Support Engineer Contract Job Trends

Support Engineer
UK

The median Support Engineer daily rate in the UK is £225, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 18 November 2025.

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

6 months to
18 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 120 132 85
Rank change year-on-year +12 -47 +62
Contract jobs requiring a Support Engineer 837 694 1,228
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.36% 1.92% 2.63%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.60% 2.07% 2.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 570 466 895
10th Percentile £155 £150 £140
25th Percentile £188 £188 £181
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £225 £240 £240
Median % change year-on-year -6.25% - +4.35%
75th Percentile £338 £350 £400
90th Percentile £537 £519 £575
UK excluding London median daily rate £220 £225 £215
% change year-on-year -2.22% +4.65% +2.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 110 45 59
10th Percentile £17.14 £16.33 £14.32
25th Percentile £19.76 £20.50 £17.60
Median hourly rate £24.50 £23.59 £19.00
Median % change year-on-year +3.86% +24.16% -2.56%
75th Percentile £30.00 £27.00 £21.63
90th Percentile £51.60 £51.30 £23.85
UK excluding London median hourly rate £24.00 £23.59 £19.06
% change year-on-year +1.74% +23.77% +1.93%

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 32,191 33,474 43,775
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.95% 92.85% 93.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,427 20,165 29,691
10th Percentile £278 £300 £293
25th Percentile £402 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £649
90th Percentile £725 £738 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £490 £500
% change year-on-year -3.06% -2.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,886 1,246 1,552
10th Percentile £14.16 £15.22 £15.16
25th Percentile £17.87 £20.50 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £36.08 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -30.30% -19.82% +60.06%
75th Percentile £54.56 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £73.75 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £45.00
% change year-on-year -28.14% -22.22% +87.50%

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 18 November 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 18 November 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 18 November 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 +14 758 £225 -6.25% 563
UK excluding London +9 576 £220 -2.22% 454
London -10 220 £238 -20.83% 182
South East +28 188 £238 +0.42% 155
Work from Home -15 106 £275 -22.81% 140
South West +35 105 £250 +13.90% 48
Midlands -1 98 £253 -4.72% 73
North of England -15 97 £200 - 88
West Midlands -2 72 £261 -1.51% 46
North West -13 53 £190 -5.00% 52
East of England -17 48 £220 -1.12% 47
Yorkshire -31 32 £205 -2.38% 30
East Midlands -5 26 £188 -21.05% 27
Scotland -18 25 £225 -30.77% 31
Wales +16 22 £213 +6.25% 10
North East +1 12 £106 -34.77% 7
Northern Ireland -7 4 £175 - 6

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

For the 6 months to 18 November 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.

1 445 (53.17%) Windows
2 327 (39.07%) Microsoft
3 251 (29.99%) Microsoft 365
4 250 (29.87%) Security Cleared
5 246 (29.39%) Active Directory
6 190 (22.70%) Problem-Solving
7 186 (22.22%) SC Cleared
8 164 (19.59%) Windows 10
9 159 (19.00%) Customer Service
10 123 (14.70%) ITIL
11 111 (13.26%) Azure
12 103 (12.31%) Microsoft Office
12 103 (12.31%) ServiceNow
13 101 (12.07%) Linux
14 96 (11.47%) Microsoft Intune
15 93 (11.11%) DNS
16 82 (9.80%) DHCP
17 78 (9.32%) SCCM
18 76 (9.08%) Service Management
18 76 (9.08%) SharePoint
19 75 (8.96%) ITSM
19 75 (8.96%) Microsoft Exchange
19 75 (8.96%) TCP/IP
19 75 (8.96%) VPN
20 62 (7.41%) PowerShell
21 59 (7.05%) DV Cleared
21 59 (7.05%) Migration
22 58 (6.93%) Cisco
23 55 (6.57%) Android
24 54 (6.45%) Windows Server

