2nd Line Engineer Job Trends

Second Line Engineer
UK

The median Second Line Engineer salary in the UK is £33,500 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 17 December 2025.

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

6 months to
17 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 453 489 369
Rank change year-on-year +36 -120 +213
Permanent jobs requiring a 2nd Line Engineer 199 245 386
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.34% 0.43% 0.79%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.38% 0.46% 0.83%
Number of salaries quoted 184 195 359
10th Percentile £29,000 £27,750 £26,250
25th Percentile £30,719 £29,875 £28,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £33,500 £34,000 £32,500
Median % change year-on-year -1.47% +4.62% -
75th Percentile £39,000 £38,750 £38,000
90th Percentile £43,750 £45,000 £43,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £33,000 £32,500 £31,000
% change year-on-year +1.54% +4.84% -1.59%

All Permanent IT Job Vacancies
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 52,958 53,740 46,330
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.17% 93.73% 95.24%
Number of salaries quoted 32,584 29,046 35,911
10th Percentile £28,500 £32,750 £31,250
25th Percentile £36,250 £43,750 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -
75th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £80,000
90th Percentile £92,885 £97,500 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £49,000 £52,500 £52,500
% change year-on-year -6.67% - -

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 17 December 2025.

Salary histogram for 2nd Line Engineer in the UK

2nd Line Engineer
Top 14 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 17 December 2025. 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 +38 198 £33,500 -1.47% 84
UK excluding London +38 159 £33,000 +1.54% 77
South East +21 47 £32,500 +1.56% 44
South West +30 40 £33,000 -5.71% 12
London +25 40 £40,000 +6.67% 12
Work from Home +86 37 £33,000 - 25
Midlands +30 33 £35,000 +11.11% 6
East of England +27 22 £33,500 +3.08% 11
West Midlands +31 19 £37,500 +25.00% 4
North of England +9 17 £30,000 -7.69% 7
East Midlands 0 12 £33,500 -1.47% 2
North West +27 11 £30,000 -7.69% 3
Yorkshire -14 6 £32,500 +8.33% 4
Scotland +3 1 £40,000 +50.94%

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

For the 6 months to 17 December 2025, 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.

1 138 (69.35%) Microsoft 365
2 135 (67.84%) Windows
3 114 (57.29%) Microsoft
4 101 (50.75%) Active Directory
5 83 (41.71%) Azure
6 76 (38.19%) Firewall
6 76 (38.19%) Windows Server
7 64 (32.16%) DNS
8 62 (31.16%) Problem-Solving
9 59 (29.65%) VPN
10 57 (28.64%) DHCP
11 49 (24.62%) Microsoft Intune
12 47 (23.62%) Entra ID
13 46 (23.12%) TCP/IP
14 44 (22.11%) Customer Service
15 43 (21.61%) Windows 10
16 42 (21.11%) Hyper-V
16 42 (21.11%) Microsoft Exchange
17 40 (20.10%) SharePoint
17 40 (20.10%) VLAN
18 38 (19.10%) VMware
19 31 (15.58%) LAN
20 30 (15.08%) SLA
20 30 (15.08%) WAN
21 29 (14.57%) Apple
22 28 (14.07%) VMware Infrastructure
22 28 (14.07%) Wi-Fi
23 26 (13.07%) ITIL
24 25 (12.56%) Mentoring
24 25 (12.56%) Security Cleared

