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 May 2026.

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

6 months to
27 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 156 212 156
Rank change year-on-year +56 -56 +24
Contract jobs requiring an Infrastructure Engineer 804 368 669
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.65% 1.29% 1.57%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.79% 1.40% 1.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 552 252 511
10th Percentile £325 £329 £300
25th Percentile £418 £400 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £450
Median % change year-on-year - +16.67% -10.00%
75th Percentile £600 £591 £575
90th Percentile £656 £638 £641
UK excluding London median daily rate £515 £500 £450
% change year-on-year +2.95% +11.17% -5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 40 3 8
10th Percentile £44.20 £59.34 £20.86
25th Percentile £58.43 £112.09 £21.25
Median hourly rate £72.54 £200.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -63.73% +344.44% -29.51%
75th Percentile £77.06 - £77.00
90th Percentile £78.75 - £77.30
UK excluding London median hourly rate £72.54 £200.00 £22.50
% change year-on-year -63.73% +788.89% -64.16%

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 44,984 26,371 39,600
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.30% 92.30% 92.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,456 17,159 25,763
10th Percentile £325 £290 £280
25th Percentile £413 £405 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £510 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.49% -2.86% -2.78%
75th Percentile £619 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +5.26% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,981 1,009 2,752
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.00 £12.79
25th Percentile £20.35 £18.04 £16.30
Median hourly rate £42.50 £27.53 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +54.38% -24.58% -18.89%
75th Percentile £66.50 £60.00 £61.30
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.00 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +70.97% -37.13% -5.88%

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 May 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 May 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 May 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 +29 689 £525 - 207
UK excluding London +36 560 £515 +2.95% 193
Work from Home +44 176 £535 +7.00% 78
London -17 173 £525 - 36
South East +19 158 £525 +2.39% 58
North of England +8 149 £500 +23.08% 40
South West +16 95 £550 -4.35% 39
Midlands -29 67 £450 +12.50% 26
Yorkshire -21 65 £350 -16.42% 10
North West -6 57 £575 +49.35% 24
Scotland +20 44 £560 +1.82% 8
West Midlands -41 39 £525 +35.48% 13
East of England -17 33 £475 +1.82% 18
North East -3 32 £613 -5.77% 6
East Midlands -11 27 £450 +12.50% 13
Wales -3 15 £400 -30.43% 8
Northern Ireland - 2 £375 -
Channel Islands - 1 £550 -

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

For the 6 months to 27 May 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.

