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 3 May 2026.

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

6 months to
3 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 287 361 269
Rank change year-on-year +74 -92 +114
Contract jobs requiring a Systems Engineer 401 169 370
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.85% 0.58% 0.85%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.92% 0.62% 0.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 111 72 98
10th Percentile £225 £313 £313
25th Percentile £375 £400 £403
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £459
Median % change year-on-year - +3.49% -10.44%
75th Percentile £533 £581 £572
90th Percentile £575 £686 £641
UK excluding London median daily rate £465 £485 £494
% change year-on-year -4.12% -1.77% -1.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 157 40 171
10th Percentile £42.00 £44.59 £39.55
25th Percentile £44.58 £50.31 £46.07
Median hourly rate £65.00 £55.00 £57.50
Median % change year-on-year +18.18% -4.35% -6.50%
75th Percentile £78.75 £73.37 £71.25
90th Percentile £81.05 £75.50 £76.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £55.00 £59.00
% change year-on-year +18.18% -6.78% -2.24%

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 43,737 27,092 40,275
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.28% 92.50% 92.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 26,961 17,699 26,220
10th Percentile £315 £300 £276
25th Percentile £413 £406 £409
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £501 £515 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.82% -1.90% -2.78%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £490 £475 £490
% change year-on-year +3.16% -3.06% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,818 1,043 2,672
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.20 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.35 £18.50 £16.30
Median hourly rate £44.00 £29.00 £36.42
Median % change year-on-year +51.72% -20.37% -19.07%
75th Percentile £66.00 £62.50 £61.25
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.46 £28.00 £39.55
% change year-on-year +62.36% -29.20% -6.94%

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 3 May 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 3 May 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 3 May 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 +45 357 £480 +1.05% 360
UK excluding London +64 336 £465 -4.12% 346
South East +12 90 £500 -28.57% 107
East of England +4 77 £450 -18.18% 32
Work from Home +4 66 £465 -3.38% 121
South West +19 64 £498 -9.75% 77
London -55 45 £475 -3.55% 50
Midlands -38 44 £348 +26.36% 64
North of England -53 38 £450 +6.64% 41
North West -38 25 £350 -17.36% 20
East Midlands -14 24 £497 +562.00% 15
Scotland +14 21 £215 -57.00% 23
West Midlands -46 20 £300 +9.09% 49
Yorkshire -43 8 £510 - 14
Wales - 6 £465 - 8
North East -17 5 £450 +38.46% 7

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

For the 6 months to 3 May 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.

1 105 (26.18%) Security Cleared
2 60 (14.96%) SC Cleared
3 59 (14.71%) Systems Engineering
4 42 (10.47%) Degree
5 40 (9.98%) Validation
6 35 (8.73%) Problem-Solving
7 34 (8.48%) Windows
8 29 (7.23%) Linux
9 25 (6.23%) Microsoft
9 25 (6.23%) Rational DOORS
10 23 (5.74%) DV Cleared
11 19 (4.74%) Decision-Making
11 19 (4.74%) Siemens
11 19 (4.74%) Verification and Validation
12 18 (4.49%) Customer Service
12 18 (4.49%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
13 17 (4.24%) Ethernet
13 17 (4.24%) Firewall
13 17 (4.24%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 17 (4.24%) Microsoft Office
13 17 (4.24%) TCP/IP
14 16 (3.99%) Risk Assessment
14 16 (3.99%) ServiceNow
15 15 (3.74%) Creative Thinking
15 15 (3.74%) Fault Analysis
15 15 (3.74%) Fortinet
15 15 (3.74%) Mechatronics
16 14 (3.49%) Active Directory
16 14 (3.49%) Migration
17 13 (3.24%) BPSS Clearance

