Cloud Engineer Contract Job Trends

Cloud Engineer
UK

The median Cloud Engineer daily rate in the UK is £513, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 8 October 2026.

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

6 months to
8 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 200 297 330
Rank change year-on-year +97 +33 -81
Contract jobs requiring a Cloud Engineer 807 281 241
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.48% 0.85% 0.64%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.61% 0.94% 0.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 526 208 144
10th Percentile £406 £400 £386
25th Percentile £450 £438 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% -9.09% -
75th Percentile £588 £575 £639
90th Percentile £679 £670 £709
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £500
% change year-on-year - - -9.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 33 7 0
10th Percentile £22.69 £29.00 -
25th Percentile £23.20 £29.50 -
Median hourly rate £76.00 £45.00 -
Median % change year-on-year +68.89% - -
75th Percentile £81.25 £86.25 -
90th Percentile - £110.00 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.47 - -

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 50,211 30,029 35,202
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.06% 90.85% 92.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,500 18,931 21,295
10th Percentile £325 £276 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -0.94%
75th Percentile £638 £623 £638
90th Percentile £737 £725 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £495
% change year-on-year +5.26% -4.04% -1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4,030 1,622 1,502
10th Percentile £14.36 £13.75 £14.86
25th Percentile £19.40 £17.30 £20.50
Median hourly rate £41.71 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +65.84% -40.82% -4.49%
75th Percentile £67.50 £51.19 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.78 £68.52 £74.86
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.71 £25.08 £43.00
% change year-on-year +66.34% -41.69% -3.37%

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 8 October 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 8 October 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 8 October 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 +107 708 £525 +5.00% 1,471
UK excluding London +103 447 £500 - 776
London +45 304 £525 +1.69% 743
Work from Home +30 217 £533 +6.60% 562
North of England +34 150 £505 +1.00% 214
South East +21 133 £538 +7.50% 140
North West +22 87 £513 +17.14% 132
Midlands +11 82 £500 -6.10% 97
Yorkshire +1 52 £450 -14.29% 47
East Midlands +26 47 £500 +5.26% 39
Scotland +10 47 £428 -16.59% 104
West Midlands -23 34 £525 -2.78% 58
South West -27 16 £575 +4.55% 98
East of England -26 14 £475 +5.56% 67
North East -33 11 £525 +14.13% 35
Wales -1 7 - - 21

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

For the 6 months to 8 October 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.

1 383 (47.46%) Azure
2 311 (38.54%) Terraform
3 286 (35.44%) Infrastructure as Code
4 269 (33.33%) CI/CD
5 263 (32.59%) AWS
6 213 (26.39%) Kubernetes
7 206 (25.53%) DevOps
8 201 (24.91%) Security Cleared
9 196 (24.29%) Python
10 192 (23.79%) Microsoft
11 175 (21.69%) Cloud Security
12 173 (21.44%) PowerShell
13 164 (20.32%) Infrastructure Engineering
14 160 (19.83%) GCP
15 148 (18.34%) Platform Engineering
16 142 (17.60%) SC Cleared
17 133 (16.48%) Entra ID
18 124 (15.37%) Windows
19 112 (13.88%) Active Directory
20 107 (13.26%) Google
21 103 (12.76%) Migration
22 102 (12.64%) AI
23 94 (11.65%) Observability
24 93 (11.52%) Containerisation
25 89 (11.03%) Firewall
26 88 (10.90%) GitHub
27 86 (10.66%) Agile
27 86 (10.66%) DNS
28 83 (10.29%) Docker
29 82 (10.16%) Bash

