Support Engineer Contract Job Trends

Support Engineer
UK

The median Support Engineer daily rate in the UK is £235, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 16 September 2025.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 133 126 90
Rank change year-on-year -7 -36 +63
Contract jobs requiring a Support Engineer 707 732 1,316
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 2.16% 1.92% 2.63%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.38% 2.07% 2.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 476 495 935
10th Percentile £160 £140 £143
25th Percentile £190 £185 £188
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £235 £240 £250
Median % change year-on-year -2.08% -4.00% +11.11%
75th Percentile £361 £350 £438
90th Percentile £544 £525 £600
UK excluding London median daily rate £231 £225 £218
% change year-on-year +2.56% +3.45% +8.75%
Number of hourly rates quoted 71 48 59
10th Percentile £16.50 £18.03 £13.16
25th Percentile £20.39 £19.41 £16.54
Median hourly rate £25.25 £23.59 £19.12
Median % change year-on-year +7.04% +23.38% -4.40%
75th Percentile £43.75 £27.44 £21.88
90th Percentile £68.00 £58.25 £24.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £23.59 £19.06
% change year-on-year +6.61% +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 29,740 35,350 47,152
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.05% 92.95% 94.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 18,772 21,777 32,303
10th Percentile £278 £300 £300
25th Percentile £400 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £530
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -0.94% -3.64%
75th Percentile £620 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - +0.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,564 1,687 1,507
10th Percentile £13.75 £14.73 £14.77
25th Percentile £17.30 £20.30 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £43.00 £43.86
Median % change year-on-year -41.51% -1.96% +68.69%
75th Percentile £52.25 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £45.00 £42.08
% change year-on-year -44.11% +6.95% +91.26%

Support Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings that featured Support Engineer in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Support Engineer 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 16 September 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 16 September 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 16 September 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 +3 650 £235 -0.95% 493
UK excluding London 0 469 £231 +2.56% 486
London -6 209 £250 -9.09% 75
South East +37 163 £250 -0.99% 171
Work from Home +9 108 £275 -21.43% 119
Midlands +14 91 £265 -3.64% 83
South West +32 76 £235 +16.05% 76
North of England -7 75 £220 +10.00% 90
West Midlands +19 71 £275 +1.85% 35
North West -7 44 £228 +13.75% 47
East of England -16 38 £220 - 45
Yorkshire -16 23 £220 +10.00% 28
Wales +19 22 £213 +6.25% 4
East Midlands -5 20 £195 -29.09% 47
Scotland -51 16 £275 -19.12% 29
North East 0 8 £195 +20.00% 23
Northern Ireland -6 3 £200 - 6

Support Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 16 September 2025, Support Engineer contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring Support Engineer in the job title.

