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 1 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 101 218 282
Rank change year-on-year +117 +64 -10
Contract jobs citing Platform Engineering 640 165 93
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 2.32% 1.08% 0.52%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.86% 1.21% 0.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 376 112 69
10th Percentile £384 £400 £411
25th Percentile £425 £450 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £516 £525 £530
Median % change year-on-year -1.67% -0.94% -11.67%
75th Percentile £588 £603 £675
90th Percentile £688 £674 £698
UK median daily rate £550 £530 £575
% change year-on-year +3.77% -7.83% -8.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 31 1 0
10th Percentile £66.50 - -
25th Percentile £71.00 £68.75 -
Median hourly rate £85.00 £72.50 -
Median % change year-on-year +17.24% - -
75th Percentile £99.41 £76.25 -
90th Percentile £100.00 - -
UK median hourly rate £77.50 £72.50 £55.00
% change year-on-year +6.90% +31.82% -29.49%

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 22,386 13,663 14,929
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 81.00% 89.13% 82.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 12,973 8,208 8,803
10th Percentile £300 £240 £250
25th Percentile £407 £368 £388
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £599 £575 £600
90th Percentile £688 £653 £688
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -3.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,511 1,393 1,334
10th Percentile £13.81 £14.00 £13.86
25th Percentile £17.50 £16.95 £16.64
Median hourly rate £43.56 £22.63 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +92.49% -47.37% +14.67%
75th Percentile £68.00 £43.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £79.00 £68.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £41.09 £25.15 £42.50
% change year-on-year +63.39% -40.82% +2.41%

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 1 September 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 1 September 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 1 September 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 +74 220 £500 +11.11% 220
Yorkshire +62 128 £500 -4.76% 81
South East +10 117 £575 +15.00% 153
Midlands -2 111 £460 -11.54% 69
South West +26 85 £550 -8.33% 112
North West +4 81 £525 +31.25% 121
West Midlands -25 78 £450 -12.62% 30
Scotland +28 76 £450 -17.43% 94
East Midlands +17 32 £488 -30.36% 39
East of England -1 27 £525 -20.75% 46
North East -35 13 £425 -5.56% 20
Wales - 7 £325 - 20
Channel Islands - 1 - -
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 38
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 20 (3.13%) Confluence
2 7 (1.09%) Apache
2 7 (1.09%) Apache Airflow
2 7 (1.09%) Apache Spark
3 5 (0.78%) SharePoint
4 3 (0.47%) Apache Superset
4 3 (0.47%) OpenStack
4 3 (0.47%) Palantir Foundry
