Support Engineer Contract Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Support Engineer
UK > UK excluding London

The median Support Engineer daily rate in the UK excluding London is £225, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 16 August 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 120 84 86
Rank change year-on-year -36 +2 -13
Contract jobs requiring a Support Engineer 574 450 441
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 2.08% 2.92% 2.42%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.26% 3.24% 2.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 381 284 302
10th Percentile £155 £156 £135
25th Percentile £185 £188 £176
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £225 £230 £220
Median % change year-on-year -2.17% +4.55% -1.12%
75th Percentile £392 £325 £340
90th Percentile £500 £575 £468
UK median daily rate £238 £238 £234
% change year-on-year - +1.66% -6.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 37 57 35
10th Percentile £15.70 £17.46 £15.11
25th Percentile £18.25 £21.25 £18.03
Median hourly rate £22.00 £25.15 £22.00
Median % change year-on-year -12.52% +14.32% +18.92%
75th Percentile £36.00 £53.75 £24.18
90th Percentile £37.50 £68.00 £63.74
UK median hourly rate £24.00 £25.25 £22.00
% change year-on-year -4.95% +14.77% +15.79%

All Contract IT Job Roles
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 25,343 13,883 16,769
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.90% 90.13% 92.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,320 8,516 10,247
10th Percentile £305 £213 £220
25th Percentile £410 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £600 £575 £600
90th Percentile £688 £650 £686
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.69%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,039 1,243 1,727
10th Percentile £14.56 £13.25 £14.05
25th Percentile £20.48 £16.31 £18.50
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +68.99% -44.11% +21.62%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £41.96 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +66.84% -41.51% +2.38%

Support Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Support Engineer' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Support Engineer job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

Support Engineer
Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Support Engineer job vacancies in the UK excluding London.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Support Engineer job vacancies in the UK excluding London

Support Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Support Engineer in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 16 August 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Support Engineer in the UK excluding London

Support Engineer
Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Support Engineer job vacancies in the UK excluding London.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Support Engineer job vacancies in the UK excluding London

Support Engineer
Hourly Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Support Engineer in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 16 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Support Engineer in the UK excluding London

Support 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 Support Engineer within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 16 August 2026. 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 East -34 166 £250 - 83
North of England -36 131 £200 -9.09% 57
North West -6 89 £200 -12.09% 29
Scotland +59 84 £437 +48.14% 12
Midlands -62 60 £250 -9.09% 46
South West -65 60 £210 -10.64% 35
East of England -5 59 £200 - 46
Yorkshire -24 40 £210 -4.55% 23
West Midlands -71 39 £250 -9.09% 24
East Midlands -14 20 £270 +47.54% 22
Wales -28 10 £195 -8.24% 2
Northern Ireland 0 4 £175 -30.00% 6
North East -51 3 £188 -3.85% 8
Channel Islands - 1 £550 -
Support Engineer
UK

Support Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London

For the 6 months to 16 August 2026, Support Engineer contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the UK excluding London region featuring Support Engineer in the job title.

1 286 (49.83%) Windows
2 256 (44.60%) Microsoft
3 240 (41.81%) Active Directory
4 199 (34.67%) Microsoft 365
5 143 (24.91%) Customer Service
6 130 (22.65%) Security Cleared
7 129 (22.47%) Problem-Solving
8 124 (21.60%) Windows 10
9 122 (21.25%) ITIL
10 93 (16.20%) SC Cleared
11 89 (15.51%) Microsoft Intune
12 82 (14.29%) Azure
13 79 (13.76%) Entra ID
13 79 (13.76%) SharePoint
14 74 (12.89%) ITSM
15 68 (11.85%) ServiceNow
16 49 (8.54%) PowerShell
17 47 (8.19%) Windows Server
18 46 (8.01%) DNS
19 45 (7.84%) VMware
20 44 (7.67%) Service Delivery
21 40 (6.97%) VPN
22 39 (6.79%) Asset Management
23 38 (6.62%) Microsoft Exchange
24 37 (6.45%) Continuous Improvement
25 35 (6.10%) Identity Access Management
25 35 (6.10%) SCCM
26 34 (5.92%) Service Management
27 33 (5.75%) Root Cause Analysis
28 31 (5.40%) Degree

