Infrastructure Engineer Contract Job Trends

Infrastructure Engineer
UK

The median Infrastructure Engineer daily rate in the UK is £483, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 23 January 2026.

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

6 months to
23 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 213 212 139
Rank change year-on-year -1 -73 +39
Contract jobs requiring an Infrastructure Engineer 482 389 754
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.27% 1.23% 1.73%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.39% 1.32% 1.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 350 265 549
10th Percentile £285 £310 £338
25th Percentile £363 £363 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £483 £500 £480
Median % change year-on-year -3.50% +4.17% +1.05%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £600
90th Percentile £638 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £466 £475 £475
% change year-on-year -1.89% - +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 15 4 18
10th Percentile £26.10 - £20.86
25th Percentile £26.25 £24.18 £21.25
Median hourly rate £34.00 £34.59 £23.00
Median % change year-on-year -1.71% +50.39% -63.31%
75th Percentile £45.20 £50.63 £72.35
90th Percentile £75.70 £56.25 £76.53
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.25 £24.18 £23.00
% change year-on-year +70.60% +5.13% -54.00%

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 34,674 29,426 40,527
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.44% 92.86% 93.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,946 18,016 26,864
10th Percentile £300 £288 £275
25th Percentile £406 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £615 £638 £638
90th Percentile £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £477 £500
% change year-on-year -0.31% -4.70% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,058 877 1,975
10th Percentile £14.38 £15.91 £13.41
25th Percentile £18.50 £21.25 £17.72
Median hourly rate £27.50 £32.50 £39.55
Median % change year-on-year -15.38% -17.83% +13.00%
75th Percentile £60.60 £62.50 £62.50
90th Percentile £70.00 £73.85 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.59 £31.64 £40.28
% change year-on-year -19.11% -21.44% +34.25%

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 23 January 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 23 January 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Infrastructure Engineer in the UK

Infrastructure Engineer
Top 17 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 23 January 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 -3 433 £484 -3.25% 306
UK excluding London -2 320 £466 -1.89% 286
Work from Home +42 133 £450 +12.50% 94
London -48 118 £525 - 50
South East -3 89 £465 +3.33% 79
North of England -20 82 £425 +3.03% 71
South West +16 72 £550 -8.33% 49
Yorkshire -28 41 £350 -15.15% 35
North West -15 36 £459 +14.63% 22
East of England -3 28 £425 -4.66% 32
Midlands -47 28 £415 -17.00% 40
West Midlands -46 20 £413 -25.00% 18
Scotland +4 18 £465 -15.45% 12
East Midlands -26 8 £415 -17.00% 22
North East -10 5 £475 - 15
Wales -13 5 £550 +22.22% 6
Northern Ireland - 1 £375 - 2

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

For the 6 months to 23 January 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.

1 458 (95.02%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 180 (37.34%) Windows
3 177 (36.72%) Azure
4 169 (35.06%) Microsoft
5 141 (29.25%) VMware
6 138 (28.63%) Security Cleared
7 118 (24.48%) Active Directory
8 104 (21.58%) VMware Infrastructure
9 103 (21.37%) Linux
10 97 (20.12%) SC Cleared
11 95 (19.71%) Terraform
12 90 (18.67%) DevOps
12 90 (18.67%) Windows Server
13 88 (18.26%) Firewall
14 87 (18.05%) Problem-Solving
15 80 (16.60%) AWS
15 80 (16.60%) Microsoft 365
16 78 (16.18%) Infrastructure as Code
17 75 (15.56%) PowerShell
18 74 (15.35%) DNS
19 67 (13.90%) CI/CD
20 66 (13.69%) Ansible
21 65 (13.49%) Hyper-V
22 64 (13.28%) ITIL
23 63 (13.07%) Python
24 53 (11.00%) Infrastructure Automation
25 51 (10.58%) DHCP
26 49 (10.17%) Microsoft Intune
26 49 (10.17%) SCCM
27 48 (9.96%) TCP/IP

