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 May 2026.

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

 6 months to
2 May 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 229 320 325
Rank change year-on-year +91 +5 -73
Contract jobs requiring a Cloud Engineer 512 219 293
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.08% 0.75% 0.67%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.17% 0.81% 0.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 341 168 198
10th Percentile £400 £400 £401
25th Percentile £462 £434 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -0.36%
75th Percentile £615 £613 £625
90th Percentile £690 £658 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £522 £510 £524
% change year-on-year +2.38% -2.65% -4.77%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 0 3
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £25.13 - £27.50
Median hourly rate £38.88 - £30.00
75th Percentile £59.31 - £32.50
90th Percentile £69.33 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £76.00 - £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 43,667 27,136 40,368
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.30% 92.52% 92.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 26,936 17,712 26,266
10th Percentile £315 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £406 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £501 £515 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.82% -1.90% -2.78%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £490 £475 £493
% change year-on-year +3.16% -3.55% -1.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,813 1,033 2,668
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.14 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.35 £18.50 £16.30
Median hourly rate £44.00 £29.00 £36.02
Median % change year-on-year +51.72% -19.49% -19.95%
75th Percentile £66.00 £62.50 £60.75
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.46 £28.00 £39.50
% change year-on-year +62.36% -29.11% -6.91%

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 May 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 May 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 2 May 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 +67 424 £525 - 189
London +43 244 £525 - 69
UK excluding London +18 211 £522 +2.38% 132
Work from Home +6 128 £510 +2.00% 91
North of England -28 52 £500 +8.11% 35
South East -31 45 £510 -9.33% 39
Scotland +27 40 £451 -14.19% 7
Midlands -55 29 £675 +42.11% 19
North West -23 27 £544 +20.83% 22
East of England -14 24 £505 +2.54% 10
West Midlands -44 24 £675 +14.89% 15
South West -14 22 £550 -4.35% 22
Yorkshire -27 22 £481 +13.24% 10
East Midlands -38 5 £496 +4.47% 4
North East -23 3 £525 -12.50% 3

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

For the 6 months to 2 May 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.

1 228 (44.53%) Terraform
2 226 (44.14%) Azure
3 218 (42.58%) AWS
4 206 (40.23%) CI/CD
5 200 (39.06%) Infrastructure as Code
6 178 (34.77%) DevOps
7 144 (28.13%) Security Cleared
8 125 (24.41%) Kubernetes
9 123 (24.02%) SC Cleared
10 118 (23.05%) GCP
11 116 (22.66%) Python
12 105 (20.51%) GitHub
13 103 (20.12%) Cloud Security
14 90 (17.58%) Microsoft
15 88 (17.19%) Google
16 80 (15.63%) Platform Engineering
17 77 (15.04%) PowerShell
18 76 (14.84%) Infrastructure Engineering
19 74 (14.45%) Agile
20 69 (13.48%) Containerisation
21 67 (13.09%) GitHub Actions
21 67 (13.09%) Migration
22 58 (11.33%) Docker
23 51 (9.96%) Firewall
24 50 (9.77%) AI
24 50 (9.77%) Serverless
25 49 (9.57%) Continuous Improvement
25 49 (9.57%) Observability
26 45 (8.79%) Jenkins
27 44 (8.59%) Azure DevOps

