Systems Engineer Contract Job Trends

System Engineer
UK

The median System Engineer daily rate in the UK is £475, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 29 June 2026.

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

6 months to
29 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 261 356 227
Rank change year-on-year +95 -129 +157
Contract jobs requiring a Systems Engineer 486 180 447
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.95% 0.59% 1.03%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.03% 0.64% 1.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 117 69 98
10th Percentile £225 £363 £313
25th Percentile £383 £414 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £485 £450
Median % change year-on-year -2.06% +7.78% -14.29%
75th Percentile £533 £575 £563
90th Percentile £600 £650 £638
UK excluding London median daily rate £465 £500 £450
% change year-on-year -7.00% +11.11% -10.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 201 47 193
10th Percentile £43.75 £46.62 £39.96
25th Percentile £55.23 £52.50 £47.83
Median hourly rate £67.50 £56.44 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year +19.60% -5.93% -2.44%
75th Percentile £78.75 £73.75 £71.50
90th Percentile £81.73 £76.47 £76.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £67.50 £56.84 £63.83
% change year-on-year +18.75% -10.94% +12.17%

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 47,241 28,128 40,377
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.41% 92.07% 92.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,642 18,010 25,933
10th Percentile £325 £288 £281
25th Percentile £415 £401 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% -2.33%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £493
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.65% -1.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,182 1,254 2,874
10th Percentile £15.50 £13.76 £12.86
25th Percentile £21.14 £17.31 £16.50
Median hourly rate £43.00 £27.00 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +59.26% -28.00% -14.50%
75th Percentile £67.50 £56.25 £62.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.75 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £44.75 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +77.93% -37.13% -

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 29 June 2026.

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 29 June 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Systems Engineer in the UK

Systems Engineer
Top 16 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 29 June 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 +91 436 £480 -4.95% 361
UK excluding London +75 402 £465 -7.00% 329
South East +16 106 £500 -13.04% 129
South West +36 100 £500 -9.30% 70
Work from Home -8 78 £465 -3.63% 88
East of England +1 66 £450 -18.18% 35
London -37 62 £475 -8.65% 51
Midlands -18 53 £395 +43.64% 49
North of England -47 46 £450 +7.66% 45
West Midlands -36 30 £395 -9.71% 30
North West -34 28 - - 25
East Midlands +4 23 £450 +500.00% 19
Scotland +5 19 £215 -54.13% 7
Yorkshire -36 13 £393 - 13
Wales - 12 £465 - 3
North East -34 5 £450 +38.46% 7

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

For the 6 months to 29 June 2026, 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.

1 112 (23.05%) Security Cleared
2 89 (18.31%) Systems Engineering
3 75 (15.43%) SC Cleared
4 48 (9.88%) Validation
5 44 (9.05%) Degree
6 40 (8.23%) Problem-Solving
7 37 (7.61%) Windows
8 36 (7.41%) Rational DOORS
9 35 (7.20%) Linux
10 28 (5.76%) Microsoft
11 27 (5.56%) Verification and Validation
12 23 (4.73%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
13 22 (4.53%) DV Cleared
14 21 (4.32%) Infrastructure Engineering
15 20 (4.12%) Azure
15 20 (4.12%) TCP/IP
16 19 (3.91%) Active Directory
16 19 (3.91%) Decision-Making
17 18 (3.70%) Customer Service
17 18 (3.70%) Siemens
18 17 (3.50%) ServiceNow
19 16 (3.29%) Configuration Management
19 16 (3.29%) Ethernet
19 16 (3.29%) Microsoft Office
19 16 (3.29%) Risk Assessment
20 15 (3.09%) Creative Thinking
20 15 (3.09%) DNS
20 15 (3.09%) Fault Analysis
20 15 (3.09%) Firewall
20 15 (3.09%) Fortinet

