3rd Line Engineer Job Trends in the Thames Valley

Third Line Engineer
South East > Thames Valley

The median Third Line Engineer salary in the Thames Valley is £55,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 16 July 2026.

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

6 months to
16 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 149 193 175
Rank change year-on-year +44 -18 +19
Permanent jobs requiring a 3rd Line Engineer 37 9 63
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 0.60% 0.25% 0.96%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.63% 0.28% 1.02%
Number of salaries quoted 29 7 62
10th Percentile £40,000 £36,550 £36,300
25th Percentile £46,250 £45,250 £36,875
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £52,500 £42,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.76% +25.00% -4.55%
75th Percentile £62,500 £54,375 £43,750
90th Percentile - £56,000 -
South East median annual salary £52,500 £51,500 £42,000
% change year-on-year +1.94% +22.62% -6.67%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
Thames Valley

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies in the Thames Valley. 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 Thames Valley with a recognized job title 5,848 3,258 6,194
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.95% 90.35% 94.22%
Number of salaries quoted 4,050 1,481 4,288
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,000 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £36,250 £36,688
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £50,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% - -9.09%
75th Percentile £70,000 £67,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £83,750 £80,000
South East median annual salary £55,000 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +10.00% - -9.09%

3rd Line Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the Thames Valley

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 Thames Valley.

3rd Line Engineer job vacancy trend in the Thames Valley

3rd Line Engineer
Salary Trend in the Thames Valley

Salary distribution trend for 3rd Line Engineer job vacancies in the Thames Valley.

Salary distribution trend for 3rd Line Engineer job vacancies in the Thames Valley

3rd Line Engineer
Salary Histogram in the Thames Valley

Salary distribution for jobs citing 3rd Line Engineer in the Thames Valley over the 6 months to 16 July 2026.

Salary histogram for 3rd Line Engineer in the Thames Valley

3rd Line Engineer
Job Locations in the Thames Valley

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 Thames Valley region over the 6 months to 16 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
Buckinghamshire +11 28 £57,500 +64.29% 1
Berkshire +21 8 £40,000 -23.81%
Oxfordshire -10 1 £40,000 -1.23% 9
3rd Line Engineer
South East

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

For the 6 months to 16 July 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 Thames Valley region featuring 3rd Line Engineer in the job title.

1 20 (54.05%) Azure
2 17 (45.95%) Root Cause Analysis
3 15 (40.54%) PowerShell
4 14 (37.84%) DNS
5 11 (29.73%) Agile
5 11 (29.73%) Azure AKS
5 11 (29.73%) Azure Certification
5 11 (29.73%) Azure ExpressRoute
5 11 (29.73%) Azure Key Vault
5 11 (29.73%) Azure Storage
5 11 (29.73%) Containerisation
5 11 (29.73%) High Availability
5 11 (29.73%) IaaS
5 11 (29.73%) Kubernetes
5 11 (29.73%) Load Balancing
6 10 (27.03%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 10 (27.03%) Microsoft
6 10 (27.03%) SaaS
7 7 (18.92%) SC Cleared
7 7 (18.92%) Security Cleared
8 6 (16.22%) .NET
8 6 (16.22%) C#
8 6 (16.22%) Performance Tuning
8 6 (16.22%) Software Engineering
8 6 (16.22%) SQL
8 6 (16.22%) SQL Server
8 6 (16.22%) T-SQL
9 5 (13.51%) Windows
10 4 (10.81%) Firewall
11 3 (8.11%) Active Directory

3rd Line Engineer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the Thames Valley 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 3 (8.11%) Microsoft Exchange
1 3 (8.11%) SharePoint
Cloud Services
1 20 (54.05%) Azure
2 11 (29.73%) Azure AKS
2 11 (29.73%) Azure ExpressRoute
2 11 (29.73%) Azure Key Vault
2 11 (29.73%) Azure Storage
2 11 (29.73%) IaaS
3 10 (27.03%) SaaS
4 3 (8.11%) Entra ID
4 3 (8.11%) Microsoft 365
4 3 (8.11%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 14 (37.84%) DNS
2 4 (10.81%) Firewall
3 3 (8.11%) DHCP
3 3 (8.11%) TCP/IP
3 3 (8.11%) VLAN
3 3 (8.11%) VPN
3 3 (8.11%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (16.22%) SQL Server
General
1 11 (29.73%) Law
2 3 (8.11%) Social Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (16.22%) .NET
Miscellaneous
1 6 (16.22%) Enterprise Software
2 1 (2.70%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 5 (13.51%) Windows
2 3 (8.11%) Windows Server
3 2 (5.41%) Linux
4 1 (2.70%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 17 (45.95%) Root Cause Analysis
2 11 (29.73%) Agile
2 11 (29.73%) Containerisation
2 11 (29.73%) High Availability
2 11 (29.73%) Load Balancing
3 10 (27.03%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 6 (16.22%) Performance Tuning
4 6 (16.22%) Software Engineering
5 3 (8.11%) ITIL
5 3 (8.11%) Mentoring
5 3 (8.11%) Proactive Monitoring
5 3 (8.11%) Remote Monitoring and Management
6 2 (5.41%) SIEM
7 1 (2.70%) Collaborative Working
7 1 (2.70%) Cyber Resilience
7 1 (2.70%) Cybersecurity
7 1 (2.70%) Document Management
7 1 (2.70%) Kalman Filter
7 1 (2.70%) Vulnerability Management
7 1 (2.70%) Vulnerability Scanning
Programming Languages
1 15 (40.54%) PowerShell
2 6 (16.22%) C#
2 6 (16.22%) SQL
2 6 (16.22%) T-SQL
3 1 (2.70%) Python
Qualifications
1 11 (29.73%) Azure Certification
2 7 (18.92%) SC Cleared
2 7 (18.92%) Security Cleared
3 3 (8.11%) CCNA
3 3 (8.11%) Cisco Certification
3 3 (8.11%) Degree
3 3 (8.11%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (8.11%) Cyber Essentials
System Software
1 3 (8.11%) Active Directory
1 3 (8.11%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 11 (29.73%) Kubernetes
2 3 (8.11%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 10 (27.03%) Microsoft