Support Engineer Contract Job Trends

Support Engineer
UK

The median Support Engineer daily rate in the UK is £213, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 26 February 2026.

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

6 months to
26 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 138 140 100
Rank change year-on-year +2 -40 +33
Contract jobs requiring a Support Engineer 817 609 975
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.97% 1.98% 2.22%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.15% 2.14% 2.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 548 406 696
10th Percentile £153 £152 £140
25th Percentile £185 £182 £163
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £213 £230 £215
Median % change year-on-year -7.61% +6.98% -12.27%
75th Percentile £338 £375 £311
90th Percentile £500 £508 £450
UK excluding London median daily rate £205 £220 £200
% change year-on-year -6.82% +10.00% -2.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 118 44 59
10th Percentile £18.07 £16.67 £16.20
25th Percentile £21.25 £18.58 £17.72
Median hourly rate £23.91 £23.00 £20.00
Median % change year-on-year +3.97% +15.00% +3.19%
75th Percentile £28.85 £24.30 £30.00
90th Percentile £42.13 £41.50 £46.39
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.58 £22.75 £20.00
% change year-on-year +3.63% +13.75% +14.38%

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 38,045 28,496 40,781
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.80% 92.87% 93.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,894 17,862 26,852
10th Percentile £309 £293 £275
25th Percentile £408 £406 £409
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £721 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £481 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +1.32% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,319 828 2,327
10th Percentile £14.61 £16.43 £13.15
25th Percentile £18.87 £21.50 £16.30
Median hourly rate £33.17 £35.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -5.23% - -10.26%
75th Percentile £63.75 £64.50 £60.00
90th Percentile £74.68 £75.00 £71.90
UK excluding London median hourly rate £31.00 £32.50 £35.00
% change year-on-year -4.62% -7.14% -2.78%

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 26 February 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 26 February 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Support Engineer in the UK

Support 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 Support Engineer within the UK over the 6 months to 26 February 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 -1 739 £213 -7.61% 251
UK excluding London -4 569 £205 -6.82% 239
London -17 213 £263 -12.50% 38
South East +6 161 £225 +9.76% 69
South West +5 108 £250 +11.11% 32
North of England -35 105 £190 -14.61% 63
Midlands -8 97 £200 -20.00% 32
Work from Home -37 96 £259 -17.61% 50
West Midlands -30 60 £215 -17.31% 15
East of England +5 58 £201 -8.52% 22
North West -21 56 £152 -29.53% 36
Yorkshire -43 40 £205 -11.83% 23
Scotland +9 39 £200 +26.18% 20
East Midlands +2 39 £200 +5.26% 17
North East -11 9 £106 -61.80% 7
Wales -11 8 £185 -7.50% 4
Northern Ireland -7 2 £175 +18.24% 3

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

For the 6 months to 26 February 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.

1 404 (49.45%) Windows
2 295 (36.11%) Microsoft
3 255 (31.21%) Microsoft 365
4 238 (29.13%) Security Cleared
5 232 (28.40%) Active Directory
6 191 (23.38%) SC Cleared
7 178 (21.79%) Windows 10
8 164 (20.07%) Customer Service
9 160 (19.58%) Problem-Solving
10 113 (13.83%) Azure
11 99 (12.12%) ITIL
11 99 (12.12%) ServiceNow
12 93 (11.38%) Microsoft Intune
13 86 (10.53%) Linux
14 79 (9.67%) Migration
15 72 (8.81%) PowerShell
16 68 (8.32%) ITSM
17 66 (8.08%) DNS
17 66 (8.08%) SCCM
18 62 (7.59%) DHCP
19 59 (7.22%) SharePoint
20 58 (7.10%) Microsoft Office
20 58 (7.10%) TCP/IP
21 57 (6.98%) Wi-Fi
22 55 (6.73%) Service Management
23 54 (6.61%) Asset Management
23 54 (6.61%) Entra ID
24 49 (6.00%) Android
24 49 (6.00%) DV Cleared
24 49 (6.00%) Mac OS

