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 16 January 2026.

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

6 months to
16 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 264 306 249
Rank change year-on-year +42 -57 +4
Contract jobs requiring a Cloud Engineer 381 243 413
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.02% 0.76% 0.97%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.12% 0.82% 1.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 276 149 292
10th Percentile £401 £380 £425
25th Percentile £450 £450 £474
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £524 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.24% -4.55% -
75th Percentile £600 £638 £638
90th Percentile £705 £700 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £522 £500 £538
% change year-on-year +4.45% -7.02% +2.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 0 3
10th Percentile £25.13 - £35.50
25th Percentile £27.06 - £47.50
Median hourly rate £30.00 - £70.00
75th Percentile £81.88 - £81.38
90th Percentile £110.00 - £86.70
UK excluding London median hourly rate - - £59.25

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 33,987 29,559 39,694
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.39% 92.78% 93.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,524 18,135 26,394
10th Percentile £300 £288 £280
25th Percentile £405 £408 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £618 £638 £638
90th Percentile £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £500
% change year-on-year - -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,986 889 1,685
10th Percentile £14.38 £15.61 £14.16
25th Percentile £18.25 £21.22 £18.93
Median hourly rate £26.50 £32.50 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -18.46% -23.53% +21.43%
75th Percentile £60.00 £62.24 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £73.75 £76.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £31.52 £45.00
% change year-on-year -20.21% -29.96% +53.85%

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 16 January 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 16 January 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 16 January 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 +27 310 £525 - 103
UK excluding London +41 181 £522 +4.45% 77
London +11 152 £525 -4.55% 45
Work from Home -4 89 £500 -3.85% 52
North of England -21 54 £500 +15.94% 12
South East +10 45 £500 -13.04% 33
Midlands -23 39 £575 +21.05% 7
West Midlands -15 33 £575 -11.54% 5
Yorkshire -27 33 £513 +24.24% 4
Scotland +24 30 £525 +2.44% 3
North West -10 21 £450 - 7
South West -6 15 £538 -6.52% 12
East of England -14 10 £438 +6.97% 6
East Midlands -27 6 £575 +27.78% 2
Wales 0 1 £425 +41.67% 3

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

For the 6 months to 16 January 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.

1 173 (45.41%) AWS
2 163 (42.78%) CI/CD
3 158 (41.47%) DevOps
4 157 (41.21%) Terraform
5 153 (40.16%) Azure
6 149 (39.11%) Infrastructure as Code
7 118 (30.97%) Security Cleared
8 116 (30.45%) Python
9 111 (29.13%) Kubernetes
10 94 (24.67%) GCP
11 89 (23.36%) GitHub
12 78 (20.47%) SC Cleared
13 77 (20.21%) Containerisation
14 71 (18.64%) Agile
15 67 (17.59%) Docker
16 65 (17.06%) Microsoft
17 61 (16.01%) Google
18 60 (15.75%) Cloud Security
18 60 (15.75%) GitHub Actions
19 58 (15.22%) Jenkins
20 53 (13.91%) Serverless
21 47 (12.34%) GitLab
22 43 (11.29%) Linux
23 42 (11.02%) REST
24 40 (10.50%) Infrastructure Automation
24 40 (10.50%) Microservices
24 40 (10.50%) Problem-Solving
25 39 (10.24%) Ansible
25 39 (10.24%) PowerShell
26 38 (9.97%) Entra ID

