2nd Line Engineer Job Trends

Second Line Engineer
UK

The median Second Line Engineer salary in the UK is £35,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 29 September 2026.

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

6 months to
29 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 503 542 458
Rank change year-on-year +39 -84 -68
Permanent jobs requiring a 2nd Line Engineer 321 118 333
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.27% 0.24% 0.44%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.29% 0.27% 0.47%
Number of salaries quoted 255 112 260
10th Percentile £29,300 £29,500 £26,750
25th Percentile £31,125 £30,750 £29,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £35,000 £33,250 £33,750
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -1.48% +3.85%
75th Percentile £38,750 £38,500 £38,750
90th Percentile £41,750 £45,000 £43,875
UK excluding London median annual salary £35,000 £33,000 £32,500
% change year-on-year +6.06% +1.54% +4.84%

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 109,377 44,042 71,502
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.96% 89.72% 95.29%
Number of salaries quoted 74,715 25,470 41,572
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,250 £30,750
25th Percentile £41,000 £36,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £59,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.27% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £77,500 £73,750 £75,000
90th Percentile £98,750 £95,000 £93,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £47,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year +15.79% -5.00% -4.76%

2nd Line Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

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.

2nd Line Engineer job vacancy trend in the UK

2nd Line Engineer
Salary Trend

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

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

2nd Line Engineer
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing 2nd Line Engineer over the 6 months to 29 September 2026.

Salary histogram for 2nd Line Engineer in the UK

2nd Line Engineer
Top 15 Job Locations

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 UK over the 6 months to 29 September 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 +11 284 £35,000 +5.26% 67
UK excluding London +18 261 £35,000 +6.06% 49
Work from Home +3 63 £33,500 +3.08% 27
East of England +28 62 £35,000 +4.48% 17
South East -23 58 £33,500 - 15
North of England -29 57 £34,000 +4.62% 5
London -32 57 £36,000 -7.69% 19
North West +10 47 £34,500 +6.15% 5
Midlands -39 36 £32,500 -1.52% 8
Scotland - 29 £30,000 - 2
West Midlands -32 27 £31,250 -8.09% 8
South West -89 14 £35,000 +6.06% 4
Yorkshire -25 10 £31,000 -12.68%
East Midlands -41 9 £35,000 +7.69%
Wales - 5 £35,000 - 1

2nd Line Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 29 September 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 featuring 2nd Line Engineer in the job title.

1 211 (65.73%) Microsoft
2 199 (61.99%) Microsoft 365
3 174 (54.21%) Windows
4 135 (42.06%) Active Directory
5 111 (34.58%) Entra ID
6 98 (30.53%) Customer Service
7 90 (28.04%) Windows Server
8 89 (27.73%) Problem-Solving
9 83 (25.86%) Firewall
10 80 (24.92%) Azure
11 66 (20.56%) DNS
12 65 (20.25%) Microsoft Exchange
12 65 (20.25%) SharePoint
13 58 (18.07%) VPN
14 56 (17.45%) DHCP
15 53 (16.51%) Microsoft Intune
16 52 (16.20%) Windows 10
17 46 (14.33%) WAN
18 45 (14.02%) TCP/IP
19 44 (13.71%) LAN
20 42 (13.08%) VMware
21 40 (12.46%) Hyper-V
22 36 (11.21%) Mac OS
23 34 (10.59%) VMware Infrastructure
24 33 (10.28%) Wi-Fi
25 30 (9.35%) Cybersecurity
25 30 (9.35%) SLA
26 29 (9.03%) Continuous Improvement
26 29 (9.03%) Service Delivery
27 28 (8.72%) Meraki

