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 23 February 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
23 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 313 243 289
Rank change year-on-year -70 +46 -74
Contract jobs citing Public Cloud 323 316 351
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.79% 1.04% 0.79%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 2.38% 3.12% 2.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 203 219 231
10th Percentile £400 £438 £450
25th Percentile £468 £525 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £613 £582
Median % change year-on-year -10.20% +5.24% -3.00%
75th Percentile £675 £688 £700
90th Percentile £725 £771 £788
UK excluding London median daily rate £528 £583 £582
% change year-on-year -9.44% +0.09% +1.22%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 3 1
Median hourly rate - £70.00 £58.00
Median % change year-on-year - +20.69% +10.48%
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 13,598 10,138 13,533
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.45% 33.22% 30.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,576 6,137 8,717
10th Percentile £275 £270 £257
25th Percentile £405 £406 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £530
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -0.94% -3.64%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £738 £764 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £495 £500
% change year-on-year -4.04% -1.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 646 320 829
10th Percentile £15.42 £18.51 £13.00
25th Percentile £18.50 £23.30 £16.50
Median hourly rate £30.50 £33.27 £31.50
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +5.62% +40.09%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.25 £57.50
90th Percentile £77.00 £82.57 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £30.05 £32.50 £34.21
% change year-on-year -7.53% -5.00% +55.50%

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 23 February 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 23 February 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 -58 273 £550 -9.47% 81
UK excluding London -23 168 £528 -9.44% 62
London -69 108 £600 -3.54% 27
Work from Home -21 72 £575 -6.43% 37
North of England -4 71 £525 +1.55% 15
Yorkshire -24 43 £525 +5.00% 3
Midlands -21 38 £530 +13.49% 10
North West -15 27 £500 -6.10% 9
South East -49 26 £522 -15.47% 25
South West +2 24 £625 -1.96% 8
East Midlands -10 20 £500 +25.00% 5
West Midlands -40 17 £530 -33.75% 5
Scotland -3 10 £543 -6.47% 3
East of England -37 7 £413 -31.25% 2
Wales -6 3 £214 -64.40%
North East -15 2 - - 3
Northern Ireland - 1 £385 -

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 (2.79%) Confluence
2 7 (2.17%) OpenStack
3 6 (1.86%) SAS
4 3 (0.93%) Apache Airflow
5 2 (0.62%) Oracle SOA Suite
5 2 (0.62%) Palantir Foundry
5 2 (0.62%) SharePoint
Applications
1 5 (1.55%) Weka
2 2 (0.62%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.62%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (0.31%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 52 (16.10%) SAP S/4HANA
2 9 (2.79%) Oracle ERP
3 7 (2.17%) SAP ERP
3 7 (2.17%) SAP FI
4 6 (1.86%) SAP CO
4 6 (1.86%) SAP FI/CO
5 2 (0.62%) SAP SD
Cloud Services
1 118 (36.53%) AWS
2 117 (36.22%) Azure
3 111 (34.37%) GCP
4 35 (10.84%) Serverless
5 32 (9.91%) GitHub
6 21 (6.50%) OCI
7 18 (5.57%) IaaS
8 17 (5.26%) Google Kubernetes Engine
8 17 (5.26%) PaaS
9 15 (4.64%) Azure DevOps
10 13 (4.02%) SuccessFactors
11 11 (3.41%) Cloud Computing
12 10 (3.10%) AWS KMS
12 10 (3.10%) GitHub Actions
12 10 (3.10%) SaaS
13 9 (2.79%) Power Platform
14 6 (1.86%) Amazon S3
14 6 (1.86%) Microsoft 365
14 6 (1.86%) Nutanix
15 5 (1.55%) Azure AKS
