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 £500, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 31 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
31 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 238 138 250
Rank change year-on-year -100 +112 +93
Contract jobs requiring a Systems Engineer 105 330 193
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 0.81% 1.59% 0.85%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.88% 1.72% 0.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 32 51 84
10th Percentile £268 £275 £313
25th Percentile £414 £350 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £450 £500
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% -10.00% +11.11%
75th Percentile £618 £569 £575
90th Percentile £649 £635 £646
UK median daily rate £475 £450 £516
% change year-on-year +5.56% -12.83% +3.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 38 168 59
10th Percentile £45.83 £39.96 £48.07
25th Percentile £52.50 £48.71 £52.50
Median hourly rate £55.52 £59.22 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -6.25% -1.30% +27.99%
75th Percentile £73.75 £71.50 £65.75
90th Percentile £76.50 £76.75 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £55.00 £57.50 £61.50
% change year-on-year -4.35% -6.50% +37.14%

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 11,956 19,149 21,481
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.73% 92.41% 94.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,594 11,598 14,941
10th Percentile £213 £213 £225
25th Percentile £363 £363 £393
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 855 2,392 1,083
10th Percentile £13.78 £12.50 £13.41
25th Percentile £16.95 £15.75 £17.95
Median hourly rate £26.28 £40.00 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year -34.30% -6.98% +115.00%
75th Percentile £62.24 £62.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £74.00 £75.40
UK median hourly rate £28.17 £37.50 £45.00
% change year-on-year -24.89% -16.67% +87.50%

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 31 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 31 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 31 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 +1 30 £550 +179.54% 90
South East -15 22 £575 +15.00% 188
North of England -16 20 £414 -3.72% 126
South West -19 19 £551 -15.19% 118
North West -15 16 £418 - 83
Midlands +8 13 £275 -38.89% 117
West Midlands +5 7 £275 -38.89% 82
East Midlands +12 6 £75 - 35
North East -3 3 £325 - 11
Scotland -17 2 £500 +11.11% 36
Yorkshire +9 1 - - 33
Systems Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 31 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 43 (40.95%) Security Cleared
2 36 (34.29%) SC Cleared
3 32 (30.48%) Systems Engineering
4 23 (21.90%) Problem-Solving
5 22 (20.95%) Validation
6 20 (19.05%) Social Skills
6 20 (19.05%) Verification and Validation
7 13 (12.38%) Microsoft
7 13 (12.38%) Self-Motivation
8 12 (11.43%) Roadmaps
9 11 (10.48%) Presentation Skills
9 11 (10.48%) Rational DOORS
9 11 (10.48%) Python
9 11 (10.48%) SharePoint
9 11 (10.48%) Management Information System
9 11 (10.48%) Aerospace
9 11 (10.48%) Requirements Management
9 11 (10.48%) Agile
9 11 (10.48%) VMware
9 11 (10.48%) Teamcenter
10 10 (9.52%) Confluence
10 10 (9.52%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
11 9 (8.57%) Data Management
11 9 (8.57%) PDM
11 9 (8.57%) Degree
11 9 (8.57%) DV Cleared
11 9 (8.57%) Unix
12 8 (7.62%) Windows
12 8 (7.62%) Linux
12 8 (7.62%) Azure

