Support Engineer Contract Job Trends

Support Engineer
UK

The median Support Engineer daily rate in the UK is £220, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 30 December 2025.

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

6 months to
30 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 125 137 91
Rank change year-on-year +12 -46 +52
Contract jobs requiring a Support Engineer 836 631 1,074
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.26% 1.90% 2.48%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.48% 2.04% 2.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 571 425 773
10th Percentile £151 £150 £140
25th Percentile £185 £188 £180
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £220 £240 £225
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +6.67% -6.05%
75th Percentile £347 £365 £350
90th Percentile £510 £519 £500
UK excluding London median daily rate £213 £220 £210
% change year-on-year -3.41% +4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 124 45 52
10th Percentile £17.14 £16.35 £16.25
25th Percentile £19.78 £18.20 £17.72
Median hourly rate £24.00 £23.00 £19.25
Median % change year-on-year +4.35% +19.48% -0.26%
75th Percentile £29.06 £24.18 £22.00
90th Percentile £43.75 £41.50 £30.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.83 £22.88 £19.50
% change year-on-year +4.15% +17.31% +11.43%

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 33,741 30,870 40,353
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.20% 92.72% 93.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,345 18,959 27,051
10th Percentile £298 £300 £281
25th Percentile £405 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £616 £638 £640
90th Percentile £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £488 £500
% change year-on-year -2.56% -2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,972 954 1,548
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.51 £14.50
25th Percentile £18.25 £21.05 £19.25
Median hourly rate £25.47 £32.50 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -21.63% -27.78% +40.82%
75th Percentile £58.75 £62.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £71.41 £73.75 £77.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £46.18
% change year-on-year -22.62% -29.62% +77.62%

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 30 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 30 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 30 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 +16 757 £220 -8.33% 577
UK excluding London +10 585 £213 -3.41% 517
London -21 204 £235 -24.19% 124
South East +30 183 £238 +10.70% 152
North of England -17 114 £200 -6.98% 127
South West +30 108 £250 +11.11% 52
Midlands +3 101 £235 -10.48% 81
Work from Home -24 101 £275 -15.38% 201
West Midlands +1 71 £267 +0.75% 47
North West -10 65 £168 -16.25% 73
East of England -15 46 £195 -11.36% 63
Yorkshire -29 37 £205 -8.89% 48
East Midlands +4 32 £175 -28.57% 31
Scotland -8 27 £200 +19.76% 19
Wales +3 15 £213 +6.25% 25
North East +5 12 £106 - 10
Northern Ireland -11 3 £175 +18.24% 8

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

For the 6 months to 30 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.

