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 25 June 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 310 315 296
Rank change year-on-year +5 -19 -52
Contract jobs citing Public Cloud 382 224 331
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.75% 0.74% 0.76%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 2.29% 2.15% 2.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 245 146 226
10th Percentile £413 £405 £445
25th Percentile £500 £500 £494
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £600 £580
Median % change year-on-year - +3.45% -9.02%
75th Percentile £688 £698 £750
90th Percentile £725 £766 £838
UK excluding London median daily rate £600 £537 £600
% change year-on-year +11.73% -10.50% -2.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 2 2
10th Percentile - £45.25 £38.28
25th Percentile £71.25 £49.38 £40.56
Median hourly rate £72.50 £57.50 £46.25
Median % change year-on-year +26.09% +24.32% -40.71%
75th Percentile £73.75 £64.38 £52.06
90th Percentile - £67.75 £54.43
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 16,681 10,414 13,091
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 32.78% 34.58% 30.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,228 6,516 8,302
10th Percentile £313 £300 £276
25th Percentile £413 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -0.95% -2.42% -2.18%
75th Percentile £630 £650 £663
90th Percentile £750 £775 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 861 464 940
10th Percentile £16.01 £15.84 £12.25
25th Percentile £21.00 £19.97 £15.39
Median hourly rate £42.50 £32.05 £36.00
Median % change year-on-year +32.61% -10.97% +60.11%
75th Percentile £70.00 £58.75 £62.00
90th Percentile £86.00 £80.70 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £31.63 £35.65
% change year-on-year +39.00% -11.29% +62.05%

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 25 June 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 25 June 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 0 317 £600 -2.16% 39
UK excluding London +11 203 £600 +11.73% 31
London -62 117 £600 -9.43% 16
Work from Home +9 105 £610 +9.66% 21
North of England -28 68 £560 +4.28% 18
South East -25 53 £590 -1.67% 7
Midlands -29 37 £613 +14.06%
Yorkshire -25 35 £625 +31.58% 8
North West -23 31 £375 -30.17% 5
South West -18 29 £675 +22.73% 3
East Midlands +3 25 £625 +31.58%
Scotland -19 11 £425 -15.00% 2
West Midlands -51 8 £450 -22.58%
East of England -28 4 £593 +3.04%
North East -33 3 £650 - 7
Northern Ireland - 2 £385 -
Wales -13 1 - - 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 10 (2.62%) Confluence
2 9 (2.36%) Apache
3 5 (1.31%) Apache Airflow
3 5 (1.31%) SharePoint
4 4 (1.05%) SAS
5 3 (0.79%) OpenStack
6 2 (0.52%) CloudStack
6 2 (0.52%) IIS
6 2 (0.52%) nginx
6 2 (0.52%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 2 (0.52%) Palantir Foundry
6 2 (0.52%) Tomcat
7 1 (0.26%) Microsoft Exchange
7 1 (0.26%) WebLogic
