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 March 2026.

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

6 months to
3 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 346 410 280
Rank change year-on-year +64 -130 +143
Contract jobs requiring a Systems Engineer 284 116 356
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.68% 0.39% 0.80%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.74% 0.42% 0.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 68 61 146
10th Percentile £240 £263 £325
25th Percentile £361 £374 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £450 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.56% -14.29% +5.00%
75th Percentile £536 £638 £583
90th Percentile £575 £750 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £450 £525
% change year-on-year +5.56% -14.29% +5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 108 19 123
10th Percentile £42.00 £24.36 £39.55
25th Percentile £44.58 £37.45 £50.00
Median hourly rate £58.74 £55.00 £57.50
Median % change year-on-year +6.79% -4.35% -6.50%
75th Percentile £71.99 £74.38 £71.25
90th Percentile £78.75 £80.50 £75.16
UK excluding London median hourly rate £58.59 £55.00 £57.50
% change year-on-year +6.52% -4.35% -5.89%

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 38,312 27,714 41,419
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.84% 92.81% 92.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,044 17,552 27,221
10th Percentile £310 £290 £275
25th Percentile £409 £406 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £723 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £481 £475 £487
% change year-on-year +1.32% -2.46% -2.60%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,352 838 2,415
10th Percentile £14.83 £16.25 £13.05
25th Percentile £18.87 £21.46 £16.25
Median hourly rate £33.50 £34.31 £34.08
Median % change year-on-year -2.35% +0.66% -15.85%
75th Percentile £64.03 £64.74 £60.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.33 £71.90
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.50 £32.50 £35.00
% change year-on-year - -7.14% -9.68%

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 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 3 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 3 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 +54 260 £485 +1.04% 463
UK excluding London +67 240 £475 +5.56% 454
East of England +20 59 £454 +3.77% 53
South East +8 52 £490 -30.00% 151
South West +22 45 £500 -15.25% 78
Work from Home -18 44 £454 -9.20% 152
Midlands -23 43 £348 +26.36% 72
North of England -50 36 £450 +2.86% 77
London -51 25 £450 -13.04% 52
East Midlands -10 24 £497 +562.00% 13
North West -35 23 £216 -52.11% 47
West Midlands -39 19 £300 +9.09% 59
Scotland - 9 £59 - 26
Yorkshire -56 8 £510 - 18
North East -10 5 £450 +38.46% 12

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

For the 6 months to 3 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 91 (32.04%) Security Cleared
2 53 (18.66%) SC Cleared
3 35 (12.32%) Degree
4 33 (11.62%) Systems Engineering
5 29 (10.21%) Problem-Solving
5 29 (10.21%) Validation
6 19 (6.69%) Decision-Making
6 19 (6.69%) DV Cleared
6 19 (6.69%) Siemens
6 19 (6.69%) Windows
7 17 (5.99%) Microsoft Office
7 17 (5.99%) ServiceNow
7 17 (5.99%) TCP/IP
8 16 (5.63%) Ethernet
8 16 (5.63%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 16 (5.63%) Linux
8 16 (5.63%) Rational DOORS
8 16 (5.63%) Risk Assessment
9 15 (5.28%) Creative Thinking
9 15 (5.28%) Customer Service
9 15 (5.28%) Fault Analysis
9 15 (5.28%) Mechatronics
9 15 (5.28%) Microsoft
9 15 (5.28%) VMware
10 14 (4.93%) Fortinet
10 14 (4.93%) NetApp
10 14 (4.93%) Verification and Validation
11 13 (4.58%) Firewall
12 12 (4.23%) PowerShell
12 12 (4.23%) VMware Infrastructure

