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

6 months to
4 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 369 335 262
Rank change year-on-year -34 -73 -5
Contract jobs citing Public Cloud 349 214 344
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.64% 0.64% 0.91%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 1.86% 1.79% 2.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 235 137 204
10th Percentile £425 £382 £425
25th Percentile £507 £450 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £543 £574
Median % change year-on-year +10.60% -5.45% -4.38%
75th Percentile £688 £688 £670
90th Percentile £785 £775 £776
UK excluding London median daily rate £590 £525 £560
% change year-on-year +12.38% -6.25% -6.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 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 18,812 11,937 11,605
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 34.43% 35.97% 30.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,229 7,315 6,972
10th Percentile £320 £300 £275
25th Percentile £425 £408 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £520 £530
Median % change year-on-year +0.96% -1.89% -3.64%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £671
90th Percentile £750 £750 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,294 615 424
10th Percentile £14.00 £14.87 £15.54
25th Percentile £17.72 £18.85 £22.50
Median hourly rate £36.00 £29.00 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year +24.14% -42.00% +11.73%
75th Percentile £67.50 £52.50 £70.00
90th Percentile £81.25 £72.50 £75.16
UK excluding London median hourly rate £37.50 £29.27 £57.35
% change year-on-year +28.12% -48.96% +14.70%

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 4 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 4 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 -14 281 £600 - 605
UK excluding London -39 187 £590 +12.38% 390
London -56 101 £650 +4.42% 335
North of England -23 86 £588 +30.56% 81
Work from Home -41 86 £610 +13.59% 329
Yorkshire -15 53 £550 +18.92% 27
South East -35 35 £566 -17.64% 67
North West -30 28 £625 +38.89% 42
Midlands -37 23 £600 +11.73% 38
Scotland -40 19 £520 +4.00% 79
South West -23 15 £675 +12.50% 55
West Midlands -41 11 £625 -10.75% 21
East Midlands -9 10 £588 +16.11% 16
North East - 9 £602 - 12
East of England -19 8 £593 -17.57% 27
Wales -15 1 - - 16
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 28

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 (2.01%) IIS
2 6 (1.72%) Apache
2 6 (1.72%) OpenStack
3 3 (0.86%) Apache Airflow
3 3 (0.86%) CloudStack
3 3 (0.86%) Confluence
3 3 (0.86%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 2 (0.57%) nginx
4 2 (0.57%) SharePoint
4 2 (0.57%) Tomcat
5 1 (0.29%) WebLogic
Applications
1 14 (4.01%) Microsoft Excel
2 10 (2.87%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (2.01%) MS Visio
4 4 (1.15%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.57%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 2 (0.57%) Houdini
5 2 (0.57%) NUKE
5 2 (0.57%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.29%) Weka
Business Applications
1 58 (16.62%) SAP S/4HANA
2 7 (2.01%) SAP SD
3 6 (1.72%) SAP Business One
4 5 (1.43%) SAP ERP
5 4 (1.15%) iTrent
6 3 (0.86%) SAP FI
7 2 (0.57%) Cloudability
7 2 (0.57%) SAP CO
7 2 (0.57%) SAP FI-GL
8 1 (0.29%) Distributed Ledger
8 1 (0.29%) Oracle SCM
8 1 (0.29%) SAP FI/CO
8 1 (0.29%) SAP FI-AR
8 1 (0.29%) SAP MDG
8 1 (0.29%) SAP MM
8 1 (0.29%) SAP PS
Cloud Services
1 155 (44.41%) AWS
2 145 (41.55%) Azure
3 90 (25.79%) GCP
4 28 (8.02%) GitHub
5 21 (6.02%) SaaS
6 20 (5.73%) OCI
7 18 (5.16%) IaaS
8 15 (4.30%) OpenShift
9 14 (4.01%) GitHub Actions
10 13 (3.72%) Entra ID
11 12 (3.44%) Azure DevOps
11 12 (3.44%) Google Kubernetes Engine
12 11 (3.15%) Amazon EKS
