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 31 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
31 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 46 58 70
Rank change year-on-year +12 +12 -3
Contract jobs citing Kubernetes 183 124 151
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 4.15% 3.45% 3.06%
As % of the Systems Management category 28.86% 26.11% 22.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 135 83 114
10th Percentile £361 £401 £407
25th Percentile £416 £438 £479
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £563
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -6.67% +2.27%
75th Percentile £550 £631 £622
90th Percentile £637 £675 £700
England median daily rate £525 £590 £575
% change year-on-year -11.02% +2.61% -8.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 0 5
10th Percentile £40.00 - £68.19
25th Percentile £46.25 - -
Median hourly rate £60.00 - £76.53
75th Percentile £82.00 - -
90th Percentile £91.50 - -
England median hourly rate £66.50 £51.84 £55.00
% change year-on-year +28.28% -5.75% -18.22%

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 634 475 682
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 14.38% 13.22% 13.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 454 352 464
10th Percentile £260 £260 £205
25th Percentile £393 £375 £318
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £492 £495 £525
Median % change year-on-year -0.66% -5.67% -
75th Percentile £569 £602 £615
90th Percentile £638 £675 £688
England median daily rate £511 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -2.71% -2.78% -8.01%
Number of hourly rates quoted 20 4 30
10th Percentile £18.99 £14.39 £23.96
25th Percentile £19.00 £17.98 £30.00
Median hourly rate £43.75 £26.99 £52.37
Median % change year-on-year +62.13% -48.47% -4.79%
75th Percentile £80.50 £36.50 £69.66
90th Percentile £86.36 £37.40 £76.53
England median hourly rate £52.50 £26.50 £46.18
% change year-on-year +98.11% -42.62% +27.89%

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 31 December 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 31 December 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 31 December 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 -7 81 £500 -2.68% 456
Hampshire +17 76 £500 -13.04% 210
Berkshire +2 76 £500 - 281
Surrey 0 12 £425 -15.00% 116
East Sussex +7 4 £565 +22.83% 51
Middlesex - 4 £594 - 1
Oxfordshire -11 3 £525 +5.00% 70
West Sussex -15 3 £273 -47.60% 50
Buckinghamshire -3 2 £613 -3.92% 105
Kent - 2 £325 - 115
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 (3.28%) Confluence
2 4 (2.19%) Apache
2 4 (2.19%) Apache Spark
3 3 (1.64%) IIS
4 1 (0.55%) Apache Airflow
4 1 (0.55%) CMS
4 1 (0.55%) Drupal
4 1 (0.55%) Jupyter
4 1 (0.55%) Red Hat Fuse
4 1 (0.55%) SAS
4 1 (0.55%) WordPress
Applications
1 1 (0.55%) Microsoft Excel
1 1 (0.55%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 92 (50.27%) AWS
2 87 (47.54%) Azure
3 50 (27.32%) OpenShift
4 48 (26.23%) GitHub
5 43 (23.50%) GCP
6 27 (14.75%) GitHub Actions
7 17 (9.29%) Azure AKS
8 16 (8.74%) Azure DevOps
9 12 (6.56%) IaaS
10 11 (6.01%) Datadog
11 10 (5.46%) Amazon EKS
12 9 (4.92%) Amazon S3
12 9 (4.92%) AWS CloudFormation
12 9 (4.92%) Serverless
13 8 (4.37%) Amazon ECR
13 8 (4.37%) Cloud Computing
14 7 (3.83%) PaaS
