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 26 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 60 96 64
Rank change year-on-year +36 -32 -7
Contract jobs citing Infrastructure Engineering 144 36 61
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 3.66% 1.62% 2.50%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.43% 1.83% 2.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 95 16 46
10th Percentile £350 £288 £313
25th Percentile £404 £397 £353
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £575 £419
Median % change year-on-year -8.70% +37.31% -6.94%
75th Percentile £615 £638 £530
90th Percentile £667 £644 £643
England median daily rate £545 £525 £500
% change year-on-year +3.81% +5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 1 2
Median hourly rate £33.64 £27.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +24.59% -40.00% -
England median hourly rate £73.27 £30.00 £67.50
% change year-on-year +144.23% -55.56% -6.90%

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 3,253 1,967 2,052
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 82.73% 88.56% 83.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,907 1,274 1,228
10th Percentile £295 £299 £311
25th Percentile £400 £375 £404
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £455 £500
Median % change year-on-year +9.95% -9.05% -
75th Percentile £594 £575 £588
90th Percentile £678 £671 £675
England median daily rate £525 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 334 132 151
10th Percentile £16.50 £13.50 £10.95
25th Percentile £25.38 £17.44 £16.06
Median hourly rate £45.25 £26.08 £35.36
Median % change year-on-year +73.54% -26.26% +1.03%
75th Percentile £72.92 £53.13 £54.00
90th Percentile £85.00 £72.50 £70.90
England median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +74.79% -41.51% +1.18%

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 26 August 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
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 26 August 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 -13 49 £506 -15.63% 32
Lancashire +19 46 £575 +130.00% 6
Cheshire +32 33 £550 -8.33% 2
Merseyside - 11 £350 - 8
Cumbria - 4 £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 (2.08%) Microsoft Exchange
1 3 (2.08%) OpenStack
2 2 (1.39%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.69%) Confluence
Applications
1 5 (3.47%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (2.08%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (2.08%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 3 (2.08%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.69%) Chatbot
3 1 (0.69%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 1 (0.69%) Primavera
1 1 (0.69%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 48 (33.33%) Azure
2 40 (27.78%) AWS
3 24 (16.67%) OCI
4 11 (7.64%) GCP
5 10 (6.94%) Entra ID
5 10 (6.94%) SaaS
6 8 (5.56%) AWS CloudFormation
7 7 (4.86%) Azure Sentinel
8 6 (4.17%) Microsoft 365
9 5 (3.47%) Azure DevOps
9 5 (3.47%) IaaS
10 4 (2.78%) GitHub
11 3 (2.08%) GitHub Actions
11 3 (2.08%) Power Platform
11 3 (2.08%) Serverless
12 2 (1.39%) Azure ExpressRoute
12 2 (1.39%) Azure Key Vault
12 2 (1.39%) Azure Monitor
12 2 (1.39%) Rubrik
13 1 (0.69%) Azure App Service
Communications & Networking
1 32 (22.22%) Firewall
2 24 (16.67%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
3 20 (13.89%) DNS
4 17 (11.81%) WAN
5 16 (11.11%) BIG-IP
5 16 (11.11%) Network Security
6 13 (9.03%) BGP
6 13 (9.03%) Ethernet VPN
6 13 (9.03%) OSPF
6 13 (9.03%) SD-WAN
6 13 (9.03%) VXLAN
7 11 (7.64%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
7 11 (7.64%) Wi-Fi
7 11 (7.64%) WLAN
8 10 (6.94%) DMZ
9 7 (4.86%) VPN
10 5 (3.47%) LAN
11 3 (2.08%) SAN
11 3 (2.08%) TCP/IP
11 3 (2.08%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (9.03%) Relational Database
2 12 (8.33%) Oracle Database
2 12 (8.33%) Oracle Exadata
2 12 (8.33%) RDBMS
3 2 (1.39%) PostgreSQL
3 2 (1.39%) Power BI
3 2 (1.39%) SQL Server
4 1 (0.69%) Amazon RDS
4 1 (0.69%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 21 (14.58%) GitLab
2 14 (9.72%) Git
3 3 (2.08%) Jenkins
3 3 (2.08%) JIRA
4 1 (0.69%) Claude Code
4 1 (0.69%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 28 (19.44%) Social Skills
2 16 (11.11%) Finance
3 15 (10.42%) Public Sector
4 12 (8.33%) Analytical Skills
5 10 (6.94%) Banking
6 5 (3.47%) Automotive
6 5 (3.47%) Manufacturing
6 5 (3.47%) Military
7 4 (2.78%) Documentation Skills
8 2 (1.39%) Organisational Skills
9 1 (0.69%) Games
