3rd Line Engineer Contracts in the UK excluding London

Third Line Engineer
UK > UK excluding London

The median Third Line Engineer daily rate in the UK excluding London is £538, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 19 May 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
19 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 294 285 319
Rank change year-on-year -9 +34 -6
Contract jobs requiring a 3rd Line Engineer 41 100 119
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 0.32% 0.49% 0.52%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.34% 0.53% 0.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 34 53 80
10th Percentile £249 £213 £223
25th Percentile £358 £275 £309
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £538 £325 £375
Median % change year-on-year +65.38% -13.33% -5.66%
75th Percentile £588 £388 £500
90th Percentile £602 £400 £550
UK median daily rate £433 £350 £400
% change year-on-year +23.79% -12.50% +6.67%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
UK excluding London

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the UK excluding London. 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 UK excluding London with a recognized job title 11,886 18,771 21,693
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.89% 92.48% 94.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,561 11,462 15,127
10th Percentile £213 £213 £225
25th Percentile £363 £363 £394
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £490 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.06% -2.00% +5.26%
75th Percentile £575 £595 £600
90th Percentile £650 £688 £688
UK median daily rate £513 £525 £544
% change year-on-year -2.38% -3.40% +3.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 850 2,267 1,104
10th Percentile £13.83 £12.50 £13.41
25th Percentile £17.30 £15.73 £18.07
Median hourly rate £27.13 £40.00 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -32.19% -5.88% +112.50%
75th Percentile £63.75 £61.60 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £73.85 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £28.00 £36.50 £45.00
% change year-on-year -23.29% -18.89% +88.21%

3rd Line Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

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

Job vacancy trend for 3rd Line Engineer in the UK excluding London

3rd Line Engineer
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing 3rd Line Engineer in the UK excluding London.

Daily rate trend for 3rd Line Engineer in the UK excluding London

3rd Line Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing 3rd Line Engineer in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 19 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for 3rd Line Engineer in the UK excluding London

3rd Line Engineer
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing 3rd Line Engineer in the UK excluding London.

Hourly rate trend for 3rd Line Engineer in the UK excluding London

3rd Line Engineer
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding London

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 UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 19 May 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 +39 21 £575 +53.33% 24
North of England -9 7 £350 - 16
North West -4 6 £350 -12.50% 7
Midlands -7 5 £286 -4.67% 17
West Midlands -19 5 £286 -12.00% 10
Wales +5 4 £283 -22.60% 8
East of England +20 3 £467 +86.60% 20
Yorkshire +7 1 £245 -24.62% 2
Northern Ireland - 1 - -
3rd Line Engineer
UK

3rd Line Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London

For the 6 months to 19 May 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 UK excluding London region featuring 3rd Line Engineer in the job title.

1 33 (80.49%) Windows
1 33 (80.49%) Active Directory
2 29 (70.73%) Microsoft
3 26 (63.41%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 25 (60.98%) VMware
5 22 (53.66%) Windows Server
6 19 (46.34%) VMware Infrastructure
7 18 (43.90%) Firewall
7 18 (43.90%) ITIL
8 16 (39.02%) DHCP
8 16 (39.02%) DNS
8 16 (39.02%) vCenter Server
9 15 (36.59%) Microsoft Exchange
9 15 (36.59%) Azure
10 14 (34.15%) Security Cleared
10 14 (34.15%) Linux
10 14 (34.15%) SAN
11 13 (31.71%) DV Cleared
12 12 (29.27%) Hyper-V
12 12 (29.27%) VPN
12 12 (29.27%) IaaS
13 11 (26.83%) Docker
13 11 (26.83%) DevOps
13 11 (26.83%) Citrix
13 11 (26.83%) Symantec
13 11 (26.83%) Clustering
13 11 (26.83%) PaaS
13 11 (26.83%) Microsoft 365
14 10 (24.39%) VMware ESXi
14 10 (24.39%) Data Centre

