Support Engineer Contract Job Trends

Support Engineer
UK

The median Support Engineer daily rate in the UK is £220, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 21 December 2025.

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

6 months to
21 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 123 132 86
Rank change year-on-year +9 -46 +58
Contract jobs requiring a Support Engineer 838 646 1,118
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.28% 1.90% 2.55%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.51% 2.05% 2.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 572 440 811
10th Percentile £151 £150 £140
25th Percentile £185 £188 £180
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £220 £240 £235
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +2.13% -2.08%
75th Percentile £338 £353 £375
90th Percentile £500 £519 £533
UK excluding London median daily rate £213 £220 £214
% change year-on-year -3.41% +3.04% +1.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 125 44 57
10th Percentile £17.14 £16.06 £15.80
25th Percentile £19.79 £19.41 £17.72
Median hourly rate £24.00 £23.00 £19.12
Median % change year-on-year +4.35% +20.29% -1.86%
75th Percentile £30.00 £24.89 £22.00
90th Percentile £43.75 £41.50 £30.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.83 £23.00 £19.50
% change year-on-year +3.59% +17.95% +10.05%

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 33,430 31,506 40,926
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.01% 92.78% 93.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,135 19,373 27,542
10th Percentile £291 £300 £285
25th Percentile £404 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £618 £638 £640
90th Percentile £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £488 £500
% change year-on-year -2.56% -2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,981 981 1,444
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.53 £15.04
25th Percentile £18.00 £21.05 £19.11
Median hourly rate £25.15 £33.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -23.79% -26.67% +50.00%
75th Percentile £57.50 £62.56 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.71 £72.75 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £45.88
% change year-on-year -22.62% -29.16% +83.52%

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 21 December 2025.

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 21 December 2025.

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 21 December 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 +18 758 £220 -8.33% 332
UK excluding London +12 582 £213 -3.41% 323
London -16 207 £235 -24.19% 56
South East +25 182 £238 +8.18% 94
North of England -7 110 £200 -5.88% 79
South West +30 107 £250 +11.11% 36
Midlands +8 101 £250 -5.66% 43
Work from Home -24 99 £275 -15.38% 79
West Midlands 0 72 £275 +4.76% 26
North West -16 62 £165 -17.50% 43
East of England -16 49 £200 -9.09% 55
Yorkshire -31 37 £205 -9.89% 34
East Midlands +4 31 £175 -55.13% 16
Scotland -10 26 £200 +5.26% 10
Wales +3 16 £213 +6.25% 12
North East +4 11 £106 -34.77% 7
Northern Ireland -10 3 £175 +18.24% 3

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

For the 6 months to 21 December 2025, 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.

1 433 (51.67%) Windows
2 317 (37.83%) Microsoft
3 259 (30.91%) Security Cleared
4 239 (28.52%) Microsoft 365
5 230 (27.45%) Active Directory
6 200 (23.87%) SC Cleared
7 175 (20.88%) Problem-Solving
8 174 (20.76%) Windows 10
9 173 (20.64%) Customer Service
10 105 (12.53%) Azure
11 102 (12.17%) ITIL
12 98 (11.69%) Linux
12 98 (11.69%) ServiceNow
13 94 (11.22%) Microsoft Intune
14 79 (9.43%) Microsoft Office
15 78 (9.31%) DNS
16 77 (9.19%) Migration
17 72 (8.59%) SCCM
18 70 (8.35%) Service Management
19 68 (8.11%) ITSM
19 68 (8.11%) SharePoint
20 67 (8.00%) DHCP
20 67 (8.00%) VPN
21 66 (7.88%) TCP/IP
22 59 (7.04%) Android
23 58 (6.92%) DV Cleared
23 58 (6.92%) Microsoft Exchange
23 58 (6.92%) PowerShell
24 56 (6.68%) Asset Management
25 53 (6.32%) Oracle

