Support Engineer Contract Job Trends

Support Engineer
UK

The median Support Engineer daily rate in the UK is £236, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 17 August 2026.

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

6 months to
17 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 166 127 120
Rank change year-on-year -39 -7 -30
Contract jobs requiring a Support Engineer 882 707 761
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.65% 2.14% 1.96%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.78% 2.34% 2.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 584 461 526
10th Percentile £163 £160 £140
25th Percentile £188 £195 £179
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £236 £238 £234
Median % change year-on-year -0.53% +1.36% -6.28%
75th Percentile £400 £380 £350
90th Percentile £492 £538 £532
UK excluding London median daily rate £224 £230 £220
% change year-on-year -2.61% +4.55% -1.35%
Number of hourly rates quoted 47 71 47
10th Percentile £16.66 £18.10 £16.25
25th Percentile £18.38 £21.25 £18.08
Median hourly rate £24.00 £25.25 £22.00
Median % change year-on-year -4.95% +14.77% +15.79%
75th Percentile £36.75 £43.75 £24.59
90th Percentile £53.00 £68.00 £58.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.00 £25.15 £22.00
% change year-on-year -12.52% +14.32% +18.92%

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 49,505 30,216 36,013
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.52% 91.29% 92.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,709 19,089 23,205
10th Percentile £325 £281 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.69%
75th Percentile £625 £621 £638
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,494 1,545 1,999
10th Percentile £15.00 £13.60 £14.16
25th Percentile £20.53 £17.30 £20.00
Median hourly rate £41.74 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +65.94% -41.51% +2.87%
75th Percentile £67.96 £53.99 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £72.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £45.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -44.11% +21.62%

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 17 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 17 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 17 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 -43 749 £225 -8.16% 395
UK excluding London -37 570 £224 -2.61% 312
London -37 274 £263 +5.00% 118
South East -35 164 £250 - 102
North of England -32 132 £200 -9.09% 59
North West -4 89 £200 -12.09% 33
Work from Home -92 83 £288 -17.86% 92
Scotland +56 82 £437 +48.14% 17
Midlands -60 61 £250 -9.09% 52
East of England -4 59 £200 - 47
South West -60 58 £210 -10.64% 40
Yorkshire -14 41 £200 -9.09% 21
West Midlands -71 40 £250 -9.09% 27
East Midlands -13 20 £270 +47.54% 25
Wales -28 10 £195 -8.24% 2
Northern Ireland 0 4 £175 -30.00% 6
North East -53 3 £188 -3.85% 8
Channel Islands - 1 £550 -

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

For the 6 months to 17 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.

