Systems Engineering Contracts

Systems Engineering
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies requiring Systems Engineering skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Systems Engineering over the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 406 340 455
Rank change year-on-year -66 +115 +153
Contract jobs citing Systems Engineering 115 253 270
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.39% 0.58% 0.45%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.43% 0.67% 0.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 52 82 117
10th Percentile £425 £357 £463
25th Percentile £500 £488 £510
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £625 £550 £565
Median % change year-on-year +13.64% -2.57% +0.36%
75th Percentile £675 £629 £613
90th Percentile £699 £686 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £625 £550 £565
% change year-on-year +13.64% -2.57% -0.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 24 97 60
10th Percentile - £46.91 £47.50
25th Percentile £47.50 £60.00 £53.26
Median hourly rate £61.50 £70.00 £61.50
Median % change year-on-year -12.14% +13.82% -8.89%
75th Percentile £76.25 £75.16 £66.00
90th Percentile £82.50 £76.86 £80.20
UK excluding London median hourly rate £63.00 £70.00 £61.50
% change year-on-year -10.00% +13.82% -8.89%

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK

Systems Engineering falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 26,594 37,597 53,655
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 90.84% 86.31% 89.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,149 24,227 37,238
10th Percentile £308 £300 £325
25th Percentile £413 £413 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.95% -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £630 £638 £650
90th Percentile £743 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £483 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -3.50% - +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,071 2,443 1,746
10th Percentile £14.41 £12.75 £11.00
25th Percentile £18.21 £16.00 £16.25
Median hourly rate £29.00 £35.65 £37.30
Median % change year-on-year -18.65% -4.42% +49.20%
75th Percentile £60.38 £59.98 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.50 £37.34 £36.00
% change year-on-year -26.35% +3.72% +80.00%

Systems Engineering
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing Systems Engineering as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Systems Engineering in the UK

Systems Engineering
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Systems Engineering.

Daily rate trend for Systems Engineering in the UK

Systems Engineering
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Systems Engineering over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Systems Engineering in the UK

Systems Engineering
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Systems Engineering.

Hourly rate trend for Systems Engineering in the UK

Systems Engineering
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Systems Engineering over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Systems Engineering in the UK

Systems Engineering
Top 14 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Systems Engineering within the UK over the 6 months to 1 May 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 -64 109 £631 +14.77% 693
UK excluding London -39 89 £625 +13.64% 619
South West +22 34 £650 +18.18% 133
Work from Home -4 27 £500 -4.76% 553
London +17 20 £650 +13.04% 135
East of England +15 18 £438 +15.51% 79
Midlands +23 16 £475 -13.64% 92
West Midlands +19 15 £475 -13.64% 69
North of England -4 10 £650 +12.75% 104
North West +2 9 £625 +8.41% 74
South East -4 9 £606 +15.48% 182
Scotland +6 2 £461 -21.80% 39
Yorkshire +8 1 £675 - 25
East Midlands +6 1 £75 -86.67% 18

