Cloud Engineer Contract Job Trends

Cloud Engineer
UK

The median Cloud Engineer daily rate in the UK is £525, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 13 June 2026.

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

6 months to
13 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 217 304 317
Rank change year-on-year +87 +13 -45
Contract jobs requiring a Cloud Engineer 597 235 279
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.19% 0.80% 0.64%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.29% 0.86% 0.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 400 179 192
10th Percentile £400 £400 £400
25th Percentile £462 £449 £459
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -9.09% -
75th Percentile £622 £575 £625
90th Percentile £688 £638 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £520 £500 £510
% change year-on-year +4.00% -1.96% -7.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 15 1 3
10th Percentile £43.48 - -
25th Percentile £72.38 £42.50 £27.50
Median hourly rate £77.00 £45.00 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year +71.11% +50.00% -41.18%
75th Percentile £81.25 £47.50 £32.50
90th Percentile £85.00 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £76.00 - £30.00

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 46,221 27,241 40,562
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.39% 92.30% 92.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,120 17,531 26,073
10th Percentile £325 £290 £280
25th Percentile £413 £402 £408
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £514 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.80% -4.76% -2.42%
75th Percentile £623 £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 3,085 1,148 2,936
10th Percentile £15.24 £14.00 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.75 £17.79 £16.30
Median hourly rate £42.69 £27.70 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +54.10% -26.13% -16.67%
75th Percentile £67.50 £57.50 £61.81
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £44.50 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +76.94% -37.13% -4.94%

Cloud Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Cloud Engineer job vacancy trend in the UK

Cloud Engineer
Daily Rate Trend

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

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

Cloud Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Cloud Engineer over the 6 months to 13 June 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Cloud Engineer in the UK

Cloud Engineer
Hourly Rate Trend

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

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

Cloud Engineer
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Cloud Engineer over the 6 months to 13 June 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Cloud Engineer in the UK

Cloud Engineer
Top 15 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 Engineer within the UK over the 6 months to 13 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 +72 501 £525 +5.00% 118
London +73 295 £550 +7.84% 38
UK excluding London +16 238 £520 +4.00% 93
Work from Home -18 150 £545 +9.00% 65
North of England -21 66 £500 +5.26% 24
South East -30 61 £538 +3.66% 36
Scotland +18 46 £451 -14.19% 1
North West -18 32 £500 +24.38% 18
Midlands -41 29 £525 +5.00% 10
Yorkshire -29 27 £481 -3.75% 6
West Midlands -35 24 £525 - 9
East of England -12 22 £505 +2.54% 6
South West -11 15 £550 -2.22% 15
North East -36 7 £525 +5.00%
East Midlands -21 5 £413 -13.16% 1

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

For the 6 months to 13 June 2026, Cloud Engineer 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 Engineer in the job title.

1 273 (45.73%) Azure
1 273 (45.73%) Terraform
2 261 (43.72%) AWS
3 245 (41.04%) CI/CD
4 228 (38.19%) Infrastructure as Code
5 201 (33.67%) DevOps
6 149 (24.96%) Python
7 147 (24.62%) Security Cleared
8 139 (23.28%) Kubernetes
9 132 (22.11%) GCP
10 124 (20.77%) Cloud Security
11 117 (19.60%) SC Cleared
12 112 (18.76%) Microsoft
13 110 (18.43%) Platform Engineering
14 107 (17.92%) GitHub
15 98 (16.42%) Google
16 97 (16.25%) PowerShell
17 96 (16.08%) Infrastructure Engineering
18 88 (14.74%) Migration
19 75 (12.56%) Containerisation
20 74 (12.40%) Windows
21 72 (12.06%) GitHub Actions
22 71 (11.89%) Agile
23 70 (11.73%) AI
24 64 (10.72%) Firewall
25 63 (10.55%) Docker
26 61 (10.22%) Serverless
27 59 (9.88%) Observability
28 58 (9.72%) Bash
28 58 (9.72%) Problem-Solving

