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 16 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 63 67 97
Rank change year-on-year +4 +30 +4
Contract jobs citing GCP 118 59 39
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 3.39% 2.95% 1.38%
As % of the Cloud Services category 11.06% 8.93% 4.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 77 41 24
10th Percentile £416 £402 £183
25th Percentile £453 £463 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £538
Median % change year-on-year - +2.33% -6.52%
75th Percentile £622 £700 £666
90th Percentile £700 £735 £759
England median daily rate £550 £575 £600
% change year-on-year -4.35% -4.17% -3.42%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 1 0
10th Percentile £36.16 - -
25th Percentile £66.50 £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 £51.25 £52.50 £55.00
% change year-on-year -2.38% -4.55% -21.43%

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 1,067 661 890
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 30.70% 33.10% 31.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 683 503 627
10th Percentile £315 £313 £283
25th Percentile £400 £392 £397
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £486 £455 £485
Median % change year-on-year +6.71% -6.19% -3.00%
75th Percentile £588 £538 £575
90th Percentile £675 £638 £650
England median daily rate £513 £515 £525
% change year-on-year -0.49% -1.90% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 78 20 60
10th Percentile £25.38 £12.82 £13.00
25th Percentile £28.50 £23.36 -
Median hourly rate £62.50 £34.67 £16.06
Median % change year-on-year +80.27% +115.88% -28.34%
75th Percentile £77.50 £54.38 £26.50
90th Percentile £95.00 £77.50 £71.54
England median hourly rate £41.06 £25.01 £21.50
% change year-on-year +64.17% +16.33% -38.21%

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 16 June 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 16 June 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 16 June 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 75 £535 -8.47% 105
Cheshire +11 38 £588 +23.68% 11
Lancashire -8 3 £675 +27.36% 14
Cumbria - 2 £525 -
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 4 (3.39%) Apache
2 3 (2.54%) Apache Spark
2 3 (2.54%) Microsoft Exchange
2 3 (2.54%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.85%) Confluence
Business Applications
1 2 (1.69%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 94 (79.66%) Azure
2 89 (75.42%) AWS
3 26 (22.03%) Google Kubernetes Engine
4 13 (11.02%) Virtual Private Cloud
5 11 (9.32%) GitHub
6 8 (6.78%) AWS CloudFormation
6 8 (6.78%) Azure AKS
6 8 (6.78%) Serverless
7 7 (5.93%) Azure DevOps
8 5 (4.24%) Akamai
8 5 (4.24%) Amazon SageMaker
8 5 (4.24%) Apigee
8 5 (4.24%) AWS Lambda
8 5 (4.24%) Azure Machine Learning
8 5 (4.24%) Entra ID
8 5 (4.24%) GitHub Actions
8 5 (4.24%) Vertex AI
9 4 (3.39%) SaaS
9 4 (3.39%) Snowflake
10 3 (2.54%) Amazon EKS
