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 24 March 2026.

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

6 months to
24 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 308 383 276
Rank change year-on-year +75 -107 +127
Contract jobs requiring a Systems Engineer 329 137 368
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.75% 0.47% 0.83%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.82% 0.51% 0.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 81 65 133
10th Percentile £83 £305 £313
25th Percentile £369 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year - -5.00% -
75th Percentile £544 £563 £575
90th Percentile £588 £713 £647
UK excluding London median daily rate £452 £469 £525
% change year-on-year -3.57% -10.71% +5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 127 23 145
10th Percentile £42.00 £38.30 £39.55
25th Percentile £44.58 £47.21 £46.39
Median hourly rate £59.67 £55.25 £57.44
Median % change year-on-year +8.00% -3.81% -6.60%
75th Percentile £72.24 £72.50 £71.25
90th Percentile £78.75 £79.00 £75.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £59.67 £55.65 £57.50
% change year-on-year +7.23% -3.23% -4.72%

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 40,297 27,081 41,111
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.96% 92.96% 92.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,161 17,787 26,923
10th Percentile £313 £300 £275
25th Percentile £411 £406 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £520 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% -0.95% -4.37%
75th Percentile £613 £630 £638
90th Percentile £724 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £481 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +1.32% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,500 900 2,514
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.20 £12.88
25th Percentile £19.34 £21.00 £16.25
Median hourly rate £36.70 £32.50 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +12.92% - -24.42%
75th Percentile £65.00 £64.73 £60.00
90th Percentile £76.58 £76.34 £71.90
UK excluding London median hourly rate £36.71 £32.50 £32.50
% change year-on-year +12.94% - -21.53%

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 24 March 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 24 March 2026.

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 24 March 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 +42 300 £478 +0.53% 390
UK excluding London +64 283 £452 -3.57% 380
South East +6 73 £490 -32.41% 122
East of England +20 67 £452 -16.30% 44
South West +9 49 £500 -15.25% 77
Work from Home -20 49 £480 -0.26% 112
Midlands -30 45 £395 +66.32% 57
North of England -60 39 £450 +6.64% 56
London -61 28 £478 -6.37% 48
North West -33 26 £216 -49.11% 30
East Midlands -11 24 £386 +414.33% 14
West Midlands -45 21 £395 +43.64% 43
Scotland +18 14 £232 -53.70% 22
Yorkshire -55 8 £510 - 12
North East -15 5 £450 +38.46% 14

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

For the 6 months to 24 March 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.

1 102 (31.00%) Security Cleared
2 56 (17.02%) SC Cleared
3 39 (11.85%) Systems Engineering
4 38 (11.55%) Degree
5 33 (10.03%) Validation
6 29 (8.81%) Problem-Solving
7 25 (7.60%) Windows
8 24 (7.29%) DV Cleared
9 20 (6.08%) Microsoft
9 20 (6.08%) Rational DOORS
9 20 (6.08%) Siemens
10 19 (5.78%) Decision-Making
11 17 (5.17%) Customer Service
11 17 (5.17%) Microsoft Office
11 17 (5.17%) TCP/IP
11 17 (5.17%) Verification and Validation
12 16 (4.86%) Ethernet
12 16 (4.86%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 16 (4.86%) Linux
12 16 (4.86%) Risk Assessment
13 15 (4.56%) BPSS Clearance
13 15 (4.56%) Creative Thinking
13 15 (4.56%) Fault Analysis
13 15 (4.56%) Mechatronics
13 15 (4.56%) ServiceNow
14 14 (4.26%) Fortinet
14 14 (4.26%) NetApp
14 14 (4.26%) PowerShell
15 13 (3.95%) Active Directory
16 12 (3.65%) Azure

