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 3 April 2026.

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

6 months to
3 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 238 304 290
Rank change year-on-year +66 -14 -39
Contract jobs requiring a Cloud Engineer 485 230 328
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.08% 0.79% 0.74%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.17% 0.85% 0.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 328 172 226
10th Percentile £400 £382 £400
25th Percentile £450 £425 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -
75th Percentile £613 £615 £625
90th Percentile £702 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 0 4
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £25.13 - £27.50
Median hourly rate £25.25 - £30.00
75th Percentile £39.56 - £42.50
90th Percentile £48.08 - £60.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate - - £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 41,358 26,984 40,963
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.19% 92.80% 92.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,778 17,737 26,805
10th Percentile £313 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £406 £408
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £520 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% -0.95% -3.45%
75th Percentile £613 £629 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £740
UK excluding London median daily rate £486 £475 £489
% change year-on-year +2.37% -2.86% -2.20%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,581 943 2,528
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.00 £12.86
25th Percentile £19.85 £20.47 £16.25
Median hourly rate £40.00 £32.50 £33.00
Median % change year-on-year +23.08% -1.52% -25.00%
75th Percentile £65.00 £64.50 £60.00
90th Percentile £77.50 £76.25 £71.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.16 £31.64 £33.00
% change year-on-year +26.91% -4.12% -21.43%

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 3 April 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 3 April 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 3 April 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 +38 395 £525 - 126
London +23 221 £525 - 47
UK excluding London +7 204 £525 +5.00% 95
Work from Home -3 117 £510 -2.86% 70
North of England -22 66 £506 +6.58% 33
Scotland +30 38 £513 -2.38% 5
Yorkshire -25 38 £500 +53.85% 13
South East -34 37 £522 -7.20% 29
Midlands -44 37 £575 +21.05% 8
West Midlands -42 31 £575 -2.13% 5
North West -30 28 £513 +13.89% 17
South West -11 21 £544 -5.43% 15
East of England -28 15 £505 +2.54% 5
East Midlands -32 6 £575 +21.05% 3
Wales -10 1 £425 +41.67% 1

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

For the 6 months to 3 April 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.

1 222 (45.77%) Terraform
2 218 (44.95%) AWS
3 207 (42.68%) CI/CD
4 196 (40.41%) Azure
5 194 (40.00%) Infrastructure as Code
6 183 (37.73%) DevOps
7 130 (26.80%) GCP
8 128 (26.39%) Kubernetes
8 128 (26.39%) Security Cleared
9 127 (26.19%) Python
10 106 (21.86%) GitHub
11 99 (20.41%) SC Cleared
12 96 (19.79%) Cloud Security
12 96 (19.79%) Google
13 86 (17.73%) Agile
14 85 (17.53%) Microsoft
15 80 (16.49%) Containerisation
16 74 (15.26%) Platform Engineering
17 67 (13.81%) Docker
17 67 (13.81%) PowerShell
18 66 (13.61%) Infrastructure Engineering
19 64 (13.20%) GitHub Actions
19 64 (13.20%) Migration
20 63 (12.99%) Serverless
21 59 (12.16%) Jenkins
22 50 (10.31%) Infrastructure Automation
23 49 (10.10%) Continuous Improvement
24 48 (9.90%) Observability
25 46 (9.48%) GitLab
26 44 (9.07%) Firewall

