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 8 September 2026.

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

 6 months to
8 Sep 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 197 307 318
Rank change year-on-year +110 +11 -40
Contract jobs requiring a Cloud Engineer 665 214 213
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.45% 0.78% 0.65%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.57% 0.86% 0.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 445 160 136
10th Percentile £403 £402 £400
25th Percentile £455 £445 £459
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £570
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -12.28% +3.64%
75th Percentile £607 £552 £638
90th Percentile £680 £638 £681
UK median daily rate £520 £500 £550
% change year-on-year +4.00% -9.09% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 26 7 0
10th Percentile £23.20 £29.00 -
25th Percentile £34.02 £29.50 -
Median hourly rate £77.00 £45.00 -
Median % change year-on-year +71.11% - -
75th Percentile £81.25 £86.25 -
90th Percentile - £110.00 -
UK median hourly rate £77.00 £45.00 -
% change year-on-year +71.11% - -

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 42,476 25,002 30,336
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.38% 91.41% 93.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,485 16,122 19,317
10th Percentile £325 £281 £305
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £508 £525
Median % change year-on-year +3.45% -3.33% -4.55%
75th Percentile £638 £625 £638
90th Percentile £738 £738 £750
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.69%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,304 1,327 1,545
10th Percentile £15.13 £13.67 £14.60
25th Percentile £21.14 £17.30 £21.25
Median hourly rate £44.03 £25.15 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +75.07% -47.05% +8.20%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.00 £67.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £72.50 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.90
% change year-on-year +68.99% -42.71% +3.29%

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 8 September 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 8 September 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 8 September 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 +68 297 £525 +2.44% 464
North of England +13 129 £513 +13.89% 96
South East +14 128 £538 +7.50% 67
North West +6 79 £525 +20.00% 53
Midlands +2 68 £500 - 40
Yorkshire -7 42 £460 -8.00% 33
East Midlands +13 35 £475 - 21
West Midlands -16 32 £525 -3.67% 19
East of England -6 19 £488 +0.52% 31
South West -36 16 £575 +4.55% 53
North East -39 8 £525 +14.13% 10
Cloud Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 8 September 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.

1 335 (50.38%) Azure
2 265 (39.85%) Terraform
3 231 (34.74%) AWS
4 229 (34.44%) Infrastructure as Code
5 221 (33.23%) CI/CD
6 187 (28.12%) Security Cleared
7 177 (26.62%) DevOps
8 161 (24.21%) Cloud Security
9 157 (23.61%) Kubernetes
10 154 (23.16%) Python
11 146 (21.95%) PowerShell
12 145 (21.80%) Microsoft
13 143 (21.50%) Infrastructure Engineering
14 134 (20.15%) SC Cleared
15 132 (19.85%) GCP
16 122 (18.35%) Platform Engineering
17 105 (15.79%) Windows
18 85 (12.78%) Entra ID
19 83 (12.48%) AI
19 83 (12.48%) Google
20 82 (12.33%) Migration
21 79 (11.88%) Agile
22 78 (11.73%) Active Directory
23 77 (11.58%) DNS
24 76 (11.43%) Firewall
25 73 (10.98%) Bash
26 71 (10.68%) VMware
27 70 (10.53%) DV Cleared
28 69 (10.38%) Bicep
28 69 (10.38%) Linux

