Support Engineer Contract Job Trends

Support Engineer
UK

The median Support Engineer daily rate in the UK is £225, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 8 November 2025.

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

6 months to
8 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 119 130 83
Rank change year-on-year +11 -47 +64
Contract jobs requiring a Support Engineer 840 699 1,261
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.40% 1.91% 2.68%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.64% 2.06% 2.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 575 465 916
10th Percentile £158 £150 £140
25th Percentile £188 £188 £184
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £225 £240 £245
Median % change year-on-year -6.25% -2.04% +5.38%
75th Percentile £338 £350 £400
90th Percentile £537 £538 £585
UK excluding London median daily rate £220 £225 £215
% change year-on-year -2.22% +4.65% +2.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 102 44 64
10th Percentile £17.14 £16.05 £13.60
25th Percentile £19.76 £20.29 £17.65
Median hourly rate £25.00 £23.89 £19.00
Median % change year-on-year +4.67% +25.71% -6.31%
75th Percentile £30.19 £27.59 £21.75
90th Percentile £64.40 £57.90 £25.48
UK excluding London median hourly rate £24.00 £23.59 £19.06
% change year-on-year +1.74% +23.77% +1.65%

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 31,811 33,985 44,100
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.91% 92.88% 93.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,179 20,513 30,002
10th Percentile £278 £300 £295
25th Percentile £402 £412 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £738 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £490 £500
% change year-on-year -3.06% -2.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,817 1,273 1,546
10th Percentile £14.03 £15.10 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.69 £20.30 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £36.50 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -31.10% -17.98% +53.98%
75th Percentile £51.25 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £69.65 £73.75 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £35.25 £44.50
% change year-on-year -28.65% -20.79% +85.42%

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 8 November 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 8 November 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 8 November 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 +21 766 £225 -6.25% 922
UK excluding London +10 586 £220 -2.22% 810
London -12 218 £250 -15.97% 341
South East +29 195 £238 +0.42% 393
Work from Home -10 110 £275 -25.42% 282
South West +35 109 £250 +13.64% 64
Midlands +10 101 £250 -9.09% 95
North of England -6 95 £200 - 144
West Midlands -2 75 £255 -8.93% 56
North West -8 52 £190 -5.00% 101
East of England -11 46 £216 -1.70% 54
Yorkshire -25 29 £205 +2.50% 33
East Midlands -5 26 £188 -31.82% 39
Scotland -18 25 £225 -33.82% 40
Wales +17 23 £213 +6.25% 23
North East +1 14 £106 -34.77% 11
Northern Ireland -4 4 £175 - 10

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

For the 6 months to 8 November 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.

1 448 (53.33%) Windows
2 336 (40.00%) Microsoft
3 259 (30.83%) Active Directory
4 257 (30.60%) Microsoft 365
5 238 (28.33%) Security Cleared
6 194 (23.10%) Problem-Solving
7 175 (20.83%) SC Cleared
8 166 (19.76%) Windows 10
9 162 (19.29%) Customer Service
10 134 (15.95%) ITIL
11 112 (13.33%) Azure
12 107 (12.74%) ServiceNow
13 105 (12.50%) Microsoft Office
14 102 (12.14%) Linux
15 99 (11.79%) Microsoft Intune
16 96 (11.43%) DNS
17 83 (9.88%) DHCP
18 81 (9.64%) Microsoft Exchange
19 77 (9.17%) ITSM
19 77 (9.17%) SCCM
20 76 (9.05%) SharePoint
20 76 (9.05%) VPN
21 75 (8.93%) TCP/IP
22 74 (8.81%) Service Management
23 64 (7.62%) PowerShell
24 59 (7.02%) Cisco
25 56 (6.67%) DV Cleared
26 55 (6.55%) Migration
27 52 (6.19%) Android
27 52 (6.19%) Oracle

