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 10 December 2025.

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

6 months to
10 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 121 138 86
Rank change year-on-year +17 -52 +60
Contract jobs requiring a Support Engineer 848 670 1,173
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.34% 1.88% 2.58%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.57% 2.02% 2.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 584 452 848
10th Percentile £153 £150 £140
25th Percentile £185 £188 £184
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £225 £240 £238
Median % change year-on-year -6.25% +1.05% -0.94%
75th Percentile £339 £350 £398
90th Percentile £507 £519 £546
UK excluding London median daily rate £213 £220 £215
% change year-on-year -3.41% +2.33% +1.18%
Number of hourly rates quoted 117 45 61
10th Percentile £17.14 £16.35 £15.50
25th Percentile £19.75 £20.50 £17.50
Median hourly rate £24.00 £23.59 £19.00
Median % change year-on-year +1.74% +24.16% -2.56%
75th Percentile £30.00 £24.18 £21.75
90th Percentile £46.25 £41.50 £24.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £24.00 £23.00 £19.06
% change year-on-year +4.35% +20.67% +7.56%

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 32,988 33,120 42,501
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.93% 92.74% 93.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,924 20,243 28,641
10th Percentile £285 £300 £294
25th Percentile £403 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £645
90th Percentile £725 £738 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £495 £500
% change year-on-year -4.04% -1.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,924 1,136 1,517
10th Percentile £14.22 £15.36 £15.16
25th Percentile £17.87 £20.75 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £34.75 £44.00
Median % change year-on-year -27.63% -21.02% +40.98%
75th Percentile £56.81 £63.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.75 £73.66 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £44.50
% change year-on-year -22.62% -26.97% +78.00%

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 10 December 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 10 December 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 10 December 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 +22 768 £225 -6.25% 413
UK excluding London +10 580 £213 -3.41% 401
London -14 220 £233 -22.50% 69
South East +26 185 £238 +6.97% 107
South West +25 108 £250 +12.36% 44
North of England -20 106 £200 -6.98% 112
Work from Home -16 101 £288 -17.86% 112
Midlands +3 96 £250 -6.54% 49
West Midlands -1 70 £275 +2.80% 32
North West -5 57 £170 -15.00% 60
East of England -8 50 £216 -1.70% 56
Yorkshire -31 37 £205 -8.89% 43
East Midlands -1 26 £175 -26.32% 17
Scotland -11 24 £200 +9.59% 18
Wales +13 20 £213 +6.25% 15
North East +4 12 £106 -34.77% 14
Northern Ireland -9 3 £175 +18.24% 5

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

