Infrastructure Engineer Contract Job Trends

Infrastructure Engineer
UK

The median Infrastructure Engineer daily rate in the UK is £510, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 13 May 2026.

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

6 months to
13 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 174 209 154
Rank change year-on-year +35 -55 +26
Contract jobs requiring an Infrastructure Engineer 727 379 677
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.54% 1.31% 1.58%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.67% 1.41% 1.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 495 262 511
10th Percentile £325 £314 £300
25th Percentile £413 £385 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £525 £465
Median % change year-on-year -2.86% +12.91% -7.01%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £588
90th Percentile £654 £649 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £510 £500 £463
% change year-on-year +2.00% +8.11% -2.63%
Number of hourly rates quoted 42 3 9
10th Percentile £46.40 £59.34 £20.99
25th Percentile £58.43 £112.09 £21.25
Median hourly rate £72.54 £200.00 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year -63.73% +788.89% -63.48%
75th Percentile £78.75 - £77.00
90th Percentile - - £77.20
UK excluding London median hourly rate £72.54 £200.00 £22.50
% change year-on-year -63.73% +788.89% -61.88%

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 43,568 26,796 39,671
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.30% 92.46% 92.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 26,699 17,460 25,789
10th Percentile £320 £300 £280
25th Percentile £413 £406 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year -0.49% -2.38% -2.78%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £495 £475 £490
% change year-on-year +4.21% -3.06% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,848 1,033 2,665
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.00 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.35 £18.20 £16.30
Median hourly rate £43.85 £28.18 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +55.59% -24.85% -16.67%
75th Percentile £66.50 £62.25 £61.30
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £73.26
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £27.24 £40.00
% change year-on-year +65.21% -31.91% -4.94%

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 13 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 13 May 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Infrastructure Engineer in the UK

Infrastructure Engineer
Top 17 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 13 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 +17 623 £515 -1.90% 213
UK excluding London +25 506 £510 +2.00% 188
London -22 159 £525 - 44
Work from Home +28 155 £517 +8.27% 85
South East +1 136 £515 -4.19% 51
North of England -13 128 £495 +21.85% 55
South West +6 90 £540 -6.09% 26
Yorkshire -22 63 £350 -15.15% 11
Midlands -16 62 £450 +16.13% 29
North West -13 46 £575 +26.37% 31
Scotland +22 40 £560 +1.82% 9
East of England -14 35 £450 -3.54% 15
West Midlands -40 34 £450 +33.33% 18
East Midlands -8 27 £450 +12.50% 11
North East -7 22 £600 -7.69% 13
Wales -1 16 £400 -5.88% 5
Northern Ireland - 2 £375 -

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

For the 6 months to 13 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.

1 710 (97.66%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 266 (36.59%) Security Cleared
3 238 (32.74%) Windows
4 228 (31.36%) Azure
5 194 (26.69%) VMware
6 189 (26.00%) SC Cleared
7 167 (22.97%) Microsoft
8 149 (20.50%) Windows Server
9 148 (20.36%) Active Directory
10 146 (20.08%) VMware Infrastructure
11 128 (17.61%) Terraform
12 124 (17.06%) Infrastructure as Code
13 115 (15.82%) PowerShell
14 114 (15.68%) DNS
15 110 (15.13%) DevOps
16 108 (14.86%) Firewall
17 107 (14.72%) Linux
18 93 (12.79%) CI/CD
19 92 (12.65%) DV Cleared
19 92 (12.65%) Problem-Solving
20 91 (12.52%) AWS
21 88 (12.10%) Python
22 80 (11.00%) DHCP
23 79 (10.87%) Hyper-V
24 78 (10.73%) Kubernetes
25 75 (10.32%) Ansible
26 67 (9.22%) Migration
27 65 (8.94%) Microsoft 365
28 62 (8.53%) Infrastructure Automation
29 55 (7.57%) ITIL

