Kubernetes Contract Job Trends in the North West

Kubernetes (k8s)
England > North West

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the North West requiring Kubernetes skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 11 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
11 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 50 46 66
Rank change year-on-year -4 +20 -20
Contract jobs citing Kubernetes 153 99 60
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 4.06% 4.50% 2.51%
As % of the Systems Management category 28.49% 33.45% 24.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 101 80 31
10th Percentile £408 £338 £400
25th Percentile £463 £398 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £560 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +12.00% -4.76% -8.70%
75th Percentile £621 £585 £650
90th Percentile £700 £669 £675
England median daily rate £538 £537 £551
% change year-on-year +0.09% -2.45% -10.12%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 2 2
10th Percentile £61.55 £75.65 -
25th Percentile £62.00 £78.88 -
Median hourly rate £76.00 £87.00 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year -12.64% +88.39% -
75th Percentile £77.00 £92.38 -
90th Percentile £87.80 £93.95 -
England median hourly rate £70.00 £67.00 £67.25
% change year-on-year +4.48% -0.37% -7.88%

All Systems Management Skills
North West

Kubernetes falls under the Systems Management category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring systems management skills in the North West.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for systems management skills 537 296 248
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 14.23% 13.45% 10.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 385 205 172
10th Percentile £295 £264 £213
25th Percentile £403 £356 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £465 £484
Median % change year-on-year +7.53% -3.88% -7.86%
75th Percentile £610 £575 £575
90th Percentile £675 £660 £650
England median daily rate £525 £513 £525
% change year-on-year +2.44% -2.38% -6.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 8 6
10th Percentile £20.92 £48.54 £27.88
25th Percentile £41.18 £62.86 £33.67
Median hourly rate £64.58 £63.40 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year +1.86% +37.29% +8.66%
75th Percentile £76.75 £84.69 £48.11
90th Percentile £95.00 £88.18 £76.38
England median hourly rate £66.18 £54.50 £37.50
% change year-on-year +21.42% +45.33% -24.59%

Kubernetes
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Kubernetes relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West.

Kubernetes job vacancy trend in the North West

Kubernetes
Daily Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Kubernetes.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Kubernetes

Kubernetes
Daily Rate Histogram in the North West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Kubernetes in the North West over the 6 months to 11 August 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Kubernetes in the North West

Kubernetes
Hourly Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Kubernetes.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Kubernetes

Kubernetes
Hourly Rate Histogram in the North West

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Kubernetes in the North West over the 6 months to 11 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Kubernetes in the North West

Kubernetes
Contract Job Locations in the North West

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Kubernetes within the North West region over the 6 months to 11 August 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
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Manchester +1 108 £550 +4.27% 163
Cheshire -12 32 £617 +29.95% 35
Lancashire -3 7 £712 +35.66% 15
Cumbria - 3 £525 -
Merseyside -20 1 £575 +12.75% 1
Kubernetes
England

