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 16 August 2026.

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

6 months to
16 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 561 400 510
Rank change year-on-year -161 +110 +55
Permanent jobs requiring a 3rd Line Support 178 266 262
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.19% 0.61% 0.36%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.20% 0.67% 0.38%
Number of salaries quoted 159 258 237
10th Percentile £32,050 £35,000 £31,250
25th Percentile £37,500 £37,500 £34,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £42,500 £40,000
Median % change year-on-year +5.88% +6.25% -
75th Percentile £55,000 £48,750 £47,500
90th Percentile £58,750 £57,500 £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 89,009 39,723 68,532
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.06% 90.60% 94.95%
Number of salaries quoted 62,517 23,995 46,561
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,500 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £36,500 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.55% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £76,250 £75,000 £72,500
90th Percentile £97,500 £95,000 £92,500
UK median annual salary £56,400 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +2.55% - -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 16 August 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 16 August 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 -64 53 £52,500 +26.51% 6
North of England -48 38 £40,000 -5.88% 3
London -68 31 £53,750 +7.50% 2
Midlands -50 26 £41,000 +6.49% 6
South West -89 20 £45,000 +5.88%
North West -8 17 £31,500 -21.25% 1
East Midlands -27 16 £39,250 +1.95% 2
North East -52 12 £40,000 - 2
East of England -47 10 £37,500 -21.05% 3
West Midlands -49 10 £44,500 +18.67% 4
Yorkshire -35 9 £45,000 -5.26%
3rd Line Support
UK

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

For the 6 months to 16 August 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.

1 115 (64.61%) Microsoft
2 97 (54.49%) Microsoft 365
3 92 (51.69%) Azure
4 83 (46.63%) Active Directory
5 78 (43.82%) Windows
6 73 (41.01%) Entra ID
7 69 (38.76%) Microsoft Exchange
8 60 (33.71%) SharePoint
9 55 (30.90%) Firewall
10 52 (29.21%) Microsoft Intune
11 46 (25.84%) Windows Server
12 43 (24.16%) SaaS
13 33 (18.54%) VLAN
14 31 (17.42%) Infrastructure Engineering
14 31 (17.42%) Problem-Solving
15 30 (16.85%) DNS
16 28 (15.73%) Mentoring
17 27 (15.17%) Cisco
17 27 (15.17%) DHCP
17 27 (15.17%) SQL
18 26 (14.61%) Change Management
18 26 (14.61%) Identity Management
18 26 (14.61%) Project Delivery
18 26 (14.61%) VMware
18 26 (14.61%) VMware Infrastructure
19 25 (14.04%) Degree
20 24 (13.48%) JIRA
20 24 (13.48%) Technical Leadership
20 24 (13.48%) VPN
21 23 (12.92%) Hyper-V

