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 24 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
24 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 38 30 25
Rank change year-on-year -8 -5 +1
Contract jobs citing Linux 1,963 2,023 3,055
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.52% 5.53% 6.60%
As % of the Operating Systems category 41.04% 39.24% 43.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,213 1,177 2,043
10th Percentile £321 £350 £350
25th Percentile £406 £450 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £544 £550
Median % change year-on-year -8.09% -1.09% -4.35%
75th Percentile £619 £650 £650
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -9.52% - -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 86 94 139
10th Percentile £12.50 £45.60 £24.87
25th Percentile £51.94 £62.50 £48.39
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.75 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year -1.14% +5.20% -3.85%
75th Percentile £67.00 £70.00 £70.33
90th Percentile £69.00 £70.70 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £66.76 £65.00
% change year-on-year -2.64% +2.71% -

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 4,783 5,155 7,035
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 13.45% 14.09% 15.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,086 3,146 4,776
10th Percentile £181 £200 £184
25th Percentile £270 £330 £305
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £480
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% -1.04% -5.88%
75th Percentile £567 £585 £607
90th Percentile £654 £688 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £405 £450 £440
% change year-on-year -10.00% +2.27% -2.22%
Number of hourly rates quoted 371 215 349
10th Percentile £15.50 £16.10 £15.05
25th Percentile £18.87 £22.50 £18.50
Median hourly rate £24.00 £50.00 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year -52.00% +53.85% +30.00%
75th Percentile £43.75 £67.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £67.00 £70.00 £75.31
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.58 £50.00 £27.50
% change year-on-year -52.85% +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 24 November 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 24 November 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 24 November 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 1,668 £513 -6.82% 780
UK excluding London -2 1,106 £475 -9.52% 701
London -4 689 £566 -5.75% 209
Work from Home -2 571 £500 -4.76% 359
North of England +7 283 £475 -14.41% 92
South East 0 265 £475 -9.31% 281
Midlands -4 188 £500 -9.09% 86
West Midlands +2 174 £515 -9.65% 60
Scotland +4 163 £475 - 34
Yorkshire +11 159 £500 -19.16% 22
North West -3 120 £429 -18.33% 54
South West -24 117 £550 - 124
East of England -10 98 £454 +0.89% 89
East Midlands -21 14 £420 -5.51% 24
Northern Ireland +5 10 £363 -34.09% 9
North East -8 10 £550 +16.83% 16
Wales -9 5 £300 -42.86% 14

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 99 (5.04%) Confluence
2 71 (3.62%) Apache
3 54 (2.75%) nginx
4 36 (1.83%) JBoss
5 33 (1.68%) Microsoft Exchange