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 81 (9.64%) Microsoft Exchange
2 76 (9.05%) SharePoint
3 30 (3.57%) Skype for Business
4 11 (1.31%) Exchange Server 2010
4 11 (1.31%) SharePoint Server
5 10 (1.19%) Exchange Server 2003
5 10 (1.19%) Exchange Server 2007
5 10 (1.19%) Exchange Server 2013
5 10 (1.19%) Office Communications Server
6 6 (0.71%) Confluence
7 5 (0.60%) OpenStack
8 4 (0.48%) Smallworld
9 3 (0.36%) Apache
9 3 (0.36%) Mattermost
10 2 (0.24%) Apache Airflow
10 2 (0.24%) Apache Spark
10 2 (0.24%) ArcGIS
10 2 (0.24%) Jupyter
11 1 (0.12%) CMS
11 1 (0.12%) WebSphere
Applications
1 105 (12.50%) Microsoft Office
2 24 (2.86%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (0.36%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 3 (0.36%) MS Visio
4 2 (0.24%) AutoCAD
5 1 (0.12%) DaVinci Resolve
5 1 (0.12%) OmniGraffle
5 1 (0.12%) Pro Tools
5 1 (0.12%) ProjectWise
5 1 (0.12%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 5 (0.60%) Primavera
1 5 (0.60%) Remedy ITSM
2 3 (0.36%) NetSuite
3 2 (0.24%) Eikon
3 2 (0.24%) Fidessa
3 2 (0.24%) Oracle ERP
4 1 (0.12%) Aladdin
4 1 (0.12%) Dynamics CRM
4 1 (0.12%) Eze OMS
4 1 (0.12%) Infor CloudSuite Industrial (formerly SyteLine)
4 1 (0.12%) Oracle Assets
4 1 (0.12%) Oracle EBS R12
4 1 (0.12%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 1 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
4 1 (0.12%) SAP EHS
4 1 (0.12%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 257 (30.60%) Microsoft 365
2 112 (13.33%) Azure
3 42 (5.00%) Entra ID
4 33 (3.93%) AWS
5 25 (2.98%) SaaS
6 24 (2.86%) OneDrive
7 19 (2.26%) Google Workspace
8 18 (2.14%) Sauce Labs
9 13 (1.55%) Power Platform
10 8 (0.95%) Azure DevOps
11 6 (0.71%) npm
12 5 (0.60%) OpenShift
12 5 (0.60%) Slack
12 5 (0.60%) SuccessFactors
13 3 (0.36%) Azure AKS
13 3 (0.36%) Microsoft Purview
13 3 (0.36%) PowerApps
14 2 (0.24%) Amazon EKS
14 2 (0.24%) IaaS
14 2 (0.24%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 96 (11.43%) DNS
2 83 (9.88%) DHCP
3 76 (9.05%) VPN
4 75 (8.93%) TCP/IP
5 51 (6.07%) WAN
6 45 (5.36%) Firewall
7 41 (4.88%) LAN
8 37 (4.40%) Wi-Fi
9 34 (4.05%) Wireless
10 23 (2.74%) Cisco IOS
11 22 (2.62%) VLAN
12 21 (2.50%) Skype
13 20 (2.38%) Junos
14 19 (2.26%) MPLS
15 17 (2.02%) BGP
15 17 (2.02%) IPsec
16 15 (1.79%) Cisco Firepower
16 15 (1.79%) Cisco ISE
17 14 (1.67%) VoIP
18 13 (1.55%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (4.17%) Relational Database
2 26 (3.10%) MySQL
3 18 (2.14%) SQL Server
4 10 (1.19%) Power BI
5 6 (0.71%) MariaDB
6 5 (0.60%) RDBMS
7 4 (0.48%) Data Warehouse
7 4 (0.48%) DB2
7 4 (0.48%) GIS
8 3 (0.36%) Apache Cassandra
8 3 (0.36%) InfluxDB
8 3 (0.36%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 2 (0.24%) Electronic Patient Records
9 2 (0.24%) Oracle Database
9 2 (0.24%) Tableau
10 1 (0.12%) Elasticsearch
10 1 (0.12%) Informix
10 1 (0.12%) PostgreSQL
10 1 (0.12%) Qlik Sense
10 1 (0.12%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 28 (3.33%) Browser DevTools
