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 16 May 2026.

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

6 months to
16 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 559 565 689
Rank change year-on-year +6 +124 +36
Permanent jobs requiring a Desktop Support Engineer 156 89 207
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.17% 0.20% 0.21%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.18% 0.23% 0.23%
Number of salaries quoted 91 77 188
10th Percentile £25,750 £21,250 £24,240
25th Percentile £30,250 £25,750 £26,900
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £35,000 £33,000 £29,803
Median % change year-on-year +6.06% +10.73% -8.30%
75th Percentile £41,500 £40,500 £35,000
90th Percentile £46,000 £53,750 £47,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £35,000 £29,500 £28,290
% change year-on-year +18.64% +4.28% +0.14%

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 85,212 39,160 91,339
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.30% 89.49% 94.62%
Number of salaries quoted 56,182 22,791 67,021
10th Percentile £30,000 £30,000 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £41,250 £38,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £57,500 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -4.35% +9.52% -12.50%
75th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £71,250
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,344 £50,000
% change year-on-year -4.48% +4.69% -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 16 May 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 16 May 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 +23 137 £35,000 +18.64% 4
England -40 102 £35,000 +6.06% 9
Work from Home +65 57 £27,750 -17.16%
Scotland - 50 £40,000 -
South West -14 40 £37,500 +25.00%
North of England -4 35 £32,500 -1.52% 2
London -24 19 £46,000 +15.00% 5
Yorkshire -44 18 £30,000 -9.09%
North West +18 17 £41,000 +45.13% 2
South East -42 6 £32,250 +4.03%
Wales - 4 £34,000 -
Midlands -23 1 £33,500 +45.65% 2
East of England -24 1 £35,000 +55.56%
West Midlands - 1 £33,500 - 2

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

For the 6 months to 16 May 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 98 (62.82%) Windows
2 94 (60.26%) Microsoft 365
3 85 (54.49%) Microsoft
4 83 (53.21%) Customer Service
5 78 (50.00%) ITIL
5 78 (50.00%) Windows 10
6 67 (42.95%) SLA
7 61 (39.10%) Continuous Improvement
8 56 (35.90%) Degree
8 56 (35.90%) Patch Management
8 56 (35.90%) Security Cleared
9 55 (35.26%) Microsoft Office
10 52 (33.33%) SC Cleared
11 51 (32.69%) Cisco
11 51 (32.69%) Customer Experience
11 51 (32.69%) Cybersecurity
12 50 (32.05%) Active Directory
12 50 (32.05%) Analytics
12 50 (32.05%) CTC Cleared
12 50 (32.05%) Customer Acquisition
12 50 (32.05%) Software Deployment
12 50 (32.05%) Ticket Management
13 48 (30.77%) Entra ID
14 27 (17.31%) SCCM
15 23 (14.74%) Microsoft Intune
16 20 (12.82%) Service Delivery
17 17 (10.90%) Azure
18 16 (10.26%) ITSM
18 16 (10.26%) People Management
19 15 (9.62%) Problem-Solving

