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 15 July 2026.

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

 6 months to
15 Jul 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 210 291 315
Rank change year-on-year +81 +24 -39
Contract jobs requiring a Cloud Engineer 557 219 237
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.24% 0.81% 0.65%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.35% 0.88% 0.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 373 171 169
10th Percentile £400 £400 £384
25th Percentile £462 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -9.09% -
75th Percentile £625 £588 £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 21 3 2
10th Percentile £23.20 £32.50 -
25th Percentile £73.75 £36.25 £27.50
Median hourly rate £77.00 £45.00 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year +71.11% +50.00% -
75th Percentile £81.25 £55.00 £32.50
90th Percentile - £59.50 -
UK median hourly rate £77.00 £45.00 £30.00
% change year-on-year +71.11% +50.00% -

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 41,375 24,958 34,084
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.48% 91.99% 92.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,305 16,240 22,316
10th Percentile £325 £293 £300
25th Percentile £423 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.44% -2.38% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £630 £638
90th Percentile £738 £738 £750
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,977 1,223 2,453
10th Percentile £16.03 £13.79 £13.00
25th Percentile £22.50 £17.99 £17.25
Median hourly rate £47.00 £28.18 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +66.78% -29.55% -6.98%
75th Percentile £68.00 £57.50 £63.75
90th Percentile £80.02 £75.00 £74.91
UK median hourly rate £45.00 £26.45 £40.00
% change year-on-year +70.13% -33.88% -5.88%

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 15 July 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 15 July 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 15 July 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 +62 298 £540 +3.35% 87
North of England -19 84 £500 +11.11% 68
South East -16 80 £538 +7.50% 56
Midlands -24 46 £513 +7.89% 35
North West -19 43 £500 +17.65% 37
Yorkshire -24 34 £475 -2.56% 24
West Midlands -44 26 £525 - 17
East of England -3 22 £505 +60.32% 23
East Midlands -2 19 £450 -5.26% 18
South West -24 16 £550 -2.22% 21
North East -40 7 £525 +5.00% 7
Cloud Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 15 July 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.

1 282 (50.63%) Azure
2 254 (45.60%) Terraform
3 232 (41.65%) AWS
4 209 (37.52%) CI/CD
5 200 (35.91%) Infrastructure as Code
6 180 (32.32%) DevOps
7 148 (26.57%) Security Cleared
8 137 (24.60%) Python
9 127 (22.80%) Cloud Security
10 120 (21.54%) PowerShell
11 119 (21.36%) Microsoft
12 116 (20.83%) GCP
13 115 (20.65%) Kubernetes
14 114 (20.47%) SC Cleared
15 108 (19.39%) Infrastructure Engineering
16 96 (17.24%) Platform Engineering
17 91 (16.34%) Windows
18 83 (14.90%) Migration
19 79 (14.18%) Google
20 74 (13.29%) Agile
20 74 (13.29%) GitHub
21 67 (12.03%) Firewall
22 66 (11.85%) AI
23 63 (11.31%) DNS
24 62 (11.13%) Bash
25 59 (10.59%) Docker
26 57 (10.23%) Containerisation
26 57 (10.23%) Linux
27 56 (10.05%) Serverless
27 56 (10.05%) SQL

