Support Engineer Contract Job Trends

Support Engineer
UK

The median Support Engineer daily rate in the UK is £213, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 7 April 2026.

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

6 months to
7 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 159 124 107
Rank change year-on-year -35 -17 +21
Contract jobs requiring a Support Engineer 778 649 916
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.71% 2.22% 2.09%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.85% 2.39% 2.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 531 428 651
10th Percentile £153 £152 £136
25th Percentile £185 £188 £163
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £213 £234 £210
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% +11.31% -16.00%
75th Percentile £350 £388 £300
90th Percentile £488 £505 £413
UK excluding London median daily rate £205 £220 £200
% change year-on-year -6.82% +10.00% -5.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 99 43 57
10th Percentile £18.41 £18.13 £16.15
25th Percentile £21.25 £19.58 £17.72
Median hourly rate £23.75 £23.00 £20.00
Median % change year-on-year +3.26% +15.00% +3.63%
75th Percentile £34.63 £28.21 £30.00
90th Percentile £37.50 £51.30 £46.39
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.75 £23.00 £18.00
% change year-on-year -1.09% +27.78% -3.36%

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 42,056 27,143 40,722
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.24% 92.76% 92.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 26,180 17,855 26,652
10th Percentile £313 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £406 £408
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £520 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% -0.95% -3.05%
75th Percentile £613 £630 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £488 £475 £490
% change year-on-year +2.63% -3.06% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,649 962 2,545
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.99 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.00 £20.24 £16.25
Median hourly rate £40.00 £31.76 £34.00
Median % change year-on-year +25.94% -6.59% -23.65%
75th Percentile £65.00 £64.50 £60.00
90th Percentile £77.50 £76.25 £71.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.62 £30.93 £35.00
% change year-on-year +34.55% -11.63% -17.38%

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 7 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 7 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 7 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 -39 694 £210 -12.47% 309
UK excluding London -38 530 £205 -6.82% 282
London -51 212 £275 -8.33% 62
South East -27 125 £213 -13.27% 88
North of England -46 121 £190 -11.63% 71
South West -19 89 £210 -6.67% 39
Midlands -38 89 £200 -27.27% 39
Work from Home -75 75 £225 -30.77% 68
North West -23 67 £168 -22.09% 43
East of England -16 59 £203 -10.00% 28
West Midlands -50 55 £270 -6.09% 19
Yorkshire -29 47 £205 -8.89% 24
Scotland +19 40 £250 +57.73% 13
East Midlands -6 35 £200 - 20
Wales -12 11 £200 +2.56% 5
North East -21 7 £106 -45.64% 7
Northern Ireland -15 2 £175 +18.24% 4

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

For the 6 months to 7 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.

1 366 (47.04%) Windows
2 280 (35.99%) Microsoft
3 253 (32.52%) Microsoft 365
4 241 (30.98%) Active Directory
5 189 (24.29%) Security Cleared
6 170 (21.85%) Customer Service
6 170 (21.85%) Windows 10
7 156 (20.05%) SC Cleared
8 139 (17.87%) Problem-Solving
9 122 (15.68%) Azure
10 101 (12.98%) Microsoft Intune
11 97 (12.47%) ITIL
12 88 (11.31%) ServiceNow
13 70 (9.00%) Migration
14 66 (8.48%) PowerShell
14 66 (8.48%) SharePoint
15 65 (8.35%) Entra ID
16 62 (7.97%) ITSM
17 57 (7.33%) Wi-Fi
18 54 (6.94%) DNS
19 53 (6.81%) Asset Management
20 50 (6.43%) SQL
21 49 (6.30%) Microsoft Office
22 48 (6.17%) JIRA
22 48 (6.17%) SCCM
23 47 (6.04%) Linux
24 46 (5.91%) TCP/IP
25 45 (5.78%) DHCP
26 39 (5.01%) Mac OS
26 39 (5.01%) VPN

