Docker Contract Job Trends

Docker
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Docker skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 12 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 41 48 69
Rank change year-on-year +7 +21 -23
Contract jobs citing Docker 1,989 1,313 1,345
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 4.99% 4.24% 3.04%
As % of the System Software category 42.02% 34.66% 26.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,359 899 985
10th Percentile £372 £405 £409
25th Percentile £431 £483 £456
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £575 £538
Median % change year-on-year -8.70% +6.98% -10.42%
75th Percentile £625 £675 £638
90th Percentile £724 £810 £719
UK excluding London median daily rate £505 £514 £500
% change year-on-year -1.75% +2.80% -9.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 18 5 17
10th Percentile £44.23 - £54.70
25th Percentile £57.88 £25.25 £62.00
Median hourly rate £66.50 £27.50 £66.50
Median % change year-on-year +141.82% -58.65% -5.00%
75th Percentile £79.75 £62.50 £76.53
90th Percentile £95.00 £82.00 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £69.63 - £68.63
% change year-on-year - - +9.81%

All System Software Skills
UK

Docker falls under the System Software category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring system software skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for system software skills 4,734 3,788 5,081
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 11.89% 12.23% 11.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,228 2,467 3,463
10th Percentile £205 £200 £190
25th Percentile £400 £375 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £520 £480
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% +8.33% -8.57%
75th Percentile £592 £625 £600
90th Percentile £694 £724 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £473 £450
% change year-on-year +0.53% +5.00% -5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 145 89 248
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.49 £14.06
25th Percentile £20.50 £21.05 £17.72
Median hourly rate £35.00 £29.00 £43.75
Median % change year-on-year +20.69% -33.71% +11.46%
75th Percentile £70.00 £64.50 £65.98
90th Percentile £89.90 £75.00 £77.65
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.94 £37.07 £46.18
% change year-on-year +13.13% -19.72% +92.10%

Docker
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Docker relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Docker job vacancy trend in the UK

Docker
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Docker.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Docker

Docker
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Docker over the 6 months to 12 February 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Docker in the UK

Docker
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Docker.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Docker

Docker
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Docker over the 6 months to 12 February 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Docker in the UK

Docker
Top 17 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Docker within the UK over the 6 months to 12 February 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
England +9 1,718 £525 -8.70% 600
London +5 893 £550 -8.33% 238
UK excluding London +14 809 £505 -1.75% 447
Work from Home +4 616 £525 -6.87% 358
North of England +13 342 £479 -7.84% 127
Midlands +43 212 £534 +6.70% 48
West Midlands +42 195 £537 +4.83% 35
North West +20 156 £453 -10.65% 79
Yorkshire +3 150 £500 -4.76% 34
South West -1 103 £600 - 88
South East -12 100 £513 +13.89% 127
Scotland -3 54 £438 -2.78% 21
North East -2 43 £475 - 14
East of England -14 32 £551 +10.10% 17
East Midlands -11 17 £424 -4.59% 13
Wales -2 11 £511 -9.16% 14
Northern Ireland +1 7 - - 6