Support Engineer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Application Platforms
1 79 (13.76%) SharePoint
2 38 (6.62%) Microsoft Exchange
3 11 (1.92%) HCL Notes
4 7 (1.22%) NetWeaver
5 3 (0.52%) Confluence
5 3 (0.52%) Skype for Business
6 2 (0.35%) IIS
6 2 (0.35%) WebSphere
7 1 (0.17%) Tuxedo
7 1 (0.17%) WebLogic
Applications
1 29 (5.05%) Microsoft Office
2 8 (1.39%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.70%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.35%) MS Visio
5 1 (0.17%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 7 (1.22%) SAP S/4HANA
2 3 (0.52%) Remedy ITSM
3 2 (0.35%) NetSuite
4 1 (0.17%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 199 (34.67%) Microsoft 365
2 82 (14.29%) Azure
3 79 (13.76%) Entra ID
4 17 (2.96%) OneDrive
5 11 (1.92%) AWS
6 10 (1.74%) Power Platform
7 9 (1.57%) SaaS
8 5 (0.87%) Google Workspace
9 4 (0.70%) GCP
10 3 (0.52%) Azure Data Factory
10 3 (0.52%) IaaS
10 3 (0.52%) PaaS
10 3 (0.52%) Sauce Labs
11 2 (0.35%) Azure DevOps
11 2 (0.35%) Matillion
11 2 (0.35%) Snowflake
12 1 (0.17%) Azure Monitor
12 1 (0.17%) Azure Synapse Analytics
12 1 (0.17%) IBM Watson
12 1 (0.17%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 46 (8.01%) DNS
2 40 (6.97%) VPN
3 28 (4.88%) LAN
4 27 (4.70%) DHCP
4 27 (4.70%) TCP/IP
5 22 (3.83%) WAN
5 22 (3.83%) Wi-Fi
6 18 (3.14%) SAN
7 14 (2.44%) Firewall
8 9 (1.57%) Wireless
9 8 (1.39%) VLAN
10 7 (1.22%) Skype
11 5 (0.87%) WLAN
12 4 (0.70%) SD-WAN
13 3 (0.52%) Internet
13 3 (0.52%) Remote Desktop
14 2 (0.35%) Kerberos
14 2 (0.35%) SMTP
14 2 (0.35%) SNMP
15 1 (0.17%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 27 (4.70%) SQL Server
2 14 (2.44%) MySQL
3 9 (1.57%) Power BI
4 7 (1.22%) Amazon Redshift
4 7 (1.22%) Pentaho
4 7 (1.22%) Relational Database
4 7 (1.22%) SAP HANA
4 7 (1.22%) Sybase ASE
5 6 (1.05%) MaxDB
6 4 (0.70%) Oracle Database
6 4 (0.70%) Oracle Database 12c
6 4 (0.70%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 2 (0.35%) Amazon RDS
7 2 (0.35%) Data Warehouse
7 2 (0.35%) MariaDB
7 2 (0.35%) PostgreSQL
8 1 (0.17%) Azure SQL Database
8 1 (0.17%) NonStop SQL
8 1 (0.17%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 27 (4.70%) JIRA
2 11 (1.92%) Git
3 5 (0.87%) Browser DevTools
4 3 (0.52%) Android Studio
4 3 (0.52%) Eclipse
4 3 (0.52%) Xcode
5 2 (0.35%) Firebug
6 1 (0.17%) Claude Code
6 1 (0.17%) Gemini Tracker
6 1 (0.17%) MSI
6 1 (0.17%) TeamCity
6 1 (0.17%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 232 (40.42%) Social Skills
2 68 (11.85%) Analytical Skills
3 34 (5.92%) Manufacturing
4 13 (2.26%) Finance
