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

6 months to
12 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 51 32 33
Rank change year-on-year -19 +1 -7
Contract jobs citing Linux 1,908 1,744 2,271
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 4.16% 5.96% 5.17%
As % of the Operating Systems category 40.13% 42.80% 38.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,201 1,121 1,500
10th Percentile £325 £375 £325
25th Percentile £401 £450 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £550 £548
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% +0.46% -6.41%
75th Percentile £613 £644 £638
90th Percentile £700 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £490 £537 £538
% change year-on-year -8.75% -0.09% -0.46%
Number of hourly rates quoted 116 51 101
10th Percentile £21.50 £40.50 £25.18
25th Percentile £43.34 £55.00 £48.00
Median hourly rate £63.14 £65.00 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -2.87% +8.33% -7.69%
75th Percentile £68.75 £68.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £79.38 £71.25 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £63.14 £65.00 £60.00
% change year-on-year -2.87% +8.33% -7.69%

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 4,755 4,075 5,964
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.37% 13.92% 13.58%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,108 2,715 4,002
10th Percentile £181 £200 £181
25th Percentile £306 £320 £293
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £463
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% +2.70% -9.76%
75th Percentile £574 £600 £594
90th Percentile £660 £699 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £450 £450
% change year-on-year -5.56% - -5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 335 171 407
10th Percentile £15.50 £16.50 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.54 £18.13 £15.50
Median hourly rate £26.50 £24.66 £22.00
Median % change year-on-year +7.46% +12.09% -25.80%
75th Percentile £65.00 £62.50 £55.63
90th Percentile £75.00 £68.00 £69.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.22 £24.18 £20.00
% change year-on-year +8.44% +20.90% -24.53%

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 12 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 12 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 12 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 -23 1,616 £518 -5.91% 725
UK excluding London -11 1,123 £490 -8.75% 658
London -39 564 £550 -8.33% 174
Work from Home -24 496 £500 -4.76% 277
South East -4 311 £500 -9.09% 199
North of England -10 294 £486 -11.64% 94
Midlands -10 169 £467 -8.85% 67
Yorkshire -18 151 £464 -15.64% 36
South West -18 151 £545 -6.84% 122
West Midlands -3 150 £467 -13.49% 31
North West -6 132 £503 -4.19% 39
East of England -12 93 £454 -0.49% 97
Scotland -19 89 £425 -9.09% 60
East Midlands -37 18 £525 +16.67% 36
Northern Ireland +7 15 £425 +30.77% 10
North East -19 13 £550 +4.76% 21
Wales -14 8 £404 -26.59% 21

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 97 (5.08%) Confluence
2 45 (2.36%) nginx
3 44 (2.31%) Apache
4 37 (1.94%) Microsoft Exchange
5 18 (0.94%) Apache Spark
6 17 (0.89%) SAS
7 16 (0.84%) OpenStack