2 18 (2.14%) Android Studio
2 18 (2.14%) Eclipse
2 18 (2.14%) Xcode
3 16 (1.90%) JIRA
4 13 (1.55%) Git
5 9 (1.07%) Firebug
6 7 (0.83%) Jenkins
7 6 (0.71%) Maven
8 5 (0.60%) Sonatype Nexus
9 3 (0.36%) Fiddler
10 2 (0.24%) MSI
11 1 (0.12%) Bitbucket
11 1 (0.12%) ClearCase
11 1 (0.12%) Hudson
11 1 (0.12%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 372 (44.29%) Social Skills
2 83 (9.88%) Finance
3 68 (8.10%) Public Sector
4 60 (7.14%) Analytical Skills
5 38 (4.52%) Manufacturing
6 31 (3.69%) Banking
7 30 (3.57%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 29 (3.45%) Organisational Skills
9 28 (3.33%) Telecoms
10 17 (2.02%) Marketing
11 16 (1.90%) Electronics
12 13 (1.55%) Aerospace
13 12 (1.43%) Documentation Skills
14 10 (1.19%) Front Office
15 9 (1.07%) Automotive
15 9 (1.07%) Retail
16 7 (0.83%) Law
16 7 (0.83%) Legal
17 6 (0.71%) Investment Banking
17 6 (0.71%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 29 (3.45%) CSS
2 23 (2.74%) Middleware
3 21 (2.50%) React
4 19 (2.26%) Ajax
4 19 (2.26%) AngularJS
4 19 (2.26%) GraphQL
5 16 (1.90%) XML
6 10 (1.19%) HTML
7 7 (0.83%) JSON
8 5 (0.60%) .NET
8 5 (0.60%) REST
8 5 (0.60%) SOAP
8 5 (0.60%) XMPP
9 4 (0.48%) JDO
9 4 (0.48%) OAuth
10 3 (0.36%) ADO
10 3 (0.36%) Microsoft Graph
11 2 (0.24%) Kafka
11 2 (0.24%) Node.js
11 2 (0.24%) OpenTelemetry
Miscellaneous
1 32 (3.81%) Onboarding
1 32 (3.81%) Self-Motivation
2 28 (3.33%) Data Centre
3 22 (2.62%) PKI
4 21 (2.50%) Data Protection Act
5 20 (2.38%) Driving Licence
5 20 (2.38%) Mobile App
6 16 (1.90%) Smartphone
7 15 (1.79%) Video Conferencing
8 14 (1.67%) iPhone
8 14 (1.67%) Management Information System
8 14 (1.67%) Replication
9 11 (1.31%) Analytical Mindset
9 11 (1.31%) Enterprise Software
10 9 (1.07%) Operational Technology
11 8 (0.95%) iPad
12 7 (0.83%) Legacy Systems
12 7 (0.83%) NHS
13 5 (0.60%) Virtual Team
14 4 (0.48%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 448 (53.33%) Windows
2 166 (19.76%) Windows 10
3 102 (12.14%) Linux
4 52 (6.19%) Android
4 52 (6.19%) Windows Server
5 46 (5.48%) Apple iOS
6 42 (5.00%) Mac OS
7 33 (3.93%) Unix
8 13 (1.55%) Ubuntu
9 11 (1.31%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 11 (1.31%) Windows 7
10 10 (1.19%) Windows Server 2003
11 5 (0.60%) CentOS
12 4 (0.48%) Mac OS X
13 2 (0.24%) Windows 8
13 2 (0.24%) Windows Server 2012
13 2 (0.24%) Windows Server 2016
13 2 (0.24%) Windows Server 2019
14 1 (0.12%) VMS
14 1 (0.12%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 194 (23.10%) Problem-Solving
2 162 (19.29%) Customer Service
3 134 (15.95%) ITIL
4 77 (9.17%) ITSM
5 74 (8.81%) Service Management
6 55 (6.55%) Migration
7 49 (5.83%) Asset Management
8 45 (5.36%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 39 (4.64%) Workflow
10 35 (4.17%) User Experience
11 33 (3.93%) Business Intelligence
11 33 (3.93%) Service Delivery
12 32 (3.81%) Cybersecurity
12 32 (3.81%) OO
13 31 (3.69%) Root Cause Analysis
14 26 (3.10%) Incident Management
