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 14 August 2026.

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

 6 months to
14 Aug 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 202 301 309
Rank change year-on-year +99 +8 -35
Contract jobs requiring a Cloud Engineer 632 222 225
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.39% 0.80% 0.68%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.50% 0.88% 0.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 411 169 151
10th Percentile £400 £402 £375
25th Percentile £462 £438 £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 £669 £675
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £550
% change year-on-year +5.00% -9.09% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 25 6 1
10th Percentile - £29.00 -
25th Percentile £23.20 £29.25 £27.50
Median hourly rate £77.00 £37.50 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year +105.33% +25.00% -
75th Percentile £81.25 £58.75 £32.50
90th Percentile - £86.25 -
UK median hourly rate £77.00 £37.50 £30.00
% change year-on-year +105.33% +25.00% -

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 42,174 25,315 30,946
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.49% 91.60% 92.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,510 16,372 20,290
10th Percentile £325 £285 £300
25th Percentile £425 £402 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.44% -2.38% -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% -1.87%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,176 1,336 1,796
10th Percentile £15.25 £13.50 £14.21
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.48 £21.25
Median hourly rate £43.10 £25.32 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +70.23% -43.73% +7.40%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.00 £65.01
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +67.00% -41.51% +2.00%

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 14 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 14 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 14 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 +69 307 £525 - 453
South East +5 114 £538 +7.50% 46
North of England +5 105 £525 +16.67% 111
North West -2 61 £533 +21.83% 70
Midlands 0 60 £500 +5.26% 28
Yorkshire -9 37 £467 -6.62% 27
West Midlands -25 32 £525 +8.81% 18
East Midlands -1 27 £450 -5.26% 10
East of England +1 22 £505 +4.12% 28
South West -38 16 £575 +4.55% 48
North East -42 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 14 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.

