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 20 May 2026.

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

6 months to
20 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 525 466 451
Rank change year-on-year -59 -15 +226
Permanent jobs requiring a 3rd Line Support 166 166 418
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.20% 0.42% 0.49%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.22% 0.47% 0.52%
Number of salaries quoted 153 160 391
10th Percentile £34,000 £36,250 £31,250
25th Percentile £37,500 £37,500 £33,375
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £45,000 £40,000
Median % change year-on-year - +12.50% -3.98%
75th Percentile £50,000 £52,500 £45,000
90th Percentile £58,750 £67,500 £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 76,690 35,411 80,085
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.31% 89.88% 94.51%
Number of salaries quoted 51,901 20,912 60,748
10th Percentile £30,000 £30,000 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £41,250 £38,086
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £57,500 £53,500
Median % change year-on-year -4.35% +7.48% -12.01%
75th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £71,250
90th Percentile £96,250 £100,000 £90,519
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 20 May 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 20 May 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 +5 53 £40,000 -5.88% 2
North of England -12 48 £42,500 +6.25% 6
London -10 39 £52,500 +1.94% 4
Yorkshire -15 37 £45,000 +16.13% 1
Midlands -62 15 £32,500 -35.00% 2
East Midlands -37 12 £32,500 -35.00%
North West -7 6 £35,000 -17.65% 3
South West -72 6 £43,250 +8.13% 2
East of England -25 5 £36,500 -18.89% 5
North East -36 5 £40,000 +10.34% 2
West Midlands -56 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 20 May 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 95 (57.23%) Azure
1 95 (57.23%) Microsoft
2 93 (56.02%) Microsoft 365
3 75 (45.18%) Active Directory
4 74 (44.58%) Windows
5 66 (39.76%) Microsoft Exchange
6 57 (34.34%) SharePoint
7 55 (33.13%) Entra ID
8 54 (32.53%) Windows Server
9 46 (27.71%) Microsoft Intune
10 38 (22.89%) DNS
11 36 (21.69%) Firewall
11 36 (21.69%) Hyper-V
12 30 (18.07%) VLAN
13 29 (17.47%) VPN
14 28 (16.87%) Problem-Solving
14 28 (16.87%) SQL
15 27 (16.27%) Infrastructure Engineering
15 27 (16.27%) VMware
16 26 (15.66%) DHCP
16 26 (15.66%) ITIL
16 26 (15.66%) Workflow
17 25 (15.06%) Customer Service
17 25 (15.06%) SaaS
18 24 (14.46%) Identity Management
19 23 (13.86%) VMware Infrastructure
20 22 (13.25%) PowerShell
21 19 (11.45%) Project Delivery
22 18 (10.84%) Cybersecurity
22 18 (10.84%) Disaster Recovery

