3rd Line Engineer Contracts

Third Line Engineer
UK

The median Third Line Engineer daily rate in the UK is £433, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 1 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
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 470 457 542
Rank change year-on-year -13 +85 +6
Contract jobs requiring a 3rd Line Engineer 50 125 176
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.17% 0.29% 0.29%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.18% 0.31% 0.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 42 76 131
10th Percentile £245 £256 £263
25th Percentile £358 £300 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £433 £350 £420
Median % change year-on-year +23.79% -16.67% +12.00%
75th Percentile £588 £388 £500
90th Percentile £600 £456 £550
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £350 £425
% change year-on-year +57.14% -17.65% +13.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 0
Median hourly rate £24.66 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate - - -

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 27,084 40,415 56,464
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.52% 92.78% 94.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,692 26,309 39,470
10th Percentile £300 £275 £313
25th Percentile £406 £410 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £525 £540
Median % change year-on-year -1.90% -2.78% +2.86%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £492 £500
% change year-on-year -3.46% -1.60% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,035 2,664 1,570
10th Percentile £14.07 £12.86 £14.29
25th Percentile £18.50 £16.30 £19.50
Median hourly rate £29.00 £36.42 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -20.37% -19.07% +91.49%
75th Percentile £62.50 £60.75 £65.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £75.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £28.00 £39.55 £42.50
% change year-on-year -29.20% -6.94% +117.95%

3rd Line Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Job vacancy trend for 3rd Line Engineer in the UK

3rd Line Engineer
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing 3rd Line Engineer.

Daily rate trend for 3rd Line Engineer in the UK

3rd Line Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing 3rd Line Engineer over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for 3rd Line Engineer in the UK

3rd Line Engineer
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing 3rd Line Engineer.

Hourly rate trend for 3rd Line Engineer in the UK

3rd Line Engineer
Top 13 Contract 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 1 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
England -12 46 £467 +26.94% 55
UK excluding London -1 36 £550 +57.14% 51
South East +43 20 £575 +53.33% 24
London +34 13 £375 - 6
Work from Home +25 8 £375 +15.38% 18
North of England -6 6 £350 +7.69% 9
North West 0 5 £350 -11.11% 5
Midlands -3 4 £375 +15.38% 9
West Midlands -10 4 £375 +7.14% 5
East of England +28 3 £467 +86.60% 5
Wales +2 2 £365 - 2
Yorkshire +2 1 £245 -24.62% 1
Northern Ireland - 1 - -

3rd Line Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 1 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 featuring 3rd Line Engineer in the job title.

1 40 (80.00%) Windows
2 33 (66.00%) Active Directory
3 31 (62.00%) Microsoft
4 27 (54.00%) VMware
4 27 (54.00%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 24 (48.00%) Windows Server
6 20 (40.00%) VMware Infrastructure
6 20 (40.00%) Microsoft Exchange
7 18 (36.00%) DNS
8 17 (34.00%) Azure
8 17 (34.00%) vCenter Server
9 16 (32.00%) Security Cleared
9 16 (32.00%) DHCP
9 16 (32.00%) Firewall
10 15 (30.00%) ITIL
11 14 (28.00%) Linux
11 14 (28.00%) VPN
11 14 (28.00%) DV Cleared
12 13 (26.00%) PowerShell
12 13 (26.00%) SAN
12 13 (26.00%) Microsoft 365
13 12 (24.00%) IaaS
13 12 (24.00%) Citrix
13 12 (24.00%) Hyper-V
13 12 (24.00%) VMware ESXi
13 12 (24.00%) Clustering
14 11 (22.00%) PKI
14 11 (22.00%) PaaS
14 11 (22.00%) Symantec
14 11 (22.00%) Docker

