IT Engineer Contract Job Trends

IT Engineer
UK

The median IT Engineer daily rate in the UK is £200, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 17 March 2026.

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

6 months to
17 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 216 211 204
Rank change year-on-year -5 -7 +78
Contract jobs requiring an IT Engineer 523 372 501
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.21% 1.27% 1.13%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.32% 1.36% 1.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 301 254 308
10th Percentile £150 £125 £122
25th Percentile £175 £140 £150
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £200 £188 £200
Median % change year-on-year +6.67% -6.25% -
75th Percentile £263 £250 £270
90th Percentile £435 £424 £402
UK excluding London median daily rate £200 £180 £200
% change year-on-year +11.11% -10.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 111 43 124
10th Percentile £18.87 £15.22 £12.08
25th Percentile £20.50 £18.51 £15.75
Median hourly rate £24.00 £21.28 £17.72
Median % change year-on-year +12.78% +20.11% -0.01%
75th Percentile £25.15 £24.18 £20.25
90th Percentile £25.77 £28.33 £25.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.58 £21.01 £17.50
% change year-on-year +12.21% +20.06% -1.24%

All Contract IT Job Roles
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 39,673 27,289 41,313
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.89% 92.94% 92.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,785 17,711 27,109
10th Percentile £313 £300 £272
25th Percentile £410 £406 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.11%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £475 £485
% change year-on-year +1.05% -2.06% -3.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,471 884 2,499
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.25 £12.98
25th Percentile £19.00 £21.04 £16.25
Median hourly rate £35.71 £33.00 £32.90
Median % change year-on-year +8.21% +0.32% -22.60%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £59.95
90th Percentile £75.79 £77.41 £71.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £35.00 £32.50 £32.70
% change year-on-year +7.69% -0.60% -19.44%

IT Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

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

IT Engineer job vacancy trend in the UK

IT Engineer
Daily Rate Trend

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

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

IT Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing IT Engineer over the 6 months to 17 March 2026.

Daily rate histogram for IT Engineer in the UK

IT Engineer
Hourly Rate Trend

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

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

IT Engineer
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing IT Engineer over the 6 months to 17 March 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for IT Engineer in the UK

IT Engineer
Top 17 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing IT Engineer within the UK over the 6 months to 17 March 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
England +3 471 £200 +6.67% 228
UK excluding London -11 401 £200 +11.11% 237
London -4 120 £200 -11.11% 35
North of England -17 107 £190 -7.32% 48
South East -19 89 £200 +5.26% 61
East of England +13 60 £203 +12.50% 32
Midlands -49 50 £195 +30.00% 31
North West -13 48 £168 -16.25% 26
South West -23 46 £200 +26.98% 33
Yorkshire -32 42 £205 -31.67% 19
Scotland +13 32 £178 +5.97% 17
East Midlands -13 32 £200 +11.11% 14
Work from Home -42 21 £300 +17.65% 40
West Midlands -75 19 £188 +33.93% 17
North East +1 17 £338 +110.94% 7
Wales -17 17 £200 +37.13% 16
Northern Ireland -13 1 - - 3

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

For the 6 months to 17 March 2026, IT 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 IT Engineer in the job title.

1 224 (42.83%) Windows
2 200 (38.24%) Microsoft 365
3 188 (35.95%) Microsoft
4 170 (32.50%) Active Directory
5 133 (25.43%) Security Cleared
6 126 (24.09%) SC Cleared
7 119 (22.75%) Windows 10
8 109 (20.84%) Customer Service
9 97 (18.55%) Migration
10 74 (14.15%) Problem-Solving
11 68 (13.00%) Workflow
12 62 (11.85%) Workflow Management
13 61 (11.66%) ServiceNow
14 60 (11.47%) Azure
15 53 (10.13%) Asset Management
16 52 (9.94%) Microsoft Intune
17 48 (9.18%) ITIL
18 47 (8.99%) Wi-Fi
19 43 (8.22%) ITSM
20 36 (6.88%) Dell
21 35 (6.69%) SCCM
22 33 (6.31%) Break/Fix
22 33 (6.31%) LAN
23 32 (6.12%) Cybersecurity
23 32 (6.12%) JIRA
23 32 (6.12%) SAN
24 31 (5.93%) DHCP
24 31 (5.93%) DNS
25 30 (5.74%) Entra ID
26 29 (5.54%) Microsoft Certification

