Unix Job Trends

Unix
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs requiring Unix skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 14 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 331 236 230
Rank change year-on-year -95 -6 -29
Permanent jobs citing Unix 354 674 797
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.59% 1.26% 1.43%
As % of the Operating Systems category 7.17% 8.39% 9.27%
Number of salaries quoted 200 251 543
10th Percentile £41,250 £41,250 £42,250
25th Percentile £50,188 £50,000 £50,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £60,000 £67,500
Median % change year-on-year - -11.11% +3.85%
75th Percentile £78,790 £80,000 £84,056
90th Percentile £88,750 £93,778 £96,539
UK excluding London median annual salary £56,965 £57,500 £61,000
% change year-on-year -0.93% -5.74% +22.00%

All Operating Systems
UK

Unix 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 4,935 8,029 8,601
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 8.23% 15.00% 15.45%
Number of salaries quoted 3,643 4,519 7,056
10th Percentile £27,000 £28,250 £27,000
25th Percentile £31,250 £36,250 £34,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £50,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% - -4.76%
75th Percentile £67,500 £72,500 £67,500
90th Percentile £86,250 £90,000 £85,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £37,750 £46,000 £45,000
% change year-on-year -17.93% +2.22% -

Unix
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Unix job vacancy trend in the UK

Unix
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Unix.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Unix

Unix
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Unix over the 6 months to 14 January 2026.

Salary histogram for Unix in the UK

Unix
Top 17 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Unix within the UK over the 6 months to 14 January 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 -74 320 £58,000 -3.33% 145
UK excluding London -104 183 £56,965 -0.93% 126
London +7 153 £75,000 +8.21% 37
Work from Home -22 138 £70,000 +1.00% 76
South West +31 47 £57,500 -20.13% 17
South East +23 47 £58,000 +11.54% 39
East of England +11 37 £43,085 -25.07% 18
North of England -106 18 £55,000 +4.76% 21
Midlands -44 13 £73,801 +29.48% 19
Scotland -34 10 £73,801 +6.48% 7
Wales +6 9 £65,000 +30.00% 6
West Midlands -34 9 £74,401 +24.00% 9
North West -64 7 £60,000 +20.00% 11
Yorkshire -37 6 £25,750 -67.86% 7
North East +5 5 £73,801 +47.60% 3
East Midlands -17 4 £40,000 -27.27% 10
Northern Ireland -19 2 £73,801 -18.00% 2

