Infrastructure Engineer Contract Job Trends

Infrastructure Engineer
UK

The median Infrastructure Engineer daily rate in the UK is £538, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 15 October 2026.

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

6 months to
15 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 153 238 179
Rank change year-on-year +85 -59 -31
Contract jobs requiring an Infrastructure Engineer 1,070 385 539
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.94% 1.16% 1.43%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.10% 1.28% 1.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 626 259 383
10th Percentile £350 £255 £329
25th Percentile £425 £375 £383
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £538 £475 £475
Median % change year-on-year +13.16% - -5.00%
75th Percentile £600 £588 £586
90th Percentile £650 £640 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £545 £450 £450
% change year-on-year +21.07% - -10.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 48 10 2
10th Percentile £43.08 £25.70 £44.25
25th Percentile £62.23 £29.00 £46.88
Median hourly rate £75.00 £32.00 £52.50
Median % change year-on-year +134.38% -39.05% -25.00%
75th Percentile £77.50 £35.00 £56.88
90th Percentile £100.00 £40.16 £58.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £75.00 £52.00 £60.00
% change year-on-year +44.23% -13.33% -17.24%

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 50,841 30,184 35,017
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.94% 90.90% 93.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,834 19,073 21,148
10th Percentile £325 £275 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -
75th Percentile £638 £623 £638
90th Percentile £738 £725 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £490
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.06% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4,158 1,652 1,437
10th Percentile £14.31 £13.80 £15.09
25th Percentile £19.33 £17.30 £20.50
Median hourly rate £41.56 £25.15 £41.27
Median % change year-on-year +65.23% -39.05% -8.30%
75th Percentile £67.50 £50.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £79.30 £68.52 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.06 £25.00 £42.50
% change year-on-year +64.24% -41.18% -4.49%

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 15 October 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 15 October 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 15 October 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 +70 912 £540 +13.68% 644
UK excluding London +98 784 £545 +21.07% 466
Work from Home +8 227 £525 +23.53% 441
North of England +50 222 £563 +12.50% 126
South East +19 218 £570 +26.67% 106
London -8 208 £540 +3.10% 216
South West +20 104 £570 +2.70% 60
North West +15 101 £519 +3.80% 78
Midlands +14 95 £475 +5.56% 52
Yorkshire +8 73 £425 -15.00% 25
West Midlands -1 69 £475 +5.56% 30
Scotland +38 66 £538 +55.80% 54
East of England +12 59 £488 +27.45% 47
North East +8 58 £600 +6.67% 24
Wales +13 26 £550 - 19
East Midlands +9 25 £450 -18.18% 22
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 6
Channel Islands - 1 £550 -

