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 8 May 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
8 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 301 288 293
Rank change year-on-year -13 +5 -59
Contract jobs citing Public Cloud 369 262 329
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.78% 0.90% 0.76%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 2.41% 2.65% 2.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 235 182 219
10th Percentile £395 £438 £450
25th Percentile £500 £513 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £600 £600
Median % change year-on-year -4.17% - -4.00%
75th Percentile £675 £694 £750
90th Percentile £700 £750 £838
UK excluding London median daily rate £560 £584 £600
% change year-on-year -4.15% -2.63% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 2 1
10th Percentile - £45.70 -
25th Percentile £71.25 £49.75 £36.75
Median hourly rate £72.50 £56.50 £38.50
Median % change year-on-year +28.32% +46.75% -49.01%
75th Percentile £73.75 £63.25 £40.25
90th Percentile - £67.30 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate - £70.00 £38.50
% change year-on-year - +81.82% -50.64%

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 15,287 9,893 13,124
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 32.21% 33.99% 30.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,524 6,312 8,441
10th Percentile £308 £300 £266
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £501 £525 £540
Median % change year-on-year -4.60% -2.78% -1.82%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £663
90th Percentile £738 £775 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £478 £490 £500
% change year-on-year -2.55% -2.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 721 394 904
10th Percentile £16.01 £16.95 £12.25
25th Percentile £20.00 £21.01 £15.17
Median hourly rate £45.00 £32.50 £31.13
Median % change year-on-year +38.46% +4.42% +38.43%
75th Percentile £70.00 £63.75 £61.30
90th Percentile £87.50 £83.20 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £50.00 £31.76 £28.50
% change year-on-year +57.43% +11.44% +29.55%

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 8 May 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 16 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 8 May 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 -27 300 £588 -4.32% 64
UK excluding London -10 188 £560 -4.15% 42
London -70 112 £600 -5.88% 27
Work from Home +8 97 £610 +4.72% 32
North of England -24 55 £550 +2.42% 9
South East -46 53 £557 -9.84% 15
Midlands -45 32 £638 +18.72% 3
South West -9 31 £650 +13.04% 8
North West -22 30 £350 -34.82% 5
East Midlands -8 25 £638 +34.21% 1
Yorkshire -26 25 £560 +16.36% 2
Scotland -18 12 £500 -11.19% 4
East of England -33 4 £475 -20.83% 4
West Midlands -55 4 £759 +7.40% 2
Wales -14 1 £214 -56.89%
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 8 (2.17%) Confluence
