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 18 July 2026.

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

6 months to
18 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 150 221 146
Rank change year-on-year +71 -75 +19
Contract jobs requiring an Infrastructure Engineer 971 390 702
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.84% 1.20% 1.67%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.98% 1.31% 1.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 603 255 529
10th Percentile £350 £329 £313
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 £674 £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 4
10th Percentile £50.84 £42.30 £67.73
25th Percentile £58.43 £60.75 £73.69
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 £77.25
90th Percentile £80.82 - £77.70
UK excluding London median hourly rate £72.54 £200.00 £72.75
% change year-on-year -63.73% +174.91% +3.93%

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 48,955 29,836 39,186
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.53% 91.66% 93.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,608 19,006 25,297
10th Percentile £325 £285 £288
25th Percentile £420 £400 £409
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 £494
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.85% -1.20%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,284 1,415 2,570
10th Percentile £15.82 £13.75 £13.25
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.30 £17.50
Median hourly rate £43.69 £25.30 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +72.69% -36.75% -5.88%
75th Percentile £67.84 £55.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.75 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.72
% change year-on-year +78.93% -38.24% +4.34%

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 18 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 18 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 18 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 +60 835 £525 - 226
UK excluding London +59 686 £525 - 201
London +16 208 £525 +0.24% 47
South East +27 198 £536 -2.47% 63
North of England +21 197 £563 +7.14% 45
Work from Home +25 191 £540 +8.00% 90
South West +18 107 £545 -3.20% 38
Midlands -8 83 £450 +5.88% 27
Yorkshire 0 80 £480 -4.00% 17
North West -9 75 £575 +9.52% 17
North East +4 52 £600 -7.69% 12
West Midlands -34 50 £475 +11.76% 21
Scotland +18 44 £570 +20.63% 8
East Midlands +10 32 £450 +5.88% 6
East of England -12 32 £450 - 16
Wales +13 27 £500 - 4
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 3
Channel Islands - 1 £550 -

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

For the 6 months to 18 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.

