Infrastructure Automation Contract Job Trends

Infrastructure Automation
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Infrastructure Automation skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 15 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 265 256 372
Rank change year-on-year -9 +116 +100
Contract jobs citing Infrastructure Automation 548 335 193
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.01% 1.03% 0.51%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.19% 1.14% 0.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 378 213 128
10th Percentile £400 £359 £331
25th Percentile £440 £413 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £538 £500 £505
Median % change year-on-year +7.50% -0.99% -8.18%
75th Percentile £630 £613 £602
90th Percentile £750 £710 £683
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £503 £425
% change year-on-year -0.50% +18.24% -22.73%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 4 0
10th Percentile - £55.48 -
25th Percentile £33.70 £59.19 -
Median hourly rate £56.75 £64.50 -
Median % change year-on-year -12.02% - -
75th Percentile £77.50 £71.56 -
90th Percentile - £79.33 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £52.50 £72.75 -
% change year-on-year -27.84% - -

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK

Infrastructure Automation 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.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 45,945 29,375 32,666
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.44% 90.50% 85.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,954 18,237 20,159
10th Percentile £325 £300 £310
25th Percentile £425 £403 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.78%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,063 1,777 1,475
10th Percentile £13.85 £14.23 £14.84
25th Percentile £17.42 £17.30 £20.00
Median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +59.05% -41.51% +1.18%
75th Percentile £67.47 £43.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £79.00 £66.70 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.08 £22.50 £43.00
% change year-on-year +78.13% -47.67% +6.17%

Infrastructure Automation
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Infrastructure Automation relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Infrastructure Automation job vacancy trend in the UK

Infrastructure Automation
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Infrastructure Automation.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Infrastructure Automation

Infrastructure Automation
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Infrastructure Automation over the 6 months to 15 September 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Infrastructure Automation in the UK

Infrastructure Automation
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Infrastructure Automation.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Infrastructure Automation

Infrastructure Automation
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Infrastructure Automation over the 6 months to 15 September 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Infrastructure Automation in the UK

Infrastructure Automation
Top 18 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Infrastructure Automation within the UK over the 6 months to 15 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
England -6 453 £550 +7.06% 574
UK excluding London -14 247 £500 -0.50% 284
London -21 221 £575 +12.20% 318
Work from Home -25 159 £465 -1.85% 205
North of England -50 86 £500 - 97
South East -24 60 £575 +15.00% 87
North West -16 52 £525 -14.29% 47
Midlands -25 31 £450 -36.84% 29
Yorkshire -46 29 £500 - 35
South West -35 26 £569 -1.09% 25
Scotland -12 23 £425 -15.00% 21
West Midlands -39 22 £450 -37.93% 14
East Midlands -4 9 £425 -39.29% 15
East of England -26 9 £550 +4.76% 18
Wales -8 7 £465 - 2
North East - 5 £375 - 16
Northern Ireland - 4 £446 - 5
Channel Islands - 1 - -

