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 18 January 2026.

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

6 months to
18 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 393 549 428
Rank change year-on-year +156 -121 +272
Permanent jobs requiring a 3rd Line Support 230 129 297
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.43% 0.27% 0.56%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.47% 0.29% 0.59%
Number of salaries quoted 213 108 277
10th Percentile £34,000 £35,500 £31,250
25th Percentile £36,250 £36,250 £34,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £42,500 £41,000
Median % change year-on-year - +3.66% -3.53%
75th Percentile £48,750 £55,000 £52,500
90th Percentile £59,100 £76,250 £65,000
UK median annual salary £42,500 £44,832 £41,000
% change year-on-year -5.20% +9.35% -3.53%

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 48,844 44,336 50,080
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.97% 92.44% 95.06%
Number of salaries quoted 30,889 23,188 39,413
10th Percentile £28,750 £33,500 £30,000
25th Percentile £37,500 £45,000 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +4.35% -7.39%
75th Percentile £75,000 £80,000 £77,500
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £96,250
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year -8.33% +4.35% -4.17%

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 18 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 18 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 +96 100 £41,500 -7.78% 24
North of England +30 39 £42,500 +18.06% 4
Yorkshire +26 34 £45,000 +24.14% 3
London +62 33 £42,500 -10.53% 6
East of England +42 28 £47,000 +17.50% 2
Midlands +39 26 £44,000 -12.00% 3
East Midlands +7 20 £41,250 -36.54% 1
West Midlands +22 6 £44,000 -12.00% 2
South West +6 5 £42,500 -
North West +5 5 £40,500 +1.25% 1
3rd Line Support
UK

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

For the 6 months to 18 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.

1 141 (61.30%) Microsoft
2 135 (58.70%) Windows
3 108 (46.96%) Microsoft 365
4 107 (46.52%) Active Directory
5 104 (45.22%) Azure
6 84 (36.52%) Windows Server
7 71 (30.87%) Microsoft Exchange
8 59 (25.65%) Hyper-V
9 56 (24.35%) DNS
9 56 (24.35%) VMware
10 55 (23.91%) Customer Service
11 54 (23.48%) DHCP
11 54 (23.48%) Firewall
11 54 (23.48%) PowerShell
12 53 (23.04%) Microsoft Intune
13 48 (20.87%) Problem-Solving
14 44 (19.13%) Entra ID
15 42 (18.26%) Security Cleared
16 39 (16.96%) SC Cleared
17 37 (16.09%) Mentoring
18 36 (15.65%) VPN
19 33 (14.35%) SLA
20 30 (13.04%) VLAN
21 29 (12.61%) Oracle
22 28 (12.17%) Incident Management
23 27 (11.74%) TCP/IP
24 26 (11.30%) ITIL
25 25 (10.87%) Unix
26 24 (10.43%) DV Cleared
26 24 (10.43%) Solaris

