2nd Line Engineer Contracts in the UK excluding London

Second Line Engineer
UK > UK excluding London

The median Second Line Engineer daily rate in the UK excluding London is £195, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 18 May 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
18 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 269 282 274
Rank change year-on-year +13 -8 -6
Contract jobs requiring a 2nd Line Engineer 71 103 175
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 0.55% 0.51% 0.76%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.59% 0.55% 0.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 48 70 134
10th Percentile £150 £150 £150
25th Percentile £152 £170 £170
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £195 £200 £205
Median % change year-on-year -2.50% -2.44% +5.13%
75th Percentile £238 £225 £289
90th Percentile £316 £288 £350
UK median daily rate £200 £200 £210
% change year-on-year - -4.76% +5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 7 5
10th Percentile £18.18 £17.03 -
25th Percentile £22.50 - £20.00
Median hourly rate £24.18 £17.72 £22.00
Median % change year-on-year +36.46% -19.45% +25.71%
75th Percentile £25.15 £22.54 £26.00
90th Percentile £28.00 £23.05 £29.00
UK median hourly rate £24.34 £18.93 £23.50
% change year-on-year +28.58% -19.45% +32.77%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
UK excluding London

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the UK excluding 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 the UK excluding London with a recognized job title 11,943 18,795 21,663
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.93% 92.49% 94.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,599 11,462 15,116
10th Percentile £213 £213 £225
25th Percentile £363 £363 £393
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £490 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.06% -2.00% +5.26%
75th Percentile £575 £595 £600
90th Percentile £650 £688 £688
UK median daily rate £513 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -2.38% -2.82% +2.90%
Number of hourly rates quoted 852 2,267 1,107
10th Percentile £13.85 £12.50 £13.41
25th Percentile £17.30 £15.73 £18.02
Median hourly rate £27.13 £40.00 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -32.19% -5.88% +112.50%
75th Percentile £63.75 £61.60 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £73.85 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £28.08 £36.50 £45.00
% change year-on-year -23.08% -18.89% +88.21%

2nd Line Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

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

Job vacancy trend for 2nd Line Engineer in the UK excluding London

2nd Line Engineer
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing 2nd Line Engineer in the UK excluding London.

Daily rate trend for 2nd Line Engineer in the UK excluding London

2nd Line Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing 2nd Line Engineer in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 18 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for 2nd Line Engineer in the UK excluding London

2nd Line Engineer
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing 2nd Line Engineer in the UK excluding London.

Hourly rate trend for 2nd Line Engineer in the UK excluding London

2nd Line Engineer
Hourly Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing 2nd Line Engineer in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 18 May 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for 2nd Line Engineer in the UK excluding London

2nd Line Engineer
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding 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 UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 18 May 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
North of England +24 27 £155 -20.51% 34
Midlands +9 19 £263 +31.25% 10
West Midlands +3 15 £275 +37.50% 8
South East +32 13 £204 +5.16% 36
Yorkshire +22 13 £150 -22.08% 8
North West +6 8 £210 -4.55% 16
East of England +23 7 £213 - 5
North East -2 6 £195 - 11
East Midlands +6 4 £180 -12.20% 1
Scotland +4 2 £195 -2.50% 3
Northern Ireland -8 2 - -
South West +26 1 - - 16
2nd Line Engineer
UK

2nd Line Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London

For the 6 months to 18 May 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 UK excluding London region featuring 2nd Line Engineer in the job title.

1 47 (66.20%) Windows
2 32 (45.07%) Social Skills
3 31 (43.66%) Microsoft 365
4 28 (39.44%) Microsoft
5 25 (35.21%) Active Directory
6 20 (28.17%) VPN
7 19 (26.76%) Microsoft Office
7 19 (26.76%) ITIL
7 19 (26.76%) Analytical Skills
7 19 (26.76%) Windows 10
8 18 (25.35%) Problem-Solving
9 15 (21.13%) Security Cleared
10 14 (19.72%) Citrix
11 13 (18.31%) Microsoft Exchange
12 12 (16.90%) Apple
12 12 (16.90%) Banking
12 12 (16.90%) Coaching
12 12 (16.90%) Apple iOS
12 12 (16.90%) Customer Service
13 10 (14.08%) Public Sector
13 10 (14.08%) SC Cleared
14 9 (12.68%) Azure
14 9 (12.68%) PKI
14 9 (12.68%) Manufacturing
14 9 (12.68%) IPsec
14 9 (12.68%) Juniper
14 9 (12.68%) MPLS
14 9 (12.68%) BGP
14 9 (12.68%) WAN
15 8 (11.27%) Microsoft Certification

