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

6 months to
29 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 101 201 288
Rank change year-on-year +100 +87 -10
Contract jobs citing Platform Engineering 676 183 87
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 2.40% 1.19% 0.50%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.97% 1.33% 0.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 401 127 61
10th Percentile £381 £401 £413
25th Percentile £425 £450 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £519 £525 £520
Median % change year-on-year -1.14% +0.96% -13.33%
75th Percentile £588 £609 £575
90th Percentile £688 £693 £685
UK median daily rate £550 £525 £575
% change year-on-year +4.76% -8.70% -4.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 32 0 0
10th Percentile £67.85 - -
25th Percentile £72.23 - -
Median hourly rate £82.96 - -
75th Percentile £99.12 - -
90th Percentile £100.00 - -
UK median hourly rate £77.50 - £55.00
% change year-on-year - - -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 22,781 13,778 14,585
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 80.76% 89.38% 83.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 12,818 8,289 8,239
10th Percentile £300 £226 £239
25th Percentile £409 £364 £381
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £600 £575 £600
90th Percentile £688 £669 £688
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,763 1,495 1,114
10th Percentile £13.50 £14.10 £14.89
25th Percentile £16.75 £17.21 £18.15
Median hourly rate £40.00 £22.32 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +79.25% -48.10% +1.18%
75th Percentile £66.13 £40.75 £66.61
90th Percentile £77.50 £67.00 £74.31
UK median hourly rate £39.75 £25.15 £42.50
% change year-on-year +58.05% -40.82% -1.16%

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 29 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 29 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 29 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 +62 214 £513 +13.89% 231
Yorkshire +64 131 £500 -5.88% 71
South East +10 127 £575 +17.95% 163
Midlands +15 124 £453 -10.74% 82
South West +22 87 £550 -8.33% 132
West Midlands -11 87 £450 -10.00% 45
Scotland +22 86 £450 -15.89% 98
North West -4 71 £550 +23.60% 136
East Midlands +18 36 £456 -34.82% 37
East of England -5 32 £525 -10.26% 54
North East -29 14 £425 -5.56% 24
Wales - 9 £325 - 15
Northern Ireland - 2 - - 34
Channel Islands - 1 - -
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 14 (2.07%) Confluence
1 14 (2.07%) SharePoint
2 8 (1.18%) Apache
3 7 (1.04%) Apache Airflow
4 6 (0.89%) Apache Spark
5 3 (0.44%) Microsoft Exchange
5 3 (0.44%) OpenStack
5 3 (0.44%) Palantir Foundry
6 2 (0.30%) Apache Superset
6 2 (0.30%) Tomcat
7 1 (0.15%) nginx
7 1 (0.15%) Oracle Coherence
7 1 (0.15%) SAS
7 1 (0.15%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 1 (0.15%) MS Visio
1 1 (0.15%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 16 (2.37%) Dynamics CRM
2 4 (0.59%) NetSuite
2 4 (0.59%) Sage X3
3 2 (0.30%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 291 (43.05%) Azure
2 289 (42.75%) AWS
3 121 (17.90%) GCP
4 108 (15.98%) GitHub
5 86 (12.72%) Azure DevOps
6 76 (11.24%) GitHub Actions
7 57 (8.43%) Serverless
8 43 (6.36%) Power Platform
9 38 (5.62%) OpenShift
10 37 (5.47%) Amazon EKS
11 33 (4.88%) Entra ID
12 31 (4.59%) AWS Lambda
12 31 (4.59%) Azure Monitor
13 30 (4.44%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 29 (4.29%) PowerApps
15 28 (4.14%) Power Automate
16 24 (3.55%) Azure AKS
17 23 (3.40%) Google Kubernetes Engine
18 21 (3.11%) Amazon ECS
18 21 (3.11%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 65 (9.62%) DNS
2 50 (7.40%) Firewall
3 36 (5.33%) DHCP
3 36 (5.33%) TCP/IP
4 25 (3.70%) VPN
