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 22 June 2026.

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

6 months to
22 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 515 458 482
Rank change year-on-year -57 +24 +189
Permanent jobs requiring a 3rd Line Support 180 192 418
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.21% 0.48% 0.44%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.23% 0.53% 0.46%
Number of salaries quoted 164 189 385
10th Percentile £32,250 £36,250 £31,250
25th Percentile £38,250 £37,500 £34,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £45,000 £39,500
Median % change year-on-year - +13.92% -2.47%
75th Percentile £55,000 £52,250 £43,750
90th Percentile £58,750 £67,500 £52,500
UK median annual salary £45,000 £45,000 £40,000
% change year-on-year - +12.50% -1.23%

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 79,179 36,002 90,573
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.10% 89.97% 94.62%
Number of salaries quoted 55,726 21,020 67,065
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,822 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £39,000 £38,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £57,500 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year - +9.52% -12.86%
75th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £70,000
90th Percentile £96,250 £100,000 £90,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £57,500 £52,500
% change year-on-year -4.35% +9.52% -12.50%

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 22 June 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 22 June 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 -3 63 £47,500 +14.46% 8
North of England -4 51 £45,000 +5.88% 4
London -24 37 £53,750 +4.37% 5
Yorkshire -7 30 £45,000 -5.26% 2
Midlands -66 14 £32,500 -31.58% 4
North East -39 12 £40,000 -
East Midlands -34 11 £32,500 -35.00% 2
South West -71 10 £45,000 +12.50% 3
North West -2 9 £32,500 -23.53% 2
East of England -31 5 £36,500 -23.16% 4
West Midlands -43 3 £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 22 June 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.

