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 28 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
28 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 50 32 34
Rank change year-on-year -18 +2 -8
Contract jobs citing Linux 1,902 1,759 2,192
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 4.05% 5.99% 5.06%
As % of the Operating Systems category 40.49% 43.05% 37.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,193 1,119 1,442
10th Percentile £336 £373 £333
25th Percentile £403 £440 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% - -4.35%
75th Percentile £613 £650 £643
90th Percentile £700 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £484 £537 £540
% change year-on-year -9.87% -0.56% +0.37%
Number of hourly rates quoted 119 53 104
10th Percentile £27.45 £40.50 £27.56
25th Percentile £43.81 £55.00 £48.00
Median hourly rate £63.14 £65.00 £60.50
Median % change year-on-year -2.87% +7.44% -6.92%
75th Percentile £68.00 £68.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £75.50 £68.60 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £63.14 £65.25 £60.50
% change year-on-year -3.24% +7.85% -6.92%

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 4,698 4,086 5,775
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.00% 13.92% 13.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,054 2,704 3,885
10th Percentile £185 £200 £184
25th Percentile £313 £319 £300
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £470
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% +1.06% -6.93%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £591
90th Percentile £658 £699 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £450 £450
% change year-on-year -5.56% - -5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 325 179 394
10th Percentile £15.96 £16.25 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.54 £18.13 £15.31
Median hourly rate £41.94 £24.18 £22.00
Median % change year-on-year +73.45% +9.91% -43.23%
75th Percentile £67.84 £62.50 £59.88
90th Percentile £75.00 £68.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.22 £23.00 £21.00
% change year-on-year +83.57% +9.52% -32.80%

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 28 April 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 28 April 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 28 April 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 -21 1,596 £518 -5.91% 727
UK excluding London -13 1,117 £484 -9.87% 623
London -42 559 £550 -6.38% 185
Work from Home -26 489 £500 -4.76% 276
South East -5 307 £500 -9.09% 221
North of England -14 289 £475 -13.64% 93
Yorkshire -22 159 £461 -16.14% 34
Midlands -11 158 £480 -4.00% 62
South West -15 153 £545 -9.17% 115
West Midlands -1 138 £475 -11.55% 30
North West -10 120 £485 -4.88% 42
East of England -9 93 £473 -3.57% 92
Scotland -22 93 £450 -3.74% 28
East Midlands -36 18 £525 +15.51% 32
Northern Ireland +13 15 £425 +30.77% 12
Wales -6 15 £465 -20.65% 16
North East -22 10 £413 -21.43% 17

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 (5.21%) Confluence
2 49 (2.58%) Apache
3 48 (2.52%) nginx
4 29 (1.52%) Microsoft Exchange
5 27 (1.42%) Apache Spark
6 24 (1.26%) Apache Airflow
7 17 (0.89%) Tomcat
7 17 (0.89%) WebLogic
