Desktop Support Engineer Job Trends

Desktop Support Engineer
UK

The median Desktop Support Engineer salary in the UK is £35,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 17 June 2026.

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

6 months to
17 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 592 570 694
Rank change year-on-year -22 +124 +19
Permanent jobs requiring a Desktop Support Engineer 139 86 216
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.15% 0.19% 0.20%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.16% 0.22% 0.21%
Number of salaries quoted 93 75 187
10th Percentile £27,500 £21,950 £24,240
25th Percentile £31,500 £27,750 £26,550
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £35,000 £33,000 £29,440
Median % change year-on-year +6.06% +12.09% -8.71%
75th Percentile £41,500 £40,500 £35,000
90th Percentile £50,000 £53,750 £45,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £35,000 £29,500 £28,290
% change year-on-year +18.64% +4.28% +2.87%

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 87,868 39,889 102,707
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.97% 89.49% 94.74%
Number of salaries quoted 60,280 22,587 74,092
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,822 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £39,000 £38,524
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £57,500 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -4.35% +9.52% -12.50%
75th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £70,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £98,474 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year - - -6.54%

Desktop Support Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Desktop Support Engineer job vacancy trend in the UK

Desktop Support Engineer
Salary Trend

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

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

Desktop Support Engineer
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Desktop Support Engineer over the 6 months to 17 June 2026.

Salary histogram for Desktop Support Engineer in the UK

Desktop Support Engineer
Top 15 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Desktop Support Engineer within the UK over the 6 months to 17 June 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
UK excluding London -5 120 £35,000 +18.64% 9
England -60 91 £35,000 +6.06% 8
Scotland +50 46 £40,000 +33.33%
North of England -4 42 £35,000 +11.11% 2
Work from Home +41 40 £34,000 -4.23%
North West +17 22 £35,500 +25.66%
South West -38 22 £37,500 - 1
London -46 19 £50,000 +25.00% 4
Yorkshire -36 16 £30,000 -9.09% 1
South East -33 6 £32,000 +8.47% 2
North East - 4 £32,500 - 1
Wales - 2 £34,000 - 1
East of England -20 1 £35,000 +55.56% 1
Midlands -20 1 £33,500 +45.65% 1
West Midlands - 1 £33,500 - 1

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

For the 6 months to 17 June 2026, Desktop Support 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 Support Engineer in the job title.

1 90 (64.75%) Microsoft
2 82 (58.99%) Windows
3 77 (55.40%) Microsoft 365
4 63 (45.32%) Customer Service
5 61 (43.88%) ITIL
6 59 (42.45%) Windows 10
7 52 (37.41%) Entra ID
8 51 (36.69%) Active Directory
9 46 (33.09%) SLA
10 43 (30.94%) Continuous Improvement
10 43 (30.94%) Microsoft Office
11 41 (29.50%) Degree
11 41 (29.50%) Security Cleared
12 39 (28.06%) Patch Management
13 38 (27.34%) Cisco
13 38 (27.34%) SC Cleared
14 35 (25.18%) Ticket Management
15 33 (23.74%) Analytics
15 33 (23.74%) CTC Cleared
15 33 (23.74%) Customer Acquisition
15 33 (23.74%) Customer Experience
15 33 (23.74%) Cybersecurity
15 33 (23.74%) Software Deployment
16 28 (20.14%) Microsoft Intune
16 28 (20.14%) SCCM
17 20 (14.39%) ITSM
18 19 (13.67%) Azure
18 19 (13.67%) Service Delivery
19 17 (12.23%) User Experience
20 16 (11.51%) PowerShell

