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 27 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
27 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 328 239 248
Rank change year-on-year -89 +9 -55
Permanent jobs citing Unix 351 668 860
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.56% 1.28% 1.26%
As % of the Operating Systems category 6.99% 8.50% 8.22%
Number of salaries quoted 191 254 591
10th Percentile £40,015 £41,250 £41,250
25th Percentile £48,625 £50,000 £47,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £61,754 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year -2.84% -4.99% -
75th Percentile £78,790 £80,000 £82,548
90th Percentile £88,750 £93,778 £96,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £57,500 £60,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year -4.17% +4.35% +15.00%

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 5,019 7,860 10,460
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 7.98% 15.04% 15.30%
Number of salaries quoted 3,662 4,361 8,731
10th Percentile £27,000 £28,250 £26,250
25th Percentile £31,250 £36,250 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £50,500 £49,000
Median % change year-on-year -10.89% +3.06% -6.67%
75th Percentile £65,000 £72,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £88,750 £83,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £38,000 £45,000 £43,750
% change year-on-year -15.56% +2.86% -2.78%

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 27 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 27 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 -86 312 £58,000 -3.33% 135
UK excluding London -123 171 £57,500 -4.17% 123
London +18 156 £75,000 +15.38% 39
Work from Home -23 135 £71,250 +2.80% 97
South East +6 47 £58,000 +11.54% 37
South West +14 42 £57,500 -20.13% 12
East of England +6 34 £43,085 -25.07% 19
North of England -93 17 £55,000 +10.00% 22
Midlands -64 12 £73,801 +31.79% 18
West Midlands -33 9 £74,401 +24.00% 14
Scotland -46 9 £73,801 +5.95% 9
Wales -3 8 £57,750 +15.50% 7
Yorkshire -35 6 £25,750 -69.80% 4
North West -62 6 £64,401 +28.80% 14
North East -6 5 £73,801 +47.60% 4
East Midlands -24 3 £40,000 -27.27% 4
Northern Ireland -22 2 £73,801 -18.00% 4

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 35 (9.97%) Microsoft Exchange
2 26 (7.41%) Exchange Server 2003
3 22 (6.27%) WebSphere
4 20 (5.70%) Tomcat
5 16 (4.56%) WebSphere Application Server
6 9 (2.56%) Apache Spark
7 5 (1.42%) Anypoint
7 5 (1.42%) Confluence
7 5 (1.42%) WebLogic
8 4 (1.14%) Apache Airflow
8 4 (1.14%) IIS
8 4 (1.14%) Oracle Workflow
9 3 (0.85%) WebLogic Portal
10 2 (0.57%) Apache
10 2 (0.57%) nginx
11 1 (0.28%) NetWeaver
11 1 (0.28%) Oracle SOA Suite
11 1 (0.28%) SharePoint
Applications
1 18 (5.13%) Microsoft Office
2 14 (3.99%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.28%) EngageOne
3 1 (0.28%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 7 (1.99%) Oracle EBS
2 5 (1.42%) Shopify
3 4 (1.14%) NEC Housing
3 4 (1.14%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 3 (0.85%) Fidessa
4 3 (0.85%) Primavera
5 2 (0.57%) SAP S/4HANA
6 1 (0.28%) FLEXCUBE
6 1 (0.28%) Oracle BPM
6 1 (0.28%) SAP IBP
6 1 (0.28%) TIBCO iProcess
Cloud Services
1 134 (38.18%) AWS
2 78 (22.22%) Azure
3 53 (15.10%) GCP
4 39 (11.11%) Pulumi
5 38 (10.83%) AWS CloudFormation
6 26 (7.41%) Amazon ECR
7 22 (6.27%) PaaS
8 21 (5.98%) Serverless
9 20 (5.70%) Amazon ECS
9 20 (5.70%) dbt
10 19 (5.41%) AWS Lambda
10 19 (5.41%) GitHub
11 18 (5.13%) Amazon EC2
12 17 (4.84%) SaaS
12 17 (4.84%) Virtual Private Cloud
13 15 (4.27%) Amazon S3
14 14 (3.99%) Microsoft 365
15 13 (3.70%) Amazon CloudWatch
