Support Engineer Contract Job Trends

Support Engineer
UK

The median Support Engineer daily rate in the UK is £235, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 4 August 2026.

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

6 months to
4 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 172 127 114
Rank change year-on-year -45 -13 -22
Contract jobs requiring a Support Engineer 845 705 796
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.60% 2.14% 2.03%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.73% 2.34% 2.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 560 455 550
10th Percentile £163 £160 £140
25th Percentile £188 £190 £176
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £235 £235 £230
Median % change year-on-year - +2.17% -8.00%
75th Percentile £400 £375 £347
90th Percentile £492 £538 £525
UK excluding London median daily rate £225 £228 £215
% change year-on-year -1.10% +5.81% -3.37%
Number of hourly rates quoted 51 67 48
10th Percentile £17.10 £16.67 £16.78
25th Percentile £18.38 £20.95 £18.11
Median hourly rate £25.00 £25.15 £22.00
Median % change year-on-year -0.60% +14.32% +15.79%
75th Percentile £36.00 £43.75 £25.50
90th Percentile £53.00 £68.00 £61.52
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.00 £25.15 £22.00
% change year-on-year -12.52% +14.32% +21.48%

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 48,942 30,093 36,428
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.61% 91.45% 92.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,465 19,115 23,531
10th Percentile £331 £282 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.33%
75th Percentile £625 £623 £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 3,396 1,494 2,063
10th Percentile £15.25 £13.60 £14.16
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.30 £20.12
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% +1.18%
75th Percentile £68.00 £53.99 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.10 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £43.90
% change year-on-year +78.93% -42.71% +17.07%

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 4 August 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 4 August 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 4 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 -51 716 £225 -4.26% 282
UK excluding London -36 568 £225 -1.10% 272
London -48 243 £261 +4.50% 45
South East -34 168 £250 - 91
North of England -27 119 £200 -4.76% 60
Scotland +53 82 £442 +49.83% 19
North West -27 78 £200 -12.09% 32
Work from Home -87 78 £275 -17.29% 84
East of England +2 64 £200 - 46
South West -63 61 £210 -10.64% 27
Midlands -64 60 £250 -9.09% 34
Yorkshire -21 40 £200 -12.09% 22
West Midlands -75 38 £250 -9.09% 15
East Midlands -4 21 £250 +36.61% 19
Wales -28 10 £195 -5.45% 1
Northern Ireland 0 4 £175 -30.00% 7
North East -52 2 £233 +24.00% 8
Channel Islands - 1 £550 -

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

For the 6 months to 4 August 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.

1 454 (53.73%) Windows
2 366 (43.31%) Active Directory
3 361 (42.72%) Microsoft
4 309 (36.57%) Microsoft 365
5 194 (22.96%) Problem-Solving
6 186 (22.01%) Windows 10
7 184 (21.78%) Customer Service
8 168 (19.88%) Security Cleared
9 157 (18.58%) ITIL
10 146 (17.28%) Azure
11 128 (15.15%) Microsoft Intune
12 126 (14.91%) Entra ID
13 120 (14.20%) ServiceNow
14 106 (12.54%) SC Cleared
15 105 (12.43%) SharePoint
16 96 (11.36%) ITSM
17 92 (10.89%) DNS
18 85 (10.06%) PowerShell
19 66 (7.81%) Continuous Improvement
20 64 (7.57%) Linux
20 64 (7.57%) VPN
21 63 (7.46%) SQL
22 62 (7.34%) Service Delivery
23 61 (7.22%) Asset Management
23 61 (7.22%) Microsoft Exchange
23 61 (7.22%) Migration
23 61 (7.22%) Windows Server
24 60 (7.10%) JIRA
25 59 (6.98%) VMware
26 58 (6.86%) Degree

