Cloud Engineer Contract Job Trends

Cloud Engineer
UK

The median Cloud Engineer daily rate in the UK is £522, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 29 April 2026.

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

6 months to
29 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 228 314 318
Rank change year-on-year +86 +4 -60
Contract jobs requiring a Cloud Engineer 513 224 293
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.09% 0.77% 0.68%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.18% 0.83% 0.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 345 171 199
10th Percentile £400 £400 £401
25th Percentile £462 £444 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £522 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.57% -4.55% -
75th Percentile £613 £622 £625
90th Percentile £692 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £520 £510 £524
% change year-on-year +1.99% -2.65% -4.77%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 0 3
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £25.13 - £27.50
Median hourly rate £25.25 - £30.00
75th Percentile £39.56 - £32.50
90th Percentile £48.08 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate - - £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 43,468 27,008 40,187
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.33% 92.57% 92.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 26,813 17,658 26,169
10th Percentile £315 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £407 £409
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £515 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.91% -1.90% -2.78%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £490 £475 £491
% change year-on-year +3.16% -3.27% -1.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,818 1,032 2,646
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.20 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.43 £18.51 £16.30
Median hourly rate £43.69 £29.15 £35.96
Median % change year-on-year +49.88% -18.93% -20.10%
75th Percentile £65.88 £62.50 £60.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.23 £28.75 £37.75
% change year-on-year +57.32% -23.84% -11.18%

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 29 April 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 29 April 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 29 April 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 +70 426 £525 - 149
London +40 244 £525 - 54
UK excluding London +26 213 £520 +1.99% 111
Work from Home +4 123 £505 +1.00% 83
North of England -37 56 £513 +10.81% 31
South East -36 43 £510 -9.33% 28
Scotland +27 40 £451 -14.19% 6
Midlands -51 28 £673 +37.95% 17
Yorkshire -34 27 £481 +13.24% 9
North West -18 26 £538 +19.44% 17
East of England -18 24 £505 +2.54% 7
South West -14 23 £550 -4.35% 18
West Midlands -45 22 £678 +15.32% 13
East Midlands -39 6 £575 +21.05% 4
North East -19 3 £525 -12.50% 5

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

For the 6 months to 29 April 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.

1 226 (44.05%) Terraform
2 221 (43.08%) Azure
3 220 (42.88%) AWS
4 204 (39.77%) CI/CD
5 197 (38.40%) Infrastructure as Code
6 178 (34.70%) DevOps
7 144 (28.07%) Security Cleared
8 126 (24.56%) Kubernetes
9 124 (24.17%) SC Cleared
10 123 (23.98%) GCP
11 119 (23.20%) Python
12 108 (21.05%) GitHub
13 100 (19.49%) Cloud Security
14 93 (18.13%) Google
15 91 (17.74%) Microsoft
16 79 (15.40%) Platform Engineering
17 77 (15.01%) Agile
18 76 (14.81%) Infrastructure Engineering
19 75 (14.62%) PowerShell
20 70 (13.65%) Containerisation
21 67 (13.06%) GitHub Actions
22 66 (12.87%) Migration
23 60 (11.70%) Docker
24 52 (10.14%) Serverless
25 49 (9.55%) Observability
26 48 (9.36%) AI
26 48 (9.36%) Continuous Improvement
26 48 (9.36%) Firewall
27 44 (8.58%) Azure DevOps
27 44 (8.58%) Jenkins

