3rd Line Support Job Trends in England

Third Line Support
UK > England

The median Third Line Support salary in England is £46,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 4 October 2026.

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

6 months to
4 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 591 396 565
Rank change year-on-year -195 +169 -62
Permanent jobs requiring a 3rd Line Support 177 256 185
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.17% 0.59% 0.28%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.18% 0.65% 0.29%
Number of salaries quoted 146 250 156
10th Percentile £32,250 £34,900 £32,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £36,375 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £46,000 £42,500 £40,000
Median % change year-on-year +8.24% +6.25% -2.44%
75th Percentile £53,750 £48,750 £50,313
90th Percentile £58,750 £57,500 £55,000
UK median annual salary £45,000 £42,500 £40,000
% change year-on-year +5.88% +6.25% -2.44%

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 96,623 39,251 63,188
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.87% 90.47% 95.25%
Number of salaries quoted 67,718 23,170 36,636
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,250 £31,000
25th Percentile £40,875 £36,250 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £59,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.27% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £77,500 £75,000 £75,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £95,000 £95,000
UK median annual salary £58,396 £54,987 £55,000
% change year-on-year +6.20% -0.02% -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 4 October 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 4 October 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 -101 39 £47,500 +14.46% 12
North of England -45 38 £35,000 -13.58% 11
South West -57 31 £47,500 -2.06% 6
Midlands -59 30 £41,750 +8.44% 13
London -87 24 £55,000 +12.82% 7
North West -13 18 £31,500 -21.25% 6
West Midlands -43 15 £45,000 +2.27% 6
East of England -52 15 £37,000 -21.28% 2
East Midlands -56 15 £40,000 +3.90% 7
North East - 13 - - 2
Yorkshire -46 7 £47,500 - 3
3rd Line Support
UK

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

For the 6 months to 4 October 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.

