Platform Engineering Contract Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Platform Engineering
UK > UK excluding London

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

6 months to
12 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 160 257 277
Rank change year-on-year +97 +20 -17
Contract jobs citing Platform Engineering 281 89 126
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 1.57% 0.65% 0.65%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.84% 0.73% 0.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 217 63 80
10th Percentile £413 £420 £443
25th Percentile £463 £463 £494
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £544
Median % change year-on-year - -3.49% -1.09%
75th Percentile £588 £618 £638
90th Percentile £688 £683 £676
UK median daily rate £540 £575 £563
% change year-on-year -6.09% +2.22% -6.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 1 1
10th Percentile £56.83 - -
25th Percentile £59.75 £59.39 -
Median hourly rate £74.26 £63.79 £78.00
Median % change year-on-year +16.42% -18.22% -22.00%
75th Percentile £80.00 £68.18 -
90th Percentile £81.80 - -
UK median hourly rate £74.26 £63.79 £60.00
% change year-on-year +16.42% +6.31% -37.58%

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK excluding London

Platform Engineering 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 in the UK excluding London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 15,291 12,110 17,016
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 85.17% 87.95% 87.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,354 7,075 10,854
10th Percentile £222 £239 £250
25th Percentile £375 £380 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -
75th Percentile £575 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £685 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,670 680 1,286
10th Percentile £14.38 £15.50 £14.16
25th Percentile £17.26 £20.00 £17.02
Median hourly rate £23.83 £30.11 £43.90
Median % change year-on-year -20.86% -31.42% +59.64%
75th Percentile £55.00 £63.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £68.16 £73.75 £76.77
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £32.25 £40.50
% change year-on-year -22.00% -20.38% +16.41%

Platform Engineering
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Platform Engineering relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Platform Engineering job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

Platform Engineering
Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Platform Engineering.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Platform Engineering

Platform Engineering
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Platform Engineering in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 12 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Platform Engineering in the UK excluding London

Platform Engineering
Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Platform Engineering.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Platform Engineering

Platform Engineering
Hourly Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Platform Engineering in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 12 January 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Platform Engineering in the UK excluding London

Platform Engineering
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 Platform Engineering within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 12 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
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
North of England -3 80 £525 +2.44% 109
South East +35 63 £525 -7.49% 159
Midlands +3 58 £540 -10.00% 64
West Midlands +13 55 £540 -21.17% 18
North West +9 48 £550 -13.73% 39
East of England +10 33 £475 -32.14% 70
South West +11 30 £575 +4.55% 73
Yorkshire -35 29 £518 +3.50% 54
Scotland +5 26 £525 +2.19% 18
North East - 6 £550 - 17
East Midlands -20 3 £525 +10.53% 45
Wales 0 1 £422 - 27
Platform Engineering
UK