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 15 (1.86%) Microsoft Exchange
2 12 (1.49%) Apache
3 10 (1.24%) SharePoint
4 8 (0.99%) Apache Airflow
5 7 (0.87%) Confluence
6 5 (0.62%) nginx
7 3 (0.37%) Apache Spark
7 3 (0.37%) IIS
7 3 (0.37%) OpenStack
7 3 (0.37%) Tomcat
8 2 (0.25%) CloudStack
8 2 (0.25%) Traefik
9 1 (0.12%) Apache Pulsar
Applications
1 1 (0.12%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 1 (0.12%) Aladdin
1 1 (0.12%) iTrent
Cloud Services
1 383 (47.46%) Azure
2 263 (32.59%) AWS
3 160 (19.83%) GCP
4 133 (16.48%) Entra ID
5 88 (10.90%) GitHub
6 61 (7.56%) IaaS
7 57 (7.06%) GitHub Actions
8 56 (6.94%) Azure DevOps
9 52 (6.44%) Serverless
10 47 (5.82%) Microsoft 365
11 45 (5.58%) AWS CloudFormation
12 44 (5.45%) Azure Monitor
13 43 (5.33%) Google Kubernetes Engine
14 41 (5.08%) PaaS
15 40 (4.96%) Azure AKS
16 39 (4.83%) AWS Lambda
17 37 (4.58%) Amazon EKS
18 33 (4.09%) Amazon CloudWatch
19 31 (3.84%) Amazon S3
20 30 (3.72%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 89 (11.03%) Firewall
2 86 (10.66%) DNS
3 45 (5.58%) Network Security
4 41 (5.08%) VPN
5 21 (2.60%) DHCP
6 19 (2.35%) WAN
7 17 (2.11%) TCP/IP
8 13 (1.61%) Internet
9 9 (1.12%) VSAN
10 8 (0.99%) SD-WAN
11 7 (0.87%) NGFW
11 7 (0.87%) VLAN
12 6 (0.74%) Reverse Proxy
13 5 (0.62%) BGP
13 5 (0.62%) Kerberos
14 4 (0.50%) LAN
14 4 (0.50%) SAN
14 4 (0.50%) SSL
14 4 (0.50%) Wireless
15 3 (0.37%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 31 (3.84%) SQL Server
2 21 (2.60%) Amazon RDS
3 17 (2.11%) PostgreSQL
4 14 (1.73%) BigQuery
5 13 (1.61%) Data Lake
6 10 (1.24%) NoSQL
7 9 (1.12%) DynamoDB
8 8 (0.99%) Oracle Exadata
9 6 (0.74%) Amazon Athena
9 6 (0.74%) Oracle Database
10 5 (0.62%) Azure SQL Database
11 4 (0.50%) Metadata
11 4 (0.50%) MongoDB
11 4 (0.50%) MySQL
11 4 (0.50%) Redis
12 3 (0.37%) Delta Lake
12 3 (0.37%) Elasticsearch
12 3 (0.37%) Flink
12 3 (0.37%) Looker
12 3 (0.37%) Oracle Database 12c
Development Applications
1 52 (6.44%) GitLab
2 49 (6.07%) Jenkins
3 38 (4.71%) Git
4 17 (2.11%) JIRA
5 8 (0.99%) Artifactory
6 7 (0.87%) Claude Code
7 6 (0.74%) Bitbucket
8 3 (0.37%) Terragrunt
9 2 (0.25%) Atlassian Bamboo
9 2 (0.25%) Cypress.io
9 2 (0.25%) Gatling
9 2 (0.25%) JMeter
9 2 (0.25%) Octopus Deploy
10 1 (0.12%) Cucumber
10 1 (0.12%) eggPlant
10 1 (0.12%) LoadRunner
10 1 (0.12%) Selenium
10 1 (0.12%) SonarQube
10 1 (0.12%) Spinnaker
10 1 (0.12%) TestRail
General
1 99 (12.27%) Finance
2 84 (10.41%) Social Skills
3 77 (9.54%) Public Sector
4 34 (4.21%) Analytical Skills
5 32 (3.97%) Banking
6 11 (1.36%) Manufacturing
7 9 (1.12%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 8 (0.99%) Documentation Skills
8 8 (0.99%) Legal
