3rd Line Engineer Contract Job Trends in the North West

Third Line Engineer
England > North West

The median Third Line Engineer daily rate in the North West is £363, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 11 September 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
11 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 169 132 108
Rank change year-on-year -37 -24 +34
Contract jobs requiring a 3rd Line Engineer 7 4 10
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 0.18% 0.18% 0.42%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.19% 0.20% 0.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 6 0 5
10th Percentile £305 - £295
25th Percentile £314 - £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £363 - £425
Median % change year-on-year - - +38.21%
75th Percentile £463 - £450
90th Percentile £496 - £473
England median daily rate £475 £500 £385
% change year-on-year -5.00% +29.87% +9.84%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 0 1
Median hourly rate - - £24.18
England median hourly rate - £30.00 £42.09
% change year-on-year - -28.72% -

All Contract IT Job Roles
North West

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the North West. 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 the North West with a recognized job title 3,609 2,011 2,253
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.54% 92.21% 94.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,083 1,309 1,301
10th Percentile £300 £268 £275
25th Percentile £403 £363 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £450 £493
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% -8.72% -1.40%
75th Percentile £600 £550 £588
90th Percentile £680 £656 £675
England median daily rate £525 £506 £525
% change year-on-year +3.75% -3.62% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 403 158 167
10th Percentile £15.95 £13.00 £15.50
25th Percentile £25.38 £17.30 £18.00
Median hourly rate £45.56 £25.15 £37.00
Median % change year-on-year +81.15% -32.03% +21.15%
75th Percentile £73.25 £49.28 £54.00
90th Percentile £83.75 £72.72 £71.66
England median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £47.50
% change year-on-year +68.99% -47.05% +8.20%

3rd Line Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring '3rd Line Engineer' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West.

3rd Line Engineer job vacancy trend in the North West

3rd Line Engineer
Daily Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for 3rd Line Engineer job vacancies in the North West.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for 3rd Line Engineer job vacancies in the North West

3rd Line Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram in the North West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing 3rd Line Engineer in the North West over the 6 months to 11 September 2026.

Daily rate histogram for 3rd Line Engineer in the North West

3rd Line Engineer
Hourly Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for 3rd Line Engineer job vacancies in the North West.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for 3rd Line Engineer job vacancies in the North West

3rd Line Engineer
Contract Job Locations in the North West

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 North West region over the 6 months to 11 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
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Manchester -32 4 £473 - 3
Lancashire -15 3 £325 -
3rd Line Engineer
England

3rd Line Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North West

For the 6 months to 11 September 2026, 3rd Line Engineer contract 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 contract job ads across the North West region featuring 3rd Line Engineer in the job title.

1 4 (57.14%) Microsoft
1 4 (57.14%) Windows
1 4 (57.14%) Windows Server
2 3 (42.86%) ITIL
2 3 (42.86%) SC Cleared
2 3 (42.86%) Security Cleared
2 3 (42.86%) VMware
2 3 (42.86%) VMware Infrastructure
3 2 (28.57%) Active Directory
3 2 (28.57%) Analytics
3 2 (28.57%) Azure
3 2 (28.57%) Citrix
3 2 (28.57%) Citrix Hypervisor
3 2 (28.57%) Hyper-V
3 2 (28.57%) Microsoft 365
3 2 (28.57%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (28.57%) NetScaler
3 2 (28.57%) Nexthink
3 2 (28.57%) OneDrive
3 2 (28.57%) Power Platform
3 2 (28.57%) SharePoint
3 2 (28.57%) SysTrack
3 2 (28.57%) Windows 10
4 1 (14.29%) Agile
4 1 (14.29%) Asset Management
4 1 (14.29%) AWS
4 1 (14.29%) Azure AI
4 1 (14.29%) BitLocker
4 1 (14.29%) BPSS Clearance
4 1 (14.29%) Business Continuity

3rd Line Engineer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North West 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 2 (28.57%) Microsoft Exchange
1 2 (28.57%) SharePoint
2 1 (14.29%) Confluence
2 1 (14.29%) SharePoint Server
Cloud Services
1 2 (28.57%) Azure
1 2 (28.57%) Microsoft 365
1 2 (28.57%) OneDrive
1 2 (28.57%) Power Platform
2 1 (14.29%) AWS
2 1 (14.29%) Azure AI
2 1 (14.29%) Microsoft Copilot
2 1 (14.29%) Power Automate
2 1 (14.29%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 2 (28.57%) NetScaler
2 1 (14.29%) DHCP
2 1 (14.29%) LAN
2 1 (14.29%) SMTP
2 1 (14.29%) VoIP
2 1 (14.29%) WAN
2 1 (14.29%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (14.29%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 1 (14.29%) JIRA
General
1 2 (28.57%) Social Skills
2 1 (14.29%) Analytical Skills
2 1 (14.29%) Legal
2 1 (14.29%) Manufacturing
Miscellaneous
1 1 (14.29%) Driving Licence
1 1 (14.29%) Enterprise Storage
1 1 (14.29%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 4 (57.14%) Windows
1 4 (57.14%) Windows Server
2 2 (28.57%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 3 (42.86%) ITIL
2 2 (28.57%) Analytics
3 1 (14.29%) Agile
3 1 (14.29%) Asset Management
3 1 (14.29%) Business Continuity
3 1 (14.29%) Capacity Planning
3 1 (14.29%) Change Control
3 1 (14.29%) Continuous Improvement
3 1 (14.29%) Data Loss Prevention
3 1 (14.29%) Decision-Making
3 1 (14.29%) Disaster Recovery
3 1 (14.29%) Infrastructure Management
3 1 (14.29%) Kalman Filter
3 1 (14.29%) Mentoring
3 1 (14.29%) Patch Management
3 1 (14.29%) Problem-Solving
3 1 (14.29%) SDLC
3 1 (14.29%) Security Operations
3 1 (14.29%) Stakeholder Management
3 1 (14.29%) Technical Leadership
Qualifications
1 3 (42.86%) SC Cleared
1 3 (42.86%) Security Cleared
2 1 (14.29%) BPSS Clearance
2 1 (14.29%) Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (14.29%) GxP
System Software
1 3 (42.86%) VMware Infrastructure
2 2 (28.57%) Active Directory
2 2 (28.57%) Citrix Hypervisor
2 2 (28.57%) Hyper-V
3 1 (14.29%) BitLocker
Systems Management
1 2 (28.57%) SysTrack
2 1 (14.29%) SCCM
2 1 (14.29%) WSUS
Vendors
1 4 (57.14%) Microsoft
2 3 (42.86%) VMware
3 2 (28.57%) Citrix
3 2 (28.57%) Nexthink
4 1 (14.29%) Clearswift
4 1 (14.29%) Proofpoint
4 1 (14.29%) ServiceNow