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 1 May 2026.

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

6 months to
1 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 430 525 458
Rank change year-on-year +95 -67 +45
Permanent jobs requiring a 2nd Line Engineer 318 132 496
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.35% 0.31% 0.52%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.38% 0.35% 0.55%
Number of salaries quoted 284 129 472
10th Percentile £29,000 £29,000 £25,950
25th Percentile £30,625 £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 £41,500 £36,000
90th Percentile £42,500 £43,750 £40,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £33,500 £32,500 £30,000
% change year-on-year +3.08% +8.33% -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 83,558 37,679 90,605
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.89% 89.07% 94.54%
Number of salaries quoted 53,734 23,343 66,736
10th Percentile £30,000 £30,500 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £41,625 £38,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £59,800 £53,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.03% +12.83% -11.67%
75th Percentile £75,000 £78,750 £71,250
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -4.76% +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 1 May 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 1 May 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 +86 304 £35,000 - 64
UK excluding London +77 247 £33,500 +3.08% 61
South East +22 83 £32,500 -18.75% 17
London +4 70 £40,000 +2.56% 10
Work from Home +24 61 £31,750 -2.31% 17
East of England +14 46 £35,000 +7.69% 16
Midlands -11 42 £35,000 +11.11% 8
South West -32 34 £34,000 +1.49% 11
North of England -52 29 £30,000 - 8
West Midlands -8 25 £32,500 -5.11% 8
North West -8 23 £30,000 - 5
Scotland -16 12 £40,000 +23.08% 3
East Midlands -44 12 £35,000 +14.75%
Yorkshire -66 6 £33,500 +3.08% 2
Wales - 1 £34,000 -

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

For the 6 months to 1 May 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.

