Support Engineer Contract Job Trends

Support Engineer
UK

The median Support Engineer daily rate in the UK is £240, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 22 August 2026.

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

6 months to
22 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 167 130 119
Rank change year-on-year -37 -11 -30
Contract jobs requiring a Support Engineer 899 707 752
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.67% 2.15% 1.94%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.81% 2.36% 2.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 596 462 521
10th Percentile £163 £160 £140
25th Percentile £190 £200 £180
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £240 £236 £235
Median % change year-on-year +1.59% +0.53% -6.00%
75th Percentile £400 £383 £350
90th Percentile £500 £538 £538
UK excluding London median daily rate £225 £229 £220
% change year-on-year -1.64% +3.98% -1.12%
Number of hourly rates quoted 45 70 45
10th Percentile £16.44 £16.50 £16.55
25th Percentile £18.50 £20.79 £18.13
Median hourly rate £24.00 £25.63 £22.00
Median % change year-on-year -6.34% +16.48% +15.79%
75th Percentile £37.50 £43.75 £25.00
90th Percentile £53.00 £68.00 £59.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.00 £25.20 £22.00
% change year-on-year -12.70% +14.55% +15.79%

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 49,757 29,939 36,107
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.45% 91.25% 92.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,837 18,916 23,063
10th Percentile £325 £280 £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 £729 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,525 1,560 1,966
10th Percentile £14.98 £13.65 £14.16
25th Percentile £20.53 £17.29 £19.52
Median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +67.00% -41.51% +1.55%
75th Percentile £67.84 £53.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £71.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% +14.67%

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 22 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 22 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 22 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 -42 760 £225 -5.16% 362
UK excluding London -39 583 £225 -1.64% 288
London -34 277 £275 +10.00% 115
South East -38 160 £250 - 105
North of England -22 138 £200 -9.09% 50
North West -8 95 £200 -12.09% 25
Work from Home -69 90 £300 -11.76% 86
Scotland +54 86 £425 +43.98% 16
Midlands -59 65 £250 -9.09% 47
East of England -4 61 £195 -2.50% 43
South West -64 58 £210 -10.64% 34
West Midlands -65 43 £250 -9.09% 26
Yorkshire -18 40 £210 -6.67% 21
East Midlands -13 21 £270 +47.54% 21
Wales -31 11 £438 +105.88% 2
Northern Ireland -2 4 £175 -30.00% 5
North East -52 4 £239 +22.44% 8
Channel Islands - 1 £550 -

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

For the 6 months to 22 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.