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 42 (21.11%) Microsoft Exchange
2 40 (20.10%) SharePoint
3 5 (2.51%) IIS
Applications
1 10 (5.03%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (2.01%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.50%) Adobe Creative Suite
Business Applications
1 5 (2.51%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.50%) Carpe Diem
2 1 (0.50%) Elite 3E
Cloud Services
1 138 (69.35%) Microsoft 365
2 83 (41.71%) Azure
3 47 (23.62%) Entra ID
4 17 (8.54%) Google Workspace
5 13 (6.53%) OneDrive
6 11 (5.53%) AWS
7 4 (2.01%) Azure AKS
7 4 (2.01%) Azure DevOps
7 4 (2.01%) GitHub
7 4 (2.01%) SaaS
8 1 (0.50%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 76 (38.19%) Firewall
2 64 (32.16%) DNS
3 59 (29.65%) VPN
4 57 (28.64%) DHCP
5 46 (23.12%) TCP/IP
6 40 (20.10%) VLAN
7 31 (15.58%) LAN
8 30 (15.08%) WAN
9 28 (14.07%) Wi-Fi
10 15 (7.54%) Wireless
11 14 (7.04%) VoIP
12 13 (6.53%) IPsec
13 6 (3.02%) Cisco IOS
14 5 (2.51%) Remote Desktop
15 3 (1.51%) DKIM
15 3 (1.51%) DMARC
15 3 (1.51%) PBX
16 2 (1.01%) Broadband
16 2 (1.01%) Network Security
16 2 (1.01%) PSTN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (5.53%) SQL Server
2 9 (4.52%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 6 (3.02%) JIRA
2 4 (2.01%) Git
2 4 (2.01%) Jenkins
General
1 76 (38.19%) Social Skills
2 25 (12.56%) Law
2 25 (12.56%) Marketing
3 14 (7.04%) Manufacturing
4 10 (5.03%) Finance
5 9 (4.52%) Telecoms
6 7 (3.52%) Advertising
6 7 (3.52%) Electronics
6 7 (3.52%) Public Sector
7 5 (2.51%) Games
8 4 (2.01%) Dutch Language
8 4 (2.01%) French Language
8 4 (2.01%) Retail
8 4 (2.01%) Spanish Language
9 2 (1.01%) Front Office
9 2 (1.01%) Legal
9 2 (1.01%) Organisational Skills
10 1 (0.50%) Automotive
10 1 (0.50%) Banking
10 1 (0.50%) Financial Institution
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (2.01%) ARM Templates
Miscellaneous
1 44 (22.11%) Driving Licence
2 13 (6.53%) Onboarding
3 7 (3.52%) iPhone
4 5 (2.51%) Clustering
5 3 (1.51%) Mobile App
5 3 (1.51%) Video Conferencing
6 2 (1.01%) Digital Signage
6 2 (1.01%) Enterprise Cloud
6 2 (1.01%) IoT
6 2 (1.01%) iPad
6 2 (1.01%) Self-Motivation
7 1 (0.50%) Client/Server
7 1 (0.50%) Hedge funds
7 1 (0.50%) PKI
7 1 (0.50%) Smartphone
7 1 (0.50%) Team-Oriented Environment
Operating Systems
1 135 (67.84%) Windows
2 76 (38.19%) Windows Server
3 43 (21.61%) Windows 10
4 22 (11.06%) Apple iOS
5 21 (10.55%) Mac OS
6 20 (10.05%) Android
7 18 (9.05%) Linux
8 16 (8.04%) Windows Server 2019
9 13 (6.53%) Windows Server 2016
10 5 (2.51%) Windows Server 2012
11 2 (1.01%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 62 (31.16%) Problem-Solving
2 44 (22.11%) Customer Service
3 26 (13.07%) ITIL
4 25 (12.56%) Mentoring
5 22 (11.06%) Service Management
6 21 (10.55%) Mobile Device Management
7 18 (9.05%) Configuration Management
7 18 (9.05%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 18 (9.05%) ITSM
8 15 (7.54%) Cybersecurity
9 14 (7.04%) Continuous Improvement
9 14 (7.04%) Remote Monitoring and Management
9 14 (7.04%) Service Delivery
10 13 (6.53%) DevOps
11 9 (4.52%) Asset Management
11 9 (4.52%) Containerisation
11 9 (4.52%) Infrastructure as Code
11 9 (4.52%) Migration
12 8 (4.02%) CI/CD
13 7 (3.52%) Collaborative Culture
Programming Languages
1 17 (8.54%) PowerShell
2 6 (3.02%) SQL
3 5 (2.51%) Bicep
4 2 (1.01%) Java
Qualifications
1 25 (12.56%) Security Cleared
2 24 (12.06%) SC Cleared
3 15 (7.54%) BPSS Clearance
4 13 (6.53%) Microsoft Certification
5 8 (4.02%) Degree
6 7 (3.52%) A+ Certification
7 5 (2.51%) ACMT
7 5 (2.51%) Computer Science Degree
7 5 (2.51%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 4 (2.01%) MCP
9 2 (1.01%) AWS Certification
9 2 (1.01%) Azure Certification
9 2 (1.01%) CompTIA Security+
9 2 (1.01%) Dell Certification
9 2 (1.01%) MCSA
9 2 (1.01%) Network+ Certification
10 1 (0.50%) CCNP
10 1 (0.50%) DBS Check
10 1 (0.50%) DV Cleared
10 1 (0.50%) MCITP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (15.08%) SLA
2 8 (4.02%) Cyber Essentials
3 3 (1.51%) GDPR
4 2 (1.01%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 2 (1.01%) NIST
5 1 (0.50%) Accessibility
5 1 (0.50%) QA
System Software
1 101 (50.75%) Active Directory
2 42 (21.11%) Hyper-V
3 28 (14.07%) VMware Infrastructure
4 9 (4.52%) Docker
5 7 (3.52%) VMware ESXi
6 6 (3.02%) Virtual Desktop
7 4 (2.01%) Firmware
8 1 (0.50%) BitLocker
8 1 (0.50%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 49 (24.62%) Microsoft Intune
2 22 (11.06%) Jamf Pro
3 18 (9.05%) SCCM
4 9 (4.52%) Autotask
4 9 (4.52%) Kubernetes
5 6 (3.02%) vCenter Server
6 5 (2.51%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 5 (2.51%) FortiGate
6 5 (2.51%) MaaS360
7 4 (2.01%) Terraform
8 2 (1.01%) WSUS
9 1 (0.50%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 114 (57.29%) Microsoft
2 38 (19.10%) VMware
3 29 (14.57%) Apple
4 25 (12.56%) Sophos
5 19 (9.55%) Samsung
6 15 (7.54%) ConnectWise
7 13 (6.53%) Google
8 11 (5.53%) Cisco
9 10 (5.03%) Veeam
10 7 (3.52%) SAP
10 7 (3.52%) ServiceNow
11 5 (2.51%) Datto
11 5 (2.51%) Juniper
11 5 (2.51%) McAfee
11 5 (2.51%) Oracle
12 4 (2.01%) Adobe
12 4 (2.01%) Fortinet
13 3 (1.51%) Freshdesk
13 3 (1.51%) Fujitsu
13 3 (1.51%) HP