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 1 August 2026.

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

6 months to
1 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 561 428 500
Rank change year-on-year -133 +72 +100
Permanent jobs requiring a 3rd Line Support 177 252 291
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.19% 0.58% 0.39%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.21% 0.64% 0.41%
Number of salaries quoted 159 246 265
10th Percentile £31,250 £36,250 £31,250
25th Percentile £38,250 £37,500 £34,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £42,500 £40,000
Median % change year-on-year +5.88% +6.25% -
75th Percentile £55,000 £50,000 £47,500
90th Percentile £58,750 £57,500 £53,750
UK median annual salary £45,000 £42,500 £40,000
% change year-on-year +5.88% +6.25% -

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 86,335 39,475 70,908
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.30% 90.65% 94.72%
Number of salaries quoted 60,644 23,957 49,503
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,500 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £37,500 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.55% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £76,075 £75,000 £72,500
90th Percentile £97,500 £97,500 £92,500
UK median annual salary £55,000 £55,000 £55,000
% 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 1 August 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 1 August 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 -45 57 £52,500 +26.51% 9
North of England -33 39 £40,000 -5.88% 4
London -47 34 £52,500 +5.00% 4
Midlands -57 23 £40,000 +3.90% 5
South West -82 20 £45,000 +1.69% 2
East Midlands -29 17 £32,500 -15.58% 1
North West -5 15 £31,500 -21.25% 4
Yorkshire -31 12 £45,000 -5.26%
North East -41 12 £40,000 -
West Midlands -54 6 £45,000 +2.27% 4
East of England -37 4 £36,500 -23.16% 6
3rd Line Support
UK

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

For the 6 months to 1 August 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.

1 111 (62.71%) Microsoft
2 96 (54.24%) Azure
2 96 (54.24%) Microsoft 365
3 82 (46.33%) Active Directory
4 79 (44.63%) Windows
5 69 (38.98%) Entra ID
6 65 (36.72%) Microsoft Exchange
7 60 (33.90%) SharePoint
8 51 (28.81%) Windows Server
9 48 (27.12%) Microsoft Intune
10 44 (24.86%) Firewall
11 43 (24.29%) SaaS
12 37 (20.90%) VLAN
13 35 (19.77%) DNS
14 33 (18.64%) SQL
15 31 (17.51%) Infrastructure Engineering
16 29 (16.38%) DHCP
16 29 (16.38%) Identity Management
16 29 (16.38%) Workflow
17 27 (15.25%) Problem-Solving
17 27 (15.25%) VMware
17 27 (15.25%) VMware Infrastructure
17 27 (15.25%) VPN
18 26 (14.69%) Change Management
18 26 (14.69%) Cisco
18 26 (14.69%) Hyper-V
18 26 (14.69%) Project Delivery
19 24 (13.56%) JIRA
19 24 (13.56%) Mentoring
20 23 (12.99%) Incident Management