1 954 (98.25%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 379 (39.03%) Security Cleared
3 291 (29.97%) Windows
4 289 (29.76%) Azure
5 248 (25.54%) SC Cleared
6 243 (25.03%) VMware
7 206 (21.22%) Microsoft
8 195 (20.08%) Active Directory
9 188 (19.36%) Windows Server
10 187 (19.26%) VMware Infrastructure
11 177 (18.23%) Infrastructure as Code
12 166 (17.10%) Terraform
13 164 (16.89%) DNS
14 163 (16.79%) Linux
15 144 (14.83%) PowerShell
16 141 (14.52%) Firewall
17 139 (14.32%) DV Cleared
18 137 (14.11%) DevOps
19 135 (13.90%) AWS
20 125 (12.87%) Python
21 121 (12.46%) CI/CD
22 115 (11.84%) DHCP
23 103 (10.61%) Ansible
24 95 (9.78%) Migration
25 94 (9.68%) Kubernetes
26 90 (9.27%) Problem-Solving
27 82 (8.44%) Hyper-V
28 73 (7.52%) vSphere
29 69 (7.11%) VMware ESXi
30 68 (7.00%) 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 (5.25%) Microsoft Exchange
2 18 (1.85%) SharePoint
3 12 (1.24%) WebSphere
4 11 (1.13%) 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
1 289 (29.76%) Azure
2 135 (13.90%) AWS
3 67 (6.90%) Microsoft 365
4 65 (6.69%) Entra ID
5 60 (6.18%) GitHub
6 51 (5.25%) GCP
7 47 (4.84%) OCI
8 46 (4.74%) IaaS
9 36 (3.71%) SaaS
10 33 (3.40%) PaaS
11 32 (3.30%) Azure DevOps
12 26 (2.68%) Azure Monitor
13 22 (2.27%) GitHub Actions
14 21 (2.16%) Azure AKS
15 19 (1.96%) Nutanix
16 13 (1.34%) Google Kubernetes Engine
17 8 (0.82%) Cohesity
17 8 (0.82%) OpenShift
18 7 (0.72%) Azure Sentinel
18 7 (0.72%) Azure Stack
Communications & Networking
1 164 (16.89%) DNS
2 141 (14.52%) Firewall
3 115 (11.84%) DHCP
4 52 (5.36%) SAN
4 52 (5.36%) VLAN
5 45 (4.63%) VPN
6 41 (4.22%) TCP/IP
7 40 (4.12%) WAN
8 38 (3.91%) Network Security
9 33 (3.40%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
10 30 (3.09%) BIG-IP
11 24 (2.47%) LAN
12 23 (2.37%) Ethernet VPN
13 22 (2.27%) BGP
13 22 (2.27%) SD-WAN
13 22 (2.27%) VXLAN
14 20 (2.06%) OSPF
14 20 (2.06%) VSAN
15 19 (1.96%) Wi-Fi
16 14 (1.44%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 40 (4.12%) 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 7 (0.72%) 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 (4.53%) GitLab
2 27 (2.78%) JIRA
3 26 (2.68%) Jenkins
4 19 (1.96%) Git
5 4 (0.41%) Artifactory
5 4 (0.41%) Bitbucket
6 2 (0.21%) Chocolatey
7 1 (0.10%) Claude Code
7 1 (0.10%) CMake
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
7 1 (0.10%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 107 (11.02%) Social Skills
2 75 (7.72%) Public Sector
3 50 (5.15%) Finance
4 35 (3.60%) Analytical Skills
5 31 (3.19%) Documentation Skills
6 19 (1.96%) Banking
7 18 (1.85%) Legal
8 13 (1.34%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 11 (1.13%) Aerospace
10 10 (1.03%) Manufacturing
10 10 (1.03%) Marketing
11 9 (0.93%) Military
12 6 (0.62%) Telecoms
13 4 (0.41%) Law
14 3 (0.31%) Billing
15 2 (0.21%) Advertising
15 2 (0.21%) Automotive
15 2 (0.21%) Investment Banking
15 2 (0.21%) Local Government
15 2 (0.21%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (1.54%) Middleware
2 10 (1.03%) Oracle GoldenGate
3 9 (0.93%) ARM Templates
4 7 (0.72%) Flash
4 7 (0.72%) LDAP
4 7 (0.72%) REST
5 6 (0.62%) Elastic Stack
6 5 (0.51%) OpenID
7 4 (0.41%) 802.1X
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%) Kafka
8 3 (0.31%) Oracle Fusion
9 2 (0.21%) Node.js
9 2 (0.21%) OAuth
9 2 (0.21%) OAuth2
9 2 (0.21%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 115 (11.84%) Data Centre
2 55 (5.66%) Hybrid Cloud
3 52 (5.36%) PKI
4 43 (4.43%) Public Cloud
5 26 (2.68%) Cloud Native
5 26 (2.68%) Enterprise Storage
6 25 (2.57%) Onboarding
7 19 (1.96%) Replication
8 17 (1.75%) Self-Motivation
9 15 (1.54%) Clustering
10 12 (1.24%) Linux Command Line
11 11 (1.13%) Distributed Systems
11 11 (1.13%) Mainframe
11 11 (1.13%) Private Cloud
12 10 (1.03%) Management Information System
12 10 (1.03%) Operational Technology
13 9 (0.93%) Smartcard
14 8 (0.82%) Enterprise Software
14 8 (0.82%) Virtual Team
15 7 (0.72%) Data Protection Act
Operating Systems
