3rd Line Engineer Job Trends in the South East

Third Line Engineer
England > South East

The median Third Line Engineer salary in the South East is £45,500 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 27 January 2026.

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

6 months to
27 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 224 236 187
Rank change year-on-year +12 -49 +130
Permanent jobs requiring a 3rd Line Engineer 47 53 136
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 0.44% 0.60% 1.23%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.48% 0.67% 1.30%
Number of salaries quoted 43 52 133
10th Percentile £37,750 £36,250 £33,250
25th Percentile £40,000 £40,938 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,500 £50,000 £42,000
Median % change year-on-year -9.00% +19.05% -2.89%
75th Percentile £52,250 £55,000 £51,500
90th Percentile £54,750 £58,975 £55,000
England median annual salary £47,000 £45,250 £42,500
% change year-on-year +3.87% +6.47% -5.56%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
South East

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies in the South East. 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 the South East with a recognized job title 9,879 7,874 10,480
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.33% 89.66% 94.94%
Number of salaries quoted 6,254 4,062 7,894
10th Percentile £28,000 £32,500 £27,500
25th Percentile £35,000 £43,750 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £57,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -13.04% +15.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £65,000 £72,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £80,000 £85,000 £77,750
England median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -12.00%

3rd Line Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings featuring '3rd Line Engineer' in the job title relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the South East.

3rd Line Engineer job vacancy trend in the South East

3rd Line Engineer
Salary Trend in the South East

Salary distribution trend for 3rd Line Engineer job vacancies in the South East.

Salary distribution trend for 3rd Line Engineer job vacancies in the South East

3rd Line Engineer
Salary Histogram in the South East

Salary distribution for jobs citing 3rd Line Engineer in the South East over the 6 months to 27 January 2026.

Salary histogram for 3rd Line Engineer in the South East

3rd Line Engineer
Job Locations in the South East

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing 3rd Line Engineer within the South East region over the 6 months to 27 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
Hampshire +27 24 £47,500 -10.38% 6
Thames Valley +13 20 £45,000 +10.77% 10
Berkshire +13 17 £45,000 - 2
Buckinghamshire -2 3 £48,000 +28.00% 7
Kent -9 2 £38,750 +10.71% 1
Surrey -3 1 - - 2
3rd Line Engineer
England

3rd Line Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East

For the 6 months to 27 January 2026, 3rd Line Engineer 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 South East region featuring 3rd Line Engineer in the job title.

1 20 (42.55%) Microsoft
2 18 (38.30%) Active Directory
2 18 (38.30%) Windows
3 17 (36.17%) Microsoft Exchange
3 17 (36.17%) Problem-Solving
3 17 (36.17%) Security Cleared
4 14 (29.79%) DV Cleared
5 12 (25.53%) VMware
6 11 (23.40%) Azure
6 11 (23.40%) Microsoft 365
6 11 (23.40%) PowerShell
6 11 (23.40%) SC Cleared
7 10 (21.28%) Entra ID
7 10 (21.28%) Windows Server
8 9 (19.15%) Customer Service
8 9 (19.15%) ITIL
8 9 (19.15%) Microsoft Intune
8 9 (19.15%) SharePoint
9 8 (17.02%) Cisco
9 8 (17.02%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 8 (17.02%) ITSM
9 8 (17.02%) Project Delivery
10 7 (14.89%) DBS Check
10 7 (14.89%) SCCM
10 7 (14.89%) SCOM
10 7 (14.89%) Service Delivery
10 7 (14.89%) vCenter Server
10 7 (14.89%) Wireless
11 6 (12.77%) Incident Management
11 6 (12.77%) SolarWinds