15 6 (3.28%) Entra ID
16 5 (2.73%) AWS Lambda
16 5 (2.73%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 14 (7.65%) DNS
2 12 (6.56%) Firewall
3 9 (4.92%) TCP/IP
4 6 (3.28%) DHCP
5 5 (2.73%) Kerberos
6 3 (1.64%) HTTP
6 3 (1.64%) Network Security
6 3 (1.64%) SSL
7 2 (1.09%) MQTT
8 1 (0.55%) HTTPS
8 1 (0.55%) Internet
8 1 (0.55%) SSH
8 1 (0.55%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 34 (18.58%) PostgreSQL
2 24 (13.11%) NoSQL
3 17 (9.29%) MongoDB
4 11 (6.01%) Redis
5 8 (4.37%) HBase
6 7 (3.83%) DynamoDB
7 6 (3.28%) Couchbase
8 5 (2.73%) Apache Cassandra
8 5 (2.73%) Azure SQL Database
8 5 (2.73%) Data Lake
9 4 (2.19%) Elasticsearch
9 4 (2.19%) Relational Database
9 4 (2.19%) SQL Server
10 3 (1.64%) Big Data
11 2 (1.09%) BigQuery
12 1 (0.55%) Amazon Aurora
12 1 (0.55%) Delta Lake
12 1 (0.55%) Hadoop
12 1 (0.55%) MySQL
12 1 (0.55%) Parquet
Development Applications
1 54 (29.51%) Jenkins
2 36 (19.67%) GitLab
3 34 (18.58%) Git
4 16 (8.74%) Artifactory
4 16 (8.74%) Cucumber
5 13 (7.10%) JUnit
5 13 (7.10%) Sonatype Nexus
6 12 (6.56%) Gradle
7 10 (5.46%) JIRA
8 7 (3.83%) Maven
9 6 (3.28%) JMeter
10 4 (2.19%) SonarQube
11 3 (1.64%) Bitbucket
11 3 (1.64%) MLflow
12 2 (1.09%) Cypress.io
12 2 (1.09%) Gatling
13 1 (0.55%) LoadRunner
13 1 (0.55%) Mocha
13 1 (0.55%) Selenium
13 1 (0.55%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 54 (29.51%) Social Skills
2 19 (10.38%) Analytical Skills
3 16 (8.74%) Public Sector
4 11 (6.01%) Finance
5 4 (2.19%) Aerospace
5 4 (2.19%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 2 (1.09%) Banking
6 2 (1.09%) Billing
6 2 (1.09%) Telecoms
7 1 (0.55%) Documentation Skills
7 1 (0.55%) Legal
Job Titles
1 35 (19.13%) Developer
2 34 (18.58%) DevOps Engineer
3 27 (14.75%) Senior
4 26 (14.21%) Architect
4 26 (14.21%) Java Developer
5 16 (8.74%) Platform Engineer
6 15 (8.20%) Site Reliability Engineer
7 14 (7.65%) Site Engineer
8 12 (6.56%) Azure Engineer
8 12 (6.56%) Senior Developer
9 11 (6.01%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 10 (5.46%) AWS DevOps
11 9 (4.92%) Security Architect
12 8 (4.37%) Senior Java Developer
13 7 (3.83%) Lead
13 7 (3.83%) Software Engineer
14 6 (3.28%) AWS Developer
14 6 (3.28%) Azure Infrastructure Engineer
14 6 (3.28%) Java Engineer
14 6 (3.28%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 35 (19.13%) Kafka
2 23 (12.57%) Spring
2 23 (12.57%) Spring Boot
3 18 (9.84%) REST
4 16 (8.74%) Elastic Stack
5 13 (7.10%) AngularJS
6 11 (6.01%) RabbitMQ
6 11 (6.01%) React
7 10 (5.46%) Keycloak
7 10 (5.46%) Loki
7 10 (5.46%) PyTorch
7 10 (5.46%) TensorFlow
8 8 (4.37%) Middleware
8 8 (4.37%) RESTful
8 8 (4.37%) scikit-learn
9 6 (3.28%) ADO
10 5 (2.73%) .NET
11 4 (2.19%) Hibernate
11 4 (2.19%) JSON
11 4 (2.19%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 28 (15.30%) Cloud Native
2 13 (7.10%) Distributed Systems
3 8 (4.37%) Virtual Team
4 6 (3.28%) Enterprise Software
4 6 (3.28%) Hybrid Cloud
5 5 (2.73%) Security Posture
6 4 (2.19%) Algorithms
6 4 (2.19%) PKI
6 4 (2.19%) Private Cloud
7 3 (1.64%) Cloud Security Posture
7 3 (1.64%) Onboarding
7 3 (1.64%) Product Ownership
7 3 (1.64%) Public Cloud
7 3 (1.64%) Self-Motivation
8 2 (1.09%) Management Information System
8 2 (1.09%) TM Forum
9 1 (0.55%) Data Protection Act
9 1 (0.55%) Data Structures
9 1 (0.55%) IoT
