Infrastructure Engineer Contract Job Trends

Infrastructure Engineer
UK

The median Infrastructure Engineer daily rate in the UK is £525, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 14 August 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 143 227 145
Rank change year-on-year +84 -82 +15
Contract jobs requiring an Infrastructure Engineer 1,035 380 641
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.94% 1.15% 1.65%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.09% 1.26% 1.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 614 241 485
10th Percentile £350 £329 £315
25th Percentile £425 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £488
Median % change year-on-year - +7.69% -2.50%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £575
90th Percentile £673 £638 £638
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £513 £475
% change year-on-year +2.44% +7.89% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 50 6 5
10th Percentile £44.76 £27.50 £51.00
25th Percentile £58.43 £29.00 £63.75
Median hourly rate £72.54 £30.00 £77.00
Median % change year-on-year +141.80% -61.04% +8.07%
75th Percentile £78.75 £70.00 -
90th Percentile £100.00 £141.50 £77.60
UK excluding London median hourly rate £72.54 £77.00 £72.75
% change year-on-year -5.79% +5.84% +0.34%

All Contract IT Job Roles
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 49,408 30,056 36,163
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.54% 91.31% 92.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,654 19,017 23,287
10th Percentile £325 £281 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.87%
75th Percentile £625 £623 £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 3,477 1,528 2,029
10th Percentile £15.00 £13.59 £14.23
25th Percentile £20.69 £17.29 £20.50
Median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +67.00% -41.51% +2.00%
75th Percentile £67.98 £53.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £72.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.13 £25.15 £45.00
% change year-on-year +71.50% -44.11% +23.29%

Infrastructure Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Infrastructure Engineer' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Infrastructure Engineer job vacancy trend in the UK

Infrastructure Engineer
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Infrastructure Engineer job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Infrastructure Engineer job vacancies in the UK

Infrastructure Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Infrastructure Engineer over the 6 months to 14 August 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Infrastructure Engineer in the UK

Infrastructure Engineer
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Infrastructure Engineer job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Infrastructure Engineer job vacancies in the UK

Infrastructure Engineer
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Infrastructure Engineer over the 6 months to 14 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Infrastructure Engineer in the UK

Infrastructure Engineer
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 Engineer within the UK over the 6 months to 14 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
England +71 892 £525 - 360
UK excluding London +82 726 £525 +2.44% 214
South East +32 230 £537 -2.45% 57
London +25 228 £545 +3.81% 166
Work from Home +41 216 £536 +7.25% 118
North of England +32 199 £520 -0.95% 47
South West +16 106 £549 -0.18% 50
Midlands +3 87 £450 - 20
Yorkshire +9 84 £375 -25.00% 12
North West +1 75 £513 -14.58% 29
West Midlands -19 59 £475 +5.56% 15
North East -4 50 £600 -7.69% 7
Scotland +30 48 £571 +14.25% 18
East of England -5 34 £450 +12.50% 28
East Midlands -2 27 £450 +5.88% 5
Wales +9 26 £500 - 2
Channel Islands - 1 £550 -
Northern Ireland - 1 - -

Infrastructure Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 14 August 2026, Infrastructure Engineer contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring Infrastructure Engineer in the job title.

1 1,019 (98.45%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 420 (40.58%) Security Cleared
3 320 (30.92%) Windows
4 317 (30.63%) Azure
5 283 (27.34%) SC Cleared
6 265 (25.60%) VMware
7 240 (23.19%) Microsoft
8 212 (20.48%) Active Directory
9 208 (20.10%) Windows Server
10 207 (20.00%) VMware Infrastructure
11 200 (19.32%) Infrastructure as Code
12 185 (17.87%) Linux
13 178 (17.20%) DNS
13 178 (17.20%) Terraform
14 174 (16.81%) PowerShell
15 149 (14.40%) Firewall
16 148 (14.30%) DevOps
17 144 (13.91%) AWS
18 143 (13.82%) DV Cleared
19 138 (13.33%) Python
20 132 (12.75%) CI/CD
21 130 (12.56%) DHCP
22 121 (11.69%) Ansible
23 114 (11.01%) Migration
24 109 (10.53%) Problem-Solving
25 95 (9.18%) Kubernetes
26 93 (8.99%) Hyper-V
27 88 (8.50%) Entra ID
28 83 (8.02%) Microsoft 365
29 76 (7.34%) High Availability

