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 17 July 2026.

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

6 months to
17 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 551 431 494
Rank change year-on-year -120 +63 +140
Permanent jobs requiring a 3rd Line Support 182 228 361
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.21% 0.53% 0.42%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.22% 0.58% 0.44%
Number of salaries quoted 167 224 331
10th Percentile £31,700 £36,250 £31,250
25th Percentile £38,250 £37,500 £34,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £43,250 £40,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.05% +8.13% -
75th Percentile £55,000 £50,250 £45,000
90th Percentile £58,750 £58,750 £52,500
UK median annual salary £45,000 £43,250 £40,000
% change year-on-year +4.05% +8.13% -

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 82,694 39,203 81,184
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.28% 90.51% 94.64%
Number of salaries quoted 58,229 23,636 58,908
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,750 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £38,000 £39,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £55,000 £54,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.55% +1.85% -10.00%
75th Percentile £75,754 £75,000 £71,250
90th Percentile £97,500 £97,500 £90,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £55,000 £52,550
% change year-on-year - +4.66% -12.42%

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 17 July 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 17 July 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 -9 69 £47,500 +14.46% 7
North of England -17 39 £41,000 -3.53% 2
London -29 37 £52,500 +1.94% 3
Midlands -61 18 £32,500 -15.58% 4
Yorkshire -31 15 £45,000 -5.26% 2
South West -65 15 £45,000 +1.69% 3
East Midlands -19 14 £32,500 -26.55% 2
North West -10 12 £31,500 -21.25%
North East -46 12 £40,000 -
East of England -32 4 £36,500 -23.16% 5
West Midlands -44 4 £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 17 July 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.

1 117 (64.29%) Microsoft
2 105 (57.69%) Azure
3 103 (56.59%) Microsoft 365
4 88 (48.35%) Active Directory
5 84 (46.15%) Windows
6 74 (40.66%) Microsoft Exchange
7 73 (40.11%) Entra ID
8 70 (38.46%) SharePoint
9 56 (30.77%) Windows Server
10 52 (28.57%) Microsoft Intune
11 45 (24.73%) SaaS
12 41 (22.53%) Firewall
13 39 (21.43%) DNS
14 38 (20.88%) VLAN
15 36 (19.78%) SQL
16 34 (18.68%) Infrastructure Engineering
17 32 (17.58%) Workflow
18 31 (17.03%) Identity Management
19 30 (16.48%) Hyper-V
20 29 (15.93%) DHCP
20 29 (15.93%) VMware
20 29 (15.93%) VMware Infrastructure
21 28 (15.38%) VPN
22 27 (14.84%) Change Management
22 27 (14.84%) Problem-Solving
22 27 (14.84%) Project Delivery
23 25 (13.74%) Incident Management
24 24 (13.19%) JIRA
25 23 (12.64%) Cisco
25 23 (12.64%) Technical Leadership

