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 19 May 2026.

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

6 months to
19 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 170 127 114
Rank change year-on-year -43 -13 +8
Contract jobs requiring a Support Engineer 754 634 835
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.57% 2.17% 1.96%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.70% 2.35% 2.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 500 402 574
10th Percentile £153 £153 £140
25th Percentile £183 £190 £163
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £210 £235 £210
Median % change year-on-year -10.64% +11.90% -16.00%
75th Percentile £369 £385 £319
90th Percentile £470 £500 £448
UK excluding London median daily rate £203 £225 £200
% change year-on-year -10.00% +12.50% -5.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 78 52 54
10th Percentile £17.78 £18.13 £16.25
25th Percentile £21.25 £20.64 £17.72
Median hourly rate £24.49 £24.66 £21.41
Median % change year-on-year -0.70% +15.19% +5.46%
75th Percentile £36.00 £37.38 £29.84
90th Percentile £37.88 £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 44,361 26,969 39,513
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.34% 92.35% 92.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,167 17,560 25,723
10th Percentile £325 £294 £280
25th Percentile £413 £406 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £512 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year -0.10% -2.38% -3.40%
75th Percentile £615 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £490
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.06% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,886 1,047 2,672
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.00 £12.82
25th Percentile £20.31 £18.13 £16.29
Median hourly rate £42.69 £28.00 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +52.45% -23.29% -18.89%
75th Percentile £66.00 £61.38 £61.30
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £72.90
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £27.13 £40.00
% change year-on-year +65.90% -32.19% -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 19 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 19 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 19 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 -43 663 £210 -11.58% 290
UK excluding London -40 513 £203 -10.00% 269
London -55 206 £275 -2.22% 60
South East -31 143 £210 -16.00% 91
Midlands -33 89 £200 -27.27% 47
North of England -72 89 £190 -11.63% 55
Work from Home -65 83 £208 -30.83% 70
South West -32 76 £210 -10.64% 22
East of England -7 61 £200 -10.11% 36
North West -44 55 £183 -15.12% 31
West Midlands -55 53 £250 -9.09% 27
Scotland +25 48 £313 +108.33% 15
East Midlands -1 37 £200 -5.88% 20
Yorkshire -40 33 £190 -19.15% 18
Wales -17 9 £250 +25.00% 3
Northern Ireland -8 4 £175 +18.24% 2
North East -35 1 - - 8

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

For the 6 months to 19 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.

1 339 (44.96%) Windows
2 260 (34.48%) Microsoft
3 252 (33.42%) Active Directory
4 232 (30.77%) Microsoft 365
5 159 (21.09%) Windows 10
6 152 (20.16%) Security Cleared
7 148 (19.63%) Customer Service
8 141 (18.70%) Problem-Solving
9 134 (17.77%) Azure
10 114 (15.12%) SC Cleared
11 108 (14.32%) ITIL
12 97 (12.86%) Microsoft Intune
13 87 (11.54%) ServiceNow
14 75 (9.95%) Entra ID
15 62 (8.22%) ITSM
16 58 (7.69%) Migration
17 57 (7.56%) PowerShell
18 55 (7.29%) SharePoint
18 55 (7.29%) SQL
19 52 (6.90%) DNS
19 52 (6.90%) JIRA
20 46 (6.10%) SCCM
21 44 (5.84%) Linux
21 44 (5.84%) Wi-Fi
22 41 (5.44%) Degree
23 40 (5.31%) Continuous Improvement
24 39 (5.17%) DHCP
24 39 (5.17%) Mac OS
25 38 (5.04%) Unix
25 38 (5.04%) VPN

