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 28 June 2026.

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

6 months to
28 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 251 197 253
Rank change year-on-year -54 +56 +23
Contract jobs requiring an IT Engineer 514 411 405
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.01% 1.35% 0.93%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.09% 1.46% 1.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 313 267 255
10th Percentile £150 £126 £124
25th Percentile £165 £150 £147
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £200 £190 £200
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% +2.56%
75th Percentile £288 £250 £312
90th Percentile £438 £420 £590
UK excluding London median daily rate £200 £170 £175
% change year-on-year +17.65% -2.86% -7.89%
Number of hourly rates quoted 83 73 94
10th Percentile £17.72 £18.51 £11.83
25th Percentile £19.27 £18.87 £14.16
Median hourly rate £22.21 £21.28 £18.07
Median % change year-on-year +4.37% +17.80% +1.95%
75th Percentile £25.77 £25.15 £22.00
90th Percentile £32.98 - £24.18
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.00 £21.01 £16.99
% change year-on-year +4.71% +23.64% -4.11%

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 47,123 28,128 40,377
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.40% 92.07% 92.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,580 18,010 25,933
10th Percentile £325 £288 £281
25th Percentile £415 £401 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% -2.33%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £493
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.65% -1.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,165 1,254 2,874
10th Percentile £15.50 £13.76 £12.86
25th Percentile £21.14 £17.31 £16.50
Median hourly rate £43.61 £27.00 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +61.50% -28.00% -14.50%
75th Percentile £67.50 £56.25 £62.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.75 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% -

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 28 June 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 28 June 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 28 June 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 -45 450 £200 +5.26% 189
UK excluding London -46 395 £200 +17.65% 191
London -64 115 £240 +4.35% 41
South East -33 98 £238 +25.00% 53
North of England -38 80 £190 +0.66% 39
East of England +5 53 £200 +5.26% 23
Midlands -47 53 £200 +33.33% 24
South West -42 50 £225 +40.63% 33
Yorkshire -28 37 £190 -25.49% 16
Scotland 0 36 £166 -10.74% 9
North West -42 34 £190 +1.33% 20
East Midlands 0 32 £200 +56.86% 15
Wales -12 22 £190 +29.52% 7
Work from Home -67 22 £500 +81.82% 53
West Midlands -63 20 £185 +17.46% 9
North East -31 10 £450 +125.00% 6
Northern Ireland -2 3 - - 10

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

For the 6 months to 28 June 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.

1 258 (50.19%) Windows
2 207 (40.27%) Microsoft
2 207 (40.27%) Microsoft 365
3 201 (39.11%) Active Directory
4 133 (25.88%) Customer Service
5 122 (23.74%) Problem-Solving
6 120 (23.35%) Windows 10
7 87 (16.93%) Security Cleared
8 79 (15.37%) Azure
8 79 (15.37%) SC Cleared
9 72 (14.01%) ITIL
10 68 (13.23%) Microsoft Intune
10 68 (13.23%) ServiceNow
11 60 (11.67%) SAN
12 55 (10.70%) Microsoft Certification
13 54 (10.51%) Break/Fix
14 53 (10.31%) Network+ Certification
15 51 (9.92%) A+ Certification
16 50 (9.73%) Dell
17 49 (9.53%) ITSM
18 48 (9.34%) JIRA
19 47 (9.14%) CCNA
19 47 (9.14%) Cisco Certification
19 47 (9.14%) MCSE
20 46 (8.95%) Entra ID
21 44 (8.56%) DNS
21 44 (8.56%) Wi-Fi
22 43 (8.37%) VPN
23 42 (8.17%) Migration
24 41 (7.98%) DHCP

