3rd Line Engineer Contracts with Hybrid/Remote/WFH Options

Third Line Engineer
UK > Work from Home

The median Third Line Engineer daily rate for remote or hybrid work is £375, 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 296 321 422
Rank change year-on-year +25 +101 +48
Contract jobs requiring a 3rd Line Engineer 8 24 55
As % of all contract jobs with a WFH option 0.081% 0.16% 0.21%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.086% 0.17% 0.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 7 11 45
10th Percentile £311 £275 £303
25th Percentile £358 £300 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £375 £325 £420
Median % change year-on-year +15.38% -22.62% +12.00%
75th Percentile £400 £344 £488
90th Percentile £481 £373 £525
UK median daily rate £433 £350 £420
% change year-on-year +23.79% -16.67% +12.00%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
Work from Home

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies with WFH or hybrid options. 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 Work from Home with a recognized job title 9,288 14,354 24,650
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 93.77% 93.54% 95.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,350 9,595 17,415
10th Percentile £337 £325 £360
25th Percentile £414 £425 £444
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £540
Median % change year-on-year - -2.69% +2.76%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £650
90th Percentile £763 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £515 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -1.90% -2.78% +2.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 228 579 565
10th Percentile £14.00 £14.38 £18.50
25th Percentile £18.19 £23.39 £26.00
Median hourly rate £38.00 £44.74 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -15.06% -18.65% +57.14%
75th Percentile £66.00 £63.00 £68.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.25 £80.25
UK median hourly rate £29.00 £36.42 £45.00
% change year-on-year -20.37% -19.07% +91.49%

3rd Line Engineer
Trend for Jobs with a WFH Option

Job vacancies with remote working options which featured 3rd Line Engineer in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

3rd Line Engineer trend for jobs with Hybrid/Remote/WFH options

3rd Line Engineer
Daily Rate Trend for Jobs with a WFH Option

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in job vacancies with remote working options citing 3rd Line Engineer.

3rd Line Engineer daily rate for jobs with a WFH option

3rd Line Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram for Jobs with a WFH Option

Daily rate distribution for jobs with remote working options citing 3rd Line Engineer over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

3rd Line Engineer daily rate histogram for jobs with a WFH option

3rd Line Engineer
Hourly Rate Trend for Jobs with a WFH Option

3-month moving average hourly rate quoted in job vacancies with remote working options citing 3rd Line Engineer.

3rd Line Engineer hourly rate for jobs with a WFH option

3rd Line Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in Job Vacancies with WFH Options

For the 6 months to 1 May 2025, 3rd Line 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 jobs with a WFH option featuring 3rd Line Engineer in the job title.

1 6 (75.00%) Windows
2 5 (62.50%) Microsoft
2 5 (62.50%) Active Directory
2 5 (62.50%) Azure
3 3 (37.50%) Firewall
3 3 (37.50%) SAN
3 3 (37.50%) VMware
3 3 (37.50%) Microsoft 365
3 3 (37.50%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 3 (37.50%) ITIL
4 2 (25.00%) Windows 10
4 2 (25.00%) Roadmaps
4 2 (25.00%) Windows Server 2016
4 2 (25.00%) Windows Server 2019
4 2 (25.00%) Windows Server
4 2 (25.00%) Microsoft Intune
4 2 (25.00%) PowerShell
4 2 (25.00%) Cybersecurity
4 2 (25.00%) Windows Server 2012
4 2 (25.00%) Entra ID
4 2 (25.00%) Telecoms
4 2 (25.00%) SCCM
5 1 (12.50%) System Testing
5 1 (12.50%) SC Cleared
5 1 (12.50%) Security Cleared
5 1 (12.50%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (12.50%) Change Management
5 1 (12.50%) Finance
5 1 (12.50%) Proofpoint
5 1 (12.50%) DFS Replication

3rd Line Engineer Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities with WFH Options 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 1 (12.50%) Microsoft Exchange
Cloud Services
1 5 (62.50%) Azure
2 3 (37.50%) Microsoft 365
3 2 (25.00%) Entra ID
4 1 (12.50%) IaaS
4 1 (12.50%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 3 (37.50%) Firewall
1 3 (37.50%) SAN
2 1 (12.50%) DHCP
2 1 (12.50%) DNS
General
1 2 (25.00%) Telecoms
2 1 (12.50%) Documentation Skills
2 1 (12.50%) Finance
Miscellaneous
1 1 (12.50%) CMDB
1 1 (12.50%) Smartphone
Operating Systems
1 6 (75.00%) Windows
2 2 (25.00%) Windows 10
2 2 (25.00%) Windows Server
2 2 (25.00%) Windows Server 2012
2 2 (25.00%) Windows Server 2016
2 2 (25.00%) Windows Server 2019
3 1 (12.50%) Android
3 1 (12.50%) Apple iOS
3 1 (12.50%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 3 (37.50%) Infrastructure Engineering
1 3 (37.50%) ITIL
2 2 (25.00%) Cybersecurity
2 2 (25.00%) Roadmaps
3 1 (12.50%) Change Management
3 1 (12.50%) Customer Service
3 1 (12.50%) Decision-Making
3 1 (12.50%) Enterprise Architecture
3 1 (12.50%) Information Security
3 1 (12.50%) Infrastructure as Code
3 1 (12.50%) PLM
3 1 (12.50%) Proactive Monitoring
3 1 (12.50%) Project Management
3 1 (12.50%) Security Patching
3 1 (12.50%) Service Catalogue
3 1 (12.50%) Strategic Planning
3 1 (12.50%) Strategic Roadmap
3 1 (12.50%) System Testing
3 1 (12.50%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 2 (25.00%) PowerShell
2 1 (12.50%) Bash
Qualifications
1 1 (12.50%) BPSS Clearance
1 1 (12.50%) SC Cleared
1 1 (12.50%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (12.50%) SLA
System Software
1 5 (62.50%) Active Directory
2 1 (12.50%) DFS Replication
2 1 (12.50%) VMware Infrastructure
2 1 (12.50%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 2 (25.00%) Microsoft Intune
1 2 (25.00%) SCCM
2 1 (12.50%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 5 (62.50%) Microsoft
2 3 (37.50%) VMware
3 1 (12.50%) Apple
3 1 (12.50%) Cisco
3 1 (12.50%) Proofpoint
3 1 (12.50%) ServiceNow