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 12 (2.15%) Microsoft Exchange
2 6 (1.08%) Apache
2 6 (1.08%) Confluence
3 5 (0.90%) nginx
4 4 (0.72%) SharePoint
5 3 (0.54%) IIS
5 3 (0.54%) Tomcat
6 2 (0.36%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.36%) Apache Spark
6 2 (0.36%) CloudStack
6 2 (0.36%) OpenStack
7 1 (0.18%) Apache Pulsar
7 1 (0.18%) SAS
7 1 (0.18%) Traefik
Applications
1 1 (0.18%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 2 (0.36%) Aladdin
Cloud Services
1 282 (50.63%) Azure
2 232 (41.65%) AWS
3 116 (20.83%) GCP
4 74 (13.29%) GitHub
5 56 (10.05%) Serverless
6 52 (9.34%) Entra ID
7 47 (8.44%) GitHub Actions
8 40 (7.18%) Azure AKS
9 38 (6.82%) IaaS
10 37 (6.64%) Azure DevOps
11 36 (6.46%) PaaS
12 35 (6.28%) Amazon S3
12 35 (6.28%) AWS CloudFormation
13 34 (6.10%) AWS Lambda
13 34 (6.10%) Google Kubernetes Engine
14 31 (5.57%) Virtual Private Cloud
15 29 (5.21%) Amazon EC2
16 26 (4.67%) Amazon ECS
16 26 (4.67%) SaaS
17 25 (4.49%) Amazon EKS
Communications & Networking
1 67 (12.03%) Firewall
2 63 (11.31%) DNS
3 31 (5.57%) VPN
4 26 (4.67%) Network Security
5 15 (2.69%) WAN
6 14 (2.51%) DHCP
7 13 (2.33%) TCP/IP
8 6 (1.08%) SD-WAN
9 5 (0.90%) Internet
9 5 (0.90%) Reverse Proxy
9 5 (0.90%) SSL
9 5 (0.90%) VLAN
10 4 (0.72%) BGP
10 4 (0.72%) LAN
10 4 (0.72%) SAN
10 4 (0.72%) Software-Defined Networking
11 3 (0.54%) IPv4
11 3 (0.54%) OSPF
11 3 (0.54%) SMTP
12 2 (0.36%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 21 (3.77%) SQL Server
2 12 (2.15%) Amazon RDS
3 11 (1.97%) PostgreSQL
4 8 (1.44%) Amazon Athena
4 8 (1.44%) BigQuery
5 7 (1.26%) DynamoDB
6 6 (1.08%) Azure SQL Database
7 5 (0.90%) Oracle Database
8 4 (0.72%) Data Lake
9 3 (0.54%) Amazon QuickSight
9 3 (0.54%) Amazon Redshift
9 3 (0.54%) Big Data
9 3 (0.54%) MySQL
9 3 (0.54%) Oracle Database 12c
10 2 (0.36%) Oracle Exadata
10 2 (0.36%) Relational Database
11 1 (0.18%) Elasticsearch
11 1 (0.18%) Flink
11 1 (0.18%) InfluxDB
11 1 (0.18%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 38 (6.82%) Jenkins
2 37 (6.64%) GitLab
3 31 (5.57%) Git
4 11 (1.97%) JIRA
5 8 (1.44%) Artifactory
6 3 (0.54%) Selenium
6 3 (0.54%) Team Foundation Server
7 2 (0.36%) Bitbucket
7 2 (0.36%) Claude Code
7 2 (0.36%) Cypress.io
7 2 (0.36%) Liquibase
7 2 (0.36%) Robot Framework
8 1 (0.18%) Burp Suite
8 1 (0.18%) Chocolatey
8 1 (0.18%) CircleCI
8 1 (0.18%) Gatling
8 1 (0.18%) Octopus Deploy
8 1 (0.18%) SonarQube
8 1 (0.18%) sqlmap
8 1 (0.18%) TestRail
General
1 63 (11.31%) Finance
1 63 (11.31%) Social Skills
2 47 (8.44%) Public Sector
3 21 (3.77%) Banking
4 20 (3.59%) Analytical Skills
5 9 (1.62%) Documentation Skills
6 7 (1.26%) Investment Banking
7 5 (0.90%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 5 (0.90%) Law
7 5 (0.90%) Legal
8 4 (0.72%) Pharmaceutical
9 3 (0.54%) Local Government
9 3 (0.54%) Military
9 3 (0.54%) Presentation Skills
9 3 (0.54%) Retail
9 3 (0.54%) Telecoms
10 2 (0.36%) Aerospace
10 2 (0.36%) International Banking
10 2 (0.36%) Marketing
10 2 (0.36%) Police
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (3.77%) REST
2 12 (2.15%) OAuth
2 12 (2.15%) OAuth2
3 9 (1.62%) Spring
3 9 (1.62%) Spring Boot
4 8 (1.44%) ARM Templates
4 8 (1.44%) Node.js
5 7 (1.26%) Kafka
5 7 (1.26%) OpenID
5 7 (1.26%) React
6 6 (1.08%) YAML
7 5 (0.90%) FastAPI
7 5 (0.90%) Flask
7 5 (0.90%) Model Context Protocol
7 5 (0.90%) Playwright
8 4 (0.72%) .NET
8 4 (0.72%) AWS CDK
8 4 (0.72%) Express.js
8 4 (0.72%) Jest
9 3 (0.54%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 104 (18.67%) Cloud Native
2 36 (6.46%) Hybrid Cloud
3 31 (5.57%) Security Posture
4 25 (4.49%) Public Cloud
5 19 (3.41%) Data Centre
6 16 (2.87%) Enterprise Cloud
7 15 (2.69%) Cloud Security Posture
8 13 (2.33%) Management Information System
8 13 (2.33%) Onboarding
9 12 (2.15%) Distributed Systems
10 9 (1.62%) Enterprise Software
10 9 (1.62%) Self-Motivation
11 8 (1.44%) Product Ownership
12 7 (1.26%) Legacy Systems
13 6 (1.08%) Linux Command Line
14 5 (0.90%) Private Cloud
15 4 (0.72%) AI Agents
15 4 (0.72%) Virtual Team
16 3 (0.54%) Cyber Threat
