1st Line Engineer Contract Job Trends in the South East

First Line Engineer
England > South East

The median First Line Engineer daily rate in the South East is £165, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 26 September 2025.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 159 181 205
Rank change year-on-year +22 +24 +59
Contract jobs requiring a 1st Line Engineer 7 4 10
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the South East 0.20% 0.088% 0.18%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.22% 0.096% 0.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 3 3 6
10th Percentile £146 £154 £121
25th Percentile £150 £160 £139
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £165 £170 £163
Median % change year-on-year -2.94% +4.62% +12.07%
75th Percentile £173 - £188
90th Percentile - - £194
England median daily rate £165 £150 £170
% change year-on-year +10.00% -11.76% +9.68%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 0 1
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £15.12 - £19.25
Median hourly rate £17.56 - £20.50
75th Percentile £21.00 - £21.75
90th Percentile - - -
England median hourly rate £20.00 £15.10 £14.00
% change year-on-year +32.45% +7.86% -3.45%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
South East

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the South East. 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 the South East with a recognized job title 3,169 4,170 5,295
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 89.67% 92.26% 94.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,052 2,480 3,575
10th Percentile £204 £245 £210
25th Percentile £363 £400 £381
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £508 £500
Median % change year-on-year -1.48% +1.50% -
75th Percentile £588 £625 £613
90th Percentile £650 £688 £700
England median daily rate £510 £525 £545
% change year-on-year -2.86% -3.67% -0.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 281 286 253
10th Percentile £13.25 £16.00 £16.00
25th Percentile £15.50 £28.13 £21.05
Median hourly rate £25.15 £58.17 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year -56.77% +16.35% +105.00%
75th Percentile £57.50 £75.00 £66.25
90th Percentile £71.50 £80.00 £75.67
England median hourly rate £25.15 £45.00 £45.00
% change year-on-year -44.11% - +73.08%

1st Line Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Job postings that featured 1st Line Engineer in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the South East.

Job vacancy trend for 1st Line Engineer in the South East

1st Line Engineer
Daily Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for 1st Line Engineer job vacancies in the South East.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for 1st Line Engineer job vacancies in the South East

1st Line Engineer
Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for 1st Line Engineer job vacancies in the South East.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for 1st Line Engineer job vacancies in the South East

1st Line Engineer
Contract Job Locations in the South East

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing 1st Line Engineer within the South East region over the 6 months to 26 September 2025. 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
Thames Valley +15 5 £165 +10.00% 2
Berkshire +16 3 £165 -
Buckinghamshire +9 2 - -
Hampshire - 2 - - 4
1st Line Engineer
England

1st Line Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the South East

For the 6 months to 26 September 2025, 1st Line Engineer contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the South East region featuring 1st Line Engineer in the job title.

1 4 (57.14%) Microsoft
1 4 (57.14%) Windows
1 4 (57.14%) Social Skills
2 3 (42.86%) SC Cleared
2 3 (42.86%) Security Cleared
3 2 (28.57%) VMware Infrastructure
3 2 (28.57%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (28.57%) Datto
3 2 (28.57%) Remote Monitoring and Management
3 2 (28.57%) Customer Service
3 2 (28.57%) SQL Server
3 2 (28.57%) Organisational Skills
3 2 (28.57%) Hyper-V
3 2 (28.57%) Windows 7
3 2 (28.57%) Azure
3 2 (28.57%) Root Cause Analysis
3 2 (28.57%) Microsoft 365
3 2 (28.57%) Microsoft Intune
3 2 (28.57%) Coaching
3 2 (28.57%) Analytical Skills
3 2 (28.57%) Entra ID
3 2 (28.57%) Windows 10
3 2 (28.57%) Problem-Solving
3 2 (28.57%) Active Directory
3 2 (28.57%) Thin Client
3 2 (28.57%) QA
3 2 (28.57%) Problem Management
3 2 (28.57%) Fat Client
3 2 (28.57%) SCVMM
3 2 (28.57%) Time Management

1st Line Engineer Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the South East by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 2 (28.57%) Microsoft Exchange
Cloud Services
1 2 (28.57%) Azure
1 2 (28.57%) Entra ID
1 2 (28.57%) Microsoft 365
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (28.57%) SQL Server
General
1 4 (57.14%) Social Skills
2 2 (28.57%) Analytical Skills
2 2 (28.57%) Organisational Skills
3 1 (14.29%) Public Sector
Miscellaneous
1 2 (28.57%) Clustering
1 2 (28.57%) Fat Client
1 2 (28.57%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 4 (57.14%) Windows
2 2 (28.57%) Windows 10
2 2 (28.57%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 2 (28.57%) Coaching
1 2 (28.57%) Customer Service
1 2 (28.57%) Problem Management
1 2 (28.57%) Problem-Solving
1 2 (28.57%) Remote Monitoring and Management
1 2 (28.57%) Root Cause Analysis
1 2 (28.57%) Time Management
Qualifications
1 3 (42.86%) SC Cleared
1 3 (42.86%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (28.57%) QA
System Software
1 2 (28.57%) Active Directory
1 2 (28.57%) Hyper-V
1 2 (28.57%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 2 (28.57%) Microsoft Intune
1 2 (28.57%) SCVMM
Vendors
1 4 (57.14%) Microsoft
2 2 (28.57%) Datto
2 2 (28.57%) VMware