Cloud Native Contract Job Trends in England

Cloud Native
UK > England

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Cloud Native in contract job vacancies in England. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Cloud Native over the 6 months leading up to 4 September 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
4 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 56 127 319
Rank change year-on-year +71 +192 -84
Contract jobs citing Cloud Native 1,774 618 216
As % of all contract jobs in England 3.89% 2.27% 0.66%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 11.53% 6.32% 2.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,245 423 144
10th Percentile £413 £400 £416
25th Percentile £463 £425 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £525 £575
Median % change year-on-year +4.76% -8.70% -9.16%
75th Percentile £650 £651 £675
90th Percentile £730 £750 £738
UK median daily rate £550 £525 £555
% change year-on-year +4.76% -5.41% -11.20%
Number of hourly rates quoted 36 4 2
10th Percentile £62.50 £37.38 -
25th Percentile £63.25 £39.06 £77.50
Median hourly rate £73.00 £51.25 £85.00
Median % change year-on-year +42.44% -39.71% +8.97%
75th Percentile £81.25 £68.94 £92.50
90th Percentile £86.25 £78.28 -
UK median hourly rate £73.00 £62.50 £85.00
% change year-on-year +16.80% -26.47% +8.97%

All Generic Skills
England

Cloud Native falls under the General and Transferable Skills category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring generic IT skills in England.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for generic IT skills 15,389 9,780 10,006
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 33.72% 35.93% 30.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,398 6,180 6,309
10th Percentile £325 £300 £300
25th Percentile £425 £407 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -
75th Percentile £638 £650 £686
90th Percentile £750 £775 £825
UK median daily rate £525 £515 £550
% change year-on-year +1.94% -6.36% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 967 487 466
10th Percentile £14.55 £15.50 £13.97
25th Percentile £18.52 £18.87 £22.00
Median hourly rate £38.25 £32.77 £53.25
Median % change year-on-year +16.72% -38.46% +16.14%
75th Percentile £68.75 £60.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £82.62 £77.50 £75.08
UK median hourly rate £38.53 £30.00 £46.21
% change year-on-year +28.42% -35.07% +7.14%

Cloud Native
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Cloud Native relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in England.

Cloud Native job vacancy trend in England

Cloud Native
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Cloud Native.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Cloud Native

Cloud Native
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Cloud Native in England over the 6 months to 4 September 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Cloud Native in England

Cloud Native
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Cloud Native.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Cloud Native

Cloud Native
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Cloud Native in England over the 6 months to 4 September 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Cloud Native in England

Cloud Native
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 Native within the England region over the 6 months to 4 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 +51 961 £572 +4.05% 1,513
North of England +32 353 £550 +10.00% 274
Yorkshire +23 173 £538 +7.50% 75
North West +28 159 £560 +12.00% 172
Midlands +37 131 £525 +4.48% 111
South East +10 117 £505 +18.82% 158
South West +34 115 £550 +10.00% 182
West Midlands +31 112 £551 +8.10% 61
East of England +23 50 £513 +9.63% 61
North East -9 29 £400 - 27
East Midlands -12 17 £414 -17.71% 50
Cloud Native
UK

