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 20 October 2025.

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

6 months to
20 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 382 555 466
Rank change year-on-year +173 -89 +313
Permanent jobs requiring a 3rd Line Support 257 158 239
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.60% 0.26% 0.48%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.67% 0.27% 0.50%
Number of salaries quoted 250 128 219
10th Percentile £34,675 £31,425 £32,500
25th Percentile £36,250 £35,000 £35,200
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £40,000 £41,000
Median % change year-on-year +6.25% -2.44% -8.89%
75th Percentile £48,750 £51,750 £52,000
90th Percentile £57,500 £55,000 £60,250
UK median annual salary £42,500 £40,000 £41,000
% change year-on-year +6.25% -2.44% -8.38%

All Permanent IT Job Vacancies
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 38,498 58,949 48,001
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.59% 95.20% 95.54%
Number of salaries quoted 23,236 33,738 37,027
10th Percentile £28,000 £31,250 £32,500
25th Percentile £35,500 £42,500 £44,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £53,688 £57,500 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -6.63% -4.17% -
75th Percentile £75,000 £75,000 £80,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £95,000 £100,000
UK median annual salary £52,500 £56,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -6.25% -6.67% -

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 October 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 20 October 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 +102 106 £41,500 +7.10% 17
London +83 38 £42,500 -15.00% 5
Midlands +51 38 £44,000 +1.44% 10
East of England +34 36 £47,000 +10.59% 9
East Midlands +37 22 £38,500 -14.44% 4
North of England -6 22 £40,500 +15.71% 1
South West +44 17 £48,500 -3.96%
West Midlands +53 16 £44,000 +4.76% 6
Yorkshire +24 11 £47,500 +31.94% 1
North West +12 11 £40,000 +14.29%
3rd Line Support
UK

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

For the 6 months to 20 October 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.

1 194 (75.49%) Windows
2 177 (68.87%) Microsoft
3 154 (59.92%) Microsoft 365
4 150 (58.37%) Azure
5 137 (53.31%) Windows Server
6 130 (50.58%) Active Directory
7 91 (35.41%) Firewall
8 86 (33.46%) Hyper-V
9 82 (31.91%) Microsoft Exchange
10 76 (29.57%) PowerShell
11 74 (28.79%) Microsoft Intune
12 73 (28.40%) DNS
12 73 (28.40%) VMware
13 64 (24.90%) DHCP
14 60 (23.35%) VMware Infrastructure
15 51 (19.84%) Problem-Solving
16 50 (19.46%) Mentoring
17 45 (17.51%) ITIL
18 44 (17.12%) Entra ID
18 44 (17.12%) WAN
19 42 (16.34%) LAN
20 41 (15.95%) Customer Service
21 40 (15.56%) VLAN
22 37 (14.40%) Cisco
22 37 (14.40%) TCP/IP
23 33 (12.84%) Migration
24 32 (12.45%) Windows Server 2019
25 31 (12.06%) Continuous Improvement
25 31 (12.06%) Security Cleared
25 31 (12.06%) VPN

