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 10 August 2026.

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

6 months to
10 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 166 126 115
Rank change year-on-year -40 -11 -21
Contract jobs requiring a Support Engineer 868 712 772
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.63% 2.15% 1.99%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.76% 2.35% 2.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 579 463 538
10th Percentile £163 £160 £140
25th Percentile £188 £200 £178
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £238 £238 £232
Median % change year-on-year - +2.45% -7.28%
75th Percentile £400 £384 £350
90th Percentile £492 £538 £525
UK excluding London median daily rate £225 £229 £220
% change year-on-year -1.64% +4.21% -0.23%
Number of hourly rates quoted 50 69 46
10th Percentile £16.99 £16.63 £16.63
25th Percentile £18.31 £20.64 £18.13
Median hourly rate £24.50 £25.15 £22.00
Median % change year-on-year -2.58% +14.32% +15.79%
75th Percentile £36.00 £43.75 £24.80
90th Percentile £53.00 £68.00 £55.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.00 £25.15 £22.00
% change year-on-year -12.52% +14.32% +21.48%

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 49,375 30,298 36,046
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.56% 91.39% 92.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,671 19,217 23,307
10th Percentile £328 £283 £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 £625 £638
90th Percentile £727 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,467 1,516 2,023
10th Percentile £15.00 £13.60 £14.16
25th Percentile £20.72 £17.21 £20.50
Median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +67.00% -41.51% +1.18%
75th Percentile £67.84 £53.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £72.63 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.11 £45.00
% change year-on-year +69.26% -44.20% +20.00%

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 10 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 10 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 10 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 -44 736 £225 -5.26% 371
UK excluding London -36 572 £225 -1.64% 296
London -47 258 £263 +5.00% 107
South East -37 166 £250 - 99
North of England -27 125 £200 -9.09% 62
Work from Home -72 85 £288 -16.67% 98
Scotland +59 82 £442 +49.83% 18
North West -12 82 £200 -12.09% 36
East of England +5 64 £200 - 47
Midlands -65 61 £250 -9.09% 39
South West -60 60 £210 -10.64% 39
Yorkshire -20 41 £200 -9.09% 23
West Midlands -72 39 £250 -9.09% 18
East Midlands -4 21 £270 +47.54% 21
Wales -30 10 £195 -8.24% 2
Northern Ireland +1 4 £175 -30.00% 4
North East -53 3 £188 -3.85% 5
Channel Islands - 1 £550 -

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

For the 6 months to 10 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.

1 469 (54.03%) Windows
2 376 (43.32%) Active Directory
3 375 (43.20%) Microsoft
4 319 (36.75%) Microsoft 365
5 202 (23.27%) Problem-Solving
6 195 (22.47%) Customer Service
7 189 (21.77%) Windows 10
8 173 (19.93%) Security Cleared
9 164 (18.89%) ITIL
10 148 (17.05%) Azure
11 132 (15.21%) Entra ID
12 130 (14.98%) Microsoft Intune
13 123 (14.17%) ServiceNow
14 110 (12.67%) SC Cleared
14 110 (12.67%) SharePoint
15 103 (11.87%) ITSM
16 97 (11.18%) DNS
17 91 (10.48%) PowerShell
18 72 (8.29%) Continuous Improvement
19 67 (7.72%) Asset Management
19 67 (7.72%) Windows Server
20 66 (7.60%) Linux
20 66 (7.60%) VPN
21 65 (7.49%) SQL
22 63 (7.26%) Microsoft Exchange
22 63 (7.26%) Migration
22 63 (7.26%) Service Delivery
23 61 (7.03%) VMware
24 59 (6.80%) Degree
24 59 (6.80%) DHCP

