Infrastructure Engineering Contract Job Trends in the North West

Infrastructure Engineering
England > North West

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the North West requiring Infrastructure Engineering skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 18 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 54 96 75
Rank change year-on-year +42 -21 -14
Contract jobs citing Infrastructure Engineering 146 34 47
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 3.75% 1.56% 1.96%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.53% 1.75% 2.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 93 17 32
10th Percentile £350 £348 £350
25th Percentile £408 £423 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £438
Median % change year-on-year - +25.71% -2.78%
75th Percentile £618 £638 £534
90th Percentile £650 £680 £643
England median daily rate £550 £500 £506
% change year-on-year +10.00% -1.23% +1.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 1 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile - £26.00 -
Median hourly rate £33.64 £27.00 -
Median % change year-on-year +24.59% - -
75th Percentile £40.38 £28.00 -
90th Percentile £44.42 - -
England median hourly rate £74.00 £30.00 £70.00
% change year-on-year +146.67% -57.14% -

All Process & Methodology Skills
North West

Infrastructure Engineering falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills in the North West.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 3,220 1,942 2,004
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 82.71% 88.92% 83.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,847 1,285 1,158
10th Percentile £295 £299 £294
25th Percentile £400 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £450 £493
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% -8.72% -1.40%
75th Percentile £594 £575 £588
90th Percentile £675 £679 £675
England median daily rate £525 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 341 134 109
10th Percentile £16.00 £13.61 £16.45
25th Percentile £24.19 £17.39 £28.50
Median hourly rate £47.12 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +87.36% -40.82% +21.43%
75th Percentile £73.00 £49.84 £58.00
90th Percentile £85.00 £71.06 £71.02
England median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% -3.37%

Infrastructure Engineering
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Infrastructure Engineering relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West.

Infrastructure Engineering job vacancy trend in the North West

Infrastructure Engineering
Daily Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Infrastructure Engineering.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Infrastructure Engineering

Infrastructure Engineering
Daily Rate Histogram in the North West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Infrastructure Engineering in the North West over the 6 months to 18 September 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Infrastructure Engineering in the North West

Infrastructure Engineering
Hourly Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Infrastructure Engineering.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Infrastructure Engineering

Infrastructure Engineering
Hourly Rate Histogram in the North West

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Infrastructure Engineering in the North West over the 6 months to 18 September 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Infrastructure Engineering in the North West

Infrastructure Engineering
Contract Job Locations in the North West

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Infrastructure Engineering within the North West region over the 6 months to 18 September 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
Lancashire +13 48 £575 +130.00% 21
Manchester -8 48 £515 -14.17% 102
Cheshire +29 32 £550 +23.32% 8
Merseyside -7 11 £350 - 15
Cumbria - 6 £350 -
Infrastructure Engineering
England