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 (1.36%) Microsoft Exchange
2 6 (1.17%) Confluence
3 5 (0.97%) Apache Spark
4 4 (0.78%) Apache
5 3 (0.58%) nginx
6 2 (0.39%) SharePoint
7 1 (0.19%) Apache Airflow
7 1 (0.19%) SAS
7 1 (0.19%) Traefik
Applications
1 2 (0.39%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 2 (0.39%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.19%) Aladdin
Cloud Services
1 221 (43.08%) Azure
2 220 (42.88%) AWS
3 123 (23.98%) GCP
4 108 (21.05%) GitHub
5 67 (13.06%) GitHub Actions
6 52 (10.14%) Serverless
7 44 (8.58%) Azure DevOps
8 43 (8.38%) AWS CloudFormation
9 41 (7.99%) Entra ID
10 39 (7.60%) Azure AKS
11 36 (7.02%) PaaS
12 34 (6.63%) Amazon S3
13 32 (6.24%) Amazon EKS
13 32 (6.24%) Google Kubernetes Engine
14 30 (5.85%) AWS Lambda
14 30 (5.85%) IaaS
15 27 (5.26%) Amazon ECS
16 20 (3.90%) OCI
16 20 (3.90%) Virtual Private Cloud
17 19 (3.70%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 48 (9.36%) Firewall
2 18 (3.51%) DNS
2 18 (3.51%) Network Security
2 18 (3.51%) VPN
3 6 (1.17%) Cisco Firepower
3 6 (1.17%) Reverse Proxy
4 5 (0.97%) Cisco IOS
4 5 (0.97%) Cisco ISE
4 5 (0.97%) Junos
4 5 (0.97%) NX-OS
5 4 (0.78%) DHCP
5 4 (0.78%) Software-Defined Networking
6 3 (0.58%) BGP
6 3 (0.58%) SMTP
7 2 (0.39%) DKIM
7 2 (0.39%) TCP/IP
7 2 (0.39%) Unified Communications
7 2 (0.39%) VLAN
8 1 (0.19%) HTTP
8 1 (0.19%) Kerberos
Database & Business Intelligence
1 15 (2.92%) Amazon Athena
2 12 (2.34%) BigQuery
3 11 (2.14%) DynamoDB
4 8 (1.56%) Amazon RDS
5 7 (1.36%) Amazon Redshift
5 7 (1.36%) SQL Server
6 6 (1.17%) Azure SQL Database
6 6 (1.17%) PostgreSQL
6 6 (1.17%) Power BI
7 5 (0.97%) Data Lake
7 5 (0.97%) NoSQL
8 4 (0.78%) Amazon QuickSight
8 4 (0.78%) Big Data
8 4 (0.78%) Data Warehouse
8 4 (0.78%) Oracle Database
9 3 (0.58%) Snowflake Schema
10 2 (0.39%) Elasticsearch
10 2 (0.39%) OLAP
10 2 (0.39%) OLTP
10 2 (0.39%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 44 (8.58%) Jenkins
2 36 (7.02%) Git
3 34 (6.63%) GitLab
4 7 (1.36%) JIRA
5 4 (0.78%) Artifactory
6 3 (0.58%) 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 (0.19%) Burp Suite
8 1 (0.19%) Chocolatey
8 1 (0.19%) CircleCI
8 1 (0.19%) Cypress.io
8 1 (0.19%) Metasploit
8 1 (0.19%) RStudio
8 1 (0.19%) SonarQube
8 1 (0.19%) sqlmap
8 1 (0.19%) Travis CI
General
1 70 (13.65%) Social Skills
2 61 (11.89%) Finance
3 44 (8.58%) Public Sector
4 19 (3.70%) Analytical Skills
5 18 (3.51%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 17 (3.31%) Banking
7 11 (2.14%) Documentation Skills
8 9 (1.75%) Retail
9 7 (1.36%) Aeronautics
10 6 (1.17%) Legal
10 6 (1.17%) Presentation Skills
11 5 (0.97%) Telecoms
12 4 (0.78%) Investment Banking
12 4 (0.78%) Marketing
13 3 (0.58%) Financial Institution
13 3 (0.58%) Military
13 3 (0.58%) Police
14 2 (0.39%) Billing
14 2 (0.39%) Law
14 2 (0.39%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 23 (4.48%) REST
2 21 (4.09%) Node.js
3 13 (2.53%) Kafka
3 13 (2.53%) React
4 11 (2.14%) OpenTelemetry
5 10 (1.95%) .NET
6 9 (1.75%) ARM Templates
6 9 (1.75%) OAuth
6 9 (1.75%) Spring
7 8 (1.56%) OAuth2
7 8 (1.56%) OpenID
7 8 (1.56%) Oracle Fusion
7 8 (1.56%) Playwright
7 8 (1.56%) Spring Boot
8 7 (1.36%) AngularJS
8 7 (1.36%) LangChain
8 7 (1.36%) OpenAPI
8 7 (1.36%) SOAP
9 6 (1.17%) Elastic Stack
9 6 (1.17%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 85 (16.57%) Cloud Native
2 29 (5.65%) Public Cloud
3 17 (3.31%) Hybrid Cloud
4 15 (2.92%) Data Centre
5 10 (1.95%) Product Ownership
6 9 (1.75%) Onboarding
6 9 (1.75%) Security Posture
7 7 (1.36%) Enterprise Cloud
7 7 (1.36%) Enterprise Software
7 7 (1.36%) Self-Motivation
8 6 (1.17%) Cyber Threat
8 6 (1.17%) Distributed Systems
8 6 (1.17%) PKI
9 5 (0.97%) Data Protection Act
