Public Cloud Contract Job Trends

Public Cloud
UK

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Public Cloud in contract job vacancies. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Public Cloud over the 6 months leading up to 16 June 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 306 310 290
Rank change year-on-year +4 -20 -47
Contract jobs citing Public Cloud 377 223 327
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.75% 0.75% 0.75%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 2.31% 2.19% 2.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 238 143 222
10th Percentile £400 £407 £450
25th Percentile £500 £500 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £590 £600 £580
Median % change year-on-year -1.67% +3.45% -9.02%
75th Percentile £675 £697 £750
90th Percentile £725 £761 £838
UK excluding London median daily rate £600 £544 £600
% change year-on-year +10.40% -9.42% -2.83%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 2 2
10th Percentile - £45.25 £38.28
25th Percentile £71.25 £49.38 £40.56
Median hourly rate £72.50 £57.50 £46.25
Median % change year-on-year +26.09% +24.32% -40.71%
75th Percentile £73.75 £64.38 £52.06
90th Percentile - £67.75 £54.43
UK excluding London median hourly rate - £70.00 £38.50
% change year-on-year - +81.82% -50.64%

All Generic Skills
UK

Public Cloud falls under the General and Transferable Skills category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring generic IT skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for generic IT skills 16,316 10,181 13,027
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 32.50% 34.37% 29.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,004 6,390 8,269
10th Percentile £315 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £519 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -1.24% -2.33% -2.27%
75th Percentile £630 £650 £660
90th Percentile £750 £775 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 831 442 940
10th Percentile £16.01 £15.84 £12.25
25th Percentile £21.00 £20.09 £15.24
Median hourly rate £42.50 £33.00 £35.50
Median % change year-on-year +28.79% -7.04% +57.88%
75th Percentile £70.00 £60.00 £61.30
90th Percentile £85.40 £82.03 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £32.05 £35.00
% change year-on-year +37.16% -8.43% +59.09%

Public Cloud
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Public Cloud relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Public Cloud job vacancy trend in the UK

Public Cloud
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Public Cloud.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Public Cloud

Public Cloud
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Public Cloud over the 6 months to 16 June 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Public Cloud in the UK

Public Cloud
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Public Cloud.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Public Cloud

Public Cloud
Top 17 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Public Cloud within the UK over the 6 months to 16 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 +3 310 £600 -3.23% 133
UK excluding London +18 207 £600 +10.40% 77
London -82 107 £600 -10.28% 61
Work from Home +20 99 £610 +9.66% 81
North of England -24 68 £550 +2.42% 25
South East -18 55 £590 -1.67% 18
Midlands -25 39 £613 +14.06% 14
North West -20 34 £350 -34.82% 9
Yorkshire -27 32 £625 +29.87% 10
South West -1 29 £675 +22.73% 12
East Midlands -1 27 £625 +31.58% 10
Scotland -18 12 £425 -15.00% 3
West Midlands -52 8 £450 -22.58% 4
North East -31 3 £650 - 7
East of England -33 3 £593 +3.04% 1
Northern Ireland - 2 £385 - 3
Wales -16 1 - - 1

