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 13 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
13 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 102 201 271
Rank change year-on-year +99 +70 +13
Contract jobs citing Platform Engineering 694 196 91
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 2.45% 1.24% 0.53%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.02% 1.39% 0.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 419 141 63
10th Percentile £392 £410 £409
25th Percentile £425 £463 £464
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year - - -12.50%
75th Percentile £600 £605 £575
90th Percentile £700 £700 £683
UK median daily rate £550 £525 £575
% change year-on-year +4.76% -8.70% -4.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 30 0 1
10th Percentile £70.65 - -
25th Percentile £72.56 - £59.39
Median hourly rate £84.25 - £63.79
75th Percentile £99.71 - £68.18
90th Percentile £100.00 - -
UK median hourly rate £77.50 - £59.39
% change year-on-year - - -23.86%

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 22,970 14,074 14,421
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 81.14% 89.10% 83.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 12,728 8,467 8,151
10th Percentile £300 £225 £243
25th Percentile £408 £368 £379
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 £671 £688
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,911 1,546 1,014
10th Percentile £13.48 £14.04 £15.00
25th Percentile £16.59 £17.14 £18.24
Median hourly rate £37.50 £22.27 £40.33
Median % change year-on-year +68.43% -44.79% -7.83%
75th Percentile £65.74 £39.37 £66.00
90th Percentile £77.50 £65.63 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £37.50 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +49.11% -37.13% -10.11%

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 13 October 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 13 October 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 13 October 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 +67 211 £513 +2.50% 248
South East +16 137 £580 +22.11% 193
Yorkshire +66 132 £511 -2.67% 88
Midlands +13 123 £456 -12.31% 81
South West +27 91 £550 -8.33% 105
West Midlands -17 87 £456 -11.46% 42
Scotland +25 86 £450 -17.43% 109
North West -11 66 £550 +22.91% 128
East Midlands +23 35 £425 -39.29% 39
East of England -1 35 £525 - 64
North East -31 13 £425 -5.56% 32
Wales - 11 £325 - 20
Northern Ireland - 3 £600 - 36
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 15 (2.16%) SharePoint
2 13 (1.87%) Confluence
3 8 (1.15%) Apache
4 5 (0.72%) Apache Airflow
4 5 (0.72%) Apache Spark
5 4 (0.58%) Microsoft Exchange
6 3 (0.43%) OpenStack
6 3 (0.43%) Palantir Foundry
7 2 (0.29%) Apache Superset
7 2 (0.29%) Tomcat
8 1 (0.14%) nginx
8 1 (0.14%) Oracle Coherence
8 1 (0.14%) SAS
8 1 (0.14%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 1 (0.14%) MS Visio
1 1 (0.14%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 13 (1.87%) Dynamics CRM
2 4 (0.58%) NetSuite
2 4 (0.58%) Sage X3
3 1 (0.14%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 306 (44.09%) Azure
2 284 (40.92%) AWS
3 124 (17.87%) GCP
4 108 (15.56%) GitHub
5 84 (12.10%) Azure DevOps
6 73 (10.52%) GitHub Actions
7 59 (8.50%) Serverless
8 43 (6.20%) Power Platform
9 41 (5.91%) Entra ID
10 39 (5.62%) Azure Monitor
10 39 (5.62%) OpenShift
11 33 (4.76%) Amazon EKS
12 32 (4.61%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 32 (4.61%) AWS Lambda
13 30 (4.32%) PowerApps
14 29 (4.18%) Power Automate
15 25 (3.60%) Azure AKS
16 22 (3.17%) Amazon S3
16 22 (3.17%) Google Kubernetes Engine
17 21 (3.03%) Amazon ECS
Communications & Networking
1 74 (10.66%) DNS
2 57 (8.21%) Firewall
3 41 (5.91%) DHCP
4 40 (5.76%) TCP/IP
5 28 (4.03%) VPN
