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 30 June 2026.

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

6 months to
30 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 152 214 150
Rank change year-on-year +62 -64 +21
Contract jobs requiring an Infrastructure Engineer 916 384 688
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.78% 1.25% 1.59%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.93% 1.36% 1.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 586 252 527
10th Percentile £350 £325 £310
25th Percentile £425 £400 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £475
Median % change year-on-year - +10.53% -5.00%
75th Percentile £600 £599 £575
90th Percentile £663 £638 £638
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £525 £463
% change year-on-year - +13.51% -7.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 41 2 6
10th Percentile £33.64 - £20.60
25th Percentile £58.43 - £31.88
Median hourly rate £72.54 £200.00 £72.25
Median % change year-on-year -63.73% +176.82% +1.40%
75th Percentile £76.50 - £77.00
90th Percentile £78.75 - £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £72.54 £200.00 £45.00
% change year-on-year -63.73% +344.44% -35.71%

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 47,423 28,164 40,143
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.41% 92.05% 92.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,738 18,025 25,769
10th Percentile £325 £288 £283
25th Percentile £415 £401 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% -2.33%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £493
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.65% -1.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,196 1,261 2,867
10th Percentile £15.61 £13.78 £12.86
25th Percentile £21.23 £17.33 £16.50
Median hourly rate £43.00 £27.00 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +59.26% -28.00% -12.79%
75th Percentile £67.50 £56.25 £62.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.75 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% -

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 30 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 30 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 30 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 +57 786 £525 - 233
UK excluding London +48 641 £525 - 208
London -4 200 £525 - 55
North of England +26 192 £520 -0.95% 56
Work from Home +35 191 £539 +7.75% 108
South East +11 172 £536 -2.47% 54
South West +28 105 £538 -2.27% 43
Yorkshire -6 80 £394 -25.00% 17
Midlands -19 76 £450 +12.50% 29
North West -5 71 £575 +9.52% 29
North East +3 50 £600 -7.69% 11
Scotland +15 46 £570 +17.22% 5
West Midlands -33 46 £475 +22.58% 17
East of England -19 32 £450 - 13
East Midlands +4 29 £450 +12.50% 12
Wales +7 21 £500 - 9
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 3
Channel Islands - 1 £550 -

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

For the 6 months to 30 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.