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 11 (10.48%) SharePoint
2 10 (9.52%) Confluence
3 2 (1.90%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 5 (4.76%) Simulink
2 1 (0.95%) Stateflow
Business Applications
1 11 (10.48%) Teamcenter
2 5 (4.76%) Kondor
Cloud Services
1 8 (7.62%) Azure
2 6 (5.71%) GitHub
3 4 (3.81%) AWS
3 4 (3.81%) Microsoft 365
4 3 (2.86%) Entra ID
5 2 (1.90%) Amazon S3
5 2 (1.90%) AWS CloudFormation
5 2 (1.90%) Cloud Computing
5 2 (1.90%) IaaS
5 2 (1.90%) PaaS
6 1 (0.95%) Amazon CloudWatch
6 1 (0.95%) Amazon EC2
6 1 (0.95%) Amazon EKS
6 1 (0.95%) Amazon Kinesis
6 1 (0.95%) Amazon SQS
6 1 (0.95%) AWS CloudTrail
6 1 (0.95%) AWS Lambda
6 1 (0.95%) OpenShift
6 1 (0.95%) SaaS
6 1 (0.95%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 7 (6.67%) Firewall
2 4 (3.81%) Network Security
3 3 (2.86%) DNS
3 3 (2.86%) SpaceWire
3 3 (2.86%) VSAN
4 2 (1.90%) SAN
4 2 (1.90%) Software-Defined Radio
4 2 (1.90%) TCP/IP
4 2 (1.90%) Wi-Fi
5 1 (0.95%) DHCP
5 1 (0.95%) Kerberos
5 1 (0.95%) NAS
5 1 (0.95%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (4.76%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 11 (10.48%) Rational DOORS
2 4 (3.81%) Rational Statemate
3 3 (2.86%) Jenkins
4 2 (1.90%) Git
4 2 (1.90%) JIRA
5 1 (0.95%) Bitbucket
5 1 (0.95%) Eclipse
5 1 (0.95%) JIRA Agile
5 1 (0.95%) NetBeans
5 1 (0.95%) Rational Rhapsody
5 1 (0.95%) Snyk
General
1 20 (19.05%) Social Skills
2 11 (10.48%) Aerospace
2 11 (10.48%) Presentation Skills
3 5 (4.76%) Manufacturing
3 5 (4.76%) Military
4 4 (3.81%) Public Sector
5 3 (2.86%) Finance
5 3 (2.86%) Telecoms
6 2 (1.90%) Analytical Skills
6 2 (1.90%) Aviation
6 2 (1.90%) Avionics
7 1 (0.95%) Automotive
7 1 (0.95%) Electronics
7 1 (0.95%) Local Government
7 1 (0.95%) Marketing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (3.81%) Kafka
2 1 (0.95%) .NET
2 1 (0.95%) .NET Framework
2 1 (0.95%) AWS Amplify
2 1 (0.95%) Node.js
2 1 (0.95%) POSIX
2 1 (0.95%) Qt
Miscellaneous
1 13 (12.38%) Self-Motivation
2 11 (10.48%) Management Information System
3 6 (5.71%) Algorithms
4 5 (4.76%) SWIFT Messaging Network
5 4 (3.81%) Product Ownership
6 3 (2.86%) Hybrid Cloud
7 2 (1.90%) Robotics
8 1 (0.95%) Clustering
8 1 (0.95%) GNSS
8 1 (0.95%) IoT
8 1 (0.95%) Legacy Systems
8 1 (0.95%) Onboarding
8 1 (0.95%) Operational Technology
8 1 (0.95%) PKI
8 1 (0.95%) Renewable Energy
Operating Systems
1 9 (8.57%) Unix
2 8 (7.62%) Linux
2 8 (7.62%) Windows
3 2 (1.90%) Android
3 2 (1.90%) Windows Server
3 2 (1.90%) Windows XP
4 1 (0.95%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 1 (0.95%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 32 (30.48%) Systems Engineering
2 23 (21.90%) Problem-Solving
3 22 (20.95%) Validation
4 20 (19.05%) Verification and Validation
5 12 (11.43%) Roadmaps
6 11 (10.48%) Agile
6 11 (10.48%) Requirements Management
7 10 (9.52%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
8 9 (8.57%) Data Management
8 9 (8.57%) PDM
9 8 (7.62%) CI/CD
9 8 (7.62%) Project Delivery
10 7 (6.67%) Cybersecurity
10 7 (6.67%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 7 (6.67%) Software Testing
10 7 (6.67%) SysML
10 7 (6.67%) System Testing
10 7 (6.67%) Technical Leadership
10 7 (6.67%) TestOps
11 6 (5.71%) Document Management
Programming Languages
1 11 (10.48%) Python
2 7 (6.67%) MATLAB
3 6 (5.71%) Bash
4 5 (4.76%) C
4 5 (4.76%) SQL
5 4 (3.81%) Java
6 3 (2.86%) PowerShell
6 3 (2.86%) Tcl
7 2 (1.90%) C#
7 2 (1.90%) C++
7 2 (1.90%) JavaScript
7 2 (1.90%) VBA
8 1 (0.95%) Perl
Qualifications
1 43 (40.95%) Security Cleared
2 36 (34.29%) SC Cleared
3 9 (8.57%) Degree
3 9 (8.57%) DV Cleared
4 5 (4.76%) RIBA
5 4 (3.81%) BPSS Clearance
5 4 (3.81%) CCNA
5 4 (3.81%) Cisco Certification
6 3 (2.86%) HND
7 2 (1.90%) VCAP
7 2 (1.90%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 1 (0.95%) AWS Certification
8 1 (0.95%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
8 1 (0.95%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
8 1 (0.95%) HNC
8 1 (0.95%) ITIL Certification
8 1 (0.95%) Master's Degree
8 1 (0.95%) MCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (3.81%) Def Stans
2 2 (1.90%) QA
3 1 (0.95%) Data Quality
3 1 (0.95%) GDPR
3 1 (0.95%) IEC 61508
3 1 (0.95%) MISRA
3 1 (0.95%) MISRA C
3 1 (0.95%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 7 (6.67%) VMware Infrastructure
2 4 (3.81%) vSphere
3 3 (2.86%) Active Directory
3 3 (2.86%) VMware NSX
4 2 (1.90%) Docker
Systems Management
1 5 (4.76%) Ansible
2 4 (3.81%) Terraform
3 3 (2.86%) PowerCLI
3 3 (2.86%) vCenter Server
3 3 (2.86%) VxRail
4 2 (1.90%) Podman
5 1 (0.95%) Kubernetes
5 1 (0.95%) Microsoft Intune
5 1 (0.95%) NetBackup
5 1 (0.95%) Oracle RMAN
5 1 (0.95%) Progress Chef
5 1 (0.95%) Puppet
5 1 (0.95%) SCCM
5 1 (0.95%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 13 (12.38%) Microsoft
2 11 (10.48%) VMware
3 5 (4.76%) Bloomberg
3 5 (4.76%) Refinitiv
3 5 (4.76%) Sybase
4 4 (3.81%) Dell
5 3 (2.86%) Cisco
5 3 (2.86%) EMC
5 3 (2.86%) IBM
5 3 (2.86%) Remedy
6 2 (1.90%) Meraki
6 2 (1.90%) Twitter
7 1 (0.95%) Aruba
7 1 (0.95%) Oracle
7 1 (0.95%) Palo Alto
7 1 (0.95%) QNX
7 1 (0.95%) Red Hat
7 1 (0.95%) SAP
7 1 (0.95%) Veeam
7 1 (0.95%) Veritas