Docker
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 91 (4.58%) Confluence
2 57 (2.87%) Apache Spark
3 55 (2.77%) Apache Airflow
4 54 (2.71%) SAS
5 47 (2.36%) Apache
6 40 (2.01%) nginx
7 22 (1.11%) OpenStack
8 15 (0.75%) Appian
8 15 (0.75%) JBoss
9 12 (0.60%) WebLogic
10 11 (0.55%) Camunda
10 11 (0.55%) Jupyter
11 10 (0.50%) IIS
12 8 (0.40%) Microsoft Exchange
13 6 (0.30%) Drupal
13 6 (0.30%) iPlanet
13 6 (0.30%) Tomcat
13 6 (0.30%) WebSphere
13 6 (0.30%) WebSphere Application Server
14 5 (0.25%) SharePoint
Applications
1 6 (0.30%) Microsoft Office
1 6 (0.30%) Mozilla Thunderbird
2 5 (0.25%) Weka
3 4 (0.20%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.15%) Microsoft Excel
4 3 (0.15%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.10%) Adobe XD
5 2 (0.10%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.050%) Adobe Illustrator
6 1 (0.050%) CPLEX
6 1 (0.050%) Notion
6 1 (0.050%) Photoshop
6 1 (0.050%) Trello
Business Applications
1 5 (0.25%) Payment Gateway
2 1 (0.050%) Actimize
2 1 (0.050%) Endur
2 1 (0.050%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 1,150 (57.82%) AWS
2 777 (39.06%) Azure
3 466 (23.43%) GitHub
4 431 (21.67%) GCP
5 293 (14.73%) GitHub Actions
6 289 (14.53%) Serverless
7 229 (11.51%) Azure DevOps
8 219 (11.01%) Amazon S3
9 203 (10.21%) AWS CloudFormation
10 188 (9.45%) Amazon EKS
11 186 (9.35%) AWS Lambda
12 180 (9.05%) Amazon EC2
13 169 (8.50%) Amazon ECS
14 147 (7.39%) Amazon CloudWatch
15 121 (6.08%) OpenShift
16 113 (5.68%) Azure AKS
17 90 (4.52%) Virtual Private Cloud
18 64 (3.22%) Datadog
19 57 (2.87%) Google Kubernetes Engine
20 55 (2.77%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 117 (5.88%) Firewall
2 80 (4.02%) DNS
3 46 (2.31%) TCP/IP
4 40 (2.01%) VPN
5 34 (1.71%) SSL
6 33 (1.66%) Network Security
7 32 (1.61%) HTTP
8 18 (0.90%) DHCP
9 13 (0.65%) Kerberos
10 12 (0.60%) SMTP
11 10 (0.50%) VLAN
12 9 (0.45%) FTP
13 8 (0.40%) BGP
13 8 (0.40%) SNMP
13 8 (0.40%) SSH
14 6 (0.30%) HTTPS
14 6 (0.30%) IMAP
14 6 (0.30%) OpenLDAP
15 5 (0.25%) AMQP
15 5 (0.25%) Radio Access Network
Database & Business Intelligence
1 289 (14.53%) PostgreSQL
2 205 (10.31%) NoSQL
3 140 (7.04%) MongoDB
4 131 (6.59%) Amazon RDS
4 131 (6.59%) Relational Database
5 107 (5.38%) SQL Server
6 86 (4.32%) Apache Cassandra
7 69 (3.47%) MySQL
8 66 (3.32%) Elasticsearch
9 59 (2.97%) DynamoDB
10 55 (2.77%) Redis
11 41 (2.06%) Big Data
12 37 (1.86%) Amazon Aurora
12 37 (1.86%) Data Warehouse
13 34 (1.71%) BigQuery
14 33 (1.66%) Data Lake
15 32 (1.61%) Azure SQL Database
16 31 (1.56%) Power BI
17 30 (1.51%) Oracle Database
18 26 (1.31%) DocumentDB
Development Applications
1 559 (28.10%) Jenkins
2 478 (24.03%) Git
3 426 (21.42%) GitLab
4 204 (10.26%) JIRA
5 85 (4.27%) JUnit
6 76 (3.82%) Selenium
7 59 (2.97%) SonarQube
8 49 (2.46%) Bitbucket
9 46 (2.31%) Maven
10 44 (2.21%) Cucumber
11 43 (2.16%) MLflow
12 38 (1.91%) Postman
13 37 (1.86%) Cypress.io
14 36 (1.81%) Mockito
15 33 (1.66%) Sonatype Nexus
16 31 (1.56%) Liquibase
17 30 (1.51%) Gradle
18 28 (1.41%) REST Assured
19 25 (1.26%) Gatling
20 24 (1.21%) CircleCI
General
1 521 (26.19%) Social Skills
2 339 (17.04%) Finance
3 285 (14.33%) Public Sector
4 199 (10.01%) Banking
5 169 (8.50%) Analytical Skills
6 36 (1.81%) Documentation Skills
