3rd Line Engineer Job Trends

Third Line Engineer
UK

The median Third Line Engineer salary in the UK is £45,500 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 29 January 2026.

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

6 months to
29 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 463 566 421
Rank change year-on-year +103 -145 +189
Permanent jobs requiring a 3rd Line Engineer 187 146 393
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.30% 0.28% 0.58%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.33% 0.30% 0.61%
Number of salaries quoted 175 129 370
10th Percentile £37,500 £36,250 £31,250
25th Percentile £41,250 £37,500 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,500 £47,500 £42,500
Median % change year-on-year -4.21% +11.76% -5.56%
75th Percentile £55,000 £54,500 £52,500
90th Percentile £57,500 £64,400 £56,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £46,250 £46,500 £42,000
% change year-on-year -0.54% +10.71% -6.67%

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.

Permanent vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 57,468 48,384 64,674
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.83% 92.28% 95.12%
Number of salaries quoted 35,727 24,872 50,479
10th Percentile £28,785 £33,750 £29,000
25th Percentile £37,500 £45,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -8.41%
75th Percentile £75,000 £79,648 £75,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £54,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -7.41% +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 job vacancy trend in the UK

3rd Line Engineer
Salary Trend

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

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 29 January 2026.

Salary histogram for 3rd Line Engineer in the UK

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 29 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
England +94 179 £47,000 +3.30% 52
UK excluding London +55 156 £46,250 -0.54% 52
South East +15 47 £45,500 -9.00% 23
Work from Home +64 42 £52,500 +23.53% 18
North of England +29 37 £45,000 +16.88% 11
Yorkshire +19 37 £45,000 -21.74% 9
London +60 31 £45,000 -12.62% 8
South West +24 28 £53,459 +25.78% 6
East of England +28 21 £45,000 +5.88% 7
Midlands -1 16 £52,500 +5.00% 2
East Midlands -9 11 £55,000 -11.65% 1
Wales - 7 £45,000 - 3
West Midlands +19 5 £47,000 -6.00% 1
Scotland - 1 £55,000 - 2

3rd Line Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 29 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 featuring 3rd Line Engineer in the job title.

1 80 (42.78%) Microsoft
2 74 (39.57%) Azure
3 64 (34.22%) Windows
4 63 (33.69%) Microsoft 365
5 54 (28.88%) Active Directory
6 53 (28.34%) Problem-Solving
7 49 (26.20%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 47 (25.13%) PowerShell
9 46 (24.60%) Windows Server
10 44 (23.53%) VMware
11 43 (22.99%) ITIL
12 41 (21.93%) Security Cleared
13 38 (20.32%) Microsoft Exchange
13 38 (20.32%) Microsoft Intune
14 35 (18.72%) Entra ID
15 34 (18.18%) Customer Service
15 34 (18.18%) Firewall
16 31 (16.58%) SC Cleared
17 30 (16.04%) VMware Infrastructure
18 22 (11.76%) SharePoint
18 22 (11.76%) Veeam
19 20 (10.70%) Cisco
19 20 (10.70%) DNS
19 20 (10.70%) Hyper-V
19 20 (10.70%) ITSM
19 20 (10.70%) Project Delivery
20 17 (9.09%) DHCP
20 17 (9.09%) DV Cleared
21 16 (8.56%) Degree
21 16 (8.56%) Linux

