Systems Engineer Contract Job Trends in England

System Engineer
UK > England

The median System Engineer daily rate in England is £475, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 7 August 2026.

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

 6 months to
7 Aug 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 226 320 234
Rank change year-on-year +94 -86 +135
Contract jobs requiring a Systems Engineer 511 192 338
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.12% 0.70% 1.01%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.21% 0.76% 1.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 101 59 74
10th Percentile £225 £363 £316
25th Percentile £382 £414 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £520 £450
Median % change year-on-year -8.65% +15.56% -18.18%
75th Percentile £544 £608 £563
90th Percentile £675 £650 £633
UK median daily rate £475 £500 £450
% change year-on-year -5.00% +11.11% -18.18%
Number of hourly rates quoted 255 59 131
10th Percentile £48.75 £44.99 £39.96
25th Percentile £56.74 £51.72 £45.30
Median hourly rate £65.90 £56.44 £62.66
Median % change year-on-year +16.76% -9.92% +9.29%
75th Percentile £75.00 £74.38 £71.38
90th Percentile £80.63 £77.75 £76.86
UK median hourly rate £66.99 £56.44 £60.00
% change year-on-year +18.69% -5.93% -2.44%

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 42,226 25,298 31,012
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.54% 91.69% 92.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,604 16,413 20,392
10th Percentile £326 £285 £300
25th Percentile £425 £402 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.44% -2.38% -4.55%
75th Percentile £630 £625 £638
90th Percentile £738 £738 £750
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.02%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,151 1,307 1,820
10th Percentile £15.25 £13.61 £14.16
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.79 £21.25
Median hourly rate £43.56 £26.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +67.54% -42.22% +4.65%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.25 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +67.99% -41.51% -

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 7 August 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 7 August 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 7 August 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 +38 146 £500 -9.09% 174
South West +36 116 £495 -10.20% 92
London -38 74 £475 -10.06% 132
East of England -3 64 £250 -54.55% 57
Midlands -17 60 £450 +5.88% 56
North of England -50 50 £500 +11.11% 68
North West -27 37 £500 +11.11% 37
West Midlands -36 35 £395 -22.93% 33
East Midlands 0 25 £475 +533.33% 23
Yorkshire -30 11 £275 - 15
North East -41 2 £338 - 17
Systems Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 7 August 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.

