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 25 December 2025.

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

6 months to
25 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 371 566 403
Rank change year-on-year +195 -163 +302
Permanent jobs requiring a 3rd Line Support 250 129 276
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.48% 0.26% 0.62%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.53% 0.27% 0.65%
Number of salaries quoted 234 108 252
10th Percentile £34,000 £32,750 £31,750
25th Percentile £36,250 £36,250 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £42,500 £42,500
Median % change year-on-year - - -1.16%
75th Percentile £50,000 £52,875 £53,750
90th Percentile £58,750 £67,250 £65,000
UK median annual salary £42,500 £42,500 £42,500

All Permanent IT Job Vacancies
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 47,494 46,967 42,139
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.60% 93.27% 95.04%
Number of salaries quoted 29,848 25,203 32,963
10th Percentile £28,500 £33,000 £31,250
25th Percentile £36,250 £45,000 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -
75th Percentile £75,000 £78,750 £80,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £97,500 £98,750
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -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 25 December 2025.

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 25 December 2025. 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 +96 107 £41,500 -2.35% 11
London +77 41 £42,500 -10.53% 7
North of England +27 31 £42,500 +18.06% 15
East of England +48 30 £47,000 +17.50% 4
Midlands +41 28 £44,000 -1.86% 5
Yorkshire +15 24 £42,500 +21.43% 11
East Midlands +9 19 £45,000 +12.50% 2
South West +20 14 £48,500 +14.12% 4
West Midlands +29 9 £44,000 -2.04% 3
North West +16 7 £40,500 +1.25% 4
3rd Line Support
UK

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

For the 6 months to 25 December 2025, 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.

1 164 (65.60%) Windows
2 162 (64.80%) Microsoft
3 125 (50.00%) Microsoft 365
4 123 (49.20%) Azure
5 119 (47.60%) Active Directory
6 110 (44.00%) Windows Server
7 77 (30.80%) Microsoft Exchange
8 72 (28.80%) Firewall
9 71 (28.40%) Hyper-V
10 70 (28.00%) VMware
11 69 (27.60%) PowerShell
12 67 (26.80%) DNS
13 65 (26.00%) DHCP
14 63 (25.20%) Microsoft Intune
15 54 (21.60%) Customer Service
16 53 (21.20%) Problem-Solving
17 49 (19.60%) Entra ID
18 44 (17.60%) Security Cleared
19 43 (17.20%) Mentoring
20 41 (16.40%) SC Cleared
21 39 (15.60%) SLA
22 37 (14.80%) VMware Infrastructure
23 36 (14.40%) VPN
24 34 (13.60%) VLAN
25 31 (12.40%) LAN
25 31 (12.40%) WAN
26 30 (12.00%) Incident Management
26 30 (12.00%) ITIL
26 30 (12.00%) Oracle
26 30 (12.00%) TCP/IP