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
1 110 (12.67%) SharePoint
2 63 (7.26%) Microsoft Exchange
3 12 (1.38%) NetWeaver
4 11 (1.27%) HCL Notes
5 4 (0.46%) Confluence
6 3 (0.35%) Skype for Business
7 2 (0.23%) Exchange Server 2013
7 2 (0.23%) IIS
7 2 (0.23%) OpenStack
7 2 (0.23%) WebLogic
7 2 (0.23%) WebSphere
8 1 (0.12%) Tuxedo
Applications
1 43 (4.95%) Microsoft Office
2 13 (1.50%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.46%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.12%) Acrobat
4 1 (0.12%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.12%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 11 (1.27%) SAP S/4HANA
2 7 (0.81%) Remedy ITSM
3 4 (0.46%) SAP EHS
4 3 (0.35%) SAP Retail
5 2 (0.23%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.12%) Alphatax
6 1 (0.12%) Dynamics CRM
6 1 (0.12%) Dynamics GP
6 1 (0.12%) Oracle BRM
6 1 (0.12%) SAP BRIM
6 1 (0.12%) SAP FI
6 1 (0.12%) SAP FI-CA
6 1 (0.12%) SAP FS
6 1 (0.12%) SAP GRC
6 1 (0.12%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 319 (36.75%) Microsoft 365
2 148 (17.05%) Azure
3 132 (15.21%) Entra ID
4 41 (4.72%) OneDrive
5 36 (4.15%) AWS
6 20 (2.30%) SaaS
7 19 (2.19%) GCP
8 18 (2.07%) Azure DevOps
9 11 (1.27%) Power Platform
10 8 (0.92%) Google Workspace
11 7 (0.81%) PaaS
12 6 (0.69%) IaaS
13 5 (0.58%) Mimecast
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 (0.35%) Azure Data Factory
15 3 (0.35%) OpenShift
15 3 (0.35%) Sauce Labs
Communications & Networking
1 97 (11.18%) DNS
2 66 (7.60%) VPN
3 59 (6.80%) DHCP
4 58 (6.68%) TCP/IP
5 43 (4.95%) Wi-Fi
6 33 (3.80%) LAN
7 25 (2.88%) WAN
8 23 (2.65%) Firewall
8 23 (2.65%) SAN
9 21 (2.42%) Internet
10 16 (1.84%) VLAN
11 9 (1.04%) Wireless
12 7 (0.81%) Skype
13 6 (0.69%) HTTP
13 6 (0.69%) WLAN
14 5 (0.58%) Network Security
14 5 (0.58%) SMTP
14 5 (0.58%) WebEx
15 4 (0.46%) Remote Desktop
15 4 (0.46%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 40 (4.61%) SQL Server
2 16 (1.84%) MySQL
3 12 (1.38%) SAP HANA
4 11 (1.27%) Sybase ASE
5 10 (1.15%) MaxDB
6 9 (1.04%) Power BI
7 8 (0.92%) Relational Database
8 7 (0.81%) Amazon Redshift
8 7 (0.81%) Pentaho
9 6 (0.69%) PostgreSQL
10 5 (0.58%) Amazon RDS
10 5 (0.58%) Oracle Database
10 5 (0.58%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 4 (0.46%) Oracle Database 12c
12 3 (0.35%) Big Data
12 3 (0.35%) Data Warehouse
12 3 (0.35%) Elasticsearch
12 3 (0.35%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 2 (0.23%) MariaDB
13 2 (0.23%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 58 (6.68%) JIRA
2 20 (2.30%) Git
3 9 (1.04%) Browser DevTools
4 3 (0.35%) Android Studio
4 3 (0.35%) Eclipse
4 3 (0.35%) Jenkins
4 3 (0.35%) Xcode
5 2 (0.23%) Artifactory
5 2 (0.23%) Firebug
6 1 (0.12%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 1 (0.12%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.12%) Claude Code
6 1 (0.12%) Gemini Tracker
6 1 (0.12%) GitLab