1 104 (20.35%) Security Cleared
2 97 (18.98%) Systems Engineering
3 76 (14.87%) SC Cleared
4 49 (9.59%) Validation
5 47 (9.20%) Degree
6 39 (7.63%) Problem-Solving
6 39 (7.63%) Windows
7 37 (7.24%) Rational DOORS
8 33 (6.46%) Verification and Validation
9 31 (6.07%) Microsoft
10 27 (5.28%) Linux
11 26 (5.09%) Azure
11 26 (5.09%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
11 26 (5.09%) TCP/IP
12 24 (4.70%) Active Directory
13 22 (4.31%) Configuration Management
14 21 (4.11%) Windows Server
15 20 (3.91%) EMC
16 19 (3.72%) BPSS Clearance
17 18 (3.52%) Customer Service
17 18 (3.52%) DNS
17 18 (3.52%) Python
17 18 (3.52%) Siemens
18 17 (3.33%) Decision-Making
19 16 (3.13%) DV Cleared
19 16 (3.13%) Ethernet
19 16 (3.13%) Firewall
19 16 (3.13%) Infrastructure Engineering
19 16 (3.13%) Microsoft Office
19 16 (3.13%) 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 4 (0.78%) SAS
2 3 (0.59%) Microsoft Exchange
2 3 (0.59%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.39%) Confluence
4 1 (0.20%) JBoss
Applications
1 16 (3.13%) Microsoft Office
2 12 (2.35%) Simulink
3 4 (0.78%) Stateflow
Business Applications
1 3 (0.59%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 1 (0.20%) ResourceLink
2 1 (0.20%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 26 (5.09%) Azure
2 13 (2.54%) Microsoft 365
3 12 (2.35%) AWS
4 11 (2.15%) Entra ID
5 10 (1.96%) SaaS
6 9 (1.76%) OpenShift
7 6 (1.17%) GitHub
8 4 (0.78%) GCP
8 4 (0.78%) GitHub Actions
9 3 (0.59%) Azure Logic Apps
9 3 (0.59%) Azure Monitor
10 2 (0.39%) Cloudflare
10 2 (0.39%) OneDrive
11 1 (0.20%) Amazon CloudWatch
11 1 (0.20%) AWS Lambda
11 1 (0.20%) AWS Step Functions
11 1 (0.20%) Azure Sentinel
11 1 (0.20%) Azure Service Bus
11 1 (0.20%) IaaS
11 1 (0.20%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 26 (5.09%) TCP/IP
2 18 (3.52%) DNS
3 16 (3.13%) Ethernet
3 16 (3.13%) Firewall
4 14 (2.74%) DHCP
5 10 (1.96%) Network Security
6 9 (1.76%) LAN
6 9 (1.76%) VPN
7 6 (1.17%) IPv4
7 6 (1.17%) Modbus
7 6 (1.17%) VLAN
8 5 (0.98%) ATM
9 4 (0.78%) WAN
10 3 (0.59%) Kerberos
10 3 (0.59%) NAS
10 3 (0.59%) SAN
11 2 (0.39%) DKIM
11 2 (0.39%) DMARC
11 2 (0.39%) Software-Defined Networking
11 2 (0.39%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.39%) SQL Server Reporting Services
2 1 (0.20%) Big Data
2 1 (0.20%) Db2
2 1 (0.20%) Hadoop
2 1 (0.20%) NoSQL
2 1 (0.20%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 37 (7.24%) Rational DOORS
2 7 (1.37%) Rational Rhapsody
3 3 (0.59%) JIRA
4 1 (0.20%) CANoe
4 1 (0.20%) Git
4 1 (0.20%) Jenkins
4 1 (0.20%) Storybook
General
1 83 (16.24%) Aerospace
2 55 (10.76%) Social Skills
3 31 (6.07%) Military
4 28 (5.48%) Avionics
5 22 (4.31%) Analytical Skills
5 22 (4.31%) Manufacturing
6 19 (3.72%) Presentation Skills
7 16 (3.13%) Electronics
8 15 (2.94%) Automotive
8 15 (2.94%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 12 (2.35%) Finance
10 10 (1.96%) Law
11 5 (0.98%) Aviation
12 4 (0.78%) Games
12 4 (0.78%) Influencing Skills
12 4 (0.78%) Public Sector
13 3 (0.59%) Documentation Skills
13 3 (0.59%) Telecoms
14 1 (0.20%) Banking
14 1 (0.20%) Financial Institution
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (1.17%) NETCONF
2 5 (0.98%) OpenID
2 5 (0.98%) SAML
3 4 (0.78%) REST
4 3 (0.59%) ISPF
5 2 (0.39%) ARM Templates
5 2 (0.39%) HTML
5 2 (0.39%) Microsoft Graph
5 2 (0.39%) Middleware
6 1 (0.20%) CSS
6 1 (0.20%) GraphQL
6 1 (0.20%) JSON
6 1 (0.20%) Node.js
6 1 (0.20%) OpenGL
6 1 (0.20%) Qt
6 1 (0.20%) RESTful
6 1 (0.20%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 15 (2.94%) Industry 4.0
1 15 (2.94%) Robotics
2 11 (2.15%) Operational Technology
3 9 (1.76%) Renewable Energy
4 7 (1.37%) SCADA
5 6 (1.17%) Embedded Systems
5 6 (1.17%) IoT
5 6 (1.17%) Mainframe
6 5 (0.98%) Hybrid Cloud
6 5 (0.98%) Onboarding
6 5 (0.98%) Virtual Team
7 4 (0.78%) Animation
7 4 (0.78%) Data Centre
7 4 (0.78%) Legacy Systems
8 3 (0.59%) Acoustics
8 3 (0.59%) Cloud Native
8 3 (0.59%) Management Information System
