Design Engineer Contracts in England

Design Engineer
UK > England

The median Design Engineer daily rate in England is £485, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2025.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 434 429 524
Rank change year-on-year -5 +95 +138
Contract jobs requiring a Design Engineer 51 113 129
As % of all contract jobs advertised in England 0.21% 0.30% 0.26%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.23% 0.33% 0.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 12 48 45
10th Percentile £289 £300 £345
25th Percentile £431 £425 £388
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £485 £575 £500
Median % change year-on-year -15.65% +15.00% +6.67%
75th Percentile £575 £756 £700
90th Percentile £586 £861 -
UK median daily rate £490 £575 £525
% change year-on-year -14.78% +9.52% +2.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 27 27 35
10th Percentile £41.25 £52.50 -
25th Percentile £57.50 £60.00 £42.50
Median hourly rate £70.00 £70.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year - +55.56% -5.26%
75th Percentile £85.00 £85.00 £62.62
90th Percentile - - £70.00
UK median hourly rate £71.25 £70.00 £45.00
% change year-on-year +1.79% +55.56% -

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
England

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in England. 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 England with a recognized job title 22,549 34,488 47,741
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.59% 92.73% 94.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 15,007 22,894 33,903
10th Percentile £300 £275 £313
25th Percentile £409 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £638 £643 £663
90th Percentile £750 £750 £763
UK median daily rate £515 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -1.90% -2.78% +2.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 900 2,432 1,409
10th Percentile £14.20 £13.00 £14.35
25th Percentile £18.51 £16.30 £20.00
Median hourly rate £30.62 £36.31 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -15.67% -19.32% +100.00%
75th Percentile £63.75 £61.25 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £76.60
UK median hourly rate £29.00 £36.42 £45.00
% change year-on-year -20.37% -19.07% +91.49%

Design Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Job postings that featured Design Engineer in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in England.

Job vacancy trend for Design Engineer in England

Design Engineer
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in England

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Design Engineer in England.

Daily rate trend for Design Engineer in England

Design Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Design Engineer in England over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Design Engineer in England

Design Engineer
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in England

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Design Engineer in England.

Hourly rate trend for Design Engineer in England

Design Engineer
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Design Engineer in England over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Design Engineer in England

Design Engineer
Contract Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Design Engineer within the England region over the 6 months to 1 May 2025. 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
London +25 18 £480 -7.69% 36
East of England +8 17 £65 -90.71% 76
South East +38 8 £490 -34.67% 92
South West +45 4 £563 -27.42% 64
Midlands +17 2 - - 50
West Midlands +13 2 - - 27
North West +8 1 - - 24
North of England +6 1 - - 49
Design Engineer
UK

Design Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in England

For the 6 months to 1 May 2025, Design Engineer contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the England region featuring Design Engineer in the job title.

1 20 (39.22%) Degree
2 15 (29.41%) C
3 14 (27.45%) Simulink
4 13 (25.49%) Intel
4 13 (25.49%) VHDL
4 13 (25.49%) Verilog
4 13 (25.49%) FPGA
4 13 (25.49%) Xilinx
4 13 (25.49%) FPGA Design
4 13 (25.49%) Microsemi
4 13 (25.49%) SystemVerilog
4 13 (25.49%) UVM
5 12 (23.53%) Radio Access Network
6 11 (21.57%) Signal Processing
6 11 (21.57%) Network Design
7 9 (17.65%) Network Architecture
8 8 (15.69%) Security Cleared
9 7 (13.73%) Data Centre
9 7 (13.73%) Telecoms
10 6 (11.76%) CAD
10 6 (11.76%) AutoCAD
10 6 (11.76%) Microsoft
10 6 (11.76%) 5G
10 6 (11.76%) Social Skills
11 5 (9.80%) Cisco
11 5 (9.80%) Revit
12 4 (7.84%) 4G
12 4 (7.84%) Benchmarking
12 4 (7.84%) Wireless
12 4 (7.84%) Problem-Solving

