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 30 June 2026.

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

6 months to
30 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 219 296 325
Rank change year-on-year +77 +29 -58
Contract jobs requiring a Cloud Engineer 627 251 274
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.22% 0.82% 0.63%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.32% 0.89% 0.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 409 186 189
10th Percentile £400 £402 £386
25th Percentile £460 £447 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -9.09% -
75th Percentile £617 £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 20 2 3
10th Percentile £73.48 £44.50 -
25th Percentile £73.75 £47.50 £27.50
Median hourly rate £77.25 £53.75 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year +43.72% +79.17% -
75th Percentile £81.25 £58.75 £32.50
90th Percentile £85.00 £61.00 -
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 47,423 28,164 40,143
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.41% 92.05% 92.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,738 18,025 25,769
10th Percentile £325 £288 £283
25th Percentile £415 £401 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -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 3,196 1,261 2,867
10th Percentile £15.61 £13.78 £12.86
25th Percentile £21.23 £17.33 £16.50
Median hourly rate £43.00 £27.00 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +59.26% -28.00% -12.79%
75th Percentile £67.50 £56.25 £62.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.75 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +78.93% -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 30 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 30 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 30 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 +79 532 £525 +5.00% 163
London +53 299 £525 - 67
UK excluding London +34 269 £510 +2.00% 125
Work from Home +6 160 £540 +8.00% 91
North of England -31 75 £500 +8.11% 32
South East -29 69 £538 +7.50% 30
Scotland +17 47 £451 -14.19% 12
Midlands -34 40 £500 +2.56% 25
North West -26 36 £500 +24.38% 19
Yorkshire -24 32 £475 -2.56% 12
West Midlands -36 25 £525 - 15
East of England -8 22 £505 +60.32% 7
East Midlands -9 15 £450 -5.26% 10
South West -21 15 £550 -2.22% 13
North East -37 7 £525 +5.00% 1
Wales -12 2 - - 5

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

For the 6 months to 30 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.

1 289 (46.09%) Azure
2 281 (44.82%) Terraform
3 273 (43.54%) AWS
4 246 (39.23%) CI/CD
5 229 (36.52%) Infrastructure as Code
6 202 (32.22%) DevOps
7 161 (25.68%) Python
8 159 (25.36%) Security Cleared
9 141 (22.49%) Kubernetes
10 140 (22.33%) GCP
11 136 (21.69%) Cloud Security
12 126 (20.10%) SC Cleared
13 120 (19.14%) Microsoft
13 120 (19.14%) Platform Engineering
14 115 (18.34%) PowerShell
15 104 (16.59%) Infrastructure Engineering
16 102 (16.27%) GitHub
17 99 (15.79%) Google
18 90 (14.35%) Migration
19 84 (13.40%) Windows
20 79 (12.60%) AI
21 76 (12.12%) Containerisation
22 74 (11.80%) Agile
23 71 (11.32%) Firewall
24 66 (10.53%) Docker
24 66 (10.53%) GitHub Actions
25 64 (10.21%) Serverless
26 63 (10.05%) Entra ID
27 61 (9.73%) Bash
28 60 (9.57%) Observability

