Cloud Engineer Contract Job Trends

Cloud Engineer
UK

The median Cloud Engineer daily rate in the UK is £524, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 4 February 2026.

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

6 months to
4 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 256 308 263
Rank change year-on-year +52 -45 -9
Contract jobs requiring a Cloud Engineer 417 229 407
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.07% 0.74% 0.91%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.17% 0.80% 0.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 286 147 286
10th Percentile £400 £380 £407
25th Percentile £451 £463 £473
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £524 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.77% - -
75th Percentile £600 £639 £625
90th Percentile £707 £696 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £522 £500 £530
% change year-on-year +4.40% -5.66% +0.95%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 0 4
10th Percentile £25.13 - -
25th Percentile £26.09 - £27.50
Median hourly rate £30.00 - £50.00
75th Percentile £48.06 - £76.94
90th Percentile £81.88 - £84.93
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 35,739 28,752 41,680
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.51% 92.94% 93.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,524 17,628 27,555
10th Percentile £300 £293 £275
25th Percentile £405 £408 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £719 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £476 £493
% change year-on-year -0.21% -3.45% -1.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,144 847 2,284
10th Percentile £14.50 £15.92 £13.15
25th Percentile £18.55 £21.25 £16.63
Median hourly rate £30.00 £33.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% -5.71% -
75th Percentile £61.52 £62.50 £61.55
90th Percentile £71.00 £75.00 £72.90
UK excluding London median hourly rate £28.00 £31.76 £36.00
% change year-on-year -11.84% -11.78% +11.63%

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 4 February 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 4 February 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 4 February 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 +30 334 £525 -4.55% 128
UK excluding London +50 190 £522 +4.40% 104
London +2 167 £525 -4.55% 44
Work from Home +14 103 £511 -2.62% 53
North of England -19 60 £500 +11.11% 17
South East +7 45 £500 -13.04% 36
Yorkshire -19 38 £506 +22.73% 6
Midlands -33 37 £575 +15.00% 10
Scotland +33 34 £525 - 4
West Midlands -22 32 £575 -11.54% 7
North West -14 22 £420 -6.72% 10
South West -8 16 £538 -6.52% 26
East of England -22 10 £438 +6.97% 8
East Midlands -28 5 £575 +24.32% 3
Wales +2 1 £425 +41.67%

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

For the 6 months to 4 February 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.

