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

6 months to
26 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 319 301 297
Rank change year-on-year -18 -4 -57
Contract jobs citing Public Cloud 362 236 303
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.75% 0.83% 0.71%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 2.33% 2.42% 2.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 228 156 206
10th Percentile £400 £416 £450
25th Percentile £500 £510 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £600 £600
Median % change year-on-year -4.09% - -5.88%
75th Percentile £675 £689 £750
90th Percentile £725 £753 £844
UK excluding London median daily rate £583 £575 £625
% change year-on-year +1.38% -8.00% +1.42%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 2 1
10th Percentile - £45.25 -
25th Percentile £71.25 £49.38 £36.75
Median hourly rate £72.50 £57.50 £38.50
Median % change year-on-year +26.09% +49.35% -50.64%
75th Percentile £73.75 £64.38 £40.25
90th Percentile - £67.75 -
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 15,567 9,739 12,938
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 32.07% 34.05% 30.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,633 6,209 8,337
10th Percentile £313 £290 £270
25th Percentile £413 £408 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -2.38% -2.42% -2.18%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £663
90th Percentile £749 £775 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £488 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +2.63% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 749 382 911
10th Percentile £16.00 £16.67 £12.25
25th Percentile £19.75 £19.98 £15.17
Median hourly rate £40.96 £31.76 £34.00
Median % change year-on-year +28.97% -6.59% +54.55%
75th Percentile £70.00 £63.38 £61.30
90th Percentile £85.40 £82.03 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £31.29 £31.81
% change year-on-year +43.84% -1.64% +49.75%

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 26 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 26 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 -22 291 £600 -1.23% 117
UK excluding London -13 190 £583 +1.38% 69
London -75 103 £600 -6.80% 54
Work from Home +4 99 £610 +4.72% 72
North of England -34 56 £550 +2.42% 16
South East -32 54 £560 -6.67% 18
Midlands -35 35 £631 +17.55% 13
North West -17 31 £350 -34.82% 9
South West -3 30 £675 +20.00% 9
East Midlands -8 26 £619 +30.26% 8
Yorkshire -35 25 £576 +19.67% 6
Scotland -11 12 £425 -19.05% 6
West Midlands -58 6 £525 -14.29% 5
East of England -39 3 £593 +3.04% 2
Wales -16 1 - -
Northern Ireland - 1 £385 - 5

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 9 (2.49%) Apache
2 8 (2.21%) Confluence
3 6 (1.66%) SAS
4 5 (1.38%) Apache Airflow
4 5 (1.38%) SharePoint
5 2 (0.55%) CloudStack
5 2 (0.55%) IIS
5 2 (0.55%) nginx
5 2 (0.55%) OpenStack
5 2 (0.55%) Oracle SOA Suite
5 2 (0.55%) Palantir Foundry
