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

6 months to
18 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 64 50 64
Rank change year-on-year -14 +14 -8
Contract jobs citing Kubernetes 230 138 150
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 3.42% 3.89% 3.10%
As % of the Systems Management category 30.46% 28.16% 21.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 154 87 113
10th Percentile £359 £393 £425
25th Percentile £450 £413 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £521 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year +4.25% -9.09% -8.33%
75th Percentile £586 £588 £630
90th Percentile £709 £619 £675
England median daily rate £538 £536 £559
% change year-on-year +0.37% -4.16% -6.88%
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% -8.78%

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 755 490 714
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 11.21% 13.82% 14.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 504 331 529
10th Percentile £313 £250 £278
25th Percentile £414 £400 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% - -9.09%
75th Percentile £615 £588 £609
90th Percentile £725 £625 £675
England median daily rate £525 £513 £525
% change year-on-year +2.44% -2.38% -5.23%
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 £67.00 £54.50 £36.83
% change year-on-year +22.94% +47.97% -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 18 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 18 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 18 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 -14 96 £460 -7.30% 31
Hampshire -8 71 £550 +7.32% 29
Berkshire -16 70 £460 -6.60% 17
Surrey +13 49 £475 -12.84% 11
Buckinghamshire -19 21 £402 - 6
Middlesex -14 7 - - 2
West Sussex -20 5 £270 -16.92% 2
Oxfordshire -23 5 £825 +57.14% 8
East Sussex -1 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 (3.48%) OpenStack
2 7 (3.04%) Apache Airflow
3 6 (2.61%) Apache Spark
4 3 (1.30%) Palantir Foundry
5 2 (0.87%) Confluence
6 1 (0.43%) Apache
6 1 (0.43%) Apache Superset
6 1 (0.43%) IIS
6 1 (0.43%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 5 (2.17%) CPLEX
Cloud Services
1 125 (54.35%) Azure
2 121 (52.61%) AWS
3 55 (23.91%) OpenShift
4 46 (20.00%) GCP
5 40 (17.39%) Azure DevOps
6 39 (16.96%) GitHub
7 28 (12.17%) GitHub Actions
8 17 (7.39%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 15 (6.52%) Amazon EKS
10 13 (5.65%) Serverless
11 11 (4.78%) Azure AKS
11 11 (4.78%) Azure Monitor
11 11 (4.78%) Entra ID
12 10 (4.35%) Datadog
12 10 (4.35%) SaaS
13 9 (3.91%) AWS CloudFormation
14 5 (2.17%) Amazon S3
14 5 (2.17%) AWS Lambda
14 5 (2.17%) Power Platform
15 4 (1.74%) Azure Key Vault
Communications & Networking
1 14 (6.09%) DNS
2 13 (5.65%) VPN
3 12 (5.22%) Firewall
4 8 (3.48%) Network Security
4 8 (3.48%) TCP/IP
5 7 (3.04%) LTE
6 6 (2.61%) 5G
6 6 (2.61%) DHCP
6 6 (2.61%) Diameter Protocol
6 6 (2.61%) Radio Access Network
6 6 (2.61%) VoLTE
6 6 (2.61%) VoWiFi
6 6 (2.61%) Wireshark
7 4 (1.74%) Intrusion Detection
7 4 (1.74%) MQTT
8 3 (1.30%) BGP
8 3 (1.30%) Software-Defined Networking
9 2 (0.87%) HTTP
10 1 (0.43%) Broadband
10 1 (0.43%) SNMP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 30 (13.04%) PostgreSQL
