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 August 2026.

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

 6 months to
8 Aug 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 197 296 320
Rank change year-on-year +99 +24 -41
Contract jobs requiring a Cloud Engineer 623 226 219
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.36% 0.82% 0.66%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.47% 0.89% 0.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 410 175 150
10th Percentile £400 £402 £385
25th Percentile £462 £425 £453
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -9.09% -
75th Percentile £621 £575 £625
90th Percentile £688 £672 £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 42,356 25,309 30,966
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.53% 91.68% 92.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,686 16,403 20,377
10th Percentile £326 £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 3,156 1,311 1,814
10th Percentile £15.25 £13.65 £14.16
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.65 £21.25
Median hourly rate £43.10 £26.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +65.78% -42.22% +5.88%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.00 £65.00
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% +0.58%

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 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 8 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 8 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 +57 309 £525 - 453
South East +8 108 £538 +2.38% 55
North of England -16 98 £525 +16.67% 107
Midlands -3 61 £513 +7.89% 32
North West -9 57 £535 +22.34% 62
Yorkshire -13 34 £463 -7.50% 31
West Midlands -23 33 £525 +8.81% 16
East Midlands +7 27 £450 -5.26% 16
East of England +3 22 £505 +26.25% 26
South West -34 17 £550 - 46
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 8 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.

