Kubernetes Job Trends in the South West

Kubernetes (k8s)
England > South West

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the South West requiring Kubernetes skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 18 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 60 51 27
Rank change year-on-year -9 -24 +19
Permanent jobs citing Kubernetes 136 177 383
As % of all permanent jobs in the South West 2.63% 4.32% 7.50%
As % of the Systems Management category 43.31% 43.17% 43.97%
Number of salaries quoted 108 112 295
10th Percentile £42,500 £46,375 £45,000
25th Percentile £48,750 £56,250 £52,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £62,500 £70,000 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year -10.71% +7.69% +6.56%
75th Percentile £80,000 £85,000 £80,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £92,375 £91,934
England median annual salary £75,000 £80,000 £75,000
% change year-on-year -6.25% +6.67% -6.25%

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 permanent job vacancies requiring systems management skills in the South West.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for systems management skills 314 410 871
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South West 6.07% 10.00% 17.05%
Number of salaries quoted 242 256 671
10th Percentile £31,275 £32,500 £31,250
25th Percentile £36,750 £42,188 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £54,500 £60,000 £54,000
Median % change year-on-year -9.17% +11.11% -1.82%
75th Percentile £72,500 £76,563 £72,433
90th Percentile £83,750 £87,500 £84,056
England median annual salary £62,500 £70,000 £64,500
% change year-on-year -10.71% +8.53% -4.44%

Kubernetes
Job Vacancy Trend in the South West

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

Kubernetes job vacancy trend in the South West

Kubernetes
Salary Trend in the South West

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Kubernetes.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Kubernetes

Kubernetes
Salary Histogram in the South West

Salary distribution for jobs citing Kubernetes in the South West over the 6 months to 18 January 2026.

