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 19 February 2026.

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

6 months to
19 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 333 386 276
Rank change year-on-year +53 -110 +148
Contract jobs requiring a Systems Engineer 243 110 306
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.70% 0.42% 0.82%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.76% 0.46% 0.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 63 50 129
10th Percentile £300 £263 £323
25th Percentile £397 £363 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £488 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.56% -7.14% +5.00%
75th Percentile £538 £638 £588
90th Percentile £575 £750 £655
UK median daily rate £475 £475 £525
% change year-on-year - -9.52% +5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 94 20 103
10th Percentile £42.00 £23.82 £39.55
25th Percentile £44.58 £25.81 £51.25
Median hourly rate £55.00 £49.00 £57.50
Median % change year-on-year +12.24% -14.78% -4.17%
75th Percentile £70.00 £74.06 £70.96
90th Percentile £78.75 £80.25 £75.13
UK median hourly rate £55.00 £43.00 £57.50
% change year-on-year +27.91% -25.22% -4.56%

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 31,870 24,101 34,846
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.80% 93.03% 93.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,212 15,168 23,324
10th Percentile £303 £296 £270
25th Percentile £409 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £501 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.67% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £640
90th Percentile £725 £750 £745
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,043 704 2,142
10th Percentile £15.00 £16.24 £13.19
25th Percentile £18.87 £21.46 £16.54
Median hourly rate £33.00 £35.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -5.71% - -12.50%
75th Percentile £63.75 £65.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £74.21 £75.00 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £31.18 £34.00 £35.00
% change year-on-year -8.31% -2.86% -9.09%

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 19 February 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 19 February 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 19 February 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
East of England +21 57 £452 +3.31% 46
South West +17 43 £500 -20.00% 72
South East -5 41 £490 -30.00% 160
Midlands -39 40 £300 +9.09% 81
North of England -59 37 £450 - 67
London -58 25 £450 -13.04% 40
East Midlands -6 24 £497 +10.33% 17
North West -22 24 £413 -8.33% 44
West Midlands -51 16 £300 +9.09% 64
Yorkshire -51 8 £510 - 11
North East -11 5 £450 +38.46% 12
Systems Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 19 February 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 81 (33.33%) Security Cleared
2 46 (18.93%) SC Cleared
3 29 (11.93%) Degree
4 26 (10.70%) Systems Engineering
5 23 (9.47%) Problem-Solving
6 21 (8.64%) Validation
7 20 (8.23%) Siemens
8 19 (7.82%) Decision-Making
9 18 (7.41%) DV Cleared
10 17 (7.00%) TCP/IP
10 17 (7.00%) Windows
11 16 (6.58%) Ethernet
11 16 (6.58%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 16 (6.58%) Microsoft Office
11 16 (6.58%) ServiceNow
12 15 (6.17%) Creative Thinking
12 15 (6.17%) Customer Service
12 15 (6.17%) Fault Analysis
12 15 (6.17%) Mechatronics
12 15 (6.17%) Risk Assessment
13 14 (5.76%) Fortinet
13 14 (5.76%) Microsoft
13 14 (5.76%) VMware
14 13 (5.35%) Linux
14 13 (5.35%) NetApp
14 13 (5.35%) Rational DOORS
15 11 (4.53%) VMware Infrastructure
16 10 (4.12%) Active Directory
16 10 (4.12%) Agile
16 10 (4.12%) BPSS Clearance

