Linux Contract Job Trends in the West Midlands

Linux
England > West Midlands

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the West Midlands requiring Linux skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 25 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 69 29 23
Rank change year-on-year -40 -6 +11
Contract jobs citing Linux 110 123 135
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 3.08% 6.74% 7.08%
As % of the Operating Systems category 34.27% 45.39% 45.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 70 81 73
10th Percentile £313 £400 £380
25th Percentile £413 £463 £456
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £474 £500 £570
Median % change year-on-year -5.25% -12.28% +8.57%
75th Percentile £574 £582 £672
90th Percentile £589 £633 £760
England median daily rate £525 £525 £540
% change year-on-year - -2.78% -6.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 0 0
10th Percentile £56.20 - -
25th Percentile £58.43 - -
Median hourly rate £63.14 - -
75th Percentile £70.32 - -
90th Percentile £70.59 - -
England median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £67.50
% change year-on-year - -3.70% +8.00%

All Operating Systems
West Midlands

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 in the West Midlands.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for operating system skills 321 271 299
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 8.97% 14.86% 15.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 227 196 183
10th Percentile £210 £160 £188
25th Percentile £313 £220 £256
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £459 £450 £447
Median % change year-on-year +2.00% +0.67% +15.35%
75th Percentile £538 £545 £584
90th Percentile £588 £622 £688
England median daily rate £470 £450 £475
% change year-on-year +4.43% -5.26% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 17 6 8
10th Percentile £16.60 £16.13 £14.63
25th Percentile £17.75 £17.14 £17.88
Median hourly rate £51.00 £20.11 £21.59
Median % change year-on-year +153.57% -6.84% -13.64%
75th Percentile £67.84 £24.63 £23.86
90th Percentile £70.37 £30.00 £39.43
England median hourly rate £38.50 £25.08 £60.00
% change year-on-year +53.54% -58.21% +25.44%

Linux
Job Vacancy Trend in the West Midlands

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Linux relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands.

Linux job vacancy trend in the West Midlands

Linux
Daily Rate Trend in the West Midlands

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing Linux.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing Linux

Linux
Daily Rate Histogram in the West Midlands

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Linux in the West Midlands over the 6 months to 25 September 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Linux in the West Midlands

Linux
Hourly Rate Trend in the West Midlands

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing Linux.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing Linux

Linux
Hourly Rate Histogram in the West Midlands

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Linux in the West Midlands over the 6 months to 25 September 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Linux in the West Midlands

Linux
Contract Job Locations in the West Midlands

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Linux within the West Midlands region over the 6 months to 25 September 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
Shropshire -39 31 £470 -10.48% 15
Warwickshire -9 26 £477 -7.74% 18
Birmingham -49 10 £550 +15.79% 34
Herefordshire +7 9 - - 7
Solihull -12 7 £500 +11.11% 5
Staffordshire -6 6 £200 -59.60% 7
Coventry -27 5 £263 -57.95% 6
Worcestershire 0 3 £575 -4.17% 7
Linux
England

