Support Engineer Contract Job Trends

Support Engineer
UK

The median Support Engineer daily rate in the UK is £238, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 16 August 2026.

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

6 months to
16 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 164 130 116
Rank change year-on-year -34 -14 -25
Contract jobs requiring a Support Engineer 884 707 763
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.65% 2.14% 1.97%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.78% 2.34% 2.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 585 461 529
10th Percentile £163 £160 £140
25th Percentile £190 £195 £178
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £238 £238 £234
Median % change year-on-year - +1.66% -6.55%
75th Percentile £400 £380 £350
90th Percentile £500 £538 £525
UK excluding London median daily rate £225 £230 £220
% change year-on-year -2.17% +4.55% -1.12%
Number of hourly rates quoted 47 71 47
10th Percentile £16.66 £18.10 £16.25
25th Percentile £18.38 £21.25 £18.08
Median hourly rate £24.00 £25.25 £22.00
Median % change year-on-year -4.95% +14.77% +15.79%
75th Percentile £36.75 £43.75 £24.59
90th Percentile £53.00 £68.00 £58.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.00 £25.15 £22.00
% change year-on-year -12.52% +14.32% +18.92%

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 49,690 30,209 36,033
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.54% 91.30% 92.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,849 19,090 23,214
10th Percentile £325 £281 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.69%
75th Percentile £625 £621 £638
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,486 1,544 2,018
10th Percentile £15.00 £13.60 £14.23
25th Percentile £20.62 £17.29 £20.12
Median hourly rate £41.96 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +66.84% -41.51% +2.38%
75th Percentile £67.96 £53.89 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £72.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £45.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -44.11% +21.62%

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 16 August 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 16 August 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 16 August 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 -45 749 £225 -8.16% 319
UK excluding London -36 574 £225 -2.17% 300
London -39 272 £270 +8.00% 50
South East -34 166 £250 - 92
North of England -36 131 £200 -9.09% 62
North West -6 89 £200 -12.09% 31
Scotland +59 84 £437 +48.14% 16
Work from Home -92 83 £288 -17.86% 84
Midlands -62 60 £250 -9.09% 48
South West -65 60 £210 -10.64% 37
East of England -5 59 £200 - 50
Yorkshire -24 40 £210 -4.55% 26
West Midlands -71 39 £250 -9.09% 26
East Midlands -14 20 £270 +47.54% 22
Wales -28 10 £195 -8.24% 2
Northern Ireland 0 4 £175 -30.00% 6
North East -51 3 £188 -3.85% 8
Channel Islands - 1 £550 -

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

For the 6 months to 16 August 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.

