Support Engineer Contract Job Trends

Support Engineer
UK

The median Support Engineer daily rate in the UK is £216, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 5 June 2026.

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

6 months to
5 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 173 127 110
Rank change year-on-year -46 -17 +6
Contract jobs requiring a Support Engineer 772 625 858
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.57% 2.16% 2.00%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.70% 2.34% 2.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 502 395 592
10th Percentile £153 £153 £140
25th Percentile £183 £200 £163
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £216 £245 £213
Median % change year-on-year -11.73% +15.29% -15.00%
75th Percentile £373 £385 £338
90th Percentile £486 £495 £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 55 52
10th Percentile £18.07 £18.10 £16.25
25th Percentile £20.50 £19.58 £18.00
Median hourly rate £23.83 £25.00 £22.23
Median % change year-on-year -4.70% +12.49% +5.16%
75th Percentile £36.00 £35.25 £43.75
90th Percentile £38.75 £68.00 £56.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.50 £24.83 £23.34
% change year-on-year -9.38% +6.38% +16.70%

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 45,342 26,733 39,846
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.33% 92.39% 92.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,608 17,258 25,745
10th Percentile £325 £287 £280
25th Percentile £413 £404 £408
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £501 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.40% -4.67% -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 3,029 1,088 2,850
10th Percentile £15.05 £14.00 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.69 £17.87 £16.30
Median hourly rate £43.69 £28.00 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +56.04% -25.33% -16.67%
75th Percentile £67.50 £58.75 £61.60
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% -5.88%

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 5 June 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 5 June 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 5 June 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 -47 678 £210 -14.29% 289
UK excluding London -43 523 £207 -10.00% 281
London -45 219 £275 - 55
South East -31 148 £213 -15.00% 85
North of England -69 91 £190 -11.63% 66
Midlands -27 87 £204 -22.92% 35
Work from Home -66 86 £220 -26.67% 85
South West -40 70 £210 -10.64% 33
East of England -8 62 £195 -12.36% 37
North West -33 57 £189 -12.21% 36
Scotland +31 54 £313 +11.61% 21
West Midlands -55 51 £238 -13.64% 14
East Midlands +1 37 £200 -18.37% 21
Yorkshire -36 32 £190 -19.15% 23
Wales -25 9 £250 +25.00% 4
Northern Ireland 0 4 £175 +16.67% 7
North East -41 2 £290 +48.72% 9
Channel Islands - 1 £550 -

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

For the 6 months to 5 June 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.

1 365 (47.28%) Windows
2 275 (35.62%) Active Directory
3 273 (35.36%) Microsoft
4 245 (31.74%) Microsoft 365
5 162 (20.98%) Windows 10
6 159 (20.60%) Security Cleared
7 151 (19.56%) Problem-Solving
8 142 (18.39%) Customer Service
9 141 (18.26%) Azure
10 121 (15.67%) ITIL
11 109 (14.12%) SC Cleared
12 106 (13.73%) Microsoft Intune
13 93 (12.05%) ServiceNow
14 80 (10.36%) Entra ID
15 67 (8.68%) PowerShell
16 66 (8.55%) ITSM
17 65 (8.42%) SharePoint
18 63 (8.16%) DNS
19 58 (7.51%) Migration
20 57 (7.38%) SQL
21 55 (7.12%) JIRA
22 49 (6.35%) Linux
23 48 (6.22%) Windows Server
24 46 (5.96%) VPN
25 45 (5.83%) DHCP
26 44 (5.70%) Continuous Improvement
26 44 (5.70%) Degree
26 44 (5.70%) Infrastructure Engineering
26 44 (5.70%) Mac OS
27 43 (5.57%) SCCM

