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 May 2026.

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

6 months to
30 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 220 307 322
Rank change year-on-year +87 +15 -59
Contract jobs requiring a Cloud Engineer 568 227 275
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.16% 0.79% 0.64%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.25% 0.85% 0.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 378 176 188
10th Percentile £400 £400 £400
25th Percentile £462 £449 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -9.09% -
75th Percentile £613 £575 £625
90th Percentile £688 £631 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £524 £500 £510
% change year-on-year +4.70% -1.96% -7.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 1 3
10th Percentile £25.13 - -
25th Percentile £51.25 £42.50 £27.50
Median hourly rate £72.00 £45.00 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year +60.00% +50.00% -68.42%
75th Percentile £76.00 £47.50 £32.50
90th Percentile £85.00 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £74.00 - £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 45,367 26,659 39,830
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.31% 92.33% 92.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,689 17,296 25,850
10th Percentile £325 £290 £280
25th Percentile £413 £405 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £504 £525
Median % change year-on-year +1.69% -4.00% -2.78%
75th Percentile £619 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +5.26% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,009 1,048 2,796
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.00 £12.81
25th Percentile £20.50 £17.87 £16.30
Median hourly rate £42.50 £28.00 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +51.79% -25.33% -16.67%
75th Percentile £67.25 £59.00 £61.30
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.61 £25.31 £40.00
% change year-on-year +72.28% -36.73% -6.98%

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 May 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 May 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 30 May 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 +64 475 £525 +5.00% 218
London +66 281 £525 +5.00% 90
UK excluding London +16 222 £524 +4.70% 153
Work from Home -12 140 £525 +5.00% 83
North of England -38 61 £505 +1.00% 38
South East -33 56 £531 +6.25% 37
Scotland +25 43 £451 -14.19% 11
North West -24 33 £505 +25.62% 27
Midlands -50 23 £525 +5.00% 20
East of England -15 22 £505 +2.54% 10
Yorkshire -46 21 £481 -3.75% 9
West Midlands -55 19 £531 +1.19% 14
South West -23 18 £550 -2.22% 37
North East -25 7 £525 -4.55% 2
East Midlands -26 4 £425 -10.53% 6

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

For the 6 months to 30 May 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.

