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 11 September 2026.

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

6 months to
11 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 143 237 153
Rank change year-on-year +94 -84 -6
Contract jobs requiring an Infrastructure Engineer 1,053 385 618
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.93% 1.17% 1.60%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.09% 1.28% 1.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 618 257 455
10th Percentile £350 £300 £325
25th Percentile £425 £375 £387
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £483 £475
Median % change year-on-year +8.81% +1.58% -5.00%
75th Percentile £600 £588 £575
90th Percentile £656 £643 £643
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £472 £463
% change year-on-year +11.17% +2.11% -3.90%
Number of hourly rates quoted 52 7 2
10th Percentile £46.40 £27.80 £45.95
25th Percentile £58.43 £29.00 £51.13
Median hourly rate £72.54 £30.00 £61.00
Median % change year-on-year +141.80% -50.82% -14.39%
75th Percentile £78.75 £35.00 £69.63
90th Percentile £100.00 £54.20 £74.05
UK excluding London median hourly rate £72.54 £52.00 -
% change year-on-year +39.50% - -

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 50,390 30,066 35,884
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.29% 91.06% 93.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,936 18,964 22,304
10th Percentile £325 £281 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -0.94%
75th Percentile £625 £621 £638
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,743 1,564 1,744
10th Percentile £14.56 £13.69 £14.73
25th Percentile £20.07 £17.06 £20.50
Median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +67.00% -41.51% +1.18%
75th Percentile £67.60 £52.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £79.00 £70.16 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £45.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -44.11% +12.50%

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 11 September 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 11 September 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 11 September 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 +70 899 £525 +8.81% 357
UK excluding London +92 757 £525 +11.17% 271
Work from Home +8 217 £525 +16.67% 117
North of England +46 214 £517 +3.40% 70
South East +22 212 £548 +13.47% 71
London 0 212 £540 +8.00% 124
Midlands +11 104 £469 +4.17% 39
South West +14 103 £550 -0.90% 37
North West +11 89 £515 -1.90% 36
Yorkshire +15 81 £500 +3.63% 17
West Midlands -3 71 £475 +5.56% 22
Scotland +35 56 £525 +12.00% 21
North East 0 54 £600 -7.69% 18
East of England -7 46 £475 +24.18% 31
East Midlands +12 32 £450 +5.88% 17
Wales +10 27 £500 - 5
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 2
Channel Islands - 1 £550 -

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

For the 6 months to 11 September 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 1,037 (98.48%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 424 (40.27%) Security Cleared
3 340 (32.29%) Windows
4 320 (30.39%) Azure
5 287 (27.26%) VMware
6 271 (25.74%) SC Cleared
7 257 (24.41%) Microsoft
8 229 (21.75%) Windows Server
9 225 (21.37%) VMware Infrastructure
10 224 (21.27%) Active Directory
11 222 (21.08%) Infrastructure as Code
12 209 (19.85%) Linux
13 188 (17.85%) DNS
14 183 (17.38%) Terraform
15 180 (17.09%) PowerShell
16 163 (15.48%) Firewall
17 154 (14.62%) AWS
17 154 (14.62%) DV Cleared
18 142 (13.49%) DevOps
19 138 (13.11%) CI/CD
20 135 (12.82%) Python
21 134 (12.73%) DHCP
22 124 (11.78%) Ansible
23 119 (11.30%) Migration
24 116 (11.02%) Problem-Solving
25 104 (9.88%) Hyper-V
26 103 (9.78%) Kubernetes
27 102 (9.69%) Entra ID
28 92 (8.74%) Microsoft 365
29 80 (7.60%) Infrastructure Automation

