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 10 June 2026.

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

6 months to
10 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 536 450 472
Rank change year-on-year -86 +22 +199
Permanent jobs requiring a 3rd Line Support 169 179 422
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.21% 0.46% 0.45%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.22% 0.51% 0.48%
Number of salaries quoted 155 175 389
10th Percentile £32,100 £36,250 £31,250
25th Percentile £37,750 £37,500 £33,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £45,000 £40,000
Median % change year-on-year - +12.50% -1.23%
75th Percentile £53,750 £52,500 £45,000
90th Percentile £58,750 £67,500 £52,500
UK median annual salary £45,000 £45,000 £40,000
% change year-on-year - +12.50% -2.30%

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 76,810 35,327 87,995
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.02% 89.97% 94.57%
Number of salaries quoted 53,858 20,476 65,429
10th Percentile £30,000 £29,000 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £40,000 £38,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £56,500 £57,500 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -1.74% +9.52% -12.87%
75th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £70,250
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 10 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 10 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 56 £47,500 +11.76% 8
North of England -5 50 £43,750 +2.94% 3
London -7 38 £52,500 +0.96% 9
Yorkshire -20 31 £45,000 - 1
Midlands -54 14 £32,500 -33.33% 5
East Midlands -35 11 £32,500 -35.00% 2
North East -31 10 £40,000 -
North West -1 9 £32,500 -23.53% 2
South West -61 6 £43,250 +8.13% 4
East of England -25 5 £36,500 -18.89% 3
West Midlands -45 3 £45,000 +20.00% 3
3rd Line Support
UK

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

For the 6 months to 10 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 97 (57.40%) Microsoft
2 90 (53.25%) Azure
3 87 (51.48%) Microsoft 365
4 70 (41.42%) Active Directory
5 68 (40.24%) Windows
6 65 (38.46%) Microsoft Exchange
7 64 (37.87%) SharePoint
8 59 (34.91%) Entra ID
9 44 (26.04%) Microsoft Intune
9 44 (26.04%) Windows Server
10 34 (20.12%) SaaS
11 33 (19.53%) DNS
12 32 (18.93%) SQL
13 31 (18.34%) Firewall
14 29 (17.16%) VLAN
15 28 (16.57%) Hyper-V
15 28 (16.57%) Infrastructure Engineering
16 26 (15.38%) Problem-Solving
16 26 (15.38%) Workflow
17 24 (14.20%) Identity Management
17 24 (14.20%) VMware
17 24 (14.20%) VPN
18 23 (13.61%) ITIL
18 23 (13.61%) VMware Infrastructure
19 22 (13.02%) DHCP
19 22 (13.02%) Project Delivery
20 21 (12.43%) Customer Service
21 20 (11.83%) Linux
22 19 (11.24%) Jamf Pro
22 19 (11.24%) PowerShell

