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

6 months to
20 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 300 304 300
Rank change year-on-year +4 -4 -64
Contract jobs citing Public Cloud 363 241 307
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.75% 0.83% 0.72%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 2.36% 2.43% 2.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 228 161 208
10th Percentile £399 £420 £450
25th Percentile £500 £510 £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 £725 £750 £841
UK excluding London median daily rate £575 £583 £619
% change year-on-year -1.29% -5.86% +1.02%
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 15,363 9,915 12,913
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 31.91% 33.99% 30.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,540 6,314 8,317
10th Percentile £313 £300 £266
25th Percentile £413 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £525 £540
Median % change year-on-year -2.86% -2.78% -1.82%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £663
90th Percentile £740 £775 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £482 £477 £500
% change year-on-year +1.10% -4.60% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 725 400 899
10th Percentile £16.00 £16.11 £12.25
25th Percentile £19.64 £20.45 £15.17
Median hourly rate £41.94 £31.91 £31.50
Median % change year-on-year +31.45% +1.29% +40.33%
75th Percentile £70.00 £63.75 £61.30
90th Percentile £85.24 £83.20 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £30.78 £30.00
% change year-on-year +46.20% +2.60% +36.36%

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 20 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 20 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 -20 293 £590 -3.67% 75
UK excluding London +9 190 £575 -1.29% 51
London -64 105 £600 -5.88% 31
Work from Home +3 97 £610 +1.67% 41
North of England -26 55 £550 +2.42% 13
South East -35 55 £560 -6.67% 18
Midlands -39 34 £638 +18.72% 5
South West -9 31 £675 +17.39% 12
North West -21 31 £350 -34.82% 9
East Midlands -9 25 £638 +34.21% 2
Yorkshire -37 24 £568 +18.02% 3
Scotland -18 12 £425 -19.05% 1
West Midlands -49 6 £525 -25.66% 3
East of England -33 3 £593 -1.25% 1
Wales -16 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 (2.20%) Confluence
2 7 (1.93%) Apache
3 6 (1.65%) SAS
4 5 (1.38%) Apache Airflow
5 3 (0.83%) SharePoint
6 2 (0.55%) CloudStack
6 2 (0.55%) OpenStack
6 2 (0.55%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 2 (0.55%) Palantir Foundry
7 1 (0.28%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 6 (1.65%) 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 78 (21.49%) SAP S/4HANA
2 10 (2.75%) Oracle ERP
3 6 (1.65%) SAP Business One
3 6 (1.65%) SAP ERP
4 4 (1.10%) iTrent
4 4 (1.10%) SAP CO
4 4 (1.10%) SAP FI
4 4 (1.10%) SAP FI/CO
5 2 (0.55%) SAP SD
6 1 (0.28%) Exchequer
6 1 (0.28%) Oracle SCM
6 1 (0.28%) SAP FI-AR
Cloud Services
1 152 (41.87%) Azure
2 93 (25.62%) AWS
3 84 (23.14%) GCP
4 35 (9.64%) GitHub
5 25 (6.89%) PaaS
6 24 (6.61%) IaaS
7 23 (6.34%) Google Kubernetes Engine
7 23 (6.34%) SuccessFactors
8 19 (5.23%) OCI
9 14 (3.86%) GitHub Actions
9 14 (3.86%) SaaS
10 12 (3.31%) Serverless
11 10 (2.75%) AWS CloudFormation
12 9 (2.48%) Azure DevOps
12 9 (2.48%) Power Platform
13 8 (2.20%) Microsoft 365
14 7 (1.93%) Cloud Computing
15 6 (1.65%) Azure Sentinel
15 6 (1.65%) Entra ID
16 5 (1.38%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 34 (9.37%) DNS