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 5 (1.03%) Apache
1 5 (1.03%) Apache Spark
1 5 (1.03%) Confluence
1 5 (1.03%) Microsoft Exchange
2 3 (0.62%) nginx
3 2 (0.41%) SharePoint
4 1 (0.21%) Apache Airflow
4 1 (0.21%) Apache Superset
4 1 (0.21%) CMS
4 1 (0.21%) Headless CMS
4 1 (0.21%) SAS
4 1 (0.21%) Traefik
Applications
1 2 (0.41%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 2 (0.41%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.21%) Aladdin
Cloud Services
1 218 (44.95%) AWS
2 196 (40.41%) Azure
3 130 (26.80%) GCP
4 106 (21.86%) GitHub
5 64 (13.20%) GitHub Actions
6 63 (12.99%) Serverless
7 43 (8.87%) AWS CloudFormation
8 39 (8.04%) Azure DevOps
9 37 (7.63%) Entra ID
9 37 (7.63%) PaaS
10 33 (6.80%) Google Kubernetes Engine
11 32 (6.60%) Amazon EKS
11 32 (6.60%) Amazon S3
11 32 (6.60%) Azure AKS
12 31 (6.39%) IaaS
13 28 (5.77%) AWS Lambda
14 26 (5.36%) Amazon ECS
15 21 (4.33%) Virtual Private Cloud
16 20 (4.12%) SaaS
17 19 (3.92%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 44 (9.07%) Firewall
2 20 (4.12%) DNS
3 19 (3.92%) Network Security
4 17 (3.51%) VPN
5 10 (2.06%) Cisco Firepower
6 9 (1.86%) Cisco IOS
6 9 (1.86%) Cisco ISE
6 9 (1.86%) Junos
7 5 (1.03%) NX-OS
8 4 (0.82%) DHCP
8 4 (0.82%) Reverse Proxy
8 4 (0.82%) Software-Defined Networking
9 3 (0.62%) BGP
10 2 (0.41%) DKIM
10 2 (0.41%) TCP/IP
10 2 (0.41%) Unified Communications
10 2 (0.41%) VLAN
11 1 (0.21%) SD-WAN
11 1 (0.21%) tcpdump
11 1 (0.21%) WireGuard
Database & Business Intelligence
1 21 (4.33%) PostgreSQL
2 17 (3.51%) NoSQL
3 12 (2.47%) Amazon Athena
4 11 (2.27%) BigQuery
5 10 (2.06%) DynamoDB
6 8 (1.65%) Amazon RDS
7 7 (1.44%) Power BI
8 6 (1.24%) Azure SQL Database
8 6 (1.24%) Data Lake
9 5 (1.03%) Amazon Redshift
9 5 (1.03%) Big Data
10 4 (0.82%) Data Warehouse
10 4 (0.82%) Elasticsearch
10 4 (0.82%) SQL Server
11 3 (0.62%) Oracle Database
11 3 (0.62%) Snowflake Schema
12 2 (0.41%) Amazon QuickSight
12 2 (0.41%) Delta Lake
12 2 (0.41%) Metadata
12 2 (0.41%) Mixpanel
Development Applications
1 59 (12.16%) Jenkins
2 46 (9.48%) GitLab
3 34 (7.01%) Git
4 7 (1.44%) JIRA
5 6 (1.24%) Liquibase
6 3 (0.62%) CircleCI
6 3 (0.62%) Postman
6 3 (0.62%) Team Foundation Server
7 2 (0.41%) Artifactory
7 2 (0.41%) Robot Framework
7 2 (0.41%) Selenium
7 2 (0.41%) Spinnaker
8 1 (0.21%) Burp Suite
8 1 (0.21%) Chocolatey
8 1 (0.21%) Gemini Tracker
8 1 (0.21%) RStudio
8 1 (0.21%) SonarQube
8 1 (0.21%) sqlmap
8 1 (0.21%) Travis CI
8 1 (0.21%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 78 (16.08%) Social Skills
2 71 (14.64%) Finance
3 42 (8.66%) Public Sector
4 28 (5.77%) Banking
5 21 (4.33%) Analytical Skills
6 17 (3.51%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 11 (2.27%) Financial Institution
8 8 (1.65%) Documentation Skills
8 8 (1.65%) Retail
9 7 (1.44%) Aeronautics
10 6 (1.24%) Presentation Skills
10 6 (1.24%) Telecoms
11 5 (1.03%) Legal
12 4 (0.82%) Investment Banking
13 3 (0.62%) Marketing
14 2 (0.41%) Billing
14 2 (0.41%) Local Government
14 2 (0.41%) Pharmaceutical
15 1 (0.21%) Front Office
15 1 (0.21%) Retail Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 39 (8.04%) REST
2 25 (5.15%) Node.js
3 20 (4.12%) Elastic Stack
4 16 (3.30%) RESTful
5 13 (2.68%) Kafka
6 12 (2.47%) React
7 11 (2.27%) OpenTelemetry
8 9 (1.86%) .NET
8 9 (1.86%) ARM Templates
8 9 (1.86%) Oracle Fusion
8 9 (1.86%) Spring
8 9 (1.86%) Spring Boot
9 8 (1.65%) LangChain
9 8 (1.65%) OAuth
9 8 (1.65%) Playwright
9 8 (1.65%) SOAP
10 7 (1.44%) AngularJS
10 7 (1.44%) NestJS
10 7 (1.44%) OpenAPI
10 7 (1.44%) OpenID
Miscellaneous
1 84 (17.32%) Cloud Native
2 44 (9.07%) Public Cloud
3 20 (4.12%) Distributed Systems
4 16 (3.30%) Hybrid Cloud
5 13 (2.68%) Data Centre
6 10 (2.06%) Product Ownership
7 9 (1.86%) PKI
7 9 (1.86%) Security Posture
8 7 (1.44%) Legacy Systems
8 7 (1.44%) Self-Motivation
9 6 (1.24%) Cyber Threat
9 6 (1.24%) Onboarding
10 5 (1.03%) Enterprise Cloud
