Desktop Support Engineer Job Trends

Desktop Support Engineer
UK

The median Desktop Support Engineer salary in the UK is £35,340 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 18 November 2025.

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

6 months to
18 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 554 636 541
Rank change year-on-year +82 -95 +253
Permanent jobs requiring a Desktop Support Engineer 96 109 175
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.18% 0.16% 0.33%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.20% 0.17% 0.35%
Number of salaries quoted 77 71 167
10th Percentile £26,250 £21,250 £25,900
25th Percentile £30,000 £27,625 £26,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £35,340 £35,000 £33,210
Median % change year-on-year +0.97% +5.39% +2.18%
75th Percentile £38,750 £45,000 £39,500
90th Percentile £53,000 £57,500 £58,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £35,000 £29,605 £27,500
% change year-on-year +18.22% +7.65% -1.79%

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 47,385 63,314 50,189
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.02% 94.54% 95.41%
Number of salaries quoted 29,598 35,369 38,895
10th Percentile £28,250 £31,561 £31,250
25th Percentile £35,343 £42,500 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £57,500 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.70% -4.17% -
75th Percentile £73,750 £75,000 £80,000
90th Percentile £92,500 £95,000 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £47,500 £51,197 £52,500
% change year-on-year -7.22% -2.48% -

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 18 November 2025.

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 18 November 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 +67 79 £36,500 +4.29% 28
UK excluding London +87 49 £35,000 +18.22% 19
London +39 45 £37,000 -27.80% 18
Work from Home +71 20 £36,420 +8.72% 10
South West +37 15 £35,000 +18.22% 1
Scotland +10 9 £30,000 +13.21% 6
West Midlands +58 7 £38,000 +8.57%
Midlands +51 7 £38,000 +8.57%
North of England +50 7 £26,500 -3.64% 5
Wales - 6 £35,000 -
Yorkshire +15 5 £26,500 -16.54% 3
East of England +10 3 £35,340 +57.07% 2
North West +42 2 £27,500 +3.77% 2
South East +30 2 £33,250 -0.75% 5

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

For the 6 months to 18 November 2025, 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 83 (86.46%) Windows
2 77 (80.21%) Microsoft 365
3 65 (67.71%) Active Directory
4 52 (54.17%) Customer Service
5 50 (52.08%) Microsoft
5 50 (52.08%) Windows 10
6 41 (42.71%) Problem-Solving
7 38 (39.58%) ITIL
8 35 (36.46%) Microsoft Intune
9 31 (32.29%) Azure
10 30 (31.25%) Degree
11 27 (28.13%) Microsoft Exchange
12 26 (27.08%) Continuous Improvement
13 23 (23.96%) Microsoft Office
14 22 (22.92%) SharePoint
15 20 (20.83%) Security Cleared
16 18 (18.75%) Cybersecurity
17 16 (16.67%) ServiceNow
18 15 (15.63%) DHCP
18 15 (15.63%) DNS
18 15 (15.63%) VPN
19 14 (14.58%) SC Cleared
19 14 (14.58%) SLA
20 13 (13.54%) JIRA
20 13 (13.54%) LAN
20 13 (13.54%) WAN
21 12 (12.50%) Cisco
21 12 (12.50%) Customer Experience
21 12 (12.50%) Mac OS
21 12 (12.50%) Service Delivery

