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 15 September 2026.

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

6 months to
15 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 204 318 328
Rank change year-on-year +114 +10 -71
Contract jobs requiring a Cloud Engineer 786 251 245
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.44% 0.77% 0.64%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.56% 0.85% 0.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 519 182 151
10th Percentile £407 £400 £400
25th Percentile £450 £447 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £500 £551
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% -9.26% +0.18%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £638
90th Percentile £675 £638 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £510 £500 £550
% change year-on-year +2.00% -9.09% +3.77%
Number of hourly rates quoted 30 7 0
10th Percentile - £29.00 -
25th Percentile £23.20 £29.50 -
Median hourly rate £77.00 £45.00 -
Median % change year-on-year +71.11% - -
75th Percentile £81.25 £86.25 -
90th Percentile £81.63 £110.00 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £70.00 - -

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 50,255 29,550 35,480
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.36% 91.04% 93.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,827 18,649 21,961
10th Percentile £325 £278 £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 £625 £620 £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 3,770 1,552 1,702
10th Percentile £14.59 £13.69 £14.73
25th Percentile £20.25 £17.00 £20.50
Median hourly rate £42.15 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +67.59% -41.51% -1.96%
75th Percentile £67.50 £51.83 £65.00
90th Percentile £79.00 £70.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £45.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -44.11% +6.95%

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 15 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 15 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 15 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 +101 682 £525 +5.00% 1,477
UK excluding London +102 433 £510 +2.00% 758
London +48 302 £525 +2.44% 772
Work from Home +26 194 £540 +8.00% 534
North of England +27 135 £513 +13.89% 226
South East +19 130 £538 +7.50% 139
North West +19 82 £519 +16.90% 136
Midlands +13 72 £500 -7.41% 104
Scotland +24 56 £447 -18.73% 110
Yorkshire +3 45 £450 -16.28% 63
East Midlands +19 40 £488 +2.63% 40
West Midlands -25 31 £525 -4.55% 64
East of England -13 18 £475 -2.06% 50
South West -40 16 £575 +4.55% 85
North East -35 8 £525 +14.13% 27
Wales -6 7 - - 13

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

For the 6 months to 15 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.

