Support Engineer Contract Job Trends

Support Engineer
UK

The median Support Engineer daily rate in the UK is £238, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 8 August 2026.

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

6 months to
8 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 167 131 114
Rank change year-on-year -36 -17 -21
Contract jobs requiring a Support Engineer 876 708 781
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.63% 2.15% 2.01%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.76% 2.35% 2.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 583 460 541
10th Percentile £163 £160 £140
25th Percentile £188 £199 £175
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £238 £236 £234
Median % change year-on-year +0.53% +1.13% -6.55%
75th Percentile £400 £376 £350
90th Percentile £493 £538 £525
UK excluding London median daily rate £225 £228 £219
% change year-on-year -1.10% +3.88% -0.45%
Number of hourly rates quoted 51 68 46
10th Percentile £17.10 £16.67 £16.63
25th Percentile £18.38 £21.10 £18.13
Median hourly rate £25.00 £25.20 £22.00
Median % change year-on-year -0.79% +14.55% +15.79%
75th Percentile £36.00 £43.75 £24.80
90th Percentile £53.00 £68.00 £55.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.00 £25.15 £22.00
% change year-on-year -12.52% +14.32% +21.48%

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 49,634 30,076 36,192
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.60% 91.43% 92.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,863 19,075 23,380
10th Percentile £328 £281 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.87%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,458 1,498 2,043
10th Percentile £15.00 £13.64 £14.16
25th Percentile £20.69 £17.30 £20.24
Median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +67.00% -41.51% +0.58%
75th Percentile £67.84 £53.83 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.25 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £45.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -44.11% +20.00%

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 8 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 8 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 8 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 -40 743 £225 -5.26% 291
UK excluding London -31 578 £225 -1.10% 267
London -48 260 £263 +5.00% 53
South East -30 168 £250 - 96
North of England -40 125 £200 -9.09% 55
Work from Home -93 85 £288 -16.67% 75
Scotland +59 83 £447 +51.53% 11
North West -14 83 £200 -12.09% 31
East of England +2 64 £200 - 42
Midlands -63 63 £250 -9.09% 36
South West -58 61 £210 -10.64% 34
Yorkshire -20 40 £210 -4.55% 21
West Midlands -71 40 £250 -9.09% 16
East Midlands -5 22 £260 +42.08% 20
Wales -27 10 £195 -8.24% 1
Northern Ireland 0 4 £175 -30.00% 4
North East -54 3 £188 -3.85% 5
Channel Islands - 1 £550 -

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

For the 6 months to 8 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.

1 473 (54.00%) Windows
2 379 (43.26%) Active Directory
3 377 (43.04%) Microsoft
4 322 (36.76%) Microsoft 365
5 203 (23.17%) Problem-Solving
6 196 (22.37%) Customer Service
7 192 (21.92%) Windows 10
8 174 (19.86%) Security Cleared
9 164 (18.72%) ITIL
10 148 (16.89%) Azure
11 131 (14.95%) Entra ID
12 130 (14.84%) Microsoft Intune
13 124 (14.16%) ServiceNow
14 111 (12.67%) SC Cleared
15 110 (12.56%) SharePoint
16 103 (11.76%) ITSM
17 97 (11.07%) DNS
18 90 (10.27%) PowerShell
19 71 (8.11%) Continuous Improvement
20 67 (7.65%) Asset Management
20 67 (7.65%) Windows Server
21 66 (7.53%) Linux
21 66 (7.53%) VPN
22 65 (7.42%) Microsoft Exchange
22 65 (7.42%) SQL
23 63 (7.19%) Migration
23 63 (7.19%) Service Delivery
24 61 (6.96%) VMware
25 59 (6.74%) Degree
25 59 (6.74%) DHCP