1 429 (51.32%) Windows
2 315 (37.68%) Microsoft
3 257 (30.74%) Security Cleared
4 237 (28.35%) Microsoft 365
5 226 (27.03%) Active Directory
6 197 (23.56%) SC Cleared
7 173 (20.69%) Windows 10
8 169 (20.22%) Problem-Solving
9 168 (20.10%) Customer Service
10 106 (12.68%) Azure
11 99 (11.84%) ITIL
11 99 (11.84%) Linux
12 97 (11.60%) ServiceNow
13 92 (11.00%) Microsoft Intune
14 79 (9.45%) Microsoft Office
15 77 (9.21%) DNS
15 77 (9.21%) Migration
16 73 (8.73%) SCCM
17 69 (8.25%) Service Management
18 67 (8.01%) SharePoint
19 66 (7.89%) DHCP
20 65 (7.78%) ITSM
20 65 (7.78%) VPN
21 64 (7.66%) TCP/IP
22 59 (7.06%) Android
22 59 (7.06%) DV Cleared
23 58 (6.94%) Microsoft Exchange
24 57 (6.82%) PowerShell
25 53 (6.34%) Asset Management
25 53 (6.34%) 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 67 (8.01%) SharePoint
2 58 (6.94%) Microsoft Exchange
3 21 (2.51%) Skype for Business
4 8 (0.96%) Exchange Server 2010
4 8 (0.96%) SharePoint Server
5 7 (0.84%) Exchange Server 2003
5 7 (0.84%) Exchange Server 2007
5 7 (0.84%) Exchange Server 2013
5 7 (0.84%) Office Communications Server
6 4 (0.48%) Confluence
7 3 (0.36%) Apache
8 2 (0.24%) Apache Airflow
8 2 (0.24%) Apache Spark
8 2 (0.24%) ArcGIS
8 2 (0.24%) IIS
8 2 (0.24%) Jupyter
8 2 (0.24%) Smallworld
9 1 (0.12%) CMS
9 1 (0.12%) SAS
9 1 (0.12%) Tomcat
Applications
1 79 (9.45%) Microsoft Office
2 25 (2.99%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (0.36%) 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 9 (1.08%) SAP EHS
2 7 (0.84%) Remedy ITSM
2 7 (0.84%) Shopify
3 5 (0.60%) Primavera
4 3 (0.36%) NetSuite
5 2 (0.24%) Eikon
5 2 (0.24%) Fidessa
6 1 (0.12%) Aladdin
6 1 (0.12%) assyst
6 1 (0.12%) Bloomberg TOMS
6 1 (0.12%) Eze OMS
6 1 (0.12%) Infor CloudSuite Industrial (formerly SyteLine)
6 1 (0.12%) Oracle ERP
6 1 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
6 1 (0.12%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 237 (28.35%) Microsoft 365
2 106 (12.68%) Azure
3 40 (4.78%) Entra ID
4 28 (3.35%) AWS
4 28 (3.35%) SaaS
5 23 (2.75%) OneDrive
6 21 (2.51%) Sauce Labs
7 18 (2.15%) Google Workspace
8 10 (1.20%) Power Platform
9 8 (0.96%) Azure DevOps
9 8 (0.96%) Dynamics 365
9 8 (0.96%) npm
10 5 (0.60%) OpenShift
10 5 (0.60%) Slack
11 4 (0.48%) Microsoft Purview
11 4 (0.48%) SuccessFactors
12 3 (0.36%) Azure AKS
13 2 (0.24%) Amazon EKS
13 2 (0.24%) Amazon OpenSearch
13 2 (0.24%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 77 (9.21%) DNS
2 66 (7.89%) DHCP
3 65 (7.78%) VPN
4 64 (7.66%) TCP/IP
5 39 (4.67%) Wireless
6 37 (4.43%) Firewall
7 36 (4.31%) Wi-Fi
8 31 (3.71%) WAN
9 21 (2.51%) LAN
9 21 (2.51%) VLAN
10 20 (2.39%) Junos
11 18 (2.15%) Cisco IOS
11 18 (2.15%) MPLS
12 16 (1.91%) BGP
12 16 (1.91%) IPsec
13 15 (1.79%) Cisco Firepower
13 15 (1.79%) Cisco ISE
13 15 (1.79%) Skype
14 14 (1.67%) Network Security
15 13 (1.56%) PABX
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (4.19%) Relational Database
2 29 (3.47%) MySQL
3 13 (1.56%) SQL Server
4 9 (1.08%) Power BI
5 7 (0.84%) MariaDB
6 5 (0.60%) RDBMS
7 4 (0.48%) InfluxDB