1 787 (97.89%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 302 (37.56%) Security Cleared
3 253 (31.47%) Azure
4 252 (31.34%) Windows
5 209 (26.00%) SC Cleared
6 207 (25.75%) VMware
7 172 (21.39%) Microsoft
8 156 (19.40%) Windows Server
9 151 (18.78%) Active Directory
10 147 (18.28%) VMware Infrastructure
11 144 (17.91%) Infrastructure as Code
12 140 (17.41%) Terraform
13 124 (15.42%) Linux
14 122 (15.17%) DevOps
15 120 (14.93%) DNS
16 114 (14.18%) PowerShell
17 112 (13.93%) Firewall
18 109 (13.56%) DV Cleared
19 108 (13.43%) AWS
20 103 (12.81%) CI/CD
20 103 (12.81%) Python
21 93 (11.57%) Problem-Solving
22 88 (10.95%) DHCP
23 78 (9.70%) Ansible
23 78 (9.70%) Kubernetes
24 73 (9.08%) Hyper-V
25 71 (8.83%) Migration
26 68 (8.46%) Infrastructure Automation
27 65 (8.08%) Microsoft 365
28 61 (7.59%) 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 49 (6.09%) Microsoft Exchange
2 11 (1.37%) SharePoint
3 6 (0.75%) TPMS
4 4 (0.50%) Apache
4 4 (0.50%) Confluence
5 2 (0.25%) CloudStack
6 1 (0.12%) IBM HTTP Server
6 1 (0.12%) IIS
6 1 (0.12%) MS Project Server
6 1 (0.12%) nginx
6 1 (0.12%) WebSphere
6 1 (0.12%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 12 (1.49%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (0.37%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.12%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 2 (0.25%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.12%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 253 (31.47%) Azure
2 108 (13.43%) AWS
3 65 (8.08%) Microsoft 365
4 56 (6.97%) GitHub
5 46 (5.72%) GCP
6 42 (5.22%) Entra ID
7 37 (4.60%) IaaS
8 34 (4.23%) OCI
9 31 (3.86%) PaaS
9 31 (3.86%) SaaS
10 28 (3.48%) Azure DevOps
11 24 (2.99%) Google Kubernetes Engine
11 24 (2.99%) Nutanix
12 21 (2.61%) Azure Monitor
13 16 (1.99%) GitHub Actions
14 15 (1.87%) Azure AKS
15 8 (1.00%) Cohesity
16 6 (0.75%) Azure Key Vault
16 6 (0.75%) Azure Sentinel
16 6 (0.75%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 120 (14.93%) DNS
2 112 (13.93%) Firewall
3 88 (10.95%) DHCP
4 43 (5.35%) WAN
5 39 (4.85%) VPN
6 35 (4.35%) VLAN
7 31 (3.86%) Network Security
8 30 (3.73%) SAN
9 29 (3.61%) LAN
10 28 (3.48%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
11 24 (2.99%) BGP
11 24 (2.99%) BIG-IP
12 23 (2.86%) Ethernet VPN
13 22 (2.74%) SD-WAN
13 22 (2.74%) VXLAN
14 20 (2.49%) OSPF
15 18 (2.24%) TCP/IP
16 16 (1.99%) Wi-Fi
17 12 (1.49%) SMTP
17 12 (1.49%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 32 (3.98%) SQL Server
2 8 (1.00%) Elasticsearch
3 5 (0.62%) Amazon RDS
4 3 (0.37%) Data Mining
4 3 (0.37%) NonStop SQL
4 3 (0.37%) Power BI
5 2 (0.25%) Azure SQL Database
5 2 (0.25%) DynamoDB
5 2 (0.25%) Oracle Database
5 2 (0.25%) PostgreSQL
6 1 (0.12%) BigQuery
6 1 (0.12%) Flink
6 1 (0.12%) MongoDB
6 1 (0.12%) NoSQL
6 1 (0.12%) Relational Database
6 1 (0.12%) Snowflake Schema
6 1 (0.12%) TimescaleDB
Development Applications
1 31 (3.86%) GitLab
2 22 (2.74%) Jenkins
3 12 (1.49%) JIRA
4 9 (1.12%) Git
5 8 (1.00%) Artifactory
6 4 (0.50%) Bitbucket
7 1 (0.12%) Chocolatey
7 1 (0.12%) Claude Code
7 1 (0.12%) CMake
7 1 (0.12%) GoCD
7 1 (0.12%) Gradle
7 1 (0.12%) IntelliJ
7 1 (0.12%) Introscope
7 1 (0.12%) MSI
7 1 (0.12%) Robot Framework
7 1 (0.12%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 97 (12.06%) Social Skills
2 71 (8.83%) Public Sector
3 51 (6.34%) Finance
4 44 (5.47%) Analytical Skills
5 21 (2.61%) Documentation Skills
6 17 (2.11%) Banking
7 16 (1.99%) Legal
8 12 (1.49%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 11 (1.37%) Aerospace
10 10 (1.24%) Billing
11 9 (1.12%) Manufacturing
12 8 (1.00%) Marketing
13 6 (0.75%) Military
13 6 (0.75%) Telecoms
14 4 (0.50%) Local Government
15 3 (0.37%) Law
15 3 (0.37%) Retail
16 2 (0.25%) Advertising
16 2 (0.25%) Investment Banking
17 1 (0.12%) Mandarin Language
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (1.37%) REST
2 9 (1.12%) LDAP
3 8 (1.00%) SOAP
4 7 (0.87%) Elastic Stack
4 7 (0.87%) Flash
5 5 (0.62%) ARM Templates
5 5 (0.62%) Web Services
6 4 (0.50%) Keycloak
6 4 (0.50%) OpenID
7 3 (0.37%) ADO
7 3 (0.37%) Oracle Fusion
7 3 (0.37%) SAML
7 3 (0.37%) YAML
8 2 (0.25%) .NET
8 2 (0.25%) JSON
8 2 (0.25%) Kafka
8 2 (0.25%) Middleware
8 2 (0.25%) Node.js
8 2 (0.25%) OAuth
8 2 (0.25%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 75 (9.33%) Data Centre
2 37 (4.60%) Hybrid Cloud
2 37 (4.60%) PKI
3 32 (3.98%) Public Cloud
4 17 (2.11%) Onboarding