Communications & Networking
1 33 (10.22%) Firewall
2 23 (7.12%) DNS
3 20 (6.19%) Network Security
4 19 (5.88%) VPN
5 16 (4.95%) TCP/IP
6 13 (4.02%) WAN
7 8 (2.48%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
8 7 (2.17%) Internet
9 6 (1.86%) Kerberos
9 6 (1.86%) SD-WAN
10 5 (1.55%) DHCP
10 5 (1.55%) LAN
11 4 (1.24%) Multicast
11 4 (1.24%) NetScaler
12 3 (0.93%) BGP
12 3 (0.93%) OSPF
12 3 (0.93%) VXLAN
12 3 (0.93%) Wireless
13 2 (0.62%) IPv6
13 2 (0.62%) MPLS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 33 (10.22%) NoSQL
2 16 (4.95%) PostgreSQL
3 9 (2.79%) Power BI
4 8 (2.48%) Data Warehouse
5 7 (2.17%) Oracle Database
6 5 (1.55%) MongoDB
6 5 (1.55%) SQL Server
7 4 (1.24%) BigQuery
8 3 (0.93%) Data Vault
8 3 (0.93%) Delta Lake
8 3 (0.93%) Oracle Exadata
8 3 (0.93%) Relational Database
9 2 (0.62%) Amazon Redshift
9 2 (0.62%) Elasticsearch
9 2 (0.62%) Redis
10 1 (0.31%) Apache Cassandra
10 1 (0.31%) Data Mining
10 1 (0.31%) DynamoDB
10 1 (0.31%) Oracle Database 12c
10 1 (0.31%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 58 (17.96%) Jenkins
2 50 (15.48%) GitLab
3 23 (7.12%) Liquibase
4 21 (6.50%) JIRA
5 14 (4.33%) Postman
6 11 (3.41%) Git
7 8 (2.48%) SoapUI
8 5 (1.55%) TeamCity
9 2 (0.62%) Cucumber
9 2 (0.62%) Mocha
10 1 (0.31%) Ant
10 1 (0.31%) JUnit
10 1 (0.31%) Maven
10 1 (0.31%) REST Assured
10 1 (0.31%) Snyk
10 1 (0.31%) Vite
General
1 111 (34.37%) Finance
2 95 (29.41%) Social Skills
3 51 (15.79%) Banking
3 51 (15.79%) Public Sector
4 22 (6.81%) Financial Institution
5 20 (6.19%) Local Government
6 18 (5.57%) Analytical Skills
7 7 (2.17%) Influencing Skills
8 6 (1.86%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 5 (1.55%) General Ledger
9 5 (1.55%) Investment Banking
9 5 (1.55%) Law
9 5 (1.55%) Manufacturing
9 5 (1.55%) Presentation Skills
10 4 (1.24%) Police
11 3 (0.93%) Documentation Skills
11 3 (0.93%) German Language
11 3 (0.93%) Military
12 2 (0.62%) Public Speaking
12 2 (0.62%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 67 (20.74%) Architect
2 50 (15.48%) Senior
3 41 (12.69%) Cloud Engineer
4 32 (9.91%) GCP Engineer
5 23 (7.12%) Software Engineer
6 22 (6.81%) Lead
7 20 (6.19%) DevOps Engineer
7 20 (6.19%) Solutions Architect
8 18 (5.57%) AWS Engineer
9 17 (5.26%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 17 (5.26%) Senior Software Engineer
10 15 (4.64%) Consultant
10 15 (4.64%) Senior Cloud Engineer
11 13 (4.02%) SAP Manager
12 12 (3.72%) Analyst
13 11 (3.41%) Data Engineer
13 11 (3.41%) Senior DevOps
13 11 (3.41%) Senior DevOps Engineer
14 10 (3.10%) Cloud Architect
14 10 (3.10%) Infrastructure Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 56 (17.34%) REST
2 31 (9.60%) RESTful
3 30 (9.29%) Elastic Stack
4 16 (4.95%) JSON
4 16 (4.95%) OAuth
5 15 (4.64%) SOAP
6 14 (4.33%) JWT
7 13 (4.02%) Oracle Fusion
7 13 (4.02%) Web Services
7 13 (4.02%) XML
7 13 (4.02%) XSLT
8 12 (3.72%) Middleware
9 9 (2.79%) Spring Boot
10 7 (2.17%) Kafka
11 6 (1.86%) React
12 4 (1.24%) Spring
13 3 (0.93%) AWS CDK
13 3 (0.93%) NumPy
13 3 (0.93%) Pandas
13 3 (0.93%) SAP Fiori
Miscellaneous
1 50 (15.48%) Cloud Native
2 27 (8.36%) Distributed Systems
3 20 (6.19%) Data Centre
4 17 (5.26%) Private Cloud
5 12 (3.72%) Hybrid Cloud
6 10 (3.10%) Product Ownership
7 7 (2.17%) PKI
8 6 (1.86%) Legacy Applications
8 6 (1.86%) Legacy Systems
9 5 (1.55%) Cloud Security Posture
9 5 (1.55%) Data Structures
9 5 (1.55%) Grid Computing
9 5 (1.55%) Security Posture
10 3 (0.93%) Data Protection Act
10 3 (0.93%) Enterprise Software
10 3 (0.93%) NHS
10 3 (0.93%) Reinsurance
10 3 (0.93%) Replication
11 2 (0.62%) Greenfield Project
11 2 (0.62%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 62 (19.20%) Linux
2 23 (7.12%) Windows
3 8 (2.48%) Unix