5 21 (3.11%) VSAN
6 18 (2.66%) Network Security
7 12 (1.78%) HTTP
8 5 (0.74%) SNMP
8 5 (0.74%) SSH
9 3 (0.44%) HTTPS
9 3 (0.44%) NAS
9 3 (0.44%) SAN
9 3 (0.44%) Software-Defined Networking
9 3 (0.44%) WAN
10 2 (0.30%) Internet
10 2 (0.30%) Intrusion Detection
10 2 (0.30%) LAN
10 2 (0.30%) Multicast
10 2 (0.30%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 31 (4.59%) PostgreSQL
2 28 (4.14%) SQL Server
3 14 (2.07%) Data Warehouse
3 14 (2.07%) MySQL
4 13 (1.92%) DynamoDB
5 11 (1.63%) Power BI
6 9 (1.33%) Big Data
6 9 (1.33%) Relational Database
7 8 (1.18%) BigQuery
7 8 (1.18%) Data Lake
7 8 (1.18%) Oracle Exadata
8 7 (1.04%) Amazon Redshift
8 7 (1.04%) Neo4j
8 7 (1.04%) NoSQL
9 6 (0.89%) Ataccama
9 6 (0.89%) Metadata
10 5 (0.74%) Azure SQL Database
10 5 (0.74%) Delta Lake
11 4 (0.59%) MongoDB
11 4 (0.59%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 75 (11.09%) Jenkins
2 65 (9.62%) GitLab
3 62 (9.17%) Git
4 26 (3.85%) JIRA
5 16 (2.37%) Bitbucket
6 8 (1.18%) Claude Code
7 6 (0.89%) SonarQube
8 5 (0.74%) Maven
9 4 (0.59%) Artifactory
9 4 (0.59%) Gatling
9 4 (0.59%) MSBuild
9 4 (0.59%) Sonatype Nexus
9 4 (0.59%) Visual Studio
10 3 (0.44%) JUnit
10 3 (0.44%) Mockito
10 3 (0.44%) Selenium
11 2 (0.30%) Atlassian Bamboo
12 1 (0.15%) Gerrit
12 1 (0.15%) NeoLoad
12 1 (0.15%) Octopus Deploy
General
1 130 (19.23%) Social Skills
2 105 (15.53%) Finance
3 82 (12.13%) Public Sector
4 37 (5.47%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 34 (5.03%) Banking
6 29 (4.29%) Analytical Skills
7 24 (3.55%) Aerospace
8 15 (2.22%) Documentation Skills
8 15 (2.22%) Telecoms
9 9 (1.33%) Influencing Skills
9 9 (1.33%) Investment Banking
10 8 (1.18%) Billing
10 8 (1.18%) Military
11 6 (0.89%) Retail
12 5 (0.74%) Law
12 5 (0.74%) Local Government
13 4 (0.59%) Financial Institution
13 4 (0.59%) Health Technology
13 4 (0.59%) Police
13 4 (0.59%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 257 (38.02%) Platform Engineer
2 136 (20.12%) Senior
3 107 (15.83%) DevOps Engineer
4 91 (13.46%) Cloud Platform Engineer
5 71 (10.50%) Cloud Engineer
6 64 (9.47%) Senior Platform Engineer
7 60 (8.88%) Data Engineer
8 52 (7.69%) Azure Engineer
9 51 (7.54%) Developer
9 51 (7.54%) Lead
10 48 (7.10%) Architect
11 43 (6.36%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 41 (6.07%) AWS Engineer
13 32 (4.73%) DevOps Platform Engineer
14 31 (4.59%) Azure Platform Engineer
15 26 (3.85%) Principal Engineer
15 26 (3.85%) Senior Data Engineer
16 24 (3.55%) AWS Platform Engineer
16 24 (3.55%) GCP Engineer
17 23 (3.40%) Site Reliability Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 315 (46.60%) Terraform
2 51 (7.54%) Kafka
3 29 (4.29%) JSON
4 26 (3.85%) ARM Templates
5 24 (3.55%) REST
6 18 (2.66%) .NET
7 17 (2.51%) YAML
8 16 (2.37%) OAuth
8 16 (2.37%) OpenTelemetry
9 15 (2.22%) OAuth2
10 14 (2.07%) React
10 14 (2.07%) Spring Boot
11 12 (1.78%) AWS CDK
11 12 (1.78%) OpenID
12 11 (1.63%) Node.js
12 11 (1.63%) SAML
12 11 (1.63%) Spring
13 10 (1.48%) XML
14 8 (1.18%) RESTful
14 8 (1.18%) XSLT
Miscellaneous
1 151 (22.34%) Cloud Native
2 59 (8.73%) Product Ownership
3 48 (7.10%) Distributed Systems
4 39 (5.77%) Onboarding
5 37 (5.47%) Hybrid Cloud
6 32 (4.73%) Data Protection Act
7 30 (4.44%) Private Cloud
8 29 (4.29%) PKI
9 25 (3.70%) Data Centre
10 20 (2.96%) Enterprise Software
11 19 (2.81%) Enterprise Cloud
12 18 (2.66%) Management Information System
13 16 (2.37%) Public Cloud
14 14 (2.07%) Linux Command Line
15 13 (1.92%) NHS
16 12 (1.78%) AI Agents
17 8 (1.18%) Low-Code
17 8 (1.18%) Taxonomies
17 8 (1.18%) Virtual Team
18 7 (1.04%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 128 (18.93%) Linux
2 64 (9.47%) Windows
3 28 (4.14%) Windows Server
4 25 (3.70%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 12 (1.78%) Unix
6 10 (1.48%) VMS
