Cloud Engineer jobs in the United Kingdom
Updated: —
Build, harden and operate cloud platforms (AWS/Azure/GCP) with Infrastructure as Code, CI/CD and production ownership. This page is designed for international candidates applying to UK roles: the CV must be strong, specific, and evidence-based.
CV required: candidates without a CV are not considered.
Work eligibility: non-UK candidates must have the right to work in the UK or target roles where sponsorship is possible (varies by employer and offer).
Typical gross pay (mid)
£55k–£85k/year (market snapshot); London often higher
Stack that converts
Terraform + Azure/AWS + CI/CD + Kubernetes + security
Hiring filter
Production ownership, incident handling, automation depth
UK Cloud Engineer gross salary snapshot
These figures are expressed as gross (brutto) and represent a market snapshot. Exact compensation depends on scope (platform ownership vs. project delivery), on-call, security clearance, industry, and location.
| Market point | Gross pay (GBP) | Approx. gross hourly* | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Typical mid-level band | £55,000–£85,000 / year | — | Common range for mid-level platform roles |
| UK median (snapshot) | £65,508 / year | — | Median across recent postings (UK-wide) |
| London median (snapshot) | £80,000 / year | — | London often pays a premium |
| Upper end (snapshot) | £100,000 / year | — | Typically requires deep expertise + ownership |
| Contract example (snapshot) | Up to ~£600 / day (gross) | — | Example “inside IR35” listing; contract rates vary widely |
*Hourly values are approximate, assuming 37.5 hours/week and 52 weeks/year. On-call allowances and bonuses are not included.
cloud engineer salary uk (gross)
cloud engineer salary london
cloud engineer contract day rate
hybrid / remote roles
Candidate portrait (short)
You are a strong fit for UK Cloud Engineer roles if your background shows repeatable delivery (automation) and production responsibility (reliability and security).
You likely match if you can show
- IaC ownership: Terraform modules, CI pipelines, review process, environment promotion strategy.
- Platform building: landing zones, networking, IAM, guardrails/policies, shared services.
- Reliability habits: monitoring, alert hygiene, incident notes, postmortems, SLO thinking.
- Security-by-default: secrets handling, least-privilege access, encryption, secure baselines.
- Cost awareness: tagging, budgets, rightsizing, autoscaling, usage reviews (FinOps basics).
Common gaps that reduce callbacks
- Only “used AWS/Azure” without describing what was automated, secured, and operated.
- No evidence of incident handling (or unclear role in incident response).
- Tools listed without outcomes (no metrics, no before/after results).
Role narrative (non-template)
In many UK teams, “Cloud Engineer” no longer means only provisioning resources. The job is closer to platform engineering: building paved roads so product teams deploy safely by default.
- Design a repeatable landing zone (accounts/subscriptions, network, identity, guardrails).
- Turn security and compliance into automation (policy-as-code, baseline controls, drift detection).
- Make delivery boring: templates, golden paths, self-service, and measurable reliability.
A realistic “day in the life” of a UK Cloud Engineer often includes both delivery and operations: shipping changes, supporting developers, and keeping the platform stable under pressure.
- Morning: review pipeline failures, check cost anomalies, accept Terraform PRs.
- Midday: pair with Dev teams on deployment patterns, permissions, and network paths.
- Afternoon: improve monitoring dashboards, tune alerts, and close out incidents with notes.
A high-signal project story for UK employers is a “migration with guardrails”: not just moving workloads, but building controls and proving reliability.
- Move services to Kubernetes with secure ingress, secrets, and policy constraints.
- Standardize CI/CD with staged rollouts and fast rollback patterns.
- Prove improvements using metrics (latency, availability, deployment frequency, incident count).
CV tip: Put your strongest platform achievement in the top 1/3 of the CV with numbers (time saved, cost reduced, outages prevented, deploy frequency increased).
Typical responsibilities
- Design and operate cloud infrastructure (networking, identity, compute, storage) aligned with security and reliability goals.
- Deliver Infrastructure as Code (Terraform) with review workflows, testing, and environment promotion.
- Build/maintain CI/CD pipelines and deployment standards (versioning, secrets, rollbacks).
- Implement monitoring/observability and run incident response with actionable post-incident improvements.
- Support developers with patterns that reduce friction while keeping governance intact.
- Translate platform requirements into secure cloud designs (landing zones, guardrails, shared services).
- Automate infrastructure delivery using Terraform and pipeline controls.
- Harden operations: monitoring, alerting, incident playbooks, and recovery testing.
- Enable delivery teams through templates, docs, and self-service workflows.
- Keep cost predictable using tagging, budgets, and continuous optimisation.
- Build cloud foundations (network/IAM/guardrails) that scale across teams.
- Deliver IaC modules and CI controls to keep changes safe and auditable.
- Own reliability outcomes (SLOs, alerts, incidents, postmortems).
