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 11 August 2026.

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

 6 months to
11 Aug 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 146 236 147
Rank change year-on-year +90 -89 +14
Contract jobs requiring an Infrastructure Engineer 1,026 386 648
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.92% 1.17% 1.66%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.08% 1.28% 1.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 610 246 486
10th Percentile £350 £329 £316
25th Percentile £425 £400 £388
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £486
Median % change year-on-year - +8.08% -2.85%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £575
90th Percentile £675 £638 £638
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £500 £475
% change year-on-year +5.00% +5.26% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 50 6 4
10th Percentile £44.76 £27.50 £67.73
25th Percentile £58.43 £29.25 £73.69
Median hourly rate £72.54 £53.50 £77.00
Median % change year-on-year +35.59% -30.52% +8.07%
75th Percentile £78.75 £170.75 £77.25
90th Percentile £100.00 £200.00 £77.70
UK excluding London median hourly rate £72.54 £138.50 £72.75
% change year-on-year -47.62% +90.38% +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 49,431 30,083 36,174
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.55% 91.36% 92.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,700 19,069 23,306
10th Percentile £328 £282 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.87%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £729 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,475 1,511 2,026
10th Percentile £15.00 £13.60 £14.16
25th Percentile £20.75 £17.08 £20.50
Median hourly rate £42.25 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +67.99% -41.51% +2.87%
75th Percentile £67.84 £53.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £72.75 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.08 £45.00
% change year-on-year +69.49% -44.28% +28.57%

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 11 August 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 11 August 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 11 August 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 +73 885 £525 - 390
UK excluding London +80 719 £525 +5.00% 244
South East +31 228 £536 -2.46% 61
London +12 228 £545 +3.81% 171
Work from Home +36 216 £538 +7.50% 126
North of England +24 195 £540 +2.86% 51
South West +24 104 £549 +0.97% 64
Midlands -7 87 £450 - 21
Yorkshire 0 83 £370 -26.00% 15
North West +3 72 £575 -4.17% 30
West Midlands -24 57 £475 +5.56% 15
North East -3 50 £600 -7.69% 8
Scotland +24 48 £571 +17.48% 18
East of England -8 34 £450 +12.50% 30
East Midlands +9 29 £450 +5.88% 6
Wales +14 26 £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 11 August 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 1,011 (98.54%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 419 (40.84%) Security Cleared
3 315 (30.70%) Azure
3 315 (30.70%) Windows
