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 5 August 2026.

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

 6 months to
5 Aug 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 210 286 319
Rank change year-on-year +76 +33 -41
Contract jobs requiring a Cloud Engineer 615 227 223
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.35% 0.82% 0.67%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.46% 0.90% 0.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 406 177 153
10th Percentile £400 £401 £389
25th Percentile £463 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -9.09% -
75th Percentile £625 £575 £625
90th Percentile £690 £643 £675
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £550
% change year-on-year +5.00% -9.09% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 24 4 1
10th Percentile £23.20 £33.75 -
25th Percentile £59.05 £39.38 £27.50
Median hourly rate £77.00 £53.75 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year +43.26% +79.17% -
75th Percentile £81.25 £74.38 £32.50
90th Percentile - £95.75 -
UK median hourly rate £77.00 £53.75 £30.00
% change year-on-year +43.26% +79.17% -

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 42,051 25,317 31,124
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.58% 91.70% 92.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,530 16,429 20,502
10th Percentile £328 £286 £300
25th Percentile £425 £402 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £510 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
75th Percentile £626 £625 £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 3,118 1,308 1,828
10th Percentile £15.74 £13.54 £14.16
25th Percentile £21.93 £17.50 £21.25
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.32 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +77.73% -43.73% +5.88%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% +1.18%

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 5 August 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 5 August 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 5 August 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 +67 305 £525 +0.48% 457
South East +1 107 £538 +2.38% 57
North of England -1 96 £525 +16.67% 113
Midlands -9 61 £525 +10.53% 34
North West -16 56 £538 +22.86% 72
West Midlands -27 34 £525 +8.81% 23
Yorkshire -20 33 £475 -5.00% 29
East Midlands +7 26 £450 -5.26% 11
East of England +4 22 £505 +26.25% 28
South West -37 16 £563 +2.27% 56
North East -39 7 £525 +7.69% 12
Cloud Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 5 August 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.

1 313 (50.89%) Azure
2 265 (43.09%) Terraform
3 234 (38.05%) AWS
4 218 (35.45%) CI/CD
5 213 (34.63%) Infrastructure as Code
6 180 (29.27%) DevOps
7 167 (27.15%) Security Cleared
8 150 (24.39%) Python
9 145 (23.58%) Cloud Security
10 141 (22.93%) PowerShell
11 135 (21.95%) Kubernetes
12 132 (21.46%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 132 (21.46%) Microsoft
13 127 (20.65%) SC Cleared
14 126 (20.49%) GCP
15 103 (16.75%) Platform Engineering
16 100 (16.26%) Windows
17 83 (13.50%) Google
18 79 (12.85%) Migration
19 78 (12.68%) Agile
20 74 (12.03%) AI
21 73 (11.87%) Firewall
22 71 (11.54%) DNS
22 71 (11.54%) GitHub
23 70 (11.38%) Bash
24 69 (11.22%) Entra ID
25 66 (10.73%) Docker
26 65 (10.57%) Linux
27 64 (10.41%) Containerisation
28 62 (10.08%) Active Directory

