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 30 August 2026.

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

6 months to
30 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 268 221 268
Rank change year-on-year -47 +47 -3
Contract jobs requiring an IT Engineer 538 416 326
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.00% 1.26% 0.85%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.08% 1.38% 0.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 347 253 208
10th Percentile £150 £126 £125
25th Percentile £173 £148 £160
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £200 £188 £200
Median % change year-on-year +6.67% -6.25% +5.26%
75th Percentile £266 £250 £350
90th Percentile £405 £418 £538
UK excluding London median daily rate £200 £160 £190
% change year-on-year +25.00% -15.79% +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 61 108 59
10th Percentile £17.20 £18.51 £11.75
25th Percentile £18.50 £18.87 £15.10
Median hourly rate £22.00 £25.15 £18.27
Median % change year-on-year -12.52% +37.66% +3.10%
75th Percentile £25.75 - £22.44
90th Percentile £35.22 - £24.18
UK excluding London median hourly rate £21.25 £25.11 £16.19
% change year-on-year -15.38% +55.11% -8.63%

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 49,919 30,067 35,868
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.47% 91.25% 93.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,803 18,996 22,698
10th Percentile £325 £280 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.69%
75th Percentile £625 £621 £638
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,576 1,567 1,847
10th Percentile £14.96 £13.75 £14.16
25th Percentile £20.50 £17.04 £20.00
Median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +67.00% -41.51% +1.18%
75th Percentile £67.84 £53.81 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £70.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £44.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -42.84% +10.00%

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 30 August 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 30 August 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 30 August 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 -46 465 £200 +8.11% 232
UK excluding London -34 395 £200 +25.00% 216
London -54 134 £225 - 50
South East -40 97 £250 +44.93% 54
North of England -27 89 £200 +14.29% 38
North West -23 57 £200 +25.00% 21
East of England 0 51 £190 +8.57% 40
South West -57 49 £200 +25.00% 35
Midlands -58 46 £200 +25.00% 39
Scotland -3 42 £192 +2.13% 13
Yorkshire -31 31 £204 +10.27% 13
Work from Home -56 30 £305 +3.83% 55
East Midlands -9 27 £275 +115.69% 15
Wales -5 19 £190 +18.75% 5
West Midlands -59 18 £185 -17.78% 24
Northern Ireland +4 2 - -
North East -38 2 £175 -12.50% 4

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

For the 6 months to 30 August 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.

1 338 (62.83%) Windows
2 286 (53.16%) Microsoft
3 257 (47.77%) Microsoft 365
4 243 (45.17%) Active Directory
5 178 (33.09%) Customer Service
6 155 (28.81%) Windows 10
7 153 (28.44%) Problem-Solving
8 107 (19.89%) ITIL
9 92 (17.10%) Microsoft Intune
10 90 (16.73%) Security Cleared
11 84 (15.61%) ServiceNow
12 81 (15.06%) SC Cleared
13 79 (14.68%) Azure
14 76 (14.13%) ITSM
15 73 (13.57%) SharePoint
16 69 (12.83%) Entra ID
17 56 (10.41%) VPN
18 54 (10.04%) A+ Certification
18 54 (10.04%) Microsoft Exchange
19 51 (9.48%) Break/Fix
20 49 (9.11%) Continuous Improvement
20 49 (9.11%) DNS
21 48 (8.92%) Asset Management
21 48 (8.92%) Microsoft Certification
22 45 (8.36%) Network+ Certification
22 45 (8.36%) SAN
22 45 (8.36%) Windows Server
23 44 (8.18%) Infrastructure Engineering
24 42 (7.81%) DHCP
25 41 (7.62%) Dell

