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 21 September 2026.

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

6 months to
21 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 596 513 552
Rank change year-on-year -83 +39 -56
Permanent jobs requiring a 3rd Line Engineer 203 152 251
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.17% 0.31% 0.32%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.19% 0.35% 0.34%
Number of salaries quoted 186 145 209
10th Percentile £40,000 £35,000 £34,750
25th Percentile £45,000 £39,500 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £47,500 £42,000
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% +13.10% -6.67%
75th Percentile £58,750 £53,250 £50,000
90th Percentile £62,500 £57,500 £55,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £47,500 £40,681
% change year-on-year +5.26% +16.76% -4.28%

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 108,248 44,029 73,823
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.20% 89.64% 95.26%
Number of salaries quoted 74,086 25,880 44,136
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,250 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,500 £36,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £59,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.27% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £77,500 £75,000 £73,750
90th Percentile £100,000 £95,000 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £47,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year +15.79% -5.00% -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 21 September 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 21 September 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 -74 185 £50,000 +5.26% 108
UK excluding London -57 179 £50,000 +5.26% 87
South East -24 64 £52,500 +5.00% 26
Work from Home -46 47 £47,500 -5.00% 53
Midlands -42 39 £45,000 -10.00% 20
East of England -42 34 £60,000 +33.33% 15
London -71 24 £55,000 +6.80% 18
East Midlands -29 21 £50,000 - 6
West Midlands -40 18 £45,000 -10.00% 14
Wales -55 18 £45,000 - 4
South West -66 12 £50,000 +17.65% 8
North of England -70 12 £47,500 +18.75% 15
Yorkshire -29 10 £47,500 - 2
North West -43 2 £52,500 +31.25% 10

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

For the 6 months to 21 September 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.

1 105 (51.72%) Microsoft
2 88 (43.35%) Azure
3 87 (42.86%) Microsoft 365
4 79 (38.92%) Windows
5 73 (35.96%) Active Directory
6 72 (35.47%) Entra ID
7 63 (31.03%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 63 (31.03%) Microsoft Exchange
8 56 (27.59%) DNS
9 54 (26.60%) Firewall
10 47 (23.15%) SharePoint
10 47 (23.15%) Windows Server
11 46 (22.66%) Microsoft Intune
12 44 (21.67%) Hyper-V
13 40 (19.70%) VMware
14 38 (18.72%) Root Cause Analysis
14 38 (18.72%) VMware Infrastructure
15 37 (18.23%) Mentoring
16 36 (17.73%) PowerShell
16 36 (17.73%) SaaS
17 35 (17.24%) DHCP
18 34 (16.75%) Cisco
19 33 (16.26%) Security Cleared
20 31 (15.27%) VPN
21 30 (14.78%) VLAN
22 28 (13.79%) Azure Certification
23 26 (12.81%) Technical Leadership
24 23 (11.33%) Problem-Solving
25 22 (10.84%) Cybersecurity
25 22 (10.84%) Fortinet