1 193 (46.28%) AWS
2 175 (41.97%) CI/CD
3 174 (41.73%) Terraform
4 161 (38.61%) DevOps
5 159 (38.13%) Azure
6 157 (37.65%) Infrastructure as Code
7 123 (29.50%) Python
8 122 (29.26%) Security Cleared
9 115 (27.58%) Kubernetes
10 99 (23.74%) GitHub
11 93 (22.30%) GCP
12 82 (19.66%) SC Cleared
13 79 (18.94%) Containerisation
14 72 (17.27%) Microsoft
15 70 (16.79%) Agile
16 69 (16.55%) Docker
17 68 (16.31%) Cloud Security
18 62 (14.87%) Google
19 60 (14.39%) GitHub Actions
20 56 (13.43%) Serverless
21 53 (12.71%) Jenkins
22 47 (11.27%) Platform Engineering
22 47 (11.27%) Problem-Solving
23 46 (11.03%) GitLab
23 46 (11.03%) Infrastructure Automation
24 44 (10.55%) AWS CloudFormation
24 44 (10.55%) Infrastructure Engineering
25 43 (10.31%) Migration
26 42 (10.07%) PowerShell
27 41 (9.83%) 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 7 (1.68%) Apache Spark
2 5 (1.20%) Microsoft Exchange
3 4 (0.96%) Apache
4 3 (0.72%) Confluence
5 2 (0.48%) Apache Airflow
5 2 (0.48%) nginx
6 1 (0.24%) Apache Superset
6 1 (0.24%) CMS
6 1 (0.24%) Headless CMS
6 1 (0.24%) SAS
6 1 (0.24%) SharePoint
Applications
1 2 (0.48%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 4 (0.96%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 193 (46.28%) AWS
2 159 (38.13%) Azure
3 99 (23.74%) GitHub
4 93 (22.30%) GCP
5 60 (14.39%) GitHub Actions
6 56 (13.43%) Serverless
7 44 (10.55%) AWS CloudFormation
8 38 (9.11%) Entra ID
9 34 (8.15%) Azure DevOps
10 33 (7.91%) Amazon EKS
11 30 (7.19%) Amazon S3
11 30 (7.19%) PaaS
12 26 (6.24%) AWS Lambda
12 26 (6.24%) Google Kubernetes Engine
13 24 (5.76%) IaaS
14 22 (5.28%) Amazon ECS
15 21 (5.04%) Azure AKS
16 17 (4.08%) OCI
17 16 (3.84%) Azure Monitor
18 15 (3.60%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 33 (7.91%) Firewall
2 21 (5.04%) Cisco Firepower
2 21 (5.04%) Cisco IOS
2 21 (5.04%) Cisco ISE
2 21 (5.04%) Junos
3 20 (4.80%) Network Security
4 15 (3.60%) VPN
5 9 (2.16%) DNS
6 5 (1.20%) NX-OS
6 5 (1.20%) WAN
7 3 (0.72%) DHCP
7 3 (0.72%) Software-Defined Networking
7 3 (0.72%) TCP/IP
8 2 (0.48%) LAN
8 2 (0.48%) Reverse Proxy
8 2 (0.48%) SAN
8 2 (0.48%) Unified Communications
8 2 (0.48%) Wi-Fi
9 1 (0.24%) BGP
9 1 (0.24%) MPLS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 30 (7.19%) NoSQL
2 24 (5.76%) PostgreSQL
3 10 (2.40%) BigQuery
4 9 (2.16%) Amazon Athena
4 9 (2.16%) Amazon RDS
4 9 (2.16%) Power BI
5 8 (1.92%) DynamoDB
6 7 (1.68%) Elasticsearch
7 6 (1.44%) Data Lake
7 6 (1.44%) Data Warehouse
8 4 (0.96%) Azure SQL Database
8 4 (0.96%) Big Data
8 4 (0.96%) Delta Lake
8 4 (0.96%) Oracle Database
9 3 (0.72%) Amazon Aurora
9 3 (0.72%) Amazon Redshift
10 2 (0.48%) Metadata
10 2 (0.48%) Mixpanel
10 2 (0.48%) Relational Database
10 2 (0.48%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 53 (12.71%) Jenkins
2 46 (11.03%) GitLab
3 30 (7.19%) Git
4 10 (2.40%) JIRA
5 8 (1.92%) Liquibase
6 3 (0.72%) MLflow
6 3 (0.72%) Postman
7 2 (0.48%) Bitbucket
7 2 (0.48%) CircleCI
7 2 (0.48%) Sonatype Nexus
7 2 (0.48%) Spinnaker
8 1 (0.24%) Artifactory
8 1 (0.24%) Gemini Tracker
8 1 (0.24%) RStudio
8 1 (0.24%) TeamCity
8 1 (0.24%) Travis CI
8 1 (0.24%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 74 (17.75%) Social Skills
2 64 (15.35%) Finance
3 39 (9.35%) Public Sector
4 31 (7.43%) Banking
5 28 (6.71%) Analytical Skills
6 16 (3.84%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 12 (2.88%) Financial Institution
8 8 (1.92%) Retail
9 7 (1.68%) Aeronautics
10 6 (1.44%) Presentation Skills
11 5 (1.20%) Aviation
11 5 (1.20%) Local Government
11 5 (1.20%) Pharmaceutical
11 5 (1.20%) Telecoms
12 4 (0.96%) Documentation Skills
13 3 (0.72%) Legal
14 2 (0.48%) Billing
14 2 (0.48%) Investment Banking
14 2 (0.48%) Marketing
14 2 (0.48%) Military
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 40 (9.59%) REST
2 24 (5.76%) Elastic Stack
3 21 (5.04%) Node.js
4 19 (4.56%) RESTful
5 14 (3.36%) Kafka
6 12 (2.88%) React
7 10 (2.40%) ARM Templates
7 10 (2.40%) OpenTelemetry
8 9 (2.16%) LangChain
8 9 (2.16%) OpenAPI
8 9 (2.16%) Oracle Fusion
9 8 (1.92%) .NET
9 8 (1.92%) SAML
9 8 (1.92%) SOAP
9 8 (1.92%) Spring
9 8 (1.92%) Spring Boot
10 7 (1.68%) AngularJS
