Support Engineer Contract Job Trends

Support Engineer
UK

The median Support Engineer daily rate in the UK is £230, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 1 September 2026.

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

6 months to
1 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 163 135 124
Rank change year-on-year -28 -11 -37
Contract jobs requiring a Support Engineer 902 702 741
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.68% 2.14% 1.92%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.82% 2.35% 2.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 594 462 513
10th Percentile £163 £160 £140
25th Percentile £185 £200 £181
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £230 £238 £235
Median % change year-on-year -3.36% +1.28% -6.00%
75th Percentile £400 £379 £350
90th Percentile £500 £538 £525
UK excluding London median daily rate £210 £235 £220
% change year-on-year -10.64% +6.82% -1.23%
Number of hourly rates quoted 43 70 43
10th Percentile £16.46 £16.50 £18.00
25th Percentile £18.50 £20.64 £18.13
Median hourly rate £23.00 £25.15 £22.00
Median % change year-on-year -8.55% +14.32% +15.06%
75th Percentile £36.75 £43.75 £26.00
90th Percentile £53.00 £68.00 £59.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.00 £25.15 £22.44
% change year-on-year -12.52% +12.09% +18.09%

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 49,606 29,880 35,937
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.46% 91.25% 93.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,580 18,873 22,662
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% -1.69%
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 3,581 1,559 1,838
10th Percentile £14.96 £13.69 £14.16
25th Percentile £20.53 £17.04 £20.00
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% +1.18%
75th Percentile £67.84 £53.81 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £70.33 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.95
% change year-on-year +68.99% -42.78% +11.13%

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 1 September 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 1 September 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 1 September 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 -45 763 £225 -6.25% 399
UK excluding London -32 583 £210 -10.64% 326
London -38 281 £261 +4.50% 127
South East -40 158 £250 - 103
North of England -13 141 £200 - 64
North West -8 101 £200 -12.09% 34
Work from Home -61 93 £300 -6.25% 105
Scotland +48 86 £354 +26.43% 26
East of England -2 66 £198 -10.23% 52
Midlands -65 65 £250 -9.09% 52
South West -59 52 £210 -10.64% 34
West Midlands -66 45 £250 -9.09% 29
Yorkshire -20 37 £210 -4.55% 22
East Midlands -12 19 £270 +47.54% 23
Wales -26 9 £625 +194.12% 2
Northern Ireland +4 6 £175 -12.50% 6
North East -53 4 £239 +22.44% 12
Channel Islands - 1 £550 -

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

For the 6 months to 1 September 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.

1 511 (56.65%) Windows
2 418 (46.34%) Microsoft
3 400 (44.35%) Active Directory
4 355 (39.36%) Microsoft 365
5 220 (24.39%) Problem-Solving
6 215 (23.84%) Customer Service
7 194 (21.51%) Windows 10
8 181 (20.07%) ITIL
9 177 (19.62%) Security Cleared
10 146 (16.19%) Azure
11 141 (15.63%) Entra ID
12 138 (15.30%) Microsoft Intune
13 130 (14.41%) ITSM
14 127 (14.08%) ServiceNow
15 120 (13.30%) SharePoint
16 106 (11.75%) SC Cleared
17 103 (11.42%) DNS
17 103 (11.42%) PowerShell
18 86 (9.53%) Continuous Improvement
19 80 (8.87%) Windows Server
20 79 (8.76%) Linux
21 75 (8.31%) Asset Management
22 74 (8.20%) SQL
23 73 (8.09%) Service Delivery
24 72 (7.98%) TCP/IP
25 71 (7.87%) Microsoft Exchange
25 71 (7.87%) VPN
26 70 (7.76%) Degree
26 70 (7.76%) Service Management
27 68 (7.54%) Migration

