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

6 months to
22 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 60 93 64
Rank change year-on-year +33 -29 -8
Contract jobs citing Infrastructure Engineering 141 38 61
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 3.60% 1.71% 2.50%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.36% 1.93% 2.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 92 18 46
10th Percentile £350 £303 £313
25th Percentile £405 £427 £353
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £575 £419
Median % change year-on-year -8.70% +37.31% -6.94%
75th Percentile £614 £638 £530
90th Percentile £682 £641 £643
England median daily rate £541 £525 £500
% change year-on-year +3.08% +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 £74.00 £30.00 £67.50
% change year-on-year +146.67% -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 3,235 1,968 2,048
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 82.55% 88.73% 83.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,896 1,278 1,233
10th Percentile £289 £297 £313
25th Percentile £400 £375 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £455 £500
Median % change year-on-year +9.95% -9.05% -
75th Percentile £594 £575 £588
90th Percentile £680 £671 £679
England median daily rate £525 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 335 131 159
10th Percentile £16.21 £13.50 £10.95
25th Percentile £25.38 £18.16 £16.06
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +78.93% -28.14% +9.80%
75th Percentile £72.28 £53.75 £52.20
90th Percentile £85.00 £72.50 £70.90
England median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £42.50
% change year-on-year +74.79% -40.82% +2.41%

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 22 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 22 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 -14 49 £506 -17.35% 32
Lancashire +19 46 £575 +130.00% 9
Cheshire +26 30 £550 -8.33% 5
Merseyside - 11 £350 - 10
Cumbria -15 4 £350 -33.33%
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 (2.13%) Microsoft Exchange
1 3 (2.13%) OpenStack
2 2 (1.42%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.71%) Confluence
Applications
1 5 (3.55%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (2.13%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (2.13%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 3 (2.13%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.71%) Chatbot
3 1 (0.71%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 1 (0.71%) Primavera
1 1 (0.71%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 48 (34.04%) Azure
2 39 (27.66%) AWS
3 24 (17.02%) OCI
4 11 (7.80%) GCP
5 10 (7.09%) Entra ID
5 10 (7.09%) SaaS
6 7 (4.96%) AWS CloudFormation
6 7 (4.96%) Azure Sentinel
7 6 (4.26%) Microsoft 365
8 5 (3.55%) Azure DevOps
8 5 (3.55%) IaaS
9 4 (2.84%) GitHub
10 3 (2.13%) GitHub Actions
10 3 (2.13%) Power Platform
10 3 (2.13%) Serverless
11 2 (1.42%) Azure ExpressRoute
11 2 (1.42%) Azure Key Vault
11 2 (1.42%) Azure Monitor
11 2 (1.42%) Rubrik
12 1 (0.71%) Azure App Service
Communications & Networking
1 31 (21.99%) Firewall
2 24 (17.02%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
3 20 (14.18%) DNS
4 17 (12.06%) WAN
5 16 (11.35%) BIG-IP
6 15 (10.64%) Network Security
7 13 (9.22%) BGP
7 13 (9.22%) Ethernet VPN
7 13 (9.22%) OSPF
7 13 (9.22%) SD-WAN
7 13 (9.22%) VXLAN
8 11 (7.80%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
8 11 (7.80%) Wi-Fi
8 11 (7.80%) WLAN
9 10 (7.09%) DMZ
10 7 (4.96%) VPN
11 5 (3.55%) LAN
12 3 (2.13%) SAN
12 3 (2.13%) TCP/IP
12 3 (2.13%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (9.22%) Relational Database
2 12 (8.51%) Oracle Database
2 12 (8.51%) Oracle Exadata
2 12 (8.51%) RDBMS
3 2 (1.42%) PostgreSQL
3 2 (1.42%) Power BI
3 2 (1.42%) SQL Server
4 1 (0.71%) Amazon RDS
4 1 (0.71%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 21 (14.89%) GitLab
2 14 (9.93%) Git
3 3 (2.13%) Jenkins
3 3 (2.13%) JIRA
4 1 (0.71%) Claude Code
4 1 (0.71%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 26 (18.44%) Social Skills
2 16 (11.35%) Finance
3 15 (10.64%) Public Sector
4 11 (7.80%) Analytical Skills
5 9 (6.38%) Banking
6 5 (3.55%) Military
7 4 (2.84%) Automotive
7 4 (2.84%) Documentation Skills
7 4 (2.84%) Manufacturing
8 2 (1.42%) Organisational Skills
9 1 (0.71%) Games
9 1 (0.71%) Legal
9 1 (0.71%) Retail
Job Titles