1 497 (55.28%) Windows
2 404 (44.94%) Microsoft
3 390 (43.38%) Active Directory
4 341 (37.93%) Microsoft 365
5 217 (24.14%) Problem-Solving
6 211 (23.47%) Customer Service
7 187 (20.80%) Windows 10
8 181 (20.13%) Security Cleared
9 178 (19.80%) ITIL
10 152 (16.91%) Azure
11 137 (15.24%) Entra ID
12 136 (15.13%) Microsoft Intune
13 132 (14.68%) ServiceNow
14 122 (13.57%) ITSM
15 115 (12.79%) SharePoint
16 113 (12.57%) SC Cleared
17 103 (11.46%) PowerShell
18 98 (10.90%) DNS
19 80 (8.90%) Continuous Improvement
20 77 (8.57%) Windows Server
21 76 (8.45%) Linux
22 72 (8.01%) SQL
23 71 (7.90%) Asset Management
23 71 (7.90%) VPN
24 69 (7.68%) Service Delivery
25 68 (7.56%) Degree
25 68 (7.56%) Microsoft Exchange
25 68 (7.56%) Migration
25 68 (7.56%) TCP/IP
26 65 (7.23%) 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
1 115 (12.79%) SharePoint
2 68 (7.56%) Microsoft Exchange
3 12 (1.33%) NetWeaver
4 11 (1.22%) HCL Notes
5 4 (0.44%) Skype for Business
6 3 (0.33%) Confluence
6 3 (0.33%) MTS
7 2 (0.22%) Exchange Server 2013
7 2 (0.22%) IIS
7 2 (0.22%) OpenStack
7 2 (0.22%) WebSphere
8 1 (0.11%) Tuxedo
8 1 (0.11%) WebLogic
Applications
1 51 (5.67%) Microsoft Office
2 15 (1.67%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.44%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.33%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.22%) Acrobat
6 1 (0.11%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 1 (0.11%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 11 (1.22%) SAP S/4HANA
2 7 (0.78%) Remedy ITSM
3 4 (0.44%) SAP EHS
4 3 (0.33%) SAP Retail
5 2 (0.22%) 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
Cloud Services
1 341 (37.93%) Microsoft 365
2 152 (16.91%) Azure
3 137 (15.24%) Entra ID
4 45 (5.01%) OneDrive
5 41 (4.56%) AWS
6 21 (2.34%) SaaS
7 19 (2.11%) GCP
8 15 (1.67%) Azure DevOps
9 11 (1.22%) Power Platform
10 8 (0.89%) Google Workspace
11 6 (0.67%) IaaS
11 6 (0.67%) Mimecast
11 6 (0.67%) PaaS
12 5 (0.56%) AWS CloudFormation
13 4 (0.44%) Cloud Functions
13 4 (0.44%) Google App Engine
13 4 (0.44%) Google Compute Engine
13 4 (0.44%) Google Kubernetes Engine
14 3 (0.33%) Amazon EC2
14 3 (0.33%) Amazon OpenSearch
Communications & Networking
1 98 (10.90%) DNS
2 71 (7.90%) VPN
3 68 (7.56%) TCP/IP
4 56 (6.23%) DHCP
5 43 (4.78%) Wi-Fi
6 36 (4.00%) LAN
7 31 (3.45%) WAN
8 26 (2.89%) Firewall
9 20 (2.22%) Internet
10 19 (2.11%) SAN
11 16 (1.78%) VLAN
12 10 (1.11%) Wireless
13 8 (0.89%) Skype
14 6 (0.67%) Network Security
14 6 (0.67%) SD-WAN
15 5 (0.56%) HTTP
15 5 (0.56%) SMTP
15 5 (0.56%) WebEx
15 5 (0.56%) WLAN
16 4 (0.44%) Remote Desktop
Database & Business Intelligence
1 40 (4.45%) SQL Server
2 17 (1.89%) MySQL
3 12 (1.33%) SAP HANA
4 11 (1.22%) Sybase ASE
5 10 (1.11%) MaxDB
6 9 (1.00%) Power BI
7 8 (0.89%) Relational Database
8 7 (0.78%) Amazon Redshift
8 7 (0.78%) Pentaho
8 7 (0.78%) PostgreSQL
9 5 (0.56%) Amazon RDS
9 5 (0.56%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 3 (0.33%) Big Data
10 3 (0.33%) Data Warehouse
10 3 (0.33%) Elasticsearch
