Cloud Engineer Contract Job Trends

Cloud Engineer
UK

The median Cloud Engineer daily rate in the UK is £518, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 1 October 2026.

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

6 months to
1 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 199 316 333
Rank change year-on-year +117 +17 -80
Contract jobs requiring a Cloud Engineer 799 266 244
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.46% 0.80% 0.64%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.58% 0.88% 0.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 528 195 147
10th Percentile £411 £400 £395
25th Percentile £450 £431 £456
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £518 £500 £551
Median % change year-on-year +3.50% -9.26% +0.18%
75th Percentile £595 £575 £641
90th Percentile £677 £672 £705
UK excluding London median daily rate £510 £500 £515
% change year-on-year +2.00% -2.91% -6.36%
Number of hourly rates quoted 32 7 0
10th Percentile £22.74 £29.00 -
25th Percentile £23.20 £29.50 -
Median hourly rate £76.50 £45.00 -
Median % change year-on-year +70.00% - -
75th Percentile £81.25 £86.25 -
90th Percentile - £110.00 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £46.73 - -

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 50,623 30,078 35,169
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.20% 90.98% 92.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,851 19,013 21,316
10th Percentile £325 £276 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -0.94%
75th Percentile £630 £623 £638
90th Percentile £734 £725 £749
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,956 1,609 1,552
10th Percentile £14.50 £13.75 £14.86
25th Percentile £19.91 £17.30 £20.94
Median hourly rate £41.74 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +65.94% -41.51% -2.82%
75th Percentile £67.50 £51.25 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £68.31 £74.86
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.87 £25.08 £43.00
% change year-on-year +66.97% -41.69% -2.05%

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 October 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 October 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 October 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 +116 701 £525 +5.00% 1,412
UK excluding London +104 440 £510 +2.00% 769
London +54 302 £525 - 702
Work from Home +37 209 £539 +7.80% 538
North of England +32 145 £511 +13.61% 216
South East +25 135 £538 +7.50% 125
North West +17 87 £513 +17.14% 138
Midlands +12 78 £500 -9.09% 100
Yorkshire -3 48 £460 -20.00% 49
Scotland +5 45 £425 -15.00% 101
East Midlands +21 44 £500 +5.26% 47
West Midlands -12 33 £525 -4.55% 53
East of England -16 16 £475 +5.56% 63
South West -25 16 £575 - 105
North East -32 10 £525 +14.13% 29
Wales -8 7 - - 19

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

For the 6 months to 1 October 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.

1 384 (48.06%) Azure
2 312 (39.05%) Terraform
3 285 (35.67%) Infrastructure as Code
4 269 (33.67%) AWS
4 269 (33.67%) CI/CD
5 211 (26.41%) Kubernetes
6 207 (25.91%) Security Cleared
7 203 (25.41%) DevOps
8 194 (24.28%) Python
9 190 (23.78%) Microsoft
10 181 (22.65%) Cloud Security
11 170 (21.28%) PowerShell
12 164 (20.53%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 159 (19.90%) GCP
14 146 (18.27%) Platform Engineering
14 146 (18.27%) SC Cleared
15 127 (15.89%) Entra ID
16 126 (15.77%) Windows
17 109 (13.64%) Active Directory
18 104 (13.02%) AI
19 103 (12.89%) Google
20 101 (12.64%) Migration
21 94 (11.76%) Containerisation
22 90 (11.26%) Observability
23 88 (11.01%) GitHub
24 85 (10.64%) Firewall
25 84 (10.51%) DNS
25 84 (10.51%) Docker
26 83 (10.39%) Agile
27 81 (10.14%) Bash

