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

6 months to
7 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 50 32 33
Rank change year-on-year -18 +1 -7
Contract jobs citing Linux 1,935 1,763 2,288
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 4.24% 6.02% 5.21%
As % of the Operating Systems category 40.18% 42.75% 38.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,232 1,141 1,514
10th Percentile £325 £375 £325
25th Percentile £401 £450 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £550 £546
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% +0.69% -6.62%
75th Percentile £613 £650 £638
90th Percentile £700 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £492 £534 £535
% change year-on-year -7.78% -0.28% -0.93%
Number of hourly rates quoted 112 50 105
10th Percentile £21.50 £44.55 £25.61
25th Percentile £41.94 £57.04 £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 £80.00 £69.00 £70.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £63.14 £65.50 £60.00
% change year-on-year -3.61% +9.17% -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 4,816 4,124 5,955
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.56% 14.09% 13.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,154 2,755 3,984
10th Percentile £181 £200 £181
25th Percentile £300 £325 £290
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £463
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% +2.70% -9.76%
75th Percentile £565 £600 £594
90th Percentile £653 £699 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £450 £440
% change year-on-year -5.56% +2.36% -7.45%
Number of hourly rates quoted 344 168 407
10th Percentile £15.30 £16.62 £12.75
25th Percentile £18.87 £18.13 £15.50
Median hourly rate £25.15 £24.66 £22.00
Median % change year-on-year +1.99% +12.09% -32.31%
75th Percentile £65.00 £63.75 £57.50
90th Percentile £75.00 £68.05 £68.63
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.00 £24.42 £20.00
% change year-on-year +2.38% +22.10% -30.31%

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 7 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 7 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 7 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 -20 1,647 £518 -5.91% 832
UK excluding London -10 1,139 £492 -7.78% 721
London -39 575 £550 -8.33% 200
Work from Home -24 499 £500 -5.66% 308
South East -2 317 £500 -9.09% 206
North of England -11 305 £500 -9.09% 125
Midlands -9 179 £475 -9.52% 75
Yorkshire -15 164 £475 -13.64% 41
West Midlands +4 161 £475 -12.04% 41
South West -18 153 £540 -10.00% 144
North West -7 131 £538 +7.50% 58
East of England -15 91 £454 -1.84% 117
Scotland -20 87 £419 -10.90% 44
East Midlands -38 17 £478 +4.03% 34
Northern Ireland +5 15 £425 +30.77% 7
North East -16 12 £550 +4.76% 27
Wales -13 8 £404 -26.59% 23

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 96 (4.96%) Confluence
2 46 (2.38%) nginx
3 44 (2.27%) Apache
4 38 (1.96%) Microsoft Exchange
5 17 (0.88%) Apache Spark
5 17 (0.88%) SAS
6 16 (0.83%) OpenStack
6 16 (0.83%) WebLogic