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 65 (36.72%) Microsoft Exchange
2 60 (33.90%) SharePoint
3 4 (2.26%) Exchange Server 2007
3 4 (2.26%) Exchange Server 2010
3 4 (2.26%) Exchange Server 2013
4 1 (0.56%) Confluence
Applications
1 4 (2.26%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 11 (6.21%) Unit4 Business World
2 3 (1.69%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.56%) Fidessa
3 1 (0.56%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 96 (54.24%) Azure
1 96 (54.24%) Microsoft 365
2 69 (38.98%) Entra ID
3 43 (24.29%) SaaS
4 19 (10.73%) Mimecast
5 11 (6.21%) Boomi
5 11 (6.21%) Google Workspace
5 11 (6.21%) iPaaS
5 11 (6.21%) Workato
6 5 (2.82%) AWS
6 5 (2.82%) OneDrive
7 4 (2.26%) Power Automate
8 3 (1.69%) Power Platform
9 2 (1.13%) Azure Stack
10 1 (0.56%) Google Docs
10 1 (0.56%) IaaS
10 1 (0.56%) PaaS
10 1 (0.56%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 44 (24.86%) Firewall
2 37 (20.90%) VLAN
3 35 (19.77%) DNS
4 29 (16.38%) DHCP
5 27 (15.25%) VPN
6 20 (11.30%) TCP/IP
7 18 (10.17%) Wireless
8 13 (7.34%) LAN
8 13 (7.34%) Wi-Fi
9 12 (6.78%) WAN
10 10 (5.65%) VoIP
11 6 (3.39%) Network Security
11 6 (3.39%) SAN
12 5 (2.82%) SD-WAN
13 4 (2.26%) DMZ
13 4 (2.26%) Wireshark
14 3 (1.69%) ICMP
14 3 (1.69%) Remote Desktop
15 1 (0.56%) FIX Connectivity
15 1 (0.56%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (4.52%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.56%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 24 (13.56%) JIRA
2 1 (0.56%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 64 (36.16%) Social Skills
2 25 (14.12%) Legal
3 16 (9.04%) Finance
4 8 (4.52%) Analytical Skills
4 8 (4.52%) Documentation Skills
5 5 (2.82%) Manufacturing
5 5 (2.82%) Organisational Skills
6 3 (1.69%) Telecoms
7 2 (1.13%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 1 (0.56%) Banking
8 1 (0.56%) Law
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (7.91%) Web Services
2 10 (5.65%) .NET
3 1 (0.56%) FIX Protocol
Miscellaneous
1 14 (7.91%) Driving Licence
2 10 (5.65%) Onboarding
2 10 (5.65%) Video Conferencing
3 7 (3.95%) Enterprise Software
3 7 (3.95%) Self-Motivation
4 5 (2.82%) Cyber Threat
5 3 (1.69%) PKI
6 2 (1.13%) Replication
7 1 (0.56%) Clustering
7 1 (0.56%) Eurex
7 1 (0.56%) Hybrid Cloud
7 1 (0.56%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 79 (44.63%) Windows
2 51 (28.81%) Windows Server
3 20 (11.30%) Linux
4 16 (9.04%) Mac OS
5 15 (8.47%) Windows Server 2016
6 13 (7.34%) Windows Server 2012
7 10 (5.65%) Windows Server 2019
8 8 (4.52%) Windows 10
9 4 (2.26%) Windows Server 2008
10 3 (1.69%) Apple iOS
10 3 (1.69%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 2 (1.13%) Android
12 1 (0.56%) CentOS
12 1 (0.56%) Rocky
12 1 (0.56%) Solaris
12 1 (0.56%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.56%) Unix
12 1 (0.56%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 31 (17.51%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 29 (16.38%) Identity Management
2 29 (16.38%) Workflow
3 27 (15.25%) Problem-Solving
4 26 (14.69%) Change Management
4 26 (14.69%) Project Delivery
5 24 (13.56%) Mentoring
6 23 (12.99%) Incident Management
6 23 (12.99%) Technical Leadership
7 21 (11.86%) Cybersecurity
8 18 (10.17%) ITIL
8 18 (10.17%) ITSM
9 17 (9.60%) Disaster Recovery
9 17 (9.60%) ERP
10 16 (9.04%) Continuous Improvement
10 16 (9.04%) Customer Service
11 15 (8.47%) Remote Monitoring and Management
12 14 (7.91%) Server Management
13 13 (7.34%) Migration
14 12 (6.78%) Business Continuity
Programming Languages
1 33 (18.64%) SQL
2 20 (11.30%) PowerShell
3 18 (10.17%) R
4 10 (5.65%) C#
5 7 (3.95%) T-SQL
6 4 (2.26%) COBOL
6 4 (2.26%) Java
6 4 (2.26%) Python
7 3 (1.69%) Bash
8 1 (0.56%) Google Apps Script
8 1 (0.56%) JavaScript
8 1 (0.56%) Perl
8 1 (0.56%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 21 (11.86%) Microsoft Certification
2 19 (10.73%) Degree
3 16 (9.04%) CCNA
3 16 (9.04%) Cisco Certification
4 10 (5.65%) Azure Certification
5 4 (2.26%) AWS Certification
5 4 (2.26%) MCSA
5 4 (2.26%) Microsoft Certified Professional
5 4 (2.26%) Security Cleared
6 3 (1.69%) CCNP
6 3 (1.69%) DV Cleared
7 1 (0.56%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (11.86%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 18 (10.17%) Cyber Essentials
3 6 (3.39%) GDPR
4 3 (1.69%) SLA
5 2 (1.13%) PCI DSS
6 1 (0.56%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
System Software
1 82 (46.33%) Active Directory
2 27 (15.25%) VMware Infrastructure
3 26 (14.69%) Hyper-V
4 5 (2.82%) Virtual Machines
5 3 (1.69%) vSphere
6 2 (1.13%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 48 (27.12%) Microsoft Intune
2 17 (9.60%) Jamf Pro
3 14 (7.91%) Autotask
4 4 (2.26%) Iperf
5 3 (1.69%) Backup Exec
5 3 (1.69%) WSUS
6 2 (1.13%) Single Sign-On
7 1 (0.56%) Terraform
Vendors
1 111 (62.71%) Microsoft
2 27 (15.25%) VMware
3 26 (14.69%) Cisco
4 18 (10.17%) CrowdStrike
5 16 (9.04%) SonicWALL
6 14 (7.91%) HP
6 14 (7.91%) Meraki
7 11 (6.21%) Google
8 10 (5.65%) Aruba
8 10 (5.65%) Datto
8 10 (5.65%) Fortinet
8 10 (5.65%) Ubiquiti
9 9 (5.08%) Veeam
10 7 (3.95%) Logitech
10 7 (3.95%) Yealink
11 6 (3.39%) Apple
11 6 (3.39%) ConnectWise
12 5 (2.82%) ServiceNow
13 4 (2.26%) Dell
13 4 (2.26%) Ruckus Wireless