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 31 January 2026.

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

6 months to
31 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 137 147 98
Rank change year-on-year +10 -49 +42
Contract jobs requiring a Support Engineer 813 572 1,016
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.10% 1.82% 2.27%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.29% 1.96% 2.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 558 380 727
10th Percentile £151 £150 £140
25th Percentile £185 £182 £175
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £220 £225 £220
Median % change year-on-year -2.22% +2.27% -6.38%
75th Percentile £338 £353 £338
90th Percentile £500 £525 £490
UK excluding London median daily rate £208 £220 £205
% change year-on-year -5.47% +7.07% +0.49%
Number of hourly rates quoted 116 40 58
10th Percentile £17.14 £15.15 £16.25
25th Percentile £20.30 £20.43 £17.72
Median hourly rate £23.75 £23.00 £20.25
Median % change year-on-year +3.26% +13.58% +4.92%
75th Percentile £25.77 £25.14 £25.02
90th Percentile £36.00 £41.50 £43.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.50 £22.75 £20.00
% change year-on-year -1.10% +13.75% +14.29%

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 35,445 29,208 41,662
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.48% 92.89% 93.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,347 17,858 27,594
10th Percentile £300 £296 £275
25th Percentile £405 £409 £411
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £719 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £479 £495
% change year-on-year -0.84% -3.23% -1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,112 858 2,186
10th Percentile £14.38 £15.91 £13.25
25th Percentile £18.50 £21.25 £17.00
Median hourly rate £29.60 £32.50 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year -8.92% -10.96% +4.29%
75th Percentile £61.18 £62.50 £62.50
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.50 £31.52 £38.00
% change year-on-year -12.75% -17.05% +26.67%

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 31 January 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 31 January 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 31 January 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 +18 742 £220 -4.35% 390
UK excluding London +10 570 £208 -5.47% 394
London -10 207 £260 -5.45% 58
South East +14 163 £238 +16.10% 138
South West +19 111 £250 +11.11% 37
North of England -9 107 £190 -13.64% 80
Midlands +3 102 £200 -20.00% 57
Work from Home -15 98 £250 -17.01% 90
West Midlands -13 68 £235 -9.62% 30
North West -11 58 £152 -29.53% 44
East of England +3 54 £200 -9.09% 46
Yorkshire -25 39 £205 -8.89% 29
East Midlands +4 36 £200 +5.26% 27
Scotland -2 32 £200 +19.76% 28
North East -8 10 £106 -48.29% 11
Wales -6 8 £200 - 8
Northern Ireland -2 3 £163 +9.80% 5

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

For the 6 months to 31 January 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.