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
1 120 (13.30%) SharePoint
2 71 (7.87%) Microsoft Exchange
3 11 (1.22%) HCL Notes
4 9 (1.00%) NetWeaver
5 5 (0.55%) MTS
6 3 (0.33%) Confluence
6 3 (0.33%) WebSphere
7 2 (0.22%) Exchange Server 2013
7 2 (0.22%) IIS
7 2 (0.22%) OpenStack
7 2 (0.22%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 52 (5.76%) Microsoft Office
2 15 (1.66%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.44%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 4 (0.44%) MS Visio
4 2 (0.22%) Acrobat
5 1 (0.11%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 1 (0.11%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 8 (0.89%) SAP S/4HANA
2 5 (0.55%) Remedy ITSM
3 4 (0.44%) SAP EHS
4 3 (0.33%) SAP Retail
5 2 (0.22%) 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
Cloud Services
1 355 (39.36%) Microsoft 365
2 146 (16.19%) Azure
3 141 (15.63%) Entra ID
4 48 (5.32%) OneDrive
5 41 (4.55%) AWS
6 21 (2.33%) SaaS
7 19 (2.11%) GCP
8 11 (1.22%) Power Platform
9 9 (1.00%) Azure DevOps
10 8 (0.89%) Google Workspace
11 6 (0.67%) Mimecast
12 5 (0.55%) AWS CloudFormation
12 5 (0.55%) IaaS
12 5 (0.55%) PaaS
13 4 (0.44%) Cloud Functions
13 4 (0.44%) Google App Engine
13 4 (0.44%) Google Compute Engine
13 4 (0.44%) Google Kubernetes Engine
14 3 (0.33%) Amazon OpenSearch
14 3 (0.33%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 103 (11.42%) DNS
2 72 (7.98%) TCP/IP
3 71 (7.87%) VPN
4 57 (6.32%) DHCP
5 42 (4.66%) Wi-Fi
6 38 (4.21%) LAN
7 33 (3.66%) WAN
8 26 (2.88%) Firewall
9 20 (2.22%) Internet
10 16 (1.77%) VLAN
11 15 (1.66%) SAN
12 11 (1.22%) Wireless
13 7 (0.78%) Network Security
13 7 (0.78%) SD-WAN
14 6 (0.67%) Skype
15 5 (0.55%) HTTP
15 5 (0.55%) SMTP
15 5 (0.55%) WebEx
15 5 (0.55%) WLAN
16 4 (0.44%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (3.88%) SQL Server
2 16 (1.77%) MySQL
3 9 (1.00%) Power BI
3 9 (1.00%) Relational Database
3 9 (1.00%) SAP HANA
4 8 (0.89%) MaxDB
4 8 (0.89%) Sybase ASE
5 7 (0.78%) PostgreSQL
6 6 (0.67%) Amazon Redshift
6 6 (0.67%) Pentaho
7 5 (0.55%) Amazon RDS
7 5 (0.55%) Oracle Database
8 4 (0.44%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 3 (0.33%) Big Data
9 3 (0.33%) Elasticsearch
9 3 (0.33%) KDB
9 3 (0.33%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 2 (0.22%) Data Warehouse
10 2 (0.22%) MariaDB
10 2 (0.22%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 51 (5.65%) JIRA
2 20 (2.22%) Git
3 9 (1.00%) Browser DevTools
4 4 (0.44%) Jenkins
5 3 (0.33%) Android Studio
5 3 (0.33%) Artifactory
5 3 (0.33%) Eclipse
5 3 (0.33%) Xcode
6 2 (0.22%) Bitbucket
6 2 (0.22%) Firebug
7 1 (0.11%) Claude Code
7 1 (0.11%) Gemini Tracker
7 1 (0.11%) GitLab
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
1 377 (41.80%) Social Skills
