3rd Line Engineer Contract Job Trends

Third Line Engineer
UK

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

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

6 months to
6 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 572 460 455
Rank change year-on-year -112 -5 +46
Contract jobs requiring a 3rd Line Engineer 61 58 130
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.12% 0.20% 0.30%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.13% 0.22% 0.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 47 47 76
10th Percentile £225 £196 £250
25th Percentile £254 £320 £300
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £467 £375
Median % change year-on-year +1.82% +24.40% -6.25%
75th Percentile £523 £588 £400
90th Percentile £638 £601 £500
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £550 £345
% change year-on-year -13.64% +59.42% -8.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 1 0
Median hourly rate - £24.66 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate - - -

All Contract IT Job Roles
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies. 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 with a recognized job title 45,608 26,825 40,003
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.34% 92.39% 92.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,789 17,300 25,804
10th Percentile £325 £288 £280
25th Percentile £413 £403 £407
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% -4.76% -2.78%
75th Percentile £619 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +5.26% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,038 1,097 2,862
10th Percentile £15.05 £14.00 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.75 £17.87 £16.30
Median hourly rate £45.00 £28.00 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +60.71% -25.33% -16.67%
75th Percentile £67.50 £58.75 £61.60
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.23 £40.00
% change year-on-year +78.39% -36.94% -5.88%

3rd Line Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

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.

3rd Line Engineer job vacancy trend in the UK

3rd Line Engineer
Daily Rate Trend

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

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

3rd Line Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing 3rd Line Engineer over the 6 months to 6 June 2026.

Daily rate histogram for 3rd Line Engineer in the UK

3rd Line Engineer
Hourly Rate Trend

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

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

3rd Line Engineer
Top 14 Contract Job Locations

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 over the 6 months to 6 June 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
England -95 61 £475 -11.63% 46
UK excluding London -104 39 £475 -13.64% 41
South East -59 26 £475 -17.39% 14
London -64 22 £625 +63.40% 10
Work from Home -47 6 £335 +52.27% 16
Midlands -55 5 £275 -3.85% 5
South West - 5 £463 - 5
North of England -76 3 £250 -28.57% 7
East Midlands - 2 £248 - 1
East of England -28 1 - - 7
North West -46 1 - - 2
West Midlands -61 1 £210 -26.52% 4
North East - 1 £290 - 1
Yorkshire - 1 £210 - 4

3rd Line Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 6 June 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 featuring 3rd Line Engineer in the job title.

1 45 (73.77%) Windows
2 44 (72.13%) Security Cleared
3 33 (54.10%) DV Cleared
3 33 (54.10%) Windows Server
4 32 (52.46%) Active Directory
4 32 (52.46%) Microsoft
5 31 (50.82%) VMware
6 30 (49.18%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 26 (42.62%) VMware Infrastructure
8 24 (39.34%) PowerShell
9 20 (32.79%) vCenter Server
10 18 (29.51%) DNS
11 15 (24.59%) DHCP
11 15 (24.59%) Linux
11 15 (24.59%) NetApp
12 14 (22.95%) Hyper-V
12 14 (22.95%) ITSM
12 14 (22.95%) SCOM
12 14 (22.95%) VPN
13 12 (19.67%) Firewall
14 11 (18.03%) Ansible
14 11 (18.03%) BitLocker
14 11 (18.03%) Microsoft Exchange
15 10 (16.39%) Citrix
15 10 (16.39%) Microsoft App-V
15 10 (16.39%) SC Cleared
15 10 (16.39%) SCCM
15 10 (16.39%) SMTP
15 10 (16.39%) vMotion
15 10 (16.39%) VMware ESXi

