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 2 July 2026.

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

6 months to
2 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 534 448 488
Rank change year-on-year -86 +40 +167
Permanent jobs requiring a 3rd Line Support 181 203 397
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.21% 0.49% 0.43%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.22% 0.54% 0.45%
Number of salaries quoted 165 200 366
10th Percentile £32,000 £36,250 £31,250
25th Percentile £40,000 £37,500 £34,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £45,000 £40,000
Median % change year-on-year - +12.50% -
75th Percentile £55,000 £52,250 £44,844
90th Percentile £58,750 £63,000 £52,500
UK median annual salary £45,000 £45,000 £40,000
% change year-on-year - +12.50% -

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 80,861 37,451 87,605
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.20% 90.30% 94.62%
Number of salaries quoted 56,940 22,195 64,587
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% -12.50%
75th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £70,500
90th Percentile £97,500 £98,474 £90,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £56,745 £52,500
% change year-on-year -3.08% +8.09% -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 2 July 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 2 July 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 -4 67 £48,750 +17.47% 8
North of England -26 46 £43,750 +2.94% 3
London -29 37 £53,750 +4.37% 3
Yorkshire -24 23 £45,000 -5.26% 2
Midlands -63 15 £32,500 -15.58% 7
East Midlands -30 12 £32,500 -35.00% 5
North East -40 12 £40,000 -
South West -71 12 £45,000 +10.43% 1
North West -5 11 £31,500 -21.25% 1
East of England -35 4 £36,500 -23.16% 1
West Midlands -51 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 2 July 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.

