Cloud Architect Contract Job Trends

Cloud Architect
UK

The median Cloud Architect daily rate in the UK is £605, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 18 June 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 327 315 360
Rank change year-on-year -12 +45 -39
Contract jobs requiring a Cloud Architect 345 228 237
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.68% 0.77% 0.54%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.74% 0.83% 0.58%
Number of daily rates quoted 240 168 163
10th Percentile £498 £460 £500
25th Percentile £550 £513 £550
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £605 £625 £650
Median % change year-on-year -3.20% -3.85% -3.70%
75th Percentile £750 £775 £763
90th Percentile £775 £838 £823
UK excluding London median daily rate £600 £619 £650
% change year-on-year -3.03% -4.81% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 0
Median hourly rate £70.00 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £70.00 - -

All Contract IT Job Roles
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 46,545 27,461 40,758
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.35% 92.26% 92.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,281 17,668 26,127
10th Percentile £325 £289 £280
25th Percentile £413 £402 £407
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +3.00% -4.76% -2.33%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +5.26% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,104 1,179 2,967
10th Percentile £15.24 £13.97 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.79 £17.79 £16.37
Median hourly rate £43.61 £27.50 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +58.56% -26.67% -16.67%
75th Percentile £67.50 £57.50 £62.01
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% -1.45%

Cloud Architect
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Cloud Architect' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Cloud Architect job vacancy trend in the UK

Cloud Architect
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Cloud Architect job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Cloud Architect job vacancies in the UK

Cloud Architect
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Cloud Architect over the 6 months to 18 June 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Cloud Architect in the UK

Cloud Architect
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Cloud Architect job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Cloud Architect job vacancies in the UK

Cloud Architect
Top 16 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Cloud Architect within the UK over the 6 months to 18 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
England -6 285 £611 -4.49% 175
London +26 193 £623 -2.73% 95
Work from Home -46 103 £600 -5.14% 77
UK excluding London -60 97 £600 -3.03% 85
Midlands -34 27 £588 -2.08% 15
North of England -63 21 £600 +9.09% 27
West Midlands -39 15 £713 +42.07% 12
Scotland -2 13 £650 +4.00% 3
South West -26 13 £600 -8.05% 15
South East -47 12 £663 +37.45% 15
East Midlands -14 11 £545 - 3
East of England -22 11 £600 -11.11% 2
North West -31 10 £600 +33.33% 17
Yorkshire -59 10 £650 +18.18% 6
Wales -22 1 £500 +4.17% 7
North East - 1 - - 4

Cloud Architect Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 18 June 2026, Cloud Architect contract job roles required 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 featuring Cloud Architect in the job title.

1 188 (54.49%) AWS
2 122 (35.36%) Azure
3 96 (27.83%) Migration
4 86 (24.93%) Security Cleared
5 74 (21.45%) CI/CD
5 74 (21.45%) SC Cleared
6 71 (20.58%) DevOps
7 62 (17.97%) GCP
8 60 (17.39%) Infrastructure as Code
9 54 (15.65%) Terraform
10 51 (14.78%) Microsoft
11 47 (13.62%) Roadmaps
11 47 (13.62%) Stakeholder Management
12 44 (12.75%) Problem-Solving
13 43 (12.46%) Technical Leadership
14 41 (11.88%) Serverless
15 40 (11.59%) Analytics
16 38 (11.01%) Cloud Security
17 37 (10.72%) Kubernetes
18 36 (10.43%) Integration Patterns
19 35 (10.14%) Firewall
20 34 (9.86%) Containerisation
21 32 (9.28%) Microservices
21 32 (9.28%) Stakeholder Engagement
21 32 (9.28%) VPN
22 30 (8.70%) Agile
22 30 (8.70%) Google
23 28 (8.12%) Cost Optimisation
23 28 (8.12%) Technical Architecture
24 26 (7.54%) Security Architecture

