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 18 June 2026.

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

6 months to
18 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 149 214 152
Rank change year-on-year +65 -62 +18
Contract jobs requiring an Infrastructure Engineer 887 380 695
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.76% 1.28% 1.58%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.91% 1.38% 1.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 577 256 527
10th Percentile £340 £329 £312
25th Percentile £425 £400 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £465
Median % change year-on-year - +12.91% -7.01%
75th Percentile £600 £588 £575
90th Percentile £675 £638 £638
UK excluding London median daily rate £515 £525 £465
% change year-on-year -1.90% +12.91% -4.62%
Number of hourly rates quoted 41 2 7
10th Percentile £33.64 - £20.73
25th Percentile £58.43 - £21.25
Median hourly rate £72.54 £200.00 £67.50
Median % change year-on-year -63.73% +196.30% +3.85%
75th Percentile £76.50 - £77.00
90th Percentile £78.75 - £77.40
UK excluding London median hourly rate £72.54 £200.00 £22.50
% change year-on-year -63.73% +788.89% -65.38%

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 46,545 27,461 40,758
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.35% 92.26% 92.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,281 17,668 26,127
10th Percentile £325 £289 £280
25th Percentile £413 £402 £407
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +3.00% -4.76% -2.33%
75th Percentile £625 £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 3,104 1,179 2,967
10th Percentile £15.24 £13.97 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.79 £17.79 £16.37
Median hourly rate £43.61 £27.50 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +58.56% -26.67% -16.67%
75th Percentile £67.50 £57.50 £62.01
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% -1.45%

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 18 June 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 18 June 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 18 June 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 +53 764 £525 - 225
UK excluding London +48 616 £515 -1.90% 207
Work from Home +43 197 £575 +15.00% 92
London +20 192 £538 +2.38% 54
North of England +29 188 £558 +15.54% 46
South East +9 165 £520 -5.45% 45
South West +26 97 £539 -6.30% 55
Yorkshire -15 79 £356 -32.14% 13
Midlands -10 76 £450 +12.50% 29
North West +12 72 £575 +29.94% 24
Scotland +16 47 £571 +8.81% 4
West Midlands -27 46 £475 +22.58% 14
North East -3 45 £600 -7.69% 10
East of England -19 33 £450 - 12
East Midlands 0 29 £450 +12.50% 15
Wales -1 13 £400 -11.11% 17
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 5
Channel Islands - 1 £550 -

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

For the 6 months to 18 June 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.

1 873 (98.42%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 321 (36.19%) Security Cleared
3 270 (30.44%) Azure
4 269 (30.33%) Windows
5 219 (24.69%) VMware
6 210 (23.68%) SC Cleared
7 180 (20.29%) Microsoft
8 169 (19.05%) Windows Server
9 168 (18.94%) Active Directory
10 159 (17.93%) VMware Infrastructure
11 157 (17.70%) Infrastructure as Code
12 147 (16.57%) Terraform
13 138 (15.56%) DevOps
14 137 (15.45%) DNS
15 136 (15.33%) Linux
16 127 (14.32%) Firewall
17 122 (13.75%) AWS
18 121 (13.64%) PowerShell
19 120 (13.53%) Python
20 118 (13.30%) DV Cleared
21 117 (13.19%) CI/CD
22 99 (11.16%) DHCP
23 88 (9.92%) Kubernetes
24 86 (9.70%) Ansible
24 86 (9.70%) Problem-Solving
25 79 (8.91%) Migration
26 75 (8.46%) Hyper-V
27 66 (7.44%) vSphere
28 65 (7.33%) High Availability
29 64 (7.22%) GitHub