1 365 (51.63%) Windows
2 304 (43.00%) Social Skills
3 296 (41.87%) Microsoft
4 248 (35.08%) Active Directory
5 219 (30.98%) Microsoft 365
6 176 (24.89%) Problem-Solving
7 150 (21.22%) Security Cleared
8 146 (20.65%) ITIL
9 126 (17.82%) Windows 10
9 126 (17.82%) Customer Service
10 119 (16.83%) Azure
11 104 (14.71%) VPN
12 103 (14.57%) Microsoft Office
13 100 (14.14%) Microsoft Intune
14 97 (13.72%) DNS
15 96 (13.58%) SC Cleared
16 91 (12.87%) Microsoft Exchange
17 87 (12.31%) Linux
18 82 (11.60%) ServiceNow
19 78 (11.03%) DHCP
20 76 (10.75%) Finance
20 76 (10.75%) Degree
21 72 (10.18%) ITSM
22 68 (9.62%) SCCM
23 67 (9.48%) Service Management
24 66 (9.34%) Analytical Skills
25 59 (8.35%) Firewall
25 59 (8.35%) Cisco
26 57 (8.06%) SharePoint
27 56 (7.92%) Public Sector

Support Engineer Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 91 (12.87%) Microsoft Exchange
2 57 (8.06%) SharePoint
3 27 (3.82%) Skype for Business
4 14 (1.98%) Exchange Server 2010
4 14 (1.98%) SharePoint Server
5 13 (1.84%) Exchange Server 2003
5 13 (1.84%) Exchange Server 2007
5 13 (1.84%) Exchange Server 2013
5 13 (1.84%) Office Communications Server
6 9 (1.27%) Mattermost
7 6 (0.85%) Confluence
8 5 (0.71%) OpenStack
9 2 (0.28%) Apache
9 2 (0.28%) SAS
9 2 (0.28%) Smallworld
10 1 (0.14%) CMS
10 1 (0.14%) IIS
10 1 (0.14%) JBoss
10 1 (0.14%) Tomcat
10 1 (0.14%) WebSphere
Applications
1 103 (14.57%) Microsoft Office
2 11 (1.56%) Microsoft Excel
3 9 (1.27%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 9 (1.27%) MS Visio
4 2 (0.28%) AutoCAD
5 1 (0.14%) DaVinci Resolve
5 1 (0.14%) OmniGraffle
5 1 (0.14%) Pro Tools
5 1 (0.14%) ProjectWise
Business Applications
1 6 (0.85%) Remedy ITSM
2 3 (0.42%) NetSuite
2 3 (0.42%) Primavera
3 2 (0.28%) Alphatax
3 2 (0.28%) Dynamics CRM
3 2 (0.28%) Oracle ERP
4 1 (0.14%) Eikon
4 1 (0.14%) Eze OMS
4 1 (0.14%) Fidessa
4 1 (0.14%) Infor CloudSuite Industrial (formerly SyteLine)
4 1 (0.14%) Kondor
4 1 (0.14%) Oracle Assets
4 1 (0.14%) Oracle EBS R12
4 1 (0.14%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
Cloud Services
1 219 (30.98%) Microsoft 365
2 119 (16.83%) Azure
3 42 (5.94%) Entra ID
4 39 (5.52%) AWS
5 20 (2.83%) SaaS
6 16 (2.26%) GCP
7 15 (2.12%) OneDrive
8 13 (1.84%) Google Workspace
9 12 (1.70%) Power Platform
10 11 (1.56%) IaaS
10 11 (1.56%) OpenShift
10 11 (1.56%) PaaS
11 10 (1.41%) Sauce Labs
12 9 (1.27%) Azure DevOps
13 8 (1.13%) Slack
14 7 (0.99%) Azure ExpressRoute
15 5 (0.71%) SuccessFactors
16 3 (0.42%) Asana
16 3 (0.42%) Azure AKS
16 3 (0.42%) npm
Communications & Networking
1 104 (14.71%) VPN
2 97 (13.72%) DNS
3 78 (11.03%) DHCP
4 59 (8.35%) Firewall
5 48 (6.79%) WAN
6 46 (6.51%) TCP/IP
7 40 (5.66%) LAN
8 24 (3.39%) Wi-Fi
8 24 (3.39%) Wireless
9 18 (2.55%) MPLS
9 18 (2.55%) VLAN
10 17 (2.40%) BGP
10 17 (2.40%) IPsec
10 17 (2.40%) SAN
11 16 (2.26%) Cisco IOS
11 16 (2.26%) WebEx
12 15 (2.12%) Skype
13 14 (1.98%) VoIP
14 13 (1.84%) DDNS
14 13 (1.84%) Junos
Database & Business Intelligence
1 26 (3.68%) Relational Database
2 18 (2.55%) MySQL
2 18 (2.55%) SQL Server
3 9 (1.27%) Elasticsearch
3 9 (1.27%) Power BI
4 8 (1.13%) Amazon RDS
4 8 (1.13%) Big Data
5 6 (0.85%) MariaDB
