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 2 January 2026.

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

6 months to
2 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 366 530 405
Rank change year-on-year +164 -125 +303
Permanent jobs requiring a 3rd Line Support 245 131 278
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.47% 0.27% 0.61%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.52% 0.29% 0.64%
Number of salaries quoted 229 110 257
10th Percentile £34,600 £32,750 £31,750
25th Percentile £36,250 £36,250 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £42,500 £42,000
Median % change year-on-year - +1.19% -1.18%
75th Percentile £50,000 £53,625 £52,500
90th Percentile £58,900 £68,000 £65,000
UK median annual salary £42,500 £42,500 £42,500

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 47,259 45,849 43,468
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.69% 92.93% 95.05%
Number of salaries quoted 29,657 24,316 34,123
10th Percentile £28,528 £33,200 £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% - -1.78%
75th Percentile £75,000 £78,750 £78,750
90th Percentile £95,000 £97,500 £97,500
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 2 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 2 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 +86 103 £41,500 -2.35% 11
London +58 39 £42,500 -10.53% 6
North of England +31 36 £42,500 +18.06% 15
East of England +43 30 £47,000 +17.50% 3
Yorkshire +22 30 £42,500 +21.43% 10
Midlands +35 27 £44,000 -7.28% 4
East Midlands +1 19 £45,000 -14.29% 2
South West +20 11 £48,500 +14.12% 1
West Midlands +23 8 £44,000 -7.28% 2
North West +27 6 £40,500 +1.25% 5
3rd Line Support
UK

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

For the 6 months to 2 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.