Applications
1 7 (1.83%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (1.31%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (1.05%) Microsoft Project
4 2 (0.52%) MS Visio
4 2 (0.52%) Spreadsheet
5 1 (0.26%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.26%) Weka
Business Applications
1 87 (22.77%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (1.57%) Oracle ERP
2 6 (1.57%) SAP Business One
3 5 (1.31%) SAP ERP
4 4 (1.05%) iTrent
4 4 (1.05%) SAP FI
4 4 (1.05%) SAP SD
5 3 (0.79%) SAP CO
5 3 (0.79%) SAP FI/CO
6 2 (0.52%) SAP FI-GL
7 1 (0.26%) Exchequer
7 1 (0.26%) Oracle SCM
7 1 (0.26%) SAP FI-AR
7 1 (0.26%) SAP MDG
Cloud Services
1 156 (40.84%) Azure
2 109 (28.53%) AWS
3 92 (24.08%) GCP
4 39 (10.21%) GitHub
5 25 (6.54%) SuccessFactors
6 22 (5.76%) Google Kubernetes Engine
7 20 (5.24%) PaaS
8 19 (4.97%) GitHub Actions
8 19 (4.97%) IaaS
9 15 (3.93%) OCI
9 15 (3.93%) SaaS
9 15 (3.93%) Serverless
10 12 (3.14%) Azure DevOps
11 10 (2.62%) AWS CloudFormation
12 9 (2.36%) Cloud Computing
12 9 (2.36%) OpenShift
12 9 (2.36%) Power Platform
13 8 (2.09%) Amazon EKS
14 7 (1.83%) Microsoft 365
15 6 (1.57%) Entra ID
Communications & Networking
1 30 (7.85%) DNS
2 29 (7.59%) Firewall
3 25 (6.54%) Network Security
4 14 (3.66%) VPN
5 11 (2.88%) LAN
5 11 (2.88%) WAN
6 9 (2.36%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
7 7 (1.83%) SAN
7 7 (1.83%) TCP/IP
7 7 (1.83%) VSAN
8 6 (1.57%) NAS
9 5 (1.31%) Wireless
10 4 (1.05%) Kerberos
10 4 (1.05%) MPLS
11 3 (0.79%) BGP
11 3 (0.79%) BIG-IP
11 3 (0.79%) DHCP
11 3 (0.79%) HTTPS
11 3 (0.79%) SD-WAN
11 3 (0.79%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (2.62%) Oracle Database
2 8 (2.09%) Power BI
3 7 (1.83%) SQL Server
4 6 (1.57%) Relational Database
5 5 (1.31%) BigQuery
5 5 (1.31%) Data Warehouse
5 5 (1.31%) Oracle Exadata
5 5 (1.31%) RDBMS
6 4 (1.05%) BusinessObjects
7 3 (0.79%) Data Vault
7 3 (0.79%) Delta Lake
7 3 (0.79%) MySQL
7 3 (0.79%) PostgreSQL
8 2 (0.52%) Elasticsearch
8 2 (0.52%) NoSQL
8 2 (0.52%) Oracle Reports
8 2 (0.52%) SAP HANA
9 1 (0.26%) Apache Cassandra
9 1 (0.26%) MongoDB
9 1 (0.26%) SAP Data Services
Development Applications
1 39 (10.21%) Jenkins
2 25 (6.54%) Git
3 19 (4.97%) JIRA
4 17 (4.45%) GitLab
5 9 (2.36%) Postman
6 6 (1.57%) SoapUI
7 4 (1.05%) Cucumber
7 4 (1.05%) Hudson
7 4 (1.05%) JUnit
8 3 (0.79%) Liquibase
8 3 (0.79%) Selenium
8 3 (0.79%) SonarQube
8 3 (0.79%) Sonatype Nexus
8 3 (0.79%) TeamCity
9 1 (0.26%) Ant
9 1 (0.26%) LSMW
9 1 (0.26%) MSI
9 1 (0.26%) PVCS
9 1 (0.26%) REST Assured
9 1 (0.26%) Snyk
General
1 115 (30.10%) Finance
2 62 (16.23%) Social Skills
3 53 (13.87%) Public Sector
4 32 (8.38%) Banking
5 21 (5.50%) Local Government
6 14 (3.66%) Analytical Skills
7 11 (2.88%) General Ledger
7 11 (2.88%) Influencing Skills
8 7 (1.83%) Financial Institution
9 6 (1.57%) Investment Banking
9 6 (1.57%) Military
10 5 (1.31%) Documentation Skills
11 3 (0.79%) Billing
11 3 (0.79%) Organisational Skills
11 3 (0.79%) Retail