7 15 (0.78%) Apache Airflow
8 13 (0.67%) SharePoint
8 13 (0.67%) Tomcat
9 11 (0.57%) TPMS
10 10 (0.52%) CICS
11 9 (0.47%) WebSphere
12 6 (0.31%) NetWeaver
12 6 (0.31%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 4 (0.21%) Adobe Experience Manager
13 4 (0.21%) JBoss
14 3 (0.16%) IBM HTTP Server
14 3 (0.16%) IIS
Applications
1 45 (2.33%) Microsoft Office
2 18 (0.93%) 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%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.052%) Photoshop
Business Applications
1 8 (0.41%) SAP S/4HANA
2 4 (0.21%) Oracle 11i
3 3 (0.16%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
3 3 (0.16%) Remedy ITSM
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
1 566 (29.25%) AWS
2 381 (19.69%) Azure
3 179 (9.25%) GitHub
4 137 (7.08%) OpenShift
5 121 (6.25%) GCP
6 100 (5.17%) Amazon EC2
7 98 (5.06%) AWS CloudFormation
8 95 (4.91%) Serverless
9 91 (4.70%) GitHub Actions
10 83 (4.29%) Amazon S3
11 75 (3.88%) Amazon EKS
12 66 (3.41%) Azure DevOps
13 65 (3.36%) AWS Lambda
14 58 (3.00%) Amazon ECS
15 56 (2.89%) Amazon CloudWatch
16 47 (2.43%) IaaS
17 42 (2.17%) Virtual Private Cloud
18 39 (2.02%) Entra ID
19 38 (1.96%) Microsoft 365
20 36 (1.86%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 215 (11.11%) Firewall
2 142 (7.34%) DNS
3 107 (5.53%) TCP/IP
4 71 (3.67%) VPN
5 70 (3.62%) Network Security
6 53 (2.74%) SAN
7 46 (2.38%) SSH
8 44 (2.27%) DHCP
9 41 (2.12%) VSAN
10 38 (1.96%) WAN
11 35 (1.81%) HTTP
12 32 (1.65%) LAN
12 32 (1.65%) SNMP
12 32 (1.65%) SSL
13 24 (1.24%) Ethernet
14 23 (1.19%) BGP
14 23 (1.19%) Wireless
15 21 (1.09%) NAS
16 19 (0.98%) Kerberos
16 19 (0.98%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 140 (7.24%) PostgreSQL
2 96 (4.96%) SQL Server
3 72 (3.72%) Amazon RDS
4 70 (3.62%) MySQL
5 67 (3.46%) MongoDB
6 66 (3.41%) Relational Database
7 60 (3.10%) Oracle Database
8 43 (2.22%) NoSQL
9 39 (2.02%) Elasticsearch
10 23 (1.19%) Data Warehouse
11 19 (0.98%) Amazon Aurora
11 19 (0.98%) DynamoDB
11 19 (0.98%) KDB
12 18 (0.93%) Big Data
12 18 (0.93%) Kdb+
13 16 (0.83%) DB2
14 14 (0.72%) Data Lake
14 14 (0.72%) Hadoop
15 12 (0.62%) Redis
15 12 (0.62%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 239 (12.35%) Jenkins
2 197 (10.18%) Git
3 189 (9.77%) GitLab
4 155 (8.01%) JIRA
5 36 (1.86%) Bitbucket
5 36 (1.86%) JUnit
6 33 (1.71%) Sonatype Nexus
7 32 (1.65%) Maven
8 27 (1.40%) Eclipse
9 25 (1.29%) Mockito
10 21 (1.09%) Cucumber
11 20 (1.03%) SonarQube
12 19 (0.98%) Artifactory
13 16 (0.83%) Visual Studio
14 13 (0.67%) JMeter
15 12 (0.62%) Rational Rhapsody
16 11 (0.57%) Jaeger
16 11 (0.57%) Selenium
17 10 (0.52%) jMock
18 9 (0.47%) Atlassian Bamboo
General
1 454 (23.46%) Social Skills
2 305 (15.76%) Finance
3 192 (9.92%) Public Sector
4 161 (8.32%) Analytical Skills
5 123 (6.36%) Banking
6 65 (3.36%) Documentation Skills
7 47 (2.43%) Military
8 34 (1.76%) Financial Institution
9 32 (1.65%) Presentation Skills
10 24 (1.24%) Investment Banking
11 23 (1.19%) Front Office
11 23 (1.19%) Telecoms
12 21 (1.09%) Influencing Skills
12 21 (1.09%) Organisational Skills