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 44 (4.96%) Microsoft Exchange
2 9 (1.01%) SharePoint
3 6 (0.68%) TPMS
4 5 (0.56%) Confluence
5 4 (0.45%) Apache
6 2 (0.23%) CloudStack
7 1 (0.11%) IBM HTTP Server
7 1 (0.11%) IIS
7 1 (0.11%) MS Project Server
7 1 (0.11%) WebSphere
7 1 (0.11%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 7 (0.79%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (0.34%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.11%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 2 (0.23%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.11%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 270 (30.44%) Azure
2 122 (13.75%) AWS
3 64 (7.22%) GitHub
3 64 (7.22%) Microsoft 365
4 56 (6.31%) GCP
5 52 (5.86%) Entra ID
6 44 (4.96%) IaaS
7 38 (4.28%) OCI
8 35 (3.95%) SaaS
9 33 (3.72%) PaaS
10 32 (3.61%) Azure DevOps
11 25 (2.82%) Nutanix
12 24 (2.71%) Google Kubernetes Engine
13 22 (2.48%) Azure Monitor
13 22 (2.48%) GitHub Actions
14 20 (2.25%) Azure AKS
15 8 (0.90%) Cohesity
16 7 (0.79%) Azure Stack
17 6 (0.68%) Azure Key Vault
17 6 (0.68%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 137 (15.45%) DNS
2 127 (14.32%) Firewall
3 99 (11.16%) DHCP
4 47 (5.30%) VLAN
5 44 (4.96%) WAN
6 40 (4.51%) SAN
6 40 (4.51%) VPN
7 33 (3.72%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
7 33 (3.72%) Network Security
8 30 (3.38%) BIG-IP
9 28 (3.16%) LAN
10 27 (3.04%) TCP/IP
11 24 (2.71%) BGP
12 23 (2.59%) Ethernet VPN
13 22 (2.48%) SD-WAN
13 22 (2.48%) VXLAN
14 20 (2.25%) OSPF
15 17 (1.92%) Wi-Fi
16 15 (1.69%) SMTP
17 14 (1.58%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 31 (3.49%) SQL Server
2 10 (1.13%) Elasticsearch
3 8 (0.90%) Amazon RDS
4 5 (0.56%) Oracle Database
5 3 (0.34%) Azure SQL Database
5 3 (0.34%) Big Data
5 3 (0.34%) Data Mining
5 3 (0.34%) NonStop SQL
5 3 (0.34%) PostgreSQL
5 3 (0.34%) Power BI
5 3 (0.34%) Relational Database
6 2 (0.23%) DynamoDB
6 2 (0.23%) Oracle Exadata
6 2 (0.23%) RDBMS
7 1 (0.11%) BigQuery
7 1 (0.11%) Flink
7 1 (0.11%) MongoDB
7 1 (0.11%) NoSQL
7 1 (0.11%) Snowflake Schema
7 1 (0.11%) TimescaleDB
Development Applications
1 35 (3.95%) GitLab
2 30 (3.38%) Jenkins
3 21 (2.37%) JIRA
4 11 (1.24%) Git
5 4 (0.45%) Artifactory
5 4 (0.45%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.11%) Chocolatey
6 1 (0.11%) Claude Code
6 1 (0.11%) CMake
6 1 (0.11%) GoCD
6 1 (0.11%) Gradle
6 1 (0.11%) IntelliJ
6 1 (0.11%) Introscope
6 1 (0.11%) MSI
6 1 (0.11%) Robot Framework
6 1 (0.11%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 94 (10.60%) Social Skills
2 71 (8.00%) Public Sector
3 52 (5.86%) Finance
4 35 (3.95%) Analytical Skills
5 24 (2.71%) Documentation Skills
