Ubuntu Contract Job Trends

Ubuntu Linux
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Ubuntu skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 18 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 535 457 487
Rank change year-on-year -78 +30 +58
Contract jobs citing Ubuntu 84 67 104
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.18% 0.23% 0.24%
As % of the Operating Systems category 1.78% 1.64% 1.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 64 44 72
10th Percentile £425 £322 £463
25th Percentile £491 £415 £506
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £540
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -7.41% -1.82%
75th Percentile £557 £566 £550
90th Percentile £625 £656 £599
UK excluding London median daily rate £537 £500 £539
% change year-on-year +7.40% -7.19% +3.16%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 6 1
10th Percentile £36.80 £50.63 -
25th Percentile £46.25 £63.50 £20.50
Median hourly rate £58.50 £68.00 £21.00
Median % change year-on-year -13.97% +223.81% +12.09%
75th Percentile £119.00 - £21.50
90th Percentile - - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £119.00 £68.00 £21.00
% change year-on-year +75.00% +223.81% +20.21%

All Operating Systems
UK

Ubuntu 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 4,711 4,087 5,896
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.21% 13.89% 13.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,067 2,724 3,966
10th Percentile £181 £200 £183
25th Percentile £310 £320 £290
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £463
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% +2.70% -9.76%
75th Percentile £575 £594 £594
90th Percentile £660 £699 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £450 £450
% change year-on-year -5.56% - -5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 321 173 406
10th Percentile £15.62 £16.30 £12.75
25th Percentile £20.50 £18.13 £15.31
Median hourly rate £34.00 £24.18 £22.00
Median % change year-on-year +40.61% +9.91% -26.67%
75th Percentile £67.25 £62.50 £57.50
90th Percentile £75.00 £68.00 £67.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £34.13 £24.18 £20.00
% change year-on-year +41.15% +20.90% -25.93%

Ubuntu
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Ubuntu relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Ubuntu job vacancy trend in the UK

Ubuntu
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Ubuntu.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Ubuntu

Ubuntu
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Ubuntu over the 6 months to 18 April 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Ubuntu in the UK

Ubuntu
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Ubuntu.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Ubuntu

Ubuntu
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Ubuntu over the 6 months to 18 April 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Ubuntu in the UK

Ubuntu
Top 13 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Ubuntu within the UK over the 6 months to 18 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 -86 72 £531 +6.20% 58
UK excluding London -90 53 £537 +7.40% 44
Work from Home -40 23 £539 +7.70% 37
South West -22 15 £525 +2.44% 4
South East -47 14 £550 +2.33% 18
North of England -57 14 £531 +32.58% 13
London -43 13 £525 -4.55% 21
Yorkshire -47 10 £525 +31.09% 2
East of England -32 5 £681 +58.37% 3
North West -44 4 £538 - 2
West Midlands -62 4 £540 - 4
Midlands -69 4 £540 +2.86% 4
Scotland -4 1 - - 1

