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 4 January 2026.

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

6 months to
4 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 532 611 556
Rank change year-on-year +79 -55 +143
Permanent jobs requiring a Desktop Support Engineer 113 102 164
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.19% 0.19% 0.31%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.21% 0.20% 0.33%
Number of salaries quoted 73 68 154
10th Percentile £25,750 £21,250 £26,250
25th Percentile £30,000 £25,750 £29,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £35,340 £33,500 £34,250
Median % change year-on-year +5.49% -2.19% +5.38%
75th Percentile £40,000 £41,250 £38,750
90th Percentile £53,500 £57,500 £57,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £35,000 £28,500 £30,000
% change year-on-year +22.81% -5.00% +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 53,448 50,590 50,228
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.53% 92.97% 95.23%
Number of salaries quoted 32,896 26,513 38,772
10th Percentile £28,500 £33,125 £31,250
25th Percentile £36,250 £44,738 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £59,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +1.69% -1.67%
75th Percentile £75,000 £78,000 £77,500
90th Percentile £93,750 £97,500 £97,261
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -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 4 January 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 4 January 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
England +80 92 £36,500 +8.96% 22
UK excluding London +77 69 £35,000 +22.81% 21
London +58 42 £36,500 -30.48% 4
Work from Home +90 40 £35,340 +5.49% 4
South West +35 30 £35,000 +7.69% 1
Scotland - 11 £35,000 - 4
North of England +22 10 £27,000 -5.26% 4
Wales - 8 £35,000 -
North West +31 6 £34,250 +29.25% 1
Yorkshire -7 4 £26,500 -9.40% 3
Midlands - 4 £37,750 -
West Midlands - 4 £37,750 -
East of England +8 3 £35,340 +57.07% 8
South East +2 3 £33,250 -0.75% 4

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

For the 6 months to 4 January 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 86 (76.11%) Windows
2 82 (72.57%) Microsoft 365
3 60 (53.10%) Windows 10
4 59 (52.21%) Customer Service
5 49 (43.36%) Active Directory
6 48 (42.48%) ITIL
7 43 (38.05%) Microsoft
8 41 (36.28%) Degree
8 41 (36.28%) Microsoft Office
9 40 (35.40%) Continuous Improvement
10 35 (30.97%) SLA
11 33 (29.20%) Problem-Solving
11 33 (29.20%) Security Cleared
12 31 (27.43%) Cybersecurity
12 31 (27.43%) Microsoft Intune
12 31 (27.43%) SC Cleared
13 30 (26.55%) Customer Experience
14 29 (25.66%) Cisco
14 29 (25.66%) Ticket Management
15 28 (24.78%) Analytics
15 28 (24.78%) CTC Cleared
15 28 (24.78%) Customer Acquisition
15 28 (24.78%) Patch Management
15 28 (24.78%) Software Deployment
16 24 (21.24%) People Management
17 23 (20.35%) Azure
18 17 (15.04%) Microsoft Exchange
18 17 (15.04%) SharePoint
19 13 (11.50%) VPN
20 12 (10.62%) OneDrive

