Cloud Engineer Contract Job Trends in England

Cloud Engineer
UK > England

The median Cloud Engineer daily rate in England is £525, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 18 June 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

 6 months to
18 Jun 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 209 285 314
Rank change year-on-year +76 +29 -37
Contract jobs requiring a Cloud Engineer 513 201 247
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.19% 0.81% 0.66%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.29% 0.88% 0.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 352 158 175
10th Percentile £413 £402 £400
25th Percentile £463 £440 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -9.09% -1.79%
75th Percentile £625 £588 £625
90th Percentile £688 £638 £675
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £550
% change year-on-year +5.00% -9.09% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 1 3
10th Percentile £71.55 - -
25th Percentile £73.75 £42.50 £27.50
Median hourly rate £77.00 £45.00 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year +71.11% +50.00% -
75th Percentile £81.25 £47.50 £32.50
90th Percentile - - -
UK median hourly rate £77.00 £45.00 £30.00
% change year-on-year +71.11% +50.00% -41.18%

All Contract IT Job Roles
England

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in England. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in England with a recognized job title 39,699 22,906 35,015
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.35% 92.33% 92.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,420 15,063 22,824
10th Percentile £325 £293 £288
25th Percentile £415 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year +1.46% -2.38% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £635 £638
90th Percentile £733 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £515 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +3.00% -4.76% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,798 1,026 2,684
10th Percentile £15.92 £14.00 £12.86
25th Percentile £21.28 £18.13 £16.58
Median hourly rate £45.00 £28.75 £39.53
Median % change year-on-year +56.52% -27.26% -12.17%
75th Percentile £67.50 £58.75 £62.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £74.00
UK median hourly rate £43.61 £27.50 £37.50
% change year-on-year +58.56% -26.67% -16.67%

Cloud Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Cloud Engineer' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in England.

Cloud Engineer job vacancy trend in England

Cloud Engineer
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Cloud Engineer job vacancies in England.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Cloud Engineer job vacancies in England

Cloud Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Cloud Engineer in England over the 6 months to 18 June 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Cloud Engineer in England

Cloud Engineer
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Cloud Engineer job vacancies in England.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Cloud Engineer job vacancies in England

Cloud Engineer
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Cloud Engineer in England over the 6 months to 18 June 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Cloud Engineer in England

Cloud Engineer
Contract Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Cloud Engineer within the England region over the 6 months to 18 June 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
London +78 297 £538 +2.87% 97
North of England -28 70 £500 +5.26% 37
South East -20 66 £538 +3.66% 46
North West -18 32 £500 +24.38% 28
Yorkshire -33 31 £481 -3.75% 7
Midlands -37 31 £525 +7.69% 20
West Midlands -33 24 £525 - 13
East of England -9 22 £505 +60.32% 8
South West -16 15 £550 -2.22% 27
East Midlands -23 7 £438 -7.89% 7
North East -39 7 £525 +5.00% 2
Cloud Engineer
UK

Cloud Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England

For the 6 months to 18 June 2026, Cloud Engineer contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the England region featuring Cloud Engineer in the job title.

1 260 (50.68%) Azure
2 244 (47.56%) Terraform
3 224 (43.66%) AWS
4 207 (40.35%) CI/CD
5 194 (37.82%) Infrastructure as Code
6 176 (34.31%) DevOps
7 134 (26.12%) Security Cleared
8 122 (23.78%) Python
9 112 (21.83%) Cloud Security
10 108 (21.05%) Kubernetes
11 106 (20.66%) Microsoft
11 106 (20.66%) SC Cleared
12 105 (20.47%) GCP
13 96 (18.71%) PowerShell
14 90 (17.54%) Platform Engineering
15 85 (16.57%) Infrastructure Engineering
16 84 (16.37%) GitHub
17 80 (15.59%) Migration
18 77 (15.01%) Google
19 69 (13.45%) Windows
20 68 (13.26%) Agile
21 63 (12.28%) Firewall
22 58 (11.31%) Containerisation
23 57 (11.11%) AI
23 57 (11.11%) GitHub Actions
24 56 (10.92%) Serverless
25 55 (10.72%) Docker
26 53 (10.33%) Bash
27 49 (9.55%) SQL
28 48 (9.36%) Azure Certification