Cloud Architect Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 (1.74%) Palantir Foundry
2 4 (1.16%) Confluence
3 2 (0.58%) nginx
3 2 (0.58%) SAS
3 2 (0.58%) SharePoint
4 1 (0.29%) Apache Spark
4 1 (0.29%) Appian
4 1 (0.29%) Camunda
4 1 (0.29%) Cloud Foundry
4 1 (0.29%) Mendix
Applications
1 1 (0.29%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 4 (1.16%) Payment Gateway
1 4 (1.16%) Salesforce CRM
2 2 (0.58%) Oracle Retail
2 2 (0.58%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.29%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.29%) Oracle Payables
3 1 (0.29%) Oracle Receivables
3 1 (0.29%) Oracle SCM
Cloud Services
1 188 (54.49%) AWS
2 122 (35.36%) Azure
3 62 (17.97%) GCP
4 41 (11.88%) Serverless
5 25 (7.25%) SaaS
6 22 (6.38%) AWS CloudFormation
7 19 (5.51%) Entra ID
8 18 (5.22%) Amazon EKS
9 15 (4.35%) GitHub
9 15 (4.35%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 12 (3.48%) Amazon S3
10 12 (3.48%) GitHub Actions
10 12 (3.48%) Route 53
11 11 (3.19%) Microsoft 365
12 10 (2.90%) AWS Lambda
13 8 (2.32%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 8 (2.32%) Azure AKS
13 8 (2.32%) Google Kubernetes Engine
13 8 (2.32%) PaaS
13 8 (2.32%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 35 (10.14%) Firewall
2 32 (9.28%) VPN
3 21 (6.09%) Network Security
4 13 (3.77%) DNS
5 6 (1.74%) WAN
6 3 (0.87%) BGP
6 3 (0.87%) OSPF
6 3 (0.87%) SD-WAN
7 2 (0.58%) DMZ
7 2 (0.58%) Intrusion Detection
7 2 (0.58%) NGFW
7 2 (0.58%) OpenVPN
7 2 (0.58%) TCP/IP
8 1 (0.29%) CTI
8 1 (0.29%) Internet
8 1 (0.29%) IPsec
8 1 (0.29%) LAN
8 1 (0.29%) MPLS
8 1 (0.29%) PSTN
8 1 (0.29%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 24 (6.96%) Data Lake
2 11 (3.19%) Amazon RDS
2 11 (3.19%) BigQuery
3 8 (2.32%) NoSQL
4 7 (2.03%) Data Warehouse
5 6 (1.74%) DynamoDB
5 6 (1.74%) PostgreSQL
6 5 (1.45%) DocumentDB
7 4 (1.16%) Amazon Aurora
7 4 (1.16%) MySQL
7 4 (1.16%) Redis
8 3 (0.87%) Oracle Database
9 2 (0.58%) Delta Lake
9 2 (0.58%) Elasticsearch
9 2 (0.58%) Power BI
9 2 (0.58%) SAP HANA
9 2 (0.58%) SQL Server
9 2 (0.58%) Tableau
10 1 (0.29%) Metadata
10 1 (0.29%) Semantic Layer
Development Applications
1 10 (2.90%) Jenkins
2 8 (2.32%) JIRA
3 5 (1.45%) Git
3 5 (1.45%) GitLab
4 4 (1.16%) SonarQube
5 2 (0.58%) Bitbucket
5 2 (0.58%) IntelliJ
5 2 (0.58%) JUnit
5 2 (0.58%) MLflow
5 2 (0.58%) Oracle Forms
6 1 (0.29%) AppScan
6 1 (0.29%) Burp Suite
6 1 (0.29%) Hudson
6 1 (0.29%) Metasploit
6 1 (0.29%) Oracle APEX
General
1 70 (20.29%) Social Skills
2 55 (15.94%) Finance
3 33 (9.57%) Public Sector
4 26 (7.54%) Banking
5 23 (6.67%) Documentation Skills
6 18 (5.22%) Analytical Skills
7 14 (4.06%) Retail
8 12 (3.48%) Presentation Skills
9 10 (2.90%) Marketing
10 7 (2.03%) Influencing Skills
11 4 (1.16%) Legal
12 3 (0.87%) Billing
12 3 (0.87%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 3 (0.87%) Telecoms
13 2 (0.58%) Law
14 1 (0.29%) Aviation
14 1 (0.29%) Back Office
14 1 (0.29%) Investment Banking
14 1 (0.29%) Military
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (6.38%) Middleware
2 19 (5.51%) REST
3 11 (3.19%) Kafka
3 11 (3.19%) OAuth
3 11 (3.19%) OpenID
4 7 (2.03%) Oracle Fusion
5 6 (1.74%) Spring
5 6 (1.74%) Spring Boot
6 5 (1.45%) ARM Templates
6 5 (1.45%) Lightning Web Components
6 5 (1.45%) OAuth2
6 5 (1.45%) RESTful
6 5 (1.45%) SAML
7 4 (1.16%) AWS CDK
7 4 (1.16%) gRPC
7 4 (1.16%) JPA
7 4 (1.16%) Node.js
7 4 (1.16%) OpenTelemetry
7 4 (1.16%) SailPoint
7 4 (1.16%) Spring Cloud
Miscellaneous
1 76 (22.03%) Cloud Native
2 22 (6.38%) Data Centre
2 22 (6.38%) Management Information System
3 20 (5.80%) Onboarding
4 16 (4.64%) Enterprise Cloud
4 16 (4.64%) Public Cloud
5 15 (4.35%) Distributed Systems
5 15 (4.35%) Hybrid Cloud
6 9 (2.61%) Legacy Systems
