Linux Engineer Job Trends

Linux Engineer
UK

The median Linux Engineer salary in the UK is £67,500 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 1 September 2026.

The table below compares current salary benchmarking and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 569 546 503
Rank change year-on-year -23 -43 -27
Permanent jobs requiring a Linux Engineer 231 133 330
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.21% 0.27% 0.41%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.22% 0.30% 0.43%
Number of salaries quoted 172 107 243
10th Percentile £45,125 £38,500 £37,500
25th Percentile £60,000 £40,625 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £67,500 £52,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +28.57% -4.55% -8.33%
75th Percentile £85,000 £76,250 £70,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £85,000 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £65,000 £42,500 £52,500
% change year-on-year +52.94% -19.05% +5.00%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of permanent jobs in our overall sample.

Permanent vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 103,099 44,902 77,500
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.84% 89.81% 95.18%
Number of salaries quoted 70,871 26,693 49,456
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,250 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £36,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.55% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £75,000 £74,000 £72,500
90th Percentile £97,500 £95,000 £91,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £47,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year +15.79% -5.00% -4.76%

Linux Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings featuring 'Linux Engineer' in the job title relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised.

Linux Engineer job vacancy trend in the UK

Linux Engineer
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for Linux Engineer job vacancies in the UK.

Salary distribution trend for Linux Engineer job vacancies in the UK

Linux Engineer
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Linux Engineer over the 6 months to 1 September 2026.

Salary histogram for Linux Engineer in the UK

Linux Engineer
Top 15 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Linux Engineer within the UK over the 6 months to 1 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
England -17 221 £67,500 +28.57% 113
UK excluding London +5 176 £65,000 +52.94% 46
London -60 50 £95,000 +31.03% 75
East of England +11 49 £85,000 +106.06% 9
North of England -12 48 £60,000 +41.18% 10
North West +9 41 £60,000 +41.18% 7
Work from Home -31 40 £62,500 - 31
South East -18 36 £70,000 - 12
South West -58 19 £80,000 -5.88% 7
Midlands -38 18 £52,500 +13.51% 1
East Midlands -10 14 £40,000 -
Scotland -3 6 £64,226 +38.87% 5
Yorkshire - 6 £56,250 - 2
West Midlands -27 4 £60,000 -7.69% 1
North East - 1 £47,500 - 1

Linux Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 1 September 2026, Linux Engineer job roles required 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 featuring Linux Engineer in the job title.

1 231 (100.00%) Linux
2 82 (35.50%) Software Engineering
3 55 (23.81%) Python
4 52 (22.51%) Red Hat
5 47 (20.35%) Embedded Linux
6 45 (19.48%) Bash
7 41 (17.75%) Ansible
8 38 (16.45%) AWS
8 38 (16.45%) Terraform
9 36 (15.58%) Docker
9 36 (15.58%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 36 (15.58%) Kubernetes
10 34 (14.72%) CI/CD
11 32 (13.85%) DevOps
12 31 (13.42%) Azure
12 31 (13.42%) Security Cleared
13 29 (12.55%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
14 26 (11.26%) C++
14 26 (11.26%) Containerisation
15 25 (10.82%) Infrastructure as Code
16 24 (10.39%) C
17 23 (9.96%) CentOS
17 23 (9.96%) Ubuntu
18 19 (8.23%) Problem-Solving
19 18 (7.79%) Degree
19 18 (7.79%) Firewall
19 18 (7.79%) Git
19 18 (7.79%) Unix
20 17 (7.36%) MySQL
20 17 (7.36%) Windows

