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 26 June 2026.

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

6 months to
26 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 220 302 334
Rank change year-on-year +82 +32 -70
Contract jobs requiring a Cloud Engineer 619 246 277
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.22% 0.81% 0.64%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.32% 0.88% 0.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 405 183 192
10th Percentile £400 £403 £388
25th Percentile £462 £450 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -9.09% -
75th Percentile £620 £575 £625
90th Percentile £688 £638 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £510 £500 £510
% change year-on-year +2.00% -1.96% -7.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 19 1 3
10th Percentile £73.20 - -
25th Percentile £73.75 £42.50 £27.50
Median hourly rate £77.50 £45.00 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year +72.22% +50.00% -
75th Percentile £81.25 £47.50 £32.50
90th Percentile £85.00 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £77.00 - £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 47,008 27,876 40,382
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.38% 92.16% 92.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,552 17,889 25,942
10th Percentile £325 £288 £281
25th Percentile £415 £402 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% -2.33%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £493
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.65% -1.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,155 1,223 2,887
10th Percentile £15.38 £13.76 £12.86
25th Percentile £21.08 £17.31 £16.58
Median hourly rate £43.61 £26.45 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +64.86% -29.47% -12.79%
75th Percentile £67.50 £55.37 £62.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.65 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% -

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 26 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 26 June 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 26 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 +73 525 £525 +5.00% 179
London +72 299 £539 +2.62% 63
UK excluding London +18 262 £510 +2.00% 140
Work from Home -5 156 £540 +8.00% 93
North of England -23 73 £500 +8.11% 35
South East -21 69 £538 +7.50% 36
Scotland +20 47 £451 -14.19% 11
North West -24 35 £500 +24.38% 20
Midlands -42 35 £525 +7.69% 28
Yorkshire -20 31 £478 -1.92% 14
West Midlands -39 25 £525 - 15
East of England -11 22 £505 +60.32% 9
South West -25 15 £550 -2.22% 18
East Midlands -7 10 £450 -5.26% 13
North East -34 7 £525 +5.00% 1
Wales -12 2 - - 5

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

For the 6 months to 26 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.

1 285 (46.04%) Azure
2 281 (45.40%) Terraform
3 272 (43.94%) AWS
4 244 (39.42%) CI/CD
5 229 (37.00%) Infrastructure as Code
6 202 (32.63%) DevOps
7 158 (25.53%) Python
8 155 (25.04%) Security Cleared
9 141 (22.78%) Kubernetes
10 139 (22.46%) GCP
11 134 (21.65%) Cloud Security
12 123 (19.87%) SC Cleared
13 120 (19.39%) Platform Engineering
14 116 (18.74%) Microsoft
15 113 (18.26%) PowerShell
16 102 (16.48%) GitHub
16 102 (16.48%) Infrastructure Engineering
17 99 (15.99%) Google
18 92 (14.86%) Migration
19 83 (13.41%) Windows
20 76 (12.28%) AI
20 76 (12.28%) Containerisation
21 74 (11.95%) Agile
22 72 (11.63%) Firewall
23 66 (10.66%) GitHub Actions
24 65 (10.50%) Docker
25 64 (10.34%) Serverless
26 61 (9.85%) Entra ID
27 59 (9.53%) Bash
28 56 (9.05%) Observability

