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 July 2026.

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

6 months to
27 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 149 225 142
Rank change year-on-year +76 -83 +15
Contract jobs requiring an Infrastructure Engineer 987 390 670
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.87% 1.18% 1.67%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.02% 1.29% 1.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 599 256 510
10th Percentile £350 £329 £318
25th Percentile £425 £400 £383
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £475
Median % change year-on-year - +10.53% -5.00%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £575
90th Percentile £675 £638 £638
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £525 £475
% change year-on-year - +10.53% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 45 4 4
10th Percentile £53.37 £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% +8.07%
75th Percentile £78.75 £200.00 £77.25
90th Percentile £94.00 - £77.70
UK excluding London median hourly rate £72.54 £200.00 £72.75
% change year-on-year -63.73% +174.91% +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 48,898 30,175 37,360
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.61% 91.56% 93.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,518 19,205 24,201
10th Percentile £329 £284 £300
25th Percentile £423 £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 3,323 1,465 2,247
10th Percentile £15.75 £13.71 £13.86
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.30 £18.32
Median hourly rate £43.00 £25.15 £42.03
Median % change year-on-year +70.97% -40.16% -2.26%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.17 £73.75 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +78.93% -41.51% +8.72%

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 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 27 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 27 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 +66 848 £525 - 280
UK excluding London +61 694 £525 - 231
London +33 214 £525 +0.24% 77
South East +21 209 £536 -2.47% 74
Work from Home +32 199 £538 +7.50% 97
North of England +22 194 £575 +9.52% 46
South West +18 106 £545 -3.20% 47
Midlands -8 82 £450 - 26
Yorkshire -5 80 £453 -9.50% 19
North West -7 73 £575 +6.98% 20
North East -1 51 £600 -7.69% 8
West Midlands -27 51 £475 +5.56% 19
Scotland +27 45 £570 +20.63% 14
East of England -11 33 £450 - 25
East Midlands +8 30 £450 +5.88% 7
Wales +13 27 £500 - 4
Channel Islands - 1 £550 -
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 2

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

For the 6 months to 27 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.

