Cloud engineer salary UK: junior to senior pay in 2026

The typical cloud engineer salary in the UK is around £68,000 to £70,000 for someone with a few years' experience. Junior roles usually start in the mid £30,000s, and senior engineers regularly clear £80,000. Those are the headline numbers. The useful bit is knowing which band you'll actually start in, and what gets you to the next one.

How much does a cloud engineer earn in the UK?

Two sources are worth trusting here. ITJobsWatch tracks salaries in real UK job adverts, and for the six months to November 2026 it shows a median of £70,000 for permanent cloud engineer roles, based on 1,343 adverts. The 10th percentile was £49,700 and the 90th percentile was £100,000.

Robert Half's 2027 UK Salary Guide lands in the same place. It puts the median cloud engineer at £68,000, with £56,500 at the 25th percentile and £78,750 at the 75th.

So two independent sources agree. That's reassuring. But read the small print: Robert Half describes its 25th percentile as someone with little or no experience in that specific role, not someone with no IT background at all. Nobody walks off a course into a £56,500 job.

What do junior and graduate cloud engineers get paid?

This is where most salary articles mislead people. The headline median is driven by experienced engineers, because that's who most adverts are looking for.

Junior cloud engineer adverts on ITJobsWatch had a median of £35,000 over the same six months, with the 90th percentile at £41,000. The sample was tiny, just 15 adverts, so treat it as a guide rather than a rule. Still, it matches what hiring managers tell you: first cloud jobs pay in the low to mid £30,000s.

If you're searching for a graduate cloud engineer salary in the UK, you'll find the same problem. Very few roles are advertised with "graduate" in the title. In practice graduate schemes at consultancies and large employers pay roughly in line with junior roles, sometimes with a bump in London.

A lot of people don't start with "cloud engineer" on their badge at all. They start as a cloud support engineer, a service desk analyst or an infrastructure technician, then move sideways once they've touched real Azure or AWS environments. That route often pays less in year one and more by year three.

Cloud engineer salary by level

Here's a simple view using the ITJobsWatch and Robert Half data together.

The jump between junior and mid level is the big one. Going from £35,000 to the high £50,000s usually takes two to four years of hands-on work, and that time shrinks when you can show real projects rather than lab exercises.

Does London pay more for cloud engineers?

Yes, though less than you'd think once you factor in commuting and rent. ITJobsWatch shows a London median of £77,500 against £70,000 for the UK as a whole.

Remote and hybrid work has narrowed the gap. Plenty of Manchester, Leeds and Bristol employers hire nationally now, and some London firms advertise remote roles at slightly below their office rate. If you're outside London, don't rule out London employers. Apply anyway and ask about remote terms.

Do Azure or AWS skills pay more?

Both pay well, and the difference isn't worth choosing your career on. ITJobsWatch shows a median of £65,000 for permanent UK jobs citing Azure and about £72,000 for jobs citing AWS.

The more useful number is volume. Azure appeared in 10,269 permanent adverts over the six months, against 6,998 for AWS. Lots of UK employers run on Microsoft 365 and Active Directory already, so Azure is a natural fit for them. For a beginner, more adverts means more chances at a first job.

My view: if you're new, start with Azure. Get AZ-900 done, then go straight for AZ-104, because that's the one hiring managers actually ask about for junior Azure roles. Learn AWS later if a job demands it.

What pushes a cloud engineer's salary up?

Certifications help, but less than people hope. The things that move you up a band are mostly practical.

Infrastructure as code. Terraform and Bicep come up constantly in mid level adverts. If you can write and review a Terraform module, you're competing for a different tier of job.

Scripting. PowerShell for Azure, Python or Bash for AWS. You don't need to be a developer. You do need to automate the boring bits.

Networking and security basics. VNets, subnets, NSGs, DNS, identity and access. Engineers who understand why something can't connect get paid more than engineers who just click until it does.

Proof of real work. This is the one that matters most at junior level. A hiring manager will pay more for someone who has migrated a real workload, written a runbook and dealt with a ticket from an annoyed user than for someone with three certificates and only lab experience.

Contracting. Once you're experienced, day rates can beat permanent salaries. Don't think about this until you've got a few years behind you.

How quickly can you reach the median?

For example, someone starting in cloud support at around £30,000 to £35,000, who picks up AZ-104, learns Terraform and gets involved in real migrations, could reasonably expect to be applying for £50,000 plus roles within two to three years. That's not guaranteed. It depends on the employer and how much they let you touch.

Moving employer helps too. Internal pay rises tend to be modest, while a move to a new company is often when people jump a band. Don't hop every six months, but don't stay three years in a role that's stopped teaching you anything.

The slowest route is collecting certificates at home without ever working on a live system. Employers can tell. Your CV reads like a course list and your interview answers sound theoretical.

The fastest route is getting real experience early, even a small amount. If you want to see which junior roles to target first, our guide to cloud engineer jobs breaks down the usual entry points.

How Experiencely can help

Experiencely's cloud engineering programme combines training with a live cloud project, so you've got real work to talk about when salary conversations start. Training covers Cloud Essentials+, Network+, Security+, Cloud+, AZ-900 and AZ-104. You're placed on a live remote project within 48 hours and spend about an hour a day on it for three months, alongside your current job. The programme costs £2,495. If you're not hired within 60 days of finishing, and you've met the conditions, you get your money back.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

Figures are taken from the sources below. Salary ranges are indicative and individual offers vary. Last checked 9 November 2026.

1. ITJobsWatch: Cloud Engineer jobs and salaries (UK, 6 months to 8 Nov 2026)
2. ITJobsWatch: Junior Cloud Engineer jobs and salaries
3. ITJobsWatch: Senior Cloud Engineer jobs and salaries
4. Robert Half: Cloud Engineer salary, 2027 UK Salary Guide
5. ITJobsWatch: Azure jobs and salaries
6. ITJobsWatch: AWS jobs and salaries