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 August 2026.

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

6 months to
28 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 487 571 486
Rank change year-on-year +84 -85 -85
Permanent jobs requiring a 2nd Line Engineer 333 107 360
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.30% 0.21% 0.43%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.32% 0.24% 0.45%
Number of salaries quoted 277 99 308
10th Percentile £29,750 £29,700 £26,250
25th Percentile £31,250 £30,875 £28,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £35,000 £32,750 £32,500
Median % change year-on-year +6.87% +0.77% -
75th Percentile £38,750 £38,750 £37,313
90th Percentile £42,200 £47,500 £43,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £35,000 £32,500 £32,500
% change year-on-year +7.69% - +1.56%

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 102,724 44,889 79,411
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.88% 89.80% 95.11%
Number of salaries quoted 70,515 26,591 51,705
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,250 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £36,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.55% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £75,000 £74,258 £72,500
90th Percentile £97,500 £95,000 £91,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £47,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year +15.79% -5.00% -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 August 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 August 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 +79 298 £35,000 +6.87% 70
UK excluding London +71 269 £35,000 +7.69% 66
East of England +42 71 £35,000 +7.69% 19
Work from Home +11 67 £33,500 +3.08% 16
South East -4 67 £32,500 -5.80% 24
London -5 61 £36,000 -4.00% 9
North of England -13 51 £35,000 +7.69% 6
North West +8 43 £35,000 +7.69% 4
Scotland +34 27 £30,000 -7.69% 1
Midlands -22 26 £32,500 - 18
South West -67 22 £35,000 +6.06% 1
West Midlands -24 17 £31,000 -5.34% 13
East Midlands -25 9 £35,000 +7.69% 5
Yorkshire -37 8 £31,000 -14.48% 1
Wales - 5 £35,000 -

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

For the 6 months to 28 August 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.

1 211 (63.36%) Microsoft
2 192 (57.66%) Microsoft 365
3 176 (52.85%) Windows
4 128 (38.44%) Active Directory
5 100 (30.03%) Customer Service
6 96 (28.83%) Entra ID
7 91 (27.33%) Problem-Solving
8 87 (26.13%) Windows Server
9 85 (25.53%) Firewall
10 80 (24.02%) Azure
11 71 (21.32%) Microsoft Exchange
12 66 (19.82%) DNS
13 65 (19.52%) SharePoint
14 54 (16.22%) DHCP
15 52 (15.62%) Windows 10
16 50 (15.02%) VPN
17 44 (13.21%) Microsoft Intune
17 44 (13.21%) VMware
18 43 (12.91%) TCP/IP
19 42 (12.61%) Hyper-V
20 40 (12.01%) WAN
21 38 (11.41%) LAN
21 38 (11.41%) VMware Infrastructure
22 36 (10.81%) SLA
23 34 (10.21%) Mac OS
24 32 (9.61%) Service Delivery
24 32 (9.61%) Wi-Fi
25 30 (9.01%) Continuous Improvement
26 26 (7.81%) ITIL
26 26 (7.81%) VoIP

