3rd Line Support Job Trends in England

Third Line Support
UK > England

The median Third Line Support salary in England is £45,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 23 July 2026.

The table below compares current salary benchmarking and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
23 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 548 423 495
Rank change year-on-year -125 +72 +121
Permanent jobs requiring a 3rd Line Support 184 236 330
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.21% 0.55% 0.41%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.22% 0.60% 0.43%
Number of salaries quoted 167 231 302
10th Percentile £31,250 £36,250 £31,250
25th Percentile £38,250 £37,500 £34,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £42,500 £40,000
Median % change year-on-year +5.88% +6.25% -
75th Percentile £55,000 £50,000 £46,188
90th Percentile £58,750 £58,750 £53,625
UK median annual salary £45,000 £42,500 £40,000
% change year-on-year +5.88% +6.25% -

All Permanent IT Job Roles
England

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies in England. 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 permanent jobs in our overall sample.

Permanent vacancies in England with a recognized job title 83,969 39,266 76,465
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.39% 90.73% 94.64%
Number of salaries quoted 59,049 23,709 54,780
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,750 £29,750
25th Percentile £40,000 £37,500 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.55% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £75,754 £75,000 £71,250
90th Percentile £97,500 £97,500 £91,250
UK median annual salary £55,000 £55,000 £54,000
% change year-on-year - +1.85% -10.00%

3rd Line Support
Job Vacancy Trend in England

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

3rd Line Support job vacancy trend in England

3rd Line Support
Salary Trend in England

Salary distribution trend for 3rd Line Support job vacancies in England.

Salary distribution trend for 3rd Line Support job vacancies in England

3rd Line Support
Salary Histogram in England

Salary distribution for jobs citing 3rd Line Support in England over the 6 months to 23 July 2026.

Salary histogram for 3rd Line Support in England

3rd Line Support
Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing 3rd Line Support within the England region over the 6 months to 23 July 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
South East -13 67 £50,000 +20.48% 8
North of England -21 41 £40,000 -5.88% 7
London -44 35 £53,750 +7.50% 4
Midlands -58 20 £32,500 -15.58% 5
South West -70 17 £45,000 -2.17% 3
Yorkshire -27 15 £45,000 -5.26% 1
East Midlands -31 15 £32,500 -15.58% 3
North West -5 14 £31,500 -21.25% 6
North East -42 12 £40,000 -
West Midlands -54 5 £45,000 +20.00% 2
East of England -27 4 £36,500 -23.16% 2
3rd Line Support
UK

3rd Line Support Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England

For the 6 months to 23 July 2026, 3rd Line Support 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 permanent job ads across the England region featuring 3rd Line Support in the job title.

1 119 (64.67%) Microsoft
2 105 (57.07%) Azure
2 105 (57.07%) Microsoft 365
3 89 (48.37%) Active Directory
4 84 (45.65%) Windows
5 74 (40.22%) Entra ID
6 73 (39.67%) Microsoft Exchange
7 69 (37.50%) SharePoint
8 55 (29.89%) Windows Server
9 54 (29.35%) Microsoft Intune
10 46 (25.00%) SaaS
11 41 (22.28%) Firewall
12 39 (21.20%) VLAN
13 38 (20.65%) DNS
14 36 (19.57%) Infrastructure Engineering
15 34 (18.48%) SQL
16 33 (17.93%) Workflow
17 32 (17.39%) Identity Management
18 30 (16.30%) DHCP
19 29 (15.76%) Change Management
20 28 (15.22%) Hyper-V
20 28 (15.22%) VPN
21 27 (14.67%) Problem-Solving
21 27 (14.67%) VMware
21 27 (14.67%) VMware Infrastructure
22 26 (14.13%) Incident Management
22 26 (14.13%) JIRA
22 26 (14.13%) Project Delivery
23 25 (13.59%) Cisco
23 25 (13.59%) Technical Leadership

