3rd Line Support Job Trends in England

Third Line Support
UK > England

The median Third Line Support salary in England is £42,500 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 29 December 2025.

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

6 months to
29 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 372 546 410
Rank change year-on-year +174 -136 +291
Permanent jobs requiring a 3rd Line Support 248 129 279
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.48% 0.26% 0.61%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.52% 0.28% 0.64%
Number of salaries quoted 232 108 256
10th Percentile £34,000 £32,750 £31,750
25th Percentile £36,250 £36,250 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £42,500 £42,250
Median % change year-on-year - +0.59% -0.59%
75th Percentile £49,063 £52,875 £52,813
90th Percentile £58,750 £65,750 £65,000
UK median annual salary £42,500 £42,500 £42,500

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 47,257 46,319 43,360
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.65% 93.21% 95.09%
Number of salaries quoted 29,652 24,705 33,958
10th Percentile £28,500 £33,125 £31,250
25th Percentile £36,250 £45,000 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -1.64%
75th Percentile £75,000 £78,750 £80,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £97,500 £97,500
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -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 29 December 2025.

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 29 December 2025. 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 +95 105 £41,500 -2.35% 11
London +55 40 £42,500 -10.53% 9
North of England +13 33 £42,500 +18.06% 16
East of England +48 31 £47,000 +17.50% 4
Midlands +37 28 £44,000 -2.04% 4
Yorkshire +21 26 £42,500 +21.43% 11
East Midlands +9 19 £45,000 -14.29% 2
South West +22 12 £45,500 +7.06% 1
West Midlands +21 9 £44,000 -2.04% 2
North West +17 7 £40,500 +1.25% 4
3rd Line Support
UK

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

For the 6 months to 29 December 2025, 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.

1 158 (63.71%) Windows
2 157 (63.31%) Microsoft
3 122 (49.19%) Microsoft 365
4 121 (48.79%) Azure
5 115 (46.37%) Active Directory
6 105 (42.34%) Windows Server
7 76 (30.65%) Microsoft Exchange
8 69 (27.82%) Firewall
8 69 (27.82%) Hyper-V
8 69 (27.82%) VMware
9 66 (26.61%) PowerShell
10 65 (26.21%) DNS
11 63 (25.40%) DHCP
12 61 (24.60%) Microsoft Intune
13 54 (21.77%) Customer Service
14 53 (21.37%) Problem-Solving
15 47 (18.95%) Entra ID
16 44 (17.74%) Security Cleared
17 41 (16.53%) Mentoring
17 41 (16.53%) SC Cleared
18 37 (14.92%) SLA
19 36 (14.52%) VMware Infrastructure
19 36 (14.52%) VPN
20 34 (13.71%) VLAN
21 31 (12.50%) ITIL
22 30 (12.10%) Incident Management
22 30 (12.10%) Oracle
22 30 (12.10%) TCP/IP
23 29 (11.69%) LAN
23 29 (11.69%) WAN

