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 15 June 2026.

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

6 months to
15 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 172 134 113
Rank change year-on-year -38 -21 -1
Contract jobs requiring a Support Engineer 775 634 864
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.54% 2.14% 1.98%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.67% 2.32% 2.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 499 406 585
10th Percentile £155 £160 £139
25th Percentile £182 £200 £163
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £220 £243 £215
Median % change year-on-year -9.28% +12.79% -14.00%
75th Percentile £388 £383 £338
90th Percentile £473 £488 £500
UK excluding London median daily rate £208 £230 £204
% change year-on-year -9.78% +12.88% -4.12%
Number of hourly rates quoted 72 54 58
10th Percentile £18.07 £18.10 £16.25
25th Percentile £20.50 £19.04 £18.13
Median hourly rate £23.41 £24.83 £22.75
Median % change year-on-year -5.71% +9.14% +13.75%
75th Percentile £35.42 £35.63 £42.81
90th Percentile £37.50 £68.00 £54.35
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.50 £24.83 £24.18
% change year-on-year -9.38% +2.69% +28.96%

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 46,354 27,333 40,601
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.39% 92.29% 92.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,205 17,581 26,034
10th Percentile £325 £288 £280
25th Percentile £413 £402 £407
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +3.00% -4.76% -2.33%
75th Percentile £623 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +5.26% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,093 1,154 2,952
10th Percentile £15.25 £14.00 £12.86
25th Percentile £21.00 £17.79 £16.30
Median hourly rate £43.61 £27.52 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +58.48% -26.63% -16.67%
75th Percentile £67.50 £57.50 £62.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% -1.45%

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 15 June 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 15 June 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 15 June 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 -50 676 £210 -13.40% 243
UK excluding London -41 524 £208 -9.78% 237
London -43 222 £275 +4.96% 46
South East -29 149 £225 -10.00% 72
North of England -68 92 £190 -9.52% 58
Midlands -36 85 £204 -19.90% 30
Work from Home -82 82 £216 -27.92% 78
South West -44 67 £210 -10.64% 35
East of England -8 62 £198 -12.22% 27
Scotland +25 58 £437 +48.14% 12
North West -38 58 £188 -10.71% 42
West Midlands -62 50 £238 -13.64% 17
East Midlands +1 36 £200 -5.88% 13
Yorkshire -37 32 £190 -19.15% 10
Wales -25 9 £250 +25.00% 3
Northern Ireland -4 4 £175 +16.67% 10
North East -47 2 £290 +48.72% 8
Channel Islands - 1 £550 -

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

For the 6 months to 15 June 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.

