Support Engineer Contract Job Trends

Support Engineer
UK

The median Support Engineer daily rate in the UK is £213, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 4 March 2026.

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

6 months to
4 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 140 129 100
Rank change year-on-year -11 -29 +31
Contract jobs requiring a Support Engineer 827 607 974
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.96% 2.02% 2.20%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.14% 2.18% 2.37%
Number of daily rates quoted 554 406 685
10th Percentile £153 £153 £138
25th Percentile £185 £182 £163
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £213 £225 £215
Median % change year-on-year -5.56% +4.65% -14.00%
75th Percentile £338 £375 £300
90th Percentile £500 £508 £413
UK excluding London median daily rate £207 £220 £200
% change year-on-year -5.91% +10.00% -3.66%
Number of hourly rates quoted 120 44 61
10th Percentile £17.98 £17.11 £16.25
25th Percentile £21.19 £20.43 £17.72
Median hourly rate £24.00 £23.00 £20.00
Median % change year-on-year +4.35% +15.00% +3.63%
75th Percentile £30.00 £25.50 £30.00
90th Percentile £39.88 £41.50 £46.39
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.58 £23.00 £20.00
% change year-on-year +2.50% +15.00% +14.38%

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 38,703 27,889 41,142
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.84% 92.83% 92.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,288 17,682 27,029
10th Percentile £310 £288 £275
25th Percentile £409 £406 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £481 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +1.32% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,374 845 2,408
10th Percentile £14.64 £16.25 £13.05
25th Percentile £18.87 £21.46 £16.25
Median hourly rate £33.50 £34.00 £34.00
Median % change year-on-year -1.47% - -16.05%
75th Percentile £64.00 £64.75 £60.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.40 £71.90
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.50 £32.50 £35.00
% change year-on-year - -7.14% -10.88%

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 March 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 March 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 4 March 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 -6 749 £213 -7.61% 326
UK excluding London -9 579 £207 -5.91% 323
London -32 212 £263 -12.50% 58
South East +1 158 £225 +9.76% 125
North of England -32 112 £190 -13.64% 77
South West +3 111 £250 +11.11% 30
Midlands -9 100 £200 -18.37% 32
Work from Home -40 90 £275 -12.35% 73
West Midlands -29 62 £223 -14.42% 18
East of England 0 58 £201 -6.40% 31
North West -27 58 £152 -29.53% 40
Yorkshire -36 45 £205 -11.83% 30
East Midlands +1 40 £200 +5.26% 14
Scotland +7 37 £200 +26.18% 22
North East -12 9 £106 -48.29% 11
Wales -12 9 £200 - 4
Northern Ireland -9 2 £175 +18.24% 6

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

For the 6 months to 4 March 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.

