Cloud Engineer Contract Job Trends

Cloud Engineer
UK

The median Cloud Engineer daily rate in the UK is £520, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 2 September 2026.

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

6 months to
2 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 196 325 349
Rank change year-on-year +129 +24 -88
Contract jobs requiring a Cloud Engineer 762 249 246
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.42% 0.77% 0.64%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.54% 0.84% 0.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 501 178 155
10th Percentile £406 £400 £386
25th Percentile £450 £428 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -9.09% -
75th Percentile £600 £575 £625
90th Percentile £675 £631 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £513 £500 £550
% change year-on-year +2.50% -9.09% +3.77%
Number of hourly rates quoted 28 7 0
10th Percentile £23.20 £29.00 -
25th Percentile £55.67 £29.50 -
Median hourly rate £77.00 £45.00 -
Median % change year-on-year +71.11% - -
75th Percentile £81.25 £86.25 -
90th Percentile £82.38 £110.00 -
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 49,539 29,677 35,948
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.44% 91.24% 93.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,564 18,735 22,669
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% -1.69%
75th Percentile £625 £623 £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 3,586 1,552 1,836
10th Percentile £14.96 £13.69 £14.16
25th Percentile £20.51 £17.00 £20.00
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% +1.18%
75th Percentile £67.89 £53.89 £65.00
90th Percentile £79.00 £70.16 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.95
% change year-on-year +68.99% -42.78% +11.13%

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 September 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 September 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 September 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 +109 657 £525 +5.00% 781
UK excluding London +98 415 £513 +2.50% 374
London +62 297 £525 - 485
Work from Home +25 187 £540 +8.00% 270
South East +20 126 £538 +7.50% 60
North of England +7 125 £513 +13.89% 105
North West +5 77 £525 +18.31% 52
Midlands 0 67 £500 +5.26% 44
Scotland +23 57 £447 -8.31% 58
Yorkshire -7 41 £467 -6.62% 39
East Midlands +11 34 £488 +2.63% 21
West Midlands -18 32 £525 -2.78% 23
East of England -6 19 £488 +0.52% 35
South West -32 15 £600 +9.09% 50
Wales -9 7 - - 5
North East -43 7 £525 +14.13% 14

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

For the 6 months to 2 September 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.

1 360 (47.24%) Azure
2 310 (40.68%) Terraform
3 267 (35.04%) AWS
4 264 (34.65%) Infrastructure as Code
5 259 (33.99%) CI/CD
6 207 (27.17%) DevOps
7 198 (25.98%) Kubernetes
8 195 (25.59%) Security Cleared
9 193 (25.33%) Python
10 176 (23.10%) Cloud Security
11 174 (22.83%) Microsoft
12 166 (21.78%) GCP
13 160 (21.00%) PowerShell
14 156 (20.47%) Infrastructure Engineering
15 151 (19.82%) Platform Engineering
16 141 (18.50%) SC Cleared
17 115 (15.09%) Windows
18 113 (14.83%) Google
19 104 (13.65%) Entra ID
20 101 (13.25%) AI
21 94 (12.34%) Active Directory
22 93 (12.20%) Migration
23 88 (11.55%) Agile
23 88 (11.55%) GitHub
24 87 (11.42%) Containerisation
25 86 (11.29%) Bash
26 83 (10.89%) Observability
27 82 (10.76%) Firewall
28 81 (10.63%) DNS
29 78 (10.24%) Docker