9 6 (0.74%) Investment Banking
10 5 (0.62%) Front Office
10 5 (0.62%) Law
10 5 (0.62%) Local Government
10 5 (0.62%) Pharmaceutical
10 5 (0.62%) Presentation Skills
11 4 (0.50%) Police
12 3 (0.37%) Digital Health
12 3 (0.37%) Digital Healthcare
12 3 (0.37%) Italian Language
12 3 (0.37%) Military
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 311 (38.54%) Terraform
2 27 (3.35%) REST
3 20 (2.48%) ARM Templates
4 16 (1.98%) Kafka
4 16 (1.98%) OAuth
5 14 (1.73%) OAuth2
6 11 (1.36%) OpenID
6 11 (1.36%) Spring
6 11 (1.36%) Spring Boot
7 9 (1.12%) YAML
8 8 (0.99%) .NET
8 8 (0.99%) AWS CDK
8 8 (0.99%) Node.js
8 8 (0.99%) React
9 7 (0.87%) Keycloak
10 6 (0.74%) FastAPI
10 6 (0.74%) Flask
11 5 (0.62%) Azure Blueprints
11 5 (0.62%) OpenTelemetry
12 4 (0.50%) PyTorch
Miscellaneous
1 126 (15.61%) Cloud Native
2 60 (7.43%) Security Posture
3 45 (5.58%) Enterprise Cloud
4 41 (5.08%) Hybrid Cloud
5 32 (3.97%) Cloud Security Posture
6 30 (3.72%) Onboarding
7 28 (3.47%) Enterprise Software
8 27 (3.35%) Data Centre
9 20 (2.48%) Distributed Systems
9 20 (2.48%) Management Information System
10 16 (1.98%) Public Cloud
11 14 (1.73%) Private Cloud
12 13 (1.61%) Product Ownership
13 11 (1.36%) Linux Command Line
14 10 (1.24%) PKI
15 8 (0.99%) Data Protection Act
16 7 (0.87%) AI Agents
17 6 (0.74%) Distributed Architecture
17 6 (0.74%) Replication
18 5 (0.62%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 124 (15.37%) Windows
2 81 (10.04%) Linux
3 61 (7.56%) Windows Server
4 32 (3.97%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 15 (1.86%) Windows Server 2019
6 9 (1.12%) Ubuntu
7 8 (0.99%) VMS
8 3 (0.37%) CentOS
9 2 (0.25%) Data ONTAP
9 2 (0.25%) Windows Server 2012
10 1 (0.12%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 286 (35.44%) Infrastructure as Code
2 269 (33.33%) CI/CD
3 206 (25.53%) DevOps
4 175 (21.69%) Cloud Security
5 164 (20.32%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 148 (18.34%) Platform Engineering
7 103 (12.76%) Migration
8 102 (12.64%) AI
9 94 (11.65%) Observability
10 93 (11.52%) Containerisation
11 86 (10.66%) Agile
12 66 (8.18%) Cybersecurity
13 65 (8.05%) Technical Leadership
14 64 (7.93%) Infrastructure Automation
15 61 (7.56%) Deployment Automation
16 60 (7.43%) Software Engineering
17 56 (6.94%) RBAC
18 55 (6.82%) Continuous Improvement
18 55 (6.82%) DevSecOps
18 55 (6.82%) Problem-Solving
Programming Languages
1 196 (24.29%) Python
2 173 (21.44%) PowerShell
3 82 (10.16%) Bash
4 76 (9.42%) Bicep
5 70 (8.67%) SQL
6 37 (4.58%) Java
7 16 (1.98%) Shell Script
8 15 (1.86%) C#
9 11 (1.36%) JavaScript
10 10 (1.24%) Go
11 4 (0.50%) TypeScript
12 3 (0.37%) C
12 3 (0.37%) Kotlin
12 3 (0.37%) Scala
