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 7 October 2026.

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

6 months to
7 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 195 302 326
Rank change year-on-year +107 +24 -77
Contract jobs requiring a Cloud Engineer 810 276 240
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.48% 0.84% 0.64%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.60% 0.92% 0.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 529 204 144
10th Percentile £406 £400 £386
25th Percentile £450 £434 £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 £675 £662 £709
UK excluding London median daily rate £510 £500 £500
% change year-on-year +2.00% - -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 50,571 29,988 35,006
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.10% 90.83% 92.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,735 18,924 21,160
10th Percentile £325 £277 £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 £621 £638
90th Percentile £736 £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 4,035 1,621 1,511
10th Percentile £14.42 £13.75 £14.99
25th Percentile £19.50 £17.30 £20.75
Median hourly rate £41.71 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +65.84% -40.82% -4.49%
75th Percentile £67.50 £50.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £68.00 £74.87
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.71 £25.08 £43.00
% change year-on-year +66.34% -41.69% -2.05%

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 7 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 7 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 7 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 +99 711 £525 +5.00% 1,498
UK excluding London +104 449 £510 +2.00% 800
London +45 305 £525 +0.96% 753
Work from Home +35 218 £538 +7.60% 581
North of England +33 149 £505 +12.22% 224
South East +17 134 £538 +7.50% 148
North West +29 87 £513 +17.14% 138
Midlands +20 82 £500 -8.26% 101
Yorkshire +3 51 £450 -16.28% 49
East Midlands +20 47 £500 +5.26% 43
Scotland +6 47 £428 -14.50% 99
West Midlands -23 34 £525 -4.55% 58
East of England -14 16 £475 +5.56% 65
South West -32 16 £575 - 107
North East -33 11 £525 +14.13% 37
Wales -5 7 - - 18

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

For the 6 months to 7 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 (47.28%) Azure
2 311 (38.40%) Terraform
3 284 (35.06%) Infrastructure as Code
4 271 (33.46%) CI/CD
5 268 (33.09%) AWS
6 214 (26.42%) Kubernetes
7 206 (25.43%) DevOps
8 202 (24.94%) Security Cleared
9 195 (24.07%) Python
10 189 (23.33%) Microsoft
11 177 (21.85%) Cloud Security
12 173 (21.36%) PowerShell
13 162 (20.00%) Infrastructure Engineering
14 161 (19.88%) GCP
15 147 (18.15%) Platform Engineering
16 143 (17.65%) SC Cleared
17 131 (16.17%) Entra ID
18 126 (15.56%) Windows
19 111 (13.70%) Active Directory
20 108 (13.33%) Google
21 103 (12.72%) AI
21 103 (12.72%) Migration
22 94 (11.60%) Observability
23 93 (11.48%) Containerisation
24 87 (10.74%) Agile
24 87 (10.74%) Firewall
24 87 (10.74%) GitHub
25 86 (10.62%) DNS
26 83 (10.25%) Docker
26 83 (10.25%) Linux

