Systems Engineering Contract Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Systems Engineering
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the UK excluding London requiring Systems Engineering skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 21 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 295 284 213
Rank change year-on-year -11 -71 +59
Contract jobs citing Systems Engineering 92 74 210
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.51% 0.50% 1.08%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.59% 0.57% 1.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 24 11 100
10th Percentile £239 £262 £400
25th Percentile £363 £341 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £472 £560
Median % change year-on-year -4.66% -15.71% -1.75%
75th Percentile £503 £645 £655
90th Percentile £637 £748 £747
UK median daily rate £488 £575 £565
% change year-on-year -15.22% +1.71% -0.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 33 30 58
10th Percentile £62.15 £46.18 -
25th Percentile £65.75 £47.50 £46.18
Median hourly rate £72.00 £61.25 £61.63
Median % change year-on-year +17.55% -0.62% +2.72%
75th Percentile £81.00 £66.00 £76.53
90th Percentile £109.55 £75.03 £80.00
UK median hourly rate £72.00 £62.50 £61.82
% change year-on-year +15.20% +1.11% +3.03%

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK excluding London

Systems Engineering falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills in the UK excluding London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 15,587 12,948 17,276
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 85.91% 87.17% 88.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,513 7,612 11,167
10th Percentile £220 £238 £250
25th Percentile £375 £381 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -
75th Percentile £575 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £688 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £530
% change year-on-year -4.76% -0.94% -3.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,768 749 1,201
10th Percentile £14.37 £15.50 £14.25
25th Percentile £17.30 £20.00 £17.72
Median hourly rate £23.00 £31.50 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -26.98% -29.21% +39.26%
75th Percentile £48.75 £63.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £68.00 £71.38 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £43.84
% change year-on-year -22.62% -25.86% +25.25%

Systems Engineering
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Systems Engineering relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Systems Engineering job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

Systems Engineering
Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Systems Engineering.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Systems Engineering

Systems Engineering
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Systems Engineering in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 21 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Systems Engineering in the UK excluding London

Systems Engineering
Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Systems Engineering.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Systems Engineering

Systems Engineering
Hourly Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Systems Engineering in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 21 December 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Systems Engineering in the UK excluding London

Systems Engineering
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 Engineering within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 21 December 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 East +7 29 £475 +22.58% 73
South West -21 25 £225 -65.87% 74
Midlands -25 13 £365 - 15
West Midlands -21 11 £365 - 9
North of England -41 8 £420 -33.60% 16
Scotland +11 7 £358 -24.15%
East of England -26 7 - - 49
North West -34 4 £475 -19.49% 12
Yorkshire -41 4 £365 -45.93% 3
Wales -3 3 - -
East Midlands - 2 - - 6
Systems Engineering
UK

