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 23 February 2026.

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

6 months to
23 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 507 568 587
Rank change year-on-year +61 +19 +118
Permanent jobs requiring a Desktop Support Engineer 155 106 220
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.22% 0.22% 0.29%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.25% 0.24% 0.31%
Number of salaries quoted 80 80 202
10th Percentile £25,725 - £25,275
25th Percentile £30,500 £21,250 £27,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £35,000 £33,500 £31,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.48% +8.06% -6.06%
75th Percentile £40,000 £40,000 £35,563
90th Percentile £43,750 £57,500 £47,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £35,000 £28,500 £28,290
% change year-on-year +22.81% +0.74% -3.78%

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 62,963 43,992 71,553
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 91.36% 91.41% 94.79%
Number of salaries quoted 39,692 23,186 55,777
10th Percentile £29,000 £32,750 £28,500
25th Percentile £37,500 £45,000 £39,268
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -8.33%
75th Percentile £75,000 £80,000 £73,750
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -4.76%

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 23 February 2026.

Salary histogram for Desktop Support Engineer in the UK

Desktop Support 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 Support Engineer within the UK over the 6 months to 23 February 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 +73 131 £35,000 +22.81% 13
England +2 91 £35,340 +5.49% 14
Work from Home +85 72 £34,000 +1.49% 1
Scotland - 52 £40,000 - 1
South West +27 44 £37,500 +25.00% 4
London +14 22 £36,750 -18.33% 2
North of England -16 14 £27,500 -3.51% 4
Wales - 10 £35,000 -
North West +12 9 £41,000 +54.72% 2
South East -21 7 £32,250 -3.73% 3
Yorkshire -31 5 £26,500 -7.02% 2
East of England -9 3 £35,340 +57.07% 2
Midlands 0 1 £27,500 +19.57%
West Midlands - 1 £27,500 -

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

For the 6 months to 23 February 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.

1 100 (64.52%) Microsoft 365
2 99 (63.87%) Windows
3 91 (58.71%) Customer Service
4 80 (51.61%) Windows 10
5 78 (50.32%) ITIL
6 72 (46.45%) SLA
7 69 (44.52%) Microsoft Office
8 67 (43.23%) Microsoft
8 67 (43.23%) Security Cleared
9 66 (42.58%) Degree
10 65 (41.94%) Continuous Improvement
10 65 (41.94%) Patch Management
11 63 (40.65%) SC Cleared
12 62 (40.00%) Customer Experience
13 61 (39.35%) Cisco
13 61 (39.35%) Cybersecurity
14 60 (38.71%) Analytics
14 60 (38.71%) CTC Cleared
14 60 (38.71%) Customer Acquisition
14 60 (38.71%) Software Deployment
14 60 (38.71%) Ticket Management
15 38 (24.52%) Active Directory
15 38 (24.52%) Entra ID
16 24 (15.48%) People Management
17 20 (12.90%) Problem-Solving
18 19 (12.26%) Service Delivery
19 17 (10.97%) SCCM
20 15 (9.68%) Microsoft Intune
21 14 (9.03%) Azure
22 12 (7.74%) ITSM