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 (7.43%) Microsoft Exchange
2 12 (1.65%) SharePoint
3 6 (0.83%) TPMS
4 5 (0.69%) Apache
5 3 (0.41%) Confluence
5 3 (0.41%) Exchange Server 2010
5 3 (0.41%) IIS
6 2 (0.28%) nginx
7 1 (0.14%) CloudStack
7 1 (0.14%) IBM HTTP Server
7 1 (0.14%) MS Project Server
7 1 (0.14%) WebSphere
7 1 (0.14%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 12 (1.65%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (0.41%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.14%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 1 (0.14%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 228 (31.36%) Azure
2 91 (12.52%) AWS
3 65 (8.94%) Microsoft 365
4 51 (7.02%) GitHub
5 41 (5.64%) Entra ID
5 41 (5.64%) GCP
6 36 (4.95%) IaaS
7 31 (4.26%) PaaS
8 27 (3.71%) SaaS
9 26 (3.58%) OCI
10 25 (3.44%) Azure DevOps
10 25 (3.44%) Nutanix
11 22 (3.03%) Google Kubernetes Engine
12 20 (2.75%) Azure Monitor
13 14 (1.93%) Azure AKS
14 13 (1.79%) GitHub Actions
15 8 (1.10%) Microsoft Purview
16 7 (0.96%) Cohesity
17 6 (0.83%) AWS CloudFormation
17 6 (0.83%) Azure Sentinel
Communications & Networking
1 114 (15.68%) DNS
2 108 (14.86%) Firewall
3 80 (11.00%) DHCP
4 40 (5.50%) VPN
4 40 (5.50%) WAN
5 30 (4.13%) VLAN
6 29 (3.99%) LAN
7 28 (3.85%) Network Security
8 24 (3.30%) SAN
9 22 (3.03%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
9 22 (3.03%) TCP/IP
10 19 (2.61%) BGP
11 18 (2.48%) BIG-IP
11 18 (2.48%) Ethernet VPN
12 17 (2.34%) SD-WAN
12 17 (2.34%) VXLAN
13 15 (2.06%) OSPF
14 14 (1.93%) Wi-Fi
15 12 (1.65%) SMTP
16 11 (1.51%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 30 (4.13%) SQL Server
2 9 (1.24%) Elasticsearch
3 4 (0.55%) Amazon RDS
4 3 (0.41%) Data Mining
4 3 (0.41%) NonStop SQL
5 2 (0.28%) Azure SQL Database
5 2 (0.28%) DynamoDB
5 2 (0.28%) Oracle Database
5 2 (0.28%) PostgreSQL
5 2 (0.28%) Power BI
6 1 (0.14%) Flink
6 1 (0.14%) MongoDB
6 1 (0.14%) NoSQL
6 1 (0.14%) Relational Database
6 1 (0.14%) Snowflake Schema
6 1 (0.14%) TimescaleDB
Development Applications
1 23 (3.16%) GitLab
2 18 (2.48%) Jenkins
3 11 (1.51%) JIRA
4 9 (1.24%) Git
5 8 (1.10%) Artifactory
6 3 (0.41%) Bitbucket
7 1 (0.14%) Chocolatey
7 1 (0.14%) Claude Code
7 1 (0.14%) GoCD
7 1 (0.14%) IntelliJ
7 1 (0.14%) Introscope
7 1 (0.14%) MSI
7 1 (0.14%) Robot Framework
7 1 (0.14%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 89 (12.24%) Social Skills
2 68 (9.35%) Public Sector
3 49 (6.74%) Finance
4 43 (5.91%) Analytical Skills
5 19 (2.61%) Documentation Skills
6 16 (2.20%) Legal
7 15 (2.06%) Banking
8 14 (1.93%) Aerospace
9 13 (1.79%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 9 (1.24%) Billing
10 9 (1.24%) Manufacturing
11 6 (0.83%) Military
11 6 (0.83%) Telecoms
12 5 (0.69%) Marketing
13 4 (0.55%) Retail
14 3 (0.41%) Law
14 3 (0.41%) Local Government
15 2 (0.28%) Advertising
15 2 (0.28%) Investment Banking
16 1 (0.14%) Mandarin Language
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (1.38%) LDAP
1 10 (1.38%) REST
2 8 (1.10%) SOAP
3 7 (0.96%) Elastic Stack
3 7 (0.96%) Flash
4 5 (0.69%) Web Services
5 4 (0.55%) ARM Templates
5 4 (0.55%) Keycloak
5 4 (0.55%) OpenID
6 3 (0.41%) ADO
6 3 (0.41%) Oracle Fusion
6 3 (0.41%) SAML
7 2 (0.28%) Apache NiFi
7 2 (0.28%) Kafka
7 2 (0.28%) Node.js
7 2 (0.28%) OAuth
7 2 (0.28%) OAuth2
8 1 (0.14%) Microsoft Graph
8 1 (0.14%) React
8 1 (0.14%) Redfish
Miscellaneous
1 63 (8.67%) Data Centre
2 41 (5.64%) PKI
3 30 (4.13%) Hybrid Cloud
4 28 (3.85%) Public Cloud
5 18 (2.48%) Self-Motivation
6 16 (2.20%) Enterprise Storage
6 16 (2.20%) Onboarding
7 14 (1.93%) Replication
8 13 (1.79%) Cloud Native
9 11 (1.51%) Operational Technology
9 11 (1.51%) Private Cloud
10 10 (1.38%) Clustering
11 9 (1.24%) Enterprise Software
12 7 (0.96%) Virtual Team
13 6 (0.83%) SCADA
13 6 (0.83%) Smartcard
13 6 (0.83%) YubiKey
14 4 (0.55%) Data Protection Act
14 4 (0.55%) Linux Command Line
