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 14 January 2026.

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

6 months to
14 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 427 487 385
Rank change year-on-year +60 -102 +170
Permanent jobs requiring a 2nd Line Engineer 233 216 378
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.39% 0.40% 0.68%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.43% 0.43% 0.71%
Number of salaries quoted 217 175 350
10th Percentile £29,000 £28,500 £26,225
25th Percentile £30,625 £30,000 £28,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £33,500 £34,500 £32,500
Median % change year-on-year -2.90% +6.15% -
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 £30,000
% change year-on-year +1.54% +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 54,426 49,714 53,040
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.72% 92.90% 95.25%
Number of salaries quoted 33,710 25,743 40,880
10th Percentile £28,500 £33,625 £30,000
25th Percentile £37,000 £45,000 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +4.35% -4.17%
75th Percentile £75,000 £78,750 £77,500
90th Percentile £95,000 £97,500 £96,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,609 £50,000
% change year-on-year -4.96% +5.22% -5.25%

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 14 January 2026.

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 14 January 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 +82 229 £33,500 -4.29% 56
UK excluding London +97 189 £33,000 +1.54% 58
South East +36 57 £32,000 -3.03% 21
South West +38 45 £33,000 -1.49% 6
London +26 44 £40,000 +5.96% 5
Work from Home +75 43 £33,000 +0.76% 15
Midlands +42 39 £35,000 +14.75% 6
East of England +30 25 £33,500 +3.08% 15
West Midlands +34 22 £36,250 +20.83% 3
North of England +3 20 £30,000 -7.69% 9
North West +16 13 £30,000 -7.69% 4
East Midlands -5 12 £33,500 +3.88% 3
Yorkshire -12 7 £33,000 +10.00% 5
Scotland +9 4 £40,000 +50.94% 5

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

For the 6 months to 14 January 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.

