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 21 April 2026.

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

6 months to
21 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 472 468 434
Rank change year-on-year -4 -34 +248
Permanent jobs requiring a 3rd Line Support 209 147 425
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.27% 0.39% 0.52%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.29% 0.44% 0.55%
Number of salaries quoted 195 141 399
10th Percentile £35,000 £36,250 £31,250
25th Percentile £37,625 £37,500 £34,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £45,000 £40,000
Median % change year-on-year - +12.50% -4.76%
75th Percentile £50,750 £52,500 £45,875
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 72,201 33,355 77,747
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.71% 89.27% 94.44%
Number of salaries quoted 47,190 21,366 59,531
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,000 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £42,500 £38,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £54,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +11.11% -10.74%
75th Percentile £75,000 £78,750 £72,433
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £91,250
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £53,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +13.21% -11.67%

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 21 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 21 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 +14 78 £45,000 +5.88% 4
London +8 49 £45,000 -30.77% 1
North of England -38 48 £42,500 +6.92% 12
Yorkshire -25 39 £45,000 +24.14% 9
Midlands -57 16 £33,750 -32.50% 4
East of England -33 13 £47,000 +11.90%
East Midlands -60 13 £32,500 -35.00% 3
North East -36 5 £40,000 +11.11% 1
South West -68 5 £45,000 +12.50% 7
North West -43 4 £38,000 -10.59% 3
West Midlands -47 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 21 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.

1 121 (57.89%) Microsoft
2 107 (51.20%) Azure
2 107 (51.20%) Microsoft 365
3 97 (46.41%) Windows
4 96 (45.93%) Active Directory
5 86 (41.15%) Microsoft Exchange
6 64 (30.62%) Windows Server
7 59 (28.23%) SharePoint
8 58 (27.75%) Entra ID
9 53 (25.36%) DNS
10 49 (23.44%) Microsoft Intune
11 46 (22.01%) Firewall
11 46 (22.01%) PowerShell
12 44 (21.05%) Hyper-V
12 44 (21.05%) VMware
13 41 (19.62%) DHCP
14 39 (18.66%) Problem-Solving
15 38 (18.18%) Customer Service
16 32 (15.31%) VLAN
16 32 (15.31%) VPN
17 30 (14.35%) ITIL
17 30 (14.35%) SQL
18 29 (13.88%) Incident Management
19 27 (12.92%) Infrastructure Engineering
19 27 (12.92%) Security Cleared
19 27 (12.92%) Workflow
20 24 (11.48%) Identity Management
21 23 (11.00%) SaaS
22 22 (10.53%) VMware Infrastructure
23 20 (9.57%) DV Cleared

