Systems Engineer Contract Job Trends in England

System Engineer
UK > England

The median System Engineer daily rate in England is £450, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 6 December 2025.

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

6 months to
6 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 359 324 310
Rank change year-on-year -35 -14 +153
Contract jobs requiring a Systems Engineer 180 202 277
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.58% 0.66% 0.72%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.63% 0.71% 0.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 43 61 155
10th Percentile £203 £300 £355
25th Percentile £328 £381 £456
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £450 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -18.18% +15.79%
75th Percentile £535 £575 £645
90th Percentile £602 £738 £675
UK median daily rate £450 £450 £550
% change year-on-year - -18.18% +10.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 69 48 53
10th Percentile £42.00 £23.82 £35.15
25th Percentile £44.58 £39.99 £51.25
Median hourly rate £55.00 £65.00 £56.49
Median % change year-on-year -15.38% +15.06% -5.85%
75th Percentile £68.55 £70.00 £63.00
90th Percentile £76.13 £76.89 £77.00
UK median hourly rate £55.00 £65.00 £56.49
% change year-on-year -15.38% +15.06% -5.85%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
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 28,364 28,410 35,800
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.17% 92.92% 93.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 18,196 17,553 24,633
10th Percentile £288 £300 £293
25th Percentile £404 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £525 £534
Median % change year-on-year -3.81% -1.69% -2.91%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,707 984 1,397
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.34 £15.32
25th Percentile £17.88 £21.17 £19.50
Median hourly rate £25.15 £37.50 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -32.93% -16.67% +36.36%
75th Percentile £57.50 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £71.50 £74.66 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £43.90
% change year-on-year -28.14% -20.27% +39.88%

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 6 December 2025.

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 6 December 2025.

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 6 December 2025. 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
East of England -7 39 £454 +3.77% 105
South West +21 37 £388 -29.55% 167
Midlands -36 32 £300 -29.41% 77
London -16 26 £500 +7.53% 62
South East -18 25 £300 -30.43% 201
North of England -59 24 £450 -5.26% 99
North West -33 23 £450 -5.26% 67
East Midlands -16 16 £497 +5.92% 26
West Midlands -25 16 £300 -22.58% 49
Yorkshire -37 1 - - 21
Systems Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 6 December 2025, 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 45 (25.00%) Security Cleared
2 35 (19.44%) SC Cleared
3 19 (10.56%) Validation
4 12 (6.67%) Linux
4 12 (6.67%) Microsoft
4 12 (6.67%) Python
4 12 (6.67%) Rational DOORS
4 12 (6.67%) Systems Engineering
4 12 (6.67%) Verification and Validation
5 11 (6.11%) Azure
6 10 (5.56%) AWS
6 10 (5.56%) DevOps
7 9 (5.00%) Active Directory
7 9 (5.00%) Asset Management
7 9 (5.00%) Cybersecurity
7 9 (5.00%) Firewall
7 9 (5.00%) Java
7 9 (5.00%) Problem-Solving
8 8 (4.44%) Agile
8 8 (4.44%) BPSS Clearance
8 8 (4.44%) Cisco
8 8 (4.44%) Requirements Management
8 8 (4.44%) VMware
9 7 (3.89%) Ansible
9 7 (3.89%) System Testing
9 7 (3.89%) Terraform
10 6 (3.33%) Mentoring
10 6 (3.33%) Microsoft 365
10 6 (3.33%) Oracle
10 6 (3.33%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux

