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 12 August 2026.

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

6 months to
12 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 200 304 321
Rank change year-on-year +104 +17 -45
Contract jobs requiring a Cloud Engineer 732 258 252
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.37% 0.78% 0.65%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.48% 0.86% 0.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 474 191 165
10th Percentile £400 £400 £386
25th Percentile £450 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -9.09% -
75th Percentile £608 £575 £625
90th Percentile £675 £638 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £510 £500 £520
% change year-on-year +2.00% -3.85% -2.35%
Number of hourly rates quoted 27 6 1
10th Percentile £23.20 £29.00 -
25th Percentile £47.10 £29.25 £27.50
Median hourly rate £77.00 £37.50 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year +105.33% +25.00% -
75th Percentile £81.25 £58.75 £32.50
90th Percentile £82.75 £86.25 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £72.00 - £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 49,398 30,125 36,175
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.56% 91.38% 92.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,694 19,103 23,309
10th Percentile £328 £282 £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 £625 £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 3,473 1,514 2,025
10th Percentile £15.00 £13.60 £14.16
25th Percentile £20.75 £17.12 £20.50
Median hourly rate £42.25 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +67.99% -41.51% +2.87%
75th Percentile £67.84 £53.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £72.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.68 £25.08 £45.00
% change year-on-year +70.20% -44.28% +27.66%

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 12 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 12 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 12 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 +92 627 £525 +5.00% 879
UK excluding London +86 374 £510 +2.00% 395
London +57 308 £525 +0.48% 531
Work from Home +20 191 £539 +7.80% 316
South East +6 111 £538 +7.50% 62
North of England -6 101 £525 +16.67% 126
Midlands -5 60 £500 +5.26% 36
North West -8 59 £535 +22.34% 78
Scotland +39 58 £442 -11.60% 56
Yorkshire -15 35 £460 -8.00% 31
West Midlands -18 32 £525 +8.81% 22
East Midlands +10 27 £450 -5.26% 14
East of England +2 22 £505 +4.12% 35
South West -32 16 £563 +2.27% 61
Wales -5 7 - - 3
North East -41 7 £525 +10.53% 17

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

For the 6 months to 12 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.