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 55 (7.29%) SharePoint
2 25 (3.32%) Microsoft Exchange
3 9 (1.19%) NetWeaver
4 5 (0.66%) 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 34 (4.51%) Microsoft Office
2 12 (1.59%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.53%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 10 (1.33%) SAP EHS
2 8 (1.06%) SAP S/4HANA
3 7 (0.93%) 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 (30.77%) Microsoft 365
2 134 (17.77%) Azure
3 75 (9.95%) Entra ID
4 26 (3.45%) AWS
5 22 (2.92%) Azure DevOps
5 22 (2.92%) OneDrive
5 22 (2.92%) SaaS
6 12 (1.59%) Power Platform
7 11 (1.46%) Dynamics 365
8 10 (1.33%) 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 (0.66%) 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%) npm
Communications & Networking
1 52 (6.90%) DNS
2 44 (5.84%) Wi-Fi
3 39 (5.17%) DHCP
4 38 (5.04%) VPN
5 37 (4.91%) LAN
6 31 (4.11%) TCP/IP
7 22 (2.92%) WAN
8 21 (2.79%) SAN
9 13 (1.72%) Firewall
10 12 (1.59%) Internet
10 12 (1.59%) VLAN
11 9 (1.19%) Wireless
11 9 (1.19%) WLAN
12 7 (0.93%) HTTP
13 6 (0.80%) VoIP
14 5 (0.66%) Skype
15 4 (0.53%) Unified Communications
16 3 (0.40%) AMQP
16 3 (0.40%) Network Security
16 3 (0.40%) Remote Desktop
Database & Business Intelligence
1 27 (3.58%) SQL Server
2 20 (2.65%) MySQL
3 14 (1.86%) Relational Database
4 13 (1.72%) Amazon Redshift
5 10 (1.33%) Power BI
6 9 (1.19%) SAP HANA
6 9 (1.19%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 8 (1.06%) Sybase ASE
8 7 (0.93%) MaxDB
8 7 (0.93%) Pentaho
9 5 (0.66%) Oracle Database
10 4 (0.53%) Amazon Athena
10 4 (0.53%) Oracle Database 12c
10 4 (0.53%) 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 52 (6.90%) JIRA
2 20 (2.65%) Git
3 13 (1.72%) 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 (38.86%) Social Skills
2 79 (10.48%) Analytical Skills
3 50 (6.63%) Manufacturing
4 46 (6.10%) Finance
5 34 (4.51%) Banking
6 22 (2.92%) Aerospace
6 22 (2.92%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 18 (2.39%) Investment Banking
7 18 (2.39%) Law
8 17 (2.25%) Aviation
9 12 (1.59%) Organisational Skills
10 11 (1.46%) Public Sector
11 10 (1.33%) Documentation Skills
12 9 (1.19%) Legal
13 8 (1.06%) Front Office
13 8 (1.06%) Telecoms
14 7 (0.93%) Retail
15 6 (0.80%) French Language
15 6 (0.80%) Marketing
16 4 (0.53%) Advertising
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (1.33%) Oracle GoldenGate
2 9 (1.19%) CSS
3 8 (1.06%) REST
3 8 (1.06%) SAP Basis
4 7 (0.93%) 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 (0.66%) Middleware
6 5 (0.66%) PySpark
6 5 (0.66%) SAML
6 5 (0.66%) YAML
7 4 (0.53%) HTML
7 4 (0.53%) OAuth
8 3 (0.40%) JSP
8 3 (0.40%) LDAP
8 3 (0.40%) Web Services
8 3 (0.40%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 53 (7.03%) Onboarding
2 31 (4.11%) Data Centre
3 25 (3.32%) Self-Motivation
4 23 (3.05%) Analytical Mindset
5 16 (2.12%) Driving Licence
6 14 (1.86%) Smartphone
6 14 (1.86%) Virtual Team
7 13 (1.72%) Data Protection Act
7 13 (1.72%) Enterprise Software
8 11 (1.46%) iPhone
8 11 (1.46%) PKI
9 10 (1.33%) SCADA
10 8 (1.06%) Hybrid Cloud
10 8 (1.06%) Legacy Systems
11 7 (0.93%) Video Conferencing
12 6 (0.80%) Mobile App
13 5 (0.66%) Blackberry
14 4 (0.53%) CCTV
14 4 (0.53%) Hedge funds
14 4 (0.53%) iPad
Operating Systems
1 339 (44.96%) Windows
