Systems Engineer Contracts in England

System Engineer
UK > England

The median System Engineer daily rate in England is £480, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 2 June 2025.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
2 Jun 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 334 228 375
Rank change year-on-year -106 +147 +138
Contract jobs requiring a Systems Engineer 146 372 273
As % of all contract jobs advertised in England 0.61% 1.01% 0.58%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.66% 1.09% 0.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 62 88 139
10th Percentile £313 £313 £358
25th Percentile £400 £363 £435
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £450 £513
Median % change year-on-year +6.67% -12.20% +2.50%
75th Percentile £594 £575 £656
90th Percentile £650 £641 £750
UK median daily rate £475 £450 £513
% change year-on-year +5.56% -12.20% +2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 38 167 61
10th Percentile £45.83 £39.96 £48.40
25th Percentile £52.50 £46.32 £52.50
Median hourly rate £55.52 £59.44 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -6.59% -0.93% +33.33%
75th Percentile £73.75 £71.25 £65.75
90th Percentile £76.50 £76.75 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £55.00 £57.50 £61.50
% change year-on-year -4.35% -6.50% +36.67%

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 22,238 34,229 44,888
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.31% 92.77% 94.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,700 22,548 31,942
10th Percentile £290 £285 £313
25th Percentile £406 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £518 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -1.36% -4.55% +3.77%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £663
90th Percentile £750 £750 £763
UK median daily rate £505 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -3.81% -2.78% +2.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 933 2,576 1,314
10th Percentile £14.00 £12.86 £14.28
25th Percentile £18.13 £16.30 £20.00
Median hourly rate £30.00 £37.75 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -20.53% -16.11% +88.21%
75th Percentile £60.00 £62.00 £65.57
90th Percentile £75.00 £74.00 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £28.00 £37.50 £45.00
% change year-on-year -25.33% -16.67% +83.67%

Systems Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Job postings that featured Systems Engineer in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in England.

Job vacancy trend for Systems Engineer in England

Systems Engineer
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in England

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Systems Engineer in England.

Daily rate trend for Systems Engineer in England

Systems Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Systems Engineer in England over the 6 months to 2 June 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Systems Engineer in England

Systems Engineer
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in England

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Systems Engineer in England.

Hourly rate trend for Systems Engineer in England

Systems Engineer
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Systems Engineer in England over the 6 months to 2 June 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 2 June 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
London +21 37 £510 +13.33% 244
East of England +7 30 £550 +179.54% 300
South East -12 22 £575 +15.00% 520
North of England -24 20 £414 -3.72% 422
South West -20 19 £551 -15.19% 304
North West -18 16 £418 - 214
Midlands +3 13 £275 -38.89% 373
West Midlands +9 7 £275 -38.89% 218
East Midlands +10 6 £75 - 139
North East -3 3 £325 - 51
Yorkshire +6 1 - - 162
Systems Engineer
UK

Systems Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in England

For the 6 months to 2 June 2025, Systems Engineer contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the England region featuring Systems Engineer in the job title.

1 44 (30.14%) Security Cleared
2 37 (25.34%) SC Cleared
3 34 (23.29%) Systems Engineering
4 31 (21.23%) Social Skills
5 28 (19.18%) Problem-Solving
5 28 (19.18%) Validation
6 25 (17.12%) VMware
7 21 (14.38%) Microsoft
7 21 (14.38%) Verification and Validation
8 18 (12.33%) Python
9 17 (11.64%) Agile
10 16 (10.96%) VMware Infrastructure
10 16 (10.96%) Azure
10 16 (10.96%) Linux
11 14 (9.59%) Degree
12 13 (8.90%) Unix
12 13 (8.90%) Windows
12 13 (8.90%) SQL
12 13 (8.90%) Management Information System
12 13 (8.90%) Self-Motivation
13 12 (8.22%) Roadmaps
14 11 (7.53%) CI/CD
14 11 (7.53%) Presentation Skills
14 11 (7.53%) Ansible
14 11 (7.53%) Aerospace
14 11 (7.53%) Teamcenter
14 11 (7.53%) SharePoint
14 11 (7.53%) Requirements Management
14 11 (7.53%) Confluence
14 11 (7.53%) Rational DOORS

