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

6 months to
18 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 66 51 59
Rank change year-on-year -15 +8 -5
Contract jobs citing Kubernetes 176 110 177
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 2.87% 3.64% 3.08%
As % of the Systems Management category 26.23% 26.19% 22.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 127 70 127
10th Percentile £350 £336 £413
25th Percentile £397 £413 £460
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £477 £550
Median % change year-on-year +4.93% -13.36% -8.33%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £624
90th Percentile £698 £610 £675
England median daily rate £525 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -4.55% - -11.65%
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 0 2
10th Percentile £60.00 - £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 £69.75 £80.00 £64.50
% change year-on-year -12.81% +24.03% -14.00%

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 671 420 785
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 10.94% 13.92% 13.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 473 296 569
10th Percentile £306 £263 £249
25th Percentile £402 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.00% - -9.09%
75th Percentile £600 £588 £608
90th Percentile £725 £650 £675
England median daily rate £513 £513 £525
% change year-on-year - -2.38% -8.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 36 1 12
10th Percentile £16.75 - £14.00
25th Percentile £31.25 - £15.50
Median hourly rate £52.50 £28.00 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +87.50% -34.88% -29.94%
75th Percentile £70.00 - £49.06
90th Percentile - - £52.70
England median hourly rate £58.94 £44.50 £31.50
% change year-on-year +32.44% +41.27% -42.73%

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 18 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 18 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 -25 77 £400 -10.61% 16
Hampshire -4 59 £550 +4.81% 27
Berkshire -26 55 £397 -14.73% 12
Surrey +4 31 £505 -7.34% 7
Buckinghamshire -22 17 £392 +26.09% 1
West Sussex -17 5 £500 +66.67% 2
Oxfordshire -28 5 £825 +71.43% 3
Middlesex -2 2 £475 - 3
East Sussex -5 1 - - 2
Home Counties - 1 - - 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 (4.55%) Apache Spark
2 7 (3.98%) OpenStack
3 3 (1.70%) Confluence
3 3 (1.70%) Palantir Foundry
4 2 (1.14%) Apache Pulsar
5 1 (0.57%) IIS
5 1 (0.57%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 6 (3.41%) CPLEX
Business Applications
1 1 (0.57%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 89 (50.57%) Azure
2 84 (47.73%) AWS
3 43 (24.43%) GCP
3 43 (24.43%) OpenShift
4 25 (14.20%) Azure DevOps
5 19 (10.80%) GitHub
6 15 (8.52%) GitHub Actions
7 14 (7.95%) Serverless
8 13 (7.39%) Amazon EKS
9 12 (6.82%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 12 (6.82%) Azure AKS
10 10 (5.68%) Entra ID
11 9 (5.11%) Amazon S3
11 9 (5.11%) AWS Lambda
12 7 (3.98%) Snowflake
13 6 (3.41%) AWS CloudFormation
13 6 (3.41%) Datadog
14 5 (2.84%) Azure Monitor
14 5 (2.84%) Virtual Private Cloud
15 4 (2.27%) Amazon ECS
Communications & Networking
1 7 (3.98%) Firewall
2 6 (3.41%) 5G
2 6 (3.41%) Diameter Protocol
2 6 (3.41%) LTE
2 6 (3.41%) Radio Access Network
2 6 (3.41%) VoLTE
2 6 (3.41%) VoWiFi
