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 6 March 2026.

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

6 months to
6 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 246 308 271
Rank change year-on-year +62 -37 -22
Contract jobs requiring a Cloud Engineer 467 234 385
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.09% 0.77% 0.87%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.19% 0.83% 0.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 325 166 271
10th Percentile £400 £380 £400
25th Percentile £450 £431 £468
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £537 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.14% -2.45% -
75th Percentile £617 £630 £625
90th Percentile £725 £691 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 0 5
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £25.13 - £27.50
Median hourly rate £25.25 - £30.00
75th Percentile £39.56 - £72.50
90th Percentile £48.08 - £83.15
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 39,202 28,292 41,263
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.90% 92.81% 92.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,554 17,968 27,109
10th Percentile £310 £291 £275
25th Percentile £409 £406 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £723 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £481 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +1.32% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,408 853 2,419
10th Percentile £14.82 £16.23 £13.05
25th Percentile £18.87 £21.43 £16.25
Median hourly rate £34.00 £34.00 £34.08
Median % change year-on-year - -0.23% -15.93%
75th Percentile £65.00 £64.52 £60.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.20 £71.90
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.00 £32.50 £35.00
% change year-on-year +1.54% -7.14% -11.50%

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 6 March 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 6 March 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 6 March 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 +50 380 £525 -2.23% 162
UK excluding London +24 204 £525 +5.00% 140
London +29 201 £525 -4.55% 45
Work from Home +15 115 £511 -2.62% 54
North of England -10 70 £513 +7.89% 41
Yorkshire -21 41 £513 +60.78% 18
Midlands -34 40 £575 +21.05% 19
South East -22 39 £516 -10.26% 33
Scotland +33 35 £513 -2.38% 7
West Midlands -24 35 £670 +14.04% 9
North West -2 29 £513 +13.89% 19
South West -13 20 £550 -4.35% 25
East of England -20 13 £450 +41.51% 14
East Midlands -27 5 £575 +25.27% 10
Wales -1 1 £425 +41.67% 2

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

For the 6 months to 6 March 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.

