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 30 June 2026.

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

 6 months to
30 Jun 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 176 139 111
Rank change year-on-year -37 -28 0
Contract jobs requiring a Support Engineer 783 632 868
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.53% 2.07% 2.01%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.65% 2.24% 2.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 510 408 586
10th Percentile £156 £160 £140
25th Percentile £185 £200 £163
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £225 £245 £220
Median % change year-on-year -8.16% +11.36% -12.00%
75th Percentile £375 £375 £340
90th Percentile £473 £502 £500
UK excluding London median daily rate £208 £230 £205
% change year-on-year -9.78% +12.20% -6.29%
Number of hourly rates quoted 64 50 57
10th Percentile £17.39 £17.96 £16.25
25th Percentile £18.50 £20.73 £18.13
Median hourly rate £23.50 £25.08 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year -6.28% +11.44% +12.50%
75th Percentile £36.00 £46.56 £40.00
90th Percentile £48.35 £68.00 £54.80
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.50 £25.08 £24.18
% change year-on-year -10.27% +3.70% +33.52%

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 47,423 28,164 40,143
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.41% 92.05% 92.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,738 18,025 25,769
10th Percentile £325 £288 £283
25th Percentile £415 £401 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% -2.33%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £493
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.65% -1.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,196 1,261 2,867
10th Percentile £15.61 £13.78 £12.86
25th Percentile £21.23 £17.33 £16.50
Median hourly rate £43.00 £27.00 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +59.26% -28.00% -12.79%
75th Percentile £67.50 £56.25 £62.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.75 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% -

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 30 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 30 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 30 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 -48 674 £213 -11.46% 246
UK excluding London -38 524 £208 -9.78% 256
London -56 230 £275 +5.16% 48
South East -32 146 £238 -5.00% 76
North of England -67 92 £190 -9.52% 52
Work from Home -76 82 £220 -26.67% 71
Midlands -45 77 £210 -17.65% 27
Scotland +36 65 £437 +48.14% 21
South West -44 65 £210 -10.64% 46
East of England -2 64 £198 -12.22% 27
North West -43 55 £190 -5.00% 30
West Midlands -58 47 £250 -9.09% 13
Yorkshire -33 36 £190 -19.15% 17
East Midlands +3 29 £200 +16.96% 14
Wales -21 10 £195 -2.50% 4
Northern Ireland -1 5 £175 - 10
North East -49 1 £290 +48.72% 7
Channel Islands - 1 £550 -

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

For the 6 months to 30 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.

1 392 (50.06%) Windows
2 306 (39.08%) Active Directory
3 292 (37.29%) Microsoft
4 262 (33.46%) Microsoft 365
5 172 (21.97%) Problem-Solving
6 167 (21.33%) Windows 10
7 156 (19.92%) Security Cleared
8 144 (18.39%) Customer Service
9 134 (17.11%) Azure
9 134 (17.11%) ITIL
10 113 (14.43%) Microsoft Intune
11 106 (13.54%) SC Cleared
12 95 (12.13%) ServiceNow
13 91 (11.62%) Entra ID
14 76 (9.71%) DNS
15 75 (9.58%) SharePoint
16 72 (9.20%) PowerShell
17 68 (8.68%) ITSM
18 62 (7.92%) SQL
19 60 (7.66%) Linux
20 59 (7.54%) JIRA
21 56 (7.15%) Migration
22 52 (6.64%) VPN
23 51 (6.51%) Continuous Improvement
23 51 (6.51%) Mac OS
23 51 (6.51%) Windows Server
24 50 (6.39%) DHCP
25 48 (6.13%) Wi-Fi
26 47 (6.00%) Degree
26 47 (6.00%) Microsoft Exchange

