Desktop Engineer Contracts in the UK excluding London

Desktop Engineer
UK > UK excluding London

The median Desktop Engineer daily rate in the UK excluding London is £205, 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 178 234 206
Rank change year-on-year +56 -28 -24
Contract jobs requiring a Desktop Engineer 169 170 296
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 1.32% 0.82% 1.23%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.44% 0.88% 1.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 100 128 224
10th Percentile £142 £131 £143
25th Percentile £167 £143 £162
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £205 £203 £200
Median % change year-on-year +1.23% +1.25% +14.29%
75th Percentile £238 £218 £240
90th Percentile £288 £250 £280
UK median daily rate £210 £205 £200
% change year-on-year +2.44% +2.50% +11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 6 17
10th Percentile £16.94 £14.63 £12.67
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.00 £15.50
Median hourly rate £23.00 £17.50 £17.00
Median % change year-on-year +31.43% +2.94% -10.53%
75th Percentile £24.18 £18.20 £19.50
90th Percentile £25.15 £23.51 £25.60
UK median hourly rate £23.00 £18.14 £17.00
% change year-on-year +26.83% +6.68% -11.03%

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%

Desktop Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

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

Job vacancy trend for Desktop Engineer in the UK excluding London

Desktop Engineer
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

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

Daily rate trend for Desktop Engineer in the UK excluding London

Desktop Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

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

Daily rate histogram for Desktop Engineer in the UK excluding London

Desktop Engineer
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

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

Hourly rate trend for Desktop Engineer in the UK excluding London

Desktop 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 Desktop 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
South West +51 39 £225 +18.42% 6
North of England +29 35 £195 +16.42% 5
South East +21 35 £213 +1.19% 17
Midlands +30 22 £175 +43.44% 2
East of England +38 20 £218 +12.99% 2
West Midlands +22 16 £172 +46.58% 1
Yorkshire +17 13 £225 +13.92% 1
North West +11 12 £155 -3.13% 4
North East +7 10 £155 -20.51%
Scotland +5 9 £195 +21.88%
Northern Ireland -4 7 £150 +7.14%
East Midlands +10 6 £180 +47.54% 1
Wales -2 3 - -
Desktop Engineer
UK

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

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

1 100 (59.17%) Microsoft
2 99 (58.58%) Windows
3 96 (56.80%) Social Skills
4 66 (39.05%) Active Directory
5 58 (34.32%) Microsoft 365
6 56 (33.14%) Security Cleared
7 55 (32.54%) Windows 10
8 53 (31.36%) SC Cleared
9 47 (27.81%) Customer Service
10 41 (24.26%) VPN
10 41 (24.26%) Microsoft Office
11 40 (23.67%) Problem-Solving
12 39 (23.08%) Finance
13 35 (20.71%) ITIL
14 32 (18.93%) SLA
15 30 (17.75%) Microsoft Exchange
16 29 (17.16%) Microsoft Intune
17 28 (16.57%) SCCM
18 26 (15.38%) Customer Experience
19 25 (14.79%) Time Management
19 25 (14.79%) Dell
20 24 (14.20%) SharePoint
20 24 (14.20%) Dell Certification
20 24 (14.20%) Driving Licence
21 23 (13.61%) HP
21 23 (13.61%) Mathematics
22 21 (12.43%) Analytical Skills
22 21 (12.43%) Degree
23 20 (11.83%) Azure
24 19 (11.24%) ServiceNow

