Cloud Engineer Contract Job Trends

Cloud Engineer
UK

The median Cloud Engineer daily rate in the UK is £523, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 7 January 2026.

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

6 months to
7 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 270 313 247
Rank change year-on-year +43 -66 -3
Contract jobs requiring a Cloud Engineer 365 232 416
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.99% 0.72% 0.98%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.08% 0.78% 1.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 269 141 297
10th Percentile £401 £380 £413
25th Percentile £454 £450 £473
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £523 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -
75th Percentile £600 £645 £638
90th Percentile £705 £700 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £522 £487 £536
% change year-on-year +7.13% -9.14% +2.14%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 0 2
10th Percentile £25.13 - £69.43
25th Percentile £27.06 - £72.31
Median hourly rate £30.00 - £79.25
75th Percentile £81.88 - £85.81
90th Percentile £110.00 - £88.48
UK excluding London median hourly rate - - £88.50

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 33,792 29,885 39,768
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.29% 92.67% 93.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,415 18,301 26,575
10th Percentile £300 £293 £281
25th Percentile £405 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £618 £638 £638
90th Percentile £719 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £480 £500
% change year-on-year -1.04% -4.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,959 924 1,607
10th Percentile £14.32 £15.56 £14.18
25th Percentile £18.25 £21.05 £19.06
Median hourly rate £26.78 £32.50 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -17.60% -26.97% +36.75%
75th Percentile £60.00 £62.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £71.50 £73.75 £76.53
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £31.50 £45.88
% change year-on-year -20.16% -31.34% +69.89%

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 7 January 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 7 January 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 7 January 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 +27 300 £525 -4.55% 104
UK excluding London +34 175 £522 +7.13% 82
London +2 146 £525 -4.55% 41
Work from Home +8 84 £500 -1.96% 61
North of England -21 53 £506 +22.73% 17
South East +6 44 £500 -9.09% 34
Midlands -20 38 £575 +21.05% 6
West Midlands -15 32 £575 -11.54% 6
Yorkshire -26 32 £513 +24.24% 5
Scotland +25 27 £525 +5.00% 3
North West -18 21 £450 - 12
South West +5 15 £538 -6.52% 13
East of England -16 10 £438 -12.50% 4
East Midlands -26 6 £575 +27.78%
Wales -1 1 £425 +41.67% 4

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

For the 6 months to 7 January 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.

1 162 (44.38%) AWS
2 156 (42.74%) DevOps
3 153 (41.92%) CI/CD
4 150 (41.10%) Azure
5 148 (40.55%) Terraform
6 142 (38.90%) Infrastructure as Code
7 113 (30.96%) Security Cleared
8 110 (30.14%) Python
9 104 (28.49%) Kubernetes
10 88 (24.11%) GCP
11 83 (22.74%) GitHub
12 74 (20.27%) SC Cleared
13 70 (19.18%) Containerisation
14 69 (18.90%) Agile
15 64 (17.53%) Microsoft
16 62 (16.99%) Docker
17 58 (15.89%) GitHub Actions
18 57 (15.62%) Jenkins
19 55 (15.07%) Cloud Security
19 55 (15.07%) Google
20 48 (13.15%) Serverless
21 45 (12.33%) GitLab
22 44 (12.05%) Linux
23 43 (11.78%) Problem-Solving
24 42 (11.51%) REST
25 41 (11.23%) Infrastructure Automation
26 39 (10.68%) Ansible
26 39 (10.68%) PowerShell
27 37 (10.14%) Infrastructure Engineering
28 36 (9.86%) DV Cleared

