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 15 July 2026.

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

6 months to
15 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 143 220 145
Rank change year-on-year +77 -75 +22
Contract jobs requiring an Infrastructure Engineer 967 395 720
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.84% 1.22% 1.68%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.99% 1.33% 1.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 603 259 540
10th Percentile £350 £329 £312
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 £600 £575
90th Percentile £663 £638 £638
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £525 £463
% change year-on-year - +13.51% -7.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 42 4 5
10th Percentile £50.84 £42.30 £37.47
25th Percentile £58.43 £60.75 £63.75
Median hourly rate £72.54 £138.50 £77.00
Median % change year-on-year -47.62% +79.87% +10.00%
75th Percentile £78.75 £200.00 -
90th Percentile £80.82 - £77.60
UK excluding London median hourly rate £72.54 £200.00 £67.50
% change year-on-year -63.73% +196.30% -3.57%

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 48,692 29,793 39,772
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.54% 91.81% 93.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,483 18,982 25,593
10th Percentile £325 £288 £288
25th Percentile £419 £400 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.33%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £495
% change year-on-year +5.26% -4.04% -1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,276 1,398 2,720
10th Percentile £15.93 £13.75 £13.00
25th Percentile £21.35 £17.44 £17.00
Median hourly rate £45.00 £26.45 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +70.13% -33.88% -5.88%
75th Percentile £67.84 £56.19 £63.41
90th Percentile £80.07 £73.75 £73.78
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.56 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +81.13% -37.13% +6.67%

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 15 July 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 15 July 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 15 July 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 +58 828 £525 - 289
UK excluding London +53 682 £525 - 281
London +16 207 £525 +0.24% 56
North of England +26 196 £563 +7.14% 55
Work from Home +20 190 £540 +8.00% 149
South East +19 189 £536 -2.47% 74
South West +29 112 £540 -6.09% 58
Midlands -10 82 £450 +12.50% 35
Yorkshire -12 79 £480 -4.00% 21
North West 0 75 £575 +9.52% 24
North East +1 52 £600 -7.69% 12
West Midlands -42 49 £475 +18.75% 23
Scotland +20 46 £570 +17.22% 18
East Midlands +11 32 £450 +12.50% 12
East of England -15 32 £450 - 22
Wales +14 27 £500 - 12
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 11
Channel Islands - 1 £550 -

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

For the 6 months to 15 July 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.

