Support Engineer Contract Job Trends

Support Engineer
UK

The median Support Engineer daily rate in the UK is £238, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 20 August 2026.

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

6 months to
20 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 164 132 119
Rank change year-on-year -32 -13 -29
Contract jobs requiring a Support Engineer 893 706 757
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.67% 2.15% 1.95%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.80% 2.36% 2.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 592 462 522
10th Percentile £163 £160 £140
25th Percentile £189 £200 £180
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £238 £238 £235
Median % change year-on-year - +1.06% -6.00%
75th Percentile £400 £385 £350
90th Percentile £499 £538 £536
UK excluding London median daily rate £225 £230 £220
% change year-on-year -2.17% +4.55% -1.12%
Number of hourly rates quoted 47 71 47
10th Percentile £16.66 £16.50 £16.25
25th Percentile £18.38 £20.95 £18.08
Median hourly rate £24.00 £25.25 £22.00
Median % change year-on-year -4.95% +14.77% +15.79%
75th Percentile £36.75 £43.75 £24.59
90th Percentile £53.00 £68.00 £58.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.00 £25.15 £22.00
% change year-on-year -12.52% +14.32% +17.33%

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 49,489 29,958 36,053
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.49% 91.24% 92.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,683 18,934 23,125
10th Percentile £325 £280 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.87%
75th Percentile £625 £620 £638
90th Percentile £730 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,498 1,546 1,979
10th Percentile £15.00 £13.63 £14.16
25th Percentile £20.62 £17.30 £20.00
Median hourly rate £41.74 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +65.94% -41.51% +2.38%
75th Percentile £67.84 £53.99 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £72.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.90
% change year-on-year +68.99% -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 20 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 20 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 20 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 -45 755 £225 -8.16% 316
UK excluding London -36 578 £225 -2.17% 283
London -33 275 £275 +10.00% 70
South East -31 160 £250 - 98
North of England -11 136 £200 -9.09% 52
North West +3 92 £200 -12.09% 27
Work from Home -82 88 £300 -13.04% 73
Scotland +57 84 £437 +48.14% 16
Midlands -64 64 £250 -9.09% 45
East of England 0 61 £195 -2.50% 41
South West -60 58 £210 -10.64% 38
West Midlands -71 42 £250 -9.09% 22
Yorkshire -19 41 £200 -11.11% 22
East Midlands -13 21 £270 +47.54% 23
Wales -28 11 £438 +105.88% 2
Northern Ireland +1 4 £175 -30.00% 5
North East -47 4 £239 +22.44% 7
Channel Islands - 1 £550 -

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

For the 6 months to 20 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.

1 492 (55.10%) Windows
2 399 (44.68%) Microsoft
3 389 (43.56%) Active Directory
4 337 (37.74%) Microsoft 365
5 214 (23.96%) Problem-Solving
6 208 (23.29%) Customer Service
7 188 (21.05%) Windows 10
8 182 (20.38%) Security Cleared
9 179 (20.04%) ITIL
10 151 (16.91%) Azure
11 136 (15.23%) Entra ID
11 136 (15.23%) Microsoft Intune
12 129 (14.45%) ServiceNow
13 118 (13.21%) ITSM
14 114 (12.77%) SharePoint
15 113 (12.65%) SC Cleared
16 103 (11.53%) PowerShell
17 99 (11.09%) DNS
18 78 (8.73%) Continuous Improvement
19 76 (8.51%) Linux
19 76 (8.51%) Windows Server
20 72 (8.06%) SQL
21 71 (7.95%) Asset Management
22 69 (7.73%) VPN
23 68 (7.61%) Microsoft Exchange
23 68 (7.61%) Service Delivery
23 68 (7.61%) TCP/IP
24 67 (7.50%) Degree
25 66 (7.39%) Migration
26 64 (7.17%) Service Management

