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 17 August 2026.

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

6 months to
17 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 200 308 326
Rank change year-on-year +108 +18 -53
Contract jobs requiring a Cloud Engineer 740 258 250
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.38% 0.78% 0.65%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.49% 0.85% 0.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 475 190 165
10th Percentile £400 £402 £386
25th Percentile £450 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -9.09% -
75th Percentile £600 £575 £625
90th Percentile £680 £638 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £510 £500 £515
% change year-on-year +2.00% -2.91% -1.90%
Number of hourly rates quoted 27 6 1
10th Percentile £23.20 £29.00 -
25th Percentile £47.10 £29.25 £27.50
Median hourly rate £77.00 £37.50 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year +105.33% +25.00% -
75th Percentile £81.25 £58.75 £32.50
90th Percentile £82.75 £86.25 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £72.00 - £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 49,505 30,216 36,013
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.52% 91.29% 92.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,709 19,089 23,205
10th Percentile £325 £281 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.69%
75th Percentile £625 £621 £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 3,494 1,545 1,999
10th Percentile £15.00 £13.60 £14.16
25th Percentile £20.53 £17.30 £20.00
Median hourly rate £41.74 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +65.94% -41.51% +2.87%
75th Percentile £67.96 £53.99 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £72.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £45.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -44.11% +21.62%

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 17 August 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 17 August 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 17 August 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 +102 636 £525 +5.00% 216
UK excluding London +92 386 £510 +2.00% 145
London +58 306 £525 - 100
Work from Home +21 189 £540 +8.00% 97
South East +13 116 £538 +7.50% 29
North of England -1 107 £525 +16.67% 51
North West +3 64 £533 +21.83% 26
Midlands +4 62 £500 +5.26% 15
Scotland +36 58 £442 -11.60% 11
Yorkshire -5 36 £474 -5.12% 16
West Midlands -24 32 £525 +8.81% 13
East Midlands +5 29 £450 -5.26% 2
East of England 0 22 £505 +4.12% 10
South West -34 15 £600 +9.09% 22
Wales -8 7 - - 3
North East -41 7 £525 +10.53% 9

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

For the 6 months to 17 August 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.

1 354 (47.84%) Azure
2 315 (42.57%) Terraform
3 270 (36.49%) AWS
4 262 (35.41%) CI/CD
5 259 (35.00%) Infrastructure as Code
6 209 (28.24%) DevOps
7 195 (26.35%) Python
8 188 (25.41%) Kubernetes
8 188 (25.41%) Security Cleared
9 171 (23.11%) Cloud Security
9 171 (23.11%) Microsoft
10 166 (22.43%) GCP
11 160 (21.62%) PowerShell
12 150 (20.27%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 141 (19.05%) SC Cleared
14 138 (18.65%) Platform Engineering
15 118 (15.95%) Google
16 115 (15.54%) Windows
17 96 (12.97%) Entra ID
18 94 (12.70%) AI
19 92 (12.43%) GitHub
20 88 (11.89%) Migration
21 87 (11.76%) Active Directory
21 87 (11.76%) Containerisation
22 86 (11.62%) Agile
23 83 (11.22%) Bash
23 83 (11.22%) Observability
24 80 (10.81%) Firewall
25 78 (10.54%) Docker
26 75 (10.14%) DNS

