1st Line Support Engineer Job Trends

First Line Support Engineer
UK

The median First Line Support Engineer salary in the UK is £27,250 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 20 January 2026.

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

6 months to
20 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 582 671 656
Rank change year-on-year +89 -15 +227
Permanent jobs requiring a 1st Line Support Engineer 68 28 81
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.11% 0.053% 0.13%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.12% 0.057% 0.14%
Number of salaries quoted 58 22 74
10th Percentile £24,500 £24,750 £21,250
25th Percentile £25,750 £25,500 £22,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £27,250 £26,500 £25,000
Median % change year-on-year +2.83% +6.00% -1.96%
75th Percentile £28,938 £31,500 £27,250
90th Percentile £30,250 £38,250 £34,850
UK excluding London median annual salary £26,500 £26,500 £23,750
% change year-on-year - +11.58% -6.86%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
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 55,541 49,002 57,717
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.82% 92.63% 95.20%
Number of salaries quoted 34,360 25,280 44,689
10th Percentile £28,697 £33,500 £30,000
25th Percentile £37,500 £45,000 £40,988
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £57,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +5.26% -5.00%
75th Percentile £75,000 £78,750 £75,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £98,272 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £53,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -5.66% +6.00% -5.04%

1st Line Support Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

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

1st Line Support Engineer job vacancy trend in the UK

1st Line Support Engineer
Salary Trend

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

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

1st Line Support 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 Support Engineer within the UK over the 6 months to 20 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
England +108 62 £27,500 +3.77% 17
UK excluding London +80 54 £26,500 - 16
South West +30 19 £26,700 +6.80%
North of England +21 15 £26,500 +13.98% 9
London - 14 £28,500 - 1
Work from Home +65 10 £28,000 -3.45% 5
South East +32 9 £26,500 +0.95% 4
Yorkshire - 9 £26,500 - 3
North West +26 6 £26,250 +12.90% 5
Scotland +4 6 £25,000 -
East of England +23 5 £27,500 -4.35% 3

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

For the 6 months to 20 January 2026, 1st Line Support 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 Support Engineer in the job title.

1 61 (89.71%) Microsoft
2 48 (70.59%) Microsoft 365
3 44 (64.71%) Active Directory
4 31 (45.59%) Problem-Solving
4 31 (45.59%) SharePoint
5 28 (41.18%) Windows
6 25 (36.76%) Firewall
7 24 (35.29%) Apple
8 22 (32.35%) Remote Monitoring and Management
9 21 (30.88%) Microsoft Excel
10 20 (29.41%) Customer Service
11 19 (27.94%) Microsoft Exchange
12 18 (26.47%) Windows 10
13 16 (23.53%) ITIL
14 15 (22.06%) SLA
15 13 (19.12%) OneDrive
15 13 (19.12%) Progress
15 13 (19.12%) Windows Server
16 11 (16.18%) Microsoft Office
17 9 (13.24%) Azure
18 8 (11.76%) Mathematics
19 7 (10.29%) Acronis
19 7 (10.29%) Asset Management
19 7 (10.29%) Datto
19 7 (10.29%) ITSM
19 7 (10.29%) Line Management
19 7 (10.29%) Problem Management
20 6 (8.82%) Cybersecurity
20 6 (8.82%) SCCM
21 5 (7.35%) Analytical Thinking

1st Line Support 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 31 (45.59%) SharePoint
2 19 (27.94%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 21 (30.88%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (16.18%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 48 (70.59%) Microsoft 365
2 13 (19.12%) OneDrive
3 9 (13.24%) Azure
4 5 (7.35%) AWS
4 5 (7.35%) SaaS
5 4 (5.88%) Google Workspace
6 3 (4.41%) Power Automate
7 1 (1.47%) Entra ID
Communications & Networking
1 25 (36.76%) Firewall
2 4 (5.88%) DHCP
2 4 (5.88%) DNS
2 4 (5.88%) SD-WAN
2 4 (5.88%) WAN
3 2 (2.94%) VPN
3 2 (2.94%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (7.35%) SQL Server
General
1 48 (70.59%) Social Skills
2 11 (16.18%) Organisational Skills
3 7 (10.29%) Games
4 5 (7.35%) Analytical Skills
4 5 (7.35%) Finance
5 4 (5.88%) Documentation Skills
6 2 (2.94%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 2 (2.94%) Public Sector
7 1 (1.47%) Electronics
7 1 (1.47%) Fire and Rescue
7 1 (1.47%) Manufacturing
7 1 (1.47%) Marketing
7 1 (1.47%) Police
7 1 (1.47%) Social Housing
7 1 (1.47%) Telecoms
Miscellaneous
1 33 (48.53%) Driving Licence
2 7 (10.29%) Fat Client
2 7 (10.29%) Thin Client
3 6 (8.82%) Self-Motivation
4 5 (7.35%) Mobile App
5 4 (5.88%) Onboarding
6 2 (2.94%) Management Information System
7 1 (1.47%) Wiki
Operating Systems
1 28 (41.18%) Windows
2 18 (26.47%) Windows 10
3 13 (19.12%) Windows Server
4 5 (7.35%) Android
5 4 (5.88%) Windows 7
5 4 (5.88%) Windows 8
6 1 (1.47%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 31 (45.59%) Problem-Solving
2 22 (32.35%) Remote Monitoring and Management
3 20 (29.41%) Customer Service
4 16 (23.53%) ITIL
5 8 (11.76%) Mathematics
6 7 (10.29%) Asset Management
6 7 (10.29%) ITSM
6 7 (10.29%) Line Management
6 7 (10.29%) Problem Management
7 6 (8.82%) Cybersecurity
8 5 (7.35%) Analytical Thinking
8 5 (7.35%) CRM
8 5 (7.35%) Data Privacy
8 5 (7.35%) Exploratory Testing
8 5 (7.35%) Migration
8 5 (7.35%) Software Testing
9 4 (5.88%) IT Asset Management
9 4 (5.88%) Proactive Maintenance
9 4 (5.88%) Service Management
10 3 (4.41%) Process Improvement
Qualifications
1 5 (7.35%) Degree
2 3 (4.41%) Microsoft Certification
3 2 (2.94%) CCNA
3 2 (2.94%) Cisco Certification
3 2 (2.94%) DBS Check
3 2 (2.94%) MCSA
3 2 (2.94%) Security Cleared
4 1 (1.47%) A+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (22.06%) SLA
System Software
1 44 (64.71%) Active Directory
2 4 (5.88%) Hyper-V
2 4 (5.88%) VMware Infrastructure
2 4 (5.88%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 6 (8.82%) SCCM
2 4 (5.88%) Autotask
3 2 (2.94%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 61 (89.71%) Microsoft
2 24 (35.29%) Apple
3 13 (19.12%) Progress
4 7 (10.29%) Acronis
4 7 (10.29%) Datto
5 5 (7.35%) ESET
5 5 (7.35%) Zoho
6 4 (5.88%) Google
6 4 (5.88%) VMware
7 1 (1.47%) Becrypt
7 1 (1.47%) ConnectWise
7 1 (1.47%) SAP