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 17 August 2026.

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

6 months to
17 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 247 344 251
Rank change year-on-year +97 -93 +97
Contract jobs requiring a Systems Engineer 558 212 368
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.04% 0.64% 0.95%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.13% 0.70% 1.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 130 71 81
10th Percentile £261 £330 £313
25th Percentile £383 £400 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £450
Median % change year-on-year - +5.56% -18.18%
75th Percentile £533 £588 £538
90th Percentile £680 £638 £625
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £493 £425
% change year-on-year -3.55% +15.88% -17.07%
Number of hourly rates quoted 279 57 136
10th Percentile £46.61 £44.97 £39.59
25th Percentile £56.74 £51.25 £44.94
Median hourly rate £67.47 £56.44 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year +19.54% -9.70% +9.02%
75th Percentile £75.00 £73.75 £70.00
90th Percentile £81.05 £75.79 £76.86
UK excluding London median hourly rate £67.50 £56.44 £65.00
% change year-on-year +19.60% -13.17% +15.06%

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 49,505 30,216 36,013
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.52% 91.29% 92.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,709 19,089 23,205
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 £621 £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 3,494 1,545 1,999
10th Percentile £15.00 £13.60 £14.16
25th Percentile £20.53 £17.30 £20.00
Median hourly rate £41.74 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +65.94% -41.51% +2.87%
75th Percentile £67.96 £53.99 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £72.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £45.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -44.11% +21.62%

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 17 August 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 17 August 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 17 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 +98 515 £475 -1.04% 609
UK excluding London +75 465 £475 -3.55% 536
South East +40 148 £500 +5.26% 176
South West +36 121 £495 -1.00% 115
Work from Home -27 80 £465 -13.89% 180
London -32 80 £475 -9.52% 139
Midlands -8 60 £475 +11.76% 64
East of England -9 55 £250 -54.55% 63
North of England -43 50 £494 +14.29% 82
North West -26 36 £500 +15.74% 48
West Midlands -27 35 £395 -22.93% 40
East Midlands -3 25 £475 +533.33% 23
Scotland -4 18 £400 -20.00% 37
Wales - 13 £465 - 8
Yorkshire - 9 £275 - 28
North East -38 5 £350 - 17

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

For the 6 months to 17 August 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.

1 108 (19.35%) Security Cleared
2 105 (18.82%) Systems Engineering
3 87 (15.59%) SC Cleared
4 62 (11.11%) Validation
5 51 (9.14%) Linux
6 48 (8.60%) Windows
7 38 (6.81%) Verification and Validation
8 37 (6.63%) Microsoft
8 37 (6.63%) Rational DOORS
9 34 (6.09%) Degree
10 32 (5.73%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
11 29 (5.20%) Active Directory
11 29 (5.20%) Configuration Management
11 29 (5.20%) Problem-Solving
12 28 (5.02%) Azure
13 26 (4.66%) Python
13 26 (4.66%) Windows Server
14 21 (3.76%) DNS
15 19 (3.41%) PowerShell
15 19 (3.41%) VMware
15 19 (3.41%) VMware Infrastructure
16 18 (3.23%) EMC
16 18 (3.23%) ITIL
17 17 (3.05%) Ansible
17 17 (3.05%) DHCP
17 17 (3.05%) Disaster Recovery
17 17 (3.05%) Firewall
18 16 (2.87%) BPSS Clearance
18 16 (2.87%) Microsoft 365
18 16 (2.87%) Puppet

