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 27 July 2026.

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

6 months to
27 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 459 560 470
Rank change year-on-year +101 -90 -55
Permanent jobs requiring a 2nd Line Engineer 343 119 399
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.34% 0.24% 0.45%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.36% 0.27% 0.48%
Number of salaries quoted 290 112 351
10th Percentile £29,750 £29,500 £26,250
25th Percentile £31,250 £31,250 £27,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £35,000 £34,500 £32,500
Median % change year-on-year +1.45% +6.15% -
75th Percentile £38,750 £41,500 £36,750
90th Percentile £42,500 £43,750 £40,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £35,000 £33,000 £32,000
% change year-on-year +6.06% +3.13% -

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 95,592 44,533 83,697
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.36% 90.08% 94.76%
Number of salaries quoted 65,383 26,478 58,009
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,500 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £37,500 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year - - -8.33%
75th Percentile £75,000 £75,000 £71,250
90th Percentile £96,250 £96,250 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +5.00% - -5.66%

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 27 July 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 27 July 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 +91 308 £35,000 - 59
UK excluding London +87 268 £35,000 +6.06% 54
South East +23 75 £32,500 -13.33% 19
London +27 72 £36,000 -7.69% 9
Work from Home +12 70 £33,500 +3.08% 12
East of England +48 68 £35,000 +7.69% 19
North of England -6 48 £35,000 +7.69% 7
North West +22 41 £35,000 +7.69%
Scotland +39 27 £33,500 +3.08%
Midlands -21 26 £32,500 - 7
South West -53 19 £35,000 -5.41% 6
West Midlands -16 18 £32,000 -8.57% 5
East Midlands -27 8 £35,000 +7.69% 2
Yorkshire -37 7 £30,500 -23.75% 3
Wales - 5 £35,000 -

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

For the 6 months to 27 July 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 (61.52%) Microsoft
2 194 (56.56%) Microsoft 365
3 181 (52.77%) Windows
4 130 (37.90%) Active Directory
5 102 (29.74%) Customer Service
6 98 (28.57%) Problem-Solving
7 93 (27.11%) Azure
8 89 (25.95%) Entra ID
9 87 (25.36%) Windows Server
10 79 (23.03%) Firewall
11 73 (21.28%) Microsoft Exchange
12 71 (20.70%) DNS
13 62 (18.08%) SharePoint
14 60 (17.49%) DHCP
15 57 (16.62%) Windows 10
16 48 (13.99%) LAN
16 48 (13.99%) VPN
17 47 (13.70%) WAN
18 45 (13.12%) Microsoft Intune
19 44 (12.83%) Wi-Fi
20 43 (12.54%) Hyper-V
21 41 (11.95%) SLA
21 41 (11.95%) VMware
22 38 (11.08%) Mac OS
22 38 (11.08%) Service Delivery
22 38 (11.08%) TCP/IP
23 35 (10.20%) VMware Infrastructure
24 30 (8.75%) ITIL
25 29 (8.45%) Continuous Improvement
25 29 (8.45%) PowerShell