Ubuntu
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 7 (8.33%) Apache
2 2 (2.38%) OpenStack
2 2 (2.38%) SharePoint
3 1 (1.19%) Apache Spark
3 1 (1.19%) JBoss
3 1 (1.19%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (1.19%) nginx
3 1 (1.19%) Tomcat
Applications
1 6 (7.14%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (2.38%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 19 (22.62%) Azure
2 15 (17.86%) AWS
3 5 (5.95%) Microsoft 365
4 4 (4.76%) GitHub
4 4 (4.76%) IaaS
5 3 (3.57%) GCP
5 3 (3.57%) OpenShift
6 2 (2.38%) Amazon CloudWatch
6 2 (2.38%) Azure DevOps
6 2 (2.38%) SaaS
7 1 (1.19%) Amazon EKS
7 1 (1.19%) AWS Lambda
7 1 (1.19%) Azure Monitor
7 1 (1.19%) Datadog
7 1 (1.19%) Entra ID
7 1 (1.19%) GitHub Actions
7 1 (1.19%) Nutanix
7 1 (1.19%) OneDrive
7 1 (1.19%) Serverless
7 1 (1.19%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 10 (11.90%) VPN
2 7 (8.33%) Cisco IOS
3 6 (7.14%) BGP
3 6 (7.14%) Cisco ASA
3 6 (7.14%) MPLS
3 6 (7.14%) Network Security
3 6 (7.14%) SAN
3 6 (7.14%) TACACS
4 5 (5.95%) TCP/IP
4 5 (5.95%) VSAN
5 4 (4.76%) DKIM
5 4 (4.76%) DMARC
5 4 (4.76%) LAN
5 4 (4.76%) SMTP
6 3 (3.57%) DNS
6 3 (3.57%) NAS
6 3 (3.57%) VLAN
7 2 (2.38%) Firewall
7 2 (2.38%) Kerberos
8 1 (1.19%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (2.38%) Elasticsearch
1 2 (2.38%) MongoDB
1 2 (2.38%) MySQL
1 2 (2.38%) PostgreSQL
2 1 (1.19%) Apache Hive
2 1 (1.19%) Hadoop
2 1 (1.19%) Impala
2 1 (1.19%) OpenStack Swift
2 1 (1.19%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 14 (16.67%) Git
2 6 (7.14%) GitLab
3 4 (4.76%) Jenkins
4 1 (1.19%) Postman
4 1 (1.19%) Visual Studio
General
1 18 (21.43%) Social Skills
2 10 (11.90%) Public Sector
3 9 (10.71%) Documentation Skills
4 3 (3.57%) Banking
4 3 (3.57%) Finance
4 3 (3.57%) Telecoms
5 2 (2.38%) Aerospace
6 1 (1.19%) Analytical Skills
Job Titles
1 19 (22.62%) Linux Engineer
2 14 (16.67%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 9 (10.71%) DevOps Engineer
3 9 (10.71%) VMware Engineer
4 8 (9.52%) Lead
4 8 (9.52%) Migration Engineer
4 8 (9.52%) Ubuntu Engineer
5 7 (8.33%) Security Engineer
5 7 (8.33%) VMware Infrastructure Engineer
6 6 (7.14%) Senior
7 5 (5.95%) Administrator
7 5 (5.95%) Consultant
7 5 (5.95%) Software Engineer
8 4 (4.76%) Infrastructure Security Engineer
8 4 (4.76%) Senior Linux Engineer
8 4 (4.76%) Systems Administrator
9 3 (3.57%) Automation Engineer
9 3 (3.57%) Infrastructure Consultant
9 3 (3.57%) Open Source Engineer
9 3 (3.57%) Windows Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (13.10%) LDAP
2 9 (10.71%) YAML
3 4 (4.76%) Kafka
4 3 (3.57%) Elastic Stack
5 2 (2.38%) JSON
5 2 (2.38%) XML
6 1 (1.19%) Keycloak
6 1 (1.19%) Middleware
6 1 (1.19%) OpenMP
6 1 (1.19%) REST
6 1 (1.19%) Web Services
6 1 (1.19%) ZeroMQ
Miscellaneous
1 7 (8.33%) PKI
2 5 (5.95%) Data Centre
2 5 (5.95%) Hybrid Cloud
2 5 (5.95%) Replication
3 3 (3.57%) Acoustics
3 3 (3.57%) Client/Server
3 3 (3.57%) Derivative
3 3 (3.57%) Distributed Systems
3 3 (3.57%) Onboarding
3 3 (3.57%) Product Ownership
3 3 (3.57%) Public Cloud
3 3 (3.57%) SCADA
4 2 (2.38%) Cloud Native
4 2 (2.38%) Legacy Systems
4 2 (2.38%) Private Cloud
5 1 (1.19%) Cyber Defence
5 1 (1.19%) FPGA
5 1 (1.19%) Grid Computing
5 1 (1.19%) PCIe
5 1 (1.19%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 84 (100.00%) Linux
2 43 (51.19%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 21 (25.00%) CentOS
