Linux Job Trends in the Thames Valley

Linux
South East > Thames Valley

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the Thames Valley requiring Linux skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 2 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
2 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 40 84 31
Rank change year-on-year +44 -53 -15
Permanent jobs citing Linux 223 132 308
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 3.22% 3.38% 6.10%
As % of the Operating Systems category 46.07% 31.50% 49.28%
Number of salaries quoted 180 77 195
10th Percentile £37,500 £37,500 £37,500
25th Percentile £50,750 £42,500 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £62,500 £50,000 £56,525
Median % change year-on-year +25.00% -11.54% +5.14%
75th Percentile £68,750 £68,000 £70,000
90th Percentile £83,750 £71,500 £82,500
South East median annual salary £65,000 £52,783 £55,000
% change year-on-year +23.15% -4.03% +4.76%

All Operating Systems
Thames Valley

Linux falls under the Operating Systems category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring operating system skills in the Thames Valley.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for operating system skills 484 419 625
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 7.00% 10.74% 12.37%
Number of salaries quoted 400 326 451
10th Percentile £28,500 £25,750 £31,250
25th Percentile £35,469 £32,500 £36,625
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £41,500 £48,000
Median % change year-on-year +8.43% -13.54% -4.00%
75th Percentile £67,500 £45,000 £60,000
90th Percentile £83,750 £63,750 £75,000
South East median annual salary £47,500 £40,000 £49,500
% change year-on-year +18.75% -19.19% +7.61%

Linux
Job Vacancy Trend in the Thames Valley

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Linux relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley.

Linux job vacancy trend in the Thames Valley

Linux
Salary Trend in the Thames Valley

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing Linux.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing Linux

Linux
Salary Histogram in the Thames Valley

Salary distribution for jobs citing Linux in the Thames Valley over the 6 months to 2 September 2026.

Salary histogram for Linux in the Thames Valley

Linux
Job Locations in the Thames Valley

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Linux within the Thames Valley region over the 6 months to 2 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Berkshire +69 116 £65,000 +30.00% 54
Buckinghamshire +2 57 £65,000 -7.14% 18
Oxfordshire -14 50 £55,000 +22.22% 50
Linux
South East