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 6 (1.64%) Apache Spark
2 5 (1.37%) Apache
2 5 (1.37%) Microsoft Exchange
3 3 (0.82%) Apache Airflow
4 2 (0.55%) Confluence
4 2 (0.55%) SharePoint
5 1 (0.27%) Apache Superset
5 1 (0.27%) CMS
5 1 (0.27%) Headless CMS
5 1 (0.27%) NetWeaver
5 1 (0.27%) nginx
5 1 (0.27%) WebLogic
Applications
1 2 (0.55%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 4 (1.10%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 162 (44.38%) AWS
2 150 (41.10%) Azure
3 88 (24.11%) GCP
4 83 (22.74%) GitHub
5 58 (15.89%) GitHub Actions
6 48 (13.15%) Serverless
7 35 (9.59%) Entra ID
8 34 (9.32%) AWS CloudFormation
9 32 (8.77%) Azure DevOps
10 23 (6.30%) Amazon EKS
11 22 (6.03%) Amazon S3
11 22 (6.03%) Google Kubernetes Engine
11 22 (6.03%) PaaS
12 19 (5.21%) AWS Lambda
12 19 (5.21%) IaaS
13 16 (4.38%) Azure Monitor
14 15 (4.11%) Azure AKS
14 15 (4.11%) Microsoft 365
15 13 (3.56%) Cloud Run
16 12 (3.29%) Azure Sentinel
Communications & Networking
1 30 (8.22%) Firewall
2 21 (5.75%) Cisco Firepower
2 21 (5.75%) Cisco IOS
2 21 (5.75%) Cisco ISE
2 21 (5.75%) Junos
3 18 (4.93%) Network Security
4 14 (3.84%) VPN
5 9 (2.47%) DNS
6 5 (1.37%) NX-OS
6 5 (1.37%) WAN
7 3 (0.82%) DHCP
7 3 (0.82%) TCP/IP
8 2 (0.55%) LAN
8 2 (0.55%) SAN
8 2 (0.55%) Unified Communications
8 2 (0.55%) Wi-Fi
9 1 (0.27%) BGP
9 1 (0.27%) MPLS
9 1 (0.27%) VRRP
9 1 (0.27%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 31 (8.49%) NoSQL
2 26 (7.12%) PostgreSQL
3 10 (2.74%) BigQuery
4 9 (2.47%) Power BI
5 7 (1.92%) Elasticsearch
6 6 (1.64%) Amazon RDS
6 6 (1.64%) Azure SQL Database
6 6 (1.64%) Data Warehouse
7 5 (1.37%) Amazon Athena
7 5 (1.37%) Data Lake
8 4 (1.10%) Delta Lake
8 4 (1.10%) DynamoDB
9 3 (0.82%) Amazon Aurora
9 3 (0.82%) Big Data
9 3 (0.82%) Oracle Database
9 3 (0.82%) SQL Server
10 2 (0.55%) OLAP
10 2 (0.55%) OLTP
10 2 (0.55%) Snowflake Schema
10 2 (0.55%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 57 (15.62%) Jenkins
2 45 (12.33%) GitLab
3 26 (7.12%) Git
4 13 (3.56%) Liquibase
5 12 (3.29%) JIRA
6 3 (0.82%) MLflow
6 3 (0.82%) Postman
7 2 (0.55%) Bitbucket
7 2 (0.55%) CircleCI
7 2 (0.55%) Sonatype Nexus
7 2 (0.55%) Spinnaker
8 1 (0.27%) Gemini Tracker
8 1 (0.27%) TeamCity
8 1 (0.27%) Travis CI
8 1 (0.27%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 72 (19.73%) Social Skills
2 61 (16.71%) Finance
3 32 (8.77%) Banking
4 26 (7.12%) Analytical Skills
4 26 (7.12%) Public Sector
5 19 (5.21%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 11 (3.01%) Financial Institution
7 7 (1.92%) Aeronautics
7 7 (1.92%) Retail
8 6 (1.64%) Local Government
9 5 (1.37%) Aviation
9 5 (1.37%) Pharmaceutical
9 5 (1.37%) Telecoms
10 4 (1.10%) Documentation Skills
11 2 (0.55%) Billing
11 2 (0.55%) Marketing
12 1 (0.27%) Influencing Skills
12 1 (0.27%) Legal
12 1 (0.27%) Military
12 1 (0.27%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 42 (11.51%) REST
2 26 (7.12%) Elastic Stack
3 21 (5.75%) RESTful
4 20 (5.48%) Node.js
5 12 (3.29%) ARM Templates
5 12 (3.29%) Kafka
6 10 (2.74%) React
7 8 (2.19%) LangChain
7 8 (2.19%) OpenAPI
7 8 (2.19%) OpenTelemetry
7 8 (2.19%) Oracle Fusion
7 8 (2.19%) SAML
7 8 (2.19%) SOAP
8 7 (1.92%) AWS CDK
8 7 (1.92%) GraphQL
8 7 (1.92%) Lambda Expressions
8 7 (1.92%) OpenID
8 7 (1.92%) Spring
8 7 (1.92%) Spring Boot
9 6 (1.64%) FastAPI
Miscellaneous
1 58 (15.89%) Cloud Native
2 36 (9.86%) Public Cloud
3 21 (5.75%) Distributed Systems
4 9 (2.47%) PKI
5 7 (1.92%) Data Centre
6 5 (1.37%) Genomics
6 5 (1.37%) Hybrid Cloud
6 5 (1.37%) Legacy Systems
6 5 (1.37%) Product Ownership
6 5 (1.37%) Security Posture
7 4 (1.10%) Algorithms
7 4 (1.10%) Cloud Security Posture
7 4 (1.10%) Data Protection Act
7 4 (1.10%) Life Science