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 68 (8.11%) SharePoint
2 58 (6.92%) Microsoft Exchange
3 21 (2.51%) Skype for Business
4 8 (0.95%) Exchange Server 2010
4 8 (0.95%) SharePoint Server
5 7 (0.84%) Exchange Server 2003
5 7 (0.84%) Exchange Server 2007
5 7 (0.84%) Exchange Server 2013
5 7 (0.84%) Office Communications Server
6 4 (0.48%) Confluence
7 3 (0.36%) Smallworld
8 2 (0.24%) Apache
8 2 (0.24%) Apache Airflow
8 2 (0.24%) Apache Spark
8 2 (0.24%) ArcGIS
8 2 (0.24%) Jupyter
9 1 (0.12%) CMS
9 1 (0.12%) IIS
9 1 (0.12%) SAS
9 1 (0.12%) Tomcat
Applications
1 79 (9.43%) Microsoft Office
2 26 (3.10%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (0.36%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.24%) MS Visio
5 1 (0.12%) AutoCAD
5 1 (0.12%) DaVinci Resolve
5 1 (0.12%) OmniGraffle
5 1 (0.12%) Pro Tools
5 1 (0.12%) ProjectWise
5 1 (0.12%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 9 (1.07%) SAP EHS
2 7 (0.84%) Remedy ITSM
3 6 (0.72%) Shopify
4 5 (0.60%) Primavera
5 3 (0.36%) NetSuite
6 2 (0.24%) Eikon
6 2 (0.24%) Fidessa
7 1 (0.12%) Aladdin
7 1 (0.12%) assyst
7 1 (0.12%) Bloomberg TOMS
7 1 (0.12%) Eze OMS
7 1 (0.12%) Infor CloudSuite Industrial (formerly SyteLine)
7 1 (0.12%) Oracle ERP
7 1 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
7 1 (0.12%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 239 (28.52%) Microsoft 365
2 105 (12.53%) Azure
3 38 (4.53%) Entra ID
4 27 (3.22%) AWS
4 27 (3.22%) SaaS
5 23 (2.74%) OneDrive
6 21 (2.51%) Sauce Labs
7 17 (2.03%) Google Workspace
8 10 (1.19%) Power Platform
9 8 (0.95%) Azure DevOps
9 8 (0.95%) npm
10 7 (0.84%) Dynamics 365
11 5 (0.60%) OpenShift
11 5 (0.60%) Slack
11 5 (0.60%) SuccessFactors
12 4 (0.48%) Microsoft Purview
13 3 (0.36%) Azure AKS
14 2 (0.24%) Amazon EKS
14 2 (0.24%) Amazon OpenSearch
14 2 (0.24%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 78 (9.31%) DNS
2 67 (8.00%) DHCP
2 67 (8.00%) VPN
3 66 (7.88%) TCP/IP
4 38 (4.53%) Wireless
5 37 (4.42%) Firewall
5 37 (4.42%) Wi-Fi
6 33 (3.94%) WAN
7 22 (2.63%) LAN
8 21 (2.51%) VLAN
9 20 (2.39%) Junos
10 19 (2.27%) Cisco IOS
10 19 (2.27%) MPLS
11 17 (2.03%) BGP
11 17 (2.03%) IPsec
12 15 (1.79%) Cisco Firepower
12 15 (1.79%) Cisco ISE
12 15 (1.79%) Skype
13 14 (1.67%) Network Security
14 13 (1.55%) PABX
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (4.18%) Relational Database
2 29 (3.46%) MySQL
3 13 (1.55%) SQL Server
4 9 (1.07%) Power BI
5 7 (0.84%) MariaDB
6 5 (0.60%) RDBMS
7 4 (0.48%) InfluxDB
8 3 (0.36%) GIS
8 3 (0.36%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 3 (0.36%) Tableau
9 2 (0.24%) Apache Cassandra
9 2 (0.24%) Electronic Patient Records
9 2 (0.24%) Oracle Database
10 1 (0.12%) Azure SQL Database
10 1 (0.12%) DB2
10 1 (0.12%) Elasticsearch
10 1 (0.12%) Informix
10 1 (0.12%) Oracle ODI
10 1 (0.12%) PostgreSQL
10 1 (0.12%) Qlik Sense
Development Applications
1 32 (3.82%) Browser DevTools
2 21 (2.51%) Android Studio