1 321 (51.52%) Azure
2 270 (43.34%) Terraform
3 234 (37.56%) AWS
4 220 (35.31%) CI/CD
5 218 (34.99%) Infrastructure as Code
6 181 (29.05%) DevOps
7 170 (27.29%) Security Cleared
8 153 (24.56%) Python
9 147 (23.60%) Cloud Security
10 145 (23.27%) PowerShell
11 139 (22.31%) Kubernetes
12 137 (21.99%) Microsoft
13 133 (21.35%) Infrastructure Engineering
14 130 (20.87%) SC Cleared
15 129 (20.71%) GCP
16 103 (16.53%) Platform Engineering
17 102 (16.37%) Windows
18 85 (13.64%) Google
19 81 (13.00%) Migration
20 79 (12.68%) Agile
21 74 (11.88%) Firewall
22 73 (11.72%) AI
22 73 (11.72%) GitHub
23 72 (11.56%) DNS
23 72 (11.56%) Entra ID
24 70 (11.24%) Bash
25 66 (10.59%) Containerisation
25 66 (10.59%) Docker
25 66 (10.59%) Linux
26 64 (10.27%) 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 (1.93%) 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%) Apache Spark
8 1 (0.16%) Traefik
Applications
1 1 (0.16%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 2 (0.32%) Aladdin
Cloud Services
1 321 (51.52%) Azure
2 234 (37.56%) AWS
3 129 (20.71%) GCP
4 73 (11.72%) GitHub
5 72 (11.56%) Entra ID
6 54 (8.67%) Serverless
7 50 (8.03%) GitHub Actions
8 47 (7.54%) Azure DevOps
9 45 (7.22%) IaaS
10 42 (6.74%) Azure AKS
11 37 (5.94%) Google Kubernetes Engine
12 35 (5.62%) AWS CloudFormation
12 35 (5.62%) AWS Lambda
13 34 (5.46%) PaaS
14 33 (5.30%) Virtual Private Cloud
15 32 (5.14%) Amazon S3
15 32 (5.14%) Azure Monitor
16 31 (4.98%) Amazon EC2
17 29 (4.65%) Amazon EKS
18 26 (4.17%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 74 (11.88%) Firewall
2 72 (11.56%) DNS
3 34 (5.46%) VPN
4 29 (4.65%) Network Security
5 17 (2.73%) DHCP
6 16 (2.57%) WAN
7 14 (2.25%) TCP/IP
8 12 (1.93%) Internet
9 6 (0.96%) SD-WAN
9 6 (0.96%) VLAN
10 5 (0.80%) Reverse Proxy
10 5 (0.80%) SSL
11 4 (0.64%) BGP
11 4 (0.64%) LAN
11 4 (0.64%) SAN
12 3 (0.48%) IPv4
12 3 (0.48%) Kerberos
12 3 (0.48%) OSPF
12 3 (0.48%) SMTP
12 3 (0.48%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (3.69%) SQL Server
2 12 (1.93%) Amazon RDS
3 10 (1.61%) BigQuery
3 10 (1.61%) PostgreSQL
4 9 (1.44%) Amazon Athena
5 7 (1.12%) 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%) Elasticsearch
11 1 (0.16%) Relational Database
11 1 (0.16%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 45 (7.22%) GitLab
2 35 (5.62%) Jenkins
3 29 (4.65%) Git
4 12 (1.93%) 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%) Liquibase
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%) TestRail
General
1 76 (12.20%) Finance
2 67 (10.75%) Social Skills
3 54 (8.67%) Public Sector
4 25 (4.01%) Analytical Skills
5 23 (3.69%) Banking
6 10 (1.61%) 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
10 3 (0.48%) Telecoms
11 2 (0.32%) International Banking
11 2 (0.32%) Marketing
11 2 (0.32%) Police
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (3.37%) REST
2 12 (1.93%) ARM Templates
2 12 (1.93%) OAuth
2 12 (1.93%) OAuth2
3 10 (1.61%) Spring
3 10 (1.61%) Spring Boot
4 7 (1.12%) Node.js
4 7 (1.12%) OpenID
5 6 (0.96%) FastAPI
5 6 (0.96%) Flask
5 6 (0.96%) Kafka
5 6 (0.96%) React
5 6 (0.96%) YAML
6 5 (0.80%) AWS CDK
7 4 (0.64%) Hugging Face
7 4 (0.64%) Lambda Expressions
7 4 (0.64%) Model Context Protocol
7 4 (0.64%) Playwright
7 4 (0.64%) PyTorch
7 4 (0.64%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 111 (17.82%) Cloud Native
2 49 (7.87%) Security Posture
3 34 (5.46%) Hybrid Cloud
4 27 (4.33%) Enterprise Cloud
5 23 (3.69%) Public Cloud
6 20 (3.21%) Cloud Security Posture
7 15 (2.41%) Data Centre
7 15 (2.41%) Management Information System
8 14 (2.25%) Onboarding
9 13 (2.09%) Enterprise Software
10 12 (1.93%) 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
1 102 (16.37%) Windows
2 66 (10.59%) Linux
3 51 (8.19%) Windows Server
4 28 (4.49%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 10 (1.61%) 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
1 220 (35.31%) CI/CD
2 218 (34.99%) Infrastructure as Code
3 181 (29.05%) DevOps
4 147 (23.60%) Cloud Security
5 133 (21.35%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 103 (16.53%) Platform Engineering
7 81 (13.00%) Migration
8 79 (12.68%) Agile
9 73 (11.72%) AI
10 66 (10.59%) Containerisation
11 61 (9.79%) Observability
12 53 (8.51%) Software Engineering
13 48 (7.70%) Technical Leadership
14 47 (7.54%) Continuous Improvement
15 45 (7.22%) Infrastructure Automation
16 42 (6.74%) Change Management
16 42 (6.74%) DevSecOps
16 42 (6.74%) Problem-Solving
17 37 (5.94%) Cybersecurity
17 37 (5.94%) Deployment Automation
Programming Languages
1 153 (24.56%) Python
2 145 (23.27%) PowerShell
3 70 (11.24%) Bash
4 61 (9.79%) Bicep
5 59 (9.47%) SQL
6 33 (5.30%) Java
7 18 (2.89%) C#
8 11 (1.77%) 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%) Cypher
15 1 (0.16%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 1 (0.16%) Perl
Qualifications
1 170 (27.29%) Security Cleared
2 130 (20.87%) SC Cleared
3 57 (9.15%) DV Cleared
4 48 (7.70%) Azure Certification
5 42 (6.74%) AWS Certification
6 27 (4.33%) Degree
7 15 (2.41%) CISSP
8 14 (2.25%) Microsoft Certification
9 13 (2.09%) 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
12 5 (0.80%) MCSE
13 4 (0.64%) CCIE
13 4 (0.64%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 3 (0.48%) (ISC)2 CCSP
14 3 (0.48%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
14 3 (0.48%) BPSS Clearance
14 3 (0.48%) CEH
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (1.93%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 10 (1.61%) Data Quality
2 10 (1.61%) QA
3 8 (1.28%) NCSC
3 8 (1.28%) NIST
4 5 (0.80%) 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 (10.59%) Docker
2 64 (10.27%) Active Directory
3 35 (5.62%) VMware Infrastructure
4 32 (5.14%) Virtual Machines
5 25 (4.01%) VMware ESXi
6 21 (3.37%) VMware NSX
7 19 (3.05%) Virtual Desktop
8 17 (2.73%) vSphere
9 12 (1.93%) vCloud
10 10 (1.61%) 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 (43.34%) Terraform
2 139 (22.31%) Kubernetes
3 47 (7.54%) Ansible
4 21 (3.37%) Microsoft Intune
4 21 (3.37%) vCenter Server
5 20 (3.21%) Grafana
6 19 (3.05%) Progress Chef
6 19 (3.05%) Prometheus
6 19 (3.05%) SCOM
7 15 (2.41%) Puppet
8 10 (1.61%) Single Sign-On
9 8 (1.28%) Istio
9 8 (1.28%) Packer
10 5 (0.80%) VxRail
11 4 (0.64%) HAProxy
11 4 (0.64%) Suricata
12 3 (0.48%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 3 (0.48%) Argo
12 3 (0.48%) Salt
12 3 (0.48%) vRealize
Vendors
1 137 (21.99%) Microsoft
2 85 (13.64%) Google
3 56 (8.99%) VMware
4 25 (4.01%) Oracle
5 17 (2.73%) Red Hat
6 15 (2.41%) Zscaler
7 13 (2.09%) Splunk
8 12 (1.93%) ServiceNow
9 11 (1.77%) Palo Alto
10 9 (1.44%) Cisco
10 9 (1.44%) Dynatrace
10 9 (1.44%) OpenAI
10 9 (1.44%) Salesforce
11 8 (1.28%) Broadcom
11 8 (1.28%) SolarWinds
12 7 (1.12%) CrowdStrike
12 7 (1.12%) New Relic
13 6 (0.96%) Databricks
13 6 (0.96%) Fortinet
14 5 (0.80%) CyberArk
746 Cloud Engineer jobs in England