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 6 August 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
6 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 351 329 271
Rank change year-on-year -22 -58 -26
Contract jobs citing Public Cloud 354 232 338
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.66% 0.70% 0.86%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 1.99% 2.02% 2.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 237 152 220
10th Percentile £427 £364 £442
25th Percentile £513 £450 £493
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £550 £593
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -7.17% -4.82%
75th Percentile £688 £688 £750
90th Percentile £750 £750 £839
UK excluding London median daily rate £600 £500 £613
% change year-on-year +20.00% -18.37% +2.08%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 2 3
10th Percentile - £45.25 £39.80
25th Percentile £71.25 £49.38 £44.38
Median hourly rate £72.50 £57.50 £54.00
Median % change year-on-year +26.09% +6.48% -30.77%
75th Percentile £73.75 £64.38 £57.00
90th Percentile - £67.75 £57.60
UK excluding London median hourly rate - £70.00 £48.25
% change year-on-year - +45.08% -38.14%

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 17,810 11,488 11,917
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.41% 34.91% 30.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,830 7,091 7,640
10th Percentile £321 £303 £300
25th Percentile £423 £406 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -
75th Percentile £638 £638 £675
90th Percentile £750 £768 £825
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 975 553 622
10th Percentile £15.44 £15.13 £12.30
25th Percentile £19.50 £18.87 £18.13
Median hourly rate £43.96 £29.50 £44.39
Median % change year-on-year +49.02% -33.54% +10.98%
75th Percentile £70.00 £57.50 £66.19
90th Percentile £85.00 £77.25 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £30.00 £45.00
% change year-on-year +46.53% -33.33% +1.12%

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 6 August 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 6 August 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 +15 292 £600 - 286
UK excluding London -14 199 £600 +20.00% 134
Work from Home -14 99 £618 +17.62% 93
London -62 99 £608 -6.54% 173
North of England -36 66 £600 +33.33% 40
South East -20 54 £590 -14.18% 25
Midlands -23 37 £638 +18.72% 17
Yorkshire -28 37 £600 +42.86% 17
North West -39 26 £600 +29.73% 17
South West -23 24 £675 +22.73% 25
East Midlands +9 21 £631 +32.89% 11
Scotland -24 12 £440 -12.00% 9
West Midlands -46 12 £675 +10.12% 6
North East -34 7 £625 - 6
East of England -18 6 £475 -9.52% 3
Wales -12 1 - - 2
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 13

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 (2.82%) Apache
1 10 (2.82%) Confluence
2 5 (1.41%) Apache Airflow
2 5 (1.41%) OpenStack
3 3 (0.85%) CloudStack
3 3 (0.85%) SAS
3 3 (0.85%) SharePoint
4 2 (0.56%) IIS
4 2 (0.56%) nginx
