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 February 2026.

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

6 months to
2 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 390 546 427
Rank change year-on-year +156 -119 +261
Permanent jobs requiring a 3rd Line Support 228 125 370
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.41% 0.27% 0.57%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.45% 0.29% 0.60%
Number of salaries quoted 211 104 348
10th Percentile £34,000 £35,500 £31,250
25th Percentile £36,250 £36,250 £34,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £43,625 £40,000
Median % change year-on-year -2.58% +9.06% -5.88%
75th Percentile £50,000 £55,000 £48,750
90th Percentile £58,750 £76,250 £60,000
UK median annual salary £42,500 £45,000 £40,000
% change year-on-year -5.56% +12.50% -5.88%

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 51,221 42,740 61,559
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 91.06% 91.80% 94.87%
Number of salaries quoted 32,656 22,151 49,308
10th Percentile £29,000 £33,750 £29,000
25th Percentile £37,500 £45,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -12.00%
75th Percentile £75,000 £80,000 £75,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £95,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -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 February 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 February 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 +93 103 £42,000 -6.67% 23
North of England +8 41 £42,500 +18.06% 9
Yorkshire +14 36 £45,000 +24.14% 8
London +63 32 £45,000 -12.62% 5
East of England +31 27 £47,000 +17.50% 3
Midlands +21 25 £37,500 -25.00% 4
East Midlands +11 22 £37,500 -42.31% 4
North West +12 5 £40,500 +1.25% 1
West Midlands +15 3 £35,000 -30.00%
South West -8 1 £42,500 - 4
3rd Line Support
UK

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

For the 6 months to 2 February 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.

1 139 (60.96%) Microsoft
2 126 (55.26%) Windows
3 109 (47.81%) Active Directory
4 106 (46.49%) Microsoft 365
5 101 (44.30%) Azure
6 78 (34.21%) Microsoft Exchange
6 78 (34.21%) Windows Server
7 60 (26.32%) Customer Service
8 57 (25.00%) Hyper-V
9 56 (24.56%) DNS
10 52 (22.81%) PowerShell
10 52 (22.81%) VMware
11 50 (21.93%) DHCP
11 50 (21.93%) Problem-Solving
12 48 (21.05%) Entra ID
13 47 (20.61%) Firewall
14 45 (19.74%) Microsoft Intune
15 43 (18.86%) Security Cleared
16 37 (16.23%) Mentoring
16 37 (16.23%) SC Cleared
17 36 (15.79%) VPN
18 31 (13.60%) SharePoint
18 31 (13.60%) SLA
19 30 (13.16%) VLAN
20 29 (12.72%) Incident Management
21 28 (12.28%) ITIL
21 28 (12.28%) Oracle
22 27 (11.84%) DV Cleared
22 27 (11.84%) TCP/IP
23 25 (10.96%) Unix