2nd Line Engineer Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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 13 (18.31%) Microsoft Exchange
2 7 (9.86%) SharePoint
Applications
1 19 (26.76%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (8.45%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 5 (7.04%) MS Visio
4 1 (1.41%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 31 (43.66%) Microsoft 365
2 9 (12.68%) Azure
3 5 (7.04%) OneDrive
4 4 (5.63%) Entra ID
Communications & Networking
1 20 (28.17%) VPN
2 9 (12.68%) BGP
2 9 (12.68%) IPsec
2 9 (12.68%) MPLS
2 9 (12.68%) WAN
3 5 (7.04%) LAN
4 2 (2.82%) Cisco Firepower
4 2 (2.82%) DHCP
4 2 (2.82%) DNS
4 2 (2.82%) Firewall
4 2 (2.82%) Remote Desktop
4 2 (2.82%) Wireless
5 1 (1.41%) Softphone
5 1 (1.41%) TCP/IP
5 1 (1.41%) VoIP
5 1 (1.41%) Wi-Fi
General
1 32 (45.07%) Social Skills
2 19 (26.76%) Analytical Skills
3 12 (16.90%) Banking
4 10 (14.08%) Public Sector
5 9 (12.68%) Manufacturing
6 5 (7.04%) Documentation Skills
6 5 (7.04%) Presentation Skills
7 4 (5.63%) Finance
7 4 (5.63%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 4 (5.63%) Telecoms
8 3 (4.23%) Electronics
8 3 (4.23%) Marketing
9 1 (1.41%) Aerospace
9 1 (1.41%) Automotive
9 1 (1.41%) Legal
Miscellaneous
1 9 (12.68%) PKI
2 5 (7.04%) Management Information System
3 3 (4.23%) Driving Licence
4 2 (2.82%) BYOD
4 2 (2.82%) iPhone
4 2 (2.82%) Smartphone
5 1 (1.41%) Client/Server
5 1 (1.41%) Cloud Native
5 1 (1.41%) Data Protection Act
5 1 (1.41%) Device Driver
5 1 (1.41%) Self-Motivation
5 1 (1.41%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 47 (66.20%) Windows
2 19 (26.76%) Windows 10
3 12 (16.90%) Apple iOS
4 6 (8.45%) Windows Server
5 5 (7.04%) Windows 8
5 5 (7.04%) Windows Server 2003
5 5 (7.04%) Windows Server 2008
5 5 (7.04%) Windows Server 2012
5 5 (7.04%) Windows Server 2016
5 5 (7.04%) Windows XP
6 2 (2.82%) Windows 7
7 1 (1.41%) Android
7 1 (1.41%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 19 (26.76%) ITIL
2 18 (25.35%) Problem-Solving
3 12 (16.90%) Coaching
3 12 (16.90%) Customer Service
4 8 (11.27%) Service Delivery
5 7 (9.86%) Asset Management
5 7 (9.86%) Service Management
5 7 (9.86%) Time Management
6 6 (8.45%) Mentoring
6 6 (8.45%) Patch Management
7 5 (7.04%) Business Case
7 5 (7.04%) Infrastructure Monitoring
7 5 (7.04%) Load Balancing
7 5 (7.04%) Proactive Maintenance
7 5 (7.04%) Project Delivery
7 5 (7.04%) Technical Analysis
8 3 (4.23%) Business Intelligence
8 3 (4.23%) Digital Marketing
8 3 (4.23%) Programme Management
9 2 (2.82%) Incident Management
Programming Languages
1 1 (1.41%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 15 (21.13%) Security Cleared
2 10 (14.08%) SC Cleared
3 8 (11.27%) Microsoft Certification
4 7 (9.86%) Degree
5 5 (7.04%) DBS Check
6 2 (2.82%) A+ Certification
6 2 (2.82%) DV Cleared
6 2 (2.82%) ITIL Certification
7 1 (1.41%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
7 1 (1.41%) MCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (2.82%) QA
2 1 (1.41%) Accessibility
2 1 (1.41%) SLA
System Software
1 25 (35.21%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 8 (11.27%) SCCM
2 6 (8.45%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 28 (39.44%) Microsoft
2 14 (19.72%) Citrix
3 12 (16.90%) Apple
4 9 (12.68%) Juniper
5 5 (7.04%) Canon
6 4 (5.63%) Cisco
7 3 (4.23%) SAP
7 3 (4.23%) ServiceNow
8 2 (2.82%) VMware
9 1 (1.41%) Altiris
9 1 (1.41%) Dell
9 1 (1.41%) Google