Systems Engineer Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in England by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 11 (7.53%) Confluence
1 11 (7.53%) SharePoint
2 4 (2.74%) Skype for Business
3 3 (2.05%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.68%) IIS
Applications
1 5 (3.42%) Simulink
2 1 (0.68%) CANalyzer
2 1 (0.68%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.68%) Stateflow
Business Applications
1 11 (7.53%) Teamcenter
2 6 (4.11%) Kondor
Cloud Services
1 16 (10.96%) Azure
2 10 (6.85%) AWS
3 9 (6.16%) GitHub
4 6 (4.11%) Microsoft 365
5 3 (2.05%) Amazon CloudWatch
5 3 (2.05%) Amazon EC2
5 3 (2.05%) AWS Lambda
5 3 (2.05%) Entra ID
5 3 (2.05%) GCP
5 3 (2.05%) SaaS
5 3 (2.05%) Serverless
6 2 (1.37%) IaaS
6 2 (1.37%) PaaS
7 1 (0.68%) Amazon EKS
7 1 (0.68%) Amazon Kinesis
7 1 (0.68%) Amazon S3
7 1 (0.68%) Amazon SQS
7 1 (0.68%) AWS CloudFormation
7 1 (0.68%) AWS CloudTrail
7 1 (0.68%) Cloud Computing
Communications & Networking
1 8 (5.48%) DNS
1 8 (5.48%) Firewall
1 8 (5.48%) TCP/IP
2 6 (4.11%) Network Security
3 4 (2.74%) DHCP
4 3 (2.05%) SAN
4 3 (2.05%) Skype
4 3 (2.05%) SpaceWire
4 3 (2.05%) SSH
4 3 (2.05%) VoIP
4 3 (2.05%) VSAN
5 2 (1.37%) HTTP
5 2 (1.37%) HTTPS
5 2 (1.37%) Radio Access Network
5 2 (1.37%) Software-Defined Radio
5 2 (1.37%) VLAN
5 2 (1.37%) Wi-Fi
5 2 (1.37%) Wireless
6 1 (0.68%) Kerberos
6 1 (0.68%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (4.11%) SQL Server
2 5 (3.42%) MongoDB
2 5 (3.42%) PostgreSQL
3 3 (2.05%) MySQL
4 2 (1.37%) MariaDB
5 1 (0.68%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 11 (7.53%) Rational DOORS
2 4 (2.74%) Git
2 4 (2.74%) Rational Statemate
3 3 (2.05%) JIRA
4 2 (1.37%) Bitbucket
4 2 (1.37%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.68%) Eclipse
5 1 (0.68%) GitLab
5 1 (0.68%) JIRA Agile
5 1 (0.68%) NetBeans
5 1 (0.68%) Rational Rhapsody
General
1 31 (21.23%) Social Skills
2 11 (7.53%) Aerospace
2 11 (7.53%) Presentation Skills
3 8 (5.48%) Finance
4 6 (4.11%) Telecoms
5 5 (3.42%) Manufacturing
5 5 (3.42%) Military
6 4 (2.74%) Public Sector
7 2 (1.37%) Analytical Skills
7 2 (1.37%) Aviation
7 2 (1.37%) Avionics
8 1 (0.68%) Automotive
8 1 (0.68%) Documentation Skills
8 1 (0.68%) Electronics
8 1 (0.68%) Financial Institution
8 1 (0.68%) French Language
8 1 (0.68%) Local Government
8 1 (0.68%) Marketing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (2.74%) Kafka
2 2 (1.37%) Elastic Stack
2 2 (1.37%) FHIR
2 2 (1.37%) JSON
2 2 (1.37%) Qt
2 2 (1.37%) RESTful
2 2 (1.37%) XML
3 1 (0.68%) .NET
3 1 (0.68%) .NET Framework
3 1 (0.68%) AWS Amplify
3 1 (0.68%) Classic ASP
3 1 (0.68%) Middleware
3 1 (0.68%) Node.js
3 1 (0.68%) POSIX
3 1 (0.68%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 13 (8.90%) Management Information System
1 13 (8.90%) Self-Motivation
2 6 (4.11%) Algorithms
2 6 (4.11%) SWIFT Messaging Network
3 5 (3.42%) Security Posture
4 4 (2.74%) Product Ownership
5 3 (2.05%) Data Centre
5 3 (2.05%) Hybrid Cloud
5 3 (2.05%) PKI
6 2 (1.37%) Data Protection Act
6 2 (1.37%) GNSS
6 2 (1.37%) Mainframe
6 2 (1.37%) Onboarding
6 2 (1.37%) Operational Technology
6 2 (1.37%) PACS
6 2 (1.37%) Renewable Energy
6 2 (1.37%) Robotics
6 2 (1.37%) Video\Live Streaming
7 1 (0.68%) Clustering
7 1 (0.68%) Embedded Systems
Operating Systems
1 16 (10.96%) Linux
2 13 (8.90%) Unix
2 13 (8.90%) Windows
3 6 (4.11%) VMS
4 5 (3.42%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 4 (2.74%) CentOS