For the 6 months to 10 December 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 (52.71%) Windows
2 322 (37.97%) Microsoft
3 259 (30.54%) Security Cleared
4 248 (29.25%) Microsoft 365
5 240 (28.30%) Active Directory
6 196 (23.11%) SC Cleared
7 178 (20.99%) Problem-Solving
8 170 (20.05%) Customer Service
8 170 (20.05%) Windows 10
9 108 (12.74%) ITIL
10 106 (12.50%) Azure
11 100 (11.79%) ServiceNow
12 98 (11.56%) Linux
13 95 (11.20%) Microsoft Intune
14 90 (10.61%) Microsoft Office
15 86 (10.14%) DNS
16 75 (8.84%) DHCP
17 74 (8.73%) ITSM
18 73 (8.61%) SCCM
18 73 (8.61%) SharePoint
19 72 (8.49%) TCP/IP
19 72 (8.49%) VPN
20 71 (8.37%) Service Management
21 70 (8.25%) Migration
22 67 (7.90%) Microsoft Exchange
23 63 (7.43%) PowerShell
24 62 (7.31%) DV Cleared
25 57 (6.72%) Android
26 55 (6.49%) Apple
26 55 (6.49%) Asset 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 73 (8.61%) SharePoint
2 67 (7.90%) Microsoft Exchange
3 24 (2.83%) Skype for Business
4 11 (1.30%) Exchange Server 2010
4 11 (1.30%) SharePoint Server
5 10 (1.18%) Exchange Server 2003
5 10 (1.18%) Exchange Server 2007
5 10 (1.18%) Exchange Server 2013
5 10 (1.18%) Office Communications Server
6 6 (0.71%) Confluence
7 3 (0.35%) Apache
7 3 (0.35%) Smallworld
8 2 (0.24%) Apache Airflow
8 2 (0.24%) Apache Spark
8 2 (0.24%) ArcGIS
8 2 (0.24%) Jupyter
9 1 (0.12%) CMS
9 1 (0.12%) SAS
9 1 (0.12%) Tomcat
9 1 (0.12%) WebSphere
Applications
1 90 (10.61%) Microsoft Office
2 25 (2.95%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (0.35%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.24%) MS Visio
5 1 (0.12%) AutoCAD
5 1 (0.12%) DaVinci Resolve
5 1 (0.12%) OmniGraffle
5 1 (0.12%) Pro Tools
5 1 (0.12%) ProjectWise
5 1 (0.12%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 8 (0.94%) Remedy ITSM
1 8 (0.94%) SAP EHS
2 5 (0.59%) Primavera
3 3 (0.35%) NetSuite
3 3 (0.35%) Shopify
4 2 (0.24%) Eikon
4 2 (0.24%) Fidessa
5 1 (0.12%) Aladdin
5 1 (0.12%) assyst
5 1 (0.12%) Bloomberg TOMS
5 1 (0.12%) Eze OMS
5 1 (0.12%) Infor CloudSuite Industrial (formerly SyteLine)
5 1 (0.12%) Oracle ERP
5 1 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
5 1 (0.12%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 248 (29.25%) Microsoft 365
2 106 (12.50%) Azure
3 40 (4.72%) Entra ID
4 28 (3.30%) AWS
5 24 (2.83%) SaaS
6 23 (2.71%) OneDrive
7 19 (2.24%) Sauce Labs
8 18 (2.12%) Google Workspace
9 11 (1.30%) Power Platform
10 8 (0.94%) Azure DevOps
11 7 (0.83%) npm
12 5 (0.59%) OpenShift
12 5 (0.59%) SuccessFactors
13 4 (0.47%) Dynamics 365
13 4 (0.47%) Microsoft Purview
13 4 (0.47%) Slack
14 3 (0.35%) Azure AKS
15 2 (0.24%) Amazon OpenSearch
15 2 (0.24%) PowerApps
15 2 (0.24%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 86 (10.14%) DNS
2 75 (8.84%) DHCP
3 72 (8.49%) TCP/IP
3 72 (8.49%) VPN
4 41 (4.83%) Firewall
5 39 (4.60%) Wireless
6 37 (4.36%) WAN
6 37 (4.36%) Wi-Fi
7 26 (3.07%) LAN
8 21 (2.48%) Cisco IOS
8 21 (2.48%) VLAN
9 20 (2.36%) Junos
10 19 (2.24%) MPLS
11 17 (2.00%) BGP
11 17 (2.00%) IPsec
12 15 (1.77%) Cisco Firepower
12 15 (1.77%) Cisco ISE
12 15 (1.77%) Skype
13 14 (1.65%) Network Security