8 15 (0.79%) OpenStack
8 15 (0.79%) SAS
9 13 (0.68%) WebSphere
10 11 (0.58%) CICS
11 10 (0.53%) TPMS
12 6 (0.32%) JBoss
12 6 (0.32%) NetWeaver
12 6 (0.32%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 6 (0.32%) SharePoint
12 6 (0.32%) WebSphere Application Server
13 4 (0.21%) Adobe Experience Manager
13 4 (0.21%) CMS
Applications
1 32 (1.68%) Microsoft Office
2 14 (0.74%) Microsoft Excel
3 7 (0.37%) MS Visio
4 5 (0.26%) Microsoft Project
4 5 (0.26%) Weka
5 4 (0.21%) Spreadsheet
6 3 (0.16%) Simulink
7 1 (0.053%) Adobe Illustrator
7 1 (0.053%) InDesign
7 1 (0.053%) Photoshop
Business Applications
1 8 (0.42%) SAP S/4HANA
2 5 (0.26%) Remedy ITSM
3 3 (0.16%) Oracle 11i
3 3 (0.16%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 2 (0.11%) BusinessWorks
4 2 (0.11%) Oracle General Ledger
4 2 (0.11%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
5 1 (0.053%) Cloudability
5 1 (0.053%) Odoo
5 1 (0.053%) Oracle Applications
5 1 (0.053%) Oracle EBS
5 1 (0.053%) Oracle EBS R12
5 1 (0.053%) Oracle FAH
5 1 (0.053%) Oracle Payables
5 1 (0.053%) Oracle Receivables
5 1 (0.053%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 555 (29.18%) AWS
2 372 (19.56%) Azure
3 173 (9.10%) GitHub
4 125 (6.57%) OpenShift
5 107 (5.63%) GCP
6 98 (5.15%) Amazon EC2
7 92 (4.84%) AWS CloudFormation
8 89 (4.68%) Amazon S3
9 88 (4.63%) GitHub Actions
10 79 (4.15%) Serverless
11 73 (3.84%) Amazon EKS
12 67 (3.52%) AWS Lambda
12 67 (3.52%) Azure DevOps
13 58 (3.05%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 57 (3.00%) Amazon ECS
15 42 (2.21%) Virtual Private Cloud
16 41 (2.16%) IaaS
17 38 (2.00%) Microsoft 365
18 35 (1.84%) SaaS
19 33 (1.74%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 197 (10.36%) Firewall
2 133 (6.99%) DNS
3 104 (5.47%) TCP/IP
4 73 (3.84%) VPN
5 66 (3.47%) Network Security
6 56 (2.94%) SAN
7 46 (2.42%) WAN
8 40 (2.10%) DHCP
9 39 (2.05%) SSH
10 38 (2.00%) HTTP
10 38 (2.00%) LAN
11 37 (1.95%) VSAN
12 32 (1.68%) SSL
13 27 (1.42%) SNMP
14 24 (1.26%) Ethernet
15 22 (1.16%) NAS
16 20 (1.05%) Wireless
17 17 (0.89%) BGP
17 17 (0.89%) Kerberos
18 15 (0.79%) MPLS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 136 (7.15%) PostgreSQL
2 107 (5.63%) SQL Server
3 69 (3.63%) Amazon RDS
3 69 (3.63%) MySQL
4 65 (3.42%) MongoDB
4 65 (3.42%) Relational Database
5 64 (3.36%) Oracle Database
6 42 (2.21%) Elasticsearch
7 37 (1.95%) NoSQL
8 32 (1.68%) Amazon Aurora
9 26 (1.37%) Big Data
10 24 (1.26%) DynamoDB
11 21 (1.10%) Data Warehouse
11 21 (1.10%) KDB
12 20 (1.05%) Kdb+
13 17 (0.89%) Hadoop
14 16 (0.84%) DB2
14 16 (0.84%) SAP HANA
15 15 (0.79%) Data Lake
16 12 (0.63%) Tick Data
Development Applications
1 213 (11.20%) Jenkins
2 190 (9.99%) Git
3 171 (8.99%) GitLab
4 160 (8.41%) JIRA
5 34 (1.79%) Bitbucket
6 32 (1.68%) Maven
7 28 (1.47%) Sonatype Nexus
8 27 (1.42%) JUnit
9 25 (1.31%) Mockito
9 25 (1.31%) SonarQube
10 24 (1.26%) Eclipse
11 16 (0.84%) Artifactory
11 16 (0.84%) Visual Studio
12 15 (0.79%) Cucumber
13 13 (0.68%) Jaeger
13 13 (0.68%) Rational Rhapsody
14 11 (0.58%) DbUnit
14 11 (0.58%) jMock
15 10 (0.53%) Atlassian Bamboo
16 9 (0.47%) Selenium
General
1 415 (21.82%) Social Skills
2 279 (14.67%) Finance
3 195 (10.25%) Public Sector
4 156 (8.20%) Analytical Skills
5 112 (5.89%) Banking
