Support Engineer Contract Job Trends

Support Engineer
UK

The median Support Engineer daily rate in the UK is £211, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 21 May 2026.

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

6 months to
21 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 169 129 115
Rank change year-on-year -40 -14 +5
Contract jobs requiring a Support Engineer 748 634 838
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.55% 2.18% 1.97%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.68% 2.36% 2.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 498 398 579
10th Percentile £153 £153 £140
25th Percentile £183 £190 £163
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £211 £235 £210
Median % change year-on-year -10.07% +11.90% -16.00%
75th Percentile £386 £375 £320
90th Percentile £473 £475 £450
UK excluding London median daily rate £203 £225 £200
% change year-on-year -10.00% +12.50% -5.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 74 52 54
10th Percentile £18.07 £18.13 £16.25
25th Percentile £21.25 £20.64 £17.72
Median hourly rate £25.15 £24.66 £21.41
Median % change year-on-year +1.99% +15.19% +5.46%
75th Percentile £36.00 £34.88 £29.84
90th Percentile £38.38 £68.00 £46.39
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.50 £24.66 £18.20
% change year-on-year -8.76% +35.49% -9.00%

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 44,544 26,886 39,472
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.32% 92.37% 92.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,258 17,494 25,719
10th Percentile £325 £293 £280
25th Percentile £413 £405 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £510 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.49% -2.86% -3.23%
75th Percentile £615 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £489
% change year-on-year +5.26% -2.86% -2.20%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,901 1,057 2,674
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.00 £12.83
25th Percentile £20.35 £18.13 £16.30
Median hourly rate £42.69 £27.99 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +52.50% -23.32% -18.89%
75th Percentile £66.50 £60.00 £61.30
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £72.90
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £26.34 £40.00
% change year-on-year +70.88% -34.16% -5.88%

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 21 May 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 21 May 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 21 May 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 -49 655 £210 -10.64% 283
UK excluding London -42 507 £203 -10.00% 280
London -46 206 £275 - 45
South East -21 143 £210 -16.00% 92
North of England -71 89 £190 -11.63% 62
Midlands -33 87 £209 -24.18% 39
Work from Home -66 87 £220 -26.67% 65
South West -37 73 £210 -10.64% 28
East of England -4 58 £198 -11.24% 41
North West -42 55 £183 -15.12% 29
West Midlands -56 52 £250 -9.09% 23
Scotland +29 50 £437 +191.33% 16
East Midlands +1 36 £200 -5.88% 16
Yorkshire -41 32 £190 -19.15% 24
Wales -15 9 £250 +25.00% 4
Northern Ireland -8 4 £175 +17.45% 2
North East -35 2 £290 +48.72% 11

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

For the 6 months to 21 May 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.

1 330 (44.12%) Windows
2 256 (34.22%) Microsoft
3 251 (33.56%) Active Directory
4 224 (29.95%) Microsoft 365
5 153 (20.45%) Windows 10
6 151 (20.19%) Security Cleared
7 143 (19.12%) Customer Service
8 140 (18.72%) Problem-Solving
9 133 (17.78%) Azure
10 111 (14.84%) SC Cleared
11 107 (14.30%) ITIL
12 96 (12.83%) Microsoft Intune
13 87 (11.63%) ServiceNow
14 74 (9.89%) Entra ID
15 60 (8.02%) ITSM
16 58 (7.75%) PowerShell
17 56 (7.49%) Migration
17 56 (7.49%) SQL
18 54 (7.22%) SharePoint
19 52 (6.95%) DNS
20 51 (6.82%) JIRA
21 46 (6.15%) Linux
22 43 (5.75%) SCCM
22 43 (5.75%) Wi-Fi
23 41 (5.48%) Degree
24 40 (5.35%) Unix
25 39 (5.21%) Continuous Improvement
25 39 (5.21%) Windows Server
26 38 (5.08%) DHCP
27 37 (4.95%) LAN