14 13 (1.53%) PABX
Database & Business Intelligence
1 34 (4.01%) Relational Database
2 27 (3.18%) MySQL
3 15 (1.77%) SQL Server
4 9 (1.06%) Power BI
5 7 (0.83%) MariaDB
6 5 (0.59%) RDBMS
7 4 (0.47%) InfluxDB
8 3 (0.35%) GIS
8 3 (0.35%) Tableau
9 2 (0.24%) Apache Cassandra
9 2 (0.24%) Data Warehouse
9 2 (0.24%) Electronic Patient Records
9 2 (0.24%) Oracle Database
9 2 (0.24%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 1 (0.12%) Azure SQL Database
10 1 (0.12%) DB2
10 1 (0.12%) Elasticsearch
10 1 (0.12%) Oracle ODI
10 1 (0.12%) PostgreSQL
10 1 (0.12%) Qlik Sense
Development Applications
1 30 (3.54%) Browser DevTools
2 19 (2.24%) Android Studio
2 19 (2.24%) Eclipse
2 19 (2.24%) JIRA
2 19 (2.24%) Xcode
3 14 (1.65%) Git
4 10 (1.18%) Firebug
5 8 (0.94%) Jenkins
6 7 (0.83%) Maven
7 5 (0.59%) Sonatype Nexus
8 3 (0.35%) Fiddler
9 2 (0.24%) MSI
10 1 (0.12%) Bitbucket
10 1 (0.12%) ClearCase
10 1 (0.12%) Hudson
General
1 377 (44.46%) Social Skills
2 79 (9.32%) Finance
3 66 (7.78%) Public Sector
4 54 (6.37%) Analytical Skills
5 40 (4.72%) Manufacturing
6 38 (4.48%) Banking
7 30 (3.54%) Organisational Skills
8 28 (3.30%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 22 (2.59%) Telecoms
10 20 (2.36%) Aerospace
11 15 (1.77%) Electronics
11 15 (1.77%) Marketing
12 12 (1.42%) Front Office
13 10 (1.18%) Documentation Skills
14 9 (1.06%) Law
14 9 (1.06%) Retail
15 8 (0.94%) Investment Banking
16 7 (0.83%) Legal
17 6 (0.71%) Automotive
17 6 (0.71%) Aviation
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (3.54%) CSS
2 25 (2.95%) Middleware
3 21 (2.48%) React
4 20 (2.36%) Ajax
4 20 (2.36%) AngularJS
4 20 (2.36%) GraphQL
5 17 (2.00%) XML
6 10 (1.18%) HTML
7 7 (0.83%) JSON
8 5 (0.59%) REST
8 5 (0.59%) SOAP
9 4 (0.47%) .NET
9 4 (0.47%) JDO
10 3 (0.35%) ADO
10 3 (0.35%) Kafka
10 3 (0.35%) Microsoft Graph
10 3 (0.35%) OAuth
11 2 (0.24%) Node.js
11 2 (0.24%) OpenTelemetry
11 2 (0.24%) PySpark
Miscellaneous
1 40 (4.72%) Onboarding
2 34 (4.01%) Self-Motivation
3 30 (3.54%) Data Centre
3 30 (3.54%) Driving Licence
4 25 (2.95%) PKI
5 21 (2.48%) Data Protection Act
6 20 (2.36%) Mobile App
7 17 (2.00%) Smartphone
8 13 (1.53%) iPhone
9 12 (1.42%) Analytical Mindset
9 12 (1.42%) Management Information System
9 12 (1.42%) Replication
9 12 (1.42%) Video Conferencing
10 7 (0.83%) iPad
10 7 (0.83%) Legacy Systems
11 6 (0.71%) NHS
12 5 (0.59%) Enterprise Software
12 5 (0.59%) Operational Technology
12 5 (0.59%) Virtual Team
13 3 (0.35%) Hedge funds
Operating Systems
1 447 (52.71%) Windows
2 170 (20.05%) Windows 10
3 98 (11.56%) Linux
4 57 (6.72%) Android
5 54 (6.37%) Windows Server
6 49 (5.78%) Mac OS
7 44 (5.19%) Apple iOS
8 33 (3.89%) Unix
9 13 (1.53%) Ubuntu
10 11 (1.30%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 10 (1.18%) Windows Server 2003
12 7 (0.83%) Windows 7
13 5 (0.59%) CentOS
14 3 (0.35%) 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
Processes & Methodologies
1 178 (20.99%) Problem-Solving
2 170 (20.05%) Customer Service
3 108 (12.74%) ITIL
4 74 (8.73%) ITSM
5 71 (8.37%) Service Management
6 70 (8.25%) Migration