Linux Engineer Skill Set
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 5 (2.16%) Microsoft Exchange
1 5 (2.16%) OpenStack
2 3 (1.30%) Apache
2 3 (1.30%) IIS
2 3 (1.30%) nginx
2 3 (1.30%) SharePoint
Cloud Services
1 38 (16.45%) AWS
2 31 (13.42%) Azure
3 14 (6.06%) GCP
4 13 (5.63%) SaaS
5 12 (5.19%) Azure DevOps
6 11 (4.76%) Amazon CloudWatch
6 11 (4.76%) Amazon ECR
6 11 (4.76%) Amazon ECS
7 9 (3.90%) Microsoft 365
8 8 (3.46%) OpenShift
9 3 (1.30%) Entra ID
9 3 (1.30%) Microsoft Copilot
9 3 (1.30%) Power Automate
10 2 (0.87%) GitHub
10 2 (0.87%) GitHub Actions
10 2 (0.87%) Google Workspace
10 2 (0.87%) IaaS
10 2 (0.87%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 18 (7.79%) Firewall
2 15 (6.49%) DNS
3 12 (5.19%) TCP/IP
4 8 (3.46%) Wi-Fi
5 7 (3.03%) Wireless
6 6 (2.60%) iSCSI
6 6 (2.60%) SAN
7 5 (2.16%) DHCP
7 5 (2.16%) Remote Desktop
7 5 (2.16%) VPN
8 4 (1.73%) Intrusion Detection
9 3 (1.30%) HTTP
9 3 (1.30%) VoIP
10 2 (0.87%) LTE
10 2 (0.87%) VLAN
11 1 (0.43%) Ethernet
11 1 (0.43%) NGN
11 1 (0.43%) SNMP
11 1 (0.43%) WAN
11 1 (0.43%) X.509
Database & Business Intelligence
1 17 (7.36%) MySQL
2 11 (4.76%) Elasticsearch
3 6 (2.60%) PostgreSQL
4 5 (2.16%) KDB
4 5 (2.16%) SQL Server
5 1 (0.43%) InfluxDB
5 1 (0.43%) MariaDB
5 1 (0.43%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 18 (7.79%) Git
2 14 (6.06%) GitLab
3 3 (1.30%) PetaLinux
4 2 (0.87%) GDB
4 2 (0.87%) Jenkins
4 2 (0.87%) JIRA
5 1 (0.43%) CMake
5 1 (0.43%) Visual Studio
5 1 (0.43%) WinDbg
General
1 41 (17.75%) Social Skills
2 18 (7.79%) Finance
3 13 (5.63%) Banking
4 10 (4.33%) Telecoms
5 5 (2.16%) Front Office
5 5 (2.16%) Organisational Skills
6 4 (1.73%) Aerospace
6 4 (1.73%) Documentation Skills
6 4 (1.73%) Electronics
7 3 (1.30%) Legal
7 3 (1.30%) Manufacturing
7 3 (1.30%) Pharmaceutical
7 3 (1.30%) Retail
8 1 (0.43%) Law
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 38 (16.45%) Terraform
2 14 (6.06%) Yocto
3 5 (2.16%) FIX Protocol
4 1 (0.43%) Apache NiFi
4 1 (0.43%) ARM Templates
4 1 (0.43%) Elastic Stack
4 1 (0.43%) QML
4 1 (0.43%) Qt
4 1 (0.43%) Qt Quick
Miscellaneous
1 22 (9.52%) Embedded Systems
2 13 (5.63%) Data Centre
3 10 (4.33%) Device Driver
3 10 (4.33%) IoT
4 8 (3.46%) FPGA
5 7 (3.03%) Hybrid Cloud
5 7 (3.03%) Robotics
6 6 (2.60%) Linux Command Line
6 6 (2.60%) Management Information System
7 5 (2.16%) Algorithms
7 5 (2.16%) Cloud Native
7 5 (2.16%) Fixed Income
7 5 (2.16%) Hedge funds
8 4 (1.73%) Clustering
9 3 (1.30%) Driving Licence
10 2 (0.87%) Product Ownership
10 2 (0.87%) Self-Motivation
11 1 (0.43%) Distributed Computing
11 1 (0.43%) Distributed Systems
11 1 (0.43%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 231 (100.00%) Linux
2 47 (20.35%) Embedded Linux
3 29 (12.55%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 23 (9.96%) CentOS
4 23 (9.96%) Ubuntu
