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 18 September 2025.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 389 271 345
Rank change year-on-year -118 +74 +139
Contract jobs requiring a Systems Engineer 179 333 326
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.54% 0.86% 0.66%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.60% 0.93% 0.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 56 73 181
10th Percentile £278 £325 £325
25th Percentile £363 £363 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £450 £535
Median % change year-on-year +5.56% -15.89% +7.00%
75th Percentile £581 £525 £663
90th Percentile £622 £624 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £425 £513
% change year-on-year +11.76% -17.07% +7.89%
Number of hourly rates quoted 51 106 58
10th Percentile £44.94 £36.52 £35.00
25th Percentile £50.00 £44.94 £50.00
Median hourly rate £56.44 £65.00 £56.49
Median % change year-on-year -13.17% +15.06% +12.98%
75th Percentile £73.75 £70.00 £62.75
90th Percentile £75.79 £76.86 £80.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £56.44 £65.00 £56.49
% change year-on-year -13.17% +15.06% +12.98%

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 30,003 35,798 46,379
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.06% 92.95% 94.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 18,960 22,064 31,748
10th Percentile £278 £300 £300
25th Percentile £400 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £530
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -0.94% -3.64%
75th Percentile £623 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,577 1,684 1,483
10th Percentile £13.75 £14.73 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.30 £20.30 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £43.00 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -41.51% -3.37% +71.15%
75th Percentile £52.50 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £45.00 £43.00
% change year-on-year -44.11% +4.65% +95.45%

Systems Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings that featured Systems Engineer in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Systems Engineer 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 18 September 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 18 September 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Systems Engineer in the UK

Systems Engineer
Top 14 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 18 September 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 -110 160 £475 +5.56% 617
UK excluding London -96 137 £475 +11.76% 622
Work from Home -11 36 £550 +22.22% 304
East of England -12 35 £575 +31.43% 65
London +6 34 £458 -8.50% 76
South East -27 25 £475 +31.03% 138
Midlands -32 22 £425 - 114
South West +5 21 £500 -9.09% 127
North West -41 20 £463 -38.33% 86
North of England -49 20 £463 -38.33% 125
Scotland +5 13 £500 +9.89% 48
West Midlands -18 12 £425 +4.62% 73
East Midlands -10 10 - - 38
Wales +5 1 - - 10

Systems Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 18 September 2025, Systems Engineer contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring Systems Engineer in the job title.

1 37 (20.67%) Security Cleared
2 32 (17.88%) SC Cleared
3 27 (15.08%) Linux
4 26 (14.53%) Validation
4 26 (14.53%) Social Skills
5 25 (13.97%) Problem-Solving
5 25 (13.97%) Systems Engineering
6 21 (11.73%) Aerospace
7 19 (10.61%) Python
7 19 (10.61%) Windows
8 16 (8.94%) Java
9 15 (8.38%) Microsoft
9 15 (8.38%) Verification and Validation
10 14 (7.82%) VMware
11 13 (7.26%) Agile
11 13 (7.26%) System Testing
11 13 (7.26%) Azure
11 13 (7.26%) AWS
12 12 (6.70%) GitHub
12 12 (6.70%) C
12 12 (6.70%) SQL
12 12 (6.70%) DevOps
13 10 (5.59%) Rational DOORS
13 10 (5.59%) Degree
13 10 (5.59%) CI/CD
14 9 (5.03%) Project Delivery
14 9 (5.03%) Terraform
14 9 (5.03%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
14 9 (5.03%) VMware Infrastructure
14 9 (5.03%) Firewall

