Cloud Engineer Contract Job Trends

Cloud Engineer
UK

The median Cloud Engineer daily rate in the UK is £522, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 24 March 2026.

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

6 months to
24 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 232 306 290
Rank change year-on-year +74 -16 -31
Contract jobs requiring a Cloud Engineer 481 232 344
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.10% 0.80% 0.78%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.19% 0.86% 0.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 329 173 243
10th Percentile £400 £376 £400
25th Percentile £450 £425 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £522 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.57% -4.55% -
75th Percentile £613 £619 £625
90th Percentile £705 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £522 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +4.40% -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 0 5
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £25.13 - £27.50
Median hourly rate £25.25 - £30.00
75th Percentile £39.56 - £72.50
90th Percentile £48.08 - £83.15
UK excluding London median hourly rate - - £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 40,297 27,081 41,111
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.96% 92.96% 92.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,161 17,787 26,923
10th Percentile £313 £300 £275
25th Percentile £411 £406 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £520 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% -0.95% -4.37%
75th Percentile £613 £630 £638
90th Percentile £724 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £481 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +1.32% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,500 900 2,514
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.20 £12.88
25th Percentile £19.34 £21.00 £16.25
Median hourly rate £36.70 £32.50 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +12.92% - -24.42%
75th Percentile £65.00 £64.73 £60.00
90th Percentile £76.58 £76.34 £71.90
UK excluding London median hourly rate £36.71 £32.50 £32.50
% change year-on-year +12.94% - -21.53%

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 24 March 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 24 March 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 24 March 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 +30 388 £525 - 113
London +26 212 £525 - 41
UK excluding London +14 208 £522 +4.40% 89
Work from Home -6 115 £500 -4.76% 57
North of England -23 69 £500 +5.26% 29
Scotland +31 41 £475 -9.48% 7
Yorkshire -24 39 £506 +55.77% 12
South East -32 37 £516 -8.27% 23
Midlands -47 37 £575 +21.05% 8
West Midlands -37 32 £623 +5.96% 5
North West -18 30 £500 +11.11% 14
South West -12 20 £544 -5.43% 17
East of England -21 15 £510 +27.02% 5
East Midlands -36 5 £575 +25.27% 3
Wales -9 1 £425 +41.67% 1

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

For the 6 months to 24 March 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.

1 220 (45.74%) Terraform
2 218 (45.32%) AWS
3 205 (42.62%) CI/CD
4 194 (40.33%) Infrastructure as Code
5 189 (39.29%) Azure
6 183 (38.05%) DevOps
7 133 (27.65%) Python
8 130 (27.03%) Kubernetes
9 124 (25.78%) Security Cleared
10 123 (25.57%) GCP
11 111 (23.08%) GitHub
12 93 (19.33%) SC Cleared
13 92 (19.13%) Cloud Security
13 92 (19.13%) Google
14 86 (17.88%) Containerisation
15 85 (17.67%) Microsoft
16 80 (16.63%) Agile
17 75 (15.59%) Docker
18 68 (14.14%) Platform Engineering
18 68 (14.14%) Serverless
19 67 (13.93%) GitHub Actions
20 66 (13.72%) PowerShell
21 61 (12.68%) Jenkins
21 61 (12.68%) Migration
22 59 (12.27%) Infrastructure Engineering
23 53 (11.02%) Infrastructure Automation
24 49 (10.19%) Continuous Improvement
25 48 (9.98%) AWS CloudFormation
26 47 (9.77%) GitLab
26 47 (9.77%) Linux

