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

6 months to
13 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 304 285 294
Rank change year-on-year -19 +9 -64
Contract jobs citing Public Cloud 360 253 319
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.76% 0.87% 0.75%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 2.38% 2.58% 2.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 227 174 215
10th Percentile £398 £440 £450
25th Percentile £500 £513 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £604 £600
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +0.63% -4.00%
75th Percentile £675 £698 £750
90th Percentile £710 £760 £838
UK excluding London median daily rate £570 £593 £600
% change year-on-year -3.80% -1.25% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 1 1
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £71.25 - £36.75
Median hourly rate £72.50 £70.00 £38.50
Median % change year-on-year +3.57% +81.82% -49.01%
75th Percentile £73.75 - £40.25
90th Percentile - - -
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 15,124 9,813 12,980
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 32.04% 33.86% 30.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,403 6,263 8,356
10th Percentile £313 £300 £269
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £509 £525 £540
Median % change year-on-year -3.05% -2.78% -1.82%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £663
90th Percentile £738 £775 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £482 £485 £500
% change year-on-year -0.62% -3.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 719 386 900
10th Percentile £16.01 £16.85 £12.25
25th Percentile £20.00 £20.81 £15.17
Median hourly rate £42.71 £31.91 £31.25
Median % change year-on-year +33.85% +2.10% +38.98%
75th Percentile £70.00 £63.75 £61.30
90th Percentile £87.60 £83.31 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £47.54 £30.00 £29.25
% change year-on-year +58.47% +2.56% +33.71%

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 13 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 15 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 13 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 -33 292 £575 -7.18% 77
UK excluding London -7 186 £570 -3.80% 44
London -73 107 £600 -7.69% 39
Work from Home -5 93 £610 +1.67% 35
North of England -38 54 £550 +2.42% 10
South East -33 53 £557 -9.84% 18
Midlands -29 33 £638 +18.72% 3
South West -3 31 £675 +17.39% 10
North West -19 29 £350 -34.82% 6
East Midlands -8 25 £638 +34.21%
Yorkshire -31 25 £560 +16.36% 3
Scotland -2 12 £425 -22.73% 1
West Midlands -55 5 £625 -11.50% 3
East of England -33 3 £593 -1.25% 1
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 8 (2.22%) Confluence
2 6 (1.67%) Apache
2 6 (1.67%) Apache Airflow
2 6 (1.67%) SAS
3 3 (0.83%) SharePoint
4 2 (0.56%) OpenStack
4 2 (0.56%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 2 (0.56%) Palantir Foundry
5 1 (0.28%) CloudStack
5 1 (0.28%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 6 (1.67%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (1.11%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (1.11%) Microsoft Project
3 2 (0.56%) Spreadsheet
4 1 (0.28%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.28%) Weka
Business Applications
1 78 (21.67%) SAP S/4HANA
2 10 (2.78%) Oracle ERP
3 6 (1.67%) SAP Business One
4 4 (1.11%) SAP CO
4 4 (1.11%) SAP FI
4 4 (1.11%) SAP FI/CO
5 3 (0.83%) SAP ERP
6 2 (0.56%) SAP SD
7 1 (0.28%) Exchequer
7 1 (0.28%) iTrent
7 1 (0.28%) SAP FI-AR
Cloud Services
1 153 (42.50%) Azure
2 94 (26.11%) AWS
3 87 (24.17%) GCP
4 37 (10.28%) GitHub
5 26 (7.22%) PaaS
6 24 (6.67%) Google Kubernetes Engine
6 24 (6.67%) IaaS
7 23 (6.39%) SuccessFactors
8 22 (6.11%) OCI
9 15 (4.17%) GitHub Actions
10 14 (3.89%) SaaS
11 12 (3.33%) Serverless
12 10 (2.78%) AWS CloudFormation
13 9 (2.50%) Azure DevOps