Systems Engineering
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 (6.96%) SharePoint
2 7 (6.09%) Confluence
3 5 (4.35%) WebSphere
4 1 (0.87%) SAS
4 1 (0.87%) WinCC
Applications
1 4 (3.48%) Simulink
2 2 (1.74%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (1.74%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.87%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.87%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 7 (6.09%) Teamcenter
2 1 (0.87%) Aligne
Cloud Services
1 8 (6.96%) AWS
1 8 (6.96%) Azure
2 5 (4.35%) GCP
3 3 (2.61%) OpenShift
3 3 (2.61%) PaaS
4 1 (0.87%) Akamai
4 1 (0.87%) Azure DevOps
4 1 (0.87%) Azure Stack
4 1 (0.87%) Cloud Computing
4 1 (0.87%) Entra ID
4 1 (0.87%) GitHub
4 1 (0.87%) IaaS
4 1 (0.87%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 2 (1.74%) DNS
2 1 (0.87%) BGP
2 1 (0.87%) DHCP
2 1 (0.87%) DMVPN
2 1 (0.87%) DWDM
2 1 (0.87%) HTTP
2 1 (0.87%) HTTPS
2 1 (0.87%) IGRP
2 1 (0.87%) Internet
2 1 (0.87%) IPsec
2 1 (0.87%) Kerberos
2 1 (0.87%) LAN
2 1 (0.87%) MPLS
2 1 (0.87%) NetScaler
2 1 (0.87%) OSPF
2 1 (0.87%) SMTP
2 1 (0.87%) SNMP
2 1 (0.87%) SSL
2 1 (0.87%) VPN
2 1 (0.87%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (8.70%) MongoDB
2 5 (4.35%) DB2
3 1 (0.87%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 14 (12.17%) JIRA
2 12 (10.43%) Rational DOORS
3 6 (5.22%) Git
3 6 (5.22%) Jenkins
4 3 (2.61%) Bitbucket Server
4 3 (2.61%) SonarQube
4 3 (2.61%) TeamCity
5 1 (0.87%) Axure RP
5 1 (0.87%) Eclipse
5 1 (0.87%) JIRA Agile
5 1 (0.87%) LabVIEW
5 1 (0.87%) NetBeans
5 1 (0.87%) Rational Rhapsody
5 1 (0.87%) Rational Statemate
General
1 29 (25.22%) Social Skills
2 20 (17.39%) Finance
3 11 (9.57%) Public Sector
4 9 (7.83%) Presentation Skills
5 6 (5.22%) Military
6 5 (4.35%) Documentation Skills
6 5 (4.35%) Front Office
6 5 (4.35%) Manufacturing
7 4 (3.48%) Aerospace
7 4 (3.48%) Analytical Skills
7 4 (3.48%) Automotive
7 4 (3.48%) Banking
7 4 (3.48%) Electronics
8 3 (2.61%) Law
8 3 (2.61%) Telecoms
9 2 (1.74%) Marketing
10 1 (0.87%) Avionics
10 1 (0.87%) Investment Banking
10 1 (0.87%) Local Government
10 1 (0.87%) Retail
Job Titles
1 34 (29.57%) Systems Engineer
2 23 (20.00%) Lead
3 12 (10.43%) Architect
3 12 (10.43%) Principal Engineer
4 11 (9.57%) Principal Systems Engineer
4 11 (9.57%) Tester
5 10 (8.70%) Senior
6 9 (7.83%) Analyst
7 8 (6.96%) Project Engineer
8 7 (6.09%) Developer
8 7 (6.09%) Project Leader
8 7 (6.09%) Systems Analyst
9 5 (4.35%) Solutions Architect
10 4 (3.48%) Senior Systems Engineer
11 3 (2.61%) Information Analyst
11 3 (2.61%) Senior Developer
11 3 (2.61%) Solutions Analyst
11 3 (2.61%) Systems Architect
11 3 (2.61%) Technical Leader
11 3 (2.61%) UI Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (8.70%) Kafka
2 7 (6.09%) AngularJS
2 7 (6.09%) HTML
3 6 (5.22%) HTML5
4 5 (4.35%) Middleware
5 4 (3.48%) Node.js
6 3 (2.61%) CSS
6 3 (2.61%) CSS3
6 3 (2.61%) Material-UI
6 3 (2.61%) React
7 1 (0.87%) 802.1X
7 1 (0.87%) Bootstrap
7 1 (0.87%) Elastic Stack
7 1 (0.87%) POSIX
7 1 (0.87%) REST
7 1 (0.87%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 34 (29.57%) Management Information System
2 13 (11.30%) SCADA
3 10 (8.70%) Self-Motivation
4 7 (6.09%) Product Ownership
5 6 (5.22%) Legacy Systems
5 6 (5.22%) N-Tier
6 4 (3.48%) Algorithms
