Microservices Contract Job Trends

Microservices
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Microservices skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 17 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 55 60 77
Rank change year-on-year +5 +17 -27
Contract jobs citing Microservices 1,715 1,079 1,194
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.97% 3.67% 2.68%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.62% 4.07% 3.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,159 715 866
10th Percentile £356 £400 £398
25th Percentile £413 £457 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -7.27% - -10.20%
75th Percentile £613 £650 £650
90th Percentile £700 £750 £745
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 10 13
10th Percentile £52.50 £25.25 £41.18
25th Percentile £58.75 £26.75 £45.88
Median hourly rate £70.00 £37.75 £48.43
Median % change year-on-year +85.43% -22.05% -32.03%
75th Percentile £90.00 £62.57 £62.50
90th Percentile £95.00 £74.00 £73.72
UK excluding London median hourly rate £64.00 £70.00 £48.43
% change year-on-year -8.57% +44.54% -33.20%

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK

Microservices falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 37,130 26,538 38,501
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 86.00% 90.38% 86.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,530 17,031 25,049
10th Percentile £313 £308 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £610 £638 £638
90th Percentile £723 £745 £744
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £490 £500
% change year-on-year -2.04% -2.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,210 919 2,337
10th Percentile £14.89 £15.25 £13.00
25th Percentile £18.50 £21.00 £16.06
Median hourly rate £30.00 £32.50 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year -7.69% - -7.14%
75th Percentile £65.00 £64.62 £57.50
90th Percentile £75.00 £77.50 £70.20
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.50 £31.76 £31.50
% change year-on-year -13.41% +0.83% -10.07%

Microservices
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Microservices job vacancy trend in the UK

Microservices
Daily Rate Trend

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

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

Microservices
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Microservices over the 6 months to 17 March 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Microservices in the UK

Microservices
Hourly Rate Trend

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

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

Microservices
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Microservices over the 6 months to 17 March 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Microservices in the UK

Microservices
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 Microservices within the UK over the 6 months to 17 March 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 +4 1,458 £525 -4.55% 485
UK excluding London +12 757 £500 -4.76% 330
London +1 722 £525 -8.70% 216
Work from Home -4 442 £513 -2.38% 341
North of England +6 325 £488 -11.36% 112
North West +21 162 £450 -15.65% 56
Midlands +12 142 £468 -4.51% 46
Yorkshire -9 135 £514 -6.59% 26
South East -13 134 £525 -8.70% 93
West Midlands +9 119 £475 -5.00% 25
Scotland +15 67 £425 -15.00% 22
South West +12 64 £556 -4.91% 28
East of England -5 41 £625 +38.89% 17
North East +4 37 £478 -6.83% 31
East Midlands -28 22 £421 -14.08% 21
Wales -3 11 £425 +13.33% 17
Northern Ireland -11 4 - - 1