1 901 (98.36%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 350 (38.21%) Security Cleared
3 272 (29.69%) Windows
4 269 (29.37%) Azure
5 230 (25.11%) SC Cleared
6 228 (24.89%) VMware
7 186 (20.31%) Microsoft
8 178 (19.43%) Windows Server
9 171 (18.67%) Active Directory
10 168 (18.34%) VMware Infrastructure
11 161 (17.58%) Infrastructure as Code
12 149 (16.27%) Terraform
13 145 (15.83%) Linux
14 140 (15.28%) DNS
15 132 (14.41%) DevOps
16 129 (14.08%) PowerShell
17 128 (13.97%) AWS
17 128 (13.97%) Firewall
18 126 (13.76%) DV Cleared
19 124 (13.54%) Python
20 111 (12.12%) CI/CD
21 95 (10.37%) DHCP
22 89 (9.72%) Ansible
22 89 (9.72%) Kubernetes
22 89 (9.72%) Problem-Solving
23 83 (9.06%) Migration
24 76 (8.30%) Hyper-V
25 68 (7.42%) High Availability
26 67 (7.31%) VMware ESXi
27 65 (7.10%) 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 48 (5.24%) Microsoft Exchange
2 11 (1.20%) SharePoint
3 8 (0.87%) WebSphere
4 7 (0.76%) CICS
4 7 (0.76%) Confluence
5 3 (0.33%) Apache
5 3 (0.33%) Exchange Server 2010
5 3 (0.33%) TPMS
6 2 (0.22%) CloudStack
7 1 (0.11%) Apache Airflow
7 1 (0.11%) IBM HTTP Server
7 1 (0.11%) MS Project Server
7 1 (0.11%) SharePoint Server
7 1 (0.11%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 7 (0.76%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (0.33%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.11%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 2 (0.22%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.11%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 269 (29.37%) Azure
2 128 (13.97%) AWS
3 62 (6.77%) GitHub
4 60 (6.55%) Microsoft 365
5 54 (5.90%) GCP
6 52 (5.68%) Entra ID
7 42 (4.59%) IaaS
8 41 (4.48%) OCI
9 37 (4.04%) SaaS
10 33 (3.60%) PaaS
11 29 (3.17%) Azure DevOps
12 22 (2.40%) GitHub Actions
12 22 (2.40%) Nutanix
13 21 (2.29%) Azure Monitor
14 20 (2.18%) Azure AKS
15 16 (1.75%) Google Kubernetes Engine
16 8 (0.87%) Cohesity
17 7 (0.76%) Azure Stack
17 7 (0.76%) OpenShift
18 5 (0.55%) Amazon EC2
Communications & Networking
1 140 (15.28%) DNS
2 128 (13.97%) Firewall
3 95 (10.37%) DHCP
4 49 (5.35%) SAN
5 47 (5.13%) VLAN
6 43 (4.69%) WAN
7 39 (4.26%) VPN
8 34 (3.71%) Network Security
9 33 (3.60%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
10 30 (3.28%) BIG-IP
11 27 (2.95%) LAN
12 26 (2.84%) TCP/IP
13 24 (2.62%) BGP
14 23 (2.51%) Ethernet VPN
15 22 (2.40%) SD-WAN
15 22 (2.40%) VXLAN
16 20 (2.18%) OSPF
17 18 (1.97%) Wi-Fi
18 15 (1.64%) VSAN
19 14 (1.53%) SMTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (3.82%) SQL Server
2 9 (0.98%) Elasticsearch
3 8 (0.87%) Amazon RDS
3 8 (0.87%) Oracle Database
3 8 (0.87%) Relational Database
4 5 (0.55%) Oracle Exadata
4 5 (0.55%) RDBMS
5 4 (0.44%) Azure SQL Database
5 4 (0.44%) PostgreSQL
6 3 (0.33%) Big Data
6 3 (0.33%) Data Mining
6 3 (0.33%) NonStop SQL
6 3 (0.33%) Power BI
7 2 (0.22%) BigQuery
7 2 (0.22%) DynamoDB
8 1 (0.11%) Data Lake
8 1 (0.11%) Flink
8 1 (0.11%) MongoDB
8 1 (0.11%) NoSQL
8 1 (0.11%) TimescaleDB
Development Applications
1 39 (4.26%) GitLab
2 28 (3.06%) Jenkins
3 27 (2.95%) JIRA
4 11 (1.20%) Git
5 4 (0.44%) Artifactory
5 4 (0.44%) 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%) MLflow
6 1 (0.11%) MSI
6 1 (0.11%) Robot Framework
6 1 (0.11%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 102 (11.14%) Social Skills
2 71 (7.75%) Public Sector
3 49 (5.35%) Finance
4 36 (3.93%) Analytical Skills
5 27 (2.95%) Documentation Skills
6 19 (2.07%) Legal
7 18 (1.97%) Banking
8 14 (1.53%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 11 (1.20%) Aerospace
10 10 (1.09%) Manufacturing
10 10 (1.09%) Marketing
11 7 (0.76%) Military
12 4 (0.44%) Billing
12 4 (0.44%) Telecoms
13 3 (0.33%) Law
14 2 (0.22%) Advertising
14 2 (0.22%) Investment Banking
14 2 (0.22%) Local Government
14 2 (0.22%) Retail
15 1 (0.11%) Publishing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (1.20%) Middleware
2 8 (0.87%) LDAP
3 7 (0.76%) Flash
3 7 (0.76%) REST
4 6 (0.66%) Elastic Stack
5 5 (0.55%) ARM Templates
5 5 (0.55%) Keycloak
5 5 (0.55%) OpenID
5 5 (0.55%) Oracle GoldenGate
6 4 (0.44%) JSON
6 4 (0.44%) SAML
6 4 (0.44%) SOAP
6 4 (0.44%) YAML
7 3 (0.33%) Apache NiFi
7 3 (0.33%) Oracle Fusion
8 2 (0.22%) Bazel
8 2 (0.22%) Kafka
8 2 (0.22%) Node.js
8 2 (0.22%) OAuth
8 2 (0.22%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 103 (11.24%) Data Centre
2 48 (5.24%) Hybrid Cloud
3 46 (5.02%) PKI
4 38 (4.15%) Public Cloud
