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 May 2026.

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

6 months to
22 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 431 527 460
Rank change year-on-year +96 -67 +20
Permanent jobs requiring a 2nd Line Engineer 331 129 475
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.36% 0.30% 0.49%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.38% 0.34% 0.52%
Number of salaries quoted 286 126 452
10th Percentile £29,375 £29,000 £25,950
25th Percentile £30,531 £30,000 £27,375
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £35,000 £35,000 £32,500
Median % change year-on-year - +7.69% -
75th Percentile £40,000 £41,500 £36,000
90th Percentile £42,250 £43,750 £40,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £33,500 £32,500 £30,000
% change year-on-year +3.08% +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 86,286 38,345 92,039
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.36% 89.33% 94.62%
Number of salaries quoted 57,161 21,611 67,433
10th Percentile £30,000 £30,000 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £41,250 £38,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £57,500 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -4.35% +9.52% -12.50%
75th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £71,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -3.85% +4.00% -6.17%

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 May 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 May 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 +103 316 £35,000 - 65
UK excluding London +103 259 £33,500 +3.08% 59
South East +17 83 £30,000 -29.41% 19
London +3 71 £37,500 -6.25% 11
East of England +33 55 £35,000 +7.69% 16
Work from Home +31 55 £30,000 -7.69% 15
North of England -19 44 £31,000 +3.33% 15
Midlands -19 34 £35,000 +7.69% 8
North West +19 33 £31,000 +3.33% 10
South West -41 29 £34,500 +2.99% 4
West Midlands -12 21 £32,500 -7.14% 7
Scotland +7 13 £40,000 +23.08% 1
Yorkshire -48 11 £31,000 -4.62% 2
East Midlands -36 9 £35,000 +16.67% 1
Wales - 1 £34,000 -

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

For the 6 months to 22 May 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.

1 190 (57.40%) Microsoft
2 182 (54.98%) Microsoft 365
3 172 (51.96%) Windows
4 127 (38.37%) Active Directory
5 114 (34.44%) Azure
6 100 (30.21%) Problem-Solving
7 95 (28.70%) Windows Server
8 79 (23.87%) Entra ID
9 77 (23.26%) Firewall
10 73 (22.05%) DNS
11 71 (21.45%) Customer Service
11 71 (21.45%) Microsoft Exchange
12 70 (21.15%) DHCP
13 64 (19.34%) Windows 10
14 61 (18.43%) Wi-Fi
15 57 (17.22%) VPN
16 56 (16.92%) SharePoint
17 55 (16.62%) WAN
18 53 (16.01%) LAN
19 46 (13.90%) Microsoft Intune
19 46 (13.90%) SLA
20 36 (10.88%) Hyper-V
21 35 (10.57%) TCP/IP
21 35 (10.57%) Windows Server 2016
21 35 (10.57%) Windows Server 2019
22 33 (9.97%) ITIL
23 32 (9.67%) VoIP
24 31 (9.37%) Mac OS
25 30 (9.06%) Cybersecurity
25 30 (9.06%) Microsoft Office