10 3 (0.33%) KDB
10 3 (0.33%) Oracle Database
10 3 (0.33%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 2 (0.22%) MariaDB
11 2 (0.22%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 56 (6.23%) JIRA
2 21 (2.34%) Git
3 9 (1.00%) Browser DevTools
4 4 (0.44%) Jenkins
5 3 (0.33%) Android Studio
5 3 (0.33%) Artifactory
5 3 (0.33%) Eclipse
5 3 (0.33%) Xcode
6 2 (0.22%) Bitbucket
6 2 (0.22%) 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
1 364 (40.49%) Social Skills
2 112 (12.46%) Analytical Skills
3 80 (8.90%) Finance
4 39 (4.34%) Banking
5 38 (4.23%) Manufacturing
6 26 (2.89%) Organisational Skills
7 23 (2.56%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 21 (2.34%) Investment Banking
9 18 (2.00%) Retail
10 17 (1.89%) Documentation Skills
11 16 (1.78%) Front Office
12 14 (1.56%) Law
12 14 (1.56%) Legal
12 14 (1.56%) Public Sector
12 14 (1.56%) Telecoms
13 12 (1.33%) Financial Institution
14 10 (1.11%) Spanish Language
15 7 (0.78%) Marketing
16 6 (0.67%) Aerospace
17 5 (0.56%) Aviation
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (1.89%) .NET
2 15 (1.67%) Terraform
3 12 (1.33%) LDAP
4 11 (1.22%) SAP Basis
5 10 (1.11%) XML
6 7 (0.78%) .NET Framework
6 7 (0.78%) JDO
6 7 (0.78%) Oracle GoldenGate
6 7 (0.78%) REST
7 6 (0.67%) SAP Fiori
7 6 (0.67%) SAPUI5
7 6 (0.67%) Software Packaging
8 5 (0.56%) CSS
8 5 (0.56%) SAML
9 4 (0.44%) OAuth
10 3 (0.33%) Ajax
10 3 (0.33%) AngularJS
10 3 (0.33%) Kafka
10 3 (0.33%) Middleware
10 3 (0.33%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 120 (13.35%) Onboarding
2 33 (3.67%) Data Centre
3 29 (3.23%) Video Conferencing
4 23 (2.56%) Analytical Mindset
4 23 (2.56%) Self-Motivation
5 20 (2.22%) PKI
6 17 (1.89%) Driving Licence
7 16 (1.78%) Data Protection Act
7 16 (1.78%) Hedge funds
8 15 (1.67%) iPhone
9 14 (1.56%) Enterprise Software
10 13 (1.45%) Smartphone
11 12 (1.33%) Legacy Systems
12 11 (1.22%) Blackberry
13 10 (1.11%) iPad
13 10 (1.11%) Virtual Team
14 9 (1.00%) Management Information System
15 7 (0.78%) CMDB
15 7 (0.78%) Distributed Systems
15 7 (0.78%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 497 (55.28%) Windows
2 187 (20.80%) Windows 10
3 77 (8.57%) Windows Server
4 76 (8.45%) Linux
5 59 (6.56%) Mac OS
6 39 (4.34%) Apple iOS
7 38 (4.23%) Unix
8 35 (3.89%) Android
9 19 (2.11%) Windows 7
10 9 (1.00%) Ubuntu
10 9 (1.00%) Windows Server 2019
11 7 (0.78%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 5 (0.56%) Windows Server 2016
13 4 (0.44%) OpenVMS
13 4 (0.44%) Solaris
13 4 (0.44%) VMS
13 4 (0.44%) Windows Server 2008
13 4 (0.44%) Windows Server 2012
14 3 (0.33%) Windows XP
15 2 (0.22%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 217 (24.14%) Problem-Solving
2 211 (23.47%) Customer Service
3 178 (19.80%) ITIL
4 122 (13.57%) ITSM
5 80 (8.90%) Continuous Improvement
6 71 (7.90%) Asset Management
7 69 (7.68%) Service Delivery
8 68 (7.56%) Migration
9 65 (7.23%) Service Management
10 55 (6.12%) Root Cause Analysis
11 54 (6.01%) Problem Management
12 53 (5.90%) User Experience