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 (0.72%) JBoss
1 4 (0.72%) SAS
2 3 (0.54%) Microsoft Exchange
2 3 (0.54%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.36%) Confluence
4 1 (0.18%) IIS
Applications
1 13 (2.33%) Simulink
2 4 (0.72%) Stateflow
3 3 (0.54%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 3 (0.54%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 1 (0.18%) ResourceLink
2 1 (0.18%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 28 (5.02%) Azure
2 16 (2.87%) Microsoft 365
3 15 (2.69%) AWS
4 13 (2.33%) Entra ID
5 11 (1.97%) SaaS
6 9 (1.61%) OpenShift
7 6 (1.08%) GitHub
8 5 (0.90%) GCP
9 4 (0.72%) GitHub Actions
10 3 (0.54%) Azure Logic Apps
10 3 (0.54%) Azure Monitor
10 3 (0.54%) IaaS
11 2 (0.36%) Amazon EC2
11 2 (0.36%) Amazon S3
11 2 (0.36%) Cloudflare
11 2 (0.36%) OneDrive
12 1 (0.18%) Anthropic Claude
12 1 (0.18%) Figma
12 1 (0.18%) Microsoft Purview
12 1 (0.18%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 21 (3.76%) DNS
2 17 (3.05%) DHCP
2 17 (3.05%) Firewall
3 13 (2.33%) TCP/IP
4 11 (1.97%) Network Security
5 9 (1.61%) LAN
5 9 (1.61%) VPN
6 6 (1.08%) IPv4
6 6 (1.08%) Kerberos
6 6 (1.08%) Modbus
6 6 (1.08%) VLAN
7 5 (0.90%) ATM
8 4 (0.72%) WAN
9 3 (0.54%) Ethernet
9 3 (0.54%) NAS
9 3 (0.54%) SAN
10 2 (0.36%) DKIM
10 2 (0.36%) DMARC
10 2 (0.36%) Software-Defined Networking
10 2 (0.36%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (0.72%) Big Data
1 4 (0.72%) Hadoop
2 3 (0.54%) SQL Server
3 2 (0.36%) GIS
3 2 (0.36%) SQL Server Reporting Services
4 1 (0.18%) Db2
4 1 (0.18%) Geospatial Data
4 1 (0.18%) NoSQL
4 1 (0.18%) PostgreSQL
4 1 (0.18%) QGIS
4 1 (0.18%) Spatial Data
Development Applications
1 37 (6.63%) Rational DOORS
2 7 (1.25%) Rational Rhapsody
3 4 (0.72%) JIRA
4 3 (0.54%) Git
4 3 (0.54%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.18%) CANoe
5 1 (0.18%) Storybook
General
1 85 (15.23%) Aerospace
2 50 (8.96%) Social Skills
3 28 (5.02%) Analytical Skills
3 28 (5.02%) Avionics
4 26 (4.66%) Military
5 24 (4.30%) Manufacturing
6 16 (2.87%) Automotive
7 14 (2.51%) Electronics
8 13 (2.33%) Finance
9 10 (1.79%) Law
10 6 (1.08%) Presentation Skills
11 5 (0.90%) Aviation
12 4 (0.72%) Documentation Skills
12 4 (0.72%) Games
12 4 (0.72%) Influencing Skills
12 4 (0.72%) Telecoms
13 3 (0.54%) Public Sector
14 2 (0.36%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 1 (0.18%) Banking
15 1 (0.18%) Publishing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (1.08%) NETCONF
1 6 (1.08%) OpenID
1 6 (1.08%) SAML
2 4 (0.72%) REST
3 3 (0.54%) HTML
3 3 (0.54%) ISPF
4 2 (0.36%) ARM Templates
4 2 (0.36%) FastAPI
4 2 (0.36%) Microsoft Graph
4 2 (0.36%) Middleware
4 2 (0.36%) React
4 2 (0.36%) RESTful
5 1 (0.18%) GraphQL
5 1 (0.18%) JSON
5 1 (0.18%) Node.js
5 1 (0.18%) OpenGL
5 1 (0.18%) OpenLayers
5 1 (0.18%) Qt
5 1 (0.18%) SailPoint
5 1 (0.18%) Streamlit
Miscellaneous
1 12 (2.15%) Operational Technology
2 10 (1.79%) Renewable Energy
3 9 (1.61%) SCADA
4 8 (1.43%) Virtual Team
5 7 (1.25%) CUDA
5 7 (1.25%) IoT
6 6 (1.08%) Embedded Systems
6 6 (1.08%) Mainframe
6 6 (1.08%) Onboarding
7 5 (0.90%) Clustering
7 5 (0.90%) Hybrid Cloud
7 5 (0.90%) Self-Motivation
8 4 (0.72%) Animation
8 4 (0.72%) Cloud Native
8 4 (0.72%) Data Centre
8 4 (0.72%) Legacy Systems
8 4 (0.72%) Management Information System
9 3 (0.54%) Acoustics
9 3 (0.54%) Life Science
9 3 (0.54%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 51 (9.14%) Linux
2 48 (8.60%) Windows
3 26 (4.66%) Windows Server
4 14 (2.51%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 7 (1.25%) Unix
6 6 (1.08%) Windows 10
7 4 (0.72%) zOS
8 3 (0.54%) Android
8 3 (0.54%) MVS
9 1 (0.18%) FreeRTOS