4 283 (27.58%) SC Cleared
5 261 (25.44%) VMware
6 236 (23.00%) Microsoft
7 207 (20.18%) Active Directory
8 205 (19.98%) Windows Server
9 202 (19.69%) VMware Infrastructure
10 199 (19.40%) Infrastructure as Code
11 186 (18.13%) Linux
12 181 (17.64%) Terraform
13 173 (16.86%) DNS
14 172 (16.76%) PowerShell
15 147 (14.33%) Firewall
16 146 (14.23%) AWS
16 146 (14.23%) DevOps
17 142 (13.84%) DV Cleared
18 139 (13.55%) Python
19 134 (13.06%) CI/CD
20 128 (12.48%) DHCP
21 120 (11.70%) Ansible
22 112 (10.92%) Migration
23 106 (10.33%) Problem-Solving
24 97 (9.45%) Kubernetes
25 93 (9.06%) Hyper-V
26 83 (8.09%) Entra ID
27 78 (7.60%) Microsoft 365
28 74 (7.21%) 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 55 (5.36%) Microsoft Exchange
2 28 (2.73%) SharePoint
3 14 (1.36%) WebSphere
4 13 (1.27%) CICS
5 9 (0.88%) Confluence
6 5 (0.49%) SharePoint Server
7 3 (0.29%) Apache
7 3 (0.29%) Exchange Server 2010
8 2 (0.19%) CloudStack
9 1 (0.097%) Apache Airflow
9 1 (0.097%) Exchange Server 2013
9 1 (0.097%) IBM HTTP Server
9 1 (0.097%) MS Project Server
9 1 (0.097%) OpenStack
9 1 (0.097%) Skype for Business
9 1 (0.097%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 11 (1.07%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (0.19%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.097%) CINEMA 4D
3 1 (0.097%) Houdini
3 1 (0.097%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (0.097%) NUKE
Business Applications
1 3 (0.29%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.097%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 315 (30.70%) Azure
2 146 (14.23%) AWS
3 83 (8.09%) Entra ID
4 78 (7.60%) Microsoft 365
5 58 (5.65%) GitHub
6 57 (5.56%) GCP
7 55 (5.36%) IaaS
8 51 (4.97%) OCI
9 39 (3.80%) SaaS
10 38 (3.70%) Azure DevOps
11 34 (3.31%) PaaS
12 30 (2.92%) Azure Monitor
13 24 (2.34%) GitHub Actions
14 21 (2.05%) Azure AKS
15 16 (1.56%) Nutanix
16 11 (1.07%) Google Kubernetes Engine
17 9 (0.88%) OpenShift
18 8 (0.78%) Azure Sentinel
18 8 (0.78%) Cohesity
18 8 (0.78%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 173 (16.86%) DNS
2 147 (14.33%) Firewall
3 128 (12.48%) DHCP
4 55 (5.36%) VLAN
5 52 (5.07%) SAN
6 51 (4.97%) TCP/IP
6 51 (4.97%) VPN
7 42 (4.09%) WAN
8 40 (3.90%) Network Security
9 29 (2.83%) BIG-IP
9 29 (2.83%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
10 25 (2.44%) LAN
11 24 (2.34%) Wi-Fi
12 23 (2.24%) Ethernet VPN
13 22 (2.14%) SD-WAN
13 22 (2.14%) VSAN
13 22 (2.14%) VXLAN
14 20 (1.95%) BGP
14 20 (1.95%) OSPF
15 13 (1.27%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 49 (4.78%) SQL Server
2 21 (2.05%) Oracle Exadata
3 16 (1.56%) Relational Database
4 15 (1.46%) Oracle Database
5 13 (1.27%) RDBMS
6 8 (0.78%) Amazon RDS
6 8 (0.78%) Elasticsearch
7 4 (0.39%) Azure SQL Database
7 4 (0.39%) PostgreSQL
7 4 (0.39%) Power BI
7 4 (0.39%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 3 (0.29%) Big Data
8 3 (0.29%) Data Mining
8 3 (0.29%) NonStop SQL
9 2 (0.19%) BigQuery
9 2 (0.19%) Data Lake
9 2 (0.19%) DynamoDB
9 2 (0.19%) SQL Server Analysis Services
