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 21 July 2026.

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

6 months to
21 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 174 131 104
Rank change year-on-year -43 -27 -8
Contract jobs requiring a Support Engineer 822 690 875
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.56% 2.12% 2.12%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.68% 2.31% 2.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 536 439 601
10th Percentile £163 £160 £140
25th Percentile £185 £200 £163
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £225 £238 £220
Median % change year-on-year -5.16% +7.95% -12.00%
75th Percentile £392 £385 £344
90th Percentile £491 £538 £501
UK excluding London median daily rate £210 £228 £205
% change year-on-year -7.69% +10.98% -7.34%
Number of hourly rates quoted 58 63 58
10th Percentile £16.77 £16.95 £16.78
25th Percentile £18.50 £20.64 £18.06
Median hourly rate £25.39 £25.15 £22.00
Median % change year-on-year +0.93% +14.32% +11.39%
75th Percentile £36.00 £43.75 £26.50
90th Percentile £53.00 £68.00 £54.35
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.00 £25.15 £22.00
% change year-on-year -12.52% +14.32% +15.79%

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 48,798 29,864 38,453
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.56% 91.64% 93.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,431 18,992 24,873
10th Percentile £325 £285 £293
25th Percentile £420 £400 £410
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 £735 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,294 1,429 2,439
10th Percentile £15.81 £13.75 £13.49
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.30 £18.00
Median hourly rate £44.10 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +75.33% -37.13% -6.98%
75th Percentile £67.84 £55.00 £64.25
90th Percentile £80.17 £73.75 £74.45
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £41.81
% change year-on-year +78.93% -39.85% +5.65%

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 21 July 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 21 July 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 21 July 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 -53 694 £220 -7.37% 263
UK excluding London -39 556 £210 -7.69% 263
London -50 235 £240 -9.86% 38
South East -30 165 £250 - 82
North of England -61 103 £190 -13.64% 55
Scotland +45 83 £437 +20.55% 23
Work from Home -98 81 £250 -27.54% 63
Midlands -49 68 £250 -9.09% 26
North West -38 64 £190 -13.64% 32
South West -51 63 £210 -10.64% 41
East of England -4 59 £200 -5.88% 37
West Midlands -67 42 £250 -9.09% 15
Yorkshire -32 38 £190 -19.15% 17
East Midlands -1 25 £220 +20.22% 11
Wales -27 10 £195 -2.50% 2
Northern Ireland -1 5 £175 - 4
North East -57 1 £290 +48.72% 7
Channel Islands - 1 £550 -

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

For the 6 months to 21 July 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.

1 428 (52.07%) Windows
2 347 (42.21%) Active Directory
3 333 (40.51%) Microsoft
4 291 (35.40%) Microsoft 365
5 187 (22.75%) Problem-Solving
6 174 (21.17%) Windows 10
7 166 (20.19%) Customer Service
8 160 (19.46%) Security Cleared
9 152 (18.49%) ITIL
10 143 (17.40%) Azure
11 124 (15.09%) Microsoft Intune
12 118 (14.36%) Entra ID
13 114 (13.87%) ServiceNow
14 102 (12.41%) SC Cleared
15 94 (11.44%) SharePoint
16 93 (11.31%) DNS
17 89 (10.83%) ITSM
18 85 (10.34%) PowerShell
19 65 (7.91%) JIRA
19 65 (7.91%) SQL
20 62 (7.54%) VPN
21 61 (7.42%) Continuous Improvement
21 61 (7.42%) Linux
22 60 (7.30%) DHCP
23 56 (6.81%) Microsoft Exchange
23 56 (6.81%) TCP/IP
24 55 (6.69%) Service Delivery
25 54 (6.57%) Mac OS
26 53 (6.45%) Migration
26 53 (6.45%) Windows Server