Linux
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the West Midlands 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 (6.36%) WebLogic
2 4 (3.64%) Apache
2 4 (3.64%) Confluence
2 4 (3.64%) SAS
3 3 (2.73%) Microsoft Exchange
4 2 (1.82%) CloudStack
4 2 (1.82%) SharePoint
4 2 (1.82%) Skype for Business
5 1 (0.91%) OpenStack
Business Applications
1 1 (0.91%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 37 (33.64%) AWS
2 22 (20.00%) Azure
3 13 (11.82%) Amazon EC2
3 13 (11.82%) Amazon S3
3 13 (11.82%) GitHub
4 10 (9.09%) Microsoft 365
5 9 (8.18%) Azure DevOps
6 8 (7.27%) GitHub Actions
6 8 (7.27%) OpenShift
7 7 (6.36%) Amazon SQS
7 7 (6.36%) Datadog
8 6 (5.45%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 6 (5.45%) Amazon OpenSearch
8 6 (5.45%) AWS CloudFormation
8 6 (5.45%) Route 53
9 5 (4.55%) AWS KMS
9 5 (4.55%) Cloud Computing
9 5 (4.55%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 3 (2.73%) GCP
11 2 (1.82%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 12 (10.91%) Firewall
2 7 (6.36%) SNMP
3 5 (4.55%) DNS
3 5 (4.55%) SAN
4 4 (3.64%) DHCP
4 4 (3.64%) NetScaler
4 4 (3.64%) TCP/IP
5 3 (2.73%) LAN
5 3 (2.73%) NAS
5 3 (2.73%) Network Security
5 3 (2.73%) VSAN
6 2 (1.82%) Skype
6 2 (1.82%) Structured Cabling
6 2 (1.82%) Wireshark
7 1 (0.91%) AMQP
7 1 (0.91%) Modbus
7 1 (0.91%) MQTT
7 1 (0.91%) OpenVPN
7 1 (0.91%) SSL
7 1 (0.91%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (9.09%) Amazon RDS
2 7 (6.36%) Oracle Database
2 7 (6.36%) PostgreSQL
3 5 (4.55%) Amazon Aurora
3 5 (4.55%) DynamoDB
3 5 (4.55%) SQL Server
4 4 (3.64%) Pentaho
5 3 (2.73%) Amazon Redshift
5 3 (2.73%) MySQL
6 2 (1.82%) Data Warehouse
6 2 (1.82%) Db2
7 1 (0.91%) Data Lake
7 1 (0.91%) DataStage
7 1 (0.91%) IDMS
7 1 (0.91%) Metadata
7 1 (0.91%) MongoDB
7 1 (0.91%) Oracle Database 11g
7 1 (0.91%) Oracle Exadata
7 1 (0.91%) RDBMS
7 1 (0.91%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 23 (20.91%) Git
2 19 (17.27%) GitLab
3 16 (14.55%) Jenkins
4 13 (11.82%) Maven
5 7 (6.36%) SonarQube
6 6 (5.45%) JUnit
6 6 (5.45%) Mockito
7 5 (4.55%) Artifactory
7 5 (4.55%) Bitbucket Server
7 5 (4.55%) DbUnit
7 5 (4.55%) jMock
8 2 (1.82%) Sonatype Nexus
9 1 (0.91%) Bitbucket
9 1 (0.91%) CircleCI
9 1 (0.91%) Cypress.io
9 1 (0.91%) Gradle
9 1 (0.91%) JIRA
9 1 (0.91%) Selenium
9 1 (0.91%) Snyk
9 1 (0.91%) webpack
General
1 27 (24.55%) Social Skills
2 12 (10.91%) Analytical Skills
3 10 (9.09%) Public Sector
4 6 (5.45%) Legal
5 5 (4.55%) Finance
6 3 (2.73%) Documentation Skills
7 2 (1.82%) Automotive
7 2 (1.82%) Banking
7 2 (1.82%) Manufacturing
7 2 (1.82%) Presentation Skills
8 1 (0.91%) Aerospace
8 1 (0.91%) Billing
8 1 (0.91%) Electronics
8 1 (0.91%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 1 (0.91%) Investment Banking
8 1 (0.91%) Military
8 1 (0.91%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 16 (14.55%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 14 (12.73%) Analyst
3 12 (10.91%) Developer
4 11 (10.00%) Java Developer
5 10 (9.09%) Linux Engineer
5 10 (9.09%) Senior
6 9 (8.18%) Data Engineer
7 7 (6.36%) Architect
8 6 (5.45%) Site Engineer
8 6 (5.45%) Site Reliability Engineer
9 5 (4.55%) Asset Management Analyst
9 5 (4.55%) Java Engineer
9 5 (4.55%) SOC Analyst
10 4 (3.64%) AWS Engineer
10 4 (3.64%) DevOps Engineer
10 4 (3.64%) Infrastructure Architect
10 4 (3.64%) Lead
11 3 (2.73%) Onboarding Engineer
11 3 (2.73%) Senior Developer
11 3 (2.73%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (17.27%) Terraform
2 10 (9.09%) Elastic Stack
2 10 (9.09%) REST
3 8 (7.27%) Spring
3 8 (7.27%) Spring Boot
4 6 (5.45%) ActiveMQ
4 6 (5.45%) RESTful
5 5 (4.55%) AngularJS
5 5 (4.55%) Bootstrap
5 5 (4.55%) Flash
5 5 (4.55%) Hibernate
5 5 (4.55%) JPA
5 5 (4.55%) PowerMock
5 5 (4.55%) SOAP
5 5 (4.55%) Spring Batch
5 5 (4.55%) Spring Integration
5 5 (4.55%) Web Services
6 4 (3.64%) Spring Cloud
7 2 (1.82%) Apache NiFi
7 2 (1.82%) Yocto
Miscellaneous
1 15 (13.64%) Linux Command Line
2 11 (10.00%) Distributed Systems
3 7 (6.36%) Private Cloud
4 5 (4.55%) Cloud Native
4 5 (4.55%) Data Centre
4 5 (4.55%) Replication
5 4 (3.64%) Analytical Mindset