Public Cloud
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 10 (2.65%) Confluence
2 9 (2.39%) Apache
3 5 (1.33%) Apache Airflow
3 5 (1.33%) SAS
3 5 (1.33%) SharePoint
4 2 (0.53%) CloudStack
4 2 (0.53%) IIS
4 2 (0.53%) nginx
4 2 (0.53%) OpenStack
4 2 (0.53%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 2 (0.53%) Palantir Foundry
4 2 (0.53%) Tomcat
5 1 (0.27%) Microsoft Exchange
5 1 (0.27%) WebLogic
Applications
1 6 (1.59%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (1.06%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (1.06%) Microsoft Project
3 2 (0.53%) Spreadsheet
4 1 (0.27%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.27%) Weka
Business Applications
1 85 (22.55%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (1.59%) Oracle ERP
2 6 (1.59%) SAP Business One
3 5 (1.33%) SAP ERP
3 5 (1.33%) SAP FI
4 4 (1.06%) iTrent
4 4 (1.06%) SAP CO
4 4 (1.06%) SAP FI/CO
5 2 (0.53%) SAP FI-GL
5 2 (0.53%) SAP SD
6 1 (0.27%) Exchequer
6 1 (0.27%) Oracle SCM
6 1 (0.27%) SAP FI-AR
Cloud Services
1 160 (42.44%) Azure
2 110 (29.18%) AWS
3 93 (24.67%) GCP
4 39 (10.34%) GitHub
5 24 (6.37%) SuccessFactors
6 23 (6.10%) Google Kubernetes Engine
7 20 (5.31%) PaaS
8 19 (5.04%) GitHub Actions
8 19 (5.04%) IaaS
9 16 (4.24%) OCI
10 15 (3.98%) Serverless
11 13 (3.45%) SaaS
12 11 (2.92%) Azure DevOps
13 10 (2.65%) AWS CloudFormation
14 9 (2.39%) Cloud Computing
14 9 (2.39%) Power Platform
15 8 (2.12%) Microsoft 365
16 6 (1.59%) Amazon EKS
16 6 (1.59%) Entra ID
16 6 (1.59%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 33 (8.75%) DNS
2 31 (8.22%) Firewall
3 24 (6.37%) Network Security
4 16 (4.24%) VPN
5 10 (2.65%) LAN
5 10 (2.65%) WAN
6 9 (2.39%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
7 7 (1.86%) SAN
7 7 (1.86%) TCP/IP
8 6 (1.59%) NAS
8 6 (1.59%) VSAN
9 5 (1.33%) Kerberos
9 5 (1.33%) Wireless
10 4 (1.06%) DHCP
11 3 (0.80%) BIG-IP
11 3 (0.80%) MPLS
11 3 (0.80%) NetScaler
11 3 (0.80%) SD-WAN
12 2 (0.53%) Multicast
12 2 (0.53%) Structured Cabling
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (2.92%) Oracle Database
2 8 (2.12%) Power BI
3 6 (1.59%) Data Warehouse
3 6 (1.59%) Oracle Exadata
3 6 (1.59%) Relational Database
3 6 (1.59%) SQL Server
4 5 (1.33%) BigQuery
4 5 (1.33%) RDBMS
5 4 (1.06%) BusinessObjects
6 3 (0.80%) Data Vault
6 3 (0.80%) Delta Lake
6 3 (0.80%) MySQL
7 2 (0.53%) Elasticsearch
7 2 (0.53%) NoSQL
7 2 (0.53%) Oracle Reports
7 2 (0.53%) SAP HANA
8 1 (0.27%) Amazon Redshift
8 1 (0.27%) MongoDB
8 1 (0.27%) PostgreSQL
8 1 (0.27%) SAP Data Services
Development Applications
1 37 (9.81%) Jenkins
2 25 (6.63%) Git
3 19 (5.04%) JIRA
4 18 (4.77%) GitLab
5 9 (2.39%) Postman
6 6 (1.59%) SoapUI
7 4 (1.06%) Cucumber
7 4 (1.06%) Hudson
7 4 (1.06%) JUnit
7 4 (1.06%) TeamCity
8 3 (0.80%) Liquibase
8 3 (0.80%) Selenium
8 3 (0.80%) SonarQube
8 3 (0.80%) Sonatype Nexus
9 1 (0.27%) LSMW
9 1 (0.27%) Maven
9 1 (0.27%) MSI
9 1 (0.27%) PVCS
9 1 (0.27%) REST Assured
9 1 (0.27%) Snyk
General
1 111 (29.44%) Finance
2 65 (17.24%) Social Skills
3 52 (13.79%) Public Sector
4 34 (9.02%) Banking
5 20 (5.31%) Local Government
