2nd Line Engineer Contract Job Trends

Second Line Engineer
UK

The median Second Line Engineer daily rate in the UK is £200, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 15 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
15 Sep 2025		 Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 452 451 431
Rank change year-on-year -1 -20 +69
Contract jobs requiring a 2nd Line Engineer 105 110 227
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.32% 0.29% 0.45%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.36% 0.31% 0.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 77 87 160
10th Percentile £150 £144 £139
25th Percentile £170 £175 £170
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £200 £210 £200
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -11.11%
75th Percentile £263 £267 £250
90th Percentile £311 £324 £288
UK excluding London median daily rate £200 £210 £200
% change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 11 4 15
10th Percentile £18.10 £18.52 £16.61
25th Percentile £18.69 £19.24 £18.81
Median hourly rate £21.25 £22.23 £21.00
Median % change year-on-year -4.42% +5.87% -12.17%
75th Percentile £24.95 £30.64 £25.13
90th Percentile £28.00 £42.25 £37.05
UK excluding London median hourly rate £20.06 £22.23 £20.00
% change year-on-year -9.77% +11.16% -9.09%

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 29,544 35,467 47,344
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.03% 92.99% 94.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 18,645 21,950 32,442
10th Percentile £278 £300 £300
25th Percentile £400 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £530
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -0.94% -3.64%
75th Percentile £620 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - +0.35%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,552 1,701 1,505
10th Percentile £13.69 £14.73 £14.63
25th Percentile £17.00 £20.50 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £43.00 £43.86
Median % change year-on-year -41.51% -1.96% +68.69%
75th Percentile £51.83 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £45.00 £42.08
% change year-on-year -44.11% +6.95% +91.26%

2nd Line Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Job vacancy trend for 2nd Line Engineer 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 15 September 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 15 September 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 15 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
England +11 102 £200 -4.76% 66
UK excluding London +1 76 £200 -4.76% 67
North of England -11 29 £168 -9.46% 16
London +15 28 £204 -9.44% 7
South East +29 20 £215 -18.56% 31
Yorkshire -2 17 £150 -24.05% 5
Midlands -15 17 £275 +44.74% 7
West Midlands -13 12 £275 +50.68% 3
North West -20 8 £200 +14.29% 8
South West +19 6 £195 -1.27% 8
East Midlands -3 5 £200 -11.11% 4
North East 0 4 £195 +23.81% 3
Work from Home +17 3 £250 - 13
East of England +6 2 £200 -15.79% 3
Scotland -4 2 £235 - 3

2nd Line Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 15 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 featuring 2nd Line Engineer in the job title.

1 71 (67.62%) Windows
2 53 (50.48%) Microsoft
3 48 (45.71%) Microsoft 365
4 47 (44.76%) Social Skills
5 40 (38.10%) Active Directory
6 31 (29.52%) Microsoft Office
6 31 (29.52%) ITIL
6 31 (29.52%) SCCM
7 27 (25.71%) Windows 10
7 27 (25.71%) Problem-Solving
8 23 (21.90%) Analytical Skills
9 22 (20.95%) VPN
10 20 (19.05%) Security Cleared
11 19 (18.10%) Microsoft Exchange
12 18 (17.14%) Azure
12 18 (17.14%) Customer Service
13 17 (16.19%) Apple iOS
13 17 (16.19%) Banking
13 17 (16.19%) WAN
13 17 (16.19%) Citrix
13 17 (16.19%) Apple
14 15 (14.29%) Service Management
15 13 (12.38%) Finance
15 13 (12.38%) LAN
15 13 (12.38%) Degree
15 13 (12.38%) Public Sector
15 13 (12.38%) Coaching
15 13 (12.38%) Entra ID
16 12 (11.43%) Windows Server
16 12 (11.43%) Microsoft Intune

