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 28 August 2026.

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

6 months to
28 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 206 311 325
Rank change year-on-year +105 +14 -51
Contract jobs requiring a Cloud Engineer 755 254 250
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.40% 0.78% 0.64%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.52% 0.85% 0.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 490 184 160
10th Percentile £412 £400 £385
25th Percentile £450 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -9.09% -
75th Percentile £600 £575 £625
90th Percentile £675 £632 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £510 £500 £515
% change year-on-year +2.00% -2.91% -1.90%
Number of hourly rates quoted 28 6 0
10th Percentile £23.20 £29.00 -
25th Percentile £55.67 £29.25 -
Median hourly rate £77.00 £37.50 -
Median % change year-on-year +105.33% - -
75th Percentile £81.25 £58.75 -
90th Percentile £82.38 £86.25 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £72.00 - -

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 49,702 29,842 36,074
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.46% 91.23% 93.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,679 18,834 22,885
10th Percentile £325 £280 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.87%
75th Percentile £625 £621 £638
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,561 1,567 1,910
10th Percentile £14.96 £13.72 £14.16
25th Percentile £20.50 £17.08 £19.50
Median hourly rate £41.74 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +65.94% -41.51% -0.73%
75th Percentile £67.84 £53.81 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £71.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% +7.50%

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 28 August 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 28 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Cloud Engineer in the UK

Cloud Engineer
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 Engineer within the UK over the 6 months to 28 August 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 +99 650 £525 +5.00% 780
UK excluding London +101 403 £510 +2.00% 353
London +46 302 £525 - 492
Work from Home +24 187 £540 +8.00% 276
South East +22 122 £538 +7.50% 63
North of England +14 120 £513 +13.89% 101
North West +5 72 £533 +18.44% 55
Midlands +6 65 £500 +5.26% 39
Scotland +32 57 £447 -8.31% 46
Yorkshire -12 41 £467 -6.62% 36
East Midlands +7 32 £463 -2.63% 17
West Midlands -25 32 £525 -2.78% 22
East of England -2 19 £488 +0.52% 32
South West -22 14 £625 +13.64% 54
Wales -12 7 - - 6
North East -38 7 £525 +10.53% 10

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

For the 6 months to 28 August 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.

