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 28 January 2026.

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

6 months to
28 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 405 543 406
Rank change year-on-year +138 -137 +292
Permanent jobs requiring a 3rd Line Support 227 126 347
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.41% 0.27% 0.57%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.45% 0.29% 0.60%
Number of salaries quoted 210 105 327
10th Percentile £34,000 £35,500 £31,250
25th Percentile £36,250 £36,250 £34,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £44,750 £40,000
Median % change year-on-year -5.03% +11.88% -5.88%
75th Percentile £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
90th Percentile £59,500 £76,250 £63,500
UK median annual salary £42,500 £45,000 £40,000
% change year-on-year -5.56% +12.50% -5.88%

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 50,523 43,465 57,452
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 91.02% 92.05% 95.02%
Number of salaries quoted 32,139 22,558 45,779
10th Percentile £29,000 £33,750 £29,500
25th Percentile £37,500 £45,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -12.00%
75th Percentile £75,000 £80,000 £75,000
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% -8.37%

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 28 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 28 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 +82 101 £42,000 -6.67% 24
North of England +30 40 £42,500 +18.06% 5
Yorkshire +13 35 £45,000 +24.14% 4
London +57 32 £42,500 -17.48% 6
East of England +38 28 £47,000 +17.50% 1
Midlands +16 25 £37,500 -25.00% 1
East Midlands +7 21 £37,500 -42.31% 1
North West +11 5 £40,500 +1.25% 1
West Midlands +19 4 £39,500 -21.00%
South West +2 2 £42,500 - 4
3rd Line Support
UK

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

For the 6 months to 28 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 (61.23%) Microsoft
2 128 (56.39%) Windows
3 106 (46.70%) Active Directory
3 106 (46.70%) Microsoft 365
4 102 (44.93%) Azure
5 78 (34.36%) Windows Server
6 74 (32.60%) Microsoft Exchange
7 58 (25.55%) Customer Service
8 57 (25.11%) Hyper-V
9 54 (23.79%) DNS
10 53 (23.35%) VMware
11 51 (22.47%) PowerShell
12 50 (22.03%) DHCP
12 50 (22.03%) Problem-Solving
13 49 (21.59%) Firewall
13 49 (21.59%) Microsoft Intune
14 46 (20.26%) Entra ID
15 41 (18.06%) Security Cleared
16 37 (16.30%) Mentoring
16 37 (16.30%) SC Cleared
17 36 (15.86%) VPN
18 31 (13.66%) SLA
19 30 (13.22%) VLAN
20 29 (12.78%) Oracle
21 28 (12.33%) Incident Management
22 27 (11.89%) ITIL
22 27 (11.89%) SharePoint
23 26 (11.45%) TCP/IP
24 25 (11.01%) DV Cleared
24 25 (11.01%) Unix

