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 20 July 2026.

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

6 months to
20 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 441 546 474
Rank change year-on-year +105 -72 -46
Permanent jobs requiring a 2nd Line Engineer 351 125 442
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.35% 0.25% 0.46%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.37% 0.28% 0.49%
Number of salaries quoted 298 119 394
10th Percentile £29,750 £29,000 £26,000
25th Percentile £31,250 £31,250 £27,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £35,000 £35,000 £32,500
Median % change year-on-year - +7.69% -
75th Percentile £38,750 £41,500 £36,000
90th Percentile £42,500 £43,750 £40,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £35,000 £32,750 £30,500
% change year-on-year +6.87% +7.38% -4.69%

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 94,139 44,347 91,129
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.26% 89.90% 94.76%
Number of salaries quoted 64,646 26,264 64,457
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,750 £29,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £37,500 £39,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £53,500
Median % change year-on-year - +2.80% -10.83%
75th Percentile £75,000 £75,000 £70,250
90th Percentile £95,000 £96,250 £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 20 July 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 20 July 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 +104 317 £35,000 - 59
UK excluding London +76 274 £35,000 +6.87% 54
South East +23 76 £32,500 -14.47% 21
London +15 74 £36,000 -7.69% 9
East of England +50 72 £35,000 +7.69% 17
Work from Home +22 71 £33,500 +3.08% 17
North of England +1 50 £34,500 +6.15% 9
North West +22 42 £35,000 +7.69%
Midlands -19 27 £32,500 - 3
Scotland +39 26 £33,500 +3.08%
West Midlands -8 19 £32,000 -8.57% 3
South West -53 18 £35,000 +0.72% 10
East Midlands -21 8 £35,000 +12.00%
Yorkshire -28 8 £31,000 -22.50% 5
Wales - 5 £35,000 -

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

For the 6 months to 20 July 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.

1 217 (61.82%) Microsoft
2 201 (57.26%) Microsoft 365
3 188 (53.56%) Windows
4 136 (38.75%) Active Directory
5 102 (29.06%) Problem-Solving
6 100 (28.49%) Customer Service
7 99 (28.21%) Azure
8 92 (26.21%) Windows Server
9 89 (25.36%) Entra ID
10 79 (22.51%) Firewall
10 79 (22.51%) Microsoft Exchange
11 76 (21.65%) DNS
12 66 (18.80%) DHCP
13 64 (18.23%) SharePoint
14 62 (17.66%) Windows 10
15 50 (14.25%) LAN
15 50 (14.25%) VPN
15 50 (14.25%) Wi-Fi
16 49 (13.96%) WAN
17 48 (13.68%) Microsoft Intune
18 44 (12.54%) Hyper-V
19 42 (11.97%) SLA
20 40 (11.40%) Mac OS
20 40 (11.40%) Service Delivery
20 40 (11.40%) VMware
21 38 (10.83%) TCP/IP
22 34 (9.69%) VMware Infrastructure
23 31 (8.83%) ITIL
23 31 (8.83%) PowerShell
24 30 (8.55%) Continuous Improvement