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 2 (1.11%) Confluence
1 2 (1.11%) Microsoft Exchange
1 2 (1.11%) NetWeaver
1 2 (1.11%) SharePoint
2 1 (0.56%) Apache
2 1 (0.56%) IIS
2 1 (0.56%) Tomcat
Applications
1 4 (2.22%) Simulink
2 1 (0.56%) CANalyzer
2 1 (0.56%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.56%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.56%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 1 (0.56%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 2 (1.11%) SAP Oil and Gas
Cloud Services
1 11 (6.11%) Azure
2 10 (5.56%) AWS
3 6 (3.33%) Microsoft 365
4 4 (2.22%) GitHub
5 3 (1.67%) Amazon S3
5 3 (1.67%) Entra ID
5 3 (1.67%) GitHub Actions
6 2 (1.11%) Amazon CloudWatch
6 2 (1.11%) Amazon EC2
6 2 (1.11%) AWS CloudFormation
6 2 (1.11%) AWS Lambda
6 2 (1.11%) Cloud Computing
6 2 (1.11%) GCP
6 2 (1.11%) GitHub Copilot
6 2 (1.11%) Google Workspace
6 2 (1.11%) Serverless
7 1 (0.56%) IaaS
7 1 (0.56%) PaaS
7 1 (0.56%) Power Platform
7 1 (0.56%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 9 (5.00%) Firewall
2 4 (2.22%) SSL
3 3 (1.67%) SNMP
3 3 (1.67%) VPN
3 3 (1.67%) Wireless
4 2 (1.11%) DHCP
4 2 (1.11%) DNS
4 2 (1.11%) Ethernet
4 2 (1.11%) LAN
4 2 (1.11%) Modbus
4 2 (1.11%) NAS
4 2 (1.11%) SAN
4 2 (1.11%) Software-Defined Radio
4 2 (1.11%) TCP/IP
4 2 (1.11%) WAN
5 1 (0.56%) Link 16
5 1 (0.56%) RS-232
5 1 (0.56%) RS-485
5 1 (0.56%) SpaceWire
5 1 (0.56%) Tactical Data Link
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.56%) Azure SQL Database
1 1 (0.56%) Electronic Patient Records
1 1 (0.56%) Metadata
1 1 (0.56%) Pentaho
1 1 (0.56%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 12 (6.67%) Rational DOORS
2 3 (1.67%) JIRA
3 2 (1.11%) Git
4 1 (0.56%) CANoe
4 1 (0.56%) ClearCase
4 1 (0.56%) CMake
4 1 (0.56%) GitLab
4 1 (0.56%) Gradle
4 1 (0.56%) LabVIEW
4 1 (0.56%) Postman
4 1 (0.56%) Selenium
General
1 44 (24.44%) Aerospace
2 16 (8.89%) Social Skills
3 11 (6.11%) Manufacturing
4 8 (4.44%) Military
5 6 (3.33%) Electronics
6 5 (2.78%) Finance
7 4 (2.22%) Documentation Skills
8 3 (1.67%) Analytical Skills
9 2 (1.11%) Avionics
9 2 (1.11%) Banking
9 2 (1.11%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 2 (1.11%) Legal
9 2 (1.11%) Marketing
9 2 (1.11%) Public Sector
9 2 (1.11%) Social Housing
9 2 (1.11%) Telecoms
10 1 (0.56%) Digital Health
10 1 (0.56%) Local Government
10 1 (0.56%) Presentation Skills
10 1 (0.56%) Retail Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (1.67%) Kafka
1 3 (1.67%) Web Services
2 2 (1.11%) ISPF
3 1 (0.56%) Bazel
3 1 (0.56%) FastAPI
3 1 (0.56%) GraphQL
3 1 (0.56%) Middleware
3 1 (0.56%) Oracle Fusion
3 1 (0.56%) RabbitMQ
3 1 (0.56%) React
3 1 (0.56%) Redux
3 1 (0.56%) REST
3 1 (0.56%) Spring
3 1 (0.56%) Spring Boot
3 1 (0.56%) XML
3 1 (0.56%) XSD
Miscellaneous
1 11 (6.11%) SCADA
2 7 (3.89%) Operational Technology
2 7 (3.89%) Renewable Energy
3 6 (3.33%) Onboarding
4 5 (2.78%) Legacy Systems
5 3 (1.67%) Distributed Systems
5 3 (1.67%) Replication
6 2 (1.11%) Algorithms
6 2 (1.11%) Clustering
6 2 (1.11%) Data Centre
6 2 (1.11%) Mainframe
7 1 (0.56%) Acoustics
7 1 (0.56%) Data Protection Act
7 1 (0.56%) Driving Licence
7 1 (0.56%) Hybrid Cloud
