Systems Engineer Contract Job Trends

System Engineer
UK

The median System Engineer daily rate in the UK is £452, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 11 November 2025.

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

6 months to
11 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 397 294 343
Rank change year-on-year -103 +49 +136
Contract jobs requiring a Systems Engineer 171 277 313
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.49% 0.77% 0.67%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.54% 0.83% 0.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 50 72 177
10th Percentile £187 £326 £329
25th Percentile £350 £363 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £452 £450 £550
Median % change year-on-year +0.44% -18.18% +10.00%
75th Percentile £572 £520 £645
90th Percentile £613 £733 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £438 £560
% change year-on-year +2.86% -21.88% +16.07%
Number of hourly rates quoted 49 70 56
10th Percentile £43.29 £24.43 £35.00
25th Percentile £46.98 £40.95 £51.25
Median hourly rate £56.44 £65.00 £56.49
Median % change year-on-year -13.17% +15.06% +2.71%
75th Percentile £71.50 £70.00 £63.19
90th Percentile £76.13 £76.76 £78.64
UK excluding London median hourly rate £56.44 £65.00 £56.49
% change year-on-year -13.17% +15.06% -4.21%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
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 31,731 33,449 44,055
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.90% 92.85% 93.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,141 20,162 29,928
10th Percentile £278 £300 £294
25th Percentile £402 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £738 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £490 £500
% change year-on-year -3.06% -2.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,818 1,246 1,550
10th Percentile £14.00 £15.10 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.69 £20.30 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -28.14% -21.35% +63.30%
75th Percentile £51.52 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £69.65 £73.75 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £44.50
% change year-on-year -28.14% -21.35% +90.25%

Systems Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Systems Engineer' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Systems Engineer job vacancy trend in the UK

Systems Engineer
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Systems Engineer job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Systems Engineer job vacancies in the UK

Systems Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Systems Engineer over the 6 months to 11 November 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Systems Engineer in the UK

Systems Engineer
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Systems Engineer job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Systems Engineer job vacancies in the UK

Systems Engineer
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Systems Engineer over the 6 months to 11 November 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Systems Engineer in the UK

Systems Engineer
Top 15 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Systems Engineer within the UK over the 6 months to 11 November 2025. 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 -118 151 £450 - 577
UK excluding London -100 139 £450 +2.86% 531
Work from Home -13 41 £465 +3.33% 231
London -23 26 £493 +9.44% 96
East of England -36 26 £454 +3.77% 84
South West +2 25 £550 - 133
South East -19 25 £379 +8.29% 152
North of England -58 25 £450 -10.00% 58
North West -37 24 £450 -10.00% 36
Midlands -39 23 £425 - 87
Scotland +3 14 £500 -25.93% 22
West Midlands -35 12 £425 +4.62% 44
East Midlands -19 11 - - 42
Yorkshire -41 1 - - 13
Wales - 1 - - 3

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

For the 6 months to 11 November 2025, Systems 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 Systems Engineer in the job title.

1 42 (24.56%) Security Cleared
2 35 (20.47%) SC Cleared
3 25 (14.62%) Linux
4 20 (11.70%) Validation
5 17 (9.94%) Windows
6 16 (9.36%) Java
6 16 (9.36%) Systems Engineering
7 15 (8.77%) Problem-Solving
7 15 (8.77%) Python
8 12 (7.02%) AWS
8 12 (7.02%) Azure
8 12 (7.02%) Microsoft
8 12 (7.02%) Oracle
8 12 (7.02%) Verification and Validation
9 11 (6.43%) GitHub
9 11 (6.43%) Rational DOORS
9 11 (6.43%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 10 (5.85%) C
10 10 (5.85%) Degree
10 10 (5.85%) DevOps
10 10 (5.85%) SQL
11 9 (5.26%) Agile
11 9 (5.26%) Firewall
11 9 (5.26%) Terraform
12 8 (4.68%) Active Directory
12 8 (4.68%) Ansible
12 8 (4.68%) CI/CD
12 8 (4.68%) Cybersecurity
12 8 (4.68%) Requirements Management
12 8 (4.68%) System Testing

