GCP Contract Job Trends in the North West

Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
England > North West

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the North West requiring GCP skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 23 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
23 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 42 83 102
Rank change year-on-year +41 +19 -14
Contract jobs citing GCP 130 40 36
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 5.03% 1.90% 1.31%
As % of the Cloud Services category 14.53% 5.97% 3.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 95 26 29
10th Percentile £350 £356 £100
25th Percentile £431 £381 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £575 £525
Median % change year-on-year -10.87% +9.52% -16.00%
75th Percentile £588 £647 £600
90th Percentile £688 £700 £640
England median daily rate £525 £600 £600
% change year-on-year -12.50% - -7.69%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 1 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £59.75 £72.50 -
Median hourly rate £64.50 £75.00 -
Median % change year-on-year -14.00% - -
75th Percentile £69.25 £77.50 -
90th Percentile - - -
England median hourly rate £55.00 £41.50 £54.28
% change year-on-year +32.53% -23.54% +6.43%

All Cloud Computing Skills
North West

GCP falls under the Cloud Services category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring cloud computing skills in the North West.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for cloud computing skills 895 670 936
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 34.60% 31.78% 34.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 658 453 690
10th Percentile £218 £250 £265
25th Percentile £358 £390 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £447 £475 £487
Median % change year-on-year -5.84% -2.51% -2.55%
75th Percentile £537 £575 £575
90th Percentile £625 £650 £650
England median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 42 12 52
10th Percentile £15.50 £17.80 £15.50
25th Percentile £18.59 £21.05 £17.72
Median hourly rate £41.34 £26.59 £26.00
Median % change year-on-year +55.48% +2.27% -48.00%
75th Percentile £67.25 £49.14 £46.18
90th Percentile £73.38 £75.55 £51.42
England median hourly rate £30.00 £28.00 £23.61
% change year-on-year +7.14% +18.59% +1.99%

GCP
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing GCP relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West.

GCP job vacancy trend in the North West

GCP
Daily Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing GCP.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing GCP

GCP
Daily Rate Histogram in the North West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing GCP in the North West over the 6 months to 23 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for GCP in the North West

GCP
Hourly Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing GCP.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing GCP

GCP
Contract Job Locations in the North West

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing GCP within the North West region over the 6 months to 23 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
Manchester +32 82 £525 -8.70% 56
Cheshire +5 40 £500 +40.45% 24
Lancashire - 5 £425 - 18
Merseyside -17 2 - - 12
GCP
England

