Cloud Architect Contract Job Trends

Cloud Architect
UK

The median Cloud Architect daily rate in the UK is £640, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 2 December 2025.

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

6 months to
2 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 421 329 370
Rank change year-on-year -92 +41 -15
Contract jobs requiring a Cloud Architect 162 243 244
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.45% 0.68% 0.54%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.50% 0.73% 0.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 110 161 159
10th Percentile £460 £450 £513
25th Percentile £525 £525 £588
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £640 £650 £663
Median % change year-on-year -1.54% -1.89% -1.85%
75th Percentile £725 £749 £744
90th Percentile £801 £800 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £613 £675 £650
% change year-on-year -9.26% +3.85% +1.96%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 3
10th Percentile - - £79.65
25th Percentile - - £82.13
Median hourly rate £75.00 - £87.50
75th Percentile - - £88.75
90th Percentile - - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate - - £87.50
% change year-on-year - - +25.00%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
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 32,727 33,118 42,499
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.97% 92.81% 93.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,756 20,117 28,647
10th Percentile £284 £300 £294
25th Percentile £402 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £645
90th Percentile £724 £738 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £496 £500
% change year-on-year -4.14% -0.90% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,905 1,179 1,517
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.32 £15.21
25th Percentile £17.96 £20.63 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £44.00
Median % change year-on-year -28.14% -20.45% +44.26%
75th Percentile £57.50 £64.61 £65.00
90th Percentile £71.50 £73.75 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £44.50
% change year-on-year -22.62% -26.97% +78.00%

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 2 December 2025.

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 14 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 2 December 2025. 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 -101 126 £643 -1.15% 52
London -23 81 £650 +4.50% 27
Work from Home -24 69 £643 +5.16% 29
UK excluding London -74 49 £613 -9.26% 34
South East -21 18 £550 -18.52% 19
North of England -57 16 £635 +1.60% 7
North West -34 11 £568 -9.20% 7
South West +3 9 £643 +11.74% 4
Scotland +5 3 - -
Yorkshire -34 3 £625 +11.11%
Wales 0 2 £556 -
North East - 2 £725 -
East Midlands -16 1 £435 +2.84% 2
Midlands -29 1 £435 +2.84% 4

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

For the 6 months to 2 December 2025, 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 68 (41.98%) Azure
2 61 (37.65%) AWS
3 48 (29.63%) DevOps
4 39 (24.07%) Infrastructure as Code
4 39 (24.07%) Security Cleared
4 39 (24.07%) Terraform
5 38 (23.46%) Microsoft
6 34 (20.99%) CI/CD
7 30 (18.52%) GCP
7 30 (18.52%) Migration
8 27 (16.67%) SC Cleared
9 24 (14.81%) Cloud Security
10 23 (14.20%) Oracle
11 21 (12.96%) Problem-Solving
12 20 (12.35%) Roadmaps
12 20 (12.35%) Stakeholder Management
13 19 (11.73%) TOGAF
14 18 (11.11%) Agile
14 18 (11.11%) Containerisation
14 18 (11.11%) Technical Leadership
15 17 (10.49%) Degree
15 17 (10.49%) GDPR
15 17 (10.49%) ISO/IEC 27001
16 16 (9.88%) Analytics
16 16 (9.88%) AWS Certification
16 16 (9.88%) Azure Certification
16 16 (9.88%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 15 (9.26%) Google
17 15 (9.26%) Kubernetes
18 14 (8.64%) Computer Science

