3rd Line Engineer Job Trends
Third Line Engineer
UK
The median Third Line Engineer salary in the UK is £50,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 16 October 2026.
The table below compares current salary benchmarking and summary statistics with the previous two years.
| 6 months to 16 Oct 2026 |
Same period 2025 | Same period 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | 601 | 527 | 542 |
| Rank change year-on-year | -74 | +15 | -85 |
| Permanent jobs requiring a 3rd Line Engineer | 216 | 142 | 216 |
| As % of all permanent jobs in the UK | 0.18% | 0.29% | 0.31% |
| As % of the Job Titles category | 0.20% | 0.32% | 0.32% |
| Number of salaries quoted | 192 | 137 | 176 |
| 10th Percentile | £40,000 | £34,500 | £34,750 |
| 25th Percentile | £42,500 | £39,250 | £36,250 |
| Median annual salary (50th Percentile) | £50,000 | £47,000 | £42,500 |
| Median % change year-on-year | +6.38% | +10.59% | -5.56% |
| 75th Percentile | £57,500 | £52,500 | £51,813 |
| 90th Percentile | £62,500 | £57,500 | £57,250 |
| UK excluding London median annual salary | £47,500 | £47,000 | £41,250 |
| % change year-on-year | +1.06% | +13.94% | -2.94% |
All Permanent IT Job Roles
UK
For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies. 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.
| 6 months to 16 Oct 2026 |
Same period 2025 | Same period 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Permanent vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title | 110,105 | 43,964 | 67,208 |
| % of permanent jobs with a recognized job title | 92.43% | 89.90% | 95.34% |
| Number of salaries quoted | 74,779 | 25,831 | 38,509 |
| 10th Percentile | £30,000 | £28,000 | £31,250 |
| 25th Percentile | £41,000 | £35,000 | £41,250 |
| Median annual salary (50th Percentile) | £58,396 | £53,500 | £55,000 |
| Median % change year-on-year | +9.15% | -2.73% | -8.33% |
| 75th Percentile | £76,250 | £73,750 | £75,000 |
| 90th Percentile | £98,750 | £95,000 | £95,000 |
| UK excluding London median annual salary | £55,000 | £46,000 | £50,000 |
| % change year-on-year | +19.57% | -8.00% | -4.76% |
3rd Line Engineer Job Vacancy Trend
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.
3rd Line Engineer Salary Trend
Salary distribution trend for 3rd Line Engineer job vacancies in the UK.
3rd Line Engineer Salary Histogram
Salary distribution for jobs citing 3rd Line Engineer over the 6 months to 16 October 2026.
3rd Line Engineer Top 14 Job Locations
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 UK over the 6 months to 16 October 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| England | -72 | 201 | £50,000 | +5.82% | 109 |
| UK excluding London | -52 | 198 | £47,500 | +1.06% | 85 |
| South East | -25 | 61 | £50,000 | +5.26% | 22 |
| Work from Home | -33 | 53 | £47,500 | -5.00% | 35 |
| Midlands | -23 | 46 | £45,000 | -10.00% | 31 |
| East of England | -51 | 35 | £60,000 | +27.66% | 10 |
| West Midlands | -27 | 25 | £45,000 | -5.26% | 18 |
| South West | -56 | 25 | £50,000 | +11.11% | 8 |
| East Midlands | -31 | 21 | £50,000 | -9.09% | 13 |
| London | -78 | 18 | £55,000 | +11.11% | 19 |
| North of England | -61 | 16 | £45,000 | +12.50% | 14 |
| Wales | -63 | 15 | £45,000 | - | 1 |
| Yorkshire | -26 | 10 | £42,500 | -10.53% | 1 |
| North West | -34 | 6 | £45,000 | +12.50% | 10 |
3rd Line Engineer Skill Set Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities
For the 6 months to 16 October 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 featuring 3rd Line Engineer in the job title.
| Rank | Skill | Share | Job Ads |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Microsoft | 50.9% | 110 |
| 2 | Azure | 44.4% | 96 |
| 3 | Windows | 42.6% | 92 |
| 4 | Microsoft 365 | 42.1% | 91 |
| 5 | Active Directory | 38.4% | 83 |
| 6 | Entra ID | 37.0% | 80 |
| 7 | Infrastructure Engineering | 36.6% | 79 |
| 8 | DNS | 32.9% | 71 |
| 9 | Microsoft Exchange | 29.6% | 64 |
| 10 | Windows Server | 28.7% | 62 |
| 11 | Firewall | 25.5% | 55 |
| 12 | Hyper-V | 22.7% | 49 |
| 12 | Microsoft Intune | 22.7% | 49 |
| 14 | DHCP | 21.3% | 46 |
| 15 | Root Cause Analysis | 20.8% | 45 |
| 16 | SharePoint | 19.9% | 43 |
| 17 | VMware | 19.4% | 42 |
| 17 | VMware Infrastructure | 19.4% | 42 |
| 19 | VPN | 19.0% | 41 |
| 20 | Mentoring | 18.5% | 40 |
| 20 | PowerShell | 18.5% | 40 |
| 22 | Problem-Solving | 16.7% | 36 |
| 23 | Security Cleared | 15.7% | 34 |
| 24 | Cisco | 14.4% | 31 |
| 24 | VLAN | 14.4% | 31 |
| 26 | SaaS | 13.0% | 28 |
| 27 | Azure Certification | 12.0% | 26 |
| 27 | Technical Leadership | 12.0% | 26 |
| 29 | Continuous Improvement | 10.6% | 23 |
| 29 | Fortinet | 10.6% | 23 |
3rd Line Engineer Skill Set Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities by Category
The table below expands on the one above by listing co-occurrences one category at a time. It covers the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences in each category.
Job Titles
| Rank | Job Title | Share | Job Ads |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3rd Line Support Engineer | 55.6% | 120 |
| 2 | IT Engineer | 42.1% | 91 |
| 3 | IT Support Engineer | 39.8% | 86 |
| 4 | 3rd Line Infrastructure Engineer | 26.4% | 57 |
| 5 | 3rd Line Network Engineer | 16.2% | 35 |
| 6 | Network Engineer | 13.9% | 30 |
| 7 | Azure Engineer | 10.6% | 23 |
| 7 | Cloud Engineer | 10.6% | 23 |
| 9 | Senior Infrastructure Engineer | 9.3% | 20 |
| 10 | 2nd/3rd Line Support Engineer | 7.4% | 16 |
| 10 | Senior IT Engineer | 7.4% | 16 |
| 10 | Senior IT Support | 7.4% | 16 |
| 13 | 3rd Line Technical Engineer | 5.6% | 12 |
| 13 | 3rd Line Technical Support | 5.6% | 12 |
| 15 | 3rd Line Infrastructure Support | 5.1% | 11 |
| 15 | Infrastructure Support Engineer | 5.1% | 11 |
| 15 | IT Infrastructure Engineer | 5.1% | 11 |
| 15 | Systems Engineer | 5.1% | 11 |
| 19 | 3rd Line Server Engineer | 4.6% | 10 |
| 19 | Software Support Engineer | 4.6% | 10 |