2nd Line Support Engineer Contracts

Second Line Support Engineer
UK

The median Second Line Support Engineer daily rate in the UK is £220, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 1 May 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
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 434 455 535
Rank change year-on-year +21 +80 +52
Contract jobs requiring a 2nd Line Support Engineer 86 127 183
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.29% 0.29% 0.31%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.32% 0.31% 0.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 63 92 135
10th Percentile £160 £140 £161
25th Percentile £185 £170 £190
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £220 £200 £225
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -11.11% +16.88%
75th Percentile £259 £230 £284
90th Percentile £324 £288 £350
UK excluding London median daily rate £200 £200 £225
% change year-on-year - -11.11% +19.21%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 8 6
10th Percentile £18.14 - -
25th Percentile £21.50 - £20.00
Median hourly rate £23.00 £17.72 £21.75
Median % change year-on-year +29.80% -18.53% +24.29%
75th Percentile £24.68 £19.97 £24.25
90th Percentile £27.68 £23.29 £27.63
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.00 £17.72 £20.00
% change year-on-year +29.80% -11.40% +16.79%

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 27,084 40,415 56,464
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.52% 92.78% 94.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,692 26,309 39,470
10th Percentile £300 £275 £313
25th Percentile £406 £410 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £525 £540
Median % change year-on-year -1.90% -2.78% +2.86%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £492 £500
% change year-on-year -3.46% -1.60% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,035 2,664 1,570
10th Percentile £14.07 £12.86 £14.29
25th Percentile £18.50 £16.30 £19.50
Median hourly rate £29.00 £36.42 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -20.37% -19.07% +91.49%
75th Percentile £62.50 £60.75 £65.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £75.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £28.00 £39.55 £42.50
% change year-on-year -29.20% -6.94% +117.95%

2nd Line Support Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Job vacancy trend for 2nd Line Support Engineer in the UK

2nd Line Support Engineer
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing 2nd Line Support Engineer.

Daily rate trend for 2nd Line Support Engineer in the UK

2nd Line Support Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing 2nd Line Support Engineer over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for 2nd Line Support Engineer in the UK

2nd Line Support Engineer
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing 2nd Line Support Engineer.

Hourly rate trend for 2nd Line Support Engineer in the UK

2nd Line Support Engineer
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing 2nd Line Support Engineer over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for 2nd Line Support Engineer in the UK

2nd Line Support Engineer
Top 17 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing 2nd Line Support Engineer within the UK over the 6 months to 1 May 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 +16 79 £220 +10.00% 50
UK excluding London +31 61 £200 - 42
London +29 24 £250 +25.00% 10
North of England +16 20 £195 - 9
Work from Home +49 19 £250 -1.96% 17
Midlands +14 18 £250 +25.00% 6
West Midlands +12 16 £263 +31.25% 4
South East +39 11 £204 +5.16% 20
North West +17 10 £210 +6.33% 5
Yorkshire +4 7 £161 -17.69% 3
East of England +27 4 £225 -3.23% 3
Scotland +13 3 - -
North East +1 3 £195 - 1
South West +35 2 £225 +18.42% 5
East Midlands +4 2 £180 -12.20% 2
Northern Ireland -8 2 - -
Wales +1 1 £200 +48.15%

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

For the 6 months to 1 May 2025, 2nd Line Support 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 Support Engineer in the job title.

1 60 (69.77%) Windows
2 50 (58.14%) Microsoft 365
3 48 (55.81%) Microsoft
4 45 (52.33%) Active Directory
5 32 (37.21%) Windows 10
6 30 (34.88%) Social Skills
7 28 (32.56%) VPN
8 26 (30.23%) Microsoft Office
9 24 (27.91%) ITIL
10 23 (26.74%) Azure
10 23 (26.74%) Problem-Solving
11 19 (22.09%) Customer Service
12 18 (20.93%) Security Cleared
13 17 (19.77%) Service Management
14 16 (18.60%) Finance
14 16 (18.60%) Microsoft Intune
15 14 (16.28%) Analytical Skills
15 14 (16.28%) Public Sector
15 14 (16.28%) Microsoft Exchange
16 13 (15.12%) Asset Management
16 13 (15.12%) SCCM
16 13 (15.12%) SC Cleared
17 11 (12.79%) Apple iOS
17 11 (12.79%) ITSM
18 10 (11.63%) Service Delivery
18 10 (11.63%) WAN
18 10 (11.63%) Microsoft Certification
18 10 (11.63%) Juniper
18 10 (11.63%) Degree
19 9 (10.47%) PKI