9 1 (0.18%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.18%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 105 (18.82%) Systems Engineering
2 62 (11.11%) Validation
3 38 (6.81%) Verification and Validation
4 32 (5.73%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
5 29 (5.20%) Configuration Management
5 29 (5.20%) Problem-Solving
6 18 (3.23%) ITIL
7 17 (3.05%) Disaster Recovery
8 14 (2.51%) Project Management
8 14 (2.51%) Root Cause Analysis
9 13 (2.33%) AI
9 13 (2.33%) Continuous Improvement
9 13 (2.33%) Infrastructure as Code
9 13 (2.33%) Test Automation
9 13 (2.33%) Workflow
10 12 (2.15%) Agile
10 12 (2.15%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 12 (2.15%) Migration
10 12 (2.15%) Performance Tuning
10 12 (2.15%) SysML
Programming Languages
1 26 (4.66%) Python
2 19 (3.41%) PowerShell
3 15 (2.69%) MATLAB
4 9 (1.61%) Bash
5 6 (1.08%) C
5 6 (1.08%) REXX
6 5 (0.90%) SQL
7 4 (0.72%) C++
8 3 (0.54%) Bicep
8 3 (0.54%) Java
8 3 (0.54%) JCL
8 3 (0.54%) Perl
9 2 (0.36%) TypeScript
10 1 (0.18%) C#
10 1 (0.18%) COBOL
10 1 (0.18%) Go
10 1 (0.18%) Rust
10 1 (0.18%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 108 (19.35%) Security Cleared
2 87 (15.59%) SC Cleared
3 34 (6.09%) Degree
4 16 (2.87%) BPSS Clearance
5 11 (1.97%) DV Cleared
6 6 (1.08%) Azure Certification
6 6 (1.08%) Microsoft Certification
7 5 (0.90%) Chartered Engineer
7 5 (0.90%) Cisco Certification
8 4 (0.72%) CCNA
9 3 (0.54%) CCA
9 3 (0.54%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 2 (0.36%) AWS Certification
10 2 (0.36%) CCNP
10 2 (0.36%) Computer Science Degree
10 2 (0.36%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 1 (0.18%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 1 (0.18%) CompTIA CySA+
11 1 (0.18%) Master's Degree
11 1 (0.18%) Numerate Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (1.08%) Def Stans
2 4 (0.72%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 3 (0.54%) Data Quality
3 3 (0.54%) GxP
3 3 (0.54%) ISO/IEC 15288
3 3 (0.54%) NCSC
3 3 (0.54%) QA
4 2 (0.36%) DO-254
4 2 (0.36%) NIST
5 1 (0.18%) ARP4761
5 1 (0.18%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (0.18%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 1 (0.18%) DICOM
5 1 (0.18%) Disclosure Scotland
5 1 (0.18%) GMP
5 1 (0.18%) HL7
5 1 (0.18%) IEC 61508
5 1 (0.18%) ISO 26262
5 1 (0.18%) SLA
5 1 (0.18%) WCAG
System Software
1 29 (5.20%) Active Directory
2 19 (3.41%) VMware Infrastructure
3 14 (2.51%) Hyper-V
4 6 (1.08%) Docker
4 6 (1.08%) Firmware
4 6 (1.08%) Slurm Workload Manager
5 5 (0.90%) Virtual Machines
6 4 (0.72%) Virtual Desktop
7 3 (0.54%) Embedded Firmware
8 2 (0.36%) VMware Workstation
9 1 (0.18%) Job Entry Subsystem
9 1 (0.18%) KVM
9 1 (0.18%) Microsoft App-V
Systems Management
1 17 (3.05%) Ansible
2 16 (2.87%) Puppet
3 12 (2.15%) Kubernetes
4 10 (1.79%) Terraform
5 8 (1.43%) Microsoft Intune
6 6 (1.08%) Progress Chef
7 5 (0.90%) Failover Clustering
8 4 (0.72%) Red Hat Satellite
9 2 (0.36%) Functional Safety
9 2 (0.36%) Grafana
9 2 (0.36%) Istio
9 2 (0.36%) Prometheus
9 2 (0.36%) Salt
9 2 (0.36%) SCCM
9 2 (0.36%) Tivoli NetView
10 1 (0.18%) Amdocs OSS
10 1 (0.18%) Control-M
10 1 (0.18%) Packer
10 1 (0.18%) PingFederate
10 1 (0.18%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 37 (6.63%) Microsoft
2 19 (3.41%) VMware
3 18 (3.23%) EMC
4 13 (2.33%) Red Hat
5 12 (2.15%) Cisco
6 11 (1.97%) IBM
7 7 (1.25%) NVIDIA
7 7 (1.25%) ServiceNow
8 6 (1.08%) SaltStack
9 5 (0.90%) Siemens
10 4 (0.72%) Fortinet
10 4 (0.72%) Perforce
11 3 (0.54%) AVEVA
11 3 (0.54%) NEC
11 3 (0.54%) Rockwell
11 3 (0.54%) Sparx
11 3 (0.54%) Splunk
12 2 (0.36%) BeyondTrust
12 2 (0.36%) CrowdStrike
12 2 (0.36%) Okta