2nd Line Engineer Contract Job Trends

Second Line Engineer
UK

The median Second Line Engineer daily rate in the UK is £235, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 12 May 2026.

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

6 months to
12 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 568 420 442
Rank change year-on-year -148 +22 +11
Contract jobs requiring a 2nd Line Engineer 60 106 148
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.13% 0.36% 0.34%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.14% 0.39% 0.37%
Number of daily rates quoted 43 75 108
10th Percentile £185 £150 £148
25th Percentile £195 £160 £169
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £235 £195 £200
Median % change year-on-year +20.51% -2.50% -4.76%
75th Percentile £258 £250 £238
90th Percentile £323 £315 £288
UK excluding London median daily rate £208 £195 £200
% change year-on-year +6.41% -2.50% -2.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 15 9
10th Percentile £19.94 £18.26 £17.38
25th Percentile £27.00 £22.50 £17.72
Median hourly rate £55.00 £24.18 £18.93
Median % change year-on-year +127.46% +27.73% -19.45%
75th Percentile - £24.95 £22.58
90th Percentile - £28.00 £23.22
UK excluding London median hourly rate £55.00 £23.59 £17.72
% change year-on-year +133.15% +33.13% -19.45%

All Contract IT Job Roles
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 43,836 26,998 39,901
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.28% 92.47% 92.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 26,861 17,609 25,964
10th Percentile £319 £300 £280
25th Percentile £413 £406 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £507 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year -1.07% -2.38% -2.78%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £495 £475 £490
% change year-on-year +4.21% -3.06% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,872 1,048 2,673
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.00 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.35 £18.34 £16.30
Median hourly rate £44.00 £28.60 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +53.85% -23.73% -16.67%
75th Percentile £66.63 £62.50 £61.30
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £72.90
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.56 £27.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year +65.65% -31.25% -5.73%

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 12 May 2026.

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 12 May 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for 2nd Line Engineer in the UK

2nd Line Engineer
Top 13 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 12 May 2026. 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 -169 56 £235 +20.51% 74
UK excluding London -141 41 £208 +6.41% 65
London -65 19 £238 +5.56% 14
North of England -81 16 £190 +7.04% 14
North West -37 9 £245 +27.27% 8
South East -59 9 £216 +10.90% 20
Midlands -66 8 £225 -14.29% 9
West Midlands -71 8 £225 -18.18% 8
Yorkshire -61 7 £190 +26.67% 3
Work from Home -56 5 £290 +22.11% 19
Wales -8 4 £250 +25.00%
East of England -32 3 £240 +12.94% 15
South West -32 1 - - 8

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

For the 6 months to 12 May 2026, 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 46 (76.67%) Windows
2 36 (60.00%) Microsoft 365
3 32 (53.33%) Active Directory
4 28 (46.67%) Windows 10
5 23 (38.33%) Microsoft
6 15 (25.00%) Customer Service
7 12 (20.00%) SCCM
7 12 (20.00%) Wi-Fi
8 10 (16.67%) Azure
8 10 (16.67%) Entra ID
8 10 (16.67%) LAN
8 10 (16.67%) WAN
9 9 (15.00%) ITSM
10 8 (13.33%) Microsoft Intune
11 7 (11.67%) Android
11 7 (11.67%) Apple iOS
11 7 (11.67%) DNS
11 7 (11.67%) Problem-Solving
11 7 (11.67%) SC Cleared
11 7 (11.67%) Security Cleared
11 7 (11.67%) VPN
11 7 (11.67%) Windows Server
12 6 (10.00%) DHCP
12 6 (10.00%) Mac OS
12 6 (10.00%) SharePoint
12 6 (10.00%) User Experience
13 5 (8.33%) CCNA
13 5 (8.33%) Cisco
13 5 (8.33%) Cisco Certification
13 5 (8.33%) ITIL