13 20 (1.03%) Aerospace
14 19 (0.98%) Retail
15 18 (0.93%) Legal
16 17 (0.88%) Law
17 14 (0.72%) Manufacturing
18 11 (0.57%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 237 (12.25%) Developer
2 236 (12.20%) Senior
3 165 (8.53%) DevOps Engineer
4 135 (6.98%) Software Engineer
5 125 (6.46%) Architect
6 124 (6.41%) Analyst
6 124 (6.41%) Linux Engineer
7 96 (4.96%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 88 (4.55%) Lead
9 86 (4.44%) Java Developer
10 81 (4.19%) Administrator
11 75 (3.88%) Platform Engineer
12 71 (3.67%) Site Reliability Engineer
13 67 (3.46%) AWS Engineer
14 66 (3.41%) Site Engineer
15 54 (2.79%) AWS DevOps
16 52 (2.69%) Consultant
16 52 (2.69%) Security Engineer
17 47 (2.43%) Support Engineer
18 43 (2.22%) Senior Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 120 (6.20%) Kafka
2 106 (5.48%) REST
3 93 (4.81%) Elastic Stack
4 69 (3.57%) Node.js
5 67 (3.46%) Middleware
6 55 (2.84%) LDAP
7 54 (2.79%) Spring
8 44 (2.27%) Spring Boot
9 43 (2.22%) RESTful
10 41 (2.12%) Web Services
11 34 (1.76%) XML
12 33 (1.71%) YAML
13 32 (1.65%) JSON
14 29 (1.50%) .NET
15 28 (1.45%) AngularJS
15 28 (1.45%) React
15 28 (1.45%) SOAP
16 22 (1.14%) ActiveMQ
16 22 (1.14%) SAML
17 21 (1.09%) Flash
Miscellaneous
1 119 (6.15%) Data Centre
2 110 (5.68%) Cloud Native
3 83 (4.29%) Linux Command Line
4 69 (3.57%) Distributed Systems
5 65 (3.36%) Management Information System
6 61 (3.15%) Public Cloud
7 59 (3.05%) PKI
8 56 (2.89%) Onboarding
9 53 (2.74%) Replication
10 49 (2.53%) Hybrid Cloud
11 43 (2.22%) Product Ownership
12 34 (1.76%) Legacy Systems
13 33 (1.71%) Data Protection Act
13 33 (1.71%) Security Operations Centre
14 31 (1.60%) Equities
15 30 (1.55%) Security Posture
16 27 (1.40%) Enterprise Storage
17 25 (1.29%) Enterprise Software
17 25 (1.29%) Fixed Income
18 23 (1.19%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
Operating Systems
1 722 (37.31%) Windows
2 342 (17.67%) Unix
3 280 (14.47%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 172 (8.89%) Windows Server
5 90 (4.65%) Ubuntu
6 44 (2.27%) AIX
7 43 (2.22%) CentOS
8 35 (1.81%) Android
8 35 (1.81%) Solaris
9 34 (1.76%) VMS
10 29 (1.50%) Embedded Linux
11 24 (1.24%) Windows Server 2016
12 21 (1.09%) Mac OS
13 19 (0.98%) Windows Server 2019
14 18 (0.93%) Debian
15 13 (0.67%) Mac OS X
16 11 (0.57%) SUSE
17 10 (0.52%) Apple iOS
17 10 (0.52%) Windows 10
17 10 (0.52%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 572 (29.56%) CI/CD
2 471 (24.34%) DevOps
3 416 (21.50%) Agile
4 344 (17.78%) Problem-Solving
5 299 (15.45%) Infrastructure as Code
6 297 (15.35%) Containerisation
7 213 (11.01%) Software Engineering
8 191 (9.87%) Observability
9 158 (8.17%) Migration
10 155 (8.01%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 151 (7.80%) Microservices
12 150 (7.75%) Cybersecurity
13 148 (7.65%) Computer Science
13 148 (7.65%) Continuous Improvement
14 141 (7.29%) Incident Response
15 138 (7.13%) Platform Engineering
16 137 (7.08%) High Availability
16 137 (7.08%) Test Automation
17 127 (6.56%) SIEM
17 127 (6.56%) Site Reliability Engineering