1 480 (54.30%) Windows
2 390 (44.12%) Microsoft
3 385 (43.55%) Active Directory
4 330 (37.33%) Microsoft 365
5 208 (23.53%) Problem-Solving
6 206 (23.30%) Customer Service
7 187 (21.15%) Windows 10
8 180 (20.36%) Security Cleared
9 174 (19.68%) ITIL
10 150 (16.97%) Azure
11 135 (15.27%) Microsoft Intune
12 134 (15.16%) Entra ID
13 127 (14.37%) ServiceNow
14 114 (12.90%) SC Cleared
15 113 (12.78%) SharePoint
16 112 (12.67%) ITSM
17 100 (11.31%) DNS
18 97 (10.97%) PowerShell
19 75 (8.48%) Continuous Improvement
20 72 (8.14%) Windows Server
21 71 (8.03%) Linux
22 69 (7.81%) Asset Management
22 69 (7.81%) Microsoft Exchange
23 68 (7.69%) SQL
23 68 (7.69%) VPN
24 66 (7.47%) Service Delivery
24 66 (7.47%) TCP/IP
25 64 (7.24%) Migration
26 62 (7.01%) Degree
26 62 (7.01%) 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
1 113 (12.78%) SharePoint
2 69 (7.81%) Microsoft Exchange
3 12 (1.36%) NetWeaver
4 11 (1.24%) HCL Notes
5 3 (0.34%) Confluence
5 3 (0.34%) Skype for Business
6 2 (0.23%) Exchange Server 2013
6 2 (0.23%) IIS
6 2 (0.23%) MTS
6 2 (0.23%) OpenStack
6 2 (0.23%) WebSphere
7 1 (0.11%) Tuxedo
7 1 (0.11%) WebLogic
Applications
1 45 (5.09%) Microsoft Office
2 14 (1.58%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.45%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.23%) MS Visio
5 1 (0.11%) Acrobat
5 1 (0.11%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 11 (1.24%) SAP S/4HANA
2 7 (0.79%) Remedy ITSM
3 4 (0.45%) SAP EHS
4 3 (0.34%) SAP Retail
5 2 (0.23%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.11%) Alphatax
6 1 (0.11%) Bloomberg TOMS
6 1 (0.11%) Dynamics CRM
6 1 (0.11%) Dynamics GP
6 1 (0.11%) Oracle BRM
6 1 (0.11%) SAP BRIM
6 1 (0.11%) SAP FI
6 1 (0.11%) SAP FI-CA
6 1 (0.11%) SAP FS
6 1 (0.11%) SAP GRC
6 1 (0.11%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 330 (37.33%) Microsoft 365
2 150 (16.97%) Azure
3 134 (15.16%) Entra ID
4 42 (4.75%) OneDrive
5 38 (4.30%) AWS
6 21 (2.38%) SaaS
7 19 (2.15%) GCP
8 16 (1.81%) Azure DevOps
9 11 (1.24%) Power Platform
10 8 (0.90%) Google Workspace
11 7 (0.79%) PaaS
12 6 (0.68%) IaaS
13 5 (0.57%) Mimecast
14 4 (0.45%) AWS CloudFormation
14 4 (0.45%) Cloud Functions
14 4 (0.45%) Google App Engine
14 4 (0.45%) Google Compute Engine
14 4 (0.45%) Google Kubernetes Engine
15 3 (0.34%) Amazon OpenSearch
15 3 (0.34%) Sauce Labs
Communications & Networking
1 100 (11.31%) DNS
2 68 (7.69%) VPN
3 66 (7.47%) TCP/IP
4 58 (6.56%) DHCP
5 41 (4.64%) Wi-Fi
6 33 (3.73%) LAN
7 27 (3.05%) WAN
8 24 (2.71%) Firewall
9 22 (2.49%) SAN
10 20 (2.26%) Internet
11 16 (1.81%) VLAN
12 10 (1.13%) Wireless
13 7 (0.79%) Skype
14 5 (0.57%) HTTP
14 5 (0.57%) Network Security
14 5 (0.57%) SMTP
14 5 (0.57%) WebEx
14 5 (0.57%) WLAN
15 4 (0.45%) Remote Desktop
15 4 (0.45%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 40 (4.52%) SQL Server
2 17 (1.92%) MySQL
3 12 (1.36%) SAP HANA
4 11 (1.24%) Sybase ASE
5 10 (1.13%) MaxDB
6 9 (1.02%) Power BI
7 8 (0.90%) Relational Database
8 7 (0.79%) Amazon Redshift
8 7 (0.79%) Pentaho
8 7 (0.79%) PostgreSQL
9 5 (0.57%) Amazon RDS
9 5 (0.57%) Oracle Database
9 5 (0.57%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 4 (0.45%) Oracle Database 12c
11 3 (0.34%) Big Data