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 6 (3.85%) Microsoft Exchange
2 2 (1.28%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.64%) Confluence
Applications
1 55 (35.26%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (2.56%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.64%) Acrobat
3 1 (0.64%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (0.64%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 1 (0.64%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 94 (60.26%) Microsoft 365
2 48 (30.77%) Entra ID
3 17 (10.90%) Azure
4 3 (1.92%) AWS
4 3 (1.92%) OneDrive
4 3 (1.92%) SaaS
5 2 (1.28%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 11 (7.05%) VLAN
2 9 (5.77%) DHCP
2 9 (5.77%) DNS
2 9 (5.77%) LAN
3 8 (5.13%) WAN
4 6 (3.85%) Wi-Fi
5 5 (3.21%) TCP/IP
6 4 (2.56%) VPN
7 3 (1.92%) Firewall
8 1 (0.64%) Internet
8 1 (0.64%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.92%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 6 (3.85%) JIRA
General
1 95 (60.90%) Social Skills
2 50 (32.05%) Back Office
3 15 (9.62%) Finance
4 12 (7.69%) Organisational Skills
5 8 (5.13%) Manufacturing
5 8 (5.13%) Retail
6 5 (3.21%) Banking
6 5 (3.21%) Front Office
7 4 (2.56%) Analytical Skills
8 3 (1.92%) Documentation Skills
9 2 (1.28%) Aerospace
9 2 (1.28%) Electronics
9 2 (1.28%) Marketing
9 2 (1.28%) Public Sector
9 2 (1.28%) Telecoms
10 1 (0.64%) Fire and Rescue
10 1 (0.64%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 1 (0.64%) Police
Miscellaneous
1 14 (8.97%) CMDB
2 9 (5.77%) Management Information System
3 8 (5.13%) Driving Licence
4 7 (4.49%) Self-Motivation
5 4 (2.56%) Derivative
5 4 (2.56%) Equities
5 4 (2.56%) Fixed Income
5 4 (2.56%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
5 4 (2.56%) Mobile App
6 2 (1.28%) Onboarding
7 1 (0.64%) Fat Client
7 1 (0.64%) IoT
7 1 (0.64%) iPhone
7 1 (0.64%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 98 (62.82%) Windows
2 78 (50.00%) Windows 10
3 3 (1.92%) Android
3 3 (1.92%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.64%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 83 (53.21%) Customer Service
2 78 (50.00%) ITIL
3 61 (39.10%) Continuous Improvement
4 56 (35.90%) Patch Management
5 51 (32.69%) Customer Experience
5 51 (32.69%) Cybersecurity
6 50 (32.05%) Analytics
6 50 (32.05%) Customer Acquisition
6 50 (32.05%) Software Deployment
6 50 (32.05%) Ticket Management
7 20 (12.82%) Service Delivery
8 16 (10.26%) ITSM
8 16 (10.26%) People Management
9 15 (9.62%) Problem-Solving
9 15 (9.62%) Service Management
10 14 (8.97%) Configuration Management
11 11 (7.05%) User Experience
12 9 (5.77%) Critical Thinking
12 9 (5.77%) Incident Management
13 7 (4.49%) Time Management
Programming Languages
1 9 (5.77%) Python
2 8 (5.13%) PowerShell
3 4 (2.56%) SQL
4 1 (0.64%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 56 (35.90%) Degree
1 56 (35.90%) Security Cleared
2 52 (33.33%) SC Cleared
3 50 (32.05%) CTC Cleared
4 4 (2.56%) A+ Certification
5 3 (1.92%) Server+ Certification
6 1 (0.64%) CompTIA Security+
6 1 (0.64%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
6 1 (0.64%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 67 (42.95%) SLA
2 5 (3.21%) PMO
System Software
1 50 (32.05%) Active Directory
2 7 (4.49%) BitLocker
3 1 (0.64%) Hyper-V
3 1 (0.64%) Virtual Desktop
3 1 (0.64%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 27 (17.31%) SCCM
2 23 (14.74%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 85 (54.49%) Microsoft
2 51 (32.69%) Cisco
3 6 (3.85%) Adobe
4 5 (3.21%) Citrix
4 5 (3.21%) CrowdStrike
4 5 (3.21%) McAfee
4 5 (3.21%) Tenable
4 5 (3.21%) Zscaler
5 4 (2.56%) Bloomberg
6 3 (1.92%) Zoho
7 2 (1.28%) SAP
7 2 (1.28%) ServiceNow
8 1 (0.64%) Apple
8 1 (0.64%) Dell
8 1 (0.64%) Polycom
8 1 (0.64%) Salesforce
8 1 (0.64%) Snow
8 1 (0.64%) Veeam
8 1 (0.64%) VMware
8 1 (0.64%) Yealink