2 32 (8.82%) Firewall
3 22 (6.06%) Network Security
4 17 (4.68%) VPN
5 13 (3.58%) LAN
5 13 (3.58%) WAN
6 10 (2.75%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
6 10 (2.75%) TCP/IP
7 6 (1.65%) Kerberos
8 5 (1.38%) DHCP
8 5 (1.38%) NAS
8 5 (1.38%) SAN
8 5 (1.38%) Wireless
9 4 (1.10%) BGP
9 4 (1.10%) Multicast
9 4 (1.10%) NetScaler
9 4 (1.10%) OSPF
10 3 (0.83%) MPLS
10 3 (0.83%) SD-WAN
10 3 (0.83%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (2.20%) Oracle Database
1 8 (2.20%) Power BI
2 7 (1.93%) Data Warehouse
3 5 (1.38%) BigQuery
4 4 (1.10%) BusinessObjects
4 4 (1.10%) Oracle Exadata
4 4 (1.10%) Relational Database
4 4 (1.10%) SQL Server
5 3 (0.83%) Data Vault
5 3 (0.83%) Delta Lake
6 2 (0.55%) Elasticsearch
6 2 (0.55%) NoSQL
6 2 (0.55%) Oracle Reports
6 2 (0.55%) RDBMS
7 1 (0.28%) Amazon Redshift
7 1 (0.28%) Apache Cassandra
7 1 (0.28%) MongoDB
7 1 (0.28%) MySQL
7 1 (0.28%) PostgreSQL
7 1 (0.28%) SAP Data Services
Development Applications
1 36 (9.92%) Jenkins
2 18 (4.96%) Git
3 17 (4.68%) GitLab
3 17 (4.68%) JIRA
4 14 (3.86%) Postman
5 9 (2.48%) SoapUI
6 4 (1.10%) Cucumber
6 4 (1.10%) TeamCity
7 3 (0.83%) JUnit
7 3 (0.83%) Liquibase
8 2 (0.55%) Hudson
8 2 (0.55%) Selenium
8 2 (0.55%) SonarQube
8 2 (0.55%) Sonatype Nexus
9 1 (0.28%) Ant
9 1 (0.28%) LSMW
9 1 (0.28%) Maven
9 1 (0.28%) MSI
9 1 (0.28%) PVCS
9 1 (0.28%) Snyk
General
1 97 (26.72%) Finance
2 64 (17.63%) Social Skills
3 48 (13.22%) Public Sector
4 33 (9.09%) Banking
5 17 (4.68%) Local Government
6 15 (4.13%) Analytical Skills
7 11 (3.03%) Influencing Skills
8 10 (2.75%) General Ledger
9 7 (1.93%) Financial Institution
9 7 (1.93%) Investment Banking
10 5 (1.38%) Military
11 4 (1.10%) Documentation Skills
11 4 (1.10%) German Language
12 3 (0.83%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 3 (0.83%) Manufacturing
12 3 (0.83%) Retail
13 2 (0.55%) Public Speaking
13 2 (0.55%) Telecoms
14 1 (0.28%) Billing
14 1 (0.28%) Legal
Job Titles
1 95 (26.17%) Architect
2 43 (11.85%) Lead
3 42 (11.57%) Senior
4 31 (8.54%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 29 (7.99%) Cloud Engineer
5 29 (7.99%) Solutions Architect
6 26 (7.16%) GCP Engineer
7 21 (5.79%) Azure Specialist
7 21 (5.79%) Technical Architect
8 16 (4.41%) Cloud Architect
8 16 (4.41%) Consultant
9 14 (3.86%) DevOps Engineer
10 13 (3.58%) SAP Architect
11 12 (3.31%) Azure Architect
12 11 (3.03%) Analyst
12 11 (3.03%) Infrastructure Architect
12 11 (3.03%) SAP Solutions Architect
13 10 (2.75%) Developer
13 10 (2.75%) Platform Engineer
13 10 (2.75%) Senior Cloud Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 27 (7.44%) REST
2 24 (6.61%) Middleware
3 15 (4.13%) Oracle Fusion
4 14 (3.86%) OAuth
4 14 (3.86%) SOAP
5 13 (3.58%) JSON
6 12 (3.31%) JWT
6 12 (3.31%) Web Services
7 11 (3.03%) XML
7 11 (3.03%) XSLT
8 9 (2.48%) Kafka
8 9 (2.48%) Spring Boot
9 5 (1.38%) Elastic Stack
9 5 (1.38%) NumPy
9 5 (1.38%) Pandas
10 4 (1.10%) Spring
11 3 (0.83%) PySpark
11 3 (0.83%) PyTorch
11 3 (0.83%) React
11 3 (0.83%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 41 (11.29%) Cloud Native
2 20 (5.51%) Data Centre
3 17 (4.68%) Private Cloud
4 15 (4.13%) Hybrid Cloud
5 10 (2.75%) PKI
6 8 (2.20%) Data Structures
7 7 (1.93%) Legacy Systems
7 7 (1.93%) Security Posture
8 6 (1.65%) Onboarding
8 6 (1.65%) 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%) AI Agents
11 2 (0.55%) Data Protection Act
11 2 (0.55%) Grid Computing
11 2 (0.55%) Market Risk
11 2 (0.55%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 48 (13.22%) Linux