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
1 105 (12.43%) SharePoint
2 61 (7.22%) Microsoft Exchange
3 12 (1.42%) NetWeaver
4 11 (1.30%) HCL Notes
5 4 (0.47%) Confluence
6 3 (0.36%) Skype for Business
7 2 (0.24%) IIS
7 2 (0.24%) OpenStack
7 2 (0.24%) WebLogic
8 1 (0.12%) Exchange Server 2013
8 1 (0.12%) Tuxedo
8 1 (0.12%) WebSphere
Applications
1 42 (4.97%) Microsoft Office
2 13 (1.54%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.47%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.12%) Acrobat
4 1 (0.12%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.12%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 11 (1.30%) SAP S/4HANA
2 7 (0.83%) Remedy ITSM
3 4 (0.47%) SAP EHS
4 2 (0.24%) NetSuite
4 2 (0.24%) Teamcenter
5 1 (0.12%) Alphatax
5 1 (0.12%) Dynamics CRM
5 1 (0.12%) Dynamics GP
5 1 (0.12%) Oracle BRM
5 1 (0.12%) SAP BRIM
5 1 (0.12%) SAP FI
5 1 (0.12%) SAP FI-CA
5 1 (0.12%) SAP FS
5 1 (0.12%) SAP GRC
Cloud Services
1 309 (36.57%) Microsoft 365
2 146 (17.28%) Azure
3 126 (14.91%) Entra ID
4 40 (4.73%) OneDrive
5 31 (3.67%) AWS
6 19 (2.25%) SaaS
7 18 (2.13%) Azure DevOps
7 18 (2.13%) GCP
8 10 (1.18%) Power Platform
9 8 (0.95%) Google Workspace
10 7 (0.83%) PaaS
11 6 (0.71%) IaaS
12 5 (0.59%) Mimecast
13 3 (0.36%) Azure Data Factory
13 3 (0.36%) Cloud Functions
13 3 (0.36%) Google App Engine
13 3 (0.36%) Google Compute Engine
13 3 (0.36%) Google Kubernetes Engine
13 3 (0.36%) OpenShift
13 3 (0.36%) Sauce Labs
Communications & Networking
1 92 (10.89%) DNS
2 64 (7.57%) VPN
3 56 (6.63%) DHCP
3 56 (6.63%) TCP/IP
4 41 (4.85%) Wi-Fi
5 35 (4.14%) LAN
6 25 (2.96%) WAN
7 23 (2.72%) SAN
8 22 (2.60%) Firewall
9 20 (2.37%) Internet
10 16 (1.89%) VLAN
11 9 (1.07%) Wireless
12 7 (0.83%) Skype
12 7 (0.83%) WLAN
13 6 (0.71%) HTTP
14 5 (0.59%) Network Security
14 5 (0.59%) SMTP
14 5 (0.59%) WebEx
15 4 (0.47%) Remote Desktop
16 3 (0.36%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 39 (4.62%) SQL Server
2 16 (1.89%) MySQL
3 12 (1.42%) SAP HANA
4 11 (1.30%) Sybase ASE
5 10 (1.18%) MaxDB
6 9 (1.07%) Power BI
7 8 (0.95%) Relational Database
8 7 (0.83%) Amazon Redshift
8 7 (0.83%) Pentaho
9 6 (0.71%) PostgreSQL
10 5 (0.59%) Amazon RDS
10 5 (0.59%) Oracle Database
10 5 (0.59%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 4 (0.47%) Oracle Database 12c
12 3 (0.36%) Big Data
12 3 (0.36%) Data Warehouse
12 3 (0.36%) Elasticsearch
12 3 (0.36%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 2 (0.24%) MariaDB
13 2 (0.24%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 60 (7.10%) JIRA
2 20 (2.37%) Git
3 9 (1.07%) Browser DevTools
4 3 (0.36%) Android Studio
4 3 (0.36%) Eclipse
4 3 (0.36%) Jenkins
4 3 (0.36%) Xcode
5 2 (0.24%) Artifactory
5 2 (0.24%) Firebug
6 1 (0.12%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 1 (0.12%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.12%) Claude Code
6 1 (0.12%) Gemini Tracker
6 1 (0.12%) GitLab
