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

6 months to
23 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 38 30 25
Rank change year-on-year -8 -5 +1
Contract jobs citing Linux 1,972 2,038 3,068
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.52% 5.52% 6.60%
As % of the Operating Systems category 41.07% 39.13% 43.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,221 1,190 2,051
10th Percentile £323 £350 £350
25th Percentile £406 £450 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £503 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -8.64% - -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 87 93 140
10th Percentile £12.50 £45.40 £24.93
25th Percentile £52.13 £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 £70.96
90th Percentile £68.80 £70.80 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £67.02 £65.00
% change year-on-year -3.01% +3.11% -

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 4,802 5,208 7,071
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 13.44% 14.10% 15.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,099 3,183 4,796
10th Percentile £181 £200 £183
25th Percentile £271 £329 £304
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £480
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% -1.04% -5.88%
75th Percentile £569 £585 £611
90th Percentile £656 £688 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £405 £450 £442
% change year-on-year -10.00% +1.81% -1.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 372 222 351
10th Percentile £15.50 £16.25 £15.25
25th Percentile £18.87 £22.50 £18.27
Median hourly rate £24.50 £49.00 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year -50.00% +50.77% +30.00%
75th Percentile £43.75 £67.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £67.00 £70.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.79 £50.00 £27.50
% change year-on-year -52.43% +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 23 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 23 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 23 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 1,675 £513 -6.82% 741
UK excluding London -1 1,112 £475 -9.52% 669
London -2 691 £566 -5.75% 194
Work from Home -1 574 £500 -4.76% 377
North of England +8 284 £475 -13.64% 89
South East +6 266 £475 -9.52% 268
Midlands -4 190 £500 -9.09% 83
West Midlands +3 176 £515 -9.65% 57
Scotland +3 164 £479 +1.91% 32
Yorkshire +13 159 £500 -19.16% 21
North West +1 121 £438 -16.67% 53
South West -26 117 £550 - 113
East of England -10 99 £454 -0.49% 89
East Midlands -20 14 £420 -5.51% 24
Northern Ireland +4 10 £363 -34.09% 7
North East -7 10 £550 +16.83% 15
Wales -11 5 £300 -42.86% 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
1 100 (5.07%) Confluence
2 71 (3.60%) Apache
3 54 (2.74%) nginx
4 36 (1.83%) JBoss
5 33 (1.67%) Microsoft Exchange
6 30 (1.52%) Apache Spark
7 27 (1.37%) OpenStack
8 26 (1.32%) WebSphere
9 22 (1.12%) Apache Airflow
10 20 (1.01%) Tomcat
11 18 (0.91%) WebLogic
12 16 (0.81%) 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 (0.30%) NetWeaver
18 6 (0.30%) TPMS
Applications
1 53 (2.69%) Microsoft Office
2 16 (0.81%) Microsoft Excel
3 12 (0.61%) Mozilla Thunderbird
4 11 (0.56%) MS Visio
5 6 (0.30%) 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 (0.30%) 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%) Kondor
5 1 (0.051%) Oracle Applications
5 1 (0.051%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 1 (0.051%) Payment Gateway
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
1 613 (31.09%) AWS
2 381 (19.32%) Azure
3 187 (9.48%) GitHub
4 160 (8.11%) GCP
5 125 (6.34%) OpenShift
6 120 (6.09%) Amazon EC2
7 109 (5.53%) Serverless
8 108 (5.48%) Amazon S3
9 102 (5.17%) AWS CloudFormation
10 86 (4.36%) GitHub Actions
