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 11 August 2026.

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

 6 months to
11 Aug 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 202 292 319
Rank change year-on-year +90 +27 -37
Contract jobs requiring a Cloud Engineer 627 224 221
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.38% 0.81% 0.66%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.49% 0.88% 0.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 412 173 148
10th Percentile £400 £402 £383
25th Percentile £462 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -9.09% -
75th Percentile £618 £575 £625
90th Percentile £688 £674 £675
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £550
% change year-on-year +5.00% -9.09% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 25 5 1
10th Percentile - £29.40 -
25th Percentile £23.20 £30.00 £27.50
Median hourly rate £77.00 £45.00 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year +71.11% +50.00% -
75th Percentile £81.25 £62.50 £32.50
90th Percentile - £91.00 -
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 42,171 25,321 30,947
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.49% 91.63% 92.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,536 16,398 20,303
10th Percentile £325 £285 £300
25th Percentile £425 £402 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £512 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.54% -2.48% -4.55%
75th Percentile £630 £625 £638
90th Percentile £738 £738 £750
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.87%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,172 1,321 1,795
10th Percentile £15.25 £13.50 £14.16
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.44 £21.25
Median hourly rate £43.10 £25.15 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +71.38% -44.11% +8.43%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.00 £66.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.25 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +67.99% -41.51% +2.87%

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 11 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 11 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 11 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 +47 309 £525 - 460
South East +2 111 £538 +7.50% 58
North of England -12 100 £525 +16.67% 117
Midlands -8 60 £500 +5.26% 32
North West 0 59 £535 +22.34% 75
Yorkshire -18 34 £462 -7.62% 28
West Midlands -27 32 £525 +8.81% 18
East Midlands +7 27 £450 -5.26% 14
East of England 0 22 £505 +4.12% 26
South West -27 16 £563 +2.27% 52
North East -41 7 £525 +10.53% 14
Cloud Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 11 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.

1 326 (51.99%) Azure
2 270 (43.06%) Terraform
3 232 (37.00%) AWS
4 219 (34.93%) CI/CD
4 219 (34.93%) Infrastructure as Code
5 184 (29.35%) DevOps
6 170 (27.11%) Security Cleared
7 154 (24.56%) Python
8 152 (24.24%) Cloud Security
9 148 (23.60%) PowerShell
10 140 (22.33%) Microsoft
11 139 (22.17%) Kubernetes
12 137 (21.85%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 129 (20.57%) GCP
13 129 (20.57%) SC Cleared
14 105 (16.75%) Platform Engineering
15 104 (16.59%) Windows
16 84 (13.40%) Google
17 82 (13.08%) Migration
18 81 (12.92%) Agile
19 75 (11.96%) Firewall
20 74 (11.80%) AI
20 74 (11.80%) Entra ID
21 73 (11.64%) Bash
22 72 (11.48%) GitHub
23 71 (11.32%) DNS
24 66 (10.53%) Docker
24 66 (10.53%) Linux
25 65 (10.37%) Active Directory
26 63 (10.05%) Containerisation

