Platform Engineer Contract Job Trends in England

Platform Engineer
UK > England

The median Platform Engineer daily rate in England is £550, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 13 December 2025.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

 6 months to
13 Dec 2025		 Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 245 385 363
Rank change year-on-year +140 -22 +131
Contract jobs requiring a Platform Engineer 336 122 211
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.09% 0.40% 0.55%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.19% 0.43% 0.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 236 103 162
10th Percentile £381 £400 £428
25th Percentile £470 £463 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £573 £576
Median % change year-on-year -3.93% -0.52% -2.04%
75th Percentile £620 £675 £650
90th Percentile £725 £748 £700
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £576
% change year-on-year - -4.51% +0.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 4
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £59.75 - £60.00
Median hourly rate £64.50 - £63.50
75th Percentile £69.25 - £69.75
90th Percentile - - £74.70
UK median hourly rate £57.25 - £63.50
% change year-on-year - - -33.94%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
England

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in England. 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 contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in England with a recognized job title 28,233 28,165 35,983
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.17% 92.89% 93.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 18,092 17,437 24,751
10th Percentile £285 £300 £294
25th Percentile £405 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £507 £525 £534
Median % change year-on-year -3.38% -1.69% -2.91%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,705 974 1,399
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.34 £15.32
25th Percentile £17.87 £21.05 £19.50
Median hourly rate £25.15 £37.25 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -32.48% -17.22% +36.36%
75th Percentile £57.50 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £71.50 £74.42 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £34.75 £44.00
% change year-on-year -27.63% -21.02% +40.98%

Platform Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Platform Engineer' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in England.

Platform Engineer job vacancy trend in England

Platform Engineer
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Platform Engineer job vacancies in England.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Platform Engineer job vacancies in England

Platform Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Platform Engineer in England over the 6 months to 13 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Platform Engineer in England

Platform Engineer
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Platform Engineer job vacancies in England.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Platform Engineer job vacancies in England

Platform Engineer
Contract Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Platform Engineer within the England region over the 6 months to 13 December 2025. 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
Contract
IT Job Ads		 Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months		 Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year		 Live
Jobs
London +78 157 £550 -8.33% 34
North of England -7 58 £550 -4.76% 20
Midlands +5 48 £525 -10.26% 8
West Midlands +13 47 £525 -23.36% 5
South East +24 43 £531 +9.54% 19
North West +18 41 £550 -13.73% 10
South West +2 19 £563 -1.75% 37
Yorkshire -42 15 £525 -8.30% 10
East of England -6 8 £500 -9.09% 3
North East - 5 £550 -
East Midlands -19 1 £525 +10.53% 3
Platform Engineer
UK

Platform Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England

For the 6 months to 13 December 2025, Platform Engineer contract 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 contract job ads across the England region featuring Platform Engineer in the job title.

1 294 (87.50%) Platform Engineering
2 181 (53.87%) CI/CD
3 163 (48.51%) Python
4 160 (47.62%) Terraform
5 151 (44.94%) AWS
6 137 (40.77%) Infrastructure as Code
7 133 (39.58%) DevOps
8 129 (38.39%) Security Cleared
9 117 (34.82%) Azure
10 107 (31.85%) SC Cleared
11 103 (30.65%) PowerShell
12 100 (29.76%) Windows
13 99 (29.46%) Kubernetes
14 92 (27.38%) Linux
15 80 (23.81%) Docker
16 78 (23.21%) Microsoft
17 76 (22.62%) Jenkins
18 74 (22.02%) Observability
19 70 (20.83%) Grafana
20 69 (20.54%) Firewall
21 64 (19.05%) Active Directory
22 62 (18.45%) Bash
23 61 (18.15%) Prometheus
24 58 (17.26%) GitHub
25 55 (16.37%) Problem-Solving
26 51 (15.18%) Java
27 50 (14.88%) Splunk
28 49 (14.58%) Containerisation
29 47 (13.99%) GitHub Actions
30 44 (13.10%) Configuration Management

