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 24 January 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
24 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 307 248 289
Rank change year-on-year -59 +41 -87
Contract jobs citing Public Cloud 307 316 343
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.81% 1.00% 0.78%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 2.36% 3.09% 2.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 192 207 223
10th Percentile £363 £438 £426
25th Percentile £436 £519 £513
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £534 £600 £582
Median % change year-on-year -11.08% +3.09% -3.00%
75th Percentile £675 £688 £700
90th Percentile £738 £762 £788
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £575 £582
% change year-on-year -8.70% -1.20% -0.30%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 2 3
10th Percentile - £45.95 £62.00
25th Percentile - £50.38 £68.00
Median hourly rate - £59.00 £78.00
Median % change year-on-year - -24.36% +48.57%
75th Percentile - £68.88 -
90th Percentile - £74.05 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate - £75.00 £78.00
% change year-on-year - -3.85% -

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 13,007 10,237 13,561
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 34.23% 32.38% 30.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,213 6,075 8,860
10th Percentile £278 £263 £256
25th Percentile £406 £408 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £530 £538
Median % change year-on-year -5.66% -1.40% -4.02%
75th Percentile £625 £663 £650
90th Percentile £738 £775 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 622 310 706
10th Percentile £14.59 £18.51 £14.19
25th Percentile £18.26 £23.65 £17.66
Median hourly rate £27.63 £35.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -21.07% - +56.74%
75th Percentile £61.25 £65.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £74.97 £82.25 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.36 £32.50 £35.50
% change year-on-year -15.83% -8.45% +77.50%

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 24 January 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 24 January 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 -56 260 £525 -12.50% 207
UK excluding London -30 165 £525 -8.70% 188
London -47 103 £600 - 42
North of England -17 70 £488 -5.71% 39
Work from Home -45 70 £575 -4.96% 60
Yorkshire -23 48 £500 -3.29% 18
Midlands -19 35 £525 +12.42% 21
South East -56 24 £522 -9.81% 60
North West -23 21 £450 -10.00% 10
South West 0 20 £650 +1.96% 28
East Midlands -11 19 £416 +4.00% 16
West Midlands -36 15 £530 -33.75% 4
Scotland -6 14 £543 -6.47% 7
East of England -20 9 £413 -31.25% 25
Wales -6 3 £214 -64.40% 8
North East -11 2 - - 11
Northern Ireland - 1 £385 - 4

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 6 (1.95%) OpenStack
1 6 (1.95%) SAS
2 5 (1.63%) Confluence
3 3 (0.98%) Apache Airflow
4 2 (0.65%) SharePoint
5 1 (0.33%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 7 (2.28%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (1.63%) Weka
3 2 (0.65%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 2 (0.65%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.33%) Adobe Premiere
4 1 (0.33%) Camtasia
4 1 (0.33%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 46 (14.98%) SAP S/4HANA
2 7 (2.28%) SAP ERP
3 6 (1.95%) Oracle ERP
3 6 (1.95%) SAP FI
4 5 (1.63%) SAP CO
4 5 (1.63%) SAP FI/CO
5 1 (0.33%) SAP SD
Cloud Services
1 119 (38.76%) AWS
1 119 (38.76%) Azure
2 107 (34.85%) GCP
3 35 (11.40%) Serverless
4 29 (9.45%) GitHub
5 17 (5.54%) OCI
6 15 (4.89%) Azure DevOps
7 14 (4.56%) Google Kubernetes Engine
7 14 (4.56%) IaaS
8 13 (4.23%) PaaS
8 13 (4.23%) Power Platform
8 13 (4.23%) SuccessFactors