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 14 (1.73%) Microsoft Exchange
2 12 (1.48%) Apache
3 9 (1.11%) SharePoint
4 8 (0.99%) Apache Airflow
5 7 (0.86%) 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 (47.28%) Azure
2 268 (33.09%) AWS
3 161 (19.88%) GCP
4 131 (16.17%) Entra ID
5 87 (10.74%) GitHub
6 59 (7.28%) IaaS
7 56 (6.91%) Azure DevOps
7 56 (6.91%) GitHub Actions
8 52 (6.42%) Serverless
9 46 (5.68%) AWS CloudFormation
9 46 (5.68%) Microsoft 365
10 44 (5.43%) Google Kubernetes Engine
11 43 (5.31%) Azure Monitor
12 39 (4.81%) AWS Lambda
12 39 (4.81%) Azure AKS
12 39 (4.81%) PaaS
13 37 (4.57%) Amazon EKS
14 33 (4.07%) Amazon CloudWatch
15 31 (3.83%) Amazon S3
16 30 (3.70%) Amazon EC2
Communications & Networking
1 87 (10.74%) Firewall
2 86 (10.62%) DNS
3 44 (5.43%) Network Security
4 41 (5.06%) VPN
5 21 (2.59%) DHCP
6 19 (2.35%) WAN
7 17 (2.10%) TCP/IP
8 13 (1.60%) Internet
9 9 (1.11%) VSAN
10 8 (0.99%) SD-WAN
11 7 (0.86%) NGFW
11 7 (0.86%) VLAN
12 6 (0.74%) Reverse Proxy
13 5 (0.62%) BGP
13 5 (0.62%) Kerberos
14 4 (0.49%) LAN
14 4 (0.49%) SAN
14 4 (0.49%) SSL
14 4 (0.49%) Wireless
15 3 (0.37%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 31 (3.83%) SQL Server
2 21 (2.59%) Amazon RDS
3 17 (2.10%) PostgreSQL
4 14 (1.73%) BigQuery
5 13 (1.60%) Data Lake
6 10 (1.23%) NoSQL
7 9 (1.11%) 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 (0.49%) Metadata
11 4 (0.49%) MongoDB
11 4 (0.49%) MySQL
11 4 (0.49%) 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 53 (6.54%) GitLab
2 50 (6.17%) Jenkins
3 38 (4.69%) Git
4 17 (2.10%) JIRA
5 8 (0.99%) Artifactory
6 7 (0.86%) 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%) REST Assured
10 1 (0.12%) Selenium
10 1 (0.12%) SonarQube
10 1 (0.12%) Spinnaker
10 1 (0.12%) TestRail
General
1 98 (12.10%) Finance
2 83 (10.25%) Social Skills
3 76 (9.38%) Public Sector
4 34 (4.20%) Analytical Skills
5 31 (3.83%) Banking
6 11 (1.36%) Manufacturing
7 9 (1.11%) 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 (0.49%) 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 (38.40%) Terraform
2 27 (3.33%) REST
3 19 (2.35%) ARM Templates
4 16 (1.98%) Kafka
5 15 (1.85%) OAuth
6 14 (1.73%) OAuth2
7 11 (1.36%) Spring
7 11 (1.36%) Spring Boot
8 10 (1.23%) OpenID
9 9 (1.11%) YAML
10 8 (0.99%) .NET
10 8 (0.99%) AWS CDK
10 8 (0.99%) Keycloak
10 8 (0.99%) Node.js
10 8 (0.99%) React
11 6 (0.74%) FastAPI
11 6 (0.74%) Flask
12 5 (0.62%) Azure Blueprints
12 5 (0.62%) OpenTelemetry
13 4 (0.49%) PyTorch
Miscellaneous
1 128 (15.80%) Cloud Native
2 60 (7.41%) Security Posture
3 44 (5.43%) Enterprise Cloud
4 40 (4.94%) Hybrid Cloud
5 32 (3.95%) Cloud Security Posture
6 30 (3.70%) Onboarding
7 28 (3.46%) Enterprise Software
8 26 (3.21%) Data Centre
9 21 (2.59%) Management Information System
10 20 (2.47%) Distributed Systems
11 15 (1.85%) Public Cloud
12 14 (1.73%) Private Cloud
13 13 (1.60%) Product Ownership
14 11 (1.36%) Linux Command Line
15 10 (1.23%) PKI
16 8 (0.99%) Data Protection Act
17 7 (0.86%) AI Agents
18 6 (0.74%) Distributed Architecture
18 6 (0.74%) Replication
19 5 (0.62%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 126 (15.56%) Windows
2 83 (10.25%) Linux
3 63 (7.78%) Windows Server
4 32 (3.95%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 15 (1.85%) Windows Server 2019