2 15 (6.52%) NoSQL
3 14 (6.09%) Relational Database
4 7 (3.04%) Big Data
4 7 (3.04%) Data Warehouse
4 7 (3.04%) Oracle Database
5 5 (2.17%) Elasticsearch
5 5 (2.17%) MongoDB
6 4 (1.74%) DocumentDB
7 3 (1.30%) DynamoDB
7 3 (1.30%) Redis
7 3 (1.30%) SQL Server
8 2 (0.87%) Amazon Aurora
8 2 (0.87%) Amazon RDS
8 2 (0.87%) Data Lake
8 2 (0.87%) MySQL
8 2 (0.87%) Power BI
8 2 (0.87%) Spark SQL
9 1 (0.43%) Amazon Redshift
9 1 (0.43%) Couchbase
Development Applications
1 39 (16.96%) GitLab
2 38 (16.52%) Git
3 36 (15.65%) Jenkins
4 29 (12.61%) SonarQube
5 8 (3.48%) MLflow
6 5 (2.17%) NUnit
7 4 (1.74%) Jaeger
7 4 (1.74%) JUnit
8 3 (1.30%) JIRA
8 3 (1.30%) Sonatype Nexus
9 2 (0.87%) Gradle
9 2 (0.87%) Maven
10 1 (0.43%) Cucumber
10 1 (0.43%) JMeter
10 1 (0.43%) LoadRunner
10 1 (0.43%) Mockito
10 1 (0.43%) NeoLoad
10 1 (0.43%) Octopus Deploy
10 1 (0.43%) Selenium
10 1 (0.43%) Subversion
General
1 58 (25.22%) Social Skills
2 24 (10.43%) Public Sector
3 22 (9.57%) Analytical Skills
4 15 (6.52%) Finance
5 14 (6.09%) Aerospace
6 12 (5.22%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 9 (3.91%) Telecoms
8 5 (2.17%) Documentation Skills
9 3 (1.30%) Banking
9 3 (1.30%) Manufacturing
9 3 (1.30%) Publishing
10 2 (0.87%) Automotive
10 2 (0.87%) Financial Institution
10 2 (0.87%) Military
10 2 (0.87%) Organisational Skills
10 2 (0.87%) Retail
11 1 (0.43%) Advertising
11 1 (0.43%) Health Technology
11 1 (0.43%) Influencing Skills
11 1 (0.43%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 40 (17.39%) Developer
2 29 (12.61%) Architect
2 29 (12.61%) Platform Engineer
3 18 (7.83%) Senior
4 17 (7.39%) DevOps Engineer
5 16 (6.96%) DevSecOps Engineer
5 16 (6.96%) Java Developer
6 15 (6.52%) Lead
7 11 (4.78%) Azure Engineer
7 11 (4.78%) Java Engineer
7 11 (4.78%) Software Engineer
8 10 (4.35%) Analyst
8 10 (4.35%) Security Analyst
8 10 (4.35%) Site Reliability Engineer
8 10 (4.35%) Technical Leader
9 8 (3.48%) Cloud Architect
10 7 (3.04%) .NET Developer
10 7 (3.04%) Azure DevOps Engineer
10 7 (3.04%) Site Engineer
11 6 (2.61%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 34 (14.78%) Kafka
2 28 (12.17%) AngularJS
3 27 (11.74%) RESTful
4 26 (11.30%) REST
5 22 (9.57%) Quarkus
6 19 (8.26%) React
7 16 (6.96%) .NET
8 14 (6.09%) OAuth
9 13 (5.65%) Django
9 13 (5.65%) OAuth2
10 12 (5.22%) YAML
11 10 (4.35%) ARM Templates
11 10 (4.35%) Spring
12 9 (3.91%) OpenID
13 8 (3.48%) .NET Framework
13 8 (3.48%) CSS
13 8 (3.48%) HTML
13 8 (3.48%) OpenAPI
13 8 (3.48%) Spring Boot
13 8 (3.48%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 41 (17.83%) Cloud Native
2 23 (10.00%) Hybrid Cloud
3 21 (9.13%) Distributed Systems
4 9 (3.91%) Enterprise Cloud
5 8 (3.48%) Onboarding
6 7 (3.04%) Data Structures
6 7 (3.04%) Product Ownership
7 6 (2.61%) CMDB
8 5 (2.17%) AI Agents
8 5 (2.17%) Algorithms
8 5 (2.17%) Enterprise Software
9 4 (1.74%) Public Cloud
9 4 (1.74%) Security Posture
10 3 (1.30%) Distributed Computing
11 2 (0.87%) Analytical Mindset
11 2 (0.87%) Cyber Threat
11 2 (0.87%) Data Protection Act
11 2 (0.87%) Linux Command Line
11 2 (0.87%) Operational Technology
11 2 (0.87%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 62 (26.96%) Linux
2 21 (9.13%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 9 (3.91%) Unix