4 2 (0.56%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 2 (0.56%) Tomcat
5 1 (0.28%) Microsoft Exchange
5 1 (0.28%) WebLogic
Applications
1 12 (3.39%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (2.26%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (1.13%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 4 (1.13%) MS Visio
4 2 (0.56%) Adobe Creative Suite
4 2 (0.56%) Houdini
4 2 (0.56%) Microsoft Project
4 2 (0.56%) NUKE
4 2 (0.56%) Spreadsheet
5 1 (0.28%) Weka
Business Applications
1 78 (22.03%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (1.69%) SAP Business One
3 5 (1.41%) SAP ERP
3 5 (1.41%) SAP SD
4 4 (1.13%) iTrent
5 3 (0.85%) Oracle ERP
6 2 (0.56%) SAP FI
6 2 (0.56%) SAP FI-GL
7 1 (0.28%) Exchequer
7 1 (0.28%) Oracle SCM
7 1 (0.28%) SAP CO
7 1 (0.28%) SAP FI/CO
7 1 (0.28%) SAP FI-AR
7 1 (0.28%) SAP MDG
Cloud Services
1 140 (39.55%) Azure
2 121 (34.18%) AWS
3 66 (18.64%) GCP
4 26 (7.34%) SuccessFactors
5 24 (6.78%) GitHub
6 21 (5.93%) OCI
7 18 (5.08%) IaaS
8 17 (4.80%) PaaS
9 15 (4.24%) SaaS
10 14 (3.95%) Google Kubernetes Engine
10 14 (3.95%) OpenShift
11 12 (3.39%) Amazon EKS
11 12 (3.39%) GitHub Actions
11 12 (3.39%) Serverless
12 10 (2.82%) AWS CloudFormation
13 9 (2.54%) Azure DevOps
14 6 (1.69%) Amazon ECS
14 6 (1.69%) Entra ID
14 6 (1.69%) Microsoft 365
15 4 (1.13%) Cloud Computing
Communications & Networking
1 27 (7.63%) Firewall
2 26 (7.34%) DNS
3 20 (5.65%) Network Security
4 15 (4.24%) TCP/IP
4 15 (4.24%) VPN
5 14 (3.95%) VSAN
6 12 (3.39%) LAN
6 12 (3.39%) WAN
7 9 (2.54%) DHCP
8 6 (1.69%) BGP
8 6 (1.69%) SAN
9 5 (1.41%) MPLS
9 5 (1.41%) NAS
9 5 (1.41%) VLAN
9 5 (1.41%) Wi-Fi
10 4 (1.13%) SNMP
10 4 (1.13%) TACACS
10 4 (1.13%) Wireless
11 3 (0.85%) HTTPS
11 3 (0.85%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 17 (4.80%) Oracle Database
2 13 (3.67%) RDBMS
2 13 (3.67%) Relational Database
3 12 (3.39%) Oracle Exadata
4 8 (2.26%) MySQL
5 5 (1.41%) Data Warehouse
6 4 (1.13%) BigQuery
6 4 (1.13%) BusinessObjects
6 4 (1.13%) SQL Server
7 2 (0.56%) Amazon Redshift
7 2 (0.56%) Oracle Reports
7 2 (0.56%) PostgreSQL
7 2 (0.56%) Power BI
7 2 (0.56%) SAP HANA
8 1 (0.28%) Amazon RDS
8 1 (0.28%) Big Data
8 1 (0.28%) DynamoDB
8 1 (0.28%) NoSQL
8 1 (0.28%) SAP Data Services
8 1 (0.28%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 38 (10.73%) Git
2 23 (6.50%) Jenkins
3 18 (5.08%) GitLab
4 11 (3.11%) JIRA
5 6 (1.69%) JUnit
5 6 (1.69%) Postman
6 4 (1.13%) Hudson
7 3 (0.85%) Cucumber
7 3 (0.85%) Selenium
7 3 (0.85%) SoapUI
7 3 (0.85%) SonarQube
7 3 (0.85%) Sonatype Nexus
8 2 (0.56%) Liquibase
9 1 (0.28%) LSMW
9 1 (0.28%) MSI
9 1 (0.28%) PVCS
9 1 (0.28%) TeamCity
General
1 102 (28.81%) Finance
2 55 (15.54%) Social Skills
3 44 (12.43%) Public Sector
4 22 (6.21%) Banking
5 20 (5.65%) Analytical Skills
6 14 (3.95%) Local Government
7 9 (2.54%) Influencing Skills
8 8 (2.26%) General Ledger
9 7 (1.98%) Documentation Skills
9 7 (1.98%) Financial Institution
10 5 (1.41%) Billing
10 5 (1.41%) Military
10 5 (1.41%) Telecoms
11 4 (1.13%) Automotive
11 4 (1.13%) Legal
