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 November 2025.

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

6 months to
8 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 504 467 382
Rank change year-on-year -37 -85 +247
Permanent jobs requiring a 2nd Line Engineer 162 292 405
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.32% 0.43% 0.76%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.35% 0.45% 0.79%
Number of salaries quoted 152 218 378
10th Percentile £28,500 £27,675 £26,250
25th Percentile £30,750 £29,750 £28,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £33,500 £34,000 £32,500
Median % change year-on-year -1.47% +4.62% -
75th Percentile £38,750 £40,000 £38,000
90th Percentile £42,500 £45,000 £42,150
UK excluding London median annual salary £33,000 £32,500 £31,000
% change year-on-year +1.54% +4.84% -1.59%

All Permanent IT Job Vacancies
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 46,066 64,284 51,077
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.12% 95.03% 95.51%
Number of salaries quoted 28,668 36,353 39,628
10th Percentile £28,250 £31,250 £31,500
25th Percentile £35,000 £42,238 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £57,500 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.70% -4.17% -
75th Percentile £73,750 £75,000 £80,000
90th Percentile £92,500 £95,000 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £46,000 £50,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -8.00% -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 November 2025.

Salary histogram for 2nd Line Engineer in the UK

2nd Line Engineer
Top 13 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 November 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 -19 162 £33,500 -1.47% 143
UK excluding London +6 133 £33,000 +1.54% 127
South East +5 41 £33,500 +2.29% 47
Work from Home +63 36 £33,000 - 43
South West +34 34 £33,000 - 13
London +26 29 £39,000 -2.50% 31
Midlands +47 25 £33,500 +9.84% 22
North of England -4 20 £31,000 -4.62% 31
West Midlands +33 14 £35,000 +16.67% 14
East of England +21 14 £33,000 +1.54% 14
North West +10 14 £29,750 -8.46% 21
East Midlands +14 11 £33,500 -1.47% 8
Yorkshire -6 6 £32,500 - 6

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

For the 6 months to 8 November 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.

1 117 (72.22%) Windows
2 103 (63.58%) Microsoft 365
3 86 (53.09%) Microsoft
4 78 (48.15%) Active Directory
5 61 (37.65%) Firewall
6 60 (37.04%) Azure
7 52 (32.10%) Windows Server
8 51 (31.48%) DNS
9 48 (29.63%) Microsoft Intune
10 43 (26.54%) Customer Service
11 42 (25.93%) VPN
12 40 (24.69%) DHCP
13 36 (22.22%) Problem-Solving
13 36 (22.22%) TCP/IP
13 36 (22.22%) VMware
13 36 (22.22%) Windows 10
14 35 (21.60%) Microsoft Exchange
15 32 (19.75%) Entra ID
16 31 (19.14%) Hyper-V
17 28 (17.28%) VLAN
17 28 (17.28%) VMware Infrastructure
17 28 (17.28%) WAN
18 26 (16.05%) LAN
18 26 (16.05%) Linux
18 26 (16.05%) SharePoint
19 25 (15.43%) Apple
19 25 (15.43%) ITIL
20 24 (14.81%) Sophos
21 22 (13.58%) Jamf Pro
22 21 (12.96%) Mentoring

