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 18 February 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 316 248 283
Rank change year-on-year -68 +35 -65
Contract jobs citing Public Cloud 314 314 357
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.77% 1.02% 0.80%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 2.30% 3.09% 2.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 197 215 233
10th Percentile £400 £438 £450
25th Percentile £463 £525 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £613 £575
Median % change year-on-year -10.20% +6.52% -4.17%
75th Percentile £675 £688 £700
90th Percentile £725 £768 £788
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £582 £582
% change year-on-year -9.76% -0.04% +1.22%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 3 3
10th Percentile - £48.40 £62.00
25th Percentile - £56.50 £68.00
Median hourly rate - £70.00 £78.00
Median % change year-on-year - -10.26% +48.57%
75th Percentile - £73.75 -
90th Percentile - £76.00 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate - £72.50 £78.00
% change year-on-year - -7.05% -

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 13,667 10,151 13,539
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.70% 33.09% 30.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,629 6,111 8,707
10th Percentile £275 £263 £258
25th Percentile £403 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £531
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -1.13% -3.45%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £738 £768 £753
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £495 £500
% change year-on-year -4.04% -1.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 659 310 824
10th Percentile £15.25 £18.51 £13.00
25th Percentile £18.50 £23.59 £16.67
Median hourly rate £30.50 £34.50 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year -11.59% +6.15% +44.54%
75th Percentile £63.75 £65.00 £58.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £82.28 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £30.00 £32.50 £35.00
% change year-on-year -7.69% -7.14% +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 18 February 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 18 February 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 -58 265 £550 -9.47% 89
UK excluding London -38 161 £525 -9.76% 69
London -65 108 £600 -2.04% 28
North of England -9 70 £525 +1.55% 17
Work from Home -41 69 £559 -9.00% 42
Yorkshire -21 42 £525 +5.00% 5
Midlands -25 37 £528 +12.96% 8
North West -12 27 £500 -6.10% 8
South West -1 23 £650 +1.96% 10
South East -58 22 £522 -15.47% 30
East Midlands -8 19 £448 +11.88% 4
West Midlands -33 17 £530 -33.75% 4
Scotland -4 10 £543 -5.07% 3
East of England -34 7 £413 -31.25% 2
Wales -4 3 £214 -64.40%
North East -11 2 - - 4
Northern Ireland - 1 £385 -

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 9 (2.87%) Confluence
2 7 (2.23%) OpenStack
3 6 (1.91%) SAS
4 3 (0.96%) Apache Airflow
5 2 (0.64%) Palantir Foundry
5 2 (0.64%) SharePoint
6 1 (0.32%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 5 (1.59%) Weka
2 2 (0.64%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.64%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (0.32%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 51 (16.24%) SAP S/4HANA
2 9 (2.87%) Oracle ERP
3 7 (2.23%) SAP ERP
3 7 (2.23%) SAP FI
4 6 (1.91%) SAP CO
4 6 (1.91%) SAP FI/CO
5 2 (0.64%) SAP SD
Cloud Services
1 115 (36.62%) AWS
2 113 (35.99%) Azure
3 111 (35.35%) GCP
4 34 (10.83%) Serverless
5 32 (10.19%) GitHub
6 20 (6.37%) OCI
7 18 (5.73%) Google Kubernetes Engine
8 17 (5.41%) IaaS
9 16 (5.10%) PaaS
10 15 (4.78%) Azure DevOps
11 13 (4.14%) SuccessFactors
12 11 (3.50%) Cloud Computing
13 10 (3.18%) AWS KMS
13 10 (3.18%) GitHub Actions
