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 20 August 2026.

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

6 months to
20 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 140 230 145
Rank change year-on-year +90 -85 +8
Contract jobs requiring an Infrastructure Engineer 1,045 376 637
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.95% 1.15% 1.64%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.11% 1.26% 1.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 618 241 480
10th Percentile £350 £329 £324
25th Percentile £425 £385 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £513 £486
Median % change year-on-year +2.44% +5.51% -2.85%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £575
90th Percentile £671 £638 £638
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £500 £475
% change year-on-year +5.00% +5.26% -3.80%
Number of hourly rates quoted 50 6 5
10th Percentile £44.76 £27.50 £51.00
25th Percentile £58.43 £29.00 £63.75
Median hourly rate £72.54 £30.00 £77.00
Median % change year-on-year +141.80% -61.04% +8.07%
75th Percentile £78.75 £70.00 -
90th Percentile £100.00 £141.50 £77.60
UK excluding London median hourly rate £72.54 £77.00 £72.75
% change year-on-year -5.79% +5.84% +0.34%

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 49,489 29,958 36,053
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.49% 91.24% 92.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,683 18,934 23,125
10th Percentile £325 £280 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.87%
75th Percentile £625 £620 £638
90th Percentile £730 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,498 1,546 1,979
10th Percentile £15.00 £13.63 £14.16
25th Percentile £20.62 £17.30 £20.00
Median hourly rate £41.74 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +65.94% -41.51% +2.38%
75th Percentile £67.84 £53.99 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £72.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.90
% change year-on-year +68.99% -42.71% +17.07%

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 20 August 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 20 August 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 20 August 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 +68 901 £525 +1.45% 221
UK excluding London +79 735 £525 +5.00% 199
London +18 229 £545 +3.81% 44
South East +36 228 £541 -1.71% 53
Work from Home +33 217 £535 +9.18% 70
North of England +42 203 £515 -1.90% 44
South West +25 108 £550 -0.90% 52
Midlands -3 90 £463 +2.78% 21
Yorkshire +9 84 £400 -20.00% 12
North West +10 79 £483 -19.58% 21
West Midlands -19 61 £475 +5.56% 15
North East +1 50 £600 -7.69% 11
Scotland +24 47 £570 +14.00% 9
East of England -4 36 £450 +15.02% 26
East Midlands +3 28 £450 +5.88% 6
Wales +11 27 £500 - 2
Northern Ireland - 1 - -
Channel Islands - 1 £550 -

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

For the 6 months to 20 August 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 1,029 (98.47%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 426 (40.77%) Security Cleared
3 326 (31.20%) Windows
4 320 (30.62%) Azure
5 285 (27.27%) SC Cleared
6 271 (25.93%) VMware
7 245 (23.44%) Microsoft
8 214 (20.48%) Windows Server
9 212 (20.29%) VMware Infrastructure
10 211 (20.19%) Active Directory
11 205 (19.62%) Infrastructure as Code
12 193 (18.47%) Linux
13 183 (17.51%) DNS
14 181 (17.32%) Terraform
15 178 (17.03%) PowerShell
16 155 (14.83%) Firewall
17 146 (13.97%) AWS
17 146 (13.97%) DevOps
17 146 (13.97%) DV Cleared
18 138 (13.21%) Python
19 133 (12.73%) DHCP
20 131 (12.54%) CI/CD
21 122 (11.67%) Ansible
22 114 (10.91%) Migration
23 113 (10.81%) Problem-Solving
24 98 (9.38%) Kubernetes
25 95 (9.09%) Hyper-V
26 89 (8.52%) Entra ID
27 85 (8.13%) Microsoft 365
28 77 (7.37%) High Availability

