Kubernetes Contracts in the UK excluding London

Kubernetes (k8s)
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the UK excluding London requiring Kubernetes skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Kubernetes over the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 47 82 54
Rank change year-on-year +35 -28 0
Contract jobs citing Kubernetes 563 507 994
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 4.41% 2.44% 4.13%
As % of the Systems Management category 29.88% 21.55% 27.37%
Number of daily rates quoted 397 371 744
10th Percentile £393 £400 £426
25th Percentile £459 £453 £499
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £538 £575
Median % change year-on-year -2.33% -6.52% +4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £623 £675
90th Percentile £700 £676 £725
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £600
% change year-on-year - -8.33% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 10 20
10th Percentile £79.13 £45.24 £53.34
25th Percentile £79.77 £47.81 £58.29
Median hourly rate £80.83 £64.75 £64.00
Median % change year-on-year +24.83% +1.17% +34.74%
75th Percentile £81.90 £74.44 £75.50
90th Percentile £82.53 £77.55 £78.00
UK median hourly rate £60.00 £62.00 £70.00
% change year-on-year -3.23% -11.43% +32.36%

All Systems Management Skills
UK excluding London

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 UK excluding London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for systems management skills 1,884 2,353 3,632
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 14.76% 11.33% 15.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,320 1,702 2,664
10th Percentile £235 £210 £275
25th Percentile £391 £375 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% +5.00%
75th Percentile £588 £588 £620
90th Percentile £657 £650 £700
UK median daily rate £525 £515 £563
% change year-on-year +1.90% -8.41% -0.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 26 79 139
10th Percentile £14.86 £14.00 £15.50
25th Percentile £18.59 £17.00 £20.22
Median hourly rate £25.34 £38.50 £43.75
Median % change year-on-year -34.18% -12.00% +118.75%
75th Percentile £43.69 £51.88 £65.00
90th Percentile £74.35 £70.25 £75.10
UK median hourly rate £26.45 £30.00 £57.50
% change year-on-year -11.83% -47.83% +155.56%

Kubernetes
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Job postings citing Kubernetes as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Job vacancy trend for Kubernetes in the UK excluding London

Kubernetes
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Kubernetes in the UK excluding London.

Daily rate trend for Kubernetes in the UK excluding London

Kubernetes
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Kubernetes in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Kubernetes in the UK excluding London

Kubernetes
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Kubernetes in the UK excluding London.

Hourly rate trend for Kubernetes in the UK excluding London

Kubernetes
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Kubernetes within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 1 May 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
North of England +28 185 £525 -4.55% 286
South East +19 109 £550 -4.35% 393
North West +35 100 £500 -9.09% 200
Scotland +20 91 £500 -1.19% 83
South West +42 86 £600 +9.09% 118
Yorkshire +9 68 £575 +9.52% 64
Midlands +46 62 £531 +6.20% 121
West Midlands +40 47 £545 +8.91% 79
East of England +30 21 £500 -9.09% 87
North East +8 20 £565 +36.97% 22
East Midlands +11 15 £475 - 31
Northern Ireland 0 10 £325 - 26
Wales 0 8 £586 +17.20% 14
Kubernetes
UK