1 949 (98.14%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 378 (39.09%) Security Cleared
3 288 (29.78%) Windows
4 281 (29.06%) Azure
5 251 (25.96%) SC Cleared
6 242 (25.03%) VMware
7 198 (20.48%) Microsoft
8 189 (19.54%) Active Directory
9 186 (19.23%) VMware Infrastructure
9 186 (19.23%) Windows Server
10 173 (17.89%) Infrastructure as Code
11 160 (16.55%) Linux
11 160 (16.55%) Terraform
12 158 (16.34%) DNS
13 140 (14.48%) PowerShell
14 137 (14.17%) DV Cleared
15 136 (14.06%) AWS
16 134 (13.86%) DevOps
16 134 (13.86%) Firewall
17 126 (13.03%) Python
18 118 (12.20%) CI/CD
19 109 (11.27%) DHCP
20 99 (10.24%) Ansible
21 94 (9.72%) Migration
22 93 (9.62%) Kubernetes
23 89 (9.20%) Problem-Solving
24 81 (8.38%) Hyper-V
25 72 (7.45%) vSphere
26 69 (7.14%) VMware ESXi
27 68 (7.03%) 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 51 (5.27%) Microsoft Exchange
2 18 (1.86%) SharePoint
3 11 (1.14%) WebSphere
4 10 (1.03%) CICS
5 7 (0.72%) Confluence
6 3 (0.31%) Apache
6 3 (0.31%) Exchange Server 2010
7 2 (0.21%) CloudStack
7 2 (0.21%) SharePoint Server
8 1 (0.10%) Apache Airflow
8 1 (0.10%) IBM HTTP Server
8 1 (0.10%) MS Project Server
8 1 (0.10%) OpenStack
8 1 (0.10%) TPMS
8 1 (0.10%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 7 (0.72%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (0.31%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.10%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 2 (0.21%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.10%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 281 (29.06%) Azure
2 136 (14.06%) AWS
3 66 (6.83%) Microsoft 365
4 60 (6.20%) Entra ID
4 60 (6.20%) GitHub
5 51 (5.27%) GCP
6 47 (4.86%) OCI
7 45 (4.65%) IaaS
8 36 (3.72%) SaaS
9 33 (3.41%) PaaS
10 32 (3.31%) Azure DevOps
11 22 (2.28%) Azure Monitor
11 22 (2.28%) GitHub Actions
12 21 (2.17%) Azure AKS
13 19 (1.96%) Nutanix
14 13 (1.34%) Google Kubernetes Engine
15 8 (0.83%) Cohesity
15 8 (0.83%) OpenShift
16 7 (0.72%) Azure Stack
17 6 (0.62%) Amazon EC2
Communications & Networking
1 158 (16.34%) DNS
2 134 (13.86%) Firewall
3 109 (11.27%) DHCP
4 52 (5.38%) SAN
5 50 (5.17%) VLAN
6 41 (4.24%) VPN
6 41 (4.24%) WAN
7 37 (3.83%) Network Security
8 34 (3.52%) TCP/IP
9 33 (3.41%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
10 30 (3.10%) BIG-IP
11 25 (2.59%) LAN
12 24 (2.48%) BGP
13 23 (2.38%) Ethernet VPN
14 22 (2.28%) SD-WAN
14 22 (2.28%) VXLAN
15 20 (2.07%) OSPF
16 19 (1.96%) Wi-Fi
17 18 (1.86%) VSAN
18 14 (1.45%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 40 (4.14%) SQL Server
2 13 (1.34%) Oracle Database
2 13 (1.34%) Relational Database
3 12 (1.24%) Oracle Exadata
4 10 (1.03%) RDBMS
5 9 (0.93%) Elasticsearch
6 8 (0.83%) Amazon RDS
7 4 (0.41%) Azure SQL Database
7 4 (0.41%) PostgreSQL
8 3 (0.31%) Big Data
8 3 (0.31%) Data Mining
8 3 (0.31%) NonStop SQL
8 3 (0.31%) Power BI
9 2 (0.21%) BigQuery
9 2 (0.21%) Data Lake
9 2 (0.21%) DynamoDB
9 2 (0.21%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 1 (0.10%) Flink