3rd Line Engineer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 11 (18.03%) Microsoft Exchange
2 3 (4.92%) SharePoint
Applications
1 3 (4.92%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (1.64%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 9 (14.75%) Azure
1 9 (14.75%) IaaS
1 9 (14.75%) PaaS
2 6 (9.84%) AWS
3 4 (6.56%) Microsoft 365
4 3 (4.92%) Entra ID
4 3 (4.92%) GCP
5 2 (3.28%) OpenShift
6 1 (1.64%) Power Platform
6 1 (1.64%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 18 (29.51%) DNS
2 15 (24.59%) DHCP
3 14 (22.95%) VPN
4 12 (19.67%) Firewall
5 10 (16.39%) SMTP
6 2 (3.28%) DKIM
6 2 (3.28%) TCP/IP
6 2 (3.28%) VLAN
7 1 (1.64%) LAN
7 1 (1.64%) Network Security
7 1 (1.64%) Skype
7 1 (1.64%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (14.75%) Elasticsearch
2 4 (6.56%) Amazon RDS
3 3 (4.92%) Data Mining
4 2 (3.28%) Big Data
5 1 (1.64%) SQL Server
General
1 7 (11.48%) Marketing
2 6 (9.84%) Analytical Skills
3 5 (8.20%) Social Skills
4 4 (6.56%) Public Sector
5 2 (3.28%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 1 (1.64%) Aerospace
6 1 (1.64%) Law
6 1 (1.64%) Military
6 1 (1.64%) Pharmaceutical
Miscellaneous
1 20 (32.79%) PKI
2 10 (16.39%) Clustering
3 8 (13.11%) Enterprise Storage
4 3 (4.92%) Data Centre
4 3 (4.92%) Enterprise Software
5 2 (3.28%) Analytical Mindset
5 2 (3.28%) Hybrid Cloud
5 2 (3.28%) Legacy Systems
5 2 (3.28%) Operational Technology
6 1 (1.64%) Enterprise Cloud
6 1 (1.64%) Onboarding
6 1 (1.64%) Security Posture
6 1 (1.64%) Smartphone
Operating Systems
1 45 (73.77%) Windows
2 33 (54.10%) Windows Server
3 15 (24.59%) Linux
4 8 (13.11%) Windows Server 2003
5 7 (11.48%) Windows 10
6 2 (3.28%) Windows Server 2019
7 1 (1.64%) Mac OS
7 1 (1.64%) Windows 7
7 1 (1.64%) Windows Server 2008
7 1 (1.64%) Windows Server 2012
7 1 (1.64%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 30 (49.18%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 14 (22.95%) ITSM
3 9 (14.75%) Change Management
3 9 (14.75%) Problem-Solving
4 8 (13.11%) Incident Management
5 7 (11.48%) Privileged Access Management
6 6 (9.84%) ITIL
7 4 (6.56%) Agile
7 4 (6.56%) Continuous Improvement
7 4 (6.56%) DevOps
7 4 (6.56%) Service Delivery
8 3 (4.92%) AI
8 3 (4.92%) Information Security
8 3 (4.92%) Infrastructure Monitoring
8 3 (4.92%) Migration
8 3 (4.92%) Vulnerability Remediation
9 2 (3.28%) Customer Service
9 2 (3.28%) Platform Engineering
9 2 (3.28%) Service Management
9 2 (3.28%) Web Filtering
Programming Languages
1 24 (39.34%) PowerShell
2 2 (3.28%) SQL
3 1 (1.64%) Python
3 1 (1.64%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 44 (72.13%) Security Cleared
2 33 (54.10%) DV Cleared
3 10 (16.39%) SC Cleared
4 4 (6.56%) Degree
4 4 (6.56%) Microsoft Certification
5 1 (1.64%) CCNA
5 1 (1.64%) Cisco Certification
5 1 (1.64%) MCSE
5 1 (1.64%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (3.28%) Cyber Essentials
2 1 (1.64%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 1 (1.64%) SLA
System Software
1 32 (52.46%) Active Directory
2 26 (42.62%) VMware Infrastructure
3 14 (22.95%) Hyper-V
4 11 (18.03%) BitLocker
5 10 (16.39%) Microsoft App-V
5 10 (16.39%) VMware ESXi
6 9 (14.75%) Docker
7 4 (6.56%) vSphere
8 3 (4.92%) Terminal Services
9 1 (1.64%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 20 (32.79%) vCenter Server
2 14 (22.95%) SCOM
3 11 (18.03%) Ansible
4 10 (16.39%) SCCM
4 10 (16.39%) vMotion
5 9 (14.75%) Kubernetes
5 9 (14.75%) Puppet
6 8 (13.11%) Avamar
7 5 (8.20%) Microsoft Intune
8 3 (4.92%) Backup Exec
8 3 (4.92%) SCSM
9 2 (3.28%) Nagios
10 1 (1.64%) WSUS
Vendors
1 32 (52.46%) Microsoft
2 31 (50.82%) VMware
3 15 (24.59%) NetApp
4 10 (16.39%) Citrix
5 9 (14.75%) Dell
6 8 (13.11%) Thales
7 6 (9.84%) HP
8 3 (4.92%) Google
8 3 (4.92%) McAfee
8 3 (4.92%) Symantec
8 3 (4.92%) Trend Micro
8 3 (4.92%) Veeam
9 2 (3.28%) Juniper
9 2 (3.28%) Proofpoint
9 2 (3.28%) ServiceNow
10 1 (1.64%) Adobe
10 1 (1.64%) BMC
10 1 (1.64%) Cisco
10 1 (1.64%) Palo Alto
10 1 (1.64%) Samsung