Infrastructure Engineering
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North West 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 3 (2.05%) OpenStack
1 3 (2.05%) SharePoint
2 2 (1.37%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.68%) Confluence
Applications
1 7 (4.79%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (2.74%) Microsoft Office
3 3 (2.05%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 3 (2.05%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.68%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 1 (0.68%) Primavera
1 1 (0.68%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 41 (28.08%) Azure
2 38 (26.03%) AWS
3 24 (16.44%) OCI
4 10 (6.85%) GCP
4 10 (6.85%) SaaS
5 9 (6.16%) Entra ID
6 8 (5.48%) AWS CloudFormation
6 8 (5.48%) IaaS
7 7 (4.79%) Azure Sentinel
8 6 (4.11%) Microsoft 365
9 5 (3.42%) Power Platform
10 4 (2.74%) GitHub
11 2 (1.37%) Azure DevOps
11 2 (1.37%) Azure ExpressRoute
11 2 (1.37%) Azure Key Vault
11 2 (1.37%) Rubrik
12 1 (0.68%) AWS Direct Connect
12 1 (0.68%) Azure App Service
12 1 (0.68%) GitHub Actions
12 1 (0.68%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 35 (23.97%) Firewall
2 26 (17.81%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
3 22 (15.07%) DNS
4 20 (13.70%) Network Security
5 18 (12.33%) BIG-IP
6 17 (11.64%) WAN
7 13 (8.90%) BGP
7 13 (8.90%) Ethernet VPN
7 13 (8.90%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
7 13 (8.90%) OSPF
7 13 (8.90%) SD-WAN
7 13 (8.90%) VXLAN
8 11 (7.53%) Wi-Fi
8 11 (7.53%) WLAN
9 10 (6.85%) DMZ
10 9 (6.16%) VPN
11 5 (3.42%) LAN
12 3 (2.05%) SAN
12 3 (2.05%) TCP/IP
12 3 (2.05%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (8.90%) Relational Database
2 12 (8.22%) Oracle Database
2 12 (8.22%) Oracle Exadata
2 12 (8.22%) RDBMS
3 4 (2.74%) Power BI
4 2 (1.37%) SQL Server
5 1 (0.68%) Amazon RDS
5 1 (0.68%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 20 (13.70%) GitLab
2 12 (8.22%) Git
3 7 (4.79%) JIRA
4 5 (3.42%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.68%) Claude Code
5 1 (0.68%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 29 (19.86%) Social Skills
2 17 (11.64%) Finance
3 16 (10.96%) Public Sector
4 11 (7.53%) Analytical Skills
5 10 (6.85%) Banking
6 5 (3.42%) Automotive
6 5 (3.42%) Manufacturing
6 5 (3.42%) Military
7 4 (2.74%) Documentation Skills
7 4 (2.74%) Organisational Skills
8 1 (0.68%) Games
8 1 (0.68%) Legal
Job Titles
1 83 (56.85%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 40 (27.40%) Senior
3 36 (24.66%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
4 13 (8.90%) Cloud Engineer
5 10 (6.85%) Network Engineer
5 10 (6.85%) Security Engineer
5 10 (6.85%) VMware Engineer
6 6 (4.11%) Azure Engineer
6 6 (4.11%) Cloud Security Engineer
6 6 (4.11%) Network Infrastructure Engineer
6 6 (4.11%) Project Manager
7 4 (2.74%) Automation Engineer
7 4 (2.74%) Cloud Infrastructure Engineer
7 4 (2.74%) Coordinator
7 4 (2.74%) Project Coordinator
8 3 (2.05%) Architect
8 3 (2.05%) Developer
8 3 (2.05%) IT Manager
8 3 (2.05%) Network Specialist
8 3 (2.05%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 45 (30.82%) Terraform
2 12 (8.22%) Oracle GoldenGate
3 4 (2.74%) JSON
4 3 (2.05%) REST
5 2 (1.37%) Django
5 2 (1.37%) XML
6 1 (0.68%) Flash
6 1 (0.68%) Kafka
6 1 (0.68%) Middleware
6 1 (0.68%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 18 (12.33%) Data Centre
2 14 (9.59%) Public Cloud
3 11 (7.53%) Cloud Native
