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 10 November 2025.

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

6 months to
10 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 517 562 432
Rank change year-on-year +45 -130 +281
Permanent jobs requiring a 3rd Line Engineer 143 196 322
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.28% 0.29% 0.60%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.31% 0.31% 0.63%
Number of salaries quoted 138 162 300
10th Percentile £33,750 £35,000 £32,500
25th Percentile £39,250 £36,250 £36,438
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £47,000 £42,500 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year +10.59% -5.56% -
75th Percentile £53,188 £52,500 £52,500
90th Percentile £57,500 £56,125 £57,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £47,250 £42,000 £44,000
% change year-on-year +12.50% -4.55% -2.22%

All Permanent IT Job Vacancies
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 46,086 63,874 51,205
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 89.92% 94.86% 95.53%
Number of salaries quoted 28,532 35,882 39,632
10th Percentile £28,250 £31,250 £31,500
25th Percentile £35,000 £42,436 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £57,500 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.70% -4.17% -
75th Percentile £73,750 £75,000 £80,000
90th Percentile £92,500 £95,000 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £46,000 £50,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -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 10 November 2025.

Salary histogram for 3rd Line Engineer in the UK

3rd Line Engineer
Top 15 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 10 November 2025. 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 +34 137 £47,000 +10.59% 99
UK excluding London +40 121 £47,250 +12.50% 100
Work from Home +37 40 £50,000 +25.00% 35
East of England +39 37 £47,000 +13.94% 10
South East +15 33 £47,500 +5.56% 46
London +51 19 £42,500 -12.82% 24
Midlands +43 19 £49,479 +9.95% 7
South West +27 19 £52,500 +16.67% 16
East Midlands +30 12 £52,239 +9.98% 2
North of England -4 10 £40,000 +12.68% 11
North West +21 8 £40,000 - 10
West Midlands +23 7 £47,500 +13.10% 5
Yorkshire +15 2 £49,250 +21.06% 1
Wales +9 2 - - 8
Scotland +6 2 £45,000 +3.45% 3

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

For the 6 months to 10 November 2025, 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 93 (65.03%) Microsoft
2 86 (60.14%) Azure
3 80 (55.94%) Microsoft 365
4 78 (54.55%) Windows
5 72 (50.35%) PowerShell
6 63 (44.06%) Windows Server
7 54 (37.76%) ITIL
8 45 (31.47%) Active Directory
9 44 (30.77%) Microsoft Exchange
10 43 (30.07%) VMware
11 42 (29.37%) Hyper-V
11 42 (29.37%) Problem-Solving
12 40 (27.97%) Cisco
12 40 (27.97%) Microsoft Intune
13 39 (27.27%) Firewall
14 37 (25.87%) Entra ID
15 36 (25.17%) VMware Infrastructure
16 34 (23.78%) Veeam
17 28 (19.58%) Infrastructure Engineering
17 28 (19.58%) Security Cleared
18 25 (17.48%) DNS
18 25 (17.48%) SharePoint
19 24 (16.78%) Customer Service
20 21 (14.69%) Windows Server 2019
21 20 (13.99%) Task Automation
22 19 (13.29%) ITSM
22 19 (13.29%) Patch Management
23 18 (12.59%) Degree
24 17 (11.89%) Apple
24 17 (11.89%) DHCP