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 5 (1.52%) Confluence
2 4 (1.22%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (0.61%) SharePoint
4 1 (0.30%) Apache
4 1 (0.30%) IIS
4 1 (0.30%) Tomcat
Applications
1 17 (5.17%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (1.22%) Simulink
3 2 (0.61%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (0.61%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.30%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 2 (0.61%) SAP Oil and Gas
2 1 (0.30%) ResourceLink
2 1 (0.30%) SAP HCM
2 1 (0.30%) SAP HR
2 1 (0.30%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 1 (0.30%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 12 (3.65%) Azure
2 11 (3.34%) AWS
3 7 (2.13%) Microsoft 365
4 5 (1.52%) Entra ID
5 4 (1.22%) Amazon EC2
5 4 (1.22%) Amazon S3
5 4 (1.22%) Google Workspace
6 3 (0.91%) GCP
6 3 (0.91%) GitHub
7 2 (0.61%) Cloud Computing
7 2 (0.61%) Cohesity
7 2 (0.61%) OpenShift
7 2 (0.61%) PaaS
7 2 (0.61%) SaaS
8 1 (0.30%) Azure Monitor
8 1 (0.30%) Azure Sentinel
8 1 (0.30%) Azure Service Bus
8 1 (0.30%) GitHub Actions
8 1 (0.30%) IaaS
8 1 (0.30%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 17 (5.17%) TCP/IP
2 16 (4.86%) Ethernet
3 11 (3.34%) Firewall
4 6 (1.82%) LTE
5 5 (1.52%) TETRA
5 5 (1.52%) VPN
6 4 (1.22%) DHCP
6 4 (1.22%) DNS
6 4 (1.22%) Network Security
6 4 (1.22%) SNMP
7 3 (0.91%) LAN
7 3 (0.91%) SAN
8 2 (0.61%) MIMO
8 2 (0.61%) NAS
8 2 (0.61%) SpaceWire
8 2 (0.61%) SSL
8 2 (0.61%) WAN
8 2 (0.61%) Wi-Fi
9 1 (0.30%) VLAN
9 1 (0.30%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.61%) SQL Server Reporting Services
2 1 (0.30%) Amazon RDS
2 1 (0.30%) BusinessObjects
2 1 (0.30%) DB2
2 1 (0.30%) IBM InfoSphere
2 1 (0.30%) Oracle Database
2 1 (0.30%) Pentaho
Development Applications
1 20 (6.08%) Rational DOORS
2 6 (1.82%) JIRA
3 2 (0.61%) ClearCase
4 1 (0.30%) Git
4 1 (0.30%) Jenkins
4 1 (0.30%) Postman
4 1 (0.30%) Selenium
General
1 48 (14.59%) Aerospace
1 48 (14.59%) Social Skills
2 32 (9.73%) Military
3 20 (6.08%) Manufacturing
4 18 (5.47%) Presentation Skills
5 17 (5.17%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 15 (4.56%) Electronics
7 10 (3.04%) Analytical Skills
8 8 (2.43%) Public Sector
9 5 (1.52%) Banking
9 5 (1.52%) Telecoms
10 4 (1.22%) Avionics
10 4 (1.22%) Retail Banking
11 3 (0.91%) Documentation Skills
11 3 (0.91%) Finance
12 2 (0.61%) Retail
13 1 (0.30%) Games
13 1 (0.30%) Local Government
13 1 (0.30%) Marketing
13 1 (0.30%) Police
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (1.22%) REST
2 3 (0.91%) Middleware
2 3 (0.91%) Software Packaging
3 2 (0.61%) ISPF
3 2 (0.61%) JSON
4 1 (0.30%) GraphQL
4 1 (0.30%) Microsoft Graph
4 1 (0.30%) Node.js
4 1 (0.30%) RabbitMQ
4 1 (0.30%) RESTful
4 1 (0.30%) SAP Fiori
4 1 (0.30%) Unity (Game Engine)
4 1 (0.30%) Unreal Engine
4 1 (0.30%) XML
4 1 (0.30%) XSD
Miscellaneous
1 15 (4.56%) Industry 4.0
1 15 (4.56%) Robotics
2 8 (2.43%) Embedded Systems
2 8 (2.43%) Onboarding
3 7 (2.13%) Data Centre
4 5 (1.52%) Legacy Systems
4 5 (1.52%) Operational Technology
5 4 (1.22%) SCADA
6 3 (0.91%) Hybrid Cloud
6 3 (0.91%) Self-Motivation
7 2 (0.61%) Analytical Mindset
7 2 (0.61%) ASIC
7 2 (0.61%) CAN bus