Kubernetes
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 25 (4.44%) Apache
2 22 (3.91%) Confluence
3 20 (3.55%) nginx
4 12 (2.13%) Apache Airflow
4 12 (2.13%) JBoss
5 10 (1.78%) Apache Spark
6 9 (1.60%) Microsoft Exchange
7 7 (1.24%) Traefik
7 7 (1.24%) WebLogic
8 6 (1.07%) Jupyter
9 5 (0.89%) WebSphere
10 4 (0.71%) IIS
11 3 (0.53%) Tomcat
11 3 (0.53%) WebLogic Portal
11 3 (0.53%) WebSphere Application Server
12 2 (0.36%) Camunda
12 2 (0.36%) GemFire
12 2 (0.36%) OpenStack
13 1 (0.18%) Anypoint
13 1 (0.18%) Cloud Foundry
Applications
1 2 (0.36%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 2 (0.36%) NetSuite
1 2 (0.36%) Payment Gateway
2 1 (0.18%) Distributed Ledger
2 1 (0.18%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.18%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 261 (46.36%) AWS
2 187 (33.21%) Azure
3 99 (17.58%) OpenShift
4 73 (12.97%) GCP
5 56 (9.95%) GitHub
6 43 (7.64%) Amazon S3
7 42 (7.46%) Azure DevOps
8 39 (6.93%) Serverless
9 35 (6.22%) Azure AKS
10 34 (6.04%) Amazon EKS
11 31 (5.51%) Amazon EC2
12 28 (4.97%) AWS CloudFormation
13 27 (4.80%) Amazon ECS
13 27 (4.80%) GitHub Actions
14 24 (4.26%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 24 (4.26%) AWS Lambda
14 24 (4.26%) PaaS
15 23 (4.09%) Cloud Computing
16 21 (3.73%) Entra ID
17 19 (3.37%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 44 (7.82%) DNS
2 34 (6.04%) TCP/IP
3 29 (5.15%) Firewall
4 27 (4.80%) HTTP
5 25 (4.44%) DHCP
6 16 (2.84%) SAN
6 16 (2.84%) VPN
7 15 (2.66%) NAS
8 11 (1.95%) Network Security
9 10 (1.78%) SSL
10 8 (1.42%) BGP
10 8 (1.42%) SMTP
11 7 (1.24%) 3GPP
11 7 (1.24%) Wireless
12 6 (1.07%) 4G
12 6 (1.07%) MPLS
13 5 (0.89%) Kerberos
13 5 (0.89%) VLAN
14 4 (0.71%) 3G
14 4 (0.71%) LTE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 63 (11.19%) PostgreSQL
2 48 (8.53%) Relational Database
3 44 (7.82%) MongoDB
4 42 (7.46%) Elasticsearch
5 39 (6.93%) NoSQL
6 25 (4.44%) MySQL
7 22 (3.91%) SQL Server
8 21 (3.73%) Amazon RDS
8 21 (3.73%) Big Data
9 19 (3.37%) Apache Cassandra
10 16 (2.84%) RDBMS
11 15 (2.66%) KDB
11 15 (2.66%) Kdb+
12 11 (1.95%) Hadoop
12 11 (1.95%) Oracle Database
13 10 (1.78%) Redis
14 8 (1.42%) Azure SQL Database
14 8 (1.42%) Flink
15 7 (1.24%) Data Warehouse
16 5 (0.89%) Neo4j
Development Applications
1 119 (21.14%) Jenkins
2 106 (18.83%) Git
3 92 (16.34%) GitLab
4 63 (11.19%) JIRA
5 24 (4.26%) SonarQube
6 19 (3.37%) Cucumber
7 17 (3.02%) Selenium
8 16 (2.84%) JUnit
9 13 (2.31%) Bitbucket
10 12 (2.13%) REST Assured
10 12 (2.13%) Sonatype Nexus
11 11 (1.95%) Maven
12 9 (1.60%) Bitbucket Server
12 9 (1.60%) CA Release Automation
12 9 (1.60%) Jasmine
12 9 (1.60%) TeamCity
13 7 (1.24%) JMeter
14 6 (1.07%) Artifactory
14 6 (1.07%) Mockito
14 6 (1.07%) Subversion
General
1 139 (24.69%) Social Skills
2 81 (14.39%) Finance
3 65 (11.55%) Analytical Skills
4 61 (10.83%) Public Sector
5 49 (8.70%) Banking
6 28 (4.97%) Investment Banking
7 26 (4.62%) Telecoms
8 18 (3.20%) Legal
9 12 (2.13%) Manufacturing
10 11 (1.95%) Law
11 9 (1.60%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 8 (1.42%) Electronics