4 13 (2.26%) Law
5 12 (2.09%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 9 (1.57%) Documentation Skills
6 9 (1.57%) Retail
7 8 (1.39%) Organisational Skills
8 7 (1.22%) Marketing
9 6 (1.05%) Advertising
9 6 (1.05%) Telecoms
10 4 (0.70%) Banking
10 4 (0.70%) Public Sector
11 3 (0.52%) Legal
11 3 (0.52%) Pharmaceutical
11 3 (0.52%) Presentation Skills
12 2 (0.35%) Aerospace
12 2 (0.35%) Military
13 1 (0.17%) Automotive
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (2.09%) LDAP
2 10 (1.74%) .NET
3 9 (1.57%) Oracle GoldenGate
3 9 (1.57%) XML
4 7 (1.22%) .NET Framework
4 7 (1.22%) JDO
4 7 (1.22%) SAP Basis
5 6 (1.05%) SAP Fiori
5 6 (1.05%) SAPUI5
5 6 (1.05%) Software Packaging
6 5 (0.87%) CSS
7 4 (0.70%) REST
8 3 (0.52%) Ajax
8 3 (0.52%) AngularJS
8 3 (0.52%) GraphQL
8 3 (0.52%) JSP
8 3 (0.52%) Middleware
8 3 (0.52%) React
8 3 (0.52%) Web Services
9 2 (0.35%) HTML
Miscellaneous
1 65 (11.32%) Onboarding
2 22 (3.83%) Analytical Mindset
2 22 (3.83%) Data Centre
3 17 (2.96%) PKI
4 14 (2.44%) Data Protection Act
5 12 (2.09%) Self-Motivation
6 11 (1.92%) Blackberry
6 11 (1.92%) Driving Licence
6 11 (1.92%) Enterprise Software
6 11 (1.92%) Smartphone
7 9 (1.57%) Legacy Systems
7 9 (1.57%) SCADA
8 8 (1.39%) Management Information System
9 7 (1.22%) CMDB
10 4 (0.70%) CCTV
10 4 (0.70%) iPad
10 4 (0.70%) iPhone
10 4 (0.70%) Video Conferencing
10 4 (0.70%) Virtual Team
11 3 (0.52%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 286 (49.83%) Windows
2 124 (21.60%) Windows 10
3 47 (8.19%) Windows Server
4 31 (5.40%) Linux
5 28 (4.88%) Unix
6 21 (3.66%) Android
7 18 (3.14%) Apple iOS
8 11 (1.92%) Windows 7
9 9 (1.57%) Mac OS
10 7 (1.22%) Windows Server 2019
11 5 (0.87%) Windows Server 2016
12 3 (0.52%) Windows XP
13 2 (0.35%) OpenVMS
13 2 (0.35%) Ubuntu
13 2 (0.35%) VMS
13 2 (0.35%) Windows Server 2012
14 1 (0.17%) Mac OS X
14 1 (0.17%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 143 (24.91%) Customer Service
2 129 (22.47%) Problem-Solving
3 122 (21.25%) ITIL
4 74 (12.89%) ITSM
5 44 (7.67%) Service Delivery
6 39 (6.79%) Asset Management
7 37 (6.45%) Continuous Improvement
8 35 (6.10%) Identity Access Management
9 34 (5.92%) Service Management
10 33 (5.75%) Root Cause Analysis
11 30 (5.23%) Migration
11 30 (5.23%) User Experience
12 27 (4.70%) Data Protection
13 25 (4.36%) Incident Management
13 25 (4.36%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 25 (4.36%) Problem Management
14 24 (4.18%) Technical Leadership
15 22 (3.83%) Break/Fix
16 20 (3.48%) Change Management
