Desktop Support Engineer Job Trends

Desktop Support Engineer
UK

The median Desktop Support Engineer salary in the UK is £35,170 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 17 January 2026.

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

6 months to
17 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 520 600 570
Rank change year-on-year +80 -30 +115
Permanent jobs requiring a Desktop Support Engineer 135 102 171
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.22% 0.19% 0.29%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.24% 0.21% 0.30%
Number of salaries quoted 76 68 158
10th Percentile £25,750 - £26,250
25th Percentile £30,000 £21,250 £29,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £35,170 £33,500 £34,250
Median % change year-on-year +4.99% -2.19% +5.38%
75th Percentile £40,000 £39,063 £38,750
90th Percentile £53,125 £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 55,347 49,429 56,262
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.79% 92.66% 95.18%
Number of salaries quoted 34,239 25,628 43,493
10th Percentile £28,675 £33,250 £30,000
25th Percentile £37,500 £45,000 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +4.35% -4.17%
75th Percentile £75,000 £78,750 £76,250
90th Percentile £95,000 £97,500 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £53,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -5.66% +6.00% -5.25%

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 17 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 17 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
UK excluding London +75 95 £35,000 +22.81% 11
England +60 94 £35,670 +6.48% 12
Work from Home +87 55 £28,420 -15.16% 2
London +51 38 £37,500 -31.82% 3
South West +36 34 £35,000 +7.69% 2
Scotland - 31 £40,000 - 3
North of England +14 11 £26,500 -7.02% 2
Wales - 8 £35,000 -
North West +21 6 £34,250 +29.25% 1
South East +12 6 £32,000 -4.48% 2
Yorkshire -14 5 £26,500 -7.02% 1
East of England +4 3 £35,340 +57.07% 2
Midlands +21 2 £32,500 +41.30%
West Midlands - 2 £32,500 -

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

For the 6 months to 17 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.

1 100 (74.07%) Windows
2 95 (70.37%) Microsoft 365
3 73 (54.07%) Windows 10
4 71 (52.59%) Customer Service
5 62 (45.93%) ITIL
6 60 (44.44%) Microsoft
7 56 (41.48%) Degree
7 56 (41.48%) Microsoft Office
8 55 (40.74%) Continuous Improvement
9 52 (38.52%) SLA
10 48 (35.56%) Security Cleared
11 46 (34.07%) Active Directory
11 46 (34.07%) Customer Experience
11 46 (34.07%) Cybersecurity
11 46 (34.07%) Patch Management
11 46 (34.07%) SC Cleared
12 45 (33.33%) Cisco
12 45 (33.33%) Ticket Management
13 44 (32.59%) Analytics
13 44 (32.59%) CTC Cleared
13 44 (32.59%) Customer Acquisition
13 44 (32.59%) Software Deployment
14 29 (21.48%) Problem-Solving
15 27 (20.00%) Microsoft Intune
16 24 (17.78%) People Management
17 22 (16.30%) Entra ID
18 21 (15.56%) Azure
19 17 (12.59%) SharePoint
20 16 (11.85%) Microsoft Exchange
21 13 (9.63%) Time Management

