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 23 September 2026.

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

6 months to
23 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 507 557 469
Rank change year-on-year +50 -88 -77
Permanent jobs requiring a 2nd Line Engineer 328 113 328
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.28% 0.23% 0.43%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.30% 0.26% 0.46%
Number of salaries quoted 265 107 262
10th Percentile £29,750 £29,500 £26,750
25th Percentile £31,250 £30,750 £29,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £35,000 £33,000 £34,000
Median % change year-on-year +6.06% -2.94% +4.62%
75th Percentile £38,750 £38,500 £38,750
90th Percentile £42,200 £46,000 £43,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £35,000 £32,875 £32,500
% change year-on-year +6.46% +1.15% +2.77%

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 108,680 43,895 71,874
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.13% 89.63% 95.29%
Number of salaries quoted 74,405 25,767 42,756
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,250 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,750 £36,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £59,250 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.73% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £77,500 £75,000 £75,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £95,000 £92,500
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 23 September 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 23 September 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 +35 291 £35,000 +6.06% 95
UK excluding London +24 267 £35,000 +6.46% 76
East of England +27 67 £35,000 +4.48% 17
Work from Home -7 63 £33,500 +3.08% 34
South East -20 59 £33,500 -0.74% 21
London -32 58 £36,000 -7.69% 23
North of England -18 56 £34,000 +4.62% 10
North West +5 48 £35,000 +7.69% 7
Midlands -44 34 £32,500 -0.76% 19
Scotland - 29 £30,000 - 3
West Midlands -28 25 £32,500 -1.52% 16
South West -81 17 £35,000 +6.06% 6
East Midlands -32 9 £35,000 +7.69% 3
Yorkshire -33 8 £31,000 -12.68% 3
Wales - 5 £35,000 - 1

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

For the 6 months to 23 September 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.

1 216 (65.85%) Microsoft
2 201 (61.28%) Microsoft 365
3 180 (54.88%) Windows
4 137 (41.77%) Active Directory
5 111 (33.84%) Entra ID
6 96 (29.27%) Customer Service
7 91 (27.74%) Windows Server
8 89 (27.13%) Problem-Solving
9 88 (26.83%) Firewall
10 79 (24.09%) Azure
11 70 (21.34%) DNS
12 68 (20.73%) Microsoft Exchange
13 67 (20.43%) SharePoint
14 60 (18.29%) VPN
15 58 (17.68%) DHCP
16 53 (16.16%) Windows 10
17 52 (15.85%) Microsoft Intune
18 47 (14.33%) TCP/IP
19 44 (13.41%) VMware
20 43 (13.11%) WAN
21 40 (12.20%) Hyper-V
21 40 (12.20%) LAN
22 37 (11.28%) Mac OS
23 36 (10.98%) VMware Infrastructure
24 34 (10.37%) Wi-Fi
25 33 (10.06%) SLA
26 31 (9.45%) Service Delivery
27 29 (8.84%) Continuous Improvement
28 28 (8.54%) Remote Monitoring and Management
29 27 (8.23%) Cybersecurity