1 109 (60.56%) Microsoft
2 100 (55.56%) Azure
3 95 (52.78%) Microsoft 365
4 75 (41.67%) Active Directory
4 75 (41.67%) Windows
5 70 (38.89%) Microsoft Exchange
6 68 (37.78%) SharePoint
7 64 (35.56%) Entra ID
8 50 (27.78%) Windows Server
9 46 (25.56%) Microsoft Intune
10 41 (22.78%) SaaS
11 36 (20.00%) SQL
12 35 (19.44%) DNS
13 34 (18.89%) Firewall
14 33 (18.33%) VLAN
15 30 (16.67%) Hyper-V
16 29 (16.11%) Infrastructure Engineering
17 28 (15.56%) Workflow
18 26 (14.44%) Identity Management
18 26 (14.44%) Problem-Solving
18 26 (14.44%) VMware
18 26 (14.44%) VMware Infrastructure
18 26 (14.44%) VPN
19 24 (13.33%) DHCP
19 24 (13.33%) Project Delivery
20 23 (12.78%) ITIL
21 22 (12.22%) Change Management
22 20 (11.11%) Linux
22 20 (11.11%) Mimecast
22 20 (11.11%) 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 70 (38.89%) Microsoft Exchange
2 68 (37.78%) SharePoint
3 4 (2.22%) Exchange Server 2007
3 4 (2.22%) Exchange Server 2010
3 4 (2.22%) Exchange Server 2013
Applications
1 4 (2.22%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 11 (6.11%) Unit4 Business World
2 3 (1.67%) Oracle EBS
2 3 (1.67%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.56%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 100 (55.56%) Azure
2 95 (52.78%) Microsoft 365
3 64 (35.56%) Entra ID
4 41 (22.78%) SaaS
5 20 (11.11%) Mimecast
6 11 (6.11%) Boomi
6 11 (6.11%) Google Workspace
6 11 (6.11%) iPaaS
6 11 (6.11%) Workato
7 5 (2.78%) OneDrive
8 3 (1.67%) AWS
8 3 (1.67%) Power Platform
9 1 (0.56%) Google Docs
9 1 (0.56%) IaaS
9 1 (0.56%) PaaS
9 1 (0.56%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 35 (19.44%) DNS
2 34 (18.89%) Firewall
3 33 (18.33%) VLAN
4 26 (14.44%) VPN
5 24 (13.33%) DHCP
6 14 (7.78%) TCP/IP
6 14 (7.78%) Wireless
7 11 (6.11%) Wi-Fi
8 10 (5.56%) SAN
9 8 (4.44%) VoIP
10 4 (2.22%) BGP
10 4 (2.22%) IPsec
10 4 (2.22%) LAN
11 3 (1.67%) Network Security
11 3 (1.67%) WAN
12 2 (1.11%) DMZ
12 2 (1.11%) Unified Communications
12 2 (1.11%) Wireshark
13 1 (0.56%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (6.11%) SQL Server
2 2 (1.11%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 17 (9.44%) JIRA
2 1 (0.56%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 61 (33.89%) Social Skills
2 25 (13.89%) Legal
3 14 (7.78%) Finance
4 11 (6.11%) Organisational Skills
5 9 (5.00%) Analytical Skills
6 7 (3.89%) Documentation Skills
7 3 (1.67%) Telecoms
8 2 (1.11%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 1 (0.56%) Banking
9 1 (0.56%) Public Sector
9 1 (0.56%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (7.78%) Web Services
2 8 (4.44%) .NET
Miscellaneous
1 12 (6.67%) Self-Motivation
2 10 (5.56%) Driving Licence
2 10 (5.56%) Video Conferencing
3 7 (3.89%) Enterprise Software
3 7 (3.89%) PKI
4 5 (2.78%) Replication
5 4 (2.22%) Cyber Threat
6 3 (1.67%) CMDB
6 3 (1.67%) Onboarding
7 2 (1.11%) IoT
8 1 (0.56%) Clustering
8 1 (0.56%) Hybrid Cloud
8 1 (0.56%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 75 (41.67%) Windows
2 50 (27.78%) Windows Server
3 20 (11.11%) Linux
4 18 (10.00%) Mac OS
5 13 (7.22%) Windows Server 2016
6 11 (6.11%) Windows Server 2012
7 8 (4.44%) Windows 10
7 8 (4.44%) Windows Server 2019
8 7 (3.89%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 4 (2.22%) Windows Server 2008
10 1 (0.56%) Apple iOS
10 1 (0.56%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 29 (16.11%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 28 (15.56%) Workflow
3 26 (14.44%) Identity Management
3 26 (14.44%) Problem-Solving
4 24 (13.33%) Project Delivery
5 23 (12.78%) ITIL
6 22 (12.22%) Change Management
7 20 (11.11%) Technical Leadership
8 19 (10.56%) Customer Service
8 19 (10.56%) Incident Management
9 16 (8.89%) Cybersecurity
10 15 (8.33%) Disaster Recovery
11 14 (7.78%) Continuous Improvement
11 14 (7.78%) ITSM
11 14 (7.78%) Service Delivery
12 13 (7.22%) Migration
13 12 (6.67%) ERP
13 12 (6.67%) Remote Monitoring and Management
13 12 (6.67%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 11 (6.11%) Server Management
Programming Languages
1 36 (20.00%) SQL
2 19 (10.56%) PowerShell
3 16 (8.89%) R
4 8 (4.44%) C#
5 7 (3.89%) T-SQL
6 2 (1.11%) COBOL
6 2 (1.11%) Java
6 2 (1.11%) Python
7 1 (0.56%) Bash
7 1 (0.56%) Google Apps Script
Qualifications
1 15 (8.33%) Microsoft Certification
2 12 (6.67%) Degree
3 7 (3.89%) Security Cleared
4 6 (3.33%) DBS Check
4 6 (3.33%) DV Cleared
5 4 (2.22%) Azure Certification
5 4 (2.22%) CCNA
5 4 (2.22%) Cisco Certification
6 2 (1.11%) AWS Certification
6 2 (1.11%) MCSA
6 2 (1.11%) Microsoft Certified Professional
7 1 (0.56%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (10.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 12 (6.67%) Cyber Essentials
3 8 (4.44%) GDPR
4 3 (1.67%) SLA
5 2 (1.11%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 75 (41.67%) Active Directory
2 30 (16.67%) Hyper-V
3 26 (14.44%) VMware Infrastructure
4 7 (3.89%) vSphere
5 3 (1.67%) Microsoft Virtual Server
5 3 (1.67%) Virtual Servers
6 2 (1.11%) Firmware
7 1 (0.56%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 46 (25.56%) Microsoft Intune
2 19 (10.56%) Jamf Pro
3 14 (7.78%) Autotask
4 9 (5.00%) Backup Exec
5 7 (3.89%) WSUS
6 2 (1.11%) Iperf
6 2 (1.11%) Single Sign-On
6 2 (1.11%) Terraform
7 1 (0.56%) Ansible
Vendors
1 109 (60.56%) Microsoft
2 26 (14.44%) VMware
3 17 (9.44%) Cisco
4 16 (8.89%) CrowdStrike
5 15 (8.33%) Veeam
6 14 (7.78%) HP
6 14 (7.78%) Meraki
7 13 (7.22%) SonicWALL
8 11 (6.11%) Google
9 10 (5.56%) Aruba
9 10 (5.56%) Datto
9 10 (5.56%) Ubiquiti
10 9 (5.00%) Logitech
10 9 (5.00%) Yealink
11 8 (4.44%) Apple
12 7 (3.89%) ConnectWise
12 7 (3.89%) McAfee
13 4 (2.22%) Dell
13 4 (2.22%) Fortinet
14 3 (1.67%) Oracle