Microservices
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 93 (5.42%) Confluence
2 29 (1.69%) Apache
3 23 (1.34%) Apache Spark
4 21 (1.22%) CMS
5 16 (0.93%) Anypoint
6 12 (0.70%) SharePoint
7 11 (0.64%) Apache Airflow
7 11 (0.64%) WebLogic
8 9 (0.52%) Sitecore CMS
9 8 (0.47%) Camunda
9 8 (0.47%) OpenStack
10 7 (0.41%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 7 (0.41%) Ethereum
10 7 (0.41%) Hyperledger
10 7 (0.41%) Jupyter
11 5 (0.29%) JBoss
11 5 (0.29%) Mule
11 5 (0.29%) Palantir Foundry
12 4 (0.23%) Drupal
13 3 (0.17%) Tomcat
Applications
1 20 (1.17%) Chatbot
2 7 (0.41%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (0.17%) Adobe XD
4 2 (0.12%) MS Visio
4 2 (0.12%) PlantUML
5 1 (0.058%) CPLEX
5 1 (0.058%) Maya
5 1 (0.058%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.058%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.058%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 7 (0.41%) Payment Gateway
2 6 (0.35%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.29%) Magento
4 4 (0.23%) Bloomberg AIM
4 4 (0.23%) Fidessa
4 4 (0.23%) Oracle EBS
4 4 (0.23%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
5 3 (0.17%) Avolution ABACUS
6 2 (0.12%) NetSuite
6 2 (0.12%) R3 Corda
6 2 (0.12%) Shopify
7 1 (0.058%) Cloudability
7 1 (0.058%) Distributed Ledger
7 1 (0.058%) Endur
7 1 (0.058%) Oracle BPM
7 1 (0.058%) Quorum
7 1 (0.058%) SAP S/4HANA
7 1 (0.058%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 972 (56.68%) AWS
2 630 (36.73%) Azure
3 316 (18.43%) Serverless
4 304 (17.73%) GCP
5 285 (16.62%) GitHub
6 177 (10.32%) GitHub Actions
7 166 (9.68%) AWS Lambda
8 147 (8.57%) Azure DevOps
9 119 (6.94%) Amazon ECS
10 118 (6.88%) Amazon S3
11 107 (6.24%) Amazon EKS
12 87 (5.07%) AWS CloudFormation
13 85 (4.96%) Azure AKS
14 81 (4.72%) Amazon EC2
15 79 (4.61%) Amazon CloudWatch
16 67 (3.91%) Amazon SQS
17 58 (3.38%) Azure Service Bus
18 51 (2.97%) OpenShift
19 50 (2.92%) Azure Functions
20 49 (2.86%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 28 (1.63%) Firewall
2 24 (1.40%) HTTP
3 17 (0.99%) SSL
4 14 (0.82%) Network Security
5 12 (0.70%) VPN
6 10 (0.58%) Kerberos
7 8 (0.47%) DNS
8 7 (0.41%) HTTPS
8 7 (0.41%) Internet
9 6 (0.35%) AMQP
10 5 (0.29%) IPsec
11 4 (0.23%) Reverse Proxy
11 4 (0.23%) WAN
12 3 (0.17%) 3GPP
12 3 (0.17%) 5G
13 2 (0.12%) 4G
13 2 (0.12%) LTE
13 2 (0.12%) MPLS
13 2 (0.12%) Radio Access Network
13 2 (0.12%) S/MIME
Database & Business Intelligence
1 233 (13.59%) PostgreSQL
2 231 (13.47%) NoSQL
3 163 (9.50%) MongoDB
4 115 (6.71%) Relational Database
5 93 (5.42%) MySQL
6 89 (5.19%) Apache Cassandra
7 88 (5.13%) DynamoDB
8 84 (4.90%) SQL Server
9 68 (3.97%) Redis
10 66 (3.85%) Amazon RDS
11 39 (2.27%) Azure SQL Database
12 31 (1.81%) Amazon Aurora
13 28 (1.63%) DocumentDB
14 23 (1.34%) Big Data
15 22 (1.28%) Power BI
16 20 (1.17%) Hadoop
17 19 (1.11%) Elasticsearch
17 19 (1.11%) RDBMS
18 16 (0.93%) BigQuery
18 16 (0.93%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 304 (17.73%) Git
2 268 (15.63%) Jenkins
3 202 (11.78%) GitLab
4 151 (8.80%) JIRA
5 131 (7.64%) JUnit
6 71 (4.14%) Cucumber
7 67 (3.91%) Mockito
8 62 (3.62%) Selenium
9 49 (2.86%) Maven
10 30 (1.75%) Bitbucket
11 29 (1.69%) Postman
