Kubernetes Contract Job Trends in the South East

Kubernetes (k8s)
England > South East

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

6 months to
11 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 58 50 61
Rank change year-on-year -8 +11 -4
Contract jobs citing Kubernetes 232 139 143
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 3.49% 3.97% 3.07%
As % of the Systems Management category 35.86% 29.02% 22.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 151 86 112
10th Percentile £358 £393 £407
25th Percentile £453 £413 £454
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £540
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -7.41% -10.00%
75th Percentile £588 £588 £626
90th Percentile £700 £627 £675
England median daily rate £544 £528 £575
% change year-on-year +3.08% -8.26% -4.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 30 0 1
10th Percentile £63.40 - -
25th Percentile - - £36.75
Median hourly rate £70.00 - £38.50
75th Percentile £70.88 - £40.25
90th Percentile £83.78 - -
England median hourly rate £70.00 £67.00 £55.00
% change year-on-year +4.48% +21.82% -24.66%

All Systems Management Skills
South East

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 South East.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for systems management skills 647 479 638
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 9.73% 13.67% 13.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 416 322 478
10th Percentile £325 £251 £283
25th Percentile £450 £401 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £538 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year +7.50% - -6.98%
75th Percentile £625 £588 £608
90th Percentile £725 £637 £676
England median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 64 8 9
10th Percentile £26.88 £18.87 £21.00
25th Percentile £44.86 £18.97 £30.00
Median hourly rate £69.11 £30.39 £36.17
Median % change year-on-year +127.44% -15.98% -34.25%
75th Percentile £70.63 £62.00 £40.25
90th Percentile £87.15 £84.99 £53.90
England median hourly rate £67.00 £40.00 £39.25
% change year-on-year +67.50% +1.91% -25.24%

Kubernetes
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

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

Kubernetes job vacancy trend in the South East

Kubernetes
Daily Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Kubernetes.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Kubernetes

Kubernetes
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Kubernetes in the South East over the 6 months to 11 September 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Kubernetes in the South East

Kubernetes
Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Kubernetes.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Kubernetes

Kubernetes
Hourly Rate Histogram in the South East

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Kubernetes in the South East over the 6 months to 11 September 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Kubernetes in the South East

Kubernetes
Contract Job Locations in the South East

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Kubernetes within the South East region over the 6 months to 11 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
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Thames Valley -20 93 £463 -2.63% 85
Berkshire -14 73 £460 -3.16% 45
Hampshire -10 70 £550 - 48
Surrey +11 49 £460 -15.60% 28
Buckinghamshire -22 15 £525 - 14
West Sussex -19 10 £322 -0.92% 16
Middlesex -13 9 - - 1
Oxfordshire -19 5 £825 +76.00% 26
East Sussex -2 1 £330 -26.67% 2
Kubernetes
England