8 3 (0.36%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 3 (0.36%) Tableau
9 2 (0.24%) Apache Cassandra
9 2 (0.24%) Electronic Patient Records
9 2 (0.24%) GIS
9 2 (0.24%) Oracle Database
10 1 (0.12%) Amazon Athena
10 1 (0.12%) Amazon Redshift
10 1 (0.12%) Azure SQL Database
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 32 (3.83%) Browser DevTools
2 21 (2.51%) Android Studio
2 21 (2.51%) Eclipse
2 21 (2.51%) Xcode
3 19 (2.27%) JIRA
4 12 (1.44%) Git
5 10 (1.20%) Firebug
6 8 (0.96%) Maven
7 5 (0.60%) Jenkins
8 2 (0.24%) Fiddler
8 2 (0.24%) MSI
8 2 (0.24%) Sonatype Nexus
9 1 (0.12%) Bitbucket
9 1 (0.12%) ClearCase
9 1 (0.12%) Hudson
General
1 371 (44.38%) Social Skills
2 71 (8.49%) Finance
3 61 (7.30%) Public Sector
4 57 (6.82%) Analytical Skills
5 36 (4.31%) Manufacturing
6 35 (4.19%) Banking
7 29 (3.47%) Organisational Skills
8 27 (3.23%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 22 (2.63%) Aerospace
10 21 (2.51%) Telecoms
11 14 (1.67%) Electronics
11 14 (1.67%) Law
11 14 (1.67%) Marketing
12 13 (1.56%) Front Office
13 10 (1.20%) Documentation Skills
13 10 (1.20%) Investment Banking
14 9 (1.08%) Legal
15 8 (0.96%) Retail
16 7 (0.84%) Aviation
17 6 (0.72%) Automotive
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 32 (3.83%) CSS
2 25 (2.99%) Middleware
3 22 (2.63%) Ajax
3 22 (2.63%) AngularJS
3 22 (2.63%) GraphQL
3 22 (2.63%) React
4 16 (1.91%) XML
5 10 (1.20%) HTML
6 6 (0.72%) JSON
7 5 (0.60%) REST
7 5 (0.60%) SOAP
8 4 (0.48%) .NET
8 4 (0.48%) JDO
9 3 (0.36%) ADO
9 3 (0.36%) PySpark
10 2 (0.24%) EDI
10 2 (0.24%) Kafka
10 2 (0.24%) Microsoft Graph
10 2 (0.24%) OpenTelemetry
10 2 (0.24%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 42 (5.02%) Onboarding
2 36 (4.31%) Self-Motivation
3 31 (3.71%) Driving Licence
4 26 (3.11%) Data Centre
5 25 (2.99%) PKI
6 22 (2.63%) Mobile App
6 22 (2.63%) Smartphone
7 20 (2.39%) Data Protection Act
8 14 (1.67%) Analytical Mindset
9 13 (1.56%) Management Information System
10 10 (1.20%) iPhone
10 10 (1.20%) Video Conferencing
11 9 (1.08%) Replication
12 7 (0.84%) Enterprise Software
12 7 (0.84%) Legacy Systems
13 6 (0.72%) iPad
14 5 (0.60%) Virtual Team
15 4 (0.48%) Hybrid Cloud
15 4 (0.48%) Operational Technology
16 3 (0.36%) Web Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 429 (51.32%) Windows
2 173 (20.69%) Windows 10
3 99 (11.84%) Linux
4 59 (7.06%) Android
5 53 (6.34%) Windows Server
6 48 (5.74%) Mac OS
7 42 (5.02%) Apple iOS
8 35 (4.19%) Unix
9 12 (1.44%) Ubuntu
10 11 (1.32%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 8 (0.96%) Windows 7
12 7 (0.84%) Windows Server 2003
13 5 (0.60%) CentOS
14 3 (0.36%) Mac OS X
15 2 (0.24%) Windows Server 2012
15 2 (0.24%) Windows Server 2016
16 1 (0.12%) Windows 8
16 1 (0.12%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 169 (20.22%) Problem-Solving
2 168 (20.10%) Customer Service
3 99 (11.84%) ITIL
4 77 (9.21%) Migration
5 69 (8.25%) Service Management
6 65 (7.78%) ITSM
7 53 (6.34%) Asset Management
8 50 (5.98%) Workflow
9 44 (5.26%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 41 (4.90%) User Experience