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 13 (1.95%) Microsoft Exchange
2 10 (1.50%) Apache
3 6 (0.90%) Apache Airflow
3 6 (0.90%) Confluence
3 6 (0.90%) SharePoint
4 3 (0.45%) IIS
4 3 (0.45%) nginx
4 3 (0.45%) Tomcat
5 2 (0.30%) CloudStack
5 2 (0.30%) OpenStack
6 1 (0.15%) Apache Pulsar
Applications
1 1 (0.15%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 1 (0.15%) Aladdin
Cloud Services
1 335 (50.38%) Azure
2 231 (34.74%) AWS
3 132 (19.85%) GCP
4 85 (12.78%) Entra ID
5 67 (10.08%) GitHub
6 51 (7.67%) Azure DevOps
6 51 (7.67%) Serverless
7 48 (7.22%) IaaS
8 43 (6.47%) GitHub Actions
9 39 (5.86%) AWS CloudFormation
10 38 (5.71%) AWS Lambda
10 38 (5.71%) Google Kubernetes Engine
11 35 (5.26%) Azure Monitor
11 35 (5.26%) PaaS
12 33 (4.96%) Azure AKS
13 30 (4.51%) Microsoft 365
13 30 (4.51%) SaaS
14 29 (4.36%) Amazon EKS
15 28 (4.21%) Amazon CloudWatch
15 28 (4.21%) Amazon EC2
Communications & Networking
1 77 (11.58%) DNS
2 76 (11.43%) Firewall
3 39 (5.86%) Network Security
4 31 (4.66%) VPN
5 18 (2.71%) DHCP
6 17 (2.56%) WAN
7 15 (2.26%) TCP/IP
8 12 (1.80%) Internet
9 6 (0.90%) SD-WAN
9 6 (0.90%) VLAN
10 5 (0.75%) LAN
10 5 (0.75%) SSL
10 5 (0.75%) VSAN
11 4 (0.60%) Wireless
12 3 (0.45%) BGP
12 3 (0.45%) IPv4
12 3 (0.45%) Kerberos
12 3 (0.45%) OSPF
12 3 (0.45%) SAN
12 3 (0.45%) SMTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (3.46%) SQL Server
2 16 (2.41%) Amazon RDS
3 13 (1.95%) PostgreSQL
4 10 (1.50%) BigQuery
5 9 (1.35%) Data Lake
6 8 (1.20%) Oracle Exadata
7 6 (0.90%) Azure SQL Database
7 6 (0.90%) DynamoDB
8 5 (0.75%) Amazon Athena
8 5 (0.75%) NoSQL
8 5 (0.75%) Oracle Database
9 3 (0.45%) Flink
9 3 (0.45%) Looker
9 3 (0.45%) MySQL
9 3 (0.45%) Oracle Database 12c
10 2 (0.30%) Amazon QuickSight
10 2 (0.30%) Amazon Redshift
10 2 (0.30%) Big Data
10 2 (0.30%) Data Warehouse
10 2 (0.30%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 48 (7.22%) GitLab
2 35 (5.26%) Jenkins
3 30 (4.51%) Git
4 11 (1.65%) JIRA
5 7 (1.05%) Artifactory
6 3 (0.45%) Claude Code
6 3 (0.45%) Selenium
6 3 (0.45%) Terragrunt
7 2 (0.30%) Bitbucket
7 2 (0.30%) Cypress.io
7 2 (0.30%) Gatling
7 2 (0.30%) JMeter
7 2 (0.30%) Octopus Deploy
7 2 (0.30%) Robot Framework
8 1 (0.15%) Burp Suite
8 1 (0.15%) CircleCI
8 1 (0.15%) SonarQube
8 1 (0.15%) Spinnaker
8 1 (0.15%) sqlmap
8 1 (0.15%) TestRail
General
1 79 (11.88%) Finance
2 64 (9.62%) Social Skills
3 61 (9.17%) Public Sector
4 28 (4.21%) Analytical Skills
5 23 (3.46%) Banking
6 9 (1.35%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 8 (1.20%) Manufacturing
8 6 (0.90%) Documentation Skills
9 5 (0.75%) Investment Banking
9 5 (0.75%) Law
9 5 (0.75%) Legal
9 5 (0.75%) Local Government
10 3 (0.45%) Aerospace
10 3 (0.45%) Digital Health
10 3 (0.45%) Front Office
10 3 (0.45%) Italian Language
10 3 (0.45%) Marketing
10 3 (0.45%) Military
10 3 (0.45%) Pharmaceutical
10 3 (0.45%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 265 (39.85%) Terraform
2 19 (2.86%) REST
3 15 (2.26%) ARM Templates
4 13 (1.95%) Kafka
5 11 (1.65%) Spring
5 11 (1.65%) Spring Boot
6 9 (1.35%) OAuth
6 9 (1.35%) OAuth2
7 8 (1.20%) YAML
8 6 (0.90%) FastAPI
8 6 (0.90%) Flask
8 6 (0.90%) React
9 5 (0.75%) AWS CDK
9 5 (0.75%) Azure Blueprints
10 4 (0.60%) .NET
10 4 (0.60%) Hugging Face
10 4 (0.60%) Keycloak
10 4 (0.60%) OpenID
10 4 (0.60%) PyTorch
10 4 (0.60%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 105 (15.79%) Cloud Native
2 58 (8.72%) Security Posture
3 35 (5.26%) Hybrid Cloud
4 33 (4.96%) Enterprise Cloud
5 30 (4.51%) Cloud Security Posture
6 21 (3.16%) Management Information System
7 18 (2.71%) Distributed Systems
7 18 (2.71%) Onboarding
8 16 (2.41%) Public Cloud
9 15 (2.26%) Data Centre
10 13 (1.95%) Enterprise Software
11 12 (1.80%) Private Cloud
11 12 (1.80%) Product Ownership
12 8 (1.20%) AI Agents
13 7 (1.05%) Legacy Systems
13 7 (1.05%) Linux Command Line
14 6 (0.90%) PKI
15 5 (0.75%) Distributed Architecture
16 4 (0.60%) Self-Motivation
16 4 (0.60%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 105 (15.79%) Windows