7 16 (0.84%) WebLogic
8 15 (0.79%) Apache Airflow
9 13 (0.68%) Tomcat
10 12 (0.63%) SharePoint
11 10 (0.52%) CICS
11 10 (0.52%) TPMS
12 9 (0.47%) WebSphere
13 6 (0.31%) NetWeaver
13 6 (0.31%) Oracle SOA Suite
14 4 (0.21%) Adobe Experience Manager
15 3 (0.16%) IIS
15 3 (0.16%) JBoss
15 3 (0.16%) Red Hat Fuse
Applications
1 40 (2.10%) Microsoft Office
2 16 (0.84%) Microsoft Excel
3 10 (0.52%) MS Visio
4 5 (0.26%) Microsoft Project
4 5 (0.26%) Weka
5 3 (0.16%) Simulink
5 3 (0.16%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.052%) Adobe Illustrator
6 1 (0.052%) InDesign
6 1 (0.052%) Photoshop
Business Applications
1 8 (0.42%) SAP S/4HANA
2 4 (0.21%) Remedy ITSM
3 3 (0.16%) Oracle 11i
3 3 (0.16%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 2 (0.10%) BusinessWorks
4 2 (0.10%) Oracle General Ledger
4 2 (0.10%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
5 1 (0.052%) Cloudability
5 1 (0.052%) Odoo
5 1 (0.052%) Oracle EBS
5 1 (0.052%) Oracle EBS R12
5 1 (0.052%) Oracle FAH
5 1 (0.052%) Oracle Payables
5 1 (0.052%) Oracle Receivables
5 1 (0.052%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 557 (29.19%) AWS
2 379 (19.86%) Azure
3 170 (8.91%) GitHub
4 128 (6.71%) OpenShift
5 111 (5.82%) GCP
6 98 (5.14%) Amazon EC2
7 95 (4.98%) AWS CloudFormation
8 85 (4.45%) GitHub Actions
9 80 (4.19%) Serverless
10 79 (4.14%) Amazon S3
11 74 (3.88%) Amazon EKS
12 67 (3.51%) Azure DevOps
13 61 (3.20%) AWS Lambda
14 53 (2.78%) Amazon ECS
15 52 (2.73%) Amazon CloudWatch
16 48 (2.52%) IaaS
17 39 (2.04%) Entra ID
17 39 (2.04%) Microsoft 365
17 39 (2.04%) Virtual Private Cloud
18 36 (1.89%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 213 (11.16%) Firewall
2 139 (7.29%) DNS
3 107 (5.61%) TCP/IP
4 69 (3.62%) Network Security
4 69 (3.62%) VPN
5 53 (2.78%) SAN
6 46 (2.41%) SSH
7 42 (2.20%) DHCP
8 41 (2.15%) VSAN
9 37 (1.94%) HTTP
9 37 (1.94%) WAN
10 32 (1.68%) LAN
11 31 (1.62%) SNMP
12 30 (1.57%) SSL
13 24 (1.26%) Ethernet
14 23 (1.21%) BGP
14 23 (1.21%) Wireless
15 20 (1.05%) NAS
16 19 (1.00%) VLAN
17 18 (0.94%) Kerberos
Database & Business Intelligence
1 129 (6.76%) PostgreSQL
2 106 (5.56%) SQL Server
3 72 (3.77%) MySQL
4 68 (3.56%) Relational Database
5 67 (3.51%) Amazon RDS
6 65 (3.41%) MongoDB
7 58 (3.04%) Oracle Database
8 40 (2.10%) Elasticsearch
9 34 (1.78%) NoSQL
10 23 (1.21%) Data Warehouse
11 19 (1.00%) Amazon Aurora
11 19 (1.00%) Big Data
11 19 (1.00%) DynamoDB
11 19 (1.00%) KDB
12 18 (0.94%) Kdb+
13 16 (0.84%) DB2
14 15 (0.79%) Hadoop
14 15 (0.79%) SAP HANA
15 14 (0.73%) Data Lake
16 12 (0.63%) Tick Data
Development Applications
1 217 (11.37%) Jenkins
2 193 (10.12%) Git
3 172 (9.01%) GitLab
4 157 (8.23%) JIRA
5 36 (1.89%) Bitbucket
6 32 (1.68%) JUnit
7 31 (1.62%) Maven
7 31 (1.62%) Sonatype Nexus
8 27 (1.42%) Eclipse
9 24 (1.26%) Mockito
10 20 (1.05%) SonarQube
11 18 (0.94%) Cucumber
12 17 (0.89%) Artifactory
13 16 (0.84%) Visual Studio
14 12 (0.63%) Rational Rhapsody
15 11 (0.58%) Jaeger
15 11 (0.58%) JMeter
15 11 (0.58%) Selenium
16 10 (0.52%) jMock
17 9 (0.47%) Atlassian Bamboo
General
1 429 (22.48%) Social Skills
2 292 (15.30%) Finance
3 193 (10.12%) Public Sector
4 161 (8.44%) Analytical Skills
5 117 (6.13%) Banking
6 71 (3.72%) Documentation Skills