9 2 (0.19%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 1 (0.097%) Flink
Development Applications
1 44 (4.29%) GitLab
2 27 (2.63%) Jenkins
2 27 (2.63%) JIRA
3 24 (2.34%) Git
4 4 (0.39%) Chocolatey
5 3 (0.29%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.097%) Artifactory
6 1 (0.097%) Claude Code
6 1 (0.097%) CMake
6 1 (0.097%) Fiddler
6 1 (0.097%) Gradle
6 1 (0.097%) IntelliJ
6 1 (0.097%) Introscope
6 1 (0.097%) MLflow
6 1 (0.097%) MSI
6 1 (0.097%) Robot Framework
6 1 (0.097%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 112 (10.92%) Social Skills
2 74 (7.21%) Public Sector
3 44 (4.29%) Analytical Skills
4 43 (4.19%) Finance
5 35 (3.41%) Documentation Skills
6 20 (1.95%) Banking
7 13 (1.27%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 12 (1.17%) Aerospace
8 12 (1.17%) Legal
9 11 (1.07%) Military
10 10 (0.97%) Manufacturing
10 10 (0.97%) Marketing
11 9 (0.88%) Telecoms
12 6 (0.58%) Automotive
12 6 (0.58%) Law
13 2 (0.19%) Advertising
13 2 (0.19%) Billing
13 2 (0.19%) Investment Banking
13 2 (0.19%) Local Government
13 2 (0.19%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (1.66%) Middleware
2 15 (1.46%) ARM Templates
3 13 (1.27%) Oracle GoldenGate
4 8 (0.78%) REST
5 7 (0.68%) Flash
6 6 (0.58%) 802.1X
6 6 (0.58%) Elastic Stack
6 6 (0.58%) YAML
7 5 (0.49%) OpenID
8 4 (0.39%) .NET
8 4 (0.39%) JSON
8 4 (0.39%) LDAP
8 4 (0.39%) SAML
8 4 (0.39%) SOAP
9 3 (0.29%) Kafka
10 2 (0.19%) ADO
10 2 (0.19%) Bazel
10 2 (0.19%) OAuth2
10 2 (0.19%) RabbitMQ
10 2 (0.19%) React
Miscellaneous
1 118 (11.50%) Data Centre
2 57 (5.56%) Hybrid Cloud
3 52 (5.07%) PKI
4 38 (3.70%) Public Cloud
5 27 (2.63%) Enterprise Storage
6 26 (2.53%) Cloud Native
6 26 (2.53%) Onboarding
7 24 (2.34%) Replication
8 18 (1.75%) Clustering
9 17 (1.66%) Self-Motivation
10 14 (1.36%) Linux Command Line
11 13 (1.27%) Distributed Systems
11 13 (1.27%) Mainframe
11 13 (1.27%) Management Information System
12 10 (0.97%) Operational Technology
13 9 (0.88%) Private Cloud
13 9 (0.88%) Smartcard
14 8 (0.78%) Enterprise Software
14 8 (0.78%) Virtual Team
15 7 (0.68%) Driving Licence
Operating Systems
1 315 (30.70%) Windows
2 205 (19.98%) Windows Server
3 186 (18.13%) Linux
4 35 (3.41%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 20 (1.95%) Windows Server 2019
6 18 (1.75%) Windows 10
6 18 (1.75%) Windows Server 2016
7 14 (1.36%) AIX
7 14 (1.36%) VMS
8 13 (1.27%) zOS
9 12 (1.17%) Ubuntu
10 10 (0.97%) Apple iOS
10 10 (0.97%) Mac OS
11 9 (0.88%) Android
11 9 (0.88%) CentOS
11 9 (0.88%) Unix
12 6 (0.58%) Debian
12 6 (0.58%) Rocky
12 6 (0.58%) Windows Server 2012
13 5 (0.49%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,011 (98.54%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 199 (19.40%) Infrastructure as Code
3 146 (14.23%) DevOps
4 134 (13.06%) CI/CD
5 112 (10.92%) Migration
6 106 (10.33%) Problem-Solving
7 74 (7.21%) High Availability
7 74 (7.21%) Infrastructure Automation
8 66 (6.43%) Continuous Improvement
9 63 (6.14%) Disaster Recovery
10 60 (5.85%) ITIL
10 60 (5.85%) Project Delivery
11 54 (5.26%) Validation
12 52 (5.07%) Platform Engineering
13 49 (4.78%) Agile
