Support Engineer Contract Job Trends

Support Engineer
UK

The median Support Engineer daily rate in the UK is £210, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 28 May 2026.

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

6 months to
28 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 176 132 111
Rank change year-on-year -44 -21 +11
Contract jobs requiring a Support Engineer 755 623 846
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.55% 2.17% 1.98%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.67% 2.36% 2.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 496 397 589
10th Percentile £153 £153 £140
25th Percentile £184 £195 £163
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £210 £238 £213
Median % change year-on-year -11.55% +11.76% -15.00%
75th Percentile £376 £385 £330
90th Percentile £474 £502 £450
UK excluding London median daily rate £203 £225 £200
% change year-on-year -10.00% +12.50% -5.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 71 52 53
10th Percentile £18.07 £18.11 £16.25
25th Percentile £19.69 £20.11 £18.00
Median hourly rate £23.83 £24.83 £22.15
Median % change year-on-year -4.05% +12.10% +4.80%
75th Percentile £36.00 £38.88 £43.75
90th Percentile £38.75 £68.00 £49.28
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.50 £24.66 £22.00
% change year-on-year -8.76% +12.09% +10.00%

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 45,082 26,443 39,660
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.31% 92.30% 92.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,504 17,178 25,818
10th Percentile £325 £290 £280
25th Percentile £413 £405 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £508 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.99% -3.33% -2.78%
75th Percentile £619 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +5.26% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,000 1,028 2,760
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.00 £12.80
25th Percentile £20.50 £18.09 £16.30
Median hourly rate £42.50 £27.97 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +51.98% -23.38% -18.89%
75th Percentile £66.63 £60.00 £61.30
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £72.54
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.61 £25.30 £40.00
% change year-on-year +72.35% -36.75% -5.88%

Support Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Support Engineer' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Support Engineer job vacancy trend in the UK

Support Engineer
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Support Engineer job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Support Engineer job vacancies in the UK

Support Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Support Engineer over the 6 months to 28 May 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Support Engineer in the UK

Support Engineer
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Support Engineer job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Support Engineer job vacancies in the UK

Support Engineer
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Support Engineer over the 6 months to 28 May 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Support Engineer in the UK

Support Engineer
Top 18 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Support Engineer within the UK over the 6 months to 28 May 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 -50 662 £210 -11.58% 273
UK excluding London -40 512 £203 -10.00% 253
London -45 212 £275 - 56
South East -31 143 £210 -16.00% 94
Midlands -34 89 £200 -27.27% 35
North of England -71 88 £190 -11.63% 57
Work from Home -77 86 £213 -29.17% 68
South West -34 72 £210 -10.64% 22
East of England -10 57 £200 -9.09% 29
North West -39 55 £190 -11.63% 31
Scotland +31 52 £350 +27.27% 13
West Midlands -58 51 £238 -13.64% 20
East Midlands +4 39 £200 -5.88% 15
Yorkshire -46 31 £190 -19.15% 19
Wales -21 9 £250 +25.00% 3
Northern Ireland -2 4 £175 +16.67% 2
North East -41 2 £290 +48.72% 9
Channel Islands - 1 £550 -

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

For the 6 months to 28 May 2026, Support 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 Support Engineer in the job title.

1 346 (45.83%) Windows
2 264 (34.97%) Microsoft
3 263 (34.83%) Active Directory
4 233 (30.86%) Microsoft 365
5 162 (21.46%) Windows 10
6 150 (19.87%) Security Cleared
7 145 (19.21%) Customer Service
8 142 (18.81%) Problem-Solving
9 137 (18.15%) Azure
10 112 (14.83%) ITIL
11 109 (14.44%) SC Cleared
12 101 (13.38%) Microsoft Intune
13 90 (11.92%) ServiceNow
14 77 (10.20%) Entra ID
15 62 (8.21%) ITSM
16 61 (8.08%) PowerShell
17 59 (7.81%) SharePoint
18 57 (7.55%) SQL
19 56 (7.42%) Migration
20 55 (7.28%) DNS
21 51 (6.75%) JIRA
22 47 (6.23%) Linux
23 45 (5.96%) SCCM
23 45 (5.96%) Wi-Fi
24 42 (5.56%) Unix
24 42 (5.56%) Windows Server
25 41 (5.43%) Degree
25 41 (5.43%) VPN
26 40 (5.30%) Continuous Improvement
26 40 (5.30%) DHCP

