Systems Engineer Contract Job Trends in England

System Engineer
UK > England

The median System Engineer daily rate in England is £478, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 29 March 2026.

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

6 months to
29 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 298 351 268
Rank change year-on-year +53 -83 +127
Contract jobs requiring a Systems Engineer 312 129 312
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.82% 0.53% 0.83%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.89% 0.57% 0.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 78 58 110
10th Percentile £217 £289 £313
25th Percentile £383 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £478 £475 £508
Median % change year-on-year +0.53% -6.40% +1.45%
75th Percentile £543 £620 £575
90th Percentile £588 £738 £645
UK median daily rate £475 £475 £500
% change year-on-year - -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 135 29 130
10th Percentile £42.00 £40.70 £39.55
25th Percentile £44.58 £47.50 £45.45
Median hourly rate £59.67 £55.00 £57.50
Median % change year-on-year +8.49% -4.35% -4.72%
75th Percentile £74.83 £68.75 £71.25
90th Percentile £80.00 £76.00 £75.40
UK median hourly rate £59.67 £55.00 £57.39
% change year-on-year +8.49% -4.16% -6.69%

All Contract IT Job Roles
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 35,057 22,720 34,933
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.13% 92.93% 92.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,082 15,205 23,344
10th Percentile £313 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £409 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.81% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £621 £638 £638
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £520 £525
% change year-on-year -3.85% -0.95% -3.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,308 839 2,296
10th Percentile £15.50 £14.99 £12.96
25th Percentile £19.90 £21.00 £16.25
Median hourly rate £40.92 £34.50 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +18.60% +6.15% -23.85%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £59.95
90th Percentile £77.50 £77.25 £71.87
UK median hourly rate £37.50 £32.50 £33.00
% change year-on-year +15.38% -1.52% -24.36%

Systems Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in England

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

Systems Engineer job vacancy trend in England

Systems Engineer
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Systems Engineer job vacancies in England.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Systems Engineer job vacancies in England

Systems Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Systems Engineer in England over the 6 months to 29 March 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Systems Engineer in England

Systems Engineer
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Systems Engineer job vacancies in England.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Systems Engineer job vacancies in England

Systems Engineer
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Systems Engineer in England over the 6 months to 29 March 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Systems Engineer in England

Systems 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 Systems Engineer within the England region over the 6 months to 29 March 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
South East +13 77 £490 -31.23% 120
East of England +12 73 £450 -16.67% 43
South West +11 51 £500 -15.25% 76
Midlands -31 45 £395 +66.32% 61
North of England -54 38 £450 +6.64% 57
London -59 29 £478 -7.73% 50
North West -39 26 £216 -49.11% 31
East Midlands -10 24 £386 +414.33% 17
West Midlands -40 21 £395 +43.64% 44
Yorkshire -54 7 £510 - 12
North East -9 5 £450 +38.46% 14
Systems Engineer
UK

Systems Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England

For the 6 months to 29 March 2026, Systems 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 England region featuring Systems Engineer in the job title.

1 99 (31.73%) Security Cleared
2 54 (17.31%) SC Cleared
3 42 (13.46%) Systems Engineering
4 37 (11.86%) Degree
5 32 (10.26%) Validation
6 24 (7.69%) DV Cleared
7 22 (7.05%) Rational DOORS
8 20 (6.41%) Problem-Solving
8 20 (6.41%) Siemens
9 19 (6.09%) Decision-Making
9 19 (6.09%) Windows
10 17 (5.45%) Customer Service
10 17 (5.45%) TCP/IP
10 17 (5.45%) Verification and Validation
11 16 (5.13%) Ethernet
11 16 (5.13%) Microsoft
11 16 (5.13%) Microsoft Office
11 16 (5.13%) Risk Assessment
12 15 (4.81%) BPSS Clearance
12 15 (4.81%) Creative Thinking
12 15 (4.81%) Fault Analysis
12 15 (4.81%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 15 (4.81%) Linux
12 15 (4.81%) Mechatronics
13 14 (4.49%) Fortinet
13 14 (4.49%) ServiceNow
14 13 (4.17%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
14 13 (4.17%) NetApp
15 11 (3.53%) Agile
16 10 (3.21%) PowerShell

