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 17 September 2026.

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

6 months to
17 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 195 293 327
Rank change year-on-year +98 +34 -55
Contract jobs requiring a Cloud Engineer 684 218 212
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.47% 0.79% 0.65%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.60% 0.86% 0.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 459 161 132
10th Percentile £413 £402 £406
25th Percentile £460 £450 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £575
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -13.04% +4.55%
75th Percentile £600 £575 £639
90th Percentile £675 £638 £699
UK median daily rate £513 £500 £551
% change year-on-year +2.50% -9.17% +0.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 29 7 0
10th Percentile £23.10 £29.00 -
25th Percentile £23.20 £29.50 -
Median hourly rate £76.00 £45.00 -
Median % change year-on-year +68.89% - -
75th Percentile £81.25 £86.25 -
90th Percentile - £110.00 -
UK median hourly rate £77.00 £45.00 -
% change year-on-year +71.11% - -

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 42,868 25,363 30,417
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.34% 91.35% 93.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,561 16,372 19,015
10th Percentile £329 £280 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £508 £525
Median % change year-on-year +3.45% -3.33% -4.55%
75th Percentile £638 £625 £638
90th Percentile £738 £738 £750
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -0.94%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,457 1,358 1,485
10th Percentile £14.96 £13.75 £14.60
25th Percentile £21.14 £17.33 £21.25
Median hourly rate £44.46 £25.15 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year +76.76% -45.54% +3.20%
75th Percentile £68.00 £54.00 £67.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £71.50 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% -2.01%

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 17 September 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 17 September 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 17 September 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 +45 301 £525 +2.44% 790
North of England +17 136 £513 +13.89% 240
South East +18 131 £538 +7.50% 144
North West +23 83 £525 +18.31% 151
Midlands +10 73 £500 -7.41% 86
Yorkshire -11 45 £450 -16.28% 62
East Midlands +24 41 £488 +2.63% 37
West Midlands -26 31 £525 -4.55% 49
East of England -13 18 £475 -2.06% 54
South West -34 16 £575 +4.55% 98
North East -38 8 £525 +14.13% 27
Cloud Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 17 September 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.

1 342 (50.00%) Azure
2 262 (38.30%) Terraform
3 238 (34.80%) Infrastructure as Code
4 234 (34.21%) AWS
5 227 (33.19%) CI/CD
6 196 (28.65%) Security Cleared
7 177 (25.88%) DevOps
8 164 (23.98%) Kubernetes
9 162 (23.68%) Cloud Security
10 158 (23.10%) Python
11 151 (22.08%) Microsoft
12 149 (21.78%) PowerShell
13 146 (21.35%) Infrastructure Engineering
14 139 (20.32%) SC Cleared
15 129 (18.86%) GCP
16 123 (17.98%) Platform Engineering
17 109 (15.94%) Windows
18 92 (13.45%) Entra ID
19 87 (12.72%) AI
20 83 (12.13%) Active Directory
21 82 (11.99%) Agile
22 81 (11.84%) Migration
23 78 (11.40%) Google
24 77 (11.26%) DNS
24 77 (11.26%) Firewall
25 75 (10.96%) Linux
25 75 (10.96%) Observability
26 74 (10.82%) VMware
27 73 (10.67%) DV Cleared
28 72 (10.53%) Bash

