Infrastructure Engineer Contract Job Trends

Infrastructure Engineer
UK

The median Infrastructure Engineer daily rate in the UK is £500, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 16 April 2026.

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

6 months to
16 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 198 200 145
Rank change year-on-year +2 -55 +41
Contract jobs requiring an Infrastructure Engineer 629 396 719
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.37% 1.35% 1.64%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.48% 1.46% 1.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 437 277 528
10th Percentile £325 £309 £310
25th Percentile £413 £375 £380
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £475
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +10.53% -5.00%
75th Percentile £590 £600 £599
90th Percentile £650 £650 £704
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £525 £475
% change year-on-year -4.76% +10.53% +4.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 33 4 11
10th Percentile £31.60 - -
25th Percentile £58.43 £24.18 £21.25
Median hourly rate £72.54 £112.09 £23.00
Median % change year-on-year -35.28% +387.35% -63.97%
75th Percentile £78.75 £200.00 £77.00
90th Percentile - - £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £72.54 £112.09 £22.50
% change year-on-year -35.28% +398.18% -62.84%

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 42,358 27,131 40,661
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.24% 92.61% 92.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 26,304 17,800 26,582
10th Percentile £313 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £406 £409
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £517 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.29% -1.52% -2.78%
75th Percentile £613 £626 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £745
UK excluding London median daily rate £488 £475 £490
% change year-on-year +2.63% -3.06% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,673 984 2,591
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.55 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.27 £19.25 £16.25
Median hourly rate £41.94 £30.79 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +36.20% -12.02% -22.22%
75th Percentile £65.25 £63.75 £60.00
90th Percentile £77.90 £75.43 £72.45
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.69 £30.00 £35.00
% change year-on-year +42.28% -14.29% -17.38%

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 16 April 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 16 April 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 16 April 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 +5 544 £500 -4.76% 201
UK excluding London +3 428 £500 -4.76% 182
London -27 148 £500 -4.76% 44
Work from Home 0 118 £500 +4.71% 85
South East -15 114 £536 -2.47% 49
North of England -31 100 £413 +1.54% 53
South West +11 92 £550 -4.35% 22
Yorkshire -23 61 £350 -12.50% 19
Midlands -39 50 £450 +16.13% 26
North West -23 35 £451 -14.05% 22
East of England -22 31 £450 -3.54% 19
Scotland +8 29 £535 -2.73% 9
East Midlands -16 25 £450 +12.50% 4
West Midlands -47 25 £415 +22.96% 22
Wales -8 13 £425 - 8
North East -18 5 £500 +36.99% 12
Northern Ireland - 1 £375 - 1

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

For the 6 months to 16 April 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.

1 611 (97.14%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 219 (34.82%) Security Cleared
3 212 (33.70%) Windows
4 200 (31.80%) Azure
5 180 (28.62%) VMware
6 163 (25.91%) Microsoft
7 153 (24.32%) SC Cleared
8 140 (22.26%) VMware Infrastructure
9 136 (21.62%) Active Directory
10 126 (20.03%) Windows Server
11 107 (17.01%) Terraform
12 104 (16.53%) PowerShell
13 100 (15.90%) DNS
14 97 (15.42%) Linux
15 96 (15.26%) DevOps
16 93 (14.79%) Infrastructure as Code
17 89 (14.15%) Firewall
18 83 (13.20%) Problem-Solving
19 82 (13.04%) DV Cleared
20 73 (11.61%) DHCP
21 72 (11.45%) CI/CD
22 71 (11.29%) Hyper-V
23 67 (10.65%) AWS
23 67 (10.65%) Microsoft 365
23 67 (10.65%) Python
24 66 (10.49%) Kubernetes
25 63 (10.02%) Migration
26 55 (8.74%) Infrastructure Automation
26 55 (8.74%) ITIL
27 54 (8.59%) Ansible

