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 1 August 2026.

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

6 months to
1 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 456 565 480
Rank change year-on-year +109 -85 -60
Permanent jobs requiring a 2nd Line Engineer 340 113 386
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.33% 0.23% 0.45%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.35% 0.25% 0.47%
Number of salaries quoted 287 106 339
10th Percentile £29,750 £29,625 £26,250
25th Percentile £31,250 £31,250 £28,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £35,000 £34,000 £32,500
Median % change year-on-year +2.94% +4.62% -
75th Percentile £38,750 £41,500 £37,000
90th Percentile £42,500 £43,750 £40,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £35,000 £32,875 £32,000
% change year-on-year +6.46% +2.73% -1.54%

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 97,263 44,589 81,483
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.24% 90.05% 94.84%
Number of salaries quoted 66,554 26,541 55,776
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,500 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £37,500 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year - - -8.33%
75th Percentile £75,000 £75,000 £71,250
90th Percentile £96,250 £95,250 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +5.00% - -5.66%

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 1 August 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 1 August 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 +102 306 £35,000 +2.94% 45
UK excluding London +79 265 £35,000 +6.46% 40
London +11 72 £36,000 -5.88% 8
East of England +49 71 £35,000 +7.69% 12
Work from Home +23 70 £33,500 +3.08% 12
South East +6 70 £32,500 -12.16% 16
North of England -16 47 £35,000 +7.69% 5
North West +24 40 £35,000 +7.69% 1
Scotland +38 26 £33,500 +3.08%
Midlands -21 26 £32,250 -0.77% 7
South West -63 20 £35,000 -9.09% 3
West Midlands -20 18 £32,000 -8.57% 4
East Midlands -27 8 £35,000 +7.69% 3
Yorkshire -32 7 £30,500 -23.75% 2
Wales - 5 £35,000 -

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

For the 6 months to 1 August 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.

1 209 (61.47%) Microsoft
2 191 (56.18%) Microsoft 365
3 177 (52.06%) Windows
4 126 (37.06%) Active Directory
5 101 (29.71%) Customer Service
6 91 (26.76%) Problem-Solving
7 90 (26.47%) Azure
7 90 (26.47%) Entra ID
8 83 (24.41%) Windows Server
9 77 (22.65%) Firewall
10 72 (21.18%) Microsoft Exchange
11 68 (20.00%) DNS
12 61 (17.94%) SharePoint
13 56 (16.47%) DHCP
14 55 (16.18%) Windows 10
15 45 (13.24%) Microsoft Intune
15 45 (13.24%) VPN
16 44 (12.94%) LAN
16 44 (12.94%) WAN
17 40 (11.76%) Hyper-V
17 40 (11.76%) SLA
18 39 (11.47%) TCP/IP
18 39 (11.47%) Wi-Fi
19 38 (11.18%) VMware
20 37 (10.88%) Mac OS
21 36 (10.59%) Service Delivery
22 33 (9.71%) VMware Infrastructure
23 30 (8.82%) Continuous Improvement
24 29 (8.53%) ITIL
25 28 (8.24%) PowerShell

