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 2 January 2026.

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

6 months to
2 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 122 141 90
Rank change year-on-year +19 -51 +50
Contract jobs requiring a Support Engineer 825 615 1,072
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.22% 1.87% 2.48%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.44% 2.02% 2.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 569 418 769
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% -5.66%
75th Percentile £348 £373 £350
90th Percentile £502 £525 £500
UK excluding London median daily rate £213 £220 £210
% change year-on-year -3.41% +4.76% +1.20%
Number of hourly rates quoted 119 44 52
10th Percentile £17.14 £16.06 £16.25
25th Percentile £19.77 £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 £28.00 £24.18 £22.00
90th Percentile £45.00 £41.50 £30.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.79 £22.94 £19.50
% change year-on-year +3.71% +17.63% +11.52%

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 33,832 30,446 40,336
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.22% 92.70% 93.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,457 18,648 27,012
10th Percentile £300 £291 £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 £618 £638 £638
90th Percentile £719 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £480 £500
% change year-on-year -1.04% -4.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,952 945 1,577
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.51 £14.25
25th Percentile £18.22 £21.05 £19.06
Median hourly rate £26.11 £32.50 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -19.66% -27.78% +41.02%
75th Percentile £58.75 £62.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £71.50 £73.75 £77.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £31.76 £46.09
% change year-on-year -20.81% -31.09% +78.99%

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 2 January 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 2 January 2026.

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 2 January 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 +13 745 £225 -6.25% 342
UK excluding London +10 579 £213 -3.41% 330
London -16 201 £238 -21.16% 65
South East +28 177 £238 +10.70% 95
North of England +1 113 £200 -6.98% 81
South West +23 109 £250 +11.11% 27
Midlands +7 100 £235 -11.32% 52
Work from Home -15 99 £275 -15.38% 82
West Midlands -9 71 £267 -13.17% 30
North West -14 66 £168 -18.29% 39
East of England -15 46 £204 -7.39% 45
Yorkshire -31 37 £205 -8.89% 36
East Midlands +2 31 £175 -28.57% 22
Scotland -3 28 £200 +19.76% 20
Wales +4 15 £213 +6.25% 16
North East +2 10 £106 - 10
Northern Ireland -10 3 £175 +18.24% 4

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

For the 6 months to 2 January 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.

