Linux Contracts

Linux
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies requiring Linux skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Linux over the 6 months leading up to 11 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
11 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 31 34 26
Rank change year-on-year +3 -8 +4
Contract jobs citing Linux 1,751 2,191 4,063
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 5.94% 5.10% 7.02%
As % of the Operating Systems category 42.54% 38.20% 43.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,106 1,442 2,808
10th Percentile £375 £334 £413
25th Percentile £440 £425 £480
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £585
Median % change year-on-year - -5.98% +1.74%
75th Percentile £650 £638 £675
90th Percentile £738 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £540 £540
% change year-on-year -2.78% - +8.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 51 111 164
10th Percentile £40.50 £35.00 £29.75
25th Percentile £55.19 £52.50 £50.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -3.85% +8.33%
75th Percentile £68.00 £70.00 £73.75
90th Percentile - - £78.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.25 £62.50 £65.00
% change year-on-year +4.40% -3.85% +8.33%

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 4,116 5,735 9,426
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 13.97% 13.34% 16.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,703 3,878 6,596
10th Percentile £200 £185 £190
25th Percentile £313 £300 £339
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £468 £505
Median % change year-on-year +1.60% -7.43% +1.00%
75th Percentile £588 £588 £638
90th Percentile £694 £700 £719
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £475
% change year-on-year - -5.26% +11.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 183 393 419
10th Percentile £15.48 £12.75 £13.99
25th Percentile £17.95 £15.50 £17.74
Median hourly rate £23.00 £22.00 £38.50
Median % change year-on-year +4.55% -42.86% +67.39%
75th Percentile £60.81 £60.75 £64.50
90th Percentile £68.00 £70.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.25 £22.50 £29.30
% change year-on-year -1.11% -23.21% +46.50%

Linux
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing Linux as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Linux in the UK

Linux
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Linux.

Daily rate trend for Linux in the UK

Linux
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Linux over the 6 months to 11 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Linux in the UK

Linux
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Linux.

Hourly rate trend for Linux in the UK

Linux
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Linux over the 6 months to 11 May 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Linux in the UK

Linux
Top 17 Contract 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 11 May 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 +3 1,393 £550 - 2,399
UK excluding London +1 925 £525 -2.78% 1,713
London 0 639 £590 +5.12% 1,097
Work from Home +7 603 £525 -1.50% 1,547
Scotland +12 228 £470 -18.30% 105
North of England +8 208 £538 +11.40% 336
South East -6 198 £550 +4.76% 594
South West +2 135 £600 +5.26% 217
North West +35 101 £500 +11.11% 213
Yorkshire +7 98 £550 +10.00% 93
Midlands -8 76 £500 -8.26% 168
East of England 0 72 £483 -12.27% 296
West Midlands 0 58 £537 -2.36% 113
East Midlands -13 18 £455 -14.04% 46
North East -6 12 £525 -8.70% 33
Wales -14 10 £586 +1.91% 31
Northern Ireland -5 7 £325 - 36

