Linux
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs requiring Linux skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 7 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
7 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 74 40 34
Rank change year-on-year -34 -6 -2
Permanent jobs citing Linux 2,394 2,788 4,588
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 2.28% 5.62% 5.50%
As % of the Operating Systems category 37.41% 39.95% 43.88%
Number of salaries quoted 1,663 1,325 2,916
10th Percentile £35,000 £32,500 £36,625
25th Percentile £45,000 £43,000 £43,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £63,451 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +5.75% +9.09% -12.00%
75th Percentile £77,500 £80,000 £76,250
90th Percentile £97,564 £97,500 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £60,000 £52,750 £52,500
% change year-on-year +13.74% +0.48% -4.55%

All Operating Systems
UK

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.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for operating system skills 6,399 6,978 10,456
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 6.10% 14.07% 12.52%
Number of salaries quoted 4,810 4,662 7,562
10th Percentile £28,000 £26,763 £26,250
25th Percentile £31,500 £31,250 £33,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £42,000 £48,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% -12.50% -8.57%
75th Percentile £67,500 £64,500 £63,750
90th Percentile £85,000 £80,000 £83,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £42,500 £38,500 £45,000
% change year-on-year +10.39% -14.44% -

Linux
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Linux job vacancy trend in the UK

Linux
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Linux.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Linux

Linux
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Linux over the 6 months to 7 August 2026.

Salary histogram for Linux in the UK

Linux
Top 18 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Linux within the UK over the 6 months to 7 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 -31 2,210 £65,000 +8.33% 1,267
UK excluding London -35 1,696 £60,000 +13.74% 770
Work from Home -60 629 £65,000 +8.33% 483
London -34 609 £80,000 - 577
South East +10 524 £65,000 +23.81% 251
South West -4 368 £55,000 +7.72% 119
North of England -101 307 £55,000 +15.79% 154
Midlands -21 200 £47,500 -17.39% 68
East of England +16 188 £60,000 +9.09% 127
North West -106 147 £55,000 +2.33% 93
West Midlands -49 104 £55,000 -18.52% 41
East Midlands 0 96 £44,472 +11.18% 27
Yorkshire -42 86 £42,500 +13.33% 30
North East -1 74 £70,000 +7.69% 31
Wales -52 47 £52,500 -32.26% 10
Scotland -8 42 £65,000 +13.04% 42
Northern Ireland -60 20 £41,250 - 20
Isle of Man +1 3 £35,000 +1.45% 4