5 16 (1.99%) Cloud Native
5 16 (1.99%) Enterprise Storage
5 16 (1.99%) Self-Motivation
6 13 (1.62%) Private Cloud
6 13 (1.62%) Replication
7 11 (1.37%) Operational Technology
8 9 (1.12%) Clustering
9 8 (1.00%) Virtual Team
10 7 (0.87%) Enterprise Software
11 6 (0.75%) SCADA
11 6 (0.75%) Smartcard
11 6 (0.75%) YubiKey
12 5 (0.62%) Data Protection Act
12 5 (0.62%) Distributed Systems
12 5 (0.62%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 252 (31.34%) Windows
2 156 (19.40%) Windows Server
3 124 (15.42%) Linux
4 22 (2.74%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 21 (2.61%) Windows Server 2019
6 16 (1.99%) Windows Server 2016
7 15 (1.87%) Ubuntu
8 14 (1.74%) Windows 10
9 11 (1.37%) VMS
10 10 (1.24%) Apple iOS
11 9 (1.12%) Mac OS
12 8 (1.00%) Android
12 8 (1.00%) Debian
12 8 (1.00%) Unix
13 7 (0.87%) Windows Server 2003
13 7 (0.87%) Windows Server 2012
14 5 (0.62%) CentOS
15 1 (0.12%) Data ONTAP
15 1 (0.12%) SUSE
15 1 (0.12%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 787 (97.89%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 144 (17.91%) Infrastructure as Code
3 122 (15.17%) DevOps
4 103 (12.81%) CI/CD
5 93 (11.57%) Problem-Solving
6 71 (8.83%) Migration
7 68 (8.46%) Infrastructure Automation
8 56 (6.97%) ITIL
9 55 (6.84%) Agile
9 55 (6.84%) High Availability
10 53 (6.59%) Disaster Recovery
11 49 (6.09%) Zero Trust
12 41 (5.10%) Project Delivery
13 36 (4.48%) Cybersecurity
14 34 (4.23%) Site Reliability Engineering
14 34 (4.23%) Validation
15 32 (3.98%) Load Balancing
16 30 (3.73%) Continuous Improvement
17 28 (3.48%) Observability
18 27 (3.36%) Platform Engineering
Programming Languages
1 114 (14.18%) PowerShell
2 103 (12.81%) Python
3 32 (3.98%) Bash
4 24 (2.99%) SQL
5 22 (2.74%) Bicep
6 14 (1.74%) C#
7 9 (1.12%) PHP
8 8 (1.00%) JavaScript
9 5 (0.62%) Java
9 5 (0.62%) Shell Script
10 3 (0.37%) ActionScript
11 2 (0.25%) Go
11 2 (0.25%) TypeScript
12 1 (0.12%) C
12 1 (0.12%) C++
12 1 (0.12%) Jython
12 1 (0.12%) VB
Qualifications
1 302 (37.56%) Security Cleared
2 209 (26.00%) SC Cleared
3 109 (13.56%) DV Cleared
4 24 (2.99%) Degree
5 17 (2.11%) Cisco Certification
6 14 (1.74%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
7 13 (1.62%) Azure Certification
8 12 (1.49%) CCNA
9 11 (1.37%) Microsoft Certification
10 9 (1.12%) MCSE
11 8 (1.00%) CCNP
12 6 (0.75%) FFIEC
13 5 (0.62%) RHCA
14 4 (0.50%) AWS Certification
14 4 (0.50%) CompTIA Security+
14 4 (0.50%) Computer Science Degree
14 4 (0.50%) VCAP
15 3 (0.37%) APMG
15 3 (0.37%) GIAC
15 3 (0.37%) GSEC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (2.49%) NIST
2 16 (1.99%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 16 (1.99%) QA
3 12 (1.49%) Cyber Essentials
4 11 (1.37%) SLA
5 9 (1.12%) GDPR
6 6 (0.75%) GLBA
6 6 (0.75%) NCSC
6 6 (0.75%) PCI DSS
7 3 (0.37%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 3 (0.37%) NIST 800
8 2 (0.25%) SOC 2
9 1 (0.12%) Disclosure Scotland
9 1 (0.12%) FedRAMP
9 1 (0.12%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 151 (18.78%) Active Directory
2 147 (18.28%) VMware Infrastructure
3 73 (9.08%) Hyper-V
4 61 (7.59%) vSphere
5 45 (5.60%) VMware ESXi
6 36 (4.48%) Docker
7 26 (3.23%) VMware NSX
8 23 (2.86%) Virtual Machines
9 13 (1.62%) Virtual Desktop
10 10 (1.24%) NFS
11 9 (1.12%) BitLocker
12 7 (0.87%) Microsoft App-V
13 5 (0.62%) Firmware
13 5 (0.62%) GPFS
14 3 (0.37%) DFS Replication
14 3 (0.37%) Virtual Servers
15 2 (0.25%) QEMU
15 2 (0.25%) SRDF
15 2 (0.25%) UAG
15 2 (0.25%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 140 (17.41%) Terraform
2 78 (9.70%) Ansible
2 78 (9.70%) Kubernetes
3 38 (4.73%) Microsoft Intune
4 32 (3.98%) vCenter Server
5 31 (3.86%) SCCM
6 14 (1.74%) WSUS
7 12 (1.49%) Grafana
7 12 (1.49%) Istio
7 12 (1.49%) SCOM
8 11 (1.37%) Prometheus
8 11 (1.37%) Puppet
9 9 (1.12%) vRealize
9 9 (1.12%) VxRail
10 8 (1.00%) AirWatch
10 8 (1.00%) Nessus
10 8 (1.00%) Single Sign-On
11 7 (0.87%) Packer
11 7 (0.87%) vMotion
12 5 (0.62%) Active Directory Federation Services
Vendors
1 207 (25.75%) VMware
2 172 (21.39%) Microsoft
3 55 (6.84%) Citrix
4 50 (6.22%) Cisco
5 36 (4.48%) F5
5 36 (4.48%) Veeam
6 33 (4.10%) Palo Alto
7 28 (3.48%) Google
8 25 (3.11%) Dell
9 24 (2.99%) NetApp
10 23 (2.86%) Red Hat
11 22 (2.74%) Aruba
12 20 (2.49%) Arista
13 19 (2.36%) Oracle
14 13 (1.62%) SolarWinds
15 12 (1.49%) ServiceNow
16 11 (1.37%) Fortinet
17 10 (1.24%) Tenable
17 10 (1.24%) Thales
18 9 (1.12%) Splunk