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 73 (13.57%) SharePoint
2 54 (10.04%) Microsoft Exchange
3 11 (2.04%) HCL Notes
4 4 (0.74%) Confluence
5 2 (0.37%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 31 (5.76%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (0.56%) MS Visio
3 2 (0.37%) Acrobat
3 2 (0.37%) Microsoft Excel
4 1 (0.19%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.19%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 4 (0.74%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.37%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 257 (47.77%) Microsoft 365
2 79 (14.68%) Azure
3 69 (12.83%) Entra ID
4 32 (5.95%) OneDrive
5 15 (2.79%) AWS
6 13 (2.42%) SaaS
7 8 (1.49%) Azure DevOps
8 6 (1.12%) IaaS
8 6 (1.12%) Mimecast
9 5 (0.93%) Nutanix
10 4 (0.74%) GitHub
10 4 (0.74%) PaaS
10 4 (0.74%) Power Platform
11 3 (0.56%) Amazon EC2
11 3 (0.56%) Amazon S3
11 3 (0.56%) Google Workspace
11 3 (0.56%) PowerApps
12 2 (0.37%) Amazon EKS
12 2 (0.37%) AWS Direct Connect
12 2 (0.37%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 56 (10.41%) VPN
2 49 (9.11%) DNS
3 45 (8.36%) SAN
4 42 (7.81%) DHCP
5 41 (7.62%) TCP/IP
6 28 (5.20%) Wi-Fi
7 27 (5.02%) LAN
8 22 (4.09%) WAN
9 21 (3.90%) VLAN
10 16 (2.97%) Firewall
11 12 (2.23%) Internet
12 8 (1.49%) Network Security
13 7 (1.30%) Skype
14 5 (0.93%) IPv4
14 5 (0.93%) IPv6
14 5 (0.93%) Wireless
14 5 (0.93%) WLAN
15 4 (0.74%) Remote Desktop
16 3 (0.56%) OSPF
16 3 (0.56%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (1.86%) SQL Server
2 2 (0.37%) Oracle Database
2 2 (0.37%) Power BI
2 2 (0.37%) Relational Database
2 2 (0.37%) Tableau
3 1 (0.19%) MariaDB
3 1 (0.19%) MySQL
3 1 (0.19%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 31 (5.76%) JIRA
2 7 (1.30%) Git
3 3 (0.56%) GitLab
3 3 (0.56%) Postman
3 3 (0.56%) SoapUI
4 2 (0.37%) eggPlant
4 2 (0.37%) JMeter
4 2 (0.37%) LoadRunner
4 2 (0.37%) SonarQube
5 1 (0.19%) Chocolatey
5 1 (0.19%) Cucumber
5 1 (0.19%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.19%) MSI
5 1 (0.19%) Robot Framework
5 1 (0.19%) Selenium
5 1 (0.19%) WebDriver
General
1 261 (48.51%) Social Skills
2 82 (15.24%) Analytical Skills
3 35 (6.51%) Finance
4 25 (4.65%) Manufacturing
5 23 (4.28%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 18 (3.35%) Public Sector
7 13 (2.42%) Organisational Skills
8 12 (2.23%) Banking
9 7 (1.30%) Marketing
10 5 (0.93%) Documentation Skills
10 5 (0.93%) Legal
11 4 (0.74%) Financial Institution
11 4 (0.74%) Retail
12 3 (0.56%) Investment Banking
12 3 (0.56%) Italian Language
12 3 (0.56%) Presentation Skills
13 2 (0.37%) Front Office
13 2 (0.37%) Military
13 2 (0.37%) Telecoms
14 1 (0.19%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (0.93%) Terraform
2 4 (0.74%) Middleware
2 4 (0.74%) XML
3 3 (0.56%) Kafka
3 3 (0.56%) React
4 2 (0.37%) .NET
4 2 (0.37%) HTML
4 2 (0.37%) JSON
4 2 (0.37%) RabbitMQ
4 2 (0.37%) REST
4 2 (0.37%) SOAP
4 2 (0.37%) Web Services
4 2 (0.37%) XBRL
5 1 (0.19%) 802.1X
5 1 (0.19%) Microsoft Graph
5 1 (0.19%) OpenID
5 1 (0.19%) PySpark
5 1 (0.19%) Redfish
5 1 (0.19%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 73 (13.57%) Onboarding
2 54 (10.04%) Data Centre
3 40 (7.43%) Analytical Mindset
4 21 (3.90%) Video Conferencing
5 18 (3.35%) Driving Licence
6 14 (2.60%) Blackberry
7 13 (2.42%) Virtual Team
8 11 (2.04%) Self-Motivation
9 8 (1.49%) EPoS
9 8 (1.49%) Hybrid Cloud
10 7 (1.30%) iPhone
10 7 (1.30%) Operational Technology
11 6 (1.12%) CMDB
11 6 (1.12%) Enterprise Software
