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 30 March 2026.

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

6 months to
30 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 441 474 420
Rank change year-on-year +33 -54 +280
Permanent jobs requiring a 3rd Line Support 232 132 430
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.33% 0.36% 0.55%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.36% 0.40% 0.58%
Number of salaries quoted 217 125 402
10th Percentile £35,000 £35,500 £31,250
25th Percentile £37,500 £37,500 £34,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £44,500 £40,000
Median % change year-on-year +1.12% +11.25% -3.80%
75th Percentile £51,500 £52,500 £47,500
90th Percentile £58,750 £68,750 £55,696
UK median annual salary £45,000 £44,750 £40,000
% change year-on-year +0.56% +11.88% -4.19%

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 64,058 33,155 73,652
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.10% 89.99% 94.39%
Number of salaries quoted 42,215 21,310 57,502
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £43,231 £38,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -8.60%
75th Percentile £75,000 £80,000 £72,500
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £92,159
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 30 March 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 30 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
South East +46 99 £45,000 +3.45% 9
London +31 47 £45,000 -25.00% 4
North of England -28 47 £43,750 +10.76% 13
Yorkshire -18 40 £45,000 +24.14% 9
East of England -16 19 £47,000 +17.50%
Midlands -44 16 £33,750 -32.50% 2
East Midlands -38 13 £32,500 -50.00% 1
South West -53 5 £45,000 +12.50% 5
North East -18 4 £40,000 +11.11% 3
West Midlands -28 3 £45,000 -10.00% 1
North West -34 3 £40,500 -4.71% 2
3rd Line Support
UK

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

For the 6 months to 30 March 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.

1 139 (59.91%) Microsoft
2 117 (50.43%) Azure
3 115 (49.57%) Windows
4 112 (48.28%) Active Directory
4 112 (48.28%) Microsoft 365
5 94 (40.52%) Microsoft Exchange
6 71 (30.60%) Windows Server
7 66 (28.45%) Entra ID
8 61 (26.29%) DNS
9 57 (24.57%) PowerShell
10 56 (24.14%) SharePoint
11 55 (23.71%) Microsoft Intune
12 54 (23.28%) VMware
13 50 (21.55%) DHCP
14 48 (20.69%) Hyper-V
15 44 (18.97%) Customer Service
15 44 (18.97%) Firewall
15 44 (18.97%) Problem-Solving
16 41 (17.67%) Security Cleared
17 39 (16.81%) Incident Management
18 34 (14.66%) VPN
19 32 (13.79%) ITIL
19 32 (13.79%) SC Cleared
20 30 (12.93%) SQL
20 30 (12.93%) VLAN
21 29 (12.50%) DV Cleared
22 28 (12.07%) Infrastructure Engineering
23 27 (11.64%) Oracle
23 27 (11.64%) SLA
23 27 (11.64%) Workflow