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 66 (8.48%) SharePoint
2 31 (3.98%) Microsoft Exchange
3 9 (1.16%) Skype for Business
4 6 (0.77%) NetWeaver
5 4 (0.51%) Apache
5 4 (0.51%) Confluence
6 3 (0.39%) IIS
7 2 (0.26%) Apache Airflow
7 2 (0.26%) Apache Spark
7 2 (0.26%) ArcGIS
7 2 (0.26%) Jupyter
7 2 (0.26%) Smallworld
7 2 (0.26%) WebLogic
8 1 (0.13%) Tuxedo
8 1 (0.13%) WebSphere
Applications
1 49 (6.30%) Microsoft Office
2 16 (2.06%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.51%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 9 (1.16%) SAP EHS
2 8 (1.03%) Remedy ITSM
3 7 (0.90%) Shopify
4 6 (0.77%) SAP S/4HANA
4 6 (0.77%) Teamcenter
5 2 (0.26%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.13%) Aladdin
6 1 (0.13%) Alphatax
6 1 (0.13%) assyst
6 1 (0.13%) Bloomberg TOMS
6 1 (0.13%) Dynamics CRM
6 1 (0.13%) Dynamics GP
6 1 (0.13%) Eikon
6 1 (0.13%) Fidessa
6 1 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
6 1 (0.13%) Oracle Receivables
6 1 (0.13%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 253 (32.52%) Microsoft 365
2 122 (15.68%) Azure
3 65 (8.35%) Entra ID
4 28 (3.60%) OneDrive
5 23 (2.96%) AWS
6 19 (2.44%) Azure DevOps
6 19 (2.44%) Google Workspace
7 16 (2.06%) SaaS
8 11 (1.41%) Dynamics 365
8 11 (1.41%) Power Platform
9 7 (0.90%) Sauce Labs
10 6 (0.77%) Amazon S3
11 5 (0.64%) Azure Data Factory
11 5 (0.64%) GCP
11 5 (0.64%) npm
11 5 (0.64%) PaaS
12 4 (0.51%) Datadog
12 4 (0.51%) Snowflake
13 3 (0.39%) Mimecast
14 2 (0.26%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 57 (7.33%) Wi-Fi
2 54 (6.94%) DNS
3 46 (5.91%) TCP/IP
4 45 (5.78%) DHCP
5 39 (5.01%) VPN
6 36 (4.63%) LAN
7 26 (3.34%) WAN
8 24 (3.08%) Firewall
9 17 (2.19%) Wireless
10 15 (1.93%) SAN
11 13 (1.67%) Network Security
12 12 (1.54%) Internet
13 11 (1.41%) Skype
14 10 (1.29%) VoIP
15 8 (1.03%) VLAN
16 7 (0.90%) HTTP
17 6 (0.77%) WLAN
18 5 (0.64%) AMQP
18 5 (0.64%) MPLS
19 4 (0.51%) PABX
Database & Business Intelligence
1 22 (2.83%) SQL Server
2 17 (2.19%) MySQL
3 13 (1.67%) Amazon Redshift
4 12 (1.54%) Relational Database
5 9 (1.16%) Power BI
5 9 (1.16%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 7 (0.90%) Pentaho
7 6 (0.77%) SAP HANA
7 6 (0.77%) Sybase ASE
8 5 (0.64%) MaxDB
8 5 (0.64%) Oracle Database
9 4 (0.51%) Amazon Athena
9 4 (0.51%) Oracle Database 12c
10 3 (0.39%) InfluxDB
10 3 (0.39%) Tableau
11 2 (0.26%) Data Warehouse
11 2 (0.26%) GIS
11 2 (0.26%) PostgreSQL
11 2 (0.26%) RDBMS
11 2 (0.26%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 48 (6.17%) JIRA
2 18 (2.31%) Git
3 12 (1.54%) Browser DevTools
4 7 (0.90%) Android Studio
4 7 (0.90%) Eclipse
4 7 (0.90%) Xcode
5 5 (0.64%) Maven
6 3 (0.39%) Jenkins
7 1 (0.13%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 1 (0.13%) Firebug
7 1 (0.13%) Hudson
7 1 (0.13%) MSI