1 115 (63.54%) Microsoft
2 104 (57.46%) Azure
3 101 (55.80%) Microsoft 365
4 83 (45.86%) Active Directory
5 80 (44.20%) Windows
6 75 (41.44%) Microsoft Exchange
7 72 (39.78%) SharePoint
8 70 (38.67%) Entra ID
9 54 (29.83%) Windows Server
10 49 (27.07%) Microsoft Intune
11 44 (24.31%) SaaS
12 37 (20.44%) DNS
12 37 (20.44%) SQL
13 36 (19.89%) Firewall
14 35 (19.34%) VLAN
15 32 (17.68%) Infrastructure Engineering
16 31 (17.13%) Hyper-V
16 31 (17.13%) Workflow
17 29 (16.02%) Identity Management
18 27 (14.92%) VMware
18 27 (14.92%) VMware Infrastructure
18 27 (14.92%) VPN
19 26 (14.36%) DHCP
20 25 (13.81%) Change Management
20 25 (13.81%) Problem-Solving
21 24 (13.26%) Project Delivery
22 23 (12.71%) Incident Management
22 23 (12.71%) ITIL
22 23 (12.71%) Mimecast
22 23 (12.71%) 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 75 (41.44%) Microsoft Exchange
2 72 (39.78%) SharePoint
3 4 (2.21%) Exchange Server 2007
3 4 (2.21%) Exchange Server 2010
3 4 (2.21%) Exchange Server 2013
Applications
1 4 (2.21%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 11 (6.08%) Unit4 Business World
2 3 (1.66%) Oracle EBS
2 3 (1.66%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.55%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 104 (57.46%) Azure
2 101 (55.80%) Microsoft 365
3 70 (38.67%) Entra ID
4 44 (24.31%) SaaS
5 23 (12.71%) Mimecast
6 11 (6.08%) Boomi
6 11 (6.08%) Google Workspace
6 11 (6.08%) iPaaS
6 11 (6.08%) Workato
7 5 (2.76%) OneDrive
8 4 (2.21%) AWS
9 3 (1.66%) Power Platform
10 1 (0.55%) Google Docs
10 1 (0.55%) IaaS
10 1 (0.55%) PaaS
10 1 (0.55%) Power Automate
10 1 (0.55%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 37 (20.44%) DNS
2 36 (19.89%) Firewall
3 35 (19.34%) VLAN
4 27 (14.92%) VPN
5 26 (14.36%) DHCP
6 15 (8.29%) TCP/IP
7 14 (7.73%) Wireless
8 12 (6.63%) Wi-Fi
9 10 (5.52%) SAN
10 8 (4.42%) VoIP
11 5 (2.76%) LAN
12 4 (2.21%) BGP
12 4 (2.21%) IPsec
12 4 (2.21%) Network Security
12 4 (2.21%) WAN
13 3 (1.66%) DMZ
13 3 (1.66%) Wireshark
14 2 (1.10%) Unified Communications
15 1 (0.55%) Internet
15 1 (0.55%) Remote Desktop
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (6.08%) SQL Server
2 2 (1.10%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 21 (11.60%) JIRA
2 1 (0.55%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 62 (34.25%) Social Skills
2 28 (15.47%) Legal
3 15 (8.29%) Finance
4 9 (4.97%) Analytical Skills
4 9 (4.97%) Organisational Skills
5 7 (3.87%) Documentation Skills
6 2 (1.10%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 2 (1.10%) Manufacturing
7 1 (0.55%) Banking
7 1 (0.55%) Public Sector
7 1 (0.55%) Retail
7 1 (0.55%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (7.73%) Web Services
2 9 (4.97%) .NET
Miscellaneous
1 12 (6.63%) Self-Motivation
2 10 (5.52%) Driving Licence
2 10 (5.52%) Video Conferencing
3 7 (3.87%) Enterprise Software
3 7 (3.87%) PKI
4 5 (2.76%) Cyber Threat
4 5 (2.76%) Replication
5 4 (2.21%) Onboarding
6 3 (1.66%) CMDB
7 2 (1.10%) IoT
8 1 (0.55%) Clustering
8 1 (0.55%) Hybrid Cloud
8 1 (0.55%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 80 (44.20%) Windows
2 54 (29.83%) Windows Server
3 20 (11.05%) Linux
4 18 (9.94%) Mac OS
5 14 (7.73%) Windows Server 2016
6 12 (6.63%) Windows Server 2012
7 9 (4.97%) Windows Server 2019
8 8 (4.42%) Windows 10
9 7 (3.87%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 4 (2.21%) Windows Server 2008
11 1 (0.55%) Apple iOS
11 1 (0.55%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 32 (17.68%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 31 (17.13%) Workflow
3 29 (16.02%) Identity Management
4 25 (13.81%) Change Management
4 25 (13.81%) Problem-Solving
5 24 (13.26%) Project Delivery
6 23 (12.71%) Incident Management
6 23 (12.71%) ITIL
6 23 (12.71%) Technical Leadership
7 18 (9.94%) Customer Service
7 18 (9.94%) Cybersecurity
8 17 (9.39%) Disaster Recovery
9 16 (8.84%) Continuous Improvement
10 15 (8.29%) ITSM
10 15 (8.29%) Service Delivery
11 14 (7.73%) ERP
12 13 (7.18%) Migration
12 13 (7.18%) Remote Monitoring and Management
13 12 (6.63%) Mentoring
13 12 (6.63%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 37 (20.44%) SQL
2 21 (11.60%) PowerShell
3 19 (10.50%) R
4 9 (4.97%) C#
5 7 (3.87%) T-SQL
6 3 (1.66%) COBOL
6 3 (1.66%) Java
6 3 (1.66%) Python
7 2 (1.10%) Bash
8 1 (0.55%) Google Apps Script
Qualifications
1 17 (9.39%) Microsoft Certification
2 15 (8.29%) Degree
3 7 (3.87%) Security Cleared
4 6 (3.31%) CCNA
4 6 (3.31%) Cisco Certification
4 6 (3.31%) DV Cleared
5 5 (2.76%) Azure Certification
5 5 (2.76%) DBS Check
6 3 (1.66%) AWS Certification
6 3 (1.66%) MCSA
6 3 (1.66%) Microsoft Certified Professional
7 1 (0.55%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (11.60%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 14 (7.73%) Cyber Essentials
3 8 (4.42%) GDPR
4 3 (1.66%) SLA
5 2 (1.10%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 83 (45.86%) Active Directory
2 31 (17.13%) Hyper-V
3 27 (14.92%) VMware Infrastructure
4 7 (3.87%) vSphere
5 3 (1.66%) Microsoft Virtual Server
5 3 (1.66%) Virtual Servers
6 2 (1.10%) Firmware
6 2 (1.10%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 49 (27.07%) Microsoft Intune
2 19 (10.50%) Jamf Pro
3 14 (7.73%) Autotask
4 9 (4.97%) Backup Exec
5 7 (3.87%) WSUS
6 3 (1.66%) Iperf
7 2 (1.10%) Single Sign-On
7 2 (1.10%) Terraform
8 1 (0.55%) Ansible
Vendors
1 115 (63.54%) Microsoft
2 27 (14.92%) VMware
3 20 (11.05%) Cisco
4 19 (10.50%) CrowdStrike
5 15 (8.29%) Veeam
6 14 (7.73%) HP
6 14 (7.73%) Meraki
6 14 (7.73%) SonicWALL
7 11 (6.08%) Google
8 10 (5.52%) Aruba
8 10 (5.52%) Datto
8 10 (5.52%) Ubiquiti
9 9 (4.97%) Logitech
9 9 (4.97%) Yealink
10 8 (4.42%) Apple
11 7 (3.87%) ConnectWise
11 7 (3.87%) McAfee
12 5 (2.76%) Fortinet
13 4 (2.21%) Dell
13 4 (2.21%) ServiceNow