16 12 (3.42%) Amazon EKS
16 12 (3.42%) Amazon ElastiCache
Communications & Networking
1 36 (10.26%) TCP/IP
2 25 (7.12%) DHCP
2 25 (7.12%) DNS
3 23 (6.55%) SSL
4 21 (5.98%) Broadband
4 21 (5.98%) Firewall
5 12 (3.42%) VPN
6 11 (3.13%) WAN
7 9 (2.56%) VLAN
8 8 (2.28%) 5G
8 8 (2.28%) SD-WAN
9 7 (1.99%) MPLS
9 7 (1.99%) Network Security
10 6 (1.71%) SAN
10 6 (1.71%) Wi-Fi
10 6 (1.71%) Wireshark
11 5 (1.42%) FIX Connectivity
12 4 (1.14%) Modbus
12 4 (1.14%) MQTT
12 4 (1.14%) X.400
Database & Business Intelligence
1 46 (13.11%) PostgreSQL
2 37 (10.54%) Oracle Database
3 35 (9.97%) Relational Database
4 31 (8.83%) Amazon RDS
5 27 (7.69%) NoSQL
5 27 (7.69%) Oracle Database 10g
6 22 (6.27%) Elasticsearch
6 22 (6.27%) SQL Server
7 20 (5.70%) Redis
8 19 (5.41%) DB2
8 19 (5.41%) RDBMS
9 11 (3.13%) Big Data
10 8 (2.28%) Hadoop
11 7 (1.99%) Oracle Reports
11 7 (1.99%) Power BI
11 7 (1.99%) Tableau
12 6 (1.71%) Amazon Redshift
12 6 (1.71%) FileMaker
12 6 (1.71%) MySQL
13 5 (1.42%) Apache Hive
Development Applications
1 26 (7.41%) Git
2 19 (5.41%) Jaeger
3 12 (3.42%) Jenkins
3 12 (3.42%) LabVIEW
4 8 (2.28%) GitLab
5 7 (1.99%) JIRA
6 4 (1.14%) Selenium
6 4 (1.14%) Toad
7 3 (0.85%) JMeter
7 3 (0.85%) Oracle APEX
7 3 (0.85%) Oracle Forms
8 2 (0.57%) CircleCI
8 2 (0.57%) Cypress.io
8 2 (0.57%) Mocha
8 2 (0.57%) Postman
8 2 (0.57%) SoapUI
8 2 (0.57%) webpack
9 1 (0.28%) Bitbucket
9 1 (0.28%) Browser DevTools
9 1 (0.28%) Xcode
General
1 79 (22.51%) Finance
2 67 (19.09%) Social Skills
3 36 (10.26%) Analytical Skills
4 35 (9.97%) Banking
5 30 (8.55%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 19 (5.41%) Public Sector
7 16 (4.56%) German Language
7 16 (4.56%) Presentation Skills
8 14 (3.99%) Electronics
8 14 (3.99%) Telecoms
9 12 (3.42%) Investment Banking
10 9 (2.56%) Law
10 9 (2.56%) Manufacturing
11 7 (1.99%) Documentation Skills
12 6 (1.71%) Legal
13 5 (1.42%) Financial Institution
14 4 (1.14%) Back Office
14 4 (1.14%) Front Office
14 4 (1.14%) Local Government
14 4 (1.14%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 66 (18.80%) Senior
2 30 (8.55%) Support Engineer
3 29 (8.26%) Applications Support
4 27 (7.69%) Lead
4 27 (7.69%) Linux Support
5 25 (7.12%) 3rd Line Support
6 23 (6.55%) Administrator
6 23 (6.55%) Systems Support
7 22 (6.27%) Infrastructure Support
7 22 (6.27%) Linux Engineer
8 21 (5.98%) Analyst
8 21 (5.98%) Platform Engineer
9 20 (5.70%) Developer
10 19 (5.41%) Cloud Engineer
10 19 (5.41%) Systems Administrator
10 19 (5.41%) Unix Support
11 15 (4.27%) Test Engineer
12 14 (3.99%) Verification Engineer
13 13 (3.70%) Support Analyst
14 12 (3.42%) Product Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 37 (10.54%) JSON
2 36 (10.26%) XML
3 33 (9.40%) HTML
4 29 (8.26%) Elastic Stack
4 29 (8.26%) Regular Expression
5 22 (6.27%) LDAP
6 20 (5.70%) Django
7 19 (5.41%) OpenTelemetry
8 18 (5.13%) WebSphere MQ
9 16 (4.56%) LAPP Stack
10 12 (3.42%) pytest
10 12 (3.42%) SOAP
11 10 (2.85%) Middleware
11 10 (2.85%) REST
12 8 (2.28%) FIX Protocol
12 8 (2.28%) Node.js
12 8 (2.28%) OAuth
13 7 (1.99%) RESTful
14 6 (1.71%) OAuth2
15 5 (1.42%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 69 (19.66%) Linux Command Line
2 34 (9.69%) Onboarding
3 27 (7.69%) Management Information System
4 17 (4.84%) e-Learning
5 15 (4.27%) Distributed Systems
6 11 (3.13%) IoT
6 11 (3.13%) Security Posture
7 10 (2.85%) Self-Motivation
8 9 (2.56%) Data Centre
9 8 (2.28%) Hedge funds
9 8 (2.28%) Self-Driving Car
10 7 (1.99%) Analytical Mindset
10 7 (1.99%) Clustering
11 6 (1.71%) Cyber Kill Chain
11 6 (1.71%) Low-Code
12 5 (1.42%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
12 5 (1.42%) PKI
12 5 (1.42%) Replication
13 4 (1.14%) Device Driver