Infrastructure Automation
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 16 (2.92%) Confluence
2 15 (2.74%) Apache Airflow
3 13 (2.37%) Apache Spark
4 10 (1.82%) Apache
5 9 (1.64%) SharePoint
6 8 (1.46%) Microsoft Exchange
7 5 (0.91%) Jupyter
8 4 (0.73%) FactoryTalk
9 2 (0.36%) nginx
9 2 (0.36%) Palantir Foundry
10 1 (0.18%) OpenStack
10 1 (0.18%) Oracle SOA Suite
10 1 (0.18%) SAS
10 1 (0.18%) WebLogic
10 1 (0.18%) WebLogic Portal
Applications
1 3 (0.55%) AutoCAD
1 3 (0.55%) Chatbot
2 1 (0.18%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (0.18%) Dynamics CRM
1 1 (0.18%) Oracle Applications
1 1 (0.18%) Oracle EBS
1 1 (0.18%) Oracle EBS R12
1 1 (0.18%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 283 (51.64%) Azure
2 240 (43.80%) AWS
3 118 (21.53%) GCP
4 98 (17.88%) GitHub
5 93 (16.97%) Azure DevOps
6 65 (11.86%) GitHub Actions
7 54 (9.85%) Entra ID
8 50 (9.12%) AWS CloudFormation
9 47 (8.58%) Amazon S3
10 45 (8.21%) Azure AKS
11 41 (7.48%) Azure Monitor
11 41 (7.48%) Serverless
12 36 (6.57%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 36 (6.57%) OpenShift
13 31 (5.66%) AWS Lambda
14 29 (5.29%) Amazon EC2
14 29 (5.29%) Virtual Private Cloud
15 28 (5.11%) Amazon EKS
16 24 (4.38%) Google Kubernetes Engine
17 14 (2.55%) Amazon ECS
Communications & Networking
1 56 (10.22%) Firewall
2 48 (8.76%) DNS
3 38 (6.93%) Network Security
4 30 (5.47%) VPN
5 27 (4.93%) TCP/IP
6 23 (4.20%) DHCP
7 22 (4.01%) VLAN
8 19 (3.47%) WAN
9 14 (2.55%) BGP
10 12 (2.19%) SAN
11 11 (2.01%) NAS
11 11 (2.01%) SD-WAN
12 10 (1.82%) MPLS
13 8 (1.46%) VSAN
14 7 (1.28%) HTTP
14 7 (1.28%) OSPF
14 7 (1.28%) SSL
15 6 (1.09%) Fibre Channel
15 6 (1.09%) iSCSI
16 4 (0.73%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (3.65%) PostgreSQL
2 19 (3.47%) Amazon RDS
3 16 (2.92%) Relational Database
4 15 (2.74%) DynamoDB
4 15 (2.74%) SQL Server
5 11 (2.01%) Oracle Database
6 9 (1.64%) Data Warehouse
7 8 (1.46%) MongoDB
7 8 (1.46%) Power BI
8 7 (1.28%) Data Lake
8 7 (1.28%) RDBMS
9 6 (1.09%) Amazon Redshift
9 6 (1.09%) Data Vault
9 6 (1.09%) Oracle Exadata
10 5 (0.91%) Flink
10 5 (0.91%) Metadata
10 5 (0.91%) NoSQL
10 5 (0.91%) Snowflake Schema
11 4 (0.73%) Oracle Database 12c
12 3 (0.55%) Azure SQL Database
Development Applications
1 120 (21.90%) Git
2 77 (14.05%) GitLab
3 68 (12.41%) Jenkins
4 19 (3.47%) JIRA
5 12 (2.19%) Claude Code
5 12 (2.19%) SonarQube
6 10 (1.82%) Bitbucket
6 10 (1.82%) Sonatype Nexus
7 4 (0.73%) JUnit
8 3 (0.55%) Artifactory
9 2 (0.36%) Atlassian Bamboo
9 2 (0.36%) Cucumber
9 2 (0.36%) Maven
9 2 (0.36%) Mockito
9 2 (0.36%) Selenium
9 2 (0.36%) Snyk
9 2 (0.36%) Spinnaker
9 2 (0.36%) Zephyr
10 1 (0.18%) Postman
10 1 (0.18%) REST Assured
General
1 130 (23.72%) Social Skills
2 101 (18.43%) Finance
3 57 (10.40%) Public Sector
4 52 (9.49%) Analytical Skills
5 31 (5.66%) Banking
6 20 (3.65%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 16 (2.92%) Documentation Skills
8 11 (2.01%) Military
9 10 (1.82%) Telecoms
10 8 (1.46%) Pharmaceutical
11 5 (0.91%) Games
11 5 (0.91%) Law