2 69 (10.38%) Linux
3 57 (8.57%) Windows Server
4 29 (4.36%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 13 (1.95%) Windows Server 2019
6 8 (1.20%) Ubuntu
7 3 (0.45%) CentOS
7 3 (0.45%) VMS
8 2 (0.30%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 229 (34.44%) Infrastructure as Code
2 221 (33.23%) CI/CD
3 177 (26.62%) DevOps
4 161 (24.21%) Cloud Security
5 143 (21.50%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 122 (18.35%) Platform Engineering
7 83 (12.48%) AI
8 82 (12.33%) Migration
9 79 (11.88%) Agile
10 68 (10.23%) Observability
11 63 (9.47%) Containerisation
12 60 (9.02%) Technical Leadership
13 54 (8.12%) DevSecOps
14 52 (7.82%) Continuous Improvement
14 52 (7.82%) Cybersecurity
14 52 (7.82%) Software Engineering
15 49 (7.37%) Infrastructure Automation
16 48 (7.22%) Change Management
17 44 (6.62%) Deployment Automation
17 44 (6.62%) Problem-Solving
Programming Languages
1 154 (23.16%) Python
2 146 (21.95%) PowerShell
3 73 (10.98%) Bash
4 69 (10.38%) Bicep
5 59 (8.87%) SQL
6 34 (5.11%) Java
7 13 (1.95%) C#
8 10 (1.50%) Go
9 9 (1.35%) JavaScript
10 8 (1.20%) Shell Script
11 4 (0.60%) Groovy
11 4 (0.60%) TypeScript
12 3 (0.45%) C
12 3 (0.45%) Scala
13 2 (0.30%) Kusto Query Language
14 1 (0.15%) Apex Code
14 1 (0.15%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 1 (0.15%) Kotlin
14 1 (0.15%) R
14 1 (0.15%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 187 (28.12%) Security Cleared
2 134 (20.15%) SC Cleared
3 70 (10.53%) DV Cleared
4 44 (6.62%) Azure Certification
5 42 (6.32%) AWS Certification
6 31 (4.66%) Degree
7 18 (2.71%) Microsoft Certification
8 17 (2.56%) CISSP
9 11 (1.65%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 7 (1.05%) Cisco Certification
10 7 (1.05%) Computer Science Degree
11 6 (0.90%) CCNP
11 6 (0.90%) CISM
11 6 (0.90%) MCSE
12 5 (0.75%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 4 (0.60%) CCIE
14 3 (0.45%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
14 3 (0.45%) BPSS Clearance
14 3 (0.45%) CEH
15 2 (0.30%) CCIE Security
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (2.41%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 10 (1.50%) Data Quality
2 10 (1.50%) NIST
2 10 (1.50%) QA
3 9 (1.35%) NCSC
4 5 (0.75%) Cyber Essentials
4 5 (0.75%) GDPR
5 3 (0.45%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 3 (0.45%) SLA
6 2 (0.30%) Disclosure Scotland
6 2 (0.30%) PCI DSS
7 1 (0.15%) Accessibility
7 1 (0.15%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.15%) Government Security Classifications
7 1 (0.15%) GRC
7 1 (0.15%) SOC 2
7 1 (0.15%) WCAG
System Software
1 78 (11.73%) Active Directory
2 67 (10.08%) Docker
3 46 (6.92%) VMware Infrastructure
4 32 (4.81%) VMware ESXi
5 31 (4.66%) Virtual Machines
6 26 (3.91%) VMware NSX
7 20 (3.01%) Virtual Desktop
8 19 (2.86%) vSphere
9 15 (2.26%) vCloud
10 11 (1.65%) Hyper-V
11 7 (1.05%) Squid
12 4 (0.60%) Firmware
13 3 (0.45%) Ceph
13 3 (0.45%) Dovecot
13 3 (0.45%) NFS
13 3 (0.45%) Postfix
14 2 (0.30%) KVM
14 2 (0.30%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 157 (23.61%) Kubernetes
2 46 (6.92%) Ansible
3 29 (4.36%) vCenter Server
4 25 (3.76%) SCOM
5 22 (3.31%) Microsoft Intune
6 19 (2.86%) Grafana
6 19 (2.86%) Progress Chef
7 18 (2.71%) Prometheus
8 14 (2.11%) Puppet
9 11 (1.65%) Istio
10 7 (1.05%) Single Sign-On
11 6 (0.90%) Packer
12 5 (0.75%) VxRail
13 4 (0.60%) Suricata
14 3 (0.45%) Active Directory Federation Services
14 3 (0.45%) Cilium
14 3 (0.45%) HAProxy
14 3 (0.45%) vRealize
15 2 (0.30%) Argo
15 2 (0.30%) SELinux
Vendors
1 145 (21.80%) Microsoft
2 83 (12.48%) Google
3 71 (10.68%) VMware
4 32 (4.81%) Oracle
5 20 (3.01%) Databricks
6 19 (2.86%) Red Hat
7 15 (2.26%) Zscaler
8 12 (1.80%) SolarWinds
9 11 (1.65%) Broadcom
9 11 (1.65%) Palo Alto
9 11 (1.65%) Splunk
10 10 (1.50%) OpenAI
10 10 (1.50%) ServiceNow
11 9 (1.35%) Salesforce
12 8 (1.20%) Cisco
12 8 (1.20%) Dynatrace
13 7 (1.05%) CrowdStrike
13 7 (1.05%) New Relic
14 5 (0.75%) CyberArk
14 5 (0.75%) Fortinet
752 Cloud Engineer jobs in England