1 78 (55.32%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 37 (26.24%) Senior
3 34 (24.11%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
4 11 (7.80%) Cloud Engineer
5 10 (7.09%) VMware Engineer
6 9 (6.38%) Security Engineer
7 6 (4.26%) Architect
7 6 (4.26%) Azure Engineer
7 6 (4.26%) Cloud Security Engineer
7 6 (4.26%) Network Engineer
7 6 (4.26%) Project Manager
8 5 (3.55%) Lead
8 5 (3.55%) Solutions Architect
9 4 (2.84%) Automation Engineer
9 4 (2.84%) Network Infrastructure Engineer
10 3 (2.13%) Azure Infrastructure Engineer
10 3 (2.13%) LAN Specialist
10 3 (2.13%) Lead Infrastructure Engineer
10 3 (2.13%) Oracle Infrastructure Engineer
10 3 (2.13%) WAN Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 46 (32.62%) Terraform
2 12 (8.51%) Oracle GoldenGate
3 5 (3.55%) REST
4 4 (2.84%) JSON
5 2 (1.42%) Django
5 2 (1.42%) GraphQL
5 2 (1.42%) OAuth
5 2 (1.42%) XML
6 1 (0.71%) ARM Templates
6 1 (0.71%) Flash
6 1 (0.71%) Kafka
6 1 (0.71%) Middleware
6 1 (0.71%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 18 (12.77%) Data Centre
2 11 (7.80%) Hybrid Cloud
2 11 (7.80%) Public Cloud
3 10 (7.09%) Cloud Native
3 10 (7.09%) Management Information System
4 8 (5.67%) Enterprise Cloud
5 5 (3.55%) Replication
5 5 (3.55%) Security Posture
6 3 (2.13%) PKI
6 3 (2.13%) Private Cloud
7 2 (1.42%) Data Protection Act
7 2 (1.42%) Driving Licence
7 2 (1.42%) Linux Command Line
8 1 (0.71%) AI Agents
8 1 (0.71%) Analytical Mindset
8 1 (0.71%) Animation
8 1 (0.71%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 1 (0.71%) Enterprise Storage
8 1 (0.71%) Onboarding
8 1 (0.71%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 31 (21.99%) Linux
2 15 (10.64%) Windows
3 12 (8.51%) AIX
4 10 (7.09%) Windows Server
5 2 (1.42%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 2 (1.42%) Unix
6 1 (0.71%) CentOS
6 1 (0.71%) Ubuntu
6 1 (0.71%) Windows Server 2003
6 1 (0.71%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 52 (36.88%) Infrastructure as Code
2 33 (23.40%) Migration
3 31 (21.99%) CI/CD
4 24 (17.02%) DevOps
5 23 (16.31%) Load Balancing
6 19 (13.48%) Continuous Improvement
6 19 (13.48%) Project Delivery
6 19 (13.48%) Stakeholder Management
7 17 (12.06%) High Availability
7 17 (12.06%) Zero Trust
8 13 (9.22%) Cloud Security
8 13 (9.22%) Network Architecture
9 12 (8.51%) Change Management
9 12 (8.51%) Data Migration
9 12 (8.51%) Site Reliability Engineering
10 11 (7.80%) Network Design
10 11 (7.80%) Problem-Solving
11 10 (7.09%) Agile
11 10 (7.09%) Cryptography
11 10 (7.09%) Infrastructure Automation
Programming Languages
1 26 (18.44%) Python
2 14 (9.93%) Bicep
3 13 (9.22%) PowerShell
4 11 (7.80%) Bash
5 1 (0.71%) ActionScript
5 1 (0.71%) C#
5 1 (0.71%) SQL
Qualifications
1 23 (16.31%) Security Cleared
2 16 (11.35%) SC Cleared
3 7 (4.96%) Degree
4 3 (2.13%) Azure Certification
4 3 (2.13%) CCIE
4 3 (2.13%) CCNP
4 3 (2.13%) Cisco Certification
4 3 (2.13%) CISSP
5 2 (1.42%) (ISC)2 CCSP
5 2 (1.42%) AWS Certification
5 2 (1.42%) CCIE Security
5 2 (1.42%) CCSA
5 2 (1.42%) CCSE
5 2 (1.42%) CCSP
5 2 (1.42%) GCIA
5 2 (1.42%) GCIH
5 2 (1.42%) GIAC
6 1 (0.71%) CISM
6 1 (0.71%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (4.96%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 7 (4.96%) NIST
2 3 (2.13%) GRC
3 2 (1.42%) PCI DSS
3 2 (1.42%) SLA
4 1 (0.71%) Data Quality
4 1 (0.71%) PMO
System Software
1 16 (11.35%) VMware Infrastructure
2 12 (8.51%) Active Directory
2 12 (8.51%) Oracle RAC
3 7 (4.96%) Docker
4 5 (3.55%) Virtual Machines
5 4 (2.84%) VMware NSX
6 3 (2.13%) Ceph
6 3 (2.13%) Hyper-V
6 3 (2.13%) KVM
6 3 (2.13%) Virtual Desktop
7 1 (0.71%) GPFS
7 1 (0.71%) NFS
Systems Management
1 35 (24.82%) Ansible
2 19 (13.48%) Kubernetes
3 12 (8.51%) Data Guard
3 12 (8.51%) Oracle RMAN
4 4 (2.84%) Single Sign-On
5 3 (2.13%) Progress Chef
6 2 (1.42%) CASB
6 2 (1.42%) Grafana
6 2 (1.42%) Microsoft Intune
6 2 (1.42%) Prometheus
6 2 (1.42%) Puppet
6 2 (1.42%) WSUS
7 1 (0.71%) Argo
7 1 (0.71%) Backup Exec
7 1 (0.71%) Packer
7 1 (0.71%) SCCM
7 1 (0.71%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 26 (18.44%) F5
2 24 (17.02%) Microsoft
3 18 (12.77%) VMware
4 16 (11.35%) Palo Alto
5 14 (9.93%) Oracle
6 11 (7.80%) Arista
7 10 (7.09%) Aruba
8 5 (3.55%) Cisco
9 4 (2.84%) Red Hat
9 4 (2.84%) ServiceNow
10 2 (1.42%) AlgoSec
10 2 (1.42%) CheckPoint
10 2 (1.42%) Citrix
10 2 (1.42%) Zscaler
11 1 (0.71%) DocuSign
11 1 (0.71%) IBM
11 1 (0.71%) Perforce
11 1 (0.71%) Symantec
11 1 (0.71%) Tanium
11 1 (0.71%) Veeam