6 4 (0.57%) Data Warehouse
6 4 (0.57%) DB2
6 4 (0.57%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 3 (0.42%) Apache Cassandra
7 3 (0.42%) RDBMS
8 2 (0.28%) GIS
8 2 (0.28%) InfluxDB
8 2 (0.28%) Oracle Database
8 2 (0.28%) SAP HANA
8 2 (0.28%) Tableau
9 1 (0.14%) Electronic Patient Records
9 1 (0.14%) Qlik Sense
Development Applications
1 17 (2.40%) Browser DevTools
2 15 (2.12%) JIRA
3 10 (1.41%) Android Studio
3 10 (1.41%) Eclipse
3 10 (1.41%) Git
3 10 (1.41%) Xcode
4 7 (0.99%) Jenkins
5 6 (0.85%) Firebug
6 5 (0.71%) Sonatype Nexus
7 3 (0.42%) Maven
8 1 (0.14%) Bitbucket
8 1 (0.14%) ClearCase
8 1 (0.14%) Fiddler
8 1 (0.14%) JMeter
8 1 (0.14%) LoadRunner
8 1 (0.14%) MSI
8 1 (0.14%) Postman
8 1 (0.14%) REST Assured
8 1 (0.14%) Team Foundation Server
8 1 (0.14%) Zephyr
General
1 304 (43.00%) Social Skills
2 76 (10.75%) Finance
3 66 (9.34%) Analytical Skills
4 56 (7.92%) Public Sector
5 33 (4.67%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 30 (4.24%) Banking
6 30 (4.24%) Manufacturing
7 16 (2.26%) Telecoms
8 12 (1.70%) Documentation Skills
9 11 (1.56%) Organisational Skills
9 11 (1.56%) Retail
10 9 (1.27%) Front Office
11 8 (1.13%) French Language
12 7 (0.99%) Automotive
12 7 (0.99%) Electronics
12 7 (0.99%) Law
12 7 (0.99%) Legal
12 7 (0.99%) Local Government
12 7 (0.99%) Marketing
13 6 (0.85%) Investment Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (2.69%) CSS
2 15 (2.12%) Middleware
2 15 (2.12%) React
3 13 (1.84%) XML
4 11 (1.56%) Ajax
4 11 (1.56%) AngularJS
4 11 (1.56%) GraphQL
4 11 (1.56%) XMPP
5 9 (1.27%) ADO
6 8 (1.13%) HTML
7 7 (0.99%) JSON
8 5 (0.71%) .NET
8 5 (0.71%) REST
8 5 (0.71%) SOAP
9 2 (0.28%) Kafka
9 2 (0.28%) MDX
9 2 (0.28%) OAuth
9 2 (0.28%) OpenTelemetry
9 2 (0.28%) PySpark
9 2 (0.28%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 32 (4.53%) Management Information System
2 31 (4.38%) PKI
3 28 (3.96%) Onboarding
4 26 (3.68%) Data Centre
5 18 (2.55%) Replication
6 17 (2.40%) Data Protection Act
7 16 (2.26%) Video Conferencing
8 13 (1.84%) Driving Licence
8 13 (1.84%) Enterprise Software
8 13 (1.84%) iPhone
8 13 (1.84%) Self-Motivation
9 12 (1.70%) Mobile App
10 11 (1.56%) Clustering
11 9 (1.27%) Operational Technology
12 8 (1.13%) Analytical Mindset
12 8 (1.13%) iPad
12 8 (1.13%) Smartphone
13 7 (0.99%) Anti-Spyware
14 6 (0.85%) CMDB
14 6 (0.85%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 365 (51.63%) Windows
2 126 (17.82%) Windows 10
3 87 (12.31%) Linux
4 52 (7.36%) Windows Server
5 39 (5.52%) Apple iOS
6 33 (4.67%) Android
7 32 (4.53%) Mac OS
8 23 (3.25%) Unix
9 22 (3.11%) Windows Server 2003
10 12 (1.70%) Windows 7
11 10 (1.41%) Ubuntu
12 9 (1.27%) Windows 8
13 8 (1.13%) Windows Server 2016
14 7 (0.99%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
14 7 (0.99%) Windows Server 2012
14 7 (0.99%) Windows XP
15 6 (0.85%) Mac OS X
15 6 (0.85%) Windows Server 2008
16 5 (0.71%) CentOS
17 2 (0.28%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 176 (24.89%) Problem-Solving
2 146 (20.65%) ITIL
3 126 (17.82%) Customer Service
4 72 (10.18%) ITSM
5 67 (9.48%) Service Management
6 42 (5.94%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 36 (5.09%) DevOps
8 35 (4.95%) Migration
9 34 (4.81%) Service Delivery
10 33 (4.67%) Asset Management
