Projectmatch Deutsch

Linux freelance projects & contracts in Germany 2026

4.7% of the analysed German IT freelance listings name Linux – 2,433 projects, rank 17 of the 60 most requested IT skills. In October 2026 it was 4.5% (−0.3 percentage points from the month before). Linux is asked for most often in DevOps / Platform Engineer projects: they make up 46% of the engineering projects with Linux.

By . Data: 52,106 listings on German IT freelance project boards, May 2026 – October 2026. Published , last updated .

Is Linux required or nice to have?

81% of the listings with Linux name it as a required skill. That is more often than for most skills of this overview (median 69%). 9.6% name it as nice to have, 9.1% without a clear mark.

Linux demand by month

Share of listings with Linux per month of first publication, with the number of projects under each month; months with fewer than 1,000 projects are left out. Single months fluctuate.

  1. June 2026403 of 7,653 projects5.3%
  2. July 2026464 of 9,884 projects4.7%
  3. August 2026418 of 10,216 projects4.1%
  4. September 2026536 of 10,958 projects4.9%
  5. October 2026593 of 13,054 projects4.5%

Skills asked for together with Linux

The 15 skills that listings with Linux name most often besides it, as a share of those projects. Blue: typical for Linux, i.e. asked for at least 3 times as often as in projects overall; the tick shows the share across all projects.

Under each skill: its share across all projects.

  1. Kubernetesall projects 7.1%33%
  2. Ansibleall projects 2.1%26%
  3. Pythonall projects 6.9%26%
  4. CI/CDall projects 9.2%25%
  5. Gitall projects 5.1%23%
  6. Dockerall projects 4.8%23%
  7. Monitoringall projects 4.6%19%
  8. Bashall projects 1.4%18%
  9. Javaall projects 6.6%17%
  10. Windowsall projects 1.8%17%
  11. Jiraall projects 8.5%16%
  12. Networkingall projects 3.1%16%
  13. Automationall projects 4.5%15%
  14. Windows Serverall projects 1.5%13%
  15. Scrumall projects 8.1%13%

Typical for Linux – asked for at least 3 times as often as in projects overall – are Ansible (26%), Bash (18%), Windows (17%), Windows Server (13%), Networking (16%), Docker (23%).

Frequent anyway and often part of it here: CI/CD (25%), Java (17%), Jira (16%), Scrum (13%).

Roles asking for Linux

66% of the projects with Linux are engineering projects (1,604 projects) – projects that build software or technical systems; the rest are e.g. consulting, project management or IT operations. The bars show the roles with the most of those projects and their share of them; 5.6% fit none of the major roles. Under each role: how many of its projects name Linux, and how often as required.

  1. DevOps / Platform Engineerin 36% of the role's projects · required 87%46%
  2. Embedded C/C++ Developerin 16% of the role's projects · required 82%8.2%
  3. Test Engineerin 7.8% of the role's projects · required 64%6.5%
  4. Java Backend Developerin 7.9% of the role's projects · required 59%6.2%
  5. Security Engineerin 9.6% of the role's projects · required 87%6.1%
  6. Java Fullstack Developerin 9.4% of the role's projects · required 62%4.7%
  7. Data Engineerin 4.8% of the role's projects · required 85%3.9%
  8. Python Developerin 15% of the role's projects · required 89%3.4%

Skills related to Linux

Skills of this overview that are asked for together with Linux much more often than chance would predict.

How to use the data

If Linux is in your profile, the blue skills often belong with it – name them if you have them. Projectmatch automatically matches new projects against your profile and shows for each project which of the required skills your profile covers. Browse current Linux projects or try it now.

All skills compared: Most in-demand IT skills in German freelance projects. Which skills form clusters: Which skills belong together? Which skills are in particular demand in Munich, Berlin, Frankfurt and other cities: IT freelance projects by city.

Method

An AI model reads the requested skills from each project description, and a project's role from its title and skills; the figures are updated monthly. Details: method of the IT skills analysis.