12 5 (0.93%) iPad
12 5 (0.93%) SCADA
13 4 (0.74%) CCTV
13 4 (0.74%) Digital Signage
13 4 (0.74%) Renewable Energy
13 4 (0.74%) Smartphone
Operating Systems
1 338 (62.83%) Windows
2 155 (28.81%) Windows 10
3 45 (8.36%) Windows Server
4 33 (6.13%) Mac OS
5 31 (5.76%) Apple iOS
6 26 (4.83%) Android
7 13 (2.42%) Linux
8 4 (0.74%) Windows Server 2019
9 3 (0.56%) Unix
9 3 (0.56%) Windows 7
10 2 (0.37%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 2 (0.37%) Windows Server 2008
11 1 (0.19%) Solaris
11 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 178 (33.09%) Customer Service
2 153 (28.44%) Problem-Solving
3 107 (19.89%) ITIL
4 76 (14.13%) ITSM
5 51 (9.48%) Break/Fix
6 49 (9.11%) Continuous Improvement
7 48 (8.92%) Asset Management
8 44 (8.18%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 40 (7.43%) Service Delivery
10 38 (7.06%) User Experience
11 32 (5.95%) Migration
11 32 (5.95%) Service Management
12 21 (3.90%) Change Management
12 21 (3.90%) Cybersecurity
13 19 (3.53%) Disaster Recovery
13 19 (3.53%) Inventory Management
14 16 (2.97%) Data Protection
14 16 (2.97%) Problem Management
15 15 (2.79%) Customer Experience
16 13 (2.42%) CI/CD
Programming Languages
1 38 (7.06%) PowerShell
2 18 (3.35%) SQL
3 15 (2.79%) Python
4 8 (1.49%) C#
5 7 (1.30%) Java
5 7 (1.30%) JavaScript
6 3 (0.56%) TypeScript
7 2 (0.37%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 90 (16.73%) Security Cleared
2 81 (15.06%) SC Cleared
3 54 (10.04%) A+ Certification
4 48 (8.92%) Microsoft Certification
5 45 (8.36%) Network+ Certification
6 37 (6.88%) CCNA
6 37 (6.88%) Cisco Certification
6 37 (6.88%) MCSE
7 25 (4.65%) Degree
8 14 (2.60%) DV Cleared
9 10 (1.86%) DBS Check
9 10 (1.86%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 5 (0.93%) Microsoft Certified Professional
11 3 (0.56%) Azure Certification
11 3 (0.56%) BPSS Clearance
11 3 (0.56%) CEH
11 3 (0.56%) CISM
11 3 (0.56%) CISSP
12 2 (0.37%) ISEB
12 2 (0.37%) ISTQB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 35 (6.51%) SLA
2 9 (1.67%) Cyber Essentials
3 8 (1.49%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 4 (0.74%) GDPR
4 4 (0.74%) NIST
5 3 (0.56%) NCSC
5 3 (0.56%) PCI DSS
5 3 (0.56%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 2 (0.37%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 2 (0.37%) Data Quality
6 2 (0.37%) Disclosure Scotland
6 2 (0.37%) GxP
7 1 (0.19%) ITGC
7 1 (0.19%) QA
System Software
1 243 (45.17%) Active Directory
2 23 (4.28%) VMware Infrastructure
3 19 (3.53%) Hyper-V
4 4 (0.74%) Virtual Machines
5 3 (0.56%) Docker
5 3 (0.56%) Firmware
5 3 (0.56%) Virtual Desktop
5 3 (0.56%) vSphere
6 1 (0.19%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 92 (17.10%) Microsoft Intune
2 38 (7.06%) SCCM
3 10 (1.86%) WSUS
4 8 (1.49%) Single Sign-On
5 6 (1.12%) Ansible
5 6 (1.12%) Kubernetes
6 5 (0.93%) Jamf Pro
7 3 (0.56%) Dell DRAC
8 2 (0.37%) Control-M
8 2 (0.37%) Failover Clustering
8 2 (0.37%) HP Fortify
8 2 (0.37%) PaperCut
8 2 (0.37%) vCenter Server
9 1 (0.19%) Grafana
9 1 (0.19%) Microsoft Clustering
9 1 (0.19%) ServiceCenter
Vendors
1 286 (53.16%) Microsoft
2 84 (15.61%) ServiceNow
3 41 (7.62%) Dell
4 36 (6.69%) Apple
5 33 (6.13%) VMware
6 18 (3.35%) Cisco
7 14 (2.60%) Lotus
8 12 (2.23%) HP
9 11 (2.04%) Citrix
10 9 (1.67%) Samsung
10 9 (1.67%) Veeam
11 7 (1.30%) iManage
11 7 (1.30%) Remedy
12 6 (1.12%) Fortinet
13 5 (0.93%) IBM
13 5 (0.93%) Palo Alto
14 4 (0.74%) Google
14 4 (0.74%) Sophos
15 3 (0.56%) Meraki
15 3 (0.56%) Oracle