1 191 (60.06%) Microsoft
1 191 (60.06%) Microsoft 365
2 175 (55.03%) Windows
3 132 (41.51%) Active Directory
4 118 (37.11%) Azure
5 108 (33.96%) Problem-Solving
5 108 (33.96%) Windows Server
6 82 (25.79%) Firewall
7 81 (25.47%) DNS
8 77 (24.21%) DHCP
9 73 (22.96%) Entra ID
10 68 (21.38%) Customer Service
10 68 (21.38%) Microsoft Exchange
11 66 (20.75%) VPN
11 66 (20.75%) Wi-Fi
11 66 (20.75%) Windows 10
12 56 (17.61%) LAN
12 56 (17.61%) WAN
13 51 (16.04%) SharePoint
14 44 (13.84%) Microsoft Intune
14 44 (13.84%) TCP/IP
15 43 (13.52%) SLA
16 42 (13.21%) Hyper-V
17 37 (11.64%) Windows Server 2016
17 37 (11.64%) Windows Server 2019
18 35 (11.01%) VLAN
19 34 (10.69%) ITIL
19 34 (10.69%) VoIP
20 33 (10.38%) Google Workspace
21 31 (9.75%) 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 68 (21.38%) Microsoft Exchange
2 51 (16.04%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.31%) Confluence
3 1 (0.31%) IIS
3 1 (0.31%) WordPress
Applications
1 26 (8.18%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.31%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 5 (1.57%) Dynamics CRM
1 5 (1.57%) Dynamics NAV
Cloud Services
1 191 (60.06%) Microsoft 365
2 118 (37.11%) Azure
3 73 (22.96%) Entra ID
4 33 (10.38%) Google Workspace
5 23 (7.23%) AWS
6 18 (5.66%) OneDrive
7 7 (2.20%) Mimecast
8 5 (1.57%) SaaS
9 3 (0.94%) Cohesity
9 3 (0.94%) Microsoft Copilot
9 3 (0.94%) PaaS
9 3 (0.94%) Power Automate
9 3 (0.94%) Power Platform
10 2 (0.63%) Azure Storage
11 1 (0.31%) Azure Monitor
11 1 (0.31%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 82 (25.79%) Firewall
2 81 (25.47%) DNS
3 77 (24.21%) DHCP
4 66 (20.75%) VPN
4 66 (20.75%) Wi-Fi
5 56 (17.61%) LAN
5 56 (17.61%) WAN
6 44 (13.84%) TCP/IP
7 35 (11.01%) VLAN
8 34 (10.69%) VoIP
9 18 (5.66%) Wireless
10 10 (3.14%) Remote Desktop
11 9 (2.83%) IPsec
12 6 (1.89%) SD-WAN
13 5 (1.57%) ADSL
14 4 (1.26%) Broadband
14 4 (1.26%) NetScaler
14 4 (1.26%) SAN
15 3 (0.94%) NAS
15 3 (0.94%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (1.26%) SQL Server
2 3 (0.94%) Power BI
3 2 (0.63%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 7 (2.20%) JIRA
General
1 85 (26.73%) Social Skills
2 12 (3.77%) Telecoms
3 11 (3.46%) Finance
4 10 (3.14%) Law
5 9 (2.83%) Manufacturing
5 9 (2.83%) Retail
6 8 (2.52%) Marketing
7 7 (2.20%) Legal
8 5 (1.57%) Advertising
8 5 (1.57%) Documentation Skills
8 5 (1.57%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 4 (1.26%) Organisational Skills
10 3 (0.94%) Electronics
10 3 (0.94%) Public Sector
11 2 (0.63%) Analytical Skills
11 2 (0.63%) Automotive
11 2 (0.63%) Military
12 1 (0.31%) Banking
12 1 (0.31%) Dutch Language
12 1 (0.31%) Front Office
Miscellaneous
1 30 (9.43%) Driving Licence
2 18 (5.66%) Onboarding
3 8 (2.52%) Smartphone
4 2 (0.63%) Data Centre
4 2 (0.63%) IoT
4 2 (0.63%) Mobile App
4 2 (0.63%) Self-Motivation
5 1 (0.31%) Enterprise Cloud
5 1 (0.31%) iPad
5 1 (0.31%) iPhone
5 1 (0.31%) NHS
5 1 (0.31%) PKI
5 1 (0.31%) Public Cloud
5 1 (0.31%) Security Posture
5 1 (0.31%) Video Conferencing
5 1 (0.31%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 175 (55.03%) Windows
2 108 (33.96%) Windows Server
3 66 (20.75%) Windows 10
4 37 (11.64%) Windows Server 2016
4 37 (11.64%) Windows Server 2019
5 31 (9.75%) Mac OS
6 19 (5.97%) Windows Server 2012
7 16 (5.03%) Android
8 15 (4.72%) Apple iOS
9 3 (0.94%) Linux
10 2 (0.63%) VMS
10 2 (0.63%) Windows 7
10 2 (0.63%) Windows Server 2008
11 1 (0.31%) Mac OS X
11 1 (0.31%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 108 (33.96%) Problem-Solving
2 68 (21.38%) Customer Service
3 34 (10.69%) ITIL
4 29 (9.12%) Service Delivery
5 27 (8.49%) Cybersecurity
6 20 (6.29%) ITSM
7 18 (5.66%) Service Management
8 15 (4.72%) Continuous Improvement
8 15 (4.72%) Remote Monitoring and Management
9 14 (4.40%) Mentoring
10 12 (3.77%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 11 (3.46%) Mobile Device Management
12 10 (3.14%) Configuration Management
13 9 (2.83%) Computer Science
13 9 (2.83%) Proactive Maintenance
14 8 (2.52%) Asset Management
14 8 (2.52%) Change Management
14 8 (2.52%) Collaborative Working
14 8 (2.52%) Incident Response
14 8 (2.52%) Time Management
Programming Languages
1 18 (5.66%) PowerShell
2 4 (1.26%) SQL
3 3 (0.94%) Python
4 1 (0.31%) Java
Qualifications
1 25 (7.86%) Microsoft Certification
2 21 (6.60%) Security Cleared
3 16 (5.03%) SC Cleared
4 12 (3.77%) Degree
5 9 (2.83%) A+ Certification
6 8 (2.52%) DBS Check
7 5 (1.57%) CompTIA Security+
8 3 (0.94%) Network+ Certification
9 2 (0.63%) BPSS Clearance
9 2 (0.63%) DV Cleared
9 2 (0.63%) HP APS
9 2 (0.63%) ITIL Certification
9 2 (0.63%) Microsoft Certified Professional
10 1 (0.31%) CCNA
10 1 (0.31%) CCNP
10 1 (0.31%) Cisco Certification
10 1 (0.31%) Computer Science Degree
10 1 (0.31%) Dell Certification
10 1 (0.31%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 43 (13.52%) SLA
2 7 (2.20%) Cyber Essentials
3 4 (1.26%) Accessibility
3 4 (1.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 4 (1.26%) NIST
4 3 (0.94%) GDPR
4 3 (0.94%) QA
System Software
1 132 (41.51%) Active Directory
2 42 (13.21%) Hyper-V
3 20 (6.29%) VMware Infrastructure
4 13 (4.09%) Virtual Desktop
5 7 (2.20%) BitLocker
6 3 (0.94%) Terminal Services
7 1 (0.31%) Firmware
7 1 (0.31%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.31%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.31%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 44 (13.84%) Microsoft Intune
2 18 (5.66%) Active Directory Federation Services
3 8 (2.52%) Autotask
3 8 (2.52%) SCCM
4 6 (1.89%) Jamf Pro
5 4 (1.26%) WSUS
6 2 (0.63%) FortiGate
6 2 (0.63%) Nagios
7 1 (0.31%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 191 (60.06%) Microsoft
2 31 (9.75%) Google
3 26 (8.18%) VMware
4 11 (3.46%) HP
5 10 (3.14%) Cisco
5 10 (3.14%) Sophos
6 8 (2.52%) Apple
6 8 (2.52%) Fortinet
7 7 (2.20%) Meraki
7 7 (2.20%) Samsung
7 7 (2.20%) SolarWinds
8 5 (1.57%) Veeam
9 4 (1.26%) Aruba
9 4 (1.26%) CheckPoint
9 4 (1.26%) F5
9 4 (1.26%) Palo Alto
9 4 (1.26%) ServiceNow
10 3 (0.94%) ConnectWise
10 3 (0.94%) NetApp
10 3 (0.94%) Sage