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 15 November 2025.

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

6 months to
15 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 116 129 82
Rank change year-on-year +13 -47 +66
Contract jobs requiring a Support Engineer 840 707 1,237
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.37% 1.93% 2.64%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.60% 2.08% 2.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 571 472 897
10th Percentile £156 £150 £140
25th Percentile £188 £188 £181
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £225 £240 £245
Median % change year-on-year -6.25% -2.04% +6.52%
75th Percentile £338 £350 £400
90th Percentile £537 £524 £580
UK excluding London median daily rate £220 £225 £215
% change year-on-year -2.22% +4.65% +2.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 107 45 62
10th Percentile £17.14 £16.33 £13.31
25th Percentile £19.77 £20.50 £17.55
Median hourly rate £25.00 £24.18 £19.00
Median % change year-on-year +3.39% +27.26% -6.31%
75th Percentile £30.13 £38.00 £21.69
90th Percentile £56.40 £57.20 £24.20
UK excluding London median hourly rate £24.00 £23.59 £19.00
% change year-on-year +1.74% +24.16% +1.33%

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 32,290 34,016 43,872
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.93% 92.86% 93.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,492 20,527 29,813
10th Percentile £278 £300 £294
25th Percentile £402 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £620 £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 1,873 1,272 1,545
10th Percentile £14.14 £15.11 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.87 £20.45 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £36.00 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -30.14% -19.10% +58.28%
75th Percentile £53.99 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £73.75 £77.47
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £44.50
% change year-on-year -28.14% -21.35% +85.26%

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 15 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 15 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 15 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 +16 762 £225 -6.25% 543
UK excluding London +4 579 £220 -2.22% 442
London -19 222 £239 -20.42% 179
South East +29 190 £238 +1.14% 147
Work from Home -18 108 £275 -22.81% 133
South West +34 105 £250 +13.90% 50
Midlands +9 98 £253 -5.61% 71
North of England -19 97 £200 - 83
West Midlands +1 72 £261 -2.43% 42
North West -13 54 £190 -5.00% 50
East of England -17 48 £220 -1.12% 44
Yorkshire -26 31 £205 -2.38% 28
East Midlands -1 26 £188 -21.05% 29
Scotland -23 25 £225 -33.82% 33
Wales +17 23 £213 +6.25% 12
North East -3 12 £106 -34.77% 6
Northern Ireland -1 4 £175 - 6

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

For the 6 months to 15 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.

1 447 (53.21%) Windows
2 332 (39.52%) Microsoft
3 252 (30.00%) Microsoft 365
4 250 (29.76%) Active Directory
5 247 (29.40%) Security Cleared
6 193 (22.98%) Problem-Solving
7 183 (21.79%) SC Cleared
8 163 (19.40%) Windows 10
9 161 (19.17%) Customer Service
10 124 (14.76%) ITIL
11 111 (13.21%) Azure
12 104 (12.38%) ServiceNow
13 102 (12.14%) Linux
13 102 (12.14%) Microsoft Office
14 98 (11.67%) Microsoft Intune
15 94 (11.19%) DNS
16 83 (9.88%) DHCP
17 78 (9.29%) SCCM
18 77 (9.17%) Service Management
18 77 (9.17%) SharePoint
19 76 (9.05%) ITSM
19 76 (9.05%) Microsoft Exchange
19 76 (9.05%) TCP/IP
20 75 (8.93%) VPN
21 64 (7.62%) PowerShell
22 60 (7.14%) Cisco
23 59 (7.02%) DV Cleared
24 58 (6.90%) Migration
25 54 (6.43%) Android
26 53 (6.31%) Windows Server