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 43 (8.92%) Microsoft Exchange
2 11 (2.28%) SharePoint
2 11 (2.28%) TPMS
3 8 (1.66%) Apache
4 7 (1.45%) IIS
5 5 (1.04%) Confluence
6 3 (0.62%) Exchange Server 2010
7 2 (0.41%) iPlanet
7 2 (0.41%) JBoss
7 2 (0.41%) nginx
7 2 (0.41%) Skype for Business
7 2 (0.41%) WebSphere
7 2 (0.41%) WebSphere Application Server
8 1 (0.21%) Apache Airflow
8 1 (0.21%) Apache Spark
8 1 (0.21%) CICS
8 1 (0.21%) Traefik
8 1 (0.21%) WebLogic
Applications
1 8 (1.66%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (0.41%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 3 (0.62%) Maximo
2 2 (0.41%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.21%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 177 (36.72%) Azure
2 80 (16.60%) AWS
2 80 (16.60%) Microsoft 365
3 44 (9.13%) Entra ID
4 24 (4.98%) IaaS
5 21 (4.36%) GCP
5 21 (4.36%) PaaS
6 19 (3.94%) Azure DevOps
6 19 (3.94%) GitHub
7 18 (3.73%) Azure Monitor
8 15 (3.11%) Amazon S3
8 15 (3.11%) Nutanix
9 14 (2.90%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 14 (2.90%) Azure Sentinel
9 14 (2.90%) Google Kubernetes Engine
10 11 (2.28%) Mimecast
11 10 (2.07%) Amazon EC2
11 10 (2.07%) Amazon ELB
11 10 (2.07%) SaaS
11 10 (2.07%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 88 (18.26%) Firewall
2 74 (15.35%) DNS
3 51 (10.58%) DHCP
4 48 (9.96%) TCP/IP
5 44 (9.13%) VPN
6 32 (6.64%) WAN
7 28 (5.81%) VLAN
8 27 (5.60%) SSL
9 25 (5.19%) Wi-Fi
10 23 (4.77%) SAN
11 21 (4.36%) LAN
12 19 (3.94%) Network Security
13 11 (2.28%) SNMP
13 11 (2.28%) SSH
14 8 (1.66%) SD-WAN
15 7 (1.45%) MPLS
16 6 (1.24%) 4G
17 5 (1.04%) HTTP
18 4 (0.83%) BGP
19 3 (0.62%) NetScaler
Database & Business Intelligence
1 14 (2.90%) SQL Server
2 4 (0.83%) Elasticsearch
3 3 (0.62%) Amazon RDS
4 2 (0.41%) Amazon Aurora
4 2 (0.41%) MySQL
4 2 (0.41%) Oracle Database
4 2 (0.41%) Power BI
4 2 (0.41%) SAP HANA
5 1 (0.21%) Apache Iceberg
5 1 (0.21%) Azure SQL Database
5 1 (0.21%) Data Lake
5 1 (0.21%) Data Warehouse
5 1 (0.21%) Delta Lake
5 1 (0.21%) NoSQL
5 1 (0.21%) Parquet
5 1 (0.21%) PostgreSQL
5 1 (0.21%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 19 (3.94%) GitLab
1 19 (3.94%) Jenkins
2 16 (3.32%) Git
3 9 (1.87%) JIRA
4 7 (1.45%) Artifactory
5 4 (0.83%) Sonatype Nexus
6 2 (0.41%) Bitbucket Server
6 2 (0.41%) CA Release Automation
6 2 (0.41%) GoCD
6 2 (0.41%) Robot Framework
7 1 (0.21%) Bitbucket
7 1 (0.21%) MSI
General
1 95 (19.71%) Social Skills
2 54 (11.20%) Public Sector
3 52 (10.79%) Finance
4 42 (8.71%) Analytical Skills
5 23 (4.77%) Documentation Skills
6 10 (2.07%) Banking
6 10 (2.07%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 10 (2.07%) Military
7 9 (1.87%) Billing
8 8 (1.66%) Local Government