Systems Engineering
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 2 (2.17%) Confluence
1 2 (2.17%) PowerFactory
2 1 (1.09%) CICS
2 1 (1.09%) Microsoft Exchange
2 1 (1.09%) SharePoint
2 1 (1.09%) Tomcat
2 1 (1.09%) WebSphere
Applications
1 8 (8.70%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (6.52%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (2.17%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (1.09%) Simulink
4 1 (1.09%) Stateflow
Business Applications
1 2 (2.17%) Primavera
1 2 (2.17%) SAP Oil and Gas
1 2 (2.17%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 15 (16.30%) Azure
2 8 (8.70%) AWS
2 8 (8.70%) GitHub
3 5 (5.43%) GCP
4 4 (4.35%) AWS CloudFormation
4 4 (4.35%) GitHub Actions
4 4 (4.35%) OpenShift
5 3 (3.26%) Azure DevOps
6 2 (2.17%) Cloud Computing
6 2 (2.17%) Power Platform
7 1 (1.09%) Akamai
7 1 (1.09%) Amazon CloudWatch
7 1 (1.09%) Amazon EKS
7 1 (1.09%) AWS Lambda
7 1 (1.09%) Azure Functions
7 1 (1.09%) Entra ID
7 1 (1.09%) Microsoft 365
7 1 (1.09%) OneDrive
7 1 (1.09%) SaaS
7 1 (1.09%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 7 (7.61%) Firewall
2 6 (6.52%) TCP/IP
3 3 (3.26%) DHCP
3 3 (3.26%) DNS
3 3 (3.26%) Network Security
4 2 (2.17%) Wireless
5 1 (1.09%) LAN
5 1 (1.09%) VLAN
5 1 (1.09%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (4.35%) MongoDB
1 4 (4.35%) MySQL
1 4 (4.35%) Oracle Database
2 2 (2.17%) Power BI
3 1 (1.09%) NoSQL
3 1 (1.09%) PostgreSQL
3 1 (1.09%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 15 (16.30%) Rational DOORS
2 6 (6.52%) JIRA
3 4 (4.35%) GitLab
4 3 (3.26%) Jenkins
4 3 (3.26%) Maven
5 2 (2.17%) TestPartner
6 1 (1.09%) Git
6 1 (1.09%) NeoLoad
6 1 (1.09%) Rational Team Concert
6 1 (1.09%) Selenium
General
1 34 (36.96%) Social Skills
2 27 (29.35%) Analytical Skills
3 17 (18.48%) Electronics
4 16 (17.39%) Aerospace
5 7 (7.61%) Manufacturing
6 5 (5.43%) Public Sector
7 4 (4.35%) Finance
7 4 (4.35%) Telecoms
8 3 (3.26%) Aviation
9 2 (2.17%) Banking
9 2 (2.17%) Documentation Skills
9 2 (2.17%) Influencing Skills
9 2 (2.17%) Law
9 2 (2.17%) Legal
10 1 (1.09%) Local Government
10 1 (1.09%) Marketing
10 1 (1.09%) Military
Job Titles
1 17 (18.48%) Software Engineer
2 16 (17.39%) Embedded Engineer
3 15 (16.30%) Embedded Software Engineer
4 14 (15.22%) Senior
5 11 (11.96%) Architect
5 11 (11.96%) Systems Engineer
6 9 (9.78%) Principal Engineer
7 8 (8.70%) Design Engineer
8 6 (6.52%) RF Design Engineer
8 6 (6.52%) RF Engineer
8 6 (6.52%) Security Architect
9 5 (5.43%) Ada Engineer
9 5 (5.43%) Ada Software Engineer
9 5 (5.43%) Analyst
9 5 (5.43%) System Design Authority
10 4 (4.35%) DBA
10 4 (4.35%) Oracle DBA
11 3 (3.26%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
11 3 (3.26%) Senior Manager
11 3 (3.26%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (4.35%) Elastic Stack
2 3 (3.26%) Kafka
2 3 (3.26%) Middleware
2 3 (3.26%) ModSecurity
2 3 (3.26%) Spring Boot
3 2 (2.17%) REST
4 1 (1.09%) LDAP
Miscellaneous
1 10 (10.87%) Embedded Systems
2 6 (6.52%) Product Ownership
3 5 (5.43%) Data Protection Act
3 5 (5.43%) Management Information System
4 4 (4.35%) Enterprise Cloud
4 4 (4.35%) Legacy Systems
5 3 (3.26%) PKI
5 3 (3.26%) SCADA
6 2 (2.17%) Algorithms
6 2 (2.17%) Security Posture
7 1 (1.09%) Acoustics
7 1 (1.09%) Cloud Native
7 1 (1.09%) Clustering