6 30 (1.53%) Apache Spark
7 27 (1.38%) OpenStack
8 26 (1.32%) WebSphere
9 22 (1.12%) Apache Airflow
10 20 (1.02%) Tomcat
11 18 (0.92%) WebLogic
12 16 (0.82%) SharePoint
13 15 (0.76%) WebSphere Application Server
14 14 (0.71%) Mattermost
14 14 (0.71%) Skype for Business
15 12 (0.61%) SAS
16 11 (0.56%) IIS
17 10 (0.51%) iPlanet
18 6 (0.31%) NetWeaver
18 6 (0.31%) TPMS
Applications
1 53 (2.70%) Microsoft Office
2 16 (0.82%) Microsoft Excel
3 12 (0.61%) Mozilla Thunderbird
4 11 (0.56%) MS Visio
5 6 (0.31%) Weka
6 5 (0.25%) Microsoft PowerPoint
7 3 (0.15%) Simulink
7 3 (0.15%) Spreadsheet
8 2 (0.10%) Microsoft Project
8 2 (0.10%) Windchill
9 1 (0.051%) OmniGraffle
9 1 (0.051%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 8 (0.41%) Remedy ITSM
2 6 (0.31%) SAP S/4HANA
3 4 (0.20%) SAP IBP
3 4 (0.20%) Temenos T24
4 3 (0.15%) Oracle 11i
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 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
1 610 (31.07%) AWS
2 380 (19.36%) Azure
3 187 (9.53%) GitHub
4 160 (8.15%) GCP
5 124 (6.32%) OpenShift
6 120 (6.11%) Amazon EC2
7 108 (5.50%) Serverless
8 107 (5.45%) Amazon S3
9 102 (5.20%) AWS CloudFormation
10 86 (4.38%) GitHub Actions
11 72 (3.67%) Amazon CloudWatch
11 72 (3.67%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 66 (3.36%) Azure DevOps
13 63 (3.21%) Amazon ECS
13 63 (3.21%) SaaS
14 61 (3.11%) IaaS
15 59 (3.01%) AWS Lambda
16 56 (2.85%) Amazon EKS
17 51 (2.60%) Microsoft 365
18 46 (2.34%) Entra ID
Communications & Networking
1 223 (11.36%) Firewall
2 167 (8.51%) DNS
3 147 (7.49%) TCP/IP
4 69 (3.52%) Network Security
5 63 (3.21%) SSL
6 61 (3.11%) HTTP
7 59 (3.01%) DHCP
7 59 (3.01%) SSH
8 49 (2.50%) SAN
9 37 (1.88%) SMTP
9 37 (1.88%) VPN
10 32 (1.63%) VLAN
11 27 (1.38%) Ethernet
11 27 (1.38%) Wireless
12 24 (1.22%) Kerberos
12 24 (1.22%) Skype
13 23 (1.17%) FTP
13 23 (1.17%) VSAN
14 22 (1.12%) NAS
14 22 (1.12%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 144 (7.34%) PostgreSQL
2 128 (6.52%) Relational Database
3 97 (4.94%) SQL Server
4 93 (4.74%) Amazon RDS
4 93 (4.74%) MongoDB
5 86 (4.38%) NoSQL
6 79 (4.02%) Oracle Database
7 69 (3.52%) MySQL
8 48 (2.45%) DB2
9 45 (2.29%) Elasticsearch
10 30 (1.53%) Hadoop
11 29 (1.48%) Big Data
12 24 (1.22%) Data Warehouse
13 21 (1.07%) Amazon Aurora
14 18 (0.92%) RDBMS
14 18 (0.92%) Redis
15 17 (0.87%) Apache Cassandra
16 16 (0.82%) KDB
17 15 (0.76%) Apache Hive
18 14 (0.71%) Data Lake
Development Applications
1 330 (16.81%) Jenkins
2 293 (14.93%) Git
3 188 (9.58%) GitLab
4 172 (8.76%) JIRA
5 78 (3.97%) JUnit
6 69 (3.52%) Sonatype Nexus
7 58 (2.95%) Bitbucket
8 53 (2.70%) Eclipse
9 43 (2.19%) Visual Studio
10 42 (2.14%) Maven
11 29 (1.48%) Liquibase
12 27 (1.38%) Artifactory
12 27 (1.38%) Vagrant
13 25 (1.27%) Mockito
13 25 (1.27%) SonarQube
14 24 (1.22%) Cucumber
15 21 (1.07%) Gradle
16 19 (0.97%) Browser DevTools
16 19 (0.97%) Xcode
17 18 (0.92%) Bitbucket Server
General
1 628 (31.99%) Social Skills
2 427 (21.75%) Finance
3 238 (12.12%) Analytical Skills
4 199 (10.14%) Banking
5 180 (9.17%) Public Sector
6 79 (4.02%) Investment Banking
7 60 (3.06%) Front Office
8 57 (2.90%) Documentation Skills
