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 6 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
6 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 50 56 60
Rank change year-on-year +6 +4 +1
Contract jobs citing Kubernetes 159 152 193
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 4.15% 3.67% 3.60%
As % of the Systems Management category 26.90% 24.96% 26.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 108 117 151
10th Percentile £363 £400 £425
25th Percentile £413 £445 £513
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £473 £520 £580
Median % change year-on-year -9.04% -10.34% +5.45%
75th Percentile £538 £625 £638
90th Percentile £619 £675 £730
England median daily rate £525 £575 £600
% change year-on-year -8.70% -4.17% -4.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 0 5
10th Percentile £59.95 - £68.19
25th Percentile £67.38 - -
Median hourly rate £82.00 - £76.53
75th Percentile £98.88 - -
90th Percentile £107.65 - -
England median hourly rate £67.00 £60.64 £67.27
% change year-on-year +10.48% -9.85% +4.29%

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 591 609 716
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 15.41% 14.69% 13.37%
Number of daily rates quoted 396 455 490
10th Percentile £255 £264 £205
25th Percentile £373 £400 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £483 £500 £538
Median % change year-on-year -3.50% -6.98% +5.39%
75th Percentile £559 £613 £625
90th Percentile £613 £675 £700
England median daily rate £513 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -2.38% -4.55% -5.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 7 28
10th Percentile £18.87 £18.15 £22.80
25th Percentile £18.97 £26.13 £29.25
Median hourly rate £22.50 £34.00 £48.40
Median % change year-on-year -33.82% -29.75% +44.48%
75th Percentile £55.00 £37.37 £69.45
90th Percentile £86.32 £44.00 £76.53
England median hourly rate £34.00 £36.83 £49.00
% change year-on-year -7.69% -24.83% +96.00%

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 6 November 2025.

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 6 November 2025.

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 6 November 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
Thames Valley -12 73 £485 -6.28% 286
Berkshire +2 68 £480 -4.00% 220
Hampshire +30 63 £450 -20.00% 54
Surrey +5 12 £420 -35.38% 36
East Sussex +1 4 £565 +22.83% 5
Buckinghamshire -9 3 £650 +8.33% 20
Oxfordshire -11 2 £469 -6.25% 47
West Sussex -20 2 £250 -43.82% 13
Middlesex - 2 £635 - 5
Kent - 2 £325 - 9
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 6 (3.77%) Confluence
2 5 (3.14%) OpenStack
3 3 (1.89%) Apache Spark
4 2 (1.26%) Apache Airflow
4 2 (1.26%) Camunda
5 1 (0.63%) Apache
5 1 (0.63%) CMS
5 1 (0.63%) Drupal
5 1 (0.63%) Jupyter
5 1 (0.63%) nginx
5 1 (0.63%) Red Hat Fuse
5 1 (0.63%) SAS
5 1 (0.63%) WordPress
Applications
1 1 (0.63%) Chatbot
1 1 (0.63%) Microsoft Excel
1 1 (0.63%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 3 (1.89%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 71 (44.65%) Azure
2 65 (40.88%) AWS
3 49 (30.82%) OpenShift
4 35 (22.01%) GitHub
5 30 (18.87%) GCP
6 18 (11.32%) Azure AKS
7 16 (10.06%) Azure DevOps
8 15 (9.43%) GitHub Actions
8 15 (9.43%) IaaS
9 13 (8.18%) Amazon EKS
9 13 (8.18%) Amazon S3
10 9 (5.66%) PaaS
11 8 (5.03%) Azure Storage
11 8 (5.03%) Cloud Computing
12 7 (4.40%) AWS Lambda
12 7 (4.40%) Azure Data Factory