5 4 (3.64%) Enterprise Storage
6 3 (2.73%) Cyber Threat
6 3 (2.73%) Data Protection Act
6 3 (2.73%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
6 3 (2.73%) Embedded Systems
6 3 (2.73%) Legacy Systems
6 3 (2.73%) Onboarding
6 3 (2.73%) Public Cloud
6 3 (2.73%) SCADA
7 2 (1.82%) Enterprise Software
7 2 (1.82%) Hybrid Cloud
7 2 (1.82%) IoT
7 2 (1.82%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 42 (38.18%) Windows
2 28 (25.45%) Unix
3 13 (11.82%) Windows Server
4 9 (8.18%) AIX
4 9 (8.18%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 8 (7.27%) Ubuntu
6 7 (6.36%) SUSE
7 5 (4.55%) Solaris
8 4 (3.64%) CentOS
9 3 (2.73%) Embedded Linux
9 3 (2.73%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
10 2 (1.82%) FreeRTOS
10 2 (1.82%) Mac OS
10 2 (1.82%) Windows 10
10 2 (1.82%) Windows 7
11 1 (0.91%) HPUX
11 1 (0.91%) Mac OS X
11 1 (0.91%) Windows Server 2003
11 1 (0.91%) Windows Server 2012
11 1 (0.91%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 27 (24.55%) Containerisation
2 26 (23.64%) CI/CD
3 21 (19.09%) Continuous Improvement
3 21 (19.09%) DevOps
3 21 (19.09%) Infrastructure as Code
4 20 (18.18%) Agile
5 17 (15.45%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 17 (15.45%) Problem-Solving
6 14 (12.73%) Migration
6 14 (12.73%) Performance Tuning
7 11 (10.00%) Disaster Recovery
8 10 (9.09%) Batch Processing
8 10 (9.09%) Data Protection
8 10 (9.09%) Microservices
8 10 (9.09%) Observability
8 10 (9.09%) Root Cause Analysis
8 10 (9.09%) Runbook
8 10 (9.09%) Service Management
9 9 (8.18%) Business Continuity
9 9 (8.18%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 37 (33.64%) SQL
2 18 (16.36%) PowerShell
2 18 (16.36%) Python
3 17 (15.45%) Java
4 13 (11.82%) Shell Script
5 12 (10.91%) Bash
6 7 (6.36%) PL/SQL
7 6 (5.45%) Go
8 3 (2.73%) C
8 3 (2.73%) C++
9 2 (1.82%) Kusto Query Language
9 2 (1.82%) Search Processing Language
10 1 (0.91%) JavaScript
10 1 (0.91%) Kotlin
10 1 (0.91%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 62 (56.36%) Security Cleared
2 39 (35.45%) SC Cleared
3 17 (15.45%) DV Cleared
4 8 (7.27%) BPSS Clearance
5 6 (5.45%) Cisco Certification
5 6 (5.45%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
6 5 (4.55%) AWS Certification
6 5 (4.55%) Azure Certification
7 4 (3.64%) CCNA
7 4 (3.64%) MCSE
7 4 (3.64%) Microsoft Certification
7 4 (3.64%) RHCA
8 3 (2.73%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
8 3 (2.73%) Degree
9 2 (1.82%) CCNP
9 2 (1.82%) CISSP
9 2 (1.82%) GCIH
9 2 (1.82%) SANS
10 1 (0.91%) Computer Science Degree
10 1 (0.91%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (7.27%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 4 (3.64%) Cyber Essentials
2 4 (3.64%) NIST
3 2 (1.82%) ISO 26262
3 2 (1.82%) MISRA
4 1 (0.91%) GDPR
4 1 (0.91%) NCSC
4 1 (0.91%) NIST 800
4 1 (0.91%) QA
4 1 (0.91%) SLA
System Software
1 19 (17.27%) Docker
1 19 (17.27%) VMware Infrastructure
2 7 (6.36%) vSphere
3 6 (5.45%) Active Directory
3 6 (5.45%) Hyper-V
4 5 (4.55%) GPFS
4 5 (4.55%) NFS
4 5 (4.55%) VMware ESXi
5 4 (3.64%) Postfix
5 4 (3.64%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (2.73%) Oracle RAC
7 1 (0.91%) Embedded Firmware
7 1 (0.91%) Firmware
7 1 (0.91%) Virtual Servers
7 1 (0.91%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 23 (20.91%) Kubernetes
2 15 (13.64%) Ansible
3 14 (12.73%) Grafana
4 12 (10.91%) Prometheus
5 8 (7.27%) Progress Chef
5 8 (7.27%) Puppet
6 7 (6.36%) WMI
7 5 (4.55%) Podman
8 4 (3.64%) Microsoft Intune
8 4 (3.64%) SCCM
8 4 (3.64%) vRealize
9 3 (2.73%) Data Guard
9 3 (2.73%) Oracle RMAN
9 3 (2.73%) QRadar
9 3 (2.73%) VxRail
10 2 (1.82%) Check_MK
10 2 (1.82%) NetBackup
11 1 (0.91%) Argo
11 1 (0.91%) Istio
Vendors
1 31 (28.18%) Oracle
2 26 (23.64%) VMware
3 24 (21.82%) Microsoft
4 22 (20.00%) Cisco
5 19 (17.27%) Splunk
6 15 (13.64%) ServiceNow
7 13 (11.82%) IBM
8 10 (9.09%) Fortinet
9 9 (8.18%) Atlassian
9 9 (8.18%) Palo Alto
9 9 (8.18%) Red Hat
10 7 (6.36%) F5
10 7 (6.36%) SolarWinds
11 5 (4.55%) Jaspersoft
11 5 (4.55%) MathWorks
11 5 (4.55%) NetApp
11 5 (4.55%) SAP
11 5 (4.55%) Siemens
11 5 (4.55%) Talend
12 3 (2.73%) CyberArk