Desktop Support 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 15 (10.79%) Microsoft Exchange
2 5 (3.60%) SharePoint
Applications
1 43 (30.94%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (2.88%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.72%) Acrobat
3 1 (0.72%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (0.72%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 77 (55.40%) Microsoft 365
2 52 (37.41%) Entra ID
3 19 (13.67%) Azure
4 5 (3.60%) OneDrive
5 4 (2.88%) Microsoft Copilot
5 4 (2.88%) Power Platform
6 1 (0.72%) AWS
6 1 (0.72%) Mimecast
6 1 (0.72%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 11 (7.91%) VLAN
2 8 (5.76%) DHCP
2 8 (5.76%) DNS
2 8 (5.76%) LAN
3 7 (5.04%) WAN
4 6 (4.32%) TCP/IP
4 6 (4.32%) Wi-Fi
5 3 (2.16%) VPN
6 2 (1.44%) Ethernet
6 2 (1.44%) Wireless
7 1 (0.72%) Firewall
7 1 (0.72%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (2.88%) Power BI
2 1 (0.72%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 5 (3.60%) JIRA
General
1 68 (48.92%) Social Skills
2 33 (23.74%) Back Office
3 18 (12.95%) Finance
4 9 (6.47%) Organisational Skills
5 8 (5.76%) Retail
6 7 (5.04%) Banking
7 6 (4.32%) Manufacturing
8 4 (2.88%) Front Office
9 3 (2.16%) Documentation Skills
10 2 (1.44%) Law
11 1 (0.72%) Analytical Skills
Miscellaneous
1 14 (10.07%) CMDB
2 10 (7.19%) Driving Licence
3 9 (6.47%) Management Information System
4 6 (4.32%) Web Conferencing
5 4 (2.88%) Derivative
5 4 (2.88%) Equities
5 4 (2.88%) Fixed Income
5 4 (2.88%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
5 4 (2.88%) Onboarding
5 4 (2.88%) Self-Motivation
6 1 (0.72%) Fat Client
6 1 (0.72%) iPhone
6 1 (0.72%) Mobile App
6 1 (0.72%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 82 (58.99%) Windows
2 59 (42.45%) Windows 10
3 3 (2.16%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.72%) Android
Processes & Methodologies
1 63 (45.32%) Customer Service
2 61 (43.88%) ITIL
3 43 (30.94%) Continuous Improvement
4 39 (28.06%) Patch Management
5 35 (25.18%) Ticket Management
6 33 (23.74%) Analytics
6 33 (23.74%) Customer Acquisition
6 33 (23.74%) Customer Experience
6 33 (23.74%) Cybersecurity
6 33 (23.74%) Software Deployment
7 20 (14.39%) ITSM
8 19 (13.67%) Service Delivery
9 17 (12.23%) User Experience
10 15 (10.79%) Service Management
11 11 (7.91%) Configuration Management
11 11 (7.91%) Mobile Device Management
12 9 (6.47%) Incident Management
13 8 (5.76%) Problem-Solving
14 7 (5.04%) Asset Management
15 6 (4.32%) Critical Thinking
Programming Languages
1 16 (11.51%) PowerShell
2 9 (6.47%) Python
3 4 (2.88%) SQL
3 4 (2.88%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 41 (29.50%) Degree
1 41 (29.50%) Security Cleared
2 38 (27.34%) SC Cleared
3 33 (23.74%) CTC Cleared
4 3 (2.16%) A+ Certification
4 3 (2.16%) Server+ Certification
5 2 (1.44%) MCSA
5 2 (1.44%) Microsoft Certification
6 1 (0.72%) CompTIA Security+
6 1 (0.72%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
6 1 (0.72%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 46 (33.09%) SLA
2 5 (3.60%) PMO
System Software
1 51 (36.69%) Active Directory
2 10 (7.19%) BitLocker
3 5 (3.60%) Virtual Desktop
4 2 (1.44%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.72%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 28 (20.14%) Microsoft Intune
1 28 (20.14%) SCCM
2 4 (2.88%) Single Sign-On
3 3 (2.16%) Norton AntiVirus
Vendors
1 90 (64.75%) Microsoft
2 38 (27.34%) Cisco
3 8 (5.76%) ServiceNow
3 8 (5.76%) Tenable
4 7 (5.04%) Bloomberg
5 6 (4.32%) Adobe
6 5 (3.60%) Citrix
6 5 (3.60%) CrowdStrike
6 5 (3.60%) McAfee
6 5 (3.60%) Zscaler
7 4 (2.88%) Apple
7 4 (2.88%) Veeam
7 4 (2.88%) VMware
8 3 (2.16%) Symantec
9 1 (0.72%) Dell
9 1 (0.72%) Polycom
9 1 (0.72%) Snow
9 1 (0.72%) Starlink
9 1 (0.72%) Yealink
9 1 (0.72%) Zoho