Systems Engineer Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 8 (4.47%) Confluence
2 7 (3.91%) SharePoint
3 2 (1.12%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (1.12%) NetWeaver
3 2 (1.12%) Skype for Business
4 1 (0.56%) CMS
Applications
1 5 (2.79%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (2.23%) Simulink
3 3 (1.68%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (1.68%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (1.12%) CANalyzer
Business Applications
1 8 (4.47%) Teamcenter
2 1 (0.56%) Pegasus Opera
Cloud Services
1 13 (7.26%) AWS
1 13 (7.26%) Azure
2 12 (6.70%) GitHub
3 8 (4.47%) Microsoft 365
4 4 (2.23%) Amazon CloudWatch
4 4 (2.23%) Amazon EC2
4 4 (2.23%) AWS CloudFormation
4 4 (2.23%) AWS Lambda
4 4 (2.23%) Serverless
5 3 (1.68%) Amazon S3
5 3 (1.68%) GitHub Actions
5 3 (1.68%) Microsoft Purview
6 2 (1.12%) Azure Sentinel
6 2 (1.12%) GitHub Copilot
6 2 (1.12%) SaaS
7 1 (0.56%) Microsoft Copilot
7 1 (0.56%) OCI
7 1 (0.56%) Power Automate
7 1 (0.56%) Power Platform
7 1 (0.56%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 9 (5.03%) Firewall
2 7 (3.91%) DNS
3 6 (3.35%) TCP/IP
4 4 (2.23%) DHCP
4 4 (2.23%) VoIP
4 4 (2.23%) Wireless
5 3 (1.68%) HTTP
5 3 (1.68%) SSL
5 3 (1.68%) VPN
6 2 (1.12%) HTTPS
6 2 (1.12%) Network Security
6 2 (1.12%) Radio Access Network
6 2 (1.12%) SAN
6 2 (1.12%) Skype
6 2 (1.12%) Software-Defined Radio
6 2 (1.12%) SpaceWire
6 2 (1.12%) VLAN
7 1 (0.56%) J1939
7 1 (0.56%) Link 16
7 1 (0.56%) Tactical Data Link
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (2.79%) Oracle Database
1 5 (2.79%) SQL Server
2 2 (1.12%) MySQL
3 1 (0.56%) Azure SQL Database
3 1 (0.56%) Electronic Patient Records
3 1 (0.56%) Metadata
3 1 (0.56%) PostgreSQL
3 1 (0.56%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 10 (5.59%) Rational DOORS
2 6 (3.35%) Git
3 5 (2.79%) ClearCase
4 4 (2.23%) Rational Statemate
5 3 (1.68%) JIRA
6 2 (1.12%) Bitbucket
6 2 (1.12%) Jenkins
6 2 (1.12%) Snyk
7 1 (0.56%) CANoe
7 1 (0.56%) CMake
7 1 (0.56%) GitLab
7 1 (0.56%) Gradle
7 1 (0.56%) JIRA Agile
7 1 (0.56%) LabVIEW
General
1 26 (14.53%) Social Skills
2 21 (11.73%) Aerospace
3 8 (4.47%) Telecoms
4 7 (3.91%) Presentation Skills
4 7 (3.91%) Public Sector
5 6 (3.35%) Finance
5 6 (3.35%) Manufacturing
5 6 (3.35%) Military
6 5 (2.79%) Electronics
7 4 (2.23%) Analytical Skills
8 3 (1.68%) Avionics
8 3 (1.68%) Documentation Skills
9 2 (1.12%) French Language
9 2 (1.12%) Legal
9 2 (1.12%) Social Housing
10 1 (0.56%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 1 (0.56%) Marketing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (2.23%) Kafka
2 3 (1.68%) .NET
2 3 (1.68%) Web Services
3 2 (1.12%) FHIR
3 2 (1.12%) JSON
3 2 (1.12%) Qt
3 2 (1.12%) RESTful
3 2 (1.12%) Spring
3 2 (1.12%) Spring Boot
3 2 (1.12%) XML
4 1 (0.56%) .NET Framework
4 1 (0.56%) Bazel
4 1 (0.56%) Elastic Stack
4 1 (0.56%) FastAPI
4 1 (0.56%) GraphQL
4 1 (0.56%) Middleware
4 1 (0.56%) Oracle Fusion
4 1 (0.56%) React
4 1 (0.56%) Redux
4 1 (0.56%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 8 (4.47%) SCADA
1 8 (4.47%) Self-Motivation
2 7 (3.91%) Renewable Energy
3 6 (3.35%) Algorithms
3 6 (3.35%) Management Information System
4 4 (2.23%) Data Centre
4 4 (2.23%) Distributed Systems
5 3 (1.68%) Data Protection Act
5 3 (1.68%) Operational Technology
5 3 (1.68%) PKI
6 2 (1.12%) Driving Licence
6 2 (1.12%) Embedded Systems
6 2 (1.12%) GNSS
6 2 (1.12%) Legacy Systems
6 2 (1.12%) Onboarding
