Support Engineer Contract Job Trends

Support Engineer
UK

The median Support Engineer daily rate in the UK is £210, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 16 May 2026.

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

6 months to
16 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 173 132 112
Rank change year-on-year -41 -20 +9
Contract jobs requiring a Support Engineer 747 633 829
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.56% 2.17% 1.95%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.69% 2.35% 2.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 495 401 577
10th Percentile £153 £153 £140
25th Percentile £185 £189 £163
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £210 £235 £210
Median % change year-on-year -10.57% +11.90% -16.00%
75th Percentile £369 £385 £318
90th Percentile £470 £500 £446
UK excluding London median daily rate £203 £225 £200
% change year-on-year -10.00% +12.50% -5.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 81 54 53
10th Percentile £18.07 £18.13 £16.25
25th Percentile £21.25 £20.73 £17.72
Median hourly rate £23.83 £24.66 £20.82
Median % change year-on-year -3.39% +18.47% +4.08%
75th Percentile £36.00 £35.63 £29.38
90th Percentile £37.50 £68.00 £46.39
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.50 £24.58 £18.13
% change year-on-year -8.46% +35.58% -9.35%

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 44,326 26,919 39,482
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.29% 92.40% 92.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,149 17,544 25,684
10th Percentile £320 £295 £280
25th Percentile £413 £406 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year -0.49% -2.38% -2.78%
75th Percentile £615 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £498 £475 £490
% change year-on-year +4.74% -3.06% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,891 1,039 2,653
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.00 £12.83
25th Percentile £20.31 £18.20 £16.30
Median hourly rate £42.69 £28.18 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +51.47% -22.79% -18.89%
75th Percentile £66.38 £61.38 £61.30
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £73.70
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £27.35 £40.00
% change year-on-year +64.53% -31.63% -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 16 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 16 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 16 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 -51 657 £210 -11.58% 314
UK excluding London -39 505 £203 -10.00% 288
London -52 206 £275 -4.35% 66
South East -29 138 £210 -16.00% 101
North of England -64 92 £190 -11.63% 58
Midlands -38 88 £204 -22.19% 52
Work from Home -44 84 £210 -30.00% 66
South West -40 75 £210 -10.64% 24
East of England -10 59 £200 -10.11% 36
North West -34 57 £190 -11.63% 32
West Midlands -59 54 £250 -9.09% 28
Scotland +23 46 £394 +162.33% 14
East Midlands +2 35 £200 -5.88% 24
Yorkshire -44 34 £190 -19.15% 19
Wales -16 9 £250 +28.21% 3
Northern Ireland -6 4 £175 +18.24% 2
North East -35 1 - - 9

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

For the 6 months to 16 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.

