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

6 months to
28 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 38 31 25
Rank change year-on-year -7 -6 +1
Contract jobs citing Linux 1,972 1,999 3,016
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.46% 5.46% 6.61%
As % of the Operating Systems category 41.13% 38.90% 43.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,215 1,160 2,019
10th Percentile £319 £350 £350
25th Percentile £406 £450 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £543 £550
Median % change year-on-year -7.88% -1.32% -4.68%
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 88 95 139
10th Percentile £12.50 £45.80 £23.97
25th Percentile £49.30 £62.50 £48.32
Median hourly rate £65.00 £66.50 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year -2.26% +6.40% -3.85%
75th Percentile £67.00 £70.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £68.60 £70.60 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £66.50 £65.00
% change year-on-year -2.26% +2.31% -

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 4,794 5,139 6,941
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 13.28% 14.04% 15.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,092 3,134 4,709
10th Percentile £181 £200 £184
25th Percentile £267 £325 £305
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £480
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% -1.04% -5.88%
75th Percentile £564 £583 £613
90th Percentile £660 £688 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £402 £440 £440
% change year-on-year -8.45% -0.11% -2.22%
Number of hourly rates quoted 368 213 349
10th Percentile £15.50 £16.05 £15.05
25th Percentile £18.87 £22.50 £18.50
Median hourly rate £25.00 £50.00 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year -50.00% +53.85% +30.00%
75th Percentile £45.00 £68.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £67.08 £70.00 £75.31
UK excluding London median hourly rate £24.00 £51.25 £27.50
% change year-on-year -53.17% +86.36% +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 28 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 28 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 28 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 1,679 £515 -6.36% 782
UK excluding London -1 1,113 £475 -9.52% 715
London -5 689 £565 -5.83% 217
Work from Home -3 575 £500 -4.76% 315
North of England +9 280 £476 -15.54% 93
South East 0 269 £475 -5.00% 292
Midlands +3 191 £500 -4.76% 82
West Midlands +4 176 £515 -6.36% 57
Yorkshire +9 159 £500 -19.16% 26
Scotland +4 157 £473 -0.53% 38
South West -26 124 £550 - 123
North West +1 117 £442 -17.81% 52
East of England -12 99 £452 +0.44% 99
East Midlands -19 15 £420 -4.55% 24
Northern Ireland +6 10 £363 -34.09% 8
North East -7 10 £550 +16.83% 15
Wales -10 6 £300 -42.86% 10

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 98 (4.97%) Confluence
2 72 (3.65%) Apache
3 52 (2.64%) nginx
4 36 (1.83%) JBoss
5 35 (1.77%) Microsoft Exchange
6 32 (1.62%) Apache Spark
7 26 (1.32%) OpenStack
8 24 (1.22%) WebSphere
9 23 (1.17%) Apache Airflow
10 20 (1.01%) Tomcat
