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 May 2026.

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

6 months to
31 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 171 127 108
Rank change year-on-year -44 -19 +12
Contract jobs requiring a Support Engineer 762 629 860
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.55% 2.16% 2.00%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.68% 2.34% 2.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 500 400 592
10th Percentile £153 £153 £140
25th Percentile £185 £200 £163
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £220 £250 £213
Median % change year-on-year -12.00% +17.65% -15.00%
75th Percentile £382 £385 £338
90th Percentile £488 £501 £450
UK excluding London median daily rate £207 £230 £200
% change year-on-year -10.00% +15.00% -5.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 71 54 51
10th Percentile £18.07 £18.10 £16.25
25th Percentile £19.69 £19.04 £18.00
Median hourly rate £23.58 £24.83 £22.15
Median % change year-on-year -5.05% +12.10% +2.22%
75th Percentile £36.00 £35.63 £36.88
90th Percentile £38.75 £68.00 £46.39
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.50 £24.66 £22.00
% change year-on-year -8.76% +12.09% +10.00%

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 45,355 26,885 39,823
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.32% 92.36% 92.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,657 17,423 25,822
10th Percentile £325 £289 £280
25th Percentile £413 £405 £409
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £505 £525
Median % change year-on-year +1.49% -3.81% -2.78%
75th Percentile £619 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +5.26% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,017 1,065 2,805
10th Percentile £15.05 £14.00 £12.82
25th Percentile £20.51 £17.88 £16.30
Median hourly rate £42.50 £28.18 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +50.82% -24.85% -16.67%
75th Percentile £67.25 £60.00 £61.30
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.69 £26.28 £40.00
% change year-on-year +66.25% -34.30% -6.98%

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 May 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 May 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 31 May 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 -50 670 £210 -16.00% 227
UK excluding London -41 518 £207 -10.00% 210
London -49 214 £275 -2.22% 51
South East -28 147 £210 -16.00% 85
Midlands -33 89 £200 -23.81% 25
Work from Home -72 89 £220 -26.67% 66
North of England -74 88 £190 -11.63% 46
South West -38 72 £210 -10.64% 19
East of England -15 59 £200 -9.09% 28
North West -44 54 £190 -11.63% 26
Scotland +30 52 £350 +25.00% 10
West Midlands -60 51 £238 -13.64% 14
East Midlands +5 39 £200 -5.88% 11
Yorkshire -45 32 £190 -19.15% 14
Wales -19 9 £250 +25.00% 2
Northern Ireland +1 4 £175 +16.67% 2
North East -36 2 £290 +48.72% 8
Channel Islands - 1 £550 -

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

For the 6 months to 31 May 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.