- Partner with security/compliance without slowing delivery.
- Improve platform developer experience (DX) via paved roads and templates.
terraform
kubernetes
ci/cd
cloud security
devops
Requirements (detailed)
Must-have
- English CV: mandatory (no CV — no consideration).
- Hands-on cloud depth: AWS or Azure in production (not only labs).
- Terraform/IaC: modules, state strategy, change control, and troubleshooting.
- Linux + scripting: practical automation (Python and/or PowerShell/Bash).
- Operational maturity: monitoring, incidents, and post-incident improvement.
- Security basics: IAM, network segmentation, secrets management, encryption.
Strong advantages
- Kubernetes (managed clusters), service mesh/ingress, and workload security.
- CI/CD tooling: GitHub Actions / Azure DevOps / Jenkins, plus release patterns.
- Cloud security controls, policy-as-code, and compliance-oriented automation.
- Security clearance eligibility (some UK roles require it).
- Certifications (examples): AWS Associate/Professional, Azure AZ-104/AZ-305 (helpful, not always mandatory).
What MaViAl provides
- Role matching across UK client demand based on your CV and technical profile.
- Onboarding guidance and clear application steps.
- Expectation-setting on interview focus (IaC depth, platform ownership, incident scenarios).
Next step: Submit your CV via the CV page. We then screen your profile against current UK demand and client requirements.
Working conditions in the UK (practical + rights)
UK Cloud Engineer roles are usually full-time and commonly hybrid. Some roles include on-call rotations, especially in platform, SRE, or security-sensitive environments.
Hours (baseline): UK working time rules limit average working time to 48 hours/week (normally averaged over 17 weeks). Some employers ask for an opt-out for high-demand roles; it should be voluntary.
Breaks: If you work more than 6 hours in a day, you typically have the right to an uninterrupted 20-minute rest break. Daily rest between shifts is commonly 11 hours.
Paid leave: Most 5-day workers are entitled to at least 28 days paid annual leave per year (5.6 weeks). Many employers offer more (contractual).
What employers often clarify during interviews
- Hybrid schedule: expected office days and whether on-call requires proximity.
- On-call model: rotation frequency, escalation path, and whether there is an allowance.
- Security constraints: regulated sectors may require background checks or clearance.
- Delivery model: platform team vs. embedded role, change windows, and release governance.
Related roles in IT & Office
- IT Support Technician (Entry/Mid, Medium sponsorship)
- Software Engineer (Mid/Senior, High sponsorship)
- Data Analyst (Mid, High sponsorship)
- Cybersecurity Analyst (Mid, High sponsorship)
- DevOps Engineer (Mid/Senior, High sponsorship)
- Accountant (Mid, Medium sponsorship)
- HR Coordinator (Entry/Mid, Medium sponsorship)
- Customer Service Advisor (Entry, Low sponsorship)
FAQ (UK Cloud Engineer)
What should my UK Cloud Engineer CV highlight first?
Lead with one platform achievement and numbers: outages reduced, deployment frequency improved, cost reduced, or time-to-provision cut by automation.
Is Terraform required?
Many UK postings expect Infrastructure as Code. Terraform is common; equivalent IaC experience can work, but be explicit about module design, state handling and change control.
Do UK roles typically include on-call?
Often, yes for platform/SRE-style roles. Employers should explain rotation frequency and escalation paths during hiring.
Can non-UK candidates get sponsorship for Cloud Engineer jobs?
Sometimes. It depends on the employer and the offer. MaViAl screens your CV against roles where sponsorship may be possible.
Which cloud platform is most requested in UK postings?
Both Azure and AWS appear heavily across roles. A strong CV usually shows depth in one plus transferable fundamentals: IAM, networking, automation, reliability.
Is Kubernetes mandatory for Cloud Engineers?
Not always. It is a strong advantage for platform roles, especially where teams run containerised services and want consistent delivery patterns.
What kind of interview tasks should I expect?
Expect scenario questions: designing secure networks, least-privilege access, troubleshooting a failed pipeline, or responding to an incident with limited data.
Do UK employers value certifications?
Certifications can help with screening, but production outcomes and ownership usually matter more. Use certs to support the story, not replace it.
How do I prove “production ownership” on my CV?
Mention incidents you handled (without sensitive details), what you changed to prevent recurrence, and how you measured improvement (alerts reduced, MTTR improved, error budget protected).
Do UK Cloud Engineer roles pay more in London?
London often shows a premium over UK-wide medians, but hybrid/remote policies and industry can change the picture.
What’s a “landing zone” and why is it important?
A landing zone is the foundation for secure, repeatable cloud adoption: account/subscription structure, network, identity, governance controls and shared services.
What is the fastest next step with MaViAl?
Upload your English CV. We match it against current UK demand and respond with the best-fit path and role targets.