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 May 2026.

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

6 months to
15 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 245 284 310
Rank change year-on-year +39 +26 -41
Contract jobs requiring a Cloud Engineer 427 191 232
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.05% 0.79% 0.64%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.14% 0.85% 0.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 289 159 163
10th Percentile £413 £400 £400
25th Percentile £469 £442 £474
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -9.09% -
75th Percentile £625 £600 £617
90th Percentile £691 £650 £675
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £550
% change year-on-year +5.00% -9.09% -3.51%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 0 3
10th Percentile £57.18 - -
25th Percentile £66.06 - £27.50
Median hourly rate £74.00 - £30.00
75th Percentile £76.00 - £32.50
90th Percentile - - -
UK median hourly rate £62.25 - £30.00
% change year-on-year - - -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 37,605 22,375 33,819
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.33% 92.47% 92.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,373 14,887 22,423
10th Percentile £316 £300 £281
25th Percentile £413 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.38% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £645
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £510 £513 £525
% change year-on-year -0.49% -2.38% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,580 908 2,438
10th Percentile £15.50 £14.00 £12.87
25th Percentile £20.90 £18.51 £16.30
Median hourly rate £46.14 £30.20 £37.18
Median % change year-on-year +52.78% -18.77% -17.38%
75th Percentile £67.50 £63.75 £61.30
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £73.75
UK median hourly rate £43.09 £28.60 £37.18
% change year-on-year +50.66% -23.08% -17.38%

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 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 15 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 15 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 +50 256 £531 +6.25% 58
North of England -28 55 £500 +2.56% 29
South East -32 48 £522 -5.09% 42
North West -15 29 £524 +30.29% 17
East of England -15 23 £510 +3.55% 6
Yorkshire -36 22 £481 +13.24% 9
Midlands -62 19 £675 +35.00% 17
South West -18 18 £550 -4.35% 31
West Midlands -52 16 £675 +14.89% 10
North East -23 4 £525 -8.70% 3
East Midlands -33 3 - - 7
Cloud Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 15 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.

1 203 (47.54%) Azure
2 199 (46.60%) Terraform
3 176 (41.22%) AWS
3 176 (41.22%) CI/CD
4 164 (38.41%) Infrastructure as Code
5 159 (37.24%) DevOps
6 122 (28.57%) Security Cleared
7 99 (23.19%) SC Cleared
8 96 (22.48%) Kubernetes
9 95 (22.25%) GCP
10 91 (21.31%) Python
11 89 (20.84%) Cloud Security
12 80 (18.74%) GitHub
13 79 (18.50%) Microsoft
14 73 (17.10%) Google
14 73 (17.10%) PowerShell
15 66 (15.46%) Migration
16 61 (14.29%) Agile
17 57 (13.35%) Infrastructure Engineering
17 57 (13.35%) Platform Engineering
18 50 (11.71%) Containerisation
18 50 (11.71%) Docker
18 50 (11.71%) GitHub Actions
19 49 (11.48%) Firewall
20 44 (10.30%) AI
20 44 (10.30%) Serverless
21 41 (9.60%) SQL
22 39 (9.13%) Bash
22 39 (9.13%) DevSecOps
23 38 (8.90%) Azure Certification

