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 1 July 2026.

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

6 months to
1 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 216 298 335
Rank change year-on-year +82 +37 -71
Contract jobs requiring a Cloud Engineer 629 255 274
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.22% 0.83% 0.63%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.32% 0.90% 0.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 409 190 189
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 £620 £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 47,495 28,303 40,138
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.41% 92.03% 92.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,760 18,119 25,771
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 3,210 1,268 2,866
10th Percentile £15.72 £13.77 £12.86
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.41 £16.50
Median hourly rate £43.00 £26.50 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +62.26% -29.33% -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 1 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 1 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 1 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 +79 534 £525 +5.00% 212
London +59 299 £525 - 74
UK excluding London +35 270 £510 +2.00% 171
Work from Home +3 161 £540 +8.00% 124
North of England -31 74 £500 +8.11% 38
South East -27 70 £538 +7.50% 38
Scotland +24 47 £451 -14.19% 15
Midlands -32 41 £500 +5.26% 36
North West -19 36 £500 +24.38% 23
Yorkshire -23 31 £475 -2.56% 15
West Midlands -33 25 £525 - 23
East of England -3 22 £505 +60.32% 8
East Midlands -5 16 £450 -5.26% 13
South West -22 15 £550 -2.22% 27
North East -35 7 £525 +5.00%
Wales -12 2 - - 8

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

For the 6 months to 1 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.