6 22 (3.17%) Network Security
7 21 (3.03%) VSAN
8 12 (1.73%) HTTP
9 7 (1.01%) SSH
10 5 (0.72%) SNMP
11 3 (0.43%) HTTPS
11 3 (0.43%) Software-Defined Networking
11 3 (0.43%) WAN
12 2 (0.29%) Internet
12 2 (0.29%) Intrusion Detection
12 2 (0.29%) LAN
12 2 (0.29%) Multicast
12 2 (0.29%) NAS
12 2 (0.29%) SAN
12 2 (0.29%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (4.18%) PostgreSQL
2 26 (3.75%) SQL Server
3 13 (1.87%) Data Warehouse
3 13 (1.87%) DynamoDB
3 13 (1.87%) MySQL
4 11 (1.59%) Power BI
5 9 (1.30%) BigQuery
5 9 (1.30%) Data Lake
6 8 (1.15%) Amazon Redshift
6 8 (1.15%) Big Data
6 8 (1.15%) Oracle Exadata
7 7 (1.01%) Neo4j
7 7 (1.01%) NoSQL
7 7 (1.01%) Relational Database
8 6 (0.86%) Ataccama
8 6 (0.86%) Metadata
9 4 (0.58%) Amazon RDS
9 4 (0.58%) Azure SQL Database
9 4 (0.58%) Delta Lake
9 4 (0.58%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 81 (11.67%) Jenkins
2 68 (9.80%) GitLab
3 65 (9.37%) Git
4 22 (3.17%) JIRA
5 16 (2.31%) Bitbucket
6 9 (1.30%) Claude Code
7 5 (0.72%) Maven
7 5 (0.72%) SonarQube
7 5 (0.72%) Sonatype Nexus
8 4 (0.58%) Artifactory
8 4 (0.58%) Gatling
8 4 (0.58%) MSBuild
8 4 (0.58%) Visual Studio
9 3 (0.43%) JUnit
9 3 (0.43%) Mockito
9 3 (0.43%) Selenium
10 2 (0.29%) Atlassian Bamboo
11 1 (0.14%) Gerrit
11 1 (0.14%) NeoLoad
11 1 (0.14%) Octopus Deploy
General
1 138 (19.88%) Social Skills
2 102 (14.70%) Finance
3 80 (11.53%) Public Sector
4 37 (5.33%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 33 (4.76%) Banking
6 29 (4.18%) Analytical Skills
7 25 (3.60%) Aerospace
8 16 (2.31%) Documentation Skills
9 14 (2.02%) Telecoms
10 9 (1.30%) Billing
10 9 (1.30%) Influencing Skills
10 9 (1.30%) Investment Banking
10 9 (1.30%) Military
11 6 (0.86%) Retail
12 5 (0.72%) Law
12 5 (0.72%) Local Government
13 4 (0.58%) Automotive
13 4 (0.58%) Manufacturing
13 4 (0.58%) Police
13 4 (0.58%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 260 (37.46%) Platform Engineer
2 134 (19.31%) Senior
3 104 (14.99%) DevOps Engineer
4 94 (13.54%) Cloud Platform Engineer
5 74 (10.66%) Cloud Engineer
6 60 (8.65%) Data Engineer
6 60 (8.65%) Senior Platform Engineer
7 56 (8.07%) Azure Engineer
8 51 (7.35%) Lead
9 49 (7.06%) Developer
9 49 (7.06%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 46 (6.63%) Architect
11 41 (5.91%) AWS Engineer
12 33 (4.76%) Azure Platform Engineer
13 31 (4.47%) DevOps Platform Engineer
14 26 (3.75%) Principal Engineer
15 25 (3.60%) AWS Platform Engineer
15 25 (3.60%) Senior Data Engineer
16 23 (3.31%) Senior Cloud Engineer
17 22 (3.17%) Site Reliability Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 324 (46.69%) Terraform
2 50 (7.20%) Kafka
3 32 (4.61%) ARM Templates
4 27 (3.89%) JSON
5 23 (3.31%) REST
6 20 (2.88%) .NET
7 19 (2.74%) OAuth
8 18 (2.59%) YAML
9 17 (2.45%) OAuth2
10 16 (2.31%) OpenTelemetry
11 15 (2.16%) React
12 14 (2.02%) AWS CDK
12 14 (2.02%) OpenID
13 12 (1.73%) SAML
14 11 (1.59%) Spring Boot
15 10 (1.44%) Node.js
15 10 (1.44%) RESTful
16 8 (1.15%) Spring
16 8 (1.15%) XML
16 8 (1.15%) XSLT
Miscellaneous
1 149 (21.47%) Cloud Native
2 61 (8.79%) Product Ownership
3 50 (7.20%) Distributed Systems
4 44 (6.34%) Onboarding
5 42 (6.05%) Hybrid Cloud
6 38 (5.48%) Data Protection Act
7 31 (4.47%) Private Cloud
8 29 (4.18%) PKI
9 27 (3.89%) Data Centre
10 21 (3.03%) Enterprise Cloud
10 21 (3.03%) Enterprise Software
11 19 (2.74%) Management Information System
12 15 (2.16%) AI Agents
13 14 (2.02%) Linux Command Line
13 14 (2.02%) Public Cloud
14 12 (1.73%) NHS
15 10 (1.44%) ARM Cortex
16 9 (1.30%) Virtual Team
17 8 (1.15%) Low-Code
17 8 (1.15%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 136 (19.60%) Linux
2 73 (10.52%) Windows
3 35 (5.04%) Windows Server
4 25 (3.60%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 10 (1.44%) Unix
5 10 (1.44%) VMS
6 6 (0.86%) Ubuntu
