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 8 April 2026.

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

 6 months to
8 Apr 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 284 341 270
Rank change year-on-year +57 -71 +124
Contract jobs requiring a Systems Engineer 333 131 309
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.85% 0.54% 0.83%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.92% 0.58% 0.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 87 58 104
10th Percentile £214 £263 £313
25th Percentile £360 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year - -5.00% -2.44%
75th Percentile £534 £620 £575
90th Percentile £580 £738 £645
UK median daily rate £465 £469 £500
% change year-on-year -0.91% -6.25% -2.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 143 30 133
10th Percentile £42.00 £41.10 £39.55
25th Percentile £44.58 £48.44 £45.30
Median hourly rate £59.67 £55.00 £57.50
Median % change year-on-year +8.49% -4.35% -4.17%
75th Percentile £75.00 £67.81 £71.25
90th Percentile £81.05 £75.50 £75.25
UK median hourly rate £59.84 £55.00 £57.44
% change year-on-year +8.79% -4.25% -6.60%

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 36,106 22,607 34,632
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.36% 92.83% 92.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,727 15,140 23,115
10th Percentile £313 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £409 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.81% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £638
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £520 £525
% change year-on-year -3.85% -0.95% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,414 846 2,325
10th Percentile £15.50 £14.84 £12.88
25th Percentile £20.28 £20.45 £16.25
Median hourly rate £42.59 £32.66 £33.07
Median % change year-on-year +30.43% -1.24% -24.42%
75th Percentile £65.97 £65.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £78.60 £76.25 £71.25
UK median hourly rate £40.00 £31.76 £34.21
% change year-on-year +25.94% -7.16% -23.98%

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 8 April 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 8 April 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 8 April 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 +23 84 £490 -31.23% 120
East of England +18 78 £450 -16.67% 43
South West +8 53 £500 -15.25% 76
Midlands -28 44 £395 +66.32% 61
North of England -53 38 £450 +6.64% 57
London -64 37 £475 -8.21% 50
North West -30 26 £216 -49.11% 31
East Midlands -11 23 £386 +414.33% 17
West Midlands -49 21 £395 +43.64% 44
Yorkshire -46 7 £510 - 12
North East -15 5 £450 +38.46% 14
Systems Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 8 April 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.

1 101 (30.33%) Security Cleared
2 55 (16.52%) SC Cleared
3 48 (14.41%) Systems Engineering
4 38 (11.41%) Degree
5 35 (10.51%) Validation
6 25 (7.51%) Windows
7 24 (7.21%) DV Cleared
7 24 (7.21%) Problem-Solving
8 23 (6.91%) Rational DOORS
9 21 (6.31%) Linux
10 20 (6.01%) Siemens
11 19 (5.71%) Decision-Making
12 18 (5.41%) Customer Service
12 18 (5.41%) Microsoft
12 18 (5.41%) Verification and Validation
13 17 (5.11%) Ethernet
13 17 (5.11%) TCP/IP
14 16 (4.80%) Infrastructure Engineering
14 16 (4.80%) Microsoft Office
14 16 (4.80%) Risk Assessment
15 15 (4.50%) BPSS Clearance
15 15 (4.50%) Creative Thinking
15 15 (4.50%) Fault Analysis
15 15 (4.50%) Mechatronics
15 15 (4.50%) ServiceNow
16 14 (4.20%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
17 13 (3.90%) Fortinet
17 13 (3.90%) Migration
17 13 (3.90%) NetApp
18 10 (3.00%) Agile

