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 22 October 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
22 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 193 267 278
Rank change year-on-year +74 +11 -15
Contract jobs citing Platform Engineering 207 94 143
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 1.28% 0.55% 0.68%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.43% 0.66% 0.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 150 66 105
10th Percentile £409 £410 £464
25th Percentile £463 £468 £513
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £530 £525 £600
Median % change year-on-year +0.95% -12.50% +4.35%
75th Percentile £616 £583 £675
90th Percentile £700 £680 £823
UK median daily rate £537 £575 £600
% change year-on-year -6.61% -4.17% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 1 2
Median hourly rate - £63.79 £78.00
Median % change year-on-year - -18.22% -22.00%
UK median hourly rate - £59.39 £78.00
% change year-on-year - -23.86% -18.86%

All Process and 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 14,457 14,304 18,584
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 89.18% 83.68% 88.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,718 8,119 12,228
10th Percentile £225 £244 £250
25th Percentile £370 £380 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -
75th Percentile £575 £600 £600
90th Percentile £671 £688 £700
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,593 961 1,290
10th Percentile £14.00 £15.00 £14.25
25th Percentile £16.95 £18.40 £17.72
Median hourly rate £22.27 £39.68 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -43.89% -6.64% +57.52%
75th Percentile £38.94 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £65.85 £72.50 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.08 £38.50 £43.17
% change year-on-year -34.87% -10.81% +30.80%

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 22 October 2025.

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
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 22 October 2025. 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
West Midlands +15 54 £531 -11.50% 7
Midlands +7 54 £531 -9.23% 7
North of England -19 48 £500 - 84
South East +45 45 £488 -11.36% 123
North West +10 34 £450 -29.41% 68
Scotland +12 33 £545 +9.00% 8
South West +30 25 £600 +11.11% 25
East of England +7 13 £525 -4.55% 9
Yorkshire -36 11 £525 +6.06% 12
North East - 3 £450 - 4
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 35 (16.91%) Confluence
2 12 (5.80%) nginx
3 10 (4.83%) Apache
4 6 (2.90%) CICS
5 5 (2.42%) OpenStack
5 5 (2.42%) WebLogic
6 4 (1.93%) JBoss
6 4 (1.93%) Microsoft Exchange
6 4 (1.93%) WebSphere
6 4 (1.93%) WebSphere Application Server
7 3 (1.45%) SharePoint
7 3 (1.45%) SharePoint Server
8 2 (0.97%) Apache Airflow
8 2 (0.97%) Apache Spark
8 2 (0.97%) IIS
8 2 (0.97%) iPlanet
9 1 (0.48%) CMS
9 1 (0.48%) Documentum
9 1 (0.48%) Tomcat
Applications
1 12 (5.80%) Mozilla Thunderbird
Business Applications
1 1 (0.48%) Finacle
1 1 (0.48%) Magento
1 1 (0.48%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 92 (44.44%) AWS
2 88 (42.51%) Azure
3 34 (16.43%) Amazon CloudWatch
4 33 (15.94%) OpenShift
5 31 (14.98%) Amazon EC2
5 31 (14.98%) Amazon S3
6 29 (14.01%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 28 (13.53%) GitHub
8 26 (12.56%) AWS KMS
9 25 (12.08%) Amazon ELB
10 24 (11.59%) GCP
11 18 (8.70%) Amazon EKS
12 16 (7.73%) AWS CloudFormation
13 14 (6.76%) Serverless
14 13 (6.28%) Amazon ECS
14 13 (6.28%) Microsoft 365
14 13 (6.28%) Route 53
