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 27 May 2026.

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

 6 months to
27 May 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 232 272 308
Rank change year-on-year +40 +36 -27
Contract jobs requiring a Cloud Engineer 456 201 237
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.09% 0.85% 0.65%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.19% 0.92% 0.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 313 166 167
10th Percentile £413 £400 £400
25th Percentile £469 £440 £468
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -9.09% -
75th Percentile £625 £592 £625
90th Percentile £690 £650 £675
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £550
% change year-on-year +5.00% -9.09% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 1 3
10th Percentile £59.15 - -
25th Percentile £71.00 £42.50 £27.50
Median hourly rate £76.00 £45.00 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year +68.89% +50.00% -68.83%
75th Percentile - £47.50 £32.50
90th Percentile £81.40 - -
UK median hourly rate £72.00 £45.00 £30.00
% change year-on-year +60.00% +50.00% -68.42%

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 38,465 21,947 33,912
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.33% 92.32% 92.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,812 14,594 22,464
10th Percentile £322 £293 £283
25th Percentile £413 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £520 £525
Median % change year-on-year -0.96% -0.95% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £638
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £513 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +0.49% -2.86% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,684 883 2,505
10th Percentile £15.50 £14.00 £12.86
25th Percentile £21.00 £18.20 £16.30
Median hourly rate £45.00 £29.00 £37.18
Median % change year-on-year +55.17% -22.00% -17.38%
75th Percentile £67.50 £60.94 £61.30
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £73.55
UK median hourly rate £42.50 £27.53 £36.50
% change year-on-year +54.38% -24.58% -18.89%

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 27 May 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 27 May 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 27 May 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 +52 275 £525 +5.00% 92
North of England -36 57 £525 +5.00% 29
South East -33 53 £538 -0.19% 40
North West -22 29 £538 +33.71% 25
East of England -13 22 £505 +2.54% 10
Yorkshire -35 21 £481 -3.75% 2
Midlands -64 19 £670 +34.00% 21
South West -18 18 £550 -4.35% 38
West Midlands -51 16 £670 +27.62% 13
North East -25 7 £525 -4.55% 2
East Midlands -35 3 - - 8
Cloud Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 27 May 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.

1 221 (48.46%) Azure
2 210 (46.05%) Terraform
3 188 (41.23%) AWS
4 186 (40.79%) CI/CD
5 169 (37.06%) Infrastructure as Code
6 165 (36.18%) DevOps
7 128 (28.07%) Security Cleared
8 102 (22.37%) SC Cleared
9 100 (21.93%) Kubernetes
9 100 (21.93%) Python
10 96 (21.05%) Cloud Security
11 95 (20.83%) GCP
12 88 (19.30%) Microsoft
13 78 (17.11%) GitHub
13 78 (17.11%) PowerShell
14 76 (16.67%) Google
15 72 (15.79%) Migration
16 66 (14.47%) Platform Engineering
17 65 (14.25%) Infrastructure Engineering
18 62 (13.60%) Agile
19 53 (11.62%) Containerisation
19 53 (11.62%) Firewall
20 51 (11.18%) GitHub Actions
21 50 (10.96%) AI
21 50 (10.96%) Docker
22 49 (10.75%) Windows
23 45 (9.87%) Serverless
24 44 (9.65%) SQL
25 42 (9.21%) Bash
26 41 (8.99%) Software Engineering

