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 2 July 2026.

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

6 months to
2 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 208 298 325
Rank change year-on-year +90 +27 -59
Contract jobs requiring a Cloud Engineer 643 257 277
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.25% 0.83% 0.64%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.35% 0.90% 0.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 418 192 191
10th Percentile £400 £402 £386
25th Percentile £451 £434 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -9.09% -
75th Percentile £614 £575 £625
90th Percentile £688 £637 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £510 £500 £510
% change year-on-year +2.00% -1.96% -7.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 2 3
10th Percentile £71.00 £44.50 -
25th Percentile £73.75 £47.50 £27.50
Median hourly rate £77.00 £53.75 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year +43.26% +79.17% -
75th Percentile £81.25 £58.75 £32.50
90th Percentile £85.00 £61.00 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £77.00 - £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 47,563 28,496 40,366
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.42% 92.02% 93.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,794 18,232 25,937
10th Percentile £325 £288 £285
25th Percentile £415 £402 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% -2.33%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £493
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.65% -1.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,217 1,276 2,865
10th Percentile £15.72 £13.82 £12.86
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.41 £16.58
Median hourly rate £43.00 £26.75 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +60.75% -28.67% -12.79%
75th Percentile £67.50 £56.30 £62.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.75 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% -

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 2 July 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 2 July 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 2 July 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 +74 542 £525 +5.00% 213
London +56 301 £525 - 70
UK excluding London +28 279 £510 +2.00% 175
Work from Home +3 168 £539 +7.80% 122
North of England -27 77 £500 +8.11% 37
South East -18 72 £538 +7.50% 42
Scotland +24 50 £451 -14.19% 16
Midlands -21 43 £513 +7.89% 37
North West -27 39 £500 +24.38% 23
Yorkshire -17 31 £475 -2.56% 14
West Midlands -39 25 £525 - 23
East of England -2 22 £505 +60.32% 10
East Midlands -10 17 £450 -5.26% 14
South West -25 15 £550 -2.22% 25
North East -33 7 £525 +5.00%
Wales -12 2 - - 7

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

For the 6 months to 2 July 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.

1 295 (45.88%) Azure
2 291 (45.26%) Terraform
3 278 (43.23%) AWS
4 252 (39.19%) CI/CD
5 237 (36.86%) Infrastructure as Code
6 208 (32.35%) DevOps
7 165 (25.66%) Python
8 162 (25.19%) Security Cleared
9 145 (22.55%) GCP
10 144 (22.40%) Kubernetes
11 140 (21.77%) Cloud Security
12 128 (19.91%) SC Cleared
13 126 (19.60%) Microsoft
14 125 (19.44%) Platform Engineering
15 117 (18.20%) PowerShell
16 108 (16.80%) Infrastructure Engineering
17 104 (16.17%) GitHub
18 101 (15.71%) Google
19 92 (14.31%) Migration
20 88 (13.69%) Windows
21 81 (12.60%) Containerisation
22 80 (12.44%) AI
23 77 (11.98%) Agile
24 71 (11.04%) Firewall
25 69 (10.73%) Docker
26 67 (10.42%) GitHub Actions
27 66 (10.26%) Entra ID
28 64 (9.95%) Serverless
29 62 (9.64%) Active Directory
29 62 (9.64%) Observability

