Support Engineer Contract Job Trends

Support Engineer
UK

The median Support Engineer daily rate in the UK is £238, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 14 August 2026.

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

 6 months to
14 Aug 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 169 125 117
Rank change year-on-year -44 -8 -25
Contract jobs requiring a Support Engineer 873 706 768
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.64% 2.14% 1.97%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.77% 2.35% 2.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 579 460 533
10th Percentile £163 £160 £140
25th Percentile £190 £200 £178
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £238 £239 £234
Median % change year-on-year -0.52% +2.20% -6.55%
75th Percentile £400 £384 £350
90th Percentile £500 £538 £525
UK excluding London median daily rate £225 £230 £220
% change year-on-year -2.17% +4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 47 70 46
10th Percentile £16.66 £17.94 £16.63
25th Percentile £18.38 £21.25 £18.13
Median hourly rate £24.00 £25.63 £22.00
Median % change year-on-year -6.34% +16.48% +15.79%
75th Percentile £36.75 £43.75 £24.80
90th Percentile £53.00 £68.00 £58.75
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 49,408 30,056 36,163
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.54% 91.31% 92.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,654 19,017 23,287
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% -1.87%
75th Percentile £625 £623 £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 3,477 1,528 2,029
10th Percentile £15.00 £13.59 £14.23
25th Percentile £20.69 £17.29 £20.50
Median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +67.00% -41.51% +2.00%
75th Percentile £67.98 £53.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £72.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.13 £25.15 £45.00
% change year-on-year +71.50% -44.11% +23.29%

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 14 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 14 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 14 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 -47 741 £225 -10.00% 376
UK excluding London -35 568 £225 -2.17% 309
London -33 267 £275 +10.00% 97
South East -37 166 £250 - 103
North of England -30 127 £200 -9.09% 60
North West -10 85 £200 -12.09% 34
Work from Home -77 83 £288 -17.86% 89
Scotland +62 82 £442 +49.83% 16
East of England -1 60 £200 - 54
South West -63 60 £210 -10.64% 40
Midlands -63 59 £250 -9.09% 43
Yorkshire -20 40 £210 -4.55% 21
West Midlands -74 38 £250 -9.09% 23
East Midlands -17 20 £270 +47.54% 20
Wales -29 10 £195 -8.24% 2
Northern Ireland +1 4 £175 -30.00% 4
North East -54 3 £188 -3.85% 7
Channel Islands - 1 £550 -

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

For the 6 months to 14 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.