9 1 (0.55%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 61 (33.33%) Linux
2 15 (8.20%) Windows
3 11 (6.01%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 6 (3.28%) Ubuntu
5 5 (2.73%) VMS
5 5 (2.73%) Windows Server
6 3 (1.64%) CentOS
7 2 (1.09%) Unix
8 1 (0.55%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 137 (74.86%) CI/CD
2 90 (49.18%) DevOps
3 83 (45.36%) Containerisation
4 50 (27.32%) Agile
5 49 (26.78%) Infrastructure as Code
6 41 (22.40%) Observability
6 41 (22.40%) Problem-Solving
7 39 (21.31%) Microservices
8 32 (17.49%) Platform Engineering
8 32 (17.49%) Site Reliability Engineering
9 28 (15.30%) DevSecOps
10 26 (14.21%) Software Engineering
11 22 (12.02%) High Availability
12 19 (10.38%) Test Automation
13 17 (9.29%) Configuration Management
14 15 (8.20%) Continuous Integration
14 15 (8.20%) Infrastructure Engineering
15 14 (7.65%) Machine Learning
15 14 (7.65%) Scrum
16 12 (6.56%) Migration
Programming Languages
1 87 (47.54%) Python
2 56 (30.60%) Java
3 48 (26.23%) Bash
4 26 (14.21%) SQL
5 23 (12.57%) PowerShell
6 17 (9.29%) JavaScript
7 15 (8.20%) Go
8 13 (7.10%) C#
9 8 (4.37%) Bicep
9 8 (4.37%) R
10 5 (2.73%) C++
11 4 (2.19%) C
11 4 (2.19%) Shell Script
12 3 (1.64%) TypeScript
13 2 (1.09%) Perl
13 2 (1.09%) PHP
13 2 (1.09%) Rust
14 1 (0.55%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 92 (50.27%) Security Cleared
2 78 (42.62%) SC Cleared
3 9 (4.92%) Degree
3 9 (4.92%) DV Cleared
3 9 (4.92%) OCP
3 9 (4.92%) Oracle Certification
4 8 (4.37%) AWS Certification
5 7 (3.83%) Computer Science Degree
5 7 (3.83%) RHCE
6 4 (2.19%) Azure Certification
6 4 (2.19%) Cisco Certification
7 3 (1.64%) (ISC)2 CCSP
7 3 (1.64%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
7 3 (1.64%) CCSP
7 3 (1.64%) CISSP
7 3 (1.64%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 2 (1.09%) RHCSA
9 1 (0.55%) BPSS Clearance
9 1 (0.55%) CCNP
9 1 (0.55%) JNCIP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (6.56%) QA
2 8 (4.37%) GDPR
2 8 (4.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 7 (3.83%) NIST
4 6 (3.28%) NCSC
5 5 (2.73%) EU AI Act
6 4 (2.19%) PCI DSS
7 3 (1.64%) Def Stans
7 3 (1.64%) PSD2
8 2 (1.09%) JSP 440
System Software
1 74 (40.44%) Docker
2 23 (12.57%) VMware Infrastructure
3 15 (8.20%) vSphere
4 6 (3.28%) Active Directory
4 6 (3.28%) VMware NSX
5 4 (2.19%) Hyper-V
6 2 (1.09%) KVM
7 1 (0.55%) NDS
7 1 (0.55%) NetIQ eDirectory
7 1 (0.55%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 68 (37.16%) Terraform
2 66 (36.07%) Ansible
3 49 (26.78%) Grafana
4 42 (22.95%) Prometheus
5 26 (14.21%) Argo
6 9 (4.92%) Puppet
7 8 (4.37%) Kustomize
7 8 (4.37%) Progress Chef
8 7 (3.83%) Istio
8 7 (3.83%) Sysdig
8 7 (3.83%) vCenter Server
9 6 (3.28%) linkerd
10 5 (2.73%) SCOM
11 4 (2.19%) Podman
11 4 (2.19%) Rsyslog
12 3 (1.64%) Cilium
12 3 (1.64%) Nessus
13 2 (1.09%) Kubeflow
13 2 (1.09%) logstash
13 2 (1.09%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 42 (22.95%) Red Hat
2 37 (20.22%) VMware
3 17 (9.29%) Splunk
4 14 (7.65%) Microsoft
5 6 (3.28%) Google
5 6 (3.28%) Pure Storage
6 5 (2.73%) Atlassian
7 3 (1.64%) AppDynamics
7 3 (1.64%) Dynatrace
7 3 (1.64%) NVIDIA
7 3 (1.64%) Oracle
7 3 (1.64%) Tenable
8 1 (0.55%) Cloudera
8 1 (0.55%) NetIQ
8 1 (0.55%) OpenText
8 1 (0.55%) Salesforce
8 1 (0.55%) ServiceNow
8 1 (0.55%) Virgin Media
8 1 (0.55%) Zscaler