Service Desk Engineer Contract Job Trends in London

Service Desk Engineer
England > London

The median Service Desk Engineer daily rate in London is £363, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 18 December 2025.

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

6 months to
18 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 359 363 386
Rank change year-on-year +4 +23 +163
Contract jobs requiring a Service Desk Engineer 10 6 19
As % of all contract jobs in London 0.070% 0.040% 0.10%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.076% 0.043% 0.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 7 4 11
10th Percentile £179 £179 £200
25th Percentile £191 £199 £225
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £363 £223 £250
Median % change year-on-year +62.92% -11.00% +51.98%
75th Percentile £438 £232 £330
90th Percentile - £235 £450
England median daily rate £220 £200 £220
% change year-on-year +10.00% -9.09% +14.29%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 0 2
10th Percentile - - £15.55
25th Percentile - - £17.13
Median hourly rate - - £20.00
75th Percentile - - £22.63
90th Percentile - - £24.05
England median hourly rate £25.15 - £16.44
% change year-on-year - - -3.32%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
London

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in London. 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 London with a recognized job title 13,187 14,093 17,699
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.31% 93.53% 93.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,735 9,130 12,805
10th Percentile £343 £335 £330
25th Percentile £425 £450 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £533 £550 £563
Median % change year-on-year -3.18% -2.22% -3.02%
75th Percentile £650 £675 £684
90th Percentile £759 £799 £788
England median daily rate £510 £525 £533
% change year-on-year -2.86% -1.50% -3.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 228 153 211
10th Percentile £17.50 £18.47 £17.75
25th Percentile £22.38 £23.80 £21.50
Median hourly rate £29.65 £35.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -15.30% - -
75th Percentile £57.13 £53.75 £58.75
90th Percentile £76.58 £80.75 £72.50
England median hourly rate £26.50 £36.00 £45.00
% change year-on-year -26.39% -20.00% +38.46%

Service Desk Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Service Desk Engineer' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in London.

Service Desk Engineer job vacancy trend in London

Service Desk Engineer
Daily Rate Trend in London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Service Desk Engineer job vacancies in London.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Service Desk Engineer job vacancies in London

Service Desk Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram in London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Service Desk Engineer in London over the 6 months to 18 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Service Desk Engineer in London

Service Desk Engineer
Hourly Rate Trend in London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Service Desk Engineer job vacancies in London.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Service Desk Engineer job vacancies in London

Service Desk Engineer
Contract Job Locations in London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Service Desk Engineer within the London region over the 6 months to 18 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
Central London +6 5 £425 +88.89%
Service Desk Engineer
England

Service Desk Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in London

For the 6 months to 18 December 2025, Service Desk 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 London region featuring Service Desk Engineer in the job title.

1 7 (70.00%) ITIL
1 7 (70.00%) Microsoft
2 6 (60.00%) Active Directory
2 6 (60.00%) Customer Service
2 6 (60.00%) Microsoft 365
2 6 (60.00%) Microsoft Intune
3 5 (50.00%) VPN
3 5 (50.00%) Windows
4 4 (40.00%) Azure
4 4 (40.00%) DHCP
4 4 (40.00%) DNS
4 4 (40.00%) Microsoft Exchange
4 4 (40.00%) Service Delivery
5 3 (30.00%) Asset Management
5 3 (30.00%) Change Control
5 3 (30.00%) Change Management
5 3 (30.00%) Cyber Essentials
5 3 (30.00%) Entra ID
5 3 (30.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 3 (30.00%) ITSM
5 3 (30.00%) Mentoring
5 3 (30.00%) Performance Metrics
5 3 (30.00%) PowerShell
5 3 (30.00%) ServiceNow
6 2 (20.00%) Continuous Improvement
6 2 (20.00%) Firewall
6 2 (20.00%) GDPR
6 2 (20.00%) Identity Management
6 2 (20.00%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
6 2 (20.00%) Performance Improvement

Service Desk Engineer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in London 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 (40.00%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 1 (10.00%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 6 (60.00%) Microsoft 365
2 4 (40.00%) Azure
3 3 (30.00%) Entra ID
4 1 (10.00%) Power Platform
4 1 (10.00%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 5 (50.00%) VPN
2 4 (40.00%) DHCP
2 4 (40.00%) DNS
3 2 (20.00%) Firewall
4 1 (10.00%) Remote Desktop
4 1 (10.00%) TCP/IP
General
1 5 (50.00%) Social Skills
2 3 (30.00%) Analytical Skills
2 3 (30.00%) Finance
3 2 (20.00%) Law
4 1 (10.00%) Public Sector
Miscellaneous
1 1 (10.00%) Onboarding
1 1 (10.00%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 5 (50.00%) Windows
2 1 (10.00%) Apple iOS
2 1 (10.00%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 7 (70.00%) ITIL
2 6 (60.00%) Customer Service
3 4 (40.00%) Service Delivery
4 3 (30.00%) Asset Management
4 3 (30.00%) Change Control
4 3 (30.00%) Change Management
4 3 (30.00%) ITSM
4 3 (30.00%) Mentoring
4 3 (30.00%) Performance Metrics
5 2 (20.00%) Continuous Improvement
5 2 (20.00%) Identity Management
5 2 (20.00%) Performance Improvement
5 2 (20.00%) Problem-Solving
5 2 (20.00%) Process Improvement
5 2 (20.00%) Root Cause Analysis
5 2 (20.00%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 1 (10.00%) Application Packaging
6 1 (10.00%) Innovative Thinking
6 1 (10.00%) Kalman Filter
6 1 (10.00%) Migration
Programming Languages
1 3 (30.00%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 2 (20.00%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
2 1 (10.00%) Microsoft Certification
2 1 (10.00%) Network+ Certification
2 1 (10.00%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (30.00%) Cyber Essentials
1 3 (30.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 2 (20.00%) GDPR
System Software
1 6 (60.00%) Active Directory
2 2 (20.00%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 6 (60.00%) Microsoft Intune
2 1 (10.00%) SCCM
Vendors
1 7 (70.00%) Microsoft
2 3 (30.00%) ServiceNow