11 18 (0.91%) WebLogic
12 16 (0.81%) SharePoint
13 14 (0.71%) Mattermost
13 14 (0.71%) Skype for Business
14 13 (0.66%) SAS
14 13 (0.66%) WebSphere Application Server
15 11 (0.56%) IIS
16 10 (0.51%) iPlanet
17 7 (0.35%) TPMS
18 6 (0.30%) NetWeaver
Applications
1 55 (2.79%) Microsoft Office
2 16 (0.81%) Microsoft Excel
3 12 (0.61%) Mozilla Thunderbird
3 12 (0.61%) MS Visio
4 6 (0.30%) Weka
5 5 (0.25%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 3 (0.15%) Simulink
6 3 (0.15%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.10%) Microsoft Project
7 2 (0.10%) Windchill
8 1 (0.051%) OmniGraffle
8 1 (0.051%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 8 (0.41%) Remedy ITSM
2 6 (0.30%) 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
1 616 (31.24%) AWS
2 384 (19.47%) Azure
3 192 (9.74%) GitHub
4 161 (8.16%) GCP
5 128 (6.49%) OpenShift
6 120 (6.09%) Amazon EC2
7 113 (5.73%) Serverless
8 105 (5.32%) Amazon S3
8 105 (5.32%) AWS CloudFormation
9 90 (4.56%) GitHub Actions
10 72 (3.65%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 70 (3.55%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 68 (3.45%) Azure DevOps
13 67 (3.40%) Amazon ECS
14 64 (3.25%) SaaS
15 62 (3.14%) IaaS
16 61 (3.09%) AWS Lambda
17 60 (3.04%) Amazon EKS
18 50 (2.54%) Microsoft 365
19 46 (2.33%) Entra ID
Communications & Networking
1 225 (11.41%) Firewall
2 170 (8.62%) DNS
3 147 (7.45%) TCP/IP
4 70 (3.55%) Network Security
5 63 (3.19%) SSL
6 61 (3.09%) DHCP
6 61 (3.09%) HTTP
7 58 (2.94%) SSH
8 48 (2.43%) SAN
9 38 (1.93%) VPN
10 36 (1.83%) SMTP
11 34 (1.72%) VLAN
12 28 (1.42%) Wireless
13 26 (1.32%) Ethernet
14 25 (1.27%) Kerberos
14 25 (1.27%) VSAN
15 24 (1.22%) Skype
16 22 (1.12%) FTP
16 22 (1.12%) WAN
17 21 (1.06%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 146 (7.40%) PostgreSQL
2 126 (6.39%) Relational Database
3 100 (5.07%) SQL Server
4 93 (4.72%) Amazon RDS
4 93 (4.72%) MongoDB
5 87 (4.41%) NoSQL
6 81 (4.11%) Oracle Database
7 70 (3.55%) MySQL
8 47 (2.38%) DB2
8 47 (2.38%) Elasticsearch
9 31 (1.57%) Hadoop
10 30 (1.52%) Big Data
11 24 (1.22%) Data Warehouse
12 21 (1.06%) Amazon Aurora
13 19 (0.96%) Redis
14 18 (0.91%) KDB
14 18 (0.91%) RDBMS
15 17 (0.86%) Apache Cassandra
16 15 (0.76%) Apache Hive
17 14 (0.71%) HBase
Development Applications
1 324 (16.43%) Jenkins
2 289 (14.66%) Git
3 190 (9.63%) GitLab
4 172 (8.72%) JIRA
5 77 (3.90%) JUnit
6 70 (3.55%) Sonatype Nexus
7 56 (2.84%) Bitbucket
8 53 (2.69%) Eclipse
9 43 (2.18%) Visual Studio
10 37 (1.88%) Maven
11 29 (1.47%) Liquibase
12 27 (1.37%) Artifactory
13 26 (1.32%) Vagrant
14 24 (1.22%) Cucumber
14 24 (1.22%) Mockito
15 23 (1.17%) SonarQube
16 20 (1.01%) Gradle
17 19 (0.96%) Browser DevTools
17 19 (0.96%) Xcode
18 18 (0.91%) Android Studio
General
1 630 (31.95%) Social Skills
2 423 (21.45%) Finance
3 233 (11.82%) Analytical Skills
4 196 (9.94%) Banking
5 185 (9.38%) Public Sector
6 78 (3.96%) Investment Banking
7 60 (3.04%) Front Office
8 58 (2.94%) Financial Institution
9 56 (2.84%) Documentation Skills
10 50 (2.54%) Presentation Skills
11 42 (2.13%) Military
12 26 (1.32%) Manufacturing