6 9 (1.11%) 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
1 284 (35.06%) Infrastructure as Code
2 271 (33.46%) CI/CD
3 206 (25.43%) DevOps
4 177 (21.85%) Cloud Security
5 162 (20.00%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 147 (18.15%) Platform Engineering
7 103 (12.72%) AI
7 103 (12.72%) Migration
8 94 (11.60%) Observability
9 93 (11.48%) Containerisation
10 87 (10.74%) Agile
11 65 (8.02%) Cybersecurity
11 65 (8.02%) Technical Leadership
12 63 (7.78%) Infrastructure Automation
13 61 (7.53%) Software Engineering
14 60 (7.41%) Deployment Automation
15 56 (6.91%) Continuous Improvement
16 55 (6.79%) DevSecOps
16 55 (6.79%) Problem-Solving
17 54 (6.67%) RBAC
Programming Languages
1 195 (24.07%) Python
2 173 (21.36%) PowerShell
3 82 (10.12%) Bash
4 74 (9.14%) Bicep
5 70 (8.64%) SQL
6 37 (4.57%) Java
7 16 (1.98%) Shell Script
8 15 (1.85%) C#
9 11 (1.36%) JavaScript
10 10 (1.23%) Go
11 4 (0.49%) 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%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 1 (0.12%) Perl
14 1 (0.12%) R
Qualifications
1 202 (24.94%) Security Cleared
2 143 (17.65%) SC Cleared
3 70 (8.64%) DV Cleared
4 47 (5.80%) Azure Certification
5 44 (5.43%) AWS Certification
6 38 (4.69%) Degree
7 22 (2.72%) Microsoft Certification
8 18 (2.22%) CISSP
9 13 (1.60%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 8 (0.99%) BPSS Clearance
10 8 (0.99%) Cisco Certification
10 8 (0.99%) MCSE
11 7 (0.86%) 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 17 (2.10%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 14 (1.73%) Data Quality
3 13 (1.60%) NIST
4 6 (0.74%) Cyber Essentials
4 6 (0.74%) GDPR
4 6 (0.74%) QA
5 5 (0.62%) NCSC
6 4 (0.49%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 4 (0.49%) PCI DSS
7 3 (0.37%) Disclosure Scotland
8 2 (0.25%) SLA
9 1 (0.12%) Actionable Recommendations
9 1 (0.12%) Government Security Classifications
9 1 (0.12%) GRC
System Software
1 111 (13.70%) Active Directory
2 83 (10.25%) Docker
3 52 (6.42%) VMware Infrastructure
4 44 (5.43%) Virtual Machines
5 35 (4.32%) VMware ESXi
6 27 (3.33%) VMware NSX
7 21 (2.59%) Virtual Desktop
7 21 (2.59%) vSphere
8 15 (1.85%) vCloud
9 11 (1.36%) Hyper-V
10 6 (0.74%) Squid
11 5 (0.62%) Firmware
12 4 (0.49%) NFS
13 3 (0.37%) Ceph
13 3 (0.37%) Dovecot
13 3 (0.37%) Postfix
14 2 (0.25%) IAG
14 2 (0.25%) KVM
14 2 (0.25%) Virtual Servers
15 1 (0.12%) BitLocker
Systems Management
1 214 (26.42%) Kubernetes
2 54 (6.67%) Ansible
3 31 (3.83%) vCenter Server
4 28 (3.46%) Grafana
5 27 (3.33%) Microsoft Intune
5 27 (3.33%) SCOM
6 25 (3.09%) Prometheus
7 19 (2.35%) Progress Chef
8 15 (1.85%) Single Sign-On
9 14 (1.73%) Puppet
10 11 (1.36%) Istio
11 8 (0.99%) Cilium
12 6 (0.74%) Argo
13 5 (0.62%) HAProxy
13 5 (0.62%) Packer
13 5 (0.62%) VxRail
14 4 (0.49%) Suricata
15 3 (0.37%) Active Directory Federation Services
15 3 (0.37%) Karpenter
15 3 (0.37%) vRealize
Vendors
1 189 (23.33%) Microsoft
2 108 (13.33%) Google
3 76 (9.38%) VMware
4 38 (4.69%) Oracle
5 30 (3.70%) Databricks
6 20 (2.47%) Red Hat
7 19 (2.35%) Okta
8 17 (2.10%) Palo Alto
9 16 (1.98%) SolarWinds
10 15 (1.85%) Zscaler
11 14 (1.73%) Splunk
12 13 (1.60%) Broadcom
13 12 (1.48%) Cisco
13 12 (1.48%) OpenAI
13 12 (1.48%) ServiceNow
14 10 (1.23%) Dynatrace
15 9 (1.11%) CrowdStrike
15 9 (1.11%) New Relic
16 8 (0.99%) BeyondTrust
16 8 (0.99%) Salesforce