Systems Engineer Contract Job Trends in England

System Engineer
UK > England

The median System Engineer daily rate in England is £500, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 15 October 2026.

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

 6 months to
15 Oct 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 230 380 270
Rank change year-on-year +150 -110 +50
Contract jobs requiring a Systems Engineer 582 141 287
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.24% 0.50% 0.89%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.35% 0.55% 0.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 106 45 67
10th Percentile £325 £306 £340
25th Percentile £413 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £465 £450
Median % change year-on-year +7.53% +3.33% -19.64%
75th Percentile £590 £600 £531
90th Percentile £725 £623 £673
UK median daily rate £500 £465 £444
% change year-on-year +7.53% +4.79% -19.32%
Number of hourly rates quoted 302 39 79
10th Percentile £48.75 £44.99 £24.90
25th Percentile £57.50 £50.88 £46.25
Median hourly rate £67.47 £68.17 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -1.02% +4.87% +15.06%
75th Percentile £74.25 £75.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £78.51 £75.79 £76.75
UK median hourly rate £67.47 £65.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year +3.80% - +15.06%

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 43,070 25,660 29,897
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.95% 91.15% 93.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,333 16,528 18,273
10th Percentile £325 £278 £300
25th Percentile £425 £402 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £510 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -2.78%
75th Percentile £638 £625 £638
90th Percentile £738 £725 £750
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,798 1,445 1,249
10th Percentile £14.50 £13.80 £15.10
25th Percentile £20.01 £17.33 £21.25
Median hourly rate £41.74 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +65.94% -41.51% -6.89%
75th Percentile £67.85 £50.00 £67.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £70.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £41.56 £25.15 £41.27
% change year-on-year +65.23% -39.05% -8.30%

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 15 October 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 15 October 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 15 October 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 West +60 165 £550 +10.00% 79
South East +51 160 £525 -4.55% 105
London -33 79 £500 +9.29% 27
North of England -24 69 £400 -13.51% 26
Midlands -5 65 £475 +8.57% 29
North West -26 44 £500 +8.11% 17
East of England -9 42 - - 47
West Midlands -23 33 £425 -2.86% 16
East Midlands +11 32 £475 - 13
North East - 16 £350 - 3
Yorkshire -32 9 £275 - 7
Systems Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 15 October 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.

1 108 (18.56%) Systems Engineering
2 96 (16.49%) Security Cleared
3 86 (14.78%) SC Cleared
4 52 (8.93%) Validation
5 43 (7.39%) Rational DOORS
6 41 (7.04%) Windows
7 39 (6.70%) Verification and Validation
8 34 (5.84%) Microsoft
9 32 (5.50%) Degree
10 29 (4.98%) Azure
11 28 (4.81%) Linux
12 27 (4.64%) Windows Server
13 26 (4.47%) Requirements Management
14 25 (4.30%) Active Directory
14 25 (4.30%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
14 25 (4.30%) Problem-Solving
15 24 (4.12%) VMware
16 23 (3.95%) Python
16 23 (3.95%) VMware Infrastructure
17 21 (3.61%) Configuration Management
17 21 (3.61%) Disaster Recovery
18 20 (3.44%) MATLAB
19 19 (3.26%) Hyper-V
19 19 (3.26%) PowerShell
19 19 (3.26%) Simulink
20 18 (3.09%) DNS
21 17 (2.92%) ITIL
22 16 (2.75%) EMC
22 16 (2.75%) Infrastructure as Code
22 16 (2.75%) Stakeholder Management

