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 27 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
27 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 69 54 53
Rank change year-on-year -15 -1 +3
Contract jobs citing Kubernetes 179 111 181
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 2.87% 3.61% 3.18%
As % of the Systems Management category 25.90% 26.18% 23.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 130 70 128
10th Percentile £358 £336 £411
25th Percentile £405 £413 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £475 £563
Median % change year-on-year +7.37% -15.56% -6.25%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £626
90th Percentile £701 £610 £675
England median daily rate £530 £550 £556
% change year-on-year -3.64% -0.99% -10.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 0 2
10th Percentile £60.75 - £37.70
25th Percentile £62.50 - £39.13
Median hourly rate £70.00 - £43.00
75th Percentile - - £46.63
90th Percentile - - £47.90
England median hourly rate £70.00 £80.00 £67.25
% change year-on-year -12.50% +18.96% -7.88%

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 691 424 777
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 11.07% 13.77% 13.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 482 294 560
10th Percentile £306 £254 £250
25th Percentile £404 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% - -9.09%
75th Percentile £600 £588 £608
90th Percentile £725 £646 £675
England median daily rate £514 £513 £525
% change year-on-year +0.29% -2.38% -8.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 36 3 14
10th Percentile £16.75 £28.95 £14.00
25th Percentile £31.25 £30.39 £17.56
Median hourly rate £52.50 £32.77 £37.33
Median % change year-on-year +60.21% -12.22% -36.28%
75th Percentile £70.00 £43.89 £48.75
90th Percentile - £50.55 £52.10
England median hourly rate £61.00 £52.50 £31.25
% change year-on-year +16.19% +68.00% -42.32%

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 27 June 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
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 27 June 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 -33 71 £400 -9.09% 23
Hampshire -3 66 £550 +7.32% 33
Berkshire -29 49 £400 -12.09% 12
Surrey -4 32 £510 -6.42% 6
Buckinghamshire -24 17 £392 +26.09% 5
West Sussex -19 5 £500 +66.67% 4
Oxfordshire -26 5 £825 +71.43% 6
Middlesex -3 3 £475 - 2
East Sussex -4 1 - - 2
Home Counties - 1 - -
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 8 (4.47%) Apache Spark
2 7 (3.91%) OpenStack
3 5 (2.79%) Apache Airflow
4 3 (1.68%) Confluence
4 3 (1.68%) Palantir Foundry
5 2 (1.12%) Apache Pulsar
6 1 (0.56%) IIS
6 1 (0.56%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 6 (3.35%) CPLEX
Business Applications
1 1 (0.56%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 93 (51.96%) AWS
2 85 (47.49%) Azure
3 47 (26.26%) OpenShift
4 43 (24.02%) GCP
5 22 (12.29%) Azure DevOps
6 19 (10.61%) GitHub
7 15 (8.38%) Serverless
8 14 (7.82%) GitHub Actions
9 12 (6.70%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 12 (6.70%) Amazon EKS
10 9 (5.03%) Amazon S3
10 9 (5.03%) AWS Lambda
10 9 (5.03%) Azure AKS
10 9 (5.03%) Entra ID
11 7 (3.91%) Snowflake
12 6 (3.35%) AWS CloudFormation
13 5 (2.79%) SaaS
13 5 (2.79%) Virtual Private Cloud
14 4 (2.23%) Azure Monitor
14 4 (2.23%) Datadog
Communications & Networking
1 7 (3.91%) Firewall