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 54 (7.22%) SharePoint
2 25 (3.34%) Microsoft Exchange
3 9 (1.20%) NetWeaver
4 5 (0.67%) HCL Notes
5 4 (0.53%) Confluence
5 4 (0.53%) IIS
6 3 (0.40%) Skype for Business
7 2 (0.27%) Apache
7 2 (0.27%) OpenStack
7 2 (0.27%) WebLogic
8 1 (0.13%) Tuxedo
8 1 (0.13%) WebSphere
Applications
1 33 (4.41%) Microsoft Office
2 12 (1.60%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.53%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 9 (1.20%) SAP EHS
2 8 (1.07%) SAP S/4HANA
3 7 (0.94%) Shopify
4 6 (0.80%) Teamcenter
5 5 (0.67%) Remedy ITSM
6 2 (0.27%) NetSuite
7 1 (0.13%) Alphatax
7 1 (0.13%) Bloomberg TOMS
7 1 (0.13%) Dynamics CRM
7 1 (0.13%) Dynamics GP
7 1 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
7 1 (0.13%) SAP GRC
Cloud Services
1 224 (29.95%) Microsoft 365
2 133 (17.78%) Azure
3 74 (9.89%) Entra ID
4 27 (3.61%) AWS
5 22 (2.94%) Azure DevOps
5 22 (2.94%) SaaS
6 21 (2.81%) OneDrive
7 11 (1.47%) Dynamics 365
7 11 (1.47%) Power Platform
8 10 (1.34%) GCP
9 6 (0.80%) Amazon S3
9 6 (0.80%) Azure Data Factory
9 6 (0.80%) PaaS
9 6 (0.80%) Sauce Labs
10 5 (0.67%) Google Workspace
11 4 (0.53%) Datadog
11 4 (0.53%) Mimecast
11 4 (0.53%) Snowflake
12 3 (0.40%) GitHub
12 3 (0.40%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 52 (6.95%) DNS
2 43 (5.75%) Wi-Fi
3 38 (5.08%) DHCP
4 37 (4.95%) LAN
4 37 (4.95%) VPN
5 29 (3.88%) TCP/IP
6 22 (2.94%) WAN
7 21 (2.81%) SAN
8 13 (1.74%) Firewall
9 12 (1.60%) Internet
9 12 (1.60%) VLAN
10 9 (1.20%) Wireless
10 9 (1.20%) WLAN
11 7 (0.94%) HTTP
12 6 (0.80%) VoIP
13 5 (0.67%) Skype
14 4 (0.53%) Unified Communications
15 3 (0.40%) Network Security
15 3 (0.40%) Remote Desktop
15 3 (0.40%) SNMP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 28 (3.74%) SQL Server
2 20 (2.67%) MySQL
3 14 (1.87%) Relational Database
4 13 (1.74%) Amazon Redshift
5 9 (1.20%) Power BI
5 9 (1.20%) SAP HANA
5 9 (1.20%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 8 (1.07%) Sybase ASE
7 7 (0.94%) MaxDB
7 7 (0.94%) Pentaho
8 5 (0.67%) Oracle Database
8 5 (0.67%) PostgreSQL
9 4 (0.53%) Amazon Athena
9 4 (0.53%) Oracle Database 12c
10 3 (0.40%) MariaDB
11 2 (0.27%) Azure SQL Database
11 2 (0.27%) Data Warehouse
11 2 (0.27%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 1 (0.13%) Crystal Reports
12 1 (0.13%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 51 (6.82%) JIRA
2 19 (2.54%) Git
3 13 (1.74%) Browser DevTools
4 6 (0.80%) Android Studio
4 6 (0.80%) Eclipse
4 6 (0.80%) Xcode
5 3 (0.40%) Firebug
6 2 (0.27%) Jenkins
6 2 (0.27%) Maven
7 1 (0.13%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 1 (0.13%) Claude Code
7 1 (0.13%) Gemini Tracker
7 1 (0.13%) MSI
7 1 (0.13%) RStudio
