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 5 March 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
5 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 303 253 287
Rank change year-on-year -50 +34 -74
Contract jobs citing Public Cloud 346 299 341
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.81% 0.99% 0.77%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 2.43% 2.96% 2.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 219 207 224
10th Percentile £395 £423 £464
25th Percentile £469 £525 £509
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £600 £585
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +2.56% -2.50%
75th Percentile £675 £697 £700
90th Percentile £725 £776 £796
UK excluding London median daily rate £540 £582 £582
% change year-on-year -7.18% -0.04% +1.22%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 3 1
Median hourly rate - £70.00 £58.00
Median % change year-on-year - +20.69% -10.08%
UK excluding London median hourly rate - £72.50 -

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 14,219 10,106 13,329
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.41% 33.39% 30.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,946 6,224 8,554
10th Percentile £285 £275 £256
25th Percentile £406 £409 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £738 £767 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 664 341 835
10th Percentile £15.38 £18.13 £12.86
25th Percentile £18.87 £22.50 £16.25
Median hourly rate £33.50 £32.50 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year +3.08% +8.33% +33.42%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £57.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £83.20 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.50 £31.76 £30.00
% change year-on-year +5.48% +5.87% +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 5 March 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 5 March 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 -43 292 £552 -8.04% 148
UK excluding London -29 181 £540 -7.18% 106
London -72 113 £600 -4.00% 56
Work from Home -17 82 £575 -6.50% 95
North of England -7 73 £525 -8.70% 21
Midlands -22 45 £600 +28.48% 12
Yorkshire -30 43 £525 -9.87% 7
North West -19 29 £450 -8.16% 9
South East -61 29 £525 -14.63% 36
East Midlands -6 27 £600 +50.00% 4
South West -5 26 £625 -1.96% 17
West Midlands -40 16 £530 -33.75% 8
Scotland -1 9 £543 -3.64% 6
East of England -35 7 £413 -31.25% 10
Wales -3 3 £214 -63.98% 6
North East -9 2 - - 5
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 13 (3.76%) Confluence
2 7 (2.02%) OpenStack
3 6 (1.73%) Apache Airflow
3 6 (1.73%) SAS
4 2 (0.58%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 2 (0.58%) Palantir Foundry
4 2 (0.58%) SharePoint
5 1 (0.29%) Apache
Applications
1 5 (1.45%) Weka
2 2 (0.58%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.58%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (0.29%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 64 (18.50%) SAP S/4HANA
2 9 (2.60%) Oracle ERP
3 7 (2.02%) SAP ERP
3 7 (2.02%) SAP FI
4 6 (1.73%) SAP CO
4 6 (1.73%) SAP FI/CO
5 2 (0.58%) SAP SD
6 1 (0.29%) Exchequer
Cloud Services
1 127 (36.71%) Azure
2 118 (34.10%) AWS
3 111 (32.08%) GCP
4 33 (9.54%) GitHub
5 31 (8.96%) Serverless
6 22 (6.36%) SuccessFactors
7 20 (5.78%) OCI
8 18 (5.20%) Google Kubernetes Engine
8 18 (5.20%) IaaS
8 18 (5.20%) PaaS
9 15 (4.34%) Azure DevOps
10 12 (3.47%) Cloud Computing
11 11 (3.18%) SaaS
12 10 (2.89%) AWS KMS
12 10 (2.89%) GitHub Actions
13 9 (2.60%) Power Platform
14 6 (1.73%) AWS CloudFormation
14 6 (1.73%) Microsoft 365
14 6 (1.73%) Nutanix
15 5 (1.45%) dbt
Communications & Networking
1 34 (9.83%) Firewall
2 26 (7.51%) Network Security
3 24 (6.94%) DNS