1 370 (47.07%) Azure
2 310 (39.44%) Terraform
3 276 (35.11%) Infrastructure as Code
4 272 (34.61%) AWS
5 268 (34.10%) CI/CD
6 208 (26.46%) DevOps
7 207 (26.34%) Kubernetes
8 206 (26.21%) Security Cleared
9 196 (24.94%) Python
10 179 (22.77%) Microsoft
11 177 (22.52%) Cloud Security
12 166 (21.12%) GCP
13 160 (20.36%) PowerShell
14 158 (20.10%) Infrastructure Engineering
15 155 (19.72%) Platform Engineering
16 148 (18.83%) SC Cleared
17 119 (15.14%) Windows
18 112 (14.25%) Entra ID
19 110 (13.99%) Google
20 105 (13.36%) AI
21 101 (12.85%) Active Directory
22 93 (11.83%) Migration
23 92 (11.70%) Containerisation
24 91 (11.58%) Agile
25 89 (11.32%) Observability
26 86 (10.94%) GitHub
27 84 (10.69%) DNS
28 83 (10.56%) Firewall
29 82 (10.43%) Bash
29 82 (10.43%) 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 15 (1.91%) Microsoft Exchange
2 12 (1.53%) Apache
3 8 (1.02%) Apache Airflow
3 8 (1.02%) SharePoint
4 6 (0.76%) Confluence
5 3 (0.38%) IIS
5 3 (0.38%) nginx
5 3 (0.38%) Tomcat
6 2 (0.25%) Apache Spark
6 2 (0.25%) CloudStack
6 2 (0.25%) OpenStack
7 1 (0.13%) Apache Pulsar
Applications
1 1 (0.13%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 1 (0.13%) Aladdin
Cloud Services
1 370 (47.07%) Azure
2 272 (34.61%) AWS
3 166 (21.12%) GCP
4 112 (14.25%) Entra ID
5 86 (10.94%) GitHub
6 55 (7.00%) Azure DevOps
6 55 (7.00%) GitHub Actions
6 55 (7.00%) Serverless
7 49 (6.23%) IaaS
8 46 (5.85%) AWS CloudFormation
9 41 (5.22%) AWS Lambda
10 40 (5.09%) Azure Monitor
11 39 (4.96%) Azure AKS
11 39 (4.96%) Google Kubernetes Engine
12 36 (4.58%) PaaS
13 35 (4.45%) Amazon EKS
13 35 (4.45%) Microsoft 365
14 34 (4.33%) Amazon CloudWatch
15 33 (4.20%) Amazon EC2
16 32 (4.07%) Amazon S3
Communications & Networking
1 84 (10.69%) DNS
2 83 (10.56%) Firewall
3 42 (5.34%) Network Security
4 38 (4.83%) VPN
5 21 (2.67%) DHCP
6 18 (2.29%) WAN
7 16 (2.04%) TCP/IP
8 12 (1.53%) Internet
9 8 (1.02%) VLAN
10 7 (0.89%) SD-WAN
11 6 (0.76%) VSAN
12 5 (0.64%) LAN
12 5 (0.64%) NGFW
12 5 (0.64%) SSL
12 5 (0.64%) Wireless
13 4 (0.51%) BGP
13 4 (0.51%) Kerberos
13 4 (0.51%) OSPF
14 3 (0.38%) IPv4
14 3 (0.38%) SMTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 26 (3.31%) SQL Server
2 20 (2.54%) Amazon RDS
3 17 (2.16%) PostgreSQL
4 12 (1.53%) BigQuery
5 10 (1.27%) Data Lake
6 8 (1.02%) Oracle Exadata
7 7 (0.89%) DynamoDB
8 6 (0.76%) Amazon Athena
8 6 (0.76%) NoSQL
9 5 (0.64%) Oracle Database
10 4 (0.51%) Azure SQL Database
11 3 (0.38%) Big Data
11 3 (0.38%) Flink
11 3 (0.38%) Looker
11 3 (0.38%) Metadata
11 3 (0.38%) MongoDB
11 3 (0.38%) MySQL
11 3 (0.38%) Oracle Database 12c
12 2 (0.25%) Amazon QuickSight
12 2 (0.25%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 56 (7.12%) GitLab
2 47 (5.98%) Jenkins
3 39 (4.96%) Git
4 18 (2.29%) JIRA
5 8 (1.02%) Artifactory
6 7 (0.89%) Claude Code
7 6 (0.76%) Bitbucket
8 3 (0.38%) Selenium
8 3 (0.38%) 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
9 2 (0.25%) Robot Framework
9 2 (0.25%) SonarQube
10 1 (0.13%) eggPlant
10 1 (0.13%) IntelliJ
10 1 (0.13%) JUnit
10 1 (0.13%) LoadRunner
General
1 98 (12.47%) Finance
2 78 (9.92%) Social Skills
3 75 (9.54%) Public Sector
4 33 (4.20%) Analytical Skills
5 26 (3.31%) Banking
6 9 (1.15%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 9 (1.15%) Manufacturing
7 7 (0.89%) Documentation Skills
7 7 (0.89%) Legal
8 6 (0.76%) Investment Banking
9 5 (0.64%) Law
9 5 (0.64%) Local Government
9 5 (0.64%) Pharmaceutical
10 4 (0.51%) Front Office
10 4 (0.51%) Presentation Skills
11 3 (0.38%) Digital Health
11 3 (0.38%) Italian Language
11 3 (0.38%) Marketing
11 3 (0.38%) Police
11 3 (0.38%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 310 (39.44%) Terraform
2 25 (3.18%) REST
3 18 (2.29%) ARM Templates
4 14 (1.78%) Kafka
5 11 (1.40%) OAuth
5 11 (1.40%) Spring
5 11 (1.40%) Spring Boot
6 10 (1.27%) OAuth2
7 9 (1.15%) Node.js
8 8 (1.02%) AWS CDK
8 8 (1.02%) Keycloak
9 7 (0.89%) .NET
9 7 (0.89%) React
9 7 (0.89%) YAML
10 6 (0.76%) FastAPI
10 6 (0.76%) Flask
10 6 (0.76%) OpenID
11 5 (0.64%) Azure Blueprints
11 5 (0.64%) PySpark
12 4 (0.51%) Hugging Face
Miscellaneous
1 125 (15.90%) Cloud Native
2 60 (7.63%) Security Posture
3 47 (5.98%) Enterprise Cloud
4 38 (4.83%) Hybrid Cloud
5 31 (3.94%) Cloud Security Posture
5 31 (3.94%) Onboarding
6 24 (3.05%) Enterprise Software
7 21 (2.67%) Management Information System
8 20 (2.54%) Data Centre
8 20 (2.54%) Distributed Systems
