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 September 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 356 251 258
Rank change year-on-year -105 +7 -51
Contract jobs citing Public Cloud 210 361 480
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.64% 0.94% 0.96%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 1.79% 3.08% 2.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 132 222 339
10th Percentile £364 £418 £420
25th Percentile £438 £475 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £530 £567 £600
Median % change year-on-year -6.53% -5.50% -
75th Percentile £689 £688 £700
90th Percentile £774 £799 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £561 £600
% change year-on-year -10.91% -6.46% +7.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 3 11
10th Percentile - £39.80 £70.50
25th Percentile £42.50 £44.38 -
Median hourly rate £45.00 £54.00 £78.00
Median % change year-on-year -16.67% -30.77% +44.44%
75th Percentile £47.50 £57.00 £79.00
90th Percentile - £57.60 £90.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate - £48.25 £78.00
% change year-on-year - -38.14% +92.59%

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 11,723 11,709 16,151
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 35.63% 30.39% 32.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,179 7,145 11,046
10th Percentile £300 £294 £300
25th Percentile £406 £414 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £540 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.63% -1.82% -
75th Percentile £638 £675 £675
90th Percentile £750 £807 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 587 471 458
10th Percentile £15.08 £14.50 £16.79
25th Percentile £18.87 £21.25 £21.00
Median hourly rate £30.00 £50.00 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -40.00% +12.36% +71.15%
75th Percentile £55.00 £70.00 £66.00
90th Percentile £73.75 £75.00 £78.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £30.00 £57.35 £48.37
% change year-on-year -47.69% +18.58% +122.06%

Public Cloud
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing Public Cloud as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Public Cloud 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 September 2025.

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 September 2025. 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 -125 150 £593 +4.87% 123
UK excluding London -44 114 £500 -10.91% 77
London -65 68 £649 +14.58% 65
Work from Home -49 51 £525 -12.32% 65
North of England -44 44 £450 -18.18% 19
Scotland +20 34 £500 -16.70% 7
Yorkshire +1 26 £450 -16.28% 9
North West -40 17 £463 -15.91% 8
Midlands -17 16 £537 +7.40% 16
South East -35 11 £688 +22.77% 20
East Midlands -2 10 £506 +8.24% 8
East of England -1 6 £825 +94.12% 1
West Midlands -7 6 £625 -16.67% 8
South West +16 4 £650 +13.04% 9
Wales +7 3 £405 -35.20% 3
North East -3 1 - - 2

Public Cloud
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 6 (2.86%) Confluence
2 4 (1.90%) Apache
2 4 (1.90%) WebLogic
3 3 (1.43%) Oracle Service Bus
3 3 (1.43%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 2 (0.95%) nginx
5 1 (0.48%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.48%) Apache Solr
5 1 (0.48%) Apache Spark
5 1 (0.48%) SAS
5 1 (0.48%) SharePoint
Applications
1 10 (4.76%) Microsoft Excel
2 6 (2.86%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.48%) Adobe Premiere
3 1 (0.48%) Camtasia
3 1 (0.48%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.48%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.48%) Notion
3 1 (0.48%) Trello
Business Applications
1 27 (12.86%) SAP S/4HANA
2 5 (2.38%) SAP ERP
3 4 (1.90%) SAP FI
4 3 (1.43%) Oracle BPM
4 3 (1.43%) SAP CO
4 3 (1.43%) SAP FI/CO
5 2 (0.95%) Cloudability
6 1 (0.48%) Distributed Ledger
6 1 (0.48%) Dynamics CRM
