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 12 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 57 60 82
Rank change year-on-year +3 +22 +21
Contract jobs citing GCP 138 74 44
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 3.65% 3.35% 1.84%
As % of the Cloud Services category 11.44% 10.74% 5.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 88 46 24
10th Percentile £421 £413 £375
25th Percentile £463 £463 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £529 £550
Median % change year-on-year +4.02% -3.86% -4.35%
75th Percentile £618 £643 £666
90th Percentile £670 £744 £759
England median daily rate £550 £556 £613
% change year-on-year -1.12% -9.18% -
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 £71.25 £53.50 £46.25
% change year-on-year +33.18% +15.68% -37.36%

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 1,206 689 743
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 31.88% 31.19% 31.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 780 515 500
10th Percentile £250 £313 £306
25th Percentile £400 £391 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £450 £475
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% -5.26% -5.00%
75th Percentile £613 £538 £575
90th Percentile £688 £638 £650
England median daily rate £525 £511 £525
% change year-on-year +2.84% -2.76% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 87 23 36
10th Percentile £18.45 £12.82 -
25th Percentile £25.38 £22.87 -
Median hourly rate £45.50 £40.59 £16.06
Median % change year-on-year +12.10% +152.74% -40.96%
75th Percentile £76.00 £56.25 £33.38
90th Percentile £92.00 £75.50 £70.63
England median hourly rate £35.50 £26.15 £24.59
% change year-on-year +35.76% +6.34% -23.92%

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 12 August 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 12 August 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 12 August 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 -3 93 £530 -7.83% 197
Cheshire +19 41 £613 +29.05% 25
Cumbria - 2 £525 -
Lancashire -11 1 - - 18
Merseyside -21 1 £525 +7.69% 17
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 6 (4.35%) Apache
2 5 (3.62%) Apache Spark
3 4 (2.90%) Microsoft Exchange
3 4 (2.90%) SharePoint
4 2 (1.45%) Confluence
5 1 (0.72%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.72%) nginx
Business Applications
1 2 (1.45%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 115 (83.33%) Azure
2 110 (79.71%) AWS
3 28 (20.29%) Google Kubernetes Engine
4 17 (12.32%) AWS CloudFormation
5 13 (9.42%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 12 (8.70%) Serverless
7 11 (7.97%) Azure AKS
7 11 (7.97%) Azure DevOps
7 11 (7.97%) Entra ID
8 10 (7.25%) Vertex AI
9 9 (6.52%) Amazon EKS
10 8 (5.80%) AWS Lambda
10 8 (5.80%) Azure Sentinel
10 8 (5.80%) GitHub
10 8 (5.80%) Microsoft 365
11 6 (4.35%) Amazon ECS
11 6 (4.35%) Amazon SageMaker
11 6 (4.35%) Azure Machine Learning
11 6 (4.35%) GitHub Actions
11 6 (4.35%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 25 (18.12%) Firewall
2 8 (5.80%) DNS
2 8 (5.80%) Network Security