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 78 (34.21%) Microsoft Exchange
2 31 (13.60%) SharePoint
3 22 (9.65%) Exchange Server 2003
4 1 (0.44%) Confluence
4 1 (0.44%) Exchange Server 2013
4 1 (0.44%) IIS
Applications
1 6 (2.63%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 3 (1.32%) Oracle EBS
2 1 (0.44%) Fidessa
2 1 (0.44%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 106 (46.49%) Microsoft 365
2 101 (44.30%) Azure
3 48 (21.05%) Entra ID
4 8 (3.51%) Mimecast
5 6 (2.63%) IaaS
5 6 (2.63%) Power Platform
6 5 (2.19%) SaaS
7 4 (1.75%) AWS
8 3 (1.32%) Google Workspace
9 1 (0.44%) Amazon S3
9 1 (0.44%) Cloud Computing
9 1 (0.44%) Dynamics 365
9 1 (0.44%) GCP
9 1 (0.44%) n8n
9 1 (0.44%) PaaS
9 1 (0.44%) Power Automate
9 1 (0.44%) Zapier
Communications & Networking
1 56 (24.56%) DNS
2 50 (21.93%) DHCP
3 47 (20.61%) Firewall
4 36 (15.79%) VPN
5 30 (13.16%) VLAN
6 27 (11.84%) TCP/IP
7 17 (7.46%) Wireless
8 14 (6.14%) LAN
8 14 (6.14%) WAN
9 12 (5.26%) SAN
10 10 (4.39%) Wi-Fi
11 7 (3.07%) VoIP
12 6 (2.63%) SMTP
13 5 (2.19%) EIGRP
13 5 (2.19%) IMAP
13 5 (2.19%) Intrusion Detection
13 5 (2.19%) OSPF
13 5 (2.19%) POP3
13 5 (2.19%) SSL
13 5 (2.19%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (10.09%) Oracle Database
1 23 (10.09%) Oracle Database 10g
2 10 (4.39%) SQL Server
3 5 (2.19%) Power BI
4 3 (1.32%) Amazon RDS
4 3 (1.32%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 5 (2.19%) JIRA
General
1 72 (31.58%) Social Skills
2 11 (4.82%) Analytical Skills
2 11 (4.82%) Automotive
2 11 (4.82%) Law
3 10 (4.39%) Manufacturing
4 8 (3.51%) Marketing
5 7 (3.07%) Organisational Skills
6 6 (2.63%) Legal
7 5 (2.19%) Telecoms
8 4 (1.75%) Documentation Skills
8 4 (1.75%) Finance
8 4 (1.75%) Retail
9 3 (1.32%) Advertising
9 3 (1.32%) Public Sector
10 2 (0.88%) Banking
10 2 (0.88%) Electronics
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (0.44%) FIX Protocol
Miscellaneous
1 31 (13.60%) Onboarding
2 18 (7.89%) Self-Motivation
3 10 (4.39%) Driving Licence
4 6 (2.63%) Management Information System
4 6 (2.63%) Replication
5 5 (2.19%) PKI
6 3 (1.32%) CMDB
6 3 (1.32%) IoT
6 3 (1.32%) Web Conferencing
7 2 (0.88%) Cyber Threat
8 1 (0.44%) Blockchain
8 1 (0.44%) BYOD
8 1 (0.44%) Clustering
8 1 (0.44%) Eurex
8 1 (0.44%) FMCG
8 1 (0.44%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 126 (55.26%) Windows
2 78 (34.21%) Windows Server
3 25 (10.96%) Unix
4 24 (10.53%) Solaris
5 23 (10.09%) HPUX
6 22 (9.65%) Windows Server 2003
7 21 (9.21%) Windows 7
7 21 (9.21%) Windows Server 2008
8 15 (6.58%) Apple iOS
9 14 (6.14%) Android
10 11 (4.82%) Linux
11 9 (3.95%) Mac OS
11 9 (3.95%) Windows 10
12 5 (2.19%) Windows Server 2016
13 4 (1.75%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
14 3 (1.32%) Windows Server 2019
15 2 (0.88%) Windows Server 2012
16 1 (0.44%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 60 (26.32%) Customer Service
2 50 (21.93%) Problem-Solving
3 37 (16.23%) Mentoring
4 29 (12.72%) Incident Management
5 28 (12.28%) ITIL
6 21 (9.21%) Cybersecurity
7 20 (8.77%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 18 (7.89%) Disaster Recovery
8 18 (7.89%) Mobile Device Management
9 16 (7.02%) Logistics
10 15 (6.58%) Coaching
10 15 (6.58%) Network Monitoring
11 12 (5.26%) Service Delivery
11 12 (5.26%) Zero Trust
12 11 (4.82%) Service Desk Management
12 11 (4.82%) Stakeholder Management
13 10 (4.39%) Network Management
14 9 (3.95%) Continuous Improvement
14 9 (3.95%) ITSM
15 8 (3.51%) Service Management
Programming Languages
1 52 (22.81%) PowerShell
2 23 (10.09%) SQL
3 21 (9.21%) Perl
4 3 (1.32%) C
4 3 (1.32%) Java
4 3 (1.32%) PHP
4 3 (1.32%) R
5 2 (0.88%) Bash
5 2 (0.88%) Python
Qualifications
1 43 (18.86%) Security Cleared
2 37 (16.23%) SC Cleared
3 27 (11.84%) DV Cleared
4 19 (8.33%) DBS Check
5 15 (6.58%) Degree
5 15 (6.58%) Microsoft Certification
6 10 (4.39%) CCNA
6 10 (4.39%) Cisco Certification
7 6 (2.63%) Azure Certification
8 5 (2.19%) CCNP
8 5 (2.19%) HND
9 3 (1.32%) MCTS
9 3 (1.32%) Microsoft Certified Professional
10 1 (0.44%) ACMT
10 1 (0.44%) AWS Certification
10 1 (0.44%) ITIL Certification
10 1 (0.44%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 31 (13.60%) SLA
2 5 (2.19%) Cyber Essentials
2 5 (2.19%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 3 (1.32%) GDPR
4 1 (0.44%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 1 (0.44%) NIST
System Software
1 109 (47.81%) Active Directory
2 57 (25.00%) Hyper-V
3 20 (8.77%) VMware Infrastructure
4 5 (2.19%) Virtual Machines
5 4 (1.75%) vSphere
6 3 (1.32%) Microsoft Virtual Server
6 3 (1.32%) Virtual Servers
7 2 (0.88%) Firmware
8 1 (0.44%) BitLocker
8 1 (0.44%) Docker
8 1 (0.44%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.44%) VMware NSX
8 1 (0.44%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 45 (19.74%) Microsoft Intune
2 16 (7.02%) Jamf Pro
3 6 (2.63%) Autotask
3 6 (2.63%) Backup Exec
4 5 (2.19%) FortiGate
4 5 (2.19%) SCCM
5 4 (1.75%) WSUS
6 3 (1.32%) vCenter Server
7 1 (0.44%) Ansible
7 1 (0.44%) Avamar
7 1 (0.44%) Kubernetes
7 1 (0.44%) SCOM
7 1 (0.44%) Terraform
Vendors
1 139 (60.96%) Microsoft
2 52 (22.81%) VMware
3 28 (12.28%) Oracle
4 17 (7.46%) Apple
5 14 (6.14%) Cisco
6 12 (5.26%) Veeam
7 7 (3.07%) Samsung
8 6 (2.63%) Meraki
8 6 (2.63%) SolarWinds
9 5 (2.19%) HP
9 5 (2.19%) Logitech
9 5 (2.19%) Yealink
10 4 (1.75%) McAfee
10 4 (1.75%) Sophos
11 3 (1.32%) ConnectWise
11 3 (1.32%) CrowdStrike
11 3 (1.32%) Google
11 3 (1.32%) IFS
12 2 (0.88%) Fortinet
12 2 (0.88%) Ubiquiti