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 77 (30.80%) Microsoft Exchange
2 24 (9.60%) SharePoint
3 22 (8.80%) Exchange Server 2003
4 13 (5.20%) IIS
5 5 (2.00%) Exchange Server 2013
6 1 (0.40%) Confluence
Applications
1 11 (4.40%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (0.40%) Fidessa
1 1 (0.40%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 125 (50.00%) Microsoft 365
2 123 (49.20%) Azure
3 49 (19.60%) Entra ID
4 17 (6.80%) AWS
5 15 (6.00%) IaaS
6 12 (4.80%) Power Platform
6 12 (4.80%) SaaS
7 10 (4.00%) PaaS
8 6 (2.40%) PowerApps
9 5 (2.00%) Mimecast
9 5 (2.00%) Power Automate
9 5 (2.00%) Serverless
10 3 (1.20%) Google Workspace
11 2 (0.80%) Azure Sentinel
12 1 (0.40%) Azure App Service
12 1 (0.40%) Dynamics 365
12 1 (0.40%) GCP
12 1 (0.40%) n8n
12 1 (0.40%) Nutanix
12 1 (0.40%) Zapier
Communications & Networking
1 72 (28.80%) Firewall
2 67 (26.80%) DNS
3 65 (26.00%) DHCP
4 36 (14.40%) VPN
5 34 (13.60%) VLAN
6 31 (12.40%) LAN
6 31 (12.40%) WAN
7 30 (12.00%) TCP/IP
8 19 (7.60%) Wireless
9 18 (7.20%) Wi-Fi
10 16 (6.40%) VoIP
11 15 (6.00%) Internet
12 13 (5.20%) SAN
13 9 (3.60%) Network Security
14 8 (3.20%) Kerberos
14 8 (3.20%) Wireshark
15 6 (2.40%) Cisco IOS
15 6 (2.40%) SMTP
15 6 (2.40%) Unified Communications
16 5 (2.00%) IMAP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (9.20%) Oracle Database
1 23 (9.20%) Oracle Database 10g
2 11 (4.40%) SQL Server
3 6 (2.40%) Amazon RDS
4 5 (2.00%) Power BI
5 3 (1.20%) PostgreSQL
6 1 (0.40%) Azure SQL Database
Development Applications
1 2 (0.80%) JIRA
General
1 96 (38.40%) Social Skills
2 19 (7.60%) Law
3 14 (5.60%) Manufacturing
4 12 (4.80%) Marketing
5 11 (4.40%) Automotive
6 10 (4.00%) Telecoms
7 9 (3.60%) Analytical Skills
8 7 (2.80%) Finance
9 6 (2.40%) Electronics
9 6 (2.40%) Public Sector
10 5 (2.00%) Billing
10 5 (2.00%) Documentation Skills
11 4 (1.60%) Retail
12 3 (1.20%) Advertising
13 2 (0.80%) Organisational Skills
14 1 (0.40%) Banking
14 1 (0.40%) Legal
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (3.20%) LDAP
2 3 (1.20%) FreeSWITCH
2 3 (1.20%) Node.js
3 1 (0.40%) FIX Protocol
3 1 (0.40%) SAML
3 1 (0.40%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 31 (12.40%) Onboarding
2 16 (6.40%) Self-Motivation
3 10 (4.00%) PKI
4 8 (3.20%) Driving Licence
4 8 (3.20%) Management Information System
5 7 (2.80%) Replication
6 6 (2.40%) Clustering
6 6 (2.40%) Hybrid Cloud
7 5 (2.00%) Data Centre
8 3 (1.20%) Web Conferencing
9 2 (0.80%) IoT
10 1 (0.40%) Blockchain
10 1 (0.40%) BYOD
10 1 (0.40%) Cyber Threat
10 1 (0.40%) Enterprise Storage
10 1 (0.40%) Eurex
10 1 (0.40%) FMCG
10 1 (0.40%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 164 (65.60%) Windows
2 110 (44.00%) Windows Server
3 25 (10.00%) Unix
4 24 (9.60%) Solaris
5 23 (9.20%) HPUX
6 22 (8.80%) Windows Server 2003
7 21 (8.40%) Windows 10
7 21 (8.40%) Windows 7
7 21 (8.40%) Windows Server 2008
8 18 (7.20%) Apple iOS
9 17 (6.80%) Android
10 15 (6.00%) Linux
11 13 (5.20%) Mac OS
11 13 (5.20%) Windows Server 2016
11 13 (5.20%) Windows Server 2019
12 2 (0.80%) Windows Server 2012
13 1 (0.40%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 54 (21.60%) Customer Service
2 53 (21.20%) Problem-Solving
3 43 (17.20%) Mentoring
4 30 (12.00%) Incident Management
4 30 (12.00%) ITIL
5 21 (8.40%) Cybersecurity
6 18 (7.20%) Migration
6 18 (7.20%) Mobile Device Management
7 17 (6.80%) Coaching
7 17 (6.80%) Continuous Improvement
8 15 (6.00%) Network Monitoring
9 14 (5.60%) Data Loss Prevention
9 14 (5.60%) Disaster Recovery
9 14 (5.60%) Project Delivery
10 13 (5.20%) Business Continuity
10 13 (5.20%) Logistics
10 13 (5.20%) Network Management
11 12 (4.80%) Business Intelligence
11 12 (4.80%) Zero Trust
12 11 (4.40%) Remote Monitoring and Management
Programming Languages
1 69 (27.60%) PowerShell
2 21 (8.40%) Perl
3 18 (7.20%) SQL
4 8 (3.20%) VB
5 3 (1.20%) C
5 3 (1.20%) Java
5 3 (1.20%) PHP
6 1 (0.40%) Bash
6 1 (0.40%) Python
Qualifications
1 44 (17.60%) Security Cleared
2 41 (16.40%) SC Cleared
3 24 (9.60%) DV Cleared
4 17 (6.80%) Microsoft Certification
5 15 (6.00%) Degree
6 13 (5.20%) Cisco Certification
6 13 (5.20%) DBS Check
7 10 (4.00%) CCNA
8 9 (3.60%) Azure Certification
9 8 (3.20%) CCNP
10 5 (2.00%) ACMT
10 5 (2.00%) HND
10 5 (2.00%) MCP
10 5 (2.00%) MCTS
10 5 (2.00%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 3 (1.20%) Computer Science Degree
11 3 (1.20%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
12 2 (0.80%) ITIL Certification
13 1 (0.40%) AWS Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 39 (15.60%) SLA
2 12 (4.80%) Cyber Essentials
3 6 (2.40%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 5 (2.00%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 1 (0.40%) NIST
System Software
1 119 (47.60%) Active Directory
2 71 (28.40%) Hyper-V
3 37 (14.80%) VMware Infrastructure
4 6 (2.40%) Virtual Machines
5 5 (2.00%) Docker
5 5 (2.00%) VMware ESXi
6 4 (1.60%) Firmware
7 1 (0.40%) BitLocker
7 1 (0.40%) VMware NSX
7 1 (0.40%) VMware Workstation
7 1 (0.40%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 63 (25.20%) Microsoft Intune
2 14 (5.60%) Autotask
3 13 (5.20%) Jamf Pro
4 12 (4.80%) SCCM
5 8 (3.20%) WSUS
6 7 (2.80%) vCenter Server
7 5 (2.00%) FortiGate
7 5 (2.00%) Kubernetes
8 2 (0.80%) Backup Exec
9 1 (0.40%) Avamar
9 1 (0.40%) Microsoft Clustering
9 1 (0.40%) NetBackup
9 1 (0.40%) Puppet
9 1 (0.40%) SCOM
9 1 (0.40%) WhatsUp Gold
Vendors
1 162 (64.80%) Microsoft
2 70 (28.00%) VMware
3 30 (12.00%) Oracle
4 24 (9.60%) Cisco
5 18 (7.20%) Apple
5 18 (7.20%) Veeam
6 12 (4.80%) Sophos
7 9 (3.60%) HP
8 7 (2.80%) Samsung
8 7 (2.80%) SAP
9 6 (2.40%) Datto
9 6 (2.40%) SolarWinds
9 6 (2.40%) Ubiquiti
10 5 (2.00%) arcserve
10 5 (2.00%) Barracuda Networks
10 5 (2.00%) Dell
10 5 (2.00%) Meraki
11 4 (1.60%) Salesforce
11 4 (1.60%) SonicWALL
12 3 (1.20%) Google