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 47 (7.47%) Microsoft Exchange
2 10 (1.59%) SharePoint
3 8 (1.27%) TPMS
4 4 (0.64%) Apache
5 3 (0.48%) Exchange Server 2010
5 3 (0.48%) IIS
6 2 (0.32%) Confluence
6 2 (0.32%) nginx
7 1 (0.16%) CICS
7 1 (0.16%) IBM HTTP Server
7 1 (0.16%) Skype for Business
7 1 (0.16%) WebSphere
7 1 (0.16%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 12 (1.91%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (0.32%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.16%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 2 (0.32%) Maximo
2 1 (0.16%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 200 (31.80%) Azure
2 67 (10.65%) AWS
2 67 (10.65%) Microsoft 365
3 42 (6.68%) GitHub
4 39 (6.20%) Entra ID
5 37 (5.88%) GCP
6 36 (5.72%) IaaS
7 32 (5.09%) PaaS
8 24 (3.82%) Azure DevOps
9 20 (3.18%) Google Kubernetes Engine
9 20 (3.18%) SaaS
10 18 (2.86%) Nutanix
11 16 (2.54%) Azure Monitor
12 12 (1.91%) Azure Sentinel
13 10 (1.59%) Azure AKS
13 10 (1.59%) OCI
14 8 (1.27%) GitHub Actions
14 8 (1.27%) Microsoft Purview
15 7 (1.11%) Microsoft Copilot
15 7 (1.11%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 100 (15.90%) DNS
2 89 (14.15%) Firewall
3 73 (11.61%) DHCP
4 43 (6.84%) VPN
5 28 (4.45%) LAN
5 28 (4.45%) VLAN
5 28 (4.45%) WAN
6 26 (4.13%) Network Security
7 23 (3.66%) TCP/IP
8 22 (3.50%) SAN
9 11 (1.75%) SMTP
9 11 (1.75%) SNMP
10 10 (1.59%) SSH
10 10 (1.59%) SSL
10 10 (1.59%) Wi-Fi
11 9 (1.43%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
11 9 (1.43%) MPLS
12 8 (1.27%) VSAN
13 7 (1.11%) BGP
14 6 (0.95%) Cisco ASA
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (3.66%) SQL Server
2 9 (1.43%) Elasticsearch
3 4 (0.64%) Amazon RDS
4 3 (0.48%) Data Mining
4 3 (0.48%) NonStop SQL
5 2 (0.32%) DynamoDB
5 2 (0.32%) Oracle Database
5 2 (0.32%) PostgreSQL
5 2 (0.32%) Power BI
5 2 (0.32%) SAP HANA
6 1 (0.16%) Azure SQL Database
6 1 (0.16%) Flink
6 1 (0.16%) MongoDB
6 1 (0.16%) NoSQL
6 1 (0.16%) Relational Database
6 1 (0.16%) SQL Server Reporting Services
6 1 (0.16%) TimescaleDB
Development Applications
1 16 (2.54%) Jenkins
2 11 (1.75%) GitLab
2 11 (1.75%) JIRA
3 8 (1.27%) Artifactory
3 8 (1.27%) Git
4 3 (0.48%) Bitbucket
5 1 (0.16%) Chocolatey
5 1 (0.16%) Claude Code
5 1 (0.16%) GoCD
5 1 (0.16%) IntelliJ
5 1 (0.16%) Introscope
5 1 (0.16%) MSI
5 1 (0.16%) Robot Framework
5 1 (0.16%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 86 (13.67%) Social Skills
2 60 (9.54%) Public Sector
3 49 (7.79%) Finance
4 40 (6.36%) Analytical Skills
5 22 (3.50%) Documentation Skills
6 17 (2.70%) Banking
6 17 (2.70%) Legal
7 11 (1.75%) Aerospace
8 10 (1.59%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 9 (1.43%) Billing
