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 28 March 2026.

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

6 months to
28 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 412 493 446
Rank change year-on-year +81 -47 +64
Permanent jobs requiring a 2nd Line Engineer 305 149 480
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.39% 0.37% 0.54%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.42% 0.41% 0.57%
Number of salaries quoted 283 142 458
10th Percentile £28,750 £28,525 £26,000
25th Percentile £30,625 £30,000 £27,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £35,000 £35,000 £31,750
Median % change year-on-year - +10.24% -2.31%
75th Percentile £40,000 £41,500 £36,000
90th Percentile £42,500 £43,750 £40,475
UK excluding London median annual salary £33,500 £33,000 £30,000
% change year-on-year +1.52% +10.00% -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 71,927 36,735 83,837
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.11% 90.01% 94.59%
Number of salaries quoted 46,076 23,059 63,351
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £42,500 £38,750
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 £79,608 £72,466
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £91,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £53,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -5.66% +6.00% -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 28 March 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 28 March 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 +97 295 £35,000 - 69
UK excluding London +76 244 £33,500 +1.52% 60
South East +1 80 £32,500 -13.33% 22
Work from Home +30 61 £33,000 +1.54% 20
London +20 61 £40,000 - 12
East of England +9 47 £33,500 +3.08% 11
South West -13 41 £32,750 -2.24% 9
Midlands 0 39 £35,000 +15.70% 5
North of England -50 28 £30,000 - 14
West Midlands +12 22 £35,000 +12.90% 4
North West -10 19 £30,000 - 9
East Midlands -42 12 £35,000 +16.67% 1
Scotland -17 9 £40,000 +30.08%
Yorkshire -64 9 £33,500 +3.08% 5
Wales - 1 £34,000 -

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

For the 6 months to 28 March 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.

1 192 (62.95%) Microsoft 365
2 181 (59.34%) Windows
3 180 (59.02%) Microsoft
4 137 (44.92%) Active Directory
5 122 (40.00%) Azure
6 121 (39.67%) Windows Server
7 107 (35.08%) Problem-Solving
8 85 (27.87%) DNS
9 81 (26.56%) Firewall
10 78 (25.57%) DHCP
11 72 (23.61%) Microsoft Exchange
12 71 (23.28%) Windows 10
13 67 (21.97%) VPN
14 63 (20.66%) Wi-Fi
15 61 (20.00%) Customer Service
15 61 (20.00%) Entra ID
16 56 (18.36%) TCP/IP
17 55 (18.03%) LAN
18 53 (17.38%) WAN
19 51 (16.72%) Microsoft Intune
20 49 (16.07%) SharePoint
21 47 (15.41%) Hyper-V
22 43 (14.10%) SLA
22 43 (14.10%) VLAN
23 38 (12.46%) Windows Server 2016
24 37 (12.13%) Google Workspace
24 37 (12.13%) ITIL
24 37 (12.13%) Windows Server 2019
25 33 (10.82%) VMware
26 32 (10.49%) Google