Systems Engineer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England 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 5 (1.60%) Confluence
2 3 (0.96%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.32%) Apache
3 1 (0.32%) IIS
3 1 (0.32%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.32%) Tomcat
Applications
1 16 (5.13%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (1.28%) Simulink
3 1 (0.32%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.32%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.32%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 2 (0.64%) SAP Oil and Gas
2 1 (0.32%) ResourceLink
2 1 (0.32%) SAP HCM
2 1 (0.32%) SAP HR
2 1 (0.32%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 1 (0.32%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 9 (2.88%) Azure
2 7 (2.24%) AWS
3 5 (1.60%) Microsoft 365
4 4 (1.28%) Google Workspace
5 3 (0.96%) Entra ID
5 3 (0.96%) GCP
6 2 (0.64%) Cloud Computing
6 2 (0.64%) Cohesity
6 2 (0.64%) GitHub
6 2 (0.64%) OpenShift
6 2 (0.64%) SaaS
7 1 (0.32%) AWS Step Functions
7 1 (0.32%) Azure Logic Apps
7 1 (0.32%) Azure Monitor
7 1 (0.32%) Azure Sentinel
7 1 (0.32%) Azure Service Bus
7 1 (0.32%) GitHub Actions
7 1 (0.32%) PaaS
7 1 (0.32%) Power Platform
7 1 (0.32%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 17 (5.45%) TCP/IP
2 16 (5.13%) Ethernet
3 3 (0.96%) Firewall
3 3 (0.96%) LAN
3 3 (0.96%) SAN
3 3 (0.96%) SNMP
4 2 (0.64%) SpaceWire
4 2 (0.64%) VPN
4 2 (0.64%) WAN
4 2 (0.64%) Wi-Fi
5 1 (0.32%) DHCP
5 1 (0.32%) DNS
5 1 (0.32%) Modbus
5 1 (0.32%) NAS
5 1 (0.32%) PSTN
5 1 (0.32%) RS-232
5 1 (0.32%) RS-485
5 1 (0.32%) SSL
5 1 (0.32%) VSAN
5 1 (0.32%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.64%) SQL Server Reporting Services
2 1 (0.32%) Pentaho
Development Applications
1 22 (7.05%) Rational DOORS
2 6 (1.92%) JIRA
3 1 (0.32%) ClearCase
3 1 (0.32%) Git
3 1 (0.32%) Postman
3 1 (0.32%) Selenium
General
1 49 (15.71%) Aerospace
2 42 (13.46%) Social Skills
3 34 (10.90%) Military
4 19 (6.09%) Manufacturing
5 18 (5.77%) Presentation Skills
6 17 (5.45%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 14 (4.49%) Electronics
8 8 (2.56%) Public Sector
9 4 (1.28%) Avionics
10 3 (0.96%) Analytical Skills
10 3 (0.96%) Documentation Skills
10 3 (0.96%) Finance
11 2 (0.64%) Banking
11 2 (0.64%) Retail
12 1 (0.32%) Digital Health
12 1 (0.32%) Marketing
12 1 (0.32%) Organisational Skills
12 1 (0.32%) Police
12 1 (0.32%) Retail Banking
12 1 (0.32%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (0.96%) Middleware
1 3 (0.96%) REST
1 3 (0.96%) Software Packaging
2 2 (0.64%) ISPF
3 1 (0.32%) GraphQL
3 1 (0.32%) JSON
3 1 (0.32%) Microsoft Graph
3 1 (0.32%) Node.js
3 1 (0.32%) RabbitMQ
3 1 (0.32%) RESTful
3 1 (0.32%) SAP Fiori
3 1 (0.32%) XML
3 1 (0.32%) XSD
Miscellaneous
1 15 (4.81%) Industry 4.0
1 15 (4.81%) Robotics
2 8 (2.56%) Embedded Systems
2 8 (2.56%) Onboarding
3 6 (1.92%) Operational Technology
4 4 (1.28%) Data Centre
4 4 (1.28%) Legacy Systems
4 4 (1.28%) SCADA
5 3 (0.96%) Acoustics
5 3 (0.96%) Hybrid Cloud