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 27 (28.13%) Microsoft Exchange
2 22 (22.92%) SharePoint
3 1 (1.04%) Confluence
Applications
1 23 (23.96%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (2.08%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (1.04%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (2.08%) NetSuite
2 1 (1.04%) Carpe Diem
2 1 (1.04%) Elite 3E
Cloud Services
1 77 (80.21%) Microsoft 365
2 31 (32.29%) Azure
3 11 (11.46%) OneDrive
4 10 (10.42%) Entra ID
5 6 (6.25%) SaaS
6 5 (5.21%) AWS
7 3 (3.13%) Dynamics 365
7 3 (3.13%) Mimecast
7 3 (3.13%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 15 (15.63%) DHCP
1 15 (15.63%) DNS
1 15 (15.63%) VPN
2 13 (13.54%) LAN
2 13 (13.54%) WAN
3 11 (11.46%) TCP/IP
4 10 (10.42%) Wi-Fi
5 7 (7.29%) Firewall
6 6 (6.25%) Remote Desktop
6 6 (6.25%) WebEx
7 5 (5.21%) VoIP
8 2 (2.08%) Wireless
9 1 (1.04%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (5.21%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 13 (13.54%) JIRA
General
1 77 (80.21%) Social Skills
2 11 (11.46%) Back Office
3 8 (8.33%) Finance
4 7 (7.29%) Aerospace
4 7 (7.29%) Front Office
5 6 (6.25%) Advertising
5 6 (6.25%) Analytical Skills
5 6 (6.25%) Organisational Skills
6 5 (5.21%) Automotive
6 5 (5.21%) Banking
7 4 (4.17%) Marketing
8 3 (3.13%) Telecoms
9 2 (2.08%) Electronics
9 2 (2.08%) Manufacturing
9 2 (2.08%) Presentation Skills
9 2 (2.08%) Public Sector
10 1 (1.04%) Billing
10 1 (1.04%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 1 (1.04%) Law
10 1 (1.04%) Legal
Miscellaneous
1 12 (12.50%) Self-Motivation
2 9 (9.38%) Driving Licence
3 8 (8.33%) iPhone
4 6 (6.25%) Mobile App
5 4 (4.17%) Onboarding
5 4 (4.17%) Video Conferencing
6 3 (3.13%) BYOD
7 2 (2.08%) Fat Client
7 2 (2.08%) Thin Client
8 1 (1.04%) Enterprise Software
8 1 (1.04%) Hedge funds
8 1 (1.04%) Housing Association
8 1 (1.04%) IoT
8 1 (1.04%) iPad
8 1 (1.04%) IPTV
8 1 (1.04%) PDA
8 1 (1.04%) Smartphone
Operating Systems
1 83 (86.46%) Windows
2 50 (52.08%) Windows 10
3 12 (12.50%) Mac OS
4 9 (9.38%) Windows Server
5 7 (7.29%) Android
5 7 (7.29%) Apple iOS
5 7 (7.29%) Linux
6 5 (5.21%) Windows Server 2019
7 3 (3.13%) Windows 7
7 3 (3.13%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 52 (54.17%) Customer Service
2 41 (42.71%) Problem-Solving
3 38 (39.58%) ITIL
4 26 (27.08%) Continuous Improvement
5 18 (18.75%) Cybersecurity
6 12 (12.50%) Customer Experience
6 12 (12.50%) Service Delivery
6 12 (12.50%) Ticket Management
7 11 (11.46%) Analytics
7 11 (11.46%) Asset Management
7 11 (11.46%) Customer Acquisition
7 11 (11.46%) Patch Management
7 11 (11.46%) Software Deployment
8 10 (10.42%) Data Privacy
8 10 (10.42%) Inventory Management
8 10 (10.42%) Time Management
9 9 (9.38%) Incident Management
10 8 (8.33%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 8 (8.33%) People Management
11 6 (6.25%) Break/Fix
Programming Languages
1 7 (7.29%) PowerShell
2 2 (2.08%) SQL
3 1 (1.04%) Bash
3 1 (1.04%) Python
Qualifications
1 30 (31.25%) Degree
2 20 (20.83%) Security Cleared
3 14 (14.58%) SC Cleared
4 11 (11.46%) CTC Cleared
4 11 (11.46%) Microsoft Certification
5 3 (3.13%) ITIL Certification
6 2 (2.08%) A+ Certification
6 2 (2.08%) Azure Certification
7 1 (1.04%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (14.58%) SLA
System Software
1 65 (67.71%) Active Directory
2 11 (11.46%) VMware Infrastructure
3 6 (6.25%) Hyper-V
4 3 (3.13%) BitLocker
5 2 (2.08%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 35 (36.46%) Microsoft Intune
2 11 (11.46%) SCCM
3 3 (3.13%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 50 (52.08%) Microsoft
2 16 (16.67%) ServiceNow
3 12 (12.50%) Cisco
3 12 (12.50%) VMware
4 10 (10.42%) Apple
5 7 (7.29%) Salesforce
6 6 (6.25%) HP
7 5 (5.21%) Cognizant
7 5 (5.21%) Juniper
7 5 (5.21%) Zoho
8 4 (4.17%) Citrix
9 2 (2.08%) Polycom
9 2 (2.08%) SAP
10 1 (1.04%) DocuSign
10 1 (1.04%) Draytek
10 1 (1.04%) iManage
10 1 (1.04%) Intapp
10 1 (1.04%) McAfee
10 1 (1.04%) MobileIron
10 1 (1.04%) Yealink