12 28 (1.63%) Gradle
13 27 (1.57%) JMeter
14 26 (1.52%) Cypress.io
15 25 (1.46%) Liquibase
15 25 (1.46%) SonarQube
16 21 (1.22%) Mocha
16 21 (1.22%) Sonatype Nexus
17 19 (1.11%) REST Assured
18 18 (1.05%) Gatling
General
1 489 (28.51%) Social Skills
2 335 (19.53%) Finance
3 286 (16.68%) Public Sector
4 201 (11.72%) Banking
5 147 (8.57%) Analytical Skills
6 31 (1.81%) Retail
7 30 (1.75%) Documentation Skills
8 27 (1.57%) Influencing Skills
9 26 (1.52%) Financial Institution
9 26 (1.52%) Presentation Skills
10 25 (1.46%) Front Office
11 21 (1.22%) Investment Banking
12 20 (1.17%) Marketing
13 17 (0.99%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 14 (0.82%) Telecoms
15 13 (0.76%) Military
16 11 (0.64%) Organisational Skills
17 10 (0.58%) Billing
18 9 (0.52%) Legal
19 7 (0.41%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 630 (36.73%) Developer
2 330 (19.24%) Architect
2 330 (19.24%) Senior
3 257 (14.99%) Java Developer
4 152 (8.86%) Senior Developer
5 144 (8.40%) Software Engineer
6 132 (7.70%) Lead
7 127 (7.41%) Solutions Architect
8 98 (5.71%) Full-Stack Developer
9 84 (4.90%) Java Engineer
10 82 (4.78%) Technical Architect
11 74 (4.31%) Full-Stack Engineer
12 71 (4.14%) Backend Developer
13 62 (3.62%) DevOps Engineer
14 61 (3.56%) Senior Java Developer
15 51 (2.97%) AWS Engineer
16 46 (2.68%) C# Developer
16 46 (2.68%) Test Engineer
17 45 (2.62%) Cloud Engineer
18 43 (2.51%) Python Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 442 (25.77%) Spring
2 401 (23.38%) Spring Boot
3 347 (20.23%) Kafka
4 340 (19.83%) RESTful
5 323 (18.83%) REST
6 288 (16.79%) React
7 268 (15.63%) Node.js
8 186 (10.85%) .NET
9 183 (10.67%) AngularJS
10 110 (6.41%) OAuth
11 93 (5.42%) HTML
12 91 (5.31%) gRPC
13 83 (4.84%) Middleware
14 82 (4.78%) CSS
15 79 (4.61%) OAuth2
16 68 (3.97%) Hibernate
17 66 (3.85%) JSON
18 65 (3.79%) RabbitMQ
19 64 (3.73%) .NET Core
20 58 (3.38%) Playwright
Miscellaneous
1 355 (20.70%) Cloud Native
2 280 (16.33%) Distributed Systems
3 102 (5.95%) Product Ownership
4 46 (2.68%) Onboarding
5 42 (2.45%) Public Cloud
6 31 (1.81%) Enterprise Software
7 30 (1.75%) Data Protection Act
8 28 (1.63%) Algorithms
8 28 (1.63%) Distributed Architecture
9 27 (1.57%) Mobile App
10 26 (1.52%) AI Agents
10 26 (1.52%) Hybrid Cloud
10 26 (1.52%) Legacy Systems
10 26 (1.52%) Management Information System
11 19 (1.11%) Derivative
12 18 (1.05%) Self-Motivation
12 18 (1.05%) Virtual Team
13 17 (0.99%) Data Structures
13 17 (0.99%) Legacy Applications
14 16 (0.93%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 148 (8.63%) Linux
2 44 (2.57%) Unix
3 20 (1.17%) Windows
4 14 (0.82%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 11 (0.64%) Mac OS X
6 5 (0.29%) Android
6 5 (0.29%) CentOS
7 4 (0.23%) zOS
8 3 (0.17%) Apple iOS
8 3 (0.17%) VMS
8 3 (0.17%) Windows Server
9 2 (0.12%) Mac OS
9 2 (0.12%) Solaris
9 2 (0.12%) Windows Server 2008
9 2 (0.12%) Windows Server 2019
10 1 (0.058%) Windows Embedded Compact
Processes & Methodologies
1 928 (54.11%) CI/CD
2 725 (42.27%) DevOps
3 706 (41.17%) Agile
4 519 (30.26%) Containerisation
5 360 (20.99%) Software Engineering
6 354 (20.64%) Problem-Solving
7 301 (17.55%) Test Automation
8 294 (17.14%) Event-Driven
