19 (0.98%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 19 (0.98%) Presentation Skills
14 18 (0.93%) Aerospace
14 18 (0.93%) Influencing Skills
15 17 (0.88%) Manufacturing
16 12 (0.62%) Police
Job Titles
1 245 (12.68%) Senior
2 196 (10.14%) Developer
3 191 (9.89%) Linux Engineer
4 185 (9.58%) DevOps Engineer
5 145 (7.51%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 122 (6.31%) Software Engineer
7 99 (5.12%) Analyst
8 96 (4.97%) Architect
9 85 (4.40%) Lead
10 73 (3.78%) Java Developer
11 67 (3.47%) AWS Engineer
11 67 (3.47%) Consultant
12 64 (3.31%) Platform Engineer
13 60 (3.11%) Support Engineer
14 59 (3.05%) Administrator
15 57 (2.95%) Site Reliability Engineer
16 53 (2.74%) Cloud Engineer
17 52 (2.69%) Security Engineer
18 49 (2.54%) Site Engineer
19 48 (2.48%) AWS DevOps
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 93 (4.81%) Kafka
2 87 (4.50%) REST
3 79 (4.09%) Middleware
4 70 (3.62%) Elastic Stack
5 51 (2.64%) Spring
6 50 (2.59%) LDAP
7 48 (2.48%) Spring Boot
8 45 (2.33%) Web Services
9 44 (2.28%) RESTful
10 43 (2.23%) Node.js
11 40 (2.07%) .NET
12 29 (1.50%) ActiveMQ
12 29 (1.50%) YAML
13 26 (1.35%) React
13 26 (1.35%) SOAP
14 25 (1.29%) AngularJS
14 25 (1.29%) JSON
15 21 (1.09%) XML
16 20 (1.04%) Django
16 20 (1.04%) Keycloak
Miscellaneous
1 145 (7.51%) Data Centre
2 118 (6.11%) Cloud Native
3 92 (4.76%) Onboarding
4 86 (4.45%) Linux Command Line
5 75 (3.88%) PKI
6 72 (3.73%) Distributed Systems
7 66 (3.42%) Replication
8 65 (3.36%) Management Information System
9 54 (2.80%) Security Posture
10 53 (2.74%) Public Cloud
11 49 (2.54%) Hybrid Cloud
12 48 (2.48%) Legacy Systems
13 37 (1.92%) Product Ownership
14 28 (1.45%) Data Protection Act
14 28 (1.45%) Embedded Systems
14 28 (1.45%) Enterprise Software
15 27 (1.40%) Clustering
15 27 (1.40%) Enterprise Storage
16 24 (1.24%) Operational Technology
17 23 (1.19%) Legacy Applications
Operating Systems
1 735 (38.04%) Windows
2 395 (20.45%) Unix
3 308 (15.94%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 191 (9.89%) Windows Server
5 106 (5.49%) Ubuntu
6 64 (3.31%) AIX
7 50 (2.59%) Solaris
8 39 (2.02%) CentOS
9 29 (1.50%) VMS
10 28 (1.45%) Embedded Linux
11 24 (1.24%) Windows Server 2019
12 23 (1.19%) SUSE
13 19 (0.98%) Android
14 17 (0.88%) Windows Server 2016
15 16 (0.83%) Debian
16 15 (0.78%) Mac OS
17 14 (0.72%) Oracle Linux
18 13 (0.67%) Mac OS X
18 13 (0.67%) Windows 10
19 12 (0.62%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 539 (27.90%) CI/CD
2 472 (24.43%) DevOps
3 358 (18.53%) Agile
4 305 (15.79%) Infrastructure as Code
5 287 (14.86%) Problem-Solving
6 255 (13.20%) Containerisation
7 206 (10.66%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 205 (10.61%) Migration
9 201 (10.40%) Software Engineering
10 172 (8.90%) High Availability
10 172 (8.90%) Observability
11 170 (8.80%) Continuous Improvement
12 157 (8.13%) Performance Tuning
13 149 (7.71%) ITIL
14 147 (7.61%) Root Cause Analysis
15 142 (7.35%) SIEM
16 133 (6.88%) Platform Engineering
17 130 (6.73%) Test Automation
18 128 (6.63%) Configuration Management
19 127 (6.57%) Microservices
Programming Languages
1 646 (33.44%) Python
