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 4 April 2026.

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

6 months to
4 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 535 527 640
Rank change year-on-year -8 +113 +97
Permanent jobs requiring a Desktop Support Engineer 163 100 225
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.20% 0.24% 0.25%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.22% 0.27% 0.26%
Number of salaries quoted 88 83 206
10th Percentile £25,675 £21,250 £24,240
25th Percentile £31,500 £25,500 £27,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £35,170 £32,500 £30,000
Median % change year-on-year +8.22% +8.33% -7.69%
75th Percentile £41,500 £38,638 £35,000
90th Percentile £44,425 £53,750 £47,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £35,000 £28,500 £28,290
% change year-on-year +22.81% +0.74% -3.78%

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 74,250 36,762 86,050
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.26% 89.83% 94.57%
Number of salaries quoted 47,841 23,292 64,576
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £42,500 £38,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £54,650
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +9.79% -8.92%
75th Percentile £75,000 £78,750 £72,375
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,600 £50,000
% change year-on-year -4.94% +5.20% -4.76%

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 April 2026.

Salary histogram for Desktop Support Engineer in the UK

Desktop Support Engineer
Top 12 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 April 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 -4 140 £35,000 +22.81% 4
England -51 99 £36,250 +11.54% 6
Work from Home +54 71 £34,000 +1.49% 1
Scotland - 53 £40,000 - 1
South West +13 48 £37,500 +25.00% 1
London -22 22 £37,750 -17.49% 2
North of England -54 19 £30,000 +2.56% 1
North West -17 13 £41,000 +54.72% 1
Wales - 10 £35,000 -
South East -62 7 £32,500 - 1
Yorkshire -55 6 £26,500 -11.67%
East of England -40 3 £35,340 +57.07% 1

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

For the 6 months to 4 April 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.

