3rd Line Engineer Contracts in England

Third Line Engineer
UK > England

The median Third Line Engineer daily rate in England is £550, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 18 June 2025.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Jun 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 421 433 465
Rank change year-on-year +12 +32 +52
Contract jobs requiring a 3rd Line Engineer 54 116 172
As % of all contract jobs advertised in England 0.22% 0.31% 0.37%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.24% 0.33% 0.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 44 63 118
10th Percentile £268 £263 £263
25th Percentile £363 £292 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £375 £388
Median % change year-on-year +46.67% -3.23% -2.52%
75th Percentile £600 £400 £475
90th Percentile £602 £500 £538
UK median daily rate £470 £375 £388
% change year-on-year +25.20% -3.23% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 0
Median hourly rate £24.66 - -
UK median hourly rate £24.66 - -

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
England

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in England. 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 contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in England with a recognized job title 22,908 35,010 44,428
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.30% 92.85% 94.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 15,064 22,821 31,551
10th Percentile £293 £288 £313
25th Percentile £405 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.38% -4.55% +2.33%
75th Percentile £635 £638 £663
90th Percentile £750 £750 £763
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% +2.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,027 2,684 1,320
10th Percentile £14.00 £12.86 £14.25
25th Percentile £18.13 £16.58 £20.00
Median hourly rate £28.75 £39.53 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -27.26% -12.17% +83.67%
75th Percentile £58.75 £62.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £74.00 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £27.45 £37.50 £45.00
% change year-on-year -26.80% -16.67% +76.47%

3rd Line Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Job postings that featured 3rd Line Engineer in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in England.

Job vacancy trend for 3rd Line Engineer in England

3rd Line Engineer
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in England

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing 3rd Line Engineer in England.

Daily rate trend for 3rd Line Engineer in England

3rd Line Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing 3rd Line Engineer in England over the 6 months to 18 June 2025.

Daily rate histogram for 3rd Line Engineer in England

3rd Line Engineer
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in England

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing 3rd Line Engineer in England.

Hourly rate trend for 3rd Line Engineer in England

3rd Line Engineer
Contract Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing 3rd Line Engineer within the England region over the 6 months to 18 June 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
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
South East +56 26 £575 +53.33% 100
London +43 15 £375 -2.60% 50
North West -5 6 £350 -12.50% 40
North of England -8 6 £350 -7.28% 79
Midlands -13 4 £281 -3.28% 67
West Midlands -20 4 £281 -4.92% 35
East of England +24 3 £467 +69.64% 66
3rd Line Engineer
UK

3rd Line Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in England

For the 6 months to 18 June 2025, 3rd Line Engineer contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the England region featuring 3rd Line Engineer in the job title.

1 41 (75.93%) Windows
2 38 (70.37%) Active Directory
3 36 (66.67%) Microsoft
4 29 (53.70%) VMware
5 26 (48.15%) Windows Server
5 26 (48.15%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 24 (44.44%) VMware Infrastructure
7 21 (38.89%) DNS
8 20 (37.04%) Security Cleared
9 19 (35.19%) Azure
9 19 (35.19%) DHCP
9 19 (35.19%) Microsoft Exchange
10 18 (33.33%) ITIL
10 18 (33.33%) DV Cleared
11 17 (31.48%) Linux
11 17 (31.48%) Firewall
11 17 (31.48%) vCenter Server
12 16 (29.63%) PowerShell
13 15 (27.78%) VPN
13 15 (27.78%) DevOps
14 14 (25.93%) SAN
15 13 (24.07%) Hyper-V
15 13 (24.07%) PKI
15 13 (24.07%) Microsoft 365
15 13 (24.07%) IaaS
16 12 (22.22%) PaaS
16 12 (22.22%) Clustering
17 11 (20.37%) Symantec
17 11 (20.37%) Citrix
17 11 (20.37%) Ansible

