Systems Engineer Contract Job Trends in England

System Engineer
UK > England

The median System Engineer daily rate in England is £495, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 30 May 2026.

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

 6 months to
30 May 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 275 329 243
Rank change year-on-year +54 -86 +133
Contract jobs requiring a Systems Engineer 366 147 353
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.87% 0.61% 0.96%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.94% 0.66% 1.03%
Number of daily rates quoted 106 62 84
10th Percentile £263 £313 £313
25th Percentile £383 £400 £386
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £495 £480 £459
Median % change year-on-year +3.13% +4.58% -10.44%
75th Percentile £548 £594 £575
90th Percentile £600 £650 £646
UK median daily rate £475 £475 £450
% change year-on-year - +5.56% -12.20%
Number of hourly rates quoted 149 38 162
10th Percentile £42.50 £45.83 £39.96
25th Percentile £55.00 £52.50 £46.29
Median hourly rate £66.99 £55.52 £58.25
Median % change year-on-year +20.66% -4.69% -2.92%
75th Percentile £78.75 £73.75 £71.25
90th Percentile £81.05 £76.50 £76.75
UK median hourly rate £67.50 £55.00 £57.50
% change year-on-year +22.73% -4.35% -6.50%

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 38,786 22,186 34,111
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.33% 92.34% 92.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,000 14,689 22,539
10th Percentile £322 £293 £285
25th Percentile £413 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £518 £525
Median % change year-on-year -0.48% -1.43% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £638
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £513 £504 £525
% change year-on-year +1.69% -4.00% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,713 917 2,538
10th Percentile £15.72 £14.00 £12.86
25th Percentile £21.25 £18.20 £16.30
Median hourly rate £45.00 £29.33 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +53.43% -21.79% -16.67%
75th Percentile £67.50 £60.00 £61.60
90th Percentile £78.95 £75.00 £73.75
UK median hourly rate £42.50 £28.00 £37.50
% change year-on-year +51.79% -25.33% -16.67%

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 30 May 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 30 May 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 30 May 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 +1 89 £500 -13.04% 93
South West +16 71 £500 -9.30% 75
East of England +4 71 £450 -18.18% 41
London -54 51 £475 -6.86% 44
North of England -54 43 £450 +8.70% 34
Midlands -35 37 £395 +43.64% 44
North West -36 26 £350 -16.27% 22
West Midlands -56 19 £395 +43.64% 30
East Midlands -10 18 £388 +416.67% 14
Yorkshire -53 12 £393 - 5
North East -22 5 £450 +38.46% 8
Systems Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 30 May 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 94 (25.68%) Security Cleared
2 71 (19.40%) Systems Engineering
3 54 (14.75%) SC Cleared
4 41 (11.20%) Degree
4 41 (11.20%) Validation
5 33 (9.02%) Rational DOORS
6 30 (8.20%) Problem-Solving
6 30 (8.20%) Windows
7 24 (6.56%) DV Cleared
7 24 (6.56%) Verification and Validation
8 23 (6.28%) Microsoft
9 21 (5.74%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
10 20 (5.46%) Decision-Making
10 20 (5.46%) Linux
11 18 (4.92%) Customer Service
11 18 (4.92%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 18 (4.92%) Siemens
12 17 (4.64%) TCP/IP
13 16 (4.37%) Azure
13 16 (4.37%) Ethernet
13 16 (4.37%) Microsoft Office
13 16 (4.37%) Risk Assessment
14 15 (4.10%) Configuration Management
14 15 (4.10%) Creative Thinking
14 15 (4.10%) Fault Analysis
14 15 (4.10%) Fortinet
14 15 (4.10%) Mechatronics
14 15 (4.10%) ServiceNow
15 14 (3.83%) VMware
16 13 (3.55%) NetApp

