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 10 October 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
10 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 366 334 270
Rank change year-on-year -32 -64 -10
Contract jobs citing Public Cloud 346 229 340
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.63% 0.69% 0.90%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 1.83% 1.92% 2.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 233 148 204
10th Percentile £419 £395 £414
25th Percentile £500 £450 £467
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £537 £563
Median % change year-on-year +11.73% -4.53% -6.25%
75th Percentile £688 £675 £670
90th Percentile £787 £775 £776
UK excluding London median daily rate £588 £525 £560
% change year-on-year +12.05% -6.25% -6.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 1 2
10th Percentile - - £52.60
25th Percentile - £42.50 £53.50
Median hourly rate £57.00 £45.00 £56.00
Median % change year-on-year +26.67% -19.64% -28.21%
75th Percentile - £47.50 £57.50
90th Percentile - - £57.80
UK excluding London median hourly rate - - £58.00
% change year-on-year - - -25.64%

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 18,907 11,932 11,609
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 34.64% 36.02% 30.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,283 7,315 6,943
10th Percentile £325 £299 £275
25th Percentile £425 £408 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £515 £525
Median % change year-on-year +1.94% -1.90% -4.55%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £665
90th Percentile £750 £750 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £495
% change year-on-year +5.26% -4.04% -1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,313 623 414
10th Percentile £13.92 £14.69 £15.79
25th Percentile £17.50 £18.51 £22.70
Median hourly rate £36.00 £27.50 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +30.91% -42.11% +5.56%
75th Percentile £67.50 £51.25 £70.00
90th Percentile £83.00 £72.30 £75.16
UK excluding London median hourly rate £34.50 £27.21 £54.25
% change year-on-year +26.77% -49.84% +5.50%

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 10 October 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 10 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 -33 279 £600 +5.73% 595
UK excluding London -39 181 £588 +12.05% 298
London -54 104 £650 +4.84% 376
North of England -44 87 £575 +21.05% 62
Work from Home -31 83 £616 +14.71% 230
Yorkshire -18 54 £538 +12.92% 15
South East -46 33 £558 -18.91% 55
North West -36 28 £625 +38.89% 36
Midlands -42 25 £600 +13.21% 28
Scotland -37 17 £520 +4.00% 61
South West -22 12 £800 +33.33% 40
West Midlands -48 12 £675 +27.26% 22
East Midlands -13 10 £588 +16.11% 6
North East - 9 £602 - 11
East of England -35 6 £538 -25.22% 17
Wales -13 1 - - 3
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 33

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 7 (2.02%) IIS
2 6 (1.73%) Apache
2 6 (1.73%) OpenStack
3 4 (1.16%) Apache Airflow
