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 July 2026.

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

6 months to
25 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 210 310 335
Rank change year-on-year +100 +25 -67
Contract jobs requiring a Cloud Engineer 702 256 255
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.33% 0.78% 0.63%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.43% 0.85% 0.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 455 192 173
10th Percentile £400 £402 £389
25th Percentile £450 £434 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -9.09% -
75th Percentile £618 £575 £625
90th Percentile £689 £649 £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 25 4 1
10th Percentile £23.20 £33.75 -
25th Percentile £71.00 £39.38 £27.50
Median hourly rate £77.00 £53.75 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year +43.26% +79.17% -
75th Percentile £81.25 £74.38 £32.50
90th Percentile £83.50 £95.75 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £76.00 - £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 49,051 29,963 37,757
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.59% 91.58% 93.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,625 19,061 24,462
10th Percentile £328 £285 £300
25th Percentile £420 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.05%
75th Percentile £625 £623 £638
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,310 1,445 2,320
10th Percentile £15.75 £13.71 £13.69
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.30 £18.24
Median hourly rate £42.85 £25.15 £41.50
Median % change year-on-year +70.39% -39.40% -5.26%
75th Percentile £67.88 £55.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £81.00 £73.75 £74.59
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +78.93% -41.51% +8.04%

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 July 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 July 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 July 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 +92 589 £525 +5.00% 411
UK excluding London +84 345 £510 +2.00% 212
London +61 304 £525 - 223
Work from Home +2 181 £539 +7.80% 165
South East -7 98 £538 +2.38% 47
North of England -23 89 £525 +16.67% 78
Scotland +34 64 £437 -12.60% 13
Midlands -14 52 £525 +10.53% 29
North West -22 49 £531 +25.00% 49
Yorkshire -23 33 £475 -5.00% 24
West Midlands -30 28 £525 +13.51% 18
East Midlands 0 23 £450 -5.26% 11
East of England +1 22 £505 +26.25% 14
South West -23 16 £550 -2.22% 26
North East -42 7 £525 +7.69% 5
Wales -10 6 - - 7

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

For the 6 months to 25 July 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.

1 333 (47.44%) Azure
2 301 (42.88%) Terraform
3 283 (40.31%) AWS
4 258 (36.75%) CI/CD
5 250 (35.61%) Infrastructure as Code
6 213 (30.34%) DevOps
7 186 (26.50%) Python
8 170 (24.22%) Security Cleared
9 167 (23.79%) Kubernetes
10 158 (22.51%) GCP
11 155 (22.08%) Cloud Security
12 150 (21.37%) Microsoft
13 144 (20.51%) PowerShell
14 139 (19.80%) Infrastructure Engineering
15 135 (19.23%) Platform Engineering
16 131 (18.66%) SC Cleared
17 111 (15.81%) Google
18 108 (15.38%) Windows
19 91 (12.96%) GitHub
20 90 (12.82%) Migration
21 87 (12.39%) AI
21 87 (12.39%) Containerisation
22 86 (12.25%) Agile
23 79 (11.25%) Entra ID
24 77 (10.97%) Active Directory
25 75 (10.68%) Bash
25 75 (10.68%) Observability
26 73 (10.40%) DNS
26 73 (10.40%) Firewall
27 72 (10.26%) Docker

