Lead Systems Engineer Contracts

Lead System Engineer
UK

The median Lead System Engineer daily rate in the UK is £471, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 1 May 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
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 513 577 715
Rank change year-on-year +64 +138 +137
Contract jobs requiring a Lead Systems Engineer 7 5 3
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.024% 0.011% 0.005%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.026% 0.012% 0.005%
Number of daily rates quoted 4 0 1
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £414 - £575
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £471 - £600
Median % change year-on-year - - +6.67%
75th Percentile £533 - £625
90th Percentile £558 - -
UK excluding London median daily rate £513 - £600
% change year-on-year - - +7.14%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 4 2
10th Percentile - - £46.63
25th Percentile - £43.75 £47.19
Median hourly rate - £60.50 £48.75
Median % change year-on-year - +24.10% -
75th Percentile - £75.25 £49.69
90th Percentile - - £49.88
UK excluding London median hourly rate - £60.50 £48.75
% change year-on-year - +24.10% -

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 27,084 40,415 56,464
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.52% 92.78% 94.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,692 26,309 39,470
10th Percentile £300 £275 £313
25th Percentile £406 £410 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £525 £540
Median % change year-on-year -1.90% -2.78% +2.86%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £492 £500
% change year-on-year -3.46% -1.60% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,035 2,664 1,570
10th Percentile £14.07 £12.86 £14.29
25th Percentile £18.50 £16.30 £19.50
Median hourly rate £29.00 £36.42 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -20.37% -19.07% +91.49%
75th Percentile £62.50 £60.75 £65.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £75.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £28.00 £39.55 £42.50
% change year-on-year -29.20% -6.94% +117.95%

Lead Systems Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Job vacancy trend for Lead Systems Engineer in the UK

Lead Systems Engineer
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Lead Systems Engineer.

Daily rate trend for Lead Systems Engineer in the UK

Lead Systems Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Lead Systems Engineer over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Lead Systems Engineer in the UK

Lead Systems Engineer
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Lead Systems Engineer.

Hourly rate trend for Lead Systems Engineer in the UK

Lead Systems Engineer
Top 5 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Lead Systems Engineer within the UK over the 6 months to 1 May 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 +56 4 £531 - 28
UK excluding London +60 2 £513 - 28
London - 2 £550 - 1
South East - 1 - - 5
South West - 1 £513 - 2

Lead Systems Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 1 May 2025, Lead Systems 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 Lead Systems Engineer in the job title.

1 5 (71.43%) VMware
2 3 (42.86%) Windows
2 3 (42.86%) Software Testing
2 3 (42.86%) Integration Testing
2 3 (42.86%) SC Cleared
2 3 (42.86%) Security Cleared
2 3 (42.86%) VMware Infrastructure
2 3 (42.86%) MongoDB
2 3 (42.86%) Kafka
2 3 (42.86%) Data Analytics
2 3 (42.86%) Analytics
2 3 (42.86%) Cybersecurity
2 3 (42.86%) API Integration
2 3 (42.86%) Def Stans
2 3 (42.86%) Windows Server
2 3 (42.86%) Public Sector
2 3 (42.86%) Systems Engineering
3 2 (28.57%) VMware ESXi
3 2 (28.57%) Azure Certification
3 2 (28.57%) Project Delivery
3 2 (28.57%) CompTIA Security+
3 2 (28.57%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 2 (28.57%) VSAN
3 2 (28.57%) vCenter Server
3 2 (28.57%) Security Hardening
3 2 (28.57%) Data Centre
3 2 (28.57%) High Availability
3 2 (28.57%) SIEM
3 2 (28.57%) SolarWinds
3 2 (28.57%) Azure

Lead Systems 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 1 (14.29%) IIS
Cloud Services
1 2 (28.57%) Azure
Communications & Networking
1 2 (28.57%) FTP
1 2 (28.57%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (42.86%) MongoDB
2 1 (14.29%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 1 (14.29%) GitLab
General
1 3 (42.86%) Public Sector
2 1 (14.29%) Social Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (42.86%) Kafka
2 1 (14.29%) Classic ASP
2 1 (14.29%) Elastic Stack
2 1 (14.29%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 2 (28.57%) Data Centre
2 1 (14.29%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 3 (42.86%) Windows
1 3 (42.86%) Windows Server
2 2 (28.57%) Linux
2 2 (28.57%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 3 (42.86%) Analytics
1 3 (42.86%) API Integration
1 3 (42.86%) Cybersecurity
1 3 (42.86%) Data Analytics
1 3 (42.86%) Integration Testing
1 3 (42.86%) Software Testing
1 3 (42.86%) Systems Engineering
2 2 (28.57%) High Availability
2 2 (28.57%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 2 (28.57%) Project Delivery
2 2 (28.57%) Security Hardening
2 2 (28.57%) SIEM
3 1 (14.29%) Agile
3 1 (14.29%) Continuous Improvement
3 1 (14.29%) DevOps
3 1 (14.29%) Kanban
3 1 (14.29%) Product Management
3 1 (14.29%) Server Management
3 1 (14.29%) Server Monitoring
3 1 (14.29%) TDD
Programming Languages
1 2 (28.57%) SQL
2 1 (14.29%) C#
2 1 (14.29%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 3 (42.86%) SC Cleared
1 3 (42.86%) Security Cleared
2 2 (28.57%) Azure Certification
2 2 (28.57%) CCNA
2 2 (28.57%) Cisco Certification
2 2 (28.57%) CISSP
2 2 (28.57%) CompTIA Security+
2 2 (28.57%) Microsoft Certification
2 2 (28.57%) RHCE
2 2 (28.57%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
3 1 (14.29%) Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (42.86%) Def Stans
System Software
1 3 (42.86%) VMware Infrastructure
2 2 (28.57%) Active Directory
2 2 (28.57%) VMware ESXi
3 1 (14.29%) Docker
Systems Management
1 2 (28.57%) vCenter Server
2 1 (14.29%) Ansible
2 1 (14.29%) Plesk
2 1 (14.29%) Puppet
Vendors
1 5 (71.43%) VMware
2 2 (28.57%) Cisco
2 2 (28.57%) Dell
2 2 (28.57%) Microsoft
2 2 (28.57%) Red Hat
2 2 (28.57%) SolarWinds
2 2 (28.57%) Veeam