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 6 September 2026.

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

6 months to
6 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 481 573 484
Rank change year-on-year +92 -89 -79
Permanent jobs requiring a 2nd Line Engineer 331 107 341
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.30% 0.22% 0.43%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.32% 0.24% 0.45%
Number of salaries quoted 273 100 283
10th Percentile £29,750 £29,500 £26,550
25th Percentile £31,250 £30,719 £28,622
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £35,000 £33,000 £32,500
Median % change year-on-year +6.06% +1.54% -
75th Percentile £38,750 £38,750 £38,125
90th Percentile £41,950 £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 104,733 44,390 75,643
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.79% 89.68% 95.22%
Number of salaries quoted 72,126 26,208 47,516
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,132 £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 £76,500 £74,813 £72,500
90th Percentile £97,500 £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 6 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 6 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 +55 296 £35,000 +6.06% 68
UK excluding London +69 271 £35,000 +7.69% 64
East of England +38 70 £35,000 +12.00% 14
Work from Home +1 66 £33,500 +3.08% 18
South East +1 66 £32,500 -4.41% 23
London -35 57 £36,000 -7.69% 6
North of England -28 53 £34,000 +4.62% 7
North West +11 45 £35,000 +7.69% 5
Midlands -23 28 £32,500 - 22
Scotland +32 27 £30,000 -7.69% 1
South West -68 22 £35,000 +6.06%
West Midlands -26 19 £32,500 -1.52% 16
East Midlands -26 9 £35,000 +7.69% 6
Yorkshire -42 8 £31,000 -22.50% 1
Wales - 5 £35,000 -

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

For the 6 months to 6 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.

1 214 (64.65%) Microsoft
2 196 (59.21%) Microsoft 365
3 177 (53.47%) Windows
4 131 (39.58%) Active Directory
5 101 (30.51%) Entra ID
6 98 (29.61%) Customer Service
7 90 (27.19%) Problem-Solving
7 90 (27.19%) Windows Server
8 86 (25.98%) Firewall
9 78 (23.56%) Azure
10 71 (21.45%) Microsoft Exchange
11 69 (20.85%) DNS
12 67 (20.24%) SharePoint
13 57 (17.22%) DHCP
14 54 (16.31%) VPN
15 53 (16.01%) Windows 10
16 46 (13.90%) TCP/IP
17 45 (13.60%) Microsoft Intune
18 43 (12.99%) VMware
19 41 (12.39%) Hyper-V
20 39 (11.78%) WAN
21 37 (11.18%) LAN
21 37 (11.18%) VMware Infrastructure
22 35 (10.57%) Mac OS
22 35 (10.57%) SLA
23 34 (10.27%) Wi-Fi
24 32 (9.67%) Service Delivery
25 30 (9.06%) Continuous Improvement
26 27 (8.16%) VoIP
27 25 (7.55%) Remote Monitoring and Management