7 48 (2.52%) Military
8 32 (1.68%) Presentation Skills
9 26 (1.36%) Financial Institution
10 24 (1.26%) Investment Banking
10 24 (1.26%) Telecoms
11 21 (1.10%) Front Office
11 21 (1.10%) Influencing Skills
12 20 (1.05%) Aerospace
13 19 (1.00%) Retail
14 18 (0.94%) Legal
15 17 (0.89%) Law
15 17 (0.89%) Organisational Skills
16 15 (0.79%) Manufacturing
17 11 (0.58%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 233 (12.21%) Developer
1 233 (12.21%) Senior
2 163 (8.54%) DevOps Engineer
3 134 (7.02%) Software Engineer
4 126 (6.60%) Linux Engineer
5 123 (6.45%) Analyst
6 122 (6.39%) Architect
7 97 (5.08%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 88 (4.61%) Java Developer
9 87 (4.56%) Lead
10 82 (4.30%) Administrator
11 74 (3.88%) Platform Engineer
12 69 (3.62%) Site Reliability Engineer
13 64 (3.35%) Site Engineer
14 63 (3.30%) AWS Engineer
15 53 (2.78%) Consultant
16 51 (2.67%) AWS DevOps
17 50 (2.62%) Security Engineer
18 43 (2.25%) Senior Developer
18 43 (2.25%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 117 (6.13%) Kafka
2 92 (4.82%) REST
3 77 (4.04%) Elastic Stack
4 69 (3.62%) Node.js
5 65 (3.41%) Middleware
6 53 (2.78%) Spring
7 52 (2.73%) LDAP
8 46 (2.41%) Spring Boot
9 40 (2.10%) Web Services
10 34 (1.78%) XML
11 33 (1.73%) RESTful
11 33 (1.73%) YAML
12 31 (1.62%) .NET
12 31 (1.62%) JSON
13 29 (1.52%) React
14 28 (1.47%) AngularJS
15 25 (1.31%) SOAP
16 22 (1.15%) ActiveMQ
17 21 (1.10%) Flash
18 19 (1.00%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 122 (6.39%) Data Centre
2 104 (5.45%) Cloud Native
3 81 (4.25%) Linux Command Line
4 67 (3.51%) Management Information System
5 59 (3.09%) Distributed Systems
6 57 (2.99%) Onboarding
7 56 (2.94%) PKI
8 54 (2.83%) Replication
9 51 (2.67%) Public Cloud
10 47 (2.46%) Hybrid Cloud
11 41 (2.15%) Product Ownership
12 36 (1.89%) Legacy Systems
13 32 (1.68%) Data Protection Act
13 32 (1.68%) Security Operations Centre
14 30 (1.57%) Security Posture
15 28 (1.47%) Equities
16 27 (1.42%) Enterprise Storage
17 25 (1.31%) Embedded Systems
17 25 (1.31%) Enterprise Software
18 24 (1.26%) Clustering
Operating Systems
1 725 (38.00%) Windows
2 354 (18.55%) Unix
3 275 (14.41%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 176 (9.22%) Windows Server
5 86 (4.51%) Ubuntu
6 47 (2.46%) AIX
7 42 (2.20%) CentOS
8 37 (1.94%) Solaris
9 35 (1.83%) Android
10 34 (1.78%) VMS
11 30 (1.57%) Embedded Linux
12 23 (1.21%) Windows Server 2016
13 22 (1.15%) Mac OS
14 18 (0.94%) Debian
14 18 (0.94%) Windows Server 2019
15 13 (0.68%) Mac OS X
15 13 (0.68%) SUSE
16 11 (0.58%) Oracle Linux
17 10 (0.52%) Apple iOS
18 9 (0.47%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 548 (28.72%) CI/CD
2 454 (23.79%) DevOps
3 398 (20.86%) Agile
4 340 (17.82%) Problem-Solving
5 285 (14.94%) Infrastructure as Code
6 277 (14.52%) Containerisation
7 211 (11.06%) Software Engineering
8 182 (9.54%) Observability
9 158 (8.28%) Migration
10 157 (8.23%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 148 (7.76%) Continuous Improvement
12 144 (7.55%) Microservices
13 143 (7.49%) Cybersecurity
14 142 (7.44%) Computer Science
15 139 (7.29%) Incident Response
15 139 (7.29%) Platform Engineering
16 135 (7.08%) SIEM
17 132 (6.92%) Test Automation
