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

6 months to
27 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 61 51 60
Rank change year-on-year -10 +9 -2
Contract jobs citing Kubernetes 228 136 143
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 3.44% 3.84% 2.99%
As % of the Systems Management category 35.02% 29.12% 21.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 151 86 108
10th Percentile £357 £397 £421
25th Percentile £453 £413 £458
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -9.09% -8.33%
75th Percentile £584 £588 £630
90th Percentile £700 £624 £675
England median daily rate £540 £530 £556
% change year-on-year +1.89% -4.63% -7.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 27 0 1
10th Percentile £65.36 - -
25th Percentile - - £36.75
Median hourly rate £70.00 - £38.50
75th Percentile £70.25 - £40.25
90th Percentile £71.17 - -
England median hourly rate £70.00 £67.00 £62.00
% change year-on-year +4.48% +8.06% -17.33%

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 651 467 661
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 9.81% 13.19% 13.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 426 320 484
10th Percentile £314 £250 £278
25th Percentile £425 £402 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £529 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.75% - -6.98%
75th Percentile £622 £588 £608
90th Percentile £725 £626 £675
England median daily rate £525 £505 £525
% change year-on-year +3.96% -3.81% -6.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 59 7 9
10th Percentile £24.10 £18.87 £21.00
25th Percentile £40.04 £23.44 £30.00
Median hourly rate £68.22 £32.77 £36.17
Median % change year-on-year +108.16% -9.39% -27.28%
75th Percentile £70.00 £69.00 £40.25
90th Percentile £77.50 £85.65 £53.90
England median hourly rate £67.00 £51.00 £36.17
% change year-on-year +31.37% +41.02% -27.47%

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 August 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 27 August 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 27 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
Thames Valley -18 90 £460 -3.16% 108
Hampshire -13 70 £550 +3.53% 44
Berkshire -21 69 £460 -3.16% 47
Surrey +13 50 £468 -14.22% 25
Buckinghamshire -22 16 £393 - 19
Middlesex -11 9 - - 3
West Sussex -14 7 £296 -8.92% 17
Oxfordshire -20 5 £825 +76.00% 42
East Sussex 0 2 £330 -28.65% 4
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 (3.51%) OpenStack
2 7 (3.07%) Apache Airflow
3 6 (2.63%) Apache Spark
4 3 (1.32%) Palantir Foundry
5 2 (0.88%) Apache
5 2 (0.88%) Apache Superset
5 2 (0.88%) Confluence
6 1 (0.44%) IIS
Applications
1 5 (2.19%) CPLEX
Cloud Services
1 125 (54.82%) Azure
2 121 (53.07%) AWS
3 53 (23.25%) OpenShift
4 46 (20.18%) GCP
5 40 (17.54%) GitHub
6 38 (16.67%) Azure DevOps
7 27 (11.84%) GitHub Actions
8 17 (7.46%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 15 (6.58%) Amazon EKS
10 14 (6.14%) Azure Monitor
11 13 (5.70%) Serverless
12 12 (5.26%) Datadog
12 12 (5.26%) SaaS
13 11 (4.82%) Azure AKS
13 11 (4.82%) Entra ID
14 9 (3.95%) AWS CloudFormation
15 6 (2.63%) Power Platform
16 5 (2.19%) Amazon S3
16 5 (2.19%) AWS Lambda
17 4 (1.75%) Azure Key Vault
Communications & Networking
1 14 (6.14%) DNS
2 13 (5.70%) VPN
3 11 (4.82%) Firewall
4 8 (3.51%) Network Security
4 8 (3.51%) TCP/IP
5 7 (3.07%) LTE
6 6 (2.63%) 5G
