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 5 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
5 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 185 271 283
Rank change year-on-year +86 +12 -8
Contract jobs citing Platform Engineering 243 91 136
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 1.44% 0.54% 0.66%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.63% 0.65% 0.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 181 65 99
10th Percentile £413 £412 £465
25th Percentile £463 £475 £513
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £535 £525 £583
Median % change year-on-year +1.90% -9.95% +1.39%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £650
90th Percentile £663 £675 £700
UK median daily rate £540 £600 £600
% change year-on-year -10.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 1 2
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £59.75 £59.39 -
Median hourly rate £64.50 £63.79 £78.00
Median % change year-on-year +1.12% -18.22% -22.00%
75th Percentile £71.76 £68.18 -
90th Percentile £73.26 - -
UK median hourly rate £64.50 £63.79 £67.00
% change year-on-year +1.12% -4.80% -33.00%

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 14,926 14,015 18,156
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 88.58% 83.82% 88.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,059 8,008 11,881
10th Percentile £220 £247 £250
25th Percentile £368 £381 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -
75th Percentile £575 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £685 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £535
% change year-on-year -4.76% -1.87% -2.73%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,674 885 1,289
10th Percentile £14.23 £15.00 £14.25
25th Percentile £17.14 £18.13 £17.72
Median hourly rate £22.58 £35.00 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -35.50% -21.35% +51.85%
75th Percentile £41.34 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £67.00 £72.50 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £35.36 £44.50
% change year-on-year -28.87% -20.54% +27.14%

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 5 November 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 5 November 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
North of England -10 74 £525 +2.44% 81
Midlands +26 62 £537 -8.21% 9
West Midlands +26 61 £539 -10.25% 8
North West +11 49 £550 -13.73% 54
South East +33 45 £475 -15.18% 251
Scotland +11 32 £545 +9.00% 14
South West +30 27 £575 +4.55% 32
Yorkshire -37 21 £525 +5.00% 24
East of England -1 14 £525 -4.55% 18
North East - 7 £550 - 3
East Midlands -14 1 £430 -9.47%
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 (14.40%) Confluence
2 12 (4.94%) nginx
3 11 (4.53%) Apache
3 11 (4.53%) Microsoft Exchange
4 9 (3.70%) SharePoint
5 6 (2.47%) CICS
5 6 (2.47%) WebLogic
6 5 (2.06%) OpenStack
7 4 (1.65%) JBoss
7 4 (1.65%) WebSphere
7 4 (1.65%) WebSphere Application Server
8 3 (1.23%) Apache Spark
8 3 (1.23%) SharePoint Server
9 2 (0.82%) Apache Airflow
9 2 (0.82%) IIS
9 2 (0.82%) iPlanet
10 1 (0.41%) CMS
10 1 (0.41%) Documentum
10 1 (0.41%) Tomcat
Applications
1 12 (4.94%) Mozilla Thunderbird
Business Applications
1 1 (0.41%) Finacle
1 1 (0.41%) Magento
1 1 (0.41%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 105 (43.21%) AWS
2 93 (38.27%) Azure
3 37 (15.23%) GitHub
4 35 (14.40%) Amazon CloudWatch
5 34 (13.99%) OpenShift
6 33 (13.58%) Amazon EC2
6 33 (13.58%) Amazon S3
7 31 (12.76%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 26 (10.70%) AWS KMS
9 25 (10.29%) GCP
10 24 (9.88%) Amazon ELB
11 17 (7.00%) Amazon EKS
12 16 (6.58%) Amazon ECS