Systems 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 3 (1.75%) Microsoft Exchange
2 2 (1.17%) NetWeaver
2 2 (1.17%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.58%) Apache
3 1 (0.58%) CMS
3 1 (0.58%) Confluence
3 1 (0.58%) IIS
3 1 (0.58%) Tomcat
Applications
1 6 (3.51%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (2.92%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (2.92%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 2 (1.17%) Simulink
4 1 (0.58%) CANalyzer
4 1 (0.58%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 2 (1.17%) SAP Oil and Gas
1 2 (1.17%) Teamcenter
2 1 (0.58%) Pegasus Opera
Cloud Services
1 12 (7.02%) AWS
1 12 (7.02%) Azure
2 11 (6.43%) GitHub
3 7 (4.09%) Microsoft 365
4 4 (2.34%) AWS CloudFormation
5 3 (1.75%) Amazon S3
5 3 (1.75%) Entra ID
5 3 (1.75%) GitHub Actions
6 2 (1.17%) Amazon CloudWatch
6 2 (1.17%) Amazon EC2
6 2 (1.17%) AWS Lambda
6 2 (1.17%) GCP
6 2 (1.17%) GitHub Copilot
6 2 (1.17%) Google Workspace
6 2 (1.17%) Serverless
7 1 (0.58%) Cloud Computing
7 1 (0.58%) IaaS
7 1 (0.58%) OneDrive
7 1 (0.58%) PaaS
7 1 (0.58%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 9 (5.26%) Firewall
2 5 (2.92%) SSL
3 4 (2.34%) VPN
4 3 (1.75%) DHCP
4 3 (1.75%) DNS
4 3 (1.75%) TCP/IP
4 3 (1.75%) Wireless
5 2 (1.17%) LAN
5 2 (1.17%) SAN
5 2 (1.17%) Software-Defined Radio
5 2 (1.17%) VoIP
5 2 (1.17%) WAN
6 1 (0.58%) Cisco IOS
6 1 (0.58%) FCAPS
6 1 (0.58%) IMAP
6 1 (0.58%) Link 16
6 1 (0.58%) Network Security
6 1 (0.58%) SpaceWire
6 1 (0.58%) Tactical Data Link
6 1 (0.58%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (3.51%) Oracle Database
2 2 (1.17%) SQL Server
3 1 (0.58%) Azure SQL Database
3 1 (0.58%) Electronic Patient Records
3 1 (0.58%) Metadata
3 1 (0.58%) Pentaho
Development Applications
1 11 (6.43%) Rational DOORS
2 7 (4.09%) ClearCase
3 3 (1.75%) Git
4 2 (1.17%) Jenkins
4 2 (1.17%) JIRA
4 2 (1.17%) Snyk
5 1 (0.58%) CANoe
5 1 (0.58%) CMake
5 1 (0.58%) GitLab
5 1 (0.58%) Gradle
5 1 (0.58%) LabVIEW
5 1 (0.58%) Postman
5 1 (0.58%) Selenium
General
1 27 (15.79%) Aerospace
2 21 (12.28%) Social Skills
3 8 (4.68%) Manufacturing
4 6 (3.51%) Electronics
4 6 (3.51%) Military
4 6 (3.51%) Public Sector
5 4 (2.34%) Analytical Skills
6 3 (1.75%) Documentation Skills
6 3 (1.75%) Finance
6 3 (1.75%) Telecoms
7 2 (1.17%) Avionics
7 2 (1.17%) Banking
7 2 (1.17%) French Language
7 2 (1.17%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 2 (1.17%) Legal
7 2 (1.17%) Marketing
7 2 (1.17%) Social Housing
8 1 (0.58%) Local Government
8 1 (0.58%) Organisational Skills
8 1 (0.58%) Retail Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (2.34%) Kafka
2 3 (1.75%) Web Services
3 2 (1.17%) Middleware
3 2 (1.17%) Spring
3 2 (1.17%) Spring Boot
4 1 (0.58%) Bazel
4 1 (0.58%) FastAPI
4 1 (0.58%) GraphQL
4 1 (0.58%) Oracle Fusion
4 1 (0.58%) RabbitMQ
4 1 (0.58%) React
4 1 (0.58%) Redux
4 1 (0.58%) REST
4 1 (0.58%) XML
4 1 (0.58%) XSD
Miscellaneous
1 12 (7.02%) SCADA
2 7 (4.09%) Renewable Energy
3 4 (2.34%) Distributed Systems
3 4 (2.34%) Legacy Systems
3 4 (2.34%) Onboarding
4 3 (1.75%) Management Information System
4 3 (1.75%) Operational Technology
5 2 (1.17%) Algorithms
5 2 (1.17%) Clustering
5 2 (1.17%) Data Centre
5 2 (1.17%) Driving Licence
5 2 (1.17%) Life Science
5 2 (1.17%) Replication
5 2 (1.17%) Robotics
5 2 (1.17%) Security Posture
