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 21 July 2026.

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

 6 months to
21 Jul 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 148 222 143
Rank change year-on-year +74 -79 +17
Contract jobs requiring an Infrastructure Engineer 980 391 692
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.86% 1.20% 1.67%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.01% 1.31% 1.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 603 255 526
10th Percentile £350 £329 £313
25th Percentile £425 £400 £376
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £475
Median % change year-on-year - +10.53% -5.00%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £575
90th Percentile £668 £638 £638
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £525 £466
% change year-on-year - +12.70% -6.83%
Number of hourly rates quoted 43 4 4
10th Percentile £51.69 £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 £84.21 - £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 48,798 29,864 38,453
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.56% 91.64% 93.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,431 18,992 24,873
10th Percentile £325 £285 £293
25th Percentile £420 £400 £410
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 £725 £735 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,294 1,429 2,439
10th Percentile £15.81 £13.75 £13.49
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.30 £18.00
Median hourly rate £44.10 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +75.33% -37.13% -6.98%
75th Percentile £67.84 £55.00 £64.25
90th Percentile £80.17 £73.75 £74.45
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £41.81
% change year-on-year +78.93% -39.85% +5.65%

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 21 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 21 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 21 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 +67 844 £525 - 267
UK excluding London +64 690 £525 - 224
London +20 213 £525 +0.48% 66
South East +17 206 £536 -2.47% 69
North of England +32 195 £563 +7.14% 47
Work from Home +26 195 £539 +7.75% 96
South West +18 105 £545 -3.20% 42
Midlands -1 83 £450 +5.88% 31
Yorkshire -9 80 £425 -15.00% 17
North West -4 74 £575 +9.52% 20
North East -4 51 £600 -7.69% 11
West Midlands -29 50 £475 +11.76% 24
Scotland +13 44 £570 +20.63% 10
East Midlands +10 32 £450 +5.88% 7
East of England -15 32 £450 - 22
Wales +10 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 21 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.

1 963 (98.27%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 386 (39.39%) Security Cleared
3 294 (30.00%) Azure
4 291 (29.69%) Windows
5 255 (26.02%) SC Cleared
6 246 (25.10%) VMware
7 212 (21.63%) Microsoft
8 197 (20.10%) Active Directory
9 192 (19.59%) Windows Server
10 189 (19.29%) VMware Infrastructure
11 179 (18.27%) Infrastructure as Code
12 169 (17.24%) Terraform
13 168 (17.14%) DNS
14 164 (16.73%) Linux
15 146 (14.90%) PowerShell
16 143 (14.59%) Firewall
17 139 (14.18%) DV Cleared
18 137 (13.98%) DevOps
19 135 (13.78%) AWS
20 124 (12.65%) Python
21 121 (12.35%) CI/CD
22 118 (12.04%) DHCP
23 105 (10.71%) Ansible
24 97 (9.90%) Migration
25 94 (9.59%) Kubernetes
26 90 (9.18%) Problem-Solving
27 83 (8.47%) Hyper-V
28 73 (7.45%) vSphere
29 69 (7.04%) Entra ID
29 69 (7.04%) Microsoft 365