10 6 (0.95%) Manufacturing
10 6 (0.95%) Telecoms
11 5 (0.79%) Military
12 3 (0.48%) Law
12 3 (0.48%) Local Government
12 3 (0.48%) Retail
13 2 (0.32%) Advertising
13 2 (0.32%) Investment Banking
13 2 (0.32%) Spanish Language
14 1 (0.16%) Italian Language
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (1.75%) REST
2 8 (1.27%) LDAP
2 8 (1.27%) SOAP
3 7 (1.11%) ARM Templates
4 5 (0.79%) Elastic Stack
4 5 (0.79%) Web Services
5 4 (0.64%) Keycloak
5 4 (0.64%) SAML
6 3 (0.48%) ADO
6 3 (0.48%) Oracle Fusion
7 2 (0.32%) Apache NiFi
7 2 (0.32%) Flash
7 2 (0.32%) Kafka
7 2 (0.32%) Node.js
7 2 (0.32%) OAuth
7 2 (0.32%) OAuth2
7 2 (0.32%) OpenID
8 1 (0.16%) Bazel
8 1 (0.16%) Microsoft Graph
8 1 (0.16%) React
Miscellaneous
1 40 (6.36%) Data Centre
1 40 (6.36%) PKI
2 24 (3.82%) Public Cloud
3 18 (2.86%) Hybrid Cloud
4 16 (2.54%) Self-Motivation
5 15 (2.38%) Enterprise Storage
6 12 (1.91%) Clustering
6 12 (1.91%) Enterprise Software
6 12 (1.91%) Onboarding
6 12 (1.91%) Private Cloud
7 9 (1.43%) Cloud Native
7 9 (1.43%) Replication
8 4 (0.64%) Analytical Mindset
8 4 (0.64%) CCTV
8 4 (0.64%) Legacy Systems
8 4 (0.64%) Operational Technology
8 4 (0.64%) Virtual Team
9 3 (0.48%) Client/Server
9 3 (0.48%) Management Information System
9 3 (0.48%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 212 (33.70%) Windows
2 126 (20.03%) Windows Server
3 97 (15.42%) Linux
4 19 (3.02%) Windows Server 2019
5 16 (2.54%) Windows Server 2016
6 14 (2.23%) Ubuntu
6 14 (2.23%) Windows Server 2012
7 13 (2.07%) Windows 10
8 12 (1.91%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 12 (1.91%) VMS
9 9 (1.43%) Apple iOS
10 8 (1.27%) Mac OS
10 8 (1.27%) Unix
11 7 (1.11%) Android
11 7 (1.11%) Windows Server 2003
12 4 (0.64%) Debian
13 2 (0.32%) CentOS
13 2 (0.32%) SUSE
13 2 (0.32%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
13 2 (0.32%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 611 (97.14%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 96 (15.26%) DevOps
3 93 (14.79%) Infrastructure as Code
4 83 (13.20%) Problem-Solving
5 72 (11.45%) CI/CD
6 63 (10.02%) Migration
7 55 (8.74%) Infrastructure Automation
7 55 (8.74%) ITIL
8 52 (8.27%) Agile
9 48 (7.63%) Disaster Recovery
10 47 (7.47%) Cybersecurity
11 36 (5.72%) High Availability
12 31 (4.93%) Platform Engineering
12 31 (4.93%) Project Delivery
13 29 (4.61%) Cloud Security
14 28 (4.45%) Containerisation
14 28 (4.45%) Validation
15 26 (4.13%) Observability
16 24 (3.82%) Zero Trust
17 23 (3.66%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 104 (16.53%) PowerShell
2 67 (10.65%) Python
3 24 (3.82%) Bash
4 20 (3.18%) Bicep
5 18 (2.86%) SQL
6 9 (1.43%) PHP
