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 9 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
9 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 46 98 72
Rank change year-on-year +52 -26 -12
Contract jobs citing Infrastructure Engineering 165 33 44
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 4.16% 1.50% 1.81%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.02% 1.69% 2.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 110 18 28
10th Percentile £350 £294 £352
25th Percentile £413 £414 £394
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £486 £450
Median % change year-on-year +13.17% +8.00% -
75th Percentile £631 £638 £534
90th Percentile £688 £673 £653
England median daily rate £550 £500 £513
% change year-on-year +10.00% -2.44% +2.50%
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 £71.74 £32.00 £70.00
% change year-on-year +124.20% -54.29% -

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 3,284 1,949 2,029
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 82.80% 88.55% 83.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,853 1,287 1,107
10th Percentile £300 £261 £294
25th Percentile £403 £363 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £450 £475
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% -5.26% -5.00%
75th Percentile £600 £575 £575
90th Percentile £675 £680 £656
England median daily rate £525 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 363 143 111
10th Percentile £14.33 £13.91 £16.50
25th Percentile £21.14 £17.30 £29.00
Median hourly rate £47.50 £25.15 £40.33
Median % change year-on-year +88.90% -37.64% +18.60%
75th Percentile £72.71 £47.12 £62.50
90th Percentile £85.00 £67.25 £73.56
England median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £42.50
% change year-on-year +59.05% -40.82% -4.49%

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 9 October 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 9 October 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 9 October 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
Manchester -3 57 £525 -14.29% 101
Lancashire +15 51 £575 +130.00% 15
Cheshire +39 38 £474 +45.85% 11
Merseyside +2 12 £350 - 16
Cumbria - 6 £419 - 1
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 (1.82%) OpenStack
1 3 (1.82%) SharePoint
2 2 (1.21%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.61%) Apache Airflow
3 1 (0.61%) Confluence
Applications
1 7 (4.24%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (2.42%) Microsoft Office
3 3 (1.82%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 3 (1.82%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.61%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 1 (0.61%) Primavera
1 1 (0.61%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 41 (24.85%) AWS
1 41 (24.85%) Azure
2 24 (14.55%) OCI
3 15 (9.09%) Entra ID
4 11 (6.67%) AWS CloudFormation
4 11 (6.67%) IaaS
5 10 (6.06%) GCP
5 10 (6.06%) SaaS
6 7 (4.24%) Azure Sentinel
6 7 (4.24%) GitHub
7 6 (3.64%) Microsoft 365
8 5 (3.03%) Power Platform
9 3 (1.82%) Azure Key Vault
10 2 (1.21%) Azure DevOps
10 2 (1.21%) Azure ExpressRoute
10 2 (1.21%) Rubrik
11 1 (0.61%) Azure AKS
11 1 (0.61%) Azure Monitor
11 1 (0.61%) GitHub Actions
11 1 (0.61%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 40 (24.24%) Firewall
2 31 (18.79%) Network Security
3 27 (16.36%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
4 26 (15.76%) DNS
5 23 (13.94%) BIG-IP
6 17 (10.30%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
6 17 (10.30%) WAN
7 13 (7.88%) SD-WAN
8 12 (7.27%) BGP
8 12 (7.27%) Ethernet VPN
8 12 (7.27%) OSPF
8 12 (7.27%) VPN
8 12 (7.27%) VXLAN
9 11 (6.67%) DMZ
9 11 (6.67%) Wi-Fi
9 11 (6.67%) WLAN
10 5 (3.03%) LAN
11 3 (1.82%) SAN
11 3 (1.82%) TCP/IP
11 3 (1.82%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (7.88%) Oracle Database
1 13 (7.88%) Relational Database
2 12 (7.27%) Oracle Exadata
2 12 (7.27%) RDBMS
3 4 (2.42%) Power BI
4 3 (1.82%) SQL Server
5 1 (0.61%) Amazon RDS
5 1 (0.61%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 21 (12.73%) GitLab
2 12 (7.27%) Git
3 8 (4.85%) Jenkins
4 7 (4.24%) JIRA
5 1 (0.61%) Claude Code
5 1 (0.61%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 34 (20.61%) Social Skills
2 24 (14.55%) Finance
3 17 (10.30%) Public Sector
4 14 (8.48%) Analytical Skills
5 13 (7.88%) Banking
6 5 (3.03%) Automotive
6 5 (3.03%) Documentation Skills
6 5 (3.03%) Manufacturing
7 4 (2.42%) Military
7 4 (2.42%) Organisational Skills
8 3 (1.82%) Legal
9 1 (0.61%) Billing
9 1 (0.61%) Games