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 62 (5.89%) Microsoft Exchange
2 34 (3.23%) SharePoint
3 13 (1.23%) CICS
3 13 (1.23%) WebSphere
4 12 (1.14%) Confluence
5 5 (0.47%) SharePoint Server
6 4 (0.38%) Apache
7 3 (0.28%) Exchange Server 2010
7 3 (0.28%) Skype for Business
8 2 (0.19%) CloudStack
9 1 (0.095%) Apache Airflow
9 1 (0.095%) Exchange Server 2013
9 1 (0.095%) IIS
9 1 (0.095%) MS Project Server
9 1 (0.095%) OpenStack
Applications
1 9 (0.85%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (0.19%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.095%) CINEMA 4D
3 1 (0.095%) Houdini
3 1 (0.095%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (0.095%) NUKE
Business Applications
1 5 (0.47%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.095%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 320 (30.39%) Azure
2 154 (14.62%) AWS
3 102 (9.69%) Entra ID
4 92 (8.74%) Microsoft 365
5 63 (5.98%) IaaS
6 52 (4.94%) GCP
7 51 (4.84%) OCI
8 46 (4.37%) GitHub
9 41 (3.89%) SaaS
10 36 (3.42%) Azure DevOps
11 34 (3.23%) PaaS
12 27 (2.56%) Azure Monitor
13 21 (1.99%) GitHub Actions
14 19 (1.80%) Nutanix
15 17 (1.61%) Azure AKS
16 11 (1.04%) Azure Data Factory
16 11 (1.04%) OpenShift
17 8 (0.76%) Azure Sentinel
17 8 (0.76%) Google Kubernetes Engine
17 8 (0.76%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 188 (17.85%) DNS
2 163 (15.48%) Firewall
3 134 (12.73%) DHCP
4 59 (5.60%) VLAN
5 58 (5.51%) TCP/IP
6 57 (5.41%) VPN
7 53 (5.03%) SAN
8 42 (3.99%) Network Security
9 40 (3.80%) WAN
10 31 (2.94%) BIG-IP
10 31 (2.94%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
11 26 (2.47%) Wi-Fi
12 23 (2.18%) Ethernet VPN
12 23 (2.18%) LAN
12 23 (2.18%) SD-WAN
13 22 (2.09%) VXLAN
14 20 (1.90%) BGP
14 20 (1.90%) OSPF
14 20 (1.90%) VSAN
15 14 (1.33%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 52 (4.94%) SQL Server
2 22 (2.09%) Oracle Exadata
3 17 (1.61%) Relational Database
4 15 (1.42%) Oracle Database
5 14 (1.33%) RDBMS
6 8 (0.76%) Amazon RDS
7 7 (0.66%) Data Lake
7 7 (0.66%) Elasticsearch
8 5 (0.47%) Azure SQL Database
8 5 (0.47%) NoSQL
8 5 (0.47%) PostgreSQL
9 4 (0.38%) Power BI
9 4 (0.38%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 3 (0.28%) Big Data
10 3 (0.28%) NonStop SQL
11 2 (0.19%) BigQuery
11 2 (0.19%) Data Mining
11 2 (0.19%) SQL Server Analysis Services
11 2 (0.19%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 1 (0.095%) InfluxDB
Development Applications
1 49 (4.65%) GitLab
2 29 (2.75%) JIRA
3 27 (2.56%) Git
4 22 (2.09%) Jenkins
5 4 (0.38%) Chocolatey
6 3 (0.28%) Fiddler
7 1 (0.095%) Artifactory
7 1 (0.095%) Bitbucket
7 1 (0.095%) Claude Code
7 1 (0.095%) CMake
7 1 (0.095%) Gerrit
7 1 (0.095%) Gradle
7 1 (0.095%) MLflow
7 1 (0.095%) MSI
7 1 (0.095%) Sonatype Nexus
7 1 (0.095%) Tricentis qTest
7 1 (0.095%) Visual Studio
