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 6 December 2025.

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

6 months to
6 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 461 492 373
Rank change year-on-year +31 -119 +225
Permanent jobs requiring a 2nd Line Engineer 187 268 393
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.33% 0.43% 0.78%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.37% 0.45% 0.82%
Number of salaries quoted 173 208 368
10th Percentile £29,000 £27,750 £26,250
25th Percentile £30,750 £30,000 £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 £39,063 £38,000
90th Percentile £43,500 £44,125 £42,512
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 50,261 59,063 47,897
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.04% 94.04% 95.23%
Number of salaries quoted 31,429 32,705 37,339
10th Percentile £28,250 £32,500 £31,250
25th Percentile £36,250 £42,500 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £57,965 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -5.11% -3.39% -
75th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £80,000
90th Percentile £92,500 £95,000 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £47,500 £52,500 £52,500
% change year-on-year -9.52% - -

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 6 December 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 6 December 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 +29 186 £33,500 -1.47% 96
UK excluding London +49 151 £33,000 +1.54% 88
South East +4 43 £33,000 -1.49% 42
South West +42 38 £33,000 -1.49% 11
London +22 36 £40,000 +6.67% 12
Work from Home +80 35 £33,000 - 30
Midlands +31 31 £35,000 +11.11% 16
East of England +27 20 £33,500 +3.08% 8
North of England +20 19 £30,000 -7.69% 11
West Midlands +38 18 £37,500 +25.00% 7
North West +35 13 £30,000 -7.69% 4
East Midlands +11 12 £33,500 -1.47% 9
Yorkshire -8 6 £32,500 +4.00% 7
Scotland +7 1 £40,000 +50.94%

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

For the 6 months to 6 December 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.

1 128 (68.45%) Microsoft 365
1 128 (68.45%) Windows
2 107 (57.22%) Microsoft
3 92 (49.20%) Active Directory
4 74 (39.57%) Azure
5 73 (39.04%) Firewall
6 70 (37.43%) Windows Server
7 59 (31.55%) DNS
8 56 (29.95%) Problem-Solving
9 55 (29.41%) VPN
10 52 (27.81%) DHCP
11 47 (25.13%) Microsoft Intune
12 44 (23.53%) Customer Service
13 43 (22.99%) TCP/IP
14 42 (22.46%) Entra ID
15 40 (21.39%) Microsoft Exchange
16 39 (20.86%) Hyper-V
16 39 (20.86%) Windows 10
17 37 (19.79%) SharePoint
17 37 (19.79%) VLAN
17 37 (19.79%) VMware
18 28 (14.97%) LAN
18 28 (14.97%) VMware Infrastructure
19 27 (14.44%) Apple
20 26 (13.90%) WAN
21 25 (13.37%) SLA
21 25 (13.37%) Sophos
22 24 (12.83%) Mentoring
22 24 (12.83%) Wi-Fi
23 23 (12.30%) ITIL