7 3 (0.43%) Windows 10
8 2 (0.29%) CentOS
8 2 (0.29%) Debian
9 1 (0.14%) Data ONTAP
9 1 (0.14%) Rocky
9 1 (0.14%) Windows Server 2016
9 1 (0.14%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 391 (56.34%) CI/CD
2 366 (52.74%) DevOps
3 329 (47.41%) Infrastructure as Code
4 201 (28.96%) Observability
5 141 (20.32%) Containerisation
6 140 (20.17%) Agile
7 136 (19.60%) Continuous Improvement
8 134 (19.31%) Technical Leadership
9 121 (17.44%) DevSecOps
10 110 (15.85%) AI
11 108 (15.56%) Site Reliability Engineering
12 102 (14.70%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 89 (12.82%) Stakeholder Management
14 88 (12.68%) Problem-Solving
15 87 (12.54%) Software Engineering
16 76 (10.95%) Cybersecurity
16 76 (10.95%) Migration
17 72 (10.37%) Infrastructure Automation
17 72 (10.37%) Test Automation
18 71 (10.23%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 257 (37.03%) Python
2 112 (16.14%) Bash
2 112 (16.14%) PowerShell
3 66 (9.51%) Java
4 53 (7.64%) Bicep
5 44 (6.34%) SQL
6 42 (6.05%) C#
7 24 (3.46%) JavaScript
8 22 (3.17%) Go
9 16 (2.31%) TypeScript
10 8 (1.15%) Shell Script
11 7 (1.01%) Groovy
12 6 (0.86%) Perl
12 6 (0.86%) Scala
13 4 (0.58%) C++
13 4 (0.58%) Kusto Query Language
14 2 (0.29%) PHP
14 2 (0.29%) VBScript
15 1 (0.14%) Ada
15 1 (0.14%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 215 (30.98%) Security Cleared
2 148 (21.33%) SC Cleared
3 75 (10.81%) DV Cleared
4 30 (4.32%) AWS Certification
4 30 (4.32%) Azure Certification
5 29 (4.18%) Degree
6 24 (3.46%) Microsoft Certification
7 23 (3.31%) BPSS Clearance
8 12 (1.73%) Computer Science Degree
8 12 (1.73%) VCAP
9 10 (1.44%) CISSP
10 8 (1.15%) SAFe Agilist
11 7 (1.01%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
12 6 (0.86%) RHCE
12 6 (0.86%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 5 (0.72%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 5 (0.72%) PMI Certification
13 5 (0.72%) PMP
14 4 (0.58%) (ISC)2 CCSP
14 4 (0.58%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (3.46%) QA
2 23 (3.31%) Accessibility
3 15 (2.16%) Data Quality
4 14 (2.02%) GDPR
5 12 (1.73%) NCSC
6 8 (1.15%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 8 (1.15%) NIST
6 8 (1.15%) WCAG
7 6 (0.86%) GRC
8 5 (0.72%) Cyber Essentials
9 4 (0.58%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 3 (0.43%) Disclosure Scotland
11 2 (0.29%) GxP
11 2 (0.29%) PCI DSS
11 2 (0.29%) SLA
12 1 (0.14%) HL7
12 1 (0.14%) JSP 440
System Software
1 122 (17.58%) Docker
2 70 (10.09%) VMware Infrastructure
3 55 (7.93%) Active Directory
4 39 (5.62%) vSphere
5 21 (3.03%) Hyper-V
5 21 (3.03%) VMware NSX
6 15 (2.16%) VMware ESXi
7 14 (2.02%) Virtual Machines
8 7 (1.01%) Virtual Servers
9 2 (0.29%) Firmware
9 2 (0.29%) NFS
10 1 (0.14%) EMC RecoverPoint
10 1 (0.14%) etcd
10 1 (0.14%) KVM
10 1 (0.14%) Squid
10 1 (0.14%) SRDF
10 1 (0.14%) Virtual Desktop
10 1 (0.14%) zsh
Systems Management
1 277 (39.91%) Kubernetes
2 120 (17.29%) Ansible
3 38 (5.48%) Grafana
4 33 (4.76%) Prometheus
5 27 (3.89%) Argo
6 15 (2.16%) Microsoft Intune
7 14 (2.02%) VxRail
8 12 (1.73%) Istio
8 12 (1.73%) SCCM
9 11 (1.59%) Kustomize
10 10 (1.44%) vCenter Server
11 6 (0.86%) Packer
12 5 (0.72%) Puppet
13 4 (0.58%) HAProxy
13 4 (0.58%) Podman
14 3 (0.43%) Check_MK
14 3 (0.43%) linkerd
14 3 (0.43%) PowerCLI
14 3 (0.43%) Progress Chef
14 3 (0.43%) Rancher
Vendors
1 134 (19.31%) Microsoft
2 79 (11.38%) VMware
3 63 (9.08%) Google
4 32 (4.61%) Red Hat
5 26 (3.75%) Splunk
6 22 (3.17%) Databricks
7 18 (2.59%) Oracle
8 16 (2.31%) Dynatrace
9 15 (2.16%) CyberArk
10 12 (1.73%) CrowdStrike
10 12 (1.73%) Salesforce
11 8 (1.15%) ServiceNow
12 6 (0.86%) ForgeRock
12 6 (0.86%) OpenAI
12 6 (0.86%) SaltStack
13 5 (0.72%) Cribl.io
13 5 (0.72%) Foundry
13 5 (0.72%) SAP
14 4 (0.58%) NetApp
14 4 (0.58%) Sage