1 291 (29.97%) Windows
2 188 (19.36%) Windows Server
3 163 (16.79%) Linux
4 31 (3.19%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 22 (2.27%) Windows Server 2019
6 19 (1.96%) Windows Server 2016
7 17 (1.75%) Windows 10
8 12 (1.24%) Ubuntu
8 12 (1.24%) VMS
9 11 (1.13%) AIX
9 11 (1.13%) zOS
10 10 (1.03%) Apple iOS
11 9 (0.93%) Mac OS
11 9 (0.93%) Unix
12 8 (0.82%) Android
12 8 (0.82%) Windows Server 2012
13 7 (0.72%) CentOS
14 6 (0.62%) Debian
14 6 (0.62%) Windows Server 2003
15 4 (0.41%) Rocky
Processes & Methodologies
1 954 (98.25%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 177 (18.23%) Infrastructure as Code
3 137 (14.11%) DevOps
4 121 (12.46%) CI/CD
5 95 (9.78%) Migration
6 90 (9.27%) Problem-Solving
7 68 (7.00%) High Availability
8 65 (6.69%) Infrastructure Automation
9 57 (5.87%) Project Delivery
10 55 (5.66%) Disaster Recovery
11 53 (5.46%) Validation
12 50 (5.15%) Agile
12 50 (5.15%) Continuous Improvement
12 50 (5.15%) ITIL
13 49 (5.05%) Zero Trust
14 41 (4.22%) Platform Engineering
15 39 (4.02%) Cybersecurity
16 35 (3.60%) Site Reliability Engineering
17 32 (3.30%) Containerisation
18 31 (3.19%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 144 (14.83%) PowerShell
2 125 (12.87%) Python
3 56 (5.77%) Bash
4 33 (3.40%) SQL
5 25 (2.57%) Bicep
6 16 (1.65%) C#
7 10 (1.03%) Java
8 8 (0.82%) ActionScript
9 5 (0.51%) Go
9 5 (0.51%) Shell Script
10 3 (0.31%) JavaScript
10 3 (0.31%) PHP
11 2 (0.21%) TypeScript
12 1 (0.10%) C
12 1 (0.10%) C++
12 1 (0.10%) Jython
12 1 (0.10%) Perl
12 1 (0.10%) VB
Qualifications
1 379 (39.03%) Security Cleared
2 248 (25.54%) SC Cleared
3 139 (14.32%) DV Cleared
4 32 (3.30%) Degree
5 23 (2.37%) Microsoft Certification
6 19 (1.96%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
7 18 (1.85%) Cisco Certification
8 15 (1.54%) MCSE
9 14 (1.44%) Azure Certification
10 11 (1.13%) CCNA
10 11 (1.13%) VCAP
11 10 (1.03%) CCNP
12 5 (0.51%) Computer Science Degree
12 5 (0.51%) MCSA
12 5 (0.51%) RHCA
13 4 (0.41%) AWS Certification
14 3 (0.31%) ITIL Certification
14 3 (0.31%) Oracle Certification
15 2 (0.21%) PMI Certification
15 2 (0.21%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 28 (2.88%) QA
2 20 (2.06%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 16 (1.65%) NIST
4 15 (1.54%) Cyber Essentials
5 10 (1.03%) SLA
6 9 (0.93%) NCSC
7 6 (0.62%) Disclosure Scotland
8 5 (0.51%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 3 (0.31%) GDPR
9 3 (0.31%) NIST 800
10 2 (0.21%) SOC 2
11 1 (0.10%) FedRAMP
11 1 (0.10%) GLBA
11 1 (0.10%) PCI DSS
11 1 (0.10%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 195 (20.08%) Active Directory
2 187 (19.26%) VMware Infrastructure
3 82 (8.44%) Hyper-V
4 73 (7.52%) vSphere
5 69 (7.11%) VMware ESXi
6 37 (3.81%) Docker
6 37 (3.81%) Virtual Machines
7 33 (3.40%) VMware NSX
8 21 (2.16%) Virtual Desktop
9 12 (1.24%) NFS
10 10 (1.03%) BitLocker
10 10 (1.03%) Oracle RAC
11 8 (0.82%) Microsoft App-V
12 5 (0.51%) GPFS
13 4 (0.41%) Firmware
13 4 (0.41%) KVM
13 4 (0.41%) Terminal Services
14 3 (0.31%) Virtual Servers
15 2 (0.21%) SRDF
15 2 (0.21%) UAG
Systems Management
1 166 (17.10%) Terraform
2 103 (10.61%) Ansible
3 94 (9.68%) Kubernetes
4 46 (4.74%) Microsoft Intune
5 44 (4.53%) vCenter Server
6 34 (3.50%) SCCM
7 17 (1.75%) WSUS
8 14 (1.44%) Prometheus
9 13 (1.34%) Grafana
9 13 (1.34%) Puppet
9 13 (1.34%) SCOM
10 10 (1.03%) Data Guard
10 10 (1.03%) NetBackup
10 10 (1.03%) Oracle RMAN
10 10 (1.03%) Single Sign-On
11 9 (0.93%) Nessus
12 8 (0.82%) Istio
12 8 (0.82%) vMotion
12 8 (0.82%) vRealize
13 7 (0.72%) VxRail
Vendors
1 243 (25.03%) VMware
2 206 (21.22%) Microsoft
3 60 (6.18%) Citrix
4 56 (5.77%) Cisco
5 40 (4.12%) F5
6 34 (3.50%) NetApp
6 34 (3.50%) Oracle
7 33 (3.40%) Veeam
8 31 (3.19%) Palo Alto
9 30 (3.09%) Google
10 26 (2.68%) Red Hat
11 24 (2.47%) Dell
12 21 (2.16%) Aruba
13 20 (2.06%) Arista
14 18 (1.85%) IBM
15 16 (1.65%) ServiceNow
16 15 (1.54%) Juniper
17 13 (1.34%) SolarWinds
17 13 (1.34%) Tenable
18 11 (1.13%) Fortinet