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 3 (1.85%) Confluence
2 2 (1.23%) Apache
2 2 (1.23%) Apache Airflow
2 2 (1.23%) Oracle HTTP Server
2 2 (1.23%) Tomcat
2 2 (1.23%) WebLogic
3 1 (0.62%) ArcGIS
3 1 (0.62%) GeoServer
3 1 (0.62%) Jupyter
3 1 (0.62%) nginx
Applications
1 1 (0.62%) Microsoft Excel
1 1 (0.62%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 2 (1.23%) Oracle ERP
1 2 (1.23%) Oracle General Ledger
1 2 (1.23%) SAP S/4HANA
2 1 (0.62%) Dynamics AX
2 1 (0.62%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 68 (41.98%) Azure
2 61 (37.65%) AWS
3 30 (18.52%) GCP
4 14 (8.64%) OCI
5 12 (7.41%) Entra ID
5 12 (7.41%) Serverless
6 11 (6.79%) AWS CloudFormation
6 11 (6.79%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 10 (6.17%) SaaS
8 9 (5.56%) AWS Lambda
8 9 (5.56%) Azure DevOps
9 8 (4.94%) Amazon Glacier
9 8 (4.94%) Amazon S3
10 7 (4.32%) Amazon GuardDuty
10 7 (4.32%) AWS CloudTrail
10 7 (4.32%) Azure ExpressRoute
10 7 (4.32%) Azure Synapse Analytics
10 7 (4.32%) IaaS
11 6 (3.70%) Amazon CloudWatch
11 6 (3.70%) Amazon Kinesis
Communications & Networking
1 10 (6.17%) VPN
2 8 (4.94%) Network Security
3 7 (4.32%) Firewall
4 5 (3.09%) DNS
4 5 (3.09%) WAN
5 3 (1.85%) SD-WAN
5 3 (1.85%) VSAN
6 2 (1.23%) HTTP
6 2 (1.23%) Internet
6 2 (1.23%) SSL
6 2 (1.23%) TCP/IP
7 1 (0.62%) BGP
7 1 (0.62%) Broadband
7 1 (0.62%) DHCP
7 1 (0.62%) DMZ
7 1 (0.62%) LAN
7 1 (0.62%) MPLS
7 1 (0.62%) NAS
7 1 (0.62%) NetScaler
7 1 (0.62%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (4.94%) DynamoDB
2 5 (3.09%) Data Lake
3 4 (2.47%) BigQuery
3 4 (2.47%) Delta Lake
4 3 (1.85%) Power BI
5 2 (1.23%) Amazon Athena
5 2 (1.23%) Amazon RDS
5 2 (1.23%) Amazon Redshift
5 2 (1.23%) Data Warehouse
5 2 (1.23%) Metadata
6 1 (0.62%) Azure SQL Database
6 1 (0.62%) Big Data
6 1 (0.62%) GIS
6 1 (0.62%) Oracle Database
6 1 (0.62%) Oracle Reports
6 1 (0.62%) Spatial Data
6 1 (0.62%) SQL Server
6 1 (0.62%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 5 (3.09%) Jenkins
2 3 (1.85%) JIRA
3 1 (0.62%) ERwin
3 1 (0.62%) Oracle Forms
General
1 40 (24.69%) Social Skills
2 34 (20.99%) Finance
3 18 (11.11%) Public Sector
4 14 (8.64%) Analytical Skills
5 10 (6.17%) Marketing
6 9 (5.56%) Retail
7 6 (3.70%) Banking
7 6 (3.70%) Influencing Skills
7 6 (3.70%) Presentation Skills
8 4 (2.47%) Legal
8 4 (2.47%) Telecoms
9 3 (1.85%) Documentation Skills
9 3 (1.85%) Financial Institution
9 3 (1.85%) Manufacturing
10 2 (1.23%) Electronics
10 2 (1.23%) General Ledger
11 1 (0.62%) Automotive
11 1 (0.62%) Billing
11 1 (0.62%) French Language
11 1 (0.62%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (6.79%) Kafka
2 7 (4.32%) Oracle Fusion
3 6 (3.70%) ActiveMQ
4 5 (3.09%) Middleware
4 5 (3.09%) REST
5 3 (1.85%) ARM Templates
5 3 (1.85%) Web Services
6 2 (1.23%) Hugging Face
6 2 (1.23%) Lightning Web Components
6 2 (1.23%) PyTorch
6 2 (1.23%) SOAP
6 2 (1.23%) TensorFlow
7 1 (0.62%) Faiss
7 1 (0.62%) Google JAX
7 1 (0.62%) JAX
7 1 (0.62%) Keras
7 1 (0.62%) LangChain
7 1 (0.62%) PySpark
7 1 (0.62%) RESTful
7 1 (0.62%) Visualforce
Miscellaneous
1 28 (17.28%) Cloud Native
2 10 (6.17%) Hybrid Cloud
3 8 (4.94%) Data Centre
3 8 (4.94%) Public Cloud
4 7 (4.32%) Enterprise Cloud
5 5 (3.09%) IoT
5 5 (3.09%) Onboarding
5 5 (3.09%) Reinsurance
6 3 (1.85%) Greenfield Project
6 3 (1.85%) Legacy Systems
6 3 (1.85%) Security Posture
7 2 (1.23%) AI Agents