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 (1.57%) Microsoft Exchange
2 11 (1.44%) Apache
3 8 (1.05%) Apache Airflow
4 6 (0.79%) Confluence
4 6 (0.79%) SharePoint
5 3 (0.39%) IIS
5 3 (0.39%) nginx
5 3 (0.39%) Tomcat
6 2 (0.26%) CloudStack
6 2 (0.26%) OpenStack
7 1 (0.13%) Apache Pulsar
7 1 (0.13%) Apache Spark
Applications
1 1 (0.13%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 2 (0.26%) Aladdin
Cloud Services
1 360 (47.24%) Azure
2 267 (35.04%) AWS
3 166 (21.78%) GCP
4 104 (13.65%) Entra ID
5 88 (11.55%) GitHub
6 57 (7.48%) Azure DevOps
7 55 (7.22%) GitHub Actions
7 55 (7.22%) Serverless
8 48 (6.30%) AWS CloudFormation
9 46 (6.04%) IaaS
10 42 (5.51%) AWS Lambda
11 40 (5.25%) Azure AKS
12 39 (5.12%) Azure Monitor
13 37 (4.86%) Google Kubernetes Engine
14 36 (4.72%) Amazon EKS
15 34 (4.46%) Amazon EC2
15 34 (4.46%) Amazon S3
15 34 (4.46%) Microsoft 365
16 33 (4.33%) Amazon CloudWatch
16 33 (4.33%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 82 (10.76%) Firewall
2 81 (10.63%) DNS
3 40 (5.25%) Network Security
4 37 (4.86%) VPN
5 19 (2.49%) DHCP
6 17 (2.23%) WAN
7 15 (1.97%) TCP/IP
8 12 (1.57%) Internet
9 7 (0.92%) VLAN
10 6 (0.79%) SD-WAN
10 6 (0.79%) VSAN
11 5 (0.66%) LAN
11 5 (0.66%) SSL
12 4 (0.52%) SAN
12 4 (0.52%) Wireless
13 3 (0.39%) BGP
13 3 (0.39%) NGFW
13 3 (0.39%) OSPF
13 3 (0.39%) Reverse Proxy
13 3 (0.39%) tcpdump
Database & Business Intelligence
1 26 (3.41%) SQL Server
2 20 (2.62%) Amazon RDS
3 16 (2.10%) PostgreSQL
4 11 (1.44%) BigQuery
5 9 (1.18%) Data Lake
6 8 (1.05%) Oracle Exadata
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 4 (0.52%) NoSQL
10 3 (0.39%) Amazon Redshift
10 3 (0.39%) Flink
10 3 (0.39%) Looker
10 3 (0.39%) Metadata
10 3 (0.39%) MongoDB
10 3 (0.39%) MySQL
10 3 (0.39%) Oracle Database 12c
11 2 (0.26%) Amazon QuickSight
11 2 (0.26%) Delta Lake
Development Applications
1 54 (7.09%) GitLab
2 47 (6.17%) Jenkins
3 38 (4.99%) Git
4 18 (2.36%) JIRA
5 8 (1.05%) Artifactory
6 7 (0.92%) Claude Code
7 5 (0.66%) Bitbucket
8 3 (0.39%) Selenium
8 3 (0.39%) 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%) eggPlant
10 1 (0.13%) IntelliJ
10 1 (0.13%) JUnit
10 1 (0.13%) Metasploit
General
1 97 (12.73%) Finance
2 82 (10.76%) Social Skills
3 69 (9.06%) Public Sector
4 33 (4.33%) Analytical Skills
5 28 (3.67%) Banking
6 10 (1.31%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 8 (1.05%) Documentation Skills
7 8 (1.05%) Investment Banking
7 8 (1.05%) Manufacturing
8 5 (0.66%) Law
8 5 (0.66%) Local Government
9 4 (0.52%) Pharmaceutical
10 3 (0.39%) Aerospace
10 3 (0.39%) Digital Health
10 3 (0.39%) Digital Healthcare
10 3 (0.39%) Front Office
10 3 (0.39%) Legal
10 3 (0.39%) Marketing
10 3 (0.39%) Military
10 3 (0.39%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 310 (40.68%) Terraform
2 24 (3.15%) REST
3 16 (2.10%) ARM Templates
4 14 (1.84%) Kafka
5 11 (1.44%) Spring
5 11 (1.44%) Spring Boot
6 9 (1.18%) Node.js
6 9 (1.18%) OAuth
6 9 (1.18%) OAuth2
7 8 (1.05%) AWS CDK
7 8 (1.05%) React
7 8 (1.05%) YAML
8 7 (0.92%) .NET
8 7 (0.92%) Keycloak
9 6 (0.79%) FastAPI
9 6 (0.79%) Flask
10 5 (0.66%) Azure Blueprints
11 4 (0.52%) Hugging Face
11 4 (0.52%) PySpark
11 4 (0.52%) PyTorch
Miscellaneous
1 124 (16.27%) Cloud Native
2 58 (7.61%) Security Posture
3 43 (5.64%) Enterprise Cloud
4 38 (4.99%) Hybrid Cloud
5 32 (4.20%) Onboarding
6 30 (3.94%) Cloud Security Posture
7 23 (3.02%) Enterprise Software
8 21 (2.76%) Distributed Systems
8 21 (2.76%) Management Information System
9 17 (2.23%) Data Centre
10 16 (2.10%) Public Cloud
11 13 (1.71%) Product Ownership
12 12 (1.57%) Private Cloud
13 11 (1.44%) Linux Command Line
14 9 (1.18%) PKI
15 8 (1.05%) AI Agents
15 8 (1.05%) Data Protection Act
16 7 (0.92%) Legacy Systems
17 5 (0.66%) Distributed Architecture
18 4 (0.52%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 115 (15.09%) Windows
2 77 (10.10%) Linux
3 58 (7.61%) Windows Server