Cloud Engineer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England 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 9 (1.75%) Microsoft Exchange
2 6 (1.17%) Confluence
3 5 (0.97%) Apache
3 5 (0.97%) nginx
4 3 (0.58%) IIS
4 3 (0.58%) SharePoint
4 3 (0.58%) Tomcat
5 2 (0.39%) Apache Spark
5 2 (0.39%) CloudStack
6 1 (0.19%) Apache Airflow
6 1 (0.19%) Apache Pulsar
6 1 (0.19%) OpenStack
6 1 (0.19%) SAS
6 1 (0.19%) Traefik
Business Applications
1 1 (0.19%) Aladdin
Cloud Services
1 260 (50.68%) Azure
2 224 (43.66%) AWS
3 105 (20.47%) GCP
4 84 (16.37%) GitHub
5 57 (11.11%) GitHub Actions
6 56 (10.92%) Serverless
7 48 (9.36%) Entra ID
8 41 (7.99%) Azure DevOps
9 40 (7.80%) IaaS
10 39 (7.60%) PaaS
11 36 (7.02%) AWS CloudFormation
11 36 (7.02%) Azure AKS
12 35 (6.82%) Amazon S3
12 35 (6.82%) Google Kubernetes Engine
13 32 (6.24%) AWS Lambda
14 30 (5.85%) Virtual Private Cloud
15 27 (5.26%) Amazon EC2
15 27 (5.26%) Amazon EKS
16 25 (4.87%) Amazon ECS
16 25 (4.87%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 63 (12.28%) Firewall
2 46 (8.97%) DNS
3 27 (5.26%) Network Security
4 25 (4.87%) VPN
5 11 (2.14%) WAN
6 10 (1.95%) DHCP
7 9 (1.75%) TCP/IP
8 5 (0.97%) Reverse Proxy
8 5 (0.97%) SD-WAN
8 5 (0.97%) SSL
9 4 (0.78%) Internet
9 4 (0.78%) Software-Defined Networking
9 4 (0.78%) VLAN
10 3 (0.58%) BGP
10 3 (0.58%) IPv4
10 3 (0.58%) SAN
10 3 (0.58%) SMTP
11 2 (0.39%) Kerberos
11 2 (0.39%) LAN
11 2 (0.39%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 15 (2.92%) SQL Server
2 9 (1.75%) Amazon Athena
3 8 (1.56%) Amazon RDS
3 8 (1.56%) DynamoDB
4 7 (1.36%) BigQuery
4 7 (1.36%) PostgreSQL
5 6 (1.17%) Azure SQL Database
6 5 (0.97%) Oracle Database
7 4 (0.78%) Amazon QuickSight
7 4 (0.78%) Amazon Redshift
8 3 (0.58%) Big Data
8 3 (0.58%) MySQL
8 3 (0.58%) Oracle Database 12c
9 2 (0.39%) Metadata
9 2 (0.39%) Relational Database
9 2 (0.39%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 1 (0.19%) InfluxDB
10 1 (0.19%) Neo4j
10 1 (0.19%) NoSQL
10 1 (0.19%) Redis
Development Applications
1 38 (7.41%) GitLab
1 38 (7.41%) Jenkins
2 36 (7.02%) Git
3 10 (1.95%) JIRA
4 9 (1.75%) Artifactory
5 3 (0.58%) Selenium
5 3 (0.58%) Team Foundation Server
6 2 (0.39%) Bitbucket
6 2 (0.39%) Claude Code
6 2 (0.39%) Cypress.io
6 2 (0.39%) Liquibase
6 2 (0.39%) Robot Framework
7 1 (0.19%) Burp Suite
7 1 (0.19%) Chocolatey
7 1 (0.19%) CircleCI
7 1 (0.19%) Gatling
7 1 (0.19%) Postman
7 1 (0.19%) REST Assured
7 1 (0.19%) SonarQube
7 1 (0.19%) TestRail
General
1 62 (12.09%) Social Skills
2 55 (10.72%) Finance
3 40 (7.80%) Public Sector
4 24 (4.68%) Banking
5 19 (3.70%) Analytical Skills
6 10 (1.95%) Documentation Skills
7 6 (1.17%) Investment Banking