1 473 (54.18%) Windows
2 384 (43.99%) Microsoft
3 378 (43.30%) Active Directory
4 325 (37.23%) Microsoft 365
5 202 (23.14%) Problem-Solving
6 199 (22.79%) Customer Service
7 182 (20.85%) Windows 10
8 177 (20.27%) Security Cleared
9 167 (19.13%) ITIL
10 150 (17.18%) Azure
11 134 (15.35%) Entra ID
12 132 (15.12%) Microsoft Intune
13 123 (14.09%) ServiceNow
14 112 (12.83%) SharePoint
15 111 (12.71%) SC Cleared
16 107 (12.26%) ITSM
17 98 (11.23%) DNS
18 97 (11.11%) PowerShell
19 73 (8.36%) Continuous Improvement
20 71 (8.13%) Windows Server
21 70 (8.02%) Linux
22 69 (7.90%) Asset Management
22 69 (7.90%) VPN
23 67 (7.67%) SQL
24 65 (7.45%) Microsoft Exchange
25 64 (7.33%) Migration
25 64 (7.33%) Service Delivery
26 62 (7.10%) VMware
27 61 (6.99%) Degree
28 60 (6.87%) 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
1 112 (12.83%) SharePoint
2 65 (7.45%) Microsoft Exchange
3 12 (1.37%) NetWeaver
4 11 (1.26%) 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 (5.15%) Microsoft Office
2 14 (1.60%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.46%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.23%) MS Visio
5 1 (0.11%) Acrobat
5 1 (0.11%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 11 (1.26%) SAP S/4HANA
2 7 (0.80%) Remedy ITSM
3 4 (0.46%) 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
6 1 (0.11%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 325 (37.23%) Microsoft 365
2 150 (17.18%) Azure
3 134 (15.35%) Entra ID
4 44 (5.04%) OneDrive
5 38 (4.35%) AWS
6 21 (2.41%) SaaS
7 19 (2.18%) GCP
8 16 (1.83%) Azure DevOps
9 11 (1.26%) Power Platform
10 8 (0.92%) Google Workspace
11 7 (0.80%) PaaS
12 6 (0.69%) IaaS
13 5 (0.57%) Mimecast
14 4 (0.46%) AWS CloudFormation
14 4 (0.46%) Cloud Functions
14 4 (0.46%) Google App Engine
14 4 (0.46%) Google Compute Engine
14 4 (0.46%) Google Kubernetes Engine
15 3 (0.34%) Datadog
15 3 (0.34%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 98 (11.23%) DNS
2 69 (7.90%) VPN
3 60 (6.87%) TCP/IP
4 57 (6.53%) DHCP
5 43 (4.93%) Wi-Fi
6 31 (3.55%) LAN
7 24 (2.75%) WAN
8 23 (2.63%) Firewall
9 22 (2.52%) SAN
10 20 (2.29%) Internet
11 16 (1.83%) VLAN
12 10 (1.15%) Wireless
13 7 (0.80%) 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 (0.46%) Remote Desktop
15 4 (0.46%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 40 (4.58%) SQL Server
2 16 (1.83%) MySQL
3 12 (1.37%) SAP HANA
4 11 (1.26%) Sybase ASE
5 10 (1.15%) MaxDB
6 9 (1.03%) Power BI
7 8 (0.92%) Relational Database
8 7 (0.80%) Amazon Redshift
8 7 (0.80%) Pentaho
9 6 (0.69%) PostgreSQL
10 5 (0.57%) Amazon RDS
10 5 (0.57%) Oracle Database
10 5 (0.57%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 4 (0.46%) Oracle Database 12c
12 3 (0.34%) Big Data
12 3 (0.34%) Data Warehouse
12 3 (0.34%) Elasticsearch
12 3 (0.34%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 2 (0.23%) MariaDB
13 2 (0.23%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 56 (6.41%) JIRA
2 20 (2.29%) Git
3 9 (1.03%) Browser DevTools
4 4 (0.46%) 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
1 352 (40.32%) Social Skills
2 107 (12.26%) Analytical Skills
3 77 (8.82%) Finance
4 41 (4.70%) Manufacturing
5 37 (4.24%) Banking
6 24 (2.75%) Organisational Skills
7 22 (2.52%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 20 (2.29%) Investment Banking
9 18 (2.06%) Retail
10 16 (1.83%) Documentation Skills
11 14 (1.60%) Law
12 13 (1.49%) Front Office
12 13 (1.49%) Legal
12 13 (1.49%) Telecoms
13 12 (1.37%) Financial Institution
13 12 (1.37%) Public Sector
14 10 (1.15%) Spanish Language
15 8 (0.92%) Aerospace
16 7 (0.80%) Aviation
16 7 (0.80%) Marketing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (1.95%) .NET
2 12 (1.37%) LDAP
3 11 (1.26%) SAP Basis
4 10 (1.15%) XML
5 9 (1.03%) Oracle GoldenGate
6 7 (0.80%) .NET Framework
6 7 (0.80%) JDO
6 7 (0.80%) REST
7 6 (0.69%) SAP Fiori
7 6 (0.69%) SAPUI5
7 6 (0.69%) Software Packaging
8 5 (0.57%) CSS
8 5 (0.57%) SAML
9 4 (0.46%) OAuth
10 3 (0.34%) Ajax
10 3 (0.34%) AngularJS
10 3 (0.34%) GraphQL
10 3 (0.34%) Middleware
10 3 (0.34%) React
10 3 (0.34%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 118 (13.52%) Onboarding
2 32 (3.67%) Data Centre
3 26 (2.98%) Video Conferencing
4 24 (2.75%) Analytical Mindset
5 20 (2.29%) PKI
