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 16 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 153 254 287
Rank change year-on-year +101 +33 -36
Contract jobs citing Platform Engineering 328 85 124
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 1.65% 0.63% 0.59%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.96% 0.71% 0.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 244 57 81
10th Percentile £402 £411 £433
25th Percentile £434 £463 £465
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £535
Median % change year-on-year - -1.87% -4.89%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £586
90th Percentile £657 £656 £675
UK median daily rate £525 £575 £550
% change year-on-year -8.70% +4.55% -8.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 11 1 1
10th Percentile £59.75 - -
25th Percentile £64.88 £59.39 -
Median hourly rate £74.26 £63.79 £78.00
Median % change year-on-year +16.42% -18.22% -0.95%
75th Percentile £77.13 £68.18 -
90th Percentile £80.00 - -
UK median hourly rate £74.26 £63.79 £60.00
% change year-on-year +16.42% +6.31% -29.41%

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 16,708 11,957 18,087
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 84.03% 89.13% 86.26%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,170 7,113 11,221
10th Percentile £240 £232 £250
25th Percentile £381 £375 £390
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £479 £495 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.23% -1.00% -
75th Percentile £575 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,804 635 1,739
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.46 £13.00
25th Percentile £17.25 £20.12 £15.47
Median hourly rate £25.15 £30.78 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -18.29% -12.06% +7.69%
75th Percentile £60.00 £64.86 £61.25
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £73.75
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £34.00
% change year-on-year -22.62% -4.41% -1.68%

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 16 February 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 16 February 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 16 February 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 +12 116 £518 -5.91% 65
South East +17 67 £519 +3.75% 71
North West +20 63 £550 -4.35% 42
Yorkshire -34 50 £475 -13.64% 13
Midlands -13 45 £542 +14.00% 15
Scotland +34 42 £463 -11.90% 15
West Midlands -6 42 £550 +34.80% 12
South West +10 34 £575 +4.55% 21
East of England +5 30 £475 -32.14% 7
North East - 6 £550 - 11
East Midlands -23 3 £525 +10.53% 3
Wales -1 2 £424 - 9
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 18 (5.49%) Confluence
2 15 (4.57%) Microsoft Exchange
3 10 (3.05%) SharePoint
4 7 (2.13%) Apache Spark
5 6 (1.83%) nginx
6 5 (1.52%) Apache
7 4 (1.22%) OpenStack
8 3 (0.91%) SharePoint Server
9 2 (0.61%) Apache Pulsar
9 2 (0.61%) IIS
9 2 (0.61%) JBoss
9 2 (0.61%) WebLogic
10 1 (0.30%) Apache Airflow
10 1 (0.30%) CICS
10 1 (0.30%) CMS
10 1 (0.30%) Documentum
10 1 (0.30%) iPlanet
10 1 (0.30%) Tuxedo
10 1 (0.30%) WebSphere
10 1 (0.30%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 4 (1.22%) Mozilla Thunderbird
2 3 (0.91%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 1 (0.30%) Payment Gateway
1 1 (0.30%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 120 (36.59%) Azure
2 115 (35.06%) AWS
3 58 (17.68%) GitHub
4 44 (13.41%) GCP
5 33 (10.06%) GitHub Actions
6 30 (9.15%) Entra ID
7 27 (8.23%) Azure DevOps
8 26 (7.93%) AWS CloudFormation
9 25 (7.62%) Serverless
10 24 (7.32%) OpenShift
11 21 (6.40%) Azure AKS
12 20 (6.10%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 17 (5.18%) AWS Lambda
14 16 (4.88%) OCI
15 15 (4.57%) Amazon EC2
15 15 (4.57%) Amazon S3
16 14 (4.27%) Amazon EKS
16 14 (4.27%) Virtual Private Cloud