1 482 (54.65%) Windows
2 391 (44.33%) Microsoft
3 384 (43.54%) Active Directory
4 330 (37.41%) Microsoft 365
5 210 (23.81%) Problem-Solving
6 206 (23.36%) Customer Service
7 187 (21.20%) Windows 10
8 178 (20.18%) Security Cleared
9 173 (19.61%) ITIL
10 150 (17.01%) Azure
11 135 (15.31%) Entra ID
11 135 (15.31%) Microsoft Intune
12 127 (14.40%) ServiceNow
13 113 (12.81%) ITSM
13 113 (12.81%) SharePoint
14 112 (12.70%) SC Cleared
15 100 (11.34%) DNS
16 96 (10.88%) PowerShell
17 77 (8.73%) Continuous Improvement
18 73 (8.28%) Windows Server
19 71 (8.05%) Linux
20 68 (7.71%) Microsoft Exchange
20 68 (7.71%) SQL
20 68 (7.71%) VPN
21 67 (7.60%) Asset Management
21 67 (7.60%) Service Delivery
22 66 (7.48%) TCP/IP
23 65 (7.37%) Migration
24 64 (7.26%) Degree
25 62 (7.03%) Service 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
1 113 (12.81%) SharePoint
2 68 (7.71%) Microsoft Exchange
3 12 (1.36%) NetWeaver
4 11 (1.25%) HCL Notes
5 3 (0.34%) Confluence
5 3 (0.34%) Skype for Business
6 2 (0.23%) Exchange Server 2013
6 2 (0.23%) IIS
6 2 (0.23%) MTS
6 2 (0.23%) OpenStack
6 2 (0.23%) WebSphere
7 1 (0.11%) Tuxedo
7 1 (0.11%) WebLogic
Applications
1 45 (5.10%) Microsoft Office
2 14 (1.59%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.45%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.23%) MS Visio
5 1 (0.11%) Acrobat
5 1 (0.11%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 11 (1.25%) SAP S/4HANA
2 7 (0.79%) Remedy ITSM
3 4 (0.45%) SAP EHS
4 3 (0.34%) SAP Retail
5 2 (0.23%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.11%) Alphatax
6 1 (0.11%) Bloomberg TOMS
6 1 (0.11%) Dynamics CRM
6 1 (0.11%) Dynamics GP
6 1 (0.11%) Oracle BRM
6 1 (0.11%) SAP BRIM
6 1 (0.11%) SAP FI
6 1 (0.11%) SAP FI-CA
6 1 (0.11%) SAP FS
6 1 (0.11%) SAP GRC
Cloud Services
1 330 (37.41%) Microsoft 365
2 150 (17.01%) Azure
3 135 (15.31%) Entra ID
4 43 (4.88%) OneDrive
5 38 (4.31%) AWS
6 21 (2.38%) SaaS
7 19 (2.15%) GCP
8 16 (1.81%) Azure DevOps
9 11 (1.25%) Power Platform
10 8 (0.91%) Google Workspace
11 6 (0.68%) IaaS
11 6 (0.68%) PaaS
12 5 (0.57%) Mimecast
13 4 (0.45%) AWS CloudFormation
13 4 (0.45%) Cloud Functions
13 4 (0.45%) Google App Engine
13 4 (0.45%) Google Compute Engine
13 4 (0.45%) Google Kubernetes Engine
14 3 (0.34%) Amazon OpenSearch
14 3 (0.34%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 100 (11.34%) DNS
2 68 (7.71%) VPN
3 66 (7.48%) TCP/IP
4 58 (6.58%) DHCP
5 41 (4.65%) Wi-Fi
6 33 (3.74%) LAN
7 27 (3.06%) WAN
8 24 (2.72%) Firewall
9 22 (2.49%) SAN
10 21 (2.38%) Internet
11 16 (1.81%) VLAN
12 10 (1.13%) Wireless
13 7 (0.79%) Skype
14 5 (0.57%) HTTP
14 5 (0.57%) Network Security
14 5 (0.57%) SMTP
14 5 (0.57%) WebEx
14 5 (0.57%) WLAN
15 4 (0.45%) Remote Desktop
15 4 (0.45%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 40 (4.54%) SQL Server
2 17 (1.93%) MySQL
3 12 (1.36%) SAP HANA
4 11 (1.25%) Sybase ASE
5 10 (1.13%) MaxDB
6 9 (1.02%) Power BI
7 8 (0.91%) Relational Database
8 7 (0.79%) Amazon Redshift
8 7 (0.79%) Pentaho
8 7 (0.79%) PostgreSQL
9 5 (0.57%) Amazon RDS
9 5 (0.57%) Oracle Database
9 5 (0.57%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 4 (0.45%) Oracle Database 12c
11 3 (0.34%) Big Data
11 3 (0.34%) Data Warehouse