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 40 (7.78%) Microsoft Exchange
2 37 (7.20%) SharePoint
3 7 (1.36%) HCL Notes
4 5 (0.97%) Confluence
Applications
1 19 (3.70%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (0.39%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 2 (0.39%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 207 (40.27%) Microsoft 365
2 79 (15.37%) Azure
3 46 (8.95%) Entra ID
4 22 (4.28%) OneDrive
5 19 (3.70%) Azure DevOps
6 15 (2.92%) SaaS
7 13 (2.53%) AWS
8 11 (2.14%) PaaS
9 9 (1.75%) IaaS
10 5 (0.97%) Datadog
10 5 (0.97%) GitHub
10 5 (0.97%) Nutanix
11 4 (0.78%) Mimecast
11 4 (0.78%) Power Platform
12 3 (0.58%) Amazon EC2
12 3 (0.58%) Amazon S3
12 3 (0.58%) Google Workspace
12 3 (0.58%) PowerApps
12 3 (0.58%) Rubrik
13 2 (0.39%) Azure Sentinel
Communications & Networking
1 60 (11.67%) SAN
2 44 (8.56%) DNS
2 44 (8.56%) Wi-Fi
3 43 (8.37%) VPN
4 41 (7.98%) DHCP
5 36 (7.00%) LAN
6 25 (4.86%) VLAN
7 24 (4.67%) TCP/IP
8 19 (3.70%) WAN
9 16 (3.11%) Firewall
10 11 (2.14%) WLAN
11 9 (1.75%) Internet
12 6 (1.17%) VoIP
13 5 (0.97%) IPv4
13 5 (0.97%) IPv6
13 5 (0.97%) Network Security
13 5 (0.97%) Skype
14 3 (0.58%) Remote Desktop
14 3 (0.58%) Unified Communications
15 2 (0.39%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (2.33%) SQL Server
2 2 (0.39%) Relational Database
3 1 (0.19%) MariaDB
3 1 (0.19%) MySQL
3 1 (0.19%) Oracle Reports
3 1 (0.19%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 48 (9.34%) JIRA
2 6 (1.17%) Git
3 5 (0.97%) Chocolatey
3 5 (0.97%) GitLab
General
1 207 (40.27%) Social Skills
2 72 (14.01%) Analytical Skills
3 26 (5.06%) Manufacturing
4 25 (4.86%) Finance
5 22 (4.28%) Banking
6 16 (3.11%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 16 (3.11%) Public Sector
7 15 (2.92%) Organisational Skills
8 7 (1.36%) Marketing
9 6 (1.17%) Documentation Skills
10 5 (0.97%) Investment Banking
11 4 (0.78%) Financial Institution
11 4 (0.78%) Retail
12 3 (0.58%) Telecoms
13 2 (0.39%) Pharmaceutical
14 1 (0.19%) Aerospace
14 1 (0.19%) Aviation
14 1 (0.19%) Front Office
14 1 (0.19%) Japanese Language
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (0.97%) React
2 3 (0.58%) Microsoft Graph
3 2 (0.39%) JSON
3 2 (0.39%) Middleware
3 2 (0.39%) RabbitMQ
3 2 (0.39%) XML
4 1 (0.19%) 802.1X
4 1 (0.19%) PySpark
4 1 (0.19%) Redfish
4 1 (0.19%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 56 (10.89%) Data Centre
2 49 (9.53%) Onboarding
3 47 (9.14%) Analytical Mindset
4 20 (3.89%) Virtual Team
5 14 (2.72%) Self-Motivation
6 13 (2.53%) Video Conferencing
7 10 (1.95%) Driving Licence
8 9 (1.75%) EPoS
8 9 (1.75%) Operational Technology
9 8 (1.56%) Hybrid Cloud
10 7 (1.36%) Blackberry
11 6 (1.17%) SCADA
12 5 (0.97%) CCTV
12 5 (0.97%) Cyber Threat
13 4 (0.78%) Enterprise Software
13 4 (0.78%) Renewable Energy
14 3 (0.58%) Life Science
14 3 (0.58%) Public Cloud
14 3 (0.58%) Smartphone
14 3 (0.58%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 258 (50.19%) Windows
2 120 (23.35%) Windows 10