9 7 (1.45%) Telecoms
10 6 (1.24%) Aerospace
10 6 (1.24%) Aviation
10 6 (1.24%) Spanish Language
11 5 (1.04%) Legal
11 5 (1.04%) Manufacturing
12 4 (0.83%) Financial Institution
13 3 (0.62%) Marketing
13 3 (0.62%) Organisational Skills
13 3 (0.62%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (1.87%) SAML
2 8 (1.66%) ARM Templates
2 8 (1.66%) Middleware
3 7 (1.45%) LDAP
3 7 (1.45%) OpenID
3 7 (1.45%) REST
4 5 (1.04%) Microsoft Graph
5 4 (0.83%) OAuth
5 4 (0.83%) SOAP
5 4 (0.83%) Web Services
6 3 (0.62%) ADO
6 3 (0.62%) AWS CDK
6 3 (0.62%) Keycloak
6 3 (0.62%) YAML
7 2 (0.41%) .NET
7 2 (0.41%) .NET Core
7 2 (0.41%) Apache NiFi
7 2 (0.41%) Elastic Stack
7 2 (0.41%) OAuth2
7 2 (0.41%) WPF
Miscellaneous
1 30 (6.22%) Data Centre
2 25 (5.19%) PKI
3 18 (3.73%) Hybrid Cloud
4 13 (2.70%) Analytical Mindset
5 12 (2.49%) Private Cloud
6 11 (2.28%) Replication
7 9 (1.87%) Enterprise Software
7 9 (1.87%) Public Cloud
8 8 (1.66%) Clustering
8 8 (1.66%) Onboarding
9 7 (1.45%) Self-Motivation
10 6 (1.24%) NHS
11 5 (1.04%) Cloud Native
11 5 (1.04%) Data Protection Act
11 5 (1.04%) Management Information System
12 4 (0.83%) Mobile App
13 3 (0.62%) Client/Server
13 3 (0.62%) Cyber Threat
13 3 (0.62%) Enterprise Storage
13 3 (0.62%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 180 (37.34%) Windows
2 103 (21.37%) Linux
3 90 (18.67%) Windows Server
4 17 (3.53%) Windows 10
5 13 (2.70%) Ubuntu
6 12 (2.49%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 12 (2.49%) Unix
7 11 (2.28%) Windows Server 2012
8 9 (1.87%) VMS
9 8 (1.66%) Windows Server 2019
10 7 (1.45%) Windows Server 2016
11 6 (1.24%) Android
11 6 (1.24%) Apple iOS
12 4 (0.83%) Windows Server 2003
13 3 (0.62%) CentOS
14 2 (0.41%) Debian
14 2 (0.41%) Mac OS
14 2 (0.41%) SUSE
14 2 (0.41%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
14 2 (0.41%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 458 (95.02%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 90 (18.67%) DevOps
3 87 (18.05%) Problem-Solving
4 78 (16.18%) Infrastructure as Code
5 67 (13.90%) CI/CD
6 64 (13.28%) ITIL
7 53 (11.00%) Infrastructure Automation
8 44 (9.13%) Migration
9 43 (8.92%) Cybersecurity
10 41 (8.51%) Disaster Recovery
11 38 (7.88%) High Availability
12 35 (7.26%) Agile
13 34 (7.05%) Observability
14 24 (4.98%) Containerisation
14 24 (4.98%) Service Management
15 23 (4.77%) Roadmaps
16 22 (4.56%) Stakeholder Management
17 20 (4.15%) Cloud Security
17 20 (4.15%) Continuous Improvement
17 20 (4.15%) Platform Engineering
Programming Languages
1 75 (15.56%) PowerShell
2 63 (13.07%) Python
3 29 (6.02%) Bash
4 15 (3.11%) Bicep
5 12 (2.49%) SQL
6 11 (2.28%) Perl
7 7 (1.45%) Java
7 7 (1.45%) JavaScript
8 6 (1.24%) PHP
9 5 (1.04%) Go
9 5 (1.04%) Shell Script