6 4 (3.48%) Data Protection Act
6 4 (3.48%) Derivative
7 3 (2.61%) Data Centre
7 3 (2.61%) Equity Derivative
7 3 (2.61%) Operational Technology
7 3 (2.61%) Public Cloud
8 2 (1.74%) Distributed Systems
8 2 (1.74%) Equities
8 2 (1.74%) Fixed Income
8 2 (1.74%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
8 2 (1.74%) Security Posture
9 1 (0.87%) Enterprise Cloud
9 1 (0.87%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 6 (5.22%) Windows
2 4 (3.48%) Linux
3 3 (2.61%) Unix
4 2 (1.74%) Windows Server
5 1 (0.87%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 25 (21.74%) Problem-Solving
2 23 (20.00%) Agile
2 23 (20.00%) Validation
3 17 (14.78%) Collaborative Working
3 17 (14.78%) Verification and Validation
4 16 (13.91%) Cybersecurity
5 14 (12.17%) Business Strategy
6 13 (11.30%) Contract Negotiation
6 13 (11.30%) Enterprise Architecture
6 13 (11.30%) Target Operating Model
7 11 (9.57%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
7 11 (9.57%) Roadmaps
7 11 (9.57%) Software Testing
8 10 (8.70%) Analytics
8 10 (8.70%) Information Management
8 10 (8.70%) Integration Testing
8 10 (8.70%) Network Monitoring
9 9 (7.83%) Data Analytics
9 9 (7.83%) Software Engineering
10 8 (6.96%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 9 (7.83%) Java
1 9 (7.83%) Python
2 7 (6.09%) JavaScript
2 7 (6.09%) SQL
3 6 (5.22%) C++
3 6 (5.22%) MATLAB
4 4 (3.48%) Scala
4 4 (3.48%) TypeScript
5 3 (2.61%) Bash
5 3 (2.61%) Go
6 2 (1.74%) C
6 2 (1.74%) PowerShell
7 1 (0.87%) C#
7 1 (0.87%) Shell Script
7 1 (0.87%) VB
Qualifications
1 57 (49.57%) Security Cleared
2 52 (45.22%) SC Cleared
3 13 (11.30%) Degree
4 7 (6.09%) DV Cleared
5 5 (4.35%) Microsoft Certification
5 5 (4.35%) RIBA
6 3 (2.61%) Master's Degree
7 2 (1.74%) AWS Certification
7 2 (1.74%) CISM
7 2 (1.74%) CISSP
7 2 (1.74%) Computer Science Degree
7 2 (1.74%) HND
7 2 (1.74%) ISSEP
7 2 (1.74%) PMI Certification
8 1 (0.87%) CBAP
8 1 (0.87%) Cisco Certification
8 1 (0.87%) HNC
8 1 (0.87%) PhD
8 1 (0.87%) PMP
8 1 (0.87%) PRINCE2 Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (8.70%) Def Stans
2 5 (4.35%) NIST
3 3 (2.61%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 2 (1.74%) GDPR
4 2 (1.74%) GRC
4 2 (1.74%) IEC 61508
4 2 (1.74%) NCSC
4 2 (1.74%) QA
5 1 (0.87%) AUTOSAR
5 1 (0.87%) MISRA
5 1 (0.87%) MISRA C
5 1 (0.87%) PMO
5 1 (0.87%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 9 (7.83%) Active Directory
2 8 (6.96%) VMware Infrastructure
3 5 (4.35%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.87%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.87%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 6 (5.22%) Ansible
2 5 (4.35%) HP ALM
3 4 (3.48%) Kubernetes
4 2 (1.74%) Functional Safety
4 2 (1.74%) SCCM
4 2 (1.74%) Terraform
5 1 (0.87%) Grafana
5 1 (0.87%) Progress Chef
5 1 (0.87%) Puppet
5 1 (0.87%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 10 (8.70%) VMware
2 9 (7.83%) Microsoft
2 9 (7.83%) Oracle
3 5 (4.35%) HP
3 5 (4.35%) MuleSoft
4 3 (2.61%) SAP
4 3 (2.61%) Splunk
5 2 (1.74%) Red Hat
5 2 (1.74%) Tanium
6 1 (0.87%) Arista
6 1 (0.87%) Cisco
6 1 (0.87%) Citrix
6 1 (0.87%) Dell
6 1 (0.87%) IBM
6 1 (0.87%) Juniper
6 1 (0.87%) QNX
6 1 (0.87%) Salesforce
6 1 (0.87%) ServiceNow
6 1 (0.87%) Siemens
6 1 (0.87%) Zscaler