6 1 (0.12%) MSI
6 1 (0.12%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 1 (0.12%) Subversion
6 1 (0.12%) TeamCity
6 1 (0.12%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 353 (40.67%) Social Skills
2 107 (12.33%) Analytical Skills
3 73 (8.41%) Finance
4 44 (5.07%) Manufacturing
5 36 (4.15%) Banking
6 25 (2.88%) Organisational Skills
7 19 (2.19%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 18 (2.07%) Investment Banking
8 18 (2.07%) Retail
9 16 (1.84%) Documentation Skills
10 13 (1.50%) Law
11 12 (1.38%) Financial Institution
11 12 (1.38%) Legal
11 12 (1.38%) Telecoms
12 11 (1.27%) Front Office
13 10 (1.15%) Spanish Language
14 9 (1.04%) Aerospace
14 9 (1.04%) Public Sector
15 8 (0.92%) Aviation
16 7 (0.81%) Marketing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (1.84%) .NET
2 12 (1.38%) LDAP
3 11 (1.27%) SAP Basis
4 10 (1.15%) Oracle GoldenGate
4 10 (1.15%) XML
5 8 (0.92%) REST
6 7 (0.81%) .NET Framework
6 7 (0.81%) JDO
7 6 (0.69%) SAP Fiori
7 6 (0.69%) SAPUI5
7 6 (0.69%) Software Packaging
8 5 (0.58%) CSS
8 5 (0.58%) SAML
9 4 (0.46%) OAuth
10 3 (0.35%) Ajax
10 3 (0.35%) HTML
10 3 (0.35%) JSP
10 3 (0.35%) Middleware
10 3 (0.35%) RESTful
10 3 (0.35%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 117 (13.48%) Onboarding
2 35 (4.03%) Data Centre
3 25 (2.88%) Analytical Mindset
4 24 (2.76%) Video Conferencing
5 20 (2.30%) Self-Motivation
6 19 (2.19%) PKI
7 16 (1.84%) Hedge funds
8 15 (1.73%) Data Protection Act
8 15 (1.73%) iPhone
9 14 (1.61%) Enterprise Software
10 13 (1.50%) Driving Licence
11 12 (1.38%) Legacy Systems
12 11 (1.27%) Blackberry
12 11 (1.27%) Smartphone
12 11 (1.27%) Virtual Team
13 10 (1.15%) iPad
14 9 (1.04%) SCADA
15 8 (0.92%) CMDB
16 7 (0.81%) Management Information System
17 6 (0.69%) BYOD
Operating Systems
1 469 (54.03%) Windows
2 189 (21.77%) Windows 10
3 67 (7.72%) Windows Server
4 66 (7.60%) Linux
5 55 (6.34%) Mac OS
6 41 (4.72%) Unix
7 35 (4.03%) Apple iOS
8 31 (3.57%) Android
9 20 (2.30%) Windows 7
10 9 (1.04%) Windows Server 2019
11 8 (0.92%) Ubuntu
12 7 (0.81%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 5 (0.58%) Windows Server 2008
13 5 (0.58%) 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 (0.35%) Windows XP
16 2 (0.23%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 202 (23.27%) Problem-Solving
2 195 (22.47%) Customer Service
3 164 (18.89%) ITIL
4 103 (11.87%) ITSM
5 72 (8.29%) Continuous Improvement
6 67 (7.72%) Asset Management
7 63 (7.26%) Migration
7 63 (7.26%) Service Delivery
8 55 (6.34%) Service Management
9 53 (6.11%) Problem Management
10 50 (5.76%) User Experience
11 46 (5.30%) Change Management
12 45 (5.18%) Identity Access Management
12 45 (5.18%) Incident Management
13 43 (4.95%) Root Cause Analysis
14 40 (4.61%) Infrastructure Engineering
15 34 (3.92%) Runbook
16 32 (3.69%) Data Protection
17 31 (3.57%) Break/Fix
17 31 (3.57%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 91 (10.48%) PowerShell