Cloud Native
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 69 (3.89%) Apache Airflow
2 63 (3.55%) Apache Spark
3 54 (3.04%) Confluence
4 50 (2.82%) Apache
5 21 (1.18%) SAS
6 16 (0.90%) SharePoint
7 11 (0.62%) Camunda
7 11 (0.62%) CMS
8 10 (0.56%) OpenStack
9 9 (0.51%) Jupyter
10 6 (0.34%) Apache Superset
11 5 (0.28%) nginx
12 4 (0.23%) Ethereum
12 4 (0.23%) Microsoft Exchange
12 4 (0.23%) Palantir Foundry
13 3 (0.17%) Adobe Experience Manager
13 3 (0.17%) Apache Pulsar
13 3 (0.17%) Hyperledger
13 3 (0.17%) Oracle Workflow
13 3 (0.17%) Umbraco
Applications
1 8 (0.45%) CPLEX
2 4 (0.23%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 3 (0.17%) Spreadsheet
4 2 (0.11%) Chatbot
4 2 (0.11%) Microsoft Excel
4 2 (0.11%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 8 (0.45%) Payment Gateway
2 7 (0.39%) Dynamics CRM
3 6 (0.34%) Oracle EBS
3 6 (0.34%) SAP S/4HANA
4 4 (0.23%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
5 3 (0.17%) Aladdin
5 3 (0.17%) Quorum
5 3 (0.17%) R3 Corda
5 3 (0.17%) Ripple
5 3 (0.17%) Workfront
6 2 (0.11%) Distributed Ledger
6 2 (0.11%) Endur
7 1 (0.056%) NetSuite
7 1 (0.056%) Oracle ERP
7 1 (0.056%) Oracle Payables
7 1 (0.056%) Oracle Receivables
7 1 (0.056%) SAP CRM
7 1 (0.056%) SAP ECC
7 1 (0.056%) SAP Forecasting and Replenishment
7 1 (0.056%) SDL Web 8
Cloud Services
1 992 (55.92%) AWS
2 796 (44.87%) Azure
3 391 (22.04%) GCP
4 304 (17.14%) GitHub
5 274 (15.45%) Serverless
6 198 (11.16%) GitHub Actions
7 177 (9.98%) Azure DevOps
8 162 (9.13%) AWS Lambda
9 147 (8.29%) Amazon S3
10 127 (7.16%) Amazon EKS
11 105 (5.92%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 100 (5.64%) Amazon ECS
13 97 (5.47%) AWS CloudFormation
14 81 (4.57%) SaaS
14 81 (4.57%) Snowflake
15 76 (4.28%) Azure AKS
16 74 (4.17%) Power Platform
17 65 (3.66%) Azure Monitor
18 64 (3.61%) Amazon SQS
18 64 (3.61%) Google Kubernetes Engine
Communications & Networking
1 76 (4.28%) Firewall
2 50 (2.82%) Network Security
3 42 (2.37%) DNS
4 35 (1.97%) VPN
5 28 (1.58%) BGP
6 27 (1.52%) WAN
7 19 (1.07%) BIG-IP
7 19 (1.07%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
8 17 (0.96%) HTTP
9 16 (0.90%) OSPF
10 15 (0.85%) SD-WAN
11 14 (0.79%) MPLS
12 13 (0.73%) TCP/IP
12 13 (0.73%) VXLAN
13 12 (0.68%) 5G
13 12 (0.68%) LAN
14 11 (0.62%) Ethernet VPN
14 11 (0.62%) VLAN
14 11 (0.62%) Wi-Fi
15 10 (0.56%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 147 (8.29%) PostgreSQL
2 104 (5.86%) NoSQL
3 76 (4.28%) Data Lake
4 75 (4.23%) Relational Database
5 69 (3.89%) Data Warehouse
6 65 (3.66%) Metadata
6 65 (3.66%) MongoDB
7 64 (3.61%) Power BI
8 58 (3.27%) SQL Server
9 56 (3.16%) DynamoDB
10 55 (3.10%) Amazon RDS
11 35 (1.97%) Big Data
12 33 (1.86%) Redis
13 30 (1.69%) Amazon Athena
13 30 (1.69%) Delta Lake
14 29 (1.63%) MySQL
15 26 (1.47%) Amazon Redshift
16 25 (1.41%) Azure SQL Database
17 23 (1.30%) BigQuery
18 16 (0.90%) Data Vault
Development Applications
1 197 (11.10%) Git
2 179 (10.09%) GitLab
3 173 (9.75%) Jenkins
4 87 (4.90%) JIRA
5 32 (1.80%) JUnit
6 29 (1.63%) SonarQube
7 24 (1.35%) Claude Code
8 20 (1.13%) Mockito
9 17 (0.96%) JMeter
9 17 (0.96%) Maven
10 15 (0.85%) Postman
10 15 (0.85%) Selenium
11 12 (0.68%) Cypress.io
12 11 (0.62%) Bitbucket
12 11 (0.62%) MSI
13 7 (0.39%) Cucumber