6 13 (3.45%) Analytical Skills
7 12 (3.18%) General Ledger
8 11 (2.92%) Influencing Skills
9 7 (1.86%) Financial Institution
10 6 (1.59%) Investment Banking
10 6 (1.59%) Military
11 4 (1.06%) Documentation Skills
12 3 (0.80%) Organisational Skills
12 3 (0.80%) Retail
13 2 (0.53%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 2 (0.53%) Manufacturing
13 2 (0.53%) Telecoms
14 1 (0.27%) Corporate Banking
14 1 (0.27%) Presentation Skills
14 1 (0.27%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 93 (24.67%) Architect
2 51 (13.53%) Lead
3 48 (12.73%) Senior
4 37 (9.81%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 32 (8.49%) Solutions Architect
6 28 (7.43%) Cloud Engineer
7 25 (6.63%) GCP Engineer
8 22 (5.84%) DevOps Engineer
9 21 (5.57%) Azure Specialist
10 20 (5.31%) Technical Architect
11 17 (4.51%) Consultant
12 16 (4.24%) Cloud Architect
13 13 (3.45%) Developer
13 13 (3.45%) SAP Architect
14 12 (3.18%) Analyst
14 12 (3.18%) Azure Architect
14 12 (3.18%) Azure Engineer
14 12 (3.18%) SAP Consultant
15 11 (2.92%) SAP Solutions Architect
16 10 (2.65%) Data Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (5.57%) Middleware
2 17 (4.51%) REST
3 13 (3.45%) Kafka
4 12 (3.18%) Spring Boot
5 10 (2.65%) OAuth
5 10 (2.65%) Oracle Fusion
6 8 (2.12%) JSON
6 8 (2.12%) SOAP
7 7 (1.86%) JWT
7 7 (1.86%) Web Services
8 6 (1.59%) Elastic Stack
8 6 (1.59%) NumPy
8 6 (1.59%) Pandas
8 6 (1.59%) Spring
8 6 (1.59%) XML
8 6 (1.59%) XSLT
9 5 (1.33%) React
10 4 (1.06%) Oracle GoldenGate
10 4 (1.06%) SAP Fiori
10 4 (1.06%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 48 (12.73%) Cloud Native
2 19 (5.04%) Data Centre
3 17 (4.51%) Hybrid Cloud
4 16 (4.24%) Private Cloud
5 8 (2.12%) PKI
6 7 (1.86%) Data Structures
6 7 (1.86%) Legacy Systems
6 7 (1.86%) Onboarding
7 6 (1.59%) Legacy Applications
7 6 (1.59%) Security Posture
7 6 (1.59%) Virtual Team
8 4 (1.06%) AI Agents
9 3 (0.80%) Data Protection Act
9 3 (0.80%) Greenfield Project
9 3 (0.80%) Management Information System
9 3 (0.80%) Reinsurance
9 3 (0.80%) Self-Motivation
10 2 (0.53%) Enterprise Storage
10 2 (0.53%) Grid Computing
10 2 (0.53%) Market Risk
Operating Systems
1 50 (13.26%) Linux
2 29 (7.69%) Windows
3 11 (2.92%) Unix
4 10 (2.65%) Windows Server
5 7 (1.86%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 7 (1.86%) Windows Server 2019
6 6 (1.59%) Ubuntu
7 5 (1.33%) VMS
8 4 (1.06%) AIX
8 4 (1.06%) Debian
8 4 (1.06%) Windows Server 2012
9 3 (0.80%) CentOS
9 3 (0.80%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 107 (28.38%) DevOps
2 96 (25.46%) CI/CD
3 95 (25.20%) Infrastructure as Code
4 89 (23.61%) Migration
5 56 (14.85%) Stakeholder Management
6 55 (14.59%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 54 (14.32%) Agile
8 39 (10.34%) Analytics
9 38 (10.08%) Containerisation
10 37 (9.81%) ERP
11 36 (9.55%) Microservices
11 36 (9.55%) User Acceptance Testing
12 32 (8.49%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 31 (8.22%) Cloud Security
14 29 (7.69%) Data Migration
15 28 (7.43%) Validation
16 27 (7.16%) Identity Access Management