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 (7.22%) SharePoint
2 45 (5.51%) Microsoft Exchange
3 15 (1.84%) Skype for Business
4 4 (0.49%) Apache
4 4 (0.49%) Confluence
5 3 (0.37%) NetWeaver
6 2 (0.24%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.24%) Apache Spark
6 2 (0.24%) ArcGIS
6 2 (0.24%) IIS
6 2 (0.24%) Jupyter
6 2 (0.24%) Palantir Foundry
6 2 (0.24%) Smallworld
7 1 (0.12%) SharePoint Server
7 1 (0.12%) WebLogic
Applications
1 58 (7.10%) Microsoft Office
2 23 (2.82%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (0.37%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.12%) DaVinci Resolve
4 1 (0.12%) Pro Tools
4 1 (0.12%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 9 (1.10%) SAP EHS
2 7 (0.86%) Remedy ITSM
2 7 (0.86%) Shopify
3 6 (0.73%) Teamcenter
4 5 (0.61%) Primavera
5 3 (0.37%) SAP S/4HANA
6 1 (0.12%) Aladdin
6 1 (0.12%) assyst
6 1 (0.12%) Bloomberg TOMS
6 1 (0.12%) Eikon
6 1 (0.12%) Fidessa
6 1 (0.12%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.12%) Oracle EBS
6 1 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
6 1 (0.12%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 255 (31.21%) Microsoft 365
2 113 (13.83%) Azure
3 54 (6.61%) Entra ID
4 36 (4.41%) OneDrive
5 31 (3.79%) AWS
6 23 (2.82%) SaaS
7 18 (2.20%) Google Workspace
8 13 (1.59%) Azure DevOps
8 13 (1.59%) Sauce Labs
9 10 (1.22%) Dynamics 365
9 10 (1.22%) Power Platform
10 7 (0.86%) npm
11 5 (0.61%) Amazon S3
11 5 (0.61%) Azure Data Factory
12 4 (0.49%) OpenShift
12 4 (0.49%) PaaS
13 3 (0.37%) GitHub
13 3 (0.37%) Microsoft Purview
13 3 (0.37%) PowerApps
14 2 (0.24%) Amazon EKS
Communications & Networking
1 66 (8.08%) DNS
2 62 (7.59%) DHCP
3 58 (7.10%) TCP/IP
4 57 (6.98%) Wi-Fi
5 48 (5.88%) VPN
6 35 (4.28%) LAN
7 30 (3.67%) Firewall
8 28 (3.43%) Wireless
9 27 (3.30%) WAN
10 21 (2.57%) VLAN
11 16 (1.96%) Skype
12 13 (1.59%) Network Security
12 13 (1.59%) PABX
13 11 (1.35%) Junos
14 10 (1.22%) Cisco Firepower
14 10 (1.22%) Cisco IOS
14 10 (1.22%) Cisco ISE
14 10 (1.22%) VoIP
15 9 (1.10%) Internet
15 9 (1.10%) MPLS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 19 (2.33%) Relational Database
2 17 (2.08%) SQL Server
3 16 (1.96%) MySQL
4 7 (0.86%) Power BI
5 6 (0.73%) Amazon Redshift
5 6 (0.73%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 5 (0.61%) Oracle Database
7 4 (0.49%) Amazon Athena
7 4 (0.49%) RDBMS
8 3 (0.37%) InfluxDB
8 3 (0.37%) SAP HANA
8 3 (0.37%) Sybase ASE
9 2 (0.24%) GIS
9 2 (0.24%) MaxDB
9 2 (0.24%) Oracle Database 12c
9 2 (0.24%) Tableau
10 1 (0.12%) Apache Cassandra
10 1 (0.12%) Azure SQL Database
10 1 (0.12%) MongoDB
10 1 (0.12%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 34 (4.16%) JIRA
2 17 (2.08%) Browser DevTools
3 13 (1.59%) Android Studio
3 13 (1.59%) Eclipse
3 13 (1.59%) Xcode
4 10 (1.22%) Git
5 7 (0.86%) Maven