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 (20.73%) Microsoft Exchange
2 67 (20.43%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.61%) Skype for Business
4 1 (0.30%) WordPress
Applications
1 17 (5.18%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (1.83%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.30%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 4 (1.22%) NetSuite
1 4 (1.22%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 201 (61.28%) Microsoft 365
2 111 (33.84%) Entra ID
3 79 (24.09%) Azure
4 15 (4.57%) OneDrive
5 14 (4.27%) Google Workspace
5 14 (4.27%) Power Platform
6 12 (3.66%) AWS
7 9 (2.74%) Cohesity
8 5 (1.52%) SaaS
9 4 (1.22%) Microsoft Copilot
10 3 (0.91%) Dynamics 365
10 3 (0.91%) GCP
10 3 (0.91%) PaaS
10 3 (0.91%) PowerApps
11 2 (0.61%) Amazon EC2
11 2 (0.61%) Power Automate
11 2 (0.61%) Rubrik
11 2 (0.61%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 1 (0.30%) Azure Storage
12 1 (0.30%) Cloud Computing
Communications & Networking
1 88 (26.83%) Firewall
2 70 (21.34%) DNS
3 60 (18.29%) VPN
4 58 (17.68%) DHCP
5 47 (14.33%) TCP/IP
6 43 (13.11%) WAN
7 40 (12.20%) LAN
8 34 (10.37%) Wi-Fi
9 27 (8.23%) VoIP
10 21 (6.40%) VLAN
11 12 (3.66%) MPLS
11 12 (3.66%) SAN
12 11 (3.35%) Wireless
13 6 (1.83%) Structured Cabling
14 5 (1.52%) IPsec
14 5 (1.52%) SSL
15 4 (1.22%) Internet
16 3 (0.91%) BGP
16 3 (0.91%) NAS
16 3 (0.91%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (2.44%) Power BI
2 4 (1.22%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 2 (0.61%) JIRA
2 1 (0.30%) Carbide.c++
General
1 135 (41.16%) Social Skills
2 23 (7.01%) Legal
3 21 (6.40%) Telecoms
4 17 (5.18%) Organisational Skills
5 11 (3.35%) Documentation Skills
6 9 (2.74%) Advertising
7 7 (2.13%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 6 (1.83%) Analytical Skills
8 6 (1.83%) Billing
9 5 (1.52%) Finance
9 5 (1.52%) Retail
10 4 (1.22%) Public Sector
11 3 (0.91%) Manufacturing
12 2 (0.61%) Military
13 1 (0.30%) Aerospace
Miscellaneous
1 53 (16.16%) Driving Licence
2 35 (10.67%) Onboarding
3 9 (2.74%) Data Centre
4 6 (1.83%) Smartphone
5 5 (1.52%) iPhone
6 4 (1.22%) Replication
7 3 (0.91%) Hybrid Cloud
7 3 (0.91%) IoT
7 3 (0.91%) iPad
8 2 (0.61%) Enterprise Cloud
8 2 (0.61%) 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
Operating Systems
1 180 (54.88%) Windows
2 91 (27.74%) Windows Server
3 53 (16.16%) Windows 10
4 37 (11.28%) Mac OS
5 15 (4.57%) Windows Server 2019
6 14 (4.27%) Windows Server 2016
7 10 (3.05%) Android
8 3 (0.91%) Apple iOS
9 2 (0.61%) AIX
9 2 (0.61%) Linux
9 2 (0.61%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 2 (0.61%) VMS
9 2 (0.61%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 96 (29.27%) Customer Service
2 89 (27.13%) Problem-Solving
3 31 (9.45%) Service Delivery
4 29 (8.84%) Continuous Improvement
5 28 (8.54%) Remote Monitoring and Management
6 27 (8.23%) Cybersecurity
7 26 (7.93%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 25 (7.62%) ITIL
9 18 (5.49%) Collaborative Culture
10 17 (5.18%) Client Onboarding
10 17 (5.18%) Project Delivery
11 16 (4.88%) Disaster Recovery
11 16 (4.88%) ITSM
11 16 (4.88%) Stakeholder Management
12 15 (4.57%) User Experience
13 14 (4.27%) Cloud Security
13 14 (4.27%) Incident Management
14 13 (3.96%) Mentoring
15 12 (3.66%) Technology Transformation
16 11 (3.35%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 23 (7.01%) PowerShell
2 6 (1.83%) SQL
3 4 (1.22%) VBScript
4 2 (0.61%) Java
4 2 (0.61%) Python
Qualifications
1 22 (6.71%) Security Cleared
2 16 (4.88%) Microsoft Certification
3 14 (4.27%) Degree
4 12 (3.66%) SC Cleared
5 8 (2.44%) DBS Check
6 6 (1.83%) HND
7 4 (1.22%) A+ Certification
8 3 (0.91%) CCNA
8 3 (0.91%) Cisco Certification
9 2 (0.61%) CCNP
9 2 (0.61%) Dell Certification
9 2 (0.61%) HP APS
9 2 (0.61%) MCSA
10 1 (0.30%) Azure Certification
10 1 (0.30%) DV Cleared
10 1 (0.30%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 1 (0.30%) JNCIS
10 1 (0.30%) Microsoft Certified Professional
10 1 (0.30%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (10.06%) SLA
2 12 (3.66%) GDPR
3 8 (2.44%) Cyber Essentials
4 4 (1.22%) Accessibility
5 2 (0.61%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 137 (41.77%) Active Directory
2 40 (12.20%) Hyper-V
3 36 (10.98%) VMware Infrastructure
4 8 (2.44%) BitLocker
5 7 (2.13%) Virtual Desktop
6 2 (0.61%) Terminal Services
6 2 (0.61%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.30%) Firmware
7 1 (0.30%) Terminal Server
7 1 (0.30%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 52 (15.85%) Microsoft Intune
2 10 (3.05%) WSUS
3 9 (2.74%) Autotask
4 7 (2.13%) SCCM
5 6 (1.83%) FortiGate
6 4 (1.22%) Jamf Pro
6 4 (1.22%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
7 2 (0.61%) Netcool
7 2 (0.61%) SmoothWall
7 2 (0.61%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 216 (65.85%) Microsoft
2 44 (13.41%) VMware
3 24 (7.32%) Meraki
4 23 (7.01%) Fortinet
5 21 (6.40%) Cisco
6 18 (5.49%) Google
7 13 (3.96%) HP
8 12 (3.66%) ServiceNow
9 11 (3.35%) Apple
9 11 (3.35%) NetApp
10 10 (3.05%) Veeam
11 8 (2.44%) SonicWALL
12 6 (1.83%) Draytek
12 6 (1.83%) Juniper
13 5 (1.52%) Citrix
13 5 (1.52%) Dell
13 5 (1.52%) SolarWinds
14 4 (1.22%) Datto
14 4 (1.22%) Palo Alto
14 4 (1.22%) Sage