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 11 (1.75%) Microsoft Exchange
2 7 (1.12%) Confluence
3 6 (0.96%) Apache
4 5 (0.80%) 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
Applications
1 1 (0.16%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 1 (0.16%) Aladdin
Cloud Services
1 289 (46.09%) Azure
2 273 (43.54%) AWS
3 140 (22.33%) GCP
4 102 (16.27%) GitHub
5 66 (10.53%) GitHub Actions
6 64 (10.21%) Serverless
7 63 (10.05%) Entra ID
8 48 (7.66%) Azure AKS
9 44 (7.02%) Amazon S3
9 44 (7.02%) AWS CloudFormation
9 44 (7.02%) Azure DevOps
10 42 (6.70%) IaaS
10 42 (6.70%) PaaS
11 40 (6.38%) AWS Lambda
12 36 (5.74%) Virtual Private Cloud
13 35 (5.58%) Amazon EKS
14 34 (5.42%) Amazon EC2
14 34 (5.42%) Amazon ECS
14 34 (5.42%) Google Kubernetes Engine
15 31 (4.94%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 71 (11.32%) Firewall
2 56 (8.93%) DNS
3 35 (5.58%) VPN
4 29 (4.63%) Network Security
5 15 (2.39%) WAN
6 13 (2.07%) TCP/IP
7 12 (1.91%) DHCP
8 6 (0.96%) Reverse Proxy
8 6 (0.96%) SD-WAN
9 5 (0.80%) BGP
9 5 (0.80%) Internet
9 5 (0.80%) SSL
10 4 (0.64%) LAN
10 4 (0.64%) Software-Defined Networking
10 4 (0.64%) VLAN
11 3 (0.48%) IPv4
11 3 (0.48%) OSPF
11 3 (0.48%) SAN
11 3 (0.48%) SMTP
12 2 (0.32%) HTTPS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 21 (3.35%) SQL Server
2 14 (2.23%) Amazon RDS
2 14 (2.23%) PostgreSQL
3 13 (2.07%) Amazon Athena
3 13 (2.07%) DynamoDB
4 7 (1.12%) Azure SQL Database
4 7 (1.12%) BigQuery
5 6 (0.96%) Amazon Redshift
6 5 (0.80%) Data Lake
6 5 (0.80%) Oracle Database
7 4 (0.64%) Amazon QuickSight
8 3 (0.48%) Big Data
8 3 (0.48%) Metadata
8 3 (0.48%) MySQL
8 3 (0.48%) Oracle Database 12c
8 3 (0.48%) Relational Database
9 2 (0.32%) Redis
10 1 (0.16%) Data Warehouse
10 1 (0.16%) Neo4j
10 1 (0.16%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 50 (7.97%) Jenkins
2 45 (7.18%) GitLab
3 42 (6.70%) Git
4 15 (2.39%) JIRA
5 10 (1.59%) 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 (12.44%) Social Skills
2 70 (11.16%) Finance
3 58 (9.25%) Public Sector
4 27 (4.31%) Banking
5 22 (3.51%) Analytical Skills
6 12 (1.91%) Documentation Skills
7 9 (1.44%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 9 (1.44%) Investment Banking
8 6 (0.96%) Legal
9 5 (0.80%) Pharmaceutical
9 5 (0.80%) Presentation Skills
9 5 (0.80%) Retail
10 4 (0.64%) Law
10 4 (0.64%) Military
10 4 (0.64%) 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 (3.99%) REST
2 13 (2.07%) OAuth
2 13 (2.07%) OAuth2
3 11 (1.75%) ARM Templates
4 10 (1.59%) Kafka
4 10 (1.59%) Node.js
5 9 (1.44%) .NET
5 9 (1.44%) React
5 9 (1.44%) Spring
5 9 (1.44%) Spring Boot
6 7 (1.12%) Model Context Protocol
6 7 (1.12%) OpenID
7 6 (0.96%) YAML
8 5 (0.80%) AWS CDK
8 5 (0.80%) Playwright
9 4 (0.64%) FastAPI
9 4 (0.64%) Jest
9 4 (0.64%) OpenTelemetry
9 4 (0.64%) PySpark
9 4 (0.64%) PyTorch
Miscellaneous
1 117 (18.66%) Cloud Native
2 33 (5.26%) Hybrid Cloud
3 27 (4.31%) Public Cloud
3 27 (4.31%) Security Posture
4 22 (3.51%) Data Centre
5 20 (3.19%) Enterprise Cloud
5 20 (3.19%) Onboarding
6 15 (2.39%) Distributed Systems
6 15 (2.39%) Enterprise Software
7 12 (1.91%) Cloud Security Posture
7 12 (1.91%) Management Information System
8 9 (1.44%) Product Ownership
8 9 (1.44%) Self-Motivation
9 8 (1.28%) Data Protection Act
10 6 (0.96%) Legacy Systems
10 6 (0.96%) Linux Command Line
11 5 (0.80%) Cyber Threat
12 4 (0.64%) AI Agents
12 4 (0.64%) PKI
12 4 (0.64%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 84 (13.40%) Windows
2 53 (8.45%) Linux
3 46 (7.34%) Windows Server
4 20 (3.19%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 8 (1.28%) Ubuntu
