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 25 June 2026.

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

6 months to
25 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 213 294 330
Rank change year-on-year +81 +36 -66
Contract jobs requiring a Cloud Engineer 620 247 278
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.22% 0.82% 0.64%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.32% 0.89% 0.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 408 185 193
10th Percentile £400 £403 £389
25th Percentile £462 £450 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -9.09% -
75th Percentile £622 £575 £625
90th Percentile £688 £638 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £510 £500 £510
% change year-on-year +2.00% -1.96% -7.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 19 1 3
10th Percentile £73.20 - -
25th Percentile £73.75 £42.50 £27.50
Median hourly rate £77.50 £45.00 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year +72.22% +50.00% -
75th Percentile £81.25 £47.50 £32.50
90th Percentile £85.00 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £77.00 - £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 47,005 27,763 40,488
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.37% 92.19% 92.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,579 17,831 26,014
10th Percentile £325 £288 £281
25th Percentile £415 £402 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £519 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +3.80% -4.76% -2.33%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £493
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.65% -1.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,151 1,202 2,914
10th Percentile £15.38 £13.79 £12.86
25th Percentile £21.00 £17.44 £16.38
Median hourly rate £43.50 £27.13 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +60.37% -27.67% -12.79%
75th Percentile £67.50 £56.25 £62.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.75 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £44.75 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +77.93% -37.13% -

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 25 June 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 25 June 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 25 June 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 +72 527 £525 +5.00% 112
London +67 301 £540 +2.86% 34
UK excluding London +17 261 £510 +2.00% 103
Work from Home +4 157 £540 +8.00% 67
North of England -32 73 £500 +8.11% 26
South East -27 69 £538 +7.50% 28
Scotland +20 47 £451 -14.19% 11
North West -20 35 £500 +24.38% 15
Midlands -38 35 £525 +7.69% 15
Yorkshire -27 31 £478 -1.92% 10
West Midlands -38 25 £525 - 7
East of England -8 22 £505 +60.32% 7
South West -36 15 £550 -2.22% 13
East Midlands -15 10 £450 -5.26% 8
North East -38 7 £525 +5.00% 1
Wales -11 1 - - 5

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

For the 6 months to 25 June 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.

1 288 (46.45%) Azure
2 284 (45.81%) Terraform
3 274 (44.19%) AWS
4 248 (40.00%) CI/CD
5 232 (37.42%) Infrastructure as Code
6 207 (33.39%) DevOps
7 158 (25.48%) Python
8 156 (25.16%) Security Cleared
9 142 (22.90%) Kubernetes
10 138 (22.26%) GCP
11 133 (21.45%) Cloud Security
12 124 (20.00%) SC Cleared
13 123 (19.84%) Platform Engineering
14 116 (18.71%) Microsoft
15 111 (17.90%) PowerShell
16 105 (16.94%) GitHub
17 100 (16.13%) Infrastructure Engineering
18 99 (15.97%) Google
19 92 (14.84%) Migration
20 83 (13.39%) Windows
21 75 (12.10%) AI
21 75 (12.10%) Containerisation
22 74 (11.94%) Firewall
23 73 (11.77%) Agile
24 69 (11.13%) GitHub Actions
25 65 (10.48%) Docker
26 64 (10.32%) Serverless
27 62 (10.00%) Entra ID
28 58 (9.35%) Bash
29 57 (9.19%) Problem-Solving