4 3 (0.87%) CloudStack
4 3 (0.87%) Confluence
4 3 (0.87%) Oracle SOA Suite
5 2 (0.58%) nginx
5 2 (0.58%) SharePoint
5 2 (0.58%) Tomcat
6 1 (0.29%) WebLogic
Applications
1 14 (4.05%) Microsoft Excel
2 9 (2.60%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (2.02%) MS Visio
4 4 (1.16%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.58%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 2 (0.58%) Houdini
5 2 (0.58%) NUKE
6 1 (0.29%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.29%) Weka
Business Applications
1 57 (16.47%) SAP S/4HANA
2 7 (2.02%) SAP SD
3 5 (1.45%) SAP ERP
4 4 (1.16%) iTrent
4 4 (1.16%) SAP Business One
5 3 (0.87%) Cloudability
5 3 (0.87%) SAP FI
6 2 (0.58%) SAP CO
6 2 (0.58%) SAP FI-GL
6 2 (0.58%) SAP MM
7 1 (0.29%) Distributed Ledger
7 1 (0.29%) Oracle SCM
7 1 (0.29%) SAP FI/CO
7 1 (0.29%) SAP FI-AR
7 1 (0.29%) SAP LE
7 1 (0.29%) SAP MDG
7 1 (0.29%) SAP PS
Cloud Services
1 158 (45.66%) AWS
2 143 (41.33%) Azure
3 92 (26.59%) GCP
4 28 (8.09%) GitHub
5 23 (6.65%) SaaS
6 20 (5.78%) OCI
7 17 (4.91%) IaaS
8 15 (4.34%) OpenShift
9 13 (3.76%) GitHub Actions
10 12 (3.47%) Amazon EKS
10 12 (3.47%) Azure DevOps
10 12 (3.47%) Google Kubernetes Engine
11 11 (3.18%) AWS CloudFormation
12 10 (2.89%) Entra ID
12 10 (2.89%) SuccessFactors
13 9 (2.60%) PaaS
13 9 (2.60%) Serverless
14 8 (2.31%) Virtual Private Cloud
15 6 (1.73%) Amazon S3
15 6 (1.73%) Datadog
Communications & Networking
1 40 (11.56%) Firewall
2 28 (8.09%) DNS
3 23 (6.65%) Network Security
4 18 (5.20%) TCP/IP
5 14 (4.05%) VSAN
6 11 (3.18%) BIG-IP
6 11 (3.18%) DHCP
6 11 (3.18%) VPN
7 9 (2.60%) BGP
7 9 (2.60%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
7 9 (2.60%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
8 8 (2.31%) WAN
9 7 (2.02%) SAN
10 6 (1.73%) LAN
10 6 (1.73%) NAS
11 5 (1.45%) Wi-Fi
12 4 (1.16%) HTTPS
12 4 (1.16%) SNMP
12 4 (1.16%) TACACS
12 4 (1.16%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 14 (4.05%) Oracle Database
2 12 (3.47%) Oracle Exadata
2 12 (3.47%) RDBMS
2 12 (3.47%) Relational Database
3 9 (2.60%) MySQL
4 7 (2.02%) SQL Server
5 5 (1.45%) Amazon Redshift
5 5 (1.45%) BigQuery
5 5 (1.45%) Oracle Reports
5 5 (1.45%) SAP HANA
6 4 (1.16%) BusinessObjects
6 4 (1.16%) Power Query
6 4 (1.16%) PowerPivot
7 3 (0.87%) Data Warehouse
7 3 (0.87%) Metadata
7 3 (0.87%) MongoDB
7 3 (0.87%) NoSQL
7 3 (0.87%) PostgreSQL
8 2 (0.58%) Power BI
9 1 (0.29%) Data Lake
Development Applications
1 42 (12.14%) Git
2 30 (8.67%) Jenkins
3 16 (4.62%) GitLab
4 10 (2.89%) JIRA
5 9 (2.60%) JUnit
6 7 (2.02%) SonarQube
6 7 (2.02%) Sonatype Nexus
7 4 (1.16%) Cucumber
7 4 (1.16%) Hudson
7 4 (1.16%) Maven
8 3 (0.87%) Postman
8 3 (0.87%) Selenium
9 1 (0.29%) Artifactory
9 1 (0.29%) Liquibase
General
1 106 (30.64%) Finance
2 79 (22.83%) Social Skills
3 37 (10.69%) Public Sector
4 24 (6.94%) Analytical Skills
5 22 (6.36%) Banking
6 11 (3.18%) Influencing Skills
7 10 (2.89%) Billing
8 8 (2.31%) General Ledger
8 8 (2.31%) Military
9 7 (2.02%) Presentation Skills
10 6 (1.73%) Documentation Skills