1 221 (47.32%) AWS
2 208 (44.54%) CI/CD
2 208 (44.54%) Terraform
3 189 (40.47%) Infrastructure as Code
4 185 (39.61%) Azure
5 184 (39.40%) DevOps
6 135 (28.91%) Python
7 133 (28.48%) Kubernetes
8 131 (28.05%) Security Cleared
9 108 (23.13%) GCP
9 108 (23.13%) GitHub
10 96 (20.56%) SC Cleared
11 91 (19.49%) Containerisation
12 88 (18.84%) Cloud Security
13 84 (17.99%) Microsoft
14 82 (17.56%) Docker
15 81 (17.34%) Agile
16 77 (16.49%) Google
17 69 (14.78%) Serverless
18 67 (14.35%) GitHub Actions
19 63 (13.49%) PowerShell
20 61 (13.06%) Jenkins
20 61 (13.06%) Migration
21 56 (11.99%) Platform Engineering
22 53 (11.35%) Infrastructure Automation
22 53 (11.35%) Infrastructure Engineering
23 51 (10.92%) GitLab
24 47 (10.06%) AWS CloudFormation
24 47 (10.06%) Azure Certification
24 47 (10.06%) 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 8 (1.71%) Apache Spark
2 5 (1.07%) Apache
2 5 (1.07%) Microsoft Exchange
3 4 (0.86%) Confluence
4 3 (0.64%) nginx
5 1 (0.21%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.21%) Apache Superset
5 1 (0.21%) CMS
5 1 (0.21%) Headless CMS
5 1 (0.21%) SAS
5 1 (0.21%) SharePoint
5 1 (0.21%) Traefik
Applications
1 2 (0.43%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 4 (0.86%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 221 (47.32%) AWS
2 185 (39.61%) Azure
3 108 (23.13%) GCP
3 108 (23.13%) GitHub
4 69 (14.78%) Serverless
5 67 (14.35%) GitHub Actions
6 47 (10.06%) AWS CloudFormation
7 40 (8.57%) Entra ID
8 38 (8.14%) PaaS
9 36 (7.71%) Amazon S3
9 36 (7.71%) Azure DevOps
10 33 (7.07%) Amazon EKS
10 33 (7.07%) Google Kubernetes Engine
11 30 (6.42%) AWS Lambda
11 30 (6.42%) Azure AKS
12 29 (6.21%) IaaS
13 28 (6.00%) Amazon ECS
14 21 (4.50%) Virtual Private Cloud
15 18 (3.85%) Azure Monitor
15 18 (3.85%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 40 (8.57%) Firewall
2 20 (4.28%) Network Security
2 20 (4.28%) VPN
3 15 (3.21%) DNS
4 14 (3.00%) Cisco Firepower
4 14 (3.00%) Cisco IOS
4 14 (3.00%) Cisco ISE
4 14 (3.00%) Junos
5 5 (1.07%) NX-OS
6 4 (0.86%) DHCP
6 4 (0.86%) Reverse Proxy
6 4 (0.86%) Software-Defined Networking
7 3 (0.64%) TCP/IP
7 3 (0.64%) WAN
8 2 (0.43%) BGP
8 2 (0.43%) LAN
8 2 (0.43%) Unified Communications
9 1 (0.21%) IPsec
9 1 (0.21%) VLAN
9 1 (0.21%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 25 (5.35%) NoSQL
2 21 (4.50%) PostgreSQL
3 12 (2.57%) Amazon Athena
3 12 (2.57%) DynamoDB
4 11 (2.36%) BigQuery
5 8 (1.71%) Amazon RDS
5 8 (1.71%) Power BI
6 7 (1.50%) Elasticsearch
7 6 (1.28%) Data Lake
8 5 (1.07%) Amazon Redshift
9 4 (0.86%) Azure SQL Database
9 4 (0.86%) Big Data
9 4 (0.86%) Data Warehouse
9 4 (0.86%) SQL Server
10 3 (0.64%) Oracle Database
11 2 (0.43%) Mixpanel
11 2 (0.43%) OLAP
11 2 (0.43%) OLTP
11 2 (0.43%) Snowflake Schema
11 2 (0.43%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 61 (13.06%) Jenkins
2 51 (10.92%) GitLab
3 32 (6.85%) Git
4 9 (1.93%) JIRA
4 9 (1.93%) Liquibase
5 3 (0.64%) MLflow
5 3 (0.64%) Postman
5 3 (0.64%) Team Foundation Server
6 2 (0.43%) Artifactory
6 2 (0.43%) Bitbucket
6 2 (0.43%) CircleCI
6 2 (0.43%) Sonatype Nexus
6 2 (0.43%) Spinnaker
7 1 (0.21%) Chocolatey
7 1 (0.21%) Gemini Tracker
7 1 (0.21%) RStudio
7 1 (0.21%) Travis CI
7 1 (0.21%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 83 (17.77%) Social Skills
2 72 (15.42%) Finance
3 40 (8.57%) Public Sector
4 34 (7.28%) Banking
5 26 (5.57%) Analytical Skills
6 16 (3.43%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 14 (3.00%) Financial Institution
8 9 (1.93%) Documentation Skills
9 8 (1.71%) Retail
10 7 (1.50%) Aeronautics
11 6 (1.28%) Presentation Skills
11 6 (1.28%) Telecoms
12 5 (1.07%) Aviation
12 5 (1.07%) Legal
13 4 (0.86%) Pharmaceutical
14 3 (0.64%) Local Government
15 2 (0.43%) Billing
15 2 (0.43%) Investment Banking
15 2 (0.43%) Marketing
15 2 (0.43%) Military
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 43 (9.21%) REST
2 26 (5.57%) Elastic Stack
2 26 (5.57%) Node.js
3 19 (4.07%) RESTful
4 13 (2.78%) Kafka
5 12 (2.57%) React
6 11 (2.36%) OpenID
7 10 (2.14%) OpenTelemetry
8 9 (1.93%) ARM Templates
8 9 (1.93%) OpenAPI
8 9 (1.93%) Oracle Fusion
9 8 (1.71%) LangChain
9 8 (1.71%) OAuth
9 8 (1.71%) Playwright
9 8 (1.71%) SAML
9 8 (1.71%) SOAP
9 8 (1.71%) Spring
9 8 (1.71%) Spring Boot