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 (38.76%) Microsoft Exchange
2 60 (33.71%) SharePoint
3 4 (2.25%) Exchange Server 2007
3 4 (2.25%) Exchange Server 2010
3 4 (2.25%) Exchange Server 2013
4 1 (0.56%) Confluence
Applications
1 4 (2.25%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 5 (2.81%) Unit4 Business World
2 3 (1.69%) Fidessa
2 3 (1.69%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.56%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 97 (54.49%) Microsoft 365
2 92 (51.69%) Azure
3 73 (41.01%) Entra ID
4 43 (24.16%) SaaS
5 19 (10.67%) Mimecast
6 11 (6.18%) Google Workspace
7 6 (3.37%) OneDrive
8 5 (2.81%) AWS
8 5 (2.81%) Boomi
8 5 (2.81%) iPaaS
8 5 (2.81%) Workato
9 4 (2.25%) Power Automate
10 3 (1.69%) Power Platform
11 2 (1.12%) Azure Stack
12 1 (0.56%) Google Docs
12 1 (0.56%) IaaS
12 1 (0.56%) PaaS
12 1 (0.56%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 55 (30.90%) Firewall
2 33 (18.54%) VLAN
3 30 (16.85%) DNS
4 27 (15.17%) DHCP
5 24 (13.48%) VPN
6 21 (11.80%) Wireless
7 20 (11.24%) TCP/IP
8 15 (8.43%) LAN
9 14 (7.87%) WAN
10 13 (7.30%) Wi-Fi
11 8 (4.49%) Network Security
11 8 (4.49%) VoIP
12 7 (3.93%) SD-WAN
13 4 (2.25%) DMZ
13 4 (2.25%) SAN
13 4 (2.25%) Wireshark
14 3 (1.69%) FIX Connectivity
14 3 (1.69%) ICMP
14 3 (1.69%) Remote Desktop
15 1 (0.56%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (5.62%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 24 (13.48%) JIRA
2 1 (0.56%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 69 (38.76%) Social Skills
2 22 (12.36%) Legal
3 12 (6.74%) Finance
4 10 (5.62%) Analytical Skills
5 7 (3.93%) Documentation Skills
6 5 (2.81%) Manufacturing
7 4 (2.25%) Organisational Skills
8 3 (1.69%) Banking
8 3 (1.69%) Telecoms
9 2 (1.12%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 1 (0.56%) Law
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (5.62%) .NET
2 8 (4.49%) Web Services
3 3 (1.69%) FIX Protocol
Miscellaneous
1 15 (8.43%) Driving Licence
2 14 (7.87%) Self-Motivation
3 12 (6.74%) Onboarding
4 10 (5.62%) Video Conferencing
5 7 (3.93%) Enterprise Software
6 4 (2.25%) Cyber Threat
7 3 (1.69%) Eurex
8 1 (0.56%) Clustering
8 1 (0.56%) Hybrid Cloud
8 1 (0.56%) PKI
8 1 (0.56%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 78 (43.82%) Windows
2 46 (25.84%) Windows Server
3 20 (11.24%) Linux
4 15 (8.43%) Windows Server 2016
5 13 (7.30%) Mac OS
5 13 (7.30%) Windows Server 2012
6 10 (5.62%) Windows Server 2019
7 5 (2.81%) Windows 10
8 4 (2.25%) Windows Server 2008
9 3 (1.69%) Apple iOS
9 3 (1.69%) CentOS
9 3 (1.69%) Rocky
9 3 (1.69%) Solaris
9 3 (1.69%) Ubuntu
9 3 (1.69%) Unix
10 2 (1.12%) Android
11 1 (0.56%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 1 (0.56%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 31 (17.42%) Infrastructure Engineering
1 31 (17.42%) Problem-Solving
2 28 (15.73%) Mentoring
3 26 (14.61%) Change Management
3 26 (14.61%) Identity Management
3 26 (14.61%) Project Delivery
4 24 (13.48%) Technical Leadership
5 23 (12.92%) Incident Management
5 23 (12.92%) Workflow
6 21 (11.80%) Cybersecurity
7 18 (10.11%) Continuous Improvement
7 18 (10.11%) Customer Service
8 17 (9.55%) Disaster Recovery
8 17 (9.55%) ITIL
8 17 (9.55%) ITSM
9 14 (7.87%) Business Continuity
9 14 (7.87%) Remote Monitoring and Management
9 14 (7.87%) Server Management
10 13 (7.30%) Root Cause Analysis
11 11 (6.18%) ERP
Programming Languages
1 27 (15.17%) SQL
2 18 (10.11%) PowerShell
2 18 (10.11%) R
3 10 (5.62%) C#
4 7 (3.93%) T-SQL
5 6 (3.37%) Python
6 5 (2.81%) Bash
7 4 (2.25%) COBOL
7 4 (2.25%) Java
8 3 (1.69%) JavaScript
8 3 (1.69%) Perl
8 3 (1.69%) Ruby
9 1 (0.56%) Google Apps Script
Qualifications
1 25 (14.04%) Degree
2 19 (10.67%) Microsoft Certification
3 18 (10.11%) CCNA
3 18 (10.11%) Cisco Certification
4 13 (7.30%) Azure Certification
5 4 (2.25%) AWS Certification
5 4 (2.25%) MCSA
5 4 (2.25%) Microsoft Certified Professional
6 3 (1.69%) CCNP
7 2 (1.12%) Security Cleared
8 1 (0.56%) DV Cleared
8 1 (0.56%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (11.80%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 16 (8.99%) Cyber Essentials
3 3 (1.69%) GDPR
3 3 (1.69%) SLA
4 2 (1.12%) PCI DSS
5 1 (0.56%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
System Software
1 83 (46.63%) Active Directory
2 26 (14.61%) VMware Infrastructure
3 23 (12.92%) Hyper-V
4 5 (2.81%) Virtual Machines
5 3 (1.69%) Firmware
6 1 (0.56%) Virtual Desktop
6 1 (0.56%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 52 (29.21%) Microsoft Intune
2 14 (7.87%) Autotask
2 14 (7.87%) Jamf Pro
3 4 (2.25%) Iperf
4 2 (1.12%) Single Sign-On
5 1 (0.56%) Terraform
5 1 (0.56%) WSUS
Vendors
1 115 (64.61%) Microsoft
2 27 (15.17%) Cisco
3 26 (14.61%) VMware
4 18 (10.11%) CrowdStrike
4 18 (10.11%) SonicWALL
5 14 (7.87%) HP
6 13 (7.30%) Meraki
7 12 (6.74%) Fortinet
8 11 (6.18%) Google
9 10 (5.62%) Aruba
9 10 (5.62%) Datto
9 10 (5.62%) Ubiquiti
10 6 (3.37%) Sophos
10 6 (3.37%) Veeam
11 5 (2.81%) ConnectWise
11 5 (2.81%) Palo Alto
11 5 (2.81%) ServiceNow
12 4 (2.25%) Dell
12 4 (2.25%) Ruckus Wireless
12 4 (2.25%) Yealink