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 25 February 2026.

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

6 months to
25 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 485 520 440
Rank change year-on-year +35 -80 +174
Permanent jobs requiring a 3rd Line Engineer 192 153 398
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.28% 0.32% 0.53%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.30% 0.35% 0.56%
Number of salaries quoted 180 129 376
10th Percentile £37,750 £36,250 £31,250
25th Percentile £41,250 £40,000 £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 £55,000 £51,563
90th Percentile £58,750 £65,500 £55,125
UK excluding London median annual salary £45,500 £50,000 £42,000
% change year-on-year -9.00% +19.05% -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 63,517 43,315 71,309
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 91.40% 91.37% 94.77%
Number of salaries quoted 40,034 23,059 55,485
10th Percentile £29,250 £32,500 £28,500
25th Percentile £37,500 £45,000 £39,375
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 25 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 25 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 +50 180 £47,250 -5.50% 68
UK excluding London +26 157 £45,500 -9.00% 65
South East -11 50 £45,000 -10.00% 27
Work from Home +34 46 £54,417 +20.93% 27
Yorkshire +9 41 £45,000 -2.70% 8
North of England -4 41 £45,000 +25.00% 15
London +39 35 £47,500 -14.80% 13
South West +4 29 £55,000 +20.88% 5
East of England +5 14 £47,000 +10.59% 10
Midlands -24 12 £52,500 +5.00% 4
Wales - 11 £45,000 - 2
East Midlands -37 8 £52,500 -15.66% 2
West Midlands +1 4 £51,000 +2.00% 2
Scotland - 1 £55,000 - 3

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

For the 6 months to 25 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 76 (39.58%) Microsoft
2 75 (39.06%) Azure
3 66 (34.38%) Windows
4 65 (33.85%) Microsoft 365
5 63 (32.81%) Active Directory
6 53 (27.60%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 49 (25.52%) Windows Server
8 47 (24.48%) VMware
9 46 (23.96%) Problem-Solving
10 44 (22.92%) PowerShell
10 44 (22.92%) Security Cleared
11 42 (21.88%) ITIL
12 41 (21.35%) Microsoft Exchange
13 38 (19.79%) Entra ID
14 36 (18.75%) Microsoft Intune
14 36 (18.75%) VMware Infrastructure
15 34 (17.71%) Firewall
16 31 (16.15%) Customer Service
16 31 (16.15%) SC Cleared
17 28 (14.58%) SharePoint
18 23 (11.98%) Hyper-V
19 21 (10.94%) Veeam
20 20 (10.42%) DNS
20 20 (10.42%) ITSM
21 19 (9.90%) Project Delivery
21 19 (9.90%) SQL
22 17 (8.85%) DV Cleared
22 17 (8.85%) Incident Management
23 16 (8.33%) Service Delivery
23 16 (8.33%) vSphere