3 7 (5.07%) VPN
4 6 (4.35%) BGP
4 6 (4.35%) OSPF
5 4 (2.90%) HTTP
5 4 (2.90%) TCP/IP
5 4 (2.90%) VLAN
6 3 (2.17%) DKIM
6 3 (2.17%) DMARC
6 3 (2.17%) NAS
6 3 (2.17%) SAN
6 3 (2.17%) SSL
6 3 (2.17%) Wireless
7 2 (1.45%) Cisco ASA
7 2 (1.45%) Junos
7 2 (1.45%) WAN
8 1 (0.72%) Intrusion Detection
8 1 (0.72%) Reverse Proxy
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (5.80%) BigQuery
2 7 (5.07%) Data Lake
3 4 (2.90%) NoSQL
4 3 (2.17%) Amazon Redshift
5 2 (1.45%) Data Warehouse
5 2 (1.45%) Snowflake Schema
5 2 (1.45%) SQL Server
6 1 (0.72%) Amazon RDS
6 1 (0.72%) Big Data
6 1 (0.72%) DynamoDB
6 1 (0.72%) Flink
6 1 (0.72%) Looker
6 1 (0.72%) PostgreSQL
6 1 (0.72%) Relational Database
6 1 (0.72%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 14 (10.14%) Jenkins
2 9 (6.52%) Git
3 7 (5.07%) Cucumber
4 6 (4.35%) GitLab
4 6 (4.35%) Selenium
4 6 (4.35%) SonarQube
5 5 (3.62%) JIRA
5 5 (3.62%) Postman
5 5 (3.62%) Sonatype Nexus
6 4 (2.90%) JUnit
6 4 (2.90%) REST Assured
7 2 (1.45%) Burp Suite
7 2 (1.45%) Gatling
7 2 (1.45%) Gradle
7 2 (1.45%) LoadRunner
8 1 (0.72%) Cypress.io
8 1 (0.72%) Maven
8 1 (0.72%) Robot Framework
8 1 (0.72%) TestNG
General
1 34 (24.64%) Finance
2 22 (15.94%) Social Skills
3 13 (9.42%) Banking
4 10 (7.25%) Analytical Skills
5 8 (5.80%) Public Sector
6 7 (5.07%) Retail
7 5 (3.62%) Games
7 5 (3.62%) Manufacturing
8 3 (2.17%) Financial Institution
9 1 (0.72%) Digital Health
9 1 (0.72%) Documentation Skills
9 1 (0.72%) Influencing Skills
9 1 (0.72%) Military
9 1 (0.72%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 34 (24.64%) Security Engineer
2 29 (21.01%) Cloud Engineer
3 28 (20.29%) Architect
4 16 (11.59%) Cloud Security Engineer
5 14 (10.14%) Senior
6 13 (9.42%) Solutions Architect
7 11 (7.97%) DevOps Engineer
8 8 (5.80%) Analyst
8 8 (5.80%) Data Engineer
9 7 (5.07%) GCP Engineer
10 6 (4.35%) Lead
10 6 (4.35%) Technical Analyst
11 5 (3.62%) Administrator
11 5 (3.62%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
11 5 (3.62%) Integration Engineer
11 5 (3.62%) Network Engineer
11 5 (3.62%) Systems Analyst
11 5 (3.62%) Technical Architect
12 4 (2.90%) Artificial Intelligence Architect
12 4 (2.90%) Platform Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (7.97%) OAuth
2 9 (6.52%) PySpark
3 7 (5.07%) OpenID
4 6 (4.35%) Kafka
4 6 (4.35%) Node.js
4 6 (4.35%) React
5 5 (3.62%) Langfuse
5 5 (3.62%) REST
5 5 (3.62%) Spring
5 5 (3.62%) Spring Boot
6 4 (2.90%) JWT
6 4 (2.90%) OAuth2
7 3 (2.17%) Playwright
7 3 (2.17%) SAML
8 2 (1.45%) ARM Templates
8 2 (1.45%) Azure Blueprints
8 2 (1.45%) Next.js
8 2 (1.45%) Nunjucks
8 2 (1.45%) RESTful
8 2 (1.45%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 28 (20.29%) Cloud Native
2 20 (14.49%) Security Posture
3 11 (7.97%) Management Information System
4 10 (7.25%) AI Agents
5 9 (6.52%) Enterprise Cloud
6 7 (5.07%) Legacy Systems
7 6 (4.35%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 6 (4.35%) Public Cloud
8 5 (3.62%) Animation
8 5 (3.62%) Cloud Security Posture
8 5 (3.62%) PKI
8 5 (3.62%) Product Ownership
9 4 (2.90%) Data Protection Act
10 3 (2.17%) Data Centre