14 48 (4.68%) Zero Trust
15 40 (3.90%) Root Cause Analysis
16 39 (3.80%) Cybersecurity
17 37 (3.61%) Identity Access Management
17 37 (3.61%) Site Reliability Engineering
Programming Languages
1 172 (16.76%) PowerShell
2 139 (13.55%) Python
3 71 (6.92%) Bash
4 39 (3.80%) SQL
5 28 (2.73%) Bicep
6 17 (1.66%) C#
7 11 (1.07%) Java
8 6 (0.58%) ActionScript
8 6 (0.58%) Go
9 5 (0.49%) Shell Script
10 3 (0.29%) JavaScript
11 2 (0.19%) C++
11 2 (0.19%) TypeScript
11 2 (0.19%) VB
12 1 (0.097%) C
12 1 (0.097%) Jython
12 1 (0.097%) Perl
12 1 (0.097%) PHP
12 1 (0.097%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 419 (40.84%) Security Cleared
2 283 (27.58%) SC Cleared
3 142 (13.84%) DV Cleared
4 38 (3.70%) Degree
5 30 (2.92%) Microsoft Certification
6 23 (2.24%) Cisco Certification
6 23 (2.24%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
7 21 (2.05%) Azure Certification
8 17 (1.66%) MCSE
9 14 (1.36%) CCNA
10 13 (1.27%) CCNP
10 13 (1.27%) VCAP
11 10 (0.97%) Computer Science Degree
12 6 (0.58%) MCSA
12 6 (0.58%) RHCA
13 5 (0.49%) DBS Check
14 4 (0.39%) AWS Certification
14 4 (0.39%) ITIL Certification
14 4 (0.39%) JNCIP
14 4 (0.39%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 31 (3.02%) QA
2 19 (1.85%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 15 (1.46%) SLA
4 13 (1.27%) Cyber Essentials
5 12 (1.17%) NIST
6 10 (0.97%) NCSC
7 6 (0.58%) Disclosure Scotland
8 3 (0.29%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 2 (0.19%) Data Quality
9 2 (0.19%) GDPR
9 2 (0.19%) NIST 800
9 2 (0.19%) SOC 2
10 1 (0.097%) FedRAMP
10 1 (0.097%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 207 (20.18%) Active Directory
2 202 (19.69%) VMware Infrastructure
3 93 (9.06%) Hyper-V
4 70 (6.82%) vSphere
5 66 (6.43%) VMware ESXi
6 43 (4.19%) Virtual Machines
7 35 (3.41%) Docker
7 35 (3.41%) VMware NSX
8 25 (2.44%) Virtual Desktop
9 13 (1.27%) Oracle RAC
10 12 (1.17%) NFS
11 9 (0.88%) BitLocker
12 7 (0.68%) Firmware
12 7 (0.68%) Microsoft App-V
13 6 (0.58%) KVM
13 6 (0.58%) Virtual Servers
14 5 (0.49%) GPFS
15 4 (0.39%) Terminal Services
16 2 (0.19%) SRDF
16 2 (0.19%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 181 (17.64%) Terraform
2 120 (11.70%) Ansible
3 97 (9.45%) Kubernetes
4 55 (5.36%) Microsoft Intune
5 44 (4.29%) vCenter Server
6 40 (3.90%) SCCM
7 18 (1.75%) WSUS
8 17 (1.66%) SCOM
9 16 (1.56%) NetBackup
10 14 (1.36%) Prometheus
11 13 (1.27%) Data Guard
11 13 (1.27%) Oracle RMAN
11 13 (1.27%) Puppet
12 11 (1.07%) Grafana
13 9 (0.88%) Nessus
13 9 (0.88%) Single Sign-On
14 8 (0.78%) Istio
14 8 (0.78%) vMotion
14 8 (0.78%) vRealize
15 7 (0.68%) FortiGate
Vendors
1 261 (25.44%) VMware
2 236 (23.00%) Microsoft
3 64 (6.24%) Citrix
4 56 (5.46%) Cisco
5 41 (4.00%) Oracle
6 37 (3.61%) NetApp
7 33 (3.22%) Veeam
8 32 (3.12%) F5
8 32 (3.12%) Google
9 30 (2.92%) Palo Alto
10 27 (2.63%) Red Hat
11 21 (2.05%) Aruba
11 21 (2.05%) Dell
12 20 (1.95%) IBM
13 19 (1.85%) Arista
14 17 (1.66%) CyberArk
14 17 (1.66%) Juniper
14 17 (1.66%) ServiceNow
15 15 (1.46%) Tenable
16 14 (1.36%) SolarWinds
444 Infrastructure Engineer jobs Nationwide