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 6 (1.57%) Apache Spark
2 5 (1.31%) Apache
2 5 (1.31%) Microsoft Exchange
3 3 (0.79%) Apache Airflow
4 1 (0.26%) Apache Superset
4 1 (0.26%) CMS
4 1 (0.26%) Confluence
4 1 (0.26%) Headless CMS
4 1 (0.26%) nginx
4 1 (0.26%) SharePoint
4 1 (0.26%) WebLogic
Applications
1 2 (0.52%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 4 (1.05%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 173 (45.41%) AWS
2 153 (40.16%) Azure
3 94 (24.67%) GCP
4 89 (23.36%) GitHub
5 60 (15.75%) GitHub Actions
6 53 (13.91%) Serverless
7 38 (9.97%) Entra ID
8 37 (9.71%) AWS CloudFormation
9 33 (8.66%) Azure DevOps
10 28 (7.35%) PaaS
11 25 (6.56%) Amazon EKS
11 25 (6.56%) Amazon S3
12 24 (6.30%) IaaS
13 23 (6.04%) Google Kubernetes Engine
14 22 (5.77%) AWS Lambda
15 18 (4.72%) Azure Monitor
16 17 (4.46%) Amazon ECS
17 15 (3.94%) Azure AKS
17 15 (3.94%) Microsoft 365
18 13 (3.41%) Cloud Run
Communications & Networking
1 32 (8.40%) Firewall
2 21 (5.51%) Cisco Firepower
2 21 (5.51%) Cisco IOS
2 21 (5.51%) Cisco ISE
2 21 (5.51%) Junos
3 18 (4.72%) Network Security
4 14 (3.67%) VPN
5 9 (2.36%) DNS
6 5 (1.31%) NX-OS
6 5 (1.31%) WAN
7 3 (0.79%) DHCP
7 3 (0.79%) TCP/IP
8 2 (0.52%) LAN
8 2 (0.52%) Reverse Proxy
8 2 (0.52%) SAN
8 2 (0.52%) Unified Communications
8 2 (0.52%) Wi-Fi
9 1 (0.26%) IPsec
9 1 (0.26%) VLAN
9 1 (0.26%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 31 (8.14%) NoSQL
2 26 (6.82%) PostgreSQL
3 10 (2.62%) BigQuery
4 9 (2.36%) Power BI
5 8 (2.10%) Amazon Athena
6 7 (1.84%) Elasticsearch
7 6 (1.57%) Amazon RDS
7 6 (1.57%) Azure SQL Database
7 6 (1.57%) Data Warehouse
7 6 (1.57%) DynamoDB
8 5 (1.31%) Data Lake
9 4 (1.05%) Delta Lake
10 3 (0.79%) Amazon Aurora
10 3 (0.79%) Big Data
10 3 (0.79%) Oracle Database
11 2 (0.52%) Amazon Redshift
11 2 (0.52%) OLTP
11 2 (0.52%) Snowflake Schema
11 2 (0.52%) SQL Server
11 2 (0.52%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 58 (15.22%) Jenkins
2 47 (12.34%) GitLab
3 31 (8.14%) Git
4 13 (3.41%) Liquibase
5 10 (2.62%) JIRA
6 3 (0.79%) MLflow
6 3 (0.79%) Postman
7 2 (0.52%) Bitbucket
7 2 (0.52%) CircleCI
7 2 (0.52%) Sonatype Nexus
7 2 (0.52%) Spinnaker
8 1 (0.26%) Artifactory
8 1 (0.26%) Gemini Tracker
8 1 (0.26%) TeamCity
8 1 (0.26%) Travis CI
8 1 (0.26%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 71 (18.64%) Social Skills
2 64 (16.80%) Finance
3 34 (8.92%) Banking
4 29 (7.61%) Public Sector
5 28 (7.35%) Analytical Skills
6 19 (4.99%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 11 (2.89%) Financial Institution
8 7 (1.84%) Aeronautics
8 7 (1.84%) Retail
9 6 (1.57%) Local Government
10 5 (1.31%) Aviation
10 5 (1.31%) Pharmaceutical
10 5 (1.31%) Telecoms
11 4 (1.05%) Documentation Skills
11 4 (1.05%) Presentation Skills
12 2 (0.52%) Billing
12 2 (0.52%) Legal
12 2 (0.52%) Marketing
12 2 (0.52%) Military
13 1 (0.26%) Investment Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 42 (11.02%) REST
2 26 (6.82%) Elastic Stack
3 21 (5.51%) RESTful
4 20 (5.25%) Node.js
5 14 (3.67%) ARM Templates
5 14 (3.67%) Kafka
6 10 (2.62%) React
7 9 (2.36%) OpenTelemetry
8 8 (2.10%) LangChain
8 8 (2.10%) OpenAPI
8 8 (2.10%) Oracle Fusion
8 8 (2.10%) SAML
8 8 (2.10%) SOAP
9 7 (1.84%) .NET
9 7 (1.84%) AWS CDK
9 7 (1.84%) Lambda Expressions
9 7 (1.84%) OpenID
9 7 (1.84%) Spring
9 7 (1.84%) Spring Boot
10 6 (1.57%) GraphQL
Miscellaneous
1 61 (16.01%) Cloud Native
2 36 (9.45%) Public Cloud
3 21 (5.51%) Distributed Systems
4 9 (2.36%) PKI
5 7 (1.84%) Data Centre
6 6 (1.57%) Hybrid Cloud
6 6 (1.57%) Product Ownership
7 5 (1.31%) Genomics
7 5 (1.31%) Legacy Systems
7 5 (1.31%) Security Posture
8 4 (1.05%) Algorithms
8 4 (1.05%) Cloud Security Posture
8 4 (1.05%) Cyber Threat