Linux
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
1 176 (7.35%) Microsoft Exchange
2 54 (2.26%) Confluence
3 46 (1.92%) Apache
4 45 (1.88%) SharePoint
5 31 (1.29%) IIS
6 27 (1.13%) nginx
7 19 (0.79%) OpenStack
8 14 (0.58%) Exchange Server 2007
8 14 (0.58%) Exchange Server 2010
8 14 (0.58%) Exchange Server 2013
9 12 (0.50%) Apache Spark
10 9 (0.38%) WordPress
11 7 (0.29%) Apache Airflow
11 7 (0.29%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 5 (0.21%) ColdFusion
13 4 (0.17%) SAS
14 3 (0.13%) ArcGIS
14 3 (0.13%) Documentum
14 3 (0.13%) JBoss
14 3 (0.13%) WebLogic
Applications
1 39 (1.63%) Microsoft Office
2 31 (1.29%) Microsoft Excel
3 8 (0.33%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 8 (0.33%) Microsoft Project
4 4 (0.17%) Autodesk Flame
4 4 (0.17%) Baselight
5 3 (0.13%) Lightworks
5 3 (0.13%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.13%) Simulink
6 2 (0.084%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 2 (0.084%) OrCAD
7 1 (0.042%) Adobe Illustrator
7 1 (0.042%) Adobe Premiere
7 1 (0.042%) Avid Media Composer
7 1 (0.042%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.042%) Houdini
7 1 (0.042%) NUKE
7 1 (0.042%) Photoshop
7 1 (0.042%) Quicktime
7 1 (0.042%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 16 (0.67%) Fidessa
2 12 (0.50%) FLEXCUBE
3 6 (0.25%) NetSuite
4 5 (0.21%) Magento
5 4 (0.17%) Line 50
5 4 (0.17%) SAP S/4HANA
5 4 (0.17%) Shopify
6 3 (0.13%) Payment Gateway
7 1 (0.042%) Bloomberg TOMS
7 1 (0.042%) CiviCRM
7 1 (0.042%) Oracle Applications
7 1 (0.042%) Siebel CRM
7 1 (0.042%) Temenos T24
Cloud Services
1 719 (30.03%) Azure
2 668 (27.90%) AWS
3 360 (15.04%) Microsoft 365
4 194 (8.10%) GCP
5 149 (6.22%) Entra ID
6 135 (5.64%) GitHub
7 113 (4.72%) SaaS
8 99 (4.14%) Azure DevOps
9 87 (3.63%) AWS CloudFormation
10 77 (3.22%) OpenShift
11 73 (3.05%) Serverless
12 67 (2.80%) GitHub Actions
13 65 (2.72%) Amazon EC2
14 51 (2.13%) Amazon EKS
15 45 (1.88%) IaaS
15 45 (1.88%) PaaS
16 44 (1.84%) Amazon ECS
16 44 (1.84%) AWS Lambda
16 44 (1.84%) Azure Sentinel
17 40 (1.67%) Azure AKS
Communications & Networking
1 334 (13.95%) DNS
2 332 (13.87%) Firewall
3 190 (7.94%) TCP/IP
4 165 (6.89%) DHCP
5 139 (5.81%) VPN
6 86 (3.59%) WAN
7 84 (3.51%) LAN
8 74 (3.09%) Network Security
9 59 (2.46%) VLAN
10 50 (2.09%) VoIP
11 45 (1.88%) SAN
12 40 (1.67%) Wireshark
13 39 (1.63%) Wi-Fi
14 37 (1.55%) Multicast
14 37 (1.55%) Wireless
15 34 (1.42%) BGP
16 31 (1.29%) HTTP
17 28 (1.17%) MQTT
18 26 (1.09%) Ethernet
19 22 (0.92%) Remote Desktop
Database & Business Intelligence
1 186 (7.77%) SQL Server
2 158 (6.60%) MySQL
3 121 (5.05%) Amazon RDS
4 116 (4.85%) PostgreSQL
5 54 (2.26%) MongoDB
6 36 (1.50%) Elasticsearch
6 36 (1.50%) NoSQL
7 27 (1.13%) Power BI
8 23 (0.96%) Oracle Database
9 22 (0.92%) Redis
10 20 (0.84%) Relational Database
11 15 (0.63%) Big Data
12 13 (0.54%) Hadoop
13 11 (0.46%) Azure SQL Database
13 11 (0.46%) Data Warehouse
14 9 (0.38%) SAP HANA
15 8 (0.33%) InfluxDB
16 7 (0.29%) Apache Hive
16 7 (0.29%) Electronic Patient Records
16 7 (0.29%) MariaDB
Development Applications
1 309 (12.91%) Git
2 171 (7.14%) Jenkins
3 162 (6.77%) GitLab
4 151 (6.31%) JIRA
5 41 (1.71%) Bitbucket
6 26 (1.09%) Subversion
7 25 (1.04%) Atlassian Bamboo
8 21 (0.88%) Visual Studio Code
9 20 (0.84%) SonarQube
10 19 (0.79%) Maven
11 17 (0.71%) Burp Suite
12 16 (0.67%) GDB
