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 17 April 2026.

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

6 months to
17 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 470 459 440
Rank change year-on-year -11 -19 +252
Permanent jobs requiring a 3rd Line Support 214 144 430
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.28% 0.39% 0.52%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.30% 0.43% 0.55%
Number of salaries quoted 200 138 404
10th Percentile £35,000 £36,025 £31,250
25th Percentile £37,688 £37,500 £34,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £44,750 £40,000
Median % change year-on-year +0.56% +11.88% -4.76%
75th Percentile £51,500 £52,500 £46,063
90th Percentile £58,750 £68,750 £53,750
UK median annual salary £45,000 £45,000 £40,000
% change year-on-year - +12.50% -4.76%

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 70,757 33,134 77,840
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.57% 89.23% 94.46%
Number of salaries quoted 46,332 21,254 59,796
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £42,500 £38,084
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £54,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +11.11% -10.00%
75th Percentile £75,000 £79,500 £72,500
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £91,250
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £53,500
% change year-on-year -8.33% +12.15% -10.83%

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 17 April 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 17 April 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 +26 83 £45,000 +5.88% 4
London +14 48 £45,000 -30.77% 1
North of England -32 48 £42,500 +7.59% 12
Yorkshire -25 39 £45,000 +24.14% 10
Midlands -73 16 £33,750 -32.50% 2
East of England -21 14 £47,000 +13.25%
East Midlands -49 13 £32,500 -35.00% 1
North East -36 5 £40,000 +11.11% 1
South West -57 5 £45,000 +12.50% 6
North West -30 4 £38,000 -10.59% 2
West Midlands -43 3 £45,000 -10.00% 1
3rd Line Support
UK

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

For the 6 months to 17 April 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.

1 125 (58.41%) Microsoft
2 109 (50.93%) Azure
3 107 (50.00%) Microsoft 365
4 101 (47.20%) Windows
5 100 (46.73%) Active Directory
6 88 (41.12%) Microsoft Exchange
7 65 (30.37%) Windows Server
8 58 (27.10%) Entra ID
8 58 (27.10%) SharePoint
9 56 (26.17%) DNS
10 50 (23.36%) Microsoft Intune
11 49 (22.90%) PowerShell
12 47 (21.96%) VMware
13 45 (21.03%) Firewall
13 45 (21.03%) Hyper-V
14 44 (20.56%) DHCP
15 39 (18.22%) Customer Service
15 39 (18.22%) Problem-Solving
16 32 (14.95%) Incident Management
16 32 (14.95%) VPN
17 31 (14.49%) Security Cleared
17 31 (14.49%) VLAN
18 30 (14.02%) ITIL
18 30 (14.02%) SQL
19 27 (12.62%) Infrastructure Engineering
19 27 (12.62%) Workflow
20 24 (11.21%) Identity Management
21 23 (10.75%) DV Cleared
21 23 (10.75%) SC Cleared
22 22 (10.28%) Oracle