7 1 (0.56%) Linux Command Line
7 1 (0.56%) Management Information System
7 1 (0.56%) Public Cloud
7 1 (0.56%) Security Posture
7 1 (0.56%) State Machine
Operating Systems
1 12 (6.67%) Linux
2 6 (3.33%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
2 6 (3.33%) Windows
3 3 (1.67%) Unix
4 2 (1.11%) Mac OS
4 2 (1.11%) zOS
5 1 (0.56%) CentOS
5 1 (0.56%) FreeRTOS
5 1 (0.56%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
5 1 (0.56%) Ubuntu
5 1 (0.56%) VMS
5 1 (0.56%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 19 (10.56%) Validation
2 12 (6.67%) Systems Engineering
2 12 (6.67%) Verification and Validation
3 10 (5.56%) DevOps
4 9 (5.00%) Asset Management
4 9 (5.00%) Cybersecurity
4 9 (5.00%) Problem-Solving
5 8 (4.44%) Agile
5 8 (4.44%) Requirements Management
6 7 (3.89%) System Testing
7 6 (3.33%) Mentoring
7 6 (3.33%) Service Management
7 6 (3.33%) Stakeholder Management
8 5 (2.78%) ERP
8 5 (2.78%) Infrastructure as Code
8 5 (2.78%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 5 (2.78%) Software Engineering
9 4 (2.22%) CI/CD
9 4 (2.22%) Migration
9 4 (2.22%) PLM
Programming Languages
1 12 (6.67%) Python
2 9 (5.00%) Java
3 5 (2.78%) MATLAB
3 5 (2.78%) PowerShell
4 4 (2.22%) C
4 4 (2.22%) SQL
5 3 (1.67%) Bash
5 3 (1.67%) C++
5 3 (1.67%) Go
6 2 (1.11%) JCL
6 2 (1.11%) REXX
6 2 (1.11%) Shell Script
7 1 (0.56%) C#
7 1 (0.56%) Embedded C
7 1 (0.56%) Embedded C++
7 1 (0.56%) Korn
7 1 (0.56%) Perl
7 1 (0.56%) Tcl
7 1 (0.56%) VBA
Qualifications
1 45 (25.00%) Security Cleared
2 35 (19.44%) SC Cleared
3 8 (4.44%) BPSS Clearance
4 5 (2.78%) Degree
5 2 (1.11%) CCNA
5 2 (1.11%) Cisco Certification
5 2 (1.11%) RHCE
6 1 (0.56%) AWS Certification
6 1 (0.56%) Computer Science Degree
6 1 (0.56%) DV Cleared
6 1 (0.56%) HND
6 1 (0.56%) ISACA
6 1 (0.56%) Network+ Certification
6 1 (0.56%) RHCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (1.67%) IEC 61131
2 2 (1.11%) Cyber Essentials
2 2 (1.11%) ISO 26262
3 1 (0.56%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 1 (0.56%) Def Stans
3 1 (0.56%) IEC 61508
3 1 (0.56%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 9 (5.00%) Active Directory
2 4 (2.22%) Docker
2 4 (2.22%) VMware Infrastructure
3 2 (1.11%) Slurm Workload Manager
3 2 (1.11%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.56%) Embedded Firmware
4 1 (0.56%) Firmware
4 1 (0.56%) Job Entry Subsystem
4 1 (0.56%) VMware ESXi
4 1 (0.56%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 7 (3.89%) Ansible
1 7 (3.89%) Terraform
2 5 (2.78%) Microsoft Intune
3 4 (2.22%) Kubernetes
4 2 (1.11%) SCCM
4 2 (1.11%) SELinux
4 2 (1.11%) Single Sign-On
5 1 (0.56%) FortiGate
5 1 (0.56%) Jamf Pro
5 1 (0.56%) Prometheus
5 1 (0.56%) Puppet
5 1 (0.56%) Red Hat Satellite
5 1 (0.56%) WSUS
5 1 (0.56%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 12 (6.67%) Microsoft
2 8 (4.44%) Cisco
2 8 (4.44%) VMware
3 6 (3.33%) Oracle
3 6 (3.33%) SAP
4 5 (2.78%) Rockwell
4 5 (2.78%) Siemens
5 4 (2.22%) IBM
5 4 (2.22%) Wonderware
6 3 (1.67%) Axway
6 3 (1.67%) Okta
6 3 (1.67%) Red Hat
6 3 (1.67%) ServiceNow
7 2 (1.11%) CyberArk
7 2 (1.11%) Google
7 2 (1.11%) Palo Alto
7 2 (1.11%) Splunk
8 1 (0.56%) Cerner
8 1 (0.56%) Fortinet
8 1 (0.56%) Ubiquiti