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 (1.64%) Microsoft Exchange
2 4 (0.94%) Apache Spark
2 4 (0.94%) Confluence
3 2 (0.47%) Apache
3 2 (0.47%) nginx
4 1 (0.23%) SAS
4 1 (0.23%) SharePoint
4 1 (0.23%) Traefik
Business Applications
1 1 (0.23%) Aladdin
1 1 (0.23%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 203 (47.54%) Azure
2 176 (41.22%) AWS
3 95 (22.25%) GCP
4 80 (18.74%) GitHub
5 50 (11.71%) GitHub Actions
6 44 (10.30%) Serverless
7 36 (8.43%) Azure DevOps
8 35 (8.20%) PaaS
9 34 (7.96%) Entra ID
10 33 (7.73%) AWS CloudFormation
10 33 (7.73%) IaaS
11 32 (7.49%) Azure AKS
11 32 (7.49%) Google Kubernetes Engine
12 30 (7.03%) Amazon S3
13 23 (5.39%) Amazon EC2
13 23 (5.39%) Amazon EKS
13 23 (5.39%) AWS Lambda
13 23 (5.39%) Virtual Private Cloud
14 20 (4.68%) Amazon ECS
14 20 (4.68%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 49 (11.48%) Firewall
2 23 (5.39%) DNS
3 22 (5.15%) Network Security
4 17 (3.98%) VPN
5 6 (1.41%) Reverse Proxy
6 5 (1.17%) TCP/IP
6 5 (1.17%) WAN
7 4 (0.94%) Software-Defined Networking
8 3 (0.70%) Cisco Firepower
8 3 (0.70%) SD-WAN
8 3 (0.70%) SMTP
9 2 (0.47%) BGP
9 2 (0.47%) Cisco IOS
9 2 (0.47%) Cisco ISE
9 2 (0.47%) DHCP
9 2 (0.47%) Junos
9 2 (0.47%) Kerberos
9 2 (0.47%) NGFW
9 2 (0.47%) SSL
9 2 (0.47%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (2.81%) BigQuery
2 11 (2.58%) Amazon Athena
3 7 (1.64%) DynamoDB
3 7 (1.64%) SQL Server
4 6 (1.41%) Azure SQL Database
5 5 (1.17%) Amazon RDS
5 5 (1.17%) Oracle Database
5 5 (1.17%) PostgreSQL
6 4 (0.94%) Amazon QuickSight
6 4 (0.94%) Amazon Redshift
7 3 (0.70%) Big Data
7 3 (0.70%) Data Warehouse
7 3 (0.70%) NoSQL
7 3 (0.70%) Power BI
7 3 (0.70%) Snowflake Schema
8 2 (0.47%) Data Lake
8 2 (0.47%) OLAP
8 2 (0.47%) OLTP
8 2 (0.47%) Oracle Database 12c
8 2 (0.47%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 37 (8.67%) Git
2 35 (8.20%) Jenkins
3 34 (7.96%) GitLab
4 9 (2.11%) Artifactory
5 6 (1.41%) JIRA
6 3 (0.70%) Team Foundation Server
7 2 (0.47%) Liquibase
7 2 (0.47%) Postman
7 2 (0.47%) Robot Framework
7 2 (0.47%) Selenium
7 2 (0.47%) Spinnaker
8 1 (0.23%) Burp Suite
8 1 (0.23%) Chocolatey
8 1 (0.23%) CircleCI
8 1 (0.23%) Claude Code
8 1 (0.23%) Cypress.io
8 1 (0.23%) JUnit
8 1 (0.23%) Metasploit
8 1 (0.23%) SonarQube
8 1 (0.23%) sqlmap
General
1 49 (11.48%) Social Skills
2 42 (9.84%) Finance
3 36 (8.43%) Public Sector
4 16 (3.75%) Analytical Skills
5 15 (3.51%) Banking
6 9 (2.11%) Documentation Skills
7 8 (1.87%) Retail
8 6 (1.41%) Presentation Skills
9 5 (1.17%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 5 (1.17%) Legal
9 5 (1.17%) Telecoms
10 4 (0.94%) Investment Banking
10 4 (0.94%) Marketing
10 4 (0.94%) Military
11 3 (0.70%) Pharmaceutical
12 2 (0.47%) Aeronautics
12 2 (0.47%) Financial Institution
12 2 (0.47%) Law
12 2 (0.47%) Local Government
12 2 (0.47%) Police
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (3.98%) REST
2 16 (3.75%) Node.js
3 13 (3.04%) Spring
4 12 (2.81%) Spring Boot
5 11 (2.58%) React
6 10 (2.34%) Kafka
7 9 (2.11%) OAuth
7 9 (2.11%) OpenTelemetry
8 8 (1.87%) .NET
8 8 (1.87%) OAuth2
8 8 (1.87%) OpenID
8 8 (1.87%) Oracle Fusion
9 6 (1.41%) AngularJS
9 6 (1.41%) ARM Templates
9 6 (1.41%) LangChain
10 5 (1.17%) OpenAPI
10 5 (1.17%) Playwright
11 4 (0.94%) Express.js
11 4 (0.94%) Jest
11 4 (0.94%) Model Context Protocol
Miscellaneous
1 75 (17.56%) Cloud Native
2 29 (6.79%) Public Cloud
3 22 (5.15%) Hybrid Cloud
4 13 (3.04%) Data Centre
5 10 (2.34%) Security Posture
6 8 (1.87%) Enterprise Software
6 8 (1.87%) Product Ownership
7 7 (1.64%) Self-Motivation
8 6 (1.41%) Cyber Threat
8 6 (1.41%) Enterprise Cloud
9 5 (1.17%) Onboarding