13 9 (2.50%) Power Platform
14 8 (2.22%) Cloud Computing
14 8 (2.22%) Microsoft 365
15 6 (1.67%) Azure Sentinel
15 6 (1.67%) Entra ID
16 5 (1.39%) dbt
Communications & Networking
1 34 (9.44%) DNS
1 34 (9.44%) Firewall
2 25 (6.94%) Network Security
3 17 (4.72%) VPN
4 13 (3.61%) LAN
4 13 (3.61%) WAN
5 10 (2.78%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
5 10 (2.78%) TCP/IP
6 6 (1.67%) Kerberos
7 5 (1.39%) DHCP
7 5 (1.39%) Wireless
8 4 (1.11%) BGP
8 4 (1.11%) Internet
8 4 (1.11%) Multicast
8 4 (1.11%) NAS
8 4 (1.11%) NetScaler
8 4 (1.11%) OSPF
8 4 (1.11%) SAN
9 3 (0.83%) MPLS
9 3 (0.83%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (2.22%) Data Warehouse
1 8 (2.22%) Oracle Database
1 8 (2.22%) Power BI
2 6 (1.67%) BigQuery
3 4 (1.11%) Oracle Exadata
3 4 (1.11%) Relational Database
3 4 (1.11%) SQL Server
4 3 (0.83%) Data Vault
4 3 (0.83%) Delta Lake
5 2 (0.56%) Amazon Redshift
5 2 (0.56%) Elasticsearch
5 2 (0.56%) NoSQL
5 2 (0.56%) RDBMS
6 1 (0.28%) Apache Cassandra
6 1 (0.28%) BusinessObjects
6 1 (0.28%) MongoDB
6 1 (0.28%) MySQL
6 1 (0.28%) Oracle Reports
6 1 (0.28%) PostgreSQL
6 1 (0.28%) SAP Data Services
Development Applications
1 35 (9.72%) Jenkins
2 17 (4.72%) GitLab
2 17 (4.72%) JIRA
3 16 (4.44%) Git
4 13 (3.61%) Postman
5 9 (2.50%) SoapUI
6 4 (1.11%) Liquibase
6 4 (1.11%) TeamCity
7 2 (0.56%) Cucumber
7 2 (0.56%) Hudson
8 1 (0.28%) Ant
8 1 (0.28%) JUnit
8 1 (0.28%) LSMW
8 1 (0.28%) Maven
8 1 (0.28%) MSI
8 1 (0.28%) PVCS
8 1 (0.28%) REST Assured
8 1 (0.28%) Snyk
General
1 97 (26.94%) Finance
2 66 (18.33%) Social Skills
3 49 (13.61%) Public Sector
4 32 (8.89%) Banking
5 17 (4.72%) Analytical Skills
6 16 (4.44%) Local Government
7 11 (3.06%) Influencing Skills
8 10 (2.78%) General Ledger
9 7 (1.94%) Financial Institution
9 7 (1.94%) Investment Banking
10 5 (1.39%) Military
11 4 (1.11%) Documentation Skills
11 4 (1.11%) German Language
12 3 (0.83%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 3 (0.83%) Manufacturing
12 3 (0.83%) Retail
13 2 (0.56%) Presentation Skills
13 2 (0.56%) Public Speaking
13 2 (0.56%) Telecoms
14 1 (0.28%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 96 (26.67%) Architect
2 41 (11.39%) Lead
2 41 (11.39%) Senior
3 30 (8.33%) Cloud Engineer
4 29 (8.06%) Solutions Architect
5 28 (7.78%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 26 (7.22%) GCP Engineer
7 21 (5.83%) Azure Specialist
7 21 (5.83%) Technical Architect
8 16 (4.44%) Cloud Architect
8 16 (4.44%) Consultant
9 13 (3.61%) SAP Architect
10 12 (3.33%) Azure Architect
10 12 (3.33%) DevOps Engineer
11 11 (3.06%) Data Engineer
11 11 (3.06%) Developer
11 11 (3.06%) Infrastructure Architect
11 11 (3.06%) SAP Solutions Architect
12 10 (2.78%) Platform Engineer
12 10 (2.78%) Senior Cloud Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 28 (7.78%) REST
2 23 (6.39%) Middleware
3 16 (4.44%) Oracle Fusion
4 15 (4.17%) OAuth
5 14 (3.89%) JSON
5 14 (3.89%) SOAP
6 13 (3.61%) JWT
6 13 (3.61%) Web Services
7 12 (3.33%) XML
7 12 (3.33%) XSLT
8 9 (2.50%) Spring Boot
9 7 (1.94%) Kafka
10 6 (1.67%) NumPy
10 6 (1.67%) Pandas
11 4 (1.11%) Elastic Stack
11 4 (1.11%) PyTorch
11 4 (1.11%) Spring
11 4 (1.11%) TensorFlow
12 3 (0.83%) PySpark
12 3 (0.83%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 43 (11.94%) Cloud Native
2 21 (5.83%) Data Centre
3 17 (4.72%) Private Cloud
4 14 (3.89%) Hybrid Cloud
5 9 (2.50%) PKI
6 7 (1.94%) Data Structures
6 7 (1.94%) Legacy Systems
6 7 (1.94%) Security Posture
7 6 (1.67%) Onboarding
7 6 (1.67%) Virtual Team
8 5 (1.39%) Legacy Applications
9 3 (0.83%) Cloud Security Posture
9 3 (0.83%) Data Protection Act
9 3 (0.83%) Greenfield Project
9 3 (0.83%) Management Information System
9 3 (0.83%) Reinsurance
10 2 (0.56%) AI Agents
10 2 (0.56%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
10 2 (0.56%) Grid Computing
10 2 (0.56%) Market Risk
Operating Systems
1 45 (12.50%) Linux
2 27 (7.50%) Windows
