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 12 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 67 38 22
Rank change year-on-year -29 -16 +5
Contract jobs citing Linux 110 92 122
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 3.15% 5.41% 6.55%
As % of the Operating Systems category 35.83% 39.83% 43.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 71 66 72
10th Percentile £325 £380 £384
25th Percentile £413 £450 £509
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £470 £488 £550
Median % change year-on-year -3.59% -11.36% +1.85%
75th Percentile £581 £540 £678
90th Percentile £600 £622 £750
England median daily rate £525 £525 £548
% change year-on-year - -4.11% -4.95%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 0 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £58.43 - -
Median hourly rate £64.07 - -
75th Percentile £70.32 - -
90th Percentile £72.66 - -
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 307 231 283
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 8.80% 13.58% 15.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 224 172 183
10th Percentile £213 £160 £186
25th Percentile £381 £245 £300
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £461 £450 £463
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% -2.70% +15.63%
75th Percentile £526 £537 £579
90th Percentile £588 £584 £698
England median daily rate £475 £450 £489
% change year-on-year +5.56% -7.98% -2.20%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 6 8
10th Percentile £47.73 £15.90 £15.40
25th Percentile £58.43 £16.67 £17.88
Median hourly rate £63.14 £17.83 £19.00
Median % change year-on-year +254.04% -6.14% -5.00%
75th Percentile £70.17 £23.12 £22.44
90th Percentile £71.28 £24.83 £39.13
England median hourly rate £34.68 £23.00 £35.00
% change year-on-year +50.76% -34.29% -12.50%

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 12 August 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 12 August 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 12 August 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
Warwickshire -2 25 £477 -0.63% 8
Shropshire -47 22 £469 -11.43% 4
Birmingham -32 15 £463 -2.63% 18
Solihull -18 11 £500 +11.11% 2
Herefordshire +4 9 £625 +4.17% 2
Worcestershire +3 6 £575 -4.17% 1
Coventry -24 5 £294 -52.92% 4
Staffordshire -2 4 £200 -59.60% 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 12 (10.91%) Confluence
2 9 (8.18%) WebLogic
3 4 (3.64%) Apache
3 4 (3.64%) SAS
4 2 (1.82%) CloudStack
5 1 (0.91%) OpenStack
Applications
1 2 (1.82%) Microsoft Office
1 2 (1.82%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 46 (41.82%) AWS
2 23 (20.91%) Azure
3 19 (17.27%) Amazon EC2
3 19 (17.27%) Amazon S3
4 13 (11.82%) Amazon SQS
4 13 (11.82%) GitHub
5 12 (10.91%) Amazon CloudWatch
5 12 (10.91%) Route 53
6 11 (10.00%) AWS KMS
7 10 (9.09%) Azure DevOps
8 9 (8.18%) OpenShift
9 8 (7.27%) GitHub Actions
10 7 (6.36%) Datadog
11 6 (5.45%) Amazon OpenSearch
11 6 (5.45%) AWS CloudFormation
11 6 (5.45%) Microsoft 365
12 5 (4.55%) Virtual Private Cloud
13 2 (1.82%) GCP
13 2 (1.82%) IaaS
13 2 (1.82%) Lucidchart
Communications & Networking
1 9 (8.18%) Firewall
2 7 (6.36%) SNMP
3 4 (3.64%) NAS
3 4 (3.64%) NetScaler
3 4 (3.64%) SAN
4 3 (2.73%) LAN
4 3 (2.73%) SSL
4 3 (2.73%) VSAN
5 2 (1.82%) Intrusion Detection
5 2 (1.82%) Structured Cabling
6 1 (0.91%) AMQP
6 1 (0.91%) DNS
6 1 (0.91%) DNSSEC