14 9 (2.87%) Power Platform
14 9 (2.87%) SaaS
15 6 (1.91%) Amazon S3
15 6 (1.91%) Nutanix
16 5 (1.59%) Azure AKS
16 5 (1.59%) iPaaS
Communications & Networking
1 31 (9.87%) Firewall
2 23 (7.32%) DNS
3 20 (6.37%) Network Security
4 17 (5.41%) VPN
5 16 (5.10%) TCP/IP
6 13 (4.14%) WAN
7 8 (2.55%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
8 7 (2.23%) Internet
9 6 (1.91%) Kerberos
9 6 (1.91%) SD-WAN
10 5 (1.59%) DHCP
10 5 (1.59%) LAN
11 4 (1.27%) Multicast
11 4 (1.27%) NetScaler
12 3 (0.96%) BGP
12 3 (0.96%) OSPF
12 3 (0.96%) VXLAN
13 2 (0.64%) Cisco IOS
13 2 (0.64%) Ethernet VPN
13 2 (0.64%) MPLS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 33 (10.51%) NoSQL
2 16 (5.10%) PostgreSQL
3 9 (2.87%) Power BI
4 8 (2.55%) Data Warehouse
5 7 (2.23%) Oracle Database
6 5 (1.59%) MongoDB
6 5 (1.59%) SQL Server
7 4 (1.27%) BigQuery
8 3 (0.96%) Data Vault
8 3 (0.96%) Delta Lake
8 3 (0.96%) Oracle Exadata
8 3 (0.96%) Relational Database
9 2 (0.64%) Amazon Redshift
9 2 (0.64%) Elasticsearch
9 2 (0.64%) Redis
10 1 (0.32%) Apache Cassandra
10 1 (0.32%) Data Mining
10 1 (0.32%) DynamoDB
10 1 (0.32%) Oracle Database 12c
10 1 (0.32%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 57 (18.15%) Jenkins
2 50 (15.92%) GitLab
3 22 (7.01%) Liquibase
4 21 (6.69%) JIRA
5 14 (4.46%) Postman
6 10 (3.18%) Git
7 8 (2.55%) SoapUI
8 6 (1.91%) TeamCity
9 2 (0.64%) Cucumber
9 2 (0.64%) Mocha
10 1 (0.32%) Ant
10 1 (0.32%) JUnit
10 1 (0.32%) Maven
10 1 (0.32%) REST Assured
10 1 (0.32%) Snyk
10 1 (0.32%) Vite
General
1 107 (34.08%) Finance
2 92 (29.30%) Social Skills
3 50 (15.92%) Banking
3 50 (15.92%) Public Sector
4 22 (7.01%) Financial Institution
5 19 (6.05%) Local Government
6 18 (5.73%) Analytical Skills
7 7 (2.23%) Influencing Skills
8 6 (1.91%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 5 (1.59%) General Ledger
9 5 (1.59%) Investment Banking
9 5 (1.59%) Law
9 5 (1.59%) Manufacturing
9 5 (1.59%) Presentation Skills
10 4 (1.27%) Police
11 3 (0.96%) Documentation Skills
11 3 (0.96%) German Language
11 3 (0.96%) Military
12 2 (0.64%) Digital Health
12 2 (0.64%) Welsh Language
Job Titles
1 63 (20.06%) Architect
2 47 (14.97%) Senior
3 39 (12.42%) Cloud Engineer
4 31 (9.87%) GCP Engineer
5 22 (7.01%) Software Engineer
6 21 (6.69%) DevOps Engineer
7 20 (6.37%) Solutions Architect
8 19 (6.05%) AWS Engineer
8 19 (6.05%) Lead
9 17 (5.41%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 16 (5.10%) Senior Software Engineer
11 15 (4.78%) Consultant
12 13 (4.14%) Analyst
12 13 (4.14%) SAP Manager
12 13 (4.14%) Senior Cloud Engineer
13 11 (3.50%) Data Engineer
13 11 (3.50%) Senior DevOps
13 11 (3.50%) Senior DevOps Engineer
14 10 (3.18%) Infrastructure Architect
15 9 (2.87%) SAP Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 55 (17.52%) REST
2 31 (9.87%) RESTful
3 29 (9.24%) Elastic Stack
4 16 (5.10%) OAuth
5 15 (4.78%) JSON
5 15 (4.78%) SOAP
6 14 (4.46%) JWT
7 13 (4.14%) Oracle Fusion
7 13 (4.14%) Web Services
7 13 (4.14%) XML
7 13 (4.14%) XSLT
8 12 (3.82%) Middleware
9 7 (2.23%) Spring Boot
10 6 (1.91%) React
11 5 (1.59%) Kafka
12 4 (1.27%) Spring
13 3 (0.96%) AWS CDK
13 3 (0.96%) NumPy
13 3 (0.96%) Pandas
13 3 (0.96%) SAP Fiori
Miscellaneous
1 49 (15.61%) Cloud Native
2 27 (8.60%) Distributed Systems
3 20 (6.37%) Data Centre
4 17 (5.41%) Private Cloud
5 11 (3.50%) Hybrid Cloud
6 10 (3.18%) Product Ownership
7 7 (2.23%) Legacy Systems
8 6 (1.91%) Data Structures
8 6 (1.91%) PKI
9 5 (1.59%) Cloud Security Posture
9 5 (1.59%) Grid Computing
9 5 (1.59%) Security Posture
10 4 (1.27%) Data Protection Act
10 4 (1.27%) Legacy Applications
11 3 (0.96%) Enterprise Software
11 3 (0.96%) NHS
11 3 (0.96%) Reinsurance
11 3 (0.96%) Replication
12 2 (0.64%) Mainframe
12 2 (0.64%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 57 (18.15%) Linux