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 (21.45%) Microsoft Exchange
2 67 (20.24%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.60%) Skype for Business
4 1 (0.30%) WordPress
Applications
1 19 (5.74%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (1.81%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.30%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 2 (0.60%) NetSuite
1 2 (0.60%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 196 (59.21%) Microsoft 365
2 101 (30.51%) Entra ID
3 78 (23.56%) Azure
4 16 (4.83%) OneDrive
5 15 (4.53%) Power Platform
6 14 (4.23%) Google Workspace
7 13 (3.93%) AWS
8 9 (2.72%) Cohesity
9 5 (1.51%) Microsoft Copilot
9 5 (1.51%) SaaS
10 3 (0.91%) Dynamics 365
10 3 (0.91%) PaaS
10 3 (0.91%) Power Automate
10 3 (0.91%) PowerApps
11 2 (0.60%) Amazon EC2
11 2 (0.60%) Azure Storage
11 2 (0.60%) GCP
11 2 (0.60%) Rubrik
11 2 (0.60%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 1 (0.30%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 86 (25.98%) Firewall
2 69 (20.85%) DNS
3 57 (17.22%) DHCP
4 54 (16.31%) VPN
5 46 (13.90%) TCP/IP
6 39 (11.78%) WAN
7 37 (11.18%) LAN
8 34 (10.27%) Wi-Fi
9 27 (8.16%) VoIP
10 20 (6.04%) VLAN
11 12 (3.63%) SAN
11 12 (3.63%) Wireless
12 10 (3.02%) MPLS
13 6 (1.81%) Structured Cabling
14 5 (1.51%) IPsec
14 5 (1.51%) SSL
15 4 (1.21%) Internet
15 4 (1.21%) NAS
16 3 (0.91%) BGP
16 3 (0.91%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (2.72%) Power BI
2 4 (1.21%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 2 (0.60%) JIRA
2 1 (0.30%) Carbide.c++
General
1 128 (38.67%) Social Skills
2 24 (7.25%) Legal
3 19 (5.74%) Telecoms
4 14 (4.23%) Organisational Skills
5 12 (3.63%) Documentation Skills
6 7 (2.11%) Analytical Skills
6 7 (2.11%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 6 (1.81%) Advertising
7 6 (1.81%) Billing
8 5 (1.51%) Retail
9 4 (1.21%) Manufacturing
9 4 (1.21%) Public Sector
10 3 (0.91%) Finance
11 2 (0.60%) Military
12 1 (0.30%) Aerospace
Miscellaneous
1 51 (15.41%) Driving Licence
2 34 (10.27%) Onboarding
3 9 (2.72%) Data Centre
4 7 (2.11%) Smartphone
5 5 (1.51%) iPhone
6 4 (1.21%) Replication
7 3 (0.91%) Hybrid Cloud
7 3 (0.91%) IoT
7 3 (0.91%) 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
1 177 (53.47%) Windows
2 90 (27.19%) Windows Server
3 53 (16.01%) Windows 10
4 35 (10.57%) Mac OS
5 17 (5.14%) Windows Server 2019
6 15 (4.53%) Windows Server 2016
7 12 (3.63%) Android
8 4 (1.21%) 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
10 1 (0.30%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 98 (29.61%) Customer Service
2 90 (27.19%) Problem-Solving
3 32 (9.67%) Service Delivery
4 30 (9.06%) Continuous Improvement
5 25 (7.55%) Remote Monitoring and Management
6 24 (7.25%) Cybersecurity
6 24 (7.25%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 24 (7.25%) ITIL
7 18 (5.44%) Collaborative Culture
8 17 (5.14%) Project Delivery
9 16 (4.83%) Disaster Recovery
9 16 (4.83%) ITSM
10 15 (4.53%) Client Onboarding
11 14 (4.23%) Cloud Security
11 14 (4.23%) Mentoring
11 14 (4.23%) User Experience
12 13 (3.93%) Incident Management
13 12 (3.63%) Stakeholder Management
14 11 (3.32%) Identity Management
15 10 (3.02%) AI
Programming Languages
1 23 (6.95%) PowerShell
2 6 (1.81%) SQL
3 4 (1.21%) VBScript
4 2 (0.60%) Java
4 2 (0.60%) Python
Qualifications
1 21 (6.34%) Security Cleared
2 18 (5.44%) Microsoft Certification
3 14 (4.23%) Degree
4 11 (3.32%) SC Cleared
5 9 (2.72%) DBS Check
6 6 (1.81%) A+ Certification
6 6 (1.81%) HND
7 3 (0.91%) CCNA
7 3 (0.91%) Cisco Certification
7 3 (0.91%) HP APS
8 2 (0.60%) CCNP
8 2 (0.60%) Dell Certification
8 2 (0.60%) MCSA
9 1 (0.30%) DV Cleared
9 1 (0.30%) JNCIS
9 1 (0.30%) Microsoft Certified Professional
9 1 (0.30%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 35 (10.57%) SLA
2 10 (3.02%) GDPR
3 6 (1.81%) Cyber Essentials
4 4 (1.21%) Accessibility
System Software
1 131 (39.58%) Active Directory
2 41 (12.39%) Hyper-V
3 37 (11.18%) VMware Infrastructure
4 10 (3.02%) BitLocker
5 8 (2.42%) Virtual Desktop
6 3 (0.91%) 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 45 (13.60%) Microsoft Intune
2 10 (3.02%) Autotask
2 10 (3.02%) WSUS
3 9 (2.72%) SCCM
4 7 (2.11%) FortiGate
5 4 (1.21%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
6 2 (0.60%) Netcool
6 2 (0.60%) ZABBIX
7 1 (0.30%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 1 (0.30%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 214 (64.65%) Microsoft
2 43 (12.99%) VMware
3 21 (6.34%) Meraki
4 20 (6.04%) Fortinet
5 19 (5.74%) Cisco
6 16 (4.83%) Google
7 14 (4.23%) HP
8 12 (3.63%) ServiceNow
9 11 (3.32%) NetApp
10 8 (2.42%) SonicWALL
10 8 (2.42%) Veeam
11 6 (1.81%) Draytek
12 5 (1.51%) Apple
12 5 (1.51%) Citrix
12 5 (1.51%) Dell
12 5 (1.51%) SolarWinds
13 4 (1.21%) Juniper
13 4 (1.21%) Sage
13 4 (1.21%) Sophos
14 3 (0.91%) Fujitsu