2nd Line Engineer Job Trends

Second Line Engineer
UK

The median Second Line Engineer salary in the UK is £33,500 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 22 November 2025.

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

6 months to
22 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 465 483 359
Rank change year-on-year +18 -124 +236
Permanent jobs requiring a 2nd Line Engineer 173 289 409
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.32% 0.42% 0.78%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.36% 0.45% 0.82%
Number of salaries quoted 162 217 383
10th Percentile £29,000 £27,650 £26,250
25th Percentile £30,750 £29,750 £28,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £33,500 £34,000 £32,500
Median % change year-on-year -1.47% +4.62% -
75th Percentile £38,750 £40,000 £38,000
90th Percentile £43,625 £43,750 £42,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £33,000 £32,500 £31,000
% change year-on-year +1.54% +4.84% -1.59%

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 48,061 64,786 49,849
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.17% 94.56% 95.40%
Number of salaries quoted 30,303 36,624 38,666
10th Percentile £28,250 £31,250 £31,250
25th Percentile £35,500 £42,500 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £53,500 £57,500 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -6.96% -4.17% -
75th Percentile £73,750 £75,250 £80,000
90th Percentile £92,500 £95,000 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £47,500 £51,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -6.86% -2.86% -

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 22 November 2025.

Salary histogram for 2nd Line Engineer in the UK

2nd Line Engineer
Top 14 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 22 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 +12 172 £33,500 -1.47% 112
UK excluding London +14 139 £33,000 +1.54% 99
South East +12 43 £33,500 +4.69% 37
Work from Home +94 36 £33,000 - 29
South West +41 36 £33,000 - 13
London +21 34 £40,000 +6.67% 19
Midlands +53 28 £33,500 +6.35% 20
North of England +19 17 £30,000 -7.69% 18
West Midlands +50 15 £37,500 +25.00% 9
East of England +17 15 £33,000 +1.54% 9
North West +37 13 £30,000 -7.69% 9
East Midlands +21 12 £33,500 -1.47% 11
Yorkshire -3 4 £32,500 +4.00% 6
Scotland +11 1 £40,000 +50.94% 3

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

For the 6 months to 22 November 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.

1 121 (69.94%) Windows
2 114 (65.90%) Microsoft 365
3 96 (55.49%) Microsoft
4 83 (47.98%) Active Directory
5 67 (38.73%) Azure
6 65 (37.57%) Firewall
7 59 (34.10%) Windows Server
8 54 (31.21%) DNS
9 47 (27.17%) Problem-Solving
9 47 (27.17%) VPN
10 46 (26.59%) DHCP
10 46 (26.59%) Microsoft Intune
11 45 (26.01%) Customer Service
12 40 (23.12%) TCP/IP
13 38 (21.97%) Microsoft Exchange
13 38 (21.97%) Windows 10
14 37 (21.39%) Entra ID
14 37 (21.39%) VMware
15 36 (20.81%) Hyper-V
16 32 (18.50%) SharePoint
16 32 (18.50%) VLAN
17 28 (16.18%) VMware Infrastructure
18 25 (14.45%) Apple
18 25 (14.45%) Sophos
19 24 (13.87%) LAN
20 23 (13.29%) ITIL
20 23 (13.29%) Linux
20 23 (13.29%) SLA
20 23 (13.29%) WAN
21 22 (12.72%) Mentoring