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 14 (2.05%) Microsoft Exchange
2 11 (1.61%) Apache
3 8 (1.17%) SharePoint
4 6 (0.88%) Apache Airflow
4 6 (0.88%) Confluence
5 3 (0.44%) IIS
5 3 (0.44%) nginx
5 3 (0.44%) Tomcat
6 2 (0.29%) CloudStack
6 2 (0.29%) OpenStack
7 1 (0.15%) Apache Pulsar
7 1 (0.15%) Apache Spark
Applications
1 1 (0.15%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 1 (0.15%) Aladdin
Cloud Services
1 342 (50.00%) Azure
2 234 (34.21%) AWS
3 129 (18.86%) GCP
4 92 (13.45%) Entra ID
5 68 (9.94%) GitHub
6 52 (7.60%) Serverless
7 50 (7.31%) Azure DevOps
8 49 (7.16%) IaaS
9 46 (6.73%) GitHub Actions
10 38 (5.56%) AWS CloudFormation
10 38 (5.56%) AWS Lambda
10 38 (5.56%) Google Kubernetes Engine
11 37 (5.41%) Azure Monitor
12 36 (5.26%) PaaS
13 33 (4.82%) Azure AKS
14 31 (4.53%) Microsoft 365
15 30 (4.39%) Amazon EKS
16 29 (4.24%) Amazon EC2
17 28 (4.09%) Amazon CloudWatch
17 28 (4.09%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 77 (11.26%) DNS
1 77 (11.26%) Firewall
2 40 (5.85%) Network Security
3 31 (4.53%) VPN
4 20 (2.92%) DHCP
5 17 (2.49%) WAN
6 16 (2.34%) TCP/IP
7 12 (1.75%) Internet
8 6 (0.88%) NGFW
8 6 (0.88%) SD-WAN
8 6 (0.88%) VLAN
9 5 (0.73%) Kerberos
9 5 (0.73%) SSL
9 5 (0.73%) VSAN
10 4 (0.58%) LAN
10 4 (0.58%) Wireless
11 3 (0.44%) IPv4
11 3 (0.44%) Reverse Proxy
11 3 (0.44%) SAN
11 3 (0.44%) SMTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (3.36%) SQL Server
2 16 (2.34%) Amazon RDS
3 12 (1.75%) PostgreSQL
4 11 (1.61%) BigQuery
5 10 (1.46%) Data Lake
6 8 (1.17%) Oracle Exadata
7 6 (0.88%) Amazon Athena
7 6 (0.88%) DynamoDB
7 6 (0.88%) NoSQL
8 5 (0.73%) Oracle Database
9 4 (0.58%) Azure SQL Database
10 3 (0.44%) Big Data
10 3 (0.44%) Flink
10 3 (0.44%) Looker
10 3 (0.44%) MySQL
10 3 (0.44%) Oracle Database 12c
11 2 (0.29%) Amazon QuickSight
11 2 (0.29%) Amazon Redshift
11 2 (0.29%) Data Warehouse
11 2 (0.29%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 49 (7.16%) GitLab
2 34 (4.97%) Jenkins
3 29 (4.24%) Git
4 11 (1.61%) JIRA
5 7 (1.02%) Artifactory
6 3 (0.44%) Bitbucket
6 3 (0.44%) Claude Code
6 3 (0.44%) Selenium
6 3 (0.44%) Terragrunt
7 2 (0.29%) Cypress.io
7 2 (0.29%) Gatling
7 2 (0.29%) JMeter
7 2 (0.29%) Octopus Deploy
7 2 (0.29%) Robot Framework
8 1 (0.15%) Atlassian Bamboo
8 1 (0.15%) eggPlant
8 1 (0.15%) IntelliJ
8 1 (0.15%) JUnit
8 1 (0.15%) LoadRunner
8 1 (0.15%) TestRail
General
1 84 (12.28%) Finance
2 67 (9.80%) Public Sector
2 67 (9.80%) Social Skills
3 31 (4.53%) Analytical Skills
4 22 (3.22%) Banking
5 9 (1.32%) Manufacturing
6 8 (1.17%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 7 (1.02%) Documentation Skills
7 7 (1.02%) Legal
8 5 (0.73%) Law
8 5 (0.73%) Local Government
9 4 (0.58%) Front Office
9 4 (0.58%) Investment Banking
9 4 (0.58%) Pharmaceutical
9 4 (0.58%) Presentation Skills
10 3 (0.44%) Aerospace
10 3 (0.44%) Back Office
10 3 (0.44%) Italian Language
10 3 (0.44%) Marketing
10 3 (0.44%) Military
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 262 (38.30%) Terraform
2 19 (2.78%) REST
3 16 (2.34%) ARM Templates
4 14 (2.05%) Kafka
5 13 (1.90%) OAuth
6 12 (1.75%) OAuth2
7 11 (1.61%) Spring
7 11 (1.61%) Spring Boot
8 8 (1.17%) OpenID
9 7 (1.02%) YAML
10 6 (0.88%) FastAPI
10 6 (0.88%) Flask
10 6 (0.88%) React
11 5 (0.73%) AWS CDK
11 5 (0.73%) Azure Blueprints
11 5 (0.73%) Keycloak
12 4 (0.58%) .NET
12 4 (0.58%) Hugging Face
12 4 (0.58%) PyTorch
12 4 (0.58%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 107 (15.64%) Cloud Native
2 60 (8.77%) Security Posture
3 37 (5.41%) Enterprise Cloud
4 35 (5.12%) Hybrid Cloud
5 31 (4.53%) Cloud Security Posture
6 21 (3.07%) Management Information System
7 18 (2.63%) Distributed Systems
7 18 (2.63%) Onboarding
8 16 (2.34%) Enterprise Software
8 16 (2.34%) Public Cloud
9 15 (2.19%) Data Centre
10 13 (1.90%) Product Ownership
11 12 (1.75%) Private Cloud
12 8 (1.17%) AI Agents
12 8 (1.17%) PKI
13 7 (1.02%) Legacy Systems
13 7 (1.02%) Linux Command Line
14 6 (0.88%) Distributed Architecture
15 5 (0.73%) CMDB
16 4 (0.58%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 109 (15.94%) Windows