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 8 (1.66%) Apache Spark
2 6 (1.25%) Microsoft Exchange
3 5 (1.04%) Apache
4 4 (0.83%) Confluence
5 3 (0.62%) nginx
6 1 (0.21%) Apache Airflow
6 1 (0.21%) Apache Superset
6 1 (0.21%) CMS
6 1 (0.21%) Headless CMS
6 1 (0.21%) SAS
6 1 (0.21%) SharePoint
6 1 (0.21%) Traefik
Applications
1 2 (0.42%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 3 (0.62%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.21%) Aladdin
Cloud Services
1 218 (45.32%) AWS
2 189 (39.29%) Azure
3 123 (25.57%) GCP
4 111 (23.08%) GitHub
5 68 (14.14%) Serverless
6 67 (13.93%) GitHub Actions
7 48 (9.98%) AWS CloudFormation
8 40 (8.32%) Entra ID
9 39 (8.11%) Azure DevOps
10 36 (7.48%) PaaS
11 35 (7.28%) Amazon EKS
11 35 (7.28%) Amazon S3
12 33 (6.86%) Google Kubernetes Engine
13 31 (6.44%) AWS Lambda
13 31 (6.44%) Azure AKS
14 29 (6.03%) IaaS
15 28 (5.82%) Amazon ECS
16 22 (4.57%) Virtual Private Cloud
17 20 (4.16%) Microsoft 365
18 19 (3.95%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 44 (9.15%) Firewall
2 20 (4.16%) VPN
3 19 (3.95%) Network Security
4 18 (3.74%) DNS
5 12 (2.49%) Cisco Firepower
5 12 (2.49%) Cisco IOS
5 12 (2.49%) Cisco ISE
5 12 (2.49%) Junos
6 5 (1.04%) NX-OS
7 4 (0.83%) DHCP
7 4 (0.83%) Reverse Proxy
7 4 (0.83%) Software-Defined Networking
8 3 (0.62%) BGP
8 3 (0.62%) LAN
9 2 (0.42%) DKIM
9 2 (0.42%) TCP/IP
9 2 (0.42%) Unified Communications
9 2 (0.42%) VLAN
9 2 (0.42%) WAN
9 2 (0.42%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 21 (4.37%) NoSQL
2 20 (4.16%) PostgreSQL
3 12 (2.49%) Amazon Athena
4 11 (2.29%) BigQuery
5 10 (2.08%) Amazon RDS
5 10 (2.08%) DynamoDB
6 8 (1.66%) Power BI
7 6 (1.25%) Data Lake
8 5 (1.04%) Amazon Redshift
8 5 (1.04%) Azure SQL Database
9 4 (0.83%) Data Warehouse
9 4 (0.83%) Elasticsearch
9 4 (0.83%) SQL Server
10 3 (0.62%) Big Data
10 3 (0.62%) Oracle Database
10 3 (0.62%) Snowflake Schema
11 2 (0.42%) Mixpanel
11 2 (0.42%) OLAP
11 2 (0.42%) OLTP
11 2 (0.42%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 61 (12.68%) Jenkins
2 47 (9.77%) GitLab
3 33 (6.86%) Git
4 8 (1.66%) JIRA
5 7 (1.46%) Liquibase
6 3 (0.62%) MLflow
6 3 (0.62%) Postman
6 3 (0.62%) Team Foundation Server
7 2 (0.42%) Artifactory
7 2 (0.42%) Bitbucket
7 2 (0.42%) CircleCI
7 2 (0.42%) Sonatype Nexus
7 2 (0.42%) Spinnaker
8 1 (0.21%) Burp Suite
8 1 (0.21%) Chocolatey
8 1 (0.21%) Gemini Tracker
8 1 (0.21%) Metasploit
8 1 (0.21%) RStudio
8 1 (0.21%) SonarQube
8 1 (0.21%) Travis CI
General
1 77 (16.01%) Social Skills
2 75 (15.59%) Finance
3 40 (8.32%) Public Sector
4 34 (7.07%) Banking
5 23 (4.78%) Analytical Skills
6 16 (3.33%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 12 (2.49%) Financial Institution
8 9 (1.87%) Documentation Skills
9 8 (1.66%) Retail
10 7 (1.46%) Aeronautics
11 6 (1.25%) Presentation Skills
11 6 (1.25%) Telecoms
12 5 (1.04%) Legal
13 4 (0.83%) Investment Banking
14 3 (0.62%) Local Government
15 2 (0.42%) Aviation
15 2 (0.42%) Billing
15 2 (0.42%) Marketing
15 2 (0.42%) Pharmaceutical
16 1 (0.21%) Military
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 41 (8.52%) REST
2 27 (5.61%) Node.js
3 21 (4.37%) Elastic Stack
4 17 (3.53%) RESTful
5 13 (2.70%) Kafka
6 12 (2.49%) React
7 11 (2.29%) OpenTelemetry
8 9 (1.87%) ARM Templates
8 9 (1.87%) OpenAPI
8 9 (1.87%) Oracle Fusion
8 9 (1.87%) Spring
8 9 (1.87%) Spring Boot
9 8 (1.66%) .NET
9 8 (1.66%) LangChain
9 8 (1.66%) OAuth
9 8 (1.66%) OpenID
9 8 (1.66%) Playwright
9 8 (1.66%) SOAP
10 7 (1.46%) AngularJS
10 7 (1.46%) NestJS
Miscellaneous
1 88 (18.30%) Cloud Native
2 40 (8.32%) Public Cloud
3 21 (4.37%) Distributed Systems
4 16 (3.33%) Hybrid Cloud
5 13 (2.70%) Data Centre
6 10 (2.08%) PKI
6 10 (2.08%) Product Ownership
6 10 (2.08%) Security Posture
7 7 (1.46%) Self-Motivation
8 6 (1.25%) Cyber Threat
9 5 (1.04%) Onboarding
10 4 (0.83%) Algorithms
10 4 (0.83%) Cloud Security Posture
10 4 (0.83%) Enterprise Software
