3rd Line Support Job Trends in England

Third Line Support
UK > England

The median Third Line Support salary in England is £42,500 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 10 February 2026.

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

6 months to
10 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 402 544 422
Rank change year-on-year +142 -122 +271
Permanent jobs requiring a 3rd Line Support 228 122 369
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.39% 0.27% 0.56%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.43% 0.30% 0.59%
Number of salaries quoted 212 102 346
10th Percentile £34,000 £35,575 £31,250
25th Percentile £37,313 £36,250 £34,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £44,625 £40,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +11.56% -5.88%
75th Percentile £50,000 £55,000 £47,500
90th Percentile £58,750 £76,250 £58,750
UK median annual salary £42,500 £45,000 £40,000
% change year-on-year -5.56% +12.50% -5.88%

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 52,790 41,241 62,630
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 91.17% 91.55% 94.79%
Number of salaries quoted 33,765 21,574 50,021
10th Percentile £29,000 £33,500 £29,000
25th Percentile £37,750 £45,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -11.29%
75th Percentile £75,000 £80,000 £75,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £95,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -8.33%

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 10 February 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 10 February 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 +80 105 £42,500 -4.49% 12
North of England +14 42 £42,500 +18.06% 11
Yorkshire 0 37 £45,000 +20.00% 8
London +43 31 £45,000 -30.77% 8
East of England +33 25 £47,000 +17.50% 4
Midlands +16 24 £37,500 -25.00%
East Midlands +4 22 £37,500 -42.31%
North West +11 5 £40,500 +1.25% 3
West Midlands +7 2 £41,000 -18.00%
South West -17 2 £43,750 +2.94% 5
3rd Line Support
UK

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

For the 6 months to 10 February 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.

1 135 (59.21%) Microsoft
2 122 (53.51%) Windows
3 108 (47.37%) Active Directory
4 103 (45.18%) Microsoft 365
5 101 (44.30%) Azure
6 77 (33.77%) Microsoft Exchange
6 77 (33.77%) Windows Server
7 60 (26.32%) Customer Service
8 57 (25.00%) Hyper-V
9 55 (24.12%) DNS
10 50 (21.93%) PowerShell
11 49 (21.49%) Entra ID
12 48 (21.05%) DHCP
12 48 (21.05%) VMware
13 47 (20.61%) Firewall
14 46 (20.18%) Problem-Solving
15 42 (18.42%) Security Cleared
16 41 (17.98%) Microsoft Intune
17 38 (16.67%) Mentoring
18 35 (15.35%) SC Cleared
18 35 (15.35%) VPN
19 34 (14.91%) SharePoint
20 30 (13.16%) SLA
20 30 (13.16%) VLAN
21 29 (12.72%) Incident Management
22 28 (12.28%) DV Cleared
22 28 (12.28%) ITIL
22 28 (12.28%) Oracle
23 26 (11.40%) SQL
23 26 (11.40%) TCP/IP

