2nd Line Engineer Job Trends

Second Line Engineer
UK

The median Second Line Engineer salary in the UK is £33,250 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 20 October 2025.

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

6 months to
20 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 526 454 387
Rank change year-on-year -72 -67 +265
Permanent jobs requiring a 2nd Line Engineer 135 312 414
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.28% 0.45% 0.74%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.31% 0.47% 0.77%
Number of salaries quoted 128 240 389
10th Percentile £29,500 £27,500 £26,250
25th Percentile £30,750 £29,188 £28,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £33,250 £34,000 £32,500
Median % change year-on-year -2.21% +4.62% -
75th Percentile £38,500 £40,000 £37,500
90th Percentile £42,500 £45,000 £40,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £33,000 £32,500 £31,000
% change year-on-year +1.54% +4.84% -

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 43,834 65,924 53,780
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 89.78% 95.35% 95.62%
Number of salaries quoted 25,839 37,667 41,567
10th Percentile £28,000 £31,250 £32,000
25th Percentile £35,000 £41,254 £43,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £56,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -6.25% -6.67% -
75th Percentile £73,750 £75,000 £80,000
90th Percentile £93,750 £95,000 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £45,000 £50,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -10.00% -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 20 October 2025.

Salary histogram for 2nd Line Engineer in the UK

2nd Line Engineer
Top 13 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 20 October 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 -56 135 £33,250 -2.21% 97
UK excluding London -39 112 £33,000 +1.54% 88
South East +1 39 £33,500 +4.69% 31
South West +40 29 £33,000 -1.49% 9
London +15 23 £39,000 -2.50% 21
Work from Home +34 22 £32,750 -0.76% 30
Midlands +3 20 £33,500 +11.67% 15
North of England -11 18 £32,500 - 20
West Midlands +36 14 £34,000 +13.33% 6
North West +9 13 £32,500 - 10
East of England -5 7 £33,500 +2.29% 12
East Midlands +6 6 £33,500 -1.47% 9
Yorkshire +1 5 £32,500 - 9

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

For the 6 months to 20 October 2025, 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 94 (69.63%) Windows
2 79 (58.52%) Microsoft 365
3 67 (49.63%) Microsoft
4 59 (43.70%) Active Directory
5 46 (34.07%) Firewall
6 45 (33.33%) Azure
7 41 (30.37%) DNS
8 38 (28.15%) Customer Service
8 38 (28.15%) Microsoft Intune
9 33 (24.44%) VPN
9 33 (24.44%) Windows Server
10 31 (22.96%) DHCP
11 29 (21.48%) VMware
12 28 (20.74%) Linux
12 28 (20.74%) WAN
13 27 (20.00%) Entra ID
14 25 (18.52%) Microsoft Exchange
14 25 (18.52%) Windows 10
15 24 (17.78%) Hyper-V
15 24 (17.78%) ITIL
15 24 (17.78%) Problem-Solving
15 24 (17.78%) SC Cleared
15 24 (17.78%) Security Cleared
16 23 (17.04%) Apple
17 22 (16.30%) Cisco
17 22 (16.30%) Sophos
17 22 (16.30%) VLAN
17 22 (16.30%) VMware Infrastructure
18 20 (14.81%) LAN
18 20 (14.81%) SharePoint

