Desktop Engineer Contracts in England

Desktop Engineer
UK > England

The median Desktop Engineer daily rate in England is £210, 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 289 319 322
Rank change year-on-year +30 +3 +26
Contract jobs requiring a Desktop Engineer 204 232 377
As % of all contract jobs advertised in England 0.84% 0.62% 0.75%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.90% 0.67% 0.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 133 179 279
10th Percentile £153 £130 £140
25th Percentile £182 £148 £164
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £210 £205 £200
Median % change year-on-year +2.44% +2.50% +11.11%
75th Percentile £248 £238 £238
90th Percentile £350 £325 £277
UK median daily rate £210 £205 £200
% change year-on-year +2.44% +2.50% +11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 9 21
10th Percentile £16.67 £16.25 £12.67
25th Percentile £17.76 £17.00 £15.50
Median hourly rate £24.66 £20.82 £17.00
Median % change year-on-year +18.47% +22.44% -10.53%
75th Percentile £25.15 £25.28 £23.00
90th Percentile - £42.60 £25.71
UK median hourly rate £23.00 £18.14 £17.00
% change year-on-year +26.83% +6.68% -11.03%

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%

Desktop Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in England

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

Job vacancy trend for Desktop Engineer in England

Desktop Engineer
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in England

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

Daily rate trend for Desktop Engineer in England

Desktop Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram in England

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

Daily rate histogram for Desktop Engineer in England

Desktop Engineer
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in England

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

Hourly rate trend for Desktop Engineer in England

Desktop 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 Desktop 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 +3 53 £225 +5.88% 31
South West +51 39 £225 +18.42% 6
North of England +29 35 £195 +16.42% 6
South East +21 35 £213 +1.19% 17
Midlands +30 22 £175 +43.44% 2
East of England +38 20 £218 +12.99% 2
West Midlands +22 16 £172 +46.58% 1
Yorkshire +17 13 £225 +13.92% 1
North West +11 12 £155 -3.13% 5
North East +7 10 £155 -20.51%
East Midlands +10 6 £180 +47.54% 1
Desktop Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 1 May 2025, Desktop 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 Desktop Engineer in the job title.

1 137 (67.16%) Windows
2 124 (60.78%) Social Skills
3 111 (54.41%) Microsoft
4 88 (43.14%) Active Directory
5 77 (37.75%) Windows 10
6 74 (36.27%) Microsoft 365
7 58 (28.43%) Security Cleared
7 58 (28.43%) Customer Service
8 55 (26.96%) SC Cleared
9 51 (25.00%) Microsoft Office
10 50 (24.51%) Problem-Solving
11 48 (23.53%) Finance
12 44 (21.57%) SCCM
13 41 (20.10%) VPN
14 38 (18.63%) ITIL
15 34 (16.67%) SLA
16 32 (15.69%) Microsoft Exchange
16 32 (15.69%) Microsoft Intune
17 31 (15.20%) Time Management
18 30 (14.71%) Dell
19 29 (14.22%) HP
20 26 (12.75%) Azure
20 26 (12.75%) Analytical Skills
21 25 (12.25%) ServiceNow
22 24 (11.76%) Driving Licence
22 24 (11.76%) SharePoint
22 24 (11.76%) Dell Certification
22 24 (11.76%) Degree
22 24 (11.76%) Customer Experience
23 23 (11.27%) Mathematics