Salary histogram for Kubernetes in the South West

Kubernetes
Job Locations in the South West

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Kubernetes within the South West region over the 6 months to 18 January 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Gloucestershire +3 43 £67,500 +3.85% 46
Bristol -26 29 £75,000 -3.23% 29
Somerset - 20 £45,000 - 18
Devon +8 14 £60,000 +4.35% 16
Dorset -1 10 £75,000 +36.36% 18
Wiltshire +9 4 £77,500 +37.78% 18
Cornwall - 3 - -
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 5 (3.68%) Apache
2 3 (2.21%) IIS
3 2 (1.47%) Apache Spark
3 2 (1.47%) Confluence
4 1 (0.74%) Apache Airflow
4 1 (0.74%) Apache Superset
4 1 (0.74%) JBoss
4 1 (0.74%) OpenStack
Applications
1 1 (0.74%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 74 (54.41%) Azure
2 73 (53.68%) AWS
3 25 (18.38%) GitHub
4 24 (17.65%) GCP
5 21 (15.44%) Serverless
6 20 (14.71%) GitHub Actions
7 19 (13.97%) Azure DevOps
8 18 (13.24%) Amazon S3
8 18 (13.24%) AWS Lambda
9 14 (10.29%) OpenShift
10 10 (7.35%) Azure AKS
11 8 (5.88%) Amazon EC2
11 8 (5.88%) Amazon ECS
12 4 (2.94%) Amazon EKS
12 4 (2.94%) Microsoft 365
12 4 (2.94%) SaaS
13 3 (2.21%) Amazon SQS
13 3 (2.21%) AWS CloudFormation
13 3 (2.21%) Datadog
13 3 (2.21%) Entra ID
Communications & Networking
1 9 (6.62%) Firewall
2 6 (4.41%) VPN
3 5 (3.68%) AMQP
4 4 (2.94%) Broadband
4 4 (2.94%) DNS
4 4 (2.94%) VLAN
5 3 (2.21%) Cisco IOS
5 3 (2.21%) DHCP
5 3 (2.21%) IPsec
5 3 (2.21%) VoIP
5 3 (2.21%) Wireless
6 1 (0.74%) Internet
6 1 (0.74%) Network Security
6 1 (0.74%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (8.09%) Amazon RDS
2 10 (7.35%) NoSQL
3 8 (5.88%) SQL Server
4 7 (5.15%) InfluxDB
4 7 (5.15%) Relational Database
5 6 (4.41%) Elasticsearch
5 6 (4.41%) Neo4j
5 6 (4.41%) PostgreSQL
6 3 (2.21%) Big Data
6 3 (2.21%) CockroachDB
7 2 (1.47%) Geospatial Data
7 2 (1.47%) MongoDB
7 2 (1.47%) MySQL
8 1 (0.74%) Couchbase
8 1 (0.74%) DB2
8 1 (0.74%) Hadoop
8 1 (0.74%) MariaDB
8 1 (0.74%) Redis
8 1 (0.74%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 1 (0.74%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 29 (21.32%) Jenkins
2 12 (8.82%) GitLab
3 10 (7.35%) Git
4 6 (4.41%) Cypress.io
5 5 (3.68%) Subversion
6 4 (2.94%) Cucumber
6 4 (2.94%) JUnit
6 4 (2.94%) Selenium
7 3 (2.21%) CircleCI
7 3 (2.21%) Gradle
7 3 (2.21%) Maven
7 3 (2.21%) Robot Framework
7 3 (2.21%) TeamCity
7 3 (2.21%) TestNG
7 3 (2.21%) TestRail
8 2 (1.47%) Checkstyle
8 2 (1.47%) ESLint
8 2 (1.47%) JIRA
8 2 (1.47%) REST Assured
8 2 (1.47%) SonarQube
General
1 27 (19.85%) Social Skills
2 18 (13.24%) Finance
3 16 (11.76%) Public Sector
4 7 (5.15%) Aerospace
5 5 (3.68%) Analytical Skills
5 5 (3.68%) Electronics
5 5 (3.68%) Manufacturing
5 5 (3.68%) Marketing
5 5 (3.68%) Telecoms
6 2 (1.47%) Games
6 2 (1.47%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 2 (1.47%) Retail
7 1 (0.74%) Banking
7 1 (0.74%) Documentation Skills
7 1 (0.74%) Law
7 1 (0.74%) Military
7 1 (0.74%) Tech for Good
Job Titles
1 25 (18.38%) Software Engineer
2 23 (16.91%) Developer
3 20 (14.71%) Senior
4 17 (12.50%) DevOps Engineer
5 13 (9.56%) Platform Engineer
6 11 (8.09%) Lead
7 9 (6.62%) Software Developer
8 7 (5.15%) Architect
8 7 (5.15%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 7 (5.15%) Java Developer
9 6 (4.41%) Azure Engineer
9 6 (4.41%) DevSecOps Engineer
9 6 (4.41%) IT Engineer
9 6 (4.41%) Senior Software Engineer
9 6 (4.41%) Test Engineer
10 5 (3.68%) Full-Stack Engineer
10 5 (3.68%) Full-Stack Software Engineer
10 5 (3.68%) Senior Developer
11 4 (2.94%) Azure DevOps Engineer
11 4 (2.94%) Site Reliability Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 26 (19.12%) React
2 25 (18.38%) Spring
3 21 (15.44%) Spring Boot
4 18 (13.24%) .NET
5 17 (12.50%) .NET Core
6 12 (8.82%) AngularJS
7 11 (8.09%) YAML
8 9 (6.62%) RESTful
9 8 (5.88%) Elastic Stack
9 8 (5.88%) REST
10 7 (5.15%) RabbitMQ
11 6 (4.41%) MERN Stack
11 6 (4.41%) Node.js
12 4 (2.94%) OpenAPI
13 3 (2.21%) Akka
13 3 (2.21%) Entity Framework
13 3 (2.21%) Kafka
13 3 (2.21%) OAuth2
13 3 (2.21%) Playwright