12 2 (0.52%) Manufacturing
12 2 (0.52%) Telecoms
13 1 (0.26%) Front Office
13 1 (0.26%) Legal
13 1 (0.26%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 94 (24.61%) Architect
2 54 (14.14%) Lead
3 52 (13.61%) Senior
4 36 (9.42%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 31 (8.12%) Solutions Architect
6 28 (7.33%) Cloud Engineer
7 24 (6.28%) GCP Engineer
8 21 (5.50%) Azure Specialist
8 21 (5.50%) DevOps Engineer
8 21 (5.50%) Technical Architect
9 18 (4.71%) Cloud Architect
9 18 (4.71%) Consultant
10 13 (3.40%) Developer
10 13 (3.40%) SAP Consultant
11 12 (3.14%) Azure Architect
11 12 (3.14%) Azure Engineer
11 12 (3.14%) SAP Architect
12 11 (2.88%) Analyst
13 10 (2.62%) SAP Solutions Architect
13 10 (2.62%) Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (5.24%) Middleware
2 17 (4.45%) REST
3 14 (3.66%) Kafka
4 13 (3.40%) Spring Boot
5 10 (2.62%) OAuth
5 10 (2.62%) Oracle Fusion
6 8 (2.09%) JSON
6 8 (2.09%) SOAP
7 7 (1.83%) JWT
7 7 (1.83%) Spring
7 7 (1.83%) Web Services
8 6 (1.57%) Elastic Stack
8 6 (1.57%) NumPy
8 6 (1.57%) Pandas
8 6 (1.57%) SAP Fiori
8 6 (1.57%) XML
8 6 (1.57%) XSLT
9 5 (1.31%) React
10 4 (1.05%) Oracle GoldenGate
10 4 (1.05%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 50 (13.09%) Cloud Native
2 19 (4.97%) Data Centre
3 18 (4.71%) Hybrid Cloud
4 17 (4.45%) Private Cloud
5 10 (2.62%) Onboarding
6 8 (2.09%) Data Structures
6 8 (2.09%) PKI
7 7 (1.83%) Legacy Systems
8 6 (1.57%) Legacy Applications
8 6 (1.57%) Virtual Team
9 5 (1.31%) AI Agents
10 4 (1.05%) Security Posture
11 3 (0.79%) Data Protection Act
11 3 (0.79%) Management Information System
11 3 (0.79%) Reinsurance
11 3 (0.79%) Self-Motivation
12 2 (0.52%) Cyber Threat
12 2 (0.52%) Enterprise Cloud
12 2 (0.52%) Grid Computing
12 2 (0.52%) Market Risk
Operating Systems
1 51 (13.35%) Linux
2 30 (7.85%) Windows
3 11 (2.88%) Unix
4 9 (2.36%) Windows Server
5 6 (1.57%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 6 (1.57%) Ubuntu
5 6 (1.57%) Windows Server 2019
6 5 (1.31%) VMS
7 4 (1.05%) AIX
7 4 (1.05%) Debian
8 3 (0.79%) CentOS
8 3 (0.79%) Windows Server 2012
8 3 (0.79%) Windows Server 2016
9 1 (0.26%) Android
9 1 (0.26%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 106 (27.75%) DevOps
2 97 (25.39%) CI/CD
3 95 (24.87%) Infrastructure as Code
4 91 (23.82%) Migration
5 56 (14.66%) Stakeholder Management
6 54 (14.14%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 53 (13.87%) Agile
8 41 (10.73%) Analytics
9 38 (9.95%) Containerisation
10 37 (9.69%) Microservices
11 36 (9.42%) ERP
12 35 (9.16%) User Acceptance Testing
13 32 (8.38%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 30 (7.85%) Cloud Security
15 29 (7.59%) Data Migration
16 28 (7.33%) Problem-Solving
16 28 (7.33%) Validation
17 27 (7.07%) Identity Access Management
17 27 (7.07%) Project Delivery
18 26 (6.81%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 75 (19.63%) Python
2 24 (6.28%) Java
2 24 (6.28%) PowerShell
