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 1 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 55 68 95
Rank change year-on-year +13 +27 +1
Contract jobs citing GCP 129 58 42
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 3.60% 2.83% 1.52%
As % of the Cloud Services category 11.49% 8.70% 4.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 84 40 26
10th Percentile £415 £411 £375
25th Percentile £453 £463 £378
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £530 £540 £550
Median % change year-on-year -1.85% -1.82% -4.35%
75th Percentile £613 £671 £659
90th Percentile £659 £739 £756
England median daily rate £550 £575 £613
% change year-on-year -4.35% -6.12% -1.21%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 1 0
10th Percentile £51.33 - -
25th Percentile £74.38 £67.50 -
Median hourly rate £77.00 £70.00 -
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% - -
75th Percentile - £72.50 -
90th Percentile - - -
England median hourly rate £69.22 £52.50 £51.75
% change year-on-year +31.85% +1.45% -26.07%

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 1,123 667 888
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 31.36% 32.54% 32.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 707 506 629
10th Percentile £314 £313 £284
25th Percentile £400 £393 £388
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £460 £475
Median % change year-on-year +8.75% -3.21% -5.00%
75th Percentile £600 £545 £575
90th Percentile £676 £638 £650
England median daily rate £520 £515 £525
% change year-on-year +0.97% -1.90% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 88 20 60
10th Percentile £18.65 £12.82 £15.25
25th Percentile £28.50 £23.36 -
Median hourly rate £62.25 £34.67 £16.06
Median % change year-on-year +79.55% +115.88% -27.67%
75th Percentile £77.00 £54.38 £26.50
90th Percentile £95.00 £77.50 £71.54
England median hourly rate £41.06 £25.15 £22.00
% change year-on-year +63.26% +14.32% -31.89%

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 1 July 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
Hourly Rate Histogram in the North West

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing GCP in the North West over the 6 months to 1 July 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for GCP in the North West

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 1 July 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 +4 86 £528 -9.75% 94
Cheshire +16 37 £588 +23.68% 9
Lancashire -6 3 £675 +27.36% 16
Cumbria - 2 £525 -
Merseyside -22 1 £525 -6.67% 10
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 5 (3.88%) Apache
2 4 (3.10%) Apache Spark
3 3 (2.33%) Microsoft Exchange
3 3 (2.33%) SharePoint
4 1 (0.78%) Confluence
Business Applications
1 2 (1.55%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 107 (82.95%) Azure
2 101 (78.29%) AWS
3 25 (19.38%) Google Kubernetes Engine
4 13 (10.08%) Virtual Private Cloud
5 12 (9.30%) GitHub
6 9 (6.98%) Azure DevOps
7 8 (6.20%) AWS CloudFormation
7 8 (6.20%) Azure AKS
7 8 (6.20%) Serverless
8 7 (5.43%) Entra ID
8 7 (5.43%) GitHub Actions
9 6 (4.65%) Vertex AI