7 2 (1.23%) Cloud Security Posture
7 2 (1.23%) Management Information System
7 2 (1.23%) Operational Technology
8 1 (0.62%) Data Protection Act
8 1 (0.62%) Enterprise Software
8 1 (0.62%) Hedge funds
8 1 (0.62%) Life Science
8 1 (0.62%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 6 (3.70%) Windows
2 4 (2.47%) Linux
3 3 (1.85%) VMS
4 2 (1.23%) CentOS
4 2 (1.23%) Mac OS
4 2 (1.23%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 2 (1.23%) Ubuntu
4 2 (1.23%) Unix
4 2 (1.23%) Windows 10
4 2 (1.23%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 48 (29.63%) DevOps
2 39 (24.07%) Infrastructure as Code
3 34 (20.99%) CI/CD
4 30 (18.52%) Migration
5 24 (14.81%) Cloud Security
6 21 (12.96%) Problem-Solving
7 20 (12.35%) Roadmaps
7 20 (12.35%) Stakeholder Management
8 19 (11.73%) TOGAF
9 18 (11.11%) Agile
9 18 (11.11%) Containerisation
9 18 (11.11%) Technical Leadership
10 16 (9.88%) Analytics
10 16 (9.88%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 14 (8.64%) Computer Science
11 14 (8.64%) Data Architecture
11 14 (8.64%) Enterprise Architecture
12 13 (8.02%) Machine Learning
12 13 (8.02%) MODAF
12 13 (8.02%) Scaled Agile Framework
Programming Languages
1 9 (5.56%) PowerShell
1 9 (5.56%) Python
2 8 (4.94%) Bicep
3 6 (3.70%) Bash
3 6 (3.70%) Java
4 5 (3.09%) SQL
5 3 (1.85%) Go
6 2 (1.23%) Apex Code
7 1 (0.62%) Korn
7 1 (0.62%) Kusto Query Language
7 1 (0.62%) R
7 1 (0.62%) SOQL
7 1 (0.62%) SOSL
Qualifications
1 39 (24.07%) Security Cleared
2 27 (16.67%) SC Cleared
3 17 (10.49%) Degree
4 16 (9.88%) AWS Certification
4 16 (9.88%) Azure Certification
5 14 (8.64%) Computer Science Degree
6 12 (7.41%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
7 8 (4.94%) DV Cleared
8 5 (3.09%) Master's Degree
9 4 (2.47%) Microsoft Certification
10 3 (1.85%) BPSS Clearance
10 3 (1.85%) Cisco Certification
11 2 (1.23%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 2 (1.23%) CISM
11 2 (1.23%) CISSP
11 2 (1.23%) Citrix Certification
11 2 (1.23%) RHCE
11 2 (1.23%) VCDX
12 1 (0.62%) Oracle Certification
12 1 (0.62%) SAP Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (10.49%) GDPR
1 17 (10.49%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 11 (6.79%) NIST
3 8 (4.94%) NCSC
4 6 (3.70%) Cyber Essentials
4 6 (3.70%) PCI DSS
5 3 (1.85%) Data Quality
5 3 (1.85%) HIPAA
5 3 (1.85%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 2 (1.23%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 1 (0.62%) GRC
7 1 (0.62%) QA
7 1 (0.62%) SLA
7 1 (0.62%) SOC 2
System Software
1 10 (6.17%) Docker
1 10 (6.17%) VMware Infrastructure
2 7 (4.32%) Active Directory
3 4 (2.47%) Virtual Desktop
4 3 (1.85%) VMware NSX
4 3 (1.85%) vSphere
5 1 (0.62%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 39 (24.07%) Terraform
2 15 (9.26%) Kubernetes
3 5 (3.09%) Ansible
3 5 (3.09%) Prometheus
4 4 (2.47%) Microsoft Intune
5 2 (1.23%) Grafana
5 2 (1.23%) Nagios
5 2 (1.23%) SCCM
6 1 (0.62%) Trend Micro Deep Security
Vendors
1 38 (23.46%) Microsoft
2 23 (14.20%) Oracle
3 15 (9.26%) Google
4 13 (8.02%) VMware
5 12 (7.41%) Salesforce
6 8 (4.94%) Citrix
6 8 (4.94%) Databricks
7 6 (3.70%) Cisco
8 5 (3.09%) OpenAI
8 5 (3.09%) Salesforce Marketing Cloud
8 5 (3.09%) SAP
9 4 (2.47%) CloudEndure
10 2 (1.23%) BiZZdesign
10 2 (1.23%) Brocade
10 2 (1.23%) ESRI
10 2 (1.23%) Extreme Networks
10 2 (1.23%) NetApp
10 2 (1.23%) Software AG
10 2 (1.23%) Sophos
10 2 (1.23%) Splunk