5 4 (2.74%) Ubuntu
6 3 (2.05%) Windows Server
7 2 (1.37%) Android
7 2 (1.37%) MVS
7 2 (1.37%) SUSE
7 2 (1.37%) Windows XP
8 1 (0.68%) Mac OS
8 1 (0.68%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 34 (23.29%) Systems Engineering
2 28 (19.18%) Problem-Solving
2 28 (19.18%) Validation
3 21 (14.38%) Verification and Validation
4 17 (11.64%) Agile
5 12 (8.22%) Roadmaps
6 11 (7.53%) CI/CD
6 11 (7.53%) Requirements Management
7 10 (6.85%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
7 10 (6.85%) Project Delivery
7 10 (6.85%) Service Delivery
8 9 (6.16%) Cybersecurity
8 9 (6.16%) Data Management
8 9 (6.16%) PDM
8 9 (6.16%) Technical Leadership
9 8 (5.48%) Stakeholder Management
10 7 (4.79%) Incident Management
10 7 (4.79%) ITIL
10 7 (4.79%) Risk Management
10 7 (4.79%) SysML
Programming Languages
1 18 (12.33%) Python
2 13 (8.90%) SQL
3 8 (5.48%) Bash
3 8 (5.48%) PowerShell
4 7 (4.79%) MATLAB
5 6 (4.11%) C
6 5 (3.42%) Perl
7 4 (2.74%) C++
7 4 (2.74%) Java
7 4 (2.74%) JavaScript
8 3 (2.05%) C#
8 3 (2.05%) Tcl
9 2 (1.37%) REXX
9 2 (1.37%) VBA
10 1 (0.68%) Embedded C
10 1 (0.68%) Embedded C++
Qualifications
1 44 (30.14%) Security Cleared
2 37 (25.34%) SC Cleared
3 14 (9.59%) Degree
4 9 (6.16%) Cisco Certification
4 9 (6.16%) DV Cleared
5 5 (3.42%) BPSS Clearance
5 5 (3.42%) CCNA
5 5 (3.42%) RIBA
6 4 (2.74%) CCIE
7 3 (2.05%) AWS Certification
7 3 (2.05%) HND
8 2 (1.37%) CCNP
8 2 (1.37%) Computer Science Degree
8 2 (1.37%) ISSEP
8 2 (1.37%) ITIL Certification
8 2 (1.37%) MCP
8 2 (1.37%) Microsoft Certification
8 2 (1.37%) RHCSA
8 2 (1.37%) VCAP
8 2 (1.37%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (3.42%) NIST
2 4 (2.74%) Def Stans
3 3 (2.05%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 2 (1.37%) DICOM
4 2 (1.37%) GDPR
4 2 (1.37%) HL7
4 2 (1.37%) QA
4 2 (1.37%) SLA
5 1 (0.68%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (0.68%) Data Quality
5 1 (0.68%) IEC 61508
5 1 (0.68%) MISRA
5 1 (0.68%) MISRA C
5 1 (0.68%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 16 (10.96%) VMware Infrastructure
2 6 (4.11%) Docker
2 6 (4.11%) vSphere
3 5 (3.42%) Active Directory
4 4 (2.74%) Virtual Desktop
5 3 (2.05%) KVM
5 3 (2.05%) VMware ESXi
5 3 (2.05%) VMware NSX
6 2 (1.37%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (1.37%) XenDesktop
7 1 (0.68%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.68%) iptables
7 1 (0.68%) Microsoft App-V
7 1 (0.68%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 11 (7.53%) Ansible
2 5 (3.42%) Puppet
3 4 (2.74%) Terraform
4 3 (2.05%) Kubernetes
4 3 (2.05%) PowerCLI
4 3 (2.05%) Progress Chef
4 3 (2.05%) SCCM
4 3 (2.05%) vCenter Server
4 3 (2.05%) VxRail
5 2 (1.37%) Failover Clustering
5 2 (1.37%) Microsoft Intune
5 2 (1.37%) Podman
5 2 (1.37%) Red Hat Satellite
6 1 (0.68%) Graylog
6 1 (0.68%) Jamf Pro
6 1 (0.68%) Plesk
6 1 (0.68%) SELinux
6 1 (0.68%) Single Sign-On
6 1 (0.68%) Wonderware InTouch
6 1 (0.68%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 25 (17.12%) VMware
2 21 (14.38%) Microsoft
3 9 (6.16%) Cisco
4 7 (4.79%) Bloomberg
5 6 (4.11%) Red Hat
5 6 (4.11%) Refinitiv
5 6 (4.11%) Sybase
6 4 (2.74%) Citrix
6 4 (2.74%) Dell
6 4 (2.74%) IBM
7 3 (2.05%) EMC
7 3 (2.05%) Remedy
8 2 (1.37%) Broadcom
8 2 (1.37%) Ericsson
8 2 (1.37%) Fortinet
8 2 (1.37%) Meraki
8 2 (1.37%) SolarWinds
8 2 (1.37%) Twitter
9 1 (0.68%) NetApp
9 1 (0.68%) ServiceNow