Unix
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 37 (10.45%) Microsoft Exchange
2 26 (7.34%) Exchange Server 2003
3 22 (6.21%) WebSphere
4 21 (5.93%) Tomcat
5 16 (4.52%) WebSphere Application Server
6 9 (2.54%) Apache Spark
7 5 (1.41%) Anypoint
7 5 (1.41%) Confluence
7 5 (1.41%) WebLogic
8 4 (1.13%) Apache
8 4 (1.13%) Apache Airflow
8 4 (1.13%) IIS
8 4 (1.13%) nginx
8 4 (1.13%) Oracle Workflow
9 3 (0.85%) WebLogic Portal
10 1 (0.28%) JBoss
10 1 (0.28%) NetWeaver
10 1 (0.28%) Oracle SOA Suite
10 1 (0.28%) SharePoint
Applications
1 19 (5.37%) Microsoft Office
2 15 (4.24%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 7 (1.98%) Oracle EBS
2 5 (1.41%) Shopify
3 4 (1.13%) NEC Housing
3 4 (1.13%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 3 (0.85%) Fidessa
4 3 (0.85%) Primavera
5 2 (0.56%) SAP S/4HANA
6 1 (0.28%) Oracle BPM
6 1 (0.28%) SAP IBP
Cloud Services
1 121 (34.18%) AWS
2 74 (20.90%) Azure
3 49 (13.84%) GCP
4 38 (10.73%) AWS CloudFormation
5 33 (9.32%) Pulumi
6 26 (7.34%) Amazon ECR
7 21 (5.93%) Serverless
8 20 (5.65%) Amazon ECS
8 20 (5.65%) dbt
8 20 (5.65%) PaaS
9 19 (5.37%) Amazon EC2
9 19 (5.37%) AWS Lambda
10 17 (4.80%) GitHub
10 17 (4.80%) SaaS
11 16 (4.52%) Amazon S3
11 16 (4.52%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 14 (3.95%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 14 (3.95%) Microsoft 365
13 12 (3.39%) Amazon EKS
13 12 (3.39%) Amazon ElastiCache
Communications & Networking
1 36 (10.17%) TCP/IP
2 25 (7.06%) DHCP
2 25 (7.06%) DNS
2 25 (7.06%) SSL
3 19 (5.37%) Firewall
4 15 (4.24%) Broadband
5 11 (3.11%) WAN
6 10 (2.82%) VPN
7 9 (2.54%) SAN
7 9 (2.54%) VLAN
8 7 (1.98%) 5G
8 7 (1.98%) MPLS
8 7 (1.98%) SD-WAN
9 6 (1.69%) HTTPS
9 6 (1.69%) Network Security
9 6 (1.69%) Wi-Fi
9 6 (1.69%) Wireshark
10 5 (1.41%) FIX Connectivity
10 5 (1.41%) VoIP
11 4 (1.13%) MQTT
Database & Business Intelligence
1 47 (13.28%) PostgreSQL
2 37 (10.45%) Oracle Database
3 31 (8.76%) Amazon RDS
4 30 (8.47%) Relational Database
5 27 (7.63%) Oracle Database 10g
6 22 (6.21%) SQL Server
7 21 (5.93%) Elasticsearch
8 20 (5.65%) NoSQL
8 20 (5.65%) Redis
9 18 (5.08%) DB2
10 13 (3.67%) RDBMS
11 11 (3.11%) Big Data
12 8 (2.26%) Hadoop
12 8 (2.26%) Power BI
12 8 (2.26%) Tableau
13 7 (1.98%) Oracle Reports
14 6 (1.69%) Amazon Redshift
14 6 (1.69%) FileMaker
14 6 (1.69%) MySQL
15 5 (1.41%) Apache Hive
Development Applications
1 24 (6.78%) Git
2 13 (3.67%) Jaeger
3 11 (3.11%) LabVIEW
4 10 (2.82%) Jenkins
5 8 (2.26%) GitLab
5 8 (2.26%) JIRA
6 4 (1.13%) Toad
7 3 (0.85%) Cypress.io
7 3 (0.85%) Oracle APEX
7 3 (0.85%) Oracle Forms
8 2 (0.56%) Bitbucket
8 2 (0.56%) Browser DevTools
8 2 (0.56%) CircleCI
8 2 (0.56%) JUnit
8 2 (0.56%) Mocha
8 2 (0.56%) webpack
9 1 (0.28%) Android Studio
9 1 (0.28%) Eclipse
9 1 (0.28%) Postman
9 1 (0.28%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 86 (24.29%) Finance
2 68 (19.21%) Social Skills
3 39 (11.02%) Analytical Skills
4 34 (9.60%) Banking