18 131 (6.87%) High Availability
19 123 (6.45%) Site Reliability Engineering
Programming Languages
1 659 (34.54%) Python
2 316 (16.56%) SQL
3 290 (15.20%) Java
4 289 (15.15%) Bash
5 280 (14.68%) PowerShell
6 172 (9.01%) Shell Script
7 137 (7.18%) C++
8 105 (5.50%) JavaScript
9 87 (4.56%) Perl
10 67 (3.51%) C#
11 52 (2.73%) C
12 42 (2.20%) Ruby
13 40 (2.10%) Go
13 40 (2.10%) PL/SQL
14 31 (1.62%) TypeScript
15 26 (1.36%) PHP
16 24 (1.26%) Rust
17 20 (1.05%) MATLAB
18 18 (0.94%) Ada
18 18 (0.94%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 750 (39.31%) Security Cleared
2 554 (29.04%) SC Cleared
3 198 (10.38%) DV Cleared
4 184 (9.64%) Degree
5 92 (4.82%) BPSS Clearance
6 78 (4.09%) Computer Science Degree
7 51 (2.67%) AWS Certification
8 45 (2.36%) Cisco Certification
9 42 (2.20%) CompTIA Security+
10 41 (2.15%) CISSP
11 29 (1.52%) RHCE
12 28 (1.47%) CCNA
13 25 (1.31%) CCNP
14 23 (1.21%) Azure Certification
15 21 (1.10%) Oracle Certification
16 19 (1.00%) Microsoft Certification
17 18 (0.94%) CompTIA CySA+
17 18 (0.94%) OCP
18 16 (0.84%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
19 14 (0.73%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 81 (4.25%) NIST
2 68 (3.56%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 49 (2.57%) QA
4 39 (2.04%) GDPR
5 36 (1.89%) SLA
6 23 (1.21%) Cyber Essentials
7 20 (1.05%) NCSC
7 20 (1.05%) PCI DSS
8 13 (0.68%) Data Quality
8 13 (0.68%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 12 (0.63%) HIPAA
10 10 (0.52%) GLBA
11 9 (0.47%) NIST 800
12 8 (0.42%) Accessibility
13 6 (0.31%) Disclosure Scotland
13 6 (0.31%) GRC
14 5 (0.26%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 5 (0.26%) DICOM
14 5 (0.26%) SOC 2
15 4 (0.21%) California Consumer Privacy Act
System Software
1 367 (19.23%) Docker
2 242 (12.68%) VMware Infrastructure
3 178 (9.33%) Active Directory
4 92 (4.82%) vSphere
5 71 (3.72%) Virtual Machines
6 66 (3.46%) Hyper-V
7 63 (3.30%) VMware ESXi
8 43 (2.25%) VMware NSX
9 39 (2.04%) NFS
10 34 (1.78%) Firmware
11 28 (1.47%) GPFS
12 23 (1.21%) KVM
13 17 (0.89%) Oracle RAC
13 17 (0.89%) Postfix
14 14 (0.73%) Slurm Workload Manager
15 11 (0.58%) Ceph
15 11 (0.58%) Lustre
16 7 (0.37%) BitLocker
16 7 (0.37%) Microsoft App-V
16 7 (0.37%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 442 (23.17%) Kubernetes
2 387 (20.28%) Terraform
3 376 (19.71%) Ansible
4 176 (9.22%) Grafana
5 143 (7.49%) Prometheus
6 64 (3.35%) Puppet
7 54 (2.83%) Progress Chef
8 49 (2.57%) vCenter Server
9 39 (2.04%) vRealize
10 34 (1.78%) Packer
11 32 (1.68%) Argo
12 30 (1.57%) Podman
13 29 (1.52%) Red Hat Satellite
14 25 (1.31%) Oracle RMAN
15 24 (1.26%) Kibana
16 22 (1.15%) VxRail
17 19 (1.00%) Nessus
17 19 (1.00%) SCCM
18 17 (0.89%) Data Guard
18 17 (0.89%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 326 (17.09%) VMware
2 277 (14.52%) Microsoft
3 257 (13.47%) Oracle
4 231 (12.11%) Red Hat
5 178 (9.33%) Splunk
6 114 (5.97%) Cisco
7 98 (5.14%) IBM
8 68 (3.56%) ServiceNow
9 53 (2.78%) Dell
10 46 (2.41%) CyberArk
11 43 (2.25%) Google
12 41 (2.15%) Palo Alto
13 38 (1.99%) HP
14 36 (1.89%) SolarWinds
15 30 (1.57%) Citrix
16 29 (1.52%) Atlassian
17 28 (1.47%) NetApp
18 25 (1.31%) BeyondTrust
18 25 (1.31%) NVIDIA
19 24 (1.26%) AppDynamics