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 21 February 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 163 110 194
Rank change year-on-year -53 +84 -24
Contract jobs citing Public Cloud 26 49 15
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 0.54% 1.55% 0.27%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 1.78% 4.63% 0.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 19 37 13
10th Percentile - £490 £354
25th Percentile £400 £538 £513
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £522 £615 £613
Median % change year-on-year -15.12% +0.41% +11.36%
75th Percentile £584 £675 £650
90th Percentile £641 £743 £700
England median daily rate £550 £609 £582
% change year-on-year -9.65% +4.60% -6.13%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 1 0
Median hourly rate - £70.00 -
England median hourly rate - £70.00 £78.00
% change year-on-year - -10.26% +20.93%

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 requiring generic IT skills in the South East.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for generic IT skills 1,460 1,059 1,645
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 30.32% 33.51% 29.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 973 617 975
10th Percentile £219 £239 £205
25th Percentile £375 £386 £329
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £520 £485
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% +7.22% -7.62%
75th Percentile £588 £620 £600
90th Percentile £688 £675 £688
England median daily rate £510 £540 £550
% change year-on-year -5.56% -1.82% -4.35%
Number of hourly rates quoted 82 41 120
10th Percentile £12.50 £18.50 £14.00
25th Percentile £18.74 £24.18 £22.21
Median hourly rate £27.50 £32.50 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year -15.38% -31.58% +11.76%
75th Percentile £71.41 £62.24 £60.67
90th Percentile £87.80 £71.25 £76.53
England median hourly rate £33.00 £36.25 £32.50
% change year-on-year -8.97% +11.54% +44.44%

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 job vacancy trend 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.

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 21 February 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.

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 21 February 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
Surrey -2 13 £400 +14.29% 1
Buckinghamshire -13 9 £554 -14.85% 10
Thames Valley -39 9 £554 -13.52% 14
Hampshire -48 3 £525 -8.70% 2
Public Cloud
England

Public Cloud
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East 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 1 (3.85%) Apache Airflow
Business Applications
1 1 (3.85%) SAP ERP
1 1 (3.85%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 23 (88.46%) Azure
2 12 (46.15%) AWS
3 9 (34.62%) GCP
4 2 (7.69%) Azure DevOps
4 2 (7.69%) SaaS
5 1 (3.85%) dbt
5 1 (3.85%) Microsoft 365
5 1 (3.85%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 10 (38.46%) VPN
2 8 (30.77%) DNS
3 4 (15.38%) LAN
3 4 (15.38%) WAN
4 2 (7.69%) Firewall
4 2 (7.69%) Wireless
5 1 (3.85%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (3.85%) BigQuery
General
1 1 (3.85%) Analytical Skills
1 1 (3.85%) Manufacturing
1 1 (3.85%) Public Sector
1 1 (3.85%) Social Skills
Job Titles
1 17 (65.38%) Architect
2 8 (30.77%) Infrastructure Architect
2 8 (30.77%) Technical Architect
3 4 (15.38%) Cloud Engineer
4 2 (7.69%) Azure DevOps Engineer
4 2 (7.69%) Azure Engineer
4 2 (7.69%) DevOps Engineer
4 2 (7.69%) Network Architect
5 1 (3.85%) Change Manager
5 1 (3.85%) Linux Engineer
5 1 (3.85%) Machine Learning Engineer
5 1 (3.85%) Network Technical Architect
5 1 (3.85%) Python Engineer
5 1 (3.85%) Senior
5 1 (3.85%) Senior Architect
5 1 (3.85%) Senior Technical Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (15.38%) Middleware
2 1 (3.85%) NumPy
2 1 (3.85%) Pandas
Miscellaneous
1 9 (34.62%) Cloud Native
2 1 (3.85%) Hybrid Cloud
2 1 (3.85%) PKI
2 1 (3.85%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 6 (23.08%) Linux
2 4 (15.38%) Windows
3 1 (3.85%) CentOS
3 1 (3.85%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 6 (23.08%) Agile
2 5 (19.23%) DevSecOps
2 5 (19.23%) Migration
3 4 (15.38%) API Management
3 4 (15.38%) DevOps
3 4 (15.38%) Digital Transformation Programme
3 4 (15.38%) IT Strategy
3 4 (15.38%) Matrix Organization
3 4 (15.38%) Technology Strategy
3 4 (15.38%) TOGAF
4 3 (11.54%) CI/CD
4 3 (11.54%) Containerisation
4 3 (11.54%) Infrastructure as Code
4 3 (11.54%) Microservices
4 3 (11.54%) Requirements Management
5 2 (7.69%) Continuous Delivery
5 2 (7.69%) Enterprise Architecture
5 2 (7.69%) Network Architecture
5 2 (7.69%) Stakeholder Management
5 2 (7.69%) Virtual Environments
Programming Languages
1 2 (7.69%) PowerShell
1 2 (7.69%) Python
Qualifications
1 11 (42.31%) SC Cleared
1 11 (42.31%) Security Cleared
2 2 (7.69%) CCNP
2 2 (7.69%) Cisco Certification
2 2 (7.69%) DV Cleared
2 2 (7.69%) MCSE
2 2 (7.69%) Microsoft Certification
3 1 (3.85%) Degree
3 1 (3.85%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (19.23%) NCSC
1 5 (19.23%) NIST
2 3 (11.54%) Cyber Essentials
System Software
1 9 (34.62%) VMware Infrastructure
2 8 (30.77%) Hyper-V
3 1 (3.85%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 2 (7.69%) Ansible
2 1 (3.85%) Kubeflow
2 1 (3.85%) Terraform
Vendors
1 12 (46.15%) VMware
2 4 (15.38%) MuleSoft
3 1 (3.85%) Cisco
3 1 (3.85%) Google
3 1 (3.85%) Microsoft
3 1 (3.85%) Palo Alto
3 1 (3.85%) Red Hat
3 1 (3.85%) SAP