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 79 (22.51%) Microsoft Exchange
2 64 (18.23%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.57%) Skype for Business
4 1 (0.28%) WordPress
Applications
1 28 (7.98%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (1.42%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 5 (1.42%) Dynamics NAV
Cloud Services
1 201 (57.26%) Microsoft 365
2 99 (28.21%) Azure
3 89 (25.36%) Entra ID
4 21 (5.98%) Google Workspace
5 18 (5.13%) AWS
6 16 (4.56%) OneDrive
7 12 (3.42%) Power Platform
8 8 (2.28%) Cohesity
9 7 (1.99%) Mimecast
10 5 (1.42%) SaaS
11 3 (0.85%) Dynamics 365
11 3 (0.85%) Microsoft Copilot
11 3 (0.85%) PaaS
11 3 (0.85%) Power Automate
12 2 (0.57%) Amazon EC2
12 2 (0.57%) Azure Storage
12 2 (0.57%) Rubrik
12 2 (0.57%) Virtual Private Cloud
13 1 (0.28%) Azure Monitor
13 1 (0.28%) Cloud Computing
Communications & Networking
1 79 (22.51%) Firewall
2 76 (21.65%) DNS
3 66 (18.80%) DHCP
4 50 (14.25%) LAN
4 50 (14.25%) VPN
4 50 (14.25%) Wi-Fi
5 49 (13.96%) WAN
6 38 (10.83%) TCP/IP
7 29 (8.26%) VoIP
8 19 (5.41%) VLAN
9 11 (3.13%) SAN
10 10 (2.85%) Wireless
11 6 (1.71%) Remote Desktop
12 5 (1.42%) ADSL
12 5 (1.42%) Broadband
12 5 (1.42%) IPsec
12 5 (1.42%) MPLS
13 4 (1.14%) Internet
13 4 (1.14%) SD-WAN
14 3 (0.85%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (2.56%) Power BI
2 4 (1.14%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 2 (0.57%) JIRA
2 1 (0.28%) Carbide.c++
General
1 114 (32.48%) Social Skills
2 19 (5.41%) Telecoms
3 17 (4.84%) Legal
4 13 (3.70%) Documentation Skills
5 8 (2.28%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 7 (1.99%) Finance
6 7 (1.99%) Organisational Skills
6 7 (1.99%) Retail
7 6 (1.71%) Billing
8 5 (1.42%) Manufacturing
9 4 (1.14%) Public Sector
10 3 (0.85%) Advertising
11 2 (0.57%) Analytical Skills
11 2 (0.57%) Military
12 1 (0.28%) Aerospace
12 1 (0.28%) Automotive
12 1 (0.28%) Law
12 1 (0.28%) Marketing
Miscellaneous
1 42 (11.97%) Driving Licence
2 30 (8.55%) Onboarding
3 9 (2.56%) Smartphone
4 8 (2.28%) Data Centre
5 5 (1.42%) iPhone
6 4 (1.14%) Replication
7 3 (0.85%) IoT
8 2 (0.57%) Enterprise Cloud
8 2 (0.57%) Self-Motivation
9 1 (0.28%) Hedge funds
9 1 (0.28%) iPad
9 1 (0.28%) NHS
9 1 (0.28%) Public Cloud
9 1 (0.28%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 188 (53.56%) Windows
2 92 (26.21%) Windows Server
3 62 (17.66%) Windows 10
4 40 (11.40%) Mac OS
5 29 (8.26%) Windows Server 2019
6 28 (7.98%) Windows Server 2016
7 16 (4.56%) Android
8 9 (2.56%) Windows Server 2012
9 8 (2.28%) Apple iOS
10 3 (0.85%) Linux
10 3 (0.85%) VMS
10 3 (0.85%) Windows 7
11 2 (0.57%) AIX
11 2 (0.57%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 1 (0.28%) Mac OS X
12 1 (0.28%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 102 (29.06%) Problem-Solving
2 100 (28.49%) Customer Service
3 40 (11.40%) Service Delivery
4 31 (8.83%) ITIL
5 30 (8.55%) Continuous Improvement
5 30 (8.55%) Cybersecurity
6 23 (6.55%) ITSM
7 22 (6.27%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 18 (5.13%) Cloud Security
9 17 (4.84%) Collaborative Culture
9 17 (4.84%) Mentoring
10 15 (4.27%) Remote Monitoring and Management
10 15 (4.27%) User Experience
11 14 (3.99%) Incident Management
12 13 (3.70%) Project Delivery
12 13 (3.70%) Service Management
13 12 (3.42%) Client Onboarding
13 12 (3.42%) Disaster Recovery
13 12 (3.42%) Incident Response
14 11 (3.13%) Identity Management
Programming Languages
1 31 (8.83%) PowerShell
2 6 (1.71%) SQL
3 4 (1.14%) VBScript
4 3 (0.85%) Python
5 2 (0.57%) Java
Qualifications
1 23 (6.55%) Microsoft Certification
2 22 (6.27%) Security Cleared
3 16 (4.56%) Degree
4 13 (3.70%) SC Cleared
5 8 (2.28%) A+ Certification
5 8 (2.28%) DBS Check
6 6 (1.71%) HND
7 3 (0.85%) HP APS
8 2 (0.57%) Dell Certification
8 2 (0.57%) MCSA
9 1 (0.28%) CCNA
9 1 (0.28%) CCNP
9 1 (0.28%) Cisco Certification
9 1 (0.28%) DV Cleared
9 1 (0.28%) ITIL Certification
9 1 (0.28%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 42 (11.97%) SLA
2 6 (1.71%) Accessibility
3 4 (1.14%) GDPR
4 1 (0.28%) Cyber Essentials
4 1 (0.28%) QA
System Software
1 136 (38.75%) Active Directory
2 44 (12.54%) Hyper-V
3 34 (9.69%) VMware Infrastructure
4 11 (3.13%) Virtual Desktop
5 10 (2.85%) BitLocker
6 3 (0.85%) Terminal Services
7 2 (0.57%) Virtual Machines
7 2 (0.57%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.28%) Terminal Server
Systems Management
1 48 (13.68%) Microsoft Intune
2 11 (3.13%) SCCM
3 10 (2.85%) Autotask
3 10 (2.85%) WSUS
4 9 (2.56%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 7 (1.99%) FortiGate
6 4 (1.14%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
7 2 (0.57%) Netcool
7 2 (0.57%) ZABBIX
8 1 (0.28%) Jamf Pro
8 1 (0.28%) Nagios
Vendors
1 217 (61.82%) Microsoft
2 40 (11.40%) VMware
3 20 (5.70%) Google
4 17 (4.84%) Cisco
4 17 (4.84%) Meraki
5 14 (3.99%) HP
6 12 (3.42%) ServiceNow
7 10 (2.85%) Fortinet
7 10 (2.85%) NetApp
8 8 (2.28%) Sophos
8 8 (2.28%) Veeam
9 6 (1.71%) SolarWinds
10 4 (1.14%) Dell
10 4 (1.14%) Sage
10 4 (1.14%) Samsung
11 3 (0.85%) Barracuda Networks
11 3 (0.85%) Fujitsu
11 3 (0.85%) Juniper
11 3 (0.85%) Snow
11 3 (0.85%) SonicWALL