1 373 (48.13%) Windows
2 284 (36.65%) Active Directory
3 276 (35.61%) Microsoft
4 249 (32.13%) Microsoft 365
5 160 (20.65%) Windows 10
6 158 (20.39%) Security Cleared
7 157 (20.26%) Problem-Solving
8 140 (18.06%) Customer Service
9 138 (17.81%) Azure
10 124 (16.00%) ITIL
11 107 (13.81%) Microsoft Intune
11 107 (13.81%) SC Cleared
12 94 (12.13%) ServiceNow
13 85 (10.97%) Entra ID
14 68 (8.77%) DNS
14 68 (8.77%) PowerShell
15 67 (8.65%) SharePoint
16 65 (8.39%) ITSM
17 58 (7.48%) Migration
17 58 (7.48%) SQL
18 57 (7.35%) JIRA
19 55 (7.10%) Linux
20 50 (6.45%) Windows Server
21 48 (6.19%) VPN
22 47 (6.06%) DHCP
23 45 (5.81%) Continuous Improvement
23 45 (5.81%) Infrastructure Engineering
24 44 (5.68%) Wi-Fi
25 43 (5.55%) Mac OS
26 42 (5.42%) Change 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 67 (8.65%) SharePoint
2 42 (5.42%) Microsoft Exchange
3 12 (1.55%) NetWeaver
4 7 (0.90%) HCL Notes
5 4 (0.52%) Confluence
5 4 (0.52%) IIS
6 3 (0.39%) Skype for Business
7 2 (0.26%) Apache
7 2 (0.26%) OpenStack
7 2 (0.26%) WebLogic
8 1 (0.13%) Tuxedo
8 1 (0.13%) WebSphere
Applications
1 38 (4.90%) Microsoft Office
2 12 (1.55%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.52%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 11 (1.42%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (0.77%) Teamcenter
3 4 (0.52%) Remedy ITSM
3 4 (0.52%) SAP EHS
4 2 (0.26%) NetSuite
5 1 (0.13%) Alphatax
5 1 (0.13%) Dynamics CRM
5 1 (0.13%) Dynamics GP
5 1 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
5 1 (0.13%) SAP GRC
5 1 (0.13%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 249 (32.13%) Microsoft 365
2 138 (17.81%) Azure
3 85 (10.97%) Entra ID
4 34 (4.39%) AWS
5 25 (3.23%) OneDrive
6 21 (2.71%) Azure DevOps
6 21 (2.71%) SaaS
7 13 (1.68%) GCP
8 10 (1.29%) Power Platform
9 9 (1.16%) PaaS
10 7 (0.90%) Amazon S3
11 6 (0.77%) Google Workspace
11 6 (0.77%) IaaS
12 5 (0.65%) Azure Data Factory
12 5 (0.65%) Dynamics 365
13 4 (0.52%) Mimecast
13 4 (0.52%) Sauce Labs
14 3 (0.39%) Amazon EC2
14 3 (0.39%) OpenShift
15 2 (0.26%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 68 (8.77%) DNS
2 48 (6.19%) VPN
3 47 (6.06%) DHCP
4 44 (5.68%) Wi-Fi
5 41 (5.29%) LAN
6 39 (5.03%) TCP/IP
7 25 (3.23%) WAN
8 24 (3.10%) SAN
9 18 (2.32%) Firewall
10 13 (1.68%) Internet
10 13 (1.68%) VLAN
11 11 (1.42%) WLAN
12 10 (1.29%) Wireless
13 7 (0.90%) HTTP
14 6 (0.77%) Skype
14 6 (0.77%) VoIP
15 4 (0.52%) Remote Desktop
16 3 (0.39%) Network Security
16 3 (0.39%) SMTP
16 3 (0.39%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 31 (4.00%) SQL Server
2 17 (2.19%) MySQL
3 13 (1.68%) Amazon Redshift
4 12 (1.55%) SAP HANA
5 11 (1.42%) Sybase ASE
6 10 (1.29%) MaxDB
6 10 (1.29%) Relational Database
7 8 (1.03%) Power BI
8 7 (0.90%) Pentaho
8 7 (0.90%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 5 (0.65%) Amazon RDS
9 5 (0.65%) Oracle Database
9 5 (0.65%) PostgreSQL
10 4 (0.52%) Amazon Athena
10 4 (0.52%) Oracle Database 12c
11 3 (0.39%) Big Data
11 3 (0.39%) Elasticsearch
12 2 (0.26%) Data Warehouse
12 2 (0.26%) MariaDB
