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 3 September 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
3 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 363 355 241
Rank change year-on-year -8 -114 +24
Contract jobs citing Public Cloud 340 203 373
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.63% 0.62% 0.97%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 1.88% 1.76% 3.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 229 132 237
10th Percentile £435 £358 £445
25th Percentile £513 £438 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £525 £576
Median % change year-on-year +14.29% -8.77% -4.08%
75th Percentile £688 £668 £738
90th Percentile £788 £750 £825
UK excluding London median daily rate £600 £500 £593
% change year-on-year +20.00% -15.61% -1.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 1 3
10th Percentile - - £39.80
25th Percentile - £42.50 £44.38
Median hourly rate - £45.00 £54.00
Median % change year-on-year - -16.67% -30.77%
75th Percentile - £47.50 £57.00
90th Percentile - - £57.60
UK excluding London median hourly rate - - £48.25
% change year-on-year - - -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 18,107 11,509 11,605
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.77% 35.41% 30.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,951 7,070 7,265
10th Percentile £320 £300 £300
25th Percentile £423 £405 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £515 £550
Median % change year-on-year +1.92% -6.35% -
75th Percentile £638 £638 £675
90th Percentile £750 £763 £825
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,082 569 543
10th Percentile £14.50 £15.13 £13.22
25th Percentile £18.50 £18.87 £19.19
Median hourly rate £38.25 £30.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +27.50% -33.33% +4.65%
75th Percentile £67.65 £57.50 £70.00
90th Percentile £81.25 £75.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.56 £30.00 £52.50
% change year-on-year +45.20% -42.86% +15.61%

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 3 September 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 3 September 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 -10 278 £600 +7.87% 498
UK excluding London -14 194 £600 +20.00% 280
Work from Home +6 98 £610 +19.61% 188
London -56 91 £615 -5.17% 323
North of England -20 75 £556 +23.61% 74
South East -30 49 £590 -14.18% 24
Yorkshire -15 48 £550 +22.22% 27
Midlands -31 28 £625 +17.15% 37
North West -36 23 £625 +38.89% 39
South West -23 19 £675 +10.20% 45
Scotland -38 16 £520 +4.00% 61
East Midlands -11 13 £625 +31.58% 13
West Midlands -42 12 £625 +13.59% 24
North East -35 8 £600 - 8
East of England -20 6 £475 -28.30% 5
Wales -17 1 - - 2
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 32

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 (2.65%) Apache
2 5 (1.47%) OpenStack
3 3 (0.88%) Apache Airflow
3 3 (0.88%) CloudStack
3 3 (0.88%) IIS
3 3 (0.88%) Oracle SOA Suite
3 3 (0.88%) SAS
3 3 (0.88%) SharePoint
