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 18 June 2026.

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

6 months to
18 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 212 308 324
Rank change year-on-year +96 +16 -61
Contract jobs requiring a Cloud Engineer 610 237 285
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.21% 0.80% 0.65%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.31% 0.86% 0.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 404 178 198
10th Percentile £400 £401 £396
25th Percentile £462 £448 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -9.09% -
75th Percentile £620 £575 £623
90th Percentile £688 £638 £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 17 1 3
10th Percentile £52.65 - -
25th Percentile £73.75 £42.50 £27.50
Median hourly rate £77.00 £45.00 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year +71.11% +50.00% -41.18%
75th Percentile £81.25 £47.50 £32.50
90th Percentile £85.00 - -
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 46,545 27,461 40,758
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.35% 92.26% 92.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,281 17,668 26,127
10th Percentile £325 £289 £280
25th Percentile £413 £402 £407
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +3.00% -4.76% -2.33%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +5.26% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,104 1,179 2,967
10th Percentile £15.24 £13.97 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.79 £17.79 £16.37
Median hourly rate £43.61 £27.50 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +58.56% -26.67% -16.67%
75th Percentile £67.50 £57.50 £62.01
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% -1.45%

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 18 June 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 18 June 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 18 June 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 +76 513 £525 +5.00% 225
London +78 297 £538 +2.87% 97
UK excluding London +26 249 £510 +2.00% 169
Work from Home +3 156 £540 +8.00% 111
North of England -28 70 £500 +5.26% 37
South East -20 66 £538 +3.66% 47
Scotland +20 46 £451 -14.19% 12
North West -18 32 £500 +24.38% 28
Yorkshire -33 31 £481 -3.75% 7
Midlands -37 31 £525 +7.69% 20
West Midlands -33 24 £525 - 13
East of England -9 22 £505 +60.32% 8
South West -16 15 £550 -2.22% 27
East Midlands -23 7 £438 -7.89% 7
North East -39 7 £525 +5.00% 2

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

For the 6 months to 18 June 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.

