Support Engineer Contract Job Trends in the North West

Support Engineer
England > North West

The median Support Engineer daily rate in the North West is £170, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 13 December 2025.

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

6 months to
13 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 81 76 105
Rank change year-on-year -5 +29 -22
Contract jobs requiring a Support Engineer 57 47 37
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 2.32% 2.09% 1.38%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.55% 2.26% 1.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 37 35 22
10th Percentile £134 £150 £141
25th Percentile £151 £159 £174
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £170 £200 £218
Median % change year-on-year -15.00% -8.05% -13.00%
75th Percentile £241 £269 £251
90th Percentile £250 £400 £353
England median daily rate £225 £240 £238
% change year-on-year -6.25% +1.05% +0.21%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 9 5
10th Percentile £18.80 £17.47 £16.24
25th Percentile £20.75 £18.03 -
Median hourly rate £21.46 £22.00 £17.72
Median % change year-on-year -2.45% +24.15% -3.49%
75th Percentile £37.40 £23.14 -
90th Percentile £67.84 £23.66 -
England median hourly rate £24.00 £22.09 £19.00
% change year-on-year +8.65% +16.26% -5.66%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
North West

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the North West. 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 the North West with a recognized job title 2,235 2,084 2,486
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.15% 92.75% 92.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,478 1,142 1,731
10th Percentile £213 £263 £285
25th Percentile £358 £388 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% -5.00% +2.56%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £600
90th Percentile £675 £650 £675
England median daily rate £507 £525 £534
% change year-on-year -3.38% -1.69% -2.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 206 137 164
10th Percentile £16.43 £15.44 £16.20
25th Percentile £19.75 £17.44 £17.72
Median hourly rate £29.60 £25.30 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +17.00% -27.71% +74.43%
75th Percentile £51.02 £46.18 £46.35
90th Percentile £69.80 £68.81 £63.75
England median hourly rate £25.15 £37.25 £45.00
% change year-on-year -32.48% -17.22% +36.36%

Support Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Support Engineer' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West.

Support Engineer job vacancy trend in the North West

Support Engineer
Daily Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Support Engineer job vacancies in the North West.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Support Engineer job vacancies in the North West

Support Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram in the North West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Support Engineer in the North West over the 6 months to 13 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Support Engineer in the North West

Support Engineer
Hourly Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Support Engineer job vacancies in the North West.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Support Engineer job vacancies in the North West

Support Engineer
Hourly Rate Histogram in the North West

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Support Engineer in the North West over the 6 months to 13 December 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Support Engineer in the North West

Support Engineer
Contract Job Locations in the North West

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Support Engineer within the North West region over the 6 months to 13 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
Merseyside 0 21 £152 -13.43% 10
Manchester -6 16 £200 -11.11% 16
Cheshire -17 12 £228 -43.13% 16
Lancashire -12 5 £170 -15.00% 15
Cumbria +5 3 - - 3
Support Engineer
England

Support Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North West

For the 6 months to 13 December 2025, Support 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 North West region featuring Support Engineer in the job title.

1 38 (66.67%) Windows
2 30 (52.63%) Microsoft 365
3 29 (50.88%) Active Directory
4 23 (40.35%) Microsoft
5 22 (38.60%) Customer Service
6 16 (28.07%) Windows 10
7 13 (22.81%) Microsoft Intune
8 12 (21.05%) Azure
8 12 (21.05%) SharePoint
9 11 (19.30%) Security Cleared
9 11 (19.30%) ServiceNow
10 9 (15.79%) SC Cleared
11 8 (14.04%) Microsoft Exchange
12 7 (12.28%) Asset Management
13 5 (8.77%) Cisco
14 4 (7.02%) Android
14 4 (7.02%) Apple iOS
14 4 (7.02%) BPSS Clearance
14 4 (7.02%) DBS Check
14 4 (7.02%) Entra ID
14 4 (7.02%) SCCM
14 4 (7.02%) SLA
15 3 (5.26%) Apache
15 3 (5.26%) Continuous Improvement
15 3 (5.26%) Data Entry
15 3 (5.26%) High Availability
15 3 (5.26%) Kalman Filter
15 3 (5.26%) Logistics
15 3 (5.26%) Meraki
15 3 (5.26%) Microsoft Office

