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 6 June 2026.

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

6 months to
6 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 430 537 467
Rank change year-on-year +107 -70 -5
Permanent jobs requiring a 2nd Line Engineer 349 127 482
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.38% 0.29% 0.46%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.40% 0.32% 0.49%
Number of salaries quoted 301 123 445
10th Percentile £29,750 £29,000 £25,950
25th Percentile £31,000 £30,000 £27,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £35,000 £35,000 £32,500
Median % change year-on-year - +7.69% -
75th Percentile £40,000 £41,750 £36,000
90th Percentile £43,000 £43,750 £40,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £33,750 £32,500 £30,000
% change year-on-year +3.85% +8.33% -6.25%

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 86,631 39,275 98,433
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.87% 89.41% 94.84%
Number of salaries quoted 58,552 22,114 71,335
10th Percentile £30,000 £29,000 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £40,000 £38,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £57,500 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -4.35% +9.52% -12.50%
75th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £70,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £99,273 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £50,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -0.99% +1.00% -6.54%

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 6 June 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 6 June 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 +118 332 £35,000 - 62
UK excluding London +95 266 £33,750 +3.85% 60
South East +31 86 £30,000 -25.00% 20
London +36 80 £37,000 -7.50% 10
East of England +37 61 £35,000 +7.69% 10
Work from Home +27 60 £30,000 -7.69% 12
North of England -14 46 £33,500 +8.06% 15
North West +29 37 £34,500 +11.29% 9
Midlands -8 32 £32,500 - 6
South West -37 27 £35,000 +6.06% 6
West Midlands -19 20 £32,250 -7.86% 5
Scotland +19 13 £40,000 +23.08% 4
Yorkshire -45 9 £31,000 -4.62% 2
East Midlands -30 8 £35,000 +16.67% 1
Wales - 1 £34,000 -

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

For the 6 months to 6 June 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.

1 202 (57.88%) Microsoft
2 191 (54.73%) Microsoft 365
3 185 (53.01%) Windows
4 133 (38.11%) Active Directory
5 116 (33.24%) Azure
6 98 (28.08%) Windows Server
7 97 (27.79%) Problem-Solving
8 81 (23.21%) Entra ID
9 80 (22.92%) Customer Service
9 80 (22.92%) Firewall
10 77 (22.06%) Microsoft Exchange
11 75 (21.49%) DNS
12 69 (19.77%) Windows 10
13 68 (19.48%) DHCP
14 62 (17.77%) SharePoint
15 60 (17.19%) Wi-Fi
16 59 (16.91%) WAN
17 56 (16.05%) LAN
18 55 (15.76%) VPN
19 50 (14.33%) SLA
20 49 (14.04%) Microsoft Intune
21 40 (11.46%) Hyper-V
22 39 (11.17%) Service Delivery
23 36 (10.32%) TCP/IP
23 36 (10.32%) Windows Server 2019
24 35 (10.03%) ITIL
24 35 (10.03%) Mac OS
24 35 (10.03%) Windows Server 2016
25 33 (9.46%) Cybersecurity
26 31 (8.88%) VMware

