Public Cloud Contract Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Public Cloud
UK > UK excluding London

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Public Cloud in contract job vacancies in the UK excluding London. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Public Cloud over the 6 months leading up to 10 October 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
10 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 294 255 232
Rank change year-on-year -39 -23 +1
Contract jobs citing Public Cloud 181 132 151
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.64% 0.83% 0.86%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 2.02% 2.40% 2.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 121 93 97
10th Percentile £413 £407 £438
25th Percentile £513 £438 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £588 £525 £560
Median % change year-on-year +12.05% -6.25% -6.67%
75th Percentile £650 £600 £675
90th Percentile £700 £735 £771
UK median daily rate £600 £537 £563
% change year-on-year +11.73% -4.53% -6.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 0 1
Median hourly rate - - £58.00
UK median hourly rate £57.00 £45.00 £56.00
% change year-on-year +26.67% -19.64% -28.21%

All Generic Skills
UK excluding London

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 UK excluding London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for generic IT skills 8,978 5,506 5,114
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 31.88% 34.76% 29.26%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,038 3,311 2,833
10th Percentile £275 £225 £206
25th Percentile £404 £363 £360
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £495
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -4.04% -1.00%
75th Percentile £600 £575 £600
90th Percentile £694 £664 £688
UK median daily rate £525 £515 £525
% change year-on-year +1.94% -1.90% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,046 454 324
10th Percentile £13.51 £13.50 £15.22
25th Percentile £17.13 £17.30 £22.50
Median hourly rate £34.50 £27.21 £54.25
Median % change year-on-year +26.77% -49.84% +5.50%
75th Percentile £67.50 £55.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £72.50 £75.16
UK median hourly rate £36.00 £27.50 £47.50
% change year-on-year +30.91% -42.11% +5.56%

Public Cloud
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

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

Public Cloud job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

Public Cloud
Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Public Cloud.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Public Cloud

Public Cloud
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Public Cloud in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 10 October 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Public Cloud in the UK excluding London

Public Cloud
Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Public Cloud.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Public Cloud

Public Cloud
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding London

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 UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 10 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
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
North of England -44 87 £575 +21.05% 62
Yorkshire -18 54 £538 +12.92% 15
South East -46 33 £558 -18.91% 54
North West -36 28 £625 +38.89% 36
Midlands -42 25 £600 +13.21% 28
Scotland -37 17 £520 +4.00% 57
South West -22 12 £800 +33.33% 40
West Midlands -48 12 £675 +27.26% 22
East Midlands -13 10 £588 +16.11% 6
North East - 9 £602 - 11
East of England -35 6 £538 -25.22% 16
Wales -13 1 - - 3
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 33
Public Cloud
UK