Linux
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 82 (4.68%) Confluence
2 69 (3.94%) Apache
3 48 (2.74%) Apache Spark
4 38 (2.17%) Microsoft Exchange
5 35 (2.00%) nginx
6 27 (1.54%) OpenStack
7 26 (1.48%) JBoss
8 23 (1.31%) Tomcat
9 19 (1.09%) CMS
10 18 (1.03%) SharePoint
11 16 (0.91%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 15 (0.86%) SAS
13 14 (0.80%) IIS
14 12 (0.69%) Jupyter
15 11 (0.63%) Documentum
16 10 (0.57%) WebLogic
16 10 (0.57%) WebSphere
17 9 (0.51%) Apache Airflow
18 8 (0.46%) FileNet
18 8 (0.46%) NetWeaver
Applications
1 27 (1.54%) Microsoft Office
2 15 (0.86%) MS Visio
3 12 (0.69%) Microsoft Excel
4 5 (0.29%) Microsoft Project
5 4 (0.23%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.057%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 6 (0.34%) SAP IBP
2 5 (0.29%) Kondor
2 5 (0.29%) Oracle Applications
3 4 (0.23%) Oracle EBS
3 4 (0.23%) Sage X3
4 3 (0.17%) Fidessa
4 3 (0.17%) Oracle 11i
4 3 (0.17%) Oracle BPM
4 3 (0.17%) Oracle Payables
5 2 (0.11%) Actimize
5 2 (0.11%) Oracle Assets
5 2 (0.11%) Oracle Cash Management
5 2 (0.11%) Oracle EBS R12
5 2 (0.11%) Oracle E-Business Tax
5 2 (0.11%) Oracle General Ledger
5 2 (0.11%) Oracle Internet Expenses
5 2 (0.11%) Oracle iProcurement
5 2 (0.11%) Oracle Receivables
5 2 (0.11%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
5 2 (0.11%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 451 (25.76%) AWS
2 301 (17.19%) Azure
3 95 (5.43%) GCP
4 89 (5.08%) GitHub
5 83 (4.74%) OpenShift
6 75 (4.28%) AWS CloudFormation
7 64 (3.66%) Amazon EC2
8 53 (3.03%) Entra ID
9 50 (2.86%) Amazon S3
10 48 (2.74%) Azure DevOps
11 45 (2.57%) Cloud Computing
11 45 (2.57%) Microsoft 365
12 44 (2.51%) Serverless
13 43 (2.46%) IaaS
14 37 (2.11%) Amazon CloudWatch
15 30 (1.71%) AWS Lambda
16 28 (1.60%) Amazon EKS
17 27 (1.54%) Amazon ECS
17 27 (1.54%) Virtual Private Cloud
18 25 (1.43%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 182 (10.39%) DNS
2 136 (7.77%) Firewall
3 112 (6.40%) TCP/IP
4 96 (5.48%) DHCP
5 78 (4.45%) HTTP
5 78 (4.45%) VPN
6 76 (4.34%) SAN
7 54 (3.08%) LAN
8 51 (2.91%) WAN
9 45 (2.57%) Network Security
10 30 (1.71%) NAS
11 28 (1.60%) SMTP
12 26 (1.48%) Wireless
13 25 (1.43%) Ethernet
14 24 (1.37%) Internet
14 24 (1.37%) Wireshark
15 22 (1.26%) MPLS
16 19 (1.09%) SSL
16 19 (1.09%) Wi-Fi
17 18 (1.03%) 5G
Database & Business Intelligence
1 124 (7.08%) MongoDB
2 107 (6.11%) SQL Server
3 101 (5.77%) Relational Database
4 86 (4.91%) PostgreSQL
5 73 (4.17%) Oracle Database
6 66 (3.77%) MySQL
7 57 (3.26%) DB2
8 51 (2.91%) Elasticsearch
9 50 (2.86%) Big Data
10 45 (2.57%) Amazon RDS
11 37 (2.11%) Hadoop
12 36 (2.06%) NoSQL
13 28 (1.60%) RDBMS
14 26 (1.48%) KDB
15 23 (1.31%) Apache Cassandra
16 20 (1.14%) Kdb+
17 16 (0.91%) Amazon Aurora
17 16 (0.91%) Apache Hive
17 16 (0.91%) Data Warehouse
18 14 (0.80%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 249 (14.22%) Jenkins
2 247 (14.11%) Git
3 146 (8.34%) JIRA
4 145 (8.28%) GitLab
5 83 (4.74%) JUnit
6 66 (3.77%) Bitbucket
7 30 (1.71%) Cucumber
7 30 (1.71%) Maven
7 30 (1.71%) Subversion
8 24 (1.37%) Eclipse
8 24 (1.37%) Jasmine
8 24 (1.37%) SonarQube
8 24 (1.37%) TeamCity
9 23 (1.31%) Sonatype Nexus
10 22 (1.26%) Bitbucket Server
10 22 (1.26%) GoogleTest
11 19 (1.09%) Artifactory
12 16 (0.91%) Robot Framework
13 13 (0.74%) Gradle
13 13 (0.74%) JMeter