9 278 (16.21%) Infrastructure as Code
10 248 (14.46%) Full-Stack Development
11 241 (14.05%) TDD
12 237 (13.82%) Observability
13 196 (11.43%) AI
14 194 (11.31%) Scrum
15 191 (11.14%) Mentoring
16 174 (10.15%) Continuous Improvement
17 170 (9.91%) Event-Driven Architecture
18 160 (9.33%) Technical Leadership
19 156 (9.10%) Roadmaps
20 152 (8.86%) Computer Science
Programming Languages
1 736 (42.92%) Java
2 369 (21.52%) SQL
3 367 (21.40%) Python
4 230 (13.41%) TypeScript
5 194 (11.31%) JavaScript
6 163 (9.50%) C#
7 145 (8.45%) Go
8 40 (2.33%) Kotlin
9 36 (2.10%) Ruby
10 34 (1.98%) Bicep
11 32 (1.87%) Bash
12 30 (1.75%) PowerShell
13 26 (1.52%) Shell Script
14 19 (1.11%) Scala
15 18 (1.05%) Perl
16 17 (0.99%) Rust
17 15 (0.87%) PHP
18 13 (0.76%) C++
19 10 (0.58%) PL/SQL
20 7 (0.41%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 412 (24.02%) Security Cleared
2 322 (18.78%) SC Cleared
3 151 (8.80%) Degree
4 112 (6.53%) Computer Science Degree
5 72 (4.20%) BPSS Clearance
6 62 (3.62%) AWS Certification
7 48 (2.80%) Master's Degree
8 37 (2.16%) Azure Certification
9 36 (2.10%) DV Cleared
10 29 (1.69%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 19 (1.11%) Cisco Certification
12 18 (1.05%) CISSP
13 17 (0.99%) TOGAF Certification
14 14 (0.82%) (ISC)2 CCSP
15 11 (0.64%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
15 11 (0.64%) CISM
15 11 (0.64%) Microsoft Certification
15 11 (0.64%) OCP
15 11 (0.64%) Oracle Certification
16 8 (0.47%) CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 128 (7.46%) QA
2 75 (4.37%) Accessibility
3 37 (2.16%) WCAG
4 35 (2.04%) GDPR
5 28 (1.63%) ISO 20022
5 28 (1.63%) NIST
5 28 (1.63%) PCI DSS
6 23 (1.34%) Data Quality
6 23 (1.34%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 15 (0.87%) NCSC
8 13 (0.76%) SEPA
9 12 (0.70%) PSD2
10 10 (0.58%) HL7
11 6 (0.35%) HIPAA
11 6 (0.35%) SLA
12 5 (0.29%) HMG Security Policy Framework
12 5 (0.29%) ISO 8583
13 3 (0.17%) COBIT
13 3 (0.17%) SOC 2
13 3 (0.17%) TARGET2
System Software
1 688 (40.12%) Docker
2 29 (1.69%) Active Directory
3 8 (0.47%) Virtual Servers
4 6 (0.35%) Postfix
5 5 (0.29%) RACF
5 5 (0.29%) Varnish
6 3 (0.17%) ISA Server
6 3 (0.17%) VMware Infrastructure
7 2 (0.12%) Oracle RAC
8 1 (0.058%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 662 (38.60%) Kubernetes
2 288 (16.79%) Terraform
3 166 (9.68%) Grafana
4 130 (7.58%) Prometheus
5 80 (4.66%) Ansible
6 29 (1.69%) Argo
7 26 (1.52%) Single Sign-On
8 18 (1.05%) Istio
9 12 (0.70%) Puppet
10 11 (0.64%) Kibana
11 9 (0.52%) Kiali
12 7 (0.41%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 5 (0.29%) Opsgenie
14 4 (0.23%) Podman
15 3 (0.17%) Consul
15 3 (0.17%) ITRS Geneos
15 3 (0.17%) linkerd
15 3 (0.17%) Progress Chef
15 3 (0.17%) Rancher
16 2 (0.12%) Packer
Vendors
1 152 (8.86%) Microsoft
2 95 (5.54%) Oracle
3 83 (4.84%) Google
4 78 (4.55%) Splunk
5 47 (2.74%) OpenAI
6 44 (2.57%) Databricks
7 32 (1.87%) Red Hat
8 29 (1.69%) MuleSoft
9 27 (1.57%) Dynatrace
10 19 (1.11%) SAP
11 17 (0.99%) Atlassian
11 17 (0.99%) Foundry
12 16 (0.93%) Adobe
12 16 (0.93%) ServiceNow
13 14 (0.82%) AppDynamics
13 14 (0.82%) Salesforce
14 12 (0.70%) Software AG
15 11 (0.64%) IBM
16 10 (0.58%) Ping Identity
16 10 (0.58%) Sitecore