Desktop Support Engineer Job Trends

Desktop Support Engineer
UK

The median Desktop Support Engineer salary in the UK is £36,500 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 17 September 2025.

The table below provides salary benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 593 695 572
Rank change year-on-year +102 -123 +353
Permanent jobs requiring a Desktop Support Engineer 85 106 192
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 0.17% 0.14% 0.31%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.19% 0.14% 0.33%
Number of salaries quoted 74 72 181
10th Percentile £29,000 £26,250 -
25th Percentile £30,000 £29,280 £26,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £36,500 £35,000 £32,500
Median % change year-on-year +4.29% +7.69% -7.14%
75th Percentile £40,000 £45,000 £38,750
90th Percentile £64,750 £57,500 £60,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £30,000 £29,605 £27,500
% change year-on-year +1.33% +7.65% -3.51%

All Permanent IT Job Vacancies
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 44,259 74,162 57,379
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 89.67% 95.25% 94.07%
Number of salaries quoted 26,008 44,624 44,413
10th Percentile £28,250 £30,000 £32,500
25th Percentile £36,250 £40,000 £43,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year - -8.33% -
75th Percentile £75,000 £73,750 £80,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £92,500 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £47,500 £50,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -5.00% -4.76% -

Desktop Support Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings that featured Desktop Support Engineer in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Desktop Support Engineer 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 September 2025.

Salary histogram for Desktop Support Engineer in the UK

Desktop Support Engineer
Top 11 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 September 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 +75 79 £36,500 +4.29% 14
London +58 48 £38,000 -15.56% 4
UK excluding London +88 36 £30,000 +1.33% 12
South West +64 10 £29,290 -0.53% 4
North of England +38 8 £33,000 -4.35% 2
Yorkshire - 8 £33,000 -
Midlands +53 7 £38,000 +12.59% 1
West Midlands +53 7 £38,000 +12.59%
South East +52 6 £29,500 -11.94% 3
Scotland +63 5 £30,000 +11.11% 1
Work from Home +61 5 £38,750 +19.23% 1

Desktop Support Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 17 September 2025, Desktop Support Engineer 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 permanent job ads featuring Desktop Support Engineer in the job title.

1 77 (90.59%) Windows
2 72 (84.71%) Microsoft 365
3 66 (77.65%) Active Directory
4 59 (69.41%) Social Skills
5 50 (58.82%) Microsoft
6 44 (51.76%) Problem-Solving
7 43 (50.59%) Windows 10
8 34 (40.00%) Microsoft Intune
9 33 (38.82%) ITIL
9 33 (38.82%) Customer Service
10 30 (35.29%) Microsoft Exchange
11 27 (31.76%) Azure
12 24 (28.24%) Degree
13 20 (23.53%) SharePoint
14 15 (17.65%) VPN
14 15 (17.65%) Entra ID
14 15 (17.65%) Windows Server
15 14 (16.47%) ServiceNow
16 13 (15.29%) Continuous Improvement
16 13 (15.29%) JIRA
16 13 (15.29%) Incident Management
16 13 (15.29%) TCP/IP
17 12 (14.12%) DNS
17 12 (14.12%) DHCP
18 11 (12.94%) WAN
18 11 (12.94%) LAN
18 11 (12.94%) Service Delivery
18 11 (12.94%) Wi-Fi
18 11 (12.94%) Asset Management
18 11 (12.94%) Mac OS