6 72 (3.79%) Documentation Skills
7 46 (2.42%) Military
8 26 (1.37%) Presentation Skills
9 25 (1.31%) Financial Institution
10 22 (1.16%) Investment Banking
11 21 (1.10%) Aerospace
11 21 (1.10%) Influencing Skills
11 21 (1.10%) Telecoms
12 19 (1.00%) Retail
13 18 (0.95%) Front Office
14 16 (0.84%) Law
15 14 (0.74%) Manufacturing
15 14 (0.74%) Organisational Skills
16 13 (0.68%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 12 (0.63%) Legal
Job Titles
1 227 (11.93%) Senior
2 222 (11.67%) Developer
3 170 (8.94%) DevOps Engineer
4 139 (7.31%) Linux Engineer
5 132 (6.94%) Software Engineer
6 120 (6.31%) Architect
7 110 (5.78%) Analyst
8 102 (5.36%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 95 (4.99%) Lead
10 88 (4.63%) Java Developer
11 80 (4.21%) Administrator
12 71 (3.73%) Site Reliability Engineer
13 67 (3.52%) AWS Engineer
13 67 (3.52%) Site Engineer
14 60 (3.15%) Platform Engineer
15 53 (2.79%) Security Engineer
16 51 (2.68%) AWS DevOps
17 50 (2.63%) Consultant
18 42 (2.21%) AWS DevOps Engineer
18 42 (2.21%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 111 (5.84%) Kafka
2 86 (4.52%) REST
3 77 (4.05%) Elastic Stack
4 70 (3.68%) Middleware
5 60 (3.15%) Node.js
6 50 (2.63%) Spring
7 48 (2.52%) LDAP
8 47 (2.47%) Spring Boot
9 40 (2.10%) Web Services
10 35 (1.84%) .NET
11 34 (1.79%) RESTful
12 32 (1.68%) XML
13 30 (1.58%) YAML
14 27 (1.42%) JSON
15 26 (1.37%) AngularJS
16 25 (1.31%) SOAP
17 24 (1.26%) ActiveMQ
18 23 (1.21%) React
19 21 (1.10%) CSS
19 21 (1.10%) Flash
Miscellaneous
1 127 (6.68%) Data Centre
2 105 (5.52%) Cloud Native
3 75 (3.94%) Linux Command Line
4 68 (3.58%) Management Information System
5 62 (3.26%) Distributed Systems
5 62 (3.26%) Onboarding
6 56 (2.94%) Replication
7 53 (2.79%) PKI
8 51 (2.68%) Hybrid Cloud
9 49 (2.58%) Public Cloud
10 41 (2.16%) Legacy Systems
11 35 (1.84%) Product Ownership
12 32 (1.68%) Security Posture
13 30 (1.58%) Data Protection Act
14 29 (1.52%) Enterprise Storage
14 29 (1.52%) Security Operations Centre
15 26 (1.37%) Embedded Systems
16 24 (1.26%) Clustering
17 23 (1.21%) Equities
18 22 (1.16%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 711 (37.38%) Windows
2 368 (19.35%) Unix
3 277 (14.56%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 173 (9.10%) Windows Server
5 87 (4.57%) Ubuntu
6 49 (2.58%) AIX
7 42 (2.21%) CentOS
8 39 (2.05%) Solaris
9 36 (1.89%) VMS
10 32 (1.68%) Embedded Linux
11 31 (1.63%) Android
12 25 (1.31%) Windows Server 2016
13 22 (1.16%) Mac OS
14 20 (1.05%) Debian
14 20 (1.05%) Windows Server 2019
15 14 (0.74%) SUSE
16 13 (0.68%) Mac OS X
17 12 (0.63%) Oracle Linux
18 11 (0.58%) Windows 10
19 10 (0.53%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 536 (28.18%) CI/CD
2 446 (23.45%) DevOps
3 394 (20.72%) Agile
4 313 (16.46%) Problem-Solving
5 285 (14.98%) Infrastructure as Code
6 257 (13.51%) Containerisation
7 212 (11.15%) Software Engineering
8 179 (9.41%) Observability
9 168 (8.83%) Migration
10 156 (8.20%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 142 (7.47%) Computer Science
11 142 (7.47%) Continuous Improvement
12 140 (7.36%) Microservices
12 140 (7.36%) SIEM
13 138 (7.26%) High Availability
14 137 (7.20%) Performance Tuning
15 134 (7.05%) Incident Response