7 8 (1.27%) JavaScript
8 7 (1.11%) C#
9 5 (0.79%) Shell Script
10 3 (0.48%) Java
11 2 (0.32%) ActionScript
11 2 (0.32%) TypeScript
12 1 (0.16%) Jython
12 1 (0.16%) Kusto Query Language
12 1 (0.16%) Perl
12 1 (0.16%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 219 (34.82%) Security Cleared
2 153 (24.32%) SC Cleared
3 82 (13.04%) DV Cleared
4 19 (3.02%) Degree
5 16 (2.54%) Azure Certification
6 13 (2.07%) Cisco Certification
7 12 (1.91%) Microsoft Certification
8 11 (1.75%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 10 (1.59%) CCNA
10 8 (1.27%) AWS Certification
10 8 (1.27%) FFIEC
11 6 (0.95%) CompTIA Security+
12 5 (0.79%) BPSS Clearance
12 5 (0.79%) CCNP
12 5 (0.79%) MCSE
13 4 (0.64%) CISSP
13 4 (0.64%) GIAC
13 4 (0.64%) GSEC
13 4 (0.64%) ITIL Certification
13 4 (0.64%) RHCA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 22 (3.50%) NIST
2 16 (2.54%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 14 (2.23%) Cyber Essentials
4 12 (1.91%) GDPR
5 10 (1.59%) SLA
6 9 (1.43%) QA
7 8 (1.27%) GLBA
7 8 (1.27%) PCI DSS
8 6 (0.95%) NCSC
9 4 (0.64%) NIST 800
10 3 (0.48%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 1 (0.16%) HIPAA
11 1 (0.16%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 1 (0.16%) SOC 2
System Software
1 140 (22.26%) VMware Infrastructure
2 136 (21.62%) Active Directory
3 71 (11.29%) Hyper-V
4 46 (7.31%) vSphere
5 39 (6.20%) Docker
6 36 (5.72%) VMware ESXi
7 17 (2.70%) VMware NSX
8 15 (2.38%) Virtual Machines
9 13 (2.07%) Virtual Desktop
10 9 (1.43%) BitLocker
11 7 (1.11%) Microsoft App-V
12 3 (0.48%) DFS Replication
12 3 (0.48%) Sendmail
13 2 (0.32%) Firmware
13 2 (0.32%) QEMU
13 2 (0.32%) SRDF
13 2 (0.32%) UAG
14 1 (0.16%) iptables
14 1 (0.16%) Terminal Services
14 1 (0.16%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 107 (17.01%) Terraform
2 66 (10.49%) Kubernetes
3 54 (8.59%) Ansible
4 41 (6.52%) Microsoft Intune
5 39 (6.20%) SCCM
6 31 (4.93%) vCenter Server
7 15 (2.38%) Single Sign-On
8 11 (1.75%) Puppet
8 11 (1.75%) SCOM
8 11 (1.75%) WSUS
9 10 (1.59%) Istio
10 9 (1.43%) Grafana
10 9 (1.43%) Prometheus
10 9 (1.43%) VxRail
11 8 (1.27%) AirWatch
12 7 (1.11%) Packer
12 7 (1.11%) vMotion
12 7 (1.11%) vRealize
13 6 (0.95%) Nessus
14 5 (0.79%) Active Directory Federation Services
Vendors
1 180 (28.62%) VMware
2 163 (25.91%) Microsoft
3 41 (6.52%) Cisco
4 37 (5.88%) Citrix
5 30 (4.77%) Veeam
6 26 (4.13%) Dell
7 23 (3.66%) Google
8 19 (3.02%) NetApp
9 16 (2.54%) F5
10 15 (2.38%) SolarWinds
11 14 (2.23%) Oracle
11 14 (2.23%) Red Hat
12 12 (1.91%) Thales
13 10 (1.59%) Fortinet
13 10 (1.59%) Splunk
14 9 (1.43%) ServiceNow
15 8 (1.27%) Aruba
15 8 (1.27%) Palo Alto
16 7 (1.11%) HP
17 5 (0.79%) Juniper