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 59 (5.65%) Microsoft Exchange
2 30 (2.87%) SharePoint
3 14 (1.34%) WebSphere
4 13 (1.24%) CICS
5 10 (0.96%) Confluence
6 5 (0.48%) SharePoint Server
7 3 (0.29%) Apache
7 3 (0.29%) Exchange Server 2010
8 2 (0.19%) CloudStack
9 1 (0.096%) Apache Airflow
9 1 (0.096%) Exchange Server 2013
9 1 (0.096%) IBM HTTP Server
9 1 (0.096%) IIS
9 1 (0.096%) MS Project Server
9 1 (0.096%) OpenStack
9 1 (0.096%) Skype for Business
9 1 (0.096%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 11 (1.05%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (0.19%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.096%) CINEMA 4D
3 1 (0.096%) Houdini
3 1 (0.096%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (0.096%) NUKE
Business Applications
1 3 (0.29%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.096%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 320 (30.62%) Azure
2 146 (13.97%) AWS
3 89 (8.52%) Entra ID
4 85 (8.13%) Microsoft 365
5 59 (5.65%) IaaS
6 54 (5.17%) GCP
6 54 (5.17%) GitHub
7 51 (4.88%) OCI
8 41 (3.92%) SaaS
9 40 (3.83%) Azure DevOps
10 35 (3.35%) PaaS
11 31 (2.97%) Azure Monitor
12 24 (2.30%) GitHub Actions
13 21 (2.01%) Azure AKS
14 17 (1.63%) Nutanix
15 10 (0.96%) Google Kubernetes Engine
15 10 (0.96%) OpenShift
16 8 (0.77%) Azure Sentinel
16 8 (0.77%) OneDrive
16 8 (0.77%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 183 (17.51%) DNS
2 155 (14.83%) Firewall
3 133 (12.73%) DHCP
4 57 (5.45%) VPN
5 55 (5.26%) VLAN
6 53 (5.07%) SAN
6 53 (5.07%) TCP/IP
7 42 (4.02%) Network Security
7 42 (4.02%) WAN
8 30 (2.87%) BIG-IP
8 30 (2.87%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
9 25 (2.39%) LAN
9 25 (2.39%) Wi-Fi
10 23 (2.20%) Ethernet VPN
10 23 (2.20%) SD-WAN
11 22 (2.11%) VSAN
11 22 (2.11%) VXLAN
12 20 (1.91%) BGP
12 20 (1.91%) OSPF
13 14 (1.34%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 53 (5.07%) SQL Server
2 21 (2.01%) Oracle Exadata
3 16 (1.53%) Relational Database
4 15 (1.44%) Oracle Database
5 13 (1.24%) RDBMS
6 8 (0.77%) Elasticsearch
7 6 (0.57%) Amazon RDS
8 4 (0.38%) Azure SQL Database
8 4 (0.38%) PostgreSQL
8 4 (0.38%) Power BI
8 4 (0.38%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 3 (0.29%) Big Data
9 3 (0.29%) Data Lake
9 3 (0.29%) Data Mining
9 3 (0.29%) NonStop SQL
10 2 (0.19%) BigQuery
10 2 (0.19%) SQL Server Analysis Services
10 2 (0.19%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 1 (0.096%) Data Warehouse
11 1 (0.096%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 44 (4.21%) GitLab
2 27 (2.58%) JIRA
3 25 (2.39%) Jenkins
4 24 (2.30%) Git
5 5 (0.48%) Chocolatey
6 3 (0.29%) Bitbucket
7 2 (0.19%) Fiddler
8 1 (0.096%) Artifactory
8 1 (0.096%) Claude Code
8 1 (0.096%) CMake
8 1 (0.096%) Gradle
8 1 (0.096%) Introscope
8 1 (0.096%) MLflow
8 1 (0.096%) MSI
8 1 (0.096%) Robot Framework