1 973 (98.58%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 393 (39.82%) Security Cleared
3 297 (30.09%) Azure
4 295 (29.89%) Windows
5 262 (26.55%) SC Cleared
6 246 (24.92%) VMware
7 216 (21.88%) Microsoft
8 199 (20.16%) Active Directory
9 194 (19.66%) Windows Server
10 188 (19.05%) VMware Infrastructure
11 184 (18.64%) Infrastructure as Code
12 173 (17.53%) Terraform
13 169 (17.12%) DNS
13 169 (17.12%) Linux
14 149 (15.10%) PowerShell
15 142 (14.39%) Firewall
16 141 (14.29%) DV Cleared
17 136 (13.78%) DevOps
18 135 (13.68%) AWS
19 128 (12.97%) Python
20 124 (12.56%) CI/CD
21 120 (12.16%) DHCP
22 110 (11.14%) Ansible
23 100 (10.13%) Migration
24 94 (9.52%) Kubernetes
25 89 (9.02%) Problem-Solving
26 85 (8.61%) Hyper-V
27 75 (7.60%) Entra ID
28 73 (7.40%) Microsoft 365
29 69 (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 53 (5.37%) Microsoft Exchange
2 25 (2.53%) SharePoint
3 13 (1.32%) WebSphere
4 12 (1.22%) CICS
5 8 (0.81%) Confluence
6 4 (0.41%) SharePoint Server
7 3 (0.30%) Apache
7 3 (0.30%) Exchange Server 2010
8 2 (0.20%) CloudStack
9 1 (0.10%) Apache Airflow
9 1 (0.10%) IBM HTTP Server
9 1 (0.10%) MS Project Server
9 1 (0.10%) OpenStack
9 1 (0.10%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 9 (0.91%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (0.30%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.10%) CINEMA 4D
3 1 (0.10%) Houdini
3 1 (0.10%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (0.10%) NUKE
Business Applications
1 3 (0.30%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.10%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 297 (30.09%) Azure
2 135 (13.68%) AWS
3 75 (7.60%) Entra ID
4 73 (7.40%) Microsoft 365
5 59 (5.98%) GitHub
6 53 (5.37%) GCP
7 50 (5.07%) IaaS
8 49 (4.96%) OCI
9 38 (3.85%) SaaS
10 34 (3.44%) Azure DevOps
11 33 (3.34%) PaaS
12 27 (2.74%) Azure Monitor
13 23 (2.33%) GitHub Actions
14 21 (2.13%) Azure AKS
15 16 (1.62%) Nutanix
16 12 (1.22%) Google Kubernetes Engine
17 8 (0.81%) Azure Sentinel
17 8 (0.81%) Cohesity
18 7 (0.71%) OpenShift
19 6 (0.61%) Amazon EC2
Communications & Networking
1 169 (17.12%) DNS
2 142 (14.39%) Firewall
3 120 (12.16%) DHCP
4 54 (5.47%) VLAN
5 50 (5.07%) SAN
5 50 (5.07%) VPN
6 44 (4.46%) TCP/IP
7 42 (4.26%) WAN
8 39 (3.95%) Network Security
9 33 (3.34%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
10 30 (3.04%) BIG-IP
11 26 (2.63%) LAN
12 23 (2.33%) Ethernet VPN
13 22 (2.23%) BGP
13 22 (2.23%) SD-WAN
13 22 (2.23%) VXLAN
13 22 (2.23%) Wi-Fi
14 20 (2.03%) OSPF
14 20 (2.03%) VSAN
15 13 (1.32%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 46 (4.66%) SQL Server
2 15 (1.52%) Oracle Database
2 15 (1.52%) Oracle Exadata
2 15 (1.52%) Relational Database
3 12 (1.22%) RDBMS
4 9 (0.91%) Elasticsearch
5 7 (0.71%) Amazon RDS
6 4 (0.41%) Azure SQL Database
6 4 (0.41%) PostgreSQL
6 4 (0.41%) Power BI
7 3 (0.30%) Big Data
7 3 (0.30%) Data Mining
7 3 (0.30%) NonStop SQL
7 3 (0.30%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 2 (0.20%) BigQuery
8 2 (0.20%) Data Lake
8 2 (0.20%) DynamoDB
9 1 (0.10%) Flink
9 1 (0.10%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 1 (0.10%) TimescaleDB
Development Applications
1 44 (4.46%) GitLab
2 27 (2.74%) JIRA
3 26 (2.63%) Jenkins
4 21 (2.13%) Git
5 3 (0.30%) Bitbucket
5 3 (0.30%) Chocolatey
6 1 (0.10%) Artifactory
6 1 (0.10%) Claude Code
6 1 (0.10%) CMake
6 1 (0.10%) Gradle
6 1 (0.10%) IntelliJ
6 1 (0.10%) Introscope
6 1 (0.10%) MLflow
6 1 (0.10%) MSI
6 1 (0.10%) Robot Framework
6 1 (0.10%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 106 (10.74%) Social Skills
2 74 (7.50%) Public Sector
3 47 (4.76%) Finance
4 36 (3.65%) Analytical Skills
5 31 (3.14%) Documentation Skills
6 19 (1.93%) Banking
7 17 (1.72%) Legal
8 13 (1.32%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 11 (1.11%) Aerospace
10 10 (1.01%) Manufacturing
10 10 (1.01%) Marketing
11 9 (0.91%) Military
12 7 (0.71%) Telecoms
13 4 (0.41%) Automotive
13 4 (0.41%) Law
14 2 (0.20%) Advertising
14 2 (0.20%) Billing
14 2 (0.20%) Local Government
14 2 (0.20%) Retail
15 1 (0.10%) Investment Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (1.62%) Middleware
2 12 (1.22%) Oracle GoldenGate
3 11 (1.11%) ARM Templates
4 8 (0.81%) REST
5 7 (0.71%) Flash
6 6 (0.61%) Elastic Stack
6 6 (0.61%) LDAP
7 5 (0.51%) 802.1X
7 5 (0.51%) OpenID
8 4 (0.41%) JSON
8 4 (0.41%) SAML
8 4 (0.41%) SOAP
8 4 (0.41%) YAML
9 3 (0.30%) .NET
9 3 (0.30%) Kafka
10 2 (0.20%) Bazel
10 2 (0.20%) Keycloak
10 2 (0.20%) OAuth2
10 2 (0.20%) React