17 12 (3.66%) SaaS
18 11 (3.35%) Amazon ECS
Communications & Networking
1 42 (12.80%) Firewall
2 32 (9.76%) DNS
3 10 (3.05%) Network Security
3 10 (3.05%) TCP/IP
4 8 (2.44%) DHCP
4 8 (2.44%) WebEx
5 7 (2.13%) BGP
5 7 (2.13%) VLAN
6 6 (1.83%) FTP
6 6 (1.83%) HTTP
6 6 (1.83%) SMTP
6 6 (1.83%) Software-Defined Networking
6 6 (1.83%) SSH
7 5 (1.52%) SAN
8 4 (1.22%) Fibre Channel
8 4 (1.22%) IMAP
8 4 (1.22%) OpenLDAP
9 3 (0.91%) MQTT
9 3 (0.91%) Skype
9 3 (0.91%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 22 (6.71%) PostgreSQL
2 16 (4.88%) Amazon RDS
3 13 (3.96%) NoSQL
4 9 (2.74%) Metadata
5 8 (2.44%) Amazon Redshift
5 8 (2.44%) Big Data
5 8 (2.44%) DynamoDB
5 8 (2.44%) Redis
5 8 (2.44%) SQL Server
6 6 (1.83%) Couchbase
6 6 (1.83%) Data Warehouse
6 6 (1.83%) Hadoop
7 5 (1.52%) Relational Database
8 4 (1.22%) Amazon Aurora
8 4 (1.22%) Data Lake
8 4 (1.22%) Neo4j
9 3 (0.91%) Power BI
10 2 (0.61%) Elasticsearch
10 2 (0.61%) Oracle Database
10 2 (0.61%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 51 (15.55%) Jenkins
2 42 (12.80%) GitLab
3 31 (9.45%) Git
4 28 (8.54%) JIRA
5 10 (3.05%) SonarQube
6 6 (1.83%) Vagrant
7 4 (1.22%) Gatling
7 4 (1.22%) JMeter
7 4 (1.22%) LoadRunner
7 4 (1.22%) NeoLoad
7 4 (1.22%) Postman
8 3 (0.91%) MSI
8 3 (0.91%) Sonatype Nexus
9 2 (0.61%) Bitbucket
9 2 (0.61%) Cucumber
9 2 (0.61%) JUnit
9 2 (0.61%) Maven
9 2 (0.61%) Mockito
9 2 (0.61%) Selenium
9 2 (0.61%) Visual Studio
General
1 62 (18.90%) Social Skills
2 31 (9.45%) Public Sector
3 29 (8.84%) Finance
4 19 (5.79%) Analytical Skills
5 18 (5.49%) Banking
6 15 (4.57%) Legal
7 7 (2.13%) Documentation Skills
8 5 (1.52%) Presentation Skills
9 4 (1.22%) Games
9 4 (1.22%) Retail
9 4 (1.22%) Retail Banking
10 3 (0.91%) Telecoms
11 1 (0.30%) Advertising
11 1 (0.30%) Aerospace
11 1 (0.30%) Electronics
11 1 (0.30%) Financial Institution
11 1 (0.30%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 1 (0.30%) Investment Banking
11 1 (0.30%) Law
11 1 (0.30%) Tech for Good
Job Titles
1 173 (52.74%) Platform Engineer
2 55 (16.77%) Cloud Platform Engineer
3 33 (10.06%) Senior
4 32 (9.76%) DevOps Engineer
5 24 (7.32%) AWS Engineer
5 24 (7.32%) Cloud Engineer
6 22 (6.71%) Lead
7 21 (6.40%) Azure Engineer
8 20 (6.10%) Architect
9 19 (5.79%) Azure Platform Engineer
9 19 (5.79%) Data Engineer
9 19 (5.79%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 17 (5.18%) AWS Platform Engineer
11 16 (4.88%) DevSecOps Engineer
12 12 (3.66%) DevOps Platform Engineer
13 11 (3.35%) Project Manager
14 10 (3.05%) Software Engineer
15 7 (2.13%) AWS DevOps
15 7 (2.13%) AWS DevOps Engineer
15 7 (2.13%) VMware Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (5.49%) Kafka
2 15 (4.57%) YAML
3 13 (3.96%) REST
4 11 (3.35%) Elastic Stack
5 9 (2.74%) LDAP
5 9 (2.74%) OAuth
5 9 (2.74%) OpenID
6 8 (2.44%) Keycloak
6 8 (2.44%) OAuth2
6 8 (2.44%) XMPP
7 7 (2.13%) Node.js
7 7 (2.13%) Oracle Fusion
7 7 (2.13%) React
8 6 (1.83%) Playwright
8 6 (1.83%) Spring
8 6 (1.83%) Spring Boot
9 5 (1.52%) ADO
9 5 (1.52%) Middleware
9 5 (1.52%) OpenAPI
9 5 (1.52%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 32 (9.76%) Cloud Native
2 23 (7.01%) Product Ownership
3 19 (5.79%) PKI
4 17 (5.18%) Onboarding
5 16 (4.88%) Private Cloud
5 16 (4.88%) Replication
6 13 (3.96%) Distributed Systems
7 12 (3.66%) Data Centre
8 10 (3.05%) Public Cloud
9 9 (2.74%) Data Protection Act
9 9 (2.74%) Hybrid Cloud
10 8 (2.44%) NHS
11 6 (1.83%) Legacy Systems
12 5 (1.52%) Security Posture
13 4 (1.22%) NVMe
13 4 (1.22%) Operational Technology
13 4 (1.22%) Virtual Team
14 3 (0.91%) Analytical Mindset
14 3 (0.91%) Management Information System
14 3 (0.91%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 89 (27.13%) Linux
2 72 (21.95%) Windows
3 26 (7.93%) Windows Server
4 20 (6.10%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 13 (3.96%) Unix