9 11 (3.58%) Cloud Computing
9 11 (3.58%) GitHub Actions
10 10 (3.26%) SaaS
11 9 (2.93%) AWS KMS
12 7 (2.28%) Entra ID
13 6 (1.95%) Microsoft 365
14 5 (1.63%) iPaaS
14 5 (1.63%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 33 (10.75%) Firewall
2 23 (7.49%) Network Security
3 19 (6.19%) VPN
4 15 (4.89%) DNS
4 15 (4.89%) TCP/IP
4 15 (4.89%) WAN
5 8 (2.61%) SD-WAN
6 7 (2.28%) Internet
7 6 (1.95%) Kerberos
8 5 (1.63%) LAN
9 4 (1.30%) DHCP
9 4 (1.30%) Multicast
10 3 (0.98%) BGP
10 3 (0.98%) NetScaler
10 3 (0.98%) OSPF
10 3 (0.98%) SAN
10 3 (0.98%) VXLAN
11 2 (0.65%) DMZ
11 2 (0.65%) IPv6
11 2 (0.65%) MPLS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 37 (12.05%) NoSQL
2 16 (5.21%) PostgreSQL
3 13 (4.23%) Power BI
4 9 (2.93%) MongoDB
5 8 (2.61%) Data Warehouse
5 8 (2.61%) Relational Database
5 8 (2.61%) SQL Server
6 7 (2.28%) Oracle Database
7 4 (1.30%) BigQuery
7 4 (1.30%) Data Mining
8 3 (0.98%) Data Vault
8 3 (0.98%) Delta Lake
8 3 (0.98%) Oracle Exadata
9 2 (0.65%) Amazon Redshift
9 2 (0.65%) Apache Cassandra
9 2 (0.65%) Elasticsearch
9 2 (0.65%) MySQL
9 2 (0.65%) RDBMS
9 2 (0.65%) Redis
9 2 (0.65%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 53 (17.26%) Jenkins
2 46 (14.98%) GitLab
3 24 (7.82%) Liquibase
4 18 (5.86%) JIRA
5 12 (3.91%) Git
6 11 (3.58%) Postman
7 4 (1.30%) SoapUI
7 4 (1.30%) TeamCity
8 2 (0.65%) Cucumber
8 2 (0.65%) JUnit
8 2 (0.65%) Mocha
8 2 (0.65%) Vite
General
1 113 (36.81%) Finance
2 93 (30.29%) Social Skills
3 48 (15.64%) Banking
3 48 (15.64%) Public Sector
4 24 (7.82%) Financial Institution
5 23 (7.49%) Analytical Skills
6 18 (5.86%) Local Government
7 10 (3.26%) Presentation Skills
8 7 (2.28%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 6 (1.95%) Influencing Skills
10 5 (1.63%) General Ledger
10 5 (1.63%) Law
10 5 (1.63%) Manufacturing
11 4 (1.30%) Investment Banking
11 4 (1.30%) Police
12 3 (0.98%) Documentation Skills
12 3 (0.98%) German Language
12 3 (0.98%) Organisational Skills
13 2 (0.65%) Public Speaking
13 2 (0.65%) Welsh Language
Job Titles
1 61 (19.87%) Architect
2 45 (14.66%) Senior
3 36 (11.73%) Cloud Engineer
4 26 (8.47%) GCP Engineer
5 21 (6.84%) Software Engineer
6 20 (6.51%) DevOps Engineer
7 19 (6.19%) Analyst
8 18 (5.86%) Lead
9 17 (5.54%) Solutions Architect
10 15 (4.89%) AWS Engineer
10 15 (4.89%) Senior Software Engineer
11 14 (4.56%) Consultant
11 14 (4.56%) Developer
12 12 (3.91%) SAP Manager
13 11 (3.58%) Cloud Architect
14 10 (3.26%) Data Engineer
14 10 (3.26%) Infrastructure Architect
14 10 (3.26%) Infrastructure Engineer
15 9 (2.93%) Senior Cloud Engineer
15 9 (2.93%) Site Reliability Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 54 (17.59%) REST
2 33 (10.75%) RESTful
3 30 (9.77%) Elastic Stack
4 13 (4.23%) OAuth
5 12 (3.91%) JSON
5 12 (3.91%) Spring Boot
6 11 (3.58%) JWT
6 11 (3.58%) SOAP
7 10 (3.26%) Middleware
7 10 (3.26%) Oracle Fusion
7 10 (3.26%) XML
7 10 (3.26%) XSLT
8 9 (2.93%) Spring
8 9 (2.93%) Web Services
9 8 (2.61%) Kafka
10 7 (2.28%) React
11 6 (1.95%) AngularJS
12 3 (0.98%) NumPy
12 3 (0.98%) Pandas
12 3 (0.98%) SAP Fiori
Miscellaneous
1 54 (17.59%) Cloud Native
2 27 (8.79%) Distributed Systems
3 26 (8.47%) Data Centre
4 16 (5.21%) Hybrid Cloud
4 16 (5.21%) Private Cloud
5 10 (3.26%) Product Ownership
5 10 (3.26%) Security Posture
6 9 (2.93%) Cloud Security Posture
7 7 (2.28%) Legacy Systems
8 6 (1.95%) Data Structures
8 6 (1.95%) Mainframe
9 5 (1.63%) Enterprise Software
9 5 (1.63%) Grid Computing
9 5 (1.63%) PKI
10 4 (1.30%) Data Protection Act
10 4 (1.30%) Legacy Applications
10 4 (1.30%) Replication
11 3 (0.98%) Distributed Applications
11 3 (0.98%) NHS
11 3 (0.98%) Reinsurance
Operating Systems
1 59 (19.22%) Linux
2 29 (9.45%) Windows
3 10 (3.26%) Windows Server
4 8 (2.61%) Unix