2 111 (12.31%) Analytical Skills
3 82 (9.09%) Finance
4 40 (4.43%) Manufacturing
5 38 (4.21%) Banking
6 27 (2.99%) Organisational Skills
7 24 (2.66%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 21 (2.33%) Investment Banking
9 19 (2.11%) Front Office
10 18 (2.00%) Retail
11 17 (1.88%) Documentation Skills
12 15 (1.66%) Legal
12 15 (1.66%) Telecoms
13 14 (1.55%) Law
14 12 (1.33%) Financial Institution
14 12 (1.33%) Public Sector
15 10 (1.11%) Spanish Language
16 7 (0.78%) Marketing
17 5 (0.55%) Aerospace
18 4 (0.44%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (2.00%) .NET
2 15 (1.66%) Terraform
3 12 (1.33%) LDAP
4 10 (1.11%) XML
5 8 (0.89%) SAP Basis
6 7 (0.78%) .NET Framework
6 7 (0.78%) JDO
7 6 (0.67%) REST
7 6 (0.67%) Software Packaging
8 5 (0.55%) CSS
8 5 (0.55%) SAML
8 5 (0.55%) SAP Fiori
8 5 (0.55%) SAPUI5
9 4 (0.44%) FIX Protocol
9 4 (0.44%) OAuth
9 4 (0.44%) React
10 3 (0.33%) AngularJS
10 3 (0.33%) GraphQL
10 3 (0.33%) Kafka
10 3 (0.33%) Oracle GoldenGate
Miscellaneous
1 121 (13.41%) Onboarding
2 33 (3.66%) Data Centre
3 31 (3.44%) Video Conferencing
4 20 (2.22%) PKI
4 20 (2.22%) Self-Motivation
5 18 (2.00%) Analytical Mindset
5 18 (2.00%) Driving Licence
6 16 (1.77%) Data Protection Act
6 16 (1.77%) Enterprise Software
6 16 (1.77%) Hedge funds
7 14 (1.55%) Smartphone
8 12 (1.33%) iPhone
9 11 (1.22%) Blackberry
9 11 (1.22%) Legacy Systems
9 11 (1.22%) Management Information System
10 10 (1.11%) Virtual Team
11 9 (1.00%) CMDB
11 9 (1.00%) Distributed Systems
12 7 (0.78%) iPad
13 6 (0.67%) BYOD
Operating Systems
1 511 (56.65%) Windows
2 194 (21.51%) Windows 10
3 80 (8.87%) Windows Server
4 79 (8.76%) Linux
5 64 (7.10%) Mac OS
6 42 (4.66%) Apple iOS
7 40 (4.43%) Android
8 33 (3.66%) Unix
9 19 (2.11%) Windows 7
10 11 (1.22%) Windows Server 2019
11 10 (1.11%) Ubuntu
12 7 (0.78%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 4 (0.44%) OpenVMS
13 4 (0.44%) Solaris
13 4 (0.44%) VMS
13 4 (0.44%) Windows Server 2008
13 4 (0.44%) Windows Server 2012
14 3 (0.33%) Windows Server 2016
14 3 (0.33%) Windows XP
15 2 (0.22%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 220 (24.39%) Problem-Solving
2 215 (23.84%) Customer Service
3 181 (20.07%) ITIL
4 130 (14.41%) ITSM
5 86 (9.53%) Continuous Improvement
6 75 (8.31%) Asset Management
7 73 (8.09%) Service Delivery
8 70 (7.76%) Service Management
9 68 (7.54%) Migration
10 58 (6.43%) Root Cause Analysis
11 54 (5.99%) User Experience
12 53 (5.88%) Incident Management
12 53 (5.88%) Problem Management
13 47 (5.21%) Identity Access Management
14 43 (4.77%) Infrastructure Engineering
15 39 (4.32%) Change Management
15 39 (4.32%) Runbook
16 38 (4.21%) Technical Leadership
17 33 (3.66%) Data Protection
18 29 (3.22%) Task Automation
Programming Languages
1 103 (11.42%) PowerShell
2 74 (8.20%) SQL