6 1 (0.12%) MSI
6 1 (0.12%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 1 (0.12%) Subversion
6 1 (0.12%) TeamCity
6 1 (0.12%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 342 (40.47%) Social Skills
2 103 (12.19%) Analytical Skills
3 70 (8.28%) Finance
4 42 (4.97%) Manufacturing
5 35 (4.14%) Banking
6 23 (2.72%) Organisational Skills
7 21 (2.49%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 18 (2.13%) Investment Banking
9 16 (1.89%) Documentation Skills
10 15 (1.78%) Retail
11 13 (1.54%) Law
12 12 (1.42%) Financial Institution
13 11 (1.30%) Front Office
14 10 (1.18%) Aerospace
14 10 (1.18%) Legal
14 10 (1.18%) Spanish Language
14 10 (1.18%) Telecoms
15 9 (1.07%) Aviation
15 9 (1.07%) Public Sector
16 7 (0.83%) Marketing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (1.78%) .NET
2 11 (1.30%) LDAP
2 11 (1.30%) SAP Basis
3 10 (1.18%) Oracle GoldenGate
4 9 (1.07%) XML
5 8 (0.95%) REST
6 7 (0.83%) JDO
7 6 (0.71%) .NET Framework
7 6 (0.71%) SAP Fiori
7 6 (0.71%) SAPUI5
7 6 (0.71%) Software Packaging
8 5 (0.59%) CSS
8 5 (0.59%) SAML
9 4 (0.47%) OAuth
10 3 (0.36%) Ajax
10 3 (0.36%) GraphQL
10 3 (0.36%) HTML
10 3 (0.36%) JSP
10 3 (0.36%) React
10 3 (0.36%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 113 (13.37%) Onboarding
2 35 (4.14%) Data Centre
3 24 (2.84%) Analytical Mindset
4 23 (2.72%) Video Conferencing
5 21 (2.49%) Self-Motivation
6 19 (2.25%) PKI
7 15 (1.78%) Data Protection Act
7 15 (1.78%) Hedge funds
7 15 (1.78%) iPhone
8 14 (1.66%) Enterprise Software
9 13 (1.54%) Driving Licence
10 12 (1.42%) Legacy Systems
10 12 (1.42%) Virtual Team
11 11 (1.30%) Blackberry
12 10 (1.18%) iPad
12 10 (1.18%) SCADA
12 10 (1.18%) Smartphone
13 7 (0.83%) CMDB
13 7 (0.83%) Management Information System
14 6 (0.71%) BYOD
Operating Systems
1 454 (53.73%) Windows
2 186 (22.01%) Windows 10
3 64 (7.57%) Linux
4 61 (7.22%) Windows Server
5 52 (6.15%) Mac OS
6 40 (4.73%) Unix
7 32 (3.79%) Apple iOS
8 30 (3.55%) Android
9 18 (2.13%) Windows 7
10 8 (0.95%) Ubuntu
10 8 (0.95%) Windows Server 2019
11 7 (0.83%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 5 (0.59%) Windows Server 2016
13 4 (0.47%) Solaris
13 4 (0.47%) Windows Server 2008
14 3 (0.36%) OpenVMS
14 3 (0.36%) VMS
14 3 (0.36%) Windows Server 2012
14 3 (0.36%) Windows XP
15 2 (0.24%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 194 (22.96%) Problem-Solving
2 184 (21.78%) Customer Service
3 157 (18.58%) ITIL
4 96 (11.36%) ITSM
5 66 (7.81%) Continuous Improvement
6 62 (7.34%) Service Delivery
7 61 (7.22%) Asset Management
7 61 (7.22%) Migration
8 49 (5.80%) Service Management
9 48 (5.68%) Problem Management
10 45 (5.33%) Change Management
10 45 (5.33%) User Experience
11 42 (4.97%) Identity Access Management
12 40 (4.73%) Incident Management
13 39 (4.62%) Infrastructure Engineering
14 37 (4.38%) Root Cause Analysis
15 31 (3.67%) Break/Fix
16 30 (3.55%) Data Protection
17 29 (3.43%) High Availability