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 7 (1.54%) Apache
1 7 (1.54%) Microsoft Exchange
2 5 (1.10%) Confluence
2 5 (1.10%) nginx
3 4 (0.88%) Apache Spark
4 3 (0.66%) IIS
4 3 (0.66%) SharePoint
4 3 (0.66%) Tomcat
5 2 (0.44%) CloudStack
6 1 (0.22%) Apache Pulsar
6 1 (0.22%) OpenStack
6 1 (0.22%) SAS
6 1 (0.22%) Traefik
Business Applications
1 1 (0.22%) Aladdin
Cloud Services
1 221 (48.46%) Azure
2 188 (41.23%) AWS
3 95 (20.83%) GCP
4 78 (17.11%) GitHub
5 51 (11.18%) GitHub Actions
6 45 (9.87%) Serverless
7 40 (8.77%) Entra ID
8 39 (8.55%) Azure DevOps
9 35 (7.68%) AWS CloudFormation
9 35 (7.68%) IaaS
9 35 (7.68%) PaaS
10 34 (7.46%) Google Kubernetes Engine
11 31 (6.80%) Amazon S3
11 31 (6.80%) Azure AKS
12 25 (5.48%) AWS Lambda
13 24 (5.26%) Amazon EC2
13 24 (5.26%) Virtual Private Cloud
14 23 (5.04%) OCI
15 21 (4.61%) Amazon EKS
16 19 (4.17%) Amazon ECS
Communications & Networking
1 53 (11.62%) Firewall
2 35 (7.68%) DNS
3 24 (5.26%) Network Security
4 18 (3.95%) VPN
5 7 (1.54%) TCP/IP
6 6 (1.32%) Reverse Proxy
6 6 (1.32%) WAN
7 4 (0.88%) DHCP
7 4 (0.88%) Software-Defined Networking
7 4 (0.88%) SSL
7 4 (0.88%) VLAN
8 3 (0.66%) Internet
8 3 (0.66%) SD-WAN
8 3 (0.66%) SMTP
9 2 (0.44%) BGP
9 2 (0.44%) Cisco Firepower
9 2 (0.44%) DKIM
9 2 (0.44%) Kerberos
9 2 (0.44%) NGFW
9 2 (0.44%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (2.85%) BigQuery
2 11 (2.41%) Amazon Athena
2 11 (2.41%) SQL Server
3 7 (1.54%) DynamoDB
4 6 (1.32%) Azure SQL Database
5 5 (1.10%) Amazon RDS
5 5 (1.10%) Oracle Database
5 5 (1.10%) PostgreSQL
6 4 (0.88%) Amazon QuickSight
6 4 (0.88%) Amazon Redshift
7 3 (0.66%) Big Data
7 3 (0.66%) Data Warehouse
7 3 (0.66%) MySQL
7 3 (0.66%) Oracle Database 12c
7 3 (0.66%) Snowflake Schema
8 2 (0.44%) NoSQL
8 2 (0.44%) OLAP
8 2 (0.44%) OLTP
8 2 (0.44%) Power BI
8 2 (0.44%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 38 (8.33%) GitLab
2 36 (7.89%) Git
3 33 (7.24%) Jenkins
4 9 (1.97%) Artifactory
5 8 (1.75%) JIRA
6 3 (0.66%) Postman
6 3 (0.66%) Selenium
6 3 (0.66%) Team Foundation Server
7 2 (0.44%) Claude Code
7 2 (0.44%) Cypress.io
7 2 (0.44%) Liquibase
7 2 (0.44%) Robot Framework
8 1 (0.22%) Bitbucket
8 1 (0.22%) Burp Suite
8 1 (0.22%) Gatling
8 1 (0.22%) IntelliJ
8 1 (0.22%) JUnit
8 1 (0.22%) Metasploit
8 1 (0.22%) SonarQube
8 1 (0.22%) sqlmap
General
1 53 (11.62%) Social Skills
2 46 (10.09%) Finance
3 37 (8.11%) Public Sector
4 17 (3.73%) Analytical Skills
4 17 (3.73%) Banking
5 9 (1.97%) Documentation Skills
6 8 (1.75%) Retail
7 6 (1.32%) Legal
7 6 (1.32%) Telecoms
8 5 (1.10%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 5 (1.10%) Investment Banking
8 5 (1.10%) Local Government
8 5 (1.10%) Presentation Skills
9 4 (0.88%) Marketing
9 4 (0.88%) Military
10 3 (0.66%) Pharmaceutical
11 2 (0.44%) Financial Institution
11 2 (0.44%) Law
11 2 (0.44%) Police
12 1 (0.22%) Front Office
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (3.73%) REST
2 13 (2.85%) Spring
2 13 (2.85%) Spring Boot
3 12 (2.63%) Node.js
3 12 (2.63%) OAuth
4 11 (2.41%) Kafka
4 11 (2.41%) OAuth2
4 11 (2.41%) React
5 8 (1.75%) OpenTelemetry
5 8 (1.75%) Oracle Fusion
6 7 (1.54%) .NET
6 7 (1.54%) OpenID
7 6 (1.32%) AngularJS
7 6 (1.32%) ARM Templates
7 6 (1.32%) LangChain
8 5 (1.10%) Playwright
8 5 (1.10%) YAML
9 4 (0.88%) Express.js
9 4 (0.88%) Jest
9 4 (0.88%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 80 (17.54%) Cloud Native
2 28 (6.14%) Public Cloud
3 24 (5.26%) Hybrid Cloud
4 17 (3.73%) Data Centre
5 13 (2.85%) Security Posture
6 10 (2.19%) Enterprise Cloud
7 8 (1.75%) Enterprise Software
7 8 (1.75%) Onboarding
7 8 (1.75%) Product Ownership
8 7 (1.54%) Self-Motivation
9 6 (1.32%) Cyber Threat
10 5 (1.10%) Cloud Security Posture
10 5 (1.10%) Management Information System
10 5 (1.10%) Private Cloud
11 4 (0.88%) Distributed Systems
11 4 (0.88%) Legacy Systems
11 4 (0.88%) PKI