12 16 (6.58%) AWS CloudFormation
12 16 (6.58%) Entra ID
12 16 (6.58%) Serverless
13 15 (6.17%) Microsoft 365
13 15 (6.17%) Route 53
14 14 (5.76%) AWS Lambda
14 14 (5.76%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 46 (18.93%) Firewall
2 38 (15.64%) DNS
3 24 (9.88%) SMTP
4 22 (9.05%) FTP
4 22 (9.05%) HTTP
4 22 (9.05%) SSH
5 12 (4.94%) IMAP
5 12 (4.94%) OpenLDAP
6 6 (2.47%) BGP
6 6 (2.47%) Software-Defined Networking
6 6 (2.47%) VLAN
6 6 (2.47%) WebEx
7 4 (1.65%) TCP/IP
8 3 (1.23%) Network Security
8 3 (1.23%) Skype
9 2 (0.82%) Calico
9 2 (0.82%) DHCP
9 2 (0.82%) IPsec
9 2 (0.82%) Kerberos
9 2 (0.82%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 36 (14.81%) Amazon RDS
2 23 (9.47%) PostgreSQL
3 13 (5.35%) Amazon Aurora
4 11 (4.53%) NoSQL
5 10 (4.12%) Redis
6 7 (2.88%) Amazon Redshift
7 6 (2.47%) Couchbase
7 6 (2.47%) SQL Server
8 5 (2.06%) Big Data
8 5 (2.06%) Relational Database
9 4 (1.65%) DynamoDB
10 3 (1.23%) Data Lake
10 3 (1.23%) Hadoop
11 2 (0.82%) Apache Hive
11 2 (0.82%) Data Warehouse
11 2 (0.82%) Elasticsearch
11 2 (0.82%) MongoDB
11 2 (0.82%) Oracle Database
11 2 (0.82%) Power BI
12 1 (0.41%) BigQuery
Development Applications
1 77 (31.69%) Jenkins
2 47 (19.34%) Git
3 39 (16.05%) JIRA
4 28 (11.52%) GitLab
5 24 (9.88%) Vagrant
6 12 (4.94%) SonarQube
7 5 (2.06%) Selenium
8 4 (1.65%) Maven
8 4 (1.65%) Terragrunt
9 3 (1.23%) Bitbucket Server
9 3 (1.23%) CA Release Automation
10 2 (0.82%) Cucumber
10 2 (0.82%) JUnit
10 2 (0.82%) Mockito
10 2 (0.82%) MSI
10 2 (0.82%) Sonatype Nexus
11 1 (0.41%) Appium
11 1 (0.41%) Artifactory
11 1 (0.41%) Cypress.io
11 1 (0.41%) TeamCity
General
1 63 (25.93%) Social Skills
2 38 (15.64%) Public Sector
3 23 (9.47%) Finance
4 19 (7.82%) Analytical Skills
5 17 (7.00%) Banking
6 12 (4.94%) Legal
7 11 (4.53%) Presentation Skills
8 6 (2.47%) Documentation Skills
8 6 (2.47%) Retail
9 4 (1.65%) Games
9 4 (1.65%) Retail Banking
10 2 (0.82%) Aerospace
11 1 (0.41%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 1 (0.41%) Tech for Good
11 1 (0.41%) Wholesale Banking
Job Titles
1 155 (63.79%) Platform Engineer
2 48 (19.75%) Cloud Platform Engineer
3 45 (18.52%) DevOps Engineer
4 38 (15.64%) AWS Engineer
5 27 (11.11%) AWS Platform Engineer
6 21 (8.64%) AWS DevOps
7 20 (8.23%) AWS DevOps Engineer
8 14 (5.76%) Azure Engineer
8 14 (5.76%) DevOps Platform Engineer
9 13 (5.35%) Data Engineer
9 13 (5.35%) Senior
10 10 (4.12%) Azure Platform Engineer
10 10 (4.12%) DevSecOps Engineer
11 8 (3.29%) Python Engineer
12 7 (2.88%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
12 7 (2.88%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 7 (2.88%) Kubernetes Engineer
12 7 (2.88%) Senior Platform Engineer
13 6 (2.47%) Architect
13 6 (2.47%) Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (7.82%) YAML
2 17 (7.00%) Kafka
3 16 (6.58%) React
4 15 (6.17%) Middleware
5 14 (5.76%) Elastic Stack
5 14 (5.76%) LDAP
6 8 (3.29%) FastAPI
6 8 (3.29%) OAuth
7 7 (2.88%) Keycloak
8 6 (2.47%) ISPF
8 6 (2.47%) OAuth2
8 6 (2.47%) Spring Boot
8 6 (2.47%) XMPP
9 5 (2.06%) OpenID
9 5 (2.06%) REST
9 5 (2.06%) RESTful
9 5 (2.06%) Spring
10 4 (1.65%) LangGraph
10 4 (1.65%) Node.js
10 4 (1.65%) Oracle Fusion
Miscellaneous
1 31 (12.76%) Replication
2 19 (7.82%) Private Cloud
3 14 (5.76%) Onboarding
4 12 (4.94%) Cloud Native
4 12 (4.94%) Product Ownership
5 9 (3.70%) Data Centre
6 8 (3.29%) Distributed Systems
7 7 (2.88%) Legacy Systems
7 7 (2.88%) PKI
8 6 (2.47%) Mainframe
8 6 (2.47%) NHS
8 6 (2.47%) VSAM
9 5 (2.06%) Data Protection Act
9 5 (2.06%) IBM Mainframe
10 4 (1.65%) Hybrid Cloud
11 3 (1.23%) Analytical Mindset
11 3 (1.23%) Management Information System
11 3 (1.23%) Public Cloud
11 3 (1.23%) Virtual Team