6 18 (2.03%) Banking
7 17 (1.92%) Legal
8 14 (1.58%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 10 (1.13%) Aerospace
9 10 (1.13%) Billing
9 10 (1.13%) Marketing
10 9 (1.01%) Manufacturing
11 6 (0.68%) Military
11 6 (0.68%) Telecoms
12 3 (0.34%) Law
13 2 (0.23%) Advertising
13 2 (0.23%) Investment Banking
13 2 (0.23%) Local Government
13 2 (0.23%) Retail
14 1 (0.11%) Publishing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (0.90%) LDAP
2 7 (0.79%) Flash
2 7 (0.79%) REST
3 6 (0.68%) Elastic Stack
4 5 (0.56%) ARM Templates
4 5 (0.56%) Keycloak
5 4 (0.45%) OpenID
5 4 (0.45%) SOAP
6 3 (0.34%) ADO
6 3 (0.34%) Apache NiFi
6 3 (0.34%) Oracle Fusion
6 3 (0.34%) SAML
6 3 (0.34%) YAML
7 2 (0.23%) Bazel
7 2 (0.23%) Kafka
7 2 (0.23%) Middleware
7 2 (0.23%) Node.js
7 2 (0.23%) OAuth
7 2 (0.23%) OAuth2
7 2 (0.23%) Oracle GoldenGate
Miscellaneous
1 92 (10.37%) Data Centre
2 45 (5.07%) Hybrid Cloud
3 40 (4.51%) PKI
4 37 (4.17%) Public Cloud
5 26 (2.93%) Cloud Native
6 23 (2.59%) Onboarding
7 18 (2.03%) Enterprise Storage
7 18 (2.03%) Self-Motivation
8 12 (1.35%) Clustering
8 12 (1.35%) Replication
9 11 (1.24%) Operational Technology
9 11 (1.24%) Private Cloud
10 10 (1.13%) Distributed Systems
11 9 (1.01%) Linux Command Line
12 8 (0.90%) Virtual Team
13 7 (0.79%) Enterprise Software
14 6 (0.68%) Management Information System
14 6 (0.68%) SCADA
14 6 (0.68%) Smartcard
14 6 (0.68%) YubiKey
Operating Systems
1 269 (30.33%) Windows
2 169 (19.05%) Windows Server
3 136 (15.33%) Linux
4 25 (2.82%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 21 (2.37%) Windows Server 2019
6 16 (1.80%) Windows 10
7 14 (1.58%) Windows Server 2016
8 13 (1.47%) Ubuntu
9 11 (1.24%) VMS
10 10 (1.13%) Apple iOS
10 10 (1.13%) Unix
11 9 (1.01%) Mac OS
12 8 (0.90%) Android
12 8 (0.90%) Debian
12 8 (0.90%) Windows Server 2003
13 7 (0.79%) Windows Server 2012
14 5 (0.56%) CentOS
15 3 (0.34%) AIX
16 1 (0.11%) Data ONTAP
16 1 (0.11%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 873 (98.42%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 157 (17.70%) Infrastructure as Code
3 138 (15.56%) DevOps
4 117 (13.19%) CI/CD
5 86 (9.70%) Problem-Solving
6 79 (8.91%) Migration
7 65 (7.33%) High Availability
8 64 (7.22%) Infrastructure Automation
9 57 (6.43%) Agile
10 53 (5.98%) ITIL
11 50 (5.64%) Disaster Recovery
12 47 (5.30%) Project Delivery
12 47 (5.30%) Zero Trust
13 42 (4.74%) Cybersecurity
14 41 (4.62%) Validation
15 36 (4.06%) Site Reliability Engineering
16 35 (3.95%) Continuous Improvement
16 35 (3.95%) Observability
17 31 (3.49%) Load Balancing
18 30 (3.38%) Containerisation
Programming Languages
1 121 (13.64%) PowerShell
2 120 (13.53%) Python
3 40 (4.51%) Bash