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 15 (1.88%) Microsoft Exchange
2 12 (1.50%) Apache
3 9 (1.13%) SharePoint
4 8 (1.00%) Apache Airflow
5 7 (0.88%) Confluence
6 3 (0.38%) Apache Spark
6 3 (0.38%) IIS
6 3 (0.38%) nginx
6 3 (0.38%) OpenStack
6 3 (0.38%) Tomcat
7 2 (0.25%) CloudStack
8 1 (0.13%) Apache Pulsar
Applications
1 1 (0.13%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 1 (0.13%) Aladdin
1 1 (0.13%) iTrent
Cloud Services
1 384 (48.06%) Azure
2 269 (33.67%) AWS
3 159 (19.90%) GCP
4 127 (15.89%) Entra ID
5 88 (11.01%) GitHub
6 56 (7.01%) GitHub Actions
7 55 (6.88%) IaaS
8 54 (6.76%) Azure DevOps
8 54 (6.76%) Serverless
9 45 (5.63%) AWS CloudFormation
10 44 (5.51%) Microsoft 365
11 43 (5.38%) Azure Monitor
12 41 (5.13%) Google Kubernetes Engine
13 40 (5.01%) AWS Lambda
14 39 (4.88%) Azure AKS
15 37 (4.63%) PaaS
16 35 (4.38%) Amazon EKS
17 33 (4.13%) Amazon CloudWatch
18 31 (3.88%) Amazon S3
19 30 (3.75%) Amazon EC2
Communications & Networking
1 85 (10.64%) Firewall
2 84 (10.51%) DNS
3 44 (5.51%) Network Security
4 40 (5.01%) VPN
5 21 (2.63%) DHCP
6 18 (2.25%) WAN
7 16 (2.00%) TCP/IP
8 12 (1.50%) Internet
9 9 (1.13%) VSAN
10 7 (0.88%) NGFW
10 7 (0.88%) SD-WAN
10 7 (0.88%) VLAN
11 5 (0.63%) Kerberos
12 4 (0.50%) BGP
12 4 (0.50%) LAN
12 4 (0.50%) SAN
12 4 (0.50%) SSL
12 4 (0.50%) Wireless
13 3 (0.38%) OSPF
13 3 (0.38%) Reverse Proxy
Database & Business Intelligence
1 28 (3.50%) SQL Server
2 21 (2.63%) Amazon RDS
3 17 (2.13%) PostgreSQL
4 13 (1.63%) BigQuery
5 11 (1.38%) Data Lake
6 8 (1.00%) Oracle Exadata
7 7 (0.88%) DynamoDB
7 7 (0.88%) NoSQL
8 6 (0.75%) Amazon Athena
8 6 (0.75%) Azure SQL Database
9 5 (0.63%) Oracle Database
10 3 (0.38%) Flink
10 3 (0.38%) Looker
10 3 (0.38%) Metadata
10 3 (0.38%) MongoDB
10 3 (0.38%) MySQL
10 3 (0.38%) Oracle Database 12c
11 2 (0.25%) Big Data
11 2 (0.25%) Data Warehouse
11 2 (0.25%) Redis
Development Applications
1 54 (6.76%) GitLab
2 47 (5.88%) Jenkins
3 38 (4.76%) Git
4 17 (2.13%) JIRA
5 8 (1.00%) Artifactory
6 7 (0.88%) Claude Code
7 6 (0.75%) Bitbucket
8 3 (0.38%) Terragrunt
9 2 (0.25%) Atlassian Bamboo
9 2 (0.25%) Cypress.io
9 2 (0.25%) Gatling
9 2 (0.25%) JMeter
9 2 (0.25%) Octopus Deploy
10 1 (0.13%) CircleCI
10 1 (0.13%) eggPlant
10 1 (0.13%) Postman
10 1 (0.13%) REST Assured
10 1 (0.13%) Selenium
10 1 (0.13%) Spinnaker
10 1 (0.13%) TestRail
General
1 96 (12.02%) Finance
2 82 (10.26%) Social Skills
3 77 (9.64%) Public Sector
4 32 (4.01%) Analytical Skills
5 28 (3.50%) Banking
6 10 (1.25%) Manufacturing
7 9 (1.13%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 8 (1.00%) Documentation Skills
8 8 (1.00%) Legal
9 6 (0.75%) Investment Banking