15 12 (5.80%) Amazon Glacier
15 12 (5.80%) AWS Lambda
15 12 (5.80%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 36 (17.39%) Firewall
2 34 (16.43%) DNS
3 24 (11.59%) SMTP
4 22 (10.63%) FTP
4 22 (10.63%) HTTP
4 22 (10.63%) SSH
5 12 (5.80%) IMAP
5 12 (5.80%) OpenLDAP
6 3 (1.45%) Skype
6 3 (1.45%) TCP/IP
7 2 (0.97%) Calico
7 2 (0.97%) IPsec
7 2 (0.97%) Kerberos
7 2 (0.97%) SD-WAN
8 1 (0.48%) BIG-IP
8 1 (0.48%) DHCP
8 1 (0.48%) DMZ
8 1 (0.48%) Internet
8 1 (0.48%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (16.91%) Amazon RDS
2 19 (9.18%) PostgreSQL
3 13 (6.28%) Amazon Aurora
4 9 (4.35%) NoSQL
4 9 (4.35%) Redis
5 6 (2.90%) Amazon Redshift
5 6 (2.90%) Couchbase
5 6 (2.90%) SQL Server
6 3 (1.45%) Big Data
7 2 (0.97%) Data Lake
7 2 (0.97%) Elasticsearch
7 2 (0.97%) MongoDB
7 2 (0.97%) Oracle Database
7 2 (0.97%) Power BI
7 2 (0.97%) Relational Database
8 1 (0.48%) BusinessObjects
8 1 (0.48%) MySQL
8 1 (0.48%) RDBMS
8 1 (0.48%) SAP Data Services
8 1 (0.48%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 75 (36.23%) Jenkins
2 45 (21.74%) Git
3 39 (18.84%) JIRA
4 24 (11.59%) Vagrant
5 23 (11.11%) GitLab
6 12 (5.80%) SonarQube
7 4 (1.93%) Terragrunt
8 3 (1.45%) Bitbucket Server
8 3 (1.45%) CA Release Automation
8 3 (1.45%) Selenium
9 2 (0.97%) Maven
9 2 (0.97%) Sonatype Nexus
10 1 (0.48%) Appium
10 1 (0.48%) Artifactory
10 1 (0.48%) Cypress.io
10 1 (0.48%) Postman
10 1 (0.48%) Pylint
10 1 (0.48%) Snyk
10 1 (0.48%) TeamCity
10 1 (0.48%) TestRail
General
1 53 (25.60%) Social Skills
2 36 (17.39%) Public Sector
3 22 (10.63%) Finance
4 15 (7.25%) Banking
5 10 (4.83%) Presentation Skills
6 7 (3.38%) Analytical Skills
7 6 (2.90%) Documentation Skills
7 6 (2.90%) Legal
7 6 (2.90%) Retail
8 4 (1.93%) Games
8 4 (1.93%) Retail Banking
9 2 (0.97%) Aerospace
10 1 (0.48%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 1 (0.48%) Tech for Good
10 1 (0.48%) Wholesale Banking
Job Titles
1 127 (61.35%) Platform Engineer
2 44 (21.26%) DevOps Engineer
3 41 (19.81%) Cloud Platform Engineer
4 31 (14.98%) AWS Engineer
5 21 (10.14%) AWS DevOps
6 20 (9.66%) AWS DevOps Engineer
6 20 (9.66%) AWS Platform Engineer
7 14 (6.76%) Azure Engineer
7 14 (6.76%) DevOps Platform Engineer
8 10 (4.83%) Azure Platform Engineer
8 10 (4.83%) Data Engineer
8 10 (4.83%) DevSecOps Engineer
9 9 (4.35%) Python Engineer
9 9 (4.35%) Senior
10 7 (3.38%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
10 7 (3.38%) Kubernetes Engineer
10 7 (3.38%) Lead
11 6 (2.90%) Cloud Engineer
11 6 (2.90%) Implementation Specialist
11 6 (2.90%) Senior Platform Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (9.18%) YAML
2 16 (7.73%) Kafka
3 15 (7.25%) Middleware
4 14 (6.76%) LDAP
5 13 (6.28%) Elastic Stack
6 12 (5.80%) React
7 8 (3.86%) FastAPI
8 6 (2.90%) ISPF
8 6 (2.90%) Keycloak
8 6 (2.90%) OAuth
9 5 (2.42%) Node.js
9 5 (2.42%) RESTful
10 4 (1.93%) LangChain
10 4 (1.93%) LangGraph
10 4 (1.93%) OAuth2
10 4 (1.93%) Oracle Fusion
10 4 (1.93%) REST
10 4 (1.93%) Spring Boot
11 3 (1.45%) Flask
11 3 (1.45%) OpenID
Miscellaneous
1 30 (14.49%) Replication
2 18 (8.70%) Private Cloud
3 14 (6.76%) Onboarding
4 12 (5.80%) Cloud Native
5 9 (4.35%) Distributed Systems
6 7 (3.38%) Legacy Systems
7 6 (2.90%) Data Centre
7 6 (2.90%) Mainframe
7 6 (2.90%) PKI
7 6 (2.90%) VSAM
8 5 (2.42%) Data Protection Act
8 5 (2.42%) IBM Mainframe
9 4 (1.93%) Hybrid Cloud
9 4 (1.93%) Management Information System
9 4 (1.93%) Public Cloud
9 4 (1.93%) Virtual Team
10 2 (0.97%) Distributed Architecture
10 2 (0.97%) Low-Code
10 2 (0.97%) SCADA
10 2 (0.97%) Shadow IT
Operating Systems