Platform Engineer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England 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 28 (8.33%) Microsoft Exchange
2 26 (7.74%) Confluence
3 13 (3.87%) SharePoint
4 12 (3.57%) Apache
4 12 (3.57%) nginx
5 9 (2.68%) Apache Airflow
6 7 (2.08%) Apache Spark
6 7 (2.08%) WebLogic
7 6 (1.79%) CICS
8 5 (1.49%) JBoss
8 5 (1.49%) OpenStack
9 4 (1.19%) SAS
10 3 (0.89%) IIS
10 3 (0.89%) SharePoint Server
11 2 (0.60%) Cloud Foundry
11 2 (0.60%) iPlanet
11 2 (0.60%) Tomcat
11 2 (0.60%) WebSphere
11 2 (0.60%) WebSphere Application Server
12 1 (0.30%) Mule ESB
Applications
1 11 (3.27%) Mozilla Thunderbird
2 1 (0.30%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.30%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (0.30%) Finacle
Cloud Services
1 151 (44.94%) AWS
2 117 (34.82%) Azure
3 58 (17.26%) GitHub
4 47 (13.99%) GitHub Actions
5 37 (11.01%) Amazon S3
5 37 (11.01%) Microsoft 365
6 35 (10.42%) Amazon EC2
7 33 (9.82%) GCP
8 30 (8.93%) AWS CloudFormation
8 30 (8.93%) Azure DevOps
8 30 (8.93%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 29 (8.63%) Amazon EKS
10 28 (8.33%) Amazon ECS
11 26 (7.74%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 24 (7.14%) AWS KMS
13 23 (6.85%) OpenShift
14 19 (5.65%) Entra ID
15 18 (5.36%) Amazon ELB
16 16 (4.76%) Power Platform
16 16 (4.76%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 69 (20.54%) Firewall
2 44 (13.10%) DNS
3 18 (5.36%) Cisco IOS
3 18 (5.36%) SMTP
3 18 (5.36%) SSH
4 17 (5.06%) FTP
4 17 (5.06%) HTTP
5 11 (3.27%) IMAP
5 11 (3.27%) OpenLDAP
6 8 (2.38%) VLAN
7 7 (2.08%) Network Security
8 6 (1.79%) BGP
8 6 (1.79%) Software-Defined Networking
9 5 (1.49%) DHCP
9 5 (1.49%) WebEx
10 4 (1.19%) IPv4
10 4 (1.19%) TCP/IP
11 3 (0.89%) Skype
12 2 (0.60%) SSL
12 2 (0.60%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 30 (8.93%) Amazon RDS
2 20 (5.95%) PostgreSQL
3 13 (3.87%) Amazon Aurora
4 10 (2.98%) NoSQL
5 9 (2.68%) Data Lake
6 8 (2.38%) SQL Server
7 7 (2.08%) Amazon Redshift
8 6 (1.79%) Hadoop
9 5 (1.49%) Big Data
9 5 (1.49%) Couchbase
9 5 (1.49%) Power BI
10 4 (1.19%) Data Warehouse
10 4 (1.19%) DynamoDB
10 4 (1.19%) Redis
10 4 (1.19%) Relational Database
11 2 (0.60%) BigQuery
11 2 (0.60%) Elasticsearch
11 2 (0.60%) MySQL
11 2 (0.60%) Oracle Database
11 2 (0.60%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 76 (22.62%) Jenkins
2 38 (11.31%) Git
3 29 (8.63%) JIRA
4 22 (6.55%) GitLab
5 18 (5.36%) Vagrant
6 8 (2.38%) SonarQube
7 7 (2.08%) Sonatype Nexus
8 5 (1.49%) Bitbucket
9 3 (0.89%) Bitbucket Server
9 3 (0.89%) CA Release Automation
9 3 (0.89%) CircleCI
9 3 (0.89%) TeamCity
10 2 (0.60%) Artifactory
10 2 (0.60%) MSI
10 2 (0.60%) Spinnaker
