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 5 June 2026.

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

6 months to
5 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 224 306 328
Rank change year-on-year +82 +22 -62
Contract jobs requiring a Cloud Engineer 572 228 272
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.16% 0.79% 0.63%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.26% 0.85% 0.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 380 176 183
10th Percentile £400 £401 £400
25th Percentile £462 £449 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -9.09% -2.65%
75th Percentile £613 £578 £625
90th Percentile £688 £635 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £522 £500 £510
% change year-on-year +4.40% -1.96% -7.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 1 3
10th Percentile £30.35 - -
25th Percentile £71.00 £42.50 £27.50
Median hourly rate £76.00 £45.00 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year +68.89% +50.00% -41.18%
75th Percentile £81.25 £47.50 £32.50
90th Percentile £85.00 - -
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 45,342 26,733 39,846
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.33% 92.39% 92.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,608 17,258 25,745
10th Percentile £325 £287 £280
25th Percentile £413 £404 £408
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £501 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.40% -4.67% -2.78%
75th Percentile £619 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +5.26% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,029 1,088 2,850
10th Percentile £15.05 £14.00 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.69 £17.87 £16.30
Median hourly rate £43.69 £28.00 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +56.04% -25.33% -16.67%
75th Percentile £67.50 £58.75 £61.60
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% -5.88%

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 5 June 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 5 June 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 5 June 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 +75 478 £525 +5.00% 275
London +61 284 £525 +5.00% 123
UK excluding London +5 222 £522 +4.40% 178
Work from Home +14 145 £539 +7.75% 134
North of England -39 62 £505 +1.00% 41
South East -36 55 £538 +7.50% 53
Scotland +23 43 £451 -14.19% 9
North West -14 34 £505 +22.13% 35
Midlands -40 24 £525 +5.00% 20
East of England -12 22 £505 +2.54% 10
Yorkshire -33 21 £481 -3.75% 4
West Midlands -41 20 £525 - 14
South West -18 17 £550 -2.22% 38
North East -29 7 £525 -4.55% 2
East Midlands -27 4 £425 -10.53% 6

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

For the 6 months to 5 June 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.

1 259 (45.28%) Azure
2 258 (45.10%) Terraform
3 251 (43.88%) AWS
4 239 (41.78%) CI/CD
5 213 (37.24%) Infrastructure as Code
6 197 (34.44%) DevOps
7 146 (25.52%) Security Cleared
8 137 (23.95%) Kubernetes
8 137 (23.95%) Python
9 130 (22.73%) GCP
10 120 (20.98%) Cloud Security
11 115 (20.10%) SC Cleared
12 105 (18.36%) GitHub
13 101 (17.66%) Microsoft
14 100 (17.48%) Platform Engineering
15 98 (17.13%) Google
16 90 (15.73%) PowerShell
17 86 (15.03%) Infrastructure Engineering
18 82 (14.34%) Migration
19 73 (12.76%) Containerisation
20 69 (12.06%) Agile
21 68 (11.89%) GitHub Actions
22 65 (11.36%) AI
23 64 (11.19%) Windows
24 63 (11.01%) Docker
25 61 (10.66%) Firewall
26 58 (10.14%) Serverless
27 57 (9.97%) Observability
28 55 (9.62%) Bash
29 54 (9.44%) Problem-Solving