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 63 (31.03%) Microsoft Exchange
2 47 (23.15%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.99%) Exchange Server 2007
3 2 (0.99%) Exchange Server 2010
3 2 (0.99%) Exchange Server 2013
4 1 (0.49%) Confluence
Applications
1 2 (0.99%) Microsoft Office
1 2 (0.99%) SPSS
Business Applications
1 3 (1.48%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.49%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 88 (43.35%) Azure
2 87 (42.86%) Microsoft 365
3 72 (35.47%) Entra ID
4 36 (17.73%) SaaS
5 22 (10.84%) IaaS
6 19 (9.36%) Azure AKS
6 19 (9.36%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 19 (9.36%) Azure Key Vault
6 19 (9.36%) Azure Storage
7 14 (6.90%) Mimecast
8 12 (5.91%) AWS
9 10 (4.93%) Google Workspace
10 7 (3.45%) OneDrive
11 4 (1.97%) Power Automate
12 3 (1.48%) Power Platform
13 2 (0.99%) Azure Sentinel
13 2 (0.99%) Microsoft Purview
14 1 (0.49%) Dynamics 365
14 1 (0.49%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 56 (27.59%) DNS
2 54 (26.60%) Firewall
3 35 (17.24%) DHCP
4 31 (15.27%) VPN
5 30 (14.78%) VLAN
6 17 (8.37%) TCP/IP
7 16 (7.88%) Wireless
8 12 (5.91%) Wi-Fi
9 9 (4.43%) LAN
9 9 (4.43%) Network Security
9 9 (4.43%) WAN
10 4 (1.97%) DMZ
10 4 (1.97%) SAN
10 4 (1.97%) Wireshark
11 3 (1.48%) Remote Desktop
11 3 (1.48%) VoIP
12 2 (0.99%) BGP
13 1 (0.49%) Internet
13 1 (0.49%) IPsec
13 1 (0.49%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (4.43%) SQL Server
2 2 (0.99%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 13 (6.40%) JIRA
2 1 (0.49%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 44 (21.67%) Social Skills
2 21 (10.34%) Law
3 17 (8.37%) Legal
4 11 (5.42%) Analytical Skills
5 9 (4.43%) Public Sector
6 5 (2.46%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 3 (1.48%) Documentation Skills
8 2 (0.99%) Organisational Skills
9 1 (0.49%) Finance
9 1 (0.49%) Presentation Skills
9 1 (0.49%) Retail
9 1 (0.49%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (2.96%) .NET
2 3 (1.48%) Web Services
3 2 (0.99%) 802.1X
Miscellaneous
1 12 (5.91%) Onboarding
2 11 (5.42%) Video Conferencing
3 7 (3.45%) Clustering
3 7 (3.45%) Enterprise Software
4 6 (2.96%) Driving Licence
5 5 (2.46%) Self-Motivation
6 4 (1.97%) Cyber Threat
7 3 (1.48%) Hybrid Cloud
8 2 (0.99%) Management Information System
9 1 (0.49%) CMDB
9 1 (0.49%) iPhone
9 1 (0.49%) PKI
9 1 (0.49%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 79 (38.92%) Windows
2 47 (23.15%) Windows Server
3 21 (10.34%) Mac OS
4 18 (8.87%) Linux
5 12 (5.91%) Windows Server 2016
6 11 (5.42%) Windows Server 2012
7 9 (4.43%) Windows Server 2019
8 3 (1.48%) Apple iOS
9 2 (0.99%) VMS
9 2 (0.99%) Windows Server 2008
10 1 (0.49%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 63 (31.03%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 38 (18.72%) Root Cause Analysis
3 37 (18.23%) Mentoring
4 26 (12.81%) Technical Leadership
5 23 (11.33%) Problem-Solving
6 22 (10.84%) Cybersecurity
7 21 (10.34%) ITIL
8 20 (9.85%) Continuous Improvement
8 20 (9.85%) Disaster Recovery
8 20 (9.85%) High Availability
8 20 (9.85%) Incident Management
9 19 (9.36%) Agile
9 19 (9.36%) Containerisation
9 19 (9.36%) Load Balancing
9 19 (9.36%) Project Delivery
10 17 (8.37%) Change Management
11 16 (7.88%) Problem Management
12 15 (7.39%) Identity Management
12 15 (7.39%) Remote Monitoring and Management
13 14 (6.90%) Server Management
Programming Languages
1 36 (17.73%) PowerShell
2 17 (8.37%) SQL
3 12 (5.91%) R
4 7 (3.45%) T-SQL
5 6 (2.96%) C#
6 3 (1.48%) Bash
7 2 (0.99%) Shell Script
8 1 (0.49%) Python
Qualifications
1 33 (16.26%) Security Cleared
2 28 (13.79%) Azure Certification
3 22 (10.84%) SC Cleared
4 14 (6.90%) Degree
5 13 (6.40%) CCNA
5 13 (6.40%) Cisco Certification
5 13 (6.40%) Microsoft Certification
6 11 (5.42%) DV Cleared
7 4 (1.97%) AWS Certification
7 4 (1.97%) MCSA
7 4 (1.97%) Microsoft Certified Professional
8 2 (0.99%) CCNP
8 2 (0.99%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (7.39%) Cyber Essentials
1 15 (7.39%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 3 (1.48%) PCI DSS
2 3 (1.48%) SLA
3 1 (0.49%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
System Software
1 73 (35.96%) Active Directory
2 44 (21.67%) Hyper-V
3 38 (18.72%) VMware Infrastructure
4 12 (5.91%) Virtual Machines
5 11 (5.42%) Virtual Desktop
6 3 (1.48%) Firmware
7 2 (0.99%) Docker
7 2 (0.99%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.49%) BitLocker
8 1 (0.49%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 46 (22.66%) Microsoft Intune
2 19 (9.36%) Kubernetes
3 14 (6.90%) Autotask
4 13 (6.40%) Jamf Pro
5 8 (3.94%) Proxmox
5 8 (3.94%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
6 6 (2.96%) Failover Clustering
6 6 (2.96%) Microsoft Clustering
7 4 (1.97%) Iperf
8 2 (0.99%) MaaS360
8 2 (0.99%) SCCM
8 2 (0.99%) WSUS
9 1 (0.49%) FortiGate
9 1 (0.49%) Nessus
9 1 (0.49%) SCOM
9 1 (0.49%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 105 (51.72%) Microsoft
2 40 (19.70%) VMware
3 34 (16.75%) Cisco
4 22 (10.84%) Fortinet
5 18 (8.87%) SonicWALL
6 14 (6.90%) Veeam
7 13 (6.40%) HP
8 12 (5.91%) CrowdStrike
8 12 (5.91%) Meraki
9 11 (5.42%) Datto
9 11 (5.42%) Google
10 10 (4.93%) Aruba
10 10 (4.93%) Ubiquiti
11 9 (4.43%) Palo Alto
12 7 (3.45%) Apple
13 6 (2.96%) Sophos
13 6 (2.96%) WatchGuard
14 5 (2.46%) Dell
14 5 (2.46%) Juniper
15 4 (1.97%) ServiceNow