Senior Linux Engineer Contract Job Trends

Senior Linux Engineer
UK

The median Senior Linux Engineer daily rate in the UK is £725, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 13 December 2025.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
13 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 552 525 589
Rank change year-on-year -27 +64 +185
Contract jobs requiring a Senior Linux Engineer 30 18 19
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.083% 0.050% 0.042%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.091% 0.054% 0.045%
Number of daily rates quoted 23 16 14
10th Percentile - - £487
25th Percentile £463 £475 £584
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £725 £500 £625
Median % change year-on-year +45.00% -20.00% +47.06%
75th Percentile £738 £525 £688
90th Percentile - £644 £739
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £620
% change year-on-year -5.00% -19.35% +55.00%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 32,988 33,120 42,501
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.93% 92.74% 93.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,924 20,243 28,641
10th Percentile £285 £300 £294
25th Percentile £403 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £645
90th Percentile £725 £738 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £495 £500
% change year-on-year -4.04% -1.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,924 1,136 1,517
10th Percentile £14.22 £15.36 £15.16
25th Percentile £17.87 £20.75 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £34.75 £44.00
Median % change year-on-year -27.63% -21.02% +40.98%
75th Percentile £56.81 £63.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.75 £73.66 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £44.50
% change year-on-year -22.62% -26.97% +78.00%

Senior Linux Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Senior Linux Engineer' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Senior Linux Engineer job vacancy trend in the UK

Senior Linux Engineer
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Senior Linux Engineer job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Senior Linux Engineer job vacancies in the UK

Senior Linux Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Senior Linux Engineer over the 6 months to 13 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Senior Linux Engineer in the UK

Senior Linux Engineer
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Senior Linux Engineer job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Senior Linux Engineer job vacancies in the UK

Senior Linux Engineer
Top 9 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Senior Linux Engineer within the UK over the 6 months to 13 December 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 -22 30 £725 +45.00% 9
Work from Home +11 19 £725 +13.73% 6
London +9 16 £725 +16.00% 2
UK excluding London -42 11 £475 -5.00% 14
South East -19 7 £475 -5.00% 5
North of England - 3 £450 -
Yorkshire - 2 - -
North West - 1 £450 -
East of England - 1 £454 - 4

Senior Linux Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 13 December 2025, Senior Linux Engineer contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring Senior Linux Engineer in the job title.

1 30 (100.00%) Linux
2 24 (80.00%) Software Engineering
3 21 (70.00%) C#
3 21 (70.00%) C++
4 15 (50.00%) Agile
4 15 (50.00%) Kafka
4 15 (50.00%) Oracle
4 15 (50.00%) SQL
4 15 (50.00%) Unix
5 6 (20.00%) Cryptography
5 6 (20.00%) Eclipse
5 6 (20.00%) Front End Development
5 6 (20.00%) Java
5 6 (20.00%) JavaScript
5 6 (20.00%) JSON
5 6 (20.00%) Memory Management
5 6 (20.00%) Multithreaded Programming
5 6 (20.00%) Multithreading
5 6 (20.00%) NFC
5 6 (20.00%) PPP
5 6 (20.00%) Python
5 6 (20.00%) REST
5 6 (20.00%) Ubuntu
5 6 (20.00%) User Experience
5 6 (20.00%) Valgrind
5 6 (20.00%) Web Services
5 6 (20.00%) XML
6 3 (10.00%) C
6 3 (10.00%) Ethernet
6 3 (10.00%) KGDB

Senior Linux Engineer Skill Set
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:

Communications & Networking
1 6 (20.00%) NFC
1 6 (20.00%) PPP
2 3 (10.00%) Ethernet
3 1 (3.33%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (3.33%) PostgreSQL
1 1 (3.33%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 6 (20.00%) Eclipse
1 6 (20.00%) Valgrind
2 3 (10.00%) KGDB
General
1 17 (56.67%) Finance
2 3 (10.00%) Analytical Skills
3 2 (6.67%) Social Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (50.00%) Kafka
2 6 (20.00%) JSON
2 6 (20.00%) REST
2 6 (20.00%) Web Services
2 6 (20.00%) XML
3 3 (10.00%) OpenEmbedded
3 3 (10.00%) Yocto
4 1 (3.33%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 6 (20.00%) Smartcard
2 3 (10.00%) Clustering
2 3 (10.00%) Device Driver
3 1 (3.33%) NHS
3 1 (3.33%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 30 (100.00%) Linux
2 15 (50.00%) Unix
3 6 (20.00%) Ubuntu
4 3 (10.00%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (3.33%) Mac OS
5 1 (3.33%) SUSE
5 1 (3.33%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
5 1 (3.33%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 24 (80.00%) Software Engineering
2 15 (50.00%) Agile
3 6 (20.00%) Cryptography
3 6 (20.00%) Front End Development
3 6 (20.00%) Memory Management
3 6 (20.00%) Multithreaded Programming
3 6 (20.00%) Multithreading
3 6 (20.00%) User Experience
4 3 (10.00%) Linux Kernel Development
4 3 (10.00%) Open Source
4 3 (10.00%) Performance Analysis
4 3 (10.00%) Test Automation
5 2 (6.67%) High Availability
5 2 (6.67%) Service Delivery
6 1 (3.33%) Continuous Improvement
6 1 (3.33%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 1 (3.33%) Patch Management
6 1 (3.33%) Performance Monitoring
6 1 (3.33%) Process Improvement
6 1 (3.33%) Security Patching
Programming Languages
1 21 (70.00%) C#
1 21 (70.00%) C++
2 15 (50.00%) SQL
3 6 (20.00%) Java
3 6 (20.00%) JavaScript
3 6 (20.00%) Python
4 3 (10.00%) C
Qualifications
1 1 (3.33%) SC Cleared
1 1 (3.33%) Security Cleared
System Software
1 1 (3.33%) Slurm Workload Manager
1 1 (3.33%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 1 (3.33%) Failover Clustering
1 1 (3.33%) Pacemaker
Vendors
1 15 (50.00%) Oracle
2 1 (3.33%) HP
2 1 (3.33%) Red Hat
2 1 (3.33%) SAP
2 1 (3.33%) ServiceNow