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 14 March 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 312 260 296
Rank change year-on-year -52 +36 -81
Contract jobs citing Public Cloud 349 291 329
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.81% 0.99% 0.74%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 2.43% 2.93% 2.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 223 203 221
10th Percentile £395 £448 £473
25th Percentile £475 £525 £513
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £600 £585
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +2.56% -4.22%
75th Percentile £659 £688 £700
90th Percentile £700 £784 £788
UK excluding London median daily rate £538 £593 £585
% change year-on-year -9.28% +1.24% +3.58%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 3 1
10th Percentile - £48.40 -
25th Percentile £71.25 £56.50 -
Median hourly rate £72.50 £70.00 £58.00
Median % change year-on-year +3.57% +20.69% -10.08%
75th Percentile £73.75 £73.75 -
90th Percentile - £76.00 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate - £72.50 -

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 14,347 9,936 13,480
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.24% 33.67% 30.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,016 6,259 8,638
10th Percentile £290 £281 £255
25th Percentile £408 £409 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £501 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.67% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £738 £775 £763
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £496 £500
% change year-on-year -4.26% -0.77% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 676 353 868
10th Percentile £15.50 £16.95 £12.50
25th Percentile £18.87 £22.27 £15.63
Median hourly rate £35.75 £32.50 £28.00
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% +16.07% +24.53%
75th Percentile £67.31 £65.00 £57.50
90th Percentile £84.00 £83.20 £67.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £39.72 £31.76 £26.00
% change year-on-year +25.06% +22.15% +18.18%

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 14 March 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 14 March 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 -51 289 £550 -8.33% 103
UK excluding London -14 177 £538 -9.28% 78
London -83 116 £600 -1.23% 36
Work from Home -15 82 £600 -2.36% 62
North of England -16 70 £525 -9.87% 26
Yorkshire -24 40 £525 -12.32% 9
Midlands -23 39 £575 +17.35% 10
South East -60 33 £522 -13.00% 19
North West -16 29 £450 -21.74% 9
South West -4 26 £588 -7.84% 13
East Midlands -10 23 £600 +35.14% 4
West Midlands -51 14 £525 -34.38% 5
Scotland -3 9 £543 -3.64% 5
East of England -32 6 £413 -31.25% 5
Wales -9 3 £214 -63.98% 3
North East - 2 - - 8
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 12 (3.44%) Confluence
2 7 (2.01%) OpenStack
2 7 (2.01%) SAS
3 6 (1.72%) Apache Airflow
4 3 (0.86%) SharePoint
5 2 (0.57%) Apache
5 2 (0.57%) Oracle SOA Suite
5 2 (0.57%) Palantir Foundry
6 1 (0.29%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 5 (1.43%) Weka
2 3 (0.86%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (0.57%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.29%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 60 (17.19%) SAP S/4HANA
2 10 (2.87%) Oracle ERP
3 5 (1.43%) SAP FI
4 4 (1.15%) SAP CO
4 4 (1.15%) SAP FI/CO
5 2 (0.57%) SAP ERP
5 2 (0.57%) SAP SD
6 1 (0.29%) Exchequer
Cloud Services
1 132 (37.82%) Azure
2 118 (33.81%) AWS
3 112 (32.09%) GCP
4 35 (10.03%) GitHub
5 28 (8.02%) Serverless
6 22 (6.30%) OCI
7 21 (6.02%) Google Kubernetes Engine
7 21 (6.02%) SuccessFactors
8 18 (5.16%) IaaS
8 18 (5.16%) PaaS
9 14 (4.01%) Azure DevOps
10 12 (3.44%) Cloud Computing
10 12 (3.44%) SaaS
11 10 (2.87%) AWS KMS
11 10 (2.87%) GitHub Actions
11 10 (2.87%) Power Platform
12 8 (2.29%) AWS CloudFormation
