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 24 July 2026.

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

 6 months to
24 Jul 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 151 227 148
Rank change year-on-year +76 -79 +9
Contract jobs requiring an Infrastructure Engineer 974 386 688
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.85% 1.18% 1.68%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.99% 1.29% 1.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 595 254 521
10th Percentile £350 £329 £313
25th Percentile £425 £400 £380
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £475
Median % change year-on-year - +10.53% -5.00%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £575
90th Percentile £675 £638 £638
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £525 £470
% change year-on-year - +11.70% -6.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 44 4 4
10th Percentile £52.53 £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% +8.07%
75th Percentile £78.75 £200.00 £77.25
90th Percentile £83.82 - £77.70
UK excluding London median hourly rate £72.54 £200.00 £72.75
% change year-on-year -63.73% +174.91% +2.11%

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 48,872 29,931 38,007
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.61% 91.58% 93.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,492 19,056 24,610
10th Percentile £328 £283 £298
25th Percentile £420 £400 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.02%
75th Percentile £625 £623 £638
90th Percentile £725 £727 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,302 1,437 2,371
10th Percentile £15.81 £13.75 £13.60
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.30 £18.17
Median hourly rate £43.55 £25.15 £40.94
Median % change year-on-year +73.17% -38.57% -6.42%
75th Percentile £67.89 £55.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.92 £73.75 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £42.91
% change year-on-year +78.93% -41.39% +7.28%

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 24 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 24 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 24 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 +60 837 £525 - 303
UK excluding London +61 686 £525 - 254
London +8 210 £525 +0.24% 77
South East +29 204 £536 -2.47% 87
Work from Home +32 195 £539 +7.75% 97
North of England +30 192 £575 +9.52% 41
South West +17 105 £545 -3.20% 57
Midlands -5 83 £450 - 26
Yorkshire -4 79 £453 -9.50% 18
North West -1 72 £575 +9.52% 16
North East +2 51 £600 -7.69% 8
West Midlands -37 50 £475 +5.56% 20
Scotland +20 44 £570 +20.63% 12
East of England -11 33 £450 - 30
East Midlands +11 32 £450 +5.88% 6
Wales +11 27 £500 - 6
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 2
Channel Islands - 1 £550 -

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

For the 6 months to 24 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.

1 960 (98.56%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 388 (39.84%) Security Cleared
3 292 (29.98%) Windows
4 291 (29.88%) Azure
5 258 (26.49%) SC Cleared
6 245 (25.15%) VMware
7 210 (21.56%) Microsoft
8 197 (20.23%) Active Directory
9 193 (19.82%) Windows Server
10 188 (19.30%) VMware Infrastructure
11 179 (18.38%) Infrastructure as Code
12 168 (17.25%) DNS
12 168 (17.25%) Terraform
13 166 (17.04%) Linux
14 147 (15.09%) PowerShell
15 142 (14.58%) Firewall
16 140 (14.37%) DV Cleared
17 133 (13.66%) AWS
17 133 (13.66%) DevOps
18 126 (12.94%) Python
19 122 (12.53%) CI/CD
20 120 (12.32%) DHCP
21 108 (11.09%) Ansible
22 95 (9.75%) Migration
23 94 (9.65%) Kubernetes
24 89 (9.14%) Problem-Solving
25 83 (8.52%) Hyper-V
26 71 (7.29%) Entra ID
26 71 (7.29%) Microsoft 365
27 69 (7.08%) VMware ESXi