10 5 (3.88%) Akamai
10 5 (3.88%) Amazon SageMaker
10 5 (3.88%) Apigee
10 5 (3.88%) AWS Lambda
10 5 (3.88%) Azure Machine Learning
10 5 (3.88%) Microsoft 365
10 5 (3.88%) Snowflake
11 4 (3.10%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 21 (16.28%) Firewall
2 9 (6.98%) DNS
3 5 (3.88%) VPN
4 4 (3.10%) BGP
4 4 (3.10%) HTTP
4 4 (3.10%) OSPF
4 4 (3.10%) TCP/IP
5 3 (2.33%) DKIM
5 3 (2.33%) DMARC
5 3 (2.33%) Network Security
5 3 (2.33%) SSL
6 2 (1.55%) NAS
6 2 (1.55%) SAN
6 2 (1.55%) VLAN
6 2 (1.55%) Wireless
7 1 (0.78%) BIG-IP
7 1 (0.78%) Cisco ASA
7 1 (0.78%) Intrusion Detection
7 1 (0.78%) Junos
7 1 (0.78%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (6.20%) BigQuery
2 6 (4.65%) Data Lake
3 4 (3.10%) NoSQL
4 2 (1.55%) MongoDB
4 2 (1.55%) MySQL
4 2 (1.55%) Snowflake Schema
5 1 (0.78%) Amazon Redshift
5 1 (0.78%) Data Warehouse
5 1 (0.78%) Looker
5 1 (0.78%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 15 (11.63%) Jenkins
2 10 (7.75%) Git
3 9 (6.98%) Selenium
4 8 (6.20%) Postman
5 7 (5.43%) Cucumber
5 7 (5.43%) GitLab
6 5 (3.88%) SonarQube
6 5 (3.88%) Sonatype Nexus
7 4 (3.10%) JIRA
7 4 (3.10%) JUnit
7 4 (3.10%) REST Assured
8 3 (2.33%) JMeter
9 2 (1.55%) Burp Suite
9 2 (1.55%) Gatling
9 2 (1.55%) Gradle
9 2 (1.55%) LoadRunner
10 1 (0.78%) Cypress.io
10 1 (0.78%) Robot Framework
10 1 (0.78%) TestNG
General
1 26 (20.16%) Finance
2 25 (19.38%) Social Skills
3 14 (10.85%) Banking
4 11 (8.53%) Public Sector
5 8 (6.20%) Retail
6 7 (5.43%) Analytical Skills
7 5 (3.88%) Manufacturing
8 3 (2.33%) Financial Institution
9 2 (1.55%) Games
9 2 (1.55%) Influencing Skills
10 1 (0.78%) Advertising
10 1 (0.78%) Automotive
10 1 (0.78%) Digital Health
10 1 (0.78%) Military
10 1 (0.78%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 27 (20.93%) Architect
2 19 (14.73%) Security Engineer
3 18 (13.95%) Senior
4 16 (12.40%) Cloud Engineer
5 13 (10.08%) Solutions Architect
6 12 (9.30%) DevOps Engineer
7 9 (6.98%) GCP Engineer
8 8 (6.20%) Analyst
8 8 (6.20%) Data Engineer
9 6 (4.65%) Security Architect
9 6 (4.65%) Technical Analyst
10 5 (3.88%) Administrator
10 5 (3.88%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
10 5 (3.88%) Cloud Security Engineer
10 5 (3.88%) Integration Engineer
10 5 (3.88%) Lead
10 5 (3.88%) Senior Software Engineer
10 5 (3.88%) Software Engineer
10 5 (3.88%) Systems Analyst
10 5 (3.88%) Technical Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (9.30%) OAuth
2 9 (6.98%) Kafka
2 9 (6.98%) PySpark
3 8 (6.20%) React
3 8 (6.20%) Spring
3 8 (6.20%) Spring Boot
4 7 (5.43%) REST
5 6 (4.65%) Node.js
5 6 (4.65%) OpenID
6 5 (3.88%) RESTful
7 4 (3.10%) JWT
7 4 (3.10%) OAuth2
7 4 (3.10%) RabbitMQ
8 3 (2.33%) Playwright
8 3 (2.33%) SAML
9 2 (1.55%) Next.js
9 2 (1.55%) Nunjucks
9 2 (1.55%) Quarkus
9 2 (1.55%) SailPoint
9 2 (1.55%) XGBoost
Miscellaneous
1 22 (17.05%) Cloud Native
2 11 (8.53%) Security Posture
3 10 (7.75%) Management Information System
4 7 (5.43%) AI Agents
4 7 (5.43%) Legacy Systems
4 7 (5.43%) Public Cloud
5 6 (4.65%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
5 6 (4.65%) Private Cloud
5 6 (4.65%) Product Ownership
