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 29 December 2025.

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

6 months to
29 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 439 502 377
Rank change year-on-year +63 -125 +178
Permanent jobs requiring a 2nd Line Engineer 221 225 381
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.37% 0.41% 0.74%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.41% 0.44% 0.78%
Number of salaries quoted 205 183 354
10th Percentile £29,000 £28,081 £26,250
25th Percentile £30,625 £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 £40,000 £38,750 £38,000
90th Percentile £45,000 £45,000 £43,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £33,000 £32,500 £30,500
% change year-on-year +1.54% +6.56% -3.17%

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 53,660 51,710 49,133
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.45% 93.38% 95.26%
Number of salaries quoted 33,065 27,370 37,929
10th Percentile £28,500 £33,125 £31,250
25th Percentile £36,250 £44,549 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -
75th Percentile £75,000 £78,458 £77,715
90th Percentile £93,750 £97,500 £97,500
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 29 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 29 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 +64 220 £33,500 -1.47% 80
UK excluding London +82 176 £33,000 +1.54% 68
South East +30 53 £32,500 +0.78% 34
London +15 45 £40,000 +5.96% 14
South West +40 43 £33,000 -1.49% 9
Work from Home +85 40 £33,000 - 23
Midlands +36 38 £35,000 +14.75% 4
East of England +34 24 £33,500 +3.08% 11
West Midlands +33 22 £36,250 +20.83% 3
North of England -1 18 £30,000 -7.69% 12
North West +20 12 £30,000 -7.69% 4
East Midlands -8 12 £33,500 -1.47%
Yorkshire -4 6 £32,500 +8.33% 7
Scotland +8 1 £40,000 +50.94% 1

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

For the 6 months to 29 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.

1 147 (66.52%) Microsoft 365
2 143 (64.71%) Windows
3 124 (56.11%) Microsoft
4 105 (47.51%) Active Directory
5 96 (43.44%) Azure
6 84 (38.01%) Windows Server
7 77 (34.84%) Firewall
8 67 (30.32%) DNS
9 64 (28.96%) Problem-Solving
10 60 (27.15%) DHCP
10 60 (27.15%) VPN
11 52 (23.53%) Microsoft Intune
12 51 (23.08%) Entra ID
13 49 (22.17%) TCP/IP
14 47 (21.27%) Windows 10
15 46 (20.81%) Microsoft Exchange
16 45 (20.36%) Customer Service
16 45 (20.36%) Hyper-V
17 44 (19.91%) SharePoint
18 42 (19.00%) VLAN
19 38 (17.19%) VMware
20 37 (16.74%) SLA
21 36 (16.29%) WAN
22 35 (15.84%) LAN
23 32 (14.48%) Wi-Fi
24 30 (13.57%) Apple
24 30 (13.57%) Security Cleared
25 29 (13.12%) ITIL
25 29 (13.12%) SC Cleared
26 28 (12.67%) VMware Infrastructure

