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 12 September 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 359 358 247
Rank change year-on-year -1 -111 +18
Contract jobs citing Public Cloud 343 209 376
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.63% 0.63% 0.97%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 1.86% 1.78% 3.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 234 133 236
10th Percentile £450 £359 £425
25th Percentile £513 £438 £489
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £525 £575
Median % change year-on-year +14.29% -8.70% -4.17%
75th Percentile £688 £694 £727
90th Percentile £776 £775 £825
UK excluding London median daily rate £600 £500 £575
% change year-on-year +20.00% -13.04% -4.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 1 3
10th Percentile - - £39.80
25th Percentile - £42.50 £44.38
Median hourly rate - £45.00 £54.00
Median % change year-on-year - -16.67% -30.77%
75th Percentile - £47.50 £57.00
90th Percentile - - £57.60
UK excluding London median hourly rate - - £48.25
% change year-on-year - - -38.14%

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 18,463 11,731 11,703
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.84% 35.54% 30.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,091 7,182 7,228
10th Percentile £320 £300 £300
25th Percentile £423 £406 £418
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £515 £543
Median % change year-on-year +1.94% -5.07% -1.36%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £675
90th Percentile £745 £763 £813
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,146 584 496
10th Percentile £14.11 £15.13 £14.06
25th Percentile £18.00 £18.87 £21.25
Median hourly rate £37.50 £30.00 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year +25.00% -40.00% +13.84%
75th Percentile £67.50 £55.25 £70.00
90th Percentile £82.31 £74.63 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £38.72 £30.00 £57.35
% change year-on-year +29.07% -47.69% +25.00%

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 12 September 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 12 September 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 -13 280 £600 +6.67% 342
UK excluding London -18 199 £600 +20.00% 171
Work from Home -16 96 £609 +17.58% 458
London -59 89 £650 +0.46% 224
North of England -29 82 £556 +23.61% 37
Yorkshire -17 52 £550 +22.22% 14
South East -21 48 £590 -14.18% 29
Midlands -41 26 £613 +14.06% 16
North West -35 25 £625 +38.89% 21
South West -28 18 £675 +3.85% 28
Scotland -39 17 £525 +5.00% 44
East Midlands -15 12 £613 +21.05% 4
West Midlands -45 11 £625 +2.00% 12
North East -37 9 £602 - 2
East of England -20 7 £475 -42.42% 5
Wales -18 1 - -
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 12

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 8 (2.33%) Apache
2 5 (1.46%) IIS
2 5 (1.46%) OpenStack
3 3 (0.87%) Apache Airflow
3 3 (0.87%) CloudStack
3 3 (0.87%) Confluence