1 334 (44.71%) Windows
2 256 (34.27%) Microsoft
3 245 (32.80%) Active Directory
4 232 (31.06%) Microsoft 365
5 155 (20.75%) Windows 10
6 150 (20.08%) Security Cleared
7 147 (19.68%) Customer Service
8 141 (18.88%) Problem-Solving
9 134 (17.94%) Azure
10 114 (15.26%) SC Cleared
11 104 (13.92%) ITIL
12 96 (12.85%) Microsoft Intune
13 84 (11.24%) ServiceNow
14 76 (10.17%) Entra ID
15 59 (7.90%) ITSM
16 58 (7.76%) Migration
17 57 (7.63%) PowerShell
18 55 (7.36%) SQL
19 54 (7.23%) SharePoint
20 51 (6.83%) JIRA
21 50 (6.69%) DNS
22 46 (6.16%) Linux
23 44 (5.89%) SCCM
23 44 (5.89%) Wi-Fi
24 41 (5.49%) Degree
25 40 (5.35%) Mac OS
26 39 (5.22%) Continuous Improvement
27 38 (5.09%) DHCP
27 38 (5.09%) Unix
27 38 (5.09%) 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 54 (7.23%) SharePoint
2 25 (3.35%) Microsoft Exchange
3 9 (1.20%) NetWeaver
4 4 (0.54%) Confluence
4 4 (0.54%) IIS
5 3 (0.40%) HCL Notes
5 3 (0.40%) Skype for Business
6 2 (0.27%) Apache
6 2 (0.27%) OpenStack
6 2 (0.27%) WebLogic
7 1 (0.13%) Tuxedo
7 1 (0.13%) WebSphere
Applications
1 34 (4.55%) Microsoft Office
2 12 (1.61%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.54%) 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%) Remedy ITSM
4 6 (0.80%) Teamcenter
5 2 (0.27%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.13%) Alphatax
6 1 (0.13%) assyst
6 1 (0.13%) Bloomberg TOMS
6 1 (0.13%) Dynamics CRM
6 1 (0.13%) Dynamics GP
6 1 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
6 1 (0.13%) SAP GRC
Cloud Services
1 232 (31.06%) Microsoft 365
2 134 (17.94%) Azure
3 76 (10.17%) Entra ID
4 26 (3.48%) AWS
5 22 (2.95%) Azure DevOps
5 22 (2.95%) OneDrive
5 22 (2.95%) SaaS
6 12 (1.61%) Power Platform
7 11 (1.47%) Dynamics 365
8 10 (1.34%) GCP
9 7 (0.94%) Google Workspace
10 6 (0.80%) Amazon S3
10 6 (0.80%) Azure Data Factory
10 6 (0.80%) PaaS
10 6 (0.80%) Sauce Labs
11 4 (0.54%) Datadog
11 4 (0.54%) Mimecast
11 4 (0.54%) Snowflake
12 3 (0.40%) GitHub
12 3 (0.40%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 50 (6.69%) DNS
2 44 (5.89%) Wi-Fi
3 38 (5.09%) DHCP
4 36 (4.82%) LAN
4 36 (4.82%) VPN
5 31 (4.15%) TCP/IP
6 22 (2.95%) WAN
7 21 (2.81%) SAN
8 15 (2.01%) Firewall
9 12 (1.61%) Internet
9 12 (1.61%) VLAN
10 10 (1.34%) Wireless
11 8 (1.07%) WLAN
12 7 (0.94%) HTTP
13 6 (0.80%) VoIP
14 5 (0.67%) Skype
15 4 (0.54%) Network Security
15 4 (0.54%) Unified Communications
16 3 (0.40%) AMQP
16 3 (0.40%) Softphone
Database & Business Intelligence
1 26 (3.48%) SQL Server
2 20 (2.68%) MySQL
3 14 (1.87%) Relational Database
4 13 (1.74%) Amazon Redshift
5 10 (1.34%) Power BI
6 9 (1.20%) SAP HANA
6 9 (1.20%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 8 (1.07%) Sybase ASE
8 7 (0.94%) MaxDB
8 7 (0.94%) Pentaho
9 5 (0.67%) Oracle Database
10 4 (0.54%) Amazon Athena
10 4 (0.54%) Oracle Database 12c
10 4 (0.54%) PostgreSQL
11 3 (0.40%) MariaDB
12 2 (0.27%) Azure SQL Database
12 2 (0.27%) Data Warehouse
12 2 (0.27%) InfluxDB
12 2 (0.27%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 1 (0.13%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 51 (6.83%) JIRA
2 20 (2.68%) 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
5 3 (0.40%) Maven
6 2 (0.27%) Jenkins
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
1 293 (39.22%) Social Skills
2 76 (10.17%) Analytical Skills
3 49 (6.56%) Manufacturing
4 45 (6.02%) Finance
5 33 (4.42%) Banking
6 22 (2.95%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 21 (2.81%) Aerospace
8 17 (2.28%) Investment Banking
8 17 (2.28%) Law
9 16 (2.14%) Aviation
10 12 (1.61%) Organisational Skills
11 11 (1.47%) Documentation Skills
11 11 (1.47%) Public Sector
12 9 (1.20%) Legal
13 8 (1.07%) Front Office
13 8 (1.07%) Telecoms
14 7 (0.94%) Retail
15 6 (0.80%) French Language
16 5 (0.67%) Marketing
17 4 (0.54%) Advertising
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (1.34%) Oracle GoldenGate
2 9 (1.20%) CSS
3 8 (1.07%) 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 (0.54%) HTML
7 4 (0.54%) OAuth
8 3 (0.40%) JSP
8 3 (0.40%) LDAP
8 3 (0.40%) Web Services