6 5 (0.80%) Windows Server 2019
7 4 (0.64%) VMS
8 3 (0.48%) CentOS
9 2 (0.32%) Windows Server 2012
10 1 (0.16%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 246 (39.23%) CI/CD
2 229 (36.52%) Infrastructure as Code
3 202 (32.22%) DevOps
4 136 (21.69%) Cloud Security
5 120 (19.14%) Platform Engineering
6 104 (16.59%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 90 (14.35%) Migration
8 79 (12.60%) AI
9 76 (12.12%) Containerisation
10 74 (11.80%) Agile
11 60 (9.57%) Observability
12 55 (8.77%) Problem-Solving
13 52 (8.29%) Infrastructure Automation
14 51 (8.13%) Continuous Improvement
15 49 (7.81%) Technical Leadership
16 48 (7.66%) Software Engineering
17 41 (6.54%) Cybersecurity
18 39 (6.22%) DevSecOps
19 37 (5.90%) Mentoring
20 34 (5.42%) Deployment Automation
Programming Languages
1 161 (25.68%) Python
2 115 (18.34%) PowerShell
3 61 (9.73%) Bash
4 54 (8.61%) SQL
5 44 (7.02%) Bicep
6 33 (5.26%) Java
7 16 (2.55%) C#
8 12 (1.91%) JavaScript
9 10 (1.59%) Go
9 10 (1.59%) TypeScript
10 5 (0.80%) 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%) Cypher
12 1 (0.16%) Kotlin
12 1 (0.16%) Perl
12 1 (0.16%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 159 (25.36%) Security Cleared
2 126 (20.10%) SC Cleared
3 46 (7.34%) Azure Certification
4 37 (5.90%) AWS Certification
4 37 (5.90%) DV Cleared
5 21 (3.35%) Degree
6 17 (2.71%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
7 15 (2.39%) Microsoft Certification
8 14 (2.23%) CISSP
9 12 (1.91%) Cisco Certification
10 9 (1.44%) Computer Science Degree
11 8 (1.28%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
11 8 (1.28%) BPSS Clearance
12 7 (1.12%) CCNP
13 6 (0.96%) MCSE
14 5 (0.80%) (ISC)2 CCSP
15 4 (0.64%) CCIE
15 4 (0.64%) CCSP
15 4 (0.64%) TOGAF Certification
16 3 (0.48%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (2.23%) NIST
2 10 (1.59%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 9 (1.44%) GDPR
3 9 (1.44%) NCSC
3 9 (1.44%) QA
4 6 (0.96%) PCI DSS
5 5 (0.80%) Data Quality
6 3 (0.48%) Cyber Essentials
7 2 (0.32%) SLA
8 1 (0.16%) Accessibility
8 1 (0.16%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.16%) Disclosure Scotland
8 1 (0.16%) GRC
8 1 (0.16%) SOC 2
8 1 (0.16%) WCAG
System Software
1 66 (10.53%) Docker
2 57 (9.09%) Active Directory
3 25 (3.99%) Virtual Machines
4 24 (3.83%) VMware Infrastructure
5 19 (3.03%) VMware NSX
6 18 (2.87%) VMware ESXi
7 16 (2.55%) Virtual Desktop
8 15 (2.39%) vSphere
9 11 (1.75%) vCloud
10 10 (1.59%) Hyper-V
11 7 (1.12%) Squid
12 4 (0.64%) Firmware
13 3 (0.48%) Dovecot
13 3 (0.48%) NFS
13 3 (0.48%) Postfix
14 2 (0.32%) Ceph
14 2 (0.32%) KVM
Systems Management
1 281 (44.82%) Terraform
2 141 (22.49%) Kubernetes
3 43 (6.86%) Ansible
4 24 (3.83%) Grafana
5 23 (3.67%) Prometheus
6 22 (3.51%) Single Sign-On
7 15 (2.39%) Microsoft Intune
7 15 (2.39%) vCenter Server
8 14 (2.23%) Progress Chef
9 13 (2.07%) Puppet
9 13 (2.07%) SCOM
10 9 (1.44%) Istio
10 9 (1.44%) Packer
11 7 (1.12%) Argo
12 6 (0.96%) Cilium
13 4 (0.64%) HAProxy
13 4 (0.64%) Salt
13 4 (0.64%) Suricata
14 3 (0.48%) Active Directory Federation Services
14 3 (0.48%) vRealize
Vendors
1 120 (19.14%) Microsoft
2 99 (15.79%) Google
3 42 (6.70%) VMware
4 25 (3.99%) Oracle
5 17 (2.71%) Zscaler
6 15 (2.39%) Red Hat
7 14 (2.23%) Palo Alto
8 11 (1.75%) ServiceNow
9 10 (1.59%) Cisco
9 10 (1.59%) Okta
9 10 (1.59%) Salesforce
10 9 (1.44%) Dynatrace
11 8 (1.28%) CrowdStrike
12 7 (1.12%) Databricks
12 7 (1.12%) Fortinet
12 7 (1.12%) OpenAI
12 7 (1.12%) Splunk
13 5 (0.80%) Citrix
13 5 (0.80%) Rapid7
14 4 (0.64%) CyberArk