11 4 (0.88%) Virtual Team
12 3 (0.66%) Data Protection Act
12 3 (0.66%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 49 (10.75%) Windows
2 31 (6.80%) Linux
3 30 (6.58%) Windows Server
4 5 (1.10%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 5 (1.10%) Ubuntu
5 3 (0.66%) CentOS
5 3 (0.66%) Windows Server 2019
6 2 (0.44%) VMS
6 2 (0.44%) Windows Server 2012
7 1 (0.22%) Mac OS
7 1 (0.22%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 186 (40.79%) CI/CD
2 169 (37.06%) Infrastructure as Code
3 165 (36.18%) DevOps
4 96 (21.05%) Cloud Security
5 72 (15.79%) Migration
6 66 (14.47%) Platform Engineering
7 65 (14.25%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 62 (13.60%) Agile
9 53 (11.62%) Containerisation
10 50 (10.96%) AI
11 41 (8.99%) Software Engineering
12 40 (8.77%) Problem-Solving
13 39 (8.55%) Cybersecurity
14 37 (8.11%) DevSecOps
15 36 (7.89%) Continuous Improvement
15 36 (7.89%) Observability
16 32 (7.02%) Infrastructure Automation
17 30 (6.58%) Technical Leadership
18 26 (5.70%) Mentoring
19 24 (5.26%) Microservices
Programming Languages
1 100 (21.93%) Python
2 78 (17.11%) PowerShell
3 44 (9.65%) SQL
4 42 (9.21%) Bash
5 34 (7.46%) Bicep
6 24 (5.26%) Java
7 15 (3.29%) C#
8 8 (1.75%) Go
8 8 (1.75%) TypeScript
9 7 (1.54%) JavaScript
10 5 (1.10%) Groovy
11 3 (0.66%) Ruby
12 2 (0.44%) Kusto Query Language
13 1 (0.22%) BeanShell
13 1 (0.22%) Cypher
13 1 (0.22%) Kotlin
13 1 (0.22%) Perl
13 1 (0.22%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 128 (28.07%) Security Cleared
2 102 (22.37%) SC Cleared
3 39 (8.55%) Azure Certification
4 27 (5.92%) DV Cleared
5 16 (3.51%) Degree
6 14 (3.07%) AWS Certification
7 11 (2.41%) Microsoft Certification
8 10 (2.19%) BPSS Clearance
9 9 (1.97%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 8 (1.75%) Cisco Certification
10 8 (1.75%) CISSP
10 8 (1.75%) Computer Science Degree
11 5 (1.10%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 5 (1.10%) TOGAF Certification
12 4 (0.88%) CISM
13 3 (0.66%) CCNP
13 3 (0.66%) CCSP
14 2 (0.44%) Citrix Certification
14 2 (0.44%) MCSE
14 2 (0.44%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (2.19%) GDPR
1 10 (2.19%) NIST
1 10 (2.19%) QA
2 9 (1.97%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 9 (1.97%) NCSC
3 5 (1.10%) Data Quality
3 5 (1.10%) PCI DSS
4 2 (0.44%) GRC
4 2 (0.44%) SLA
4 2 (0.44%) SOC 2
5 1 (0.22%) Accessibility
5 1 (0.22%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (0.22%) WCAG
System Software
1 50 (10.96%) Docker
2 31 (6.80%) Active Directory
3 16 (3.51%) Virtual Desktop
4 15 (3.29%) VMware NSX
5 13 (2.85%) Virtual Machines
5 13 (2.85%) VMware Infrastructure
6 11 (2.41%) VMware ESXi
7 10 (2.19%) vSphere
8 7 (1.54%) Squid
8 7 (1.54%) vCloud
9 6 (1.32%) Hyper-V
10 4 (0.88%) Firmware
11 3 (0.66%) Dovecot
11 3 (0.66%) Postfix
12 2 (0.44%) Ceph
12 2 (0.44%) KVM
12 2 (0.44%) NFS
Systems Management
1 210 (46.05%) Terraform
2 100 (21.93%) Kubernetes
3 25 (5.48%) Ansible
4 16 (3.51%) Grafana
5 14 (3.07%) Istio
5 14 (3.07%) Microsoft Intune
5 14 (3.07%) Prometheus
6 12 (2.63%) vCenter Server
7 9 (1.97%) SCOM
8 8 (1.75%) Single Sign-On
9 7 (1.54%) Argo
9 7 (1.54%) Packer
10 6 (1.32%) Puppet
11 4 (0.88%) HAProxy
11 4 (0.88%) Progress Chef
11 4 (0.88%) Salt
11 4 (0.88%) Suricata
12 3 (0.66%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 2 (0.44%) Cilium
13 2 (0.44%) SELinux
Vendors
1 88 (19.30%) Microsoft
2 76 (16.67%) Google
3 27 (5.92%) VMware
4 24 (5.26%) Oracle
5 11 (2.41%) Palo Alto
6 10 (2.19%) Zscaler
7 9 (1.97%) Cisco
8 8 (1.75%) Red Hat
9 7 (1.54%) Databricks
9 7 (1.54%) Salesforce
9 7 (1.54%) ServiceNow
10 6 (1.32%) Dynatrace
11 5 (1.10%) Citrix
11 5 (1.10%) Fortinet
11 5 (1.10%) Juniper
11 5 (1.10%) OpenAI
11 5 (1.10%) PeopleSoft
11 5 (1.10%) Splunk
12 4 (0.88%) Rapid7
12 4 (0.88%) Salesforce Marketing Cloud
216 Cloud Engineer jobs in England