13 24 (1.22%) Telecoms
14 22 (1.12%) Legal
15 20 (1.01%) Organisational Skills
16 18 (0.91%) Aerospace
17 17 (0.86%) Law
18 13 (0.66%) Marketing
19 11 (0.56%) Back Office
19 11 (0.56%) International Banking
Job Titles
1 354 (17.95%) Developer
2 219 (11.11%) Senior
3 187 (9.48%) DevOps Engineer
4 138 (7.00%) Java Developer
5 136 (6.90%) Software Engineer
6 100 (5.07%) Support Engineer
7 99 (5.02%) Linux Engineer
8 98 (4.97%) Analyst
8 98 (4.97%) Platform Engineer
9 96 (4.87%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 94 (4.77%) Architect
11 77 (3.90%) Administrator
12 76 (3.85%) AWS Engineer
13 63 (3.19%) C++ Software Engineer
14 61 (3.09%) Lead
14 61 (3.09%) Security Engineer
15 60 (3.04%) Senior Developer
16 58 (2.94%) Consultant
16 58 (2.94%) Python Developer
17 56 (2.84%) AWS DevOps
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 167 (8.47%) Kafka
2 149 (7.56%) REST
3 135 (6.85%) Elastic Stack
4 94 (4.77%) Spring
5 82 (4.16%) Middleware
6 78 (3.96%) Node.js
6 78 (3.96%) RESTful
7 65 (3.30%) AngularJS
8 61 (3.09%) React
9 54 (2.74%) LDAP
10 53 (2.69%) JSON
11 50 (2.54%) SOAP
12 44 (2.23%) Web Services
13 42 (2.13%) JMS
13 42 (2.13%) XML
14 39 (1.98%) FIX Protocol
15 36 (1.83%) CSS
16 35 (1.77%) OAuth
17 34 (1.72%) FastAPI
18 30 (1.52%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 108 (5.48%) Cloud Native
2 93 (4.72%) Linux Command Line
3 81 (4.11%) Replication
4 75 (3.80%) Distributed Systems
5 71 (3.60%) Data Centre
6 67 (3.40%) Management Information System
7 65 (3.30%) Data Structures
8 63 (3.19%) Public Cloud
9 62 (3.14%) Equities
10 58 (2.94%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
11 53 (2.69%) PKI
12 50 (2.54%) Onboarding
13 43 (2.18%) Data Protection Act
14 35 (1.77%) Algorithms
15 34 (1.72%) Fixed Income
15 34 (1.72%) Security Posture
16 32 (1.62%) Private Cloud
17 30 (1.52%) Hedge funds
18 28 (1.42%) Enterprise Software
19 26 (1.32%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 717 (36.36%) Windows
2 427 (21.65%) Unix
3 258 (13.08%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 147 (7.45%) Windows Server
5 86 (4.36%) Ubuntu
6 62 (3.14%) CentOS
7 44 (2.23%) VMS
8 38 (1.93%) Android
9 34 (1.72%) Mac OS
10 32 (1.62%) Solaris
11 27 (1.37%) Amazon Linux
11 27 (1.37%) Mac OS X
12 24 (1.22%) Windows 10
13 23 (1.17%) Windows Server 2016
14 22 (1.12%) Windows Server 2019
15 21 (1.06%) AIX
16 13 (0.66%) Kali Linux
17 12 (0.61%) Debian
18 9 (0.46%) Apple iOS
19 8 (0.41%) Oracle Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 582 (29.51%) CI/CD
2 510 (25.86%) DevOps
3 504 (25.56%) Agile
4 393 (19.93%) Problem-Solving
5 322 (16.33%) Containerisation
6 315 (15.97%) Infrastructure as Code
7 268 (13.59%) Software Engineering
8 176 (8.92%) Test Automation
9 171 (8.67%) Observability
10 158 (8.01%) Microservices
11 153 (7.76%) Cybersecurity
12 151 (7.66%) Computer Science
13 145 (7.35%) Configuration Management
14 143 (7.25%) High Availability
15 141 (7.15%) Performance Tuning
16 140 (7.10%) Infrastructure Engineering
17 139 (7.05%) Platform Engineering
18 132 (6.69%) Migration
19 125 (6.34%) Continuous Improvement
