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 10 January 2026.

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

6 months to
10 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 379 550 410
Rank change year-on-year +171 -140 +292
Permanent jobs requiring a 3rd Line Support 234 129 285
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.45% 0.27% 0.58%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.49% 0.29% 0.61%
Number of salaries quoted 219 108 264
10th Percentile £34,600 £35,500 £31,250
25th Percentile £36,250 £36,250 £34,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £43,625 £41,750
Median % change year-on-year -2.58% +4.49% -1.76%
75th Percentile £48,750 £55,000 £52,500
90th Percentile £58,900 £73,625 £65,000
UK median annual salary £42,500 £44,914 £42,500
% change year-on-year -5.37% +5.68% -

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 47,612 44,722 46,678
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.77% 92.74% 95.18%
Number of salaries quoted 30,053 23,491 36,536
10th Percentile £28,697 £33,500 £31,250
25th Percentile £36,750 £45,000 £42,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £58,500
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +2.56% -4.88%
75th Percentile £75,000 £79,600 £77,500
90th Percentile £95,000 £98,474 £97,500
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year -8.33% +4.35% -4.17%

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 January 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 January 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 +85 99 £41,500 -7.78% 19
North of England +29 38 £42,500 +18.06% 6
London +53 35 £42,500 -10.53% 6
Yorkshire +16 32 £45,000 +24.14% 4
East of England +28 28 £47,000 +17.50% 2
Midlands +39 26 £44,000 -12.00% 4
East Midlands +20 19 £45,000 -30.77% 2
South West +8 9 £42,500 -
West Midlands +20 7 £44,000 -12.00% 2
North West +16 6 £40,500 +1.25% 2
3rd Line Support
UK

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

For the 6 months to 10 January 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.

1 143 (61.11%) Microsoft
2 140 (59.83%) Windows
3 111 (47.44%) Microsoft 365
4 109 (46.58%) Active Directory
5 108 (46.15%) Azure
6 90 (38.46%) Windows Server
7 71 (30.34%) Microsoft Exchange
8 62 (26.50%) VMware
9 61 (26.07%) Hyper-V
10 58 (24.79%) Firewall
10 58 (24.79%) PowerShell
11 57 (24.36%) DNS
12 56 (23.93%) DHCP
12 56 (23.93%) Microsoft Intune
13 54 (23.08%) Customer Service
14 48 (20.51%) Problem-Solving
15 43 (18.38%) Entra ID
15 43 (18.38%) Security Cleared
16 40 (17.09%) SC Cleared
17 39 (16.67%) Mentoring
18 35 (14.96%) SLA
18 35 (14.96%) VPN
19 30 (12.82%) Oracle
19 30 (12.82%) VMware Infrastructure
20 29 (12.39%) Incident Management
20 29 (12.39%) VLAN
21 26 (11.11%) ITIL
21 26 (11.11%) LAN
21 26 (11.11%) TCP/IP
21 26 (11.11%) WAN