4 31 (4.07%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 12 (1.57%) Windows Server 2019
6 8 (1.05%) Ubuntu
7 4 (0.52%) VMS
8 3 (0.39%) CentOS
9 2 (0.26%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 264 (34.65%) Infrastructure as Code
2 259 (33.99%) CI/CD
3 207 (27.17%) DevOps
4 176 (23.10%) Cloud Security
5 156 (20.47%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 151 (19.82%) Platform Engineering
7 101 (13.25%) AI
8 93 (12.20%) Migration
9 88 (11.55%) Agile
10 87 (11.42%) Containerisation
11 83 (10.89%) Observability
12 63 (8.27%) Technical Leadership
13 58 (7.61%) Continuous Improvement
13 58 (7.61%) DevSecOps
13 58 (7.61%) Infrastructure Automation
13 58 (7.61%) Software Engineering
14 54 (7.09%) Cybersecurity
14 54 (7.09%) Problem-Solving
15 51 (6.69%) Deployment Automation
16 49 (6.43%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 193 (25.33%) Python
2 160 (21.00%) PowerShell
3 86 (11.29%) Bash
4 73 (9.58%) Bicep
5 60 (7.87%) SQL
6 38 (4.99%) Java
7 16 (2.10%) C#
7 16 (2.10%) Shell Script
8 12 (1.57%) JavaScript
9 10 (1.31%) Go
10 4 (0.52%) Groovy
10 4 (0.52%) TypeScript
11 3 (0.39%) C
11 3 (0.39%) Scala
12 2 (0.26%) Kusto Query Language
13 1 (0.13%) Apex Code
13 1 (0.13%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 1 (0.13%) Perl
13 1 (0.13%) R
13 1 (0.13%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 195 (25.59%) Security Cleared
2 141 (18.50%) SC Cleared
3 68 (8.92%) DV Cleared
4 47 (6.17%) AWS Certification
5 46 (6.04%) Azure Certification
6 33 (4.33%) Degree
7 20 (2.62%) Microsoft Certification
8 18 (2.36%) CISSP
9 14 (1.84%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 9 (1.18%) Cisco Certification
11 8 (1.05%) Computer Science Degree
11 8 (1.05%) MCSE
12 7 (0.92%) BPSS Clearance
12 7 (0.92%) CCNP
13 6 (0.79%) CISM
14 5 (0.66%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
14 5 (0.66%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
15 4 (0.52%) CCIE
16 3 (0.39%) AWS Certified SysOps Administrator
16 3 (0.39%) CEH
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (1.97%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 14 (1.84%) Data Quality
3 12 (1.57%) NIST
4 10 (1.31%) NCSC
4 10 (1.31%) QA
5 7 (0.92%) Cyber Essentials
6 5 (0.66%) GDPR
7 3 (0.39%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 3 (0.39%) Disclosure Scotland
7 3 (0.39%) SLA
8 2 (0.26%) Actionable Recommendations
8 2 (0.26%) PCI DSS
9 1 (0.13%) Accessibility
9 1 (0.13%) Government Security Classifications
9 1 (0.13%) GRC
9 1 (0.13%) SOC 2
9 1 (0.13%) WCAG
System Software
1 94 (12.34%) Active Directory
2 78 (10.24%) Docker
3 47 (6.17%) VMware Infrastructure
4 32 (4.20%) Virtual Machines
5 31 (4.07%) VMware ESXi
6 27 (3.54%) VMware NSX
7 20 (2.62%) Virtual Desktop
7 20 (2.62%) vSphere
8 15 (1.97%) vCloud
9 12 (1.57%) Hyper-V
10 7 (0.92%) Squid
11 4 (0.52%) Firmware
12 3 (0.39%) Ceph
12 3 (0.39%) Dovecot
12 3 (0.39%) NFS
12 3 (0.39%) Postfix
13 2 (0.26%) KVM
13 2 (0.26%) Virtual Servers
14 1 (0.13%) BitLocker
Systems Management
1 198 (25.98%) Kubernetes
2 51 (6.69%) Ansible
3 28 (3.67%) vCenter Server
4 24 (3.15%) SCOM
5 23 (3.02%) Microsoft Intune
6 22 (2.89%) Grafana
7 20 (2.62%) Prometheus
8 19 (2.49%) Progress Chef
9 16 (2.10%) Single Sign-On
10 14 (1.84%) Puppet
11 11 (1.44%) Istio
12 7 (0.92%) Cilium
12 7 (0.92%) Packer
13 6 (0.79%) Argo
14 5 (0.66%) VxRail
15 4 (0.52%) Suricata
16 3 (0.39%) Active Directory Federation Services
16 3 (0.39%) HAProxy
16 3 (0.39%) Karpenter
16 3 (0.39%) vRealize
Vendors
1 174 (22.83%) Microsoft
2 113 (14.83%) Google
3 73 (9.58%) VMware
4 33 (4.33%) Oracle
5 21 (2.76%) Databricks
6 19 (2.49%) Red Hat
7 17 (2.23%) Okta
8 16 (2.10%) Zscaler
9 13 (1.71%) Palo Alto
10 12 (1.57%) OpenAI
10 12 (1.57%) ServiceNow
10 12 (1.57%) Splunk
11 10 (1.31%) Broadcom
11 10 (1.31%) SolarWinds
12 9 (1.18%) Cisco
12 9 (1.18%) CrowdStrike
12 9 (1.18%) Dynatrace
12 9 (1.18%) Salesforce
13 8 (1.05%) BeyondTrust
13 8 (1.05%) New Relic