IT Engineer Contract Job Trends

IT Engineer
UK

The median IT Engineer daily rate in the UK is £188, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 18 September 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
18 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 226 266 255
Rank change year-on-year +40 -11 +110
Contract jobs requiring an IT Engineer 411 339 480
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 1.25% 0.88% 0.97%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.37% 0.95% 1.03%
Number of daily rates quoted 250 213 297
10th Percentile £126 £128 £111
25th Percentile £150 £165 £143
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £188 £200 £190
Median % change year-on-year -6.25% +5.26% -5.00%
75th Percentile £244 £350 £288
90th Percentile £401 £585 £488
UK excluding London median daily rate £160 £200 £180
% change year-on-year -20.00% +11.11% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 111 59 93
10th Percentile £18.51 £11.75 £13.16
25th Percentile £18.87 £15.16 £15.12
Median hourly rate £25.15 £19.50 £17.72
Median % change year-on-year +28.97% +10.05% +0.91%
75th Percentile - £24.02 £19.25
90th Percentile - £24.18 £24.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.11 £18.27 £17.72
% change year-on-year +37.45% +3.10% +0.91%

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 30,003 35,798 46,379
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.06% 92.95% 94.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 18,960 22,064 31,748
10th Percentile £278 £300 £300
25th Percentile £400 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £530
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -0.94% -3.64%
75th Percentile £623 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,577 1,684 1,483
10th Percentile £13.75 £14.73 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.30 £20.30 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £43.00 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -41.51% -3.37% +71.15%
75th Percentile £52.50 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £45.00 £43.00
% change year-on-year -44.11% +4.65% +95.45%

IT Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings that featured IT Engineer in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for IT Engineer 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 18 September 2025.

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 18 September 2025.

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 18 September 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 +55 372 £185 -8.64% 347
UK excluding London +31 292 £160 -20.00% 366
London +22 108 £213 -29.17% 51
South East +33 76 £160 -20.00% 98
South West +63 68 £160 -25.58% 39
Midlands +5 58 £160 -44.35% 62
North of England -16 38 £165 -9.59% 86
West Midlands +5 34 £195 -22.00% 26
East of England +10 30 £175 -2.78% 37
Work from Home -3 28 £319 -20.31% 73
East Midlands +6 26 £128 -59.20% 34
Scotland -5 23 £189 -5.63% 38
North West -7 23 £160 -11.11% 36
Yorkshire -24 12 £173 -13.75% 41
Wales -3 8 £160 -27.27% 4
North East -2 3 £170 -15.00% 17
Northern Ireland -7 1 £195 - 9

IT Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 18 September 2025, IT 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 featuring IT Engineer in the job title.

1 147 (35.77%) Windows
2 131 (31.87%) Social Skills
3 110 (26.76%) Microsoft
4 100 (24.33%) Security Cleared
5 96 (23.36%) Microsoft 365
6 94 (22.87%) SC Cleared
7 75 (18.25%) Active Directory
8 67 (16.30%) Windows 10
9 60 (14.60%) Customer Service
10 54 (13.14%) Migration
11 52 (12.65%) Problem-Solving
12 47 (11.44%) Azure
13 45 (10.95%) Asset Management
14 43 (10.46%) Workflow
15 42 (10.22%) ITIL
16 41 (9.98%) Workflow Management
16 41 (9.98%) DBS Check
17 39 (9.49%) Microsoft Intune
18 37 (9.00%) EPoS
19 33 (8.03%) ATM
20 32 (7.79%) Driving Licence
21 29 (7.06%) Inclusion and Diversity
21 29 (7.06%) ITSM
22 26 (6.33%) ServiceNow
23 25 (6.08%) HP
23 25 (6.08%) TCP/IP
23 25 (6.08%) DNS
24 24 (5.84%) Entra ID
25 23 (5.60%) Ticket Management
25 23 (5.60%) Windows Server