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 (1.76%) Microsoft Exchange
2 9 (1.22%) Apache
3 6 (0.81%) Apache Airflow
3 6 (0.81%) Confluence
4 5 (0.68%) SharePoint
5 3 (0.41%) IIS
5 3 (0.41%) nginx
5 3 (0.41%) Tomcat
6 2 (0.27%) CloudStack
6 2 (0.27%) OpenStack
7 1 (0.14%) Apache Pulsar
7 1 (0.14%) Apache Spark
Applications
1 1 (0.14%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 2 (0.27%) Aladdin
Cloud Services
1 354 (47.84%) Azure
2 270 (36.49%) AWS
3 166 (22.43%) GCP
4 96 (12.97%) Entra ID
5 92 (12.43%) GitHub
6 59 (7.97%) GitHub Actions
7 56 (7.57%) Serverless
8 53 (7.16%) Azure DevOps
9 47 (6.35%) Azure AKS
10 46 (6.22%) AWS CloudFormation
11 44 (5.95%) IaaS
12 41 (5.54%) Google Kubernetes Engine
13 40 (5.41%) AWS Lambda
14 39 (5.27%) Amazon S3
15 36 (4.86%) Amazon EC2
15 36 (4.86%) Azure Monitor
16 35 (4.73%) Virtual Private Cloud
17 34 (4.59%) Amazon EKS
17 34 (4.59%) Microsoft 365
18 33 (4.46%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 80 (10.81%) Firewall
2 75 (10.14%) DNS
3 38 (5.14%) VPN
4 36 (4.86%) Network Security
5 17 (2.30%) DHCP
5 17 (2.30%) WAN
6 14 (1.89%) TCP/IP
7 12 (1.62%) Internet
8 6 (0.81%) SD-WAN
9 5 (0.68%) LAN
9 5 (0.68%) SSL
9 5 (0.68%) VLAN
10 4 (0.54%) BGP
10 4 (0.54%) Reverse Proxy
10 4 (0.54%) SAN
10 4 (0.54%) SMTP
10 4 (0.54%) VSAN
11 3 (0.41%) IPv4
11 3 (0.41%) NGFW
11 3 (0.41%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 27 (3.65%) SQL Server
2 19 (2.57%) Amazon RDS
3 16 (2.16%) PostgreSQL
4 12 (1.62%) BigQuery
5 8 (1.08%) Amazon Athena
5 8 (1.08%) Oracle Exadata
6 7 (0.95%) DynamoDB
7 6 (0.81%) Azure SQL Database
7 6 (0.81%) Data Lake
8 5 (0.68%) Oracle Database
9 4 (0.54%) Amazon Redshift
10 3 (0.41%) Amazon QuickSight
10 3 (0.41%) Flink
10 3 (0.41%) Looker
10 3 (0.41%) Metadata
10 3 (0.41%) MongoDB
10 3 (0.41%) MySQL
10 3 (0.41%) Oracle Database 12c
11 2 (0.27%) Elasticsearch
11 2 (0.27%) Redis
Development Applications
1 54 (7.30%) GitLab
2 48 (6.49%) Jenkins
3 38 (5.14%) Git
4 18 (2.43%) JIRA
5 9 (1.22%) Artifactory
6 6 (0.81%) Claude Code
7 5 (0.68%) Bitbucket
8 3 (0.41%) Selenium
9 2 (0.27%) Atlassian Bamboo
9 2 (0.27%) Cypress.io
9 2 (0.27%) Gatling
9 2 (0.27%) JMeter
9 2 (0.27%) Octopus Deploy
9 2 (0.27%) Robot Framework
9 2 (0.27%) SonarQube
10 1 (0.14%) Chocolatey
10 1 (0.14%) CircleCI
10 1 (0.14%) Spinnaker
10 1 (0.14%) Terragrunt
10 1 (0.14%) TestRail
General
1 96 (12.97%) Finance
2 82 (11.08%) Social Skills
3 68 (9.19%) Public Sector
4 30 (4.05%) Analytical Skills
5 27 (3.65%) Banking
6 12 (1.62%) Documentation Skills
6 12 (1.62%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 8 (1.08%) Investment Banking
8 5 (0.68%) Law
8 5 (0.68%) Legal
8 5 (0.68%) Local Government
9 4 (0.54%) Pharmaceutical
10 3 (0.41%) Digital Health
10 3 (0.41%) Digital Healthcare
10 3 (0.41%) Front Office
10 3 (0.41%) Italian Language
10 3 (0.41%) Manufacturing
10 3 (0.41%) Military
10 3 (0.41%) Police
10 3 (0.41%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 24 (3.24%) REST
2 13 (1.76%) ARM Templates
3 11 (1.49%) Node.js
3 11 (1.49%) OAuth
3 11 (1.49%) OAuth2
3 11 (1.49%) Spring
3 11 (1.49%) Spring Boot
4 9 (1.22%) Kafka
5 8 (1.08%) AWS CDK
5 8 (1.08%) React
6 7 (0.95%) YAML
7 6 (0.81%) .NET
7 6 (0.81%) FastAPI
7 6 (0.81%) Flask
7 6 (0.81%) Keycloak
7 6 (0.81%) Model Context Protocol
7 6 (0.81%) OpenID
8 4 (0.54%) PySpark
8 4 (0.54%) PyTorch
8 4 (0.54%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 127 (17.16%) Cloud Native
2 54 (7.30%) Security Posture
3 41 (5.54%) Enterprise Cloud
4 34 (4.59%) Hybrid Cloud
5 30 (4.05%) Onboarding
6 26 (3.51%) Cloud Security Posture
7 23 (3.11%) Enterprise Software
8 18 (2.43%) Data Centre
8 18 (2.43%) Public Cloud
9 17 (2.30%) Management Information System
10 16 (2.16%) Distributed Systems
11 10 (1.35%) Linux Command Line
12 9 (1.22%) Data Protection Act
12 9 (1.22%) Product Ownership
13 8 (1.08%) AI Agents
13 8 (1.08%) Private Cloud
13 8 (1.08%) Self-Motivation
14 7 (0.95%) Legacy Systems
14 7 (0.95%) PKI
