Desktop Engineer Contracts in the South East

Desktop Engineer
England > South East

The median Desktop Engineer daily rate in the South East is £220, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 26 July 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
26 Jul 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 136 153 123
Rank change year-on-year +17 -30 +35
Contract jobs requiring a Desktop Engineer 28 38 85
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the South East 0.81% 0.73% 1.48%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.89% 0.79% 1.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 21 31 72
10th Percentile £153 £148 £160
25th Percentile £208 £191 £179
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £220 £215 £200
Median % change year-on-year +2.33% +7.50% +5.26%
75th Percentile £250 £239 £240
90th Percentile £288 £323 £270
England median daily rate £215 £205 £200
% change year-on-year +4.88% +2.50% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 0 1
Median hourly rate £15.12 - £23.00
England median hourly rate £24.66 £18.13 £19.00
% change year-on-year +36.02% -4.58% -9.52%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
South East

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the South East. 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 South East with a recognized job title 3,129 4,789 5,451
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.51% 92.22% 95.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,036 2,897 3,767
10th Percentile £213 £255 £225
25th Percentile £375 £406 £387
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £520 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% +4.00% -
75th Percentile £600 £634 £611
90th Percentile £663 £688 £700
England median daily rate £510 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -2.86% -4.55% +1.85%
Number of hourly rates quoted 245 425 244
10th Percentile £14.00 £14.66 £16.00
25th Percentile £15.50 £21.89 £21.04
Median hourly rate £25.30 £57.35 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year -55.88% +14.70% +137.53%
75th Percentile £62.24 £71.75 £64.63
90th Percentile £75.00 £80.00 £75.00
England median hourly rate £26.30 £43.00 £43.86
% change year-on-year -38.84% -1.96% +70.79%

Desktop Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Job postings that featured Desktop Engineer in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the South East.

Job vacancy trend for Desktop Engineer in the South East

Desktop Engineer
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the South East

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Desktop Engineer in the South East.

Daily rate trend for Desktop Engineer in the South East

Desktop Engineer
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Desktop Engineer in the South East.

Hourly rate trend for Desktop Engineer in the South East

Desktop Engineer
Contract Job Locations in the South East

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Desktop Engineer within the South East region over the 6 months to 26 July 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
Thames Valley +10 15 £250 +16.28% 5
Oxfordshire -4 9 £250 +61.29% 1
Surrey +21 6 £215 -17.31%
Kent -7 5 £220 +7.32% 1
Hampshire +24 3 £153 -28.84% 2
Berkshire +7 3 £250 +16.28% 1
Buckinghamshire +3 3 £190 -29.63% 3
West Sussex - 1 £200 -
Desktop Engineer
England

Desktop Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the South East

For the 6 months to 26 July 2025, Desktop 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 South East region featuring Desktop Engineer in the job title.

1 25 (89.29%) Windows
2 19 (67.86%) Microsoft 365
3 16 (57.14%) Microsoft
4 15 (53.57%) Active Directory
5 14 (50.00%) Social Skills
6 8 (28.57%) Problem-Solving
7 7 (25.00%) Onboarding
8 6 (21.43%) Customer Service
9 5 (17.86%) QA
9 5 (17.86%) Microsoft Office
9 5 (17.86%) ITIL
9 5 (17.86%) SC Cleared
9 5 (17.86%) Security Cleared
9 5 (17.86%) Time Management
10 4 (14.29%) Windows 10
10 4 (14.29%) Analytical Skills
10 4 (14.29%) Patch Management
10 4 (14.29%) Microsoft Exchange
10 4 (14.29%) Service Management
10 4 (14.29%) SharePoint
10 4 (14.29%) Degree
10 4 (14.29%) Collaborative Working
11 3 (10.71%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 3 (10.71%) SCCM
11 3 (10.71%) Workflow
11 3 (10.71%) Driving Licence
11 3 (10.71%) Entra ID
12 2 (7.14%) Apple
12 2 (7.14%) Coaching
12 2 (7.14%) Remote Desktop

Desktop Engineer Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the South East 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 4 (14.29%) Microsoft Exchange
1 4 (14.29%) SharePoint
Applications
1 5 (17.86%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 19 (67.86%) Microsoft 365
2 3 (10.71%) Entra ID
3 2 (7.14%) Microsoft Copilot
4 1 (3.57%) Azure
Communications & Networking
1 2 (7.14%) Remote Desktop
2 1 (3.57%) DHCP
2 1 (3.57%) DNS
2 1 (3.57%) LAN
2 1 (3.57%) TCP/IP
2 1 (3.57%) WAN
General
1 14 (50.00%) Social Skills
2 4 (14.29%) Analytical Skills
3 1 (3.57%) Inclusion and Diversity
3 1 (3.57%) Telecoms
Miscellaneous
1 7 (25.00%) Onboarding
2 3 (10.71%) Driving Licence
3 1 (3.57%) Client/Server
3 1 (3.57%) Data Protection Act
3 1 (3.57%) Enterprise Software
3 1 (3.57%) Smartphone
3 1 (3.57%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 25 (89.29%) Windows
2 4 (14.29%) Windows 10
3 2 (7.14%) Apple iOS
4 1 (3.57%) Linux
4 1 (3.57%) Mac OS
4 1 (3.57%) Windows 7
4 1 (3.57%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 8 (28.57%) Problem-Solving
2 6 (21.43%) Customer Service
3 5 (17.86%) ITIL
3 5 (17.86%) Time Management
4 4 (14.29%) Collaborative Working
4 4 (14.29%) Patch Management
4 4 (14.29%) Service Management
5 3 (10.71%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 3 (10.71%) Workflow
6 2 (7.14%) Coaching
6 2 (7.14%) Logistics
6 2 (7.14%) Migration
6 2 (7.14%) Workflow Management
7 1 (3.57%) Asset Management
7 1 (3.57%) Continuous Improvement
7 1 (3.57%) Data Protection
7 1 (3.57%) Disk Encryption
7 1 (3.57%) Inventory Management
7 1 (3.57%) IT Asset Management
7 1 (3.57%) Process Improvement
Qualifications
1 5 (17.86%) SC Cleared
1 5 (17.86%) Security Cleared
2 4 (14.29%) Degree
3 2 (7.14%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (17.86%) QA
System Software
1 15 (53.57%) Active Directory
2 1 (3.57%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 3 (10.71%) SCCM
2 2 (7.14%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 16 (57.14%) Microsoft
2 2 (7.14%) Apple
3 1 (3.57%) Cisco
3 1 (3.57%) Citrix
3 1 (3.57%) Wyse