1 405 (48.97%) Windows
2 295 (35.67%) Microsoft
3 257 (31.08%) Microsoft 365
4 241 (29.14%) Security Cleared
5 235 (28.42%) Active Directory
6 192 (23.22%) SC Cleared
7 182 (22.01%) Windows 10
8 169 (20.44%) Customer Service
9 155 (18.74%) Problem-Solving
10 110 (13.30%) Azure
11 105 (12.70%) ServiceNow
12 98 (11.85%) ITIL
13 94 (11.37%) Microsoft Intune
14 79 (9.55%) Migration
15 77 (9.31%) Linux
16 75 (9.07%) PowerShell
17 69 (8.34%) ITSM
18 66 (7.98%) SCCM
19 61 (7.38%) DNS
19 61 (7.38%) SharePoint
20 57 (6.89%) DHCP
20 57 (6.89%) Microsoft Office
21 55 (6.65%) Wi-Fi
22 54 (6.53%) Asset Management
22 54 (6.53%) Entra ID
23 52 (6.29%) TCP/IP
24 50 (6.05%) DV Cleared
25 49 (5.93%) Android
25 49 (5.93%) Mac OS
26 48 (5.80%) 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 61 (7.38%) SharePoint
2 47 (5.68%) Microsoft Exchange
3 15 (1.81%) Skype for Business
4 4 (0.48%) Apache
4 4 (0.48%) Confluence
5 3 (0.36%) NetWeaver
6 2 (0.24%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.24%) Apache Spark
6 2 (0.24%) ArcGIS
6 2 (0.24%) IIS
6 2 (0.24%) Jupyter
6 2 (0.24%) Palantir Foundry
6 2 (0.24%) Smallworld
6 2 (0.24%) WebLogic
7 1 (0.12%) SharePoint Server
7 1 (0.12%) Tuxedo
7 1 (0.12%) WebSphere
Applications
1 57 (6.89%) Microsoft Office
2 21 (2.54%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.12%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.12%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 9 (1.09%) SAP EHS
2 8 (0.97%) Remedy ITSM
3 7 (0.85%) Shopify
4 6 (0.73%) Teamcenter
5 5 (0.60%) Primavera
6 3 (0.36%) SAP S/4HANA
7 1 (0.12%) Aladdin
7 1 (0.12%) assyst
7 1 (0.12%) Bloomberg TOMS
7 1 (0.12%) Eikon
7 1 (0.12%) Fidessa
7 1 (0.12%) Oracle EBS
7 1 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
7 1 (0.12%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 257 (31.08%) Microsoft 365
2 110 (13.30%) Azure
3 54 (6.53%) Entra ID
4 35 (4.23%) OneDrive
5 25 (3.02%) AWS
6 23 (2.78%) SaaS
7 19 (2.30%) Google Workspace
8 15 (1.81%) Azure DevOps
9 13 (1.57%) Sauce Labs
10 10 (1.21%) Dynamics 365
10 10 (1.21%) Power Platform
11 7 (0.85%) npm
12 5 (0.60%) Amazon S3
12 5 (0.60%) Azure Data Factory
13 4 (0.48%) OpenShift
13 4 (0.48%) PaaS
14 3 (0.36%) GitHub
14 3 (0.36%) Nutanix
14 3 (0.36%) PowerApps
14 3 (0.36%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 61 (7.38%) DNS
2 57 (6.89%) DHCP
3 55 (6.65%) Wi-Fi
4 52 (6.29%) TCP/IP
5 48 (5.80%) VPN
6 34 (4.11%) LAN
7 31 (3.75%) Firewall
8 28 (3.39%) Wireless
9 26 (3.14%) WAN
10 16 (1.93%) Skype
11 15 (1.81%) VLAN
12 13 (1.57%) Network Security
12 13 (1.57%) PABX
13 11 (1.33%) Junos
14 10 (1.21%) Cisco Firepower
14 10 (1.21%) Cisco IOS
14 10 (1.21%) Cisco ISE
14 10 (1.21%) Internet
14 10 (1.21%) VoIP
15 9 (1.09%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 21 (2.54%) SQL Server
2 19 (2.30%) Relational Database
3 17 (2.06%) MySQL
4 7 (0.85%) Amazon Redshift
4 7 (0.85%) Power BI
4 7 (0.85%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 6 (0.73%) Oracle Database
6 4 (0.48%) Amazon Athena
6 4 (0.48%) RDBMS
7 3 (0.36%) InfluxDB