1 151 (61.63%) Microsoft
1 151 (61.63%) Windows
2 118 (48.16%) Microsoft 365
3 117 (47.76%) Azure
4 113 (46.12%) Active Directory
5 100 (40.82%) Windows Server
6 74 (30.20%) Microsoft Exchange
7 66 (26.94%) Firewall
7 66 (26.94%) VMware
8 65 (26.53%) Hyper-V
9 62 (25.31%) DNS
9 62 (25.31%) PowerShell
10 60 (24.49%) DHCP
10 60 (24.49%) Microsoft Intune
11 54 (22.04%) Customer Service
12 51 (20.82%) Problem-Solving
13 46 (18.78%) Entra ID
14 43 (17.55%) Security Cleared
15 40 (16.33%) Mentoring
15 40 (16.33%) SC Cleared
16 37 (15.10%) SLA
17 35 (14.29%) VPN
18 33 (13.47%) VMware Infrastructure
19 32 (13.06%) VLAN
20 29 (11.84%) Incident Management
20 29 (11.84%) ITIL
20 29 (11.84%) LAN
20 29 (11.84%) Oracle
20 29 (11.84%) WAN
21 28 (11.43%) 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 74 (30.20%) Microsoft Exchange
2 22 (8.98%) Exchange Server 2003
2 22 (8.98%) SharePoint
3 10 (4.08%) IIS
4 5 (2.04%) Exchange Server 2013
5 1 (0.41%) Confluence
Applications
1 10 (4.08%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (0.41%) Fidessa
1 1 (0.41%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 118 (48.16%) Microsoft 365
2 117 (47.76%) Azure
3 46 (18.78%) Entra ID
4 16 (6.53%) AWS
5 14 (5.71%) IaaS
6 11 (4.49%) Power Platform
6 11 (4.49%) SaaS
7 9 (3.67%) PaaS
8 5 (2.04%) Mimecast
8 5 (2.04%) PowerApps
8 5 (2.04%) Serverless
9 4 (1.63%) Power Automate
10 3 (1.22%) Google Workspace
11 1 (0.41%) Amazon S3
11 1 (0.41%) Azure App Service
11 1 (0.41%) Azure Sentinel
11 1 (0.41%) Cloud Computing
11 1 (0.41%) Dynamics 365
11 1 (0.41%) n8n
11 1 (0.41%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 66 (26.94%) Firewall
2 62 (25.31%) DNS
3 60 (24.49%) DHCP
4 35 (14.29%) VPN
5 32 (13.06%) VLAN
6 29 (11.84%) LAN
6 29 (11.84%) WAN
7 28 (11.43%) TCP/IP
8 18 (7.35%) Wi-Fi
8 18 (7.35%) Wireless
9 13 (5.31%) SAN
10 12 (4.90%) VoIP
11 10 (4.08%) Internet
12 8 (3.27%) Network Security
13 7 (2.86%) Wireshark
14 6 (2.45%) Kerberos
14 6 (2.45%) SMTP
14 6 (2.45%) Unified Communications
15 5 (2.04%) EIGRP
15 5 (2.04%) POP3
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (9.39%) Oracle Database
1 23 (9.39%) Oracle Database 10g
2 10 (4.08%) SQL Server
3 5 (2.04%) Amazon RDS
3 5 (2.04%) Power BI
4 3 (1.22%) PostgreSQL
5 1 (0.41%) Azure SQL Database
Development Applications
1 2 (0.82%) JIRA
General
1 88 (35.92%) Social Skills
2 17 (6.94%) Law
3 13 (5.31%) Manufacturing
4 11 (4.49%) Automotive
4 11 (4.49%) Marketing
5 9 (3.67%) Telecoms
6 8 (3.27%) Analytical Skills
7 6 (2.45%) Finance
8 5 (2.04%) Billing
8 5 (2.04%) Electronics
8 5 (2.04%) Public Sector
9 4 (1.63%) Documentation Skills
9 4 (1.63%) Retail
10 3 (1.22%) Advertising
10 3 (1.22%) Organisational Skills
11 1 (0.41%) Banking
11 1 (0.41%) Legal
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (2.45%) LDAP
2 2 (0.82%) FreeSWITCH
2 2 (0.82%) Node.js
3 1 (0.41%) FIX Protocol
3 1 (0.41%) SAML
3 1 (0.41%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 31 (12.65%) Onboarding
2 14 (5.71%) Self-Motivation
3 8 (3.27%) PKI
4 7 (2.86%) Driving Licence
4 7 (2.86%) Management Information System
4 7 (2.86%) Replication
5 6 (2.45%) Hybrid Cloud
6 5 (2.04%) Clustering
6 5 (2.04%) Data Centre
7 3 (1.22%) Web Conferencing
8 2 (0.82%) IoT
9 1 (0.41%) Blockchain
9 1 (0.41%) BYOD
9 1 (0.41%) Cyber Threat
9 1 (0.41%) Enterprise Storage
9 1 (0.41%) Eurex
9 1 (0.41%) FMCG
9 1 (0.41%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 151 (61.63%) Windows
2 100 (40.82%) Windows Server
3 25 (10.20%) Unix
4 24 (9.80%) Solaris
5 23 (9.39%) HPUX
6 22 (8.98%) Windows Server 2003
7 21 (8.57%) Windows 7
7 21 (8.57%) Windows Server 2008
8 18 (7.35%) Apple iOS
8 18 (7.35%) Windows 10
9 17 (6.94%) Android
10 13 (5.31%) Linux
11 12 (4.90%) Mac OS
12 11 (4.49%) Windows Server 2016
13 10 (4.08%) Windows Server 2019
14 2 (0.82%) Windows Server 2012
15 1 (0.41%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 54 (22.04%) Customer Service
2 51 (20.82%) Problem-Solving
3 40 (16.33%) Mentoring
4 29 (11.84%) Incident Management
4 29 (11.84%) ITIL
5 21 (8.57%) Cybersecurity
6 18 (7.35%) Mobile Device Management
7 16 (6.53%) Migration
8 15 (6.12%) Coaching
8 15 (6.12%) Network Monitoring
9 14 (5.71%) Continuous Improvement
9 14 (5.71%) Disaster Recovery
9 14 (5.71%) Logistics
9 14 (5.71%) Project Delivery
10 13 (5.31%) Business Continuity
11 12 (4.90%) Data Loss Prevention
11 12 (4.90%) Network Management
11 12 (4.90%) Zero Trust
12 11 (4.49%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 11 (4.49%) Service Desk Management
Programming Languages
1 62 (25.31%) PowerShell
2 21 (8.57%) Perl
3 20 (8.16%) SQL
4 6 (2.45%) VB
5 3 (1.22%) C
5 3 (1.22%) Java
5 3 (1.22%) PHP
6 1 (0.41%) Bash
6 1 (0.41%) Python
Qualifications
1 43 (17.55%) Security Cleared
2 40 (16.33%) SC Cleared
3 24 (9.80%) DV Cleared
4 16 (6.53%) Microsoft Certification
5 14 (5.71%) DBS Check
5 14 (5.71%) Degree
6 12 (4.90%) Cisco Certification
7 10 (4.08%) CCNA
8 8 (3.27%) Azure Certification
9 7 (2.86%) CCNP
10 5 (2.04%) HND
10 5 (2.04%) MCP
10 5 (2.04%) MCTS
11 4 (1.63%) ACMT
11 4 (1.63%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 2 (0.82%) Computer Science Degree
12 2 (0.82%) ITIL Certification
12 2 (0.82%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 1 (0.41%) AWS Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 37 (15.10%) SLA
2 10 (4.08%) Cyber Essentials
3 6 (2.45%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 5 (2.04%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 1 (0.41%) NIST
System Software
1 113 (46.12%) Active Directory
2 65 (26.53%) Hyper-V
3 33 (13.47%) VMware Infrastructure
4 6 (2.45%) Virtual Machines
5 4 (1.63%) Docker
5 4 (1.63%) VMware ESXi
6 3 (1.22%) Firmware
7 1 (0.41%) BitLocker
7 1 (0.41%) VMware NSX
7 1 (0.41%) VMware Workstation
7 1 (0.41%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 60 (24.49%) Microsoft Intune
2 13 (5.31%) Jamf Pro
3 12 (4.90%) Autotask
3 12 (4.90%) SCCM
4 6 (2.45%) vCenter Server
4 6 (2.45%) WSUS
5 5 (2.04%) FortiGate
6 4 (1.63%) Kubernetes
7 1 (0.41%) Avamar
7 1 (0.41%) Backup Exec
7 1 (0.41%) Microsoft Clustering
7 1 (0.41%) NetBackup
7 1 (0.41%) Puppet
7 1 (0.41%) SCOM
7 1 (0.41%) WhatsUp Gold
Vendors
1 151 (61.63%) Microsoft
2 66 (26.94%) VMware
3 29 (11.84%) Oracle
4 22 (8.98%) Cisco
5 17 (6.94%) Apple
6 15 (6.12%) Veeam
7 10 (4.08%) Sophos
8 9 (3.67%) HP
9 7 (2.86%) Samsung
10 6 (2.45%) SAP
10 6 (2.45%) SolarWinds
11 5 (2.04%) arcserve
11 5 (2.04%) Barracuda Networks
11 5 (2.04%) Dell
11 5 (2.04%) Meraki
11 5 (2.04%) Ubiquiti
12 4 (1.63%) Datto
13 3 (1.22%) Citrix
13 3 (1.22%) Salesforce
13 3 (1.22%) SonicWALL