3 11 (7.53%) Hybrid Cloud
3 11 (7.53%) Management Information System
4 8 (5.48%) Enterprise Cloud
5 6 (4.11%) Security Posture
6 5 (3.42%) Replication
7 3 (2.05%) PKI
7 3 (2.05%) Private Cloud
8 2 (1.37%) Data Protection Act
8 2 (1.37%) Linux Command Line
8 2 (1.37%) Onboarding
8 2 (1.37%) Self-Motivation
9 1 (0.68%) Animation
9 1 (0.68%) Cyber Defence
9 1 (0.68%) Cyber Threat
9 1 (0.68%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
9 1 (0.68%) Driving Licence
9 1 (0.68%) Enterprise Storage
Operating Systems
1 30 (20.55%) Linux
2 15 (10.27%) Windows
3 12 (8.22%) AIX
4 11 (7.53%) Windows Server
5 2 (1.37%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 2 (1.37%) Unix
5 2 (1.37%) Windows Server 2003
6 1 (0.68%) Android
6 1 (0.68%) Windows 10
6 1 (0.68%) Windows 7
6 1 (0.68%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 49 (33.56%) Infrastructure as Code
2 31 (21.23%) Migration
3 29 (19.86%) CI/CD
4 25 (17.12%) Continuous Improvement
5 23 (15.75%) Load Balancing
6 22 (15.07%) Stakeholder Management
7 20 (13.70%) Project Delivery
8 19 (13.01%) DevOps
9 16 (10.96%) Zero Trust
10 15 (10.27%) High Availability
11 14 (9.59%) Cloud Security
11 14 (9.59%) Problem-Solving
12 13 (8.90%) Data Migration
12 13 (8.90%) Infrastructure Automation
12 13 (8.90%) Network Architecture
13 12 (8.22%) Agile
13 12 (8.22%) Change Management
13 12 (8.22%) Site Reliability Engineering
14 11 (7.53%) Network Design
15 10 (6.85%) Cryptography
Programming Languages
1 29 (19.86%) Python
2 15 (10.27%) PowerShell
3 11 (7.53%) Bicep
4 10 (6.85%) Bash
5 3 (2.05%) ActionScript
6 1 (0.68%) C#
6 1 (0.68%) SQL
Qualifications
1 26 (17.81%) Security Cleared
2 19 (13.01%) SC Cleared
3 7 (4.79%) Degree
4 3 (2.05%) CCIE
4 3 (2.05%) CCNP
4 3 (2.05%) Cisco Certification
4 3 (2.05%) CISSP
5 2 (1.37%) (ISC)2 CCSP
5 2 (1.37%) AWS Certification
5 2 (1.37%) CCIE Security
5 2 (1.37%) CCSA
5 2 (1.37%) CCSE
5 2 (1.37%) CCSP
5 2 (1.37%) GCIA
5 2 (1.37%) GCIH
5 2 (1.37%) GIAC
6 1 (0.68%) Azure Certification
6 1 (0.68%) BPSS Clearance
6 1 (0.68%) CISM
6 1 (0.68%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (3.42%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 5 (3.42%) NIST
2 4 (2.74%) Data Quality
2 4 (2.74%) PMO
3 3 (2.05%) GRC
3 3 (2.05%) SLA
4 2 (1.37%) PCI DSS
5 1 (0.68%) QA
System Software
1 15 (10.27%) VMware Infrastructure
2 12 (8.22%) Oracle RAC
3 11 (7.53%) Active Directory
4 4 (2.74%) VMware NSX
5 3 (2.05%) Ceph
5 3 (2.05%) KVM
6 2 (1.37%) Docker
6 2 (1.37%) Virtual Desktop
6 2 (1.37%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.68%) GPFS
7 1 (0.68%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.68%) NFS
Systems Management
1 37 (25.34%) Ansible
2 14 (9.59%) Kubernetes
3 12 (8.22%) Data Guard
3 12 (8.22%) Oracle RMAN
4 4 (2.74%) Progress Chef
5 3 (2.05%) CASB
5 3 (2.05%) Single Sign-On
6 2 (1.37%) Microsoft Intune
6 2 (1.37%) SCCM
6 2 (1.37%) WSUS
7 1 (0.68%) Backup Exec
7 1 (0.68%) Packer
7 1 (0.68%) Puppet
7 1 (0.68%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 28 (19.18%) F5
2 24 (16.44%) Microsoft
3 17 (11.64%) Palo Alto
3 17 (11.64%) VMware
4 14 (9.59%) Oracle
5 11 (7.53%) Arista
5 11 (7.53%) Aruba
6 6 (4.11%) Cisco
7 4 (2.74%) ServiceNow
8 3 (2.05%) AlgoSec
8 3 (2.05%) Red Hat
8 3 (2.05%) Zscaler
9 2 (1.37%) CheckPoint
9 2 (1.37%) Citrix
10 1 (0.68%) Fortinet
10 1 (0.68%) Google
10 1 (0.68%) IBM
10 1 (0.68%) Perforce
10 1 (0.68%) Symantec
10 1 (0.68%) Veeam