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 2 December 2025.

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

6 months to
2 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 122 141 88
Rank change year-on-year +19 -53 +60
Contract jobs requiring a Support Engineer 835 664 1,175
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.32% 1.86% 2.58%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.55% 2.00% 2.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 573 447 847
10th Percentile £153 £150 £140
25th Percentile £185 £188 £181
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £225 £240 £238
Median % change year-on-year -6.25% +1.05% +0.64%
75th Percentile £338 £350 £400
90th Percentile £508 £517 £550
UK excluding London median daily rate £220 £220 £215
% change year-on-year - +2.33% +1.18%
Number of hourly rates quoted 115 46 65
10th Percentile £17.14 £16.63 £14.87
25th Percentile £19.77 £20.63 £17.00
Median hourly rate £24.00 £23.59 £18.93
Median % change year-on-year +1.74% +24.62% -2.92%
75th Percentile £30.00 £24.80 £21.50
90th Percentile £47.50 £45.13 £23.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £24.00 £23.00 £19.00
% change year-on-year +4.35% +21.05% +7.22%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
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 32,727 33,118 42,499
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.97% 92.81% 93.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,756 20,117 28,647
10th Percentile £284 £300 £294
25th Percentile £402 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £645
90th Percentile £724 £738 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £496 £500
% change year-on-year -4.14% -0.90% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,905 1,179 1,517
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.32 £15.21
25th Percentile £17.96 £20.63 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £44.00
Median % change year-on-year -28.14% -20.45% +44.26%
75th Percentile £57.50 £64.61 £65.00
90th Percentile £71.50 £73.75 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £44.50
% change year-on-year -22.62% -26.97% +78.00%

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 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 2 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 2 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 +19 757 £225 -6.25% 456
UK excluding London +11 575 £220 - 451
London -2 213 £225 -25.00% 75
South East +34 186 £238 +3.48% 135
South West +33 105 £250 +12.36% 37
North of England -29 104 £200 - 142
Work from Home -18 98 £275 -21.43% 126
Midlands +13 96 £255 -3.77% 52
West Midlands +1 71 £271 +2.26% 37
North West -16 56 £180 -10.00% 77
East of England -7 50 £216 -2.81% 49
Yorkshire -24 36 £205 -8.89% 52
East Midlands 0 25 £180 -24.21% 15
Scotland -15 22 £200 +5.26% 27
Wales +11 21 £213 +6.25% 9
North East +1 12 £106 -34.77% 20
Northern Ireland -7 3 £175 +18.24% 7

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

For the 6 months to 2 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.

1 439 (52.57%) Windows
2 320 (38.32%) Microsoft
3 254 (30.42%) Security Cleared
4 244 (29.22%) Microsoft 365
5 237 (28.38%) Active Directory
6 191 (22.87%) SC Cleared
7 179 (21.44%) Problem-Solving
8 166 (19.88%) Customer Service
9 163 (19.52%) Windows 10
10 114 (13.65%) ITIL
11 105 (12.57%) Azure
12 101 (12.10%) ServiceNow
13 99 (11.86%) Linux
14 93 (11.14%) Microsoft Intune
14 93 (11.14%) Microsoft Office
15 88 (10.54%) DNS
16 77 (9.22%) DHCP
17 74 (8.86%) ITSM
18 73 (8.74%) Service Management
18 73 (8.74%) SharePoint
19 72 (8.62%) TCP/IP
19 72 (8.62%) VPN
20 71 (8.50%) SCCM
21 69 (8.26%) Microsoft Exchange
22 65 (7.78%) Migration
23 61 (7.31%) DV Cleared
23 61 (7.31%) PowerShell
24 56 (6.71%) Android
24 56 (6.71%) Cisco
25 54 (6.47%) Apple

