2nd Line Engineer Contract Job Trends in London

Second Line Engineer
England > London

The median Second Line Engineer daily rate in London is £235, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 23 March 2026.

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

6 months to
23 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 380 328 334
Rank change year-on-year -52 +6 +93
Contract jobs requiring a 2nd Line Engineer 21 30 54
As % of all contract jobs in London 0.13% 0.23% 0.30%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.14% 0.25% 0.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 17 26 45
10th Percentile £190 £174 £128
25th Percentile £215 £207 £158
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £235 £250 £200
Median % change year-on-year -6.00% +25.00% -15.79%
75th Percentile £265 £255 £255
90th Percentile £330 £318 £292
England median daily rate £225 £220 £200
% change year-on-year +2.27% +10.00% -11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 1 3
10th Percentile £24.30 - £15.20
25th Percentile £24.75 - £16.60
Median hourly rate £25.50 £21.00 £18.93
Median % change year-on-year +21.43% +10.94% -25.34%
75th Percentile £26.25 - £21.01
90th Percentile £26.70 - £22.26
England median hourly rate £25.50 £24.18 £18.33
% change year-on-year +5.46% +31.95% -26.70%

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 15,348 12,034 16,887
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.57% 93.69% 93.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,273 8,153 12,194
10th Percentile £350 £338 £325
25th Percentile £425 £431 £444
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% - -4.35%
75th Percentile £650 £675 £675
90th Percentile £750 £800 £788
England median daily rate £505 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -3.81% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 240 145 339
10th Percentile £18.23 £21.08 £15.99
25th Percentile £21.87 £24.66 £19.57
Median hourly rate £34.75 £35.89 £28.00
Median % change year-on-year -3.18% +28.18% -20.00%
75th Percentile £60.50 £53.75 £47.50
90th Percentile £76.58 £73.40 £65.00
England median hourly rate £38.63 £35.00 £32.50
% change year-on-year +10.37% +7.69% -23.53%

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 23 March 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 23 March 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
Central London -16 3 £220 -2.22% 3
2nd Line Engineer
England

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

For the 6 months to 23 March 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 17 (80.95%) Windows
2 12 (57.14%) Microsoft 365
3 11 (52.38%) Windows 10
4 7 (33.33%) Active Directory
5 5 (23.81%) SCCM
6 4 (19.05%) Microsoft
6 4 (19.05%) Problem-Solving
7 3 (14.29%) Entra ID
8 2 (9.52%) CCNA
8 2 (9.52%) Cisco Certification
8 2 (9.52%) Customer Service
8 2 (9.52%) Degree
8 2 (9.52%) Mac OS
8 2 (9.52%) ServiceNow
8 2 (9.52%) Software Deployment
8 2 (9.52%) TCP/IP
9 1 (4.76%) Android
9 1 (4.76%) API Design
9 1 (4.76%) Apple iOS
9 1 (4.76%) AWS
9 1 (4.76%) Azure
9 1 (4.76%) BPSS Clearance
9 1 (4.76%) Citrix
9 1 (4.76%) Computer Science
9 1 (4.76%) Computer Science Degree
9 1 (4.76%) Continuous Improvement
9 1 (4.76%) Data Protection
9 1 (4.76%) DHCP
9 1 (4.76%) DNS
9 1 (4.76%) Firewall

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 (4.76%) Microsoft Exchange
1 1 (4.76%) SharePoint
Cloud Services
1 12 (57.14%) Microsoft 365
2 3 (14.29%) Entra ID
3 1 (4.76%) AWS
3 1 (4.76%) Azure
Communications & Networking
1 2 (9.52%) TCP/IP
2 1 (4.76%) DHCP
2 1 (4.76%) DNS
2 1 (4.76%) Firewall
2 1 (4.76%) LAN
2 1 (4.76%) VPN
2 1 (4.76%) WAN
2 1 (4.76%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (4.76%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 1 (4.76%) JIRA
General
1 8 (38.10%) Social Skills
2 7 (33.33%) Finance
3 2 (9.52%) Banking
3 2 (9.52%) Inclusion and Diversity
3 2 (9.52%) Investment Banking
4 1 (4.76%) Legal
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (4.76%) Node.js
1 1 (4.76%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 1 (4.76%) CCTV
1 1 (4.76%) Data Protection Act
1 1 (4.76%) Hedge funds
1 1 (4.76%) Onboarding
Operating Systems
1 17 (80.95%) Windows
2 11 (52.38%) Windows 10
3 2 (9.52%) Mac OS
4 1 (4.76%) Android
4 1 (4.76%) Apple iOS
4 1 (4.76%) Linux
4 1 (4.76%) Unix
4 1 (4.76%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 4 (19.05%) Problem-Solving
2 2 (9.52%) Customer Service
2 2 (9.52%) Software Deployment
3 1 (4.76%) API Design
3 1 (4.76%) Computer Science
3 1 (4.76%) Continuous Improvement
3 1 (4.76%) Data Protection
3 1 (4.76%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 1 (4.76%) ITIL
3 1 (4.76%) ITSM
3 1 (4.76%) Line Management
3 1 (4.76%) Mentoring
3 1 (4.76%) PRINCE2
3 1 (4.76%) Proactive Monitoring
3 1 (4.76%) Root Cause Analysis
3 1 (4.76%) Security Patching
3 1 (4.76%) Service Delivery
3 1 (4.76%) Task Automation
3 1 (4.76%) Test Automation
3 1 (4.76%) Test Scripting
Programming Languages
1 1 (4.76%) Java
1 1 (4.76%) PowerShell
1 1 (4.76%) Shell Script
1 1 (4.76%) SQL
Qualifications
1 2 (9.52%) CCNA
1 2 (9.52%) Cisco Certification
1 2 (9.52%) Degree
2 1 (4.76%) BPSS Clearance
2 1 (4.76%) Computer Science Degree
2 1 (4.76%) SC Cleared
2 1 (4.76%) Security Cleared
System Software
1 7 (33.33%) Active Directory
2 1 (4.76%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 5 (23.81%) SCCM
2 1 (4.76%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 4 (19.05%) Microsoft
2 2 (9.52%) ServiceNow
3 1 (4.76%) Citrix