6 4 (0.49%) Firebug
7 2 (0.24%) Fiddler
7 2 (0.24%) Jenkins
7 2 (0.24%) MSI
8 1 (0.12%) Atlassian Bamboo
8 1 (0.12%) ClearCase
8 1 (0.12%) Hudson
8 1 (0.12%) RStudio
General
1 348 (42.59%) Social Skills
2 65 (7.96%) Finance
3 62 (7.59%) Analytical Skills
4 50 (6.12%) Manufacturing
5 44 (5.39%) Public Sector
6 43 (5.26%) Banking
7 28 (3.43%) Organisational Skills
8 26 (3.18%) Aerospace
8 26 (3.18%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 20 (2.45%) Telecoms
10 16 (1.96%) Investment Banking
11 15 (1.84%) Aviation
12 13 (1.59%) Electronics
12 13 (1.59%) Marketing
13 12 (1.47%) Law
14 9 (1.10%) Documentation Skills
14 9 (1.10%) Front Office
15 7 (0.86%) Legal
16 5 (0.61%) Automotive
17 4 (0.49%) French Language
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (2.69%) Middleware
2 17 (2.08%) CSS
3 13 (1.59%) Ajax
3 13 (1.59%) AngularJS
3 13 (1.59%) GraphQL
3 13 (1.59%) React
4 6 (0.73%) PySpark
4 6 (0.73%) REST
4 6 (0.73%) SOAP
5 5 (0.61%) YAML
6 4 (0.49%) HTML
6 4 (0.49%) JDO
6 4 (0.49%) Microsoft Graph
6 4 (0.49%) XML
7 3 (0.37%) Oracle GoldenGate
7 3 (0.37%) SAP Basis
8 2 (0.24%) EDI
8 2 (0.24%) OAuth
8 2 (0.24%) OpenTelemetry
8 2 (0.24%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 51 (6.24%) Onboarding
2 36 (4.41%) Self-Motivation
3 30 (3.67%) Driving Licence
4 27 (3.30%) Data Centre
5 23 (2.82%) Smartphone
6 22 (2.69%) Analytical Mindset
7 19 (2.33%) PKI
8 15 (1.84%) Data Protection Act
9 13 (1.59%) Mobile App
10 12 (1.47%) Virtual Team
11 11 (1.35%) Enterprise Software
11 11 (1.35%) Video Conferencing
12 9 (1.10%) Management Information System
13 8 (0.98%) Hybrid Cloud
13 8 (0.98%) iPhone
14 7 (0.86%) Legacy Systems
14 7 (0.86%) SCADA
15 4 (0.49%) CCTV
15 4 (0.49%) Hedge funds
16 3 (0.37%) iPad
Operating Systems
1 404 (49.45%) Windows
2 178 (21.79%) Windows 10
3 86 (10.53%) Linux
4 49 (6.00%) Android
4 49 (6.00%) Mac OS
5 43 (5.26%) Windows Server
6 38 (4.65%) Apple iOS
7 32 (3.92%) Unix
8 12 (1.47%) Ubuntu
9 11 (1.35%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 8 (0.98%) Windows 7
11 6 (0.73%) Windows Server 2016
12 4 (0.49%) CentOS
13 3 (0.37%) Windows Server 2019
14 2 (0.24%) Windows Server 2012
15 1 (0.12%) Mac OS X
15 1 (0.12%) Windows Server 2008
15 1 (0.12%) Windows XP
Processes & Methodologies
1 164 (20.07%) Customer Service
2 160 (19.58%) Problem-Solving
3 99 (12.12%) ITIL
4 79 (9.67%) Migration
5 68 (8.32%) ITSM
6 55 (6.73%) Service Management
7 54 (6.61%) Asset Management
8 49 (6.00%) Workflow
9 46 (5.63%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 38 (4.65%) Workflow Management
11 36 (4.41%) User Experience
12 28 (3.43%) Root Cause Analysis
12 28 (3.43%) Service Delivery
12 28 (3.43%) Stakeholder Management
13 27 (3.30%) Continuous Improvement
13 27 (3.30%) Logistics
14 26 (3.18%) Cybersecurity
15 25 (3.06%) Incident Management