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 94 (11.44%) SharePoint
2 56 (6.81%) Microsoft Exchange
3 12 (1.46%) NetWeaver
4 9 (1.09%) HCL Notes
5 5 (0.61%) Confluence
6 3 (0.36%) Skype for Business
7 2 (0.24%) IIS
7 2 (0.24%) OpenStack
7 2 (0.24%) WebLogic
8 1 (0.12%) Tuxedo
8 1 (0.12%) WebSphere
Applications
1 39 (4.74%) Microsoft Office
2 12 (1.46%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.49%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.12%) Acrobat
4 1 (0.12%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.12%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 11 (1.34%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (0.73%) Remedy ITSM
3 5 (0.61%) Teamcenter
4 4 (0.49%) SAP EHS
5 2 (0.24%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.12%) Alphatax
6 1 (0.12%) Dynamics CRM
6 1 (0.12%) Dynamics GP
6 1 (0.12%) SAP GRC
Cloud Services
1 291 (35.40%) Microsoft 365
2 143 (17.40%) Azure
3 118 (14.36%) Entra ID
4 39 (4.74%) OneDrive
5 31 (3.77%) AWS
6 21 (2.55%) Azure DevOps
7 19 (2.31%) SaaS
8 17 (2.07%) GCP
9 11 (1.34%) Power Platform
10 9 (1.09%) PaaS
11 6 (0.73%) Google Workspace
11 6 (0.73%) IaaS
12 5 (0.61%) Mimecast
13 4 (0.49%) Amazon S3
13 4 (0.49%) Azure Data Factory
14 3 (0.36%) Amazon EC2
14 3 (0.36%) OpenShift
14 3 (0.36%) PowerApps
14 3 (0.36%) Sauce Labs
15 2 (0.24%) Google Compute Engine
Communications & Networking
1 93 (11.31%) DNS
2 62 (7.54%) VPN
3 60 (7.30%) DHCP
4 56 (6.81%) TCP/IP
5 49 (5.96%) Wi-Fi
6 41 (4.99%) LAN
7 25 (3.04%) WAN
8 24 (2.92%) SAN
9 21 (2.55%) Firewall
10 19 (2.31%) Internet
11 16 (1.95%) VLAN
12 9 (1.09%) WLAN
13 8 (0.97%) Wireless
14 7 (0.85%) HTTP
14 7 (0.85%) Skype
15 5 (0.61%) VoIP
16 4 (0.49%) Network Security
16 4 (0.49%) Remote Desktop
16 4 (0.49%) Unified Communications
17 3 (0.36%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 39 (4.74%) SQL Server
2 16 (1.95%) MySQL
3 12 (1.46%) SAP HANA
4 11 (1.34%) Sybase ASE
5 10 (1.22%) MaxDB
6 9 (1.09%) Amazon Redshift
6 9 (1.09%) Power BI
7 8 (0.97%) Relational Database
8 7 (0.85%) Pentaho
9 6 (0.73%) PostgreSQL
9 6 (0.73%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 5 (0.61%) Amazon RDS
11 4 (0.49%) Oracle Database
11 4 (0.49%) Oracle Database 12c
12 3 (0.36%) Big Data
12 3 (0.36%) Elasticsearch
12 3 (0.36%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 2 (0.24%) Data Warehouse
13 2 (0.24%) MariaDB
13 2 (0.24%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 65 (7.91%) JIRA
2 20 (2.43%) Git
3 9 (1.09%) Browser DevTools
4 3 (0.36%) Android Studio
4 3 (0.36%) Eclipse
4 3 (0.36%) Jenkins
4 3 (0.36%) Xcode
5 2 (0.24%) Artifactory
5 2 (0.24%) 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%) RStudio
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
1 333 (40.51%) Social Skills