2 23 (7.32%) Windows
3 8 (2.55%) Windows Server
4 7 (2.23%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 7 (2.23%) Windows Server 2019
5 6 (1.91%) Unix
6 5 (1.59%) VMS
7 4 (1.27%) Windows Server 2012
8 3 (0.96%) Windows Server 2016
9 1 (0.32%) CentOS
9 1 (0.32%) Ubuntu
9 1 (0.32%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 126 (40.13%) DevOps
2 89 (28.34%) CI/CD
3 88 (28.03%) Agile
4 83 (26.43%) Infrastructure as Code
5 58 (18.47%) Migration
6 51 (16.24%) Containerisation
7 45 (14.33%) Microservices
8 40 (12.74%) Stakeholder Management
9 38 (12.10%) Cybersecurity
10 35 (11.15%) Infrastructure Automation
11 34 (10.83%) Root Cause Analysis
11 34 (10.83%) Software Engineering
12 30 (9.55%) Computer Science
13 29 (9.24%) Analytics
13 29 (9.24%) Change Management
14 28 (8.92%) Cryptography
15 27 (8.60%) ERP
15 27 (8.60%) Infrastructure Engineering
16 25 (7.96%) Problem-Solving
16 25 (7.96%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 86 (27.39%) Python
2 32 (10.19%) Go
3 23 (7.32%) SQL
4 20 (6.37%) Java
5 9 (2.87%) Bash
6 7 (2.23%) PowerShell
7 6 (1.91%) JavaScript
8 5 (1.59%) TypeScript
9 4 (1.27%) PL/SQL
10 2 (0.64%) C++
10 2 (0.64%) Ruby
10 2 (0.64%) Shell Script
11 1 (0.32%) ABAP
11 1 (0.32%) Bicep
11 1 (0.32%) Perl
Qualifications
1 74 (23.57%) Security Cleared
2 53 (16.88%) SC Cleared
3 41 (13.06%) Degree
4 29 (9.24%) Computer Science Degree
5 27 (8.60%) Master's Degree
6 15 (4.78%) AWS Certification
7 11 (3.50%) Cisco Certification
8 10 (3.18%) BPSS Clearance
9 7 (2.23%) CISSP
9 7 (2.23%) DV Cleared
9 7 (2.23%) ISTQB
10 6 (1.91%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 6 (1.91%) Azure Certification
10 6 (1.91%) SAP Certification
11 5 (1.59%) AWS Certified Developer
11 5 (1.59%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
11 5 (1.59%) CISM
12 4 (1.27%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 4 (1.27%) CCNP
12 4 (1.27%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (4.14%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 9 (2.87%) GDPR
2 9 (2.87%) NCSC
3 6 (1.91%) QA
3 6 (1.91%) SLA
4 5 (1.59%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
4 5 (1.59%) ISO/IEC 27005
4 5 (1.59%) NIST
5 4 (1.27%) Data Quality
6 2 (0.64%) Accessibility
6 2 (0.64%) Government Security Classifications
6 2 (0.64%) PCI DSS
6 2 (0.64%) PSD2
6 2 (0.64%) WCAG
7 1 (0.32%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.32%) COBIT
7 1 (0.32%) ISO 15022
7 1 (0.32%) ISO 20022
7 1 (0.32%) RMADS
System Software
1 53 (16.88%) Docker
2 15 (4.78%) Hyper-V
3 14 (4.46%) VMware Infrastructure
4 7 (2.23%) Virtual Machines
5 6 (1.91%) Active Directory
5 6 (1.91%) vSphere
6 5 (1.59%) GPFS
6 5 (1.59%) Lustre
6 5 (1.59%) Slurm Workload Manager
7 4 (1.27%) Virtual Desktop
8 3 (0.96%) Oracle RAC
9 2 (0.64%) VMware NSX
10 1 (0.32%) Ceph
10 1 (0.32%) KVM
10 1 (0.32%) QEMU
Systems Management
1 82 (26.11%) Terraform
2 78 (24.84%) Kubernetes
3 56 (17.83%) Ansible
4 33 (10.51%) Prometheus
5 31 (9.87%) Grafana
6 15 (4.78%) Istio
7 5 (1.59%) Microsoft Intune
8 4 (1.27%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 4 (1.27%) Data Guard
8 4 (1.27%) Oracle RMAN
8 4 (1.27%) SCCM
9 3 (0.96%) Kubeflow
9 3 (0.96%) Puppet
10 2 (0.64%) Argo
10 2 (0.64%) Red Hat Satellite
10 2 (0.64%) Single Sign-On
10 2 (0.64%) vCenter Server
10 2 (0.64%) vMotion
11 1 (0.32%) Consul
11 1 (0.32%) Salt
Vendors
1 58 (18.47%) SAP
2 49 (15.61%) Google
3 33 (10.51%) Oracle
4 32 (10.19%) Splunk
5 25 (7.96%) VMware
6 19 (6.05%) Microsoft
7 14 (4.46%) F5
8 12 (3.82%) Ariba
8 12 (3.82%) ServiceNow
9 8 (2.55%) Cisco
9 8 (2.55%) Palo Alto
10 6 (1.91%) MuleSoft
11 5 (1.59%) Aruba
11 5 (1.59%) Databricks
11 5 (1.59%) Fortinet
12 4 (1.27%) Red Hat
12 4 (1.27%) Veeam
13 3 (0.96%) Arista
13 3 (0.96%) Informatica
13 3 (0.96%) Juniper