Kubernetes
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East 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 (3.02%) Apache Airflow
1 7 (3.02%) OpenStack
2 6 (2.59%) Apache Spark
3 3 (1.29%) Palantir Foundry
4 2 (0.86%) Apache
4 2 (0.86%) Apache Superset
4 2 (0.86%) Confluence
5 1 (0.43%) IIS
5 1 (0.43%) OpenEdge
5 1 (0.43%) WebSphere
Applications
1 5 (2.16%) CPLEX
Business Applications
1 1 (0.43%) Cloudability
Cloud Services
1 127 (54.74%) Azure
2 119 (51.29%) AWS
3 58 (25.00%) OpenShift
4 47 (20.26%) GCP
5 40 (17.24%) GitHub
6 37 (15.95%) Azure DevOps
7 27 (11.64%) GitHub Actions
8 16 (6.90%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 14 (6.03%) Azure Monitor
9 14 (6.03%) Serverless
10 13 (5.60%) Amazon EKS
11 12 (5.17%) SaaS
12 11 (4.74%) Azure AKS
12 11 (4.74%) Datadog
12 11 (4.74%) Entra ID
13 9 (3.88%) AWS CloudFormation
14 8 (3.45%) Power Platform
15 6 (2.59%) AWS Lambda
16 4 (1.72%) Amazon S3
17 3 (1.29%) Apigee
Communications & Networking
1 15 (6.47%) DNS
2 13 (5.60%) Firewall
2 13 (5.60%) VPN
3 10 (4.31%) TCP/IP
4 8 (3.45%) DHCP
4 8 (3.45%) Network Security
5 7 (3.02%) LTE
6 6 (2.59%) 5G
6 6 (2.59%) Diameter Protocol
6 6 (2.59%) Radio Access Network
6 6 (2.59%) VoLTE
6 6 (2.59%) VoWiFi
6 6 (2.59%) Wireshark
7 4 (1.72%) Intrusion Detection
7 4 (1.72%) MQTT
7 4 (1.72%) Software-Defined Networking
8 3 (1.29%) BGP
9 2 (0.86%) HTTP
10 1 (0.43%) Broadband
10 1 (0.43%) SNMP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 26 (11.21%) PostgreSQL
2 17 (7.33%) NoSQL
3 13 (5.60%) Relational Database
4 10 (4.31%) Oracle Database
5 8 (3.45%) Data Warehouse
6 6 (2.59%) Big Data
7 5 (2.16%) Elasticsearch
7 5 (2.16%) MongoDB
7 5 (2.16%) Power BI
8 3 (1.29%) DocumentDB
8 3 (1.29%) DynamoDB
9 2 (0.86%) Amazon Aurora
9 2 (0.86%) Amazon RDS
9 2 (0.86%) BigQuery
9 2 (0.86%) Data Lake
9 2 (0.86%) Redis
9 2 (0.86%) Spark SQL
9 2 (0.86%) SQL Server
10 1 (0.43%) InfluxDB
10 1 (0.43%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 40 (17.24%) Git
1 40 (17.24%) GitLab
2 36 (15.52%) Jenkins
3 27 (11.64%) SonarQube
4 8 (3.45%) MLflow
5 4 (1.72%) Gradle
5 4 (1.72%) JUnit
5 4 (1.72%) Maven
5 4 (1.72%) NUnit
6 3 (1.29%) JIRA
6 3 (1.29%) Sonatype Nexus
7 1 (0.43%) Cucumber
7 1 (0.43%) Jaeger
7 1 (0.43%) JMeter
7 1 (0.43%) LoadRunner
7 1 (0.43%) Mockito
7 1 (0.43%) NeoLoad
7 1 (0.43%) Octopus Deploy
7 1 (0.43%) Selenium
7 1 (0.43%) Subversion
General
1 60 (25.86%) Social Skills
2 24 (10.34%) Analytical Skills
3 21 (9.05%) Public Sector
4 19 (8.19%) Aerospace
5 15 (6.47%) Finance
6 12 (5.17%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 9 (3.88%) Telecoms
8 5 (2.16%) Documentation Skills
9 3 (1.29%) Banking
9 3 (1.29%) Manufacturing
9 3 (1.29%) Publishing
10 2 (0.86%) Automotive
10 2 (0.86%) Retail
11 1 (0.43%) Advertising
11 1 (0.43%) Financial Institution
11 1 (0.43%) German Language
11 1 (0.43%) Influencing Skills
11 1 (0.43%) Local Government
11 1 (0.43%) Military
11 1 (0.43%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 38 (16.38%) Developer
2 31 (13.36%) Architect
3 26 (11.21%) Platform Engineer
4 20 (8.62%) Senior
5 16 (6.90%) Lead
6 15 (6.47%) DevOps Engineer
6 15 (6.47%) DevSecOps Engineer
6 15 (6.47%) Java Developer
7 11 (4.74%) Technical Leader
8 10 (4.31%) Analyst
8 10 (4.31%) Cloud Architect
8 10 (4.31%) Java Engineer
8 10 (4.31%) Security Analyst
9 9 (3.88%) Azure Engineer
9 9 (3.88%) Software Engineer
10 8 (3.45%) Cloud Engineer
10 8 (3.45%) Service Owner
10 8 (3.45%) Systems Engineer
11 6 (2.59%) .NET Developer
11 6 (2.59%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 74 (31.90%) Terraform
2 32 (13.79%) Kafka
3 27 (11.64%) REST
3 27 (11.64%) RESTful
4 25 (10.78%) AngularJS
5 20 (8.62%) Quarkus
6 19 (8.19%) React
7 14 (6.03%) OAuth
8 13 (5.60%) Django
8 13 (5.60%) OAuth2
9 12 (5.17%) .NET
10 11 (4.74%) ARM Templates
10 11 (4.74%) Spring
11 10 (4.31%) YAML
12 9 (3.88%) OpenID
12 9 (3.88%) Spring Boot
13 8 (3.45%) CSS
13 8 (3.45%) HTML