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 (2.06%) Confluence
2 4 (1.65%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (0.82%) SharePoint
4 1 (0.41%) Apache
4 1 (0.41%) IIS
4 1 (0.41%) Tomcat
Applications
1 16 (6.58%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (1.65%) Simulink
3 1 (0.41%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.41%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.41%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 2 (0.82%) SAP Oil and Gas
2 1 (0.41%) SAP HCM
2 1 (0.41%) SAP HR
2 1 (0.41%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 1 (0.41%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 9 (3.70%) Azure
2 6 (2.47%) AWS
3 5 (2.06%) Microsoft 365
4 4 (1.65%) Entra ID
4 4 (1.65%) Google Workspace
5 3 (1.23%) GCP
6 2 (0.82%) Cloud Computing
6 2 (0.82%) Cohesity
6 2 (0.82%) GitHub
6 2 (0.82%) OpenShift
6 2 (0.82%) PaaS
7 1 (0.41%) Azure Sentinel
7 1 (0.41%) GitHub Actions
7 1 (0.41%) IaaS
7 1 (0.41%) OneDrive
7 1 (0.41%) Power Platform
7 1 (0.41%) PowerApps
7 1 (0.41%) SaaS
7 1 (0.41%) Slack
7 1 (0.41%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 17 (7.00%) TCP/IP
2 16 (6.58%) Ethernet
3 6 (2.47%) Firewall
4 4 (1.65%) SAN
5 3 (1.23%) SNMP
6 2 (0.82%) LAN
6 2 (0.82%) NAS
6 2 (0.82%) SpaceWire
6 2 (0.82%) WAN
6 2 (0.82%) Wi-Fi
7 1 (0.41%) Cisco IOS
7 1 (0.41%) Link 16
7 1 (0.41%) Modbus
7 1 (0.41%) Network Security
7 1 (0.41%) RS-232
7 1 (0.41%) RS-485
7 1 (0.41%) Tactical Data Link
7 1 (0.41%) Unified Communications
7 1 (0.41%) VSAN
7 1 (0.41%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.41%) Electronic Patient Records
1 1 (0.41%) Pentaho
Development Applications
1 13 (5.35%) Rational DOORS
2 6 (2.47%) JIRA
3 1 (0.41%) ClearCase
3 1 (0.41%) Git
3 1 (0.41%) Postman
3 1 (0.41%) Selenium
General
1 42 (17.28%) Aerospace
2 38 (15.64%) Social Skills
3 27 (11.11%) Military
4 18 (7.41%) Manufacturing
5 17 (7.00%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 17 (7.00%) Presentation Skills
6 9 (3.70%) Electronics
7 7 (2.88%) Public Sector
8 4 (1.65%) Avionics
8 4 (1.65%) Finance
9 3 (1.23%) Analytical Skills
9 3 (1.23%) Documentation Skills
10 2 (0.82%) Banking
10 2 (0.82%) Legal
10 2 (0.82%) Marketing
10 2 (0.82%) Retail
11 1 (0.41%) Local Government
11 1 (0.41%) Police
11 1 (0.41%) Retail Banking
11 1 (0.41%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (1.23%) Software Packaging
2 2 (0.82%) ISPF
2 2 (0.82%) Middleware
2 2 (0.82%) REST
3 1 (0.41%) GraphQL
3 1 (0.41%) Microsoft Graph
3 1 (0.41%) RabbitMQ
3 1 (0.41%) SAP Fiori
3 1 (0.41%) XML
3 1 (0.41%) XSD
Miscellaneous
1 15 (6.17%) Industry 4.0
1 15 (6.17%) Robotics
2 8 (3.29%) SCADA
3 7 (2.88%) Operational Technology
4 6 (2.47%) Onboarding
5 5 (2.06%) Legacy Systems
6 4 (1.65%) Data Centre
6 4 (1.65%) Embedded Systems
7 3 (1.23%) Hybrid Cloud
8 2 (0.82%) Analytical Mindset
8 2 (0.82%) ASIC
8 2 (0.82%) CAN bus
8 2 (0.82%) Clustering
8 2 (0.82%) Enterprise Storage
8 2 (0.82%) FPGA
8 2 (0.82%) IoT
