Cloud Platform Engineer Contract Job Trends

Cloud Platform Engineer
UK

The median Cloud Platform Engineer daily rate in the UK is £550, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 11 October 2026.

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

 6 months to
11 Oct 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 479 454 516
Rank change year-on-year -25 +62 -4
Contract jobs requiring a Cloud Platform Engineer 217 99 54
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.40% 0.30% 0.14%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.43% 0.33% 0.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 145 68 40
10th Percentile £430 £401 £360
25th Percentile £488 £463 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £545 £500
Median % change year-on-year +0.92% +9.00% -13.19%
75th Percentile £650 £617 £550
90th Percentile £673 £696 £626
UK excluding London median daily rate £513 £488 £500
% change year-on-year +5.13% -2.50% -16.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 0 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £73.75 - -
Median hourly rate £77.50 - -
75th Percentile £81.25 - -
90th Percentile - - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate - - -

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 50,214 30,082 35,242
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.03% 90.84% 93.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,439 18,998 21,292
10th Percentile £325 £275 £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 £638 £623 £638
90th Percentile £736 £725 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £493
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.65% -1.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4,075 1,645 1,472
10th Percentile £14.31 £13.75 £14.87
25th Percentile £19.34 £17.30 £20.30
Median hourly rate £41.71 £25.15 £41.50
Median % change year-on-year +65.84% -39.40% -7.78%
75th Percentile £67.50 £50.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £79.60 £68.00 £74.37
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.71 £25.00 £42.50
% change year-on-year +66.84% -41.18% -4.49%

Cloud Platform Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Cloud Platform Engineer' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Cloud Platform Engineer job vacancy trend in the UK

Cloud Platform Engineer
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Cloud Platform Engineer job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Cloud Platform Engineer job vacancies in the UK

Cloud Platform Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Cloud Platform Engineer over the 6 months to 11 October 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Cloud Platform Engineer in the UK

Cloud Platform Engineer
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Cloud Platform Engineer job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Cloud Platform Engineer job vacancies in the UK

Cloud Platform 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 Platform Engineer within the UK over the 6 months to 11 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 -13 187 £550 +4.76% 307
London -38 99 £575 +4.55% 181
UK excluding London -44 94 £513 +5.13% 126
Work from Home -19 69 £550 - 124
North of England -43 35 £513 -4.65% 44
Yorkshire -5 26 £474 -13.85% 12
Midlands -43 26 £500 +5.26% 10
South East -55 15 £602 +26.57% 20
West Midlands -58 15 £563 +18.42% 5
East Midlands +1 11 £425 -39.29% 5
South West -20 9 £465 -8.82% 16
North West -42 8 £550 +4.76% 23
Scotland -25 7 £425 -29.17% 15
North East - 1 - - 9
Channel Islands - 1 - -
Northern Ireland - 1 £600 - 7

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

For the 6 months to 11 October 2026, Cloud Platform 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 Platform Engineer in the job title.

1 199 (91.71%) Platform Engineering
2 128 (58.99%) Azure
3 115 (53.00%) Terraform
4 96 (44.24%) AWS
4 96 (44.24%) Infrastructure as Code
5 88 (40.55%) CI/CD
6 73 (33.64%) DevOps
7 51 (23.50%) Kubernetes
8 48 (22.12%) Microsoft
8 48 (22.12%) Python
9 46 (21.20%) Security Cleared
10 39 (17.97%) GitHub
11 35 (16.13%) SC Cleared
12 34 (15.67%) Containerisation
13 32 (14.75%) Azure DevOps
14 31 (14.29%) GCP
15 30 (13.82%) Databricks
16 29 (13.36%) AI
16 29 (13.36%) Bash
17 28 (12.90%) Observability
18 27 (12.44%) Bicep
19 25 (11.52%) Cloud Security
19 25 (11.52%) Deployment Automation
20 23 (10.60%) Entra ID
20 23 (10.60%) GitHub Actions
21 22 (10.14%) Docker
21 22 (10.14%) Google
21 22 (10.14%) Serverless
21 22 (10.14%) SQL
22 21 (9.68%) Analytics