12 3 (0.85%) Investment Banking
12 3 (0.85%) Manufacturing
12 3 (0.85%) Organisational Skills
12 3 (0.85%) Presentation Skills
12 3 (0.85%) Retail
Job Titles
1 88 (24.86%) Architect
2 58 (16.38%) Senior
3 48 (13.56%) Lead
4 40 (11.30%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 35 (9.89%) Solutions Architect
6 24 (6.78%) DevOps Engineer
7 23 (6.50%) Cloud Engineer
8 20 (5.65%) Technical Architect
9 17 (4.80%) Consultant
9 17 (4.80%) Developer
10 16 (4.52%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
11 15 (4.24%) Azure Specialist
11 15 (4.24%) Cloud Architect
11 15 (4.24%) GCP Engineer
12 12 (3.39%) Azure Engineer
12 12 (3.39%) SAP Consultant
13 11 (3.11%) Azure Architect
14 9 (2.54%) Network Architect
14 9 (2.54%) SAP S/4HANA Consultant
14 9 (2.54%) Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (4.80%) Kafka
2 16 (4.52%) Spring Boot
3 14 (3.95%) Middleware
4 12 (3.39%) Oracle GoldenGate
4 12 (3.39%) REST
5 11 (3.11%) Spring
6 8 (2.26%) SAP Fiori
7 7 (1.98%) Elastic Stack
7 7 (1.98%) OAuth
7 7 (1.98%) Oracle Fusion
8 6 (1.69%) JSON
8 6 (1.69%) NumPy
8 6 (1.69%) Pandas
8 6 (1.69%) React
8 6 (1.69%) XML
9 4 (1.13%) 802.1X
9 4 (1.13%) NETCONF
9 4 (1.13%) OpenConfig
9 4 (1.13%) RESTCONF
9 4 (1.13%) YANG
Miscellaneous
1 42 (11.86%) Cloud Native
2 27 (7.63%) Hybrid Cloud
3 21 (5.93%) Data Centre
4 20 (5.65%) Private Cloud
5 15 (4.24%) PKI
6 10 (2.82%) Onboarding
7 7 (1.98%) Legacy Systems
7 7 (1.98%) Management Information System
7 7 (1.98%) Virtual Team
8 6 (1.69%) Data Structures
8 6 (1.69%) Linux Command Line
9 5 (1.41%) AI Agents
9 5 (1.41%) Legacy Applications
10 4 (1.13%) Analytical Mindset
10 4 (1.13%) Data Protection Act
10 4 (1.13%) Robotics
10 4 (1.13%) Security Posture
11 3 (0.85%) Enterprise Cloud
12 2 (0.56%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
12 2 (0.56%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 64 (18.08%) Linux
2 30 (8.47%) Windows
3 12 (3.39%) AIX
4 11 (3.11%) Ubuntu
5 9 (2.54%) Unix
6 8 (2.26%) Windows Server
7 6 (1.69%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 4 (1.13%) Debian
8 4 (1.13%) Windows Server 2019
9 3 (0.85%) CentOS
9 3 (0.85%) Windows Server 2016
10 1 (0.28%) Android
10 1 (0.28%) Mac OS
10 1 (0.28%) VMS
10 1 (0.28%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 104 (29.38%) Migration
2 96 (27.12%) Infrastructure as Code
3 93 (26.27%) CI/CD
4 86 (24.29%) DevOps
5 60 (16.95%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 55 (15.54%) Agile
7 54 (15.25%) Stakeholder Management
8 41 (11.58%) Data Migration
9 35 (9.89%) ERP
9 35 (9.89%) Microservices
10 33 (9.32%) Validation
11 31 (8.76%) Containerisation
12 30 (8.47%) Cloud Security
12 30 (8.47%) Infrastructure Automation
13 29 (8.19%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 28 (7.91%) Identity Access Management
15 27 (7.63%) User Acceptance Testing
16 26 (7.34%) Technical Leadership
17 25 (7.06%) Architectural Patterns
17 25 (7.06%) Problem-Solving
Programming Languages
1 68 (19.21%) Python
2 30 (8.47%) Java