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 71 (30.34%) Microsoft Exchange
2 22 (9.40%) Exchange Server 2003
3 21 (8.97%) SharePoint
4 8 (3.42%) IIS
5 4 (1.71%) Exchange Server 2013
6 1 (0.43%) Confluence
Applications
1 8 (3.42%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (0.43%) Fidessa
1 1 (0.43%) NetSuite
1 1 (0.43%) Oracle EBS
Cloud Services
1 111 (47.44%) Microsoft 365
2 108 (46.15%) Azure
3 43 (18.38%) Entra ID
4 13 (5.56%) IaaS
5 11 (4.70%) AWS
6 10 (4.27%) Power Platform
6 10 (4.27%) SaaS
7 8 (3.42%) PaaS
8 6 (2.56%) Mimecast
9 4 (1.71%) PowerApps
9 4 (1.71%) Serverless
10 3 (1.28%) Google Workspace
10 3 (1.28%) Power Automate
11 1 (0.43%) Amazon S3
11 1 (0.43%) Azure App Service
11 1 (0.43%) Cloud Computing
11 1 (0.43%) Dynamics 365
11 1 (0.43%) GCP
11 1 (0.43%) n8n
11 1 (0.43%) Zapier
Communications & Networking
1 58 (24.79%) Firewall
2 57 (24.36%) DNS
3 56 (23.93%) DHCP
4 35 (14.96%) VPN
5 29 (12.39%) VLAN
6 26 (11.11%) LAN
6 26 (11.11%) TCP/IP
6 26 (11.11%) WAN
7 18 (7.69%) Wireless
8 17 (7.26%) Wi-Fi
9 11 (4.70%) SAN
10 9 (3.85%) VoIP
11 7 (2.99%) Network Security
12 6 (2.56%) Internet
12 6 (2.56%) SMTP
13 5 (2.14%) EIGRP
13 5 (2.14%) Intrusion Detection
13 5 (2.14%) OSPF
13 5 (2.14%) POP3
13 5 (2.14%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (9.83%) Oracle Database
1 23 (9.83%) Oracle Database 10g
2 11 (4.70%) SQL Server
3 5 (2.14%) Amazon RDS
3 5 (2.14%) Power BI
4 3 (1.28%) PostgreSQL
5 1 (0.43%) Azure SQL Database
Development Applications
1 2 (0.85%) JIRA
General
1 81 (34.62%) Social Skills
2 15 (6.41%) Law
3 13 (5.56%) Manufacturing
4 11 (4.70%) Automotive
4 11 (4.70%) Marketing
5 7 (2.99%) Analytical Skills
5 7 (2.99%) Telecoms
6 6 (2.56%) Finance
7 5 (2.14%) Electronics
7 5 (2.14%) Public Sector
8 4 (1.71%) Billing
8 4 (1.71%) Documentation Skills
9 3 (1.28%) Advertising
9 3 (1.28%) Organisational Skills
9 3 (1.28%) Retail
10 1 (0.43%) Banking
10 1 (0.43%) Legal
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (1.71%) LDAP
2 1 (0.43%) FIX Protocol
2 1 (0.43%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 31 (13.25%) Onboarding
2 12 (5.13%) Self-Motivation
3 8 (3.42%) Driving Licence
4 6 (2.56%) Replication
5 5 (2.14%) Hybrid Cloud
5 5 (2.14%) Management Information System
5 5 (2.14%) PKI
6 4 (1.71%) Clustering
6 4 (1.71%) Data Centre
7 3 (1.28%) Web Conferencing
8 2 (0.85%) IoT
9 1 (0.43%) Blockchain
9 1 (0.43%) BYOD
9 1 (0.43%) CMDB
9 1 (0.43%) Cyber Threat
9 1 (0.43%) Enterprise Storage
9 1 (0.43%) Eurex
9 1 (0.43%) FMCG
9 1 (0.43%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 140 (59.83%) Windows
2 90 (38.46%) Windows Server
3 25 (10.68%) Unix
4 24 (10.26%) Solaris
5 23 (9.83%) HPUX
6 22 (9.40%) Windows Server 2003
7 21 (8.97%) Windows 7
7 21 (8.97%) Windows Server 2008
8 18 (7.69%) Apple iOS
9 17 (7.26%) Android
10 14 (5.98%) Windows 10
11 12 (5.13%) Mac OS
12 10 (4.27%) Linux
13 9 (3.85%) Windows Server 2016
14 7 (2.99%) Windows Server 2019
15 2 (0.85%) Windows Server 2012
16 1 (0.43%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 54 (23.08%) Customer Service
2 48 (20.51%) Problem-Solving
3 39 (16.67%) Mentoring
4 29 (12.39%) Incident Management
5 26 (11.11%) ITIL
6 20 (8.55%) Cybersecurity
7 18 (7.69%) Mobile Device Management
8 15 (6.41%) Coaching
8 15 (6.41%) Disaster Recovery
8 15 (6.41%) Network Monitoring
9 14 (5.98%) Logistics
10 13 (5.56%) Migration
11 12 (5.13%) Continuous Improvement
11 12 (5.13%) Project Delivery
11 12 (5.13%) Zero Trust
12 11 (4.70%) Business Continuity
12 11 (4.70%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 11 (4.70%) Service Desk Management
13 10 (4.27%) Business Intelligence
13 10 (4.27%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 58 (24.79%) PowerShell
2 21 (8.97%) Perl
2 21 (8.97%) SQL
3 4 (1.71%) VB
4 3 (1.28%) C
4 3 (1.28%) Java
4 3 (1.28%) PHP
5 1 (0.43%) Bash
5 1 (0.43%) Python
Qualifications
1 43 (18.38%) Security Cleared
2 40 (17.09%) SC Cleared
3 24 (10.26%) DV Cleared
4 15 (6.41%) DBS Check
5 14 (5.98%) Microsoft Certification
6 13 (5.56%) Degree
7 10 (4.27%) CCNA
7 10 (4.27%) Cisco Certification
8 6 (2.56%) Azure Certification
9 5 (2.14%) CCNP
9 5 (2.14%) HND
9 5 (2.14%) MCP
9 5 (2.14%) MCTS
10 4 (1.71%) ACMT
10 4 (1.71%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 2 (0.85%) ITIL Certification
12 1 (0.43%) AWS Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 35 (14.96%) SLA
2 8 (3.42%) Cyber Essentials
3 5 (2.14%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 4 (1.71%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 1 (0.43%) NIST
System Software
1 109 (46.58%) Active Directory
2 61 (26.07%) Hyper-V
3 30 (12.82%) VMware Infrastructure
4 6 (2.56%) Virtual Machines
5 4 (1.71%) Docker
5 4 (1.71%) VMware ESXi
6 1 (0.43%) BitLocker
6 1 (0.43%) Firmware
6 1 (0.43%) Microsoft Virtual Server
6 1 (0.43%) Virtual Servers
6 1 (0.43%) VMware NSX
6 1 (0.43%) VMware Workstation
6 1 (0.43%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 56 (23.93%) Microsoft Intune
2 13 (5.56%) Jamf Pro
3 11 (4.70%) Autotask
3 11 (4.70%) SCCM
4 6 (2.56%) vCenter Server
5 5 (2.14%) FortiGate
6 4 (1.71%) Kubernetes
6 4 (1.71%) WSUS
7 1 (0.43%) Avamar
7 1 (0.43%) SCOM
Vendors
1 143 (61.11%) Microsoft
2 62 (26.50%) VMware
3 30 (12.82%) Oracle
4 20 (8.55%) Cisco
5 17 (7.26%) Apple
6 13 (5.56%) Veeam
7 10 (4.27%) Sophos
8 8 (3.42%) HP
9 7 (2.99%) Samsung
10 6 (2.56%) SolarWinds
11 5 (2.14%) Barracuda Networks
11 5 (2.14%) Dell
11 5 (2.14%) Meraki
11 5 (2.14%) SAP
11 5 (2.14%) Ubiquiti
12 4 (1.71%) arcserve
12 4 (1.71%) Datto
13 3 (1.28%) Google
14 2 (0.85%) Logitech
14 2 (0.85%) SonicWALL