Desktop 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 32 (15.69%) Microsoft Exchange
2 24 (11.76%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.49%) Blackberry Enterprise Server
3 1 (0.49%) IBM Notes
Applications
1 51 (25.00%) Microsoft Office
2 8 (3.92%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (3.92%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 6 (2.94%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.49%) Final Cut Pro
4 1 (0.49%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.49%) QuarkXPress
Business Applications
1 1 (0.49%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 74 (36.27%) Microsoft 365
2 26 (12.75%) Azure
3 14 (6.86%) OneDrive
4 12 (5.88%) Entra ID
5 2 (0.98%) Microsoft Copilot
5 2 (0.98%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 41 (20.10%) VPN
2 17 (8.33%) DNS
3 16 (7.84%) LAN
3 16 (7.84%) Wi-Fi
4 15 (7.35%) DHCP
5 13 (6.37%) VLAN
6 11 (5.39%) WAN
7 10 (4.90%) Remote Desktop
7 10 (4.90%) VoIP
8 8 (3.92%) Structured Cabling
9 5 (2.45%) Wireless
10 4 (1.96%) Firewall
11 3 (1.47%) TCP/IP
12 1 (0.49%) Ethernet
12 1 (0.49%) Internet
12 1 (0.49%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.49%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 5 (2.45%) JIRA
General
1 124 (60.78%) Social Skills
2 48 (23.53%) Finance
3 26 (12.75%) Analytical Skills
4 12 (5.88%) Manufacturing
4 12 (5.88%) Public Sector
5 9 (4.41%) Electronics
5 9 (4.41%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 9 (4.41%) Telecoms
6 8 (3.92%) Banking
7 7 (3.43%) Documentation Skills
7 7 (3.43%) Marketing
8 5 (2.45%) Organisational Skills
8 5 (2.45%) Pharmaceutical
8 5 (2.45%) Presentation Skills
9 4 (1.96%) Investment Banking
9 4 (1.96%) Legal
10 2 (0.98%) Military
10 2 (0.98%) Retail
Miscellaneous
1 24 (11.76%) Driving Licence
2 11 (5.39%) NHS
3 8 (3.92%) iPhone
3 8 (3.92%) Smartphone
4 7 (3.43%) iPad
4 7 (3.43%) Management Information System
4 7 (3.43%) Self-Motivation
4 7 (3.43%) Video Conferencing
5 6 (2.94%) Onboarding
6 4 (1.96%) CMDB
6 4 (1.96%) Data Centre
6 4 (1.96%) Data Protection Act
7 2 (0.98%) Enterprise Storage
7 2 (0.98%) Handset
8 1 (0.49%) Blackberry
8 1 (0.49%) Client/Server
8 1 (0.49%) Enterprise Software
8 1 (0.49%) Reinsurance
8 1 (0.49%) Replication
8 1 (0.49%) RSA SecurID
Operating Systems
1 137 (67.16%) Windows
2 77 (37.75%) Windows 10
3 11 (5.39%) Mac OS
4 10 (4.90%) Linux
5 8 (3.92%) Windows Server
6 6 (2.94%) Windows 7
6 6 (2.94%) Windows Server 2016
7 5 (2.45%) Apple iOS
7 5 (2.45%) Windows 8
7 5 (2.45%) Windows Server 2003
7 5 (2.45%) Windows Server 2008
7 5 (2.45%) Windows Server 2012
7 5 (2.45%) Windows XP
8 4 (1.96%) Android
9 2 (0.98%) Unix
10 1 (0.49%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 58 (28.43%) Customer Service
2 50 (24.51%) Problem-Solving
3 38 (18.63%) ITIL
4 31 (15.20%) Time Management
5 24 (11.76%) Customer Experience
6 23 (11.27%) Mathematics
7 20 (9.80%) Migration
8 16 (7.84%) Collaborative Working
9 13 (6.37%) ITSM
10 12 (5.88%) Break/Fix
10 12 (5.88%) Service Delivery
11 10 (4.90%) Asset Management
11 10 (4.90%) Root Cause Analysis
12 9 (4.41%) Case Management
12 9 (4.41%) Incident Management
13 8 (3.92%) Inventory Management
14 7 (3.43%) Antivirus Management
14 7 (3.43%) Business Intelligence
14 7 (3.43%) Digital Marketing
14 7 (3.43%) Programme Management
Programming Languages
1 18 (8.82%) PowerShell
2 3 (1.47%) VBScript
3 2 (0.98%) Bash
3 2 (0.98%) Python
Qualifications
1 58 (28.43%) Security Cleared
2 55 (26.96%) SC Cleared
3 24 (11.76%) Degree
3 24 (11.76%) Dell Certification
4 13 (6.37%) Microsoft Certification
5 10 (4.90%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
6 8 (3.92%) A+ Certification
7 7 (3.43%) ITIL Certification
8 3 (1.47%) MCSE
9 2 (0.98%) BPSS Clearance
10 1 (0.49%) ACSP
10 1 (0.49%) CISSP
10 1 (0.49%) CompTIA Security+
10 1 (0.49%) Computer Science Degree
10 1 (0.49%) GIAC
10 1 (0.49%) MCP
10 1 (0.49%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 34 (16.67%) SLA
2 11 (5.39%) QA
3 9 (4.41%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 1 (0.49%) Accessibility
4 1 (0.49%) GxP
System Software
1 88 (43.14%) Active Directory
2 12 (5.88%) VMware Infrastructure
3 4 (1.96%) Virtual Desktop
4 3 (1.47%) BitLocker
5 1 (0.49%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (0.49%) VMware ESXi
5 1 (0.49%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 44 (21.57%) SCCM
2 32 (15.69%) Microsoft Intune
3 10 (4.90%) AppManager
4 3 (1.47%) TeamSite
5 2 (0.98%) Jamf Pro
6 1 (0.49%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
6 1 (0.49%) Terraform
6 1 (0.49%) WSUS
Vendors
1 111 (54.41%) Microsoft
2 30 (14.71%) Dell
3 29 (14.22%) HP
4 25 (12.25%) ServiceNow
5 19 (9.31%) Citrix
6 12 (5.88%) Apple
6 12 (5.88%) VMware
7 10 (4.90%) Ivanti
8 9 (4.41%) Cisco
9 7 (3.43%) McAfee
9 7 (3.43%) SAP
10 5 (2.45%) Canon
11 4 (1.96%) Remedy
12 2 (0.98%) Bloomberg
12 2 (0.98%) Dynatrace
12 2 (0.98%) EMC
12 2 (0.98%) Nexthink
12 2 (0.98%) Tradeweb
12 2 (0.98%) Unisys
13 1 (0.49%) Qualys