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 (5.41%) Microsoft Exchange
2 22 (2.24%) SharePoint
3 12 (1.22%) WebSphere
4 11 (1.12%) CICS
5 7 (0.71%) Confluence
6 3 (0.31%) Apache
6 3 (0.31%) Exchange Server 2010
6 3 (0.31%) SharePoint Server
7 2 (0.20%) CloudStack
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%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 8 (0.82%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (0.31%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.10%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 2 (0.20%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.10%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 294 (30.00%) Azure
2 135 (13.78%) AWS
3 69 (7.04%) Entra ID
3 69 (7.04%) Microsoft 365
4 60 (6.12%) GitHub
5 51 (5.20%) GCP
6 49 (5.00%) OCI
7 48 (4.90%) IaaS
8 37 (3.78%) SaaS
9 33 (3.37%) Azure DevOps
9 33 (3.37%) PaaS
10 27 (2.76%) Azure Monitor
11 22 (2.24%) GitHub Actions
12 21 (2.14%) Azure AKS
13 19 (1.94%) Nutanix
14 12 (1.22%) Google Kubernetes Engine
15 8 (0.82%) Azure Sentinel
15 8 (0.82%) Cohesity
15 8 (0.82%) OpenShift
16 7 (0.71%) Azure Stack
Communications & Networking
1 168 (17.14%) DNS
2 143 (14.59%) Firewall
3 118 (12.04%) DHCP
4 53 (5.41%) VLAN
5 51 (5.20%) SAN
6 47 (4.80%) VPN
7 43 (4.39%) TCP/IP
8 40 (4.08%) WAN
9 39 (3.98%) Network Security
10 33 (3.37%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
11 30 (3.06%) BIG-IP
12 24 (2.45%) LAN
13 23 (2.35%) Ethernet VPN
14 22 (2.24%) BGP
14 22 (2.24%) SD-WAN
14 22 (2.24%) VXLAN
15 20 (2.04%) OSPF
15 20 (2.04%) VSAN
15 20 (2.04%) Wi-Fi
16 13 (1.33%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 42 (4.29%) SQL Server
2 14 (1.43%) Oracle Database
2 14 (1.43%) Oracle Exadata
2 14 (1.43%) Relational Database
3 11 (1.12%) RDBMS
4 9 (0.92%) Elasticsearch
5 7 (0.71%) Amazon RDS
6 4 (0.41%) Azure SQL Database
6 4 (0.41%) PostgreSQL
7 3 (0.31%) Big Data
7 3 (0.31%) Data Mining
7 3 (0.31%) NonStop SQL
7 3 (0.31%) Power BI
8 2 (0.20%) BigQuery
8 2 (0.20%) Data Lake
8 2 (0.20%) DynamoDB
8 2 (0.20%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 1 (0.10%) Flink
9 1 (0.10%) MongoDB
9 1 (0.10%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 44 (4.49%) GitLab
2 26 (2.65%) JIRA
3 25 (2.55%) Jenkins
4 20 (2.04%) Git
5 4 (0.41%) Artifactory
6 3 (0.31%) Bitbucket
7 2 (0.20%) Chocolatey
8 1 (0.10%) Claude Code
8 1 (0.10%) CMake
8 1 (0.10%) Gradle
8 1 (0.10%) IntelliJ
8 1 (0.10%) Introscope
8 1 (0.10%) MLflow
8 1 (0.10%) MSI
8 1 (0.10%) Robot Framework
8 1 (0.10%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 108 (11.02%) Social Skills
2 74 (7.55%) Public Sector
3 48 (4.90%) Finance
4 36 (3.67%) Analytical Skills
5 30 (3.06%) Documentation Skills
6 19 (1.94%) Banking
7 18 (1.84%) Legal
8 13 (1.33%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 11 (1.12%) Aerospace
10 10 (1.02%) Manufacturing
10 10 (1.02%) Marketing
11 9 (0.92%) Military
12 7 (0.71%) Telecoms
13 4 (0.41%) Law
14 2 (0.20%) Advertising
14 2 (0.20%) Automotive
14 2 (0.20%) Billing
14 2 (0.20%) Investment Banking
14 2 (0.20%) Local Government
14 2 (0.20%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (1.53%) Middleware
2 11 (1.12%) Oracle GoldenGate
3 10 (1.02%) ARM Templates
4 7 (0.71%) Flash
4 7 (0.71%) REST
5 6 (0.61%) Elastic Stack
5 6 (0.61%) LDAP
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 (0.20%) ADO
9 2 (0.20%) Node.js
9 2 (0.20%) OAuth
9 2 (0.20%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 115 (11.73%) Data Centre
2 55 (5.61%) Hybrid Cloud
3 52 (5.31%) PKI
4 44 (4.49%) Public Cloud
5 26 (2.65%) Enterprise Storage
6 25 (2.55%) Cloud Native
6 25 (2.55%) Onboarding
7 19 (1.94%) Replication
8 16 (1.63%) Self-Motivation
9 15 (1.53%) Clustering
10 12 (1.22%) Linux Command Line
11 11 (1.12%) Distributed Systems
11 11 (1.12%) Mainframe
11 11 (1.12%) Management Information System
12 10 (1.02%) Operational Technology
12 10 (1.02%) Private Cloud
13 9 (0.92%) Smartcard
14 8 (0.82%) Enterprise Software