IT Engineer Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities 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 20 (4.87%) Microsoft Exchange
1 20 (4.87%) SharePoint
2 2 (0.49%) IIS
3 1 (0.24%) Apache
3 1 (0.24%) Confluence
3 1 (0.24%) Tomcat
3 1 (0.24%) WebSphere
Applications
1 16 (3.89%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (0.73%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (0.73%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 3 (0.73%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.24%) Maximo
2 1 (0.24%) Pegasus Opera
Cloud Services
1 96 (23.36%) Microsoft 365
2 47 (11.44%) Azure
3 24 (5.84%) Entra ID
4 11 (2.68%) Google Workspace
5 9 (2.19%) Slack
6 8 (1.95%) OneDrive
7 6 (1.46%) Azure Stack
7 6 (1.46%) SaaS
8 4 (0.97%) AWS
8 4 (0.97%) GCP
8 4 (0.97%) Power Platform
9 3 (0.73%) Asana
9 3 (0.73%) Azure Sentinel
10 2 (0.49%) IaaS
10 2 (0.49%) PaaS
11 1 (0.24%) Google Drive
11 1 (0.24%) Microsoft Copilot
11 1 (0.24%) Microsoft Purview
11 1 (0.24%) Mimecast
11 1 (0.24%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 33 (8.03%) ATM
2 25 (6.08%) DNS
2 25 (6.08%) TCP/IP
3 22 (5.35%) VPN
4 21 (5.11%) DHCP
5 20 (4.87%) Firewall
6 15 (3.65%) LAN
7 11 (2.68%) Wireless
8 10 (2.43%) VLAN
8 10 (2.43%) Wi-Fi
9 8 (1.95%) Network Security
9 8 (1.95%) VoIP
9 8 (1.95%) WAN
10 5 (1.22%) Internet
10 5 (1.22%) Remote Desktop
11 3 (0.73%) Cisco Wireless
11 3 (0.73%) IP Telephony
11 3 (0.73%) WLAN
12 2 (0.49%) Ethernet
12 2 (0.49%) Intrusion Detection
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (1.46%) Oracle Reports
2 4 (0.97%) SQL Server
3 3 (0.73%) Power BI
4 1 (0.24%) Amazon RDS
4 1 (0.24%) DB2
4 1 (0.24%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 3 (0.73%) JIRA
General
1 131 (31.87%) Social Skills
2 29 (7.06%) Inclusion and Diversity
3 23 (5.60%) Finance
4 16 (3.89%) Analytical Skills
5 15 (3.65%) Public Sector
6 13 (3.16%) Organisational Skills
7 12 (2.92%) Manufacturing
8 9 (2.19%) Banking
9 7 (1.70%) Local Government
10 5 (1.22%) Documentation Skills
10 5 (1.22%) Retail
11 4 (0.97%) Financial Institution
12 3 (0.73%) Electronics
12 3 (0.73%) French Language
12 3 (0.73%) Marketing
12 3 (0.73%) Telecoms
13 2 (0.49%) Aerospace
13 2 (0.49%) Law
13 2 (0.49%) Legal
13 2 (0.49%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (0.49%) XML
2 1 (0.24%) 802.1X
2 1 (0.24%) JSON
2 1 (0.24%) SOAP
2 1 (0.24%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 37 (9.00%) EPoS
2 32 (7.79%) Driving Licence
3 15 (3.65%) Management Information System
4 11 (2.68%) Onboarding
4 11 (2.68%) Smartphone
5 9 (2.19%) Self-Motivation
6 8 (1.95%) Data Centre
7 7 (1.70%) Legacy Systems
8 6 (1.46%) Hybrid Cloud
8 6 (1.46%) iPhone
8 6 (1.46%) Video Conferencing
9 5 (1.22%) Enterprise Software
9 5 (1.22%) Operational Technology
10 4 (0.97%) Security Posture
11 2 (0.49%) CCTV
11 2 (0.49%) CMDB
11 2 (0.49%) Renewable Energy
11 2 (0.49%) Replication
12 1 (0.24%) Fat Client
12 1 (0.24%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 147 (35.77%) Windows
2 67 (16.30%) Windows 10
3 23 (5.60%) Windows Server
4 21 (5.11%) Windows 7
5 20 (4.87%) Android
6 17 (4.14%) Mac OS
7 16 (3.89%) Apple iOS
8 10 (2.43%) Linux
9 6 (1.46%) Unix