6 5 (3.88%) PKI
7 4 (3.10%) Distributed Systems
8 3 (2.33%) Data Centre
8 3 (2.33%) Data Protection Act
8 3 (2.33%) e-Learning
8 3 (2.33%) Freedom of Information
8 3 (2.33%) Replication
9 2 (1.55%) Animation
9 2 (1.55%) CCTV
9 2 (1.55%) Enterprise Software
9 2 (1.55%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 19 (14.73%) Windows
2 17 (13.18%) Linux
3 11 (8.53%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 4 (3.10%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 66 (51.16%) CI/CD
2 56 (43.41%) DevOps
3 35 (27.13%) Agile
3 35 (27.13%) Infrastructure as Code
4 29 (22.48%) Observability
5 25 (19.38%) Microservices
6 24 (18.60%) Cloud Security
7 21 (16.28%) Roadmaps
8 20 (15.50%) Continuous Improvement
8 20 (15.50%) SIEM
9 18 (13.95%) Analytics
9 18 (13.95%) Problem-Solving
9 18 (13.95%) Technical Leadership
10 17 (13.18%) AI
10 17 (13.18%) Change Management
10 17 (13.18%) Scrum
11 16 (12.40%) Cybersecurity
11 16 (12.40%) DevSecOps
11 16 (12.40%) Infrastructure Automation
12 15 (11.63%) Machine Learning
Programming Languages
1 46 (35.66%) Python
2 26 (20.16%) Java
3 20 (15.50%) Bash
4 19 (14.73%) PowerShell
5 10 (7.75%) SQL
6 7 (5.43%) Go
7 6 (4.65%) Bicep
7 6 (4.65%) JavaScript
8 3 (2.33%) TypeScript
9 1 (0.78%) Scala
Qualifications
1 17 (13.18%) Azure Certification
2 15 (11.63%) AWS Certification
2 15 (11.63%) CISSP
3 14 (10.85%) Security Cleared
4 11 (8.53%) Degree
5 8 (6.20%) Cisco Certification
6 6 (4.65%) SC Cleared
7 5 (3.88%) (ISC)2 CCSP
8 3 (2.33%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
8 3 (2.33%) BPSS Clearance
8 3 (2.33%) CCNP
8 3 (2.33%) GIAC
9 2 (1.55%) CEH
9 2 (1.55%) CISM
9 2 (1.55%) Computer Science Degree
9 2 (1.55%) DV Cleared
9 2 (1.55%) IBM Certification
9 2 (1.55%) ITIL Certification
9 2 (1.55%) Microsoft Certified Professional
9 2 (1.55%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (6.98%) Data Quality
1 9 (6.98%) NIST
2 8 (6.20%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 6 (4.65%) QA
4 4 (3.10%) PCI DSS
5 2 (1.55%) Accessibility
5 2 (1.55%) GDPR
6 1 (0.78%) CDISC
6 1 (0.78%) COBIT
6 1 (0.78%) ISO 20022
6 1 (0.78%) PSD2
6 1 (0.78%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 1 (0.78%) SEPA
6 1 (0.78%) SOC 2
System Software
1 28 (21.71%) Docker
2 9 (6.98%) Active Directory
3 2 (1.55%) Apache ZooKeeper
3 2 (1.55%) Hyper-V
3 2 (1.55%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 44 (34.11%) Terraform
2 42 (32.56%) Kubernetes
3 14 (10.85%) Prometheus
4 13 (10.08%) Grafana
5 11 (8.53%) Progress Chef
6 10 (7.75%) Ansible
7 9 (6.98%) Istio
8 6 (4.65%) Argo
8 6 (4.65%) Single Sign-On
9 2 (1.55%) linkerd
9 2 (1.55%) Microsoft Intune
10 1 (0.78%) Active Directory Federation Services
Vendors
1 42 (32.56%) Google
2 14 (10.85%) Microsoft
3 11 (8.53%) Red Hat
4 7 (5.43%) Salesforce
5 6 (4.65%) Databricks
6 5 (3.88%) Dynatrace
6 5 (3.88%) OpenAI
7 4 (3.10%) Palo Alto
7 4 (3.10%) Splunk
8 3 (2.33%) Fortinet
8 3 (2.33%) MuleSoft
8 3 (2.33%) PagerDuty
8 3 (2.33%) Perforce
9 2 (1.55%) Arista
9 2 (1.55%) Confluent
9 2 (1.55%) CyberArk
9 2 (1.55%) IBM
9 2 (1.55%) Okta
9 2 (1.55%) ServiceNow
9 2 (1.55%) VMware