Infrastructure Engineer Salaries in 2026: Cloud Pays Most

Why retail needs infrastructure

UK retail now runs on technology. Websites, payment systems, warehouses, supply chains and shops all depend on it. It has to work around the clock.

When it fails, you feel it straight away. Websites go down. Payments stop. Distribution can grind to a halt. So keeping systems running is now a business priority, not just an IT one.

That is keeping demand for infrastructure people strong, even though the wider tech jobs market is fairly quiet. Figures from APSCo, CV-Library and Lightcast show UK tech vacancies rose by 4.3% year-on-year in Q2 2026. Employers are still choosing permanent tech hires, despite the uncertain economy. AI, cyber security, cloud and infrastructure are still among the most important areas.

Retailers are spending to modernise. Marks & Spencer, for example, has committed approximately £140 million to digital and technology work. That includes AI, data platforms, supply chain automation and planning systems. Across the sector, businesses want to cut technical debt, improve disaster recovery and build systems that hold up.

What infrastructure engineers earn

In London, the median salary for a permanent Infrastructure Engineer is now £70,000. Across England as a whole, it is approximately £57,500.

Pay usually starts at around £46,000 for less experienced engineers. Senior engineers with skills in cloud architecture, automation and large enterprise systems can earn £100,000 or more.

There are not many experienced infrastructure engineers to go round. So employers are being pushed towards the top end of the market.

Cloud skills pay the most

Cloud is the biggest driver of pay rises. The median salary for a Cloud Infrastructure Engineer in London has risen to £84,500. That is growing much faster than in the rest of the country.

There are two reasons. Many large change programmes are based in London. And employers will pay more for people who can move systems to the cloud, automate them and keep the business running while they do it.

The skills employers want

Microsoft Azure and AWS come up again and again in hiring briefs. Employers want to move to the cloud and update older systems.

Identity and access management skills are in much higher demand too. Retailers are tightening security after a series of high-profile cyber incidents across the sector.

Other skills in demand include Terraform and other infrastructure-as-code tools, disaster recovery planning, large-scale networking, automation platforms, and supporting AI and data systems.

Employers also value engineers who can link day-to-day infrastructure work with wider business change. People who understand governance, security, cloud-native architecture and automation, as well as traditional infrastructure, are hard to find. They are getting some of the biggest pay rises in tech.

Showing the salary matters

Recent research found only 34% of tech vacancies publish a salary. That figure has improved over the past year.

The UK Government is consulting on plans that could make employers include pay in job adverts. In Europe, the EU pay transparency directive has already come into force.

Employers who are clear about pay, and about the size of their tech projects, are already winning when they compete for specialists.

At RHR, we think retailers are no longer just competing with other retailers. They are up against financial services, consultancy, tech and e-commerce firms for the same cloud, infrastructure and security people. Employers who offer clear progression, fair and open pay, flexible working and meaningful projects will be best placed. We expect demand to stay high, hiring to need to move faster, and pay expectations to keep rising.

What this means for hiring. employers should expect to pay £70,000 to £90,000 for experienced London Infrastructure Engineers, and more for strong cloud transformation or architecture experience. Publishing the salary and moving quickly will help you compete. For engineers, cloud, automation, security and resilience skills, plus clear business impact, offer the best pay and prospects.