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 16 August 2026.

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

6 months to
16 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 258 206 271
Rank change year-on-year -52 +65 0
Contract jobs requiring an IT Engineer 534 430 338
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.99% 1.30% 0.87%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.07% 1.42% 0.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 344 264 217
10th Percentile £150 £126 £125
25th Percentile £173 £149 £156
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £200 £190 £200
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% +5.26%
75th Percentile £275 £250 £300
90th Percentile £414 £423 £519
UK excluding London median daily rate £200 £160 £186
% change year-on-year +25.00% -14.09% +3.47%
Number of hourly rates quoted 60 104 63
10th Percentile £17.20 £18.51 £11.75
25th Percentile £18.31 £18.87 £14.48
Median hourly rate £21.25 £24.87 £18.27
Median % change year-on-year -14.55% +36.11% +3.10%
75th Percentile £25.75 £25.15 £22.00
90th Percentile £35.22 - £24.18
UK excluding London median hourly rate £21.25 £24.66 £16.19
% change year-on-year -13.83% +52.32% -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 49,690 30,209 36,033
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.54% 91.30% 92.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,849 19,090 23,214
10th Percentile £325 £281 £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 3,486 1,544 2,018
10th Percentile £15.00 £13.60 £14.23
25th Percentile £20.62 £17.29 £20.12
Median hourly rate £41.96 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +66.84% -41.51% +2.38%
75th Percentile £67.96 £53.89 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £72.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £45.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -44.11% +21.62%

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 16 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 16 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 16 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 -53 464 £200 +8.11% 264
UK excluding London -34 393 £200 +25.00% 227
London -58 132 £226 +0.22% 60
South East -42 108 £225 +40.63% 59
North of England -35 87 £200 +14.29% 43
North West -15 52 £200 +25.00% 18
South West -59 49 £200 +25.00% 28
East of England -3 45 £175 - 40
Midlands -58 43 £200 +31.15% 42
Scotland +5 38 £150 -20.00% 11
Yorkshire -27 34 £199 +7.57% 20
East Midlands -16 25 £275 +115.69% 13
Work from Home -71 25 £310 +7.83% 53
Wales -6 21 £190 +18.75% 6
West Midlands -67 17 £185 +5.71% 29
Northern Ireland +5 2 - - 5
North East -41 2 £175 -12.50% 5

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

For the 6 months to 16 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.

1 324 (60.67%) Windows
2 273 (51.12%) Microsoft
3 250 (46.82%) Microsoft 365
4 240 (44.94%) Active Directory
5 167 (31.27%) Customer Service
6 150 (28.09%) Problem-Solving
7 147 (27.53%) Windows 10
8 102 (19.10%) ITIL
9 89 (16.67%) Microsoft Intune
10 85 (15.92%) Azure
10 85 (15.92%) ServiceNow
11 82 (15.36%) Security Cleared
12 72 (13.48%) ITSM
12 72 (13.48%) SC Cleared
13 68 (12.73%) SharePoint
14 67 (12.55%) Entra ID
15 57 (10.67%) A+ Certification
16 54 (10.11%) Break/Fix
16 54 (10.11%) Microsoft Certification
16 54 (10.11%) VPN
17 52 (9.74%) SAN
18 51 (9.55%) DNS
18 51 (9.55%) Microsoft Exchange
19 50 (9.36%) Network+ Certification
20 46 (8.61%) Asset Management
20 46 (8.61%) Dell
21 45 (8.43%) Continuous Improvement
21 45 (8.43%) DHCP
21 45 (8.43%) Infrastructure Engineering
21 45 (8.43%) Windows Server

