Support Engineer Contract Job Trends

Support Engineer
UK

The median Support Engineer daily rate in the UK is £230, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 19 October 2025.

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

6 months to
19 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 119 134 89
Rank change year-on-year +15 -45 +63
Contract jobs requiring a Support Engineer 777 690 1,260
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.34% 1.85% 2.62%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.58% 1.99% 2.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 524 458 909
10th Percentile £158 £145 £141
25th Percentile £188 £188 £185
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £230 £240 £250
Median % change year-on-year -4.17% -4.00% +11.11%
75th Percentile £345 £350 £400
90th Percentile £538 £514 £600
UK excluding London median daily rate £225 £225 £215
% change year-on-year - +4.65% +2.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 91 47 56
10th Percentile £16.50 £16.89 £13.16
25th Percentile £20.07 £18.42 £17.07
Median hourly rate £25.15 £23.59 £19.25
Median % change year-on-year +6.61% +22.55% -1.28%
75th Percentile £35.50 £27.88 £21.75
90th Percentile £68.00 £55.80 £24.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £23.59 £19.06
% change year-on-year +6.61% +23.77% +6.72%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
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 30,128 34,701 45,271
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.88% 92.90% 93.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 19,009 20,914 30,950
10th Percentile £278 £300 £300
25th Percentile £402 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £623 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £738 £745
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £490 £500
% change year-on-year -3.06% -2.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,674 1,398 1,545
10th Percentile £13.80 £15.02 £14.63
25th Percentile £17.30 £20.30 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £40.16 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -37.38% -10.75% +68.35%
75th Percentile £50.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £68.75 £73.75 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £24.42 £40.33 £44.50
% change year-on-year -39.44% -9.38% +97.78%

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 19 October 2025.

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 19 October 2025.

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 19 October 2025. 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 +22 709 £235 - 477
UK excluding London +11 536 £225 - 465
London -3 208 £250 -9.09% 105
South East +35 181 £238 -2.86% 180
Work from Home 0 110 £273 -25.85% 134
South West +52 108 £250 +19.05% 33
Midlands +15 98 £253 -8.18% 80
West Midlands +19 75 £265 -5.36% 39
North of England -25 73 £205 +2.50% 92
North West -16 42 £200 - 56
East of England -20 40 £220 - 50
Wales +17 23 £213 +6.25% 13
East Midlands -8 23 £188 -31.82% 41
Scotland -29 22 £225 -33.82% 32
Yorkshire -23 20 £215 +10.26% 26
North East +5 11 £180 +10.77% 16
Northern Ireland -5 4 £175 -

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

For the 6 months to 19 October 2025, 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.

1 397 (51.09%) Windows
2 315 (40.54%) Microsoft
3 245 (31.53%) Active Directory
4 231 (29.73%) Microsoft 365
5 210 (27.03%) Security Cleared
6 188 (24.20%) Problem-Solving
7 152 (19.56%) SC Cleared
8 151 (19.43%) Customer Service
9 146 (18.79%) Windows 10
10 136 (17.50%) ITIL
11 107 (13.77%) Azure
12 104 (13.38%) Microsoft Office
13 103 (13.26%) Linux
13 103 (13.26%) ServiceNow
14 95 (12.23%) Microsoft Intune
15 92 (11.84%) DNS
16 85 (10.94%) Microsoft Exchange
17 83 (10.68%) VPN
18 79 (10.17%) DHCP
19 75 (9.65%) ITSM
20 72 (9.27%) SCCM
21 69 (8.88%) Service Management
21 69 (8.88%) SharePoint
22 65 (8.37%) Cisco
23 64 (8.24%) TCP/IP
24 60 (7.72%) Degree
25 59 (7.59%) PowerShell
26 52 (6.69%) DV Cleared
27 47 (6.05%) Apple
27 47 (6.05%) Firewall