6 1 (0.58%) Acoustics
6 1 (0.58%) Hybrid Cloud
6 1 (0.58%) Product Ownership
6 1 (0.58%) Public Cloud
6 1 (0.58%) State Machine
Operating Systems
1 25 (14.62%) Linux
2 17 (9.94%) Windows
3 11 (6.43%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 4 (2.34%) Unix
5 3 (1.75%) CentOS
5 3 (1.75%) Ubuntu
5 3 (1.75%) Windows Server
6 2 (1.17%) Mac OS
7 1 (0.58%) FreeRTOS
7 1 (0.58%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
7 1 (0.58%) VMS
7 1 (0.58%) VxWorks
Processes & Methodologies
1 20 (11.70%) Validation
2 16 (9.36%) Systems Engineering
3 15 (8.77%) Problem-Solving
4 12 (7.02%) Verification and Validation
5 10 (5.85%) DevOps
6 9 (5.26%) Agile
7 8 (4.68%) CI/CD
7 8 (4.68%) Cybersecurity
7 8 (4.68%) Requirements Management
7 8 (4.68%) System Testing
8 7 (4.09%) Process Improvement
9 6 (3.51%) Infrastructure as Code
9 6 (3.51%) Mentoring
9 6 (3.51%) Software Engineering
9 6 (3.51%) Stakeholder Management
10 5 (2.92%) AI
10 5 (2.92%) ERP
10 5 (2.92%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 5 (2.92%) Requirements Engineering
10 5 (2.92%) Service Delivery
Programming Languages
1 16 (9.36%) Java
2 15 (8.77%) Python
3 10 (5.85%) C
3 10 (5.85%) SQL
4 7 (4.09%) Shell Script
5 6 (3.51%) Bash
6 4 (2.34%) C++
6 4 (2.34%) MATLAB
6 4 (2.34%) PowerShell
7 3 (1.75%) C#
7 3 (1.75%) Go
8 2 (1.17%) JavaScript
9 1 (0.58%) Korn
9 1 (0.58%) Ladder Logic
9 1 (0.58%) Perl
9 1 (0.58%) Ruby
9 1 (0.58%) Tcl
9 1 (0.58%) VBA
Qualifications
1 42 (24.56%) Security Cleared
2 35 (20.47%) SC Cleared
3 10 (5.85%) Degree
4 7 (4.09%) BPSS Clearance
5 3 (1.75%) DV Cleared
6 2 (1.17%) CCNA
6 2 (1.17%) Cisco Certification
6 2 (1.17%) RHCE
7 1 (0.58%) AWS Certification
7 1 (0.58%) Computer Science Degree
7 1 (0.58%) HND
7 1 (0.58%) ISACA
7 1 (0.58%) Network+ Certification
7 1 (0.58%) RHCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (2.34%) IEC 61131
2 2 (1.17%) Cyber Essentials
2 2 (1.17%) ISO 26262
3 1 (0.58%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 1 (0.58%) Def Stans
3 1 (0.58%) Disclosure Scotland
3 1 (0.58%) IEC 61508
3 1 (0.58%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 1 (0.58%) QA
System Software
1 8 (4.68%) Active Directory
2 4 (2.34%) Docker
3 3 (1.75%) Virtual Machines
3 3 (1.75%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (1.17%) Slurm Workload Manager
4 2 (1.17%) vSphere
5 1 (0.58%) Embedded Firmware
5 1 (0.58%) Firmware
5 1 (0.58%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.58%) Virtual Servers
5 1 (0.58%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 9 (5.26%) Terraform
2 8 (4.68%) Ansible
3 5 (2.92%) Microsoft Intune
4 4 (2.34%) Kubernetes
5 2 (1.17%) Prometheus
5 2 (1.17%) SCCM
5 2 (1.17%) SELinux
5 2 (1.17%) Single Sign-On
6 1 (0.58%) FortiGate
6 1 (0.58%) Grafana
6 1 (0.58%) Jamf Pro
6 1 (0.58%) Nagios
6 1 (0.58%) Progress Chef
6 1 (0.58%) Puppet
6 1 (0.58%) Red Hat Satellite
6 1 (0.58%) WSUS
6 1 (0.58%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 12 (7.02%) Microsoft
1 12 (7.02%) Oracle
2 8 (4.68%) VMware
3 7 (4.09%) IBM
4 6 (3.51%) Cisco
4 6 (3.51%) NetApp
4 6 (3.51%) SAP
4 6 (3.51%) Siemens
5 5 (2.92%) Red Hat
5 5 (2.92%) Rockwell
6 4 (2.34%) Wonderware
7 3 (1.75%) Axway
7 3 (1.75%) Okta
7 3 (1.75%) ServiceNow
8 2 (1.17%) CyberArk
8 2 (1.17%) Google
8 2 (1.17%) Palo Alto
9 1 (0.58%) Fortinet
9 1 (0.58%) Ubiquiti
9 1 (0.58%) Xero