1 350 (47.81%) Azure
2 315 (43.03%) Terraform
3 270 (36.89%) AWS
4 260 (35.52%) CI/CD
5 257 (35.11%) Infrastructure as Code
6 214 (29.23%) DevOps
7 194 (26.50%) Python
8 183 (25.00%) Security Cleared
9 182 (24.86%) Kubernetes
10 170 (23.22%) Cloud Security
11 168 (22.95%) Microsoft
12 167 (22.81%) GCP
13 158 (21.58%) PowerShell
14 146 (19.95%) Infrastructure Engineering
15 140 (19.13%) SC Cleared
16 134 (18.31%) Platform Engineering
17 118 (16.12%) Google
18 114 (15.57%) Windows
19 94 (12.84%) Entra ID
19 94 (12.84%) GitHub
20 92 (12.57%) AI
21 89 (12.16%) Agile
21 89 (12.16%) Migration
22 87 (11.89%) Containerisation
23 85 (11.61%) Active Directory
24 84 (11.48%) Bash
25 80 (10.93%) Docker
26 79 (10.79%) Firewall
26 79 (10.79%) Observability
27 75 (10.25%) 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 13 (1.78%) Microsoft Exchange
2 9 (1.23%) Apache
3 7 (0.96%) Confluence
4 6 (0.82%) Apache Airflow
5 5 (0.68%) SharePoint
6 4 (0.55%) nginx
7 3 (0.41%) IIS
7 3 (0.41%) Tomcat
8 2 (0.27%) CloudStack
8 2 (0.27%) OpenStack
9 1 (0.14%) Apache Pulsar
9 1 (0.14%) Apache Spark
9 1 (0.14%) Traefik
Applications
1 1 (0.14%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 2 (0.27%) Aladdin
Cloud Services
1 350 (47.81%) Azure
2 270 (36.89%) AWS
3 167 (22.81%) GCP
4 94 (12.84%) Entra ID
4 94 (12.84%) GitHub
5 61 (8.33%) GitHub Actions
6 56 (7.65%) Serverless
7 50 (6.83%) Azure DevOps
8 47 (6.42%) Azure AKS
9 45 (6.15%) AWS CloudFormation
10 43 (5.87%) IaaS
11 41 (5.60%) Amazon S3
11 41 (5.60%) Google Kubernetes Engine
12 39 (5.33%) AWS Lambda
13 37 (5.05%) Virtual Private Cloud
14 36 (4.92%) Amazon EC2
15 35 (4.78%) Azure Monitor
16 34 (4.64%) Amazon EKS
17 32 (4.37%) Microsoft 365
17 32 (4.37%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 79 (10.79%) Firewall
2 74 (10.11%) DNS
3 38 (5.19%) VPN
4 34 (4.64%) Network Security
5 18 (2.46%) DHCP
6 17 (2.32%) WAN
7 14 (1.91%) TCP/IP
8 12 (1.64%) Internet
9 6 (0.82%) SD-WAN
10 5 (0.68%) LAN
10 5 (0.68%) Reverse Proxy
10 5 (0.68%) SSL
10 5 (0.68%) VLAN
11 4 (0.55%) BGP
11 4 (0.55%) SAN
11 4 (0.55%) SMTP
11 4 (0.55%) VSAN
12 3 (0.41%) IPv4
12 3 (0.41%) NGFW
12 3 (0.41%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 26 (3.55%) SQL Server
2 18 (2.46%) Amazon RDS
3 15 (2.05%) PostgreSQL
4 12 (1.64%) BigQuery
5 9 (1.23%) Amazon Athena
6 8 (1.09%) Oracle Exadata
7 7 (0.96%) DynamoDB
8 6 (0.82%) Azure SQL Database
9 5 (0.68%) Data Lake
9 5 (0.68%) Oracle Database
10 4 (0.55%) Amazon Redshift
11 3 (0.41%) Amazon QuickSight
11 3 (0.41%) Flink
11 3 (0.41%) Looker
11 3 (0.41%) MongoDB
11 3 (0.41%) MySQL
11 3 (0.41%) Oracle Database 12c
12 2 (0.27%) Big Data
12 2 (0.27%) Elasticsearch
12 2 (0.27%) Redis
Development Applications
1 53 (7.24%) GitLab
2 50 (6.83%) Jenkins
3 38 (5.19%) Git
4 19 (2.60%) JIRA
5 9 (1.23%) Artifactory
6 6 (0.82%) Claude Code
7 5 (0.68%) Bitbucket
8 3 (0.41%) Selenium
8 3 (0.41%) Team Foundation Server
9 2 (0.27%) Atlassian Bamboo
9 2 (0.27%) Cypress.io
9 2 (0.27%) Gatling
9 2 (0.27%) JMeter
9 2 (0.27%) Octopus Deploy
9 2 (0.27%) Robot Framework
9 2 (0.27%) SonarQube
10 1 (0.14%) Chocolatey
10 1 (0.14%) CircleCI
10 1 (0.14%) Spinnaker
10 1 (0.14%) TestRail
General
1 92 (12.57%) Finance
2 85 (11.61%) Social Skills
3 64 (8.74%) Public Sector
4 30 (4.10%) Analytical Skills
5 26 (3.55%) Banking
6 12 (1.64%) Documentation Skills
7 10 (1.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 8 (1.09%) Investment Banking
9 5 (0.68%) Law
9 5 (0.68%) Legal
9 5 (0.68%) Local Government
10 4 (0.55%) Pharmaceutical
11 3 (0.41%) Front Office
11 3 (0.41%) Italian Language
11 3 (0.41%) Military
11 3 (0.41%) Police
11 3 (0.41%) Presentation Skills
11 3 (0.41%) Retail
12 2 (0.27%) Billing
12 2 (0.27%) Retail Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 23 (3.14%) REST
2 13 (1.78%) ARM Templates
3 12 (1.64%) Node.js
3 12 (1.64%) OAuth
3 12 (1.64%) OAuth2
4 10 (1.37%) Spring
4 10 (1.37%) Spring Boot
5 8 (1.09%) AWS CDK
5 8 (1.09%) React
6 7 (0.96%) Kafka
6 7 (0.96%) Model Context Protocol
6 7 (0.96%) OpenID
7 6 (0.82%) .NET
7 6 (0.82%) FastAPI
7 6 (0.82%) Flask
7 6 (0.82%) Keycloak
7 6 (0.82%) YAML
8 4 (0.55%) Playwright
8 4 (0.55%) PyTorch
8 4 (0.55%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 127 (17.35%) Cloud Native
2 52 (7.10%) Security Posture
3 41 (5.60%) Enterprise Cloud
4 35 (4.78%) Hybrid Cloud
5 27 (3.69%) Onboarding
6 24 (3.28%) Cloud Security Posture