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 (5.44%) Microsoft Exchange
2 24 (2.46%) SharePoint
3 13 (1.33%) WebSphere
4 12 (1.23%) CICS
5 8 (0.82%) Confluence
6 3 (0.31%) Apache
6 3 (0.31%) Exchange Server 2010
6 3 (0.31%) SharePoint Server
7 2 (0.21%) 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 9 (0.92%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (0.31%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.10%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 3 (0.31%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.10%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 291 (29.88%) Azure
2 133 (13.66%) AWS
3 71 (7.29%) Entra ID
3 71 (7.29%) Microsoft 365
4 59 (6.06%) GitHub
5 50 (5.13%) GCP
6 48 (4.93%) IaaS
6 48 (4.93%) OCI
7 38 (3.90%) SaaS
8 34 (3.49%) Azure DevOps
9 33 (3.39%) PaaS
10 27 (2.77%) Azure Monitor
11 23 (2.36%) GitHub Actions
12 21 (2.16%) Azure AKS
13 17 (1.75%) Nutanix
14 12 (1.23%) Google Kubernetes Engine
15 8 (0.82%) Azure Sentinel
15 8 (0.82%) Cohesity
16 7 (0.72%) OpenShift
17 6 (0.62%) Amazon EC2
Communications & Networking
1 168 (17.25%) DNS
2 142 (14.58%) Firewall
3 120 (12.32%) DHCP
4 54 (5.54%) VLAN
5 51 (5.24%) SAN
6 49 (5.03%) VPN
7 43 (4.41%) TCP/IP
8 41 (4.21%) WAN
9 39 (4.00%) Network Security
10 33 (3.39%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
11 30 (3.08%) BIG-IP
12 25 (2.57%) LAN
13 23 (2.36%) Ethernet VPN
14 22 (2.26%) BGP
14 22 (2.26%) SD-WAN
14 22 (2.26%) VXLAN
14 22 (2.26%) Wi-Fi
15 20 (2.05%) OSPF
15 20 (2.05%) VSAN
16 13 (1.33%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 45 (4.62%) SQL Server
2 14 (1.44%) Oracle Database
2 14 (1.44%) Oracle Exadata
2 14 (1.44%) Relational Database
3 11 (1.13%) RDBMS
4 9 (0.92%) Elasticsearch
5 7 (0.72%) Amazon RDS
6 4 (0.41%) Azure SQL Database
6 4 (0.41%) PostgreSQL
6 4 (0.41%) Power BI
7 3 (0.31%) Big Data
7 3 (0.31%) Data Mining
7 3 (0.31%) NonStop SQL
7 3 (0.31%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 2 (0.21%) BigQuery
8 2 (0.21%) Data Lake
8 2 (0.21%) DynamoDB
9 1 (0.10%) Flink
9 1 (0.10%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 1 (0.10%) TimescaleDB
Development Applications
1 44 (4.52%) GitLab
2 27 (2.77%) JIRA
3 26 (2.67%) Jenkins
4 21 (2.16%) Git
5 3 (0.31%) Bitbucket
5 3 (0.31%) Chocolatey
6 1 (0.10%) Artifactory
6 1 (0.10%) Claude Code
6 1 (0.10%) CMake
6 1 (0.10%) Gradle
6 1 (0.10%) IntelliJ
6 1 (0.10%) Introscope
6 1 (0.10%) MLflow
6 1 (0.10%) MSI
6 1 (0.10%) Robot Framework
6 1 (0.10%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 105 (10.78%) Social Skills
2 73 (7.49%) Public Sector
3 46 (4.72%) Finance
4 37 (3.80%) Analytical Skills
5 31 (3.18%) Documentation Skills
6 19 (1.95%) Banking
7 17 (1.75%) Legal
8 13 (1.33%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 11 (1.13%) Aerospace
10 10 (1.03%) Manufacturing
10 10 (1.03%) Marketing
11 9 (0.92%) Military
12 7 (0.72%) Telecoms
13 4 (0.41%) Law
14 3 (0.31%) Automotive
15 2 (0.21%) Advertising
15 2 (0.21%) Billing
15 2 (0.21%) Local Government
15 2 (0.21%) Retail
16 1 (0.10%) Investment Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (1.64%) Middleware
2 11 (1.13%) ARM Templates
2 11 (1.13%) Oracle GoldenGate
3 7 (0.72%) Flash
3 7 (0.72%) REST
4 6 (0.62%) Elastic Stack
4 6 (0.62%) LDAP
5 5 (0.51%) 802.1X
5 5 (0.51%) OpenID
6 4 (0.41%) JSON
6 4 (0.41%) SAML
6 4 (0.41%) SOAP
6 4 (0.41%) YAML
7 3 (0.31%) .NET
7 3 (0.31%) Kafka
8 2 (0.21%) Node.js
8 2 (0.21%) OAuth2
8 2 (0.21%) RabbitMQ
8 2 (0.21%) React
8 2 (0.21%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 115 (11.81%) Data Centre
2 54 (5.54%) Hybrid Cloud
3 53 (5.44%) PKI
4 44 (4.52%) Public Cloud
5 26 (2.67%) Enterprise Storage
6 25 (2.57%) Cloud Native
7 24 (2.46%) Onboarding
8 20 (2.05%) Replication
9 16 (1.64%) Clustering
9 16 (1.64%) Self-Motivation
10 13 (1.33%) Linux Command Line
11 12 (1.23%) Distributed Systems
11 12 (1.23%) Mainframe
12 11 (1.13%) Management Information System
13 10 (1.03%) Operational Technology
14 9 (0.92%) Private Cloud
14 9 (0.92%) Smartcard
15 8 (0.82%) Enterprise Software
