3rd Line Support Job Trends in England

Third Line Support
UK > England

The median Third Line Support salary in England is £46,750 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 25 September 2026.

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

6 months to
25 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 594 406 567
Rank change year-on-year -188 +161 -39
Permanent jobs requiring a 3rd Line Support 179 256 192
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.17% 0.59% 0.28%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.19% 0.66% 0.29%
Number of salaries quoted 148 249 163
10th Percentile £32,250 £34,800 £31,600
25th Percentile £40,000 £36,750 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £46,750 £42,500 £40,000
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% +6.25% -2.44%
75th Percentile £55,000 £48,750 £48,750
90th Percentile £58,750 £57,500 £55,000
UK median annual salary £45,000 £42,500 £40,000
% change year-on-year +5.88% +6.25% -2.44%

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 96,166 39,010 65,087
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.14% 90.46% 95.20%
Number of salaries quoted 67,635 23,328 38,436
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,300 £30,500
25th Percentile £41,000 £36,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £77,500 £75,000 £75,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £95,000 £95,000
UK median annual salary £59,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +7.27% - -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 25 September 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 September 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 -97 42 £52,500 +26.51% 13
North of England -51 38 £35,000 -13.58% 11
Midlands -63 29 £41,000 -6.82% 13
London -69 28 £55,000 +10.00% 9
South West -68 27 £48,750 +0.52% 6
North West -23 17 £31,500 -21.25% 5
East of England -37 15 £37,000 -21.28% 1
East Midlands -45 15 £40,000 -4.19% 7
West Midlands -52 14 £45,000 +2.27% 6
North East - 14 £40,000 - 2
Yorkshire -38 7 £47,500 - 4
3rd Line Support
UK

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

For the 6 months to 25 September 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.

1 112 (62.57%) Microsoft
2 83 (46.37%) Microsoft 365
3 79 (44.13%) Active Directory
4 75 (41.90%) Azure
4 75 (41.90%) Windows
5 66 (36.87%) Entra ID
6 62 (34.64%) Microsoft Exchange
7 61 (34.08%) Firewall
8 57 (31.84%) SharePoint
9 45 (25.14%) Windows Server
10 43 (24.02%) Microsoft Intune
11 42 (23.46%) Mentoring
12 40 (22.35%) Problem-Solving
13 37 (20.67%) DNS
14 35 (19.55%) Infrastructure Engineering
14 35 (19.55%) VMware
14 35 (19.55%) VMware Infrastructure
15 34 (18.99%) DHCP
15 34 (18.99%) VLAN
16 32 (17.88%) SaaS
17 29 (16.20%) Cisco
18 28 (15.64%) VPN
18 28 (15.64%) Wireless
19 27 (15.08%) Hyper-V
20 26 (14.53%) Degree
21 24 (13.41%) Cybersecurity
21 24 (13.41%) Technical Leadership
22 23 (12.85%) Project Delivery
22 23 (12.85%) SQL
23 22 (12.29%) TCP/IP