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 4 (0.82%) Confluence
1 4 (0.82%) Microsoft Exchange
2 3 (0.62%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.41%) SAS
4 1 (0.21%) IIS
Applications
1 16 (3.29%) Microsoft Office
2 11 (2.26%) Simulink
3 4 (0.82%) Stateflow
Business Applications
1 1 (0.21%) ResourceLink
1 1 (0.21%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
1 1 (0.21%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 20 (4.12%) Azure
2 13 (2.67%) AWS
3 12 (2.47%) SaaS
4 10 (2.06%) Microsoft 365
5 7 (1.44%) Entra ID
6 6 (1.23%) GitHub
7 5 (1.03%) OpenShift
8 4 (0.82%) GitHub Actions
9 3 (0.62%) Amazon EC2
9 3 (0.62%) Amazon S3
10 2 (0.41%) Azure Logic Apps
10 2 (0.41%) Google Workspace
10 2 (0.41%) OneDrive
11 1 (0.21%) Amazon CloudWatch
11 1 (0.21%) Anthropic Claude
11 1 (0.21%) AWS Lambda
11 1 (0.21%) Azure Monitor
11 1 (0.21%) Azure Service Bus
11 1 (0.21%) Cohesity
11 1 (0.21%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 20 (4.12%) TCP/IP
2 16 (3.29%) Ethernet
3 15 (3.09%) DNS
3 15 (3.09%) Firewall
4 12 (2.47%) DHCP
5 6 (1.23%) Network Security
6 5 (1.03%) LAN
6 5 (1.03%) LTE
6 5 (1.03%) VPN
7 4 (0.82%) TETRA
7 4 (0.82%) WAN
8 3 (0.62%) SpaceWire
9 2 (0.41%) Modbus
9 2 (0.41%) PSTN
9 2 (0.41%) Unified Communications
9 2 (0.41%) VoIP
9 2 (0.41%) Wireshark
10 1 (0.21%) 3GPP
10 1 (0.21%) 4G
10 1 (0.21%) Radio Access Network
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.41%) SQL Server Reporting Services
2 1 (0.21%) BusinessObjects
2 1 (0.21%) Db2
2 1 (0.21%) IBM InfoSphere
2 1 (0.21%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 36 (7.41%) Rational DOORS
2 7 (1.44%) Rational Rhapsody
3 5 (1.03%) JIRA
4 1 (0.21%) CANoe
General
1 63 (12.96%) Aerospace
2 53 (10.91%) Social Skills
3 38 (7.82%) Military
4 25 (5.14%) Avionics
5 22 (4.53%) Analytical Skills
5 22 (4.53%) Electronics
6 18 (3.70%) Manufacturing
7 17 (3.50%) Presentation Skills
8 16 (3.29%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 11 (2.26%) Automotive
10 10 (2.06%) Law
11 9 (1.85%) Finance
11 9 (1.85%) Public Sector
12 5 (1.03%) Telecoms
13 4 (0.82%) Aviation
13 4 (0.82%) Documentation Skills
14 2 (0.41%) Retail
15 1 (0.21%) Banking
15 1 (0.21%) Games
15 1 (0.21%) Police
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (1.23%) OpenID
1 6 (1.23%) REST
1 6 (1.23%) SAML
2 3 (0.62%) ISPF
2 3 (0.62%) Software Packaging
3 2 (0.41%) JSON
3 2 (0.41%) Microsoft Graph
3 2 (0.41%) Middleware
4 1 (0.21%) FastAPI
4 1 (0.21%) GraphQL
4 1 (0.21%) HTML
4 1 (0.21%) Node.js
4 1 (0.21%) OpenGL
4 1 (0.21%) Qt
4 1 (0.21%) React
4 1 (0.21%) RESTful
4 1 (0.21%) Streamlit
4 1 (0.21%) Unity (Game Engine)
4 1 (0.21%) Unreal Engine
Miscellaneous
1 15 (3.09%) Industry 4.0
1 15 (3.09%) Robotics
2 8 (1.65%) Embedded Systems
3 7 (1.44%) CUDA
3 7 (1.44%) Data Centre
3 7 (1.44%) IoT
4 6 (1.23%) Mainframe
4 6 (1.23%) Operational Technology
4 6 (1.23%) Renewable Energy
5 5 (1.03%) Onboarding
6 4 (0.82%) Self-Motivation
7 3 (0.62%) Acoustics
7 3 (0.62%) FPGA
7 3 (0.62%) Virtual Team
8 2 (0.41%) CAN bus
8 2 (0.41%) Data Protection Act
8 2 (0.41%) Hybrid Cloud
8 2 (0.41%) Linux Command Line
8 2 (0.41%) Management Information System
8 2 (0.41%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 37 (7.61%) Windows
2 35 (7.20%) Linux
3 12 (2.47%) Windows Server
4 4 (0.82%) Android
4 4 (0.82%) Mac OS
5 3 (0.62%) MVS