6 1 (0.48%) Infor SunSystems
6 1 (0.48%) Salesforce CRM
6 1 (0.48%) SAP GRC
6 1 (0.48%) SAP HR
6 1 (0.48%) SAP IBP
6 1 (0.48%) SAP SD
Cloud Services
1 115 (54.76%) AWS
2 93 (44.29%) Azure
3 56 (26.67%) GCP
4 42 (20.00%) GitHub
5 34 (16.19%) GitHub Actions
6 23 (10.95%) Serverless
7 20 (9.52%) SaaS
8 16 (7.62%) Azure DevOps
9 14 (6.67%) Power Platform
10 11 (5.24%) SuccessFactors
11 10 (4.76%) Entra ID
12 9 (4.29%) PaaS
13 8 (3.81%) Microsoft 365
14 5 (2.38%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 5 (2.38%) AWS CloudFormation
14 5 (2.38%) AWS Lambda
14 5 (2.38%) Azure ExpressRoute
14 5 (2.38%) Dynamics 365
14 5 (2.38%) IaaS
14 5 (2.38%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 15 (7.14%) Firewall
1 15 (7.14%) WAN
2 12 (5.71%) VPN
3 8 (3.81%) DNS
3 8 (3.81%) LAN
4 6 (2.86%) Network Security
4 6 (2.86%) VLAN
5 3 (1.43%) BGP
5 3 (1.43%) OSPF
6 2 (0.95%) Cisco Nexus
6 2 (0.95%) DHCP
6 2 (0.95%) Ethernet VPN
6 2 (0.95%) IPsec
6 2 (0.95%) Multicast
6 2 (0.95%) Reverse Proxy
6 2 (0.95%) SAN
6 2 (0.95%) SD-WAN
6 2 (0.95%) TCP/IP
6 2 (0.95%) VSAN
6 2 (0.95%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 25 (11.90%) NoSQL
2 10 (4.76%) MongoDB
3 9 (4.29%) Power BI
3 9 (4.29%) Relational Database
4 7 (3.33%) SQL Server
5 5 (2.38%) Big Data
6 4 (1.90%) Data Mining
6 4 (1.90%) Elasticsearch
7 3 (1.43%) Data Warehouse
7 3 (1.43%) DynamoDB
7 3 (1.43%) MySQL
7 3 (1.43%) RDBMS
8 2 (0.95%) Amazon RDS
8 2 (0.95%) Apache Cassandra
8 2 (0.95%) Hadoop
8 2 (0.95%) PostgreSQL
8 2 (0.95%) SAP HANA
9 1 (0.48%) Pentaho
9 1 (0.48%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 1 (0.48%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 39 (18.57%) Jenkins
2 28 (13.33%) JIRA
3 26 (12.38%) Git
4 25 (11.90%) GitLab
5 20 (9.52%) Liquibase
6 15 (7.14%) Bitbucket
7 11 (5.24%) IntelliJ
7 11 (5.24%) Visual Studio Code
8 10 (4.76%) PyCharm
8 10 (4.76%) Visual Studio
9 7 (3.33%) Artifactory
9 7 (3.33%) CircleCI
10 5 (2.38%) TeamCity
11 4 (1.90%) SonarQube
11 4 (1.90%) Sonatype Nexus
11 4 (1.90%) Subversion
12 3 (1.43%) Vite
13 2 (0.95%) Cypress.io
13 2 (0.95%) webpack
13 2 (0.95%) Zephyr
General
1 90 (42.86%) Finance
2 58 (27.62%) Social Skills
3 38 (18.10%) Banking
4 26 (12.38%) Analytical Skills
5 22 (10.48%) Public Sector
6 15 (7.14%) Financial Institution
7 12 (5.71%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 12 (5.71%) Presentation Skills
8 9 (4.29%) Influencing Skills
9 8 (3.81%) Local Government
10 6 (2.86%) Documentation Skills
10 6 (2.86%) Legal
11 3 (1.43%) Organisational Skills
11 3 (1.43%) Publishing
12 2 (0.95%) Billing
12 2 (0.95%) French Language
12 2 (0.95%) Investment Banking
12 2 (0.95%) Law
12 2 (0.95%) Marketing
12 2 (0.95%) Military
Job Titles
1 57 (27.14%) Architect
2 38 (18.10%) Senior
3 27 (12.86%) Developer
4 25 (11.90%) DevOps Engineer
5 19 (9.05%) Analyst
6 17 (8.10%) Software Engineer
7 16 (7.62%) AWS Engineer
7 16 (7.62%) Cloud Engineer
7 16 (7.62%) Solutions Architect
7 16 (7.62%) Technical Architect
8 13 (6.19%) Java Developer
9 12 (5.71%) Senior Software Engineer
10 11 (5.24%) AWS DevOps
10 11 (5.24%) Consultant
10 11 (5.24%) Security Architect
11 10 (4.76%) AWS DevOps Engineer
11 10 (4.76%) Cloud Architect
11 10 (4.76%) Python Engineer
11 10 (4.76%) Senior Architect
12 8 (3.81%) Senior DevOps Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 28 (13.33%) REST
2 24 (11.43%) RESTful
3 21 (10.00%) Elastic Stack
4 15 (7.14%) Spring Boot
5 14 (6.67%) Kafka
6 13 (6.19%) Spring
7 12 (5.71%) Middleware
8 11 (5.24%) React
9 9 (4.29%) CSS
9 9 (4.29%) HTML
10 6 (2.86%) AngularJS
10 6 (2.86%) Node.js
11 5 (2.38%) GraphQL
11 5 (2.38%) SAP Fiori
12 4 (1.90%) .NET
12 4 (1.90%) Oracle Fusion
12 4 (1.90%) RabbitMQ
13 3 (1.43%) ASP.NET
13 3 (1.43%) JSON
13 3 (1.43%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 41 (19.52%) Cloud Native