3 28 (7.91%) PowerShell
4 19 (5.37%) Bash
5 14 (3.95%) SQL
6 11 (3.11%) JavaScript
7 9 (2.54%) Bicep
8 6 (1.69%) Shell Script
9 4 (1.13%) Go
9 4 (1.13%) Ruby
10 3 (0.85%) ABAP
10 3 (0.85%) TypeScript
11 2 (0.56%) Groovy
11 2 (0.56%) Perl
12 1 (0.28%) C#
12 1 (0.28%) C++
12 1 (0.28%) Kotlin
12 1 (0.28%) PL/SQL
12 1 (0.28%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 95 (26.84%) Security Cleared
2 77 (21.75%) SC Cleared
3 29 (8.19%) Cisco Certification
4 27 (7.63%) DV Cleared
5 13 (3.67%) CCNP
6 12 (3.39%) AWS Certification
7 11 (3.11%) CISSP
7 11 (3.11%) Degree
7 11 (3.11%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 9 (2.54%) (ISC)2 CCSP
8 9 (2.54%) Azure Certification
8 9 (2.54%) VCAP
9 8 (2.26%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 8 (2.26%) CISM
10 7 (1.98%) ACCA
10 7 (1.98%) BPSS Clearance
10 7 (1.98%) CIMA
11 5 (1.41%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
11 5 (1.41%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
11 5 (1.41%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (3.67%) NCSC
2 12 (3.39%) NIST
3 11 (3.11%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 9 (2.54%) GDPR
5 8 (2.26%) QA
6 7 (1.98%) Data Quality
7 5 (1.41%) Cyber Essentials
7 5 (1.41%) Government Security Classifications
7 5 (1.41%) GRC
8 4 (1.13%) ISO 20022
9 3 (0.85%) HMG Security Policy Framework
9 3 (0.85%) ISO 15022
10 2 (0.56%) Disclosure Scotland
10 2 (0.56%) PMO
11 1 (0.28%) ISO 22301
11 1 (0.28%) ISO/IEC 20000
11 1 (0.28%) NIST 800
11 1 (0.28%) PCI DSS
11 1 (0.28%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 1 (0.28%) SLA
System Software
1 26 (7.34%) VMware Infrastructure
2 20 (5.65%) Docker
2 20 (5.65%) VMware NSX
3 15 (4.24%) Active Directory
4 13 (3.67%) Oracle RAC
5 10 (2.82%) vSphere
6 9 (2.54%) VMware ESXi
7 7 (1.98%) Postfix
7 7 (1.98%) Virtual Machines
8 5 (1.41%) NFS
8 5 (1.41%) Varnish
9 4 (1.13%) Hyper-V
9 4 (1.13%) Sendmail
10 2 (0.56%) Dovecot
11 1 (0.28%) Firmware
11 1 (0.28%) GPFS
11 1 (0.28%) Lustre
11 1 (0.28%) Microsoft App-V
11 1 (0.28%) Slurm Workload Manager
11 1 (0.28%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 86 (24.29%) Terraform
2 56 (15.82%) Kubernetes
3 48 (13.56%) Ansible
4 13 (3.67%) Data Guard
4 13 (3.67%) Istio
4 13 (3.67%) Oracle RMAN
4 13 (3.67%) Prometheus
5 12 (3.39%) Grafana
6 8 (2.26%) vCenter Server
7 7 (1.98%) HAProxy
7 7 (1.98%) Packer
7 7 (1.98%) Single Sign-On
8 4 (1.13%) Kubeflow
8 4 (1.13%) systemd
9 3 (0.85%) Argo
9 3 (0.85%) Check_MK
9 3 (0.85%) VxRail
10 2 (0.56%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 1 (0.28%) CASB
11 1 (0.28%) QRadar
Vendors
1 86 (24.29%) SAP
2 59 (16.67%) Microsoft
3 48 (13.56%) Oracle
4 37 (10.45%) Google
4 37 (10.45%) VMware
5 17 (4.80%) Cisco
6 12 (3.39%) Ariba
7 11 (3.11%) Juniper
8 10 (2.82%) ServiceNow
9 9 (2.54%) F5
9 9 (2.54%) Red Hat
10 8 (2.26%) Splunk
11 7 (1.98%) Fortinet
12 5 (1.41%) Citrix
12 5 (1.41%) Concur
12 5 (1.41%) CyberArk
13 4 (1.13%) Broadcom
13 4 (1.13%) Dynatrace
13 4 (1.13%) MikroTik
13 4 (1.13%) MuleSoft