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 7 (1.22%) Apache
1 7 (1.22%) Microsoft Exchange
2 6 (1.05%) Confluence
3 5 (0.87%) nginx
4 4 (0.70%) Apache Spark
5 3 (0.52%) IIS
5 3 (0.52%) SharePoint
5 3 (0.52%) Tomcat
6 2 (0.35%) CloudStack
7 1 (0.17%) Apache Airflow
7 1 (0.17%) Apache Pulsar
7 1 (0.17%) OpenStack
7 1 (0.17%) SAS
7 1 (0.17%) Traefik
Business Applications
1 1 (0.17%) Aladdin
Cloud Services
1 259 (45.28%) Azure
2 251 (43.88%) AWS
3 130 (22.73%) GCP
4 105 (18.36%) GitHub
5 68 (11.89%) GitHub Actions
6 58 (10.14%) Serverless
7 46 (8.04%) Entra ID
8 45 (7.87%) Azure DevOps
9 43 (7.52%) AWS CloudFormation
10 39 (6.82%) Google Kubernetes Engine
11 38 (6.64%) Azure AKS
11 38 (6.64%) PaaS
12 37 (6.47%) Amazon S3
12 37 (6.47%) IaaS
13 35 (6.12%) AWS Lambda
14 34 (5.94%) Amazon EKS
15 31 (5.42%) Virtual Private Cloud
16 30 (5.24%) Amazon ECS
17 28 (4.90%) Amazon EC2
18 23 (4.02%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 61 (10.66%) Firewall
2 45 (7.87%) DNS
3 26 (4.55%) Network Security
3 26 (4.55%) VPN
4 8 (1.40%) DHCP
4 8 (1.40%) TCP/IP
4 8 (1.40%) WAN
5 6 (1.05%) Reverse Proxy
6 5 (0.87%) SSL
7 4 (0.70%) SD-WAN
7 4 (0.70%) Software-Defined Networking
7 4 (0.70%) VLAN
8 3 (0.52%) BGP
8 3 (0.52%) Internet
8 3 (0.52%) SMTP
9 2 (0.35%) BIG-IP
9 2 (0.35%) Kerberos
9 2 (0.35%) NGFW
9 2 (0.35%) SAN
9 2 (0.35%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 14 (2.45%) Amazon Athena
2 13 (2.27%) DynamoDB
3 12 (2.10%) BigQuery
3 12 (2.10%) SQL Server
4 10 (1.75%) Amazon RDS
5 8 (1.40%) PostgreSQL
6 6 (1.05%) Amazon Redshift
6 6 (1.05%) Azure SQL Database
7 5 (0.87%) Oracle Database
8 4 (0.70%) Amazon QuickSight
8 4 (0.70%) Data Lake
9 3 (0.52%) Big Data
9 3 (0.52%) Metadata
9 3 (0.52%) MySQL
9 3 (0.52%) Oracle Database 12c
9 3 (0.52%) Relational Database
10 2 (0.35%) Data Warehouse
10 2 (0.35%) Redis
10 2 (0.35%) Snowflake Schema
10 2 (0.35%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 50 (8.74%) GitLab
2 49 (8.57%) Jenkins
3 42 (7.34%) Git
4 12 (2.10%) JIRA
5 10 (1.75%) Artifactory
6 3 (0.52%) Bitbucket
6 3 (0.52%) Selenium
6 3 (0.52%) Team Foundation Server
7 2 (0.35%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 2 (0.35%) Claude Code
7 2 (0.35%) Cypress.io
7 2 (0.35%) Liquibase
7 2 (0.35%) Postman
7 2 (0.35%) Robot Framework
8 1 (0.17%) Burp Suite
8 1 (0.17%) Gatling
8 1 (0.17%) SonarQube
8 1 (0.17%) sqlmap
8 1 (0.17%) TestRail
8 1 (0.17%) Travis CI
General
1 72 (12.59%) Social Skills
2 60 (10.49%) Finance
3 45 (7.87%) Public Sector
4 21 (3.67%) Analytical Skills
5 20 (3.50%) Banking
6 12 (2.10%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 11 (1.92%) Documentation Skills
8 9 (1.57%) Retail
9 6 (1.05%) Investment Banking
9 6 (1.05%) Legal
9 6 (1.05%) Telecoms
10 5 (0.87%) Pharmaceutical
10 5 (0.87%) Presentation Skills
11 4 (0.70%) Local Government
11 4 (0.70%) Marketing
11 4 (0.70%) Military
12 3 (0.52%) Financial Institution
12 3 (0.52%) Police
13 2 (0.35%) Corporate Banking
13 2 (0.35%) Retail Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (3.15%) REST
2 14 (2.45%) Node.js
2 14 (2.45%) React
2 14 (2.45%) Spring
2 14 (2.45%) Spring Boot
3 12 (2.10%) OAuth
3 12 (2.10%) OAuth2
4 11 (1.92%) Kafka
5 9 (1.57%) .NET
5 9 (1.57%) OpenTelemetry
6 7 (1.22%) OpenID
7 6 (1.05%) AngularJS
7 6 (1.05%) ARM Templates
7 6 (1.05%) LangChain
7 6 (1.05%) Oracle Fusion
8 5 (0.87%) Model Context Protocol
8 5 (0.87%) Playwright
8 5 (0.87%) YAML
9 4 (0.70%) PySpark
9 4 (0.70%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 106 (18.53%) Cloud Native
2 28 (4.90%) Hybrid Cloud
2 28 (4.90%) Public Cloud
3 24 (4.20%) Data Centre
4 20 (3.50%) Security Posture
5 16 (2.80%) Enterprise Cloud
6 14 (2.45%) Onboarding
7 13 (2.27%) Enterprise Software
8 10 (1.75%) Distributed Systems
8 10 (1.75%) Management Information System
9 9 (1.57%) Product Ownership
10 8 (1.40%) Cloud Security Posture
10 8 (1.40%) Data Protection Act