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 68 (12.73%) SharePoint
2 51 (9.55%) Microsoft Exchange
3 11 (2.06%) HCL Notes
4 4 (0.75%) Confluence
5 2 (0.37%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 26 (4.87%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (0.37%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.19%) Acrobat
3 1 (0.19%) Chatbot
3 1 (0.19%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.19%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 4 (0.75%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.37%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 250 (46.82%) Microsoft 365
2 85 (15.92%) Azure
3 67 (12.55%) Entra ID
4 29 (5.43%) OneDrive
5 17 (3.18%) SaaS
6 14 (2.62%) Azure DevOps
7 13 (2.43%) AWS
8 10 (1.87%) IaaS
9 8 (1.50%) PaaS
10 5 (0.94%) Mimecast
10 5 (0.94%) Nutanix
11 4 (0.75%) GitHub
11 4 (0.75%) Power Platform
12 3 (0.56%) Amazon EC2
12 3 (0.56%) Amazon S3
12 3 (0.56%) Datadog
12 3 (0.56%) Google Workspace
12 3 (0.56%) PowerApps
13 2 (0.37%) Amazon EKS
13 2 (0.37%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 54 (10.11%) VPN
2 52 (9.74%) SAN
3 51 (9.55%) DNS
4 45 (8.43%) DHCP
5 38 (7.12%) TCP/IP
6 33 (6.18%) Wi-Fi
7 27 (5.06%) LAN
8 25 (4.68%) VLAN
9 19 (3.56%) WAN
10 16 (3.00%) Firewall
11 11 (2.06%) Internet
12 6 (1.12%) Skype
13 5 (0.94%) IPv4
13 5 (0.94%) IPv6
13 5 (0.94%) Network Security
13 5 (0.94%) WLAN
14 4 (0.75%) Remote Desktop
14 4 (0.75%) Wireless
15 2 (0.37%) Ethernet VPN
15 2 (0.37%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (2.25%) 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 36 (6.74%) JIRA
2 7 (1.31%) Git
3 3 (0.56%) Chocolatey
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%) Cucumber
5 1 (0.19%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.19%) Selenium
5 1 (0.19%) WebDriver
General
1 250 (46.82%) Social Skills
2 85 (15.92%) Analytical Skills
3 32 (5.99%) Finance
4 24 (4.49%) Manufacturing
5 22 (4.12%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 17 (3.18%) Banking
7 14 (2.62%) Organisational Skills
8 12 (2.25%) Public Sector
9 7 (1.31%) Marketing
10 6 (1.12%) Documentation Skills
11 5 (0.94%) Legal
12 4 (0.75%) Financial Institution
12 4 (0.75%) Retail
13 3 (0.56%) Investment Banking
13 3 (0.56%) Italian Language
13 3 (0.56%) Presentation Skills
13 3 (0.56%) Telecoms
14 1 (0.19%) Aviation
14 1 (0.19%) Japanese Language
14 1 (0.19%) Police
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (0.75%) Middleware
1 4 (0.75%) XML
2 3 (0.56%) Kafka
2 3 (0.56%) React
3 2 (0.37%) .NET
3 2 (0.37%) HTML
3 2 (0.37%) JSON
3 2 (0.37%) RabbitMQ
3 2 (0.37%) REST
3 2 (0.37%) SOAP
3 2 (0.37%) Web Services
3 2 (0.37%) XBRL
4 1 (0.19%) 802.1X
4 1 (0.19%) Microsoft Graph
4 1 (0.19%) OpenID
4 1 (0.19%) PySpark
4 1 (0.19%) Redfish
4 1 (0.19%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 69 (12.92%) Onboarding
2 54 (10.11%) Data Centre
3 45 (8.43%) Analytical Mindset
4 20 (3.75%) Video Conferencing
5 18 (3.37%) Driving Licence
6 14 (2.62%) Blackberry
7 12 (2.25%) Self-Motivation
7 12 (2.25%) Virtual Team
8 8 (1.50%) EPoS
8 8 (1.50%) Hybrid Cloud
9 7 (1.31%) iPhone
9 7 (1.31%) Operational Technology
10 5 (0.94%) iPad
10 5 (0.94%) SCADA
11 4 (0.75%) CCTV
11 4 (0.75%) CMDB
11 4 (0.75%) Digital Signage