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 72 (23.61%) Microsoft Exchange
2 49 (16.07%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.33%) Confluence
3 1 (0.33%) IIS
Applications
1 25 (8.20%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (0.98%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.33%) Adobe Creative Suite
Business Applications
1 5 (1.64%) Dynamics CRM
1 5 (1.64%) Dynamics NAV
Cloud Services
1 192 (62.95%) Microsoft 365
2 122 (40.00%) Azure
3 61 (20.00%) Entra ID
4 37 (12.13%) Google Workspace
5 28 (9.18%) AWS
6 21 (6.89%) OneDrive
7 7 (2.30%) Mimecast
8 5 (1.64%) SaaS
9 2 (0.66%) Cohesity
9 2 (0.66%) Microsoft Copilot
10 1 (0.33%) Azure Monitor
10 1 (0.33%) Azure Storage
10 1 (0.33%) GCP
10 1 (0.33%) PaaS
10 1 (0.33%) Power Automate
10 1 (0.33%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 85 (27.87%) DNS
2 81 (26.56%) Firewall
3 78 (25.57%) DHCP
4 67 (21.97%) VPN
5 63 (20.66%) Wi-Fi
6 56 (18.36%) TCP/IP
7 55 (18.03%) LAN
8 53 (17.38%) WAN
9 43 (14.10%) VLAN
10 29 (9.51%) VoIP
11 15 (4.92%) Wireless
12 13 (4.26%) Remote Desktop
13 10 (3.28%) IPsec
14 6 (1.97%) SD-WAN
15 5 (1.64%) ADSL
16 4 (1.31%) Broadband
16 4 (1.31%) NetScaler
17 3 (0.98%) DKIM
17 3 (0.98%) DMARC
17 3 (0.98%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (1.64%) Amazon RDS
2 4 (1.31%) SQL Server
3 1 (0.33%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 7 (2.30%) JIRA
General
1 86 (28.20%) Social Skills
2 16 (5.25%) Law
3 14 (4.59%) Marketing
4 12 (3.93%) Manufacturing
5 9 (2.95%) Retail
6 8 (2.62%) Finance
6 8 (2.62%) Telecoms
7 5 (1.64%) Advertising
8 4 (1.31%) Dutch Language
8 4 (1.31%) French Language
8 4 (1.31%) Legal
8 4 (1.31%) Organisational Skills
8 4 (1.31%) Spanish Language
9 3 (0.98%) Documentation Skills
9 3 (0.98%) Electronics
9 3 (0.98%) Public Sector
10 2 (0.66%) Analytical Skills
10 2 (0.66%) Automotive
10 2 (0.66%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 1 (0.33%) Front Office
Miscellaneous
1 42 (13.77%) Driving Licence
2 14 (4.59%) Onboarding
3 5 (1.64%) Smartphone
4 3 (0.98%) Mobile App
5 2 (0.66%) IoT
5 2 (0.66%) iPad
5 2 (0.66%) iPhone
5 2 (0.66%) Video Conferencing
6 1 (0.33%) Client/Server
6 1 (0.33%) Data Centre
6 1 (0.33%) Hedge funds
6 1 (0.33%) NHS
6 1 (0.33%) PKI
6 1 (0.33%) Public Cloud
6 1 (0.33%) Security Posture
6 1 (0.33%) Self-Motivation
6 1 (0.33%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 181 (59.34%) Windows
2 121 (39.67%) Windows Server
3 71 (23.28%) Windows 10
4 38 (12.46%) Windows Server 2016
5 37 (12.13%) Windows Server 2019
6 32 (10.49%) Mac OS
7 20 (6.56%) Apple iOS
7 20 (6.56%) Windows Server 2012
8 19 (6.23%) Android
9 5 (1.64%) Linux
10 2 (0.66%) Windows 7
10 2 (0.66%) Windows Server 2008
11 1 (0.33%) Mac OS X
11 1 (0.33%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 107 (35.08%) Problem-Solving
2 61 (20.00%) Customer Service
3 37 (12.13%) ITIL
4 29 (9.51%) Service Delivery
5 26 (8.52%) ITSM
6 24 (7.87%) Service Management
7 23 (7.54%) Cybersecurity
8 18 (5.90%) Continuous Improvement
9 17 (5.57%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 17 (5.57%) Mentoring
10 16 (5.25%) Configuration Management
10 16 (5.25%) Mobile Device Management
11 15 (4.92%) Remote Monitoring and Management
12 9 (2.95%) Asset Management
12 9 (2.95%) Collaborative Working
12 9 (2.95%) Proactive Maintenance
13 8 (2.62%) Change Management
13 8 (2.62%) Computer Science
13 8 (2.62%) Project Delivery
14 7 (2.30%) ERP
Programming Languages
1 17 (5.57%) PowerShell
2 5 (1.64%) SQL
3 1 (0.33%) Python
Qualifications
1 27 (8.85%) Security Cleared
2 24 (7.87%) SC Cleared
3 23 (7.54%) Microsoft Certification
4 10 (3.28%) A+ Certification
5 9 (2.95%) Degree
6 6 (1.97%) BPSS Clearance
7 5 (1.64%) CompTIA Security+
8 4 (1.31%) Computer Science Degree
8 4 (1.31%) Microsoft Certified Professional
9 3 (0.98%) DBS Check
9 3 (0.98%) Network+ Certification
10 2 (0.66%) AWS Certification
10 2 (0.66%) Azure Certification
10 2 (0.66%) DV Cleared
10 2 (0.66%) ITIL Certification
11 1 (0.33%) CCNA
11 1 (0.33%) CCNP
11 1 (0.33%) Cisco Certification
11 1 (0.33%) HP APS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 43 (14.10%) SLA
2 7 (2.30%) Cyber Essentials
3 4 (1.31%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 4 (1.31%) NIST
4 3 (0.98%) Accessibility
4 3 (0.98%) GDPR
4 3 (0.98%) QA
System Software
1 137 (44.92%) Active Directory
2 47 (15.41%) Hyper-V
3 23 (7.54%) VMware Infrastructure
4 13 (4.26%) Virtual Desktop
5 5 (1.64%) BitLocker
6 4 (1.31%) Firmware
7 1 (0.33%) Terminal Services
7 1 (0.33%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.33%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 51 (16.72%) Microsoft Intune
2 19 (6.23%) Active Directory Federation Services
3 15 (4.92%) Jamf Pro
4 9 (2.95%) SCCM
5 6 (1.97%) Autotask
6 2 (0.66%) FortiGate
6 2 (0.66%) Nagios
6 2 (0.66%) WSUS
7 1 (0.33%) Single Sign-On
7 1 (0.33%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 180 (59.02%) Microsoft
2 33 (10.82%) VMware
3 32 (10.49%) Google
4 19 (6.23%) Apple
5 13 (4.26%) Samsung
6 12 (3.93%) Sophos
7 9 (2.95%) Veeam
8 8 (2.62%) Cisco
9 7 (2.30%) ConnectWise
9 7 (2.30%) Fortinet
9 7 (2.30%) Meraki
9 7 (2.30%) ServiceNow
10 5 (1.64%) HP
10 5 (1.64%) SolarWinds
11 4 (1.31%) Adobe
11 4 (1.31%) Aruba
11 4 (1.31%) CheckPoint
11 4 (1.31%) F5
11 4 (1.31%) Freshdesk
11 4 (1.31%) Palo Alto