Cloud Engineer 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 7 (1.17%) Confluence
1 7 (1.17%) Microsoft Exchange
2 6 (1.01%) Apache
3 5 (0.84%) nginx
4 3 (0.50%) Apache Spark
4 3 (0.50%) IIS
4 3 (0.50%) SharePoint
4 3 (0.50%) Tomcat
5 2 (0.34%) Apache Airflow
5 2 (0.34%) CloudStack
6 1 (0.17%) Apache Pulsar
6 1 (0.17%) OpenStack
6 1 (0.17%) SAS
6 1 (0.17%) Traefik
Business Applications
1 1 (0.17%) Aladdin
Cloud Services
1 273 (45.73%) Azure
2 261 (43.72%) AWS
3 132 (22.11%) GCP
4 107 (17.92%) GitHub
5 72 (12.06%) GitHub Actions
6 61 (10.22%) Serverless
7 53 (8.88%) Entra ID
8 46 (7.71%) Azure DevOps
9 43 (7.20%) AWS CloudFormation
10 41 (6.87%) Azure AKS
11 39 (6.53%) Amazon S3
11 39 (6.53%) Google Kubernetes Engine
12 38 (6.37%) IaaS
12 38 (6.37%) PaaS
13 37 (6.20%) AWS Lambda
14 35 (5.86%) Amazon EKS
15 32 (5.36%) Virtual Private Cloud
16 30 (5.03%) Amazon ECS
17 29 (4.86%) Amazon EC2
18 23 (3.85%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 64 (10.72%) Firewall
2 47 (7.87%) DNS
3 27 (4.52%) Network Security
3 27 (4.52%) VPN
4 9 (1.51%) DHCP
4 9 (1.51%) WAN
5 8 (1.34%) TCP/IP
6 5 (0.84%) Reverse Proxy
6 5 (0.84%) SSL
7 4 (0.67%) SD-WAN
7 4 (0.67%) Software-Defined Networking
7 4 (0.67%) VLAN
8 3 (0.50%) BGP
8 3 (0.50%) Internet
8 3 (0.50%) SMTP
9 2 (0.34%) BIG-IP
9 2 (0.34%) IPv4
9 2 (0.34%) Kerberos
9 2 (0.34%) SAN
9 2 (0.34%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 15 (2.51%) SQL Server
2 13 (2.18%) Amazon Athena
2 13 (2.18%) DynamoDB
3 11 (1.84%) BigQuery
4 10 (1.68%) Amazon RDS
5 8 (1.34%) PostgreSQL
6 6 (1.01%) Amazon Redshift
6 6 (1.01%) Azure SQL Database
7 5 (0.84%) Oracle Database
8 4 (0.67%) Amazon QuickSight
9 3 (0.50%) Big Data
9 3 (0.50%) Metadata
9 3 (0.50%) MySQL
9 3 (0.50%) Oracle Database 12c
9 3 (0.50%) Relational Database
10 2 (0.34%) Data Lake
10 2 (0.34%) Redis
10 2 (0.34%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 1 (0.17%) Delta Lake
11 1 (0.17%) InfluxDB
Development Applications
1 53 (8.88%) Jenkins
2 51 (8.54%) GitLab
3 42 (7.04%) Git
4 14 (2.35%) JIRA
5 10 (1.68%) Artifactory
6 3 (0.50%) Bitbucket
6 3 (0.50%) Selenium
6 3 (0.50%) Team Foundation Server
7 2 (0.34%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 2 (0.34%) Claude Code
7 2 (0.34%) Cypress.io
7 2 (0.34%) Liquibase
7 2 (0.34%) Robot Framework
8 1 (0.17%) Burp Suite
8 1 (0.17%) Chocolatey
8 1 (0.17%) CircleCI
8 1 (0.17%) Gatling
8 1 (0.17%) SonarQube
8 1 (0.17%) sqlmap
8 1 (0.17%) TestRail
General
1 79 (13.23%) Social Skills
2 64 (10.72%) Finance
3 46 (7.71%) Public Sector
4 24 (4.02%) Analytical Skills
4 24 (4.02%) Banking
5 12 (2.01%) Documentation Skills