1 350 (45.93%) Windows
2 266 (34.91%) Active Directory
2 266 (34.91%) Microsoft
3 235 (30.84%) Microsoft 365
4 163 (21.39%) Windows 10
5 153 (20.08%) Security Cleared
6 145 (19.03%) Customer Service
6 145 (19.03%) Problem-Solving
7 139 (18.24%) Azure
8 113 (14.83%) ITIL
9 110 (14.44%) SC Cleared
10 101 (13.25%) Microsoft Intune
11 89 (11.68%) ServiceNow
12 77 (10.10%) Entra ID
13 64 (8.40%) ITSM
14 63 (8.27%) PowerShell
15 60 (7.87%) SQL
16 59 (7.74%) Migration
16 59 (7.74%) SharePoint
17 57 (7.48%) DNS
18 53 (6.96%) JIRA
19 48 (6.30%) Linux
20 45 (5.91%) Wi-Fi
21 44 (5.77%) SCCM
21 44 (5.77%) Windows Server
22 42 (5.51%) Unix
23 41 (5.38%) Continuous Improvement
23 41 (5.38%) DHCP
23 41 (5.38%) VPN
24 40 (5.25%) 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 59 (7.74%) SharePoint
2 30 (3.94%) Microsoft Exchange
3 11 (1.44%) NetWeaver
4 7 (0.92%) HCL Notes
5 4 (0.52%) Confluence
5 4 (0.52%) IIS
6 3 (0.39%) Skype for Business
7 2 (0.26%) Apache
7 2 (0.26%) OpenStack
7 2 (0.26%) WebLogic
8 1 (0.13%) Tuxedo
8 1 (0.13%) WebSphere
Applications
1 38 (4.99%) Microsoft Office
2 14 (1.84%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.52%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 10 (1.31%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (0.79%) SAP EHS
2 6 (0.79%) Shopify
2 6 (0.79%) Teamcenter
3 5 (0.66%) Remedy ITSM
4 2 (0.26%) NetSuite
5 1 (0.13%) Alphatax
5 1 (0.13%) Dynamics CRM
5 1 (0.13%) Dynamics GP
5 1 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
5 1 (0.13%) SAP GRC
Cloud Services
1 235 (30.84%) Microsoft 365
2 139 (18.24%) Azure
3 77 (10.10%) Entra ID
4 29 (3.81%) AWS
5 24 (3.15%) SaaS
6 22 (2.89%) Azure DevOps
7 21 (2.76%) OneDrive
8 11 (1.44%) Power Platform
9 10 (1.31%) Dynamics 365
9 10 (1.31%) GCP
10 6 (0.79%) Amazon S3
10 6 (0.79%) Azure Data Factory
10 6 (0.79%) PaaS
10 6 (0.79%) Sauce Labs
11 4 (0.52%) Datadog
11 4 (0.52%) Google Workspace
11 4 (0.52%) Mimecast
11 4 (0.52%) Snowflake
12 3 (0.39%) GitHub
12 3 (0.39%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 57 (7.48%) DNS
2 45 (5.91%) Wi-Fi
3 41 (5.38%) DHCP
3 41 (5.38%) VPN
4 39 (5.12%) LAN
5 33 (4.33%) TCP/IP
6 23 (3.02%) WAN
7 22 (2.89%) SAN
8 14 (1.84%) VLAN
9 13 (1.71%) Firewall
9 13 (1.71%) Internet
10 11 (1.44%) WLAN
11 8 (1.05%) Wireless
12 7 (0.92%) HTTP
13 6 (0.79%) VoIP
14 5 (0.66%) Skype
15 4 (0.52%) Unified Communications
16 3 (0.39%) Remote Desktop
17 2 (0.26%) VSAN
17 2 (0.26%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 31 (4.07%) SQL Server
2 20 (2.62%) MySQL
3 14 (1.84%) Relational Database
4 13 (1.71%) Amazon Redshift
5 11 (1.44%) SAP HANA
6 10 (1.31%) Sybase ASE
7 9 (1.18%) MaxDB
7 9 (1.18%) Power BI
7 9 (1.18%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 7 (0.92%) Pentaho
9 5 (0.66%) Oracle Database
9 5 (0.66%) PostgreSQL
10 4 (0.52%) Amazon Athena
10 4 (0.52%) Oracle Database 12c
11 3 (0.39%) MariaDB
12 2 (0.26%) Amazon RDS
12 2 (0.26%) Azure SQL Database
12 2 (0.26%) Data Warehouse