Linux
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the Thames Valley 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 10 (4.48%) Apache
1 10 (4.48%) nginx
2 7 (3.14%) Microsoft Exchange
3 5 (2.24%) Confluence
4 2 (0.90%) Apache Airflow
4 2 (0.90%) SharePoint
5 1 (0.45%) Apache Spark
5 1 (0.45%) IIS
Applications
1 9 (4.04%) Microsoft Excel
1 9 (4.04%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (1.35%) Lightworks
2 3 (1.35%) Simulink
3 1 (0.45%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 9 (4.04%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 86 (38.57%) AWS
2 76 (34.08%) Azure
3 33 (14.80%) Microsoft 365
4 25 (11.21%) SaaS
5 24 (10.76%) Azure Sentinel
6 18 (8.07%) GCP
7 15 (6.73%) GitHub
8 14 (6.28%) Cloudflare
9 13 (5.83%) Entra ID
10 10 (4.48%) Datadog
11 9 (4.04%) Azure DevOps
11 9 (4.04%) Power Platform
12 7 (3.14%) Amazon EKS
13 6 (2.69%) Amazon EC2
13 6 (2.69%) Amazon S3
13 6 (2.69%) AWS Lambda
13 6 (2.69%) Serverless
14 5 (2.24%) GitHub Actions
14 5 (2.24%) Google Workspace
14 5 (2.24%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 71 (31.84%) Firewall
2 64 (28.70%) DNS
3 24 (10.76%) VPN
4 22 (9.87%) TCP/IP
5 11 (4.93%) SAN
6 8 (3.59%) HTTP
6 8 (3.59%) Remote Desktop
6 8 (3.59%) SSL
7 7 (3.14%) DHCP
8 6 (2.69%) NAS
8 6 (2.69%) NetScaler
8 6 (2.69%) VLAN
8 6 (2.69%) Wireshark
9 5 (2.24%) iSCSI
10 4 (1.79%) Cisco ASA
10 4 (1.79%) Ethernet
10 4 (1.79%) Wi-Fi
11 3 (1.35%) MQTT
11 3 (1.35%) Network Security
11 3 (1.35%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 18 (8.07%) PostgreSQL
2 9 (4.04%) Power BI
3 8 (3.59%) MySQL
3 8 (3.59%) SQL Server
4 3 (1.35%) Relational Database
5 2 (0.90%) Big Data
6 1 (0.45%) Db2
6 1 (0.45%) Elasticsearch
6 1 (0.45%) Vitess
Development Applications
1 19 (8.52%) Git
2 16 (7.17%) JIRA
3 13 (5.83%) GitLab
4 8 (3.59%) Jenkins
5 6 (2.69%) SonarQube
6 5 (2.24%) Cucumber
7 4 (1.79%) Artifactory
8 3 (1.35%) JUnit
8 3 (1.35%) PetaLinux
9 1 (0.45%) JMeter
9 1 (0.45%) LoadRunner
9 1 (0.45%) Selenium
9 1 (0.45%) Storybook
General
1 61 (27.35%) Social Skills
2 36 (16.14%) Finance
2 36 (16.14%) Manufacturing
3 23 (10.31%) Analytical Skills
4 13 (5.83%) Retail
5 10 (4.48%) Organisational Skills
6 8 (3.59%) Aerospace
6 8 (3.59%) Automotive
6 8 (3.59%) Telecoms
7 6 (2.69%) Legal
8 5 (2.24%) Public Sector
9 4 (1.79%) Banking
9 4 (1.79%) Electronics
10 2 (0.90%) Health Technology
10 2 (0.90%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 1 (0.45%) Aviation
11 1 (0.45%) Documentation Skills
11 1 (0.45%) Games
11 1 (0.45%) Military
Job Titles
1 29 (13.00%) Infrastructure Engineer
1 29 (13.00%) Software Engineer
2 28 (12.56%) Analyst
3 26 (11.66%) DevOps Engineer
3 26 (11.66%) Senior
4 23 (10.31%) Architect
5 19 (8.52%) IT Support
5 19 (8.52%) Linux Engineer
6 18 (8.07%) Applications Architect
7 16 (7.17%) IT Engineer
7 16 (7.17%) Support Engineer
8 14 (6.28%) IT Support Engineer
8 14 (6.28%) Network Engineer
8 14 (6.28%) Systems Engineer
9 13 (5.83%) AWS Engineer
9 13 (5.83%) Linux Systems Engineer
9 13 (5.83%) Security Architect
9 13 (5.83%) Security Engineer
9 13 (5.83%) SOC Analyst
10 12 (5.38%) NOC Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (13.45%) Terraform
2 21 (9.42%) Regular Expression
3 19 (8.52%) XMPP
4 17 (7.62%) LDAP
5 13 (5.83%) JSON
6 12 (5.38%) React
6 12 (5.38%) REST
7 10 (4.48%) Django
8 9 (4.04%) Web Services
9 8 (3.59%) XML
10 7 (3.14%) YAML
11 6 (2.69%) Vue
12 5 (2.24%) JSON Schema
13 4 (1.79%) Elastic Stack
13 4 (1.79%) RabbitMQ
13 4 (1.79%) Twisted
13 4 (1.79%) WebSockets
14 3 (1.35%) Jinja
14 3 (1.35%) Spring
14 3 (1.35%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 17 (7.62%) PKI
2 16 (7.17%) Cyber Defence
3 15 (6.73%) Driving Licence
4 14 (6.28%) Security Operations Centre
5 13 (5.83%) Distributed Systems
6 11 (4.93%) Embedded Systems
6 11 (4.93%) Self-Motivation