5 7 (2.28%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 6 (1.95%) VMS
6 6 (1.95%) Windows Server 2019
7 3 (0.98%) Windows Server 2012
7 3 (0.98%) Windows Server 2016
8 1 (0.33%) CentOS
8 1 (0.33%) Ubuntu
8 1 (0.33%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 117 (38.11%) DevOps
2 91 (29.64%) Agile
2 91 (29.64%) CI/CD
3 82 (26.71%) Infrastructure as Code
4 54 (17.59%) Migration
5 50 (16.29%) Containerisation
6 44 (14.33%) Microservices
7 40 (13.03%) Cybersecurity
8 39 (12.70%) Stakeholder Management
9 35 (11.40%) Software Engineering
10 34 (11.07%) Infrastructure Automation
10 34 (11.07%) Root Cause Analysis
11 31 (10.10%) Cost Optimisation
11 31 (10.10%) High Availability
11 31 (10.10%) Problem-Solving
12 30 (9.77%) Computer Science
13 29 (9.45%) Analytics
14 27 (8.79%) Change Management
14 27 (8.79%) Cryptography
14 27 (8.79%) Data Security
Programming Languages
1 85 (27.69%) Python
2 35 (11.40%) Go
3 29 (9.45%) Java
4 25 (8.14%) SQL
5 8 (2.61%) Bash
6 7 (2.28%) PowerShell
7 4 (1.30%) JavaScript
7 4 (1.30%) PL/SQL
8 3 (0.98%) TypeScript
9 2 (0.65%) Shell Script
10 1 (0.33%) ABAP
10 1 (0.33%) Bicep
10 1 (0.33%) C++
10 1 (0.33%) Perl
10 1 (0.33%) Ruby
10 1 (0.33%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 68 (22.15%) Security Cleared
2 46 (14.98%) SC Cleared
3 42 (13.68%) Degree
4 29 (9.45%) Computer Science Degree
5 27 (8.79%) Master's Degree
6 16 (5.21%) AWS Certification
7 10 (3.26%) Azure Certification
7 10 (3.26%) BPSS Clearance
8 8 (2.61%) Cisco Certification
9 7 (2.28%) ISTQB
10 6 (1.95%) CCSP
10 6 (1.95%) CISSP
10 6 (1.95%) DV Cleared
11 5 (1.63%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 4 (1.30%) AWS Certified Developer
12 4 (1.30%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
12 4 (1.30%) PMI Certification
12 4 (1.30%) SAP Certification
13 3 (0.98%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 2 (0.65%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (3.91%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 8 (2.61%) GDPR
3 7 (2.28%) NCSC
3 7 (2.28%) SLA
4 6 (1.95%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
4 6 (1.95%) NIST
4 6 (1.95%) PCI DSS
5 5 (1.63%) ISO/IEC 27005
5 5 (1.63%) PSD2
5 5 (1.63%) QA
6 4 (1.30%) Data Quality
7 2 (0.65%) Accessibility
7 2 (0.65%) WCAG
8 1 (0.33%) COBIT
8 1 (0.33%) GAMP
8 1 (0.33%) HIPAA
8 1 (0.33%) ISO 15022
8 1 (0.33%) ISO 20022
8 1 (0.33%) RMADS
8 1 (0.33%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 59 (19.22%) Docker
2 16 (5.21%) VMware Infrastructure
3 15 (4.89%) Hyper-V
4 7 (2.28%) Active Directory
4 7 (2.28%) Virtual Machines
5 5 (1.63%) GPFS
5 5 (1.63%) Lustre
5 5 (1.63%) Slurm Workload Manager
5 5 (1.63%) vSphere
6 3 (0.98%) Oracle RAC
6 3 (0.98%) Virtual Desktop
7 2 (0.65%) VMware NSX
8 1 (0.33%) Ceph
8 1 (0.33%) KVM
8 1 (0.33%) QEMU
Systems Management
1 82 (26.71%) Terraform
2 80 (26.06%) Kubernetes
3 58 (18.89%) Ansible
4 34 (11.07%) Prometheus
5 32 (10.42%) Grafana
6 12 (3.91%) Istio
7 5 (1.63%) Microsoft Intune
8 4 (1.30%) Data Guard
8 4 (1.30%) Oracle RMAN
9 3 (0.98%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 3 (0.98%) Kubeflow
9 3 (0.98%) Puppet
9 3 (0.98%) SCCM
9 3 (0.98%) vCenter Server
10 2 (0.65%) Red Hat Satellite
10 2 (0.65%) Single Sign-On
10 2 (0.65%) vMotion
11 1 (0.33%) FortiGate
11 1 (0.33%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
11 1 (0.33%) Salt
Vendors
1 53 (17.26%) SAP
2 39 (12.70%) Google
3 33 (10.75%) Splunk
4 32 (10.42%) Oracle
5 27 (8.79%) Microsoft
6 25 (8.14%) VMware
7 10 (3.26%) Ariba
7 10 (3.26%) Cisco
8 8 (2.61%) Palo Alto
8 8 (2.61%) ServiceNow
9 6 (1.95%) F5
9 6 (1.95%) MuleSoft
10 5 (1.63%) Aruba
10 5 (1.63%) Databricks
10 5 (1.63%) Fortinet
11 4 (1.30%) Red Hat
11 4 (1.30%) Veeam
12 3 (0.98%) Informatica
12 3 (0.98%) Juniper
12 3 (0.98%) Mercator