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 11 August 2026.

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

6 months to
11 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 170 133 118
Rank change year-on-year -37 -15 -25
Contract jobs requiring a Support Engineer 867 710 772
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.62% 2.16% 1.98%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.75% 2.36% 2.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 579 461 538
10th Percentile £163 £160 £140
25th Percentile £189 £200 £178
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £240 £238 £232
Median % change year-on-year +1.05% +2.45% -7.28%
75th Percentile £404 £385 £350
90th Percentile £500 £538 £525
UK excluding London median daily rate £225 £230 £220
% change year-on-year -2.17% +4.78% -0.23%
Number of hourly rates quoted 49 69 46
10th Percentile £16.88 £16.63 £16.63
25th Percentile £18.25 £20.64 £18.13
Median hourly rate £24.00 £25.15 £22.00
Median % change year-on-year -4.57% +14.32% +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 49,431 30,083 36,174
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.55% 91.36% 92.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,700 19,069 23,306
10th Percentile £328 £282 £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 £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 3,475 1,511 2,026
10th Percentile £15.00 £13.60 £14.16
25th Percentile £20.75 £17.08 £20.50
Median hourly rate £42.25 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +67.99% -41.51% +2.87%
75th Percentile £67.84 £53.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £72.75 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.08 £45.00
% change year-on-year +69.49% -44.28% +28.57%

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 11 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 11 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 11 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 -49 734 £225 -6.25% 313
UK excluding London -37 570 £225 -2.17% 293
London -46 258 £275 +10.00% 51
South East -33 166 £250 - 101
North of England -38 124 £200 -9.09% 64
Work from Home -85 86 £300 -14.29% 82
Scotland +56 82 £442 +49.83% 14
North West -7 81 £200 -12.09% 38
East of England 0 63 £200 - 45
Midlands -70 61 £250 -9.09% 37
South West -54 60 £210 -10.64% 40
Yorkshire -24 41 £200 -9.09% 22
West Midlands -77 39 £250 -9.09% 19
East Midlands -6 21 £270 +47.54% 18
Wales -25 10 £195 -8.24% 2
Northern Ireland +1 4 £175 -30.00% 4
North East -53 3 £188 -3.85% 6
Channel Islands - 1 £550 -

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

For the 6 months to 11 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.

1 468 (53.98%) Windows
2 376 (43.37%) Active Directory
3 375 (43.25%) Microsoft
4 318 (36.68%) Microsoft 365
5 201 (23.18%) Problem-Solving
6 193 (22.26%) Customer Service
7 187 (21.57%) Windows 10
8 174 (20.07%) Security Cleared
9 164 (18.92%) ITIL
10 149 (17.19%) Azure
11 133 (15.34%) Entra ID
12 130 (14.99%) Microsoft Intune
13 123 (14.19%) ServiceNow
14 111 (12.80%) SC Cleared
15 110 (12.69%) SharePoint
16 103 (11.88%) ITSM
17 97 (11.19%) DNS
18 91 (10.50%) PowerShell
19 73 (8.42%) Continuous Improvement
20 68 (7.84%) Linux
20 68 (7.84%) SQL
20 68 (7.84%) Windows Server
21 67 (7.73%) Asset Management
22 66 (7.61%) VPN
23 63 (7.27%) Microsoft Exchange
23 63 (7.27%) Service Delivery
24 62 (7.15%) Migration
25 61 (7.04%) VMware
26 60 (6.92%) JIRA
27 59 (6.81%) Degree

