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 22 January 2026.

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

6 months to
22 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 405 552 418
Rank change year-on-year +147 -134 +278
Permanent jobs requiring a 3rd Line Support 228 130 315
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.42% 0.27% 0.57%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.46% 0.29% 0.60%
Number of salaries quoted 211 109 295
10th Percentile £34,000 £35,500 £31,250
25th Percentile £36,250 £36,250 £34,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £42,500 £40,000
Median % change year-on-year - +6.25% -5.88%
75th Percentile £50,000 £55,000 £52,000
90th Percentile £59,500 £76,250 £65,000
UK median annual salary £42,500 £44,914 £41,000
% change year-on-year -5.37% +9.55% -3.53%

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 49,569 44,148 52,848
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.99% 92.27% 95.08%
Number of salaries quoted 31,460 23,079 41,799
10th Percentile £28,750 £33,500 £30,000
25th Percentile £37,500 £45,000 £40,988
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £56,525
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +6.15% -9.56%
75th Percentile £75,000 £80,000 £76,250
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 22 January 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 22 January 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 +86 100 £41,500 -7.78% 24
North of England +33 38 £42,500 +18.06% 3
London +50 34 £42,500 -10.53% 5
Yorkshire +17 33 £45,000 +24.14% 3
East of England +34 28 £47,000 +17.50% 2
Midlands +27 25 £44,000 -12.00% 2
East Midlands +12 20 £41,250 -36.54% 1
West Midlands +23 5 £44,000 -12.00% 1
North West +15 5 £40,500 +1.25%
South West +11 4 £42,500 -
3rd Line Support
UK

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

For the 6 months to 22 January 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 (60.96%) Microsoft
2 133 (58.33%) Windows
3 107 (46.93%) Active Directory
4 105 (46.05%) Microsoft 365
5 102 (44.74%) Azure
6 82 (35.96%) Windows Server
7 70 (30.70%) Microsoft Exchange
8 58 (25.44%) Hyper-V
9 57 (25.00%) Customer Service
10 56 (24.56%) DNS
10 56 (24.56%) VMware
11 52 (22.81%) DHCP
11 52 (22.81%) Firewall
11 52 (22.81%) PowerShell
12 50 (21.93%) Microsoft Intune
13 48 (21.05%) Problem-Solving
14 43 (18.86%) Entra ID
15 42 (18.42%) Security Cleared
16 38 (16.67%) Mentoring
16 38 (16.67%) SC Cleared
17 36 (15.79%) VPN
18 32 (14.04%) SLA
19 29 (12.72%) Oracle
19 29 (12.72%) VLAN
20 27 (11.84%) Incident Management
21 26 (11.40%) TCP/IP
22 25 (10.96%) DV Cleared
22 25 (10.96%) ITIL
22 25 (10.96%) Unix
23 24 (10.53%) Solaris