6 2 (1.12%) PACS
6 2 (1.12%) Product Ownership
6 2 (1.12%) Replication
6 2 (1.12%) Robotics
6 2 (1.12%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 27 (15.08%) Linux
2 19 (10.61%) Windows
3 8 (4.47%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 7 (3.91%) Unix
5 5 (2.79%) VMS
6 3 (1.68%) CentOS
6 3 (1.68%) Ubuntu
6 3 (1.68%) Windows Server
7 2 (1.12%) Android
8 1 (0.56%) FreeRTOS
8 1 (0.56%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
8 1 (0.56%) VxWorks
Processes & Methodologies
1 26 (14.53%) Validation
2 25 (13.97%) Problem-Solving
2 25 (13.97%) Systems Engineering
3 15 (8.38%) Verification and Validation
4 13 (7.26%) Agile
4 13 (7.26%) System Testing
5 12 (6.70%) DevOps
6 10 (5.59%) CI/CD
7 9 (5.03%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
7 9 (5.03%) Project Delivery
8 8 (4.47%) TestOps
9 7 (3.91%) Cybersecurity
9 7 (3.91%) Mentoring
9 7 (3.91%) Roadmaps
9 7 (3.91%) Stakeholder Management
10 6 (3.35%) Data Management
10 6 (3.35%) Data Protection
10 6 (3.35%) ITIL
10 6 (3.35%) PDM
10 6 (3.35%) Service Delivery
Programming Languages
1 19 (10.61%) Python
2 16 (8.94%) Java
3 12 (6.70%) C
3 12 (6.70%) SQL
4 8 (4.47%) Bash
4 8 (4.47%) MATLAB
5 6 (3.35%) C++
5 6 (3.35%) PowerShell
5 6 (3.35%) Shell Script
6 4 (2.23%) JavaScript
7 3 (1.68%) Go
8 2 (1.12%) C#
8 2 (1.12%) Tcl
9 1 (0.56%) Embedded C
9 1 (0.56%) Embedded C++
9 1 (0.56%) Korn
9 1 (0.56%) Ladder Logic
9 1 (0.56%) Perl
9 1 (0.56%) Ruby
9 1 (0.56%) VBA
Qualifications
1 37 (20.67%) Security Cleared
2 32 (17.88%) SC Cleared
3 10 (5.59%) Degree
4 6 (3.35%) BPSS Clearance
5 4 (2.23%) CCIE
5 4 (2.23%) Cisco Certification
6 2 (1.12%) CCNP
6 2 (1.12%) DV Cleared
6 2 (1.12%) RHCSA
7 1 (0.56%) AWS Certification
7 1 (0.56%) Computer Science Degree
7 1 (0.56%) HND
7 1 (0.56%) ISACA
7 1 (0.56%) Master's Degree
7 1 (0.56%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (1.68%) IEC 61131
2 2 (1.12%) Cyber Essentials
2 2 (1.12%) DICOM
2 2 (1.12%) HL7
2 2 (1.12%) ISO 26262
2 2 (1.12%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 2 (1.12%) QA
2 2 (1.12%) SLA
3 1 (0.56%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 1 (0.56%) Def Stans
3 1 (0.56%) Disclosure Scotland
3 1 (0.56%) GDPR
3 1 (0.56%) IEC 61508
3 1 (0.56%) NIST
System Software
1 9 (5.03%) VMware Infrastructure
2 8 (4.47%) Active Directory
3 6 (3.35%) Docker
4 4 (2.23%) VMware ESXi
5 3 (1.68%) Virtual Desktop
5 3 (1.68%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (1.12%) KVM
6 2 (1.12%) vSphere
7 1 (0.56%) Embedded Firmware
7 1 (0.56%) Firmware
7 1 (0.56%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.56%) iptables
7 1 (0.56%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 9 (5.03%) Terraform
2 7 (3.91%) Ansible
3 4 (2.23%) Kubernetes
4 3 (1.68%) SELinux
5 2 (1.12%) Grafana
5 2 (1.12%) Microsoft Intune
5 2 (1.12%) Podman
5 2 (1.12%) Prometheus
6 1 (0.56%) Nagios
6 1 (0.56%) Progress Chef
6 1 (0.56%) Puppet
6 1 (0.56%) SCCM
6 1 (0.56%) Single Sign-On
6 1 (0.56%) Wonderware InTouch
6 1 (0.56%) WSUS
6 1 (0.56%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 15 (8.38%) Microsoft
2 14 (7.82%) VMware
3 8 (4.47%) Cisco
3 8 (4.47%) Oracle
4 5 (2.79%) IBM
4 5 (2.79%) NetApp
4 5 (2.79%) SAP
5 4 (2.23%) ServiceNow
5 4 (2.23%) Wonderware
6 3 (1.68%) Axway
6 3 (1.68%) Remedy
6 3 (1.68%) Rockwell
6 3 (1.68%) Siemens
6 3 (1.68%) Splunk
7 2 (1.12%) AVEVA
7 2 (1.12%) Ericsson
7 2 (1.12%) F5
7 2 (1.12%) Fortinet
7 2 (1.12%) Red Hat
7 2 (1.12%) Zscaler