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 40 (21.39%) Microsoft Exchange
2 37 (19.79%) SharePoint
3 5 (2.67%) IIS
Applications
1 9 (4.81%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (2.14%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.53%) Adobe Creative Suite
Business Applications
1 5 (2.67%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.53%) Carpe Diem
2 1 (0.53%) Elite 3E
Cloud Services
1 128 (68.45%) Microsoft 365
2 74 (39.57%) Azure
3 42 (22.46%) Entra ID
4 16 (8.56%) Google Workspace
5 11 (5.88%) OneDrive
6 9 (4.81%) AWS
7 4 (2.14%) Azure AKS
7 4 (2.14%) Azure DevOps
7 4 (2.14%) GitHub
7 4 (2.14%) SaaS
8 1 (0.53%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 73 (39.04%) Firewall
2 59 (31.55%) DNS
3 55 (29.41%) VPN
4 52 (27.81%) DHCP
5 43 (22.99%) TCP/IP
6 37 (19.79%) VLAN
7 28 (14.97%) LAN
8 26 (13.90%) WAN
9 24 (12.83%) Wi-Fi
10 13 (6.95%) VoIP
10 13 (6.95%) Wireless
11 12 (6.42%) IPsec
12 6 (3.21%) Cisco IOS
13 4 (2.14%) Remote Desktop
14 3 (1.60%) DKIM
14 3 (1.60%) DMARC
14 3 (1.60%) PBX
15 2 (1.07%) Ethernet
15 2 (1.07%) PSTN
15 2 (1.07%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (5.88%) SQL Server
2 9 (4.81%) Amazon RDS
3 2 (1.07%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 6 (3.21%) JIRA
2 4 (2.14%) Git
2 4 (2.14%) Jenkins
General
1 72 (38.50%) Social Skills
2 24 (12.83%) Law
3 23 (12.30%) Marketing
4 14 (7.49%) Manufacturing
5 9 (4.81%) Finance
6 8 (4.28%) Telecoms
7 7 (3.74%) Advertising
8 6 (3.21%) Electronics
8 6 (3.21%) Public Sector
9 5 (2.67%) Games
10 4 (2.14%) Dutch Language
10 4 (2.14%) French Language
10 4 (2.14%) Spanish Language
11 3 (1.60%) Retail
12 2 (1.07%) Front Office
12 2 (1.07%) Legal
12 2 (1.07%) Organisational Skills
13 1 (0.53%) Automotive
13 1 (0.53%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 1 (0.53%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (2.14%) ARM Templates
Miscellaneous
1 41 (21.93%) Driving Licence
2 10 (5.35%) Onboarding
3 7 (3.74%) iPhone
4 5 (2.67%) Clustering
5 3 (1.60%) Video Conferencing
6 2 (1.07%) Digital Signage
6 2 (1.07%) Enterprise Cloud
6 2 (1.07%) iPad
6 2 (1.07%) Mobile App
6 2 (1.07%) Self-Motivation
6 2 (1.07%) Smartphone
7 1 (0.53%) Client/Server
7 1 (0.53%) Hedge funds
7 1 (0.53%) IoT
7 1 (0.53%) PKI
7 1 (0.53%) Social Media
7 1 (0.53%) Team-Oriented Environment
Operating Systems
1 128 (68.45%) Windows
2 70 (37.43%) Windows Server
3 39 (20.86%) Windows 10
4 21 (11.23%) Apple iOS
5 20 (10.70%) Linux
5 20 (10.70%) Mac OS
6 19 (10.16%) Android
7 14 (7.49%) Windows Server 2019
8 11 (5.88%) Windows Server 2016
9 4 (2.14%) Windows Server 2012
10 2 (1.07%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 56 (29.95%) Problem-Solving
2 44 (23.53%) Customer Service
3 24 (12.83%) Mentoring
4 23 (12.30%) ITIL
5 21 (11.23%) Service Management
6 20 (10.70%) Mobile Device Management
7 18 (9.63%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 18 (9.63%) ITSM
8 17 (9.09%) Configuration Management
9 15 (8.02%) DevOps
10 14 (7.49%) Cybersecurity
11 13 (6.95%) Service Delivery
12 12 (6.42%) Continuous Improvement
12 12 (6.42%) Remote Monitoring and Management
13 9 (4.81%) Asset Management
13 9 (4.81%) Containerisation
13 9 (4.81%) Infrastructure as Code
13 9 (4.81%) Migration
14 8 (4.28%) CI/CD
15 7 (3.74%) Collaborative Culture
Programming Languages
1 17 (9.09%) PowerShell
2 6 (3.21%) SQL
3 5 (2.67%) Bicep
4 2 (1.07%) Java
Qualifications
1 22 (11.76%) Security Cleared
2 21 (11.23%) SC Cleared
3 15 (8.02%) BPSS Clearance
4 13 (6.95%) Microsoft Certification
5 9 (4.81%) Degree
6 7 (3.74%) A+ Certification
7 5 (2.67%) ACMT
7 5 (2.67%) Computer Science Degree
7 5 (2.67%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 4 (2.14%) MCP
9 2 (1.07%) AWS Certification
9 2 (1.07%) Azure Certification
9 2 (1.07%) DBS Check
9 2 (1.07%) Dell Certification
9 2 (1.07%) MCSA
10 1 (0.53%) CCNA
10 1 (0.53%) CCNP
10 1 (0.53%) Cisco Certification
10 1 (0.53%) CompTIA Security+
10 1 (0.53%) DV Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 25 (13.37%) SLA
2 6 (3.21%) Cyber Essentials
3 3 (1.60%) GDPR
4 1 (0.53%) Accessibility
4 1 (0.53%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 1 (0.53%) NIST
System Software
1 92 (49.20%) Active Directory
2 39 (20.86%) Hyper-V
3 28 (14.97%) VMware Infrastructure
4 9 (4.81%) Docker
5 7 (3.74%) VMware ESXi
6 5 (2.67%) Virtual Desktop
7 4 (2.14%) Firmware
8 1 (0.53%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 47 (25.13%) Microsoft Intune
2 22 (11.76%) Jamf Pro
3 17 (9.09%) SCCM
4 9 (4.81%) Autotask
4 9 (4.81%) Kubernetes
5 6 (3.21%) vCenter Server
6 5 (2.67%) FortiGate
6 5 (2.67%) MaaS360
7 4 (2.14%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 4 (2.14%) Terraform
8 2 (1.07%) WSUS
9 1 (0.53%) Single Sign-On
9 1 (0.53%) SmoothWall
Vendors
1 107 (57.22%) Microsoft
2 37 (19.79%) VMware
3 27 (14.44%) Apple
4 25 (13.37%) Sophos
5 18 (9.63%) Samsung
6 15 (8.02%) ConnectWise
7 12 (6.42%) Google
8 11 (5.88%) Cisco
9 10 (5.35%) Veeam
10 7 (3.74%) ServiceNow
11 6 (3.21%) SAP
12 5 (2.67%) Datto
12 5 (2.67%) Juniper
12 5 (2.67%) McAfee
12 5 (2.67%) Oracle
13 4 (2.14%) Adobe
14 3 (1.60%) Fortinet
14 3 (1.60%) Freshdesk
14 3 (1.60%) Fujitsu
15 2 (1.07%) iManage