2nd Line Engineer Job Trends in the South East

Second Line Engineer
England > South East

The median Second Line Engineer salary in the South East is £32,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 15 January 2026.

The table below compares current salary benchmarking and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 209 235 203
Rank change year-on-year +26 -32 +62
Permanent jobs requiring a 2nd Line Engineer 58 59 88
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 0.56% 0.66% 1.00%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.61% 0.72% 1.06%
Number of salaries quoted 57 46 78
10th Percentile £29,000 £27,500 £26,250
25th Percentile £30,000 £29,813 £27,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £32,000 £33,750 £30,000
Median % change year-on-year -5.19% +12.50% -2.44%
75th Percentile £36,250 £40,000 £37,500
90th Percentile £38,750 £45,000 £45,375
England median annual salary £33,500 £35,000 £32,500
% change year-on-year -4.29% +7.69% -

All Permanent IT Job Roles
South East

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies in the South East. 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 permanent jobs in our overall sample.

Permanent vacancies in the South East with a recognized job title 9,579 8,186 8,340
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 91.98% 91.12% 94.79%
Number of salaries quoted 5,997 4,314 6,003
10th Percentile £28,000 £32,575 £29,000
25th Percentile £35,000 £44,027 £38,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £57,500 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -13.04% +9.52% -4.55%
75th Percentile £65,000 £72,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £80,000 £85,000 £80,000
England median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year -8.33% +4.35% -6.50%

2nd Line Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings featuring '2nd Line Engineer' in the job title relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the South East.

2nd Line Engineer job vacancy trend in the South East

2nd Line Engineer
Salary Trend in the South East

Salary distribution trend for 2nd Line Engineer job vacancies in the South East.

Salary distribution trend for 2nd Line Engineer job vacancies in the South East

2nd Line Engineer
Salary Histogram in the South East

Salary distribution for jobs citing 2nd Line Engineer in the South East over the 6 months to 15 January 2026.

Salary histogram for 2nd Line Engineer in the South East

2nd Line Engineer
Job Locations in the South East

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing 2nd Line Engineer within the South East region over the 6 months to 15 January 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Hampshire +18 21 £31,000 -1.59% 7
West Sussex +16 15 £32,000 -
Thames Valley +20 12 £33,500 +6.35% 6
Buckinghamshire +10 8 £33,500 +17.54%
Surrey 0 5 £32,000 -14.67%
Kent -4 4 £34,000 -20.00% 4
Berkshire -3 3 £40,000 +11.89% 2
Oxfordshire - 1 - - 4
Sussex - 1 £30,000 -
2nd Line Engineer
England

2nd Line Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East

For the 6 months to 15 January 2026, 2nd Line Engineer 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 permanent job ads across the South East region featuring 2nd Line Engineer in the job title.

1 33 (56.90%) Microsoft 365
2 29 (50.00%) Windows
3 26 (44.83%) Active Directory
4 24 (41.38%) Windows Server
5 21 (36.21%) Microsoft
6 19 (32.76%) DHCP
6 19 (32.76%) DNS
6 19 (32.76%) Hyper-V
6 19 (32.76%) VLAN
6 19 (32.76%) VMware
7 17 (29.31%) Problem-Solving
8 16 (27.59%) TCP/IP
8 16 (27.59%) VPN
8 16 (27.59%) Windows 10
9 15 (25.86%) Azure
10 14 (24.14%) ITSM
11 13 (22.41%) VMware Infrastructure
12 12 (20.69%) Firewall
12 12 (20.69%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 11 (18.97%) Microsoft Intune
14 8 (13.79%) SLA
15 7 (12.07%) Customer Service
15 7 (12.07%) Security Cleared
16 6 (10.34%) Apple
16 6 (10.34%) SC Cleared
16 6 (10.34%) SCCM
16 6 (10.34%) Wi-Fi
17 5 (8.62%) Android
17 5 (8.62%) Apple iOS
17 5 (8.62%) Cybersecurity