11 1 (0.30%) Atlassian Bamboo
11 1 (0.30%) Cucumber
11 1 (0.30%) git-flow
11 1 (0.30%) GoCD
11 1 (0.30%) JUnit
General
1 67 (19.94%) Social Skills
2 37 (11.01%) Public Sector
3 34 (10.12%) Finance
4 22 (6.55%) Banking
4 22 (6.55%) Games
5 21 (6.25%) Analytical Skills
6 11 (3.27%) Presentation Skills
7 9 (2.68%) Documentation Skills
8 6 (1.79%) Legal
9 4 (1.19%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 4 (1.19%) Investment Banking
9 4 (1.19%) Publishing
10 3 (0.89%) Retail
11 2 (0.60%) Corporate Banking
11 2 (0.60%) Front Office
11 2 (0.60%) Manufacturing
11 2 (0.60%) Marketing
11 2 (0.60%) Pharmaceutical
12 1 (0.30%) Electronics
12 1 (0.30%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 37 (11.01%) Kafka
2 22 (6.55%) gRPC
3 13 (3.87%) Elastic Stack
3 13 (3.87%) LDAP
4 12 (3.57%) Middleware
5 10 (2.98%) React
6 9 (2.68%) OAuth
7 7 (2.08%) ARM Templates
7 7 (2.08%) AWS CDK
8 6 (1.79%) ISPF
9 5 (1.49%) XMPP
9 5 (1.49%) YAML
10 4 (1.19%) LangChain
10 4 (1.19%) Node.js
10 4 (1.19%) OpenID
10 4 (1.19%) REST
10 4 (1.19%) SAML
11 3 (0.89%) Microsoft Graph
11 3 (0.89%) OAuth2
11 3 (0.89%) Semantic Kernel
Miscellaneous
1 34 (10.12%) Replication
2 26 (7.74%) Cloud Native
3 25 (7.44%) Distributed Systems
4 15 (4.46%) Data Centre
4 15 (4.46%) Private Cloud
5 11 (3.27%) Hybrid Cloud
5 11 (3.27%) Product Ownership
6 9 (2.68%) NHS
6 9 (2.68%) Onboarding
7 7 (2.08%) PKI
8 6 (1.79%) Enterprise Storage
8 6 (1.79%) Mainframe
8 6 (1.79%) VSAM
9 5 (1.49%) AI Agents
9 5 (1.49%) IBM Mainframe
10 4 (1.19%) Analytical Mindset
10 4 (1.19%) Linux Command Line
10 4 (1.19%) Security Posture
11 3 (0.89%) Data Protection Act
11 3 (0.89%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 100 (29.76%) Windows
2 92 (27.38%) Linux
3 33 (9.82%) Windows Server
4 25 (7.44%) VMS
5 21 (6.25%) Amazon Linux
6 18 (5.36%) Android
6 18 (5.36%) Mac OS
6 18 (5.36%) Unix
7 16 (4.76%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 10 (2.98%) Ubuntu
9 9 (2.68%) Windows 10
10 6 (1.79%) zOS
11 3 (0.89%) Windows Server 2016
12 1 (0.30%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 294 (87.50%) Platform Engineering
2 181 (53.87%) CI/CD
3 137 (40.77%) Infrastructure as Code
4 133 (39.58%) DevOps
5 74 (22.02%) Observability
6 55 (16.37%) Problem-Solving
7 49 (14.58%) Containerisation
8 44 (13.10%) Configuration Management
9 32 (9.52%) Continuous Improvement
9 32 (9.52%) Software Engineering
10 31 (9.23%) Analytics
10 31 (9.23%) Cloud Security
10 31 (9.23%) Open Source
11 29 (8.63%) Migration
12 28 (8.33%) Service Management
13 27 (8.04%) Agile
14 26 (7.74%) Incident Response
15 25 (7.44%) AI
15 25 (7.44%) Infrastructure Automation
15 25 (7.44%) Performance Tuning
Programming Languages