3rd Line Engineer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 38 (20.32%) Microsoft Exchange
2 22 (11.76%) SharePoint
3 4 (2.14%) Exchange Server 2003
4 2 (1.07%) IIS
5 1 (0.53%) Confluence
Applications
1 5 (2.67%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 4 (2.14%) Remedy ITSM
2 3 (1.60%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.53%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 74 (39.57%) Azure
2 63 (33.69%) Microsoft 365
3 35 (18.72%) Entra ID
4 9 (4.81%) AWS
5 6 (3.21%) Mimecast
5 6 (3.21%) Power Platform
6 2 (1.07%) IaaS
6 2 (1.07%) SaaS
7 1 (0.53%) Amazon S3
7 1 (0.53%) Dynamics 365
7 1 (0.53%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 34 (18.18%) Firewall
2 20 (10.70%) DNS
3 17 (9.09%) DHCP
4 14 (7.49%) VPN
5 10 (5.35%) Wireless
6 9 (4.81%) VLAN
7 8 (4.28%) WAN
8 7 (3.74%) LAN
8 7 (3.74%) TCP/IP
8 7 (3.74%) Wi-Fi
9 5 (2.67%) Cisco IOS
9 5 (2.67%) VoIP
10 4 (2.14%) Ethernet
10 4 (2.14%) IP Telephony
10 4 (2.14%) Network Security
10 4 (2.14%) SMTP
10 4 (2.14%) X.400
10 4 (2.14%) X.500
11 3 (1.60%) SD-WAN
12 2 (1.07%) Cisco Firepower
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (3.74%) SQL Server
2 5 (2.67%) Oracle Database
2 5 (2.67%) Oracle Database 10g
2 5 (2.67%) Power BI
3 3 (1.60%) Amazon RDS
3 3 (1.60%) Data Mining
Development Applications
1 4 (2.14%) JIRA
General
1 37 (19.79%) Social Skills
2 10 (5.35%) Finance
2 10 (5.35%) Law
2 10 (5.35%) Marketing
3 8 (4.28%) Public Sector
4 7 (3.74%) Automotive
4 7 (3.74%) Manufacturing
4 7 (3.74%) Telecoms
5 6 (3.21%) Analytical Skills
6 5 (2.67%) Retail
7 4 (2.14%) Advertising
7 4 (2.14%) Electronics
8 3 (1.60%) Organisational Skills
9 2 (1.07%) Banking
9 2 (1.07%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 2 (1.07%) Legal
10 1 (0.53%) Aerospace
10 1 (0.53%) Front Office
Miscellaneous
1 20 (10.70%) Onboarding
2 9 (4.81%) Driving Licence
3 5 (2.67%) Replication
4 4 (2.14%) Enterprise Software
4 4 (2.14%) PKI
5 3 (1.60%) CMDB
5 3 (1.60%) iPad
6 2 (1.07%) Clustering
6 2 (1.07%) YubiKey
7 1 (0.53%) BYOD
7 1 (0.53%) FMCG
7 1 (0.53%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
7 1 (0.53%) Hybrid Cloud
7 1 (0.53%) Legacy Systems
7 1 (0.53%) Management Information System
7 1 (0.53%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 64 (34.22%) Windows
2 46 (24.60%) Windows Server
3 16 (8.56%) Linux
4 14 (7.49%) Windows 10
5 10 (5.35%) Android
6 7 (3.74%) Apple iOS
6 7 (3.74%) Unix
7 6 (3.21%) Windows Server 2016
8 5 (2.67%) Mac OS
8 5 (2.67%) Solaris
8 5 (2.67%) Windows Server 2003
9 4 (2.14%) HPUX
9 4 (2.14%) Windows Server 2012
10 3 (1.60%) Windows Server 2019
11 2 (1.07%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 53 (28.34%) Problem-Solving
2 49 (26.20%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 43 (22.99%) ITIL
4 34 (18.18%) Customer Service
5 20 (10.70%) ITSM
5 20 (10.70%) Project Delivery
6 16 (8.56%) Service Delivery
7 15 (8.02%) Incident Management
8 14 (7.49%) Disaster Recovery
8 14 (7.49%) Mentoring
9 11 (5.88%) Logistics
9 11 (5.88%) Service Management
10 10 (5.35%) Continuous Improvement
10 10 (5.35%) DevOps
10 10 (5.35%) Problem Management
10 10 (5.35%) Root Cause Analysis
11 9 (4.81%) Business Intelligence
11 9 (4.81%) Cybersecurity
12 8 (4.28%) Stakeholder Management
12 8 (4.28%) Task Automation
Programming Languages
1 47 (25.13%) PowerShell
2 15 (8.02%) SQL
3 5 (2.67%) Bash
3 5 (2.67%) Python
4 2 (1.07%) R
5 1 (0.53%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 41 (21.93%) Security Cleared
2 31 (16.58%) SC Cleared
3 17 (9.09%) DV Cleared
4 16 (8.56%) Degree
5 11 (5.88%) DBS Check
6 9 (4.81%) Cisco Certification
7 8 (4.28%) Microsoft Certification
8 7 (3.74%) CCNA
9 6 (3.21%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 5 (2.67%) HND
11 4 (2.14%) CCNP
12 3 (1.60%) Azure Certification
12 3 (1.60%) RHCE
13 2 (1.07%) ACMT
13 2 (1.07%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 1 (0.53%) CompTIA Security+
14 1 (0.53%) Computer Science Degree
14 1 (0.53%) ITIL Certification
14 1 (0.53%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (8.02%) SLA
2 5 (2.67%) Cyber Essentials
2 5 (2.67%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 3 (1.60%) NIST
4 1 (0.53%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 1 (0.53%) GDPR
System Software
1 54 (28.88%) Active Directory
2 30 (16.04%) VMware Infrastructure
3 20 (10.70%) Hyper-V
4 12 (6.42%) vSphere
5 5 (2.67%) Virtual Desktop
5 5 (2.67%) VMware ESXi
6 3 (1.60%) Microsoft Virtual Server
6 3 (1.60%) Virtual Servers
7 2 (1.07%) Docker
7 2 (1.07%) Firmware
7 2 (1.07%) Lustre
7 2 (1.07%) Slurm Workload Manager
7 2 (1.07%) Virtual Machines
7 2 (1.07%) VMware NSX
8 1 (0.53%) BitLocker
8 1 (0.53%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 38 (20.32%) Microsoft Intune
2 12 (6.42%) SCCM
3 10 (5.35%) vCenter Server
4 7 (3.74%) FortiGate
4 7 (3.74%) Jamf Pro
4 7 (3.74%) SCOM
5 4 (2.14%) Ansible
5 4 (2.14%) WSUS
6 2 (1.07%) Autotask
6 2 (1.07%) Kubernetes
6 2 (1.07%) Proxmox
6 2 (1.07%) SCSM
6 2 (1.07%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
6 2 (1.07%) Terraform
7 1 (0.53%) Avamar
Vendors
1 80 (42.78%) Microsoft
2 44 (23.53%) VMware
3 22 (11.76%) Veeam
4 20 (10.70%) Cisco
5 13 (6.95%) Apple
6 10 (5.35%) Oracle
7 6 (3.21%) arcserve
7 6 (3.21%) McAfee
7 6 (3.21%) SolarWinds
8 5 (2.67%) Fortinet
8 5 (2.67%) Juniper
8 5 (2.67%) Sophos
9 4 (2.14%) Remedy
9 4 (2.14%) SAP
9 4 (2.14%) ServiceNow
10 3 (1.60%) Aruba
10 3 (1.60%) Draytek
10 3 (1.60%) EMC
10 3 (1.60%) Red Hat
10 3 (1.60%) Trend Micro