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 71 (21.45%) Microsoft Exchange
2 56 (16.92%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.60%) Skype for Business
4 1 (0.30%) Confluence
4 1 (0.30%) IIS
4 1 (0.30%) WordPress
Applications
1 30 (9.06%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (0.91%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 5 (1.51%) Dynamics NAV
2 2 (0.60%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 182 (54.98%) Microsoft 365
2 114 (34.44%) Azure
3 79 (23.87%) Entra ID
4 28 (8.46%) Google Workspace
5 23 (6.95%) AWS
6 20 (6.04%) OneDrive
7 9 (2.72%) Power Platform
8 7 (2.11%) Mimecast
9 3 (0.91%) Cohesity
9 3 (0.91%) Dynamics 365
9 3 (0.91%) Microsoft Copilot
9 3 (0.91%) PaaS
9 3 (0.91%) Power Automate
9 3 (0.91%) SaaS
10 2 (0.60%) Azure Storage
11 1 (0.30%) Amazon EC2
11 1 (0.30%) Azure Monitor
11 1 (0.30%) GCP
11 1 (0.30%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 77 (23.26%) Firewall
2 73 (22.05%) DNS
3 70 (21.15%) DHCP
4 61 (18.43%) Wi-Fi
5 57 (17.22%) VPN
6 55 (16.62%) WAN
7 53 (16.01%) LAN
8 35 (10.57%) TCP/IP
9 32 (9.67%) VoIP
10 29 (8.76%) VLAN
11 15 (4.53%) Wireless
12 10 (3.02%) Remote Desktop
13 7 (2.11%) IPsec
13 7 (2.11%) SD-WAN
14 5 (1.51%) ADSL
15 4 (1.21%) Broadband
15 4 (1.21%) NetScaler
15 4 (1.21%) SAN
16 3 (0.91%) NAS
16 3 (0.91%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (1.81%) Power BI
2 2 (0.60%) SQL Server
3 1 (0.30%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 4 (1.21%) JIRA
General
1 83 (25.08%) Social Skills
2 15 (4.53%) Telecoms
3 12 (3.63%) Legal
4 10 (3.02%) Manufacturing
5 9 (2.72%) Finance
5 9 (2.72%) Retail
6 7 (2.11%) Law
6 7 (2.11%) Marketing
7 6 (1.81%) Advertising
8 5 (1.51%) Documentation Skills
8 5 (1.51%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 4 (1.21%) Organisational Skills
10 3 (0.91%) Billing
11 2 (0.60%) Analytical Skills
11 2 (0.60%) Automotive
11 2 (0.60%) Electronics
11 2 (0.60%) Military
11 2 (0.60%) Public Sector
Miscellaneous
1 26 (7.85%) Driving Licence
2 18 (5.44%) Onboarding
3 8 (2.42%) Smartphone
4 2 (0.60%) Data Centre
4 2 (0.60%) Self-Motivation
5 1 (0.30%) Enterprise Cloud
5 1 (0.30%) IoT
5 1 (0.30%) Mobile App
5 1 (0.30%) NHS
5 1 (0.30%) Public Cloud
5 1 (0.30%) Security Posture
5 1 (0.30%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 172 (51.96%) Windows
2 95 (28.70%) Windows Server
3 64 (19.34%) Windows 10
4 35 (10.57%) Windows Server 2016
4 35 (10.57%) Windows Server 2019
5 31 (9.37%) Mac OS
6 17 (5.14%) Windows Server 2012
7 16 (4.83%) Android
8 13 (3.93%) Apple iOS
9 4 (1.21%) Windows 7
10 3 (0.91%) VMS
11 2 (0.60%) Linux
11 2 (0.60%) Windows Server 2008
12 1 (0.30%) AIX
12 1 (0.30%) Mac OS X
12 1 (0.30%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 100 (30.21%) Problem-Solving
2 71 (21.45%) Customer Service
3 33 (9.97%) ITIL
4 30 (9.06%) Cybersecurity
4 30 (9.06%) Service Delivery
5 20 (6.04%) Continuous Improvement
6 19 (5.74%) ITSM
6 19 (5.74%) Service Management
7 15 (4.53%) Remote Monitoring and Management
8 14 (4.23%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 12 (3.63%) Cloud Security
9 12 (3.63%) Incident Management
9 12 (3.63%) Mentoring
10 11 (3.32%) Incident Response
10 11 (3.32%) Mobile Device Management
11 10 (3.02%) Configuration Management
12 9 (2.72%) Business Intelligence
12 9 (2.72%) ERP
12 9 (2.72%) Identity Management
12 9 (2.72%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 23 (6.95%) PowerShell
2 3 (0.91%) Python
2 3 (0.91%) SQL
3 2 (0.60%) VBScript
4 1 (0.30%) Java
Qualifications
1 25 (7.55%) Security Cleared
2 24 (7.25%) Microsoft Certification
3 21 (6.34%) SC Cleared
4 12 (3.63%) Degree
5 8 (2.42%) A+ Certification
5 8 (2.42%) DBS Check
6 5 (1.51%) CompTIA Security+
7 3 (0.91%) HND
7 3 (0.91%) HP APS
8 2 (0.60%) ITIL Certification
8 2 (0.60%) Network+ Certification
9 1 (0.30%) Dell Certification
9 1 (0.30%) DV Cleared
9 1 (0.30%) MCSA
9 1 (0.30%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 46 (13.90%) SLA
2 7 (2.11%) Cyber Essentials
3 6 (1.81%) Accessibility
4 4 (1.21%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 4 (1.21%) NIST
5 3 (0.91%) GDPR
5 3 (0.91%) QA
System Software
1 127 (38.37%) Active Directory
2 36 (10.88%) Hyper-V
3 19 (5.74%) VMware Infrastructure
4 13 (3.93%) Virtual Desktop
5 11 (3.32%) BitLocker
6 3 (0.91%) Terminal Services
7 1 (0.30%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.30%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 46 (13.90%) Microsoft Intune
2 16 (4.83%) Active Directory Federation Services
3 12 (3.63%) SCCM
4 8 (2.42%) Autotask
5 5 (1.51%) Jamf Pro
6 4 (1.21%) FortiGate
6 4 (1.21%) WSUS
7 2 (0.60%) Nagios
8 1 (0.30%) Netcool
Vendors
1 190 (57.40%) Microsoft
2 27 (8.16%) Google
3 24 (7.25%) VMware
4 12 (3.63%) HP
5 9 (2.72%) Cisco
6 8 (2.42%) Apple
6 8 (2.42%) Samsung
6 8 (2.42%) Sophos
7 7 (2.11%) Fortinet
7 7 (2.11%) Meraki
7 7 (2.11%) ServiceNow
7 7 (2.11%) SolarWinds
8 4 (1.21%) Aruba
8 4 (1.21%) CheckPoint
8 4 (1.21%) F5
8 4 (1.21%) Palo Alto
8 4 (1.21%) Veeam
9 3 (0.91%) NetApp
9 3 (0.91%) Sage
9 3 (0.91%) SonicWALL