1 408 (50.18%) Windows
2 300 (36.90%) Microsoft
3 244 (30.01%) Security Cleared
4 243 (29.89%) Microsoft 365
5 222 (27.31%) Active Directory
6 189 (23.25%) SC Cleared
7 173 (21.28%) Windows 10
8 168 (20.66%) Customer Service
9 159 (19.56%) Problem-Solving
10 112 (13.78%) Azure
11 99 (12.18%) ITIL
12 97 (11.93%) Microsoft Intune
12 97 (11.93%) ServiceNow
13 92 (11.32%) Linux
14 75 (9.23%) Migration
15 70 (8.61%) ITSM
15 70 (8.61%) SCCM
16 69 (8.49%) Microsoft Office
17 65 (8.00%) PowerShell
18 64 (7.87%) DNS
18 64 (7.87%) SharePoint
19 63 (7.75%) Service Management
20 60 (7.38%) DHCP
21 59 (7.26%) TCP/IP
21 59 (7.26%) VPN
22 56 (6.89%) DV Cleared
23 54 (6.64%) Android
24 52 (6.40%) Asset Management
25 50 (6.15%) Infrastructure Engineering
25 50 (6.15%) 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 64 (7.87%) SharePoint
2 49 (6.03%) Microsoft Exchange
3 17 (2.09%) Skype for Business
4 4 (0.49%) Apache
4 4 (0.49%) Confluence
4 4 (0.49%) SharePoint Server
5 3 (0.37%) Exchange Server 2003
5 3 (0.37%) Exchange Server 2007
5 3 (0.37%) Exchange Server 2010
5 3 (0.37%) Exchange Server 2013
5 3 (0.37%) Office Communications Server
6 2 (0.25%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.25%) Apache Spark
6 2 (0.25%) ArcGIS
6 2 (0.25%) IIS
6 2 (0.25%) Jupyter
6 2 (0.25%) Palantir Foundry
6 2 (0.25%) Smallworld
Applications
1 69 (8.49%) Microsoft Office
2 24 (2.95%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (0.37%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.12%) AutoCAD
4 1 (0.12%) DaVinci Resolve
4 1 (0.12%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.12%) OmniGraffle
4 1 (0.12%) Pro Tools
4 1 (0.12%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 9 (1.11%) SAP EHS
2 7 (0.86%) Remedy ITSM
2 7 (0.86%) Shopify
3 5 (0.62%) Primavera
4 3 (0.37%) NetSuite
4 3 (0.37%) Teamcenter
5 1 (0.12%) Aladdin
5 1 (0.12%) assyst
5 1 (0.12%) Bloomberg TOMS
5 1 (0.12%) Eikon
5 1 (0.12%) Fidessa
5 1 (0.12%) Oracle EBS
5 1 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
5 1 (0.12%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 243 (29.89%) Microsoft 365
2 112 (13.78%) Azure
3 48 (5.90%) Entra ID
4 32 (3.94%) AWS
5 29 (3.57%) OneDrive
6 27 (3.32%) SaaS
7 17 (2.09%) Google Workspace
8 16 (1.97%) Sauce Labs
9 10 (1.23%) Dynamics 365
9 10 (1.23%) Power Platform
10 7 (0.86%) npm
11 5 (0.62%) Azure Data Factory
11 5 (0.62%) Azure DevOps
12 4 (0.49%) Amazon S3
12 4 (0.49%) Microsoft Purview
12 4 (0.49%) OpenShift
13 3 (0.37%) GitHub
13 3 (0.37%) PowerApps
13 3 (0.37%) Slack
14 2 (0.25%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 64 (7.87%) DNS
2 60 (7.38%) DHCP
3 59 (7.26%) TCP/IP
3 59 (7.26%) VPN
4 48 (5.90%) Wi-Fi
5 33 (4.06%) Firewall
5 33 (4.06%) Wireless
6 32 (3.94%) WAN
7 29 (3.57%) LAN
8 21 (2.58%) VLAN
9 18 (2.21%) Junos
10 16 (1.97%) Cisco IOS
10 16 (1.97%) MPLS
11 15 (1.85%) Cisco Firepower
11 15 (1.85%) Cisco ISE
11 15 (1.85%) Skype
12 14 (1.72%) BGP
12 14 (1.72%) IPsec
12 14 (1.72%) Network Security
13 13 (1.60%) PABX
Database & Business Intelligence
1 24 (2.95%) Relational Database
2 20 (2.46%) MySQL
3 13 (1.60%) SQL Server
4 7 (0.86%) Power BI