7 1 (0.13%) RStudio
7 1 (0.13%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 1 (0.13%) Subversion
General
1 328 (42.16%) Social Skills
2 62 (7.97%) Analytical Skills
3 61 (7.84%) Finance
4 49 (6.30%) Manufacturing
5 39 (5.01%) Banking
6 30 (3.86%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 28 (3.60%) Public Sector
8 22 (2.83%) Aerospace
9 20 (2.57%) Organisational Skills
10 16 (2.06%) Investment Banking
11 15 (1.93%) Aviation
12 14 (1.80%) Telecoms
13 10 (1.29%) Front Office
14 9 (1.16%) Electronics
14 9 (1.16%) Law
14 9 (1.16%) Legal
14 9 (1.16%) Marketing
15 6 (0.77%) Documentation Skills
16 5 (0.64%) French Language
17 4 (0.51%) Advertising
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (1.29%) Middleware
1 10 (1.29%) Oracle GoldenGate
2 8 (1.03%) CSS
3 7 (0.90%) .NET
3 7 (0.90%) Ajax
3 7 (0.90%) AngularJS
3 7 (0.90%) GraphQL
3 7 (0.90%) React
4 6 (0.77%) JDO
4 6 (0.77%) SAP Basis
5 5 (0.64%) REST
5 5 (0.64%) SAML
5 5 (0.64%) YAML
6 4 (0.51%) OAuth
6 4 (0.51%) PySpark
7 2 (0.26%) Node.js
7 2 (0.26%) RESTful
7 2 (0.26%) SOAP
7 2 (0.26%) Software Packaging
7 2 (0.26%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 51 (6.56%) Onboarding
2 34 (4.37%) Self-Motivation
3 28 (3.60%) Data Centre
4 27 (3.47%) Driving Licence
5 19 (2.44%) Analytical Mindset
6 15 (1.93%) Smartphone
7 13 (1.67%) iPhone
7 13 (1.67%) Legacy Systems
8 12 (1.54%) PKI
8 12 (1.54%) Virtual Team
9 10 (1.29%) Data Protection Act
9 10 (1.29%) Enterprise Software
9 10 (1.29%) SCADA
10 8 (1.03%) Hybrid Cloud
11 7 (0.90%) Mobile App
12 6 (0.77%) iPad
13 5 (0.64%) Management Information System
13 5 (0.64%) Video Conferencing
14 3 (0.39%) Hedge funds
15 2 (0.26%) Fat Client
Operating Systems
1 366 (47.04%) Windows
2 170 (21.85%) Windows 10
3 47 (6.04%) Linux
4 39 (5.01%) Mac OS
5 38 (4.88%) Android
6 36 (4.63%) Windows Server
7 32 (4.11%) Unix
8 31 (3.98%) Apple iOS
9 8 (1.03%) Windows 7
10 6 (0.77%) Windows Server 2016
11 3 (0.39%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 3 (0.39%) Windows Server 2019
12 2 (0.26%) CentOS
12 2 (0.26%) Mac OS X
12 2 (0.26%) Ubuntu
12 2 (0.26%) Windows Server 2012
13 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2008
13 1 (0.13%) Windows XP
Processes & Methodologies
1 170 (21.85%) Customer Service
2 139 (17.87%) Problem-Solving
3 97 (12.47%) ITIL
4 70 (9.00%) Migration
5 62 (7.97%) ITSM
6 53 (6.81%) Asset Management
7 38 (4.88%) User Experience
7 38 (4.88%) Workflow
8 34 (4.37%) Service Management
9 33 (4.24%) Continuous Improvement
10 32 (4.11%) Change Management
10 32 (4.11%) Root Cause Analysis
11 31 (3.98%) Incident Management
12 30 (3.86%) Logistics
12 30 (3.86%) Workflow Management
13 27 (3.47%) Break/Fix
13 27 (3.47%) DevOps
14 26 (3.34%) Infrastructure Engineering
15 25 (3.21%) Stakeholder Management