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 76 (30.65%) Microsoft Exchange
2 23 (9.27%) SharePoint
3 22 (8.87%) Exchange Server 2003
4 11 (4.44%) IIS
5 5 (2.02%) Exchange Server 2013
6 1 (0.40%) Confluence
Applications
1 10 (4.03%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (0.40%) Fidessa
1 1 (0.40%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 122 (49.19%) Microsoft 365
2 121 (48.79%) Azure
3 47 (18.95%) Entra ID
4 17 (6.85%) AWS
5 15 (6.05%) IaaS
6 12 (4.84%) Power Platform
6 12 (4.84%) SaaS
7 10 (4.03%) PaaS
8 6 (2.42%) PowerApps
9 5 (2.02%) Mimecast
9 5 (2.02%) Serverless
10 4 (1.61%) Power Automate
11 3 (1.21%) Google Workspace
12 2 (0.81%) Azure Sentinel
13 1 (0.40%) Azure App Service
13 1 (0.40%) Dynamics 365
13 1 (0.40%) GCP
13 1 (0.40%) n8n
13 1 (0.40%) Nutanix
13 1 (0.40%) Zapier
Communications & Networking
1 69 (27.82%) Firewall
2 65 (26.21%) DNS
3 63 (25.40%) DHCP
4 36 (14.52%) VPN
5 34 (13.71%) VLAN
6 30 (12.10%) TCP/IP
7 29 (11.69%) LAN
7 29 (11.69%) WAN
8 20 (8.06%) Wireless
9 18 (7.26%) Wi-Fi
10 15 (6.05%) VoIP
11 13 (5.24%) SAN
12 12 (4.84%) Internet
13 8 (3.23%) Network Security
13 8 (3.23%) Wireshark
14 6 (2.42%) Cisco IOS
14 6 (2.42%) Kerberos
14 6 (2.42%) SMTP
14 6 (2.42%) Unified Communications
15 5 (2.02%) POP3
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (9.27%) Oracle Database
1 23 (9.27%) Oracle Database 10g
2 11 (4.44%) SQL Server
3 6 (2.42%) Amazon RDS
4 5 (2.02%) Power BI
5 3 (1.21%) PostgreSQL
6 1 (0.40%) Azure SQL Database
Development Applications
1 2 (0.81%) JIRA
General
1 93 (37.50%) Social Skills
2 17 (6.85%) Law
3 14 (5.65%) Manufacturing
4 12 (4.84%) Marketing
5 11 (4.44%) Automotive
6 10 (4.03%) Telecoms
7 9 (3.63%) Analytical Skills
8 7 (2.82%) Finance
9 6 (2.42%) Electronics
9 6 (2.42%) Public Sector
10 5 (2.02%) Billing
10 5 (2.02%) Documentation Skills
11 4 (1.61%) Retail
12 3 (1.21%) Advertising
13 2 (0.81%) Organisational Skills
14 1 (0.40%) Banking
14 1 (0.40%) Legal
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (2.42%) LDAP
2 3 (1.21%) FreeSWITCH
2 3 (1.21%) Node.js
3 1 (0.40%) FIX Protocol
3 1 (0.40%) SAML
3 1 (0.40%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 31 (12.50%) Onboarding
2 15 (6.05%) Self-Motivation
3 8 (3.23%) Driving Licence
3 8 (3.23%) Management Information System
3 8 (3.23%) PKI
4 7 (2.82%) Replication
5 6 (2.42%) Clustering
5 6 (2.42%) Hybrid Cloud
6 5 (2.02%) Data Centre
7 3 (1.21%) Web Conferencing
8 2 (0.81%) IoT
9 1 (0.40%) Blockchain
9 1 (0.40%) BYOD
9 1 (0.40%) Cyber Threat
9 1 (0.40%) Enterprise Storage
9 1 (0.40%) Eurex
9 1 (0.40%) FMCG
9 1 (0.40%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 158 (63.71%) Windows
2 105 (42.34%) Windows Server
3 25 (10.08%) Unix
4 24 (9.68%) Solaris
5 23 (9.27%) HPUX
6 22 (8.87%) Windows Server 2003
7 21 (8.47%) Windows 7
7 21 (8.47%) Windows Server 2008
8 18 (7.26%) Apple iOS
8 18 (7.26%) Windows 10
9 17 (6.85%) Android
10 15 (6.05%) Linux
11 13 (5.24%) Mac OS
12 11 (4.44%) Windows Server 2016
12 11 (4.44%) Windows Server 2019
13 2 (0.81%) Windows Server 2012
14 1 (0.40%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 54 (21.77%) Customer Service
2 53 (21.37%) Problem-Solving
3 41 (16.53%) Mentoring
4 31 (12.50%) ITIL
5 30 (12.10%) Incident Management
6 21 (8.47%) Cybersecurity
7 18 (7.26%) Migration
7 18 (7.26%) Mobile Device Management
8 16 (6.45%) Coaching
9 15 (6.05%) Disaster Recovery
9 15 (6.05%) Network Monitoring
10 14 (5.65%) Continuous Improvement
10 14 (5.65%) Logistics
10 14 (5.65%) Project Delivery
11 13 (5.24%) Business Continuity
11 13 (5.24%) Network Management
12 12 (4.84%) Business Intelligence
12 12 (4.84%) Data Loss Prevention
12 12 (4.84%) Zero Trust
13 11 (4.44%) Remote Monitoring and Management
Programming Languages
1 66 (26.61%) PowerShell
2 21 (8.47%) Perl
3 19 (7.66%) SQL
4 6 (2.42%) VB
5 3 (1.21%) C
5 3 (1.21%) Java
5 3 (1.21%) PHP
6 1 (0.40%) Bash
6 1 (0.40%) Python
Qualifications
1 44 (17.74%) Security Cleared
2 41 (16.53%) SC Cleared
3 24 (9.68%) DV Cleared
4 17 (6.85%) Microsoft Certification
5 15 (6.05%) Degree
6 14 (5.65%) DBS Check
7 13 (5.24%) Cisco Certification
8 10 (4.03%) CCNA
9 9 (3.63%) Azure Certification
10 8 (3.23%) CCNP
11 5 (2.02%) ACMT
11 5 (2.02%) HND
11 5 (2.02%) MCP
11 5 (2.02%) MCTS
11 5 (2.02%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 3 (1.21%) Computer Science Degree
12 3 (1.21%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 2 (0.81%) ITIL Certification
14 1 (0.40%) AWS Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 37 (14.92%) SLA
2 12 (4.84%) Cyber Essentials
3 6 (2.42%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 5 (2.02%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 1 (0.40%) NIST
System Software
1 115 (46.37%) Active Directory
2 69 (27.82%) Hyper-V
3 36 (14.52%) VMware Infrastructure
4 6 (2.42%) Virtual Machines
5 5 (2.02%) Docker
5 5 (2.02%) VMware ESXi
6 4 (1.61%) Firmware
7 1 (0.40%) BitLocker
7 1 (0.40%) VMware NSX
7 1 (0.40%) VMware Workstation
7 1 (0.40%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 61 (24.60%) Microsoft Intune
2 13 (5.24%) Autotask
2 13 (5.24%) Jamf Pro
3 12 (4.84%) SCCM
4 7 (2.82%) vCenter Server
5 6 (2.42%) WSUS
6 5 (2.02%) FortiGate
6 5 (2.02%) Kubernetes
7 2 (0.81%) Backup Exec
8 1 (0.40%) Avamar
8 1 (0.40%) Microsoft Clustering
8 1 (0.40%) NetBackup
8 1 (0.40%) Puppet
8 1 (0.40%) SCOM
8 1 (0.40%) WhatsUp Gold
Vendors
1 157 (63.31%) Microsoft
2 69 (27.82%) VMware
3 30 (12.10%) Oracle
4 24 (9.68%) Cisco
5 18 (7.26%) Apple
5 18 (7.26%) Veeam
6 12 (4.84%) Sophos
7 9 (3.63%) HP
8 7 (2.82%) Samsung
8 7 (2.82%) SAP
9 6 (2.42%) Datto
9 6 (2.42%) SolarWinds
9 6 (2.42%) Ubiquiti
10 5 (2.02%) arcserve
10 5 (2.02%) Barracuda Networks
10 5 (2.02%) Dell
10 5 (2.02%) Meraki
11 3 (1.21%) Citrix
11 3 (1.21%) Salesforce
11 3 (1.21%) SonicWALL