Kubernetes
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North West 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 7 (4.58%) Apache Spark
1 7 (4.58%) Confluence
2 4 (2.61%) Apache
3 2 (1.31%) Apache Airflow
3 2 (1.31%) OpenStack
3 2 (1.31%) Tomcat
Applications
1 2 (1.31%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 1 (0.65%) FIS Private Capital Suite
1 1 (0.65%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 113 (73.86%) AWS
2 86 (56.21%) Azure
3 51 (33.33%) GCP
4 23 (15.03%) GitHub
4 23 (15.03%) Google Kubernetes Engine
5 21 (13.73%) AWS CloudFormation
6 20 (13.07%) GitHub Actions
7 19 (12.42%) Azure DevOps
7 19 (12.42%) Serverless
8 17 (11.11%) OpenShift
9 16 (10.46%) Azure AKS
10 15 (9.80%) Amazon EKS
11 14 (9.15%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 9 (5.88%) Amazon ECS
13 8 (5.23%) AWS Lambda
13 8 (5.23%) Azure Sentinel
14 7 (4.58%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 7 (4.58%) Entra ID
15 6 (3.92%) GitHub Copilot
15 6 (3.92%) Google Gemini
Communications & Networking
1 20 (13.07%) Firewall
2 6 (3.92%) Network Security
3 3 (1.96%) DNS
4 2 (1.31%) SSL
4 2 (1.31%) VPN
5 1 (0.65%) BGP
5 1 (0.65%) Cisco Nexus
5 1 (0.65%) DHCP
5 1 (0.65%) Ethernet VPN
5 1 (0.65%) HTTP
5 1 (0.65%) MPLS
5 1 (0.65%) OSPF
5 1 (0.65%) SD-WAN
5 1 (0.65%) Software-Defined Networking
5 1 (0.65%) TCP/IP
5 1 (0.65%) VXLAN
5 1 (0.65%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 17 (11.11%) PostgreSQL
2 11 (7.19%) SQL Server
3 8 (5.23%) MySQL
3 8 (5.23%) NoSQL
3 8 (5.23%) Relational Database
4 5 (3.27%) DynamoDB
5 3 (1.96%) Elasticsearch
5 3 (1.96%) Hadoop
5 3 (1.96%) MongoDB
5 3 (1.96%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 2 (1.31%) Apache Cassandra
6 2 (1.31%) Data Lake
6 2 (1.31%) DocumentDB
6 2 (1.31%) RDBMS
7 1 (0.65%) Amazon Redshift
7 1 (0.65%) BigQuery
7 1 (0.65%) Data Warehouse
7 1 (0.65%) Flink
7 1 (0.65%) Semantic Layer
7 1 (0.65%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 24 (15.69%) Git
1 24 (15.69%) GitLab
2 19 (12.42%) Jenkins
3 8 (5.23%) SonarQube
4 7 (4.58%) JIRA
5 6 (3.92%) Claude Code
5 6 (3.92%) JUnit
5 6 (3.92%) Sonatype Nexus
6 5 (3.27%) Cucumber
7 4 (2.61%) Postman
7 4 (2.61%) Selenium
8 3 (1.96%) Bitbucket
8 3 (1.96%) Gradle
8 3 (1.96%) Mockito
9 2 (1.31%) Burp Suite
9 2 (1.31%) Gatling
9 2 (1.31%) LoadRunner
9 2 (1.31%) REST Assured
10 1 (0.65%) Maven
10 1 (0.65%) Robot Framework
General
1 39 (25.49%) Finance
2 21 (13.73%) Social Skills
3 14 (9.15%) Public Sector
4 13 (8.50%) Banking
5 9 (5.88%) Retail
6 8 (5.23%) Analytical Skills
7 3 (1.96%) Health Technology
7 3 (1.96%) Military
8 1 (0.65%) Financial Institution
8 1 (0.65%) Police
Job Titles
1 34 (22.22%) Security Engineer
2 28 (18.30%) DevOps Engineer
3 26 (16.99%) Senior
4 21 (13.73%) Cloud Engineer
5 18 (11.76%) Developer
5 18 (11.76%) Software Engineer
6 17 (11.11%) Lead
7 16 (10.46%) Architect
8 15 (9.80%) Java Engineer
9 14 (9.15%) Cloud Security Engineer
10 13 (8.50%) Java Software Engineer
11 11 (7.19%) AWS Engineer
12 10 (6.54%) Solutions Architect
13 8 (5.23%) Lead Developer
13 8 (5.23%) Senior DevOps
13 8 (5.23%) Senior DevOps Engineer
14 7 (4.58%) Kubernetes Engineer
15 6 (3.92%) Full-Stack Developer
15 6 (3.92%) Senior Developer
15 6 (3.92%) Software Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 31 (20.26%) Spring
2 24 (15.69%) Spring Boot
3 23 (15.03%) Kafka
3 23 (15.03%) Node.js
4 22 (14.38%) REST
5 15 (9.80%) React
6 10 (6.54%) Next.js
7 7 (4.58%) RESTful
8 6 (3.92%) Nunjucks
8 6 (3.92%) Spring MVC
9 5 (3.27%) ARM Templates
9 5 (3.27%) AWS CDK
9 5 (3.27%) Express.js
10 4 (2.61%) Spring Security
11 3 (1.96%) Apache NiFi
11 3 (1.96%) Azure Blueprints