9 1 (0.69%) Legal
9 1 (0.69%) Retail
Job Titles
1 79 (54.86%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 38 (26.39%) Senior
3 34 (23.61%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
4 11 (7.64%) Cloud Engineer
5 10 (6.94%) VMware Engineer
6 9 (6.25%) Security Engineer
7 7 (4.86%) Network Engineer
7 7 (4.86%) Project Manager
8 6 (4.17%) Architect
8 6 (4.17%) Azure Engineer
8 6 (4.17%) Cloud Security Engineer
9 5 (3.47%) Lead
9 5 (3.47%) Solutions Architect
10 4 (2.78%) Automation Engineer
10 4 (2.78%) Network Infrastructure Engineer
11 3 (2.08%) Azure Infrastructure Engineer
11 3 (2.08%) LAN Specialist
11 3 (2.08%) Lead Infrastructure Engineer
11 3 (2.08%) Oracle Infrastructure Engineer
11 3 (2.08%) WAN Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 48 (33.33%) Terraform
2 12 (8.33%) Oracle GoldenGate
3 5 (3.47%) REST
4 4 (2.78%) JSON
5 2 (1.39%) Django
5 2 (1.39%) GraphQL
5 2 (1.39%) OAuth
5 2 (1.39%) XML
6 1 (0.69%) ARM Templates
6 1 (0.69%) Flash
6 1 (0.69%) Kafka
6 1 (0.69%) Middleware
6 1 (0.69%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 18 (12.50%) Data Centre
2 11 (7.64%) Hybrid Cloud
2 11 (7.64%) Public Cloud
3 10 (6.94%) Cloud Native
3 10 (6.94%) Management Information System
4 8 (5.56%) Enterprise Cloud
5 5 (3.47%) Replication
5 5 (3.47%) Security Posture
6 3 (2.08%) PKI
6 3 (2.08%) Private Cloud
7 2 (1.39%) Data Protection Act
7 2 (1.39%) Driving Licence
7 2 (1.39%) Linux Command Line
8 1 (0.69%) AI Agents
8 1 (0.69%) Analytical Mindset
8 1 (0.69%) Animation
8 1 (0.69%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 1 (0.69%) Enterprise Storage
8 1 (0.69%) Onboarding
8 1 (0.69%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 31 (21.53%) Linux
2 15 (10.42%) Windows
3 12 (8.33%) AIX
4 10 (6.94%) Windows Server
5 2 (1.39%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 2 (1.39%) Unix
6 1 (0.69%) CentOS
6 1 (0.69%) Ubuntu
6 1 (0.69%) Windows Server 2003
6 1 (0.69%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 53 (36.81%) Infrastructure as Code
2 34 (23.61%) Migration
3 31 (21.53%) CI/CD
4 24 (16.67%) DevOps
5 23 (15.97%) Load Balancing
6 21 (14.58%) Stakeholder Management
7 20 (13.89%) Continuous Improvement
8 19 (13.19%) Project Delivery
9 17 (11.81%) High Availability
9 17 (11.81%) Zero Trust
10 14 (9.72%) Cloud Security
11 13 (9.03%) Data Migration
11 13 (9.03%) Network Architecture
12 12 (8.33%) Change Management
12 12 (8.33%) Problem-Solving
12 12 (8.33%) Site Reliability Engineering
13 11 (7.64%) Infrastructure Automation
13 11 (7.64%) Network Design
14 10 (6.94%) Agile
14 10 (6.94%) Cryptography
Programming Languages
1 27 (18.75%) Python
2 14 (9.72%) Bicep
2 14 (9.72%) PowerShell
3 12 (8.33%) Bash
4 1 (0.69%) ActionScript
4 1 (0.69%) C#
4 1 (0.69%) SQL
Qualifications
1 23 (15.97%) Security Cleared
2 16 (11.11%) SC Cleared
3 7 (4.86%) Degree
4 3 (2.08%) Azure Certification
4 3 (2.08%) CCIE
4 3 (2.08%) CCNP
4 3 (2.08%) Cisco Certification
4 3 (2.08%) CISSP
5 2 (1.39%) (ISC)2 CCSP
5 2 (1.39%) AWS Certification
5 2 (1.39%) CCIE Security
5 2 (1.39%) CCSA
5 2 (1.39%) CCSE
5 2 (1.39%) CCSP
5 2 (1.39%) GCIA
5 2 (1.39%) GCIH
5 2 (1.39%) GIAC
6 1 (0.69%) CISM
6 1 (0.69%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (4.86%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 7 (4.86%) NIST
2 3 (2.08%) GRC
3 2 (1.39%) PCI DSS
3 2 (1.39%) SLA
4 1 (0.69%) Data Quality
4 1 (0.69%) PMO
System Software
1 16 (11.11%) VMware Infrastructure
2 12 (8.33%) Active Directory
2 12 (8.33%) Oracle RAC
3 7 (4.86%) Docker
4 5 (3.47%) Virtual Machines
5 4 (2.78%) VMware NSX
6 3 (2.08%) Ceph
6 3 (2.08%) Hyper-V
6 3 (2.08%) KVM
6 3 (2.08%) Virtual Desktop
7 1 (0.69%) GPFS
7 1 (0.69%) NFS
Systems Management
1 36 (25.00%) Ansible
2 19 (13.19%) Kubernetes
3 12 (8.33%) Data Guard
3 12 (8.33%) Oracle RMAN
4 4 (2.78%) Progress Chef
4 4 (2.78%) Single Sign-On
5 2 (1.39%) CASB
5 2 (1.39%) Grafana
5 2 (1.39%) Microsoft Intune
5 2 (1.39%) Prometheus
5 2 (1.39%) Puppet
5 2 (1.39%) WSUS
6 1 (0.69%) Argo
6 1 (0.69%) Backup Exec
6 1 (0.69%) Packer
6 1 (0.69%) SCCM
6 1 (0.69%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 26 (18.06%) F5
2 25 (17.36%) Microsoft
3 18 (12.50%) VMware
4 16 (11.11%) Palo Alto
5 14 (9.72%) Oracle
6 11 (7.64%) Arista
7 10 (6.94%) Aruba
8 5 (3.47%) Cisco
9 4 (2.78%) Red Hat
9 4 (2.78%) ServiceNow
10 3 (2.08%) AlgoSec
11 2 (1.39%) CheckPoint
11 2 (1.39%) Citrix
11 2 (1.39%) Zscaler
12 1 (0.69%) DocuSign
12 1 (0.69%) IBM
12 1 (0.69%) Perforce
12 1 (0.69%) Symantec
12 1 (0.69%) Tanium
12 1 (0.69%) Veeam