10 5 (0.63%) Law
10 5 (0.63%) Local Government
10 5 (0.63%) Pharmaceutical
10 5 (0.63%) Presentation Skills
11 4 (0.50%) Front Office
11 4 (0.50%) Police
12 3 (0.38%) Digital Health
12 3 (0.38%) Italian Language
12 3 (0.38%) Military
12 3 (0.38%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 312 (39.05%) Terraform
2 26 (3.25%) REST
3 19 (2.38%) ARM Templates
4 14 (1.75%) Kafka
5 13 (1.63%) OAuth
6 12 (1.50%) OAuth2
7 10 (1.25%) Spring
7 10 (1.25%) Spring Boot
8 8 (1.00%) AWS CDK
8 8 (1.00%) Keycloak
8 8 (1.00%) Node.js
8 8 (1.00%) OpenID
8 8 (1.00%) React
9 7 (0.88%) .NET
9 7 (0.88%) YAML
10 6 (0.75%) FastAPI
10 6 (0.75%) Flask
11 5 (0.63%) Azure Blueprints
12 4 (0.50%) PySpark
12 4 (0.50%) PyTorch
Miscellaneous
1 125 (15.64%) Cloud Native
2 61 (7.63%) Security Posture
3 45 (5.63%) Enterprise Cloud
4 40 (5.01%) Hybrid Cloud
5 32 (4.01%) Cloud Security Posture
6 30 (3.75%) Onboarding
7 27 (3.38%) Enterprise Software
8 24 (3.00%) Data Centre
9 21 (2.63%) Management Information System
10 20 (2.50%) Distributed Systems
11 14 (1.75%) Private Cloud
12 13 (1.63%) Product Ownership
12 13 (1.63%) Public Cloud
13 11 (1.38%) Linux Command Line
14 10 (1.25%) PKI
15 8 (1.00%) AI Agents
15 8 (1.00%) Data Protection Act
16 6 (0.75%) Distributed Architecture
17 5 (0.63%) CMDB
18 4 (0.50%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 126 (15.77%) Windows
2 81 (10.14%) Linux
3 63 (7.88%) Windows Server
4 31 (3.88%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 15 (1.88%) Windows Server 2019
6 8 (1.00%) Ubuntu
7 7 (0.88%) VMS
8 3 (0.38%) CentOS
9 2 (0.25%) Data ONTAP
9 2 (0.25%) Windows Server 2012
10 1 (0.13%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 285 (35.67%) Infrastructure as Code
2 269 (33.67%) CI/CD
3 203 (25.41%) DevOps
4 181 (22.65%) Cloud Security
5 164 (20.53%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 146 (18.27%) Platform Engineering
7 104 (13.02%) AI
8 101 (12.64%) Migration
9 94 (11.76%) Containerisation
10 90 (11.26%) Observability
11 83 (10.39%) Agile
12 65 (8.14%) Technical Leadership
13 62 (7.76%) Cybersecurity
14 60 (7.51%) Infrastructure Automation
15 59 (7.38%) DevSecOps
15 59 (7.38%) Software Engineering
16 58 (7.26%) Deployment Automation
17 55 (6.88%) Continuous Improvement
18 54 (6.76%) Problem-Solving
18 54 (6.76%) RBAC
Programming Languages
1 194 (24.28%) Python
2 170 (21.28%) PowerShell
3 81 (10.14%) Bash
4 76 (9.51%) Bicep
5 66 (8.26%) SQL
6 38 (4.76%) Java
7 16 (2.00%) Shell Script
8 15 (1.88%) C#
9 11 (1.38%) JavaScript
10 9 (1.13%) Go
11 4 (0.50%) TypeScript
12 3 (0.38%) C
12 3 (0.38%) Scala
13 2 (0.25%) Groovy
13 2 (0.25%) Kusto Query Language
14 1 (0.13%) Apex Code
