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 8 February 2026.

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

6 months to
8 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 420 486 410
Rank change year-on-year +66 -76 +138
Permanent jobs requiring a 2nd Line Engineer 258 221 457
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.39% 0.44% 0.61%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.43% 0.47% 0.65%
Number of salaries quoted 239 184 431
10th Percentile £28,500 £28,500 £25,500
25th Percentile £30,625 £30,000 £27,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £33,500 £35,000 £32,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.29% +9.38% -1.54%
75th Percentile £40,000 £41,500 £37,500
90th Percentile £43,750 £43,750 £43,750
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 59,491 46,587 70,587
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 91.01% 91.89% 94.95%
Number of salaries quoted 37,142 24,097 55,321
10th Percentile £29,000 £33,500 £28,500
25th Percentile £37,500 £45,000 £39,520
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -8.33%
75th Percentile £75,000 £80,000 £73,750
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -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 8 February 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 8 February 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 +78 249 £33,500 -4.29% 93
UK excluding London +99 212 £33,500 +3.08% 87
South East +10 62 £32,000 -8.57% 32
Work from Home +54 47 £33,000 +1.54% 22
London +21 46 £42,000 +5.00% 7
South West +29 41 £32,750 -2.24% 12
Midlands +38 40 £35,000 +14.75% 10
East of England +40 35 £33,500 +3.08% 13
North of England -8 26 £30,000 - 23
West Midlands +33 21 £37,500 +12.78% 7
North West +23 17 £30,000 -7.69% 15
East Midlands -11 14 £33,500 +10.74% 3
Yorkshire -31 9 £33,500 +11.67% 8
Scotland -5 8 £40,000 +50.94%
Wales +2 1 £34,000 -

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

For the 6 months to 8 February 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.