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 85 (10.94%) Microsoft Exchange
2 69 (8.88%) SharePoint
3 34 (4.38%) Skype for Business
4 11 (1.42%) Exchange Server 2010
4 11 (1.42%) SharePoint Server
5 10 (1.29%) Exchange Server 2003
5 10 (1.29%) Exchange Server 2007
5 10 (1.29%) Exchange Server 2013
5 10 (1.29%) Office Communications Server
6 8 (1.03%) Mattermost
7 6 (0.77%) Confluence
8 5 (0.64%) OpenStack
9 4 (0.51%) Smallworld
10 2 (0.26%) Apache
10 2 (0.26%) ArcGIS
10 2 (0.26%) SAS
11 1 (0.13%) CMS
11 1 (0.13%) IIS
11 1 (0.13%) Tomcat
11 1 (0.13%) WebSphere
Applications
1 104 (13.38%) Microsoft Office
2 26 (3.35%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.51%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.39%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.26%) AutoCAD
6 1 (0.13%) DaVinci Resolve
6 1 (0.13%) OmniGraffle
6 1 (0.13%) Pro Tools
6 1 (0.13%) ProjectWise
6 1 (0.13%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 6 (0.77%) Remedy ITSM
2 5 (0.64%) Primavera
3 3 (0.39%) NetSuite
4 2 (0.26%) Dynamics CRM
4 2 (0.26%) Oracle ERP
5 1 (0.13%) Alphatax
5 1 (0.13%) Eikon
5 1 (0.13%) Eze OMS
5 1 (0.13%) Fidessa
5 1 (0.13%) Infor CloudSuite Industrial (formerly SyteLine)
5 1 (0.13%) Oracle Assets
5 1 (0.13%) Oracle EBS R12
5 1 (0.13%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
Cloud Services
1 231 (29.73%) Microsoft 365
2 107 (13.77%) Azure
3 39 (5.02%) Entra ID
4 33 (4.25%) AWS
5 23 (2.96%) SaaS
6 20 (2.57%) OneDrive
7 16 (2.06%) Google Workspace
8 15 (1.93%) Power Platform
8 15 (1.93%) Sauce Labs
9 8 (1.03%) Azure DevOps
10 6 (0.77%) OpenShift
11 5 (0.64%) GCP
11 5 (0.64%) Slack
11 5 (0.64%) SuccessFactors
12 4 (0.51%) IaaS
12 4 (0.51%) npm
12 4 (0.51%) PaaS
13 3 (0.39%) Azure AKS
13 3 (0.39%) Microsoft Purview
13 3 (0.39%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 92 (11.84%) DNS
2 83 (10.68%) VPN
3 79 (10.17%) DHCP
4 64 (8.24%) TCP/IP
5 47 (6.05%) Firewall
5 47 (6.05%) WAN
6 35 (4.50%) LAN
7 32 (4.12%) Wireless
8 29 (3.73%) Wi-Fi
9 25 (3.22%) Skype
10 21 (2.70%) Cisco IOS
10 21 (2.70%) VLAN
11 20 (2.57%) MPLS
12 18 (2.32%) BGP
12 18 (2.32%) IPsec
12 18 (2.32%) Junos
13 15 (1.93%) WebEx
14 14 (1.80%) Cisco Firepower
15 13 (1.67%) Cisco ISE
15 13 (1.67%) PABX
Database & Business Intelligence
1 31 (3.99%) Relational Database
2 23 (2.96%) MySQL
3 20 (2.57%) SQL Server
4 12 (1.54%) Power BI
5 6 (0.77%) MariaDB
6 4 (0.51%) Data Warehouse
6 4 (0.51%) DB2
6 4 (0.51%) GIS
6 4 (0.51%) RDBMS
6 4 (0.51%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 3 (0.39%) Apache Cassandra
7 3 (0.39%) Elasticsearch
8 2 (0.26%) Amazon RDS
8 2 (0.26%) Big Data
8 2 (0.26%) InfluxDB
8 2 (0.26%) Oracle Database
8 2 (0.26%) Tableau
9 1 (0.13%) Qlik Sense
9 1 (0.13%) SAP HANA
9 1 (0.13%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 25 (3.22%) Browser DevTools
2 15 (1.93%) Android Studio
2 15 (1.93%) Eclipse