Platform Engineering
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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 24 (8.54%) Confluence
2 13 (4.63%) Microsoft Exchange
3 11 (3.91%) Apache
4 9 (3.20%) nginx
4 9 (3.20%) SharePoint
5 7 (2.49%) WebLogic
6 5 (1.78%) OpenStack
7 3 (1.07%) IIS
7 3 (1.07%) JBoss
7 3 (1.07%) SharePoint Server
8 2 (0.71%) Apache Airflow
8 2 (0.71%) Apache Spark
8 2 (0.71%) iPlanet
8 2 (0.71%) WebSphere
8 2 (0.71%) WebSphere Application Server
9 1 (0.36%) CICS
9 1 (0.36%) CMS
9 1 (0.36%) Documentum
9 1 (0.36%) Tomcat
9 1 (0.36%) Tuxedo
Applications
1 9 (3.20%) Mozilla Thunderbird
Business Applications
1 1 (0.36%) Finacle
1 1 (0.36%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 110 (39.15%) AWS
2 109 (38.79%) Azure
3 44 (15.66%) GitHub
4 31 (11.03%) GCP
5 27 (9.61%) Amazon CloudWatch
6 26 (9.25%) GitHub Actions
7 23 (8.19%) Amazon EC2
7 23 (8.19%) Entra ID
8 22 (7.83%) Amazon S3
9 21 (7.47%) AWS CloudFormation
9 21 (7.47%) OpenShift
9 21 (7.47%) Serverless
10 20 (7.12%) Azure DevOps
10 20 (7.12%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 15 (5.34%) Amazon ELB
11 15 (5.34%) AWS KMS
11 15 (5.34%) AWS Lambda
12 14 (4.98%) Amazon ECS
13 13 (4.63%) OCI
14 12 (4.27%) Route 53
Communications & Networking
1 46 (16.37%) Firewall
2 38 (13.52%) DNS
3 15 (5.34%) FTP
3 15 (5.34%) HTTP
3 15 (5.34%) SMTP
3 15 (5.34%) SSH
4 9 (3.20%) IMAP
4 9 (3.20%) OpenLDAP
4 9 (3.20%) TCP/IP
5 7 (2.49%) WebEx
6 6 (2.14%) BGP
6 6 (2.14%) DHCP
6 6 (2.14%) Software-Defined Networking
6 6 (2.14%) VLAN
7 4 (1.42%) Network Security
8 3 (1.07%) Internet
8 3 (1.07%) IPsec
8 3 (1.07%) SD-WAN
8 3 (1.07%) Skype
8 3 (1.07%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 25 (8.90%) Amazon RDS
2 24 (8.54%) PostgreSQL
3 11 (3.91%) NoSQL
4 10 (3.56%) Redis
5 9 (3.20%) Amazon Aurora
6 8 (2.85%) Amazon Redshift
7 6 (2.14%) Couchbase
7 6 (2.14%) SQL Server
8 5 (1.78%) DynamoDB
9 4 (1.42%) Big Data
9 4 (1.42%) Data Lake
10 3 (1.07%) Data Warehouse
10 3 (1.07%) Hadoop
10 3 (1.07%) Relational Database
11 2 (0.71%) Apache Hive
11 2 (0.71%) Elasticsearch
11 2 (0.71%) MongoDB
11 2 (0.71%) Oracle Database
12 1 (0.36%) SAP Data Services
12 1 (0.36%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 57 (20.28%) Jenkins
2 36 (12.81%) GitLab
3 34 (12.10%) Git
4 26 (9.25%) JIRA
5 15 (5.34%) Vagrant
6 12 (4.27%) SonarQube
7 3 (1.07%) MSI
8 2 (0.71%) Bitbucket
8 2 (0.71%) Bitbucket Server
8 2 (0.71%) CA Release Automation
8 2 (0.71%) Cucumber
8 2 (0.71%) JUnit
8 2 (0.71%) Maven
8 2 (0.71%) Mockito
8 2 (0.71%) Selenium
8 2 (0.71%) Sonatype Nexus
8 2 (0.71%) Spinnaker
9 1 (0.36%) Artifactory
9 1 (0.36%) Pylint
General
1 64 (22.78%) Social Skills
2 32 (11.39%) Public Sector
3 21 (7.47%) Finance
4 17 (6.05%) Analytical Skills
5 16 (5.69%) Banking
6 15 (5.34%) Legal
7 10 (3.56%) Presentation Skills
8 9 (3.20%) Documentation Skills
9 6 (2.14%) Retail
10 4 (1.42%) Games
10 4 (1.42%) Retail Banking
11 3 (1.07%) Telecoms
12 2 (0.71%) Aerospace
13 1 (0.36%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 1 (0.36%) Investment Banking
13 1 (0.36%) Tech for Good
13 1 (0.36%) Wholesale Banking
Job Titles
1 154 (54.80%) Platform Engineer
2 46 (16.37%) Cloud Platform Engineer
3 35 (12.46%) DevOps Engineer
4 31 (11.03%) AWS Engineer
5 26 (9.25%) Senior
6 22 (7.83%) AWS Platform Engineer
7 18 (6.41%) Lead
8 16 (5.69%) Azure Engineer
8 16 (5.69%) DevSecOps Engineer
9 15 (5.34%) AWS DevOps
9 15 (5.34%) AWS DevOps Engineer
10 14 (4.98%) Architect
10 14 (4.98%) Azure Platform Engineer
10 14 (4.98%) Cloud Engineer
11 13 (4.63%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 12 (4.27%) Data Engineer
12 12 (4.27%) DevOps Platform Engineer
13 8 (2.85%) Software Engineer
14 6 (2.14%) Project Manager
14 6 (2.14%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (6.05%) Kafka
2 14 (4.98%) YAML
3 11 (3.91%) LDAP
4 10 (3.56%) Elastic Stack
5 8 (2.85%) Keycloak
5 8 (2.85%) OAuth
6 7 (2.49%) FastAPI
6 7 (2.49%) React
6 7 (2.49%) REST
6 7 (2.49%) XMPP
7 6 (2.14%) Middleware
7 6 (2.14%) Node.js
7 6 (2.14%) OAuth2
7 6 (2.14%) OpenID
7 6 (2.14%) Spring
7 6 (2.14%) Spring Boot
8 4 (1.42%) ADO
8 4 (1.42%) Oracle Fusion
8 4 (1.42%) RESTful
8 4 (1.42%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 25 (8.90%) Replication
2 19 (6.76%) PKI
