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 20 July 2026.

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

6 months to
20 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 663 576 683
Rank change year-on-year -87 +107 -7
Permanent jobs requiring a Desktop Support Engineer 98 95 191
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.098% 0.19% 0.20%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.10% 0.21% 0.21%
Number of salaries quoted 92 83 171
10th Percentile £27,500 £25,550 £24,240
25th Percentile £30,000 £29,000 £26,375
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £35,000 £35,500 £29,440
Median % change year-on-year -1.41% +20.58% -5.03%
75th Percentile £41,500 £40,000 £36,250
90th Percentile £51,125 £52,000 £45,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £35,000 £30,000 £28,290
% change year-on-year +16.67% +6.04% +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 94,139 44,347 91,129
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.26% 89.90% 94.76%
Number of salaries quoted 64,646 26,264 64,457
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,750 £29,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £37,500 £39,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £53,500
Median % change year-on-year - +2.80% -10.83%
75th Percentile £75,000 £75,000 £70,250
90th Percentile £95,000 £96,250 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +5.00% - -5.66%

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 20 July 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 20 July 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 -63 88 £35,000 -4.11% 12
UK excluding London -64 76 £35,000 +16.67% 9
North of England +12 46 £35,000 +6.06% 8
North West +14 23 £35,500 +18.33% 4
London -41 22 £50,000 +28.21% 4
Yorkshire -17 15 £30,000 -9.09% 2
South West -58 12 £37,500 +28.03%
Work from Home -9 10 £34,000 -17.58% 2
Scotland +17 8 £26,000 -13.33%
North East - 8 £30,000 - 2
South East -37 6 £30,000 +1.69% 1
Wales - 2 £34,000 -
East of England -20 1 £35,000 +55.56%
West Midlands -23 1 £33,500 -11.84%
Midlands -33 1 £33,500 -11.84%

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

For the 6 months to 20 July 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 60 (61.22%) Microsoft
2 53 (54.08%) Windows
3 51 (52.04%) Microsoft 365
4 50 (51.02%) Active Directory
5 34 (34.69%) Customer Service
6 32 (32.65%) ITIL
7 31 (31.63%) Microsoft Intune
8 26 (26.53%) SCCM
9 25 (25.51%) Windows 10
10 22 (22.45%) Azure
10 22 (22.45%) Entra ID
10 22 (22.45%) ITSM
11 18 (18.37%) PowerShell
11 18 (18.37%) User Experience
12 17 (17.35%) Microsoft Exchange
13 16 (16.33%) Microsoft Office
14 15 (15.31%) Service Delivery
14 15 (15.31%) Service Management
14 15 (15.31%) SLA
15 13 (13.27%) Mobile Device Management
16 12 (12.24%) Continuous Improvement
16 12 (12.24%) Degree
17 11 (11.22%) Configuration Management
17 11 (11.22%) Security Cleared
18 10 (10.20%) Cisco
19 9 (9.18%) Asset Management
19 9 (9.18%) Incident Management
19 9 (9.18%) Python
19 9 (9.18%) VLAN
20 8 (8.16%) BitLocker

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 (17.35%) Microsoft Exchange
2 8 (8.16%) SharePoint
Applications
1 16 (16.33%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (4.08%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (1.02%) Acrobat
3 1 (1.02%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (1.02%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 51 (52.04%) Microsoft 365
2 22 (22.45%) Azure
2 22 (22.45%) Entra ID
3 8 (8.16%) OneDrive
4 7 (7.14%) Microsoft Copilot
5 6 (6.12%) Power Platform
6 1 (1.02%) Dynamics 365
6 1 (1.02%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 9 (9.18%) VLAN
2 8 (8.16%) DHCP
2 8 (8.16%) DNS
3 7 (7.14%) LAN
3 7 (7.14%) TCP/IP
4 5 (5.10%) WAN
4 5 (5.10%) Wi-Fi
4 5 (5.10%) Wireless
5 2 (2.04%) Ethernet
5 2 (2.04%) VPN
6 1 (1.02%) Firewall
6 1 (1.02%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (6.12%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 5 (5.10%) JIRA
General
1 32 (32.65%) Social Skills
2 18 (18.37%) Finance
3 8 (8.16%) Retail
4 7 (7.14%) Banking
5 6 (6.12%) Manufacturing
5 6 (6.12%) Organisational Skills
6 4 (4.08%) Front Office
7 3 (3.06%) Back Office
7 3 (3.06%) Documentation Skills
7 3 (3.06%) Law
8 1 (1.02%) Inclusion and Diversity
Miscellaneous
1 14 (14.29%) CMDB
2 9 (9.18%) Management Information System
2 9 (9.18%) Web Conferencing
3 8 (8.16%) Driving Licence
4 7 (7.14%) Onboarding
5 4 (4.08%) Derivative
5 4 (4.08%) Equities
5 4 (4.08%) Fixed Income
5 4 (4.08%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
6 3 (3.06%) Self-Motivation
7 1 (1.02%) Fat Client
7 1 (1.02%) iPhone
7 1 (1.02%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 53 (54.08%) Windows
2 25 (25.51%) Windows 10
3 5 (5.10%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 34 (34.69%) Customer Service
2 32 (32.65%) ITIL
3 22 (22.45%) ITSM
4 18 (18.37%) User Experience
5 15 (15.31%) Service Delivery
5 15 (15.31%) Service Management
6 13 (13.27%) Mobile Device Management
7 12 (12.24%) Continuous Improvement
8 11 (11.22%) Configuration Management
9 9 (9.18%) Asset Management
9 9 (9.18%) Incident Management
10 8 (8.16%) Problem-Solving
11 7 (7.14%) Patch Management
12 6 (6.12%) AI
12 6 (6.12%) Business Intelligence
12 6 (6.12%) Critical Thinking
12 6 (6.12%) Data Loss Prevention
12 6 (6.12%) Disaster Recovery
12 6 (6.12%) Kalman Filter
12 6 (6.12%) Web Filtering
Programming Languages
1 18 (18.37%) PowerShell
2 9 (9.18%) Python
3 4 (4.08%) SQL
3 4 (4.08%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 12 (12.24%) Degree
2 11 (11.22%) Security Cleared
3 8 (8.16%) SC Cleared
4 3 (3.06%) A+ Certification
4 3 (3.06%) CTC Cleared
4 3 (3.06%) Server+ Certification
5 2 (2.04%) MCSA
5 2 (2.04%) Microsoft Certification
6 1 (1.02%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (15.31%) SLA
2 5 (5.10%) PMO
System Software
1 50 (51.02%) Active Directory
2 8 (8.16%) BitLocker
3 7 (7.14%) Virtual Desktop
4 2 (2.04%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (1.02%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 31 (31.63%) Microsoft Intune
2 26 (26.53%) SCCM
3 6 (6.12%) Single Sign-On
4 3 (3.06%) Norton AntiVirus
Vendors
1 60 (61.22%) Microsoft
2 10 (10.20%) Cisco
3 8 (8.16%) ServiceNow
3 8 (8.16%) Tenable
4 7 (7.14%) Bloomberg
5 6 (6.12%) Adobe
6 5 (5.10%) Apple
6 5 (5.10%) Citrix
6 5 (5.10%) CrowdStrike
6 5 (5.10%) McAfee
6 5 (5.10%) Zscaler
7 4 (4.08%) Veeam
7 4 (4.08%) VMware
8 3 (3.06%) Symantec
9 1 (1.02%) ConnectWise
9 1 (1.02%) Dell
9 1 (1.02%) Polycom
9 1 (1.02%) Snow
9 1 (1.02%) Starlink
9 1 (1.02%) Yealink