4 20 (5.78%) VPN
5 16 (4.62%) TCP/IP
6 14 (4.05%) WAN
7 8 (2.31%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
8 7 (2.02%) Internet
8 7 (2.02%) SD-WAN
9 6 (1.73%) Kerberos
9 6 (1.73%) LAN
10 5 (1.45%) DHCP
11 4 (1.16%) Multicast
11 4 (1.16%) NetScaler
11 4 (1.16%) Wireless
12 3 (0.87%) BGP
12 3 (0.87%) MPLS
12 3 (0.87%) OSPF
12 3 (0.87%) VXLAN
13 2 (0.58%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 28 (8.09%) NoSQL
2 16 (4.62%) PostgreSQL
3 9 (2.60%) Data Warehouse
3 9 (2.60%) Power BI
4 7 (2.02%) Oracle Database
5 6 (1.73%) BigQuery
6 5 (1.45%) MongoDB
6 5 (1.45%) SQL Server
7 3 (0.87%) Amazon Redshift
7 3 (0.87%) Data Vault
7 3 (0.87%) Delta Lake
7 3 (0.87%) Oracle Exadata
7 3 (0.87%) Relational Database
8 2 (0.58%) Elasticsearch
8 2 (0.58%) Redis
9 1 (0.29%) Apache Cassandra
9 1 (0.29%) Data Mining
9 1 (0.29%) MySQL
9 1 (0.29%) Oracle Database 12c
9 1 (0.29%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 55 (15.90%) Jenkins
2 46 (13.29%) GitLab
3 25 (7.23%) JIRA
4 18 (5.20%) Liquibase
5 13 (3.76%) Postman
6 12 (3.47%) Git
7 8 (2.31%) SoapUI
8 5 (1.45%) TeamCity
9 2 (0.58%) Cucumber
9 2 (0.58%) Mocha
10 1 (0.29%) Ant
10 1 (0.29%) JUnit
10 1 (0.29%) Maven
10 1 (0.29%) REST Assured
10 1 (0.29%) Snyk
10 1 (0.29%) Vite
General
1 114 (32.95%) Finance
2 98 (28.32%) Social Skills
3 60 (17.34%) Public Sector
4 50 (14.45%) Banking
5 22 (6.36%) Local Government
6 18 (5.20%) Analytical Skills
6 18 (5.20%) Financial Institution
7 10 (2.89%) Influencing Skills
8 6 (1.73%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 6 (1.73%) Investment Banking
9 5 (1.45%) General Ledger
9 5 (1.45%) Law
9 5 (1.45%) Manufacturing
10 4 (1.16%) Police
10 4 (1.16%) Presentation Skills
11 3 (0.87%) Documentation Skills
11 3 (0.87%) German Language
11 3 (0.87%) Military
12 2 (0.58%) Billing
12 2 (0.58%) Retail
Job Titles
1 76 (21.97%) Architect
2 48 (13.87%) Senior
3 41 (11.85%) Cloud Engineer
4 33 (9.54%) GCP Engineer
5 29 (8.38%) Lead
6 25 (7.23%) Solutions Architect
7 20 (5.78%) DevOps Engineer
8 19 (5.49%) Software Engineer
9 18 (5.20%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 17 (4.91%) AWS Engineer
11 15 (4.34%) Consultant
11 15 (4.34%) Senior Cloud Engineer
12 14 (4.05%) Senior Software Engineer
13 13 (3.76%) Analyst
13 13 (3.76%) SAP Manager
14 12 (3.47%) Data Engineer
14 12 (3.47%) SAP Architect
15 11 (3.18%) SAP Solutions Architect
15 11 (3.18%) Senior DevOps
15 11 (3.18%) Senior DevOps Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 50 (14.45%) REST
2 25 (7.23%) Elastic Stack
2 25 (7.23%) RESTful
3 18 (5.20%) Middleware
4 15 (4.34%) JSON
4 15 (4.34%) OAuth
5 14 (4.05%) SOAP
6 13 (3.76%) JWT
7 12 (3.47%) Oracle Fusion
7 12 (3.47%) Web Services
7 12 (3.47%) XML
7 12 (3.47%) XSLT
8 9 (2.60%) Spring Boot
9 8 (2.31%) Kafka
10 6 (1.73%) React
11 5 (1.45%) NumPy
11 5 (1.45%) Pandas
12 4 (1.16%) PyTorch
12 4 (1.16%) Spring
12 4 (1.16%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 48 (13.87%) Cloud Native
2 23 (6.65%) Distributed Systems
3 20 (5.78%) Data Centre
4 17 (4.91%) Private Cloud
5 12 (3.47%) Hybrid Cloud
6 10 (2.89%) Product Ownership
7 7 (2.02%) PKI
8 6 (1.73%) Grid Computing
8 6 (1.73%) Legacy Applications
8 6 (1.73%) Legacy Systems
8 6 (1.73%) Security Posture
9 5 (1.45%) Cloud Security Posture
9 5 (1.45%) Data Structures
10 4 (1.16%) Virtual Team
11 3 (0.87%) Data Protection Act
11 3 (0.87%) Enterprise Software
11 3 (0.87%) Greenfield Project
11 3 (0.87%) NHS
11 3 (0.87%) Reinsurance
11 3 (0.87%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 59 (17.05%) Linux
2 23 (6.65%) Windows
3 9 (2.60%) Unix
4 8 (2.31%) Windows Server
5 7 (2.02%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 7 (2.02%) Windows Server 2019
6 5 (1.45%) VMS
7 4 (1.16%) Windows Server 2012
