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 23 May 2026.

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

6 months to
23 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 583 557 688
Rank change year-on-year -26 +131 +26
Permanent jobs requiring a Desktop Support Engineer 154 89 207
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.17% 0.21% 0.21%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.18% 0.23% 0.22%
Number of salaries quoted 90 77 187
10th Percentile £27,500 £21,250 £24,240
25th Percentile £30,688 £27,750 £26,800
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £35,000 £33,000 £29,605
Median % change year-on-year +6.06% +11.47% -8.91%
75th Percentile £41,375 £40,500 £35,000
90th Percentile £46,275 £53,750 £46,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £35,000 £29,500 £28,290
% change year-on-year +18.64% +4.28% +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 86,622 38,048 92,177
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.38% 89.26% 94.63%
Number of salaries quoted 57,427 21,318 67,552
10th Percentile £30,000 £29,913 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £41,000 £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 £71,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -3.85% +4.00% -6.32%

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 23 May 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 23 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 +29 135 £35,000 +18.64% 7
England -67 103 £35,000 +6.06% 10
Work from Home +48 55 £34,000 -1.45%
Scotland +50 47 £40,000 +33.33%
South West -20 39 £37,500 +25.00%
North of England -26 37 £35,000 +6.06% 5
North West +12 19 £37,750 +33.63% 3
London -36 19 £46,750 +16.88% 4
Yorkshire -33 17 £30,000 -9.09%
South East -43 6 £32,250 +9.32% 1
Wales - 4 £34,000 -
East of England -20 1 £35,000 +55.56%
Midlands -31 1 £33,500 +45.65% 1
North East - 1 £35,000 - 2
West Midlands - 1 £33,500 - 1

