Desktop Engineer Job Trends

Desktop Engineer
UK

The median Desktop Engineer salary in the UK is £36,500 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 31 December 2025.

The table below compares current salary benchmarking and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
31 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 515 565 518
Rank change year-on-year +50 -47 +149
Permanent jobs requiring a Desktop Engineer 130 153 186
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.22% 0.28% 0.36%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.24% 0.30% 0.38%
Number of salaries quoted 91 112 172
10th Percentile £25,750 £21,250 £26,250
25th Percentile £30,000 £28,563 £29,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £36,500 £37,500 £34,500
Median % change year-on-year -2.67% +8.70% +4.55%
75th Percentile £40,750 £53,000 £40,375
90th Percentile £60,000 £57,500 £62,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £35,000 £33,269 £30,000
% change year-on-year +5.20% +10.90% +2.04%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent 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 permanent jobs in our overall sample.

Permanent vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 53,514 51,675 48,695
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.46% 93.18% 95.25%
Number of salaries quoted 32,893 27,368 37,623
10th Percentile £28,500 £33,173 £31,250
25th Percentile £36,250 £44,750 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -
75th Percentile £75,000 £78,750 £77,715
90th Percentile £93,750 £97,500 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -4.76%

Desktop Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings featuring 'Desktop Engineer' in the job title relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised.

Desktop Engineer job vacancy trend in the UK

Desktop Engineer
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for Desktop Engineer job vacancies in the UK.

Salary distribution trend for Desktop Engineer job vacancies in the UK

Desktop Engineer
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Desktop Engineer over the 6 months to 31 December 2025.

Salary histogram for Desktop Engineer in the UK

Desktop Engineer
Top 14 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Desktop Engineer within the UK over the 6 months to 31 December 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England +31 110 £36,500 -1.35% 39
UK excluding London +50 82 £35,000 +5.20% 32
London +38 46 £37,500 -10.71% 13
Work from Home +63 43 £36,420 +8.72% 9
South West +41 36 £47,500 +42.78% 1
North of England +9 13 £27,500 -37.50% 5
Scotland +12 10 £35,000 -11.90% 4
North West +27 9 £29,000 -53.81% 1
Midlands +31 8 £38,000 +38.18% 4
Wales - 8 £35,000 - 2
West Midlands - 8 £38,000 - 2
East of England +7 4 £35,340 +57.07% 6
Yorkshire -8 4 £26,500 -24.29% 2
South East +8 3 £33,250 -0.75% 10

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

For the 6 months to 31 December 2025, Desktop Engineer 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 permanent job ads featuring Desktop Engineer in the job title.

1 97 (74.62%) Windows
2 88 (67.69%) Microsoft 365
3 68 (52.31%) Windows 10
4 60 (46.15%) Active Directory
4 60 (46.15%) Customer Service
5 52 (40.00%) Microsoft
6 50 (38.46%) ITIL
7 44 (33.85%) Microsoft Office
8 42 (32.31%) Continuous Improvement
9 41 (31.54%) Degree
10 39 (30.00%) Security Cleared
11 38 (29.23%) SLA
12 37 (28.46%) Microsoft Intune
13 35 (26.92%) Problem-Solving
14 34 (26.15%) SC Cleared
15 32 (24.62%) Cybersecurity
16 30 (23.08%) Customer Experience
16 30 (23.08%) Ticket Management
17 29 (22.31%) Azure
17 29 (22.31%) Cisco
18 28 (21.54%) Analytics
18 28 (21.54%) CTC Cleared
18 28 (21.54%) Customer Acquisition
18 28 (21.54%) Patch Management
18 28 (21.54%) Software Deployment
19 24 (18.46%) People Management
20 20 (15.38%) Microsoft Exchange
21 19 (14.62%) SCCM
22 18 (13.85%) VPN
23 17 (13.08%) SharePoint