6 1 (0.91%) IPsec
6 1 (0.91%) LoRaWAN
6 1 (0.91%) Modbus
6 1 (0.91%) MQTT
6 1 (0.91%) OpenVPN
6 1 (0.91%) TCP/IP
6 1 (0.91%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 16 (14.55%) Amazon RDS
2 13 (11.82%) PostgreSQL
3 11 (10.00%) Amazon Aurora
3 11 (10.00%) DynamoDB
4 5 (4.55%) Oracle Database
5 4 (3.64%) MongoDB
5 4 (3.64%) Pentaho
6 3 (2.73%) Amazon Redshift
6 3 (2.73%) MySQL
6 3 (2.73%) SAP HANA
7 1 (0.91%) Data Lake
7 1 (0.91%) Data Warehouse
7 1 (0.91%) Db2
7 1 (0.91%) IDMS
7 1 (0.91%) Metadata
7 1 (0.91%) Oracle Database 11g
7 1 (0.91%) Oracle Database 12c
7 1 (0.91%) SQL Server
7 1 (0.91%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 30 (27.27%) Git
2 22 (20.00%) Jenkins
3 18 (16.36%) GitLab
3 18 (16.36%) Maven
4 13 (11.82%) SonarQube
5 12 (10.91%) JUnit
5 12 (10.91%) Mockito
6 11 (10.00%) Bitbucket Server
6 11 (10.00%) DbUnit
6 11 (10.00%) jMock
7 6 (5.45%) JIRA
8 5 (4.55%) Artifactory
9 4 (3.64%) Atlassian Bamboo
10 2 (1.82%) Sonatype Nexus
11 1 (0.91%) Bitbucket
11 1 (0.91%) CircleCI
11 1 (0.91%) Gradle
11 1 (0.91%) PetaLinux
11 1 (0.91%) Snyk
11 1 (0.91%) webpack
General
1 30 (27.27%) Social Skills
2 16 (14.55%) Public Sector
3 15 (13.64%) Analytical Skills
4 7 (6.36%) Finance
5 6 (5.45%) Legal
6 5 (4.55%) Documentation Skills
7 3 (2.73%) Presentation Skills
8 2 (1.82%) Automotive
8 2 (1.82%) Banking
8 2 (1.82%) Manufacturing
9 1 (0.91%) Aerospace
9 1 (0.91%) Billing
9 1 (0.91%) Electronics
9 1 (0.91%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 1 (0.91%) Investment Banking
9 1 (0.91%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 19 (17.27%) Analyst
2 17 (15.45%) Developer
2 17 (15.45%) Java Developer
3 10 (9.09%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 9 (8.18%) Data Engineer
5 6 (5.45%) Architect
5 6 (5.45%) Senior
5 6 (5.45%) Site Engineer
5 6 (5.45%) Site Reliability Engineer
6 5 (4.55%) Asset Management Analyst
6 5 (4.55%) Java Engineer
6 5 (4.55%) Lead
7 4 (3.64%) DevOps Engineer
7 4 (3.64%) Infrastructure Architect
7 4 (3.64%) Senior Developer
7 4 (3.64%) Senior Java Developer
7 4 (3.64%) Software Engineer
7 4 (3.64%) Storage Analyst
7 4 (3.64%) Support Engineer
8 3 (2.73%) SAP Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (15.45%) Spring
1 17 (15.45%) Spring Boot
2 14 (12.73%) REST
3 12 (10.91%) ActiveMQ
3 12 (10.91%) RESTful
4 11 (10.00%) AngularJS
4 11 (10.00%) Bootstrap
4 11 (10.00%) Hibernate
4 11 (10.00%) JPA
4 11 (10.00%) PowerMock
4 11 (10.00%) SOAP
4 11 (10.00%) Spring Batch
4 11 (10.00%) Spring Integration
4 11 (10.00%) Web Services
5 10 (9.09%) Elastic Stack
5 10 (9.09%) Spring Cloud
6 7 (6.36%) Flash
7 6 (5.45%) Node.js
8 3 (2.73%) SAP Basis
9 2 (1.82%) QML
Miscellaneous
1 17 (15.45%) Distributed Systems
2 14 (12.73%) Linux Command Line
3 10 (9.09%) Replication
4 8 (7.27%) Data Centre
5 7 (6.36%) Cloud Native
5 7 (6.36%) Private Cloud
6 5 (4.55%) SCADA
7 4 (3.64%) Analytical Mindset
7 4 (3.64%) Data Protection Act
7 4 (3.64%) Hybrid Cloud
8 3 (2.73%) Cyber Threat
8 3 (2.73%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 3 (2.73%) Embedded Systems
8 3 (2.73%) Legacy Systems
9 2 (1.82%) CSOC
9 2 (1.82%) IoT
9 2 (1.82%) Operational Technology
9 2 (1.82%) PMI
9 2 (1.82%) Public Cloud
9 2 (1.82%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 40 (36.36%) Windows
2 18 (16.36%) Unix
3 10 (9.09%) Windows Server
4 7 (6.36%) AIX
4 7 (6.36%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 5 (4.55%) SUSE