2nd 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 65 (20.25%) Microsoft Exchange
1 65 (20.25%) SharePoint
2 2 (0.62%) Skype for Business
3 1 (0.31%) WordPress
Applications
1 19 (5.92%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (1.87%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.31%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 4 (1.25%) NetSuite
1 4 (1.25%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 199 (61.99%) Microsoft 365
2 111 (34.58%) Entra ID
3 80 (24.92%) Azure
4 17 (5.30%) Google Workspace
5 15 (4.67%) OneDrive
6 14 (4.36%) Power Platform
7 12 (3.74%) AWS
8 7 (2.18%) Cohesity
9 5 (1.56%) Microsoft Copilot
10 4 (1.25%) SaaS
11 3 (0.93%) Dynamics 365
11 3 (0.93%) GCP
11 3 (0.93%) PowerApps
12 2 (0.62%) Amazon EC2
12 2 (0.62%) PaaS
12 2 (0.62%) Power Automate
12 2 (0.62%) Rubrik
12 2 (0.62%) Virtual Private Cloud
13 1 (0.31%) Azure Storage
13 1 (0.31%) Cloud Computing
Communications & Networking
1 83 (25.86%) Firewall
2 66 (20.56%) DNS
3 58 (18.07%) VPN
4 56 (17.45%) DHCP
5 46 (14.33%) WAN
6 45 (14.02%) TCP/IP
7 44 (13.71%) LAN
8 33 (10.28%) Wi-Fi
9 27 (8.41%) VoIP
10 21 (6.54%) VLAN
11 12 (3.74%) MPLS
11 12 (3.74%) Wireless
12 10 (3.12%) SAN
13 6 (1.87%) Structured Cabling
14 5 (1.56%) IPsec
14 5 (1.56%) SSL
15 4 (1.25%) Internet
16 3 (0.93%) BGP
16 3 (0.93%) NAS
16 3 (0.93%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (2.49%) Power BI
2 4 (1.25%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 1 (0.31%) Carbide.c++
1 1 (0.31%) JIRA
General
1 135 (42.06%) Social Skills
2 21 (6.54%) Legal
2 21 (6.54%) Telecoms
3 19 (5.92%) Organisational Skills
4 11 (3.43%) Documentation Skills
5 8 (2.49%) Advertising
6 7 (2.18%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 6 (1.87%) Billing
7 6 (1.87%) Finance
8 5 (1.56%) Analytical Skills
8 5 (1.56%) Retail
9 4 (1.25%) Public Sector
10 3 (0.93%) Manufacturing
11 2 (0.62%) Military
12 1 (0.31%) Aerospace
Miscellaneous
1 55 (17.13%) Driving Licence
2 34 (10.59%) Onboarding
3 8 (2.49%) Data Centre
4 5 (1.56%) iPhone
4 5 (1.56%) Smartphone
5 4 (1.25%) Replication
6 3 (0.93%) Hybrid Cloud
6 3 (0.93%) IoT
6 3 (0.93%) iPad
7 2 (0.62%) Enterprise Cloud
7 2 (0.62%) Self-Motivation
8 1 (0.31%) Educational Technology
8 1 (0.31%) Enterprise Storage
8 1 (0.31%) Hedge funds
8 1 (0.31%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 174 (54.21%) Windows
2 90 (28.04%) Windows Server
3 52 (16.20%) Windows 10
4 36 (11.21%) Mac OS
5 12 (3.74%) Windows Server 2019
6 11 (3.43%) Windows Server 2016
7 10 (3.12%) Android
8 3 (0.93%) Apple iOS
9 2 (0.62%) AIX
9 2 (0.62%) Linux
9 2 (0.62%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 2 (0.62%) VMS
9 2 (0.62%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 98 (30.53%) Customer Service
2 89 (27.73%) Problem-Solving
3 30 (9.35%) Cybersecurity
4 29 (9.03%) Continuous Improvement
4 29 (9.03%) Service Delivery
5 28 (8.72%) Remote Monitoring and Management
6 26 (8.10%) ITIL
7 25 (7.79%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 18 (5.61%) Collaborative Culture
8 18 (5.61%) Stakeholder Management
9 17 (5.30%) Client Onboarding
9 17 (5.30%) User Experience
10 16 (4.98%) Disaster Recovery
10 16 (4.98%) ITSM
10 16 (4.98%) Project Delivery
11 14 (4.36%) Cloud Security
12 13 (4.05%) Root Cause Analysis
13 12 (3.74%) Incident Management
13 12 (3.74%) Mentoring
13 12 (3.74%) Technology Transformation
Programming Languages
1 22 (6.85%) PowerShell
2 5 (1.56%) SQL
3 4 (1.25%) VBScript
4 2 (0.62%) Java
4 2 (0.62%) Python
Qualifications
1 19 (5.92%) Security Cleared
2 14 (4.36%) Degree
2 14 (4.36%) Microsoft Certification
3 12 (3.74%) SC Cleared
4 9 (2.80%) DBS Check
5 6 (1.87%) HND
6 4 (1.25%) A+ Certification
7 3 (0.93%) CCNA
7 3 (0.93%) Cisco Certification
8 2 (0.62%) CCNP
8 2 (0.62%) Dell Certification
8 2 (0.62%) HP APS
8 2 (0.62%) MCSA
9 1 (0.31%) Azure Certification
9 1 (0.31%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
9 1 (0.31%) JNCIS
9 1 (0.31%) Microsoft Certified Professional
9 1 (0.31%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (9.35%) SLA
2 12 (3.74%) GDPR
3 8 (2.49%) Cyber Essentials
4 4 (1.25%) Accessibility
5 2 (0.62%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 135 (42.06%) Active Directory
2 40 (12.46%) Hyper-V
3 34 (10.59%) VMware Infrastructure
4 8 (2.49%) BitLocker
5 6 (1.87%) Virtual Desktop
6 2 (0.62%) Terminal Services
6 2 (0.62%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.31%) Firmware
7 1 (0.31%) Terminal Server
7 1 (0.31%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 53 (16.51%) Microsoft Intune
2 8 (2.49%) Autotask
2 8 (2.49%) Jamf Pro
2 8 (2.49%) WSUS
3 7 (2.18%) SCCM
4 6 (1.87%) FortiGate
5 4 (1.25%) SmoothWall
5 4 (1.25%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
6 2 (0.62%) Netcool
6 2 (0.62%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 211 (65.73%) Microsoft
2 42 (13.08%) VMware
3 28 (8.72%) Meraki
4 25 (7.79%) Cisco
5 23 (7.17%) Fortinet
6 21 (6.54%) Google
7 13 (4.05%) HP
8 12 (3.74%) ServiceNow
9 11 (3.43%) Apple
10 10 (3.12%) Veeam
11 9 (2.80%) NetApp
12 8 (2.49%) SonicWALL
13 6 (1.87%) Draytek
13 6 (1.87%) Juniper
14 5 (1.56%) Citrix
14 5 (1.56%) Dell
15 4 (1.25%) Datto
15 4 (1.25%) Palo Alto
15 4 (1.25%) SolarWinds
15 4 (1.25%) TOWER Software