3 11 (3.06%) Unix
4 8 (2.22%) Windows Server
5 7 (1.94%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 7 (1.94%) Windows Server 2019
6 5 (1.39%) VMS
7 4 (1.11%) Windows Server 2012
8 3 (0.83%) Ubuntu
8 3 (0.83%) Windows Server 2016
9 2 (0.56%) Debian
10 1 (0.28%) AIX
10 1 (0.28%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 105 (29.17%) DevOps
2 84 (23.33%) CI/CD
3 80 (22.22%) Migration
4 79 (21.94%) Infrastructure as Code
5 53 (14.72%) Agile
6 50 (13.89%) Stakeholder Management
7 45 (12.50%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 40 (11.11%) Analytics
8 40 (11.11%) ERP
9 36 (10.00%) Containerisation
10 33 (9.17%) User Acceptance Testing
11 30 (8.33%) Microservices
12 29 (8.06%) Cloud Security
13 26 (7.22%) Cybersecurity
13 26 (7.22%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 25 (6.94%) Project Delivery
15 24 (6.67%) Problem-Solving
15 24 (6.67%) Validation
16 23 (6.39%) Architectural Patterns
17 22 (6.11%) Identity Access Management
Programming Languages
1 69 (19.17%) Python
2 20 (5.56%) SQL
3 17 (4.72%) Java
4 14 (3.89%) PowerShell
5 8 (2.22%) Bash
6 7 (1.94%) Bicep
6 7 (1.94%) Shell Script
7 6 (1.67%) Go
8 5 (1.39%) Ruby
9 4 (1.11%) JavaScript
9 4 (1.11%) PL/SQL
9 4 (1.11%) TypeScript
10 2 (0.56%) C++
10 2 (0.56%) Perl
11 1 (0.28%) C#
11 1 (0.28%) Kotlin
11 1 (0.28%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 87 (24.17%) Security Cleared
2 66 (18.33%) SC Cleared
3 21 (5.83%) Cisco Certification
4 18 (5.00%) DV Cleared
5 11 (3.06%) CCNP
5 11 (3.06%) Degree
6 10 (2.78%) CISSP
7 9 (2.50%) (ISC)2 CCSP
7 9 (2.50%) SAP Certification
8 8 (2.22%) AWS Certification
8 8 (2.22%) BPSS Clearance
9 7 (1.94%) ACCA
9 7 (1.94%) Azure Certification
9 7 (1.94%) CIMA
9 7 (1.94%) CISM
10 6 (1.67%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 6 (1.67%) ISTQB
11 5 (1.39%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
11 5 (1.39%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
12 4 (1.11%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (3.89%) NIST
2 13 (3.61%) NCSC
3 10 (2.78%) GDPR
3 10 (2.78%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 8 (2.22%) QA
5 6 (1.67%) SLA
6 5 (1.39%) Cyber Essentials
6 5 (1.39%) Data Quality
6 5 (1.39%) GRC
7 2 (0.56%) Government Security Classifications
7 2 (0.56%) ISO 15022
7 2 (0.56%) ISO 20022
7 2 (0.56%) PMO
8 1 (0.28%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.28%) COBIT
8 1 (0.28%) HIPAA
8 1 (0.28%) NIST 800
8 1 (0.28%) PCI DSS
8 1 (0.28%) RMADS
System Software
1 24 (6.67%) Docker
2 20 (5.56%) VMware Infrastructure
3 12 (3.33%) Active Directory
4 11 (3.06%) Hyper-V
5 7 (1.94%) VMware NSX
6 5 (1.39%) NFS
6 5 (1.39%) Postfix
6 5 (1.39%) Varnish
6 5 (1.39%) vSphere
7 4 (1.11%) Oracle RAC
7 4 (1.11%) Sendmail
7 4 (1.11%) Virtual Desktop
7 4 (1.11%) Virtual Machines
8 2 (0.56%) VMware ESXi
9 1 (0.28%) Firmware
9 1 (0.28%) GPFS
9 1 (0.28%) Lustre
9 1 (0.28%) Microsoft App-V
9 1 (0.28%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 69 (19.17%) Terraform
2 59 (16.39%) Kubernetes
3 32 (8.89%) Ansible
4 20 (5.56%) Istio
5 9 (2.50%) Single Sign-On
6 7 (1.94%) Prometheus
7 6 (1.67%) Microsoft Intune
8 5 (1.39%) Grafana
8 5 (1.39%) HAProxy
8 5 (1.39%) Kubeflow
9 4 (1.11%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 4 (1.11%) Data Guard
9 4 (1.11%) Oracle RMAN
9 4 (1.11%) SCCM
10 3 (0.83%) Argo
10 3 (0.83%) Puppet
11 2 (0.56%) Red Hat Satellite
12 1 (0.28%) FortiGate
12 1 (0.28%) Nessus
12 1 (0.28%) NetBackup
Vendors
1 86 (23.89%) SAP
2 51 (14.17%) Google
3 43 (11.94%) Microsoft
4 36 (10.00%) Oracle
5 31 (8.61%) VMware
6 16 (4.44%) Ariba
6 16 (4.44%) F5
7 10 (2.78%) MuleSoft
7 10 (2.78%) Red Hat
7 10 (2.78%) ServiceNow
8 9 (2.50%) Cisco
8 9 (2.50%) Palo Alto
9 6 (1.67%) Splunk
10 5 (1.39%) Databricks
10 5 (1.39%) Veeam
11 4 (1.11%) Juniper
12 3 (0.83%) Citrix
12 3 (0.83%) Foundry
12 3 (0.83%) IBM
12 3 (0.83%) Informatica