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 February 2026.

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

6 months to
20 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 408 535 430
Rank change year-on-year +127 -105 +274
Permanent jobs requiring a 3rd Line Support 233 123 367
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.39% 0.28% 0.55%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.42% 0.31% 0.58%
Number of salaries quoted 217 106 344
10th Percentile £34,450 £36,250 £31,250
25th Percentile £37,500 £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 £50,000 £55,000 £47,500
90th Percentile £58,750 £76,250 £59,250
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 55,232 40,206 62,874
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 91.33% 91.33% 94.66%
Number of salaries quoted 35,738 21,398 50,239
10th Percentile £29,250 £33,000 £28,829
25th Percentile £37,973 £45,000 £39,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -11.29%
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 20 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 20 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 +57 103 £42,500 -7.61% 10
North of England +13 44 £45,000 +22.45% 9
Yorkshire +4 39 £45,000 +20.00% 5
London +50 35 £45,000 -27.42% 11
Midlands +2 25 £37,500 -25.00% 1
East of England +26 24 £47,000 +17.50% 4
East Midlands +1 23 £37,500 -42.31% 1
North West -7 5 £40,500 +1.25% 2
South West -17 3 £45,000 -1.10% 6
West Midlands 0 2 £41,000 -18.00%
3rd Line Support
UK

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

For the 6 months to 20 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.