2 6 (3.41%) Wireshark
3 4 (2.27%) MQTT
3 4 (2.27%) Network Security
3 4 (2.27%) VPN
4 3 (1.70%) DNS
4 3 (1.70%) HTTP
5 1 (0.57%) DHCP
5 1 (0.57%) HTTPS
5 1 (0.57%) iSCSI
5 1 (0.57%) Remote Desktop
5 1 (0.57%) Reverse Proxy
5 1 (0.57%) SAN
5 1 (0.57%) SNMP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 26 (14.77%) PostgreSQL
2 17 (9.66%) NoSQL
3 10 (5.68%) Big Data
3 10 (5.68%) Relational Database
4 8 (4.55%) MongoDB
5 6 (3.41%) Data Warehouse
5 6 (3.41%) DynamoDB
5 6 (3.41%) Elasticsearch
6 4 (2.27%) Redis
7 3 (1.70%) DocumentDB
8 2 (1.14%) Amazon Aurora
8 2 (1.14%) Amazon RDS
8 2 (1.14%) SQL Server
9 1 (0.57%) Amazon Athena
9 1 (0.57%) Amazon QuickSight
9 1 (0.57%) Amazon Redshift
9 1 (0.57%) Hadoop
9 1 (0.57%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 25 (14.20%) Git
1 25 (14.20%) SonarQube
2 20 (11.36%) GitLab
3 19 (10.80%) Jenkins
4 5 (2.84%) NUnit
5 4 (2.27%) Jaeger
5 4 (2.27%) Sonatype Nexus
6 3 (1.70%) JIRA
6 3 (1.70%) MLflow
7 1 (0.57%) Artifactory
7 1 (0.57%) JMeter
7 1 (0.57%) JUnit
7 1 (0.57%) LoadRunner
7 1 (0.57%) NeoLoad
7 1 (0.57%) Selenium
General
1 47 (26.70%) Social Skills
2 18 (10.23%) Finance
2 18 (10.23%) Public Sector
3 12 (6.82%) Analytical Skills
4 6 (3.41%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 4 (2.27%) Documentation Skills
5 4 (2.27%) Telecoms
6 3 (1.70%) Manufacturing
6 3 (1.70%) Military
7 2 (1.14%) Aerospace
7 2 (1.14%) Automotive
7 2 (1.14%) Financial Institution
7 2 (1.14%) Organisational Skills
7 2 (1.14%) Retail
8 1 (0.57%) Advertising
8 1 (0.57%) Banking
8 1 (0.57%) Health Technology
8 1 (0.57%) Pharmaceutical
8 1 (0.57%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 37 (21.02%) Developer
2 20 (11.36%) Java Developer
3 18 (10.23%) Platform Engineer
4 17 (9.66%) DevOps Engineer
5 14 (7.95%) Azure Engineer
6 13 (7.39%) Architect
6 13 (7.39%) Site Reliability Engineer
7 11 (6.25%) Senior
7 11 (6.25%) Software Engineer
8 10 (5.68%) Analyst
8 10 (5.68%) Java Engineer
8 10 (5.68%) Security Analyst
8 10 (5.68%) Site Engineer
9 8 (4.55%) DevSecOps Engineer
10 7 (3.98%) Python Developer
11 6 (3.41%) Azure DevOps Engineer
11 6 (3.41%) Cloud Engineer
11 6 (3.41%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 5 (2.84%) .NET Developer
12 5 (2.84%) AWS Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 28 (15.91%) Kafka
2 27 (15.34%) AngularJS
3 19 (10.80%) RESTful
4 18 (10.23%) Quarkus
5 14 (7.95%) .NET
6 13 (7.39%) React
6 13 (7.39%) Spring
7 12 (6.82%) Spring Boot
8 11 (6.25%) REST
9 10 (5.68%) Loki
10 8 (4.55%) Django
10 8 (4.55%) pytest
11 7 (3.98%) .NET Framework
11 7 (3.98%) ARM Templates
11 7 (3.98%) Flask
11 7 (3.98%) Keycloak
11 7 (3.98%) Node.js
11 7 (3.98%) NumPy
11 7 (3.98%) Pandas
11 7 (3.98%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 28 (15.91%) Cloud Native
2 27 (15.34%) Distributed Systems
3 10 (5.68%) Data Structures
4 9 (5.11%) Onboarding
5 8 (4.55%) Algorithms
5 8 (4.55%) Enterprise Software
6 7 (3.98%) Hybrid Cloud
7 5 (2.84%) Product Ownership
8 4 (2.27%) Security Posture
9 3 (1.70%) Management Information System
9 3 (1.70%) Public Cloud
10 2 (1.14%) AI Agents
10 2 (1.14%) Distributed Computing
10 2 (1.14%) FMCG
10 2 (1.14%) Self-Motivation
11 1 (0.57%) Analytical Mindset
11 1 (0.57%) Distributed Architecture
11 1 (0.57%) Enterprise Cloud
11 1 (0.57%) Legacy Applications
