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

6 months to
9 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 305 255 302
Rank change year-on-year -50 +47 -92
Contract jobs citing Public Cloud 342 303 334
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.81% 1.02% 0.75%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 2.44% 3.04% 2.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 216 211 223
10th Percentile £395 £438 £469
25th Percentile £470 £525 £512
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £600 £585
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +2.56% -2.50%
75th Percentile £669 £691 £700
90th Percentile £725 £769 £798
UK excluding London median daily rate £538 £584 £582
% change year-on-year -8.00% +0.39% +1.22%
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 14,017 9,969 13,568
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.19% 33.50% 30.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,833 6,252 8,675
10th Percentile £285 £278 £255
25th Percentile £406 £409 £411
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £530
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -0.94% -3.64%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £738 £775 £763
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 652 347 883
10th Percentile £15.26 £16.95 £12.64
25th Percentile £18.87 £22.27 £15.89
Median hourly rate £34.00 £32.50 £29.72
Median % change year-on-year +4.62% +9.35% +32.18%
75th Percentile £66.06 £65.00 £57.50
90th Percentile £82.25 £83.20 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.75 £31.76 £27.50
% change year-on-year +6.27% +15.49% +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 9 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 9 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 -50 287 £550 -8.33% 135
UK excluding London -26 177 £538 -8.00% 121
London -64 114 £600 -4.00% 32
Work from Home -23 78 £575 -6.50% 93
North of England -7 71 £525 -8.70% 24
Yorkshire -24 40 £525 -9.87% 8
Midlands -27 38 £550 +12.24% 16
South East -57 32 £524 -12.75% 37
North West -9 30 £450 -8.16% 9
South West -6 26 £625 -1.96% 20
East Midlands -13 23 £600 +35.14% 6
West Midlands -42 13 £525 -34.38% 8
Scotland -6 9 £543 -3.64% 6
East of England -39 7 £413 -31.25% 13
Wales -6 3 £214 -63.98% 7
North East -10 2 - - 7
Northern Ireland - 1 £385 - 1

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 13 (3.80%) Confluence
2 7 (2.05%) OpenStack
3 6 (1.75%) Apache Airflow
3 6 (1.75%) SAS
4 2 (0.58%) Apache
4 2 (0.58%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 2 (0.58%) Palantir Foundry
4 2 (0.58%) SharePoint
Applications
1 5 (1.46%) Weka
2 2 (0.58%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.58%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (0.29%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 57 (16.67%) SAP S/4HANA
2 9 (2.63%) Oracle ERP
3 5 (1.46%) SAP FI
4 4 (1.17%) SAP CO
4 4 (1.17%) SAP FI/CO
5 3 (0.88%) SAP ERP
6 2 (0.58%) SAP SD
7 1 (0.29%) Exchequer
Cloud Services
1 132 (38.60%) Azure
2 117 (34.21%) AWS
3 110 (32.16%) GCP
4 34 (9.94%) GitHub
5 27 (7.89%) Serverless
6 21 (6.14%) OCI
7 19 (5.56%) Google Kubernetes Engine
7 19 (5.56%) SuccessFactors
8 17 (4.97%) IaaS
8 17 (4.97%) PaaS
9 14 (4.09%) Azure DevOps
10 12 (3.51%) Cloud Computing
11 11 (3.22%) SaaS
12 10 (2.92%) AWS KMS
12 10 (2.92%) GitHub Actions
13 9 (2.63%) Power Platform
14 7 (2.05%) AWS CloudFormation
15 6 (1.75%) Microsoft 365
15 6 (1.75%) Nutanix
16 5 (1.46%) Amazon S3
Communications & Networking
1 34 (9.94%) Firewall
2 26 (7.60%) DNS
2 26 (7.60%) Network Security
3 21 (6.14%) VPN
4 16 (4.68%) TCP/IP
4 16 (4.68%) WAN
5 8 (2.34%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
