Kubernetes Contract Job Trends in the South West

Kubernetes (k8s)
England > South West

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the South West requiring Kubernetes skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 13 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
13 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 30 32 80
Rank change year-on-year +2 +48 -41
Contract jobs citing Kubernetes 156 96 76
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 4.92% 5.60% 2.38%
As % of the Systems Management category 37.50% 29.63% 18.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 99 79 55
10th Percentile £400 £473 £463
25th Percentile £450 £513 £478
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £600 £550
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -
75th Percentile £644 £634 £594
90th Percentile £730 £733 £670
England median daily rate £525 £575 £550
% change year-on-year -8.70% +4.55% -12.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 2 5
10th Percentile £81.00 £79.13 £59.10
25th Percentile £84.50 £79.77 £63.75
Median hourly rate £104.00 £80.83 £74.44
Median % change year-on-year +28.67% +8.58% +11.35%
75th Percentile £119.00 £81.90 £77.50
90th Percentile - £82.53 £77.80
England median hourly rate £65.00 £60.00 £59.75
% change year-on-year +8.33% +0.42% -17.01%

All Systems Management Skills
South West

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 West.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for systems management skills 416 324 419
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 13.12% 18.90% 13.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 309 253 322
10th Percentile £332 £340 £210
25th Percentile £450 £447 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £563 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.22% +7.14% -4.55%
75th Percentile £638 £629 £625
90th Percentile £738 £700 £700
England median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -8.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 3 14
10th Percentile £46.40 £71.74 -
25th Percentile £50.75 £74.35 -
Median hourly rate £65.00 £78.70 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -17.41% +96.75% -38.46%
75th Percentile £96.50 £80.83 £70.44
90th Percentile £119.00 £82.11 £76.58
England median hourly rate £55.00 £26.50 £25.77
% change year-on-year +107.55% +2.85% -55.19%

Kubernetes
Job Vacancy Trend in the South West

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Kubernetes relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West.

Kubernetes job vacancy trend in the South West

Kubernetes
Daily Rate Trend in the South West

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Kubernetes.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Kubernetes

Kubernetes
Daily Rate Histogram in the South West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Kubernetes in the South West over the 6 months to 13 April 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Kubernetes in the South West

Kubernetes
Hourly Rate Trend in the South West

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Kubernetes.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Kubernetes

Kubernetes
Hourly Rate Histogram in the South West

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Kubernetes in the South West over the 6 months to 13 April 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Kubernetes in the South West

Kubernetes
Contract Job Locations in the South West

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 West region over the 6 months to 13 April 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
Bristol 0 50 £538 +0.23% 21
Gloucestershire -3 41 £575 -6.50% 34
Wiltshire -3 41 £573 +8.02% 8
Dorset +15 19 £388 -1.15% 2
Somerset - 1 £600 - 5
Kubernetes
England