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 9 (5.81%) SharePoint
2 8 (5.16%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (1.29%) Confluence
Applications
1 69 (44.52%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.65%) Acrobat
2 1 (0.65%) Microsoft Project
2 1 (0.65%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 2 (1.29%) NetSuite
2 1 (0.65%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 100 (64.52%) Microsoft 365
2 38 (24.52%) Entra ID
3 14 (9.03%) Azure
4 7 (4.52%) OneDrive
5 5 (3.23%) AWS
5 5 (3.23%) SaaS
6 3 (1.94%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 11 (7.10%) DHCP
1 11 (7.10%) DNS
2 7 (4.52%) LAN
2 7 (4.52%) TCP/IP
2 7 (4.52%) VPN
3 6 (3.87%) WAN
4 5 (3.23%) Firewall
4 5 (3.23%) Wi-Fi
5 3 (1.94%) VLAN
6 2 (1.29%) WebEx
7 1 (0.65%) Internet
7 1 (0.65%) Remote Desktop
7 1 (0.65%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (3.23%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 8 (5.16%) JIRA
General
1 111 (71.61%) Social Skills
2 60 (38.71%) Back Office
3 13 (8.39%) Finance
3 13 (8.39%) Organisational Skills
4 6 (3.87%) Analytical Skills
4 6 (3.87%) Manufacturing
4 6 (3.87%) Marketing
5 5 (3.23%) Banking
5 5 (3.23%) Front Office
6 4 (2.58%) Electronics
6 4 (2.58%) Public Sector
6 4 (2.58%) Retail
6 4 (2.58%) Telecoms
7 3 (1.94%) Aerospace
8 2 (1.29%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 1 (0.65%) Fire and Rescue
9 1 (0.65%) Police
9 1 (0.65%) Presentation Skills
Miscellaneous
1 11 (7.10%) Self-Motivation
2 10 (6.45%) CMDB
3 8 (5.16%) Driving Licence
4 7 (4.52%) Management Information System
4 7 (4.52%) Mobile App
5 3 (1.94%) Onboarding
6 2 (1.29%) IoT
7 1 (0.65%) Enterprise Software
7 1 (0.65%) Fat Client
7 1 (0.65%) Housing Association
7 1 (0.65%) iPhone
7 1 (0.65%) IPTV
7 1 (0.65%) PDA
7 1 (0.65%) Thin Client
7 1 (0.65%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 99 (63.87%) Windows
2 80 (51.61%) Windows 10
3 7 (4.52%) Android
4 4 (2.58%) Linux
4 4 (2.58%) Windows Server
5 2 (1.29%) Apple iOS
5 2 (1.29%) Windows 7
6 1 (0.65%) Mac OS
6 1 (0.65%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 91 (58.71%) Customer Service
2 78 (50.32%) ITIL
3 65 (41.94%) Continuous Improvement
3 65 (41.94%) Patch Management
4 62 (40.00%) Customer Experience
5 61 (39.35%) Cybersecurity
6 60 (38.71%) Analytics
6 60 (38.71%) Customer Acquisition
6 60 (38.71%) Software Deployment
6 60 (38.71%) Ticket Management
7 24 (15.48%) People Management
8 20 (12.90%) Problem-Solving
9 19 (12.26%) Service Delivery
10 12 (7.74%) ITSM
10 12 (7.74%) Service Management
10 12 (7.74%) Time Management
11 10 (6.45%) Configuration Management
12 9 (5.81%) Incident Management
13 6 (3.87%) CRM
13 6 (3.87%) Disaster Recovery
Programming Languages
1 4 (2.58%) PowerShell
2 2 (1.29%) SQL
3 1 (0.65%) Bash
3 1 (0.65%) Python
Qualifications
1 67 (43.23%) Security Cleared
2 66 (42.58%) Degree
3 63 (40.65%) SC Cleared
4 60 (38.71%) CTC Cleared
5 6 (3.87%) Microsoft Certification
6 4 (2.58%) A+ Certification
7 2 (1.29%) Server+ Certification
8 1 (0.65%) CompTIA Security+
8 1 (0.65%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
8 1 (0.65%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 72 (46.45%) SLA
2 5 (3.23%) PMO
System Software
1 38 (24.52%) Active Directory
2 3 (1.94%) VMware Infrastructure
3 2 (1.29%) BitLocker
4 1 (0.65%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.65%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 17 (10.97%) SCCM
2 15 (9.68%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 67 (43.23%) Microsoft
2 61 (39.35%) Cisco
3 6 (3.87%) Adobe
3 6 (3.87%) Citrix
4 5 (3.23%) CrowdStrike
4 5 (3.23%) McAfee
4 5 (3.23%) Salesforce
4 5 (3.23%) ServiceNow
4 5 (3.23%) Tenable
4 5 (3.23%) Zoho
4 5 (3.23%) Zscaler
5 4 (2.58%) SAP
6 3 (1.94%) VMware
7 2 (1.29%) Apple
7 2 (1.29%) HP
8 1 (0.65%) Draytek
8 1 (0.65%) Juniper
8 1 (0.65%) Logitech
8 1 (0.65%) Polycom
8 1 (0.65%) Yealink