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 £500, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 12 May 2026.

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

6 months to
12 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 185 132 179
Rank change year-on-year -53 +47 +11
Contract jobs requiring a 3rd Line Engineer 24 21 18
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 0.41% 0.70% 0.33%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.44% 0.76% 0.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 23 21 12
10th Percentile £225 £363 £281
25th Percentile £463 £534 £295
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £575 £375
Median % change year-on-year -13.04% +53.33% -23.08%
75th Percentile - £600 £388
90th Percentile £535 £623 £399
England median daily rate £500 £470 £350
% change year-on-year +6.50% +34.14% -12.50%

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 5,405 2,752 5,090
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.91% 91.64% 92.26%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,359 1,825 3,070
10th Percentile £300 £239 £213
25th Percentile £413 £385 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year +3.00% - -
75th Percentile £613 £600 £619
90th Percentile £706 £663 £688
England median daily rate £513 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -2.38% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 507 163 483
10th Percentile £15.25 £14.20 £12.79
25th Percentile £25.00 £19.99 £18.32
Median hourly rate £55.00 £32.50 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +69.23% -31.58% -0.61%
75th Percentile £82.25 £63.75 £62.50
90th Percentile £88.00 £75.00 £77.40
England median hourly rate £47.00 £30.32 £37.50
% change year-on-year +55.01% -19.15% -16.23%

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 12 May 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 12 May 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 -20 18 £500 -13.04% 5
Thames Valley -34 6 £250 -33.33% 4
Oxfordshire -14 4 £250 -33.33% 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 12 May 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 19 (79.17%) Security Cleared
2 17 (70.83%) DV Cleared
2 17 (70.83%) Windows
3 14 (58.33%) VMware
3 14 (58.33%) Windows Server
4 11 (45.83%) Active Directory
5 10 (41.67%) PowerShell
5 10 (41.67%) SCOM
5 10 (41.67%) VMware Infrastructure
6 9 (37.50%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 9 (37.50%) ITSM
6 9 (37.50%) Microsoft
6 9 (37.50%) vCenter Server
7 8 (33.33%) Agile
7 8 (33.33%) Change Management
8 7 (29.17%) SCCM
9 6 (25.00%) Problem-Solving
10 5 (20.83%) Linux
11 4 (16.67%) Creative Thinking
11 4 (16.67%) DNS
11 4 (16.67%) ITIL
11 4 (16.67%) Platform Engineering
11 4 (16.67%) Privileged Access Management
12 3 (12.50%) Avamar
12 3 (12.50%) Data Mining
12 3 (12.50%) Dell
12 3 (12.50%) Infrastructure Monitoring
12 3 (12.50%) Microsoft Office
12 3 (12.50%) SCSM
12 3 (12.50%) Service Delivery

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:

Applications
1 3 (12.50%) Microsoft Office
Communications & Networking
1 4 (16.67%) DNS
2 2 (8.33%) Cisco Firepower
2 2 (8.33%) Cisco IOS
2 2 (8.33%) Cisco ISE
2 2 (8.33%) Firewall
2 2 (8.33%) Junos
2 2 (8.33%) NX-OS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (12.50%) Data Mining
General
1 5 (20.83%) Analytical Skills
2 4 (16.67%) Marketing
3 3 (12.50%) Public Sector
4 2 (8.33%) Social Skills
Miscellaneous
1 9 (37.50%) PKI
2 3 (12.50%) Analytical Mindset
3 1 (4.17%) Enterprise Storage
3 1 (4.17%) Security Posture
3 1 (4.17%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 17 (70.83%) Windows
2 14 (58.33%) Windows Server
3 5 (20.83%) Linux
4 2 (8.33%) Windows 10
5 1 (4.17%) Mac OS
5 1 (4.17%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 9 (37.50%) Infrastructure Engineering
1 9 (37.50%) ITSM
2 8 (33.33%) Agile
2 8 (33.33%) Change Management
3 6 (25.00%) Problem-Solving
4 4 (16.67%) Creative Thinking
4 4 (16.67%) ITIL
4 4 (16.67%) Platform Engineering
4 4 (16.67%) Privileged Access Management
5 3 (12.50%) Infrastructure Monitoring
5 3 (12.50%) Service Delivery
6 2 (8.33%) Information Security
6 2 (8.33%) Network Virtualisation
6 2 (8.33%) Vulnerability Remediation
7 1 (4.17%) Cloud Security
7 1 (4.17%) Collaborative Working
7 1 (4.17%) Cyber Resilience
7 1 (4.17%) Incident Response
7 1 (4.17%) Security Operations
7 1 (4.17%) Threat Detection
Programming Languages
1 10 (41.67%) PowerShell
2 1 (4.17%) Python
Qualifications
1 19 (79.17%) Security Cleared
2 17 (70.83%) DV Cleared
3 2 (8.33%) SC Cleared
System Software
1 11 (45.83%) Active Directory
2 10 (41.67%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (12.50%) vSphere
4 2 (8.33%) Firmware
4 2 (8.33%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 10 (41.67%) SCOM
2 9 (37.50%) vCenter Server
3 7 (29.17%) SCCM
4 3 (12.50%) Avamar
4 3 (12.50%) SCSM
Vendors
1 14 (58.33%) VMware
2 9 (37.50%) Microsoft
3 3 (12.50%) Dell
3 3 (12.50%) Thales
3 3 (12.50%) Trend Micro
3 3 (12.50%) Veeam
4 2 (8.33%) Broadcom
4 2 (8.33%) Cisco
4 2 (8.33%) Juniper
4 2 (8.33%) SolarWinds