9 17 (2.16%) Public Cloud
10 13 (1.65%) Product Ownership
11 12 (1.53%) Private Cloud
12 11 (1.40%) Linux Command Line
12 11 (1.40%) PKI
13 8 (1.02%) AI Agents
14 7 (0.89%) Data Protection Act
14 7 (0.89%) Legacy Systems
15 6 (0.76%) Distributed Architecture
16 4 (0.51%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 119 (15.14%) Windows
2 82 (10.43%) Linux
3 62 (7.89%) Windows Server
4 31 (3.94%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 14 (1.78%) Windows Server 2019
6 8 (1.02%) Ubuntu
7 4 (0.51%) VMS
8 3 (0.38%) CentOS
9 2 (0.25%) Windows Server 2012
10 1 (0.13%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 276 (35.11%) Infrastructure as Code
2 268 (34.10%) CI/CD
3 208 (26.46%) DevOps
4 177 (22.52%) Cloud Security
5 158 (20.10%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 155 (19.72%) Platform Engineering
7 105 (13.36%) AI
8 93 (11.83%) Migration
9 92 (11.70%) Containerisation
10 91 (11.58%) Agile
11 89 (11.32%) Observability
12 66 (8.40%) Technical Leadership
13 62 (7.89%) Continuous Improvement
14 60 (7.63%) DevSecOps
14 60 (7.63%) Software Engineering
15 59 (7.51%) Cybersecurity
15 59 (7.51%) Infrastructure Automation
16 58 (7.38%) Problem-Solving
17 53 (6.74%) Deployment Automation
18 49 (6.23%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 196 (24.94%) Python
2 160 (20.36%) PowerShell
3 82 (10.43%) Bash
4 74 (9.41%) Bicep
5 62 (7.89%) SQL
6 39 (4.96%) Java
7 16 (2.04%) Shell Script
8 15 (1.91%) C#
9 11 (1.40%) JavaScript
10 10 (1.27%) Go
11 4 (0.51%) TypeScript
12 3 (0.38%) C
12 3 (0.38%) Groovy
12 3 (0.38%) Scala
13 2 (0.25%) Kusto Query Language
14 1 (0.13%) Apex Code
14 1 (0.13%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 1 (0.13%) Kotlin
14 1 (0.13%) R
14 1 (0.13%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 206 (26.21%) Security Cleared
2 148 (18.83%) SC Cleared
3 72 (9.16%) DV Cleared
4 46 (5.85%) Azure Certification
5 43 (5.47%) AWS Certification
6 35 (4.45%) Degree
7 23 (2.93%) Microsoft Certification
8 18 (2.29%) CISSP
9 12 (1.53%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 9 (1.15%) MCSE
11 8 (1.02%) BPSS Clearance
11 8 (1.02%) Cisco Certification
12 7 (0.89%) Computer Science Degree
13 6 (0.76%) CCNP
13 6 (0.76%) CISM
14 5 (0.64%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
14 5 (0.64%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
15 3 (0.38%) CCIE
15 3 (0.38%) CEH
15 3 (0.38%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (1.78%) Data Quality
1 14 (1.78%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 11 (1.40%) NIST
2 11 (1.40%) QA
3 10 (1.27%) NCSC
4 7 (0.89%) Cyber Essentials
5 6 (0.76%) GDPR
6 3 (0.38%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 3 (0.38%) Disclosure Scotland
7 2 (0.25%) PCI DSS
7 2 (0.25%) SLA
8 1 (0.13%) Accessibility
8 1 (0.13%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.13%) Government Security Classifications
8 1 (0.13%) GRC
8 1 (0.13%) WCAG
System Software
1 101 (12.85%) Active Directory
2 82 (10.43%) Docker
3 50 (6.36%) VMware Infrastructure
4 33 (4.20%) Virtual Machines
4 33 (4.20%) VMware ESXi
5 27 (3.44%) VMware NSX
6 21 (2.67%) Virtual Desktop
6 21 (2.67%) vSphere
7 15 (1.91%) vCloud
8 12 (1.53%) Hyper-V
9 7 (0.89%) Squid
10 4 (0.51%) Firmware
11 3 (0.38%) Ceph
11 3 (0.38%) Dovecot
11 3 (0.38%) NFS
11 3 (0.38%) Postfix
12 2 (0.25%) KVM
12 2 (0.25%) Virtual Servers
13 1 (0.13%) BitLocker
13 1 (0.13%) IAG
Systems Management
1 207 (26.34%) Kubernetes
2 53 (6.74%) Ansible
3 30 (3.82%) vCenter Server
4 26 (3.31%) Microsoft Intune
4 26 (3.31%) SCOM
5 23 (2.93%) Grafana
6 21 (2.67%) Prometheus
7 19 (2.42%) Progress Chef
8 16 (2.04%) Single Sign-On
9 14 (1.78%) Puppet
10 10 (1.27%) Istio
11 8 (1.02%) Cilium
12 6 (0.76%) Argo
12 6 (0.76%) Packer
13 5 (0.64%) VxRail
14 4 (0.51%) Suricata
15 3 (0.38%) Active Directory Federation Services
15 3 (0.38%) HAProxy
15 3 (0.38%) Karpenter
15 3 (0.38%) vRealize
Vendors
1 179 (22.77%) Microsoft
2 110 (13.99%) Google
3 75 (9.54%) VMware
4 35 (4.45%) Oracle
5 24 (3.05%) Databricks
6 19 (2.42%) Red Hat
7 17 (2.16%) Okta
8 16 (2.04%) Zscaler
9 15 (1.91%) Palo Alto
10 13 (1.65%) SolarWinds
11 12 (1.53%) Broadcom
11 12 (1.53%) OpenAI
11 12 (1.53%) Splunk
12 11 (1.40%) ServiceNow
13 10 (1.27%) Cisco
14 9 (1.15%) CrowdStrike
14 9 (1.15%) Dynatrace
14 9 (1.15%) Salesforce
15 8 (1.02%) BeyondTrust
15 8 (1.02%) New Relic