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 94 (40.52%) Microsoft Exchange
2 56 (24.14%) SharePoint
3 22 (9.48%) Exchange Server 2003
4 4 (1.72%) Exchange Server 2007
4 4 (1.72%) Exchange Server 2010
4 4 (1.72%) Exchange Server 2013
5 1 (0.43%) Confluence
Applications
1 10 (4.31%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 11 (4.74%) Unit4 Business World
2 3 (1.29%) Oracle EBS
3 2 (0.86%) NetSuite
4 1 (0.43%) Fidessa
Cloud Services
1 117 (50.43%) Azure
2 112 (48.28%) Microsoft 365
3 66 (28.45%) Entra ID
4 20 (8.62%) SaaS
5 17 (7.33%) Mimecast
6 11 (4.74%) Boomi
6 11 (4.74%) iPaaS
6 11 (4.74%) Workato
7 5 (2.16%) Google Workspace
7 5 (2.16%) Power Platform
8 4 (1.72%) AWS
8 4 (1.72%) OneDrive
9 2 (0.86%) IaaS
10 1 (0.43%) Amazon S3
10 1 (0.43%) Cloud Computing
10 1 (0.43%) GCP
10 1 (0.43%) Google Docs
10 1 (0.43%) n8n
10 1 (0.43%) PaaS
10 1 (0.43%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 61 (26.29%) DNS
2 50 (21.55%) DHCP
3 44 (18.97%) Firewall
4 34 (14.66%) VPN
5 30 (12.93%) VLAN
6 21 (9.05%) TCP/IP
7 15 (6.47%) Wireless
8 14 (6.03%) SAN
9 11 (4.74%) VoIP
10 7 (3.02%) LAN
10 7 (3.02%) Wi-Fi
11 6 (2.59%) SMTP
11 6 (2.59%) WAN
12 5 (2.16%) EIGRP
12 5 (2.16%) IMAP
12 5 (2.16%) Intrusion Detection
12 5 (2.16%) Network Security
12 5 (2.16%) OSPF
12 5 (2.16%) POP3
12 5 (2.16%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (9.91%) Oracle Database
1 23 (9.91%) Oracle Database 10g
2 9 (3.88%) SQL Server
3 5 (2.16%) Power BI
4 3 (1.29%) Amazon RDS
4 3 (1.29%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 17 (7.33%) JIRA
General
1 63 (27.16%) Social Skills
2 22 (9.48%) Legal
3 14 (6.03%) Finance
4 12 (5.17%) Analytical Skills
4 12 (5.17%) Organisational Skills
5 8 (3.45%) Law
5 8 (3.45%) Manufacturing
6 5 (2.16%) Documentation Skills
7 4 (1.72%) Retail
8 3 (1.29%) Advertising
8 3 (1.29%) Marketing
8 3 (1.29%) Telecoms
9 2 (0.86%) Banking
10 1 (0.43%) Public Sector
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (4.74%) Web Services
2 1 (0.43%) FIX Protocol
Miscellaneous
1 20 (8.62%) Onboarding
2 17 (7.33%) Self-Motivation
3 15 (6.47%) Driving Licence
4 7 (3.02%) PKI
5 6 (2.59%) Replication
6 4 (1.72%) IoT
7 3 (1.29%) CMDB
7 3 (1.29%) Cyber Threat
7 3 (1.29%) Web Conferencing
8 2 (0.86%) Management Information System
9 1 (0.43%) Blockchain
9 1 (0.43%) Eurex
9 1 (0.43%) FMCG
9 1 (0.43%) Low-Code
9 1 (0.43%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 115 (49.57%) Windows
2 71 (30.60%) Windows Server
3 25 (10.78%) Windows Server 2008
4 24 (10.34%) Solaris
4 24 (10.34%) Unix
5 23 (9.91%) HPUX
6 22 (9.48%) Windows Server 2003
7 21 (9.05%) Windows 7
8 15 (6.47%) Linux
9 11 (4.74%) Mac OS
9 11 (4.74%) Windows Server 2016
10 10 (4.31%) Apple iOS
11 9 (3.88%) Android
11 9 (3.88%) Windows 10
12 7 (3.02%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 7 (3.02%) Windows Server 2012
13 4 (1.72%) Windows Server 2019
14 1 (0.43%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 44 (18.97%) Customer Service
1 44 (18.97%) Problem-Solving
2 39 (16.81%) Incident Management
3 32 (13.79%) ITIL
4 28 (12.07%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 27 (11.64%) Workflow
6 24 (10.34%) Identity Management
7 19 (8.19%) Cybersecurity
8 18 (7.76%) Disaster Recovery
9 17 (7.33%) Change Management
9 17 (7.33%) Technical Leadership
10 15 (6.47%) ITSM
10 15 (6.47%) Mentoring
11 14 (6.03%) ERP
11 14 (6.03%) Project Delivery
11 14 (6.03%) Service Delivery
12 12 (5.17%) Migration
12 12 (5.17%) Stakeholder Management
13 11 (4.74%) Continuous Improvement
13 11 (4.74%) Mobile Device Management
Programming Languages
1 57 (24.57%) PowerShell
2 30 (12.93%) SQL
3 21 (9.05%) Perl
4 14 (6.03%) R
5 3 (1.29%) C
5 3 (1.29%) Java
5 3 (1.29%) PHP
5 3 (1.29%) Python
6 2 (0.86%) Bash
7 1 (0.43%) Google Apps Script
Qualifications
1 41 (17.67%) Security Cleared
2 32 (13.79%) SC Cleared
3 29 (12.50%) DV Cleared
4 15 (6.47%) DBS Check
5 14 (6.03%) Microsoft Certification
6 12 (5.17%) Degree
7 8 (3.45%) CCNA
7 8 (3.45%) Cisco Certification
8 5 (2.16%) CCNP
8 5 (2.16%) HND
9 4 (1.72%) Azure Certification
10 1 (0.43%) AWS Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (11.64%) SLA
2 15 (6.47%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 8 (3.45%) Cyber Essentials
3 8 (3.45%) GDPR
4 1 (0.43%) NIST
System Software
1 112 (48.28%) Active Directory
2 48 (20.69%) Hyper-V
3 24 (10.34%) VMware Infrastructure
4 7 (3.02%) vSphere
5 4 (1.72%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (1.29%) Firmware
6 3 (1.29%) Microsoft Virtual Server
6 3 (1.29%) Virtual Servers
7 1 (0.43%) VMware NSX
7 1 (0.43%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 55 (23.71%) Microsoft Intune
2 19 (8.19%) Jamf Pro
3 9 (3.88%) Backup Exec
4 7 (3.02%) WSUS
5 5 (2.16%) FortiGate
6 2 (0.86%) Autotask
6 2 (0.86%) Single Sign-On
6 2 (0.86%) Terraform
7 1 (0.43%) Ansible
7 1 (0.43%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 139 (59.91%) Microsoft
2 54 (23.28%) VMware
3 27 (11.64%) Oracle
4 17 (7.33%) Apple
5 15 (6.47%) Veeam
6 14 (6.03%) CrowdStrike
7 12 (5.17%) Cisco
8 11 (4.74%) Logitech
8 11 (4.74%) Yealink
9 8 (3.45%) HP
10 7 (3.02%) McAfee
10 7 (3.02%) Samsung
11 6 (2.59%) ConnectWise
11 6 (2.59%) SolarWinds
12 5 (2.16%) Google
12 5 (2.16%) Meraki
13 4 (1.72%) Dell
14 3 (1.29%) Draytek
14 3 (1.29%) Fortinet
14 3 (1.29%) IFS