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 75 (9.58%) SharePoint
2 47 (6.00%) Microsoft Exchange
3 12 (1.53%) NetWeaver
4 7 (0.89%) HCL Notes
5 5 (0.64%) Confluence
6 3 (0.38%) IIS
6 3 (0.38%) Skype for Business
7 2 (0.26%) OpenStack
7 2 (0.26%) WebLogic
8 1 (0.13%) Apache
8 1 (0.13%) Tuxedo
8 1 (0.13%) WebSphere
Applications
1 40 (5.11%) Microsoft Office
2 13 (1.66%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.51%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.13%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 11 (1.40%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (0.77%) Teamcenter
3 4 (0.51%) SAP EHS
4 3 (0.38%) Remedy ITSM
5 2 (0.26%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.13%) Alphatax
6 1 (0.13%) Dynamics CRM
6 1 (0.13%) Dynamics GP
6 1 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
6 1 (0.13%) SAP GRC
Cloud Services
1 262 (33.46%) Microsoft 365
2 134 (17.11%) Azure
3 91 (11.62%) Entra ID
4 33 (4.21%) AWS
5 29 (3.70%) OneDrive
6 21 (2.68%) Azure DevOps
7 20 (2.55%) SaaS
8 13 (1.66%) GCP
9 10 (1.28%) Power Platform
10 9 (1.15%) PaaS
11 6 (0.77%) Amazon S3
11 6 (0.77%) Google Workspace
11 6 (0.77%) IaaS
12 4 (0.51%) Azure Data Factory
12 4 (0.51%) Dynamics 365
12 4 (0.51%) Mimecast
13 3 (0.38%) Amazon EC2
13 3 (0.38%) OpenShift
13 3 (0.38%) Sauce Labs
14 2 (0.26%) Datadog
Communications & Networking
1 76 (9.71%) DNS
2 52 (6.64%) VPN
3 50 (6.39%) DHCP
4 48 (6.13%) Wi-Fi
5 45 (5.75%) TCP/IP
6 42 (5.36%) LAN
7 26 (3.32%) WAN
8 24 (3.07%) SAN
9 19 (2.43%) Firewall
10 17 (2.17%) Internet
11 13 (1.66%) VLAN
12 11 (1.40%) WLAN
13 10 (1.28%) Wireless
14 7 (0.89%) HTTP
15 6 (0.77%) Skype
15 6 (0.77%) VoIP
16 4 (0.51%) Network Security
16 4 (0.51%) Remote Desktop
17 3 (0.38%) Unified Communications
17 3 (0.38%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 32 (4.09%) SQL Server
2 18 (2.30%) MySQL
3 12 (1.53%) Amazon Redshift
3 12 (1.53%) SAP HANA
4 11 (1.40%) Sybase ASE
5 10 (1.28%) MaxDB
6 9 (1.15%) Relational Database
7 8 (1.02%) Power BI
8 7 (0.89%) Pentaho
9 6 (0.77%) PostgreSQL
9 6 (0.77%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 5 (0.64%) Amazon RDS
10 5 (0.64%) Oracle Database
11 4 (0.51%) Oracle Database 12c
12 3 (0.38%) Amazon Athena
12 3 (0.38%) Big Data
12 3 (0.38%) Elasticsearch
12 3 (0.38%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 2 (0.26%) MariaDB
13 2 (0.26%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 59 (7.54%) JIRA
2 17 (2.17%) Git
3 9 (1.15%) Browser DevTools
4 3 (0.38%) Android Studio
4 3 (0.38%) Eclipse
4 3 (0.38%) Xcode
5 2 (0.26%) Firebug
5 2 (0.26%) Jenkins
6 1 (0.13%) Artifactory
6 1 (0.13%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 1 (0.13%) Claude Code
6 1 (0.13%) Gemini Tracker
6 1 (0.13%) GitLab
