3rd Line Support Job Trends in England

Third Line Support
UK > England

The median Third Line Support salary in England is £45,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 29 July 2026.

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

6 months to
29 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 556 416 504
Rank change year-on-year -140 +88 +101
Permanent jobs requiring a 3rd Line Support 181 246 296
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.20% 0.57% 0.39%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.21% 0.63% 0.41%
Number of salaries quoted 164 240 269
10th Percentile £31,250 £36,250 £31,250
25th Percentile £38,250 £37,500 £34,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £42,500 £40,000
Median % change year-on-year +5.88% +6.25% -
75th Percentile £55,000 £50,000 £47,500
90th Percentile £58,750 £57,625 £53,750
UK median annual salary £45,000 £42,500 £40,000
% change year-on-year +5.88% +6.25% -

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 85,184 39,343 71,903
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.41% 90.58% 94.68%
Number of salaries quoted 59,787 23,812 50,509
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,500 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £37,500 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.55% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £76,000 £75,000 £72,500
90th Percentile £97,500 £97,500 £92,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £55,000 £55,000
% 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 29 July 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 29 July 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 -36 63 £50,000 +20.48% 8
North of England -29 38 £40,000 -5.88% 5
London -38 35 £52,500 +3.45% 5
Midlands -62 22 £39,250 +1.95% 5
South West -71 19 £45,000 -2.17% 4
East Midlands -29 16 £32,500 -15.58% 2
North West -18 14 £31,500 -21.25% 5
Yorkshire -30 12 £45,000 -5.26%
North East -40 12 £40,000 -
West Midlands -53 6 £45,000 +10.43% 3
East of England -44 4 £36,500 -23.16% 5
3rd Line Support
UK

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

For the 6 months to 29 July 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.

1 113 (62.43%) Microsoft
2 99 (54.70%) Azure
2 99 (54.70%) Microsoft 365
3 87 (48.07%) Active Directory
4 84 (46.41%) Windows
5 71 (39.23%) Entra ID
6 69 (38.12%) Microsoft Exchange
7 64 (35.36%) SharePoint
8 56 (30.94%) Windows Server
9 49 (27.07%) Microsoft Intune
10 44 (24.31%) SaaS
11 43 (23.76%) Firewall
12 39 (21.55%) VLAN
13 38 (20.99%) DNS
14 33 (18.23%) Infrastructure Engineering
14 33 (18.23%) SQL
15 30 (16.57%) DHCP
15 30 (16.57%) Identity Management
15 30 (16.57%) Workflow
16 29 (16.02%) Hyper-V
16 29 (16.02%) VMware
16 29 (16.02%) VMware Infrastructure
17 28 (15.47%) VPN
18 27 (14.92%) Change Management
18 27 (14.92%) Problem-Solving
18 27 (14.92%) Project Delivery
19 26 (14.36%) Cisco
20 24 (13.26%) Incident Management
20 24 (13.26%) JIRA
21 23 (12.71%) Mentoring