5 12 (2.01%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 9 (1.51%) Retail
7 7 (1.17%) Investment Banking
8 6 (1.01%) Legal
8 6 (1.01%) Telecoms
9 5 (0.84%) Pharmaceutical
9 5 (0.84%) Presentation Skills
10 4 (0.67%) Law
10 4 (0.67%) Local Government
10 4 (0.67%) Marketing
10 4 (0.67%) Military
11 3 (0.50%) Financial Institution
11 3 (0.50%) Police
12 2 (0.34%) Billing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (3.35%) REST
2 14 (2.35%) Node.js
2 14 (2.35%) React
2 14 (2.35%) Spring
2 14 (2.35%) Spring Boot
3 12 (2.01%) OAuth
3 12 (2.01%) OAuth2
4 11 (1.84%) Kafka
5 9 (1.51%) .NET
5 9 (1.51%) OpenTelemetry
6 7 (1.17%) ARM Templates
6 7 (1.17%) OpenID
7 6 (1.01%) AngularJS
7 6 (1.01%) LangChain
7 6 (1.01%) Model Context Protocol
8 5 (0.84%) AWS CDK
8 5 (0.84%) Oracle Fusion
8 5 (0.84%) Playwright
8 5 (0.84%) YAML
9 4 (0.67%) PySpark
Miscellaneous
1 114 (19.10%) Cloud Native
2 28 (4.69%) Hybrid Cloud
2 28 (4.69%) Public Cloud
3 23 (3.85%) Data Centre
4 21 (3.52%) Security Posture
5 17 (2.85%) Enterprise Cloud
6 16 (2.68%) Onboarding
7 14 (2.35%) Enterprise Software
8 13 (2.18%) Distributed Systems
9 11 (1.84%) Management Information System
9 11 (1.84%) Product Ownership
10 9 (1.51%) Cloud Security Posture
11 8 (1.34%) Data Protection Act
11 8 (1.34%) Self-Motivation
12 6 (1.01%) Cyber Threat
12 6 (1.01%) Legacy Systems
13 5 (0.84%) Private Cloud
14 4 (0.67%) AI Agents
14 4 (0.67%) PKI
14 4 (0.67%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 74 (12.40%) Windows
2 40 (6.70%) Linux
2 40 (6.70%) Windows Server
3 12 (2.01%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 5 (0.84%) Ubuntu
5 4 (0.67%) Windows Server 2019
6 3 (0.50%) CentOS
7 2 (0.34%) VMS
7 2 (0.34%) Windows Server 2012
8 1 (0.17%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 245 (41.04%) CI/CD
2 228 (38.19%) Infrastructure as Code
3 201 (33.67%) DevOps
4 124 (20.77%) Cloud Security
5 110 (18.43%) Platform Engineering
6 96 (16.08%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 88 (14.74%) Migration
8 75 (12.56%) Containerisation
9 71 (11.89%) Agile
10 70 (11.73%) AI
11 59 (9.88%) Observability
12 58 (9.72%) Problem-Solving
13 52 (8.71%) Continuous Improvement
14 51 (8.54%) Infrastructure Automation
15 50 (8.38%) Software Engineering
16 47 (7.87%) Technical Leadership
17 44 (7.37%) Cybersecurity
18 40 (6.70%) DevSecOps
19 34 (5.70%) Deployment Automation
19 34 (5.70%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 149 (24.96%) Python
2 97 (16.25%) PowerShell
3 58 (9.72%) Bash
4 50 (8.38%) SQL
5 40 (6.70%) Bicep
6 34 (5.70%) Java
7 15 (2.51%) C#
8 11 (1.84%) Go
8 11 (1.84%) JavaScript
9 10 (1.68%) TypeScript
