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 18 January 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 85 270 276
Rank change year-on-year +185 +6 -13
Contract jobs citing Cloud Native 968 238 304
As % of all contract jobs in England 3.04% 0.89% 0.83%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 8.71% 2.72% 2.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 669 151 191
10th Percentile £400 £425 £425
25th Percentile £447 £500 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £600 £600
Median % change year-on-year -12.50% - -7.69%
75th Percentile £638 £688 £688
90th Percentile £725 £775 £724
UK median daily rate £525 £600 £600
% change year-on-year -12.50% - -7.69%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 2 8
10th Percentile £35.00 £57.98 £35.20
25th Percentile £39.06 £62.06 £43.80
Median hourly rate £65.00 £70.25 £45.88
Median % change year-on-year -7.47% +53.12% -
75th Percentile £92.50 £79.56 £63.00
90th Percentile £98.35 £84.33 £78.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £70.25 £45.88
% change year-on-year -7.47% +53.12% -

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 11,119 8,765 11,499
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 34.96% 32.62% 31.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,080 5,266 7,694
10th Percentile £281 £275 £259
25th Percentile £406 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -7.27% - -4.35%
75th Percentile £638 £675 £675
90th Percentile £738 £780 £775
UK median daily rate £500 £533 £545
% change year-on-year -6.27% -2.12% -2.68%
Number of hourly rates quoted 544 253 571
10th Percentile £15.00 £18.13 £14.54
25th Percentile £18.50 £24.18 £18.50
Median hourly rate £29.50 £38.07 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -22.51% +8.77% +46.38%
75th Percentile £61.50 £67.02 £62.50
90th Percentile £74.26 £83.01 £73.75
UK median hourly rate £27.50 £35.00 £35.00
% change year-on-year -21.43% - +46.38%

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 18 January 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 18 January 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 18 January 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 +159 557 £550 -8.37% 166
North of England +52 156 £500 -9.09% 158
Yorkshire +21 88 £500 - 67
South East +35 85 £475 -8.65% 196
Midlands +21 76 £505 -18.32% 75
North West +18 62 £450 -25.00% 75
West Midlands +13 55 £530 -19.88% 24
South West +26 39 £575 +9.52% 88
East of England +5 32 £541 -11.73% 94
East Midlands -1 21 £419 -27.17% 48
North East -8 6 £573 +4.09% 18
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 41 (4.24%) Apache Spark
2 33 (3.41%) Confluence
3 29 (3.00%) Apache Airflow
4 19 (1.96%) Apache
5 12 (1.24%) nginx
6 9 (0.93%) OpenStack
6 9 (0.93%) SAS
7 5 (0.52%) Jupyter
7 5 (0.52%) SharePoint
8 4 (0.41%) CMS