1 135 (57.94%) Microsoft
2 122 (52.36%) Windows
3 109 (46.78%) Active Directory
3 109 (46.78%) Azure
4 105 (45.06%) Microsoft 365
5 80 (34.33%) Microsoft Exchange
6 77 (33.05%) Windows Server
7 59 (25.32%) Customer Service
8 57 (24.46%) Hyper-V
9 56 (24.03%) DNS
10 52 (22.32%) PowerShell
11 51 (21.89%) Entra ID
12 49 (21.03%) VMware
13 47 (20.17%) DHCP
14 46 (19.74%) Firewall
15 43 (18.45%) Problem-Solving
15 43 (18.45%) Security Cleared
16 41 (17.60%) Microsoft Intune
17 37 (15.88%) SharePoint
18 36 (15.45%) Mentoring
19 35 (15.02%) SC Cleared
20 34 (14.59%) VPN
21 32 (13.73%) SQL
22 30 (12.88%) Incident Management
22 30 (12.88%) SLA
22 30 (12.88%) VLAN
23 29 (12.45%) DV Cleared
24 28 (12.02%) ITIL
25 27 (11.59%) Oracle
26 26 (11.16%) 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 80 (34.33%) Microsoft Exchange
2 37 (15.88%) SharePoint
3 22 (9.44%) Exchange Server 2003
4 1 (0.43%) Confluence
Applications
1 6 (2.58%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 9 (3.86%) Unit4 Business World
2 3 (1.29%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.43%) Fidessa
3 1 (0.43%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 109 (46.78%) Azure
2 105 (45.06%) Microsoft 365
3 51 (21.89%) Entra ID
4 9 (3.86%) Boomi
4 9 (3.86%) iPaaS
4 9 (3.86%) Workato
5 8 (3.43%) Mimecast
6 6 (2.58%) SaaS
7 5 (2.15%) IaaS
7 5 (2.15%) Power Platform
8 3 (1.29%) AWS
8 3 (1.29%) Google Workspace
9 1 (0.43%) Amazon S3
9 1 (0.43%) Cloud Computing
9 1 (0.43%) GCP
9 1 (0.43%) n8n
9 1 (0.43%) Power Automate
9 1 (0.43%) Zapier
Communications & Networking
1 56 (24.03%) DNS
2 47 (20.17%) DHCP
3 46 (19.74%) Firewall
4 34 (14.59%) VPN
5 30 (12.88%) VLAN
6 26 (11.16%) TCP/IP
7 15 (6.44%) Wireless
8 13 (5.58%) SAN
9 8 (3.43%) VoIP
10 7 (3.00%) LAN
10 7 (3.00%) WAN
11 6 (2.58%) SMTP
12 5 (2.15%) EIGRP
12 5 (2.15%) IMAP
12 5 (2.15%) Intrusion Detection
12 5 (2.15%) Network Security
12 5 (2.15%) OSPF
12 5 (2.15%) POP3
12 5 (2.15%) SSL
12 5 (2.15%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (9.87%) Oracle Database
1 23 (9.87%) Oracle Database 10g
2 9 (3.86%) SQL Server
3 5 (2.15%) Power BI
4 3 (1.29%) Amazon RDS
4 3 (1.29%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 7 (3.00%) JIRA
General
1 69 (29.61%) Social Skills
2 12 (5.15%) Analytical Skills
3 11 (4.72%) Finance
3 11 (4.72%) Law
4 10 (4.29%) Legal
5 9 (3.86%) Automotive
6 8 (3.43%) Manufacturing
6 8 (3.43%) Organisational Skills
7 6 (2.58%) Marketing
8 5 (2.15%) Documentation Skills
9 4 (1.72%) Retail
10 3 (1.29%) Advertising
10 3 (1.29%) Telecoms
11 2 (0.86%) Banking
12 1 (0.43%) Public Sector
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (3.86%) Web Services
2 1 (0.43%) FIX Protocol
Miscellaneous
1 29 (12.45%) Onboarding
2 20 (8.58%) Self-Motivation
3 10 (4.29%) Driving Licence
4 7 (3.00%) PKI
5 6 (2.58%) Management Information System
5 6 (2.58%) Replication
6 4 (1.72%) IoT
7 3 (1.29%) CMDB
7 3 (1.29%) Cyber Threat
7 3 (1.29%) Web Conferencing
8 1 (0.43%) Blockchain
8 1 (0.43%) Eurex
8 1 (0.43%) FMCG
8 1 (0.43%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 122 (52.36%) Windows
2 77 (33.05%) Windows Server
3 24 (10.30%) Solaris
3 24 (10.30%) Unix
4 23 (9.87%) HPUX
5 22 (9.44%) Windows Server 2003
6 21 (9.01%) Windows 7
6 21 (9.01%) Windows Server 2008
7 12 (5.15%) Android
7 12 (5.15%) Apple iOS
8 10 (4.29%) Linux
9 7 (3.00%) Mac OS
10 6 (2.58%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 6 (2.58%) Windows 10
11 5 (2.15%) Windows Server 2016
12 3 (1.29%) Windows Server 2019
13 2 (0.86%) Windows Server 2012
14 1 (0.43%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 59 (25.32%) Customer Service
2 43 (18.45%) Problem-Solving
3 36 (15.45%) Mentoring
4 30 (12.88%) Incident Management
5 28 (12.02%) ITIL
6 23 (9.87%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 22 (9.44%) Cybersecurity
8 19 (8.15%) Disaster Recovery
9 18 (7.73%) Mobile Device Management
10 16 (6.87%) Workflow
11 15 (6.44%) Coaching
11 15 (6.44%) Logistics
11 15 (6.44%) Service Delivery
12 14 (6.01%) Network Monitoring
13 12 (5.15%) ITSM
13 12 (5.15%) Zero Trust
14 11 (4.72%) ERP
14 11 (4.72%) Service Desk Management
14 11 (4.72%) Stakeholder Management
15 10 (4.29%) Identity Management
Programming Languages
1 52 (22.32%) PowerShell
2 32 (13.73%) SQL
3 21 (9.01%) Perl
4 5 (2.15%) R
5 3 (1.29%) C
5 3 (1.29%) Java
5 3 (1.29%) PHP
6 2 (0.86%) Bash
6 2 (0.86%) Python
Qualifications
1 43 (18.45%) Security Cleared
2 35 (15.02%) SC Cleared
3 29 (12.45%) DV Cleared
4 19 (8.15%) DBS Check
5 14 (6.01%) Degree
5 14 (6.01%) Microsoft Certification
6 11 (4.72%) CCNA
6 11 (4.72%) Cisco Certification
7 5 (2.15%) Azure Certification
7 5 (2.15%) CCNP
7 5 (2.15%) HND
8 1 (0.43%) AWS Certification
8 1 (0.43%) MCTS
8 1 (0.43%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (12.88%) SLA
2 6 (2.58%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 5 (2.15%) Cyber Essentials
3 5 (2.15%) GDPR
4 1 (0.43%) NIST
System Software
1 109 (46.78%) Active Directory
2 57 (24.46%) Hyper-V
3 19 (8.15%) VMware Infrastructure
4 6 (2.58%) vSphere
5 5 (2.15%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (1.29%) Firmware
6 3 (1.29%) Microsoft Virtual Server
6 3 (1.29%) Virtual Servers
7 1 (0.43%) VMware NSX
7 1 (0.43%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 41 (17.60%) Microsoft Intune
2 17 (7.30%) Jamf Pro
3 9 (3.86%) Backup Exec
4 6 (2.58%) WSUS
5 5 (2.15%) Autotask
5 5 (2.15%) FortiGate
6 2 (0.86%) SCCM
6 2 (0.86%) vCenter Server
7 1 (0.43%) Ansible
7 1 (0.43%) Avamar
7 1 (0.43%) SCOM
7 1 (0.43%) Terraform
Vendors
1 135 (57.94%) Microsoft
2 49 (21.03%) VMware
3 27 (11.59%) Oracle
4 17 (7.30%) Apple
5 14 (6.01%) Veeam
6 11 (4.72%) Cisco
7 7 (3.00%) Logitech
7 7 (3.00%) Samsung
7 7 (3.00%) Yealink
8 6 (2.58%) McAfee
8 6 (2.58%) SolarWinds
9 5 (2.15%) ConnectWise
9 5 (2.15%) CrowdStrike
10 4 (1.72%) Meraki
11 3 (1.29%) Draytek
11 3 (1.29%) Fortinet
11 3 (1.29%) Google
11 3 (1.29%) HP
11 3 (1.29%) IFS
12 1 (0.43%) EMC