12 2 (0.26%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 1 (0.13%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 53 (6.96%) JIRA
2 19 (2.49%) Git
3 13 (1.71%) Browser DevTools
4 6 (0.79%) Android Studio
4 6 (0.79%) Eclipse
4 6 (0.79%) Xcode
5 3 (0.39%) Firebug
6 2 (0.26%) Jenkins
6 2 (0.26%) Maven
7 1 (0.13%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 1 (0.13%) Claude Code
7 1 (0.13%) Gemini Tracker
7 1 (0.13%) MSI
7 1 (0.13%) RStudio
7 1 (0.13%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 1 (0.13%) Subversion
7 1 (0.13%) TeamCity
7 1 (0.13%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 292 (38.32%) Social Skills
2 83 (10.89%) Analytical Skills
3 54 (7.09%) Finance
4 46 (6.04%) Manufacturing
5 37 (4.86%) Banking
6 22 (2.89%) Investment Banking
7 21 (2.76%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 19 (2.49%) Law
9 18 (2.36%) Aerospace
10 16 (2.10%) Organisational Skills
11 15 (1.97%) Aviation
12 11 (1.44%) Documentation Skills
13 9 (1.18%) Front Office
13 9 (1.18%) Legal
14 8 (1.05%) Public Sector
14 8 (1.05%) Retail
15 6 (0.79%) French Language
15 6 (0.79%) Marketing
15 6 (0.79%) Pharmaceutical
15 6 (0.79%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (1.31%) Oracle GoldenGate
1 10 (1.31%) SAP Basis
2 9 (1.18%) CSS
2 9 (1.18%) REST
3 7 (0.92%) JDO
4 6 (0.79%) .NET
4 6 (0.79%) Ajax
4 6 (0.79%) AngularJS
4 6 (0.79%) GraphQL
4 6 (0.79%) React
5 5 (0.66%) PySpark
5 5 (0.66%) SAML
5 5 (0.66%) SAP Fiori
5 5 (0.66%) SAPUI5
5 5 (0.66%) YAML
6 4 (0.52%) HTML
6 4 (0.52%) Middleware
6 4 (0.52%) OAuth
7 3 (0.39%) JSP
7 3 (0.39%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 59 (7.74%) Onboarding
2 30 (3.94%) Data Centre
3 24 (3.15%) Self-Motivation
4 23 (3.02%) Analytical Mindset
5 17 (2.23%) Virtual Team
6 16 (2.10%) Enterprise Software
7 14 (1.84%) Smartphone
8 13 (1.71%) Data Protection Act
9 11 (1.44%) Driving Licence
9 11 (1.44%) iPhone
9 11 (1.44%) Legacy Systems
9 11 (1.44%) PKI
10 10 (1.31%) SCADA
11 8 (1.05%) Hybrid Cloud
12 7 (0.92%) Blackberry
12 7 (0.92%) Video Conferencing
13 6 (0.79%) Hedge funds
13 6 (0.79%) Mobile App
14 5 (0.66%) CCTV
15 4 (0.52%) iPad
Operating Systems
1 350 (45.93%) Windows
2 163 (21.39%) Windows 10
3 48 (6.30%) Linux
4 44 (5.77%) Windows Server
5 42 (5.51%) Unix
6 38 (4.99%) Mac OS
7 21 (2.76%) Android
7 21 (2.76%) Apple iOS
8 14 (1.84%) Windows 7
9 6 (0.79%) Windows Server 2016
10 5 (0.66%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 4 (0.52%) Solaris
11 4 (0.52%) Windows Server 2019
12 3 (0.39%) Windows Server 2012
13 2 (0.26%) Mac OS X
13 2 (0.26%) Ubuntu
14 1 (0.13%) CentOS
14 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2008
14 1 (0.13%) Windows XP
Processes & Methodologies
1 145 (19.03%) Customer Service
1 145 (19.03%) Problem-Solving
2 113 (14.83%) ITIL
3 64 (8.40%) ITSM
4 59 (7.74%) Migration
5 41 (5.38%) Continuous Improvement
6 39 (5.12%) Change Management
7 38 (4.99%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 35 (4.59%) Service Delivery
9 34 (4.46%) Asset Management
9 34 (4.46%) Root Cause Analysis
