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 16 August 2026.

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

6 months to
16 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 478 581 463
Rank change year-on-year +103 -118 -62
Permanent jobs requiring a 2nd Line Engineer 332 108 358
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.31% 0.22% 0.43%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.33% 0.24% 0.45%
Number of salaries quoted 279 101 312
10th Percentile £29,750 £29,750 £26,250
25th Percentile £31,250 £31,250 £28,368
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £35,000 £33,500 £32,500
Median % change year-on-year +4.48% +3.08% -0.61%
75th Percentile £38,750 £41,000 £37,000
90th Percentile £42,500 £45,000 £40,225
UK excluding London median annual salary £35,000 £32,875 £32,500
% change year-on-year +6.46% +1.15% -

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 100,469 44,986 78,750
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.01% 89.94% 95.03%
Number of salaries quoted 68,644 26,650 52,502
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,250 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £36,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £56,400 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +2.55% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £75,000 £75,000 £72,250
90th Percentile £96,250 £95,000 £91,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £48,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +9.38% -4.00% -6.54%

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 16 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 16 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 +84 300 £35,000 +3.70% 51
UK excluding London +66 262 £35,000 +6.46% 51
East of England +36 71 £35,000 +7.69% 18
South East 0 69 £32,500 -9.72% 17
Work from Home +13 67 £33,500 +3.08% 11
London -8 67 £36,000 -7.69% 3
North of England -27 47 £35,000 +7.69% 4
North West +19 40 £35,000 +7.69% 1
Midlands -17 25 £32,500 - 13
Scotland +26 24 £30,000 -7.69% 1
South West -71 21 £35,000 +6.06% 1
West Midlands -22 16 £32,000 -5.88% 11
East Midlands -21 9 £35,000 +7.69% 2
Yorkshire -30 7 £30,500 -23.75% 1
Wales - 5 £35,000 -

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

For the 6 months to 16 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.