8 3 (0.82%) AI Agents
8 3 (0.82%) Cyber Threat
8 3 (0.82%) Distributed Computing
8 3 (0.82%) Replication
9 2 (0.55%) Linux Command Line
9 2 (0.55%) Onboarding
Operating Systems
1 44 (12.05%) Linux
2 33 (9.04%) Windows
3 21 (5.75%) Windows Server
4 9 (2.47%) Unix
5 4 (1.10%) VMS
6 1 (0.27%) Alpine Linux
6 1 (0.27%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.27%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 156 (42.74%) DevOps
2 153 (41.92%) CI/CD
3 142 (38.90%) Infrastructure as Code
4 70 (19.18%) Containerisation
5 69 (18.90%) Agile
6 55 (15.07%) Cloud Security
7 43 (11.78%) Problem-Solving
8 41 (11.23%) Infrastructure Automation
9 37 (10.14%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 35 (9.59%) Microservices
10 35 (9.59%) Migration
11 33 (9.04%) Observability
11 33 (9.04%) Software Engineering
12 31 (8.49%) Continuous Improvement
13 30 (8.22%) AI
13 30 (8.22%) Cybersecurity
13 30 (8.22%) High Availability
13 30 (8.22%) Platform Engineering
14 29 (7.95%) Cost Optimisation
14 29 (7.95%) DevSecOps
Programming Languages
1 110 (30.14%) Python
2 39 (10.68%) PowerShell
3 36 (9.86%) SQL
4 29 (7.95%) Go
5 28 (7.67%) Java
6 23 (6.30%) Bash
7 18 (4.93%) Bicep
8 11 (3.01%) Shell Script
8 11 (3.01%) TypeScript
9 9 (2.47%) JavaScript
10 7 (1.92%) Perl
11 6 (1.64%) C#
12 4 (1.10%) BeanShell
13 3 (0.82%) Ruby
14 2 (0.55%) Kusto Query Language
14 2 (0.55%) PL/SQL
14 2 (0.55%) T-SQL
15 1 (0.27%) C
15 1 (0.27%) Korn
15 1 (0.27%) VB
Qualifications
1 113 (30.96%) Security Cleared
2 74 (20.27%) SC Cleared
3 36 (9.86%) DV Cleared
4 34 (9.32%) Azure Certification
4 34 (9.32%) Degree
5 32 (8.77%) AWS Certification
6 19 (5.21%) Computer Science Degree
7 17 (4.66%) Master's Degree
8 11 (3.01%) Microsoft Certification
9 10 (2.74%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 8 (2.19%) BPSS Clearance
11 7 (1.92%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
12 6 (1.64%) CISSP
13 5 (1.37%) Cisco Certification
13 5 (1.37%) CISM
14 4 (1.10%) AWS Certified Developer
15 3 (0.82%) (ISC)2 CCSP
15 3 (0.82%) CCSP
16 2 (0.55%) AWS Certified SysOps Administrator
16 2 (0.55%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (3.01%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 9 (2.47%) NCSC
2 9 (2.47%) QA
3 8 (2.19%) NIST
4 7 (1.92%) GDPR
5 5 (1.37%) GRC
6 4 (1.10%) Data Quality
7 3 (0.82%) Cyber Essentials
8 2 (0.55%) HIPAA
8 2 (0.55%) PCI DSS
8 2 (0.55%) SOC 2
9 1 (0.27%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 1 (0.27%) FedRAMP
9 1 (0.27%) JSP 440
System Software
1 62 (16.99%) Docker
2 35 (9.59%) Active Directory
3 21 (5.75%) VMware NSX
4 9 (2.47%) Virtual Machines
5 5 (1.37%) Virtual Desktop
5 5 (1.37%) VMware Infrastructure
6 4 (1.10%) Firmware
6 4 (1.10%) Hyper-V
7 2 (0.55%) Virtual Servers
8 1 (0.27%) KVM
8 1 (0.27%) Squid
Systems Management
1 148 (40.55%) Terraform
2 104 (28.49%) Kubernetes
3 39 (10.68%) Ansible
4 31 (8.49%) Grafana
5 30 (8.22%) Prometheus
6 21 (5.75%) vCenter Server
7 13 (3.56%) Argo
8 12 (3.29%) Istio
9 7 (1.92%) Kibana
9 7 (1.92%) logstash
10 5 (1.37%) Microsoft Intune
10 5 (1.37%) Single Sign-On
11 3 (0.82%) Podman
11 3 (0.82%) Proxmox
12 2 (0.55%) FortiGate
12 2 (0.55%) Puppet
13 1 (0.27%) Consul
13 1 (0.27%) Docker Swarm
13 1 (0.27%) Packer
13 1 (0.27%) vRealize
Vendors
1 64 (17.53%) Microsoft
2 55 (15.07%) Google
3 24 (6.58%) Cisco
4 23 (6.30%) Splunk
5 22 (6.03%) Juniper
6 21 (5.75%) SolarWinds
7 16 (4.38%) Oracle
8 14 (3.84%) Databricks
9 10 (2.74%) ServiceNow
10 8 (2.19%) Palo Alto
11 7 (1.92%) Dynatrace
11 7 (1.92%) VMware
12 5 (1.37%) Broadcom
12 5 (1.37%) MuleSoft
12 5 (1.37%) Ping Identity
13 3 (0.82%) Cloudera
13 3 (0.82%) Salesforce
13 3 (0.82%) Zscaler
14 2 (0.55%) Proofpoint
14 2 (0.55%) SAP