12 8 (1.42%) Marketing
13 7 (1.24%) Pharmaceutical
14 6 (1.07%) Documentation Skills
14 6 (1.07%) Front Office
14 6 (1.07%) Organisational Skills
15 4 (0.71%) Financial Institution
15 4 (0.71%) Police
15 4 (0.71%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 147 (26.11%) Developer
2 107 (19.01%) DevOps Engineer
3 94 (16.70%) Senior
4 47 (8.35%) Java Developer
5 46 (8.17%) Architect
6 39 (6.93%) Python Developer
7 36 (6.39%) Senior Developer
8 30 (5.33%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 29 (5.15%) Software Engineer
10 27 (4.80%) AWS Engineer
11 25 (4.44%) Data Engineer
11 25 (4.44%) Lead
12 21 (3.73%) Azure Engineer
12 21 (3.73%) Java Engineer
12 21 (3.73%) Python Engineer
12 21 (3.73%) Site Reliability Engineer
13 20 (3.55%) Senior DevOps
14 19 (3.37%) AWS DevOps
14 19 (3.37%) Cloud Engineer
14 19 (3.37%) Full-Stack Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 56 (9.95%) Kafka
2 49 (8.70%) REST
3 46 (8.17%) Spring Boot
4 40 (7.10%) RESTful
5 38 (6.75%) .NET
6 34 (6.04%) React
6 34 (6.04%) Spring
7 31 (5.51%) Elastic Stack
8 23 (4.09%) Node.js
9 18 (3.20%) ARM Templates
9 18 (3.20%) Web Services
10 17 (3.02%) AngularJS
10 17 (3.02%) Swagger
11 16 (2.84%) OpenAPI
12 15 (2.66%) Middleware
13 14 (2.49%) HTML
14 13 (2.31%) Keycloak
14 13 (2.31%) YAML
15 12 (2.13%) JSON
15 12 (2.13%) Spring Security
Miscellaneous
1 29 (5.15%) Enterprise Software
2 24 (4.26%) Cloud Native
3 19 (3.37%) PKI
4 18 (3.20%) Hybrid Cloud
5 16 (2.84%) Public Cloud
6 15 (2.66%) Algorithms
6 15 (2.66%) Distributed Systems
7 12 (2.13%) Clustering
7 12 (2.13%) Data Centre
7 12 (2.13%) Data Protection Act
8 11 (1.95%) Onboarding
9 10 (1.78%) Product Ownership
10 9 (1.60%) Linux Command Line
11 8 (1.42%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
11 8 (1.42%) Management Information System
12 7 (1.24%) Equities
12 7 (1.24%) Self-Motivation
13 5 (0.89%) Legacy Systems
14 4 (0.71%) Greenfield Project
14 4 (0.71%) Mainframe
Operating Systems
1 211 (37.48%) Linux
2 109 (19.36%) Windows
3 63 (11.19%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 46 (8.17%) Windows Server
5 44 (7.82%) Unix
6 19 (3.37%) CentOS
7 11 (1.95%) Ubuntu
8 8 (1.42%) Windows Server 2016
9 5 (0.89%) AIX
10 4 (0.71%) Mac OS
10 4 (0.71%) VMS
11 3 (0.53%) Windows Server 2003
12 2 (0.36%) Android
12 2 (0.36%) Apple iOS
12 2 (0.36%) Windows Server 2019
13 1 (0.18%) Alpine Linux
13 1 (0.18%) Data ONTAP
13 1 (0.18%) Oracle Linux
13 1 (0.18%) Rocky
13 1 (0.18%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 296 (52.58%) CI/CD
2 258 (45.83%) Containerisation
3 244 (43.34%) DevOps
4 132 (23.45%) Agile
5 120 (21.31%) Microservices
6 113 (20.07%) Infrastructure as Code
7 112 (19.89%) Problem-Solving
8 81 (14.39%) Test Automation
9 76 (13.50%) Continuous Integration
10 69 (12.26%) Software Engineering
11 56 (9.95%) SDLC
12 50 (8.88%) Observability
13 45 (7.99%) Task Automation
14 44 (7.82%) Site Reliability Engineering
15 41 (7.28%) Configuration Management
16 39 (6.93%) Analytics
16 39 (6.93%) Full-Stack Development
17 38 (6.75%) Technical Leadership