12 16 (0.67%) Metasploit
13 15 (0.63%) JUnit
14 14 (0.58%) Cypress.io
14 14 (0.58%) Selenium
14 14 (0.58%) TeamCity
15 12 (0.50%) Robot Framework
16 10 (0.42%) Mockito
17 9 (0.38%) Cucumber
General
1 681 (28.45%) Social Skills
2 431 (18.00%) Finance
3 297 (12.41%) Analytical Skills
4 121 (5.05%) Manufacturing
5 114 (4.76%) Banking
6 100 (4.18%) Public Sector
7 96 (4.01%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 83 (3.47%) Law
9 81 (3.38%) Aerospace
10 79 (3.30%) Telecoms
11 75 (3.13%) Retail
12 71 (2.97%) Organisational Skills
13 63 (2.63%) Electronics
14 50 (2.09%) Legal
15 48 (2.01%) Front Office
16 41 (1.71%) Automotive
17 39 (1.63%) Documentation Skills
18 32 (1.34%) Investment Banking
19 25 (1.04%) Marketing
20 24 (1.00%) Military
Job Titles
1 434 (18.13%) Senior
2 320 (13.37%) Software Engineer
3 226 (9.44%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 219 (9.15%) Linux Engineer
5 211 (8.81%) DevOps Engineer
6 198 (8.27%) Developer
7 184 (7.69%) Systems Engineer
8 150 (6.27%) Administrator
9 144 (6.02%) IT Support
10 134 (5.60%) Support Engineer
11 125 (5.22%) IT Engineer
12 123 (5.14%) Analyst
13 120 (5.01%) Embedded Engineer
14 118 (4.93%) Lead
15 107 (4.47%) Senior Software Engineer
16 104 (4.34%) Systems Administrator
17 95 (3.97%) IT Support Engineer
18 91 (3.80%) C++ Software Engineer
18 91 (3.80%) Embedded Software Engineer
19 74 (3.09%) Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 72 (3.01%) React
2 68 (2.84%) HTML
3 62 (2.59%) JSON
3 62 (2.59%) REST
4 59 (2.46%) FIX Protocol
5 58 (2.42%) Node.js
6 55 (2.30%) CSS
7 46 (1.92%) Web Services
8 45 (1.88%) .NET
8 45 (1.88%) Elastic Stack
9 44 (1.84%) Kafka
9 44 (1.84%) YAML
9 44 (1.84%) Yocto
10 40 (1.67%) XML
11 35 (1.46%) RESTful
12 32 (1.34%) Django
13 31 (1.29%) Boost C++ Libraries
14 29 (1.21%) pytest
15 28 (1.17%) LDAP
15 28 (1.17%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 130 (5.43%) Data Centre
2 106 (4.43%) Cloud Native
3 98 (4.09%) Legacy Systems
4 96 (4.01%) Embedded Systems
5 85 (3.55%) Replication
6 83 (3.47%) Distributed Systems
7 82 (3.43%) Onboarding
8 76 (3.17%) Management Information System
9 72 (3.01%) Self-Motivation
10 68 (2.84%) Algorithms
11 66 (2.76%) Linux Command Line
12 63 (2.63%) Hybrid Cloud
13 57 (2.38%) IoT
14 49 (2.05%) Device Driver
14 49 (2.05%) Public Cloud
14 49 (2.05%) Security Posture
15 48 (2.01%) Robotics
16 47 (1.96%) Product Ownership
17 45 (1.88%) Driving Licence
17 45 (1.88%) Equities
Operating Systems
1 969 (40.48%) Windows
2 409 (17.08%) Windows Server
3 216 (9.02%) Unix
4 204 (8.52%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 134 (5.60%) Ubuntu
6 111 (4.64%) Windows Server 2016
7 101 (4.22%) CentOS
8 91 (3.80%) Embedded Linux
9 74 (3.09%) Mac OS
10 58 (2.42%) Debian
11 24 (1.00%) Android
12 23 (0.96%) Windows Server 2019
13 21 (0.88%) Windows 10
14 19 (0.79%) AIX
15 18 (0.75%) Rocky
15 18 (0.75%) Solaris
16 16 (0.67%) VMS
17 14 (0.58%) Apple iOS
17 14 (0.58%) Windows 7
17 14 (0.58%) Windows 8
Processes & Methodologies
1 607 (25.36%) Problem-Solving
2 572 (23.89%) CI/CD
3 544 (22.72%) DevOps
4 514 (21.47%) Software Engineering
5 413 (17.25%) Agile
6 388 (16.21%) Continuous Improvement
7 387 (16.17%) Infrastructure as Code
8 326 (13.62%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 278 (11.61%) Containerisation
10 242 (10.11%) Computer Science