14 4 (0.55%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 238 (32.74%) Windows
2 149 (20.50%) Windows Server
3 107 (14.72%) Linux
4 22 (3.03%) Windows Server 2019
5 19 (2.61%) Windows Server 2016
6 16 (2.20%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 16 (2.20%) Ubuntu
7 12 (1.65%) Windows 10
8 11 (1.51%) VMS
9 10 (1.38%) Apple iOS
9 10 (1.38%) Windows Server 2012
10 9 (1.24%) Mac OS
11 8 (1.10%) Android
11 8 (1.10%) Unix
12 6 (0.83%) Windows Server 2003
13 5 (0.69%) CentOS
13 5 (0.69%) Debian
14 1 (0.14%) AIX
14 1 (0.14%) Data ONTAP
14 1 (0.14%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 710 (97.66%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 124 (17.06%) Infrastructure as Code
3 110 (15.13%) DevOps
4 93 (12.79%) CI/CD
5 92 (12.65%) Problem-Solving
6 67 (9.22%) Migration
7 62 (8.53%) Infrastructure Automation
8 55 (7.57%) ITIL
9 54 (7.43%) Agile
10 49 (6.74%) Disaster Recovery
11 47 (6.46%) High Availability
12 42 (5.78%) Cybersecurity
13 40 (5.50%) Zero Trust
14 34 (4.68%) Project Delivery
15 33 (4.54%) Validation
16 31 (4.26%) Containerisation
17 30 (4.13%) Continuous Improvement
18 29 (3.99%) Platform Engineering
19 26 (3.58%) Load Balancing
19 26 (3.58%) Observability
Programming Languages
1 115 (15.82%) PowerShell
2 88 (12.10%) Python
3 27 (3.71%) Bash
4 23 (3.16%) SQL
5 20 (2.75%) Bicep
6 13 (1.79%) C#
7 9 (1.24%) PHP
8 8 (1.10%) JavaScript
9 5 (0.69%) Shell Script
10 2 (0.28%) ActionScript
10 2 (0.28%) Java
10 2 (0.28%) TypeScript
11 1 (0.14%) C++
11 1 (0.14%) Jython
11 1 (0.14%) VB
Qualifications
1 266 (36.59%) Security Cleared
2 189 (26.00%) SC Cleared
3 92 (12.65%) DV Cleared
4 26 (3.58%) Degree
5 15 (2.06%) Cisco Certification
5 15 (2.06%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
6 13 (1.79%) Azure Certification
7 11 (1.51%) CCNA
7 11 (1.51%) Microsoft Certification
8 8 (1.10%) AWS Certification
9 7 (0.96%) MCSE
10 6 (0.83%) CCNP
10 6 (0.83%) CompTIA Security+
10 6 (0.83%) FFIEC
11 5 (0.69%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 5 (0.69%) Computer Science Degree
11 5 (0.69%) RHCA
12 3 (0.41%) GIAC
12 3 (0.41%) GSEC
12 3 (0.41%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 19 (2.61%) NIST
2 16 (2.20%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 16 (2.20%) QA
3 13 (1.79%) Cyber Essentials
4 9 (1.24%) GDPR
4 9 (1.24%) SLA
5 6 (0.83%) GLBA
5 6 (0.83%) NCSC
5 6 (0.83%) PCI DSS
6 3 (0.41%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 2 (0.28%) NIST 800
8 1 (0.14%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 1 (0.14%) SOC 2
System Software
1 148 (20.36%) Active Directory
2 146 (20.08%) VMware Infrastructure
3 79 (10.87%) Hyper-V
4 54 (7.43%) vSphere
5 41 (5.64%) VMware ESXi
6 39 (5.36%) Docker
7 21 (2.89%) Virtual Machines
8 19 (2.61%) VMware NSX
9 12 (1.65%) Virtual Desktop
10 9 (1.24%) BitLocker
11 7 (0.96%) Microsoft App-V
12 6 (0.83%) NFS
13 5 (0.69%) GPFS
14 4 (0.55%) Firmware
15 3 (0.41%) DFS Replication
15 3 (0.41%) Sendmail
16 2 (0.28%) QEMU
16 2 (0.28%) SRDF
16 2 (0.28%) UAG
16 2 (0.28%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 128 (17.61%) Terraform
2 78 (10.73%) Kubernetes
3 75 (10.32%) Ansible
4 38 (5.23%) Microsoft Intune
5 34 (4.68%) SCCM
6 30 (4.13%) vCenter Server
7 15 (2.06%) WSUS
8 12 (1.65%) Istio
8 12 (1.65%) SCOM
9 11 (1.51%) Grafana
9 11 (1.51%) Puppet
9 11 (1.51%) Single Sign-On
10 10 (1.38%) Prometheus
11 9 (1.24%) Nessus
11 9 (1.24%) vRealize
11 9 (1.24%) VxRail
12 8 (1.10%) AirWatch
12 8 (1.10%) Packer
13 7 (0.96%) vMotion
14 5 (0.69%) Podman
Vendors
1 194 (26.69%) VMware
2 167 (22.97%) Microsoft
3 46 (6.33%) Cisco
4 43 (5.91%) Citrix
5 37 (5.09%) Veeam
6 30 (4.13%) F5
7 27 (3.71%) Palo Alto
8 25 (3.44%) Google
9 24 (3.30%) Dell
10 23 (3.16%) NetApp
11 18 (2.48%) Oracle
12 17 (2.34%) Aruba
13 15 (2.06%) Arista
13 15 (2.06%) SolarWinds
14 12 (1.65%) Red Hat
15 11 (1.51%) Fortinet
16 10 (1.38%) ServiceNow
16 10 (1.38%) Thales
17 9 (1.24%) Splunk
17 9 (1.24%) Tenable