3rd Line Engineer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East 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 17 (36.17%) Microsoft Exchange
2 9 (19.15%) SharePoint
3 4 (8.51%) Exchange Server 2003
Applications
1 4 (8.51%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (2.13%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 11 (23.40%) Azure
1 11 (23.40%) Microsoft 365
2 10 (21.28%) Entra ID
3 1 (2.13%) AWS
3 1 (2.13%) Mimecast
3 1 (2.13%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 7 (14.89%) Wireless
2 4 (8.51%) SMTP
2 4 (8.51%) X.400
2 4 (8.51%) X.500
3 3 (6.38%) Firewall
4 2 (4.26%) Cisco Firepower
4 2 (4.26%) Cisco IOS
4 2 (4.26%) Cisco ISE
4 2 (4.26%) Junos
5 1 (2.13%) Ethernet
5 1 (2.13%) Internet
5 1 (2.13%) LAN
5 1 (2.13%) NX-OS
5 1 (2.13%) TCP/IP
5 1 (2.13%) VoIP
5 1 (2.13%) WAN
5 1 (2.13%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (10.64%) Oracle Database
1 5 (10.64%) Oracle Database 10g
2 3 (6.38%) Data Mining
Development Applications
1 2 (4.26%) JIRA
General
1 8 (17.02%) Social Skills
2 1 (2.13%) Advertising
2 1 (2.13%) Finance
2 1 (2.13%) Legal
Miscellaneous
1 6 (12.77%) Onboarding
2 4 (8.51%) Replication
3 2 (4.26%) Driving Licence
3 2 (4.26%) PKI
4 1 (2.13%) FMCG
4 1 (2.13%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
4 1 (2.13%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 18 (38.30%) Windows
2 10 (21.28%) Windows Server
3 5 (10.64%) Solaris
3 5 (10.64%) Unix
4 4 (8.51%) HPUX
4 4 (8.51%) Windows 10
4 4 (8.51%) Windows Server 2003
5 3 (6.38%) Linux
6 2 (4.26%) Windows Server 2012
6 2 (4.26%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 17 (36.17%) Problem-Solving
2 9 (19.15%) Customer Service
2 9 (19.15%) ITIL
3 8 (17.02%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 8 (17.02%) ITSM
3 8 (17.02%) Project Delivery
4 7 (14.89%) Service Delivery
5 6 (12.77%) Incident Management
6 5 (10.64%) Logistics
6 5 (10.64%) Problem Management
6 5 (10.64%) Project Management
6 5 (10.64%) Service Management
6 5 (10.64%) Stakeholder Management
6 5 (10.64%) Tech Ops
7 3 (6.38%) Continuous Improvement
7 3 (6.38%) Infrastructure Monitoring
7 3 (6.38%) Knowledge Transfer
8 2 (4.26%) Collaborative Engineering
8 2 (4.26%) Presales
8 2 (4.26%) Requirements Gathering
Programming Languages
1 11 (23.40%) PowerShell
2 4 (8.51%) SQL
3 1 (2.13%) R
Qualifications
1 17 (36.17%) Security Cleared
2 14 (29.79%) DV Cleared
3 11 (23.40%) SC Cleared
4 7 (14.89%) DBS Check
5 2 (4.26%) CCNA
5 2 (4.26%) Cisco Certification
6 1 (2.13%) Degree
6 1 (2.13%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (4.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 1 (2.13%) NIST
2 1 (2.13%) SLA
System Software
1 18 (38.30%) Active Directory
2 5 (10.64%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (6.38%) vSphere
4 2 (4.26%) Virtual Machines
4 2 (4.26%) VMware NSX
5 1 (2.13%) Firmware
5 1 (2.13%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 9 (19.15%) Microsoft Intune
2 7 (14.89%) SCCM
2 7 (14.89%) SCOM
2 7 (14.89%) vCenter Server
3 2 (4.26%) SCSM
4 1 (2.13%) Avamar
Vendors
1 20 (42.55%) Microsoft
2 12 (25.53%) VMware
3 8 (17.02%) Cisco
4 6 (12.77%) SolarWinds
4 6 (12.77%) Veeam
5 5 (10.64%) Juniper
5 5 (10.64%) Oracle
6 4 (8.51%) McAfee
7 3 (6.38%) Trend Micro
8 2 (4.26%) Aruba
8 2 (4.26%) Draytek
8 2 (4.26%) Fortinet
8 2 (4.26%) Meraki
8 2 (4.26%) Sophos
9 1 (2.13%) arcserve
9 1 (2.13%) Broadcom
9 1 (2.13%) CrowdStrike
9 1 (2.13%) EMC
9 1 (2.13%) HP