5 18 (7.79%) Unix
6 17 (7.36%) Windows
7 8 (3.46%) AIX
8 6 (2.60%) Windows Server
9 5 (2.16%) Rocky
9 5 (2.16%) Solaris
10 3 (1.30%) Mac OS
10 3 (1.30%) Robot Operating System
11 2 (0.87%) Debian
11 2 (0.87%) SUSE
12 1 (0.43%) OpenWrt
12 1 (0.43%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 82 (35.50%) Software Engineering
2 36 (15.58%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 34 (14.72%) CI/CD
4 32 (13.85%) DevOps
5 26 (11.26%) Containerisation
6 25 (10.82%) Infrastructure as Code
7 19 (8.23%) Problem-Solving
8 16 (6.93%) Configuration Management
8 16 (6.93%) Continuous Improvement
8 16 (6.93%) High Availability
9 15 (6.49%) Low Latency
10 13 (5.63%) Migration
11 12 (5.19%) Open Source
12 11 (4.76%) Architectural Design
12 11 (4.76%) Capacity Planning
12 11 (4.76%) Deployment Automation
12 11 (4.76%) ITIL
12 11 (4.76%) Virtual Environments
13 10 (4.33%) Computer Science
13 10 (4.33%) Platform Engineering
Programming Languages
1 55 (23.81%) Python
2 45 (19.48%) Bash
3 26 (11.26%) C++
4 24 (10.39%) C
5 14 (6.06%) Shell Script
6 9 (3.90%) Perl
6 9 (3.90%) PowerShell
7 8 (3.46%) Embedded C
8 7 (3.03%) Korn
9 3 (1.30%) Embedded C++
9 3 (1.30%) Java
9 3 (1.30%) MATLAB
9 3 (1.30%) PL/SQL
9 3 (1.30%) SQL
10 2 (0.87%) Go
10 2 (0.87%) PHP
10 2 (0.87%) Rust
11 1 (0.43%) C#
Qualifications
1 31 (13.42%) Security Cleared
2 18 (7.79%) Degree
3 12 (5.19%) DV Cleared
4 5 (2.16%) SC Cleared
5 4 (1.73%) ITIL Certification
5 4 (1.73%) RHCE
6 3 (1.30%) Computer Science Degree
6 3 (1.30%) Master's Degree
6 3 (1.30%) RHCSA
7 2 (0.87%) Azure Certification
7 2 (0.87%) IBM AIX Certification
8 1 (0.43%) CCNA
8 1 (0.43%) Cisco Certification
8 1 (0.43%) Linux+ Certification
8 1 (0.43%) MCSE
8 1 (0.43%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (6.06%) QA
2 4 (1.73%) SLA
3 1 (0.43%) JTAG
System Software
1 36 (15.58%) Docker
2 8 (3.46%) VMware Infrastructure
3 6 (2.60%) Citrix Hypervisor
4 5 (2.16%) Active Directory
5 3 (1.30%) vSphere
6 2 (0.87%) Firmware
6 2 (0.87%) Hyper-V
6 2 (0.87%) KVM
6 2 (0.87%) Slurm Workload Manager
7 1 (0.43%) Embedded Firmware
7 1 (0.43%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.43%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 41 (17.75%) Ansible
2 36 (15.58%) Kubernetes
3 12 (5.19%) Grafana
4 11 (4.76%) Nagios
5 7 (3.03%) Puppet
6 6 (2.60%) Podman
7 3 (1.30%) vCenter Server
8 1 (0.43%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 52 (22.51%) Red Hat
2 12 (5.19%) VMware
3 11 (4.76%) Microsoft
3 11 (4.76%) Rapid7
3 11 (4.76%) Splunk
4 6 (2.60%) Oracle
5 5 (2.16%) Dell
6 3 (1.30%) Citrix
6 3 (1.30%) SonicWALL
6 3 (1.30%) YouTube
7 2 (0.87%) Atlassian
7 2 (0.87%) Google
7 2 (0.87%) IBM
7 2 (0.87%) Mirantis
8 1 (0.43%) Apple
8 1 (0.43%) Cisco
8 1 (0.43%) Fortinet
8 1 (0.43%) Juniper
8 1 (0.43%) SAP
8 1 (0.43%) Veeam