5 8 (2.34%) LAN
6 7 (2.05%) Internet
6 7 (2.05%) SD-WAN
7 6 (1.75%) Kerberos
8 5 (1.46%) DHCP
9 4 (1.17%) Multicast
9 4 (1.17%) NetScaler
9 4 (1.17%) Wireless
10 3 (0.88%) BGP
10 3 (0.88%) MPLS
10 3 (0.88%) OSPF
10 3 (0.88%) VXLAN
11 2 (0.58%) IPv6
Database & Business Intelligence
1 24 (7.02%) NoSQL
2 16 (4.68%) PostgreSQL
3 9 (2.63%) Data Warehouse
3 9 (2.63%) Power BI
4 8 (2.34%) Oracle Database
5 6 (1.75%) BigQuery
6 5 (1.46%) MongoDB
6 5 (1.46%) SQL Server
7 4 (1.17%) Oracle Exadata
7 4 (1.17%) Relational Database
8 3 (0.88%) Amazon Redshift
8 3 (0.88%) Data Vault
8 3 (0.88%) Delta Lake
9 2 (0.58%) Elasticsearch
9 2 (0.58%) Redis
10 1 (0.29%) Apache Cassandra
10 1 (0.29%) Data Mining
10 1 (0.29%) Oracle Database 12c
10 1 (0.29%) RDBMS
10 1 (0.29%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 53 (15.50%) Jenkins
2 44 (12.87%) GitLab
3 25 (7.31%) JIRA
4 14 (4.09%) Liquibase
5 13 (3.80%) Postman
6 12 (3.51%) Git
7 8 (2.34%) SoapUI
8 5 (1.46%) TeamCity
9 2 (0.58%) Cucumber
9 2 (0.58%) Mocha
10 1 (0.29%) Ant
10 1 (0.29%) JUnit
10 1 (0.29%) Maven
10 1 (0.29%) REST Assured
10 1 (0.29%) Snyk
10 1 (0.29%) Vite
General
1 107 (31.29%) Finance
2 93 (27.19%) Social Skills
3 60 (17.54%) Public Sector
4 47 (13.74%) Banking
5 21 (6.14%) Local Government
6 18 (5.26%) Financial Institution
7 17 (4.97%) Analytical Skills
8 10 (2.92%) Influencing Skills
9 6 (1.75%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 6 (1.75%) Investment Banking
10 5 (1.46%) General Ledger
10 5 (1.46%) Law
10 5 (1.46%) Manufacturing
11 4 (1.17%) Military
11 4 (1.17%) Police
11 4 (1.17%) Presentation Skills
12 3 (0.88%) Documentation Skills
12 3 (0.88%) German Language
13 2 (0.58%) Retail
13 2 (0.58%) Welsh Language
Job Titles
1 81 (23.68%) Architect
2 45 (13.16%) Senior
3 39 (11.40%) Cloud Engineer
4 33 (9.65%) GCP Engineer
5 28 (8.19%) Lead
6 25 (7.31%) Solutions Architect
7 19 (5.56%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 18 (5.26%) DevOps Engineer
9 16 (4.68%) AWS Engineer
10 15 (4.39%) Software Engineer
11 14 (4.09%) Consultant
12 13 (3.80%) Analyst
12 13 (3.80%) Senior Cloud Engineer
13 12 (3.51%) Data Engineer
13 12 (3.51%) SAP Architect
13 12 (3.51%) Technical Architect
14 11 (3.22%) Cloud Architect
14 11 (3.22%) Developer
14 11 (3.22%) Infrastructure Architect
14 11 (3.22%) SAP Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 46 (13.45%) REST
2 21 (6.14%) Elastic Stack
2 21 (6.14%) RESTful
3 20 (5.85%) Middleware
4 15 (4.39%) JSON
4 15 (4.39%) OAuth
5 14 (4.09%) SOAP
6 13 (3.80%) JWT
7 12 (3.51%) Oracle Fusion
7 12 (3.51%) Web Services
7 12 (3.51%) XML
7 12 (3.51%) XSLT
8 9 (2.63%) Spring Boot
9 8 (2.34%) Kafka
10 6 (1.75%) React
11 5 (1.46%) NumPy
11 5 (1.46%) Pandas
12 4 (1.17%) PyTorch
12 4 (1.17%) Spring
12 4 (1.17%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 45 (13.16%) Cloud Native
2 20 (5.85%) Data Centre
2 20 (5.85%) Distributed Systems
3 17 (4.97%) Private Cloud
4 12 (3.51%) Hybrid Cloud
5 10 (2.92%) Product Ownership
6 7 (2.05%) PKI
7 6 (1.75%) Grid Computing
7 6 (1.75%) Legacy Applications
7 6 (1.75%) Legacy Systems
7 6 (1.75%) Security Posture
8 5 (1.46%) Cloud Security Posture
8 5 (1.46%) Data Structures
9 4 (1.17%) Virtual Team
10 3 (0.88%) Data Protection Act
10 3 (0.88%) Enterprise Software
10 3 (0.88%) Greenfield Project
10 3 (0.88%) NHS
10 3 (0.88%) Reinsurance
11 2 (0.58%) Mainframe
Operating Systems
1 60 (17.54%) Linux
2 25 (7.31%) Windows
3 9 (2.63%) Unix
4 8 (2.34%) Windows Server
5 7 (2.05%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 7 (2.05%) Windows Server 2019
6 4 (1.17%) VMS
6 4 (1.17%) Windows Server 2012
7 3 (0.88%) Ubuntu
7 3 (0.88%) Windows Server 2016