7 6 (0.89%) Ubuntu
8 3 (0.44%) Windows 10
9 2 (0.30%) CentOS
9 2 (0.30%) Data ONTAP
9 2 (0.30%) Debian
10 1 (0.15%) Mac OS
10 1 (0.15%) Rocky
10 1 (0.15%) Windows Server 2016
10 1 (0.15%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 382 (56.51%) CI/CD
2 360 (53.25%) DevOps
3 321 (47.49%) Infrastructure as Code
4 200 (29.59%) Observability
5 142 (21.01%) Agile
6 139 (20.56%) Containerisation
7 137 (20.27%) Technical Leadership
8 130 (19.23%) Continuous Improvement
9 118 (17.46%) DevSecOps
10 108 (15.98%) AI
10 108 (15.98%) Site Reliability Engineering
11 94 (13.91%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 86 (12.72%) Software Engineering
13 83 (12.28%) Problem-Solving
13 83 (12.28%) Stakeholder Management
14 79 (11.69%) Migration
15 74 (10.95%) Roadmaps
16 69 (10.21%) Cybersecurity
17 67 (9.91%) Infrastructure Automation
17 67 (9.91%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 246 (36.39%) Python
2 101 (14.94%) Bash
3 100 (14.79%) PowerShell
4 67 (9.91%) Java
5 46 (6.80%) Bicep
6 43 (6.36%) SQL
7 38 (5.62%) C#
8 24 (3.55%) JavaScript
9 21 (3.11%) Go
10 13 (1.92%) TypeScript
11 7 (1.04%) Groovy
11 7 (1.04%) Shell Script
12 6 (0.89%) Scala
13 4 (0.59%) C++
13 4 (0.59%) Kusto Query Language
13 4 (0.59%) Perl
14 2 (0.30%) PHP
14 2 (0.30%) VBScript
15 1 (0.15%) Ada
15 1 (0.15%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 206 (30.47%) Security Cleared
2 150 (22.19%) SC Cleared
3 63 (9.32%) DV Cleared
4 31 (4.59%) Azure Certification
5 28 (4.14%) AWS Certification
5 28 (4.14%) Degree
6 24 (3.55%) BPSS Clearance
6 24 (3.55%) Microsoft Certification
7 12 (1.78%) Computer Science Degree
7 12 (1.78%) VCAP
8 10 (1.48%) CISSP
9 8 (1.18%) SAFe Agilist
10 7 (1.04%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 6 (0.89%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
11 6 (0.89%) RHCE
12 5 (0.74%) PMI Certification
12 5 (0.74%) PMP
13 4 (0.59%) (ISC)2 CCSP
13 4 (0.59%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 4 (0.59%) Cisco Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (3.55%) QA
2 23 (3.40%) Accessibility
3 15 (2.22%) Data Quality
4 12 (1.78%) NCSC
5 11 (1.63%) GDPR
6 8 (1.18%) WCAG
7 7 (1.04%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 7 (1.04%) NIST
8 5 (0.74%) GRC
9 4 (0.59%) Cyber Essentials
9 4 (0.59%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 3 (0.44%) Disclosure Scotland
11 2 (0.30%) GxP
11 2 (0.30%) PCI DSS
11 2 (0.30%) SLA
12 1 (0.15%) HL7
12 1 (0.15%) JSP 440
System Software
1 115 (17.01%) Docker
2 67 (9.91%) VMware Infrastructure
3 48 (7.10%) Active Directory
4 36 (5.33%) vSphere
5 22 (3.25%) Hyper-V
6 20 (2.96%) VMware NSX
7 15 (2.22%) Virtual Machines
8 12 (1.78%) VMware ESXi
9 5 (0.74%) Virtual Servers
10 2 (0.30%) EMC RecoverPoint
10 2 (0.30%) NFS
10 2 (0.30%) SRDF
11 1 (0.15%) Ceph
11 1 (0.15%) Squid
11 1 (0.15%) Virtual Desktop
11 1 (0.15%) zsh
Systems Management
1 274 (40.53%) Kubernetes
2 111 (16.42%) Ansible
3 39 (5.77%) Grafana
4 34 (5.03%) Prometheus
5 33 (4.88%) Argo
6 15 (2.22%) Istio
7 14 (2.07%) VxRail
8 11 (1.63%) Kustomize
9 9 (1.33%) Microsoft Intune
9 9 (1.33%) vCenter Server
10 7 (1.04%) SCCM
11 6 (0.89%) Packer
12 5 (0.74%) Puppet
13 4 (0.59%) HAProxy
13 4 (0.59%) Podman
13 4 (0.59%) Rancher
14 3 (0.44%) Check_MK
14 3 (0.44%) linkerd
14 3 (0.44%) Progress Chef
15 2 (0.30%) EMC NetWorker
Vendors
1 116 (17.16%) Microsoft
2 76 (11.24%) VMware
3 58 (8.58%) Google
4 28 (4.14%) Red Hat
5 27 (3.99%) Splunk
6 21 (3.11%) Databricks
7 20 (2.96%) Oracle
8 16 (2.37%) Dynatrace
9 14 (2.07%) CyberArk
10 13 (1.92%) ServiceNow
11 11 (1.63%) Salesforce
12 7 (1.04%) CrowdStrike
13 6 (0.89%) ForgeRock
14 5 (0.74%) Cribl.io
14 5 (0.74%) NetApp
14 5 (0.74%) SAP
15 4 (0.59%) Cisco
15 4 (0.59%) OpenAI
15 4 (0.59%) PagerDuty
15 4 (0.59%) Sage