3rd Line Engineer Contract Job Trends

Third Line Engineer
UK

The median Third Line Engineer daily rate in the UK is £450, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 14 October 2025.

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

 6 months to
14 Oct 2025		 Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 477 478 456
Rank change year-on-year +1 -22 +122
Contract jobs requiring a 3rd Line Engineer 79 77 179
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.24% 0.21% 0.38%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.26% 0.22% 0.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 64 47 88
10th Percentile £263 £267 £263
25th Percentile £369 £363 £300
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £400 £350
Median % change year-on-year +12.50% +14.29% -12.50%
75th Percentile £500 £475 £400
90th Percentile £600 £538 £450
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £375 £332
% change year-on-year +20.00% +13.04% -11.53%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 3 0
10th Percentile - £21.84 -
25th Percentile £29.00 £22.72 -
Median hourly rate £30.00 £24.18 -
Median % change year-on-year +24.07% - -
75th Percentile £60.32 £42.09 -
90th Percentile £77.90 £52.84 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £89.63 £23.34 -
% change year-on-year +284.02% - -

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
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 30,134 34,848 44,835
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.83% 92.98% 93.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 19,036 21,019 30,631
10th Percentile £275 £300 £300
25th Percentile £400 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £623 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £738 £745
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £490 £500
% change year-on-year -3.06% -2.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,648 1,434 1,528
10th Percentile £13.75 £15.00 £14.60
25th Percentile £17.30 £20.30 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £41.27 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -39.05% -8.30% +69.81%
75th Percentile £50.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £68.08 £73.75 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.00 £42.50 £44.50
% change year-on-year -41.18% -4.49% +97.78%

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 14 October 2025.

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
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing 3rd Line Engineer over the 6 months to 14 October 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for 3rd Line Engineer in the UK

3rd Line Engineer
Top 13 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 14 October 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
England +6 73 £450 +16.88% 50
UK excluding London -10 62 £450 +20.00% 47
South East +25 29 £500 +33.33% 26
Midlands -9 18 £400 +53.85% 10
West Midlands -14 18 £400 +53.85% 8
Work from Home +28 17 £275 -34.13% 15
London +20 15 £425 +0.59% 9
Wales +5 5 £200 - 1
South West +13 4 £350 -6.67% 1
North West -15 4 - - 4
North of England -31 4 - - 6
Scotland -5 1 - - 1
East of England -6 1 £350 -17.65% 3

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

For the 6 months to 14 October 2025, 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 47 (59.49%) Security Cleared
2 46 (58.23%) Active Directory
3 38 (48.10%) Windows
4 34 (43.04%) Microsoft
5 29 (36.71%) Cisco
6 28 (35.44%) Windows Server
7 27 (34.18%) Juniper
8 26 (32.91%) DV Cleared
8 26 (32.91%) Azure
9 23 (29.11%) PKI
10 22 (27.85%) WAN
10 22 (27.85%) Microsoft 365
11 21 (26.58%) VPN
11 21 (26.58%) SC Cleared
12 20 (25.32%) Microsoft Intune
12 20 (25.32%) Junos
12 20 (25.32%) vCenter Server
13 19 (24.05%) VMware
14 17 (21.52%) Entra ID
15 16 (20.25%) Service Management
15 16 (20.25%) Firewall
15 16 (20.25%) Microsoft Exchange
16 15 (18.99%) ITSM
16 15 (18.99%) SolarWinds
16 15 (18.99%) VMware NSX
17 14 (17.72%) Cisco Firepower
17 14 (17.72%) Cisco ISE
17 14 (17.72%) PowerShell
17 14 (17.72%) Load Balancing
17 14 (17.72%) Cisco IOS