10 2 (0.20%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 117 (11.85%) Data Centre
2 54 (5.47%) Hybrid Cloud
2 54 (5.47%) PKI
3 44 (4.46%) Public Cloud
4 27 (2.74%) Enterprise Storage
5 25 (2.53%) Cloud Native
5 25 (2.53%) Onboarding
6 22 (2.23%) Replication
7 17 (1.72%) Clustering
7 17 (1.72%) Self-Motivation
8 13 (1.32%) Linux Command Line
9 12 (1.22%) Distributed Systems
9 12 (1.22%) Mainframe
10 11 (1.11%) Management Information System
11 10 (1.01%) Operational Technology
12 9 (0.91%) Private Cloud
12 9 (0.91%) Smartcard
13 8 (0.81%) Enterprise Software
13 8 (0.81%) Virtual Team
14 7 (0.71%) Data Protection Act
Operating Systems
1 295 (29.89%) Windows
2 194 (19.66%) Windows Server
3 169 (17.12%) Linux
4 32 (3.24%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 20 (2.03%) Windows Server 2019
6 17 (1.72%) Windows Server 2016
7 16 (1.62%) Windows 10
8 13 (1.32%) AIX
8 13 (1.32%) Ubuntu
9 12 (1.22%) VMS
9 12 (1.22%) zOS
10 9 (0.91%) Apple iOS
10 9 (0.91%) Mac OS
11 8 (0.81%) Android
11 8 (0.81%) CentOS
11 8 (0.81%) Unix
12 6 (0.61%) Debian
12 6 (0.61%) Windows Server 2003
12 6 (0.61%) Windows Server 2012
13 5 (0.51%) Rocky
Processes & Methodologies
1 973 (98.58%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 184 (18.64%) Infrastructure as Code
3 136 (13.78%) DevOps
4 124 (12.56%) CI/CD
5 100 (10.13%) Migration
6 89 (9.02%) Problem-Solving
7 67 (6.79%) High Availability
8 66 (6.69%) Infrastructure Automation
9 58 (5.88%) Project Delivery
10 55 (5.57%) Continuous Improvement
10 55 (5.57%) Disaster Recovery
11 54 (5.47%) Validation
12 52 (5.27%) ITIL
13 47 (4.76%) Agile
13 47 (4.76%) Zero Trust
14 43 (4.36%) Platform Engineering
15 38 (3.85%) Cybersecurity
16 35 (3.55%) Site Reliability Engineering
17 34 (3.44%) Containerisation
18 33 (3.34%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 149 (15.10%) PowerShell
2 128 (12.97%) Python
3 59 (5.98%) Bash
4 35 (3.55%) SQL
5 27 (2.74%) Bicep
6 16 (1.62%) C#
7 11 (1.11%) Java
8 7 (0.71%) ActionScript
9 6 (0.61%) Go
10 5 (0.51%) Shell Script
11 3 (0.30%) JavaScript
11 3 (0.30%) PHP
12 2 (0.20%) 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
1 393 (39.82%) Security Cleared
2 262 (26.55%) SC Cleared
3 141 (14.29%) DV Cleared
4 33 (3.34%) Degree
5 24 (2.43%) Microsoft Certification
6 20 (2.03%) Cisco Certification
6 20 (2.03%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
7 16 (1.62%) Azure Certification
7 16 (1.62%) MCSE
8 12 (1.22%) CCNA
9 11 (1.11%) CCNP
9 11 (1.11%) VCAP
10 6 (0.61%) Computer Science Degree
10 6 (0.61%) RHCA
11 5 (0.51%) MCSA
12 4 (0.41%) AWS Certification
12 4 (0.41%) DBS Check
12 4 (0.41%) ITIL Certification
13 3 (0.30%) JNCIP
13 3 (0.30%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 29 (2.94%) QA
2 21 (2.13%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 15 (1.52%) Cyber Essentials
3 15 (1.52%) NIST
4 13 (1.32%) SLA
5 9 (0.91%) NCSC
6 6 (0.61%) Disclosure Scotland
7 5 (0.51%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 3 (0.30%) NIST 800
9 2 (0.20%) GDPR
9 2 (0.20%) SOC 2
10 1 (0.10%) Data Quality
10 1 (0.10%) FedRAMP
10 1 (0.10%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 199 (20.16%) Active Directory
2 188 (19.05%) VMware Infrastructure
3 85 (8.61%) Hyper-V
4 69 (6.99%) vSphere
5 68 (6.89%) VMware ESXi
6 41 (4.15%) Virtual Machines
7 36 (3.65%) Docker
8 33 (3.34%) VMware NSX
9 23 (2.33%) Virtual Desktop
10 12 (1.22%) NFS
10 12 (1.22%) Oracle RAC
11 9 (0.91%) BitLocker
12 8 (0.81%) Microsoft App-V
13 5 (0.51%) GPFS
13 5 (0.51%) KVM
14 4 (0.41%) Firmware
14 4 (0.41%) Terminal Services
15 3 (0.30%) Virtual Servers
16 2 (0.20%) SRDF
16 2 (0.20%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 173 (17.53%) Terraform
2 110 (11.14%) Ansible
3 94 (9.52%) Kubernetes
4 49 (4.96%) Microsoft Intune
5 45 (4.56%) vCenter Server
6 35 (3.55%) SCCM
7 17 (1.72%) WSUS
8 14 (1.42%) Prometheus
9 13 (1.32%) Puppet
9 13 (1.32%) SCOM
10 12 (1.22%) Data Guard
10 12 (1.22%) Oracle RMAN
11 11 (1.11%) Grafana
11 11 (1.11%) NetBackup
12 10 (1.01%) Single Sign-On
13 9 (0.91%) Nessus
14 8 (0.81%) Istio
14 8 (0.81%) vMotion
14 8 (0.81%) vRealize
15 7 (0.71%) VxRail
Vendors
1 246 (24.92%) VMware
2 216 (21.88%) Microsoft
3 61 (6.18%) Citrix
4 58 (5.88%) Cisco
5 38 (3.85%) F5
6 36 (3.65%) NetApp
6 36 (3.65%) Oracle
7 32 (3.24%) Veeam
8 31 (3.14%) Google
8 31 (3.14%) Palo Alto
9 25 (2.53%) Red Hat
10 24 (2.43%) Dell
11 21 (2.13%) Aruba
12 19 (1.93%) Arista
12 19 (1.93%) IBM
13 16 (1.62%) Juniper
14 15 (1.52%) ServiceNow
15 14 (1.42%) Tenable
16 13 (1.32%) SolarWinds
17 11 (1.11%) CyberArk