8 2 (0.58%) CentOS
9 1 (0.29%) AIX
9 1 (0.29%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 124 (36.26%) DevOps
2 90 (26.32%) CI/CD
3 86 (25.15%) Agile
4 85 (24.85%) Infrastructure as Code
5 67 (19.59%) Migration
6 52 (15.20%) Stakeholder Management
7 48 (14.04%) Containerisation
8 42 (12.28%) Microservices
9 39 (11.40%) Analytics
10 33 (9.65%) Cybersecurity
10 33 (9.65%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 30 (8.77%) Infrastructure Automation
12 27 (7.89%) Root Cause Analysis
12 27 (7.89%) Software Engineering
13 25 (7.31%) Problem-Solving
13 25 (7.31%) Project Delivery
13 25 (7.31%) User Acceptance Testing
14 24 (7.02%) Cloud Security
14 24 (7.02%) Continuous Improvement
15 23 (6.73%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 85 (24.85%) Python
2 24 (7.02%) Go
3 23 (6.73%) SQL
4 20 (5.85%) Java
5 10 (2.92%) Bash
5 10 (2.92%) PowerShell
6 6 (1.75%) JavaScript
7 5 (1.46%) TypeScript
8 4 (1.17%) PL/SQL
9 3 (0.88%) Ruby
9 3 (0.88%) Shell Script
10 2 (0.58%) Bicep
10 2 (0.58%) C++
11 1 (0.29%) ABAP
11 1 (0.29%) Perl
Qualifications
1 86 (25.15%) Security Cleared
2 62 (18.13%) SC Cleared
3 32 (9.36%) Degree
4 20 (5.85%) Computer Science Degree
4 20 (5.85%) Master's Degree
5 14 (4.09%) AWS Certification
6 12 (3.51%) Cisco Certification
7 10 (2.92%) BPSS Clearance
8 8 (2.34%) Azure Certification
8 8 (2.34%) CISSP
8 8 (2.34%) DV Cleared
8 8 (2.34%) ISTQB
8 8 (2.34%) SAP Certification
9 7 (2.05%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 6 (1.75%) CISM
11 5 (1.46%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 5 (1.46%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
11 5 (1.46%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
12 4 (1.17%) CCNP
12 4 (1.17%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (4.09%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 12 (3.51%) NCSC
3 11 (3.22%) QA
4 10 (2.92%) GDPR
5 8 (2.34%) NIST
6 7 (2.05%) SLA
7 5 (1.46%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
7 5 (1.46%) ISO/IEC 27005
8 4 (1.17%) GRC
9 3 (0.88%) Cyber Essentials
9 3 (0.88%) Data Quality
10 2 (0.58%) Accessibility
10 2 (0.58%) Government Security Classifications
10 2 (0.58%) ISO 15022
10 2 (0.58%) ISO 20022
10 2 (0.58%) PCI DSS
10 2 (0.58%) PSD2
10 2 (0.58%) WCAG
11 1 (0.29%) COBIT
11 1 (0.29%) RMADS
System Software
1 48 (14.04%) Docker
2 16 (4.68%) Hyper-V
2 16 (4.68%) VMware Infrastructure
3 11 (3.22%) Active Directory
4 6 (1.75%) Virtual Machines
4 6 (1.75%) vSphere
5 5 (1.46%) GPFS
5 5 (1.46%) Lustre
5 5 (1.46%) Slurm Workload Manager
6 4 (1.17%) Oracle RAC
6 4 (1.17%) Virtual Desktop
7 3 (0.88%) VMware NSX
8 2 (0.58%) NFS
8 2 (0.58%) Postfix
8 2 (0.58%) Varnish
9 1 (0.29%) Ceph
9 1 (0.29%) KVM
9 1 (0.29%) QEMU
9 1 (0.29%) Sendmail
Systems Management
1 80 (23.39%) Terraform
2 78 (22.81%) Kubernetes
3 53 (15.50%) Ansible
4 25 (7.31%) Prometheus
5 23 (6.73%) Grafana
6 17 (4.97%) Istio
7 7 (2.05%) Single Sign-On
8 5 (1.46%) Data Guard
8 5 (1.46%) Kubeflow
8 5 (1.46%) Microsoft Intune
8 5 (1.46%) Oracle RMAN
9 4 (1.17%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 4 (1.17%) SCCM
10 3 (0.88%) Puppet
11 2 (0.58%) Argo
11 2 (0.58%) HAProxy
11 2 (0.58%) Red Hat Satellite
11 2 (0.58%) vCenter Server
11 2 (0.58%) vMotion
12 1 (0.29%) Consul
Vendors
1 64 (18.71%) SAP
2 52 (15.20%) Google
3 35 (10.23%) Oracle
4 29 (8.48%) VMware
5 25 (7.31%) Splunk
6 20 (5.85%) Microsoft
7 14 (4.09%) F5
8 13 (3.80%) ServiceNow
9 12 (3.51%) Ariba
10 9 (2.63%) Cisco
10 9 (2.63%) Palo Alto
11 8 (2.34%) MuleSoft
12 6 (1.75%) Red Hat
13 5 (1.46%) Aruba
13 5 (1.46%) Databricks
13 5 (1.46%) Fortinet
14 4 (1.17%) Veeam
15 3 (0.88%) Arista
15 3 (0.88%) Informatica
15 3 (0.88%) Juniper