11 31 (4.38%) High Availability
12 30 (4.24%) Cybersecurity
13 27 (3.82%) Business Intelligence
14 26 (3.68%) Time Management
15 25 (3.54%) Collaborative Working
15 25 (3.54%) Computer Science
16 24 (3.39%) Incident Management
17 23 (3.25%) Root Cause Analysis
18 22 (3.11%) Mentoring
18 22 (3.11%) Problem Management
Programming Languages
1 49 (6.93%) PowerShell
2 38 (5.37%) SQL
3 37 (5.23%) Python
4 31 (4.38%) JavaScript
5 27 (3.82%) Java
6 16 (2.26%) Bash
7 13 (1.84%) C
7 13 (1.84%) Perl
8 12 (1.70%) Shell Script
9 10 (1.41%) C++
10 9 (1.27%) Ada
11 4 (0.57%) C#
12 3 (0.42%) PHP
12 3 (0.42%) TypeScript
12 3 (0.42%) VBScript
13 2 (0.28%) ABAP
13 2 (0.28%) Magik
14 1 (0.14%) Korn
14 1 (0.14%) Lisp
14 1 (0.14%) VB
Qualifications
1 150 (21.22%) Security Cleared
2 96 (13.58%) SC Cleared
3 76 (10.75%) Degree
4 45 (6.36%) DV Cleared
5 32 (4.53%) Microsoft Certification
6 21 (2.97%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
7 17 (2.40%) Computer Science Degree
7 17 (2.40%) ITIL Certification
8 13 (1.84%) A+ Certification
8 13 (1.84%) Azure Certification
9 12 (1.70%) DBS Check
10 11 (1.56%) Cisco Certification
11 10 (1.41%) CCNA
12 9 (1.27%) Network+ Certification
13 8 (1.13%) Server+ Certification
14 5 (0.71%) BPSS Clearance
15 4 (0.57%) Dell Certification
16 3 (0.42%) MCSA
16 3 (0.42%) MCSE
17 2 (0.28%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 39 (5.52%) SLA
2 16 (2.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 15 (2.12%) QA
4 3 (0.42%) Accessibility
5 2 (0.28%) GDPR
6 1 (0.14%) Cyber Essentials
6 1 (0.14%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 1 (0.14%) GMP
6 1 (0.14%) GxP
6 1 (0.14%) NCSC
6 1 (0.14%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 248 (35.08%) Active Directory
2 38 (5.37%) VMware Infrastructure
3 27 (3.82%) Hyper-V
4 18 (2.55%) Virtual Desktop
5 15 (2.12%) vSphere
6 13 (1.84%) Brightmail
6 13 (1.84%) Docker
6 13 (1.84%) ISA Server
7 12 (1.70%) Microsoft App-V
7 12 (1.70%) Terminal Services
8 10 (1.41%) BitLocker
8 10 (1.41%) VMware ESXi
9 9 (1.27%) VMware NSX
10 7 (0.99%) Firmware
11 4 (0.57%) XenApp
12 3 (0.42%) Virtual Machines
13 2 (0.28%) DFS Replication
14 1 (0.14%) Samba
14 1 (0.14%) Tivoli Workload Scheduler
14 1 (0.14%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 100 (14.14%) Microsoft Intune
2 68 (9.62%) SCCM
3 26 (3.68%) Ansible
4 21 (2.97%) Kubernetes
5 20 (2.83%) Terraform
6 19 (2.69%) SCOM
7 18 (2.55%) Jamf Pro
7 18 (2.55%) vCenter Server
8 13 (1.84%) Microsoft Clustering
9 10 (1.41%) Nagios
10 9 (1.27%) vMotion
11 8 (1.13%) Puppet
12 5 (0.71%) AirWatch
13 4 (0.57%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 4 (0.57%) AppManager
13 4 (0.57%) Grafana
13 4 (0.57%) Red Hat Satellite
14 3 (0.42%) ITRS Geneos
15 2 (0.28%) CASB
15 2 (0.28%) Norton AntiVirus
Vendors
1 296 (41.87%) Microsoft
2 82 (11.60%) ServiceNow
3 59 (8.35%) Cisco
4 52 (7.36%) Citrix
5 49 (6.93%) VMware
6 43 (6.08%) Apple
7 40 (5.66%) Oracle
8 34 (4.81%) HP
9 30 (4.24%) Google
10 27 (3.82%) Juniper
11 25 (3.54%) Red Hat
12 21 (2.97%) SolarWinds
13 20 (2.83%) Splunk
14 15 (2.12%) SAP
15 13 (1.84%) Remedy
16 11 (1.56%) CheckPoint
16 11 (1.56%) Dell
16 11 (1.56%) Palo Alto
17 10 (1.41%) Symantec
18 9 (1.27%) McAfee