Hybrid/Remote 3rd Line Engineer Contract Job Trends

Third Line Engineer
UK > Work from Home

The median Third Line Engineer daily rate for remote/hybrid work is £300, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 13 December 2025.

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

6 months to
13 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 305 301 349
Rank change year-on-year -4 +48 +125
Contract jobs requiring a 3rd Line Engineer 13 15 42
As % of all contract jobs with remote/hybrid work options 0.13% 0.12% 0.24%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.14% 0.13% 0.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 11 12 25
10th Percentile £225 £317 £268
25th Percentile £263 £358 £275
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £300 £403 £325
Median % change year-on-year -25.47% +23.85% -18.75%
75th Percentile £494 £500 £375
90th Percentile £550 £594 £415
UK median daily rate £500 £400 £325
% change year-on-year +25.00% +23.08% -13.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £29.00 - -
Median hourly rate £30.00 - -
75th Percentile £31.00 - -
90th Percentile - - -
UK median hourly rate £30.00 £24.18 -
% change year-on-year +24.07% - -

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
Work from Home

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies with remote/hybrid work options. 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 Work from Home with a recognized job title 9,503 11,296 16,780
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 93.31% 93.10% 94.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,215 7,149 11,556
10th Percentile £325 £325 £325
25th Percentile £413 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.38% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £620 £638 £638
90th Percentile £723 £750 £738
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 335 206 378
10th Percentile £15.18 £18.50 £17.60
25th Percentile £20.50 £24.26 £26.24
Median hourly rate £43.69 £38.25 £52.50
Median % change year-on-year +14.22% -27.14% -4.55%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £86.63
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £34.75 £44.00
% change year-on-year -27.63% -21.02% +40.98%

3rd Line Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend for Remote/Hybrid Roles

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring '3rd Line Engineer' in the job title and offering remote or hybrid work options relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

3rd Line Engineer job vacancy trend for remote/hybrid roles

3rd Line Engineer
Daily Rate Trend for Remote/Hybrid Jobs

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for remote/hybrid 3rd Line Engineer job vacancies.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for remote/hybrid 3rd Line Engineer job vacancies

3rd Line Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram for Remote/Hybrid Jobs

Daily rate distribution for jobs with remote/hybrid work options citing 3rd Line Engineer over the 6 months to 13 December 2025.

3rd Line Engineer daily rate histogram for jobs with remote/hybrid work options

3rd Line Engineer
Hourly Rate Trend for Remote/Hybrid Jobs

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for remote/hybrid 3rd Line Engineer job vacancies.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for remote/hybrid 3rd Line Engineer job vacancies

3rd Line Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Remote/Hybrid Jobs

For the 6 months to 13 December 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 jobs with hybrid/remote work options featuring 3rd Line Engineer in the job title.

1 7 (53.85%) Microsoft
2 6 (46.15%) Active Directory
2 6 (46.15%) Azure
2 6 (46.15%) Microsoft 365
2 6 (46.15%) Windows
3 5 (38.46%) Firewall
3 5 (38.46%) Microsoft Intune
4 4 (30.77%) Entra ID
4 4 (30.77%) SC Cleared
4 4 (30.77%) Security Cleared
4 4 (30.77%) VMware
4 4 (30.77%) Windows 10
5 3 (23.08%) AirWatch
5 3 (23.08%) Apple
5 3 (23.08%) Cybersecurity
5 3 (23.08%) Hyper-V
5 3 (23.08%) Jamf Pro
5 3 (23.08%) Mac OS
5 3 (23.08%) Microsoft Exchange
5 3 (23.08%) Migration
5 3 (23.08%) SCCM
5 3 (23.08%) SQL Server
5 3 (23.08%) VMware Infrastructure
5 3 (23.08%) WAN
6 2 (15.38%) Adobe
6 2 (15.38%) Bash
6 2 (15.38%) Break/Fix
6 2 (15.38%) CheckPoint
6 2 (15.38%) Cisco
6 2 (15.38%) DNS

3rd Line Engineer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Remote/Hybrid Jobs 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 3 (23.08%) Microsoft Exchange
2 1 (7.69%) SharePoint
2 1 (7.69%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 2 (15.38%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 6 (46.15%) Azure
1 6 (46.15%) Microsoft 365
2 4 (30.77%) Entra ID
3 1 (7.69%) AWS
3 1 (7.69%) GCP
3 1 (7.69%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 5 (38.46%) Firewall
2 3 (23.08%) WAN
3 2 (15.38%) DNS
3 2 (15.38%) LAN
3 2 (15.38%) TCP/IP
4 1 (7.69%) DHCP
4 1 (7.69%) SAN
4 1 (7.69%) Skype
4 1 (7.69%) VLAN
4 1 (7.69%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (23.08%) SQL Server
General
1 2 (15.38%) Banking
1 2 (15.38%) Finance
2 1 (7.69%) Local Government
2 1 (7.69%) Public Sector
2 1 (7.69%) Social Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (7.69%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 3 (23.08%) PKI
2 1 (7.69%) Data Centre
2 1 (7.69%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 6 (46.15%) Windows
2 4 (30.77%) Windows 10
3 3 (23.08%) Mac OS
4 2 (15.38%) Windows Server
5 1 (7.69%) Linux
5 1 (7.69%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 3 (23.08%) Cybersecurity
1 3 (23.08%) Migration
2 2 (15.38%) Break/Fix
2 2 (15.38%) Incident Management
2 2 (15.38%) Software Deployment
3 1 (7.69%) Asset Management
3 1 (7.69%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 1 (7.69%) Performance Optimisation
3 1 (7.69%) Problem-Solving
3 1 (7.69%) Service Delivery
3 1 (7.69%) Service Management
3 1 (7.69%) Technical Analysis
3 1 (7.69%) Zero Trust
Programming Languages
1 2 (15.38%) Bash
2 1 (7.69%) PowerShell
2 1 (7.69%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 4 (30.77%) SC Cleared
1 4 (30.77%) Security Cleared
2 2 (15.38%) Microsoft Certification
3 1 (7.69%) DV Cleared
System Software
1 6 (46.15%) Active Directory
2 3 (23.08%) Hyper-V
2 3 (23.08%) VMware Infrastructure
3 2 (15.38%) vSphere
4 1 (7.69%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 5 (38.46%) Microsoft Intune
2 3 (23.08%) AirWatch
2 3 (23.08%) Jamf Pro
2 3 (23.08%) SCCM
3 2 (15.38%) SCOM
4 1 (7.69%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 1 (7.69%) FortiGate
4 1 (7.69%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 7 (53.85%) Microsoft
2 4 (30.77%) VMware
3 3 (23.08%) Apple
4 2 (15.38%) Adobe
4 2 (15.38%) CheckPoint
4 2 (15.38%) Cisco
5 1 (7.69%) HP
5 1 (7.69%) Palo Alto
5 1 (7.69%) SolarWinds
5 1 (7.69%) Sophos
5 1 (7.69%) Veeam