Kubernetes
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South West 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 10 (6.41%) Apache
1 10 (6.41%) Apache Spark
2 1 (0.64%) Apache Airflow
Applications
1 3 (1.92%) Microsoft Excel
1 3 (1.92%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 7 (4.49%) Maximo
Cloud Services
1 65 (41.67%) AWS
2 58 (37.18%) Azure
3 31 (19.87%) GitHub
4 23 (14.74%) GCP
5 22 (14.10%) Azure DevOps
6 20 (12.82%) OpenShift
7 17 (10.90%) Serverless
8 15 (9.62%) Amazon S3
9 14 (8.97%) GitHub Actions
10 10 (6.41%) Amazon ECS
10 10 (6.41%) Amazon EKS
10 10 (6.41%) AWS Lambda
10 10 (6.41%) Azure AKS
10 10 (6.41%) Google Kubernetes Engine
11 9 (5.77%) Amazon EC2
11 9 (5.77%) Azure Key Vault
11 9 (5.77%) Azure Monitor
12 8 (5.13%) Azure Data Factory
13 7 (4.49%) Azure ExpressRoute
13 7 (4.49%) Azure Sentinel
Communications & Networking
1 10 (6.41%) VPN
2 5 (3.21%) DNS
3 4 (2.56%) Reverse Proxy
4 3 (1.92%) Network Security
4 3 (1.92%) TCP/IP
5 2 (1.28%) Firewall
6 1 (0.64%) AMQP
6 1 (0.64%) HTTP
6 1 (0.64%) IPsec
6 1 (0.64%) LAN
6 1 (0.64%) NAS
6 1 (0.64%) SAN
6 1 (0.64%) WAN
6 1 (0.64%) WireGuard
Database & Business Intelligence
1 14 (8.97%) PostgreSQL
2 13 (8.33%) MongoDB
2 13 (8.33%) NoSQL
3 12 (7.69%) Elasticsearch
4 8 (5.13%) Relational Database
5 6 (3.85%) Flink
6 5 (3.21%) Redis
7 4 (2.56%) Amazon RDS
8 3 (1.92%) Big Data
9 2 (1.28%) BigQuery
9 2 (1.28%) CockroachDB
9 2 (1.28%) Hadoop
9 2 (1.28%) Oracle Database
10 1 (0.64%) InfluxDB
10 1 (0.64%) ObjectStore
10 1 (0.64%) TimescaleDB
Development Applications
1 38 (24.36%) GitLab
2 26 (16.67%) Jenkins
3 15 (9.62%) Git
4 12 (7.69%) Gatling
5 10 (6.41%) JMeter
5 10 (6.41%) LoadRunner
6 6 (3.85%) Artifactory
6 6 (3.85%) Sonatype Nexus
7 4 (2.56%) SonarQube
8 2 (1.28%) Bitbucket
9 1 (0.64%) Cucumber
9 1 (0.64%) JUnit
9 1 (0.64%) MLflow
9 1 (0.64%) Mocha
9 1 (0.64%) Mockito
9 1 (0.64%) NUnit
9 1 (0.64%) Selenium
9 1 (0.64%) Snyk
General
1 16 (10.26%) Social Skills
2 13 (8.33%) Analytical Skills
3 9 (5.77%) Public Sector
4 4 (2.56%) Finance
4 4 (2.56%) Influencing Skills
4 4 (2.56%) Presentation Skills
5 3 (1.92%) Aerospace
5 3 (1.92%) Banking
5 3 (1.92%) Legal
6 1 (0.64%) Military
6 1 (0.64%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 46 (29.49%) DevOps Engineer
2 23 (14.74%) Developer
2 23 (14.74%) Senior
3 14 (8.97%) Java Developer
4 13 (8.33%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 12 (7.69%) GCP Engineer
6 10 (6.41%) Azure Engineer
6 10 (6.41%) Backend Developer
6 10 (6.41%) Data Engineer
6 10 (6.41%) Performance Engineer
7 9 (5.77%) Senior Data Engineer
7 9 (5.77%) Software Engineer
8 8 (5.13%) Azure DevOps Engineer
8 8 (5.13%) Site Reliability Engineer
9 7 (4.49%) Platform Engineer
10 6 (3.85%) Cloud Engineer
10 6 (3.85%) Linux Engineer
10 6 (3.85%) Site Engineer
11 5 (3.21%) Administrator
11 5 (3.21%) Python Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 24 (15.38%) Kafka
2 16 (10.26%) Spring
2 16 (10.26%) Spring Boot
3 14 (8.97%) REST
4 12 (7.69%) RESTful
5 11 (7.05%) Keycloak
6 9 (5.77%) Apache NiFi
6 9 (5.77%) ARM Templates
7 7 (4.49%) Elastic Stack
7 7 (4.49%) gRPC
8 6 (3.85%) Flask
8 6 (3.85%) RabbitMQ
9 5 (3.21%) FastAPI
9 5 (3.21%) GraphQL
9 5 (3.21%) Java Concurrency
9 5 (3.21%) WebSockets
10 4 (2.56%) OAuth
10 4 (2.56%) OAuth2
10 4 (2.56%) React
11 3 (1.92%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 21 (13.46%) Cloud Native
2 15 (9.62%) Hybrid Cloud
3 11 (7.05%) Enterprise Software
4 8 (5.13%) Onboarding