5 3 (0.62%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 3 (0.62%) zOS
6 2 (0.41%) Windows 10
7 1 (0.21%) FreeRTOS
7 1 (0.21%) Ubuntu
7 1 (0.21%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 89 (18.31%) Systems Engineering
2 48 (9.88%) Validation
3 40 (8.23%) Problem-Solving
4 27 (5.56%) Verification and Validation
5 23 (4.73%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
6 21 (4.32%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 19 (3.91%) Decision-Making
8 18 (3.70%) Customer Service
9 16 (3.29%) Configuration Management
9 16 (3.29%) Risk Assessment
10 15 (3.09%) Creative Thinking
10 15 (3.09%) Fault Analysis
10 15 (3.09%) Mechatronics
11 13 (2.67%) Workflow
12 11 (2.26%) Migration
12 11 (2.26%) Root Cause Analysis
13 10 (2.06%) Agile
13 10 (2.06%) AI
13 10 (2.06%) Continuous Improvement
13 10 (2.06%) SysML
Programming Languages
1 15 (3.09%) MATLAB
1 15 (3.09%) PowerShell
2 13 (2.67%) Python
3 5 (1.03%) Bash
3 5 (1.03%) REXX
4 4 (0.82%) C
5 3 (0.62%) JCL
6 2 (0.41%) Java
6 2 (0.41%) JavaScript
7 1 (0.21%) C#
7 1 (0.21%) C++
7 1 (0.21%) Go
7 1 (0.21%) Lua
7 1 (0.21%) SQL
7 1 (0.21%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 112 (23.05%) Security Cleared
2 75 (15.43%) SC Cleared
3 44 (9.05%) Degree
4 22 (4.53%) DV Cleared
5 13 (2.67%) BPSS Clearance
6 4 (0.82%) Azure Certification
6 4 (0.82%) Microsoft Certification
7 2 (0.41%) AWS Certification
7 2 (0.41%) CCNA
7 2 (0.41%) Chartered Engineer
7 2 (0.41%) Cisco Certification
8 1 (0.21%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
8 1 (0.21%) CCA
8 1 (0.21%) CCNP
8 1 (0.21%) CISSP
8 1 (0.21%) CompTIA CySA+
8 1 (0.21%) Computer Science Degree
8 1 (0.21%) HND
8 1 (0.21%) Master's Degree
8 1 (0.21%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (0.82%) Def Stans
1 4 (0.82%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 3 (0.62%) MIL-STD-1553
3 2 (0.41%) Data Quality
3 2 (0.41%) NIST
3 2 (0.41%) QA
4 1 (0.21%) Cyber Essentials
4 1 (0.21%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 1 (0.21%) DICOM
4 1 (0.21%) DO-254
4 1 (0.21%) HAZOP
4 1 (0.21%) HL7
4 1 (0.21%) IEC 61508
4 1 (0.21%) ISO 26262
4 1 (0.21%) NIST 800
4 1 (0.21%) SLA
System Software
1 19 (3.91%) Active Directory
2 12 (2.47%) VMware Infrastructure
3 8 (1.65%) Virtual Desktop
4 6 (1.23%) Slurm Workload Manager
5 5 (1.03%) Firmware
5 5 (1.03%) Hyper-V
6 4 (0.82%) Virtual Machines
7 3 (0.62%) Docker
8 2 (0.41%) Embedded Firmware
8 2 (0.41%) KVM
8 2 (0.41%) VMware Workstation
9 1 (0.21%) Job Entry Subsystem
9 1 (0.21%) Microsoft App-V
9 1 (0.21%) VMware ESXi
9 1 (0.21%) VMware NSX
9 1 (0.21%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 11 (2.26%) Ansible
2 9 (1.85%) Microsoft Intune
3 6 (1.23%) Kubernetes
3 6 (1.23%) Puppet
3 6 (1.23%) Terraform
4 5 (1.03%) SCCM
5 2 (0.41%) Functional Safety
5 2 (0.41%) Tivoli NetView
6 1 (0.21%) Control-M
6 1 (0.21%) Jamf Pro
6 1 (0.21%) MOM
6 1 (0.21%) Packer
6 1 (0.21%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 28 (5.76%) Microsoft
2 18 (3.70%) Siemens
3 17 (3.50%) ServiceNow
4 15 (3.09%) Fortinet
5 13 (2.67%) EMC
5 13 (2.67%) NetApp
5 13 (2.67%) VMware
6 12 (2.47%) IBM
7 7 (1.44%) NVIDIA
8 5 (1.03%) Cisco
9 4 (0.82%) Splunk
10 3 (0.62%) Broadcom
10 3 (0.62%) Citrix
10 3 (0.62%) Google
10 3 (0.62%) NEC
11 2 (0.41%) Apple
11 2 (0.41%) CyberArk
11 2 (0.41%) Red Hat
11 2 (0.41%) SAP
12 1 (0.21%) HP