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 76 (9.08%) SharePoint
2 75 (8.96%) Microsoft Exchange
3 27 (3.23%) Skype for Business
4 11 (1.31%) Exchange Server 2010
4 11 (1.31%) SharePoint Server
5 10 (1.19%) Exchange Server 2003
5 10 (1.19%) Exchange Server 2007
5 10 (1.19%) Exchange Server 2013
5 10 (1.19%) Office Communications Server
6 6 (0.72%) Confluence
7 3 (0.36%) Apache
7 3 (0.36%) OpenStack
7 3 (0.36%) Smallworld
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%) Mattermost
9 1 (0.12%) WebSphere
Applications
1 103 (12.31%) Microsoft Office
2 25 (2.99%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.48%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.24%) AutoCAD
4 2 (0.24%) MS Visio
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 7 (0.84%) Remedy ITSM
2 5 (0.60%) Primavera
3 3 (0.36%) NetSuite
3 3 (0.36%) SAP EHS
4 2 (0.24%) Eikon
4 2 (0.24%) Fidessa
4 2 (0.24%) Oracle ERP
5 1 (0.12%) Aladdin
5 1 (0.12%) Dynamics CRM
5 1 (0.12%) Eze OMS
5 1 (0.12%) Infor CloudSuite Industrial (formerly SyteLine)
5 1 (0.12%) Oracle Assets
5 1 (0.12%) Oracle EBS R12
5 1 (0.12%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 1 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
5 1 (0.12%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 251 (29.99%) Microsoft 365
2 111 (13.26%) Azure
3 40 (4.78%) Entra ID
4 32 (3.82%) AWS
5 25 (2.99%) OneDrive
5 25 (2.99%) SaaS
6 19 (2.27%) Google Workspace
7 18 (2.15%) Sauce Labs
8 12 (1.43%) Power Platform
9 8 (0.96%) Azure DevOps
10 6 (0.72%) npm
11 5 (0.60%) OpenShift
11 5 (0.60%) SuccessFactors
12 3 (0.36%) Azure AKS
12 3 (0.36%) Microsoft Purview
12 3 (0.36%) PowerApps
12 3 (0.36%) Slack
13 2 (0.24%) Amazon EKS
13 2 (0.24%) Amazon OpenSearch
13 2 (0.24%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 93 (11.11%) DNS
2 82 (9.80%) DHCP
3 75 (8.96%) TCP/IP
3 75 (8.96%) VPN
4 47 (5.62%) WAN
5 44 (5.26%) Firewall
6 38 (4.54%) Wi-Fi
6 38 (4.54%) Wireless
7 36 (4.30%) LAN
8 23 (2.75%) Cisco IOS
9 22 (2.63%) VLAN
10 20 (2.39%) Junos
11 19 (2.27%) MPLS
12 18 (2.15%) Skype
13 17 (2.03%) BGP
13 17 (2.03%) IPsec
14 15 (1.79%) Cisco Firepower
14 15 (1.79%) Cisco ISE
15 13 (1.55%) PABX
15 13 (1.55%) Remote Desktop
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (4.18%) Relational Database
2 26 (3.11%) MySQL
3 18 (2.15%) SQL Server
4 9 (1.08%) Power BI
5 6 (0.72%) MariaDB
6 5 (0.60%) RDBMS
7 4 (0.48%) Data Warehouse
7 4 (0.48%) DB2
8 3 (0.36%) GIS
8 3 (0.36%) InfluxDB
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%) Elasticsearch
10 1 (0.12%) Informix
10 1 (0.12%) PostgreSQL
10 1 (0.12%) Qlik Sense
10 1 (0.12%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 28 (3.35%) Browser DevTools
2 18 (2.15%) Android Studio
2 18 (2.15%) Eclipse
2 18 (2.15%) Xcode
3 17 (2.03%) JIRA
4 13 (1.55%) Git
5 9 (1.08%) Firebug
6 7 (0.84%) Jenkins
7 6 (0.72%) Maven
8 5 (0.60%) Sonatype Nexus