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 (1.25%) Confluence
2 4 (1.00%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (0.50%) SharePoint
4 1 (0.25%) SAS
Applications
1 17 (4.24%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (1.25%) Simulink
3 1 (0.25%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.25%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.25%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 1 (0.25%) ResourceLink
1 1 (0.25%) SAP HCM
1 1 (0.25%) SAP HR
1 1 (0.25%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
1 1 (0.25%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 12 (2.99%) AWS
2 11 (2.74%) Azure
3 10 (2.49%) SaaS
4 8 (2.00%) Microsoft 365
5 4 (1.00%) Amazon EC2
5 4 (1.00%) Amazon S3
5 4 (1.00%) OpenShift
6 3 (0.75%) Cloud Computing
6 3 (0.75%) Entra ID
6 3 (0.75%) GitHub
7 2 (0.50%) Cohesity
7 2 (0.50%) Google Workspace
8 1 (0.25%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 1 (0.25%) AWS Lambda
8 1 (0.25%) Azure Monitor
8 1 (0.25%) Azure Service Bus
8 1 (0.25%) GCP
8 1 (0.25%) GitHub Actions
8 1 (0.25%) OneDrive
8 1 (0.25%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 17 (4.24%) Ethernet
1 17 (4.24%) Firewall
1 17 (4.24%) TCP/IP
2 9 (2.24%) DNS
3 7 (1.75%) DHCP
4 6 (1.50%) LTE
5 5 (1.25%) LAN
5 5 (1.25%) TETRA
5 5 (1.25%) VPN
6 4 (1.00%) Network Security
6 4 (1.00%) SNMP
6 4 (1.00%) WAN
7 3 (0.75%) SAN
7 3 (0.75%) SpaceWire
8 2 (0.50%) MIMO
8 2 (0.50%) NAS
8 2 (0.50%) Wireshark
9 1 (0.25%) Modbus
9 1 (0.25%) Radio Access Network
9 1 (0.25%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.50%) SQL Server Reporting Services
2 1 (0.25%) Amazon RDS
2 1 (0.25%) BusinessObjects
2 1 (0.25%) DB2
2 1 (0.25%) IBM InfoSphere
2 1 (0.25%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 25 (6.23%) Rational DOORS
2 5 (1.25%) JIRA
3 1 (0.25%) CANoe
3 1 (0.25%) Jenkins
3 1 (0.25%) Rational Rhapsody
General
1 53 (13.22%) Aerospace
2 52 (12.97%) Social Skills
3 35 (8.73%) Military
4 22 (5.49%) Electronics
4 22 (5.49%) Manufacturing
5 18 (4.49%) Analytical Skills
5 18 (4.49%) Presentation Skills
6 16 (3.99%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 10 (2.49%) Finance
8 9 (2.24%) Public Sector
9 6 (1.50%) Avionics
9 6 (1.50%) Documentation Skills
10 5 (1.25%) Telecoms
11 4 (1.00%) Banking
11 4 (1.00%) Law
12 3 (0.75%) Retail Banking
13 2 (0.50%) Automotive
13 2 (0.50%) Retail
14 1 (0.25%) Games
14 1 (0.25%) Marketing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (1.50%) OpenID
1 6 (1.50%) SAML
2 5 (1.25%) ISPF
2 5 (1.25%) REST
3 3 (0.75%) Software Packaging
4 2 (0.50%) JSON
4 2 (0.50%) Middleware
5 1 (0.25%) GraphQL
5 1 (0.25%) HTML
5 1 (0.25%) Microsoft Graph
5 1 (0.25%) Node.js
5 1 (0.25%) RESTful
5 1 (0.25%) SAP Fiori
5 1 (0.25%) Unity (Game Engine)
5 1 (0.25%) Unreal Engine
Miscellaneous
1 15 (3.74%) Industry 4.0
1 15 (3.74%) Robotics
2 9 (2.24%) Embedded Systems
3 8 (2.00%) IoT
3 8 (2.00%) Operational Technology
4 7 (1.75%) Data Centre
4 7 (1.75%) Mainframe
5 6 (1.50%) Onboarding
6 4 (1.00%) Renewable Energy
7 3 (0.75%) Acoustics
7 3 (0.75%) CUDA
7 3 (0.75%) FPGA
7 3 (0.75%) Hybrid Cloud
7 3 (0.75%) Legacy Systems
7 3 (0.75%) Management Information System
7 3 (0.75%) Self-Motivation
8 2 (0.50%) CAN bus