8 3 (0.40%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 51 (6.83%) Onboarding
2 32 (4.28%) Data Centre
3 26 (3.48%) Self-Motivation
4 23 (3.08%) Analytical Mindset
5 16 (2.14%) Driving Licence
6 14 (1.87%) Smartphone
7 12 (1.61%) Data Protection Act
7 12 (1.61%) Enterprise Software
7 12 (1.61%) Virtual Team
8 11 (1.47%) iPhone
8 11 (1.47%) PKI
9 10 (1.34%) SCADA
10 9 (1.20%) Legacy Systems
11 8 (1.07%) Hybrid Cloud
12 7 (0.94%) Video Conferencing
13 6 (0.80%) Mobile App
14 4 (0.54%) CCTV
14 4 (0.54%) iPad
14 4 (0.54%) Management Information System
15 3 (0.40%) Blackberry
Operating Systems
1 334 (44.71%) Windows
2 155 (20.75%) Windows 10
3 46 (6.16%) Linux
4 40 (5.35%) Mac OS
5 38 (5.09%) Unix
5 38 (5.09%) Windows Server
6 23 (3.08%) Android
7 21 (2.81%) Apple iOS
8 14 (1.87%) Windows 7
9 6 (0.80%) Windows Server 2016
10 4 (0.54%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 3 (0.40%) Mac OS X
11 3 (0.40%) Windows Server 2012
11 3 (0.40%) Windows Server 2019
12 2 (0.27%) Ubuntu
13 1 (0.13%) CentOS
13 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2008
13 1 (0.13%) Windows XP
Processes & Methodologies
1 147 (19.68%) Customer Service
2 141 (18.88%) Problem-Solving
3 104 (13.92%) ITIL
4 59 (7.90%) ITSM
5 58 (7.76%) Migration
6 39 (5.22%) Continuous Improvement
7 35 (4.69%) Asset Management
7 35 (4.69%) Change Management
7 35 (4.69%) Root Cause Analysis
8 34 (4.55%) User Experience
9 32 (4.28%) DevOps
9 32 (4.28%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 30 (4.02%) Incident Management
10 30 (4.02%) Service Management
11 27 (3.61%) Service Delivery
12 26 (3.48%) Break/Fix
13 25 (3.35%) Problem Management
14 24 (3.21%) Data Protection
14 24 (3.21%) Workflow
15 22 (2.95%) CI/CD
Programming Languages
1 57 (7.63%) PowerShell
2 55 (7.36%) SQL
3 30 (4.02%) Python
4 21 (2.81%) Java
5 20 (2.68%) C#
6 19 (2.54%) JavaScript
7 15 (2.01%) Shell Script
8 10 (1.34%) Bash
8 10 (1.34%) Korn
8 10 (1.34%) Perl
9 2 (0.27%) C++
10 1 (0.13%) C
10 1 (0.13%) R
10 1 (0.13%) T-SQL
10 1 (0.13%) VB.NET
10 1 (0.13%) VBA
10 1 (0.13%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 150 (20.08%) Security Cleared
2 114 (15.26%) SC Cleared
3 41 (5.49%) Degree
4 29 (3.88%) DV Cleared
5 24 (3.21%) Microsoft Certification
6 22 (2.95%) A+ Certification
7 20 (2.68%) CCNA
7 20 (2.68%) Cisco Certification
8 16 (2.14%) MCSE
8 16 (2.14%) Network+ Certification
9 15 (2.01%) BPSS Clearance
10 10 (1.34%) Computer Science Degree
11 9 (1.20%) Azure Certification
12 7 (0.94%) DBS Check
13 6 (0.80%) ITIL Certification
14 3 (0.40%) NVQ Level 4
15 2 (0.27%) Master's Degree
16 1 (0.13%) AWS Certification
16 1 (0.13%) CompTIA Security+
16 1 (0.13%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 29 (3.88%) SLA
2 5 (0.67%) Cyber Essentials
3 4 (0.54%) 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
1 245 (32.80%) Active Directory
2 23 (3.08%) VMware Infrastructure
3 12 (1.61%) Hyper-V
4 10 (1.34%) Oracle RAC
4 10 (1.34%) VMware NSX
5 8 (1.07%) Virtual Desktop
5 8 (1.07%) VMware ESXi
6 5 (0.67%) vCloud
6 5 (0.67%) vSphere
7 4 (0.54%) Firmware
8 2 (0.27%) Docker
8 2 (0.27%) NFS
8 2 (0.27%) Virtual Servers
9 1 (0.13%) BitLocker
9 1 (0.13%) Microsoft Virtual Server
9 1 (0.13%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 96 (12.85%) Microsoft Intune
2 44 (5.89%) SCCM
3 18 (2.41%) Jamf Pro
4 16 (2.14%) Grafana
4 16 (2.14%) Single Sign-On
5 10 (1.34%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
5 10 (1.34%) Oracle RMAN
5 10 (1.34%) Terraform
6 9 (1.20%) Ansible
7 8 (1.07%) vCenter Server
8 5 (0.67%) Kubernetes
8 5 (0.67%) SCOM
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 (34.27%) Microsoft
2 84 (11.24%) ServiceNow
3 35 (4.69%) Oracle
4 28 (3.75%) Dell
5 26 (3.48%) VMware
6 25 (3.35%) SAP
7 21 (2.81%) Apple
8 18 (2.41%) HP
9 17 (2.28%) Cisco
10 13 (1.74%) Google
11 11 (1.47%) Okta
12 10 (1.34%) McAfee
13 9 (1.20%) Bloomberg
14 8 (1.07%) Denodo
14 8 (1.07%) Remedy
14 8 (1.07%) Splunk
14 8 (1.07%) Starlink
14 8 (1.07%) Sybase
14 8 (1.07%) Talend
15 7 (0.94%) Databricks