17 16 (2.79%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 49 (8.54%) PowerShell
2 31 (5.40%) SQL
3 14 (2.44%) Python
4 13 (2.26%) Shell Script
5 12 (2.09%) JavaScript
6 10 (1.74%) Java
7 9 (1.57%) C#
7 9 (1.57%) Korn
8 5 (0.87%) Perl
9 3 (0.52%) Bash
10 2 (0.35%) DCL
10 2 (0.35%) T-SQL
11 1 (0.17%) C++
11 1 (0.17%) Go
11 1 (0.17%) Search Processing Language
Qualifications
1 130 (22.65%) Security Cleared
2 93 (16.20%) SC Cleared
3 31 (5.40%) Degree
4 28 (4.88%) DV Cleared
5 23 (4.01%) Microsoft Certification
6 21 (3.66%) A+ Certification
7 19 (3.31%) CCNA
7 19 (3.31%) Cisco Certification
7 19 (3.31%) Network+ Certification
8 16 (2.79%) MCSE
9 9 (1.57%) Computer Science Degree
10 8 (1.39%) DBS Check
11 7 (1.22%) BPSS Clearance
11 7 (1.22%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
12 6 (1.05%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 4 (0.70%) ITIL Certification
14 1 (0.17%) CCNP
14 1 (0.17%) CISA
14 1 (0.17%) CISSP
14 1 (0.17%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (5.23%) SLA
2 5 (0.87%) Data Quality
3 3 (0.52%) Cyber Essentials
3 3 (0.52%) QA
3 3 (0.52%) Sarbanes-Oxley
4 2 (0.35%) GDPR
4 2 (0.35%) GxP
4 2 (0.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 1 (0.17%) Actionable Recommendations
5 1 (0.17%) Disclosure Scotland
5 1 (0.17%) GLP
5 1 (0.17%) GMP
5 1 (0.17%) NCSC
System Software
1 240 (41.81%) Active Directory
2 30 (5.23%) VMware Infrastructure
3 20 (3.48%) VMware ESXi
4 16 (2.79%) VMware NSX
5 15 (2.61%) Virtual Desktop
6 13 (2.26%) Hyper-V
6 13 (2.26%) vCloud
7 9 (1.57%) Oracle RAC
8 5 (0.87%) vSphere
9 4 (0.70%) Firmware
10 2 (0.35%) BitLocker
11 1 (0.17%) NFS
Systems Management
1 89 (15.51%) Microsoft Intune
2 35 (6.10%) SCCM
3 20 (3.48%) vCenter Server
4 19 (3.31%) SCOM
5 12 (2.09%) Single Sign-On
6 9 (1.57%) Grafana
6 9 (1.57%) Jamf Pro
6 9 (1.57%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
6 9 (1.57%) Oracle RMAN
7 3 (0.52%) Ansible
8 2 (0.35%) AirWatch
8 2 (0.35%) McAfee ePO
8 2 (0.35%) PaperCut
9 1 (0.17%) Failover Clustering
9 1 (0.17%) Forefront Identity Manager
9 1 (0.17%) Kubernetes
9 1 (0.17%) Microsoft Clustering
9 1 (0.17%) Red Hat Satellite
9 1 (0.17%) Terraform
9 1 (0.17%) vRealize
Vendors
1 256 (44.60%) Microsoft
2 68 (11.85%) ServiceNow
3 45 (7.84%) VMware
4 24 (4.18%) Okta
5 23 (4.01%) Oracle
6 21 (3.66%) BeyondTrust
7 18 (3.14%) Dell
8 16 (2.79%) Cisco
9 12 (2.09%) Citrix
10 11 (1.92%) Lotus
11 9 (1.57%) McAfee
12 8 (1.39%) Apple
12 8 (1.39%) Meraki
12 8 (1.39%) SAP
13 7 (1.22%) Broadcom
13 7 (1.22%) Denodo
13 7 (1.22%) Splunk
13 7 (1.22%) Starlink
13 7 (1.22%) Sybase
13 7 (1.22%) Talend