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 21 May 2026.

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

6 months to
21 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 529 468 447
Rank change year-on-year -61 -21 +230
Permanent jobs requiring a 3rd Line Support 162 165 414
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.20% 0.42% 0.49%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.21% 0.47% 0.52%
Number of salaries quoted 150 159 387
10th Percentile £32,250 £36,250 £31,250
25th Percentile £37,750 £37,500 £33,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £45,000 £40,000
Median % change year-on-year - +12.50% -3.98%
75th Percentile £50,000 £52,500 £45,000
90th Percentile £58,750 £67,500 £53,750
UK median annual salary £45,000 £45,000 £40,000
% change year-on-year - +12.50% -4.76%

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 76,707 35,242 80,076
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.33% 89.75% 94.53%
Number of salaries quoted 51,919 20,736 60,720
10th Percentile £30,000 £30,000 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £41,250 £38,087
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £57,500 £53,500
Median % change year-on-year -4.35% +7.48% -12.01%
75th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £71,250
90th Percentile £96,250 £100,000 £90,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £57,500 £52,500
% change year-on-year -4.35% +9.52% -12.50%

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 21 May 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 21 May 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 0 52 £40,000 -5.88% 2
North of England -11 47 £42,500 +3.03% 6
London -25 38 £52,500 +1.94% 2
Yorkshire -11 35 £45,000 +16.13% 1
Midlands -59 14 £32,500 -35.00% 2
East Midlands -30 11 £32,500 -35.00%
North West -2 7 £35,000 -17.65% 3
South West -66 6 £43,250 +8.13% 2
East of England -20 5 £36,500 -18.89% 5
North East -36 5 £40,000 +10.34% 2
West Midlands -64 3 £45,000 +20.00% 2
3rd Line Support
UK

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

For the 6 months to 21 May 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 93 (57.41%) Azure
2 91 (56.17%) Microsoft
3 90 (55.56%) Microsoft 365
4 73 (45.06%) Active Directory
5 71 (43.83%) Windows
6 65 (40.12%) Microsoft Exchange
7 57 (35.19%) SharePoint
8 55 (33.95%) Entra ID
9 51 (31.48%) Windows Server
10 46 (28.40%) Microsoft Intune
11 38 (23.46%) DNS
12 34 (20.99%) Firewall
13 33 (20.37%) Hyper-V
14 29 (17.90%) VLAN
15 28 (17.28%) SQL
15 28 (17.28%) VPN
16 27 (16.67%) Infrastructure Engineering
17 26 (16.05%) DHCP
17 26 (16.05%) Problem-Solving
17 26 (16.05%) Workflow
18 25 (15.43%) ITIL
18 25 (15.43%) SaaS
18 25 (15.43%) VMware
19 24 (14.81%) Identity Management
20 23 (14.20%) Customer Service
21 22 (13.58%) PowerShell
21 22 (13.58%) VMware Infrastructure
22 19 (11.73%) Project Delivery
23 18 (11.11%) Cybersecurity
23 18 (11.11%) Disaster Recovery