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 (38.46%) Microsoft Exchange
2 64 (37.87%) SharePoint
3 4 (2.37%) Exchange Server 2007
3 4 (2.37%) Exchange Server 2010
3 4 (2.37%) Exchange Server 2013
Applications
1 4 (2.37%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 11 (6.51%) Unit4 Business World
2 3 (1.78%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.59%) NetSuite
3 1 (0.59%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 90 (53.25%) Azure
2 87 (51.48%) Microsoft 365
3 59 (34.91%) Entra ID
4 34 (20.12%) SaaS
5 18 (10.65%) Mimecast
6 11 (6.51%) Boomi
6 11 (6.51%) Google Workspace
6 11 (6.51%) iPaaS
6 11 (6.51%) Workato
7 4 (2.37%) OneDrive
8 2 (1.18%) Power Platform
9 1 (0.59%) AWS
9 1 (0.59%) Google Docs
9 1 (0.59%) IaaS
9 1 (0.59%) PaaS
9 1 (0.59%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 33 (19.53%) DNS
2 31 (18.34%) Firewall
3 29 (17.16%) VLAN
4 24 (14.20%) VPN
5 22 (13.02%) DHCP
6 15 (8.88%) Wireless
7 13 (7.69%) TCP/IP
8 9 (5.33%) SAN
9 8 (4.73%) VoIP
9 8 (4.73%) Wi-Fi
10 4 (2.37%) BGP
10 4 (2.37%) IPsec
11 2 (1.18%) LAN
11 2 (1.18%) Unified Communications
12 1 (0.59%) Internet
12 1 (0.59%) Network Security
12 1 (0.59%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (4.73%) SQL Server
2 2 (1.18%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 15 (8.88%) JIRA
General
1 59 (34.91%) Social Skills
2 22 (13.02%) Legal
3 14 (8.28%) Finance
4 11 (6.51%) Organisational Skills
5 9 (5.33%) Analytical Skills
6 6 (3.55%) Documentation Skills
7 3 (1.78%) Telecoms
8 1 (0.59%) Banking
8 1 (0.59%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 1 (0.59%) Public Sector
8 1 (0.59%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (7.10%) Web Services
2 4 (2.37%) .NET
Miscellaneous
1 12 (7.10%) Self-Motivation
2 10 (5.92%) Video Conferencing
3 9 (5.33%) Driving Licence
4 7 (4.14%) PKI
5 5 (2.96%) Replication
6 4 (2.37%) Enterprise Software
7 3 (1.78%) CMDB
7 3 (1.78%) Onboarding
8 2 (1.18%) Cyber Threat
8 2 (1.18%) IoT
9 1 (0.59%) Clustering
9 1 (0.59%) Hybrid Cloud
9 1 (0.59%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 68 (40.24%) Windows
2 44 (26.04%) Windows Server
3 20 (11.83%) Linux
4 18 (10.65%) Mac OS
5 11 (6.51%) Windows Server 2016
6 9 (5.33%) Windows Server 2012
7 8 (4.73%) Windows 10
8 7 (4.14%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 6 (3.55%) Windows Server 2019
10 4 (2.37%) Windows Server 2008
11 1 (0.59%) Apple iOS
11 1 (0.59%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 28 (16.57%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 26 (15.38%) Problem-Solving
2 26 (15.38%) Workflow
3 24 (14.20%) Identity Management
4 23 (13.61%) ITIL
5 22 (13.02%) Project Delivery
6 21 (12.43%) Customer Service
7 18 (10.65%) Change Management
7 18 (10.65%) Technical Leadership
8 16 (9.47%) Cybersecurity
9 15 (8.88%) Disaster Recovery
9 15 (8.88%) Incident Management
10 14 (8.28%) Service Delivery
11 13 (7.69%) Continuous Improvement
12 12 (7.10%) ERP
12 12 (7.10%) ITSM
12 12 (7.10%) Migration
12 12 (7.10%) Remote Monitoring and Management
12 12 (7.10%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 11 (6.51%) Server Management
Programming Languages
1 32 (18.93%) SQL
2 19 (11.24%) PowerShell
3 14 (8.28%) R
4 4 (2.37%) C#
4 4 (2.37%) T-SQL
5 2 (1.18%) Python
6 1 (0.59%) Bash
6 1 (0.59%) Google Apps Script
Qualifications
1 12 (7.10%) Degree
2 10 (5.92%) Microsoft Certification
3 8 (4.73%) DBS Check
4 7 (4.14%) Security Cleared
5 6 (3.55%) DV Cleared
6 2 (1.18%) CCNA
6 2 (1.18%) Cisco Certification
7 1 (0.59%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (8.88%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 10 (5.92%) Cyber Essentials
3 8 (4.73%) GDPR
4 1 (0.59%) PCI DSS
4 1 (0.59%) SLA
System Software
1 70 (41.42%) Active Directory
2 28 (16.57%) Hyper-V
3 23 (13.61%) VMware Infrastructure
4 7 (4.14%) vSphere
5 3 (1.78%) Microsoft Virtual Server
5 3 (1.78%) Virtual Servers
6 2 (1.18%) Firmware
7 1 (0.59%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.59%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 44 (26.04%) Microsoft Intune
2 19 (11.24%) Jamf Pro
3 12 (7.10%) Autotask
4 9 (5.33%) Backup Exec
5 7 (4.14%) WSUS
6 2 (1.18%) Single Sign-On
6 2 (1.18%) Terraform
7 1 (0.59%) Ansible
Vendors
1 97 (57.40%) Microsoft
2 24 (14.20%) VMware
3 15 (8.88%) Cisco
4 14 (8.28%) CrowdStrike
4 14 (8.28%) HP
4 14 (8.28%) Meraki
4 14 (8.28%) Veeam
5 11 (6.51%) Google
5 11 (6.51%) SonicWALL
6 10 (5.92%) Aruba
6 10 (5.92%) Datto
6 10 (5.92%) Ubiquiti
7 9 (5.33%) Logitech
7 9 (5.33%) Yealink
8 8 (4.73%) Apple
9 7 (4.14%) McAfee
10 5 (2.96%) ConnectWise
11 4 (2.37%) Dell
12 3 (1.78%) IFS
12 3 (1.78%) Oracle