13 7 (0.39%) Gatling
13 7 (0.39%) IntelliJ
13 7 (0.39%) LoadRunner
13 7 (0.39%) MLflow
General
1 458 (25.82%) Social Skills
2 365 (20.57%) Finance
3 239 (13.47%) Public Sector
4 158 (8.91%) Analytical Skills
5 156 (8.79%) Banking
6 48 (2.71%) Influencing Skills
7 43 (2.42%) Retail
8 36 (2.03%) Documentation Skills
8 36 (2.03%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 34 (1.92%) Telecoms
10 23 (1.30%) Legal
11 19 (1.07%) Front Office
11 19 (1.07%) Military
12 18 (1.01%) Law
13 17 (0.96%) Financial Institution
14 15 (0.85%) Marketing
15 14 (0.79%) Organisational Skills
16 11 (0.62%) Pharmaceutical
17 10 (0.56%) Billing
17 10 (0.56%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 434 (24.46%) Architect
2 305 (17.19%) Senior
3 278 (15.67%) Developer
4 162 (9.13%) Lead
5 152 (8.57%) DevOps Engineer
6 138 (7.78%) Data Engineer
7 123 (6.93%) Solutions Architect
8 121 (6.82%) Software Engineer
9 105 (5.92%) Cloud Engineer
10 88 (4.96%) AWS Engineer
11 74 (4.17%) Java Developer
12 72 (4.06%) Platform Engineer
13 67 (3.78%) Technical Architect
14 63 (3.55%) Java Engineer
14 63 (3.55%) Senior Developer
15 60 (3.38%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
16 58 (3.27%) Full-Stack Developer
17 56 (3.16%) Cloud Architect
17 56 (3.16%) Security Engineer
18 54 (3.04%) Azure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 574 (32.36%) Terraform
2 253 (14.26%) REST
3 205 (11.56%) Kafka
4 175 (9.86%) Spring
5 165 (9.30%) Spring Boot
6 156 (8.79%) RESTful
7 147 (8.29%) React
8 134 (7.55%) .NET
9 117 (6.60%) Node.js
10 81 (4.57%) OAuth
11 68 (3.83%) AngularJS
12 60 (3.38%) OpenID
13 53 (2.99%) PySpark
14 51 (2.87%) OAuth2
15 50 (2.82%) .NET Core
16 48 (2.71%) .NET Framework
17 46 (2.59%) FastAPI
18 43 (2.42%) GraphQL
19 40 (2.25%) OpenTelemetry
20 39 (2.20%) LangChain
Miscellaneous
1 261 (14.71%) Distributed Systems
2 112 (6.31%) Product Ownership
3 95 (5.36%) Legacy Systems
4 83 (4.68%) Enterprise Software
5 67 (3.78%) AI Agents
6 63 (3.55%) Hybrid Cloud
6 63 (3.55%) Onboarding
7 60 (3.38%) Security Posture
8 42 (2.37%) Public Cloud
9 35 (1.97%) Data Protection Act
10 32 (1.80%) Data Centre
10 32 (1.80%) Virtual Team
11 30 (1.69%) Management Information System
12 25 (1.41%) NHS
13 24 (1.35%) Enterprise Cloud
14 23 (1.30%) Data Structures
15 22 (1.24%) Self-Motivation
16 20 (1.13%) Greenfield Project
17 17 (0.96%) Algorithms
17 17 (0.96%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 113 (6.37%) Linux
2 72 (4.06%) Windows
3 42 (2.37%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 25 (1.41%) Unix
5 12 (0.68%) Ubuntu
6 11 (0.62%) VMS
6 11 (0.62%) Windows Server
7 7 (0.39%) Android
8 6 (0.34%) Apple iOS
9 4 (0.23%) Alpine Linux
10 2 (0.11%) CentOS
10 2 (0.11%) Data ONTAP
11 1 (0.056%) AIX
11 1 (0.056%) Solaris
11 1 (0.056%) Windows Server 2008
11 1 (0.056%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,069 (60.26%) CI/CD
2 874 (49.27%) DevOps
3 644 (36.30%) Infrastructure as Code
4 578 (32.58%) Agile
5 488 (27.51%) Microservices
6 435 (24.52%) Containerisation
7 425 (23.96%) Observability
8 419 (23.62%) AI
9 396 (22.32%) Software Engineering
10 393 (22.15%) Event-Driven
11 309 (17.42%) Test Automation
12 275 (15.50%) Platform Engineering
13 274 (15.45%) Migration