3 29 (5.64%) Windows Server
4 28 (5.45%) Mac OS
5 16 (3.11%) Apple iOS
6 13 (2.53%) Android
7 7 (1.36%) Linux
8 2 (0.39%) Unix
8 2 (0.39%) Windows 7
8 2 (0.39%) Windows Server 2016
8 2 (0.39%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.19%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 1 (0.19%) Solaris
9 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 133 (25.88%) Customer Service
2 122 (23.74%) Problem-Solving
3 72 (14.01%) ITIL
4 54 (10.51%) Break/Fix
5 49 (9.53%) ITSM
6 42 (8.17%) Migration
7 40 (7.78%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 34 (6.61%) Service Delivery
9 29 (5.64%) Asset Management
10 28 (5.45%) Change Management
10 28 (5.45%) Continuous Improvement
11 23 (4.47%) User Experience
12 21 (4.09%) Cybersecurity
12 21 (4.09%) DevOps
12 21 (4.09%) Disaster Recovery
13 18 (3.50%) Workflow
14 16 (3.11%) Problem Management
14 16 (3.11%) Workflow Management
15 14 (2.72%) Data Protection
16 12 (2.33%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 29 (5.64%) PowerShell
2 22 (4.28%) SQL
3 19 (3.70%) C#
4 10 (1.95%) Python
5 5 (0.97%) JavaScript
5 5 (0.97%) TypeScript
6 2 (0.39%) Java
Qualifications
1 87 (16.93%) Security Cleared
2 79 (15.37%) SC Cleared
3 55 (10.70%) Microsoft Certification
4 53 (10.31%) Network+ Certification
5 51 (9.92%) A+ Certification
6 47 (9.14%) CCNA
6 47 (9.14%) Cisco Certification
6 47 (9.14%) MCSE
7 15 (2.92%) Degree
8 11 (2.14%) DV Cleared
9 5 (0.97%) DBS Check
9 5 (0.97%) Microsoft Certified Professional
10 1 (0.19%) Azure Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (4.67%) SLA
2 9 (1.75%) Cyber Essentials
3 8 (1.56%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 5 (0.97%) GDPR
5 4 (0.78%) PCI DSS
6 3 (0.58%) NIST
6 3 (0.58%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 2 (0.39%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 2 (0.39%) Data Quality
7 2 (0.39%) Disclosure Scotland
7 2 (0.39%) GxP
8 1 (0.19%) ITGC
8 1 (0.19%) QA
System Software
1 201 (39.11%) Active Directory
2 15 (2.92%) Hyper-V
3 13 (2.53%) VMware Infrastructure
4 4 (0.78%) vSphere
5 3 (0.58%) Docker
5 3 (0.58%) Virtual Desktop
6 2 (0.39%) Firmware
6 2 (0.39%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.19%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 68 (13.23%) Microsoft Intune
2 23 (4.47%) SCCM
3 9 (1.75%) Jamf Pro
4 7 (1.36%) WSUS
5 6 (1.17%) Kubernetes
6 5 (0.97%) Single Sign-On
7 4 (0.78%) Terraform
8 3 (0.58%) Ansible
9 2 (0.39%) FortiGate
9 2 (0.39%) PaperCut
10 1 (0.19%) Dell DRAC
10 1 (0.19%) Failover Clustering
10 1 (0.19%) Grafana
10 1 (0.19%) ServiceCenter
Vendors
1 207 (40.27%) Microsoft
2 68 (13.23%) ServiceNow
3 50 (9.73%) Dell
4 22 (4.28%) VMware
5 20 (3.89%) Apple
6 12 (2.33%) Cisco
7 10 (1.95%) HP
8 9 (1.75%) Citrix
9 8 (1.56%) Veeam
10 7 (1.36%) Fortinet
10 7 (1.36%) Lotus
11 6 (1.17%) Dynatrace
11 6 (1.17%) Tenable
12 5 (0.97%) AppDynamics
12 5 (0.97%) Samsung
13 3 (0.58%) Freshdesk
13 3 (0.58%) Google
13 3 (0.58%) IBM
14 2 (0.39%) Arista
14 2 (0.39%) Computacenter