2 318 (16.46%) SQL
3 301 (15.58%) Bash
4 289 (14.96%) PowerShell
5 236 (12.22%) Java
6 143 (7.40%) Shell Script
7 117 (6.06%) C++
8 88 (4.55%) JavaScript
9 60 (3.11%) C
9 60 (3.11%) C#
10 58 (3.00%) Perl
11 50 (2.59%) PL/SQL
12 49 (2.54%) Go
13 22 (1.14%) Ada
14 21 (1.09%) Rust
15 20 (1.04%) TypeScript
16 19 (0.98%) Search Processing Language
17 17 (0.88%) Bicep
17 17 (0.88%) MATLAB
18 16 (0.83%) PHP
Qualifications
1 743 (38.46%) Security Cleared
2 552 (28.57%) SC Cleared
3 206 (10.66%) DV Cleared
4 180 (9.32%) Degree
5 68 (3.52%) BPSS Clearance
6 67 (3.47%) AWS Certification
7 58 (3.00%) CISSP
8 55 (2.85%) Cisco Certification
8 55 (2.85%) Computer Science Degree
9 41 (2.12%) Azure Certification
10 35 (1.81%) CompTIA Security+
11 32 (1.66%) RHCE
12 25 (1.29%) CCNA
13 24 (1.24%) CCNP
14 20 (1.04%) Microsoft Certification
15 19 (0.98%) CISM
16 16 (0.83%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
16 16 (0.83%) GIAC
17 14 (0.72%) Oracle Certification
18 13 (0.67%) OCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 89 (4.61%) NIST
2 84 (4.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 57 (2.95%) QA
4 40 (2.07%) SLA
5 23 (1.19%) Cyber Essentials
5 23 (1.19%) NCSC
6 22 (1.14%) GDPR
7 17 (0.88%) PCI DSS
8 15 (0.78%) Disclosure Scotland
9 12 (0.62%) HIPAA
10 11 (0.57%) GRC
11 10 (0.52%) Data Quality
11 10 (0.52%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 10 (0.52%) SOC 2
12 7 (0.36%) NIST 800
13 6 (0.31%) ISO 20022
13 6 (0.31%) ISO 31000
14 5 (0.26%) California Consumer Privacy Act
15 4 (0.21%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 4 (0.21%) Government Security Classifications
System Software
1 326 (16.87%) Docker
2 224 (11.59%) VMware Infrastructure
3 217 (11.23%) Active Directory
4 90 (4.66%) Virtual Machines
5 66 (3.42%) Hyper-V
5 66 (3.42%) vSphere
6 64 (3.31%) VMware ESXi
7 50 (2.59%) NFS
8 49 (2.54%) VMware NSX
9 36 (1.86%) Firmware
10 34 (1.76%) KVM
11 30 (1.55%) Oracle RAC
12 21 (1.09%) Postfix
13 19 (0.98%) GPFS
14 11 (0.57%) Slurm Workload Manager
15 10 (0.52%) Ceph
15 10 (0.52%) Microsoft App-V
16 8 (0.41%) BitLocker
17 7 (0.36%) Squid
17 7 (0.36%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 403 (20.86%) Ansible
2 385 (19.93%) Kubernetes
3 381 (19.72%) Terraform
4 165 (8.54%) Grafana
5 143 (7.40%) Prometheus
6 71 (3.67%) Puppet
7 53 (2.74%) Progress Chef
8 41 (2.12%) Oracle RMAN
8 41 (2.12%) vCenter Server
9 29 (1.50%) Red Hat Satellite
10 28 (1.45%) Packer
11 27 (1.40%) Data Guard
11 27 (1.40%) Nagios
12 25 (1.29%) ZABBIX
13 23 (1.19%) Podman
13 23 (1.19%) vRealize
14 22 (1.14%) Kibana
14 22 (1.14%) Tivoli
15 21 (1.09%) Argo
16 18 (0.93%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 299 (15.48%) VMware
2 277 (14.34%) Oracle
3 261 (13.51%) Microsoft
4 223 (11.54%) Red Hat
5 156 (8.07%) Splunk
6 125 (6.47%) Cisco
7 106 (5.49%) IBM
8 91 (4.71%) ServiceNow
9 62 (3.21%) Google
10 61 (3.16%) CyberArk
11 50 (2.59%) Palo Alto
12 41 (2.12%) SAP
12 41 (2.12%) SolarWinds
13 40 (2.07%) BeyondTrust
14 38 (1.97%) F5
15 33 (1.71%) HP
16 32 (1.66%) Citrix
17 30 (1.55%) Sybase
18 29 (1.50%) Dell
18 29 (1.50%) Dynatrace