8 57 (2.90%) Financial Institution
9 50 (2.55%) Presentation Skills
10 42 (2.14%) Military
11 25 (1.27%) Manufacturing
12 24 (1.22%) Telecoms
13 22 (1.12%) Legal
14 19 (0.97%) Organisational Skills
15 18 (0.92%) Aerospace
16 17 (0.87%) Law
17 13 (0.66%) Marketing
18 11 (0.56%) Back Office
18 11 (0.56%) International Banking
Job Titles
1 354 (18.03%) Developer
2 222 (11.31%) Senior
3 184 (9.37%) DevOps Engineer
4 140 (7.13%) Java Developer
5 136 (6.93%) Software Engineer
6 102 (5.20%) Analyst
6 102 (5.20%) Linux Engineer
7 100 (5.09%) Platform Engineer
8 98 (4.99%) Support Engineer
9 93 (4.74%) Architect
10 91 (4.64%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 77 (3.92%) Administrator
11 77 (3.92%) AWS Engineer
12 63 (3.21%) C++ Software Engineer
13 62 (3.16%) Lead
13 62 (3.16%) Senior Developer
14 60 (3.06%) Security Engineer
15 58 (2.95%) Python Developer
16 57 (2.90%) AWS DevOps
16 57 (2.90%) Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 161 (8.20%) Kafka
2 147 (7.49%) REST
3 130 (6.62%) Elastic Stack
4 97 (4.94%) Spring
5 85 (4.33%) Middleware
6 79 (4.02%) Node.js
6 79 (4.02%) RESTful
7 66 (3.36%) AngularJS
8 62 (3.16%) React
9 54 (2.75%) JSON
10 51 (2.60%) LDAP
11 50 (2.55%) SOAP
12 45 (2.29%) Web Services
13 42 (2.14%) JMS
13 42 (2.14%) XML
14 41 (2.09%) FIX Protocol
15 36 (1.83%) CSS
16 35 (1.78%) OAuth
17 33 (1.68%) FastAPI
18 30 (1.53%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 102 (5.20%) Cloud Native
2 93 (4.74%) Linux Command Line
3 81 (4.13%) Replication
4 76 (3.87%) Distributed Systems
5 69 (3.52%) Data Centre
6 67 (3.41%) Management Information System
7 66 (3.36%) Data Structures
8 62 (3.16%) Equities
8 62 (3.16%) Public Cloud
9 59 (3.01%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
10 51 (2.60%) Onboarding
10 51 (2.60%) PKI
11 43 (2.19%) Data Protection Act
12 35 (1.78%) Algorithms
13 34 (1.73%) Security Posture
14 33 (1.68%) Fixed Income
15 32 (1.63%) Private Cloud
16 30 (1.53%) Hedge funds
17 27 (1.38%) Clustering
17 27 (1.38%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 711 (36.22%) Windows
2 429 (21.85%) Unix
3 258 (13.14%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 142 (7.23%) Windows Server
5 85 (4.33%) Ubuntu
6 62 (3.16%) CentOS
7 45 (2.29%) VMS
8 39 (1.99%) Android
9 34 (1.73%) Mac OS
9 34 (1.73%) Solaris
10 29 (1.48%) Amazon Linux
11 27 (1.38%) Mac OS X
12 24 (1.22%) Windows 10
13 23 (1.17%) Windows Server 2016
14 22 (1.12%) AIX
15 21 (1.07%) Windows Server 2019
16 13 (0.66%) Kali Linux
17 11 (0.56%) Apple iOS
17 11 (0.56%) Debian
18 9 (0.46%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 580 (29.55%) CI/CD
2 514 (26.18%) DevOps
3 509 (25.93%) Agile
4 392 (19.97%) Problem-Solving
5 311 (15.84%) Containerisation
5 311 (15.84%) Infrastructure as Code
6 267 (13.60%) Software Engineering
7 175 (8.91%) Test Automation
8 168 (8.56%) Observability
9 156 (7.95%) Cybersecurity
10 153 (7.79%) Microservices
11 150 (7.64%) Computer Science
12 147 (7.49%) Configuration Management
13 143 (7.28%) Performance Tuning
14 142 (7.23%) High Availability
15 138 (7.03%) Platform Engineering
16 131 (6.67%) Infrastructure Engineering
16 131 (6.67%) Migration