Design Engineer Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in England by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 1 (1.96%) Microsoft Exchange
1 1 (1.96%) SharePoint
1 1 (1.96%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 14 (27.45%) Simulink
2 6 (11.76%) AutoCAD
3 5 (9.80%) Revit
4 3 (5.88%) Microsoft Office
5 2 (3.92%) MS Visio
6 1 (1.96%) CATIA
Cloud Services
1 1 (1.96%) Figma
1 1 (1.96%) GitHub
1 1 (1.96%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 12 (23.53%) Radio Access Network
2 6 (11.76%) 5G
3 4 (7.84%) 4G
3 4 (7.84%) Wireless
4 3 (5.88%) 2G
4 3 (5.88%) 3G
4 3 (5.88%) Network Security
4 3 (5.88%) Structured Cabling
4 3 (5.88%) Wi-Fi
5 2 (3.92%) 5G NR
5 2 (3.92%) Ethernet
5 2 (3.92%) LTE
5 2 (3.92%) WLAN
6 1 (1.96%) Cisco ISE
6 1 (1.96%) Firewall
6 1 (1.96%) MPLS
6 1 (1.96%) NetScaler
6 1 (1.96%) Skype
6 1 (1.96%) TCP/IP
6 1 (1.96%) VoIP
General
1 7 (13.73%) Telecoms
2 6 (11.76%) Social Skills
3 3 (5.88%) Manufacturing
4 2 (3.92%) Automotive
4 2 (3.92%) Electronics
4 2 (3.92%) Influencing Skills
4 2 (3.92%) Military
5 1 (1.96%) Analytical Skills
5 1 (1.96%) Aviation
5 1 (1.96%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 1 (1.96%) Legal
5 1 (1.96%) Public Sector
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (1.96%) 802.1X
1 1 (1.96%) CSS
1 1 (1.96%) React
Miscellaneous
1 13 (25.49%) FPGA
1 13 (25.49%) Verilog
1 13 (25.49%) VHDL
2 7 (13.73%) Data Centre
3 3 (5.88%) Fibre Optics
3 3 (5.88%) SCADA
4 2 (3.92%) ASIC
4 2 (3.92%) CCTV
4 2 (3.92%) Digital Signage
4 2 (3.92%) Embedded Systems
4 2 (3.92%) PKI
4 2 (3.92%) Robotics
4 2 (3.92%) Video Conferencing
5 1 (1.96%) IoT
5 1 (1.96%) Management Information System
5 1 (1.96%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 1 (1.96%) VMS
1 1 (1.96%) Windows
1 1 (1.96%) Windows Server
1 1 (1.96%) Windows Server 2012
1 1 (1.96%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 13 (25.49%) FPGA Design
1 13 (25.49%) UVM
2 11 (21.57%) Network Design
2 11 (21.57%) Signal Processing
3 9 (17.65%) Network Architecture
4 6 (11.76%) CAD
5 4 (7.84%) Benchmarking
5 4 (7.84%) Problem-Solving
6 3 (5.88%) Project Management
7 2 (3.92%) Application Security
7 2 (3.92%) Bill of Materials
7 2 (3.92%) Conflict Management
7 2 (3.92%) Continuous Improvement
7 2 (3.92%) Cybersecurity
7 2 (3.92%) Problem Management
7 2 (3.92%) Project Delivery
7 2 (3.92%) Service Delivery
7 2 (3.92%) Translating Business Requirements
7 2 (3.92%) Use Case
7 2 (3.92%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 15 (29.41%) C
2 13 (25.49%) SystemVerilog
3 2 (3.92%) TypeScript
4 1 (1.96%) MATLAB
4 1 (1.96%) PowerShell
4 1 (1.96%) Python
4 1 (1.96%) SQL
Qualifications
1 20 (39.22%) Degree
2 8 (15.69%) Security Cleared
3 3 (5.88%) BPSS Clearance
3 3 (5.88%) HNC
3 3 (5.88%) HND
4 2 (3.92%) CCIE
4 2 (3.92%) Cisco Certification
4 2 (3.92%) SC Cleared
5 1 (1.96%) BICSI Certification
5 1 (1.96%) Chartered Engineer
5 1 (1.96%) DV Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (1.96%) AUTOSAR
System Software
1 1 (1.96%) Active Directory
1 1 (1.96%) Hyper-V
1 1 (1.96%) Virtual Machines
1 1 (1.96%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 2 (3.92%) NSN NetAct
2 1 (1.96%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
2 1 (1.96%) SCCM
Vendors
1 13 (25.49%) Intel
1 13 (25.49%) Microsemi
1 13 (25.49%) Xilinx
2 6 (11.76%) Microsoft
3 5 (9.80%) Cisco
4 3 (5.88%) Ericsson
4 3 (5.88%) Nokia
5 2 (3.92%) Facebook
5 2 (3.92%) Fortinet
6 1 (1.96%) Fujitsu
6 1 (1.96%) Huawei
6 1 (1.96%) Meraki
6 1 (1.96%) Palo Alto
6 1 (1.96%) Veeam
6 1 (1.96%) VMware