Design Engineer Contracts with Hybrid/Remote/WFH Options

Design Engineer
UK > Work from Home

The median Design Engineer daily rate for remote or hybrid work is £490, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 2 May 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
2 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 283 306 395
Rank change year-on-year +23 +89 +155
Contract jobs requiring a Design Engineer 19 43 79
As % of all contract jobs with a WFH option 0.19% 0.28% 0.31%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.20% 0.30% 0.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 5 7 28
10th Percentile £455 - £374
25th Percentile £480 £300 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £490 £470 £488
Median % change year-on-year +4.26% -3.59% -
75th Percentile - £538 £619
90th Percentile £556 £558 £628
UK median daily rate £490 £575 £515
% change year-on-year -14.78% +11.65% +0.49%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 21 23
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £60.00 £60.00 £42.50
Median hourly rate £62.50 £70.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -10.71% +55.56% -
75th Percentile £70.00 £85.00 £47.50
90th Percentile £74.50 - £58.92
UK median hourly rate £70.00 £70.00 £45.00
% change year-on-year - +55.56% -

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
Work from Home

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies with WFH or hybrid options. 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 Work from Home with a recognized job title 9,282 14,329 24,531
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 93.74% 93.54% 95.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,349 9,576 17,328
10th Percentile £338 £325 £358
25th Percentile £413 £425 £444
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year - -2.33% +2.38%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £650
90th Percentile £769 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £515 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -1.90% -2.78% +2.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 225 577 565
10th Percentile £14.00 £14.35 £18.22
25th Percentile £18.10 £23.34 £25.95
Median hourly rate £35.25 £44.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -19.89% -20.00% +57.14%
75th Percentile £66.00 £63.00 £68.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.25 £80.25
UK median hourly rate £29.00 £36.02 £45.00
% change year-on-year -19.49% -19.95% +91.49%

Design Engineer
Trend for Jobs with a WFH Option

Job vacancies with remote working options which featured Design Engineer in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Design Engineer trend for jobs with Hybrid/Remote/WFH options

Design Engineer
Daily Rate Trend for Jobs with a WFH Option

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in job vacancies with remote working options citing Design Engineer.

Design Engineer daily rate for jobs with a WFH option

Design Engineer
Hourly Rate Trend for Jobs with a WFH Option

3-month moving average hourly rate quoted in job vacancies with remote working options citing Design Engineer.

Design Engineer hourly rate for jobs with a WFH option

Design Engineer
Hourly Rate Histogram for Jobs with a WFH Option

Hourly rate distribution for jobs with remote working options citing Design Engineer over the 6 months to 2 May 2025.

Design Engineer hourly rate histogram for jobs with a WFH option

Design Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in Job Vacancies with WFH Options

For the 6 months to 2 May 2025, Design 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 jobs with a WFH option featuring Design Engineer in the job title.

1 9 (47.37%) Radio Access Network
2 8 (42.11%) Network Design
3 7 (36.84%) Network Architecture
4 4 (21.05%) 5G
5 3 (15.79%) 4G
5 3 (15.79%) C
5 3 (15.79%) CAD
5 3 (15.79%) Social Skills
6 2 (10.53%) Problem-Solving
6 2 (10.53%) Nutanix
6 2 (10.53%) Nokia
6 2 (10.53%) 3G
6 2 (10.53%) Microsoft
6 2 (10.53%) Microsoft Office
6 2 (10.53%) Degree
6 2 (10.53%) Robotics
6 2 (10.53%) Telecoms
6 2 (10.53%) 2G
6 2 (10.53%) Manufacturing
6 2 (10.53%) Replication
6 2 (10.53%) Veeam
6 2 (10.53%) Data Protection
6 2 (10.53%) Use Case
6 2 (10.53%) Benchmarking
6 2 (10.53%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (10.53%) Facebook
7 1 (5.26%) Embedded Systems
7 1 (5.26%) GitHub
7 1 (5.26%) Analytics
7 1 (5.26%) TypeScript

Design Engineer Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities with WFH Options 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:

Applications
1 2 (10.53%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 2 (10.53%) Nutanix
2 1 (5.26%) Figma
2 1 (5.26%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 9 (47.37%) Radio Access Network
2 4 (21.05%) 5G
3 3 (15.79%) 4G
4 2 (10.53%) 2G
4 2 (10.53%) 3G
5 1 (5.26%) 5G NR
5 1 (5.26%) Ethernet
5 1 (5.26%) LTE
5 1 (5.26%) MPLS
5 1 (5.26%) Network Security
5 1 (5.26%) Structured Cabling
5 1 (5.26%) TCP/IP
5 1 (5.26%) Wi-Fi
5 1 (5.26%) WLAN
General
1 3 (15.79%) Social Skills
2 2 (10.53%) Manufacturing
2 2 (10.53%) Telecoms
3 1 (5.26%) Analytical Skills
3 1 (5.26%) Electronics
3 1 (5.26%) Inclusion and Diversity
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (5.26%) CSS
1 1 (5.26%) React
Miscellaneous
1 2 (10.53%) Replication
1 2 (10.53%) Robotics
2 1 (5.26%) ASIC
2 1 (5.26%) CCTV
2 1 (5.26%) Embedded Systems
2 1 (5.26%) Fibre Optics
2 1 (5.26%) Onboarding
2 1 (5.26%) SystemC
2 1 (5.26%) Verilog
Processes & Methodologies
1 8 (42.11%) Network Design
2 7 (36.84%) Network Architecture
3 3 (15.79%) CAD
4 2 (10.53%) Benchmarking
4 2 (10.53%) Data Protection
4 2 (10.53%) Problem-Solving
4 2 (10.53%) Use Case
5 1 (5.26%) Analytics
5 1 (5.26%) Business Strategy
5 1 (5.26%) Computer Science
5 1 (5.26%) Software Testing
5 1 (5.26%) Test Strategy
5 1 (5.26%) User Experience
5 1 (5.26%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
5 1 (5.26%) UVM
5 1 (5.26%) UX Design
5 1 (5.26%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 3 (15.79%) C
2 1 (5.26%) C++
2 1 (5.26%) Perl
2 1 (5.26%) Python
2 1 (5.26%) Shell Script
2 1 (5.26%) SystemVerilog
2 1 (5.26%) Tcl
2 1 (5.26%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 2 (10.53%) Degree
2 1 (5.26%) BPSS Clearance
2 1 (5.26%) SC Cleared
2 1 (5.26%) Security Cleared
System Software
1 2 (10.53%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 1 (5.26%) NSN NetAct
Vendors
1 2 (10.53%) Facebook
1 2 (10.53%) Microsoft
1 2 (10.53%) Nokia
1 2 (10.53%) Veeam
2 1 (5.26%) Cisco
2 1 (5.26%) Ericsson
2 1 (5.26%) Huawei