1 206 (62.05%) Microsoft
2 186 (56.02%) Microsoft 365
3 174 (52.41%) Windows
4 124 (37.35%) Active Directory
5 101 (30.42%) Customer Service
6 90 (27.11%) Problem-Solving
7 89 (26.81%) Entra ID
8 84 (25.30%) Azure
9 82 (24.70%) Windows Server
10 78 (23.49%) Firewall
11 70 (21.08%) Microsoft Exchange
12 64 (19.28%) DNS
13 62 (18.67%) SharePoint
14 52 (15.66%) DHCP
14 52 (15.66%) Windows 10
15 43 (12.95%) Microsoft Intune
15 43 (12.95%) VPN
16 42 (12.65%) Hyper-V
17 41 (12.35%) VMware
17 41 (12.35%) WAN
18 40 (12.05%) TCP/IP
19 39 (11.75%) LAN
20 38 (11.45%) SLA
21 37 (11.14%) VMware Infrastructure
22 36 (10.84%) Mac OS
23 34 (10.24%) Service Delivery
24 31 (9.34%) Wi-Fi
25 30 (9.04%) Continuous Improvement
26 26 (7.83%) ITIL
26 26 (7.83%) 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 70 (21.08%) Microsoft Exchange
2 62 (18.67%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.60%) Skype for Business
4 1 (0.30%) WordPress
Applications
1 23 (6.93%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (1.81%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.30%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 1 (0.30%) Dynamics NAV
Cloud Services
1 186 (56.02%) Microsoft 365
2 89 (26.81%) Entra ID
3 84 (25.30%) Azure
4 19 (5.72%) Google Workspace
5 16 (4.82%) AWS
6 15 (4.52%) OneDrive
7 14 (4.22%) Power Platform
8 8 (2.41%) Cohesity
9 5 (1.51%) SaaS
10 3 (0.90%) Dynamics 365
10 3 (0.90%) Microsoft Copilot
10 3 (0.90%) PaaS
10 3 (0.90%) Power Automate
11 2 (0.60%) Amazon EC2
11 2 (0.60%) Azure Storage
11 2 (0.60%) Mimecast
11 2 (0.60%) PowerApps
11 2 (0.60%) Rubrik
11 2 (0.60%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 1 (0.30%) Cloud Computing
Communications & Networking
1 78 (23.49%) Firewall
2 64 (19.28%) DNS
3 52 (15.66%) DHCP
4 43 (12.95%) VPN
5 41 (12.35%) WAN
6 40 (12.05%) TCP/IP
7 39 (11.75%) LAN
8 31 (9.34%) Wi-Fi
9 26 (7.83%) VoIP
10 13 (3.92%) VLAN
10 13 (3.92%) Wireless
11 11 (3.31%) SAN
12 6 (1.81%) MPLS
13 5 (1.51%) IPsec
13 5 (1.51%) SSL
14 4 (1.20%) Internet
14 4 (1.20%) SD-WAN
15 3 (0.90%) ADSL
15 3 (0.90%) BGP
15 3 (0.90%) Broadband
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (2.71%) Power BI
2 4 (1.20%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 2 (0.60%) JIRA
2 1 (0.30%) Carbide.c++
General
1 117 (35.24%) Social Skills
2 22 (6.63%) Legal
3 16 (4.82%) Telecoms
4 12 (3.61%) Documentation Skills
5 10 (3.01%) Organisational Skills
6 8 (2.41%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 7 (2.11%) Retail
8 6 (1.81%) Billing
9 5 (1.51%) Analytical Skills
9 5 (1.51%) Manufacturing
10 4 (1.20%) Finance
10 4 (1.20%) Public Sector
11 3 (0.90%) Advertising
12 2 (0.60%) Military
13 1 (0.30%) Aerospace
Miscellaneous
1 42 (12.65%) Driving Licence
2 35 (10.54%) Onboarding
3 9 (2.71%) Smartphone
4 8 (2.41%) Data Centre
5 5 (1.51%) iPhone
6 4 (1.20%) Replication
7 3 (0.90%) IoT
7 3 (0.90%) iPad
8 2 (0.60%) Enterprise Cloud
8 2 (0.60%) Hybrid Cloud
8 2 (0.60%) Self-Motivation
9 1 (0.30%) Educational Technology
9 1 (0.30%) Hedge funds
9 1 (0.30%) Management Information System
9 1 (0.30%) NHS
9 1 (0.30%) Public Cloud
9 1 (0.30%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 174 (52.41%) Windows
2 82 (24.70%) Windows Server
3 52 (15.66%) Windows 10
4 36 (10.84%) Mac OS
5 21 (6.33%) Windows Server 2019
6 19 (5.72%) Windows Server 2016
7 13 (3.92%) Android
8 5 (1.51%) Apple iOS
9 4 (1.20%) Windows Server 2012
10 3 (0.90%) Linux
10 3 (0.90%) VMS
11 2 (0.60%) AIX
11 2 (0.60%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 2 (0.60%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 101 (30.42%) Customer Service
2 90 (27.11%) Problem-Solving
3 34 (10.24%) Service Delivery
4 30 (9.04%) Continuous Improvement
5 26 (7.83%) ITIL
6 25 (7.53%) Cybersecurity
7 20 (6.02%) ITSM
8 19 (5.72%) Collaborative Culture
8 19 (5.72%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 16 (4.82%) Client Onboarding
9 16 (4.82%) Remote Monitoring and Management
10 15 (4.52%) Cloud Security
10 15 (4.52%) Disaster Recovery
10 15 (4.52%) Mentoring
10 15 (4.52%) User Experience
11 14 (4.22%) Project Delivery
12 13 (3.92%) Incident Management
13 11 (3.31%) Identity Management
14 10 (3.01%) AI
14 10 (3.01%) Service Management
Programming Languages
1 26 (7.83%) PowerShell
2 6 (1.81%) SQL
3 4 (1.20%) VBScript
4 3 (0.90%) Python
5 2 (0.60%) Java
Qualifications
1 21 (6.33%) Microsoft Certification
1 21 (6.33%) Security Cleared
2 16 (4.82%) Degree
3 12 (3.61%) SC Cleared
4 9 (2.71%) DBS Check
5 8 (2.41%) A+ Certification
6 6 (1.81%) HND
7 3 (0.90%) CCNA
7 3 (0.90%) Cisco Certification
7 3 (0.90%) HP APS
8 2 (0.60%) CCNP
8 2 (0.60%) Dell Certification
8 2 (0.60%) MCSA
9 1 (0.30%) DV Cleared
9 1 (0.30%) JNCIS
9 1 (0.30%) Microsoft Certified Professional
9 1 (0.30%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 38 (11.45%) SLA
2 8 (2.41%) GDPR
3 4 (1.20%) Accessibility
4 1 (0.30%) Cyber Essentials
System Software
1 124 (37.35%) Active Directory
2 42 (12.65%) Hyper-V
3 37 (11.14%) VMware Infrastructure
4 10 (3.01%) BitLocker
5 9 (2.71%) Virtual Desktop
6 3 (0.90%) Terminal Services
7 2 (0.60%) Virtual Machines
7 2 (0.60%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.30%) Terminal Server
Systems Management
1 43 (12.95%) Microsoft Intune
2 10 (3.01%) Autotask
2 10 (3.01%) SCCM
2 10 (3.01%) WSUS
3 7 (2.11%) FortiGate
4 4 (1.20%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 4 (1.20%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
5 2 (0.60%) Netcool
5 2 (0.60%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 206 (62.05%) Microsoft
2 41 (12.35%) VMware
3 20 (6.02%) Cisco
4 19 (5.72%) Google
4 19 (5.72%) Meraki
5 15 (4.52%) HP
6 13 (3.92%) Fortinet
7 12 (3.61%) ServiceNow
8 10 (3.01%) NetApp
8 10 (3.01%) Veeam
9 6 (1.81%) Sophos
10 5 (1.51%) Citrix
10 5 (1.51%) Dell
10 5 (1.51%) SolarWinds
11 4 (1.20%) Juniper
11 4 (1.20%) Sage
11 4 (1.20%) SonicWALL
12 3 (0.90%) Barracuda Networks
12 3 (0.90%) Fujitsu
12 3 (0.90%) Palo Alto