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 86 (41.15%) Microsoft Exchange
2 59 (28.23%) SharePoint
3 14 (6.70%) Exchange Server 2003
4 4 (1.91%) Exchange Server 2007
4 4 (1.91%) Exchange Server 2010
4 4 (1.91%) Exchange Server 2013
5 1 (0.48%) Confluence
Applications
1 9 (4.31%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 11 (5.26%) Unit4 Business World
2 3 (1.44%) Oracle EBS
3 2 (0.96%) NetSuite
4 1 (0.48%) Fidessa
Cloud Services
1 107 (51.20%) Azure
1 107 (51.20%) Microsoft 365
2 58 (27.75%) Entra ID
3 23 (11.00%) SaaS
4 18 (8.61%) Mimecast
5 11 (5.26%) Boomi
5 11 (5.26%) iPaaS
5 11 (5.26%) Workato
6 8 (3.83%) Google Workspace
7 5 (2.39%) Power Platform
8 4 (1.91%) AWS
8 4 (1.91%) OneDrive
9 1 (0.48%) Amazon S3
9 1 (0.48%) Cloud Computing
9 1 (0.48%) GCP
9 1 (0.48%) Google Docs
9 1 (0.48%) IaaS
9 1 (0.48%) PaaS
9 1 (0.48%) Power Automate
9 1 (0.48%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 53 (25.36%) DNS
2 46 (22.01%) Firewall
3 41 (19.62%) DHCP
4 32 (15.31%) VLAN
4 32 (15.31%) VPN
5 18 (8.61%) TCP/IP
6 15 (7.18%) Wireless
7 13 (6.22%) SAN
8 10 (4.78%) VoIP
9 7 (3.35%) Wi-Fi
10 6 (2.87%) LAN
10 6 (2.87%) Network Security
10 6 (2.87%) SMTP
11 5 (2.39%) EIGRP
11 5 (2.39%) IMAP
11 5 (2.39%) Intrusion Detection
11 5 (2.39%) OSPF
11 5 (2.39%) POP3
11 5 (2.39%) WAN
11 5 (2.39%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 15 (7.18%) Oracle Database
1 15 (7.18%) Oracle Database 10g
2 9 (4.31%) SQL Server
3 5 (2.39%) Power BI
4 3 (1.44%) Amazon RDS
4 3 (1.44%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 17 (8.13%) JIRA
General
1 56 (26.79%) Social Skills
2 22 (10.53%) Legal
3 14 (6.70%) Finance
4 12 (5.74%) Analytical Skills
4 12 (5.74%) Organisational Skills
5 8 (3.83%) Manufacturing
6 6 (2.87%) Law
7 5 (2.39%) Documentation Skills
8 4 (1.91%) Retail
9 3 (1.44%) Advertising
9 3 (1.44%) Telecoms
10 2 (0.96%) Banking
11 1 (0.48%) Marketing
11 1 (0.48%) Public Sector
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (5.26%) Web Services
2 1 (0.48%) FIX Protocol
Miscellaneous
1 14 (6.70%) Driving Licence
1 14 (6.70%) Self-Motivation
2 11 (5.26%) Onboarding
3 7 (3.35%) PKI
4 6 (2.87%) Replication
5 4 (1.91%) IoT
5 4 (1.91%) Video Conferencing
6 3 (1.44%) CMDB
6 3 (1.44%) Cyber Threat
6 3 (1.44%) Web Conferencing
7 1 (0.48%) Blockchain
7 1 (0.48%) Clustering
7 1 (0.48%) Eurex
7 1 (0.48%) Low-Code
7 1 (0.48%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 97 (46.41%) Windows
2 64 (30.62%) Windows Server
3 18 (8.61%) Linux
4 17 (8.13%) Windows Server 2008
5 16 (7.66%) Solaris
5 16 (7.66%) Unix
6 15 (7.18%) HPUX
7 14 (6.70%) Mac OS
7 14 (6.70%) Windows Server 2003
8 13 (6.22%) Windows 7
9 10 (4.78%) Windows Server 2016
10 8 (3.83%) Windows 10
11 7 (3.35%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 6 (2.87%) Windows Server 2012
13 5 (2.39%) Apple iOS
14 4 (1.91%) Android
14 4 (1.91%) Windows Server 2019
15 1 (0.48%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 39 (18.66%) Problem-Solving
2 38 (18.18%) Customer Service
3 30 (14.35%) ITIL
4 29 (13.88%) Incident Management
5 27 (12.92%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 27 (12.92%) Workflow
6 24 (11.48%) Identity Management
7 18 (8.61%) Project Delivery
8 17 (8.13%) Change Management
8 17 (8.13%) Technical Leadership
9 16 (7.66%) Cybersecurity
9 16 (7.66%) Disaster Recovery
10 14 (6.70%) ERP
11 13 (6.22%) Service Delivery
12 12 (5.74%) ITSM
12 12 (5.74%) Mentoring
12 12 (5.74%) Migration
12 12 (5.74%) Stakeholder Management
13 11 (5.26%) Requirements Gathering
13 11 (5.26%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 46 (22.01%) PowerShell
2 30 (14.35%) SQL
3 14 (6.70%) R
4 13 (6.22%) Perl
5 3 (1.44%) C
5 3 (1.44%) Java
5 3 (1.44%) PHP
5 3 (1.44%) Python
6 2 (0.96%) Bash
7 1 (0.48%) Google Apps Script
Qualifications
1 27 (12.92%) Security Cleared
2 20 (9.57%) DV Cleared
3 19 (9.09%) SC Cleared
4 14 (6.70%) DBS Check
5 13 (6.22%) Microsoft Certification
6 11 (5.26%) Degree
7 7 (3.35%) CCNA
7 7 (3.35%) Cisco Certification
8 5 (2.39%) CCNP
8 5 (2.39%) HND
9 1 (0.48%) AWS Certification
9 1 (0.48%) Azure Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (8.13%) SLA
2 15 (7.18%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 8 (3.83%) Cyber Essentials
3 8 (3.83%) GDPR
4 1 (0.48%) NIST
System Software
1 96 (45.93%) Active Directory
2 44 (21.05%) Hyper-V
3 22 (10.53%) VMware Infrastructure
4 7 (3.35%) vSphere
5 3 (1.44%) Firmware
5 3 (1.44%) Microsoft Virtual Server
5 3 (1.44%) Virtual Servers
6 1 (0.48%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (0.48%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 49 (23.44%) Microsoft Intune
2 17 (8.13%) Jamf Pro
3 9 (4.31%) Backup Exec
4 7 (3.35%) WSUS
5 5 (2.39%) FortiGate
6 4 (1.91%) Autotask
7 2 (0.96%) Single Sign-On
7 2 (0.96%) Terraform
8 1 (0.48%) Ansible
Vendors
1 121 (57.89%) Microsoft
2 44 (21.05%) VMware
3 19 (9.09%) Oracle
4 15 (7.18%) Veeam
5 14 (6.70%) Cisco
5 14 (6.70%) CrowdStrike
6 12 (5.74%) Apple
7 11 (5.26%) Logitech
7 11 (5.26%) Yealink
8 9 (4.31%) HP
9 8 (3.83%) Google
9 8 (3.83%) Meraki
10 7 (3.35%) McAfee
11 6 (2.87%) ConnectWise
12 5 (2.39%) SolarWinds
12 5 (2.39%) SonicWALL
13 4 (1.91%) Aruba
13 4 (1.91%) Datto
13 4 (1.91%) Samsung
13 4 (1.91%) Ubiquiti