11 36 (4.31%) Workflow Management
12 35 (4.19%) OO
13 33 (3.95%) Root Cause Analysis
14 30 (3.59%) Logistics
15 29 (3.47%) Service Delivery
16 28 (3.35%) Continuous Improvement
17 26 (3.11%) Business Intelligence
18 25 (2.99%) Cybersecurity
18 25 (2.99%) Data Protection
19 24 (2.87%) Incident Management
Programming Languages
1 57 (6.82%) PowerShell
2 46 (5.50%) Java
3 45 (5.38%) JavaScript
4 40 (4.78%) Python
5 28 (3.35%) SQL
6 23 (2.75%) Perl
7 17 (2.03%) Shell Script
8 15 (1.79%) C
9 13 (1.56%) Bash
9 13 (1.56%) C++
10 12 (1.44%) Ada
11 2 (0.24%) AWK
11 2 (0.24%) C#
11 2 (0.24%) Magik
11 2 (0.24%) TypeScript
11 2 (0.24%) VB.NET
12 1 (0.12%) Korn
12 1 (0.12%) PL/SQL
12 1 (0.12%) VBA
12 1 (0.12%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 257 (30.74%) Security Cleared
2 197 (23.56%) SC Cleared
3 59 (7.06%) DV Cleared
4 41 (4.90%) Degree
5 27 (3.23%) Microsoft Certification
6 16 (1.91%) Azure Certification
7 13 (1.56%) BPSS Clearance
7 13 (1.56%) Network+ Certification
8 12 (1.44%) A+ Certification
8 12 (1.44%) DBS Check
9 11 (1.32%) Server+ Certification
10 7 (0.84%) Computer Science Degree
10 7 (0.84%) ITIL Certification
11 4 (0.48%) CCNA
11 4 (0.48%) Cisco Certification
11 4 (0.48%) MCP
12 3 (0.36%) Master's Degree
12 3 (0.36%) MCSE
13 2 (0.24%) AWS Certification
13 2 (0.24%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (3.95%) SLA
2 9 (1.08%) GDPR
3 5 (0.60%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 5 (0.60%) QA
4 2 (0.24%) Accessibility
4 2 (0.24%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (0.12%) Data Quality
5 1 (0.12%) GAAP
5 1 (0.12%) IFRS
5 1 (0.12%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 1 (0.12%) SOC 2
System Software
1 226 (27.03%) Active Directory
2 30 (3.59%) VMware Infrastructure
3 18 (2.15%) Hyper-V
4 16 (1.91%) VMware NSX
5 14 (1.67%) Virtual Desktop
6 9 (1.08%) Docker
6 9 (1.08%) Firmware
7 7 (0.84%) Brightmail
7 7 (0.84%) ISA Server
8 4 (0.48%) vSphere
9 3 (0.36%) Terminal Services
10 2 (0.24%) NFS
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%) Virtual Machines
11 1 (0.12%) VMware ESXi
11 1 (0.12%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 92 (11.00%) Microsoft Intune
2 73 (8.73%) SCCM
3 32 (3.83%) Jamf Pro
4 22 (2.63%) Ansible
5 19 (2.27%) Terraform
6 18 (2.15%) vCenter Server
7 12 (1.44%) Grafana
8 8 (0.96%) Kubernetes
9 7 (0.84%) Microsoft Clustering
10 6 (0.72%) Red Hat Satellite
11 5 (0.60%) Kibana
12 4 (0.48%) ITRS Geneos
12 4 (0.48%) Single Sign-On
13 3 (0.36%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 3 (0.36%) AirWatch
13 3 (0.36%) SCOM
14 2 (0.24%) FortiGate
14 2 (0.24%) Prometheus
14 2 (0.24%) WSUS
15 1 (0.12%) TADDM
Vendors
1 315 (37.68%) Microsoft
2 97 (11.60%) ServiceNow
3 51 (6.10%) Oracle
4 49 (5.86%) Cisco
5 48 (5.74%) Apple
6 45 (5.38%) VMware
7 32 (3.83%) SAP
8 31 (3.71%) HP
8 31 (3.71%) Juniper
9 24 (2.87%) Splunk
10 21 (2.51%) Google
11 20 (2.39%) SolarWinds
12 19 (2.27%) Dell
12 19 (2.27%) Red Hat
13 17 (2.03%) Citrix
14 12 (1.44%) Bloomberg
15 9 (1.08%) Remedy
16 7 (0.84%) McAfee
16 7 (0.84%) New Relic
17 6 (0.72%) Palo Alto