2 6 (3.35%) 5G
2 6 (3.35%) Diameter Protocol
2 6 (3.35%) LTE
2 6 (3.35%) Radio Access Network
2 6 (3.35%) VoLTE
2 6 (3.35%) VoWiFi
2 6 (3.35%) Wireshark
3 5 (2.79%) Network Security
4 4 (2.23%) MQTT
4 4 (2.23%) VPN
5 3 (1.68%) DNS
5 3 (1.68%) HTTP
6 1 (0.56%) DHCP
6 1 (0.56%) HTTPS
6 1 (0.56%) iSCSI
6 1 (0.56%) Remote Desktop
6 1 (0.56%) Reverse Proxy
6 1 (0.56%) SAN
6 1 (0.56%) SNMP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 27 (15.08%) PostgreSQL
2 17 (9.50%) NoSQL
3 10 (5.59%) Big Data
3 10 (5.59%) Relational Database
4 6 (3.35%) Data Warehouse
4 6 (3.35%) DynamoDB
4 6 (3.35%) MongoDB
5 4 (2.23%) Elasticsearch
5 4 (2.23%) Redis
6 3 (1.68%) DocumentDB
7 2 (1.12%) Amazon Aurora
7 2 (1.12%) Amazon RDS
7 2 (1.12%) SQL Server
8 1 (0.56%) Amazon Athena
8 1 (0.56%) Amazon QuickSight
8 1 (0.56%) Amazon Redshift
8 1 (0.56%) Hadoop
8 1 (0.56%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 25 (13.97%) GitLab
1 25 (13.97%) SonarQube
2 24 (13.41%) Git
3 21 (11.73%) Jenkins
4 8 (4.47%) MLflow
5 5 (2.79%) NUnit
6 4 (2.23%) Jaeger
6 4 (2.23%) Sonatype Nexus
7 3 (1.68%) JIRA
8 2 (1.12%) JUnit
9 1 (0.56%) Artifactory
9 1 (0.56%) Cucumber
9 1 (0.56%) JMeter
9 1 (0.56%) LoadRunner
9 1 (0.56%) Mockito
9 1 (0.56%) NeoLoad
9 1 (0.56%) Selenium
General
1 45 (25.14%) Social Skills
2 19 (10.61%) Public Sector
3 18 (10.06%) Finance
4 10 (5.59%) Analytical Skills
5 6 (3.35%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 5 (2.79%) Telecoms
7 4 (2.23%) Documentation Skills
8 3 (1.68%) Manufacturing
8 3 (1.68%) Military
9 2 (1.12%) Aerospace
9 2 (1.12%) Automotive
9 2 (1.12%) Financial Institution
9 2 (1.12%) Organisational Skills
9 2 (1.12%) Retail
10 1 (0.56%) Advertising
10 1 (0.56%) Banking
10 1 (0.56%) Health Technology
10 1 (0.56%) Pharmaceutical
10 1 (0.56%) Presentation Skills
10 1 (0.56%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 38 (21.23%) Developer
2 20 (11.17%) Java Developer
2 20 (11.17%) Platform Engineer
3 16 (8.94%) DevOps Engineer
4 14 (7.82%) Architect
5 13 (7.26%) Site Reliability Engineer
6 12 (6.70%) Senior
6 12 (6.70%) Software Engineer
7 10 (5.59%) Analyst
7 10 (5.59%) Azure Engineer
7 10 (5.59%) Java Engineer
7 10 (5.59%) Security Analyst
7 10 (5.59%) Site Engineer
8 8 (4.47%) DevSecOps Engineer
9 7 (3.91%) Python Developer
10 6 (3.35%) Azure DevOps Engineer
11 5 (2.79%) .NET Developer
11 5 (2.79%) Cloud Engineer
11 5 (2.79%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 4 (2.23%) Applications Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 28 (15.64%) Kafka
2 25 (13.97%) AngularJS
3 20 (11.17%) RESTful
4 18 (10.06%) Quarkus
5 14 (7.82%) .NET
5 14 (7.82%) React
5 14 (7.82%) Spring
6 13 (7.26%) REST
6 13 (7.26%) Spring Boot
7 9 (5.03%) Loki
8 8 (4.47%) Django
8 8 (4.47%) pytest
8 8 (4.47%) YAML
9 7 (3.91%) .NET Framework
9 7 (3.91%) Flask
9 7 (3.91%) Node.js
9 7 (3.91%) NumPy
9 7 (3.91%) Pandas
9 7 (3.91%) RabbitMQ
9 7 (3.91%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 27 (15.08%) Distributed Systems
2 26 (14.53%) Cloud Native
3 11 (6.15%) Onboarding
4 10 (5.59%) Data Structures
5 8 (4.47%) Algorithms
5 8 (4.47%) Hybrid Cloud
6 6 (3.35%) Enterprise Software
6 6 (3.35%) Product Ownership
7 4 (2.23%) Security Posture
8 3 (1.68%) Public Cloud
9 2 (1.12%) AI Agents
9 2 (1.12%) CMDB
9 2 (1.12%) Distributed Computing
9 2 (1.12%) FMCG
9 2 (1.12%) Management Information System
9 2 (1.12%) PKI
10 1 (0.56%) Data Protection Act