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

For the 6 months to 23 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 97 (62.99%) Windows
2 93 (60.39%) Microsoft 365
3 86 (55.84%) Microsoft
4 80 (51.95%) Customer Service
5 76 (49.35%) Windows 10
6 75 (48.70%) ITIL
7 64 (41.56%) SLA
8 59 (38.31%) Continuous Improvement
9 55 (35.71%) Microsoft Office
9 55 (35.71%) Security Cleared
10 54 (35.06%) Degree
10 54 (35.06%) Patch Management
11 51 (33.12%) Active Directory
11 51 (33.12%) Cisco
11 51 (33.12%) SC Cleared
12 50 (32.47%) Entra ID
13 49 (31.82%) Cybersecurity
14 48 (31.17%) Analytics
14 48 (31.17%) CTC Cleared
14 48 (31.17%) Customer Acquisition
14 48 (31.17%) Customer Experience
14 48 (31.17%) Software Deployment
14 48 (31.17%) Ticket Management
15 28 (18.18%) SCCM
16 26 (16.88%) Microsoft Intune
17 20 (12.99%) Service Delivery
18 19 (12.34%) Azure
19 17 (11.04%) ITSM
20 16 (10.39%) People Management
21 15 (9.74%) Service 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 10 (6.49%) Microsoft Exchange
2 3 (1.95%) SharePoint
Applications
1 55 (35.71%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (2.60%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.65%) Acrobat
3 1 (0.65%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (0.65%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 1 (0.65%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 93 (60.39%) Microsoft 365
2 50 (32.47%) Entra ID
3 19 (12.34%) Azure
4 5 (3.25%) OneDrive
5 2 (1.30%) AWS
5 2 (1.30%) Microsoft Copilot
5 2 (1.30%) Power Platform
5 2 (1.30%) SaaS
6 1 (0.65%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 11 (7.14%) VLAN
2 9 (5.84%) DHCP
2 9 (5.84%) DNS
2 9 (5.84%) LAN
3 8 (5.19%) WAN
4 6 (3.90%) Wi-Fi
5 5 (3.25%) TCP/IP
6 4 (2.60%) VPN
7 3 (1.95%) Firewall
8 1 (0.65%) Internet
8 1 (0.65%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.30%) Power BI
1 2 (1.30%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 5 (3.25%) JIRA
General
1 90 (58.44%) Social Skills
2 48 (31.17%) Back Office
3 17 (11.04%) Finance
4 11 (7.14%) Organisational Skills
5 8 (5.19%) Manufacturing
5 8 (5.19%) Retail
6 5 (3.25%) Banking
7 4 (2.60%) Front Office
8 3 (1.95%) Analytical Skills
8 3 (1.95%) Documentation Skills
9 2 (1.30%) Electronics
9 2 (1.30%) Marketing
9 2 (1.30%) Public Sector
9 2 (1.30%) Telecoms
10 1 (0.65%) Aerospace
10 1 (0.65%) Fire and Rescue
10 1 (0.65%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 1 (0.65%) Police
Miscellaneous
1 14 (9.09%) CMDB
2 9 (5.84%) Driving Licence
2 9 (5.84%) Management Information System
3 6 (3.90%) Self-Motivation
4 4 (2.60%) Derivative
4 4 (2.60%) Equities
4 4 (2.60%) Fixed Income
4 4 (2.60%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
4 4 (2.60%) Onboarding
5 3 (1.95%) Mobile App
6 2 (1.30%) Web Conferencing
7 1 (0.65%) Fat Client
7 1 (0.65%) IoT
7 1 (0.65%) iPhone
7 1 (0.65%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 97 (62.99%) Windows
2 76 (49.35%) Windows 10
3 3 (1.95%) Windows Server
4 2 (1.30%) Android
Processes & Methodologies
1 80 (51.95%) Customer Service
2 75 (48.70%) ITIL
3 59 (38.31%) Continuous Improvement
4 54 (35.06%) Patch Management
5 49 (31.82%) Cybersecurity
6 48 (31.17%) Analytics
6 48 (31.17%) Customer Acquisition
6 48 (31.17%) Customer Experience
6 48 (31.17%) Software Deployment
6 48 (31.17%) Ticket Management
7 20 (12.99%) Service Delivery
8 17 (11.04%) ITSM
9 16 (10.39%) People Management
10 15 (9.74%) Service Management
11 14 (9.09%) User Experience
12 13 (8.44%) Configuration Management
13 12 (7.79%) Problem-Solving
14 9 (5.84%) Incident Management
15 8 (5.19%) Critical Thinking
16 7 (4.55%) Mobile Device Management
Programming Languages
1 10 (6.49%) PowerShell
2 9 (5.84%) Python
3 4 (2.60%) SQL
4 2 (1.30%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 55 (35.71%) Security Cleared
2 54 (35.06%) Degree
3 51 (33.12%) SC Cleared
4 48 (31.17%) CTC Cleared
5 4 (2.60%) A+ Certification
6 3 (1.95%) Server+ Certification
7 1 (0.65%) CompTIA Security+
7 1 (0.65%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
7 1 (0.65%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 64 (41.56%) SLA
2 5 (3.25%) PMO
System Software
1 51 (33.12%) Active Directory
2 8 (5.19%) BitLocker
3 3 (1.95%) Virtual Desktop
4 2 (1.30%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.65%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 28 (18.18%) SCCM
2 26 (16.88%) Microsoft Intune
3 2 (1.30%) Single Sign-On
4 1 (0.65%) Norton AntiVirus
Vendors
1 86 (55.84%) Microsoft
2 51 (33.12%) Cisco
3 6 (3.90%) Adobe
3 6 (3.90%) Tenable
4 5 (3.25%) Bloomberg
4 5 (3.25%) Citrix
4 5 (3.25%) CrowdStrike
4 5 (3.25%) McAfee
4 5 (3.25%) Zscaler
5 4 (2.60%) ServiceNow
6 2 (1.30%) Apple
6 2 (1.30%) SAP
6 2 (1.30%) Veeam
6 2 (1.30%) VMware
6 2 (1.30%) Zoho
7 1 (0.65%) Dell
7 1 (0.65%) Polycom
7 1 (0.65%) Snow
7 1 (0.65%) Symantec
7 1 (0.65%) Yealink