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 71 (21.32%) Microsoft Exchange
2 65 (19.52%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.60%) Skype for Business
4 1 (0.30%) WordPress
Applications
1 21 (6.31%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (1.80%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.30%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 1 (0.30%) NetSuite
1 1 (0.30%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 192 (57.66%) Microsoft 365
2 96 (28.83%) Entra ID
3 80 (24.02%) Azure
4 16 (4.80%) Google Workspace
5 15 (4.50%) OneDrive
5 15 (4.50%) Power Platform
6 14 (4.20%) AWS
7 9 (2.70%) Cohesity
8 5 (1.50%) SaaS
9 4 (1.20%) Microsoft Copilot
10 3 (0.90%) Dynamics 365
10 3 (0.90%) PaaS
10 3 (0.90%) Power Automate
10 3 (0.90%) PowerApps
11 2 (0.60%) Amazon EC2
11 2 (0.60%) Azure Storage
11 2 (0.60%) Rubrik
11 2 (0.60%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 1 (0.30%) Azure Monitor
12 1 (0.30%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 85 (25.53%) Firewall
2 66 (19.82%) DNS
3 54 (16.22%) DHCP
4 50 (15.02%) VPN
5 43 (12.91%) TCP/IP
6 40 (12.01%) WAN
7 38 (11.41%) LAN
8 32 (9.61%) Wi-Fi
9 26 (7.81%) VoIP
10 17 (5.11%) VLAN
11 12 (3.60%) SAN
11 12 (3.60%) Wireless
12 9 (2.70%) MPLS
13 5 (1.50%) IPsec
13 5 (1.50%) SSL
14 4 (1.20%) Internet
14 4 (1.20%) NAS
14 4 (1.20%) Structured Cabling
15 3 (0.90%) BGP
15 3 (0.90%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (2.70%) Power BI
2 4 (1.20%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 2 (0.60%) JIRA
2 1 (0.30%) Carbide.c++
General
1 125 (37.54%) Social Skills
2 24 (7.21%) Legal
3 18 (5.41%) Telecoms
4 13 (3.90%) Organisational Skills
5 12 (3.60%) Documentation Skills
6 7 (2.10%) Analytical Skills
6 7 (2.10%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 6 (1.80%) Billing
8 5 (1.50%) Retail
9 4 (1.20%) Advertising
9 4 (1.20%) Manufacturing
9 4 (1.20%) Public Sector
10 3 (0.90%) Finance
11 2 (0.60%) Military
12 1 (0.30%) Aerospace
Miscellaneous
1 47 (14.11%) Driving Licence
2 34 (10.21%) Onboarding
3 9 (2.70%) Data Centre
4 8 (2.40%) Smartphone
5 5 (1.50%) iPhone
6 4 (1.20%) Replication
7 3 (0.90%) Hybrid Cloud
7 3 (0.90%) IoT
7 3 (0.90%) iPad
8 2 (0.60%) Enterprise Cloud
8 2 (0.60%) Self-Motivation
9 1 (0.30%) Educational Technology
9 1 (0.30%) Enterprise Storage
9 1 (0.30%) Hedge funds
9 1 (0.30%) Management Information System
9 1 (0.30%) NHS
9 1 (0.30%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 176 (52.85%) Windows
2 87 (26.13%) Windows Server
3 52 (15.62%) Windows 10
4 34 (10.21%) Mac OS
5 19 (5.71%) Windows Server 2019
6 17 (5.11%) Windows Server 2016
7 12 (3.60%) Android
8 4 (1.20%) Apple iOS
9 2 (0.60%) AIX
9 2 (0.60%) Linux
9 2 (0.60%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 2 (0.60%) VMS
9 2 (0.60%) Windows 7
9 2 (0.60%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 100 (30.03%) Customer Service
2 91 (27.33%) Problem-Solving
3 32 (9.61%) Service Delivery
4 30 (9.01%) Continuous Improvement
5 26 (7.81%) ITIL
6 24 (7.21%) Cybersecurity
7 22 (6.61%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 22 (6.61%) Remote Monitoring and Management
8 18 (5.41%) Collaborative Culture
8 18 (5.41%) ITSM
9 17 (5.11%) Project Delivery
10 16 (4.80%) Disaster Recovery
11 15 (4.50%) Client Onboarding
11 15 (4.50%) Mentoring
12 14 (4.20%) Cloud Security
12 14 (4.20%) User Experience
13 13 (3.90%) Incident Management
14 11 (3.30%) Identity Management
14 11 (3.30%) Stakeholder Management
15 10 (3.00%) AI
Programming Languages
1 23 (6.91%) PowerShell
2 6 (1.80%) SQL
3 4 (1.20%) VBScript
4 2 (0.60%) Java
4 2 (0.60%) Python
Qualifications
1 21 (6.31%) Security Cleared
2 20 (6.01%) Microsoft Certification
3 15 (4.50%) Degree
4 11 (3.30%) SC Cleared
5 9 (2.70%) DBS Check
6 7 (2.10%) A+ Certification
7 6 (1.80%) HND
8 3 (0.90%) CCNA
8 3 (0.90%) Cisco Certification
8 3 (0.90%) HP APS
9 2 (0.60%) CCNP
9 2 (0.60%) Dell Certification
9 2 (0.60%) MCSA
10 1 (0.30%) DV Cleared
10 1 (0.30%) JNCIS
10 1 (0.30%) Microsoft Certified Professional
10 1 (0.30%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 36 (10.81%) SLA
2 9 (2.70%) GDPR
3 4 (1.20%) Accessibility
3 4 (1.20%) Cyber Essentials
System Software
1 128 (38.44%) Active Directory
2 42 (12.61%) Hyper-V
3 38 (11.41%) VMware Infrastructure
4 10 (3.00%) BitLocker
5 9 (2.70%) Virtual Desktop
6 3 (0.90%) Terminal Services
7 2 (0.60%) Virtual Machines
7 2 (0.60%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.30%) Firmware
8 1 (0.30%) Terminal Server
Systems Management
1 44 (13.21%) Microsoft Intune
2 10 (3.00%) Autotask
2 10 (3.00%) SCCM
2 10 (3.00%) WSUS
3 7 (2.10%) FortiGate
4 4 (1.20%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
5 2 (0.60%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 2 (0.60%) Netcool
5 2 (0.60%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 211 (63.36%) Microsoft
2 44 (13.21%) VMware
3 20 (6.01%) Meraki
4 19 (5.71%) Cisco
5 18 (5.41%) Fortinet
6 17 (5.11%) Google
7 14 (4.20%) HP
8 12 (3.60%) ServiceNow
9 11 (3.30%) NetApp
10 8 (2.40%) Veeam
11 7 (2.10%) SonicWALL
12 5 (1.50%) Citrix
12 5 (1.50%) Dell
12 5 (1.50%) SolarWinds
13 4 (1.20%) Draytek
13 4 (1.20%) Juniper
13 4 (1.20%) Sage
13 4 (1.20%) Sophos
14 3 (0.90%) Barracuda Networks
14 3 (0.90%) Samsung