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
1 110 (12.56%) SharePoint
2 65 (7.42%) Microsoft Exchange
3 12 (1.37%) NetWeaver
4 11 (1.26%) HCL Notes
5 4 (0.46%) Confluence
6 3 (0.34%) Skype for Business
7 2 (0.23%) Exchange Server 2013
7 2 (0.23%) IIS
7 2 (0.23%) OpenStack
7 2 (0.23%) WebLogic
7 2 (0.23%) WebSphere
8 1 (0.11%) Tuxedo
Applications
1 43 (4.91%) Microsoft Office
2 13 (1.48%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.46%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.11%) Acrobat
4 1 (0.11%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.11%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 11 (1.26%) SAP S/4HANA
2 7 (0.80%) Remedy ITSM
3 4 (0.46%) SAP EHS
4 3 (0.34%) SAP Retail
5 2 (0.23%) NetSuite
5 2 (0.23%) Teamcenter
6 1 (0.11%) Alphatax
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
1 322 (36.76%) Microsoft 365
2 148 (16.89%) Azure
3 131 (14.95%) Entra ID
4 41 (4.68%) OneDrive
5 35 (4.00%) AWS
6 20 (2.28%) SaaS
7 19 (2.17%) GCP
8 18 (2.05%) Azure DevOps
9 11 (1.26%) Power Platform
10 9 (1.03%) Google Workspace
11 7 (0.80%) PaaS
12 6 (0.68%) IaaS
13 5 (0.57%) Mimecast
14 4 (0.46%) Cloud Functions
14 4 (0.46%) Google App Engine
14 4 (0.46%) Google Compute Engine
14 4 (0.46%) Google Kubernetes Engine
15 3 (0.34%) Azure Data Factory
15 3 (0.34%) OpenShift
15 3 (0.34%) Sauce Labs
Communications & Networking
1 97 (11.07%) DNS
2 66 (7.53%) VPN
3 59 (6.74%) DHCP
4 58 (6.62%) TCP/IP
5 43 (4.91%) Wi-Fi
6 34 (3.88%) LAN
7 26 (2.97%) WAN
8 23 (2.63%) Firewall
8 23 (2.63%) SAN
9 21 (2.40%) Internet
10 16 (1.83%) VLAN
11 9 (1.03%) Wireless
12 7 (0.80%) Skype
12 7 (0.80%) WLAN
13 6 (0.68%) HTTP
14 5 (0.57%) Network Security
14 5 (0.57%) SMTP
14 5 (0.57%) WebEx
15 4 (0.46%) Remote Desktop
15 4 (0.46%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 40 (4.57%) SQL Server
2 16 (1.83%) MySQL
3 12 (1.37%) SAP HANA
4 11 (1.26%) Sybase ASE
5 10 (1.14%) MaxDB
6 9 (1.03%) Power BI
7 8 (0.91%) Relational Database
8 7 (0.80%) Amazon Redshift
8 7 (0.80%) Pentaho
9 6 (0.68%) PostgreSQL
10 5 (0.57%) Amazon RDS
10 5 (0.57%) Oracle Database
10 5 (0.57%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 4 (0.46%) Oracle Database 12c
12 3 (0.34%) Big Data
12 3 (0.34%) Data Warehouse
12 3 (0.34%) Elasticsearch
12 3 (0.34%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 2 (0.23%) MariaDB
13 2 (0.23%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 59 (6.74%) JIRA
2 20 (2.28%) Git
3 9 (1.03%) Browser DevTools
4 3 (0.34%) Android Studio
4 3 (0.34%) Eclipse
4 3 (0.34%) Jenkins
4 3 (0.34%) Xcode
5 2 (0.23%) Artifactory
5 2 (0.23%) Firebug
6 1 (0.11%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 1 (0.11%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.11%) Claude Code
6 1 (0.11%) Gemini Tracker
6 1 (0.11%) GitLab
6 1 (0.11%) MSI
6 1 (0.11%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 1 (0.11%) Subversion