5 2 (0.55%) Tomcat
6 1 (0.28%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 6 (1.66%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (1.10%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (1.10%) Microsoft Project
3 2 (0.55%) Spreadsheet
4 1 (0.28%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.28%) Weka
Business Applications
1 79 (21.82%) SAP S/4HANA
2 10 (2.76%) Oracle ERP
3 6 (1.66%) SAP Business One
4 5 (1.38%) SAP ERP
4 5 (1.38%) SAP FI
5 4 (1.10%) iTrent
5 4 (1.10%) SAP CO
5 4 (1.10%) SAP FI/CO
6 2 (0.55%) SAP SD
7 1 (0.28%) Exchequer
7 1 (0.28%) Oracle SCM
7 1 (0.28%) SAP FI-AR
7 1 (0.28%) SAP FI-GL
Cloud Services
1 155 (42.82%) Azure
2 97 (26.80%) AWS
3 85 (23.48%) GCP
4 34 (9.39%) GitHub
5 25 (6.91%) PaaS
6 24 (6.63%) IaaS
7 23 (6.35%) SuccessFactors
8 22 (6.08%) Google Kubernetes Engine
9 19 (5.25%) OCI
10 14 (3.87%) GitHub Actions
11 13 (3.59%) SaaS
12 12 (3.31%) Serverless
13 10 (2.76%) AWS CloudFormation
14 9 (2.49%) Azure DevOps
14 9 (2.49%) Microsoft 365
14 9 (2.49%) Power Platform
15 7 (1.93%) Cloud Computing
16 6 (1.66%) Azure Sentinel
16 6 (1.66%) Entra ID
17 5 (1.38%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 36 (9.94%) DNS
2 34 (9.39%) Firewall
3 22 (6.08%) Network Security
4 17 (4.70%) VPN
5 12 (3.31%) LAN
5 12 (3.31%) WAN
6 10 (2.76%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
7 8 (2.21%) TCP/IP
8 7 (1.93%) SAN
9 6 (1.66%) Kerberos
9 6 (1.66%) NAS
10 5 (1.38%) DHCP
10 5 (1.38%) Wireless
11 4 (1.10%) NetScaler
12 3 (0.83%) BIG-IP
12 3 (0.83%) MPLS
12 3 (0.83%) SD-WAN
12 3 (0.83%) VSAN
13 2 (0.55%) Multicast
13 2 (0.55%) Structured Cabling
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (2.21%) Oracle Database
1 8 (2.21%) Power BI
2 7 (1.93%) Data Warehouse
3 6 (1.66%) SQL Server
4 5 (1.38%) BigQuery
5 4 (1.10%) BusinessObjects
5 4 (1.10%) Oracle Exadata
5 4 (1.10%) Relational Database
6 3 (0.83%) Data Vault
6 3 (0.83%) Delta Lake
6 3 (0.83%) MySQL
7 2 (0.55%) Elasticsearch
7 2 (0.55%) NoSQL
7 2 (0.55%) Oracle Reports
7 2 (0.55%) RDBMS
8 1 (0.28%) Amazon Redshift
8 1 (0.28%) Apache Cassandra
8 1 (0.28%) MongoDB
8 1 (0.28%) PostgreSQL
8 1 (0.28%) SAP Data Services
Development Applications
1 35 (9.67%) Jenkins
2 17 (4.70%) JIRA
3 16 (4.42%) Git
4 15 (4.14%) GitLab
5 14 (3.87%) Postman
6 9 (2.49%) SoapUI
7 4 (1.10%) Cucumber
7 4 (1.10%) TeamCity
8 3 (0.83%) Hudson
8 3 (0.83%) JUnit
8 3 (0.83%) Liquibase
9 2 (0.55%) Selenium
9 2 (0.55%) SonarQube
9 2 (0.55%) Sonatype Nexus
10 1 (0.28%) Ant
10 1 (0.28%) LSMW
10 1 (0.28%) MSI
10 1 (0.28%) PVCS
10 1 (0.28%) REST Assured
10 1 (0.28%) Snyk
General
1 99 (27.35%) Finance
2 63 (17.40%) Social Skills
3 46 (12.71%) Public Sector
4 34 (9.39%) Banking
5 17 (4.70%) Local Government
6 15 (4.14%) Analytical Skills
7 11 (3.04%) General Ledger
7 11 (3.04%) Influencing Skills
8 7 (1.93%) Financial Institution
8 7 (1.93%) Investment Banking
9 5 (1.38%) Military
10 4 (1.10%) Documentation Skills
10 4 (1.10%) German Language