16 24 (3.08%) Service Delivery
Programming Languages
1 66 (8.48%) PowerShell
2 50 (6.43%) SQL
3 30 (3.86%) Python
4 22 (2.83%) Java
5 19 (2.44%) C#
6 17 (2.19%) Shell Script
7 15 (1.93%) JavaScript
8 11 (1.41%) Bash
9 10 (1.29%) Korn
10 9 (1.16%) Perl
11 3 (0.39%) C
11 3 (0.39%) C++
11 3 (0.39%) VB.NET
12 2 (0.26%) Ada
12 2 (0.26%) AWK
12 2 (0.26%) Magik
12 2 (0.26%) VBA
12 2 (0.26%) VBScript
13 1 (0.13%) R
13 1 (0.13%) Tcl
Qualifications
1 189 (24.29%) Security Cleared
2 156 (20.05%) SC Cleared
3 34 (4.37%) DV Cleared
4 33 (4.24%) Degree
5 23 (2.96%) Microsoft Certification
6 19 (2.44%) A+ Certification
7 16 (2.06%) CCNA
7 16 (2.06%) Cisco Certification
8 14 (1.80%) MCSE
9 13 (1.67%) BPSS Clearance
9 13 (1.67%) Network+ Certification
10 7 (0.90%) Azure Certification
10 7 (0.90%) ITIL Certification
11 6 (0.77%) DBS Check
12 4 (0.51%) Computer Science Degree
13 3 (0.39%) Master's Degree
14 2 (0.26%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
15 1 (0.13%) AWS Certification
15 1 (0.13%) City & Guilds
15 1 (0.13%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (3.47%) SLA
2 4 (0.51%) Cyber Essentials
2 4 (0.51%) Data Quality
2 4 (0.51%) GDPR
3 3 (0.39%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 3 (0.39%) QA
4 2 (0.26%) GLP
4 2 (0.26%) GMP
5 1 (0.13%) Actionable Recommendations
5 1 (0.13%) GAAP
5 1 (0.13%) GxP
5 1 (0.13%) IFRS
5 1 (0.13%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 1 (0.13%) SOC 2
System Software
1 241 (30.98%) Active Directory
2 17 (2.19%) VMware Infrastructure
3 10 (1.29%) Oracle RAC
4 9 (1.16%) Hyper-V
4 9 (1.16%) Virtual Desktop
5 6 (0.77%) Firmware
5 6 (0.77%) VMware NSX
6 5 (0.64%) Docker
7 3 (0.39%) Virtual Servers
7 3 (0.39%) vSphere
8 2 (0.26%) NFS
9 1 (0.13%) Microsoft Virtual Server
9 1 (0.13%) VMware ESXi
9 1 (0.13%) VMware Workstation
9 1 (0.13%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 101 (12.98%) Microsoft Intune
2 48 (6.17%) SCCM
3 26 (3.34%) Jamf Pro
4 17 (2.19%) Grafana
5 13 (1.67%) Ansible
5 13 (1.67%) Terraform
6 10 (1.29%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
6 10 (1.29%) Oracle RMAN
7 9 (1.16%) Single Sign-On
8 6 (0.77%) vCenter Server
9 5 (0.64%) Kubernetes
10 4 (0.51%) Kibana
11 2 (0.26%) McAfee ePO
11 2 (0.26%) PaperCut
11 2 (0.26%) Prometheus
11 2 (0.26%) WMI
11 2 (0.26%) WSUS
12 1 (0.13%) Cisco Prime
12 1 (0.13%) Nagios
12 1 (0.13%) NetBackup
Vendors
1 280 (35.99%) Microsoft
2 88 (11.31%) ServiceNow
3 35 (4.50%) Oracle
4 32 (4.11%) SAP
5 30 (3.86%) Dell
6 24 (3.08%) Cisco
7 22 (2.83%) Apple
8 21 (2.70%) Google
8 21 (2.70%) VMware
9 20 (2.57%) HP
10 11 (1.41%) McAfee
10 11 (1.41%) Splunk
11 10 (1.29%) Bloomberg
11 10 (1.29%) Remedy
11 10 (1.29%) Starlink
12 8 (1.03%) Denodo
12 8 (1.03%) Juniper
12 8 (1.03%) Talend
13 7 (0.90%) Citrix
13 7 (0.90%) Meraki