Linux Engineer Job Trends

Linux Engineer
UK

The median Linux Engineer salary in the UK is £65,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 26 September 2026.

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

6 months to
26 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 584 534 493
Rank change year-on-year -50 -41 -24
Permanent jobs requiring a Linux Engineer 237 130 307
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.20% 0.26% 0.40%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.22% 0.29% 0.42%
Number of salaries quoted 169 103 224
10th Percentile £51,250 £38,500 £36,250
25th Percentile £60,000 £41,250 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £57,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +13.04% +4.55% -6.78%
75th Percentile £85,000 £76,250 £70,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £83,750 £85,000
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 109,213 44,406 72,800
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.99% 89.70% 95.27%
Number of salaries quoted 74,793 25,960 42,645
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,250 £30,500
25th Percentile £40,750 £36,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £59,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.27% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £77,500 £73,775 £75,000
90th Percentile £98,950 £95,000 £93,750
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 26 September 2026.

Salary histogram for Linux Engineer in the UK

Linux Engineer
Top 14 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 26 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 -29 225 £67,500 +17.39% 180
UK excluding London -40 184 £65,000 +52.94% 92
East of England +7 54 £85,000 +106.06% 18
North of England -27 48 £60,000 +41.18% 7
London -78 46 £88,750 +22.41% 95
North West +4 45 £60,000 +41.18% 6
Work from Home -53 44 £63,451 -12.48% 65
South East -22 29 £70,000 - 29
South West -51 26 £80,000 - 10
Midlands -38 21 £60,000 -7.69% 16
East Midlands -15 16 £67,500 +68.75% 2
Scotland +8 6 £64,226 +38.87% 8
West Midlands -41 5 £60,000 -7.69% 14
Yorkshire -41 3 £32,500 - 1

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

For the 6 months to 26 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.

