Desktop Engineer Contract Job Trends in Cheshire

Desktop Engineer
North West > Cheshire

The median Desktop Engineer daily rate in Cheshire is £308, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 17 April 2026.

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

6 months to
17 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 66 - 50
Rank change year-on-year - - +5
Contract jobs requiring a Desktop Engineer 4 0 5
As % of all contract jobs in Cheshire 0.58% - 1.01%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.63% - 1.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 2 0 5
10th Percentile £288 - -
25th Percentile £292 - £122
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £308 - £200
Median % change year-on-year - - -6.98%
75th Percentile £327 - £210
90th Percentile £333 - £396
North West median daily rate £150 £155 £153
% change year-on-year -3.23% +1.64% -23.75%

All Contract IT Job Roles
Cheshire

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in Cheshire. 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 Cheshire with a recognized job title 632 367 460
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.33% 87.59% 92.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 410 254 325
10th Percentile £313 £313 £275
25th Percentile £375 £358 £393
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £455 £465 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.15% -7.00% +5.26%
75th Percentile £584 £550 £570
90th Percentile £653 £638 £620
North West median daily rate £465 £475 £495
% change year-on-year -2.11% -4.04% -1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 48 22 36
10th Percentile £16.99 £19.45 £14.00
25th Percentile £21.75 £29.30 £16.47
Median hourly rate £32.23 £48.75 £20.11
Median % change year-on-year -33.90% +142.42% -13.13%
75th Percentile £79.63 £86.00 £38.00
90th Percentile £85.00 - £43.75
North West median hourly rate £45.46 £30.10 £26.39
% change year-on-year +51.03% +14.06% -19.73%

Desktop Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in Cheshire

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Desktop Engineer' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in Cheshire.

Desktop Engineer job vacancy trend in Cheshire

Desktop Engineer
Daily Rate Trend in Cheshire

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Desktop Engineer job vacancies in Cheshire.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Desktop Engineer job vacancies in Cheshire

Desktop Engineer
Hourly Rate Trend in Cheshire

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Desktop Engineer job vacancies in Cheshire.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Desktop Engineer job vacancies in Cheshire

Desktop Engineer
Contract Job Locations in Cheshire

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Desktop Engineer within the Cheshire region over the 6 months to 17 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
Warrington - 2 £325 -
Chester - 1 - - 1
Crewe - 1 £290 -
Desktop Engineer
North West

Desktop Engineer Skill Set
Top 29 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Cheshire

For the 6 months to 17 April 2026, Desktop 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 across the Cheshire region featuring Desktop Engineer in the job title.

1 3 (75.00%) Windows
2 2 (50.00%) Migration
2 2 (50.00%) PowerShell
2 2 (50.00%) SC Cleared
2 2 (50.00%) Security Cleared
2 2 (50.00%) Virtual Desktop
3 1 (25.00%) Active Directory
3 1 (25.00%) Agile
3 1 (25.00%) ARM Templates
3 1 (25.00%) Azure
3 1 (25.00%) Azure DevOps
3 1 (25.00%) CI/CD
3 1 (25.00%) Citrix
3 1 (25.00%) Cloud Computing
3 1 (25.00%) Data Protection
3 1 (25.00%) Dell
3 1 (25.00%) DevOps
3 1 (25.00%) GitHub
3 1 (25.00%) JIRA
3 1 (25.00%) Knowledge Transfer
3 1 (25.00%) Remedy
3 1 (25.00%) Scaled Agile Framework
3 1 (25.00%) SCCM
3 1 (25.00%) Scrum
3 1 (25.00%) ServiceNow
3 1 (25.00%) Terraform
3 1 (25.00%) VMware
3 1 (25.00%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (25.00%) Windows 10

Desktop Engineer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Cheshire 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:

Cloud Services
1 1 (25.00%) Azure
1 1 (25.00%) Azure DevOps
1 1 (25.00%) Cloud Computing
1 1 (25.00%) GitHub
Development Applications
1 1 (25.00%) JIRA
General
1 3 (75.00%) Social Skills
2 1 (25.00%) Finance
2 1 (25.00%) Public Sector
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (25.00%) ARM Templates
Miscellaneous
1 1 (25.00%) Data Protection Act
Operating Systems
1 3 (75.00%) Windows
2 1 (25.00%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 2 (50.00%) Migration
2 1 (25.00%) Agile
2 1 (25.00%) CI/CD
2 1 (25.00%) Data Protection
2 1 (25.00%) DevOps
2 1 (25.00%) Knowledge Transfer
2 1 (25.00%) Scaled Agile Framework
2 1 (25.00%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 2 (50.00%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 2 (50.00%) SC Cleared
1 2 (50.00%) Security Cleared
System Software
1 2 (50.00%) Virtual Desktop
2 1 (25.00%) Active Directory
2 1 (25.00%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 1 (25.00%) SCCM
1 1 (25.00%) Terraform
Vendors
1 1 (25.00%) Citrix
1 1 (25.00%) Dell
1 1 (25.00%) Remedy
1 1 (25.00%) ServiceNow
1 1 (25.00%) VMware