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 30 January 2026.

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

6 months to
30 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 420 478 408
Rank change year-on-year +58 -70 +143
Permanent jobs requiring a 2nd Line Engineer 252 221 444
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.40% 0.42% 0.64%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.44% 0.46% 0.67%
Number of salaries quoted 234 183 420
10th Percentile £28,750 £28,500 £25,500
25th Percentile £30,625 £30,000 £27,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £33,500 £35,000 £32,250
Median % change year-on-year -4.29% +8.53% -0.77%
75th Percentile £40,000 £40,000 £37,500
90th Percentile £43,750 £43,750 £43,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £33,000 £32,500 £30,000
% change year-on-year +1.54% +8.33% -4.76%

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 57,632 48,152 66,101
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.82% 92.24% 95.10%
Number of salaries quoted 35,882 24,796 51,733
10th Percentile £28,750 £33,750 £29,000
25th Percentile £37,500 £45,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -8.71%
75th Percentile £75,000 £79,600 £75,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £54,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -7.41% +8.00% -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 30 January 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 30 January 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 +72 245 £33,500 -4.29% 86
UK excluding London +99 208 £33,000 +1.54% 87
South East +25 59 £32,000 -5.88% 35
Work from Home +74 46 £33,000 +1.54% 19
South West +36 45 £33,000 -1.49% 15
London +11 44 £42,000 +5.00% 9
Midlands +42 40 £35,000 +14.75% 8
East of England +38 32 £33,500 +3.08% 15
North of England +6 26 £30,000 - 11
West Midlands +34 21 £37,500 +15.38% 5
North West +25 17 £30,000 -7.69% 7
East Midlands -5 14 £33,500 +9.84% 3
Yorkshire -19 9 £33,500 +11.67% 4
Scotland -5 6 £40,000 +50.94% 6
Wales +1 1 £34,000 -

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

For the 6 months to 30 January 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.

1 164 (65.08%) Microsoft 365
2 161 (63.89%) Windows
3 143 (56.75%) Microsoft
4 118 (46.83%) Active Directory
5 108 (42.86%) Azure
6 102 (40.48%) Windows Server
7 85 (33.73%) Problem-Solving
8 83 (32.94%) Firewall
9 78 (30.95%) DNS
10 71 (28.17%) DHCP
11 65 (25.79%) VPN
12 62 (24.60%) Microsoft Exchange
12 62 (24.60%) Windows 10
13 57 (22.62%) Entra ID
14 52 (20.63%) TCP/IP
15 51 (20.24%) SharePoint
16 49 (19.44%) VLAN
17 48 (19.05%) Microsoft Intune
18 47 (18.65%) Hyper-V
19 46 (18.25%) Customer Service
19 46 (18.25%) Wi-Fi
20 44 (17.46%) WAN
21 43 (17.06%) LAN
21 43 (17.06%) SLA
22 36 (14.29%) VMware
23 33 (13.10%) Security Cleared
24 32 (12.70%) SC Cleared
25 30 (11.90%) Apple
26 29 (11.51%) ITIL
27 28 (11.11%) Mac OS