3rd Line Support Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England 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 73 (39.67%) Microsoft Exchange
2 69 (37.50%) SharePoint
3 4 (2.17%) Exchange Server 2007
3 4 (2.17%) Exchange Server 2010
3 4 (2.17%) Exchange Server 2013
Applications
1 4 (2.17%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 11 (5.98%) Unit4 Business World
2 3 (1.63%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.54%) NetSuite
3 1 (0.54%) Oracle EBS
Cloud Services
1 105 (57.07%) Azure
1 105 (57.07%) Microsoft 365
2 74 (40.22%) Entra ID
3 46 (25.00%) SaaS
4 23 (12.50%) Mimecast
5 11 (5.98%) Boomi
5 11 (5.98%) Google Workspace
5 11 (5.98%) iPaaS
5 11 (5.98%) Workato
6 5 (2.72%) AWS
6 5 (2.72%) OneDrive
7 4 (2.17%) Power Automate
8 3 (1.63%) Power Platform
9 2 (1.09%) Azure Stack
10 1 (0.54%) Google Docs
10 1 (0.54%) IaaS
10 1 (0.54%) PaaS
10 1 (0.54%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 41 (22.28%) Firewall
2 39 (21.20%) VLAN
3 38 (20.65%) DNS
4 30 (16.30%) DHCP
5 28 (15.22%) VPN
6 20 (10.87%) TCP/IP
7 18 (9.78%) Wireless
8 13 (7.07%) Wi-Fi
9 11 (5.98%) LAN
10 10 (5.43%) WAN
11 9 (4.89%) VoIP
12 8 (4.35%) SAN
13 5 (2.72%) Network Security
14 4 (2.17%) DMZ
14 4 (2.17%) Wireshark
15 3 (1.63%) BGP
15 3 (1.63%) IPsec
15 3 (1.63%) Remote Desktop
15 3 (1.63%) SD-WAN
16 2 (1.09%) ICMP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (4.35%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.54%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 26 (14.13%) JIRA
2 1 (0.54%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 66 (35.87%) Social Skills
2 29 (15.76%) Legal
3 15 (8.15%) Finance
4 8 (4.35%) Analytical Skills
4 8 (4.35%) Organisational Skills
5 7 (3.80%) Documentation Skills
6 5 (2.72%) Manufacturing
7 3 (1.63%) Telecoms
8 2 (1.09%) Inclusion and Diversity
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (7.61%) Web Services
2 10 (5.43%) .NET
Miscellaneous
1 12 (6.52%) Driving Licence
2 10 (5.43%) Video Conferencing
3 8 (4.35%) Onboarding
3 8 (4.35%) Self-Motivation
4 7 (3.80%) Enterprise Software
5 5 (2.72%) Cyber Threat
5 5 (2.72%) PKI
6 4 (2.17%) Replication
7 1 (0.54%) Clustering
7 1 (0.54%) CMDB
7 1 (0.54%) Hybrid Cloud
7 1 (0.54%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 84 (45.65%) Windows
2 55 (29.89%) Windows Server
3 20 (10.87%) Linux
4 17 (9.24%) Mac OS
5 15 (8.15%) Windows Server 2016
6 13 (7.07%) Windows Server 2012
7 10 (5.43%) Windows Server 2019
8 9 (4.89%) Windows 10
9 5 (2.72%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 4 (2.17%) Windows Server 2008
11 3 (1.63%) Apple iOS
12 2 (1.09%) Android
13 1 (0.54%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 36 (19.57%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 33 (17.93%) Workflow
3 32 (17.39%) Identity Management
4 29 (15.76%) Change Management
5 27 (14.67%) Problem-Solving
6 26 (14.13%) Incident Management
6 26 (14.13%) Project Delivery
7 25 (13.59%) Technical Leadership
8 22 (11.96%) ITIL
9 20 (10.87%) Cybersecurity
9 20 (10.87%) Mentoring
10 18 (9.78%) Disaster Recovery
10 18 (9.78%) ITSM
11 17 (9.24%) Continuous Improvement
11 17 (9.24%) ERP
12 16 (8.70%) Customer Service
13 15 (8.15%) Remote Monitoring and Management
14 14 (7.61%) Service Delivery
15 13 (7.07%) Migration
15 13 (7.07%) Server Management
Programming Languages
1 34 (18.48%) SQL
2 21 (11.41%) PowerShell
2 21 (11.41%) R
3 10 (5.43%) C#
4 7 (3.80%) T-SQL
5 4 (2.17%) COBOL
5 4 (2.17%) Java
5 4 (2.17%) Python
6 3 (1.63%) Bash
7 1 (0.54%) Google Apps Script
Qualifications
1 21 (11.41%) Microsoft Certification
2 20 (10.87%) Degree
3 14 (7.61%) CCNA
3 14 (7.61%) Cisco Certification
4 8 (4.35%) Azure Certification
5 6 (3.26%) Security Cleared
6 5 (2.72%) DV Cleared
7 4 (2.17%) AWS Certification
7 4 (2.17%) MCSA
7 4 (2.17%) Microsoft Certified Professional
8 3 (1.63%) DBS Check
9 2 (1.09%) CCNP
10 1 (0.54%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 23 (12.50%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 17 (9.24%) Cyber Essentials
3 7 (3.80%) GDPR
4 3 (1.63%) SLA
5 2 (1.09%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 89 (48.37%) Active Directory
2 28 (15.22%) Hyper-V
3 27 (14.67%) VMware Infrastructure
4 5 (2.72%) Virtual Machines
4 5 (2.72%) vSphere
5 1 (0.54%) Firmware
5 1 (0.54%) Microsoft Virtual Server
5 1 (0.54%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 54 (29.35%) Microsoft Intune
2 18 (9.78%) Jamf Pro
3 14 (7.61%) Autotask
4 6 (3.26%) Backup Exec
5 5 (2.72%) WSUS
6 4 (2.17%) Iperf
7 2 (1.09%) Single Sign-On
7 2 (1.09%) Terraform
8 1 (0.54%) Ansible
Vendors
1 119 (64.67%) Microsoft
2 27 (14.67%) VMware
3 25 (13.59%) Cisco
4 21 (11.41%) CrowdStrike
5 15 (8.15%) Meraki
5 15 (8.15%) SonicWALL
6 14 (7.61%) HP
7 12 (6.52%) Veeam
8 11 (5.98%) Google
9 10 (5.43%) Aruba
9 10 (5.43%) Datto
9 10 (5.43%) Ubiquiti
10 8 (4.35%) Logitech
10 8 (4.35%) Yealink
11 7 (3.80%) Apple
11 7 (3.80%) Fortinet
12 6 (3.26%) ConnectWise
13 5 (2.72%) McAfee
13 5 (2.72%) ServiceNow
14 4 (2.17%) Dell