2nd Line Engineer Contract Job Trends

Second Line Engineer
UK

The median Second Line Engineer daily rate in the UK is £205, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 21 October 2025.

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

6 months to
21 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 462 444 404
Rank change year-on-year -18 -40 +88
Contract jobs requiring a 2nd Line Engineer 95 113 233
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.28% 0.30% 0.49%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.31% 0.33% 0.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 76 84 166
10th Percentile £151 £147 £138
25th Percentile £185 £180 £170
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £205 £223 £200
Median % change year-on-year -7.87% +11.25% -11.11%
75th Percentile £288 £266 £250
90th Percentile £300 £331 £288
UK excluding London median daily rate £205 £219 £200
% change year-on-year -6.39% +9.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 9 15
10th Percentile £18.87 £19.32 £16.61
25th Percentile £20.66 £21.05 £18.81
Median hourly rate £22.63 £24.18 £23.50
Median % change year-on-year -6.43% +2.89% -2.08%
75th Percentile £25.86 - £29.88
90th Percentile £79.60 £29.34 £37.05
UK excluding London median hourly rate £21.25 £24.18 £21.00
% change year-on-year -12.12% +15.14% -4.55%

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 30,403 34,425 45,004
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.87% 92.91% 93.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 19,210 20,754 30,743
10th Percentile £278 £300 £300
25th Percentile £402 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £623 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £738 £745
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £490 £500
% change year-on-year -3.06% -2.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,679 1,378 1,527
10th Percentile £13.80 £15.02 £14.60
25th Percentile £17.30 £20.30 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £40.00 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -37.13% -10.11% +67.17%
75th Percentile £50.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £68.75 £73.75 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £24.42 £40.33 £43.90
% change year-on-year -39.44% -8.14% +95.11%

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 21 October 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 21 October 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 21 October 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 -19 90 £205 -7.87% 94
UK excluding London -17 67 £205 -6.39% 83
London -1 26 £200 -11.11% 23
South East +6 19 £215 -18.56% 30
Midlands -17 19 £275 +57.14% 14
North of England -37 18 £200 +22.14% 18
West Midlands -17 14 £275 +57.14% 5
Yorkshire -23 11 £203 +3.85% 9
Work from Home +8 6 £250 +4.17% 32
South West +6 6 £183 -16.44% 9
East Midlands -8 5 £200 - 9
North West -34 4 £200 +33.33% 8
Scotland +6 3 £225 - 2
North East -4 3 £195 +23.81% 2
East of England -3 2 £200 -11.11% 11

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

For the 6 months to 21 October 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 64 (67.37%) Windows
2 52 (54.74%) Microsoft
3 47 (49.47%) Microsoft 365
4 35 (36.84%) Active Directory
5 25 (26.32%) ITIL
5 25 (26.32%) SCCM
6 24 (25.26%) Microsoft Office
7 23 (24.21%) Windows 10
8 21 (22.11%) Problem-Solving
9 20 (21.05%) Microsoft Exchange
9 20 (21.05%) Security Cleared
10 18 (18.95%) Azure
10 18 (18.95%) Customer Service
10 18 (18.95%) VPN
11 17 (17.89%) WAN
12 16 (16.84%) Service Management
13 14 (14.74%) Entra ID
14 13 (13.68%) Degree
15 12 (12.63%) ITSM
16 11 (11.58%) Microsoft Intune
16 11 (11.58%) SC Cleared
17 10 (10.53%) BGP
17 10 (10.53%) Citrix
17 10 (10.53%) IPsec
17 10 (10.53%) Juniper
17 10 (10.53%) MPLS
17 10 (10.53%) ServiceNow
18 9 (9.47%) Apple
18 9 (9.47%) Apple iOS
18 9 (9.47%) Cisco

