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 3 September 2026.

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

6 months to
3 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 144 235 149
Rank change year-on-year +91 -86 +3
Contract jobs requiring an Infrastructure Engineer 1,041 388 636
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.94% 1.19% 1.66%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.10% 1.31% 1.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 609 256 469
10th Percentile £350 £319 £323
25th Percentile £425 £384 £380
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% +5.26% -5.00%
75th Percentile £600 £599 £575
90th Percentile £658 £638 £638
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £485 £450
% change year-on-year +8.25% +7.78% -10.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 51 7 4
10th Percentile £46.00 £27.80 £48.88
25th Percentile £58.43 £29.00 £58.44
Median hourly rate £72.54 £30.00 £72.25
Median % change year-on-year +141.80% -58.48% -0.34%
75th Percentile £78.75 £59.00 £77.00
90th Percentile £100.00 £129.80 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £72.54 £77.00 £67.50
% change year-on-year -5.79% +14.07% -6.90%

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 49,563 29,654 35,643
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.43% 91.23% 93.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,606 18,697 22,460
10th Percentile £325 £280 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.69%
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 3,581 1,558 1,825
10th Percentile £14.90 £13.68 £14.16
25th Percentile £20.50 £17.02 £20.00
Median hourly rate £42.25 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +67.99% -41.51% +1.18%
75th Percentile £67.84 £53.83 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £71.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.95
% change year-on-year +68.99% -42.78% +11.13%

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 3 September 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 3 September 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 3 September 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 +59 886 £525 +5.00% 537
UK excluding London +86 742 £525 +8.25% 323
Work from Home +30 217 £525 +16.67% 169
South East +24 217 £545 +9.00% 69
London +5 215 £540 +8.00% 264
North of England +47 208 £522 +4.40% 75
South West +20 104 £550 -0.90% 51
Midlands +6 97 £475 +5.56% 47
North West +4 87 £515 -6.36% 40
Yorkshire +9 79 £463 -7.50% 20
West Midlands -12 66 £475 +5.56% 29
Scotland +26 56 £525 +12.00% 26
North East 0 52 £600 -7.69% 16
East of England -5 38 £450 +17.65% 46
East Midlands +3 30 £450 +5.88% 18
Wales +10 27 £500 - 8
Channel Islands - 1 £550 -
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 9

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

For the 6 months to 3 September 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 1,026 (98.56%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 421 (40.44%) Security Cleared
3 330 (31.70%) Windows
4 316 (30.36%) Azure
5 280 (26.90%) VMware
6 273 (26.22%) SC Cleared
7 250 (24.02%) Microsoft
8 223 (21.42%) Windows Server
9 221 (21.23%) VMware Infrastructure
10 217 (20.85%) Active Directory
11 216 (20.75%) Infrastructure as Code
12 200 (19.21%) Linux
13 185 (17.77%) DNS
14 181 (17.39%) Terraform
15 178 (17.10%) PowerShell
16 160 (15.37%) Firewall
17 152 (14.60%) AWS
18 149 (14.31%) DV Cleared
19 142 (13.64%) DevOps
20 136 (13.06%) CI/CD
20 136 (13.06%) Python
21 132 (12.68%) DHCP
22 124 (11.91%) Ansible
23 118 (11.34%) Migration
24 114 (10.95%) Problem-Solving
25 103 (9.89%) Hyper-V
26 100 (9.61%) Kubernetes
27 97 (9.32%) Entra ID
28 91 (8.74%) Microsoft 365
29 80 (7.68%) Infrastructure Automation

