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 May 2026.

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

6 months to
29 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 433 523 478
Rank change year-on-year +90 -45 +4
Permanent jobs requiring a 2nd Line Engineer 337 128 476
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.36% 0.30% 0.48%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.39% 0.33% 0.50%
Number of salaries quoted 291 125 446
10th Percentile £29,750 £29,000 £25,950
25th Percentile £30,688 £30,000 £27,125
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £35,000 £35,000 £32,500
Median % change year-on-year - +7.69% -
75th Percentile £40,000 £41,500 £35,875
90th Percentile £42,000 £43,750 £40,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £33,500 £32,500 £30,500
% change year-on-year +3.08% +6.56% -3.17%

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 87,064 38,294 94,653
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.44% 89.31% 94.72%
Number of salaries quoted 57,954 21,519 69,253
10th Percentile £30,000 £29,750 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £40,000 £38,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £57,500 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -4.35% +9.52% -12.50%
75th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £70,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £50,967 £50,000
% change year-on-year -1.90% +1.93% -6.54%

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 May 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 May 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 +91 321 £35,000 - 60
UK excluding London +86 259 £33,500 +3.08% 54
South East +21 82 £30,000 -25.00% 22
London +21 76 £36,500 -8.75% 14
Work from Home +38 59 £30,000 -7.69% 16
East of England +30 57 £35,000 +7.69% 13
North of England -33 43 £31,000 +1.64% 13
Midlands -11 35 £32,500 - 5
North West +18 33 £31,000 +3.33% 8
South West -40 28 £35,000 +4.48% 2
West Midlands -19 22 £32,500 -7.14% 3
Scotland +10 13 £40,000 +23.08% 1
Yorkshire -60 10 £31,000 -4.62% 1
East Midlands -34 9 £35,000 +16.67% 2
Wales - 1 £34,000 -

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

For the 6 months to 29 May 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.

1 195 (57.86%) Microsoft
2 188 (55.79%) Microsoft 365
3 179 (53.12%) Windows
4 131 (38.87%) Active Directory
5 117 (34.72%) Azure
6 102 (30.27%) Problem-Solving
7 98 (29.08%) Windows Server
8 82 (24.33%) Entra ID
9 79 (23.44%) Firewall
10 75 (22.26%) Customer Service
10 75 (22.26%) DNS
10 75 (22.26%) Microsoft Exchange
11 71 (21.07%) DHCP
12 67 (19.88%) Windows 10
13 61 (18.10%) SharePoint
13 61 (18.10%) Wi-Fi
14 58 (17.21%) WAN
15 57 (16.91%) VPN
16 56 (16.62%) LAN
17 49 (14.54%) Microsoft Intune
18 45 (13.35%) SLA
19 38 (11.28%) Hyper-V
20 37 (10.98%) TCP/IP
21 35 (10.39%) Mac OS
21 35 (10.39%) Service Delivery
21 35 (10.39%) Windows Server 2016
21 35 (10.39%) Windows Server 2019
22 34 (10.09%) Cybersecurity
23 33 (9.79%) ITIL
24 32 (9.50%) VoIP