8 2 (0.50%) Data Protection Act
8 2 (0.50%) Enterprise Storage
8 2 (0.50%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 34 (8.48%) Windows
2 29 (7.23%) Linux
3 8 (2.00%) Windows Server
4 5 (1.25%) Android
4 5 (1.25%) zOS
5 4 (1.00%) Mac OS
5 4 (1.00%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (0.50%) FreeRTOS
6 2 (0.50%) MVS
7 1 (0.25%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 59 (14.71%) Systems Engineering
2 40 (9.98%) Validation
3 35 (8.73%) Problem-Solving
4 19 (4.74%) Decision-Making
4 19 (4.74%) Verification and Validation
5 18 (4.49%) Customer Service
5 18 (4.49%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
6 17 (4.24%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 16 (3.99%) Risk Assessment
8 15 (3.74%) Creative Thinking
8 15 (3.74%) Fault Analysis
8 15 (3.74%) Mechatronics
9 14 (3.49%) Migration
10 11 (2.74%) Cybersecurity
10 11 (2.74%) Disaster Recovery
10 11 (2.74%) Root Cause Analysis
11 10 (2.49%) Computer Science
11 10 (2.49%) High Availability
12 9 (2.24%) Signal Processing
12 9 (2.24%) SysML
Programming Languages
1 12 (2.99%) PowerShell
1 12 (2.99%) Python
2 8 (2.00%) MATLAB
3 6 (1.50%) REXX
4 5 (1.25%) C
4 5 (1.25%) JCL
5 3 (0.75%) Bash
5 3 (0.75%) JavaScript
6 2 (0.50%) C++
6 2 (0.50%) Java
7 1 (0.25%) C#
7 1 (0.25%) Embedded C
7 1 (0.25%) Embedded C++
7 1 (0.25%) Go
7 1 (0.25%) Groovy
7 1 (0.25%) Lua
7 1 (0.25%) SQL
Qualifications
1 105 (26.18%) Security Cleared
2 60 (14.96%) SC Cleared
3 42 (10.47%) Degree
4 23 (5.74%) DV Cleared
5 13 (3.24%) BPSS Clearance
6 2 (0.50%) CCNA
6 2 (0.50%) Cisco Certification
7 1 (0.25%) AWS Certification
7 1 (0.25%) CCA
7 1 (0.25%) CCNP
7 1 (0.25%) Chartered Engineer
7 1 (0.25%) CISSP
7 1 (0.25%) CompTIA CySA+
7 1 (0.25%) Computer Science Degree
7 1 (0.25%) HND
7 1 (0.25%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (0.75%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 3 (0.75%) MIL-STD-1553
2 2 (0.50%) Data Quality
2 2 (0.50%) NIST
3 1 (0.25%) DICOM
3 1 (0.25%) DO-254
3 1 (0.25%) HAZOP
3 1 (0.25%) HL7
3 1 (0.25%) IEC 61508
3 1 (0.25%) ISO 26262
3 1 (0.25%) NIST 800
System Software
1 14 (3.49%) Active Directory
2 12 (2.99%) VMware Infrastructure
3 5 (1.25%) Firmware
4 4 (1.00%) Virtual Desktop
5 3 (0.75%) Embedded Firmware
5 3 (0.75%) Hyper-V
5 3 (0.75%) KVM
5 3 (0.75%) Slurm Workload Manager
6 2 (0.50%) Docker
6 2 (0.50%) Job Entry Subsystem
6 2 (0.50%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (0.50%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.25%) VMware NSX
7 1 (0.25%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 8 (2.00%) Ansible
2 6 (1.50%) Microsoft Intune
3 5 (1.25%) Kubernetes
3 5 (1.25%) Terraform
4 4 (1.00%) SCCM
5 3 (0.75%) Puppet
6 2 (0.50%) Functional Safety
7 1 (0.25%) Control-M
7 1 (0.25%) Jamf Pro
7 1 (0.25%) MOM
7 1 (0.25%) Tivoli NetView
Vendors
1 25 (6.23%) Microsoft
2 19 (4.74%) Siemens
3 16 (3.99%) ServiceNow
4 15 (3.74%) Fortinet
5 13 (3.24%) NetApp
5 13 (3.24%) VMware
6 7 (1.75%) EMC
7 6 (1.50%) Cisco
7 6 (1.50%) IBM
7 6 (1.50%) Splunk
8 3 (0.75%) Broadcom
8 3 (0.75%) Citrix
8 3 (0.75%) Google
8 3 (0.75%) NEC
8 3 (0.75%) NVIDIA
8 3 (0.75%) Red Hat
8 3 (0.75%) Veeam
9 2 (0.50%) Apple
9 2 (0.50%) Oracle
9 2 (0.50%) Pure Storage