1 421 (51.03%) Windows
2 309 (37.45%) Microsoft
3 255 (30.91%) Security Cleared
4 232 (28.12%) Microsoft 365
5 220 (26.67%) Active Directory
6 197 (23.88%) SC Cleared
7 170 (20.61%) Windows 10
8 164 (19.88%) Problem-Solving
9 163 (19.76%) Customer Service
10 105 (12.73%) Azure
11 96 (11.64%) ITIL
11 96 (11.64%) Linux
11 96 (11.64%) ServiceNow
12 90 (10.91%) Microsoft Intune
13 79 (9.58%) Microsoft Office
14 76 (9.21%) DNS
15 74 (8.97%) Migration
16 71 (8.61%) SCCM
17 66 (8.00%) DHCP
17 66 (8.00%) SharePoint
18 65 (7.88%) Service Management
19 64 (7.76%) ITSM
19 64 (7.76%) VPN
20 63 (7.64%) TCP/IP
21 59 (7.15%) DV Cleared
22 58 (7.03%) Android
22 58 (7.03%) PowerShell
23 57 (6.91%) Microsoft Exchange
24 53 (6.42%) Asset Management
24 53 (6.42%) 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 66 (8.00%) SharePoint
2 57 (6.91%) Microsoft Exchange
3 21 (2.55%) Skype for Business
4 8 (0.97%) Exchange Server 2010
4 8 (0.97%) SharePoint Server
5 7 (0.85%) Exchange Server 2003
5 7 (0.85%) Exchange Server 2007
5 7 (0.85%) Exchange Server 2013
5 7 (0.85%) Office Communications Server
6 4 (0.48%) Apache
7 3 (0.36%) IIS
8 2 (0.24%) Apache Airflow
8 2 (0.24%) Apache Spark
8 2 (0.24%) ArcGIS
8 2 (0.24%) Confluence
8 2 (0.24%) Jupyter
8 2 (0.24%) Smallworld
9 1 (0.12%) CMS
9 1 (0.12%) Tomcat
Applications
1 79 (9.58%) Microsoft Office
2 25 (3.03%) 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 (1.09%) SAP EHS
2 7 (0.85%) Remedy ITSM
2 7 (0.85%) Shopify
3 5 (0.61%) 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
1 232 (28.12%) Microsoft 365
2 105 (12.73%) Azure
3 42 (5.09%) Entra ID
4 29 (3.52%) AWS
4 29 (3.52%) SaaS
5 23 (2.79%) OneDrive
6 20 (2.42%) Sauce Labs
7 19 (2.30%) Google Workspace
8 9 (1.09%) Power Platform
9 8 (0.97%) Azure DevOps
9 8 (0.97%) npm
10 7 (0.85%) Dynamics 365
11 5 (0.61%) OpenShift
11 5 (0.61%) Slack
12 4 (0.48%) Microsoft Purview
13 3 (0.36%) Azure AKS
13 3 (0.36%) SuccessFactors
14 2 (0.24%) Amazon S3
14 2 (0.24%) Cloud Computing
14 2 (0.24%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 76 (9.21%) DNS
2 66 (8.00%) DHCP
3 64 (7.76%) VPN
4 63 (7.64%) TCP/IP
5 38 (4.61%) Wireless
6 36 (4.36%) Wi-Fi
7 35 (4.24%) Firewall
8 30 (3.64%) WAN
9 20 (2.42%) Junos
9 20 (2.42%) VLAN
10 19 (2.30%) LAN
11 18 (2.18%) MPLS
12 17 (2.06%) Cisco IOS
13 16 (1.94%) BGP
13 16 (1.94%) IPsec
14 15 (1.82%) Cisco Firepower
14 15 (1.82%) Cisco ISE
14 15 (1.82%) Skype
15 14 (1.70%) Network Security
16 13 (1.58%) PABX
Database & Business Intelligence
1 32 (3.88%) Relational Database
2 26 (3.15%) MySQL
3 12 (1.45%) SQL Server
4 8 (0.97%) Power BI
5 5 (0.61%) MariaDB
5 5 (0.61%) RDBMS
6 4 (0.48%) InfluxDB
7 3 (0.36%) Oracle Database
7 3 (0.36%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 2 (0.24%) Amazon Athena
8 2 (0.24%) Amazon Redshift
8 2 (0.24%) Electronic Patient Records
8 2 (0.24%) GIS
8 2 (0.24%) Tableau
9 1 (0.12%) Apache Cassandra
9 1 (0.12%) Azure SQL Database
9 1 (0.12%) Elasticsearch
9 1 (0.12%) Oracle ODI
9 1 (0.12%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 29 (3.52%) Browser DevTools
2 20 (2.42%) Android Studio
2 20 (2.42%) Eclipse
2 20 (2.42%) Xcode
3 16 (1.94%) JIRA
4 12 (1.45%) Git
5 8 (0.97%) Firebug
5 8 (0.97%) Maven
6 5 (0.61%) Jenkins
7 2 (0.24%) Fiddler
7 2 (0.24%) MSI
7 2 (0.24%) Sonatype Nexus
8 1 (0.12%) Bitbucket
8 1 (0.12%) ClearCase
8 1 (0.12%) Hudson
General
1 359 (43.52%) Social Skills
2 70 (8.48%) Finance
3 58 (7.03%) Public Sector
4 56 (6.79%) Analytical Skills
5 37 (4.48%) Banking
6 34 (4.12%) Manufacturing
7 29 (3.52%) Organisational Skills
8 26 (3.15%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 22 (2.67%) Aerospace
10 21 (2.55%) Telecoms
11 14 (1.70%) Electronics
11 14 (1.70%) Front Office
11 14 (1.70%) Law
11 14 (1.70%) Marketing
12 12 (1.45%) Investment Banking
13 9 (1.09%) Documentation Skills
13 9 (1.09%) Legal
14 7 (0.85%) Aviation
14 7 (0.85%) Retail
15 6 (0.73%) Automotive
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 29 (3.52%) CSS
2 24 (2.91%) Middleware
3 21 (2.55%) Ajax
3 21 (2.55%) AngularJS
3 21 (2.55%) GraphQL
3 21 (2.55%) React
4 13 (1.58%) XML
5 8 (0.97%) HTML
6 5 (0.61%) JSON
6 5 (0.61%) REST
6 5 (0.61%) SOAP
7 4 (0.48%) .NET
7 4 (0.48%) JDO
7 4 (0.48%) PySpark
8 3 (0.36%) ADO