1 165 (63.95%) Microsoft 365
2 163 (63.18%) Windows
3 142 (55.04%) Microsoft
4 121 (46.90%) Active Directory
5 108 (41.86%) Azure
6 106 (41.09%) Windows Server
7 89 (34.50%) Problem-Solving
8 81 (31.40%) Firewall
9 78 (30.23%) DNS
10 71 (27.52%) DHCP
11 65 (25.19%) VPN
12 64 (24.81%) Windows 10
13 62 (24.03%) Microsoft Exchange
14 59 (22.87%) Entra ID
15 51 (19.77%) TCP/IP
16 49 (18.99%) SharePoint
16 49 (18.99%) VLAN
16 49 (18.99%) Wi-Fi
17 47 (18.22%) Hyper-V
17 47 (18.22%) Microsoft Intune
18 46 (17.83%) Customer Service
19 45 (17.44%) LAN
19 45 (17.44%) WAN
20 42 (16.28%) SLA
21 36 (13.95%) VMware
22 32 (12.40%) Security Cleared
23 31 (12.02%) SC Cleared
24 29 (11.24%) Apple
25 28 (10.85%) Google Workspace
25 28 (10.85%) 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 62 (24.03%) Microsoft Exchange
2 49 (18.99%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.78%) IIS
4 1 (0.39%) Confluence
Applications
1 18 (6.98%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (1.16%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.39%) Adobe Creative Suite
Business Applications
1 5 (1.94%) Dynamics CRM
2 3 (1.16%) Dynamics NAV
3 1 (0.39%) Carpe Diem
3 1 (0.39%) Elite 3E
Cloud Services
1 165 (63.95%) Microsoft 365
2 108 (41.86%) Azure
3 59 (22.87%) Entra ID
4 28 (10.85%) Google Workspace
5 23 (8.91%) AWS
6 18 (6.98%) OneDrive
7 4 (1.55%) Azure AKS
7 4 (1.55%) Azure DevOps
7 4 (1.55%) GitHub
7 4 (1.55%) Mimecast
7 4 (1.55%) SaaS
8 1 (0.39%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 81 (31.40%) Firewall
2 78 (30.23%) DNS
3 71 (27.52%) DHCP
4 65 (25.19%) VPN
5 51 (19.77%) TCP/IP
6 49 (18.99%) VLAN
6 49 (18.99%) Wi-Fi
7 45 (17.44%) LAN
7 45 (17.44%) WAN
8 22 (8.53%) VoIP
9 15 (5.81%) Wireless
10 10 (3.88%) IPsec
10 10 (3.88%) Remote Desktop
11 5 (1.94%) SD-WAN
12 3 (1.16%) Broadband
12 3 (1.16%) DKIM
12 3 (1.16%) DMARC
12 3 (1.16%) NetScaler
13 2 (0.78%) PBX
13 2 (0.78%) PSTN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (2.33%) Amazon RDS
2 5 (1.94%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 7 (2.71%) JIRA
2 4 (1.55%) Git
2 4 (1.55%) Jenkins
General
1 84 (32.56%) Social Skills
2 27 (10.47%) Law
3 24 (9.30%) Marketing
4 11 (4.26%) Manufacturing
5 9 (3.49%) Finance
6 7 (2.71%) Telecoms
7 6 (2.33%) Retail
8 5 (1.94%) Organisational Skills
9 4 (1.55%) Advertising
9 4 (1.55%) Dutch Language
9 4 (1.55%) Electronics
9 4 (1.55%) French Language
9 4 (1.55%) Public Sector
9 4 (1.55%) Spanish Language
10 3 (1.16%) Legal
11 2 (0.78%) Automotive
11 2 (0.78%) Documentation Skills
11 2 (0.78%) Front Office
11 2 (0.78%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 1 (0.39%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (1.55%) ARM Templates
Miscellaneous
1 48 (18.60%) Driving Licence
2 12 (4.65%) Onboarding
3 3 (1.16%) Mobile App
3 3 (1.16%) Video Conferencing
4 2 (0.78%) IoT
4 2 (0.78%) iPad
4 2 (0.78%) iPhone
4 2 (0.78%) Self-Motivation
5 1 (0.39%) Client/Server
5 1 (0.39%) Clustering
5 1 (0.39%) Digital Signage
5 1 (0.39%) Hedge funds
5 1 (0.39%) PKI
5 1 (0.39%) Smartphone
5 1 (0.39%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 163 (63.18%) Windows
2 106 (41.09%) Windows Server
3 64 (24.81%) Windows 10
4 28 (10.85%) Mac OS
4 28 (10.85%) Windows Server 2016
4 28 (10.85%) Windows Server 2019
5 27 (10.47%) Apple iOS
6 25 (9.69%) Android
7 15 (5.81%) Windows Server 2012
8 11 (4.26%) Linux
9 1 (0.39%) Windows 7
9 1 (0.39%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 89 (34.50%) Problem-Solving
2 46 (17.83%) Customer Service
3 28 (10.85%) ITIL
4 26 (10.08%) Service Management
5 24 (9.30%) Mobile Device Management
6 23 (8.91%) ITSM
7 22 (8.53%) Service Delivery
8 21 (8.14%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 20 (7.75%) Configuration Management
9 20 (7.75%) Mentoring
10 19 (7.36%) Cybersecurity
11 18 (6.98%) Continuous Improvement
12 15 (5.81%) Remote Monitoring and Management
13 8 (3.10%) CI/CD
13 8 (3.10%) DevOps
14 7 (2.71%) Asset Management
15 6 (2.33%) Migration
15 6 (2.33%) Proactive Maintenance
15 6 (2.33%) Process Improvement
15 6 (2.33%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 13 (5.04%) PowerShell
2 4 (1.55%) SQL
Qualifications
1 32 (12.40%) Security Cleared
2 31 (12.02%) SC Cleared
3 14 (5.43%) Microsoft Certification
4 12 (4.65%) BPSS Clearance
5 6 (2.33%) A+ Certification
6 5 (1.94%) CompTIA Security+
6 5 (1.94%) Degree
7 4 (1.55%) Computer Science Degree
7 4 (1.55%) Microsoft Certified Professional
8 3 (1.16%) Network+ Certification
9 2 (0.78%) AWS Certification
9 2 (0.78%) Azure Certification
9 2 (0.78%) ITIL Certification
10 1 (0.39%) ACMT
10 1 (0.39%) CCNA
10 1 (0.39%) CCNP
10 1 (0.39%) Cisco Certification
10 1 (0.39%) DBS Check
10 1 (0.39%) DV Cleared
10 1 (0.39%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 42 (16.28%) SLA
2 8 (3.10%) Cyber Essentials
3 4 (1.55%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 4 (1.55%) NIST
4 3 (1.16%) Accessibility
4 3 (1.16%) GDPR
4 3 (1.16%) QA
System Software
1 121 (46.90%) Active Directory
2 47 (18.22%) Hyper-V
3 27 (10.47%) VMware Infrastructure
4 10 (3.88%) Virtual Desktop
5 5 (1.94%) Docker
6 4 (1.55%) Firmware
7 3 (1.16%) BitLocker
8 1 (0.39%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.39%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 47 (18.22%) Microsoft Intune
2 24 (9.30%) Jamf Pro
3 14 (5.43%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 10 (3.88%) SCCM
5 5 (1.94%) Autotask
5 5 (1.94%) Kubernetes
6 4 (1.55%) Terraform
7 3 (1.16%) FortiGate
8 2 (0.78%) Nagios
8 2 (0.78%) vCenter Server
9 1 (0.39%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 142 (55.04%) Microsoft
2 36 (13.95%) VMware
3 29 (11.24%) Apple
4 24 (9.30%) Google
5 21 (8.14%) Samsung
6 14 (5.43%) Sophos
7 12 (4.65%) ConnectWise
8 9 (3.49%) Cisco
9 8 (3.10%) ServiceNow
10 7 (2.71%) Veeam
11 6 (2.33%) Fortinet
12 4 (1.55%) Adobe
12 4 (1.55%) Meraki
12 4 (1.55%) SAP
12 4 (1.55%) SolarWinds
13 3 (1.16%) Aruba
13 3 (1.16%) CheckPoint
13 3 (1.16%) F5
13 3 (1.16%) HP
13 3 (1.16%) Juniper