General
1 116 (11.02%) Social Skills
2 73 (6.93%) Public Sector
3 47 (4.46%) Finance
4 45 (4.27%) Analytical Skills
5 36 (3.42%) Documentation Skills
6 17 (1.61%) Banking
7 15 (1.42%) Aerospace
8 14 (1.33%) Manufacturing
8 14 (1.33%) Military
9 13 (1.23%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 11 (1.04%) Telecoms
11 10 (0.95%) Marketing
12 7 (0.66%) Law
13 6 (0.57%) Automotive
14 5 (0.47%) Legal
15 3 (0.28%) Investment Banking
16 2 (0.19%) Billing
16 2 (0.19%) Local Government
16 2 (0.19%) Pharmaceutical
16 2 (0.19%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 183 (17.38%) Terraform
2 17 (1.61%) Middleware
3 16 (1.52%) ARM Templates
4 14 (1.33%) Oracle GoldenGate
5 9 (0.85%) YAML
6 6 (0.57%) 802.1X
6 6 (0.57%) JSON
6 6 (0.57%) LDAP
6 6 (0.57%) OpenID
6 6 (0.57%) SAML
7 5 (0.47%) .NET
7 5 (0.47%) Flash
8 4 (0.38%) Elastic Stack
8 4 (0.38%) REST
9 3 (0.28%) Kafka
9 3 (0.28%) OAuth
10 2 (0.19%) OAuth2
10 2 (0.19%) RabbitMQ
10 2 (0.19%) React
10 2 (0.19%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 119 (11.30%) Data Centre
2 67 (6.36%) Hybrid Cloud
3 55 (5.22%) PKI
4 39 (3.70%) Public Cloud
5 31 (2.94%) Enterprise Storage
6 30 (2.85%) Replication
7 28 (2.66%) Onboarding
8 26 (2.47%) Cloud Native
9 19 (1.80%) Clustering
9 19 (1.80%) Distributed Systems
10 18 (1.71%) Linux Command Line
11 17 (1.61%) Management Information System
12 16 (1.52%) Private Cloud
13 15 (1.42%) Self-Motivation
14 13 (1.23%) Mainframe
15 11 (1.04%) Operational Technology
16 9 (0.85%) Driving Licence
17 8 (0.76%) Smartcard
17 8 (0.76%) Virtual Team
18 7 (0.66%) Data Protection Act
Operating Systems
1 340 (32.29%) Windows
2 229 (21.75%) Windows Server
3 209 (19.85%) Linux
4 37 (3.51%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 20 (1.90%) Windows 10
6 19 (1.80%) Windows Server 2019
7 18 (1.71%) Windows Server 2016
8 16 (1.52%) Ubuntu
8 16 (1.52%) VMS
9 14 (1.33%) AIX
9 14 (1.33%) CentOS
10 13 (1.23%) zOS
11 11 (1.04%) Android
11 11 (1.04%) Apple iOS
12 10 (0.95%) Mac OS
12 10 (0.95%) Windows Server 2012
13 9 (0.85%) Rocky
14 6 (0.57%) Debian
14 6 (0.57%) Unix
14 6 (0.57%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,037 (98.48%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 222 (21.08%) Infrastructure as Code
3 142 (13.49%) DevOps
4 138 (13.11%) CI/CD
5 119 (11.30%) Migration
6 116 (11.02%) Problem-Solving
7 80 (7.60%) Infrastructure Automation
8 75 (7.12%) Disaster Recovery
8 75 (7.12%) High Availability
9 66 (6.27%) ITIL
10 65 (6.17%) Continuous Improvement
11 64 (6.08%) Platform Engineering
11 64 (6.08%) Project Delivery
12 57 (5.41%) Validation
13 49 (4.65%) Root Cause Analysis
13 49 (4.65%) Zero Trust
14 44 (4.18%) Load Balancing
15 43 (4.08%) Agile
15 43 (4.08%) Cybersecurity
15 43 (4.08%) Identity Access Management
Programming Languages