6 2 (0.64%) Analytical Mindset
6 2 (0.64%) ASIC
6 2 (0.64%) CAN bus
6 2 (0.64%) Enterprise Storage
6 2 (0.64%) IoT
6 2 (0.64%) Life Science
6 2 (0.64%) Linux Command Line
6 2 (0.64%) Mainframe
6 2 (0.64%) Renewable Energy
6 2 (0.64%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 19 (6.09%) Windows
2 15 (4.81%) Linux
3 6 (1.92%) Mac OS
4 5 (1.60%) Android
4 5 (1.60%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 2 (0.64%) Windows Server
5 2 (0.64%) zOS
6 1 (0.32%) FreeRTOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 42 (13.46%) Systems Engineering
2 32 (10.26%) Validation
3 20 (6.41%) Problem-Solving
4 19 (6.09%) Decision-Making
5 17 (5.45%) Customer Service
5 17 (5.45%) Verification and Validation
6 16 (5.13%) Risk Assessment
7 15 (4.81%) Creative Thinking
7 15 (4.81%) Fault Analysis
7 15 (4.81%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 15 (4.81%) Mechatronics
8 13 (4.17%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
9 11 (3.53%) Agile
10 9 (2.88%) Asset Management
11 8 (2.56%) Continuous Improvement
11 8 (2.56%) Migration
12 7 (2.24%) Configuration Management
12 7 (2.24%) Supplier Management
12 7 (2.24%) SysML
13 6 (1.92%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 10 (3.21%) PowerShell
2 8 (2.56%) Python
3 5 (1.60%) MATLAB
4 3 (0.96%) C
5 2 (0.64%) JavaScript
5 2 (0.64%) JCL
5 2 (0.64%) REXX
6 1 (0.32%) Bash
6 1 (0.32%) C#
6 1 (0.32%) C++
6 1 (0.32%) Embedded C
6 1 (0.32%) Embedded C++
6 1 (0.32%) Go
6 1 (0.32%) Java
6 1 (0.32%) SQL
Qualifications
1 99 (31.73%) Security Cleared
2 54 (17.31%) SC Cleared
3 37 (11.86%) Degree
4 24 (7.69%) DV Cleared
5 15 (4.81%) BPSS Clearance
6 3 (0.96%) CCNA
6 3 (0.96%) Cisco Certification
7 1 (0.32%) CCNP
7 1 (0.32%) CISSP
7 1 (0.32%) CompTIA CySA+
7 1 (0.32%) HND
7 1 (0.32%) Network+ Certification
7 1 (0.32%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (0.96%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 2 (0.64%) Data Quality
2 2 (0.64%) MIL-STD-1553
2 2 (0.64%) NIST
3 1 (0.32%) DO-254
3 1 (0.32%) IEC 61508
3 1 (0.32%) ISO 26262
3 1 (0.32%) NIST 800
System Software
1 9 (2.88%) VMware Infrastructure
2 8 (2.56%) Active Directory
3 5 (1.60%) Firmware
4 3 (0.96%) Embedded Firmware
4 3 (0.96%) Virtual Desktop
5 2 (0.64%) Hyper-V
5 2 (0.64%) KVM
5 2 (0.64%) Slurm Workload Manager
5 2 (0.64%) VMware ESXi
6 1 (0.32%) Job Entry Subsystem
6 1 (0.32%) VMware NSX
6 1 (0.32%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 6 (1.92%) Microsoft Intune
2 5 (1.60%) Ansible
3 4 (1.28%) Terraform
4 3 (0.96%) SCCM
5 2 (0.64%) Jamf Pro
5 2 (0.64%) Single Sign-On
6 1 (0.32%) FortiGate
6 1 (0.32%) Kubernetes
6 1 (0.32%) Red Hat Satellite
Vendors
1 20 (6.41%) Siemens
2 16 (5.13%) Microsoft
3 14 (4.49%) Fortinet
3 14 (4.49%) ServiceNow
4 13 (4.17%) NetApp
5 10 (3.21%) VMware
6 6 (1.92%) EMC
6 6 (1.92%) Oracle
7 5 (1.60%) Cisco
7 5 (1.60%) Google
7 5 (1.60%) Red Hat
8 3 (0.96%) Citrix
8 3 (0.96%) IBM
8 3 (0.96%) SAP
8 3 (0.96%) Veeam
9 2 (0.64%) Apple
9 2 (0.64%) Broadcom
9 2 (0.64%) Brocade
9 2 (0.64%) NEC
9 2 (0.64%) Splunk