11 3 (1.96%) GraphQL
11 3 (1.96%) OpenTelemetry
12 2 (1.31%) JSON
12 2 (1.31%) Playwright
Miscellaneous
1 61 (39.87%) Cloud Native
2 29 (18.95%) Security Posture
3 14 (9.15%) Management Information System
4 13 (8.50%) Distributed Systems
5 10 (6.54%) Enterprise Cloud
6 9 (5.88%) Cloud Security Posture
6 9 (5.88%) Linux Command Line
7 5 (3.27%) Legacy Systems
7 5 (3.27%) Public Cloud
8 4 (2.61%) AI Agents
8 4 (2.61%) Data Protection Act
8 4 (2.61%) Hybrid Cloud
8 4 (2.61%) Onboarding
8 4 (2.61%) Private Cloud
9 3 (1.96%) Culture of Ownership
9 3 (1.96%) Enterprise Software
9 3 (1.96%) NHS
9 3 (1.96%) PKI
9 3 (1.96%) Product Ownership
9 3 (1.96%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 40 (26.14%) Linux
2 19 (12.42%) Windows
3 18 (11.76%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 3 (1.96%) Windows Server
5 1 (0.65%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 112 (73.20%) CI/CD
2 92 (60.13%) DevOps
3 65 (42.48%) Infrastructure as Code
4 54 (35.29%) Agile
5 53 (34.64%) Observability
6 46 (30.07%) Containerisation
7 42 (27.45%) Cloud Security
8 39 (25.49%) Microservices
9 35 (22.88%) Software Engineering
10 28 (18.30%) Infrastructure Automation
10 28 (18.30%) Test Automation
11 27 (17.65%) Event-Driven
11 27 (17.65%) Scrum
12 25 (16.34%) AI
13 24 (15.69%) Event-Driven Architecture
14 23 (15.03%) Continuous Improvement
14 23 (15.03%) SIEM
15 21 (13.73%) Change Management
15 21 (13.73%) Problem-Solving
16 19 (12.42%) Infrastructure Engineering
Programming Languages
1 71 (46.41%) Python
2 62 (40.52%) Java
3 41 (26.80%) Bash
4 37 (24.18%) PowerShell
5 24 (15.69%) SQL
6 22 (14.38%) Bicep
7 14 (9.15%) TypeScript
8 7 (4.58%) JavaScript
9 6 (3.92%) Kotlin
10 4 (2.61%) Shell Script
11 3 (1.96%) Go
Qualifications
1 29 (18.95%) Security Cleared
2 26 (16.99%) SC Cleared
3 25 (16.34%) Azure Certification
4 19 (12.42%) AWS Certification
4 19 (12.42%) Degree
5 16 (10.46%) CISSP
6 4 (2.61%) BPSS Clearance
6 4 (2.61%) DV Cleared
7 3 (1.96%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
7 3 (1.96%) Microsoft Certification
8 2 (1.31%) Microsoft Certified Professional
9 1 (0.65%) CCIE
9 1 (0.65%) CCNP
9 1 (0.65%) Cisco Certification
9 1 (0.65%) CISM
9 1 (0.65%) Computer Science Degree
9 1 (0.65%) OCP
9 1 (0.65%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (9.80%) GDPR
2 8 (5.23%) QA
3 7 (4.58%) Sarbanes-Oxley
4 6 (3.92%) California Consumer Privacy Act
4 6 (3.92%) Data Quality
4 6 (3.92%) HIPAA
4 6 (3.92%) NIST
5 3 (1.96%) Accessibility
6 2 (1.31%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 1 (0.65%) ISO 20022
7 1 (0.65%) PSD2
7 1 (0.65%) SEPA
7 1 (0.65%) SLA
7 1 (0.65%) Software Quality Assurance
7 1 (0.65%) WCAG
System Software
1 91 (59.48%) Docker
2 5 (3.27%) Active Directory
3 4 (2.61%) Virtual Machines
4 2 (1.31%) Apache ZooKeeper
4 2 (1.31%) Ceph
4 2 (1.31%) KVM
4 2 (1.31%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (1.31%) VMware NSX
5 1 (0.65%) vSphere
5 1 (0.65%) zsh
Systems Management
1 80 (52.29%) Terraform
2 19 (12.42%) Ansible
2 19 (12.42%) Grafana
3 16 (10.46%) Progress Chef
3 16 (10.46%) Prometheus
4 11 (7.19%) Argo
5 8 (5.23%) Istio
6 2 (1.31%) linkerd
6 2 (1.31%) Single Sign-On
7 1 (0.65%) Packer
7 1 (0.65%) Puppet
7 1 (0.65%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 27 (17.65%) Microsoft
2 21 (13.73%) Red Hat
3 19 (12.42%) Google
4 7 (4.58%) Dynatrace
4 7 (4.58%) Splunk
5 6 (3.92%) Varonis
6 5 (3.27%) Oracle
7 3 (1.96%) CyberArk
7 3 (1.96%) SAP
7 3 (1.96%) ServiceNow
8 2 (1.31%) Cisco
8 2 (1.31%) Confluent
8 2 (1.31%) OpenAI
8 2 (1.31%) Palo Alto
8 2 (1.31%) VMware
9 1 (0.65%) CheckPoint
9 1 (0.65%) F5
9 1 (0.65%) Fortinet
9 1 (0.65%) Foundry
9 1 (0.65%) Sage