3 3 (0.87%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 2 (0.58%) nginx
4 2 (0.58%) SAS
4 2 (0.58%) SharePoint
4 2 (0.58%) Tomcat
5 1 (0.29%) WebLogic
Applications
1 11 (3.21%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (2.33%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (1.17%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 4 (1.17%) MS Visio
4 2 (0.58%) Adobe Creative Suite
4 2 (0.58%) Houdini
4 2 (0.58%) Microsoft Project
4 2 (0.58%) NUKE
4 2 (0.58%) Spreadsheet
5 1 (0.29%) Weka
Business Applications
1 65 (18.95%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (1.75%) SAP Business One
2 6 (1.75%) SAP SD
3 5 (1.46%) SAP ERP
4 4 (1.17%) iTrent
5 3 (0.87%) SAP FI
6 2 (0.58%) SAP CO
6 2 (0.58%) SAP FI-GL
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 MDG
7 1 (0.29%) SAP MM
7 1 (0.29%) SAP PS
Cloud Services
1 143 (41.69%) Azure
2 138 (40.23%) AWS
3 70 (20.41%) GCP
4 24 (7.00%) GitHub
5 20 (5.83%) SaaS
6 18 (5.25%) OCI
7 17 (4.96%) IaaS
8 14 (4.08%) GitHub Actions
8 14 (4.08%) SuccessFactors
9 13 (3.79%) PaaS
10 12 (3.50%) Azure DevOps
10 12 (3.50%) Google Kubernetes Engine
10 12 (3.50%) OpenShift
11 10 (2.92%) Entra ID
12 9 (2.62%) Amazon EKS
13 8 (2.33%) Serverless
14 6 (1.75%) Amazon ECS
14 6 (1.75%) AWS CloudFormation
14 6 (1.75%) Azure Sentinel
15 5 (1.46%) Datadog
Communications & Networking
1 33 (9.62%) Firewall
2 28 (8.16%) DNS
3 17 (4.96%) Network Security
3 17 (4.96%) TCP/IP
4 15 (4.37%) VSAN
5 11 (3.21%) DHCP
5 11 (3.21%) LAN
5 11 (3.21%) WAN
6 10 (2.92%) VPN
7 8 (2.33%) BGP
8 7 (2.04%) SAN
9 6 (1.75%) NAS
10 5 (1.46%) BIG-IP
10 5 (1.46%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
10 5 (1.46%) VLAN
10 5 (1.46%) Wi-Fi
11 4 (1.17%) MPLS
11 4 (1.17%) SNMP
11 4 (1.17%) TACACS
12 3 (0.87%) HTTPS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 16 (4.66%) Oracle Database
2 13 (3.79%) RDBMS
2 13 (3.79%) Relational Database
3 12 (3.50%) Oracle Exadata
4 8 (2.33%) MySQL
5 4 (1.17%) BusinessObjects
5 4 (1.17%) Data Warehouse
5 4 (1.17%) SQL Server
6 3 (0.87%) BigQuery
7 2 (0.58%) Amazon Redshift
7 2 (0.58%) Oracle Reports
7 2 (0.58%) PostgreSQL
7 2 (0.58%) Power BI
7 2 (0.58%) SAP HANA
8 1 (0.29%) Amazon RDS
8 1 (0.29%) Big Data
8 1 (0.29%) DynamoDB
8 1 (0.29%) NoSQL
8 1 (0.29%) SAP Data Services
8 1 (0.29%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 40 (11.66%) Git
2 23 (6.71%) Jenkins
3 15 (4.37%) GitLab
4 8 (2.33%) JIRA
5 6 (1.75%) JUnit
5 6 (1.75%) SonarQube
5 6 (1.75%) Sonatype Nexus
6 4 (1.17%) Hudson
7 3 (0.87%) Cucumber
7 3 (0.87%) Maven
7 3 (0.87%) Postman
7 3 (0.87%) Selenium
8 1 (0.29%) Artifactory
8 1 (0.29%) LSMW
8 1 (0.29%) PVCS
General
1 96 (27.99%) Finance
2 59 (17.20%) Social Skills
3 30 (8.75%) Public Sector
4 23 (6.71%) Banking
5 19 (5.54%) Analytical Skills
6 9 (2.62%) General Ledger
7 8 (2.33%) Documentation Skills
8 7 (2.04%) Local Government
8 7 (2.04%) Military
8 7 (2.04%) Presentation Skills
9 6 (1.75%) Billing
9 6 (1.75%) Influencing Skills
