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 25 June 2026.

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

6 months to
25 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 528 451 485
Rank change year-on-year -77 +34 +190
Permanent jobs requiring a 3rd Line Support 181 194 410
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.21% 0.48% 0.44%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.23% 0.54% 0.46%
Number of salaries quoted 165 191 378
10th Percentile £32,100 £36,250 £31,250
25th Percentile £38,250 £37,500 £34,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £45,000 £39,500
Median % change year-on-year - +13.92% -2.47%
75th Percentile £55,000 £52,375 £44,219
90th Percentile £58,750 £67,500 £52,500
UK median annual salary £45,000 £45,000 £40,000
% change year-on-year - +12.50% -1.23%

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 79,486 36,161 88,848
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.12% 90.05% 94.62%
Number of salaries quoted 55,919 21,123 65,722
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,822 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £39,000 £38,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £57,500 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year - +9.52% -12.50%
75th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £70,250
90th Percentile £96,250 £100,000 £90,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £57,500 £52,500
% change year-on-year -4.35% +9.52% -12.50%

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 25 June 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 25 June 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 -6 65 £48,750 +17.47% 6
North of England -12 50 £45,000 +5.88% 3
London -39 37 £53,750 +4.37% 3
Yorkshire -11 28 £45,000 -5.26% 2
Midlands -58 14 £32,500 -31.58% 4
North East -35 12 £40,000 -
East Midlands -43 11 £32,500 -35.00% 2
North West -8 10 £31,500 -23.64% 1
South West -66 10 £45,000 +12.50% 3
East of England -29 5 £36,500 -23.16% 3
West Midlands -43 3 £45,000 +20.00% 2
3rd Line Support
UK

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

For the 6 months to 25 June 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.

1 111 (61.33%) Microsoft
2 101 (55.80%) Azure
3 97 (53.59%) Microsoft 365
4 78 (43.09%) Active Directory
5 76 (41.99%) Windows
6 72 (39.78%) Microsoft Exchange
7 70 (38.67%) SharePoint
8 66 (36.46%) Entra ID
9 51 (28.18%) Windows Server
10 47 (25.97%) Microsoft Intune
11 43 (23.76%) SaaS
12 36 (19.89%) SQL
13 35 (19.34%) DNS
14 34 (18.78%) Firewall
15 33 (18.23%) VLAN
16 31 (17.13%) Infrastructure Engineering
17 30 (16.57%) Hyper-V
17 30 (16.57%) Workflow
18 28 (15.47%) Identity Management
19 26 (14.36%) VMware
19 26 (14.36%) VMware Infrastructure
19 26 (14.36%) VPN
20 25 (13.81%) Problem-Solving
21 24 (13.26%) Change Management
21 24 (13.26%) DHCP
21 24 (13.26%) Project Delivery
22 23 (12.71%) ITIL
23 22 (12.15%) Mimecast
23 22 (12.15%) Technical Leadership
24 21 (11.60%) Incident Management