3 49 (5.43%) Python
4 30 (3.33%) Java
5 23 (2.55%) Bash
5 23 (2.55%) JavaScript
6 19 (2.11%) C#
7 10 (1.11%) Shell Script
8 7 (0.78%) C++
9 6 (0.67%) T-SQL
10 5 (0.55%) Perl
10 5 (0.55%) Tcl
11 4 (0.44%) Go
12 3 (0.33%) Korn
12 3 (0.33%) PL/SQL
13 2 (0.22%) DCL
13 2 (0.22%) VBA
14 1 (0.11%) C
14 1 (0.11%) VB.NET
14 1 (0.11%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 177 (19.62%) Security Cleared
2 106 (11.75%) SC Cleared
3 70 (7.76%) Degree
4 55 (6.10%) DV Cleared
5 30 (3.33%) A+ Certification
6 21 (2.33%) Microsoft Certification
7 19 (2.11%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
8 16 (1.77%) Network+ Certification
9 15 (1.66%) Cisco Certification
10 14 (1.55%) BPSS Clearance
11 13 (1.44%) CCNA
12 11 (1.22%) DBS Check
13 9 (1.00%) Computer Science Degree
13 9 (1.00%) MCSE
14 7 (0.78%) Microsoft Certified Professional
15 6 (0.67%) Azure Certification
15 6 (0.67%) ITIL Certification
16 4 (0.44%) NVQ Level 4
17 2 (0.22%) OCA
17 2 (0.22%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 62 (6.87%) SLA
2 6 (0.67%) QA
3 4 (0.44%) Cyber Essentials
3 4 (0.44%) Data Quality
4 3 (0.33%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 2 (0.22%) GDPR
5 2 (0.22%) GxP
5 2 (0.22%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 1 (0.11%) Actionable Recommendations
6 1 (0.11%) Disclosure Scotland
6 1 (0.11%) GLP
6 1 (0.11%) GMP
6 1 (0.11%) GRC
6 1 (0.11%) ITGC
6 1 (0.11%) NCSC
System Software
1 400 (44.35%) Active Directory
2 47 (5.21%) VMware Infrastructure
3 29 (3.22%) VMware ESXi
4 23 (2.55%) Hyper-V
5 18 (2.00%) VMware NSX
6 17 (1.88%) Virtual Desktop
7 15 (1.66%) vCloud
8 10 (1.11%) Docker
9 7 (0.78%) vSphere
10 5 (0.55%) BitLocker
10 5 (0.55%) NFS
11 3 (0.33%) Firmware
11 3 (0.33%) Microsoft App-V
11 3 (0.33%) Oracle RAC
11 3 (0.33%) Terminal Services
12 2 (0.22%) zsh
13 1 (0.11%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 138 (15.30%) Microsoft Intune
2 60 (6.65%) SCCM
3 29 (3.22%) vCenter Server
4 23 (2.55%) SCOM
4 23 (2.55%) Single Sign-On
5 17 (1.88%) Kubernetes
6 16 (1.77%) Jamf Pro
7 13 (1.44%) Ansible
8 12 (1.33%) Grafana
9 7 (0.78%) WSUS
10 5 (0.55%) Red Hat Satellite
11 4 (0.44%) ITRS Geneos
12 3 (0.33%) AirWatch
12 3 (0.33%) Nagios
12 3 (0.33%) NetBackup
12 3 (0.33%) Oracle RMAN
12 3 (0.33%) Prometheus
12 3 (0.33%) Puppet
12 3 (0.33%) vMotion
12 3 (0.33%) vRealize
Vendors
1 418 (46.34%) Microsoft
2 127 (14.08%) ServiceNow
3 65 (7.21%) VMware
4 42 (4.66%) Apple
5 33 (3.66%) Cisco
5 33 (3.66%) Okta
6 32 (3.55%) Oracle
7 27 (2.99%) Google
8 24 (2.66%) Citrix
9 21 (2.33%) BeyondTrust
10 18 (2.00%) SAP
11 17 (1.88%) Splunk
12 15 (1.66%) Meraki
13 13 (1.44%) Bloomberg
13 13 (1.44%) Dell
13 13 (1.44%) iManage
13 13 (1.44%) Samsung
13 13 (1.44%) Sybase
14 11 (1.22%) HP
14 11 (1.22%) Lotus