13 52 (5.78%) Incident Management
14 47 (5.23%) Identity Access Management
15 43 (4.78%) Change Management
15 43 (4.78%) Infrastructure Engineering
16 38 (4.23%) Runbook
17 34 (3.78%) Data Protection
18 33 (3.67%) DevOps
19 30 (3.34%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 103 (11.46%) PowerShell
2 72 (8.01%) SQL
3 47 (5.23%) Python
4 29 (3.23%) Java
5 24 (2.67%) C#
6 23 (2.56%) JavaScript
7 20 (2.22%) Bash
8 14 (1.56%) Shell Script
9 7 (0.78%) C++
9 7 (0.78%) Korn
10 5 (0.56%) Perl
10 5 (0.56%) T-SQL
11 3 (0.33%) Go
11 3 (0.33%) Tcl
12 2 (0.22%) DCL
12 2 (0.22%) VBA
13 1 (0.11%) C
13 1 (0.11%) Search Processing Language
13 1 (0.11%) VB.NET
13 1 (0.11%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 181 (20.13%) Security Cleared
2 113 (12.57%) SC Cleared
3 68 (7.56%) Degree
4 52 (5.78%) DV Cleared
5 32 (3.56%) A+ Certification
6 26 (2.89%) Microsoft Certification
7 20 (2.22%) Network+ Certification
8 19 (2.11%) Cisco Certification
9 17 (1.89%) CCNA
10 15 (1.67%) BPSS Clearance
10 15 (1.67%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 13 (1.45%) MCSE
12 11 (1.22%) DBS Check
13 10 (1.11%) Computer Science Degree
14 7 (0.78%) ITIL Certification
14 7 (0.78%) Microsoft Certified Professional
15 6 (0.67%) Azure Certification
16 4 (0.44%) NVQ Level 4
17 2 (0.22%) CCNP
18 1 (0.11%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 63 (7.01%) SLA
2 6 (0.67%) QA
3 5 (0.56%) Data Quality
4 4 (0.44%) Cyber Essentials
5 3 (0.33%) GDPR
5 3 (0.33%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 2 (0.22%) GxP
6 2 (0.22%) 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
1 390 (43.38%) Active Directory
2 49 (5.45%) VMware Infrastructure
3 26 (2.89%) Hyper-V
4 25 (2.78%) VMware ESXi
5 18 (2.00%) VMware NSX
6 17 (1.89%) Virtual Desktop
7 13 (1.45%) vCloud
8 10 (1.11%) Docker
9 7 (0.78%) Oracle RAC
9 7 (0.78%) vSphere
10 5 (0.56%) BitLocker
10 5 (0.56%) NFS
11 4 (0.44%) Firmware
12 3 (0.33%) Microsoft App-V
12 3 (0.33%) Terminal Services
13 2 (0.22%) zsh
14 1 (0.11%) Virtual Servers
14 1 (0.11%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 136 (15.13%) Microsoft Intune
2 56 (6.23%) SCCM
3 25 (2.78%) vCenter Server
4 21 (2.34%) Single Sign-On
5 19 (2.11%) SCOM
6 16 (1.78%) Jamf Pro
7 15 (1.67%) Kubernetes
8 14 (1.56%) Grafana
9 12 (1.33%) Ansible
10 7 (0.78%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
10 7 (0.78%) Oracle RMAN
10 7 (0.78%) WSUS
11 5 (0.56%) Red Hat Satellite
12 4 (0.44%) ITRS Geneos
13 3 (0.33%) AirWatch
13 3 (0.33%) Nagios
13 3 (0.33%) NetBackup
13 3 (0.33%) Prometheus
13 3 (0.33%) vMotion
13 3 (0.33%) vRealize
Vendors
1 404 (44.94%) Microsoft
2 132 (14.68%) ServiceNow
3 64 (7.12%) VMware
4 40 (4.45%) Apple
5 33 (3.67%) Okta
5 33 (3.67%) Oracle
6 29 (3.23%) Cisco
7 27 (3.00%) Google
8 26 (2.89%) Citrix
9 22 (2.45%) SAP
10 21 (2.34%) BeyondTrust
11 16 (1.78%) Dell
12 15 (1.67%) Meraki
12 15 (1.67%) Splunk
13 14 (1.56%) Sybase
14 13 (1.45%) iManage
15 12 (1.33%) Bloomberg
16 11 (1.22%) HP
16 11 (1.22%) Lotus
16 11 (1.22%) Samsung