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 20 (21.05%) Microsoft Exchange
2 6 (6.32%) SharePoint
Applications
1 24 (25.26%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (4.21%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (1.05%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 3 (3.16%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (1.05%) Alphatax
Cloud Services
1 47 (49.47%) Microsoft 365
2 18 (18.95%) Azure
3 14 (14.74%) Entra ID
4 5 (5.26%) Google Workspace
5 3 (3.16%) OneDrive
6 1 (1.05%) AWS
6 1 (1.05%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 18 (18.95%) VPN
2 17 (17.89%) WAN
3 10 (10.53%) BGP
3 10 (10.53%) IPsec
3 10 (10.53%) MPLS
4 8 (8.42%) Firewall
5 7 (7.37%) LAN
5 7 (7.37%) Wi-Fi
6 4 (4.21%) DHCP
6 4 (4.21%) DNS
7 3 (3.16%) Network Security
7 3 (3.16%) TCP/IP
8 2 (2.11%) VLAN
8 2 (2.11%) VoIP
9 1 (1.05%) Cisco Firepower
9 1 (1.05%) DKIM
9 1 (1.05%) DMARC
9 1 (1.05%) Remote Desktop
9 1 (1.05%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.05%) PostgreSQL
1 1 (1.05%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 1 (1.05%) Hudson
General
1 38 (40.00%) Social Skills
2 12 (12.63%) Public Sector
3 11 (11.58%) Finance
4 9 (9.47%) Analytical Skills
5 8 (8.42%) Banking
6 6 (6.32%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 2 (2.11%) Documentation Skills
7 2 (2.11%) Electronics
7 2 (2.11%) Games
7 2 (2.11%) Legal
7 2 (2.11%) Local Government
7 2 (2.11%) Manufacturing
7 2 (2.11%) Marketing
7 2 (2.11%) Telecoms
8 1 (1.05%) Multimedia
8 1 (1.05%) Pharmaceutical
8 1 (1.05%) Publishing
8 1 (1.05%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (1.05%) Node.js
1 1 (1.05%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 10 (10.53%) PKI
2 3 (3.16%) Driving Licence
2 3 (3.16%) NHS
2 3 (3.16%) Onboarding
2 3 (3.16%) Video Conferencing
3 2 (2.11%) Chip and PIN
3 2 (2.11%) Client/Server
3 2 (2.11%) Enterprise Software
4 1 (1.05%) Cloud Native
4 1 (1.05%) Data Protection Act
4 1 (1.05%) Self-Motivation
4 1 (1.05%) Web Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 64 (67.37%) Windows
2 23 (24.21%) Windows 10
3 9 (9.47%) Apple iOS
3 9 (9.47%) Windows Server
4 5 (5.26%) Linux
5 4 (4.21%) Mac OS
6 3 (3.16%) Android
6 3 (3.16%) Mac OS X
7 2 (2.11%) Windows 8
7 2 (2.11%) Windows XP
8 1 (1.05%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 25 (26.32%) ITIL
2 21 (22.11%) Problem-Solving
3 18 (18.95%) Customer Service
4 16 (16.84%) Service Management
5 12 (12.63%) ITSM
6 8 (8.42%) Patch Management
7 6 (6.32%) Incident Management
8 5 (5.26%) Coaching
8 5 (5.26%) Knowledge Transfer
9 4 (4.21%) Cybersecurity
9 4 (4.21%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 4 (4.21%) Load Balancing
9 4 (4.21%) Service Delivery
9 4 (4.21%) Time Management
10 3 (3.16%) Mobile Device Management
10 3 (3.16%) Network Management
11 2 (2.11%) Collaborative Working
11 2 (2.11%) Customer Experience
11 2 (2.11%) Multi-Factor Authentication
11 2 (2.11%) Server Management
Programming Languages
1 3 (3.16%) PowerShell
1 3 (3.16%) SQL
2 1 (1.05%) Java
2 1 (1.05%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 20 (21.05%) Security Cleared
2 13 (13.68%) Degree
3 11 (11.58%) SC Cleared
4 6 (6.32%) DV Cleared
4 6 (6.32%) Microsoft Certification
5 2 (2.11%) DBS Check
5 2 (2.11%) MCSE
6 1 (1.05%) Azure Certification
6 1 (1.05%) BPSS Clearance
6 1 (1.05%) CCNA
6 1 (1.05%) Cisco Certification
6 1 (1.05%) Computer Science Degree
6 1 (1.05%) ITIL Certification
6 1 (1.05%) MCP
6 1 (1.05%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (5.26%) SLA
2 2 (2.11%) QA
System Software
1 35 (36.84%) Active Directory
2 4 (4.21%) Virtual Desktop
2 4 (4.21%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (3.16%) vSphere
3 3 (3.16%) XenApp
4 1 (1.05%) Firmware
4 1 (1.05%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 25 (26.32%) SCCM
2 11 (11.58%) Microsoft Intune
3 7 (7.37%) SCOM
4 2 (2.11%) AppManager
4 2 (2.11%) Jamf Pro
4 2 (2.11%) McAfee ePO
4 2 (2.11%) Norton AntiVirus
Vendors
1 52 (54.74%) Microsoft
2 10 (10.53%) Citrix
2 10 (10.53%) Juniper
2 10 (10.53%) ServiceNow
3 9 (9.47%) Apple
3 9 (9.47%) Cisco
3 9 (9.47%) SolarWinds
4 7 (7.37%) Google
5 6 (6.32%) VMware
6 4 (4.21%) Dell
6 4 (4.21%) HP
7 3 (3.16%) Remedy
7 3 (3.16%) Sage
7 3 (3.16%) Sophos
7 3 (3.16%) WatchGuard
8 2 (2.11%) Barracuda Networks
8 2 (2.11%) Draytek
8 2 (2.11%) Kaspersky
8 2 (2.11%) NETGEAR
8 2 (2.11%) Panasonic