9 1 (0.61%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 93 (56.36%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 41 (24.85%) Senior
3 37 (22.42%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
4 14 (8.48%) Cloud Engineer
5 13 (7.88%) Network Engineer
5 13 (7.88%) Security Engineer
6 11 (6.67%) VMware Engineer
7 6 (3.64%) Azure Engineer
7 6 (3.64%) Cloud Security Engineer
7 6 (3.64%) Network Infrastructure Engineer
7 6 (3.64%) Project Manager
8 5 (3.03%) Cloud Infrastructure Engineer
8 5 (3.03%) Network Security Engineer
9 4 (2.42%) Automation Engineer
9 4 (2.42%) Coordinator
9 4 (2.42%) Lead
9 4 (2.42%) Project Coordinator
10 3 (1.82%) LAN Specialist
10 3 (1.82%) Lead Infrastructure Engineer
10 3 (1.82%) WAN Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 52 (31.52%) Terraform
2 12 (7.27%) Oracle GoldenGate
3 4 (2.42%) JSON
4 3 (1.82%) REST
5 2 (1.21%) Django
5 2 (1.21%) XML
6 1 (0.61%) Flash
6 1 (0.61%) Kafka
6 1 (0.61%) LDAP
6 1 (0.61%) Middleware
6 1 (0.61%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 21 (12.73%) Data Centre
2 15 (9.09%) Public Cloud
3 13 (7.88%) Cloud Native
4 12 (7.27%) Management Information System
5 11 (6.67%) Hybrid Cloud
6 9 (5.45%) Enterprise Cloud
6 9 (5.45%) Security Posture
7 6 (3.64%) Onboarding
7 6 (3.64%) Replication
8 5 (3.03%) PKI
8 5 (3.03%) Self-Motivation
9 4 (2.42%) Cyber Defence
9 4 (2.42%) Cyber Threat
10 3 (1.82%) Private Cloud
11 2 (1.21%) Data Protection Act
11 2 (1.21%) Linux Command Line
12 1 (0.61%) Animation
12 1 (0.61%) Enterprise Software
12 1 (0.61%) Enterprise Storage
12 1 (0.61%) Smartphone
Operating Systems
1 32 (19.39%) Linux
2 17 (10.30%) Windows
3 13 (7.88%) Windows Server
4 12 (7.27%) AIX
5 3 (1.82%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (1.21%) Unix
6 2 (1.21%) Windows Server 2003
6 2 (1.21%) Windows Server 2019
7 1 (0.61%) Android
7 1 (0.61%) Windows 10
7 1 (0.61%) Windows 7
7 1 (0.61%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 56 (33.94%) Infrastructure as Code
2 35 (21.21%) CI/CD
3 34 (20.61%) Migration
4 30 (18.18%) Continuous Improvement
5 27 (16.36%) Stakeholder Management
6 23 (13.94%) DevOps
6 23 (13.94%) Load Balancing
7 20 (12.12%) Problem-Solving
8 19 (11.52%) Cloud Security
8 19 (11.52%) Zero Trust
9 17 (10.30%) Infrastructure Automation
9 17 (10.30%) Project Delivery
10 16 (9.70%) Agile
11 15 (9.09%) High Availability
11 15 (9.09%) Network Architecture
12 14 (8.48%) Risk Management
13 13 (7.88%) Cybersecurity
13 13 (7.88%) Data Migration
13 13 (7.88%) ITIL
13 13 (7.88%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 36 (21.82%) Python
2 19 (11.52%) PowerShell
3 12 (7.27%) Bash
3 12 (7.27%) Bicep
4 6 (3.64%) ActionScript
5 1 (0.61%) C#
5 1 (0.61%) SQL
Qualifications
1 27 (16.36%) Security Cleared
2 20 (12.12%) SC Cleared
3 7 (4.24%) Degree
4 3 (1.82%) AWS Certification
4 3 (1.82%) BPSS Clearance
4 3 (1.82%) CCIE
4 3 (1.82%) CCNP
4 3 (1.82%) Cisco Certification
4 3 (1.82%) CISSP
5 2 (1.21%) (ISC)2 CCSP
5 2 (1.21%) CCIE Security
5 2 (1.21%) CCSA
5 2 (1.21%) CCSE
5 2 (1.21%) CCSP
5 2 (1.21%) GCIA
5 2 (1.21%) GCIH
5 2 (1.21%) GIAC
6 1 (0.61%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
6 1 (0.61%) CISM
6 1 (0.61%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (4.24%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 7 (4.24%) NIST
2 4 (2.42%) Data Quality
2 4 (2.42%) PCI DSS
2 4 (2.42%) PMO
3 3 (1.82%) GRC
3 3 (1.82%) SLA
4 2 (1.21%) QA
System Software
1 16 (9.70%) VMware Infrastructure
2 15 (9.09%) Active Directory
3 12 (7.27%) Oracle RAC
4 4 (2.42%) VMware NSX
5 3 (1.82%) Ceph
5 3 (1.82%) Docker
5 3 (1.82%) KVM
6 2 (1.21%) Virtual Desktop
6 2 (1.21%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.61%) GPFS
7 1 (0.61%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.61%) NFS
Systems Management
1 39 (23.64%) Ansible
2 15 (9.09%) Kubernetes
3 13 (7.88%) Data Guard
4 12 (7.27%) Oracle RMAN
5 6 (3.64%) Progress Chef
6 4 (2.42%) Single Sign-On
7 3 (1.82%) CASB
8 2 (1.21%) Microsoft Intune
8 2 (1.21%) SCCM
8 2 (1.21%) WSUS
9 1 (0.61%) Backup Exec
9 1 (0.61%) Grafana
9 1 (0.61%) Packer
9 1 (0.61%) Prometheus
9 1 (0.61%) Puppet
9 1 (0.61%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 34 (20.61%) F5
2 29 (17.58%) Microsoft
3 18 (10.91%) VMware
4 16 (9.70%) Palo Alto
5 15 (9.09%) Oracle
6 11 (6.67%) Aruba
7 10 (6.06%) Arista
8 6 (3.64%) Cisco
9 4 (2.42%) Red Hat
9 4 (2.42%) ServiceNow
10 3 (1.82%) AlgoSec
10 3 (1.82%) BeyondTrust
10 3 (1.82%) Zscaler
11 2 (1.21%) CheckPoint
11 2 (1.21%) Citrix
11 2 (1.21%) Okta
12 1 (0.61%) IBM
12 1 (0.61%) Perforce
12 1 (0.61%) Symantec
12 1 (0.61%) Veeam