10 5 (1.46%) Telecoms
11 4 (1.17%) Automotive
11 4 (1.17%) Financial Institution
11 4 (1.17%) Organisational Skills
12 3 (0.87%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 3 (0.87%) Legal
12 3 (0.87%) Manufacturing
12 3 (0.87%) Retail
Job Titles
1 88 (25.66%) Architect
2 61 (17.78%) Senior
3 39 (11.37%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 38 (11.08%) Lead
5 32 (9.33%) Solutions Architect
6 24 (7.00%) DevOps Engineer
7 22 (6.41%) Developer
7 22 (6.41%) Technical Architect
8 21 (6.12%) Consultant
9 19 (5.54%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
10 17 (4.96%) Cloud Engineer
11 15 (4.37%) Azure Specialist
11 15 (4.37%) Cloud Architect
11 15 (4.37%) Python Developer
11 15 (4.37%) SAP Consultant
12 13 (3.79%) Azure Engineer
13 12 (3.50%) Analyst
14 11 (3.21%) Network Engineer
14 11 (3.21%) Platform Engineer
15 10 (2.92%) Senior Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 83 (24.20%) Terraform
2 16 (4.66%) Kafka
3 15 (4.37%) Spring Boot
4 12 (3.50%) Oracle GoldenGate
5 11 (3.21%) Spring
6 8 (2.33%) SAP Fiori
7 7 (2.04%) Middleware
8 6 (1.75%) REST
9 5 (1.46%) .NET
9 5 (1.46%) Elastic Stack
9 5 (1.46%) NumPy
9 5 (1.46%) OAuth
9 5 (1.46%) OpenID
9 5 (1.46%) Pandas
9 5 (1.46%) React
9 5 (1.46%) Web Services
10 4 (1.17%) NETCONF
10 4 (1.17%) OpenConfig
10 4 (1.17%) RESTCONF
10 4 (1.17%) YANG
Miscellaneous
1 52 (15.16%) Cloud Native
2 37 (10.79%) Data Centre
3 35 (10.20%) Hybrid Cloud
4 29 (8.45%) Private Cloud
5 17 (4.96%) PKI
6 10 (2.92%) Management Information System
7 9 (2.62%) Onboarding
8 8 (2.33%) Legacy Systems
9 7 (2.04%) AI Agents
9 7 (2.04%) Enterprise Software
10 6 (1.75%) Data Structures
10 6 (1.75%) Legacy Applications
10 6 (1.75%) Linux Command Line
11 5 (1.46%) Virtual Team
12 4 (1.17%) Analytical Mindset
12 4 (1.17%) Robotics
12 4 (1.17%) Self-Motivation
13 3 (0.87%) Mobile Payment
13 3 (0.87%) Product Ownership
13 3 (0.87%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 68 (19.83%) Linux
2 35 (10.20%) Windows
3 12 (3.50%) AIX
4 11 (3.21%) Unix
5 10 (2.92%) Windows Server
6 9 (2.62%) Ubuntu
7 5 (1.46%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 4 (1.17%) Debian
8 4 (1.17%) VMS
9 3 (0.87%) Windows Server 2019
10 2 (0.58%) CentOS
10 2 (0.58%) Windows Server 2016
11 1 (0.29%) Android
11 1 (0.29%) Mac OS
11 1 (0.29%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 97 (28.28%) Migration
2 92 (26.82%) Infrastructure as Code
3 90 (26.24%) CI/CD
4 78 (22.74%) DevOps
5 62 (18.08%) Agile
6 57 (16.62%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 51 (14.87%) Stakeholder Management
8 43 (12.54%) Data Migration
9 40 (11.66%) Microservices
10 32 (9.33%) Architectural Patterns
11 31 (9.04%) ERP
12 29 (8.45%) Cloud Security
12 29 (8.45%) Infrastructure Automation
13 28 (8.16%) Containerisation
13 28 (8.16%) Observability
14 27 (7.87%) DevSecOps
14 27 (7.87%) Problem-Solving
14 27 (7.87%) Roadmaps
15 26 (7.58%) Technical Leadership
