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 22 April 2026.

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

6 months to
22 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 423 515 451
Rank change year-on-year +92 -64 +58
Permanent jobs requiring a 2nd Line Engineer 320 132 493
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.36% 0.31% 0.52%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.39% 0.35% 0.55%
Number of salaries quoted 287 128 468
10th Percentile £29,000 £28,925 £25,950
25th Percentile £30,750 £30,000 £27,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £35,000 £35,000 £32,000
Median % change year-on-year - +9.38% -1.54%
75th Percentile £40,000 £41,500 £36,000
90th Percentile £42,700 £43,750 £40,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £33,500 £32,500 £30,000
% change year-on-year +3.08% +8.33% -6.25%

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 81,450 37,439 89,409
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.76% 89.27% 94.57%
Number of salaries quoted 52,076 23,545 66,095
10th Percentile £30,000 £30,750 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £42,500 £38,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £53,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +13.21% -11.67%
75th Percentile £75,000 £78,750 £71,250
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -4.76% +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 22 April 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 22 April 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 +81 309 £35,000 - 67
UK excluding London +70 250 £33,500 +3.08% 67
South East +7 85 £32,500 -18.75% 21
London +29 69 £40,000 +2.56% 10
Work from Home +31 61 £32,250 -0.77% 24
East of England +10 47 £35,000 +7.69% 14
Midlands -18 43 £35,000 +13.82% 8
South West -30 36 £34,000 +1.49% 10
North of England -44 29 £30,000 - 12
West Midlands -2 25 £35,000 -7.89% 7
North West -9 23 £30,000 - 9
East Midlands -46 13 £35,000 +14.75% 1
Scotland -8 9 £40,000 +23.08% 6
Yorkshire -67 6 £33,500 +3.08% 1
Wales - 1 £34,000 -