5 6 (0.74%) Amazon Redshift
5 6 (0.74%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 4 (0.49%) Amazon Athena
6 4 (0.49%) RDBMS
7 3 (0.37%) InfluxDB
7 3 (0.37%) Oracle Database
8 2 (0.25%) GIS
8 2 (0.25%) Tableau
9 1 (0.12%) Apache Cassandra
9 1 (0.12%) Azure SQL Database
9 1 (0.12%) Elasticsearch
9 1 (0.12%) Electronic Patient Records
9 1 (0.12%) MariaDB
9 1 (0.12%) Oracle ODI
9 1 (0.12%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 21 (2.58%) Browser DevTools
1 21 (2.58%) JIRA
2 16 (1.97%) Android Studio
2 16 (1.97%) Eclipse
2 16 (1.97%) Xcode
3 9 (1.11%) Git
4 7 (0.86%) Maven
5 4 (0.49%) Firebug
6 3 (0.37%) Jenkins
7 2 (0.25%) Fiddler
7 2 (0.25%) MSI
8 1 (0.12%) Bitbucket
8 1 (0.12%) ClearCase
8 1 (0.12%) Hudson
8 1 (0.12%) RStudio
General
1 352 (43.30%) Social Skills
2 73 (8.98%) Finance
3 57 (7.01%) Analytical Skills
4 54 (6.64%) Public Sector
5 46 (5.66%) Manufacturing
6 42 (5.17%) Banking
7 27 (3.32%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 24 (2.95%) Organisational Skills
9 23 (2.83%) Aerospace
10 21 (2.58%) Telecoms
11 16 (1.97%) Investment Banking
12 14 (1.72%) Electronics
12 14 (1.72%) Law
12 14 (1.72%) Marketing
13 13 (1.60%) Front Office
14 11 (1.35%) Aviation
15 9 (1.11%) Documentation Skills
16 8 (0.98%) Legal
17 6 (0.74%) Automotive
18 5 (0.62%) French Language
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (3.08%) Middleware
2 21 (2.58%) CSS
3 17 (2.09%) Ajax
3 17 (2.09%) AngularJS
3 17 (2.09%) GraphQL
3 17 (2.09%) React
4 6 (0.74%) PySpark
4 6 (0.74%) REST
5 5 (0.62%) SOAP
5 5 (0.62%) XML
5 5 (0.62%) YAML
6 4 (0.49%) HTML
6 4 (0.49%) JDO
6 4 (0.49%) Microsoft Graph
7 2 (0.25%) .NET
7 2 (0.25%) ADO
7 2 (0.25%) EDI
7 2 (0.25%) Kafka
7 2 (0.25%) OAuth
7 2 (0.25%) OpenTelemetry
Miscellaneous
1 44 (5.41%) Onboarding
2 38 (4.67%) Self-Motivation
3 30 (3.69%) Driving Licence
4 25 (3.08%) PKI
5 24 (2.95%) Smartphone
6 21 (2.58%) Data Centre
7 17 (2.09%) Mobile App
8 16 (1.97%) Data Protection Act
9 14 (1.72%) Analytical Mindset
10 13 (1.60%) Management Information System
11 12 (1.48%) iPhone
12 11 (1.35%) Video Conferencing
12 11 (1.35%) Virtual Team
13 10 (1.23%) Enterprise Software
14 8 (0.98%) Hybrid Cloud
15 7 (0.86%) iPad
15 7 (0.86%) Legacy Systems
16 5 (0.62%) Replication
17 4 (0.49%) CCTV
17 4 (0.49%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 408 (50.18%) Windows
2 173 (21.28%) Windows 10
3 92 (11.32%) Linux
4 54 (6.64%) Android
5 50 (6.15%) Windows Server
6 45 (5.54%) Mac OS
7 42 (5.17%) Apple iOS
8 31 (3.81%) Unix
9 12 (1.48%) Ubuntu
10 10 (1.23%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 9 (1.11%) Windows 7
12 4 (0.49%) CentOS
12 4 (0.49%) Windows Server 2016
13 3 (0.37%) Windows Server 2003
13 3 (0.37%) Windows Server 2012
14 2 (0.25%) Windows Server 2019
15 1 (0.12%) Mac OS X
15 1 (0.12%) Windows 8
15 1 (0.12%) Windows XP
Processes & Methodologies
1 168 (20.66%) Customer Service
2 159 (19.56%) Problem-Solving
3 99 (12.18%) ITIL
4 75 (9.23%) Migration
5 70 (8.61%) ITSM
6 63 (7.75%) Service Management
7 52 (6.40%) Asset Management
8 50 (6.15%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 47 (5.78%) Workflow
10 38 (4.67%) User Experience