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

For the 6 months to 15 October 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 1,036 (96.82%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 414 (38.69%) Security Cleared
3 321 (30.00%) Windows
4 320 (29.91%) Azure
5 279 (26.07%) VMware
6 266 (24.86%) Microsoft
7 250 (23.36%) SC Cleared
8 243 (22.71%) Infrastructure as Code
9 223 (20.84%) Linux
10 222 (20.75%) Active Directory
10 222 (20.75%) VMware Infrastructure
11 218 (20.37%) Windows Server
12 193 (18.04%) DNS
12 193 (18.04%) Terraform
13 191 (17.85%) PowerShell
14 170 (15.89%) Firewall
15 155 (14.49%) DV Cleared
16 153 (14.30%) AWS
17 148 (13.83%) Python
18 144 (13.46%) CI/CD
19 138 (12.90%) DevOps
20 132 (12.34%) DHCP
21 130 (12.15%) Ansible
22 122 (11.40%) Entra ID
23 113 (10.56%) Problem-Solving
24 111 (10.37%) Migration
25 102 (9.53%) Microsoft 365
26 97 (9.07%) Kubernetes
27 92 (8.60%) Hyper-V
28 85 (7.94%) 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 54 (5.05%) Microsoft Exchange
2 37 (3.46%) SharePoint
3 17 (1.59%) Confluence
4 13 (1.21%) CICS
4 13 (1.21%) WebSphere
5 5 (0.47%) Apache
5 5 (0.47%) SharePoint Server
6 3 (0.28%) Exchange Server 2010
6 3 (0.28%) nginx
6 3 (0.28%) Skype for Business
7 2 (0.19%) Apache Spark
7 2 (0.19%) CloudStack
7 2 (0.19%) CMS
8 1 (0.093%) Apache Airflow
8 1 (0.093%) Exchange Server 2013
8 1 (0.093%) IIS
8 1 (0.093%) MS Project Server
8 1 (0.093%) OpenStack
8 1 (0.093%) Traefik
Applications
1 7 (0.65%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (0.19%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.093%) CINEMA 4D
3 1 (0.093%) Houdini
3 1 (0.093%) NUKE
Business Applications
1 8 (0.75%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.093%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 320 (29.91%) Azure
2 153 (14.30%) AWS
3 122 (11.40%) Entra ID
4 102 (9.53%) Microsoft 365
5 74 (6.92%) IaaS
6 51 (4.77%) OCI
7 44 (4.11%) GitHub
8 43 (4.02%) GCP
9 35 (3.27%) Azure Monitor
10 31 (2.90%) SaaS
11 29 (2.71%) Azure DevOps
12 28 (2.62%) PaaS
13 20 (1.87%) GitHub Actions
13 20 (1.87%) Nutanix
14 16 (1.50%) Azure AKS
15 13 (1.21%) Azure Data Factory
16 12 (1.12%) OpenShift
17 10 (0.93%) Azure Sentinel
18 9 (0.84%) Amazon S3
18 9 (0.84%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 193 (18.04%) DNS
2 170 (15.89%) Firewall
3 132 (12.34%) DHCP
4 66 (6.17%) TCP/IP
5 62 (5.79%) VPN
6 55 (5.14%) SAN
7 53 (4.95%) VLAN
8 44 (4.11%) Network Security
9 39 (3.64%) WAN
10 38 (3.55%) BIG-IP
11 33 (3.08%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
12 31 (2.90%) Wi-Fi
13 24 (2.24%) SD-WAN
14 22 (2.06%) LAN
15 21 (1.96%) Ethernet VPN
16 20 (1.87%) VXLAN
17 19 (1.78%) BGP
17 19 (1.78%) OSPF
17 19 (1.78%) VSAN
18 18 (1.68%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 49 (4.58%) SQL Server
2 22 (2.06%) Oracle Exadata
3 16 (1.50%) Relational Database
4 15 (1.40%) Oracle Database
5 14 (1.31%) RDBMS
6 9 (0.84%) Data Lake
7 7 (0.65%) Amazon RDS
7 7 (0.65%) Azure SQL Database
8 6 (0.56%) NoSQL
9 5 (0.47%) Big Data
9 5 (0.47%) Elasticsearch
9 5 (0.47%) Power BI
10 4 (0.37%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 3 (0.28%) PostgreSQL