3 8 (2.48%) Windows Server
4 7 (2.17%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 7 (2.17%) Windows Server 2019
5 5 (1.55%) VMS
6 4 (1.24%) Windows Server 2012
7 3 (0.93%) Windows Server 2016
8 2 (0.62%) CentOS
8 2 (0.62%) Ubuntu
9 1 (0.31%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 128 (39.63%) DevOps
2 91 (28.17%) CI/CD
3 90 (27.86%) Agile
4 86 (26.63%) Infrastructure as Code
5 61 (18.89%) Migration
6 56 (17.34%) Containerisation
7 49 (15.17%) Microservices
8 42 (13.00%) Stakeholder Management
9 38 (11.76%) Cybersecurity
10 35 (10.84%) Infrastructure Automation
11 34 (10.53%) Root Cause Analysis
11 34 (10.53%) Software Engineering
12 31 (9.60%) Analytics
13 30 (9.29%) Change Management
13 30 (9.29%) Computer Science
14 28 (8.67%) Cryptography
15 27 (8.36%) Cost Optimisation
15 27 (8.36%) Infrastructure Engineering
16 26 (8.05%) ERP
17 25 (7.74%) Continuous Integration
Programming Languages
1 88 (27.24%) Python
2 33 (10.22%) Go
3 24 (7.43%) SQL
4 22 (6.81%) Java
5 9 (2.79%) Bash
5 9 (2.79%) PowerShell
6 6 (1.86%) JavaScript
7 5 (1.55%) TypeScript
8 4 (1.24%) PL/SQL
9 2 (0.62%) Bicep
9 2 (0.62%) C++
9 2 (0.62%) Ruby
9 2 (0.62%) Shell Script
10 1 (0.31%) ABAP
10 1 (0.31%) Perl
Qualifications
1 78 (24.15%) Security Cleared
2 57 (17.65%) SC Cleared
3 41 (12.69%) Degree
4 29 (8.98%) Computer Science Degree
5 27 (8.36%) Master's Degree
6 16 (4.95%) AWS Certification
7 11 (3.41%) Cisco Certification
8 10 (3.10%) BPSS Clearance
9 8 (2.48%) DV Cleared
10 7 (2.17%) CISSP
10 7 (2.17%) ISTQB
11 6 (1.86%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 6 (1.86%) Azure Certification
11 6 (1.86%) SAP Certification
12 5 (1.55%) AWS Certified Developer
12 5 (1.55%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
12 5 (1.55%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 5 (1.55%) CISM
13 4 (1.24%) CCNP
13 4 (1.24%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (4.02%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 12 (3.72%) NCSC
3 9 (2.79%) GDPR
4 8 (2.48%) NIST
5 6 (1.86%) QA
5 6 (1.86%) SLA
6 5 (1.55%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
6 5 (1.55%) ISO/IEC 27005
7 3 (0.93%) Cyber Essentials
7 3 (0.93%) Data Quality
8 2 (0.62%) Accessibility
8 2 (0.62%) Government Security Classifications
8 2 (0.62%) ISO 15022
8 2 (0.62%) ISO 20022
8 2 (0.62%) PCI DSS
8 2 (0.62%) PSD2
8 2 (0.62%) WCAG
9 1 (0.31%) Actionable Recommendations
9 1 (0.31%) COBIT
9 1 (0.31%) RMADS
System Software
1 56 (17.34%) Docker
2 15 (4.64%) Hyper-V
2 15 (4.64%) VMware Infrastructure
3 7 (2.17%) Virtual Machines
4 6 (1.86%) Active Directory
4 6 (1.86%) vSphere
5 5 (1.55%) GPFS
5 5 (1.55%) Lustre
5 5 (1.55%) Slurm Workload Manager
6 4 (1.24%) Virtual Desktop
7 3 (0.93%) Oracle RAC
7 3 (0.93%) VMware NSX
8 1 (0.31%) Ceph
8 1 (0.31%) KVM
8 1 (0.31%) QEMU
Systems Management
1 83 (25.70%) Terraform
2 82 (25.39%) Kubernetes
3 58 (17.96%) Ansible
4 34 (10.53%) Prometheus
5 32 (9.91%) Grafana
6 15 (4.64%) Istio
7 5 (1.55%) Microsoft Intune
8 4 (1.24%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 4 (1.24%) Data Guard
8 4 (1.24%) Oracle RMAN
8 4 (1.24%) SCCM
9 3 (0.93%) Kubeflow
9 3 (0.93%) Puppet
10 2 (0.62%) Argo
10 2 (0.62%) Red Hat Satellite
10 2 (0.62%) Single Sign-On
10 2 (0.62%) vCenter Server
10 2 (0.62%) vMotion
11 1 (0.31%) Demisto
11 1 (0.31%) Nessus
Vendors
1 59 (18.27%) SAP
2 51 (15.79%) Google
3 35 (10.84%) Oracle
4 34 (10.53%) Splunk
5 27 (8.36%) VMware
6 20 (6.19%) Microsoft
7 14 (4.33%) F5
8 12 (3.72%) Ariba
8 12 (3.72%) ServiceNow
9 9 (2.79%) Cisco
9 9 (2.79%) Palo Alto
10 6 (1.86%) MuleSoft
11 5 (1.55%) Aruba
11 5 (1.55%) Databricks
11 5 (1.55%) Fortinet
11 5 (1.55%) Red Hat
12 4 (1.24%) Veeam
13 3 (0.93%) Arista
13 3 (0.93%) Informatica
13 3 (0.93%) Juniper