18 37 (6.57%) Infrastructure Engineering
19 35 (6.22%) TDD
Programming Languages
1 289 (51.33%) Python
2 140 (24.87%) Java
3 99 (17.58%) Bash
4 84 (14.92%) SQL
5 61 (10.83%) PowerShell
6 60 (10.66%) JavaScript
7 36 (6.39%) C#
8 30 (5.33%) TypeScript
9 27 (4.80%) Go
10 24 (4.26%) Shell Script
11 21 (3.73%) Perl
12 20 (3.55%) C++
13 12 (2.13%) Bicep
14 11 (1.95%) R
15 10 (1.78%) PHP
16 8 (1.42%) Groovy
17 7 (1.24%) Scala
18 4 (0.71%) C
18 4 (0.71%) Ruby
18 4 (0.71%) SPARQL
Qualifications
1 193 (34.28%) Security Cleared
2 107 (19.01%) SC Cleared
3 77 (13.68%) DV Cleared
4 45 (7.99%) Degree
5 23 (4.09%) Computer Science Degree
6 21 (3.73%) AWS Certification
7 9 (1.60%) Azure Certification
8 8 (1.42%) BPSS Clearance
9 7 (1.24%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 7 (1.24%) Microsoft Certification
10 6 (1.07%) CISSP
10 6 (1.07%) Master's Degree
11 4 (0.71%) CEH
11 4 (0.71%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 3 (0.53%) Cisco Certification
12 3 (0.53%) ISTQB
12 3 (0.53%) ITIL Certification
12 3 (0.53%) OCP
12 3 (0.53%) Oracle Certification
13 2 (0.36%) IBM Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (3.73%) QA
2 14 (2.49%) NCSC
3 8 (1.42%) NIST
4 5 (0.89%) Accessibility
4 5 (0.89%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 3 (0.53%) Cyber Essentials
5 3 (0.53%) Data Quality
5 3 (0.53%) Disclosure Scotland
6 2 (0.36%) GDPR
6 2 (0.36%) PCI DSS
7 1 (0.18%) COBIT
7 1 (0.18%) Government Security Classifications
7 1 (0.18%) ISO/IEC 27005
7 1 (0.18%) JSP 440
7 1 (0.18%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 1 (0.18%) SLA
7 1 (0.18%) SOC 2
7 1 (0.18%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 336 (59.68%) Docker
2 51 (9.06%) VMware Infrastructure
3 29 (5.15%) Active Directory
3 29 (5.15%) Hyper-V
4 11 (1.95%) vSphere
5 9 (1.60%) VMware ESXi
6 8 (1.42%) Apache ZooKeeper
6 8 (1.42%) BitLocker
6 8 (1.42%) Microsoft App-V
6 8 (1.42%) Terminal Services
7 5 (0.89%) Veritas Cluster Server
7 5 (0.89%) VMware NSX
8 4 (0.71%) vCloud
8 4 (0.71%) Virtual Machines
9 3 (0.53%) LXC
10 2 (0.36%) NFS
11 1 (0.18%) Firmware
11 1 (0.18%) GPFS
11 1 (0.18%) Samba
11 1 (0.18%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 190 (33.75%) Terraform
2 156 (27.71%) Ansible
3 75 (13.32%) Grafana
4 70 (12.43%) Prometheus
5 39 (6.93%) Puppet
6 24 (4.26%) Progress Chef
7 23 (4.09%) Kibana
8 18 (3.20%) Istio
9 16 (2.84%) vCenter Server
10 14 (2.49%) Packer
11 12 (2.13%) Podman
11 12 (2.13%) ZABBIX
12 11 (1.95%) Docker Swarm
12 11 (1.95%) HAProxy
12 11 (1.95%) Nagios
12 11 (1.95%) NetBackup
12 11 (1.95%) Oracle RMAN
12 11 (1.95%) Rancher
13 10 (1.78%) Consul
13 10 (1.78%) linkerd
Vendors
1 73 (12.97%) VMware
2 54 (9.59%) Red Hat
3 50 (8.88%) Splunk
4 45 (7.99%) Microsoft
5 37 (6.57%) Oracle
6 33 (5.86%) Google
7 17 (3.02%) Veritas
8 13 (2.31%) AppDynamics
9 11 (1.95%) SAP
9 11 (1.95%) Symantec
10 10 (1.78%) Okta
10 10 (1.78%) Virgin Media
11 9 (1.60%) Citrix
12 8 (1.42%) Databricks
12 8 (1.42%) HP
12 8 (1.42%) ServiceNow
13 7 (1.24%) Apple
13 7 (1.24%) ESET
13 7 (1.24%) IBM
14 6 (1.07%) NetApp