11 3 (0.62%) Data Protection Act
11 3 (0.62%) Distributed Computing
11 3 (0.62%) Enterprise Cloud
11 3 (0.62%) Legacy Systems
11 3 (0.62%) Replication
12 2 (0.42%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 47 (9.77%) Linux
2 34 (7.07%) Windows
3 16 (3.33%) Windows Server
4 8 (1.66%) Unix
5 4 (0.83%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 4 (0.83%) VMS
6 1 (0.21%) Alpine Linux
6 1 (0.21%) Mac OS
6 1 (0.21%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 205 (42.62%) CI/CD
2 194 (40.33%) Infrastructure as Code
3 183 (38.05%) DevOps
4 92 (19.13%) Cloud Security
5 86 (17.88%) Containerisation
6 80 (16.63%) Agile
7 68 (14.14%) Platform Engineering
8 61 (12.68%) Migration
9 59 (12.27%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 53 (11.02%) Infrastructure Automation
11 49 (10.19%) Continuous Improvement
12 46 (9.56%) Observability
13 45 (9.36%) Microservices
14 41 (8.52%) Cybersecurity
15 40 (8.32%) Problem-Solving
16 38 (7.90%) AI
17 35 (7.28%) DevSecOps
18 33 (6.86%) Software Engineering
19 31 (6.44%) Analytics
20 30 (6.24%) Cost Optimisation
Programming Languages
1 133 (27.65%) Python
2 66 (13.72%) PowerShell
3 42 (8.73%) SQL
4 34 (7.07%) Bash
5 29 (6.03%) Java
6 22 (4.57%) Bicep
6 22 (4.57%) Go
7 17 (3.53%) TypeScript
8 11 (2.29%) C#
9 8 (1.66%) JavaScript
10 6 (1.25%) Shell Script
11 4 (0.83%) BeanShell
11 4 (0.83%) Perl
11 4 (0.83%) Ruby
12 3 (0.62%) Groovy
13 2 (0.42%) Kusto Query Language
14 1 (0.21%) C
14 1 (0.21%) Cypher
14 1 (0.21%) Kotlin
14 1 (0.21%) R
Qualifications
1 124 (25.78%) Security Cleared
2 93 (19.33%) SC Cleared
3 45 (9.36%) Azure Certification
4 34 (7.07%) AWS Certification
5 32 (6.65%) Degree
6 26 (5.41%) DV Cleared
7 22 (4.57%) Computer Science Degree
8 16 (3.33%) Master's Degree
8 16 (3.33%) Microsoft Certification
9 13 (2.70%) CISSP
10 12 (2.49%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 10 (2.08%) BPSS Clearance
11 10 (2.08%) Cisco Certification
12 7 (1.46%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
12 7 (1.46%) CISM
13 6 (1.25%) (ISC)2 CCSP
14 5 (1.04%) CCSP
14 5 (1.04%) TOGAF Certification
15 3 (0.62%) AWS Certified Developer
15 3 (0.62%) AWS Certified SysOps Administrator
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (3.12%) GDPR
2 13 (2.70%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 12 (2.49%) NIST
4 10 (2.08%) NCSC
5 6 (1.25%) PCI DSS
5 6 (1.25%) QA
6 5 (1.04%) Cyber Essentials
6 5 (1.04%) Data Quality
6 5 (1.04%) GRC
7 3 (0.62%) SOC 2
8 2 (0.42%) HIPAA
8 2 (0.42%) SLA
9 1 (0.21%) Accessibility
9 1 (0.21%) Actionable Recommendations
9 1 (0.21%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 1 (0.21%) FedRAMP
9 1 (0.21%) JSP 440
9 1 (0.21%) WCAG
System Software
1 75 (15.59%) Docker
2 29 (6.03%) Active Directory
3 13 (2.70%) VMware NSX
4 11 (2.29%) Virtual Desktop
4 11 (2.29%) Virtual Machines
5 7 (1.46%) Hyper-V
6 6 (1.25%) Firmware
7 5 (1.04%) VMware Infrastructure
8 2 (0.42%) Virtual Servers
8 2 (0.42%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 220 (45.74%) Terraform
2 130 (27.03%) Kubernetes
3 36 (7.48%) Ansible
4 34 (7.07%) Prometheus
5 33 (6.86%) Grafana
6 19 (3.95%) Istio
7 15 (3.12%) Argo
8 13 (2.70%) vCenter Server
9 12 (2.49%) Single Sign-On
10 11 (2.29%) Microsoft Intune
11 5 (1.04%) Progress Chef
12 4 (0.83%) Kibana
12 4 (0.83%) logstash
12 4 (0.83%) Packer
12 4 (0.83%) Podman
13 3 (0.62%) Proxmox
13 3 (0.62%) Puppet
14 2 (0.42%) Consul
14 2 (0.42%) Salt
14 2 (0.42%) SCCM
Vendors
1 92 (19.13%) Google
2 85 (17.67%) Microsoft
3 20 (4.16%) Splunk
4 19 (3.95%) Oracle
5 18 (3.74%) Cisco
6 13 (2.70%) Databricks
6 13 (2.70%) Juniper
7 12 (2.49%) SolarWinds
8 11 (2.29%) ServiceNow
9 10 (2.08%) Dynatrace
10 7 (1.46%) Ping Identity
10 7 (1.46%) VMware
11 5 (1.04%) Broadcom
11 5 (1.04%) Citrix
11 5 (1.04%) MuleSoft
11 5 (1.04%) PeopleSoft
11 5 (1.04%) Rapid7
11 5 (1.04%) Zscaler
12 4 (0.83%) Red Hat
12 4 (0.83%) Salesforce