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 27 June 2026.

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

6 months to
27 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 154 215 150
Rank change year-on-year +61 -65 +15
Contract jobs requiring an Infrastructure Engineer 901 376 696
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.77% 1.24% 1.61%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.91% 1.35% 1.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 578 247 531
10th Percentile £350 £325 £310
25th Percentile £425 £400 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £475
Median % change year-on-year - +10.53% -5.00%
75th Percentile £600 £588 £575
90th Percentile £671 £638 £638
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £513 £463
% change year-on-year +2.44% +10.81% -7.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 41 2 6
10th Percentile £33.64 - £20.60
25th Percentile £58.43 - £31.88
Median hourly rate £72.54 £200.00 £72.25
Median % change year-on-year -63.73% +176.82% -0.34%
75th Percentile £76.50 - £77.00
90th Percentile £78.75 - £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £72.54 £200.00 £45.00
% change year-on-year -63.73% +344.44% -36.84%

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 47,106 27,940 40,291
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.40% 92.14% 92.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,573 17,914 25,878
10th Percentile £325 £289 £281
25th Percentile £415 £402 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% -2.33%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £493
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.65% -1.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,158 1,233 2,861
10th Percentile £15.38 £13.76 £12.86
25th Percentile £21.14 £17.30 £16.50
Median hourly rate £43.25 £26.50 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +63.21% -29.33% -14.29%
75th Percentile £67.50 £56.25 £62.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.75 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% -

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 27 June 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 27 June 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 27 June 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 +50 773 £525 - 263
UK excluding London +56 631 £525 +2.44% 232
London 0 196 £525 - 65
Work from Home +31 192 £540 +8.00% 119
North of England +35 191 £540 +8.00% 64
South East +9 166 £531 -3.51% 55
South West +21 104 £538 -4.44% 54
Yorkshire +5 82 £394 -25.00% 20
Midlands -16 76 £450 +12.50% 29
North West -3 69 £575 +15.00% 32
North East +3 49 £600 -7.69% 13
Scotland +22 46 £570 +17.22% 4
West Midlands -39 46 £475 +18.75% 17
East of England -21 31 £450 - 16
East Midlands +8 29 £450 +12.50% 12
Wales +5 20 £463 - 12
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 2
Channel Islands - 1 £550 -

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

For the 6 months to 27 June 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.

1 886 (98.34%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 341 (37.85%) Security Cleared
3 268 (29.74%) Azure
3 268 (29.74%) Windows
4 226 (25.08%) SC Cleared
5 225 (24.97%) VMware
6 183 (20.31%) Microsoft
7 175 (19.42%) Windows Server
8 170 (18.87%) Active Directory
9 165 (18.31%) VMware Infrastructure
10 159 (17.65%) Infrastructure as Code
11 148 (16.43%) Terraform
12 142 (15.76%) Linux
13 138 (15.32%) DNS
14 131 (14.54%) DevOps
15 126 (13.98%) AWS
15 126 (13.98%) Firewall
15 126 (13.98%) PowerShell
16 122 (13.54%) DV Cleared
16 122 (13.54%) Python
17 110 (12.21%) CI/CD
18 95 (10.54%) DHCP
19 89 (9.88%) Kubernetes
20 88 (9.77%) Problem-Solving
21 87 (9.66%) Ansible
22 81 (8.99%) Migration
23 76 (8.44%) Hyper-V
24 68 (7.55%) High Availability
25 67 (7.44%) VMware ESXi
26 63 (6.99%) vSphere

