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 16 May 2026.

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

6 months to
16 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 486 499 493
Rank change year-on-year +13 -6 +81
Permanent jobs requiring a 3rd Line Engineer 238 156 443
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.26% 0.36% 0.46%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.28% 0.40% 0.49%
Number of salaries quoted 221 138 395
10th Percentile £39,500 £37,500 £31,250
25th Percentile £42,500 £41,250 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £50,000 £42,000
Median % change year-on-year - +19.05% -11.58%
75th Percentile £58,750 £55,000 £51,250
90th Percentile £62,500 £67,500 £53,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £47,500 £50,000 £41,125
% change year-on-year -5.00% +21.58% -10.60%

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 85,212 39,160 91,339
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.30% 89.49% 94.62%
Number of salaries quoted 56,182 22,791 67,021
10th Percentile £30,000 £30,000 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £41,250 £38,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £57,500 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -4.35% +9.52% -12.50%
75th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £71,250
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,344 £50,000
% change year-on-year -4.48% +4.69% -5.66%

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 16 May 2026.

Salary histogram for 3rd Line Engineer in the UK

3rd Line Engineer
Top 13 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 16 May 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 +7 218 £50,000 - 38
UK excluding London -2 192 £47,500 -5.00% 35
South East 0 65 £50,000 -4.76% 15
Work from Home +18 56 £53,459 +6.92% 15
London +8 46 £55,000 -12.00% 5
North of England -10 46 £45,000 +12.50% 5
Yorkshire -15 46 £45,000 +28.57% 2
East of England -4 22 £56,250 +25.00% 7
Midlands -37 21 £50,000 - 3
Wales - 20 £45,000 - 1
South West -38 18 £52,209 +16.02% 4
East Midlands -32 15 £60,000 +9.09% 2
West Midlands -47 6 £46,000 -8.00% 1

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

For the 6 months to 16 May 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.

1 101 (42.44%) Azure
2 91 (38.24%) Microsoft
3 80 (33.61%) Microsoft 365
4 76 (31.93%) Active Directory
5 73 (30.67%) Windows
6 66 (27.73%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 54 (22.69%) VMware
8 50 (21.01%) Microsoft Exchange
9 46 (19.33%) DNS
9 46 (19.33%) Windows Server
10 44 (18.49%) PowerShell
11 43 (18.07%) Entra ID
11 43 (18.07%) Microsoft Intune
11 43 (18.07%) Security Cleared
12 42 (17.65%) Firewall
12 42 (17.65%) SharePoint
13 40 (16.81%) Problem-Solving
14 39 (16.39%) VMware Infrastructure
15 36 (15.13%) Root Cause Analysis
15 36 (15.13%) SC Cleared
16 29 (12.18%) Hyper-V
17 28 (11.76%) Azure Certification
17 28 (11.76%) IaaS
18 27 (11.34%) Technical Leadership
19 26 (10.92%) High Availability
19 26 (10.92%) ITIL
20 25 (10.50%) Agile
20 25 (10.50%) Azure AKS
20 25 (10.50%) Azure ExpressRoute
20 25 (10.50%) Azure Key Vault