13 7 (2.01%) Microsoft 365
14 6 (1.72%) Nutanix
15 5 (1.43%) dbt
Communications & Networking
1 35 (10.03%) Firewall
2 27 (7.74%) Network Security
3 26 (7.45%) DNS
4 22 (6.30%) VPN
5 17 (4.87%) WAN
6 16 (4.58%) TCP/IP
7 9 (2.58%) LAN
8 8 (2.29%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
9 7 (2.01%) Internet
9 7 (2.01%) Kerberos
9 7 (2.01%) SD-WAN
10 5 (1.43%) DHCP
11 4 (1.15%) Multicast
11 4 (1.15%) NetScaler
11 4 (1.15%) Wireless
12 3 (0.86%) BGP
12 3 (0.86%) MPLS
12 3 (0.86%) OSPF
12 3 (0.86%) VXLAN
13 2 (0.57%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (6.59%) NoSQL
2 16 (4.58%) PostgreSQL
3 10 (2.87%) Data Warehouse
4 9 (2.58%) Oracle Database
4 9 (2.58%) Power BI
5 6 (1.72%) BigQuery
6 4 (1.15%) MongoDB
6 4 (1.15%) Oracle Exadata
6 4 (1.15%) Relational Database
6 4 (1.15%) SQL Server
7 3 (0.86%) Amazon Redshift
7 3 (0.86%) Data Vault
7 3 (0.86%) Delta Lake
8 2 (0.57%) Elasticsearch
8 2 (0.57%) Redis
9 1 (0.29%) Apache Cassandra
9 1 (0.29%) Data Mining
9 1 (0.29%) Oracle Database 12c
9 1 (0.29%) RDBMS
9 1 (0.29%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 53 (15.19%) Jenkins
2 43 (12.32%) GitLab
3 24 (6.88%) JIRA
4 14 (4.01%) Liquibase
4 14 (4.01%) Postman
5 11 (3.15%) Git
6 9 (2.58%) SoapUI
7 4 (1.15%) TeamCity
8 2 (0.57%) Cucumber
8 2 (0.57%) Mocha
9 1 (0.29%) Ant
9 1 (0.29%) JUnit
9 1 (0.29%) Maven
9 1 (0.29%) MSI
9 1 (0.29%) REST Assured
9 1 (0.29%) Snyk
9 1 (0.29%) Vite
General
1 106 (30.37%) Finance
2 94 (26.93%) Social Skills
3 59 (16.91%) Public Sector
4 46 (13.18%) Banking
5 22 (6.30%) Local Government
6 19 (5.44%) Analytical Skills
6 19 (5.44%) Financial Institution
7 11 (3.15%) Influencing Skills
8 6 (1.72%) Investment Banking
8 6 (1.72%) Manufacturing
9 5 (1.43%) General Ledger
9 5 (1.43%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 5 (1.43%) Law
10 4 (1.15%) German Language
10 4 (1.15%) Military
10 4 (1.15%) Police
10 4 (1.15%) Presentation Skills
11 3 (0.86%) Documentation Skills
12 2 (0.57%) Public Speaking
12 2 (0.57%) Welsh Language
Job Titles
1 83 (23.78%) Architect
2 45 (12.89%) Senior
3 39 (11.17%) Cloud Engineer
4 35 (10.03%) GCP Engineer
5 32 (9.17%) Lead
6 26 (7.45%) Solutions Architect
7 20 (5.73%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 17 (4.87%) DevOps Engineer
9 15 (4.30%) AWS Engineer
9 15 (4.30%) Consultant
9 15 (4.30%) Software Engineer
10 13 (3.72%) Senior Cloud Engineer
10 13 (3.72%) Technical Architect
11 12 (3.44%) Analyst
11 12 (3.44%) Data Engineer
11 12 (3.44%) Developer
11 12 (3.44%) SAP Architect
12 11 (3.15%) Cloud Architect
12 11 (3.15%) Infrastructure Architect
12 11 (3.15%) SAP Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 47 (13.47%) REST
2 22 (6.30%) Middleware
3 21 (6.02%) Elastic Stack
4 20 (5.73%) RESTful
5 16 (4.58%) JSON
5 16 (4.58%) OAuth
6 15 (4.30%) SOAP
7 14 (4.01%) JWT
8 13 (3.72%) Oracle Fusion
8 13 (3.72%) XML
8 13 (3.72%) XSLT
9 12 (3.44%) Web Services
10 9 (2.58%) Spring Boot
11 7 (2.01%) Kafka
12 6 (1.72%) React
13 5 (1.43%) NumPy
13 5 (1.43%) Pandas
14 4 (1.15%) PyTorch
14 4 (1.15%) Spring
14 4 (1.15%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 45 (12.89%) Cloud Native
2 20 (5.73%) Data Centre
2 20 (5.73%) Distributed Systems
3 17 (4.87%) Private Cloud
4 12 (3.44%) Hybrid Cloud
5 9 (2.58%) Product Ownership
6 7 (2.01%) PKI
7 6 (1.72%) Grid Computing
7 6 (1.72%) Legacy Applications
7 6 (1.72%) Legacy Systems
7 6 (1.72%) Security Posture
8 5 (1.43%) Cloud Security Posture
8 5 (1.43%) Data Structures
9 4 (1.15%) Data Protection Act
9 4 (1.15%) Virtual Team
10 3 (0.86%) Enterprise Software
10 3 (0.86%) Greenfield Project
10 3 (0.86%) NHS
10 3 (0.86%) Reinsurance
11 2 (0.57%) Cyber Threat
Operating Systems
1 61 (17.48%) Linux
2 27 (7.74%) Windows
3 9 (2.58%) Unix
3 9 (2.58%) Windows Server
4 8 (2.29%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 8 (2.29%) Windows Server 2019