5 2 (0.31%) Blackberry Enterprise Server
5 2 (0.31%) IBM HTTP Server
5 2 (0.31%) Oracle HTTP Server
5 2 (0.31%) Tomcat
5 2 (0.31%) WebSphere
5 2 (0.31%) WebSphere Application Server
5 2 (0.31%) WebSphere Portal
6 1 (0.16%) Microsoft Exchange
6 1 (0.16%) nginx
6 1 (0.16%) Oracle Coherence
6 1 (0.16%) SAS
6 1 (0.16%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 1 (0.16%) MS Visio
1 1 (0.16%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 8 (1.25%) Dynamics CRM
2 4 (0.63%) NetSuite
2 4 (0.63%) Sage X3
3 1 (0.16%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 276 (43.13%) AWS
2 271 (42.34%) Azure
3 114 (17.81%) GitHub
4 112 (17.50%) GCP
5 84 (13.13%) GitHub Actions
6 73 (11.41%) Azure DevOps
7 56 (8.75%) Serverless
8 45 (7.03%) Amazon EKS
9 39 (6.09%) Power Platform
10 37 (5.78%) AWS Lambda
11 35 (5.47%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 30 (4.69%) OpenShift
13 29 (4.53%) Entra ID
14 26 (4.06%) Amazon S3
14 26 (4.06%) PowerApps
15 25 (3.91%) Amazon EC2
15 25 (3.91%) Azure Monitor
16 24 (3.75%) Amazon ECS
16 24 (3.75%) Azure AKS
16 24 (3.75%) Google Kubernetes Engine
Communications & Networking
1 66 (10.31%) DNS
2 54 (8.44%) Firewall
3 38 (5.94%) TCP/IP
4 36 (5.63%) DHCP
5 25 (3.91%) VSAN
6 24 (3.75%) VPN
7 18 (2.81%) Network Security
8 13 (2.03%) HTTP
9 7 (1.09%) SNMP
10 5 (0.78%) SSH
11 3 (0.47%) HTTPS
11 3 (0.47%) NAS
11 3 (0.47%) SAN
11 3 (0.47%) Software-Defined Networking
11 3 (0.47%) SSL
11 3 (0.47%) WAN
12 2 (0.31%) Internet
12 2 (0.31%) Intrusion Detection
12 2 (0.31%) LAN
12 2 (0.31%) Multicast
Database & Business Intelligence
1 36 (5.63%) PostgreSQL
2 26 (4.06%) SQL Server
3 16 (2.50%) Power BI
4 15 (2.34%) Data Warehouse
5 14 (2.19%) MySQL
6 13 (2.03%) DynamoDB
7 11 (1.72%) Relational Database
8 9 (1.41%) Amazon Redshift
9 8 (1.25%) Big Data
9 8 (1.25%) Oracle Exadata
10 7 (1.09%) Data Lake
11 6 (0.94%) Ataccama
11 6 (0.94%) BigQuery
11 6 (0.94%) Neo4j
11 6 (0.94%) NoSQL
11 6 (0.94%) Tableau
12 5 (0.78%) Azure SQL Database
13 4 (0.63%) Amazon RDS
13 4 (0.63%) MongoDB
13 4 (0.63%) Redis
Development Applications
1 83 (12.97%) Jenkins
2 62 (9.69%) Git
3 59 (9.22%) GitLab
4 37 (5.78%) JIRA
5 21 (3.28%) Bitbucket
6 8 (1.25%) Claude Code
6 8 (1.25%) Maven
6 8 (1.25%) SonarQube
7 7 (1.09%) Gatling
7 7 (1.09%) Sonatype Nexus
8 6 (0.94%) Artifactory
9 4 (0.63%) MSBuild
9 4 (0.63%) Visual Studio
10 3 (0.47%) JUnit
10 3 (0.47%) Mockito
10 3 (0.47%) Selenium
11 2 (0.31%) Atlassian Bamboo
11 2 (0.31%) Introscope
11 2 (0.31%) Jaeger
11 2 (0.31%) Terragrunt
General
1 123 (19.22%) Social Skills
2 96 (15.00%) Finance
3 72 (11.25%) Public Sector
4 32 (5.00%) Banking
5 29 (4.53%) Analytical Skills
5 29 (4.53%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 19 (2.97%) Aerospace
7 15 (2.34%) Telecoms
8 14 (2.19%) Documentation Skills
9 8 (1.25%) Billing
9 8 (1.25%) Influencing Skills
9 8 (1.25%) Military
10 6 (0.94%) Investment Banking
10 6 (0.94%) Retail
11 5 (0.78%) Law