11 1 (0.57%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 31 (17.61%) Linux
2 10 (5.68%) Unix
3 9 (5.11%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 3 (1.70%) Windows
5 2 (1.14%) VMS
6 1 (0.57%) Android
6 1 (0.57%) Apple iOS
6 1 (0.57%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 120 (68.18%) CI/CD
2 73 (41.48%) DevOps
3 72 (40.91%) Containerisation
4 65 (36.93%) Agile
5 52 (29.55%) Infrastructure as Code
6 39 (22.16%) Site Reliability Engineering
7 38 (21.59%) Software Engineering
8 36 (20.45%) Scrum
9 34 (19.32%) Problem-Solving
10 31 (17.61%) Platform Engineering
11 30 (17.05%) DevSecOps
12 28 (15.91%) High Availability
12 28 (15.91%) Observability
13 26 (14.77%) Microservices
14 22 (12.50%) Test Automation
15 21 (11.93%) SDLC
15 21 (11.93%) Unit Testing
16 20 (11.36%) Front End Development
17 19 (10.80%) Continuous Improvement
18 18 (10.23%) AI
Programming Languages
1 80 (45.45%) Python
2 52 (29.55%) Java
3 31 (17.61%) Bash
4 23 (13.07%) PowerShell
5 21 (11.93%) Go
6 16 (9.09%) SQL
7 15 (8.52%) JavaScript
8 12 (6.82%) Bicep
9 10 (5.68%) TypeScript
10 9 (5.11%) C#
11 4 (2.27%) Rust
11 4 (2.27%) Shell Script
12 2 (1.14%) Scala
13 1 (0.57%) C
13 1 (0.57%) C++
13 1 (0.57%) Groovy
13 1 (0.57%) Korn
13 1 (0.57%) Kotlin
Qualifications
1 86 (48.86%) Security Cleared
2 73 (41.48%) SC Cleared
3 14 (7.95%) Degree
4 11 (6.25%) DV Cleared
5 8 (4.55%) Azure Certification
6 7 (3.98%) Computer Science Degree
7 6 (3.41%) BPSS Clearance
7 6 (3.41%) RHCE
8 2 (1.14%) Master's Degree
9 1 (0.57%) AWS Certification
9 1 (0.57%) CISSP
9 1 (0.57%) CSPO
9 1 (0.57%) ISTQB
9 1 (0.57%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 1 (0.57%) ITIL Certification
9 1 (0.57%) Microsoft Certification
9 1 (0.57%) OCP
9 1 (0.57%) Oracle Certification
9 1 (0.57%) PMI Certification
9 1 (0.57%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (11.93%) QA
2 7 (3.98%) NCSC
2 7 (3.98%) PCI DSS
3 6 (3.41%) SLA
4 5 (2.84%) Cyber Essentials
4 5 (2.84%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 5 (2.84%) GDPR
4 5 (2.84%) IASME
4 5 (2.84%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
4 5 (2.84%) NIST
4 5 (2.84%) NIST 800
5 4 (2.27%) GRC
6 3 (1.70%) JSP 440
7 1 (0.57%) Accessibility
7 1 (0.57%) Data Quality
7 1 (0.57%) ISO 20022
7 1 (0.57%) ISO 8583
7 1 (0.57%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 65 (36.93%) Docker
2 5 (2.84%) VMware Infrastructure
3 4 (2.27%) Active Directory
4 2 (1.14%) Hyper-V
4 2 (1.14%) Slurm Workload Manager
5 1 (0.57%) Citrix Hypervisor
5 1 (0.57%) IAG
Systems Management
1 52 (29.55%) Terraform
2 37 (21.02%) Grafana
3 36 (20.45%) Prometheus
4 25 (14.20%) Argo
5 23 (13.07%) Ansible
6 9 (5.11%) Rancher
7 8 (4.55%) Puppet
8 6 (3.41%) Istio
9 5 (2.84%) Podman
10 3 (1.70%) Kustomize
10 3 (1.70%) Nessus
11 2 (1.14%) linkerd
11 2 (1.14%) Single Sign-On
12 1 (0.57%) Fluentd
12 1 (0.57%) Kubeflow
12 1 (0.57%) Packer
12 1 (0.57%) Salt
Vendors
1 30 (17.05%) Red Hat
2 11 (6.25%) Microsoft
3 9 (5.11%) Splunk
4 7 (3.98%) Dynatrace
4 7 (3.98%) Ericsson
4 7 (3.98%) Tenable
5 6 (3.41%) BT
5 6 (3.41%) Huawei
5 6 (3.41%) Nokia
5 6 (3.41%) VMware
6 5 (2.84%) Ab Initio
6 5 (2.84%) Oracle
6 5 (2.84%) Teradata
7 4 (2.27%) AppDynamics
7 4 (2.27%) Foundry
7 4 (2.27%) Google
7 4 (2.27%) NVIDIA
7 4 (2.27%) OpenAI
8 3 (1.70%) Palantir
9 2 (1.14%) Fortinet