2nd Line Engineer Contract Job Trends

Second Line Engineer
UK

The median Second Line Engineer daily rate in the UK is £208, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 23 November 2025.

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

6 months to
23 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 483 413 390
Rank change year-on-year -70 -23 +96
Contract jobs requiring a 2nd Line Engineer 101 126 242
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.28% 0.34% 0.52%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.31% 0.37% 0.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 81 92 168
10th Percentile £170 £147 £135
25th Percentile £193 £163 £175
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £208 £220 £200
Median % change year-on-year -5.68% +10.00% -11.11%
75th Percentile £288 £273 £256
90th Percentile £300 £338 £300
UK excluding London median daily rate £213 £200 £200
% change year-on-year +6.25% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 14 19
10th Percentile £18.87 £20.05 £15.32
25th Percentile £19.47 £21.05 £17.72
Median hourly rate £21.25 £23.00 £19.12
Median % change year-on-year -7.61% +20.29% -20.33%
75th Percentile £23.31 £24.18 £24.00
90th Percentile £112.00 - £35.35
UK excluding London median hourly rate £21.25 £23.00 £19.12
% change year-on-year -7.61% +20.29% -13.09%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies. 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 with a recognized job title 32,516 34,282 43,523
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.00% 92.79% 93.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,580 20,693 29,476
10th Percentile £280 £300 £291
25th Percentile £402 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £649
90th Percentile £725 £738 £742
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £495 £500
% change year-on-year -4.04% -1.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,925 1,305 1,549
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.22 £15.16
25th Percentile £17.87 £20.30 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -28.14% -21.35% +48.33%
75th Percentile £56.25 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £71.00 £74.37 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £33.54 £44.75
% change year-on-year -25.01% -25.05% +83.48%

2nd Line Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

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.

2nd Line Engineer job vacancy trend in the UK

2nd Line Engineer
Daily Rate Trend

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

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

2nd Line Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing 2nd Line Engineer over the 6 months to 23 November 2025.

Daily rate histogram for 2nd Line Engineer in the UK

2nd Line Engineer
Hourly Rate Trend

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

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

2nd Line Engineer
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing 2nd Line Engineer over the 6 months to 23 November 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for 2nd Line Engineer in the UK

2nd Line Engineer
Top 15 Contract Job Locations

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 over the 6 months to 23 November 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
England -45 95 £210 -4.55% 96
UK excluding London -48 71 £213 +6.25% 91
London +2 27 £208 -13.54% 12
North of England -41 24 £205 +15.49% 15
Midlands -24 23 £275 +71.88% 19
West Midlands -15 18 £275 +71.88% 8
Yorkshire -20 17 £205 +5.13% 6
South East -4 14 £215 -18.56% 35
Work from Home 0 6 £250 +2.04% 29
South West -8 5 £171 -24.00% 11
East Midlands -8 5 £200 - 11
North West -36 5 £225 +38.46% 7
Scotland -7 3 £225 - 3
North East -6 2 £235 +44.62% 2
East of England -15 2 £200 -15.79% 9

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

For the 6 months to 23 November 2025, 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 featuring 2nd Line Engineer in the job title.

1 67 (66.34%) Windows
2 52 (51.49%) Microsoft
3 50 (49.50%) Microsoft 365
4 38 (37.62%) Active Directory
5 26 (25.74%) ITIL
6 24 (23.76%) Problem-Solving
7 23 (22.77%) Windows 10
8 21 (20.79%) Azure
8 21 (20.79%) SCCM
9 20 (19.80%) Entra ID
10 19 (18.81%) Microsoft Office
11 18 (17.82%) Customer Service
11 18 (17.82%) Security Cleared
11 18 (17.82%) VPN
11 18 (17.82%) WAN
12 16 (15.84%) Microsoft Exchange
12 16 (15.84%) Service Management
13 15 (14.85%) Microsoft Intune
14 14 (13.86%) Windows Server
15 12 (11.88%) Degree
15 12 (11.88%) ITSM
16 10 (9.90%) BGP
16 10 (9.90%) IPsec
16 10 (9.90%) Juniper
16 10 (9.90%) MPLS
16 10 (9.90%) SC Cleared
17 9 (8.91%) Cisco
17 9 (8.91%) Firewall
17 9 (8.91%) Linux
17 9 (8.91%) ServiceNow