8 4 (0.41%) Oracle Workflow
9 3 (0.31%) Tomcat
10 2 (0.21%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 2 (0.21%) Appian
10 2 (0.21%) Headless CMS
10 2 (0.21%) Oracle Coherence
10 2 (0.21%) Oracle HTTP Server
10 2 (0.21%) WebLogic
11 1 (0.10%) GeoServer
11 1 (0.10%) Mule ESB
Applications
1 6 (0.62%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (0.31%) LaTeX
2 3 (0.31%) Microsoft Project
3 2 (0.21%) Chatbot
3 2 (0.21%) Spreadsheet
4 1 (0.10%) Notion
Business Applications
1 5 (0.52%) Aladdin
2 4 (0.41%) Maximo
3 3 (0.31%) Dynamics CRM
4 2 (0.21%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
5 1 (0.10%) Fidessa
5 1 (0.10%) Finacle
5 1 (0.10%) SAP S/4HANA
5 1 (0.10%) thinkFolio
Cloud Services
1 548 (56.61%) AWS
2 455 (47.00%) Azure
3 278 (28.72%) GCP
4 211 (21.80%) Serverless
5 195 (20.14%) GitHub
6 117 (12.09%) GitHub Actions
7 110 (11.36%) Amazon S3
8 108 (11.16%) Azure DevOps
9 101 (10.43%) AWS Lambda
10 74 (7.64%) AWS CloudFormation
11 67 (6.92%) Azure AKS
12 62 (6.40%) Amazon ECS
13 54 (5.58%) OpenShift
14 49 (5.06%) SaaS
15 46 (4.75%) Amazon EKS
16 44 (4.55%) Azure Functions
16 44 (4.55%) PaaS
17 41 (4.24%) Entra ID
18 40 (4.13%) Amazon CloudWatch
18 40 (4.13%) Amazon EC2
Communications & Networking
1 37 (3.82%) Firewall
2 26 (2.69%) Network Security
3 22 (2.27%) VPN
4 18 (1.86%) DNS
5 13 (1.34%) WAN
6 9 (0.93%) MPLS
7 7 (0.72%) BGP
7 7 (0.72%) SD-WAN
8 6 (0.62%) LAN
9 5 (0.52%) NX-OS
10 4 (0.41%) Broadband
10 4 (0.41%) HTTP
11 3 (0.31%) NaaS
11 3 (0.31%) SSL
11 3 (0.31%) TCP/IP
11 3 (0.31%) VSAN
12 2 (0.21%) 5G
12 2 (0.21%) Kerberos
12 2 (0.21%) NetScaler
12 2 (0.21%) Software-Defined Networking
Database & Business Intelligence
1 94 (9.71%) PostgreSQL
2 73 (7.54%) NoSQL
3 38 (3.93%) DynamoDB
4 36 (3.72%) Amazon RDS
5 33 (3.41%) BigQuery
5 33 (3.41%) Data Lake
5 33 (3.41%) MongoDB
6 32 (3.31%) Relational Database
7 29 (3.00%) Power BI
8 28 (2.89%) SQL Server
9 27 (2.79%) Redis
10 26 (2.69%) Metadata
11 25 (2.58%) MySQL
12 24 (2.48%) Amazon Athena
13 20 (2.07%) Data Warehouse
14 19 (1.96%) Amazon Redshift
15 17 (1.76%) Amazon Aurora
15 17 (1.76%) Big Data
16 16 (1.65%) Azure SQL Database
17 13 (1.34%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 169 (17.46%) Jenkins
2 112 (11.57%) Git
2 112 (11.57%) GitLab
3 66 (6.82%) JIRA
4 33 (3.41%) Liquibase
5 18 (1.86%) SonarQube
6 15 (1.55%) JUnit
7 12 (1.24%) CircleCI
7 12 (1.24%) MLflow
8 11 (1.14%) Cypress.io
8 11 (1.14%) JMeter
8 11 (1.14%) Selenium
9 10 (1.03%) Gradle
10 9 (0.93%) Gatling
10 9 (0.93%) Maven
10 9 (0.93%) Mockito
11 8 (0.83%) Postman
11 8 (0.83%) Sonatype Nexus
12 6 (0.62%) Mocha
12 6 (0.62%) Snyk
General
1 268 (27.69%) Social Skills
2 194 (20.04%) Finance
3 118 (12.19%) Public Sector
4 96 (9.92%) Banking
5 55 (5.68%) Analytical Skills
6 26 (2.69%) Financial Institution
7 22 (2.27%) Documentation Skills
