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 13 July 2026.

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

6 months to
13 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 640 589 675
Rank change year-on-year -51 +86 +5
Permanent jobs requiring a Desktop Support Engineer 134 92 203
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.14% 0.19% 0.20%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.14% 0.21% 0.21%
Number of salaries quoted 94 81 177
10th Percentile £27,500 £25,500 £24,240
25th Percentile £30,688 £29,000 £26,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £35,000 £33,000 £29,290
Median % change year-on-year +6.06% +12.67% -5.52%
75th Percentile £41,375 £40,000 £35,000
90th Percentile £50,000 £53,750 £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 92,998 44,238 95,769
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.19% 89.85% 94.73%
Number of salaries quoted 63,730 26,125 68,419
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,750 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £38,000 £38,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year - +4.76% -12.50%
75th Percentile £75,000 £75,000 £70,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £97,500 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +5.00% - -5.12%

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 13 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 13 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
UK excluding London -13 113 £35,000 +16.67% 9
England -63 91 £35,000 -4.11% 10
North of England +6 44 £35,000 +6.06% 6
Work from Home +28 42 £34,000 -30.26% 2
Scotland +44 41 £33,000 +10.00%
North West +6 23 £35,500 +18.33% 3
London -41 21 £48,750 +25.00% 4
South West -56 16 £37,500 +28.03%
Yorkshire -27 15 £30,000 -9.09% 1
South East -35 8 £30,000 +1.69% 2
North East - 6 £32,500 - 2
Wales - 2 £34,000 -
East of England -21 1 £35,000 +55.56%
West Midlands -24 1 £33,500 -11.84%
Midlands -35 1 £33,500 -11.84%

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

For the 6 months to 13 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 94 (70.15%) Microsoft
2 87 (64.93%) Windows
3 84 (62.69%) Microsoft 365
4 65 (48.51%) Customer Service
5 64 (47.76%) ITIL
6 59 (44.03%) Windows 10
7 54 (40.30%) Entra ID
8 52 (38.81%) Active Directory
9 48 (35.82%) Microsoft Office
9 48 (35.82%) SLA
10 45 (33.58%) Continuous Improvement
11 44 (32.84%) Degree
12 43 (32.09%) Security Cleared
13 42 (31.34%) Cisco
14 40 (29.85%) Patch Management
14 40 (29.85%) SC Cleared
15 37 (27.61%) Ticket Management
16 35 (26.12%) Analytics
16 35 (26.12%) CTC Cleared
16 35 (26.12%) Customer Acquisition
16 35 (26.12%) Customer Experience
16 35 (26.12%) Cybersecurity
16 35 (26.12%) Software Deployment
17 30 (22.39%) Microsoft Intune
18 27 (20.15%) SCCM
19 22 (16.42%) Azure
19 22 (16.42%) ITSM
20 18 (13.43%) PowerShell
20 18 (13.43%) User Experience
21 17 (12.69%) Microsoft Exchange

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 (12.69%) Microsoft Exchange
2 7 (5.22%) SharePoint
Applications
1 48 (35.82%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (2.99%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.75%) Acrobat
3 1 (0.75%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (0.75%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 84 (62.69%) Microsoft 365
2 54 (40.30%) Entra ID
3 22 (16.42%) Azure
4 7 (5.22%) OneDrive
5 6 (4.48%) Microsoft Copilot
5 6 (4.48%) Power Platform
6 1 (0.75%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 10 (7.46%) VLAN
2 8 (5.97%) DHCP
2 8 (5.97%) DNS
2 8 (5.97%) LAN
3 6 (4.48%) TCP/IP
3 6 (4.48%) WAN
4 5 (3.73%) Wi-Fi
4 5 (3.73%) Wireless
5 3 (2.24%) VPN
6 2 (1.49%) Ethernet
6 2 (1.49%) Firewall
7 1 (0.75%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (4.48%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 5 (3.73%) JIRA
General
1 65 (48.51%) Social Skills
2 35 (26.12%) Back Office
3 18 (13.43%) Finance
4 8 (5.97%) Retail
5 7 (5.22%) Banking
5 7 (5.22%) Organisational Skills
6 6 (4.48%) Manufacturing
7 4 (2.99%) Front Office
8 3 (2.24%) Documentation Skills
8 3 (2.24%) Law
9 1 (0.75%) Inclusion and Diversity
Miscellaneous
1 14 (10.45%) CMDB
2 9 (6.72%) Driving Licence
2 9 (6.72%) Management Information System
2 9 (6.72%) Web Conferencing
3 7 (5.22%) Onboarding
4 4 (2.99%) Derivative
4 4 (2.99%) Equities
4 4 (2.99%) Fixed Income
4 4 (2.99%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
5 3 (2.24%) Self-Motivation
6 1 (0.75%) Fat Client
6 1 (0.75%) iPhone
6 1 (0.75%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 87 (64.93%) Windows
2 59 (44.03%) Windows 10
3 6 (4.48%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 65 (48.51%) Customer Service
2 64 (47.76%) ITIL
3 45 (33.58%) Continuous Improvement
4 40 (29.85%) Patch Management
5 37 (27.61%) Ticket Management
6 35 (26.12%) Analytics
6 35 (26.12%) Customer Acquisition
6 35 (26.12%) Customer Experience
6 35 (26.12%) Cybersecurity
6 35 (26.12%) Software Deployment
7 22 (16.42%) ITSM
8 18 (13.43%) User Experience
9 17 (12.69%) Service Delivery
10 15 (11.19%) Service Management
11 13 (9.70%) Mobile Device Management
12 11 (8.21%) Configuration Management
13 9 (6.72%) Incident Management
14 8 (5.97%) Asset Management
14 8 (5.97%) Problem-Solving
15 6 (4.48%) AI
Programming Languages
1 18 (13.43%) PowerShell
2 9 (6.72%) Python
3 4 (2.99%) SQL
3 4 (2.99%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 44 (32.84%) Degree
2 43 (32.09%) Security Cleared
3 40 (29.85%) SC Cleared
4 35 (26.12%) CTC Cleared
5 3 (2.24%) A+ Certification
5 3 (2.24%) Server+ Certification
6 2 (1.49%) MCSA
6 2 (1.49%) Microsoft Certification
7 1 (0.75%) CompTIA Security+
7 1 (0.75%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
7 1 (0.75%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 48 (35.82%) SLA
2 5 (3.73%) PMO
System Software
1 52 (38.81%) Active Directory
2 9 (6.72%) BitLocker
3 7 (5.22%) Virtual Desktop
4 2 (1.49%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.75%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 30 (22.39%) Microsoft Intune
2 27 (20.15%) SCCM
3 6 (4.48%) Single Sign-On
4 3 (2.24%) Norton AntiVirus
Vendors
1 94 (70.15%) Microsoft
2 42 (31.34%) Cisco
3 8 (5.97%) ServiceNow
3 8 (5.97%) Tenable
4 7 (5.22%) Bloomberg
5 6 (4.48%) Adobe
6 5 (3.73%) Citrix
6 5 (3.73%) CrowdStrike
6 5 (3.73%) McAfee
6 5 (3.73%) Zscaler
7 4 (2.99%) Apple
7 4 (2.99%) Veeam
7 4 (2.99%) VMware
8 3 (2.24%) Symantec
9 1 (0.75%) ConnectWise
9 1 (0.75%) Dell
9 1 (0.75%) Polycom
9 1 (0.75%) Snow
9 1 (0.75%) Starlink
9 1 (0.75%) Yealink