Systems Engineer Contracts in the UK excluding London

System Engineer
UK > UK excluding London

The median System Engineer daily rate in the UK excluding London is £480, 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 227 153 262
Rank change year-on-year -74 +109 +92
Contract jobs requiring a Systems Engineer 109 285 209
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 0.85% 1.37% 0.87%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.93% 1.48% 0.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 34 54 93
10th Percentile £274 £308 £313
25th Percentile £414 £403 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.00% - +11.11%
75th Percentile £626 £575 £575
90th Percentile £723 £635 £625
UK median daily rate £469 £475 £516
% change year-on-year -1.32% -7.99% +6.99%
Number of hourly rates quoted 39 152 66
10th Percentile £44.25 £39.96 £43.75
25th Percentile £51.72 £47.83 £52.22
Median hourly rate £55.00 £59.00 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -6.78% -1.67% +37.93%
75th Percentile £73.50 £71.50 £65.75
90th Percentile £76.00 £76.60 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £55.00 £57.50 £61.50
% change year-on-year -4.35% -6.50% +44.71%

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%

Systems Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

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

Job vacancy trend for Systems Engineer in the UK excluding London

Systems Engineer
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

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

Daily rate trend for Systems Engineer in the UK excluding London

Systems Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

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

Daily rate histogram for Systems Engineer in the UK excluding London

Systems Engineer
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

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

Hourly rate trend for Systems Engineer in the UK excluding London

Systems Engineer
Hourly Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

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

Hourly rate histogram for Systems Engineer in the UK excluding London

Systems 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 Systems 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 +19 32 £550 +57.14% 106
North of England +6 30 £422 -1.86% 145
North West +10 26 £424 - 81
South East -8 19 £700 +33.33% 208
South West -14 17 £551 -8.13% 122
Midlands +17 11 £238 -47.22% 135
West Midlands +6 6 £275 -49.31% 88
East Midlands +13 5 £75 -75.00% 43
North East -1 3 £325 - 14
Yorkshire +3 1 - - 55
Scotland -10 1 £500 +11.11% 54
Systems Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 1 May 2025, Systems 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 Systems Engineer in the job title.

1 42 (38.53%) Security Cleared
2 35 (32.11%) SC Cleared
3 30 (27.52%) Problem-Solving
4 29 (26.61%) Systems Engineering
5 26 (23.85%) Validation
6 25 (22.94%) Social Skills
7 22 (20.18%) Verification and Validation
8 18 (16.51%) Microsoft
9 16 (14.68%) Windows
10 14 (12.84%) SharePoint
10 14 (12.84%) Aerospace
11 13 (11.93%) Self-Motivation
12 12 (11.01%) Agile
13 11 (10.09%) VMware
13 11 (10.09%) Presentation Skills
14 10 (9.17%) Teamcenter
14 10 (9.17%) Requirements Management
14 10 (9.17%) Azure
14 10 (9.17%) Confluence
14 10 (9.17%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
15 9 (8.26%) Rational DOORS
15 9 (8.26%) Software Testing
15 9 (8.26%) PDM
15 9 (8.26%) Data Management
15 9 (8.26%) Management Information System
15 9 (8.26%) Python
15 9 (8.26%) Linux
15 9 (8.26%) Unix
16 8 (7.34%) Active Directory
16 8 (7.34%) SysML