2 15 (1.93%) Xcode
3 14 (1.80%) JIRA
4 11 (1.42%) Git
5 9 (1.16%) Firebug
6 6 (0.77%) Jenkins
7 5 (0.64%) Sonatype Nexus
8 4 (0.51%) Maven
9 3 (0.39%) Fiddler
10 2 (0.26%) MSI
11 1 (0.13%) Bitbucket
11 1 (0.13%) ClearCase
11 1 (0.13%) Hudson
11 1 (0.13%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 344 (44.27%) Social Skills
2 70 (9.01%) Finance
3 63 (8.11%) Public Sector
4 60 (7.72%) Analytical Skills
5 35 (4.50%) Manufacturing
6 30 (3.86%) Banking
7 28 (3.60%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 25 (3.22%) Organisational Skills
9 23 (2.96%) Telecoms
10 13 (1.67%) Documentation Skills
11 12 (1.54%) Aerospace
11 12 (1.54%) Electronics
11 12 (1.54%) Marketing
12 10 (1.29%) Retail
13 9 (1.16%) Automotive
13 9 (1.16%) Front Office
14 8 (1.03%) Law
15 7 (0.90%) Legal
16 6 (0.77%) Investment Banking
16 6 (0.77%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 26 (3.35%) CSS
1 26 (3.35%) Middleware
2 18 (2.32%) React
3 16 (2.06%) Ajax
3 16 (2.06%) AngularJS
3 16 (2.06%) GraphQL
3 16 (2.06%) XML
4 10 (1.29%) HTML
4 10 (1.29%) XMPP
5 7 (0.90%) JSON
6 5 (0.64%) .NET
6 5 (0.64%) REST
6 5 (0.64%) SOAP
7 4 (0.51%) JDO
7 4 (0.51%) OAuth
8 3 (0.39%) ADO
8 3 (0.39%) Microsoft Graph
9 2 (0.26%) Kafka
9 2 (0.26%) OpenTelemetry
9 2 (0.26%) PySpark
Miscellaneous
1 27 (3.47%) Onboarding
1 27 (3.47%) Self-Motivation
2 26 (3.35%) Data Centre
3 25 (3.22%) PKI
4 20 (2.57%) Data Protection Act
4 20 (2.57%) Management Information System
5 17 (2.19%) Mobile App
5 17 (2.19%) Video Conferencing
6 16 (2.06%) Smartphone
7 15 (1.93%) Replication
8 14 (1.80%) Driving Licence
9 13 (1.67%) iPhone
10 11 (1.42%) Analytical Mindset
10 11 (1.42%) Enterprise Software
11 9 (1.16%) Operational Technology
12 8 (1.03%) iPad
13 6 (0.77%) Legacy Systems
13 6 (0.77%) NHS
14 5 (0.64%) CMDB
14 5 (0.64%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 397 (51.09%) Windows
2 146 (18.79%) Windows 10
3 103 (13.26%) Linux
4 47 (6.05%) Windows Server
5 44 (5.66%) Mac OS
6 43 (5.53%) Android
7 39 (5.02%) Apple iOS
8 28 (3.60%) Unix
9 19 (2.45%) Ubuntu
10 11 (1.42%) Windows 7
11 10 (1.29%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 10 (1.29%) Windows Server 2003
12 6 (0.77%) CentOS
12 6 (0.77%) Mac OS X
13 4 (0.51%) Windows 8
14 3 (0.39%) Windows Server 2016
15 2 (0.26%) Windows Server 2012
15 2 (0.26%) Windows Server 2019
15 2 (0.26%) Windows XP
16 1 (0.13%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 188 (24.20%) Problem-Solving
2 151 (19.43%) Customer Service
3 136 (17.50%) ITIL
4 75 (9.65%) ITSM
5 69 (8.88%) Service Management
6 46 (5.92%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 42 (5.41%) Migration
8 35 (4.50%) Asset Management
9 31 (3.99%) Root Cause Analysis
10 30 (3.86%) Service Delivery
10 30 (3.86%) Workflow
11 29 (3.73%) Business Intelligence
11 29 (3.73%) OO
12 28 (3.60%) User Experience
13 27 (3.47%) Cybersecurity
13 27 (3.47%) DevOps