7 55 (6.49%) Asset Management
8 46 (5.42%) Workflow
9 42 (4.95%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 37 (4.36%) User Experience
11 33 (3.89%) OO
11 33 (3.89%) Workflow Management
12 32 (3.77%) Root Cause Analysis
13 31 (3.66%) Service Delivery
14 30 (3.54%) Business Intelligence
15 29 (3.42%) Cybersecurity
16 28 (3.30%) Continuous Improvement
16 28 (3.30%) Logistics
17 26 (3.07%) Incident Management
18 25 (2.95%) Data Protection
Programming Languages
1 63 (7.43%) PowerShell
2 46 (5.42%) Java
3 44 (5.19%) JavaScript
4 42 (4.95%) Python
5 28 (3.30%) SQL
6 21 (2.48%) Perl
7 18 (2.12%) Bash
8 17 (2.00%) Shell Script
9 16 (1.89%) C
10 13 (1.53%) C++
11 12 (1.42%) Ada
12 3 (0.35%) C#
12 3 (0.35%) Magik
12 3 (0.35%) TypeScript
13 2 (0.24%) AWK
13 2 (0.24%) VB.NET
14 1 (0.12%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 1 (0.12%) Korn
14 1 (0.12%) Tcl
14 1 (0.12%) VBA
Qualifications
1 259 (30.54%) Security Cleared
2 196 (23.11%) SC Cleared
3 62 (7.31%) DV Cleared
4 44 (5.19%) Degree
5 29 (3.42%) Microsoft Certification
6 14 (1.65%) Azure Certification
7 13 (1.53%) Network+ Certification
8 12 (1.42%) BPSS Clearance
8 12 (1.42%) DBS Check
9 11 (1.30%) Server+ Certification
10 9 (1.06%) A+ Certification
10 9 (1.06%) Cisco Certification
11 8 (0.94%) CCNA
11 8 (0.94%) Computer Science Degree
11 8 (0.94%) ITIL Certification
12 4 (0.47%) MCP
12 4 (0.47%) MCSE
13 3 (0.35%) Master's Degree
13 3 (0.35%) MCSA
14 2 (0.24%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 34 (4.01%) SLA
2 9 (1.06%) GDPR
2 9 (1.06%) QA
3 4 (0.47%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 3 (0.35%) Accessibility
5 1 (0.12%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (0.12%) Data Quality
5 1 (0.12%) GAAP
5 1 (0.12%) IFRS
5 1 (0.12%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 240 (28.30%) Active Directory
2 30 (3.54%) VMware Infrastructure
3 20 (2.36%) Hyper-V
4 17 (2.00%) Virtual Desktop
5 16 (1.89%) VMware NSX
6 12 (1.42%) Firmware
7 10 (1.18%) Brightmail
7 10 (1.18%) Docker
7 10 (1.18%) ISA Server
8 5 (0.59%) vSphere
9 3 (0.35%) 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 95 (11.20%) Microsoft Intune
2 73 (8.61%) SCCM
3 35 (4.13%) Jamf Pro
4 22 (2.59%) Ansible
5 21 (2.48%) Terraform
6 18 (2.12%) vCenter Server
7 10 (1.18%) Grafana
7 10 (1.18%) Microsoft Clustering
8 9 (1.06%) Kubernetes
9 6 (0.71%) Red Hat Satellite
10 5 (0.59%) AirWatch
10 5 (0.59%) Kibana
10 5 (0.59%) SCOM
11 4 (0.47%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 4 (0.47%) ITRS Geneos
12 3 (0.35%) Single Sign-On
13 2 (0.24%) Autotask
13 2 (0.24%) FortiGate
13 2 (0.24%) Prometheus
13 2 (0.24%) WSUS
Vendors
1 322 (37.97%) Microsoft
2 100 (11.79%) ServiceNow
3 55 (6.49%) Apple
4 54 (6.37%) Cisco
5 51 (6.01%) Oracle
6 45 (5.31%) VMware
7 33 (3.89%) Juniper
7 33 (3.89%) SAP
8 27 (3.18%) HP
9 23 (2.71%) Splunk
10 22 (2.59%) Citrix
10 22 (2.59%) SolarWinds
11 20 (2.36%) Google
12 19 (2.24%) Red Hat
13 14 (1.65%) Dell
14 11 (1.30%) Bloomberg
14 11 (1.30%) Remedy
15 8 (0.94%) McAfee
16 7 (0.83%) Starlink
17 6 (0.71%) Zscaler