8 1 (0.096%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 118 (11.29%) Social Skills
2 75 (7.18%) Public Sector
3 46 (4.40%) Analytical Skills
3 46 (4.40%) Finance
4 37 (3.54%) Documentation Skills
5 23 (2.20%) Banking
6 14 (1.34%) Aerospace
7 13 (1.24%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 12 (1.15%) Military
9 11 (1.05%) Manufacturing
10 10 (0.96%) Legal
10 10 (0.96%) Marketing
10 10 (0.96%) Telecoms
11 7 (0.67%) Law
12 6 (0.57%) Automotive
13 3 (0.29%) Investment Banking
14 2 (0.19%) Advertising
14 2 (0.19%) Billing
14 2 (0.19%) Local Government
14 2 (0.19%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 181 (17.32%) Terraform
2 17 (1.63%) Middleware
3 15 (1.44%) ARM Templates
4 13 (1.24%) Oracle GoldenGate
5 8 (0.77%) REST
5 8 (0.77%) YAML
6 7 (0.67%) Flash
7 6 (0.57%) 802.1X
7 6 (0.57%) JSON
7 6 (0.57%) OpenID
8 5 (0.48%) Elastic Stack
8 5 (0.48%) SAML
9 4 (0.38%) .NET
9 4 (0.38%) SOAP
10 3 (0.29%) Kafka
10 3 (0.29%) LDAP
10 3 (0.29%) OAuth
11 2 (0.19%) OAuth2
11 2 (0.19%) RabbitMQ
11 2 (0.19%) React
Miscellaneous
1 121 (11.58%) Data Centre
2 59 (5.65%) Hybrid Cloud
3 56 (5.36%) PKI
4 37 (3.54%) Public Cloud
5 32 (3.06%) Enterprise Storage
6 27 (2.58%) Onboarding
7 25 (2.39%) Replication
8 24 (2.30%) Cloud Native
9 20 (1.91%) Clustering
10 18 (1.72%) Self-Motivation
11 14 (1.34%) Linux Command Line
11 14 (1.34%) Management Information System
12 13 (1.24%) Distributed Systems
12 13 (1.24%) Mainframe
13 11 (1.05%) Operational Technology
14 10 (0.96%) Private Cloud
15 9 (0.86%) Driving Licence
15 9 (0.86%) Enterprise Software
15 9 (0.86%) Smartcard
16 8 (0.77%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 326 (31.20%) Windows
2 214 (20.48%) Windows Server
3 193 (18.47%) Linux
4 37 (3.54%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 20 (1.91%) Windows Server 2019
6 19 (1.82%) Windows 10
6 19 (1.82%) Windows Server 2016
7 15 (1.44%) VMS
8 14 (1.34%) AIX
8 14 (1.34%) Ubuntu
9 13 (1.24%) zOS
10 11 (1.05%) Apple iOS
10 11 (1.05%) CentOS
11 10 (0.96%) Android
11 10 (0.96%) Mac OS
12 9 (0.86%) Windows Server 2012
13 7 (0.67%) Unix
14 6 (0.57%) Debian
14 6 (0.57%) Rocky
15 5 (0.48%) Oracle Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,029 (98.47%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 205 (19.62%) Infrastructure as Code
3 146 (13.97%) DevOps
4 131 (12.54%) CI/CD
5 114 (10.91%) Migration
6 113 (10.81%) Problem-Solving
7 77 (7.37%) High Availability
7 77 (7.37%) Infrastructure Automation
8 69 (6.60%) Continuous Improvement
9 68 (6.51%) Disaster Recovery
10 62 (5.93%) ITIL
11 61 (5.84%) Project Delivery
12 57 (5.45%) Platform Engineering
13 56 (5.36%) Validation
14 49 (4.69%) Zero Trust
15 47 (4.50%) Agile
16 43 (4.11%) Root Cause Analysis
17 41 (3.92%) Cybersecurity
18 39 (3.73%) Identity Access Management
18 39 (3.73%) Site Reliability Engineering