11 4 (0.82%) Enterprise Software
11 4 (0.82%) Virtual Team
12 3 (0.62%) Cloud Security Posture
12 3 (0.62%) Data Protection Act
12 3 (0.62%) Replication
13 2 (0.41%) AI Agents
13 2 (0.41%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 41 (8.45%) Linux
2 32 (6.60%) Windows
3 14 (2.89%) Windows Server
4 5 (1.03%) Unix
5 4 (0.82%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 4 (0.82%) VMS
6 1 (0.21%) Alpine Linux
6 1 (0.21%) Mac OS
6 1 (0.21%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 207 (42.68%) CI/CD
2 194 (40.00%) Infrastructure as Code
3 183 (37.73%) DevOps
4 96 (19.79%) Cloud Security
5 86 (17.73%) Agile
6 80 (16.49%) Containerisation
7 74 (15.26%) Platform Engineering
8 66 (13.61%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 64 (13.20%) Migration
10 50 (10.31%) Infrastructure Automation
11 49 (10.10%) Continuous Improvement
12 48 (9.90%) Observability
13 42 (8.66%) Microservices
14 41 (8.45%) DevSecOps
15 39 (8.04%) AI
15 39 (8.04%) Cybersecurity
15 39 (8.04%) Problem-Solving
16 37 (7.63%) Software Engineering
17 30 (6.19%) Cost Optimisation
17 30 (6.19%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 127 (26.19%) Python
2 67 (13.81%) PowerShell
3 40 (8.25%) SQL
4 33 (6.80%) Bash
5 28 (5.77%) Java
6 25 (5.15%) Bicep
7 21 (4.33%) Go
8 17 (3.51%) TypeScript
9 12 (2.47%) C#
10 8 (1.65%) JavaScript
11 4 (0.82%) BeanShell
11 4 (0.82%) Groovy
11 4 (0.82%) Shell Script
12 2 (0.41%) Kusto Query Language
12 2 (0.41%) Perl
12 2 (0.41%) Ruby
13 1 (0.21%) C
13 1 (0.21%) Cypher
13 1 (0.21%) Kotlin
13 1 (0.21%) R
Qualifications
1 128 (26.39%) Security Cleared
2 99 (20.41%) SC Cleared
3 42 (8.66%) Azure Certification
4 31 (6.39%) Degree
5 30 (6.19%) AWS Certification
6 26 (5.36%) DV Cleared
7 21 (4.33%) Computer Science Degree
8 16 (3.30%) Microsoft Certification
9 15 (3.09%) Master's Degree
10 13 (2.68%) CISSP
11 12 (2.47%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 10 (2.06%) BPSS Clearance
12 10 (2.06%) Cisco Certification
13 7 (1.44%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
13 7 (1.44%) CISM
14 6 (1.24%) (ISC)2 CCSP
15 5 (1.03%) CCSP
15 5 (1.03%) TOGAF Certification
16 3 (0.62%) AWS Certified Developer
16 3 (0.62%) AWS Certified SysOps Administrator
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (2.89%) GDPR
2 13 (2.68%) NCSC
3 11 (2.27%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 11 (2.27%) NIST
4 8 (1.65%) QA
5 6 (1.24%) Data Quality
5 6 (1.24%) PCI DSS
6 5 (1.03%) GRC
7 4 (0.82%) Cyber Essentials
8 3 (0.62%) SOC 2
9 2 (0.41%) HIPAA
9 2 (0.41%) SLA
10 1 (0.21%) Accessibility
10 1 (0.21%) Actionable Recommendations
10 1 (0.21%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 1 (0.21%) FedRAMP
10 1 (0.21%) JSP 440
10 1 (0.21%) WCAG
System Software
1 67 (13.81%) Docker
2 26 (5.36%) Active Directory
3 14 (2.89%) Virtual Desktop
4 12 (2.47%) VMware NSX
5 11 (2.27%) Virtual Machines
6 7 (1.44%) Hyper-V
7 6 (1.24%) Firmware
7 6 (1.24%) VMware Infrastructure
8 3 (0.62%) vSphere
9 1 (0.21%) Squid
Systems Management
1 222 (45.77%) Terraform
2 128 (26.39%) Kubernetes
3 34 (7.01%) Ansible
4 33 (6.80%) Prometheus
5 32 (6.60%) Grafana
6 19 (3.92%) Istio
7 15 (3.09%) Argo
8 12 (2.47%) Single Sign-On
9 11 (2.27%) Microsoft Intune
10 10 (2.06%) vCenter Server
11 5 (1.03%) Packer
11 5 (1.03%) Progress Chef
12 4 (0.82%) Kibana
12 4 (0.82%) logstash
13 3 (0.62%) Podman
13 3 (0.62%) Puppet
14 2 (0.41%) Consul
14 2 (0.41%) Proxmox
14 2 (0.41%) Salt
14 2 (0.41%) SCCM
Vendors
1 96 (19.79%) Google
2 85 (17.53%) Microsoft
3 19 (3.92%) Splunk
4 18 (3.71%) Oracle
5 15 (3.09%) Cisco
6 11 (2.27%) Databricks
6 11 (2.27%) ServiceNow
7 10 (2.06%) Dynatrace
7 10 (2.06%) Juniper
8 9 (1.86%) SolarWinds
8 9 (1.86%) VMware
9 7 (1.44%) Ping Identity
10 6 (1.24%) Salesforce
11 5 (1.03%) Broadcom
11 5 (1.03%) Citrix
11 5 (1.03%) PeopleSoft
11 5 (1.03%) Rapid7
12 4 (0.82%) Palo Alto
12 4 (0.82%) Red Hat
12 4 (0.82%) Zscaler