9 3 (0.36%) Fiddler
10 2 (0.24%) MSI
11 1 (0.12%) Bitbucket
11 1 (0.12%) ClearCase
11 1 (0.12%) Hudson
11 1 (0.12%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 363 (43.37%) Social Skills
2 85 (10.16%) Finance
3 68 (8.12%) Public Sector
4 60 (7.17%) Analytical Skills
5 40 (4.78%) Manufacturing
6 35 (4.18%) Banking
7 29 (3.46%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 28 (3.35%) Organisational Skills
9 26 (3.11%) Telecoms
10 17 (2.03%) Marketing
11 16 (1.91%) Electronics
12 15 (1.79%) Aerospace
13 12 (1.43%) Front Office
14 10 (1.19%) Documentation Skills
15 9 (1.08%) Retail
16 8 (0.96%) Investment Banking
16 8 (0.96%) Legal
17 7 (0.84%) Law
18 6 (0.72%) Automotive
18 6 (0.72%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 29 (3.46%) CSS
2 23 (2.75%) Middleware
3 21 (2.51%) React
4 19 (2.27%) Ajax
4 19 (2.27%) AngularJS
4 19 (2.27%) GraphQL
5 16 (1.91%) XML
6 10 (1.19%) HTML
7 7 (0.84%) JSON
8 5 (0.60%) .NET
8 5 (0.60%) REST
8 5 (0.60%) SOAP
9 4 (0.48%) JDO
9 4 (0.48%) OAuth
10 3 (0.36%) ADO
10 3 (0.36%) Microsoft Graph
10 3 (0.36%) XMPP
11 2 (0.24%) Kafka
11 2 (0.24%) OpenTelemetry
11 2 (0.24%) PySpark
Miscellaneous
1 34 (4.06%) Onboarding
2 31 (3.70%) Self-Motivation
3 30 (3.58%) Data Centre
4 23 (2.75%) Driving Licence
4 23 (2.75%) PKI
5 22 (2.63%) Data Protection Act
6 20 (2.39%) Mobile App
7 16 (1.91%) Smartphone
8 15 (1.79%) Video Conferencing
9 13 (1.55%) iPhone
9 13 (1.55%) Management Information System
10 12 (1.43%) Replication
11 11 (1.31%) Analytical Mindset
12 9 (1.08%) Operational Technology
13 8 (0.96%) Enterprise Software
14 7 (0.84%) iPad
14 7 (0.84%) Legacy Systems
14 7 (0.84%) NHS
15 5 (0.60%) Virtual Team
16 4 (0.48%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 445 (53.17%) Windows
2 164 (19.59%) Windows 10
3 101 (12.07%) Linux
4 55 (6.57%) Android
5 54 (6.45%) Windows Server
6 46 (5.50%) Apple iOS
7 42 (5.02%) Mac OS
8 34 (4.06%) Unix
9 13 (1.55%) Ubuntu
10 11 (1.31%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 10 (1.19%) Windows Server 2003
12 9 (1.08%) Windows 7
13 5 (0.60%) CentOS
14 4 (0.48%) Mac OS X
15 2 (0.24%) Windows Server 2012
15 2 (0.24%) Windows Server 2016
15 2 (0.24%) Windows Server 2019
16 1 (0.12%) VMS
16 1 (0.12%) Windows 8
16 1 (0.12%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 190 (22.70%) Problem-Solving
2 159 (19.00%) Customer Service
3 123 (14.70%) ITIL
4 76 (9.08%) Service Management
5 75 (8.96%) ITSM
6 59 (7.05%) Migration
7 52 (6.21%) Asset Management
8 45 (5.38%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 42 (5.02%) Workflow
10 34 (4.06%) User Experience
11 32 (3.82%) Business Intelligence
11 32 (3.82%) OO
12 31 (3.70%) Cybersecurity
13 30 (3.58%) Service Delivery
14 29 (3.46%) Root Cause Analysis
15 27 (3.23%) Workflow Management
16 26 (3.11%) Incident Management
17 25 (2.99%) Data Protection
17 25 (2.99%) Stakeholder Management