10 3 (2.17%) Distributed Systems
10 3 (2.17%) Enterprise Software
10 3 (2.17%) Freedom of Information
10 3 (2.17%) Private Cloud
10 3 (2.17%) Replication
11 2 (1.45%) Insider Threat
Operating Systems
1 26 (18.84%) Windows
2 25 (18.12%) Linux
3 16 (11.59%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 6 (4.35%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 65 (47.10%) CI/CD
2 58 (42.03%) DevOps
3 47 (34.06%) Infrastructure as Code
4 39 (28.26%) Agile
5 37 (26.81%) Cloud Security
6 25 (18.12%) Change Management
6 25 (18.12%) Observability
6 25 (18.12%) SIEM
7 23 (16.67%) AI
7 23 (16.67%) Infrastructure Automation
8 22 (15.94%) Microservices
8 22 (15.94%) Scrum
9 19 (13.77%) Roadmaps
10 18 (13.04%) Analytics
10 18 (13.04%) Threat Modelling
11 17 (12.32%) Continuous Improvement
11 17 (12.32%) Cybersecurity
11 17 (12.32%) DevSecOps
11 17 (12.32%) Problem-Solving
12 15 (10.87%) Load Balancing
Programming Languages
1 54 (39.13%) Python
2 29 (21.01%) Bash
2 29 (21.01%) PowerShell
3 26 (18.84%) Java
4 19 (13.77%) Bicep
5 12 (8.70%) SQL
6 5 (3.62%) JavaScript
7 3 (2.17%) Go
8 1 (0.72%) Google Apps Script
8 1 (0.72%) Scala
Qualifications
1 20 (14.49%) Azure Certification
2 19 (13.77%) AWS Certification
2 19 (13.77%) CISSP
3 17 (12.32%) Degree
4 14 (10.14%) Security Cleared
5 11 (7.97%) Cisco Certification
6 8 (5.80%) SC Cleared
7 5 (3.62%) (ISC)2 CCSP
7 5 (3.62%) CCNP
8 4 (2.90%) TOGAF Certification
9 3 (2.17%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
9 3 (2.17%) CEH
9 3 (2.17%) GIAC
10 2 (1.45%) CCNA
10 2 (1.45%) Microsoft Certified Professional
11 1 (0.72%) CCSP
11 1 (0.72%) Microsoft Certification
11 1 (0.72%) PMI Certification
11 1 (0.72%) PMP
11 1 (0.72%) PRINCE2 Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (6.52%) Data Quality
2 8 (5.80%) NIST
3 6 (4.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 6 (4.35%) QA
4 4 (2.90%) PCI DSS
5 2 (1.45%) Accessibility
5 2 (1.45%) GDPR
6 1 (0.72%) CDISC
6 1 (0.72%) COBIT
6 1 (0.72%) ISO 20022
6 1 (0.72%) NCSC
6 1 (0.72%) PSD2
6 1 (0.72%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 1 (0.72%) SEPA
System Software
1 35 (25.36%) Docker
2 14 (10.14%) Active Directory
3 3 (2.17%) Hyper-V
3 3 (2.17%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (1.45%) Apache ZooKeeper
Systems Management
1 52 (37.68%) Terraform
2 51 (36.96%) Kubernetes
3 15 (10.87%) Progress Chef
4 12 (8.70%) Prometheus
5 10 (7.25%) Grafana
6 9 (6.52%) Ansible
6 9 (6.52%) Istio
7 7 (5.07%) Single Sign-On
8 6 (4.35%) Argo
9 3 (2.17%) Microsoft Intune
10 2 (1.45%) linkerd
11 1 (0.72%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 1 (0.72%) Nagios
11 1 (0.72%) Network Intrusion Detection System
Vendors
1 46 (33.33%) Google
2 20 (14.49%) Microsoft
3 16 (11.59%) Red Hat
4 7 (5.07%) Databricks
4 7 (5.07%) Salesforce
5 6 (4.35%) OpenAI
5 6 (4.35%) Palo Alto
5 6 (4.35%) Perforce
6 5 (3.62%) Dynatrace
6 5 (3.62%) Fortinet
7 4 (2.90%) Aruba
7 4 (2.90%) Splunk
8 3 (2.17%) Arista
8 3 (2.17%) CheckPoint
8 3 (2.17%) Cisco
8 3 (2.17%) Juniper
8 3 (2.17%) MuleSoft
8 3 (2.17%) VMware
9 2 (1.45%) Confluent
9 2 (1.45%) Okta