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 70 (30.70%) Microsoft Exchange
2 23 (10.09%) SharePoint
3 22 (9.65%) Exchange Server 2003
4 4 (1.75%) IIS
5 2 (0.88%) Exchange Server 2013
6 1 (0.44%) Confluence
Applications
1 6 (2.63%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 2 (0.88%) Oracle EBS
2 1 (0.44%) Fidessa
2 1 (0.44%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 105 (46.05%) Microsoft 365
2 102 (44.74%) Azure
3 43 (18.86%) Entra ID
4 9 (3.95%) IaaS
5 8 (3.51%) Power Platform
6 7 (3.07%) AWS
7 6 (2.63%) Mimecast
8 5 (2.19%) SaaS
9 4 (1.75%) PaaS
10 3 (1.32%) Google Workspace
11 2 (0.88%) PowerApps
11 2 (0.88%) Serverless
12 1 (0.44%) Amazon S3
12 1 (0.44%) Cloud Computing
12 1 (0.44%) Dynamics 365
12 1 (0.44%) GCP
12 1 (0.44%) n8n
12 1 (0.44%) Power Automate
12 1 (0.44%) Zapier
Communications & Networking
1 56 (24.56%) DNS
2 52 (22.81%) DHCP
2 52 (22.81%) Firewall
3 36 (15.79%) VPN
4 29 (12.72%) VLAN
5 26 (11.40%) TCP/IP
6 20 (8.77%) LAN
6 20 (8.77%) WAN
7 17 (7.46%) Wireless
8 15 (6.58%) Wi-Fi
9 11 (4.82%) SAN
10 7 (3.07%) VoIP
11 6 (2.63%) SMTP
12 5 (2.19%) EIGRP
12 5 (2.19%) IMAP
12 5 (2.19%) Network Security
12 5 (2.19%) OSPF
12 5 (2.19%) POP3
12 5 (2.19%) SSL
12 5 (2.19%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (10.09%) Oracle Database
1 23 (10.09%) Oracle Database 10g
2 11 (4.82%) SQL Server
3 5 (2.19%) Amazon RDS
3 5 (2.19%) Power BI
4 3 (1.32%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 2 (0.88%) JIRA
General
1 74 (32.46%) Social Skills
2 12 (5.26%) Law
2 12 (5.26%) Manufacturing
3 11 (4.82%) Automotive
4 10 (4.39%) Marketing
5 8 (3.51%) Analytical Skills
6 6 (2.63%) Finance
6 6 (2.63%) Telecoms
7 5 (2.19%) Public Sector
8 4 (1.75%) Electronics
8 4 (1.75%) Organisational Skills
8 4 (1.75%) Retail
9 3 (1.32%) Advertising
9 3 (1.32%) Documentation Skills
10 2 (0.88%) Banking
10 2 (0.88%) Billing
10 2 (0.88%) Legal
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (0.44%) FIX Protocol
1 1 (0.44%) LDAP
Miscellaneous
1 31 (13.60%) Onboarding
2 16 (7.02%) Self-Motivation
3 9 (3.95%) Driving Licence
4 6 (2.63%) Management Information System
5 5 (2.19%) Replication
6 4 (1.75%) PKI
7 3 (1.32%) Clustering
7 3 (1.32%) IoT
7 3 (1.32%) Web Conferencing
8 2 (0.88%) CMDB
8 2 (0.88%) Cyber Threat
8 2 (0.88%) Data Centre
8 2 (0.88%) Hybrid Cloud
9 1 (0.44%) Blockchain
9 1 (0.44%) BYOD
9 1 (0.44%) Eurex
9 1 (0.44%) FMCG
9 1 (0.44%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 133 (58.33%) Windows
2 82 (35.96%) Windows Server
3 25 (10.96%) Unix
4 24 (10.53%) Solaris
5 23 (10.09%) HPUX
6 22 (9.65%) Windows Server 2003
7 21 (9.21%) Windows 7
7 21 (9.21%) Windows Server 2008
8 17 (7.46%) Apple iOS
9 16 (7.02%) Android
10 11 (4.82%) Linux
10 11 (4.82%) Mac OS
11 10 (4.39%) Windows 10
12 6 (2.63%) Windows Server 2016
13 4 (1.75%) Windows Server 2019
14 2 (0.88%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
14 2 (0.88%) Windows Server 2012
15 1 (0.44%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 57 (25.00%) Customer Service
2 48 (21.05%) Problem-Solving
3 38 (16.67%) Mentoring
4 27 (11.84%) Incident Management
5 25 (10.96%) ITIL
6 19 (8.33%) Cybersecurity
7 18 (7.89%) Mobile Device Management
8 17 (7.46%) Disaster Recovery
9 16 (7.02%) Coaching
10 15 (6.58%) Network Monitoring
11 14 (6.14%) Logistics
12 13 (5.70%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 12 (5.26%) Zero Trust
14 11 (4.82%) Service Desk Management
15 10 (4.39%) Network Management
15 10 (4.39%) Remote Monitoring and Management
15 10 (4.39%) Stakeholder Management
16 9 (3.95%) Business Intelligence
16 9 (3.95%) Infrastructure Management
17 8 (3.51%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 52 (22.81%) PowerShell
2 22 (9.65%) SQL
3 21 (9.21%) Perl
4 3 (1.32%) C
4 3 (1.32%) Java
4 3 (1.32%) PHP
5 1 (0.44%) Bash
5 1 (0.44%) Python
5 1 (0.44%) VB
Qualifications
1 42 (18.42%) Security Cleared
2 38 (16.67%) SC Cleared
3 25 (10.96%) DV Cleared
4 16 (7.02%) Microsoft Certification
5 15 (6.58%) DBS Check
6 14 (6.14%) Degree
7 10 (4.39%) CCNA
7 10 (4.39%) Cisco Certification
8 6 (2.63%) Azure Certification
9 5 (2.19%) CCNP
9 5 (2.19%) HND
9 5 (2.19%) MCP
9 5 (2.19%) MCTS
10 3 (1.32%) ACMT
10 3 (1.32%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 1 (0.44%) AWS Certification
11 1 (0.44%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 32 (14.04%) SLA
2 6 (2.63%) Cyber Essentials
3 3 (1.32%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 2 (0.88%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 1 (0.44%) GDPR
5 1 (0.44%) NIST
System Software
1 107 (46.93%) Active Directory
2 58 (25.44%) Hyper-V
3 24 (10.53%) VMware Infrastructure
4 5 (2.19%) Virtual Machines
5 3 (1.32%) Docker
5 3 (1.32%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (0.88%) Firmware
6 2 (0.88%) Microsoft Virtual Server
6 2 (0.88%) Virtual Servers
6 2 (0.88%) vSphere
7 1 (0.44%) BitLocker
7 1 (0.44%) VMware NSX
7 1 (0.44%) VMware Workstation
7 1 (0.44%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 50 (21.93%) Microsoft Intune
2 14 (6.14%) Jamf Pro
3 9 (3.95%) SCCM
4 8 (3.51%) Autotask
5 5 (2.19%) FortiGate
5 5 (2.19%) vCenter Server
6 3 (1.32%) Kubernetes
6 3 (1.32%) WSUS
7 2 (0.88%) Backup Exec
8 1 (0.44%) Avamar
8 1 (0.44%) SCOM
Vendors
1 139 (60.96%) Microsoft
2 56 (24.56%) VMware
3 29 (12.72%) Oracle
4 18 (7.89%) Cisco
5 17 (7.46%) Apple
6 12 (5.26%) Veeam
7 8 (3.51%) Sophos
8 7 (3.07%) HP
8 7 (3.07%) Samsung
9 6 (2.63%) Meraki
9 6 (2.63%) SolarWinds
10 4 (1.75%) Barracuda Networks
10 4 (1.75%) Dell
10 4 (1.75%) SAP
10 4 (1.75%) Ubiquiti
11 3 (1.32%) ConnectWise
11 3 (1.32%) Datto
11 3 (1.32%) Google
11 3 (1.32%) Logitech
11 3 (1.32%) Yealink