11 5 (1.45%) Local Government
11 5 (1.45%) Manufacturing
11 5 (1.45%) Retail
12 4 (1.16%) Automotive
12 4 (1.16%) Legal
12 4 (1.16%) Organisational Skills
12 4 (1.16%) Telecoms
13 3 (0.87%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 3 (0.87%) Police
Job Titles
1 90 (26.01%) Architect
2 59 (17.05%) Senior
3 39 (11.27%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 35 (10.12%) Solutions Architect
5 31 (8.96%) Lead
6 25 (7.23%) Consultant
6 25 (7.23%) DevOps Engineer
7 22 (6.36%) Technical Architect
8 21 (6.07%) Developer
8 21 (6.07%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
9 18 (5.20%) Cloud Architect
10 16 (4.62%) Cloud Engineer
11 14 (4.05%) Analyst
11 14 (4.05%) Python Developer
11 14 (4.05%) Security Architect
12 13 (3.76%) Network Engineer
12 13 (3.76%) SAP Consultant
13 12 (3.47%) Azure Engineer
13 12 (3.47%) Platform Engineer
14 11 (3.18%) SAP Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 88 (25.43%) Terraform
2 21 (6.07%) Kafka
3 17 (4.91%) Spring Boot
4 13 (3.76%) Spring
5 12 (3.47%) Oracle GoldenGate
6 10 (2.89%) REST
6 10 (2.89%) SAP Fiori
7 7 (2.02%) Web Services
8 6 (1.73%) .NET
8 6 (1.73%) Elastic Stack
8 6 (1.73%) JSON
8 6 (1.73%) Pandas
8 6 (1.73%) React
9 5 (1.45%) Middleware
9 5 (1.45%) OAuth
9 5 (1.45%) OpenID
10 4 (1.16%) AngularJS
10 4 (1.16%) JPA
10 4 (1.16%) SOAP
10 4 (1.16%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 62 (17.92%) Cloud Native
2 47 (13.58%) Data Centre
3 37 (10.69%) Hybrid Cloud
4 28 (8.09%) Private Cloud
5 15 (4.34%) PKI
6 12 (3.47%) Onboarding
7 11 (3.18%) Management Information System
8 9 (2.60%) AI Agents
8 9 (2.60%) Data Structures
9 8 (2.31%) Enterprise Software
9 8 (2.31%) Security Posture
9 8 (2.31%) Self-Motivation
10 7 (2.02%) Distributed Systems
10 7 (2.02%) Enterprise Cloud
10 7 (2.02%) Legacy Applications
11 6 (1.73%) Data Protection Act
11 6 (1.73%) Legacy Systems
11 6 (1.73%) Linux Command Line
12 5 (1.45%) Embedded Systems
12 5 (1.45%) Smartcard
Operating Systems
1 65 (18.79%) Linux
2 35 (10.12%) Windows
3 13 (3.76%) Windows Server
4 12 (3.47%) AIX
5 10 (2.89%) Unix
6 9 (2.60%) Ubuntu
7 4 (1.16%) VMS
8 3 (0.87%) Debian
8 3 (0.87%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 2 (0.58%) CentOS
10 1 (0.29%) Android
10 1 (0.29%) Mac OS
10 1 (0.29%) Rocky
10 1 (0.29%) Windows Server 2012
10 1 (0.29%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 107 (30.92%) CI/CD
2 99 (28.61%) Infrastructure as Code
3 92 (26.59%) Migration
4 79 (22.83%) DevOps
5 72 (20.81%) Agile
6 63 (18.21%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 57 (16.47%) Stakeholder Management
8 40 (11.56%) Microservices
9 39 (11.27%) Cloud Security
10 38 (10.98%) Problem-Solving
11 36 (10.40%) Data Migration
12 35 (10.12%) Observability
13 33 (9.54%) Event-Driven
14 32 (9.25%) Architectural Patterns
15 31 (8.96%) Containerisation
15 31 (8.96%) Infrastructure Automation
15 31 (8.96%) Security Architecture
16 30 (8.67%) Technical Leadership
17 29 (8.38%) ERP
17 29 (8.38%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 89 (25.72%) Python