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 77 (22.06%) Microsoft Exchange
2 62 (17.77%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.57%) Skype for Business
4 1 (0.29%) Confluence
4 1 (0.29%) IIS
4 1 (0.29%) WordPress
Applications
1 30 (8.60%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (1.15%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 5 (1.43%) Dynamics NAV
Cloud Services
1 191 (54.73%) Microsoft 365
2 116 (33.24%) Azure
3 81 (23.21%) Entra ID
4 28 (8.02%) Google Workspace
5 23 (6.59%) AWS
6 21 (6.02%) OneDrive
7 12 (3.44%) Power Platform
8 7 (2.01%) Mimecast
9 6 (1.72%) Cohesity
10 3 (0.86%) Dynamics 365
10 3 (0.86%) Microsoft Copilot
10 3 (0.86%) PaaS
10 3 (0.86%) Power Automate
10 3 (0.86%) SaaS
11 2 (0.57%) Amazon EC2
11 2 (0.57%) Azure Storage
11 2 (0.57%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 1 (0.29%) Azure Monitor
12 1 (0.29%) Cloud Computing
12 1 (0.29%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 80 (22.92%) Firewall
2 75 (21.49%) DNS
3 68 (19.48%) DHCP
4 60 (17.19%) Wi-Fi
5 59 (16.91%) WAN
6 56 (16.05%) LAN
7 55 (15.76%) VPN
8 36 (10.32%) TCP/IP
9 31 (8.88%) VoIP
10 26 (7.45%) VLAN
11 13 (3.72%) Wireless
12 10 (2.87%) Remote Desktop
13 9 (2.58%) SAN
14 8 (2.29%) SD-WAN
15 6 (1.72%) IPsec
16 5 (1.43%) ADSL
17 4 (1.15%) Broadband
17 4 (1.15%) NetScaler
18 3 (0.86%) NAS
18 3 (0.86%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (2.58%) Power BI
2 3 (0.86%) SQL Server
3 1 (0.29%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 2 (0.57%) JIRA
2 1 (0.29%) Carbide.c++
General
1 92 (26.36%) Social Skills
2 16 (4.58%) Telecoms
3 14 (4.01%) Legal
4 9 (2.58%) Finance
4 9 (2.58%) Manufacturing
5 7 (2.01%) Retail
6 6 (1.72%) Billing
6 6 (1.72%) Documentation Skills
7 5 (1.43%) Advertising
7 5 (1.43%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 5 (1.43%) Marketing
8 3 (0.86%) Law
8 3 (0.86%) Organisational Skills
9 2 (0.57%) Analytical Skills
9 2 (0.57%) Automotive
9 2 (0.57%) Electronics
9 2 (0.57%) Military
9 2 (0.57%) Public Sector
10 1 (0.29%) Aerospace
Miscellaneous
1 26 (7.45%) Driving Licence
2 20 (5.73%) Onboarding
3 10 (2.87%) Smartphone
4 5 (1.43%) Data Centre
5 3 (0.86%) IoT
6 2 (0.57%) Enterprise Cloud
6 2 (0.57%) iPhone
6 2 (0.57%) Self-Motivation
7 1 (0.29%) Mobile App
7 1 (0.29%) NHS
7 1 (0.29%) Public Cloud
7 1 (0.29%) Replication
7 1 (0.29%) Security Posture
7 1 (0.29%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 185 (53.01%) Windows
2 98 (28.08%) Windows Server
3 69 (19.77%) Windows 10
4 36 (10.32%) Windows Server 2019
5 35 (10.03%) Mac OS
5 35 (10.03%) Windows Server 2016
6 16 (4.58%) Android
6 16 (4.58%) Windows Server 2012
7 11 (3.15%) Apple iOS
8 4 (1.15%) Windows 7
9 3 (0.86%) Linux
9 3 (0.86%) VMS
10 2 (0.57%) AIX
10 2 (0.57%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 2 (0.57%) Windows Server 2008
11 1 (0.29%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 97 (27.79%) Problem-Solving
2 80 (22.92%) Customer Service
3 39 (11.17%) Service Delivery
4 35 (10.03%) ITIL
5 33 (9.46%) Cybersecurity
6 26 (7.45%) Continuous Improvement
7 22 (6.30%) ITSM
8 17 (4.87%) Cloud Security
8 17 (4.87%) Service Management
9 15 (4.30%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 14 (4.01%) Incident Management
11 13 (3.72%) Mentoring
11 13 (3.72%) Remote Monitoring and Management
12 12 (3.44%) Business Intelligence
12 12 (3.44%) Collaborative Culture
12 12 (3.44%) Incident Response
13 11 (3.15%) Identity Management
13 11 (3.15%) User Experience
14 9 (2.58%) ERP
14 9 (2.58%) Mobile Device Management
Programming Languages
1 25 (7.16%) PowerShell
2 5 (1.43%) SQL
3 3 (0.86%) Python
3 3 (0.86%) VBScript
4 2 (0.57%) Java
Qualifications
1 27 (7.74%) Security Cleared
2 25 (7.16%) Microsoft Certification
3 20 (5.73%) SC Cleared
4 15 (4.30%) Degree
5 8 (2.29%) A+ Certification
5 8 (2.29%) DBS Check
6 6 (1.72%) HND
7 4 (1.15%) CompTIA Security+
8 3 (0.86%) HP APS
9 2 (0.57%) Dell Certification
9 2 (0.57%) ITIL Certification
9 2 (0.57%) MCSA
9 2 (0.57%) Network+ Certification
10 1 (0.29%) DV Cleared
10 1 (0.29%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 50 (14.33%) SLA
2 6 (1.72%) Accessibility
2 6 (1.72%) Cyber Essentials
3 3 (0.86%) GDPR
3 3 (0.86%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 3 (0.86%) NIST
3 3 (0.86%) QA
System Software
1 133 (38.11%) Active Directory
2 40 (11.46%) Hyper-V
3 25 (7.16%) VMware Infrastructure
4 13 (3.72%) Virtual Desktop
5 12 (3.44%) BitLocker
6 3 (0.86%) Terminal Services
7 2 (0.57%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.29%) Terminal Server
8 1 (0.29%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 49 (14.04%) Microsoft Intune
2 15 (4.30%) Active Directory Federation Services
3 13 (3.72%) SCCM
4 10 (2.87%) Autotask
5 8 (2.29%) WSUS
6 7 (2.01%) FortiGate
7 3 (0.86%) Jamf Pro
8 2 (0.57%) Nagios
8 2 (0.57%) Netcool
Vendors
1 202 (57.88%) Microsoft
2 31 (8.88%) VMware
3 27 (7.74%) Google
4 13 (3.72%) Cisco
4 13 (3.72%) HP
5 10 (2.87%) Meraki
6 9 (2.58%) ServiceNow
7 8 (2.29%) SolarWinds
7 8 (2.29%) Sophos
8 7 (2.01%) Fortinet
9 6 (1.72%) Apple
9 6 (1.72%) NetApp
9 6 (1.72%) Samsung
10 5 (1.43%) Veeam
11 4 (1.15%) Aruba
11 4 (1.15%) CheckPoint
11 4 (1.15%) F5
11 4 (1.15%) Palo Alto
11 4 (1.15%) Sage
12 3 (0.86%) Snow