11 5 (0.78%) Local Government
12 4 (0.63%) Financial Institution
12 4 (0.63%) Health Technology
12 4 (0.63%) Police
13 3 (0.47%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 260 (40.63%) Platform Engineer
2 124 (19.38%) Senior
3 100 (15.63%) DevOps Engineer
4 90 (14.06%) Cloud Platform Engineer
5 75 (11.72%) Cloud Engineer
6 61 (9.53%) Senior Platform Engineer
7 59 (9.22%) Data Engineer
8 51 (7.97%) Azure Engineer
9 45 (7.03%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 39 (6.09%) Architect
10 39 (6.09%) AWS Engineer
10 39 (6.09%) Lead
11 38 (5.94%) Developer
12 30 (4.69%) Azure Platform Engineer
13 28 (4.38%) DevOps Platform Engineer
14 27 (4.22%) Principal Engineer
15 26 (4.06%) GCP Engineer
16 24 (3.75%) Senior Data Engineer
16 24 (3.75%) Site Reliability Engineer
17 23 (3.59%) Senior DevOps
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 307 (47.97%) Terraform
2 44 (6.88%) Kafka
3 23 (3.59%) ARM Templates
3 23 (3.59%) JSON
4 22 (3.44%) REST
5 18 (2.81%) OpenTelemetry
6 17 (2.66%) AWS CDK
7 16 (2.50%) .NET
7 16 (2.50%) OAuth
8 15 (2.34%) OAuth2
9 14 (2.19%) YAML
10 13 (2.03%) React
10 13 (2.03%) Spring Boot
11 12 (1.88%) Node.js
11 12 (1.88%) OpenID
12 10 (1.56%) SAML
12 10 (1.56%) Spring
13 8 (1.25%) Playwright
14 7 (1.09%) RESTful
15 6 (0.94%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 132 (20.63%) Cloud Native
2 53 (8.28%) Product Ownership
3 38 (5.94%) Hybrid Cloud
4 35 (5.47%) Distributed Systems
5 29 (4.53%) Onboarding
6 26 (4.06%) PKI
7 25 (3.91%) Data Protection Act
8 24 (3.75%) Data Centre
9 19 (2.97%) Enterprise Cloud
9 19 (2.97%) Enterprise Software
9 19 (2.97%) Private Cloud
10 14 (2.19%) Linux Command Line
11 13 (2.03%) Public Cloud
12 12 (1.88%) AI Agents
13 11 (1.72%) NHS
14 10 (1.56%) Management Information System
15 7 (1.09%) Low-Code
15 7 (1.09%) Self-Motivation
16 6 (0.94%) ARM Cortex
16 6 (0.94%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 134 (20.94%) Linux
2 64 (10.00%) Windows
3 26 (4.06%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 23 (3.59%) Windows Server
5 16 (2.50%) Unix
6 11 (1.72%) VMS
7 5 (0.78%) Ubuntu
8 2 (0.31%) CentOS
8 2 (0.31%) Data ONTAP
8 2 (0.31%) Debian
8 2 (0.31%) Oracle Linux
8 2 (0.31%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
8 2 (0.31%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.16%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 353 (55.16%) CI/CD
2 332 (51.88%) DevOps
3 293 (45.78%) Infrastructure as Code
4 185 (28.91%) Observability
5 136 (21.25%) Agile
6 129 (20.16%) Containerisation
7 119 (18.59%) Continuous Improvement
8 109 (17.03%) DevSecOps
9 107 (16.72%) Technical Leadership
10 101 (15.78%) Site Reliability Engineering
11 92 (14.38%) AI
12 87 (13.59%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 75 (11.72%) Migration
14 73 (11.41%) Problem-Solving
15 72 (11.25%) Software Engineering
16 63 (9.84%) Infrastructure Automation
17 60 (9.38%) Test Automation
18 59 (9.22%) Roadmaps