IT 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 27 (5.16%) SharePoint
2 23 (4.40%) Microsoft Exchange
3 3 (0.57%) Confluence
4 1 (0.19%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 24 (4.59%) Microsoft Office
2 8 (1.53%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (0.57%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 6 (1.15%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.19%) NetSuite
2 1 (0.19%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 200 (38.24%) Microsoft 365
2 60 (11.47%) Azure
3 30 (5.74%) Entra ID
4 19 (3.63%) OneDrive
5 18 (3.44%) Google Workspace
6 16 (3.06%) SaaS
7 14 (2.68%) Azure DevOps
8 12 (2.29%) PaaS
9 10 (1.91%) IaaS
10 9 (1.72%) AWS
11 5 (0.96%) Datadog
12 4 (0.76%) GitHub
13 3 (0.57%) Mimecast
13 3 (0.57%) Power Platform
13 3 (0.57%) Rubrik
14 2 (0.38%) AWS IoT
14 2 (0.38%) Azure Sentinel
14 2 (0.38%) PowerApps
15 1 (0.19%) Microsoft Copilot
15 1 (0.19%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 47 (8.99%) Wi-Fi
2 33 (6.31%) LAN
3 32 (6.12%) SAN
4 31 (5.93%) DHCP
4 31 (5.93%) DNS
5 27 (5.16%) Firewall
6 26 (4.97%) VPN
7 22 (4.21%) TCP/IP
8 19 (3.63%) WAN
9 13 (2.49%) Network Security
9 13 (2.49%) VLAN
10 10 (1.91%) VoIP
11 9 (1.72%) Wireless
12 7 (1.34%) PABX
13 6 (1.15%) Internet
13 6 (1.15%) WLAN
14 4 (0.76%) ATM
14 4 (0.76%) Unified Communications
15 3 (0.57%) Ethernet
15 3 (0.57%) Structured Cabling
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (1.53%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.19%) Electronic Patient Records
2 1 (0.19%) Power BI
2 1 (0.19%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 32 (6.12%) JIRA
2 5 (0.96%) Chocolatey
3 4 (0.76%) GitLab
4 2 (0.38%) Git
5 1 (0.19%) Hudson
General
1 221 (42.26%) Social Skills
2 42 (8.03%) Finance
3 39 (7.46%) Manufacturing
4 34 (6.50%) Public Sector
5 32 (6.12%) Analytical Skills
6 31 (5.93%) Banking
7 19 (3.63%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 19 (3.63%) Telecoms
8 18 (3.44%) Electronics
8 18 (3.44%) Marketing
9 16 (3.06%) Organisational Skills
10 9 (1.72%) Aerospace
11 7 (1.34%) Investment Banking
12 5 (0.96%) Documentation Skills
13 4 (0.76%) Financial Institution
14 3 (0.57%) Front Office
14 3 (0.57%) Law
15 2 (0.38%) Pharmaceutical
15 2 (0.38%) Retail
16 1 (0.19%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (0.76%) React
2 2 (0.38%) Microsoft Graph
2 2 (0.38%) Middleware
3 1 (0.19%) 802.1X
Miscellaneous
1 39 (7.46%) Onboarding
2 27 (5.16%) Data Centre
2 27 (5.16%) Driving Licence
3 23 (4.40%) Analytical Mindset
4 21 (4.02%) Self-Motivation
5 14 (2.68%) Operational Technology
6 11 (2.10%) Smartphone
7 9 (1.72%) Virtual Team
8 6 (1.15%) Video Conferencing
9 5 (0.96%) Cyber Threat
9 5 (0.96%) Enterprise Software
9 5 (0.96%) EPoS
9 5 (0.96%) Legacy Systems
10 4 (0.76%) Hybrid Cloud
10 4 (0.76%) IoT
10 4 (0.76%) iPhone
10 4 (0.76%) Management Information System
10 4 (0.76%) SCADA
11 2 (0.38%) 3D Printing