8 3 (0.59%) Self-Motivation
9 2 (0.39%) Enterprise Software
9 2 (0.39%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 39 (7.63%) Windows
2 27 (5.28%) Linux
3 21 (4.11%) Windows Server
4 7 (1.37%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 6 (1.17%) Windows 10
6 4 (0.78%) Unix
6 4 (0.78%) zOS
7 3 (0.59%) Android
7 3 (0.59%) MVS
8 1 (0.20%) FreeRTOS
8 1 (0.20%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 97 (18.98%) Systems Engineering
2 49 (9.59%) Validation
3 39 (7.63%) Problem-Solving
4 33 (6.46%) Verification and Validation
5 26 (5.09%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
6 22 (4.31%) Configuration Management
7 18 (3.52%) Customer Service
8 17 (3.33%) Decision-Making
9 16 (3.13%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 16 (3.13%) Risk Assessment
10 15 (2.94%) Creative Thinking
10 15 (2.94%) Fault Analysis
10 15 (2.94%) Mechatronics
11 14 (2.74%) Disaster Recovery
12 13 (2.54%) ITIL
12 13 (2.54%) Workflow
13 12 (2.35%) Continuous Improvement
13 12 (2.35%) Infrastructure as Code
13 12 (2.35%) Root Cause Analysis
13 12 (2.35%) SysML
Programming Languages
1 18 (3.52%) Python
2 16 (3.13%) PowerShell
3 13 (2.54%) MATLAB
4 7 (1.37%) Bash
5 6 (1.17%) REXX
6 4 (0.78%) C
7 3 (0.59%) Bicep
7 3 (0.59%) JCL
8 2 (0.39%) C++
8 2 (0.39%) Java
8 2 (0.39%) SQL
9 1 (0.20%) COBOL
9 1 (0.20%) Go
9 1 (0.20%) Perl
9 1 (0.20%) Rust
9 1 (0.20%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 104 (20.35%) Security Cleared
2 76 (14.87%) SC Cleared
3 47 (9.20%) Degree
4 19 (3.72%) BPSS Clearance
5 16 (3.13%) DV Cleared
6 6 (1.17%) Microsoft Certification
7 5 (0.98%) Azure Certification
7 5 (0.98%) Chartered Engineer
7 5 (0.98%) Cisco Certification
8 4 (0.78%) CCNA
9 3 (0.59%) CCA
9 3 (0.59%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 2 (0.39%) AWS Certification
10 2 (0.39%) CCNP
10 2 (0.39%) Computer Science Degree
10 2 (0.39%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 1 (0.20%) CISSP
11 1 (0.20%) HND
11 1 (0.20%) Master's Degree
11 1 (0.20%) Numerate Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (1.17%) Def Stans
2 4 (0.78%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 3 (0.59%) Data Quality
3 3 (0.59%) ISO/IEC 15288
3 3 (0.59%) NCSC
4 2 (0.39%) DO-254
4 2 (0.39%) GxP
4 2 (0.39%) NIST
4 2 (0.39%) QA
5 1 (0.20%) Accessibility
5 1 (0.20%) ARP4761
5 1 (0.20%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (0.20%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 1 (0.20%) DICOM
5 1 (0.20%) HAZOP
5 1 (0.20%) HL7
5 1 (0.20%) IEC 61508
5 1 (0.20%) MIL-STD-1553
5 1 (0.20%) NIST 800
5 1 (0.20%) WCAG
System Software
1 24 (4.70%) Active Directory
2 15 (2.94%) VMware Infrastructure
3 13 (2.54%) Hyper-V
4 6 (1.17%) Firmware
5 4 (0.78%) Docker
5 4 (0.78%) Virtual Desktop
5 4 (0.78%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (0.59%) Embedded Firmware
7 2 (0.39%) VMware Workstation
8 1 (0.20%) Job Entry Subsystem
8 1 (0.20%) KVM
8 1 (0.20%) Microsoft App-V
Systems Management
1 11 (2.15%) Kubernetes
2 10 (1.96%) Ansible
2 10 (1.96%) Terraform
3 8 (1.57%) Microsoft Intune
4 4 (0.78%) Puppet
5 3 (0.59%) Progress Chef
6 2 (0.39%) Failover Clustering
6 2 (0.39%) Functional Safety
6 2 (0.39%) Grafana
6 2 (0.39%) Istio
6 2 (0.39%) Prometheus
6 2 (0.39%) Tivoli NetView
7 1 (0.20%) Amdocs OSS
7 1 (0.20%) Control-M
7 1 (0.20%) Microsoft Clustering
7 1 (0.20%) Packer
7 1 (0.20%) PingFederate
7 1 (0.20%) Red Hat Satellite
7 1 (0.20%) SCCM
7 1 (0.20%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 31 (6.07%) Microsoft
2 20 (3.91%) EMC
3 18 (3.52%) Siemens
4 15 (2.94%) VMware
5 11 (2.15%) IBM
6 10 (1.96%) ServiceNow
7 8 (1.57%) Cisco
7 8 (1.57%) Fortinet
8 7 (1.37%) Red Hat
9 6 (1.17%) NetApp
10 4 (0.78%) Perforce
11 3 (0.59%) NEC
11 3 (0.59%) Rockwell
11 3 (0.59%) SaltStack
11 3 (0.59%) Sparx
11 3 (0.59%) Splunk
12 2 (0.39%) BeyondTrust
12 2 (0.39%) Broadcom
12 2 (0.39%) CrowdStrike
12 2 (0.39%) CyberArk
571 Systems Engineer jobs in England