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 65 (8.42%) SharePoint
2 37 (4.79%) Microsoft Exchange
3 11 (1.42%) NetWeaver
4 7 (0.91%) 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 39 (5.05%) Microsoft Office
2 13 (1.68%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.52%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 10 (1.30%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (0.78%) Teamcenter
3 5 (0.65%) Remedy ITSM
3 5 (0.65%) SAP EHS
3 5 (0.65%) Shopify
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
1 245 (31.74%) Microsoft 365
2 141 (18.26%) Azure
3 80 (10.36%) Entra ID
4 32 (4.15%) AWS
5 23 (2.98%) SaaS
6 22 (2.85%) OneDrive
7 21 (2.72%) Azure DevOps
8 12 (1.55%) GCP
9 10 (1.30%) Power Platform
10 9 (1.17%) Dynamics 365
11 8 (1.04%) PaaS
12 6 (0.78%) Amazon S3
13 5 (0.65%) Azure Data Factory
13 5 (0.65%) Google Workspace
13 5 (0.65%) IaaS
13 5 (0.65%) Sauce Labs
14 4 (0.52%) Mimecast
15 3 (0.39%) OpenShift
16 2 (0.26%) Datadog
16 2 (0.26%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 63 (8.16%) DNS
2 46 (5.96%) VPN
3 45 (5.83%) DHCP
4 43 (5.57%) Wi-Fi
5 39 (5.05%) LAN
6 36 (4.66%) TCP/IP
7 23 (2.98%) SAN
7 23 (2.98%) WAN
8 17 (2.20%) Firewall
9 14 (1.81%) VLAN
10 13 (1.68%) Internet
11 12 (1.55%) Wireless
12 11 (1.42%) WLAN
13 7 (0.91%) HTTP
14 6 (0.78%) Skype
14 6 (0.78%) VoIP
15 4 (0.52%) Remote Desktop
15 4 (0.52%) Unified Communications
16 2 (0.26%) Network Security
16 2 (0.26%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 30 (3.89%) SQL Server
2 18 (2.33%) MySQL
3 13 (1.68%) Amazon Redshift
4 12 (1.55%) Relational Database
5 11 (1.42%) SAP HANA
6 10 (1.30%) Sybase ASE
7 9 (1.17%) MaxDB
8 8 (1.04%) Power BI
9 7 (0.91%) Pentaho
9 7 (0.91%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 5 (0.65%) Oracle Database
10 5 (0.65%) PostgreSQL
11 4 (0.52%) Amazon Athena
11 4 (0.52%) Amazon RDS
11 4 (0.52%) Oracle Database 12c
12 2 (0.26%) Big Data
12 2 (0.26%) Data Warehouse
12 2 (0.26%) Elasticsearch
12 2 (0.26%) MariaDB
12 2 (0.26%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 55 (7.12%) JIRA
2 19 (2.46%) Git
3 11 (1.42%) Browser DevTools
4 5 (0.65%) Android Studio
4 5 (0.65%) Eclipse
4 5 (0.65%) Xcode
5 2 (0.26%) Firebug
5 2 (0.26%) Maven
6 1 (0.13%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 1 (0.13%) Claude Code
6 1 (0.13%) Gemini Tracker
6 1 (0.13%) Jenkins
6 1 (0.13%) MSI
6 1 (0.13%) RStudio
6 1 (0.13%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 1 (0.13%) Subversion
6 1 (0.13%) TeamCity
6 1 (0.13%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 293 (37.95%) Social Skills
2 85 (11.01%) Analytical Skills
3 55 (7.12%) Finance
4 45 (5.83%) Manufacturing
5 37 (4.79%) Banking
6 23 (2.98%) Investment Banking
7 20 (2.59%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 18 (2.33%) Law
9 17 (2.20%) Aerospace
10 15 (1.94%) Aviation
10 15 (1.94%) Organisational Skills
11 13 (1.68%) Documentation Skills
12 9 (1.17%) Front Office
12 9 (1.17%) Legal
13 8 (1.04%) Retail
14 7 (0.91%) Marketing
14 7 (0.91%) Public Sector
15 6 (0.78%) French Language
15 6 (0.78%) Pharmaceutical
15 6 (0.78%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (1.30%) Oracle GoldenGate
1 10 (1.30%) SAP Basis
2 9 (1.17%) REST
3 7 (0.91%) CSS
3 7 (0.91%) JDO
3 7 (0.91%) Software Packaging
4 6 (0.78%) .NET
5 5 (0.65%) Ajax
5 5 (0.65%) AngularJS
5 5 (0.65%) GraphQL
5 5 (0.65%) PySpark
5 5 (0.65%) React
5 5 (0.65%) SAML
5 5 (0.65%) SAP Fiori
5 5 (0.65%) SAPUI5
6 4 (0.52%) OAuth
6 4 (0.52%) YAML
7 3 (0.39%) LDAP
7 3 (0.39%) Middleware
7 3 (0.39%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 62 (8.03%) Onboarding
2 33 (4.27%) Data Centre
3 24 (3.11%) Self-Motivation
4 22 (2.85%) Analytical Mindset
5 18 (2.33%) Virtual Team
6 15 (1.94%) Enterprise Software
6 15 (1.94%) Smartphone
7 13 (1.68%) Data Protection Act
8 12 (1.55%) iPhone
8 12 (1.55%) PKI
9 11 (1.42%) Legacy Systems
10 10 (1.30%) SCADA
11 9 (1.17%) Driving Licence
11 9 (1.17%) Video Conferencing
12 7 (0.91%) Blackberry
12 7 (0.91%) Hedge funds
12 7 (0.91%) Hybrid Cloud
13 6 (0.78%) iPad
14 5 (0.65%) CCTV