11 219 (9.15%) Mentoring
12 216 (9.02%) Cybersecurity
13 208 (8.69%) AI
14 196 (8.19%) High Availability
15 187 (7.81%) Test Automation
16 185 (7.73%) Platform Engineering
17 160 (6.68%) ITIL
18 159 (6.64%) SIEM
19 157 (6.56%) Customer Service
19 157 (6.56%) Incident Response
Programming Languages
1 786 (32.83%) Python
2 379 (15.83%) C++
3 343 (14.33%) Bash
4 340 (14.20%) PowerShell
5 314 (13.12%) SQL
6 247 (10.32%) Java
7 171 (7.14%) C
8 166 (6.93%) JavaScript
9 116 (4.85%) C#
10 97 (4.05%) Rust
11 93 (3.88%) Shell Script
12 62 (2.59%) PHP
13 59 (2.46%) Go
14 47 (1.96%) TypeScript
15 42 (1.75%) Ruby
16 37 (1.55%) Perl
17 31 (1.29%) Embedded C++
18 26 (1.09%) Embedded C
18 26 (1.09%) PL/SQL
19 22 (0.92%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 661 (27.61%) Security Cleared
2 407 (17.00%) SC Cleared
3 362 (15.12%) Degree
4 244 (10.19%) DV Cleared
5 129 (5.39%) Computer Science Degree
6 67 (2.80%) Cisco Certification
7 55 (2.30%) Azure Certification
8 47 (1.96%) CompTIA Security+
9 44 (1.84%) Microsoft Certification
10 43 (1.80%) CCNA
11 38 (1.59%) AWS Certification
12 36 (1.50%) Master's Degree
13 34 (1.42%) CISSP
14 33 (1.38%) GIAC
15 32 (1.34%) OSCP
16 31 (1.29%) BPSS Clearance
17 28 (1.17%) CCNP
17 28 (1.17%) CREST Certified
18 26 (1.09%) RHCSA
19 24 (1.00%) GCIA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 132 (5.51%) Cyber Essentials
2 113 (4.72%) QA
3 100 (4.18%) PCI DSS
4 79 (3.30%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 45 (1.88%) NIST
6 40 (1.67%) GDPR
7 36 (1.50%) SLA
8 16 (0.67%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 15 (0.63%) Accessibility
10 11 (0.46%) ISO 9001
11 10 (0.42%) JTAG
12 8 (0.33%) SOC 2
13 7 (0.29%) HL7
13 7 (0.29%) MISRA
14 6 (0.25%) NCSC
15 5 (0.21%) Sarbanes-Oxley
16 4 (0.17%) Actionable Recommendations
16 4 (0.17%) ISO 14001
17 3 (0.13%) ECSS
17 3 (0.13%) JSP 440
System Software
1 415 (17.34%) Docker
2 386 (16.12%) Active Directory
3 262 (10.94%) VMware Infrastructure
4 208 (8.69%) Hyper-V
5 96 (4.01%) vSphere
6 80 (3.34%) Terminal Server
7 52 (2.17%) Virtual Machines
8 46 (1.92%) Firmware
8 46 (1.92%) VMware ESXi
9 33 (1.38%) KVM
10 28 (1.17%) VMware NSX
11 16 (0.67%) Virtual Servers
12 14 (0.58%) Oracle RAC
12 14 (0.58%) Squid
13 11 (0.46%) Slurm Workload Manager
14 10 (0.42%) Embedded Firmware
15 9 (0.38%) Citrix Hypervisor
15 9 (0.38%) iptables
16 8 (0.33%) Ceph
16 8 (0.33%) Microsoft Virtual Server
Systems Management
1 463 (19.34%) Kubernetes
2 447 (18.67%) Terraform
3 384 (16.04%) Ansible
4 119 (4.97%) Grafana
5 92 (3.84%) Puppet
6 85 (3.55%) Prometheus
7 71 (2.97%) Microsoft Intune
8 57 (2.38%) Nagios
9 53 (2.21%) Argo
10 37 (1.55%) vCenter Server
11 36 (1.50%) ZABBIX
12 34 (1.42%) Progress Chef
13 33 (1.38%) Packer
14 30 (1.25%) Proxmox
15 26 (1.09%) Podman
16 19 (0.79%) Nessus
17 17 (0.71%) Kibana
18 16 (0.67%) Graylog
18 16 (0.67%) Single Sign-On
19 14 (0.58%) Istio
Vendors
1 636 (26.57%) Microsoft
2 426 (17.79%) VMware
3 230 (9.61%) Red Hat
4 193 (8.06%) Splunk
5 140 (5.85%) Cisco
6 138 (5.76%) Veeam
7 116 (4.85%) Oracle
8 103 (4.30%) SolarWinds
9 85 (3.55%) Google
10 81 (3.38%) Brocade
11 80 (3.34%) Nimble Storage
11 80 (3.34%) Tanium
12 46 (1.92%) ServiceNow
13 38 (1.59%) Dell
14 36 (1.50%) IBM
15 33 (1.38%) NetApp
16 31 (1.29%) Palo Alto
17 29 (1.21%) Fortinet
18 28 (1.17%) Atlassian
18 28 (1.17%) HP