Desktop 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 20 (15.38%) Microsoft Exchange
2 17 (13.08%) SharePoint
3 2 (1.54%) Confluence
Applications
1 44 (33.85%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (1.54%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (1.54%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.77%) Adobe Creative Suite
Business Applications
1 2 (1.54%) NetSuite
2 1 (0.77%) Carpe Diem
2 1 (0.77%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.77%) Elite 3E
Cloud Services
1 88 (67.69%) Microsoft 365
2 29 (22.31%) Azure
3 13 (10.00%) OneDrive
4 11 (8.46%) Entra ID
5 5 (3.85%) AWS
5 5 (3.85%) SaaS
6 3 (2.31%) Dynamics 365
6 3 (2.31%) Mimecast
6 3 (2.31%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 18 (13.85%) VPN
2 14 (10.77%) DHCP
2 14 (10.77%) DNS
3 12 (9.23%) LAN
3 12 (9.23%) WAN
4 9 (6.92%) Firewall
4 9 (6.92%) Wi-Fi
5 8 (6.15%) TCP/IP
6 6 (4.62%) WebEx
7 5 (3.85%) Remote Desktop
7 5 (3.85%) VLAN
7 5 (3.85%) VoIP
8 1 (0.77%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (3.08%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 11 (8.46%) JIRA
General
1 91 (70.00%) Social Skills
2 28 (21.54%) Back Office
3 11 (8.46%) Finance
4 9 (6.92%) Front Office
5 7 (5.38%) Banking
6 6 (4.62%) Analytical Skills
6 6 (4.62%) Marketing
6 6 (4.62%) Organisational Skills
7 5 (3.85%) Telecoms
8 4 (3.08%) Advertising
8 4 (3.08%) Electronics
8 4 (3.08%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 4 (3.08%) Manufacturing
8 4 (3.08%) Public Sector
9 3 (2.31%) Aerospace
10 2 (1.54%) Law
10 2 (1.54%) Presentation Skills
11 1 (0.77%) Investment Banking
11 1 (0.77%) Legal
11 1 (0.77%) Police
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (3.85%) WPF
2 1 (0.77%) AngularJS
2 1 (0.77%) Electron
2 1 (0.77%) OpenFin
2 1 (0.77%) React
2 1 (0.77%) REST
2 1 (0.77%) RESTful
2 1 (0.77%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 11 (8.46%) Self-Motivation
2 8 (6.15%) Onboarding
3 6 (4.62%) Mobile App
4 5 (3.85%) Driving Licence
4 5 (3.85%) iPhone
5 4 (3.08%) Video Conferencing
6 3 (2.31%) BYOD
6 3 (2.31%) CMDB
7 2 (1.54%) IoT
7 2 (1.54%) Product Ownership
8 1 (0.77%) Enterprise Software
8 1 (0.77%) Fat Client
8 1 (0.77%) Hedge funds
8 1 (0.77%) Housing Association
8 1 (0.77%) IPTV
8 1 (0.77%) Legacy Applications
8 1 (0.77%) PDA
8 1 (0.77%) Smartphone
8 1 (0.77%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 97 (74.62%) Windows
2 68 (52.31%) Windows 10
3 8 (6.15%) Linux
4 7 (5.38%) Mac OS
5 6 (4.62%) Android
5 6 (4.62%) Apple iOS
6 5 (3.85%) Windows Server 2019
7 4 (3.08%) Windows Server
8 3 (2.31%) Windows 7
8 3 (2.31%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 60 (46.15%) Customer Service
2 50 (38.46%) ITIL
3 42 (32.31%) Continuous Improvement
4 35 (26.92%) Problem-Solving
5 32 (24.62%) Cybersecurity
6 30 (23.08%) Customer Experience
6 30 (23.08%) Ticket Management
7 28 (21.54%) Analytics
7 28 (21.54%) Customer Acquisition
7 28 (21.54%) Patch Management
7 28 (21.54%) Software Deployment
8 24 (18.46%) People Management
9 12 (9.23%) Time Management
10 11 (8.46%) Service Delivery
11 9 (6.92%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 9 (6.92%) Inventory Management
12 8 (6.15%) Data Privacy
12 8 (6.15%) ITSM
13 7 (5.38%) Break/Fix
14 6 (4.62%) Migration
Programming Languages
1 10 (7.69%) PowerShell
2 5 (3.85%) C#
3 2 (1.54%) SQL
4 1 (0.77%) Bash
4 1 (0.77%) Java
4 1 (0.77%) Python
4 1 (0.77%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 41 (31.54%) Degree
2 39 (30.00%) Security Cleared
3 34 (26.15%) SC Cleared
4 28 (21.54%) CTC Cleared
5 6 (4.62%) Microsoft Certification
6 3 (2.31%) ITIL Certification
7 2 (1.54%) A+ Certification
7 2 (1.54%) Azure Certification
7 2 (1.54%) BPSS Clearance
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 38 (29.23%) SLA
2 3 (2.31%) Accessibility
System Software
1 60 (46.15%) Active Directory
2 6 (4.62%) VMware Infrastructure
3 4 (3.08%) BitLocker
4 1 (0.77%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.77%) Virtual Desktop
4 1 (0.77%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 37 (28.46%) Microsoft Intune
2 19 (14.62%) SCCM
3 4 (3.08%) Jamf Pro
4 1 (0.77%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 52 (40.00%) Microsoft
2 29 (22.31%) Cisco
3 15 (11.54%) ServiceNow
4 10 (7.69%) Apple
5 8 (6.15%) Salesforce
6 7 (5.38%) VMware
7 6 (4.62%) HP
8 5 (3.85%) Juniper
9 4 (3.08%) SAP
9 4 (3.08%) Zoho
10 3 (2.31%) Citrix
11 1 (0.77%) Adobe
11 1 (0.77%) Bomgar
11 1 (0.77%) DocuSign
11 1 (0.77%) Draytek
11 1 (0.77%) iManage
11 1 (0.77%) McAfee
11 1 (0.77%) MobileIron
11 1 (0.77%) Polycom
11 1 (0.77%) Yealink