Design Engineer Contracts in the UK excluding London

Design Engineer
UK > UK excluding London

The median Design Engineer daily rate in the UK excluding London is £520, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 1 May 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
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 303 309 354
Rank change year-on-year +6 +45 +98
Contract jobs requiring a Design Engineer 33 90 109
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 0.26% 0.43% 0.45%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.28% 0.47% 0.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 4 40 36
10th Percentile £193 £370 £364
25th Percentile £384 £452 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £650 £525
Median % change year-on-year -20.00% +23.81% +21.37%
75th Percentile £559 £775 £681
90th Percentile £576 £891 £700
UK median daily rate £490 £575 £525
% change year-on-year -14.78% +9.52% +2.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 24 28 32
10th Percentile £49.75 £52.50 -
25th Percentile £61.88 £59.38 £42.50
Median hourly rate £72.50 £70.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +3.57% +55.56% -
75th Percentile £85.00 £85.00 £60.50
90th Percentile - - £65.35
UK median hourly rate £71.25 £70.00 £45.00
% change year-on-year +1.79% +55.56% -

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
UK excluding London

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the UK excluding 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 the UK excluding London with a recognized job title 11,767 19,240 22,667
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.17% 92.63% 94.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,552 11,748 15,893
10th Percentile £213 £213 £225
25th Percentile £363 £363 £395
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £492 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.46% -1.60% +5.26%
75th Percentile £575 £598 £595
90th Percentile £650 £688 £688
UK median daily rate £515 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -1.90% -2.78% +2.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 829 2,243 1,165
10th Percentile £14.00 £12.50 £13.45
25th Percentile £17.61 £15.75 £18.09
Median hourly rate £28.00 £39.55 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -29.20% -6.94% +117.95%
75th Percentile £64.50 £61.30 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £73.75 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £29.00 £36.42 £45.00
% change year-on-year -20.37% -19.07% +91.49%

Design Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Job postings that featured Design Engineer in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Job vacancy trend for Design Engineer in the UK excluding London

Design Engineer
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Design Engineer in the UK excluding London.

Daily rate trend for Design Engineer in the UK excluding London

Design Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Design Engineer in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Design Engineer in the UK excluding London

Design Engineer
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Design Engineer in the UK excluding London.

Hourly rate trend for Design Engineer in the UK excluding London

Design Engineer
Hourly Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Design Engineer in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Design Engineer in the UK excluding London

Design Engineer
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Design Engineer within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 1 May 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
East of England +8 17 £65 -90.71% 51
South East +38 8 £490 -34.67% 58
South West +45 4 £563 -27.42% 45
Midlands +17 2 - - 20
West Midlands +13 2 - - 11
North West +8 1 - - 10
North of England +6 1 - - 16
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 1
Design Engineer
UK

Design Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London

For the 6 months to 1 May 2025, Design 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 UK excluding London region featuring Design Engineer in the job title.

1 19 (57.58%) Degree
2 15 (45.45%) C
3 14 (42.42%) Simulink
4 13 (39.39%) Intel
4 13 (39.39%) VHDL
4 13 (39.39%) Verilog
4 13 (39.39%) FPGA
4 13 (39.39%) Xilinx
4 13 (39.39%) FPGA Design
4 13 (39.39%) Microsemi
4 13 (39.39%) SystemVerilog
4 13 (39.39%) UVM
5 11 (33.33%) Signal Processing
6 7 (21.21%) Security Cleared
6 7 (21.21%) CAD
7 4 (12.12%) Manufacturing
8 3 (9.09%) Cisco
8 3 (9.09%) HNC
8 3 (9.09%) HND
8 3 (9.09%) BPSS Clearance
9 2 (6.06%) Social Skills
9 2 (6.06%) CATIA
9 2 (6.06%) Application Security
9 2 (6.06%) 5G
9 2 (6.06%) Radio Access Network
9 2 (6.06%) Facebook
9 2 (6.06%) 4G
9 2 (6.06%) Embedded Systems
9 2 (6.06%) SC Cleared
9 2 (6.06%) Network Architecture