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 7 (1.37%) Microsoft Exchange
2 5 (0.98%) Apache Spark
2 5 (0.98%) Confluence
3 4 (0.78%) Apache
4 2 (0.39%) nginx
5 1 (0.20%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.20%) SAS
5 1 (0.20%) SharePoint
5 1 (0.20%) Traefik
Applications
1 2 (0.39%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 2 (0.39%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.20%) Aladdin
Cloud Services
1 226 (44.14%) Azure
2 218 (42.58%) AWS
3 118 (23.05%) GCP
4 105 (20.51%) GitHub
5 67 (13.09%) GitHub Actions
6 50 (9.77%) Serverless
7 44 (8.59%) Azure DevOps
8 43 (8.40%) Entra ID
9 41 (8.01%) AWS CloudFormation
10 38 (7.42%) Azure AKS
11 37 (7.23%) PaaS
12 33 (6.45%) Amazon S3
12 33 (6.45%) Google Kubernetes Engine
13 31 (6.05%) Amazon EKS
13 31 (6.05%) IaaS
14 28 (5.47%) AWS Lambda
15 26 (5.08%) Amazon ECS
16 20 (3.91%) OCI
16 20 (3.91%) Virtual Private Cloud
17 19 (3.71%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 51 (9.96%) Firewall
2 21 (4.10%) DNS
3 19 (3.71%) VPN
4 18 (3.52%) Network Security
5 6 (1.17%) Cisco Firepower
5 6 (1.17%) Reverse Proxy
6 5 (0.98%) Cisco IOS
6 5 (0.98%) Cisco ISE
6 5 (0.98%) Junos
6 5 (0.98%) NX-OS
7 4 (0.78%) DHCP
7 4 (0.78%) Software-Defined Networking
8 3 (0.59%) BGP
8 3 (0.59%) SMTP
9 2 (0.39%) DKIM
9 2 (0.39%) Kerberos
9 2 (0.39%) NGFW
9 2 (0.39%) TCP/IP
9 2 (0.39%) Unified Communications
9 2 (0.39%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 15 (2.93%) Amazon Athena
2 12 (2.34%) BigQuery
3 11 (2.15%) DynamoDB
4 8 (1.56%) Amazon RDS
5 7 (1.37%) Amazon Redshift
5 7 (1.37%) SQL Server
6 6 (1.17%) Azure SQL Database
6 6 (1.17%) PostgreSQL
7 5 (0.98%) Data Lake
8 4 (0.78%) Amazon QuickSight
8 4 (0.78%) Data Warehouse
8 4 (0.78%) Oracle Database
8 4 (0.78%) Power BI
9 3 (0.59%) Big Data
9 3 (0.59%) NoSQL
9 3 (0.59%) Snowflake Schema
10 2 (0.39%) Delta Lake
10 2 (0.39%) Metadata
10 2 (0.39%) Mixpanel
10 2 (0.39%) OLTP
Development Applications
1 45 (8.79%) Jenkins
2 35 (6.84%) Git
3 34 (6.64%) GitLab
4 7 (1.37%) JIRA
5 4 (0.78%) Artifactory
6 3 (0.59%) Team Foundation Server
7 2 (0.39%) Liquibase
7 2 (0.39%) Postman
7 2 (0.39%) Robot Framework
7 2 (0.39%) Selenium
7 2 (0.39%) Spinnaker
8 1 (0.20%) Burp Suite
8 1 (0.20%) Chocolatey
8 1 (0.20%) CircleCI
8 1 (0.20%) Cypress.io
8 1 (0.20%) Metasploit
8 1 (0.20%) RStudio
8 1 (0.20%) SonarQube
8 1 (0.20%) sqlmap
8 1 (0.20%) Travis CI
General
1 71 (13.87%) Social Skills
2 61 (11.91%) Finance
3 45 (8.79%) Public Sector
4 19 (3.71%) Analytical Skills
5 18 (3.52%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 17 (3.32%) Banking
7 11 (2.15%) Documentation Skills
8 9 (1.76%) Retail
9 7 (1.37%) Aeronautics
10 6 (1.17%) Legal
10 6 (1.17%) Presentation Skills
11 5 (0.98%) Telecoms
12 4 (0.78%) Investment Banking
12 4 (0.78%) Marketing
13 3 (0.59%) Financial Institution
13 3 (0.59%) Military
13 3 (0.59%) Police
14 2 (0.39%) Billing
14 2 (0.39%) Law
14 2 (0.39%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (4.30%) REST
2 21 (4.10%) Node.js
3 13 (2.54%) Kafka
4 12 (2.34%) React
5 11 (2.15%) OpenTelemetry
6 10 (1.95%) .NET
6 10 (1.95%) OAuth
6 10 (1.95%) Spring
7 9 (1.76%) OAuth2
7 9 (1.76%) OpenID
7 9 (1.76%) Spring Boot
8 8 (1.56%) ARM Templates
8 8 (1.56%) Oracle Fusion
8 8 (1.56%) Playwright
9 7 (1.37%) LangChain
9 7 (1.37%) SOAP
10 6 (1.17%) AngularJS
10 6 (1.17%) Web Services
11 5 (0.98%) Elastic Stack
11 5 (0.98%) GraphQL
Miscellaneous
1 87 (16.99%) Cloud Native
2 29 (5.66%) Public Cloud
3 18 (3.52%) Hybrid Cloud
4 16 (3.13%) Data Centre
5 10 (1.95%) Enterprise Software
5 10 (1.95%) Product Ownership
6 9 (1.76%) Onboarding
6 9 (1.76%) Security Posture
7 8 (1.56%) Enterprise Cloud
8 7 (1.37%) Self-Motivation
9 6 (1.17%) Cyber Threat
9 6 (1.17%) Data Protection Act
9 6 (1.17%) Distributed Systems
9 6 (1.17%) PKI