3 18 (6.41%) Cloud Native
4 17 (6.05%) Product Ownership
5 15 (5.34%) Onboarding
6 10 (3.56%) Data Centre
6 10 (3.56%) Private Cloud
7 8 (2.85%) Distributed Systems
8 7 (2.49%) Legacy Systems
8 7 (2.49%) NHS
9 6 (2.14%) Hybrid Cloud
10 5 (1.78%) Data Protection Act
10 5 (1.78%) Public Cloud
11 3 (1.07%) Analytical Mindset
11 3 (1.07%) Operational Technology
12 2 (0.71%) Distributed Architecture
12 2 (0.71%) Fat Client
12 2 (0.71%) SCADA
12 2 (0.71%) Security Posture
12 2 (0.71%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 88 (31.32%) Linux
2 76 (27.05%) Windows
3 22 (7.83%) Windows Server
4 20 (7.12%) VMS
5 19 (6.76%) Unix
6 18 (6.41%) Amazon Linux
7 14 (4.98%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 9 (3.20%) Ubuntu
8 9 (3.20%) Windows 10
9 4 (1.42%) Windows Server 2016
10 2 (0.71%) Solaris
11 1 (0.36%) Windows Server 2019
11 1 (0.36%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 126 (44.84%) CI/CD
2 119 (42.35%) DevOps
3 99 (35.23%) Infrastructure as Code
4 58 (20.64%) Containerisation
4 58 (20.64%) Observability
5 44 (15.66%) Problem-Solving
6 40 (14.23%) Agile
7 36 (12.81%) Continuous Improvement
8 35 (12.46%) DevSecOps
9 34 (12.10%) Migration
10 32 (11.39%) Software Engineering
11 29 (10.32%) Cloud Security
12 27 (9.61%) Incident Response
12 27 (9.61%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 26 (9.25%) Service Management
14 25 (8.90%) Infrastructure Automation
14 25 (8.90%) Performance Tuning
14 25 (8.90%) Site Reliability Engineering
15 24 (8.54%) AI
16 23 (8.19%) Configuration Management
Programming Languages
1 103 (36.65%) Python
2 50 (17.79%) PowerShell
3 47 (16.73%) Bash
4 27 (9.61%) SQL
5 23 (8.19%) Java
6 17 (6.05%) Groovy
7 16 (5.69%) Perl
8 10 (3.56%) JavaScript
9 8 (2.85%) Bicep
10 7 (2.49%) C#
10 7 (2.49%) Shell Script
11 6 (2.14%) Go
12 3 (1.07%) TypeScript
13 2 (0.71%) Apex Code
13 2 (0.71%) PHP
13 2 (0.71%) SOQL
14 1 (0.36%) JCL
14 1 (0.36%) PL/SQL
14 1 (0.36%) REXX
14 1 (0.36%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 139 (49.47%) Security Cleared
2 115 (40.93%) SC Cleared
3 29 (10.32%) DV Cleared
4 17 (6.05%) AWS Certification
5 14 (4.98%) Degree
6 13 (4.63%) Azure Certification
7 9 (3.20%) CCNA
7 9 (3.20%) Cisco Certification
8 8 (2.85%) CCDP
8 8 (2.85%) CCNP
9 5 (1.78%) BPSS Clearance
10 3 (1.07%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 3 (1.07%) CSPO
10 3 (1.07%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 1 (0.36%) Computer Science Degree
11 1 (0.36%) Microsoft Certification
11 1 (0.36%) Server+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (7.47%) NCSC
2 6 (2.14%) COBIT
3 4 (1.42%) GDPR
4 3 (1.07%) Data Quality
4 3 (1.07%) NIST
5 2 (0.71%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 2 (0.71%) QA
5 2 (0.71%) WCAG
6 1 (0.36%) Cyber Essentials
6 1 (0.36%) Disclosure Scotland
6 1 (0.36%) NIST 800
6 1 (0.36%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 68 (24.20%) Docker
2 45 (16.01%) Active Directory
3 36 (12.81%) VMware Infrastructure
4 15 (5.34%) DFS Replication
5 9 (3.20%) Dovecot
5 9 (3.20%) Postfix
5 9 (3.20%) Squid
6 8 (2.85%) Virtual Machines
7 5 (1.78%) vSphere
8 4 (1.42%) Hyper-V
9 3 (1.07%) VMware NSX
10 1 (0.36%) GPFS
10 1 (0.36%) Time Sharing Option
10 1 (0.36%) Tivoli Directory Server
10 1 (0.36%) Virtual Desktop
10 1 (0.36%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 119 (42.35%) Terraform
2 83 (29.54%) Kubernetes
3 47 (16.73%) Grafana
4 46 (16.37%) Ansible
5 43 (15.30%) Prometheus
6 12 (4.27%) Proxmox
7 11 (3.91%) Argo
7 11 (3.91%) vCenter Server
8 10 (3.56%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 10 (3.56%) Istio
9 9 (3.20%) Nessus
10 7 (2.49%) Packer
11 5 (1.78%) linkerd
12 4 (1.42%) Kibana
12 4 (1.42%) Microsoft Intune
12 4 (1.42%) Single Sign-On
13 3 (1.07%) Progress Chef
13 3 (1.07%) Puppet
13 3 (1.07%) SCCM
13 3 (1.07%) WSUS
Vendors
1 49 (17.44%) VMware
2 44 (15.66%) Microsoft
3 34 (12.10%) Dynatrace
3 34 (12.10%) Splunk
4 27 (9.61%) Cisco
4 27 (9.61%) Red Hat
5 22 (7.83%) Oracle
6 20 (7.12%) ServiceNow
7 15 (5.34%) AppDynamics
8 13 (4.63%) Citrix
8 13 (4.63%) IBM
9 11 (3.91%) F5
10 9 (3.20%) Jaspersoft
11 7 (2.49%) CheckPoint
11 7 (2.49%) Dell
11 7 (2.49%) HP
12 6 (2.14%) Confluent
12 6 (2.14%) Veeam
13 4 (1.42%) Greenplum
13 4 (1.42%) SolarWinds