11 3 (0.83%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 3 (0.83%) Retail
12 2 (0.55%) Manufacturing
12 2 (0.55%) Public Speaking
12 2 (0.55%) Telecoms
13 1 (0.28%) Organisational Skills
13 1 (0.28%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 93 (25.69%) Architect
2 44 (12.15%) Lead
3 42 (11.60%) Senior
4 32 (8.84%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 29 (8.01%) Cloud Engineer
5 29 (8.01%) Solutions Architect
6 25 (6.91%) GCP Engineer
7 21 (5.80%) Azure Specialist
8 20 (5.52%) Technical Architect
9 16 (4.42%) Cloud Architect
10 15 (4.14%) Consultant
10 15 (4.14%) DevOps Engineer
11 13 (3.59%) SAP Architect
12 12 (3.31%) Azure Architect
13 11 (3.04%) Analyst
13 11 (3.04%) Infrastructure Architect
13 11 (3.04%) SAP Solutions Architect
14 10 (2.76%) Data Engineer
14 10 (2.76%) Developer
14 10 (2.76%) Platform Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 26 (7.18%) REST
2 23 (6.35%) Middleware
3 15 (4.14%) Oracle Fusion
4 14 (3.87%) OAuth
4 14 (3.87%) SOAP
5 13 (3.59%) JSON
6 12 (3.31%) JWT
6 12 (3.31%) Web Services
7 11 (3.04%) XML
7 11 (3.04%) XSLT
8 9 (2.49%) Kafka
8 9 (2.49%) Spring Boot
9 6 (1.66%) NumPy
9 6 (1.66%) Pandas
10 5 (1.38%) Elastic Stack
11 4 (1.10%) PyTorch
11 4 (1.10%) Spring
11 4 (1.10%) TensorFlow
12 3 (0.83%) PySpark
12 3 (0.83%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 41 (11.33%) Cloud Native
2 20 (5.52%) Data Centre
3 17 (4.70%) Private Cloud
4 15 (4.14%) Hybrid Cloud
5 9 (2.49%) PKI
6 8 (2.21%) Data Structures
7 7 (1.93%) Legacy Systems
7 7 (1.93%) Security Posture
8 6 (1.66%) Onboarding
8 6 (1.66%) Virtual Team
9 5 (1.38%) Legacy Applications
10 3 (0.83%) Cloud Security Posture
10 3 (0.83%) Greenfield Project
10 3 (0.83%) Management Information System
10 3 (0.83%) Reinsurance
11 2 (0.55%) Cyber Threat
11 2 (0.55%) Data Protection Act
11 2 (0.55%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
11 2 (0.55%) Enterprise Storage
11 2 (0.55%) Grid Computing
Operating Systems
1 48 (13.26%) Linux
2 31 (8.56%) Windows
3 11 (3.04%) Unix
3 11 (3.04%) Windows Server
4 8 (2.21%) Windows Server 2019
5 7 (1.93%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 6 (1.66%) Ubuntu
7 5 (1.38%) VMS
7 5 (1.38%) Windows Server 2012
8 4 (1.10%) Debian
9 3 (0.83%) CentOS
9 3 (0.83%) Windows Server 2016
10 1 (0.28%) AIX
Processes & Methodologies
1 104 (28.73%) DevOps
2 82 (22.65%) CI/CD
3 81 (22.38%) Migration
4 77 (21.27%) Infrastructure as Code
5 51 (14.09%) Agile
5 51 (14.09%) Stakeholder Management
6 48 (13.26%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 41 (11.33%) ERP
8 40 (11.05%) Analytics
9 34 (9.39%) Containerisation
10 33 (9.12%) User Acceptance Testing
11 32 (8.84%) Microservices
12 29 (8.01%) Cloud Security
12 29 (8.01%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 26 (7.18%) Data Migration
13 26 (7.18%) Validation
14 25 (6.91%) Project Delivery
15 24 (6.63%) Identity Access Management
16 23 (6.35%) Cybersecurity