2 159 (21.09%) Windows 10
3 44 (5.84%) Linux
4 39 (5.17%) Mac OS
5 38 (5.04%) Unix
5 38 (5.04%) Windows Server
6 22 (2.92%) Android
7 21 (2.79%) Apple iOS
8 14 (1.86%) Windows 7
9 6 (0.80%) Windows Server 2016
10 4 (0.53%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 4 (0.53%) Windows Server 2019
11 3 (0.40%) Mac OS X
11 3 (0.40%) Windows Server 2012
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
1 148 (19.63%) Customer Service
2 141 (18.70%) Problem-Solving
3 108 (14.32%) ITIL
4 62 (8.22%) ITSM
5 58 (7.69%) Migration
6 40 (5.31%) Continuous Improvement
7 35 (4.64%) Asset Management
7 35 (4.64%) Change Management
7 35 (4.64%) Root Cause Analysis
8 34 (4.51%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 34 (4.51%) User Experience
9 32 (4.24%) DevOps
10 31 (4.11%) Service Management
11 30 (3.98%) Service Delivery
12 29 (3.85%) Incident Management
13 26 (3.45%) Problem Management
14 25 (3.32%) Data Protection
15 24 (3.18%) Break/Fix
15 24 (3.18%) Workflow
16 21 (2.79%) CI/CD
Programming Languages
1 57 (7.56%) PowerShell
2 55 (7.29%) SQL
3 29 (3.85%) Python
4 21 (2.79%) Java
5 20 (2.65%) C#
6 19 (2.52%) JavaScript
7 15 (1.99%) Shell Script
8 10 (1.33%) Korn
8 10 (1.33%) Perl
9 9 (1.19%) Bash
10 2 (0.27%) 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
1 152 (20.16%) Security Cleared
2 114 (15.12%) SC Cleared
3 41 (5.44%) Degree
4 30 (3.98%) DV Cleared
5 24 (3.18%) Microsoft Certification
6 22 (2.92%) A+ Certification
7 20 (2.65%) CCNA
7 20 (2.65%) Cisco Certification
8 16 (2.12%) BPSS Clearance
8 16 (2.12%) MCSE
8 16 (2.12%) Network+ Certification
9 10 (1.33%) Computer Science Degree
10 9 (1.19%) Azure Certification
11 7 (0.93%) DBS Check
12 6 (0.80%) ITIL Certification
13 4 (0.53%) NVQ Level 4
14 2 (0.27%) Master's Degree
15 1 (0.13%) AWS Certification
15 1 (0.13%) CompTIA Security+
15 1 (0.13%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 29 (3.85%) SLA
2 5 (0.66%) 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
1 252 (33.42%) Active Directory
2 25 (3.32%) VMware Infrastructure
3 12 (1.59%) Hyper-V
4 10 (1.33%) Oracle RAC
4 10 (1.33%) VMware NSX
5 9 (1.19%) VMware ESXi
6 8 (1.06%) Virtual Desktop
7 5 (0.66%) vCloud
7 5 (0.66%) vSphere
8 4 (0.53%) Firmware
9 2 (0.27%) NFS
9 2 (0.27%) Virtual Servers
10 1 (0.13%) BitLocker
10 1 (0.13%) Docker
10 1 (0.13%) Microsoft Virtual Server
10 1 (0.13%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 97 (12.86%) Microsoft Intune
2 46 (6.10%) SCCM
3 18 (2.39%) Jamf Pro
4 16 (2.12%) Grafana
4 16 (2.12%) Single Sign-On
5 10 (1.33%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
5 10 (1.33%) Oracle RMAN
6 9 (1.19%) Terraform
6 9 (1.19%) vCenter Server
7 8 (1.06%) Ansible
8 6 (0.80%) SCOM
9 4 (0.53%) Kubernetes
10 3 (0.40%) vRealize
11 2 (0.27%) AirWatch
11 2 (0.27%) Kibana
11 2 (0.27%) McAfee ePO
11 2 (0.27%) PaperCut
11 2 (0.27%) Prometheus
11 2 (0.27%) Red Hat Satellite
11 2 (0.27%) WMI
Vendors
1 260 (34.48%) Microsoft
2 87 (11.54%) ServiceNow
3 35 (4.64%) Oracle
4 28 (3.71%) VMware
5 27 (3.58%) Dell
6 26 (3.45%) SAP
7 20 (2.65%) Apple
8 17 (2.25%) HP
9 16 (2.12%) Cisco
10 11 (1.46%) Google
10 11 (1.46%) Okta
11 10 (1.33%) McAfee
12 9 (1.19%) Bloomberg
13 8 (1.06%) Citrix
13 8 (1.06%) Denodo
13 8 (1.06%) Remedy
13 8 (1.06%) Splunk
13 8 (1.06%) Starlink
13 8 (1.06%) Sybase
13 8 (1.06%) Talend