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

6 months to
21 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 65 50 62
Rank change year-on-year -15 +12 -5
Contract jobs citing Kubernetes 228 137 143
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 3.41% 3.89% 2.97%
As % of the Systems Management category 34.76% 29.78% 21.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 151 87 108
10th Percentile £357 £393 £421
25th Percentile £450 £413 £461
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -9.09% -8.33%
75th Percentile £584 £588 £632
90th Percentile £700 £619 £675
England median daily rate £540 £533 £556
% change year-on-year +1.41% -4.18% -8.89%
Number of hourly rates quoted 26 0 1
10th Percentile £65.05 - -
25th Percentile - - £36.75
Median hourly rate £70.00 - £38.50
75th Percentile - - £40.25
90th Percentile £71.00 - -
England median hourly rate £70.00 £67.00 £67.50
% change year-on-year +4.48% -0.74% -7.53%

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 656 460 671
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 9.81% 13.05% 13.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 427 315 494
10th Percentile £313 £250 £267
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% - -6.98%
75th Percentile £617 £588 £608
90th Percentile £725 £625 £675
England median daily rate £525 £508 £525
% change year-on-year +3.45% -3.33% -6.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 57 7 9
10th Percentile £23.20 £18.87 £21.00
25th Percentile £35.22 £23.44 £30.00
Median hourly rate £67.47 £32.77 £36.17
Median % change year-on-year +105.89% -9.39% -30.94%
75th Percentile £70.00 £69.00 £40.25
90th Percentile £73.86 £85.65 £53.90
England median hourly rate £67.47 £51.00 £36.83
% change year-on-year +32.29% +38.46% -25.78%

