2nd Line Engineer Contract Job Trends in London

Second Line Engineer
England > London

The median Second Line Engineer daily rate in London is £240, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 20 June 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 402 325 364
Rank change year-on-year -77 +39 +47
Contract jobs requiring a 2nd Line Engineer 23 28 34
As % of all contract jobs in London 0.12% 0.22% 0.19%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.13% 0.24% 0.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 21 20 28
10th Percentile £200 £166 £140
25th Percentile £225 £203 £154
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £240 £250 £185
Median % change year-on-year -4.00% +35.14% -7.62%
75th Percentile £330 £257 £242
90th Percentile £338 £296 £269
England median daily rate £240 £206 £200
% change year-on-year +16.36% +3.13% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 1 1
Median hourly rate £27.00 £24.66 £23.09
Median % change year-on-year +9.49% +6.80% -1.74%
England median hourly rate £15.24 £24.58 £22.58
% change year-on-year -38.00% +8.86% -3.91%

All Contract IT Job Roles
London

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in London. 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 contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in London with a recognized job title 17,683 11,685 16,639
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.90% 93.44% 93.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,667 7,929 11,939
10th Percentile £358 £338 £325
25th Percentile £436 £425 £440
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £535 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.73% - -4.35%
75th Percentile £650 £675 £675
90th Percentile £763 £799 £800
England median daily rate £523 £513 £525
% change year-on-year +1.95% -2.38% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 293 171 326
10th Percentile £18.75 £19.20 £15.97
25th Percentile £25.15 £24.00 £20.07
Median hourly rate £41.00 £32.89 £27.66
Median % change year-on-year +24.66% +18.93% -25.26%
75th Percentile £63.32 £50.97 £46.05
90th Percentile £81.00 £65.00 £66.75
England median hourly rate £45.56 £29.00 £39.50
% change year-on-year +57.09% -26.58% -12.22%

2nd Line Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring '2nd Line Engineer' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in London.

2nd Line Engineer job vacancy trend in London

2nd Line Engineer
Daily Rate Trend in London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for 2nd Line Engineer job vacancies in London.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for 2nd Line Engineer job vacancies in London

2nd Line Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram in London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing 2nd Line Engineer in London over the 6 months to 20 June 2026.

Daily rate histogram for 2nd Line Engineer in London

2nd Line Engineer
Hourly Rate Trend in London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for 2nd Line Engineer job vacancies in London.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for 2nd Line Engineer job vacancies in London

2nd Line Engineer
Contract Job Locations in London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing 2nd Line Engineer within the London region over the 6 months to 20 June 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
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
West London -27 5 £240 -4.00% 2
Central London -15 4 £220 -16.19% 1
2nd Line Engineer
England

2nd Line Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in London

For the 6 months to 20 June 2026, 2nd Line Engineer contract 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 contract job ads across the London region featuring 2nd Line Engineer in the job title.

1 21 (91.30%) Windows
2 14 (60.87%) Microsoft 365
3 9 (39.13%) Active Directory
4 8 (34.78%) Mac OS
4 8 (34.78%) Windows 10
5 6 (26.09%) Microsoft
5 6 (26.09%) Problem-Solving
5 6 (26.09%) SCCM
6 5 (21.74%) Entra ID
6 5 (21.74%) Migration
7 4 (17.39%) Apple
7 4 (17.39%) Customer Service
7 4 (17.39%) DNS
7 4 (17.39%) Linux
7 4 (17.39%) TCP/IP
8 3 (13.04%) Apple iOS
8 3 (13.04%) Configuration Management
8 3 (13.04%) Ubuntu
9 2 (8.70%) Android
9 2 (8.70%) Antivirus Management
9 2 (8.70%) CCNA
9 2 (8.70%) Cisco Certification
9 2 (8.70%) Degree
9 2 (8.70%) Internet
9 2 (8.70%) Inventory Management
9 2 (8.70%) PowerShell
9 2 (8.70%) Samsung
9 2 (8.70%) SC Cleared
9 2 (8.70%) Security Cleared
9 2 (8.70%) Software Deployment

2nd Line Engineer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in London 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 1 (4.35%) SharePoint
Applications
1 1 (4.35%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 14 (60.87%) Microsoft 365
2 5 (21.74%) Entra ID
3 1 (4.35%) AWS
3 1 (4.35%) Azure
Communications & Networking
1 4 (17.39%) DNS
1 4 (17.39%) TCP/IP
2 2 (8.70%) Internet
2 2 (8.70%) VPN
2 2 (8.70%) Wi-Fi
3 1 (4.35%) DHCP
3 1 (4.35%) LAN
3 1 (4.35%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (4.35%) SQL Server
General
1 9 (39.13%) Finance
2 3 (13.04%) Social Skills
3 2 (8.70%) Banking
3 2 (8.70%) Investment Banking
4 1 (4.35%) Public Sector
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (4.35%) Microsoft Graph
Miscellaneous
1 2 (8.70%) iPhone
2 1 (4.35%) iPad
Operating Systems
1 21 (91.30%) Windows
2 8 (34.78%) Mac OS
2 8 (34.78%) Windows 10
3 4 (17.39%) Linux
4 3 (13.04%) Apple iOS
4 3 (13.04%) Ubuntu
5 2 (8.70%) Android
6 1 (4.35%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 6 (26.09%) Problem-Solving
2 5 (21.74%) Migration
3 4 (17.39%) Customer Service
4 3 (13.04%) Configuration Management
5 2 (8.70%) Antivirus Management
5 2 (8.70%) Inventory Management
5 2 (8.70%) Software Deployment
6 1 (4.35%) Agile
6 1 (4.35%) DevOps
6 1 (4.35%) Investment Management
6 1 (4.35%) ITIL
6 1 (4.35%) Mobile Device Management
6 1 (4.35%) RBAC
6 1 (4.35%) Root Cause Analysis
6 1 (4.35%) Runbook
6 1 (4.35%) Service Management
6 1 (4.35%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 2 (8.70%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 2 (8.70%) CCNA
1 2 (8.70%) Cisco Certification
1 2 (8.70%) Degree
1 2 (8.70%) SC Cleared
1 2 (8.70%) Security Cleared
2 1 (4.35%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (4.35%) Cyber Essentials
1 1 (4.35%) NCSC
1 1 (4.35%) SLA
System Software
1 9 (39.13%) Active Directory
2 1 (4.35%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 6 (26.09%) SCCM
Vendors
1 6 (26.09%) Microsoft
2 4 (17.39%) Apple
3 2 (8.70%) Samsung
4 1 (4.35%) Google
4 1 (4.35%) HP
4 1 (4.35%) Snow