1 257 (45.25%) Azure
2 254 (44.72%) Terraform
3 247 (43.49%) AWS
4 240 (42.25%) CI/CD
5 211 (37.15%) Infrastructure as Code
6 198 (34.86%) DevOps
7 148 (26.06%) Security Cleared
8 138 (24.30%) Python
9 136 (23.94%) Kubernetes
10 129 (22.71%) GCP
11 117 (20.60%) Cloud Security
11 117 (20.60%) SC Cleared
12 102 (17.96%) GitHub
13 99 (17.43%) Microsoft
14 98 (17.25%) Google
15 95 (16.73%) Platform Engineering
16 91 (16.02%) PowerShell
17 85 (14.96%) Infrastructure Engineering
18 84 (14.79%) Migration
19 71 (12.50%) Agile
19 71 (12.50%) Containerisation
20 66 (11.62%) GitHub Actions
21 63 (11.09%) AI
21 63 (11.09%) Windows
22 62 (10.92%) Docker
23 61 (10.74%) Firewall
24 58 (10.21%) Observability
25 56 (9.86%) Serverless
26 55 (9.68%) Bash
27 53 (9.33%) 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 8 (1.41%) Apache
2 7 (1.23%) Microsoft Exchange
3 6 (1.06%) Confluence
4 5 (0.88%) Apache Spark
4 5 (0.88%) nginx
5 3 (0.53%) IIS
5 3 (0.53%) SharePoint
5 3 (0.53%) Tomcat
6 2 (0.35%) CloudStack
7 1 (0.18%) Apache Airflow
7 1 (0.18%) Apache Pulsar
7 1 (0.18%) OpenStack
7 1 (0.18%) SAS
7 1 (0.18%) Traefik
Business Applications
1 1 (0.18%) Aladdin
Cloud Services
1 257 (45.25%) Azure
2 247 (43.49%) AWS
3 129 (22.71%) GCP
4 102 (17.96%) GitHub
5 66 (11.62%) GitHub Actions
6 56 (9.86%) Serverless
7 47 (8.27%) Entra ID
8 46 (8.10%) Azure DevOps
9 43 (7.57%) AWS CloudFormation
10 39 (6.87%) Google Kubernetes Engine
11 38 (6.69%) Amazon S3
11 38 (6.69%) PaaS
12 37 (6.51%) Azure AKS
13 36 (6.34%) IaaS
14 34 (5.99%) AWS Lambda
15 33 (5.81%) Amazon EKS
16 31 (5.46%) Virtual Private Cloud
17 29 (5.11%) Amazon ECS
18 28 (4.93%) Amazon EC2
19 25 (4.40%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 61 (10.74%) Firewall
2 43 (7.57%) DNS
3 26 (4.58%) Network Security
4 24 (4.23%) VPN
5 8 (1.41%) DHCP
5 8 (1.41%) TCP/IP
6 7 (1.23%) WAN
7 6 (1.06%) Reverse Proxy
8 5 (0.88%) SSL
9 4 (0.70%) SD-WAN
9 4 (0.70%) Software-Defined Networking
9 4 (0.70%) VLAN
10 3 (0.53%) BGP
10 3 (0.53%) Internet
10 3 (0.53%) SMTP
11 2 (0.35%) BIG-IP
11 2 (0.35%) Kerberos
11 2 (0.35%) NGFW
11 2 (0.35%) SAN
11 2 (0.35%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 15 (2.64%) Amazon Athena
2 13 (2.29%) BigQuery
2 13 (2.29%) DynamoDB
3 12 (2.11%) SQL Server
4 10 (1.76%) Amazon RDS
5 8 (1.41%) PostgreSQL
6 6 (1.06%) Amazon Redshift
6 6 (1.06%) Azure SQL Database
7 5 (0.88%) Data Lake
7 5 (0.88%) Oracle Database
8 4 (0.70%) Amazon QuickSight
9 3 (0.53%) Big Data
9 3 (0.53%) Data Warehouse
9 3 (0.53%) Metadata
9 3 (0.53%) MySQL
9 3 (0.53%) Oracle Database 12c
9 3 (0.53%) Power BI
9 3 (0.53%) Relational Database
9 3 (0.53%) Snowflake Schema
10 2 (0.35%) OLAP
Development Applications
1 49 (8.63%) GitLab
2 48 (8.45%) Jenkins
3 42 (7.39%) Git
4 12 (2.11%) JIRA
5 10 (1.76%) Artifactory
6 3 (0.53%) Bitbucket
6 3 (0.53%) Postman
6 3 (0.53%) Selenium
6 3 (0.53%) Team Foundation Server
7 2 (0.35%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 2 (0.35%) Claude Code
7 2 (0.35%) Cypress.io
7 2 (0.35%) Liquibase
7 2 (0.35%) Robot Framework
8 1 (0.18%) Burp Suite
8 1 (0.18%) Metasploit
8 1 (0.18%) Octopus Deploy
8 1 (0.18%) RStudio
8 1 (0.18%) SonarQube
8 1 (0.18%) sqlmap
General
1 72 (12.68%) Social Skills
2 61 (10.74%) Finance
3 47 (8.27%) Public Sector
4 21 (3.70%) Analytical Skills
5 19 (3.35%) Banking
6 13 (2.29%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 11 (1.94%) Documentation Skills
8 9 (1.58%) Retail
9 6 (1.06%) Investment Banking
9 6 (1.06%) Legal
9 6 (1.06%) Telecoms
10 5 (0.88%) Local Government
10 5 (0.88%) Presentation Skills
11 4 (0.70%) Marketing
11 4 (0.70%) Military
11 4 (0.70%) Pharmaceutical
12 3 (0.53%) Financial Institution
12 3 (0.53%) Police
13 2 (0.35%) Billing
13 2 (0.35%) Retail Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (3.35%) REST
2 14 (2.46%) Node.js
2 14 (2.46%) React
2 14 (2.46%) Spring
2 14 (2.46%) Spring Boot
3 13 (2.29%) OAuth
4 12 (2.11%) Kafka
4 12 (2.11%) OAuth2
5 9 (1.58%) .NET
5 9 (1.58%) OpenTelemetry
6 8 (1.41%) Oracle Fusion
7 7 (1.23%) OpenID
8 6 (1.06%) AngularJS
8 6 (1.06%) ARM Templates
8 6 (1.06%) LangChain
9 5 (0.88%) Model Context Protocol
9 5 (0.88%) Playwright
9 5 (0.88%) Web Services
9 5 (0.88%) YAML
10 4 (0.70%) Express.js
Miscellaneous
1 103 (18.13%) Cloud Native
2 29 (5.11%) Public Cloud