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 88 (41.12%) Microsoft Exchange
2 58 (27.10%) SharePoint
3 17 (7.94%) Exchange Server 2003
4 4 (1.87%) Exchange Server 2007
4 4 (1.87%) Exchange Server 2010
4 4 (1.87%) Exchange Server 2013
5 1 (0.47%) Confluence
Applications
1 9 (4.21%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 11 (5.14%) Unit4 Business World
2 3 (1.40%) Oracle EBS
3 2 (0.93%) NetSuite
4 1 (0.47%) Fidessa
Cloud Services
1 109 (50.93%) Azure
2 107 (50.00%) Microsoft 365
3 58 (27.10%) Entra ID
4 22 (10.28%) SaaS
5 18 (8.41%) Mimecast
6 11 (5.14%) Boomi
6 11 (5.14%) iPaaS
6 11 (5.14%) Workato
7 7 (3.27%) Google Workspace
8 5 (2.34%) Power Platform
9 4 (1.87%) AWS
9 4 (1.87%) OneDrive
10 1 (0.47%) Amazon S3
10 1 (0.47%) Cloud Computing
10 1 (0.47%) GCP
10 1 (0.47%) Google Docs
10 1 (0.47%) IaaS
10 1 (0.47%) PaaS
10 1 (0.47%) Power Automate
10 1 (0.47%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 56 (26.17%) DNS
2 45 (21.03%) Firewall
3 44 (20.56%) DHCP
4 32 (14.95%) VPN
5 31 (14.49%) VLAN
6 18 (8.41%) TCP/IP
7 15 (7.01%) Wireless
8 13 (6.07%) SAN
9 10 (4.67%) VoIP
10 7 (3.27%) Wi-Fi
11 6 (2.80%) LAN
11 6 (2.80%) Network Security
11 6 (2.80%) SMTP
12 5 (2.34%) EIGRP
12 5 (2.34%) IMAP
12 5 (2.34%) Intrusion Detection
12 5 (2.34%) OSPF
12 5 (2.34%) POP3
12 5 (2.34%) WAN
12 5 (2.34%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 18 (8.41%) Oracle Database
1 18 (8.41%) Oracle Database 10g
2 9 (4.21%) SQL Server
3 5 (2.34%) Power BI
4 3 (1.40%) Amazon RDS
4 3 (1.40%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 17 (7.94%) JIRA
General
1 57 (26.64%) Social Skills
2 22 (10.28%) Legal
3 14 (6.54%) Finance
4 12 (5.61%) Analytical Skills
4 12 (5.61%) Organisational Skills
5 8 (3.74%) Manufacturing
6 7 (3.27%) Law
7 5 (2.34%) Documentation Skills
8 4 (1.87%) Retail
9 3 (1.40%) Advertising
9 3 (1.40%) Telecoms
10 2 (0.93%) Banking
10 2 (0.93%) Marketing
11 1 (0.47%) Public Sector
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (5.14%) Web Services
2 1 (0.47%) FIX Protocol
Miscellaneous
1 15 (7.01%) Self-Motivation
2 14 (6.54%) Driving Licence
3 12 (5.61%) Onboarding
4 7 (3.27%) PKI
5 6 (2.80%) Replication
6 4 (1.87%) IoT
7 3 (1.40%) CMDB
7 3 (1.40%) Cyber Threat
7 3 (1.40%) Video Conferencing
7 3 (1.40%) Web Conferencing
8 1 (0.47%) Blockchain
8 1 (0.47%) Clustering
8 1 (0.47%) Eurex
8 1 (0.47%) Low-Code
8 1 (0.47%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 101 (47.20%) Windows
2 65 (30.37%) Windows Server
3 20 (9.35%) Windows Server 2008
4 19 (8.88%) Solaris
4 19 (8.88%) Unix
5 18 (8.41%) HPUX
6 17 (7.94%) Linux
6 17 (7.94%) Windows Server 2003
7 16 (7.48%) Windows 7
8 13 (6.07%) Mac OS
9 10 (4.67%) Windows Server 2016
10 8 (3.74%) Windows 10
11 7 (3.27%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 6 (2.80%) Apple iOS
12 6 (2.80%) Windows Server 2012
13 5 (2.34%) Android
14 4 (1.87%) Windows Server 2019
15 1 (0.47%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 39 (18.22%) Customer Service
1 39 (18.22%) Problem-Solving
2 32 (14.95%) Incident Management
3 30 (14.02%) ITIL
4 27 (12.62%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 27 (12.62%) Workflow
5 24 (11.21%) Identity Management
6 17 (7.94%) Change Management
6 17 (7.94%) Project Delivery
6 17 (7.94%) Technical Leadership
7 16 (7.48%) Cybersecurity
7 16 (7.48%) Disaster Recovery
8 14 (6.54%) ERP
9 13 (6.07%) Mentoring
9 13 (6.07%) Service Delivery
10 12 (5.61%) ITSM
10 12 (5.61%) Migration
10 12 (5.61%) Stakeholder Management
11 11 (5.14%) Requirements Gathering
11 11 (5.14%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 49 (22.90%) PowerShell
2 30 (14.02%) SQL
3 16 (7.48%) Perl
4 14 (6.54%) R
5 3 (1.40%) C
5 3 (1.40%) Java
5 3 (1.40%) PHP
5 3 (1.40%) Python
6 2 (0.93%) Bash
7 1 (0.47%) Google Apps Script
Qualifications
1 31 (14.49%) Security Cleared
2 23 (10.75%) DV Cleared
2 23 (10.75%) SC Cleared
3 14 (6.54%) DBS Check
4 13 (6.07%) Microsoft Certification
5 11 (5.14%) Degree
6 7 (3.27%) CCNA
6 7 (3.27%) Cisco Certification
7 5 (2.34%) CCNP
7 5 (2.34%) HND
8 2 (0.93%) Azure Certification
9 1 (0.47%) AWS Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (9.81%) SLA
2 15 (7.01%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 8 (3.74%) Cyber Essentials
3 8 (3.74%) GDPR
4 1 (0.47%) NIST
System Software
1 100 (46.73%) Active Directory
2 45 (21.03%) Hyper-V
3 22 (10.28%) VMware Infrastructure
4 7 (3.27%) vSphere
5 3 (1.40%) Firmware
5 3 (1.40%) Microsoft Virtual Server
5 3 (1.40%) Virtual Servers
6 2 (0.93%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.47%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 50 (23.36%) Microsoft Intune
2 17 (7.94%) Jamf Pro
3 9 (4.21%) Backup Exec
4 7 (3.27%) WSUS
5 5 (2.34%) FortiGate
6 3 (1.40%) Autotask
7 2 (0.93%) Single Sign-On
7 2 (0.93%) Terraform
8 1 (0.47%) Ansible
Vendors
1 125 (58.41%) Microsoft
2 47 (21.96%) VMware
3 22 (10.28%) Oracle
4 15 (7.01%) Veeam
5 14 (6.54%) CrowdStrike
6 13 (6.07%) Apple
6 13 (6.07%) Cisco
7 11 (5.14%) Logitech
7 11 (5.14%) Yealink
8 8 (3.74%) HP
9 7 (3.27%) Google
9 7 (3.27%) McAfee
9 7 (3.27%) Meraki
10 6 (2.80%) ConnectWise
11 5 (2.34%) SolarWinds
12 4 (1.87%) Dell
12 4 (1.87%) Samsung
12 4 (1.87%) SonicWALL
13 3 (1.40%) Datto
13 3 (1.40%) Ubiquiti