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 5 May 2026.

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

6 months to
5 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 566 418 432
Rank change year-on-year -148 +14 +45
Contract jobs requiring a 2nd Line Engineer 60 109 160
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.13% 0.37% 0.37%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.14% 0.40% 0.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 44 78 114
10th Percentile £185 £150 £150
25th Percentile £198 £161 £170
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £235 £200 £200
Median % change year-on-year +17.50% - -4.76%
75th Percentile £254 £254 £255
90th Percentile £312 £319 £300
UK excluding London median daily rate £205 £195 £200
% change year-on-year +5.13% -2.50% -2.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 14 12
10th Percentile £35.40 £18.22 -
25th Percentile £48.00 £22.50 -
Median hourly rate £55.00 £23.59 £17.72
Median % change year-on-year +133.15% +33.13% -22.11%
75th Percentile - £24.73 £22.52
90th Percentile - £27.15 £23.04
UK excluding London median hourly rate £55.00 £23.00 £17.72
% change year-on-year +139.13% +29.80% -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 43,868 27,092 40,027
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.28% 92.49% 92.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 26,987 17,695 26,061
10th Percentile £316 £300 £280
25th Percentile £413 £406 £409
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £515 £525
Median % change year-on-year -1.94% -1.90% -2.78%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £492 £475 £490
% change year-on-year +3.58% -3.06% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,833 1,048 2,666
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.18 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.38 £18.50 £16.30
Median hourly rate £44.00 £29.00 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +51.72% -20.55% -18.89%
75th Percentile £66.25 £62.50 £61.29
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.56 £28.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year +62.70% -30.00% -5.35%

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 5 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 5 May 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for 2nd Line Engineer in the UK

2nd Line Engineer
Top 12 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 5 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 -160 56 £235 +17.50% 80
UK excluding London -127 42 £205 +5.13% 74
North of England -70 18 £190 +5.56% 9
London -70 18 £235 +4.44% 14
North West -34 10 £245 +6.52% 5
West Midlands -65 9 £200 -23.81% 8
Midlands -81 9 £200 -20.00% 8
Yorkshire -53 8 £190 +26.67% 3
South East -60 8 £216 +10.90% 26
Wales -9 4 £250 +25.00%
Work from Home -51 4 £290 +16.00% 22
East of England -48 3 £240 +12.94% 19

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

For the 6 months to 5 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 44 (73.33%) Windows
2 34 (56.67%) Microsoft 365
3 29 (48.33%) Active Directory
4 26 (43.33%) Windows 10
5 21 (35.00%) Microsoft
6 16 (26.67%) Customer Service
7 12 (20.00%) SCCM
8 11 (18.33%) WAN
8 11 (18.33%) Wi-Fi
9 10 (16.67%) Entra ID
9 10 (16.67%) LAN
10 9 (15.00%) Azure
11 8 (13.33%) ITSM
11 8 (13.33%) Microsoft Intune
11 8 (13.33%) SC Cleared
11 8 (13.33%) Security Cleared
12 7 (11.67%) Android
12 7 (11.67%) Apple iOS
12 7 (11.67%) Cisco
12 7 (11.67%) Problem-Solving
13 6 (10.00%) SharePoint
13 6 (10.00%) VPN
14 5 (8.33%) CCNA
14 5 (8.33%) Cisco Certification
14 5 (8.33%) DNS
14 5 (8.33%) ITIL
14 5 (8.33%) Mac OS
14 5 (8.33%) User Experience
14 5 (8.33%) Windows Server
15 4 (6.67%) DHCP

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 2 (3.33%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 2 (3.33%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 34 (56.67%) Microsoft 365
2 10 (16.67%) Entra ID
3 9 (15.00%) Azure
4 2 (3.33%) OneDrive
5 1 (1.67%) AWS
5 1 (1.67%) Google Workspace
5 1 (1.67%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 11 (18.33%) WAN
1 11 (18.33%) Wi-Fi
2 10 (16.67%) LAN
3 6 (10.00%) VPN
4 5 (8.33%) DNS
5 4 (6.67%) DHCP
6 3 (5.00%) BGP
6 3 (5.00%) IPsec
6 3 (5.00%) MPLS
6 3 (5.00%) TCP/IP
7 2 (3.33%) Firewall
7 2 (3.33%) Internet
7 2 (3.33%) Skype
7 2 (3.33%) VLAN
8 1 (1.67%) Network Security
8 1 (1.67%) SAN
8 1 (1.67%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.67%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 2 (3.33%) JIRA
General
1 24 (40.00%) Social Skills
2 11 (18.33%) Finance
3 7 (11.67%) Manufacturing
4 5 (8.33%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 5 (8.33%) Public Sector
5 4 (6.67%) Banking
6 2 (3.33%) Investment Banking
7 1 (1.67%) Law
7 1 (1.67%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (3.33%) Software Packaging
2 1 (1.67%) Microsoft Graph
Miscellaneous
1 5 (8.33%) Onboarding
2 4 (6.67%) Driving Licence
3 3 (5.00%) PKI
4 2 (3.33%) CCTV
4 2 (3.33%) iPhone
4 2 (3.33%) Smartphone
5 1 (1.67%) Data Centre
5 1 (1.67%) Security Posture
5 1 (1.67%) Team-Oriented Environment
Operating Systems
1 44 (73.33%) Windows
2 26 (43.33%) Windows 10
3 7 (11.67%) Android
3 7 (11.67%) Apple iOS
4 5 (8.33%) Mac OS
4 5 (8.33%) Windows Server
5 2 (3.33%) Linux
5 2 (3.33%) Windows Server 2012
6 1 (1.67%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 16 (26.67%) Customer Service
2 8 (13.33%) ITSM
3 7 (11.67%) Problem-Solving
4 5 (8.33%) ITIL
4 5 (8.33%) User Experience
5 4 (6.67%) Service Management
6 3 (5.00%) Asset Management
6 3 (5.00%) Decision-Making
6 3 (5.00%) Incident Management
6 3 (5.00%) Kalman Filter
6 3 (5.00%) Multi-Factor Authentication
6 3 (5.00%) Service Delivery
6 3 (5.00%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 3 (5.00%) Web Filtering
7 2 (3.33%) Customer Experience
7 2 (3.33%) Identity Access Management
7 2 (3.33%) Line Management
7 2 (3.33%) Patch Management
7 2 (3.33%) Problem Management
7 2 (3.33%) Security Hardening
Programming Languages
1 2 (3.33%) PowerShell
1 2 (3.33%) SQL
2 1 (1.67%) Python
Qualifications
1 8 (13.33%) SC Cleared
1 8 (13.33%) 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 3 (5.00%) Cyber Essentials
1 3 (5.00%) SLA
2 1 (1.67%) JSP 440
2 1 (1.67%) NCSC
System Software
1 29 (48.33%) Active Directory
2 1 (1.67%) Virtual Desktop
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 21 (35.00%) Microsoft
2 7 (11.67%) Cisco
3 3 (5.00%) HP
3 3 (5.00%) Juniper
3 3 (5.00%) Meraki
4 2 (3.33%) Bloomberg
4 2 (3.33%) Remedy
4 2 (3.33%) ServiceNow
5 1 (1.67%) Altiris
5 1 (1.67%) Apple
5 1 (1.67%) Citrix
5 1 (1.67%) Google
5 1 (1.67%) McAfee
5 1 (1.67%) Tanium
5 1 (1.67%) VMware