4 2 (0.59%) Confluence
4 2 (0.59%) nginx
4 2 (0.59%) Tomcat
5 1 (0.29%) Microsoft Exchange
5 1 (0.29%) WebLogic
Applications
1 12 (3.53%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (2.35%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (1.18%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 4 (1.18%) MS Visio
4 2 (0.59%) Adobe Creative Suite
4 2 (0.59%) Houdini
4 2 (0.59%) Microsoft Project
4 2 (0.59%) NUKE
4 2 (0.59%) Spreadsheet
5 1 (0.29%) Weka
Business Applications
1 69 (20.29%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (1.76%) SAP Business One
2 6 (1.76%) SAP SD
3 5 (1.47%) SAP ERP
4 4 (1.18%) iTrent
5 3 (0.88%) SAP FI
6 2 (0.59%) SAP CO
6 2 (0.59%) SAP FI-GL
7 1 (0.29%) Oracle ERP
7 1 (0.29%) Oracle SCM
7 1 (0.29%) SAP FI/CO
7 1 (0.29%) SAP FI-AR
7 1 (0.29%) SAP MDG
7 1 (0.29%) SAP MM
7 1 (0.29%) SAP PS
Cloud Services
1 140 (41.18%) Azure
2 130 (38.24%) AWS
3 63 (18.53%) GCP
4 20 (5.88%) GitHub
4 20 (5.88%) OCI
4 20 (5.88%) SaaS
5 16 (4.71%) SuccessFactors
6 15 (4.41%) IaaS
7 13 (3.82%) GitHub Actions
7 13 (3.82%) PaaS
8 12 (3.53%) Google Kubernetes Engine
8 12 (3.53%) OpenShift
9 11 (3.24%) Entra ID
10 10 (2.94%) Azure DevOps
11 9 (2.65%) Amazon EKS
11 9 (2.65%) Serverless
12 6 (1.76%) Amazon ECS
12 6 (1.76%) AWS CloudFormation
12 6 (1.76%) Microsoft 365
13 4 (1.18%) Datadog
Communications & Networking
1 30 (8.82%) Firewall
2 26 (7.65%) DNS
3 17 (5.00%) TCP/IP
4 15 (4.41%) Network Security
4 15 (4.41%) VSAN
5 13 (3.82%) LAN
5 13 (3.82%) WAN
6 12 (3.53%) VPN
7 11 (3.24%) DHCP
8 8 (2.35%) BGP
9 7 (2.06%) SAN
10 6 (1.76%) NAS
11 5 (1.47%) VLAN
11 5 (1.47%) Wi-Fi
12 4 (1.18%) MPLS
12 4 (1.18%) SNMP
12 4 (1.18%) TACACS
13 3 (0.88%) HTTPS
13 3 (0.88%) Kerberos
13 3 (0.88%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 18 (5.29%) Oracle Database
2 14 (4.12%) RDBMS
2 14 (4.12%) Relational Database
3 13 (3.82%) Oracle Exadata
4 8 (2.35%) MySQL
5 5 (1.47%) Data Warehouse
6 4 (1.18%) BusinessObjects
6 4 (1.18%) SQL Server
7 3 (0.88%) BigQuery
8 2 (0.59%) Amazon Redshift
8 2 (0.59%) Oracle Reports
8 2 (0.59%) PostgreSQL
8 2 (0.59%) Power BI
8 2 (0.59%) SAP HANA
9 1 (0.29%) Amazon RDS
9 1 (0.29%) Big Data
9 1 (0.29%) DynamoDB
9 1 (0.29%) NoSQL
9 1 (0.29%) SAP Data Services
9 1 (0.29%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 40 (11.76%) Git
2 19 (5.59%) Jenkins
3 15 (4.41%) GitLab
4 6 (1.76%) JUnit
4 6 (1.76%) SonarQube
4 6 (1.76%) Sonatype Nexus
5 4 (1.18%) Hudson
5 4 (1.18%) Postman
6 3 (0.88%) Cucumber
6 3 (0.88%) JIRA
6 3 (0.88%) Maven
6 3 (0.88%) Selenium
7 1 (0.29%) LSMW
7 1 (0.29%) MSI
7 1 (0.29%) PVCS
7 1 (0.29%) SoapUI
General
1 97 (28.53%) Finance
2 57 (16.76%) Social Skills
3 30 (8.82%) Public Sector
4 21 (6.18%) Analytical Skills
5 19 (5.59%) Banking
6 9 (2.65%) General Ledger
7 8 (2.35%) Documentation Skills
7 8 (2.35%) Local Government
8 7 (2.06%) Financial Institution
8 7 (2.06%) Military
8 7 (2.06%) Presentation Skills
9 6 (1.76%) Billing
9 6 (1.76%) Influencing Skills
10 5 (1.47%) Telecoms