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 73 (8.74%) SharePoint
2 69 (8.26%) Microsoft Exchange
3 24 (2.87%) Skype for Business
4 11 (1.32%) Exchange Server 2010
4 11 (1.32%) SharePoint Server
5 10 (1.20%) Exchange Server 2003
5 10 (1.20%) Exchange Server 2007
5 10 (1.20%) Exchange Server 2013
5 10 (1.20%) Office Communications Server
6 6 (0.72%) Confluence
7 3 (0.36%) Apache
7 3 (0.36%) Smallworld
8 2 (0.24%) Apache Airflow
8 2 (0.24%) Apache Spark
8 2 (0.24%) ArcGIS
8 2 (0.24%) Jupyter
8 2 (0.24%) OpenStack
9 1 (0.12%) CMS
9 1 (0.12%) Tomcat
9 1 (0.12%) WebSphere
Applications
1 93 (11.14%) Microsoft Office
2 24 (2.87%) 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 8 (0.96%) Remedy ITSM
2 7 (0.84%) SAP EHS
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%) Shopify
6 1 (0.12%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 244 (29.22%) Microsoft 365
2 105 (12.57%) Azure
3 42 (5.03%) Entra ID
4 29 (3.47%) AWS
5 23 (2.75%) OneDrive
5 23 (2.75%) SaaS
6 18 (2.16%) Google Workspace
6 18 (2.16%) Sauce Labs
7 11 (1.32%) Power Platform
8 7 (0.84%) Azure DevOps
8 7 (0.84%) npm
9 5 (0.60%) OpenShift
9 5 (0.60%) SuccessFactors
10 4 (0.48%) Microsoft Purview
10 4 (0.48%) Slack
11 3 (0.36%) Azure AKS
11 3 (0.36%) Dynamics 365
11 3 (0.36%) PowerApps
12 2 (0.24%) Amazon EKS
12 2 (0.24%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 88 (10.54%) DNS
2 77 (9.22%) DHCP
3 72 (8.62%) TCP/IP
3 72 (8.62%) VPN
4 43 (5.15%) Firewall
5 39 (4.67%) WAN
5 39 (4.67%) Wireless
6 35 (4.19%) Wi-Fi
7 28 (3.35%) LAN
8 22 (2.63%) Cisco IOS
9 20 (2.40%) Junos
9 20 (2.40%) VLAN
10 19 (2.28%) MPLS
11 17 (2.04%) BGP
11 17 (2.04%) IPsec
12 15 (1.80%) Cisco Firepower
12 15 (1.80%) Cisco ISE
12 15 (1.80%) Skype
13 14 (1.68%) Network Security
14 13 (1.56%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 32 (3.83%) Relational Database
2 25 (2.99%) MySQL
3 15 (1.80%) SQL Server
4 8 (0.96%) Power BI
5 6 (0.72%) MariaDB
6 5 (0.60%) RDBMS
7 4 (0.48%) InfluxDB
8 3 (0.36%) GIS
8 3 (0.36%) Tableau
9 2 (0.24%) Apache Cassandra
9 2 (0.24%) Data Warehouse
9 2 (0.24%) Electronic Patient Records
9 2 (0.24%) Oracle Database
10 1 (0.12%) Azure SQL Database
10 1 (0.12%) DB2
10 1 (0.12%) Elasticsearch
10 1 (0.12%) Oracle ODI
10 1 (0.12%) PostgreSQL
10 1 (0.12%) Qlik Sense
10 1 (0.12%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 28 (3.35%) Browser DevTools
2 19 (2.28%) JIRA
3 18 (2.16%) Android Studio
3 18 (2.16%) Eclipse
3 18 (2.16%) Xcode
4 14 (1.68%) Git
5 9 (1.08%) Firebug
6 7 (0.84%) Jenkins
6 7 (0.84%) Maven
7 5 (0.60%) Sonatype Nexus
8 3 (0.36%) Fiddler
9 2 (0.24%) MSI
10 1 (0.12%) Bitbucket
10 1 (0.12%) ClearCase
10 1 (0.12%) Hudson
General
1 366 (43.83%) Social Skills