19 58 (9.06%) Cybersecurity
19 58 (9.06%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 239 (37.34%) Python
2 107 (16.72%) Bash
3 103 (16.09%) PowerShell
4 67 (10.47%) Java
5 45 (7.03%) Bicep
6 43 (6.72%) SQL
7 26 (4.06%) C#
8 20 (3.13%) Go
9 16 (2.50%) JavaScript
10 11 (1.72%) TypeScript
11 8 (1.25%) Scala
11 8 (1.25%) Shell Script
12 7 (1.09%) Groovy
13 5 (0.78%) Perl
14 3 (0.47%) C++
14 3 (0.47%) Kusto Query Language
15 2 (0.31%) Jython
15 2 (0.31%) PHP
15 2 (0.31%) VBScript
16 1 (0.16%) Ada
Qualifications
1 201 (31.41%) Security Cleared
2 148 (23.13%) SC Cleared
3 55 (8.59%) DV Cleared
4 24 (3.75%) AWS Certification
5 23 (3.59%) Azure Certification
6 22 (3.44%) BPSS Clearance
7 20 (3.13%) Degree
8 18 (2.81%) Microsoft Certification
9 13 (2.03%) Computer Science Degree
10 12 (1.88%) VCAP
11 11 (1.72%) SAFe Agilist
12 10 (1.56%) CISSP
13 9 (1.41%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
14 7 (1.09%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
15 6 (0.94%) RHCE
16 5 (0.78%) Cisco Certification
17 4 (0.63%) (ISC)2 CCSP
17 4 (0.63%) CompTIA Security+
18 3 (0.47%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
18 3 (0.47%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (3.28%) QA
2 16 (2.50%) Accessibility
3 14 (2.19%) Data Quality
4 11 (1.72%) NCSC
5 7 (1.09%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 7 (1.09%) NIST
6 6 (0.94%) GDPR
6 6 (0.94%) GRC
7 4 (0.63%) Cyber Essentials
7 4 (0.63%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 3 (0.47%) Disclosure Scotland
8 3 (0.47%) PCI DSS
9 2 (0.31%) GxP
9 2 (0.31%) SLA
9 2 (0.31%) WCAG
10 1 (0.16%) HL7
10 1 (0.16%) JSP 440
System Software
1 111 (17.34%) Docker
2 57 (8.91%) VMware Infrastructure
3 43 (6.72%) Active Directory
4 33 (5.16%) vSphere
5 25 (3.91%) VMware NSX
6 22 (3.44%) Hyper-V
7 15 (2.34%) Virtual Machines
8 12 (1.88%) VMware ESXi
9 4 (0.63%) Virtual Servers
10 2 (0.31%) EMC RecoverPoint
10 2 (0.31%) Firmware
10 2 (0.31%) NFS
10 2 (0.31%) Squid
10 2 (0.31%) SRDF
11 1 (0.16%) Ceph
11 1 (0.16%) zsh
Systems Management
1 248 (38.75%) Kubernetes
2 113 (17.66%) Ansible
3 39 (6.09%) Grafana
4 37 (5.78%) Prometheus
5 33 (5.16%) Argo
6 20 (3.13%) Istio
7 14 (2.19%) VxRail
8 10 (1.56%) Kustomize
9 8 (1.25%) vCenter Server
10 7 (1.09%) Microsoft Intune
10 7 (1.09%) Puppet
10 7 (1.09%) SCCM
11 6 (0.94%) HAProxy
11 6 (0.94%) Packer
12 5 (0.78%) PowerCLI
12 5 (0.78%) Progress Chef
13 4 (0.63%) Podman
14 3 (0.47%) Check_MK
14 3 (0.47%) NetBackup
14 3 (0.47%) Rancher
Vendors
1 100 (15.63%) Microsoft
2 64 (10.00%) VMware
3 56 (8.75%) Google
4 28 (4.38%) Red Hat
5 25 (3.91%) Splunk
6 23 (3.59%) Oracle
7 19 (2.97%) Databricks
8 17 (2.66%) Dynatrace
9 16 (2.50%) ServiceNow
10 14 (2.19%) CyberArk
11 9 (1.41%) Salesforce
12 7 (1.09%) CrowdStrike
13 6 (0.94%) ForgeRock
14 5 (0.78%) Cisco
14 5 (0.78%) Cribl.io
14 5 (0.78%) NetApp
14 5 (0.78%) PagerDuty
15 4 (0.63%) IBM
15 4 (0.63%) SAP
15 4 (0.63%) Sonatype