Public Cloud
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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 (3.31%) IIS
1 6 (3.31%) OpenStack
2 4 (2.21%) Apache
3 2 (1.10%) CloudStack
3 2 (1.10%) nginx
3 2 (1.10%) SharePoint
3 2 (1.10%) Tomcat
4 1 (0.55%) Confluence
4 1 (0.55%) WebLogic
Applications
1 10 (5.52%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (3.87%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (2.21%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 4 (2.21%) MS Visio
4 2 (1.10%) Adobe Creative Suite
4 2 (1.10%) Houdini
4 2 (1.10%) NUKE
5 1 (0.55%) Spreadsheet
5 1 (0.55%) Weka
Business Applications
1 27 (14.92%) SAP S/4HANA
2 3 (1.66%) SAP Business One
3 2 (1.10%) SAP FI-GL
4 1 (0.55%) SAP FI
4 1 (0.55%) SAP LE
4 1 (0.55%) SAP MM
Cloud Services
1 93 (51.38%) AWS
2 75 (41.44%) Azure
3 47 (25.97%) GCP
4 16 (8.84%) GitHub
5 15 (8.29%) OCI
6 12 (6.63%) IaaS
7 8 (4.42%) OpenShift
7 8 (4.42%) SaaS
8 5 (2.76%) Amazon EKS
8 5 (2.76%) SuccessFactors
9 4 (2.21%) Entra ID
9 4 (2.21%) GitHub Actions
9 4 (2.21%) Google Kubernetes Engine
10 3 (1.66%) Anthropic Claude
10 3 (1.66%) AWS Direct Connect
10 3 (1.66%) Azure ExpressRoute
10 3 (1.66%) Cloud Computing
10 3 (1.66%) Nutanix
10 3 (1.66%) Serverless
11 2 (1.10%) npm
Communications & Networking
1 25 (13.81%) Firewall
2 19 (10.50%) DNS
3 14 (7.73%) VSAN
4 13 (7.18%) TCP/IP
5 11 (6.08%) BIG-IP
6 9 (4.97%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
6 9 (4.97%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
7 8 (4.42%) BGP
7 8 (4.42%) Network Security
8 7 (3.87%) DHCP
9 5 (2.76%) VPN
9 5 (2.76%) WAN
10 4 (2.21%) LAN
10 4 (2.21%) MPLS
10 4 (2.21%) SAN
10 4 (2.21%) SNMP
10 4 (2.21%) TACACS
10 4 (2.21%) Wi-Fi
11 3 (1.66%) NAS
11 3 (1.66%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 14 (7.73%) Oracle Database
2 12 (6.63%) Oracle Exadata
2 12 (6.63%) RDBMS
2 12 (6.63%) Relational Database
3 9 (4.97%) MySQL
4 3 (1.66%) NoSQL
4 3 (1.66%) SQL Server
5 2 (1.10%) Data Warehouse
5 2 (1.10%) SAP HANA
6 1 (0.55%) Amazon RDS
6 1 (0.55%) Amazon Redshift
6 1 (0.55%) Apache Cassandra
6 1 (0.55%) Big Data
6 1 (0.55%) BigQuery
6 1 (0.55%) Db2
6 1 (0.55%) DynamoDB
6 1 (0.55%) Elasticsearch
6 1 (0.55%) MongoDB
6 1 (0.55%) PostgreSQL
6 1 (0.55%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 21 (11.60%) Jenkins
2 18 (9.94%) Git
3 15 (8.29%) GitLab
4 8 (4.42%) JIRA
5 7 (3.87%) JUnit
6 5 (2.76%) SonarQube
6 5 (2.76%) Sonatype Nexus
7 3 (1.66%) Cucumber
7 3 (1.66%) Postman
7 3 (1.66%) Selenium
8 2 (1.10%) Hudson
8 2 (1.10%) Maven
9 1 (0.55%) Artifactory
9 1 (0.55%) Liquibase
General
1 52 (28.73%) Finance
2 38 (20.99%) Social Skills
3 15 (8.29%) Public Sector
4 12 (6.63%) Banking
5 9 (4.97%) Analytical Skills
6 6 (3.31%) General Ledger
7 5 (2.76%) Military
8 4 (2.21%) Telecoms
9 2 (1.10%) Documentation Skills
9 2 (1.10%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 2 (1.10%) Influencing Skills
9 2 (1.10%) Manufacturing
9 2 (1.10%) Presentation Skills
10 1 (0.55%) Front Office
10 1 (0.55%) Investment Banking
10 1 (0.55%) Legal
10 1 (0.55%) Local Government
10 1 (0.55%) Marketing
10 1 (0.55%) Organisational Skills
10 1 (0.55%) Retail
Job Titles
1 38 (20.99%) Architect
2 33 (18.23%) Senior
3 32 (17.68%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 18 (9.94%) Lead
5 17 (9.39%) Developer
6 16 (8.84%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
6 16 (8.84%) Solutions Architect
7 14 (7.73%) DevOps Engineer
8 12 (6.63%) Cloud Engineer
9 11 (6.08%) Python Developer
10 8 (4.42%) Network Engineer
10 8 (4.42%) Platform Engineer
11 7 (3.87%) Azure Specialist
11 7 (3.87%) Security Engineer
11 7 (3.87%) Technical Architect
12 6 (3.31%) Consultant
12 6 (3.31%) Senior Architect
12 6 (3.31%) VMware Engineer
13 5 (2.76%) Cloud Architect
13 5 (2.76%) Senior Design Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 49 (27.07%) Terraform
2 12 (6.63%) Oracle GoldenGate
3 11 (6.08%) Kafka
4 9 (4.97%) Spring
4 9 (4.97%) Spring Boot
5 6 (3.31%) React
5 6 (3.31%) REST
6 4 (2.21%) AngularJS
6 4 (2.21%) Elastic Stack
6 4 (2.21%) JPA
6 4 (2.21%) Middleware
6 4 (2.21%) NETCONF
6 4 (2.21%) OpenConfig
6 4 (2.21%) RESTCONF
6 4 (2.21%) YAML
6 4 (2.21%) YANG
7 3 (1.66%) Oracle Fusion
7 3 (1.66%) XML
8 2 (1.10%) LAMP