1 180 (17.09%) PowerShell
2 135 (12.82%) Python
3 76 (7.22%) Bash
4 40 (3.80%) SQL
5 33 (3.13%) Bicep
6 13 (1.23%) C#
7 9 (0.85%) Java
8 6 (0.57%) ActionScript
8 6 (0.57%) Go
9 5 (0.47%) Perl
10 2 (0.19%) C++
10 2 (0.19%) VB
11 1 (0.095%) C
11 1 (0.095%) Groovy
11 1 (0.095%) MATLAB
11 1 (0.095%) PHP
11 1 (0.095%) Shell Script
11 1 (0.095%) TypeScript
11 1 (0.095%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 424 (40.27%) Security Cleared
2 271 (25.74%) SC Cleared
3 154 (14.62%) DV Cleared
4 41 (3.89%) Degree
5 35 (3.32%) Microsoft Certification
6 24 (2.28%) Azure Certification
7 20 (1.90%) Cisco Certification
7 20 (1.90%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 18 (1.71%) MCSE
9 13 (1.23%) CCNA
9 13 (1.23%) Computer Science Degree
10 12 (1.14%) VCAP
11 11 (1.04%) CCNP
12 6 (0.57%) AWS Certification
12 6 (0.57%) MCSA
13 5 (0.47%) DBS Check
13 5 (0.47%) ITIL Certification
14 4 (0.38%) JNCIP
14 4 (0.38%) JNCIS
14 4 (0.38%) RHCA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 36 (3.42%) QA
2 20 (1.90%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 16 (1.52%) SLA
4 14 (1.33%) Cyber Essentials
5 13 (1.23%) NIST
6 11 (1.04%) NCSC
7 6 (0.57%) Disclosure Scotland
8 3 (0.28%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 3 (0.28%) Data Quality
9 2 (0.19%) NIST 800
9 2 (0.19%) SOC 2
10 1 (0.095%) FedRAMP
10 1 (0.095%) GDPR
System Software
1 225 (21.37%) VMware Infrastructure
2 224 (21.27%) Active Directory
3 104 (9.88%) Hyper-V
4 75 (7.12%) vSphere
5 73 (6.93%) VMware ESXi
6 47 (4.46%) Virtual Machines
7 43 (4.08%) Docker
8 32 (3.04%) VMware NSX
9 25 (2.37%) Virtual Desktop
10 14 (1.33%) Oracle RAC
11 13 (1.23%) NFS
12 11 (1.04%) Firmware
12 11 (1.04%) Virtual Servers
13 8 (0.76%) BitLocker
14 7 (0.66%) KVM
15 6 (0.57%) Microsoft App-V
15 6 (0.57%) oVirt
16 5 (0.47%) GPFS
17 4 (0.38%) Terminal Services
18 2 (0.19%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 124 (11.78%) Ansible
2 103 (9.78%) Kubernetes
3 64 (6.08%) Microsoft Intune
4 50 (4.75%) SCCM
5 43 (4.08%) vCenter Server
6 19 (1.80%) NetBackup
6 19 (1.80%) WSUS
7 18 (1.71%) SCOM
8 16 (1.52%) Prometheus
9 14 (1.33%) Data Guard
9 14 (1.33%) Oracle RMAN
10 13 (1.23%) Grafana
11 10 (0.95%) Single Sign-On
12 9 (0.85%) Puppet
13 8 (0.76%) Failover Clustering
13 8 (0.76%) Nessus
14 7 (0.66%) vMotion
14 7 (0.66%) vRealize
15 6 (0.57%) Istio
15 6 (0.57%) VxRail
Vendors
1 287 (27.26%) VMware
2 257 (24.41%) Microsoft
3 62 (5.89%) Citrix
4 60 (5.70%) Cisco
5 47 (4.46%) NetApp
6 40 (3.80%) Oracle
7 36 (3.42%) Veeam
8 34 (3.23%) F5
9 31 (2.94%) Palo Alto
10 29 (2.75%) Google
10 29 (2.75%) Red Hat
11 20 (1.90%) IBM
12 19 (1.80%) Arista
13 18 (1.71%) Aruba
13 18 (1.71%) Dell
14 17 (1.61%) CyberArk
15 16 (1.52%) Juniper
15 16 (1.52%) ServiceNow
16 14 (1.33%) SolarWinds
17 13 (1.23%) Tenable