16 24 (2.94%) Break/Fix
17 23 (2.82%) OO
Programming Languages
1 72 (8.81%) PowerShell
2 37 (4.53%) SQL
3 35 (4.28%) Java
4 34 (4.16%) Python
5 32 (3.92%) JavaScript
6 21 (2.57%) Shell Script
7 15 (1.84%) Perl
8 13 (1.59%) C
8 13 (1.59%) C++
9 12 (1.47%) Ada
9 12 (1.47%) Bash
10 11 (1.35%) C#
11 3 (0.37%) Korn
12 2 (0.24%) AWK
12 2 (0.24%) Magik
12 2 (0.24%) TypeScript
12 2 (0.24%) VB.NET
12 2 (0.24%) VBScript
13 1 (0.12%) Tcl
13 1 (0.12%) VBA
Qualifications
1 238 (29.13%) Security Cleared
2 191 (23.38%) SC Cleared
3 49 (6.00%) DV Cleared
4 35 (4.28%) Microsoft Certification
5 33 (4.04%) Degree
6 19 (2.33%) Network+ Certification
7 18 (2.20%) Azure Certification
8 15 (1.84%) A+ Certification
9 12 (1.47%) BPSS Clearance
10 11 (1.35%) Server+ Certification
11 9 (1.10%) CCNA
11 9 (1.10%) Cisco Certification
11 9 (1.10%) MCSE
12 8 (0.98%) DBS Check
13 5 (0.61%) Computer Science Degree
14 4 (0.49%) ITIL Certification
15 3 (0.37%) Master's Degree
15 3 (0.37%) Microsoft Certified Professional
16 1 (0.12%) City & Guilds
16 1 (0.12%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 32 (3.92%) SLA
2 9 (1.10%) GDPR
3 5 (0.61%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 3 (0.37%) QA
5 2 (0.24%) Cyber Essentials
6 1 (0.12%) Accessibility
6 1 (0.12%) Data Quality
6 1 (0.12%) GAAP
6 1 (0.12%) GLP
6 1 (0.12%) GMP
6 1 (0.12%) IFRS
6 1 (0.12%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 1 (0.12%) SOC 2
System Software
1 232 (28.40%) Active Directory
2 31 (3.79%) VMware Infrastructure
3 20 (2.45%) Hyper-V
4 13 (1.59%) Virtual Desktop
5 12 (1.47%) VMware NSX
6 8 (0.98%) Firmware
7 7 (0.86%) Docker
8 4 (0.49%) vSphere
9 3 (0.37%) Oracle RAC
9 3 (0.37%) Virtual Servers
10 2 (0.24%) NFS
11 1 (0.12%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 1 (0.12%) VMware ESXi
11 1 (0.12%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 93 (11.38%) Microsoft Intune
2 66 (8.08%) SCCM
3 28 (3.43%) Jamf Pro
4 19 (2.33%) Ansible
5 13 (1.59%) Terraform
5 13 (1.59%) vCenter Server
6 12 (1.47%) Grafana
7 6 (0.73%) Kubernetes
7 6 (0.73%) Red Hat Satellite
8 5 (0.61%) Single Sign-On
9 4 (0.49%) Kibana
10 3 (0.37%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 3 (0.37%) ITRS Geneos
10 3 (0.37%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
10 3 (0.37%) Oracle RMAN
11 2 (0.24%) Prometheus
11 2 (0.24%) SCOM
11 2 (0.24%) WSUS
12 1 (0.12%) Autotask
12 1 (0.12%) McAfee ePO
Vendors
1 295 (36.11%) Microsoft
2 99 (12.12%) ServiceNow
3 42 (5.14%) VMware
4 36 (4.41%) Oracle
5 34 (4.16%) Apple
6 33 (4.04%) Cisco
7 31 (3.79%) SAP
8 27 (3.30%) Dell
9 20 (2.45%) Google
9 20 (2.45%) HP
10 19 (2.33%) Red Hat
11 18 (2.20%) Juniper
12 16 (1.96%) Splunk
13 14 (1.71%) SolarWinds
14 12 (1.47%) Citrix
14 12 (1.47%) Twitter
15 10 (1.22%) Remedy
16 8 (0.98%) Bloomberg
17 6 (0.73%) New Relic
17 6 (0.73%) Siemens