Cloud Platform 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 6 (2.76%) Confluence
1 6 (2.76%) nginx
1 6 (2.76%) SharePoint
2 5 (2.30%) Palantir Foundry
3 4 (1.84%) Apache Spark
4 3 (1.38%) Apache
4 3 (1.38%) Apache Airflow
5 2 (0.92%) Tomcat
Applications
1 1 (0.46%) Mozilla Thunderbird
Business Applications
1 1 (0.46%) Oracle EBS
Cloud Services
1 128 (58.99%) Azure
2 96 (44.24%) AWS
3 39 (17.97%) GitHub
4 32 (14.75%) Azure DevOps
5 31 (14.29%) GCP
6 23 (10.60%) Entra ID
6 23 (10.60%) GitHub Actions
7 22 (10.14%) Serverless
8 13 (5.99%) Amazon S3
8 13 (5.99%) Azure Monitor
8 13 (5.99%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 12 (5.53%) Amazon EC2
9 12 (5.53%) PaaS
10 10 (4.61%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 10 (4.61%) Azure AKS
10 10 (4.61%) Azure Databricks
10 10 (4.61%) IaaS
10 10 (4.61%) SaaS
11 9 (4.15%) Amazon EKS
12 8 (3.69%) AWS Lambda
Communications & Networking
1 18 (8.29%) DNS
1 18 (8.29%) Firewall
2 11 (5.07%) VPN
3 9 (4.15%) TCP/IP
4 8 (3.69%) Network Security
5 7 (3.23%) SSH
6 4 (1.84%) DHCP
6 4 (1.84%) OpenVPN
6 4 (1.84%) VSAN
7 3 (1.38%) IPv4
8 2 (0.92%) FTP
8 2 (0.92%) HTTP
8 2 (0.92%) IMAP
8 2 (0.92%) OpenLDAP
8 2 (0.92%) SMTP
9 1 (0.46%) HTTPS
9 1 (0.46%) Intranet
9 1 (0.46%) Reverse Proxy
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (3.69%) Oracle Exadata
2 6 (2.76%) Amazon RDS
2 6 (2.76%) BigQuery
3 5 (2.30%) Azure SQL Database
3 5 (2.30%) PostgreSQL
4 4 (1.84%) Amazon Athena
4 4 (1.84%) Delta Lake
5 3 (1.38%) SQL Server
6 2 (0.92%) Amazon Aurora
6 2 (0.92%) Amazon Redshift
6 2 (0.92%) Metadata
6 2 (0.92%) Parquet
7 1 (0.46%) Apache Iceberg
7 1 (0.46%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
7 1 (0.46%) Data Lake
7 1 (0.46%) DynamoDB
7 1 (0.46%) MongoDB
7 1 (0.46%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 1 (0.46%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 1 (0.46%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 21 (9.68%) Git
2 17 (7.83%) GitLab
3 10 (4.61%) Jenkins
4 7 (3.23%) Claude Code
4 7 (3.23%) JIRA
5 5 (2.30%) RStudio
6 3 (1.38%) SonarQube
6 3 (1.38%) Terragrunt
7 2 (0.92%) Vagrant
8 1 (0.46%) Bitbucket
8 1 (0.46%) Octopus Deploy
8 1 (0.46%) Sonatype Nexus
8 1 (0.46%) Spinnaker
General
1 29 (13.36%) Social Skills
2 22 (10.14%) Finance
3 11 (5.07%) Public Sector
4 5 (2.30%) Analytical Skills
4 5 (2.30%) Banking
5 4 (1.84%) Health Technology
5 4 (1.84%) Law
6 3 (1.38%) Billing
7 2 (0.92%) Back Office
7 2 (0.92%) Front Office
7 2 (0.92%) Investment Banking
8 1 (0.46%) Aerospace
8 1 (0.46%) Documentation Skills
8 1 (0.46%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 1 (0.46%) Military
8 1 (0.46%) Presentation Skills
8 1 (0.46%) Public Speaking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 115 (53.00%) Terraform
2 12 (5.53%) ARM Templates
3 6 (2.76%) PySpark
4 5 (2.30%) AWS CDK
4 5 (2.30%) boto
4 5 (2.30%) REST
5 4 (1.84%) OpenTofu
6 3 (1.38%) Kafka
6 3 (1.38%) LDAP
6 3 (1.38%) SAML
6 3 (1.38%) YAML
7 2 (0.92%) ADO
7 2 (0.92%) JSON
7 2 (0.92%) LangChain
7 2 (0.92%) Node.js
7 2 (0.92%) pydantic
8 1 (0.46%) Keycloak
8 1 (0.46%) LangGraph
8 1 (0.46%) pgvector
8 1 (0.46%) Pulumi
Miscellaneous
1 41 (18.89%) Cloud Native
2 13 (5.99%) Enterprise Cloud
3 10 (4.61%) Linux Command Line
4 9 (4.15%) Hybrid Cloud
4 9 (4.15%) Onboarding
4 9 (4.15%) Security Posture
5 6 (2.76%) Data Centre
6 5 (2.30%) Cloud Security Posture
6 5 (2.30%) Enterprise Software
7 4 (1.84%) ARM Cortex
7 4 (1.84%) NHS
7 4 (1.84%) PKI