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 (2.07%) Microsoft Exchange
2 8 (1.28%) Apache
3 7 (1.12%) Confluence
4 5 (0.80%) SharePoint
5 4 (0.64%) Apache Airflow
5 4 (0.64%) nginx
6 3 (0.48%) IIS
6 3 (0.48%) Tomcat
7 2 (0.32%) CloudStack
7 2 (0.32%) OpenStack
8 1 (0.16%) Apache Pulsar
8 1 (0.16%) Traefik
Applications
1 1 (0.16%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 2 (0.32%) Aladdin
Cloud Services
1 326 (51.99%) Azure
2 232 (37.00%) AWS
3 129 (20.57%) GCP
4 74 (11.80%) Entra ID
5 72 (11.48%) GitHub
6 54 (8.61%) Serverless
7 49 (7.81%) GitHub Actions
8 48 (7.66%) Azure DevOps
9 45 (7.18%) IaaS
10 43 (6.86%) Azure AKS
11 39 (6.22%) Google Kubernetes Engine
12 37 (5.90%) AWS CloudFormation
13 35 (5.58%) AWS Lambda
14 34 (5.42%) PaaS
15 33 (5.26%) Virtual Private Cloud
16 32 (5.10%) Azure Monitor
17 31 (4.94%) Amazon EC2
17 31 (4.94%) Amazon S3
18 29 (4.63%) Amazon EKS
19 28 (4.47%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 75 (11.96%) Firewall
2 71 (11.32%) DNS
3 33 (5.26%) VPN
4 31 (4.94%) Network Security
5 17 (2.71%) DHCP
5 17 (2.71%) WAN
6 14 (2.23%) TCP/IP
7 12 (1.91%) Internet
8 6 (0.96%) SD-WAN
8 6 (0.96%) VLAN
9 5 (0.80%) LAN
9 5 (0.80%) Reverse Proxy
9 5 (0.80%) SSL
10 4 (0.64%) BGP
10 4 (0.64%) SAN
10 4 (0.64%) SMTP
11 3 (0.48%) IPv4
11 3 (0.48%) Kerberos
11 3 (0.48%) OSPF
11 3 (0.48%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (3.67%) SQL Server
2 13 (2.07%) Amazon RDS
3 11 (1.75%) BigQuery
4 10 (1.59%) PostgreSQL
5 8 (1.28%) Amazon Athena
5 8 (1.28%) Oracle Exadata
6 6 (0.96%) Azure SQL Database
7 5 (0.80%) DynamoDB
7 5 (0.80%) Oracle Database
8 4 (0.64%) Data Lake
9 3 (0.48%) Amazon QuickSight
9 3 (0.48%) Amazon Redshift
9 3 (0.48%) Flink
9 3 (0.48%) Looker
9 3 (0.48%) MySQL
9 3 (0.48%) Oracle Database 12c
10 2 (0.32%) Big Data
11 1 (0.16%) Redis
11 1 (0.16%) Relational Database
11 1 (0.16%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 44 (7.02%) GitLab
2 34 (5.42%) Jenkins
3 29 (4.63%) Git
4 12 (1.91%) JIRA
5 8 (1.28%) Artifactory
6 3 (0.48%) Selenium
6 3 (0.48%) Team Foundation Server
7 2 (0.32%) Bitbucket
7 2 (0.32%) Claude Code
7 2 (0.32%) Cypress.io
7 2 (0.32%) Gatling
7 2 (0.32%) JMeter
7 2 (0.32%) Octopus Deploy
7 2 (0.32%) 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%) Spinnaker
8 1 (0.16%) TestRail
General
1 76 (12.12%) Finance
2 70 (11.16%) Social Skills
3 54 (8.61%) Public Sector
4 26 (4.15%) Analytical Skills
5 23 (3.67%) Banking
6 10 (1.59%) Documentation Skills
7 8 (1.28%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 6 (0.96%) Investment Banking
9 5 (0.80%) Law
9 5 (0.80%) Legal
9 5 (0.80%) Local Government
10 3 (0.48%) Front Office
10 3 (0.48%) Italian Language
10 3 (0.48%) Military
10 3 (0.48%) Pharmaceutical
10 3 (0.48%) Presentation Skills
11 2 (0.32%) Digital Health
11 2 (0.32%) Digital Healthcare
11 2 (0.32%) Marketing
11 2 (0.32%) Police
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (3.03%) REST
2 12 (1.91%) ARM Templates
2 12 (1.91%) OAuth
2 12 (1.91%) OAuth2
3 10 (1.59%) Spring
3 10 (1.59%) Spring Boot
4 7 (1.12%) OpenID
5 6 (0.96%) FastAPI
5 6 (0.96%) Flask
5 6 (0.96%) Node.js
5 6 (0.96%) React
5 6 (0.96%) YAML
6 5 (0.80%) AWS CDK
6 5 (0.80%) Kafka
7 4 (0.64%) Hugging Face
7 4 (0.64%) Model Context Protocol
7 4 (0.64%) Playwright
7 4 (0.64%) PyTorch
7 4 (0.64%) TensorFlow
8 3 (0.48%) Apache Beam
Miscellaneous
1 109 (17.38%) Cloud Native
2 52 (8.29%) Security Posture
3 34 (5.42%) Hybrid Cloud
4 30 (4.78%) Enterprise Cloud
5 23 (3.67%) Cloud Security Posture
6 21 (3.35%) Public Cloud
7 16 (2.55%) Management Information System
8 14 (2.23%) Data Centre
8 14 (2.23%) Onboarding
9 13 (2.07%) Enterprise Software
10 11 (1.75%) Distributed Systems
11 9 (1.44%) Self-Motivation
12 8 (1.28%) AI Agents
13 7 (1.12%) Legacy Systems
13 7 (1.12%) Product Ownership
14 6 (0.96%) Linux Command Line
15 5 (0.80%) PKI
15 5 (0.80%) Private Cloud
16 4 (0.64%) Virtual Team
