2nd Line Engineer Contract Job Trends in the South East

Second Line Engineer
England > South East

The median Second Line Engineer daily rate in the South East is £215, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 17 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
17 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 141 166 158
Rank change year-on-year +25 -8 +46
Contract jobs requiring a 2nd Line Engineer 20 18 56
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the South East 0.57% 0.39% 1.00%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.64% 0.42% 1.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 12 16 33
10th Percentile £134 £199 £144
25th Percentile £187 £236 £175
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £215 £264 £200
Median % change year-on-year -18.56% +32.00% -1.84%
75th Percentile £251 £291 £258
90th Percentile £338 £338 £310
England median daily rate £200 £210 £200
% change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 0 2
10th Percentile - - £33.78
25th Percentile £18.87 - £34.19
Median hourly rate £22.01 - £35.75
75th Percentile £25.86 - £37.69
90th Percentile £27.15 - £38.33
England median hourly rate £21.25 £21.12 £21.00
% change year-on-year +0.60% +0.58% -12.17%

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 3,138 4,241 5,295
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.12% 92.38% 94.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,031 2,534 3,585
10th Percentile £204 £250 £213
25th Percentile £363 £400 £380
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% +2.50% -
75th Percentile £600 £625 £613
90th Percentile £650 £688 £700
England median daily rate £508 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -3.33% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 278 317 250
10th Percentile £13.43 £16.00 £16.00
25th Percentile £15.50 £30.41 £21.05
Median hourly rate £25.15 £57.50 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year -56.26% +15.00% +106.78%
75th Percentile £57.50 £75.00 £66.19
90th Percentile £71.95 £80.00 £75.67
England median hourly rate £25.15 £46.18 £44.75
% change year-on-year -45.54% +3.20% +71.00%

2nd Line Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Job postings that featured 2nd Line Engineer in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the South East.

Job vacancy trend for 2nd Line Engineer in the South East

2nd Line Engineer
Daily Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for 2nd Line Engineer job vacancies in the South East.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for 2nd Line Engineer job vacancies in the South East

2nd Line Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing 2nd Line Engineer in the South East over the 6 months to 17 September 2025.

Daily rate histogram for 2nd Line Engineer in the South East

2nd Line Engineer
Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for 2nd Line Engineer job vacancies in the South East.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for 2nd Line Engineer job vacancies in the South East

2nd 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 2nd Line Engineer within the South East region over the 6 months to 17 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
Hampshire +15 7 £325 +33.33% 9
Surrey -1 7 £215 -18.56% 1
Thames Valley +15 5 £129 -43.44% 8
Berkshire +23 4 £129 -43.44% 1
West Sussex -3 1 £213 - 5
Oxfordshire - 1 £190 - 1
2nd Line Engineer
England

2nd Line Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the South East

For the 6 months to 17 September 2025, 2nd 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 2nd Line Engineer in the job title.

1 16 (80.00%) Windows
2 12 (60.00%) SCCM
3 11 (55.00%) Microsoft 365
4 10 (50.00%) ITIL
5 9 (45.00%) Microsoft
5 9 (45.00%) Security Cleared
5 9 (45.00%) Social Skills
6 7 (35.00%) SolarWinds
6 7 (35.00%) SCOM
6 7 (35.00%) Service Management
6 7 (35.00%) ITSM
7 6 (30.00%) DV Cleared
8 5 (25.00%) Patch Management
8 5 (25.00%) Windows 10
8 5 (25.00%) Problem-Solving
8 5 (25.00%) Active Directory
8 5 (25.00%) Microsoft Exchange
8 5 (25.00%) Microsoft Office
8 5 (25.00%) Degree
9 4 (20.00%) Incident Management
9 4 (20.00%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 4 (20.00%) Public Sector
9 4 (20.00%) Customer Service
10 2 (10.00%) Apple iOS
10 2 (10.00%) Microsoft Intune
10 2 (10.00%) SLA
10 2 (10.00%) Apple
11 1 (5.00%) Pharmaceutical
11 1 (5.00%) Finance
11 1 (5.00%) Service Delivery

2nd 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 5 (25.00%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 5 (25.00%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 11 (55.00%) Microsoft 365
General
1 9 (45.00%) Social Skills
2 4 (20.00%) Public Sector
3 1 (5.00%) Banking
3 1 (5.00%) Finance
3 1 (5.00%) Pharmaceutical
Miscellaneous
1 1 (5.00%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 16 (80.00%) Windows
2 5 (25.00%) Windows 10
3 2 (10.00%) Apple iOS
4 1 (5.00%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 10 (50.00%) ITIL
2 7 (35.00%) ITSM
2 7 (35.00%) Service Management
3 5 (25.00%) Patch Management
3 5 (25.00%) Problem-Solving
4 4 (20.00%) Customer Service
4 4 (20.00%) Incident Management
4 4 (20.00%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 1 (5.00%) Service Delivery
5 1 (5.00%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 1 (5.00%) Time Management
5 1 (5.00%) Trend Analysis
Programming Languages
1 1 (5.00%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 9 (45.00%) Security Cleared
2 6 (30.00%) DV Cleared
3 5 (25.00%) Degree
4 1 (5.00%) ITIL Certification
4 1 (5.00%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (10.00%) SLA
2 1 (5.00%) Accessibility
System Software
1 5 (25.00%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 12 (60.00%) SCCM
2 7 (35.00%) SCOM
3 2 (10.00%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 9 (45.00%) Microsoft
2 7 (35.00%) SolarWinds
3 2 (10.00%) Apple