2 76 (9.10%) Finance
3 66 (7.90%) Public Sector
4 53 (6.35%) Analytical Skills
5 40 (4.79%) Manufacturing
6 36 (4.31%) Banking
7 28 (3.35%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 28 (3.35%) Organisational Skills
8 25 (2.99%) Telecoms
9 19 (2.28%) Aerospace
10 16 (1.92%) Marketing
11 15 (1.80%) Electronics
12 12 (1.44%) Front Office
13 10 (1.20%) Documentation Skills
14 9 (1.08%) Retail
15 8 (0.96%) Investment Banking
16 7 (0.84%) Law
16 7 (0.84%) Legal
17 6 (0.72%) Automotive
17 6 (0.72%) Aviation
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 29 (3.47%) CSS
2 24 (2.87%) Middleware
3 21 (2.51%) React
4 19 (2.28%) Ajax
4 19 (2.28%) AngularJS
4 19 (2.28%) GraphQL
5 16 (1.92%) XML
6 10 (1.20%) HTML
7 7 (0.84%) JSON
8 5 (0.60%) .NET
8 5 (0.60%) REST
8 5 (0.60%) SOAP
9 4 (0.48%) JDO
9 4 (0.48%) OAuth
10 3 (0.36%) ADO
10 3 (0.36%) Kafka
10 3 (0.36%) Microsoft Graph
11 2 (0.24%) Node.js
11 2 (0.24%) OpenTelemetry
11 2 (0.24%) PySpark
Miscellaneous
1 37 (4.43%) Onboarding
2 34 (4.07%) Self-Motivation
3 31 (3.71%) Data Centre
4 28 (3.35%) Driving Licence
5 25 (2.99%) PKI
6 22 (2.63%) Data Protection Act
7 19 (2.28%) Mobile App
8 15 (1.80%) Smartphone
9 13 (1.56%) iPhone
10 12 (1.44%) Management Information System
10 12 (1.44%) Replication
10 12 (1.44%) Video Conferencing
11 11 (1.32%) Analytical Mindset
12 7 (0.84%) iPad
12 7 (0.84%) Legacy Systems
13 6 (0.72%) NHS
14 5 (0.60%) Operational Technology
14 5 (0.60%) Virtual Team
15 4 (0.48%) Enterprise Software
16 3 (0.36%) Hedge funds
Operating Systems
1 439 (52.57%) Windows
2 163 (19.52%) Windows 10
3 99 (11.86%) Linux
4 56 (6.71%) Android
5 54 (6.47%) Windows Server
6 47 (5.63%) Mac OS
7 45 (5.39%) Apple iOS
8 32 (3.83%) Unix
9 13 (1.56%) Ubuntu
10 11 (1.32%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 10 (1.20%) Windows Server 2003
12 7 (0.84%) Windows 7
13 5 (0.60%) CentOS
14 4 (0.48%) Mac OS X
15 2 (0.24%) Windows Server 2012
15 2 (0.24%) Windows Server 2016
15 2 (0.24%) Windows Server 2019
16 1 (0.12%) VMS
16 1 (0.12%) Windows 8
Processes & Methodologies
1 179 (21.44%) Problem-Solving
2 166 (19.88%) Customer Service
3 114 (13.65%) ITIL
4 74 (8.86%) ITSM
5 73 (8.74%) Service Management
6 65 (7.78%) Migration
7 54 (6.47%) Asset Management
8 46 (5.51%) Workflow
9 43 (5.15%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 33 (3.95%) User Experience
11 32 (3.83%) Workflow Management
12 31 (3.71%) Cybersecurity
12 31 (3.71%) OO
12 31 (3.71%) Root Cause Analysis
12 31 (3.71%) Service Delivery
13 29 (3.47%) Business Intelligence
14 27 (3.23%) Continuous Improvement
14 27 (3.23%) Logistics
15 26 (3.11%) Incident Management
16 25 (2.99%) Data Protection
Programming Languages
1 61 (7.31%) PowerShell