10 2 (0.41%) C#
10 2 (0.41%) Groovy
11 1 (0.21%) C++
11 1 (0.21%) Kusto Query Language
11 1 (0.21%) PL/SQL
11 1 (0.21%) Ruby
11 1 (0.21%) Scala
11 1 (0.21%) TypeScript
11 1 (0.21%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 138 (28.63%) Security Cleared
2 97 (20.12%) SC Cleared
3 44 (9.13%) DV Cleared
4 27 (5.60%) Azure Certification
5 22 (4.56%) Microsoft Certification
6 13 (2.70%) Degree
6 13 (2.70%) Network+ Certification
7 12 (2.49%) Server+ Certification
8 11 (2.28%) FFIEC
9 7 (1.45%) AWS Certification
10 6 (1.24%) BPSS Clearance
10 6 (1.24%) Cisco Certification
10 6 (1.24%) Computer Science Degree
11 5 (1.04%) CCNA
11 5 (1.04%) CISSP
11 5 (1.04%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 4 (0.83%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 4 (0.83%) CISM
12 4 (0.83%) CompTIA Security+
13 3 (0.62%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 19 (3.94%) NIST
2 15 (3.11%) GDPR
3 12 (2.49%) SLA
4 11 (2.28%) GLBA
4 11 (2.28%) PCI DSS
5 7 (1.45%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 6 (1.24%) Cyber Essentials
7 3 (0.62%) NIST 800
8 2 (0.41%) HIPAA
8 2 (0.41%) QA
8 2 (0.41%) SOC 2
9 1 (0.21%) Accessibility
9 1 (0.21%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 1 (0.21%) HMG Security Policy Framework
System Software
1 118 (24.48%) Active Directory
2 104 (21.58%) VMware Infrastructure
3 65 (13.49%) Hyper-V
4 43 (8.92%) Docker
5 23 (4.77%) vSphere
6 13 (2.70%) VMware ESXi
7 11 (2.28%) Virtual Machines
8 9 (1.87%) Virtual Desktop
8 9 (1.87%) VMware NSX
9 4 (0.83%) BitLocker
10 3 (0.62%) DFS Replication
10 3 (0.62%) Sendmail
10 3 (0.62%) Virtual Servers
11 2 (0.41%) Firmware
11 2 (0.41%) Microsoft App-V
11 2 (0.41%) QEMU
11 2 (0.41%) Tivoli Directory Server
12 1 (0.21%) etcd
12 1 (0.21%) Slurm Workload Manager
12 1 (0.21%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 95 (19.71%) Terraform
2 66 (13.69%) Ansible
3 49 (10.17%) Microsoft Intune
3 49 (10.17%) SCCM
4 41 (8.51%) Kubernetes
5 17 (3.53%) Single Sign-On
5 17 (3.53%) vCenter Server
6 8 (1.66%) FortiGate
7 7 (1.45%) AirWatch
7 7 (1.45%) VxRail
8 6 (1.24%) CASB
8 6 (1.24%) Grafana
8 6 (1.24%) Prometheus
8 6 (1.24%) Red Hat Satellite
8 6 (1.24%) SCOM
8 6 (1.24%) SCOrch
9 5 (1.04%) Istio
9 5 (1.04%) Packer
10 4 (0.83%) Nessus
10 4 (0.83%) WSUS
Vendors
1 169 (35.06%) Microsoft
2 141 (29.25%) VMware
3 30 (6.22%) Cisco
4 25 (5.19%) Palo Alto
5 22 (4.56%) F5
6 19 (3.94%) Dell
6 19 (3.94%) Veeam
7 17 (3.53%) Google
8 16 (3.32%) Red Hat
8 16 (3.32%) Splunk
9 15 (3.11%) Citrix
10 14 (2.90%) ServiceNow
11 13 (2.70%) Thales
12 12 (2.49%) CheckPoint
13 11 (2.28%) SolarWinds
14 10 (2.07%) Aruba
15 9 (1.87%) HP
16 8 (1.66%) Oracle
17 7 (1.45%) Fortinet
17 7 (1.45%) NetApp