10 5 (0.98%) Virtual Team
11 4 (0.78%) Legacy Systems
12 3 (0.59%) Cloud Security Posture
12 3 (0.59%) CMDB
12 3 (0.59%) Management Information System
12 3 (0.59%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 40 (7.81%) Windows
2 26 (5.08%) Linux
3 19 (3.71%) Windows Server
4 4 (0.78%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 3 (0.59%) VMS
6 2 (0.39%) Unix
7 1 (0.20%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 206 (40.23%) CI/CD
2 200 (39.06%) Infrastructure as Code
3 178 (34.77%) DevOps
4 103 (20.12%) Cloud Security
5 80 (15.63%) Platform Engineering
6 76 (14.84%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 74 (14.45%) Agile
8 69 (13.48%) Containerisation
9 67 (13.09%) Migration
10 50 (9.77%) AI
11 49 (9.57%) Continuous Improvement
11 49 (9.57%) Observability
12 41 (8.01%) DevSecOps
12 41 (8.01%) Infrastructure Automation
12 41 (8.01%) Problem-Solving
13 40 (7.81%) Cybersecurity
14 38 (7.42%) Software Engineering
15 35 (6.84%) Mentoring
16 29 (5.66%) Microservices
17 27 (5.27%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 116 (22.66%) Python
2 77 (15.04%) PowerShell
3 42 (8.20%) SQL
4 36 (7.03%) Bash
5 30 (5.86%) Bicep
6 26 (5.08%) Java
7 17 (3.32%) C#
8 13 (2.54%) TypeScript
9 9 (1.76%) Go
9 9 (1.76%) JavaScript
10 4 (0.78%) BeanShell
10 4 (0.78%) Groovy
11 3 (0.59%) Kusto Query Language
12 2 (0.39%) Ruby
12 2 (0.39%) Shell Script
13 1 (0.20%) Cypher
13 1 (0.20%) Kotlin
13 1 (0.20%) R
Qualifications
1 144 (28.13%) Security Cleared
2 123 (24.02%) SC Cleared
3 41 (8.01%) Azure Certification
4 28 (5.47%) AWS Certification
5 18 (3.52%) DV Cleared
6 15 (2.93%) Degree
6 15 (2.93%) Microsoft Certification
7 13 (2.54%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
7 13 (2.54%) CISSP
8 11 (2.15%) BPSS Clearance
9 9 (1.76%) Cisco Certification
10 8 (1.56%) Computer Science Degree
11 7 (1.37%) CISM
12 6 (1.17%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 6 (1.17%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
13 5 (0.98%) TOGAF Certification
14 4 (0.78%) CCSP
14 4 (0.78%) MCSE
15 3 (0.59%) CCNP
15 3 (0.59%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (2.34%) GDPR
2 11 (2.15%) NCSC
2 11 (2.15%) NIST
3 10 (1.95%) QA
4 9 (1.76%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 7 (1.37%) PCI DSS
6 6 (1.17%) Data Quality
7 5 (0.98%) GRC
8 2 (0.39%) Cyber Essentials
8 2 (0.39%) SLA
8 2 (0.39%) SOC 2
9 1 (0.20%) Accessibility
9 1 (0.20%) Actionable Recommendations
9 1 (0.20%) HIPAA
9 1 (0.20%) WCAG
System Software
1 58 (11.33%) Docker
2 28 (5.47%) Active Directory
3 17 (3.32%) Virtual Desktop
4 13 (2.54%) Virtual Machines
4 13 (2.54%) VMware NSX
5 8 (1.56%) VMware Infrastructure
5 8 (1.56%) vSphere
6 6 (1.17%) Firmware
6 6 (1.17%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.20%) Squid
7 1 (0.20%) vCloud
7 1 (0.20%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 228 (44.53%) Terraform
2 125 (24.41%) Kubernetes
3 26 (5.08%) Prometheus
4 21 (4.10%) Ansible
4 21 (4.10%) Grafana
5 17 (3.32%) Istio
6 16 (3.13%) Microsoft Intune
7 13 (2.54%) Argo
8 12 (2.34%) Single Sign-On
9 7 (1.37%) vCenter Server
10 6 (1.17%) Packer
11 5 (0.98%) Progress Chef
11 5 (0.98%) Puppet
12 4 (0.78%) Salt
13 3 (0.59%) Cilium
14 1 (0.20%) Consul
14 1 (0.20%) HAProxy
14 1 (0.20%) Kibana
14 1 (0.20%) PaperCut
14 1 (0.20%) Podman
Vendors
1 90 (17.58%) Microsoft
2 88 (17.19%) Google
3 20 (3.91%) Oracle
4 17 (3.32%) VMware
5 12 (2.34%) Dynatrace
6 11 (2.15%) Cisco
6 11 (2.15%) Databricks
7 10 (1.95%) ServiceNow
8 7 (1.37%) Salesforce
9 6 (1.17%) Juniper
9 6 (1.17%) Splunk
10 5 (0.98%) Broadcom
10 5 (0.98%) Citrix
10 5 (0.98%) Fortinet
10 5 (0.98%) PeopleSoft
10 5 (0.98%) Ping Identity
10 5 (0.98%) Rapid7
10 5 (0.98%) SolarWinds
11 4 (0.78%) Palo Alto
11 4 (0.78%) Salesforce Marketing Cloud
202 Cloud Engineer jobs Nationwide