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
1 114 (12.77%) SharePoint
2 68 (7.61%) Microsoft Exchange
3 12 (1.34%) NetWeaver
4 11 (1.23%) HCL Notes
5 4 (0.45%) Skype for Business
6 3 (0.34%) Confluence
6 3 (0.34%) MTS
7 2 (0.22%) Exchange Server 2013
7 2 (0.22%) IIS
7 2 (0.22%) OpenStack
7 2 (0.22%) WebSphere
8 1 (0.11%) Tuxedo
8 1 (0.11%) WebLogic
Applications
1 50 (5.60%) Microsoft Office
2 14 (1.57%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.45%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.22%) Acrobat
4 2 (0.22%) MS Visio
5 1 (0.11%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 11 (1.23%) SAP S/4HANA
2 7 (0.78%) Remedy ITSM
3 4 (0.45%) SAP EHS
4 3 (0.34%) SAP Retail
5 2 (0.22%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.11%) Alphatax
6 1 (0.11%) Bloomberg TOMS
6 1 (0.11%) Dynamics CRM
6 1 (0.11%) Dynamics GP
6 1 (0.11%) Oracle BRM
6 1 (0.11%) SAP BRIM
6 1 (0.11%) SAP FI
6 1 (0.11%) SAP FI-CA
6 1 (0.11%) SAP FS
6 1 (0.11%) SAP GRC
Cloud Services
1 337 (37.74%) Microsoft 365
2 151 (16.91%) Azure
3 136 (15.23%) Entra ID
4 45 (5.04%) OneDrive
5 40 (4.48%) AWS
6 21 (2.35%) SaaS
7 19 (2.13%) GCP
8 15 (1.68%) Azure DevOps
9 11 (1.23%) Power Platform
10 8 (0.90%) Google Workspace
11 6 (0.67%) IaaS
11 6 (0.67%) Mimecast
11 6 (0.67%) PaaS
12 5 (0.56%) AWS CloudFormation
13 4 (0.45%) Cloud Functions
13 4 (0.45%) Google App Engine
13 4 (0.45%) Google Compute Engine
13 4 (0.45%) Google Kubernetes Engine
14 3 (0.34%) Amazon EC2
14 3 (0.34%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 99 (11.09%) DNS
2 69 (7.73%) VPN
3 68 (7.61%) TCP/IP
4 57 (6.38%) DHCP
5 41 (4.59%) Wi-Fi
6 35 (3.92%) LAN
7 28 (3.14%) WAN
8 24 (2.69%) Firewall
9 21 (2.35%) Internet
10 19 (2.13%) SAN
11 16 (1.79%) VLAN
12 10 (1.12%) Wireless
13 8 (0.90%) Skype
14 5 (0.56%) HTTP
14 5 (0.56%) Network Security
14 5 (0.56%) SMTP
14 5 (0.56%) WebEx
14 5 (0.56%) WLAN
15 4 (0.45%) Remote Desktop
15 4 (0.45%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 41 (4.59%) SQL Server
2 17 (1.90%) MySQL
3 12 (1.34%) SAP HANA
4 11 (1.23%) Sybase ASE
5 10 (1.12%) MaxDB
6 9 (1.01%) Power BI
7 8 (0.90%) Relational Database
8 7 (0.78%) Amazon Redshift
8 7 (0.78%) Pentaho
8 7 (0.78%) PostgreSQL
9 5 (0.56%) Amazon RDS
9 5 (0.56%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 4 (0.45%) Oracle Database
11 3 (0.34%) Big Data
11 3 (0.34%) Data Warehouse
11 3 (0.34%) Elasticsearch
11 3 (0.34%) KDB
11 3 (0.34%) Oracle Database 12c
11 3 (0.34%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 2 (0.22%) MariaDB
Development Applications
1 56 (6.27%) JIRA
2 21 (2.35%) Git
3 9 (1.01%) Browser DevTools
4 4 (0.45%) Jenkins
5 3 (0.34%) Android Studio
5 3 (0.34%) Artifactory
5 3 (0.34%) Eclipse
5 3 (0.34%) Xcode
6 2 (0.22%) Bitbucket
6 2 (0.22%) Firebug
7 1 (0.11%) Claude Code
7 1 (0.11%) Gemini Tracker
7 1 (0.11%) GitLab
7 1 (0.11%) MSI
7 1 (0.11%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 1 (0.11%) Subversion