10 7 (1.68%) AWS CDK
10 7 (1.68%) Lambda Expressions
10 7 (1.68%) OpenID
Miscellaneous
1 62 (14.87%) Cloud Native
2 36 (8.63%) Public Cloud
3 20 (4.80%) Distributed Systems
4 12 (2.88%) Data Centre
5 11 (2.64%) Hybrid Cloud
6 9 (2.16%) PKI
7 7 (1.68%) Product Ownership
8 6 (1.44%) Security Posture
9 5 (1.20%) Cloud Security Posture
9 5 (1.20%) Cyber Threat
10 4 (0.96%) Algorithms
10 4 (0.96%) Data Protection Act
10 4 (0.96%) Genomics
10 4 (0.96%) Life Science
11 3 (0.72%) AI Agents
11 3 (0.72%) Distributed Computing
11 3 (0.72%) Legacy Systems
11 3 (0.72%) Linux Command Line
11 3 (0.72%) Onboarding
11 3 (0.72%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 41 (9.83%) Linux
2 27 (6.47%) Windows
3 21 (5.04%) Windows Server
4 8 (1.92%) Unix
5 4 (0.96%) VMS
6 1 (0.24%) Alpine Linux
6 1 (0.24%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 175 (41.97%) CI/CD
2 161 (38.61%) DevOps
3 157 (37.65%) Infrastructure as Code
4 79 (18.94%) Containerisation
5 70 (16.79%) Agile
6 68 (16.31%) Cloud Security
7 47 (11.27%) Platform Engineering
7 47 (11.27%) Problem-Solving
8 46 (11.03%) Infrastructure Automation
9 44 (10.55%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 43 (10.31%) Migration
11 41 (9.83%) Microservices
12 39 (9.35%) Cybersecurity
13 37 (8.87%) Continuous Improvement
13 37 (8.87%) DevSecOps
14 35 (8.39%) AI
14 35 (8.39%) Observability
15 31 (7.43%) Software Engineering
16 30 (7.19%) High Availability
17 28 (6.71%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 123 (29.50%) Python
2 42 (10.07%) PowerShell
3 38 (9.11%) SQL
4 25 (6.00%) Java
5 22 (5.28%) Bash
6 21 (5.04%) Go
7 19 (4.56%) Bicep
8 12 (2.88%) TypeScript
9 9 (2.16%) JavaScript
9 9 (2.16%) Shell Script
10 5 (1.20%) C#
11 4 (0.96%) BeanShell
11 4 (0.96%) Perl
12 3 (0.72%) Ruby
13 2 (0.48%) Groovy
13 2 (0.48%) Kusto Query Language
13 2 (0.48%) PL/SQL
14 1 (0.24%) C
14 1 (0.24%) R
Qualifications
1 122 (29.26%) Security Cleared
2 82 (19.66%) SC Cleared
3 37 (8.87%) DV Cleared
4 35 (8.39%) Azure Certification
5 32 (7.67%) Degree
6 30 (7.19%) AWS Certification
7 19 (4.56%) Computer Science Degree
8 17 (4.08%) Master's Degree
9 11 (2.64%) Microsoft Certification
10 9 (2.16%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 9 (2.16%) BPSS Clearance
11 8 (1.92%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
11 8 (1.92%) CISSP
12 6 (1.44%) Cisco Certification
13 5 (1.20%) CISM
14 4 (0.96%) (ISC)2 CCSP
14 4 (0.96%) AWS Certified Developer
14 4 (0.96%) CCSP
14 4 (0.96%) TOGAF Certification
15 3 (0.72%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (3.12%) GDPR
2 11 (2.64%) NIST
3 10 (2.40%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 10 (2.40%) NCSC
4 9 (2.16%) QA
5 6 (1.44%) PCI DSS
6 5 (1.20%) Data Quality
6 5 (1.20%) GRC
7 3 (0.72%) Cyber Essentials
8 2 (0.48%) HIPAA
8 2 (0.48%) SOC 2
9 1 (0.24%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 1 (0.24%) FedRAMP
9 1 (0.24%) JSP 440
System Software
1 69 (16.55%) Docker
2 34 (8.15%) Active Directory
3 21 (5.04%) VMware NSX
4 13 (3.12%) Virtual Machines
5 8 (1.92%) Virtual Desktop
6 7 (1.68%) Hyper-V
7 5 (1.20%) VMware Infrastructure
8 4 (0.96%) Firmware
9 2 (0.48%) Virtual Servers
10 1 (0.24%) KVM
10 1 (0.24%) Squid
10 1 (0.24%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 174 (41.73%) Terraform
2 115 (27.58%) Kubernetes
3 36 (8.63%) Ansible
4 30 (7.19%) Grafana
4 30 (7.19%) Prometheus
5 21 (5.04%) vCenter Server
6 16 (3.84%) Istio
7 13 (3.12%) Argo
8 8 (1.92%) Single Sign-On
9 7 (1.68%) Kibana
9 7 (1.68%) logstash
10 5 (1.20%) Microsoft Intune
11 3 (0.72%) Podman
11 3 (0.72%) Proxmox
12 2 (0.48%) Consul
12 2 (0.48%) FortiGate
12 2 (0.48%) Packer
13 1 (0.24%) Puppet
13 1 (0.24%) Salt
13 1 (0.24%) SCCM
Vendors
1 72 (17.27%) Microsoft
2 62 (14.87%) Google
3 23 (5.52%) Cisco
4 22 (5.28%) Juniper
5 21 (5.04%) SolarWinds
6 20 (4.80%) Splunk
7 19 (4.56%) Oracle
8 15 (3.60%) Databricks
9 10 (2.40%) ServiceNow
10 8 (1.92%) Palo Alto
11 7 (1.68%) Dynatrace
11 7 (1.68%) VMware
12 6 (1.44%) Ping Identity
13 5 (1.20%) Broadcom
13 5 (1.20%) MuleSoft
13 5 (1.20%) PeopleSoft
13 5 (1.20%) Rapid7
14 4 (0.96%) Cloudera
15 3 (0.72%) Citrix
15 3 (0.72%) Salesforce