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 13 (1.85%) Microsoft Exchange
2 9 (1.28%) Apache
3 8 (1.14%) Confluence
4 5 (0.71%) Apache Airflow
4 5 (0.71%) SharePoint
5 4 (0.57%) Apache Spark
5 4 (0.57%) nginx
6 3 (0.43%) IIS
6 3 (0.43%) Tomcat
7 2 (0.28%) CloudStack
7 2 (0.28%) OpenStack
8 1 (0.14%) Apache Pulsar
8 1 (0.14%) Traefik
Applications
1 1 (0.14%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 2 (0.28%) Aladdin
Cloud Services
1 333 (47.44%) Azure
2 283 (40.31%) AWS
3 158 (22.51%) GCP
4 91 (12.96%) GitHub
5 79 (11.25%) Entra ID
6 64 (9.12%) Serverless
7 57 (8.12%) GitHub Actions
8 49 (6.98%) Azure AKS
9 46 (6.55%) Azure DevOps
10 42 (5.98%) Amazon S3
10 42 (5.98%) AWS CloudFormation
11 41 (5.84%) AWS Lambda
11 41 (5.84%) IaaS
12 37 (5.27%) Google Kubernetes Engine
13 36 (5.13%) Virtual Private Cloud
14 35 (4.99%) Amazon EC2
14 35 (4.99%) Amazon EKS
15 33 (4.70%) PaaS
16 31 (4.42%) Amazon CloudWatch
17 30 (4.27%) Amazon ECS
Communications & Networking
1 73 (10.40%) DNS
1 73 (10.40%) Firewall
2 40 (5.70%) VPN
3 30 (4.27%) Network Security
4 16 (2.28%) DHCP
4 16 (2.28%) WAN
5 14 (1.99%) TCP/IP
6 8 (1.14%) Internet
7 6 (0.85%) SD-WAN
7 6 (0.85%) VLAN
8 5 (0.71%) BGP
8 5 (0.71%) Reverse Proxy
8 5 (0.71%) SSL
9 4 (0.57%) LAN
9 4 (0.57%) SAN
10 3 (0.43%) OSPF
10 3 (0.43%) SMTP
10 3 (0.43%) Software-Defined Networking
10 3 (0.43%) VSAN
10 3 (0.43%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 25 (3.56%) SQL Server
2 17 (2.42%) Amazon RDS
3 14 (1.99%) PostgreSQL
4 11 (1.57%) Amazon Athena
4 11 (1.57%) BigQuery
5 10 (1.42%) DynamoDB
6 6 (0.85%) Azure SQL Database
7 5 (0.71%) Amazon Redshift
7 5 (0.71%) Data Lake
7 5 (0.71%) Oracle Database
8 3 (0.43%) Amazon QuickSight
8 3 (0.43%) Big Data
8 3 (0.43%) MySQL
8 3 (0.43%) Oracle Database 12c
8 3 (0.43%) Oracle Exadata
8 3 (0.43%) Relational Database
9 2 (0.28%) Elasticsearch
9 2 (0.28%) Flink
9 2 (0.28%) Looker
9 2 (0.28%) Redis
Development Applications
1 51 (7.26%) Jenkins
2 50 (7.12%) GitLab
3 37 (5.27%) Git
4 19 (2.71%) JIRA
5 9 (1.28%) Artifactory
6 5 (0.71%) Bitbucket
6 5 (0.71%) Claude Code
7 3 (0.43%) Selenium
7 3 (0.43%) Team Foundation Server
8 2 (0.28%) Atlassian Bamboo
8 2 (0.28%) Cypress.io
8 2 (0.28%) Liquibase
8 2 (0.28%) Robot Framework
8 2 (0.28%) SonarQube
9 1 (0.14%) Burp Suite
9 1 (0.14%) CircleCI
9 1 (0.14%) Gatling
9 1 (0.14%) RStudio
9 1 (0.14%) sqlmap
9 1 (0.14%) TestRail
General
1 94 (13.39%) Finance
2 82 (11.68%) Social Skills
3 63 (8.97%) Public Sector
4 26 (3.70%) Banking
5 25 (3.56%) Analytical Skills
6 11 (1.57%) Documentation Skills
7 10 (1.42%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 8 (1.14%) Investment Banking
9 5 (0.71%) Law
9 5 (0.71%) Pharmaceutical
10 4 (0.57%) Legal
10 4 (0.57%) Local Government
10 4 (0.57%) Retail
11 3 (0.43%) Financial Institution
11 3 (0.43%) Front Office
11 3 (0.43%) Military
11 3 (0.43%) Police
11 3 (0.43%) Telecoms
12 2 (0.28%) Back Office
12 2 (0.28%) Manufacturing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 28 (3.99%) REST
2 14 (1.99%) Node.js
3 13 (1.85%) OAuth
3 13 (1.85%) OAuth2
4 11 (1.57%) ARM Templates
4 11 (1.57%) Spring
4 11 (1.57%) Spring Boot
5 10 (1.42%) React
6 8 (1.14%) Model Context Protocol
7 7 (1.00%) AWS CDK
7 7 (1.00%) Kafka
7 7 (1.00%) OpenID
8 6 (0.85%) FastAPI
8 6 (0.85%) Flask
8 6 (0.85%) YAML
9 5 (0.71%) .NET
9 5 (0.71%) Playwright
9 5 (0.71%) PyTorch
9 5 (0.71%) TensorFlow
10 4 (0.57%) PySpark
Miscellaneous
1 131 (18.66%) Cloud Native
2 39 (5.56%) Security Posture
3 34 (4.84%) Hybrid Cloud
4 33 (4.70%) Enterprise Cloud
5 27 (3.85%) Onboarding
6 23 (3.28%) Public Cloud
7 21 (2.99%) Data Centre
8 20 (2.85%) Enterprise Software
9 17 (2.42%) Cloud Security Posture
9 17 (2.42%) Distributed Systems
10 14 (1.99%) Management Information System
11 9 (1.28%) Linux Command Line
11 9 (1.28%) Product Ownership
11 9 (1.28%) Self-Motivation
12 8 (1.14%) Data Protection Act
13 7 (1.00%) Legacy Systems
14 6 (0.85%) AI Agents
15 5 (0.71%) PKI
15 5 (0.71%) Private Cloud