7 1 (0.11%) TeamCity
7 1 (0.11%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 359 (40.20%) Social Skills
2 110 (12.32%) Analytical Skills
3 79 (8.85%) Finance
4 40 (4.48%) Manufacturing
5 38 (4.26%) Banking
6 26 (2.91%) Organisational Skills
7 22 (2.46%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 21 (2.35%) Investment Banking
9 18 (2.02%) Retail
10 17 (1.90%) Documentation Skills
11 16 (1.79%) Front Office
12 14 (1.57%) Law
12 14 (1.57%) Telecoms
13 13 (1.46%) Legal
13 13 (1.46%) Public Sector
14 12 (1.34%) Financial Institution
15 10 (1.12%) Spanish Language
16 7 (0.78%) Aerospace
16 7 (0.78%) Marketing
17 6 (0.67%) Aviation
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (1.90%) .NET
2 15 (1.68%) Terraform
3 12 (1.34%) LDAP
4 11 (1.23%) SAP Basis
5 10 (1.12%) XML
6 8 (0.90%) Oracle GoldenGate
7 7 (0.78%) .NET Framework
7 7 (0.78%) JDO
7 7 (0.78%) REST
8 6 (0.67%) SAP Fiori
8 6 (0.67%) SAPUI5
8 6 (0.67%) Software Packaging
9 5 (0.56%) CSS
9 5 (0.56%) SAML
10 4 (0.45%) OAuth
11 3 (0.34%) AngularJS
11 3 (0.34%) GraphQL
11 3 (0.34%) Kafka
11 3 (0.34%) React
11 3 (0.34%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 120 (13.44%) Onboarding
2 33 (3.70%) Data Centre
3 29 (3.25%) Video Conferencing
4 23 (2.58%) Analytical Mindset
4 23 (2.58%) Self-Motivation
5 20 (2.24%) PKI
6 16 (1.79%) Data Protection Act
6 16 (1.79%) Driving Licence
6 16 (1.79%) Hedge funds
7 15 (1.68%) iPhone
8 13 (1.46%) Enterprise Software
8 13 (1.46%) Smartphone
9 12 (1.34%) Legacy Systems
10 11 (1.23%) Blackberry
11 10 (1.12%) iPad
11 10 (1.12%) Virtual Team
12 8 (0.90%) Management Information System
13 7 (0.78%) CMDB
13 7 (0.78%) Distributed Systems
13 7 (0.78%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 492 (55.10%) Windows
2 188 (21.05%) Windows 10
3 76 (8.51%) Linux
3 76 (8.51%) Windows Server
4 57 (6.38%) Mac OS
5 40 (4.48%) Apple iOS
6 39 (4.37%) Unix
7 36 (4.03%) Android
8 19 (2.13%) Windows 7
9 9 (1.01%) Ubuntu
9 9 (1.01%) Windows Server 2019
10 7 (0.78%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 5 (0.56%) Windows Server 2016
12 4 (0.45%) OpenVMS
12 4 (0.45%) Solaris
12 4 (0.45%) VMS
12 4 (0.45%) Windows Server 2008
12 4 (0.45%) Windows Server 2012
13 3 (0.34%) Windows XP
14 2 (0.22%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 214 (23.96%) Problem-Solving
2 208 (23.29%) Customer Service
3 179 (20.04%) ITIL
4 118 (13.21%) ITSM
5 78 (8.73%) Continuous Improvement
6 71 (7.95%) Asset Management
7 68 (7.61%) Service Delivery
8 66 (7.39%) Migration
9 64 (7.17%) Service Management
10 54 (6.05%) Problem Management
11 52 (5.82%) User Experience
12 50 (5.60%) Incident Management
12 50 (5.60%) Root Cause Analysis
13 47 (5.26%) Identity Access Management
14 43 (4.82%) Change Management
15 42 (4.70%) Infrastructure Engineering
16 38 (4.26%) Runbook
17 34 (3.81%) Data Protection
18 33 (3.70%) DevOps
19 29 (3.25%) High Availability
Programming Languages