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 16 (20.25%) Microsoft Exchange
2 8 (10.13%) SharePoint
3 4 (5.06%) Apache
3 4 (5.06%) SharePoint Server
4 3 (3.80%) Exchange Server 2003
4 3 (3.80%) Exchange Server 2007
4 3 (3.80%) Exchange Server 2010
4 3 (3.80%) Exchange Server 2013
4 3 (3.80%) Office Communications Server
4 3 (3.80%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 5 (6.33%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (1.27%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 26 (32.91%) Azure
2 22 (27.85%) Microsoft 365
3 17 (21.52%) Entra ID
4 6 (7.59%) AWS
5 3 (3.80%) GCP
5 3 (3.80%) IaaS
5 3 (3.80%) PaaS
6 2 (2.53%) Microsoft Purview
6 2 (2.53%) Nutanix
6 2 (2.53%) OneDrive
6 2 (2.53%) OpenShift
6 2 (2.53%) Power Platform
7 1 (1.27%) Azure Monitor
7 1 (1.27%) Google Workspace
7 1 (1.27%) Microsoft Copilot
7 1 (1.27%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 22 (27.85%) WAN
2 21 (26.58%) VPN
3 20 (25.32%) Junos
4 16 (20.25%) Firewall
5 14 (17.72%) Cisco Firepower
5 14 (17.72%) Cisco IOS
5 14 (17.72%) Cisco ISE
6 13 (16.46%) BGP
6 13 (16.46%) IPsec
6 13 (16.46%) MPLS
7 11 (13.92%) DNS
8 10 (12.66%) DHCP
9 9 (11.39%) SAN
10 8 (10.13%) LAN
11 4 (5.06%) TCP/IP
12 3 (3.80%) DDNS
12 3 (3.80%) Network Security
13 2 (2.53%) SMTP
13 2 (2.53%) Wi-Fi
13 2 (2.53%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (5.06%) SQL Server
2 2 (2.53%) Amazon RDS
2 2 (2.53%) Big Data
2 2 (2.53%) Elasticsearch
3 1 (1.27%) Power BI
3 1 (1.27%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 4 (5.06%) MSI
1 4 (5.06%) Robot Framework
1 4 (5.06%) Sonatype Nexus
2 1 (1.27%) JIRA
General
1 9 (11.39%) Public Sector
2 8 (10.13%) Social Skills
3 4 (5.06%) Local Government
4 3 (3.80%) Finance
5 2 (2.53%) Banking
5 2 (2.53%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 2 (2.53%) Organisational Skills
6 1 (1.27%) Analytical Skills
6 1 (1.27%) Games
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (2.53%) Middleware
2 1 (1.27%) ARM Templates
2 1 (1.27%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 23 (29.11%) PKI
2 5 (6.33%) Data Centre
3 4 (5.06%) Self-Motivation
4 3 (3.80%) Hybrid Cloud
4 3 (3.80%) Onboarding
4 3 (3.80%) Replication
5 2 (2.53%) Clustering
6 1 (1.27%) Driving Licence
6 1 (1.27%) Operational Technology
6 1 (1.27%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 38 (48.10%) Windows
2 28 (35.44%) Windows Server
3 10 (12.66%) Linux
4 7 (8.86%) Windows Server 2019
5 5 (6.33%) Mac OS
5 5 (6.33%) Windows 10
5 5 (6.33%) Windows Server 2003
6 4 (5.06%) CentOS
6 4 (5.06%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 2 (2.53%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 16 (20.25%) Service Management
2 15 (18.99%) ITSM
3 14 (17.72%) Load Balancing
4 12 (15.19%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 11 (13.92%) ITIL
6 10 (12.66%) Network Design
7 9 (11.39%) Cybersecurity
8 8 (10.13%) Problem-Solving
9 7 (8.86%) DevOps
10 6 (7.59%) Migration
10 6 (7.59%) Workflow
11 5 (6.33%) Project Delivery
12 4 (5.06%) Agile
12 4 (5.06%) Business Intelligence
12 4 (5.06%) Continuous Improvement
12 4 (5.06%) Deployment Automation
12 4 (5.06%) Prototyping
12 4 (5.06%) Root Cause Analysis
12 4 (5.06%) Software Deployment
12 4 (5.06%) Web Development
Programming Languages
1 14 (17.72%) PowerShell
2 4 (5.06%) PHP
2 4 (5.06%) Python
3 3 (3.80%) Bash
4 2 (2.53%) SQL
5 1 (1.27%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 47 (59.49%) Security Cleared
2 26 (32.91%) DV Cleared
3 21 (26.58%) SC Cleared
4 6 (7.59%) Microsoft Certification
5 5 (6.33%) Degree
6 1 (1.27%) A+ Certification
6 1 (1.27%) Cisco Certification
6 1 (1.27%) DBS Check
6 1 (1.27%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (3.80%) SLA
2 1 (1.27%) GDPR
System Software
1 46 (58.23%) Active Directory
2 15 (18.99%) VMware NSX
3 13 (16.46%) VMware Infrastructure
4 8 (10.13%) Hyper-V
5 4 (5.06%) VMware ESXi
6 3 (3.80%) Brightmail
6 3 (3.80%) ISA Server
6 3 (3.80%) vSphere
7 2 (2.53%) BitLocker
7 2 (2.53%) Docker
7 2 (2.53%) Microsoft App-V
7 2 (2.53%) Terminal Services
8 1 (1.27%) DFS Replication
8 1 (1.27%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 20 (25.32%) Microsoft Intune
1 20 (25.32%) vCenter Server
2 7 (8.86%) SCCM
3 6 (7.59%) Ansible
4 5 (6.33%) Jamf Pro
4 5 (6.33%) Terraform
5 4 (5.06%) WMI
6 3 (3.80%) AirWatch
6 3 (3.80%) Microsoft Clustering
7 2 (2.53%) Backup Exec
7 2 (2.53%) FortiGate
7 2 (2.53%) Kubernetes
7 2 (2.53%) Nagios
7 2 (2.53%) Puppet
7 2 (2.53%) SCOM
7 2 (2.53%) vMotion
8 1 (1.27%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 1 (1.27%) McAfee ePO
8 1 (1.27%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 34 (43.04%) Microsoft
2 29 (36.71%) Cisco
3 27 (34.18%) Juniper
4 19 (24.05%) VMware
5 15 (18.99%) SolarWinds
6 5 (6.33%) HP
6 5 (6.33%) Sophos
7 4 (5.06%) Apple
7 4 (5.06%) Symantec
7 4 (5.06%) Veeam
8 3 (3.80%) CheckPoint
8 3 (3.80%) Palo Alto
9 2 (2.53%) Adobe
9 2 (2.53%) Citrix
9 2 (2.53%) Google
9 2 (2.53%) Proofpoint
10 1 (1.27%) Fortinet
10 1 (1.27%) McAfee
10 1 (1.27%) Red Hat
10 1 (1.27%) Veritas
52 3rd Line Engineer jobs Nationwide