7 2 (0.61%) Cyber Threat
7 2 (0.61%) Enterprise Storage
7 2 (0.61%) IoT
7 2 (0.61%) Life Science
7 2 (0.61%) Mainframe
7 2 (0.61%) Management Information System
7 2 (0.61%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 25 (7.60%) Windows
2 16 (4.86%) Linux
3 7 (2.13%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 6 (1.82%) Mac OS
4 6 (1.82%) Windows Server
5 2 (0.61%) Android
5 2 (0.61%) zOS
6 1 (0.30%) FreeRTOS
6 1 (0.30%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 39 (11.85%) Systems Engineering
2 33 (10.03%) Validation
3 29 (8.81%) Problem-Solving
4 19 (5.78%) Decision-Making
5 17 (5.17%) Customer Service
5 17 (5.17%) Verification and Validation
6 16 (4.86%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 16 (4.86%) Risk Assessment
7 15 (4.56%) Creative Thinking
7 15 (4.56%) Fault Analysis
7 15 (4.56%) Mechatronics
8 12 (3.65%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
9 11 (3.34%) Agile
10 10 (3.04%) High Availability
11 9 (2.74%) Asset Management
11 9 (2.74%) Computer Science
11 9 (2.74%) Disaster Recovery
11 9 (2.74%) Migration
12 8 (2.43%) Continuous Improvement
12 8 (2.43%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 14 (4.26%) PowerShell
2 8 (2.43%) Python
3 6 (1.82%) MATLAB
4 4 (1.22%) C
5 3 (0.91%) C++
5 3 (0.91%) JavaScript
6 2 (0.61%) Bash
6 2 (0.61%) Java
6 2 (0.61%) JCL
6 2 (0.61%) REXX
6 2 (0.61%) SQL
7 1 (0.30%) C#
7 1 (0.30%) Embedded C
7 1 (0.30%) Embedded C++
7 1 (0.30%) Go
7 1 (0.30%) Groovy
7 1 (0.30%) Lua
7 1 (0.30%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 102 (31.00%) Security Cleared
2 56 (17.02%) SC Cleared
3 38 (11.55%) Degree
4 24 (7.29%) DV Cleared
5 15 (4.56%) BPSS Clearance
6 4 (1.22%) CCNA
6 4 (1.22%) Cisco Certification
7 1 (0.30%) CCNP
7 1 (0.30%) CISSP
7 1 (0.30%) CompTIA CySA+
7 1 (0.30%) HND
7 1 (0.30%) Master's Degree
7 1 (0.30%) Network+ Certification
7 1 (0.30%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (0.91%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 2 (0.61%) Data Quality
2 2 (0.61%) MIL-STD-1553
2 2 (0.61%) NIST
3 1 (0.30%) DO-254
3 1 (0.30%) IEC 61508
3 1 (0.30%) ISO 26262
3 1 (0.30%) NIST 800
System Software
1 13 (3.95%) Active Directory
2 10 (3.04%) VMware Infrastructure
3 4 (1.22%) Virtual Desktop
4 3 (0.91%) Embedded Firmware
4 3 (0.91%) Firmware
4 3 (0.91%) KVM
5 2 (0.61%) Docker
5 2 (0.61%) Hyper-V
5 2 (0.61%) Slurm Workload Manager
5 2 (0.61%) VMware ESXi
5 2 (0.61%) vSphere
6 1 (0.30%) Job Entry Subsystem
6 1 (0.30%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (0.30%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 8 (2.43%) Microsoft Intune
2 6 (1.82%) Ansible
2 6 (1.82%) Terraform
3 5 (1.52%) SCCM
4 3 (0.91%) Kubernetes
5 2 (0.61%) Jamf Pro
5 2 (0.61%) Single Sign-On
6 1 (0.30%) FortiGate
6 1 (0.30%) MOM
6 1 (0.30%) Red Hat Satellite
Vendors
1 20 (6.08%) Microsoft
1 20 (6.08%) Siemens
2 15 (4.56%) ServiceNow
3 14 (4.26%) Fortinet
3 14 (4.26%) NetApp
4 12 (3.65%) VMware
5 7 (2.13%) Oracle
6 6 (1.82%) Cisco
6 6 (1.82%) EMC
6 6 (1.82%) Red Hat
7 5 (1.52%) Google
7 5 (1.52%) IBM
8 4 (1.22%) SAP
8 4 (1.22%) Veeam
9 3 (0.91%) Citrix
9 3 (0.91%) Splunk
10 2 (0.61%) Apple
10 2 (0.61%) Brocade
10 2 (0.61%) NEC
10 2 (0.61%) Palo Alto