Programming Languages
1 671 (34.68%) Python
2 318 (16.43%) SQL
3 299 (15.45%) Bash
4 295 (15.25%) Java
5 278 (14.37%) PowerShell
6 178 (9.20%) Shell Script
7 141 (7.29%) C++
8 105 (5.43%) JavaScript
9 88 (4.55%) Perl
10 68 (3.51%) C#
11 52 (2.69%) C
12 50 (2.58%) Go
13 42 (2.17%) Ruby
14 39 (2.02%) PL/SQL
15 31 (1.60%) TypeScript
16 26 (1.34%) PHP
17 24 (1.24%) Rust
18 20 (1.03%) MATLAB
19 18 (0.93%) Ada
19 18 (0.93%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 756 (39.07%) Security Cleared
2 561 (28.99%) SC Cleared
3 196 (10.13%) DV Cleared
4 188 (9.72%) Degree
5 91 (4.70%) BPSS Clearance
6 88 (4.55%) Computer Science Degree
7 52 (2.69%) AWS Certification
8 45 (2.33%) Cisco Certification
9 40 (2.07%) CompTIA Security+
10 39 (2.02%) CISSP
11 28 (1.45%) CCNA
12 26 (1.34%) RHCE
13 25 (1.29%) CCNP
14 23 (1.19%) Azure Certification
15 21 (1.09%) Master's Degree
15 21 (1.09%) Oracle Certification
16 19 (0.98%) Microsoft Certification
17 18 (0.93%) CompTIA CySA+
17 18 (0.93%) OCP
18 17 (0.88%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 77 (3.98%) NIST
2 62 (3.20%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 51 (2.64%) QA
4 43 (2.22%) GDPR
5 36 (1.86%) SLA
6 27 (1.40%) Cyber Essentials
7 22 (1.14%) NCSC
8 21 (1.09%) PCI DSS
9 13 (0.67%) Data Quality
10 12 (0.62%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 11 (0.57%) GLBA
11 11 (0.57%) HIPAA
12 9 (0.47%) NIST 800
13 8 (0.41%) Accessibility
13 8 (0.41%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 5 (0.26%) Disclosure Scotland
14 5 (0.26%) SOC 2
15 4 (0.21%) DICOM
15 4 (0.21%) GRC
15 4 (0.21%) HL7
System Software
1 379 (19.59%) Docker
2 246 (12.71%) VMware Infrastructure
3 171 (8.84%) Active Directory
4 96 (4.96%) vSphere
5 72 (3.72%) Virtual Machines
6 66 (3.41%) Hyper-V
7 63 (3.26%) VMware ESXi
8 43 (2.22%) VMware NSX
9 38 (1.96%) NFS
10 33 (1.71%) Firmware
11 28 (1.45%) GPFS
12 22 (1.14%) KVM
13 17 (0.88%) Oracle RAC
13 17 (0.88%) Postfix
14 14 (0.72%) Slurm Workload Manager
15 11 (0.57%) Ceph
15 11 (0.57%) Lustre
16 7 (0.36%) BitLocker
16 7 (0.36%) Microsoft App-V
16 7 (0.36%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 468 (24.19%) Kubernetes
2 400 (20.67%) Terraform
3 387 (20.00%) Ansible
4 193 (9.97%) Grafana
5 160 (8.27%) Prometheus
6 66 (3.41%) Puppet
7 58 (3.00%) Progress Chef
8 50 (2.58%) vCenter Server
9 40 (2.07%) vRealize
10 37 (1.91%) Argo
11 35 (1.81%) Packer
12 31 (1.60%) Podman
13 29 (1.50%) Red Hat Satellite
14 25 (1.29%) Oracle RMAN
15 22 (1.14%) Kibana
15 22 (1.14%) VxRail
16 21 (1.09%) Single Sign-On
17 20 (1.03%) SCCM
18 19 (0.98%) Nessus
19 17 (0.88%) Data Guard
Vendors
1 331 (17.11%) VMware
2 281 (14.52%) Microsoft
3 248 (12.82%) Oracle
4 231 (11.94%) Red Hat
5 193 (9.97%) Splunk
6 115 (5.94%) Cisco
7 99 (5.12%) IBM
8 69 (3.57%) ServiceNow
9 53 (2.74%) Dell
10 50 (2.58%) Google
11 41 (2.12%) Palo Alto
12 37 (1.91%) CyberArk
12 37 (1.91%) SolarWinds
13 36 (1.86%) HP
14 30 (1.55%) Citrix
15 29 (1.50%) Atlassian
15 29 (1.50%) NetApp
16 26 (1.34%) NVIDIA
17 24 (1.24%) AppDynamics
18 23 (1.19%) F5