1 322 (50.95%) Azure
2 271 (42.88%) Terraform
3 232 (36.71%) AWS
4 222 (35.13%) CI/CD
5 219 (34.65%) Infrastructure as Code
6 179 (28.32%) DevOps
7 174 (27.53%) Security Cleared
8 157 (24.84%) Python
9 152 (24.05%) Cloud Security
10 146 (23.10%) Kubernetes
10 146 (23.10%) PowerShell
11 140 (22.15%) Microsoft
12 136 (21.52%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 132 (20.89%) GCP
14 131 (20.73%) SC Cleared
15 108 (17.09%) Platform Engineering
16 104 (16.46%) Windows
17 88 (13.92%) Google
18 79 (12.50%) Agile
19 77 (12.18%) Migration
20 75 (11.87%) AI
20 75 (11.87%) Bash
20 75 (11.87%) Firewall
21 74 (11.71%) Entra ID
21 74 (11.71%) GitHub
22 72 (11.39%) DNS
23 68 (10.76%) Linux
23 68 (10.76%) Observability
24 67 (10.60%) Docker
25 66 (10.44%) 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 13 (2.06%) Microsoft Exchange
2 8 (1.27%) Apache
3 6 (0.95%) Confluence
4 5 (0.79%) SharePoint
5 4 (0.63%) Apache Airflow
5 4 (0.63%) nginx
6 3 (0.47%) IIS
6 3 (0.47%) 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
1 322 (50.95%) Azure
2 232 (36.71%) AWS
3 132 (20.89%) GCP
4 74 (11.71%) Entra ID
4 74 (11.71%) GitHub
5 51 (8.07%) Serverless
6 50 (7.91%) GitHub Actions
7 46 (7.28%) Azure DevOps
8 43 (6.80%) IaaS
9 42 (6.65%) Azure AKS
9 42 (6.65%) Google Kubernetes Engine
10 38 (6.01%) AWS CloudFormation
11 35 (5.54%) AWS Lambda
12 33 (5.22%) Azure Monitor
13 32 (5.06%) PaaS
14 31 (4.91%) Amazon EC2
14 31 (4.91%) Virtual Private Cloud
15 30 (4.75%) Amazon EKS
15 30 (4.75%) Amazon S3
16 29 (4.59%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 75 (11.87%) Firewall
2 72 (11.39%) DNS
3 34 (5.38%) Network Security
3 34 (5.38%) VPN
4 17 (2.69%) DHCP
4 17 (2.69%) WAN
5 15 (2.37%) TCP/IP
6 12 (1.90%) Internet
7 6 (0.95%) SD-WAN
8 5 (0.79%) LAN
8 5 (0.79%) Reverse Proxy
8 5 (0.79%) SSL
8 5 (0.79%) VLAN
9 4 (0.63%) BGP
9 4 (0.63%) SAN
9 4 (0.63%) SMTP
10 3 (0.47%) IPv4
10 3 (0.47%) NGFW
10 3 (0.47%) OSPF
10 3 (0.47%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 24 (3.80%) SQL Server
2 13 (2.06%) Amazon RDS
3 11 (1.74%) BigQuery
4 10 (1.58%) PostgreSQL
5 8 (1.27%) Amazon Athena
5 8 (1.27%) Oracle Exadata
6 6 (0.95%) Azure SQL Database
7 5 (0.79%) Oracle Database
8 4 (0.63%) Data Lake
8 4 (0.63%) DynamoDB
9 3 (0.47%) Amazon QuickSight
9 3 (0.47%) Amazon Redshift
9 3 (0.47%) Flink
9 3 (0.47%) Looker
9 3 (0.47%) MySQL
9 3 (0.47%) Oracle Database 12c
10 2 (0.32%) Big Data
10 2 (0.32%) Metadata
11 1 (0.16%) Delta Lake
11 1 (0.16%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 45 (7.12%) GitLab
2 35 (5.54%) Jenkins
3 30 (4.75%) Git
4 11 (1.74%) JIRA
5 8 (1.27%) Artifactory
6 3 (0.47%) Selenium
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%) Burp Suite
8 1 (0.16%) Chocolatey
8 1 (0.16%) CircleCI
8 1 (0.16%) SonarQube
8 1 (0.16%) Spinnaker
8 1 (0.16%) sqlmap
8 1 (0.16%) TestRail
General
1 79 (12.50%) Finance
2 67 (10.60%) Social Skills
3 56 (8.86%) Public Sector
4 27 (4.27%) Analytical Skills
5 24 (3.80%) Banking
6 10 (1.58%) Documentation Skills
6 10 (1.58%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 6 (0.95%) Investment Banking
8 5 (0.79%) Law
8 5 (0.79%) Legal
8 5 (0.79%) Local Government
9 3 (0.47%) Front Office
9 3 (0.47%) Italian Language
9 3 (0.47%) Military
9 3 (0.47%) Pharmaceutical
9 3 (0.47%) Presentation Skills
10 2 (0.32%) Back Office
10 2 (0.32%) Digital Health
10 2 (0.32%) Financial Institution
10 2 (0.32%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (3.01%) REST
2 12 (1.90%) ARM Templates
3 11 (1.74%) OAuth
3 11 (1.74%) OAuth2
3 11 (1.74%) Spring
3 11 (1.74%) Spring Boot
4 8 (1.27%) Kafka
5 6 (0.95%) FastAPI
5 6 (0.95%) Flask
5 6 (0.95%) OpenID
5 6 (0.95%) React
5 6 (0.95%) YAML
6 5 (0.79%) AWS CDK
6 5 (0.79%) Node.js
7 4 (0.63%) Hugging Face
7 4 (0.63%) PyTorch
7 4 (0.63%) TensorFlow
8 3 (0.47%) Azure Blueprints
8 3 (0.47%) Model Context Protocol
8 3 (0.47%) Playwright
Miscellaneous
1 110 (17.41%) Cloud Native
2 53 (8.39%) Security Posture
3 33 (5.22%) Hybrid Cloud
4 30 (4.75%) Enterprise Cloud
5 25 (3.96%) Cloud Security Posture
6 19 (3.01%) Public Cloud
7 17 (2.69%) Onboarding
8 16 (2.53%) Management Information System
9 14 (2.22%) Data Centre