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 35 (21.60%) Microsoft Exchange
2 26 (16.05%) SharePoint
3 5 (3.09%) IIS
Applications
1 9 (5.56%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (2.47%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.62%) Adobe Creative Suite
Business Applications
1 1 (0.62%) Carpe Diem
1 1 (0.62%) Elite 3E
Cloud Services
1 103 (63.58%) Microsoft 365
2 60 (37.04%) Azure
3 32 (19.75%) Entra ID
4 14 (8.64%) Google Workspace
5 8 (4.94%) OneDrive
6 7 (4.32%) AWS
7 4 (2.47%) Azure AKS
7 4 (2.47%) Azure DevOps
7 4 (2.47%) GitHub
8 3 (1.85%) SaaS
9 1 (0.62%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 61 (37.65%) Firewall
2 51 (31.48%) DNS
3 42 (25.93%) VPN
4 40 (24.69%) DHCP
5 36 (22.22%) TCP/IP
6 28 (17.28%) VLAN
6 28 (17.28%) WAN
7 26 (16.05%) LAN
8 17 (10.49%) Wi-Fi
9 14 (8.64%) VoIP
10 9 (5.56%) Wireless
11 8 (4.94%) IPsec
12 5 (3.09%) Cisco IOS
12 5 (3.09%) Internet
12 5 (3.09%) SD-WAN
13 3 (1.85%) DKIM
13 3 (1.85%) DMARC
13 3 (1.85%) PBX
13 3 (1.85%) Remote Desktop
14 2 (1.23%) PSTN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (6.17%) SQL Server
2 9 (5.56%) Amazon RDS
3 4 (2.47%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 4 (2.47%) Git
1 4 (2.47%) Jenkins
2 1 (0.62%) JIRA
General
1 67 (41.36%) Social Skills
2 21 (12.96%) Marketing
3 17 (10.49%) Law
4 14 (8.64%) Manufacturing
5 8 (4.94%) Finance
5 8 (4.94%) Telecoms
6 6 (3.70%) Electronics
6 6 (3.70%) Public Sector
7 5 (3.09%) Advertising
7 5 (3.09%) Games
8 4 (2.47%) Dutch Language
8 4 (2.47%) French Language
8 4 (2.47%) Spanish Language
9 2 (1.23%) Legal
10 1 (0.62%) Analytical Skills
10 1 (0.62%) Automotive
10 1 (0.62%) Financial Institution
10 1 (0.62%) Front Office
10 1 (0.62%) German Language
10 1 (0.62%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (2.47%) ARM Templates
Miscellaneous
1 33 (20.37%) Driving Licence
2 7 (4.32%) iPhone
2 7 (4.32%) Onboarding
3 5 (3.09%) Clustering
4 3 (1.85%) Smartphone
4 3 (1.85%) Social Media
5 2 (1.23%) Digital Signage
5 2 (1.23%) Enterprise Cloud
5 2 (1.23%) iPad
5 2 (1.23%) Mobile App
5 2 (1.23%) Self-Motivation
5 2 (1.23%) Video Conferencing
6 1 (0.62%) Client/Server
6 1 (0.62%) Hedge funds
6 1 (0.62%) IoT
6 1 (0.62%) Team-Oriented Environment
Operating Systems
1 117 (72.22%) Windows
2 52 (32.10%) Windows Server
3 36 (22.22%) Windows 10
4 26 (16.05%) Linux
5 18 (11.11%) Apple iOS
5 18 (11.11%) Mac OS
6 16 (9.88%) Android
7 9 (5.56%) Windows Server 2019
8 6 (3.70%) Windows Server 2016
9 2 (1.23%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 2 (1.23%) Windows Server 2012
10 1 (0.62%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 43 (26.54%) Customer Service
2 36 (22.22%) Problem-Solving
3 25 (15.43%) ITIL
4 21 (12.96%) Mentoring
5 18 (11.11%) Mobile Device Management
5 18 (11.11%) Service Management
6 17 (10.49%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 16 (9.88%) Cybersecurity
7 16 (9.88%) DevOps
7 16 (9.88%) ITSM
8 15 (9.26%) Configuration Management
9 12 (7.41%) Service Delivery
10 10 (6.17%) Continuous Improvement
11 9 (5.56%) Containerisation
11 9 (5.56%) Infrastructure as Code
11 9 (5.56%) Task Automation
12 8 (4.94%) Migration
13 7 (4.32%) Asset Management
13 7 (4.32%) CI/CD
13 7 (4.32%) Collaborative Culture
Programming Languages
1 19 (11.73%) PowerShell
2 5 (3.09%) Bicep
2 5 (3.09%) SQL
3 2 (1.23%) Java
Qualifications
1 20 (12.35%) SC Cleared
1 20 (12.35%) Security Cleared
2 14 (8.64%) BPSS Clearance
3 12 (7.41%) Degree
4 11 (6.79%) Microsoft Certification
5 7 (4.32%) A+ Certification
6 5 (3.09%) ACMT
6 5 (3.09%) Computer Science Degree
6 5 (3.09%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
7 4 (2.47%) DBS Check
7 4 (2.47%) MCP
8 2 (1.23%) AWS Certification
8 2 (1.23%) Azure Certification
8 2 (1.23%) Dell Certification
8 2 (1.23%) MCSA
9 1 (0.62%) ITIL Certification
9 1 (0.62%) MCITP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (12.35%) SLA
2 5 (3.09%) Cyber Essentials
3 3 (1.85%) GDPR
4 2 (1.23%) ISO 9000
5 1 (0.62%) Accessibility
System Software
1 78 (48.15%) Active Directory
2 31 (19.14%) Hyper-V
3 28 (17.28%) VMware Infrastructure
4 9 (5.56%) Docker
5 7 (4.32%) VMware ESXi
6 3 (1.85%) Firmware
7 2 (1.23%) Virtual Desktop
8 1 (0.62%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 48 (29.63%) Microsoft Intune
2 22 (13.58%) Jamf Pro
3 17 (10.49%) SCCM
4 9 (5.56%) Kubernetes
5 8 (4.94%) Autotask
6 5 (3.09%) MaaS360
6 5 (3.09%) vCenter Server
7 4 (2.47%) FortiGate
7 4 (2.47%) Terraform
8 3 (1.85%) SmoothWall
9 2 (1.23%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 2 (1.23%) WSUS
10 1 (0.62%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 86 (53.09%) Microsoft
2 36 (22.22%) VMware
3 25 (15.43%) Apple
4 24 (14.81%) Sophos
5 16 (9.88%) Cisco
5 16 (9.88%) Samsung
6 14 (8.64%) ConnectWise
7 10 (6.17%) Google
7 10 (6.17%) Veeam
8 6 (3.70%) SAP
8 6 (3.70%) ServiceNow
9 5 (3.09%) Datto
9 5 (3.09%) Fujitsu
9 5 (3.09%) McAfee
9 5 (3.09%) Oracle
10 4 (2.47%) Adobe
10 4 (2.47%) Juniper
10 4 (2.47%) Meraki
11 3 (1.85%) HP
12 2 (1.23%) Dell