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 4 August 2026.

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

6 months to
4 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 694 588 666
Rank change year-on-year -106 +78 -5
Permanent jobs requiring a Desktop Support Engineer 94 95 151
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.091% 0.19% 0.18%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.096% 0.21% 0.19%
Number of salaries quoted 87 83 130
10th Percentile £27,500 £27,850 £24,240
25th Percentile £30,000 £30,000 £26,525
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £35,000 £36,500 £32,250
Median % change year-on-year -4.11% +13.18% -
75th Percentile £40,750 £40,500 £37,500
90th Percentile £51,750 £56,750 £45,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £35,000 £31,250 £29,000
% change year-on-year +12.00% +7.76% +5.45%

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 97,595 44,677 79,563
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.20% 90.06% 94.91%
Number of salaries quoted 66,719 26,547 53,755
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,500 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £37,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year - - -8.33%
75th Percentile £75,000 £75,000 £71,991
90th Percentile £96,250 £95,000 £90,793
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +5.00% - -6.54%

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 August 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 4 August 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 -77 86 £35,000 -4.11% 5
UK excluding London -61 71 £35,000 +12.00% 7
North of England 0 47 £35,000 +6.06% 3
North West +15 23 £35,500 +18.33% 3
London -62 23 £48,750 +25.00%
Yorkshire -26 15 £30,000 -9.09%
Work from Home -20 9 £40,750 -9.44% 4
North East - 9 £30,000 -
South West -60 8 £34,750 +18.64%
Scotland +8 6 £26,000 -13.33% 2
South East -42 6 £30,000 +1.69% 1
Wales - 2 £34,000 -
East of England -25 1 £35,000 +55.56%
West Midlands -37 1 £33,500 -11.84% 1
Midlands -44 1 £33,500 -11.84% 1

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

For the 6 months to 4 August 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 61 (64.89%) Microsoft
2 54 (57.45%) Windows
3 49 (52.13%) Microsoft 365
4 48 (51.06%) Active Directory
5 32 (34.04%) Customer Service
6 31 (32.98%) ITIL
6 31 (32.98%) Microsoft Intune
7 26 (27.66%) Windows 10
8 24 (25.53%) SCCM
9 21 (22.34%) Azure
9 21 (22.34%) Entra ID
9 21 (22.34%) ITSM
10 18 (19.15%) PowerShell
10 18 (19.15%) User Experience
11 17 (18.09%) Microsoft Office
12 16 (17.02%) Microsoft Exchange
13 14 (14.89%) SLA
14 13 (13.83%) Degree
15 12 (12.77%) Continuous Improvement
15 12 (12.77%) Service Management
16 11 (11.70%) Mobile Device Management
17 10 (10.64%) Cisco
17 10 (10.64%) Security Cleared
17 10 (10.64%) Service Delivery
18 9 (9.57%) Asset Management
18 9 (9.57%) Configuration Management
18 9 (9.57%) Python
18 9 (9.57%) ServiceNow
18 9 (9.57%) VLAN
19 8 (8.51%) 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 16 (17.02%) Microsoft Exchange
2 8 (8.51%) SharePoint
Applications
1 17 (18.09%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (4.26%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (1.06%) Acrobat
3 1 (1.06%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (1.06%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 1 (1.06%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 49 (52.13%) Microsoft 365
2 21 (22.34%) Azure
2 21 (22.34%) Entra ID
3 8 (8.51%) OneDrive
4 7 (7.45%) Microsoft Copilot
5 6 (6.38%) Power Platform
6 1 (1.06%) Dynamics 365
6 1 (1.06%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 9 (9.57%) VLAN
2 7 (7.45%) DHCP
2 7 (7.45%) DNS
2 7 (7.45%) LAN
3 6 (6.38%) TCP/IP
4 5 (5.32%) WAN
4 5 (5.32%) Wi-Fi
4 5 (5.32%) Wireless
5 2 (2.13%) Ethernet
5 2 (2.13%) VPN
6 1 (1.06%) Firewall
6 1 (1.06%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (6.38%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 3 (3.19%) JIRA
General
1 28 (29.79%) Social Skills
2 17 (18.09%) Finance
3 7 (7.45%) Banking
3 7 (7.45%) Retail
4 6 (6.38%) Manufacturing
5 4 (4.26%) Front Office
5 4 (4.26%) Law
6 3 (3.19%) Back Office
6 3 (3.19%) Documentation Skills
6 3 (3.19%) Organisational Skills
7 1 (1.06%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 1 (1.06%) Legal
Miscellaneous
1 12 (12.77%) CMDB
2 10 (10.64%) Web Conferencing
3 7 (7.45%) Driving Licence
3 7 (7.45%) Management Information System
3 7 (7.45%) Onboarding
4 4 (4.26%) Derivative
4 4 (4.26%) Equities
4 4 (4.26%) Fixed Income
4 4 (4.26%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
5 2 (2.13%) Self-Motivation
6 1 (1.06%) Fat Client
6 1 (1.06%) iPhone
6 1 (1.06%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 54 (57.45%) Windows
2 26 (27.66%) Windows 10
3 5 (5.32%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 32 (34.04%) Customer Service
2 31 (32.98%) ITIL
3 21 (22.34%) ITSM
4 18 (19.15%) User Experience
5 12 (12.77%) Continuous Improvement
5 12 (12.77%) Service Management
6 11 (11.70%) Mobile Device Management
7 10 (10.64%) Service Delivery
8 9 (9.57%) Asset Management
8 9 (9.57%) Configuration Management
9 8 (8.51%) Problem-Solving
10 7 (7.45%) Incident Management
11 6 (6.38%) AI
11 6 (6.38%) Business Intelligence
11 6 (6.38%) Critical Thinking
11 6 (6.38%) Data Loss Prevention
11 6 (6.38%) Kalman Filter
11 6 (6.38%) Web Filtering
12 5 (5.32%) Patch Management
12 5 (5.32%) Ticket Management
Programming Languages
1 18 (19.15%) PowerShell
2 9 (9.57%) Python
3 4 (4.26%) SQL
3 4 (4.26%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 13 (13.83%) Degree
2 10 (10.64%) Security Cleared
3 8 (8.51%) SC Cleared
4 3 (3.19%) CTC Cleared
5 2 (2.13%) A+ Certification
5 2 (2.13%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
5 2 (2.13%) MCSA
5 2 (2.13%) Microsoft Certification
5 2 (2.13%) Server+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (14.89%) SLA
2 3 (3.19%) PMO
System Software
1 48 (51.06%) Active Directory
2 8 (8.51%) BitLocker
3 7 (7.45%) Virtual Desktop
4 2 (2.13%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (1.06%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 31 (32.98%) Microsoft Intune
2 24 (25.53%) SCCM
3 6 (6.38%) Single Sign-On
4 3 (3.19%) Norton AntiVirus
Vendors
1 61 (64.89%) Microsoft
2 10 (10.64%) Cisco
3 9 (9.57%) ServiceNow
4 7 (7.45%) Bloomberg
5 6 (6.38%) Tenable
6 5 (5.32%) Apple
7 4 (4.26%) Adobe
7 4 (4.26%) Veeam
7 4 (4.26%) VMware
8 3 (3.19%) Citrix
8 3 (3.19%) CrowdStrike
8 3 (3.19%) McAfee
8 3 (3.19%) Symantec
8 3 (3.19%) Zscaler
9 1 (1.06%) ConnectWise
9 1 (1.06%) Dell
9 1 (1.06%) Polycom
9 1 (1.06%) Remedy
9 1 (1.06%) Snow
9 1 (1.06%) Yealink