1 290 (46.10%) Azure
2 283 (44.99%) Terraform
3 275 (43.72%) AWS
4 248 (39.43%) CI/CD
5 230 (36.57%) Infrastructure as Code
6 204 (32.43%) DevOps
7 161 (25.60%) Python
8 160 (25.44%) Security Cleared
9 143 (22.73%) Kubernetes
10 141 (22.42%) GCP
11 137 (21.78%) Cloud Security
12 127 (20.19%) SC Cleared
13 121 (19.24%) Platform Engineering
14 120 (19.08%) Microsoft
15 116 (18.44%) PowerShell
16 104 (16.53%) GitHub
16 104 (16.53%) Infrastructure Engineering
17 99 (15.74%) Google
18 90 (14.31%) Migration
19 85 (13.51%) Windows
20 80 (12.72%) AI
21 77 (12.24%) Containerisation
22 75 (11.92%) Agile
23 71 (11.29%) Firewall
24 67 (10.65%) Docker
24 67 (10.65%) GitHub Actions
25 64 (10.17%) Serverless
26 63 (10.02%) Entra ID
27 61 (9.70%) Bash
28 60 (9.54%) 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 (1.11%) Confluence
3 6 (0.95%) Apache
4 5 (0.79%) 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
1 290 (46.10%) Azure
2 275 (43.72%) AWS
3 141 (22.42%) GCP
4 104 (16.53%) GitHub
5 67 (10.65%) GitHub Actions
6 64 (10.17%) Serverless
7 63 (10.02%) Entra ID
8 48 (7.63%) Azure AKS
9 45 (7.15%) AWS CloudFormation
9 45 (7.15%) Azure DevOps
10 44 (7.00%) Amazon S3
11 42 (6.68%) IaaS
11 42 (6.68%) PaaS
12 40 (6.36%) AWS Lambda
13 36 (5.72%) Virtual Private Cloud
14 35 (5.56%) Amazon EKS
15 34 (5.41%) Amazon EC2
15 34 (5.41%) Amazon ECS
15 34 (5.41%) Google Kubernetes Engine
16 31 (4.93%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 71 (11.29%) Firewall
2 57 (9.06%) DNS
3 35 (5.56%) VPN
4 29 (4.61%) Network Security
5 15 (2.38%) WAN
6 13 (2.07%) TCP/IP
7 12 (1.91%) DHCP
8 6 (0.95%) Reverse Proxy
8 6 (0.95%) SD-WAN
9 5 (0.79%) BGP
9 5 (0.79%) Internet
9 5 (0.79%) 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 (3.34%) 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 (1.11%) Azure SQL Database
4 7 (1.11%) BigQuery
5 6 (0.95%) Amazon Redshift
6 5 (0.79%) Data Lake
6 5 (0.79%) 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 51 (8.11%) Jenkins
2 46 (7.31%) GitLab
3 42 (6.68%) Git
4 15 (2.38%) 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 76 (12.08%) Social Skills
2 70 (11.13%) Finance
3 58 (9.22%) Public Sector
4 26 (4.13%) Banking
5 21 (3.34%) Analytical Skills
6 12 (1.91%) Documentation Skills
7 9 (1.43%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 9 (1.43%) Investment Banking
8 6 (0.95%) Legal
9 5 (0.79%) Pharmaceutical
9 5 (0.79%) Presentation Skills
9 5 (0.79%) Retail
10 4 (0.64%) Law
10 4 (0.64%) Military
11 3 (0.48%) Corporate Banking
11 3 (0.48%) Financial Institution
11 3 (0.48%) Local Government
11 3 (0.48%) Police
11 3 (0.48%) Retail Banking
11 3 (0.48%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (3.97%) 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 (1.43%) .NET
5 9 (1.43%) React
5 9 (1.43%) Spring
5 9 (1.43%) Spring Boot
6 7 (1.11%) Model Context Protocol
6 7 (1.11%) OpenID
7 6 (0.95%) YAML
8 5 (0.79%) AWS CDK
8 5 (0.79%) 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
1 118 (18.76%) Cloud Native
2 33 (5.25%) Hybrid Cloud
3 28 (4.45%) Security Posture
4 27 (4.29%) Public Cloud
5 22 (3.50%) Data Centre
6 20 (3.18%) Enterprise Cloud
6 20 (3.18%) Onboarding
7 15 (2.38%) Distributed Systems
7 15 (2.38%) Enterprise Software
8 13 (2.07%) Cloud Security Posture
9 12 (1.91%) Management Information System
10 9 (1.43%) Self-Motivation
11 8 (1.27%) Data Protection Act
11 8 (1.27%) Product Ownership
12 6 (0.95%) Legacy Systems
12 6 (0.95%) Linux Command Line
13 5 (0.79%) Cyber Threat
13 5 (0.79%) Private Cloud
14 4 (0.64%) PKI
14 4 (0.64%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 85 (13.51%) Windows
2 53 (8.43%) Linux
3 46 (7.31%) Windows Server
4 20 (3.18%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 8 (1.27%) Ubuntu
6 6 (0.95%) 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
1 248 (39.43%) CI/CD
2 230 (36.57%) Infrastructure as Code
3 204 (32.43%) DevOps
4 137 (21.78%) Cloud Security
5 121 (19.24%) Platform Engineering
6 104 (16.53%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 90 (14.31%) Migration
8 80 (12.72%) AI
9 77 (12.24%) Containerisation
10 75 (11.92%) Agile
11 60 (9.54%) Observability
12 54 (8.59%) Problem-Solving
13 53 (8.43%) Infrastructure Automation
14 50 (7.95%) Technical Leadership
15 49 (7.79%) Continuous Improvement
16 48 (7.63%) Software Engineering
17 41 (6.52%) Cybersecurity
18 39 (6.20%) DevSecOps
19 38 (6.04%) Mentoring
20 34 (5.41%) RBAC
Programming Languages
1 161 (25.60%) Python
2 116 (18.44%) PowerShell
3 61 (9.70%) Bash
4 54 (8.59%) SQL
5 46 (7.31%) Bicep
6 33 (5.25%) Java
7 16 (2.54%) C#
8 12 (1.91%) JavaScript
9 10 (1.59%) Go
9 10 (1.59%) TypeScript
10 5 (0.79%) 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
1 160 (25.44%) Security Cleared
2 127 (20.19%) SC Cleared
3 46 (7.31%) Azure Certification
4 39 (6.20%) DV Cleared
5 37 (5.88%) AWS Certification
6 21 (3.34%) Degree
7 17 (2.70%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
8 15 (2.38%) Microsoft Certification
9 14 (2.23%) CISSP
10 12 (1.91%) Cisco Certification
11 9 (1.43%) Computer Science Degree
12 8 (1.27%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
13 7 (1.11%) BPSS Clearance
13 7 (1.11%) CCNP
14 6 (0.95%) MCSE
15 5 (0.79%) (ISC)2 CCSP
16 4 (0.64%) CCIE
16 4 (0.64%) CCSP
16 4 (0.64%) TOGAF Certification
17 3 (0.48%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (2.23%) NIST
2 10 (1.59%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 9 (1.43%) GDPR
3 9 (1.43%) NCSC
4 8 (1.27%) QA
5 6 (0.95%) PCI DSS
6 5 (0.79%) 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 67 (10.65%) Docker
2 58 (9.22%) Active Directory
3 25 (3.97%) Virtual Machines
3 25 (3.97%) VMware Infrastructure
4 19 (3.02%) VMware ESXi
4 19 (3.02%) VMware NSX
5 16 (2.54%) Virtual Desktop
6 15 (2.38%) vSphere
7 11 (1.75%) vCloud
8 10 (1.59%) Hyper-V
9 7 (1.11%) Squid
10 4 (0.64%) Firmware
11 3 (0.48%) Dovecot
11 3 (0.48%) NFS
11 3 (0.48%) Postfix
12 2 (0.32%) Ceph
12 2 (0.32%) KVM
Systems Management
1 283 (44.99%) Terraform
2 143 (22.73%) Kubernetes
3 43 (6.84%) Ansible
4 24 (3.82%) Grafana
5 23 (3.66%) Prometheus
6 22 (3.50%) Single Sign-On
7 16 (2.54%) vCenter Server
8 15 (2.38%) Microsoft Intune
9 14 (2.23%) Progress Chef
9 14 (2.23%) SCOM
10 13 (2.07%) Puppet
11 9 (1.43%) Istio
11 9 (1.43%) Packer
12 7 (1.11%) Argo
13 6 (0.95%) Cilium
14 4 (0.64%) HAProxy
14 4 (0.64%) Salt
14 4 (0.64%) Suricata
15 3 (0.48%) Active Directory Federation Services
15 3 (0.48%) vRealize
Vendors
1 120 (19.08%) Microsoft
2 99 (15.74%) Google
3 43 (6.84%) VMware
4 25 (3.97%) Oracle
5 17 (2.70%) Zscaler
6 15 (2.38%) Red Hat
7 14 (2.23%) Palo Alto
8 11 (1.75%) ServiceNow
9 10 (1.59%) Cisco
9 10 (1.59%) Okta
10 9 (1.43%) Dynatrace
10 9 (1.43%) Salesforce
11 8 (1.27%) CrowdStrike
12 7 (1.11%) Databricks
12 7 (1.11%) Fortinet
12 7 (1.11%) OpenAI
12 7 (1.11%) Splunk
13 5 (0.79%) Citrix
13 5 (0.79%) Rapid7
14 4 (0.64%) Broadcom