5 4 (1.15%) VMS
5 4 (1.15%) Windows Server 2012
5 4 (1.15%) Windows Server 2016
6 3 (0.86%) Ubuntu
7 2 (0.57%) CentOS
8 1 (0.29%) AIX
8 1 (0.29%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 126 (36.10%) DevOps
2 91 (26.07%) CI/CD
3 87 (24.93%) Agile
4 85 (24.36%) Infrastructure as Code
5 69 (19.77%) Migration
6 55 (15.76%) Stakeholder Management
7 49 (14.04%) Containerisation
8 43 (12.32%) Microservices
9 40 (11.46%) Analytics
10 35 (10.03%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 33 (9.46%) Cybersecurity
12 30 (8.60%) Infrastructure Automation
13 27 (7.74%) Root Cause Analysis
13 27 (7.74%) Software Engineering
14 26 (7.45%) Problem-Solving
15 25 (7.16%) Cloud Security
15 25 (7.16%) Continuous Improvement
15 25 (7.16%) Project Delivery
15 25 (7.16%) User Acceptance Testing
16 23 (6.59%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 85 (24.36%) Python
2 24 (6.88%) Go
2 24 (6.88%) SQL
3 20 (5.73%) Java
4 12 (3.44%) PowerShell
5 10 (2.87%) Bash
6 6 (1.72%) JavaScript
7 5 (1.43%) TypeScript
8 4 (1.15%) PL/SQL
9 3 (0.86%) Ruby
9 3 (0.86%) Shell Script
10 2 (0.57%) Bicep
10 2 (0.57%) C++
11 1 (0.29%) ABAP
11 1 (0.29%) Perl
11 1 (0.29%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 87 (24.93%) Security Cleared
2 63 (18.05%) SC Cleared
3 32 (9.17%) Degree
4 20 (5.73%) Computer Science Degree
4 20 (5.73%) Master's Degree
5 15 (4.30%) AWS Certification
6 12 (3.44%) Cisco Certification
7 10 (2.87%) BPSS Clearance
8 8 (2.29%) Azure Certification
8 8 (2.29%) CISSP
8 8 (2.29%) DV Cleared
8 8 (2.29%) SAP Certification
9 7 (2.01%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 7 (2.01%) ISTQB
10 6 (1.72%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 6 (1.72%) CISM
11 5 (1.43%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
11 5 (1.43%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
12 4 (1.15%) CCNP
12 4 (1.15%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (4.01%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 12 (3.44%) NCSC
2 12 (3.44%) QA
3 10 (2.87%) GDPR
4 8 (2.29%) NIST
5 7 (2.01%) SLA
6 5 (1.43%) GRC
6 5 (1.43%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
6 5 (1.43%) ISO/IEC 27005
7 3 (0.86%) Cyber Essentials
7 3 (0.86%) Data Quality
8 2 (0.57%) Accessibility
8 2 (0.57%) Government Security Classifications
8 2 (0.57%) ISO 15022
8 2 (0.57%) ISO 20022
8 2 (0.57%) PCI DSS
8 2 (0.57%) PSD2
8 2 (0.57%) WCAG
9 1 (0.29%) Actionable Recommendations
9 1 (0.29%) PMO
System Software
1 47 (13.47%) Docker
2 17 (4.87%) VMware Infrastructure
3 16 (4.58%) Hyper-V
4 13 (3.72%) Active Directory
5 6 (1.72%) Virtual Machines
5 6 (1.72%) vSphere
6 5 (1.43%) GPFS
6 5 (1.43%) Lustre
6 5 (1.43%) Slurm Workload Manager
7 4 (1.15%) Oracle RAC
7 4 (1.15%) Virtual Desktop
8 3 (0.86%) VMware NSX
9 2 (0.57%) NFS
9 2 (0.57%) Postfix
9 2 (0.57%) Varnish
10 1 (0.29%) Ceph
10 1 (0.29%) KVM
10 1 (0.29%) Microsoft App-V
10 1 (0.29%) QEMU
10 1 (0.29%) Sendmail
Systems Management
1 82 (23.50%) Terraform
2 81 (23.21%) Kubernetes
3 54 (15.47%) Ansible
4 25 (7.16%) Prometheus
5 23 (6.59%) Grafana
6 18 (5.16%) Istio
7 9 (2.58%) Single Sign-On
8 6 (1.72%) Microsoft Intune
9 5 (1.43%) Data Guard
9 5 (1.43%) Kubeflow
9 5 (1.43%) Oracle RMAN
10 4 (1.15%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 4 (1.15%) SCCM
11 3 (0.86%) Puppet
12 2 (0.57%) Argo
12 2 (0.57%) HAProxy
12 2 (0.57%) Red Hat Satellite
12 2 (0.57%) vCenter Server
12 2 (0.57%) vMotion
13 1 (0.29%) Consul
Vendors
1 67 (19.20%) SAP
2 54 (15.47%) Google
3 37 (10.60%) Oracle
4 30 (8.60%) VMware
5 25 (7.16%) Splunk
6 22 (6.30%) Microsoft
7 14 (4.01%) Ariba
7 14 (4.01%) F5
8 13 (3.72%) ServiceNow
9 9 (2.58%) Cisco
9 9 (2.58%) MuleSoft
9 9 (2.58%) Palo Alto
10 7 (2.01%) Red Hat
11 5 (1.43%) Aruba
11 5 (1.43%) Databricks
11 5 (1.43%) Fortinet
12 4 (1.15%) Veeam
13 3 (0.86%) Arista
13 3 (0.86%) Informatica
13 3 (0.86%) Juniper