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 73 (21.28%) Microsoft Exchange
2 62 (18.08%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.58%) Skype for Business
4 1 (0.29%) WordPress
Applications
1 26 (7.58%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (1.46%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.29%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 4 (1.17%) Dynamics NAV
Cloud Services
1 194 (56.56%) Microsoft 365
2 93 (27.11%) Azure
3 89 (25.95%) Entra ID
4 20 (5.83%) Google Workspace
5 17 (4.96%) AWS
6 15 (4.37%) OneDrive
7 12 (3.50%) Power Platform
8 8 (2.33%) Cohesity
9 6 (1.75%) Mimecast
10 5 (1.46%) SaaS
11 3 (0.87%) Dynamics 365
11 3 (0.87%) Microsoft Copilot
11 3 (0.87%) PaaS
11 3 (0.87%) Power Automate
12 2 (0.58%) Amazon EC2
12 2 (0.58%) Azure Storage
12 2 (0.58%) Rubrik
12 2 (0.58%) Virtual Private Cloud
13 1 (0.29%) Azure Monitor
13 1 (0.29%) Cloud Computing
Communications & Networking
1 79 (23.03%) Firewall
2 71 (20.70%) DNS
3 60 (17.49%) DHCP
4 48 (13.99%) LAN
4 48 (13.99%) VPN
5 47 (13.70%) WAN
6 44 (12.83%) Wi-Fi
7 38 (11.08%) TCP/IP
8 28 (8.16%) VoIP
9 17 (4.96%) VLAN
10 11 (3.21%) SAN
10 11 (3.21%) Wireless
11 6 (1.75%) IPsec
11 6 (1.75%) MPLS
12 5 (1.46%) ADSL
12 5 (1.46%) Broadband
12 5 (1.46%) Remote Desktop
13 4 (1.17%) Internet
13 4 (1.17%) SD-WAN
13 4 (1.17%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (2.62%) Power BI
2 4 (1.17%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 2 (0.58%) JIRA
2 1 (0.29%) Carbide.c++
General
1 113 (32.94%) Social Skills
2 19 (5.54%) Telecoms
3 17 (4.96%) Legal
4 12 (3.50%) Documentation Skills
5 7 (2.04%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 7 (2.04%) Organisational Skills
5 7 (2.04%) Retail
6 6 (1.75%) Billing
6 6 (1.75%) Finance
7 5 (1.46%) Manufacturing
8 4 (1.17%) Public Sector
9 3 (0.87%) Advertising
10 2 (0.58%) Analytical Skills
10 2 (0.58%) Military
11 1 (0.29%) Aerospace
Miscellaneous
1 42 (12.24%) Driving Licence
2 31 (9.04%) Onboarding
3 9 (2.62%) Smartphone
4 8 (2.33%) Data Centre
5 5 (1.46%) iPhone
6 4 (1.17%) Replication
7 3 (0.87%) IoT
8 2 (0.58%) Enterprise Cloud
8 2 (0.58%) iPad
8 2 (0.58%) Self-Motivation
9 1 (0.29%) Hedge funds
9 1 (0.29%) NHS
9 1 (0.29%) Public Cloud
9 1 (0.29%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 181 (52.77%) Windows
2 87 (25.36%) Windows Server
3 57 (16.62%) Windows 10
4 38 (11.08%) Mac OS
5 25 (7.29%) Windows Server 2019
6 24 (7.00%) Windows Server 2016
7 14 (4.08%) Android
8 7 (2.04%) Windows Server 2012
9 6 (1.75%) Apple iOS
10 3 (0.87%) Linux
10 3 (0.87%) VMS
10 3 (0.87%) Windows 7
11 2 (0.58%) AIX
11 2 (0.58%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 1 (0.29%) Mac OS X
12 1 (0.29%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 102 (29.74%) Customer Service
2 98 (28.57%) Problem-Solving
3 38 (11.08%) Service Delivery
4 30 (8.75%) ITIL
5 29 (8.45%) Continuous Improvement
6 27 (7.87%) Cybersecurity
7 22 (6.41%) ITSM
8 21 (6.12%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 18 (5.25%) Collaborative Culture
10 17 (4.96%) Cloud Security
11 16 (4.66%) Mentoring
12 15 (4.37%) Remote Monitoring and Management
12 15 (4.37%) User Experience
13 14 (4.08%) Project Delivery
14 13 (3.79%) Client Onboarding
14 13 (3.79%) Disaster Recovery
14 13 (3.79%) Incident Management
15 11 (3.21%) Identity Management
15 11 (3.21%) Incident Response
15 11 (3.21%) Service Management
Programming Languages
1 29 (8.45%) PowerShell
2 6 (1.75%) SQL
3 4 (1.17%) VBScript
4 3 (0.87%) Python
5 2 (0.58%) Java
Qualifications
1 22 (6.41%) Microsoft Certification
2 21 (6.12%) Security Cleared
3 15 (4.37%) Degree
4 12 (3.50%) SC Cleared
5 8 (2.33%) A+ Certification
5 8 (2.33%) DBS Check
6 6 (1.75%) HND
7 3 (0.87%) HP APS
8 2 (0.58%) CCNA
8 2 (0.58%) CCNP
8 2 (0.58%) Cisco Certification
8 2 (0.58%) Dell Certification
8 2 (0.58%) MCSA
9 1 (0.29%) DV Cleared
9 1 (0.29%) JNCIS
9 1 (0.29%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 41 (11.95%) SLA
2 5 (1.46%) Accessibility
2 5 (1.46%) GDPR
System Software
1 130 (37.90%) Active Directory
2 43 (12.54%) Hyper-V
3 35 (10.20%) VMware Infrastructure
4 10 (2.92%) BitLocker
4 10 (2.92%) Virtual Desktop
5 3 (0.87%) Terminal Services
6 2 (0.58%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (0.58%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.29%) Terminal Server
Systems Management
1 45 (13.12%) Microsoft Intune
2 11 (3.21%) SCCM
3 10 (2.92%) Autotask
3 10 (2.92%) WSUS
4 7 (2.04%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 7 (2.04%) FortiGate
5 4 (1.17%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
6 2 (0.58%) Netcool
6 2 (0.58%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 211 (61.52%) Microsoft
2 41 (11.95%) VMware
3 19 (5.54%) Google
3 19 (5.54%) Meraki
4 18 (5.25%) Cisco
5 15 (4.37%) HP
6 12 (3.50%) Fortinet
6 12 (3.50%) ServiceNow
7 10 (2.92%) NetApp
8 9 (2.62%) Veeam
9 8 (2.33%) Sophos
10 5 (1.46%) Dell
10 5 (1.46%) SolarWinds
11 4 (1.17%) Juniper
11 4 (1.17%) Sage
12 3 (0.87%) Barracuda Networks
12 3 (0.87%) Fujitsu
12 3 (0.87%) Palo Alto
12 3 (0.87%) Samsung
12 3 (0.87%) SonicWALL