12 2 (0.19%) BigQuery
12 2 (0.19%) MySQL
12 2 (0.19%) SQL Server Analysis Services
12 2 (0.19%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 1 (0.093%) InfluxDB
13 1 (0.093%) MariaDB
Development Applications
1 52 (4.86%) GitLab
2 35 (3.27%) JIRA
3 30 (2.80%) Git
4 25 (2.34%) Jenkins
5 4 (0.37%) Chocolatey
5 4 (0.37%) Fiddler
6 2 (0.19%) Artifactory
6 2 (0.19%) Sonatype Nexus
7 1 (0.093%) Bitbucket
7 1 (0.093%) CMake
7 1 (0.093%) Gerrit
7 1 (0.093%) Gradle
7 1 (0.093%) MLflow
7 1 (0.093%) Tricentis qTest
7 1 (0.093%) Visual Studio
General
1 114 (10.65%) Social Skills
2 70 (6.54%) Finance
3 65 (6.07%) Public Sector
4 42 (3.93%) Analytical Skills
5 35 (3.27%) Documentation Skills
6 22 (2.06%) Banking
6 22 (2.06%) Telecoms
7 15 (1.40%) Military
8 12 (1.12%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 10 (0.93%) Marketing
10 9 (0.84%) Manufacturing
11 8 (0.75%) Aerospace
11 8 (0.75%) Legal
12 6 (0.56%) Automotive
13 4 (0.37%) Investment Banking
13 4 (0.37%) Law
14 2 (0.19%) Billing
14 2 (0.19%) Front Office
14 2 (0.19%) Local Government
14 2 (0.19%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 193 (18.04%) Terraform
2 22 (2.06%) ARM Templates
3 17 (1.59%) Middleware
4 14 (1.31%) Oracle GoldenGate
5 9 (0.84%) YAML
6 7 (0.65%) LDAP
7 6 (0.56%) 802.1X
7 6 (0.56%) JSON
7 6 (0.56%) OpenID
7 6 (0.56%) REST
8 5 (0.47%) .NET
8 5 (0.47%) Flash
8 5 (0.47%) OAuth
9 4 (0.37%) Elastic Stack
9 4 (0.37%) Kafka
9 4 (0.37%) SAML
10 3 (0.28%) OAuth2
11 2 (0.19%) Apache NiFi
11 2 (0.19%) Keycloak
11 2 (0.19%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 120 (11.21%) Data Centre
2 73 (6.82%) Hybrid Cloud
3 52 (4.86%) PKI
4 39 (3.64%) Public Cloud
5 31 (2.90%) Cloud Native
6 30 (2.80%) Onboarding
7 28 (2.62%) Replication
8 26 (2.43%) Enterprise Storage
9 24 (2.24%) Distributed Systems
10 23 (2.15%) SCADA
11 21 (1.96%) Private Cloud
12 20 (1.87%) Linux Command Line
13 17 (1.59%) Clustering
13 17 (1.59%) Management Information System
14 13 (1.21%) Mainframe
15 11 (1.03%) Operational Technology
15 11 (1.03%) Self-Motivation
16 10 (0.93%) Driving Licence
17 8 (0.75%) Cyber Threat
17 8 (0.75%) Data Protection Act
Operating Systems
1 321 (30.00%) Windows
2 223 (20.84%) Linux
3 218 (20.37%) Windows Server
4 39 (3.64%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 19 (1.78%) VMS
5 19 (1.78%) Windows Server 2019
6 16 (1.50%) Ubuntu
7 15 (1.40%) Windows Server 2016
8 14 (1.31%) AIX
8 14 (1.31%) CentOS
9 13 (1.21%) Windows 10
9 13 (1.21%) zOS
10 10 (0.93%) Unix
10 10 (0.93%) Windows Server 2012
11 9 (0.84%) Rocky
12 5 (0.47%) Oracle Linux
13 4 (0.37%) Android
13 4 (0.37%) Data ONTAP
13 4 (0.37%) Debian
13 4 (0.37%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,036 (96.82%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 243 (22.71%) Infrastructure as Code
3 144 (13.46%) CI/CD
4 138 (12.90%) DevOps
5 113 (10.56%) Problem-Solving
6 111 (10.37%) Migration
7 85 (7.94%) Infrastructure Automation
8 75 (7.01%) Continuous Improvement
8 75 (7.01%) Disaster Recovery
9 72 (6.73%) High Availability
10 68 (6.36%) ITIL
10 68 (6.36%) Platform Engineering
11 67 (6.26%) Project Delivery
12 56 (5.23%) Validation
