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 19 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 150 251 299
Rank change year-on-year +101 +48 -60
Contract jobs citing Platform Engineering 387 84 86
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 1.58% 0.65% 0.42%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.95% 0.72% 0.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 257 52 57
10th Percentile £363 £413 £414
25th Percentile £416 £475 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £537 £525
Median % change year-on-year -9.22% +2.29% -10.64%
75th Percentile £552 £603 £650
90th Percentile £638 £663 £743
UK median daily rate £519 £550 £566
% change year-on-year -5.64% -2.87% -7.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 1 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £66.50 £68.75 -
Median hourly rate £74.26 £72.50 -
Median % change year-on-year +2.43% - -
75th Percentile - £76.25 -
90th Percentile £80.00 - -
UK median hourly rate £74.26 £72.50 £60.50
% change year-on-year +2.43% +19.83% -25.77%

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 19,832 11,660 17,117
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 80.99% 90.51% 84.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,941 7,291 10,220
10th Percentile £300 £235 £250
25th Percentile £400 £375 £381
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £494 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £588 £580 £600
90th Percentile £678 £651 £688
UK median daily rate £507 £515 £525
% change year-on-year -1.65% -1.90% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,066 844 2,066
10th Percentile £14.49 £14.20 £12.36
25th Percentile £18.59 £17.30 £15.25
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.23 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +78.39% -32.73% +7.14%
75th Percentile £67.50 £63.75 £61.29
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £42.40 £28.18 £36.02
% change year-on-year +50.46% -21.77% +0.06%

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 19 May 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 19 May 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 19 May 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 +47 150 £475 -11.01% 86
Yorkshire +10 79 £475 -13.64% 23
South East -8 73 £525 +9.83% 85
North West +16 68 £449 -14.57% 53
Scotland +36 58 £450 -14.29% 17
Midlands -29 47 £488 -9.22% 34
West Midlands -31 35 £500 -8.00% 23
East of England +3 34 £475 -40.63% 13
South West -12 24 £531 -11.46% 31
East Midlands -22 12 £488 -2.50% 10
North East -18 5 £453 -17.73% 10
Wales -9 3 £422 - 5
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 (6.20%) Confluence
2 9 (2.33%) Apache Spark
3 5 (1.29%) Apache Airflow
4 4 (1.03%) Apache
4 4 (1.03%) Microsoft Exchange
4 4 (1.03%) SharePoint
5 2 (0.52%) Apache Pulsar
5 2 (0.52%) Blackberry Enterprise Server
5 2 (0.52%) IBM HTTP Server
5 2 (0.52%) nginx
5 2 (0.52%) Oracle HTTP Server
5 2 (0.52%) Tomcat
5 2 (0.52%) Tuxedo
5 2 (0.52%) WebLogic
5 2 (0.52%) WebSphere
5 2 (0.52%) WebSphere Application Server
5 2 (0.52%) WebSphere Portal
6 1 (0.26%) Apache Superset
6 1 (0.26%) IIS
6 1 (0.26%) SAS
Applications
1 3 (0.78%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 3 (0.78%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.26%) Payment Gateway
2 1 (0.26%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 142 (36.69%) Azure
2 130 (33.59%) AWS
3 78 (20.16%) GitHub
4 62 (16.02%) GitHub Actions
5 55 (14.21%) GCP
6 42 (10.85%) Azure DevOps
7 36 (9.30%) Amazon EKS
8 32 (8.27%) Serverless
9 31 (8.01%) OpenShift
10 27 (6.98%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 27 (6.98%) Azure AKS
11 26 (6.72%) Entra ID
12 22 (5.68%) Amazon EC2
12 22 (5.68%) AWS Lambda
13 21 (5.43%) Amazon S3
14 20 (5.17%) Google Kubernetes Engine
