Support Engineer Contract Job Trends

Support Engineer
UK

The median Support Engineer daily rate in the UK is £210, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 29 April 2026.

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

6 months to
29 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 172 123 111
Rank change year-on-year -49 -12 +17
Contract jobs requiring a Support Engineer 739 648 880
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.57% 2.22% 2.03%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.70% 2.40% 2.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 493 422 615
10th Percentile £153 £153 £140
25th Percentile £185 £188 £163
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £210 £240 £210
Median % change year-on-year -12.50% +14.29% -16.00%
75th Percentile £350 £387 £306
90th Percentile £470 £500 £450
UK excluding London median daily rate £200 £225 £200
% change year-on-year -11.11% +12.50% -5.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 90 50 55
10th Percentile £18.79 £18.13 £16.25
25th Percentile £21.25 £21.00 £17.72
Median hourly rate £25.00 £24.58 £20.00
Median % change year-on-year +1.71% +22.90% -
75th Percentile £35.81 £39.75 £27.64
90th Percentile £37.63 £68.00 £46.39
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.58 £24.18 £18.00
% change year-on-year -2.50% +34.33% -4.00%

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 43,468 27,008 40,187
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.33% 92.57% 92.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 26,813 17,658 26,169
10th Percentile £315 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £407 £409
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £515 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.91% -1.90% -2.78%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £490 £475 £491
% change year-on-year +3.16% -3.27% -1.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,818 1,032 2,646
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.20 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.43 £18.51 £16.30
Median hourly rate £43.69 £29.15 £35.96
Median % change year-on-year +49.88% -18.93% -20.10%
75th Percentile £65.88 £62.50 £60.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.23 £28.75 £37.75
% change year-on-year +57.32% -23.84% -11.18%

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 29 April 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 29 April 2026.

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 29 April 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 -39 660 £210 -14.29% 254
UK excluding London -46 490 £200 -11.11% 264
London -56 213 £275 -8.71% 33
South East -41 116 £208 -17.00% 82
North of England -52 114 £190 -12.64% 61
Midlands -37 86 £200 -27.27% 31
Work from Home -75 79 £223 -31.54% 70
South West -30 75 £210 -7.69% 35
North West -27 67 £175 -18.60% 35
East of England -15 57 £200 -10.11% 34
West Midlands -54 51 £250 -16.67% 17
Yorkshire -42 43 £205 -12.77% 22
East Midlands -10 36 £200 -5.88% 14
Scotland +11 35 £275 +83.33% 15
Wales -14 11 £200 +5.26% 3
North East -25 4 £106 -45.64% 7
Northern Ireland -7 2 £175 +18.24% 9

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

For the 6 months to 29 April 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.

1 330 (44.65%) Windows
2 255 (34.51%) Microsoft
3 237 (32.07%) Microsoft 365
4 230 (31.12%) Active Directory
5 157 (21.24%) Security Cleared
6 154 (20.84%) Windows 10
7 150 (20.30%) Customer Service
8 132 (17.86%) Problem-Solving
9 129 (17.46%) SC Cleared
10 124 (16.78%) Azure
11 93 (12.58%) Microsoft Intune
12 91 (12.31%) ITIL
13 78 (10.55%) ServiceNow
14 67 (9.07%) Migration
15 66 (8.93%) Entra ID
16 56 (7.58%) ITSM
17 54 (7.31%) SharePoint
18 50 (6.77%) PowerShell
19 49 (6.63%) JIRA
19 49 (6.63%) SQL
20 47 (6.36%) Wi-Fi
21 44 (5.95%) Asset Management
21 44 (5.95%) DNS
22 42 (5.68%) Linux
22 42 (5.68%) SCCM
23 40 (5.41%) Microsoft Office
24 38 (5.14%) Continuous Improvement
25 37 (5.01%) Degree
26 35 (4.74%) DHCP
26 35 (4.74%) Unix