2 96 (11.68%) Analytical Skills
3 63 (7.66%) Finance
4 45 (5.47%) Manufacturing
5 36 (4.38%) Banking
6 22 (2.68%) Organisational Skills
7 19 (2.31%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 18 (2.19%) Investment Banking
9 15 (1.82%) Documentation Skills
9 15 (1.82%) Retail
10 14 (1.70%) Aerospace
11 13 (1.58%) Aviation
11 13 (1.58%) Law
12 9 (1.09%) Financial Institution
12 9 (1.09%) Front Office
13 8 (0.97%) Legal
13 8 (0.97%) Spanish Language
13 8 (0.97%) Telecoms
14 7 (0.85%) Marketing
15 6 (0.73%) Public Sector
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (1.70%) .NET
2 11 (1.34%) SAP Basis
3 10 (1.22%) LDAP
3 10 (1.22%) Oracle GoldenGate
4 9 (1.09%) REST
5 8 (0.97%) XML
6 7 (0.85%) JDO
7 6 (0.73%) SAP Fiori
7 6 (0.73%) SAPUI5
7 6 (0.73%) Software Packaging
8 5 (0.61%) .NET Framework
8 5 (0.61%) CSS
8 5 (0.61%) SAML
9 4 (0.49%) OAuth
10 3 (0.36%) Ajax
10 3 (0.36%) AngularJS
10 3 (0.36%) HTML
10 3 (0.36%) JSP
10 3 (0.36%) React
10 3 (0.36%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 97 (11.80%) Onboarding
2 35 (4.26%) Data Centre
3 23 (2.80%) Self-Motivation
4 22 (2.68%) Analytical Mindset
5 21 (2.55%) Video Conferencing
6 16 (1.95%) PKI
7 15 (1.82%) iPhone
8 14 (1.70%) Data Protection Act
8 14 (1.70%) Virtual Team
9 13 (1.58%) Enterprise Software
10 12 (1.46%) Driving Licence
10 12 (1.46%) Legacy Systems
11 11 (1.34%) SCADA
12 10 (1.22%) Hedge funds
12 10 (1.22%) iPad
13 9 (1.09%) Blackberry
14 8 (0.97%) Smartphone
15 7 (0.85%) Management Information System
16 6 (0.73%) BYOD
17 5 (0.61%) Distributed Systems
Operating Systems
1 428 (52.07%) Windows
2 174 (21.17%) Windows 10
3 61 (7.42%) Linux
4 54 (6.57%) Mac OS
5 53 (6.45%) Windows Server
6 42 (5.11%) Unix
7 28 (3.41%) Apple iOS
8 26 (3.16%) Android
9 14 (1.70%) Windows 7
10 8 (0.97%) Ubuntu
11 7 (0.85%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 7 (0.85%) Windows Server 2016
11 7 (0.85%) Windows Server 2019
12 4 (0.49%) Solaris
13 3 (0.36%) Windows XP
14 2 (0.24%) Mac OS X
14 2 (0.24%) OpenVMS
14 2 (0.24%) VMS
14 2 (0.24%) Windows Server 2008
14 2 (0.24%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 187 (22.75%) Problem-Solving
2 166 (20.19%) Customer Service
3 152 (18.49%) ITIL
4 89 (10.83%) ITSM
5 61 (7.42%) Continuous Improvement
6 55 (6.69%) Service Delivery
7 53 (6.45%) Migration
8 50 (6.08%) Asset Management
9 44 (5.35%) Change Management
10 42 (5.11%) Problem Management
10 42 (5.11%) User Experience
11 41 (4.99%) Service Management
12 39 (4.74%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 37 (4.50%) Incident Management
14 36 (4.38%) Identity Access Management
14 36 (4.38%) Root Cause Analysis
15 32 (3.89%) DevOps
16 28 (3.41%) Data Protection
17 27 (3.28%) High Availability
17 27 (3.28%) Runbook
Programming Languages
1 85 (10.34%) PowerShell