13 3 (2.21%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 31 (22.79%) Cloud Native
2 6 (4.41%) Legacy Systems
3 4 (2.94%) Linux Command Line
3 4 (2.94%) Private Cloud
4 3 (2.21%) Clustering
4 3 (2.21%) Hybrid Cloud
4 3 (2.21%) Over-the-Top Content
4 3 (2.21%) Product Ownership
4 3 (2.21%) Public Cloud
4 3 (2.21%) Video\Live Streaming
5 2 (1.47%) Blockchain
5 2 (1.47%) Data Centre
5 2 (1.47%) Distributed Systems
5 2 (1.47%) Enterprise Software
5 2 (1.47%) Management Information System
5 2 (1.47%) Onboarding
6 1 (0.74%) Cyber Threat
6 1 (0.74%) Data Fabric
6 1 (0.74%) Legacy Applications
6 1 (0.74%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 36 (26.47%) Linux
2 13 (9.56%) Windows
3 9 (6.62%) Windows Server
4 6 (4.41%) Ubuntu
5 5 (3.68%) CentOS
5 5 (3.68%) Debian
6 3 (2.21%) Mac OS
7 2 (1.47%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 2 (1.47%) Rocky
7 2 (1.47%) Unix
7 2 (1.47%) Windows Server 2019
8 1 (0.74%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 81 (59.56%) CI/CD
2 73 (53.68%) DevOps
3 72 (52.94%) Containerisation
4 54 (39.71%) Infrastructure as Code
5 49 (36.03%) Agile
6 45 (33.09%) Software Engineering
7 31 (22.79%) Continuous Improvement
8 29 (21.32%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 23 (16.91%) Collaborative Culture
10 19 (13.97%) Test Automation
11 17 (12.50%) Full-Stack Development
12 16 (11.76%) Mentoring
12 16 (11.76%) Platform Engineering
13 15 (11.03%) Microservices
13 15 (11.03%) Problem-Solving
13 15 (11.03%) Scrum
14 14 (10.29%) AI
15 12 (8.82%) Coaching
16 11 (8.09%) Kanban
16 11 (8.09%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 67 (49.26%) Python
2 50 (36.76%) Java
3 28 (20.59%) Bash
4 23 (16.91%) SQL
5 22 (16.18%) JavaScript
6 20 (14.71%) TypeScript
7 19 (13.97%) PowerShell
8 17 (12.50%) Bicep
9 16 (11.76%) C#
10 12 (8.82%) Go
11 7 (5.15%) C
12 6 (4.41%) Kotlin
13 4 (2.94%) Shell Script
14 3 (2.21%) Elixir
14 3 (2.21%) Erlang
14 3 (2.21%) Scala
15 1 (0.74%) C++
15 1 (0.74%) Delphi
15 1 (0.74%) PHP
15 1 (0.74%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 53 (38.97%) Security Cleared
2 39 (28.68%) DV Cleared
3 22 (16.18%) SC Cleared
4 6 (4.41%) Azure Certification
5 4 (2.94%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
6 3 (2.21%) ACMT
6 3 (2.21%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
6 3 (2.21%) Computer Science Degree
6 3 (2.21%) Degree
7 2 (1.47%) AWS Certification
7 2 (1.47%) BPSS Clearance
7 2 (1.47%) ISTQB
7 2 (1.47%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
7 2 (1.47%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
7 2 (1.47%) Network+ Certification
8 1 (0.74%) CCNA
8 1 (0.74%) Cisco Certification
8 1 (0.74%) Microsoft Certification
8 1 (0.74%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (9.56%) QA
2 3 (2.21%) Cyber Essentials
3 2 (1.47%) Accessibility
3 2 (1.47%) NCSC
4 1 (0.74%) Data Quality
4 1 (0.74%) GDPR
4 1 (0.74%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 88 (64.71%) Docker
2 6 (4.41%) VMware Infrastructure
3 5 (3.68%) Hyper-V
3 5 (3.68%) VMware ESXi
4 4 (2.94%) Active Directory
4 4 (2.94%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (0.74%) VMware NSX
5 1 (0.74%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 42 (30.88%) Terraform
2 27 (19.85%) Ansible
3 18 (13.24%) Grafana
4 12 (8.82%) Prometheus
5 6 (4.41%) Argo
6 5 (3.68%) Puppet
6 5 (3.68%) Rancher
6 5 (3.68%) vCenter Server
6 5 (3.68%) yum
7 4 (2.94%) Progress Chef
8 3 (2.21%) Autotask
8 3 (2.21%) Docker Swarm
8 3 (2.21%) Microsoft Intune
9 1 (0.74%) Check_MK
9 1 (0.74%) Istio
9 1 (0.74%) Kibana
9 1 (0.74%) Kustomize
9 1 (0.74%) logstash
9 1 (0.74%) Nagios
9 1 (0.74%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 11 (8.09%) Google
1 11 (8.09%) Microsoft
1 11 (8.09%) Red Hat
2 8 (5.88%) Oracle
3 7 (5.15%) Splunk
4 6 (4.41%) VMware
5 5 (3.68%) SAP
6 4 (2.94%) Cisco
7 3 (2.21%) Apple
7 3 (2.21%) Datto
7 3 (2.21%) Sophos
7 3 (2.21%) Veeam
8 2 (1.47%) Dell
8 2 (1.47%) Guidewire
9 1 (0.74%) Databricks
9 1 (0.74%) Fortinet
9 1 (0.74%) New Relic
9 1 (0.74%) NVIDIA
9 1 (0.74%) Palo Alto
9 1 (0.74%) SaltStack