1 163 (48.51%) Python
2 103 (30.65%) PowerShell
3 62 (18.45%) Bash
4 51 (15.18%) Java
5 43 (12.80%) SQL
6 25 (7.44%) Go
7 20 (5.95%) Groovy
8 19 (5.65%) C#
9 17 (5.06%) JavaScript
9 17 (5.06%) Perl
10 15 (4.46%) Bicep
11 10 (2.98%) Shell Script
12 7 (2.08%) TypeScript
13 6 (1.79%) CLIST
13 6 (1.79%) JCL
13 6 (1.79%) REXX
14 5 (1.49%) Ruby
15 3 (0.89%) PHP
16 2 (0.60%) PL/SQL
16 2 (0.60%) Scala
Qualifications
1 129 (38.39%) Security Cleared
2 107 (31.85%) SC Cleared
3 26 (7.74%) Degree
4 20 (5.95%) AWS Certification
5 17 (5.06%) Azure Certification
5 17 (5.06%) DV Cleared
6 10 (2.98%) CCNA
6 10 (2.98%) Cisco Certification
7 9 (2.68%) CCDP
7 9 (2.68%) CCNP
8 4 (1.19%) Computer Science Degree
9 3 (0.89%) BPSS Clearance
9 3 (0.89%) Microsoft Certification
10 1 (0.30%) MCP
10 1 (0.30%) MCSA
10 1 (0.30%) MCSE
10 1 (0.30%) OCA
10 1 (0.30%) Oracle Certification
10 1 (0.30%) Server+ Certification
10 1 (0.30%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (2.08%) GDPR
2 4 (1.19%) NIST
3 3 (0.89%) SOC 2
4 2 (0.60%) NCSC
4 2 (0.60%) PCI DSS
5 1 (0.30%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (0.30%) Data Quality
5 1 (0.30%) EMIR
5 1 (0.30%) EU AI Act
5 1 (0.30%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 1 (0.30%) ISO/IEC 42001
5 1 (0.30%) MiFID
System Software
1 80 (23.81%) Docker
2 64 (19.05%) Active Directory
3 23 (6.85%) VMware Infrastructure
4 17 (5.06%) DFS Replication
5 14 (4.17%) Virtual Machines
6 11 (3.27%) Dovecot
6 11 (3.27%) Postfix
6 11 (3.27%) Squid
7 6 (1.79%) Time Sharing Option
7 6 (1.79%) vSphere
8 3 (0.89%) VMware NSX
9 2 (0.60%) Xen
10 1 (0.30%) HDFS
10 1 (0.30%) Tivoli Directory Server
10 1 (0.30%) Virtual Desktop
10 1 (0.30%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 160 (47.62%) Terraform
2 99 (29.46%) Kubernetes
3 70 (20.83%) Grafana
4 61 (18.15%) Prometheus
5 38 (11.31%) Ansible
6 25 (7.44%) SCCM
7 19 (5.65%) Microsoft Intune
8 13 (3.87%) Proxmox
9 11 (3.27%) Argo
9 11 (3.27%) Nessus
10 10 (2.98%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 9 (2.68%) Packer
11 9 (2.68%) vCenter Server
12 8 (2.38%) Puppet
12 8 (2.38%) SCOM
13 6 (1.79%) OMEGAMON
14 5 (1.49%) CA Endevor
14 5 (1.49%) Istio
14 5 (1.49%) Kibana
14 5 (1.49%) NetBackup
Vendors
1 78 (23.21%) Microsoft
2 50 (14.88%) Splunk
3 42 (12.50%) Cisco
4 32 (9.52%) VMware
5 26 (7.74%) Red Hat
6 23 (6.85%) Dynatrace
7 20 (5.95%) ServiceNow
8 18 (5.36%) Meraki
9 16 (4.76%) AppDynamics
10 15 (4.46%) Databricks
10 15 (4.46%) IBM
11 11 (3.27%) Citrix
11 11 (3.27%) Jaspersoft
11 11 (3.27%) Oracle
12 10 (2.98%) OpenAI
13 8 (2.38%) Confluent
13 8 (2.38%) Google
14 7 (2.08%) Veeam
15 6 (1.79%) Commvault
16 5 (1.49%) SolarWinds
110 Platform Engineer jobs in England