Hardware Engineer Contracts in the South East

Hardware Engineer
England > South East

The median Hardware Engineer daily rate in the South East is £168, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 3 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
3 Jul 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 145 146 204
Rank change year-on-year +1 +58 +60
Contract jobs requiring a Hardware Engineer 12 52 11
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the South East 0.37% 0.91% 0.19%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.41% 0.98% 0.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 4 17 8
10th Percentile £89 £181 £65
25th Percentile £140 £205 £251
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £168 £210 £370
Median % change year-on-year -20.00% -43.24% +131.25%
75th Percentile £264 £300 £416
90th Percentile £435 £320 £500
England median daily rate £154 £210 £325
% change year-on-year -26.67% -35.38% +100.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 21 2
10th Percentile £25.30 - -
25th Percentile £35.50 £65.47 -
Median hourly rate £55.00 £70.32 £79.19
Median % change year-on-year -21.78% -11.21% +509.15%
75th Percentile £75.87 £82.43 -
90th Percentile £86.89 - -
England median hourly rate £36.50 £67.50 £52.13
% change year-on-year -45.93% +29.48% +197.89%

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 2,926 5,280 5,486
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.73% 92.44% 94.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,890 3,114 3,785
10th Percentile £214 £250 £225
25th Percentile £375 £400 £388
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% +2.50% -
75th Percentile £600 £625 £604
90th Percentile £660 £688 £700
England median daily rate £513 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -2.38% -4.55% +1.85%
Number of hourly rates quoted 219 531 244
10th Percentile £14.20 £12.88 £16.00
25th Percentile £15.53 £18.43 £21.18
Median hourly rate £28.00 £49.00 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year -42.86% -2.00% +138.10%
75th Percentile £61.18 £70.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £80.00 £75.00
England median hourly rate £28.18 £40.00 £43.93
% change year-on-year -29.55% -8.95% +75.72%

Hardware Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

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

Job vacancy trend for Hardware Engineer in the South East

Hardware Engineer
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the South East

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

Daily rate trend for Hardware Engineer in the South East

Hardware Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Hardware Engineer in the South East over the 6 months to 3 July 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Hardware Engineer in the South East

Hardware Engineer
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

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

Hourly rate trend for Hardware Engineer in the South East

Hardware Engineer
Hourly Rate Histogram in the South East

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Hardware Engineer in the South East over the 6 months to 3 July 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Hardware Engineer in the South East

Hardware 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 Hardware Engineer within the South East region over the 6 months to 3 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
Hampshire +31 3 £55 -57.69% 5
Surrey - 3 £168 - 7
Berkshire +17 2 - - 11
Thames Valley +15 2 - - 19
East Sussex - 2 - - 3
Kent -20 1 - - 3
Hardware Engineer
England

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

For the 6 months to 3 July 2025, Hardware 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 Hardware Engineer in the job title.

1 5 (41.67%) Electronics
2 4 (33.33%) Manufacturing
3 3 (25.00%) Windows
3 3 (25.00%) Schematic Capture
3 3 (25.00%) FPGA
3 3 (25.00%) Public Sector
3 3 (25.00%) Social Skills
4 2 (16.67%) Cost Control
4 2 (16.67%) CI/CD
4 2 (16.67%) Customer Service
4 2 (16.67%) Customer Requirements
4 2 (16.67%) Break/Fix
4 2 (16.67%) Mentor Graphics
4 2 (16.67%) Marketing
4 2 (16.67%) Degree
4 2 (16.67%) QA
4 2 (16.67%) Selenium
4 2 (16.67%) Digital Marketing
4 2 (16.67%) Continuous Integration
4 2 (16.67%) Time Management
4 2 (16.67%) SC Cleared
4 2 (16.67%) Security Cleared
4 2 (16.67%) Git
4 2 (16.67%) PowerShell
4 2 (16.67%) SAP
4 2 (16.67%) Bash
4 2 (16.67%) Problem-Solving
4 2 (16.67%) DO-254
4 2 (16.67%) Root Cause Analysis
4 2 (16.67%) Analytical Skills

Hardware 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:

Development Applications
1 2 (16.67%) Git
1 2 (16.67%) Selenium
2 1 (8.33%) LabVIEW
General
1 5 (41.67%) Electronics
2 4 (33.33%) Manufacturing
3 3 (25.00%) Public Sector
3 3 (25.00%) Social Skills
4 2 (16.67%) Analytical Skills
4 2 (16.67%) Finance
4 2 (16.67%) Law
4 2 (16.67%) Marketing
4 2 (16.67%) Telecoms
Miscellaneous
1 3 (25.00%) FPGA
2 2 (16.67%) Data Centre
3 1 (8.33%) ASIC
3 1 (8.33%) Device Driver
3 1 (8.33%) State Machine
3 1 (8.33%) Verilog
3 1 (8.33%) VHDL
Operating Systems
1 3 (25.00%) Windows
2 1 (8.33%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 3 (25.00%) Schematic Capture
2 2 (16.67%) Artificial Intelligence
2 2 (16.67%) Break/Fix
2 2 (16.67%) Business Intelligence
2 2 (16.67%) CI/CD
2 2 (16.67%) Continuous Integration
2 2 (16.67%) Cost Control
2 2 (16.67%) Customer Requirements
2 2 (16.67%) Customer Service
2 2 (16.67%) Digital Marketing
2 2 (16.67%) Problem-Solving
2 2 (16.67%) Programme Management
2 2 (16.67%) Root Cause Analysis
2 2 (16.67%) Time Management
2 2 (16.67%) Validation
3 1 (8.33%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 1 (8.33%) Kalman Filter
3 1 (8.33%) Power Management
3 1 (8.33%) Server Management
Programming Languages
1 2 (16.67%) Bash
1 2 (16.67%) PowerShell
1 2 (16.67%) Python
Qualifications
1 2 (16.67%) Degree
1 2 (16.67%) SC Cleared
1 2 (16.67%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (16.67%) DO-254
1 2 (16.67%) QA
1 2 (16.67%) SLA
System Software
1 1 (8.33%) Active Directory
1 1 (8.33%) Virtual Desktop
1 1 (8.33%) VMware Infrastructure
Vendors
1 2 (16.67%) Dell
1 2 (16.67%) HP
1 2 (16.67%) IBM
1 2 (16.67%) Mentor Graphics
1 2 (16.67%) SAP
2 1 (8.33%) Cisco
2 1 (8.33%) Citrix
2 1 (8.33%) EMC
2 1 (8.33%) VMware