11 4 (0.75%) Enterprise Software
11 4 (0.75%) Renewable Energy
12 3 (0.56%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 324 (60.67%) Windows
2 147 (27.53%) Windows 10
3 45 (8.43%) Windows Server
4 31 (5.81%) Mac OS
5 29 (5.43%) Apple iOS
6 23 (4.31%) Android
7 13 (2.43%) Linux
8 4 (0.75%) Windows 7
8 4 (0.75%) Windows Server 2019
9 3 (0.56%) Unix
9 3 (0.56%) Windows Server 2008
10 2 (0.37%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 1 (0.19%) Solaris
11 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 167 (31.27%) Customer Service
2 150 (28.09%) Problem-Solving
3 102 (19.10%) ITIL
4 72 (13.48%) ITSM
5 54 (10.11%) Break/Fix
6 46 (8.61%) Asset Management
7 45 (8.43%) Continuous Improvement
7 45 (8.43%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 40 (7.49%) Service Delivery
9 36 (6.74%) User Experience
10 33 (6.18%) Migration
11 29 (5.43%) Service Management
12 26 (4.87%) Change Management
13 23 (4.31%) Cybersecurity
14 22 (4.12%) Disaster Recovery
15 20 (3.75%) Problem Management
16 16 (3.00%) DevOps
17 15 (2.81%) Data Protection
17 15 (2.81%) Inventory Management
18 13 (2.43%) CI/CD
Programming Languages
1 38 (7.12%) PowerShell
2 23 (4.31%) SQL
3 14 (2.62%) C#
4 12 (2.25%) Python
5 7 (1.31%) Java
5 7 (1.31%) JavaScript
6 3 (0.56%) TypeScript
7 2 (0.37%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 82 (15.36%) Security Cleared
2 72 (13.48%) SC Cleared
3 57 (10.67%) A+ Certification
4 54 (10.11%) Microsoft Certification
5 50 (9.36%) Network+ Certification
6 42 (7.87%) CCNA
6 42 (7.87%) Cisco Certification
6 42 (7.87%) MCSE
7 23 (4.31%) Degree
8 14 (2.62%) DV Cleared
9 9 (1.69%) DBS Check
10 7 (1.31%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 5 (0.94%) Microsoft Certified Professional
12 3 (0.56%) Azure Certification
12 3 (0.56%) CEH
12 3 (0.56%) CISM
12 3 (0.56%) CISSP
13 2 (0.37%) BPSS Clearance
13 2 (0.37%) ISTQB
13 2 (0.37%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 38 (7.12%) SLA
2 9 (1.69%) Cyber Essentials
3 8 (1.50%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 4 (0.75%) GDPR
5 3 (0.56%) NIST
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
6 2 (0.37%) NCSC
7 1 (0.19%) ITGC
System Software
1 240 (44.94%) Active Directory
2 23 (4.31%) VMware Infrastructure
3 19 (3.56%) Hyper-V
4 4 (0.75%) Firmware
4 4 (0.75%) Virtual Machines
5 3 (0.56%) Docker
5 3 (0.56%) Virtual Desktop
5 3 (0.56%) vSphere
6 1 (0.19%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 89 (16.67%) Microsoft Intune
2 35 (6.55%) SCCM
3 10 (1.87%) WSUS
4 6 (1.12%) Jamf Pro
4 6 (1.12%) Kubernetes
4 6 (1.12%) Single Sign-On
5 5 (0.94%) Terraform
6 3 (0.56%) Ansible
6 3 (0.56%) Dell DRAC
7 2 (0.37%) Control-M
7 2 (0.37%) Failover Clustering
7 2 (0.37%) HP Fortify
7 2 (0.37%) PaperCut
7 2 (0.37%) vCenter Server
8 1 (0.19%) FortiGate
8 1 (0.19%) Grafana
8 1 (0.19%) Microsoft Clustering
8 1 (0.19%) ServiceCenter
Vendors
1 273 (51.12%) Microsoft
2 85 (15.92%) ServiceNow
3 46 (8.61%) Dell
4 35 (6.55%) VMware
5 33 (6.18%) Apple
6 16 (3.00%) Cisco
7 14 (2.62%) Lotus
8 11 (2.06%) Citrix
8 11 (2.06%) HP
9 9 (1.69%) Veeam
10 7 (1.31%) Remedy
10 7 (1.31%) Samsung
11 6 (1.12%) iManage
12 5 (0.94%) Fortinet
12 5 (0.94%) IBM
13 4 (0.75%) Dynatrace
13 4 (0.75%) Tenable
14 3 (0.56%) Freshdesk
14 3 (0.56%) Okta
14 3 (0.56%) Oracle