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 (1.37%) Confluence
2 4 (1.09%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (0.55%) SharePoint
4 1 (0.27%) SAS
Applications
1 16 (4.37%) Microsoft Office
2 9 (2.46%) Simulink
3 4 (1.09%) Stateflow
Business Applications
1 1 (0.27%) ResourceLink
1 1 (0.27%) SAP HCM
1 1 (0.27%) SAP HR
1 1 (0.27%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
1 1 (0.27%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 16 (4.37%) Azure
2 11 (3.01%) AWS
2 11 (3.01%) SaaS
3 8 (2.19%) Microsoft 365
4 6 (1.64%) GitHub
4 6 (1.64%) OpenShift
5 5 (1.37%) Entra ID
6 4 (1.09%) GitHub Actions
7 2 (0.55%) Cohesity
7 2 (0.55%) Google Workspace
7 2 (0.55%) OneDrive
8 1 (0.27%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 1 (0.27%) Amazon EKS
8 1 (0.27%) AWS Lambda
8 1 (0.27%) AWS Step Functions
8 1 (0.27%) Cloud Computing
8 1 (0.27%) GCP
8 1 (0.27%) PaaS
8 1 (0.27%) Power Platform
8 1 (0.27%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 17 (4.64%) TCP/IP
2 16 (4.37%) Ethernet
3 8 (2.19%) Firewall
4 7 (1.91%) DNS
5 5 (1.37%) DHCP
5 5 (1.37%) LAN
6 4 (1.09%) WAN
7 3 (0.82%) SpaceWire
8 2 (0.55%) Network Security
8 2 (0.55%) PSTN
8 2 (0.55%) SAN
8 2 (0.55%) Unified Communications
8 2 (0.55%) VPN
9 1 (0.27%) Remote Desktop
9 1 (0.27%) Software-Defined Radio
9 1 (0.27%) VLAN
9 1 (0.27%) VoIP
9 1 (0.27%) Wi-Fi
9 1 (0.27%) Wireless
9 1 (0.27%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.55%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 33 (9.02%) Rational DOORS
2 7 (1.91%) Rational Rhapsody
3 5 (1.37%) JIRA
4 1 (0.27%) CANoe
General
1 49 (13.39%) Aerospace
2 48 (13.11%) Social Skills
3 38 (10.38%) Military
4 18 (4.92%) Presentation Skills
5 17 (4.64%) Electronics
6 16 (4.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 15 (4.10%) Avionics
8 13 (3.55%) Manufacturing
9 11 (3.01%) Analytical Skills
10 9 (2.46%) Public Sector
11 8 (2.19%) Finance
11 8 (2.19%) Law
12 5 (1.37%) Documentation Skills
13 4 (1.09%) Automotive
13 4 (1.09%) Aviation
14 2 (0.55%) Retail
15 1 (0.27%) Banking
15 1 (0.27%) Police
15 1 (0.27%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (1.37%) OpenID
1 5 (1.37%) SAML
2 4 (1.09%) REST
3 3 (0.82%) ISPF
3 3 (0.82%) Software Packaging
4 2 (0.55%) Middleware
5 1 (0.27%) GraphQL
5 1 (0.27%) JSON
5 1 (0.27%) Microsoft Graph
5 1 (0.27%) Node.js
5 1 (0.27%) OpenGL
5 1 (0.27%) Qt
5 1 (0.27%) RESTful
5 1 (0.27%) SAP Fiori
Miscellaneous
1 15 (4.10%) Industry 4.0
1 15 (4.10%) Robotics
2 8 (2.19%) Embedded Systems
3 6 (1.64%) Data Centre
3 6 (1.64%) IoT
3 6 (1.64%) Mainframe
4 4 (1.09%) Onboarding
5 3 (0.82%) Acoustics
5 3 (0.82%) FPGA
5 3 (0.82%) Hybrid Cloud
5 3 (0.82%) Operational Technology
5 3 (0.82%) Renewable Energy
6 2 (0.55%) Analytical Mindset
6 2 (0.55%) ASIC
6 2 (0.55%) CAN bus
6 2 (0.55%) Enterprise Storage
6 2 (0.55%) Legacy Systems
6 2 (0.55%) Linux Command Line
6 2 (0.55%) Management Information System
6 2 (0.55%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 30 (8.20%) Windows
2 20 (5.46%) Linux
3 6 (1.64%) Windows Server
4 5 (1.37%) Android
5 4 (1.09%) Mac OS
6 3 (0.82%) MVS
6 3 (0.82%) zOS