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 6 (10.00%) SharePoint
2 4 (6.67%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (3.33%) IIS
Applications
1 1 (1.67%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 2 (3.33%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 36 (60.00%) Microsoft 365
2 10 (16.67%) Azure
2 10 (16.67%) Entra ID
3 2 (3.33%) AWS
3 2 (3.33%) OneDrive
4 1 (1.67%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 12 (20.00%) Wi-Fi
2 10 (16.67%) LAN
2 10 (16.67%) WAN
3 7 (11.67%) DNS
3 7 (11.67%) VPN
4 6 (10.00%) DHCP
5 4 (6.67%) TCP/IP
6 2 (3.33%) BGP
6 2 (3.33%) Internet
6 2 (3.33%) IPsec
6 2 (3.33%) MPLS
6 2 (3.33%) Skype
6 2 (3.33%) VLAN
7 1 (1.67%) Firewall
7 1 (1.67%) Remote Desktop
7 1 (1.67%) SAN
7 1 (1.67%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.67%) Amazon RDS
1 1 (1.67%) Power BI
1 1 (1.67%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 3 (5.00%) JIRA
General
1 25 (41.67%) Social Skills
2 11 (18.33%) Finance
3 7 (11.67%) Manufacturing
4 4 (6.67%) Banking
4 4 (6.67%) Public Sector
5 3 (5.00%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 2 (3.33%) Investment Banking
6 2 (3.33%) Retail
7 1 (1.67%) Law
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (3.33%) Software Packaging
2 1 (1.67%) Microsoft Graph
Miscellaneous
1 5 (8.33%) Onboarding
2 3 (5.00%) CCTV
2 3 (5.00%) Driving Licence
3 2 (3.33%) iPhone
3 2 (3.33%) PKI
3 2 (3.33%) Smartphone
4 1 (1.67%) Data Centre
4 1 (1.67%) Security Posture
4 1 (1.67%) Team-Oriented Environment
Operating Systems
1 46 (76.67%) Windows
2 28 (46.67%) Windows 10
3 7 (11.67%) Android
3 7 (11.67%) Apple iOS
3 7 (11.67%) Windows Server
4 6 (10.00%) Mac OS
5 2 (3.33%) Linux
5 2 (3.33%) Windows Server 2012
6 1 (1.67%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 15 (25.00%) Customer Service
2 9 (15.00%) ITSM
3 7 (11.67%) Problem-Solving
4 6 (10.00%) User Experience
5 5 (8.33%) ITIL
6 3 (5.00%) Asset Management
6 3 (5.00%) Decision-Making
6 3 (5.00%) Incident Management
6 3 (5.00%) Migration
6 3 (5.00%) Service Delivery
6 3 (5.00%) Service Management
6 3 (5.00%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 2 (3.33%) BCP
7 2 (3.33%) Kalman Filter
7 2 (3.33%) Line Management
7 2 (3.33%) Patch Management
7 2 (3.33%) Problem Management
7 2 (3.33%) Root Cause Analysis
7 2 (3.33%) Security Hardening
7 2 (3.33%) Software Deployment
Programming Languages
1 3 (5.00%) PowerShell
2 2 (3.33%) SQL
3 1 (1.67%) Python
Qualifications
1 7 (11.67%) SC Cleared
1 7 (11.67%) Security Cleared
2 5 (8.33%) CCNA
2 5 (8.33%) Cisco Certification
3 3 (5.00%) DBS Check
3 3 (5.00%) ITIL Certification
4 2 (3.33%) Degree
4 2 (3.33%) DV Cleared
5 1 (1.67%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (6.67%) SLA
2 3 (5.00%) Cyber Essentials
3 1 (1.67%) JSP 440
3 1 (1.67%) NCSC
System Software
1 32 (53.33%) Active Directory
2 2 (3.33%) Virtual Desktop
3 1 (1.67%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 12 (20.00%) SCCM
2 8 (13.33%) Microsoft Intune
3 2 (3.33%) AirWatch
3 2 (3.33%) Jamf Pro
4 1 (1.67%) WSUS
Vendors
1 23 (38.33%) Microsoft
2 5 (8.33%) Cisco
3 3 (5.00%) HP
3 3 (5.00%) ServiceNow
4 2 (3.33%) Bloomberg
4 2 (3.33%) Juniper
4 2 (3.33%) Meraki
4 2 (3.33%) Remedy
5 1 (1.67%) Altiris
5 1 (1.67%) Apple
5 1 (1.67%) Citrix
5 1 (1.67%) Freshdesk
5 1 (1.67%) McAfee
5 1 (1.67%) Tanium
5 1 (1.67%) VMware