7 33 (1.66%) Financial Institution
8 26 (1.31%) Investment Banking
9 24 (1.21%) Presentation Skills
10 23 (1.16%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 21 (1.06%) Front Office
12 20 (1.01%) Pharmaceutical
13 15 (0.75%) Telecoms
14 14 (0.70%) Influencing Skills
14 14 (0.70%) Military
15 13 (0.65%) Retail
16 10 (0.50%) Law
17 8 (0.40%) Marketing
18 6 (0.30%) Health Technology
18 6 (0.30%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 565 (28.41%) Developer
2 350 (17.60%) Senior
3 267 (13.42%) DevOps Engineer
4 158 (7.94%) Java Developer
5 151 (7.59%) Software Engineer
6 130 (6.54%) AWS Engineer
7 123 (6.18%) Lead
8 122 (6.13%) Senior Developer
9 121 (6.08%) Architect
10 120 (6.03%) Python Developer
11 104 (5.23%) Full-Stack Developer
12 81 (4.07%) AWS DevOps
12 81 (4.07%) Platform Engineer
13 78 (3.92%) Data Engineer
14 72 (3.62%) AWS DevOps Engineer
15 69 (3.47%) Cloud Engineer
16 66 (3.32%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
17 58 (2.92%) Site Reliability Engineer
18 54 (2.71%) Full-Stack Engineer
19 53 (2.66%) Azure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 320 (16.09%) Kafka
2 282 (14.18%) Spring
3 280 (14.08%) REST
4 259 (13.02%) RESTful
5 254 (12.77%) Spring Boot
6 248 (12.47%) React
7 247 (12.42%) Node.js
8 143 (7.19%) .NET
9 128 (6.44%) Elastic Stack
10 119 (5.98%) FastAPI
11 116 (5.83%) AngularJS
12 100 (5.03%) HTML
13 91 (4.58%) PyTorch
14 89 (4.47%) OAuth
15 88 (4.42%) gRPC
16 83 (4.17%) GraphQL
17 80 (4.02%) CSS
18 79 (3.97%) OpenTelemetry
19 74 (3.72%) Playwright
20 73 (3.67%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 373 (18.75%) Cloud Native
2 183 (9.20%) Distributed Systems
3 61 (3.07%) Product Ownership
4 54 (2.71%) Public Cloud
5 43 (2.16%) Legacy Systems
6 38 (1.91%) Algorithms
7 36 (1.81%) Enterprise Software
7 36 (1.81%) Hybrid Cloud
8 30 (1.51%) Management Information System
9 28 (1.41%) Greenfield Project
10 26 (1.31%) AI Agents
10 26 (1.31%) Onboarding
10 26 (1.31%) Replication
11 25 (1.26%) Data Protection Act
12 21 (1.06%) PKI
13 19 (0.96%) Distributed Computing
13 19 (0.96%) NHS
14 18 (0.90%) Data Structures
15 17 (0.85%) Life Science
15 17 (0.85%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 411 (20.66%) Linux
2 117 (5.88%) Windows
3 81 (4.07%) Unix
4 37 (1.86%) Windows Server
5 31 (1.56%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 25 (1.26%) VMS
7 19 (0.96%) Ubuntu
8 11 (0.55%) Amazon Linux
9 10 (0.50%) CentOS
10 7 (0.35%) Windows Server 2019
11 6 (0.30%) Windows Server 2016
12 4 (0.20%) Windows Server 2003
12 4 (0.20%) Windows Server 2012
13 3 (0.15%) Android
13 3 (0.15%) Apple iOS
13 3 (0.15%) Solaris
13 3 (0.15%) Windows Server 2008
14 2 (0.10%) Rocky
15 1 (0.050%) Alpine Linux
15 1 (0.050%) Debian
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,415 (71.14%) CI/CD
2 1,090 (54.80%) DevOps
3 1,073 (53.95%) Containerisation
4 755 (37.96%) Agile
5 674 (33.89%) Microservices
6 611 (30.72%) Infrastructure as Code
7 491 (24.69%) Problem-Solving
8 387 (19.46%) Software Engineering
9 382 (19.21%) Test Automation
10 341 (17.14%) Observability
11 268 (13.47%) AI
12 237 (11.92%) Full-Stack Development
13 209 (10.51%) Mentoring
14 207 (10.41%) Machine Learning
15 205 (10.31%) Continuous Improvement