9 14 (2.22%) Enterprise Software
10 13 (2.06%) Distributed Systems
11 9 (1.42%) Product Ownership
12 8 (1.27%) AI Agents
12 8 (1.27%) Self-Motivation
13 7 (1.11%) Legacy Systems
13 7 (1.11%) Private Cloud
14 6 (0.95%) Linux Command Line
15 5 (0.79%) PKI
16 4 (0.63%) Virtual Team
17 3 (0.47%) Cyber Defence
Operating Systems
1 104 (16.46%) Windows
2 68 (10.76%) Linux
3 53 (8.39%) Windows Server
4 29 (4.59%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 10 (1.58%) Windows Server 2019
6 8 (1.27%) Ubuntu
7 3 (0.47%) CentOS
7 3 (0.47%) VMS
8 2 (0.32%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 222 (35.13%) CI/CD
2 219 (34.65%) Infrastructure as Code
3 179 (28.32%) DevOps
4 152 (24.05%) Cloud Security
5 136 (21.52%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 108 (17.09%) Platform Engineering
7 79 (12.50%) Agile
8 77 (12.18%) Migration
9 75 (11.87%) AI
10 68 (10.76%) Observability
11 62 (9.81%) Containerisation
12 53 (8.39%) Software Engineering
13 51 (8.07%) Continuous Improvement
14 50 (7.91%) Technical Leadership
15 46 (7.28%) Change Management
15 46 (7.28%) DevSecOps
15 46 (7.28%) Infrastructure Automation
16 43 (6.80%) Problem-Solving
17 39 (6.17%) Cybersecurity
18 38 (6.01%) Deployment Automation
Programming Languages
1 157 (24.84%) Python
2 146 (23.10%) PowerShell
3 75 (11.87%) Bash
4 63 (9.97%) Bicep
5 60 (9.49%) SQL
6 34 (5.38%) Java
7 18 (2.85%) C#
8 11 (1.74%) Go
9 10 (1.58%) JavaScript
10 8 (1.27%) Shell Script
11 6 (0.95%) TypeScript
12 4 (0.63%) Groovy
13 3 (0.47%) C
13 3 (0.47%) 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
1 174 (27.53%) Security Cleared
2 131 (20.73%) SC Cleared
3 60 (9.49%) DV Cleared
4 47 (7.44%) Azure Certification
5 43 (6.80%) AWS Certification
6 28 (4.43%) Degree
7 15 (2.37%) CISSP
8 13 (2.06%) Microsoft Certification
9 12 (1.90%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 8 (1.27%) Computer Science Degree
11 7 (1.11%) Cisco Certification
12 6 (0.95%) CCNP
12 6 (0.95%) MCSE
13 5 (0.79%) CISM
14 4 (0.63%) CCIE
14 4 (0.63%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
15 3 (0.47%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
15 3 (0.47%) BPSS Clearance
15 3 (0.47%) CEH
16 2 (0.32%) CCIE Security
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (1.74%) Data Quality
1 11 (1.74%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 10 (1.58%) QA
3 8 (1.27%) NCSC
4 7 (1.11%) NIST
5 4 (0.63%) GDPR
6 3 (0.47%) SLA
7 2 (0.32%) Cyber Essentials
7 2 (0.32%) Disclosure Scotland
7 2 (0.32%) PCI DSS
8 1 (0.16%) Accessibility
8 1 (0.16%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.16%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 1 (0.16%) Government Security Classifications
8 1 (0.16%) GRC
8 1 (0.16%) SOC 2
8 1 (0.16%) WCAG
System Software
1 67 (10.60%) Docker
2 66 (10.44%) Active Directory
3 37 (5.85%) VMware Infrastructure
4 31 (4.91%) Virtual Machines
5 26 (4.11%) VMware ESXi
6 22 (3.48%) VMware NSX
7 20 (3.16%) Virtual Desktop
8 17 (2.69%) vSphere
9 13 (2.06%) vCloud
10 9 (1.42%) Hyper-V
11 7 (1.11%) Squid
12 4 (0.63%) Firmware
13 3 (0.47%) Ceph
13 3 (0.47%) Dovecot
13 3 (0.47%) NFS
13 3 (0.47%) Postfix
14 2 (0.32%) KVM
14 2 (0.32%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 271 (42.88%) Terraform
2 146 (23.10%) Kubernetes
3 46 (7.28%) Ansible
4 24 (3.80%) Microsoft Intune
5 22 (3.48%) vCenter Server
6 20 (3.16%) Grafana
6 20 (3.16%) Progress Chef
6 20 (3.16%) SCOM
7 19 (3.01%) Prometheus
8 15 (2.37%) Puppet
9 10 (1.58%) Istio
10 9 (1.42%) Single Sign-On
11 8 (1.27%) Packer
12 5 (0.79%) VxRail
13 4 (0.63%) HAProxy
13 4 (0.63%) Suricata
14 3 (0.47%) Active Directory Federation Services
14 3 (0.47%) Salt
14 3 (0.47%) vRealize
15 2 (0.32%) Cilium
Vendors
1 140 (22.15%) Microsoft
2 88 (13.92%) Google
3 59 (9.34%) VMware
4 29 (4.59%) Oracle
5 18 (2.85%) Red Hat
6 16 (2.53%) Zscaler
7 12 (1.90%) Splunk
8 11 (1.74%) Palo Alto
8 11 (1.74%) ServiceNow
9 10 (1.58%) Dynatrace
9 10 (1.58%) OpenAI
10 9 (1.42%) Cisco
10 9 (1.42%) Salesforce
11 8 (1.27%) Broadcom
11 8 (1.27%) Databricks
11 8 (1.27%) SolarWinds
12 7 (1.11%) CrowdStrike
12 7 (1.11%) New Relic
13 6 (0.95%) Fortinet
14 5 (0.79%) CyberArk
739 Cloud Engineer jobs in England