2 65 (7.49%) SQL
3 36 (4.15%) Python
4 26 (3.00%) C#
5 25 (2.88%) Java
6 20 (2.30%) JavaScript
7 17 (1.96%) Bash
7 17 (1.96%) Shell Script
8 10 (1.15%) Korn
9 7 (0.81%) C++
10 6 (0.69%) Perl
11 4 (0.46%) T-SQL
12 2 (0.23%) DCL
12 2 (0.23%) Go
12 2 (0.23%) VBScript
13 1 (0.12%) C
13 1 (0.12%) Search Processing Language
13 1 (0.12%) VB.NET
13 1 (0.12%) VBA
Qualifications
1 173 (19.93%) Security Cleared
2 110 (12.67%) SC Cleared
3 59 (6.80%) Degree
4 48 (5.53%) DV Cleared
5 31 (3.57%) A+ Certification
5 31 (3.57%) Microsoft Certification
6 24 (2.76%) Network+ Certification
7 22 (2.53%) Cisco Certification
8 21 (2.42%) CCNA
9 17 (1.96%) BPSS Clearance
9 17 (1.96%) MCSE
10 10 (1.15%) Computer Science Degree
10 10 (1.15%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 9 (1.04%) DBS Check
12 7 (0.81%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 6 (0.69%) Azure Certification
13 6 (0.69%) ITIL Certification
14 4 (0.46%) NVQ Level 4
15 2 (0.23%) CCNP
16 1 (0.12%) CTC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 58 (6.68%) SLA
2 6 (0.69%) QA
3 5 (0.58%) Data Quality
4 4 (0.46%) Cyber Essentials
5 3 (0.35%) GDPR
5 3 (0.35%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 2 (0.23%) GLP
6 2 (0.23%) GMP
6 2 (0.23%) GxP
6 2 (0.23%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 1 (0.12%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.12%) Disclosure Scotland
7 1 (0.12%) GRC
7 1 (0.12%) ITGC
7 1 (0.12%) NCSC
System Software
1 376 (43.32%) Active Directory
2 47 (5.41%) VMware Infrastructure
3 25 (2.88%) Hyper-V
4 24 (2.76%) VMware ESXi
5 17 (1.96%) VMware NSX
6 16 (1.84%) Virtual Desktop
7 12 (1.38%) vCloud
8 10 (1.15%) Oracle RAC
9 8 (0.92%) Docker
10 7 (0.81%) vSphere
11 5 (0.58%) BitLocker
11 5 (0.58%) Firmware
11 5 (0.58%) NFS
12 3 (0.35%) Microsoft App-V
12 3 (0.35%) Terminal Services
13 2 (0.23%) zsh
14 1 (0.12%) Virtual Servers
14 1 (0.12%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 130 (14.98%) Microsoft Intune
2 52 (5.99%) SCCM
3 24 (2.76%) vCenter Server
4 21 (2.42%) Single Sign-On
5 18 (2.07%) SCOM
6 17 (1.96%) Jamf Pro
7 14 (1.61%) Kubernetes
8 12 (1.38%) Grafana
8 12 (1.38%) Terraform
9 10 (1.15%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
9 10 (1.15%) Oracle RMAN
10 9 (1.04%) Ansible
11 6 (0.69%) WSUS
12 5 (0.58%) Red Hat Satellite
13 3 (0.35%) AirWatch
13 3 (0.35%) ITRS Geneos
13 3 (0.35%) Nagios
13 3 (0.35%) NetBackup
13 3 (0.35%) vMotion
13 3 (0.35%) vRealize
Vendors
1 375 (43.20%) Microsoft
2 123 (14.17%) ServiceNow
3 61 (7.03%) VMware
4 38 (4.38%) Apple
5 34 (3.92%) Oracle
6 31 (3.57%) Okta
7 26 (3.00%) Google
8 25 (2.88%) Cisco
9 24 (2.76%) Citrix
9 24 (2.76%) SAP
10 23 (2.65%) Dell
11 20 (2.30%) BeyondTrust
12 14 (1.61%) HP
13 13 (1.50%) Meraki
14 11 (1.27%) Lotus
14 11 (1.27%) Splunk
14 11 (1.27%) Sybase
15 10 (1.15%) iManage
16 9 (1.04%) Remedy
16 9 (1.04%) Samsung