15 19 (4.91%) AWS CloudFormation
16 18 (4.65%) Virtual Private Cloud
17 16 (4.13%) Snowflake
18 15 (3.88%) Amazon ECS
Communications & Networking
1 20 (5.17%) Firewall
2 17 (4.39%) DNS
3 13 (3.36%) Network Security
4 12 (3.10%) VPN
5 7 (1.81%) SAN
6 6 (1.55%) SNMP
6 6 (1.55%) TCP/IP
7 5 (1.29%) DHCP
7 5 (1.29%) VSAN
8 4 (1.03%) Fibre Channel
8 4 (1.03%) IPsec
8 4 (1.03%) MQTT
8 4 (1.03%) NAS
8 4 (1.03%) SD-WAN
8 4 (1.03%) SSL
9 3 (0.78%) Internet
9 3 (0.78%) WebEx
10 2 (0.52%) HTTP
10 2 (0.52%) NetScaler
11 1 (0.26%) Modbus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 33 (8.53%) PostgreSQL
2 18 (4.65%) SQL Server
3 14 (3.62%) Relational Database
4 13 (3.36%) Power BI
5 9 (2.33%) DynamoDB
5 9 (2.33%) MySQL
6 8 (2.07%) Data Warehouse
6 8 (2.07%) Metadata
6 8 (2.07%) NoSQL
6 8 (2.07%) Redis
6 8 (2.07%) Tableau
7 6 (1.55%) Big Data
8 5 (1.29%) Ataccama
8 5 (1.29%) Hadoop
8 5 (1.29%) Neo4j
9 4 (1.03%) Amazon Redshift
10 3 (0.78%) Amazon Athena
10 3 (0.78%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 2 (0.52%) Semantic Layer
11 2 (0.52%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 68 (17.57%) Jenkins
2 49 (12.66%) GitLab
3 46 (11.89%) JIRA
4 41 (10.59%) Git
5 14 (3.62%) Bitbucket
6 10 (2.58%) Gatling
7 7 (1.81%) Artifactory
8 5 (1.29%) Maven
8 5 (1.29%) SonarQube
8 5 (1.29%) Sonatype Nexus
9 4 (1.03%) JMeter
9 4 (1.03%) LoadRunner
9 4 (1.03%) NeoLoad
9 4 (1.03%) Postman
10 3 (0.78%) Jaeger
10 3 (0.78%) Spinnaker
11 2 (0.52%) Introscope
11 2 (0.52%) MSI
11 2 (0.52%) Terragrunt
11 2 (0.52%) Visual Studio
General
1 75 (19.38%) Social Skills
2 44 (11.37%) Finance
3 39 (10.08%) Public Sector
4 22 (5.68%) Banking
5 10 (2.58%) Analytical Skills
6 5 (1.29%) Documentation Skills
6 5 (1.29%) Legal
7 4 (1.03%) Health Technology
8 3 (0.78%) Financial Institution
9 2 (0.52%) Influencing Skills
9 2 (0.52%) Investment Banking
9 2 (0.52%) Law
9 2 (0.52%) Military
9 2 (0.52%) Telecoms
10 1 (0.26%) Advertising
10 1 (0.26%) Aerospace
10 1 (0.26%) Electronics
10 1 (0.26%) Organisational Skills
10 1 (0.26%) Retail
Job Titles
1 164 (42.38%) Platform Engineer
2 66 (17.05%) DevOps Engineer
3 63 (16.28%) Senior
4 62 (16.02%) Cloud Platform Engineer
5 37 (9.56%) Azure Engineer
5 37 (9.56%) Cloud Engineer
6 30 (7.75%) Azure Platform Engineer
7 28 (7.24%) Architect
8 26 (6.72%) Lead
9 25 (6.46%) DevOps Platform Engineer
10 22 (5.68%) Data Engineer
11 20 (5.17%) Senior DevOps
11 20 (5.17%) Senior DevOps Engineer
12 19 (4.91%) Senior Platform Engineer
13 17 (4.39%) Infrastructure Engineer
14 16 (4.13%) Site Reliability Engineer
15 15 (3.88%) AWS Engineer
15 15 (3.88%) GCP Engineer
16 14 (3.62%) Software Engineer
17 13 (3.36%) Scrum Master
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (4.39%) Kafka
2 16 (4.13%) REST
3 12 (3.10%) OpenTelemetry
4 11 (2.84%) AWS CDK
4 11 (2.84%) Playwright
5 9 (2.33%) ADO
5 9 (2.33%) OAuth
6 8 (2.07%) .NET
6 8 (2.07%) Keycloak
6 8 (2.07%) LDAP
6 8 (2.07%) Node.js
6 8 (2.07%) OAuth2
7 7 (1.81%) Elastic Stack
7 7 (1.81%) OpenID
7 7 (1.81%) YAML
8 6 (1.55%) React
8 6 (1.55%) Spring
8 6 (1.55%) Spring Boot
9 5 (1.29%) Middleware
9 5 (1.29%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 64 (16.54%) Cloud Native
2 26 (6.72%) Product Ownership
3 18 (4.65%) Private Cloud
4 16 (4.13%) Distributed Systems
5 14 (3.62%) Onboarding
6 13 (3.36%) Data Centre
7 11 (2.84%) Hybrid Cloud
8 10 (2.58%) Public Cloud
9 8 (2.07%) Data Protection Act
10 7 (1.81%) PKI
10 7 (1.81%) Security Posture
11 6 (1.55%) Replication
12 5 (1.29%) Management Information System
12 5 (1.29%) Operational Technology
12 5 (1.29%) Virtual Team
13 4 (1.03%) Enterprise Cloud
13 4 (1.03%) NHS
13 4 (1.03%) NVMe
14 3 (0.78%) Clustering
14 3 (0.78%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 70 (18.09%) Linux
2 37 (9.56%) Windows
