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 4 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
4 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 52 71 101
Rank change year-on-year +19 +30 -7
Contract jobs citing GCP 129 52 35
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 4.12% 2.68% 1.25%
As % of the Cloud Services category 12.68% 7.82% 3.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 95 33 25
10th Percentile £385 £453 £100
25th Percentile £450 £500 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £575 £513
Median % change year-on-year -4.35% +12.20% -14.58%
75th Percentile £630 £700 £594
90th Percentile £692 £731 £720
England median daily rate £550 £600 £600
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -4.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 2 0
10th Percentile £60.43 £68.00 -
25th Percentile £61.44 £68.75 -
Median hourly rate £66.75 £72.50 -
Median % change year-on-year -7.93% - -
75th Percentile £70.94 £76.25 -
90th Percentile £71.28 £77.00 -
England median hourly rate £55.00 £54.50 £51.06
% change year-on-year +0.92% +6.75% -27.25%

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 1,017 665 899
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 32.48% 34.31% 32.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 709 514 657
10th Percentile £220 £250 £284
25th Percentile £370 £393 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £489
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% -2.86% -2.20%
75th Percentile £572 £575 £553
90th Percentile £644 £650 £638
England median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 64 14 67
10th Percentile £21.92 £24.99 £13.00
25th Percentile £25.38 £26.88 -
Median hourly rate £62.50 £28.88 £16.06
Median % change year-on-year +116.45% +79.79% -48.61%
75th Percentile £77.50 £65.22 £22.13
90th Percentile £95.00 £77.13 £43.75
England median hourly rate £42.59 £26.50 £20.97
% change year-on-year +60.73% +26.37% -20.08%

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 4 April 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 4 April 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 +11 72 £550 -4.35% 43
Cheshire +22 49 £563 +8.17% 8
Lancashire -10 6 £425 -19.81% 7
Merseyside -25 2 - - 7
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%) SAS
2 4 (3.10%) OpenStack
3 3 (2.33%) Apache
4 1 (0.78%) Apache Airflow
4 1 (0.78%) Confluence
Applications
1 5 (3.88%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 3 (2.33%) Payment Gateway
2 1 (0.78%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 101 (78.29%) Azure
2 98 (75.97%) AWS
3 15 (11.63%) GitHub
4 13 (10.08%) Google Kubernetes Engine
5 10 (7.75%) AWS CloudFormation
5 10 (7.75%) Power Platform
6 9 (6.98%) Apigee
6 9 (6.98%) GitHub Actions
7 8 (6.20%) Entra ID
8 7 (5.43%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 6 (4.65%) Azure DevOps
9 6 (4.65%) Google Analytics
9 6 (4.65%) Google Tag Manager
10 5 (3.88%) Akamai
11 4 (3.10%) Azure AKS
11 4 (3.10%) OpenShift
12 3 (2.33%) Amazon EKS
12 3 (2.33%) Azure API Management
12 3 (2.33%) Kong