Support 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 59 (7.81%) SharePoint
2 29 (3.84%) Microsoft Exchange
3 10 (1.32%) NetWeaver
4 7 (0.93%) HCL Notes
5 4 (0.53%) Confluence
5 4 (0.53%) IIS
6 3 (0.40%) Skype for Business
7 2 (0.26%) Apache
7 2 (0.26%) OpenStack
7 2 (0.26%) WebLogic
8 1 (0.13%) Tuxedo
8 1 (0.13%) WebSphere
Applications
1 38 (5.03%) Microsoft Office
2 14 (1.85%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.53%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 9 (1.19%) SAP S/4HANA
2 7 (0.93%) SAP EHS
3 6 (0.79%) Remedy ITSM
3 6 (0.79%) Shopify
3 6 (0.79%) Teamcenter
4 2 (0.26%) NetSuite
5 1 (0.13%) Alphatax
5 1 (0.13%) Dynamics CRM
5 1 (0.13%) Dynamics GP
5 1 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
5 1 (0.13%) SAP GRC
Cloud Services
1 233 (30.86%) Microsoft 365
2 137 (18.15%) Azure
3 77 (10.20%) Entra ID
4 26 (3.44%) AWS
5 22 (2.91%) Azure DevOps
5 22 (2.91%) SaaS
6 21 (2.78%) OneDrive
7 11 (1.46%) Power Platform
8 10 (1.32%) Dynamics 365
8 10 (1.32%) GCP
9 6 (0.79%) Amazon S3
9 6 (0.79%) Azure Data Factory
9 6 (0.79%) PaaS
9 6 (0.79%) Sauce Labs
10 4 (0.53%) Datadog
10 4 (0.53%) Google Workspace
10 4 (0.53%) Mimecast
10 4 (0.53%) Snowflake
11 3 (0.40%) GitHub
11 3 (0.40%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 55 (7.28%) DNS
2 45 (5.96%) Wi-Fi
3 41 (5.43%) VPN
4 40 (5.30%) DHCP
5 39 (5.17%) LAN
6 33 (4.37%) TCP/IP
7 23 (3.05%) WAN
8 22 (2.91%) SAN
9 14 (1.85%) VLAN
10 13 (1.72%) Firewall
10 13 (1.72%) Internet
11 11 (1.46%) WLAN
12 9 (1.19%) Wireless
13 7 (0.93%) HTTP
14 6 (0.79%) VoIP
15 5 (0.66%) Skype
16 4 (0.53%) Unified Communications
17 3 (0.40%) Remote Desktop
18 2 (0.26%) VSAN
18 2 (0.26%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (3.84%) SQL Server
2 20 (2.65%) MySQL
3 14 (1.85%) Relational Database
4 13 (1.72%) Amazon Redshift
5 10 (1.32%) SAP HANA
6 9 (1.19%) Power BI
6 9 (1.19%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 9 (1.19%) Sybase ASE
7 8 (1.06%) MaxDB
8 7 (0.93%) Pentaho
9 5 (0.66%) Oracle Database
9 5 (0.66%) PostgreSQL
10 4 (0.53%) Amazon Athena
10 4 (0.53%) Oracle Database 12c
11 3 (0.40%) MariaDB
12 2 (0.26%) Amazon RDS
12 2 (0.26%) Azure SQL Database
12 2 (0.26%) Data Warehouse
12 2 (0.26%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 1 (0.13%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 51 (6.75%) JIRA
2 19 (2.52%) Git
3 13 (1.72%) Browser DevTools
4 6 (0.79%) Android Studio
4 6 (0.79%) Eclipse
4 6 (0.79%) Xcode
5 3 (0.40%) Firebug
6 2 (0.26%) Jenkins
6 2 (0.26%) Maven
7 1 (0.13%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 1 (0.13%) Claude Code
7 1 (0.13%) Gemini Tracker
7 1 (0.13%) MSI
7 1 (0.13%) RStudio
7 1 (0.13%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 1 (0.13%) Subversion