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 65 (40.12%) Microsoft Exchange
2 57 (35.19%) SharePoint
3 4 (2.47%) Exchange Server 2007
3 4 (2.47%) Exchange Server 2010
3 4 (2.47%) Exchange Server 2013
Applications
1 5 (3.09%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 11 (6.79%) Unit4 Business World
2 3 (1.85%) Oracle EBS
3 2 (1.23%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 93 (57.41%) Azure
2 90 (55.56%) Microsoft 365
3 55 (33.95%) Entra ID
4 25 (15.43%) SaaS
5 18 (11.11%) Mimecast
6 11 (6.79%) Boomi
6 11 (6.79%) iPaaS
6 11 (6.79%) Workato
7 8 (4.94%) Google Workspace
8 4 (2.47%) OneDrive
9 3 (1.85%) AWS
10 2 (1.23%) Power Platform
11 1 (0.62%) Amazon S3
11 1 (0.62%) Google Docs
11 1 (0.62%) IaaS
11 1 (0.62%) PaaS
11 1 (0.62%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 38 (23.46%) DNS
2 34 (20.99%) Firewall
3 29 (17.90%) VLAN
4 28 (17.28%) VPN
5 26 (16.05%) DHCP
6 15 (9.26%) TCP/IP
7 14 (8.64%) Wireless
8 9 (5.56%) SAN
8 9 (5.56%) VoIP
9 7 (4.32%) Wi-Fi
10 4 (2.47%) BGP
10 4 (2.47%) IPsec
10 4 (2.47%) LAN
11 3 (1.85%) Network Security
11 3 (1.85%) Unified Communications
11 3 (1.85%) WAN
12 2 (1.23%) IMAP
12 2 (1.23%) Intrusion Detection
12 2 (1.23%) POP3
12 2 (1.23%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (2.47%) SQL Server
2 3 (1.85%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 15 (9.26%) JIRA
General
1 52 (32.10%) Social Skills
2 22 (13.58%) Legal
3 13 (8.02%) Finance
4 12 (7.41%) Organisational Skills
5 11 (6.79%) Analytical Skills
6 5 (3.09%) Documentation Skills
7 3 (1.85%) Telecoms
8 2 (1.23%) Manufacturing
8 2 (1.23%) Retail
9 1 (0.62%) Advertising
9 1 (0.62%) Banking
9 1 (0.62%) Law
9 1 (0.62%) Public Sector
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (6.79%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 12 (7.41%) Self-Motivation
2 11 (6.79%) Driving Licence
3 7 (4.32%) PKI
4 6 (3.70%) Replication
4 6 (3.70%) Video Conferencing
5 5 (3.09%) Onboarding
6 3 (1.85%) CMDB
6 3 (1.85%) Cyber Threat
6 3 (1.85%) IoT
7 1 (0.62%) Clustering
7 1 (0.62%) Hybrid Cloud
7 1 (0.62%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 71 (43.83%) Windows
2 51 (31.48%) Windows Server
3 17 (10.49%) Linux
4 14 (8.64%) Mac OS
5 11 (6.79%) Windows Server 2016
6 8 (4.94%) Windows 10
6 8 (4.94%) Windows Server 2012
7 7 (4.32%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 5 (3.09%) Windows Server 2019
9 4 (2.47%) Windows Server 2008
10 1 (0.62%) Apple iOS
10 1 (0.62%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 27 (16.67%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 26 (16.05%) Problem-Solving
2 26 (16.05%) Workflow
3 25 (15.43%) ITIL
4 24 (14.81%) Identity Management
5 23 (14.20%) Customer Service
6 19 (11.73%) Project Delivery
7 18 (11.11%) Cybersecurity
7 18 (11.11%) Disaster Recovery
7 18 (11.11%) Technical Leadership
8 17 (10.49%) Change Management
9 14 (8.64%) Incident Management
9 14 (8.64%) Service Delivery
10 13 (8.02%) Continuous Improvement
10 13 (8.02%) ERP
11 12 (7.41%) ITSM
11 12 (7.41%) Migration
11 12 (7.41%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 11 (6.79%) Requirements Gathering
12 11 (6.79%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 28 (17.28%) SQL
2 22 (13.58%) PowerShell
3 14 (8.64%) R
4 2 (1.23%) Python
5 1 (0.62%) Bash
5 1 (0.62%) Google Apps Script
Qualifications
1 12 (7.41%) Degree
2 11 (6.79%) DBS Check
2 11 (6.79%) Microsoft Certification
3 7 (4.32%) Security Cleared
4 6 (3.70%) DV Cleared
5 4 (2.47%) CCNA
5 4 (2.47%) Cisco Certification
6 2 (1.23%) CCNP
7 1 (0.62%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (8.64%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 10 (6.17%) Cyber Essentials
3 8 (4.94%) GDPR
System Software
1 73 (45.06%) Active Directory
2 33 (20.37%) Hyper-V
3 22 (13.58%) VMware Infrastructure
4 7 (4.32%) vSphere
5 3 (1.85%) Firmware
5 3 (1.85%) Microsoft Virtual Server
5 3 (1.85%) Virtual Servers
6 1 (0.62%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (0.62%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 46 (28.40%) Microsoft Intune
2 15 (9.26%) Jamf Pro
3 9 (5.56%) Backup Exec
4 7 (4.32%) Autotask
4 7 (4.32%) WSUS
5 2 (1.23%) Single Sign-On
5 2 (1.23%) Terraform
6 1 (0.62%) Ansible
Vendors
1 91 (56.17%) Microsoft
2 25 (15.43%) VMware
3 16 (9.88%) Veeam
4 14 (8.64%) CrowdStrike
5 13 (8.02%) Cisco
6 10 (6.17%) HP
6 10 (6.17%) Meraki
7 9 (5.56%) Logitech
7 9 (5.56%) Yealink
8 8 (4.94%) Apple
8 8 (4.94%) Google
9 7 (4.32%) McAfee
9 7 (4.32%) SonicWALL
10 6 (3.70%) Aruba
10 6 (3.70%) ConnectWise
10 6 (3.70%) Datto
10 6 (3.70%) Ubiquiti
11 4 (2.47%) Dell
12 3 (1.85%) Draytek
12 3 (1.85%) Oracle