17 26 (6.90%) Problem-Solving
17 26 (6.90%) Project Delivery
18 25 (6.63%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 71 (18.83%) Python
2 23 (6.10%) Java
3 21 (5.57%) PowerShell
4 20 (5.31%) SQL
5 13 (3.45%) Bash
6 8 (2.12%) Bicep
7 6 (1.59%) Go
7 6 (1.59%) Shell Script
8 5 (1.33%) Ruby
9 4 (1.06%) JavaScript
9 4 (1.06%) TypeScript
10 3 (0.80%) PL/SQL
11 2 (0.53%) C++
11 2 (0.53%) Perl
12 1 (0.27%) C#
12 1 (0.27%) Kotlin
12 1 (0.27%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 88 (23.34%) Security Cleared
2 73 (19.36%) SC Cleared
3 24 (6.37%) Cisco Certification
4 18 (4.77%) DV Cleared
5 14 (3.71%) Degree
6 12 (3.18%) CCNP
7 10 (2.65%) CISSP
8 9 (2.39%) (ISC)2 CCSP
8 9 (2.39%) AWS Certification
8 9 (2.39%) SAP Certification
9 8 (2.12%) Azure Certification
9 8 (2.12%) BPSS Clearance
10 7 (1.86%) ACCA
10 7 (1.86%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 7 (1.86%) CIMA
10 7 (1.86%) CISM
10 7 (1.86%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 6 (1.59%) ISTQB
12 5 (1.33%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
12 5 (1.33%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (3.98%) NIST
2 14 (3.71%) NCSC
3 12 (3.18%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 10 (2.65%) GDPR
5 8 (2.12%) QA
6 5 (1.33%) Cyber Essentials
6 5 (1.33%) Data Quality
6 5 (1.33%) GRC
7 4 (1.06%) SLA
8 2 (0.53%) Government Security Classifications
8 2 (0.53%) ISO 15022
8 2 (0.53%) ISO 20022
8 2 (0.53%) PMO
9 1 (0.27%) Actionable Recommendations
9 1 (0.27%) Disclosure Scotland
9 1 (0.27%) ISO 22301
9 1 (0.27%) ISO/IEC 20000
9 1 (0.27%) NIST 800
9 1 (0.27%) PCI DSS
9 1 (0.27%) RMADS
System Software
1 28 (7.43%) Docker
2 25 (6.63%) VMware Infrastructure
3 13 (3.45%) Active Directory
4 12 (3.18%) VMware NSX
5 11 (2.92%) Hyper-V
6 7 (1.86%) Oracle RAC
6 7 (1.86%) Postfix
7 5 (1.33%) NFS
7 5 (1.33%) Varnish
7 5 (1.33%) VMware ESXi
7 5 (1.33%) vSphere
8 4 (1.06%) Sendmail
8 4 (1.06%) Virtual Machines
9 3 (0.80%) Virtual Desktop
10 2 (0.53%) Dovecot
11 1 (0.27%) Firmware
11 1 (0.27%) GPFS
11 1 (0.27%) Lustre
11 1 (0.27%) Microsoft App-V
11 1 (0.27%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 84 (22.28%) Terraform
2 63 (16.71%) Kubernetes
3 38 (10.08%) Ansible
4 21 (5.57%) Istio
5 12 (3.18%) Prometheus
6 10 (2.65%) Grafana
7 8 (2.12%) Single Sign-On
8 7 (1.86%) Data Guard
8 7 (1.86%) HAProxy
8 7 (1.86%) Oracle RMAN
9 5 (1.33%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 5 (1.33%) Microsoft Intune
10 4 (1.06%) Argo
10 4 (1.06%) Kubeflow
10 4 (1.06%) Packer
11 3 (0.80%) SCCM
11 3 (0.80%) vCenter Server
12 2 (0.53%) Check_MK
12 2 (0.53%) Puppet
12 2 (0.53%) Red Hat Satellite
Vendors
1 95 (25.20%) SAP
2 54 (14.32%) Google
3 50 (13.26%) Microsoft
4 38 (10.08%) Oracle
5 37 (9.81%) VMware
6 16 (4.24%) F5
7 14 (3.71%) Ariba
8 11 (2.92%) Red Hat
9 10 (2.65%) Cisco
10 9 (2.39%) ServiceNow
11 7 (1.86%) MuleSoft
11 7 (1.86%) Splunk
12 5 (1.33%) Citrix
12 5 (1.33%) Databricks
12 5 (1.33%) Palo Alto
12 5 (1.33%) Veeam
13 4 (1.06%) Fortinet
13 4 (1.06%) Juniper
14 3 (0.80%) Commvault
14 3 (0.80%) Foundry