Support Engineer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North West 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 12 (21.05%) SharePoint
2 8 (14.04%) Microsoft Exchange
3 3 (5.26%) Apache
4 2 (3.51%) Apache Airflow
4 2 (3.51%) Apache Spark
4 2 (3.51%) Jupyter
5 1 (1.75%) JBoss
Applications
1 3 (5.26%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 30 (52.63%) Microsoft 365
2 12 (21.05%) Azure
3 4 (7.02%) Entra ID
4 3 (5.26%) OneDrive
5 2 (3.51%) Amazon EKS
5 2 (3.51%) Amazon OpenSearch
5 2 (3.51%) AWS
6 1 (1.75%) Google Workspace
6 1 (1.75%) Nutanix
6 1 (1.75%) WhatsApp
Communications & Networking
1 2 (3.51%) LAN
1 2 (3.51%) SSL
1 2 (3.51%) VPN
2 1 (1.75%) Firewall
2 1 (1.75%) Internet
2 1 (1.75%) IP Telephony
2 1 (1.75%) Remote Desktop
2 1 (1.75%) SD-WAN
2 1 (1.75%) WAN
2 1 (1.75%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (3.51%) SQL Server
2 1 (1.75%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 1 (1.75%) JIRA
General
1 31 (54.39%) Social Skills
2 5 (8.77%) Inclusion and Diversity
3 4 (7.02%) Organisational Skills
4 3 (5.26%) Banking
4 3 (5.26%) Finance
4 3 (5.26%) Investment Banking
5 2 (3.51%) Aerospace
5 2 (3.51%) Manufacturing
5 2 (3.51%) Military
5 2 (3.51%) Public Sector
6 1 (1.75%) Documentation Skills
6 1 (1.75%) Italian Language
6 1 (1.75%) Polish Language
6 1 (1.75%) Spanish Language
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (3.51%) Middleware
2 1 (1.75%) Kafka
2 1 (1.75%) Node.js
2 1 (1.75%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 7 (12.28%) Driving Licence
2 4 (7.02%) Onboarding
3 3 (5.26%) Self-Motivation
4 2 (3.51%) Data Protection Act
5 1 (1.75%) Legacy Systems
5 1 (1.75%) Management Information System
5 1 (1.75%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 38 (66.67%) Windows
2 16 (28.07%) Windows 10
3 4 (7.02%) Android
3 4 (7.02%) Apple iOS
4 3 (5.26%) Windows Server
5 1 (1.75%) Linux
5 1 (1.75%) Windows Server 2016
5 1 (1.75%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 22 (38.60%) Customer Service
2 7 (12.28%) Asset Management
3 3 (5.26%) Continuous Improvement
3 3 (5.26%) Data Entry
3 3 (5.26%) High Availability
3 3 (5.26%) Kalman Filter
3 3 (5.26%) Logistics
3 3 (5.26%) Migration
3 3 (5.26%) Service Management
3 3 (5.26%) Web Filtering
4 2 (3.51%) Business Continuity
4 2 (3.51%) Data Protection
4 2 (3.51%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 2 (3.51%) ITIL
4 2 (3.51%) ITSM
4 2 (3.51%) Knowledge Management
4 2 (3.51%) Problem-Solving
5 1 (1.75%) Data Management
5 1 (1.75%) E-Commerce
5 1 (1.75%) Project Management
Programming Languages
1 2 (3.51%) AWK
2 1 (1.75%) Python
2 1 (1.75%) SQL
Qualifications
1 11 (19.30%) Security Cleared
2 9 (15.79%) SC Cleared
3 4 (7.02%) BPSS Clearance
3 4 (7.02%) DBS Check
4 2 (3.51%) MCP
5 1 (1.75%) A+ Certification
5 1 (1.75%) CCNA
5 1 (1.75%) CCNP
5 1 (1.75%) Cisco Certification
5 1 (1.75%) Degree
5 1 (1.75%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (7.02%) SLA
2 1 (1.75%) QA
System Software
1 29 (50.88%) Active Directory
2 1 (1.75%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 13 (22.81%) Microsoft Intune
2 4 (7.02%) SCCM
3 2 (3.51%) Ansible
3 2 (3.51%) Jamf Pro
4 1 (1.75%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 23 (40.35%) Microsoft
2 11 (19.30%) ServiceNow
3 5 (8.77%) Cisco
4 3 (5.26%) Meraki
5 2 (3.51%) Apple
6 1 (1.75%) BMC
6 1 (1.75%) CrowdStrike
6 1 (1.75%) Google
6 1 (1.75%) HP
6 1 (1.75%) IBM
6 1 (1.75%) Oracle
6 1 (1.75%) QNAP
6 1 (1.75%) Remedy
6 1 (1.75%) VMware
6 1 (1.75%) Zscaler