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 10 (1.61%) Microsoft Exchange
2 7 (1.13%) Confluence
3 6 (0.97%) Apache
4 5 (0.81%) nginx
5 3 (0.48%) Apache Spark
5 3 (0.48%) IIS
5 3 (0.48%) SharePoint
5 3 (0.48%) Tomcat
6 2 (0.32%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.32%) CloudStack
7 1 (0.16%) Apache Pulsar
7 1 (0.16%) OpenStack
7 1 (0.16%) SAS
7 1 (0.16%) Traefik
Business Applications
1 1 (0.16%) Aladdin
Cloud Services
1 288 (46.45%) Azure
2 274 (44.19%) AWS
3 138 (22.26%) GCP
4 105 (16.94%) GitHub
5 69 (11.13%) GitHub Actions
6 64 (10.32%) Serverless
7 62 (10.00%) Entra ID
8 47 (7.58%) Azure AKS
8 47 (7.58%) Azure DevOps
9 44 (7.10%) AWS CloudFormation
10 43 (6.94%) Amazon S3
10 43 (6.94%) IaaS
10 43 (6.94%) PaaS
11 39 (6.29%) AWS Lambda
12 36 (5.81%) Amazon EKS
13 35 (5.65%) Virtual Private Cloud
14 34 (5.48%) Google Kubernetes Engine
15 33 (5.32%) Amazon EC2
16 32 (5.16%) Amazon ECS
17 31 (5.00%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 74 (11.94%) Firewall
2 53 (8.55%) DNS
3 33 (5.32%) VPN
4 31 (5.00%) Network Security
5 13 (2.10%) WAN
6 11 (1.77%) DHCP
6 11 (1.77%) TCP/IP
7 6 (0.97%) Reverse Proxy
7 6 (0.97%) SD-WAN
8 5 (0.81%) BGP
8 5 (0.81%) Internet
8 5 (0.81%) SSL
9 4 (0.65%) Software-Defined Networking
9 4 (0.65%) VLAN
10 3 (0.48%) IPv4
10 3 (0.48%) OSPF
10 3 (0.48%) SAN
10 3 (0.48%) SMTP
11 2 (0.32%) HTTPS
11 2 (0.32%) Kerberos
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (3.23%) SQL Server
2 14 (2.26%) PostgreSQL
3 13 (2.10%) Amazon Athena
3 13 (2.10%) DynamoDB
4 12 (1.94%) Amazon RDS
5 8 (1.29%) Azure SQL Database
6 6 (0.97%) Amazon Redshift
6 6 (0.97%) BigQuery
7 5 (0.81%) Data Lake
7 5 (0.81%) Oracle Database
8 4 (0.65%) Amazon QuickSight
9 3 (0.48%) Big Data
9 3 (0.48%) Metadata
9 3 (0.48%) MySQL
9 3 (0.48%) Oracle Database 12c
9 3 (0.48%) Relational Database
10 2 (0.32%) Redis
10 2 (0.32%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 1 (0.16%) Pentaho
11 1 (0.16%) SAS Enterprise Guide
Development Applications
1 52 (8.39%) Jenkins
2 46 (7.42%) GitLab
3 42 (6.77%) Git
4 15 (2.42%) JIRA
5 10 (1.61%) Artifactory
6 3 (0.48%) Bitbucket
6 3 (0.48%) Selenium
6 3 (0.48%) Team Foundation Server
7 2 (0.32%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 2 (0.32%) Claude Code
7 2 (0.32%) Cypress.io
7 2 (0.32%) Liquibase
7 2 (0.32%) Robot Framework
8 1 (0.16%) Burp Suite
8 1 (0.16%) Chocolatey
8 1 (0.16%) CircleCI
8 1 (0.16%) Gatling
8 1 (0.16%) SonarQube
8 1 (0.16%) sqlmap
8 1 (0.16%) TestRail
General
1 78 (12.58%) Social Skills
2 68 (10.97%) Finance
3 53 (8.55%) Public Sector
4 27 (4.35%) Banking
5 22 (3.55%) Analytical Skills
6 12 (1.94%) Documentation Skills
7 9 (1.45%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 9 (1.45%) Investment Banking
8 6 (0.97%) Legal
9 5 (0.81%) Pharmaceutical
9 5 (0.81%) Presentation Skills
9 5 (0.81%) Retail
10 4 (0.65%) Law
10 4 (0.65%) Military
10 4 (0.65%) Telecoms
11 3 (0.48%) Corporate Banking
11 3 (0.48%) Local Government
11 3 (0.48%) Marketing
11 3 (0.48%) Police
11 3 (0.48%) Retail Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (4.03%) REST
2 13 (2.10%) OAuth
2 13 (2.10%) OAuth2
3 11 (1.77%) Kafka
4 10 (1.61%) ARM Templates
4 10 (1.61%) Node.js
5 9 (1.45%) .NET
5 9 (1.45%) React
5 9 (1.45%) Spring
5 9 (1.45%) Spring Boot
6 7 (1.13%) Model Context Protocol
6 7 (1.13%) OpenID
7 6 (0.97%) YAML
8 5 (0.81%) AWS CDK
8 5 (0.81%) Playwright
9 4 (0.65%) FastAPI
9 4 (0.65%) Flask
9 4 (0.65%) Jest
9 4 (0.65%) OpenTelemetry
9 4 (0.65%) PySpark
Miscellaneous
1 119 (19.19%) Cloud Native
2 32 (5.16%) Hybrid Cloud
3 28 (4.52%) Public Cloud
4 25 (4.03%) Security Posture
5 22 (3.55%) Data Centre
6 20 (3.23%) Onboarding
7 19 (3.06%) Enterprise Cloud
8 15 (2.42%) Distributed Systems
8 15 (2.42%) Enterprise Software
9 12 (1.94%) Management Information System
10 10 (1.61%) Cloud Security Posture
11 9 (1.45%) Product Ownership
11 9 (1.45%) Self-Motivation
12 8 (1.29%) Data Protection Act
13 6 (0.97%) Cyber Threat