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 46 (5.11%) Microsoft Exchange
2 10 (1.11%) SharePoint
3 7 (0.78%) Confluence
4 6 (0.67%) WebSphere
5 5 (0.55%) CICS
6 4 (0.44%) TPMS
7 3 (0.33%) Apache
8 2 (0.22%) CloudStack
8 2 (0.22%) Exchange Server 2010
9 1 (0.11%) Apache Airflow
9 1 (0.11%) IBM HTTP Server
9 1 (0.11%) MS Project Server
9 1 (0.11%) SharePoint Server
9 1 (0.11%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 7 (0.78%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (0.33%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.11%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 2 (0.22%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.11%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 268 (29.74%) Azure
2 126 (13.98%) AWS
3 62 (6.88%) GitHub
4 58 (6.44%) Microsoft 365
5 54 (5.99%) GCP
6 51 (5.66%) Entra ID
7 42 (4.66%) IaaS
8 40 (4.44%) OCI
9 36 (4.00%) SaaS
10 33 (3.66%) PaaS
11 29 (3.22%) Azure DevOps
12 22 (2.44%) GitHub Actions
12 22 (2.44%) Nutanix
13 21 (2.33%) Azure Monitor
14 20 (2.22%) Azure AKS
15 16 (1.78%) Google Kubernetes Engine
16 8 (0.89%) Cohesity
17 7 (0.78%) Azure Stack
17 7 (0.78%) OpenShift
18 5 (0.55%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 138 (15.32%) DNS
2 126 (13.98%) Firewall
3 95 (10.54%) DHCP
4 48 (5.33%) SAN
5 47 (5.22%) VLAN
6 43 (4.77%) WAN
7 39 (4.33%) VPN
8 33 (3.66%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
8 33 (3.66%) Network Security
9 30 (3.33%) BIG-IP
10 27 (3.00%) LAN
11 26 (2.89%) TCP/IP
12 24 (2.66%) BGP
13 23 (2.55%) Ethernet VPN
14 22 (2.44%) SD-WAN
14 22 (2.44%) VXLAN
15 20 (2.22%) OSPF
16 18 (2.00%) Wi-Fi
17 15 (1.66%) VSAN
18 14 (1.55%) SMTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (3.88%) SQL Server
2 9 (1.00%) Elasticsearch
3 8 (0.89%) Amazon RDS
4 7 (0.78%) Oracle Database
4 7 (0.78%) Relational Database
5 4 (0.44%) Azure SQL Database
5 4 (0.44%) Oracle Exadata
5 4 (0.44%) PostgreSQL
5 4 (0.44%) RDBMS
6 3 (0.33%) Big Data
6 3 (0.33%) Data Mining
6 3 (0.33%) NonStop SQL
6 3 (0.33%) Power BI
7 2 (0.22%) BigQuery
7 2 (0.22%) DynamoDB
8 1 (0.11%) Data Lake
8 1 (0.11%) Flink
8 1 (0.11%) MongoDB
8 1 (0.11%) NoSQL
8 1 (0.11%) TimescaleDB
Development Applications
1 38 (4.22%) GitLab
2 28 (3.11%) Jenkins
3 27 (3.00%) JIRA
4 10 (1.11%) Git
5 4 (0.44%) Artifactory
5 4 (0.44%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.11%) Chocolatey
6 1 (0.11%) Claude Code
6 1 (0.11%) CMake
6 1 (0.11%) GoCD
6 1 (0.11%) Gradle
6 1 (0.11%) IntelliJ
6 1 (0.11%) Introscope
6 1 (0.11%) MLflow
6 1 (0.11%) MSI
6 1 (0.11%) Robot Framework
6 1 (0.11%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 96 (10.65%) Social Skills
2 72 (7.99%) Public Sector
3 49 (5.44%) Finance
4 34 (3.77%) Analytical Skills