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 82 (31.91%) Microsoft Exchange
2 25 (9.73%) SharePoint
3 16 (6.23%) IIS
4 13 (5.06%) Exchange Server 2013
5 8 (3.11%) Exchange Server 2003
Applications
1 9 (3.50%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 154 (59.92%) Microsoft 365
2 150 (58.37%) Azure
3 44 (17.12%) Entra ID
4 26 (10.12%) AWS
5 18 (7.00%) IaaS
6 14 (5.45%) SaaS
7 13 (5.06%) PaaS
8 7 (2.72%) Power Platform
9 6 (2.33%) Azure Storage
9 6 (2.33%) PowerApps
10 5 (1.95%) Azure Sentinel
10 5 (1.95%) Mimecast
10 5 (1.95%) Power Automate
10 5 (1.95%) Serverless
11 3 (1.17%) Azure App Service
11 3 (1.17%) Nutanix
12 2 (0.78%) Azure DevOps
12 2 (0.78%) Azure Monitor
12 2 (0.78%) Azure Table
12 2 (0.78%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 91 (35.41%) Firewall
2 73 (28.40%) DNS
3 64 (24.90%) DHCP
4 44 (17.12%) WAN
5 42 (16.34%) LAN
6 40 (15.56%) VLAN
7 37 (14.40%) TCP/IP
8 31 (12.06%) VPN
9 27 (10.51%) Wi-Fi
10 25 (9.73%) Internet
11 21 (8.17%) SAN
12 19 (7.39%) VoIP
13 17 (6.61%) Wireless
14 11 (4.28%) Kerberos
15 6 (2.33%) Cisco IOS
16 5 (1.95%) IPsec
16 5 (1.95%) iSCSI
16 5 (1.95%) Network Security
16 5 (1.95%) SSL
16 5 (1.95%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (3.11%) Oracle Database
1 8 (3.11%) Oracle Database 10g
1 8 (3.11%) SQL Server
2 5 (1.95%) Amazon RDS
3 1 (0.39%) Azure SQL Database
General
1 119 (46.30%) Social Skills
2 16 (6.23%) Law
3 12 (4.67%) Analytical Skills
3 12 (4.67%) Marketing
4 11 (4.28%) Automotive
5 10 (3.89%) Billing
5 10 (3.89%) Telecoms
6 8 (3.11%) Documentation Skills
6 8 (3.11%) Manufacturing
7 7 (2.72%) Electronics
7 7 (2.72%) Finance
7 7 (2.72%) Public Sector
8 2 (0.78%) Games
9 1 (0.39%) Banking
9 1 (0.39%) Legal
9 1 (0.39%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (4.28%) LDAP
2 3 (1.17%) FreeSWITCH
2 3 (1.17%) Node.js
3 2 (0.78%) SAML
4 1 (0.39%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 23 (8.95%) Onboarding
2 18 (7.00%) Self-Motivation
3 13 (5.06%) PKI
3 13 (5.06%) Replication
4 9 (3.50%) Driving Licence
5 8 (3.11%) Hybrid Cloud
5 8 (3.11%) Management Information System
6 6 (2.33%) Clustering
7 5 (1.95%) Data Centre
8 4 (1.56%) iPhone
9 2 (0.78%) Video Conferencing
10 1 (0.39%) AS400
10 1 (0.39%) BYOD
10 1 (0.39%) Enterprise Storage
10 1 (0.39%) FMCG
Operating Systems
1 194 (75.49%) Windows
2 137 (53.31%) Windows Server
3 32 (12.45%) Windows Server 2019
4 29 (11.28%) Windows 10
5 18 (7.00%) Windows Server 2016
6 17 (6.61%) Android
7 15 (5.84%) Linux
8 14 (5.45%) Apple iOS
9 11 (4.28%) Mac OS
10 9 (3.50%) Unix
11 8 (3.11%) HPUX
11 8 (3.11%) Solaris
11 8 (3.11%) Windows 7
11 8 (3.11%) Windows Server 2003
11 8 (3.11%) Windows Server 2008
12 4 (1.56%) VMS
13 1 (0.39%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 51 (19.84%) Problem-Solving
2 50 (19.46%) Mentoring
3 45 (17.51%) ITIL
4 41 (15.95%) Customer Service
5 33 (12.84%) Migration
6 31 (12.06%) Continuous Improvement
7 21 (8.17%) Business Continuity
8 20 (7.78%) Coaching
9 18 (7.00%) Cybersecurity
9 18 (7.00%) Incident Management
9 18 (7.00%) Information Security
10 17 (6.61%) Data Loss Prevention
10 17 (6.61%) Patch Management
10 17 (6.61%) Task Automation
11 16 (6.23%) Service Delivery
12 15 (5.84%) Knowledge Transfer
12 15 (5.84%) Remote Monitoring and Management
13 14 (5.45%) Infrastructure Engineering
14 13 (5.06%) Agile
14 13 (5.06%) Business Intelligence
Programming Languages
1 76 (29.57%) PowerShell
2 16 (6.23%) SQL
3 11 (4.28%) VB
4 8 (3.11%) Perl
5 2 (0.78%) C#
Qualifications
1 31 (12.06%) Security Cleared
2 26 (10.12%) SC Cleared
3 20 (7.78%) Degree
4 16 (6.23%) Microsoft Certification
5 13 (5.06%) Cisco Certification
6 10 (3.89%) CCNA
6 10 (3.89%) DV Cleared
7 9 (3.50%) Azure Certification
8 5 (1.95%) ACMT
8 5 (1.95%) DBS Check
8 5 (1.95%) MCP
8 5 (1.95%) MCTS
8 5 (1.95%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 4 (1.56%) Computer Science Degree
10 3 (1.17%) CCNP
10 3 (1.17%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 2 (0.78%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 25 (9.73%) SLA
2 23 (8.95%) Cyber Essentials
3 13 (5.06%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 13 (5.06%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 130 (50.58%) Active Directory
2 86 (33.46%) Hyper-V
3 60 (23.35%) VMware Infrastructure
4 7 (2.72%) VMware ESXi
5 5 (1.95%) Docker
5 5 (1.95%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (1.17%) Firmware
6 3 (1.17%) XenApp
7 2 (0.78%) Microsoft Virtual Server
7 2 (0.78%) Virtual Servers
8 1 (0.39%) BitLocker
8 1 (0.39%) VMware NSX
8 1 (0.39%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 74 (28.79%) Microsoft Intune
2 25 (9.73%) SCCM
3 20 (7.78%) Autotask
4 15 (5.84%) Backup Exec
5 11 (4.28%) WSUS
6 9 (3.50%) Jamf Pro
7 7 (2.72%) vCenter Server
8 5 (1.95%) Kubernetes
9 2 (0.78%) Grafana
9 2 (0.78%) Prometheus
9 2 (0.78%) Terraform
10 1 (0.39%) Avamar
10 1 (0.39%) FortiGate
10 1 (0.39%) Microsoft Clustering
10 1 (0.39%) NetBackup
10 1 (0.39%) Puppet
10 1 (0.39%) SCOM
10 1 (0.39%) WhatsUp Gold
Vendors
1 177 (68.87%) Microsoft
2 73 (28.40%) VMware
3 37 (14.40%) Cisco
4 29 (11.28%) Veeam
5 18 (7.00%) Apple
5 18 (7.00%) Meraki
6 14 (5.45%) Oracle
7 13 (5.06%) arcserve
7 13 (5.06%) Datto
7 13 (5.06%) HP
7 13 (5.06%) Sophos
8 9 (3.50%) Ubiquiti
9 8 (3.11%) SAP
9 8 (3.11%) SonicWALL
10 7 (2.72%) Citrix
11 5 (1.95%) Aruba
11 5 (1.95%) Barracuda Networks
11 5 (1.95%) Dell
11 5 (1.95%) Salesforce
12 3 (1.17%) SolarWinds