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 69 (38.12%) Microsoft Exchange
2 64 (35.36%) SharePoint
3 4 (2.21%) Exchange Server 2007
3 4 (2.21%) Exchange Server 2010
3 4 (2.21%) Exchange Server 2013
Applications
1 4 (2.21%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 11 (6.08%) Unit4 Business World
2 3 (1.66%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.55%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 99 (54.70%) Azure
1 99 (54.70%) Microsoft 365
2 71 (39.23%) Entra ID
3 44 (24.31%) SaaS
4 20 (11.05%) Mimecast
5 11 (6.08%) Boomi
5 11 (6.08%) Google Workspace
5 11 (6.08%) iPaaS
5 11 (6.08%) Workato
6 5 (2.76%) AWS
6 5 (2.76%) OneDrive
7 4 (2.21%) Power Automate
8 3 (1.66%) Power Platform
9 2 (1.10%) Azure Stack
10 1 (0.55%) Google Docs
10 1 (0.55%) IaaS
10 1 (0.55%) PaaS
10 1 (0.55%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 43 (23.76%) Firewall
2 39 (21.55%) VLAN
3 38 (20.99%) DNS
4 30 (16.57%) DHCP
5 28 (15.47%) VPN
6 20 (11.05%) TCP/IP
6 20 (11.05%) Wireless
7 13 (7.18%) LAN
7 13 (7.18%) Wi-Fi
8 12 (6.63%) WAN
9 9 (4.97%) VoIP
10 8 (4.42%) SAN
11 6 (3.31%) Network Security
12 5 (2.76%) SD-WAN
13 4 (2.21%) DMZ
13 4 (2.21%) Wireshark
14 3 (1.66%) ICMP
14 3 (1.66%) Remote Desktop
15 2 (1.10%) BGP
15 2 (1.10%) IPsec
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (3.87%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.55%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 24 (13.26%) JIRA
2 1 (0.55%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 65 (35.91%) Social Skills
2 26 (14.36%) Legal
3 15 (8.29%) Finance
4 8 (4.42%) Analytical Skills
4 8 (4.42%) Documentation Skills
5 6 (3.31%) Organisational Skills
6 5 (2.76%) Manufacturing
7 3 (1.66%) Telecoms
8 2 (1.10%) Inclusion and Diversity
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (7.73%) Web Services
2 10 (5.52%) .NET
Miscellaneous
1 13 (7.18%) Driving Licence
2 10 (5.52%) Video Conferencing
3 9 (4.97%) Onboarding
4 8 (4.42%) Self-Motivation
5 7 (3.87%) Enterprise Software
6 5 (2.76%) Cyber Threat
6 5 (2.76%) PKI
7 3 (1.66%) Replication
8 1 (0.55%) Clustering
8 1 (0.55%) Hybrid Cloud
8 1 (0.55%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 84 (46.41%) Windows
2 56 (30.94%) Windows Server
3 21 (11.60%) Linux
4 16 (8.84%) Mac OS
5 15 (8.29%) Windows Server 2016
6 13 (7.18%) Windows Server 2012
7 10 (5.52%) Windows Server 2019
8 8 (4.42%) Windows 10
9 5 (2.76%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 4 (2.21%) Windows Server 2008
11 3 (1.66%) Apple iOS
12 2 (1.10%) Android
13 1 (0.55%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 33 (18.23%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 30 (16.57%) Identity Management
2 30 (16.57%) Workflow
3 27 (14.92%) Change Management
3 27 (14.92%) Problem-Solving
3 27 (14.92%) Project Delivery
4 24 (13.26%) Incident Management
5 23 (12.71%) Mentoring
5 23 (12.71%) Technical Leadership
6 22 (12.15%) Cybersecurity
7 19 (10.50%) ITIL
8 18 (9.94%) Customer Service
8 18 (9.94%) Disaster Recovery
8 18 (9.94%) ITSM
9 17 (9.39%) ERP
10 16 (8.84%) Continuous Improvement
11 15 (8.29%) Remote Monitoring and Management
12 14 (7.73%) Server Management
13 13 (7.18%) Migration
14 12 (6.63%) Business Continuity
Programming Languages
1 33 (18.23%) SQL
2 19 (10.50%) R
3 18 (9.94%) PowerShell
4 10 (5.52%) C#
5 7 (3.87%) T-SQL
6 4 (2.21%) COBOL
6 4 (2.21%) Java
7 3 (1.66%) Python
8 2 (1.10%) Bash
9 1 (0.55%) Google Apps Script
Qualifications
1 21 (11.60%) Microsoft Certification
2 19 (10.50%) Degree
3 16 (8.84%) CCNA
3 16 (8.84%) Cisco Certification
4 10 (5.52%) Azure Certification
5 6 (3.31%) Security Cleared
6 5 (2.76%) DV Cleared
7 4 (2.21%) AWS Certification
7 4 (2.21%) MCSA
7 4 (2.21%) Microsoft Certified Professional
8 3 (1.66%) CCNP
9 2 (1.10%) DBS Check
10 1 (0.55%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (11.60%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 16 (8.84%) Cyber Essentials
3 6 (3.31%) GDPR
4 3 (1.66%) SLA
5 2 (1.10%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 87 (48.07%) Active Directory
2 29 (16.02%) Hyper-V
2 29 (16.02%) VMware Infrastructure
3 5 (2.76%) Virtual Machines
3 5 (2.76%) vSphere
4 2 (1.10%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 49 (27.07%) Microsoft Intune
2 17 (9.39%) Jamf Pro
3 14 (7.73%) Autotask
4 5 (2.76%) Backup Exec
4 5 (2.76%) WSUS
5 4 (2.21%) Iperf
6 2 (1.10%) Single Sign-On
7 1 (0.55%) Terraform
Vendors
1 113 (62.43%) Microsoft
2 29 (16.02%) VMware
3 26 (14.36%) Cisco
4 19 (10.50%) CrowdStrike
5 16 (8.84%) SonicWALL
6 15 (8.29%) Meraki
7 14 (7.73%) HP
8 11 (6.08%) Google
8 11 (6.08%) Veeam
9 10 (5.52%) Aruba
9 10 (5.52%) Datto
9 10 (5.52%) Ubiquiti
10 9 (4.97%) Fortinet
11 7 (3.87%) Logitech
11 7 (3.87%) Yealink
12 6 (3.31%) Apple
12 6 (3.31%) ConnectWise
13 5 (2.76%) McAfee
13 5 (2.76%) ServiceNow
14 4 (2.21%) Ruckus Wireless