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 (0.86%) Microsoft Exchange
2 4 (0.69%) JBoss
3 3 (0.52%) SAS
3 3 (0.52%) SharePoint
4 2 (0.34%) Confluence
5 1 (0.17%) FactoryTalk
Applications
1 19 (3.26%) Simulink
2 4 (0.69%) Stateflow
3 2 (0.34%) Solid Edge
Business Applications
1 3 (0.52%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 29 (4.98%) Azure
2 14 (2.41%) AWS
2 14 (2.41%) Entra ID
3 13 (2.23%) Microsoft 365
4 12 (2.06%) OpenShift
5 5 (0.86%) GCP
5 5 (0.86%) GitHub
6 4 (0.69%) SaaS
7 3 (0.52%) Azure Monitor
7 3 (0.52%) GitHub Actions
8 2 (0.34%) Azure Logic Apps
8 2 (0.34%) Cloudflare
8 2 (0.34%) OneDrive
9 1 (0.17%) Amazon EKS
9 1 (0.17%) Anthropic Claude
9 1 (0.17%) AWS Direct Connect
9 1 (0.17%) Azure Sentinel
9 1 (0.17%) Figma
9 1 (0.17%) Microsoft Purview
9 1 (0.17%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 18 (3.09%) DNS
2 14 (2.41%) DHCP
2 14 (2.41%) Firewall
2 14 (2.41%) TCP/IP
3 12 (2.06%) VPN
4 8 (1.37%) LAN
4 8 (1.37%) Network Security
5 6 (1.03%) IPv4
5 6 (1.03%) Kerberos
5 6 (1.03%) Modbus
5 6 (1.03%) VLAN
6 5 (0.86%) ATM
7 4 (0.69%) WAN
8 3 (0.52%) NAS
8 3 (0.52%) SAN
8 3 (0.52%) Software-Defined Networking
8 3 (0.52%) VoIP
9 2 (0.34%) DKIM
9 2 (0.34%) DMARC
10 1 (0.17%) PCoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (0.86%) GIS
2 4 (0.69%) Big Data
2 4 (0.69%) Hadoop
3 3 (0.52%) SQL Server
4 1 (0.17%) Amazon RDS
4 1 (0.17%) Db2
4 1 (0.17%) NoSQL
Development Applications
1 43 (7.39%) Rational DOORS
2 7 (1.20%) Rational Rhapsody
3 3 (0.52%) JIRA
4 1 (0.17%) Claude Code
4 1 (0.17%) Git
4 1 (0.17%) Jenkins
4 1 (0.17%) Storybook
General
1 108 (18.56%) Aerospace
2 60 (10.31%) Avionics
3 37 (6.36%) Social Skills
4 30 (5.15%) Manufacturing
5 23 (3.95%) Analytical Skills
6 22 (3.78%) Automotive
7 18 (3.09%) Military
8 11 (1.89%) Finance
9 9 (1.55%) Law
10 7 (1.20%) Aviation
10 7 (1.20%) Electronics
11 4 (0.69%) Games
11 4 (0.69%) Influencing Skills
12 3 (0.52%) Presentation Skills
12 3 (0.52%) Telecoms
13 1 (0.17%) Aeronautics
13 1 (0.17%) Financial Institution
13 1 (0.17%) Local Government
13 1 (0.17%) Pharmaceutical
13 1 (0.17%) Public Sector
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (2.23%) Terraform
2 6 (1.03%) NETCONF
3 5 (0.86%) XML
4 3 (0.52%) ARM Templates
5 2 (0.34%) HTML
5 2 (0.34%) Microsoft Graph
6 1 (0.17%) CSS
6 1 (0.17%) Middleware
6 1 (0.17%) OpenGL
6 1 (0.17%) Qt
6 1 (0.17%) REST
6 1 (0.17%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 15 (2.58%) SCADA
2 11 (1.89%) Operational Technology
3 10 (1.72%) Algorithms
4 7 (1.20%) Cloud Native
4 7 (1.20%) Hybrid Cloud
5 6 (1.03%) Renewable Energy
6 5 (0.86%) AI Agents
6 5 (0.86%) CAN bus
6 5 (0.86%) CCTV
6 5 (0.86%) Clustering
6 5 (0.86%) Management Information System
7 4 (0.69%) Animation
7 4 (0.69%) Data Centre
7 4 (0.69%) Distributed Architecture
7 4 (0.69%) Distributed Computing
7 4 (0.69%) Distributed Systems
7 4 (0.69%) Legacy Systems
8 3 (0.52%) Data Structures
8 3 (0.52%) Self-Motivation
8 3 (0.52%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 41 (7.04%) Windows
2 28 (4.81%) Linux
3 27 (4.64%) Windows Server
4 12 (2.06%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 7 (1.20%) Windows 10
6 5 (0.86%) Unix
7 2 (0.34%) Debian
7 2 (0.34%) MVS
8 1 (0.17%) Rocky
8 1 (0.17%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 108 (18.56%) Systems Engineering
2 52 (8.93%) Validation
3 39 (6.70%) Verification and Validation