8 3 (0.87%) Ubuntu
8 3 (0.87%) Windows Server 2016
9 2 (0.58%) CentOS
10 1 (0.29%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 126 (36.42%) DevOps
2 92 (26.59%) CI/CD
3 88 (25.43%) Agile
4 87 (25.14%) Infrastructure as Code
5 66 (19.08%) Migration
6 53 (15.32%) Containerisation
7 50 (14.45%) Stakeholder Management
8 46 (13.29%) Microservices
9 39 (11.27%) Analytics
10 37 (10.69%) Cybersecurity
11 32 (9.25%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 31 (8.96%) Infrastructure Automation
12 31 (8.96%) Software Engineering
13 30 (8.67%) Root Cause Analysis
14 27 (7.80%) ERP
14 27 (7.80%) Problem-Solving
15 26 (7.51%) Change Management
16 25 (7.23%) Computer Science
16 25 (7.23%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 25 (7.23%) User Acceptance Testing
Programming Languages
1 88 (25.43%) Python
2 28 (8.09%) Go
3 25 (7.23%) SQL
4 21 (6.07%) Java
5 10 (2.89%) Bash
5 10 (2.89%) PowerShell
6 6 (1.73%) JavaScript
7 5 (1.45%) TypeScript
8 4 (1.16%) PL/SQL
9 3 (0.87%) Ruby
9 3 (0.87%) Shell Script
10 2 (0.58%) Bicep
10 2 (0.58%) C++
11 1 (0.29%) ABAP
11 1 (0.29%) Perl
Qualifications
1 85 (24.57%) Security Cleared
2 61 (17.63%) SC Cleared
3 36 (10.40%) Degree
4 24 (6.94%) Computer Science Degree
5 23 (6.65%) Master's Degree
6 15 (4.34%) AWS Certification
7 12 (3.47%) Cisco Certification
8 10 (2.89%) BPSS Clearance
9 8 (2.31%) CISSP
9 8 (2.31%) DV Cleared
9 8 (2.31%) ISTQB
9 8 (2.31%) SAP Certification
10 7 (2.02%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 7 (2.02%) Azure Certification
11 6 (1.73%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 6 (1.73%) CISM
12 5 (1.45%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
12 5 (1.45%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
13 4 (1.16%) CCNP
13 4 (1.16%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (4.05%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 12 (3.47%) NCSC
3 11 (3.18%) QA
4 10 (2.89%) GDPR
5 8 (2.31%) NIST
6 7 (2.02%) SLA
7 5 (1.45%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
7 5 (1.45%) ISO/IEC 27005
8 4 (1.16%) GRC
9 3 (0.87%) Cyber Essentials
9 3 (0.87%) Data Quality
10 2 (0.58%) Accessibility
10 2 (0.58%) Government Security Classifications
10 2 (0.58%) ISO 15022
10 2 (0.58%) ISO 20022
10 2 (0.58%) PCI DSS
10 2 (0.58%) PSD2
10 2 (0.58%) WCAG
11 1 (0.29%) COBIT
11 1 (0.29%) RMADS
System Software
1 51 (14.74%) Docker
2 15 (4.34%) Hyper-V
2 15 (4.34%) VMware Infrastructure
3 11 (3.18%) Active Directory
4 7 (2.02%) Virtual Machines
5 6 (1.73%) vSphere
6 5 (1.45%) GPFS
6 5 (1.45%) Lustre
6 5 (1.45%) Slurm Workload Manager
7 4 (1.16%) Virtual Desktop
8 3 (0.87%) Oracle RAC
8 3 (0.87%) VMware NSX
9 1 (0.29%) Ceph
9 1 (0.29%) KVM
9 1 (0.29%) NFS
9 1 (0.29%) Postfix
9 1 (0.29%) QEMU
9 1 (0.29%) Sendmail
9 1 (0.29%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 82 (23.70%) Kubernetes
2 81 (23.41%) Terraform
3 55 (15.90%) Ansible
4 29 (8.38%) Prometheus
5 27 (7.80%) Grafana
6 16 (4.62%) Istio
7 7 (2.02%) Single Sign-On
8 5 (1.45%) Kubeflow
8 5 (1.45%) Microsoft Intune
9 4 (1.16%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 4 (1.16%) Data Guard
9 4 (1.16%) Oracle RMAN
9 4 (1.16%) SCCM
10 3 (0.87%) Puppet
11 2 (0.58%) Argo
11 2 (0.58%) Red Hat Satellite
11 2 (0.58%) vCenter Server
11 2 (0.58%) vMotion
12 1 (0.29%) Demisto
12 1 (0.29%) Salt
Vendors
1 71 (20.52%) SAP
2 53 (15.32%) Google
3 34 (9.83%) Oracle
4 29 (8.38%) Splunk
5 28 (8.09%) VMware
6 22 (6.36%) Microsoft
7 14 (4.05%) F5
8 13 (3.76%) ServiceNow
9 12 (3.47%) Ariba
10 9 (2.60%) Cisco
10 9 (2.60%) Palo Alto
11 6 (1.73%) MuleSoft
11 6 (1.73%) Red Hat
12 5 (1.45%) Aruba
12 5 (1.45%) Databricks
12 5 (1.45%) Fortinet
13 4 (1.16%) Veeam
14 3 (0.87%) Arista
14 3 (0.87%) Informatica
14 3 (0.87%) Juniper