1 109 (61.58%) Microsoft
2 79 (44.63%) Microsoft 365
3 77 (43.50%) Active Directory
4 76 (42.94%) Windows
5 73 (41.24%) Azure
6 64 (36.16%) Entra ID
7 62 (35.03%) Firewall
8 56 (31.64%) Microsoft Exchange
9 50 (28.25%) SharePoint
10 48 (27.12%) Windows Server
11 44 (24.86%) Mentoring
12 41 (23.16%) Problem-Solving
13 40 (22.60%) Microsoft Intune
14 39 (22.03%) DNS
15 38 (21.47%) VMware
15 38 (21.47%) VMware Infrastructure
16 36 (20.34%) Infrastructure Engineering
17 35 (19.77%) DHCP
17 35 (19.77%) VLAN
18 31 (17.51%) VPN
19 30 (16.95%) Hyper-V
20 28 (15.82%) Wireless
21 27 (15.25%) Cisco
21 27 (15.25%) Degree
21 27 (15.25%) SaaS
22 25 (14.12%) TCP/IP
23 24 (13.56%) Cybersecurity
24 23 (12.99%) SQL
24 23 (12.99%) Technical Leadership
25 21 (11.86%) 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 56 (31.64%) Microsoft Exchange
2 50 (28.25%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.56%) Confluence
Business Applications
1 5 (2.82%) Fidessa
2 3 (1.69%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.56%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 79 (44.63%) Microsoft 365
2 73 (41.24%) Azure
3 64 (36.16%) Entra ID
4 27 (15.25%) SaaS
5 9 (5.08%) Mimecast
6 8 (4.52%) Google Workspace
7 4 (2.26%) AWS
7 4 (2.26%) Power Automate
8 3 (1.69%) Power Platform
9 2 (1.13%) Azure Stack
9 2 (1.13%) IaaS
9 2 (1.13%) OneDrive
10 1 (0.56%) Dynamics 365
Communications & Networking
1 62 (35.03%) Firewall
2 39 (22.03%) DNS
3 35 (19.77%) DHCP
3 35 (19.77%) VLAN
4 31 (17.51%) VPN
5 28 (15.82%) Wireless
6 25 (14.12%) TCP/IP
7 15 (8.47%) LAN
7 15 (8.47%) WAN
8 9 (5.08%) Wi-Fi
9 8 (4.52%) Network Security
9 8 (4.52%) SD-WAN
10 6 (3.39%) VoIP
11 5 (2.82%) FIX Connectivity
12 4 (2.26%) DMZ
12 4 (2.26%) Wireshark
13 3 (1.69%) ICMP
13 3 (1.69%) Remote Desktop
13 3 (1.69%) SAN
14 2 (1.13%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 17 (9.60%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 13 (7.34%) JIRA
2 1 (0.56%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 76 (42.94%) Social Skills
2 13 (7.34%) Legal
3 12 (6.78%) Analytical Skills
4 10 (5.65%) Documentation Skills
5 8 (4.52%) Finance
6 5 (2.82%) Banking
6 5 (2.82%) Manufacturing
7 3 (1.69%) Telecoms
8 2 (1.13%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 1 (0.56%) Law
9 1 (0.56%) Presentation Skills
9 1 (0.56%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (5.65%) .NET
2 5 (2.82%) FIX Protocol
3 3 (1.69%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 18 (10.17%) Onboarding
2 12 (6.78%) Driving Licence
3 10 (5.65%) Self-Motivation
4 9 (5.08%) Video Conferencing
5 7 (3.95%) Enterprise Software
6 5 (2.82%) Eurex
7 4 (2.26%) Cyber Threat
8 1 (0.56%) Clustering
8 1 (0.56%) CMDB
8 1 (0.56%) Hybrid Cloud
8 1 (0.56%) iPhone
8 1 (0.56%) Management Information System
8 1 (0.56%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 76 (42.94%) Windows
2 48 (27.12%) Windows Server
3 16 (9.04%) Linux
4 9 (5.08%) Windows Server 2012
4 9 (5.08%) Windows Server 2016
5 8 (4.52%) Mac OS
5 8 (4.52%) Windows Server 2019
6 5 (2.82%) CentOS
6 5 (2.82%) Rocky
6 5 (2.82%) Solaris
6 5 (2.82%) Ubuntu
6 5 (2.82%) Unix
7 2 (1.13%) Android
7 2 (1.13%) Apple iOS
7 2 (1.13%) Windows 10
8 1 (0.56%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 44 (24.86%) Mentoring
2 41 (23.16%) Problem-Solving
3 36 (20.34%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 24 (13.56%) Cybersecurity
5 23 (12.99%) Technical Leadership
6 21 (11.86%) Disaster Recovery
7 19 (10.73%) Project Delivery
7 19 (10.73%) Root Cause Analysis
8 16 (9.04%) Continuous Improvement
9 15 (8.47%) ITIL
10 14 (7.91%) Business Continuity
10 14 (7.91%) Change Management
10 14 (7.91%) Customer Service
10 14 (7.91%) ITSM
10 14 (7.91%) Remote Monitoring and Management
11 13 (7.34%) Incident Management
12 12 (6.78%) Server Management
13 11 (6.21%) Identity Management
13 11 (6.21%) Proactive Maintenance
14 9 (5.08%) Cloud Security
Programming Languages
1 23 (12.99%) SQL
2 15 (8.47%) PowerShell
3 10 (5.65%) C#
4 8 (4.52%) R
5 7 (3.95%) Bash
5 7 (3.95%) Python
5 7 (3.95%) T-SQL
6 5 (2.82%) JavaScript
6 5 (2.82%) Perl
6 5 (2.82%) Ruby
7 4 (2.26%) COBOL
7 4 (2.26%) Java
Qualifications
1 27 (15.25%) Degree
2 16 (9.04%) CCNA
2 16 (9.04%) Cisco Certification
2 16 (9.04%) Microsoft Certification
3 13 (7.34%) Azure Certification
4 4 (2.26%) AWS Certification
4 4 (2.26%) MCSA
4 4 (2.26%) Microsoft Certified Professional
5 3 (1.69%) CCNP
6 1 (0.56%) DBS Check
6 1 (0.56%) SC Cleared
6 1 (0.56%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (7.91%) Cyber Essentials
2 11 (6.21%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 4 (2.26%) SLA
4 3 (1.69%) PCI DSS
5 1 (0.56%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
System Software
1 77 (43.50%) Active Directory
2 38 (21.47%) VMware Infrastructure
3 30 (16.95%) Hyper-V
4 9 (5.08%) Virtual Machines
5 3 (1.69%) Firmware
6 1 (0.56%) BitLocker
6 1 (0.56%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 40 (22.60%) Microsoft Intune
2 14 (7.91%) Autotask
3 8 (4.52%) Jamf Pro
4 4 (2.26%) Iperf
5 1 (0.56%) Nessus
5 1 (0.56%) SCCM
5 1 (0.56%) WSUS
Vendors
1 109 (61.58%) Microsoft
2 38 (21.47%) VMware
3 27 (15.25%) Cisco
4 17 (9.60%) Fortinet
5 16 (9.04%) SonicWALL
6 11 (6.21%) Meraki
7 10 (5.65%) Datto
7 10 (5.65%) Sophos
7 10 (5.65%) Veeam
8 9 (5.08%) Palo Alto
8 9 (5.08%) WatchGuard
9 8 (4.52%) Aruba
9 8 (4.52%) CrowdStrike
9 8 (4.52%) Google
9 8 (4.52%) HP
9 8 (4.52%) Ubiquiti
10 5 (2.82%) Citrix
10 5 (2.82%) Juniper
10 5 (2.82%) Oracle
10 5 (2.82%) Red Hat