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 54 (7.31%) SharePoint
2 23 (3.11%) Microsoft Exchange
3 7 (0.95%) NetWeaver
4 4 (0.54%) Apache
4 4 (0.54%) Confluence
4 4 (0.54%) IIS
5 3 (0.41%) Skype for Business
6 2 (0.27%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.27%) Apache Spark
6 2 (0.27%) Jupyter
6 2 (0.27%) OpenStack
6 2 (0.27%) WebLogic
7 1 (0.14%) Tuxedo
7 1 (0.14%) WebSphere
Applications
1 40 (5.41%) Microsoft Office
2 13 (1.76%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (0.68%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 11 (1.49%) SAP EHS
2 8 (1.08%) Remedy ITSM
3 7 (0.95%) Shopify
4 6 (0.81%) SAP S/4HANA
4 6 (0.81%) Teamcenter
5 2 (0.27%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.14%) Aladdin
6 1 (0.14%) Alphatax
6 1 (0.14%) assyst
6 1 (0.14%) Bloomberg TOMS
6 1 (0.14%) Dynamics CRM
6 1 (0.14%) Dynamics GP
6 1 (0.14%) Eikon
6 1 (0.14%) Fidessa
6 1 (0.14%) Oracle EBS
6 1 (0.14%) Oracle Receivables
6 1 (0.14%) SAP GRC
Cloud Services
1 237 (32.07%) Microsoft 365
2 124 (16.78%) Azure
3 66 (8.93%) Entra ID
4 25 (3.38%) AWS
5 22 (2.98%) OneDrive
6 21 (2.84%) Azure DevOps
7 19 (2.57%) SaaS
8 14 (1.89%) Google Workspace
9 12 (1.62%) Power Platform
10 11 (1.49%) Dynamics 365
11 8 (1.08%) GCP
12 6 (0.81%) Amazon S3
13 5 (0.68%) Azure Data Factory
13 5 (0.68%) npm
13 5 (0.68%) PaaS
13 5 (0.68%) Sauce Labs
14 4 (0.54%) Datadog
14 4 (0.54%) Mimecast
14 4 (0.54%) Snowflake
15 2 (0.27%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 47 (6.36%) Wi-Fi
2 44 (5.95%) DNS
3 35 (4.74%) DHCP
4 33 (4.47%) LAN
5 32 (4.33%) VPN
6 30 (4.06%) TCP/IP
7 21 (2.84%) Firewall
7 21 (2.84%) WAN
8 17 (2.30%) SAN
9 14 (1.89%) Wireless
10 9 (1.22%) Network Security
11 8 (1.08%) Internet
12 7 (0.95%) HTTP
12 7 (0.95%) VLAN
12 7 (0.95%) VoIP
13 6 (0.81%) WLAN
14 5 (0.68%) AMQP
14 5 (0.68%) Skype
15 4 (0.54%) Unified Communications
16 3 (0.41%) Softphone
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (3.11%) SQL Server
2 17 (2.30%) MySQL
3 13 (1.76%) Amazon Redshift
4 12 (1.62%) Relational Database
5 10 (1.35%) Power BI
6 9 (1.22%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 7 (0.95%) Pentaho
7 7 (0.95%) SAP HANA
8 6 (0.81%) Sybase ASE
9 5 (0.68%) MaxDB
9 5 (0.68%) Oracle Database
10 4 (0.54%) Amazon Athena
10 4 (0.54%) Oracle Database 12c
10 4 (0.54%) PostgreSQL
11 3 (0.41%) InfluxDB
11 3 (0.41%) Tableau
12 2 (0.27%) Data Warehouse
12 2 (0.27%) MariaDB
12 2 (0.27%) RDBMS
12 2 (0.27%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 49 (6.63%) JIRA
2 20 (2.71%) Git
3 11 (1.49%) Browser DevTools
4 5 (0.68%) Android Studio
4 5 (0.68%) Eclipse
4 5 (0.68%) Maven
4 5 (0.68%) Xcode
5 3 (0.41%) Jenkins
6 2 (0.27%) Firebug
7 1 (0.14%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 1 (0.14%) MSI
7 1 (0.14%) RStudio