1 107 (65.64%) Windows
2 102 (62.58%) Microsoft 365
3 96 (58.90%) Customer Service
4 85 (52.15%) Windows 10
5 81 (49.69%) ITIL
6 77 (47.24%) Microsoft
6 77 (47.24%) SLA
7 69 (42.33%) Microsoft Office
8 67 (41.10%) Degree
8 67 (41.10%) Security Cleared
9 66 (40.49%) Patch Management
10 65 (39.88%) Continuous Improvement
11 63 (38.65%) SC Cleared
12 62 (38.04%) Customer Experience
13 61 (37.42%) Cisco
13 61 (37.42%) Cybersecurity
14 60 (36.81%) Analytics
14 60 (36.81%) CTC Cleared
14 60 (36.81%) Customer Acquisition
14 60 (36.81%) Software Deployment
14 60 (36.81%) Ticket Management
15 49 (30.06%) Active Directory
16 39 (23.93%) Entra ID
17 26 (15.95%) SCCM
18 24 (14.72%) People Management
19 22 (13.50%) Service Delivery
20 21 (12.88%) Problem-Solving
21 15 (9.20%) Service Management
22 14 (8.59%) Azure
22 14 (8.59%) Configuration 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 6 (3.68%) Microsoft Exchange
2 5 (3.07%) SharePoint
3 2 (1.23%) Confluence
Applications
1 69 (42.33%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (1.23%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.61%) Acrobat
3 1 (0.61%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (0.61%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 2 (1.23%) NetSuite
2 1 (0.61%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 102 (62.58%) Microsoft 365
2 39 (23.93%) Entra ID
3 14 (8.59%) Azure
4 6 (3.68%) OneDrive
5 5 (3.07%) AWS
5 5 (3.07%) SaaS
6 3 (1.84%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 13 (7.98%) DHCP
1 13 (7.98%) DNS
2 10 (6.13%) LAN
3 9 (5.52%) VLAN
3 9 (5.52%) WAN
3 9 (5.52%) Wi-Fi
4 6 (3.68%) TCP/IP
4 6 (3.68%) VPN
5 4 (2.45%) Firewall
6 1 (0.61%) Internet
6 1 (0.61%) Remote Desktop
6 1 (0.61%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (3.07%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 7 (4.29%) JIRA
General
1 111 (68.10%) Social Skills
2 60 (36.81%) Back Office
3 16 (9.82%) Finance
4 14 (8.59%) Organisational Skills
5 9 (5.52%) Manufacturing
6 6 (3.68%) Analytical Skills
6 6 (3.68%) Banking
7 5 (3.07%) Marketing
7 5 (3.07%) Retail
8 4 (2.45%) Front Office
9 3 (1.84%) Aerospace
9 3 (1.84%) Electronics
9 3 (1.84%) Public Sector
9 3 (1.84%) Telecoms
10 1 (0.61%) Documentation Skills
10 1 (0.61%) Fire and Rescue
10 1 (0.61%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 1 (0.61%) Police
10 1 (0.61%) Presentation Skills
Miscellaneous
1 14 (8.59%) CMDB
2 11 (6.75%) Self-Motivation
3 9 (5.52%) Management Information System
4 8 (4.91%) Driving Licence
5 7 (4.29%) Mobile App
6 3 (1.84%) Onboarding
7 2 (1.23%) Derivative
7 2 (1.23%) Equities
7 2 (1.23%) Fixed Income
7 2 (1.23%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
7 2 (1.23%) IoT
8 1 (0.61%) Enterprise Software
8 1 (0.61%) Fat Client
8 1 (0.61%) iPhone
8 1 (0.61%) IPTV
8 1 (0.61%) Thin Client
8 1 (0.61%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 107 (65.64%) Windows
2 85 (52.15%) Windows 10
3 7 (4.29%) Android
4 3 (1.84%) Linux
4 3 (1.84%) Windows Server
5 2 (1.23%) Apple iOS
5 2 (1.23%) Windows 7
6 1 (0.61%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 96 (58.90%) Customer Service
2 81 (49.69%) ITIL
3 66 (40.49%) Patch Management
4 65 (39.88%) Continuous Improvement
5 62 (38.04%) Customer Experience
6 61 (37.42%) Cybersecurity
7 60 (36.81%) Analytics
7 60 (36.81%) Customer Acquisition
7 60 (36.81%) Software Deployment
7 60 (36.81%) Ticket Management
8 24 (14.72%) People Management
9 22 (13.50%) Service Delivery
10 21 (12.88%) Problem-Solving
11 15 (9.20%) Service Management
12 14 (8.59%) Configuration Management
12 14 (8.59%) ITSM
13 10 (6.13%) Incident Management
14 9 (5.52%) Critical Thinking
14 9 (5.52%) Time Management
15 6 (3.68%) Disaster Recovery
Programming Languages
1 5 (3.07%) PowerShell
2 2 (1.23%) Python
2 2 (1.23%) SQL
3 1 (0.61%) Bash
Qualifications
1 67 (41.10%) Degree
1 67 (41.10%) Security Cleared
2 63 (38.65%) SC Cleared
3 60 (36.81%) CTC Cleared
4 6 (3.68%) Microsoft Certification
5 5 (3.07%) A+ Certification
6 3 (1.84%) Server+ Certification
7 1 (0.61%) CompTIA Security+
7 1 (0.61%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
7 1 (0.61%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 77 (47.24%) SLA
2 5 (3.07%) PMO
System Software
1 49 (30.06%) Active Directory
2 6 (3.68%) BitLocker
3 2 (1.23%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.61%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.61%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 26 (15.95%) SCCM
2 14 (8.59%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 77 (47.24%) Microsoft
2 61 (37.42%) Cisco
3 6 (3.68%) Adobe
3 6 (3.68%) Citrix
4 5 (3.07%) CrowdStrike
4 5 (3.07%) McAfee
4 5 (3.07%) Tenable
4 5 (3.07%) Zoho
4 5 (3.07%) Zscaler
5 4 (2.45%) Salesforce
6 3 (1.84%) SAP
6 3 (1.84%) ServiceNow
7 2 (1.23%) Bloomberg
7 2 (1.23%) VMware
8 1 (0.61%) Apple
8 1 (0.61%) Draytek
8 1 (0.61%) HP
8 1 (0.61%) Polycom
8 1 (0.61%) Snow
8 1 (0.61%) Yealink