7 1 (0.13%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 1 (0.13%) Subversion
7 1 (0.13%) TeamCity
7 1 (0.13%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 288 (38.50%) Social Skills
2 81 (10.83%) Analytical Skills
3 49 (6.55%) Finance
3 49 (6.55%) Manufacturing
4 35 (4.68%) Banking
5 21 (2.81%) Aerospace
5 21 (2.81%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 19 (2.54%) Investment Banking
7 17 (2.27%) Aviation
7 17 (2.27%) Law
8 12 (1.60%) Organisational Skills
9 10 (1.34%) Documentation Skills
9 10 (1.34%) Public Sector
10 9 (1.20%) Front Office
10 9 (1.20%) Legal
11 7 (0.94%) Retail
12 6 (0.80%) French Language
12 6 (0.80%) Marketing
12 6 (0.80%) Telecoms
13 5 (0.67%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (1.34%) Oracle GoldenGate
2 9 (1.20%) CSS
2 9 (1.20%) REST
3 8 (1.07%) SAP Basis
4 7 (0.94%) JDO
5 6 (0.80%) .NET
5 6 (0.80%) Ajax
5 6 (0.80%) AngularJS
5 6 (0.80%) GraphQL
5 6 (0.80%) React
6 5 (0.67%) Middleware
6 5 (0.67%) PySpark
6 5 (0.67%) SAML
6 5 (0.67%) YAML
7 4 (0.53%) HTML
7 4 (0.53%) OAuth
8 3 (0.40%) RESTful
8 3 (0.40%) SAP Fiori
8 3 (0.40%) SAPUI5
8 3 (0.40%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 55 (7.35%) Onboarding
2 30 (4.01%) Data Centre
3 24 (3.21%) Self-Motivation
4 23 (3.07%) Analytical Mindset
5 14 (1.87%) Driving Licence
5 14 (1.87%) Enterprise Software
5 14 (1.87%) Smartphone
5 14 (1.87%) Virtual Team
6 13 (1.74%) Data Protection Act
7 12 (1.60%) PKI
8 11 (1.47%) iPhone
9 10 (1.34%) Legacy Systems
9 10 (1.34%) SCADA
10 8 (1.07%) Hybrid Cloud
11 7 (0.94%) Video Conferencing
12 6 (0.80%) Mobile App
13 5 (0.67%) Blackberry
14 4 (0.53%) Hedge funds
14 4 (0.53%) iPad
14 4 (0.53%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 330 (44.12%) Windows
2 153 (20.45%) Windows 10
3 46 (6.15%) Linux
4 40 (5.35%) Unix
5 39 (5.21%) Windows Server
6 37 (4.95%) Mac OS
7 21 (2.81%) Android
8 20 (2.67%) Apple iOS
9 14 (1.87%) Windows 7
10 6 (0.80%) Windows Server 2016
11 4 (0.53%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 4 (0.53%) Windows Server 2019
12 3 (0.40%) Windows Server 2012
13 2 (0.27%) Mac OS X
13 2 (0.27%) Solaris
13 2 (0.27%) Ubuntu
14 1 (0.13%) CentOS
14 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2008
14 1 (0.13%) Windows XP
Processes & Methodologies
1 143 (19.12%) Customer Service
2 140 (18.72%) Problem-Solving
3 107 (14.30%) ITIL
4 60 (8.02%) ITSM
5 56 (7.49%) Migration
6 39 (5.21%) Continuous Improvement
7 36 (4.81%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 36 (4.81%) Root Cause Analysis
8 35 (4.68%) Change Management
9 34 (4.55%) Asset Management
10 33 (4.41%) DevOps
10 33 (4.41%) User Experience
11 30 (4.01%) Incident Management
11 30 (4.01%) Service Delivery
11 30 (4.01%) Service Management