7 1 (0.13%) TeamCity
7 1 (0.13%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 290 (38.41%) Social Skills
2 84 (11.13%) Analytical Skills
3 54 (7.15%) Finance
4 47 (6.23%) Manufacturing
5 38 (5.03%) Banking
6 22 (2.91%) Investment Banking
7 21 (2.78%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 19 (2.52%) Aerospace
9 18 (2.38%) Law
10 16 (2.12%) Aviation
11 15 (1.99%) Organisational Skills
12 11 (1.46%) Documentation Skills
13 9 (1.19%) Front Office
13 9 (1.19%) Legal
14 8 (1.06%) Public Sector
14 8 (1.06%) Retail
15 6 (0.79%) French Language
15 6 (0.79%) Marketing
15 6 (0.79%) Pharmaceutical
15 6 (0.79%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (1.32%) Oracle GoldenGate
2 9 (1.19%) CSS
2 9 (1.19%) REST
2 9 (1.19%) SAP Basis
3 7 (0.93%) JDO
4 6 (0.79%) .NET
4 6 (0.79%) Ajax
4 6 (0.79%) AngularJS
4 6 (0.79%) GraphQL
4 6 (0.79%) React
5 5 (0.66%) PySpark
5 5 (0.66%) SAML
5 5 (0.66%) YAML
6 4 (0.53%) HTML
6 4 (0.53%) Middleware
6 4 (0.53%) OAuth
6 4 (0.53%) SAP Fiori
6 4 (0.53%) SAPUI5
7 3 (0.40%) RESTful
7 3 (0.40%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 59 (7.81%) Onboarding
2 30 (3.97%) Data Centre
3 24 (3.18%) Self-Motivation
4 23 (3.05%) Analytical Mindset
5 17 (2.25%) Virtual Team
6 16 (2.12%) Enterprise Software
7 14 (1.85%) Smartphone
8 13 (1.72%) Data Protection Act
8 13 (1.72%) Driving Licence
9 11 (1.46%) iPhone
9 11 (1.46%) Legacy Systems
9 11 (1.46%) PKI
10 10 (1.32%) SCADA
11 8 (1.06%) Hybrid Cloud
12 7 (0.93%) Blackberry
12 7 (0.93%) Video Conferencing
13 6 (0.79%) Hedge funds
13 6 (0.79%) Mobile App
14 5 (0.66%) CCTV
15 4 (0.53%) iPad
Operating Systems
1 346 (45.83%) Windows
2 162 (21.46%) Windows 10
3 47 (6.23%) Linux
4 42 (5.56%) Unix
4 42 (5.56%) Windows Server
5 39 (5.17%) Mac OS
6 22 (2.91%) Android
7 20 (2.65%) Apple iOS
8 14 (1.85%) Windows 7
9 6 (0.79%) Windows Server 2016
10 5 (0.66%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 4 (0.53%) Solaris
11 4 (0.53%) Windows Server 2019
12 3 (0.40%) Windows Server 2012
13 2 (0.26%) Mac OS X
13 2 (0.26%) Ubuntu
14 1 (0.13%) CentOS
14 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2008
14 1 (0.13%) Windows XP
Processes & Methodologies
1 145 (19.21%) Customer Service
2 142 (18.81%) Problem-Solving
3 112 (14.83%) ITIL
4 62 (8.21%) ITSM
5 56 (7.42%) Migration
6 40 (5.30%) Continuous Improvement
7 37 (4.90%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 36 (4.77%) Change Management
9 35 (4.64%) Asset Management
10 34 (4.50%) Root Cause Analysis
11 33 (4.37%) DevOps
11 33 (4.37%) User Experience
12 32 (4.24%) Incident Management
12 32 (4.24%) Service Delivery
13 29 (3.84%) Service Management
14 27 (3.58%) Problem Management
15 25 (3.31%) Data Protection
16 22 (2.91%) Break/Fix
17 21 (2.78%) CI/CD