GCP
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North West 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 7 (5.38%) SAS
2 4 (3.08%) OpenStack
3 2 (1.54%) Apache
3 2 (1.54%) Apache Airflow
4 1 (0.77%) Apache Spark
4 1 (0.77%) Confluence
4 1 (0.77%) IIS
Applications
1 8 (6.15%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 5 (3.85%) Payment Gateway
2 1 (0.77%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 98 (75.38%) Azure
2 94 (72.31%) AWS
3 17 (13.08%) GitHub
4 14 (10.77%) Power Platform
5 13 (10.00%) Datadog
6 12 (9.23%) Apigee
7 11 (8.46%) AWS CloudFormation
8 10 (7.69%) Google Tag Manager
9 9 (6.92%) Google Analytics
10 8 (6.15%) Amazon SQS
10 8 (6.15%) Serverless
11 7 (5.38%) Amazon ECS
11 7 (5.38%) AWS Lambda
11 7 (5.38%) GitHub Actions
12 6 (4.62%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 6 (4.62%) Amazon EventBridge
12 6 (4.62%) OpenShift
13 5 (3.85%) AWS Fargate
13 5 (3.85%) AWS Step Functions
13 5 (3.85%) Google Kubernetes Engine
Communications & Networking
1 10 (7.69%) Firewall
2 4 (3.08%) HTTP
2 4 (3.08%) HTTPS
2 4 (3.08%) VPN
3 3 (2.31%) Internet
4 2 (1.54%) VoIP
4 2 (1.54%) Wireshark
5 1 (0.77%) DNS
5 1 (0.77%) TCP/IP
5 1 (0.77%) VLAN
5 1 (0.77%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 26 (20.00%) BigQuery
2 13 (10.00%) Looker
2 13 (10.00%) Power BI
3 12 (9.23%) Data Warehouse
4 9 (6.92%) PostgreSQL
5 8 (6.15%) DynamoDB
5 8 (6.15%) NoSQL
5 8 (6.15%) Relational Database
6 6 (4.62%) Amazon Aurora
7 5 (3.85%) Amazon RDS
7 5 (3.85%) MySQL
7 5 (3.85%) RDBMS
7 5 (3.85%) Redis
7 5 (3.85%) Tableau
8 4 (3.08%) Metadata
9 2 (1.54%) Data Lake
9 2 (1.54%) Snowflake Schema
10 1 (0.77%) Azure SQL Database
10 1 (0.77%) Big Data
10 1 (0.77%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 23 (17.69%) Jenkins
2 14 (10.77%) Git
3 12 (9.23%) GitLab
4 7 (5.38%) SonarQube
5 5 (3.85%) Gradle
5 5 (3.85%) Maven
5 5 (3.85%) SonarLint
6 4 (3.08%) Postman
7 3 (2.31%) CircleCI
8 2 (1.54%) Fiddler
8 2 (1.54%) JIRA
8 2 (1.54%) Selenium
9 1 (0.77%) Bitbucket
9 1 (0.77%) Browser DevTools
9 1 (0.77%) Cucumber
9 1 (0.77%) Cypress.io
9 1 (0.77%) Gatling
9 1 (0.77%) JMeter
9 1 (0.77%) REST Assured
9 1 (0.77%) Snyk
General
1 52 (40.00%) Social Skills
2 33 (25.38%) Finance
3 25 (19.23%) Public Sector
4 24 (18.46%) Banking
5 19 (14.62%) Analytical Skills
6 5 (3.85%) Marketing
6 5 (3.85%) Retail
7 4 (3.08%) Games
8 3 (2.31%) Influencing Skills
8 3 (2.31%) Telecoms
9 2 (1.54%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 2 (1.54%) Military
10 1 (0.77%) Advertising
10 1 (0.77%) Automotive
10 1 (0.77%) Documentation Skills
10 1 (0.77%) Electronics
10 1 (0.77%) Manufacturing
10 1 (0.77%) Presentation Skills
10 1 (0.77%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 47 (36.15%) Architect
2 13 (10.00%) Analyst
2 13 (10.00%) Solutions Architect
3 11 (8.46%) Data Scientist
3 11 (8.46%) Platform Engineer
4 10 (7.69%) Senior
5 9 (6.92%) Java Architect
6 8 (6.15%) Java Technical Architect
6 8 (6.15%) Technical Architect
7 7 (5.38%) Developer
7 7 (5.38%) GCP Engineer
8 6 (4.62%) Performance Analyst
8 6 (4.62%) Security Architect
9 5 (3.85%) Cloud Architect
9 5 (3.85%) Data Architect
9 5 (3.85%) GCP Architect
9 5 (3.85%) Governance Manager
9 5 (3.85%) Security Engineer
10 4 (3.08%) Payments Architect
10 4 (3.08%) Payments Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (13.85%) Spring Boot
2 12 (9.23%) RESTful
2 12 (9.23%) Spring
3 11 (8.46%) JWT
4 8 (6.15%) Kafka
5 7 (5.38%) REST
6 6 (4.62%) Dropwizard
6 6 (4.62%) Elastic Stack
6 6 (4.62%) J2EE
6 6 (4.62%) Micronaut
6 6 (4.62%) OAuth