11 7 (1.22%) Self-Motivation
12 6 (1.05%) Cyber Threat
13 5 (0.87%) Private Cloud
14 4 (0.70%) Legacy Systems
14 4 (0.70%) PKI
14 4 (0.70%) Virtual Team
15 3 (0.52%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 64 (11.19%) Windows
2 39 (6.82%) Linux
3 37 (6.47%) Windows Server
4 11 (1.92%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 5 (0.87%) Ubuntu
6 3 (0.52%) CentOS
6 3 (0.52%) Windows Server 2019
7 2 (0.35%) VMS
7 2 (0.35%) Windows Server 2012
8 1 (0.17%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 239 (41.78%) CI/CD
2 213 (37.24%) Infrastructure as Code
3 197 (34.44%) DevOps
4 120 (20.98%) Cloud Security
5 100 (17.48%) Platform Engineering
6 86 (15.03%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 82 (14.34%) Migration
8 73 (12.76%) Containerisation
9 69 (12.06%) Agile
10 65 (11.36%) AI
11 57 (9.97%) Observability
12 54 (9.44%) Problem-Solving
13 48 (8.39%) Infrastructure Automation
13 48 (8.39%) Software Engineering
14 46 (8.04%) Continuous Improvement
15 44 (7.69%) Technical Leadership
16 43 (7.52%) Cybersecurity
17 40 (6.99%) DevSecOps
18 32 (5.59%) Mentoring
19 30 (5.24%) Deployment Automation
Programming Languages
1 137 (23.95%) Python
2 90 (15.73%) PowerShell
3 55 (9.62%) Bash
4 47 (8.22%) SQL
5 37 (6.47%) Bicep
6 32 (5.59%) Java
7 14 (2.45%) C#
8 11 (1.92%) Go
9 10 (1.75%) JavaScript
10 9 (1.57%) TypeScript
11 5 (0.87%) Groovy
12 3 (0.52%) Ruby
13 1 (0.17%) Cypher
13 1 (0.17%) Kotlin
13 1 (0.17%) Kusto Query Language
13 1 (0.17%) Perl
13 1 (0.17%) R
13 1 (0.17%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 146 (25.52%) Security Cleared
2 115 (20.10%) SC Cleared
3 44 (7.69%) Azure Certification
4 30 (5.24%) AWS Certification
4 30 (5.24%) DV Cleared
5 20 (3.50%) Degree
6 14 (2.45%) Microsoft Certification
7 13 (2.27%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
7 13 (2.27%) CISSP
8 12 (2.10%) BPSS Clearance
9 9 (1.57%) Cisco Certification
9 9 (1.57%) Computer Science Degree
10 6 (1.05%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 5 (0.87%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
11 5 (0.87%) TOGAF Certification
12 4 (0.70%) CCSP
12 4 (0.70%) MCSE
13 3 (0.52%) CCNP
13 3 (0.52%) CISM
13 3 (0.52%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (2.27%) NIST
2 11 (1.92%) GDPR
3 10 (1.75%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 10 (1.75%) NCSC
3 10 (1.75%) QA
4 5 (0.87%) Data Quality
4 5 (0.87%) PCI DSS
5 3 (0.52%) Cyber Essentials
6 2 (0.35%) GRC
6 2 (0.35%) SLA
6 2 (0.35%) SOC 2
7 1 (0.17%) Accessibility
7 1 (0.17%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.17%) WCAG
System Software
1 63 (11.01%) Docker
2 42 (7.34%) Active Directory
3 18 (3.15%) VMware Infrastructure
4 17 (2.97%) Virtual Desktop
4 17 (2.97%) VMware NSX
5 15 (2.62%) Virtual Machines
5 15 (2.62%) VMware ESXi
6 13 (2.27%) vSphere
7 9 (1.57%) Hyper-V
7 9 (1.57%) vCloud
8 7 (1.22%) Squid
9 3 (0.52%) Dovecot
9 3 (0.52%) Firmware
9 3 (0.52%) Postfix
10 2 (0.35%) Ceph
10 2 (0.35%) KVM
10 2 (0.35%) NFS
Systems Management
1 258 (45.10%) Terraform
2 137 (23.95%) Kubernetes
3 33 (5.77%) Ansible
4 24 (4.20%) Grafana
5 21 (3.67%) Prometheus
6 17 (2.97%) Single Sign-On
7 15 (2.62%) Microsoft Intune
8 14 (2.45%) Argo
8 14 (2.45%) Istio
9 13 (2.27%) vCenter Server
10 11 (1.92%) SCOM
11 10 (1.75%) Progress Chef
12 7 (1.22%) Packer
12 7 (1.22%) Puppet
13 6 (1.05%) Cilium
14 4 (0.70%) HAProxy
14 4 (0.70%) Salt
14 4 (0.70%) Suricata
15 3 (0.52%) Active Directory Federation Services
16 2 (0.35%) SELinux
Vendors
1 101 (17.66%) Microsoft
2 98 (17.13%) Google
3 33 (5.77%) VMware
4 24 (4.20%) Oracle
5 15 (2.62%) Palo Alto
5 15 (2.62%) Zscaler
6 12 (2.10%) Red Hat
7 8 (1.40%) Cisco
7 8 (1.40%) Databricks
7 8 (1.40%) Dynatrace
8 7 (1.22%) Salesforce
8 7 (1.22%) ServiceNow
8 7 (1.22%) Splunk
9 6 (1.05%) Okta
9 6 (1.05%) OpenAI
10 5 (0.87%) Citrix
10 5 (0.87%) Fortinet
10 5 (0.87%) PeopleSoft
11 4 (0.70%) Juniper
11 4 (0.70%) Rapid7