4 8 (3.48%) Windows
5 7 (3.04%) Windows Server
6 1 (0.43%) Android
6 1 (0.43%) Apple iOS
6 1 (0.43%) CentOS
6 1 (0.43%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 150 (65.22%) CI/CD
2 115 (50.00%) DevOps
3 103 (44.78%) Containerisation
4 93 (40.43%) Agile
5 70 (30.43%) DevSecOps
6 69 (30.00%) Infrastructure as Code
7 51 (22.17%) Platform Engineering
7 51 (22.17%) Problem-Solving
8 47 (20.43%) Software Engineering
9 44 (19.13%) Continuous Improvement
10 43 (18.70%) Test Automation
11 41 (17.83%) AI
12 40 (17.39%) Scrum
13 38 (16.52%) Machine Learning
14 36 (15.65%) Observability
15 35 (15.22%) Microservices
16 34 (14.78%) SDLC
17 31 (13.48%) Analytics
17 31 (13.48%) Site Reliability Engineering
18 29 (12.61%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 111 (48.26%) Python
2 50 (21.74%) Bash
3 45 (19.57%) Java
4 42 (18.26%) PowerShell
5 23 (10.00%) JavaScript
6 20 (8.70%) SQL
7 14 (6.09%) Bicep
7 14 (6.09%) Go
8 12 (5.22%) C#
8 12 (5.22%) TypeScript
9 4 (1.74%) Rust
9 4 (1.74%) Shell Script
10 2 (0.87%) Groovy
10 2 (0.87%) Scala
11 1 (0.43%) Korn
Qualifications
1 117 (50.87%) Security Cleared
2 102 (44.35%) SC Cleared
3 16 (6.96%) Degree
4 14 (6.09%) Azure Certification
4 14 (6.09%) DV Cleared
5 11 (4.78%) Computer Science Degree
6 10 (4.35%) CISSP
7 9 (3.91%) Cisco Certification
8 8 (3.48%) AWS Certification
9 7 (3.04%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 7 (3.04%) Master's Degree
9 7 (3.04%) RHCE
10 6 (2.61%) ITIL Certification
11 5 (2.17%) BPSS Clearance
12 4 (1.74%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
12 4 (1.74%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 4 (1.74%) CEH
12 4 (1.74%) CompTIA Security+
13 3 (1.30%) CCSP
14 2 (0.87%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 42 (18.26%) QA
2 13 (5.65%) NIST
3 10 (4.35%) NCSC
4 9 (3.91%) Cyber Essentials
4 9 (3.91%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 8 (3.48%) GDPR
5 8 (3.48%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 7 (3.04%) Accessibility
7 6 (2.61%) PCI DSS
7 6 (2.61%) SLA
8 5 (2.17%) GRC
8 5 (2.17%) IASME
8 5 (2.17%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
8 5 (2.17%) NIST 800
9 4 (1.74%) Data Quality
System Software
1 102 (44.35%) Docker
2 14 (6.09%) VMware Infrastructure
3 7 (3.04%) Hyper-V
4 6 (2.61%) IAG
5 4 (1.74%) Active Directory
6 2 (0.87%) Slurm Workload Manager
6 2 (0.87%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.43%) Citrix Hypervisor
7 1 (0.43%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 74 (32.17%) Terraform
2 46 (20.00%) Ansible
3 29 (12.61%) Grafana
4 26 (11.30%) Argo
5 25 (10.87%) Prometheus
6 9 (3.91%) Rancher
7 8 (3.48%) Istio
8 6 (2.61%) Puppet
9 5 (2.17%) Podman
10 2 (0.87%) CASB
10 2 (0.87%) Kibana
10 2 (0.87%) linkerd
10 2 (0.87%) Single Sign-On
11 1 (0.43%) QRadar
Vendors
1 40 (17.39%) Red Hat
2 38 (16.52%) Microsoft
3 19 (8.26%) Google
4 15 (6.52%) VMware
5 13 (5.65%) Oracle
6 11 (4.78%) Dynatrace
7 8 (3.48%) Splunk
8 6 (2.61%) BT
8 6 (2.61%) Ericsson
8 6 (2.61%) Huawei
8 6 (2.61%) Nexthink
8 6 (2.61%) Nokia
8 6 (2.61%) ServiceNow
9 5 (2.17%) Databricks
10 4 (1.74%) Foundry
10 4 (1.74%) NVIDIA
10 4 (1.74%) OpenAI
10 4 (1.74%) Tenable
11 3 (1.30%) MuleSoft
11 3 (1.30%) Salesforce