7 1 (0.14%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 1 (0.14%) Subversion
General
1 286 (38.70%) Social Skills
2 67 (9.07%) Analytical Skills
3 56 (7.58%) Finance
4 51 (6.90%) Manufacturing
5 38 (5.14%) Banking
6 29 (3.92%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 22 (2.98%) Aerospace
8 18 (2.44%) Investment Banking
8 18 (2.44%) Public Sector
9 17 (2.30%) Aviation
10 13 (1.76%) Law
11 12 (1.62%) Telecoms
12 11 (1.49%) Front Office
12 11 (1.49%) Organisational Skills
13 10 (1.35%) Legal
14 7 (0.95%) Documentation Skills
15 6 (0.81%) French Language
15 6 (0.81%) Marketing
15 6 (0.81%) Retail
16 5 (0.68%) Electronics
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (1.35%) Oracle GoldenGate
2 8 (1.08%) REST
3 7 (0.95%) CSS
3 7 (0.95%) JDO
3 7 (0.95%) Middleware
4 6 (0.81%) .NET
4 6 (0.81%) SAP Basis
5 5 (0.68%) Ajax
5 5 (0.68%) AngularJS
5 5 (0.68%) GraphQL
5 5 (0.68%) React
5 5 (0.68%) SAML
5 5 (0.68%) YAML
6 4 (0.54%) OAuth
6 4 (0.54%) PySpark
7 3 (0.41%) HTML
7 3 (0.41%) JSP
7 3 (0.41%) RESTful
7 3 (0.41%) Software Packaging
8 2 (0.27%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 50 (6.77%) Onboarding
2 29 (3.92%) Self-Motivation
3 27 (3.65%) Data Centre
4 23 (3.11%) Driving Licence
5 21 (2.84%) Analytical Mindset
6 12 (1.62%) Data Protection Act
6 12 (1.62%) Smartphone
6 12 (1.62%) Virtual Team
7 11 (1.49%) iPhone
8 10 (1.35%) PKI
8 10 (1.35%) SCADA
9 9 (1.22%) Legacy Systems
10 8 (1.08%) Enterprise Software
10 8 (1.08%) Hybrid Cloud
11 6 (0.81%) Video Conferencing
12 5 (0.68%) Mobile App
13 4 (0.54%) iPad
13 4 (0.54%) Management Information System
14 3 (0.41%) CMDB
15 2 (0.27%) Fat Client
Operating Systems
1 330 (44.65%) Windows
2 154 (20.84%) Windows 10
3 42 (5.68%) Linux
4 35 (4.74%) Unix
4 35 (4.74%) Windows Server
5 32 (4.33%) Mac OS
6 28 (3.79%) Android
7 22 (2.98%) Apple iOS
8 12 (1.62%) Windows 7
9 6 (0.81%) Windows Server 2016
10 3 (0.41%) Mac OS X
10 3 (0.41%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 3 (0.41%) Windows Server 2012
10 3 (0.41%) Windows Server 2019
11 2 (0.27%) CentOS
12 1 (0.14%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.14%) Windows Server 2008
12 1 (0.14%) Windows XP
Processes & Methodologies
1 150 (20.30%) Customer Service
2 132 (17.86%) Problem-Solving
3 91 (12.31%) ITIL
4 67 (9.07%) Migration
5 56 (7.58%) ITSM
6 44 (5.95%) Asset Management
7 38 (5.14%) Continuous Improvement
8 35 (4.74%) User Experience
9 33 (4.47%) Root Cause Analysis
9 33 (4.47%) Workflow
10 31 (4.19%) Change Management
11 30 (4.06%) DevOps
11 30 (4.06%) Incident Management
12 29 (3.92%) Break/Fix
13 27 (3.65%) Service Management
14 26 (3.52%) Infrastructure Engineering
14 26 (3.52%) Workflow Management
15 25 (3.38%) Logistics
16 23 (3.11%) Service Delivery