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 75 (22.26%) Microsoft Exchange
2 61 (18.10%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.59%) Skype for Business
4 1 (0.30%) Confluence
4 1 (0.30%) IIS
4 1 (0.30%) WordPress
Applications
1 30 (8.90%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (1.19%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 5 (1.48%) Dynamics NAV
2 1 (0.30%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 188 (55.79%) Microsoft 365
2 117 (34.72%) Azure
3 82 (24.33%) Entra ID
4 29 (8.61%) Google Workspace
5 23 (6.82%) AWS
6 22 (6.53%) OneDrive
7 10 (2.97%) Power Platform
8 7 (2.08%) Mimecast
9 3 (0.89%) Cohesity
9 3 (0.89%) Dynamics 365
9 3 (0.89%) Microsoft Copilot
9 3 (0.89%) PaaS
9 3 (0.89%) Power Automate
9 3 (0.89%) SaaS
10 2 (0.59%) Azure Storage
11 1 (0.30%) Amazon EC2
11 1 (0.30%) Azure Monitor
11 1 (0.30%) Cloud Computing
11 1 (0.30%) GCP
11 1 (0.30%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 79 (23.44%) Firewall
2 75 (22.26%) DNS
3 71 (21.07%) DHCP
4 61 (18.10%) Wi-Fi
5 58 (17.21%) WAN
6 57 (16.91%) VPN
7 56 (16.62%) LAN
8 37 (10.98%) TCP/IP
9 32 (9.50%) VoIP
10 28 (8.31%) VLAN
11 14 (4.15%) Wireless
12 11 (3.26%) Remote Desktop
13 7 (2.08%) SD-WAN
14 6 (1.78%) IPsec
15 5 (1.48%) ADSL
15 5 (1.48%) SAN
16 4 (1.19%) Broadband
16 4 (1.19%) NetScaler
17 3 (0.89%) NAS
17 3 (0.89%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (2.08%) Power BI
2 2 (0.59%) SQL Server
3 1 (0.30%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 3 (0.89%) JIRA
2 1 (0.30%) Carbide.c++
General
1 89 (26.41%) Social Skills
2 15 (4.45%) Telecoms
3 14 (4.15%) Legal
4 10 (2.97%) Manufacturing
5 9 (2.67%) Finance
6 8 (2.37%) Retail
7 6 (1.78%) Advertising
7 6 (1.78%) Documentation Skills
7 6 (1.78%) Marketing
8 5 (1.48%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 5 (1.48%) Law
9 4 (1.19%) Billing
9 4 (1.19%) Organisational Skills
10 2 (0.59%) Analytical Skills
10 2 (0.59%) Automotive
10 2 (0.59%) Electronics
10 2 (0.59%) Military
10 2 (0.59%) Public Sector
11 1 (0.30%) Aerospace
Miscellaneous
1 25 (7.42%) Driving Licence
2 19 (5.64%) Onboarding
3 9 (2.67%) Smartphone
4 2 (0.59%) Data Centre
4 2 (0.59%) IoT
4 2 (0.59%) Self-Motivation
5 1 (0.30%) Enterprise Cloud
5 1 (0.30%) iPhone
5 1 (0.30%) Mobile App
5 1 (0.30%) NHS
5 1 (0.30%) Public Cloud
5 1 (0.30%) Replication
5 1 (0.30%) Security Posture
5 1 (0.30%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 179 (53.12%) Windows
2 98 (29.08%) Windows Server
3 67 (19.88%) Windows 10
4 35 (10.39%) Mac OS
4 35 (10.39%) Windows Server 2016
4 35 (10.39%) Windows Server 2019
5 17 (5.04%) Windows Server 2012
6 16 (4.75%) Android
7 12 (3.56%) Apple iOS
8 4 (1.19%) Windows 7
9 3 (0.89%) VMS
10 2 (0.59%) Linux
10 2 (0.59%) Windows Server 2008
11 1 (0.30%) AIX
11 1 (0.30%) Mac OS X
11 1 (0.30%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 102 (30.27%) Problem-Solving
2 75 (22.26%) Customer Service
3 35 (10.39%) Service Delivery
4 34 (10.09%) Cybersecurity
5 33 (9.79%) ITIL
6 22 (6.53%) Continuous Improvement
7 21 (6.23%) ITSM
8 18 (5.34%) Service Management
9 15 (4.45%) Remote Monitoring and Management
10 14 (4.15%) Cloud Security
10 14 (4.15%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 13 (3.86%) Mentoring
12 12 (3.56%) Incident Management
12 12 (3.56%) Incident Response
13 10 (2.97%) Business Intelligence
13 10 (2.97%) Collaborative Culture
13 10 (2.97%) Identity Management
13 10 (2.97%) Mobile Device Management
14 9 (2.67%) Configuration Management
14 9 (2.67%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 23 (6.82%) PowerShell
2 3 (0.89%) Python
2 3 (0.89%) SQL
3 2 (0.59%) VBScript
4 1 (0.30%) Java
Qualifications
1 25 (7.42%) Microsoft Certification
2 24 (7.12%) Security Cleared
3 20 (5.93%) SC Cleared
4 13 (3.86%) Degree
5 8 (2.37%) A+ Certification
5 8 (2.37%) DBS Check
6 5 (1.48%) CompTIA Security+
7 4 (1.19%) HND
8 3 (0.89%) HP APS
9 2 (0.59%) ITIL Certification
9 2 (0.59%) Network+ Certification
10 1 (0.30%) Dell Certification
10 1 (0.30%) DV Cleared
10 1 (0.30%) MCSA
10 1 (0.30%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 45 (13.35%) SLA
2 7 (2.08%) Cyber Essentials
3 6 (1.78%) Accessibility
4 4 (1.19%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 4 (1.19%) NIST
5 3 (0.89%) GDPR
5 3 (0.89%) QA
System Software
1 131 (38.87%) Active Directory
2 38 (11.28%) Hyper-V
3 21 (6.23%) VMware Infrastructure
4 14 (4.15%) Virtual Desktop
5 11 (3.26%) BitLocker
6 3 (0.89%) Terminal Services
7 1 (0.30%) Terminal Server
7 1 (0.30%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.30%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 49 (14.54%) Microsoft Intune
2 16 (4.75%) Active Directory Federation Services
3 12 (3.56%) SCCM
4 9 (2.67%) Autotask
5 5 (1.48%) FortiGate
6 4 (1.19%) Jamf Pro
6 4 (1.19%) WSUS
7 2 (0.59%) Nagios
8 1 (0.30%) Netcool
Vendors
1 195 (57.86%) Microsoft
2 28 (8.31%) Google
3 26 (7.72%) VMware
4 12 (3.56%) HP
5 10 (2.97%) Cisco
6 8 (2.37%) Meraki
6 8 (2.37%) Sophos
7 7 (2.08%) Apple
7 7 (2.08%) Fortinet
7 7 (2.08%) Samsung
7 7 (2.08%) ServiceNow
7 7 (2.08%) SolarWinds
8 5 (1.48%) Veeam
9 4 (1.19%) Aruba
9 4 (1.19%) CheckPoint
9 4 (1.19%) F5
9 4 (1.19%) Palo Alto
9 4 (1.19%) Sage
10 3 (0.89%) NetApp
10 3 (0.89%) SonicWALL