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 (1.76%) Confluence
2 4 (1.41%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (0.70%) SharePoint
4 1 (0.35%) Apache
4 1 (0.35%) IIS
4 1 (0.35%) Tomcat
Applications
1 17 (5.99%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (1.41%) Simulink
3 2 (0.70%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (0.70%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.35%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 2 (0.70%) SAP Oil and Gas
2 1 (0.35%) SAP HCM
2 1 (0.35%) SAP HR
2 1 (0.35%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 1 (0.35%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 10 (3.52%) Azure
2 8 (2.82%) AWS
3 5 (1.76%) Microsoft 365
4 4 (1.41%) Entra ID
4 4 (1.41%) Google Workspace
5 3 (1.06%) GCP
5 3 (1.06%) GitHub
6 2 (0.70%) Amazon EC2
6 2 (0.70%) Amazon S3
6 2 (0.70%) Cloud Computing
6 2 (0.70%) Cohesity
6 2 (0.70%) OpenShift
6 2 (0.70%) PaaS
7 1 (0.35%) Azure Sentinel
7 1 (0.35%) GitHub Actions
7 1 (0.35%) OneDrive
7 1 (0.35%) Power Platform
7 1 (0.35%) PowerApps
7 1 (0.35%) Slack
7 1 (0.35%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 17 (5.99%) TCP/IP
2 16 (5.63%) Ethernet
3 13 (4.58%) Firewall
4 6 (2.11%) LTE
5 5 (1.76%) SAN
5 5 (1.76%) TETRA
6 4 (1.41%) SNMP
6 4 (1.41%) VPN
7 3 (1.06%) NAS
7 3 (1.06%) Network Security
8 2 (0.70%) LAN
8 2 (0.70%) MIMO
8 2 (0.70%) SpaceWire
8 2 (0.70%) SSL
8 2 (0.70%) WAN
8 2 (0.70%) Wi-Fi
9 1 (0.35%) 3GPP
9 1 (0.35%) DHCP
9 1 (0.35%) PSTN
9 1 (0.35%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.70%) SQL Server Reporting Services
2 1 (0.35%) Amazon RDS
2 1 (0.35%) BusinessObjects
2 1 (0.35%) DB2
2 1 (0.35%) Electronic Patient Records
2 1 (0.35%) IBM InfoSphere
2 1 (0.35%) Oracle Database
2 1 (0.35%) Pentaho
Development Applications
1 16 (5.63%) Rational DOORS
2 6 (2.11%) JIRA
3 2 (0.70%) ClearCase
4 1 (0.35%) Git
4 1 (0.35%) Jenkins
4 1 (0.35%) Postman
4 1 (0.35%) Selenium
General
1 48 (16.90%) Aerospace
2 44 (15.49%) Social Skills
3 27 (9.51%) Military
4 20 (7.04%) Manufacturing
5 17 (5.99%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 17 (5.99%) Presentation Skills
6 15 (5.28%) Electronics
7 9 (3.17%) Analytical Skills
8 6 (2.11%) Public Sector
9 5 (1.76%) Banking
10 4 (1.41%) Avionics
10 4 (1.41%) Retail Banking
10 4 (1.41%) Telecoms
11 3 (1.06%) Documentation Skills
11 3 (1.06%) Finance
12 2 (0.70%) Legal
12 2 (0.70%) Retail
13 1 (0.35%) Games
13 1 (0.35%) Local Government
13 1 (0.35%) Marketing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (1.06%) REST
1 3 (1.06%) Software Packaging
2 2 (0.70%) ISPF
2 2 (0.70%) Middleware
3 1 (0.35%) GraphQL
3 1 (0.35%) JSON
3 1 (0.35%) Microsoft Graph
3 1 (0.35%) RabbitMQ
3 1 (0.35%) SAP Fiori
3 1 (0.35%) Unity (Game Engine)
3 1 (0.35%) Unreal Engine
3 1 (0.35%) XML
3 1 (0.35%) XSD
Miscellaneous
1 15 (5.28%) Industry 4.0
1 15 (5.28%) Robotics
2 8 (2.82%) Onboarding
3 7 (2.46%) Data Centre
3 7 (2.46%) Embedded Systems
3 7 (2.46%) SCADA
4 6 (2.11%) Legacy Systems
4 6 (2.11%) Operational Technology
5 3 (1.06%) Hybrid Cloud
6 2 (0.70%) Analytical Mindset
6 2 (0.70%) ASIC
6 2 (0.70%) CAN bus
6 2 (0.70%) Clustering
6 2 (0.70%) Cyber Threat
6 2 (0.70%) Enterprise Storage