2 45 (5.39%) Java
3 43 (5.15%) JavaScript
3 43 (5.15%) Python
4 25 (2.99%) SQL
5 20 (2.40%) Bash
5 20 (2.40%) Perl
6 17 (2.04%) Shell Script
7 16 (1.92%) C
8 13 (1.56%) C++
9 12 (1.44%) Ada
10 4 (0.48%) C#
11 3 (0.36%) Magik
11 3 (0.36%) TypeScript
12 2 (0.24%) AWK
12 2 (0.24%) VB.NET
13 1 (0.12%) Korn
13 1 (0.12%) PL/SQL
13 1 (0.12%) Tcl
13 1 (0.12%) VBA
Qualifications
1 254 (30.42%) Security Cleared
2 191 (22.87%) SC Cleared
3 61 (7.31%) DV Cleared
4 46 (5.51%) Degree
5 29 (3.47%) Microsoft Certification
6 14 (1.68%) Azure Certification
7 13 (1.56%) Network+ Certification
8 12 (1.44%) BPSS Clearance
8 12 (1.44%) DBS Check
9 11 (1.32%) Cisco Certification
9 11 (1.32%) Server+ Certification
10 10 (1.20%) CCNA
11 9 (1.08%) A+ Certification
11 9 (1.08%) Computer Science Degree
12 8 (0.96%) ITIL Certification
13 4 (0.48%) MCP
13 4 (0.48%) MCSE
14 3 (0.36%) Master's Degree
14 3 (0.36%) MCSA
15 2 (0.24%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 34 (4.07%) SLA
2 9 (1.08%) GDPR
2 9 (1.08%) QA
3 4 (0.48%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 3 (0.36%) Accessibility
5 1 (0.12%) Data Quality
5 1 (0.12%) GAAP
5 1 (0.12%) IFRS
5 1 (0.12%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 237 (28.38%) Active Directory
2 31 (3.71%) VMware Infrastructure
3 20 (2.40%) Hyper-V
4 17 (2.04%) Virtual Desktop
5 16 (1.92%) VMware NSX
6 12 (1.44%) Firmware
7 10 (1.20%) Brightmail
7 10 (1.20%) Docker
7 10 (1.20%) ISA Server
8 8 (0.96%) vSphere
9 3 (0.36%) Terminal Services
10 2 (0.24%) Microsoft App-V
10 2 (0.24%) NFS
10 2 (0.24%) Virtual Machines
10 2 (0.24%) Virtual Servers
10 2 (0.24%) VMware Workstation
11 1 (0.12%) BitLocker
11 1 (0.12%) DFS Replication
11 1 (0.12%) VMware ESXi
11 1 (0.12%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 93 (11.14%) Microsoft Intune
2 71 (8.50%) SCCM
3 35 (4.19%) Jamf Pro
4 24 (2.87%) Ansible
5 21 (2.51%) Terraform
6 18 (2.16%) vCenter Server
7 10 (1.20%) Kubernetes
7 10 (1.20%) Microsoft Clustering
8 9 (1.08%) Grafana
9 6 (0.72%) Red Hat Satellite
10 5 (0.60%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 5 (0.60%) AirWatch
10 5 (0.60%) Kibana
10 5 (0.60%) SCOM
11 4 (0.48%) ITRS Geneos
12 3 (0.36%) Single Sign-On
13 2 (0.24%) Autotask
13 2 (0.24%) FortiGate
13 2 (0.24%) OpenView
13 2 (0.24%) WSUS
Vendors
1 320 (38.32%) Microsoft
2 101 (12.10%) ServiceNow
3 56 (6.71%) Cisco
4 54 (6.47%) Apple
5 49 (5.87%) Oracle
6 46 (5.51%) VMware
7 33 (3.95%) Juniper
8 32 (3.83%) SAP
9 26 (3.11%) HP
10 22 (2.63%) Citrix
10 22 (2.63%) SolarWinds
11 21 (2.51%) Splunk
12 20 (2.40%) Google
13 19 (2.28%) Red Hat
14 13 (1.56%) Dell
15 11 (1.32%) Bloomberg
15 11 (1.32%) Remedy
16 7 (0.84%) McAfee
16 7 (0.84%) Starlink
17 6 (0.72%) Zscaler