11 3 (0.34%) Data Warehouse
11 3 (0.34%) Elasticsearch
11 3 (0.34%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 2 (0.23%) MariaDB
12 2 (0.23%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 56 (6.33%) JIRA
2 20 (2.26%) Git
3 9 (1.02%) Browser DevTools
4 4 (0.45%) Jenkins
5 3 (0.34%) Android Studio
5 3 (0.34%) Artifactory
5 3 (0.34%) Eclipse
5 3 (0.34%) Xcode
6 2 (0.23%) Bitbucket
6 2 (0.23%) Firebug
7 1 (0.11%) Claude Code
7 1 (0.11%) Gemini Tracker
7 1 (0.11%) GitLab
7 1 (0.11%) MSI
7 1 (0.11%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 1 (0.11%) Subversion
7 1 (0.11%) TeamCity
7 1 (0.11%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 357 (40.38%) Social Skills
2 108 (12.22%) Analytical Skills
3 79 (8.94%) Finance
4 40 (4.52%) Manufacturing
5 37 (4.19%) Banking
6 25 (2.83%) Organisational Skills
7 22 (2.49%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 20 (2.26%) Investment Banking
9 18 (2.04%) Retail
10 16 (1.81%) Documentation Skills
11 14 (1.58%) Front Office
11 14 (1.58%) Law
12 13 (1.47%) Legal
12 13 (1.47%) Telecoms
13 12 (1.36%) Financial Institution
13 12 (1.36%) Public Sector
14 10 (1.13%) Spanish Language
15 8 (0.90%) Aerospace
16 7 (0.79%) Aviation
16 7 (0.79%) Marketing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (1.92%) .NET
2 12 (1.36%) LDAP
3 11 (1.24%) SAP Basis
4 10 (1.13%) XML
5 9 (1.02%) Oracle GoldenGate
6 7 (0.79%) .NET Framework
6 7 (0.79%) JDO
6 7 (0.79%) REST
7 6 (0.68%) SAP Fiori
7 6 (0.68%) SAPUI5
7 6 (0.68%) Software Packaging
8 5 (0.57%) CSS
8 5 (0.57%) SAML
9 4 (0.45%) OAuth
10 3 (0.34%) AngularJS
10 3 (0.34%) GraphQL
10 3 (0.34%) Kafka
10 3 (0.34%) Middleware
10 3 (0.34%) React
10 3 (0.34%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 119 (13.46%) Onboarding
2 35 (3.96%) Data Centre
3 28 (3.17%) Video Conferencing
4 25 (2.83%) Analytical Mindset
5 21 (2.38%) Self-Motivation
6 20 (2.26%) PKI
7 16 (1.81%) Data Protection Act
8 15 (1.70%) Hedge funds
8 15 (1.70%) iPhone
9 14 (1.58%) Driving Licence
9 14 (1.58%) Enterprise Software
10 12 (1.36%) Legacy Systems
10 12 (1.36%) Smartphone
11 11 (1.24%) Blackberry
11 11 (1.24%) Virtual Team
12 10 (1.13%) iPad
13 9 (1.02%) SCADA
14 8 (0.90%) Management Information System
15 7 (0.79%) CMDB
15 7 (0.79%) Distributed Systems
Operating Systems
1 480 (54.30%) Windows
2 187 (21.15%) Windows 10
3 72 (8.14%) Windows Server
4 71 (8.03%) Linux
5 57 (6.45%) Mac OS
6 40 (4.52%) Unix
7 39 (4.41%) Apple iOS
8 35 (3.96%) Android
9 20 (2.26%) Windows 7
10 9 (1.02%) Windows Server 2019
11 8 (0.90%) Ubuntu
12 7 (0.79%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 5 (0.57%) Windows Server 2008
13 5 (0.57%) Windows Server 2016
14 4 (0.45%) OpenVMS
14 4 (0.45%) Solaris
14 4 (0.45%) VMS
14 4 (0.45%) Windows Server 2012
15 3 (0.34%) Windows XP
16 2 (0.23%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 208 (23.53%) Problem-Solving
2 206 (23.30%) Customer Service
3 174 (19.68%) ITIL
4 112 (12.67%) ITSM
5 75 (8.48%) Continuous Improvement
6 69 (7.81%) Asset Management
7 66 (7.47%) Service Delivery
8 64 (7.24%) Migration
9 62 (7.01%) Service Management
10 53 (6.00%) Problem Management
10 53 (6.00%) User Experience
11 47 (5.32%) Root Cause Analysis