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 66 (39.76%) Microsoft Exchange
2 57 (34.34%) SharePoint
3 4 (2.41%) Exchange Server 2007
3 4 (2.41%) Exchange Server 2010
3 4 (2.41%) Exchange Server 2013
Applications
1 6 (3.61%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 11 (6.63%) Unit4 Business World
2 3 (1.81%) Oracle EBS
3 2 (1.20%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 95 (57.23%) Azure
2 93 (56.02%) Microsoft 365
3 55 (33.13%) Entra ID
4 25 (15.06%) SaaS
5 18 (10.84%) Mimecast
6 11 (6.63%) Boomi
6 11 (6.63%) iPaaS
6 11 (6.63%) Workato
7 8 (4.82%) Google Workspace
8 4 (2.41%) OneDrive
9 3 (1.81%) AWS
10 2 (1.20%) Power Platform
11 1 (0.60%) Amazon S3
11 1 (0.60%) Google Docs
11 1 (0.60%) IaaS
11 1 (0.60%) PaaS
11 1 (0.60%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 38 (22.89%) DNS
2 36 (21.69%) Firewall
3 30 (18.07%) VLAN
4 29 (17.47%) VPN
5 26 (15.66%) DHCP
6 15 (9.04%) TCP/IP
7 14 (8.43%) Wireless
8 10 (6.02%) SAN
9 9 (5.42%) VoIP
10 7 (4.22%) Wi-Fi
11 4 (2.41%) BGP
11 4 (2.41%) IPsec
11 4 (2.41%) LAN
12 3 (1.81%) Network Security
12 3 (1.81%) Unified Communications
12 3 (1.81%) WAN
13 2 (1.20%) IMAP
13 2 (1.20%) Intrusion Detection
13 2 (1.20%) POP3
13 2 (1.20%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (3.01%) SQL Server
2 3 (1.81%) Amazon RDS
3 1 (0.60%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 15 (9.04%) JIRA
General
1 54 (32.53%) Social Skills
2 22 (13.25%) Legal
3 13 (7.83%) Finance
4 12 (7.23%) Organisational Skills
5 11 (6.63%) Analytical Skills
6 5 (3.01%) Documentation Skills
7 4 (2.41%) Manufacturing
8 3 (1.81%) Retail
8 3 (1.81%) Telecoms
9 2 (1.20%) Advertising
9 2 (1.20%) Law
10 1 (0.60%) Banking
10 1 (0.60%) Public Sector
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (6.63%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 12 (7.23%) Self-Motivation
2 11 (6.63%) Driving Licence
3 7 (4.22%) PKI
4 6 (3.61%) Replication
4 6 (3.61%) Video Conferencing
5 5 (3.01%) Onboarding
6 3 (1.81%) CMDB
6 3 (1.81%) Cyber Threat
6 3 (1.81%) IoT
7 1 (0.60%) Clustering
7 1 (0.60%) Hybrid Cloud
7 1 (0.60%) Management Information System
7 1 (0.60%) Web Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 74 (44.58%) Windows
2 54 (32.53%) Windows Server
3 17 (10.24%) Linux
4 14 (8.43%) Mac OS
5 11 (6.63%) Windows Server 2016
6 8 (4.82%) Windows 10
6 8 (4.82%) Windows Server 2012
7 7 (4.22%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 5 (3.01%) Windows Server 2019
9 4 (2.41%) Windows Server 2008
10 1 (0.60%) Apple iOS
10 1 (0.60%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 28 (16.87%) Problem-Solving
2 27 (16.27%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 26 (15.66%) ITIL
3 26 (15.66%) Workflow
4 25 (15.06%) Customer Service
5 24 (14.46%) Identity Management
6 19 (11.45%) Project Delivery
7 18 (10.84%) Cybersecurity
7 18 (10.84%) Disaster Recovery
7 18 (10.84%) Technical Leadership
8 17 (10.24%) Change Management
9 14 (8.43%) Incident Management
9 14 (8.43%) Service Delivery
10 13 (7.83%) Continuous Improvement
10 13 (7.83%) ERP
11 12 (7.23%) ITSM
11 12 (7.23%) Migration
11 12 (7.23%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 11 (6.63%) Stakeholder Management
12 11 (6.63%) Task Automation
Programming Languages
1 28 (16.87%) SQL
2 22 (13.25%) PowerShell
3 14 (8.43%) R
4 2 (1.20%) Python
5 1 (0.60%) Bash
5 1 (0.60%) C
5 1 (0.60%) Google Apps Script
5 1 (0.60%) Java
5 1 (0.60%) PHP
Qualifications
1 12 (7.23%) Degree
2 11 (6.63%) DBS Check
2 11 (6.63%) Microsoft Certification
3 7 (4.22%) Security Cleared
4 6 (3.61%) DV Cleared
5 4 (2.41%) CCNA
5 4 (2.41%) Cisco Certification
6 2 (1.20%) CCNP
7 1 (0.60%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (8.43%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 10 (6.02%) Cyber Essentials
3 8 (4.82%) GDPR
4 1 (0.60%) SLA
System Software
1 75 (45.18%) Active Directory
2 36 (21.69%) Hyper-V
3 23 (13.86%) VMware Infrastructure
4 7 (4.22%) vSphere
5 3 (1.81%) Firmware
5 3 (1.81%) Microsoft Virtual Server
5 3 (1.81%) Virtual Servers
6 1 (0.60%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (0.60%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 46 (27.71%) Microsoft Intune
2 15 (9.04%) Jamf Pro
3 9 (5.42%) Backup Exec
4 7 (4.22%) Autotask
4 7 (4.22%) WSUS
5 2 (1.20%) Single Sign-On
5 2 (1.20%) Terraform
6 1 (0.60%) Ansible
Vendors
1 95 (57.23%) Microsoft
2 27 (16.27%) VMware
3 16 (9.64%) Veeam
4 14 (8.43%) CrowdStrike
5 13 (7.83%) Cisco
6 10 (6.02%) HP
6 10 (6.02%) Logitech
6 10 (6.02%) Meraki
6 10 (6.02%) Yealink
7 8 (4.82%) Apple
7 8 (4.82%) Google
8 7 (4.22%) McAfee
8 7 (4.22%) SonicWALL
9 6 (3.61%) Aruba
9 6 (3.61%) ConnectWise
9 6 (3.61%) Datto
9 6 (3.61%) Ubiquiti
10 4 (2.41%) Dell
11 3 (1.81%) Draytek
11 3 (1.81%) Oracle