8 18 (1.86%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 17 (1.76%) Pharmaceutical
10 16 (1.65%) Telecoms
11 14 (1.45%) Front Office
12 13 (1.34%) Investment Banking
12 13 (1.34%) Retail
13 11 (1.14%) Influencing Skills
14 9 (0.93%) Marketing
14 9 (0.93%) Publishing
15 8 (0.83%) Billing
15 8 (0.83%) Legal
16 7 (0.72%) Aviation
17 6 (0.62%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 226 (23.35%) Architect
2 174 (17.98%) Developer
3 146 (15.08%) Senior
4 81 (8.37%) Lead
5 77 (7.95%) Software Engineer
6 66 (6.82%) DevOps Engineer
7 60 (6.20%) Data Engineer
8 59 (6.10%) Solutions Architect
9 56 (5.79%) AWS Engineer
10 54 (5.58%) Cloud Engineer
11 39 (4.03%) Azure Engineer
12 37 (3.82%) Java Developer
12 37 (3.82%) Senior Developer
13 35 (3.62%) Cloud Architect
14 34 (3.51%) Full-Stack Developer
15 29 (3.00%) Backend Developer
15 29 (3.00%) Consultant
16 26 (2.69%) GCP Engineer
16 26 (2.69%) Security Architect
16 26 (2.69%) Senior Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 127 (13.12%) REST
2 120 (12.40%) Node.js
3 112 (11.57%) RESTful
4 88 (9.09%) Kafka
5 87 (8.99%) .NET
6 86 (8.88%) Spring
7 79 (8.16%) Spring Boot
8 77 (7.95%) React
9 55 (5.68%) GraphQL
10 51 (5.27%) AngularJS
11 45 (4.65%) Playwright
12 37 (3.82%) Elastic Stack
13 32 (3.31%) OAuth
13 32 (3.31%) YAML
14 31 (3.20%) Vitest
15 30 (3.10%) FastAPI
16 27 (2.79%) Middleware
17 26 (2.69%) ARM Templates
17 26 (2.69%) OpenTelemetry
18 25 (2.58%) PyTorch
Miscellaneous
1 90 (9.30%) Distributed Systems
2 47 (4.86%) Public Cloud
3 43 (4.44%) Hybrid Cloud
4 41 (4.24%) Product Ownership
5 31 (3.20%) Legacy Systems
6 26 (2.69%) Enterprise Software
6 26 (2.69%) Onboarding
7 25 (2.58%) Security Posture
8 22 (2.27%) Algorithms
9 17 (1.76%) Virtual Team
10 16 (1.65%) Data Centre
11 15 (1.55%) AI Agents
11 15 (1.55%) Data Protection Act
12 14 (1.45%) Genomics
13 13 (1.34%) Fixed Income
13 13 (1.34%) Life Science
13 13 (1.34%) NHS
14 12 (1.24%) Equities
14 12 (1.24%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
14 12 (1.24%) SWIFT Messaging Network
Operating Systems
1 92 (9.50%) Linux
2 15 (1.55%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 14 (1.45%) Unix
4 8 (0.83%) VMS
4 8 (0.83%) Windows
4 8 (0.83%) Windows Server
5 2 (0.21%) Android
5 2 (0.21%) Apple iOS
5 2 (0.21%) CentOS
5 2 (0.21%) Solaris
5 2 (0.21%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 590 (60.95%) CI/CD
2 520 (53.72%) DevOps
3 371 (38.33%) Agile
4 318 (32.85%) Infrastructure as Code
5 291 (30.06%) Containerisation
6 268 (27.69%) Microservices
7 197 (20.35%) Software Engineering
8 193 (19.94%) Problem-Solving
9 179 (18.49%) AI
10 166 (17.15%) Test Automation
11 133 (13.74%) Machine Learning
12 131 (13.53%) Observability
13 129 (13.33%) Migration
14 118 (12.19%) Roadmaps
15 116 (11.98%) Data Pipeline
16 106 (10.95%) Mentoring
17 103 (10.64%) Analytics
18 100 (10.33%) Stakeholder Management