2 19 (9.05%) Data Centre
3 16 (7.62%) Distributed Systems
4 11 (5.24%) Hybrid Cloud
4 11 (5.24%) Private Cloud
5 8 (3.81%) Virtual Team
6 6 (2.86%) Security Posture
7 5 (2.38%) Data Protection Act
7 5 (2.38%) Distributed Applications
7 5 (2.38%) Enterprise Software
7 5 (2.38%) Low-Code
7 5 (2.38%) Mainframe
7 5 (2.38%) Product Ownership
8 4 (1.90%) Cloud Security Posture
8 4 (1.90%) Legacy Systems
8 4 (1.90%) Replication
9 3 (1.43%) Data Structures
9 3 (1.43%) Self-Motivation
10 2 (0.95%) CMDB
10 2 (0.95%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 45 (21.43%) Linux
2 31 (14.76%) Windows
3 8 (3.81%) Windows Server
4 2 (0.95%) CentOS
4 2 (0.95%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 2 (0.95%) Unix
4 2 (0.95%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 87 (41.43%) CI/CD
2 81 (38.57%) Agile
3 79 (37.62%) DevOps
4 63 (30.00%) Infrastructure as Code
5 47 (22.38%) Microservices
6 44 (20.95%) Containerisation
7 34 (16.19%) Continuous Integration
7 34 (16.19%) Problem-Solving
8 33 (15.71%) SDLC
8 33 (15.71%) Software Engineering
9 32 (15.24%) Cost Optimisation
10 28 (13.33%) Mentoring
11 27 (12.86%) High Availability
12 26 (12.38%) Computer Science
12 26 (12.38%) Continuous Delivery
13 24 (11.43%) Roadmaps
13 24 (11.43%) Test Automation
14 23 (10.95%) Migration
15 22 (10.48%) Change Management
16 20 (9.52%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 63 (30.00%) Java
1 63 (30.00%) Python
2 35 (16.67%) Go
3 20 (9.52%) TypeScript
4 15 (7.14%) C#
4 15 (7.14%) JavaScript
5 8 (3.81%) SQL
6 6 (2.86%) Kotlin
6 6 (2.86%) PowerShell
7 4 (1.90%) Bash
7 4 (1.90%) Groovy
8 3 (1.43%) Perl
8 3 (1.43%) WebLogic Scripting Tool
9 2 (0.95%) Bicep
9 2 (0.95%) Scala
9 2 (0.95%) Shell Script
10 1 (0.48%) CodeQL
10 1 (0.48%) DAML
10 1 (0.48%) Elixir
10 1 (0.48%) Rust
Qualifications
1 35 (16.67%) Degree
2 27 (12.86%) Security Cleared
3 24 (11.43%) Computer Science Degree
4 21 (10.00%) AWS Certification
5 19 (9.05%) SC Cleared
6 15 (7.14%) Master's Degree
7 12 (5.71%) Azure Certification
8 11 (5.24%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 6 (2.86%) ISTQB
10 5 (2.38%) Cisco Certification
11 4 (1.90%) BPSS Clearance
11 4 (1.90%) CISSP
12 3 (1.43%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 3 (1.43%) AWS Certified Developer
12 3 (1.43%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
12 3 (1.43%) CCSP
12 3 (1.43%) DV Cleared
13 2 (0.95%) BC Cleared
13 2 (0.95%) CCNP
13 2 (0.95%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (3.81%) NIST
2 6 (2.86%) Data Quality
3 5 (2.38%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 5 (2.38%) QA
4 4 (1.90%) GDPR
4 4 (1.90%) PCI DSS
4 4 (1.90%) SLA
5 3 (1.43%) PSD2
6 1 (0.48%) GAMP
6 1 (0.48%) HIPAA
6 1 (0.48%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
6 1 (0.48%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 45 (21.43%) Docker
2 11 (5.24%) Active Directory
3 10 (4.76%) VMware Infrastructure
4 6 (2.86%) Virtual Machines
5 4 (1.90%) VMware NSX
5 4 (1.90%) vSphere
6 2 (0.95%) Firmware
6 2 (0.95%) vCloud
6 2 (0.95%) VMware Workstation
7 1 (0.48%) IAG
7 1 (0.48%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 80 (38.10%) Terraform
2 73 (34.76%) Kubernetes
3 47 (22.38%) Ansible
4 30 (14.29%) Grafana
5 27 (12.86%) Prometheus
6 4 (1.90%) Puppet
7 3 (1.43%) Kibana
8 2 (0.95%) HAProxy
8 2 (0.95%) Microsoft Intune
8 2 (0.95%) vCenter Server
9 1 (0.48%) Cisco CUCM
9 1 (0.48%) SCOM
Vendors
1 45 (21.43%) Microsoft
2 29 (13.81%) SAP
3 20 (9.52%) Splunk
4 18 (8.57%) Google
5 12 (5.71%) Cisco
5 12 (5.71%) VMware
6 10 (4.76%) ServiceNow
7 9 (4.29%) Oracle
8 7 (3.33%) IBM
9 6 (2.86%) MuleSoft
10 5 (2.38%) OutSystems
10 5 (2.38%) Red Hat
11 4 (1.90%) NetApp
12 3 (1.43%) AlgoSec
12 3 (1.43%) Dell
12 3 (1.43%) Fortinet
12 3 (1.43%) Mercator
12 3 (1.43%) Salesforce
12 3 (1.43%) Tufin
12 3 (1.43%) Veeam