2 65 (7.91%) SQL
3 33 (4.01%) Python
4 27 (3.28%) C#
5 20 (2.43%) Java
6 18 (2.19%) Bash
7 17 (2.07%) Shell Script
8 15 (1.82%) JavaScript
9 10 (1.22%) Korn
10 7 (0.85%) C++
11 6 (0.73%) Perl
12 4 (0.49%) T-SQL
13 2 (0.24%) DCL
13 2 (0.24%) Go
13 2 (0.24%) VBScript
14 1 (0.12%) C
14 1 (0.12%) R
14 1 (0.12%) VB.NET
14 1 (0.12%) VBA
Qualifications
1 160 (19.46%) Security Cleared
2 102 (12.41%) SC Cleared
3 51 (6.20%) Degree
4 42 (5.11%) DV Cleared
5 33 (4.01%) Microsoft Certification
6 29 (3.53%) A+ Certification
7 24 (2.92%) Network+ Certification
8 21 (2.55%) CCNA
8 21 (2.55%) Cisco Certification
9 16 (1.95%) MCSE
10 15 (1.82%) BPSS Clearance
11 9 (1.09%) Computer Science Degree
11 9 (1.09%) DBS Check
12 7 (0.85%) Azure Certification
12 7 (0.85%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 6 (0.73%) ITIL Certification
13 6 (0.73%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 4 (0.49%) NVQ Level 4
15 1 (0.12%) AWS Certification
15 1 (0.12%) CTC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 45 (5.47%) SLA
2 4 (0.49%) Data Quality
2 4 (0.49%) GDPR
2 4 (0.49%) QA
3 3 (0.36%) Cyber Essentials
3 3 (0.36%) Sarbanes-Oxley
4 2 (0.24%) GLP
4 2 (0.24%) GMP
4 2 (0.24%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 1 (0.12%) Actionable Recommendations
5 1 (0.12%) Disclosure Scotland
5 1 (0.12%) GRC
5 1 (0.12%) GxP
5 1 (0.12%) ITGC
System Software
1 347 (42.21%) Active Directory
2 40 (4.87%) VMware Infrastructure
3 23 (2.80%) VMware ESXi
4 21 (2.55%) Hyper-V
5 17 (2.07%) VMware NSX
6 13 (1.58%) Virtual Desktop
7 12 (1.46%) vCloud
8 10 (1.22%) Oracle RAC
9 8 (0.97%) vSphere
10 5 (0.61%) Docker
10 5 (0.61%) NFS
11 4 (0.49%) BitLocker
12 3 (0.36%) Microsoft App-V
12 3 (0.36%) Terminal Services
13 2 (0.24%) Firmware
13 2 (0.24%) zsh
14 1 (0.12%) Virtual Servers
14 1 (0.12%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 124 (15.09%) Microsoft Intune
2 45 (5.47%) SCCM
3 23 (2.80%) vCenter Server
4 20 (2.43%) Single Sign-On
5 19 (2.31%) Jamf Pro
6 17 (2.07%) SCOM
7 12 (1.46%) Grafana
8 10 (1.22%) Ansible
8 10 (1.22%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
8 10 (1.22%) Oracle RMAN
9 8 (0.97%) Kubernetes
9 8 (0.97%) Terraform
10 5 (0.61%) Red Hat Satellite
11 3 (0.36%) AirWatch
11 3 (0.36%) ITRS Geneos
11 3 (0.36%) Nagios
11 3 (0.36%) Puppet
11 3 (0.36%) vMotion
11 3 (0.36%) vRealize
12 2 (0.24%) PaperCut
Vendors
1 333 (40.51%) Microsoft
2 114 (13.87%) ServiceNow
3 52 (6.33%) VMware
4 35 (4.26%) Apple
5 30 (3.65%) Oracle
6 28 (3.41%) Okta
7 21 (2.55%) Dell
7 21 (2.55%) SAP
8 20 (2.43%) Citrix
9 19 (2.31%) Google
10 18 (2.19%) BeyondTrust
10 18 (2.19%) Cisco
11 15 (1.82%) HP
12 11 (1.34%) Meraki
12 11 (1.34%) Sybase
13 9 (1.09%) Lotus
13 9 (1.09%) McAfee
13 9 (1.09%) Remedy
13 9 (1.09%) Splunk
14 8 (0.97%) Red Hat