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 62 (34.64%) Microsoft Exchange
2 57 (31.84%) SharePoint
3 2 (1.12%) Exchange Server 2007
3 2 (1.12%) Exchange Server 2010
3 2 (1.12%) Exchange Server 2013
4 1 (0.56%) Confluence
Applications
1 2 (1.12%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 5 (2.79%) Fidessa
2 3 (1.68%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.56%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 83 (46.37%) Microsoft 365
2 75 (41.90%) Azure
3 66 (36.87%) Entra ID
4 32 (17.88%) SaaS
5 12 (6.70%) Mimecast
6 10 (5.59%) Google Workspace
7 5 (2.79%) AWS
8 4 (2.23%) OneDrive
8 4 (2.23%) Power Automate
9 3 (1.68%) Power Platform
10 2 (1.12%) Azure Stack
11 1 (0.56%) Dynamics 365
Communications & Networking
1 61 (34.08%) Firewall
2 37 (20.67%) DNS
3 34 (18.99%) DHCP
3 34 (18.99%) VLAN
4 28 (15.64%) VPN
4 28 (15.64%) Wireless
5 22 (12.29%) TCP/IP
6 15 (8.38%) LAN
6 15 (8.38%) WAN
7 11 (6.15%) Wi-Fi
8 8 (4.47%) Network Security
8 8 (4.47%) SD-WAN
9 6 (3.35%) VoIP
10 5 (2.79%) FIX Connectivity
11 4 (2.23%) DMZ
11 4 (2.23%) Wireshark
12 3 (1.68%) ICMP
12 3 (1.68%) Remote Desktop
12 3 (1.68%) SAN
13 1 (0.56%) Cisco ISE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 15 (8.38%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 16 (8.94%) JIRA
2 1 (0.56%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 74 (41.34%) Social Skills
2 16 (8.94%) Legal
3 11 (6.15%) Analytical Skills
4 9 (5.03%) Documentation Skills
4 9 (5.03%) Finance
5 5 (2.79%) Banking
5 5 (2.79%) Manufacturing
6 3 (1.68%) Telecoms
7 2 (1.12%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 2 (1.12%) Organisational Skills
8 1 (0.56%) Law
8 1 (0.56%) Presentation Skills
8 1 (0.56%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (5.59%) .NET
2 5 (2.79%) FIX Protocol
3 3 (1.68%) Web Services
4 1 (0.56%) Terraform
Miscellaneous
1 18 (10.06%) Onboarding
2 12 (6.70%) Self-Motivation
3 11 (6.15%) Driving Licence
3 11 (6.15%) Video Conferencing
4 7 (3.91%) Enterprise Software
5 5 (2.79%) Eurex
6 4 (2.23%) Cyber Threat
7 1 (0.56%) Clustering
7 1 (0.56%) CMDB
7 1 (0.56%) Hybrid Cloud
7 1 (0.56%) iPhone
7 1 (0.56%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 75 (41.90%) Windows
2 45 (25.14%) Windows Server
3 18 (10.06%) Linux
4 11 (6.15%) Windows Server 2012
4 11 (6.15%) Windows Server 2016
5 10 (5.59%) Mac OS
6 8 (4.47%) Windows Server 2019
7 5 (2.79%) CentOS
7 5 (2.79%) Rocky
7 5 (2.79%) Solaris
7 5 (2.79%) Ubuntu
7 5 (2.79%) Unix
8 2 (1.12%) Android
8 2 (1.12%) Apple iOS
8 2 (1.12%) Windows 10
8 2 (1.12%) Windows Server 2008
9 1 (0.56%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 42 (23.46%) Mentoring
2 40 (22.35%) Problem-Solving
3 35 (19.55%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 24 (13.41%) Cybersecurity
4 24 (13.41%) Technical Leadership
5 23 (12.85%) Project Delivery
6 20 (11.17%) Disaster Recovery
7 17 (9.50%) Change Management
8 16 (8.94%) Continuous Improvement
8 16 (8.94%) Incident Management
9 15 (8.38%) Identity Management
9 15 (8.38%) ITIL
9 15 (8.38%) Root Cause Analysis
10 14 (7.82%) Business Continuity
10 14 (7.82%) Customer Service
10 14 (7.82%) ITSM
10 14 (7.82%) Remote Monitoring and Management
10 14 (7.82%) Server Management
11 11 (6.15%) Proactive Maintenance
11 11 (6.15%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 23 (12.85%) SQL
2 14 (7.82%) PowerShell
3 11 (6.15%) R
4 10 (5.59%) C#
5 7 (3.91%) Bash
5 7 (3.91%) Python
5 7 (3.91%) T-SQL
6 5 (2.79%) JavaScript
6 5 (2.79%) Perl
6 5 (2.79%) Ruby
7 4 (2.23%) COBOL
7 4 (2.23%) Java
Qualifications
1 26 (14.53%) Degree
2 16 (8.94%) CCNA
2 16 (8.94%) Cisco Certification
2 16 (8.94%) Microsoft Certification
3 13 (7.26%) Azure Certification
4 4 (2.23%) AWS Certification
4 4 (2.23%) MCSA
4 4 (2.23%) Microsoft Certified Professional
5 3 (1.68%) CCNP
6 1 (0.56%) SC Cleared
6 1 (0.56%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (7.82%) Cyber Essentials
1 14 (7.82%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 3 (1.68%) PCI DSS
2 3 (1.68%) SLA
3 1 (0.56%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
System Software
1 79 (44.13%) Active Directory
2 35 (19.55%) VMware Infrastructure
3 27 (15.08%) Hyper-V
4 8 (4.47%) Virtual Machines
5 3 (1.68%) Firmware
6 1 (0.56%) BitLocker
6 1 (0.56%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 43 (24.02%) Microsoft Intune
2 14 (7.82%) Autotask
3 11 (6.15%) Jamf Pro
4 4 (2.23%) Iperf
5 1 (0.56%) Nessus
5 1 (0.56%) SCCM
5 1 (0.56%) Single Sign-On
5 1 (0.56%) WSUS
Vendors
1 112 (62.57%) Microsoft
2 35 (19.55%) VMware
3 29 (16.20%) Cisco
4 18 (10.06%) SonicWALL
5 16 (8.94%) Fortinet
6 13 (7.26%) Meraki
7 12 (6.70%) HP
8 11 (6.15%) CrowdStrike
9 10 (5.59%) Aruba
9 10 (5.59%) Datto
9 10 (5.59%) Google
9 10 (5.59%) Ubiquiti
10 9 (5.03%) Sophos
10 9 (5.03%) Veeam
11 8 (4.47%) Palo Alto
12 6 (3.35%) WatchGuard
13 5 (2.79%) CQG
13 5 (2.79%) ION Trading
13 5 (2.79%) ServiceNow
13 5 (2.79%) Trayport