3rd Line Engineer Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities 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 20 (40.00%) Microsoft Exchange
2 9 (18.00%) SharePoint
3 2 (4.00%) Exchange Server 2003
3 2 (4.00%) Exchange Server 2007
3 2 (4.00%) Exchange Server 2010
3 2 (4.00%) Exchange Server 2013
3 2 (4.00%) Office Communications Server
3 2 (4.00%) SharePoint Server
3 2 (4.00%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 3 (6.00%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 17 (34.00%) Azure
2 13 (26.00%) Microsoft 365
3 12 (24.00%) IaaS
4 11 (22.00%) PaaS
5 8 (16.00%) AWS
5 8 (16.00%) Entra ID
5 8 (16.00%) GCP
5 8 (16.00%) OpenShift
6 3 (6.00%) Nutanix
6 3 (6.00%) OneDrive
7 2 (4.00%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 18 (36.00%) DNS
2 16 (32.00%) DHCP
2 16 (32.00%) Firewall
3 14 (28.00%) VPN
4 13 (26.00%) SAN
5 9 (18.00%) SMTP
6 6 (12.00%) Fibre Channel
7 4 (8.00%) LAN
8 3 (6.00%) Network Security
8 3 (6.00%) WAN
8 3 (6.00%) WLAN
9 2 (4.00%) DDNS
9 2 (4.00%) VLAN
9 2 (4.00%) VoIP
9 2 (4.00%) Wi-Fi
10 1 (2.00%) BGP
10 1 (2.00%) IPsec
10 1 (2.00%) MPLS
10 1 (2.00%) PBX
10 1 (2.00%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (16.00%) Amazon RDS
1 8 (16.00%) Big Data
1 8 (16.00%) Elasticsearch
General
1 10 (20.00%) Public Sector
2 2 (4.00%) Finance
2 2 (4.00%) Legal
2 2 (4.00%) Telecoms
3 1 (2.00%) Analytical Skills
3 1 (2.00%) Banking
3 1 (2.00%) Documentation Skills
3 1 (2.00%) Inclusion and Diversity
3 1 (2.00%) Local Government
3 1 (2.00%) Social Skills
Miscellaneous
1 12 (24.00%) Clustering
2 11 (22.00%) Data Centre
2 11 (22.00%) PKI
3 5 (10.00%) Replication
4 1 (2.00%) Blockchain
4 1 (2.00%) CMDB
4 1 (2.00%) NHS
4 1 (2.00%) Onboarding
4 1 (2.00%) Smartphone
4 1 (2.00%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 40 (80.00%) Windows
2 24 (48.00%) Windows Server
3 14 (28.00%) Linux
4 9 (18.00%) Windows Server 2003
5 7 (14.00%) Windows Server 2019
6 5 (10.00%) Mac OS
7 4 (8.00%) Windows 10
7 4 (8.00%) Windows Server 2012
7 4 (8.00%) Windows Server 2016
8 2 (4.00%) Android
8 2 (4.00%) Apple iOS
8 2 (4.00%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 27 (54.00%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 15 (30.00%) ITIL
3 11 (22.00%) DevOps
4 9 (18.00%) Artificial Intelligence
5 8 (16.00%) Machine Learning
5 8 (16.00%) Software Deployment
6 6 (12.00%) Patch Management
6 6 (12.00%) Proactive Maintenance
7 5 (10.00%) Customer Service
7 5 (10.00%) Cybersecurity
7 5 (10.00%) Roadmaps
7 5 (10.00%) Security Patching
8 4 (8.00%) High Availability
8 4 (8.00%) Infrastructure as Code
8 4 (8.00%) Problem-Solving
8 4 (8.00%) Service Management
8 4 (8.00%) Strategic Roadmap
9 3 (6.00%) Business Continuity
9 3 (6.00%) Change Management
9 3 (6.00%) ITSM
Programming Languages
1 13 (26.00%) PowerShell
2 4 (8.00%) SQL
3 3 (6.00%) Shell Script
4 1 (2.00%) Bash
Qualifications
1 16 (32.00%) Security Cleared
2 14 (28.00%) DV Cleared
3 8 (16.00%) Degree
4 5 (10.00%) Microsoft Certification
5 3 (6.00%) DBS Check
6 2 (4.00%) MCSE
6 2 (4.00%) SC Cleared
6 2 (4.00%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
7 1 (2.00%) Azure Certification
7 1 (2.00%) BPSS Clearance
7 1 (2.00%) CCNA
7 1 (2.00%) CESG Certified Professional
7 1 (2.00%) Cisco Certification
7 1 (2.00%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (10.00%) SLA
System Software
1 33 (66.00%) Active Directory
2 20 (40.00%) VMware Infrastructure
3 12 (24.00%) Hyper-V
3 12 (24.00%) VMware ESXi
4 11 (22.00%) Docker
5 9 (18.00%) BitLocker
5 9 (18.00%) Microsoft App-V
5 9 (18.00%) Terminal Services
6 4 (8.00%) DFS Replication
6 4 (8.00%) vSphere
7 3 (6.00%) VMware NSX
8 2 (4.00%) Brightmail
8 2 (4.00%) ISA Server
8 2 (4.00%) Virtual Machines
9 1 (2.00%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 17 (34.00%) vCenter Server
2 9 (18.00%) vMotion
3 8 (16.00%) Ansible
3 8 (16.00%) Kubernetes
3 8 (16.00%) Nagios
3 8 (16.00%) Puppet
4 7 (14.00%) SCCM
5 6 (12.00%) Microsoft Intune
6 3 (6.00%) Backup Exec
6 3 (6.00%) Failover Clustering
6 3 (6.00%) Podman
6 3 (6.00%) SCOM
7 2 (4.00%) Microsoft Clustering
7 2 (4.00%) WSUS
8 1 (2.00%) AppManager
8 1 (2.00%) Cisco CUCM
8 1 (2.00%) Jamf Pro
8 1 (2.00%) McAfee ePO
8 1 (2.00%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 31 (62.00%) Microsoft
2 27 (54.00%) VMware
3 12 (24.00%) Citrix
4 11 (22.00%) Symantec
5 8 (16.00%) Google
5 8 (16.00%) HP
6 7 (14.00%) Cisco
7 3 (6.00%) LogicMonitor
7 3 (6.00%) McAfee
7 3 (6.00%) SolarWinds
7 3 (6.00%) Veeam
8 2 (4.00%) Apple
9 1 (2.00%) Commvault
9 1 (2.00%) Dell
9 1 (2.00%) Fortinet
9 1 (2.00%) Ivanti
9 1 (2.00%) Juniper
9 1 (2.00%) Proofpoint
9 1 (2.00%) ServiceNow
9 1 (2.00%) Zscaler