12 11 (3.15%) AWS CloudFormation
13 10 (2.87%) PaaS
13 10 (2.87%) SuccessFactors
14 9 (2.58%) Serverless
15 8 (2.29%) Virtual Private Cloud
16 7 (2.01%) Azure Sentinel
17 6 (1.72%) Amazon ECS
Communications & Networking
1 40 (11.46%) Firewall
2 28 (8.02%) DNS
3 22 (6.30%) Network Security
4 18 (5.16%) TCP/IP
5 14 (4.01%) VSAN
6 12 (3.44%) VPN
7 11 (3.15%) DHCP
8 10 (2.87%) BIG-IP
9 9 (2.58%) BGP
9 9 (2.58%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
9 9 (2.58%) WAN
10 8 (2.29%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
11 7 (2.01%) LAN
11 7 (2.01%) SAN
12 6 (1.72%) NAS
13 5 (1.43%) Wi-Fi
14 4 (1.15%) HTTPS
14 4 (1.15%) SNMP
14 4 (1.15%) TACACS
14 4 (1.15%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 14 (4.01%) Oracle Database
2 13 (3.72%) RDBMS
2 13 (3.72%) Relational Database
3 12 (3.44%) Oracle Exadata
4 8 (2.29%) MySQL
5 6 (1.72%) SQL Server
6 5 (1.43%) Oracle Reports
7 4 (1.15%) Amazon Redshift
7 4 (1.15%) BusinessObjects
7 4 (1.15%) SAP HANA
8 3 (0.86%) BigQuery
8 3 (0.86%) Data Warehouse
8 3 (0.86%) Metadata
8 3 (0.86%) Power Query
8 3 (0.86%) PowerPivot
9 2 (0.57%) MongoDB
9 2 (0.57%) NoSQL
9 2 (0.57%) PostgreSQL
9 2 (0.57%) Power BI
10 1 (0.29%) Data Lake
Development Applications
1 41 (11.75%) Git
2 28 (8.02%) Jenkins
3 16 (4.58%) GitLab
4 10 (2.87%) JIRA
5 9 (2.58%) JUnit
6 7 (2.01%) SonarQube
6 7 (2.01%) Sonatype Nexus
7 4 (1.15%) Cucumber
7 4 (1.15%) Hudson
7 4 (1.15%) Maven
8 3 (0.86%) Postman
8 3 (0.86%) Selenium
9 1 (0.29%) Artifactory
9 1 (0.29%) Liquibase
General
1 106 (30.37%) Finance
2 75 (21.49%) Social Skills
3 35 (10.03%) Public Sector
4 22 (6.30%) Analytical Skills
4 22 (6.30%) Banking
5 11 (3.15%) Influencing Skills
6 9 (2.58%) Billing
6 9 (2.58%) General Ledger
7 8 (2.29%) Military
8 7 (2.01%) Documentation Skills
8 7 (2.01%) Presentation Skills
9 5 (1.43%) Local Government
9 5 (1.43%) Manufacturing
9 5 (1.43%) Retail
9 5 (1.43%) Telecoms
10 4 (1.15%) Automotive
10 4 (1.15%) Organisational Skills
11 3 (0.86%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 3 (0.86%) Legal
11 3 (0.86%) Police
Job Titles
1 91 (26.07%) Architect
2 60 (17.19%) Senior
3 38 (10.89%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 35 (10.03%) Solutions Architect
5 33 (9.46%) Lead
6 26 (7.45%) DevOps Engineer
7 23 (6.59%) Consultant
8 21 (6.02%) Developer
8 21 (6.02%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
8 21 (6.02%) Technical Architect
9 18 (5.16%) Cloud Architect
10 14 (4.01%) Analyst
10 14 (4.01%) Python Developer
11 13 (3.72%) Cloud Engineer
11 13 (3.72%) Network Engineer
11 13 (3.72%) Platform Engineer
11 13 (3.72%) Security Architect
12 12 (3.44%) Azure Specialist
12 12 (3.44%) SAP Consultant
13 11 (3.15%) Azure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 88 (25.21%) Terraform
2 21 (6.02%) Kafka
3 17 (4.87%) Spring Boot
4 13 (3.72%) Spring
5 12 (3.44%) Oracle GoldenGate
6 10 (2.87%) REST
6 10 (2.87%) SAP Fiori
7 7 (2.01%) Web Services
8 6 (1.72%) Elastic Stack
8 6 (1.72%) React
9 5 (1.43%) .NET
9 5 (1.43%) JSON
9 5 (1.43%) Middleware
9 5 (1.43%) OAuth
9 5 (1.43%) OpenID
9 5 (1.43%) Pandas
10 4 (1.15%) JPA
10 4 (1.15%) Oracle Fusion
10 4 (1.15%) SOAP
10 4 (1.15%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 63 (18.05%) Cloud Native
2 49 (14.04%) Data Centre
3 38 (10.89%) Hybrid Cloud
4 30 (8.60%) Private Cloud
5 15 (4.30%) PKI
6 13 (3.72%) Management Information System
7 12 (3.44%) Onboarding
8 8 (2.29%) AI Agents
8 8 (2.29%) Data Structures
8 8 (2.29%) Enterprise Software
8 8 (2.29%) Legacy Systems
8 8 (2.29%) Security Posture
9 7 (2.01%) Distributed Systems
9 7 (2.01%) Enterprise Cloud
9 7 (2.01%) Legacy Applications
9 7 (2.01%) Self-Motivation
10 6 (1.72%) Linux Command Line
11 5 (1.43%) Embedded Systems
11 5 (1.43%) Mobile Payment
11 5 (1.43%) Smartcard