5 5 (4.55%) Ubuntu
6 4 (3.64%) Embedded Linux
7 3 (2.73%) Solaris
8 2 (1.82%) Android
8 2 (1.82%) FreeRTOS
8 2 (1.82%) Mac OS
8 2 (1.82%) Windows 10
8 2 (1.82%) Windows 7
9 1 (0.91%) CentOS
9 1 (0.91%) HPUX
9 1 (0.91%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 37 (33.64%) Containerisation
2 32 (29.09%) CI/CD
3 30 (27.27%) Agile
4 26 (23.64%) DevOps
5 21 (19.09%) Infrastructure as Code
6 20 (18.18%) Continuous Improvement
6 20 (18.18%) Scrum
7 19 (17.27%) Microservices
8 16 (14.55%) Performance Tuning
9 15 (13.64%) Kanban
9 15 (13.64%) Problem-Solving
9 15 (13.64%) TDD
10 13 (11.82%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 12 (10.91%) Business Continuity
12 11 (10.00%) Continuous Integration
12 11 (10.00%) Disaster Recovery
12 11 (10.00%) Open Source
12 11 (10.00%) Root Cause Analysis
13 10 (9.09%) BDD
13 10 (9.09%) Data Protection
Programming Languages
1 45 (40.91%) SQL
2 27 (24.55%) Java
3 15 (13.64%) Python
4 13 (11.82%) PowerShell
5 12 (10.91%) Bash
6 10 (9.09%) Shell Script
7 9 (8.18%) PL/SQL
8 6 (5.45%) Go
9 4 (3.64%) C
9 4 (3.64%) C++
10 3 (2.73%) Kotlin
10 3 (2.73%) Perl
11 2 (1.82%) Kusto Query Language
12 1 (0.91%) JavaScript
12 1 (0.91%) SystemVerilog
12 1 (0.91%) Tcl
12 1 (0.91%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 62 (56.36%) Security Cleared
2 48 (43.64%) SC Cleared
3 18 (16.36%) DV Cleared
4 8 (7.27%) AWS Certification
4 8 (7.27%) BPSS Clearance
4 8 (7.27%) Cisco Certification
5 6 (5.45%) Azure Certification
5 6 (5.45%) CCNA
5 6 (5.45%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
6 4 (3.64%) MCSE
6 4 (3.64%) Microsoft Certification
6 4 (3.64%) RHCA
7 3 (2.73%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
7 3 (2.73%) Degree
8 2 (1.82%) CAPM
8 2 (1.82%) CBAP
8 2 (1.82%) CCNP
8 2 (1.82%) ITIL Certification
8 2 (1.82%) PMI Certification
8 2 (1.82%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (9.09%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 5 (4.55%) NIST
3 4 (3.64%) Cyber Essentials
4 2 (1.82%) ISO 26262
4 2 (1.82%) MISRA
4 2 (1.82%) SOC 2
5 1 (0.91%) NCSC
5 1 (0.91%) QA
5 1 (0.91%) SLA
System Software
1 29 (26.36%) Docker
2 16 (14.55%) VMware Infrastructure
3 9 (8.18%) Postfix
4 8 (7.27%) vSphere
5 7 (6.36%) GPFS
5 7 (6.36%) NFS
6 6 (5.45%) VMware ESXi
7 4 (3.64%) Hyper-V
8 3 (2.73%) Active Directory
8 3 (2.73%) Virtual Machines
9 2 (1.82%) Oracle RAC
9 2 (1.82%) Snort
10 1 (0.91%) Embedded Firmware
10 1 (0.91%) Firmware
10 1 (0.91%) KVM
10 1 (0.91%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 29 (26.36%) Kubernetes
2 21 (19.09%) Terraform
3 20 (18.18%) Grafana
4 15 (13.64%) Ansible
5 14 (12.73%) Prometheus
6 8 (7.27%) Progress Chef
6 8 (7.27%) Puppet
7 7 (6.36%) Podman
7 7 (6.36%) WMI
8 6 (5.45%) vRealize
9 3 (2.73%) QRadar
9 3 (2.73%) VxRail
10 2 (1.82%) Check_MK
10 2 (1.82%) CSIRT
10 2 (1.82%) Data Guard
10 2 (1.82%) Microsoft Intune
10 2 (1.82%) Oracle RMAN
10 2 (1.82%) SCCM
11 1 (0.91%) Argo
11 1 (0.91%) Istio
Vendors
1 34 (30.91%) Oracle
2 23 (20.91%) Cisco
2 23 (20.91%) VMware
3 22 (20.00%) Microsoft
4 20 (18.18%) Splunk
5 17 (15.45%) ServiceNow
6 15 (13.64%) Atlassian
7 13 (11.82%) IBM
8 11 (10.00%) Jaspersoft
8 11 (10.00%) Red Hat
9 9 (8.18%) Fortinet
10 8 (7.27%) SAP
11 7 (6.36%) F5
11 7 (6.36%) Palo Alto
11 7 (6.36%) SolarWinds
12 5 (4.55%) MathWorks
12 5 (4.55%) Siemens
12 5 (4.55%) Talend
13 2 (1.82%) NetApp
13 2 (1.82%) QNX