7 8 (2.32%) Product Ownership
8 7 (2.03%) Private Cloud
9 6 (1.74%) Enterprise Software
10 4 (1.16%) Security Posture
11 3 (0.87%) Data Protection Act
11 3 (0.87%) NHS
11 3 (0.87%) SCADA
11 3 (0.87%) Wiki
12 2 (0.58%) Data Structures
12 2 (0.58%) Mobile Banking
12 2 (0.58%) N-Tier
Operating Systems
1 15 (4.35%) Windows
2 5 (1.45%) Windows Server
3 3 (0.87%) Android
3 3 (0.87%) Apple iOS
3 3 (0.87%) Mac OS
3 3 (0.87%) Unix
4 1 (0.29%) AIX
4 1 (0.29%) Kali Linux
4 1 (0.29%) Linux
4 1 (0.29%) Solaris
4 1 (0.29%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 96 (27.83%) Migration
2 74 (21.45%) CI/CD
3 71 (20.58%) DevOps
4 60 (17.39%) Infrastructure as Code
5 47 (13.62%) Roadmaps
5 47 (13.62%) Stakeholder Management
6 44 (12.75%) Problem-Solving
7 43 (12.46%) Technical Leadership
8 40 (11.59%) Analytics
9 38 (11.01%) Cloud Security
10 36 (10.43%) Integration Patterns
11 34 (9.86%) Containerisation
12 32 (9.28%) Microservices
12 32 (9.28%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 30 (8.70%) Agile
14 28 (8.12%) Cost Optimisation
14 28 (8.12%) Technical Architecture
15 26 (7.54%) Security Architecture
16 24 (6.96%) Data Engineering
16 24 (6.96%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 15 (4.35%) Bicep
1 15 (4.35%) Java
1 15 (4.35%) SQL
2 10 (2.90%) Python
3 8 (2.32%) JavaScript
4 5 (1.45%) Apex Code
5 4 (1.16%) C#
6 3 (0.87%) Go
7 2 (0.58%) Korn
8 1 (0.29%) Bash
8 1 (0.29%) C
8 1 (0.29%) Lisp
8 1 (0.29%) PL/SQL
8 1 (0.29%) PowerShell
8 1 (0.29%) ProC
8 1 (0.29%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 86 (24.93%) Security Cleared
2 74 (21.45%) SC Cleared
3 22 (6.38%) AWS Certification
4 14 (4.06%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
5 12 (3.48%) Degree
6 9 (2.61%) DV Cleared
7 8 (2.32%) Azure Certification
7 8 (2.32%) Computer Science Degree
7 8 (2.32%) Microsoft Certification
8 5 (1.45%) BPSS Clearance
8 5 (1.45%) Cisco Certification
8 5 (1.45%) Master's Degree
9 4 (1.16%) CCNP
9 4 (1.16%) CISSP
10 2 (0.58%) CISM
10 2 (0.58%) GIAC
10 2 (0.58%) MCSE
10 2 (0.58%) Microsoft Certified Professional
11 1 (0.29%) ISSAP
11 1 (0.29%) MBA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 22 (6.38%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 21 (6.09%) PCI DSS
3 18 (5.22%) NIST
4 9 (2.61%) GDPR
5 6 (1.74%) QA
6 5 (1.45%) NCSC
7 2 (0.58%) COBIT
7 2 (0.58%) Data Quality
7 2 (0.58%) Disclosure Scotland
7 2 (0.58%) FedRAMP
7 2 (0.58%) GRC
7 2 (0.58%) HIPAA
8 1 (0.29%) ISO 20022
8 1 (0.29%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
8 1 (0.29%) NIST 800
8 1 (0.29%) PSD2
8 1 (0.29%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 1 (0.29%) SLA
8 1 (0.29%) SOC 2
System Software
1 17 (4.93%) Docker
2 15 (4.35%) Active Directory
3 4 (1.16%) VMware NSX
4 2 (0.58%) Squid
4 2 (0.58%) Virtual Machines
4 2 (0.58%) VMware ESXi
4 2 (0.58%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.29%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 54 (15.65%) Terraform
2 37 (10.72%) Kubernetes
3 6 (1.74%) Ansible
4 4 (1.16%) Progress Chef
4 4 (1.16%) Single Sign-On
5 3 (0.87%) Grafana
5 3 (0.87%) Prometheus
5 3 (0.87%) Puppet
6 2 (0.58%) Consul
6 2 (0.58%) FortiGate
6 2 (0.58%) Istio
6 2 (0.58%) Microsoft Intune
7 1 (0.29%) CloudForms
7 1 (0.29%) Nessus
7 1 (0.29%) QRadar
Vendors
1 51 (14.78%) Microsoft
2 30 (8.70%) Google
3 22 (6.38%) Salesforce
4 16 (4.64%) Databricks
5 15 (4.35%) Oracle
6 12 (3.48%) SAP
7 11 (3.19%) CyberArk
8 8 (2.32%) VMware
9 7 (2.03%) Cisco
9 7 (2.03%) Salesforce Marketing Cloud
9 7 (2.03%) Splunk
10 6 (1.74%) Foundry
10 6 (1.74%) Palantir
10 6 (1.74%) Red Hat
11 5 (1.45%) IBM
12 4 (1.16%) ServiceNow
12 4 (1.16%) Software AG
12 4 (1.16%) Virgin Media
13 3 (0.87%) Atlassian
13 3 (0.87%) MuleSoft