3 27 (4.75%) Hybrid Cloud
4 23 (4.05%) Data Centre
5 18 (3.17%) Security Posture
6 14 (2.46%) Enterprise Cloud
6 14 (2.46%) Onboarding
7 13 (2.29%) Enterprise Software
8 9 (1.58%) Distributed Systems
8 9 (1.58%) Management Information System
8 9 (1.58%) Product Ownership
9 8 (1.41%) Data Protection Act
10 7 (1.23%) Self-Motivation
11 6 (1.06%) Cloud Security Posture
11 6 (1.06%) Cyber Threat
12 5 (0.88%) PKI
12 5 (0.88%) Private Cloud
13 4 (0.70%) Legacy Systems
13 4 (0.70%) Virtual Team
14 3 (0.53%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 63 (11.09%) Windows
2 39 (6.87%) Linux
3 36 (6.34%) Windows Server
4 11 (1.94%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 5 (0.88%) Ubuntu
6 3 (0.53%) CentOS
6 3 (0.53%) Windows Server 2019
7 2 (0.35%) VMS
7 2 (0.35%) Windows Server 2012
8 1 (0.18%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 240 (42.25%) CI/CD
2 211 (37.15%) Infrastructure as Code
3 198 (34.86%) DevOps
4 117 (20.60%) Cloud Security
5 95 (16.73%) Platform Engineering
6 85 (14.96%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 84 (14.79%) Migration
8 71 (12.50%) Agile
8 71 (12.50%) Containerisation
9 63 (11.09%) AI
10 58 (10.21%) Observability
11 53 (9.33%) Problem-Solving
12 47 (8.27%) Infrastructure Automation
12 47 (8.27%) Software Engineering
13 46 (8.10%) Continuous Improvement
14 43 (7.57%) Cybersecurity
14 43 (7.57%) Technical Leadership
15 40 (7.04%) DevSecOps
16 33 (5.81%) Mentoring
17 30 (5.28%) Site Reliability Engineering
Programming Languages
1 138 (24.30%) Python
2 91 (16.02%) PowerShell
3 55 (9.68%) Bash
4 47 (8.27%) SQL
5 37 (6.51%) Bicep
6 33 (5.81%) Java
7 15 (2.64%) C#
8 11 (1.94%) Go
9 10 (1.76%) JavaScript
10 9 (1.58%) TypeScript
11 5 (0.88%) Groovy
12 3 (0.53%) Ruby
13 2 (0.35%) Kusto Query Language
14 1 (0.18%) BeanShell
14 1 (0.18%) Cypher
14 1 (0.18%) Kotlin
14 1 (0.18%) Perl
14 1 (0.18%) R
14 1 (0.18%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 148 (26.06%) Security Cleared
2 117 (20.60%) SC Cleared
3 44 (7.75%) Azure Certification
4 29 (5.11%) AWS Certification
4 29 (5.11%) DV Cleared
5 21 (3.70%) Degree
6 14 (2.46%) CISSP
6 14 (2.46%) Microsoft Certification
7 13 (2.29%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
8 12 (2.11%) BPSS Clearance
9 9 (1.58%) Cisco Certification
9 9 (1.58%) Computer Science Degree
10 6 (1.06%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 5 (0.88%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
11 5 (0.88%) TOGAF Certification
12 4 (0.70%) CCSP
12 4 (0.70%) CISM
12 4 (0.70%) MCSE
13 3 (0.53%) CCNP
13 3 (0.53%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (2.29%) NIST
2 12 (2.11%) GDPR
3 10 (1.76%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 10 (1.76%) NCSC
3 10 (1.76%) QA
4 6 (1.06%) Data Quality
5 5 (0.88%) PCI DSS
6 3 (0.53%) Cyber Essentials
6 3 (0.53%) GRC
7 2 (0.35%) SLA
7 2 (0.35%) SOC 2
8 1 (0.18%) Accessibility
8 1 (0.18%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.18%) WCAG
System Software
1 62 (10.92%) Docker
2 42 (7.39%) Active Directory
3 18 (3.17%) VMware Infrastructure
4 17 (2.99%) Virtual Desktop
4 17 (2.99%) VMware NSX
5 15 (2.64%) Virtual Machines
6 14 (2.46%) VMware ESXi
7 13 (2.29%) vSphere
8 9 (1.58%) Hyper-V
9 8 (1.41%) vCloud
10 7 (1.23%) Squid
11 4 (0.70%) Firmware
12 3 (0.53%) Dovecot
12 3 (0.53%) Postfix
13 2 (0.35%) Ceph
13 2 (0.35%) KVM
13 2 (0.35%) NFS
Systems Management
1 254 (44.72%) Terraform
2 136 (23.94%) Kubernetes
3 32 (5.63%) Ansible
4 24 (4.23%) Grafana
5 21 (3.70%) Prometheus
6 16 (2.82%) Single Sign-On
7 15 (2.64%) Microsoft Intune
8 14 (2.46%) Argo
8 14 (2.46%) Istio
9 13 (2.29%) vCenter Server
10 10 (1.76%) Progress Chef
10 10 (1.76%) SCOM
11 7 (1.23%) Packer
11 7 (1.23%) Puppet
12 6 (1.06%) Cilium
13 4 (0.70%) HAProxy
13 4 (0.70%) Salt
13 4 (0.70%) Suricata
14 3 (0.53%) Active Directory Federation Services
15 2 (0.35%) SELinux
Vendors
1 99 (17.43%) Microsoft
2 98 (17.25%) Google
3 32 (5.63%) VMware
4 26 (4.58%) Oracle
5 13 (2.29%) Palo Alto
5 13 (2.29%) Zscaler
6 12 (2.11%) Red Hat
7 10 (1.76%) Databricks
8 9 (1.58%) Cisco
9 8 (1.41%) Dynatrace
9 8 (1.41%) ServiceNow
10 7 (1.23%) Salesforce
10 7 (1.23%) Splunk
11 6 (1.06%) Okta
11 6 (1.06%) OpenAI
12 5 (0.88%) Citrix
12 5 (0.88%) Fortinet
12 5 (0.88%) Juniper
12 5 (0.88%) PeopleSoft
13 4 (0.70%) Rapid7