2nd Line Support 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 14 (16.28%) Microsoft Exchange
2 9 (10.47%) SharePoint
3 1 (1.16%) Exchange Server 2003
3 1 (1.16%) Exchange Server 2007
3 1 (1.16%) Exchange Server 2010
Applications
1 26 (30.23%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (6.98%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 5 (5.81%) MS Visio
4 1 (1.16%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 2 (2.33%) Alphatax
2 1 (1.16%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 50 (58.14%) Microsoft 365
2 23 (26.74%) Azure
3 8 (9.30%) Entra ID
4 5 (5.81%) OneDrive
5 4 (4.65%) Asana
5 4 (4.65%) Slack
6 1 (1.16%) WhatsApp
Communications & Networking
1 28 (32.56%) VPN
2 10 (11.63%) WAN
3 9 (10.47%) BGP
3 9 (10.47%) IPsec
3 9 (10.47%) MPLS
4 7 (8.14%) Firewall
5 6 (6.98%) LAN
6 4 (4.65%) DHCP
6 4 (4.65%) DNS
6 4 (4.65%) Remote Desktop
7 3 (3.49%) Wi-Fi
7 3 (3.49%) Wireless
8 2 (2.33%) Cisco Firepower
8 2 (2.33%) VoIP
9 1 (1.16%) Softphone
9 1 (1.16%) TCP/IP
9 1 (1.16%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (4.65%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 5 (5.81%) JIRA
General
1 30 (34.88%) Social Skills
2 16 (18.60%) Finance
3 14 (16.28%) Analytical Skills
3 14 (16.28%) Public Sector
4 9 (10.47%) Manufacturing
5 8 (9.30%) Banking
6 5 (5.81%) Documentation Skills
6 5 (5.81%) Presentation Skills
6 5 (5.81%) Telecoms
7 4 (4.65%) Electronics
7 4 (4.65%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 4 (4.65%) Marketing
8 3 (3.49%) Legal
9 2 (2.33%) Local Government
10 1 (1.16%) Aerospace
10 1 (1.16%) Military
Miscellaneous
1 9 (10.47%) PKI
2 5 (5.81%) Management Information System
2 5 (5.81%) Onboarding
2 5 (5.81%) Video Conferencing
3 4 (4.65%) iPhone
3 4 (4.65%) Smartphone
4 2 (2.33%) BYOD
4 2 (2.33%) Data Protection Act
4 2 (2.33%) Driving Licence
5 1 (1.16%) Client/Server
Operating Systems
1 60 (69.77%) Windows
2 32 (37.21%) Windows 10
3 11 (12.79%) Apple iOS
4 7 (8.14%) Windows Server
4 7 (8.14%) Windows Server 2008
5 6 (6.98%) Android
5 6 (6.98%) Windows Server 2003
5 6 (6.98%) Windows Server 2012
5 6 (6.98%) Windows XP
6 5 (5.81%) Windows 7
6 5 (5.81%) Windows 8
6 5 (5.81%) Windows Server 2016
7 3 (3.49%) VMS
8 2 (2.33%) Mac OS X
9 1 (1.16%) Mac OS
9 1 (1.16%) Windows Vista
Processes & Methodologies
1 24 (27.91%) ITIL
2 23 (26.74%) Problem-Solving
3 19 (22.09%) Customer Service
4 17 (19.77%) Service Management
5 13 (15.12%) Asset Management
6 11 (12.79%) ITSM
7 10 (11.63%) Service Delivery
8 8 (9.30%) Time Management
9 6 (6.98%) Mentoring
9 6 (6.98%) Patch Management
9 6 (6.98%) Proactive Maintenance
10 5 (5.81%) Business Case
10 5 (5.81%) Coaching
10 5 (5.81%) Infrastructure Monitoring
10 5 (5.81%) Load Balancing
10 5 (5.81%) Project Delivery
10 5 (5.81%) Technical Analysis
11 4 (4.65%) Digital Marketing
11 4 (4.65%) Incident Management
11 4 (4.65%) Investment Management
Programming Languages
1 1 (1.16%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 18 (20.93%) Security Cleared
2 13 (15.12%) SC Cleared
3 10 (11.63%) Degree
3 10 (11.63%) Microsoft Certification
4 6 (6.98%) DBS Check
5 2 (2.33%) A+ Certification
5 2 (2.33%) DV Cleared
5 2 (2.33%) MCP
6 1 (1.16%) Azure Certification
6 1 (1.16%) ITIL Certification
6 1 (1.16%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (2.33%) QA
1 2 (2.33%) SLA
2 1 (1.16%) Accessibility
System Software
1 45 (52.33%) Active Directory
2 5 (5.81%) Virtual Desktop
3 4 (4.65%) VMware Infrastructure
3 4 (4.65%) vSphere
4 1 (1.16%) Terminal Services
4 1 (1.16%) VMware ESXi
4 1 (1.16%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 16 (18.60%) Microsoft Intune
2 13 (15.12%) SCCM
3 1 (1.16%) AppManager
3 1 (1.16%) Sysprep
Vendors
1 48 (55.81%) Microsoft
2 10 (11.63%) Juniper
3 9 (10.47%) Citrix
4 6 (6.98%) VMware
5 5 (5.81%) Apple
5 5 (5.81%) Canon
5 5 (5.81%) ServiceNow
6 4 (4.65%) Cisco
6 4 (4.65%) Palo Alto
6 4 (4.65%) SAP
6 4 (4.65%) Zscaler
7 2 (2.33%) CrowdStrike
8 1 (1.16%) Dell
8 1 (1.16%) Google
8 1 (1.16%) Ivanti
8 1 (1.16%) Remedy