7 1 (1.09%) Cyber Threat
7 1 (1.09%) Data Centre
7 1 (1.09%) Device Driver
7 1 (1.09%) Distributed Systems
7 1 (1.09%) Onboarding
7 1 (1.09%) Replication
7 1 (1.09%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 16 (17.39%) Linux
2 10 (10.87%) Windows
3 7 (7.61%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 6 (6.52%) Ubuntu
5 4 (4.35%) Unix
6 1 (1.09%) Android
6 1 (1.09%) FreeRTOS
6 1 (1.09%) Solaris
6 1 (1.09%) VxWorks
6 1 (1.09%) Windows Server
6 1 (1.09%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 27 (29.35%) Validation
2 24 (26.09%) Software Engineering
3 23 (25.00%) Problem-Solving
4 14 (15.22%) Mentoring
4 14 (15.22%) Technical Leadership
5 13 (14.13%) Agile
5 13 (14.13%) CI/CD
5 13 (14.13%) Containerisation
5 13 (14.13%) Cybersecurity
5 13 (14.13%) Line Management
6 11 (11.96%) API Integration
6 11 (11.96%) Continuous Improvement
6 11 (11.96%) Stakeholder Management
7 10 (10.87%) Verification and Validation
8 9 (9.78%) DevOps
8 9 (9.78%) DevSecOps
8 9 (9.78%) Risk Management
8 9 (9.78%) Test Scripting
9 8 (8.70%) Machine Learning
9 8 (8.70%) Requirements Management
Programming Languages
1 20 (21.74%) Python
2 14 (15.22%) C
3 12 (13.04%) PowerShell
4 7 (7.61%) Ada
5 6 (6.52%) Java
6 5 (5.43%) Bash
7 4 (4.35%) C++
7 4 (4.35%) Shell Script
8 3 (3.26%) Go
9 2 (2.17%) C#
9 2 (2.17%) MATLAB
10 1 (1.09%) Fortran
10 1 (1.09%) JavaScript
Qualifications
1 38 (41.30%) Security Cleared
2 28 (30.43%) SC Cleared
3 24 (26.09%) Degree
4 5 (5.43%) CISSP
5 4 (4.35%) AWS Certification
6 3 (3.26%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
6 3 (3.26%) CISM
6 3 (3.26%) Computer Science Degree
6 3 (3.26%) DV Cleared
6 3 (3.26%) IIBA
7 2 (2.17%) CFCE
7 2 (2.17%) GCFA
7 2 (2.17%) GCIA
7 2 (2.17%) GCIH
7 2 (2.17%) GIAC
7 2 (2.17%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 1 (1.09%) BPSS Clearance
8 1 (1.09%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (16.30%) Def Stans
2 9 (9.78%) DO-178B
2 9 (9.78%) MISRA
3 5 (5.43%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 5 (5.43%) NIST
4 4 (4.35%) SLA
5 3 (3.26%) GRC
5 3 (3.26%) JSP 440
5 3 (3.26%) NCSC
5 3 (3.26%) NIST 800
5 3 (3.26%) QA
6 2 (2.17%) GDPR
6 2 (2.17%) HIPAA
7 1 (1.09%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (1.09%) IEC 61508
7 1 (1.09%) ISO 26262
System Software
1 16 (17.39%) Firmware
2 6 (6.52%) Active Directory
3 4 (4.35%) Docker
3 4 (4.35%) Hyper-V
3 4 (4.35%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (1.09%) Embedded Firmware
4 1 (1.09%) KVM
Systems Management
1 15 (16.30%) Kubernetes
2 8 (8.70%) Terraform
3 6 (6.52%) Ansible
3 6 (6.52%) SCOM
4 4 (4.35%) Grafana
4 4 (4.35%) Prometheus
5 1 (1.09%) Cilium
5 1 (1.09%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
5 1 (1.09%) Microsoft Intune
5 1 (1.09%) Podman
5 1 (1.09%) Progress Chef
5 1 (1.09%) Puppet
5 1 (1.09%) Red Hat Satellite
5 1 (1.09%) WhatsUp Gold
Vendors
1 9 (9.78%) Oracle
2 8 (8.70%) Microsoft
3 7 (7.61%) EMC
3 7 (7.61%) VMware
4 4 (4.35%) Splunk
5 3 (3.26%) Google
5 3 (3.26%) SAP
6 2 (2.17%) ArcSight
6 2 (2.17%) CrowdStrike
6 2 (2.17%) DIgSILENT
6 2 (2.17%) IBM
6 2 (2.17%) LogRhythm
6 2 (2.17%) MuleSoft
6 2 (2.17%) Red Hat
6 2 (2.17%) Siemens
7 1 (1.09%) CyberArk
7 1 (1.09%) NVIDIA
7 1 (1.09%) Okta
7 1 (1.09%) Tenable
7 1 (1.09%) Zscaler