10 1 (0.56%) Distributed Architecture
10 1 (0.56%) EMV
10 1 (0.56%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 38 (21.23%) Linux
2 10 (5.59%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
2 10 (5.59%) Unix
3 3 (1.68%) Windows
4 1 (0.56%) Android
4 1 (0.56%) Apple iOS
4 1 (0.56%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 121 (67.60%) CI/CD
2 79 (44.13%) Containerisation
3 75 (41.90%) DevOps
4 64 (35.75%) Agile
5 49 (27.37%) Infrastructure as Code
6 39 (21.79%) Site Reliability Engineering
6 39 (21.79%) Software Engineering
7 37 (20.67%) DevSecOps
8 36 (20.11%) Problem-Solving
9 33 (18.44%) Platform Engineering
10 32 (17.88%) Scrum
11 27 (15.08%) High Availability
12 26 (14.53%) Microservices
13 24 (13.41%) Observability
14 23 (12.85%) Test Automation
15 22 (12.29%) AI
15 22 (12.29%) SDLC
16 21 (11.73%) Continuous Improvement
16 21 (11.73%) Machine Learning
16 21 (11.73%) Unit Testing
Programming Languages
1 86 (48.04%) Python
2 51 (28.49%) Java
3 35 (19.55%) Bash
4 22 (12.29%) PowerShell
5 21 (11.73%) Go
6 17 (9.50%) SQL
7 15 (8.38%) JavaScript
8 10 (5.59%) TypeScript
9 9 (5.03%) Bicep
9 9 (5.03%) C#
10 4 (2.23%) Rust
10 4 (2.23%) Shell Script
11 2 (1.12%) Scala
12 1 (0.56%) C
12 1 (0.56%) C++
12 1 (0.56%) Groovy
12 1 (0.56%) Korn
12 1 (0.56%) Kotlin
Qualifications
1 90 (50.28%) Security Cleared
2 78 (43.58%) SC Cleared
3 14 (7.82%) Degree
4 11 (6.15%) DV Cleared
5 8 (4.47%) Azure Certification
6 7 (3.91%) Computer Science Degree
6 7 (3.91%) RHCE
7 6 (3.35%) BPSS Clearance
8 2 (1.12%) CISSP
8 2 (1.12%) ITIL Certification
8 2 (1.12%) Master's Degree
9 1 (0.56%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 1 (0.56%) CCSP
9 1 (0.56%) Cisco Certification
9 1 (0.56%) ISTQB
9 1 (0.56%) Microsoft Certification
9 1 (0.56%) OCP
9 1 (0.56%) Oracle Certification
9 1 (0.56%) PMI Certification
9 1 (0.56%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 22 (12.29%) QA
2 7 (3.91%) PCI DSS
3 6 (3.35%) NCSC
3 6 (3.35%) NIST
3 6 (3.35%) SLA
4 5 (2.79%) Cyber Essentials
4 5 (2.79%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 5 (2.79%) GDPR
4 5 (2.79%) IASME
4 5 (2.79%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
4 5 (2.79%) NIST 800
5 4 (2.23%) GRC
6 2 (1.12%) JSP 440
7 1 (0.56%) Accessibility
7 1 (0.56%) Data Quality
7 1 (0.56%) ISO 20022
7 1 (0.56%) ISO 8583
7 1 (0.56%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 70 (39.11%) Docker
2 5 (2.79%) VMware Infrastructure
3 4 (2.23%) Active Directory
4 2 (1.12%) Hyper-V
4 2 (1.12%) IAG
4 2 (1.12%) Slurm Workload Manager
5 1 (0.56%) Citrix Hypervisor
Systems Management
1 48 (26.82%) Terraform
2 32 (17.88%) Grafana
3 31 (17.32%) Prometheus
4 24 (13.41%) Argo
5 20 (11.17%) Ansible
6 9 (5.03%) Rancher
7 7 (3.91%) Puppet
8 6 (3.35%) Istio
9 5 (2.79%) Podman
10 3 (1.68%) Kustomize
11 2 (1.12%) Kibana
11 2 (1.12%) linkerd
11 2 (1.12%) Nessus
11 2 (1.12%) Single Sign-On
12 1 (0.56%) CASB
12 1 (0.56%) Fluentd
12 1 (0.56%) Kubeflow
12 1 (0.56%) Packer
12 1 (0.56%) Salt
Vendors
1 31 (17.32%) Red Hat
2 11 (6.15%) Google
2 11 (6.15%) Microsoft
3 7 (3.91%) Ericsson
4 6 (3.35%) BT
4 6 (3.35%) Huawei
4 6 (3.35%) Nokia
4 6 (3.35%) Splunk
4 6 (3.35%) Tenable
4 6 (3.35%) VMware
5 5 (2.79%) Ab Initio
5 5 (2.79%) Dynatrace
5 5 (2.79%) Oracle
5 5 (2.79%) Teradata
6 4 (2.23%) Foundry
6 4 (2.23%) NVIDIA
6 4 (2.23%) OpenAI
7 3 (1.68%) Palantir
8 2 (1.12%) Fortinet
8 2 (1.12%) ServiceNow