2 30 (8.26%) Windows
3 11 (3.03%) Unix
4 9 (2.48%) Windows Server
5 7 (1.93%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 7 (1.93%) Windows Server 2019
6 5 (1.38%) VMS
7 4 (1.10%) Debian
7 4 (1.10%) Ubuntu
7 4 (1.10%) Windows Server 2012
8 3 (0.83%) Windows Server 2016
9 1 (0.28%) AIX
9 1 (0.28%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 104 (28.65%) DevOps
2 84 (23.14%) Migration
3 82 (22.59%) CI/CD
4 78 (21.49%) Infrastructure as Code
5 52 (14.33%) Agile
6 51 (14.05%) Stakeholder Management
7 48 (13.22%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 42 (11.57%) ERP
9 40 (11.02%) Analytics
10 34 (9.37%) Containerisation
11 33 (9.09%) User Acceptance Testing
12 32 (8.82%) Microservices
13 29 (7.99%) Cloud Security
14 28 (7.71%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 26 (7.16%) Data Migration
15 26 (7.16%) Project Delivery
16 25 (6.89%) Validation
17 24 (6.61%) Cybersecurity
17 24 (6.61%) Identity Access Management
18 23 (6.34%) Architectural Patterns
Programming Languages
1 66 (18.18%) Python
2 20 (5.51%) SQL
3 17 (4.68%) Java
4 14 (3.86%) PowerShell
5 8 (2.20%) Bash
6 7 (1.93%) Bicep
6 7 (1.93%) Shell Script
7 5 (1.38%) Go
7 5 (1.38%) Ruby
8 4 (1.10%) JavaScript
8 4 (1.10%) PL/SQL
8 4 (1.10%) TypeScript
9 2 (0.55%) C++
9 2 (0.55%) Perl
10 1 (0.28%) C#
10 1 (0.28%) Kotlin
10 1 (0.28%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 87 (23.97%) Security Cleared
2 68 (18.73%) SC Cleared
3 22 (6.06%) Cisco Certification
4 18 (4.96%) DV Cleared
5 12 (3.31%) CCNP
5 12 (3.31%) Degree
6 10 (2.75%) CISSP
7 9 (2.48%) (ISC)2 CCSP
7 9 (2.48%) AWS Certification
7 9 (2.48%) SAP Certification
8 8 (2.20%) Azure Certification
8 8 (2.20%) BPSS Clearance
9 7 (1.93%) ACCA
9 7 (1.93%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 7 (1.93%) CIMA
9 7 (1.93%) CISM
10 6 (1.65%) ISTQB
11 5 (1.38%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
11 5 (1.38%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
12 4 (1.10%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (3.86%) NIST
2 13 (3.58%) NCSC
3 11 (3.03%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 10 (2.75%) GDPR
5 8 (2.20%) QA
6 6 (1.65%) 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%) Actionable Recommendations
9 1 (0.28%) COBIT
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 (6.61%) Docker
2 21 (5.79%) VMware Infrastructure
3 12 (3.31%) Active Directory
4 11 (3.03%) Hyper-V
5 9 (2.48%) VMware NSX
6 6 (1.65%) vSphere
7 5 (1.38%) NFS
7 5 (1.38%) Postfix
7 5 (1.38%) Varnish
8 4 (1.10%) Oracle RAC
8 4 (1.10%) Sendmail
8 4 (1.10%) Virtual Desktop
9 3 (0.83%) Virtual Machines
10 2 (0.55%) VMware ESXi
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
Systems Management
1 66 (18.18%) Terraform
2 60 (16.53%) Kubernetes
3 32 (8.82%) Ansible
4 21 (5.79%) Istio
5 10 (2.75%) Prometheus
6 9 (2.48%) Single Sign-On
7 8 (2.20%) Grafana
8 6 (1.65%) Microsoft Intune
9 5 (1.38%) HAProxy
10 4 (1.10%) Active Directory Federation Services
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%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 90 (24.79%) SAP
2 49 (13.50%) Google
3 44 (12.12%) Microsoft
4 39 (10.74%) Oracle
5 34 (9.37%) VMware
6 16 (4.41%) Ariba
6 16 (4.41%) F5
7 10 (2.75%) MuleSoft
7 10 (2.75%) Red Hat
7 10 (2.75%) ServiceNow
8 8 (2.20%) Cisco
9 7 (1.93%) Palo Alto
10 6 (1.65%) Splunk
10 6 (1.65%) Veeam
11 5 (1.38%) Citrix
11 5 (1.38%) Databricks
12 4 (1.10%) Fortinet
13 3 (0.83%) Commvault
13 3 (0.83%) Foundry
13 3 (0.83%) Informatica