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 72 (21.18%) Microsoft Exchange
2 61 (17.94%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.59%) Skype for Business
4 1 (0.29%) WordPress
Applications
1 24 (7.06%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (1.76%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.29%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 3 (0.88%) Dynamics NAV
Cloud Services
1 191 (56.18%) Microsoft 365
2 90 (26.47%) Azure
2 90 (26.47%) Entra ID
3 20 (5.88%) Google Workspace
4 16 (4.71%) AWS
4 16 (4.71%) OneDrive
5 12 (3.53%) Power Platform
6 8 (2.35%) Cohesity
7 5 (1.47%) Mimecast
7 5 (1.47%) SaaS
8 3 (0.88%) Dynamics 365
8 3 (0.88%) Microsoft Copilot
8 3 (0.88%) PaaS
8 3 (0.88%) Power Automate
9 2 (0.59%) Amazon EC2
9 2 (0.59%) Azure Storage
9 2 (0.59%) Rubrik
9 2 (0.59%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 1 (0.29%) Azure Monitor
10 1 (0.29%) Cloud Computing
Communications & Networking
1 77 (22.65%) Firewall
2 68 (20.00%) DNS
3 56 (16.47%) DHCP
4 45 (13.24%) VPN
5 44 (12.94%) LAN
5 44 (12.94%) WAN
6 39 (11.47%) TCP/IP
6 39 (11.47%) Wi-Fi
7 27 (7.94%) VoIP
8 15 (4.41%) VLAN
9 13 (3.82%) Wireless
10 11 (3.24%) SAN
11 6 (1.76%) IPsec
11 6 (1.76%) MPLS
12 5 (1.47%) ADSL
12 5 (1.47%) SSL
13 4 (1.18%) Broadband
13 4 (1.18%) Internet
13 4 (1.18%) Remote Desktop
13 4 (1.18%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (2.65%) Power BI
2 4 (1.18%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 2 (0.59%) JIRA
2 1 (0.29%) Carbide.c++
General
1 115 (33.82%) Social Skills
2 19 (5.59%) Legal
3 18 (5.29%) Telecoms
4 12 (3.53%) Documentation Skills
5 8 (2.35%) Organisational Skills
6 7 (2.06%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 6 (1.76%) Billing
7 6 (1.76%) Finance
7 6 (1.76%) Retail
8 5 (1.47%) Manufacturing
9 4 (1.18%) Analytical Skills
9 4 (1.18%) Public Sector
10 3 (0.88%) Advertising
11 2 (0.59%) Military
12 1 (0.29%) Aerospace
Miscellaneous
1 40 (11.76%) Driving Licence
2 32 (9.41%) Onboarding
3 9 (2.65%) Smartphone
4 8 (2.35%) Data Centre
5 5 (1.47%) iPhone
6 4 (1.18%) Replication
7 3 (0.88%) IoT
7 3 (0.88%) iPad
8 2 (0.59%) Enterprise Cloud
8 2 (0.59%) Self-Motivation
9 1 (0.29%) Educational Technology
9 1 (0.29%) Hedge funds
9 1 (0.29%) Management Information System
9 1 (0.29%) NHS
9 1 (0.29%) Public Cloud
9 1 (0.29%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 177 (52.06%) Windows
2 83 (24.41%) Windows Server
3 55 (16.18%) Windows 10
4 37 (10.88%) Mac OS
5 23 (6.76%) Windows Server 2019
6 22 (6.47%) Windows Server 2016
7 13 (3.82%) Android
8 6 (1.76%) Windows Server 2012
9 5 (1.47%) Apple iOS
10 3 (0.88%) Linux
10 3 (0.88%) VMS
10 3 (0.88%) Windows 7
11 2 (0.59%) AIX
11 2 (0.59%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 1 (0.29%) Mac OS X
12 1 (0.29%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 101 (29.71%) Customer Service
2 91 (26.76%) Problem-Solving
3 36 (10.59%) Service Delivery
4 30 (8.82%) Continuous Improvement
5 29 (8.53%) ITIL
6 26 (7.65%) Cybersecurity
7 22 (6.47%) ITSM
8 20 (5.88%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 17 (5.00%) Collaborative Culture
10 16 (4.71%) Cloud Security
10 16 (4.71%) Mentoring
11 15 (4.41%) Remote Monitoring and Management
11 15 (4.41%) User Experience
12 14 (4.12%) Project Delivery
13 13 (3.82%) Client Onboarding
13 13 (3.82%) Disaster Recovery
13 13 (3.82%) Incident Management
14 12 (3.53%) Service Management
15 11 (3.24%) Identity Management
16 10 (2.94%) AI
Programming Languages
1 28 (8.24%) PowerShell
2 6 (1.76%) SQL
3 4 (1.18%) VBScript
4 3 (0.88%) Python
5 2 (0.59%) Java
Qualifications
1 22 (6.47%) Microsoft Certification
2 20 (5.88%) Security Cleared
3 16 (4.71%) Degree
4 11 (3.24%) SC Cleared
5 9 (2.65%) DBS Check
6 8 (2.35%) A+ Certification
7 6 (1.76%) HND
8 3 (0.88%) CCNA
8 3 (0.88%) Cisco Certification
8 3 (0.88%) HP APS
9 2 (0.59%) CCNP
9 2 (0.59%) Dell Certification
9 2 (0.59%) MCSA
10 1 (0.29%) DV Cleared
10 1 (0.29%) JNCIS
10 1 (0.29%) Microsoft Certified Professional
10 1 (0.29%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 40 (11.76%) SLA
2 5 (1.47%) GDPR
3 4 (1.18%) Accessibility
System Software
1 126 (37.06%) Active Directory
2 40 (11.76%) Hyper-V
3 33 (9.71%) VMware Infrastructure
4 10 (2.94%) BitLocker
4 10 (2.94%) Virtual Desktop
5 3 (0.88%) Terminal Services
6 2 (0.59%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (0.59%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.29%) Terminal Server
Systems Management
1 45 (13.24%) Microsoft Intune
2 10 (2.94%) Autotask
2 10 (2.94%) SCCM
2 10 (2.94%) WSUS
3 7 (2.06%) FortiGate
4 6 (1.76%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 4 (1.18%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
6 2 (0.59%) Netcool
6 2 (0.59%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 209 (61.47%) Microsoft
2 38 (11.18%) VMware
3 20 (5.88%) Cisco
4 19 (5.59%) Google
4 19 (5.59%) Meraki
5 15 (4.41%) HP
6 12 (3.53%) Fortinet
7 11 (3.24%) ServiceNow
8 10 (2.94%) NetApp
9 8 (2.35%) Veeam
10 7 (2.06%) Sophos
11 5 (1.47%) Dell
11 5 (1.47%) SolarWinds
12 4 (1.18%) Juniper
12 4 (1.18%) Sage
13 3 (0.88%) Barracuda Networks
13 3 (0.88%) Fujitsu
13 3 (0.88%) Palo Alto
13 3 (0.88%) Samsung
13 3 (0.88%) SonicWALL