12 46 (5.20%) Identity Access Management
12 46 (5.20%) Incident Management
13 44 (4.98%) Change Management
14 42 (4.75%) Infrastructure Engineering
15 36 (4.07%) Runbook
16 33 (3.73%) Data Protection
17 32 (3.62%) DevOps
18 31 (3.51%) Break/Fix
Programming Languages
1 97 (10.97%) PowerShell
2 68 (7.69%) SQL
3 41 (4.64%) Python
4 26 (2.94%) Java
5 24 (2.71%) C#
6 22 (2.49%) JavaScript
7 19 (2.15%) Bash
8 16 (1.81%) Shell Script
9 9 (1.02%) Korn
10 7 (0.79%) C++
11 5 (0.57%) Perl
11 5 (0.57%) T-SQL
12 3 (0.34%) Go
13 2 (0.23%) DCL
13 2 (0.23%) Tcl
13 2 (0.23%) VBA
14 1 (0.11%) C
14 1 (0.11%) Search Processing Language
14 1 (0.11%) VB.NET
14 1 (0.11%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 180 (20.36%) Security Cleared
2 114 (12.90%) SC Cleared
3 62 (7.01%) Degree
4 51 (5.77%) DV Cleared
5 34 (3.85%) A+ Certification
6 29 (3.28%) Microsoft Certification
7 23 (2.60%) Network+ Certification
8 21 (2.38%) Cisco Certification
9 20 (2.26%) CCNA
10 16 (1.81%) BPSS Clearance
10 16 (1.81%) MCSE
11 14 (1.58%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
12 10 (1.13%) Computer Science Degree
12 10 (1.13%) DBS Check
13 7 (0.79%) Microsoft Certified Professional
14 6 (0.68%) Azure Certification
14 6 (0.68%) ITIL Certification
15 4 (0.45%) NVQ Level 4
16 2 (0.23%) CCNP
17 1 (0.11%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 62 (7.01%) SLA
2 6 (0.68%) QA
3 5 (0.57%) Data Quality
4 4 (0.45%) Cyber Essentials
5 3 (0.34%) GDPR
5 3 (0.34%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 2 (0.23%) GxP
6 2 (0.23%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 1 (0.11%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.11%) Disclosure Scotland
7 1 (0.11%) GLP
7 1 (0.11%) GMP
7 1 (0.11%) GRC
7 1 (0.11%) ITGC
7 1 (0.11%) NCSC
System Software
1 385 (43.55%) Active Directory
2 47 (5.32%) VMware Infrastructure
3 25 (2.83%) Hyper-V
3 25 (2.83%) VMware ESXi
4 18 (2.04%) VMware NSX
5 17 (1.92%) Virtual Desktop
6 13 (1.47%) vCloud
7 9 (1.02%) Docker
7 9 (1.02%) Oracle RAC
8 7 (0.79%) vSphere
9 5 (0.57%) BitLocker
9 5 (0.57%) Firmware
9 5 (0.57%) NFS
10 3 (0.34%) Microsoft App-V
10 3 (0.34%) Terminal Services
11 2 (0.23%) zsh
12 1 (0.11%) Virtual Servers
12 1 (0.11%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 135 (15.27%) Microsoft Intune
2 56 (6.33%) SCCM
3 25 (2.83%) vCenter Server
4 21 (2.38%) Single Sign-On
5 19 (2.15%) SCOM
6 16 (1.81%) Jamf Pro
7 14 (1.58%) Grafana
7 14 (1.58%) Kubernetes
7 14 (1.58%) Terraform
8 11 (1.24%) Ansible
9 9 (1.02%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
9 9 (1.02%) Oracle RMAN
10 7 (0.79%) WSUS
11 5 (0.57%) Red Hat Satellite
12 4 (0.45%) ITRS Geneos
13 3 (0.34%) AirWatch
13 3 (0.34%) Prometheus
13 3 (0.34%) Puppet
13 3 (0.34%) vMotion
13 3 (0.34%) vRealize
Vendors
1 390 (44.12%) Microsoft
2 127 (14.37%) ServiceNow
3 62 (7.01%) VMware
4 38 (4.30%) Apple
5 35 (3.96%) Oracle
6 32 (3.62%) Okta
7 26 (2.94%) Cisco
7 26 (2.94%) Google
8 25 (2.83%) Citrix
9 23 (2.60%) SAP
10 21 (2.38%) BeyondTrust
11 20 (2.26%) Dell
12 13 (1.47%) Meraki
12 13 (1.47%) Splunk
12 13 (1.47%) Sybase
13 12 (1.36%) HP
13 12 (1.36%) iManage
14 11 (1.24%) Lotus
15 10 (1.13%) Samsung
16 9 (1.02%) Dynatrace