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 (12.69%) SharePoint
2 63 (7.27%) Microsoft Exchange
3 12 (1.38%) NetWeaver
4 11 (1.27%) HCL Notes
5 4 (0.46%) Confluence
6 3 (0.35%) Skype for Business
7 2 (0.23%) Exchange Server 2013
7 2 (0.23%) IIS
7 2 (0.23%) MTS
7 2 (0.23%) OpenStack
7 2 (0.23%) WebLogic
7 2 (0.23%) WebSphere
8 1 (0.12%) Tuxedo
Applications
1 43 (4.96%) Microsoft Office
2 14 (1.61%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.46%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.12%) Acrobat
4 1 (0.12%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.12%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 11 (1.27%) SAP S/4HANA
2 7 (0.81%) Remedy ITSM
3 4 (0.46%) SAP EHS
4 3 (0.35%) SAP Retail
5 2 (0.23%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.12%) Alphatax
6 1 (0.12%) Bloomberg TOMS
6 1 (0.12%) Dynamics CRM
6 1 (0.12%) Dynamics GP
6 1 (0.12%) Oracle BRM
6 1 (0.12%) SAP BRIM
6 1 (0.12%) SAP FI
6 1 (0.12%) SAP FI-CA
6 1 (0.12%) SAP FS
6 1 (0.12%) SAP GRC
6 1 (0.12%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 318 (36.68%) Microsoft 365
2 149 (17.19%) Azure
3 133 (15.34%) Entra ID
4 41 (4.73%) OneDrive
5 36 (4.15%) AWS
6 20 (2.31%) SaaS
7 19 (2.19%) GCP
8 18 (2.08%) Azure DevOps
9 11 (1.27%) Power Platform
10 8 (0.92%) Google Workspace
11 7 (0.81%) PaaS
12 6 (0.69%) IaaS
13 5 (0.58%) 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 (0.35%) Azure Data Factory
15 3 (0.35%) OpenShift
15 3 (0.35%) Sauce Labs
Communications & Networking
1 97 (11.19%) DNS
2 66 (7.61%) VPN
3 59 (6.81%) DHCP
4 58 (6.69%) TCP/IP
5 43 (4.96%) Wi-Fi
6 33 (3.81%) LAN
7 25 (2.88%) WAN
8 23 (2.65%) Firewall
9 22 (2.54%) SAN
10 21 (2.42%) Internet
11 16 (1.85%) VLAN
12 9 (1.04%) Wireless
13 7 (0.81%) Skype
14 6 (0.69%) HTTP
14 6 (0.69%) WLAN
15 5 (0.58%) Network Security
15 5 (0.58%) SMTP
15 5 (0.58%) WebEx
16 4 (0.46%) Remote Desktop
16 4 (0.46%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 40 (4.61%) SQL Server
2 16 (1.85%) MySQL
3 12 (1.38%) SAP HANA
4 11 (1.27%) Sybase ASE
5 10 (1.15%) MaxDB
6 9 (1.04%) Power BI
7 8 (0.92%) Relational Database
8 7 (0.81%) Amazon Redshift
8 7 (0.81%) Pentaho
9 6 (0.69%) PostgreSQL
10 5 (0.58%) Amazon RDS
10 5 (0.58%) Oracle Database
10 5 (0.58%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 4 (0.46%) Oracle Database 12c
12 3 (0.35%) Big Data
12 3 (0.35%) Data Warehouse
12 3 (0.35%) Elasticsearch
12 3 (0.35%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 2 (0.23%) MariaDB
13 2 (0.23%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 60 (6.92%) JIRA
2 20 (2.31%) Git
3 9 (1.04%) Browser DevTools
4 3 (0.35%) Android Studio
4 3 (0.35%) Eclipse
4 3 (0.35%) Jenkins
4 3 (0.35%) Xcode
5 2 (0.23%) Artifactory
5 2 (0.23%) Firebug
6 1 (0.12%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 1 (0.12%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.12%) Claude Code