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 74 (40.66%) Microsoft Exchange
2 70 (38.46%) SharePoint
3 4 (2.20%) Exchange Server 2007
3 4 (2.20%) Exchange Server 2010
3 4 (2.20%) Exchange Server 2013
Applications
1 4 (2.20%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 11 (6.04%) Unit4 Business World
2 3 (1.65%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.55%) NetSuite
3 1 (0.55%) Oracle EBS
Cloud Services
1 105 (57.69%) Azure
2 103 (56.59%) Microsoft 365
3 73 (40.11%) Entra ID
4 45 (24.73%) SaaS
5 22 (12.09%) Mimecast
6 11 (6.04%) Boomi
6 11 (6.04%) Google Workspace
6 11 (6.04%) iPaaS
6 11 (6.04%) Workato
7 5 (2.75%) AWS
7 5 (2.75%) OneDrive
8 3 (1.65%) Power Automate
8 3 (1.65%) Power Platform
9 1 (0.55%) Azure Stack
9 1 (0.55%) Google Docs
9 1 (0.55%) IaaS
9 1 (0.55%) PaaS
9 1 (0.55%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 41 (22.53%) Firewall
2 39 (21.43%) DNS
3 38 (20.88%) VLAN
4 29 (15.93%) DHCP
5 28 (15.38%) VPN
6 18 (9.89%) TCP/IP
6 18 (9.89%) Wireless
7 13 (7.14%) Wi-Fi
8 10 (5.49%) LAN
8 10 (5.49%) SAN
9 9 (4.95%) VoIP
9 9 (4.95%) WAN
10 5 (2.75%) Network Security
11 4 (2.20%) DMZ
11 4 (2.20%) Wireshark
12 3 (1.65%) BGP
12 3 (1.65%) IPsec
12 3 (1.65%) Remote Desktop
12 3 (1.65%) SD-WAN
13 2 (1.10%) ICMP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (4.95%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.55%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 24 (13.19%) JIRA
2 1 (0.55%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 66 (36.26%) Social Skills
2 28 (15.38%) Legal
3 15 (8.24%) Finance
4 8 (4.40%) Organisational Skills
5 7 (3.85%) Analytical Skills
5 7 (3.85%) Documentation Skills
6 3 (1.65%) Manufacturing
6 3 (1.65%) Telecoms
7 2 (1.10%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 1 (0.55%) Banking
8 1 (0.55%) Public Sector
8 1 (0.55%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (7.69%) Web Services
2 10 (5.49%) .NET
Miscellaneous
1 11 (6.04%) Driving Licence
2 10 (5.49%) Self-Motivation
2 10 (5.49%) Video Conferencing
3 8 (4.40%) Onboarding
4 7 (3.85%) Enterprise Software
4 7 (3.85%) PKI
5 5 (2.75%) Cyber Threat
6 4 (2.20%) Replication
7 1 (0.55%) Clustering
7 1 (0.55%) CMDB
7 1 (0.55%) Hybrid Cloud
7 1 (0.55%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 84 (46.15%) Windows
2 56 (30.77%) Windows Server
3 22 (12.09%) Linux
4 17 (9.34%) Mac OS
5 15 (8.24%) Windows Server 2016
6 13 (7.14%) Windows Server 2012
7 10 (5.49%) Windows Server 2019
8 8 (4.40%) Windows 10
9 7 (3.85%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 4 (2.20%) Windows Server 2008
11 2 (1.10%) Apple iOS
12 1 (0.55%) Android
12 1 (0.55%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 34 (18.68%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 32 (17.58%) Workflow
3 31 (17.03%) Identity Management
4 27 (14.84%) Change Management
4 27 (14.84%) Problem-Solving
4 27 (14.84%) Project Delivery
5 25 (13.74%) Incident Management
6 23 (12.64%) Technical Leadership
7 21 (11.54%) ITIL
8 19 (10.44%) Customer Service
8 19 (10.44%) Cybersecurity
9 17 (9.34%) ITSM
9 17 (9.34%) Mentoring
10 16 (8.79%) Disaster Recovery
11 15 (8.24%) Continuous Improvement
11 15 (8.24%) ERP
12 14 (7.69%) Remote Monitoring and Management
12 14 (7.69%) Service Delivery
13 13 (7.14%) Migration
13 13 (7.14%) Server Management
Programming Languages
1 36 (19.78%) SQL
2 20 (10.99%) PowerShell
2 20 (10.99%) R
3 10 (5.49%) C#
4 7 (3.85%) T-SQL
5 4 (2.20%) COBOL
5 4 (2.20%) Java
5 4 (2.20%) Python
6 3 (1.65%) Bash
7 1 (0.55%) Google Apps Script
Qualifications
1 19 (10.44%) Microsoft Certification
2 16 (8.79%) Degree
3 12 (6.59%) CCNA
3 12 (6.59%) Cisco Certification
4 8 (4.40%) Azure Certification
5 7 (3.85%) Security Cleared
6 6 (3.30%) DV Cleared
7 4 (2.20%) AWS Certification
7 4 (2.20%) DBS Check
7 4 (2.20%) MCSA
7 4 (2.20%) Microsoft Certified Professional
8 2 (1.10%) CCNP
9 1 (0.55%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 22 (12.09%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 16 (8.79%) Cyber Essentials
3 7 (3.85%) GDPR
4 3 (1.65%) SLA
5 2 (1.10%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 88 (48.35%) Active Directory
2 30 (16.48%) Hyper-V
3 29 (15.93%) VMware Infrastructure
4 7 (3.85%) vSphere
5 4 (2.20%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (0.55%) Firmware
6 1 (0.55%) Microsoft Virtual Server
6 1 (0.55%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 52 (28.57%) Microsoft Intune
2 18 (9.89%) Jamf Pro
3 14 (7.69%) Autotask
4 7 (3.85%) Backup Exec
4 7 (3.85%) WSUS
5 4 (2.20%) Iperf
6 2 (1.10%) Single Sign-On
6 2 (1.10%) Terraform
7 1 (0.55%) Ansible
Vendors
1 117 (64.29%) Microsoft
2 29 (15.93%) VMware
3 23 (12.64%) Cisco
4 20 (10.99%) CrowdStrike
5 15 (8.24%) Meraki
5 15 (8.24%) SonicWALL
6 14 (7.69%) HP
7 13 (7.14%) Veeam
8 11 (6.04%) Google
9 10 (5.49%) Aruba
9 10 (5.49%) Datto
9 10 (5.49%) Ubiquiti
10 8 (4.40%) Logitech
10 8 (4.40%) Yealink
11 7 (3.85%) Apple
11 7 (3.85%) Fortinet
11 7 (3.85%) McAfee
12 6 (3.30%) ConnectWise
13 5 (2.75%) ServiceNow
14 4 (2.20%) Ruckus Wireless