Kubernetes outside IR35 jobs
An outside IR35 Kubernetes job is a contract the client says sits beyond the off-payroll rules, so you can invoice through your own limited company. The work itself is still container platforms and the clusters more than one team now depends on. The status is a tax determination, not a description of the skill.
Updated 1 November 20264 min read
What outside IR35 means on a Kubernetes contract
Outside IR35 means the engagement is treated as a business-to-business supply of Kubernetes, not as employment in all but name. You invoice your company rate. You do not have the client's holiday, pension or employment rights, and you carry the admin of a limited company. That trade is why contractors filter for outside roles first.
The client, or the agency where the client is a small company, makes the determination and should be able to show it. A sentence in an advert is a signal. It is not the status determination statement. How IR35 status is decided walks through what you can ask for.
How often Kubernetes roles are outside
Outside IR35 is common on Kubernetes delivery contracts, particularly where you use your own equipment, control your own method and can send a substitute. Staff-augmentation inside a bank or a government department is still frequently marked inside, sometimes as a blanket decision. Read the status on the advert and then read the working practices, because the two do not always agree.
Enterprises migrating off a data centre, and the product companies that already run entirely in one cloud do not share one policy. Two Kubernetes adverts in the same week can land on opposite sides because the working practices differ, or because one client blankets a programme and the other does not. Filter the claim, then confirm it.
What to check before you accept
Look at substitution, control and whether you are part and parcel of the organisation. A Kubernetes contractor who is told the hours, the method and the laptop, and who cannot send someone else, is harder to defend as outside even if the advert says it. The inside and outside IR35 guide is the short version of that difference.
Price the rate on both sides with the IR35 calculator. A move from outside to inside halfway through a renewal is a pay cut unless the day rate moves with it. Kubernetes day rates has the band clients are advertising.
Where to find them
Outside IR35 jobs is every live contract on the board that states outside, across every skill. Kubernetes contract jobs is the wider market, including inside and unstated roles. The apply link on each job is for members, so the original advert is not sitting open on the public page.
Geography follows the rest of the Kubernetes market: London, Manchester, Reading, Edinburgh and remote. Remote outside IR35 roles exist and are competed for harder than a hybrid seat in one city.
Live roles on the board
These Kubernetes contracts are on the board now. The day rate and IR35 status are public. The link to the original advert is for members.
- Platform Engineer — Corsham, Wiltshire, £650-£750/day Outside
- DevOps Engineer — Broadlands, Romsey (SO51), £550/day Outside
- Senior DevOps Engineer — London, £550-£650/day Outside
See live Kubernetes contracts · Membership unlocks apply links and the first 48 hours