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 (12.59%) SharePoint
2 16 (11.85%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (1.48%) Confluence
Applications
1 56 (41.48%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.74%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.74%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (1.48%) NetSuite
2 1 (0.74%) Carpe Diem
2 1 (0.74%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.74%) Elite 3E
Cloud Services
1 95 (70.37%) Microsoft 365
2 22 (16.30%) Entra ID
3 21 (15.56%) Azure
4 12 (8.89%) OneDrive
5 6 (4.44%) SaaS
6 5 (3.70%) AWS
7 3 (2.22%) Mimecast
8 2 (1.48%) Dynamics 365
8 2 (1.48%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 12 (8.89%) VPN
2 11 (8.15%) DHCP
2 11 (8.15%) DNS
3 10 (7.41%) Firewall
4 8 (5.93%) LAN
4 8 (5.93%) WAN
5 7 (5.19%) TCP/IP
6 6 (4.44%) WebEx
7 5 (3.70%) VoIP
7 5 (3.70%) Wi-Fi
8 2 (1.48%) VLAN
9 1 (0.74%) Remote Desktop
9 1 (0.74%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (3.70%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 9 (6.67%) JIRA
General
1 100 (74.07%) Social Skills
2 44 (32.59%) Back Office
3 11 (8.15%) Finance
4 8 (5.93%) Front Office
4 8 (5.93%) Organisational Skills
5 7 (5.19%) Analytical Skills
6 6 (4.44%) Banking
6 6 (4.44%) Marketing
7 5 (3.70%) Telecoms
8 4 (2.96%) Electronics
8 4 (2.96%) Manufacturing
8 4 (2.96%) Public Sector
9 3 (2.22%) Aerospace
10 2 (1.48%) Advertising
10 2 (1.48%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 2 (1.48%) Presentation Skills
11 1 (0.74%) Fire and Rescue
11 1 (0.74%) Law
11 1 (0.74%) Legal
11 1 (0.74%) Police
Miscellaneous
1 12 (8.89%) Self-Motivation
2 7 (5.19%) Mobile App
3 6 (4.44%) Driving Licence
3 6 (4.44%) Onboarding
4 3 (2.22%) CMDB
4 3 (2.22%) iPhone
4 3 (2.22%) Video Conferencing
5 2 (1.48%) BYOD
5 2 (1.48%) IoT
6 1 (0.74%) Enterprise Software
6 1 (0.74%) Fat Client
6 1 (0.74%) Hedge funds
6 1 (0.74%) Housing Association
6 1 (0.74%) IPTV
6 1 (0.74%) PDA
6 1 (0.74%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 100 (74.07%) Windows
2 73 (54.07%) Windows 10
3 8 (5.93%) Linux
4 7 (5.19%) Android
5 6 (4.44%) Mac OS
6 5 (3.70%) Apple iOS
6 5 (3.70%) Windows Server
6 5 (3.70%) Windows Server 2019
7 2 (1.48%) Windows 7
7 2 (1.48%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 71 (52.59%) Customer Service
2 62 (45.93%) ITIL
3 55 (40.74%) Continuous Improvement
4 46 (34.07%) Customer Experience
4 46 (34.07%) Cybersecurity
4 46 (34.07%) Patch Management
5 45 (33.33%) Ticket Management
6 44 (32.59%) Analytics
6 44 (32.59%) Customer Acquisition
6 44 (32.59%) Software Deployment
7 29 (21.48%) Problem-Solving
8 24 (17.78%) People Management
9 13 (9.63%) Time Management
10 11 (8.15%) Service Delivery
11 9 (6.67%) Inventory Management
12 8 (5.93%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 7 (5.19%) Data Privacy
14 6 (4.44%) CRM
15 5 (3.70%) Migration
15 5 (3.70%) Software Testing
Programming Languages
1 7 (5.19%) PowerShell
2 2 (1.48%) SQL
3 1 (0.74%) Bash
3 1 (0.74%) Python
Qualifications
1 56 (41.48%) Degree
2 48 (35.56%) Security Cleared
3 46 (34.07%) SC Cleared
4 44 (32.59%) CTC Cleared
5 6 (4.44%) Microsoft Certification
6 2 (1.48%) A+ Certification
6 2 (1.48%) ITIL Certification
7 1 (0.74%) Azure Certification
7 1 (0.74%) CompTIA Security+
7 1 (0.74%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 52 (38.52%) SLA
System Software
1 46 (34.07%) Active Directory
2 6 (4.44%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (2.22%) BitLocker
4 1 (0.74%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.74%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 27 (20.00%) Microsoft Intune
2 9 (6.67%) SCCM
3 2 (1.48%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 60 (44.44%) Microsoft
2 45 (33.33%) Cisco
3 9 (6.67%) ServiceNow
4 8 (5.93%) Apple
4 8 (5.93%) Salesforce
5 7 (5.19%) VMware
6 6 (4.44%) HP
7 5 (3.70%) Juniper
7 5 (3.70%) Zoho
8 4 (2.96%) SAP
9 2 (1.48%) Citrix
10 1 (0.74%) DocuSign
10 1 (0.74%) Draytek
10 1 (0.74%) iManage
10 1 (0.74%) Intapp
10 1 (0.74%) Logitech
10 1 (0.74%) Polycom
10 1 (0.74%) Yealink