7 22 (3.01%) Enterprise Software
8 21 (2.87%) Public Cloud
9 18 (2.46%) Data Centre
10 15 (2.05%) Management Information System
11 14 (1.91%) Distributed Systems
12 10 (1.37%) Linux Command Line
13 9 (1.23%) Data Protection Act
13 9 (1.23%) Self-Motivation
14 8 (1.09%) AI Agents
14 8 (1.09%) Product Ownership
15 7 (0.96%) Legacy Systems
15 7 (0.96%) PKI
16 5 (0.68%) Private Cloud
17 4 (0.55%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 114 (15.57%) Windows
2 75 (10.25%) Linux
3 55 (7.51%) Windows Server
4 31 (4.23%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 10 (1.37%) Windows Server 2019
6 8 (1.09%) Ubuntu
7 4 (0.55%) VMS
8 3 (0.41%) CentOS
9 2 (0.27%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 260 (35.52%) CI/CD
2 257 (35.11%) Infrastructure as Code
3 214 (29.23%) DevOps
4 170 (23.22%) Cloud Security
5 146 (19.95%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 134 (18.31%) Platform Engineering
7 92 (12.57%) AI
8 89 (12.16%) Agile
8 89 (12.16%) Migration
9 87 (11.89%) Containerisation
10 79 (10.79%) Observability
11 59 (8.06%) Software Engineering
12 57 (7.79%) Continuous Improvement
13 54 (7.38%) Infrastructure Automation
14 52 (7.10%) Problem-Solving
14 52 (7.10%) Technical Leadership
15 50 (6.83%) DevSecOps
16 47 (6.42%) Deployment Automation
17 44 (6.01%) Change Management
18 41 (5.60%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 194 (26.50%) Python
2 158 (21.58%) PowerShell
3 84 (11.48%) Bash
4 66 (9.02%) Bicep
5 60 (8.20%) SQL
6 37 (5.05%) Java
7 20 (2.73%) C#
8 14 (1.91%) Shell Script
9 13 (1.78%) JavaScript
10 12 (1.64%) Go
11 7 (0.96%) TypeScript
12 4 (0.55%) Groovy
13 3 (0.41%) C
13 3 (0.41%) Scala
14 2 (0.27%) Kusto Query Language
14 2 (0.27%) Ruby
15 1 (0.14%) Apex Code
15 1 (0.14%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 1 (0.14%) Perl
15 1 (0.14%) R
Qualifications
1 183 (25.00%) Security Cleared
2 140 (19.13%) SC Cleared
3 57 (7.79%) DV Cleared
4 48 (6.56%) Azure Certification
5 47 (6.42%) AWS Certification
6 28 (3.83%) Degree
7 16 (2.19%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
7 16 (2.19%) CISSP
7 16 (2.19%) Microsoft Certification
8 10 (1.37%) Cisco Certification
9 8 (1.09%) Computer Science Degree
9 8 (1.09%) MCSE
10 7 (0.96%) BPSS Clearance
10 7 (0.96%) CCNP
11 5 (0.68%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
11 5 (0.68%) CISM
12 4 (0.55%) CCIE
12 4 (0.55%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 3 (0.41%) (ISC)2 CCSP
13 3 (0.41%) CEH
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (1.78%) Data Quality
2 12 (1.64%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 10 (1.37%) QA
4 9 (1.23%) NCSC
4 9 (1.23%) NIST
5 5 (0.68%) GDPR
6 4 (0.55%) Cyber Essentials
7 3 (0.41%) Disclosure Scotland
8 2 (0.27%) Actionable Recommendations
8 2 (0.27%) PCI DSS
8 2 (0.27%) SLA
9 1 (0.14%) Accessibility
9 1 (0.14%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 1 (0.14%) Government Security Classifications
9 1 (0.14%) GRC
9 1 (0.14%) SOC 2
9 1 (0.14%) WCAG
System Software
1 85 (11.61%) Active Directory
2 80 (10.93%) Docker
3 37 (5.05%) VMware Infrastructure
4 33 (4.51%) Virtual Machines
5 25 (3.42%) VMware ESXi
6 22 (3.01%) VMware NSX
7 21 (2.87%) Virtual Desktop
8 18 (2.46%) vSphere
9 12 (1.64%) vCloud
10 11 (1.50%) Hyper-V
11 7 (0.96%) Squid
12 4 (0.55%) Firmware
13 3 (0.41%) Ceph
13 3 (0.41%) Dovecot
13 3 (0.41%) NFS
13 3 (0.41%) Postfix
14 2 (0.27%) KVM
14 2 (0.27%) Virtual Servers
15 1 (0.14%) BitLocker
Systems Management
1 315 (43.03%) Terraform
2 182 (24.86%) Kubernetes
3 53 (7.24%) Ansible
4 24 (3.28%) Microsoft Intune
5 23 (3.14%) Grafana
6 21 (2.87%) Progress Chef
6 21 (2.87%) Prometheus
6 21 (2.87%) vCenter Server
7 19 (2.60%) SCOM
7 19 (2.60%) Single Sign-On
8 16 (2.19%) Puppet
9 8 (1.09%) Istio
9 8 (1.09%) Packer
10 7 (0.96%) Argo
11 6 (0.82%) Cilium
12 5 (0.68%) VxRail
13 4 (0.55%) HAProxy
13 4 (0.55%) Suricata
14 3 (0.41%) Salt
14 3 (0.41%) vRealize
Vendors
1 168 (22.95%) Microsoft
2 118 (16.12%) Google
3 58 (7.92%) VMware
4 29 (3.96%) Oracle
5 18 (2.46%) Red Hat
6 17 (2.32%) Okta
6 17 (2.32%) Zscaler
7 14 (1.91%) ServiceNow
8 13 (1.78%) Palo Alto
8 13 (1.78%) Splunk
9 11 (1.50%) OpenAI
10 10 (1.37%) Cisco
11 9 (1.23%) CrowdStrike
11 9 (1.23%) Dynatrace
11 9 (1.23%) Salesforce
12 8 (1.09%) BeyondTrust
12 8 (1.09%) Broadcom
12 8 (1.09%) Databricks
12 8 (1.09%) New Relic
12 8 (1.09%) SolarWinds