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 16 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

	6 months to 16 Oct 2026	Same period 2025	Same period 2024
Rank	47	121	22
Rank change year-on-year	+74	-99	-10
Permanent jobs citing Linux	216	81	323
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley	2.83%	2.14%	7.27%
As % of the Operating Systems category	43.55%	23.34%	54.56%
Number of salaries quoted	177	62	163
10^th Percentile	£37,500	£37,675	£36,500
25^th Percentile	£48,750	£42,953	£40,625
Median annual salary (50^th Percentile)	£62,500	£52,783	£56,525
Median % change year-on-year	+18.41%	-6.62%	+5.14%
75^th Percentile	£70,000	£69,801	£70,000
90^th Percentile	£90,000	£70,000	£82,500
South East median annual salary	£65,000	£55,000	£55,000
% change year-on-year	+18.18%	-	+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.

	6 months to 16 Oct 2026	Same period 2025	Same period 2024
Permanent vacancies with a requirement for operating system skills	496	347	592
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley	6.51%	9.16%	13.32%
Number of salaries quoted	412	301	344
10^th Percentile	£29,000	£25,750	£31,250
25^th Percentile	£33,750	£31,250	£36,250
Median annual salary (50^th Percentile)	£45,000	£37,500	£48,925
Median % change year-on-year	+20.00%	-23.35%	-6.81%
75^th Percentile	£65,000	£45,000	£60,000
90^th Percentile	£85,000	£62,500	£78,750
South East median annual salary	£45,000	£38,325	£50,000
% change year-on-year	+17.42%	-23.35%	+7.53%

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 Salary Trend in the Thames Valley

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 16 October 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 16 October 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	+48	95	£65,000	+23.81%	70
Oxfordshire	+10	64	£56,500	+30.64%	59
Buckinghamshire	+26	58	£62,500	-10.71%	22
Linux South East

Linux Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the Thames Valley

For the 6 months to 16 October 2026, job vacancies citing Linux also mentioned the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all permanent job ads across the Thames Valley region with a requirement for Linux.

Rank	Skill	Share	Job Ads
1	Windows	53.7%	116
2	Microsoft	41.7%	90
3	Azure	32.4%	70
3	Python	32.4%	70
5	Security Cleared	31.0%	67
6	AWS	30.6%	66
7	Problem-Solving	28.7%	62
8	DNS	26.9%	58
9	PowerShell	26.4%	57
10	Continuous Improvement	25.5%	55
10	Firewall	25.5%	55
12	VMware	24.1%	52
13	Bash	21.3%	46
14	SIEM	20.8%	45
15	Software Engineering	19.0%	41
16	Infrastructure Engineering	18.5%	40
17	Cybersecurity	17.1%	37
17	DevOps	17.1%	37
17	ITIL	17.1%	37
17	Windows Server	17.1%	37
21	Active Directory	16.7%	36
22	Microsoft 365	15.7%	34
23	SC Cleared	14.8%	32
24	DV Cleared	14.4%	31
24	Validation	14.4%	31
26	C++	13.9%	30
27	CI/CD	13.0%	28
27	Red Hat	13.0%	28
27	VMware Infrastructure	13.0%	28
27	VPN	13.0%	28

Linux Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the Thames Valley by Category

The table below expands on the one above by listing co-occurrences one category at a time. It covers the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences in each category.

Operating Systems

Rank	Skill	Share	Job Ads
1	Windows	53.7%	116
2	Windows Server	17.1%	37
3	Ubuntu	11.6%	25
4	Red Hat Enterprise Linux	9.3%	20
5	Rocky	5.1%	11
6	Windows 10	4.2%	9
7	Debian	3.7%	8
7	macOS	3.7%	8
9	Embedded Linux	2.3%	5
10	FreeRTOS	1.9%	4
11	Gentoo	1.4%	3
11	Robot Operating System	1.4%	3
13	Unix	0.9%	2
14	CentOS	0.5%	1