General
1 485 (27.70%) Social Skills
2 349 (19.93%) Finance
3 191 (10.91%) Analytical Skills
4 181 (10.34%) Banking
5 142 (8.11%) Public Sector
6 83 (4.74%) Investment Banking
7 59 (3.37%) Telecoms
8 51 (2.91%) Front Office
9 26 (1.48%) Documentation Skills
9 26 (1.48%) Financial Institution
10 25 (1.43%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 22 (1.26%) Law
11 22 (1.26%) Manufacturing
11 22 (1.26%) Organisational Skills
12 20 (1.14%) Legal
13 19 (1.09%) Presentation Skills
14 18 (1.03%) Electronics
15 16 (0.91%) Military
16 15 (0.86%) Marketing
17 9 (0.51%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 308 (17.59%) Developer
2 191 (10.91%) Senior
3 156 (8.91%) DevOps Engineer
4 141 (8.05%) Architect
5 137 (7.82%) Linux Engineer
6 125 (7.14%) Java Developer
7 116 (6.62%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 90 (5.14%) Lead
9 79 (4.51%) Software Engineer
10 68 (3.88%) Analyst
11 64 (3.66%) Senior Developer
12 63 (3.60%) Administrator
12 63 (3.60%) Python Developer
12 63 (3.60%) Support Engineer
13 62 (3.54%) Platform Engineer
14 55 (3.14%) Consultant
15 52 (2.97%) Linux Developer
16 49 (2.80%) AWS Engineer
17 48 (2.74%) Network Engineer
18 46 (2.63%) Senior DevOps
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 118 (6.74%) Spring
2 95 (5.43%) Kafka
3 70 (4.00%) Spring Boot
4 61 (3.48%) Elastic Stack
5 58 (3.31%) Middleware
6 56 (3.20%) REST
7 54 (3.08%) RESTful
8 50 (2.86%) HTML
9 42 (2.40%) SOAP
10 41 (2.34%) JMS
11 40 (2.28%) AngularJS
12 37 (2.11%) Web Services
13 36 (2.06%) CSS
13 36 (2.06%) LDAP
14 30 (1.71%) .NET
15 29 (1.66%) React
16 28 (1.60%) Node.js
17 26 (1.48%) YAML
18 23 (1.31%) Spring Batch
18 23 (1.31%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 95 (5.43%) Data Centre
2 68 (3.88%) Data Structures
3 65 (3.71%) Linux Command Line
4 55 (3.14%) Equities
5 54 (3.08%) Management Information System
6 48 (2.74%) Cloud Native
7 46 (2.63%) Algorithms
8 45 (2.57%) Data Protection Act
8 45 (2.57%) Distributed Systems
9 43 (2.46%) Enterprise Software
10 42 (2.40%) Public Cloud
11 41 (2.34%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
12 37 (2.11%) Self-Motivation
13 35 (2.00%) PKI
13 35 (2.00%) Replication
14 32 (1.83%) Clustering
15 30 (1.71%) Hybrid Cloud
16 29 (1.66%) Product Ownership
17 28 (1.60%) Virtual Team
18 27 (1.54%) Hedge funds
Operating Systems
1 636 (36.32%) Windows
2 353 (20.16%) Unix
3 317 (18.10%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 204 (11.65%) Windows Server
5 70 (4.00%) CentOS
6 66 (3.77%) Ubuntu
7 52 (2.97%) Solaris
8 43 (2.46%) AIX
9 30 (1.71%) Mac OS
10 25 (1.43%) Windows Server 2016
11 23 (1.31%) Embedded Linux
12 20 (1.14%) Windows Server 2019
13 19 (1.09%) VMS
13 19 (1.09%) Windows 10
14 17 (0.97%) Apple iOS
14 17 (0.97%) HPUX
14 17 (0.97%) Rocky
15 15 (0.86%) Oracle Linux
16 12 (0.69%) Android
17 11 (0.63%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 414 (23.64%) DevOps
2 385 (21.99%) CI/CD
3 379 (21.64%) Problem-Solving
4 356 (20.33%) Agile
5 229 (13.08%) Containerisation
6 222 (12.68%) Software Engineering
7 193 (11.02%) Infrastructure as Code
8 167 (9.54%) High Availability
9 154 (8.79%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 148 (8.45%) Test Automation
11 142 (8.11%) Migration
12 137 (7.82%) Microservices
13 131 (7.48%) Continuous Integration
14 125 (7.14%) SDLC