2 21 (2.51%) Eclipse
2 21 (2.51%) Xcode
3 19 (2.27%) JIRA
4 13 (1.55%) Git
5 10 (1.19%) Firebug
6 8 (0.95%) Maven
7 6 (0.72%) Jenkins
8 3 (0.36%) Sonatype Nexus
9 2 (0.24%) Fiddler
9 2 (0.24%) MSI
10 1 (0.12%) Bitbucket
10 1 (0.12%) ClearCase
10 1 (0.12%) Hudson
General
1 377 (44.99%) Social Skills
2 74 (8.83%) Finance
3 63 (7.52%) Public Sector
4 58 (6.92%) Analytical Skills
5 38 (4.53%) Manufacturing
6 33 (3.94%) Banking
7 31 (3.70%) Organisational Skills
8 29 (3.46%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 22 (2.63%) Telecoms
10 21 (2.51%) Aerospace
11 15 (1.79%) Electronics
11 15 (1.79%) Marketing
12 13 (1.55%) Law
13 12 (1.43%) Front Office
14 10 (1.19%) Documentation Skills
14 10 (1.19%) Legal
15 8 (0.95%) Retail
16 7 (0.84%) Aviation
16 7 (0.84%) Investment Banking
17 6 (0.72%) Automotive
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 32 (3.82%) CSS
2 25 (2.98%) Middleware
3 22 (2.63%) Ajax
3 22 (2.63%) AngularJS
3 22 (2.63%) GraphQL
3 22 (2.63%) React
4 17 (2.03%) XML
5 10 (1.19%) HTML
6 7 (0.84%) JSON
7 5 (0.60%) REST
7 5 (0.60%) SOAP
8 4 (0.48%) .NET
8 4 (0.48%) JDO
9 3 (0.36%) ADO
10 2 (0.24%) Kafka
10 2 (0.24%) Node.js
10 2 (0.24%) OAuth
10 2 (0.24%) PySpark
10 2 (0.24%) XMPP
10 2 (0.24%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 40 (4.77%) Onboarding
2 35 (4.18%) Self-Motivation
3 32 (3.82%) Driving Licence
4 28 (3.34%) Data Centre
5 24 (2.86%) PKI
6 22 (2.63%) Mobile App
7 20 (2.39%) Smartphone
8 18 (2.15%) Data Protection Act
9 14 (1.67%) Analytical Mindset
10 13 (1.55%) Management Information System
11 12 (1.43%) iPhone
12 10 (1.19%) Video Conferencing
13 9 (1.07%) Replication
14 7 (0.84%) Enterprise Software
14 7 (0.84%) iPad
14 7 (0.84%) Legacy Systems
15 5 (0.60%) NHS
16 4 (0.48%) Operational Technology
16 4 (0.48%) Virtual Team
17 3 (0.36%) Web Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 433 (51.67%) Windows
2 174 (20.76%) Windows 10
3 98 (11.69%) Linux
4 59 (7.04%) Android
5 53 (6.32%) Windows Server
6 50 (5.97%) Mac OS
7 42 (5.01%) Apple iOS
8 35 (4.18%) Unix
9 12 (1.43%) Ubuntu
10 11 (1.31%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 7 (0.84%) Windows 7
11 7 (0.84%) Windows Server 2003
12 5 (0.60%) CentOS
13 3 (0.36%) Mac OS X
14 2 (0.24%) Windows Server 2012
14 2 (0.24%) Windows Server 2016
15 1 (0.12%) Windows 8
15 1 (0.12%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 175 (20.88%) Problem-Solving
2 173 (20.64%) Customer Service
3 102 (12.17%) ITIL
4 77 (9.19%) Migration
5 70 (8.35%) Service Management
6 68 (8.11%) ITSM
7 56 (6.68%) Asset Management
8 50 (5.97%) Workflow
9 41 (4.89%) User Experience
10 40 (4.77%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 36 (4.30%) Workflow Management
12 35 (4.18%) OO
13 33 (3.94%) Root Cause Analysis
14 30 (3.58%) Logistics
15 28 (3.34%) Continuous Improvement
15 28 (3.34%) Service Delivery
16 27 (3.22%) Business Intelligence
16 27 (3.22%) Cybersecurity