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 77 (9.17%) SharePoint
2 76 (9.05%) Microsoft Exchange
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 4 (0.48%) OpenStack
8 3 (0.36%) Apache
8 3 (0.36%) Mattermost
8 3 (0.36%) Smallworld
9 2 (0.24%) Apache Airflow
9 2 (0.24%) Apache Spark
9 2 (0.24%) ArcGIS
9 2 (0.24%) Jupyter
10 1 (0.12%) Tomcat
10 1 (0.12%) WebSphere
Applications
1 102 (12.14%) Microsoft Office
2 25 (2.98%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.48%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.36%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.24%) AutoCAD
6 1 (0.12%) DaVinci Resolve
6 1 (0.12%) OmniGraffle
6 1 (0.12%) Pro Tools
6 1 (0.12%) ProjectWise
6 1 (0.12%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 7 (0.83%) Remedy ITSM
2 5 (0.60%) Primavera
3 3 (0.36%) NetSuite
3 3 (0.36%) SAP EHS
4 2 (0.24%) Eikon
4 2 (0.24%) Fidessa
4 2 (0.24%) Oracle ERP
5 1 (0.12%) Aladdin
5 1 (0.12%) Dynamics CRM
5 1 (0.12%) Eze OMS
5 1 (0.12%) Infor CloudSuite Industrial (formerly SyteLine)
5 1 (0.12%) Oracle Assets
5 1 (0.12%) Oracle EBS R12
5 1 (0.12%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 1 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
5 1 (0.12%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 252 (30.00%) Microsoft 365
2 111 (13.21%) Azure
3 41 (4.88%) Entra ID
4 32 (3.81%) AWS
5 26 (3.10%) OneDrive
6 25 (2.98%) SaaS
7 20 (2.38%) 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%) Amazon OpenSearch
14 2 (0.24%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 94 (11.19%) DNS
2 83 (9.88%) DHCP
3 76 (9.05%) TCP/IP
4 75 (8.93%) VPN
5 48 (5.71%) WAN
6 44 (5.24%) Firewall
7 38 (4.52%) Wi-Fi
8 37 (4.40%) LAN
8 37 (4.40%) Wireless
9 23 (2.74%) Cisco IOS
10 22 (2.62%) VLAN
11 21 (2.50%) Skype
12 20 (2.38%) Junos
13 19 (2.26%) MPLS
14 17 (2.02%) BGP
14 17 (2.02%) IPsec
15 15 (1.79%) Cisco Firepower
15 15 (1.79%) Cisco ISE
16 13 (1.55%) PABX
16 13 (1.55%) Remote Desktop
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
8 3 (0.36%) GIS
8 3 (0.36%) InfluxDB
8 3 (0.36%) Tableau
9 2 (0.24%) Apache Cassandra
9 2 (0.24%) Electronic Patient Records
9 2 (0.24%) Oracle Database
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 17 (2.02%) 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
1 367 (43.69%) Social Skills
2 84 (10.00%) Finance
3 68 (8.10%) Public Sector
4 60 (7.14%) Analytical Skills
5 40 (4.76%) Manufacturing
6 35 (4.17%) Banking
7 30 (3.57%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 27 (3.21%) Organisational Skills
8 27 (3.21%) Telecoms
9 17 (2.02%) Marketing
10 16 (1.90%) Electronics
11 15 (1.79%) Aerospace
12 12 (1.43%) Front Office
13 10 (1.19%) Documentation Skills
14 9 (1.07%) Retail
15 8 (0.95%) Investment Banking
15 8 (0.95%) Legal
16 7 (0.83%) Law
17 6 (0.71%) Automotive
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%) OpenTelemetry
11 2 (0.24%) PySpark
Miscellaneous
1 34 (4.05%) Onboarding
2 31 (3.69%) Self-Motivation
3 29 (3.45%) Data Centre
4 23 (2.74%) Driving Licence
4 23 (2.74%) PKI
5 22 (2.62%) Data Protection Act
6 20 (2.38%) Mobile App
7 16 (1.90%) Smartphone
8 15 (1.79%) Video Conferencing
9 14 (1.67%) iPhone
9 14 (1.67%) Management Information System
10 12 (1.43%) Replication
11 11 (1.31%) Analytical Mindset
12 9 (1.07%) Operational Technology
13 8 (0.95%) Enterprise Software
13 8 (0.95%) iPad
14 7 (0.83%) NHS
15 6 (0.71%) Legacy Systems
16 5 (0.60%) Virtual Team
17 4 (0.48%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 447 (53.21%) Windows
2 163 (19.40%) Windows 10
3 102 (12.14%) Linux
4 54 (6.43%) Android
5 53 (6.31%) Windows Server
6 47 (5.60%) Apple iOS
7 42 (5.00%) Mac OS
8 34 (4.05%) Unix
9 13 (1.55%) Ubuntu
