Systems Engineer Contract Job Trends in England

System Engineer
UK > England

The median System Engineer daily rate in England is £488, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 10 August 2026.

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

 6 months to
10 Aug 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 230 322 242
Rank change year-on-year +92 -80 +119
Contract jobs requiring a Systems Engineer 511 193 332
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.12% 0.69% 1.00%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.21% 0.76% 1.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 104 60 74
10th Percentile £233 £363 £316
25th Percentile £382 £412 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £516 £450
Median % change year-on-year -5.57% +14.72% -18.18%
75th Percentile £578 £605 £563
90th Percentile £725 £650 £629
UK median daily rate £475 £500 £450
% change year-on-year -5.00% +11.11% -18.18%
Number of hourly rates quoted 256 59 127
10th Percentile £48.75 £44.99 £39.96
25th Percentile £56.74 £51.72 £45.30
Median hourly rate £65.90 £56.44 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +16.76% -13.17% +15.06%
75th Percentile £75.00 £74.38 £71.38
90th Percentile £80.53 £77.75 £76.86
UK median hourly rate £67.00 £56.44 £61.25
% change year-on-year +18.70% -7.85% +3.09%

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 42,140 25,508 30,829
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.51% 91.65% 92.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,526 16,531 20,304
10th Percentile £325 £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% -1.87%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,165 1,327 1,793
10th Percentile £15.25 £13.53 £14.16
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.48 £21.25
Median hourly rate £42.65 £25.30 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +68.58% -43.78% +5.88%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.00 £66.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +67.00% -41.51% +1.18%

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 10 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 10 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 10 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 +30 146 £500 -9.09% 169
South West +29 118 £495 -10.20% 91
London -48 76 £475 -10.06% 140
East of England +5 64 £250 -54.55% 54
Midlands -12 57 £450 +5.88% 60
North of England -38 49 £500 +15.74% 63
North West -29 37 £500 +15.74% 33
West Midlands -24 35 £395 -22.93% 35
East Midlands +2 22 £475 +533.33% 25
Yorkshire -32 10 £275 - 16
North East -41 2 £338 - 15
Systems Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 10 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.

1 103 (20.16%) Security Cleared
2 94 (18.40%) Systems Engineering
3 78 (15.26%) SC Cleared
4 50 (9.78%) Validation
5 45 (8.81%) Degree
6 40 (7.83%) Windows
7 39 (7.63%) Problem-Solving
8 37 (7.24%) Rational DOORS
9 34 (6.65%) Verification and Validation
10 32 (6.26%) Microsoft
11 29 (5.68%) Linux
12 27 (5.28%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
13 26 (5.09%) Azure
13 26 (5.09%) TCP/IP
14 25 (4.89%) Active Directory
15 24 (4.70%) Configuration Management
16 22 (4.31%) Windows Server
17 19 (3.72%) BPSS Clearance
18 18 (3.52%) Customer Service
18 18 (3.52%) DNS
18 18 (3.52%) EMC
18 18 (3.52%) Python
18 18 (3.52%) Siemens
19 17 (3.33%) Decision-Making
19 17 (3.33%) VMware
19 17 (3.33%) VMware Infrastructure
20 16 (3.13%) Disaster Recovery
20 16 (3.13%) Ethernet
20 16 (3.13%) Firewall
20 16 (3.13%) Microsoft Office