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 62 (24.60%) Microsoft Exchange
2 51 (20.24%) SharePoint
3 3 (1.19%) IIS
4 1 (0.40%) Confluence
Applications
1 17 (6.75%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (1.19%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.40%) Adobe Creative Suite
Business Applications
1 5 (1.98%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.79%) Dynamics NAV
3 1 (0.40%) Carpe Diem
3 1 (0.40%) Elite 3E
Cloud Services
1 164 (65.08%) Microsoft 365
2 108 (42.86%) Azure
3 57 (22.62%) Entra ID
4 27 (10.71%) Google Workspace
5 22 (8.73%) AWS
6 18 (7.14%) OneDrive
7 4 (1.59%) Azure AKS
7 4 (1.59%) Azure DevOps
7 4 (1.59%) GitHub
7 4 (1.59%) SaaS
8 2 (0.79%) Mimecast
9 1 (0.40%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 83 (32.94%) Firewall
2 78 (30.95%) DNS
3 71 (28.17%) DHCP
4 65 (25.79%) VPN
5 52 (20.63%) TCP/IP
6 49 (19.44%) VLAN
7 46 (18.25%) Wi-Fi
8 44 (17.46%) WAN
9 43 (17.06%) LAN
10 21 (8.33%) VoIP
11 16 (6.35%) Wireless
12 11 (4.37%) IPsec
13 9 (3.57%) Remote Desktop
14 5 (1.98%) SD-WAN
15 3 (1.19%) Cisco IOS
15 3 (1.19%) DKIM
15 3 (1.19%) DMARC
15 3 (1.19%) NetScaler
16 2 (0.79%) Cisco Wireless
16 2 (0.79%) Network Security
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (2.78%) Amazon RDS
2 6 (2.38%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 7 (2.78%) JIRA
2 4 (1.59%) Git
2 4 (1.59%) Jenkins
General
1 84 (33.33%) Social Skills
2 27 (10.71%) Law
3 25 (9.92%) Marketing
4 12 (4.76%) Manufacturing
5 9 (3.57%) Finance
6 7 (2.78%) Telecoms
7 5 (1.98%) Electronics
7 5 (1.98%) Organisational Skills
7 5 (1.98%) Public Sector
7 5 (1.98%) Retail
8 4 (1.59%) Advertising
8 4 (1.59%) Dutch Language
8 4 (1.59%) French Language
8 4 (1.59%) Spanish Language
9 3 (1.19%) Legal
10 2 (0.79%) Automotive
10 2 (0.79%) Documentation Skills
10 2 (0.79%) Front Office
10 2 (0.79%) Games
10 2 (0.79%) Inclusion and Diversity
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (1.59%) ARM Templates
Miscellaneous
1 50 (19.84%) Driving Licence
2 12 (4.76%) Onboarding
3 3 (1.19%) Mobile App
3 3 (1.19%) Video Conferencing
4 2 (0.79%) Clustering
4 2 (0.79%) Digital Signage
4 2 (0.79%) IoT
4 2 (0.79%) iPad
4 2 (0.79%) iPhone
4 2 (0.79%) Self-Motivation
5 1 (0.40%) Client/Server
5 1 (0.40%) Hedge funds
5 1 (0.40%) PKI
5 1 (0.40%) Smartphone
5 1 (0.40%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 161 (63.89%) Windows
2 102 (40.48%) Windows Server
3 62 (24.60%) Windows 10
4 28 (11.11%) Mac OS
5 27 (10.71%) Windows Server 2016
5 27 (10.71%) Windows Server 2019
6 26 (10.32%) Apple iOS
7 24 (9.52%) Android
8 14 (5.56%) Windows Server 2012
9 12 (4.76%) Linux
10 1 (0.40%) Windows 7
10 1 (0.40%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 85 (33.73%) Problem-Solving
2 46 (18.25%) Customer Service
3 29 (11.51%) ITIL
4 26 (10.32%) Service Management
5 24 (9.52%) Mobile Device Management
6 23 (9.13%) ITSM
7 22 (8.73%) Mentoring
8 20 (7.94%) Configuration Management
8 20 (7.94%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 20 (7.94%) Service Delivery
9 19 (7.54%) Cybersecurity
10 18 (7.14%) Continuous Improvement
11 16 (6.35%) Remote Monitoring and Management
12 10 (3.97%) DevOps
13 8 (3.17%) CI/CD
14 7 (2.78%) Migration
15 6 (2.38%) Asset Management
15 6 (2.38%) Containerisation
15 6 (2.38%) Customer Engagement
15 6 (2.38%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 14 (5.56%) PowerShell
2 4 (1.59%) SQL
3 2 (0.79%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 33 (13.10%) Security Cleared
2 32 (12.70%) SC Cleared
3 15 (5.95%) BPSS Clearance
4 13 (5.16%) Microsoft Certification
5 6 (2.38%) A+ Certification
6 5 (1.98%) CompTIA Security+
6 5 (1.98%) Degree
7 4 (1.59%) Computer Science Degree
7 4 (1.59%) Microsoft Certified Professional
8 3 (1.19%) Network+ Certification
9 2 (0.79%) ACMT
9 2 (0.79%) AWS Certification
9 2 (0.79%) Azure Certification
9 2 (0.79%) ITIL Certification
9 2 (0.79%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 1 (0.40%) CCNA
10 1 (0.40%) CCNP
10 1 (0.40%) Cisco Certification
10 1 (0.40%) DBS Check
10 1 (0.40%) DV Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 43 (17.06%) SLA
2 9 (3.57%) Cyber Essentials
3 4 (1.59%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 4 (1.59%) NIST
4 3 (1.19%) Accessibility
4 3 (1.19%) GDPR
4 3 (1.19%) QA
System Software
1 118 (46.83%) Active Directory
2 47 (18.65%) Hyper-V
3 26 (10.32%) VMware Infrastructure
4 9 (3.57%) Virtual Desktop
5 6 (2.38%) Docker
6 4 (1.59%) Firmware
7 3 (1.19%) BitLocker
8 2 (0.79%) VMware ESXi
9 1 (0.40%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 48 (19.05%) Microsoft Intune
2 24 (9.52%) Jamf Pro
3 13 (5.16%) Active Directory Federation Services
3 13 (5.16%) SCCM
4 6 (2.38%) Autotask
4 6 (2.38%) Kubernetes
5 4 (1.59%) Terraform
6 3 (1.19%) FortiGate
6 3 (1.19%) vCenter Server
7 2 (0.79%) MaaS360
7 2 (0.79%) Nagios
8 1 (0.40%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 143 (56.75%) Microsoft
2 36 (14.29%) VMware
3 30 (11.90%) Apple
4 23 (9.13%) Google
5 21 (8.33%) Samsung
6 19 (7.54%) Sophos
7 15 (5.95%) ConnectWise
8 10 (3.97%) Cisco
9 8 (3.17%) ServiceNow
10 7 (2.78%) Veeam
11 6 (2.38%) Fortinet
12 5 (1.98%) SAP
13 4 (1.59%) Adobe
13 4 (1.59%) Meraki
13 4 (1.59%) SolarWinds
14 3 (1.19%) Aruba
14 3 (1.19%) F5
14 3 (1.19%) Freshdesk
14 3 (1.19%) HP
14 3 (1.19%) Juniper