6 1 (0.12%) Gemini Tracker
6 1 (0.12%) GitLab
6 1 (0.12%) MSI
6 1 (0.12%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 1 (0.12%) Subversion
6 1 (0.12%) TeamCity
6 1 (0.12%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 350 (40.37%) Social Skills
2 106 (12.23%) Analytical Skills
3 74 (8.54%) Finance
4 44 (5.07%) Manufacturing
5 38 (4.38%) Banking
6 25 (2.88%) Organisational Skills
7 20 (2.31%) Investment Banking
8 19 (2.19%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 18 (2.08%) Retail
10 16 (1.85%) Documentation Skills
11 13 (1.50%) Front Office
11 13 (1.50%) Law
12 12 (1.38%) Financial Institution
12 12 (1.38%) Legal
12 12 (1.38%) Telecoms
13 10 (1.15%) Public Sector
13 10 (1.15%) Spanish Language
14 9 (1.04%) Aerospace
15 8 (0.92%) Aviation
16 7 (0.81%) Marketing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (1.85%) .NET
2 12 (1.38%) LDAP
3 11 (1.27%) SAP Basis
4 10 (1.15%) Oracle GoldenGate
4 10 (1.15%) XML
5 8 (0.92%) REST
6 7 (0.81%) .NET Framework
6 7 (0.81%) JDO
7 6 (0.69%) SAP Fiori
7 6 (0.69%) SAPUI5
7 6 (0.69%) Software Packaging
8 5 (0.58%) CSS
8 5 (0.58%) SAML
9 4 (0.46%) OAuth
10 3 (0.35%) Ajax
10 3 (0.35%) AngularJS
10 3 (0.35%) GraphQL
10 3 (0.35%) JSP
10 3 (0.35%) React
10 3 (0.35%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 116 (13.38%) Onboarding
2 34 (3.92%) Data Centre
3 24 (2.77%) Analytical Mindset
3 24 (2.77%) Video Conferencing
4 20 (2.31%) PKI
4 20 (2.31%) Self-Motivation
5 16 (1.85%) Hedge funds
6 15 (1.73%) Data Protection Act
6 15 (1.73%) iPhone
7 14 (1.61%) Enterprise Software
8 13 (1.50%) Driving Licence
9 12 (1.38%) Legacy Systems
10 11 (1.27%) Blackberry
10 11 (1.27%) Smartphone
10 11 (1.27%) Virtual Team
11 10 (1.15%) iPad
12 9 (1.04%) SCADA
13 8 (0.92%) CMDB
14 7 (0.81%) Management Information System
15 6 (0.69%) BYOD
Operating Systems
1 468 (53.98%) Windows
2 187 (21.57%) Windows 10
3 68 (7.84%) Linux
3 68 (7.84%) Windows Server
4 55 (6.34%) Mac OS
5 41 (4.73%) Unix
6 35 (4.04%) Apple iOS
7 31 (3.58%) Android
8 20 (2.31%) Windows 7
9 9 (1.04%) Windows Server 2019
10 8 (0.92%) Ubuntu
11 7 (0.81%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 5 (0.58%) Windows Server 2008
12 5 (0.58%) Windows Server 2016
13 4 (0.46%) OpenVMS
13 4 (0.46%) Solaris
13 4 (0.46%) VMS
13 4 (0.46%) Windows Server 2012
14 3 (0.35%) Windows XP
15 2 (0.23%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 201 (23.18%) Problem-Solving
2 193 (22.26%) Customer Service
3 164 (18.92%) ITIL
4 103 (11.88%) ITSM
5 73 (8.42%) Continuous Improvement
6 67 (7.73%) Asset Management
7 63 (7.27%) Service Delivery
8 62 (7.15%) Migration
9 56 (6.46%) Service Management
10 53 (6.11%) Problem Management
11 51 (5.88%) User Experience
12 46 (5.31%) Change Management
12 46 (5.31%) Identity Access Management
13 45 (5.19%) Incident Management
14 43 (4.96%) Root Cause Analysis
15 40 (4.61%) Infrastructure Engineering
16 34 (3.92%) Runbook