15 119 (6.80%) Configuration Management
16 105 (6.00%) Performance Tuning
17 104 (5.94%) ITIL
18 88 (5.03%) Scrum
19 85 (4.85%) Cybersecurity
20 82 (4.68%) Platform Engineering
Programming Languages
1 666 (38.04%) Python
2 359 (20.50%) Java
2 359 (20.50%) SQL
3 282 (16.11%) Bash
4 198 (11.31%) PowerShell
5 165 (9.42%) Shell Script
6 131 (7.48%) C++
7 117 (6.68%) Perl
8 101 (5.77%) JavaScript
9 66 (3.77%) C
10 64 (3.66%) PL/SQL
11 53 (3.03%) C#
12 46 (2.63%) Go
13 30 (1.71%) TypeScript
14 22 (1.26%) Ada
15 20 (1.14%) Scala
16 19 (1.09%) Groovy
16 19 (1.09%) Rust
16 19 (1.09%) Tcl
17 15 (0.86%) PHP
Qualifications
1 463 (26.44%) Security Cleared
2 352 (20.10%) SC Cleared
3 129 (7.37%) Degree
4 112 (6.40%) DV Cleared
5 66 (3.77%) Cisco Certification
6 46 (2.63%) Computer Science Degree
7 37 (2.11%) CCNP
8 36 (2.06%) AWS Certification
9 26 (1.48%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 24 (1.37%) CISSP
10 24 (1.37%) RHCE
11 16 (0.91%) ISEB
11 16 (0.91%) ISTQB
11 16 (0.91%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
12 14 (0.80%) Azure Certification
12 14 (0.80%) Microsoft Certification
13 13 (0.74%) BPSS Clearance
13 13 (0.74%) Oracle Certification
14 12 (0.69%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
15 11 (0.63%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 41 (2.34%) QA
2 40 (2.28%) GDPR
3 26 (1.48%) SLA
4 19 (1.09%) Disclosure Scotland
4 19 (1.09%) NIST
5 18 (1.03%) Accessibility
5 18 (1.03%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 16 (0.91%) NCSC
6 16 (0.91%) PCI DSS
7 13 (0.74%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 11 (0.63%) Cyber Essentials
9 8 (0.46%) Data Quality
10 7 (0.40%) HL7
11 6 (0.34%) WCAG
12 5 (0.29%) Basel III
12 5 (0.29%) GxP
12 5 (0.29%) MiFID
13 4 (0.23%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 4 (0.23%) NIST 800
13 4 (0.23%) SOC 2
System Software
1 322 (18.39%) Docker
2 189 (10.79%) Active Directory
3 176 (10.05%) VMware Infrastructure
4 50 (2.86%) VMware ESXi
5 43 (2.46%) Hyper-V
6 40 (2.28%) vSphere
7 27 (1.54%) Virtual Machines
8 19 (1.09%) Firmware
9 18 (1.03%) NFS
9 18 (1.03%) Virtual Servers
10 16 (0.91%) Veritas Cluster Server
11 15 (0.86%) Oracle RAC
11 15 (0.86%) VMware NSX
12 12 (0.69%) Apache ZooKeeper
13 10 (0.57%) BitLocker
13 10 (0.57%) GPFS
14 9 (0.51%) Microsoft App-V
14 9 (0.51%) Terminal Services
15 8 (0.46%) Samba
15 8 (0.46%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 438 (25.01%) Kubernetes
2 387 (22.10%) Ansible
3 352 (20.10%) Terraform
4 127 (7.25%) Puppet
5 107 (6.11%) Grafana
6 77 (4.40%) Prometheus
7 74 (4.23%) Progress Chef
8 46 (2.63%) vCenter Server
9 35 (2.00%) Kibana
10 33 (1.88%) Packer
11 27 (1.54%) Nagios
12 26 (1.48%) Argo
13 25 (1.43%) ZABBIX
14 23 (1.31%) Rancher
15 17 (0.97%) Istio
15 17 (0.97%) Red Hat Satellite
16 16 (0.91%) Consul
16 16 (0.91%) Microsoft Intune
17 14 (0.80%) Data Guard
18 13 (0.74%) SCCM
Vendors
1 291 (16.62%) VMware
2 244 (13.93%) Red Hat
3 238 (13.59%) Microsoft
4 212 (12.11%) Oracle
5 127 (7.25%) Cisco
6 125 (7.14%) Splunk
7 68 (3.88%) IBM
8 64 (3.66%) Sybase
9 60 (3.43%) Google
10 57 (3.26%) ServiceNow
11 46 (2.63%) HP
12 40 (2.28%) SAP
13 37 (2.11%) Atlassian
14 36 (2.06%) Veritas
15 35 (2.00%) CyberArk
16 32 (1.83%) Dell
17 28 (1.60%) SolarWinds
18 26 (1.48%) AppDynamics
19 25 (1.43%) Citrix
19 25 (1.43%) Dynatrace