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 11 (1.78%) Microsoft Exchange
2 7 (1.13%) Confluence
3 6 (0.97%) Apache
4 5 (0.81%) nginx
5 3 (0.48%) Apache Spark
5 3 (0.48%) IIS
5 3 (0.48%) SharePoint
5 3 (0.48%) Tomcat
6 2 (0.32%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.32%) CloudStack
7 1 (0.16%) Apache Pulsar
7 1 (0.16%) OpenStack
7 1 (0.16%) SAS
7 1 (0.16%) Traefik
Business Applications
1 1 (0.16%) Aladdin
Cloud Services
1 285 (46.04%) Azure
2 272 (43.94%) AWS
3 139 (22.46%) GCP
4 102 (16.48%) GitHub
5 66 (10.66%) GitHub Actions
6 64 (10.34%) Serverless
7 61 (9.85%) Entra ID
8 46 (7.43%) Azure AKS
9 44 (7.11%) AWS CloudFormation
10 43 (6.95%) Amazon S3
10 43 (6.95%) Azure DevOps
11 42 (6.79%) IaaS
11 42 (6.79%) PaaS
12 39 (6.30%) AWS Lambda
13 35 (5.65%) Amazon EKS
13 35 (5.65%) Virtual Private Cloud
14 34 (5.49%) Google Kubernetes Engine
15 33 (5.33%) Amazon EC2
15 33 (5.33%) Amazon ECS
16 31 (5.01%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 72 (11.63%) Firewall
2 53 (8.56%) DNS
3 33 (5.33%) VPN
4 30 (4.85%) Network Security
5 13 (2.10%) WAN
6 11 (1.78%) DHCP
6 11 (1.78%) TCP/IP
7 6 (0.97%) Reverse Proxy
7 6 (0.97%) SD-WAN
8 5 (0.81%) BGP
8 5 (0.81%) Internet
8 5 (0.81%) SSL
9 4 (0.65%) Software-Defined Networking
9 4 (0.65%) VLAN
10 3 (0.48%) IPv4
10 3 (0.48%) OSPF
10 3 (0.48%) SAN
10 3 (0.48%) SMTP
11 2 (0.32%) Kerberos
11 2 (0.32%) LAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (3.23%) SQL Server
2 14 (2.26%) PostgreSQL
3 13 (2.10%) Amazon Athena
3 13 (2.10%) Amazon RDS
3 13 (2.10%) DynamoDB
4 7 (1.13%) Azure SQL Database
5 6 (0.97%) Amazon Redshift
5 6 (0.97%) BigQuery
6 5 (0.81%) Data Lake
6 5 (0.81%) Oracle Database
7 4 (0.65%) Amazon QuickSight
8 3 (0.48%) Big Data
8 3 (0.48%) Metadata
8 3 (0.48%) MySQL
8 3 (0.48%) Oracle Database 12c
8 3 (0.48%) Relational Database
9 2 (0.32%) Redis
10 1 (0.16%) Data Warehouse
10 1 (0.16%) Neo4j
10 1 (0.16%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 51 (8.24%) Jenkins
2 45 (7.27%) GitLab
3 42 (6.79%) Git
4 15 (2.42%) JIRA
5 10 (1.62%) Artifactory
6 3 (0.48%) Bitbucket
6 3 (0.48%) Selenium
6 3 (0.48%) Team Foundation Server
7 2 (0.32%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 2 (0.32%) Claude Code
7 2 (0.32%) Cypress.io
7 2 (0.32%) Liquibase
7 2 (0.32%) Robot Framework
8 1 (0.16%) Burp Suite
8 1 (0.16%) Chocolatey
8 1 (0.16%) CircleCI
8 1 (0.16%) Gatling
8 1 (0.16%) SonarQube
8 1 (0.16%) sqlmap
8 1 (0.16%) TestRail
General
1 78 (12.60%) Social Skills
2 69 (11.15%) Finance
3 55 (8.89%) Public Sector
4 27 (4.36%) Banking
5 22 (3.55%) Analytical Skills
6 12 (1.94%) Documentation Skills
7 9 (1.45%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 9 (1.45%) Investment Banking
8 6 (0.97%) Legal
9 5 (0.81%) Pharmaceutical
9 5 (0.81%) Presentation Skills
9 5 (0.81%) Retail
10 4 (0.65%) Law
10 4 (0.65%) Military
10 4 (0.65%) Telecoms
11 3 (0.48%) Corporate Banking
11 3 (0.48%) Financial Institution
11 3 (0.48%) Local Government
11 3 (0.48%) Marketing
11 3 (0.48%) Retail Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (4.04%) REST
2 13 (2.10%) OAuth
2 13 (2.10%) OAuth2
3 10 (1.62%) Kafka
3 10 (1.62%) Node.js
4 9 (1.45%) .NET
4 9 (1.45%) ARM Templates
4 9 (1.45%) React
4 9 (1.45%) Spring
4 9 (1.45%) Spring Boot
5 7 (1.13%) Model Context Protocol
5 7 (1.13%) OpenID
6 6 (0.97%) YAML
7 5 (0.81%) AWS CDK
7 5 (0.81%) Playwright
8 4 (0.65%) FastAPI
8 4 (0.65%) Flask
8 4 (0.65%) Jest
8 4 (0.65%) OpenTelemetry
8 4 (0.65%) PySpark
Miscellaneous
1 119 (19.22%) Cloud Native
2 32 (5.17%) Hybrid Cloud
3 28 (4.52%) Public Cloud
4 26 (4.20%) Security Posture
5 22 (3.55%) Data Centre
6 20 (3.23%) Enterprise Cloud
6 20 (3.23%) Onboarding
7 15 (2.42%) Distributed Systems
7 15 (2.42%) Enterprise Software
8 12 (1.94%) Management Information System
9 11 (1.78%) Cloud Security Posture
10 9 (1.45%) Product Ownership
10 9 (1.45%) Self-Motivation
11 8 (1.29%) Data Protection Act
12 6 (0.97%) Legacy Systems
12 6 (0.97%) Linux Command Line