18 19 (2.52%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 61 (8.08%) PowerShell
2 57 (7.55%) SQL
3 29 (3.84%) Python
4 21 (2.78%) Java
5 20 (2.65%) C#
6 19 (2.52%) JavaScript
7 15 (1.99%) Shell Script
8 10 (1.32%) Bash
8 10 (1.32%) Korn
8 10 (1.32%) Perl
9 6 (0.79%) C++
10 1 (0.13%) C
10 1 (0.13%) R
10 1 (0.13%) T-SQL
10 1 (0.13%) VB.NET
10 1 (0.13%) VBA
10 1 (0.13%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 150 (19.87%) Security Cleared
2 109 (14.44%) SC Cleared
3 41 (5.43%) Degree
4 32 (4.24%) DV Cleared
5 24 (3.18%) Microsoft Certification
6 22 (2.91%) A+ Certification
7 20 (2.65%) CCNA
7 20 (2.65%) Cisco Certification
8 17 (2.25%) Network+ Certification
9 16 (2.12%) MCSE
10 13 (1.72%) BPSS Clearance
11 10 (1.32%) Computer Science Degree
12 9 (1.19%) Azure Certification
13 7 (0.93%) DBS Check
14 5 (0.66%) ITIL Certification
15 4 (0.53%) NVQ Level 4
16 2 (0.26%) Microsoft Certified Professional
17 1 (0.13%) CCNP
17 1 (0.13%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
17 1 (0.13%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (4.37%) SLA
2 5 (0.66%) Cyber Essentials
3 4 (0.53%) GDPR
4 3 (0.40%) Data Quality
4 3 (0.40%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 2 (0.26%) GLP
5 2 (0.26%) GMP
6 1 (0.13%) Actionable Recommendations
6 1 (0.13%) GRC
6 1 (0.13%) GxP
6 1 (0.13%) ITGC
6 1 (0.13%) QA
6 1 (0.13%) SOC 2
System Software
1 263 (34.83%) Active Directory
2 26 (3.44%) VMware Infrastructure
3 13 (1.72%) Hyper-V
4 12 (1.59%) VMware NSX
5 11 (1.46%) VMware ESXi
6 10 (1.32%) Oracle RAC
6 10 (1.32%) Virtual Desktop
7 7 (0.93%) vCloud
8 5 (0.66%) vSphere
9 3 (0.40%) Firmware
9 3 (0.40%) NFS
10 2 (0.26%) Virtual Servers
11 1 (0.13%) BitLocker
11 1 (0.13%) Docker
11 1 (0.13%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 1 (0.13%) XenDesktop
11 1 (0.13%) zsh
Systems Management
1 101 (13.38%) Microsoft Intune
2 45 (5.96%) SCCM
3 18 (2.38%) Single Sign-On
4 16 (2.12%) Jamf Pro
5 14 (1.85%) Grafana
6 11 (1.46%) vCenter Server
7 10 (1.32%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
7 10 (1.32%) Oracle RMAN
8 8 (1.06%) SCOM
8 8 (1.06%) Terraform
9 7 (0.93%) Ansible
10 4 (0.53%) Kubernetes
11 3 (0.40%) Red Hat Satellite
11 3 (0.40%) vRealize
12 2 (0.26%) AirWatch
12 2 (0.26%) Kibana
12 2 (0.26%) McAfee ePO
12 2 (0.26%) PaperCut
12 2 (0.26%) WMI
13 1 (0.13%) WSUS
Vendors
1 264 (34.97%) Microsoft
2 90 (11.92%) ServiceNow
3 35 (4.64%) Oracle
4 30 (3.97%) VMware
5 26 (3.44%) Dell
6 23 (3.05%) SAP
7 20 (2.65%) Apple
8 16 (2.12%) Cisco
8 16 (2.12%) HP
9 13 (1.72%) Okta
10 10 (1.32%) McAfee
11 9 (1.19%) Citrix
11 9 (1.19%) Google
11 9 (1.19%) Sybase
12 8 (1.06%) Denodo
12 8 (1.06%) Remedy
12 8 (1.06%) Splunk
12 8 (1.06%) Starlink
12 8 (1.06%) Talend
13 7 (0.93%) Databricks