3rd Line Engineer Contract Job Trends in the South East

Third Line Engineer
England > South East

The median Third Line Engineer daily rate in the South East is £475, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 10 August 2026.

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

6 months to
10 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 192 127 168
Rank change year-on-year -65 +41 +22
Contract jobs requiring a 3rd Line Engineer 37 31 18
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 0.55% 0.88% 0.37%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.60% 0.97% 0.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 35 28 9
10th Percentile £225 £500 £267
25th Percentile £434 £550 £298
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £575 £375
Median % change year-on-year -17.39% +53.33% +11.11%
75th Percentile £523 £600 £388
90th Percentile £556 £607 £415
England median daily rate £475 £550 £375
% change year-on-year -13.64% +46.67% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 1 0
Median hourly rate - £89.63 -
England median hourly rate - £30.00 £24.18
% change year-on-year - +24.07% -

All Contract IT Job Roles
South East

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the South East. 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 South East with a recognized job title 6,171 3,203 4,517
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.34% 90.71% 92.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,630 2,078 2,776
10th Percentile £303 £208 £250
25th Percentile £425 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £515
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -2.91% +3.00%
75th Percentile £625 £600 £638
90th Percentile £721 £663 £697
England median daily rate £525 £513 £525
% change year-on-year +2.44% -2.38% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 740 265 378
10th Percentile £16.00 £13.75 £16.00
25th Percentile £26.25 £15.50 £27.00
Median hourly rate £53.20 £25.15 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +111.53% -56.15% +16.18%
75th Percentile £73.25 £57.50 £72.33
90th Percentile £86.65 £75.00 £80.00
England median hourly rate £42.65 £25.30 £45.00
% change year-on-year +68.58% -43.78% +5.88%

3rd Line Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

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 South East.

3rd Line Engineer job vacancy trend in the South East

3rd Line Engineer
Daily Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for 3rd Line Engineer job vacancies in the South East.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for 3rd Line Engineer job vacancies in the South East

3rd Line Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing 3rd Line Engineer in the South East over the 6 months to 10 August 2026.

Daily rate histogram for 3rd Line Engineer in the South East

3rd Line Engineer
Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for 3rd Line Engineer job vacancies in the South East.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for 3rd Line Engineer job vacancies in the South East

3rd Line Engineer
Contract Job Locations in the South East

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 South East region over the 6 months to 10 August 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
Hampshire -34 25 £475 -17.39%
Thames Valley -42 9 £250 -33.33% 7
Oxfordshire -20 7 £250 -33.33% 6
Surrey -25 3 £500 -4.76% 1
Berkshire - 2 £390 -
3rd Line Engineer
England

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

For the 6 months to 10 August 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 South East region featuring 3rd Line Engineer in the job title.

1 33 (89.19%) Windows
2 28 (75.68%) Windows Server
3 26 (70.27%) Security Cleared
3 26 (70.27%) VMware
4 24 (64.86%) DV Cleared
4 24 (64.86%) VMware Infrastructure
5 23 (62.16%) Microsoft
6 19 (51.35%) Active Directory
7 17 (45.95%) SCOM
8 13 (35.14%) Avamar
8 13 (35.14%) Dell
8 13 (35.14%) ITSM
8 13 (35.14%) Thales
8 13 (35.14%) vCenter Server
9 12 (32.43%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 11 (29.73%) Change Management
11 10 (27.03%) Problem-Solving
12 9 (24.32%) PowerShell
13 8 (21.62%) DNS
13 8 (21.62%) Juniper
13 8 (21.62%) Windows Server 2019
14 7 (18.92%) Coaching
14 7 (18.92%) Continuous Improvement
14 7 (18.92%) Privileged Access Management
15 5 (13.51%) vSphere
16 4 (10.81%) Microsoft Exchange
16 4 (10.81%) Windows 10
17 3 (8.11%) Azure
17 3 (8.11%) Collaborative Working
17 3 (8.11%) Data Mining

3rd Line Engineer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East 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 4 (10.81%) Microsoft Exchange
2 2 (5.41%) SharePoint
Applications
1 3 (8.11%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 3 (8.11%) Azure
2 2 (5.41%) Azure Data Factory
3 1 (2.70%) Entra ID
Communications & Networking
1 8 (21.62%) DNS
2 2 (5.41%) Skype
3 1 (2.70%) Firewall
3 1 (2.70%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (8.11%) Data Mining
2 2 (5.41%) SQL Server
2 2 (5.41%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 2 (5.41%) Git
General
1 12 (32.43%) Social Skills
2 8 (21.62%) Analytical Skills
3 7 (18.92%) Marketing
4 2 (5.41%) Documentation Skills
4 2 (5.41%) Military
5 1 (2.70%) Advertising
Miscellaneous
1 13 (35.14%) PKI
2 1 (2.70%) Enterprise Cloud
2 1 (2.70%) Enterprise Storage
2 1 (2.70%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 33 (89.19%) Windows
2 28 (75.68%) Windows Server
3 8 (21.62%) Windows Server 2019
4 4 (10.81%) Windows 10
5 2 (5.41%) Windows Server 2016
6 1 (2.70%) Linux
6 1 (2.70%) Mac OS
6 1 (2.70%) Windows 7
6 1 (2.70%) Windows Server 2008
6 1 (2.70%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 13 (35.14%) ITSM
2 12 (32.43%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 11 (29.73%) Change Management
4 10 (27.03%) Problem-Solving
5 7 (18.92%) Coaching
5 7 (18.92%) Continuous Improvement
5 7 (18.92%) Privileged Access Management
6 3 (8.11%) Collaborative Working
6 3 (8.11%) Information Security
6 3 (8.11%) Infrastructure Monitoring
6 3 (8.11%) Service Delivery
6 3 (8.11%) Vulnerability Remediation
7 2 (5.41%) AI
7 2 (5.41%) Data Integration
7 2 (5.41%) ETL
7 2 (5.41%) Server Management
8 1 (2.70%) Cloud Security
8 1 (2.70%) Cyber Resilience
8 1 (2.70%) Incident Response
8 1 (2.70%) Vulnerability Scanning
Programming Languages
1 9 (24.32%) PowerShell
2 3 (8.11%) SQL
3 1 (2.70%) Python
Qualifications
1 26 (70.27%) Security Cleared
2 24 (64.86%) DV Cleared
3 2 (5.41%) SC Cleared
4 1 (2.70%) Microsoft Certification
System Software
1 24 (64.86%) VMware Infrastructure
2 19 (51.35%) Active Directory
3 5 (13.51%) vSphere
4 3 (8.11%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 17 (45.95%) SCOM
2 13 (35.14%) Avamar
2 13 (35.14%) vCenter Server
3 3 (8.11%) SCCM
3 3 (8.11%) SCSM
4 1 (2.70%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 26 (70.27%) VMware
2 23 (62.16%) Microsoft
3 13 (35.14%) Dell
3 13 (35.14%) Thales
4 8 (21.62%) Juniper
5 3 (8.11%) Trend Micro
5 3 (8.11%) Veeam
6 2 (5.41%) ServiceNow