3rd Line Engineer Job Trends

Third Line Engineer
UK

The median Third Line Engineer salary in the UK is £47,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 12 February 2026.

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

6 months to
12 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 485 545 447
Rank change year-on-year +60 -98 +173
Permanent jobs requiring a 3rd Line Engineer 189 158 401
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.28% 0.32% 0.54%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.31% 0.35% 0.57%
Number of salaries quoted 177 131 377
10th Percentile £37,750 £36,250 £31,250
25th Percentile £41,250 £39,500 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £47,000 £50,000 £42,500
Median % change year-on-year -6.00% +17.65% -5.56%
75th Percentile £55,000 £54,750 £51,500
90th Percentile £58,750 £65,000 £55,550
UK excluding London median annual salary £45,500 £47,500 £42,000
% change year-on-year -4.21% +13.10% -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 60,667 45,736 70,044
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 91.19% 91.76% 94.91%
Number of salaries quoted 37,923 23,920 54,830
10th Percentile £29,000 £33,453 £28,500
25th Percentile £37,500 £45,000 £39,268
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -8.33%
75th Percentile £75,000 £80,000 £73,750
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -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 12 February 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 12 February 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 +59 179 £47,000 -6.00% 62
UK excluding London +56 157 £45,500 -4.21% 62
South East +6 49 £45,000 -10.00% 22
Work from Home +37 45 £53,459 +22.19% 20
North of England +14 40 £45,000 +20.81% 17
Yorkshire +3 40 £45,000 -2.70% 10
London +39 32 £47,500 -20.83% 9
South West +6 28 £55,000 +25.00% 6
East of England +13 17 £47,000 +10.59% 10
Midlands -15 14 £55,000 +10.00% 4
East Midlands -15 10 £55,000 -11.65% 2
Wales - 9 £45,000 - 4
West Midlands +6 4 £51,000 +2.00% 2
Scotland - 1 £55,000 - 1

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

For the 6 months to 12 February 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 73 (38.62%) Microsoft
2 71 (37.57%) Azure
3 62 (32.80%) Windows
4 60 (31.75%) Microsoft 365
5 58 (30.69%) Active Directory
6 51 (26.98%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 49 (25.93%) Problem-Solving
8 46 (24.34%) Windows Server
9 44 (23.28%) VMware
10 43 (22.75%) PowerShell
11 42 (22.22%) Security Cleared
12 40 (21.16%) ITIL
13 39 (20.63%) Microsoft Exchange
14 35 (18.52%) Entra ID
15 34 (17.99%) Microsoft Intune
16 33 (17.46%) VMware Infrastructure
17 32 (16.93%) Customer Service
18 31 (16.40%) Firewall
19 30 (15.87%) SC Cleared
20 26 (13.76%) SharePoint
21 20 (10.58%) Hyper-V
21 20 (10.58%) Project Delivery
21 20 (10.58%) Veeam
22 19 (10.05%) DNS
22 19 (10.05%) ITSM
23 18 (9.52%) SQL
24 17 (8.99%) DV Cleared
25 16 (8.47%) Incident Management
25 16 (8.47%) Service Delivery
26 15 (7.94%) Degree