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 (1.50%) Confluence
2 3 (0.90%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.30%) SharePoint
Applications
1 16 (4.80%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (1.50%) Simulink
3 1 (0.30%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.30%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.30%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 2 (0.60%) SAP Oil and Gas
2 1 (0.30%) ResourceLink
2 1 (0.30%) SAP HCM
2 1 (0.30%) SAP HR
2 1 (0.30%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 1 (0.30%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 7 (2.10%) Azure
1 7 (2.10%) SaaS
2 6 (1.80%) AWS
2 6 (1.80%) Microsoft 365
3 3 (0.90%) Cloud Computing
3 3 (0.90%) Google Workspace
4 2 (0.60%) Cohesity
4 2 (0.60%) Entra ID
4 2 (0.60%) GitHub
4 2 (0.60%) OpenShift
5 1 (0.30%) Amazon CloudWatch
5 1 (0.30%) AWS Lambda
5 1 (0.30%) AWS Step Functions
5 1 (0.30%) Azure Logic Apps
5 1 (0.30%) Azure Monitor
5 1 (0.30%) Azure Service Bus
5 1 (0.30%) GCP
5 1 (0.30%) GitHub Actions
5 1 (0.30%) OneDrive
5 1 (0.30%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 17 (5.11%) Ethernet
1 17 (5.11%) TCP/IP
2 7 (2.10%) Firewall
3 3 (0.90%) DHCP
3 3 (0.90%) DNS
3 3 (0.90%) SAN
3 3 (0.90%) SNMP
3 3 (0.90%) SpaceWire
4 2 (0.60%) LAN
4 2 (0.60%) Network Security
5 1 (0.30%) Modbus
5 1 (0.30%) NAS
5 1 (0.30%) PSTN
5 1 (0.30%) SSL
5 1 (0.30%) Unified Communications
5 1 (0.30%) VLAN
5 1 (0.30%) VPN
5 1 (0.30%) WAN
5 1 (0.30%) Wi-Fi
5 1 (0.30%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.60%) SQL Server Reporting Services
2 1 (0.30%) Pentaho
Development Applications
1 23 (6.91%) Rational DOORS
2 6 (1.80%) JIRA
3 1 (0.30%) CANoe
3 1 (0.30%) ClearCase
3 1 (0.30%) Git
3 1 (0.30%) Postman
3 1 (0.30%) Selenium
General
1 51 (15.32%) Aerospace
2 45 (13.51%) Social Skills
3 35 (10.51%) Military
4 19 (5.71%) Manufacturing
5 18 (5.41%) Presentation Skills
6 17 (5.11%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 16 (4.80%) Electronics
8 8 (2.40%) Finance
8 8 (2.40%) Public Sector
9 7 (2.10%) Analytical Skills
10 6 (1.80%) Documentation Skills
11 4 (1.20%) Avionics
12 3 (0.90%) Banking
13 2 (0.60%) Retail
14 1 (0.30%) Automotive
14 1 (0.30%) Digital Health
14 1 (0.30%) Marketing
14 1 (0.30%) Organisational Skills
14 1 (0.30%) Retail Banking
14 1 (0.30%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (1.50%) OpenID
1 5 (1.50%) SAML
2 4 (1.20%) ISPF
3 3 (0.90%) Middleware
3 3 (0.90%) REST
3 3 (0.90%) Software Packaging
4 1 (0.30%) GraphQL
4 1 (0.30%) JSON
4 1 (0.30%) Microsoft Graph
4 1 (0.30%) Node.js
4 1 (0.30%) RabbitMQ
4 1 (0.30%) RESTful
4 1 (0.30%) SAP Fiori
4 1 (0.30%) XML
4 1 (0.30%) XSD
Miscellaneous
1 15 (4.50%) Industry 4.0
1 15 (4.50%) Robotics
2 9 (2.70%) Embedded Systems
3 7 (2.10%) IoT
3 7 (2.10%) Onboarding
3 7 (2.10%) Operational Technology
4 4 (1.20%) Data Centre
4 4 (1.20%) Legacy Systems
4 4 (1.20%) Mainframe
4 4 (1.20%) SCADA
5 3 (0.90%) Acoustics
5 3 (0.90%) FPGA
5 3 (0.90%) Hybrid Cloud
5 3 (0.90%) Management Information System