7 3 (0.36%) Oracle Database 12c
7 3 (0.36%) SAP HANA
7 3 (0.36%) Sybase ASE
8 2 (0.24%) GIS
8 2 (0.24%) MaxDB
8 2 (0.24%) Tableau
9 1 (0.12%) Apache Cassandra
9 1 (0.12%) MongoDB
9 1 (0.12%) Pentaho
9 1 (0.12%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 40 (4.84%) JIRA
2 17 (2.06%) Browser DevTools
3 13 (1.57%) Android Studio
3 13 (1.57%) Eclipse
3 13 (1.57%) Xcode
4 11 (1.33%) Git
5 7 (0.85%) Maven
6 4 (0.48%) Firebug
7 3 (0.36%) MSI
8 2 (0.24%) Fiddler
8 2 (0.24%) Jenkins
9 1 (0.12%) Atlassian Bamboo
9 1 (0.12%) ClearCase
9 1 (0.12%) Hudson
9 1 (0.12%) RStudio
General
1 352 (42.56%) Social Skills
2 66 (7.98%) Finance
3 59 (7.13%) Analytical Skills
4 53 (6.41%) Manufacturing
5 45 (5.44%) Public Sector
6 43 (5.20%) Banking
7 29 (3.51%) Organisational Skills
8 27 (3.26%) Aerospace
9 26 (3.14%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 19 (2.30%) Telecoms
11 17 (2.06%) Investment Banking
12 16 (1.93%) Aviation
13 13 (1.57%) Electronics
13 13 (1.57%) Marketing
14 11 (1.33%) Law
15 9 (1.09%) Documentation Skills
16 8 (0.97%) Front Office
17 7 (0.85%) Legal
18 5 (0.60%) Automotive
19 4 (0.48%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 23 (2.78%) Middleware
2 17 (2.06%) CSS
3 13 (1.57%) Ajax
3 13 (1.57%) AngularJS
3 13 (1.57%) GraphQL
3 13 (1.57%) React
4 7 (0.85%) Oracle GoldenGate
5 6 (0.73%) PySpark
5 6 (0.73%) REST
6 5 (0.60%) SOAP
6 5 (0.60%) YAML
7 4 (0.48%) HTML
7 4 (0.48%) JDO
7 4 (0.48%) Microsoft Graph
7 4 (0.48%) XML
8 3 (0.36%) SAP Basis
9 2 (0.24%) .NET
9 2 (0.24%) ADO
9 2 (0.24%) EDI
9 2 (0.24%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 50 (6.05%) Onboarding
2 41 (4.96%) Self-Motivation
3 30 (3.63%) Driving Licence
4 28 (3.39%) Data Centre
5 23 (2.78%) Smartphone
6 18 (2.18%) PKI
7 17 (2.06%) Analytical Mindset
8 15 (1.81%) Data Protection Act
9 13 (1.57%) Mobile App
10 12 (1.45%) Virtual Team
11 11 (1.33%) Enterprise Software
11 11 (1.33%) iPhone
12 9 (1.09%) Management Information System
12 9 (1.09%) Video Conferencing
13 8 (0.97%) Hybrid Cloud
13 8 (0.97%) SCADA
14 7 (0.85%) Legacy Systems
15 6 (0.73%) iPad
16 4 (0.48%) Hedge funds
17 3 (0.36%) Web Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 405 (48.97%) Windows
2 182 (22.01%) Windows 10
3 77 (9.31%) Linux
4 49 (5.93%) Android
4 49 (5.93%) Mac OS
5 44 (5.32%) Windows Server
6 37 (4.47%) Apple iOS
7 36 (4.35%) Unix
8 12 (1.45%) Ubuntu
9 9 (1.09%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 8 (0.97%) Windows 7
11 7 (0.85%) Windows Server 2016
12 4 (0.48%) CentOS
13 3 (0.36%) Windows Server 2019
14 2 (0.24%) Windows Server 2012
15 1 (0.12%) Mac OS X
15 1 (0.12%) Windows Server 2008
15 1 (0.12%) Windows XP
Processes & Methodologies
1 169 (20.44%) Customer Service
2 155 (18.74%) Problem-Solving
3 98 (11.85%) ITIL
4 79 (9.55%) Migration
5 69 (8.34%) ITSM
6 54 (6.53%) Asset Management
7 48 (5.80%) Service Management
7 48 (5.80%) Workflow
8 38 (4.59%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 38 (4.59%) Workflow Management
9 37 (4.47%) User Experience
10 32 (3.87%) Root Cause Analysis