16 23 (3.11%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 50 (6.77%) PowerShell
2 49 (6.63%) SQL
3 26 (3.52%) Python
4 22 (2.98%) Java
5 19 (2.57%) C#
6 15 (2.03%) Shell Script
7 14 (1.89%) JavaScript
8 10 (1.35%) Korn
9 9 (1.22%) Bash
10 8 (1.08%) Perl
11 2 (0.27%) AWK
12 1 (0.14%) C
12 1 (0.14%) C++
12 1 (0.14%) PL/SQL
12 1 (0.14%) R
12 1 (0.14%) T-SQL
12 1 (0.14%) VB.NET
12 1 (0.14%) VBA
12 1 (0.14%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 157 (21.24%) Security Cleared
2 129 (17.46%) SC Cleared
3 37 (5.01%) Degree
4 24 (3.25%) DV Cleared
4 24 (3.25%) Microsoft Certification
5 21 (2.84%) A+ Certification
6 19 (2.57%) CCNA
6 19 (2.57%) Cisco Certification
7 16 (2.17%) MCSE
8 15 (2.03%) Network+ Certification
9 14 (1.89%) BPSS Clearance
10 9 (1.22%) Azure Certification
11 8 (1.08%) Computer Science Degree
12 7 (0.95%) DBS Check
13 6 (0.81%) ITIL Certification
14 3 (0.41%) Master's Degree
15 2 (0.27%) NVQ Level 4
16 1 (0.14%) AWS Certification
16 1 (0.14%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
16 1 (0.14%) MCITP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (3.65%) SLA
2 5 (0.68%) Cyber Essentials
3 4 (0.54%) Data Quality
4 3 (0.41%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 3 (0.41%) QA
5 2 (0.27%) GDPR
5 2 (0.27%) GLP
5 2 (0.27%) GMP
6 1 (0.14%) Actionable Recommendations
6 1 (0.14%) GAAP
6 1 (0.14%) GRC
6 1 (0.14%) GxP
6 1 (0.14%) IFRS
6 1 (0.14%) ITGC
6 1 (0.14%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 1 (0.14%) SOC 2
System Software
1 230 (31.12%) Active Directory
2 20 (2.71%) VMware Infrastructure
3 11 (1.49%) Hyper-V
4 10 (1.35%) Oracle RAC
5 8 (1.08%) Virtual Desktop
6 5 (0.68%) Firmware
6 5 (0.68%) VMware NSX
6 5 (0.68%) vSphere
7 4 (0.54%) Docker
8 3 (0.41%) VMware ESXi
9 1 (0.14%) BitLocker
9 1 (0.14%) Microsoft Virtual Server
9 1 (0.14%) Virtual Servers
9 1 (0.14%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 93 (12.58%) Microsoft Intune
2 42 (5.68%) SCCM
3 21 (2.84%) Jamf Pro
4 17 (2.30%) Grafana
5 13 (1.76%) Terraform
6 12 (1.62%) Ansible
7 10 (1.35%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
7 10 (1.35%) Oracle RMAN
7 10 (1.35%) Single Sign-On
8 6 (0.81%) Kubernetes
9 4 (0.54%) Kibana
10 3 (0.41%) vCenter Server
10 3 (0.41%) vRealize
10 3 (0.41%) WSUS
11 2 (0.27%) AirWatch
11 2 (0.27%) McAfee ePO
11 2 (0.27%) PaperCut
11 2 (0.27%) Prometheus
11 2 (0.27%) WMI
12 1 (0.14%) Cisco Prime
Vendors
1 255 (34.51%) Microsoft
2 78 (10.55%) ServiceNow
3 33 (4.47%) Oracle
4 31 (4.19%) SAP
5 30 (4.06%) Dell
6 22 (2.98%) Apple
6 22 (2.98%) Cisco
6 22 (2.98%) VMware
7 20 (2.71%) HP
8 18 (2.44%) Google
9 11 (1.49%) Bloomberg
10 10 (1.35%) McAfee
10 10 (1.35%) Remedy
11 9 (1.22%) Citrix
11 9 (1.22%) Splunk
12 8 (1.08%) Denodo
12 8 (1.08%) Meraki
12 8 (1.08%) Starlink
12 8 (1.08%) Talend
13 7 (0.95%) Okta