12 4 (0.73%) Automotive
12 4 (0.73%) Financial Institution
12 4 (0.73%) Influencing Skills
12 4 (0.73%) Manufacturing
12 4 (0.73%) Organisational Skills
13 3 (0.55%) Aerospace
14 2 (0.36%) Advertising
14 2 (0.36%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 115 (20.99%) DevOps Engineer
2 79 (14.42%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 76 (13.87%) Senior
4 59 (10.77%) Cloud Engineer
5 49 (8.94%) Lead
5 49 (8.94%) Platform Engineer
6 46 (8.39%) Azure Engineer
7 44 (8.03%) Architect
8 34 (6.20%) Automation Engineer
9 31 (5.66%) AWS Engineer
10 28 (5.11%) Azure DevOps Engineer
11 26 (4.74%) Security Engineer
12 24 (4.38%) Network Engineer
12 24 (4.38%) Senior DevOps
12 24 (4.38%) Senior DevOps Engineer
13 22 (4.01%) Kubernetes Engineer
14 20 (3.65%) Cloud Platform Engineer
15 19 (3.47%) Data Engineer
15 19 (3.47%) Developer
16 18 (3.28%) AWS DevOps
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 315 (57.48%) Terraform
2 36 (6.57%) REST
3 27 (4.93%) Kafka
4 26 (4.74%) OAuth
5 24 (4.38%) YAML
6 22 (4.01%) OpenID
7 19 (3.47%) ARM Templates
8 14 (2.55%) .NET
8 14 (2.55%) OAuth2
9 13 (2.37%) RESTful
10 12 (2.19%) Elastic Stack
10 12 (2.19%) JSON
10 12 (2.19%) Spring
10 12 (2.19%) Spring Boot
11 11 (2.01%) React
12 10 (1.82%) LDAP
12 10 (1.82%) Web Services
13 9 (1.64%) Django
13 9 (1.64%) Middleware
13 9 (1.64%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 137 (25.00%) Cloud Native
2 33 (6.02%) Hybrid Cloud
3 32 (5.84%) Data Centre
4 31 (5.66%) Security Posture
5 29 (5.29%) Public Cloud
6 27 (4.93%) Distributed Systems
7 22 (4.01%) Linux Command Line
7 22 (4.01%) Onboarding
8 21 (3.83%) Enterprise Cloud
9 18 (3.28%) PKI
10 16 (2.92%) Management Information System
11 15 (2.74%) Private Cloud
12 14 (2.55%) Cloud Security Posture
13 11 (2.01%) Data Protection Act
13 11 (2.01%) Enterprise Software
14 9 (1.64%) Virtual Team
15 8 (1.46%) Distributed Applications
16 7 (1.28%) Enterprise Storage
16 7 (1.28%) Product Ownership
16 7 (1.28%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 133 (24.27%) Linux
2 83 (15.15%) Windows
3 38 (6.93%) Windows Server
4 36 (6.57%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 21 (3.83%) Unix
6 9 (1.64%) Ubuntu
7 6 (1.09%) AIX
8 5 (0.91%) Windows Server 2019
9 4 (0.73%) VMS
10 3 (0.55%) CentOS
10 3 (0.55%) Windows Server 2016
11 2 (0.36%) Mac OS
12 1 (0.18%) Android
12 1 (0.18%) Apple iOS
12 1 (0.18%) Debian
12 1 (0.18%) Solaris
12 1 (0.18%) Windows 10
12 1 (0.18%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 339 (61.86%) CI/CD
2 308 (56.20%) Infrastructure as Code
3 294 (53.65%) DevOps
4 156 (28.47%) Containerisation
5 139 (25.36%) Platform Engineering
6 134 (24.45%) Agile
7 131 (23.91%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 105 (19.16%) Observability
9 103 (18.80%) Problem-Solving
10 84 (15.33%) Migration
11 79 (14.42%) AI
12 72 (13.14%) Analytics
13 68 (12.41%) Stakeholder Management
14 67 (12.23%) Cloud Security
15 66 (12.04%) Configuration Management
16 62 (11.31%) Continuous Improvement
16 62 (11.31%) High Availability