12 3 (2.33%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 16 (12.40%) Firewall
2 8 (6.20%) HTTP
3 5 (3.88%) DNS
3 5 (3.88%) VPN
4 4 (3.10%) HTTPS
4 4 (3.10%) TCP/IP
5 3 (2.33%) Internet
5 3 (2.33%) Network Security
6 2 (1.55%) BGP
6 2 (1.55%) OSPF
6 2 (1.55%) Wireshark
7 1 (0.78%) Cisco ASA
7 1 (0.78%) Cisco Firepower
7 1 (0.78%) SSL
7 1 (0.78%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 14 (10.85%) BigQuery
2 8 (6.20%) Data Warehouse
2 8 (6.20%) Looker
2 8 (6.20%) Power BI
3 4 (3.10%) NoSQL
4 3 (2.33%) Tableau
5 2 (1.55%) Amazon Redshift
5 2 (1.55%) MongoDB
5 2 (1.55%) MySQL
5 2 (1.55%) Snowflake Schema
6 1 (0.78%) Cloud Spanner
6 1 (0.78%) Data Lake
6 1 (0.78%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 16 (12.40%) Jenkins
2 12 (9.30%) GitLab
3 7 (5.43%) Git
3 7 (5.43%) Postman
4 5 (3.88%) Selenium
5 3 (2.33%) JMeter
6 2 (1.55%) Fiddler
7 1 (0.78%) Bitbucket
7 1 (0.78%) CircleCI
7 1 (0.78%) Cucumber
7 1 (0.78%) Cypress.io
7 1 (0.78%) JIRA
7 1 (0.78%) REST Assured
7 1 (0.78%) Snyk
7 1 (0.78%) SonarQube
7 1 (0.78%) Spinnaker
General
1 36 (27.91%) Social Skills
2 31 (24.03%) Finance
3 22 (17.05%) Banking
4 17 (13.18%) Public Sector
5 16 (12.40%) Analytical Skills
6 3 (2.33%) Influencing Skills
7 2 (1.55%) Financial Institution
7 2 (1.55%) Games
7 2 (1.55%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 2 (1.55%) Military
7 2 (1.55%) Retail
8 1 (0.78%) Advertising
8 1 (0.78%) Automotive
8 1 (0.78%) Documentation Skills
8 1 (0.78%) Electronics
8 1 (0.78%) Manufacturing
8 1 (0.78%) Marketing
8 1 (0.78%) Presentation Skills
8 1 (0.78%) Publishing
8 1 (0.78%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 37 (28.68%) Architect
2 18 (13.95%) Senior
3 13 (10.08%) Solutions Architect
4 12 (9.30%) Security Engineer
5 11 (8.53%) Analyst
5 11 (8.53%) GCP Engineer
5 11 (8.53%) Platform Engineer
6 8 (6.20%) Cloud Engineer
7 7 (5.43%) DevOps Engineer
7 7 (5.43%) Security Architect
8 6 (4.65%) Developer
9 5 (3.88%) Applications Architect
9 5 (3.88%) Cloud Architect
9 5 (3.88%) Data Scientist
9 5 (3.88%) Governance Manager
10 4 (3.10%) Data Analyst
10 4 (3.10%) Integration Engineer
10 4 (3.10%) Java Developer
10 4 (3.10%) Lead Architect
10 4 (3.10%) Performance Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (10.08%) OAuth
1 13 (10.08%) Spring
1 13 (10.08%) Spring Boot
2 10 (7.75%) Kafka
2 10 (7.75%) REST
3 8 (6.20%) JWT
3 8 (6.20%) OAuth2
3 8 (6.20%) RESTful
4 6 (4.65%) OpenID
4 6 (4.65%) React
5 5 (3.88%) JSON
5 5 (3.88%) XGBoost
6 4 (3.10%) Hibernate
6 4 (3.10%) JAX-RS
6 4 (3.10%) RabbitMQ
6 4 (3.10%) XML
7 3 (2.33%) SAML
8 2 (1.55%) Middleware
8 2 (1.55%) Node.js
8 2 (1.55%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 13 (10.08%) Cloud Native
2 8 (6.20%) Distributed Systems
3 6 (4.65%) Private Cloud
4 5 (3.88%) Credit Risk
4 5 (3.88%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
4 5 (3.88%) e-Learning
4 5 (3.88%) Product Ownership
4 5 (3.88%) Security Posture
5 4 (3.10%) Data Protection Act
5 4 (3.10%) Virtual Team
6 3 (2.33%) PKI
6 3 (2.33%) Public Cloud
7 2 (1.55%) Cloud Security Posture
7 2 (1.55%) Clustering
7 2 (1.55%) Data Centre
7 2 (1.55%) Mobile Banking
7 2 (1.55%) Onboarding