10 7 (1.50%) AngularJS
10 7 (1.50%) NestJS
Miscellaneous
1 85 (18.20%) Cloud Native
2 41 (8.78%) Public Cloud
3 23 (4.93%) Distributed Systems
4 13 (2.78%) Hybrid Cloud
5 12 (2.57%) Data Centre
6 9 (1.93%) PKI
6 9 (1.93%) Product Ownership
6 9 (1.93%) Security Posture
7 6 (1.28%) Cyber Threat
7 6 (1.28%) Self-Motivation
8 5 (1.07%) Onboarding
9 4 (0.86%) Algorithms
9 4 (0.86%) Cloud Security Posture
9 4 (0.86%) Data Protection Act
10 3 (0.64%) Distributed Computing
10 3 (0.64%) Enterprise Software
10 3 (0.64%) Legacy Systems
10 3 (0.64%) Life Science
10 3 (0.64%) Linux Command Line
10 3 (0.64%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 47 (10.06%) Linux
2 34 (7.28%) Windows
3 16 (3.43%) Windows Server
4 8 (1.71%) Unix
5 4 (0.86%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 4 (0.86%) VMS
6 1 (0.21%) Alpine Linux
6 1 (0.21%) Mac OS
6 1 (0.21%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 208 (44.54%) CI/CD
2 189 (40.47%) Infrastructure as Code
3 184 (39.40%) DevOps
4 91 (19.49%) Containerisation
5 88 (18.84%) Cloud Security
6 81 (17.34%) Agile
7 61 (13.06%) Migration
8 56 (11.99%) Platform Engineering
9 53 (11.35%) Infrastructure Automation
9 53 (11.35%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 47 (10.06%) Microservices
10 47 (10.06%) Observability
11 43 (9.21%) Problem-Solving
12 42 (8.99%) Continuous Improvement
13 40 (8.57%) Cybersecurity
14 38 (8.14%) AI
15 37 (7.92%) DevSecOps
16 33 (7.07%) Software Engineering
17 31 (6.64%) Cost Optimisation
18 29 (6.21%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 135 (28.91%) Python
2 63 (13.49%) PowerShell
3 42 (8.99%) SQL
4 32 (6.85%) Bash
5 28 (6.00%) Java
6 22 (4.71%) Bicep
7 21 (4.50%) Go
8 17 (3.64%) TypeScript
9 11 (2.36%) C#
10 9 (1.93%) JavaScript
11 6 (1.28%) Shell Script
12 4 (0.86%) BeanShell
12 4 (0.86%) Perl
12 4 (0.86%) Ruby
13 2 (0.43%) Groovy
13 2 (0.43%) Kusto Query Language
14 1 (0.21%) C
14 1 (0.21%) Cypher
14 1 (0.21%) Kotlin
14 1 (0.21%) R
Qualifications
1 131 (28.05%) Security Cleared
2 96 (20.56%) SC Cleared
3 47 (10.06%) Azure Certification
4 38 (8.14%) AWS Certification
5 35 (7.49%) Degree
6 29 (6.21%) DV Cleared
7 22 (4.71%) Computer Science Degree
8 18 (3.85%) Master's Degree
9 14 (3.00%) Microsoft Certification
10 13 (2.78%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 13 (2.78%) CISSP
11 11 (2.36%) BPSS Clearance
12 9 (1.93%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
12 9 (1.93%) Cisco Certification
13 7 (1.50%) CISM
14 6 (1.28%) (ISC)2 CCSP
15 5 (1.07%) CCSP
15 5 (1.07%) TOGAF Certification
16 4 (0.86%) AWS Certified Developer
17 3 (0.64%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (3.21%) GDPR
2 11 (2.36%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 11 (2.36%) NIST
3 9 (1.93%) NCSC
4 6 (1.28%) PCI DSS
4 6 (1.28%) QA
5 5 (1.07%) GRC
6 4 (0.86%) Data Quality
7 3 (0.64%) Cyber Essentials
8 2 (0.43%) HIPAA
8 2 (0.43%) SOC 2
9 1 (0.21%) Actionable Recommendations
9 1 (0.21%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 1 (0.21%) FedRAMP
9 1 (0.21%) JSP 440
9 1 (0.21%) SLA
System Software
1 82 (17.56%) Docker
2 28 (6.00%) Active Directory
3 14 (3.00%) VMware NSX
4 13 (2.78%) Virtual Machines
5 8 (1.71%) Virtual Desktop
6 6 (1.28%) Hyper-V
7 5 (1.07%) Firmware
8 4 (0.86%) VMware Infrastructure
9 2 (0.43%) Virtual Servers
10 1 (0.21%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 208 (44.54%) Terraform
2 133 (28.48%) Kubernetes
3 39 (8.35%) Ansible
4 35 (7.49%) Grafana
4 35 (7.49%) Prometheus
5 17 (3.64%) Istio
6 15 (3.21%) Argo
7 14 (3.00%) vCenter Server
8 12 (2.57%) Single Sign-On
9 8 (1.71%) Microsoft Intune
10 7 (1.50%) Kibana
10 7 (1.50%) logstash
11 5 (1.07%) Progress Chef
12 4 (0.86%) Packer
12 4 (0.86%) Podman
13 3 (0.64%) Proxmox
13 3 (0.64%) Puppet
14 2 (0.43%) Consul
14 2 (0.43%) Salt
14 2 (0.43%) SCCM
Vendors
1 84 (17.99%) Microsoft
2 77 (16.49%) Google
3 22 (4.71%) Splunk
4 19 (4.07%) Oracle
5 18 (3.85%) Cisco
6 14 (3.00%) Juniper
6 14 (3.00%) SolarWinds
7 13 (2.78%) Databricks
8 11 (2.36%) ServiceNow
9 9 (1.93%) Dynatrace
10 7 (1.50%) Ping Identity
11 5 (1.07%) Broadcom
11 5 (1.07%) MuleSoft
11 5 (1.07%) PeopleSoft
11 5 (1.07%) Rapid7
11 5 (1.07%) VMware
11 5 (1.07%) Zscaler
12 4 (0.86%) Citrix
12 4 (0.86%) Red Hat
12 4 (0.86%) Salesforce