15 4 (0.54%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 115 (15.54%) Windows
2 75 (10.14%) Linux
3 56 (7.57%) Windows Server
4 31 (4.19%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 10 (1.35%) Windows Server 2019
6 8 (1.08%) Ubuntu
7 4 (0.54%) VMS
8 3 (0.41%) CentOS
9 2 (0.27%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 262 (35.41%) CI/CD
2 259 (35.00%) Infrastructure as Code
3 209 (28.24%) DevOps
4 171 (23.11%) Cloud Security
5 150 (20.27%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 138 (18.65%) Platform Engineering
7 94 (12.70%) AI
8 88 (11.89%) Migration
9 87 (11.76%) Containerisation
10 86 (11.62%) Agile
11 83 (11.22%) Observability
12 60 (8.11%) Software Engineering
13 59 (7.97%) Continuous Improvement
14 55 (7.43%) Technical Leadership
15 53 (7.16%) Infrastructure Automation
16 52 (7.03%) Problem-Solving
17 51 (6.89%) DevSecOps
18 47 (6.35%) Change Management
18 47 (6.35%) Deployment Automation
19 44 (5.95%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 195 (26.35%) Python
2 160 (21.62%) PowerShell
3 83 (11.22%) Bash
4 67 (9.05%) Bicep
5 62 (8.38%) SQL
6 38 (5.14%) Java
7 20 (2.70%) C#
8 16 (2.16%) Shell Script
9 12 (1.62%) JavaScript
10 10 (1.35%) Go
11 6 (0.81%) TypeScript
12 4 (0.54%) Groovy
13 3 (0.41%) C
13 3 (0.41%) Scala
14 2 (0.27%) Kusto Query Language
14 2 (0.27%) Ruby
15 1 (0.14%) Apex Code
15 1 (0.14%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 1 (0.14%) Perl
15 1 (0.14%) R
Qualifications
1 188 (25.41%) Security Cleared
2 141 (19.05%) SC Cleared
3 61 (8.24%) DV Cleared
4 48 (6.49%) AWS Certification
5 47 (6.35%) Azure Certification
6 30 (4.05%) Degree
7 16 (2.16%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
7 16 (2.16%) CISSP
7 16 (2.16%) Microsoft Certification
8 9 (1.22%) Cisco Certification
9 8 (1.08%) Computer Science Degree
9 8 (1.08%) MCSE
10 7 (0.95%) BPSS Clearance
10 7 (0.95%) CCNP
11 5 (0.68%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
11 5 (0.68%) CISM
12 4 (0.54%) CCIE
12 4 (0.54%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 3 (0.41%) AWS Certified SysOps Administrator
13 3 (0.41%) CEH
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (1.89%) Data Quality
2 13 (1.76%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 10 (1.35%) NIST
3 10 (1.35%) QA
4 9 (1.22%) NCSC
5 5 (0.68%) Cyber Essentials
5 5 (0.68%) GDPR
6 3 (0.41%) Disclosure Scotland
6 3 (0.41%) SLA
7 2 (0.27%) Actionable Recommendations
7 2 (0.27%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 2 (0.27%) PCI DSS
8 1 (0.14%) Accessibility
8 1 (0.14%) Government Security Classifications
8 1 (0.14%) GRC
8 1 (0.14%) SOC 2
8 1 (0.14%) WCAG
System Software
1 87 (11.76%) Active Directory
2 78 (10.54%) Docker
3 39 (5.27%) VMware Infrastructure
4 32 (4.32%) Virtual Machines
5 26 (3.51%) VMware ESXi
6 23 (3.11%) VMware NSX
7 21 (2.84%) Virtual Desktop
8 18 (2.43%) vSphere
9 13 (1.76%) vCloud
10 10 (1.35%) Hyper-V
11 7 (0.95%) Squid
12 4 (0.54%) Firmware
13 3 (0.41%) Ceph
13 3 (0.41%) Dovecot
13 3 (0.41%) NFS
13 3 (0.41%) Postfix
14 2 (0.27%) KVM
14 2 (0.27%) Virtual Servers
15 1 (0.14%) BitLocker
Systems Management
1 315 (42.57%) Terraform
2 188 (25.41%) Kubernetes
3 51 (6.89%) Ansible
4 25 (3.38%) Microsoft Intune
5 23 (3.11%) Grafana
6 22 (2.97%) vCenter Server
7 21 (2.84%) Prometheus
8 20 (2.70%) Progress Chef
8 20 (2.70%) SCOM
9 18 (2.43%) Single Sign-On
10 15 (2.03%) Puppet
11 9 (1.22%) Istio
12 8 (1.08%) Packer
13 6 (0.81%) Argo
13 6 (0.81%) Cilium
14 5 (0.68%) VxRail
15 4 (0.54%) Suricata
16 3 (0.41%) Karpenter
16 3 (0.41%) Salt
16 3 (0.41%) vRealize
Vendors
1 171 (23.11%) Microsoft
2 118 (15.95%) Google
3 61 (8.24%) VMware
4 32 (4.32%) Oracle
5 18 (2.43%) Red Hat
6 17 (2.30%) Okta
6 17 (2.30%) Zscaler
7 13 (1.76%) Palo Alto
7 13 (1.76%) ServiceNow
7 13 (1.76%) Splunk
8 12 (1.62%) OpenAI
9 11 (1.49%) Databricks
10 10 (1.35%) Cisco
10 10 (1.35%) Dynatrace
11 9 (1.22%) CrowdStrike
11 9 (1.22%) Salesforce
12 8 (1.08%) BeyondTrust
12 8 (1.08%) Broadcom
12 8 (1.08%) New Relic
12 8 (1.08%) SolarWinds