11 73 (3.70%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 72 (3.65%) Virtual Private Cloud
13 66 (3.35%) Azure DevOps
14 63 (3.19%) Amazon ECS
14 63 (3.19%) SaaS
15 61 (3.09%) IaaS
16 60 (3.04%) AWS Lambda
17 56 (2.84%) Amazon EKS
18 51 (2.59%) Microsoft 365
19 46 (2.33%) Entra ID
Communications & Networking
1 225 (11.41%) Firewall
2 168 (8.52%) DNS
3 148 (7.51%) TCP/IP
4 69 (3.50%) Network Security
5 63 (3.19%) SSL
6 61 (3.09%) HTTP
7 59 (2.99%) DHCP
7 59 (2.99%) SSH
8 49 (2.48%) SAN
9 37 (1.88%) SMTP
9 37 (1.88%) VPN
10 32 (1.62%) VLAN
11 28 (1.42%) Ethernet
12 27 (1.37%) Wireless
13 24 (1.22%) Kerberos
13 24 (1.22%) Skype
14 23 (1.17%) FTP
14 23 (1.17%) VSAN
14 23 (1.17%) WAN
15 22 (1.12%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 144 (7.30%) PostgreSQL
2 130 (6.59%) Relational Database
3 98 (4.97%) SQL Server
4 93 (4.72%) Amazon RDS
4 93 (4.72%) MongoDB
5 87 (4.41%) NoSQL
6 79 (4.01%) Oracle Database
7 69 (3.50%) MySQL
8 48 (2.43%) DB2
9 45 (2.28%) Elasticsearch
10 30 (1.52%) Hadoop
11 29 (1.47%) Big Data
12 25 (1.27%) Data Warehouse
13 21 (1.06%) Amazon Aurora
14 18 (0.91%) RDBMS
14 18 (0.91%) Redis
15 17 (0.86%) Apache Cassandra
16 16 (0.81%) KDB
17 15 (0.76%) Apache Hive
18 14 (0.71%) Data Lake
Development Applications
1 331 (16.78%) Jenkins
2 294 (14.91%) Git
3 188 (9.53%) GitLab
4 174 (8.82%) JIRA
5 78 (3.96%) JUnit
6 69 (3.50%) Sonatype Nexus
7 58 (2.94%) Bitbucket
8 54 (2.74%) Eclipse
9 44 (2.23%) Visual Studio
10 42 (2.13%) Maven
11 29 (1.47%) Liquibase
12 27 (1.37%) Artifactory
12 27 (1.37%) Vagrant
13 25 (1.27%) Mockito
13 25 (1.27%) SonarQube
14 24 (1.22%) Cucumber
15 21 (1.06%) Gradle
16 19 (0.96%) Browser DevTools
16 19 (0.96%) Xcode
17 18 (0.91%) Bitbucket Server
General
1 630 (31.95%) Social Skills
2 430 (21.81%) Finance
3 241 (12.22%) Analytical Skills
4 200 (10.14%) Banking
5 181 (9.18%) Public Sector
6 79 (4.01%) Investment Banking
7 61 (3.09%) Front Office
8 59 (2.99%) Financial Institution
9 57 (2.89%) Documentation Skills
10 52 (2.64%) Presentation Skills
11 43 (2.18%) Military
12 25 (1.27%) Manufacturing
13 24 (1.22%) Telecoms
14 22 (1.12%) Legal
15 19 (0.96%) Organisational Skills
16 18 (0.91%) Aerospace
16 18 (0.91%) Law
17 13 (0.66%) Marketing
18 12 (0.61%) Back Office
19 11 (0.56%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 356 (18.05%) Developer
2 222 (11.26%) Senior
3 184 (9.33%) DevOps Engineer
4 141 (7.15%) Java Developer
5 137 (6.95%) Software Engineer
6 102 (5.17%) Analyst
6 102 (5.17%) Linux Engineer
7 100 (5.07%) Platform Engineer
8 98 (4.97%) Support Engineer
9 95 (4.82%) Architect
10 92 (4.67%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 78 (3.96%) Administrator
12 77 (3.90%) AWS Engineer
13 64 (3.25%) C++ Software Engineer
14 63 (3.19%) Lead
15 62 (3.14%) Senior Developer
16 60 (3.04%) Security Engineer
17 59 (2.99%) Python Developer
18 57 (2.89%) AWS DevOps
18 57 (2.89%) Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 162 (8.22%) Kafka
2 148 (7.51%) REST
3 131 (6.64%) Elastic Stack
4 97 (4.92%) Spring
5 85 (4.31%) Middleware
6 80 (4.06%) Node.js
7 79 (4.01%) RESTful
8 66 (3.35%) AngularJS
9 62 (3.14%) React
10 54 (2.74%) JSON
11 51 (2.59%) LDAP
11 51 (2.59%) SOAP
12 46 (2.33%) Web Services
13 42 (2.13%) JMS
13 42 (2.13%) XML
14 41 (2.08%) FIX Protocol
15 36 (1.83%) CSS
16 35 (1.77%) OAuth
17 33 (1.67%) FastAPI
18 30 (1.52%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 103 (5.22%) Cloud Native
2 94 (4.77%) Linux Command Line
3 81 (4.11%) Replication
4 76 (3.85%) Distributed Systems
5 70 (3.55%) Data Centre
6 67 (3.40%) Data Structures
6 67 (3.40%) Management Information System
7 63 (3.19%) Public Cloud
8 62 (3.14%) Equities
9 61 (3.09%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
10 51 (2.59%) Onboarding
10 51 (2.59%) PKI
11 44 (2.23%) Data Protection Act
12 36 (1.83%) Algorithms
13 34 (1.72%) Fixed Income