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

For the 6 months to 22 April 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 (60.94%) Microsoft 365
2 192 (60.00%) Microsoft
3 183 (57.19%) Windows
4 136 (42.50%) Active Directory
5 120 (37.50%) Azure
6 113 (35.31%) Windows Server
7 112 (35.00%) Problem-Solving
8 86 (26.88%) DNS
9 84 (26.25%) Firewall
10 80 (25.00%) DHCP
11 72 (22.50%) Entra ID
12 70 (21.88%) Windows 10
13 69 (21.56%) Customer Service
14 68 (21.25%) Microsoft Exchange
14 68 (21.25%) Wi-Fi
15 67 (20.94%) VPN
16 57 (17.81%) LAN
17 55 (17.19%) WAN
18 50 (15.63%) SharePoint
19 49 (15.31%) TCP/IP
20 46 (14.38%) Hyper-V
20 46 (14.38%) Microsoft Intune
21 43 (13.44%) SLA
22 38 (11.88%) Windows Server 2016
22 38 (11.88%) Windows Server 2019
23 37 (11.56%) Google Workspace
23 37 (11.56%) VLAN
24 35 (10.94%) ITIL
25 34 (10.63%) Google
25 34 (10.63%) 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 68 (21.25%) Microsoft Exchange
2 50 (15.63%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.31%) Confluence
3 1 (0.31%) IIS
3 1 (0.31%) WordPress
Applications
1 25 (7.81%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (0.63%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 5 (1.56%) Dynamics CRM
1 5 (1.56%) Dynamics NAV
Cloud Services
1 195 (60.94%) Microsoft 365
2 120 (37.50%) Azure
3 72 (22.50%) Entra ID
4 37 (11.56%) Google Workspace
5 24 (7.50%) AWS
6 19 (5.94%) OneDrive
7 7 (2.19%) Mimecast
8 6 (1.88%) SaaS
9 3 (0.94%) Cohesity
9 3 (0.94%) Microsoft Copilot
9 3 (0.94%) PaaS
9 3 (0.94%) Power Automate
9 3 (0.94%) Power Platform
10 1 (0.31%) Azure Monitor
10 1 (0.31%) Azure Storage
10 1 (0.31%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 86 (26.88%) DNS
2 84 (26.25%) Firewall
3 80 (25.00%) DHCP
4 68 (21.25%) Wi-Fi
5 67 (20.94%) VPN
6 57 (17.81%) LAN
7 55 (17.19%) WAN
8 49 (15.31%) TCP/IP
9 37 (11.56%) VLAN
10 34 (10.63%) VoIP
11 18 (5.63%) Wireless
12 10 (3.13%) IPsec
12 10 (3.13%) Remote Desktop
13 6 (1.88%) SD-WAN
14 5 (1.56%) ADSL
15 4 (1.25%) Broadband
15 4 (1.25%) NetScaler
15 4 (1.25%) SAN
16 3 (0.94%) NAS
16 3 (0.94%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (1.25%) SQL Server
2 3 (0.94%) Amazon RDS
2 3 (0.94%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 7 (2.19%) JIRA
General
1 89 (27.81%) Social Skills
2 11 (3.44%) Law
2 11 (3.44%) Telecoms
3 10 (3.13%) Finance
3 10 (3.13%) Manufacturing
4 9 (2.81%) Marketing
4 9 (2.81%) Retail
5 7 (2.19%) Legal
6 5 (1.56%) Advertising
6 5 (1.56%) Documentation Skills
7 4 (1.25%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 4 (1.25%) Organisational Skills
8 3 (0.94%) Electronics
8 3 (0.94%) Public Sector
9 2 (0.63%) Analytical Skills
9 2 (0.63%) Automotive
9 2 (0.63%) Dutch Language
9 2 (0.63%) French Language
9 2 (0.63%) Military
9 2 (0.63%) Spanish Language
Miscellaneous
1 32 (10.00%) Driving Licence
2 17 (5.31%) Onboarding
3 8 (2.50%) Smartphone
4 2 (0.63%) Data Centre
4 2 (0.63%) IoT
4 2 (0.63%) iPad
4 2 (0.63%) iPhone
4 2 (0.63%) Mobile App
5 1 (0.31%) Enterprise Cloud
5 1 (0.31%) Hedge funds
5 1 (0.31%) NHS
5 1 (0.31%) PKI
5 1 (0.31%) Public Cloud
5 1 (0.31%) Security Posture
5 1 (0.31%) Self-Motivation
5 1 (0.31%) Video Conferencing
5 1 (0.31%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 183 (57.19%) Windows
2 113 (35.31%) Windows Server
3 70 (21.88%) Windows 10
4 38 (11.88%) Windows Server 2016
4 38 (11.88%) Windows Server 2019
5 32 (10.00%) Mac OS
6 20 (6.25%) Windows Server 2012
7 17 (5.31%) Android
7 17 (5.31%) Apple iOS
8 4 (1.25%) Linux
9 2 (0.63%) Windows 7
9 2 (0.63%) Windows Server 2008
10 1 (0.31%) Mac OS X
10 1 (0.31%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 1 (0.31%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 112 (35.00%) Problem-Solving
2 69 (21.56%) Customer Service
3 35 (10.94%) ITIL
4 29 (9.06%) Service Delivery
5 25 (7.81%) Cybersecurity
6 23 (7.19%) ITSM
7 19 (5.94%) Service Management
8 15 (4.69%) Continuous Improvement
8 15 (4.69%) Mentoring
8 15 (4.69%) Remote Monitoring and Management
9 13 (4.06%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 12 (3.75%) Mobile Device Management
11 11 (3.44%) Configuration Management
12 9 (2.81%) Asset Management
12 9 (2.81%) Computer Science
12 9 (2.81%) Proactive Maintenance
13 8 (2.50%) Change Management
13 8 (2.50%) Collaborative Working
13 8 (2.50%) Time Management
14 7 (2.19%) ERP
Programming Languages
1 17 (5.31%) PowerShell
2 5 (1.56%) SQL
3 3 (0.94%) Python
4 1 (0.31%) Java
Qualifications
1 25 (7.81%) Microsoft Certification
2 22 (6.88%) Security Cleared
3 17 (5.31%) SC Cleared
4 12 (3.75%) Degree
5 9 (2.81%) A+ Certification
6 8 (2.50%) DBS Check
7 5 (1.56%) CompTIA Security+
8 3 (0.94%) BPSS Clearance
8 3 (0.94%) Microsoft Certified Professional
8 3 (0.94%) Network+ Certification
9 2 (0.63%) Computer Science Degree
9 2 (0.63%) DV Cleared
9 2 (0.63%) HP APS
9 2 (0.63%) ITIL Certification
10 1 (0.31%) CCNA
10 1 (0.31%) CCNP
10 1 (0.31%) Cisco Certification
10 1 (0.31%) Dell Certification
10 1 (0.31%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 43 (13.44%) SLA
2 7 (2.19%) Cyber Essentials
3 4 (1.25%) Accessibility
3 4 (1.25%) GDPR
3 4 (1.25%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 4 (1.25%) NIST
4 3 (0.94%) QA
System Software
1 136 (42.50%) Active Directory
2 46 (14.38%) Hyper-V
3 23 (7.19%) VMware Infrastructure
4 12 (3.75%) Virtual Desktop
5 7 (2.19%) BitLocker
6 3 (0.94%) Terminal Services
7 2 (0.63%) Firmware
8 1 (0.31%) Virtual Machines
8 1 (0.31%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.31%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 46 (14.38%) Microsoft Intune
2 19 (5.94%) Active Directory Federation Services
3 8 (2.50%) Jamf Pro
3 8 (2.50%) SCCM
4 7 (2.19%) Autotask
5 4 (1.25%) WSUS
6 2 (0.63%) FortiGate
6 2 (0.63%) Nagios
7 1 (0.31%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 192 (60.00%) Microsoft
2 34 (10.63%) Google
3 30 (9.38%) VMware
4 11 (3.44%) HP
4 11 (3.44%) Sophos
5 10 (3.13%) Apple
6 9 (2.81%) Cisco
7 8 (2.50%) Fortinet
7 8 (2.50%) Samsung
8 7 (2.19%) Meraki
8 7 (2.19%) SolarWinds
9 6 (1.88%) Veeam
10 5 (1.56%) ServiceNow
11 4 (1.25%) Aruba
11 4 (1.25%) CheckPoint
11 4 (1.25%) ConnectWise
11 4 (1.25%) F5
11 4 (1.25%) Freshdesk
11 4 (1.25%) Palo Alto
12 3 (0.94%) Sage