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 13 October 2026.

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

6 months to
13 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 579 388 556
Rank change year-on-year -191 +168 -68
Permanent jobs requiring a 3rd Line Support 184 252 167
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.18% 0.59% 0.26%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.19% 0.65% 0.27%
Number of salaries quoted 152 245 137
10th Percentile £32,250 £34,400 £31,800
25th Percentile £40,000 £36,250 £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 £51,750
90th Percentile £58,750 £52,500 £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 96,394 38,710 60,932
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.58% 90.53% 95.23%
Number of salaries quoted 67,344 23,101 34,738
10th Percentile £30,250 £28,000 £31,250
25th Percentile £41,250 £35,750 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £59,522 £55,000 £56,500
Median % change year-on-year +8.22% -2.65% -5.83%
75th Percentile £77,500 £75,000 £75,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £95,000 £95,000
UK median annual salary £58,750 £53,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year +9.81% -2.73% -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 13 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 13 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
North of England -45 41 £37,500 -7.41% 8
South East -98 40 £47,500 +14.46% 9
South West -57 33 £47,500 -2.06% 6
Midlands -63 32 £42,500 +3.03% 15
London -71 23 £55,000 +29.41% 8
North West -23 21 £35,000 -12.50% 6
West Midlands -42 17 £45,000 +2.27% 9
East Midlands -41 15 £40,000 +3.90% 6
East of England -54 15 £37,000 -21.28% 1
North East - 13 - - 2
Yorkshire -38 7 £47,500 -
3rd Line Support
UK

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

For the 6 months to 13 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.

1 115 (62.50%) Microsoft
2 84 (45.65%) Active Directory
2 84 (45.65%) Microsoft 365
3 82 (44.57%) Windows
4 79 (42.93%) Azure
5 69 (37.50%) Entra ID
6 65 (35.33%) Firewall
7 60 (32.61%) Microsoft Exchange
8 54 (29.35%) Windows Server
9 51 (27.72%) SharePoint
10 46 (25.00%) Microsoft Intune
11 45 (24.46%) DNS
11 45 (24.46%) Mentoring
12 44 (23.91%) Problem-Solving
13 41 (22.28%) VMware
13 41 (22.28%) VMware Infrastructure
14 40 (21.74%) Infrastructure Engineering
15 39 (21.20%) DHCP
16 37 (20.11%) VLAN
16 37 (20.11%) VPN
17 33 (17.93%) Hyper-V
18 30 (16.30%) Degree
19 28 (15.22%) TCP/IP
19 28 (15.22%) Wireless
20 26 (14.13%) Cisco
20 26 (14.13%) SaaS
21 25 (13.59%) Cybersecurity
22 24 (13.04%) Root Cause Analysis
22 24 (13.04%) Technical Leadership
23 23 (12.50%) SQL