9 2 (0.24%) EDI
9 2 (0.24%) Kafka
9 2 (0.24%) Microsoft Graph
9 2 (0.24%) OpenTelemetry
9 2 (0.24%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 41 (4.97%) Onboarding
2 38 (4.61%) Self-Motivation
3 30 (3.64%) Driving Licence
4 26 (3.15%) PKI
5 23 (2.79%) Data Centre
6 22 (2.67%) Smartphone
7 21 (2.55%) Mobile App
8 18 (2.18%) Data Protection Act
9 14 (1.70%) Analytical Mindset
10 13 (1.58%) Management Information System
11 10 (1.21%) iPhone
12 9 (1.09%) Replication
12 9 (1.09%) Video Conferencing
13 8 (0.97%) Legacy Systems
14 7 (0.85%) Enterprise Software
15 6 (0.73%) iPad
16 5 (0.61%) Hybrid Cloud
16 5 (0.61%) Virtual Team
17 4 (0.48%) Operational Technology
18 3 (0.36%) Web Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 421 (51.03%) Windows
2 170 (20.61%) Windows 10
3 96 (11.64%) Linux
4 58 (7.03%) Android
5 53 (6.42%) Windows Server
6 48 (5.82%) Mac OS
7 42 (5.09%) Apple iOS
8 33 (4.00%) Unix
9 12 (1.45%) Ubuntu
10 11 (1.33%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 9 (1.09%) Windows 7
12 7 (0.85%) Windows Server 2003
13 5 (0.61%) 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
1 164 (19.88%) Problem-Solving
2 163 (19.76%) Customer Service
3 96 (11.64%) ITIL
4 74 (8.97%) Migration
5 65 (7.88%) Service Management
6 64 (7.76%) ITSM
7 53 (6.42%) Asset Management
8 47 (5.70%) Workflow
9 45 (5.45%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 40 (4.85%) User Experience
11 36 (4.36%) Workflow Management
12 32 (3.88%) OO
12 32 (3.88%) Root Cause Analysis
13 30 (3.64%) Logistics
13 30 (3.64%) Service Delivery
14 27 (3.27%) Continuous Improvement
15 25 (3.03%) Business Intelligence
16 24 (2.91%) Cybersecurity
16 24 (2.91%) Stakeholder Management
17 23 (2.79%) Incident Management
Programming Languages
1 58 (7.03%) PowerShell
2 44 (5.33%) Java
3 42 (5.09%) JavaScript
4 39 (4.73%) Python
5 25 (3.03%) SQL
6 21 (2.55%) Perl
7 17 (2.06%) Shell Script
8 15 (1.82%) C
9 13 (1.58%) C++
10 12 (1.45%) Ada
10 12 (1.45%) Bash
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%) PL/SQL
12 1 (0.12%) Tcl
12 1 (0.12%) VBA
12 1 (0.12%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 255 (30.91%) Security Cleared
2 197 (23.88%) SC Cleared
3 59 (7.15%) DV Cleared
4 39 (4.73%) Degree
5 27 (3.27%) Microsoft Certification
6 17 (2.06%) Azure Certification
7 13 (1.58%) A+ Certification
7 13 (1.58%) BPSS Clearance
7 13 (1.58%) Network+ Certification
8 11 (1.33%) DBS Check
8 11 (1.33%) Server+ Certification
9 7 (0.85%) ITIL Certification
10 6 (0.73%) Computer Science Degree
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%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (4.00%) SLA
2 9 (1.09%) GDPR
3 5 (0.61%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 4 (0.48%) QA
5 2 (0.24%) Cyber Essentials
6 1 (0.12%) Accessibility
6 1 (0.12%) Data Quality
6 1 (0.12%) GAAP
6 1 (0.12%) IFRS
6 1 (0.12%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 1 (0.12%) SOC 2
System Software
1 220 (26.67%) Active Directory
2 28 (3.39%) VMware Infrastructure
3 18 (2.18%) Hyper-V
4 16 (1.94%) VMware NSX
5 14 (1.70%) Virtual Desktop
6 9 (1.09%) Docker
6 9 (1.09%) Firmware
7 7 (0.85%) Brightmail
7 7 (0.85%) ISA Server
8 4 (0.48%) vSphere
9 3 (0.36%) Terminal Services
10 2 (0.24%) NFS
10 2 (0.24%) Virtual Servers
11 1 (0.12%) BitLocker
11 1 (0.12%) Virtual Machines
11 1 (0.12%) VMware ESXi
11 1 (0.12%) VMware Workstation
11 1 (0.12%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 90 (10.91%) Microsoft Intune
2 71 (8.61%) SCCM
3 32 (3.88%) Jamf Pro
4 23 (2.79%) Ansible
5 19 (2.30%) Terraform
6 18 (2.18%) vCenter Server
7 12 (1.45%) Grafana
8 8 (0.97%) Kubernetes
9 7 (0.85%) Microsoft Clustering
10 6 (0.73%) Red Hat Satellite
11 5 (0.61%) Kibana
11 5 (0.61%) Single Sign-On
12 4 (0.48%) ITRS Geneos
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%) Nagios
Vendors
1 309 (37.45%) Microsoft
2 96 (11.64%) ServiceNow
3 49 (5.94%) Apple
3 49 (5.94%) Cisco
4 46 (5.58%) Oracle
5 43 (5.21%) VMware
6 31 (3.76%) Juniper
6 31 (3.76%) SAP
7 30 (3.64%) HP
8 23 (2.79%) Splunk
9 22 (2.67%) Google
10 21 (2.55%) SolarWinds
11 19 (2.30%) Dell
11 19 (2.30%) Red Hat
12 16 (1.94%) Citrix
13 12 (1.45%) Bloomberg
14 9 (1.09%) Remedy
15 7 (0.85%) McAfee
15 7 (0.85%) New Relic
15 7 (0.85%) Palo Alto