19 98 (10.12%) Event-Driven
20 97 (10.02%) Full-Stack Development
Programming Languages
1 361 (37.29%) Python
2 197 (20.35%) SQL
3 189 (19.52%) Java
4 99 (10.23%) TypeScript
5 63 (6.51%) JavaScript
6 62 (6.40%) Go
7 60 (6.20%) C#
8 52 (5.37%) Bash
9 40 (4.13%) Bicep
10 38 (3.93%) PowerShell
11 14 (1.45%) Shell Script
12 11 (1.14%) Scala
13 9 (0.93%) Kotlin
14 8 (0.83%) Ruby
15 6 (0.62%) R
15 6 (0.62%) VBA
16 5 (0.52%) Korn
16 5 (0.52%) PL/SQL
17 3 (0.31%) C
17 3 (0.31%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 197 (20.35%) Security Cleared
2 167 (17.25%) SC Cleared
3 97 (10.02%) Degree
4 54 (5.58%) Computer Science Degree
5 50 (5.17%) Azure Certification
6 47 (4.86%) AWS Certification
7 41 (4.24%) Master's Degree
8 29 (3.00%) TOGAF Certification
9 23 (2.38%) Cisco Certification
9 23 (2.38%) CISSP
10 21 (2.17%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 19 (1.96%) BPSS Clearance
11 19 (1.96%) DV Cleared
12 15 (1.55%) MCP
13 14 (1.45%) CISM
13 14 (1.45%) PhD
14 11 (1.14%) (ISC)2 CCSP
15 10 (1.03%) CCIE
15 10 (1.03%) CCSP
15 10 (1.03%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 61 (6.30%) QA
2 54 (5.58%) NIST
3 53 (5.48%) GDPR
4 45 (4.65%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 32 (3.31%) Data Quality
6 19 (1.96%) PCI DSS
7 18 (1.86%) EU AI Act
7 18 (1.86%) PSD2
8 13 (1.34%) ISO 20022
9 12 (1.24%) SEPA
10 8 (0.83%) Cyber Essentials
10 8 (0.83%) NCSC
11 6 (0.62%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 5 (0.52%) Accessibility
12 5 (0.52%) HIPAA
12 5 (0.52%) SLA
12 5 (0.52%) SOC 2
13 3 (0.31%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 3 (0.31%) Solvency II
14 2 (0.21%) WCAG
System Software
1 334 (34.50%) Docker
2 31 (3.20%) VMware Infrastructure
3 23 (2.38%) Active Directory
4 12 (1.24%) vSphere
5 11 (1.14%) Virtual Machines
5 11 (1.14%) VMware NSX
6 8 (0.83%) Hyper-V
7 2 (0.21%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
Systems Management
1 384 (39.67%) Kubernetes
2 309 (31.92%) Terraform
3 90 (9.30%) Grafana
4 85 (8.78%) Prometheus
5 81 (8.37%) Ansible
6 38 (3.93%) Argo
7 17 (1.76%) Puppet
8 15 (1.55%) Kibana
9 14 (1.45%) Istio
10 9 (0.93%) Kustomize
11 7 (0.72%) FortiGate
11 7 (0.72%) logstash
11 7 (0.72%) Microsoft Intune
12 6 (0.62%) ITRS Geneos
13 5 (0.52%) NetBackup
13 5 (0.52%) Packer
13 5 (0.52%) Progress Chef
13 5 (0.52%) Single Sign-On
14 4 (0.41%) AirWatch
14 4 (0.41%) Kubeflow
Vendors
1 167 (17.25%) Microsoft
2 99 (10.23%) Google
3 78 (8.06%) Databricks
4 52 (5.37%) Splunk
5 39 (4.03%) Red Hat
6 38 (3.93%) VMware
7 37 (3.82%) Oracle
8 22 (2.27%) Cisco
9 18 (1.86%) Salesforce
10 17 (1.76%) CyberArk
11 16 (1.65%) MuleSoft
12 15 (1.55%) Foundry
13 14 (1.45%) Dynatrace
14 13 (1.34%) ServiceNow
15 10 (1.03%) OpenAI
16 9 (0.93%) AppDynamics
16 9 (0.93%) Centrify
16 9 (0.93%) SAP
17 8 (0.83%) F5
18 7 (0.72%) Solace