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%) JBoss
2 3 (0.59%) Microsoft Exchange
2 3 (0.59%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.39%) Confluence
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 14 (2.74%) Microsoft 365
3 12 (2.35%) AWS
3 12 (2.35%) Entra ID
4 10 (1.96%) SaaS
5 9 (1.76%) OpenShift
6 6 (1.17%) GitHub
7 4 (0.78%) GCP
7 4 (0.78%) GitHub Actions
8 3 (0.59%) Azure Logic Apps
8 3 (0.59%) Azure Monitor
9 2 (0.39%) Cloudflare
9 2 (0.39%) OneDrive
10 1 (0.20%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 1 (0.20%) Amazon EKS
10 1 (0.20%) AWS Step Functions
10 1 (0.20%) Cloud Computing
10 1 (0.20%) Figma
10 1 (0.20%) IaaS
10 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
8 5 (0.98%) Kerberos
9 4 (0.78%) WAN
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 3 (0.59%) Big Data
1 3 (0.59%) Hadoop
2 2 (0.39%) SQL Server Reporting Services
3 1 (0.20%) Db2
3 1 (0.20%) NoSQL
3 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 84 (16.44%) Aerospace
2 57 (11.15%) Social Skills
3 28 (5.48%) Avionics
3 28 (5.48%) Military
4 24 (4.70%) Analytical Skills
5 22 (4.31%) Manufacturing
6 19 (3.72%) Presentation Skills
7 15 (2.94%) Automotive
7 15 (2.94%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 14 (2.74%) Electronics
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%) Clustering
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%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 40 (7.83%) Windows
2 29 (5.68%) Linux
3 22 (4.31%) Windows Server
4 9 (1.76%) 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 94 (18.40%) Systems Engineering
2 50 (9.78%) Validation
3 39 (7.63%) Problem-Solving
4 34 (6.65%) Verification and Validation
5 27 (5.28%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
6 24 (4.70%) Configuration Management
7 18 (3.52%) Customer Service
8 17 (3.33%) Decision-Making
9 16 (3.13%) Disaster Recovery
9 16 (3.13%) Risk Assessment
10 15 (2.94%) Creative Thinking
10 15 (2.94%) Fault Analysis
10 15 (2.94%) ITIL
10 15 (2.94%) Mechatronics
11 13 (2.54%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 13 (2.54%) Workflow
12 12 (2.35%) Continuous Improvement
12 12 (2.35%) Project Management
12 12 (2.35%) Root Cause Analysis
12 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
1 103 (20.16%) Security Cleared
2 78 (15.26%) SC Cleared
3 45 (8.81%) Degree
4 19 (3.72%) BPSS Clearance
5 13 (2.54%) 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%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 1 (0.20%) CompTIA CySA+
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%) HL7
5 1 (0.20%) IEC 61508
5 1 (0.20%) ISO 26262
5 1 (0.20%) MIL-STD-1553
5 1 (0.20%) NIST 800
5 1 (0.20%) WCAG
System Software
1 25 (4.89%) Active Directory
2 17 (3.33%) 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 6 (1.17%) Puppet
5 4 (0.78%) Failover Clustering
6 3 (0.59%) Progress Chef
6 3 (0.59%) Red Hat Satellite
7 2 (0.39%) Functional Safety
7 2 (0.39%) Grafana
7 2 (0.39%) Istio
7 2 (0.39%) Prometheus
7 2 (0.39%) Tivoli NetView
8 1 (0.20%) Amdocs OSS
8 1 (0.20%) Control-M
8 1 (0.20%) Microsoft Clustering
8 1 (0.20%) Packer
8 1 (0.20%) PingFederate
8 1 (0.20%) SCCM
8 1 (0.20%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 32 (6.26%) Microsoft
2 18 (3.52%) EMC
2 18 (3.52%) Siemens
3 17 (3.33%) VMware
4 11 (2.15%) IBM
5 10 (1.96%) Cisco
6 9 (1.76%) Red Hat
7 7 (1.37%) ServiceNow
8 5 (0.98%) Fortinet
9 4 (0.78%) Perforce
10 3 (0.59%) NEC
10 3 (0.59%) NetApp
10 3 (0.59%) Rockwell
10 3 (0.59%) SaltStack
10 3 (0.59%) Sparx
10 3 (0.59%) Splunk
11 2 (0.39%) BeyondTrust
11 2 (0.39%) Broadcom
11 2 (0.39%) CrowdStrike
11 2 (0.39%) CyberArk
565 Systems Engineer jobs in England