5 3 (0.90%) Renewable Energy
6 2 (0.60%) Analytical Mindset
6 2 (0.60%) CAN bus
6 2 (0.60%) Enterprise Storage
6 2 (0.60%) Linux Command Line
6 2 (0.60%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 25 (7.51%) Windows
2 21 (6.31%) Linux
3 5 (1.50%) Android
3 5 (1.50%) Mac OS
4 4 (1.20%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 4 (1.20%) zOS
5 2 (0.60%) FreeRTOS
5 2 (0.60%) Windows Server
6 1 (0.30%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 48 (14.41%) Systems Engineering
2 35 (10.51%) Validation
3 24 (7.21%) Problem-Solving
4 19 (5.71%) Decision-Making
5 18 (5.41%) Customer Service
5 18 (5.41%) Verification and Validation
6 16 (4.80%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 16 (4.80%) Risk Assessment
7 15 (4.50%) Creative Thinking
7 15 (4.50%) Fault Analysis
7 15 (4.50%) Mechatronics
8 14 (4.20%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
9 13 (3.90%) Migration
10 10 (3.00%) Agile
11 9 (2.70%) Asset Management
12 8 (2.40%) Cybersecurity
12 8 (2.40%) SysML
13 7 (2.10%) Continuous Improvement
13 7 (2.10%) Signal Processing
13 7 (2.10%) Supplier Management
Programming Languages
1 9 (2.70%) PowerShell
1 9 (2.70%) Python
2 6 (1.80%) MATLAB
3 5 (1.50%) C
4 4 (1.20%) JCL
4 4 (1.20%) REXX
5 2 (0.60%) Bash
5 2 (0.60%) Java
5 2 (0.60%) JavaScript
5 2 (0.60%) SQL
6 1 (0.30%) C#
6 1 (0.30%) C++
6 1 (0.30%) Embedded C
6 1 (0.30%) Embedded C++
6 1 (0.30%) Go
Qualifications
1 101 (30.33%) Security Cleared
2 55 (16.52%) SC Cleared
3 38 (11.41%) Degree
4 24 (7.21%) DV Cleared
5 15 (4.50%) BPSS Clearance
6 2 (0.60%) CCNA
6 2 (0.60%) Cisco Certification
7 1 (0.30%) AWS Certification
7 1 (0.30%) CCA
7 1 (0.30%) CCNP
7 1 (0.30%) CISSP
7 1 (0.30%) CompTIA CySA+
7 1 (0.30%) Computer Science Degree
7 1 (0.30%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (0.90%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 3 (0.90%) MIL-STD-1553
2 2 (0.60%) Data Quality
2 2 (0.60%) NIST
3 1 (0.30%) DICOM
3 1 (0.30%) DO-254
3 1 (0.30%) HL7
3 1 (0.30%) IEC 61508
3 1 (0.30%) ISO 26262
3 1 (0.30%) NIST 800
System Software
1 9 (2.70%) VMware Infrastructure
2 8 (2.40%) Active Directory
3 5 (1.50%) Firmware
4 3 (0.90%) Embedded Firmware
4 3 (0.90%) Virtual Desktop
5 2 (0.60%) Hyper-V
5 2 (0.60%) KVM
5 2 (0.60%) Slurm Workload Manager
5 2 (0.60%) VMware ESXi
6 1 (0.30%) Job Entry Subsystem
6 1 (0.30%) VMware NSX
6 1 (0.30%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 5 (1.50%) Microsoft Intune
2 4 (1.20%) Ansible
3 3 (0.90%) SCCM
3 3 (0.90%) Terraform
4 1 (0.30%) Functional Safety
4 1 (0.30%) Jamf Pro
4 1 (0.30%) Kubernetes
4 1 (0.30%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 20 (6.01%) Siemens
2 18 (5.41%) Microsoft
3 15 (4.50%) ServiceNow
4 13 (3.90%) Fortinet
4 13 (3.90%) NetApp
5 10 (3.00%) VMware
6 7 (2.10%) EMC
7 5 (1.50%) Oracle
8 4 (1.20%) Cisco
8 4 (1.20%) Google
8 4 (1.20%) Red Hat
8 4 (1.20%) Splunk
9 3 (0.90%) Citrix
9 3 (0.90%) IBM
9 3 (0.90%) NEC
9 3 (0.90%) SAP
9 3 (0.90%) Veeam
10 2 (0.60%) Apple
10 2 (0.60%) Broadcom
10 2 (0.60%) Brocade
394 Systems Engineer jobs in England