2 34 (9.83%) Java
3 29 (8.38%) PowerShell
4 28 (8.09%) Bash
5 12 (3.47%) SQL
6 9 (2.60%) ActionScript
6 9 (2.60%) Go
6 9 (2.60%) JavaScript
7 8 (2.31%) Bicep
8 6 (1.73%) Groovy
8 6 (1.73%) Shell Script
9 4 (1.16%) ABAP
9 4 (1.16%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 4 (1.16%) Ruby
10 3 (0.87%) Perl
11 1 (0.29%) C++
11 1 (0.29%) T-SQL
11 1 (0.29%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 87 (25.14%) Security Cleared
2 71 (20.52%) SC Cleared
3 26 (7.51%) Cisco Certification
4 23 (6.65%) AWS Certification
5 20 (5.78%) DV Cleared
6 16 (4.62%) CISSP
6 16 (4.62%) Degree
7 12 (3.47%) VCAP
8 10 (2.89%) (ISC)2 CCSP
8 10 (2.89%) Azure Certification
8 10 (2.89%) BPSS Clearance
8 10 (2.89%) CISM
8 10 (2.89%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 9 (2.60%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 9 (2.60%) CCNP
10 8 (2.31%) CREST Certified
11 7 (2.02%) CCSP
12 6 (1.73%) CISA
13 5 (1.45%) ACCA
13 5 (1.45%) CIMA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (4.34%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 12 (3.47%) NIST
3 9 (2.60%) GDPR
4 8 (2.31%) Data Quality
5 7 (2.02%) NCSC
6 6 (1.73%) PCI DSS
7 5 (1.45%) GRC
7 5 (1.45%) ISO 20022
7 5 (1.45%) ISO 31000
7 5 (1.45%) ISO 9001
7 5 (1.45%) ISO/IEC 27005
8 4 (1.16%) ISO 15022
9 3 (0.87%) Government Security Classifications
9 3 (0.87%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 2 (0.58%) Accessibility
10 2 (0.58%) Cyber Essentials
10 2 (0.58%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 2 (0.58%) Disclosure Scotland
11 1 (0.29%) NIST 800
11 1 (0.29%) PMO
System Software
1 29 (8.38%) VMware Infrastructure
2 23 (6.65%) Docker
3 18 (5.20%) VMware NSX
4 15 (4.34%) Active Directory
5 13 (3.76%) Oracle RAC
6 12 (3.47%) vSphere
7 10 (2.89%) VMware ESXi
8 9 (2.60%) Virtual Machines
9 5 (1.45%) ISA Server
10 3 (0.87%) Postfix
11 2 (0.58%) Dovecot
11 2 (0.58%) Hyper-V
11 2 (0.58%) Virtual Desktop
12 1 (0.29%) GPFS
12 1 (0.29%) Lustre
12 1 (0.29%) NFS
12 1 (0.29%) Sendmail
12 1 (0.29%) Slurm Workload Manager
12 1 (0.29%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 68 (19.65%) Kubernetes
2 50 (14.45%) Ansible
3 18 (5.20%) Grafana
4 16 (4.62%) Prometheus
5 13 (3.76%) Data Guard
5 13 (3.76%) Oracle RMAN
6 11 (3.18%) vCenter Server
7 7 (2.02%) Istio
7 7 (2.02%) Packer
8 6 (1.73%) CASB
9 5 (1.45%) VxRail
10 4 (1.16%) Puppet
10 4 (1.16%) systemd
11 3 (0.87%) Check_MK
11 3 (0.87%) HAProxy
12 2 (0.58%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 2 (0.58%) Progress Chef
13 1 (0.29%) Argo
13 1 (0.29%) Kubeflow
13 1 (0.29%) vMotion
Vendors
1 74 (21.39%) SAP
2 69 (19.94%) Microsoft
3 53 (15.32%) Google
4 43 (12.43%) Oracle
5 34 (9.83%) VMware
6 26 (7.51%) Cisco
7 20 (5.78%) F5
8 14 (4.05%) Splunk
9 11 (3.18%) Juniper
10 9 (2.60%) Fortinet
11 8 (2.31%) Ariba
11 8 (2.31%) CyberArk
12 7 (2.02%) Dynatrace
12 7 (2.02%) ServiceNow
13 6 (1.73%) IBM
13 6 (1.73%) Red Hat
14 5 (1.45%) Centrify
14 5 (1.45%) Commvault
14 5 (1.45%) Qualys
14 5 (1.45%) Tripwire