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 12 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 31 43 65
Rank change year-on-year +12 +22 -29
Contract jobs citing Kubernetes 168 89 83
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 5.74% 4.42% 2.90%
As % of the Systems Management category 40.88% 27.73% 26.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 114 67 60
10th Percentile £358 £396 £412
25th Percentile £418 £456 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £531 £525 £544
Median % change year-on-year +1.17% -3.45% -9.38%
75th Percentile £617 £586 £689
90th Percentile £650 £615 £700
England median daily rate £525 £575 £558
% change year-on-year -8.70% +3.14% -10.80%
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 1 6
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £52.50 £59.39 -
Median hourly rate £55.00 £63.79 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year -13.77% +38.12% -21.06%
75th Percentile £61.25 £68.18 £54.67
90th Percentile £68.40 - £60.63
England median hourly rate £60.00 £58.75 £67.00
% change year-on-year +2.13% -12.31% +4.69%

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 411 321 313
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 14.04% 15.95% 10.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 260 195 227
10th Percentile £312 £250 £312
25th Percentile £381 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year - -5.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £588 £566 £584
90th Percentile £639 £638 £680
England median daily rate £500 £530 £525
% change year-on-year -5.66% +0.95% -9.48%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 9 22
10th Percentile £15.50 £21.05 £16.57
25th Percentile £52.50 £24.18 £17.72
Median hourly rate £55.00 £43.00 £19.25
Median % change year-on-year +27.91% +123.38% -54.71%
75th Percentile £62.00 £77.50 £54.67
90th Percentile £74.26 £85.70 £77.25
England median hourly rate £55.00 £26.50 £34.67
% change year-on-year +107.55% -23.57% -33.49%

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 12 March 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 12 March 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 12 March 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 +1 107 £550 +7.00% 52
Cheshire +22 48 £447 -7.21% 12
Merseyside - 6 £330 - 3
Lancashire -16 4 £550 -8.33% 14
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 10 (5.95%) Confluence
2 7 (4.17%) Apache Spark
3 4 (2.38%) Apache
3 4 (2.38%) Apache Airflow
3 4 (2.38%) OpenStack
Applications
1 2 (1.19%) Chatbot
Cloud Services
1 109 (64.88%) AWS
2 69 (41.07%) Azure
3 43 (25.60%) GCP
4 34 (20.24%) GitHub
5 23 (13.69%) OpenShift
6 19 (11.31%) GitHub Actions
6 19 (11.31%) Serverless
7 18 (10.71%) Amazon EKS
8 14 (8.33%) AWS CloudFormation
9 13 (7.74%) AWS Lambda
9 13 (7.74%) Google Kubernetes Engine
10 12 (7.14%) Azure DevOps
11 11 (6.55%) Amazon EC2
12 10 (5.95%) Amazon ECS
13 9 (5.36%) Azure AKS
13 9 (5.36%) Virtual Private Cloud
14 8 (4.76%) Amazon S3
15 7 (4.17%) Amazon CloudWatch
16 6 (3.57%) Apigee
17 5 (2.98%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 24 (14.29%) Firewall
2 4 (2.38%) DHCP
2 4 (2.38%) DNS
2 4 (2.38%) HTTP