7 6 (1.17%) Legal
7 6 (1.17%) Telecoms
8 5 (0.97%) Presentation Skills
9 4 (0.78%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 4 (0.78%) Law
9 4 (0.78%) Marketing
9 4 (0.78%) Military
9 4 (0.78%) Pharmaceutical
9 4 (0.78%) Retail
10 3 (0.58%) Local Government
11 2 (0.39%) Financial Institution
11 2 (0.39%) International Banking
11 2 (0.39%) Police
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (3.70%) REST
2 11 (2.14%) OAuth
2 11 (2.14%) OAuth2
3 10 (1.95%) Kafka
3 10 (1.95%) Spring
3 10 (1.95%) Spring Boot
4 9 (1.75%) Node.js
5 8 (1.56%) React
6 7 (1.36%) .NET
6 7 (1.36%) ARM Templates
6 7 (1.36%) OpenID
7 5 (0.97%) Model Context Protocol
7 5 (0.97%) Playwright
7 5 (0.97%) YAML
8 4 (0.78%) AWS CDK
8 4 (0.78%) Express.js
8 4 (0.78%) FastAPI
8 4 (0.78%) Flask
8 4 (0.78%) OpenTelemetry
8 4 (0.78%) Oracle Fusion
Miscellaneous
1 98 (19.10%) Cloud Native
2 30 (5.85%) Hybrid Cloud
3 28 (5.46%) Public Cloud
4 23 (4.48%) Security Posture
5 19 (3.70%) Data Centre
6 13 (2.53%) Enterprise Cloud
7 11 (2.14%) Distributed Systems
7 11 (2.14%) Management Information System
7 11 (2.14%) Onboarding
8 10 (1.95%) Product Ownership
9 9 (1.75%) Cloud Security Posture
10 8 (1.56%) Self-Motivation
11 7 (1.36%) Enterprise Software
12 6 (1.17%) Cyber Threat
12 6 (1.17%) Legacy Systems
13 4 (0.78%) AI Agents
13 4 (0.78%) Private Cloud
13 4 (0.78%) Virtual Team
14 3 (0.58%) Data Protection Act
14 3 (0.58%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 69 (13.45%) Windows
2 40 (7.80%) Linux
3 39 (7.60%) Windows Server
4 12 (2.34%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 5 (0.97%) Ubuntu
6 4 (0.78%) Windows Server 2019
7 3 (0.58%) CentOS
8 2 (0.39%) VMS
8 2 (0.39%) Windows Server 2012
9 1 (0.19%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 207 (40.35%) CI/CD
2 194 (37.82%) Infrastructure as Code
3 176 (34.31%) DevOps
4 112 (21.83%) Cloud Security
5 90 (17.54%) Platform Engineering
6 85 (16.57%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 80 (15.59%) Migration
8 68 (13.26%) Agile
9 58 (11.31%) Containerisation
10 57 (11.11%) AI
11 46 (8.97%) Problem-Solving
12 43 (8.38%) Continuous Improvement
12 43 (8.38%) Observability
12 43 (8.38%) Software Engineering
13 40 (7.80%) Cybersecurity
13 40 (7.80%) Infrastructure Automation
14 38 (7.41%) Technical Leadership
15 36 (7.02%) DevSecOps
16 30 (5.85%) Deployment Automation
17 28 (5.46%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 122 (23.78%) Python
2 96 (18.71%) PowerShell
3 53 (10.33%) Bash
4 49 (9.55%) SQL
5 39 (7.60%) Bicep
6 29 (5.65%) Java
7 15 (2.92%) C#
8 10 (1.95%) TypeScript
9 9 (1.75%) Go
10 8 (1.56%) JavaScript
11 5 (0.97%) Groovy