8 2 (1.10%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 36 (19.89%) Data Centre
2 28 (15.47%) Cloud Native
3 24 (13.26%) Hybrid Cloud
4 20 (11.05%) Private Cloud
5 10 (5.52%) PKI
6 8 (4.42%) Onboarding
7 6 (3.31%) Management Information System
8 5 (2.76%) AI Agents
9 4 (2.21%) Analytical Mindset
9 4 (2.21%) Embedded Systems
9 4 (2.21%) Enterprise Software
9 4 (2.21%) Mobile Payment
9 4 (2.21%) Self-Motivation
9 4 (2.21%) Smartcard
10 3 (1.66%) Data Protection Act
10 3 (1.66%) Data Structures
10 3 (1.66%) Distributed Systems
10 3 (1.66%) Product Ownership
11 2 (1.10%) Legacy Applications
11 2 (1.10%) Motion Graphics
Operating Systems
1 45 (24.86%) Linux
2 25 (13.81%) Windows
3 12 (6.63%) AIX
4 9 (4.97%) Windows Server
5 4 (2.21%) Ubuntu
6 3 (1.66%) Debian
7 2 (1.10%) CentOS
7 2 (1.10%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 2 (1.10%) Unix
7 2 (1.10%) VMS
8 1 (0.55%) Windows Server 2012
8 1 (0.55%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 54 (29.83%) CI/CD
2 51 (28.18%) Infrastructure as Code
3 50 (27.62%) Migration
4 42 (23.20%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 38 (20.99%) Agile
6 33 (18.23%) Stakeholder Management
7 31 (17.13%) DevOps
8 25 (13.81%) Data Migration
9 21 (11.60%) DevSecOps
9 21 (11.60%) Microservices
9 21 (11.60%) Problem-Solving
10 19 (10.50%) Roadmaps
11 18 (9.94%) Infrastructure Automation
12 17 (9.39%) Cloud Security
12 17 (9.39%) Observability
13 15 (8.29%) ERP
13 15 (8.29%) Technical Leadership
14 14 (7.73%) Event-Driven
14 14 (7.73%) Platform Engineering
14 14 (7.73%) Security Architecture
Programming Languages
1 51 (28.18%) Python
2 18 (9.94%) Java
3 14 (7.73%) Bash
4 13 (7.18%) PowerShell
5 9 (4.97%) ActionScript
6 8 (4.42%) SQL
7 6 (3.31%) JavaScript
8 4 (2.21%) Bicep
9 3 (1.66%) ABAP
9 3 (1.66%) Go
9 3 (1.66%) Groovy
9 3 (1.66%) Shell Script
10 2 (1.10%) Perl
11 1 (0.55%) C++
11 1 (0.55%) Ruby
11 1 (0.55%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 53 (29.28%) Security Cleared
2 44 (24.31%) SC Cleared
3 14 (7.73%) DV Cleared
4 12 (6.63%) VCAP
5 11 (6.08%) Cisco Certification
6 10 (5.52%) AWS Certification
7 9 (4.97%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 8 (4.42%) BPSS Clearance
8 8 (4.42%) Degree
9 5 (2.76%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 5 (2.76%) CISA
9 5 (2.76%) CISM
9 5 (2.76%) CISSP
10 4 (2.21%) ACCA
10 4 (2.21%) CCIE
10 4 (2.21%) CCSP
10 4 (2.21%) CIMA
10 4 (2.21%) CLAS
10 4 (2.21%) IISP
10 4 (2.21%) JNCIE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (3.31%) GDPR
1 6 (3.31%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 6 (3.31%) NCSC
2 5 (2.76%) NIST
2 5 (2.76%) PCI DSS
3 4 (2.21%) Data Quality
3 4 (2.21%) GRC
3 4 (2.21%) ISO 31000
3 4 (2.21%) ISO 9001
3 4 (2.21%) ISO/IEC 27005
4 2 (1.10%) Disclosure Scotland
5 1 (0.55%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (0.55%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 1 (0.55%) HIPAA
5 1 (0.55%) NIST 800
5 1 (0.55%) PMO
5 1 (0.55%) QA
5 1 (0.55%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 19 (10.50%) VMware Infrastructure
2 17 (9.39%) VMware NSX
3 13 (7.18%) Oracle RAC
4 11 (6.08%) vSphere
5 10 (5.52%) Docker
6 8 (4.42%) Active Directory
6 8 (4.42%) VMware ESXi
7 5 (2.76%) Virtual Machines
8 4 (2.21%) ISA Server
9 2 (1.10%) Dovecot
9 2 (1.10%) Postfix
10 1 (0.55%) GPFS
10 1 (0.55%) Hyper-V
10 1 (0.55%) Lustre
10 1 (0.55%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 41 (22.65%) Kubernetes
2 33 (18.23%) Ansible
3 13 (7.18%) Data Guard
3 13 (7.18%) Oracle RMAN
4 11 (6.08%) Grafana
4 11 (6.08%) Prometheus
5 9 (4.97%) vCenter Server
6 5 (2.76%) CASB
6 5 (2.76%) VxRail
7 3 (1.66%) Istio
8 2 (1.10%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 2 (1.10%) Check_MK
8 2 (1.10%) HAProxy
9 1 (0.55%) Cilium
9 1 (0.55%) Consul
9 1 (0.55%) Packer
9 1 (0.55%) Puppet
9 1 (0.55%) Rancher
9 1 (0.55%) Salt
9 1 (0.55%) vMotion
Vendors
1 38 (20.99%) Microsoft
2 30 (16.57%) SAP
3 28 (15.47%) Google
4 24 (13.26%) Oracle
5 23 (12.71%) VMware
6 19 (10.50%) F5
7 17 (9.39%) Cisco
8 8 (4.42%) Splunk
9 7 (3.87%) Fortinet
9 7 (3.87%) Juniper
10 5 (2.76%) Red Hat
11 4 (2.21%) Broadcom
11 4 (2.21%) Centrify
11 4 (2.21%) Citrix
11 4 (2.21%) CrowdStrike
11 4 (2.21%) Dynatrace
11 4 (2.21%) Qualys
11 4 (2.21%) Tripwire
12 3 (1.66%) Concur
12 3 (1.66%) Mistral