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 2 September 2026.

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

6 months to
2 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 589 512 526
Rank change year-on-year -77 +14 -29
Permanent jobs requiring a 3rd Line Engineer 205 159 292
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.19% 0.32% 0.36%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.20% 0.36% 0.38%
Number of salaries quoted 193 151 240
10th Percentile £40,000 £33,750 £32,500
25th Percentile £45,000 £39,250 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £47,500 £41,500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% +14.46% -7.78%
75th Percentile £58,750 £52,500 £50,000
90th Percentile £62,500 £57,500 £55,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £46,500 £40,500
% change year-on-year +7.53% +14.81% -9.50%

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 103,220 44,750 77,447
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.83% 89.79% 95.18%
Number of salaries quoted 70,976 26,578 49,466
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 £75,750 £73,750 £72,500
90th Percentile £97,500 £95,000 £91,250
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 2 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 2 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 -69 187 £50,000 +5.26% 50
UK excluding London -53 179 £50,000 +7.53% 45
South East +1 72 £52,500 +3.45% 14
Work from Home -34 46 £48,750 +2.63% 24
Midlands -29 38 £45,000 -10.00% 8
East of England -29 29 £53,750 +19.44% 14
London -56 26 £55,000 +6.80% 10
East Midlands -20 23 £50,000 - 3
Wales -52 18 £45,000 -
West Midlands -23 15 £45,000 -10.00% 5
North of England -60 13 £50,000 +25.00% 6
Yorkshire -39 12 £48,750 +21.88%
South West -71 9 £50,000 +17.65% 3
North West -29 1 £52,500 +31.25% 3

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

For the 6 months to 2 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.

1 108 (52.68%) Microsoft
2 97 (47.32%) Azure
3 92 (44.88%) Microsoft 365
4 77 (37.56%) Windows
5 75 (36.59%) Active Directory
6 74 (36.10%) Entra ID
7 65 (31.71%) Microsoft Exchange
8 58 (28.29%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 56 (27.32%) DNS
10 51 (24.88%) Microsoft Intune
11 50 (24.39%) Firewall
12 49 (23.90%) SharePoint
13 44 (21.46%) Windows Server
14 43 (20.98%) PowerShell
14 43 (20.98%) Root Cause Analysis
15 42 (20.49%) Hyper-V
16 41 (20.00%) SaaS
17 37 (18.05%) VMware
18 34 (16.59%) Azure Certification
18 34 (16.59%) VMware Infrastructure
19 33 (16.10%) Cisco
20 31 (15.12%) Mentoring
21 29 (14.15%) DHCP
22 28 (13.66%) IaaS
22 28 (13.66%) Security Cleared
23 26 (12.68%) High Availability
23 26 (12.68%) VPN
24 25 (12.20%) Agile
24 25 (12.20%) Azure AKS
24 25 (12.20%) Azure ExpressRoute