Communications & Networking
1 19 (16.10%) Firewall
2 9 (7.63%) DNS
3 4 (3.39%) HTTP
3 4 (3.39%) TCP/IP
4 3 (2.54%) DKIM
4 3 (2.54%) DMARC
4 3 (2.54%) Internet
4 3 (2.54%) Network Security
4 3 (2.54%) VPN
5 2 (1.69%) BGP
5 2 (1.69%) OSPF
6 1 (0.85%) BIG-IP
6 1 (0.85%) Cisco ASA
6 1 (0.85%) Cisco Firepower
6 1 (0.85%) DNSSEC
6 1 (0.85%) Ethernet VPN
6 1 (0.85%) Intrusion Detection
6 1 (0.85%) SSL
6 1 (0.85%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (5.93%) BigQuery
2 5 (4.24%) Data Lake
3 4 (3.39%) NoSQL
4 2 (1.69%) MongoDB
4 2 (1.69%) MySQL
4 2 (1.69%) Snowflake Schema
5 1 (0.85%) Amazon Redshift
5 1 (0.85%) Data Warehouse
5 1 (0.85%) Looker
5 1 (0.85%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 13 (11.02%) Jenkins
2 10 (8.47%) Git
3 8 (6.78%) Selenium
4 7 (5.93%) Postman
5 6 (5.08%) Cucumber
5 6 (5.08%) GitLab
6 5 (4.24%) SonarQube
6 5 (4.24%) Sonatype Nexus
7 4 (3.39%) JIRA
8 3 (2.54%) JMeter
8 3 (2.54%) JUnit
8 3 (2.54%) REST Assured
9 2 (1.69%) Burp Suite
9 2 (1.69%) Gatling
9 2 (1.69%) Gradle
9 2 (1.69%) LoadRunner
10 1 (0.85%) Cypress.io
10 1 (0.85%) Robot Framework
General
1 25 (21.19%) Finance
2 22 (18.64%) Social Skills
3 13 (11.02%) Banking
4 11 (9.32%) Public Sector
5 8 (6.78%) Analytical Skills
6 3 (2.54%) Retail
7 2 (1.69%) Financial Institution
7 2 (1.69%) Influencing Skills
7 2 (1.69%) Manufacturing
8 1 (0.85%) Advertising
8 1 (0.85%) Automotive
8 1 (0.85%) Digital Health
8 1 (0.85%) Military
8 1 (0.85%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 25 (21.19%) Architect
2 19 (16.10%) Senior
3 16 (13.56%) Security Engineer
4 13 (11.02%) Solutions Architect
5 12 (10.17%) Cloud Engineer
5 12 (10.17%) DevOps Engineer
6 10 (8.47%) GCP Engineer
7 7 (5.93%) Data Engineer
8 6 (5.08%) Security Architect
9 5 (4.24%) Governance Manager
9 5 (4.24%) Integration Engineer
9 5 (4.24%) Senior Software Engineer
9 5 (4.24%) Software Engineer
10 4 (3.39%) Applications Architect
10 4 (3.39%) Cloud Security Engineer
10 4 (3.39%) Data Scientist
10 4 (3.39%) GCP DevOps Engineer
10 4 (3.39%) Lead
10 4 (3.39%) Platform Engineer
10 4 (3.39%) Technical Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (10.17%) OAuth
2 9 (7.63%) React
3 8 (6.78%) PySpark
3 8 (6.78%) Spring
3 8 (6.78%) Spring Boot
4 7 (5.93%) Kafka
5 6 (5.08%) Node.js
5 6 (5.08%) OpenID
5 6 (5.08%) REST
6 5 (4.24%) RESTful
7 4 (3.39%) JWT
7 4 (3.39%) OAuth2
7 4 (3.39%) RabbitMQ
7 4 (3.39%) XGBoost
8 3 (2.54%) Playwright
8 3 (2.54%) SAML
9 2 (1.69%) .NET
9 2 (1.69%) AngularJS
9 2 (1.69%) Next.js
9 2 (1.69%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 21 (17.80%) Cloud Native
2 11 (9.32%) Security Posture
3 10 (8.47%) Management Information System
4 8 (6.78%) Private Cloud
4 8 (6.78%) Public Cloud
5 6 (5.08%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
6 5 (4.24%) AI Agents
6 5 (4.24%) e-Learning
6 5 (4.24%) PKI
7 4 (3.39%) Distributed Systems
7 4 (3.39%) Product Ownership
7 4 (3.39%) Virtual Team