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 77 (33.77%) Microsoft Exchange
2 34 (14.91%) SharePoint
3 22 (9.65%) Exchange Server 2003
4 1 (0.44%) Confluence
4 1 (0.44%) IIS
Applications
1 6 (2.63%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 3 (1.32%) Oracle EBS
1 3 (1.32%) Unit4 Business World
2 1 (0.44%) Fidessa
2 1 (0.44%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 103 (45.18%) Microsoft 365
2 101 (44.30%) Azure
3 49 (21.49%) Entra ID
4 8 (3.51%) Mimecast
5 5 (2.19%) IaaS
5 5 (2.19%) Power Platform
5 5 (2.19%) SaaS
6 3 (1.32%) AWS
6 3 (1.32%) Boomi
6 3 (1.32%) Google Workspace
6 3 (1.32%) iPaaS
6 3 (1.32%) Workato
7 1 (0.44%) Amazon S3
7 1 (0.44%) Cloud Computing
7 1 (0.44%) GCP
7 1 (0.44%) n8n
7 1 (0.44%) Power Automate
7 1 (0.44%) Zapier
Communications & Networking
1 55 (24.12%) DNS
2 48 (21.05%) DHCP
3 47 (20.61%) Firewall
4 35 (15.35%) VPN
5 30 (13.16%) VLAN
6 26 (11.40%) TCP/IP
7 17 (7.46%) Wireless
8 12 (5.26%) SAN
9 9 (3.95%) LAN
9 9 (3.95%) WAN
10 7 (3.07%) VoIP
11 6 (2.63%) SMTP
11 6 (2.63%) Wi-Fi
12 5 (2.19%) EIGRP
12 5 (2.19%) IMAP
12 5 (2.19%) Intrusion Detection
12 5 (2.19%) IPsec
12 5 (2.19%) OSPF
12 5 (2.19%) POP3
12 5 (2.19%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (10.09%) Oracle Database
1 23 (10.09%) Oracle Database 10g
2 10 (4.39%) SQL Server
3 5 (2.19%) Power BI
4 3 (1.32%) Amazon RDS
4 3 (1.32%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 6 (2.63%) JIRA
General
1 69 (30.26%) Social Skills
2 12 (5.26%) Analytical Skills
3 11 (4.82%) Law
4 10 (4.39%) Automotive
5 9 (3.95%) Manufacturing
6 8 (3.51%) Organisational Skills
7 7 (3.07%) Legal
7 7 (3.07%) Marketing
8 6 (2.63%) Finance
9 4 (1.75%) Documentation Skills
9 4 (1.75%) Retail
9 4 (1.75%) Telecoms
10 3 (1.32%) Advertising
11 2 (0.88%) Banking
11 2 (0.88%) Public Sector
12 1 (0.44%) Electronics
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (1.32%) Web Services
2 1 (0.44%) FIX Protocol
Miscellaneous
1 29 (12.72%) Onboarding
2 20 (8.77%) Self-Motivation
3 10 (4.39%) Driving Licence
4 6 (2.63%) Management Information System
4 6 (2.63%) PKI
4 6 (2.63%) Replication
5 3 (1.32%) CMDB
5 3 (1.32%) IoT
5 3 (1.32%) Web Conferencing
6 2 (0.88%) Cyber Threat
7 1 (0.44%) Blockchain
7 1 (0.44%) Clustering
7 1 (0.44%) Eurex
7 1 (0.44%) FMCG
7 1 (0.44%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 122 (53.51%) Windows
2 77 (33.77%) Windows Server
3 24 (10.53%) Solaris
3 24 (10.53%) Unix
4 23 (10.09%) HPUX
5 22 (9.65%) Windows Server 2003
6 21 (9.21%) Windows 7
6 21 (9.21%) Windows Server 2008
7 13 (5.70%) Android
7 13 (5.70%) Apple iOS
8 10 (4.39%) Linux
9 7 (3.07%) Mac OS
10 6 (2.63%) Windows 10
11 5 (2.19%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 4 (1.75%) Windows Server 2016
13 2 (0.88%) Windows Server 2012
13 2 (0.88%) Windows Server 2019
14 1 (0.44%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 60 (26.32%) Customer Service
2 46 (20.18%) Problem-Solving
3 38 (16.67%) Mentoring
4 29 (12.72%) Incident Management
5 28 (12.28%) ITIL
6 22 (9.65%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 20 (8.77%) Cybersecurity
8 19 (8.33%) Disaster Recovery
9 18 (7.89%) Mobile Device Management
10 16 (7.02%) Coaching
10 16 (7.02%) Logistics
11 15 (6.58%) Network Monitoring
12 13 (5.70%) Service Delivery
13 12 (5.26%) Zero Trust
14 11 (4.82%) Service Desk Management
14 11 (4.82%) Stakeholder Management
15 10 (4.39%) Network Management
16 9 (3.95%) Continuous Improvement
16 9 (3.95%) ITSM
16 9 (3.95%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 50 (21.93%) PowerShell
2 26 (11.40%) SQL
3 21 (9.21%) Perl
4 4 (1.75%) R
5 3 (1.32%) C
5 3 (1.32%) Java
5 3 (1.32%) PHP
6 2 (0.88%) Bash
6 2 (0.88%) Python
Qualifications
1 42 (18.42%) Security Cleared
2 35 (15.35%) SC Cleared
3 28 (12.28%) DV Cleared
4 19 (8.33%) DBS Check
5 13 (5.70%) Degree
5 13 (5.70%) Microsoft Certification
6 10 (4.39%) CCNA
6 10 (4.39%) Cisco Certification
7 5 (2.19%) Azure Certification
7 5 (2.19%) CCNP
7 5 (2.19%) HND
8 2 (0.88%) MCTS
8 2 (0.88%) Microsoft Certified Professional
9 1 (0.44%) ACMT
9 1 (0.44%) AWS Certification
9 1 (0.44%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (13.16%) SLA
2 5 (2.19%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 4 (1.75%) Cyber Essentials
4 3 (1.32%) GDPR
5 1 (0.44%) NIST
System Software
1 108 (47.37%) Active Directory
2 57 (25.00%) Hyper-V
3 18 (7.89%) VMware Infrastructure
4 5 (2.19%) Virtual Machines
4 5 (2.19%) vSphere
5 3 (1.32%) Microsoft Virtual Server
5 3 (1.32%) Virtual Servers
6 2 (0.88%) Firmware
7 1 (0.44%) Docker
7 1 (0.44%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.44%) VMware NSX
7 1 (0.44%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 41 (17.98%) Microsoft Intune
2 15 (6.58%) Jamf Pro
3 8 (3.51%) Backup Exec
4 6 (2.63%) Autotask
5 5 (2.19%) FortiGate
5 5 (2.19%) WSUS
6 3 (1.32%) SCCM
6 3 (1.32%) vCenter Server
7 1 (0.44%) Ansible
7 1 (0.44%) Avamar
7 1 (0.44%) Kubernetes
7 1 (0.44%) SCOM
7 1 (0.44%) Terraform
Vendors
1 135 (59.21%) Microsoft
2 48 (21.05%) VMware
3 28 (12.28%) Oracle
4 16 (7.02%) Apple
5 14 (6.14%) Cisco
5 14 (6.14%) Veeam
6 7 (3.07%) Samsung
7 6 (2.63%) Meraki
7 6 (2.63%) SolarWinds
8 5 (2.19%) Logitech
8 5 (2.19%) McAfee
8 5 (2.19%) Yealink
9 4 (1.75%) CrowdStrike
9 4 (1.75%) HP
10 3 (1.32%) ConnectWise
10 3 (1.32%) Google
10 3 (1.32%) IFS
10 3 (1.32%) Sophos
11 2 (0.88%) Draytek
11 2 (0.88%) Fortinet