15 8 (0.82%) Virtual Team
16 7 (0.72%) Data Protection Act
Operating Systems
1 292 (29.98%) Windows
2 193 (19.82%) Windows Server
3 166 (17.04%) Linux
4 32 (3.29%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 20 (2.05%) Windows Server 2019
6 18 (1.85%) Windows Server 2016
7 16 (1.64%) Windows 10
8 13 (1.33%) Ubuntu
9 12 (1.23%) AIX
9 12 (1.23%) zOS
10 11 (1.13%) VMS
11 9 (0.92%) Apple iOS
12 8 (0.82%) Android
12 8 (0.82%) CentOS
12 8 (0.82%) Mac OS
12 8 (0.82%) Unix
13 6 (0.62%) Debian
13 6 (0.62%) Windows Server 2003
13 6 (0.62%) Windows Server 2012
14 5 (0.51%) Rocky
Processes & Methodologies
1 960 (98.56%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 179 (18.38%) Infrastructure as Code
3 133 (13.66%) DevOps
4 122 (12.53%) CI/CD
5 95 (9.75%) Migration
6 89 (9.14%) Problem-Solving
7 66 (6.78%) High Availability
7 66 (6.78%) Infrastructure Automation
8 57 (5.85%) Project Delivery
9 54 (5.54%) Disaster Recovery
9 54 (5.54%) Validation
10 53 (5.44%) Continuous Improvement
11 52 (5.34%) ITIL
12 47 (4.83%) Agile
12 47 (4.83%) Zero Trust
13 42 (4.31%) Platform Engineering
14 38 (3.90%) Cybersecurity
15 35 (3.59%) Site Reliability Engineering
16 34 (3.49%) Containerisation
17 33 (3.39%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 147 (15.09%) PowerShell
2 126 (12.94%) Python
3 59 (6.06%) Bash
4 34 (3.49%) SQL
5 27 (2.77%) Bicep
6 16 (1.64%) C#
7 11 (1.13%) Java
8 7 (0.72%) ActionScript
9 6 (0.62%) Go
10 5 (0.51%) Shell Script
11 3 (0.31%) JavaScript
11 3 (0.31%) PHP
12 2 (0.21%) TypeScript
13 1 (0.10%) C
13 1 (0.10%) C++
13 1 (0.10%) Jython
13 1 (0.10%) Perl
13 1 (0.10%) VB
Qualifications
1 388 (39.84%) Security Cleared
2 258 (26.49%) SC Cleared
3 140 (14.37%) DV Cleared
4 33 (3.39%) Degree
5 24 (2.46%) Microsoft Certification
6 20 (2.05%) Cisco Certification
6 20 (2.05%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
7 16 (1.64%) MCSE
8 15 (1.54%) Azure Certification
9 12 (1.23%) CCNA
10 11 (1.13%) CCNP
10 11 (1.13%) VCAP
11 6 (0.62%) Computer Science Degree
11 6 (0.62%) RHCA
12 5 (0.51%) MCSA
13 4 (0.41%) AWS Certification
13 4 (0.41%) ITIL Certification
14 3 (0.31%) DBS Check
14 3 (0.31%) JNCIP
14 3 (0.31%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 29 (2.98%) QA
2 21 (2.16%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 15 (1.54%) Cyber Essentials
3 15 (1.54%) NIST
4 13 (1.33%) SLA
5 9 (0.92%) NCSC
6 6 (0.62%) Disclosure Scotland
7 5 (0.51%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 3 (0.31%) NIST 800
9 2 (0.21%) GDPR
9 2 (0.21%) SOC 2
10 1 (0.10%) Data Quality
10 1 (0.10%) FedRAMP
10 1 (0.10%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 197 (20.23%) Active Directory
2 188 (19.30%) VMware Infrastructure
3 83 (8.52%) Hyper-V
4 69 (7.08%) VMware ESXi
4 69 (7.08%) vSphere
5 37 (3.80%) Virtual Machines
6 36 (3.70%) Docker
7 33 (3.39%) VMware NSX
8 23 (2.36%) Virtual Desktop
9 12 (1.23%) NFS
10 11 (1.13%) Oracle RAC
11 9 (0.92%) BitLocker
12 8 (0.82%) Microsoft App-V
13 5 (0.51%) GPFS
13 5 (0.51%) KVM
14 4 (0.41%) Firmware
14 4 (0.41%) Terminal Services
15 3 (0.31%) Virtual Servers
16 2 (0.21%) UAG
16 2 (0.21%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 168 (17.25%) Terraform
2 108 (11.09%) Ansible
3 94 (9.65%) Kubernetes
4 49 (5.03%) Microsoft Intune
5 45 (4.62%) vCenter Server
6 35 (3.59%) SCCM
7 17 (1.75%) WSUS
8 14 (1.44%) Prometheus
9 13 (1.33%) Puppet
9 13 (1.33%) SCOM
10 11 (1.13%) Data Guard
10 11 (1.13%) Grafana
10 11 (1.13%) NetBackup
10 11 (1.13%) Oracle RMAN
11 10 (1.03%) Single Sign-On
12 9 (0.92%) Nessus
13 8 (0.82%) Istio
13 8 (0.82%) vMotion
13 8 (0.82%) vRealize
14 7 (0.72%) VxRail
Vendors
1 245 (25.15%) VMware
2 210 (21.56%) Microsoft
3 59 (6.06%) Citrix
4 58 (5.95%) Cisco
5 38 (3.90%) F5
6 35 (3.59%) NetApp
6 35 (3.59%) Oracle
7 32 (3.29%) Veeam
8 31 (3.18%) Palo Alto
9 29 (2.98%) Google
10 25 (2.57%) Red Hat
11 24 (2.46%) Dell
12 21 (2.16%) Aruba
13 19 (1.95%) Arista
13 19 (1.95%) IBM
14 16 (1.64%) Juniper
15 15 (1.54%) ServiceNow
16 14 (1.44%) Tenable
17 13 (1.33%) SolarWinds
18 10 (1.03%) HP
345 Infrastructure Engineer jobs Nationwide