2 4 (2.38%) HTTPS
2 4 (2.38%) NetScaler
2 4 (2.38%) Network Security
2 4 (2.38%) TCP/IP
3 3 (1.79%) BGP
3 3 (1.79%) Software-Defined Networking
3 3 (1.79%) VLAN
3 3 (1.79%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 16 (9.52%) PostgreSQL
2 11 (6.55%) NoSQL
3 8 (4.76%) Relational Database
4 7 (4.17%) DocumentDB
4 7 (4.17%) MySQL
5 4 (2.38%) Amazon RDS
5 4 (2.38%) DynamoDB
5 4 (2.38%) Elasticsearch
5 4 (2.38%) Hadoop
5 4 (2.38%) MongoDB
5 4 (2.38%) SQL Server
6 3 (1.79%) BigQuery
7 2 (1.19%) Big Data
7 2 (1.19%) Data Lake
7 2 (1.19%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 1 (0.60%) Apache Cassandra
8 1 (0.60%) ObjectStore
8 1 (0.60%) Oracle Database
8 1 (0.60%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 59 (35.12%) GitLab
2 36 (21.43%) Jenkins
3 33 (19.64%) Git
4 19 (11.31%) JIRA
5 12 (7.14%) Gradle
5 12 (7.14%) IntelliJ
6 8 (4.76%) Bitbucket
7 7 (4.17%) Postman
8 5 (2.98%) Snyk
8 5 (2.98%) SonarQube
9 3 (1.79%) JMeter
9 3 (1.79%) MLflow
9 3 (1.79%) Selenium
10 2 (1.19%) Mocha
10 2 (1.19%) Sonatype Nexus
11 1 (0.60%) Android Studio
11 1 (0.60%) CircleCI
11 1 (0.60%) fastlane
11 1 (0.60%) Mockito
11 1 (0.60%) Spinnaker
General
1 43 (25.60%) Finance
2 33 (19.64%) Public Sector
3 22 (13.10%) Banking
4 19 (11.31%) Social Skills
5 14 (8.33%) Analytical Skills
6 2 (1.19%) Documentation Skills
6 2 (1.19%) Financial Institution
6 2 (1.19%) Games
6 2 (1.19%) Retail
7 1 (0.60%) Automotive
7 1 (0.60%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 1 (0.60%) Influencing Skills
7 1 (0.60%) Military
Job Titles
1 39 (23.21%) Developer
2 24 (14.29%) Software Engineer
3 20 (11.90%) Security Engineer
3 20 (11.90%) Senior
4 19 (11.31%) DevOps Engineer
4 19 (11.31%) Java Developer
5 17 (10.12%) Java Engineer
5 17 (10.12%) Platform Engineer
6 16 (9.52%) Java Software Engineer
7 14 (8.33%) Architect
8 12 (7.14%) Cloud Engineer
9 11 (6.55%) AWS Engineer
10 10 (5.95%) Lead
11 9 (5.36%) DevSecOps Engineer
12 8 (4.76%) Lead Developer
13 7 (4.17%) AWS Architect
13 7 (4.17%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 7 (4.17%) Software Developer
14 6 (3.57%) Cloud Architect
14 6 (3.57%) Data Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 58 (34.52%) Spring
2 57 (33.93%) Spring Boot
3 24 (14.29%) RESTful
4 23 (13.69%) Kafka
4 23 (13.69%) REST
5 14 (8.33%) Node.js
6 12 (7.14%) OpenTelemetry
7 11 (6.55%) Hibernate
8 7 (4.17%) JMS
8 7 (4.17%) JSON
8 7 (4.17%) React
9 6 (3.57%) JWT
9 6 (3.57%) OAuth
10 5 (2.98%) OAuth2
10 5 (2.98%) RabbitMQ
11 4 (2.38%) AngularJS
11 4 (2.38%) Elastic Stack
11 4 (2.38%) GraphQL
11 4 (2.38%) JAX-RS
11 4 (2.38%) Spring Cloud
Miscellaneous
1 36 (21.43%) Cloud Native
2 10 (5.95%) Security Posture
3 7 (4.17%) Distributed Systems
3 7 (4.17%) Product Ownership
3 7 (4.17%) Public Cloud
3 7 (4.17%) SWIFT Messaging Network
4 6 (3.57%) Private Cloud
5 5 (2.98%) Cloud Security Posture
5 5 (2.98%) Linux Command Line
5 5 (2.98%) Management Information System
6 4 (2.38%) Enterprise Software
7 3 (1.79%) AI Agents
7 3 (1.79%) Analytical Mindset
7 3 (1.79%) Data Protection Act
7 3 (1.79%) Onboarding
8 2 (1.19%) Data Centre
8 2 (1.19%) Driving Licence
8 2 (1.19%) Legacy Systems
8 2 (1.19%) NHS