16 23 (6.35%) Problem-Solving
Programming Languages
1 65 (17.96%) Python
2 22 (6.08%) SQL
3 17 (4.70%) Java
3 17 (4.70%) PowerShell
4 10 (2.76%) Bash
5 7 (1.93%) Bicep
5 7 (1.93%) Shell Script
6 5 (1.38%) Go
6 5 (1.38%) Ruby
7 4 (1.10%) JavaScript
7 4 (1.10%) PL/SQL
7 4 (1.10%) TypeScript
8 2 (0.55%) C++
8 2 (0.55%) Perl
9 1 (0.28%) C#
9 1 (0.28%) Kotlin
9 1 (0.28%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 85 (23.48%) Security Cleared
2 69 (19.06%) SC Cleared
3 22 (6.08%) Cisco Certification
4 17 (4.70%) DV Cleared
5 12 (3.31%) CCNP
6 11 (3.04%) Degree
7 10 (2.76%) CISSP
8 9 (2.49%) (ISC)2 CCSP
8 9 (2.49%) AWS Certification
8 9 (2.49%) SAP Certification
9 8 (2.21%) Azure Certification
9 8 (2.21%) BPSS Clearance
10 7 (1.93%) ACCA
10 7 (1.93%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 7 (1.93%) CIMA
10 7 (1.93%) CISM
11 6 (1.66%) ISTQB
12 5 (1.38%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
12 5 (1.38%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
13 4 (1.10%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (3.87%) NIST
2 13 (3.59%) NCSC
3 11 (3.04%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 10 (2.76%) GDPR
5 8 (2.21%) QA
6 6 (1.66%) SLA
7 5 (1.38%) Cyber Essentials
7 5 (1.38%) Data Quality
7 5 (1.38%) GRC
8 2 (0.55%) Government Security Classifications
8 2 (0.55%) ISO 15022
8 2 (0.55%) ISO 20022
8 2 (0.55%) PMO
9 1 (0.28%) COBIT
9 1 (0.28%) Disclosure Scotland
9 1 (0.28%) HIPAA
9 1 (0.28%) ISO 22301
9 1 (0.28%) ISO/IEC 20000
9 1 (0.28%) PCI DSS
9 1 (0.28%) RMADS
System Software
1 24 (6.63%) Docker
2 21 (5.80%) VMware Infrastructure
3 14 (3.87%) Active Directory
4 12 (3.31%) Hyper-V
5 9 (2.49%) VMware NSX
6 7 (1.93%) Postfix
7 6 (1.66%) vSphere
8 5 (1.38%) NFS
8 5 (1.38%) Varnish
9 4 (1.10%) Oracle RAC
9 4 (1.10%) Sendmail
9 4 (1.10%) Virtual Desktop
10 3 (0.83%) Virtual Machines
11 2 (0.55%) Dovecot
11 2 (0.55%) VMware ESXi
12 1 (0.28%) Firmware
12 1 (0.28%) GPFS
12 1 (0.28%) Lustre
12 1 (0.28%) Microsoft App-V
12 1 (0.28%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 67 (18.51%) Terraform
2 59 (16.30%) Kubernetes
3 32 (8.84%) Ansible
4 20 (5.52%) Istio
5 10 (2.76%) Prometheus
6 9 (2.49%) Single Sign-On
7 8 (2.21%) Grafana
8 7 (1.93%) HAProxy
9 6 (1.66%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 6 (1.66%) Microsoft Intune
10 4 (1.10%) Data Guard
10 4 (1.10%) Kubeflow
10 4 (1.10%) Oracle RMAN
10 4 (1.10%) SCCM
11 3 (0.83%) Argo
11 3 (0.83%) Puppet
12 2 (0.55%) Check_MK
12 2 (0.55%) Red Hat Satellite
13 1 (0.28%) FortiGate
13 1 (0.28%) Nessus
Vendors
1 91 (25.14%) SAP
2 48 (13.26%) Google
3 46 (12.71%) Microsoft
4 39 (10.77%) Oracle
5 34 (9.39%) VMware
6 18 (4.97%) F5
7 17 (4.70%) Ariba
8 12 (3.31%) Red Hat
9 10 (2.76%) Cisco
9 10 (2.76%) ServiceNow
10 9 (2.49%) MuleSoft
11 6 (1.66%) Palo Alto
11 6 (1.66%) Splunk
11 6 (1.66%) Veeam
12 5 (1.38%) Citrix
12 5 (1.38%) Databricks
13 4 (1.10%) Fortinet
13 4 (1.10%) Juniper
14 3 (0.83%) Commvault
14 3 (0.83%) Foundry