1 285 (46.72%) Azure
2 277 (45.41%) Terraform
3 271 (44.43%) AWS
4 246 (40.33%) CI/CD
5 228 (37.38%) Infrastructure as Code
6 200 (32.79%) DevOps
7 153 (25.08%) Python
8 151 (24.75%) Security Cleared
9 138 (22.62%) Kubernetes
10 132 (21.64%) GCP
11 127 (20.82%) Cloud Security
12 121 (19.84%) SC Cleared
13 118 (19.34%) Platform Engineering
14 116 (19.02%) Microsoft
15 105 (17.21%) GitHub
16 102 (16.72%) PowerShell
17 100 (16.39%) Infrastructure Engineering
18 96 (15.74%) Google
19 89 (14.59%) Migration
20 77 (12.62%) Windows
21 75 (12.30%) Containerisation
22 74 (12.13%) Agile
23 70 (11.48%) AI
24 69 (11.31%) GitHub Actions
25 67 (10.98%) Firewall
26 63 (10.33%) Serverless
27 61 (10.00%) Docker
28 59 (9.67%) Bash
29 58 (9.51%) Problem-Solving
30 57 (9.34%) 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 9 (1.48%) Microsoft Exchange
2 7 (1.15%) Confluence
3 6 (0.98%) Apache
4 5 (0.82%) nginx
5 3 (0.49%) Apache Spark
5 3 (0.49%) IIS
5 3 (0.49%) SharePoint
5 3 (0.49%) Tomcat
6 2 (0.33%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.33%) CloudStack
7 1 (0.16%) Apache Pulsar
7 1 (0.16%) OpenStack
7 1 (0.16%) SAS
7 1 (0.16%) Traefik
Business Applications
1 1 (0.16%) Aladdin
Cloud Services
1 285 (46.72%) Azure
2 271 (44.43%) AWS
3 132 (21.64%) GCP
4 105 (17.21%) GitHub
5 69 (11.31%) GitHub Actions
6 63 (10.33%) Serverless
7 56 (9.18%) Entra ID
8 47 (7.70%) Azure DevOps
9 43 (7.05%) AWS CloudFormation
10 42 (6.89%) Azure AKS
11 40 (6.56%) IaaS
11 40 (6.56%) PaaS
12 39 (6.39%) Amazon S3
13 38 (6.23%) AWS Lambda
14 37 (6.07%) Amazon EKS
15 35 (5.74%) Google Kubernetes Engine
16 32 (5.25%) Amazon ECS
16 32 (5.25%) Virtual Private Cloud
17 29 (4.75%) Amazon EC2
18 26 (4.26%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 67 (10.98%) Firewall
2 51 (8.36%) DNS
3 30 (4.92%) VPN
4 29 (4.75%) Network Security
5 12 (1.97%) DHCP
6 11 (1.80%) WAN
7 10 (1.64%) TCP/IP
8 5 (0.82%) Reverse Proxy
8 5 (0.82%) SD-WAN
8 5 (0.82%) SSL
9 4 (0.66%) BGP
9 4 (0.66%) Internet
9 4 (0.66%) Software-Defined Networking
9 4 (0.66%) VLAN
10 3 (0.49%) IPv4
10 3 (0.49%) SAN
10 3 (0.49%) SMTP
11 2 (0.33%) Kerberos
11 2 (0.33%) LAN
11 2 (0.33%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 16 (2.62%) SQL Server
2 13 (2.13%) Amazon Athena
2 13 (2.13%) DynamoDB
3 10 (1.64%) Amazon RDS
4 9 (1.48%) PostgreSQL
5 7 (1.15%) BigQuery
6 6 (0.98%) Amazon Redshift
6 6 (0.98%) Azure SQL Database
7 5 (0.82%) Oracle Database
8 4 (0.66%) Amazon QuickSight
9 3 (0.49%) Big Data
9 3 (0.49%) Metadata
9 3 (0.49%) MySQL
9 3 (0.49%) Oracle Database 12c
9 3 (0.49%) Relational Database
10 2 (0.33%) Data Lake
10 2 (0.33%) Redis
10 2 (0.33%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 1 (0.16%) Delta Lake
11 1 (0.16%) InfluxDB
Development Applications
1 51 (8.36%) Jenkins
2 48 (7.87%) GitLab
3 41 (6.72%) Git
4 14 (2.30%) JIRA
5 10 (1.64%) Artifactory
6 3 (0.49%) Bitbucket
6 3 (0.49%) Selenium
6 3 (0.49%) Team Foundation Server
7 2 (0.33%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 2 (0.33%) Claude Code
7 2 (0.33%) Cypress.io
7 2 (0.33%) Liquibase
7 2 (0.33%) Robot Framework
8 1 (0.16%) Burp Suite
8 1 (0.16%) Chocolatey
8 1 (0.16%) CircleCI
8 1 (0.16%) Gatling
8 1 (0.16%) SonarQube
8 1 (0.16%) sqlmap
8 1 (0.16%) TestRail
General
1 81 (13.28%) Social Skills
2 66 (10.82%) Finance
3 50 (8.20%) Public Sector
4 27 (4.43%) Banking
5 23 (3.77%) Analytical Skills
6 12 (1.97%) Documentation Skills
7 11 (1.80%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 8 (1.31%) Investment Banking
9 6 (0.98%) Legal
9 6 (0.98%) Retail
9 6 (0.98%) Telecoms
10 5 (0.82%) Pharmaceutical
10 5 (0.82%) Presentation Skills
11 4 (0.66%) Law
11 4 (0.66%) Marketing
11 4 (0.66%) Military
12 3 (0.49%) Corporate Banking
12 3 (0.49%) Local Government
12 3 (0.49%) Police
12 3 (0.49%) Retail Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (3.61%) REST
2 12 (1.97%) OAuth
2 12 (1.97%) OAuth2
3 11 (1.80%) Kafka
3 11 (1.80%) Node.js
4 10 (1.64%) React
4 10 (1.64%) Spring
4 10 (1.64%) Spring Boot
5 9 (1.48%) .NET
6 7 (1.15%) ARM Templates
6 7 (1.15%) Model Context Protocol
6 7 (1.15%) OpenID
7 5 (0.82%) AWS CDK
7 5 (0.82%) OpenTelemetry
7 5 (0.82%) Playwright
7 5 (0.82%) YAML
8 4 (0.66%) Express.js
8 4 (0.66%) Flask
8 4 (0.66%) Jest
8 4 (0.66%) PySpark
Miscellaneous