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 11 (1.71%) Microsoft Exchange
2 7 (1.09%) Confluence
3 6 (0.93%) Apache
4 5 (0.78%) nginx
5 3 (0.47%) Apache Spark
5 3 (0.47%) IIS
5 3 (0.47%) SharePoint
5 3 (0.47%) Tomcat
6 2 (0.31%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.31%) CloudStack
7 1 (0.16%) Apache Pulsar
7 1 (0.16%) OpenStack
7 1 (0.16%) SAS
7 1 (0.16%) Traefik
Applications
1 1 (0.16%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 1 (0.16%) Aladdin
Cloud Services
1 295 (45.88%) Azure
2 278 (43.23%) AWS
3 145 (22.55%) GCP
4 104 (16.17%) GitHub
5 67 (10.42%) GitHub Actions
6 66 (10.26%) Entra ID
7 64 (9.95%) Serverless
8 48 (7.47%) Azure AKS
9 47 (7.31%) AWS CloudFormation
10 46 (7.15%) Amazon S3
11 44 (6.84%) Azure DevOps
12 42 (6.53%) IaaS
12 42 (6.53%) PaaS
13 40 (6.22%) AWS Lambda
14 36 (5.60%) Amazon EC2
14 36 (5.60%) Virtual Private Cloud
15 35 (5.44%) Amazon EKS
16 34 (5.29%) Amazon ECS
16 34 (5.29%) Google Kubernetes Engine
17 31 (4.82%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 71 (11.04%) Firewall
2 60 (9.33%) DNS
3 35 (5.44%) VPN
4 29 (4.51%) Network Security
5 15 (2.33%) WAN
6 13 (2.02%) TCP/IP
7 12 (1.87%) DHCP
8 6 (0.93%) Reverse Proxy
8 6 (0.93%) SD-WAN
9 5 (0.78%) BGP
9 5 (0.78%) Internet
9 5 (0.78%) SSL
10 4 (0.62%) LAN
10 4 (0.62%) Software-Defined Networking
10 4 (0.62%) VLAN
11 3 (0.47%) IPv4
11 3 (0.47%) OSPF
11 3 (0.47%) SAN
11 3 (0.47%) SMTP
12 2 (0.31%) Kerberos
Database & Business Intelligence
1 21 (3.27%) SQL Server
2 16 (2.49%) Amazon RDS
3 14 (2.18%) PostgreSQL
4 13 (2.02%) Amazon Athena
4 13 (2.02%) DynamoDB
5 7 (1.09%) Azure SQL Database
5 7 (1.09%) BigQuery
6 6 (0.93%) Amazon Redshift
7 5 (0.78%) Data Lake
7 5 (0.78%) Oracle Database
8 4 (0.62%) Amazon QuickSight
9 3 (0.47%) Big Data
9 3 (0.47%) Metadata
9 3 (0.47%) MySQL
9 3 (0.47%) Oracle Database 12c
9 3 (0.47%) Relational Database
10 2 (0.31%) Redis
11 1 (0.16%) Data Warehouse
11 1 (0.16%) Neo4j
11 1 (0.16%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 52 (8.09%) Jenkins
2 45 (7.00%) GitLab
3 42 (6.53%) Git
4 17 (2.64%) JIRA
5 10 (1.56%) Artifactory
6 5 (0.78%) Bitbucket
7 3 (0.47%) Selenium
7 3 (0.47%) Team Foundation Server
8 2 (0.31%) Atlassian Bamboo
8 2 (0.31%) Claude Code
8 2 (0.31%) Cypress.io
8 2 (0.31%) Liquibase
8 2 (0.31%) Robot Framework
9 1 (0.16%) Burp Suite
9 1 (0.16%) Gatling
9 1 (0.16%) Octopus Deploy
9 1 (0.16%) RStudio
9 1 (0.16%) SonarQube
9 1 (0.16%) sqlmap
9 1 (0.16%) TestRail
General
1 76 (11.82%) Social Skills
2 73 (11.35%) Finance
3 58 (9.02%) Public Sector
4 25 (3.89%) Banking
5 20 (3.11%) Analytical Skills
6 12 (1.87%) Documentation Skills
7 9 (1.40%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 9 (1.40%) Investment Banking
8 6 (0.93%) Legal
9 5 (0.78%) Pharmaceutical
9 5 (0.78%) Presentation Skills
9 5 (0.78%) Retail
10 4 (0.62%) Law
10 4 (0.62%) Military
11 3 (0.47%) Corporate Banking
11 3 (0.47%) Financial Institution
11 3 (0.47%) Local Government
11 3 (0.47%) Police
11 3 (0.47%) Retail Banking
12 2 (0.31%) Manufacturing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (3.89%) REST
2 13 (2.02%) Node.js
2 13 (2.02%) OAuth
2 13 (2.02%) OAuth2
3 11 (1.71%) ARM Templates
4 10 (1.56%) Kafka
5 9 (1.40%) .NET
5 9 (1.40%) React
5 9 (1.40%) Spring
5 9 (1.40%) Spring Boot
6 7 (1.09%) AWS CDK
6 7 (1.09%) Model Context Protocol
6 7 (1.09%) OpenID
7 6 (0.93%) YAML
8 5 (0.78%) Playwright
9 4 (0.62%) FastAPI
9 4 (0.62%) Flask
9 4 (0.62%) OpenTelemetry
9 4 (0.62%) PyTorch
9 4 (0.62%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 120 (18.66%) Cloud Native
2 33 (5.13%) Hybrid Cloud
3 28 (4.35%) Security Posture
4 27 (4.20%) Public Cloud
5 22 (3.42%) Data Centre
6 21 (3.27%) Enterprise Cloud
6 21 (3.27%) Onboarding
7 15 (2.33%) Distributed Systems
7 15 (2.33%) Enterprise Software
8 13 (2.02%) Cloud Security Posture
9 12 (1.87%) Management Information System
10 9 (1.40%) Self-Motivation
11 8 (1.24%) Data Protection Act
12 7 (1.09%) Product Ownership
