Design Engineer Contract Job Trends

Design Engineer
UK

The median Design Engineer daily rate in the UK is £500, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 25 November 2025.

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

6 months to
25 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 526 509 474
Rank change year-on-year -17 -35 +101
Contract jobs requiring a Design Engineer 65 63 147
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.18% 0.17% 0.32%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.20% 0.19% 0.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 25 17 45
10th Percentile £271 £358 £431
25th Percentile £413 £450 £469
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £550 £500
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% +11.11%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £588
90th Percentile £640 £728 £620
UK excluding London median daily rate £537 £560 £500
% change year-on-year -4.11% +12.00% +17.65%
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 18 37
10th Percentile £49.75 £37.13 £35.00
25th Percentile £52.00 £48.44 £51.42
Median hourly rate £78.00 £65.25 £65.98
Median % change year-on-year +19.54% -1.11% +46.62%
75th Percentile £81.00 £82.50 £70.00
90th Percentile - £88.00 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £81.00 £73.75 £65.98
% change year-on-year +9.83% +11.78% +46.62%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies. 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 with a recognized job title 32,581 33,702 43,115
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.00% 92.80% 93.58%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,628 20,343 29,147
10th Percentile £281 £300 £290
25th Percentile £402 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £738 £740
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £495 £500
% change year-on-year -3.94% -1.10% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,917 1,258 1,525
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.22 £15.19
25th Percentile £17.87 £20.50 £19.18
Median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -28.14% -22.22% +50.00%
75th Percentile £56.44 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.50 £74.00 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £45.00
% change year-on-year -28.14% -22.22% +81.52%

Design Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Design Engineer job vacancy trend in the UK

Design Engineer
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Design Engineer job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Design Engineer job vacancies in the UK

Design Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Design Engineer over the 6 months to 25 November 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Design Engineer in the UK

Design Engineer
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Design Engineer job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Design Engineer job vacancies in the UK

Design Engineer
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Design Engineer over the 6 months to 25 November 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Design Engineer in the UK

Design Engineer
Top 13 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Design Engineer within the UK over the 6 months to 25 November 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
England -9 63 £500 -6.98% 89
UK excluding London -10 54 £537 -4.11% 84
East of England -7 20 £327 -53.36% 30
Work from Home +15 17 £375 -31.82% 39
North of England -34 15 £537 -4.11% 4
South East +1 12 £575 +48.39% 34
Yorkshire -24 10 £531 - 1
London -4 9 £425 -19.05% 11
North West -16 5 £623 +11.25% 1
South West -3 4 £475 -17.39% 14
East Midlands -11 3 £650 - 4
Midlands -34 3 £650 - 7
Scotland -1 1 £600 -11.11% 3

Design Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 25 November 2025, Design 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 featuring Design Engineer in the job title.

1 20 (30.77%) Degree
2 16 (24.62%) Python
2 16 (24.62%) Security Cleared
3 13 (20.00%) Firmware
3 13 (20.00%) SC Cleared
4 12 (18.46%) Cybersecurity
4 12 (18.46%) Microsoft
4 12 (18.46%) Problem-Solving
5 11 (16.92%) C
5 11 (16.92%) C++
5 11 (16.92%) Identity Access Management
5 11 (16.92%) Network Design
5 11 (16.92%) Systems Engineering
6 10 (15.38%) Security Operations
7 9 (13.85%) AI
7 9 (13.85%) Identity Management
8 8 (12.31%) Azure
8 8 (12.31%) EMC
8 8 (12.31%) Flash
8 8 (12.31%) GDPR
8 8 (12.31%) Mentoring
8 8 (12.31%) Schematic Capture
8 8 (12.31%) Signal Processing
9 7 (10.77%) Data Management
9 7 (10.77%) HIPAA
9 7 (10.77%) MPLS
9 7 (10.77%) NIST
9 7 (10.77%) PDM
9 7 (10.77%) PowerShell
9 7 (10.77%) Technical Leadership