17 29 (3.43%) Runbook
Programming Languages
1 85 (10.06%) PowerShell
2 63 (7.46%) SQL
3 31 (3.67%) Python
4 25 (2.96%) C#
5 20 (2.37%) Java
6 17 (2.01%) Shell Script
7 16 (1.89%) Bash
7 16 (1.89%) JavaScript
8 10 (1.18%) Korn
9 7 (0.83%) C++
10 6 (0.71%) Perl
11 4 (0.47%) T-SQL
12 2 (0.24%) DCL
12 2 (0.24%) Go
12 2 (0.24%) VBScript
13 1 (0.12%) C
13 1 (0.12%) Search Processing Language
13 1 (0.12%) VB.NET
13 1 (0.12%) VBA
Qualifications
1 168 (19.88%) Security Cleared
2 106 (12.54%) SC Cleared
3 58 (6.86%) Degree
4 46 (5.44%) DV Cleared
5 32 (3.79%) Microsoft Certification
6 31 (3.67%) A+ Certification
7 24 (2.84%) Network+ Certification
8 23 (2.72%) Cisco Certification
9 22 (2.60%) CCNA
10 17 (2.01%) MCSE
11 16 (1.89%) BPSS Clearance
12 10 (1.18%) Computer Science Degree
13 9 (1.07%) DBS Check
14 7 (0.83%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 7 (0.83%) Microsoft Certified Professional
15 6 (0.71%) Azure Certification
16 5 (0.59%) ITIL Certification
17 4 (0.47%) NVQ Level 4
18 2 (0.24%) CCNP
19 1 (0.12%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 52 (6.15%) SLA
2 6 (0.71%) QA
3 5 (0.59%) Data Quality
4 4 (0.47%) Cyber Essentials
5 3 (0.36%) GDPR
5 3 (0.36%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 2 (0.24%) GLP
6 2 (0.24%) GMP
6 2 (0.24%) GxP
6 2 (0.24%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 1 (0.12%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.12%) Disclosure Scotland
7 1 (0.12%) GRC
7 1 (0.12%) ITGC
7 1 (0.12%) NCSC
System Software
1 366 (43.31%) Active Directory
2 45 (5.33%) VMware Infrastructure
3 24 (2.84%) VMware ESXi
4 22 (2.60%) Hyper-V
5 17 (2.01%) VMware NSX
6 15 (1.78%) Virtual Desktop
7 12 (1.42%) vCloud
8 10 (1.18%) Oracle RAC
9 7 (0.83%) vSphere
10 5 (0.59%) BitLocker
10 5 (0.59%) Docker
10 5 (0.59%) NFS
11 4 (0.47%) Firmware
12 3 (0.36%) Microsoft App-V
12 3 (0.36%) Terminal Services
13 2 (0.24%) zsh
14 1 (0.12%) Virtual Servers
14 1 (0.12%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 128 (15.15%) Microsoft Intune
2 49 (5.80%) SCCM
3 24 (2.84%) vCenter Server
4 21 (2.49%) Single Sign-On
5 18 (2.13%) SCOM
6 16 (1.89%) Jamf Pro
7 12 (1.42%) Grafana
8 10 (1.18%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
8 10 (1.18%) Oracle RMAN
9 9 (1.07%) Ansible
9 9 (1.07%) Kubernetes
10 8 (0.95%) Terraform
11 5 (0.59%) Red Hat Satellite
12 3 (0.36%) AirWatch
12 3 (0.36%) ITRS Geneos
12 3 (0.36%) Nagios
12 3 (0.36%) Puppet
12 3 (0.36%) vMotion
12 3 (0.36%) vRealize
12 3 (0.36%) WSUS
Vendors
1 361 (42.72%) Microsoft
2 120 (14.20%) ServiceNow
3 59 (6.98%) VMware
4 35 (4.14%) Apple
5 32 (3.79%) Oracle
6 31 (3.67%) Okta
7 25 (2.96%) Google
8 23 (2.72%) Citrix
8 23 (2.72%) Dell
9 22 (2.60%) Cisco
10 21 (2.49%) SAP
11 20 (2.37%) BeyondTrust
12 14 (1.66%) HP
13 12 (1.42%) Meraki
14 11 (1.30%) Lotus
14 11 (1.30%) Sybase
15 10 (1.18%) Splunk
16 9 (1.07%) iManage
16 9 (1.07%) McAfee
16 9 (1.07%) Remedy