11 3 (0.34%) Elasticsearch
11 3 (0.34%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 2 (0.23%) KDB
12 2 (0.23%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 55 (6.24%) JIRA
2 20 (2.27%) Git
3 9 (1.02%) Browser DevTools
4 4 (0.45%) Jenkins
5 3 (0.34%) Android Studio
5 3 (0.34%) Artifactory
5 3 (0.34%) Eclipse
5 3 (0.34%) Xcode
6 2 (0.23%) Bitbucket
6 2 (0.23%) Firebug
7 1 (0.11%) Claude Code
7 1 (0.11%) Gemini Tracker
7 1 (0.11%) GitLab
7 1 (0.11%) MSI
7 1 (0.11%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 1 (0.11%) Subversion
7 1 (0.11%) TeamCity
7 1 (0.11%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 359 (40.70%) Social Skills
2 109 (12.36%) Analytical Skills
3 79 (8.96%) Finance
4 40 (4.54%) Manufacturing
5 37 (4.20%) Banking
6 25 (2.83%) Organisational Skills
7 21 (2.38%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 20 (2.27%) Investment Banking
9 18 (2.04%) Retail
10 16 (1.81%) Documentation Skills
11 14 (1.59%) Front Office
11 14 (1.59%) Law
12 13 (1.47%) Legal
12 13 (1.47%) Telecoms
13 12 (1.36%) Financial Institution
13 12 (1.36%) Public Sector
14 10 (1.13%) Spanish Language
15 7 (0.79%) Aerospace
15 7 (0.79%) Marketing
16 6 (0.68%) Advertising
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (1.93%) .NET
2 12 (1.36%) LDAP
3 11 (1.25%) SAP Basis
4 10 (1.13%) XML
5 9 (1.02%) Oracle GoldenGate
6 7 (0.79%) .NET Framework
6 7 (0.79%) JDO
6 7 (0.79%) REST
7 6 (0.68%) SAP Fiori
7 6 (0.68%) SAPUI5
7 6 (0.68%) Software Packaging
8 5 (0.57%) CSS
8 5 (0.57%) SAML
9 4 (0.45%) OAuth
10 3 (0.34%) Ajax
10 3 (0.34%) HTML
10 3 (0.34%) JSP
10 3 (0.34%) Middleware
10 3 (0.34%) RESTful
10 3 (0.34%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 119 (13.49%) Onboarding
2 35 (3.97%) Data Centre
3 28 (3.17%) Video Conferencing
4 26 (2.95%) Analytical Mindset
5 22 (2.49%) Self-Motivation
6 20 (2.27%) PKI
7 16 (1.81%) Data Protection Act
8 15 (1.70%) Hedge funds
8 15 (1.70%) iPhone
9 14 (1.59%) Driving Licence
10 13 (1.47%) Enterprise Software
11 12 (1.36%) Legacy Systems
11 12 (1.36%) Smartphone
12 11 (1.25%) Blackberry
12 11 (1.25%) Virtual Team
13 10 (1.13%) iPad
14 8 (0.91%) Management Information System
15 7 (0.79%) CMDB
15 7 (0.79%) Distributed Systems
15 7 (0.79%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 482 (54.65%) Windows
2 187 (21.20%) Windows 10
3 73 (8.28%) Windows Server
4 71 (8.05%) Linux
5 58 (6.58%) Mac OS
6 40 (4.54%) Apple iOS
6 40 (4.54%) Unix
7 36 (4.08%) Android
8 20 (2.27%) Windows 7
9 9 (1.02%) Windows Server 2019
10 8 (0.91%) Ubuntu
11 7 (0.79%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 5 (0.57%) Windows Server 2008
12 5 (0.57%) Windows Server 2016
13 4 (0.45%) OpenVMS
13 4 (0.45%) Solaris
13 4 (0.45%) VMS
13 4 (0.45%) Windows Server 2012
14 3 (0.34%) Windows XP
15 2 (0.23%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 210 (23.81%) Problem-Solving
2 206 (23.36%) Customer Service
3 173 (19.61%) ITIL
4 113 (12.81%) ITSM
5 77 (8.73%) Continuous Improvement
6 67 (7.60%) Asset Management
6 67 (7.60%) Service Delivery
7 65 (7.37%) Migration
8 62 (7.03%) Service Management
9 53 (6.01%) User Experience
10 52 (5.90%) Problem Management
11 49 (5.56%) Root Cause Analysis