1 356 (47.15%) Azure
2 311 (41.19%) Terraform
3 263 (34.83%) Infrastructure as Code
4 262 (34.70%) AWS
5 256 (33.91%) CI/CD
6 205 (27.15%) DevOps
7 197 (26.09%) Security Cleared
8 196 (25.96%) Kubernetes
9 189 (25.03%) Python
10 171 (22.65%) Microsoft
11 169 (22.38%) Cloud Security
12 164 (21.72%) GCP
13 160 (21.19%) PowerShell
14 158 (20.93%) Infrastructure Engineering
15 149 (19.74%) Platform Engineering
16 145 (19.21%) SC Cleared
17 116 (15.36%) Windows
18 112 (14.83%) Google
19 99 (13.11%) Entra ID
20 97 (12.85%) AI
21 91 (12.05%) Active Directory
22 89 (11.79%) GitHub
23 88 (11.66%) Migration
24 86 (11.39%) Agile
25 85 (11.26%) Containerisation
26 83 (10.99%) Bash
26 83 (10.99%) Observability
27 79 (10.46%) DNS
28 77 (10.20%) Firewall
29 75 (9.93%) 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 12 (1.59%) Microsoft Exchange
2 11 (1.46%) Apache
3 8 (1.06%) Apache Airflow
4 6 (0.79%) Confluence
5 5 (0.66%) SharePoint
6 3 (0.40%) IIS
6 3 (0.40%) nginx
6 3 (0.40%) Tomcat
7 2 (0.26%) CloudStack
7 2 (0.26%) OpenStack
8 1 (0.13%) Apache Pulsar
8 1 (0.13%) Apache Spark
Applications
1 1 (0.13%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 2 (0.26%) Aladdin
Cloud Services
1 356 (47.15%) Azure
2 262 (34.70%) AWS
3 164 (21.72%) GCP
4 99 (13.11%) Entra ID
5 89 (11.79%) GitHub
6 57 (7.55%) Azure DevOps
7 56 (7.42%) GitHub Actions
8 53 (7.02%) Serverless
9 47 (6.23%) AWS CloudFormation
10 44 (5.83%) Azure AKS
11 43 (5.70%) IaaS
12 41 (5.43%) AWS Lambda
13 39 (5.17%) Azure Monitor
14 36 (4.77%) Google Kubernetes Engine
15 35 (4.64%) Amazon EC2
15 35 (4.64%) Amazon EKS
16 34 (4.50%) Amazon S3
17 33 (4.37%) Microsoft 365
18 32 (4.24%) Amazon CloudWatch
19 31 (4.11%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 79 (10.46%) DNS
2 77 (10.20%) Firewall
3 38 (5.03%) Network Security
4 37 (4.90%) VPN
5 18 (2.38%) DHCP
6 17 (2.25%) WAN
7 15 (1.99%) TCP/IP
8 12 (1.59%) Internet
9 6 (0.79%) SD-WAN
9 6 (0.79%) VLAN
9 6 (0.79%) VSAN
10 5 (0.66%) LAN
10 5 (0.66%) SSL
11 4 (0.53%) SAN
12 3 (0.40%) BGP
12 3 (0.40%) IPv4
12 3 (0.40%) Kerberos
12 3 (0.40%) OSPF
12 3 (0.40%) SMTP
12 3 (0.40%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 28 (3.71%) SQL Server
2 20 (2.65%) Amazon RDS
3 16 (2.12%) PostgreSQL
4 11 (1.46%) BigQuery
5 8 (1.06%) Oracle Exadata
6 7 (0.93%) Data Lake
7 6 (0.79%) Amazon Athena
7 6 (0.79%) DynamoDB
8 5 (0.66%) Azure SQL Database
8 5 (0.66%) Oracle Database
9 3 (0.40%) Amazon Redshift
9 3 (0.40%) Flink
9 3 (0.40%) Looker
9 3 (0.40%) Metadata
9 3 (0.40%) MongoDB
9 3 (0.40%) MySQL
9 3 (0.40%) Oracle Database 12c
10 2 (0.26%) Data Warehouse
10 2 (0.26%) NoSQL
10 2 (0.26%) Redis
Development Applications
1 54 (7.15%) GitLab
2 47 (6.23%) Jenkins
3 37 (4.90%) Git
4 18 (2.38%) JIRA
5 8 (1.06%) Artifactory
6 6 (0.79%) Claude Code
7 5 (0.66%) Bitbucket
8 3 (0.40%) Selenium
8 3 (0.40%) Terragrunt
9 2 (0.26%) Atlassian Bamboo
9 2 (0.26%) Cypress.io
9 2 (0.26%) Gatling
9 2 (0.26%) JMeter
9 2 (0.26%) Octopus Deploy
9 2 (0.26%) Robot Framework
9 2 (0.26%) SonarQube
10 1 (0.13%) Burp Suite
10 1 (0.13%) eggPlant
10 1 (0.13%) Metasploit
10 1 (0.13%) sqlmap
General
1 93 (12.32%) Finance
2 83 (10.99%) Social Skills
3 68 (9.01%) Public Sector
4 32 (4.24%) Analytical Skills
5 28 (3.71%) Banking
6 10 (1.32%) Documentation Skills
6 10 (1.32%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 8 (1.06%) Investment Banking
8 6 (0.79%) Manufacturing
9 5 (0.66%) Law
9 5 (0.66%) Local Government
10 4 (0.53%) Pharmaceutical
11 3 (0.40%) Aerospace
11 3 (0.40%) Front Office
11 3 (0.40%) Italian Language
11 3 (0.40%) Legal
11 3 (0.40%) Marketing
11 3 (0.40%) Military
11 3 (0.40%) Police
11 3 (0.40%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 311 (41.19%) Terraform
2 24 (3.18%) REST
3 15 (1.99%) ARM Templates
4 14 (1.85%) Kafka
5 11 (1.46%) Spring
5 11 (1.46%) Spring Boot
6 9 (1.19%) Node.js
6 9 (1.19%) OAuth
6 9 (1.19%) OAuth2
7 8 (1.06%) AWS CDK
7 8 (1.06%) React
7 8 (1.06%) YAML
8 7 (0.93%) .NET
8 7 (0.93%) Keycloak
9 6 (0.79%) FastAPI
9 6 (0.79%) Flask
10 4 (0.53%) Azure Blueprints
10 4 (0.53%) Hugging Face
10 4 (0.53%) Model Context Protocol
10 4 (0.53%) PyTorch
Miscellaneous
1 122 (16.16%) Cloud Native
2 56 (7.42%) Security Posture
3 42 (5.56%) Enterprise Cloud
4 36 (4.77%) Hybrid Cloud
5 32 (4.24%) Onboarding
6 28 (3.71%) Cloud Security Posture
7 23 (3.05%) Enterprise Software
8 21 (2.78%) Distributed Systems