6 6 (2.63%) DHCP
6 6 (2.63%) Diameter Protocol
6 6 (2.63%) Radio Access Network
6 6 (2.63%) VoLTE
6 6 (2.63%) VoWiFi
6 6 (2.63%) Wireshark
7 4 (1.75%) Intrusion Detection
7 4 (1.75%) MQTT
8 3 (1.32%) BGP
8 3 (1.32%) Software-Defined Networking
9 2 (0.88%) HTTP
10 1 (0.44%) HTTPS
10 1 (0.44%) SNMP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (12.72%) PostgreSQL
2 15 (6.58%) NoSQL
3 14 (6.14%) Relational Database
4 9 (3.95%) Oracle Database
5 7 (3.07%) Big Data
5 7 (3.07%) Data Warehouse
6 5 (2.19%) Elasticsearch
6 5 (2.19%) MongoDB
7 4 (1.75%) DocumentDB
8 3 (1.32%) DynamoDB
8 3 (1.32%) Power BI
8 3 (1.32%) Redis
9 2 (0.88%) Amazon Aurora
9 2 (0.88%) Amazon RDS
9 2 (0.88%) Data Lake
9 2 (0.88%) Spark SQL
9 2 (0.88%) SQL Server
10 1 (0.44%) Amazon Redshift
10 1 (0.44%) InfluxDB
10 1 (0.44%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 38 (16.67%) Git
1 38 (16.67%) GitLab
2 34 (14.91%) Jenkins
3 28 (12.28%) SonarQube
4 8 (3.51%) MLflow
5 5 (2.19%) NUnit
6 4 (1.75%) JUnit
7 3 (1.32%) JIRA
7 3 (1.32%) Sonatype Nexus
8 2 (0.88%) Gradle
8 2 (0.88%) Jaeger
8 2 (0.88%) Maven
9 1 (0.44%) Cucumber
9 1 (0.44%) JMeter
9 1 (0.44%) LoadRunner
9 1 (0.44%) Mockito
9 1 (0.44%) NeoLoad
9 1 (0.44%) Octopus Deploy
9 1 (0.44%) Selenium
9 1 (0.44%) Subversion
General
1 59 (25.88%) Social Skills
2 23 (10.09%) Analytical Skills
3 22 (9.65%) Public Sector
4 15 (6.58%) Aerospace
4 15 (6.58%) Finance
5 12 (5.26%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 9 (3.95%) Telecoms
7 5 (2.19%) Documentation Skills
8 3 (1.32%) Banking
8 3 (1.32%) Manufacturing
8 3 (1.32%) Publishing
9 2 (0.88%) Automotive
9 2 (0.88%) Financial Institution
9 2 (0.88%) Retail
10 1 (0.44%) Advertising
10 1 (0.44%) Influencing Skills
10 1 (0.44%) Local Government
10 1 (0.44%) Military
10 1 (0.44%) Organisational Skills
10 1 (0.44%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 40 (17.54%) Developer
2 30 (13.16%) Architect
3 27 (11.84%) Platform Engineer
4 18 (7.89%) Senior
5 16 (7.02%) DevOps Engineer
5 16 (7.02%) DevSecOps Engineer
5 16 (7.02%) Java Developer
5 16 (7.02%) Lead
6 11 (4.82%) Java Engineer
6 11 (4.82%) Technical Leader
7 10 (4.39%) Analyst
7 10 (4.39%) Azure Engineer
7 10 (4.39%) Security Analyst
7 10 (4.39%) Software Engineer
8 9 (3.95%) Cloud Architect
9 8 (3.51%) Service Owner
10 7 (3.07%) .NET Developer
10 7 (3.07%) Site Reliability Engineer
11 6 (2.63%) Azure DevOps Engineer
11 6 (2.63%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 72 (31.58%) Terraform
2 34 (14.91%) Kafka
3 27 (11.84%) AngularJS
3 27 (11.84%) RESTful
4 26 (11.40%) REST
5 21 (9.21%) Quarkus
6 20 (8.77%) React
7 14 (6.14%) .NET
7 14 (6.14%) OAuth
8 13 (5.70%) Django
8 13 (5.70%) OAuth2
9 11 (4.82%) YAML
10 10 (4.39%) ARM Templates
10 10 (4.39%) Spring
11 9 (3.95%) OpenID
12 8 (3.51%) .NET Framework
12 8 (3.51%) CSS
12 8 (3.51%) HTML
12 8 (3.51%) Spring Boot
12 8 (3.51%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 44 (19.30%) Cloud Native
2 21 (9.21%) Hybrid Cloud
3 19 (8.33%) Distributed Systems
4 11 (4.82%) Enterprise Cloud
5 8 (3.51%) CMDB
6 7 (3.07%) Data Structures
6 7 (3.07%) Onboarding
6 7 (3.07%) Product Ownership
7 6 (2.63%) AI Agents
7 6 (2.63%) Algorithms
8 5 (2.19%) Enterprise Software
9 4 (1.75%) Public Cloud
10 3 (1.32%) Distributed Computing
11 2 (0.88%) Cyber Threat
11 2 (0.88%) Data Protection Act
11 2 (0.88%) Linux Command Line