6 1 (0.11%) TeamCity
6 1 (0.11%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 355 (40.53%) Social Skills
2 106 (12.10%) Analytical Skills
3 73 (8.33%) Finance
4 45 (5.14%) Manufacturing
5 36 (4.11%) Banking
6 25 (2.85%) Organisational Skills
7 21 (2.40%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 18 (2.05%) Investment Banking
8 18 (2.05%) Retail
9 16 (1.83%) Documentation Skills
10 13 (1.48%) Law
11 12 (1.37%) Financial Institution
11 12 (1.37%) Legal
11 12 (1.37%) Telecoms
12 11 (1.26%) Front Office
13 10 (1.14%) Aerospace
13 10 (1.14%) Spanish Language
14 9 (1.03%) Aviation
14 9 (1.03%) Public Sector
15 7 (0.80%) Marketing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (1.83%) .NET
2 12 (1.37%) LDAP
3 11 (1.26%) SAP Basis
4 10 (1.14%) Oracle GoldenGate
4 10 (1.14%) XML
5 8 (0.91%) REST
6 7 (0.80%) .NET Framework
6 7 (0.80%) JDO
7 6 (0.68%) SAP Fiori
7 6 (0.68%) SAPUI5
7 6 (0.68%) Software Packaging
8 5 (0.57%) CSS
8 5 (0.57%) SAML
9 4 (0.46%) OAuth
10 3 (0.34%) Ajax
10 3 (0.34%) HTML
10 3 (0.34%) JSP
10 3 (0.34%) Middleware
10 3 (0.34%) RESTful
10 3 (0.34%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 118 (13.47%) Onboarding
2 35 (4.00%) Data Centre
3 24 (2.74%) Analytical Mindset
3 24 (2.74%) Video Conferencing
4 20 (2.28%) PKI
4 20 (2.28%) Self-Motivation
5 16 (1.83%) Hedge funds
6 15 (1.71%) Data Protection Act
6 15 (1.71%) iPhone
7 14 (1.60%) Enterprise Software
8 13 (1.48%) Driving Licence
9 12 (1.37%) Legacy Systems
9 12 (1.37%) Virtual Team
10 11 (1.26%) Blackberry
10 11 (1.26%) Smartphone
11 10 (1.14%) iPad
11 10 (1.14%) SCADA
12 8 (0.91%) CMDB
13 7 (0.80%) Management Information System
14 6 (0.68%) BYOD
Operating Systems
1 473 (54.00%) Windows
2 192 (21.92%) Windows 10
3 67 (7.65%) Windows Server
4 66 (7.53%) Linux
5 57 (6.51%) Mac OS
6 41 (4.68%) Unix
7 34 (3.88%) Apple iOS
8 30 (3.42%) Android
9 20 (2.28%) Windows 7
10 9 (1.03%) Windows Server 2019
11 8 (0.91%) Ubuntu
12 7 (0.80%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 5 (0.57%) Windows Server 2008
13 5 (0.57%) Windows Server 2016
14 4 (0.46%) OpenVMS
14 4 (0.46%) Solaris
14 4 (0.46%) VMS
14 4 (0.46%) Windows Server 2012
15 3 (0.34%) Windows XP
16 2 (0.23%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 203 (23.17%) Problem-Solving
2 196 (22.37%) Customer Service
3 164 (18.72%) ITIL
4 103 (11.76%) ITSM
5 71 (8.11%) Continuous Improvement
6 67 (7.65%) Asset Management
7 63 (7.19%) Migration
7 63 (7.19%) Service Delivery
8 54 (6.16%) Service Management
9 53 (6.05%) Problem Management
10 50 (5.71%) User Experience
11 46 (5.25%) Change Management
11 46 (5.25%) Incident Management
12 45 (5.14%) Identity Access Management
13 42 (4.79%) Root Cause Analysis
14 40 (4.57%) Infrastructure Engineering
15 34 (3.88%) Runbook
16 31 (3.54%) Break/Fix
16 31 (3.54%) Data Protection
17 30 (3.42%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 90 (10.27%) PowerShell