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 72 (39.78%) Microsoft Exchange
2 70 (38.67%) 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%) Oracle EBS
2 3 (1.66%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.55%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 101 (55.80%) Azure
2 97 (53.59%) Microsoft 365
3 66 (36.46%) Entra ID
4 43 (23.76%) SaaS
5 22 (12.15%) Mimecast
6 11 (6.08%) Boomi
6 11 (6.08%) Google Workspace
6 11 (6.08%) iPaaS
6 11 (6.08%) Workato
7 5 (2.76%) OneDrive
8 3 (1.66%) AWS
8 3 (1.66%) Power Platform
9 1 (0.55%) Google Docs
9 1 (0.55%) IaaS
9 1 (0.55%) PaaS
9 1 (0.55%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 35 (19.34%) DNS
2 34 (18.78%) Firewall
3 33 (18.23%) VLAN
4 26 (14.36%) VPN
5 24 (13.26%) DHCP
6 14 (7.73%) TCP/IP
6 14 (7.73%) Wireless
7 11 (6.08%) Wi-Fi
8 10 (5.52%) SAN
9 8 (4.42%) VoIP
10 4 (2.21%) BGP
10 4 (2.21%) IPsec
10 4 (2.21%) LAN
11 3 (1.66%) Network Security
11 3 (1.66%) WAN
12 2 (1.10%) DMZ
12 2 (1.10%) Unified Communications
12 2 (1.10%) Wireshark
13 1 (0.55%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (6.08%) SQL Server
2 2 (1.10%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 19 (10.50%) JIRA
2 1 (0.55%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 61 (33.70%) Social Skills
2 27 (14.92%) Legal
3 14 (7.73%) Finance
4 10 (5.52%) Organisational Skills
5 9 (4.97%) Analytical Skills
6 7 (3.87%) Documentation Skills
7 2 (1.10%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 2 (1.10%) Telecoms
8 1 (0.55%) Banking
8 1 (0.55%) Manufacturing
8 1 (0.55%) Public Sector
8 1 (0.55%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (7.73%) Web Services
2 8 (4.42%) .NET
Miscellaneous
1 12 (6.63%) Self-Motivation
2 10 (5.52%) Driving Licence
2 10 (5.52%) Video Conferencing
3 7 (3.87%) Enterprise Software
3 7 (3.87%) PKI
4 5 (2.76%) Replication
5 4 (2.21%) Cyber Threat
6 3 (1.66%) CMDB
6 3 (1.66%) Onboarding
7 2 (1.10%) IoT
8 1 (0.55%) Clustering
8 1 (0.55%) Hybrid Cloud
8 1 (0.55%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 76 (41.99%) Windows
2 51 (28.18%) Windows Server
3 20 (11.05%) Linux
4 18 (9.94%) Mac OS
5 13 (7.18%) Windows Server 2016
6 11 (6.08%) Windows Server 2012
7 8 (4.42%) Windows 10
7 8 (4.42%) Windows Server 2019
8 7 (3.87%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 4 (2.21%) Windows Server 2008
10 1 (0.55%) Apple iOS
10 1 (0.55%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 31 (17.13%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 30 (16.57%) Workflow
3 28 (15.47%) Identity Management
4 25 (13.81%) Problem-Solving
5 24 (13.26%) Change Management
5 24 (13.26%) Project Delivery
6 23 (12.71%) ITIL
7 22 (12.15%) Technical Leadership
8 21 (11.60%) Incident Management
9 19 (10.50%) Customer Service
10 17 (9.39%) Cybersecurity
11 16 (8.84%) Disaster Recovery
12 15 (8.29%) Continuous Improvement
13 14 (7.73%) ITSM
13 14 (7.73%) Service Delivery
14 13 (7.18%) ERP
14 13 (7.18%) Migration
15 12 (6.63%) Remote Monitoring and Management
15 12 (6.63%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 11 (6.08%) Server Management
Programming Languages
1 36 (19.89%) SQL
2 19 (10.50%) PowerShell
3 18 (9.94%) R
4 8 (4.42%) C#
5 7 (3.87%) T-SQL
6 2 (1.10%) COBOL
6 2 (1.10%) Java
6 2 (1.10%) Python
7 1 (0.55%) Bash
7 1 (0.55%) Google Apps Script
Qualifications
1 15 (8.29%) Microsoft Certification
2 13 (7.18%) Degree
3 7 (3.87%) Security Cleared
4 6 (3.31%) DBS Check
4 6 (3.31%) DV Cleared
5 4 (2.21%) Azure Certification
5 4 (2.21%) CCNA
5 4 (2.21%) Cisco Certification
6 2 (1.10%) AWS Certification
6 2 (1.10%) MCSA
6 2 (1.10%) Microsoft Certified Professional
7 1 (0.55%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (11.05%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 12 (6.63%) Cyber Essentials
3 8 (4.42%) GDPR
4 3 (1.66%) SLA
5 2 (1.10%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 78 (43.09%) Active Directory
2 30 (16.57%) Hyper-V
3 26 (14.36%) VMware Infrastructure
4 7 (3.87%) vSphere
5 3 (1.66%) Microsoft Virtual Server
5 3 (1.66%) Virtual Servers
6 2 (1.10%) Firmware
7 1 (0.55%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 47 (25.97%) Microsoft Intune
2 19 (10.50%) Jamf Pro
3 14 (7.73%) Autotask
4 9 (4.97%) Backup Exec
5 7 (3.87%) WSUS
6 2 (1.10%) Iperf
6 2 (1.10%) Single Sign-On
6 2 (1.10%) Terraform
7 1 (0.55%) Ansible
Vendors
1 111 (61.33%) Microsoft
2 26 (14.36%) VMware
3 18 (9.94%) Cisco
3 18 (9.94%) CrowdStrike
4 15 (8.29%) Veeam
5 14 (7.73%) HP
5 14 (7.73%) Meraki
6 13 (7.18%) SonicWALL
7 11 (6.08%) Google
8 10 (5.52%) Aruba
8 10 (5.52%) Datto
8 10 (5.52%) Ubiquiti
9 9 (4.97%) Logitech
9 9 (4.97%) Yealink
10 8 (4.42%) Apple
11 7 (3.87%) ConnectWise
11 7 (3.87%) McAfee
12 4 (2.21%) Dell
12 4 (2.21%) Fortinet
13 3 (1.66%) Oracle