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 41 (21.35%) Microsoft Exchange
2 28 (14.58%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.52%) Confluence
3 1 (0.52%) Exchange Server 2003
Applications
1 5 (2.60%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 3 (1.56%) Oracle EBS
1 3 (1.56%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.52%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 75 (39.06%) Azure
2 65 (33.85%) Microsoft 365
3 38 (19.79%) Entra ID
4 10 (5.21%) Mimecast
5 9 (4.69%) AWS
6 7 (3.65%) SaaS
7 5 (2.60%) Power Platform
8 3 (1.56%) IaaS
9 2 (1.04%) Google Workspace
10 1 (0.52%) Amazon S3
10 1 (0.52%) Google Docs
10 1 (0.52%) PaaS
10 1 (0.52%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 34 (17.71%) Firewall
2 20 (10.42%) DNS
3 13 (6.77%) DHCP
4 11 (5.73%) VPN
5 7 (3.65%) TCP/IP
5 7 (3.65%) Wireless
6 6 (3.13%) SAN
6 6 (3.13%) VLAN
6 6 (3.13%) Wi-Fi
7 5 (2.60%) LAN
7 5 (2.60%) WAN
8 4 (2.08%) Ethernet
9 3 (1.56%) IP Telephony
9 3 (1.56%) Network Security
9 3 (1.56%) SD-WAN
9 3 (1.56%) VoIP
10 2 (1.04%) Cisco Firepower
10 2 (1.04%) Cisco ISE
10 2 (1.04%) InfiniBand
10 2 (1.04%) Junos
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (2.60%) Power BI
1 5 (2.60%) SQL Server
2 3 (1.56%) Data Mining
3 2 (1.04%) Oracle Database
3 2 (1.04%) Oracle Database 10g
4 1 (0.52%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 9 (4.69%) JIRA
General
1 36 (18.75%) Social Skills
2 11 (5.73%) Law
3 8 (4.17%) Public Sector
4 6 (3.13%) Finance
4 6 (3.13%) Legal
4 6 (3.13%) Marketing
5 5 (2.60%) Analytical Skills
6 4 (2.08%) Automotive
6 4 (2.08%) Retail
7 3 (1.56%) Advertising
7 3 (1.56%) Manufacturing
7 3 (1.56%) Organisational Skills
7 3 (1.56%) Telecoms
8 2 (1.04%) Banking
8 2 (1.04%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 1 (0.52%) Front Office
Miscellaneous
1 18 (9.38%) Onboarding
2 10 (5.21%) Driving Licence
3 8 (4.17%) PKI
4 4 (2.08%) Enterprise Software
5 3 (1.56%) CMDB
5 3 (1.56%) iPad
6 2 (1.04%) Replication
6 2 (1.04%) YubiKey
7 1 (0.52%) FMCG
7 1 (0.52%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
7 1 (0.52%) Hybrid Cloud
7 1 (0.52%) Life Science
7 1 (0.52%) Management Information System
7 1 (0.52%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 66 (34.38%) Windows
2 49 (25.52%) Windows Server
3 15 (7.81%) Linux
4 12 (6.25%) Windows 10
5 9 (4.69%) Android
6 7 (3.65%) Apple iOS
7 6 (3.13%) Mac OS
7 6 (3.13%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 6 (3.13%) Windows Server 2016
8 4 (2.08%) Windows Server 2012
9 3 (1.56%) Windows Server 2019
10 2 (1.04%) HPUX
10 2 (1.04%) Solaris
10 2 (1.04%) Unix
10 2 (1.04%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 53 (27.60%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 46 (23.96%) Problem-Solving
3 42 (21.88%) ITIL
4 31 (16.15%) Customer Service
5 20 (10.42%) ITSM
6 19 (9.90%) Project Delivery
7 17 (8.85%) Incident Management
8 16 (8.33%) Service Delivery
9 15 (7.81%) Technical Leadership
10 14 (7.29%) Mentoring
11 13 (6.77%) Root Cause Analysis
12 12 (6.25%) Disaster Recovery
12 12 (6.25%) Service Management
13 11 (5.73%) Problem Management
14 10 (5.21%) Change Management
14 10 (5.21%) Continuous Improvement
14 10 (5.21%) DevOps
14 10 (5.21%) Logistics
15 9 (4.69%) Stakeholder Management
16 8 (4.17%) Kalman Filter
Programming Languages
1 44 (22.92%) PowerShell
2 19 (9.90%) SQL
3 6 (3.13%) Python
3 6 (3.13%) R
4 5 (2.60%) Bash
5 1 (0.52%) Bicep
5 1 (0.52%) Google Apps Script
Qualifications
1 44 (22.92%) Security Cleared
2 31 (16.15%) SC Cleared
3 17 (8.85%) DV Cleared
4 14 (7.29%) Degree
5 12 (6.25%) DBS Check
6 7 (3.65%) Cisco Certification
7 6 (3.13%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
8 5 (2.60%) CCNA
8 5 (2.60%) HND
9 4 (2.08%) Microsoft Certification
10 3 (1.56%) CCNP
10 3 (1.56%) RHCE
11 2 (1.04%) Azure Certification
12 1 (0.52%) CompTIA Security+
12 1 (0.52%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (7.29%) SLA
2 9 (4.69%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 3 (1.56%) Cyber Essentials
3 3 (1.56%) NIST
4 1 (0.52%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 1 (0.52%) GDPR
System Software
1 63 (32.81%) Active Directory
2 36 (18.75%) VMware Infrastructure
3 23 (11.98%) Hyper-V
4 16 (8.33%) vSphere
5 9 (4.69%) Virtual Desktop
6 3 (1.56%) Microsoft Virtual Server
6 3 (1.56%) Virtual Servers
6 3 (1.56%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (1.04%) Firmware
7 2 (1.04%) Lustre
7 2 (1.04%) Slurm Workload Manager
7 2 (1.04%) VMware NSX
8 1 (0.52%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 36 (18.75%) Microsoft Intune
2 11 (5.73%) SCCM
3 8 (4.17%) vCenter Server
3 8 (4.17%) WSUS
4 7 (3.65%) FortiGate
4 7 (3.65%) SCOM
5 6 (3.13%) Jamf Pro
5 6 (3.13%) Proxmox
5 6 (3.13%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
6 4 (2.08%) Ansible
7 2 (1.04%) SCSM
7 2 (1.04%) Terraform
8 1 (0.52%) Avamar
8 1 (0.52%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 76 (39.58%) Microsoft
2 47 (24.48%) VMware
3 21 (10.94%) Veeam
4 13 (6.77%) Cisco
5 10 (5.21%) McAfee
6 9 (4.69%) Apple
7 6 (3.13%) arcserve
7 6 (3.13%) CrowdStrike
7 6 (3.13%) SolarWinds
8 5 (2.60%) Oracle
9 3 (1.56%) ConnectWise
9 3 (1.56%) EMC
9 3 (1.56%) Fortinet
9 3 (1.56%) IFS
9 3 (1.56%) Juniper
9 3 (1.56%) Logitech
9 3 (1.56%) Remedy
9 3 (1.56%) ServiceNow
9 3 (1.56%) Trend Micro
9 3 (1.56%) Yealink