2nd Line Engineer Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities 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 19 (18.10%) Microsoft Exchange
2 5 (4.76%) SharePoint
Applications
1 31 (29.52%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (5.71%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 5 (4.76%) MS Visio
4 2 (1.90%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 3 (2.86%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (1.90%) Alphatax
Cloud Services
1 48 (45.71%) Microsoft 365
2 18 (17.14%) Azure
3 13 (12.38%) Entra ID
4 4 (3.81%) OneDrive
5 2 (1.90%) Google Workspace
6 1 (0.95%) AWS
6 1 (0.95%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 22 (20.95%) VPN
2 17 (16.19%) WAN
3 13 (12.38%) LAN
4 9 (8.57%) BGP
4 9 (8.57%) IPsec
4 9 (8.57%) MPLS
4 9 (8.57%) Wi-Fi
5 5 (4.76%) Firewall
6 4 (3.81%) DHCP
6 4 (3.81%) DNS
7 3 (2.86%) TCP/IP
8 2 (1.90%) Cisco Firepower
8 2 (1.90%) VLAN
8 2 (1.90%) VoIP
9 1 (0.95%) Remote Desktop
9 1 (0.95%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.90%) SQL Server
General
1 47 (44.76%) Social Skills
2 23 (21.90%) Analytical Skills
3 17 (16.19%) Banking
4 13 (12.38%) Finance
4 13 (12.38%) Public Sector
5 8 (7.62%) Documentation Skills
6 7 (6.67%) Manufacturing
7 6 (5.71%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 5 (4.76%) Presentation Skills
9 3 (2.86%) Games
10 2 (1.90%) Electronics
10 2 (1.90%) Local Government
10 2 (1.90%) Marketing
10 2 (1.90%) Telecoms
11 1 (0.95%) Legal
11 1 (0.95%) Pharmaceutical
11 1 (0.95%) Retail
Miscellaneous
1 9 (8.57%) PKI
2 5 (4.76%) Management Information System
3 4 (3.81%) Onboarding
4 3 (2.86%) NHS
5 2 (1.90%) Chip and PIN
5 2 (1.90%) Client/Server
5 2 (1.90%) Video Conferencing
6 1 (0.95%) Cloud Native
6 1 (0.95%) Driving Licence
6 1 (0.95%) Enterprise Software
6 1 (0.95%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 71 (67.62%) Windows
2 27 (25.71%) Windows 10
3 17 (16.19%) Apple iOS
4 12 (11.43%) Windows Server
5 7 (6.67%) Windows 8
5 7 (6.67%) Windows XP
6 5 (4.76%) Windows Server 2003
6 5 (4.76%) Windows Server 2008
6 5 (4.76%) Windows Server 2012
6 5 (4.76%) Windows Server 2016
7 4 (3.81%) Mac OS
8 3 (2.86%) Android
8 3 (2.86%) Mac OS X
9 1 (0.95%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 31 (29.52%) ITIL
2 27 (25.71%) Problem-Solving
3 18 (17.14%) Customer Service
4 15 (14.29%) Service Management
5 13 (12.38%) Coaching
6 11 (10.48%) ITSM
7 10 (9.52%) Time Management
8 9 (8.57%) Patch Management
9 6 (5.71%) Asset Management
9 6 (5.71%) Incident Management
9 6 (5.71%) Project Delivery
10 5 (4.76%) Business Case
10 5 (4.76%) Infrastructure Monitoring
10 5 (4.76%) Load Balancing
10 5 (4.76%) Mentoring
10 5 (4.76%) Proactive Maintenance
10 5 (4.76%) Service Delivery
10 5 (4.76%) Technical Analysis
11 4 (3.81%) Cybersecurity
11 4 (3.81%) Infrastructure Engineering
Programming Languages
1 3 (2.86%) PowerShell
2 2 (1.90%) SQL
Qualifications
1 20 (19.05%) Security Cleared
2 13 (12.38%) Degree
3 11 (10.48%) Microsoft Certification
4 9 (8.57%) SC Cleared
5 6 (5.71%) DV Cleared
6 2 (1.90%) DBS Check
7 1 (0.95%) Azure Certification
7 1 (0.95%) CCNA
7 1 (0.95%) Cisco Certification
7 1 (0.95%) ITIL Certification
7 1 (0.95%) MCP
7 1 (0.95%) MCSA
7 1 (0.95%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (3.81%) QA
1 4 (3.81%) SLA
2 1 (0.95%) Accessibility
System Software
1 40 (38.10%) Active Directory
2 4 (3.81%) Virtual Desktop
2 4 (3.81%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (2.86%) vSphere
3 3 (2.86%) XenApp
4 1 (0.95%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 31 (29.52%) SCCM
2 12 (11.43%) Microsoft Intune
3 7 (6.67%) SCOM
4 2 (1.90%) AppManager
4 2 (1.90%) McAfee ePO
4 2 (1.90%) Norton AntiVirus
5 1 (0.95%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 53 (50.48%) Microsoft
2 17 (16.19%) Apple
2 17 (16.19%) Citrix
3 10 (9.52%) Juniper
4 9 (8.57%) SolarWinds
5 8 (7.62%) Canon
6 7 (6.67%) ServiceNow
7 6 (5.71%) VMware
8 5 (4.76%) Cisco
8 5 (4.76%) Dell
9 4 (3.81%) Google
9 4 (3.81%) HP
10 3 (2.86%) Remedy
10 3 (2.86%) Sage
10 3 (2.86%) Sophos
10 3 (2.86%) WatchGuard
11 2 (1.90%) Autodesk
11 2 (1.90%) McAfee
11 2 (1.90%) Symantec
11 2 (1.90%) Toshiba
69 2nd Line Engineer jobs Nationwide