13 6 (0.93%) Legacy Systems
13 6 (0.93%) Linux Command Line
14 5 (0.78%) Cyber Threat
14 5 (0.78%) Private Cloud
15 4 (0.62%) AI Agents
15 4 (0.62%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 88 (13.69%) Windows
2 54 (8.40%) Linux
3 47 (7.31%) Windows Server
4 20 (3.11%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 8 (1.24%) Ubuntu
6 7 (1.09%) Windows Server 2019
7 4 (0.62%) VMS
8 3 (0.47%) CentOS
9 2 (0.31%) Windows Server 2012
10 1 (0.16%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 252 (39.19%) CI/CD
2 237 (36.86%) Infrastructure as Code
3 208 (32.35%) DevOps
4 140 (21.77%) Cloud Security
5 125 (19.44%) Platform Engineering
6 108 (16.80%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 92 (14.31%) Migration
8 81 (12.60%) Containerisation
9 80 (12.44%) AI
10 77 (11.98%) Agile
11 62 (9.64%) Observability
12 54 (8.40%) Problem-Solving
13 52 (8.09%) Infrastructure Automation
14 51 (7.93%) Technical Leadership
15 50 (7.78%) Software Engineering
16 48 (7.47%) Continuous Improvement
17 41 (6.38%) Cybersecurity
18 39 (6.07%) DevSecOps
19 38 (5.91%) Mentoring
20 36 (5.60%) RBAC
Programming Languages
1 165 (25.66%) Python
2 117 (18.20%) PowerShell
3 60 (9.33%) Bash
4 54 (8.40%) SQL
5 48 (7.47%) Bicep
6 33 (5.13%) Java
7 16 (2.49%) C#
8 12 (1.87%) JavaScript
9 10 (1.56%) Go
9 10 (1.56%) TypeScript
10 5 (0.78%) Groovy
11 2 (0.31%) Kusto Query Language
11 2 (0.31%) R
11 2 (0.31%) Ruby
11 2 (0.31%) Shell Script
12 1 (0.16%) Apex Code
12 1 (0.16%) Cypher
12 1 (0.16%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 1 (0.16%) Kotlin
12 1 (0.16%) Perl
Qualifications
1 162 (25.19%) Security Cleared
2 128 (19.91%) SC Cleared
3 46 (7.15%) Azure Certification
4 41 (6.38%) DV Cleared
5 37 (5.75%) AWS Certification
6 21 (3.27%) Degree
7 17 (2.64%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
8 15 (2.33%) Microsoft Certification
9 14 (2.18%) CISSP
10 12 (1.87%) Cisco Certification
11 9 (1.40%) Computer Science Degree
12 8 (1.24%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
13 7 (1.09%) CCNP
14 6 (0.93%) BPSS Clearance
14 6 (0.93%) MCSE
15 5 (0.78%) (ISC)2 CCSP
16 4 (0.62%) CCIE
16 4 (0.62%) CCSP
16 4 (0.62%) TOGAF Certification
17 3 (0.47%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (2.18%) NIST
2 10 (1.56%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 9 (1.40%) GDPR
3 9 (1.40%) NCSC
4 8 (1.24%) QA
5 6 (0.93%) Data Quality
5 6 (0.93%) PCI DSS
6 3 (0.47%) Cyber Essentials
7 2 (0.31%) SLA
8 1 (0.16%) Accessibility
8 1 (0.16%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.16%) Disclosure Scotland
8 1 (0.16%) GRC
8 1 (0.16%) SOC 2
8 1 (0.16%) WCAG
System Software
1 69 (10.73%) Docker
2 62 (9.64%) Active Directory
3 26 (4.04%) Virtual Machines
3 26 (4.04%) VMware Infrastructure
4 20 (3.11%) VMware ESXi
5 19 (2.95%) VMware NSX
6 16 (2.49%) Virtual Desktop
7 15 (2.33%) vSphere
8 11 (1.71%) vCloud
9 10 (1.56%) Hyper-V
10 7 (1.09%) Squid
11 4 (0.62%) Firmware
12 3 (0.47%) Dovecot
12 3 (0.47%) NFS
12 3 (0.47%) Postfix
13 2 (0.31%) Ceph
13 2 (0.31%) KVM
Systems Management
1 291 (45.26%) Terraform
2 144 (22.40%) Kubernetes
3 46 (7.15%) Ansible
4 24 (3.73%) Grafana
5 23 (3.58%) Prometheus
6 22 (3.42%) Single Sign-On
7 17 (2.64%) vCenter Server
8 15 (2.33%) Microsoft Intune
8 15 (2.33%) SCOM
9 14 (2.18%) Progress Chef
10 13 (2.02%) Puppet
11 9 (1.40%) Istio
11 9 (1.40%) Packer
12 7 (1.09%) Argo
13 6 (0.93%) Cilium
14 4 (0.62%) HAProxy
14 4 (0.62%) Salt
14 4 (0.62%) Suricata
15 3 (0.47%) Active Directory Federation Services
15 3 (0.47%) vRealize
Vendors
1 126 (19.60%) Microsoft
2 101 (15.71%) Google
3 44 (6.84%) VMware
4 25 (3.89%) Oracle
5 17 (2.64%) Zscaler
6 15 (2.33%) Red Hat
7 14 (2.18%) Palo Alto
8 12 (1.87%) ServiceNow
9 11 (1.71%) Okta
10 10 (1.56%) Cisco
11 9 (1.40%) Dynatrace
11 9 (1.40%) Salesforce
12 8 (1.24%) CrowdStrike
13 7 (1.09%) Databricks
13 7 (1.09%) Fortinet
13 7 (1.09%) OpenAI
13 7 (1.09%) Splunk
14 5 (0.78%) Citrix
14 5 (0.78%) Rapid7
14 5 (0.78%) SolarWinds