6 2 (0.70%) IoT
6 2 (0.70%) Life Science
6 2 (0.70%) Mainframe
6 2 (0.70%) Management Information System
6 2 (0.70%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 19 (6.69%) Windows
2 16 (5.63%) Linux
3 8 (2.82%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 5 (1.76%) Mac OS
5 2 (0.70%) Android
5 2 (0.70%) Windows Server
5 2 (0.70%) zOS
6 1 (0.35%) FreeRTOS
6 1 (0.35%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
6 1 (0.35%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 33 (11.62%) Systems Engineering
2 29 (10.21%) Problem-Solving
2 29 (10.21%) Validation
3 19 (6.69%) Decision-Making
4 16 (5.63%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 16 (5.63%) Risk Assessment
5 15 (5.28%) Creative Thinking
5 15 (5.28%) Customer Service
5 15 (5.28%) Fault Analysis
5 15 (5.28%) Mechatronics
6 14 (4.93%) Verification and Validation
7 11 (3.87%) Agile
7 11 (3.87%) High Availability
7 11 (3.87%) Migration
8 10 (3.52%) Disaster Recovery
9 9 (3.17%) Asset Management
9 9 (3.17%) Cybersecurity
9 9 (3.17%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
10 8 (2.82%) Computer Science
11 7 (2.46%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 12 (4.23%) PowerShell
2 7 (2.46%) Python
3 6 (2.11%) MATLAB
4 4 (1.41%) C
5 3 (1.06%) C++
5 3 (1.06%) JavaScript
6 2 (0.70%) Bash
6 2 (0.70%) Java
6 2 (0.70%) JCL
6 2 (0.70%) REXX
6 2 (0.70%) Shell Script
6 2 (0.70%) SQL
7 1 (0.35%) C#
7 1 (0.35%) Embedded C
7 1 (0.35%) Embedded C++
7 1 (0.35%) Go
7 1 (0.35%) Groovy
7 1 (0.35%) Korn
7 1 (0.35%) Lua
Qualifications
1 91 (32.04%) Security Cleared
2 53 (18.66%) SC Cleared
3 35 (12.32%) Degree
4 19 (6.69%) DV Cleared
5 10 (3.52%) BPSS Clearance
6 2 (0.70%) CCNA
6 2 (0.70%) Cisco Certification
7 1 (0.35%) Computer Science Degree
7 1 (0.35%) Master's Degree
7 1 (0.35%) Network+ Certification
7 1 (0.35%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (0.70%) Data Quality
1 2 (0.70%) IEC 61131
1 2 (0.70%) MIL-STD-1553
2 1 (0.35%) Def Stans
2 1 (0.35%) DO-254
2 1 (0.35%) IEC 61508
2 1 (0.35%) ISO 26262
2 1 (0.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 1 (0.35%) NIST
System Software
1 12 (4.23%) VMware Infrastructure
2 11 (3.87%) Active Directory
3 4 (1.41%) Virtual Desktop
4 3 (1.06%) Embedded Firmware
4 3 (1.06%) Firmware
4 3 (1.06%) KVM
4 3 (1.06%) Virtual Machines
4 3 (1.06%) VMware ESXi
5 2 (0.70%) Docker
5 2 (0.70%) Hyper-V
5 2 (0.70%) Slurm Workload Manager
5 2 (0.70%) vSphere
6 1 (0.35%) Job Entry Subsystem
6 1 (0.35%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 8 (2.82%) Ansible
2 7 (2.46%) Microsoft Intune
2 7 (2.46%) Terraform
3 4 (1.41%) SCCM
4 3 (1.06%) Kubernetes
5 2 (0.70%) Jamf Pro
5 2 (0.70%) Single Sign-On
6 1 (0.35%) FortiGate
6 1 (0.35%) MOM
6 1 (0.35%) Red Hat Satellite
6 1 (0.35%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 19 (6.69%) Siemens
2 17 (5.99%) ServiceNow
3 15 (5.28%) Microsoft
3 15 (5.28%) VMware
4 14 (4.93%) Fortinet
4 14 (4.93%) NetApp
5 8 (2.82%) IBM
5 8 (2.82%) Oracle
6 7 (2.46%) Cisco
7 6 (2.11%) EMC
7 6 (2.11%) Red Hat
8 5 (1.76%) Google
9 4 (1.41%) Rockwell
9 4 (1.41%) SAP
9 4 (1.41%) Veeam
10 3 (1.06%) Citrix
10 3 (1.06%) Splunk
11 2 (0.70%) Broadcom
11 2 (0.70%) Brocade
11 2 (0.70%) Wonderware