Public Cloud Contract Job Trends in the South East

Public Cloud
England > South East

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Public Cloud in contract job vacancies in the South East. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Public Cloud over the 6 months leading up to 31 October 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

	6 months to 31 Oct 2026	Same period 2025	Same period 2024
Rank	199	162	125
Rank change year-on-year	-37	-37	+63
Contract jobs citing Public Cloud	31	10	54
As % of all contract jobs in the South East	0.47%	0.26%	1.29%
As % of the Miscellaneous category	1.44%	0.85%	4.25%
Number of daily rates quoted	19	8	38
10^th Percentile	£440	-	£467
25^th Percentile	£525	£513	£505
Median daily rate (50^th Percentile)	£575	£644	£575
Median % change year-on-year	-10.68%	+11.96%	-10.37%
75^th Percentile	£598	£714	£734
90^th Percentile	£610	£775	£774
England median daily rate	£600	£550	£560
% change year-on-year	+9.09%	-1.79%	-2.61%

All Generic Skills
South East

Public Cloud falls under the General and Transferable Skills category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies citing generic IT skills in the South East.

	6 months to 31 Oct 2026	Same period 2025	Same period 2024
Contract vacancies citing generic IT skills	2,149	1,177	1,271
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the South East	32.50%	31.16%	30.46%
Number of daily rates quoted	1,212	751	722
10^th Percentile	£270	£204	£250
25^th Percentile	£400	£360	£380
Median daily rate (50^th Percentile)	£525	£488	£500
Median % change year-on-year	+7.69%	-2.50%	-
75^th Percentile	£619	£600	£618
90^th Percentile	£700	£675	£688
England median daily rate	£525	£525	£541
% change year-on-year	-	-2.87%	-1.73%
Number of hourly rates quoted	304	100	73
10^th Percentile	£13.10	£12.50	£13.64
25^th Percentile	£16.56	£15.72	£26.25
Median hourly rate	£35.11	£25.00	£52.50
Median % change year-on-year	+40.44%	-52.38%	-
75^th Percentile	£77.50	£52.00	£75.00
90^th Percentile	£88.00	£69.70	£75.16
England median hourly rate	£32.50	£28.00	£50.00
% change year-on-year	+16.07%	-44.00%	+12.36%

Public Cloud Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Public Cloud relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East.

Public Cloud Daily Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Public Cloud.

Public Cloud Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Public Cloud in the South East over the 6 months to 31 October 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Public Cloud in the South East

Public Cloud Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Public Cloud.

Public Cloud Contract Job Locations in the South East

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Public Cloud within the South East region over the 6 months to 31 October 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	Job Ads Past 6 Months	Median Daily Rate Past 6 Months	Median Daily Rate % Change on Same Period Last Year	Live Jobs
Thames Valley	-24	17	£590	-7.45%	10
Buckinghamshire	-15	14	£590	+12.38%	3
Surrey	-12	7	£550	-8.33%
Hampshire	-29	4	£425	-29.90%
Berkshire	-22	3	£325	-56.67%
Middlesex	-	2	-	-	1
Home Counties	-	1	£600	-
Public Cloud England

Public Cloud Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East

For the 6 months to 31 October 2026, contractor job vacancies citing Public Cloud also mentioned the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the South East region citing Public Cloud.

Rank	Skill	Share	Job Ads
1	Azure	64.5%	20
2	Security Cleared	54.8%	17
3	SC Cleared	51.6%	16
4	AWS	45.2%	14
4	Linux	45.2%	14
4	Microsoft	45.2%	14
7	VMware	41.9%	13
7	Windows	41.9%	13
9	Infrastructure Engineering	38.7%	12
10	Cloud Security	32.3%	10
10	VMware NSX	32.3%	10
12	Cisco	29.0%	9
12	F5	29.0%	9
12	VMware Infrastructure	29.0%	9
15	VMware ESXi	25.8%	8
16	Cisco Certification	22.6%	7
16	Cybersecurity	22.6%	7
16	Degree	22.6%	7
16	GCP	22.6%	7
16	IIS	22.6%	7
16	Knowledge Transfer	22.6%	7
16	Project Delivery	22.6%	7
16	Security Architecture	22.6%	7
16	VCAP	22.6%	7
16	vCenter Server	22.6%	7
16	VMware Certified Professional (VCP)	22.6%	7
16	VSAN	22.6%	7
16	Windows Server	22.6%	7
29	Computer Science	19.4%	6
29	Data Protection	19.4%	6

Public Cloud Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East by Category

The table below expands on the one above by listing co-occurrences one category at a time. It covers the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences in each category.

Miscellaneous

Rank	Skill	Share	Job Ads
1	Data Centre	29.0%	9
2	Management Information System	22.6%	7
3	Embedded Systems	16.1%	5
3	Mobile Payment	16.1%	5
3	Smartcard	16.1%	5
6	Hybrid Cloud	12.9%	4
6	PKI	12.9%	4
8	Analytical Mindset	6.5%	2
8	Motion Graphics	6.5%	2
8	Private Cloud	6.5%	2
8	Social Media	6.5%	2
12	Algorithms	3.2%	1
12	Data Protection Act	3.2%	1
12	IoT	3.2%	1
12	Legacy Applications	3.2%	1
12	Onboarding	3.2%	1
12	Operational Technology	3.2%	1
12	SCADA	3.2%	1