10 4 (0.94%) Legacy Systems
10 4 (0.94%) Management Information System
10 4 (0.94%) Virtual Team
11 3 (0.70%) Cloud Security Posture
11 3 (0.70%) Distributed Systems
11 3 (0.70%) PKI
11 3 (0.70%) Replication
12 2 (0.47%) CMDB
12 2 (0.47%) Data Protection Act
Operating Systems
1 36 (8.43%) Windows
2 24 (5.62%) Linux
3 19 (4.45%) Windows Server
4 4 (0.94%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 2 (0.47%) Unix
5 2 (0.47%) VMS
6 1 (0.23%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 176 (41.22%) CI/CD
2 164 (38.41%) Infrastructure as Code
3 159 (37.24%) DevOps
4 89 (20.84%) Cloud Security
5 66 (15.46%) Migration
6 61 (14.29%) Agile
7 57 (13.35%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 57 (13.35%) Platform Engineering
8 50 (11.71%) Containerisation
9 44 (10.30%) AI
10 39 (9.13%) DevSecOps
11 35 (8.20%) Continuous Improvement
11 35 (8.20%) Software Engineering
12 34 (7.96%) Cybersecurity
12 34 (7.96%) Problem-Solving
13 33 (7.73%) Observability
14 29 (6.79%) Infrastructure Automation
15 25 (5.85%) Mentoring
16 24 (5.62%) Microservices
17 22 (5.15%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 91 (21.31%) Python
2 73 (17.10%) PowerShell
3 41 (9.60%) SQL
4 39 (9.13%) Bash
5 31 (7.26%) Bicep
6 23 (5.39%) Java
7 16 (3.75%) C#
8 9 (2.11%) TypeScript
9 7 (1.64%) Go
10 6 (1.41%) JavaScript
11 4 (0.94%) Groovy
12 2 (0.47%) BeanShell
12 2 (0.47%) Kusto Query Language
12 2 (0.47%) Ruby
12 2 (0.47%) Shell Script
13 1 (0.23%) Cypher
13 1 (0.23%) Kotlin
Qualifications
1 122 (28.57%) Security Cleared
2 99 (23.19%) SC Cleared
3 38 (8.90%) Azure Certification
4 19 (4.45%) DV Cleared
5 13 (3.04%) Degree
6 12 (2.81%) AWS Certification
6 12 (2.81%) Microsoft Certification
7 10 (2.34%) BPSS Clearance
7 10 (2.34%) CISSP
8 9 (2.11%) Cisco Certification
9 7 (1.64%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 7 (1.64%) Computer Science Degree
10 6 (1.41%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 5 (1.17%) CISM
11 5 (1.17%) TOGAF Certification
12 4 (0.94%) CCSP
13 3 (0.70%) CCNP
13 3 (0.70%) OSCP
13 3 (0.70%) SANS
14 2 (0.47%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (2.34%) GDPR
1 10 (2.34%) NCSC
1 10 (2.34%) NIST
2 9 (2.11%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 9 (2.11%) QA
3 7 (1.64%) PCI DSS
4 5 (1.17%) Data Quality
4 5 (1.17%) GRC
5 2 (0.47%) SLA
5 2 (0.47%) SOC 2
6 1 (0.23%) Accessibility
6 1 (0.23%) HIPAA
6 1 (0.23%) WCAG
System Software
1 50 (11.71%) Docker
2 22 (5.15%) Active Directory
3 16 (3.75%) Virtual Desktop
4 13 (3.04%) Virtual Machines
5 12 (2.81%) VMware NSX
6 8 (1.87%) VMware Infrastructure
6 8 (1.87%) vSphere
7 6 (1.41%) Squid
8 5 (1.17%) Hyper-V
8 5 (1.17%) VMware ESXi
9 4 (0.94%) Firmware
9 4 (0.94%) vCloud
Systems Management
1 199 (46.60%) Terraform
2 96 (22.48%) Kubernetes
3 18 (4.22%) Ansible
4 17 (3.98%) Grafana
5 16 (3.75%) Istio
6 15 (3.51%) Prometheus
7 14 (3.28%) Microsoft Intune
8 7 (1.64%) Argo
8 7 (1.64%) Single Sign-On
8 7 (1.64%) vCenter Server
9 6 (1.41%) Packer
10 4 (0.94%) Progress Chef
10 4 (0.94%) Puppet
10 4 (0.94%) Salt
10 4 (0.94%) SCOM
10 4 (0.94%) Suricata
11 2 (0.47%) Cilium
12 1 (0.23%) HAProxy
12 1 (0.23%) PaperCut
12 1 (0.23%) SCCM
Vendors
1 79 (18.50%) Microsoft
2 73 (17.10%) Google
3 21 (4.92%) Oracle
4 19 (4.45%) VMware
5 9 (2.11%) Palo Alto
6 8 (1.87%) Dynatrace
6 8 (1.87%) Zscaler
7 7 (1.64%) Cisco
7 7 (1.64%) Salesforce
7 7 (1.64%) ServiceNow
8 6 (1.41%) Databricks
9 5 (1.17%) Citrix
9 5 (1.17%) Fortinet
9 5 (1.17%) PeopleSoft
9 5 (1.17%) Rapid7
9 5 (1.17%) Splunk
10 4 (0.94%) Red Hat
10 4 (0.94%) Salesforce Marketing Cloud
11 3 (0.70%) EMC
11 3 (0.70%) Juniper