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
1 302 (38.57%) Social Skills
2 91 (11.62%) Analytical Skills
3 61 (7.79%) Finance
4 45 (5.75%) Manufacturing
5 36 (4.60%) Banking
6 21 (2.68%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 21 (2.68%) Investment Banking
7 19 (2.43%) Organisational Skills
8 15 (1.92%) Aerospace
9 14 (1.79%) Aviation
10 13 (1.66%) Documentation Skills
10 13 (1.66%) Law
11 12 (1.53%) Retail
12 9 (1.15%) Front Office
13 7 (0.89%) Financial Institution
13 7 (0.89%) Legal
13 7 (0.89%) Marketing
13 7 (0.89%) Public Sector
13 7 (0.89%) Telecoms
14 6 (0.77%) Spanish Language
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (1.40%) SAP Basis
2 10 (1.28%) Oracle GoldenGate
3 9 (1.15%) REST
4 8 (1.02%) .NET
5 7 (0.89%) JDO
5 7 (0.89%) Software Packaging
6 6 (0.77%) SAP Fiori
6 6 (0.77%) SAPUI5
7 5 (0.64%) CSS
7 5 (0.64%) SAML
8 4 (0.51%) LDAP
8 4 (0.51%) Middleware
8 4 (0.51%) OAuth
8 4 (0.51%) PySpark
9 3 (0.38%) Ajax
9 3 (0.38%) AngularJS
9 3 (0.38%) GraphQL
9 3 (0.38%) React
9 3 (0.38%) RESTful
9 3 (0.38%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 74 (9.45%) Onboarding
2 35 (4.47%) Data Centre
3 25 (3.19%) Self-Motivation
4 21 (2.68%) Analytical Mindset
5 19 (2.43%) Virtual Team
6 15 (1.92%) PKI
6 15 (1.92%) Video Conferencing
7 14 (1.79%) Enterprise Software
8 13 (1.66%) Legacy Systems
9 12 (1.53%) Data Protection Act
9 12 (1.53%) iPhone
10 10 (1.28%) Driving Licence
10 10 (1.28%) SCADA
10 10 (1.28%) Smartphone
11 8 (1.02%) Hedge funds
12 7 (0.89%) Blackberry
12 7 (0.89%) iPad
13 6 (0.77%) BYOD
13 6 (0.77%) Management Information System
14 5 (0.64%) CCTV
Operating Systems
1 392 (50.06%) Windows
2 167 (21.33%) Windows 10
3 60 (7.66%) Linux
4 51 (6.51%) Mac OS
4 51 (6.51%) Windows Server
5 43 (5.49%) Unix
6 26 (3.32%) Apple iOS
7 21 (2.68%) Android
8 16 (2.04%) Windows 7
9 7 (0.89%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 7 (0.89%) Ubuntu
9 7 (0.89%) Windows Server 2016
10 4 (0.51%) Solaris
10 4 (0.51%) Windows Server 2019
10 4 (0.51%) Windows XP
11 3 (0.38%) Windows Server 2012
12 2 (0.26%) Mac OS X
12 2 (0.26%) OpenVMS
12 2 (0.26%) VMS
13 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 172 (21.97%) Problem-Solving
2 144 (18.39%) Customer Service
3 134 (17.11%) ITIL
4 68 (8.68%) ITSM
5 56 (7.15%) Migration
6 51 (6.51%) Continuous Improvement
7 45 (5.75%) Change Management
8 44 (5.62%) Service Delivery
9 41 (5.24%) Asset Management
10 39 (4.98%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 35 (4.47%) DevOps
11 35 (4.47%) Incident Management
12 34 (4.34%) Problem Management
12 34 (4.34%) User Experience
13 33 (4.21%) Root Cause Analysis
13 33 (4.21%) Service Management
14 27 (3.45%) High Availability
15 25 (3.19%) Data Protection
16 24 (3.07%) Break/Fix