6 6 (4.62%) XGBoost
7 5 (3.85%) Celery
7 5 (3.85%) OAuth2
8 4 (3.08%) GraphQL
8 4 (3.08%) Hibernate
8 4 (3.08%) JAX-RS
8 4 (3.08%) JSON
8 4 (3.08%) React
8 4 (3.08%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 15 (11.54%) Cloud Native
2 10 (7.69%) Distributed Systems
3 9 (6.92%) Product Ownership
4 7 (5.38%) Credit Risk
5 6 (4.62%) N-Tier
5 6 (4.62%) Private Cloud
6 5 (3.85%) e-Learning
7 4 (3.08%) Data Protection Act
7 4 (3.08%) Distributed Computing
7 4 (3.08%) Virtual Team
8 3 (2.31%) Clustering
8 3 (2.31%) NHS
8 3 (2.31%) Public Cloud
9 2 (1.54%) Legacy Systems
9 2 (1.54%) Mobile Banking
9 2 (1.54%) Onboarding
9 2 (1.54%) Replication
10 1 (0.77%) Cloud Security Posture
10 1 (0.77%) Security Posture
10 1 (0.77%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 8 (6.15%) Linux
2 5 (3.85%) Windows
3 4 (3.08%) Mac OS
4 3 (2.31%) Windows 10
5 1 (0.77%) Android
5 1 (0.77%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 46 (35.38%) CI/CD
2 38 (29.23%) Containerisation
3 37 (28.46%) Analytics
4 36 (27.69%) DevOps
5 34 (26.15%) Agile
6 28 (21.54%) Microservices
7 25 (19.23%) Problem-Solving
8 24 (18.46%) Infrastructure as Code
9 23 (17.69%) Machine Learning
10 22 (16.92%) Data Science
11 20 (15.38%) Observability
12 18 (13.85%) Data Modelling
13 17 (13.08%) AI
13 17 (13.08%) Incident Response
13 17 (13.08%) Mentoring
13 17 (13.08%) Stakeholder Management
14 16 (12.31%) API Design
14 16 (12.31%) Data Analysis
15 15 (11.54%) Risk Management
15 15 (11.54%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 53 (40.77%) Python
2 30 (23.08%) Java
3 15 (11.54%) SQL
4 14 (10.77%) Bash
5 7 (5.38%) JavaScript
5 7 (5.38%) R
6 6 (4.62%) PowerShell
7 4 (3.08%) Go
8 3 (2.31%) C#
8 3 (2.31%) TypeScript
9 1 (0.77%) Bicep
9 1 (0.77%) C
9 1 (0.77%) C++
9 1 (0.77%) LookML
9 1 (0.77%) PHP
9 1 (0.77%) Scala
Qualifications
1 21 (16.15%) Security Cleared
2 10 (7.69%) Azure Certification
2 10 (7.69%) SC Cleared
3 9 (6.92%) AWS Certification
4 8 (6.15%) Computer Science Degree
4 8 (6.15%) Degree
5 7 (5.38%) BPSS Clearance
6 6 (4.62%) CISM
6 6 (4.62%) CISSP
7 5 (3.85%) ITIL Certification
8 4 (3.08%) IBM Certification
9 3 (2.31%) DV Cleared
9 3 (2.31%) TOGAF Certification
10 1 (0.77%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 1 (0.77%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
10 1 (0.77%) Master's Degree
10 1 (0.77%) Tableau Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (13.85%) Data Quality
2 11 (8.46%) QA
3 10 (7.69%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 9 (6.92%) Accessibility
4 9 (6.92%) GDPR
5 8 (6.15%) ISO 20022
6 7 (5.38%) NIST
7 5 (3.85%) PCI DSS
8 2 (1.54%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 1 (0.77%) GRC
9 1 (0.77%) HIPAA
9 1 (0.77%) PERC
9 1 (0.77%) PSD2
9 1 (0.77%) SOC 2
9 1 (0.77%) WCAG
System Software
1 38 (29.23%) Docker
2 8 (6.15%) VMware Infrastructure
3 5 (3.85%) vSphere
4 4 (3.08%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 44 (33.85%) Kubernetes
2 34 (26.15%) Terraform
3 8 (6.15%) Ansible
4 6 (4.62%) Grafana
4 6 (4.62%) Prometheus
5 5 (3.85%) Fluentd
6 4 (3.08%) SCCM
7 3 (2.31%) Istio
7 3 (2.31%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 47 (36.15%) Google
2 20 (15.38%) Microsoft
3 11 (8.46%) Splunk
4 9 (6.92%) VMware
5 7 (5.38%) Pega
6 6 (4.62%) Gigya
7 5 (3.85%) Cribl.io
7 5 (3.85%) IBM
8 4 (3.08%) Citrix
8 4 (3.08%) Confluent
8 4 (3.08%) F5
8 4 (3.08%) Palo Alto
9 1 (0.77%) Checkmarx
9 1 (0.77%) Databricks
9 1 (0.77%) Dynatrace
9 1 (0.77%) Facebook
9 1 (0.77%) OpenAI
9 1 (0.77%) ServiceNow
9 1 (0.77%) SnapLogic
9 1 (0.77%) Veracode