17 60 (10.95%) Disaster Recovery
18 59 (10.77%) Site Reliability Engineering
18 59 (10.77%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 255 (46.53%) Python
2 138 (25.18%) PowerShell
3 121 (22.08%) Bash
4 56 (10.22%) Bicep
5 54 (9.85%) Java
6 45 (8.21%) SQL
7 21 (3.83%) Go
8 18 (3.28%) Perl
8 18 (3.28%) Shell Script
9 15 (2.74%) JavaScript
10 14 (2.55%) C#
11 5 (0.91%) C
12 4 (0.73%) C++
12 4 (0.73%) PL/SQL
13 3 (0.55%) Groovy
14 2 (0.36%) BeanShell
14 2 (0.36%) Korn
14 2 (0.36%) Scala
14 2 (0.36%) TypeScript
15 1 (0.18%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 179 (32.66%) Security Cleared
2 145 (26.46%) SC Cleared
3 38 (6.93%) AWS Certification
3 38 (6.93%) Azure Certification
3 38 (6.93%) Degree
4 29 (5.29%) DV Cleared
5 28 (5.11%) CISSP
6 16 (2.92%) Microsoft Certification
7 13 (2.37%) Computer Science Degree
8 12 (2.19%) Cisco Certification
8 12 (2.19%) CISM
9 9 (1.64%) BPSS Clearance
10 8 (1.46%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 7 (1.28%) Master's Degree
12 6 (1.09%) CCNP
12 6 (1.09%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 5 (0.91%) CCNA
13 5 (0.91%) VCAP
14 4 (0.73%) ITIL Certification
14 4 (0.73%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 28 (5.11%) QA
2 20 (3.65%) Data Quality
3 16 (2.92%) NIST
4 13 (2.37%) Accessibility
4 13 (2.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 9 (1.64%) GDPR
6 6 (1.09%) GxP
7 5 (0.91%) SLA
8 4 (0.73%) 21 CFR Part 11
8 4 (0.73%) NCSC
9 2 (0.36%) EMIR
9 2 (0.36%) MiFID
9 2 (0.36%) WCAG
10 1 (0.18%) GRC
10 1 (0.18%) HL7
10 1 (0.18%) ISO 20022
10 1 (0.18%) SEPA
10 1 (0.18%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 142 (25.91%) Docker
2 66 (12.04%) VMware Infrastructure
3 55 (10.04%) Active Directory
4 25 (4.56%) vSphere
5 17 (3.10%) VMware ESXi
6 15 (2.74%) VMware NSX
7 13 (2.37%) Virtual Machines
8 12 (2.19%) Hyper-V
9 8 (1.46%) Oracle RAC
10 6 (1.09%) Slurm Workload Manager
11 4 (0.73%) Firmware
11 4 (0.73%) NFS
12 2 (0.36%) Virtual Desktop
13 1 (0.18%) Ceph
13 1 (0.18%) GPFS
13 1 (0.18%) oVirt
13 1 (0.18%) RHEV
13 1 (0.18%) Samba
13 1 (0.18%) XenApp
13 1 (0.18%) zsh
Systems Management
1 218 (39.78%) Kubernetes
2 163 (29.74%) Ansible
3 55 (10.04%) Grafana
4 45 (8.21%) Prometheus
5 23 (4.20%) Progress Chef
6 21 (3.83%) Puppet
7 15 (2.74%) Argo
8 14 (2.55%) vCenter Server
9 13 (2.37%) Istio
10 11 (2.01%) Microsoft Intune
10 11 (2.01%) Packer
10 11 (2.01%) PowerCLI
11 9 (1.64%) Oracle RMAN
12 8 (1.46%) Data Guard
12 8 (1.46%) SCCM
13 7 (1.28%) Single Sign-On
13 7 (1.28%) vMotion
14 6 (1.09%) SCOM
15 5 (0.91%) linkerd
15 5 (0.91%) VxRail
Vendors
1 109 (19.89%) Microsoft
2 75 (13.69%) VMware
3 54 (9.85%) Google
4 34 (6.20%) Red Hat
5 25 (4.56%) Splunk
6 24 (4.38%) Cisco
7 19 (3.47%) Dynatrace
8 18 (3.28%) Oracle
9 16 (2.92%) Databricks
10 14 (2.55%) ServiceNow
11 10 (1.82%) F5
12 6 (1.09%) Dell
12 6 (1.09%) NVIDIA
12 6 (1.09%) Palo Alto
12 6 (1.09%) Veeam
13 5 (0.91%) Citrix
13 5 (0.91%) CyberArk
13 5 (0.91%) Fortinet
13 5 (0.91%) Juniper
13 5 (0.91%) Trend Micro