11 2 (0.38%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 224 (42.83%) Windows
2 119 (22.75%) Windows 10
3 25 (4.78%) Android
3 25 (4.78%) Mac OS
4 22 (4.21%) Apple iOS
5 18 (3.44%) Windows Server
6 14 (2.68%) Linux
7 3 (0.57%) Unix
8 2 (0.38%) Solaris
8 2 (0.38%) Windows Server 2016
9 1 (0.19%) Mac OS X
9 1 (0.19%) Windows 7
9 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 109 (20.84%) Customer Service
2 97 (18.55%) Migration
3 74 (14.15%) Problem-Solving
4 68 (13.00%) Workflow
5 62 (11.85%) Workflow Management
6 53 (10.13%) Asset Management
7 48 (9.18%) ITIL
8 43 (8.22%) ITSM
9 33 (6.31%) Break/Fix
10 32 (6.12%) Cybersecurity
11 24 (4.59%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 23 (4.40%) User Experience
13 21 (4.02%) Logistics
14 20 (3.82%) Change Management
15 19 (3.63%) Business Intelligence
15 19 (3.63%) DevOps
16 18 (3.44%) Digital Marketing
16 18 (3.44%) Programme Management
17 16 (3.06%) Disaster Recovery
18 13 (2.49%) Problem Management
Programming Languages
1 26 (4.97%) PowerShell
2 16 (3.06%) SQL
3 14 (2.68%) C#
4 7 (1.34%) Python
5 4 (0.76%) JavaScript
5 4 (0.76%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 133 (25.43%) Security Cleared
2 126 (24.09%) SC Cleared
3 29 (5.54%) Microsoft Certification
4 26 (4.97%) CCNA
4 26 (4.97%) Cisco Certification
5 25 (4.78%) Network+ Certification
6 24 (4.59%) A+ Certification
6 24 (4.59%) MCSE
7 13 (2.49%) DV Cleared
8 5 (0.96%) Degree
9 4 (0.76%) DBS Check
10 3 (0.57%) BPSS Clearance
11 2 (0.38%) CCNP
12 1 (0.19%) Azure Certification
12 1 (0.19%) BC Cleared
12 1 (0.19%) HND
12 1 (0.19%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
12 1 (0.19%) Microsoft Certified Professional
12 1 (0.19%) PRINCE2 Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 23 (4.40%) SLA
2 3 (0.57%) Cyber Essentials
2 3 (0.57%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 2 (0.38%) GDPR
4 1 (0.19%) NIST
4 1 (0.19%) PCI DSS
4 1 (0.19%) QA
System Software
1 170 (32.50%) Active Directory
2 7 (1.34%) Hyper-V
3 6 (1.15%) VMware Infrastructure
4 3 (0.57%) Virtual Desktop
4 3 (0.57%) vSphere
5 2 (0.38%) Docker
5 2 (0.38%) Firmware
5 2 (0.38%) VMware Workstation
6 1 (0.19%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 52 (9.94%) Microsoft Intune
2 35 (6.69%) SCCM
3 17 (3.25%) Jamf Pro
4 4 (0.76%) Kubernetes
5 3 (0.57%) FortiGate
5 3 (0.57%) WSUS
6 2 (0.38%) Ansible
6 2 (0.38%) Single Sign-On
7 1 (0.19%) PaperCut
7 1 (0.19%) SCOM
7 1 (0.19%) ServiceCenter
7 1 (0.19%) Terraform
Vendors
1 188 (35.95%) Microsoft
2 61 (11.66%) ServiceNow
3 36 (6.88%) Dell
4 20 (3.82%) SAP
5 17 (3.25%) Google
5 17 (3.25%) HP
5 17 (3.25%) VMware
6 16 (3.06%) Cisco
7 12 (2.29%) Apple
8 8 (1.53%) Tenable
9 6 (1.15%) Citrix
9 6 (1.15%) Remedy
10 5 (0.96%) AppDynamics
10 5 (0.96%) Dynatrace
10 5 (0.96%) Fortinet
11 4 (0.76%) CrowdStrike
11 4 (0.76%) Veeam
12 3 (0.57%) Computacenter
12 3 (0.57%) Okta
12 3 (0.57%) Zscaler