10 4 (0.97%) Solaris
11 3 (0.73%) VMS
11 3 (0.73%) Windows 8
12 2 (0.49%) Mac OS X
12 2 (0.49%) Windows Server 2016
12 2 (0.49%) Windows Server 2019
13 1 (0.24%) CentOS
13 1 (0.24%) FreeBSD
13 1 (0.24%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 1 (0.24%) Windows Server 2008
13 1 (0.24%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 60 (14.60%) Customer Service
2 54 (13.14%) Migration
3 52 (12.65%) Problem-Solving
4 45 (10.95%) Asset Management
5 43 (10.46%) Workflow
6 42 (10.22%) ITIL
7 41 (9.98%) Workflow Management
8 29 (7.06%) ITSM
9 23 (5.60%) Ticket Management
10 22 (5.35%) Break/Fix
11 20 (4.87%) Service Management
12 19 (4.62%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 18 (4.38%) Cybersecurity
14 14 (3.41%) Service Delivery
15 13 (3.16%) Collaborative Working
15 13 (3.16%) Project Management
16 11 (2.68%) Information Security
16 11 (2.68%) Infrastructure Management
16 11 (2.68%) Time Management
17 9 (2.19%) Computer Science
Programming Languages
1 8 (1.95%) SQL
2 7 (1.70%) PowerShell
3 4 (0.97%) Python
4 2 (0.49%) Bash
5 1 (0.24%) C
5 1 (0.24%) Java
5 1 (0.24%) JavaScript
Qualifications
1 100 (24.33%) Security Cleared
2 94 (22.87%) SC Cleared
3 41 (9.98%) DBS Check
4 23 (5.60%) Degree
5 11 (2.68%) A+ Certification
6 10 (2.43%) Cisco Certification
6 10 (2.43%) Microsoft Certification
7 7 (1.70%) Network+ Certification
8 6 (1.46%) Azure Certification
9 5 (1.22%) DV Cleared
10 4 (0.97%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 4 (0.97%) CCSP
10 4 (0.97%) CISSP
10 4 (0.97%) GCIH
11 3 (0.73%) Computer Science Degree
11 3 (0.73%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
12 2 (0.49%) CCNA
12 2 (0.49%) City & Guilds
12 2 (0.49%) HNC
12 2 (0.49%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (5.11%) SLA
2 6 (1.46%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 4 (0.97%) Cyber Essentials
3 4 (0.97%) GDPR
3 4 (0.97%) NIST
4 3 (0.73%) Accessibility
4 3 (0.73%) Disclosure Scotland
5 2 (0.49%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 1 (0.24%) PMO
6 1 (0.24%) QA
6 1 (0.24%) SOC 2
System Software
1 75 (18.25%) Active Directory
2 11 (2.68%) VMware Infrastructure
3 8 (1.95%) Hyper-V
4 7 (1.70%) Virtual Desktop
5 5 (1.22%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (0.73%) Firmware
7 2 (0.49%) vSphere
8 1 (0.24%) BitLocker
8 1 (0.24%) Terminal Services
8 1 (0.24%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.24%) VMware Workstation
8 1 (0.24%) XenApp
8 1 (0.24%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 39 (9.49%) Microsoft Intune
2 15 (3.65%) SCCM
3 6 (1.46%) Jamf Pro
4 3 (0.73%) WSUS
5 2 (0.49%) Autotask
5 2 (0.49%) CASB
6 1 (0.24%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 1 (0.24%) Ansible
6 1 (0.24%) FortiGate
6 1 (0.24%) SCOM
6 1 (0.24%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 110 (26.76%) Microsoft
2 26 (6.33%) ServiceNow
3 25 (6.08%) HP
4 22 (5.35%) Cisco
4 22 (5.35%) Dell
5 19 (4.62%) Apple
6 17 (4.14%) Google
7 15 (3.65%) VMware
8 7 (1.70%) Citrix
9 6 (1.46%) Oracle
10 4 (0.97%) IBM
10 4 (0.97%) Okta
10 4 (0.97%) Remedy
11 3 (0.73%) Fortinet
11 3 (0.73%) Meraki
11 3 (0.73%) SAP
11 3 (0.73%) Sophos
12 2 (0.49%) Avaya
12 2 (0.49%) Palo Alto
12 2 (0.49%) Red Hat