1 103 (11.53%) PowerShell
2 72 (8.06%) SQL
3 45 (5.04%) Python
4 29 (3.25%) Java
5 24 (2.69%) C#
6 23 (2.58%) JavaScript
7 19 (2.13%) Bash
8 15 (1.68%) Shell Script
9 8 (0.90%) Korn
10 7 (0.78%) C++
11 5 (0.56%) Perl
11 5 (0.56%) T-SQL
12 3 (0.34%) Go
12 3 (0.34%) Tcl
13 2 (0.22%) DCL
13 2 (0.22%) VBA
14 1 (0.11%) C
14 1 (0.11%) Search Processing Language
14 1 (0.11%) VB.NET
14 1 (0.11%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 182 (20.38%) Security Cleared
2 113 (12.65%) SC Cleared
3 67 (7.50%) Degree
4 52 (5.82%) DV Cleared
5 32 (3.58%) A+ Certification
6 26 (2.91%) Microsoft Certification
7 20 (2.24%) Network+ Certification
8 18 (2.02%) Cisco Certification
9 17 (1.90%) CCNA
10 16 (1.79%) BPSS Clearance
11 15 (1.68%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
12 13 (1.46%) MCSE
13 11 (1.23%) DBS Check
14 10 (1.12%) Computer Science Degree
15 7 (0.78%) ITIL Certification
15 7 (0.78%) Microsoft Certified Professional
16 6 (0.67%) Azure Certification
17 4 (0.45%) NVQ Level 4
18 2 (0.22%) CCNP
19 1 (0.11%) CISA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 63 (7.05%) SLA
2 6 (0.67%) QA
3 5 (0.56%) Data Quality
4 4 (0.45%) Cyber Essentials
5 3 (0.34%) GDPR
5 3 (0.34%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 2 (0.22%) GxP
6 2 (0.22%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 1 (0.11%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.11%) Disclosure Scotland
7 1 (0.11%) GLP
7 1 (0.11%) GMP
7 1 (0.11%) GRC
7 1 (0.11%) ITGC
7 1 (0.11%) NCSC
System Software
1 389 (43.56%) Active Directory
2 48 (5.38%) VMware Infrastructure
3 27 (3.02%) Hyper-V
4 25 (2.80%) VMware ESXi
5 18 (2.02%) VMware NSX
6 17 (1.90%) Virtual Desktop
7 13 (1.46%) vCloud
8 10 (1.12%) Docker
9 8 (0.90%) Oracle RAC
10 7 (0.78%) vSphere
11 5 (0.56%) BitLocker
11 5 (0.56%) Firmware
11 5 (0.56%) NFS
12 3 (0.34%) Microsoft App-V
12 3 (0.34%) Terminal Services
13 2 (0.22%) zsh
14 1 (0.11%) Virtual Servers
14 1 (0.11%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 136 (15.23%) Microsoft Intune
2 56 (6.27%) SCCM
3 25 (2.80%) vCenter Server
4 21 (2.35%) Single Sign-On
5 19 (2.13%) SCOM
6 15 (1.68%) Jamf Pro
6 15 (1.68%) Kubernetes
7 14 (1.57%) Grafana
8 11 (1.23%) Ansible
9 8 (0.90%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
9 8 (0.90%) Oracle RMAN
10 7 (0.78%) WSUS
11 5 (0.56%) Red Hat Satellite
12 4 (0.45%) ITRS Geneos
13 3 (0.34%) AirWatch
13 3 (0.34%) Nagios
13 3 (0.34%) Prometheus
13 3 (0.34%) Puppet
13 3 (0.34%) vMotion
13 3 (0.34%) vRealize
Vendors
1 399 (44.68%) Microsoft
2 129 (14.45%) ServiceNow
3 63 (7.05%) VMware
4 39 (4.37%) Apple
5 34 (3.81%) Oracle
6 33 (3.70%) Okta
7 27 (3.02%) Cisco
7 27 (3.02%) Google
8 26 (2.91%) Citrix
9 23 (2.58%) SAP
10 21 (2.35%) BeyondTrust
11 17 (1.90%) Dell
12 15 (1.68%) Splunk
13 14 (1.57%) Meraki
13 14 (1.57%) Sybase
14 12 (1.34%) HP
14 12 (1.34%) iManage
15 11 (1.23%) Bloomberg
15 11 (1.23%) Lotus
15 11 (1.23%) Samsung