9 5 (0.97%) Virtual Team
10 4 (0.78%) Legacy Systems
11 3 (0.58%) Cloud Security Posture
11 3 (0.58%) Management Information System
11 3 (0.58%) Replication
12 2 (0.39%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 39 (7.60%) Windows
2 29 (5.65%) Linux
3 18 (3.51%) Windows Server
4 4 (0.78%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 4 (0.78%) Unix
4 4 (0.78%) VMS
5 1 (0.19%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 204 (39.77%) CI/CD
2 197 (38.40%) Infrastructure as Code
3 178 (34.70%) DevOps
4 100 (19.49%) Cloud Security
5 79 (15.40%) Platform Engineering
6 77 (15.01%) Agile
7 76 (14.81%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 70 (13.65%) Containerisation
9 66 (12.87%) Migration
10 49 (9.55%) Observability
11 48 (9.36%) AI
11 48 (9.36%) Continuous Improvement
12 43 (8.38%) Infrastructure Automation
13 41 (7.99%) DevSecOps
14 40 (7.80%) Problem-Solving
15 38 (7.41%) Cybersecurity
16 37 (7.21%) Software Engineering
17 35 (6.82%) Mentoring
18 30 (5.85%) Microservices
19 27 (5.26%) Site Reliability Engineering
Programming Languages
1 119 (23.20%) Python
2 75 (14.62%) PowerShell
3 42 (8.19%) SQL
4 35 (6.82%) Bash
5 29 (5.65%) Bicep
6 27 (5.26%) Java
7 17 (3.31%) C#
8 14 (2.73%) TypeScript
9 10 (1.95%) JavaScript
10 9 (1.75%) Go
11 4 (0.78%) BeanShell
11 4 (0.78%) Groovy
11 4 (0.78%) Shell Script
12 2 (0.39%) Kusto Query Language
12 2 (0.39%) Ruby
13 1 (0.19%) C
13 1 (0.19%) Cypher
13 1 (0.19%) Kotlin
13 1 (0.19%) R
Qualifications
1 144 (28.07%) Security Cleared
2 124 (24.17%) SC Cleared
3 42 (8.19%) Azure Certification
4 29 (5.65%) AWS Certification
5 19 (3.70%) DV Cleared
6 16 (3.12%) Degree
7 15 (2.92%) Microsoft Certification
8 13 (2.53%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
8 13 (2.53%) CISSP
9 11 (2.14%) BPSS Clearance
10 9 (1.75%) Cisco Certification
10 9 (1.75%) Computer Science Degree
11 7 (1.36%) CISM
12 6 (1.17%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 6 (1.17%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
13 5 (0.97%) TOGAF Certification
14 4 (0.78%) CCSP
15 3 (0.58%) CCNP
15 3 (0.58%) MCSE
15 3 (0.58%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (2.34%) GDPR
2 11 (2.14%) NCSC
2 11 (2.14%) NIST
3 10 (1.95%) QA
4 9 (1.75%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 6 (1.17%) Data Quality
5 6 (1.17%) PCI DSS
6 5 (0.97%) GRC
7 2 (0.39%) Cyber Essentials
7 2 (0.39%) SLA
7 2 (0.39%) SOC 2
8 1 (0.19%) Accessibility
8 1 (0.19%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.19%) HIPAA
8 1 (0.19%) WCAG
System Software
1 60 (11.70%) Docker
2 25 (4.87%) Active Directory
3 16 (3.12%) Virtual Desktop
4 13 (2.53%) Virtual Machines
5 12 (2.34%) VMware NSX
6 8 (1.56%) vSphere
7 7 (1.36%) VMware Infrastructure
8 6 (1.17%) Firmware
8 6 (1.17%) Hyper-V
9 1 (0.19%) Squid
Systems Management
1 226 (44.05%) Terraform
2 126 (24.56%) Kubernetes
3 27 (5.26%) Prometheus
4 22 (4.29%) Grafana
5 21 (4.09%) Ansible
6 17 (3.31%) Istio
7 15 (2.92%) Microsoft Intune
8 12 (2.34%) Argo
9 11 (2.14%) Single Sign-On
10 7 (1.36%) Packer
11 6 (1.17%) vCenter Server
12 5 (0.97%) Progress Chef
12 5 (0.97%) Puppet
13 4 (0.78%) Salt
14 2 (0.39%) Cilium
14 2 (0.39%) Consul
14 2 (0.39%) Kibana
14 2 (0.39%) logstash
15 1 (0.19%) HAProxy
15 1 (0.19%) Podman
Vendors
1 93 (18.13%) Google
2 91 (17.74%) Microsoft
3 20 (3.90%) Oracle
4 16 (3.12%) VMware
5 12 (2.34%) Databricks
5 12 (2.34%) Dynatrace
6 11 (2.14%) Cisco
7 10 (1.95%) ServiceNow
8 8 (1.56%) Splunk
9 7 (1.36%) Salesforce
10 6 (1.17%) Juniper
11 5 (0.97%) Broadcom
11 5 (0.97%) Citrix
11 5 (0.97%) Fortinet
11 5 (0.97%) PeopleSoft
11 5 (0.97%) Ping Identity
11 5 (0.97%) Rapid7
11 5 (0.97%) SolarWinds
12 4 (0.78%) Palo Alto
12 4 (0.78%) Salesforce Marketing Cloud