12 7 (4.40%) Datadog
12 7 (4.40%) Serverless
13 6 (3.77%) Amazon ECR
13 6 (3.77%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 9 (5.66%) DNS
2 8 (5.03%) Firewall
3 4 (2.52%) HTTP
3 4 (2.52%) Kerberos
3 4 (2.52%) MPLS
3 4 (2.52%) TCP/IP
4 3 (1.89%) 4G
4 3 (1.89%) 5G
4 3 (1.89%) DOCSIS
4 3 (1.89%) GPON
4 3 (1.89%) LTE
4 3 (1.89%) Network Security
4 3 (1.89%) Radio Access Network
4 3 (1.89%) SSL
4 3 (1.89%) VoIP
4 3 (1.89%) VPN
4 3 (1.89%) xDSL
5 2 (1.26%) Converged Networks
5 2 (1.26%) DHCP
6 1 (0.63%) HTTPS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (18.24%) PostgreSQL
2 25 (15.72%) NoSQL
3 16 (10.06%) MongoDB
4 9 (5.66%) Azure SQL Database
4 9 (5.66%) Redis
5 6 (3.77%) Couchbase
5 6 (3.77%) Data Lake
5 6 (3.77%) DynamoDB
6 5 (3.14%) Apache Cassandra
6 5 (3.14%) HBase
7 4 (2.52%) Data Warehouse
7 4 (2.52%) Relational Database
8 3 (1.89%) Amazon Redshift
8 3 (1.89%) Big Data
8 3 (1.89%) MySQL
9 2 (1.26%) Amazon RDS
9 2 (1.26%) Elasticsearch
9 2 (1.26%) SQL Server
10 1 (0.63%) Oracle Database
10 1 (0.63%) Parquet
Development Applications
1 49 (30.82%) Jenkins
2 27 (16.98%) GitLab
3 18 (11.32%) Git
4 12 (7.55%) JIRA
5 11 (6.92%) Artifactory
5 11 (6.92%) Cucumber
6 8 (5.03%) JUnit
7 7 (4.40%) Gradle
7 7 (4.40%) Sonatype Nexus
8 5 (3.14%) Maven
9 4 (2.52%) JMeter
10 3 (1.89%) MLflow
10 3 (1.89%) SonarQube
11 2 (1.26%) Bitbucket
11 2 (1.26%) Cypress.io
11 2 (1.26%) Gatling
12 1 (0.63%) LoadRunner
12 1 (0.63%) Mocha
12 1 (0.63%) Selenium
12 1 (0.63%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 57 (35.85%) Social Skills
2 18 (11.32%) Analytical Skills
3 11 (6.92%) Public Sector
4 10 (6.29%) Finance
4 10 (6.29%) Telecoms
5 4 (2.52%) Aerospace
6 3 (1.89%) Presentation Skills
6 3 (1.89%) Retail
7 2 (1.26%) Banking
7 2 (1.26%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 2 (1.26%) Legal
Job Titles
1 31 (19.50%) Developer
2 25 (15.72%) DevOps Engineer
3 24 (15.09%) Senior
4 23 (14.47%) Architect
5 21 (13.21%) Platform Engineer
6 17 (10.69%) Site Reliability Engineer
7 16 (10.06%) Java Developer
7 16 (10.06%) Site Engineer
8 13 (8.18%) Senior Developer
9 11 (6.92%) Azure Engineer
9 11 (6.92%) Cloud Engineer
10 9 (5.66%) Security Architect
11 7 (4.40%) AWS DevOps
11 7 (4.40%) Azure DevOps Engineer
12 6 (3.77%) Kubernetes Engineer
13 5 (3.14%) Artificial Intelligence Architect
13 5 (3.14%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 5 (3.14%) Senior Java Developer
13 5 (3.14%) Senior Platform Engineer
13 5 (3.14%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 28 (17.61%) Kafka
2 21 (13.21%) React
3 16 (10.06%) Spring Boot
4 15 (9.43%) Elastic Stack
4 15 (9.43%) Spring
5 14 (8.81%) REST
6 13 (8.18%) Middleware
7 11 (6.92%) PyTorch
7 11 (6.92%) TensorFlow
8 10 (6.29%) RabbitMQ
9 9 (5.66%) ADO
9 9 (5.66%) AngularJS
9 9 (5.66%) scikit-learn
10 8 (5.03%) Loki
10 8 (5.03%) YAML
11 6 (3.77%) Keycloak
11 6 (3.77%) RESTful
12 5 (3.14%) Node.js
13 4 (2.52%) Google JAX
13 4 (2.52%) JAX
Miscellaneous
1 23 (14.47%) Cloud Native
2 15 (9.43%) Private Cloud
3 11 (6.92%) Distributed Systems
4 8 (5.03%) Virtual Team
5 5 (3.14%) Algorithms
5 5 (3.14%) Product Ownership
5 5 (3.14%) Security Posture
6 4 (2.52%) Hybrid Cloud
7 3 (1.89%) Cloud Security Posture
7 3 (1.89%) Enterprise Software
7 3 (1.89%) Public Cloud
7 3 (1.89%) TM Forum
8 2 (1.26%) IoT
8 2 (1.26%) Legacy Systems
8 2 (1.26%) Self-Motivation
9 1 (0.63%) Data Centre
9 1 (0.63%) Data Structures
9 1 (0.63%) Distributed Architecture