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 60 (5.76%) Microsoft Exchange
2 33 (3.17%) SharePoint
3 14 (1.34%) WebSphere
4 13 (1.25%) CICS
5 10 (0.96%) Confluence
6 5 (0.48%) SharePoint Server
7 3 (0.29%) Apache
7 3 (0.29%) Exchange Server 2010
8 2 (0.19%) CloudStack
8 2 (0.19%) Skype for Business
9 1 (0.096%) Apache Airflow
9 1 (0.096%) Exchange Server 2013
9 1 (0.096%) IBM HTTP Server
9 1 (0.096%) IIS
9 1 (0.096%) MS Project Server
9 1 (0.096%) OpenStack
9 1 (0.096%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 10 (0.96%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (0.19%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.096%) CINEMA 4D
3 1 (0.096%) Houdini
3 1 (0.096%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (0.096%) NUKE
Business Applications
1 4 (0.38%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.096%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 316 (30.36%) Azure
2 152 (14.60%) AWS
3 97 (9.32%) Entra ID
4 91 (8.74%) Microsoft 365
5 62 (5.96%) IaaS
6 53 (5.09%) GCP
7 52 (5.00%) OCI
8 49 (4.71%) GitHub
9 42 (4.03%) SaaS
10 38 (3.65%) Azure DevOps
11 33 (3.17%) PaaS
12 28 (2.69%) Azure Monitor
13 22 (2.11%) GitHub Actions
14 19 (1.83%) Nutanix
15 17 (1.63%) Azure AKS
16 11 (1.06%) OpenShift
17 10 (0.96%) Azure Data Factory
18 8 (0.77%) Google Kubernetes Engine
18 8 (0.77%) OneDrive
18 8 (0.77%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 185 (17.77%) DNS
2 160 (15.37%) Firewall
3 132 (12.68%) DHCP
4 57 (5.48%) VLAN
4 57 (5.48%) VPN
5 56 (5.38%) TCP/IP
6 52 (5.00%) SAN
7 41 (3.94%) WAN
8 40 (3.84%) Network Security
9 31 (2.98%) BIG-IP
9 31 (2.98%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
10 25 (2.40%) Wi-Fi
11 24 (2.31%) LAN
12 23 (2.21%) Ethernet VPN
12 23 (2.21%) SD-WAN
13 22 (2.11%) VXLAN
14 20 (1.92%) BGP
14 20 (1.92%) OSPF
14 20 (1.92%) VSAN
15 14 (1.34%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 51 (4.90%) SQL Server
2 22 (2.11%) Oracle Exadata
3 17 (1.63%) Relational Database
4 16 (1.54%) Oracle Database
5 14 (1.34%) RDBMS
6 7 (0.67%) Amazon RDS
6 7 (0.67%) Elasticsearch
7 6 (0.58%) Data Lake
8 4 (0.38%) Azure SQL Database
8 4 (0.38%) NoSQL
8 4 (0.38%) PostgreSQL
8 4 (0.38%) Power BI
8 4 (0.38%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 3 (0.29%) Big Data
9 3 (0.29%) Data Mining
9 3 (0.29%) NonStop SQL
10 2 (0.19%) BigQuery
10 2 (0.19%) SQL Server Analysis Services
10 2 (0.19%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 1 (0.096%) Flink
Development Applications
1 47 (4.51%) GitLab
2 25 (2.40%) Git
2 25 (2.40%) JIRA
3 22 (2.11%) Jenkins
4 4 (0.38%) Chocolatey
5 3 (0.29%) Fiddler
6 1 (0.096%) Artifactory
6 1 (0.096%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.096%) Claude Code
6 1 (0.096%) CMake
6 1 (0.096%) Gradle
6 1 (0.096%) Introscope
6 1 (0.096%) MLflow
6 1 (0.096%) MSI
6 1 (0.096%) Sonatype Nexus