16 194 (9.75%) Analytics
17 191 (9.60%) Scrum
18 185 (9.30%) Data Pipeline
19 163 (8.20%) Computer Science
20 161 (8.09%) Event-Driven
Programming Languages
1 957 (48.11%) Python
2 547 (27.50%) Java
3 474 (23.83%) SQL
4 264 (13.27%) Bash
5 236 (11.87%) JavaScript
6 214 (10.76%) TypeScript
7 208 (10.46%) Go
8 152 (7.64%) C#
9 151 (7.59%) PowerShell
10 61 (3.07%) Bicep
11 59 (2.97%) Shell Script
12 46 (2.31%) C++
13 45 (2.26%) Scala
14 43 (2.16%) Ruby
15 37 (1.86%) Groovy
16 33 (1.66%) Rust
17 28 (1.41%) PHP
18 22 (1.11%) Perl
19 17 (0.85%) Kotlin
20 16 (0.80%) C
Qualifications
1 612 (30.77%) Security Cleared
2 493 (24.79%) SC Cleared
3 196 (9.85%) Degree
4 129 (6.49%) Computer Science Degree
5 99 (4.98%) AWS Certification
6 86 (4.32%) DV Cleared
7 79 (3.97%) Azure Certification
8 61 (3.07%) BPSS Clearance
9 53 (2.66%) Master's Degree
10 42 (2.11%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 18 (0.90%) Microsoft Certification
12 15 (0.75%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
13 14 (0.70%) Cisco Certification
13 14 (0.70%) ISTQB
14 12 (0.60%) CISSP
15 10 (0.50%) AWS Certified Developer
15 10 (0.50%) TOGAF Certification
16 8 (0.40%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
17 7 (0.35%) (ISC)2 CCSP
17 7 (0.35%) CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 110 (5.53%) QA
2 72 (3.62%) Accessibility
3 57 (2.87%) Data Quality
4 36 (1.81%) GDPR
5 26 (1.31%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 26 (1.31%) WCAG
6 20 (1.01%) ISO 20022
6 20 (1.01%) NIST
7 19 (0.96%) PCI DSS
8 18 (0.90%) NCSC
9 16 (0.80%) PSD2
10 13 (0.65%) SEPA
11 11 (0.55%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 9 (0.45%) SLA
13 7 (0.35%) HIPAA
13 7 (0.35%) HL7
14 6 (0.30%) HMG Security Policy Framework
15 5 (0.25%) SOC 2
16 4 (0.20%) EU AI Act
17 3 (0.15%) MiFID
System Software
1 60 (3.02%) Active Directory
2 58 (2.92%) VMware Infrastructure
3 21 (1.06%) vSphere
4 19 (0.96%) Slurm Workload Manager
4 19 (0.96%) Virtual Machines
5 11 (0.55%) Squid
6 10 (0.50%) Hyper-V
6 10 (0.50%) VMware ESXi
7 9 (0.45%) VMware NSX
8 8 (0.40%) DFS Replication
8 8 (0.40%) Lustre
8 8 (0.40%) Postfix
8 8 (0.40%) Virtual Servers
9 7 (0.35%) Virtual Desktop
10 6 (0.30%) Dovecot
10 6 (0.30%) GPFS
10 6 (0.30%) KVM
10 6 (0.30%) Tivoli Directory Server
11 5 (0.25%) NDS
11 5 (0.25%) NetIQ eDirectory
Systems Management
1 1,475 (74.16%) Kubernetes
2 707 (35.55%) Terraform
3 313 (15.74%) Grafana
4 281 (14.13%) Prometheus
5 276 (13.88%) Ansible
6 66 (3.32%) Puppet
7 64 (3.22%) Argo
8 47 (2.36%) Kibana
9 43 (2.16%) Progress Chef
10 31 (1.56%) Podman
11 30 (1.51%) Nessus
12 22 (1.11%) Control-M
12 22 (1.11%) Packer
13 20 (1.01%) IBM Guardium
13 20 (1.01%) Single Sign-On
14 19 (0.96%) Istio
15 17 (0.85%) Consul
16 16 (0.80%) Docker Swarm
17 15 (0.75%) logstash
18 13 (0.65%) Proxmox
Vendors
1 199 (10.01%) Microsoft
2 141 (7.09%) Google
3 138 (6.94%) Splunk
4 129 (6.49%) Oracle
5 68 (3.42%) Databricks
6 64 (3.22%) VMware
7 47 (2.36%) OpenAI
7 47 (2.36%) Red Hat
8 36 (1.81%) Dynatrace
9 25 (1.26%) AppDynamics
9 25 (1.26%) Denodo
9 25 (1.26%) F5
9 25 (1.26%) Palo Alto
9 25 (1.26%) Talend
10 22 (1.11%) Atlassian
10 22 (1.11%) ServiceNow
11 21 (1.06%) Tenable
12 18 (0.90%) Cisco
13 17 (0.85%) CheckPoint
14 14 (0.70%) IBM