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 39 (20.63%) Microsoft Exchange
2 26 (13.76%) SharePoint
3 2 (1.06%) Exchange Server 2003
4 1 (0.53%) Confluence
Applications
1 5 (2.65%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 3 (1.59%) Oracle EBS
1 3 (1.59%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.53%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 71 (37.57%) Azure
2 60 (31.75%) Microsoft 365
3 35 (18.52%) Entra ID
4 9 (4.76%) AWS
5 8 (4.23%) Mimecast
6 5 (2.65%) Power Platform
7 4 (2.12%) SaaS
8 2 (1.06%) IaaS
9 1 (0.53%) Amazon S3
9 1 (0.53%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 31 (16.40%) Firewall
2 19 (10.05%) DNS
3 13 (6.88%) DHCP
4 10 (5.29%) VPN
5 8 (4.23%) Wireless
6 7 (3.70%) TCP/IP
7 6 (3.17%) VLAN
8 5 (2.65%) SAN
8 5 (2.65%) WAN
8 5 (2.65%) Wi-Fi
9 4 (2.12%) Ethernet
9 4 (2.12%) LAN
10 3 (1.59%) IP Telephony
10 3 (1.59%) Network Security
10 3 (1.59%) SD-WAN
10 3 (1.59%) VoIP
11 2 (1.06%) Cisco IOS
11 2 (1.06%) Cisco ISE
11 2 (1.06%) InfiniBand
11 2 (1.06%) Junos
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (2.65%) Power BI
1 5 (2.65%) SQL Server
2 3 (1.59%) Data Mining
2 3 (1.59%) Oracle Database
2 3 (1.59%) Oracle Database 10g
3 1 (0.53%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 6 (3.17%) JIRA
General
1 33 (17.46%) Social Skills
2 11 (5.82%) Law
3 7 (3.70%) Finance
3 7 (3.70%) Marketing
3 7 (3.70%) Public Sector
4 6 (3.17%) Automotive
5 5 (2.65%) Analytical Skills
5 5 (2.65%) Retail
6 4 (2.12%) Legal
6 4 (2.12%) Manufacturing
6 4 (2.12%) Telecoms
7 3 (1.59%) Advertising
7 3 (1.59%) Organisational Skills
8 2 (1.06%) Banking
8 2 (1.06%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 1 (0.53%) Aerospace
9 1 (0.53%) Electronics
9 1 (0.53%) Front Office
Miscellaneous
1 18 (9.52%) Onboarding
2 9 (4.76%) Driving Licence
3 7 (3.70%) PKI
4 4 (2.12%) Enterprise Software
5 3 (1.59%) CMDB
5 3 (1.59%) iPad
5 3 (1.59%) Replication
6 2 (1.06%) YubiKey
7 1 (0.53%) FMCG
7 1 (0.53%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
7 1 (0.53%) Hybrid Cloud
7 1 (0.53%) Life Science
7 1 (0.53%) Management Information System
7 1 (0.53%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 62 (32.80%) Windows
2 46 (24.34%) Windows Server
3 15 (7.94%) Linux
4 12 (6.35%) Windows 10
5 9 (4.76%) Android
6 6 (3.17%) Apple iOS
7 5 (2.65%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 5 (2.65%) Windows Server 2016
8 4 (2.12%) Mac OS
8 4 (2.12%) Unix
8 4 (2.12%) Windows Server 2012
9 3 (1.59%) HPUX
9 3 (1.59%) Solaris
9 3 (1.59%) Windows Server 2003
10 2 (1.06%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 51 (26.98%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 49 (25.93%) Problem-Solving
3 40 (21.16%) ITIL
4 32 (16.93%) Customer Service
5 20 (10.58%) Project Delivery
6 19 (10.05%) ITSM
7 16 (8.47%) Incident Management
7 16 (8.47%) Service Delivery
8 14 (7.41%) Mentoring
9 12 (6.35%) Disaster Recovery
9 12 (6.35%) Logistics
10 11 (5.82%) Root Cause Analysis
10 11 (5.82%) Service Management
10 11 (5.82%) Technical Leadership
11 10 (5.29%) DevOps
11 10 (5.29%) Problem Management
12 9 (4.76%) Continuous Improvement
12 9 (4.76%) Stakeholder Management
13 8 (4.23%) Change Management
14 7 (3.70%) Configuration Management
Programming Languages
1 43 (22.75%) PowerShell
2 18 (9.52%) SQL
3 5 (2.65%) Bash
3 5 (2.65%) Python
4 4 (2.12%) R
5 1 (0.53%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 42 (22.22%) Security Cleared
2 30 (15.87%) SC Cleared
3 17 (8.99%) DV Cleared
4 15 (7.94%) Degree
5 12 (6.35%) DBS Check
6 6 (3.17%) Cisco Certification
6 6 (3.17%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
6 6 (3.17%) Microsoft Certification
7 5 (2.65%) HND
8 4 (2.12%) CCNA
9 3 (1.59%) CCNP
9 3 (1.59%) RHCE
10 2 (1.06%) Azure Certification
11 1 (0.53%) CompTIA Security+
11 1 (0.53%) Computer Science Degree
11 1 (0.53%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (7.41%) SLA
2 7 (3.70%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 3 (1.59%) Cyber Essentials
3 3 (1.59%) NIST
4 1 (0.53%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 1 (0.53%) GDPR
System Software
1 58 (30.69%) Active Directory
2 33 (17.46%) VMware Infrastructure
3 20 (10.58%) Hyper-V
4 15 (7.94%) vSphere
5 7 (3.70%) Virtual Desktop
6 3 (1.59%) Microsoft Virtual Server
6 3 (1.59%) Virtual Servers
6 3 (1.59%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (1.06%) Firmware
7 2 (1.06%) Lustre
7 2 (1.06%) Slurm Workload Manager
7 2 (1.06%) VMware NSX
8 1 (0.53%) Virtual Machines
8 1 (0.53%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 34 (17.99%) Microsoft Intune
2 11 (5.82%) SCCM
3 8 (4.23%) vCenter Server
4 7 (3.70%) FortiGate
4 7 (3.70%) SCOM
4 7 (3.70%) WSUS
5 6 (3.17%) Jamf Pro
6 4 (2.12%) Ansible
6 4 (2.12%) Proxmox
6 4 (2.12%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
7 2 (1.06%) SCSM
7 2 (1.06%) Terraform
8 1 (0.53%) Avamar
Vendors
1 73 (38.62%) Microsoft
2 44 (23.28%) VMware
3 20 (10.58%) Veeam
4 14 (7.41%) Cisco
5 9 (4.76%) Apple
5 9 (4.76%) McAfee
6 6 (3.17%) arcserve
6 6 (3.17%) Oracle
6 6 (3.17%) SolarWinds
7 4 (2.12%) CrowdStrike
7 4 (2.12%) Fortinet
8 3 (1.59%) EMC
8 3 (1.59%) IFS
8 3 (1.59%) Juniper
8 3 (1.59%) Red Hat
8 3 (1.59%) Remedy
8 3 (1.59%) ServiceNow
8 3 (1.59%) Trend Micro
9 2 (1.06%) Progress
9 2 (1.06%) Sophos