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 38 (21.97%) Microsoft Exchange
2 32 (18.50%) SharePoint
3 5 (2.89%) IIS
Applications
1 8 (4.62%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (2.31%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.58%) Adobe Creative Suite
Business Applications
1 3 (1.73%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.58%) Carpe Diem
2 1 (0.58%) Elite 3E
Cloud Services
1 114 (65.90%) Microsoft 365
2 67 (38.73%) Azure
3 37 (21.39%) Entra ID
4 14 (8.09%) Google Workspace
5 10 (5.78%) OneDrive
6 8 (4.62%) AWS
7 4 (2.31%) Azure AKS
7 4 (2.31%) Azure DevOps
7 4 (2.31%) GitHub
7 4 (2.31%) SaaS
8 1 (0.58%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 65 (37.57%) Firewall
2 54 (31.21%) DNS
3 47 (27.17%) VPN
4 46 (26.59%) DHCP
5 40 (23.12%) TCP/IP
6 32 (18.50%) VLAN
7 24 (13.87%) LAN
8 23 (13.29%) WAN
9 21 (12.14%) Wi-Fi
10 12 (6.94%) VoIP
11 11 (6.36%) Wireless
12 10 (5.78%) IPsec
13 6 (3.47%) Cisco IOS
14 5 (2.89%) Internet
15 3 (1.73%) DKIM
15 3 (1.73%) DMARC
15 3 (1.73%) PBX
15 3 (1.73%) Remote Desktop
16 2 (1.16%) PSTN
16 2 (1.16%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (6.36%) SQL Server
2 9 (5.20%) Amazon RDS
3 4 (2.31%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 4 (2.31%) Git
1 4 (2.31%) Jenkins
1 4 (2.31%) JIRA
General
1 69 (39.88%) Social Skills
2 21 (12.14%) Marketing
3 20 (11.56%) Law
4 14 (8.09%) Manufacturing
5 9 (5.20%) Finance
6 8 (4.62%) Telecoms
7 6 (3.47%) Electronics
7 6 (3.47%) Public Sector
8 5 (2.89%) Advertising
8 5 (2.89%) Games
9 4 (2.31%) Dutch Language
9 4 (2.31%) French Language
9 4 (2.31%) Spanish Language
10 2 (1.16%) Front Office
10 2 (1.16%) Legal
11 1 (0.58%) Analytical Skills
11 1 (0.58%) Automotive
11 1 (0.58%) Banking
11 1 (0.58%) Financial Institution
11 1 (0.58%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (2.31%) ARM Templates
Miscellaneous
1 38 (21.97%) Driving Licence
2 8 (4.62%) Onboarding
3 7 (4.05%) iPhone
4 5 (2.89%) Clustering
5 3 (1.73%) Video Conferencing
6 2 (1.16%) Digital Signage
6 2 (1.16%) Enterprise Cloud
6 2 (1.16%) iPad
6 2 (1.16%) Mobile App
6 2 (1.16%) Self-Motivation
6 2 (1.16%) Smartphone
7 1 (0.58%) Client/Server
7 1 (0.58%) Hedge funds
7 1 (0.58%) IoT
7 1 (0.58%) PKI
7 1 (0.58%) Social Media
7 1 (0.58%) Team-Oriented Environment
Operating Systems
1 121 (69.94%) Windows
2 59 (34.10%) Windows Server
3 38 (21.97%) Windows 10
4 23 (13.29%) Linux
5 19 (10.98%) Apple iOS
5 19 (10.98%) Mac OS
6 17 (9.83%) Android
7 10 (5.78%) Windows Server 2019
8 7 (4.05%) Windows Server 2016
9 3 (1.73%) Windows Server 2012
10 2 (1.16%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 47 (27.17%) Problem-Solving
2 45 (26.01%) Customer Service
3 23 (13.29%) ITIL
4 22 (12.72%) Mentoring
5 19 (10.98%) Service Management
6 18 (10.40%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 18 (10.40%) ITSM
6 18 (10.40%) Mobile Device Management
7 17 (9.83%) DevOps
8 15 (8.67%) Configuration Management
9 13 (7.51%) Cybersecurity
9 13 (7.51%) Service Delivery
10 11 (6.36%) Continuous Improvement
11 9 (5.20%) Containerisation
11 9 (5.20%) Infrastructure as Code
11 9 (5.20%) Migration
11 9 (5.20%) Task Automation
12 8 (4.62%) CI/CD
12 8 (4.62%) Remote Monitoring and Management
13 7 (4.05%) Collaborative Culture
Programming Languages
1 17 (9.83%) PowerShell
2 6 (3.47%) SQL
3 5 (2.89%) Bicep
4 2 (1.16%) Java
Qualifications
1 20 (11.56%) Security Cleared
2 19 (10.98%) SC Cleared
3 15 (8.67%) BPSS Clearance
4 11 (6.36%) Microsoft Certification
5 9 (5.20%) Degree
6 7 (4.05%) A+ Certification
7 5 (2.89%) ACMT
7 5 (2.89%) Computer Science Degree
7 5 (2.89%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 4 (2.31%) MCP
9 2 (1.16%) AWS Certification
9 2 (1.16%) Azure Certification
9 2 (1.16%) DBS Check
9 2 (1.16%) Dell Certification
9 2 (1.16%) MCSA
10 1 (0.58%) CCNA
10 1 (0.58%) CCNP
10 1 (0.58%) Cisco Certification
10 1 (0.58%) MCITP
10 1 (0.58%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 23 (13.29%) SLA
2 5 (2.89%) Cyber Essentials
3 3 (1.73%) GDPR
4 1 (0.58%) Accessibility
System Software
1 83 (47.98%) Active Directory
2 36 (20.81%) Hyper-V
3 28 (16.18%) VMware Infrastructure
4 9 (5.20%) Docker
5 7 (4.05%) VMware ESXi
6 4 (2.31%) Firmware
7 3 (1.73%) Virtual Desktop
8 1 (0.58%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 46 (26.59%) Microsoft Intune
2 20 (11.56%) Jamf Pro
3 17 (9.83%) SCCM
4 9 (5.20%) Autotask
4 9 (5.20%) Kubernetes
5 6 (3.47%) vCenter Server
6 5 (2.89%) FortiGate
6 5 (2.89%) MaaS360
7 4 (2.31%) Terraform
8 3 (1.73%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 2 (1.16%) WSUS
10 1 (0.58%) Single Sign-On
10 1 (0.58%) SmoothWall
Vendors
1 96 (55.49%) Microsoft
2 37 (21.39%) VMware
3 25 (14.45%) Apple
3 25 (14.45%) Sophos
4 16 (9.25%) Samsung
5 15 (8.67%) ConnectWise
6 12 (6.94%) Cisco
7 10 (5.78%) Google
7 10 (5.78%) Veeam
8 7 (4.05%) ServiceNow
9 6 (3.47%) SAP
10 5 (2.89%) Datto
10 5 (2.89%) Juniper
10 5 (2.89%) McAfee
10 5 (2.89%) Oracle
11 4 (2.31%) Adobe
12 3 (1.73%) Fortinet
12 3 (1.73%) Freshdesk
12 3 (1.73%) Fujitsu
13 2 (1.16%) Intapp