8 4 (1.05%) Data Protection Act
8 4 (1.05%) Life Science
9 3 (0.79%) AI Agents
9 3 (0.79%) Distributed Computing
9 3 (0.79%) Replication
10 2 (0.52%) Linux Command Line
10 2 (0.52%) Onboarding
Operating Systems
1 43 (11.29%) Linux
2 29 (7.61%) Windows
3 21 (5.51%) Windows Server
4 9 (2.36%) Unix
5 4 (1.05%) VMS
6 1 (0.26%) Alpine Linux
6 1 (0.26%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 163 (42.78%) CI/CD
2 158 (41.47%) DevOps
3 149 (39.11%) Infrastructure as Code
4 77 (20.21%) Containerisation
5 71 (18.64%) Agile
6 60 (15.75%) Cloud Security
7 40 (10.50%) Infrastructure Automation
7 40 (10.50%) Microservices
7 40 (10.50%) Problem-Solving
8 37 (9.71%) Migration
9 36 (9.45%) Cybersecurity
9 36 (9.45%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 35 (9.19%) Observability
11 34 (8.92%) DevSecOps
11 34 (8.92%) Platform Engineering
12 33 (8.66%) AI
12 33 (8.66%) Continuous Improvement
12 33 (8.66%) Software Engineering
13 31 (8.14%) High Availability
14 29 (7.61%) Cost Optimisation
Programming Languages
1 116 (30.45%) Python
2 39 (10.24%) PowerShell
3 36 (9.45%) SQL
4 30 (7.87%) Java
5 28 (7.35%) Go
6 25 (6.56%) Bash
7 20 (5.25%) Bicep
8 12 (3.15%) TypeScript
9 11 (2.89%) Shell Script
10 9 (2.36%) JavaScript
11 7 (1.84%) Perl
12 5 (1.31%) C#
13 4 (1.05%) BeanShell
14 3 (0.79%) Ruby
15 2 (0.52%) Kusto Query Language
15 2 (0.52%) PL/SQL
15 2 (0.52%) T-SQL
16 1 (0.26%) C
16 1 (0.26%) Groovy
16 1 (0.26%) Korn
Qualifications
1 118 (30.97%) Security Cleared
2 78 (20.47%) SC Cleared
3 37 (9.71%) DV Cleared
4 36 (9.45%) Azure Certification
4 36 (9.45%) Degree
5 32 (8.40%) AWS Certification
6 21 (5.51%) Computer Science Degree
7 19 (4.99%) Master's Degree
8 11 (2.89%) Microsoft Certification
9 10 (2.62%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 8 (2.10%) BPSS Clearance
10 8 (2.10%) CISSP
11 7 (1.84%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
11 7 (1.84%) Cisco Certification
12 5 (1.31%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 5 (1.31%) CCSP
12 5 (1.31%) CISM
13 4 (1.05%) AWS Certified Developer
14 3 (0.79%) SANS
14 3 (0.79%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (3.15%) GDPR
2 11 (2.89%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 11 (2.89%) NIST
3 10 (2.62%) NCSC
4 9 (2.36%) QA
5 5 (1.31%) GRC
5 5 (1.31%) PCI DSS
6 4 (1.05%) Data Quality
7 3 (0.79%) Cyber Essentials
8 2 (0.52%) HIPAA
8 2 (0.52%) SOC 2
9 1 (0.26%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 1 (0.26%) FedRAMP
9 1 (0.26%) JSP 440
System Software
1 67 (17.59%) Docker
2 36 (9.45%) Active Directory
3 21 (5.51%) VMware NSX
4 11 (2.89%) Virtual Machines
5 6 (1.57%) Virtual Desktop
6 5 (1.31%) VMware Infrastructure
7 4 (1.05%) Firmware
7 4 (1.05%) Hyper-V
8 2 (0.52%) Virtual Servers
9 1 (0.26%) KVM
9 1 (0.26%) Squid
Systems Management
1 157 (41.21%) Terraform
2 111 (29.13%) Kubernetes
3 39 (10.24%) Ansible
4 33 (8.66%) Grafana
5 32 (8.40%) Prometheus
6 21 (5.51%) vCenter Server
7 13 (3.41%) Argo
8 12 (3.15%) Istio
9 7 (1.84%) Kibana
9 7 (1.84%) logstash
9 7 (1.84%) Single Sign-On
10 5 (1.31%) Microsoft Intune
11 3 (0.79%) Podman
11 3 (0.79%) Proxmox
12 2 (0.52%) FortiGate
12 2 (0.52%) Puppet
13 1 (0.26%) Kustomize
13 1 (0.26%) Packer
13 1 (0.26%) Salt
13 1 (0.26%) SCCM
Vendors
1 65 (17.06%) Microsoft
2 61 (16.01%) Google
3 24 (6.30%) Cisco
4 23 (6.04%) Splunk
5 22 (5.77%) Juniper
6 21 (5.51%) SolarWinds
7 16 (4.20%) Oracle
8 14 (3.67%) Databricks
9 9 (2.36%) ServiceNow
10 8 (2.10%) Palo Alto
11 7 (1.84%) Dynatrace
11 7 (1.84%) VMware
12 6 (1.57%) Ping Identity
13 5 (1.31%) Broadcom
13 5 (1.31%) MuleSoft
14 4 (1.05%) Rapid7
14 4 (1.05%) Salesforce
15 3 (0.79%) Cloudera
15 3 (0.79%) Zscaler
16 2 (0.52%) Tenable