5 22 (6.21%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 19 (5.37%) Public Sector
7 16 (4.52%) German Language
8 15 (4.24%) Presentation Skills
9 14 (3.95%) Telecoms
10 13 (3.67%) Electronics
10 13 (3.67%) Investment Banking
11 9 (2.54%) Law
12 8 (2.26%) Documentation Skills
12 8 (2.26%) Manufacturing
13 5 (1.41%) Legal
14 4 (1.13%) Back Office
14 4 (1.13%) Financial Institution
14 4 (1.13%) Front Office
14 4 (1.13%) Local Government
14 4 (1.13%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 63 (17.80%) Senior
2 31 (8.76%) Administrator
2 31 (8.76%) Support Engineer
3 29 (8.19%) Applications Support
3 29 (8.19%) Linux Support
4 26 (7.34%) Linux Engineer
4 26 (7.34%) Systems Administrator
5 25 (7.06%) 3rd Line Support
6 23 (6.50%) Systems Support
7 22 (6.21%) Infrastructure Support
8 21 (5.93%) Platform Engineer
9 20 (5.65%) Analyst
9 20 (5.65%) Developer
10 19 (5.37%) Lead
10 19 (5.37%) Unix Support
11 14 (3.95%) Cloud Engineer
12 13 (3.67%) Linux Support Engineer
12 13 (3.67%) Support Analyst
12 13 (3.67%) Verification Engineer
13 12 (3.39%) Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 36 (10.17%) JSON
2 34 (9.60%) XML
3 33 (9.32%) HTML
4 29 (8.19%) Regular Expression
5 22 (6.21%) Elastic Stack
5 22 (6.21%) LDAP
6 20 (5.65%) Django
7 18 (5.08%) WebSphere MQ
8 16 (4.52%) LAPP Stack
9 13 (3.67%) OpenTelemetry
10 12 (3.39%) REST
11 11 (3.11%) pytest
11 11 (3.11%) SOAP
12 10 (2.82%) Middleware
12 10 (2.82%) OAuth
13 9 (2.54%) FIX Protocol
14 7 (1.98%) Node.js
14 7 (1.98%) RESTful
15 6 (1.69%) OAuth2
16 5 (1.41%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 67 (18.93%) Linux Command Line
2 34 (9.60%) Onboarding
3 24 (6.78%) Management Information System
4 22 (6.21%) e-Learning
5 15 (4.24%) Distributed Systems
6 10 (2.82%) Security Posture
7 9 (2.54%) Data Centre
7 9 (2.54%) IoT
7 9 (2.54%) Self-Motivation
8 8 (2.26%) PKI
9 7 (1.98%) Analytical Mindset
9 7 (1.98%) Clustering
9 7 (1.98%) Hedge funds
9 7 (1.98%) Self-Driving Car
10 6 (1.69%) Cyber Kill Chain
10 6 (1.69%) Low-Code
10 6 (1.69%) Replication
11 5 (1.41%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
12 4 (1.13%) Device Driver
12 4 (1.13%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 239 (67.51%) Linux
2 114 (32.20%) Windows
3 46 (12.99%) Solaris
4 38 (10.73%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 26 (7.34%) HPUX
5 26 (7.34%) Windows Server 2003
6 22 (6.21%) Windows 7
6 22 (6.21%) Windows Server 2008
7 16 (4.52%) Windows Server
8 11 (3.11%) Debian
9 8 (2.26%) Mac OS
10 6 (1.69%) AIX
10 6 (1.69%) Ubuntu
11 3 (0.85%) CentOS
12 2 (0.56%) Windows Server 2016
12 2 (0.56%) Windows Server 2019
13 1 (0.28%) Android
13 1 (0.28%) CoreOS
13 1 (0.28%) SUSE
Processes & Methodologies
1 75 (21.19%) DevOps
1 75 (21.19%) Problem-Solving
2 63 (17.80%) Infrastructure as Code
3 56 (15.82%) ITIL
4 52 (14.69%) AI
4 52 (14.69%) High Availability
5 49 (13.84%) CI/CD
6 45 (12.71%) Agile
7 39 (11.02%) Data Analysis
8 38 (10.73%) Incident Management