10 5 (0.84%) Groovy
11 2 (0.34%) Kusto Query Language
11 2 (0.34%) R
11 2 (0.34%) Ruby
12 1 (0.17%) Apex Code
12 1 (0.17%) Cypher
12 1 (0.17%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 1 (0.17%) Kotlin
12 1 (0.17%) Perl
12 1 (0.17%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 147 (24.62%) Security Cleared
2 117 (19.60%) SC Cleared
3 46 (7.71%) Azure Certification
4 37 (6.20%) AWS Certification
5 31 (5.19%) DV Cleared
6 19 (3.18%) Degree
7 16 (2.68%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
8 14 (2.35%) Microsoft Certification
9 13 (2.18%) CISSP
10 11 (1.84%) BPSS Clearance
11 9 (1.51%) Cisco Certification
12 8 (1.34%) Computer Science Degree
13 7 (1.17%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
14 6 (1.01%) (ISC)2 CCSP
15 5 (0.84%) TOGAF Certification
16 4 (0.67%) CCSP
16 4 (0.67%) MCSE
17 3 (0.50%) CCNP
17 3 (0.50%) CISM
17 3 (0.50%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (2.35%) NIST
2 11 (1.84%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 11 (1.84%) NCSC
3 10 (1.68%) GDPR
3 10 (1.68%) QA
4 6 (1.01%) PCI DSS
5 4 (0.67%) Data Quality
6 3 (0.50%) Cyber Essentials
7 2 (0.34%) SLA
7 2 (0.34%) SOC 2
8 1 (0.17%) Accessibility
8 1 (0.17%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.17%) Disclosure Scotland
8 1 (0.17%) GRC
8 1 (0.17%) WCAG
System Software
1 63 (10.55%) Docker
2 48 (8.04%) Active Directory
3 20 (3.35%) VMware Infrastructure
4 18 (3.02%) VMware NSX
5 17 (2.85%) Virtual Desktop
5 17 (2.85%) Virtual Machines
5 17 (2.85%) VMware ESXi
6 14 (2.35%) vSphere
7 10 (1.68%) Hyper-V
7 10 (1.68%) vCloud
8 7 (1.17%) Squid
9 3 (0.50%) Dovecot
9 3 (0.50%) Firmware
9 3 (0.50%) Postfix
10 2 (0.34%) Ceph
10 2 (0.34%) KVM
10 2 (0.34%) NFS
Systems Management
1 273 (45.73%) Terraform
2 139 (23.28%) Kubernetes
3 37 (6.20%) Ansible
4 24 (4.02%) Grafana
5 22 (3.69%) Prometheus
6 20 (3.35%) Single Sign-On
7 15 (2.51%) Microsoft Intune
8 14 (2.35%) Istio
8 14 (2.35%) Progress Chef
8 14 (2.35%) vCenter Server
9 13 (2.18%) Argo
10 12 (2.01%) Puppet
10 12 (2.01%) SCOM
11 8 (1.34%) Packer
12 6 (1.01%) Cilium
13 4 (0.67%) HAProxy
13 4 (0.67%) Salt
13 4 (0.67%) Suricata
14 3 (0.50%) Active Directory Federation Services
15 2 (0.34%) vRealize
Vendors
1 112 (18.76%) Microsoft
2 98 (16.42%) Google
3 37 (6.20%) VMware
4 23 (3.85%) Oracle
5 15 (2.51%) Palo Alto
5 15 (2.51%) Zscaler
6 13 (2.18%) Red Hat
7 9 (1.51%) Cisco
7 9 (1.51%) Dynatrace
8 8 (1.34%) Okta
8 8 (1.34%) Salesforce
9 7 (1.17%) ServiceNow
9 7 (1.17%) Splunk
10 6 (1.01%) OpenAI
11 5 (0.84%) Citrix
11 5 (0.84%) CrowdStrike
11 5 (0.84%) Databricks
11 5 (0.84%) Fortinet
11 5 (0.84%) Rapid7
12 4 (0.67%) Juniper