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 11 September 2026.

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

6 months to
11 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 602 522 542
Rank change year-on-year -80 +20 -32
Permanent jobs requiring a 3rd Line Engineer 209 155 261
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.18% 0.31% 0.33%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.20% 0.35% 0.35%
Number of salaries quoted 196 147 218
10th Percentile £40,000 £34,500 £33,450
25th Percentile £45,000 £39,375 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £47,500 £41,750
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% +13.77% -7.22%
75th Percentile £58,750 £53,500 £50,250
90th Percentile £62,500 £57,500 £55,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £47,500 £40,681
% change year-on-year +5.26% +16.76% -6.48%

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 106,082 44,571 74,889
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.45% 89.73% 95.26%
Number of salaries quoted 73,120 26,247 45,923
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,250 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £36,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.55% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £77,500 £75,000 £73,750
90th Percentile £97,500 £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 11 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 11 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 -78 191 £50,000 +5.26% 41
UK excluding London -60 183 £50,000 +5.26% 37
South East -6 70 £52,500 +5.00% 15
Work from Home -34 48 £47,500 -5.00% 15
Midlands -36 40 £45,000 -10.00% 6
East of England -35 32 £58,750 +30.56% 8
London -53 26 £55,000 +6.80% 11
East Midlands -28 23 £50,000 -
Wales -52 18 £45,000 -
West Midlands -25 17 £45,000 -10.00% 6
North of England -45 12 £48,750 +21.88% 4
Yorkshire -36 11 £47,500 -
South West -72 11 £50,000 +17.65% 4
North West -36 1 £52,500 +31.25% 3

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

For the 6 months to 11 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.

1 109 (52.15%) Microsoft
2 98 (46.89%) Azure
3 92 (44.02%) Microsoft 365
4 78 (37.32%) Windows
5 76 (36.36%) Active Directory
6 75 (35.89%) Entra ID
7 66 (31.58%) Microsoft Exchange
8 60 (28.71%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 58 (27.75%) DNS
10 52 (24.88%) Firewall
10 52 (24.88%) Microsoft Intune
11 50 (23.92%) SharePoint
12 45 (21.53%) Hyper-V
12 45 (21.53%) Windows Server
13 44 (21.05%) PowerShell
14 43 (20.57%) Root Cause Analysis
15 41 (19.62%) SaaS
16 39 (18.66%) VMware
17 36 (17.22%) VMware Infrastructure
18 35 (16.75%) Mentoring
19 34 (16.27%) Azure Certification
20 33 (15.79%) Cisco
21 31 (14.83%) DHCP
22 29 (13.88%) Security Cleared
23 28 (13.40%) IaaS
23 28 (13.40%) VPN
24 27 (12.92%) VLAN
25 26 (12.44%) High Availability
25 26 (12.44%) Technical Leadership
26 25 (11.96%) Agile