Design Engineer Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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 1 (3.03%) Microsoft Exchange
1 1 (3.03%) SharePoint
1 1 (3.03%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 14 (42.42%) Simulink
2 2 (6.06%) CATIA
3 1 (3.03%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (3.03%) Revit
Business Applications
1 1 (3.03%) ENOVIA
Cloud Services
1 1 (3.03%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 2 (6.06%) 2G
1 2 (6.06%) 3G
1 2 (6.06%) 4G
1 2 (6.06%) 5G
1 2 (6.06%) Ethernet
1 2 (6.06%) Radio Access Network
2 1 (3.03%) Cisco ISE
2 1 (3.03%) Firewall
2 1 (3.03%) MPLS
2 1 (3.03%) NetScaler
2 1 (3.03%) Network Security
2 1 (3.03%) Skype
2 1 (3.03%) TCP/IP
2 1 (3.03%) Wi-Fi
General
1 4 (12.12%) Manufacturing
2 2 (6.06%) Automotive
2 2 (6.06%) Military
2 2 (6.06%) Social Skills
2 2 (6.06%) Telecoms
3 1 (3.03%) Aerospace
3 1 (3.03%) Electronics
3 1 (3.03%) Inclusion and Diversity
3 1 (3.03%) Legal
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (3.03%) 802.1X
Miscellaneous
1 13 (39.39%) FPGA
1 13 (39.39%) Verilog
1 13 (39.39%) VHDL
2 2 (6.06%) ASIC
2 2 (6.06%) Embedded Systems
2 2 (6.06%) Robotics
3 1 (3.03%) Data Centre
3 1 (3.03%) Management Information System
3 1 (3.03%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 1 (3.03%) Windows
1 1 (3.03%) Windows Server
1 1 (3.03%) Windows Server 2012
1 1 (3.03%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 13 (39.39%) FPGA Design
1 13 (39.39%) UVM
2 11 (33.33%) Signal Processing
3 7 (21.21%) CAD
4 2 (6.06%) Application Security
4 2 (6.06%) Benchmarking
4 2 (6.06%) Data Management
4 2 (6.06%) Network Architecture
4 2 (6.06%) Network Design
4 2 (6.06%) Use Case
5 1 (3.03%) Bill of Materials
5 1 (3.03%) Cost Control
5 1 (3.03%) Cost Optimisation
5 1 (3.03%) Cost Reduction
5 1 (3.03%) Cybersecurity
5 1 (3.03%) Hardware-in-the-Loop
5 1 (3.03%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 1 (3.03%) Model Validation
5 1 (3.03%) Problem-Solving
5 1 (3.03%) Systems Engineering
Programming Languages
1 15 (45.45%) C
2 13 (39.39%) SystemVerilog
3 1 (3.03%) MATLAB
3 1 (3.03%) PowerShell
3 1 (3.03%) Python
3 1 (3.03%) SQL
3 1 (3.03%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 19 (57.58%) Degree
2 7 (21.21%) Security Cleared
3 3 (9.09%) BPSS Clearance
3 3 (9.09%) HNC
3 3 (9.09%) HND
4 2 (6.06%) SC Cleared
5 1 (3.03%) Chartered Engineer
5 1 (3.03%) DV Cleared
5 1 (3.03%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (3.03%) AUTOSAR
System Software
1 1 (3.03%) Active Directory
1 1 (3.03%) Hyper-V
1 1 (3.03%) Virtual Machines
1 1 (3.03%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 1 (3.03%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
1 1 (3.03%) NSN NetAct
1 1 (3.03%) SCCM
Vendors
1 13 (39.39%) Intel
1 13 (39.39%) Microsemi
1 13 (39.39%) Xilinx
2 3 (9.09%) Cisco
3 2 (6.06%) Facebook
3 2 (6.06%) Microsoft
4 1 (3.03%) Ericsson
4 1 (3.03%) Fujitsu
4 1 (3.03%) Huawei
4 1 (3.03%) Meraki
4 1 (3.03%) Nokia
4 1 (3.03%) Palo Alto
4 1 (3.03%) Veeam
4 1 (3.03%) VMware