2 65 (7.42%) SQL
3 35 (4.00%) Python
4 26 (2.97%) C#
5 24 (2.74%) Java
6 19 (2.17%) JavaScript
7 17 (1.94%) Bash
7 17 (1.94%) Shell Script
8 10 (1.14%) Korn
9 7 (0.80%) C++
10 6 (0.68%) Perl
11 4 (0.46%) T-SQL
12 2 (0.23%) DCL
12 2 (0.23%) Go
12 2 (0.23%) VBScript
13 1 (0.11%) C
13 1 (0.11%) Search Processing Language
13 1 (0.11%) VB.NET
13 1 (0.11%) VBA
Qualifications
1 174 (19.86%) Security Cleared
2 111 (12.67%) SC Cleared
3 59 (6.74%) Degree
4 48 (5.48%) DV Cleared
5 31 (3.54%) A+ Certification
5 31 (3.54%) Microsoft Certification
6 24 (2.74%) Network+ Certification
7 23 (2.63%) Cisco Certification
8 22 (2.51%) CCNA
9 17 (1.94%) BPSS Clearance
9 17 (1.94%) MCSE
10 10 (1.14%) Computer Science Degree
10 10 (1.14%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 9 (1.03%) DBS Check
12 7 (0.80%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 6 (0.68%) Azure Certification
13 6 (0.68%) ITIL Certification
14 4 (0.46%) NVQ Level 4
15 2 (0.23%) CCNP
16 1 (0.11%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 57 (6.51%) SLA
2 6 (0.68%) QA
3 5 (0.57%) Data Quality
4 4 (0.46%) Cyber Essentials
5 3 (0.34%) GDPR
5 3 (0.34%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 2 (0.23%) GLP
6 2 (0.23%) GMP
6 2 (0.23%) GxP
6 2 (0.23%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 1 (0.11%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.11%) Disclosure Scotland
7 1 (0.11%) GRC
7 1 (0.11%) ITGC
7 1 (0.11%) NCSC
System Software
1 379 (43.26%) Active Directory
2 47 (5.37%) VMware Infrastructure
3 25 (2.85%) Hyper-V
4 24 (2.74%) VMware ESXi
5 17 (1.94%) VMware NSX
6 16 (1.83%) Virtual Desktop
7 12 (1.37%) vCloud
8 10 (1.14%) Oracle RAC
9 7 (0.80%) Docker
9 7 (0.80%) vSphere
10 5 (0.57%) BitLocker
10 5 (0.57%) Firmware
10 5 (0.57%) NFS
11 3 (0.34%) Microsoft App-V
11 3 (0.34%) Terminal Services
12 2 (0.23%) zsh
13 1 (0.11%) Virtual Servers
13 1 (0.11%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 130 (14.84%) Microsoft Intune
2 52 (5.94%) SCCM
3 24 (2.74%) vCenter Server
4 21 (2.40%) Single Sign-On
5 18 (2.05%) SCOM
6 17 (1.94%) Jamf Pro
7 13 (1.48%) Kubernetes
8 12 (1.37%) Grafana
9 11 (1.26%) Terraform
10 10 (1.14%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
10 10 (1.14%) Oracle RMAN
11 9 (1.03%) Ansible
12 6 (0.68%) WSUS
13 5 (0.57%) Red Hat Satellite
14 3 (0.34%) AirWatch
14 3 (0.34%) ITRS Geneos
14 3 (0.34%) Nagios
14 3 (0.34%) Puppet
14 3 (0.34%) vMotion
14 3 (0.34%) vRealize
Vendors
1 377 (43.04%) Microsoft
2 124 (14.16%) ServiceNow
3 61 (6.96%) VMware
4 38 (4.34%) Apple
5 34 (3.88%) Oracle
6 32 (3.65%) Okta
7 27 (3.08%) Google
8 25 (2.85%) Cisco
9 24 (2.74%) Citrix
9 24 (2.74%) SAP
10 23 (2.63%) Dell
11 20 (2.28%) BeyondTrust
12 14 (1.60%) HP
13 13 (1.48%) Meraki
14 11 (1.26%) Lotus
14 11 (1.26%) Splunk
14 11 (1.26%) Sybase
15 10 (1.14%) iManage
16 9 (1.03%) Remedy
16 9 (1.03%) Samsung