12 26 (3.48%) Problem Management
13 25 (3.34%) Data Protection
14 23 (3.07%) Break/Fix
15 22 (2.94%) Workflow
16 21 (2.81%) CI/CD
Programming Languages
1 58 (7.75%) PowerShell
2 56 (7.49%) SQL
3 29 (3.88%) Python
4 21 (2.81%) Java
5 20 (2.67%) C#
6 19 (2.54%) JavaScript
7 15 (2.01%) Shell Script
8 10 (1.34%) Korn
8 10 (1.34%) Perl
9 9 (1.20%) Bash
10 4 (0.53%) 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
1 151 (20.19%) Security Cleared
2 111 (14.84%) SC Cleared
3 41 (5.48%) Degree
4 30 (4.01%) DV Cleared
5 24 (3.21%) Microsoft Certification
6 22 (2.94%) A+ Certification
7 20 (2.67%) CCNA
7 20 (2.67%) Cisco Certification
8 16 (2.14%) BPSS Clearance
8 16 (2.14%) MCSE
8 16 (2.14%) Network+ Certification
9 10 (1.34%) Computer Science Degree
10 9 (1.20%) Azure Certification
11 6 (0.80%) DBS Check
11 6 (0.80%) ITIL Certification
12 4 (0.53%) NVQ Level 4
13 2 (0.27%) Master's Degree
14 1 (0.13%) AWS Certification
14 1 (0.13%) CompTIA Security+
14 1 (0.13%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 29 (3.88%) SLA
2 5 (0.67%) Cyber Essentials
3 4 (0.53%) GDPR
4 3 (0.40%) Data Quality
4 3 (0.40%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 2 (0.27%) GLP
5 2 (0.27%) GMP
6 1 (0.13%) Actionable Recommendations
6 1 (0.13%) GRC
6 1 (0.13%) GxP
6 1 (0.13%) ITGC
6 1 (0.13%) QA
6 1 (0.13%) SOC 2
System Software
1 251 (33.56%) Active Directory
2 25 (3.34%) VMware Infrastructure
3 12 (1.60%) Hyper-V
4 11 (1.47%) VMware NSX
5 10 (1.34%) Oracle RAC
5 10 (1.34%) VMware ESXi
6 8 (1.07%) Virtual Desktop
7 6 (0.80%) vCloud
8 5 (0.67%) vSphere
9 3 (0.40%) Firmware
10 2 (0.27%) NFS
10 2 (0.27%) Virtual Servers
11 1 (0.13%) BitLocker
11 1 (0.13%) Docker
11 1 (0.13%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 1 (0.13%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 96 (12.83%) Microsoft Intune
2 43 (5.75%) SCCM
3 17 (2.27%) Jamf Pro
3 17 (2.27%) Single Sign-On
4 15 (2.01%) Grafana
5 10 (1.34%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
5 10 (1.34%) Oracle RMAN
5 10 (1.34%) vCenter Server
6 8 (1.07%) Terraform
7 7 (0.94%) Ansible
7 7 (0.94%) SCOM
8 4 (0.53%) Kubernetes
9 3 (0.40%) Kibana
9 3 (0.40%) vRealize
10 2 (0.27%) AirWatch
10 2 (0.27%) McAfee ePO
10 2 (0.27%) PaperCut
10 2 (0.27%) Prometheus
10 2 (0.27%) Red Hat Satellite
10 2 (0.27%) WMI
Vendors
1 256 (34.22%) Microsoft
2 87 (11.63%) ServiceNow
3 34 (4.55%) Oracle
4 29 (3.88%) VMware
5 26 (3.48%) Dell
6 25 (3.34%) SAP
7 19 (2.54%) Apple
8 16 (2.14%) HP
9 15 (2.01%) Cisco
10 12 (1.60%) Okta
11 11 (1.47%) Google
12 10 (1.34%) McAfee
13 8 (1.07%) Citrix
13 8 (1.07%) Denodo
13 8 (1.07%) Splunk
13 8 (1.07%) Starlink
13 8 (1.07%) Sybase
13 8 (1.07%) Talend
14 7 (0.94%) Bloomberg
14 7 (0.94%) Databricks