5 5 (3.21%) Product Ownership
6 4 (2.56%) Public Cloud
7 3 (1.92%) Distributed Systems
7 3 (1.92%) Private Cloud
8 2 (1.28%) Data Centre
9 1 (0.64%) Algorithms
9 1 (0.64%) Client/Server
9 1 (0.64%) Cloud Security Posture
9 1 (0.64%) Data Fabric
9 1 (0.64%) DataPower
9 1 (0.64%) Linux Command Line
9 1 (0.64%) Mobile App
9 1 (0.64%) Replication
9 1 (0.64%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 39 (25.00%) Linux
2 15 (9.62%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 13 (8.33%) Windows
4 10 (6.41%) Ubuntu
5 5 (3.21%) Unix
6 4 (2.56%) VMS
7 3 (1.92%) Debian
7 3 (1.92%) Rocky
8 2 (1.28%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 100 (64.10%) DevOps
2 95 (60.90%) CI/CD
3 73 (46.79%) Containerisation
4 46 (29.49%) Infrastructure as Code
5 30 (19.23%) Microservices
6 28 (17.95%) Agile
6 28 (17.95%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 22 (14.10%) Continuous Improvement
7 22 (14.10%) Problem-Solving
8 21 (13.46%) Cloud Security
8 21 (13.46%) DevSecOps
9 20 (12.82%) Analytics
9 20 (12.82%) Data Engineering
10 17 (10.90%) Data Pipeline
10 17 (10.90%) Observability
10 17 (10.90%) Site Reliability Engineering
10 17 (10.90%) Software Engineering
11 12 (7.69%) Code Quality
11 12 (7.69%) Platform Engineering
11 12 (7.69%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 66 (42.31%) Python
2 33 (21.15%) SQL
3 27 (17.31%) Java
4 22 (14.10%) Bash
4 22 (14.10%) Go
5 11 (7.05%) Bicep
5 11 (7.05%) PowerShell
6 10 (6.41%) JavaScript
7 8 (5.13%) Shell Script
8 4 (2.56%) TypeScript
9 3 (1.92%) C#
10 2 (1.28%) Ruby
10 2 (1.28%) Rust
11 1 (0.64%) C
11 1 (0.64%) PHP
Qualifications
1 87 (55.77%) Security Cleared
2 65 (41.67%) SC Cleared
3 39 (25.00%) DV Cleared
4 18 (11.54%) Azure Certification
5 11 (7.05%) Degree
6 10 (6.41%) Microsoft Certification
7 8 (5.13%) CISM
7 8 (5.13%) CISSP
7 8 (5.13%) Computer Science Degree
8 7 (4.49%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
9 3 (1.92%) AWS Certification
10 2 (1.28%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
10 2 (1.28%) BPSS Clearance
10 2 (1.28%) Master's Degree
11 1 (0.64%) CSPO
11 1 (0.64%) ISTQB
11 1 (0.64%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (6.41%) QA
2 8 (5.13%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 7 (4.49%) NIST
3 7 (4.49%) NIST 800
4 4 (2.56%) NCSC
5 2 (1.28%) Data Quality
6 1 (0.64%) GDPR
6 1 (0.64%) JSP 440
6 1 (0.64%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 81 (51.92%) Docker
2 5 (3.21%) Active Directory
3 4 (2.56%) VMware Infrastructure
4 3 (1.92%) Virtual Machines
5 2 (1.28%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.64%) iptables
6 1 (0.64%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 72 (46.15%) Terraform
2 36 (23.08%) Ansible
3 33 (21.15%) Prometheus
4 28 (17.95%) Grafana
5 11 (7.05%) Argo
6 5 (3.21%) Dell DRAC
6 5 (3.21%) Red Hat Satellite
7 4 (2.56%) Nagios
7 4 (2.56%) Nessus
7 4 (2.56%) Packer
7 4 (2.56%) Progress Chef
8 3 (1.92%) Istio
8 3 (1.92%) Puppet
8 3 (1.92%) SCOM
9 2 (1.28%) Cilium
9 2 (1.28%) Kibana
9 2 (1.28%) logstash
9 2 (1.28%) Podman
9 2 (1.28%) Single Sign-On
10 1 (0.64%) VxRail
Vendors
1 29 (18.59%) Red Hat
2 20 (12.82%) Microsoft
3 15 (9.62%) Splunk
4 12 (7.69%) Google
5 10 (6.41%) AppDynamics
5 10 (6.41%) Dynatrace
5 10 (6.41%) New Relic
6 9 (5.77%) VMware
7 8 (5.13%) IBM
8 7 (4.49%) Databricks
9 6 (3.85%) Dell
10 3 (1.92%) Oracle
11 2 (1.28%) Broadcom
12 1 (0.64%) BeyondTrust
12 1 (0.64%) Checkmarx
12 1 (0.64%) Cisco
12 1 (0.64%) EMC
12 1 (0.64%) Thales
12 1 (0.64%) Veracode