13 6 (0.97%) Legacy Systems
13 6 (0.97%) Linux Command Line
14 4 (0.65%) AI Agents
14 4 (0.65%) PKI
14 4 (0.65%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 83 (13.39%) Windows
2 50 (8.06%) Linux
3 45 (7.26%) Windows Server
4 18 (2.90%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 8 (1.29%) Ubuntu
6 5 (0.81%) Windows Server 2019
7 3 (0.48%) CentOS
7 3 (0.48%) VMS
8 2 (0.32%) Windows Server 2012
9 1 (0.16%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 248 (40.00%) CI/CD
2 232 (37.42%) Infrastructure as Code
3 207 (33.39%) DevOps
4 133 (21.45%) Cloud Security
5 123 (19.84%) Platform Engineering
6 100 (16.13%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 92 (14.84%) Migration
8 75 (12.10%) AI
8 75 (12.10%) Containerisation
9 73 (11.77%) Agile
10 57 (9.19%) Problem-Solving
11 56 (9.03%) Observability
12 54 (8.71%) Infrastructure Automation
13 50 (8.06%) Continuous Improvement
14 49 (7.90%) Technical Leadership
15 48 (7.74%) Software Engineering
16 42 (6.77%) Cybersecurity
17 38 (6.13%) DevSecOps
18 37 (5.97%) Mentoring
19 34 (5.48%) Deployment Automation
Programming Languages
1 158 (25.48%) Python
2 111 (17.90%) PowerShell
3 58 (9.35%) Bash
4 54 (8.71%) SQL
5 43 (6.94%) Bicep
6 33 (5.32%) Java
7 16 (2.58%) C#
8 12 (1.94%) JavaScript
9 10 (1.61%) Go
9 10 (1.61%) TypeScript
10 5 (0.81%) Groovy
11 2 (0.32%) Kusto Query Language
11 2 (0.32%) R
11 2 (0.32%) Ruby
12 1 (0.16%) Apex Code
12 1 (0.16%) C
12 1 (0.16%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 1 (0.16%) Kotlin
12 1 (0.16%) Perl
12 1 (0.16%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 156 (25.16%) Security Cleared
2 124 (20.00%) SC Cleared
3 48 (7.74%) Azure Certification
4 37 (5.97%) AWS Certification
4 37 (5.97%) DV Cleared
5 19 (3.06%) Degree
6 17 (2.74%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
7 15 (2.42%) Microsoft Certification
8 14 (2.26%) CISSP
9 12 (1.94%) Cisco Certification
10 9 (1.45%) Computer Science Degree
11 8 (1.29%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
11 8 (1.29%) BPSS Clearance
12 7 (1.13%) CCNP
13 5 (0.81%) (ISC)2 CCSP
13 5 (0.81%) MCSE
13 5 (0.81%) TOGAF Certification
14 4 (0.65%) CCIE
14 4 (0.65%) CCSP
15 3 (0.48%) AWS Certified SysOps Administrator
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (2.26%) NIST
2 11 (1.77%) NCSC
3 10 (1.61%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 9 (1.45%) GDPR
4 9 (1.45%) QA
5 6 (0.97%) PCI DSS
6 4 (0.65%) Data Quality
7 3 (0.48%) Cyber Essentials
8 2 (0.32%) SLA
9 1 (0.16%) Accessibility
9 1 (0.16%) Actionable Recommendations
9 1 (0.16%) Disclosure Scotland
9 1 (0.16%) GRC
9 1 (0.16%) SOC 2
9 1 (0.16%) WCAG
System Software
1 65 (10.48%) Docker
2 54 (8.71%) Active Directory
3 24 (3.87%) Virtual Machines
4 22 (3.55%) VMware Infrastructure
5 19 (3.06%) VMware NSX
6 18 (2.90%) Virtual Desktop
6 18 (2.90%) VMware ESXi
7 15 (2.42%) vSphere
8 11 (1.77%) vCloud
9 10 (1.61%) Hyper-V
10 7 (1.13%) Squid
11 4 (0.65%) Firmware
12 3 (0.48%) Dovecot
12 3 (0.48%) Postfix
13 2 (0.32%) Ceph
13 2 (0.32%) KVM
13 2 (0.32%) NFS
Systems Management
1 284 (45.81%) Terraform
2 142 (22.90%) Kubernetes
3 42 (6.77%) Ansible
4 24 (3.87%) Grafana
5 22 (3.55%) Prometheus
5 22 (3.55%) Single Sign-On
6 15 (2.42%) Microsoft Intune
6 15 (2.42%) vCenter Server
7 14 (2.26%) Progress Chef
8 13 (2.10%) Puppet
8 13 (2.10%) SCOM
9 9 (1.45%) Istio
9 9 (1.45%) Packer
10 7 (1.13%) Argo
11 6 (0.97%) Cilium
12 4 (0.65%) HAProxy
12 4 (0.65%) Salt
12 4 (0.65%) Suricata
13 3 (0.48%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 3 (0.48%) vRealize
Vendors
1 116 (18.71%) Microsoft
2 99 (15.97%) Google
3 40 (6.45%) VMware
4 25 (4.03%) Oracle
5 17 (2.74%) Zscaler
6 15 (2.42%) Palo Alto
6 15 (2.42%) Red Hat
7 10 (1.61%) Cisco
7 10 (1.61%) Okta
7 10 (1.61%) Salesforce
8 9 (1.45%) ServiceNow
9 8 (1.29%) CrowdStrike
9 8 (1.29%) Dynatrace
10 7 (1.13%) Databricks
10 7 (1.13%) Fortinet
10 7 (1.13%) OpenAI
10 7 (1.13%) Splunk
11 5 (0.81%) Citrix
11 5 (0.81%) Rapid7
12 4 (0.65%) CyberArk