2 6 (1.63%) Apache Airflow
2 6 (1.63%) SAS
3 5 (1.36%) Apache
4 3 (0.81%) OpenStack
4 3 (0.81%) SharePoint
5 2 (0.54%) Oracle SOA Suite
5 2 (0.54%) Palantir Foundry
6 1 (0.27%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 6 (1.63%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (1.08%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (1.08%) Microsoft Project
3 2 (0.54%) Spreadsheet
3 2 (0.54%) Weka
4 1 (0.27%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 80 (21.68%) SAP S/4HANA
2 10 (2.71%) Oracle ERP
3 6 (1.63%) SAP Business One
4 5 (1.36%) SAP FI
5 4 (1.08%) SAP CO
5 4 (1.08%) SAP FI/CO
6 3 (0.81%) SAP ERP
7 2 (0.54%) SAP SD
8 1 (0.27%) Exchequer
8 1 (0.27%) iTrent
8 1 (0.27%) SAP FI-AR
Cloud Services
1 156 (42.28%) Azure
2 99 (26.83%) AWS
3 89 (24.12%) GCP
4 37 (10.03%) GitHub
5 27 (7.32%) PaaS
6 24 (6.50%) Google Kubernetes Engine
6 24 (6.50%) IaaS
7 23 (6.23%) SuccessFactors
8 22 (5.96%) OCI
9 15 (4.07%) GitHub Actions
9 15 (4.07%) SaaS
10 12 (3.25%) Serverless
11 10 (2.71%) AWS CloudFormation
12 9 (2.44%) Azure DevOps
12 9 (2.44%) Cloud Computing
12 9 (2.44%) Power Platform
13 8 (2.17%) Microsoft 365
14 6 (1.63%) Azure Sentinel
14 6 (1.63%) Entra ID
15 5 (1.36%) dbt
Communications & Networking
1 34 (9.21%) DNS
2 33 (8.94%) Firewall
3 26 (7.05%) Network Security
4 17 (4.61%) VPN
5 13 (3.52%) LAN
5 13 (3.52%) WAN
6 11 (2.98%) TCP/IP
7 10 (2.71%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
8 6 (1.63%) Internet
8 6 (1.63%) Kerberos
9 5 (1.36%) DHCP
9 5 (1.36%) Wireless
10 4 (1.08%) BGP
10 4 (1.08%) Multicast
10 4 (1.08%) NetScaler
10 4 (1.08%) OSPF
11 3 (0.81%) MPLS
11 3 (0.81%) NAS
11 3 (0.81%) SD-WAN
11 3 (0.81%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (2.17%) Data Warehouse
1 8 (2.17%) Oracle Database
1 8 (2.17%) Power BI
2 6 (1.63%) BigQuery
3 4 (1.08%) Oracle Exadata
3 4 (1.08%) Relational Database
3 4 (1.08%) SQL Server
4 3 (0.81%) Data Vault
4 3 (0.81%) Delta Lake
5 2 (0.54%) Amazon Redshift
5 2 (0.54%) Elasticsearch
5 2 (0.54%) NoSQL
5 2 (0.54%) RDBMS
6 1 (0.27%) Apache Cassandra
6 1 (0.27%) BusinessObjects
6 1 (0.27%) MongoDB
6 1 (0.27%) MySQL
6 1 (0.27%) Oracle Reports
6 1 (0.27%) PostgreSQL
6 1 (0.27%) SAP Data Services
Development Applications
1 35 (9.49%) Jenkins
2 17 (4.61%) GitLab
2 17 (4.61%) JIRA
3 16 (4.34%) Git
4 13 (3.52%) Postman
5 9 (2.44%) SoapUI
6 4 (1.08%) Liquibase
6 4 (1.08%) TeamCity
7 2 (0.54%) Cucumber
7 2 (0.54%) Hudson
8 1 (0.27%) Ant
8 1 (0.27%) JUnit
8 1 (0.27%) LSMW
8 1 (0.27%) Maven
8 1 (0.27%) MSI
8 1 (0.27%) PVCS
8 1 (0.27%) REST Assured
8 1 (0.27%) Snyk
General
1 101 (27.37%) Finance
2 69 (18.70%) Social Skills
3 54 (14.63%) Public Sector
4 32 (8.67%) Banking
5 17 (4.61%) Analytical Skills
5 17 (4.61%) Local Government
6 13 (3.52%) Influencing Skills
7 10 (2.71%) General Ledger
8 7 (1.90%) Financial Institution
8 7 (1.90%) Investment Banking
9 5 (1.36%) Military
10 4 (1.08%) Documentation Skills
10 4 (1.08%) German Language