5 25 (2.73%) Cloud Native
6 23 (2.51%) Enterprise Storage
6 23 (2.51%) Onboarding
7 17 (1.86%) Self-Motivation
8 14 (1.53%) Clustering
9 13 (1.42%) Replication
10 11 (1.20%) Distributed Systems
10 11 (1.20%) Operational Technology
11 10 (1.09%) Private Cloud
12 9 (0.98%) Enterprise Software
12 9 (0.98%) Linux Command Line
12 9 (0.98%) Smartcard
13 8 (0.87%) Virtual Team
14 7 (0.76%) Mainframe
14 7 (0.76%) Management Information System
15 6 (0.66%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 272 (29.69%) Windows
2 178 (19.43%) Windows Server
3 145 (15.83%) Linux
4 29 (3.17%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 21 (2.29%) Windows Server 2019
6 16 (1.75%) Windows 10
7 15 (1.64%) Windows Server 2016
8 12 (1.31%) Ubuntu
9 10 (1.09%) Apple iOS
9 10 (1.09%) Unix
10 9 (0.98%) Mac OS
10 9 (0.98%) VMS
10 9 (0.98%) Windows Server 2012
11 8 (0.87%) Android
12 7 (0.76%) CentOS
12 7 (0.76%) Windows Server 2003
12 7 (0.76%) zOS
13 6 (0.66%) AIX
13 6 (0.66%) Debian
14 3 (0.33%) Rocky
Processes & Methodologies
1 901 (98.36%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 161 (17.58%) Infrastructure as Code
3 132 (14.41%) DevOps
4 111 (12.12%) CI/CD
5 89 (9.72%) Problem-Solving
6 83 (9.06%) Migration
7 68 (7.42%) High Availability
8 63 (6.88%) Infrastructure Automation
9 54 (5.90%) Agile
10 53 (5.79%) Disaster Recovery
11 51 (5.57%) Project Delivery
12 48 (5.24%) Zero Trust
13 47 (5.13%) ITIL
13 47 (5.13%) Validation
14 40 (4.37%) Continuous Improvement
15 36 (3.93%) Site Reliability Engineering
16 34 (3.71%) Cybersecurity
17 31 (3.38%) Root Cause Analysis
18 30 (3.28%) Load Balancing
18 30 (3.28%) Platform Engineering
Programming Languages
1 129 (14.08%) PowerShell
2 124 (13.54%) Python
3 41 (4.48%) Bash
4 28 (3.06%) SQL
5 20 (2.18%) Bicep
6 16 (1.75%) C#
7 10 (1.09%) Java
8 8 (0.87%) ActionScript
9 5 (0.55%) Go
9 5 (0.55%) Shell Script
10 4 (0.44%) PHP
11 3 (0.33%) JavaScript
12 2 (0.22%) TypeScript
13 1 (0.11%) C
13 1 (0.11%) C++
13 1 (0.11%) Jython
13 1 (0.11%) Perl
13 1 (0.11%) VB
Qualifications
1 350 (38.21%) Security Cleared
2 230 (25.11%) SC Cleared
3 126 (13.76%) DV Cleared
4 28 (3.06%) Degree
5 18 (1.97%) Microsoft Certification
6 17 (1.86%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
7 16 (1.75%) Cisco Certification
8 15 (1.64%) MCSE
9 12 (1.31%) Azure Certification
10 11 (1.20%) CCNA
11 8 (0.87%) CCNP
12 7 (0.76%) VCAP
13 5 (0.55%) RHCA
14 4 (0.44%) AWS Certification
14 4 (0.44%) MCSA
15 3 (0.33%) APMG
15 3 (0.33%) CompTIA Security+
15 3 (0.33%) Computer Science Degree
15 3 (0.33%) FFIEC
15 3 (0.33%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (2.84%) QA
2 21 (2.29%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 19 (2.07%) NIST
4 16 (1.75%) Cyber Essentials
5 11 (1.20%) SLA
6 7 (0.76%) NCSC
7 6 (0.66%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 5 (0.55%) GDPR
9 4 (0.44%) Disclosure Scotland
10 3 (0.33%) GLBA
10 3 (0.33%) NIST 800
10 3 (0.33%) PCI DSS
11 2 (0.22%) SOC 2
12 1 (0.11%) FedRAMP
12 1 (0.11%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 171 (18.67%) Active Directory
2 168 (18.34%) VMware Infrastructure
3 76 (8.30%) Hyper-V
4 67 (7.31%) VMware ESXi
5 65 (7.10%) vSphere
6 34 (3.71%) Docker
7 30 (3.28%) VMware NSX
8 28 (3.06%) Virtual Machines
9 18 (1.97%) Virtual Desktop
10 12 (1.31%) NFS
11 11 (1.20%) BitLocker
12 9 (0.98%) Microsoft App-V
13 5 (0.55%) Firmware
13 5 (0.55%) GPFS
13 5 (0.55%) Oracle RAC
14 4 (0.44%) Terminal Services
15 3 (0.33%) KVM
15 3 (0.33%) Virtual Servers
16 2 (0.22%) SRDF
16 2 (0.22%) UAG
Systems Management
1 149 (16.27%) Terraform
2 89 (9.72%) Ansible
2 89 (9.72%) Kubernetes
3 42 (4.59%) vCenter Server
4 40 (4.37%) Microsoft Intune
5 31 (3.38%) SCCM
6 17 (1.86%) WSUS
7 14 (1.53%) Prometheus
7 14 (1.53%) Puppet
7 14 (1.53%) Single Sign-On
8 13 (1.42%) Grafana
9 12 (1.31%) SCOM
10 10 (1.09%) Istio
11 9 (0.98%) Nessus
11 9 (0.98%) vMotion
11 9 (0.98%) vRealize
11 9 (0.98%) VxRail
12 8 (0.87%) AirWatch
13 6 (0.66%) Packer
13 6 (0.66%) Red Hat Satellite
Vendors
1 228 (24.89%) VMware
2 186 (20.31%) Microsoft
3 58 (6.33%) Citrix
4 57 (6.22%) Cisco
5 40 (4.37%) F5
6 33 (3.60%) Veeam
7 31 (3.38%) Google
7 31 (3.38%) Palo Alto
8 30 (3.28%) NetApp
9 28 (3.06%) Oracle
10 26 (2.84%) Red Hat
11 25 (2.73%) Dell
12 22 (2.40%) Aruba
13 20 (2.18%) Arista
14 14 (1.53%) IBM
14 14 (1.53%) ServiceNow
15 13 (1.42%) Juniper
15 13 (1.42%) SolarWinds
16 12 (1.31%) Tenable
17 11 (1.20%) Fortinet