7 10 (4.48%) Cyber Threat
8 9 (4.04%) Robotics
9 8 (3.59%) Analytical Mindset
9 8 (3.59%) IoT
10 7 (3.14%) Cloud Native
10 7 (3.14%) CSOC
10 7 (3.14%) Distributed Computing
10 7 (3.14%) Management Information System
10 7 (3.14%) Replication
11 6 (2.69%) Linux Command Line
11 6 (2.69%) Onboarding
12 5 (2.24%) Client/Server
12 5 (2.24%) Data Centre
Operating Systems
1 114 (51.12%) Windows
2 43 (19.28%) Windows Server
3 30 (13.45%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 22 (9.87%) Ubuntu
5 9 (4.04%) Windows 10
6 7 (3.14%) Mac OS
6 7 (3.14%) Rocky
7 6 (2.69%) Debian
8 4 (1.79%) Unix
9 3 (1.35%) Embedded Linux
9 3 (1.35%) FreeRTOS
9 3 (1.35%) Gentoo
10 2 (0.90%) Robot Operating System
Processes & Methodologies
1 58 (26.01%) Problem-Solving
2 54 (24.22%) SIEM
3 51 (22.87%) Continuous Improvement
4 41 (18.39%) DevOps
4 41 (18.39%) Software Engineering
5 39 (17.49%) ITIL
6 36 (16.14%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 36 (16.14%) Validation
7 34 (15.25%) Cybersecurity
8 29 (13.00%) CI/CD
9 27 (12.11%) Test Automation
10 24 (10.76%) Platform Engineering
11 22 (9.87%) Containerisation
12 21 (9.42%) High Availability
13 20 (8.97%) Process Improvement
13 20 (8.97%) Server Management
14 19 (8.52%) Infrastructure as Code
14 19 (8.52%) Security Operations
15 16 (7.17%) Antivirus Management
15 16 (7.17%) Pattern Matching
Programming Languages
1 78 (34.98%) Python
2 56 (25.11%) PowerShell
3 46 (20.63%) Bash
4 25 (11.21%) C++
5 21 (9.42%) C
6 16 (7.17%) JavaScript
7 15 (6.73%) TypeScript
8 14 (6.28%) Rust
9 13 (5.83%) SQL
10 11 (4.93%) Shell Script
11 10 (4.48%) Go
11 10 (4.48%) Java
12 8 (3.59%) C#
13 7 (3.14%) Kusto Query Language
13 7 (3.14%) Search Processing Language
14 6 (2.69%) Groovy
15 5 (2.24%) Korn
16 4 (1.79%) Perl
16 4 (1.79%) Ruby
17 3 (1.35%) Pascal
Qualifications
1 76 (34.08%) Security Cleared
2 40 (17.94%) SC Cleared
3 36 (16.14%) DV Cleared
4 34 (15.25%) Degree
5 17 (7.62%) Computer Science Degree
6 16 (7.17%) CompTIA Security+
7 14 (6.28%) GIAC
8 13 (5.83%) GCIA
9 10 (4.48%) Microsoft Certification
9 10 (4.48%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 8 (3.59%) CompTIA CySA+
10 8 (3.59%) CREST Certified
10 8 (3.59%) GCIH
11 7 (3.14%) GCED
11 7 (3.14%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 7 (3.14%) SANS
12 6 (2.69%) Master's Degree
12 6 (2.69%) OSCP
12 6 (2.69%) PhD
13 5 (2.24%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (7.62%) QA
2 6 (2.69%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 5 (2.24%) GDPR
3 5 (2.24%) MISRA
4 3 (1.35%) ECSS
5 2 (0.90%) Cyber Essentials
5 2 (0.90%) ISO 22301
5 2 (0.90%) ISO 9001
5 2 (0.90%) SLA
5 2 (0.90%) SOC 2
6 1 (0.45%) GRC
System Software
1 44 (19.73%) Active Directory
2 33 (14.80%) Docker
2 33 (14.80%) VMware Infrastructure
3 25 (11.21%) vSphere
4 16 (7.17%) Hyper-V
5 15 (6.73%) VMware ESXi
6 14 (6.28%) KVM
7 10 (4.48%) Firmware
8 9 (4.04%) Virtual Machines
9 5 (2.24%) Citrix Hypervisor
9 5 (2.24%) Squid
10 2 (0.90%) Embedded Firmware
10 2 (0.90%) iptables
Systems Management
1 28 (12.56%) Kubernetes
2 27 (12.11%) Ansible
3 16 (7.17%) Graylog
4 8 (3.59%) Grafana
4 8 (3.59%) Kibana
4 8 (3.59%) Prometheus
4 8 (3.59%) Proxmox
4 8 (3.59%) ZABBIX
5 7 (3.14%) Microsoft Intune
6 5 (2.24%) HAProxy
7 4 (1.79%) Packer
7 4 (1.79%) Podman
8 1 (0.45%) Argo
8 1 (0.45%) Failover Clustering
8 1 (0.45%) Jamf Pro
8 1 (0.45%) QRadar
8 1 (0.45%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 94 (42.15%) Microsoft
2 62 (27.80%) VMware
3 42 (18.83%) Red Hat
4 23 (10.31%) Veeam
5 15 (6.73%) McAfee
6 11 (4.93%) Cisco
6 11 (4.93%) Splunk
7 10 (4.48%) CrowdStrike
7 10 (4.48%) Dell
8 9 (4.04%) Sage
9 8 (3.59%) IBM
10 7 (3.14%) Carbon Black
10 7 (3.14%) Fortinet
11 6 (2.69%) Citrix
11 6 (2.69%) Google
11 6 (2.69%) NetApp
11 6 (2.69%) Okta
12 5 (2.24%) AppDynamics
13 4 (1.79%) Juniper
13 4 (1.79%) Palo Alto