1 237 (100.00%) Linux
2 90 (37.97%) Software Engineering
3 56 (23.63%) Embedded Linux
4 50 (21.10%) Red Hat
5 49 (20.68%) Python
6 42 (17.72%) Bash
7 40 (16.88%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 39 (16.46%) Ansible
9 38 (16.03%) AWS
10 37 (15.61%) Terraform
11 34 (14.35%) CI/CD
12 33 (13.92%) Kubernetes
13 32 (13.50%) Docker
14 30 (12.66%) C++
15 29 (12.24%) Azure
15 29 (12.24%) C
15 29 (12.24%) Security Cleared
16 28 (11.81%) DevOps
17 27 (11.39%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
18 24 (10.13%) Containerisation
18 24 (10.13%) Infrastructure as Code
19 23 (9.70%) Windows
20 21 (8.86%) Ubuntu
21 20 (8.44%) Continuous Improvement
21 20 (8.44%) Degree
22 19 (8.02%) Git
22 19 (8.02%) Yocto
23 18 (7.59%) Firewall
23 18 (7.59%) Problem-Solving
24 17 (7.17%) 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 5 (2.11%) Microsoft Exchange
2 3 (1.27%) Apache
2 3 (1.27%) IIS
2 3 (1.27%) nginx
2 3 (1.27%) OpenStack
2 3 (1.27%) SharePoint
Cloud Services
1 38 (16.03%) AWS
2 29 (12.24%) Azure
3 12 (5.06%) GCP
4 11 (4.64%) SaaS
5 9 (3.80%) Amazon CloudWatch
5 9 (3.80%) Amazon ECR
5 9 (3.80%) Amazon ECS
5 9 (3.80%) Azure DevOps
5 9 (3.80%) Microsoft 365
6 7 (2.95%) OpenShift
7 3 (1.27%) Entra ID
7 3 (1.27%) Microsoft Copilot
7 3 (1.27%) Power Automate
8 2 (0.84%) Google Workspace
8 2 (0.84%) IaaS
8 2 (0.84%) PaaS
9 1 (0.42%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 18 (7.59%) Firewall
2 13 (5.49%) DNS
3 11 (4.64%) Wi-Fi
4 10 (4.22%) TCP/IP
4 10 (4.22%) Wireless
5 6 (2.53%) DHCP
5 6 (2.53%) iSCSI
5 6 (2.53%) SAN
5 6 (2.53%) VPN
6 5 (2.11%) Remote Desktop
7 4 (1.69%) Intrusion Detection
8 3 (1.27%) VoIP
9 2 (0.84%) VLAN
10 1 (0.42%) 5G
10 1 (0.42%) Ethernet
10 1 (0.42%) LTE
10 1 (0.42%) NGN
10 1 (0.42%) SNMP
10 1 (0.42%) WireGuard
10 1 (0.42%) X.509
Database & Business Intelligence
1 14 (5.91%) MySQL
2 9 (3.80%) Elasticsearch
3 6 (2.53%) SQL Server
4 5 (2.11%) KDB
4 5 (2.11%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 19 (8.02%) Git
2 12 (5.06%) GitLab
3 3 (1.27%) PetaLinux
4 2 (0.84%) JIRA
5 1 (0.42%) CMake
5 1 (0.42%) GDB
General
1 38 (16.03%) Social Skills
2 15 (6.33%) Finance
3 11 (4.64%) Banking
4 9 (3.80%) Telecoms
5 6 (2.53%) Aerospace
5 6 (2.53%) Electronics
6 5 (2.11%) Front Office
6 5 (2.11%) Organisational Skills
7 4 (1.69%) Documentation Skills
8 3 (1.27%) Legal
8 3 (1.27%) Manufacturing
8 3 (1.27%) Pharmaceutical
8 3 (1.27%) Retail
9 2 (0.84%) Automotive
9 2 (0.84%) Inclusion and Diversity
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 37 (15.61%) Terraform
2 19 (8.02%) Yocto
3 5 (2.11%) FIX Protocol
4 2 (0.84%) Apache NiFi
5 1 (0.42%) QML
5 1 (0.42%) Qt
5 1 (0.42%) Qt Quick
Miscellaneous
1 26 (10.97%) Embedded Systems
2 14 (5.91%) Device Driver
2 14 (5.91%) IoT
3 10 (4.22%) FPGA
4 9 (3.80%) Data Centre
5 8 (3.38%) Hybrid Cloud
5 8 (3.38%) Robotics
6 7 (2.95%) Algorithms
7 5 (2.11%) Cloud Native
7 5 (2.11%) Fixed Income
7 5 (2.11%) Linux Command Line
7 5 (2.11%) Management Information System
8 3 (1.27%) Clustering
8 3 (1.27%) Cyber Threat
8 3 (1.27%) Driving Licence
9 2 (0.84%) Private Cloud
9 2 (0.84%) Product Ownership
9 2 (0.84%) Self-Motivation
10 1 (0.42%) Hedge funds
10 1 (0.42%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 237 (100.00%) Linux
2 56 (23.63%) Embedded Linux
3 27 (11.39%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 23 (9.70%) Windows
5 21 (8.86%) Ubuntu
6 17 (7.17%) Unix
7 16 (6.75%) CentOS
8 8 (3.38%) AIX
9 7 (2.95%) Windows Server
10 6 (2.53%) Rocky
11 4 (1.69%) Debian
11 4 (1.69%) Solaris
12 3 (1.27%) Mac OS
12 3 (1.27%) Robot Operating System
13 2 (0.84%) Android
14 1 (0.42%) OpenWrt
Processes & Methodologies
1 90 (37.97%) Software Engineering
2 40 (16.88%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 34 (14.35%) CI/CD
4 28 (11.81%) DevOps
5 24 (10.13%) Containerisation
5 24 (10.13%) Infrastructure as Code
6 20 (8.44%) Continuous Improvement
7 18 (7.59%) Problem-Solving
8 15 (6.33%) Configuration Management
8 15 (6.33%) Migration
9 13 (5.49%) Low Latency
9 13 (5.49%) Open Source
10 12 (5.06%) AI
10 12 (5.06%) Collaborative Culture
11 11 (4.64%) Collaborative Engineering
11 11 (4.64%) Computer Science
11 11 (4.64%) ITIL
12 10 (4.22%) High Availability
13 9 (3.80%) Capacity Planning
13 9 (3.80%) Linux Kernel Development
Programming Languages
1 49 (20.68%) Python
2 42 (17.72%) Bash
3 30 (12.66%) C++
4 29 (12.24%) C
5 14 (5.91%) Shell Script
6 13 (5.49%) Embedded C
7 8 (3.38%) PowerShell
8 7 (2.95%) Korn
9 5 (2.11%) Embedded C++
10 4 (1.69%) SQL
11 3 (1.27%) Java
11 3 (1.27%) MATLAB
11 3 (1.27%) Perl
11 3 (1.27%) PL/SQL
12 2 (0.84%) Rust
13 1 (0.42%) C#
13 1 (0.42%) Go
Qualifications
1 29 (12.24%) Security Cleared
2 20 (8.44%) Degree
3 10 (4.22%) DV Cleared
4 5 (2.11%) Computer Science Degree
4 5 (2.11%) Master's Degree
5 4 (1.69%) ITIL Certification
5 4 (1.69%) SC Cleared
6 3 (1.27%) RHCE
6 3 (1.27%) RHCSA
7 2 (0.84%) IBM AIX Certification
8 1 (0.42%) Azure Certification
8 1 (0.42%) CCNA
8 1 (0.42%) Cisco Certification
8 1 (0.42%) Linux+ Certification
8 1 (0.42%) MCSE
8 1 (0.42%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (5.06%) QA
2 4 (1.69%) SLA
3 1 (0.42%) JTAG
System Software
1 32 (13.50%) Docker
2 6 (2.53%) VMware Infrastructure
3 5 (2.11%) Active Directory
3 5 (2.11%) Citrix Hypervisor
4 4 (1.69%) vSphere
5 2 (0.84%) Firmware
5 2 (0.84%) KVM
6 1 (0.42%) Embedded Firmware
6 1 (0.42%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.42%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (0.42%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 39 (16.46%) Ansible
2 33 (13.92%) Kubernetes
3 9 (3.80%) Grafana
3 9 (3.80%) Nagios
4 6 (2.53%) Puppet
5 5 (2.11%) Podman
6 4 (1.69%) vCenter Server
7 2 (0.84%) Red Hat Satellite
8 1 (0.42%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 50 (21.10%) Red Hat
2 12 (5.06%) VMware
3 10 (4.22%) Microsoft
4 9 (3.80%) Rapid7
4 9 (3.80%) Splunk
5 5 (2.11%) Dell
5 5 (2.11%) Oracle
6 3 (1.27%) Citrix
6 3 (1.27%) SonicWALL
6 3 (1.27%) YouTube
7 2 (0.84%) Atlassian
7 2 (0.84%) Google
7 2 (0.84%) IBM
8 1 (0.42%) Apple
8 1 (0.42%) Mirantis
8 1 (0.42%) Veeam