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 25 (18.52%) Microsoft Exchange
2 20 (14.81%) SharePoint
3 5 (3.70%) IIS
Applications
1 8 (5.93%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (2.22%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.74%) Adobe Creative Suite
Business Applications
1 1 (0.74%) Carpe Diem
1 1 (0.74%) Elite 3E
Cloud Services
1 79 (58.52%) Microsoft 365
2 45 (33.33%) Azure
3 27 (20.00%) Entra ID
4 6 (4.44%) AWS
5 5 (3.70%) Google Workspace
6 4 (2.96%) Azure AKS
6 4 (2.96%) Azure DevOps
6 4 (2.96%) GitHub
6 4 (2.96%) OneDrive
7 1 (0.74%) Mimecast
7 1 (0.74%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 46 (34.07%) Firewall
2 41 (30.37%) DNS
3 33 (24.44%) VPN
4 31 (22.96%) DHCP
5 28 (20.74%) WAN
6 22 (16.30%) VLAN
7 20 (14.81%) LAN
7 20 (14.81%) TCP/IP
8 15 (11.11%) VoIP
9 10 (7.41%) Wi-Fi
10 9 (6.67%) SD-WAN
11 7 (5.19%) Wireless
12 6 (4.44%) IPsec
13 5 (3.70%) Cisco IOS
14 3 (2.22%) DKIM
14 3 (2.22%) DMARC
14 3 (2.22%) Internet
14 3 (2.22%) PBX
14 3 (2.22%) Remote Desktop
15 2 (1.48%) PSTN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (5.93%) SQL Server
2 5 (3.70%) Amazon RDS
3 4 (2.96%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 4 (2.96%) Git
1 4 (2.96%) Jenkins
2 1 (0.74%) JIRA
General
1 56 (41.48%) Social Skills
2 19 (14.07%) Marketing
3 16 (11.85%) Law
4 12 (8.89%) Manufacturing
5 8 (5.93%) Advertising
6 7 (5.19%) Finance
6 7 (5.19%) Telecoms
7 5 (3.70%) Electronics
7 5 (3.70%) Games
7 5 (3.70%) Public Sector
8 2 (1.48%) Dutch Language
8 2 (1.48%) French Language
8 2 (1.48%) Legal
8 2 (1.48%) Spanish Language
9 1 (0.74%) Analytical Skills
9 1 (0.74%) Automotive
9 1 (0.74%) German Language
9 1 (0.74%) Organisational Skills
9 1 (0.74%) Presentation Skills
9 1 (0.74%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (2.96%) ARM Templates
Miscellaneous
1 27 (20.00%) Driving Licence
2 5 (3.70%) Clustering
2 5 (3.70%) iPhone
2 5 (3.70%) Onboarding
3 3 (2.22%) Smartphone
3 3 (2.22%) Social Media
4 2 (1.48%) Digital Signage
4 2 (1.48%) Enterprise Cloud
4 2 (1.48%) Self-Motivation
4 2 (1.48%) Video Conferencing
5 1 (0.74%) Client/Server
5 1 (0.74%) Mobile App
5 1 (0.74%) PropTech
5 1 (0.74%) Team-Oriented Environment
Operating Systems
1 94 (69.63%) Windows
2 33 (24.44%) Windows Server
3 28 (20.74%) Linux
4 25 (18.52%) Windows 10
5 15 (11.11%) Android
5 15 (11.11%) Apple iOS
6 12 (8.89%) Mac OS
7 5 (3.70%) Windows Server 2019
8 2 (1.48%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 2 (1.48%) Windows Server 2016
9 1 (0.74%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 38 (28.15%) Customer Service
2 24 (17.78%) ITIL
2 24 (17.78%) Problem-Solving
3 19 (14.07%) Mobile Device Management
4 17 (12.59%) Cybersecurity
4 17 (12.59%) Mentoring
4 17 (12.59%) Service Management
5 14 (10.37%) Configuration Management
5 14 (10.37%) DevOps
6 13 (9.63%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 12 (8.89%) ITSM
8 9 (6.67%) Containerisation
8 9 (6.67%) Infrastructure as Code
9 8 (5.93%) Collaborative Culture
9 8 (5.93%) Security Monitoring
9 8 (5.93%) Task Automation
10 7 (5.19%) Data Privacy
11 6 (4.44%) Customer Engagement
11 6 (4.44%) Disaster Recovery
11 6 (4.44%) Migration
Programming Languages
1 19 (14.07%) PowerShell
2 5 (3.70%) Bicep
3 3 (2.22%) SQL
4 2 (1.48%) Java
Qualifications
1 24 (17.78%) SC Cleared
1 24 (17.78%) Security Cleared
2 11 (8.15%) BPSS Clearance
2 11 (8.15%) Degree
3 7 (5.19%) Microsoft Certification
4 5 (3.70%) A+ Certification
4 5 (3.70%) ACMT
4 5 (3.70%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
5 4 (2.96%) Computer Science Degree
5 4 (2.96%) DBS Check
6 2 (1.48%) AWS Certification
6 2 (1.48%) Azure Certification
6 2 (1.48%) Dell Certification
6 2 (1.48%) ITIL Certification
6 2 (1.48%) MCP
6 2 (1.48%) MCSA
7 1 (0.74%) MCITP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 19 (14.07%) SLA
2 5 (3.70%) Cyber Essentials
3 2 (1.48%) GDPR
3 2 (1.48%) ISO 9000
4 1 (0.74%) Accessibility
System Software
1 59 (43.70%) Active Directory
2 24 (17.78%) Hyper-V
3 22 (16.30%) VMware Infrastructure
4 9 (6.67%) Docker
5 7 (5.19%) VMware ESXi
6 3 (2.22%) Firmware
7 1 (0.74%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 38 (28.15%) Microsoft Intune
2 19 (14.07%) Jamf Pro
3 18 (13.33%) SCCM
4 9 (6.67%) Kubernetes
5 6 (4.44%) Autotask
6 5 (3.70%) MaaS360
6 5 (3.70%) vCenter Server
7 4 (2.96%) FortiGate
7 4 (2.96%) Terraform
8 3 (2.22%) SmoothWall
9 2 (1.48%) WSUS
10 1 (0.74%) SCOM
10 1 (0.74%) SCSM
10 1 (0.74%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 67 (49.63%) Microsoft
2 29 (21.48%) VMware
3 23 (17.04%) Apple
4 22 (16.30%) Cisco
4 22 (16.30%) Sophos
5 15 (11.11%) Samsung
6 12 (8.89%) ConnectWise
7 9 (6.67%) Veeam
8 6 (4.44%) Datto
9 5 (3.70%) Fujitsu
9 5 (3.70%) Juniper
9 5 (3.70%) McAfee
9 5 (3.70%) Oracle
9 5 (3.70%) SAP
10 4 (2.96%) Meraki
10 4 (2.96%) ServiceNow
11 3 (2.22%) Adobe
11 3 (2.22%) Fortinet
11 3 (2.22%) Google
11 3 (2.22%) HP