12 2 (0.82%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 99 (40.74%) Linux
2 74 (30.45%) Windows
3 28 (11.52%) VMS
4 27 (11.11%) Amazon Linux
5 18 (7.41%) Unix
5 18 (7.41%) Windows Server
6 16 (6.58%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 10 (4.12%) Ubuntu
8 9 (3.70%) Windows 10
9 6 (2.47%) zOS
10 3 (1.23%) Windows Server 2016
11 2 (0.82%) Android
11 2 (0.82%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 121 (49.79%) DevOps
2 117 (48.15%) CI/CD
3 94 (38.68%) Infrastructure as Code
4 50 (20.58%) Configuration Management
5 49 (20.16%) Containerisation
5 49 (20.16%) Observability
6 45 (18.52%) Agile
6 45 (18.52%) Problem-Solving
7 43 (17.70%) Migration
8 31 (12.76%) Continuous Improvement
9 30 (12.35%) Cloud Security
10 28 (11.52%) Patch Management
11 26 (10.70%) Change Management
12 25 (10.29%) Performance Tuning
13 23 (9.47%) High Availability
13 23 (9.47%) Service Management
14 22 (9.05%) Site Reliability Engineering
15 20 (8.23%) Incident Response
15 20 (8.23%) Test Automation
16 19 (7.82%) Infrastructure Automation
Programming Languages
1 114 (46.91%) Python
2 61 (25.10%) PowerShell
3 42 (17.28%) SQL
4 38 (15.64%) Java
5 35 (14.40%) Bash
6 27 (11.11%) Groovy
7 25 (10.29%) Perl
8 20 (8.23%) JavaScript
9 12 (4.94%) C#
10 8 (3.29%) Shell Script
11 6 (2.47%) CLIST
11 6 (2.47%) Go
11 6 (2.47%) JCL
11 6 (2.47%) REXX
12 3 (1.23%) Erlang
12 3 (1.23%) Prolog
12 3 (1.23%) TypeScript
13 2 (0.82%) Apex Code
13 2 (0.82%) SOQL
14 1 (0.41%) Rust
Qualifications
1 118 (48.56%) Security Cleared
2 105 (43.21%) SC Cleared
3 21 (8.64%) DV Cleared
4 16 (6.58%) AWS Certification
5 14 (5.76%) Degree
6 11 (4.53%) Azure Certification
7 9 (3.70%) CCNA
7 9 (3.70%) Cisco Certification
8 8 (3.29%) CCDP
8 8 (3.29%) CCNP
9 7 (2.88%) BPSS Clearance
10 2 (0.82%) ISTQB
11 1 (0.41%) Computer Science Degree
11 1 (0.41%) Master's Degree
11 1 (0.41%) Microsoft Certification
11 1 (0.41%) Server+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (4.53%) NCSC
2 6 (2.47%) COBIT
3 3 (1.23%) Data Quality
3 3 (1.23%) QA
4 2 (0.82%) GDPR
4 2 (0.82%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 2 (0.82%) NIST
4 2 (0.82%) WCAG
5 1 (0.41%) Accessibility
5 1 (0.41%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (0.41%) Disclosure Scotland
5 1 (0.41%) ISO 9001
5 1 (0.41%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 66 (27.16%) Docker
2 44 (18.11%) Active Directory
3 24 (9.88%) VMware Infrastructure
4 22 (9.05%) DFS Replication
5 12 (4.94%) Dovecot
5 12 (4.94%) Postfix
5 12 (4.94%) Squid
6 8 (3.29%) Virtual Machines
7 6 (2.47%) Time Sharing Option
8 4 (1.65%) vSphere
9 3 (1.23%) VMware NSX
10 1 (0.41%) GPFS
10 1 (0.41%) Tivoli Directory Server
10 1 (0.41%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 117 (48.15%) Terraform
2 79 (32.51%) Kubernetes
3 55 (22.63%) Grafana
4 51 (20.99%) Prometheus
5 41 (16.87%) Ansible
6 12 (4.94%) Nessus
6 12 (4.94%) Proxmox
7 11 (4.53%) Packer
8 10 (4.12%) vCenter Server
9 9 (3.70%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 9 (3.70%) Argo
10 7 (2.88%) Istio
11 6 (2.47%) Kibana
11 6 (2.47%) OMEGAMON
12 5 (2.06%) CA Endevor
13 3 (1.23%) Microsoft Intune
13 3 (1.23%) Progress Chef
13 3 (1.23%) Single Sign-On
13 3 (1.23%) WSUS
14 2 (0.82%) CA Wily
Vendors
1 40 (16.46%) Microsoft
2 36 (14.81%) Red Hat
3 31 (12.76%) VMware
4 29 (11.93%) Splunk
5 27 (11.11%) Dynatrace
5 27 (11.11%) ServiceNow
6 25 (10.29%) Cisco
7 23 (9.47%) Oracle
8 20 (8.23%) IBM
9 16 (6.58%) AppDynamics
10 12 (4.94%) Jaspersoft
11 11 (4.53%) Citrix
11 11 (4.53%) F5
12 7 (2.88%) CheckPoint
12 7 (2.88%) Dell
12 7 (2.88%) HP
13 6 (2.47%) Confluent
14 5 (2.06%) Databricks
15 4 (1.65%) Palo Alto
15 4 (1.65%) Veeam