3rd Line Engineer Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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 15 (36.59%) Microsoft Exchange
2 7 (17.07%) SharePoint
3 2 (4.88%) Exchange Server 2003
3 2 (4.88%) Exchange Server 2007
3 2 (4.88%) Exchange Server 2010
3 2 (4.88%) Exchange Server 2013
3 2 (4.88%) Office Communications Server
3 2 (4.88%) SharePoint Server
3 2 (4.88%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 3 (7.32%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 15 (36.59%) Azure
2 12 (29.27%) IaaS
3 11 (26.83%) Microsoft 365
3 11 (26.83%) PaaS
4 8 (19.51%) AWS
4 8 (19.51%) GCP
4 8 (19.51%) OpenShift
5 6 (14.63%) Entra ID
6 4 (9.76%) OneDrive
7 2 (4.88%) Nutanix
8 1 (2.44%) Microsoft Copilot
8 1 (2.44%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 18 (43.90%) Firewall
2 16 (39.02%) DHCP
2 16 (39.02%) DNS
3 14 (34.15%) SAN
4 12 (29.27%) VPN
5 8 (19.51%) SMTP
6 6 (14.63%) Fibre Channel
6 6 (14.63%) LAN
7 4 (9.76%) WAN
8 3 (7.32%) Network Security
8 3 (7.32%) WLAN
9 2 (4.88%) DDNS
9 2 (4.88%) Wi-Fi
10 1 (2.44%) BGP
10 1 (2.44%) IPsec
10 1 (2.44%) Junos
10 1 (2.44%) MPLS
10 1 (2.44%) TCP/IP
10 1 (2.44%) VLAN
10 1 (2.44%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (19.51%) Amazon RDS
1 8 (19.51%) Big Data
1 8 (19.51%) Elasticsearch
2 1 (2.44%) SQL Server Reporting Services
General
1 8 (19.51%) Public Sector
2 3 (7.32%) Social Skills
3 2 (4.88%) Legal
3 2 (4.88%) Telecoms
4 1 (2.44%) Analytical Skills
4 1 (2.44%) Documentation Skills
4 1 (2.44%) Finance
4 1 (2.44%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 1 (2.44%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (2.44%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 11 (26.83%) Clustering
2 10 (24.39%) Data Centre
3 9 (21.95%) PKI
4 5 (12.20%) Replication
5 1 (2.44%) Blockchain
5 1 (2.44%) CMDB
5 1 (2.44%) Driving Licence
5 1 (2.44%) Hybrid Cloud
5 1 (2.44%) Smartphone
5 1 (2.44%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 33 (80.49%) Windows
2 22 (53.66%) Windows Server
3 14 (34.15%) Linux
4 8 (19.51%) Windows Server 2003
5 7 (17.07%) Windows Server 2019
6 4 (9.76%) Windows 10
6 4 (9.76%) Windows Server 2012
6 4 (9.76%) Windows Server 2016
7 2 (4.88%) Android
7 2 (4.88%) Apple iOS
7 2 (4.88%) Unix
8 1 (2.44%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 26 (63.41%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 18 (43.90%) ITIL
3 11 (26.83%) DevOps
4 9 (21.95%) Artificial Intelligence
5 8 (19.51%) Machine Learning
5 8 (19.51%) Software Deployment
6 6 (14.63%) Cybersecurity
6 6 (14.63%) Proactive Maintenance
7 5 (12.20%) Customer Service
8 4 (9.76%) High Availability
8 4 (9.76%) Infrastructure as Code
8 4 (9.76%) Patch Management
8 4 (9.76%) Problem-Solving
8 4 (9.76%) Security Patching
8 4 (9.76%) Service Management
9 3 (7.32%) Asset Management
9 3 (7.32%) Business Continuity
9 3 (7.32%) Capacity Management
9 3 (7.32%) Data Management
9 3 (7.32%) ITSM
Programming Languages
1 9 (21.95%) PowerShell
2 5 (12.20%) SQL
3 3 (7.32%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 14 (34.15%) Security Cleared
2 13 (31.71%) DV Cleared
3 9 (21.95%) Degree
4 6 (14.63%) Microsoft Certification
5 4 (9.76%) DBS Check
6 2 (4.88%) MCSE
6 2 (4.88%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
7 1 (2.44%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
7 1 (2.44%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (12.20%) SLA
System Software
1 33 (80.49%) Active Directory
2 19 (46.34%) VMware Infrastructure
3 12 (29.27%) Hyper-V
4 11 (26.83%) Docker
5 10 (24.39%) VMware ESXi
6 8 (19.51%) BitLocker
6 8 (19.51%) Microsoft App-V
6 8 (19.51%) Terminal Services
7 4 (9.76%) DFS Replication
7 4 (9.76%) vSphere
8 3 (7.32%) VMware NSX
9 2 (4.88%) Brightmail
9 2 (4.88%) ISA Server
9 2 (4.88%) Virtual Machines
10 1 (2.44%) Firmware
10 1 (2.44%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 16 (39.02%) vCenter Server
2 8 (19.51%) Ansible
2 8 (19.51%) Kubernetes
2 8 (19.51%) Nagios
2 8 (19.51%) Puppet
2 8 (19.51%) vMotion
3 7 (17.07%) SCCM
4 5 (12.20%) Microsoft Intune
5 3 (7.32%) Backup Exec
5 3 (7.32%) Failover Clustering
5 3 (7.32%) Podman
5 3 (7.32%) SCOM
6 2 (4.88%) Microsoft Clustering
6 2 (4.88%) WSUS
7 1 (2.44%) AppManager
7 1 (2.44%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 29 (70.73%) Microsoft
2 25 (60.98%) VMware
3 11 (26.83%) Citrix
3 11 (26.83%) Symantec
4 8 (19.51%) Google
4 8 (19.51%) HP
5 7 (17.07%) Cisco
6 4 (9.76%) Veeam
7 3 (7.32%) LogicMonitor
7 3 (7.32%) SolarWinds
8 2 (4.88%) McAfee
8 2 (4.88%) Sophos
9 1 (2.44%) Ivanti
9 1 (2.44%) Juniper
9 1 (2.44%) Meraki
9 1 (2.44%) Proofpoint
9 1 (2.44%) ServiceNow
9 1 (2.44%) Zscaler