7 2 (0.55%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 1 (0.27%) FreeRTOS
8 1 (0.27%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 71 (19.40%) Systems Engineering
2 41 (11.20%) Validation
3 30 (8.20%) Problem-Solving
4 24 (6.56%) Verification and Validation
5 21 (5.74%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
6 20 (5.46%) Decision-Making
7 18 (4.92%) Customer Service
7 18 (4.92%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 16 (4.37%) Risk Assessment
9 15 (4.10%) Configuration Management
9 15 (4.10%) Creative Thinking
9 15 (4.10%) Fault Analysis
9 15 (4.10%) Mechatronics
10 13 (3.55%) Workflow
11 12 (3.28%) Agile
11 12 (3.28%) Migration
12 10 (2.73%) Continuous Improvement
13 9 (2.46%) SysML
14 8 (2.19%) Change Management
14 8 (2.19%) Software Testing
Programming Languages
1 11 (3.01%) MATLAB
2 9 (2.46%) PowerShell
2 9 (2.46%) Python
3 5 (1.37%) REXX
4 4 (1.09%) C
5 3 (0.82%) Bash
5 3 (0.82%) JCL
6 2 (0.55%) JavaScript
7 1 (0.27%) Go
7 1 (0.27%) Java
7 1 (0.27%) SQL
Qualifications
1 94 (25.68%) Security Cleared
2 54 (14.75%) SC Cleared
3 41 (11.20%) Degree
4 24 (6.56%) DV Cleared
5 8 (2.19%) BPSS Clearance
6 2 (0.55%) AWS Certification
6 2 (0.55%) CCNA
6 2 (0.55%) Chartered Engineer
6 2 (0.55%) Cisco Certification
7 1 (0.27%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
7 1 (0.27%) Azure Certification
7 1 (0.27%) CCA
7 1 (0.27%) CCNP
7 1 (0.27%) CISSP
7 1 (0.27%) CompTIA CySA+
7 1 (0.27%) Computer Science Degree
7 1 (0.27%) HND
7 1 (0.27%) Microsoft Certification
7 1 (0.27%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (1.09%) Def Stans
1 4 (1.09%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 3 (0.82%) MIL-STD-1553
3 2 (0.55%) Data Quality
3 2 (0.55%) NIST
4 1 (0.27%) Cyber Essentials
4 1 (0.27%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 1 (0.27%) DICOM
4 1 (0.27%) DO-254
4 1 (0.27%) HAZOP
4 1 (0.27%) HL7
4 1 (0.27%) IEC 61508
4 1 (0.27%) ISO 26262
4 1 (0.27%) NIST 800
4 1 (0.27%) QA
System Software
1 13 (3.55%) VMware Infrastructure
2 11 (3.01%) Active Directory
3 6 (1.64%) Hyper-V
4 4 (1.09%) Firmware
4 4 (1.09%) Virtual Desktop
5 3 (0.82%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (0.55%) Embedded Firmware
6 2 (0.55%) KVM
6 2 (0.55%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (0.55%) VMware Workstation
7 1 (0.27%) Docker
7 1 (0.27%) Job Entry Subsystem
7 1 (0.27%) Microsoft App-V
7 1 (0.27%) VMware NSX
7 1 (0.27%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 7 (1.91%) Microsoft Intune
2 6 (1.64%) Ansible
2 6 (1.64%) Terraform
3 5 (1.37%) Kubernetes
4 4 (1.09%) SCCM
5 2 (0.55%) Functional Safety
5 2 (0.55%) Tivoli NetView
6 1 (0.27%) Control-M
6 1 (0.27%) Jamf Pro
6 1 (0.27%) Packer
Vendors
1 23 (6.28%) Microsoft
2 18 (4.92%) Siemens
3 15 (4.10%) Fortinet
3 15 (4.10%) ServiceNow
4 14 (3.83%) VMware
5 13 (3.55%) NetApp
6 11 (3.01%) IBM
7 7 (1.91%) EMC
8 5 (1.37%) Cisco
9 4 (1.09%) Broadcom
10 3 (0.82%) Citrix
10 3 (0.82%) Google
10 3 (0.82%) NEC
10 3 (0.82%) Splunk
10 3 (0.82%) Veeam
11 2 (0.55%) Apple
11 2 (0.55%) Brocade
11 2 (0.55%) CyberArk
11 2 (0.55%) Oracle
11 2 (0.55%) Red Hat
318 Systems Engineer jobs in England