16 3 (0.54%) Distributed Architecture
Operating Systems
1 91 (16.34%) Windows
2 57 (10.23%) Linux
3 48 (8.62%) Windows Server
4 24 (4.31%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 8 (1.44%) Ubuntu
5 8 (1.44%) Windows Server 2019
6 3 (0.54%) CentOS
7 2 (0.36%) VMS
7 2 (0.36%) Windows Server 2012
8 1 (0.18%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 209 (37.52%) CI/CD
2 200 (35.91%) Infrastructure as Code
3 180 (32.32%) DevOps
4 127 (22.80%) Cloud Security
5 108 (19.39%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 96 (17.24%) Platform Engineering
7 83 (14.90%) Migration
8 74 (13.29%) Agile
9 66 (11.85%) AI
10 57 (10.23%) Containerisation
11 50 (8.98%) Observability
12 45 (8.08%) Software Engineering
12 45 (8.08%) Technical Leadership
13 44 (7.90%) Infrastructure Automation
14 42 (7.54%) Continuous Improvement
15 41 (7.36%) Problem-Solving
16 37 (6.64%) DevSecOps
17 34 (6.10%) Change Management
18 33 (5.92%) Cybersecurity
19 31 (5.57%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 137 (24.60%) Python
2 120 (21.54%) PowerShell
3 62 (11.13%) Bash
4 56 (10.05%) SQL
5 46 (8.26%) Bicep
6 29 (5.21%) Java
7 16 (2.87%) C#
8 9 (1.62%) Go
8 9 (1.62%) JavaScript
8 9 (1.62%) TypeScript
9 5 (0.90%) Groovy
10 3 (0.54%) Shell Script
11 2 (0.36%) Kusto Query Language
11 2 (0.36%) Ruby
12 1 (0.18%) Apex Code
12 1 (0.18%) C
12 1 (0.18%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 1 (0.18%) Perl
12 1 (0.18%) R
12 1 (0.18%) Scala
Qualifications
1 148 (26.57%) Security Cleared
2 114 (20.47%) SC Cleared
3 46 (8.26%) DV Cleared
4 44 (7.90%) Azure Certification
5 35 (6.28%) AWS Certification
6 18 (3.23%) Degree
7 12 (2.15%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
7 12 (2.15%) Microsoft Certification
8 11 (1.97%) CISSP
9 9 (1.62%) Cisco Certification
10 6 (1.08%) CCNP
10 6 (1.08%) Computer Science Degree
11 4 (0.72%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
11 4 (0.72%) BPSS Clearance
11 4 (0.72%) CCIE
11 4 (0.72%) MCSE
12 3 (0.54%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 3 (0.54%) CISM
12 3 (0.54%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 2 (0.36%) CCIE Security
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (1.80%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 10 (1.80%) NIST
1 10 (1.80%) QA
2 8 (1.44%) Data Quality
3 6 (1.08%) NCSC
4 5 (0.90%) GDPR
5 4 (0.72%) PCI DSS
6 2 (0.36%) Cyber Essentials
6 2 (0.36%) Disclosure Scotland
6 2 (0.36%) SLA
7 1 (0.18%) Accessibility
7 1 (0.18%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 1 (0.18%) Government Security Classifications
7 1 (0.18%) GRC
7 1 (0.18%) SOC 2
7 1 (0.18%) WCAG
System Software
1 59 (10.59%) Docker
2 55 (9.87%) Active Directory
3 28 (5.03%) VMware Infrastructure
4 24 (4.31%) Virtual Machines
5 23 (4.13%) VMware ESXi
6 20 (3.59%) VMware NSX
7 15 (2.69%) vSphere
8 13 (2.33%) Virtual Desktop
9 12 (2.15%) vCloud
10 11 (1.97%) Hyper-V
11 7 (1.26%) Squid
12 4 (0.72%) Firmware
13 3 (0.54%) Ceph
13 3 (0.54%) Dovecot
13 3 (0.54%) NFS
13 3 (0.54%) Postfix
14 2 (0.36%) KVM
Systems Management
1 254 (45.60%) Terraform
2 115 (20.65%) Kubernetes
3 43 (7.72%) Ansible
4 19 (3.41%) Grafana
4 19 (3.41%) Prometheus
4 19 (3.41%) vCenter Server
5 17 (3.05%) Progress Chef
5 17 (3.05%) SCOM
6 15 (2.69%) Microsoft Intune
7 14 (2.51%) Puppet
8 11 (1.97%) Single Sign-On
9 9 (1.62%) Istio
9 9 (1.62%) Packer
10 4 (0.72%) HAProxy
10 4 (0.72%) Suricata
10 4 (0.72%) VxRail
11 3 (0.54%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 3 (0.54%) Salt
11 3 (0.54%) vRealize
12 2 (0.36%) FortiGate
Vendors
1 119 (21.36%) Microsoft
2 79 (14.18%) Google
3 48 (8.62%) VMware
4 24 (4.31%) Oracle
5 16 (2.87%) Red Hat
6 15 (2.69%) Zscaler
7 11 (1.97%) Palo Alto
7 11 (1.97%) ServiceNow
8 9 (1.62%) Cisco
9 8 (1.44%) Dynatrace
9 8 (1.44%) Salesforce
10 7 (1.26%) CrowdStrike
10 7 (1.26%) Splunk
11 6 (1.08%) Broadcom
11 6 (1.08%) Databricks
11 6 (1.08%) Fortinet
11 6 (1.08%) SolarWinds
12 5 (0.90%) Citrix
12 5 (0.90%) OpenAI
13 4 (0.72%) Juniper
284 Cloud Engineer jobs in England