2nd Line Engineer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East 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 5 (8.62%) Microsoft Exchange
1 5 (8.62%) SharePoint
Cloud Services
1 33 (56.90%) Microsoft 365
2 15 (25.86%) Azure
3 5 (8.62%) Entra ID
4 4 (6.90%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 19 (32.76%) DHCP
1 19 (32.76%) DNS
1 19 (32.76%) VLAN
2 16 (27.59%) TCP/IP
2 16 (27.59%) VPN
3 12 (20.69%) Firewall
4 6 (10.34%) Wi-Fi
5 2 (3.45%) VoIP
6 1 (1.72%) BGP
6 1 (1.72%) Cisco Firepower
6 1 (1.72%) Cisco IOS
6 1 (1.72%) Cisco ISE
6 1 (1.72%) Junos
6 1 (1.72%) NX-OS
6 1 (1.72%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.72%) Amazon RDS
General
1 26 (44.83%) Social Skills
2 4 (6.90%) Games
2 4 (6.90%) Law
2 4 (6.90%) Marketing
3 1 (1.72%) German Language
3 1 (1.72%) Legal
3 1 (1.72%) Manufacturing
Miscellaneous
1 5 (8.62%) Driving Licence
2 2 (3.45%) Onboarding
3 1 (1.72%) Client/Server
3 1 (1.72%) PKI
3 1 (1.72%) Smartphone
Operating Systems
1 29 (50.00%) Windows
2 24 (41.38%) Windows Server
3 16 (27.59%) Windows 10
4 5 (8.62%) Android
4 5 (8.62%) Apple iOS
5 1 (1.72%) Windows Server 2016
5 1 (1.72%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 17 (29.31%) Problem-Solving
2 14 (24.14%) ITSM
3 12 (20.69%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 7 (12.07%) Customer Service
5 5 (8.62%) Cybersecurity
5 5 (8.62%) Root Cause Analysis
5 5 (8.62%) Service Management
6 4 (6.90%) Configuration Management
6 4 (6.90%) Continuous Improvement
6 4 (6.90%) DevOps
6 4 (6.90%) Infrastructure as Code
6 4 (6.90%) Mentoring
6 4 (6.90%) Mobile Device Management
7 3 (5.17%) Collaborative Working
7 3 (5.17%) Customer Experience
7 3 (5.17%) ITIL
8 2 (3.45%) Cloud Security
8 2 (3.45%) Service Delivery
9 1 (1.72%) Change Management
9 1 (1.72%) Collaborative Culture
Programming Languages
1 4 (6.90%) Bicep
1 4 (6.90%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 7 (12.07%) Security Cleared
2 6 (10.34%) SC Cleared
3 1 (1.72%) CCNA
3 1 (1.72%) CCNP
3 1 (1.72%) Cisco Certification
3 1 (1.72%) CompTIA Security+
3 1 (1.72%) DBS Check
3 1 (1.72%) DV Cleared
3 1 (1.72%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (13.79%) SLA
2 2 (3.45%) Cyber Essentials
2 2 (3.45%) QA
System Software
1 26 (44.83%) Active Directory
2 19 (32.76%) Hyper-V
3 13 (22.41%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (1.72%) Firmware
4 1 (1.72%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 11 (18.97%) Microsoft Intune
2 6 (10.34%) SCCM
3 4 (6.90%) Jamf Pro
3 4 (6.90%) MaaS360
4 1 (1.72%) FortiGate
4 1 (1.72%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 21 (36.21%) Microsoft
2 19 (32.76%) VMware
3 6 (10.34%) Apple
4 5 (8.62%) Veeam
5 4 (6.90%) McAfee
5 4 (6.90%) Samsung
5 4 (6.90%) Sophos
6 2 (3.45%) Cisco
7 1 (1.72%) Broadcom
7 1 (1.72%) Citrix
7 1 (1.72%) Fortinet
7 1 (1.72%) Fujitsu
7 1 (1.72%) Juniper
7 1 (1.72%) Meraki
7 1 (1.72%) SolarWinds