12 2 (0.26%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 57 (7.35%) JIRA
2 18 (2.32%) Git
3 10 (1.29%) Browser DevTools
4 4 (0.52%) Android Studio
4 4 (0.52%) Eclipse
4 4 (0.52%) Xcode
5 2 (0.26%) Firebug
5 2 (0.26%) Jenkins
6 1 (0.13%) Artifactory
6 1 (0.13%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 1 (0.13%) Claude Code
6 1 (0.13%) Gemini Tracker
6 1 (0.13%) GitLab
6 1 (0.13%) Maven
6 1 (0.13%) MSI
6 1 (0.13%) RStudio
6 1 (0.13%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 1 (0.13%) Subversion
6 1 (0.13%) TeamCity
6 1 (0.13%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 292 (37.68%) Social Skills
2 83 (10.71%) Analytical Skills
3 57 (7.35%) Finance
4 45 (5.81%) Manufacturing
5 38 (4.90%) Banking
6 24 (3.10%) Investment Banking
7 22 (2.84%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 18 (2.32%) Organisational Skills
9 16 (2.06%) Aerospace
9 16 (2.06%) Law
10 14 (1.81%) Aviation
10 14 (1.81%) Documentation Skills
11 10 (1.29%) Retail
12 9 (1.16%) Front Office
13 7 (0.90%) Financial Institution
13 7 (0.90%) Legal
13 7 (0.90%) Marketing
13 7 (0.90%) Public Sector
14 6 (0.77%) French Language
14 6 (0.77%) Spanish Language
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (1.42%) SAP Basis
2 10 (1.29%) Oracle GoldenGate
3 9 (1.16%) REST
4 7 (0.90%) .NET
4 7 (0.90%) JDO
4 7 (0.90%) Software Packaging
5 6 (0.77%) CSS
5 6 (0.77%) SAP Fiori
5 6 (0.77%) SAPUI5
6 5 (0.65%) PySpark
6 5 (0.65%) SAML
7 4 (0.52%) Ajax
7 4 (0.52%) AngularJS
7 4 (0.52%) GraphQL
7 4 (0.52%) OAuth
7 4 (0.52%) React
7 4 (0.52%) YAML
8 3 (0.39%) LDAP
8 3 (0.39%) RESTful
8 3 (0.39%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 67 (8.65%) Onboarding
2 36 (4.65%) Data Centre
3 24 (3.10%) Self-Motivation
4 20 (2.58%) Analytical Mindset
5 18 (2.32%) Virtual Team
6 15 (1.94%) Enterprise Software
7 14 (1.81%) Data Protection Act
7 14 (1.81%) PKI
8 13 (1.68%) Smartphone
9 12 (1.55%) iPhone
10 11 (1.42%) Legacy Systems
10 11 (1.42%) Video Conferencing
11 10 (1.29%) SCADA
12 9 (1.16%) Driving Licence
13 8 (1.03%) Hedge funds
14 7 (0.90%) Blackberry
14 7 (0.90%) iPad
15 5 (0.65%) CCTV
15 5 (0.65%) Hybrid Cloud
15 5 (0.65%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 373 (48.13%) Windows
2 160 (20.65%) Windows 10
3 55 (7.10%) Linux
4 50 (6.45%) Windows Server
5 43 (5.55%) Mac OS
6 40 (5.16%) Unix
7 26 (3.35%) Apple iOS
8 22 (2.84%) Android
9 17 (2.19%) Windows 7
10 7 (0.90%) Windows Server 2016
11 6 (0.77%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 4 (0.52%) Solaris
12 4 (0.52%) Ubuntu
12 4 (0.52%) Windows Server 2019
12 4 (0.52%) Windows XP
13 3 (0.39%) Windows Server 2012
14 2 (0.26%) Mac OS X
15 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2003
15 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 157 (20.26%) Problem-Solving
2 140 (18.06%) Customer Service
3 124 (16.00%) ITIL
4 65 (8.39%) ITSM
5 58 (7.48%) Migration
6 45 (5.81%) Continuous Improvement
6 45 (5.81%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 42 (5.42%) Change Management
8 40 (5.16%) Asset Management
8 40 (5.16%) Service Delivery