13 8 (3.45%) OpenAPI
13 8 (3.45%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 45 (19.40%) Cloud Native
2 23 (9.91%) Hybrid Cloud
3 16 (6.90%) Distributed Systems
4 12 (5.17%) Enterprise Cloud
5 9 (3.88%) Product Ownership
6 8 (3.45%) CMDB
7 7 (3.02%) Data Structures
8 6 (2.59%) AI Agents
8 6 (2.59%) Algorithms
8 6 (2.59%) Enterprise Software
8 6 (2.59%) Onboarding
9 4 (1.72%) Distributed Computing
10 3 (1.29%) Public Cloud
11 2 (0.86%) Cyber Threat
11 2 (0.86%) Data Protection Act
11 2 (0.86%) FMCG
11 2 (0.86%) Linux Command Line
11 2 (0.86%) Mobile App
11 2 (0.86%) PKI
11 2 (0.86%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 62 (26.72%) Linux
2 23 (9.91%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 11 (4.74%) Windows
4 10 (4.31%) Windows Server
5 9 (3.88%) Unix
6 2 (0.86%) CentOS
6 2 (0.86%) Ubuntu
7 1 (0.43%) Android
7 1 (0.43%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 147 (63.36%) CI/CD
2 114 (49.14%) DevOps
3 106 (45.69%) Containerisation
4 95 (40.95%) Agile
5 70 (30.17%) DevSecOps
6 68 (29.31%) Infrastructure as Code
7 55 (23.71%) Problem-Solving
8 51 (21.98%) Platform Engineering
9 49 (21.12%) Continuous Improvement
10 47 (20.26%) Software Engineering
11 42 (18.10%) AI
12 41 (17.67%) Test Automation
13 37 (15.95%) Machine Learning
14 36 (15.52%) Microservices
15 35 (15.09%) Scrum
16 32 (13.79%) Observability
16 32 (13.79%) Technical Leadership
17 31 (13.36%) SDLC
18 29 (12.50%) Analytics
18 29 (12.50%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 108 (46.55%) Python
2 46 (19.83%) Bash
2 46 (19.83%) Java
3 38 (16.38%) PowerShell
4 23 (9.91%) JavaScript
5 21 (9.05%) SQL
6 16 (6.90%) Bicep
7 14 (6.03%) TypeScript
8 11 (4.74%) C#
9 9 (3.88%) Go
10 4 (1.72%) Rust
10 4 (1.72%) Shell Script
11 2 (0.86%) Groovy
11 2 (0.86%) Scala
Qualifications
1 119 (51.29%) Security Cleared
2 103 (44.40%) SC Cleared
3 17 (7.33%) Azure Certification
3 17 (7.33%) Degree
4 13 (5.60%) DV Cleared
5 12 (5.17%) CISSP
5 12 (5.17%) Computer Science Degree
6 10 (4.31%) AWS Certification
7 9 (3.88%) Cisco Certification
8 8 (3.45%) ITIL Certification
9 7 (3.02%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 7 (3.02%) Master's Degree
10 6 (2.59%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 5 (2.16%) RHCE
12 4 (1.72%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
12 4 (1.72%) CEH
12 4 (1.72%) CompTIA Security+
13 3 (1.29%) BPSS Clearance
13 3 (1.29%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 3 (1.29%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 43 (18.53%) QA
2 13 (5.60%) NIST
3 10 (4.31%) NCSC
4 9 (3.88%) Cyber Essentials
4 9 (3.88%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 8 (3.45%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 7 (3.02%) Accessibility
7 6 (2.59%) SLA
8 5 (2.16%) IASME
8 5 (2.16%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
8 5 (2.16%) NIST 800
9 4 (1.72%) Data Quality
9 4 (1.72%) GDPR
10 2 (0.86%) GRC
10 2 (0.86%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 102 (43.97%) Docker
2 14 (6.03%) VMware Infrastructure
3 8 (3.45%) Hyper-V
3 8 (3.45%) IAG
4 3 (1.29%) Active Directory
5 2 (0.86%) Slurm Workload Manager
5 2 (0.86%) VMware ESXi
6 1 (0.43%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 49 (21.12%) Ansible
2 26 (11.21%) Grafana
3 24 (10.34%) Argo
4 21 (9.05%) Prometheus
5 6 (2.59%) Istio
5 6 (2.59%) Podman
5 6 (2.59%) Puppet
6 3 (1.29%) Rancher
7 2 (0.86%) CASB
7 2 (0.86%) Kibana
7 2 (0.86%) linkerd
7 2 (0.86%) Single Sign-On
8 1 (0.43%) QRadar
Vendors
1 48 (20.69%) Microsoft
2 37 (15.95%) Red Hat
3 22 (9.48%) Google
4 15 (6.47%) Oracle
4 15 (6.47%) VMware
5 12 (5.17%) Dynatrace
6 8 (3.45%) Nexthink
6 8 (3.45%) ServiceNow
7 7 (3.02%) Splunk
8 6 (2.59%) BT
8 6 (2.59%) Ericsson
8 6 (2.59%) Huawei
8 6 (2.59%) Nokia
9 5 (2.16%) Databricks
10 4 (1.72%) Foundry
10 4 (1.72%) NVIDIA
10 4 (1.72%) Tenable
11 3 (1.29%) MuleSoft
11 3 (1.29%) OpenAI
11 3 (1.29%) Salesforce