14 1 (0.13%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 1 (0.13%) Kotlin
14 1 (0.13%) Perl
14 1 (0.13%) R
Qualifications
1 207 (25.91%) Security Cleared
2 146 (18.27%) SC Cleared
3 71 (8.89%) DV Cleared
4 47 (5.88%) Azure Certification
5 44 (5.51%) AWS Certification
6 35 (4.38%) Degree
7 22 (2.75%) Microsoft Certification
8 18 (2.25%) CISSP
9 13 (1.63%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 8 (1.00%) BPSS Clearance
10 8 (1.00%) Cisco Certification
10 8 (1.00%) MCSE
11 7 (0.88%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 6 (0.75%) CCNP
12 6 (0.75%) CISM
12 6 (0.75%) Computer Science Degree
13 5 (0.63%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
14 3 (0.38%) CCIE
14 3 (0.38%) CEH
14 3 (0.38%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (2.13%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 13 (1.63%) Data Quality
2 13 (1.63%) NIST
3 7 (0.88%) NCSC
3 7 (0.88%) QA
4 6 (0.75%) Cyber Essentials
4 6 (0.75%) GDPR
5 4 (0.50%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 4 (0.50%) PCI DSS
6 3 (0.38%) Disclosure Scotland
7 2 (0.25%) SLA
8 1 (0.13%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.13%) Government Security Classifications
8 1 (0.13%) GRC
System Software
1 109 (13.64%) Active Directory
2 84 (10.51%) Docker
3 52 (6.51%) VMware Infrastructure
4 41 (5.13%) Virtual Machines
5 35 (4.38%) VMware ESXi
6 27 (3.38%) VMware NSX
7 23 (2.88%) Virtual Desktop
8 21 (2.63%) vSphere
9 15 (1.88%) vCloud
10 11 (1.38%) Hyper-V
11 6 (0.75%) Squid
12 5 (0.63%) Firmware
13 4 (0.50%) NFS
14 3 (0.38%) Ceph
14 3 (0.38%) Dovecot
14 3 (0.38%) Postfix
15 2 (0.25%) IAG
15 2 (0.25%) KVM
15 2 (0.25%) Virtual Servers
16 1 (0.13%) DFS Replication
Systems Management
1 211 (26.41%) Kubernetes
2 54 (6.76%) Ansible
3 31 (3.88%) vCenter Server
4 29 (3.63%) Microsoft Intune
5 27 (3.38%) SCOM
6 24 (3.00%) Grafana
7 21 (2.63%) Prometheus
8 19 (2.38%) Progress Chef
9 16 (2.00%) Single Sign-On
10 14 (1.75%) Puppet
11 11 (1.38%) Istio
12 8 (1.00%) Cilium
13 6 (0.75%) Argo
13 6 (0.75%) Packer
14 5 (0.63%) VxRail
15 4 (0.50%) Suricata
16 3 (0.38%) Active Directory Federation Services
16 3 (0.38%) HAProxy
16 3 (0.38%) Karpenter
16 3 (0.38%) vRealize
Vendors
1 190 (23.78%) Microsoft
2 103 (12.89%) Google
3 76 (9.51%) VMware
4 36 (4.51%) Oracle
5 27 (3.38%) Databricks
6 20 (2.50%) Red Hat
7 18 (2.25%) Palo Alto
8 17 (2.13%) Okta
9 16 (2.00%) SolarWinds
9 16 (2.00%) Zscaler
10 14 (1.75%) Splunk
11 13 (1.63%) Broadcom
11 13 (1.63%) Cisco
11 13 (1.63%) ServiceNow
12 12 (1.50%) OpenAI
13 10 (1.25%) Dynatrace
14 9 (1.13%) CrowdStrike
14 9 (1.13%) New Relic
15 8 (1.00%) BeyondTrust
15 8 (1.00%) Salesforce