9 34 (4.46%) User Experience
10 33 (4.33%) DevOps
10 33 (4.33%) Incident Management
11 30 (3.94%) Service Management
12 27 (3.54%) Problem Management
13 25 (3.28%) Data Protection
14 23 (3.02%) CI/CD
15 22 (2.89%) Break/Fix
16 21 (2.76%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 63 (8.27%) PowerShell
2 60 (7.87%) SQL
3 29 (3.81%) Python
4 21 (2.76%) Java
5 20 (2.62%) C#
6 19 (2.49%) JavaScript
7 15 (1.97%) Shell Script
8 10 (1.31%) Bash
8 10 (1.31%) Korn
8 10 (1.31%) Perl
9 6 (0.79%) C++
10 1 (0.13%) C
10 1 (0.13%) R
10 1 (0.13%) T-SQL
10 1 (0.13%) VB.NET
10 1 (0.13%) VBA
10 1 (0.13%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 153 (20.08%) Security Cleared
2 110 (14.44%) SC Cleared
3 40 (5.25%) Degree
4 32 (4.20%) DV Cleared
5 24 (3.15%) Microsoft Certification
6 22 (2.89%) A+ Certification
7 20 (2.62%) CCNA
7 20 (2.62%) Cisco Certification
8 18 (2.36%) Network+ Certification
9 16 (2.10%) MCSE
10 12 (1.57%) BPSS Clearance
11 10 (1.31%) Computer Science Degree
12 9 (1.18%) Azure Certification
13 7 (0.92%) DBS Check
14 5 (0.66%) ITIL Certification
15 4 (0.52%) NVQ Level 4
16 3 (0.39%) Microsoft Certified Professional
17 1 (0.13%) CCNP
17 1 (0.13%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
17 1 (0.13%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (4.33%) SLA
2 5 (0.66%) Cyber Essentials
3 4 (0.52%) GDPR
4 3 (0.39%) Data Quality
4 3 (0.39%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 3 (0.39%) QA
5 2 (0.26%) GLP
5 2 (0.26%) GMP
6 1 (0.13%) Actionable Recommendations
6 1 (0.13%) GRC
6 1 (0.13%) GxP
6 1 (0.13%) ITGC
6 1 (0.13%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 1 (0.13%) SOC 2
System Software
1 266 (34.91%) Active Directory
2 27 (3.54%) VMware Infrastructure
3 13 (1.71%) Hyper-V
3 13 (1.71%) VMware NSX
4 12 (1.57%) VMware ESXi
5 10 (1.31%) Oracle RAC
5 10 (1.31%) Virtual Desktop
6 8 (1.05%) vCloud
7 5 (0.66%) vSphere
8 3 (0.39%) Firmware
8 3 (0.39%) NFS
9 2 (0.26%) Virtual Servers
10 1 (0.13%) BitLocker
10 1 (0.13%) Docker
10 1 (0.13%) Microsoft Virtual Server
10 1 (0.13%) XenDesktop
10 1 (0.13%) zsh
Systems Management
1 101 (13.25%) Microsoft Intune
2 44 (5.77%) SCCM
3 18 (2.36%) Single Sign-On
4 16 (2.10%) Jamf Pro
5 14 (1.84%) Grafana
6 12 (1.57%) vCenter Server
7 10 (1.31%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
7 10 (1.31%) Oracle RMAN
8 9 (1.18%) SCOM
9 8 (1.05%) Terraform
10 7 (0.92%) Ansible
11 4 (0.52%) Kubernetes
12 3 (0.39%) Red Hat Satellite
12 3 (0.39%) vRealize
13 2 (0.26%) AirWatch
13 2 (0.26%) Kibana
13 2 (0.26%) McAfee ePO
13 2 (0.26%) PaperCut
13 2 (0.26%) WMI
14 1 (0.13%) WSUS
Vendors
1 266 (34.91%) Microsoft
2 89 (11.68%) ServiceNow
3 36 (4.72%) Oracle
4 31 (4.07%) VMware
5 25 (3.28%) Dell
6 22 (2.89%) SAP
7 19 (2.49%) Apple
8 15 (1.97%) Cisco
8 15 (1.97%) HP
9 13 (1.71%) Okta
10 10 (1.31%) McAfee
10 10 (1.31%) Sybase
11 9 (1.18%) Citrix
11 9 (1.18%) Google
12 8 (1.05%) Denodo
12 8 (1.05%) Splunk
12 8 (1.05%) Starlink
12 8 (1.05%) Talend
13 7 (0.92%) Databricks
13 7 (0.92%) Remedy