12 46 (5.22%) Identity Access Management
12 46 (5.22%) Incident Management
13 43 (4.88%) Change Management
14 41 (4.65%) Infrastructure Engineering
15 36 (4.08%) Runbook
16 34 (3.85%) Data Protection
17 32 (3.63%) DevOps
18 31 (3.51%) Break/Fix
Programming Languages
1 96 (10.88%) PowerShell
2 68 (7.71%) SQL
3 41 (4.65%) Python
4 26 (2.95%) Java
5 24 (2.72%) C#
6 22 (2.49%) JavaScript
7 19 (2.15%) Bash
8 16 (1.81%) Shell Script
9 9 (1.02%) Korn
10 7 (0.79%) C++
11 5 (0.57%) Perl
11 5 (0.57%) T-SQL
12 3 (0.34%) Go
13 2 (0.23%) DCL
13 2 (0.23%) Tcl
13 2 (0.23%) VBA
14 1 (0.11%) C
14 1 (0.11%) Search Processing Language
14 1 (0.11%) VB.NET
14 1 (0.11%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 178 (20.18%) Security Cleared
2 112 (12.70%) SC Cleared
3 64 (7.26%) Degree
4 51 (5.78%) DV Cleared
5 34 (3.85%) A+ Certification
6 29 (3.29%) Microsoft Certification
7 23 (2.61%) Network+ Certification
8 21 (2.38%) Cisco Certification
9 20 (2.27%) CCNA
10 16 (1.81%) BPSS Clearance
10 16 (1.81%) MCSE
11 14 (1.59%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
12 10 (1.13%) Computer Science Degree
12 10 (1.13%) DBS Check
13 7 (0.79%) Microsoft Certified Professional
14 6 (0.68%) Azure Certification
14 6 (0.68%) ITIL Certification
15 4 (0.45%) NVQ Level 4
16 2 (0.23%) CCNP
17 1 (0.11%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 61 (6.92%) SLA
2 6 (0.68%) QA
3 5 (0.57%) Data Quality
4 4 (0.45%) Cyber Essentials
5 3 (0.34%) GDPR
5 3 (0.34%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 2 (0.23%) GxP
6 2 (0.23%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 1 (0.11%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.11%) Disclosure Scotland
7 1 (0.11%) GLP
7 1 (0.11%) GMP
7 1 (0.11%) GRC
7 1 (0.11%) ITGC
7 1 (0.11%) NCSC
System Software
1 384 (43.54%) Active Directory
2 47 (5.33%) VMware Infrastructure
3 25 (2.83%) Hyper-V
3 25 (2.83%) VMware ESXi
4 18 (2.04%) VMware NSX
5 17 (1.93%) Virtual Desktop
6 13 (1.47%) vCloud
7 9 (1.02%) Docker
7 9 (1.02%) Oracle RAC
8 7 (0.79%) vSphere
9 5 (0.57%) BitLocker
9 5 (0.57%) Firmware
9 5 (0.57%) NFS
10 3 (0.34%) Microsoft App-V
10 3 (0.34%) Terminal Services
11 2 (0.23%) zsh
12 1 (0.11%) Virtual Servers
12 1 (0.11%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 135 (15.31%) Microsoft Intune
2 56 (6.35%) SCCM
3 25 (2.83%) vCenter Server
4 21 (2.38%) Single Sign-On
5 19 (2.15%) SCOM
6 16 (1.81%) Jamf Pro
7 14 (1.59%) Grafana
7 14 (1.59%) Kubernetes
7 14 (1.59%) Terraform
8 11 (1.25%) Ansible
9 9 (1.02%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
9 9 (1.02%) Oracle RMAN
10 7 (0.79%) WSUS
11 5 (0.57%) Red Hat Satellite
12 4 (0.45%) ITRS Geneos
13 3 (0.34%) AirWatch
13 3 (0.34%) Nagios
13 3 (0.34%) NetBackup
13 3 (0.34%) Puppet
13 3 (0.34%) vRealize
Vendors
1 391 (44.33%) Microsoft
2 127 (14.40%) ServiceNow
3 62 (7.03%) VMware
4 39 (4.42%) Apple
5 35 (3.97%) Oracle
6 32 (3.63%) Okta
7 26 (2.95%) Cisco
7 26 (2.95%) Google
8 25 (2.83%) Citrix
9 23 (2.61%) SAP
10 21 (2.38%) BeyondTrust
11 20 (2.27%) Dell
12 13 (1.47%) Meraki
12 13 (1.47%) Splunk
12 13 (1.47%) Sybase
13 12 (1.36%) HP
13 12 (1.36%) iManage
14 11 (1.25%) Lotus
14 11 (1.25%) Samsung
15 9 (1.02%) Bloomberg