Systems 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 14 (12.84%) SharePoint
2 10 (9.17%) Confluence
3 4 (3.67%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 5 (4.59%) Simulink
2 1 (0.92%) Stateflow
Business Applications
1 10 (9.17%) Teamcenter
2 5 (4.59%) Kondor
3 2 (1.83%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 10 (9.17%) Azure
2 6 (5.50%) Microsoft 365
3 5 (4.59%) GitHub
4 4 (3.67%) AWS
4 4 (3.67%) IaaS
4 4 (3.67%) PaaS
5 3 (2.75%) Entra ID
5 3 (2.75%) SaaS
6 2 (1.83%) Amazon S3
6 2 (1.83%) Cloud Computing
7 1 (0.92%) Amazon CloudWatch
7 1 (0.92%) Amazon Cognito
7 1 (0.92%) Amazon EC2
7 1 (0.92%) Amazon Kinesis
7 1 (0.92%) Amazon SQS
7 1 (0.92%) AWS CloudFormation
7 1 (0.92%) AWS CloudTrail
7 1 (0.92%) AWS Lambda
7 1 (0.92%) GitHub Actions
7 1 (0.92%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 7 (6.42%) Firewall
2 4 (3.67%) Network Security
2 4 (3.67%) Wi-Fi
3 3 (2.75%) DNS
3 3 (2.75%) SpaceWire
3 3 (2.75%) VSAN
4 2 (1.83%) SAN
4 2 (1.83%) Software-Defined Radio
4 2 (1.83%) TCP/IP
5 1 (0.92%) DHCP
5 1 (0.92%) Kerberos
5 1 (0.92%) NAS
5 1 (0.92%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (4.59%) MongoDB
2 3 (2.75%) Big Data
Development Applications
1 9 (8.26%) Rational DOORS
2 3 (2.75%) JIRA
2 3 (2.75%) Rational Rhapsody
2 3 (2.75%) Rational Statemate
3 2 (1.83%) Git
3 2 (1.83%) Jenkins
3 2 (1.83%) MagicDraw
4 1 (0.92%) Bitbucket
4 1 (0.92%) Eclipse
4 1 (0.92%) JIRA Agile
4 1 (0.92%) NetBeans
General
1 25 (22.94%) Social Skills
2 14 (12.84%) Aerospace
3 11 (10.09%) Presentation Skills
4 7 (6.42%) Analytical Skills
5 6 (5.50%) Military
6 5 (4.59%) Public Sector
7 4 (3.67%) Manufacturing
8 3 (2.75%) Automotive
8 3 (2.75%) Finance
8 3 (2.75%) Local Government
9 2 (1.83%) Aviation
9 2 (1.83%) Avionics
9 2 (1.83%) Pharmaceutical
9 2 (1.83%) Telecoms
10 1 (0.92%) Electronics
10 1 (0.92%) Marketing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (3.67%) Kafka
2 1 (0.92%) .NET
2 1 (0.92%) .NET Framework
2 1 (0.92%) AWS Amplify
2 1 (0.92%) Node.js
2 1 (0.92%) POSIX
2 1 (0.92%) Qt
Miscellaneous
1 13 (11.93%) Self-Motivation
2 9 (8.26%) Management Information System
3 5 (4.59%) Algorithms
3 5 (4.59%) SWIFT Messaging Network
4 4 (3.67%) IoT
5 3 (2.75%) Hybrid Cloud
5 3 (2.75%) Product Ownership
6 2 (1.83%) Renewable Energy
7 1 (0.92%) Clustering
7 1 (0.92%) GNSS
7 1 (0.92%) Legacy Systems
7 1 (0.92%) Onboarding
7 1 (0.92%) Operational Technology
7 1 (0.92%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 16 (14.68%) Windows
2 9 (8.26%) Linux
2 9 (8.26%) Unix
3 2 (1.83%) Windows Server
3 2 (1.83%) Windows XP
4 1 (0.92%) Android
4 1 (0.92%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 30 (27.52%) Problem-Solving
2 29 (26.61%) Systems Engineering
3 26 (23.85%) Validation
4 22 (20.18%) Verification and Validation
5 12 (11.01%) Agile
6 10 (9.17%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
6 10 (9.17%) Requirements Management
7 9 (8.26%) Data Management
7 9 (8.26%) PDM
7 9 (8.26%) Software Testing
8 8 (7.34%) Customer Requirements
8 8 (7.34%) Cybersecurity
8 8 (7.34%) Roadmaps
8 8 (7.34%) SysML
9 7 (6.42%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 7 (6.42%) Project Delivery
9 7 (6.42%) System Testing
9 7 (6.42%) Technical Leadership
9 7 (6.42%) TestOps
10 6 (5.50%) Document Management
Programming Languages
1 9 (8.26%) Python
2 7 (6.42%) MATLAB
3 5 (4.59%) Bash
3 5 (4.59%) C
3 5 (4.59%) SQL
4 4 (3.67%) Java
5 3 (2.75%) PowerShell
5 3 (2.75%) Tcl
6 2 (1.83%) C++
6 2 (1.83%) VBA
7 1 (0.92%) Perl
Qualifications
1 42 (38.53%) Security Cleared
2 35 (32.11%) SC Cleared
3 8 (7.34%) Degree
4 7 (6.42%) DV Cleared
5 5 (4.59%) RIBA
6 4 (3.67%) CCNA
6 4 (3.67%) Cisco Certification
7 3 (2.75%) BPSS Clearance
7 3 (2.75%) HND
7 3 (2.75%) Microsoft Certification
8 2 (1.83%) VCAP
8 2 (1.83%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 1 (0.92%) AWS Certification
9 1 (0.92%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
9 1 (0.92%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 1 (0.92%) Chartered Engineer
9 1 (0.92%) HNC
9 1 (0.92%) ITIL Certification
9 1 (0.92%) Master's Degree
9 1 (0.92%) MCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (3.67%) Def Stans
2 3 (2.75%) Data Quality
3 2 (1.83%) IEC 61508
3 2 (1.83%) QA
4 1 (0.92%) GDPR
4 1 (0.92%) ISO 9001
4 1 (0.92%) MISRA
4 1 (0.92%) MISRA C
4 1 (0.92%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 8 (7.34%) Active Directory
2 7 (6.42%) VMware Infrastructure
3 4 (3.67%) vSphere
4 3 (2.75%) VMware NSX
5 1 (0.92%) Docker
Systems Management
1 6 (5.50%) SCCM
2 4 (3.67%) Ansible
3 3 (2.75%) PowerCLI
3 3 (2.75%) Terraform
3 3 (2.75%) vCenter Server
3 3 (2.75%) VxRail
4 2 (1.83%) Functional Safety
4 2 (1.83%) PTC Integrity
5 1 (0.92%) Kubernetes
5 1 (0.92%) Microsoft Intune
5 1 (0.92%) NetBackup
5 1 (0.92%) Oracle RMAN
5 1 (0.92%) Podman
5 1 (0.92%) Progress Chef
5 1 (0.92%) Puppet
5 1 (0.92%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 18 (16.51%) Microsoft
2 11 (10.09%) VMware
3 5 (4.59%) Bloomberg
3 5 (4.59%) Refinitiv
3 5 (4.59%) Sybase
3 5 (4.59%) Tanium
4 4 (3.67%) Dell
5 3 (2.75%) Cisco
5 3 (2.75%) EMC
5 3 (2.75%) IBM
6 2 (1.83%) Meraki
6 2 (1.83%) PTC
6 2 (1.83%) Remedy
6 2 (1.83%) Sparx
6 2 (1.83%) Twitter
7 1 (0.92%) Aruba
7 1 (0.92%) Palo Alto
7 1 (0.92%) Red Hat
7 1 (0.92%) Veeam
7 1 (0.92%) Veritas