11 4 (1.18%) Automotive
11 4 (1.18%) Manufacturing
12 3 (0.88%) Legal
12 3 (0.88%) Organisational Skills
12 3 (0.88%) Police
12 3 (0.88%) Retail
Job Titles
1 87 (25.59%) Architect
2 63 (18.53%) Senior
3 41 (12.06%) Lead
4 38 (11.18%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 31 (9.12%) Solutions Architect
6 23 (6.76%) DevOps Engineer
7 22 (6.47%) Consultant
7 22 (6.47%) Developer
7 22 (6.47%) Technical Architect
8 19 (5.59%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
9 16 (4.71%) Cloud Engineer
9 16 (4.71%) SAP Consultant
10 15 (4.41%) Azure Specialist
11 14 (4.12%) Cloud Architect
12 13 (3.82%) Azure Engineer
12 13 (3.82%) Python Developer
13 11 (3.24%) Network Engineer
13 11 (3.24%) Platform Engineer
14 10 (2.94%) Analyst
14 10 (2.94%) Senior Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 83 (24.41%) Terraform
2 16 (4.71%) Kafka
2 16 (4.71%) Spring Boot
3 13 (3.82%) Oracle GoldenGate
4 12 (3.53%) Spring
5 10 (2.94%) Middleware
6 9 (2.65%) SAP Fiori
7 8 (2.35%) REST
8 6 (1.76%) OAuth
9 5 (1.47%) .NET
9 5 (1.47%) Elastic Stack
9 5 (1.47%) JSON
9 5 (1.47%) NumPy
9 5 (1.47%) OpenID
9 5 (1.47%) Oracle Fusion
9 5 (1.47%) Pandas
9 5 (1.47%) React
9 5 (1.47%) Web Services
10 4 (1.18%) 802.1X
10 4 (1.18%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 50 (14.71%) Cloud Native
2 35 (10.29%) Hybrid Cloud
3 31 (9.12%) Data Centre
4 27 (7.94%) Private Cloud
5 16 (4.71%) PKI
6 9 (2.65%) Onboarding
7 8 (2.35%) Legacy Systems
7 8 (2.35%) Management Information System
8 7 (2.06%) AI Agents
9 6 (1.76%) Data Structures
9 6 (1.76%) Legacy Applications
9 6 (1.76%) Linux Command Line
10 4 (1.18%) Analytical Mindset
10 4 (1.18%) Data Protection Act
10 4 (1.18%) Enterprise Software
10 4 (1.18%) Robotics
10 4 (1.18%) Self-Motivation
11 3 (0.88%) Product Ownership
11 3 (0.88%) Security Posture
11 3 (0.88%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 70 (20.59%) Linux
2 37 (10.88%) Windows
3 13 (3.82%) AIX
4 11 (3.24%) Unix
5 9 (2.65%) Ubuntu
5 9 (2.65%) Windows Server
6 6 (1.76%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 4 (1.18%) Debian
7 4 (1.18%) VMS
7 4 (1.18%) Windows Server 2019
8 3 (0.88%) Windows Server 2016
9 2 (0.59%) CentOS
10 1 (0.29%) Android
10 1 (0.29%) Mac OS
10 1 (0.29%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 100 (29.41%) Migration
2 92 (27.06%) Infrastructure as Code
3 85 (25.00%) CI/CD
4 76 (22.35%) DevOps
5 56 (16.47%) Agile
6 53 (15.59%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 53 (15.59%) Stakeholder Management
7 45 (13.24%) Data Migration
8 37 (10.88%) Microservices
9 33 (9.71%) Architectural Patterns
10 32 (9.41%) ERP
11 30 (8.82%) Infrastructure Automation
12 29 (8.53%) Cloud Security
13 27 (7.94%) Containerisation
13 27 (7.94%) DevSecOps
13 27 (7.94%) Observability
14 26 (7.65%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 26 (7.65%) Technical Leadership
14 26 (7.65%) Validation
15 25 (7.35%) Identity Access Management
Programming Languages
1 69 (20.29%) Python