13 34 (1.72%) Security Posture
14 32 (1.62%) Private Cloud
15 30 (1.52%) Hedge funds
16 27 (1.37%) Clustering
16 27 (1.37%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 714 (36.21%) Windows
2 434 (22.01%) Unix
3 258 (13.08%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 144 (7.30%) Windows Server
5 85 (4.31%) Ubuntu
6 62 (3.14%) CentOS
7 45 (2.28%) VMS
8 39 (1.98%) Android
9 34 (1.72%) Mac OS
9 34 (1.72%) Solaris
10 29 (1.47%) 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%) AIX
15 21 (1.06%) 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
1 583 (29.56%) CI/CD
2 516 (26.17%) DevOps
3 512 (25.96%) Agile
4 396 (20.08%) Problem-Solving
5 313 (15.87%) Containerisation
6 311 (15.77%) Infrastructure as Code
7 268 (13.59%) Software Engineering
8 175 (8.87%) Test Automation
9 168 (8.52%) Observability
10 156 (7.91%) Cybersecurity
11 153 (7.76%) Microservices
12 150 (7.61%) Computer Science
13 147 (7.45%) Configuration Management
14 144 (7.30%) High Availability
15 143 (7.25%) Performance Tuning
16 138 (7.00%) Platform Engineering
17 132 (6.69%) Infrastructure Engineering
18 131 (6.64%) Migration
19 127 (6.44%) ITIL
20 123 (6.24%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 860 (43.61%) Python
2 426 (21.60%) Java
3 394 (19.98%) SQL
4 350 (17.75%) Bash
5 300 (15.21%) PowerShell
6 232 (11.76%) C++
7 225 (11.41%) Shell Script
8 155 (7.86%) JavaScript
9 145 (7.35%) Perl
10 130 (6.59%) C#
11 88 (4.46%) Go
12 66 (3.35%) C
13 46 (2.33%) Groovy
14 35 (1.77%) TypeScript
15 32 (1.62%) PHP
16 27 (1.37%) 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
1 553 (28.04%) Security Cleared
2 424 (21.50%) SC Cleared
3 196 (9.94%) Degree
4 110 (5.58%) DV Cleared
5 98 (4.97%) Computer Science Degree
6 72 (3.65%) AWS Certification
7 60 (3.04%) BPSS Clearance
8 42 (2.13%) Master's Degree
9 40 (2.03%) CISSP
10 36 (1.83%) Azure Certification
11 35 (1.77%) Microsoft Certification
12 31 (1.57%) Cisco Certification
13 25 (1.27%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 20 (1.01%) CCNP
14 20 (1.01%) OSCP
15 19 (0.96%) GCIH
16 17 (0.86%) CCNA
17 16 (0.81%) GCIA
17 16 (0.81%) GPEN
18 14 (0.71%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 52 (2.64%) NIST
2 45 (2.28%) QA
3 36 (1.83%) GDPR
4 35 (1.77%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 21 (1.06%) 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 (0.35%) Cyber Essentials
11 6 (0.30%) Disclosure Scotland
11 6 (0.30%) 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
1 420 (21.30%) Docker
2 201 (10.19%) Active Directory
3 198 (10.04%) VMware Infrastructure
4 64 (3.25%) vSphere
5 48 (2.43%) Virtual Machines
6 34 (1.72%) Hyper-V
7 33 (1.67%) VMware ESXi
8 25 (1.27%) Oracle RAC
8 25 (1.27%) Postfix
9 22 (1.12%) DFS Replication
10 20 (1.01%) GPFS
10 20 (1.01%) VMware NSX
11 19 (0.96%) NFS
12 18 (0.91%) Dovecot
13 17 (0.86%) KVM
14 16 (0.81%) 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
1 464 (23.53%) Kubernetes
2 412 (20.89%) Terraform
3 372 (18.86%) Ansible
4 216 (10.95%) Grafana
5 192 (9.74%) Prometheus
6 76 (3.85%) Progress Chef
7 74 (3.75%) Puppet
8 54 (2.74%) Packer
9 39 (1.98%) Argo
10 36 (1.83%) Kibana
11 33 (1.67%) vCenter Server
12 30 (1.52%) Red Hat Satellite
12 30 (1.52%) SCOM
13 28 (1.42%) Consul
13 28 (1.42%) ITRS Geneos
13 28 (1.42%) Nessus
14 27 (1.37%) SCCM
14 27 (1.37%) vRealize
15 24 (1.22%) NetBackup
15 24 (1.22%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 308 (15.62%) Microsoft
2 282 (14.30%) Oracle
3 280 (14.20%) VMware
4 227 (11.51%) Splunk
5 221 (11.21%) Red Hat
6 107 (5.43%) Cisco
7 84 (4.26%) ServiceNow
8 74 (3.75%) IBM
9 64 (3.25%) Google
10 56 (2.84%) AppDynamics
11 47 (2.38%) CyberArk
12 39 (1.98%) Dell
12 39 (1.98%) Sybase
13 36 (1.83%) CrowdStrike
14 35 (1.77%) Solace
15 33 (1.67%) Citrix
16 32 (1.62%) SAP
17 30 (1.52%) F5
18 28 (1.42%) HP
18 28 (1.42%) NetApp