1 81 (39.13%) Linux
2 60 (28.99%) Windows
3 27 (13.04%) VMS
4 24 (11.59%) Amazon Linux
5 17 (8.21%) Unix
6 10 (4.83%) Ubuntu
7 9 (4.35%) Windows 10
8 6 (2.90%) Windows Server
8 6 (2.90%) zOS
9 5 (2.42%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 3 (1.45%) Windows Server 2016
11 2 (0.97%) Android
11 2 (0.97%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 111 (53.62%) DevOps
2 109 (52.66%) CI/CD
3 85 (41.06%) Infrastructure as Code
4 48 (23.19%) Configuration Management
5 42 (20.29%) Containerisation
6 41 (19.81%) Migration
7 39 (18.84%) Observability
8 38 (18.36%) Agile
9 29 (14.01%) Cloud Security
9 29 (14.01%) Problem-Solving
10 28 (13.53%) Patch Management
11 27 (13.04%) Change Management
12 25 (12.08%) Performance Tuning
13 22 (10.63%) Continuous Improvement
13 22 (10.63%) Site Reliability Engineering
14 21 (10.14%) High Availability
15 18 (8.70%) Test Automation
16 17 (8.21%) AI
17 16 (7.73%) Incident Response
17 16 (7.73%) Infrastructure Automation
Programming Languages
1 98 (47.34%) Python
2 47 (22.71%) PowerShell
3 41 (19.81%) SQL
4 35 (16.91%) Java
5 27 (13.04%) Groovy
6 20 (9.66%) Bash
7 18 (8.70%) JavaScript
7 18 (8.70%) Perl
8 12 (5.80%) C#
9 8 (3.86%) Shell Script
10 6 (2.90%) CLIST
10 6 (2.90%) Go
10 6 (2.90%) JCL
10 6 (2.90%) REXX
11 4 (1.93%) Erlang
11 4 (1.93%) Prolog
12 2 (0.97%) Apex Code
12 2 (0.97%) Bicep
12 2 (0.97%) SOQL
13 1 (0.48%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 87 (42.03%) Security Cleared
2 76 (36.71%) SC Cleared
3 19 (9.18%) DV Cleared
4 16 (7.73%) AWS Certification
5 12 (5.80%) Degree
6 11 (5.31%) Azure Certification
7 5 (2.42%) BPSS Clearance
8 2 (0.97%) Computer Science Degree
8 2 (0.97%) ISTQB
9 1 (0.48%) CCNA
9 1 (0.48%) Cisco Certification
9 1 (0.48%) Master's Degree
9 1 (0.48%) Microsoft Certification
9 1 (0.48%) Server+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (5.31%) NCSC
2 6 (2.90%) COBIT
3 2 (0.97%) Data Quality
3 2 (0.97%) GDPR
3 2 (0.97%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 2 (0.97%) NIST
3 2 (0.97%) QA
4 1 (0.48%) Accessibility
4 1 (0.48%) Cyber Essentials
4 1 (0.48%) Disclosure Scotland
4 1 (0.48%) ISO 9001
4 1 (0.48%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 58 (28.02%) Docker
2 32 (15.46%) Active Directory
3 22 (10.63%) DFS Replication
4 20 (9.66%) VMware Infrastructure
5 12 (5.80%) Dovecot
5 12 (5.80%) Postfix
5 12 (5.80%) Squid
6 8 (3.86%) Virtual Machines
7 6 (2.90%) Time Sharing Option
8 4 (1.93%) vSphere
9 3 (1.45%) VMware NSX
10 1 (0.48%) GPFS
10 1 (0.48%) Tivoli Directory Server
10 1 (0.48%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 107 (51.69%) Terraform
2 73 (35.27%) Kubernetes
3 48 (23.19%) Grafana
3 48 (23.19%) Prometheus
4 39 (18.84%) Ansible
5 12 (5.80%) Nessus
6 11 (5.31%) Proxmox
7 9 (4.35%) vCenter Server
8 8 (3.86%) Argo
9 7 (3.38%) Istio
10 6 (2.90%) OMEGAMON
10 6 (2.90%) Packer
11 5 (2.42%) CA Endevor
12 4 (1.93%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 4 (1.93%) Kibana
13 3 (1.45%) Progress Chef
13 3 (1.45%) WSUS
14 2 (0.97%) CA Single Sign-On
14 2 (0.97%) CA Wily
14 2 (0.97%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 29 (14.01%) Microsoft
2 27 (13.04%) ServiceNow
3 24 (11.59%) Red Hat
4 22 (10.63%) Oracle
4 22 (10.63%) VMware
5 21 (10.14%) Dynatrace
6 20 (9.66%) IBM
7 18 (8.70%) Splunk
8 15 (7.25%) Cisco
9 12 (5.80%) AppDynamics
9 12 (5.80%) Jaspersoft
10 11 (5.31%) F5
11 7 (3.38%) CheckPoint
11 7 (3.38%) Dell
11 7 (3.38%) HP
12 6 (2.90%) Confluent
12 6 (2.90%) Databricks
13 4 (1.93%) Palo Alto
13 4 (1.93%) Veeam
14 3 (1.45%) SolarWinds