8 3 (1.38%) Client/Server
8 3 (1.38%) Legacy Systems
8 3 (1.38%) Product Ownership
8 3 (1.38%) Replication
9 2 (0.92%) Distributed Systems
9 2 (0.92%) Greenfield Project
9 2 (0.92%) Legacy Applications
9 2 (0.92%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 20 (9.22%) Linux
2 13 (5.99%) Windows
3 10 (4.61%) Windows Server
4 4 (1.84%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 3 (1.38%) Ubuntu
6 2 (0.92%) Amazon Linux
7 1 (0.46%) CentOS
7 1 (0.46%) VMS
7 1 (0.46%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 199 (91.71%) Platform Engineering
2 96 (44.24%) Infrastructure as Code
3 88 (40.55%) CI/CD
4 73 (33.64%) DevOps
5 34 (15.67%) Containerisation
6 29 (13.36%) AI
7 28 (12.90%) Observability
8 25 (11.52%) Cloud Security
8 25 (11.52%) Deployment Automation
9 21 (9.68%) Analytics
10 20 (9.22%) RBAC
11 19 (8.76%) Infrastructure Automation
11 19 (8.76%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 19 (8.76%) Migration
11 19 (8.76%) Site Reliability Engineering
12 18 (8.29%) Continuous Improvement
12 18 (8.29%) DevSecOps
13 14 (6.45%) Stakeholder Management
14 13 (5.99%) Log Analytics
14 13 (5.99%) Problem-Solving
Programming Languages
1 48 (22.12%) Python
2 29 (13.36%) Bash
3 27 (12.44%) Bicep
4 22 (10.14%) SQL
5 19 (8.76%) PowerShell
6 6 (2.76%) Java
7 5 (2.30%) Shell Script
8 4 (1.84%) R
9 3 (1.38%) Go
10 2 (0.92%) Groovy
11 1 (0.46%) Ada
11 1 (0.46%) C#
11 1 (0.46%) C++
Qualifications
1 46 (21.20%) Security Cleared
2 35 (16.13%) SC Cleared
3 15 (6.91%) Azure Certification
3 15 (6.91%) DV Cleared
4 10 (4.61%) AWS Certification
5 5 (2.30%) Degree
6 4 (1.84%) Microsoft Certification
7 3 (1.38%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
7 3 (1.38%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
7 3 (1.38%) BPSS Clearance
7 3 (1.38%) Computer Science Degree
8 2 (0.92%) CISM
8 2 (0.92%) CISSP
8 2 (0.92%) GSEC
8 2 (0.92%) OSCP
8 2 (0.92%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 1 (0.46%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
9 1 (0.46%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (3.23%) Data Quality
2 2 (0.92%) GDPR
2 2 (0.92%) NCSC
2 2 (0.92%) NIST
2 2 (0.92%) SLA
3 1 (0.46%) Cyber Essentials
3 1 (0.46%) QA
System Software
1 22 (10.14%) Docker
2 12 (5.53%) Active Directory
3 8 (3.69%) Virtual Machines
4 4 (1.84%) VMware Infrastructure
4 4 (1.84%) VMware NSX
5 3 (1.38%) Squid
6 2 (0.92%) DFS Replication
6 2 (0.92%) Dovecot
6 2 (0.92%) Hyper-V
6 2 (0.92%) Postfix
6 2 (0.92%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (0.92%) vSphere
7 1 (0.46%) Virtual Desktop
7 1 (0.46%) zsh
Systems Management
1 51 (23.50%) Kubernetes
2 13 (5.99%) Ansible
3 7 (3.23%) Argo
3 7 (3.23%) Single Sign-On
4 6 (2.76%) Grafana
4 6 (2.76%) Prometheus
5 4 (1.84%) Cilium
5 4 (1.84%) Istio
5 4 (1.84%) Microsoft Intune
5 4 (1.84%) SCCM
6 3 (1.38%) Nessus
6 3 (1.38%) Packer
6 3 (1.38%) SELinux
7 2 (0.92%) linkerd
7 2 (0.92%) Proxmox
7 2 (0.92%) vCenter Server
7 2 (0.92%) VxRail
8 1 (0.46%) Puppet
8 1 (0.46%) WSUS
Vendors
1 48 (22.12%) Microsoft
2 30 (13.82%) Databricks
3 22 (10.14%) Google
4 14 (6.45%) Foundry
5 11 (5.07%) CrowdStrike
6 10 (4.61%) Oracle
7 7 (3.23%) ServiceNow
7 7 (3.23%) VMware
8 5 (2.30%) Palantir
9 4 (1.84%) Red Hat
10 2 (0.92%) Jaspersoft
10 2 (0.92%) New Relic
10 2 (0.92%) OpenAI
10 2 (0.92%) Splunk
11 1 (0.46%) EMC
11 1 (0.46%) JD Edwards
11 1 (0.46%) SAP
11 1 (0.46%) SolarWinds
11 1 (0.46%) Sonatype
11 1 (0.46%) Veeam
364 Cloud Platform Engineer jobs Nationwide