14 5 (0.65%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 365 (47.28%) Windows
2 162 (20.98%) Windows 10
3 49 (6.35%) Linux
4 48 (6.22%) Windows Server
5 44 (5.70%) Mac OS
6 41 (5.31%) Unix
7 25 (3.24%) Apple iOS
8 23 (2.98%) Android
9 17 (2.20%) Windows 7
10 7 (0.91%) Windows Server 2016
11 6 (0.78%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 4 (0.52%) Solaris
12 4 (0.52%) Windows Server 2019
12 4 (0.52%) Windows XP
13 3 (0.39%) Windows Server 2012
14 2 (0.26%) Mac OS X
14 2 (0.26%) Ubuntu
15 1 (0.13%) CentOS
15 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2003
15 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 151 (19.56%) Problem-Solving
2 142 (18.39%) Customer Service
3 121 (15.67%) ITIL
4 66 (8.55%) ITSM
5 58 (7.51%) Migration
6 44 (5.70%) Continuous Improvement
6 44 (5.70%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 41 (5.31%) Change Management
8 37 (4.79%) Asset Management
8 37 (4.79%) Service Delivery
9 35 (4.53%) Service Management
10 33 (4.27%) DevOps
10 33 (4.27%) Incident Management
10 33 (4.27%) Root Cause Analysis
10 33 (4.27%) User Experience
11 29 (3.76%) Problem Management
12 25 (3.24%) Data Protection
13 22 (2.85%) Break/Fix
14 21 (2.72%) Agile
14 21 (2.72%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 67 (8.68%) PowerShell
2 57 (7.38%) SQL
3 29 (3.76%) Python
4 20 (2.59%) C#
4 20 (2.59%) Java
5 17 (2.20%) JavaScript
6 15 (1.94%) Shell Script
7 11 (1.42%) Bash
8 10 (1.30%) Korn
9 9 (1.17%) Perl
10 6 (0.78%) C++
11 1 (0.13%) C
11 1 (0.13%) R
11 1 (0.13%) T-SQL
11 1 (0.13%) VB.NET
11 1 (0.13%) VBA
11 1 (0.13%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 159 (20.60%) Security Cleared
2 109 (14.12%) SC Cleared
3 44 (5.70%) Degree
4 36 (4.66%) DV Cleared
5 24 (3.11%) Microsoft Certification
6 23 (2.98%) A+ Certification
7 20 (2.59%) CCNA
7 20 (2.59%) Cisco Certification
8 18 (2.33%) Network+ Certification
9 16 (2.07%) MCSE
10 12 (1.55%) BPSS Clearance
11 10 (1.30%) Computer Science Degree
12 9 (1.17%) Azure Certification
13 7 (0.91%) DBS Check
14 6 (0.78%) ITIL Certification
15 4 (0.52%) Microsoft Certified Professional
15 4 (0.52%) NVQ Level 4
16 2 (0.26%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
17 1 (0.13%) AWS Certification
17 1 (0.13%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 36 (4.66%) SLA
2 4 (0.52%) Cyber Essentials
2 4 (0.52%) GDPR
3 3 (0.39%) Data Quality
3 3 (0.39%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 3 (0.39%) QA
4 2 (0.26%) GLP
4 2 (0.26%) GMP
5 1 (0.13%) Actionable Recommendations
5 1 (0.13%) GRC
5 1 (0.13%) GxP
5 1 (0.13%) ITGC
5 1 (0.13%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 1 (0.13%) SOC 2
System Software
1 275 (35.62%) Active Directory
2 31 (4.02%) VMware Infrastructure
3 17 (2.20%) Hyper-V
4 15 (1.94%) VMware ESXi
5 14 (1.81%) VMware NSX
6 10 (1.30%) Oracle RAC
6 10 (1.30%) Virtual Desktop
7 9 (1.17%) vCloud
8 6 (0.78%) vSphere
9 4 (0.52%) NFS
10 3 (0.39%) BitLocker
10 3 (0.39%) Docker
10 3 (0.39%) Firmware
11 2 (0.26%) Microsoft App-V
11 2 (0.26%) Terminal Services
11 2 (0.26%) Virtual Servers
12 1 (0.13%) Microsoft Virtual Server
12 1 (0.13%) XenDesktop
12 1 (0.13%) zsh
Systems Management
1 106 (13.73%) Microsoft Intune
2 43 (5.57%) SCCM
3 20 (2.59%) Jamf Pro
4 18 (2.33%) Single Sign-On
5 15 (1.94%) vCenter Server
6 13 (1.68%) Grafana
7 10 (1.30%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
7 10 (1.30%) Oracle RMAN
7 10 (1.30%) SCOM
8 9 (1.17%) Ansible
9 7 (0.91%) Terraform
10 5 (0.65%) Kubernetes
11 4 (0.52%) Red Hat Satellite
12 3 (0.39%) vRealize
13 2 (0.26%) AirWatch
13 2 (0.26%) Kibana
13 2 (0.26%) PaperCut
13 2 (0.26%) vMotion
13 2 (0.26%) WMI
13 2 (0.26%) WSUS
Vendors
1 273 (35.36%) Microsoft
2 93 (12.05%) ServiceNow
3 36 (4.66%) VMware
4 33 (4.27%) Oracle
5 25 (3.24%) Apple
5 25 (3.24%) Dell
6 21 (2.72%) SAP
7 17 (2.20%) HP
8 15 (1.94%) Cisco
9 13 (1.68%) Citrix
9 13 (1.68%) Okta
10 12 (1.55%) Google
11 10 (1.30%) Sybase
12 9 (1.17%) McAfee
13 8 (1.04%) Denodo
13 8 (1.04%) Remedy
13 8 (1.04%) Starlink
13 8 (1.04%) Talend
14 7 (0.91%) Lotus
14 7 (0.91%) Red Hat