6 1 (0.096%) Visual Studio
General
1 119 (11.43%) Social Skills
2 74 (7.11%) Public Sector
3 46 (4.42%) Analytical Skills
4 45 (4.32%) Finance
5 36 (3.46%) Documentation Skills
6 19 (1.83%) Banking
7 15 (1.44%) Aerospace
7 15 (1.44%) Military
8 13 (1.25%) Manufacturing
9 12 (1.15%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 10 (0.96%) Marketing
10 10 (0.96%) Telecoms
11 7 (0.67%) Law
11 7 (0.67%) Legal
12 6 (0.58%) Automotive
13 4 (0.38%) Investment Banking
14 2 (0.19%) Billing
14 2 (0.19%) Local Government
14 2 (0.19%) Pharmaceutical
14 2 (0.19%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 181 (17.39%) Terraform
2 18 (1.73%) Middleware
3 16 (1.54%) ARM Templates
4 14 (1.34%) Oracle GoldenGate
5 9 (0.86%) YAML
6 6 (0.58%) 802.1X
6 6 (0.58%) JSON
6 6 (0.58%) OpenID
7 5 (0.48%) .NET
7 5 (0.48%) Elastic Stack
7 5 (0.48%) Flash
7 5 (0.48%) REST
7 5 (0.48%) SAML
8 4 (0.38%) LDAP
9 3 (0.29%) Kafka
9 3 (0.29%) OAuth
10 2 (0.19%) OAuth2
10 2 (0.19%) RabbitMQ
10 2 (0.19%) React
10 2 (0.19%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 117 (11.24%) Data Centre
2 64 (6.15%) Hybrid Cloud
3 56 (5.38%) PKI
4 38 (3.65%) Public Cloud
5 30 (2.88%) Enterprise Storage
6 28 (2.69%) Replication
7 27 (2.59%) Onboarding
8 26 (2.50%) Cloud Native
9 19 (1.83%) Clustering
9 19 (1.83%) Distributed Systems
10 17 (1.63%) Management Information System
11 16 (1.54%) Linux Command Line
11 16 (1.54%) Private Cloud
12 15 (1.44%) Self-Motivation
13 13 (1.25%) Mainframe
14 11 (1.06%) Operational Technology
15 9 (0.86%) Driving Licence
16 8 (0.77%) Enterprise Software
16 8 (0.77%) Smartcard
16 8 (0.77%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 330 (31.70%) Windows
2 223 (21.42%) Windows Server
3 200 (19.21%) Linux
4 36 (3.46%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 20 (1.92%) Windows Server 2019
6 19 (1.83%) Windows 10
7 18 (1.73%) Windows Server 2016
8 15 (1.44%) AIX
8 15 (1.44%) Ubuntu
8 15 (1.44%) VMS
9 13 (1.25%) CentOS
9 13 (1.25%) zOS
10 11 (1.06%) Android
10 11 (1.06%) Apple iOS
11 10 (0.96%) Mac OS
12 9 (0.86%) Windows Server 2012
13 8 (0.77%) Rocky
14 6 (0.58%) Debian
14 6 (0.58%) Unix
15 5 (0.48%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,026 (98.56%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 216 (20.75%) Infrastructure as Code
3 142 (13.64%) DevOps
4 136 (13.06%) CI/CD
5 118 (11.34%) Migration
6 114 (10.95%) Problem-Solving
7 80 (7.68%) Infrastructure Automation
8 76 (7.30%) High Availability
9 74 (7.11%) Disaster Recovery
10 67 (6.44%) Continuous Improvement
11 65 (6.24%) ITIL
12 63 (6.05%) Platform Engineering
13 60 (5.76%) Project Delivery
14 57 (5.48%) Validation
15 50 (4.80%) Zero Trust
16 47 (4.51%) Root Cause Analysis
17 43 (4.13%) Identity Access Management
17 43 (4.13%) Load Balancing
18 42 (4.03%) Agile
18 42 (4.03%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 178 (17.10%) PowerShell