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 60 (32.61%) Microsoft Exchange
2 51 (27.72%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.54%) Confluence
Business Applications
1 5 (2.72%) Fidessa
2 3 (1.63%) Remedy ITSM
3 2 (1.09%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 84 (45.65%) Microsoft 365
2 79 (42.93%) Azure
3 69 (37.50%) Entra ID
4 26 (14.13%) SaaS
5 9 (4.89%) Mimecast
6 7 (3.80%) Google Workspace
7 5 (2.72%) IaaS
8 4 (2.17%) AWS
8 4 (2.17%) Power Automate
9 3 (1.63%) Power Platform
10 2 (1.09%) Azure Stack
10 2 (1.09%) OneDrive
11 1 (0.54%) Dynamics 365
Communications & Networking
1 65 (35.33%) Firewall
2 45 (24.46%) DNS
3 39 (21.20%) DHCP
4 37 (20.11%) VLAN
4 37 (20.11%) VPN
5 28 (15.22%) TCP/IP
5 28 (15.22%) Wireless
6 15 (8.15%) LAN
6 15 (8.15%) WAN
7 9 (4.89%) Wi-Fi
8 8 (4.35%) Network Security
8 8 (4.35%) SD-WAN
9 6 (3.26%) VoIP
10 5 (2.72%) FIX Connectivity
10 5 (2.72%) SSL
11 4 (2.17%) DMZ
11 4 (2.17%) Wireshark
12 3 (1.63%) ICMP
12 3 (1.63%) Remote Desktop
12 3 (1.63%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 19 (10.33%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 13 (7.07%) JIRA
2 1 (0.54%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 82 (44.57%) Social Skills
2 14 (7.61%) Analytical Skills
2 14 (7.61%) Legal
3 10 (5.43%) Documentation Skills
4 8 (4.35%) Finance
5 5 (2.72%) Banking
5 5 (2.72%) Manufacturing
6 3 (1.63%) Telecoms
7 2 (1.09%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 1 (0.54%) Law
8 1 (0.54%) Presentation Skills
8 1 (0.54%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (5.43%) .NET
2 5 (2.72%) FIX Protocol
3 3 (1.63%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 19 (10.33%) Onboarding
2 15 (8.15%) Driving Licence
3 10 (5.43%) Self-Motivation
4 8 (4.35%) Video Conferencing
5 7 (3.80%) Enterprise Software
6 5 (2.72%) Eurex
7 4 (2.17%) Cyber Threat
8 3 (1.63%) Management Information System
9 1 (0.54%) Clustering
9 1 (0.54%) CMDB
9 1 (0.54%) Hybrid Cloud
9 1 (0.54%) iPhone
9 1 (0.54%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 82 (44.57%) Windows
2 54 (29.35%) Windows Server
3 15 (8.15%) Linux
4 10 (5.43%) Windows Server 2012
4 10 (5.43%) Windows Server 2016
5 8 (4.35%) Windows Server 2019
6 7 (3.80%) macOS
7 5 (2.72%) CentOS
7 5 (2.72%) Rocky
7 5 (2.72%) Solaris
7 5 (2.72%) Ubuntu
7 5 (2.72%) Unix
8 2 (1.09%) Android
8 2 (1.09%) Apple iOS
8 2 (1.09%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.54%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 45 (24.46%) Mentoring
2 44 (23.91%) Problem-Solving
3 40 (21.74%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 25 (13.59%) Cybersecurity
5 24 (13.04%) Root Cause Analysis
5 24 (13.04%) Technical Leadership
6 21 (11.41%) Disaster Recovery
7 18 (9.78%) Project Delivery
8 17 (9.24%) Continuous Improvement
9 16 (8.70%) Remote Monitoring and Management
10 15 (8.15%) ITIL
11 14 (7.61%) Business Continuity
11 14 (7.61%) Change Management
11 14 (7.61%) Customer Service
11 14 (7.61%) ITSM
12 13 (7.07%) Incident Management
13 11 (5.98%) Identity Management
13 11 (5.98%) Proactive Maintenance
13 11 (5.98%) Server Management
14 10 (5.43%) Cloud Security
Programming Languages
1 23 (12.50%) SQL
2 18 (9.78%) PowerShell
3 10 (5.43%) C#
4 8 (4.35%) R
5 7 (3.80%) Bash
5 7 (3.80%) Python
5 7 (3.80%) T-SQL
6 5 (2.72%) JavaScript
6 5 (2.72%) Perl
6 5 (2.72%) Ruby
7 4 (2.17%) COBOL
7 4 (2.17%) Java
Qualifications
1 30 (16.30%) Degree
2 16 (8.70%) CCNA
2 16 (8.70%) Cisco Certification
2 16 (8.70%) Microsoft Certification
3 13 (7.07%) Azure Certification
4 4 (2.17%) AWS Certification
4 4 (2.17%) MCSA
4 4 (2.17%) Microsoft Certified Professional
5 3 (1.63%) CCNP
5 3 (1.63%) DBS Check
6 1 (0.54%) SC Cleared
6 1 (0.54%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (7.61%) Cyber Essentials
2 11 (5.98%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 6 (3.26%) SLA
4 3 (1.63%) PCI DSS
5 1 (0.54%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
System Software
1 84 (45.65%) Active Directory
2 41 (22.28%) VMware Infrastructure
3 33 (17.93%) Hyper-V
4 9 (4.89%) Virtual Machines
5 3 (1.63%) Firmware
6 1 (0.54%) BitLocker
6 1 (0.54%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 46 (25.00%) Microsoft Intune
2 16 (8.70%) Autotask
3 7 (3.80%) Jamf Pro
4 4 (2.17%) Iperf
5 1 (0.54%) Nessus
5 1 (0.54%) SCCM
5 1 (0.54%) WSUS
Vendors
1 115 (62.50%) Microsoft
2 41 (22.28%) VMware
3 26 (14.13%) Cisco
4 17 (9.24%) Fortinet
5 15 (8.15%) SonicWALL
6 12 (6.52%) Datto
6 12 (6.52%) WatchGuard
7 11 (5.98%) Veeam
8 10 (5.43%) Meraki
8 10 (5.43%) Sophos
9 9 (4.89%) Palo Alto
10 8 (4.35%) CrowdStrike
11 7 (3.80%) Aruba
11 7 (3.80%) Citrix
11 7 (3.80%) Google
11 7 (3.80%) HP
11 7 (3.80%) Ubiquiti
12 5 (2.72%) Juniper
12 5 (2.72%) Oracle
12 5 (2.72%) Red Hat