4 26 (4.47%) Requirements Management
5 25 (4.30%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
5 25 (4.30%) Problem-Solving
6 21 (3.61%) Configuration Management
6 21 (3.61%) Disaster Recovery
7 17 (2.92%) ITIL
8 16 (2.75%) Infrastructure as Code
8 16 (2.75%) Stakeholder Management
9 13 (2.23%) Data Integration
10 12 (2.06%) AI
10 12 (2.06%) Business Continuity
10 12 (2.06%) Digital Transformation Programme
10 12 (2.06%) Root Cause Analysis
11 11 (1.89%) Agile
11 11 (1.89%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 11 (1.89%) Project Management
11 11 (1.89%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 23 (3.95%) Python
2 20 (3.44%) MATLAB
3 19 (3.26%) PowerShell
4 8 (1.37%) Bash
5 6 (1.03%) SQL
6 5 (0.86%) C
6 5 (0.86%) C++
7 4 (0.69%) Bicep
7 4 (0.69%) Rust
8 3 (0.52%) REXX
9 2 (0.34%) Java
10 1 (0.17%) COBOL
10 1 (0.17%) Go
10 1 (0.17%) Perl
10 1 (0.17%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 96 (16.49%) Security Cleared
2 86 (14.78%) SC Cleared
3 32 (5.50%) Degree
4 14 (2.41%) BPSS Clearance
5 7 (1.20%) Microsoft Certification
6 6 (1.03%) Azure Certification
6 6 (1.03%) DV Cleared
7 5 (0.86%) Chartered Engineer
8 4 (0.69%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 3 (0.52%) Cisco Certification
9 3 (0.52%) Computer Science Degree
9 3 (0.52%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
9 3 (0.52%) Master's Degree
10 2 (0.34%) AWS Certification
10 2 (0.34%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 2 (0.34%) CCA
10 2 (0.34%) CCNA
11 1 (0.17%) CCNP
11 1 (0.17%) HNC
11 1 (0.17%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (1.20%) Def Stans
2 5 (0.86%) QA
3 4 (0.69%) NCSC
4 3 (0.52%) GxP
4 3 (0.52%) ISO/IEC 15288
5 2 (0.34%) DO-254
6 1 (0.17%) 21 CFR Part 11
6 1 (0.17%) Accessibility
6 1 (0.17%) ARP4754
6 1 (0.17%) ARP4761
6 1 (0.17%) Cyber Essentials
6 1 (0.17%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 1 (0.17%) Data Quality
6 1 (0.17%) HAZOP
6 1 (0.17%) ISO 13485
6 1 (0.17%) ISO 9001
6 1 (0.17%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 1 (0.17%) WCAG
System Software
1 25 (4.30%) Active Directory
2 23 (3.95%) VMware Infrastructure
3 19 (3.26%) Hyper-V
4 6 (1.03%) Docker
5 5 (0.86%) Virtual Machines
6 4 (0.69%) Virtual Desktop
7 2 (0.34%) Firmware
7 2 (0.34%) KVM
7 2 (0.34%) VMware Workstation
8 1 (0.17%) Embedded Firmware
8 1 (0.17%) Microsoft App-V
8 1 (0.17%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.17%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 15 (2.58%) Ansible
2 14 (2.41%) Kubernetes
3 9 (1.55%) Microsoft Intune
4 8 (1.37%) Puppet
5 5 (0.86%) Failover Clustering
5 5 (0.86%) Red Hat Satellite
6 4 (0.69%) Grafana
6 4 (0.69%) Progress Chef
6 4 (0.69%) Prometheus
7 3 (0.52%) Istio
8 2 (0.34%) SCCM
8 2 (0.34%) Tivoli NetView
9 1 (0.17%) Amdocs OSS
9 1 (0.17%) Check_MK
9 1 (0.17%) Microsoft Clustering
9 1 (0.17%) Packer
9 1 (0.17%) PingFederate
9 1 (0.17%) Podman
9 1 (0.17%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 34 (5.84%) Microsoft
2 24 (4.12%) VMware
3 16 (2.75%) EMC
4 13 (2.23%) Red Hat
5 11 (1.89%) Cisco
6 10 (1.72%) IBM
7 4 (0.69%) Perforce
7 4 (0.69%) Rockwell
7 4 (0.69%) SaltStack
8 3 (0.52%) AVEVA
8 3 (0.52%) Fortinet
8 3 (0.52%) Okta
8 3 (0.52%) Sparx
9 2 (0.34%) BeyondTrust
9 2 (0.34%) Broadcom
9 2 (0.34%) CrowdStrike
9 2 (0.34%) Facebook
9 2 (0.34%) Google
9 2 (0.34%) ServiceNow
10 1 (0.17%) NVIDIA
299 Systems Engineer jobs in England