14 8 (0.82%) Virtual Team
15 7 (0.71%) Data Protection Act
Operating Systems
1 291 (29.69%) Windows
2 192 (19.59%) Windows Server
3 164 (16.73%) Linux
4 31 (3.16%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 22 (2.24%) Windows Server 2019
6 19 (1.94%) Windows Server 2016
7 16 (1.63%) Windows 10
8 12 (1.22%) AIX
8 12 (1.22%) Ubuntu
8 12 (1.22%) VMS
9 11 (1.12%) zOS
10 9 (0.92%) Apple iOS
10 9 (0.92%) Unix
11 8 (0.82%) Android
11 8 (0.82%) Mac OS
11 8 (0.82%) Windows Server 2012
12 7 (0.71%) CentOS
13 6 (0.61%) Debian
13 6 (0.61%) Windows Server 2003
14 4 (0.41%) Rocky
Processes & Methodologies
1 963 (98.27%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 179 (18.27%) Infrastructure as Code
3 137 (13.98%) DevOps
4 121 (12.35%) CI/CD
5 97 (9.90%) Migration
6 90 (9.18%) Problem-Solving
7 66 (6.73%) High Availability
7 66 (6.73%) Infrastructure Automation
8 58 (5.92%) Project Delivery
9 55 (5.61%) Disaster Recovery
10 53 (5.41%) Continuous Improvement
10 53 (5.41%) Validation
11 51 (5.20%) ITIL
12 48 (4.90%) Agile
12 48 (4.90%) Zero Trust
13 45 (4.59%) Platform Engineering
14 38 (3.88%) Cybersecurity
15 36 (3.67%) Site Reliability Engineering
16 32 (3.27%) Containerisation
16 32 (3.27%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 146 (14.90%) PowerShell
2 124 (12.65%) Python
3 57 (5.82%) Bash
4 33 (3.37%) SQL
5 26 (2.65%) Bicep
6 16 (1.63%) C#
7 10 (1.02%) Java
8 7 (0.71%) ActionScript
9 5 (0.51%) Go
9 5 (0.51%) Shell Script
10 3 (0.31%) JavaScript
10 3 (0.31%) PHP
11 2 (0.20%) 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
1 386 (39.39%) Security Cleared
2 255 (26.02%) SC Cleared
3 139 (14.18%) DV Cleared
4 32 (3.27%) Degree
5 23 (2.35%) Microsoft Certification
6 19 (1.94%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
7 18 (1.84%) Cisco Certification
8 15 (1.53%) MCSE
9 14 (1.43%) Azure Certification
10 11 (1.12%) CCNA
10 11 (1.12%) VCAP
11 10 (1.02%) 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%) DBS Check
14 3 (0.31%) ITIL Certification
14 3 (0.31%) Oracle Certification
15 2 (0.20%) GIAC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 28 (2.86%) QA
2 20 (2.04%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 15 (1.53%) Cyber Essentials
3 15 (1.53%) NIST
4 11 (1.12%) SLA
5 9 (0.92%) NCSC
6 6 (0.61%) Disclosure Scotland
7 5 (0.51%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 3 (0.31%) NIST 800
9 2 (0.20%) GDPR
9 2 (0.20%) SOC 2
10 1 (0.10%) FedRAMP
10 1 (0.10%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 197 (20.10%) Active Directory
2 189 (19.29%) VMware Infrastructure
3 83 (8.47%) Hyper-V
4 73 (7.45%) vSphere
5 69 (7.04%) VMware ESXi
6 39 (3.98%) Virtual Machines
7 36 (3.67%) Docker
8 33 (3.37%) VMware NSX
9 23 (2.35%) Virtual Desktop
10 12 (1.22%) NFS
11 11 (1.12%) Oracle RAC
12 9 (0.92%) BitLocker
13 8 (0.82%) Microsoft App-V
14 5 (0.51%) GPFS
14 5 (0.51%) KVM
15 4 (0.41%) Firmware
15 4 (0.41%) Terminal Services
16 3 (0.31%) Virtual Servers
17 2 (0.20%) SRDF
17 2 (0.20%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 169 (17.24%) Terraform
2 105 (10.71%) Ansible
3 94 (9.59%) Kubernetes
4 48 (4.90%) Microsoft Intune
5 45 (4.59%) vCenter Server
6 34 (3.47%) SCCM
7 17 (1.73%) WSUS
8 14 (1.43%) Prometheus
9 13 (1.33%) Puppet
9 13 (1.33%) SCOM
10 12 (1.22%) Grafana
11 11 (1.12%) Data Guard
11 11 (1.12%) Oracle RMAN
12 10 (1.02%) NetBackup
12 10 (1.02%) Single Sign-On
13 9 (0.92%) Nessus
14 8 (0.82%) Istio
14 8 (0.82%) vMotion
14 8 (0.82%) vRealize
15 7 (0.71%) VxRail
Vendors
1 246 (25.10%) VMware
2 212 (21.63%) Microsoft
3 60 (6.12%) Citrix
4 56 (5.71%) Cisco
5 39 (3.98%) F5
6 37 (3.78%) Oracle
7 34 (3.47%) NetApp
8 33 (3.37%) Veeam
9 31 (3.16%) Palo Alto
10 30 (3.06%) Google
11 26 (2.65%) Red Hat
12 24 (2.45%) Dell
13 21 (2.14%) Aruba
14 20 (2.04%) Arista
15 18 (1.84%) IBM
16 16 (1.63%) ServiceNow
17 15 (1.53%) Juniper
18 13 (1.33%) SolarWinds
18 13 (1.33%) Tenable
19 11 (1.12%) Fortinet
307 Infrastructure Engineer jobs Nationwide