17 3 (0.48%) Cyber Defence
Operating Systems
1 104 (16.59%) Windows
2 66 (10.53%) Linux
3 52 (8.29%) Windows Server
4 29 (4.63%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 10 (1.59%) Windows Server 2019
6 8 (1.28%) Ubuntu
7 3 (0.48%) CentOS
7 3 (0.48%) VMS
8 2 (0.32%) Windows Server 2012
9 1 (0.16%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 219 (34.93%) CI/CD
1 219 (34.93%) Infrastructure as Code
2 184 (29.35%) DevOps
3 152 (24.24%) Cloud Security
4 137 (21.85%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 105 (16.75%) Platform Engineering
6 82 (13.08%) Migration
7 81 (12.92%) Agile
8 74 (11.80%) AI
9 63 (10.05%) Containerisation
10 62 (9.89%) Observability
11 52 (8.29%) Software Engineering
12 49 (7.81%) Continuous Improvement
13 48 (7.66%) Technical Leadership
14 46 (7.34%) Infrastructure Automation
15 45 (7.18%) DevSecOps
16 43 (6.86%) Change Management
17 42 (6.70%) Problem-Solving
18 37 (5.90%) Deployment Automation
18 37 (5.90%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 154 (24.56%) Python
2 148 (23.60%) PowerShell
3 73 (11.64%) Bash
4 62 (9.89%) Bicep
5 58 (9.25%) SQL
6 33 (5.26%) Java
7 18 (2.87%) C#
8 10 (1.59%) JavaScript
9 9 (1.44%) Go
10 7 (1.12%) TypeScript
11 6 (0.96%) Shell Script
12 4 (0.64%) Groovy
13 3 (0.48%) C
13 3 (0.48%) Scala
14 2 (0.32%) Kusto Query Language
14 2 (0.32%) Ruby
15 1 (0.16%) Apex Code
15 1 (0.16%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 1 (0.16%) Perl
15 1 (0.16%) R
Qualifications
1 170 (27.11%) Security Cleared
2 129 (20.57%) SC Cleared
3 57 (9.09%) DV Cleared
4 50 (7.97%) Azure Certification
5 42 (6.70%) AWS Certification
6 28 (4.47%) Degree
7 16 (2.55%) CISSP
8 15 (2.39%) Microsoft Certification
9 12 (1.91%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 9 (1.44%) Cisco Certification
10 9 (1.44%) Computer Science Degree
11 6 (0.96%) CCNP
11 6 (0.96%) CISM
11 6 (0.96%) MCSE
12 4 (0.64%) CCIE
12 4 (0.64%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 3 (0.48%) (ISC)2 CCSP
13 3 (0.48%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
13 3 (0.48%) BPSS Clearance
13 3 (0.48%) CEH
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (2.07%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 10 (1.59%) Data Quality
2 10 (1.59%) QA
3 8 (1.28%) NCSC
3 8 (1.28%) NIST
4 6 (0.96%) GDPR
5 2 (0.32%) Cyber Essentials
5 2 (0.32%) Disclosure Scotland
5 2 (0.32%) PCI DSS
5 2 (0.32%) SLA
6 1 (0.16%) Accessibility
6 1 (0.16%) Actionable Recommendations
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 (10.53%) Docker
2 65 (10.37%) Active Directory
3 35 (5.58%) VMware Infrastructure
4 32 (5.10%) Virtual Machines
5 25 (3.99%) VMware ESXi
6 21 (3.35%) VMware NSX
7 20 (3.19%) Virtual Desktop
8 17 (2.71%) vSphere
9 12 (1.91%) vCloud
10 10 (1.59%) Hyper-V
11 7 (1.12%) Squid
12 5 (0.80%) Firmware
13 3 (0.48%) Ceph
13 3 (0.48%) Dovecot
13 3 (0.48%) NFS
13 3 (0.48%) Postfix
14 2 (0.32%) KVM
14 2 (0.32%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 270 (43.06%) Terraform
2 139 (22.17%) Kubernetes
3 46 (7.34%) Ansible
4 23 (3.67%) Microsoft Intune
5 21 (3.35%) vCenter Server
6 20 (3.19%) Progress Chef
7 19 (3.03%) Grafana
7 19 (3.03%) SCOM
8 18 (2.87%) Prometheus
9 15 (2.39%) Puppet
10 10 (1.59%) Single Sign-On
11 8 (1.28%) Istio
11 8 (1.28%) Packer
12 5 (0.80%) VxRail
13 4 (0.64%) HAProxy
13 4 (0.64%) Suricata
14 3 (0.48%) Active Directory Federation Services
14 3 (0.48%) Salt
14 3 (0.48%) vRealize
15 2 (0.32%) Cilium
Vendors
1 140 (22.33%) Microsoft
2 84 (13.40%) Google
3 56 (8.93%) VMware
4 27 (4.31%) Oracle
5 18 (2.87%) Red Hat
6 16 (2.55%) Zscaler
7 12 (1.91%) ServiceNow
7 12 (1.91%) Splunk
8 11 (1.75%) Palo Alto
9 9 (1.44%) Cisco
9 9 (1.44%) Dynatrace
9 9 (1.44%) OpenAI
9 9 (1.44%) Salesforce
10 8 (1.28%) Broadcom
10 8 (1.28%) SolarWinds
11 7 (1.12%) CrowdStrike
11 7 (1.12%) New Relic
12 6 (0.96%) Databricks
12 6 (0.96%) Fortinet
13 5 (0.80%) CyberArk
772 Cloud Engineer jobs in England