9 35 (4.52%) DevOps
10 34 (4.39%) Incident Management
11 33 (4.26%) Service Management
12 32 (4.13%) Root Cause Analysis
13 31 (4.00%) Problem Management
13 31 (4.00%) User Experience
14 26 (3.35%) Data Protection
15 22 (2.84%) Break/Fix
16 21 (2.71%) High Availability
16 21 (2.71%) Runbook
Programming Languages
1 68 (8.77%) PowerShell
2 58 (7.48%) SQL
3 30 (3.87%) Python
4 20 (2.58%) C#
4 20 (2.58%) Java
5 16 (2.06%) JavaScript
6 15 (1.94%) Shell Script
7 12 (1.55%) Bash
8 10 (1.29%) Korn
9 8 (1.03%) Perl
10 7 (0.90%) C++
11 1 (0.13%) C
11 1 (0.13%) R
11 1 (0.13%) T-SQL
11 1 (0.13%) VB.NET
11 1 (0.13%) VBA
11 1 (0.13%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 158 (20.39%) Security Cleared
2 107 (13.81%) SC Cleared
3 41 (5.29%) Degree
4 37 (4.77%) DV Cleared
5 24 (3.10%) Microsoft Certification
6 22 (2.84%) A+ Certification
7 21 (2.71%) CCNA
7 21 (2.71%) Cisco Certification
8 20 (2.58%) Network+ Certification
9 16 (2.06%) MCSE
10 12 (1.55%) BPSS Clearance
11 9 (1.16%) Azure Certification
12 8 (1.03%) Computer Science Degree
13 7 (0.90%) DBS Check
14 6 (0.77%) ITIL Certification
15 5 (0.65%) Microsoft Certified Professional
16 4 (0.52%) NVQ Level 4
17 2 (0.26%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
18 1 (0.13%) AWS Certification
18 1 (0.13%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 37 (4.77%) SLA
2 4 (0.52%) GDPR
2 4 (0.52%) QA
3 3 (0.39%) Cyber Essentials
3 3 (0.39%) Data Quality
4 2 (0.26%) GLP
4 2 (0.26%) GMP
4 2 (0.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 1 (0.13%) Actionable Recommendations
5 1 (0.13%) GRC
5 1 (0.13%) GxP
5 1 (0.13%) ITGC
5 1 (0.13%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 284 (36.65%) Active Directory
2 32 (4.13%) VMware Infrastructure
3 17 (2.19%) Hyper-V
3 17 (2.19%) VMware ESXi
4 15 (1.94%) VMware NSX
5 11 (1.42%) Virtual Desktop
6 10 (1.29%) Oracle RAC
6 10 (1.29%) vCloud
7 6 (0.77%) vSphere
8 5 (0.65%) NFS
9 4 (0.52%) BitLocker
9 4 (0.52%) Docker
10 3 (0.39%) Firmware
10 3 (0.39%) Microsoft App-V
10 3 (0.39%) Terminal Services
11 2 (0.26%) Virtual Servers
12 1 (0.13%) Microsoft Virtual Server
12 1 (0.13%) XenDesktop
12 1 (0.13%) zsh
Systems Management
1 107 (13.81%) Microsoft Intune
2 41 (5.29%) SCCM
3 21 (2.71%) Jamf Pro
4 20 (2.58%) Single Sign-On
5 17 (2.19%) vCenter Server
6 12 (1.55%) Grafana
7 11 (1.42%) Ansible
7 11 (1.42%) SCOM
8 10 (1.29%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
8 10 (1.29%) Oracle RMAN
9 7 (0.90%) Terraform
10 6 (0.77%) Kubernetes
11 5 (0.65%) Red Hat Satellite
12 3 (0.39%) Nagios
12 3 (0.39%) Puppet
12 3 (0.39%) vMotion
12 3 (0.39%) vRealize
13 2 (0.26%) Kibana
13 2 (0.26%) WMI
13 2 (0.26%) WSUS
Vendors
1 276 (35.61%) Microsoft
2 94 (12.13%) ServiceNow
3 38 (4.90%) VMware
4 32 (4.13%) Oracle
5 24 (3.10%) Apple
6 22 (2.84%) Dell
7 21 (2.71%) SAP
8 15 (1.94%) Citrix
8 15 (1.94%) HP
8 15 (1.94%) Okta
9 14 (1.81%) Cisco
9 14 (1.81%) Google
10 11 (1.42%) Sybase
11 9 (1.16%) McAfee
12 8 (1.03%) Denodo
12 8 (1.03%) Meraki
12 8 (1.03%) Red Hat
12 8 (1.03%) Starlink
12 8 (1.03%) Talend
13 7 (0.90%) Remedy