13 5 (0.81%) Cyber Threat
14 4 (0.65%) AI Agents
14 4 (0.65%) Private Cloud
14 4 (0.65%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 83 (13.41%) Windows
2 52 (8.40%) Linux
3 45 (7.27%) Windows Server
4 19 (3.07%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 8 (1.29%) Ubuntu
6 5 (0.81%) Windows Server 2019
7 3 (0.48%) CentOS
7 3 (0.48%) VMS
8 2 (0.32%) Windows Server 2012
9 1 (0.16%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 244 (39.42%) CI/CD
2 229 (37.00%) Infrastructure as Code
3 202 (32.63%) DevOps
4 134 (21.65%) Cloud Security
5 120 (19.39%) Platform Engineering
6 102 (16.48%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 92 (14.86%) Migration
8 76 (12.28%) AI
8 76 (12.28%) Containerisation
9 74 (11.95%) Agile
10 56 (9.05%) Observability
11 55 (8.89%) Problem-Solving
12 51 (8.24%) Infrastructure Automation
13 49 (7.92%) Continuous Improvement
13 49 (7.92%) Technical Leadership
14 48 (7.75%) Software Engineering
15 41 (6.62%) Cybersecurity
16 38 (6.14%) DevSecOps
17 37 (5.98%) Mentoring
18 34 (5.49%) Deployment Automation
Programming Languages
1 158 (25.53%) Python
2 113 (18.26%) PowerShell
3 59 (9.53%) Bash
4 53 (8.56%) SQL
5 42 (6.79%) Bicep
6 33 (5.33%) Java
7 16 (2.58%) C#
8 12 (1.94%) JavaScript
9 10 (1.62%) Go
9 10 (1.62%) TypeScript
10 5 (0.81%) Groovy
11 2 (0.32%) Kusto Query Language
11 2 (0.32%) R
11 2 (0.32%) Ruby
12 1 (0.16%) Apex Code
12 1 (0.16%) C
12 1 (0.16%) Cypher
12 1 (0.16%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 1 (0.16%) Kotlin
12 1 (0.16%) Perl
Qualifications
1 155 (25.04%) Security Cleared
2 123 (19.87%) SC Cleared
3 46 (7.43%) Azure Certification
4 37 (5.98%) AWS Certification
4 37 (5.98%) DV Cleared
5 20 (3.23%) Degree
6 17 (2.75%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
7 14 (2.26%) CISSP
7 14 (2.26%) Microsoft Certification
8 12 (1.94%) Cisco Certification
9 9 (1.45%) Computer Science Degree
10 8 (1.29%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
10 8 (1.29%) BPSS Clearance
11 7 (1.13%) CCNP
12 5 (0.81%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 5 (0.81%) MCSE
12 5 (0.81%) TOGAF Certification
13 4 (0.65%) CCIE
13 4 (0.65%) CCSP
14 3 (0.48%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (2.26%) NIST
2 10 (1.62%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 9 (1.45%) GDPR
3 9 (1.45%) NCSC
3 9 (1.45%) QA
4 6 (0.97%) PCI DSS
5 4 (0.65%) Data Quality
6 3 (0.48%) Cyber Essentials
7 2 (0.32%) SLA
8 1 (0.16%) Accessibility
8 1 (0.16%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.16%) Disclosure Scotland
8 1 (0.16%) GRC
8 1 (0.16%) SOC 2
8 1 (0.16%) WCAG
System Software
1 65 (10.50%) Docker
2 54 (8.72%) Active Directory
3 23 (3.72%) Virtual Machines
4 22 (3.55%) VMware Infrastructure
5 19 (3.07%) VMware NSX
6 18 (2.91%) VMware ESXi
7 16 (2.58%) Virtual Desktop
8 15 (2.42%) vSphere
9 11 (1.78%) vCloud
10 10 (1.62%) Hyper-V
11 7 (1.13%) Squid
12 4 (0.65%) Firmware
13 3 (0.48%) Dovecot
13 3 (0.48%) Postfix
14 2 (0.32%) Ceph
14 2 (0.32%) KVM
14 2 (0.32%) NFS
Systems Management
1 281 (45.40%) Terraform
2 141 (22.78%) Kubernetes
3 43 (6.95%) Ansible
4 24 (3.88%) Grafana
5 22 (3.55%) Prometheus
5 22 (3.55%) Single Sign-On
6 15 (2.42%) Microsoft Intune
6 15 (2.42%) vCenter Server
7 14 (2.26%) Progress Chef
8 13 (2.10%) Puppet
8 13 (2.10%) SCOM
9 9 (1.45%) Istio
9 9 (1.45%) Packer
10 7 (1.13%) Argo
11 6 (0.97%) Cilium
12 4 (0.65%) HAProxy
12 4 (0.65%) Salt
12 4 (0.65%) Suricata
13 3 (0.48%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 3 (0.48%) vRealize
Vendors
1 116 (18.74%) Microsoft
2 99 (15.99%) Google
3 40 (6.46%) VMware
4 25 (4.04%) Oracle
5 17 (2.75%) Zscaler
6 15 (2.42%) Red Hat
7 14 (2.26%) Palo Alto
8 10 (1.62%) Cisco
8 10 (1.62%) Okta
8 10 (1.62%) Salesforce
8 10 (1.62%) ServiceNow
9 8 (1.29%) CrowdStrike
9 8 (1.29%) Dynatrace
10 7 (1.13%) Databricks
10 7 (1.13%) Fortinet
10 7 (1.13%) OpenAI
10 7 (1.13%) Splunk
11 5 (0.81%) Citrix
11 5 (0.81%) Rapid7
12 4 (0.65%) CyberArk