1 151 (64.81%) Microsoft 365
2 147 (63.09%) Windows
3 129 (55.36%) Microsoft
4 107 (45.92%) Active Directory
5 100 (42.92%) Azure
6 89 (38.20%) Windows Server
7 76 (32.62%) Firewall
8 70 (30.04%) Problem-Solving
9 68 (29.18%) DNS
10 61 (26.18%) DHCP
11 57 (24.46%) VPN
12 53 (22.75%) Entra ID
13 51 (21.89%) Microsoft Intune
13 51 (21.89%) Windows 10
14 49 (21.03%) Microsoft Exchange
14 49 (21.03%) TCP/IP
15 45 (19.31%) Customer Service
15 45 (19.31%) Hyper-V
15 45 (19.31%) SharePoint
16 43 (18.45%) VLAN
17 39 (16.74%) SLA
18 37 (15.88%) VMware
18 37 (15.88%) WAN
19 36 (15.45%) LAN
19 36 (15.45%) Wi-Fi
20 31 (13.30%) Security Cleared
21 30 (12.88%) Apple
21 30 (12.88%) SC Cleared
22 28 (12.02%) ITIL
23 27 (11.59%) 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 49 (21.03%) Microsoft Exchange
2 45 (19.31%) SharePoint
3 4 (1.72%) IIS
4 1 (0.43%) Confluence
Applications
1 13 (5.58%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (1.72%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.43%) Adobe Creative Suite
Business Applications
1 5 (2.15%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.43%) Carpe Diem
2 1 (0.43%) Elite 3E
Cloud Services
1 151 (64.81%) Microsoft 365
2 100 (42.92%) Azure
3 53 (22.75%) Entra ID
4 23 (9.87%) Google Workspace
5 18 (7.73%) AWS
6 16 (6.87%) OneDrive
7 4 (1.72%) Azure AKS
7 4 (1.72%) Azure DevOps
7 4 (1.72%) GitHub
7 4 (1.72%) SaaS
8 1 (0.43%) GCP
8 1 (0.43%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 76 (32.62%) Firewall
2 68 (29.18%) DNS
3 61 (26.18%) DHCP
4 57 (24.46%) VPN
5 49 (21.03%) TCP/IP
6 43 (18.45%) VLAN
7 37 (15.88%) WAN
8 36 (15.45%) LAN
8 36 (15.45%) Wi-Fi
9 18 (7.73%) VoIP
10 16 (6.87%) Wireless
11 12 (5.15%) IPsec
12 7 (3.00%) Remote Desktop
13 5 (2.15%) Cisco IOS
14 3 (1.29%) DKIM
14 3 (1.29%) DMARC
14 3 (1.29%) NetScaler
14 3 (1.29%) PBX
14 3 (1.29%) SD-WAN
15 2 (0.86%) PSTN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (3.86%) Amazon RDS
1 9 (3.86%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 7 (3.00%) JIRA
2 4 (1.72%) Git
2 4 (1.72%) Jenkins
General
1 81 (34.76%) Social Skills
2 26 (11.16%) Law
2 26 (11.16%) Marketing
3 14 (6.01%) Manufacturing
4 10 (4.29%) Finance
5 8 (3.43%) Telecoms
6 7 (3.00%) Electronics
6 7 (3.00%) Public Sector
7 6 (2.58%) Advertising
8 4 (1.72%) Dutch Language
8 4 (1.72%) French Language
8 4 (1.72%) Games
8 4 (1.72%) Spanish Language
9 3 (1.29%) Legal
9 3 (1.29%) Retail
10 2 (0.86%) Front Office
10 2 (0.86%) Organisational Skills
11 1 (0.43%) Automotive
11 1 (0.43%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 1 (0.43%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (1.72%) ARM Templates
Miscellaneous
1 44 (18.88%) Driving Licence
2 13 (5.58%) Onboarding
3 4 (1.72%) Clustering
3 4 (1.72%) iPhone
4 3 (1.29%) Mobile App
4 3 (1.29%) Video Conferencing
5 2 (0.86%) Digital Signage
5 2 (0.86%) IoT
5 2 (0.86%) iPad
5 2 (0.86%) Self-Motivation
6 1 (0.43%) Client/Server
6 1 (0.43%) Enterprise Cloud
6 1 (0.43%) Hedge funds
6 1 (0.43%) PKI
6 1 (0.43%) Smartphone
6 1 (0.43%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 147 (63.09%) Windows
2 89 (38.20%) Windows Server
3 51 (21.89%) Windows 10
4 24 (10.30%) Apple iOS
4 24 (10.30%) Mac OS
5 22 (9.44%) Android
6 20 (8.58%) Windows Server 2019
7 18 (7.73%) Windows Server 2016
8 16 (6.87%) Linux
9 9 (3.86%) Windows Server 2012
10 1 (0.43%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 70 (30.04%) Problem-Solving
2 45 (19.31%) Customer Service
3 28 (12.02%) ITIL
4 24 (10.30%) Mentoring
5 23 (9.87%) Service Management
6 22 (9.44%) Mobile Device Management
7 20 (8.58%) ITSM
8 19 (8.15%) Configuration Management
9 18 (7.73%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 17 (7.30%) Service Delivery
11 16 (6.87%) Cybersecurity
12 15 (6.44%) Continuous Improvement
12 15 (6.44%) Remote Monitoring and Management
13 12 (5.15%) DevOps
14 8 (3.43%) CI/CD
14 8 (3.43%) Containerisation
14 8 (3.43%) Infrastructure as Code
14 8 (3.43%) Migration
15 7 (3.00%) Business Intelligence
15 7 (3.00%) Programme Management
Programming Languages
1 15 (6.44%) PowerShell
2 5 (2.15%) SQL
3 4 (1.72%) Bicep
4 1 (0.43%) Java
Qualifications
1 31 (13.30%) Security Cleared
2 30 (12.88%) SC Cleared
3 15 (6.44%) BPSS Clearance
4 12 (5.15%) Microsoft Certification
5 6 (2.58%) A+ Certification
6 5 (2.15%) Degree
7 4 (1.72%) ACMT
7 4 (1.72%) CompTIA Security+
7 4 (1.72%) Computer Science Degree
7 4 (1.72%) MCP
7 4 (1.72%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 2 (0.86%) AWS Certification
8 2 (0.86%) Azure Certification
8 2 (0.86%) Network+ Certification
9 1 (0.43%) CCNA
9 1 (0.43%) CCNP
9 1 (0.43%) Cisco Certification
9 1 (0.43%) DBS Check
9 1 (0.43%) Dell Certification
9 1 (0.43%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 39 (16.74%) SLA
2 10 (4.29%) Cyber Essentials
3 4 (1.72%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 4 (1.72%) NIST
4 3 (1.29%) GDPR
5 2 (0.86%) QA
6 1 (0.43%) Accessibility
System Software
1 107 (45.92%) Active Directory
2 45 (19.31%) Hyper-V
3 27 (11.59%) VMware Infrastructure
4 8 (3.43%) Docker
5 7 (3.00%) Virtual Desktop
6 5 (2.15%) VMware ESXi
7 4 (1.72%) Firmware
8 3 (1.29%) BitLocker
9 1 (0.43%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 51 (21.89%) Microsoft Intune
2 23 (9.87%) Jamf Pro
3 16 (6.87%) SCCM
4 9 (3.86%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 8 (3.43%) Autotask
5 8 (3.43%) Kubernetes
6 5 (2.15%) vCenter Server
7 4 (1.72%) MaaS360
7 4 (1.72%) Terraform
8 3 (1.29%) FortiGate
9 1 (0.43%) Single Sign-On
9 1 (0.43%) WSUS
Vendors
1 129 (55.36%) Microsoft
2 37 (15.88%) VMware
3 30 (12.88%) Apple
4 23 (9.87%) Sophos
5 20 (8.58%) Samsung
6 19 (8.15%) Google
7 15 (6.44%) ConnectWise
8 11 (4.72%) Cisco
9 9 (3.86%) Veeam
10 7 (3.00%) SAP
10 7 (3.00%) ServiceNow
11 6 (2.58%) Fortinet
12 4 (1.72%) Adobe
12 4 (1.72%) Datto
12 4 (1.72%) HP
12 4 (1.72%) Juniper
12 4 (1.72%) McAfee
12 4 (1.72%) Meraki
12 4 (1.72%) Oracle
13 3 (1.29%) Palo Alto