1 116 (19.02%) Cloud Native
2 31 (5.08%) Hybrid Cloud
3 28 (4.59%) Public Cloud
4 24 (3.93%) Data Centre
5 23 (3.77%) Security Posture
6 17 (2.79%) Enterprise Cloud
6 17 (2.79%) Onboarding
7 15 (2.46%) Distributed Systems
8 14 (2.30%) Enterprise Software
9 11 (1.80%) Management Information System
9 11 (1.80%) Product Ownership
10 9 (1.48%) Cloud Security Posture
11 8 (1.31%) Data Protection Act
11 8 (1.31%) Self-Motivation
12 6 (0.98%) Cyber Threat
12 6 (0.98%) Legacy Systems
13 4 (0.66%) AI Agents
13 4 (0.66%) Linux Command Line
13 4 (0.66%) PKI
13 4 (0.66%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 77 (12.62%) Windows
2 42 (6.89%) Linux
2 42 (6.89%) Windows Server
3 12 (1.97%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 5 (0.82%) Ubuntu
5 4 (0.66%) Windows Server 2019
6 3 (0.49%) CentOS
7 2 (0.33%) VMS
7 2 (0.33%) Windows Server 2012
8 1 (0.16%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 246 (40.33%) CI/CD
2 228 (37.38%) Infrastructure as Code
3 200 (32.79%) DevOps
4 127 (20.82%) Cloud Security
5 118 (19.34%) Platform Engineering
6 100 (16.39%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 89 (14.59%) Migration
8 75 (12.30%) Containerisation
9 74 (12.13%) Agile
10 70 (11.48%) AI
11 58 (9.51%) Problem-Solving
12 57 (9.34%) Observability
13 52 (8.52%) Continuous Improvement
14 50 (8.20%) Infrastructure Automation
15 49 (8.03%) Software Engineering
16 47 (7.70%) Technical Leadership
17 43 (7.05%) Cybersecurity
18 39 (6.39%) DevSecOps
19 35 (5.74%) Deployment Automation
19 35 (5.74%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 153 (25.08%) Python
2 102 (16.72%) PowerShell
3 59 (9.67%) Bash
4 50 (8.20%) SQL
5 41 (6.72%) Bicep
6 33 (5.41%) Java
7 15 (2.46%) C#
8 11 (1.80%) JavaScript
9 10 (1.64%) Go
9 10 (1.64%) TypeScript
10 5 (0.82%) Groovy
11 2 (0.33%) Kusto Query Language
11 2 (0.33%) R
11 2 (0.33%) Ruby
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
12 1 (0.16%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 151 (24.75%) Security Cleared
2 121 (19.84%) SC Cleared
3 48 (7.87%) Azure Certification
4 38 (6.23%) AWS Certification
5 33 (5.41%) DV Cleared
6 18 (2.95%) Degree
7 16 (2.62%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
7 16 (2.62%) Microsoft Certification
8 14 (2.30%) CISSP
9 12 (1.97%) Cisco Certification
10 10 (1.64%) BPSS Clearance
11 8 (1.31%) Computer Science Degree
12 7 (1.15%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
13 6 (0.98%) (ISC)2 CCSP
13 6 (0.98%) CCNP
14 5 (0.82%) MCSE
14 5 (0.82%) TOGAF Certification
15 4 (0.66%) CCSP
16 3 (0.49%) CCIE
16 3 (0.49%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (2.30%) NIST
2 11 (1.80%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 11 (1.80%) NCSC
3 10 (1.64%) GDPR
3 10 (1.64%) QA
4 6 (0.98%) PCI DSS
5 4 (0.66%) Data Quality
6 3 (0.49%) Cyber Essentials
7 2 (0.33%) SLA
7 2 (0.33%) SOC 2
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%) WCAG
System Software
1 61 (10.00%) Docker
2 51 (8.36%) Active Directory
3 21 (3.44%) VMware Infrastructure
4 18 (2.95%) Virtual Machines
4 18 (2.95%) VMware NSX
5 17 (2.79%) Virtual Desktop
5 17 (2.79%) VMware ESXi
6 15 (2.46%) vSphere
7 10 (1.64%) Hyper-V
7 10 (1.64%) vCloud
8 7 (1.15%) Squid
9 4 (0.66%) Firmware
10 3 (0.49%) Dovecot
10 3 (0.49%) Postfix
11 2 (0.33%) Ceph
11 2 (0.33%) KVM
11 2 (0.33%) NFS
Systems Management
1 277 (45.41%) Terraform
2 138 (22.62%) Kubernetes
3 39 (6.39%) Ansible
4 25 (4.10%) Grafana
5 23 (3.77%) Prometheus
6 20 (3.28%) Single Sign-On
7 15 (2.46%) Microsoft Intune
8 14 (2.30%) Progress Chef
8 14 (2.30%) vCenter Server
9 12 (1.97%) Puppet
9 12 (1.97%) SCOM
10 10 (1.64%) Istio
11 9 (1.48%) Argo
12 8 (1.31%) Packer
13 6 (0.98%) Cilium
14 4 (0.66%) HAProxy
14 4 (0.66%) Salt
14 4 (0.66%) Suricata
15 3 (0.49%) Active Directory Federation Services
16 2 (0.33%) SELinux
Vendors
1 116 (19.02%) Microsoft
2 96 (15.74%) Google
3 38 (6.23%) VMware
4 23 (3.77%) Oracle
5 16 (2.62%) Zscaler
6 15 (2.46%) Palo Alto
7 13 (2.13%) Red Hat
8 10 (1.64%) Cisco
8 10 (1.64%) Salesforce
9 9 (1.48%) Dynatrace
10 8 (1.31%) Okta
10 8 (1.31%) ServiceNow
11 7 (1.15%) Splunk
12 6 (0.98%) CrowdStrike
12 6 (0.98%) Fortinet
12 6 (0.98%) OpenAI
13 5 (0.82%) Citrix
13 5 (0.82%) Databricks
13 5 (0.82%) Rapid7
14 4 (0.66%) Juniper