16 24 (3.07%) Runbook
Programming Languages
1 72 (9.20%) PowerShell
2 62 (7.92%) SQL
3 32 (4.09%) Python
4 21 (2.68%) C#
5 19 (2.43%) Java
6 16 (2.04%) Shell Script
7 15 (1.92%) Bash
7 15 (1.92%) JavaScript
8 10 (1.28%) Korn
9 7 (0.89%) C++
9 7 (0.89%) Perl
10 2 (0.26%) DCL
10 2 (0.26%) T-SQL
11 1 (0.13%) C
11 1 (0.13%) Go
11 1 (0.13%) R
11 1 (0.13%) VB.NET
11 1 (0.13%) VBA
11 1 (0.13%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 156 (19.92%) Security Cleared
2 106 (13.54%) SC Cleared
3 47 (6.00%) Degree
4 35 (4.47%) DV Cleared
5 26 (3.32%) Microsoft Certification
6 23 (2.94%) A+ Certification
7 21 (2.68%) CCNA
7 21 (2.68%) Cisco Certification
7 21 (2.68%) Network+ Certification
8 16 (2.04%) MCSE
9 12 (1.53%) BPSS Clearance
10 8 (1.02%) Computer Science Degree
10 8 (1.02%) DBS Check
11 7 (0.89%) Azure Certification
11 7 (0.89%) Microsoft Certified Professional
12 6 (0.77%) ITIL Certification
13 4 (0.51%) NVQ Level 4
14 3 (0.38%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
15 1 (0.13%) AWS Certification
15 1 (0.13%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 38 (4.85%) SLA
2 4 (0.51%) Data Quality
2 4 (0.51%) GDPR
2 4 (0.51%) QA
3 3 (0.38%) Cyber Essentials
3 3 (0.38%) Sarbanes-Oxley
4 2 (0.26%) GLP
4 2 (0.26%) GMP
4 2 (0.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 1 (0.13%) Actionable Recommendations
5 1 (0.13%) GRC
5 1 (0.13%) GxP
5 1 (0.13%) ITGC
System Software
1 306 (39.08%) Active Directory
2 33 (4.21%) VMware Infrastructure
3 18 (2.30%) Hyper-V
3 18 (2.30%) VMware ESXi
4 16 (2.04%) VMware NSX
5 11 (1.40%) vCloud
5 11 (1.40%) Virtual Desktop
6 10 (1.28%) Oracle RAC
7 7 (0.89%) vSphere
8 5 (0.64%) Docker
8 5 (0.64%) NFS
9 4 (0.51%) BitLocker
10 3 (0.38%) Firmware
10 3 (0.38%) Microsoft App-V
10 3 (0.38%) 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
1 113 (14.43%) Microsoft Intune
2 43 (5.49%) SCCM
3 20 (2.55%) Jamf Pro
4 19 (2.43%) Single Sign-On
5 18 (2.30%) vCenter Server
6 12 (1.53%) Grafana
6 12 (1.53%) SCOM
7 10 (1.28%) Ansible
7 10 (1.28%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
7 10 (1.28%) Oracle RMAN
8 6 (0.77%) Kubernetes
8 6 (0.77%) Terraform
9 5 (0.64%) Red Hat Satellite
10 3 (0.38%) AirWatch
10 3 (0.38%) Nagios
10 3 (0.38%) Puppet
10 3 (0.38%) vMotion
10 3 (0.38%) vRealize
11 2 (0.26%) WMI
11 2 (0.26%) WSUS
Vendors
1 292 (37.29%) Microsoft
2 95 (12.13%) ServiceNow
3 41 (5.24%) VMware
4 32 (4.09%) Oracle
5 31 (3.96%) Apple
6 21 (2.68%) Dell
6 21 (2.68%) SAP
7 20 (2.55%) Okta
8 16 (2.04%) Citrix
9 15 (1.92%) Cisco
9 15 (1.92%) Google
9 15 (1.92%) HP
10 11 (1.40%) Sybase
11 10 (1.28%) BeyondTrust
12 9 (1.15%) McAfee
13 8 (1.02%) Denodo
13 8 (1.02%) Meraki
13 8 (1.02%) Red Hat
13 8 (1.02%) Splunk
13 8 (1.02%) Starlink
285 Support Engineer jobs Nationwide