Desktop Support Engineer Skill Set
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 30 (35.29%) Microsoft Exchange
2 20 (23.53%) SharePoint
Applications
1 6 (7.06%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (2.35%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (1.18%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 1 (1.18%) Carpe Diem
1 1 (1.18%) Elite 3E
Cloud Services
1 72 (84.71%) Microsoft 365
2 27 (31.76%) Azure
3 15 (17.65%) Entra ID
4 7 (8.24%) OneDrive
5 3 (3.53%) Dynamics 365
5 3 (3.53%) Power Platform
5 3 (3.53%) SaaS
6 2 (2.35%) AWS
6 2 (2.35%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 15 (17.65%) VPN
2 13 (15.29%) TCP/IP
3 12 (14.12%) DHCP
3 12 (14.12%) DNS
4 11 (12.94%) LAN
4 11 (12.94%) WAN
4 11 (12.94%) Wi-Fi
5 7 (8.24%) Cisco IOS
6 6 (7.06%) Firewall
7 5 (5.88%) PBX
7 5 (5.88%) Remote Desktop
7 5 (5.88%) Structured Cabling
7 5 (5.88%) VoIP
8 4 (4.71%) VLAN
8 4 (4.71%) WebEx
9 3 (3.53%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (2.35%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 13 (15.29%) JIRA
General
1 59 (69.41%) Social Skills
2 7 (8.24%) Advertising
2 7 (8.24%) Front Office
3 6 (7.06%) Banking
3 6 (7.06%) Retail
4 5 (5.88%) Aerospace
4 5 (5.88%) Automotive
4 5 (5.88%) Finance
5 4 (4.71%) Analytical Skills
6 3 (3.53%) Organisational Skills
7 2 (2.35%) Electronics
7 2 (2.35%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 2 (2.35%) Telecoms
8 1 (1.18%) Billing
8 1 (1.18%) Law
8 1 (1.18%) Legal
8 1 (1.18%) Manufacturing
8 1 (1.18%) Marketing
8 1 (1.18%) Presentation Skills
8 1 (1.18%) Public Sector
Miscellaneous
1 8 (9.41%) iPhone
2 7 (8.24%) Driving Licence
3 6 (7.06%) Self-Motivation
4 4 (4.71%) Management Information System
4 4 (4.71%) Video Conferencing
5 3 (3.53%) BYOD
5 3 (3.53%) Onboarding
6 2 (2.35%) Fat Client
6 2 (2.35%) Mobile App
6 2 (2.35%) Thin Client
7 1 (1.18%) Hedge funds
7 1 (1.18%) Housing Association
7 1 (1.18%) iPad
7 1 (1.18%) PDA
7 1 (1.18%) Smartphone
Operating Systems
1 77 (90.59%) Windows
2 43 (50.59%) Windows 10
3 15 (17.65%) Windows Server
4 11 (12.94%) Mac OS
5 8 (9.41%) Android
6 5 (5.88%) Apple iOS
6 5 (5.88%) Linux
6 5 (5.88%) Windows Server 2019
7 3 (3.53%) Windows Server 2016
8 1 (1.18%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 44 (51.76%) Problem-Solving
2 33 (38.82%) Customer Service
2 33 (38.82%) ITIL
3 13 (15.29%) Continuous Improvement
3 13 (15.29%) Incident Management
4 11 (12.94%) Asset Management
4 11 (12.94%) Service Delivery
5 7 (8.24%) Cybersecurity
5 7 (8.24%) Data Privacy
5 7 (8.24%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 7 (8.24%) Inventory Management
5 7 (8.24%) Time Management
6 6 (7.06%) Preventative Maintenance
6 6 (7.06%) Problem Management
6 6 (7.06%) Vulnerability Management
7 5 (5.88%) Break/Fix
7 5 (5.88%) ITSM
7 5 (5.88%) Virtual Environments
8 4 (4.71%) Configuration Management
9 3 (3.53%) Service Management
Programming Languages
1 5 (5.88%) PowerShell
2 1 (1.18%) SQL
Qualifications
1 24 (28.24%) Degree
2 7 (8.24%) Security Cleared
3 5 (5.88%) Microsoft Certification
4 3 (3.53%) ITIL Certification
5 2 (2.35%) Azure Certification
6 1 (1.18%) A+ Certification
6 1 (1.18%) Network+ Certification
6 1 (1.18%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (8.24%) SLA
System Software
1 66 (77.65%) Active Directory
2 8 (9.41%) VMware Infrastructure
3 5 (5.88%) Hyper-V
4 3 (3.53%) BitLocker
5 2 (2.35%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 34 (40.00%) Microsoft Intune
2 9 (10.59%) SCCM
3 3 (3.53%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 50 (58.82%) Microsoft
2 14 (16.47%) ServiceNow
3 9 (10.59%) VMware
4 8 (9.41%) Apple
5 7 (8.24%) Cisco
6 6 (7.06%) Salesforce
7 5 (5.88%) Cognizant
7 5 (5.88%) Juniper
8 4 (4.71%) Citrix
8 4 (4.71%) HP
9 2 (2.35%) Polycom
9 2 (2.35%) Zoho
10 1 (1.18%) DocuSign
10 1 (1.18%) Google
10 1 (1.18%) iManage
10 1 (1.18%) Intapp
10 1 (1.18%) McAfee
10 1 (1.18%) MobileIron
10 1 (1.18%) SAP