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 66 (31.58%) Microsoft Exchange
2 50 (23.92%) SharePoint
3 3 (1.44%) Exchange Server 2007
3 3 (1.44%) Exchange Server 2010
3 3 (1.44%) Exchange Server 2013
4 1 (0.48%) Confluence
Applications
1 3 (1.44%) Microsoft Office
1 3 (1.44%) SPSS
Business Applications
1 3 (1.44%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.48%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 98 (46.89%) Azure
2 92 (44.02%) Microsoft 365
3 75 (35.89%) Entra ID
4 41 (19.62%) SaaS
5 28 (13.40%) IaaS
6 25 (11.96%) Azure AKS
6 25 (11.96%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 25 (11.96%) Azure Key Vault
6 25 (11.96%) Azure Storage
7 17 (8.13%) Mimecast
8 12 (5.74%) AWS
9 10 (4.78%) Google Workspace
10 8 (3.83%) OneDrive
11 4 (1.91%) Power Automate
12 3 (1.44%) Power Platform
13 2 (0.96%) Azure Sentinel
13 2 (0.96%) Microsoft Purview
14 1 (0.48%) Dynamics 365
14 1 (0.48%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 58 (27.75%) DNS
2 52 (24.88%) Firewall
3 31 (14.83%) DHCP
4 28 (13.40%) VPN
5 27 (12.92%) VLAN
6 16 (7.66%) Wireless
7 15 (7.18%) TCP/IP
8 13 (6.22%) Wi-Fi
9 9 (4.31%) LAN
9 9 (4.31%) Network Security
9 9 (4.31%) WAN
10 4 (1.91%) DMZ
10 4 (1.91%) SAN
10 4 (1.91%) Wireshark
11 3 (1.44%) Remote Desktop
11 3 (1.44%) VoIP
12 2 (0.96%) BGP
13 1 (0.48%) Internet
13 1 (0.48%) IPsec
13 1 (0.48%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (3.35%) SQL Server
2 2 (0.96%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 16 (7.66%) JIRA
2 1 (0.48%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 44 (21.05%) Social Skills
2 27 (12.92%) Law
3 19 (9.09%) Legal
4 11 (5.26%) Analytical Skills
5 9 (4.31%) Public Sector
6 6 (2.87%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 3 (1.44%) Documentation Skills
7 3 (1.44%) Organisational Skills
8 1 (0.48%) Finance
8 1 (0.48%) Presentation Skills
8 1 (0.48%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (2.87%) .NET
2 3 (1.44%) 802.1X
2 3 (1.44%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 12 (5.74%) Onboarding
2 11 (5.26%) Video Conferencing
3 7 (3.35%) Clustering
3 7 (3.35%) Driving Licence
3 7 (3.35%) Enterprise Software
4 6 (2.87%) Self-Motivation
5 4 (1.91%) Cyber Threat
6 3 (1.44%) Hybrid Cloud
7 2 (0.96%) Data Centre
7 2 (0.96%) Management Information System
8 1 (0.48%) iPhone
8 1 (0.48%) PKI
8 1 (0.48%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 78 (37.32%) Windows
2 45 (21.53%) Windows Server
3 23 (11.00%) Mac OS
4 22 (10.53%) Linux
5 13 (6.22%) Windows Server 2016
6 12 (5.74%) Windows Server 2012
7 9 (4.31%) Windows Server 2019
8 5 (2.39%) Apple iOS
9 3 (1.44%) Windows Server 2008
10 2 (0.96%) VMS
11 1 (0.48%) Android
11 1 (0.48%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 60 (28.71%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 43 (20.57%) Root Cause Analysis
3 35 (16.75%) Mentoring
4 26 (12.44%) High Availability
4 26 (12.44%) Technical Leadership
5 25 (11.96%) Agile
5 25 (11.96%) Containerisation
5 25 (11.96%) Load Balancing
6 23 (11.00%) Incident Management
6 23 (11.00%) ITIL
6 23 (11.00%) Problem-Solving
7 21 (10.05%) Change Management
7 21 (10.05%) Continuous Improvement
7 21 (10.05%) Cybersecurity
8 19 (9.09%) Project Delivery
9 18 (8.61%) Disaster Recovery
9 18 (8.61%) Identity Management
10 15 (7.18%) Remote Monitoring and Management
10 15 (7.18%) Workflow
11 14 (6.70%) Server Management
Programming Languages
1 44 (21.05%) PowerShell
2 17 (8.13%) SQL
3 15 (7.18%) R
4 7 (3.35%) T-SQL
5 6 (2.87%) C#
6 5 (2.39%) Bash
7 3 (1.44%) Shell Script
8 1 (0.48%) Python
Qualifications
1 34 (16.27%) Azure Certification
2 29 (13.88%) Security Cleared
3 21 (10.05%) SC Cleared
4 13 (6.22%) CCNA
4 13 (6.22%) Cisco Certification
4 13 (6.22%) Degree
4 13 (6.22%) Microsoft Certification
5 8 (3.83%) DV Cleared
6 4 (1.91%) AWS Certification
6 4 (1.91%) MCSA
6 4 (1.91%) Microsoft Certified Professional
7 2 (0.96%) CCNP
7 2 (0.96%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 19 (9.09%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 15 (7.18%) Cyber Essentials
3 3 (1.44%) SLA
4 2 (0.96%) PCI DSS
5 1 (0.48%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
System Software
1 76 (36.36%) Active Directory
2 45 (21.53%) Hyper-V
3 36 (17.22%) VMware Infrastructure
4 11 (5.26%) Virtual Desktop
5 10 (4.78%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (1.44%) Docker
6 3 (1.44%) Firmware
7 2 (0.96%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.48%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 52 (24.88%) Microsoft Intune
2 25 (11.96%) Kubernetes
3 15 (7.18%) Jamf Pro
4 14 (6.70%) Autotask
5 8 (3.83%) Proxmox
5 8 (3.83%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
6 6 (2.87%) Failover Clustering
6 6 (2.87%) Microsoft Clustering
7 4 (1.91%) Iperf
8 2 (0.96%) MaaS360
9 1 (0.48%) FortiGate
9 1 (0.48%) SCCM
9 1 (0.48%) SCOM
9 1 (0.48%) vCenter Server
9 1 (0.48%) WSUS
Vendors
1 109 (52.15%) Microsoft
2 39 (18.66%) VMware
3 33 (15.79%) Cisco
4 20 (9.57%) Fortinet
5 18 (8.61%) SonicWALL
6 15 (7.18%) CrowdStrike
7 14 (6.70%) HP
8 12 (5.74%) Meraki
8 12 (5.74%) Veeam
9 11 (5.26%) Datto
9 11 (5.26%) Google
10 10 (4.78%) Aruba
10 10 (4.78%) Ubiquiti
11 8 (3.83%) Apple
12 7 (3.35%) Palo Alto
13 4 (1.91%) ConnectWise
13 4 (1.91%) Dell
13 4 (1.91%) ServiceNow
13 4 (1.91%) Sophos
13 4 (1.91%) WatchGuard