2nd Line Engineer Contract Job Trends

Second Line Engineer
UK

The median Second Line Engineer daily rate in the UK is £240, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 7 July 2026.

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

 6 months to
7 Jul 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 573 426 471
Rank change year-on-year -147 +45 -27
Contract jobs requiring a 2nd Line Engineer 79 113 125
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.15% 0.36% 0.29%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.16% 0.39% 0.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 53 81 94
10th Percentile £185 £150 £141
25th Percentile £210 £175 £163
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £240 £205 £198
Median % change year-on-year +17.07% +3.80% -3.74%
75th Percentile £305 £251 £249
90th Percentile £336 £313 £274
UK excluding London median daily rate £245 £195 £200
% change year-on-year +25.64% -2.50% -5.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 11 5
10th Percentile - £18.10 £19.63
25th Percentile £15.24 £18.69 £22.50
Median hourly rate £24.75 £21.25 £22.58
Median % change year-on-year +16.47% -5.89% +7.52%
75th Percentile £55.00 £24.71 £23.09
90th Percentile - £25.15 £23.74
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.50 £20.06 £22.54
% change year-on-year +12.16% -11.00% +7.33%

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 48,135 29,273 40,238
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.45% 91.98% 93.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,133 18,680 25,890
10th Percentile £325 £287 £285
25th Percentile £417 £400 £409
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% -2.33%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £493
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.65% -1.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,254 1,329 2,797
10th Percentile £15.75 £13.75 £12.86
25th Percentile £21.14 £17.44 £16.65
Median hourly rate £42.59 £26.45 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +61.03% -29.47% -12.79%
75th Percentile £67.50 £55.25 £62.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.25 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £44.50 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +76.94% -37.13% +1.14%

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 7 July 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 7 July 2026.

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 7 July 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 -140 74 £240 +17.07% 59
UK excluding London -144 52 £245 +25.64% 57
London -82 27 £240 -4.00% 9
North of England -73 23 £220 +41.94% 6
North West -35 13 £245 +58.06% 2
West Midlands -64 8 £210 -20.00% 4
Midlands -67 8 £210 -16.00% 9
Work from Home -60 7 £290 +16.00% 11
South East -80 7 £250 +16.28% 17
South West -31 6 £270 +31.71% 10
North East -40 5 £270 +38.46% 3
Yorkshire -56 5 £190 +26.67% 2
Wales - 4 £250 - 1
East of England -34 3 £240 +20.00% 16
Scotland -15 1 - - 1

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

For the 6 months to 7 July 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 64 (81.01%) Windows
2 48 (60.76%) Microsoft 365
3 41 (51.90%) Active Directory
4 34 (43.04%) Windows 10
5 31 (39.24%) Microsoft
6 13 (16.46%) DNS
6 13 (16.46%) Problem-Solving
6 13 (16.46%) SCCM
7 12 (15.19%) Customer Service
7 12 (15.19%) Entra ID
7 12 (15.19%) TCP/IP
8 11 (13.92%) Mac OS
9 10 (12.66%) LAN
9 10 (12.66%) User Experience
9 10 (12.66%) WAN
9 10 (12.66%) Wi-Fi
10 9 (11.39%) Apple iOS
10 9 (11.39%) ITIL
10 9 (11.39%) SharePoint
10 9 (11.39%) VPN
11 8 (10.13%) Android
11 8 (10.13%) DHCP
11 8 (10.13%) Microsoft Intune
11 8 (10.13%) SC Cleared
11 8 (10.13%) Security Cleared
11 8 (10.13%) ServiceNow
12 7 (8.86%) Azure
12 7 (8.86%) ITSM
12 7 (8.86%) JIRA
12 7 (8.86%) Microsoft Exchange

