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 29 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
29 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 181 238 208
Rank change year-on-year +57 -30 -27
Contract jobs requiring a Desktop Engineer 161 164 261
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 1.25% 0.80% 1.14%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.36% 0.86% 1.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 96 124 203
10th Percentile £150 £125 £151
25th Percentile £168 £143 £173
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £205 £200 £200
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% - +14.29%
75th Percentile £235 £218 £238
90th Percentile £288 £250 £280
UK median daily rate £210 £200 £200
% change year-on-year +5.00% - +11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 8 12
10th Percentile £15.59 £15.58 -
25th Percentile £17.01 £17.00 £15.50
Median hourly rate £22.54 £18.00 £17.35
Median % change year-on-year +25.21% +3.75% -2.42%
75th Percentile £25.15 £18.17 £23.19
90th Percentile - £21.41 £28.93
UK median hourly rate £23.62 £18.13 £18.35
% change year-on-year +30.27% -1.20% -3.42%

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 11,802 19,038 21,534
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.73% 92.39% 94.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,509 11,591 14,985
10th Percentile £213 £213 £225
25th Percentile £363 £363 £394
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £488 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.56% -2.50% +5.26%
75th Percentile £575 £594 £600
90th Percentile £650 £688 £688
UK median daily rate £505 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -3.81% -2.78% +2.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 844 2,364 1,082
10th Percentile £13.76 £12.50 £13.41
25th Percentile £16.95 £15.75 £17.81
Median hourly rate £25.15 £40.00 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -37.13% -5.88% +112.50%
75th Percentile £62.24 £62.14 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £73.75 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £27.97 £37.18 £45.00
% change year-on-year -24.78% -17.38% +87.50%

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 29 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 29 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 +52 40 £235 +23.68% 6
North of England +22 34 £188 +11.94% 4
South East +24 32 £220 +7.32% 11
Midlands +24 26 £175 +43.44% 4
West Midlands +26 19 £172 +46.58% 4
East of England +34 17 £205 +17.14% 5
North West +3 13 £155 +8.77% 3
Yorkshire +18 12 £235 +18.99% 1
North East +6 9 £155 -20.51%
East Midlands +8 7 £180 +47.54%
Northern Ireland -7 6 £156 +11.43%
Scotland -9 6 £195 -17.89% 1
Wales +1 2 - -
Desktop Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 29 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.

1 107 (66.46%) Social Skills
2 92 (57.14%) Microsoft
3 90 (55.90%) Windows
4 61 (37.89%) Security Cleared
5 60 (37.27%) Active Directory
6 58 (36.02%) SC Cleared
7 51 (31.68%) Microsoft 365
8 48 (29.81%) Customer Service
9 45 (27.95%) Windows 10
10 44 (27.33%) Problem-Solving
11 40 (24.84%) ITIL
12 37 (22.98%) Microsoft Office
13 35 (21.74%) Finance
14 34 (21.12%) VPN
15 30 (18.63%) SLA
16 28 (17.39%) Degree
17 27 (16.77%) Time Management
17 27 (16.77%) Microsoft Exchange
17 27 (16.77%) Microsoft Intune
18 26 (16.15%) Customer Experience
19 25 (15.53%) Analytical Skills
19 25 (15.53%) Driving Licence
19 25 (15.53%) Dell
20 24 (14.91%) Dell Certification
21 23 (14.29%) HP
21 23 (14.29%) Mathematics
22 20 (12.42%) SCCM
23 19 (11.80%) Citrix
23 19 (11.80%) ServiceNow
24 17 (10.56%) Collaborative Working