10 1 (0.10%) MongoDB
10 1 (0.10%) NoSQL
Development Applications
1 44 (4.55%) GitLab
2 27 (2.79%) JIRA
3 26 (2.69%) Jenkins
4 18 (1.86%) Git
5 4 (0.41%) Artifactory
5 4 (0.41%) Bitbucket
6 2 (0.21%) Chocolatey
6 2 (0.21%) Sonatype Nexus
7 1 (0.10%) Claude Code
7 1 (0.10%) CMake
7 1 (0.10%) GoCD
7 1 (0.10%) Gradle
7 1 (0.10%) IntelliJ
7 1 (0.10%) Introscope
7 1 (0.10%) MLflow
7 1 (0.10%) MSI
7 1 (0.10%) Robot Framework
General
1 108 (11.17%) Social Skills
2 73 (7.55%) Public Sector
3 51 (5.27%) Finance
4 34 (3.52%) Analytical Skills
5 31 (3.21%) Documentation Skills
6 19 (1.96%) Banking
6 19 (1.96%) Legal
7 13 (1.34%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 11 (1.14%) Aerospace
9 10 (1.03%) Manufacturing
9 10 (1.03%) Marketing
10 7 (0.72%) Military
11 6 (0.62%) Telecoms
12 4 (0.41%) Law
13 3 (0.31%) Billing
14 2 (0.21%) Advertising
14 2 (0.21%) Investment Banking
14 2 (0.21%) Local Government
14 2 (0.21%) Retail
15 1 (0.10%) Publishing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (1.45%) Middleware
2 10 (1.03%) Oracle GoldenGate
3 9 (0.93%) LDAP
4 7 (0.72%) Flash
4 7 (0.72%) REST
5 6 (0.62%) Elastic Stack
6 5 (0.52%) ARM Templates
6 5 (0.52%) OpenID
7 4 (0.41%) JSON
7 4 (0.41%) SAML
7 4 (0.41%) SOAP
7 4 (0.41%) YAML
8 3 (0.31%) .NET
8 3 (0.31%) 802.1X
8 3 (0.31%) Kafka
8 3 (0.31%) Oracle Fusion
9 2 (0.21%) Node.js
9 2 (0.21%) OAuth2
9 2 (0.21%) RabbitMQ
9 2 (0.21%) React
Miscellaneous
1 114 (11.79%) Data Centre
2 52 (5.38%) PKI
3 50 (5.17%) Hybrid Cloud
4 41 (4.24%) Public Cloud
5 26 (2.69%) Cloud Native
6 25 (2.59%) Enterprise Storage
7 23 (2.38%) Onboarding
8 17 (1.76%) Replication
8 17 (1.76%) Self-Motivation
9 15 (1.55%) Clustering
10 11 (1.14%) Distributed Systems
10 11 (1.14%) Linux Command Line
11 10 (1.03%) Mainframe
11 10 (1.03%) Operational Technology
11 10 (1.03%) Private Cloud
12 9 (0.93%) Smartcard
13 8 (0.83%) Enterprise Software
13 8 (0.83%) Management Information System
13 8 (0.83%) Virtual Team
14 7 (0.72%) Data Protection Act
Operating Systems
1 288 (29.78%) Windows
2 186 (19.23%) Windows Server
3 160 (16.55%) Linux
4 32 (3.31%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 23 (2.38%) Windows Server 2019
6 19 (1.96%) Windows Server 2016
7 17 (1.76%) Windows 10
8 13 (1.34%) Ubuntu
9 11 (1.14%) AIX
9 11 (1.14%) VMS
10 10 (1.03%) Apple iOS
10 10 (1.03%) zOS
11 9 (0.93%) Mac OS
11 9 (0.93%) Unix
12 8 (0.83%) Android
12 8 (0.83%) CentOS
12 8 (0.83%) Windows Server 2012
13 6 (0.62%) Debian
13 6 (0.62%) Windows Server 2003
14 4 (0.41%) Rocky
Processes & Methodologies
1 949 (98.14%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 173 (17.89%) Infrastructure as Code
3 134 (13.86%) DevOps
4 118 (12.20%) CI/CD
5 94 (9.72%) Migration
6 89 (9.20%) Problem-Solving
7 68 (7.03%) High Availability
8 65 (6.72%) Infrastructure Automation
9 57 (5.89%) Project Delivery
10 55 (5.69%) Disaster Recovery
11 52 (5.38%) Agile
12 49 (5.07%) Validation
13 48 (4.96%) Continuous Improvement
13 48 (4.96%) Zero Trust