13 27 (3.47%) High Availability
14 24 (3.09%) Problem Management
15 23 (2.96%) Software Engineering
16 22 (2.83%) Incident Management
Programming Languages
1 59 (7.59%) PowerShell
2 45 (5.79%) JavaScript
3 40 (5.15%) Python
4 39 (5.02%) SQL
5 38 (4.89%) Java
6 22 (2.83%) C
6 22 (2.83%) Shell Script
7 20 (2.57%) Bash
8 19 (2.45%) C++
9 18 (2.32%) Ada
9 18 (2.32%) Perl
10 4 (0.51%) Magik
11 3 (0.39%) C#
11 3 (0.39%) TypeScript
12 2 (0.26%) VBScript
13 1 (0.13%) ABAP
13 1 (0.13%) Lisp
13 1 (0.13%) Tcl
13 1 (0.13%) VB.NET
13 1 (0.13%) VBA
Qualifications
1 210 (27.03%) Security Cleared
2 152 (19.56%) SC Cleared
3 60 (7.72%) Degree
4 52 (6.69%) DV Cleared
5 31 (3.99%) Microsoft Certification
6 17 (2.19%) ITIL Certification
7 14 (1.80%) Azure Certification
7 14 (1.80%) DBS Check
7 14 (1.80%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
8 13 (1.67%) Computer Science Degree
8 13 (1.67%) Network+ Certification
9 12 (1.54%) Cisco Certification
10 11 (1.42%) CCNA
10 11 (1.42%) Server+ Certification
11 9 (1.16%) A+ Certification
12 6 (0.77%) BPSS Clearance
13 5 (0.64%) MCP
14 4 (0.51%) MCSA
14 4 (0.51%) MCSE
15 2 (0.26%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 43 (5.53%) SLA
2 14 (1.80%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 12 (1.54%) QA
4 9 (1.16%) GDPR
5 3 (0.39%) Accessibility
6 1 (0.13%) GMP
6 1 (0.13%) GxP
6 1 (0.13%) NCSC
6 1 (0.13%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 245 (31.53%) Active Directory
2 31 (3.99%) VMware Infrastructure
3 23 (2.96%) Hyper-V
4 18 (2.32%) Virtual Desktop
5 14 (1.80%) VMware NSX
5 14 (1.80%) vSphere
6 10 (1.29%) Brightmail
6 10 (1.29%) Firmware
6 10 (1.29%) ISA Server
7 8 (1.03%) Docker
8 5 (0.64%) Terminal Services
9 4 (0.51%) Microsoft App-V
9 4 (0.51%) XenApp
10 3 (0.39%) BitLocker
10 3 (0.39%) VMware ESXi
11 2 (0.26%) NFS
11 2 (0.26%) Virtual Machines
12 1 (0.13%) Samba
12 1 (0.13%) Tivoli Workload Scheduler
12 1 (0.13%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 95 (12.23%) Microsoft Intune
2 72 (9.27%) SCCM
3 23 (2.96%) Ansible
3 23 (2.96%) Jamf Pro
4 17 (2.19%) SCOM
4 17 (2.19%) vCenter Server
5 15 (1.93%) Terraform
6 14 (1.80%) Kubernetes
7 10 (1.29%) Microsoft Clustering
8 6 (0.77%) Red Hat Satellite
9 5 (0.64%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 5 (0.64%) AirWatch
9 5 (0.64%) Grafana
10 4 (0.51%) ITRS Geneos
10 4 (0.51%) Nagios
11 3 (0.39%) Single Sign-On
12 2 (0.26%) AppManager
12 2 (0.26%) Autotask
12 2 (0.26%) Norton AntiVirus
12 2 (0.26%) vMotion
Vendors
1 315 (40.54%) Microsoft
2 103 (13.26%) ServiceNow
3 65 (8.37%) Cisco
4 47 (6.05%) Apple
4 47 (6.05%) Oracle
5 46 (5.92%) VMware
6 36 (4.63%) Citrix
7 35 (4.50%) Red Hat
8 32 (4.12%) Juniper
9 26 (3.35%) HP
9 26 (3.35%) SolarWinds
10 24 (3.09%) Splunk
11 20 (2.57%) Google
12 19 (2.45%) SAP
13 13 (1.67%) Remedy
14 10 (1.29%) Dell
15 9 (1.16%) McAfee
16 8 (1.03%) Sophos
17 7 (0.90%) Okta
17 7 (0.90%) Wyse