11 3 (0.81%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 3 (0.81%) Manufacturing
11 3 (0.81%) Presentation Skills
11 3 (0.81%) Retail
11 3 (0.81%) Telecoms
12 2 (0.54%) Public Speaking
13 1 (0.27%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 98 (26.56%) Architect
2 44 (11.92%) Lead
3 42 (11.38%) Senior
4 30 (8.13%) Cloud Engineer
4 30 (8.13%) Solutions Architect
5 27 (7.32%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 26 (7.05%) GCP Engineer
7 21 (5.69%) Technical Architect
8 19 (5.15%) Azure Specialist
9 17 (4.61%) Consultant
10 16 (4.34%) Cloud Architect
11 13 (3.52%) SAP Architect
12 12 (3.25%) Azure Architect
12 12 (3.25%) DevOps Engineer
13 11 (2.98%) Data Engineer
13 11 (2.98%) Developer
13 11 (2.98%) Infrastructure Architect
13 11 (2.98%) SAP Solutions Architect
14 10 (2.71%) Analyst
14 10 (2.71%) SAP Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (8.13%) REST
2 23 (6.23%) Middleware
3 16 (4.34%) Oracle Fusion
4 15 (4.07%) OAuth
5 14 (3.79%) JSON
5 14 (3.79%) SOAP
6 13 (3.52%) JWT
6 13 (3.52%) Web Services
7 12 (3.25%) XML
7 12 (3.25%) XSLT
8 9 (2.44%) Spring Boot
9 7 (1.90%) Kafka
10 6 (1.63%) NumPy
10 6 (1.63%) Pandas
11 4 (1.08%) PyTorch
11 4 (1.08%) Spring
11 4 (1.08%) TensorFlow
12 3 (0.81%) Elastic Stack
12 3 (0.81%) PySpark
12 3 (0.81%) React
Miscellaneous
1 44 (11.92%) Cloud Native
2 22 (5.96%) Data Centre
3 18 (4.88%) Private Cloud
4 13 (3.52%) Hybrid Cloud
5 10 (2.71%) PKI
6 9 (2.44%) Legacy Systems
7 7 (1.90%) Data Structures
7 7 (1.90%) Security Posture
8 6 (1.63%) Onboarding
8 6 (1.63%) Virtual Team
9 5 (1.36%) Legacy Applications
10 3 (0.81%) Cloud Security Posture
10 3 (0.81%) Data Protection Act
10 3 (0.81%) Greenfield Project
10 3 (0.81%) Grid Computing
10 3 (0.81%) Management Information System
10 3 (0.81%) Reinsurance
11 2 (0.54%) AI Agents
11 2 (0.54%) Distributed Systems
11 2 (0.54%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 47 (12.74%) Linux
2 28 (7.59%) Windows
3 11 (2.98%) Unix
4 7 (1.90%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 7 (1.90%) Windows Server
4 7 (1.90%) Windows Server 2019
5 5 (1.36%) VMS
6 4 (1.08%) Windows Server 2012
7 3 (0.81%) Windows Server 2016
8 2 (0.54%) Debian
8 2 (0.54%) Ubuntu
9 1 (0.27%) AIX
9 1 (0.27%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 105 (28.46%) DevOps
2 84 (22.76%) CI/CD
3 82 (22.22%) Migration
4 79 (21.41%) Infrastructure as Code
5 58 (15.72%) Agile
6 52 (14.09%) Stakeholder Management
7 44 (11.92%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 41 (11.11%) Analytics
8 41 (11.11%) ERP
9 36 (9.76%) Containerisation
10 34 (9.21%) User Acceptance Testing
11 30 (8.13%) Microservices
12 29 (7.86%) Cloud Security
12 29 (7.86%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 27 (7.32%) Cybersecurity
14 26 (7.05%) Project Delivery
15 25 (6.78%) Validation
16 24 (6.50%) Problem-Solving
17 23 (6.23%) Architectural Patterns
18 22 (5.96%) Identity Access Management