Design Engineer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 6 (9.23%) Microsoft Exchange
2 5 (7.69%) SharePoint
3 3 (4.62%) Confluence
Applications
1 4 (6.15%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (4.62%) PTC Creo
3 2 (3.08%) Simulink
4 1 (1.54%) CATIA
4 1 (1.54%) Siemens NX
4 1 (1.54%) SOLIDWORKS
4 1 (1.54%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 3 (4.62%) Teamcenter
2 1 (1.54%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 8 (12.31%) Azure
2 6 (9.23%) Entra ID
2 6 (9.23%) Microsoft 365
2 6 (9.23%) Microsoft Purview
3 5 (7.69%) Azure Sentinel
3 5 (7.69%) OneDrive
4 2 (3.08%) AWS
5 1 (1.54%) Cloud Computing
5 1 (1.54%) Google Workspace
5 1 (1.54%) OpenShift
5 1 (1.54%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 7 (10.77%) MPLS
2 6 (9.23%) 5G
2 6 (9.23%) BGP
3 5 (7.69%) LAN
4 4 (6.15%) Firewall
4 4 (6.15%) Kerberos
4 4 (6.15%) VPN
4 4 (6.15%) Wi-Fi
5 3 (4.62%) Cisco IOS
5 3 (4.62%) IPsec
5 3 (4.62%) Junos
5 3 (4.62%) Network Security
6 2 (3.08%) 4G
6 2 (3.08%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
6 2 (3.08%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
6 2 (3.08%) Radio Access Network
6 2 (3.08%) RSVP
6 2 (3.08%) Structured Cabling
6 2 (3.08%) Wireless
7 1 (1.54%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.54%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 5 (7.69%) JIRA
2 3 (4.62%) Git
3 2 (3.08%) Rational DOORS
General
1 23 (35.38%) Social Skills
2 10 (15.38%) Manufacturing
3 9 (13.85%) Electronics
3 9 (13.85%) Finance
4 6 (9.23%) Aerospace
4 6 (9.23%) Telecoms
5 4 (6.15%) Law
6 3 (4.62%) Financial Institution
7 2 (3.08%) Aeronautics
7 2 (3.08%) Analytical Skills
8 1 (1.54%) Automotive
8 1 (1.54%) Aviation
8 1 (1.54%) Documentation Skills
8 1 (1.54%) Games
8 1 (1.54%) Marketing
8 1 (1.54%) Public Sector
8 1 (1.54%) Publishing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (12.31%) Flash
2 4 (6.15%) OAuth
2 4 (6.15%) SAML
3 2 (3.08%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 9 (13.85%) FPGA
1 9 (13.85%) VHDL
2 7 (10.77%) Analogue Electronics
3 4 (6.15%) Management Information System
4 2 (3.08%) Data Protection Act
4 2 (3.08%) Distributed Architecture
4 2 (3.08%) Fibre Optics
4 2 (3.08%) IoT
4 2 (3.08%) Self-Motivation
5 1 (1.54%) CCTV
5 1 (1.54%) Cyber Threat
5 1 (1.54%) Data Centre
5 1 (1.54%) Digital Signage
5 1 (1.54%) Hybrid Cloud
5 1 (1.54%) Mali
5 1 (1.54%) NB-IoT
5 1 (1.54%) Security Posture
5 1 (1.54%) Verilog
Operating Systems
1 7 (10.77%) Windows
2 2 (3.08%) VMS
3 1 (1.54%) Mac OS
3 1 (1.54%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 12 (18.46%) Cybersecurity
1 12 (18.46%) Problem-Solving
2 11 (16.92%) Identity Access Management
2 11 (16.92%) Network Design
2 11 (16.92%) Systems Engineering
3 10 (15.38%) Security Operations
4 9 (13.85%) AI
4 9 (13.85%) Identity Management
5 8 (12.31%) Mentoring
5 8 (12.31%) Schematic Capture
5 8 (12.31%) Signal Processing
6 7 (10.77%) Data Management
6 7 (10.77%) PDM
6 7 (10.77%) Technical Leadership
7 6 (9.23%) DevOps
7 6 (9.23%) Impact Analysis
7 6 (9.23%) Knowledge Transfer
7 6 (9.23%) Logistics
7 6 (9.23%) Sensor Fusion
7 6 (9.23%) Zero Trust
Programming Languages
1 16 (24.62%) Python
2 11 (16.92%) C
2 11 (16.92%) C++
3 7 (10.77%) PowerShell
4 2 (3.08%) C#
5 1 (1.54%) Embedded C
5 1 (1.54%) Embedded C++
5 1 (1.54%) Perl
5 1 (1.54%) SQL
5 1 (1.54%) Tcl
Qualifications
1 20 (30.77%) Degree
2 16 (24.62%) Security Cleared
3 13 (20.00%) SC Cleared
4 5 (7.69%) CCNP
4 5 (7.69%) Cisco Certification
4 5 (7.69%) Microsoft Certification
5 4 (6.15%) CCNA
6 3 (4.62%) CISM
6 3 (4.62%) CISSP
6 3 (4.62%) DV Cleared
6 3 (4.62%) JNCIS
6 3 (4.62%) Master's Degree
6 3 (4.62%) PhD
6 3 (4.62%) TOGAF Certification
7 1 (1.54%) CCDP
7 1 (1.54%) Cyber Scheme
7 1 (1.54%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (12.31%) GDPR
2 7 (10.77%) HIPAA
2 7 (10.77%) NIST
3 6 (9.23%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 13 (20.00%) Firmware
2 5 (7.69%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 4 (6.15%) Single Sign-On
2 2 (3.08%) FortiGate
2 2 (3.08%) Kubernetes
3 1 (1.54%) Ansible
3 1 (1.54%) Cilium
3 1 (1.54%) Microsoft Intune
3 1 (1.54%) Rsyslog
3 1 (1.54%) SCCM
3 1 (1.54%) SCOM
Vendors
1 12 (18.46%) Microsoft
2 8 (12.31%) EMC
3 5 (7.69%) Cisco
4 4 (6.15%) Juniper
5 3 (4.62%) BiZZdesign
5 3 (4.62%) F5
5 3 (4.62%) Nokia
5 3 (4.62%) Siemens
6 2 (3.08%) MathWorks
6 2 (3.08%) PTC
7 1 (1.54%) ANSYS
7 1 (1.54%) BMC
7 1 (1.54%) Cadence
7 1 (1.54%) Ericsson
7 1 (1.54%) Fortinet
7 1 (1.54%) Google
7 1 (1.54%) Mapinfo
7 1 (1.54%) Remedy
7 1 (1.54%) Synopsys
7 1 (1.54%) Xilinx