2 136 (13.06%) Python
3 77 (7.40%) Bash
4 37 (3.55%) SQL
5 32 (3.07%) Bicep
6 13 (1.25%) C#
7 10 (0.96%) Java
8 6 (0.58%) ActionScript
8 6 (0.58%) Go
9 5 (0.48%) Perl
10 2 (0.19%) C++
10 2 (0.19%) Shell Script
10 2 (0.19%) VB
11 1 (0.096%) C
11 1 (0.096%) Jython
11 1 (0.096%) PHP
11 1 (0.096%) TypeScript
11 1 (0.096%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 421 (40.44%) Security Cleared
2 273 (26.22%) SC Cleared
3 149 (14.31%) DV Cleared
4 42 (4.03%) Degree
5 35 (3.36%) Microsoft Certification
6 24 (2.31%) Azure Certification
7 21 (2.02%) Cisco Certification
8 20 (1.92%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 18 (1.73%) MCSE
10 14 (1.34%) CCNA
11 13 (1.25%) Computer Science Degree
12 12 (1.15%) CCNP
12 12 (1.15%) VCAP
13 6 (0.58%) AWS Certification
13 6 (0.58%) MCSA
14 5 (0.48%) DBS Check
14 5 (0.48%) ITIL Certification
15 4 (0.38%) JNCIP
15 4 (0.38%) JNCIS
15 4 (0.38%) RHCA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 34 (3.27%) QA
2 20 (1.92%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 17 (1.63%) SLA
4 14 (1.34%) Cyber Essentials
5 12 (1.15%) NIST
6 11 (1.06%) NCSC
7 6 (0.58%) Disclosure Scotland
8 3 (0.29%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 3 (0.29%) Data Quality
9 2 (0.19%) GDPR
9 2 (0.19%) NIST 800
9 2 (0.19%) SOC 2
10 1 (0.096%) FedRAMP
10 1 (0.096%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 221 (21.23%) VMware Infrastructure
2 217 (20.85%) Active Directory
3 103 (9.89%) Hyper-V
4 71 (6.82%) VMware ESXi
4 71 (6.82%) vSphere
5 45 (4.32%) Virtual Machines
6 39 (3.75%) Docker
7 32 (3.07%) VMware NSX
8 25 (2.40%) Virtual Desktop
9 14 (1.34%) Oracle RAC
10 12 (1.15%) NFS
11 11 (1.06%) Firmware
11 11 (1.06%) Virtual Servers
12 8 (0.77%) BitLocker
13 7 (0.67%) KVM
14 6 (0.58%) Microsoft App-V
15 5 (0.48%) GPFS
16 4 (0.38%) oVirt
16 4 (0.38%) Terminal Services
17 2 (0.19%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 124 (11.91%) Ansible
2 100 (9.61%) Kubernetes
3 62 (5.96%) Microsoft Intune
4 47 (4.51%) SCCM
5 42 (4.03%) vCenter Server
6 19 (1.83%) SCOM
6 19 (1.83%) WSUS
7 18 (1.73%) NetBackup
8 16 (1.54%) Prometheus
9 14 (1.34%) Data Guard
9 14 (1.34%) Oracle RMAN
10 13 (1.25%) Grafana
11 10 (0.96%) Single Sign-On
12 8 (0.77%) Failover Clustering
12 8 (0.77%) Nessus
12 8 (0.77%) Puppet
13 7 (0.67%) FortiGate
13 7 (0.67%) vMotion
13 7 (0.67%) vRealize
14 6 (0.58%) Red Hat Satellite
Vendors
1 280 (26.90%) VMware
2 250 (24.02%) Microsoft
3 61 (5.86%) Cisco
3 61 (5.86%) Citrix
4 44 (4.23%) NetApp
5 42 (4.03%) Oracle
6 35 (3.36%) Veeam
7 34 (3.27%) F5
8 31 (2.98%) Palo Alto
9 29 (2.79%) Google
10 27 (2.59%) Red Hat
11 20 (1.92%) IBM
12 19 (1.83%) Arista
13 18 (1.73%) Aruba
14 17 (1.63%) CyberArk
14 17 (1.63%) Dell
15 16 (1.54%) Juniper
15 16 (1.54%) ServiceNow
16 14 (1.34%) SolarWinds
17 13 (1.25%) Tenable