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 23 August 2026.

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

6 months to
23 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 562 546 496
Rank change year-on-year -16 -50 -26
Permanent jobs requiring a Linux Engineer 226 130 335
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.21% 0.26% 0.40%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.22% 0.29% 0.42%
Number of salaries quoted 169 104 251
10th Percentile £44,000 £38,500 £37,500
25th Percentile £57,500 £40,000 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £67,500 £52,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +28.57% -4.55% -6.78%
75th Percentile £85,000 £76,250 £70,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £79,625 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £65,000 £42,500 £52,500
% change year-on-year +52.94% -19.05% +2.94%

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 101,748 44,897 78,977
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.93% 89.88% 95.11%
Number of salaries quoted 69,683 26,626 51,954
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 £75,000 £72,000
90th Percentile £97,500 £95,000 £91,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £54,150 £47,683 £50,000
% change year-on-year +13.56% -4.63% -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 23 August 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 23 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England -6 216 £67,500 +31.71% 28
UK excluding London -13 172 £65,000 +52.94% 25
London -42 49 £95,000 +31.03% 7
East of England +10 48 £85,000 +112.50% 9
North of England -16 45 £60,000 +41.18% 3
Work from Home -38 41 £62,500 - 15
North West +12 37 £60,000 +41.18% 3
South East -2 37 £70,000 - 5
Midlands -28 18 £52,500 +13.51% 2
South West -56 18 £70,000 -17.65% 3
East Midlands -18 14 £40,000 -
Yorkshire - 7 £80,000 -
Scotland +6 6 £64,226 +28.45% 4
West Midlands -35 4 £60,000 -7.69% 2
North East -56 1 £47,500 -20.83%

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

For the 6 months to 23 August 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.

1 226 (100.00%) Linux
2 77 (34.07%) Software Engineering
3 55 (24.34%) Python
4 53 (23.45%) Red Hat
5 46 (20.35%) Bash
5 46 (20.35%) Embedded Linux
6 39 (17.26%) Ansible
6 39 (17.26%) AWS
7 37 (16.37%) Docker
7 37 (16.37%) Kubernetes
8 36 (15.93%) Terraform
9 35 (15.49%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 33 (14.60%) Security Cleared
11 32 (14.16%) DevOps
11 32 (14.16%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 31 (13.72%) CI/CD
13 30 (13.27%) Azure
14 25 (11.06%) C
14 25 (11.06%) CentOS
14 25 (11.06%) Containerisation
15 24 (10.62%) Infrastructure as Code
16 23 (10.18%) C++
17 22 (9.73%) Ubuntu
18 20 (8.85%) Problem-Solving
19 19 (8.41%) Firewall
19 19 (8.41%) MySQL
20 18 (7.96%) Degree
20 18 (7.96%) Git
20 18 (7.96%) High Availability
20 18 (7.96%) Unix