17 32 (3.69%) Data Protection
18 31 (3.58%) DevOps
19 30 (3.46%) Break/Fix
Programming Languages
1 91 (10.50%) PowerShell
2 68 (7.84%) SQL
3 36 (4.15%) Python
4 26 (3.00%) C#
5 25 (2.88%) Java
6 20 (2.31%) JavaScript
7 17 (1.96%) Bash
7 17 (1.96%) Shell Script
8 10 (1.15%) Korn
9 7 (0.81%) C++
10 6 (0.69%) Perl
11 5 (0.58%) T-SQL
12 2 (0.23%) DCL
12 2 (0.23%) Go
12 2 (0.23%) Tcl
12 2 (0.23%) VBA
12 2 (0.23%) VBScript
13 1 (0.12%) C
13 1 (0.12%) Search Processing Language
13 1 (0.12%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 174 (20.07%) Security Cleared
2 111 (12.80%) SC Cleared
3 59 (6.81%) Degree
4 48 (5.54%) DV Cleared
5 30 (3.46%) A+ Certification
5 30 (3.46%) Microsoft Certification
6 23 (2.65%) Network+ Certification
7 21 (2.42%) Cisco Certification
8 20 (2.31%) CCNA
9 17 (1.96%) BPSS Clearance
10 16 (1.85%) MCSE
11 10 (1.15%) Computer Science Degree
11 10 (1.15%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
12 9 (1.04%) DBS Check
13 7 (0.81%) Microsoft Certified Professional
14 6 (0.69%) Azure Certification
14 6 (0.69%) ITIL Certification
15 4 (0.46%) NVQ Level 4
16 2 (0.23%) CCNP
17 1 (0.12%) CTC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 58 (6.69%) SLA
2 6 (0.69%) QA
3 5 (0.58%) Data Quality
4 4 (0.46%) Cyber Essentials
5 3 (0.35%) GDPR
5 3 (0.35%) 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 (0.12%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.12%) Disclosure Scotland
7 1 (0.12%) GRC
7 1 (0.12%) ITGC
7 1 (0.12%) NCSC
System Software
1 376 (43.37%) Active Directory
2 47 (5.42%) VMware Infrastructure
3 26 (3.00%) Hyper-V
4 24 (2.77%) VMware ESXi
5 17 (1.96%) VMware NSX
6 16 (1.85%) Virtual Desktop
7 12 (1.38%) vCloud
8 10 (1.15%) Oracle RAC
9 8 (0.92%) Docker
10 7 (0.81%) vSphere
11 5 (0.58%) BitLocker
11 5 (0.58%) Firmware
11 5 (0.58%) NFS
12 3 (0.35%) Microsoft App-V
12 3 (0.35%) Terminal Services
13 2 (0.23%) zsh
14 1 (0.12%) Virtual Servers
14 1 (0.12%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 130 (14.99%) Microsoft Intune
2 52 (6.00%) SCCM
3 24 (2.77%) vCenter Server
4 21 (2.42%) Single Sign-On
5 18 (2.08%) SCOM
6 17 (1.96%) Jamf Pro
7 14 (1.61%) Kubernetes
8 12 (1.38%) Grafana
8 12 (1.38%) Terraform
9 10 (1.15%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
9 10 (1.15%) Oracle RMAN
10 9 (1.04%) Ansible
11 6 (0.69%) WSUS
12 5 (0.58%) Red Hat Satellite
13 3 (0.35%) AirWatch
13 3 (0.35%) ITRS Geneos
13 3 (0.35%) Nagios
13 3 (0.35%) NetBackup
13 3 (0.35%) Puppet
13 3 (0.35%) vRealize
Vendors
1 375 (43.25%) Microsoft
2 123 (14.19%) ServiceNow
3 61 (7.04%) VMware
4 38 (4.38%) Apple
5 34 (3.92%) Oracle
6 32 (3.69%) Okta
7 26 (3.00%) Google
8 25 (2.88%) Cisco
9 24 (2.77%) Citrix
9 24 (2.77%) SAP
10 22 (2.54%) Dell
11 21 (2.42%) BeyondTrust
12 14 (1.61%) HP
13 13 (1.50%) Meraki
13 13 (1.50%) Sybase
14 11 (1.27%) Lotus
14 11 (1.27%) Splunk
15 10 (1.15%) iManage
16 9 (1.04%) Bloomberg
16 9 (1.04%) Samsung