Programming Languages
1 178 (17.03%) PowerShell
2 138 (13.21%) Python
3 76 (7.27%) Bash
4 40 (3.83%) SQL
5 30 (2.87%) Bicep
6 17 (1.63%) C#
7 10 (0.96%) Java
8 6 (0.57%) ActionScript
8 6 (0.57%) Go
9 4 (0.38%) Shell Script
10 2 (0.19%) C++
10 2 (0.19%) VB
11 1 (0.096%) C
11 1 (0.096%) JavaScript
11 1 (0.096%) Jython
11 1 (0.096%) Perl
11 1 (0.096%) PHP
11 1 (0.096%) TypeScript
11 1 (0.096%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 426 (40.77%) Security Cleared
2 285 (27.27%) SC Cleared
3 146 (13.97%) DV Cleared
4 40 (3.83%) Degree
5 32 (3.06%) Microsoft Certification
6 24 (2.30%) Azure Certification
6 24 (2.30%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
7 23 (2.20%) Cisco Certification
8 18 (1.72%) MCSE
9 14 (1.34%) CCNA
10 13 (1.24%) CCNP
10 13 (1.24%) VCAP
11 11 (1.05%) Computer Science Degree
12 6 (0.57%) MCSA
12 6 (0.57%) RHCA
13 5 (0.48%) DBS Check
14 4 (0.38%) ITIL Certification
14 4 (0.38%) JNCIP
14 4 (0.38%) JNCIS
15 3 (0.29%) AWS Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (3.16%) QA
2 19 (1.82%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 16 (1.53%) SLA
4 12 (1.15%) Cyber Essentials
4 12 (1.15%) NIST
5 10 (0.96%) NCSC
6 6 (0.57%) Disclosure Scotland
7 3 (0.29%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 2 (0.19%) Data Quality
8 2 (0.19%) GDPR
8 2 (0.19%) NIST 800
8 2 (0.19%) SOC 2
9 1 (0.096%) FedRAMP
9 1 (0.096%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 212 (20.29%) VMware Infrastructure
2 211 (20.19%) Active Directory
3 95 (9.09%) Hyper-V
4 73 (6.99%) vSphere
5 68 (6.51%) VMware ESXi
6 45 (4.31%) Virtual Machines
7 35 (3.35%) VMware NSX
8 34 (3.25%) Docker
9 25 (2.39%) Virtual Desktop
10 13 (1.24%) Oracle RAC
11 12 (1.15%) NFS
12 9 (0.86%) BitLocker
12 9 (0.86%) Firmware
13 7 (0.67%) Microsoft App-V
14 6 (0.57%) KVM
14 6 (0.57%) Virtual Servers
15 5 (0.48%) GPFS
16 4 (0.38%) Terminal Services
17 2 (0.19%) SRDF
17 2 (0.19%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 122 (11.67%) Ansible
2 98 (9.38%) Kubernetes
3 59 (5.65%) Microsoft Intune
4 45 (4.31%) vCenter Server
5 43 (4.11%) SCCM
6 20 (1.91%) WSUS
7 18 (1.72%) SCOM
8 16 (1.53%) NetBackup
9 15 (1.44%) Prometheus
10 13 (1.24%) Data Guard
10 13 (1.24%) Oracle RMAN
10 13 (1.24%) Puppet
11 12 (1.15%) Grafana
12 10 (0.96%) Single Sign-On
13 9 (0.86%) Nessus
14 8 (0.77%) vMotion
14 8 (0.77%) vRealize
15 7 (0.67%) FortiGate
15 7 (0.67%) Istio
16 6 (0.57%) Packer
Vendors
1 271 (25.93%) VMware
2 245 (23.44%) Microsoft
3 65 (6.22%) Citrix
4 59 (5.65%) Cisco
5 41 (3.92%) NetApp
5 41 (3.92%) Oracle
6 34 (3.25%) Veeam
7 33 (3.16%) F5
8 32 (3.06%) Palo Alto
9 30 (2.87%) Google
10 27 (2.58%) Red Hat
11 20 (1.91%) Aruba
11 20 (1.91%) IBM
12 19 (1.82%) Arista
12 19 (1.82%) Dell
13 17 (1.63%) CyberArk
13 17 (1.63%) Juniper
13 17 (1.63%) ServiceNow
14 15 (1.44%) Tenable
15 14 (1.34%) SolarWinds