3rd Line Engineer Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in England by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 19 (35.19%) Microsoft Exchange
2 10 (18.52%) SharePoint
3 3 (5.56%) Apache
3 3 (5.56%) Exchange Server 2003
3 3 (5.56%) Exchange Server 2007
3 3 (5.56%) Exchange Server 2010
3 3 (5.56%) Exchange Server 2013
3 3 (5.56%) Office Communications Server
3 3 (5.56%) SharePoint Server
3 3 (5.56%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 4 (7.41%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 19 (35.19%) Azure
2 13 (24.07%) IaaS
2 13 (24.07%) Microsoft 365
3 12 (22.22%) PaaS
4 9 (16.67%) Entra ID
5 8 (14.81%) AWS
5 8 (14.81%) GCP
5 8 (14.81%) OpenShift
6 3 (5.56%) OneDrive
7 2 (3.70%) Nutanix
8 1 (1.85%) Azure Monitor
8 1 (1.85%) Microsoft Copilot
8 1 (1.85%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 21 (38.89%) DNS
2 19 (35.19%) DHCP
3 17 (31.48%) Firewall
4 15 (27.78%) VPN
5 14 (25.93%) SAN
6 9 (16.67%) SMTP
7 7 (12.96%) Fibre Channel
8 4 (7.41%) LAN
8 4 (7.41%) Network Security
9 3 (5.56%) DDNS
9 3 (5.56%) WAN
9 3 (5.56%) WLAN
10 1 (1.85%) IPsec
10 1 (1.85%) Junos
10 1 (1.85%) NAS
10 1 (1.85%) SD-WAN
10 1 (1.85%) Unified Communications
10 1 (1.85%) VLAN
10 1 (1.85%) WebEx
10 1 (1.85%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (14.81%) Amazon RDS
1 8 (14.81%) Big Data
1 8 (14.81%) Elasticsearch
2 1 (1.85%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 3 (5.56%) MSI
1 3 (5.56%) Robot Framework
1 3 (5.56%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 10 (18.52%) Public Sector
2 4 (7.41%) Social Skills
3 2 (3.70%) Banking
3 2 (3.70%) Finance
3 2 (3.70%) Legal
4 1 (1.85%) Analytical Skills
4 1 (1.85%) Games
4 1 (1.85%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 1 (1.85%) Local Government
4 1 (1.85%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (1.85%) ARM Templates
1 1 (1.85%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 13 (24.07%) PKI
2 12 (22.22%) Clustering
3 10 (18.52%) Data Centre
4 6 (11.11%) Replication
5 1 (1.85%) CMDB
5 1 (1.85%) Driving Licence
5 1 (1.85%) Hybrid Cloud
5 1 (1.85%) NHS
5 1 (1.85%) Smartphone
5 1 (1.85%) Social Media
5 1 (1.85%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 41 (75.93%) Windows
2 26 (48.15%) Windows Server
3 17 (31.48%) Linux
4 10 (18.52%) Windows Server 2003
5 8 (14.81%) Windows Server 2019
6 4 (7.41%) Mac OS
6 4 (7.41%) Windows 10
7 3 (5.56%) CentOS
7 3 (5.56%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 2 (3.70%) Android
8 2 (3.70%) Apple iOS
8 2 (3.70%) Unix
8 2 (3.70%) Windows Server 2012
8 2 (3.70%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 26 (48.15%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 18 (33.33%) ITIL
3 15 (27.78%) DevOps
4 8 (14.81%) Artificial Intelligence
4 8 (14.81%) Machine Learning
4 8 (14.81%) Software Deployment
5 7 (12.96%) Cybersecurity
6 6 (11.11%) Infrastructure as Code
6 6 (11.11%) Proactive Maintenance
7 5 (9.26%) Customer Service
7 5 (9.26%) High Availability
7 5 (9.26%) Patch Management
7 5 (9.26%) Problem-Solving
7 5 (9.26%) Security Patching
8 4 (7.41%) Roadmaps
8 4 (7.41%) Service Management
8 4 (7.41%) Strategic Roadmap
9 3 (5.56%) Architectural Design
9 3 (5.56%) Batch Scripting
9 3 (5.56%) Deployment Automation
Programming Languages
1 16 (29.63%) PowerShell
2 4 (7.41%) SQL
3 3 (5.56%) PHP
3 3 (5.56%) Python
3 3 (5.56%) Shell Script
4 1 (1.85%) Bash
4 1 (1.85%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 20 (37.04%) Security Cleared
2 18 (33.33%) DV Cleared
3 9 (16.67%) Degree
4 7 (12.96%) Microsoft Certification
5 4 (7.41%) DBS Check
6 2 (3.70%) MCSE
6 2 (3.70%) SC Cleared
6 2 (3.70%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
7 1 (1.85%) Azure Certification
7 1 (1.85%) BPSS Clearance
7 1 (1.85%) CCNA
7 1 (1.85%) CESG Certified Professional
7 1 (1.85%) Cisco Certification
7 1 (1.85%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
7 1 (1.85%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (12.96%) SLA
System Software
1 38 (70.37%) Active Directory
2 24 (44.44%) VMware Infrastructure
3 13 (24.07%) Hyper-V
4 11 (20.37%) Docker
4 11 (20.37%) VMware ESXi
5 9 (16.67%) BitLocker
5 9 (16.67%) Microsoft App-V
5 9 (16.67%) Terminal Services
6 5 (9.26%) DFS Replication
6 5 (9.26%) vSphere
7 3 (5.56%) Brightmail
7 3 (5.56%) ISA Server
7 3 (5.56%) VMware NSX
8 2 (3.70%) Virtual Machines
9 1 (1.85%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 17 (31.48%) vCenter Server
2 11 (20.37%) Ansible
3 9 (16.67%) vMotion
4 8 (14.81%) Kubernetes
4 8 (14.81%) Microsoft Intune
4 8 (14.81%) Nagios
4 8 (14.81%) Puppet
5 7 (12.96%) SCCM
6 4 (7.41%) Terraform
7 3 (5.56%) Backup Exec
7 3 (5.56%) Failover Clustering
7 3 (5.56%) Microsoft Clustering
7 3 (5.56%) Podman
7 3 (5.56%) SCOM
7 3 (5.56%) WMI
8 2 (3.70%) Jamf Pro
8 2 (3.70%) WSUS
9 1 (1.85%) Cisco CUCM
Vendors
1 36 (66.67%) Microsoft
2 29 (53.70%) VMware
3 11 (20.37%) Citrix
3 11 (20.37%) Symantec
4 8 (14.81%) Google
4 8 (14.81%) HP
5 6 (11.11%) Cisco
6 4 (7.41%) Veeam
7 3 (5.56%) LogicMonitor
7 3 (5.56%) SolarWinds
8 2 (3.70%) Apple
8 2 (3.70%) McAfee
9 1 (1.85%) Adobe
9 1 (1.85%) Commvault
9 1 (1.85%) Dell
9 1 (1.85%) Fortinet
9 1 (1.85%) Juniper
9 1 (1.85%) Meraki
9 1 (1.85%) ServiceNow