13 4 (1.14%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 231 (65.81%) Linux
2 112 (31.91%) Windows
3 41 (11.68%) Solaris
4 35 (9.97%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 26 (7.41%) HPUX
5 26 (7.41%) Windows Server 2003
6 22 (6.27%) Windows 7
6 22 (6.27%) Windows Server 2008
7 16 (4.56%) Windows Server
8 9 (2.56%) Mac OS
9 8 (2.28%) Debian
10 7 (1.99%) AIX
11 6 (1.71%) Ubuntu
12 3 (0.85%) CentOS
13 2 (0.57%) Windows Server 2016
13 2 (0.57%) Windows Server 2019
14 1 (0.28%) Android
14 1 (0.28%) CoreOS
14 1 (0.28%) Oracle Linux
14 1 (0.28%) SUSE
Processes & Methodologies
1 81 (23.08%) DevOps
2 75 (21.37%) Problem-Solving
3 70 (19.94%) Infrastructure as Code
4 55 (15.67%) AI
5 53 (15.10%) Agile
5 53 (15.10%) ITIL
6 50 (14.25%) High Availability
7 49 (13.96%) CI/CD
8 38 (10.83%) Incident Management
9 37 (10.54%) Data Analysis
10 36 (10.26%) Change Management
10 36 (10.26%) Computer Science
10 36 (10.26%) Containerisation
11 33 (9.40%) Test Automation
12 32 (9.12%) Mentoring
13 30 (8.55%) Analytics
14 29 (8.26%) LLM
15 28 (7.98%) Observability
15 28 (7.98%) Site Reliability Engineering
15 28 (7.98%) Task Automation
Programming Languages
1 205 (58.40%) Python
2 65 (18.52%) SQL
3 61 (17.38%) Bash
4 46 (13.11%) Java
4 46 (13.11%) JavaScript
5 43 (12.25%) PowerShell
6 27 (7.69%) Perl
7 24 (6.84%) Go
8 22 (6.27%) Shell Script
9 15 (4.27%) C#
10 13 (3.70%) MATLAB
11 11 (3.13%) C++
12 10 (2.85%) C
13 8 (2.28%) R
14 7 (1.99%) TypeScript
15 6 (1.71%) Korn
16 5 (1.42%) PL/SQL
16 5 (1.42%) VB
17 4 (1.14%) Fortran
18 3 (0.85%) Scala
Qualifications
1 111 (31.62%) Degree
2 103 (29.34%) Security Cleared
3 86 (24.50%) SC Cleared
4 49 (13.96%) AWS Certification
5 46 (13.11%) DV Cleared
6 30 (8.55%) Computer Science Degree
7 23 (6.55%) ITIL Certification
8 21 (5.98%) CCNA
8 21 (5.98%) Cisco Certification
9 17 (4.84%) CISSP
10 14 (3.99%) CCNP
11 12 (3.42%) HND
12 8 (2.28%) CCSK
13 7 (1.99%) CISA
13 7 (1.99%) Master's Degree
13 7 (1.99%) Network+ Certification
13 7 (1.99%) PhD
14 6 (1.71%) GCFA
14 6 (1.71%) GCIA
14 6 (1.71%) GCIH
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 51 (14.53%) SLA
2 12 (3.42%) GDPR
2 12 (3.42%) QA
3 9 (2.56%) NIST
4 6 (1.71%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 5 (1.42%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 4 (1.14%) COBIT
6 4 (1.14%) Data Quality
7 2 (0.57%) Accessibility
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 69 (19.66%) Docker
2 47 (13.39%) Active Directory
3 23 (6.55%) VMware Infrastructure
4 5 (1.42%) Veritas Cluster Server
5 4 (1.14%) Firmware
6 3 (0.85%) Virtual Desktop
6 3 (0.85%) XenApp
6 3 (0.85%) XenDesktop
7 2 (0.57%) Virtual Machines
8 1 (0.28%) Hyper-V
8 1 (0.28%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 70 (19.94%) Terraform
2 59 (16.81%) Ansible
3 49 (13.96%) Kubernetes
4 27 (7.69%) Prometheus
5 20 (5.70%) Argo
6 19 (5.41%) Kustomize
7 16 (4.56%) Grafana
8 12 (3.42%) AWS Copilot
9 6 (1.71%) Jamf Pro
10 5 (1.42%) SCCM
11 4 (1.14%) Control-M
11 4 (1.14%) Microsoft Intune
11 4 (1.14%) Puppet
12 3 (0.85%) Netcool
12 3 (0.85%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
12 3 (0.85%) Podman
12 3 (0.85%) Single Sign-On
13 2 (0.57%) Packer
13 2 (0.57%) Suricata
14 1 (0.28%) AirWatch
Vendors
1 67 (19.09%) Google
2 64 (18.23%) Oracle
3 51 (14.53%) VMware
4 48 (13.68%) Microsoft
5 39 (11.11%) Red Hat
6 37 (10.54%) IBM
7 25 (7.12%) Cisco
8 20 (5.70%) SAP
9 17 (4.84%) ServiceNow
10 12 (3.42%) Splunk
11 11 (3.13%) Dell
12 9 (2.56%) Informatica
12 9 (2.56%) Workday
13 8 (2.28%) Fortinet
13 8 (2.28%) IFS
13 8 (2.28%) Juniper
13 8 (2.28%) Palo Alto
14 7 (1.99%) Arista
14 7 (1.99%) HP
14 7 (1.99%) Symantec