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 17 (15.04%) Microsoft Exchange
1 17 (15.04%) SharePoint
2 2 (1.77%) Confluence
Applications
1 41 (36.28%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.88%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.88%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (1.77%) NetSuite
2 1 (0.88%) Carpe Diem
2 1 (0.88%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.88%) Elite 3E
Cloud Services
1 82 (72.57%) Microsoft 365
2 23 (20.35%) Azure
3 12 (10.62%) OneDrive
4 6 (5.31%) Entra ID
5 5 (4.42%) SaaS
6 4 (3.54%) AWS
7 3 (2.65%) Dynamics 365
7 3 (2.65%) Mimecast
7 3 (2.65%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 13 (11.50%) VPN
2 11 (9.73%) DHCP
2 11 (9.73%) DNS
3 9 (7.96%) Firewall
4 8 (7.08%) LAN
4 8 (7.08%) WAN
5 7 (6.19%) TCP/IP
6 6 (5.31%) WebEx
7 5 (4.42%) VoIP
8 4 (3.54%) Wi-Fi
9 3 (2.65%) Remote Desktop
10 1 (0.88%) VLAN
10 1 (0.88%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (3.54%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 11 (9.73%) JIRA
General
1 85 (75.22%) Social Skills
2 28 (24.78%) Back Office
3 9 (7.96%) Finance
4 8 (7.08%) Front Office
5 6 (5.31%) Analytical Skills
5 6 (5.31%) Banking
5 6 (5.31%) Marketing
5 6 (5.31%) Organisational Skills
6 5 (4.42%) Telecoms
7 4 (3.54%) Electronics
7 4 (3.54%) Manufacturing
7 4 (3.54%) Public Sector
8 3 (2.65%) Advertising
8 3 (2.65%) Aerospace
9 2 (1.77%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 2 (1.77%) Presentation Skills
10 1 (0.88%) Fire and Rescue
10 1 (0.88%) Law
10 1 (0.88%) Legal
10 1 (0.88%) Police
Miscellaneous
1 11 (9.73%) Self-Motivation
2 6 (5.31%) Mobile App
2 6 (5.31%) Onboarding
3 5 (4.42%) Driving Licence
4 4 (3.54%) iPhone
5 3 (2.65%) BYOD
5 3 (2.65%) CMDB
5 3 (2.65%) Video Conferencing
6 2 (1.77%) IoT
7 1 (0.88%) Enterprise Software
7 1 (0.88%) Fat Client
7 1 (0.88%) Hedge funds
7 1 (0.88%) Housing Association
7 1 (0.88%) IPTV
7 1 (0.88%) PDA
7 1 (0.88%) Smartphone
7 1 (0.88%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 86 (76.11%) Windows
2 60 (53.10%) Windows 10
3 8 (7.08%) Linux
4 7 (6.19%) Mac OS
5 6 (5.31%) Android
5 6 (5.31%) Apple iOS
6 5 (4.42%) Windows Server 2019
7 4 (3.54%) Windows Server
8 3 (2.65%) Windows 7
8 3 (2.65%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 59 (52.21%) Customer Service
2 48 (42.48%) ITIL
3 40 (35.40%) Continuous Improvement
4 33 (29.20%) Problem-Solving
5 31 (27.43%) Cybersecurity
6 30 (26.55%) Customer Experience
7 29 (25.66%) Ticket Management
8 28 (24.78%) Analytics
8 28 (24.78%) Customer Acquisition
8 28 (24.78%) Patch Management
8 28 (24.78%) Software Deployment
9 24 (21.24%) People Management
10 12 (10.62%) Time Management
11 10 (8.85%) Service Delivery
12 9 (7.96%) Inventory Management
13 8 (7.08%) Infrastructure Engineering
14 7 (6.19%) Data Privacy
15 6 (5.31%) Break/Fix
16 5 (4.42%) CRM
16 5 (4.42%) Trend Analysis
Programming Languages
1 7 (6.19%) PowerShell
2 2 (1.77%) SQL
3 1 (0.88%) Bash
3 1 (0.88%) Python
Qualifications
1 41 (36.28%) Degree
2 33 (29.20%) Security Cleared
3 31 (27.43%) SC Cleared
4 28 (24.78%) CTC Cleared
5 6 (5.31%) Microsoft Certification
6 3 (2.65%) ITIL Certification
7 2 (1.77%) A+ Certification
7 2 (1.77%) Azure Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 35 (30.97%) SLA
System Software
1 49 (43.36%) Active Directory
2 6 (5.31%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (2.65%) BitLocker
4 1 (0.88%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.88%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 31 (27.43%) Microsoft Intune
2 10 (8.85%) SCCM
3 3 (2.65%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 43 (38.05%) Microsoft
2 29 (25.66%) Cisco
3 11 (9.73%) ServiceNow
4 9 (7.96%) Apple
5 8 (7.08%) Salesforce
6 7 (6.19%) VMware
7 6 (5.31%) HP
8 5 (4.42%) Juniper
9 4 (3.54%) SAP
9 4 (3.54%) Zoho
10 2 (1.77%) Citrix
11 1 (0.88%) DocuSign
11 1 (0.88%) Draytek
11 1 (0.88%) iManage
11 1 (0.88%) Intapp
11 1 (0.88%) Logitech
11 1 (0.88%) McAfee
11 1 (0.88%) MobileIron
11 1 (0.88%) Polycom
11 1 (0.88%) Yealink