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 50 (21.01%) Microsoft Exchange
2 42 (17.65%) SharePoint
3 4 (1.68%) Exchange Server 2007
3 4 (1.68%) Exchange Server 2010
3 4 (1.68%) Exchange Server 2013
4 1 (0.42%) Confluence
Applications
1 5 (2.10%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (1.26%) SPSS
Business Applications
1 3 (1.26%) Oracle EBS
2 2 (0.84%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 101 (42.44%) Azure
2 80 (33.61%) Microsoft 365
3 43 (18.07%) Entra ID
4 28 (11.76%) IaaS
5 25 (10.50%) Azure AKS
5 25 (10.50%) Azure ExpressRoute
5 25 (10.50%) Azure Key Vault
5 25 (10.50%) Azure Storage
6 23 (9.66%) SaaS
7 19 (7.98%) Mimecast
8 7 (2.94%) Google Workspace
9 5 (2.10%) OneDrive
10 4 (1.68%) AWS
11 2 (0.84%) Power Platform
12 1 (0.42%) Amazon S3
12 1 (0.42%) Google Docs
12 1 (0.42%) PaaS
12 1 (0.42%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 46 (19.33%) DNS
2 42 (17.65%) Firewall
3 18 (7.56%) VPN
4 13 (5.46%) DHCP
5 12 (5.04%) Wireless
6 9 (3.78%) VLAN
7 8 (3.36%) SAN
7 8 (3.36%) Wi-Fi
8 7 (2.94%) TCP/IP
9 6 (2.52%) LAN
10 5 (2.10%) WAN
11 3 (1.26%) Ethernet
11 3 (1.26%) Network Security
12 2 (0.84%) BGP
12 2 (0.84%) InfiniBand
12 2 (0.84%) OSPF
12 2 (0.84%) SD-WAN
13 1 (0.42%) Internet
13 1 (0.42%) NX-OS
13 1 (0.42%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (1.68%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.42%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 16 (6.72%) JIRA
General
1 42 (17.65%) Social Skills
2 27 (11.34%) Law
3 14 (5.88%) Legal
4 10 (4.20%) Public Sector
5 7 (2.94%) Analytical Skills
5 7 (2.94%) Organisational Skills
6 5 (2.10%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 3 (1.26%) Retail
7 3 (1.26%) Telecoms
8 2 (0.84%) Advertising
8 2 (0.84%) Banking
8 2 (0.84%) Manufacturing
9 1 (0.42%) Finance
9 1 (0.42%) Front Office
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (1.26%) 802.1X
Miscellaneous
1 13 (5.46%) Driving Licence
2 8 (3.36%) PKI
3 5 (2.10%) Onboarding
3 5 (2.10%) Video Conferencing
4 4 (1.68%) Self-Motivation
5 3 (1.26%) CMDB
6 2 (0.84%) Data Centre
6 2 (0.84%) Hybrid Cloud
6 2 (0.84%) YubiKey
7 1 (0.42%) Clustering
7 1 (0.42%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
7 1 (0.42%) Life Science
7 1 (0.42%) Replication
7 1 (0.42%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 73 (30.67%) Windows
2 46 (19.33%) Windows Server
3 25 (10.50%) Linux
4 20 (8.40%) Mac OS
5 10 (4.20%) Windows Server 2016
6 9 (3.78%) Windows Server 2012
7 7 (2.94%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 6 (2.52%) Windows 10
9 5 (2.10%) Apple iOS
10 4 (1.68%) Windows Server 2008
10 4 (1.68%) Windows Server 2019
11 1 (0.42%) Android
11 1 (0.42%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 66 (27.73%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 40 (16.81%) Problem-Solving
3 36 (15.13%) Root Cause Analysis
4 27 (11.34%) Technical Leadership
5 26 (10.92%) High Availability
5 26 (10.92%) ITIL
6 25 (10.50%) Agile
6 25 (10.50%) Containerisation
6 25 (10.50%) Load Balancing
7 21 (8.82%) Change Management
8 20 (8.40%) Customer Service
9 18 (7.56%) Incident Management
10 16 (6.72%) Continuous Improvement
10 16 (6.72%) Project Delivery
11 15 (6.30%) Identity Management
11 15 (6.30%) Workflow
12 14 (5.88%) Disaster Recovery
12 14 (5.88%) Mentoring
13 13 (5.46%) Kalman Filter
13 13 (5.46%) Web Filtering
Programming Languages
1 44 (18.49%) PowerShell
2 21 (8.82%) SQL
3 14 (5.88%) R
4 9 (3.78%) Bash
5 7 (2.94%) Python
6 3 (1.26%) Shell Script
7 2 (0.84%) Bicep
8 1 (0.42%) Google Apps Script
Qualifications
1 43 (18.07%) Security Cleared
2 36 (15.13%) SC Cleared
3 28 (11.76%) Azure Certification
4 14 (5.88%) DV Cleared
5 9 (3.78%) DBS Check
6 4 (1.68%) Cisco Certification
7 3 (1.26%) Degree
7 3 (1.26%) RHCE
8 2 (0.84%) CCNA
8 2 (0.84%) CCNP
8 2 (0.84%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (7.14%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 4 (1.68%) Cyber Essentials
3 2 (0.84%) NIST
4 1 (0.42%) SLA
System Software
1 76 (31.93%) Active Directory
2 39 (16.39%) VMware Infrastructure
3 29 (12.18%) Hyper-V
4 11 (4.62%) Virtual Desktop
4 11 (4.62%) vSphere
5 4 (1.68%) VMware ESXi
6 3 (1.26%) Docker
6 3 (1.26%) Microsoft Virtual Server
6 3 (1.26%) Virtual Servers
7 2 (0.84%) Firmware
7 2 (0.84%) Lustre
7 2 (0.84%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 1 (0.42%) VMware NSX
8 1 (0.42%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 43 (18.07%) Microsoft Intune
2 25 (10.50%) Kubernetes
3 10 (4.20%) Jamf Pro
4 9 (3.78%) Proxmox
4 9 (3.78%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
4 9 (3.78%) WSUS
5 7 (2.94%) vCenter Server
6 5 (2.10%) Autotask
6 5 (2.10%) SCCM
7 4 (1.68%) Ansible
7 4 (1.68%) SCOM
8 3 (1.26%) Terraform
9 2 (0.84%) FortiGate
10 1 (0.42%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 91 (38.24%) Microsoft
2 54 (22.69%) VMware
3 15 (6.30%) Veeam
4 14 (5.88%) CrowdStrike
5 11 (4.62%) Cisco
5 11 (4.62%) McAfee
6 9 (3.78%) HP
7 7 (2.94%) Fortinet
7 7 (2.94%) Google
8 6 (2.52%) SonicWALL
9 5 (2.10%) Aruba
9 5 (2.10%) Datto
9 5 (2.10%) Meraki
9 5 (2.10%) SolarWinds
9 5 (2.10%) Ubiquiti
10 4 (1.68%) Apple
10 4 (1.68%) ConnectWise
10 4 (1.68%) Dell
10 4 (1.68%) NetApp
11 3 (1.26%) Red Hat