2 31 (9.12%) Java
3 28 (8.24%) PowerShell
4 24 (7.06%) Bash
5 12 (3.53%) SQL
6 10 (2.94%) Bicep
6 10 (2.94%) JavaScript
7 8 (2.35%) Shell Script
8 5 (1.47%) Groovy
9 3 (0.88%) ABAP
9 3 (0.88%) Go
9 3 (0.88%) Ruby
10 2 (0.59%) Perl
10 2 (0.59%) TypeScript
11 1 (0.29%) C#
11 1 (0.29%) C++
11 1 (0.29%) Kotlin
11 1 (0.29%) PL/SQL
11 1 (0.29%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 92 (27.06%) Security Cleared
2 77 (22.65%) SC Cleared
3 29 (8.53%) DV Cleared
4 25 (7.35%) Cisco Certification
5 13 (3.82%) CCNP
6 12 (3.53%) AWS Certification
6 12 (3.53%) Degree
7 11 (3.24%) VCAP
7 11 (3.24%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 9 (2.65%) BPSS Clearance
9 8 (2.35%) CISSP
10 7 (2.06%) ACCA
10 7 (2.06%) Azure Certification
10 7 (2.06%) CIMA
11 5 (1.47%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 5 (1.47%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 5 (1.47%) JNCIS
11 5 (1.47%) Microsoft Certification
12 4 (1.18%) CCIE
12 4 (1.18%) CCNA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (3.24%) NCSC
2 10 (2.94%) NIST
3 8 (2.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 7 (2.06%) Data Quality
5 5 (1.47%) GDPR
5 5 (1.47%) ISO 20022
6 4 (1.18%) ISO 15022
7 3 (0.88%) Government Security Classifications
7 3 (0.88%) HMG Security Policy Framework
8 2 (0.59%) Cyber Essentials
8 2 (0.59%) Disclosure Scotland
8 2 (0.59%) GRC
8 2 (0.59%) PCI DSS
8 2 (0.59%) PMO
8 2 (0.59%) QA
9 1 (0.29%) ISO 22301
9 1 (0.29%) ISO 9001
9 1 (0.29%) ISO/IEC 20000
9 1 (0.29%) ISO/IEC 27005
9 1 (0.29%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 32 (9.41%) VMware Infrastructure
2 21 (6.18%) VMware NSX
3 20 (5.88%) Docker
4 14 (4.12%) Oracle RAC
5 13 (3.82%) Active Directory
6 12 (3.53%) vSphere
7 11 (3.24%) VMware ESXi
8 9 (2.65%) Virtual Machines
9 6 (1.76%) Postfix
10 4 (1.18%) Hyper-V
10 4 (1.18%) NFS
10 4 (1.18%) Varnish
11 3 (0.88%) Sendmail
12 2 (0.59%) Dovecot
13 1 (0.29%) Firmware
13 1 (0.29%) GPFS
13 1 (0.29%) ISA Server
13 1 (0.29%) Microsoft App-V
13 1 (0.29%) Slurm Workload Manager
13 1 (0.29%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 55 (16.18%) Kubernetes
2 50 (14.71%) Ansible
3 14 (4.12%) Data Guard
3 14 (4.12%) Oracle RMAN
4 13 (3.82%) Grafana
5 12 (3.53%) Prometheus
6 10 (2.94%) vCenter Server
7 9 (2.65%) Istio
8 7 (2.06%) Packer
9 6 (1.76%) HAProxy
10 5 (1.47%) VxRail
11 4 (1.18%) systemd
12 3 (0.88%) Check_MK
12 3 (0.88%) Kubeflow
13 2 (0.59%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 2 (0.59%) Argo
13 2 (0.59%) CASB
13 2 (0.59%) Single Sign-On
14 1 (0.29%) QRadar
14 1 (0.29%) Rancher
Vendors
1 77 (22.65%) SAP
2 64 (18.82%) Microsoft
3 47 (13.82%) Oracle
4 41 (12.06%) VMware
5 32 (9.41%) Google
6 20 (5.88%) Cisco
7 12 (3.53%) Ariba
7 12 (3.53%) Juniper
8 9 (2.65%) F5
8 9 (2.65%) Splunk
9 7 (2.06%) Fortinet
9 7 (2.06%) Red Hat
10 5 (1.47%) Citrix
10 5 (1.47%) Concur
10 5 (1.47%) CyberArk
10 5 (1.47%) ServiceNow
11 4 (1.18%) Dynatrace
11 4 (1.18%) MikroTik
11 4 (1.18%) Mistral
11 4 (1.18%) MuleSoft