16 4 (0.57%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 108 (15.38%) Windows
2 68 (9.69%) Linux
3 52 (7.41%) Windows Server
4 29 (4.13%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 9 (1.28%) Windows Server 2019
6 8 (1.14%) Ubuntu
7 3 (0.43%) CentOS
7 3 (0.43%) VMS
8 2 (0.28%) Windows Server 2012
9 1 (0.14%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 258 (36.75%) CI/CD
2 250 (35.61%) Infrastructure as Code
3 213 (30.34%) DevOps
4 155 (22.08%) Cloud Security
5 139 (19.80%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 135 (19.23%) Platform Engineering
7 90 (12.82%) Migration
8 87 (12.39%) AI
8 87 (12.39%) Containerisation
9 86 (12.25%) Agile
10 75 (10.68%) Observability
11 58 (8.26%) Software Engineering
12 57 (8.12%) Infrastructure Automation
13 56 (7.98%) Problem-Solving
14 54 (7.69%) Technical Leadership
15 51 (7.26%) Continuous Improvement
16 43 (6.13%) Deployment Automation
16 43 (6.13%) DevSecOps
16 43 (6.13%) Mentoring
17 41 (5.84%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 186 (26.50%) Python
2 144 (20.51%) PowerShell
3 75 (10.68%) Bash
4 61 (8.69%) SQL
5 59 (8.40%) Bicep
6 36 (5.13%) Java
7 18 (2.56%) C#
8 13 (1.85%) JavaScript
9 11 (1.57%) Shell Script
10 10 (1.42%) Go
11 9 (1.28%) TypeScript
12 5 (0.71%) Groovy
13 2 (0.28%) Kusto Query Language
13 2 (0.28%) R
13 2 (0.28%) Ruby
13 2 (0.28%) Scala
14 1 (0.14%) Apex Code
14 1 (0.14%) Cypher
14 1 (0.14%) Kotlin
14 1 (0.14%) Perl
Qualifications
1 170 (24.22%) Security Cleared
2 131 (18.66%) SC Cleared
3 51 (7.26%) DV Cleared
4 48 (6.84%) AWS Certification
5 46 (6.55%) Azure Certification
6 25 (3.56%) Degree
7 17 (2.42%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
8 15 (2.14%) CISSP
8 15 (2.14%) Microsoft Certification
9 11 (1.57%) Cisco Certification
10 8 (1.14%) BPSS Clearance
10 8 (1.14%) Computer Science Degree
11 7 (1.00%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
11 7 (1.00%) CCNP
12 6 (0.85%) MCSE
13 4 (0.57%) (ISC)2 CCSP
13 4 (0.57%) CCIE
13 4 (0.57%) CISM
14 3 (0.43%) AWS Certified SysOps Administrator
14 3 (0.43%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (1.85%) Data Quality
2 10 (1.42%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 10 (1.42%) NIST
2 10 (1.42%) QA
3 8 (1.14%) NCSC
4 4 (0.57%) Cyber Essentials
5 3 (0.43%) Disclosure Scotland
5 3 (0.43%) GDPR
6 2 (0.28%) PCI DSS
6 2 (0.28%) SLA
7 1 (0.14%) Accessibility
7 1 (0.14%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.14%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 1 (0.14%) Government Security Classifications
7 1 (0.14%) GRC
7 1 (0.14%) SOC 2
7 1 (0.14%) WCAG
System Software
1 77 (10.97%) Active Directory
2 72 (10.26%) Docker
3 34 (4.84%) VMware Infrastructure
4 27 (3.85%) Virtual Machines
5 24 (3.42%) VMware ESXi
6 21 (2.99%) VMware NSX
7 17 (2.42%) vSphere
8 16 (2.28%) Virtual Desktop
9 12 (1.71%) Hyper-V
9 12 (1.71%) vCloud
10 7 (1.00%) Squid
11 4 (0.57%) Firmware
12 3 (0.43%) Ceph
12 3 (0.43%) Dovecot
12 3 (0.43%) NFS
12 3 (0.43%) Postfix
13 2 (0.28%) KVM
13 2 (0.28%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 301 (42.88%) Terraform
2 167 (23.79%) Kubernetes
3 51 (7.26%) Ansible
4 24 (3.42%) Grafana
5 23 (3.28%) Prometheus
6 20 (2.85%) Progress Chef
6 20 (2.85%) Single Sign-On
6 20 (2.85%) vCenter Server
7 19 (2.71%) Microsoft Intune
8 18 (2.56%) SCOM
9 16 (2.28%) Puppet
10 9 (1.28%) Istio
11 8 (1.14%) Packer
12 7 (1.00%) Argo
13 6 (0.85%) Cilium
14 4 (0.57%) HAProxy
14 4 (0.57%) Suricata
14 4 (0.57%) VxRail
15 3 (0.43%) Salt
15 3 (0.43%) vRealize
Vendors
1 150 (21.37%) Microsoft
2 111 (15.81%) Google
3 54 (7.69%) VMware
4 27 (3.85%) Oracle
5 17 (2.42%) Red Hat
5 17 (2.42%) Zscaler
6 16 (2.28%) Okta
7 15 (2.14%) ServiceNow
8 13 (1.85%) Palo Alto
9 10 (1.42%) Cisco
9 10 (1.42%) Dynatrace
9 10 (1.42%) Splunk
10 9 (1.28%) CrowdStrike
10 9 (1.28%) OpenAI
10 9 (1.28%) Salesforce
11 8 (1.14%) BeyondTrust
11 8 (1.14%) Databricks
12 7 (1.00%) Broadcom
12 7 (1.00%) SolarWinds
13 6 (0.85%) Fortinet