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 74 (32.60%) Microsoft Exchange
2 27 (11.89%) SharePoint
3 22 (9.69%) Exchange Server 2003
4 2 (0.88%) Exchange Server 2013
4 2 (0.88%) IIS
5 1 (0.44%) Confluence
Applications
1 6 (2.64%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 3 (1.32%) Oracle EBS
2 1 (0.44%) Fidessa
2 1 (0.44%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 106 (46.70%) Microsoft 365
2 102 (44.93%) Azure
3 46 (20.26%) Entra ID
4 8 (3.52%) Mimecast
5 7 (3.08%) IaaS
5 7 (3.08%) Power Platform
6 6 (2.64%) AWS
7 5 (2.20%) SaaS
8 3 (1.32%) Google Workspace
9 2 (0.88%) PaaS
10 1 (0.44%) Amazon S3
10 1 (0.44%) Cloud Computing
10 1 (0.44%) Dynamics 365
10 1 (0.44%) GCP
10 1 (0.44%) n8n
10 1 (0.44%) Power Automate
10 1 (0.44%) PowerApps
10 1 (0.44%) Serverless
10 1 (0.44%) Zapier
Communications & Networking
1 54 (23.79%) DNS
2 50 (22.03%) DHCP
3 49 (21.59%) Firewall
4 36 (15.86%) VPN
5 30 (13.22%) VLAN
6 26 (11.45%) TCP/IP
7 17 (7.49%) LAN
7 17 (7.49%) WAN
7 17 (7.49%) Wireless
8 13 (5.73%) Wi-Fi
9 11 (4.85%) SAN
10 7 (3.08%) VoIP
11 6 (2.64%) SMTP
12 5 (2.20%) EIGRP
12 5 (2.20%) IMAP
12 5 (2.20%) Intrusion Detection
12 5 (2.20%) Network Security
12 5 (2.20%) OSPF
12 5 (2.20%) POP3
12 5 (2.20%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (10.13%) Oracle Database
1 23 (10.13%) Oracle Database 10g
2 11 (4.85%) SQL Server
3 5 (2.20%) Power BI
4 4 (1.76%) Amazon RDS
5 3 (1.32%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 4 (1.76%) JIRA
General
1 72 (31.72%) Social Skills
2 11 (4.85%) Automotive
2 11 (4.85%) Law
2 11 (4.85%) Manufacturing
3 10 (4.41%) Analytical Skills
4 9 (3.96%) Marketing
5 6 (2.64%) Organisational Skills
5 6 (2.64%) Telecoms
6 5 (2.20%) Finance
6 5 (2.20%) Legal
7 4 (1.76%) Public Sector
7 4 (1.76%) Retail
8 3 (1.32%) Advertising
8 3 (1.32%) Documentation Skills
8 3 (1.32%) Electronics
9 2 (0.88%) Banking
10 1 (0.44%) Billing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (0.44%) FIX Protocol
Miscellaneous
1 31 (13.66%) Onboarding
2 16 (7.05%) Self-Motivation
3 10 (4.41%) Driving Licence
4 6 (2.64%) Management Information System
4 6 (2.64%) Replication
5 3 (1.32%) CMDB
5 3 (1.32%) IoT
5 3 (1.32%) PKI
5 3 (1.32%) Web Conferencing
6 2 (0.88%) Clustering
6 2 (0.88%) Cyber Threat
7 1 (0.44%) Blockchain
7 1 (0.44%) BYOD
7 1 (0.44%) Data Centre
7 1 (0.44%) Eurex
7 1 (0.44%) FMCG
7 1 (0.44%) Hybrid Cloud
7 1 (0.44%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 128 (56.39%) Windows
2 78 (34.36%) Windows Server
3 25 (11.01%) Unix
4 24 (10.57%) Solaris
5 23 (10.13%) HPUX
6 22 (9.69%) Windows Server 2003
7 21 (9.25%) Windows 7
7 21 (9.25%) Windows Server 2008
8 16 (7.05%) Apple iOS
9 15 (6.61%) Android
10 10 (4.41%) Linux
10 10 (4.41%) Mac OS
11 9 (3.96%) Windows 10
12 5 (2.20%) Windows Server 2016
13 3 (1.32%) 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 58 (25.55%) Customer Service
2 50 (22.03%) Problem-Solving
3 37 (16.30%) Mentoring
4 28 (12.33%) Incident Management
5 27 (11.89%) ITIL
6 20 (8.81%) Cybersecurity
7 18 (7.93%) Disaster Recovery
7 18 (7.93%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 18 (7.93%) Mobile Device Management
8 15 (6.61%) Coaching
8 15 (6.61%) Logistics
8 15 (6.61%) Network Monitoring
9 12 (5.29%) Zero Trust
10 11 (4.85%) Service Desk Management
10 11 (4.85%) Stakeholder Management
11 10 (4.41%) Network Management
12 9 (3.96%) Infrastructure Management
12 9 (3.96%) Remote Monitoring and Management
12 9 (3.96%) Service Delivery
13 8 (3.52%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 51 (22.47%) PowerShell
2 22 (9.69%) SQL
3 21 (9.25%) Perl
4 3 (1.32%) C
4 3 (1.32%) Java
4 3 (1.32%) PHP
5 2 (0.88%) R
6 1 (0.44%) Bash
6 1 (0.44%) Python
Qualifications
1 41 (18.06%) Security Cleared
2 37 (16.30%) SC Cleared
3 25 (11.01%) DV Cleared
4 17 (7.49%) DBS Check
5 16 (7.05%) Microsoft Certification
6 15 (6.61%) Degree
7 10 (4.41%) CCNA
7 10 (4.41%) Cisco Certification
8 6 (2.64%) Azure Certification
9 5 (2.20%) CCNP
9 5 (2.20%) HND
10 4 (1.76%) MCP
10 4 (1.76%) MCTS
11 2 (0.88%) ACMT
11 2 (0.88%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 1 (0.44%) AWS Certification
12 1 (0.44%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 31 (13.66%) SLA
2 6 (2.64%) Cyber Essentials
3 5 (2.20%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 2 (0.88%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 2 (0.88%) GDPR
5 1 (0.44%) NIST
System Software
1 106 (46.70%) Active Directory
2 57 (25.11%) Hyper-V
3 21 (9.25%) VMware Infrastructure
4 5 (2.20%) Virtual Machines
5 3 (1.32%) Microsoft Virtual Server
5 3 (1.32%) Virtual Servers
6 2 (0.88%) Docker
6 2 (0.88%) Firmware
6 2 (0.88%) VMware ESXi
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 49 (21.59%) Microsoft Intune
2 15 (6.61%) Jamf Pro
3 8 (3.52%) SCCM
4 7 (3.08%) Autotask
5 5 (2.20%) FortiGate
6 4 (1.76%) Backup Exec
6 4 (1.76%) vCenter Server
7 2 (0.88%) Kubernetes
7 2 (0.88%) WSUS
8 1 (0.44%) Avamar
8 1 (0.44%) SCOM
Vendors
1 139 (61.23%) Microsoft
2 53 (23.35%) VMware
3 29 (12.78%) Oracle
4 17 (7.49%) Apple
5 16 (7.05%) Cisco
6 12 (5.29%) Veeam
7 7 (3.08%) Samsung
8 6 (2.64%) HP
8 6 (2.64%) Meraki
8 6 (2.64%) SolarWinds
8 6 (2.64%) Sophos
9 4 (1.76%) Logitech
9 4 (1.76%) Yealink
10 3 (1.32%) Barracuda Networks
10 3 (1.32%) ConnectWise
10 3 (1.32%) Dell
10 3 (1.32%) Google
10 3 (1.32%) IFS
10 3 (1.32%) SAP
10 3 (1.32%) Ubiquiti