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 44 (30.77%) Microsoft Exchange
2 25 (17.48%) SharePoint
3 5 (3.50%) IIS
4 4 (2.80%) Exchange Server 2003
Applications
1 6 (4.20%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.70%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 5 (3.50%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 86 (60.14%) Azure
2 80 (55.94%) Microsoft 365
3 37 (25.87%) Entra ID
4 12 (8.39%) AWS
5 8 (5.59%) Power Platform
6 5 (3.50%) Azure Sentinel
7 3 (2.10%) Cloud Computing
8 2 (1.40%) OneDrive
8 2 (1.40%) PowerApps
9 1 (0.70%) Amazon EC2
9 1 (0.70%) Amazon S3
9 1 (0.70%) AWS Lambda
9 1 (0.70%) Azure App Service
9 1 (0.70%) Dynamics 365
9 1 (0.70%) GCP
9 1 (0.70%) SaaS
9 1 (0.70%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 39 (27.27%) Firewall
2 25 (17.48%) DNS
3 17 (11.89%) DHCP
4 14 (9.79%) VLAN
5 12 (8.39%) Wireless
6 11 (7.69%) VPN
7 9 (6.29%) Cisco IOS
7 9 (6.29%) LAN
7 9 (6.29%) VoIP
7 9 (6.29%) WAN
8 8 (5.59%) SAN
9 7 (4.90%) Wi-Fi
10 6 (4.20%) Internet
10 6 (4.20%) iSCSI
11 5 (3.50%) IP Telephony
11 5 (3.50%) IPsec
11 5 (3.50%) TCP/IP
12 4 (2.80%) Junos
12 4 (2.80%) X.400
12 4 (2.80%) X.500
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (5.59%) SQL Server
2 5 (3.50%) Amazon RDS
2 5 (3.50%) Oracle Database
2 5 (3.50%) Oracle Database 10g
2 5 (3.50%) Power BI
3 3 (2.10%) Data Mining
4 1 (0.70%) Azure SQL Database
Development Applications
1 1 (0.70%) JIRA
General
1 37 (25.87%) Social Skills
2 15 (10.49%) Finance
2 15 (10.49%) Marketing
3 11 (7.69%) Telecoms
4 10 (6.99%) Law
4 10 (6.99%) Manufacturing
4 10 (6.99%) Public Sector
5 9 (6.29%) Electronics
6 7 (4.90%) Automotive
7 5 (3.50%) Billing
8 3 (2.10%) Analytical Skills
9 2 (1.40%) Advertising
9 2 (1.40%) Games
9 2 (1.40%) Organisational Skills
9 2 (1.40%) Retail
10 1 (0.70%) Aerospace
10 1 (0.70%) Documentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (0.70%) LAMP
Miscellaneous
1 19 (13.29%) Onboarding
2 11 (7.69%) Driving Licence
3 6 (4.20%) Clustering
4 4 (2.80%) Enterprise Software
4 4 (2.80%) Replication
5 3 (2.10%) iPad
5 3 (2.10%) PKI
6 2 (1.40%) Social Media
7 1 (0.70%) BYOD
7 1 (0.70%) FMCG
7 1 (0.70%) Hybrid Cloud
7 1 (0.70%) Legacy Systems
7 1 (0.70%) Management Information System
7 1 (0.70%) NHS
7 1 (0.70%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 78 (54.55%) Windows
2 63 (44.06%) Windows Server
3 21 (14.69%) Windows Server 2019
4 16 (11.19%) Linux
5 12 (8.39%) Windows 10
6 11 (7.69%) Android
7 7 (4.90%) Apple iOS
7 7 (4.90%) Unix
7 7 (4.90%) Windows Server 2016
8 6 (4.20%) Mac OS
9 5 (3.50%) Solaris
10 4 (2.80%) HPUX
10 4 (2.80%) Windows Server 2003
11 1 (0.70%) CentOS
11 1 (0.70%) Ubuntu
11 1 (0.70%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 54 (37.76%) ITIL
2 42 (29.37%) Problem-Solving
3 28 (19.58%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 24 (16.78%) Customer Service
5 20 (13.99%) Task Automation
6 19 (13.29%) ITSM
6 19 (13.29%) Patch Management
7 17 (11.89%) Mentoring
8 16 (11.19%) Migration
8 16 (11.19%) Service Delivery
9 15 (10.49%) Business Intelligence
10 14 (9.79%) Project Delivery
11 12 (8.39%) Cloud Security
11 12 (8.39%) Server Management
12 11 (7.69%) Disaster Recovery
13 10 (6.99%) Remote Monitoring and Management
14 9 (6.29%) Digital Marketing
14 9 (6.29%) Programme Management
14 9 (6.29%) Root Cause Analysis
14 9 (6.29%) Service Management
Programming Languages
1 72 (50.35%) PowerShell
2 3 (2.10%) Bash
3 2 (1.40%) Python
3 2 (1.40%) SQL
Qualifications
1 28 (19.58%) Security Cleared
2 18 (12.59%) Degree
3 17 (11.89%) SC Cleared
4 16 (11.19%) Cisco Certification
5 15 (10.49%) CCNA
6 12 (8.39%) DV Cleared
7 9 (6.29%) Microsoft Certification
8 7 (4.90%) DBS Check
9 6 (4.20%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
9 6 (4.20%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 5 (3.50%) ACMT
10 5 (3.50%) Azure Certification
10 5 (3.50%) HND
11 3 (2.10%) CCNP
11 3 (2.10%) Computer Science Degree
12 2 (1.40%) CompTIA Security+
12 2 (1.40%) Network+ Certification
13 1 (0.70%) ITIL Certification
13 1 (0.70%) Linux+ Certification
13 1 (0.70%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (9.79%) SLA
2 11 (7.69%) Cyber Essentials
3 2 (1.40%) GDPR
4 1 (0.70%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 1 (0.70%) HIPAA
4 1 (0.70%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 1 (0.70%) NIST
System Software
1 45 (31.47%) Active Directory
2 42 (29.37%) Hyper-V
3 36 (25.17%) VMware Infrastructure
4 8 (5.59%) vSphere
5 7 (4.90%) Docker
6 5 (3.50%) VMware ESXi
7 4 (2.80%) Virtual Machines
8 3 (2.10%) XenApp
9 2 (1.40%) Firmware
9 2 (1.40%) VMware NSX
10 1 (0.70%) BitLocker
10 1 (0.70%) Dovecot
10 1 (0.70%) Postfix
10 1 (0.70%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 40 (27.97%) Microsoft Intune
2 15 (10.49%) Backup Exec
3 14 (9.79%) SCCM
4 10 (6.99%) Autotask
5 9 (6.29%) Jamf Pro
5 9 (6.29%) vCenter Server
6 6 (4.20%) FortiGate
6 6 (4.20%) Kubernetes
7 3 (2.10%) SCOM
8 2 (1.40%) Grafana
8 2 (1.40%) Prometheus
8 2 (1.40%) SCSM
9 1 (0.70%) Ansible
9 1 (0.70%) Avamar
9 1 (0.70%) Microsoft Clustering
9 1 (0.70%) Podman
9 1 (0.70%) Puppet
9 1 (0.70%) Red Hat Satellite
9 1 (0.70%) WhatsUp Gold
9 1 (0.70%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 93 (65.03%) Microsoft
2 43 (30.07%) VMware
3 40 (27.97%) Cisco
4 34 (23.78%) Veeam
5 17 (11.89%) Apple
6 14 (9.79%) Datto
7 11 (7.69%) Sophos
8 10 (6.99%) Aruba
8 10 (6.99%) HP
8 10 (6.99%) Oracle
8 10 (6.99%) SAP
9 8 (5.59%) Meraki
10 7 (4.90%) Juniper
10 7 (4.90%) SolarWinds
11 6 (4.20%) arcserve
12 5 (3.50%) Citrix
12 5 (3.50%) Remedy
12 5 (3.50%) ServiceNow
13 4 (2.80%) Fortinet
13 4 (2.80%) Ubiquiti