14 269 (15.16%) Event-Driven Architecture
15 253 (14.26%) Stakeholder Management
16 246 (13.87%) Problem-Solving
17 245 (13.81%) Technical Leadership
18 237 (13.36%) Continuous Improvement
19 236 (13.30%) Analytics
20 231 (13.02%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 683 (38.50%) Python
2 432 (24.35%) Java
3 286 (16.12%) SQL
4 174 (9.81%) TypeScript
5 130 (7.33%) C#
6 125 (7.05%) Bash
7 120 (6.76%) JavaScript
8 99 (5.58%) PowerShell
9 76 (4.28%) Bicep
10 56 (3.16%) Go
11 25 (1.41%) Kotlin
12 24 (1.35%) Scala
13 20 (1.13%) Rust
14 19 (1.07%) C++
15 15 (0.85%) Ruby
16 11 (0.62%) Shell Script
17 7 (0.39%) Kusto Query Language
17 7 (0.39%) PL/SQL
18 6 (0.34%) Korn
19 5 (0.28%) ActionScript
Qualifications
1 451 (25.42%) Security Cleared
2 368 (20.74%) SC Cleared
3 101 (5.69%) DV Cleared
4 86 (4.85%) AWS Certification
5 85 (4.79%) Degree
6 68 (3.83%) Azure Certification
7 52 (2.93%) CISSP
8 42 (2.37%) Computer Science Degree
9 36 (2.03%) BPSS Clearance
10 28 (1.58%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 24 (1.35%) Cisco Certification
12 22 (1.24%) Microsoft Certification
13 19 (1.07%) CISM
14 13 (0.73%) Master's Degree
15 12 (0.68%) (ISC)2 CCSP
16 10 (0.56%) ITIL Certification
16 10 (0.56%) OSCP
17 9 (0.51%) CCIE
17 9 (0.51%) TOGAF Certification
17 9 (0.51%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 117 (6.60%) QA
2 109 (6.14%) Data Quality
3 57 (3.21%) GDPR
4 53 (2.99%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 53 (2.99%) NIST
5 44 (2.48%) Accessibility
6 33 (1.86%) NCSC
7 19 (1.07%) WCAG
8 17 (0.96%) PCI DSS
9 11 (0.62%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 10 (0.56%) GRC
11 8 (0.45%) HL7
11 8 (0.45%) ISO 20022
12 6 (0.34%) Cyber Essentials
12 6 (0.34%) ISO/IEC 42001
12 6 (0.34%) SEPA
12 6 (0.34%) SOC 2
13 5 (0.28%) HIPAA
14 4 (0.23%) PSD2
14 4 (0.23%) SNOMED CT
System Software
1 410 (23.11%) Docker
2 28 (1.58%) Active Directory
3 21 (1.18%) VMware Infrastructure
4 11 (0.62%) IAG
4 11 (0.62%) VMware NSX
5 10 (0.56%) Virtual Machines
5 10 (0.56%) vSphere
6 9 (0.51%) Hyper-V
7 3 (0.17%) VMware ESXi
8 2 (0.11%) Apache ZooKeeper
8 2 (0.11%) EMC RecoverPoint
8 2 (0.11%) NFS
8 2 (0.11%) SRDF
8 2 (0.11%) Virtual Desktop
9 1 (0.056%) Embedded Firmware
9 1 (0.056%) etcd
9 1 (0.056%) Firmware
9 1 (0.056%) KVM
9 1 (0.056%) Oracle RAC
9 1 (0.056%) Tivoli Workload Scheduler
Systems Management
1 629 (35.46%) Kubernetes
2 142 (8.00%) Ansible
3 114 (6.43%) Grafana
4 90 (5.07%) Prometheus
5 39 (2.20%) Argo
6 30 (1.69%) Istio
7 27 (1.52%) Progress Chef
8 19 (1.07%) Single Sign-On
9 15 (0.85%) Kustomize
9 15 (0.85%) Puppet
10 9 (0.51%) Cilium
10 9 (0.51%) linkerd
11 8 (0.45%) vCenter Server
12 4 (0.23%) Control-M
12 4 (0.23%) Karpenter
13 3 (0.17%) Bosun
13 3 (0.17%) Kibana
13 3 (0.17%) Packer
14 2 (0.11%) EMC VPLEX
14 2 (0.11%) HP Fortify
Vendors
1 279 (15.73%) Microsoft
2 170 (9.58%) Google
3 120 (6.76%) Databricks
4 74 (4.17%) Oracle
5 54 (3.04%) Splunk
6 49 (2.76%) Dynatrace
7 41 (2.31%) Red Hat
7 41 (2.31%) ServiceNow
8 38 (2.14%) OpenAI
9 30 (1.69%) VMware
10 29 (1.63%) Informatica
11 27 (1.52%) SAP
12 24 (1.35%) Cisco
13 21 (1.18%) F5
14 19 (1.07%) CrowdStrike
14 19 (1.07%) Palo Alto
15 18 (1.01%) Foundry
16 17 (0.96%) IBM
17 15 (0.85%) Okta
17 15 (0.85%) Salesforce