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 46 (20.81%) Microsoft Exchange
2 44 (19.91%) SharePoint
3 5 (2.26%) IIS
4 1 (0.45%) Confluence
Applications
1 12 (5.43%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (1.81%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.45%) Adobe Creative Suite
Business Applications
1 5 (2.26%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.45%) Carpe Diem
2 1 (0.45%) Elite 3E
Cloud Services
1 147 (66.52%) Microsoft 365
2 96 (43.44%) Azure
3 51 (23.08%) Entra ID
4 21 (9.50%) Google Workspace
5 16 (7.24%) AWS
6 15 (6.79%) OneDrive
7 4 (1.81%) Azure AKS
7 4 (1.81%) Azure DevOps
7 4 (1.81%) GitHub
7 4 (1.81%) SaaS
8 1 (0.45%) GCP
8 1 (0.45%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 77 (34.84%) Firewall
2 67 (30.32%) DNS
3 60 (27.15%) DHCP
3 60 (27.15%) VPN
4 49 (22.17%) TCP/IP
5 42 (19.00%) VLAN
6 36 (16.29%) WAN
7 35 (15.84%) LAN
8 32 (14.48%) Wi-Fi
9 17 (7.69%) Wireless
10 16 (7.24%) VoIP
11 13 (5.88%) IPsec
12 7 (3.17%) Remote Desktop
13 6 (2.71%) Cisco IOS
14 3 (1.36%) DKIM
14 3 (1.36%) DMARC
14 3 (1.36%) NetScaler
14 3 (1.36%) PBX
14 3 (1.36%) SD-WAN
15 2 (0.90%) Cisco Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (4.98%) SQL Server
2 10 (4.52%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 7 (3.17%) JIRA
2 4 (1.81%) Git
2 4 (1.81%) Jenkins
General
1 79 (35.75%) Social Skills
2 27 (12.22%) Marketing
3 26 (11.76%) Law
4 15 (6.79%) Manufacturing
5 11 (4.98%) Finance
6 10 (4.52%) Telecoms
7 8 (3.62%) Advertising
7 8 (3.62%) Electronics
7 8 (3.62%) Public Sector
8 5 (2.26%) Games
9 4 (1.81%) Dutch Language
9 4 (1.81%) French Language
9 4 (1.81%) Retail
9 4 (1.81%) Spanish Language
10 3 (1.36%) Legal
11 2 (0.90%) Front Office
11 2 (0.90%) Organisational Skills
12 1 (0.45%) German Language
12 1 (0.45%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 1 (0.45%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (1.81%) ARM Templates
Miscellaneous
1 44 (19.91%) Driving Licence
2 13 (5.88%) Onboarding
3 6 (2.71%) iPhone
4 5 (2.26%) Clustering
5 3 (1.36%) Mobile App
5 3 (1.36%) Video Conferencing
6 2 (0.90%) Digital Signage
6 2 (0.90%) Enterprise Cloud
6 2 (0.90%) IoT
6 2 (0.90%) iPad
6 2 (0.90%) Self-Motivation
7 1 (0.45%) Client/Server
7 1 (0.45%) Hedge funds
7 1 (0.45%) PKI
7 1 (0.45%) Smartphone
7 1 (0.45%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 143 (64.71%) Windows
2 84 (38.01%) Windows Server
3 47 (21.27%) Windows 10
4 24 (10.86%) Apple iOS
5 23 (10.41%) Mac OS
6 22 (9.95%) Android
7 18 (8.14%) Linux
7 18 (8.14%) Windows Server 2019
8 15 (6.79%) Windows Server 2016
9 7 (3.17%) Windows Server 2012
10 2 (0.90%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 64 (28.96%) Problem-Solving
2 45 (20.36%) Customer Service
3 29 (13.12%) ITIL
4 25 (11.31%) Mentoring
5 23 (10.41%) Service Management
6 22 (9.95%) Mobile Device Management
7 20 (9.05%) ITSM
8 19 (8.60%) Configuration Management
9 18 (8.14%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 17 (7.69%) Cybersecurity
11 16 (7.24%) Remote Monitoring and Management
11 16 (7.24%) Service Delivery
12 14 (6.33%) Continuous Improvement
13 13 (5.88%) DevOps
14 9 (4.07%) Containerisation
14 9 (4.07%) Infrastructure as Code
14 9 (4.07%) Migration
15 8 (3.62%) Asset Management
15 8 (3.62%) Business Intelligence
15 8 (3.62%) Programme Management
Programming Languages
1 17 (7.69%) PowerShell
2 6 (2.71%) SQL
3 5 (2.26%) Bicep
4 2 (0.90%) Java
Qualifications
1 30 (13.57%) Security Cleared
2 29 (13.12%) SC Cleared
3 15 (6.79%) BPSS Clearance
4 12 (5.43%) Microsoft Certification
5 6 (2.71%) A+ Certification
5 6 (2.71%) Degree
6 5 (2.26%) ACMT
6 5 (2.26%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
7 4 (1.81%) CompTIA Security+
7 4 (1.81%) Computer Science Degree
7 4 (1.81%) MCP
8 2 (0.90%) AWS Certification
8 2 (0.90%) Azure Certification
8 2 (0.90%) Dell Certification
8 2 (0.90%) MCSA
8 2 (0.90%) Network+ Certification
9 1 (0.45%) CCNA
9 1 (0.45%) CCNP
9 1 (0.45%) DBS Check
9 1 (0.45%) DV Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 37 (16.74%) SLA
2 10 (4.52%) Cyber Essentials
3 4 (1.81%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 4 (1.81%) NIST
4 3 (1.36%) GDPR
5 1 (0.45%) Accessibility
5 1 (0.45%) QA
System Software
1 105 (47.51%) Active Directory
2 45 (20.36%) Hyper-V
3 28 (12.67%) VMware Infrastructure
4 9 (4.07%) Docker
5 7 (3.17%) VMware ESXi
6 6 (2.71%) Virtual Desktop
7 4 (1.81%) Firmware
8 2 (0.90%) BitLocker
9 1 (0.45%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 52 (23.53%) Microsoft Intune
2 23 (10.41%) Jamf Pro
3 18 (8.14%) SCCM
4 9 (4.07%) Autotask
4 9 (4.07%) Kubernetes
5 7 (3.17%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 6 (2.71%) vCenter Server
7 5 (2.26%) MaaS360
8 4 (1.81%) FortiGate
8 4 (1.81%) Terraform
9 2 (0.90%) WSUS
10 1 (0.45%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 124 (56.11%) Microsoft
2 38 (17.19%) VMware
3 30 (13.57%) Apple
4 25 (11.31%) Sophos
5 20 (9.05%) Samsung
6 17 (7.69%) Google
7 15 (6.79%) ConnectWise
8 13 (5.88%) Cisco
9 10 (4.52%) Veeam
10 8 (3.62%) SAP
11 7 (3.17%) ServiceNow
12 6 (2.71%) Fortinet
13 5 (2.26%) Datto
13 5 (2.26%) HP
13 5 (2.26%) Juniper
13 5 (2.26%) McAfee
13 5 (2.26%) Oracle
14 4 (1.81%) Adobe
14 4 (1.81%) Meraki
15 3 (1.36%) Freshdesk