4 26 (2.93%) SQL
5 21 (2.37%) Bicep
6 16 (1.80%) C#
7 8 (0.90%) ActionScript
8 7 (0.79%) Java
9 5 (0.56%) Shell Script
10 4 (0.45%) Go
10 4 (0.45%) PHP
11 3 (0.34%) JavaScript
12 2 (0.23%) TypeScript
13 1 (0.11%) C
13 1 (0.11%) C++
13 1 (0.11%) Jython
13 1 (0.11%) VB
Qualifications
1 321 (36.19%) Security Cleared
2 210 (23.68%) SC Cleared
3 118 (13.30%) DV Cleared
4 27 (3.04%) Degree
5 16 (1.80%) Cisco Certification
5 16 (1.80%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
6 12 (1.35%) Microsoft Certification
7 11 (1.24%) Azure Certification
7 11 (1.24%) CCNA
8 9 (1.01%) MCSE
9 8 (0.90%) CCNP
10 6 (0.68%) FFIEC
10 6 (0.68%) VCAP
11 5 (0.56%) RHCA
12 4 (0.45%) AWS Certification
13 3 (0.34%) APMG
13 3 (0.34%) CompTIA Security+
13 3 (0.34%) Computer Science Degree
13 3 (0.34%) GIAC
13 3 (0.34%) GSEC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 22 (2.48%) NIST
1 22 (2.48%) QA
2 21 (2.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 16 (1.80%) Cyber Essentials
4 11 (1.24%) SLA
5 9 (1.01%) GDPR
6 7 (0.79%) NCSC
7 6 (0.68%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 6 (0.68%) GLBA
7 6 (0.68%) PCI DSS
8 3 (0.34%) Disclosure Scotland
8 3 (0.34%) NIST 800
9 2 (0.23%) SOC 2
10 1 (0.11%) FedRAMP
10 1 (0.11%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 168 (18.94%) Active Directory
2 159 (17.93%) VMware Infrastructure
3 75 (8.46%) Hyper-V
4 66 (7.44%) vSphere
5 59 (6.65%) VMware ESXi
6 37 (4.17%) Docker
7 28 (3.16%) VMware NSX
8 27 (3.04%) Virtual Machines
9 15 (1.69%) Virtual Desktop
10 12 (1.35%) BitLocker
10 12 (1.35%) NFS
11 10 (1.13%) Microsoft App-V
12 5 (0.56%) Firmware
12 5 (0.56%) GPFS
13 4 (0.45%) Terminal Services
14 3 (0.34%) DFS Replication
14 3 (0.34%) Virtual Servers
15 2 (0.23%) QEMU
15 2 (0.23%) SRDF
15 2 (0.23%) UAG
Systems Management
1 147 (16.57%) Terraform
2 88 (9.92%) Kubernetes
3 86 (9.70%) Ansible
4 42 (4.74%) Microsoft Intune
5 39 (4.40%) vCenter Server
6 32 (3.61%) SCCM
7 15 (1.69%) Prometheus
7 15 (1.69%) Puppet
8 14 (1.58%) Grafana
8 14 (1.58%) WSUS
9 12 (1.35%) Istio
9 12 (1.35%) SCOM
9 12 (1.35%) Single Sign-On
10 10 (1.13%) vMotion
11 9 (1.01%) vRealize
11 9 (1.01%) VxRail
12 8 (0.90%) AirWatch
12 8 (0.90%) Nessus
13 6 (0.68%) Packer
13 6 (0.68%) Red Hat Satellite
Vendors
1 219 (24.69%) VMware
2 180 (20.29%) Microsoft
3 59 (6.65%) Citrix
4 54 (6.09%) Cisco
5 41 (4.62%) F5
6 33 (3.72%) Google
6 33 (3.72%) Veeam
7 32 (3.61%) Palo Alto
8 25 (2.82%) Dell
9 24 (2.71%) NetApp
9 24 (2.71%) Red Hat
10 23 (2.59%) Aruba
10 23 (2.59%) Oracle
11 20 (2.25%) Arista
12 15 (1.69%) SolarWinds
13 14 (1.58%) ServiceNow
14 11 (1.24%) Fortinet
14 11 (1.24%) Tenable
14 11 (1.24%) Thales
15 9 (1.01%) Juniper