16 131 (6.89%) Platform Engineering
17 130 (6.83%) Cybersecurity
18 129 (6.78%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 643 (33.81%) Python
2 319 (16.77%) SQL
3 288 (15.14%) Java
4 265 (13.93%) Bash
5 255 (13.41%) PowerShell
6 165 (8.68%) Shell Script
7 127 (6.68%) C++
8 104 (5.47%) JavaScript
9 73 (3.84%) Perl
10 63 (3.31%) C#
11 54 (2.84%) C
12 43 (2.26%) Go
13 41 (2.16%) PL/SQL
14 37 (1.95%) Ruby
15 27 (1.42%) TypeScript
16 24 (1.26%) PHP
17 22 (1.16%) Rust
18 20 (1.05%) Ada
19 19 (1.00%) Kusto Query Language
19 19 (1.00%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 746 (39.22%) Security Cleared
2 552 (29.02%) SC Cleared
3 205 (10.78%) DV Cleared
4 174 (9.15%) Degree
5 91 (4.78%) BPSS Clearance
6 80 (4.21%) Computer Science Degree
7 50 (2.63%) AWS Certification
8 43 (2.26%) CompTIA Security+
9 42 (2.21%) Cisco Certification
10 39 (2.05%) CISSP
11 34 (1.79%) RHCE
12 27 (1.42%) Azure Certification
13 25 (1.31%) CCNA
14 21 (1.10%) Oracle Certification
15 19 (1.00%) Microsoft Certification
16 18 (0.95%) CCNP
16 18 (0.95%) OCP
17 17 (0.89%) CompTIA CySA+
18 15 (0.79%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
19 14 (0.74%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 77 (4.05%) NIST
2 66 (3.47%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 50 (2.63%) QA
4 39 (2.05%) SLA
5 35 (1.84%) GDPR
6 24 (1.26%) Cyber Essentials
7 22 (1.16%) NCSC
8 20 (1.05%) PCI DSS
9 14 (0.74%) Data Quality
10 11 (0.58%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 10 (0.53%) Disclosure Scotland
11 10 (0.53%) GLBA
11 10 (0.53%) HIPAA
11 10 (0.53%) NIST 800
12 9 (0.47%) GRC
13 8 (0.42%) Accessibility
14 5 (0.26%) California Consumer Privacy Act
14 5 (0.26%) DICOM
15 4 (0.21%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 4 (0.21%) HL7
System Software
1 346 (18.19%) Docker
2 229 (12.04%) VMware Infrastructure
3 171 (8.99%) Active Directory
4 76 (4.00%) Virtual Machines
5 73 (3.84%) vSphere
6 70 (3.68%) Hyper-V
7 63 (3.31%) VMware ESXi
8 40 (2.10%) NFS
8 40 (2.10%) VMware NSX
9 37 (1.95%) Firmware
10 28 (1.47%) GPFS
11 27 (1.42%) KVM
12 19 (1.00%) Oracle RAC
12 19 (1.00%) Postfix
13 18 (0.95%) Slurm Workload Manager
14 12 (0.63%) Ceph
15 11 (0.58%) Lustre
16 7 (0.37%) BitLocker
16 7 (0.37%) Embedded Firmware
16 7 (0.37%) QEMU
Systems Management
1 422 (22.19%) Kubernetes
2 387 (20.35%) Terraform
3 380 (19.98%) Ansible
4 182 (9.57%) Grafana
5 142 (7.47%) Prometheus
6 72 (3.79%) Puppet
7 51 (2.68%) Progress Chef
8 44 (2.31%) vCenter Server
9 35 (1.84%) Packer
10 32 (1.68%) vRealize
11 30 (1.58%) Kibana
12 29 (1.52%) Podman
13 28 (1.47%) Oracle RMAN
13 28 (1.47%) Red Hat Satellite
14 24 (1.26%) Argo
15 20 (1.05%) SCCM
16 19 (1.00%) Data Guard
16 19 (1.00%) Single Sign-On
17 18 (0.95%) Nessus
17 18 (0.95%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 305 (16.04%) VMware
2 271 (14.25%) Microsoft
3 259 (13.62%) Oracle
4 217 (11.41%) Red Hat
5 179 (9.41%) Splunk
6 107 (5.63%) Cisco
7 94 (4.94%) IBM
8 74 (3.89%) ServiceNow
9 46 (2.42%) Dell
10 44 (2.31%) CyberArk
10 44 (2.31%) Palo Alto
11 39 (2.05%) Google
12 34 (1.79%) HP
13 33 (1.74%) Atlassian
14 31 (1.63%) SolarWinds
15 28 (1.47%) NetApp
16 26 (1.37%) NVIDIA
17 24 (1.26%) BeyondTrust
17 24 (1.26%) F5
17 24 (1.26%) SAP