13 55 (5.14%) Cybersecurity
14 54 (5.05%) Vulnerability Remediation
15 52 (4.86%) Root Cause Analysis
16 50 (4.67%) Identity Access Management
17 48 (4.49%) Agile
18 44 (4.11%) Configuration Management
Programming Languages
1 191 (17.85%) PowerShell
2 148 (13.83%) Python
3 84 (7.85%) Bash
4 43 (4.02%) SQL
5 35 (3.27%) Bicep
6 13 (1.21%) C#
7 11 (1.03%) Java
7 11 (1.03%) Perl
8 10 (0.93%) ActionScript
9 6 (0.56%) Go
10 3 (0.28%) C++
11 2 (0.19%) VB
12 1 (0.093%) C
12 1 (0.093%) Groovy
12 1 (0.093%) JavaScript
12 1 (0.093%) Kusto Query Language
12 1 (0.093%) MATLAB
12 1 (0.093%) PHP
12 1 (0.093%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 414 (38.69%) Security Cleared
2 250 (23.36%) SC Cleared
3 155 (14.49%) DV Cleared
4 41 (3.83%) Degree
5 31 (2.90%) Microsoft Certification
6 22 (2.06%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
7 21 (1.96%) Azure Certification
8 18 (1.68%) Cisco Certification
9 15 (1.40%) Computer Science Degree
10 14 (1.31%) MCSE
10 14 (1.31%) VCAP
11 12 (1.12%) CCNA
11 12 (1.12%) CCNP
12 7 (0.65%) AWS Certification
13 6 (0.56%) MCSA
14 5 (0.47%) DBS Check
15 4 (0.37%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
15 4 (0.37%) BPSS Clearance
15 4 (0.37%) JNCIP
15 4 (0.37%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 47 (4.39%) QA
2 18 (1.68%) SLA
3 13 (1.21%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 9 (0.84%) Cyber Essentials
4 9 (0.84%) NIST
5 8 (0.75%) NCSC
6 6 (0.56%) Disclosure Scotland
7 4 (0.37%) Data Quality
8 3 (0.28%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 2 (0.19%) NIST 800
9 2 (0.19%) SOC 2
10 1 (0.093%) FedRAMP
10 1 (0.093%) GDPR
10 1 (0.093%) GLBA
10 1 (0.093%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 222 (20.75%) Active Directory
1 222 (20.75%) VMware Infrastructure
2 92 (8.60%) Hyper-V
3 74 (6.92%) vSphere
4 73 (6.82%) VMware ESXi
5 54 (5.05%) Virtual Machines
6 48 (4.49%) Docker
7 29 (2.71%) VMware NSX
8 26 (2.43%) Virtual Desktop
9 18 (1.68%) Virtual Servers
10 14 (1.31%) Oracle RAC
11 13 (1.21%) NFS
12 12 (1.12%) Firmware
13 7 (0.65%) KVM
14 6 (0.56%) oVirt
15 5 (0.47%) GPFS
16 4 (0.37%) BitLocker
16 4 (0.37%) Microsoft Virtual Server
17 3 (0.28%) Microsoft App-V
17 3 (0.28%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 130 (12.15%) Ansible
2 97 (9.07%) Kubernetes
3 70 (6.54%) Microsoft Intune
4 53 (4.95%) SCCM
5 37 (3.46%) vCenter Server
6 16 (1.50%) NetBackup
7 15 (1.40%) Prometheus
7 15 (1.40%) SCOM
8 14 (1.31%) Data Guard
8 14 (1.31%) Oracle RMAN
9 13 (1.21%) WSUS
10 12 (1.12%) Grafana
11 9 (0.84%) Failover Clustering
11 9 (0.84%) Nessus
11 9 (0.84%) Puppet
11 9 (0.84%) Single Sign-On
12 8 (0.75%) FortiGate
12 8 (0.75%) VxRail
13 6 (0.56%) Red Hat Satellite
14 5 (0.47%) systemd
Vendors
1 279 (26.07%) VMware
2 266 (24.86%) Microsoft
3 61 (5.70%) Cisco
4 49 (4.58%) Citrix
5 48 (4.49%) NetApp
6 43 (4.02%) F5
7 41 (3.83%) Oracle
8 39 (3.64%) Veeam
9 34 (3.18%) Palo Alto
10 29 (2.71%) Red Hat
11 27 (2.52%) Google
12 21 (1.96%) IBM
13 20 (1.87%) Dell
14 19 (1.78%) Aruba
15 18 (1.68%) Arista
16 17 (1.59%) CyberArk
16 17 (1.59%) SolarWinds
17 16 (1.50%) Commvault
18 13 (1.21%) Juniper
18 13 (1.21%) ServiceNow