12 2 (0.39%) Kusto Query Language
12 2 (0.39%) Ruby
13 1 (0.19%) Apex Code
13 1 (0.19%) C
13 1 (0.19%) Cypher
13 1 (0.19%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 1 (0.19%) Perl
13 1 (0.19%) R
13 1 (0.19%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 134 (26.12%) Security Cleared
2 106 (20.66%) SC Cleared
3 48 (9.36%) Azure Certification
4 33 (6.43%) DV Cleared
5 29 (5.65%) AWS Certification
6 17 (3.31%) Degree
7 14 (2.73%) Microsoft Certification
8 12 (2.34%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
8 12 (2.34%) CISSP
9 10 (1.95%) Cisco Certification
10 8 (1.56%) BPSS Clearance
11 7 (1.36%) Computer Science Degree
12 5 (0.97%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 5 (0.97%) CCNP
12 5 (0.97%) TOGAF Certification
13 4 (0.78%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
14 3 (0.58%) CCIE
14 3 (0.58%) CCSP
14 3 (0.58%) CISM
14 3 (0.58%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (2.34%) NIST
2 11 (2.14%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 10 (1.95%) NCSC
3 10 (1.95%) QA
4 8 (1.56%) GDPR
5 6 (1.17%) PCI DSS
6 4 (0.78%) Data Quality
7 2 (0.39%) SLA
7 2 (0.39%) SOC 2
8 1 (0.19%) Accessibility
8 1 (0.19%) Cyber Essentials
8 1 (0.19%) Disclosure Scotland
8 1 (0.19%) GRC
8 1 (0.19%) WCAG
System Software
1 55 (10.72%) Docker
2 40 (7.80%) Active Directory
3 19 (3.70%) VMware Infrastructure
4 18 (3.51%) Virtual Machines
5 17 (3.31%) VMware ESXi
5 17 (3.31%) VMware NSX
6 16 (3.12%) Virtual Desktop
7 14 (2.73%) vSphere
8 10 (1.95%) vCloud
9 9 (1.75%) Hyper-V
10 7 (1.36%) Squid
11 4 (0.78%) Firmware
12 3 (0.58%) Dovecot
12 3 (0.58%) Postfix
13 2 (0.39%) Ceph
13 2 (0.39%) KVM
13 2 (0.39%) NFS
Systems Management
1 244 (47.56%) Terraform
2 108 (21.05%) Kubernetes
3 37 (7.21%) Ansible
4 19 (3.70%) Grafana
5 18 (3.51%) Prometheus
6 14 (2.73%) Microsoft Intune
6 14 (2.73%) vCenter Server
7 13 (2.53%) Progress Chef
8 12 (2.34%) SCOM
9 11 (2.14%) Puppet
10 10 (1.95%) Istio
10 10 (1.95%) Single Sign-On
11 8 (1.56%) Packer
12 4 (0.78%) HAProxy
12 4 (0.78%) Salt
12 4 (0.78%) Suricata
13 3 (0.58%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 3 (0.58%) Argo
14 2 (0.39%) Cilium
14 2 (0.39%) SELinux
Vendors
1 106 (20.66%) Microsoft
2 77 (15.01%) Google
3 36 (7.02%) VMware
4 21 (4.09%) Oracle
5 14 (2.73%) Zscaler
6 13 (2.53%) Palo Alto
6 13 (2.53%) Red Hat
7 10 (1.95%) Salesforce
8 9 (1.75%) Cisco
9 7 (1.36%) Dynatrace
9 7 (1.36%) ServiceNow
10 6 (1.17%) Fortinet
10 6 (1.17%) Splunk
11 5 (0.97%) Citrix
11 5 (0.97%) CrowdStrike
11 5 (0.97%) OpenAI
11 5 (0.97%) Rapid7
12 4 (0.78%) Juniper
12 4 (0.78%) PeopleSoft
12 4 (0.78%) Salesforce Marketing Cloud
225 Cloud Engineer jobs in England