Infrastructure Engineer Skill Set
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 57 (5.51%) Microsoft Exchange
2 31 (3.00%) SharePoint
3 14 (1.35%) WebSphere
4 13 (1.26%) CICS
5 10 (0.97%) Confluence
6 5 (0.48%) SharePoint Server
7 3 (0.29%) Apache
7 3 (0.29%) Exchange Server 2010
8 2 (0.19%) CloudStack
9 1 (0.097%) Apache Airflow
9 1 (0.097%) Exchange Server 2013
9 1 (0.097%) IBM HTTP Server
9 1 (0.097%) IIS
9 1 (0.097%) MS Project Server
9 1 (0.097%) OpenStack
9 1 (0.097%) Skype for Business
9 1 (0.097%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 11 (1.06%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (0.19%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.097%) CINEMA 4D
3 1 (0.097%) Houdini
3 1 (0.097%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (0.097%) NUKE
Business Applications
1 3 (0.29%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.097%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 317 (30.63%) Azure
2 144 (13.91%) AWS
3 88 (8.50%) Entra ID
4 83 (8.02%) Microsoft 365
5 58 (5.60%) IaaS
6 57 (5.51%) GCP
7 55 (5.31%) GitHub
8 51 (4.93%) OCI
9 40 (3.86%) SaaS
10 39 (3.77%) Azure DevOps
11 35 (3.38%) PaaS
12 29 (2.80%) Azure Monitor
13 24 (2.32%) GitHub Actions
14 20 (1.93%) Azure AKS
15 16 (1.55%) Nutanix
16 11 (1.06%) Google Kubernetes Engine
17 9 (0.87%) OpenShift
18 8 (0.77%) Cohesity
18 8 (0.77%) OneDrive
18 8 (0.77%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 178 (17.20%) DNS
2 149 (14.40%) Firewall
3 130 (12.56%) DHCP
4 55 (5.31%) VLAN
5 54 (5.22%) VPN
6 52 (5.02%) SAN
6 52 (5.02%) TCP/IP
7 44 (4.25%) WAN
8 40 (3.86%) Network Security
9 30 (2.90%) BIG-IP
9 30 (2.90%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
10 27 (2.61%) LAN
11 25 (2.42%) Wi-Fi
12 23 (2.22%) Ethernet VPN
12 23 (2.22%) SD-WAN
13 22 (2.13%) VSAN
13 22 (2.13%) VXLAN
14 20 (1.93%) BGP
14 20 (1.93%) OSPF
15 13 (1.26%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 50 (4.83%) SQL Server
2 21 (2.03%) Oracle Exadata
3 16 (1.55%) Relational Database
4 15 (1.45%) Oracle Database
5 13 (1.26%) RDBMS
6 8 (0.77%) Elasticsearch
7 6 (0.58%) Amazon RDS
8 4 (0.39%) Azure SQL Database
8 4 (0.39%) PostgreSQL
8 4 (0.39%) Power BI
8 4 (0.39%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 3 (0.29%) Big Data
9 3 (0.29%) Data Mining
9 3 (0.29%) NonStop SQL
10 2 (0.19%) BigQuery
10 2 (0.19%) Data Lake
10 2 (0.19%) SQL Server Analysis Services
10 2 (0.19%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 1 (0.097%) Flink
11 1 (0.097%) TimescaleDB
Development Applications
1 44 (4.25%) GitLab
2 28 (2.71%) JIRA
3 27 (2.61%) Jenkins
4 25 (2.42%) Git
5 5 (0.48%) Chocolatey
6 3 (0.29%) Bitbucket
7 2 (0.19%) Fiddler
8 1 (0.097%) Artifactory
8 1 (0.097%) Claude Code
8 1 (0.097%) CMake
8 1 (0.097%) Gradle
8 1 (0.097%) IntelliJ
8 1 (0.097%) Introscope
8 1 (0.097%) MLflow
8 1 (0.097%) MSI