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 71 (30.87%) Microsoft Exchange
2 23 (10.00%) SharePoint
3 22 (9.57%) Exchange Server 2003
4 5 (2.17%) IIS
5 3 (1.30%) Exchange Server 2013
6 1 (0.43%) Confluence
Applications
1 7 (3.04%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 2 (0.87%) Oracle EBS
2 1 (0.43%) Fidessa
2 1 (0.43%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 108 (46.96%) Microsoft 365
2 104 (45.22%) Azure
3 44 (19.13%) Entra ID
4 11 (4.78%) IaaS
5 9 (3.91%) AWS
5 9 (3.91%) Power Platform
6 7 (3.04%) SaaS
7 6 (2.61%) Mimecast
7 6 (2.61%) PaaS
8 3 (1.30%) Google Workspace
8 3 (1.30%) PowerApps
8 3 (1.30%) Serverless
9 1 (0.43%) Amazon S3
9 1 (0.43%) Cloud Computing
9 1 (0.43%) Dynamics 365
9 1 (0.43%) GCP
9 1 (0.43%) n8n
9 1 (0.43%) Power Automate
9 1 (0.43%) Zapier
Communications & Networking
1 56 (24.35%) DNS
2 54 (23.48%) DHCP
2 54 (23.48%) Firewall
3 36 (15.65%) VPN
4 30 (13.04%) VLAN
5 27 (11.74%) TCP/IP
6 22 (9.57%) LAN
6 22 (9.57%) WAN
7 17 (7.39%) Wireless
8 16 (6.96%) Wi-Fi
9 10 (4.35%) SAN
10 7 (3.04%) VoIP
11 6 (2.61%) SMTP
12 5 (2.17%) EIGRP
12 5 (2.17%) IMAP
12 5 (2.17%) OSPF
12 5 (2.17%) POP3
12 5 (2.17%) SSL
12 5 (2.17%) Unified Communications
12 5 (2.17%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (10.00%) Oracle Database
1 23 (10.00%) Oracle Database 10g
2 10 (4.35%) SQL Server
3 5 (2.17%) Amazon RDS
3 5 (2.17%) Power BI
4 3 (1.30%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 2 (0.87%) JIRA
General
1 77 (33.48%) Social Skills
2 13 (5.65%) Law
3 12 (5.22%) Manufacturing
4 11 (4.78%) Automotive
5 10 (4.35%) Marketing
6 8 (3.48%) Analytical Skills
7 6 (2.61%) Finance
7 6 (2.61%) Telecoms
8 4 (1.74%) Documentation Skills
8 4 (1.74%) Electronics
8 4 (1.74%) Organisational Skills
8 4 (1.74%) Public Sector
9 3 (1.30%) Advertising
9 3 (1.30%) Billing
9 3 (1.30%) Retail
10 2 (0.87%) Legal
11 1 (0.43%) Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (0.87%) LDAP
2 1 (0.43%) FIX Protocol
Miscellaneous
1 31 (13.48%) Onboarding
2 14 (6.09%) Self-Motivation
3 9 (3.91%) Driving Licence
4 6 (2.61%) Management Information System
4 6 (2.61%) Replication
5 3 (1.30%) Clustering
5 3 (1.30%) Data Centre
5 3 (1.30%) Hybrid Cloud
5 3 (1.30%) IoT
5 3 (1.30%) PKI
5 3 (1.30%) Web Conferencing
6 2 (0.87%) CMDB
6 2 (0.87%) Cyber Threat
7 1 (0.43%) Blockchain
7 1 (0.43%) BYOD
7 1 (0.43%) Eurex
7 1 (0.43%) FMCG
7 1 (0.43%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 135 (58.70%) Windows
2 84 (36.52%) Windows Server
3 25 (10.87%) Unix
4 24 (10.43%) Solaris
5 23 (10.00%) HPUX
6 22 (9.57%) Windows Server 2003
7 21 (9.13%) Windows 7
7 21 (9.13%) Windows Server 2008
8 17 (7.39%) Apple iOS
9 16 (6.96%) Android
10 12 (5.22%) Windows 10
11 11 (4.78%) Mac OS
12 9 (3.91%) Linux
13 7 (3.04%) Windows Server 2016
14 5 (2.17%) Windows Server 2019
15 2 (0.87%) Windows Server 2012
16 1 (0.43%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 55 (23.91%) Customer Service
2 48 (20.87%) Problem-Solving
3 37 (16.09%) Mentoring
4 28 (12.17%) Incident Management
5 26 (11.30%) ITIL
6 19 (8.26%) Cybersecurity
7 18 (7.83%) Mobile Device Management
8 17 (7.39%) Disaster Recovery
9 15 (6.52%) Coaching
9 15 (6.52%) Network Monitoring
10 14 (6.09%) Logistics
11 13 (5.65%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 12 (5.22%) Zero Trust
13 11 (4.78%) Service Desk Management
14 10 (4.35%) Business Continuity
14 10 (4.35%) Migration
14 10 (4.35%) Network Management
14 10 (4.35%) Remote Monitoring and Management
14 10 (4.35%) Stakeholder Management
15 9 (3.91%) Business Intelligence
Programming Languages
1 54 (23.48%) PowerShell
2 21 (9.13%) Perl
3 20 (8.70%) SQL
4 3 (1.30%) C
4 3 (1.30%) Java
4 3 (1.30%) PHP
5 2 (0.87%) VB
6 1 (0.43%) Bash
6 1 (0.43%) Python
Qualifications
1 42 (18.26%) Security Cleared
2 39 (16.96%) SC Cleared
3 24 (10.43%) DV Cleared
4 16 (6.96%) Microsoft Certification
5 15 (6.52%) DBS Check
6 14 (6.09%) Degree
7 10 (4.35%) CCNA
7 10 (4.35%) Cisco Certification
8 6 (2.61%) Azure Certification
9 5 (2.17%) CCNP
9 5 (2.17%) HND
9 5 (2.17%) MCP
9 5 (2.17%) MCTS
10 3 (1.30%) ACMT
10 3 (1.30%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 1 (0.43%) AWS Certification
11 1 (0.43%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (14.35%) SLA
2 7 (3.04%) Cyber Essentials
3 4 (1.74%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 3 (1.30%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 1 (0.43%) GDPR
5 1 (0.43%) NIST
System Software
1 107 (46.52%) Active Directory
2 59 (25.65%) Hyper-V
3 24 (10.43%) VMware Infrastructure
4 5 (2.17%) Virtual Machines
5 3 (1.30%) Docker
5 3 (1.30%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (0.87%) Firmware
6 2 (0.87%) Microsoft Virtual Server
6 2 (0.87%) Virtual Servers
7 1 (0.43%) BitLocker
7 1 (0.43%) VMware NSX
7 1 (0.43%) VMware Workstation
7 1 (0.43%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 53 (23.04%) Microsoft Intune
2 14 (6.09%) Jamf Pro
3 10 (4.35%) SCCM
4 8 (3.48%) Autotask
5 5 (2.17%) FortiGate
5 5 (2.17%) vCenter Server
6 3 (1.30%) Kubernetes
7 2 (0.87%) Backup Exec
7 2 (0.87%) WSUS
8 1 (0.43%) Avamar
8 1 (0.43%) SCOM
Vendors
1 141 (61.30%) Microsoft
2 56 (24.35%) VMware
3 29 (12.61%) Oracle
4 19 (8.26%) Cisco
5 17 (7.39%) Apple
6 13 (5.65%) Veeam
7 8 (3.48%) Sophos
8 7 (3.04%) HP
8 7 (3.04%) Samsung
9 6 (2.61%) Meraki
9 6 (2.61%) SolarWinds
10 4 (1.74%) Barracuda Networks
10 4 (1.74%) Dell
10 4 (1.74%) SAP
10 4 (1.74%) Ubiquiti
11 3 (1.30%) arcserve
11 3 (1.30%) ConnectWise
11 3 (1.30%) Datto
11 3 (1.30%) Google
11 3 (1.30%) Yealink