7 2 (1.55%) Replication
8 1 (0.78%) Cyber Defence
8 1 (0.78%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 10 (7.75%) Linux
2 9 (6.98%) Windows
3 4 (3.10%) Mac OS
3 4 (3.10%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 3 (2.33%) Windows 10
5 1 (0.78%) Android
5 1 (0.78%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 55 (42.64%) CI/CD
2 46 (35.66%) DevOps
3 32 (24.81%) Analytics
4 31 (24.03%) Agile
5 30 (23.26%) Containerisation
5 30 (23.26%) Infrastructure as Code
6 25 (19.38%) Microservices
7 23 (17.83%) Observability
8 21 (16.28%) Problem-Solving
9 19 (14.73%) Continuous Improvement
10 18 (13.95%) DevSecOps
11 17 (13.18%) Incident Response
12 16 (12.40%) Cloud Security
12 16 (12.40%) Event-Driven
13 14 (10.85%) Roadmaps
13 14 (10.85%) Stakeholder Management
14 13 (10.08%) Data Modelling
14 13 (10.08%) Platform Engineering
14 13 (10.08%) SIEM
14 13 (10.08%) Zero Trust
Programming Languages
1 49 (37.98%) Python
2 27 (20.93%) Java
3 19 (14.73%) Bash
4 13 (10.08%) PowerShell
5 8 (6.20%) SQL
6 7 (5.43%) Go
6 7 (5.43%) JavaScript
7 5 (3.88%) R
7 5 (3.88%) TypeScript
8 4 (3.10%) Bicep
9 2 (1.55%) C#
10 1 (0.78%) C
10 1 (0.78%) C++
10 1 (0.78%) PHP
10 1 (0.78%) Scala
Qualifications
1 17 (13.18%) Security Cleared
2 15 (11.63%) Azure Certification
3 12 (9.30%) AWS Certification
4 10 (7.75%) CISSP
5 9 (6.98%) Degree
6 8 (6.20%) Computer Science Degree
6 8 (6.20%) SC Cleared
7 6 (4.65%) Cisco Certification
8 5 (3.88%) ITIL Certification
9 4 (3.10%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 4 (3.10%) BPSS Clearance
9 4 (3.10%) CISM
9 4 (3.10%) IBM Certification
10 3 (2.33%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
10 3 (2.33%) GIAC
11 2 (1.55%) CCNP
11 2 (1.55%) DV Cleared
12 1 (0.78%) CEH
12 1 (0.78%) PMI Certification
12 1 (0.78%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (10.08%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 11 (8.53%) Data Quality
3 10 (7.75%) NIST
4 7 (5.43%) GDPR
4 7 (5.43%) ISO 20022
5 6 (4.65%) Accessibility
5 6 (4.65%) QA
6 3 (2.33%) PCI DSS
7 2 (1.55%) PSD2
8 1 (0.78%) HIPAA
8 1 (0.78%) PERC
8 1 (0.78%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 1 (0.78%) SEPA
8 1 (0.78%) SOC 2
8 1 (0.78%) WCAG
System Software
1 37 (28.68%) Docker
2 7 (5.43%) VMware Infrastructure
3 4 (3.10%) Active Directory
3 4 (3.10%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 47 (36.43%) Kubernetes
2 33 (25.58%) Terraform
3 10 (7.75%) Prometheus
4 9 (6.98%) Grafana
5 6 (4.65%) Istio
6 5 (3.88%) Ansible
7 4 (3.10%) Argo
7 4 (3.10%) Progress Chef
8 3 (2.33%) Fluentd
8 3 (2.33%) Microsoft Intune
8 3 (2.33%) SCCM
8 3 (2.33%) Single Sign-On
9 2 (1.55%) linkerd
10 1 (0.78%) Active Directory Federation Services
Vendors
1 44 (34.11%) Google
2 17 (13.18%) Microsoft
3 13 (10.08%) Splunk
4 8 (6.20%) VMware
5 5 (3.88%) Palo Alto
5 5 (3.88%) Pega
6 4 (3.10%) Confluent
6 4 (3.10%) F5
6 4 (3.10%) IBM
6 4 (3.10%) Red Hat
7 3 (2.33%) Citrix
7 3 (2.33%) Cribl.io
7 3 (2.33%) MuleSoft
7 3 (2.33%) PagerDuty
8 2 (1.55%) CyberArk
8 2 (1.55%) Dynatrace
8 2 (1.55%) Okta
9 1 (0.78%) Checkmarx
9 1 (0.78%) OpenAI
9 1 (0.78%) Veracode