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 (1.95%) Microsoft Exchange
2 8 (1.30%) Apache
3 7 (1.14%) Confluence
4 5 (0.81%) SharePoint
5 4 (0.65%) Apache Airflow
5 4 (0.65%) nginx
6 3 (0.49%) IIS
6 3 (0.49%) Tomcat
7 2 (0.33%) CloudStack
7 2 (0.33%) OpenStack
8 1 (0.16%) Apache Pulsar
8 1 (0.16%) Apache Spark
8 1 (0.16%) Traefik
Applications
1 1 (0.16%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 2 (0.33%) Aladdin
Cloud Services
1 313 (50.89%) Azure
2 234 (38.05%) AWS
3 126 (20.49%) GCP
4 71 (11.54%) GitHub
5 69 (11.22%) Entra ID
6 56 (9.11%) Serverless
7 48 (7.80%) GitHub Actions
8 45 (7.32%) Azure DevOps
9 44 (7.15%) IaaS
10 41 (6.67%) Azure AKS
11 36 (5.85%) Google Kubernetes Engine
12 35 (5.69%) AWS CloudFormation
12 35 (5.69%) AWS Lambda
13 33 (5.37%) Amazon S3
13 33 (5.37%) PaaS
13 33 (5.37%) Virtual Private Cloud
14 30 (4.88%) Amazon EC2
15 29 (4.72%) Azure Monitor
16 28 (4.55%) Amazon EKS
17 26 (4.23%) Amazon ECS
Communications & Networking
1 73 (11.87%) Firewall
2 71 (11.54%) DNS
3 34 (5.53%) VPN
4 29 (4.72%) Network Security
5 16 (2.60%) DHCP
5 16 (2.60%) WAN
6 14 (2.28%) TCP/IP
7 11 (1.79%) Internet
8 6 (0.98%) SD-WAN
8 6 (0.98%) VLAN
9 5 (0.81%) Reverse Proxy
9 5 (0.81%) SSL
10 4 (0.65%) BGP
10 4 (0.65%) LAN
10 4 (0.65%) SAN
11 3 (0.49%) IPv4
11 3 (0.49%) OSPF
11 3 (0.49%) SMTP
11 3 (0.49%) VSAN
11 3 (0.49%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 22 (3.58%) SQL Server
2 12 (1.95%) Amazon RDS
3 10 (1.63%) BigQuery
3 10 (1.63%) PostgreSQL
4 9 (1.46%) Amazon Athena
5 7 (1.14%) Oracle Exadata
6 6 (0.98%) Azure SQL Database
6 6 (0.98%) DynamoDB
7 5 (0.81%) Oracle Database
8 4 (0.65%) Data Lake
9 3 (0.49%) Amazon QuickSight
9 3 (0.49%) Amazon Redshift
9 3 (0.49%) Flink
9 3 (0.49%) Looker
9 3 (0.49%) MySQL
9 3 (0.49%) Oracle Database 12c
10 2 (0.33%) Big Data
11 1 (0.16%) Neo4j
11 1 (0.16%) Redis
11 1 (0.16%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 44 (7.15%) GitLab
2 34 (5.53%) Jenkins
3 28 (4.55%) Git
4 12 (1.95%) JIRA
5 8 (1.30%) Artifactory
6 3 (0.49%) Selenium
6 3 (0.49%) Team Foundation Server
7 2 (0.33%) Bitbucket
7 2 (0.33%) Claude Code
7 2 (0.33%) Cypress.io
7 2 (0.33%) Liquibase
7 2 (0.33%) Octopus Deploy
7 2 (0.33%) Robot Framework
8 1 (0.16%) Chocolatey
8 1 (0.16%) CircleCI
8 1 (0.16%) Postman
8 1 (0.16%) REST Assured
8 1 (0.16%) SonarQube
8 1 (0.16%) Spinnaker
8 1 (0.16%) TestRail
General
1 75 (12.20%) Finance
2 65 (10.57%) Social Skills
3 51 (8.29%) Public Sector
4 24 (3.90%) Analytical Skills
5 23 (3.74%) Banking
6 10 (1.63%) Documentation Skills
7 7 (1.14%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 6 (0.98%) Investment Banking
9 5 (0.81%) Law
9 5 (0.81%) Local Government
10 4 (0.65%) Legal
11 3 (0.49%) Front Office
11 3 (0.49%) Italian Language
11 3 (0.49%) Military
11 3 (0.49%) Pharmaceutical
11 3 (0.49%) Presentation Skills
11 3 (0.49%) Telecoms
12 2 (0.33%) International Banking
12 2 (0.33%) Marketing
12 2 (0.33%) Police
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (3.41%) REST
2 12 (1.95%) OAuth
2 12 (1.95%) OAuth2
3 11 (1.79%) ARM Templates
4 10 (1.63%) Spring
4 10 (1.63%) Spring Boot
5 8 (1.30%) Node.js
6 7 (1.14%) OpenID
7 6 (0.98%) FastAPI
7 6 (0.98%) Flask
7 6 (0.98%) React
7 6 (0.98%) YAML
8 5 (0.81%) AWS CDK
8 5 (0.81%) Kafka
8 5 (0.81%) Model Context Protocol
8 5 (0.81%) Playwright
9 4 (0.65%) Express.js
9 4 (0.65%) Hugging Face
9 4 (0.65%) Lambda Expressions
9 4 (0.65%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 112 (18.21%) Cloud Native
2 48 (7.80%) Security Posture
3 33 (5.37%) Hybrid Cloud
4 26 (4.23%) Enterprise Cloud
5 23 (3.74%) Public Cloud
6 20 (3.25%) Cloud Security Posture
7 15 (2.44%) Data Centre
7 15 (2.44%) Management Information System
8 14 (2.28%) Onboarding
9 12 (1.95%) Distributed Systems
9 12 (1.95%) Enterprise Software
10 9 (1.46%) Self-Motivation
11 8 (1.30%) AI Agents
12 7 (1.14%) Legacy Systems
12 7 (1.14%) Product Ownership
13 6 (0.98%) Linux Command Line
14 5 (0.81%) PKI
14 5 (0.81%) Private Cloud
15 4 (0.65%) Virtual Team
16 3 (0.49%) Cyber Defence