9 35 (9.89%) Change Management
10 34 (9.60%) Computer Science
11 31 (8.76%) Containerisation
12 29 (8.19%) LLM
13 28 (7.91%) Analytics
13 28 (7.91%) Observability
13 28 (7.91%) Test Automation
14 27 (7.63%) Site Reliability Engineering
15 25 (7.06%) Incident Response
16 24 (6.78%) Open Source
Programming Languages
1 201 (56.78%) Python
2 63 (17.80%) SQL
3 58 (16.38%) Bash
4 43 (12.15%) PowerShell
5 39 (11.02%) JavaScript
6 36 (10.17%) Java
7 28 (7.91%) Perl
8 23 (6.50%) Shell Script
9 18 (5.08%) Go
10 13 (3.67%) C#
10 13 (3.67%) MATLAB
11 10 (2.82%) C
11 10 (2.82%) R
12 9 (2.54%) C++
13 8 (2.26%) Korn
14 5 (1.41%) PL/SQL
14 5 (1.41%) TypeScript
15 4 (1.13%) Fortran
15 4 (1.13%) VB
16 3 (0.85%) Scala
Qualifications
1 110 (31.07%) Degree
1 110 (31.07%) Security Cleared
2 94 (26.55%) SC Cleared
3 57 (16.10%) DV Cleared
4 42 (11.86%) AWS Certification
5 28 (7.91%) CCNA
5 28 (7.91%) Cisco Certification
6 27 (7.63%) Computer Science Degree
7 23 (6.50%) ITIL Certification
8 21 (5.93%) CCNP
9 19 (5.37%) CISSP
10 11 (3.11%) HND
11 8 (2.26%) CISA
12 7 (1.98%) ACCA
12 7 (1.98%) CCSK
12 7 (1.98%) CIMA
12 7 (1.98%) Master's Degree
12 7 (1.98%) Network+ Certification
12 7 (1.98%) PhD
13 6 (1.69%) GCIA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 54 (15.25%) SLA
2 12 (3.39%) GDPR
3 10 (2.82%) QA
4 8 (2.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 8 (2.26%) NIST
5 6 (1.69%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 4 (1.13%) Data Quality
7 3 (0.85%) COBIT
8 1 (0.28%) Disclosure Scotland
8 1 (0.28%) HIPAA
8 1 (0.28%) MiFID
8 1 (0.28%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 57 (16.10%) Docker
2 48 (13.56%) Active Directory
3 25 (7.06%) VMware Infrastructure
4 5 (1.41%) Veritas Cluster Server
5 4 (1.13%) Firmware
5 4 (1.13%) Virtual Desktop
5 4 (1.13%) XenApp
5 4 (1.13%) XenDesktop
6 2 (0.56%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.28%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.28%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 63 (17.80%) Terraform
2 57 (16.10%) Ansible
3 42 (11.86%) Kubernetes
4 20 (5.65%) Prometheus
5 16 (4.52%) Grafana
6 14 (3.95%) Argo
7 13 (3.67%) Kustomize
8 12 (3.39%) AWS Copilot
9 6 (1.69%) Jamf Pro
10 5 (1.41%) Microsoft Intune
10 5 (1.41%) SCCM
11 4 (1.13%) Control-M
11 4 (1.13%) Single Sign-On
12 3 (0.85%) Netcool
12 3 (0.85%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
12 3 (0.85%) Podman
12 3 (0.85%) Puppet
13 2 (0.56%) Suricata
14 1 (0.28%) AirWatch
14 1 (0.28%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 65 (18.36%) Oracle
2 58 (16.38%) Google
3 54 (15.25%) VMware
4 50 (14.12%) Microsoft
5 43 (12.15%) Red Hat
6 36 (10.17%) IBM
7 32 (9.04%) Cisco
8 20 (5.65%) SAP
9 16 (4.52%) ServiceNow
10 12 (3.39%) Dell
11 11 (3.11%) Splunk
12 9 (2.54%) Informatica
12 9 (2.54%) Workday
13 8 (2.26%) Fortinet
13 8 (2.26%) IFS
13 8 (2.26%) Juniper
13 8 (2.26%) NetApp
13 8 (2.26%) Palo Alto
14 7 (1.98%) HP
14 7 (1.98%) Symantec