8 1 (0.097%) Robot Framework
8 1 (0.097%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 115 (11.11%) Social Skills
2 74 (7.15%) Public Sector
3 45 (4.35%) Analytical Skills
3 45 (4.35%) Finance
4 36 (3.48%) Documentation Skills
5 22 (2.13%) Banking
6 14 (1.35%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 12 (1.16%) Aerospace
7 12 (1.16%) Legal
8 11 (1.06%) Military
9 10 (0.97%) Manufacturing
9 10 (0.97%) Marketing
9 10 (0.97%) Telecoms
10 7 (0.68%) Law
11 6 (0.58%) Automotive
12 3 (0.29%) Investment Banking
13 2 (0.19%) Advertising
13 2 (0.19%) Billing
13 2 (0.19%) Local Government
13 2 (0.19%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (1.64%) Middleware
2 14 (1.35%) ARM Templates
3 13 (1.26%) Oracle GoldenGate
4 8 (0.77%) REST
5 7 (0.68%) Flash
5 7 (0.68%) YAML
6 6 (0.58%) 802.1X
6 6 (0.58%) JSON
6 6 (0.58%) OpenID
7 5 (0.48%) Elastic Stack
7 5 (0.48%) SAML
8 4 (0.39%) .NET
8 4 (0.39%) SOAP
9 3 (0.29%) Kafka
9 3 (0.29%) LDAP
9 3 (0.29%) OAuth
10 2 (0.19%) Bazel
10 2 (0.19%) OAuth2
10 2 (0.19%) RabbitMQ
10 2 (0.19%) React
Miscellaneous
1 121 (11.69%) Data Centre
2 57 (5.51%) Hybrid Cloud
3 52 (5.02%) PKI
4 38 (3.67%) Public Cloud
5 29 (2.80%) Enterprise Storage
6 27 (2.61%) Onboarding
7 25 (2.42%) Cloud Native
7 25 (2.42%) Replication
8 18 (1.74%) Clustering
8 18 (1.74%) Self-Motivation
9 14 (1.35%) Linux Command Line
9 14 (1.35%) Management Information System
10 13 (1.26%) Distributed Systems
10 13 (1.26%) Mainframe
11 10 (0.97%) Operational Technology
12 9 (0.87%) Enterprise Software
12 9 (0.87%) Private Cloud
12 9 (0.87%) Smartcard
13 8 (0.77%) Driving Licence
13 8 (0.77%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 320 (30.92%) Windows
2 208 (20.10%) Windows Server
3 185 (17.87%) Linux
4 35 (3.38%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 21 (2.03%) Windows Server 2019
6 18 (1.74%) Windows 10
6 18 (1.74%) Windows Server 2016
7 15 (1.45%) VMS
8 14 (1.35%) AIX
9 13 (1.26%) zOS
10 12 (1.16%) Ubuntu
11 10 (0.97%) Apple iOS
11 10 (0.97%) Mac OS
12 9 (0.87%) Android
12 9 (0.87%) CentOS
13 7 (0.68%) Unix
13 7 (0.68%) Windows Server 2012
14 6 (0.58%) Debian
14 6 (0.58%) Rocky
15 5 (0.48%) Oracle Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,019 (98.45%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 200 (19.32%) Infrastructure as Code
3 148 (14.30%) DevOps
4 132 (12.75%) CI/CD
5 114 (11.01%) Migration
6 109 (10.53%) Problem-Solving
7 76 (7.34%) High Availability
7 76 (7.34%) Infrastructure Automation
8 66 (6.38%) Continuous Improvement
9 65 (6.28%) Disaster Recovery
10 61 (5.89%) ITIL
10 61 (5.89%) Project Delivery
11 55 (5.31%) Validation
12 53 (5.12%) Platform Engineering
13 48 (4.64%) Zero Trust
14 47 (4.54%) Agile
15 40 (3.86%) Root Cause Analysis
16 39 (3.77%) Cybersecurity
17 37 (3.57%) Identity Access Management
17 37 (3.57%) Site Reliability Engineering