6 10 (3.05%) VMS
7 9 (2.74%) Amazon Linux
7 9 (2.74%) Windows 10
8 4 (1.22%) Ubuntu
8 4 (1.22%) Windows Server 2016
9 3 (0.91%) Windows Server 2019
10 2 (0.61%) Solaris
10 2 (0.61%) Windows Server 2012
11 1 (0.30%) CentOS
11 1 (0.30%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 150 (45.73%) CI/CD
2 136 (41.46%) DevOps
3 119 (36.28%) Infrastructure as Code
4 63 (19.21%) Containerisation
5 62 (18.90%) Observability
6 54 (16.46%) Problem-Solving
7 50 (15.24%) Agile
7 50 (15.24%) Continuous Improvement
8 46 (14.02%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 45 (13.72%) Migration
10 36 (10.98%) Software Engineering
11 35 (10.67%) DevSecOps
12 34 (10.37%) Infrastructure Automation
13 31 (9.45%) Cloud Security
14 30 (9.15%) Site Reliability Engineering
15 26 (7.93%) Roadmaps
16 24 (7.32%) Incident Response
16 24 (7.32%) RBAC
16 24 (7.32%) Test Automation
17 23 (7.01%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 122 (37.20%) Python
2 58 (17.68%) Bash
3 52 (15.85%) PowerShell
4 22 (6.71%) Java
5 20 (6.10%) SQL
6 15 (4.57%) Perl
7 14 (4.27%) Bicep
8 10 (3.05%) Groovy
9 8 (2.44%) Shell Script
9 8 (2.44%) TypeScript
10 7 (2.13%) C#
10 7 (2.13%) JavaScript
11 5 (1.52%) Go
12 4 (1.22%) Cypher
12 4 (1.22%) Scala
13 2 (0.61%) Apex Code
13 2 (0.61%) C++
13 2 (0.61%) PHP
13 2 (0.61%) SOQL
14 1 (0.30%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 137 (41.77%) Security Cleared
2 107 (32.62%) SC Cleared
3 28 (8.54%) DV Cleared
4 14 (4.27%) Degree
5 13 (3.96%) AWS Certification
6 10 (3.05%) CCNA
6 10 (3.05%) Cisco Certification
7 9 (2.74%) Azure Certification
7 9 (2.74%) CCDP
7 9 (2.74%) CCNP
8 8 (2.44%) BPSS Clearance
9 5 (1.52%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 3 (0.91%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 3 (0.91%) Computer Science Degree
10 3 (0.91%) CSPO
11 2 (0.61%) NCDA
11 2 (0.61%) VCP6
12 1 (0.30%) Microsoft Certification
12 1 (0.30%) RHCSA
12 1 (0.30%) VCAP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 22 (6.71%) NCSC
2 11 (3.35%) Data Quality
3 9 (2.74%) GDPR
4 5 (1.52%) NIST
4 5 (1.52%) QA
5 4 (1.22%) COBIT
6 3 (0.91%) NIST 800
6 3 (0.91%) PCI DSS
7 2 (0.61%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 2 (0.61%) WCAG
8 1 (0.30%) Cyber Essentials
8 1 (0.30%) Disclosure Scotland
8 1 (0.30%) ISO 20022
8 1 (0.30%) ISO 8583
System Software
1 60 (18.29%) Docker
2 49 (14.94%) VMware Infrastructure
3 44 (13.41%) Active Directory
4 14 (4.27%) Virtual Machines
5 10 (3.05%) vSphere
6 7 (2.13%) VMware NSX
7 6 (1.83%) DFS Replication
8 4 (1.22%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
8 4 (1.22%) Dovecot
8 4 (1.22%) Hyper-V
8 4 (1.22%) Postfix
8 4 (1.22%) Squid
9 3 (0.91%) Virtual Desktop
10 1 (0.30%) GPFS
10 1 (0.30%) KVM
10 1 (0.30%) Time Sharing Option
10 1 (0.30%) Tivoli Directory Server
10 1 (0.30%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 123 (37.50%) Terraform
2 103 (31.40%) Kubernetes
3 56 (17.07%) Ansible
4 45 (13.72%) Grafana
5 34 (10.37%) Prometheus
6 16 (4.88%) Istio
7 12 (3.66%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 11 (3.35%) vCenter Server
9 10 (3.05%) Argo
10 9 (2.74%) Packer
11 7 (2.13%) linkerd
11 7 (2.13%) Proxmox
12 6 (1.83%) Microsoft Intune
13 5 (1.52%) SCCM
13 5 (1.52%) Single Sign-On
14 4 (1.22%) Kibana
14 4 (1.22%) Nessus
14 4 (1.22%) vMotion
15 3 (0.91%) Progress Chef
15 3 (0.91%) vRealize
Vendors
1 61 (18.60%) VMware
2 46 (14.02%) Microsoft
3 30 (9.15%) Splunk
4 27 (8.23%) Cisco
4 27 (8.23%) Red Hat
5 26 (7.93%) Dynatrace
6 20 (6.10%) Oracle
7 16 (4.88%) Citrix
8 15 (4.57%) ServiceNow
9 12 (3.66%) F5
9 12 (3.66%) Google
10 11 (3.35%) IBM
11 8 (2.44%) AppDynamics
11 8 (2.44%) Veeam
12 6 (1.83%) Confluent
13 5 (1.52%) CheckPoint
13 5 (1.52%) Databricks
13 5 (1.52%) Dell
13 5 (1.52%) HP
13 5 (1.52%) PeopleSoft