2 75 (10.96%) Linux
3 59 (8.63%) Windows Server
4 29 (4.24%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 14 (2.05%) Windows Server 2019
6 8 (1.17%) Ubuntu
7 3 (0.44%) CentOS
7 3 (0.44%) VMS
8 2 (0.29%) Windows Server 2012
9 1 (0.15%) Data ONTAP
9 1 (0.15%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 238 (34.80%) Infrastructure as Code
2 227 (33.19%) CI/CD
3 177 (25.88%) DevOps
4 162 (23.68%) Cloud Security
5 146 (21.35%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 123 (17.98%) Platform Engineering
7 87 (12.72%) AI
8 82 (11.99%) Agile
9 81 (11.84%) Migration
10 75 (10.96%) Observability
11 68 (9.94%) Containerisation
12 62 (9.06%) Technical Leadership
13 59 (8.63%) Cybersecurity
14 56 (8.19%) DevSecOps
15 54 (7.89%) Continuous Improvement
16 52 (7.60%) Software Engineering
17 51 (7.46%) Infrastructure Automation
18 48 (7.02%) Deployment Automation
19 47 (6.87%) Change Management
20 46 (6.73%) Problem-Solving
Programming Languages
1 158 (23.10%) Python
2 149 (21.78%) PowerShell
3 72 (10.53%) Bash
4 71 (10.38%) Bicep
5 60 (8.77%) SQL
6 35 (5.12%) Java
7 13 (1.90%) C#
8 9 (1.32%) Go
8 9 (1.32%) JavaScript
9 8 (1.17%) Shell Script
10 4 (0.58%) TypeScript
11 3 (0.44%) C
11 3 (0.44%) Groovy
11 3 (0.44%) Scala
12 2 (0.29%) Kusto Query Language
13 1 (0.15%) Apex Code
13 1 (0.15%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 1 (0.15%) Kotlin
13 1 (0.15%) R
13 1 (0.15%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 196 (28.65%) Security Cleared
2 139 (20.32%) SC Cleared
3 73 (10.67%) DV Cleared
4 44 (6.43%) Azure Certification
5 41 (5.99%) AWS Certification
6 34 (4.97%) Degree
7 21 (3.07%) Microsoft Certification
8 17 (2.49%) CISSP
9 10 (1.46%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 8 (1.17%) MCSE
11 6 (0.88%) CISM
11 6 (0.88%) Computer Science Degree
12 5 (0.73%) Cisco Certification
12 5 (0.73%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 4 (0.58%) BPSS Clearance
13 4 (0.58%) CCNP
14 3 (0.44%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
14 3 (0.44%) CCIE
14 3 (0.44%) CEH
15 2 (0.29%) GSEC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (2.19%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 11 (1.61%) Data Quality
2 11 (1.61%) QA
3 10 (1.46%) NIST
4 9 (1.32%) NCSC
5 6 (0.88%) Cyber Essentials
5 6 (0.88%) GDPR
6 4 (0.58%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 2 (0.29%) Disclosure Scotland
7 2 (0.29%) PCI DSS
7 2 (0.29%) SLA
8 1 (0.15%) Accessibility
8 1 (0.15%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.15%) Government Security Classifications
8 1 (0.15%) GRC
8 1 (0.15%) WCAG
System Software
1 83 (12.13%) Active Directory
2 70 (10.23%) Docker
3 49 (7.16%) VMware Infrastructure
4 33 (4.82%) VMware ESXi
5 32 (4.68%) Virtual Machines
6 26 (3.80%) VMware NSX
7 20 (2.92%) Virtual Desktop
7 20 (2.92%) vSphere
8 15 (2.19%) vCloud
9 11 (1.61%) Hyper-V
10 7 (1.02%) Squid
11 4 (0.58%) Firmware
11 4 (0.58%) NFS
12 3 (0.44%) Ceph
12 3 (0.44%) Dovecot
12 3 (0.44%) Postfix
13 2 (0.29%) KVM
13 2 (0.29%) Virtual Servers
14 1 (0.15%) IAG
Systems Management
1 164 (23.98%) Kubernetes
2 47 (6.87%) Ansible
3 30 (4.39%) vCenter Server
4 26 (3.80%) Microsoft Intune
4 26 (3.80%) SCOM
5 21 (3.07%) Grafana
6 19 (2.78%) Progress Chef
6 19 (2.78%) Prometheus
7 14 (2.05%) Puppet
8 9 (1.32%) Istio
9 6 (0.88%) Packer
9 6 (0.88%) Single Sign-On
10 5 (0.73%) VxRail
11 4 (0.58%) Cilium
11 4 (0.58%) Suricata
12 3 (0.44%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 3 (0.44%) FortiGate
12 3 (0.44%) HAProxy
12 3 (0.44%) vRealize
13 2 (0.29%) Argo
Vendors
1 151 (22.08%) Microsoft
2 78 (11.40%) Google
3 74 (10.82%) VMware
4 34 (4.97%) Oracle
5 22 (3.22%) Databricks
6 19 (2.78%) Red Hat
7 15 (2.19%) Zscaler
8 13 (1.90%) Palo Alto
8 13 (1.90%) SolarWinds
9 12 (1.75%) Broadcom
10 11 (1.61%) Splunk
11 10 (1.46%) OpenAI
12 9 (1.32%) Salesforce
12 9 (1.32%) ServiceNow
13 8 (1.17%) Cisco
13 8 (1.17%) Dynatrace
14 7 (1.02%) CrowdStrike
14 7 (1.02%) New Relic
15 5 (0.73%) CyberArk
15 5 (0.73%) Fortinet