Programming Languages
1 72 (19.51%) Python
2 20 (5.42%) SQL
3 17 (4.61%) Java
4 14 (3.79%) PowerShell
5 9 (2.44%) Bash
6 7 (1.90%) Bicep
6 7 (1.90%) Shell Script
7 6 (1.63%) Go
8 5 (1.36%) Ruby
9 4 (1.08%) JavaScript
9 4 (1.08%) PL/SQL
9 4 (1.08%) TypeScript
10 2 (0.54%) C++
10 2 (0.54%) Perl
11 1 (0.27%) C#
11 1 (0.27%) Kotlin
11 1 (0.27%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 90 (24.39%) Security Cleared
2 68 (18.43%) SC Cleared
3 20 (5.42%) Cisco Certification
4 19 (5.15%) DV Cleared
5 13 (3.52%) Degree
6 10 (2.71%) CCNP
6 10 (2.71%) CISSP
7 9 (2.44%) (ISC)2 CCSP
7 9 (2.44%) AWS Certification
7 9 (2.44%) BPSS Clearance
7 9 (2.44%) SAP Certification
8 7 (1.90%) ACCA
8 7 (1.90%) Azure Certification
8 7 (1.90%) CIMA
8 7 (1.90%) CISM
9 6 (1.63%) ISTQB
10 5 (1.36%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 5 (1.36%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
10 5 (1.36%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
11 4 (1.08%) CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (3.79%) NIST
2 13 (3.52%) NCSC
3 10 (2.71%) GDPR
3 10 (2.71%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 9 (2.44%) QA
5 6 (1.63%) SLA
6 5 (1.36%) Cyber Essentials
6 5 (1.36%) Data Quality
6 5 (1.36%) GRC
7 2 (0.54%) Government Security Classifications
7 2 (0.54%) ISO 15022
7 2 (0.54%) ISO 20022
7 2 (0.54%) PMO
8 1 (0.27%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.27%) COBIT
8 1 (0.27%) HIPAA
8 1 (0.27%) NIST 800
8 1 (0.27%) PCI DSS
8 1 (0.27%) RMADS
System Software
1 25 (6.78%) Docker
2 21 (5.69%) VMware Infrastructure
3 14 (3.79%) Hyper-V
4 12 (3.25%) Active Directory
5 7 (1.90%) VMware NSX
6 5 (1.36%) NFS
6 5 (1.36%) Postfix
6 5 (1.36%) Varnish
7 4 (1.08%) Oracle RAC
7 4 (1.08%) Sendmail
7 4 (1.08%) Virtual Desktop
7 4 (1.08%) Virtual Machines
7 4 (1.08%) vSphere
8 2 (0.54%) GPFS
8 2 (0.54%) Lustre
8 2 (0.54%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 2 (0.54%) VMware ESXi
9 1 (0.27%) Firmware
9 1 (0.27%) Microsoft App-V
Systems Management
1 69 (18.70%) Terraform
2 59 (15.99%) Kubernetes
3 32 (8.67%) Ansible
4 20 (5.42%) Istio
5 9 (2.44%) Single Sign-On
6 6 (1.63%) Microsoft Intune
6 6 (1.63%) Prometheus
7 5 (1.36%) HAProxy
7 5 (1.36%) Kubeflow
8 4 (1.08%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 4 (1.08%) Data Guard
8 4 (1.08%) Grafana
8 4 (1.08%) Oracle RMAN
8 4 (1.08%) SCCM
9 3 (0.81%) Argo
9 3 (0.81%) Puppet
10 2 (0.54%) Red Hat Satellite
11 1 (0.27%) FortiGate
11 1 (0.27%) Nessus
11 1 (0.27%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 88 (23.85%) SAP
2 51 (13.82%) Google
3 42 (11.38%) Microsoft
4 39 (10.57%) Oracle
5 33 (8.94%) VMware
6 16 (4.34%) Ariba
6 16 (4.34%) F5
7 11 (2.98%) Palo Alto
8 10 (2.71%) MuleSoft
8 10 (2.71%) Red Hat
8 10 (2.71%) ServiceNow
9 8 (2.17%) Cisco
10 6 (1.63%) Splunk
11 5 (1.36%) Databricks
12 4 (1.08%) Juniper
12 4 (1.08%) Veeam
13 3 (0.81%) Citrix
13 3 (0.81%) Foundry
13 3 (0.81%) IBM
13 3 (0.81%) Informatica