6 19 (2.18%) Self-Motivation
7 16 (1.83%) Data Protection Act
8 15 (1.72%) Hedge funds
8 15 (1.72%) iPhone
9 14 (1.60%) Enterprise Software
10 13 (1.49%) Driving Licence
11 12 (1.37%) Legacy Systems
11 12 (1.37%) Smartphone
12 11 (1.26%) Blackberry
12 11 (1.26%) Virtual Team
13 10 (1.15%) iPad
14 9 (1.03%) SCADA
15 8 (0.92%) Management Information System
16 7 (0.80%) CMDB
17 6 (0.69%) BYOD
Operating Systems
1 473 (54.18%) Windows
2 182 (20.85%) Windows 10
3 71 (8.13%) Windows Server
4 70 (8.02%) Linux
5 55 (6.30%) Mac OS
6 39 (4.47%) Unix
7 36 (4.12%) Apple iOS
8 32 (3.67%) Android
9 20 (2.29%) Windows 7
10 9 (1.03%) Windows Server 2019
11 8 (0.92%) Ubuntu
12 7 (0.80%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 5 (0.57%) Windows Server 2008
13 5 (0.57%) Windows Server 2016
14 4 (0.46%) OpenVMS
14 4 (0.46%) Solaris
14 4 (0.46%) VMS
14 4 (0.46%) Windows Server 2012
15 3 (0.34%) Windows XP
16 2 (0.23%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 202 (23.14%) Problem-Solving
2 199 (22.79%) Customer Service
3 167 (19.13%) ITIL
4 107 (12.26%) ITSM
5 73 (8.36%) Continuous Improvement
6 69 (7.90%) Asset Management
7 64 (7.33%) Migration
7 64 (7.33%) Service Delivery
8 60 (6.87%) Service Management
9 53 (6.07%) Problem Management
10 51 (5.84%) User Experience
11 46 (5.27%) Identity Access Management
11 46 (5.27%) Incident Management
12 45 (5.15%) Root Cause Analysis
13 44 (5.04%) Change Management
14 42 (4.81%) Infrastructure Engineering
15 35 (4.01%) Runbook
16 33 (3.78%) Data Protection
17 32 (3.67%) DevOps
18 31 (3.55%) Break/Fix
Programming Languages
1 97 (11.11%) PowerShell
2 67 (7.67%) SQL
3 40 (4.58%) Python
4 26 (2.98%) Java
5 24 (2.75%) C#
6 22 (2.52%) JavaScript
7 18 (2.06%) Bash
8 16 (1.83%) Shell Script
9 9 (1.03%) Korn
10 7 (0.80%) C++
11 5 (0.57%) Perl
11 5 (0.57%) T-SQL
12 2 (0.23%) DCL
12 2 (0.23%) Go
12 2 (0.23%) Tcl
12 2 (0.23%) VBA
13 1 (0.11%) C
13 1 (0.11%) Search Processing Language
13 1 (0.11%) VB.NET
13 1 (0.11%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 177 (20.27%) Security Cleared
2 111 (12.71%) SC Cleared
3 61 (6.99%) Degree
4 51 (5.84%) DV Cleared
5 31 (3.55%) A+ Certification
6 30 (3.44%) Microsoft Certification
7 23 (2.63%) Network+ Certification
8 21 (2.41%) Cisco Certification
9 20 (2.29%) CCNA
10 16 (1.83%) BPSS Clearance
10 16 (1.83%) MCSE
11 11 (1.26%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
12 10 (1.15%) Computer Science Degree
13 9 (1.03%) DBS Check
14 7 (0.80%) Microsoft Certified Professional
15 6 (0.69%) Azure Certification
15 6 (0.69%) ITIL Certification
16 4 (0.46%) NVQ Level 4
17 2 (0.23%) CCNP
18 1 (0.11%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 59 (6.76%) SLA
2 6 (0.69%) QA
3 5 (0.57%) Data Quality
4 4 (0.46%) 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
1 378 (43.30%) Active Directory
2 47 (5.38%) VMware Infrastructure
3 25 (2.86%) VMware ESXi
4 24 (2.75%) Hyper-V
5 18 (2.06%) VMware NSX
6 16 (1.83%) Virtual Desktop
7 13 (1.49%) vCloud
8 9 (1.03%) Docker
8 9 (1.03%) Oracle RAC
9 7 (0.80%) vSphere
10 5 (0.57%) BitLocker
10 5 (0.57%) Firmware
10 5 (0.57%) NFS
11 3 (0.34%) Microsoft App-V
11 3 (0.34%) Terminal Services
12 2 (0.23%) zsh
13 1 (0.11%) Virtual Servers
13 1 (0.11%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 132 (15.12%) Microsoft Intune
2 53 (6.07%) SCCM
3 25 (2.86%) vCenter Server
4 21 (2.41%) Single Sign-On
5 19 (2.18%) SCOM
6 16 (1.83%) Jamf Pro
7 14 (1.60%) Kubernetes
7 14 (1.60%) Terraform
8 13 (1.49%) Grafana
9 10 (1.15%) Ansible
10 9 (1.03%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
10 9 (1.03%) Oracle RMAN
11 6 (0.69%) WSUS
12 5 (0.57%) Red Hat Satellite
13 4 (0.46%) ITRS Geneos
14 3 (0.34%) AirWatch
14 3 (0.34%) Nagios
14 3 (0.34%) Puppet
14 3 (0.34%) vMotion
14 3 (0.34%) vRealize
Vendors
1 384 (43.99%) Microsoft
2 123 (14.09%) ServiceNow
3 62 (7.10%) VMware
4 37 (4.24%) Apple
5 34 (3.89%) Oracle
6 32 (3.67%) Okta
7 26 (2.98%) Cisco
7 26 (2.98%) Google
8 24 (2.75%) Citrix
9 23 (2.63%) SAP
10 21 (2.41%) BeyondTrust
11 20 (2.29%) Dell
12 13 (1.49%) Meraki
12 13 (1.49%) Sybase
13 12 (1.37%) HP
13 12 (1.37%) Splunk
14 11 (1.26%) iManage
14 11 (1.26%) Lotus
15 10 (1.15%) Samsung
16 9 (1.03%) Bloomberg
413 Support Engineer jobs Nationwide