Desktop 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 30 (17.75%) Microsoft Exchange
2 24 (14.20%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.59%) Blackberry Enterprise Server
3 1 (0.59%) IBM Notes
Applications
1 41 (24.26%) Microsoft Office
2 8 (4.73%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 7 (4.14%) Microsoft Excel
4 6 (3.55%) MS Visio
5 1 (0.59%) Final Cut Pro
5 1 (0.59%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.59%) QuarkXPress
Cloud Services
1 58 (34.32%) Microsoft 365
2 20 (11.83%) Azure
3 12 (7.10%) OneDrive
4 9 (5.33%) Entra ID
5 2 (1.18%) Microsoft Copilot
5 2 (1.18%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 41 (24.26%) VPN
2 14 (8.28%) LAN
3 10 (5.92%) DNS
3 10 (5.92%) Wi-Fi
4 9 (5.33%) DHCP
4 9 (5.33%) Remote Desktop
4 9 (5.33%) WAN
5 8 (4.73%) Structured Cabling
5 8 (4.73%) VLAN
5 8 (4.73%) VoIP
6 3 (1.78%) Firewall
7 2 (1.18%) Wireless
8 1 (0.59%) Internet
8 1 (0.59%) TCP/IP
8 1 (0.59%) WebEx
Development Applications
1 1 (0.59%) JIRA
General
1 96 (56.80%) Social Skills
2 39 (23.08%) Finance
3 21 (12.43%) Analytical Skills
4 16 (9.47%) Manufacturing
4 16 (9.47%) Public Sector
5 13 (7.69%) Telecoms
6 11 (6.51%) Electronics
6 11 (6.51%) Marketing
7 6 (3.55%) Documentation Skills
7 6 (3.55%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 5 (2.96%) Pharmaceutical
8 5 (2.96%) Presentation Skills
9 4 (2.37%) Legal
10 2 (1.18%) Banking
11 1 (0.59%) Retail
Miscellaneous
1 24 (14.20%) Driving Licence
2 11 (6.51%) NHS
3 10 (5.92%) iPhone
4 7 (4.14%) iPad
4 7 (4.14%) Management Information System
4 7 (4.14%) Self-Motivation
5 6 (3.55%) Onboarding
5 6 (3.55%) Smartphone
6 4 (2.37%) Video Conferencing
7 3 (1.78%) Data Centre
8 2 (1.18%) BYOD
8 2 (1.18%) CMDB
8 2 (1.18%) Data Protection Act
8 2 (1.18%) Device Driver
9 1 (0.59%) Analytical Mindset
9 1 (0.59%) Blackberry
9 1 (0.59%) Client/Server
9 1 (0.59%) Enterprise Software
9 1 (0.59%) Fat Client
9 1 (0.59%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 99 (58.58%) Windows
2 55 (32.54%) Windows 10
3 7 (4.14%) Linux
3 7 (4.14%) Mac OS
3 7 (4.14%) Windows 7
4 6 (3.55%) Windows Server
5 5 (2.96%) Windows 8
5 5 (2.96%) Windows Server 2003
5 5 (2.96%) Windows Server 2008
5 5 (2.96%) Windows Server 2012
5 5 (2.96%) Windows Server 2016
5 5 (2.96%) Windows XP
6 3 (1.78%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.59%) Android
7 1 (0.59%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 47 (27.81%) Customer Service
2 40 (23.67%) Problem-Solving
3 35 (20.71%) ITIL
4 26 (15.38%) Customer Experience
5 25 (14.79%) Time Management
6 23 (13.61%) Mathematics
7 13 (7.69%) Collaborative Working
8 12 (7.10%) Root Cause Analysis
9 11 (6.51%) Business Intelligence
9 11 (6.51%) Digital Marketing
9 11 (6.51%) ITSM
9 11 (6.51%) Programme Management
10 10 (5.92%) Service Delivery
11 9 (5.33%) Asset Management
11 9 (5.33%) Case Management
11 9 (5.33%) Inventory Management
11 9 (5.33%) Migration
12 7 (4.14%) Antivirus Management
12 7 (4.14%) Break/Fix
13 6 (3.55%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 15 (8.88%) PowerShell
2 1 (0.59%) Bash
2 1 (0.59%) Python
Qualifications
1 56 (33.14%) Security Cleared
2 53 (31.36%) SC Cleared
3 24 (14.20%) Dell Certification
4 21 (12.43%) Degree
5 13 (7.69%) Microsoft Certification
6 10 (5.92%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
7 8 (4.73%) A+ Certification
8 7 (4.14%) ITIL Certification
9 4 (2.37%) DBS Check
10 3 (1.78%) MCSE
11 2 (1.18%) BPSS Clearance
12 1 (0.59%) MCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 32 (18.93%) SLA
2 10 (5.92%) QA
3 9 (5.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 1 (0.59%) GxP
System Software
1 66 (39.05%) Active Directory
2 8 (4.73%) VMware Infrastructure
3 2 (1.18%) BitLocker
4 1 (0.59%) Virtual Desktop
4 1 (0.59%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 29 (17.16%) Microsoft Intune
2 28 (16.57%) SCCM
3 8 (4.73%) AppManager
4 3 (1.78%) TeamSite
5 1 (0.59%) Jamf Pro
5 1 (0.59%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
5 1 (0.59%) Terraform
Vendors
1 100 (59.17%) Microsoft
2 25 (14.79%) Dell
3 23 (13.61%) HP
4 19 (11.24%) ServiceNow
5 15 (8.88%) Citrix
6 11 (6.51%) SAP
7 8 (4.73%) Ivanti
7 8 (4.73%) VMware
8 7 (4.14%) Apple
8 7 (4.14%) McAfee
9 6 (3.55%) Cisco
10 5 (2.96%) Canon
11 3 (1.78%) Remedy
12 2 (1.18%) Nexthink
13 1 (0.59%) Adobe
13 1 (0.59%) Bomgar
13 1 (0.59%) Lotus
13 1 (0.59%) Qualys
13 1 (0.59%) Quark