16 25 (7.29%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 76 (22.16%) Python
2 30 (8.75%) Java
3 27 (7.87%) PowerShell
4 25 (7.29%) Bash
5 11 (3.21%) Bicep
5 11 (3.21%) SQL
6 10 (2.92%) JavaScript
7 8 (2.33%) Shell Script
8 5 (1.46%) Groovy
9 3 (0.87%) ABAP
9 3 (0.87%) ActionScript
9 3 (0.87%) Go
9 3 (0.87%) Perl
9 3 (0.87%) Ruby
10 2 (0.58%) TypeScript
11 1 (0.29%) C#
11 1 (0.29%) C++
11 1 (0.29%) Kotlin
11 1 (0.29%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 92 (26.82%) Security Cleared
2 76 (22.16%) SC Cleared
3 29 (8.45%) DV Cleared
4 27 (7.87%) Cisco Certification
5 15 (4.37%) Degree
6 13 (3.79%) CCNP
7 11 (3.21%) AWS Certification
7 11 (3.21%) VCAP
7 11 (3.21%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 10 (2.92%) BPSS Clearance
8 10 (2.92%) CISSP
9 7 (2.04%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 7 (2.04%) ACCA
9 7 (2.04%) Azure Certification
9 7 (2.04%) CIMA
10 6 (1.75%) CCSP
10 6 (1.75%) CISM
11 5 (1.46%) JNCIS
11 5 (1.46%) Microsoft Certification
12 4 (1.17%) JNCIP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (3.50%) NIST
2 11 (3.21%) NCSC
3 10 (2.92%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 7 (2.04%) Data Quality
4 7 (2.04%) GDPR
5 5 (1.46%) ISO 20022
6 4 (1.17%) ISO 15022
6 4 (1.17%) PCI DSS
7 3 (0.87%) Government Security Classifications
7 3 (0.87%) GRC
7 3 (0.87%) HMG Security Policy Framework
7 3 (0.87%) ISO 31000
7 3 (0.87%) ISO 9001
7 3 (0.87%) ISO/IEC 27005
8 2 (0.58%) Cyber Essentials
8 2 (0.58%) Disclosure Scotland
9 1 (0.29%) Accessibility
9 1 (0.29%) ISO 22301
9 1 (0.29%) NIST 800
9 1 (0.29%) PMO
System Software
1 30 (8.75%) VMware Infrastructure
2 21 (6.12%) VMware NSX
3 19 (5.54%) Docker
4 13 (3.79%) Oracle RAC
5 12 (3.50%) vSphere
6 11 (3.21%) Active Directory
6 11 (3.21%) VMware ESXi
7 9 (2.62%) Virtual Machines
8 5 (1.46%) Postfix
9 3 (0.87%) Hyper-V
9 3 (0.87%) ISA Server
9 3 (0.87%) NFS
9 3 (0.87%) Sendmail
9 3 (0.87%) Varnish
10 2 (0.58%) Dovecot
11 1 (0.29%) Firmware
11 1 (0.29%) GPFS
11 1 (0.29%) Lustre
11 1 (0.29%) Slurm Workload Manager
11 1 (0.29%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 55 (16.03%) Kubernetes
2 50 (14.58%) Ansible
3 14 (4.08%) Grafana
4 13 (3.79%) Data Guard
4 13 (3.79%) Oracle RMAN
4 13 (3.79%) Prometheus
5 10 (2.92%) vCenter Server
6 9 (2.62%) Istio
7 7 (2.04%) Packer
8 5 (1.46%) HAProxy
8 5 (1.46%) VxRail
9 4 (1.17%) CASB
9 4 (1.17%) systemd
10 3 (0.87%) Check_MK
10 3 (0.87%) Kubeflow
11 2 (0.58%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 2 (0.58%) Argo
11 2 (0.58%) Progress Chef
11 2 (0.58%) Puppet
12 1 (0.29%) SCCM
Vendors
1 75 (21.87%) SAP
2 68 (19.83%) Microsoft
3 44 (12.83%) Oracle
4 40 (11.66%) VMware
5 38 (11.08%) Google
6 22 (6.41%) Cisco
7 14 (4.08%) F5
8 12 (3.50%) Juniper
9 11 (3.21%) Splunk
10 10 (2.92%) Ariba
11 7 (2.04%) Fortinet
11 7 (2.04%) Red Hat
12 6 (1.75%) Dynatrace
12 6 (1.75%) ServiceNow
13 5 (1.46%) Concur
13 5 (1.46%) CyberArk
13 5 (1.46%) IBM
14 4 (1.17%) Citrix
14 4 (1.17%) Commvault
14 4 (1.17%) MikroTik