11 30 (3.63%) Stakeholder Management
12 29 (3.51%) Service Delivery
13 28 (3.39%) Continuous Improvement
13 28 (3.39%) Logistics
14 25 (3.02%) Break/Fix
14 25 (3.02%) Cybersecurity
15 24 (2.90%) DevOps
15 24 (2.90%) Incident Management
Programming Languages
1 75 (9.07%) PowerShell
2 42 (5.08%) SQL
3 35 (4.23%) Java
4 34 (4.11%) Python
5 32 (3.87%) JavaScript
6 25 (3.02%) Shell Script
7 15 (1.81%) Perl
8 14 (1.69%) C#
9 13 (1.57%) C
9 13 (1.57%) C++
10 12 (1.45%) Ada
11 11 (1.33%) Bash
12 7 (0.85%) Korn
13 2 (0.24%) AWK
13 2 (0.24%) Magik
13 2 (0.24%) TypeScript
13 2 (0.24%) VB.NET
13 2 (0.24%) VBScript
14 1 (0.12%) PL/SQL
14 1 (0.12%) VBA
Qualifications
1 241 (29.14%) Security Cleared
2 192 (23.22%) SC Cleared
3 50 (6.05%) DV Cleared
4 33 (3.99%) Degree
5 30 (3.63%) Microsoft Certification
6 16 (1.93%) A+ Certification
7 14 (1.69%) Network+ Certification
8 13 (1.57%) BPSS Clearance
9 12 (1.45%) Azure Certification
10 10 (1.21%) CCNA
10 10 (1.21%) Cisco Certification
10 10 (1.21%) MCSE
11 8 (0.97%) DBS Check
12 6 (0.73%) ITIL Certification
13 5 (0.60%) Computer Science Degree
13 5 (0.60%) Server+ Certification
14 3 (0.36%) Master's Degree
14 3 (0.36%) Microsoft Certified Professional
15 1 (0.12%) HND
15 1 (0.12%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (3.99%) SLA
2 9 (1.09%) GDPR
3 4 (0.48%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 3 (0.36%) QA
5 2 (0.24%) Cyber Essentials
5 2 (0.24%) Data Quality
6 1 (0.12%) Accessibility
6 1 (0.12%) GAAP
6 1 (0.12%) GLP
6 1 (0.12%) GMP
6 1 (0.12%) IFRS
6 1 (0.12%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 1 (0.12%) SOC 2
System Software
1 235 (28.42%) Active Directory
2 27 (3.26%) VMware Infrastructure
3 16 (1.93%) Hyper-V
4 13 (1.57%) VMware NSX
5 11 (1.33%) Virtual Desktop
6 8 (0.97%) Firmware
7 7 (0.85%) Docker
7 7 (0.85%) Oracle RAC
8 4 (0.48%) vSphere
9 3 (0.36%) Virtual Servers
10 2 (0.24%) NFS
11 1 (0.12%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 1 (0.12%) VMware ESXi
11 1 (0.12%) VMware Workstation
11 1 (0.12%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 94 (11.37%) Microsoft Intune
2 66 (7.98%) SCCM
3 28 (3.39%) Jamf Pro
4 17 (2.06%) Ansible
5 13 (1.57%) Grafana
5 13 (1.57%) vCenter Server
6 12 (1.45%) Terraform
7 7 (0.85%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
7 7 (0.85%) Oracle RMAN
8 5 (0.60%) Kubernetes
8 5 (0.60%) Single Sign-On
9 4 (0.48%) Kibana
9 4 (0.48%) Red Hat Satellite
10 3 (0.36%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 3 (0.36%) ITRS Geneos
11 2 (0.24%) McAfee ePO
11 2 (0.24%) Prometheus
11 2 (0.24%) SCOM
11 2 (0.24%) WMI
11 2 (0.24%) WSUS
Vendors
1 295 (35.67%) Microsoft
2 105 (12.70%) ServiceNow
3 40 (4.84%) Oracle
4 36 (4.35%) VMware
5 34 (4.11%) Apple
6 33 (3.99%) Cisco
7 32 (3.87%) SAP
8 28 (3.39%) Dell
9 21 (2.54%) Google
10 20 (2.42%) HP
11 18 (2.18%) Juniper
12 17 (2.06%) Red Hat
13 16 (1.93%) Splunk
14 14 (1.69%) SolarWinds
15 13 (1.57%) Twitter
16 12 (1.45%) Citrix
17 11 (1.33%) Remedy
18 10 (1.21%) Bloomberg
19 6 (0.73%) McAfee
19 6 (0.73%) Siemens