2nd Line Engineer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 16 (15.84%) Microsoft Exchange
2 8 (7.92%) SharePoint
Applications
1 19 (18.81%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (3.96%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.99%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 3 (2.97%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.99%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 50 (49.50%) Microsoft 365
2 21 (20.79%) Azure
3 20 (19.80%) Entra ID
4 6 (5.94%) Google Workspace
5 3 (2.97%) OneDrive
6 1 (0.99%) AWS
6 1 (0.99%) Mimecast
6 1 (0.99%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 18 (17.82%) VPN
1 18 (17.82%) WAN
2 10 (9.90%) BGP
2 10 (9.90%) IPsec
2 10 (9.90%) MPLS
3 9 (8.91%) Firewall
4 8 (7.92%) LAN
5 7 (6.93%) DHCP
5 7 (6.93%) DNS
5 7 (6.93%) TCP/IP
5 7 (6.93%) Wi-Fi
6 6 (5.94%) Network Security
7 4 (3.96%) VoIP
8 1 (0.99%) DKIM
8 1 (0.99%) DMARC
8 1 (0.99%) Remote Desktop
8 1 (0.99%) VLAN
8 1 (0.99%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.99%) Electronic Patient Records
1 1 (0.99%) PostgreSQL
1 1 (0.99%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 1 (0.99%) Hudson
1 1 (0.99%) JIRA
General
1 42 (41.58%) Social Skills
2 12 (11.88%) Public Sector
3 10 (9.90%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 6 (5.94%) Finance
5 5 (4.95%) Analytical Skills
6 3 (2.97%) Banking
7 2 (1.98%) Documentation Skills
7 2 (1.98%) Legal
7 2 (1.98%) Local Government
8 1 (0.99%) Games
8 1 (0.99%) Law
8 1 (0.99%) Multimedia
8 1 (0.99%) Pharmaceutical
8 1 (0.99%) Publishing
8 1 (0.99%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (0.99%) Node.js
1 1 (0.99%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 10 (9.90%) PKI
2 5 (4.95%) Driving Licence
3 4 (3.96%) NHS
4 3 (2.97%) CCTV
4 3 (2.97%) iPhone
4 3 (2.97%) Onboarding
4 3 (2.97%) Video Conferencing
5 2 (1.98%) Chip and PIN
5 2 (1.98%) Client/Server
5 2 (1.98%) Enterprise Software
6 1 (0.99%) Data Protection Act
6 1 (0.99%) Hedge funds
6 1 (0.99%) Management Information System
6 1 (0.99%) Smartcard
6 1 (0.99%) Web Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 67 (66.34%) Windows
2 23 (22.77%) Windows 10
3 14 (13.86%) Windows Server
4 9 (8.91%) Linux
5 6 (5.94%) Android
6 5 (4.95%) Apple iOS
7 4 (3.96%) Mac OS
8 1 (0.99%) Mac OS X
8 1 (0.99%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 26 (25.74%) ITIL
2 24 (23.76%) Problem-Solving
3 18 (17.82%) Customer Service
4 16 (15.84%) Service Management
5 12 (11.88%) ITSM
6 6 (5.94%) Incident Management
6 6 (5.94%) Knowledge Transfer
6 6 (5.94%) Patch Management
7 5 (4.95%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 5 (4.95%) Service Delivery
8 4 (3.96%) Customer Experience
8 4 (3.96%) Cybersecurity
8 4 (3.96%) Load Balancing
8 4 (3.96%) Multi-Factor Authentication
8 4 (3.96%) Time Management
9 3 (2.97%) Kalman Filter
9 3 (2.97%) Migration
9 3 (2.97%) Mobile Device Management
9 3 (2.97%) Network Management
9 3 (2.97%) Web Filtering
Programming Languages
1 8 (7.92%) PowerShell
2 1 (0.99%) Java
2 1 (0.99%) Shell Script
2 1 (0.99%) SQL
Qualifications
1 18 (17.82%) Security Cleared
2 12 (11.88%) Degree
3 10 (9.90%) SC Cleared
4 4 (3.96%) DV Cleared
4 4 (3.96%) Microsoft Certification
5 3 (2.97%) DBS Check
6 2 (1.98%) MCSE
7 1 (0.99%) Azure Certification
7 1 (0.99%) BPSS Clearance
7 1 (0.99%) CCNA
7 1 (0.99%) Cisco Certification
7 1 (0.99%) Computer Science Degree
7 1 (0.99%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
7 1 (0.99%) MCP
7 1 (0.99%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (4.95%) SLA
2 2 (1.98%) QA
System Software
1 38 (37.62%) Active Directory
2 5 (4.95%) Virtual Desktop
3 3 (2.97%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.99%) Firmware
4 1 (0.99%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.99%) vSphere
4 1 (0.99%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 21 (20.79%) SCCM
2 15 (14.85%) Microsoft Intune
3 5 (4.95%) SCOM
4 3 (2.97%) Jamf Pro
5 1 (0.99%) AppManager
Vendors
1 52 (51.49%) Microsoft
2 10 (9.90%) Juniper
3 9 (8.91%) Cisco
3 9 (8.91%) ServiceNow
4 8 (7.92%) Google
5 5 (4.95%) Apple
5 5 (4.95%) Citrix
5 5 (4.95%) SolarWinds
6 4 (3.96%) VMware
7 3 (2.97%) Meraki
7 3 (2.97%) Remedy
8 2 (1.98%) Dell
8 2 (1.98%) HP
8 2 (1.98%) Logitech
8 2 (1.98%) Okta
9 1 (0.99%) Ivanti
9 1 (0.99%) Sage
9 1 (0.99%) Sophos
9 1 (0.99%) WatchGuard