9 1 (0.63%) Mobile App
9 1 (0.63%) Onboarding
Operating Systems
1 51 (32.08%) Linux
2 11 (6.92%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 4 (2.52%) Ubuntu
3 4 (2.52%) Windows
4 3 (1.89%) CentOS
4 3 (1.89%) Unix
4 3 (1.89%) VMS
5 2 (1.26%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 126 (79.25%) CI/CD
2 80 (50.31%) DevOps
3 66 (41.51%) Containerisation
4 49 (30.82%) Infrastructure as Code
5 38 (23.90%) Agile
5 38 (23.90%) Problem-Solving
6 29 (18.24%) Observability
7 28 (17.61%) Site Reliability Engineering
8 27 (16.98%) Migration
9 25 (15.72%) Platform Engineering
10 24 (15.09%) High Availability
11 23 (14.47%) Microservices
12 21 (13.21%) Configuration Management
13 19 (11.95%) Machine Learning
14 17 (10.69%) Analytics
14 17 (10.69%) Open Source
14 17 (10.69%) Software Engineering
15 16 (10.06%) Test Automation
16 13 (8.18%) Scrum
17 12 (7.55%) Deployment Automation
Programming Languages
1 87 (54.72%) Python
2 51 (32.08%) Java
3 42 (26.42%) SQL
4 34 (21.38%) Bash
5 23 (14.47%) JavaScript
6 20 (12.58%) PowerShell
7 16 (10.06%) C#
8 15 (9.43%) Go
9 9 (5.66%) Bicep
9 9 (5.66%) R
10 5 (3.14%) C++
10 5 (3.14%) TypeScript
11 4 (2.52%) C
12 3 (1.89%) Scala
12 3 (1.89%) Shell Script
13 2 (1.26%) Korn
13 2 (1.26%) Perl
13 2 (1.26%) Ruby
14 1 (0.63%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 63 (39.62%) Security Cleared
2 58 (36.48%) SC Cleared
3 10 (6.29%) Degree
4 7 (4.40%) AWS Certification
4 7 (4.40%) Azure Certification
4 7 (4.40%) Computer Science Degree
5 6 (3.77%) OCP
5 6 (3.77%) Oracle Certification
6 4 (2.52%) Cisco Certification
7 3 (1.89%) (ISC)2 CCSP
7 3 (1.89%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
7 3 (1.89%) CCSP
7 3 (1.89%) CISSP
8 2 (1.26%) DV Cleared
8 2 (1.26%) Master's Degree
8 2 (1.26%) Microsoft Certification
8 2 (1.26%) RHCE
8 2 (1.26%) RHCSA
8 2 (1.26%) TOGAF Certification
9 1 (0.63%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (5.66%) GDPR
1 9 (5.66%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 8 (5.03%) QA
3 7 (4.40%) NIST
4 5 (3.14%) EU AI Act
4 5 (3.14%) PCI DSS
5 4 (2.52%) Data Quality
6 3 (1.89%) Def Stans
6 3 (1.89%) PSD2
7 2 (1.26%) OASIS TOSCA
8 1 (0.63%) Government Security Classifications
8 1 (0.63%) HIPAA
8 1 (0.63%) HL7
8 1 (0.63%) JSP 440
8 1 (0.63%) NCSC
8 1 (0.63%) SLA
System Software
1 59 (37.11%) Docker
2 19 (11.95%) vSphere
3 16 (10.06%) VMware Infrastructure
4 6 (3.77%) VMware NSX
5 3 (1.89%) Active Directory
6 2 (1.26%) KVM
7 1 (0.63%) NDS
7 1 (0.63%) NetIQ eDirectory
7 1 (0.63%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 56 (35.22%) Ansible
2 47 (29.56%) Terraform
3 35 (22.01%) Grafana
4 29 (18.24%) Prometheus
5 16 (10.06%) Argo
6 8 (5.03%) Kustomize
7 6 (3.77%) Packer
7 6 (3.77%) vCenter Server
8 5 (3.14%) SCOM
8 5 (3.14%) Sysdig
9 4 (2.52%) Progress Chef
9 4 (2.52%) Rsyslog
10 3 (1.89%) Cilium
10 3 (1.89%) Puppet
11 2 (1.26%) Amdocs OSS
11 2 (1.26%) Kibana
11 2 (1.26%) Kubeflow
11 2 (1.26%) logstash
11 2 (1.26%) Single Sign-On
12 1 (0.63%) Proxmox
Vendors
1 38 (23.90%) Red Hat
2 23 (14.47%) VMware
3 13 (8.18%) Microsoft
4 9 (5.66%) Splunk
5 7 (4.40%) Atlassian
6 6 (3.77%) Pure Storage
7 5 (3.14%) Google
8 4 (2.52%) Oracle
9 3 (1.89%) NVIDIA
10 2 (1.26%) Ab Initio
10 2 (1.26%) Amdocs
10 2 (1.26%) Ericsson
10 2 (1.26%) Huawei
10 2 (1.26%) NetCracker
10 2 (1.26%) Nokia
11 1 (0.63%) Cisco
11 1 (0.63%) Cloudera
11 1 (0.63%) NetIQ
11 1 (0.63%) OpenText
11 1 (0.63%) Zscaler