10 11 (1.31%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 10 (1.19%) Windows Server 2003
12 9 (1.07%) Windows 7
13 5 (0.60%) CentOS
14 4 (0.48%) Mac OS X
15 2 (0.24%) Windows Server 2012
15 2 (0.24%) Windows Server 2016
15 2 (0.24%) Windows Server 2019
16 1 (0.12%) VMS
16 1 (0.12%) Windows 8
16 1 (0.12%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 193 (22.98%) Problem-Solving
2 161 (19.17%) Customer Service
3 124 (14.76%) ITIL
4 77 (9.17%) Service Management
5 76 (9.05%) ITSM
6 58 (6.90%) Migration
7 51 (6.07%) Asset Management
8 45 (5.36%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 42 (5.00%) Workflow
10 34 (4.05%) User Experience
11 33 (3.93%) Business Intelligence
12 32 (3.81%) OO
13 31 (3.69%) Cybersecurity
14 30 (3.57%) Root Cause Analysis
14 30 (3.57%) Service Delivery
15 27 (3.21%) Workflow Management
16 25 (2.98%) Data Protection
16 25 (2.98%) Incident Management
16 25 (2.98%) Stakeholder Management
17 23 (2.74%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 64 (7.62%) PowerShell
2 45 (5.36%) Python
3 44 (5.24%) Java
4 43 (5.12%) JavaScript
5 33 (3.93%) SQL
6 21 (2.50%) Bash
6 21 (2.50%) Perl
7 17 (2.02%) Shell Script
8 16 (1.90%) C
9 13 (1.55%) C++
10 12 (1.43%) Ada
11 4 (0.48%) C#
12 3 (0.36%) Magik
12 3 (0.36%) TypeScript
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%) PHP
14 1 (0.12%) Tcl
Qualifications
1 247 (29.40%) Security Cleared
2 183 (21.79%) SC Cleared
3 59 (7.02%) DV Cleared
4 48 (5.71%) Degree
5 31 (3.69%) Microsoft Certification
6 14 (1.67%) Azure Certification
7 13 (1.55%) DBS Check
7 13 (1.55%) Network+ Certification
8 12 (1.43%) Cisco Certification
9 11 (1.31%) CCNA
9 11 (1.31%) Server+ Certification
10 10 (1.19%) Computer Science Degree
10 10 (1.19%) ITIL Certification
11 9 (1.07%) A+ Certification
12 8 (0.95%) BPSS Clearance
13 5 (0.60%) MCSE
14 4 (0.48%) MCP
14 4 (0.48%) MCSA
15 3 (0.36%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
16 2 (0.24%) MOS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 39 (4.64%) SLA
2 15 (1.79%) QA
3 9 (1.07%) GDPR
4 5 (0.60%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 3 (0.36%) Accessibility
6 2 (0.24%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 1 (0.12%) Data Quality
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
1 250 (29.76%) Active Directory
2 32 (3.81%) VMware Infrastructure
3 21 (2.50%) Hyper-V
4 20 (2.38%) Virtual Desktop
5 16 (1.90%) VMware NSX
6 11 (1.31%) Firmware
6 11 (1.31%) vSphere
7 10 (1.19%) Brightmail
7 10 (1.19%) ISA Server
8 9 (1.07%) Docker
9 3 (0.36%) Terminal Services
10 2 (0.24%) Microsoft App-V
10 2 (0.24%) NFS
10 2 (0.24%) Virtual Machines
10 2 (0.24%) Virtual Servers
10 2 (0.24%) VMware Workstation
11 1 (0.12%) BitLocker
11 1 (0.12%) Tivoli Workload Scheduler
11 1 (0.12%) VMware ESXi
11 1 (0.12%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 98 (11.67%) Microsoft Intune
2 78 (9.29%) SCCM
3 32 (3.81%) Jamf Pro
4 24 (2.86%) Ansible
5 19 (2.26%) Terraform
6 18 (2.14%) vCenter Server
7 12 (1.43%) SCOM
8 11 (1.31%) Kubernetes
9 10 (1.19%) Microsoft Clustering
10 7 (0.83%) Grafana
11 6 (0.71%) Red Hat Satellite
12 5 (0.60%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 5 (0.60%) AirWatch
13 4 (0.48%) ITRS Geneos
14 3 (0.36%) Kibana
14 3 (0.36%) Single Sign-On
15 2 (0.24%) AppManager
15 2 (0.24%) Autotask
15 2 (0.24%) FortiGate
15 2 (0.24%) WSUS
Vendors
1 332 (39.52%) Microsoft
2 104 (12.38%) ServiceNow
3 60 (7.14%) Cisco
4 51 (6.07%) Oracle
5 50 (5.95%) Apple
6 47 (5.60%) VMware
7 33 (3.93%) Juniper
8 28 (3.33%) SAP
9 26 (3.10%) Citrix
9 26 (3.10%) SolarWinds
10 24 (2.86%) Splunk
11 23 (2.74%) HP
12 22 (2.62%) Red Hat
13 21 (2.50%) Google
14 13 (1.55%) Remedy
15 10 (1.19%) Dell
16 9 (1.07%) Bloomberg
17 7 (0.83%) McAfee
17 7 (0.83%) Starlink
18 6 (0.71%) Meraki