8 2 (0.82%) Mainframe
8 2 (0.82%) Management Information System
8 2 (0.82%) Replication
9 1 (0.41%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 17 (7.00%) Windows
2 13 (5.35%) Linux
3 7 (2.88%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 5 (2.06%) Mac OS
5 2 (0.82%) Android
5 2 (0.82%) zOS
6 1 (0.41%) FreeRTOS
6 1 (0.41%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
6 1 (0.41%) VMS
6 1 (0.41%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 26 (10.70%) Systems Engineering
2 23 (9.47%) Problem-Solving
3 21 (8.64%) Validation
4 19 (7.82%) Decision-Making
5 16 (6.58%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 15 (6.17%) Creative Thinking
6 15 (6.17%) Customer Service
6 15 (6.17%) Fault Analysis
6 15 (6.17%) Mechatronics
6 15 (6.17%) Risk Assessment
7 10 (4.12%) Agile
7 10 (4.12%) Verification and Validation
8 9 (3.70%) Asset Management
8 9 (3.70%) Cybersecurity
8 9 (3.70%) Migration
9 7 (2.88%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
10 6 (2.47%) Continuous Improvement
10 6 (2.47%) Requirements Management
10 6 (2.47%) Signal Processing
10 6 (2.47%) Software Testing
Programming Languages
1 10 (4.12%) PowerShell
2 5 (2.06%) MATLAB
3 4 (1.65%) C
3 4 (1.65%) Python
4 2 (0.82%) C++
4 2 (0.82%) Java
4 2 (0.82%) JavaScript
4 2 (0.82%) JCL
4 2 (0.82%) REXX
5 1 (0.41%) Bash
5 1 (0.41%) C#
5 1 (0.41%) Embedded C
5 1 (0.41%) Embedded C++
5 1 (0.41%) Go
5 1 (0.41%) Korn
5 1 (0.41%) Shell Script
5 1 (0.41%) SQL
Qualifications
1 81 (33.33%) Security Cleared
2 46 (18.93%) SC Cleared
3 29 (11.93%) Degree
4 18 (7.41%) DV Cleared
5 10 (4.12%) BPSS Clearance
6 2 (0.82%) CCNA
6 2 (0.82%) Cisco Certification
7 1 (0.41%) Computer Science Degree
7 1 (0.41%) Network+ Certification
7 1 (0.41%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (1.23%) IEC 61131
2 2 (0.82%) MIL-STD-1553
3 1 (0.41%) Data Quality
3 1 (0.41%) Def Stans
3 1 (0.41%) IEC 61508
3 1 (0.41%) ISO 26262
System Software
1 11 (4.53%) VMware Infrastructure
2 10 (4.12%) Active Directory
3 3 (1.23%) Virtual Desktop
3 3 (1.23%) VMware ESXi
4 2 (0.82%) Hyper-V
4 2 (0.82%) KVM
4 2 (0.82%) Slurm Workload Manager
4 2 (0.82%) Virtual Machines
4 2 (0.82%) vSphere
5 1 (0.41%) Embedded Firmware
5 1 (0.41%) Firmware
5 1 (0.41%) Job Entry Subsystem
5 1 (0.41%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 7 (2.88%) Ansible
1 7 (2.88%) Microsoft Intune
2 5 (2.06%) Terraform
3 4 (1.65%) SCCM
4 2 (0.82%) Jamf Pro
4 2 (0.82%) Single Sign-On
5 1 (0.41%) FortiGate
5 1 (0.41%) Kubernetes
5 1 (0.41%) Red Hat Satellite
5 1 (0.41%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 20 (8.23%) Siemens
2 16 (6.58%) ServiceNow
3 14 (5.76%) Fortinet
3 14 (5.76%) Microsoft
3 14 (5.76%) VMware
4 13 (5.35%) NetApp
5 7 (2.88%) Cisco
5 7 (2.88%) Oracle
6 5 (2.06%) Google
6 5 (2.06%) Red Hat
6 5 (2.06%) Rockwell
7 4 (1.65%) EMC
7 4 (1.65%) IBM
7 4 (1.65%) SAP
7 4 (1.65%) Veeam
8 3 (1.23%) Citrix
8 3 (1.23%) Wonderware
9 2 (0.82%) Apple
9 2 (0.82%) Broadcom
9 2 (0.82%) Brocade