9 19 (2.52%) Management Information System
10 17 (2.25%) Data Centre
11 16 (2.12%) Public Cloud
12 13 (1.72%) Product Ownership
13 12 (1.59%) Private Cloud
14 10 (1.32%) Linux Command Line
15 9 (1.19%) PKI
16 8 (1.06%) AI Agents
16 8 (1.06%) Data Protection Act
17 7 (0.93%) Legacy Systems
18 6 (0.79%) Self-Motivation
19 5 (0.66%) Distributed Architecture
Operating Systems
1 116 (15.36%) Windows
2 75 (9.93%) Linux
3 57 (7.55%) Windows Server
4 29 (3.84%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 12 (1.59%) Windows Server 2019
6 8 (1.06%) Ubuntu
7 4 (0.53%) VMS
8 3 (0.40%) CentOS
9 2 (0.26%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 263 (34.83%) Infrastructure as Code
2 256 (33.91%) CI/CD
3 205 (27.15%) DevOps
4 169 (22.38%) Cloud Security
5 158 (20.93%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 149 (19.74%) Platform Engineering
7 97 (12.85%) AI
8 88 (11.66%) Migration
9 86 (11.39%) Agile
10 85 (11.26%) Containerisation
11 83 (10.99%) Observability
12 62 (8.21%) Technical Leadership
13 60 (7.95%) Continuous Improvement
14 59 (7.81%) Software Engineering
15 56 (7.42%) DevSecOps
16 54 (7.15%) Infrastructure Automation
17 53 (7.02%) Problem-Solving
18 51 (6.75%) Cybersecurity
19 49 (6.49%) Deployment Automation
20 46 (6.09%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 189 (25.03%) Python
2 160 (21.19%) PowerShell
3 83 (10.99%) Bash
4 71 (9.40%) Bicep
5 62 (8.21%) SQL
6 36 (4.77%) Java
7 20 (2.65%) C#
8 16 (2.12%) Shell Script
9 12 (1.59%) JavaScript
10 10 (1.32%) Go
11 4 (0.53%) Groovy
11 4 (0.53%) TypeScript
12 3 (0.40%) C
12 3 (0.40%) Scala
13 2 (0.26%) Kusto Query Language
14 1 (0.13%) Apex Code
14 1 (0.13%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 1 (0.13%) Perl
14 1 (0.13%) R
14 1 (0.13%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 197 (26.09%) Security Cleared
2 145 (19.21%) SC Cleared
3 66 (8.74%) DV Cleared
4 45 (5.96%) AWS Certification
5 44 (5.83%) Azure Certification
6 31 (4.11%) Degree
7 19 (2.52%) Microsoft Certification
8 16 (2.12%) CISSP
9 14 (1.85%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 8 (1.06%) Cisco Certification
10 8 (1.06%) Computer Science Degree
10 8 (1.06%) MCSE
11 7 (0.93%) BPSS Clearance
12 6 (0.79%) CCNP
12 6 (0.79%) CISM
13 5 (0.66%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
13 5 (0.66%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 4 (0.53%) CCIE
15 3 (0.40%) AWS Certified SysOps Administrator
15 3 (0.40%) CEH
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (1.85%) Data Quality
1 14 (1.85%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 11 (1.46%) NIST
3 10 (1.32%) NCSC
3 10 (1.32%) QA
4 6 (0.79%) Cyber Essentials
5 5 (0.66%) GDPR
6 3 (0.40%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 3 (0.40%) Disclosure Scotland
6 3 (0.40%) SLA
7 2 (0.26%) Actionable Recommendations
7 2 (0.26%) PCI DSS
8 1 (0.13%) Accessibility
8 1 (0.13%) Government Security Classifications
8 1 (0.13%) GRC
8 1 (0.13%) SOC 2
8 1 (0.13%) WCAG
System Software
1 91 (12.05%) Active Directory
2 73 (9.67%) Docker
3 47 (6.23%) VMware Infrastructure
4 32 (4.24%) Virtual Machines
5 30 (3.97%) VMware ESXi
6 26 (3.44%) VMware NSX
7 20 (2.65%) Virtual Desktop
7 20 (2.65%) vSphere
8 14 (1.85%) vCloud
9 11 (1.46%) Hyper-V
10 7 (0.93%) Squid
11 4 (0.53%) Firmware
12 3 (0.40%) Ceph
12 3 (0.40%) Dovecot
12 3 (0.40%) NFS
12 3 (0.40%) Postfix
13 2 (0.26%) KVM
13 2 (0.26%) Virtual Servers
14 1 (0.13%) BitLocker
Systems Management
1 196 (25.96%) Kubernetes
2 51 (6.75%) Ansible
3 27 (3.58%) vCenter Server
4 23 (3.05%) SCOM
5 22 (2.91%) Grafana
5 22 (2.91%) Microsoft Intune
6 20 (2.65%) Prometheus
7 18 (2.38%) Progress Chef
8 16 (2.12%) Single Sign-On
9 14 (1.85%) Puppet
10 11 (1.46%) Istio
11 8 (1.06%) Packer
12 7 (0.93%) Cilium
13 6 (0.79%) Argo
14 5 (0.66%) VxRail
15 4 (0.53%) Suricata
16 3 (0.40%) Active Directory Federation Services
16 3 (0.40%) HAProxy
16 3 (0.40%) Karpenter
16 3 (0.40%) vRealize
Vendors
1 171 (22.65%) Microsoft
2 112 (14.83%) Google
3 71 (9.40%) VMware
4 32 (4.24%) Oracle
5 17 (2.25%) Okta
5 17 (2.25%) Red Hat
6 16 (2.12%) Databricks
6 16 (2.12%) Zscaler
7 13 (1.72%) Palo Alto
8 12 (1.59%) OpenAI
8 12 (1.59%) ServiceNow
8 12 (1.59%) Splunk
9 10 (1.32%) Broadcom
9 10 (1.32%) SolarWinds
10 9 (1.19%) CrowdStrike
10 9 (1.19%) Dynatrace
10 9 (1.19%) Salesforce
11 8 (1.06%) BeyondTrust
11 8 (1.06%) Cisco
11 8 (1.06%) New Relic