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 8 (3.54%) Microsoft Exchange
2 5 (2.21%) Apache
3 4 (1.77%) OpenStack
3 4 (1.77%) SharePoint
4 3 (1.33%) IIS
4 3 (1.33%) nginx
Cloud Services
1 39 (17.26%) AWS
2 30 (13.27%) Azure
3 14 (6.19%) GCP
3 14 (6.19%) SaaS
4 12 (5.31%) Azure DevOps
5 11 (4.87%) Amazon CloudWatch
5 11 (4.87%) Amazon ECR
5 11 (4.87%) Amazon ECS
5 11 (4.87%) Microsoft 365
6 8 (3.54%) OpenShift
7 3 (1.33%) Entra ID
7 3 (1.33%) Microsoft Copilot
7 3 (1.33%) Power Automate
8 2 (0.88%) GitHub
8 2 (0.88%) GitHub Actions
8 2 (0.88%) Google Workspace
8 2 (0.88%) IaaS
8 2 (0.88%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 19 (8.41%) Firewall
2 16 (7.08%) DNS
3 12 (5.31%) TCP/IP
4 9 (3.98%) SAN
5 8 (3.54%) iSCSI
6 7 (3.10%) Remote Desktop
6 7 (3.10%) Wi-Fi
6 7 (3.10%) Wireless
7 6 (2.65%) VPN
8 4 (1.77%) DHCP
8 4 (1.77%) HTTP
8 4 (1.77%) Intrusion Detection
9 3 (1.33%) VoIP
10 2 (0.88%) LTE
10 2 (0.88%) Network Security
10 2 (0.88%) PBX
11 1 (0.44%) LAN
11 1 (0.44%) VLAN
11 1 (0.44%) WAN
11 1 (0.44%) X.509
Database & Business Intelligence
1 19 (8.41%) MySQL
2 11 (4.87%) Elasticsearch
3 8 (3.54%) PostgreSQL
4 7 (3.10%) SQL Server
5 5 (2.21%) KDB
6 1 (0.44%) InfluxDB
6 1 (0.44%) MariaDB
6 1 (0.44%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 18 (7.96%) Git
2 13 (5.75%) GitLab
3 3 (1.33%) PetaLinux
4 2 (0.88%) GDB
4 2 (0.88%) Jenkins
4 2 (0.88%) JIRA
5 1 (0.44%) CMake
5 1 (0.44%) Visual Studio
5 1 (0.44%) WinDbg
General
1 43 (19.03%) Social Skills
2 18 (7.96%) Finance
3 13 (5.75%) Banking
4 10 (4.42%) Telecoms
5 7 (3.10%) Organisational Skills
6 5 (2.21%) Front Office
7 4 (1.77%) Aerospace
7 4 (1.77%) Documentation Skills
7 4 (1.77%) Electronics
8 3 (1.33%) Legal
8 3 (1.33%) Manufacturing
8 3 (1.33%) Pharmaceutical
8 3 (1.33%) Retail
9 1 (0.44%) Law
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 36 (15.93%) Terraform
2 14 (6.19%) Yocto
3 5 (2.21%) FIX Protocol
4 1 (0.44%) Apache NiFi
4 1 (0.44%) ARM Templates
4 1 (0.44%) Elastic Stack
Miscellaneous
1 23 (10.18%) Embedded Systems
2 13 (5.75%) Data Centre
3 12 (5.31%) Device Driver
3 12 (5.31%) IoT
4 9 (3.98%) Robotics
5 8 (3.54%) FPGA
5 8 (3.54%) Management Information System
6 5 (2.21%) Algorithms
6 5 (2.21%) Cloud Native
6 5 (2.21%) Fixed Income
6 5 (2.21%) Hedge funds
6 5 (2.21%) Hybrid Cloud
6 5 (2.21%) Linux Command Line
7 3 (1.33%) Clustering
7 3 (1.33%) Driving Licence
8 2 (0.88%) PKI
8 2 (0.88%) Product Ownership
8 2 (0.88%) Self-Motivation
9 1 (0.44%) Distributed Computing
9 1 (0.44%) Distributed Systems
Operating Systems
1 226 (100.00%) Linux
2 46 (20.35%) Embedded Linux
3 32 (14.16%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 25 (11.06%) CentOS
5 22 (9.73%) Ubuntu
6 18 (7.96%) Unix
7 14 (6.19%) Windows
8 8 (3.54%) AIX
9 7 (3.10%) Windows Server
10 5 (2.21%) Rocky
10 5 (2.21%) Solaris
11 3 (1.33%) Mac OS
11 3 (1.33%) Robot Operating System
12 2 (0.88%) Debian
12 2 (0.88%) SUSE
13 1 (0.44%) OpenWrt
13 1 (0.44%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 77 (34.07%) Software Engineering
2 35 (15.49%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 32 (14.16%) DevOps
4 31 (13.72%) CI/CD
5 25 (11.06%) Containerisation
6 24 (10.62%) Infrastructure as Code
7 20 (8.85%) Problem-Solving
8 18 (7.96%) High Availability
9 16 (7.08%) Continuous Improvement
10 15 (6.64%) Configuration Management
10 15 (6.64%) Low Latency
11 12 (5.31%) ITIL
12 11 (4.87%) Architectural Design
12 11 (4.87%) Capacity Planning
12 11 (4.87%) Deployment Automation
12 11 (4.87%) Open Source
12 11 (4.87%) Virtual Environments
13 10 (4.42%) Computer Science
13 10 (4.42%) Migration
13 10 (4.42%) Platform Engineering
Programming Languages
1 55 (24.34%) Python
2 46 (20.35%) Bash
3 25 (11.06%) C
4 23 (10.18%) C++
5 13 (5.75%) Shell Script
6 11 (4.87%) PowerShell
7 10 (4.42%) Perl
8 8 (3.54%) Embedded C
9 7 (3.10%) Korn
10 4 (1.77%) SQL
11 3 (1.33%) Embedded C++
11 3 (1.33%) Java
11 3 (1.33%) MATLAB
11 3 (1.33%) PHP
11 3 (1.33%) PL/SQL
12 2 (0.88%) Go
12 2 (0.88%) Rust
13 1 (0.44%) C#
Qualifications
1 33 (14.60%) Security Cleared
2 18 (7.96%) Degree
3 14 (6.19%) DV Cleared
4 6 (2.65%) RHCE
4 6 (2.65%) SC Cleared
5 5 (2.21%) RHCSA
6 3 (1.33%) Computer Science Degree
6 3 (1.33%) ITIL Certification
6 3 (1.33%) Master's Degree
7 2 (0.88%) Azure Certification
7 2 (0.88%) IBM AIX Certification
8 1 (0.44%) CCNA
8 1 (0.44%) Cisco Certification
8 1 (0.44%) Linux+ Certification
8 1 (0.44%) MCSE
8 1 (0.44%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (6.19%) QA
2 6 (2.65%) SLA
3 1 (0.44%) JTAG
System Software
1 37 (16.37%) Docker
2 9 (3.98%) VMware Infrastructure
3 8 (3.54%) Active Directory
3 8 (3.54%) Citrix Hypervisor
4 3 (1.33%) vSphere
5 2 (0.88%) Firmware
5 2 (0.88%) Hyper-V
5 2 (0.88%) KVM
5 2 (0.88%) Samba
5 2 (0.88%) Slurm Workload Manager
6 1 (0.44%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (0.44%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 39 (17.26%) Ansible
2 37 (16.37%) Kubernetes
3 12 (5.31%) Grafana
4 11 (4.87%) Nagios
5 7 (3.10%) Puppet
6 6 (2.65%) Podman
7 2 (0.88%) vCenter Server
8 1 (0.44%) Prometheus
8 1 (0.44%) WSUS
Vendors
1 53 (23.45%) Red Hat
2 12 (5.31%) Microsoft
2 12 (5.31%) VMware
3 11 (4.87%) Rapid7
3 11 (4.87%) Splunk
4 8 (3.54%) Dell
5 6 (2.65%) Oracle
6 3 (1.33%) Citrix
6 3 (1.33%) SonicWALL
6 3 (1.33%) YouTube
7 2 (0.88%) Atlassian
7 2 (0.88%) Cisco
7 2 (0.88%) D-Link
7 2 (0.88%) Google
7 2 (0.88%) IBM
7 2 (0.88%) Mirantis
8 1 (0.44%) Apple
8 1 (0.44%) Juniper
8 1 (0.44%) McAfee
8 1 (0.44%) SAP