Operating Systems
1 100 (16.26%) Windows
2 65 (10.57%) Linux
3 50 (8.13%) Windows Server
4 27 (4.39%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 10 (1.63%) Windows Server 2019
6 8 (1.30%) Ubuntu
7 3 (0.49%) CentOS
8 2 (0.33%) VMS
8 2 (0.33%) Windows Server 2012
9 1 (0.16%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 218 (35.45%) CI/CD
2 213 (34.63%) Infrastructure as Code
3 180 (29.27%) DevOps
4 145 (23.58%) Cloud Security
5 132 (21.46%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 103 (16.75%) Platform Engineering
7 79 (12.85%) Migration
8 78 (12.68%) Agile
9 74 (12.03%) AI
10 64 (10.41%) Containerisation
11 58 (9.43%) Observability
12 53 (8.62%) Software Engineering
13 48 (7.80%) Technical Leadership
14 45 (7.32%) Infrastructure Automation
15 44 (7.15%) Continuous Improvement
16 42 (6.83%) Change Management
16 42 (6.83%) DevSecOps
16 42 (6.83%) Problem-Solving
17 37 (6.02%) Cybersecurity
18 34 (5.53%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 150 (24.39%) Python
2 141 (22.93%) PowerShell
3 70 (11.38%) Bash
4 59 (9.59%) Bicep
5 58 (9.43%) SQL
6 33 (5.37%) Java
7 17 (2.76%) C#
8 10 (1.63%) JavaScript
9 9 (1.46%) Go
10 8 (1.30%) TypeScript
11 5 (0.81%) Shell Script
12 4 (0.65%) Groovy
13 3 (0.49%) C
13 3 (0.49%) Scala
14 2 (0.33%) Kusto Query Language
14 2 (0.33%) Ruby
15 1 (0.16%) Apex Code
15 1 (0.16%) Cypher
15 1 (0.16%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 1 (0.16%) Perl
Qualifications
1 167 (27.15%) Security Cleared
2 127 (20.65%) SC Cleared
3 56 (9.11%) DV Cleared
4 48 (7.80%) Azure Certification
5 42 (6.83%) AWS Certification
6 27 (4.39%) Degree
7 15 (2.44%) CISSP
8 13 (2.11%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
8 13 (2.11%) Microsoft Certification
9 9 (1.46%) Cisco Certification
9 9 (1.46%) Computer Science Degree
10 6 (0.98%) CCNP
10 6 (0.98%) CISM
11 4 (0.65%) CCIE
11 4 (0.65%) MCSE
11 4 (0.65%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 3 (0.49%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 3 (0.49%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
12 3 (0.49%) BPSS Clearance
12 3 (0.49%) CEH
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (1.95%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 10 (1.63%) Data Quality
2 10 (1.63%) QA
3 8 (1.30%) NCSC
3 8 (1.30%) NIST
4 5 (0.81%) GDPR
5 2 (0.33%) Cyber Essentials
5 2 (0.33%) Disclosure Scotland
5 2 (0.33%) PCI DSS
5 2 (0.33%) SLA
6 1 (0.16%) Accessibility
6 1 (0.16%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 1 (0.16%) Government Security Classifications
6 1 (0.16%) GRC
6 1 (0.16%) SOC 2
6 1 (0.16%) WCAG
System Software
1 66 (10.73%) Docker
2 62 (10.08%) Active Directory
3 34 (5.53%) VMware Infrastructure
4 30 (4.88%) Virtual Machines
5 25 (4.07%) VMware ESXi
6 21 (3.41%) VMware NSX
7 17 (2.76%) vSphere
8 16 (2.60%) Virtual Desktop
9 12 (1.95%) vCloud
10 10 (1.63%) Hyper-V
11 7 (1.14%) Squid
12 5 (0.81%) Firmware
13 3 (0.49%) Ceph
13 3 (0.49%) Dovecot
13 3 (0.49%) NFS
13 3 (0.49%) Postfix
14 2 (0.33%) KVM
14 2 (0.33%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 265 (43.09%) Terraform
2 135 (21.95%) Kubernetes
3 47 (7.64%) Ansible
4 21 (3.41%) vCenter Server
5 19 (3.09%) Grafana
5 19 (3.09%) Progress Chef
5 19 (3.09%) Prometheus
5 19 (3.09%) SCOM
6 18 (2.93%) Microsoft Intune
7 15 (2.44%) Puppet
8 11 (1.79%) Single Sign-On
9 8 (1.30%) Istio
9 8 (1.30%) Packer
10 5 (0.81%) VxRail
11 4 (0.65%) HAProxy
11 4 (0.65%) Suricata
12 3 (0.49%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 3 (0.49%) Argo
12 3 (0.49%) Salt
12 3 (0.49%) vRealize
Vendors
1 132 (21.46%) Microsoft
2 83 (13.50%) Google
3 55 (8.94%) VMware
4 25 (4.07%) Oracle
5 17 (2.76%) Red Hat
6 15 (2.44%) Zscaler
7 12 (1.95%) ServiceNow
8 11 (1.79%) Palo Alto
8 11 (1.79%) Splunk
9 9 (1.46%) Cisco
9 9 (1.46%) Salesforce
10 8 (1.30%) Broadcom
10 8 (1.30%) Dynatrace
10 8 (1.30%) OpenAI
10 8 (1.30%) SolarWinds
11 7 (1.14%) CrowdStrike
12 6 (0.98%) Databricks
12 6 (0.98%) Fortinet
12 6 (0.98%) New Relic
13 5 (0.81%) CyberArk
765 Cloud Engineer jobs in England