15 25 (2.98%) Stakeholder Management
16 24 (2.86%) Data Protection
16 24 (2.86%) High Availability
17 23 (2.74%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 64 (7.62%) PowerShell
2 46 (5.48%) Python
3 44 (5.24%) Java
4 42 (5.00%) JavaScript
5 36 (4.29%) SQL
6 22 (2.62%) Bash
7 21 (2.50%) Perl
8 16 (1.90%) C
8 16 (1.90%) Shell Script
9 13 (1.55%) C++
10 12 (1.43%) Ada
11 4 (0.48%) C#
11 4 (0.48%) Magik
12 3 (0.36%) TypeScript
12 3 (0.36%) VBScript
13 2 (0.24%) AWK
13 2 (0.24%) VB.NET
14 1 (0.12%) Korn
14 1 (0.12%) Lisp
14 1 (0.12%) Tcl
Qualifications
1 238 (28.33%) Security Cleared
2 175 (20.83%) SC Cleared
3 56 (6.67%) DV Cleared
4 50 (5.95%) Degree
5 31 (3.69%) Microsoft Certification
6 14 (1.67%) Azure Certification
6 14 (1.67%) DBS Check
7 13 (1.55%) Network+ Certification
8 12 (1.43%) Cisco Certification
8 12 (1.43%) ITIL Certification
9 11 (1.31%) CCNA
9 11 (1.31%) Server+ Certification
10 10 (1.19%) A+ Certification
10 10 (1.19%) Computer Science Degree
11 9 (1.07%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
12 8 (0.95%) BPSS Clearance
13 5 (0.60%) MCP
13 5 (0.60%) MCSE
14 4 (0.48%) MCSA
15 2 (0.24%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 45 (5.36%) SLA
2 13 (1.55%) QA
3 9 (1.07%) GDPR
4 7 (0.83%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 3 (0.36%) Accessibility
6 2 (0.24%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 1 (0.12%) GAAP
7 1 (0.12%) GMP
7 1 (0.12%) GxP
7 1 (0.12%) IFRS
7 1 (0.12%) NCSC
System Software
1 259 (30.83%) Active Directory
2 31 (3.69%) VMware Infrastructure
3 21 (2.50%) Hyper-V
4 20 (2.38%) Virtual Desktop
5 16 (1.90%) VMware NSX
6 12 (1.43%) vSphere
7 11 (1.31%) Firmware
8 10 (1.19%) Brightmail
8 10 (1.19%) ISA Server
9 9 (1.07%) Docker
10 3 (0.36%) Terminal Services
11 2 (0.24%) Microsoft App-V
11 2 (0.24%) NFS
11 2 (0.24%) Virtual Machines
11 2 (0.24%) Virtual Servers
11 2 (0.24%) VMware Workstation
11 2 (0.24%) XenApp
12 1 (0.12%) BitLocker
12 1 (0.12%) DFS Replication
12 1 (0.12%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 99 (11.79%) Microsoft Intune
2 77 (9.17%) SCCM
3 31 (3.69%) Jamf Pro
4 25 (2.98%) Ansible
5 19 (2.26%) Terraform
6 18 (2.14%) vCenter Server
7 12 (1.43%) Kubernetes
7 12 (1.43%) SCOM
8 10 (1.19%) Microsoft Clustering
9 7 (0.83%) Grafana
10 6 (0.71%) Red Hat Satellite
11 5 (0.60%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 5 (0.60%) AirWatch
12 4 (0.48%) ITRS Geneos
13 3 (0.36%) Kibana
13 3 (0.36%) Single Sign-On
14 2 (0.24%) AppManager
14 2 (0.24%) Autotask
14 2 (0.24%) FortiGate
14 2 (0.24%) OpenView
Vendors
1 336 (40.00%) Microsoft
2 107 (12.74%) ServiceNow
3 59 (7.02%) Cisco
4 52 (6.19%) Oracle
5 48 (5.71%) Apple
6 46 (5.48%) VMware
7 33 (3.93%) Juniper
8 27 (3.21%) Citrix
9 26 (3.10%) SolarWinds
10 25 (2.98%) SAP
11 24 (2.86%) Splunk
12 22 (2.62%) HP
12 22 (2.62%) Red Hat
13 21 (2.50%) Google
14 12 (1.43%) Remedy
15 9 (1.07%) Dell
16 7 (0.83%) Bloomberg
16 7 (0.83%) McAfee
16 7 (0.83%) Okta
16 7 (0.83%) Starlink