1st Line Engineer Job Trends

First Line Engineer
UK

The median First Line Engineer salary in the UK is £26,700 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 7 November 2025.

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

6 months to
7 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 616 691 619
Rank change year-on-year +75 -72 +364
Permanent jobs requiring a 1st Line Engineer 50 51 118
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.099% 0.075% 0.22%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.11% 0.079% 0.23%
Number of salaries quoted 41 39 111
10th Percentile £24,500 £23,750 £21,250
25th Percentile £25,750 £24,625 £22,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £26,700 £27,000 £24,500
Median % change year-on-year -1.11% +10.20% -3.92%
75th Percentile £28,500 £28,750 £27,625
90th Percentile £30,250 £33,750 £28,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £26,500 £26,750 £23,750
% change year-on-year -0.93% +12.63% -5.00%

All Permanent IT Job Vacancies
UK

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

Permanent vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 45,700 64,689 50,755
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.10% 95.04% 95.50%
Number of salaries quoted 28,478 36,679 39,389
10th Percentile £28,250 £31,250 £31,500
25th Percentile £35,000 £42,219 £42,631
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £57,500 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.70% -4.17% -
75th Percentile £73,750 £75,000 £80,000
90th Percentile £92,500 £95,000 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £46,000 £50,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -8.00% -4.76% -

1st Line Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings featuring '1st Line Engineer' in the job title relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised.

1st Line Engineer job vacancy trend in the UK

1st Line Engineer
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for 1st Line Engineer job vacancies in the UK.

Salary distribution trend for 1st Line Engineer job vacancies in the UK

1st Line Engineer
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing 1st Line Engineer over the 6 months to 7 November 2025.

Salary histogram for 1st Line Engineer in the UK

1st Line Engineer
Top 11 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing 1st Line Engineer within the UK over the 6 months to 7 November 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England +104 44 £27,000 +3.85% 45
UK excluding London +59 44 £26,500 -0.93% 47
South West +55 18 £27,000 +1.89% 7
South East +28 10 £26,500 -3.64% 16
Work from Home +56 8 £28,000 +3.70% 8
North of England +20 8 £26,500 +10.99% 7
London +49 6 £28,000 +3.70% 8
Scotland +2 6 £25,000 -20.00% 1
North West +24 4 £26,250 +7.14% 2
Yorkshire - 4 £26,500 - 5
East of England +22 2 £28,000 +7.69% 6

1st Line Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 7 November 2025, 1st 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 featuring 1st Line Engineer in the job title.

1 47 (94.00%) Microsoft
2 37 (74.00%) Microsoft 365
3 32 (64.00%) Active Directory
4 27 (54.00%) Problem-Solving
5 22 (44.00%) Windows
6 20 (40.00%) Customer Service
6 20 (40.00%) SharePoint
7 16 (32.00%) Firewall
8 15 (30.00%) Remote Monitoring and Management
9 14 (28.00%) Apple
9 14 (28.00%) Microsoft Excel
9 14 (28.00%) Microsoft Exchange
10 12 (24.00%) Progress
11 9 (18.00%) ITIL
12 8 (16.00%) Azure
12 8 (16.00%) OneDrive
12 8 (16.00%) SLA
12 8 (16.00%) Windows 10
13 7 (14.00%) Cybersecurity
14 6 (12.00%) Asset Management
14 6 (12.00%) Mathematics
14 6 (12.00%) Windows Server
15 5 (10.00%) Microsoft Intune
16 4 (8.00%) DHCP
16 4 (8.00%) DNS
16 4 (8.00%) ITSM
16 4 (8.00%) Microsoft Office
16 4 (8.00%) SCCM
17 3 (6.00%) Analytical Thinking
17 3 (6.00%) Android

1st 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 20 (40.00%) SharePoint
2 14 (28.00%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 14 (28.00%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (8.00%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 37 (74.00%) Microsoft 365
2 8 (16.00%) Azure
2 8 (16.00%) OneDrive
3 3 (6.00%) AWS
3 3 (6.00%) Power Automate
3 3 (6.00%) SaaS
4 2 (4.00%) Google Workspace
5 1 (2.00%) Entra ID
Communications & Networking
1 16 (32.00%) Firewall
2 4 (8.00%) DHCP
2 4 (8.00%) DNS
3 3 (6.00%) WAN
3 3 (6.00%) Wi-Fi
4 2 (4.00%) SD-WAN
5 1 (2.00%) LAN
5 1 (2.00%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (6.00%) SQL Server
General
1 32 (64.00%) Social Skills
2 6 (12.00%) Organisational Skills
3 4 (8.00%) Analytical Skills
4 3 (6.00%) Documentation Skills
5 2 (4.00%) Games
6 1 (2.00%) Finance
6 1 (2.00%) Public Sector
Miscellaneous
1 24 (48.00%) Driving Licence
2 3 (6.00%) Mobile App
2 3 (6.00%) Onboarding
2 3 (6.00%) Self-Motivation
3 2 (4.00%) Fat Client
3 2 (4.00%) Thin Client
4 1 (2.00%) Hybrid Cloud
4 1 (2.00%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 22 (44.00%) Windows
2 8 (16.00%) Windows 10
3 6 (12.00%) Windows Server
4 3 (6.00%) Android
5 2 (4.00%) Mac OS
5 2 (4.00%) Windows 7
5 2 (4.00%) Windows 8
6 1 (2.00%) Linux
6 1 (2.00%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 27 (54.00%) Problem-Solving
2 20 (40.00%) Customer Service
3 15 (30.00%) Remote Monitoring and Management
4 9 (18.00%) ITIL
5 7 (14.00%) Cybersecurity
6 6 (12.00%) Asset Management
6 6 (12.00%) Mathematics
7 4 (8.00%) ITSM
8 3 (6.00%) Analytical Thinking
8 3 (6.00%) Chat Support
8 3 (6.00%) CRM
8 3 (6.00%) Data Privacy
8 3 (6.00%) Exploratory Testing
8 3 (6.00%) IT Asset Management
8 3 (6.00%) Migration
8 3 (6.00%) Process Improvement
8 3 (6.00%) Software Testing
8 3 (6.00%) Time Management
9 2 (4.00%) Line Management
9 2 (4.00%) Problem Management
Qualifications
1 3 (6.00%) Degree
2 1 (2.00%) DBS Check
2 1 (2.00%) Microsoft Certification
2 1 (2.00%) SC Cleared
2 1 (2.00%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (16.00%) SLA
System Software
1 32 (64.00%) Active Directory
2 2 (4.00%) Hyper-V
2 2 (4.00%) VMware Infrastructure
2 2 (4.00%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 5 (10.00%) Microsoft Intune
2 4 (8.00%) SCCM
3 2 (4.00%) Autotask
3 2 (4.00%) Jamf Pro
4 1 (2.00%) SmoothWall
Vendors
1 47 (94.00%) Microsoft
2 14 (28.00%) Apple
3 12 (24.00%) Progress
4 3 (6.00%) ESET
4 3 (6.00%) Zoho
5 2 (4.00%) Acronis
5 2 (4.00%) Cisco
5 2 (4.00%) Datto
5 2 (4.00%) Google
5 2 (4.00%) VMware
6 1 (2.00%) ConnectWise
6 1 (2.00%) Meraki
6 1 (2.00%) ServiceNow