8 3 (2.54%) Data Centre
8 3 (2.54%) Data Protection Act
8 3 (2.54%) Freedom of Information
9 2 (1.69%) CCTV
9 2 (1.69%) Enterprise Software
9 2 (1.69%) Hybrid Cloud
9 2 (1.69%) Insider Threat
9 2 (1.69%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 15 (12.71%) Linux
1 15 (12.71%) Windows
2 11 (9.32%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 1 (0.85%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 65 (55.08%) CI/CD
2 56 (47.46%) DevOps
3 31 (26.27%) Agile
4 29 (24.58%) Infrastructure as Code
5 28 (23.73%) Observability
6 24 (20.34%) Microservices
7 23 (19.49%) Continuous Improvement
8 21 (17.80%) Cloud Security
8 21 (17.80%) Roadmaps
9 20 (16.95%) SIEM
10 19 (16.10%) Problem-Solving
11 18 (15.25%) Technical Leadership
12 16 (13.56%) Analytics
12 16 (13.56%) Scrum
13 15 (12.71%) Change Management
13 15 (12.71%) Cybersecurity
13 15 (12.71%) DevSecOps
13 15 (12.71%) Incident Response
13 15 (12.71%) Risk Management
14 14 (11.86%) Containerisation
Programming Languages
1 44 (37.29%) Python
2 26 (22.03%) Java
3 18 (15.25%) Bash
4 16 (13.56%) PowerShell
5 10 (8.47%) SQL
6 7 (5.93%) Go
6 7 (5.93%) JavaScript
7 4 (3.39%) TypeScript
8 3 (2.54%) Bicep
9 1 (0.85%) C#
9 1 (0.85%) Scala
Qualifications
1 20 (16.95%) Azure Certification
2 18 (15.25%) AWS Certification
3 15 (12.71%) CISSP
3 15 (12.71%) Security Cleared
4 11 (9.32%) Degree
5 7 (5.93%) Cisco Certification
6 6 (5.08%) SC Cleared
7 5 (4.24%) (ISC)2 CCSP
8 4 (3.39%) IBM Certification
8 4 (3.39%) ITIL Certification
9 3 (2.54%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
9 3 (2.54%) BPSS Clearance
9 3 (2.54%) Computer Science Degree
9 3 (2.54%) GIAC
9 3 (2.54%) TOGAF Certification
10 2 (1.69%) CCNP
10 2 (1.69%) CEH
10 2 (1.69%) CISM
10 2 (1.69%) DV Cleared
10 2 (1.69%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (7.63%) Data Quality
1 9 (7.63%) NIST
2 8 (6.78%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 3 (2.54%) PCI DSS
3 3 (2.54%) QA
4 2 (1.69%) Accessibility
4 2 (1.69%) GDPR
4 2 (1.69%) ISO 20022
4 2 (1.69%) PSD2
5 1 (0.85%) CDISC
5 1 (0.85%) COBIT
5 1 (0.85%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 1 (0.85%) SEPA
5 1 (0.85%) SOC 2
System Software
1 29 (24.58%) Docker
2 6 (5.08%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 40 (33.90%) Kubernetes
2 39 (33.05%) Terraform
3 12 (10.17%) Prometheus
4 11 (9.32%) Grafana
4 11 (9.32%) Progress Chef
5 10 (8.47%) Istio
6 8 (6.78%) Ansible
7 6 (5.08%) Single Sign-On
8 4 (3.39%) Argo
9 2 (1.69%) linkerd
10 1 (0.85%) Active Directory Federation Services
Vendors
1 42 (35.59%) Google
2 12 (10.17%) Microsoft
3 11 (9.32%) Red Hat
4 5 (4.24%) OpenAI
5 4 (3.39%) Databricks
5 4 (3.39%) IBM
5 4 (3.39%) Splunk
6 3 (2.54%) Dynatrace
6 3 (2.54%) MuleSoft
6 3 (2.54%) PagerDuty
7 2 (1.69%) CyberArk
7 2 (1.69%) Okta
7 2 (1.69%) Palo Alto
7 2 (1.69%) Salesforce
7 2 (1.69%) ServiceNow
8 1 (0.85%) CheckPoint
8 1 (0.85%) Cisco
8 1 (0.85%) F5
8 1 (0.85%) Palantir
8 1 (0.85%) Rapid7