17 126 (6.42%) ITIL
18 123 (6.27%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 854 (43.50%) Python
2 423 (21.55%) Java
3 391 (19.92%) SQL
4 348 (17.73%) Bash
5 298 (15.18%) PowerShell
6 231 (11.77%) C++
7 224 (11.41%) Shell Script
8 154 (7.85%) JavaScript
9 144 (7.34%) Perl
10 128 (6.52%) C#
11 88 (4.48%) Go
12 65 (3.31%) C
13 46 (2.34%) Groovy
14 35 (1.78%) TypeScript
15 32 (1.63%) PHP
16 27 (1.38%) Rust
17 25 (1.27%) Ruby
18 23 (1.17%) PL/SQL
19 22 (1.12%) Kusto Query Language
20 14 (0.71%) Ada
Qualifications
1 551 (28.07%) Security Cleared
2 422 (21.50%) SC Cleared
3 196 (9.98%) Degree
4 109 (5.55%) DV Cleared
5 98 (4.99%) Computer Science Degree
6 70 (3.57%) AWS Certification
7 60 (3.06%) BPSS Clearance
8 42 (2.14%) Master's Degree
9 40 (2.04%) CISSP
10 36 (1.83%) Azure Certification
11 35 (1.78%) Microsoft Certification
12 31 (1.58%) Cisco Certification
13 24 (1.22%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 20 (1.02%) CCNP
14 20 (1.02%) OSCP
15 19 (0.97%) GCIH
16 17 (0.87%) CCNA
17 16 (0.82%) GCIA
17 16 (0.82%) GPEN
18 14 (0.71%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 52 (2.65%) NIST
2 45 (2.29%) QA
3 36 (1.83%) GDPR
4 35 (1.78%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 20 (1.02%) Data Quality
6 15 (0.76%) HIPAA
6 15 (0.76%) NCSC
6 15 (0.76%) PCI DSS
7 13 (0.66%) SLA
8 9 (0.46%) SOC 2
9 8 (0.41%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 7 (0.36%) Cyber Essentials
11 6 (0.31%) Disclosure Scotland
11 6 (0.31%) GLBA
12 4 (0.20%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 3 (0.15%) Accessibility
13 3 (0.15%) HL7
13 3 (0.15%) NIST 800
14 2 (0.10%) Actionable Recommendations
14 2 (0.10%) SEPA
System Software
1 419 (21.34%) Docker
2 201 (10.24%) Active Directory
3 198 (10.09%) VMware Infrastructure
4 64 (3.26%) vSphere
5 48 (2.45%) Virtual Machines
6 34 (1.73%) Hyper-V
7 33 (1.68%) VMware ESXi
8 25 (1.27%) Oracle RAC
8 25 (1.27%) Postfix
9 22 (1.12%) DFS Replication
10 20 (1.02%) GPFS
10 20 (1.02%) VMware NSX
11 19 (0.97%) NFS
12 18 (0.92%) Dovecot
13 17 (0.87%) KVM
14 16 (0.82%) Slurm Workload Manager
15 13 (0.66%) Squid
16 12 (0.61%) HDFS
16 12 (0.61%) Virtual Servers
17 10 (0.51%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 462 (23.54%) Kubernetes
2 412 (20.99%) Terraform
3 372 (18.95%) Ansible
4 215 (10.95%) Grafana
5 191 (9.73%) Prometheus
6 76 (3.87%) Progress Chef
7 74 (3.77%) Puppet
8 54 (2.75%) Packer
9 39 (1.99%) Argo
10 36 (1.83%) Kibana
11 33 (1.68%) vCenter Server
12 30 (1.53%) Red Hat Satellite
12 30 (1.53%) SCOM
13 28 (1.43%) Consul
13 28 (1.43%) Nessus
14 27 (1.38%) ITRS Geneos
14 27 (1.38%) SCCM
14 27 (1.38%) vRealize
15 24 (1.22%) NetBackup
15 24 (1.22%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 306 (15.59%) Microsoft
2 281 (14.31%) Oracle
3 280 (14.26%) VMware
4 226 (11.51%) Splunk
5 220 (11.21%) Red Hat
6 107 (5.45%) Cisco
7 82 (4.18%) ServiceNow
8 74 (3.77%) IBM
9 64 (3.26%) Google
10 56 (2.85%) AppDynamics
11 47 (2.39%) CyberArk
12 39 (1.99%) Dell
13 38 (1.94%) Sybase
14 36 (1.83%) CrowdStrike
15 35 (1.78%) Solace
16 33 (1.68%) Citrix
17 32 (1.63%) SAP
18 30 (1.53%) F5
19 28 (1.43%) HP
19 28 (1.43%) NetApp