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 27 (16.77%) Microsoft Exchange
2 14 (8.70%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.62%) Blackberry Enterprise Server
3 1 (0.62%) IBM Notes
3 1 (0.62%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 37 (22.98%) Microsoft Office
2 8 (4.97%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 6 (3.73%) Microsoft Excel
3 6 (3.73%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.62%) Microsoft Project
Cloud Services
1 51 (31.68%) Microsoft 365
2 15 (9.32%) Azure
3 6 (3.73%) Entra ID
4 5 (3.11%) OneDrive
5 2 (1.24%) Microsoft Copilot
5 2 (1.24%) Power Platform
6 1 (0.62%) Azure DevOps
6 1 (0.62%) Cloud Computing
6 1 (0.62%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 34 (21.12%) VPN
2 9 (5.59%) LAN
3 8 (4.97%) Remote Desktop
3 8 (4.97%) Structured Cabling
4 5 (3.11%) DNS
5 4 (2.48%) DHCP
5 4 (2.48%) WAN
5 4 (2.48%) Wi-Fi
6 3 (1.86%) Firewall
7 2 (1.24%) TCP/IP
7 2 (1.24%) Telepresence
7 2 (1.24%) Unified Communications
7 2 (1.24%) VLAN
7 2 (1.24%) VoIP
7 2 (1.24%) WebEx
7 2 (1.24%) Wireless
8 1 (0.62%) Internet
8 1 (0.62%) Skype
Development Applications
1 2 (1.24%) JIRA
General
1 107 (66.46%) Social Skills
2 35 (21.74%) Finance
3 25 (15.53%) Analytical Skills
4 12 (7.45%) Manufacturing
4 12 (7.45%) Public Sector
5 8 (4.97%) Telecoms
6 7 (4.35%) Electronics
6 7 (4.35%) Marketing
7 6 (3.73%) Documentation Skills
7 6 (3.73%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 5 (3.11%) Legal
8 5 (3.11%) Presentation Skills
9 2 (1.24%) Banking
9 2 (1.24%) Pharmaceutical
10 1 (0.62%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (0.62%) ARM Templates
Miscellaneous
1 25 (15.53%) Driving Licence
2 11 (6.83%) NHS
3 8 (4.97%) iPhone
4 7 (4.35%) iPad
4 7 (4.35%) Self-Motivation
5 6 (3.73%) Onboarding
5 6 (3.73%) Smartphone
6 5 (3.11%) Management Information System
7 4 (2.48%) Video Conferencing
8 2 (1.24%) Data Centre
8 2 (1.24%) Device Driver
9 1 (0.62%) Analytical Mindset
9 1 (0.62%) Blackberry
9 1 (0.62%) Data Protection Act
9 1 (0.62%) Enterprise Software
9 1 (0.62%) Fat Client
9 1 (0.62%) Operational Technology
9 1 (0.62%) Product Ownership
9 1 (0.62%) Thin Client
9 1 (0.62%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 90 (55.90%) Windows
2 45 (27.95%) Windows 10
3 9 (5.59%) Mac OS
4 6 (3.73%) Linux
4 6 (3.73%) Windows Server
5 5 (3.11%) Windows 8
5 5 (3.11%) Windows Server 2003
5 5 (3.11%) Windows Server 2008
5 5 (3.11%) Windows Server 2012
5 5 (3.11%) Windows Server 2016
5 5 (3.11%) Windows XP
6 4 (2.48%) Apple iOS
6 4 (2.48%) Windows 7
7 1 (0.62%) Android
Processes & Methodologies
1 48 (29.81%) Customer Service
2 44 (27.33%) Problem-Solving
3 40 (24.84%) ITIL
4 27 (16.77%) Time Management
5 26 (16.15%) Customer Experience
6 23 (14.29%) Mathematics
7 17 (10.56%) Collaborative Working
8 15 (9.32%) ITSM
9 14 (8.70%) Migration
9 14 (8.70%) Service Delivery
10 13 (8.07%) Case Management
11 11 (6.83%) Root Cause Analysis
12 9 (5.59%) Asset Management
12 9 (5.59%) Inventory Management
13 8 (4.97%) Workflow
14 7 (4.35%) Business Intelligence
14 7 (4.35%) Digital Marketing
14 7 (4.35%) Programme Management
14 7 (4.35%) Service Management
14 7 (4.35%) Workflow Management
Programming Languages
1 13 (8.07%) PowerShell
2 1 (0.62%) Bash
2 1 (0.62%) Python
Qualifications
1 61 (37.89%) Security Cleared
2 58 (36.02%) SC Cleared
3 28 (17.39%) Degree
4 24 (14.91%) Dell Certification
5 14 (8.70%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
6 13 (8.07%) Microsoft Certification
7 8 (4.97%) A+ Certification
8 7 (4.35%) ITIL Certification
9 3 (1.86%) BPSS Clearance
9 3 (1.86%) MCSE
10 2 (1.24%) Computer Science Degree
11 1 (0.62%) MCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (18.63%) SLA
2 13 (8.07%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 12 (7.45%) QA
4 1 (0.62%) GxP
System Software
1 60 (37.27%) Active Directory
2 3 (1.86%) Virtual Desktop
3 2 (1.24%) BitLocker
3 2 (1.24%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.62%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 27 (16.77%) Microsoft Intune
2 20 (12.42%) SCCM
3 2 (1.24%) AppManager
3 2 (1.24%) TeamSite
3 2 (1.24%) Terraform
4 1 (0.62%) Jamf Pro
4 1 (0.62%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
Vendors
1 92 (57.14%) Microsoft
2 25 (15.53%) Dell
3 23 (14.29%) HP
4 19 (11.80%) Citrix
4 19 (11.80%) ServiceNow
5 8 (4.97%) Cisco
6 7 (4.35%) Apple
6 7 (4.35%) McAfee
6 7 (4.35%) SAP
7 5 (3.11%) Canon
8 2 (1.24%) Ivanti
8 2 (1.24%) Nexthink
8 2 (1.24%) Remedy
8 2 (1.24%) VMware
9 1 (0.62%) Bomgar
9 1 (0.62%) Lotus
9 1 (0.62%) NetApp
9 1 (0.62%) Wyse