11 37 (4.55%) Workflow Management
12 32 (3.94%) Root Cause Analysis
13 29 (3.57%) Logistics
13 29 (3.57%) Service Delivery
14 27 (3.32%) Continuous Improvement
14 27 (3.32%) Stakeholder Management
15 26 (3.20%) Cybersecurity
16 25 (3.08%) OO
17 23 (2.83%) Incident Management
18 21 (2.58%) Data Protection
Programming Languages
1 65 (8.00%) PowerShell
2 37 (4.55%) Java
3 36 (4.43%) JavaScript
3 36 (4.43%) Python
4 31 (3.81%) SQL
5 18 (2.21%) Perl
6 17 (2.09%) Shell Script
7 13 (1.60%) C
7 13 (1.60%) C++
8 12 (1.48%) Ada
9 11 (1.35%) Bash
10 3 (0.37%) C#
11 2 (0.25%) AWK
11 2 (0.25%) Magik
11 2 (0.25%) TypeScript
11 2 (0.25%) VB.NET
12 1 (0.12%) PL/SQL
12 1 (0.12%) R
12 1 (0.12%) Tcl
12 1 (0.12%) VBA
Qualifications
1 244 (30.01%) Security Cleared
2 189 (23.25%) SC Cleared
3 56 (6.89%) DV Cleared
4 34 (4.18%) Degree
5 26 (3.20%) Microsoft Certification
6 19 (2.34%) Azure Certification
7 12 (1.48%) Network+ Certification
8 11 (1.35%) Server+ Certification
9 10 (1.23%) BPSS Clearance
10 9 (1.11%) A+ Certification
11 8 (0.98%) DBS Check
11 8 (0.98%) ITIL Certification
12 5 (0.62%) Computer Science Degree
13 4 (0.49%) Microsoft Certified Professional
14 3 (0.37%) CCNA
14 3 (0.37%) Cisco Certification
14 3 (0.37%) Master's Degree
14 3 (0.37%) MCSE
15 2 (0.25%) CompTIA Security+
15 2 (0.25%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 31 (3.81%) SLA
2 7 (0.86%) GDPR
3 5 (0.62%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 4 (0.49%) QA
5 2 (0.25%) Cyber Essentials
6 1 (0.12%) Accessibility
6 1 (0.12%) Data Quality
6 1 (0.12%) GAAP
6 1 (0.12%) IFRS
6 1 (0.12%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 1 (0.12%) SOC 2
System Software
1 222 (27.31%) Active Directory
2 30 (3.69%) VMware Infrastructure
3 18 (2.21%) Hyper-V
4 16 (1.97%) VMware NSX
5 15 (1.85%) Virtual Desktop
6 8 (0.98%) Docker
7 7 (0.86%) Firmware
8 5 (0.62%) vSphere
9 3 (0.37%) Brightmail
9 3 (0.37%) ISA Server
9 3 (0.37%) Virtual Servers
10 2 (0.25%) NFS
11 1 (0.12%) BitLocker
11 1 (0.12%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 1 (0.12%) Virtual Machines
11 1 (0.12%) VMware ESXi
11 1 (0.12%) VMware Workstation
11 1 (0.12%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 97 (11.93%) Microsoft Intune
2 70 (8.61%) SCCM
3 30 (3.69%) Jamf Pro
4 20 (2.46%) Ansible
5 18 (2.21%) vCenter Server
6 12 (1.48%) Grafana
6 12 (1.48%) Terraform
7 6 (0.74%) Kubernetes
7 6 (0.74%) Red Hat Satellite
8 5 (0.62%) Kibana
8 5 (0.62%) Single Sign-On
9 4 (0.49%) ITRS Geneos
10 3 (0.37%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 3 (0.37%) Microsoft Clustering
10 3 (0.37%) SCOM
11 2 (0.25%) FortiGate
11 2 (0.25%) Prometheus
11 2 (0.25%) WSUS
12 1 (0.12%) Failover Clustering
12 1 (0.12%) logstash
Vendors
1 300 (36.90%) Microsoft
2 97 (11.93%) ServiceNow
3 44 (5.41%) VMware
4 43 (5.29%) Cisco
5 37 (4.55%) Apple
6 35 (4.31%) Oracle
7 29 (3.57%) Juniper
8 28 (3.44%) SAP
9 23 (2.83%) HP
10 21 (2.58%) SolarWinds
11 20 (2.46%) Google
12 19 (2.34%) Dell
12 19 (2.34%) Red Hat
12 19 (2.34%) Splunk
13 14 (1.72%) Citrix
14 10 (1.23%) Bloomberg
14 10 (1.23%) Remedy
15 7 (0.86%) McAfee
15 7 (0.86%) New Relic
15 7 (0.86%) Twitter