18 23 (2.75%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 62 (7.41%) PowerShell
2 45 (5.38%) Python
3 44 (5.26%) Java
4 43 (5.14%) JavaScript
5 30 (3.58%) SQL
6 21 (2.51%) Bash
6 21 (2.51%) Perl
7 17 (2.03%) Shell Script
8 16 (1.91%) C
9 13 (1.55%) C++
10 12 (1.43%) Ada
11 4 (0.48%) C#
12 3 (0.36%) Magik
12 3 (0.36%) TypeScript
13 2 (0.24%) AWK
13 2 (0.24%) VB.NET
14 1 (0.12%) Korn
14 1 (0.12%) Lisp
14 1 (0.12%) PHP
14 1 (0.12%) Tcl
Qualifications
1 250 (29.87%) Security Cleared
2 186 (22.22%) SC Cleared
3 59 (7.05%) DV Cleared
4 48 (5.73%) Degree
5 31 (3.70%) Microsoft Certification
6 14 (1.67%) Azure Certification
7 13 (1.55%) DBS Check
7 13 (1.55%) Network+ Certification
8 12 (1.43%) Cisco Certification
9 11 (1.31%) CCNA
9 11 (1.31%) Server+ Certification
10 10 (1.19%) Computer Science Degree
11 9 (1.08%) A+ Certification
12 8 (0.96%) BPSS Clearance
12 8 (0.96%) ITIL Certification
13 5 (0.60%) MCSE
14 4 (0.48%) MCP
14 4 (0.48%) MCSA
15 3 (0.36%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
16 2 (0.24%) MOS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 38 (4.54%) SLA
2 15 (1.79%) QA
3 9 (1.08%) GDPR
4 5 (0.60%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 3 (0.36%) Accessibility
6 2 (0.24%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 1 (0.12%) Data Quality
7 1 (0.12%) GAAP
7 1 (0.12%) GMP
7 1 (0.12%) GxP
7 1 (0.12%) IFRS
7 1 (0.12%) NCSC
System Software
1 246 (29.39%) Active Directory
2 32 (3.82%) VMware Infrastructure
3 21 (2.51%) Hyper-V
4 20 (2.39%) Virtual Desktop
5 16 (1.91%) VMware NSX
6 11 (1.31%) Firmware
7 10 (1.19%) Brightmail
7 10 (1.19%) Docker
7 10 (1.19%) ISA Server
7 10 (1.19%) vSphere
8 3 (0.36%) Terminal Services
9 2 (0.24%) Microsoft App-V
9 2 (0.24%) NFS
9 2 (0.24%) Virtual Machines
9 2 (0.24%) Virtual Servers
9 2 (0.24%) VMware Workstation
10 1 (0.12%) BitLocker
10 1 (0.12%) DFS Replication
10 1 (0.12%) VMware ESXi
10 1 (0.12%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 96 (11.47%) Microsoft Intune
2 78 (9.32%) SCCM
3 32 (3.82%) Jamf Pro
4 24 (2.87%) Ansible
5 20 (2.39%) Terraform
6 18 (2.15%) vCenter Server
7 11 (1.31%) Kubernetes
8 10 (1.19%) Microsoft Clustering
8 10 (1.19%) SCOM
9 7 (0.84%) Grafana
10 6 (0.72%) Red Hat Satellite
11 5 (0.60%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 5 (0.60%) AirWatch
12 4 (0.48%) ITRS Geneos
12 4 (0.48%) Kibana
13 3 (0.36%) Single Sign-On
14 2 (0.24%) AppManager
14 2 (0.24%) Autotask
14 2 (0.24%) FortiGate
14 2 (0.24%) WSUS
Vendors
1 327 (39.07%) Microsoft
2 103 (12.31%) ServiceNow
3 58 (6.93%) Cisco
4 51 (6.09%) Apple
4 51 (6.09%) Oracle
5 47 (5.62%) VMware
6 33 (3.94%) Juniper
7 28 (3.35%) SAP
8 26 (3.11%) Citrix
8 26 (3.11%) SolarWinds
9 24 (2.87%) HP
10 22 (2.63%) Splunk
11 20 (2.39%) Google
11 20 (2.39%) Red Hat
12 13 (1.55%) Remedy
13 11 (1.31%) Dell
14 9 (1.08%) Bloomberg
15 7 (0.84%) McAfee
15 7 (0.84%) Starlink
16 6 (0.72%) Meraki