4 19 (22.62%) Windows
5 15 (17.86%) Debian
6 14 (16.67%) Windows Server
7 7 (8.33%) Windows Server 2016
8 6 (7.14%) Rocky
8 6 (7.14%) VMS
9 4 (4.76%) Windows Server 2019
10 2 (2.38%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
10 2 (2.38%) Windows Server 2012
11 1 (1.19%) Android
11 1 (1.19%) Mac OS
11 1 (1.19%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 23 (27.38%) DevOps
2 21 (25.00%) CI/CD
3 17 (20.24%) Problem-Solving
4 16 (19.05%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 13 (15.48%) Containerisation
5 13 (15.48%) Migration
6 12 (14.29%) Agile
7 11 (13.10%) Configuration Management
8 10 (11.90%) Continuous Improvement
8 10 (11.90%) ITIL
9 9 (10.71%) Problem Management
9 9 (10.71%) RBAC
10 8 (9.52%) Cybersecurity
10 8 (9.52%) High Availability
10 8 (9.52%) ITSM
10 8 (9.52%) Knowledge Transfer
11 7 (8.33%) Observability
11 7 (8.33%) Service Management
11 7 (8.33%) Technical Leadership
12 6 (7.14%) Infrastructure as Code
Programming Languages
1 35 (41.67%) Python
2 20 (23.81%) Bash
3 14 (16.67%) PowerShell
4 10 (11.90%) Ruby
5 8 (9.52%) Perl
6 7 (8.33%) Go
7 4 (4.76%) PHP
7 4 (4.76%) Shell Script
8 3 (3.57%) JavaScript
9 1 (1.19%) C
9 1 (1.19%) C#
9 1 (1.19%) C++
9 1 (1.19%) Embedded C
9 1 (1.19%) Embedded C++
9 1 (1.19%) Ladder Logic
9 1 (1.19%) Scala
9 1 (1.19%) Search Processing Language
Qualifications
1 40 (47.62%) Security Cleared
2 36 (42.86%) SC Cleared
3 13 (15.48%) Degree
3 13 (15.48%) DV Cleared
4 9 (10.71%) RHCE
5 5 (5.95%) CompTIA Security+
6 4 (4.76%) APMG
6 4 (4.76%) GIAC
6 4 (4.76%) SSCP
7 3 (3.57%) BPSS Clearance
7 3 (3.57%) Computer Science Degree
7 3 (3.57%) GSEC
8 2 (2.38%) VCAP
8 2 (2.38%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 1 (1.19%) CESG Certified Professional
9 1 (1.19%) CISM
9 1 (1.19%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (9.52%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 7 (8.33%) NIST
3 6 (7.14%) Cyber Essentials
4 4 (4.76%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 2 (2.38%) HMG Security Policy Framework
5 2 (2.38%) NCSC
6 1 (1.19%) QA
System Software
1 18 (21.43%) VMware Infrastructure
2 11 (13.10%) Docker
3 10 (11.90%) VMware ESXi
4 8 (9.52%) vSphere
5 7 (8.33%) QEMU
6 5 (5.95%) Active Directory
6 5 (5.95%) VMware NSX
7 4 (4.76%) Postfix
8 3 (3.57%) Virtual Desktop
8 3 (3.57%) Virtual Machines
9 2 (2.38%) GPFS
9 2 (2.38%) Hyper-V
9 2 (2.38%) KVM
9 2 (2.38%) Lustre
9 2 (2.38%) NFS
9 2 (2.38%) Slurm Workload Manager
10 1 (1.19%) Ceph
10 1 (1.19%) HDFS
10 1 (1.19%) iptables
10 1 (1.19%) Samba
Systems Management
1 35 (41.67%) Ansible
2 15 (17.86%) Terraform
3 14 (16.67%) Kubernetes
4 11 (13.10%) Puppet
5 10 (11.90%) Grafana
6 9 (10.71%) vCenter Server
7 8 (9.52%) Prometheus
8 7 (8.33%) Nessus
9 6 (7.14%) Podman
10 5 (5.95%) Microsoft Intune
10 5 (5.95%) SCOM
11 4 (4.76%) Packer
12 3 (3.57%) SCCM
12 3 (3.57%) WSUS
13 2 (2.38%) Kibana
13 2 (2.38%) logstash
13 2 (2.38%) PowerCLI
13 2 (2.38%) SELinux
13 2 (2.38%) vMotion
13 2 (2.38%) vRealize
Vendors
1 29 (34.52%) VMware
2 24 (28.57%) Red Hat
3 13 (15.48%) NVIDIA
4 9 (10.71%) Microsoft
5 8 (9.52%) Cisco
6 7 (8.33%) Dell
7 3 (3.57%) Veeam
8 2 (2.38%) Snow
8 2 (2.38%) Sophos
8 2 (2.38%) Tenable
9 1 (1.19%) Apple
9 1 (1.19%) CheckPoint
9 1 (1.19%) Cloudera
9 1 (1.19%) Cribl.io
9 1 (1.19%) Foundry
9 1 (1.19%) LogicMonitor
9 1 (1.19%) OneTrust
9 1 (1.19%) Oracle
9 1 (1.19%) ServiceNow
9 1 (1.19%) Splunk