20 123 (6.24%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 862 (43.71%) Python
2 419 (21.25%) Java
3 395 (20.03%) SQL
4 354 (17.95%) Bash
5 303 (15.37%) PowerShell
6 230 (11.66%) C++
7 219 (11.11%) Shell Script
8 154 (7.81%) JavaScript
9 145 (7.35%) Perl
10 129 (6.54%) C#
11 88 (4.46%) Go
12 63 (3.19%) C
13 45 (2.28%) Groovy
14 35 (1.77%) TypeScript
15 33 (1.67%) PHP
16 29 (1.47%) Rust
17 28 (1.42%) Ruby
18 24 (1.22%) PL/SQL
19 19 (0.96%) Kusto Query Language
20 14 (0.71%) Ada
Qualifications
1 558 (28.30%) Security Cleared
2 421 (21.35%) SC Cleared
3 194 (9.84%) Degree
4 113 (5.73%) DV Cleared
5 99 (5.02%) Computer Science Degree
6 70 (3.55%) AWS Certification
7 63 (3.19%) BPSS Clearance
8 42 (2.13%) Master's Degree
9 36 (1.83%) Azure Certification
10 35 (1.77%) CISSP
10 35 (1.77%) Microsoft Certification
11 30 (1.52%) Cisco Certification
12 24 (1.22%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 20 (1.01%) CCNP
13 20 (1.01%) OSCP
14 17 (0.86%) CCNA
15 16 (0.81%) GPEN
16 15 (0.76%) GCIH
17 14 (0.71%) MCSE
18 13 (0.66%) GCFA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 53 (2.69%) NIST
2 47 (2.38%) QA
3 37 (1.88%) GDPR
4 35 (1.77%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 22 (1.12%) Data Quality
6 16 (0.81%) PCI DSS
7 15 (0.76%) HIPAA
7 15 (0.76%) NCSC
8 12 (0.61%) SLA
9 9 (0.46%) SOC 2
10 8 (0.41%) Cyber Essentials
10 8 (0.41%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 7 (0.35%) GLBA
12 6 (0.30%) Disclosure Scotland
13 4 (0.20%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 3 (0.15%) Accessibility
14 3 (0.15%) HL7
14 3 (0.15%) NIST 800
14 3 (0.15%) SEPA
15 2 (0.10%) Actionable Recommendations
System Software
1 423 (21.45%) Docker
2 204 (10.34%) Active Directory
3 198 (10.04%) VMware Infrastructure
4 65 (3.30%) vSphere
5 51 (2.59%) Virtual Machines
6 35 (1.77%) Hyper-V
6 35 (1.77%) VMware ESXi
7 25 (1.27%) Oracle RAC
8 24 (1.22%) Postfix
9 21 (1.06%) DFS Replication
9 21 (1.06%) GPFS
9 21 (1.06%) NFS
10 20 (1.01%) VMware NSX
11 18 (0.91%) Dovecot
11 18 (0.91%) KVM
12 17 (0.86%) Slurm Workload Manager
13 13 (0.66%) HDFS
13 13 (0.66%) Squid
14 12 (0.61%) Virtual Servers
15 10 (0.51%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 475 (24.09%) Kubernetes
2 418 (21.20%) Terraform
3 377 (19.12%) Ansible
4 217 (11.00%) Grafana
5 191 (9.69%) Prometheus
6 78 (3.96%) Progress Chef
6 78 (3.96%) Puppet
7 51 (2.59%) Packer
8 39 (1.98%) Argo
9 37 (1.88%) Kibana
10 34 (1.72%) vCenter Server
11 31 (1.57%) Red Hat Satellite
12 30 (1.52%) Nessus
12 30 (1.52%) SCOM
13 29 (1.47%) vRealize
14 27 (1.37%) ITRS Geneos
14 27 (1.37%) SCCM
15 26 (1.32%) Consul
16 25 (1.27%) NetBackup
17 24 (1.22%) Data Guard
Vendors
1 311 (15.77%) Microsoft
2 285 (14.45%) Oracle
3 281 (14.25%) VMware
4 229 (11.61%) Splunk
5 224 (11.36%) Red Hat
6 110 (5.58%) Cisco
7 82 (4.16%) ServiceNow
8 74 (3.75%) IBM
9 66 (3.35%) Google
10 58 (2.94%) AppDynamics
11 48 (2.43%) CyberArk
12 40 (2.03%) Dell
13 38 (1.93%) Sybase
14 37 (1.88%) CrowdStrike
15 34 (1.72%) Solace
16 33 (1.67%) Citrix
17 31 (1.57%) SAP
18 30 (1.52%) F5
19 29 (1.47%) HP
20 28 (1.42%) NetApp