11 2 (0.88%) Operational Technology
11 2 (0.88%) PKI
11 2 (0.88%) SCADA
11 2 (0.88%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 58 (25.44%) Linux
2 20 (8.77%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 9 (3.95%) Unix
4 8 (3.51%) Windows
5 7 (3.07%) Windows Server
6 1 (0.44%) Android
6 1 (0.44%) Apple iOS
6 1 (0.44%) CentOS
6 1 (0.44%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 146 (64.04%) CI/CD
2 113 (49.56%) DevOps
3 105 (46.05%) Containerisation
4 93 (40.79%) Agile
5 69 (30.26%) DevSecOps
6 66 (28.95%) Infrastructure as Code
7 53 (23.25%) Problem-Solving
8 50 (21.93%) Platform Engineering
9 47 (20.61%) Software Engineering
10 46 (20.18%) Continuous Improvement
11 44 (19.30%) AI
12 41 (17.98%) Machine Learning
12 41 (17.98%) Test Automation
13 38 (16.67%) Scrum
14 35 (15.35%) Microservices
15 34 (14.91%) Observability
16 33 (14.47%) SDLC
17 32 (14.04%) Analytics
18 30 (13.16%) Cybersecurity
19 29 (12.72%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 108 (47.37%) Python
2 45 (19.74%) Java
3 43 (18.86%) Bash
4 38 (16.67%) PowerShell
5 23 (10.09%) JavaScript
6 20 (8.77%) SQL
7 15 (6.58%) Bicep
8 13 (5.70%) TypeScript
9 12 (5.26%) C#
10 11 (4.82%) Go
11 4 (1.75%) Rust
11 4 (1.75%) Shell Script
12 2 (0.88%) Groovy
12 2 (0.88%) Scala
Qualifications
1 114 (50.00%) Security Cleared
2 100 (43.86%) SC Cleared
3 15 (6.58%) Degree
4 14 (6.14%) Azure Certification
5 12 (5.26%) DV Cleared
6 11 (4.82%) Computer Science Degree
7 10 (4.39%) CISSP
8 9 (3.95%) Cisco Certification
9 8 (3.51%) AWS Certification
9 8 (3.51%) ITIL Certification
10 7 (3.07%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 7 (3.07%) Master's Degree
11 5 (2.19%) BPSS Clearance
11 5 (2.19%) RHCE
12 4 (1.75%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
12 4 (1.75%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 4 (1.75%) CEH
12 4 (1.75%) CompTIA Security+
13 3 (1.32%) CCSP
14 2 (0.88%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 44 (19.30%) QA
2 13 (5.70%) NIST
3 10 (4.39%) NCSC
4 9 (3.95%) Cyber Essentials
4 9 (3.95%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 8 (3.51%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 7 (3.07%) Accessibility
7 6 (2.63%) SLA
8 5 (2.19%) GDPR
8 5 (2.19%) IASME
8 5 (2.19%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
8 5 (2.19%) NIST 800
9 4 (1.75%) Data Quality
10 3 (1.32%) GRC
10 3 (1.32%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 101 (44.30%) Docker
2 14 (6.14%) VMware Infrastructure
3 8 (3.51%) IAG
4 7 (3.07%) Hyper-V
5 3 (1.32%) Active Directory
6 2 (0.88%) Slurm Workload Manager
6 2 (0.88%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.44%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 48 (21.05%) Ansible
2 27 (11.84%) Grafana
3 25 (10.96%) Argo
4 22 (9.65%) Prometheus
5 6 (2.63%) Istio
5 6 (2.63%) Puppet
6 5 (2.19%) Podman
6 5 (2.19%) Rancher
7 2 (0.88%) CASB
7 2 (0.88%) Kibana
7 2 (0.88%) linkerd
7 2 (0.88%) Single Sign-On
8 1 (0.44%) QRadar
Vendors
1 41 (17.98%) Microsoft
2 36 (15.79%) Red Hat
3 19 (8.33%) Google
4 15 (6.58%) Oracle
4 15 (6.58%) VMware
5 13 (5.70%) Dynatrace
6 8 (3.51%) Nexthink
6 8 (3.51%) ServiceNow
6 8 (3.51%) Splunk
7 6 (2.63%) BT
7 6 (2.63%) Ericsson
7 6 (2.63%) Huawei
7 6 (2.63%) Nokia
8 5 (2.19%) Databricks
9 4 (1.75%) Foundry
9 4 (1.75%) NVIDIA
9 4 (1.75%) OpenAI
9 4 (1.75%) Tenable
10 3 (1.32%) Palantir
10 3 (1.32%) Salesforce