8 2 (1.19%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 40 (23.81%) Linux
2 16 (9.52%) Windows
3 9 (5.36%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 7 (4.17%) Windows Server
5 4 (2.38%) Unix
5 4 (2.38%) Windows Server 2012
5 4 (2.38%) Windows Server 2019
6 1 (0.60%) Android
6 1 (0.60%) Apple iOS
6 1 (0.60%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 104 (61.90%) CI/CD
2 86 (51.19%) DevOps
3 77 (45.83%) Containerisation
4 56 (33.33%) Infrastructure as Code
5 53 (31.55%) Agile
6 41 (24.40%) Microservices
7 36 (21.43%) Problem-Solving
8 32 (19.05%) Software Engineering
9 31 (18.45%) Observability
10 24 (14.29%) Test Automation
11 21 (12.50%) Cloud Security
11 21 (12.50%) DevSecOps
12 20 (11.90%) Infrastructure Automation
13 19 (11.31%) Event-Driven
14 16 (9.52%) Continuous Improvement
14 16 (9.52%) Platform Engineering
15 14 (8.33%) SDLC
15 14 (8.33%) TDD
16 13 (7.74%) API Design
16 13 (7.74%) User Acceptance Testing
Programming Languages
1 74 (44.05%) Java
2 70 (41.67%) Python
3 29 (17.26%) Bash
4 25 (14.88%) SQL
5 23 (13.69%) PowerShell
6 17 (10.12%) TypeScript
7 12 (7.14%) Kotlin
8 10 (5.95%) Go
9 7 (4.17%) JavaScript
10 6 (3.57%) Bicep
10 6 (3.57%) Ruby
11 5 (2.98%) PHP
12 4 (2.38%) C#
13 2 (1.19%) Perl
13 2 (1.19%) Shell Script
14 1 (0.60%) C
14 1 (0.60%) C++
14 1 (0.60%) Objective-C
14 1 (0.60%) Swift
Qualifications
1 34 (20.24%) Security Cleared
2 21 (12.50%) SC Cleared
3 15 (8.93%) AWS Certification
4 13 (7.74%) Degree
5 12 (7.14%) Azure Certification
6 11 (6.55%) Computer Science Degree
7 8 (4.76%) BPSS Clearance
7 8 (4.76%) CISSP
8 5 (2.98%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
9 4 (2.38%) CISM
9 4 (2.38%) DV Cleared
10 3 (1.79%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 2 (1.19%) TOGAF Certification
12 1 (0.60%) Master's Degree
12 1 (0.60%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (5.95%) QA
2 8 (4.76%) GDPR
2 8 (4.76%) ISO 20022
2 8 (4.76%) PSD2
3 7 (4.17%) Accessibility
3 7 (4.17%) SEPA
4 5 (2.98%) California Consumer Privacy Act
4 5 (2.98%) HIPAA
4 5 (2.98%) NIST
5 3 (1.79%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 3 (1.79%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 2 (1.19%) Data Quality
7 1 (0.60%) WCAG
System Software
1 112 (66.67%) Docker
2 11 (6.55%) VMware Infrastructure
2 11 (6.55%) vSphere
3 6 (3.57%) Active Directory
4 4 (2.38%) Virtual Desktop
5 3 (1.79%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (1.19%) Virtual Servers
7 1 (0.60%) zsh
Systems Management
1 64 (38.10%) Terraform
2 35 (20.83%) Grafana
3 15 (8.93%) Prometheus
4 6 (3.57%) Argo
4 6 (3.57%) Progress Chef
5 5 (2.98%) Istio
6 4 (2.38%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 4 (2.38%) Ansible
6 4 (2.38%) Microsoft Intune
6 4 (2.38%) SCCM
7 3 (1.79%) Fluentd
8 2 (1.19%) linkerd
Vendors
1 19 (11.31%) Microsoft
2 16 (9.52%) Oracle
3 13 (7.74%) Splunk
4 12 (7.14%) VMware
5 10 (5.95%) Google
6 8 (4.76%) F5
7 7 (4.17%) Red Hat
8 5 (2.98%) Checkmarx
8 5 (2.98%) Cribl.io
8 5 (2.98%) Varonis
8 5 (2.98%) Veracode
9 4 (2.38%) Confluent
9 4 (2.38%) Palo Alto
9 4 (2.38%) Veeam
10 3 (1.79%) CyberArk
10 3 (1.79%) PagerDuty
11 2 (1.19%) Atlassian
11 2 (1.19%) Ping Identity
12 1 (0.60%) SAP
12 1 (0.60%) SnapLogic