3rd Line Infrastructure Support Contract Job Trends

Third Line Infrastructure Support
UK

The median Third Line Infrastructure Support daily rate in the UK is £538, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 9 March 2026.

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

6 months to
9 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 607 520 596
Rank change year-on-year -87 +76 +135
Contract jobs requiring a 3rd Line Infrastructure Support 5 2 6
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.012% 0.007% 0.013%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.013% 0.007% 0.014%
Number of daily rates quoted 4 2 6
10th Percentile - - £253
25th Percentile £425 £608 £267
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £538 £615 £325
Median % change year-on-year -12.60% +89.23% -13.33%
75th Percentile £638 £623 £388
90th Percentile - - £444
UK excluding London median daily rate £538 £615 £350
% change year-on-year -12.60% +75.71% -6.67%

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 38,836 27,659 41,539
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.96% 92.95% 92.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,338 17,830 27,237
10th Percentile £310 £294 £270
25th Percentile £409 £406 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £481 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +1.26% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,391 872 2,505
10th Percentile £14.82 £15.81 £13.00
25th Percentile £19.00 £21.25 £16.25
Median hourly rate £34.95 £33.75 £32.69
Median % change year-on-year +3.54% +3.24% -20.33%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £76.25 £71.89
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.50 £32.50 £32.90
% change year-on-year +3.08% -1.20% -17.30%

3rd Line Infrastructure Support
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring '3rd Line Infrastructure Support' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

3rd Line Infrastructure Support job vacancy trend in the UK

3rd Line Infrastructure Support
Daily Rate Trend

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

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

3rd Line Infrastructure Support
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing 3rd Line Infrastructure Support over the 6 months to 9 March 2026.

Daily rate histogram for 3rd Line Infrastructure Support in the UK

3rd Line Infrastructure Support
Hourly Rate Trend

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

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

3rd Line Infrastructure Support
Top 5 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 Infrastructure Support within the UK over the 6 months to 9 March 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 -73 5 £538 -12.60% 1
UK excluding London -80 4 £538 -12.60% 1
South East -44 2 £625 +1.63% 1
South West - 2 £450 -
Work from Home - 2 £450 - 1

3rd Line Infrastructure Support Skill Set
Top 20 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 9 March 2026, 3rd Line Infrastructure Support 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 Infrastructure Support in the job title.

1 4 (80.00%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 2 (40.00%) Active Directory
2 2 (40.00%) Agile
2 2 (40.00%) Application Packaging
2 2 (40.00%) Azure
2 2 (40.00%) DV Cleared
2 2 (40.00%) Entra ID
2 2 (40.00%) Linux
2 2 (40.00%) Microsoft Intune
2 2 (40.00%) Platform Engineering
2 2 (40.00%) SCCM
2 2 (40.00%) Security Cleared
2 2 (40.00%) VMware
2 2 (40.00%) VMware Infrastructure
2 2 (40.00%) Windows
2 2 (40.00%) Windows Server
3 1 (20.00%) Continuous Improvement
3 1 (20.00%) Customer-Centricity
3 1 (20.00%) Proactive Management
3 1 (20.00%) Server Management

3rd Line Infrastructure Support 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:

Cloud Services
1 2 (40.00%) Azure
1 2 (40.00%) Entra ID
General
1 2 (40.00%) Public Sector
2 1 (20.00%) Telecoms
Miscellaneous
1 2 (40.00%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 2 (40.00%) Linux
1 2 (40.00%) Windows
1 2 (40.00%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 4 (80.00%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 2 (40.00%) Agile
2 2 (40.00%) Application Packaging
2 2 (40.00%) Platform Engineering
3 1 (20.00%) Continuous Improvement
3 1 (20.00%) Customer-Centricity
3 1 (20.00%) Proactive Management
3 1 (20.00%) Server Management
Qualifications
1 2 (40.00%) DV Cleared
1 2 (40.00%) Security Cleared
System Software
1 2 (40.00%) Active Directory
1 2 (40.00%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 2 (40.00%) Microsoft Intune
1 2 (40.00%) SCCM
Vendors
1 2 (40.00%) VMware