5 27 (3.00%) Documentation Skills
6 19 (2.11%) Legal
7 18 (2.00%) Banking
8 14 (1.55%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 11 (1.22%) Aerospace
10 10 (1.11%) Manufacturing
10 10 (1.11%) Marketing
11 7 (0.78%) Military
12 4 (0.44%) Billing
12 4 (0.44%) Telecoms
13 3 (0.33%) Law
14 2 (0.22%) Advertising
14 2 (0.22%) Investment Banking
14 2 (0.22%) Local Government
14 2 (0.22%) Retail
15 1 (0.11%) Mandarin Language
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (1.00%) Middleware
2 8 (0.89%) LDAP
3 7 (0.78%) Flash
3 7 (0.78%) REST
4 6 (0.67%) Elastic Stack
5 5 (0.55%) ARM Templates
5 5 (0.55%) Keycloak
6 4 (0.44%) JSON
6 4 (0.44%) OpenID
6 4 (0.44%) Oracle GoldenGate
6 4 (0.44%) SOAP
6 4 (0.44%) YAML
7 3 (0.33%) Apache NiFi
7 3 (0.33%) Oracle Fusion
7 3 (0.33%) SAML
8 2 (0.22%) 802.1X
8 2 (0.22%) Bazel
8 2 (0.22%) Node.js
8 2 (0.22%) OAuth
8 2 (0.22%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 102 (11.32%) Data Centre
2 47 (5.22%) Hybrid Cloud
3 45 (4.99%) PKI
4 37 (4.11%) Public Cloud
5 25 (2.77%) Cloud Native
6 23 (2.55%) Enterprise Storage
6 23 (2.55%) Onboarding
7 17 (1.89%) Self-Motivation
8 14 (1.55%) Clustering
9 12 (1.33%) Replication
10 11 (1.22%) Distributed Systems
10 11 (1.22%) Operational Technology
11 10 (1.11%) Private Cloud
12 9 (1.00%) Enterprise Software
12 9 (1.00%) Linux Command Line
12 9 (1.00%) Smartcard
13 8 (0.89%) Virtual Team
14 7 (0.78%) Management Information System
15 6 (0.67%) SCADA
15 6 (0.67%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 268 (29.74%) Windows
2 175 (19.42%) Windows Server
3 142 (15.76%) Linux
4 28 (3.11%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 21 (2.33%) Windows Server 2019
6 16 (1.78%) Windows 10
7 15 (1.66%) Windows Server 2016
8 12 (1.33%) Ubuntu
9 10 (1.11%) Apple iOS
9 10 (1.11%) Unix
10 9 (1.00%) Mac OS
10 9 (1.00%) VMS
11 8 (0.89%) Android
12 7 (0.78%) Windows Server 2003
12 7 (0.78%) Windows Server 2012
13 6 (0.67%) CentOS
13 6 (0.67%) Debian
14 5 (0.55%) AIX
14 5 (0.55%) zOS
15 2 (0.22%) Rocky
Processes & Methodologies
1 886 (98.34%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 159 (17.65%) Infrastructure as Code
3 131 (14.54%) DevOps
4 110 (12.21%) CI/CD
5 88 (9.77%) Problem-Solving
6 81 (8.99%) Migration
7 68 (7.55%) High Availability
8 62 (6.88%) Infrastructure Automation
9 54 (5.99%) Agile
10 53 (5.88%) Disaster Recovery
11 49 (5.44%) Project Delivery
12 48 (5.33%) Zero Trust
13 47 (5.22%) ITIL
14 46 (5.11%) Validation
15 38 (4.22%) Continuous Improvement
16 36 (4.00%) Cybersecurity
16 36 (4.00%) Site Reliability Engineering
17 30 (3.33%) Load Balancing
17 30 (3.33%) Root Cause Analysis
18 29 (3.22%) Platform Engineering
Programming Languages
1 126 (13.98%) PowerShell