3 19 (4.97%) SQL
4 15 (3.93%) Bash
5 8 (2.09%) Bicep
6 6 (1.57%) Go
6 6 (1.57%) Shell Script
7 5 (1.31%) Ruby
8 4 (1.05%) JavaScript
8 4 (1.05%) TypeScript
9 2 (0.52%) C++
9 2 (0.52%) Groovy
9 2 (0.52%) Perl
9 2 (0.52%) PL/SQL
10 1 (0.26%) C#
10 1 (0.26%) Kotlin
10 1 (0.26%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 87 (22.77%) Security Cleared
2 72 (18.85%) SC Cleared
3 25 (6.54%) Cisco Certification
4 19 (4.97%) DV Cleared
5 13 (3.40%) Degree
6 12 (3.14%) CCNP
7 10 (2.62%) CISSP
8 9 (2.36%) (ISC)2 CCSP
8 9 (2.36%) AWS Certification
9 8 (2.09%) Azure Certification
9 8 (2.09%) BPSS Clearance
9 8 (2.09%) SAP Certification
9 8 (2.09%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 7 (1.83%) ACCA
10 7 (1.83%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 7 (1.83%) CIMA
10 7 (1.83%) CISM
11 5 (1.31%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
11 5 (1.31%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
11 5 (1.31%) ISTQB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (3.93%) NIST
2 14 (3.66%) NCSC
3 12 (3.14%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 10 (2.62%) GDPR
5 8 (2.09%) QA
6 6 (1.57%) Data Quality
7 5 (1.31%) Cyber Essentials
7 5 (1.31%) GRC
8 3 (0.79%) Government Security Classifications
8 3 (0.79%) ISO 20022
9 2 (0.52%) ISO 15022
9 2 (0.52%) PMO
9 2 (0.52%) SLA
10 1 (0.26%) Disclosure Scotland
10 1 (0.26%) HIPAA
10 1 (0.26%) ISO 22301
10 1 (0.26%) ISO/IEC 20000
10 1 (0.26%) NIST 800
10 1 (0.26%) PCI DSS
10 1 (0.26%) RMADS
System Software
1 27 (7.07%) Docker
2 23 (6.02%) VMware Infrastructure
3 13 (3.40%) Active Directory
3 13 (3.40%) VMware NSX
4 9 (2.36%) Hyper-V
5 7 (1.83%) Postfix
5 7 (1.83%) Virtual Machines
6 6 (1.57%) Oracle RAC
6 6 (1.57%) VMware ESXi
7 5 (1.31%) NFS
7 5 (1.31%) Varnish
8 4 (1.05%) Sendmail
8 4 (1.05%) vSphere
9 2 (0.52%) Dovecot
9 2 (0.52%) Virtual Desktop
10 1 (0.26%) Firmware
10 1 (0.26%) GPFS
10 1 (0.26%) Lustre
10 1 (0.26%) Microsoft App-V
10 1 (0.26%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 86 (22.51%) Terraform
2 65 (17.02%) Kubernetes
3 38 (9.95%) Ansible
4 20 (5.24%) Istio
5 12 (3.14%) Prometheus
6 10 (2.62%) Grafana
7 8 (2.09%) Single Sign-On
8 7 (1.83%) HAProxy
9 6 (1.57%) Data Guard
9 6 (1.57%) Oracle RMAN
10 4 (1.05%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 4 (1.05%) Argo
10 4 (1.05%) Kubeflow
10 4 (1.05%) Microsoft Intune
10 4 (1.05%) Packer
10 4 (1.05%) vCenter Server
11 3 (0.79%) SCCM
12 2 (0.52%) Check_MK
12 2 (0.52%) Puppet
12 2 (0.52%) Red Hat Satellite
Vendors
1 96 (25.13%) SAP
2 56 (14.66%) Google
3 51 (13.35%) Microsoft
4 40 (10.47%) Oracle
5 35 (9.16%) VMware
6 16 (4.19%) F5
7 14 (3.66%) Ariba
8 11 (2.88%) Cisco
8 11 (2.88%) Red Hat
9 10 (2.62%) ServiceNow
10 8 (2.09%) Splunk
11 6 (1.57%) MuleSoft
12 5 (1.31%) Citrix
12 5 (1.31%) CyberArk
12 5 (1.31%) Databricks
12 5 (1.31%) Fortinet
12 5 (1.31%) Juniper
12 5 (1.31%) Palo Alto
13 4 (1.05%) Veeam
14 3 (0.79%) Foundry