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 21 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 21 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 21 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 93 £460 -3.16% 42
Hampshire -10 70 £550 +7.32% 26
Berkshire -21 69 £460 -3.16% 27
Surrey +11 49 £475 -12.84% 14
Buckinghamshire -17 19 £393 - 6
Middlesex -14 8 - - 1
West Sussex -17 6 £270 -16.92% 2
Oxfordshire -25 5 £825 +76.00% 9
East Sussex 0 2 £330 -28.65% 3
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%) Confluence
6 1 (0.44%) Apache
6 1 (0.44%) Apache Superset
6 1 (0.44%) IIS
Applications
1 5 (2.19%) CPLEX
Cloud Services
1 125 (54.82%) Azure
2 120 (52.63%) AWS
3 53 (23.25%) OpenShift
4 46 (20.18%) GCP
5 39 (17.11%) Azure DevOps
5 39 (17.11%) GitHub
6 27 (11.84%) GitHub Actions
7 17 (7.46%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 15 (6.58%) Amazon EKS
9 13 (5.70%) Azure Monitor
9 13 (5.70%) Serverless
10 12 (5.26%) Azure AKS
11 11 (4.82%) Datadog
11 11 (4.82%) Entra ID
11 11 (4.82%) SaaS
12 9 (3.95%) AWS CloudFormation
13 5 (2.19%) Amazon S3
13 5 (2.19%) AWS Lambda
13 5 (2.19%) Power Platform
14 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 7 (3.07%) Big Data
4 7 (3.07%) Data Warehouse
4 7 (3.07%) Oracle Database
5 5 (2.19%) Elasticsearch
5 5 (2.19%) MongoDB
6 4 (1.75%) DocumentDB
7 3 (1.32%) DynamoDB
7 3 (1.32%) Redis
8 2 (0.88%) Amazon Aurora
8 2 (0.88%) Amazon RDS
8 2 (0.88%) Data Lake
8 2 (0.88%) Power BI
8 2 (0.88%) Spark SQL
8 2 (0.88%) SQL Server
9 1 (0.44%) Amazon Redshift
9 1 (0.44%) Couchbase
9 1 (0.44%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 38 (16.67%) Git
1 38 (16.67%) GitLab
2 34 (14.91%) Jenkins
3 29 (12.72%) SonarQube
4 8 (3.51%) MLflow
5 5 (2.19%) NUnit
6 4 (1.75%) JUnit
7 3 (1.32%) Jaeger
7 3 (1.32%) JIRA
7 3 (1.32%) Sonatype Nexus
8 2 (0.88%) Gradle
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 57 (25.00%) Social Skills
2 23 (10.09%) Public Sector
3 22 (9.65%) Analytical Skills
4 15 (6.58%) Finance
5 14 (6.14%) Aerospace
6 12 (5.26%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 9 (3.95%) Telecoms
8 5 (2.19%) Documentation Skills
9 3 (1.32%) Banking
9 3 (1.32%) Manufacturing
9 3 (1.32%) Publishing
10 2 (0.88%) Automotive
10 2 (0.88%) Financial Institution
10 2 (0.88%) Retail
11 1 (0.44%) Advertising
11 1 (0.44%) Influencing Skills
11 1 (0.44%) Local Government
11 1 (0.44%) Military
11 1 (0.44%) Pharmaceutical
11 1 (0.44%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 40 (17.54%) Developer
2 28 (12.28%) Architect
2 28 (12.28%) Platform Engineer
3 18 (7.89%) Senior
4 17 (7.46%) DevOps Engineer
5 16 (7.02%) DevSecOps Engineer
5 16 (7.02%) Java Developer
6 15 (6.58%) Lead
7 11 (4.82%) Azure Engineer
7 11 (4.82%) Java Engineer
7 11 (4.82%) Software Engineer
8 10 (4.39%) Analyst
8 10 (4.39%) Security Analyst
8 10 (4.39%) Technical Leader
9 9 (3.95%) Site Reliability Engineer
10 8 (3.51%) Cloud Architect
11 7 (3.07%) .NET Developer
11 7 (3.07%) Azure DevOps Engineer
11 7 (3.07%) Service Owner
12 6 (2.63%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 73 (32.02%) Terraform
2 34 (14.91%) Kafka
3 28 (12.28%) AngularJS
4 27 (11.84%) RESTful
5 26 (11.40%) REST
6 22 (9.65%) Quarkus
7 19 (8.33%) React
8 15 (6.58%) .NET
9 14 (6.14%) OAuth
10 13 (5.70%) Django
10 13 (5.70%) OAuth2
11 11 (4.82%) YAML
12 10 (4.39%) ARM Templates
12 10 (4.39%) Spring
13 9 (3.95%) OpenID
14 8 (3.51%) .NET Framework
14 8 (3.51%) CSS
14 8 (3.51%) HTML
14 8 (3.51%) Spring Boot
14 8 (3.51%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 42 (18.42%) Cloud Native
2 22 (9.65%) Hybrid Cloud
3 20 (8.77%) Distributed Systems
4 9 (3.95%) Enterprise Cloud
5 7 (3.07%) CMDB
5 7 (3.07%) Data Structures
5 7 (3.07%) Onboarding
5 7 (3.07%) Product Ownership
6 5 (2.19%) AI Agents
6 5 (2.19%) Algorithms
6 5 (2.19%) Enterprise Software
7 4 (1.75%) Public Cloud
8 3 (1.32%) Distributed Computing
8 3 (1.32%) Security Posture
9 2 (0.88%) Cyber Threat
9 2 (0.88%) Data Protection Act
9 2 (0.88%) Linux Command Line
9 2 (0.88%) Operational Technology
9 2 (0.88%) PKI
9 2 (0.88%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 59 (25.88%) Linux
2 19 (8.33%) 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
1 148 (64.91%) CI/CD
2 114 (50.00%) DevOps
3 104 (45.61%) Containerisation
4 93 (40.79%) Agile
5 69 (30.26%) DevSecOps
6 67 (29.39%) Infrastructure as Code
7 51 (22.37%) Platform Engineering
7 51 (22.37%) Problem-Solving
8 48 (21.05%) Software Engineering
9 44 (19.30%) Continuous Improvement
10 43 (18.86%) Test Automation
11 42 (18.42%) AI
12 40 (17.54%) Machine Learning
12 40 (17.54%) Scrum
13 36 (15.79%) Observability
14 35 (15.35%) Microservices
15 34 (14.91%) SDLC
16 31 (13.60%) Analytics
17 29 (12.72%) Cybersecurity
17 29 (12.72%) Site Reliability Engineering
Programming Languages
1 109 (47.81%) Python
2 46 (20.18%) Bash
3 45 (19.74%) Java
4 39 (17.11%) PowerShell
5 23 (10.09%) JavaScript
6 20 (8.77%) SQL
7 15 (6.58%) Bicep
8 13 (5.70%) Go
9 12 (5.26%) C#
9 12 (5.26%) TypeScript
10 4 (1.75%) Rust
10 4 (1.75%) Shell Script
11 2 (0.88%) Groovy
11 2 (0.88%) Scala
Qualifications
1 115 (50.44%) Security Cleared
2 101 (44.30%) SC Cleared
3 15 (6.58%) Degree
4 14 (6.14%) Azure Certification
5 13 (5.70%) 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
10 7 (3.07%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 7 (3.07%) ITIL Certification
10 7 (3.07%) Master's Degree
11 6 (2.63%) RHCE
12 5 (2.19%) BPSS Clearance
13 4 (1.75%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
13 4 (1.75%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 4 (1.75%) CEH
13 4 (1.75%) CompTIA Security+
14 3 (1.32%) CCSP
15 2 (0.88%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 43 (18.86%) 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
6 7 (3.07%) GDPR
7 6 (2.63%) SLA
8 5 (2.19%) IASME
8 5 (2.19%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
8 5 (2.19%) NIST 800
8 5 (2.19%) PCI DSS
9 4 (1.75%) Data Quality
9 4 (1.75%) GRC
System Software
1 101 (44.30%) Docker
2 14 (6.14%) VMware Infrastructure
3 7 (3.07%) Hyper-V
3 7 (3.07%) IAG
4 3 (1.32%) Active Directory
5 2 (0.88%) Slurm Workload Manager
5 2 (0.88%) VMware ESXi
6 1 (0.44%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 46 (20.18%) Ansible
2 28 (12.28%) Grafana
3 26 (11.40%) Argo
4 24 (10.53%) Prometheus
5 8 (3.51%) Rancher
6 7 (3.07%) Istio
7 6 (2.63%) Puppet
8 5 (2.19%) Podman
9 2 (0.88%) CASB
9 2 (0.88%) Kibana
9 2 (0.88%) linkerd
9 2 (0.88%) Single Sign-On
10 1 (0.44%) QRadar
Vendors
1 38 (16.67%) Microsoft
1 38 (16.67%) Red Hat
2 19 (8.33%) Google
3 15 (6.58%) VMware
4 13 (5.70%) Oracle
5 12 (5.26%) Dynatrace
6 8 (3.51%) Splunk
7 7 (3.07%) Nexthink
7 7 (3.07%) ServiceNow
8 6 (2.63%) BT
8 6 (2.63%) Ericsson
8 6 (2.63%) Huawei
8 6 (2.63%) Nokia
9 5 (2.19%) Databricks
10 4 (1.75%) Foundry
10 4 (1.75%) NVIDIA
10 4 (1.75%) OpenAI
10 4 (1.75%) Tenable
11 3 (1.32%) Palantir
11 3 (1.32%) Salesforce