2 122 (13.54%) Python
3 41 (4.55%) Bash
4 27 (3.00%) SQL
5 20 (2.22%) Bicep
6 16 (1.78%) C#
7 10 (1.11%) Java
8 8 (0.89%) ActionScript
9 5 (0.55%) Go
9 5 (0.55%) Shell Script
10 4 (0.44%) PHP
11 3 (0.33%) JavaScript
12 2 (0.22%) TypeScript
13 1 (0.11%) C
13 1 (0.11%) C++
13 1 (0.11%) Jython
13 1 (0.11%) VB
Qualifications
1 341 (37.85%) Security Cleared
2 226 (25.08%) SC Cleared
3 122 (13.54%) DV Cleared
4 28 (3.11%) Degree
5 17 (1.89%) Microsoft Certification
5 17 (1.89%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
6 16 (1.78%) Cisco Certification
7 14 (1.55%) MCSE
8 12 (1.33%) Azure Certification
9 11 (1.22%) CCNA
10 8 (0.89%) CCNP
11 7 (0.78%) VCAP
12 5 (0.55%) RHCA
13 4 (0.44%) AWS Certification
13 4 (0.44%) FFIEC
13 4 (0.44%) MCSA
14 3 (0.33%) CompTIA Security+
14 3 (0.33%) Computer Science Degree
14 3 (0.33%) GIAC
14 3 (0.33%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 25 (2.77%) QA
2 21 (2.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 20 (2.22%) NIST
4 16 (1.78%) Cyber Essentials
5 10 (1.11%) SLA
6 7 (0.78%) NCSC
7 6 (0.67%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 6 (0.67%) GDPR
8 4 (0.44%) Disclosure Scotland
8 4 (0.44%) GLBA
8 4 (0.44%) PCI DSS
9 3 (0.33%) NIST 800
10 2 (0.22%) SOC 2
11 1 (0.11%) FedRAMP
11 1 (0.11%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 170 (18.87%) Active Directory
2 165 (18.31%) VMware Infrastructure
3 76 (8.44%) Hyper-V
4 67 (7.44%) VMware ESXi
5 63 (6.99%) vSphere
6 34 (3.77%) Docker
7 30 (3.33%) VMware NSX
8 28 (3.11%) Virtual Machines
9 17 (1.89%) Virtual Desktop
10 12 (1.33%) NFS
11 11 (1.22%) BitLocker
12 9 (1.00%) Microsoft App-V
13 5 (0.55%) Firmware
13 5 (0.55%) GPFS
14 4 (0.44%) Oracle RAC
14 4 (0.44%) Terminal Services
15 3 (0.33%) Virtual Servers
16 2 (0.22%) KVM
16 2 (0.22%) SRDF
16 2 (0.22%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 148 (16.43%) Terraform
2 89 (9.88%) Kubernetes
3 87 (9.66%) Ansible
4 42 (4.66%) vCenter Server
5 39 (4.33%) Microsoft Intune
6 31 (3.44%) SCCM
7 17 (1.89%) WSUS
8 14 (1.55%) Prometheus
8 14 (1.55%) Puppet
9 13 (1.44%) Grafana
9 13 (1.44%) Single Sign-On
10 12 (1.33%) SCOM
11 10 (1.11%) Istio
12 9 (1.00%) Nessus
12 9 (1.00%) vMotion
12 9 (1.00%) vRealize
13 8 (0.89%) AirWatch
13 8 (0.89%) VxRail
14 6 (0.67%) Packer
14 6 (0.67%) Red Hat Satellite
Vendors
1 225 (24.97%) VMware
2 183 (20.31%) Microsoft
3 58 (6.44%) Citrix
4 57 (6.33%) Cisco
5 40 (4.44%) F5
6 32 (3.55%) Veeam
7 31 (3.44%) Google
7 31 (3.44%) Palo Alto
8 28 (3.11%) NetApp
9 26 (2.89%) Oracle
9 26 (2.89%) Red Hat
10 24 (2.66%) Dell
11 22 (2.44%) Aruba
12 20 (2.22%) Arista
13 14 (1.55%) ServiceNow
14 13 (1.44%) Juniper
14 13 (1.44%) SolarWinds
15 12 (1.33%) IBM
15 12 (1.33%) Tenable
16 11 (1.22%) Fortinet