Programming Languages
1 174 (16.81%) PowerShell
2 138 (13.33%) Python
3 71 (6.86%) Bash
4 39 (3.77%) SQL
5 28 (2.71%) Bicep
6 17 (1.64%) C#
7 11 (1.06%) Java
8 6 (0.58%) ActionScript
8 6 (0.58%) Go
9 4 (0.39%) Shell Script
10 2 (0.19%) C++
10 2 (0.19%) TypeScript
10 2 (0.19%) VB
11 1 (0.097%) C
11 1 (0.097%) JavaScript
11 1 (0.097%) Jython
11 1 (0.097%) Perl
11 1 (0.097%) PHP
11 1 (0.097%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 420 (40.58%) Security Cleared
2 283 (27.34%) SC Cleared
3 143 (13.82%) DV Cleared
4 39 (3.77%) Degree
5 31 (3.00%) Microsoft Certification
6 24 (2.32%) Azure Certification
6 24 (2.32%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
7 23 (2.22%) Cisco Certification
8 18 (1.74%) MCSE
9 14 (1.35%) CCNA
10 13 (1.26%) CCNP
10 13 (1.26%) VCAP
11 11 (1.06%) Computer Science Degree
12 6 (0.58%) MCSA
12 6 (0.58%) RHCA
13 5 (0.48%) DBS Check
14 4 (0.39%) ITIL Certification
14 4 (0.39%) JNCIP
14 4 (0.39%) JNCIS
15 3 (0.29%) AWS Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 32 (3.09%) QA
2 20 (1.93%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 16 (1.55%) SLA
4 13 (1.26%) Cyber Essentials
5 12 (1.16%) NIST
6 10 (0.97%) NCSC
7 6 (0.58%) Disclosure Scotland
8 3 (0.29%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 2 (0.19%) Data Quality
9 2 (0.19%) GDPR
9 2 (0.19%) NIST 800
9 2 (0.19%) SOC 2
10 1 (0.097%) FedRAMP
10 1 (0.097%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 212 (20.48%) Active Directory
2 207 (20.00%) VMware Infrastructure
3 93 (8.99%) Hyper-V
4 70 (6.76%) vSphere
5 65 (6.28%) VMware ESXi
6 44 (4.25%) Virtual Machines
7 35 (3.38%) VMware NSX
8 32 (3.09%) Docker
9 26 (2.51%) Virtual Desktop
10 13 (1.26%) Oracle RAC
11 12 (1.16%) NFS
12 9 (0.87%) BitLocker
13 8 (0.77%) Firmware
14 7 (0.68%) Microsoft App-V
15 6 (0.58%) KVM
15 6 (0.58%) Virtual Servers
16 5 (0.48%) GPFS
17 4 (0.39%) Terminal Services
18 2 (0.19%) SRDF
18 2 (0.19%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 178 (17.20%) Terraform
2 121 (11.69%) Ansible
3 95 (9.18%) Kubernetes
4 57 (5.51%) Microsoft Intune
5 44 (4.25%) vCenter Server
6 42 (4.06%) SCCM
7 20 (1.93%) WSUS
8 17 (1.64%) SCOM
9 16 (1.55%) NetBackup
10 14 (1.35%) Prometheus
11 13 (1.26%) Data Guard
11 13 (1.26%) Oracle RMAN
11 13 (1.26%) Puppet
12 11 (1.06%) Grafana
13 10 (0.97%) Single Sign-On
14 9 (0.87%) Nessus
15 8 (0.77%) Istio
15 8 (0.77%) vMotion
15 8 (0.77%) vRealize
16 7 (0.68%) FortiGate
Vendors
1 265 (25.60%) VMware
2 240 (23.19%) Microsoft
3 66 (6.38%) Citrix
4 57 (5.51%) Cisco
5 41 (3.96%) Oracle
6 38 (3.67%) NetApp
7 33 (3.19%) F5
7 33 (3.19%) Veeam
8 32 (3.09%) Google
9 30 (2.90%) Palo Alto
10 27 (2.61%) Red Hat
11 21 (2.03%) Dell
12 20 (1.93%) Aruba
12 20 (1.93%) IBM
13 19 (1.84%) Arista
14 17 (1.64%) CyberArk
14 17 (1.64%) Juniper
14 17 (1.64%) ServiceNow
15 16 (1.55%) Tenable
16 14 (1.35%) SolarWinds