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 65 (31.71%) Microsoft Exchange
2 49 (23.90%) SharePoint
3 4 (1.95%) Exchange Server 2007
3 4 (1.95%) Exchange Server 2010
3 4 (1.95%) Exchange Server 2013
4 1 (0.49%) Confluence
Applications
1 4 (1.95%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (1.46%) SPSS
Business Applications
1 3 (1.46%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.49%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 97 (47.32%) Azure
2 92 (44.88%) Microsoft 365
3 74 (36.10%) Entra ID
4 41 (20.00%) SaaS
5 28 (13.66%) IaaS
6 25 (12.20%) Azure AKS
6 25 (12.20%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 25 (12.20%) Azure Key Vault
6 25 (12.20%) Azure Storage
7 17 (8.29%) Mimecast
8 11 (5.37%) AWS
9 10 (4.88%) Google Workspace
10 8 (3.90%) OneDrive
11 4 (1.95%) Power Automate
12 3 (1.46%) Power Platform
13 2 (0.98%) Azure Sentinel
14 1 (0.49%) Dynamics 365
14 1 (0.49%) GCP
14 1 (0.49%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 56 (27.32%) DNS
2 50 (24.39%) Firewall
3 29 (14.15%) DHCP
4 26 (12.68%) VPN
5 25 (12.20%) VLAN
6 15 (7.32%) Wireless
7 14 (6.83%) Wi-Fi
8 13 (6.34%) TCP/IP
9 9 (4.39%) LAN
9 9 (4.39%) Network Security
9 9 (4.39%) WAN
10 4 (1.95%) DMZ
10 4 (1.95%) SAN
10 4 (1.95%) Wireshark
11 3 (1.46%) Remote Desktop
12 2 (0.98%) BGP
12 2 (0.98%) VoIP
13 1 (0.49%) Internet
13 1 (0.49%) IPsec
13 1 (0.49%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (3.41%) SQL Server
2 2 (0.98%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 16 (7.80%) JIRA
2 1 (0.49%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 42 (20.49%) Social Skills
2 27 (13.17%) Law
3 18 (8.78%) Legal
4 10 (4.88%) Analytical Skills
5 9 (4.39%) Public Sector
6 6 (2.93%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 4 (1.95%) Organisational Skills
8 2 (0.98%) Documentation Skills
9 1 (0.49%) Finance
9 1 (0.49%) Presentation Skills
9 1 (0.49%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (2.93%) .NET
2 3 (1.46%) 802.1X
2 3 (1.46%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 11 (5.37%) Video Conferencing
2 10 (4.88%) Onboarding
3 7 (3.41%) Clustering
3 7 (3.41%) Driving Licence
3 7 (3.41%) Enterprise Software
3 7 (3.41%) Self-Motivation
4 4 (1.95%) Cyber Threat
5 2 (0.98%) Data Centre
5 2 (0.98%) Hybrid Cloud
5 2 (0.98%) Management Information System
6 1 (0.49%) iPhone
6 1 (0.49%) PKI
6 1 (0.49%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 77 (37.56%) Windows
2 44 (21.46%) Windows Server
3 23 (11.22%) Mac OS
4 21 (10.24%) Linux
5 14 (6.83%) Windows Server 2016
6 13 (6.34%) Windows Server 2012
7 9 (4.39%) Windows Server 2019
8 5 (2.44%) Apple iOS
9 4 (1.95%) Windows Server 2008
10 2 (0.98%) VMS
11 1 (0.49%) Android
11 1 (0.49%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 58 (28.29%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 43 (20.98%) Root Cause Analysis
3 31 (15.12%) Mentoring
4 26 (12.68%) High Availability
5 25 (12.20%) Agile
5 25 (12.20%) Containerisation
5 25 (12.20%) Load Balancing
5 25 (12.20%) Technical Leadership
6 23 (11.22%) ITIL
7 22 (10.73%) Incident Management
7 22 (10.73%) Problem-Solving
8 21 (10.24%) Change Management
9 20 (9.76%) Continuous Improvement
10 19 (9.27%) Cybersecurity
10 19 (9.27%) Project Delivery
11 18 (8.78%) Identity Management
12 16 (7.80%) Disaster Recovery
13 15 (7.32%) Remote Monitoring and Management
13 15 (7.32%) Workflow
14 14 (6.83%) Customer Service
Programming Languages
1 43 (20.98%) PowerShell
2 17 (8.29%) SQL
3 15 (7.32%) R
4 7 (3.41%) T-SQL
5 6 (2.93%) C#
6 5 (2.44%) Bash
7 3 (1.46%) Shell Script
8 1 (0.49%) Python
Qualifications
1 34 (16.59%) Azure Certification
2 28 (13.66%) Security Cleared
3 22 (10.73%) SC Cleared
4 13 (6.34%) CCNA
4 13 (6.34%) Cisco Certification
4 13 (6.34%) Microsoft Certification
5 12 (5.85%) Degree
6 6 (2.93%) DV Cleared
7 4 (1.95%) AWS Certification
7 4 (1.95%) MCSA
7 4 (1.95%) Microsoft Certified Professional
8 2 (0.98%) CCNP
8 2 (0.98%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 19 (9.27%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 14 (6.83%) Cyber Essentials
3 3 (1.46%) SLA
4 2 (0.98%) PCI DSS
5 1 (0.49%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
System Software
1 75 (36.59%) Active Directory
2 42 (20.49%) Hyper-V
3 34 (16.59%) VMware Infrastructure
4 10 (4.88%) Virtual Desktop
5 8 (3.90%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (1.46%) Docker
6 3 (1.46%) Firmware
7 2 (0.98%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.49%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 51 (24.88%) Microsoft Intune
2 25 (12.20%) Kubernetes
3 15 (7.32%) Jamf Pro
4 14 (6.83%) Autotask
5 8 (3.90%) Proxmox
5 8 (3.90%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
6 6 (2.93%) Failover Clustering
6 6 (2.93%) Microsoft Clustering
7 4 (1.95%) Iperf
8 2 (0.98%) MaaS360
9 1 (0.49%) FortiGate
9 1 (0.49%) SCCM
9 1 (0.49%) SCOM
9 1 (0.49%) vCenter Server
9 1 (0.49%) WSUS
Vendors
1 108 (52.68%) Microsoft
2 37 (18.05%) VMware
3 33 (16.10%) Cisco
4 19 (9.27%) Fortinet
5 18 (8.78%) SonicWALL
6 15 (7.32%) CrowdStrike
6 15 (7.32%) HP
7 12 (5.85%) Meraki
7 12 (5.85%) Veeam
8 11 (5.37%) Datto
8 11 (5.37%) Google
9 10 (4.88%) Aruba
9 10 (4.88%) Ubiquiti
10 8 (3.90%) Apple
11 6 (2.93%) Palo Alto
12 4 (1.95%) ConnectWise
12 4 (1.95%) Dell
12 4 (1.95%) Ruckus Wireless
12 4 (1.95%) ServiceNow
13 3 (1.46%) Remedy