14 47 (4.86%) ITIL
15 40 (4.14%) Platform Engineering
16 37 (3.83%) Cybersecurity
17 35 (3.62%) Site Reliability Engineering
18 32 (3.31%) Containerisation
18 32 (3.31%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 140 (14.48%) PowerShell
2 126 (13.03%) Python
3 50 (5.17%) Bash
4 33 (3.41%) SQL
5 20 (2.07%) Bicep
6 16 (1.65%) C#
7 10 (1.03%) Java
8 8 (0.83%) ActionScript
9 5 (0.52%) Go
9 5 (0.52%) Shell Script
10 4 (0.41%) PHP
11 3 (0.31%) JavaScript
12 2 (0.21%) TypeScript
13 1 (0.10%) C
13 1 (0.10%) C++
13 1 (0.10%) Jython
13 1 (0.10%) Perl
13 1 (0.10%) VB
Qualifications
1 378 (39.09%) Security Cleared
2 251 (25.96%) SC Cleared
3 137 (14.17%) DV Cleared
4 30 (3.10%) Degree
5 22 (2.28%) Microsoft Certification
6 18 (1.86%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
7 17 (1.76%) Cisco Certification
8 15 (1.55%) MCSE
9 14 (1.45%) Azure Certification
10 11 (1.14%) CCNA
11 9 (0.93%) CCNP
11 9 (0.93%) VCAP
12 5 (0.52%) Computer Science Degree
12 5 (0.52%) MCSA
12 5 (0.52%) RHCA
13 4 (0.41%) AWS Certification
14 3 (0.31%) APMG
14 3 (0.31%) CompTIA Security+
14 3 (0.31%) ITIL Certification
14 3 (0.31%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 28 (2.90%) QA
2 22 (2.28%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 18 (1.86%) NIST
4 16 (1.65%) Cyber Essentials
5 10 (1.03%) SLA
6 8 (0.83%) NCSC
7 6 (0.62%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 6 (0.62%) Disclosure Scotland
8 3 (0.31%) GDPR
8 3 (0.31%) NIST 800
9 2 (0.21%) SOC 2
10 1 (0.10%) FedRAMP
10 1 (0.10%) GLBA
10 1 (0.10%) PCI DSS
10 1 (0.10%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 189 (19.54%) Active Directory
2 186 (19.23%) VMware Infrastructure
3 81 (8.38%) Hyper-V
4 72 (7.45%) vSphere
5 69 (7.14%) VMware ESXi
6 36 (3.72%) Docker
7 35 (3.62%) Virtual Machines
8 31 (3.21%) VMware NSX
9 21 (2.17%) Virtual Desktop
10 12 (1.24%) NFS
11 10 (1.03%) BitLocker
11 10 (1.03%) Oracle RAC
12 8 (0.83%) Microsoft App-V
13 5 (0.52%) GPFS
14 4 (0.41%) Firmware
14 4 (0.41%) KVM
14 4 (0.41%) Terminal Services
15 3 (0.31%) Virtual Servers
16 2 (0.21%) SRDF
16 2 (0.21%) UAG
Systems Management
1 160 (16.55%) Terraform
2 99 (10.24%) Ansible
3 93 (9.62%) Kubernetes
4 44 (4.55%) vCenter Server
5 42 (4.34%) Microsoft Intune
6 32 (3.31%) SCCM
7 17 (1.76%) WSUS
8 15 (1.55%) SCOM
9 14 (1.45%) Prometheus
10 13 (1.34%) Grafana
10 13 (1.34%) Puppet
11 10 (1.03%) Data Guard
11 10 (1.03%) NetBackup
11 10 (1.03%) Oracle RMAN
11 10 (1.03%) Single Sign-On
12 9 (0.93%) Nessus
13 8 (0.83%) Istio
13 8 (0.83%) vMotion
13 8 (0.83%) vRealize
14 6 (0.62%) Packer
Vendors
1 242 (25.03%) VMware
2 198 (20.48%) Microsoft
3 62 (6.41%) Citrix
4 57 (5.89%) Cisco
5 40 (4.14%) F5
6 34 (3.52%) Oracle
7 33 (3.41%) NetApp
8 32 (3.31%) Veeam
9 31 (3.21%) Palo Alto
10 29 (3.00%) Google
11 26 (2.69%) Red Hat
12 24 (2.48%) Dell
13 21 (2.17%) Aruba
14 20 (2.07%) Arista
15 17 (1.76%) IBM
16 16 (1.65%) ServiceNow
17 14 (1.45%) Juniper
18 13 (1.34%) SolarWinds
18 13 (1.34%) Tenable
19 11 (1.14%) Fortinet