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 9 (11.39%) SharePoint
2 7 (8.86%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (2.53%) IIS
Applications
1 5 (6.33%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 2 (2.53%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 48 (60.76%) Microsoft 365
2 12 (15.19%) Entra ID
3 7 (8.86%) Azure
4 2 (2.53%) OneDrive
5 1 (1.27%) AWS
5 1 (1.27%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 13 (16.46%) DNS
2 12 (15.19%) TCP/IP
3 10 (12.66%) LAN
3 10 (12.66%) WAN
3 10 (12.66%) Wi-Fi
4 9 (11.39%) VPN
5 8 (10.13%) DHCP
6 5 (6.33%) Internet
7 2 (2.53%) BGP
7 2 (2.53%) IPsec
7 2 (2.53%) MPLS
7 2 (2.53%) Skype
8 1 (1.27%) Remote Desktop
8 1 (1.27%) SAN
8 1 (1.27%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.27%) Amazon RDS
1 1 (1.27%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 7 (8.86%) JIRA
General
1 34 (43.04%) Social Skills
2 12 (15.19%) Finance
3 6 (7.59%) Manufacturing
4 4 (5.06%) Banking
4 4 (5.06%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 4 (5.06%) Public Sector
4 4 (5.06%) Retail
5 2 (2.53%) Investment Banking
6 1 (1.27%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (2.53%) Software Packaging
2 1 (1.27%) Microsoft Graph
Miscellaneous
1 8 (10.13%) Onboarding
2 4 (5.06%) CCTV
2 4 (5.06%) iPhone
3 3 (3.80%) Driving Licence
4 2 (2.53%) PKI
4 2 (2.53%) Smartphone
5 1 (1.27%) Data Centre
5 1 (1.27%) iPad
5 1 (1.27%) Operational Technology
5 1 (1.27%) Security Posture
5 1 (1.27%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 64 (81.01%) Windows
2 34 (43.04%) Windows 10
3 11 (13.92%) Mac OS
4 9 (11.39%) Apple iOS
5 8 (10.13%) Android
6 6 (7.59%) Linux
6 6 (7.59%) Windows Server
7 4 (5.06%) Ubuntu
8 2 (2.53%) Windows Server 2012
9 1 (1.27%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 13 (16.46%) Problem-Solving
2 12 (15.19%) Customer Service
3 10 (12.66%) User Experience
4 9 (11.39%) ITIL
5 7 (8.86%) ITSM
5 7 (8.86%) Migration
6 6 (7.59%) Service Management
6 6 (7.59%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 4 (5.06%) Asset Management
7 4 (5.06%) Break/Fix
7 4 (5.06%) Configuration Management
7 4 (5.06%) Continuous Improvement
7 4 (5.06%) Incident Management
7 4 (5.06%) Service Delivery
8 3 (3.80%) Antivirus Management
8 3 (3.80%) Decision-Making
8 3 (3.80%) Identity Access Management
8 3 (3.80%) Inventory Management
8 3 (3.80%) Operational Stability
8 3 (3.80%) Patch Management
Programming Languages
1 3 (3.80%) PowerShell
2 2 (2.53%) SQL
3 1 (1.27%) Python
Qualifications
1 8 (10.13%) SC Cleared
1 8 (10.13%) Security Cleared
2 6 (7.59%) Degree
3 5 (6.33%) CCNA
3 5 (6.33%) Cisco Certification
4 2 (2.53%) DBS Check
4 2 (2.53%) DV Cleared
4 2 (2.53%) ITIL Certification
5 1 (1.27%) CCNP
5 1 (1.27%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
5 1 (1.27%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (6.33%) SLA
2 1 (1.27%) Cyber Essentials
2 1 (1.27%) JSP 440
2 1 (1.27%) NCSC
System Software
1 41 (51.90%) Active Directory
2 1 (1.27%) Virtual Desktop
2 1 (1.27%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 13 (16.46%) SCCM
2 8 (10.13%) Microsoft Intune
3 2 (2.53%) AirWatch
3 2 (2.53%) Jamf Pro
4 1 (1.27%) Cisco CUCM
4 1 (1.27%) WSUS
Vendors
1 31 (39.24%) Microsoft
2 8 (10.13%) ServiceNow
3 6 (7.59%) Cisco
4 5 (6.33%) Apple
5 4 (5.06%) HP
6 3 (3.80%) Freshdesk
6 3 (3.80%) Samsung
7 2 (2.53%) Bloomberg
7 2 (2.53%) Google
7 2 (2.53%) Juniper
7 2 (2.53%) Meraki
7 2 (2.53%) Remedy
8 1 (1.27%) Citrix
8 1 (1.27%) McAfee
8 1 (1.27%) Snow
8 1 (1.27%) Tanium
8 1 (1.27%) VMware
8 1 (1.27%) Yealink
64 2nd Line Engineer jobs Nationwide