17 24 (2.86%) Stakeholder Management
18 23 (2.74%) Incident Management
Programming Languages
1 58 (6.92%) PowerShell
2 48 (5.73%) Java
3 45 (5.37%) JavaScript
4 40 (4.77%) Python
5 30 (3.58%) SQL
6 23 (2.74%) Perl
7 17 (2.03%) Shell Script
8 15 (1.79%) Bash
8 15 (1.79%) C
9 13 (1.55%) C++
10 12 (1.43%) Ada
11 3 (0.36%) Magik
12 2 (0.24%) AWK
12 2 (0.24%) C#
12 2 (0.24%) TypeScript
12 2 (0.24%) VB.NET
13 1 (0.12%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 1 (0.12%) Korn
13 1 (0.12%) Tcl
13 1 (0.12%) VBA
Qualifications
1 259 (30.91%) Security Cleared
2 200 (23.87%) SC Cleared
3 58 (6.92%) DV Cleared
4 44 (5.25%) Degree
5 27 (3.22%) Microsoft Certification
6 14 (1.67%) Azure Certification
7 13 (1.55%) BPSS Clearance
7 13 (1.55%) Network+ Certification
8 12 (1.43%) DBS Check
9 11 (1.31%) A+ Certification
9 11 (1.31%) Server+ Certification
10 8 (0.95%) Computer Science Degree
10 8 (0.95%) ITIL Certification
11 5 (0.60%) CCNA
11 5 (0.60%) Cisco Certification
12 4 (0.48%) MCP
13 3 (0.36%) Master's Degree
13 3 (0.36%) MCSE
14 2 (0.24%) AWS Certification
14 2 (0.24%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 32 (3.82%) SLA
2 9 (1.07%) GDPR
3 6 (0.72%) QA
4 5 (0.60%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 3 (0.36%) Accessibility
6 2 (0.24%) Cyber Essentials
7 1 (0.12%) Data Quality
7 1 (0.12%) GAAP
7 1 (0.12%) IFRS
7 1 (0.12%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 1 (0.12%) SOC 2
System Software
1 230 (27.45%) Active Directory
2 30 (3.58%) VMware Infrastructure
3 19 (2.27%) Hyper-V
4 16 (1.91%) VMware NSX
5 15 (1.79%) Virtual Desktop
6 10 (1.19%) Firmware
7 9 (1.07%) Docker
8 7 (0.84%) Brightmail
8 7 (0.84%) ISA Server
9 4 (0.48%) vSphere
10 3 (0.36%) Terminal Services
11 2 (0.24%) NFS
11 2 (0.24%) Virtual Servers
11 2 (0.24%) VMware Workstation
12 1 (0.12%) BitLocker
12 1 (0.12%) Tivoli Workload Scheduler
12 1 (0.12%) Virtual Machines
12 1 (0.12%) VMware ESXi
12 1 (0.12%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 94 (11.22%) Microsoft Intune
2 72 (8.59%) SCCM
3 35 (4.18%) Jamf Pro
4 22 (2.63%) Ansible
5 20 (2.39%) Terraform
6 18 (2.15%) vCenter Server
7 12 (1.43%) Grafana
8 8 (0.95%) Kubernetes
9 7 (0.84%) Microsoft Clustering
10 6 (0.72%) Red Hat Satellite
11 5 (0.60%) Kibana
12 4 (0.48%) AirWatch
12 4 (0.48%) ITRS Geneos
13 3 (0.36%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 3 (0.36%) SCOM
13 3 (0.36%) Single Sign-On
14 2 (0.24%) FortiGate
14 2 (0.24%) Prometheus
14 2 (0.24%) WSUS
15 1 (0.12%) logstash
Vendors
1 317 (37.83%) Microsoft
2 98 (11.69%) ServiceNow
3 53 (6.32%) Oracle
4 50 (5.97%) Apple
4 50 (5.97%) Cisco
5 45 (5.37%) VMware
6 34 (4.06%) SAP
7 33 (3.94%) Juniper
8 31 (3.70%) HP
9 25 (2.98%) Splunk
10 20 (2.39%) Google
10 20 (2.39%) SolarWinds
11 19 (2.27%) Citrix
11 19 (2.27%) Dell
11 19 (2.27%) Red Hat
12 12 (1.43%) Bloomberg
13 10 (1.19%) Remedy
14 8 (0.95%) McAfee
15 7 (0.84%) New Relic
15 7 (0.84%) Starlink