13 2 (0.25%) Groovy
13 2 (0.25%) Kusto Query Language
14 1 (0.12%) Apex Code
14 1 (0.12%) Perl
14 1 (0.12%) R
14 1 (0.12%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 201 (24.91%) Security Cleared
2 142 (17.60%) SC Cleared
3 69 (8.55%) DV Cleared
4 48 (5.95%) Azure Certification
5 44 (5.45%) AWS Certification
6 38 (4.71%) Degree
7 22 (2.73%) Microsoft Certification
8 18 (2.23%) CISSP
9 13 (1.61%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 8 (0.99%) BPSS Clearance
10 8 (0.99%) Cisco Certification
10 8 (0.99%) MCSE
11 7 (0.87%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 6 (0.74%) CCNP
12 6 (0.74%) CISM
12 6 (0.74%) Computer Science Degree
13 5 (0.62%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
14 3 (0.37%) CCIE
14 3 (0.37%) CEH
14 3 (0.37%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 19 (2.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 14 (1.73%) Data Quality
3 12 (1.49%) NIST
4 8 (0.99%) GDPR
5 7 (0.87%) QA
6 6 (0.74%) Cyber Essentials
6 6 (0.74%) NCSC
7 4 (0.50%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 4 (0.50%) PCI DSS
8 3 (0.37%) Disclosure Scotland
9 2 (0.25%) SLA
10 1 (0.12%) Actionable Recommendations
10 1 (0.12%) Government Security Classifications
10 1 (0.12%) GRC
System Software
1 112 (13.88%) Active Directory
2 83 (10.29%) Docker
3 53 (6.57%) VMware Infrastructure
4 45 (5.58%) Virtual Machines
5 35 (4.34%) VMware ESXi
6 25 (3.10%) VMware NSX
7 21 (2.60%) Virtual Desktop
8 20 (2.48%) vSphere
9 15 (1.86%) vCloud
10 11 (1.36%) Hyper-V
11 6 (0.74%) Squid
12 5 (0.62%) Firmware
13 4 (0.50%) NFS
14 3 (0.37%) Ceph
14 3 (0.37%) Dovecot
14 3 (0.37%) Postfix
15 2 (0.25%) IAG
15 2 (0.25%) KVM
15 2 (0.25%) Virtual Servers
16 1 (0.12%) BitLocker
Systems Management
1 213 (26.39%) Kubernetes
2 54 (6.69%) Ansible
3 31 (3.84%) vCenter Server
4 28 (3.47%) Microsoft Intune
5 27 (3.35%) Grafana
5 27 (3.35%) SCOM
6 24 (2.97%) Prometheus
7 19 (2.35%) Progress Chef
8 15 (1.86%) Single Sign-On
9 14 (1.73%) Puppet
10 11 (1.36%) Istio
11 7 (0.87%) Cilium
12 6 (0.74%) Argo
13 5 (0.62%) HAProxy
13 5 (0.62%) Packer
13 5 (0.62%) VxRail
14 4 (0.50%) Suricata
15 3 (0.37%) Active Directory Federation Services
15 3 (0.37%) Karpenter
15 3 (0.37%) vRealize
Vendors
1 192 (23.79%) Microsoft
2 107 (13.26%) Google
3 75 (9.29%) VMware
4 38 (4.71%) Oracle
5 30 (3.72%) Databricks
6 20 (2.48%) Red Hat
7 19 (2.35%) Okta
8 17 (2.11%) Palo Alto
9 16 (1.98%) SolarWinds
10 15 (1.86%) Zscaler
11 14 (1.73%) Splunk
12 13 (1.61%) Broadcom
12 13 (1.61%) Cisco
13 12 (1.49%) OpenAI
13 12 (1.49%) ServiceNow
14 11 (1.36%) Dynatrace
15 9 (1.12%) CrowdStrike
15 9 (1.12%) New Relic
15 9 (1.12%) Salesforce
16 8 (0.99%) BeyondTrust