3 19 (4.91%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 18 (4.65%) Unix
5 10 (2.58%) Windows Server
6 4 (1.03%) VMS
7 3 (0.78%) Windows Server 2019
8 2 (0.52%) Oracle Linux
8 2 (0.52%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
8 2 (0.52%) Windows Server 2012
9 1 (0.26%) CentOS
9 1 (0.26%) Data ONTAP
9 1 (0.26%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.26%) Solaris
9 1 (0.26%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 203 (52.45%) CI/CD
2 177 (45.74%) DevOps
3 144 (37.21%) Infrastructure as Code
4 82 (21.19%) Observability
5 78 (20.16%) Agile
6 63 (16.28%) Containerisation
7 56 (14.47%) Continuous Improvement
7 56 (14.47%) Migration
7 56 (14.47%) Site Reliability Engineering
8 52 (13.44%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 48 (12.40%) Software Engineering
10 38 (9.82%) Problem-Solving
10 38 (9.82%) Roadmaps
11 37 (9.56%) DevSecOps
12 36 (9.30%) Test Automation
13 35 (9.04%) GitOps
14 34 (8.79%) Infrastructure Automation
15 32 (8.27%) Root Cause Analysis
15 32 (8.27%) Technical Leadership
16 31 (8.01%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 137 (35.40%) Python
2 53 (13.70%) Bash
3 47 (12.14%) Java
4 46 (11.89%) PowerShell
5 25 (6.46%) SQL
6 23 (5.94%) Bicep
7 11 (2.84%) Scala
8 9 (2.33%) Go
9 8 (2.07%) TypeScript
10 7 (1.81%) C#
11 6 (1.55%) Perl
12 5 (1.29%) Groovy
12 5 (1.29%) JavaScript
12 5 (1.29%) Shell Script
13 4 (1.03%) Cypher
14 3 (0.78%) PHP
15 2 (0.52%) C++
15 2 (0.52%) Jython
16 1 (0.26%) C
16 1 (0.26%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 120 (31.01%) Security Cleared
2 94 (24.29%) SC Cleared
3 15 (3.88%) DV Cleared
4 12 (3.10%) BPSS Clearance
5 10 (2.58%) Degree
5 10 (2.58%) SAFe Agilist
6 8 (2.07%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
6 8 (2.07%) Azure Certification
7 5 (1.29%) RHCE
8 4 (1.03%) AWS Certification
8 4 (1.03%) Computer Science Degree
9 3 (0.78%) NCDA
9 3 (0.78%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 2 (0.52%) CCNA
10 2 (0.52%) Cisco Certification
10 2 (0.52%) PMI Certification
10 2 (0.52%) PMP
10 2 (0.52%) VCP6
11 1 (0.26%) NCIE
11 1 (0.26%) RHCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (3.88%) QA
2 13 (3.36%) NCSC
3 12 (3.10%) Data Quality
4 8 (2.07%) GDPR
5 5 (1.29%) PCI DSS
6 4 (1.03%) GRC
6 4 (1.03%) NIST
6 4 (1.03%) NIST 800
7 3 (0.78%) Accessibility
8 2 (0.52%) Disclosure Scotland
9 1 (0.26%) ISO 20022
9 1 (0.26%) ISO 8583
System Software
1 53 (13.70%) Docker
2 34 (8.79%) VMware Infrastructure
3 18 (4.65%) Active Directory
4 15 (3.88%) Virtual Machines
5 13 (3.36%) vSphere
6 10 (2.58%) VMware NSX
7 6 (1.55%) VMware ESXi
8 4 (1.03%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
9 2 (0.52%) Firmware
9 2 (0.52%) Virtual Desktop
10 1 (0.26%) Ceph
10 1 (0.26%) EMC RecoverPoint
10 1 (0.26%) GPFS
10 1 (0.26%) Hyper-V
10 1 (0.26%) KVM
10 1 (0.26%) NFS
10 1 (0.26%) Squid
10 1 (0.26%) SRDF
10 1 (0.26%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 138 (35.66%) Terraform
2 126 (32.56%) Kubernetes
3 68 (17.57%) Ansible
4 38 (9.82%) Grafana
5 35 (9.04%) Prometheus
6 26 (6.72%) Istio
7 23 (5.94%) Argo
8 6 (1.55%) HAProxy
8 6 (1.55%) linkerd
8 6 (1.55%) Microsoft Intune
8 6 (1.55%) PowerCLI
8 6 (1.55%) Puppet
9 5 (1.29%) Packer
9 5 (1.29%) Rancher
9 5 (1.29%) vRealize
10 4 (1.03%) vCenter Server
10 4 (1.03%) vMotion
11 3 (0.78%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 3 (0.78%) Progress Chef
11 3 (0.78%) SCCM
Vendors
1 40 (10.34%) VMware
2 38 (9.82%) Microsoft
3 23 (5.94%) Google
4 21 (5.43%) Oracle
4 21 (5.43%) Red Hat
5 19 (4.91%) Splunk
6 16 (4.13%) ServiceNow
7 13 (3.36%) Dynatrace
8 9 (2.33%) Cisco
9 7 (1.81%) Citrix
10 6 (1.55%) Databricks
11 5 (1.29%) PeopleSoft
12 4 (1.03%) BiZZdesign
12 4 (1.03%) Brocade
12 4 (1.03%) Cribl.io
12 4 (1.03%) Dell
12 4 (1.03%) F5
12 4 (1.03%) IBM
12 4 (1.03%) NetApp
13 3 (0.78%) Pure Storage