Operating Systems
1 65 (18.62%) Linux
2 35 (10.03%) Windows
3 13 (3.72%) Windows Server
4 12 (3.44%) AIX
5 10 (2.87%) Unix
6 9 (2.58%) Ubuntu
7 4 (1.15%) VMS
8 3 (0.86%) Debian
8 3 (0.86%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 2 (0.57%) 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
1 103 (29.51%) CI/CD
2 98 (28.08%) Infrastructure as Code
3 95 (27.22%) Migration
4 79 (22.64%) DevOps
5 69 (19.77%) Agile
6 63 (18.05%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 54 (15.47%) Stakeholder Management
8 40 (11.46%) Microservices
9 38 (10.89%) Cloud Security
9 38 (10.89%) Data Migration
10 37 (10.60%) Problem-Solving
11 33 (9.46%) Event-Driven
12 32 (9.17%) Architectural Patterns
12 32 (9.17%) Containerisation
12 32 (9.17%) Observability
12 32 (9.17%) Technical Leadership
13 31 (8.88%) Infrastructure Automation
13 31 (8.88%) Roadmaps
13 31 (8.88%) Security Architecture
14 30 (8.60%) ERP
Programming Languages
1 85 (24.36%) Python
2 34 (9.74%) Java
3 28 (8.02%) Bash
3 28 (8.02%) PowerShell
4 12 (3.44%) SQL
5 9 (2.58%) Go
5 9 (2.58%) JavaScript
6 8 (2.29%) ActionScript
7 7 (2.01%) Bicep
8 6 (1.72%) Groovy
8 6 (1.72%) Shell Script
9 4 (1.15%) ABAP
9 4 (1.15%) Ruby
10 3 (0.86%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 3 (0.86%) Perl
11 1 (0.29%) C++
11 1 (0.29%) PL/SQL
11 1 (0.29%) T-SQL
11 1 (0.29%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 87 (24.93%) Security Cleared
2 70 (20.06%) SC Cleared
3 28 (8.02%) Cisco Certification
4 22 (6.30%) AWS Certification
5 21 (6.02%) DV Cleared
6 17 (4.87%) CISSP
6 17 (4.87%) Degree
7 12 (3.44%) Azure Certification
7 12 (3.44%) VCAP
8 11 (3.15%) (ISC)2 CCSP
8 11 (3.15%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 10 (2.87%) BPSS Clearance
9 10 (2.87%) CCNP
9 10 (2.87%) CISM
10 9 (2.58%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 8 (2.29%) CCSP
11 8 (2.29%) CREST Certified
12 7 (2.01%) ACCA
12 7 (2.01%) CIMA
13 6 (1.72%) CISA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (4.30%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 14 (4.01%) NIST
3 9 (2.58%) GDPR
4 7 (2.01%) Data Quality
5 6 (1.72%) PCI DSS
6 5 (1.43%) GRC
6 5 (1.43%) ISO 20022
6 5 (1.43%) ISO 31000
6 5 (1.43%) ISO 9001
6 5 (1.43%) ISO/IEC 27005
7 4 (1.15%) ISO 15022
7 4 (1.15%) NCSC
8 3 (0.86%) Government Security Classifications
8 3 (0.86%) HMG Security Policy Framework
9 2 (0.57%) Accessibility
9 2 (0.57%) Disclosure Scotland
10 1 (0.29%) ISO 22301
10 1 (0.29%) NIST 800
10 1 (0.29%) PMO
10 1 (0.29%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 29 (8.31%) VMware Infrastructure
2 23 (6.59%) Docker
3 18 (5.16%) VMware NSX
4 15 (4.30%) Active Directory
5 13 (3.72%) Oracle RAC
6 12 (3.44%) vSphere
7 10 (2.87%) VMware ESXi
8 9 (2.58%) Virtual Machines
9 5 (1.43%) ISA Server
10 3 (0.86%) Postfix
11 2 (0.57%) Dovecot
11 2 (0.57%) Hyper-V
11 2 (0.57%) 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 (19.48%) Kubernetes
2 51 (14.61%) Ansible
3 17 (4.87%) Grafana
4 15 (4.30%) Prometheus
5 13 (3.72%) Data Guard
5 13 (3.72%) Oracle RMAN
6 11 (3.15%) vCenter Server
7 7 (2.01%) Istio
7 7 (2.01%) Packer
8 6 (1.72%) CASB
9 5 (1.43%) VxRail
10 4 (1.15%) Puppet
10 4 (1.15%) systemd
11 3 (0.86%) Check_MK
11 3 (0.86%) HAProxy
12 2 (0.57%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 2 (0.57%) Argo
12 2 (0.57%) Progress Chef
13 1 (0.29%) Cilium
13 1 (0.29%) Kubeflow
Vendors
1 73 (20.92%) SAP
2 71 (20.34%) Microsoft
3 51 (14.61%) Google
4 44 (12.61%) Oracle
5 35 (10.03%) VMware
6 26 (7.45%) Cisco
7 20 (5.73%) F5
8 14 (4.01%) Splunk
9 11 (3.15%) Juniper
10 9 (2.58%) Fortinet
11 8 (2.29%) Ariba
11 8 (2.29%) CyberArk
12 7 (2.01%) Dynatrace
12 7 (2.01%) ServiceNow
13 6 (1.72%) Red Hat
14 5 (1.43%) Centrify
14 5 (1.43%) Commvault
14 5 (1.43%) IBM
14 5 (1.43%) Qualys
14 5 (1.43%) Tripwire