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 14 December 2025.

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

6 months to
14 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 499 549 407
Rank change year-on-year +50 -142 +253
Permanent jobs requiring a 3rd Line Engineer 148 167 317
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.25% 0.29% 0.64%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.28% 0.30% 0.67%
Number of salaries quoted 138 148 297
10th Percentile £35,350 £35,350 £32,500
25th Percentile £39,625 £36,844 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £47,000 £45,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.44% - -
75th Percentile £53,750 £54,500 £52,500
90th Percentile £57,500 £58,825 £57,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £47,500 £42,500 £42,500
% change year-on-year +11.76% - -5.56%

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 52,344 54,757 47,045
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.08% 93.89% 95.24%
Number of salaries quoted 32,163 29,820 36,466
10th Percentile £28,500 £32,725 £31,250
25th Percentile £36,250 £43,750 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £59,430 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -7.45% -0.95% -
75th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £80,000
90th Percentile £92,500 £96,250 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £48,500 £52,500 £52,500
% change year-on-year -7.62% - -

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 14 December 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 14 December 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 +64 143 £47,000 +7.43% 91
UK excluding London +38 121 £47,500 +11.76% 94
South East +19 43 £47,500 -5.00% 32
Work from Home +65 33 £50,000 +20.48% 31
London +76 26 £42,500 -10.53% 12
East of England +35 26 £47,000 +10.59% 15
South West +18 21 £52,500 +23.53% 7
Midlands +19 14 £55,000 +18.92% 7
North of England +16 14 £42,500 +18.06% 26
Yorkshire +6 10 £42,500 -22.73% 17
East Midlands +6 9 £55,000 +15.79% 4
West Midlands +14 5 £42,500 -5.56% 3
North West +29 4 £36,000 -10.00% 6
Wales - 3 £35,000 - 9
Scotland - 1 £55,000 - 1

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

For the 6 months to 14 December 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 81 (54.73%) Microsoft
2 72 (48.65%) Azure
3 69 (46.62%) Windows
4 66 (44.59%) Microsoft 365
5 57 (38.51%) PowerShell
6 54 (36.49%) Windows Server
7 49 (33.11%) Problem-Solving
8 47 (31.76%) Active Directory
9 42 (28.38%) VMware
10 41 (27.70%) ITIL
11 37 (25.00%) Firewall
12 36 (24.32%) Entra ID
13 35 (23.65%) Microsoft Exchange
13 35 (23.65%) Microsoft Intune
14 34 (22.97%) Security Cleared
15 31 (20.95%) Hyper-V
16 30 (20.27%) Cisco
17 29 (19.59%) Infrastructure Engineering
17 29 (19.59%) VMware Infrastructure
18 27 (18.24%) Customer Service
18 27 (18.24%) Veeam
19 24 (16.22%) ITSM
20 22 (14.86%) SC Cleared
21 20 (13.51%) DNS
22 19 (12.84%) SharePoint
23 18 (12.16%) Linux
24 17 (11.49%) Apple
24 17 (11.49%) DHCP
24 17 (11.49%) DV Cleared
25 16 (10.81%) Project Delivery

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 35 (23.65%) Microsoft Exchange
2 19 (12.84%) SharePoint
3 5 (3.38%) IIS
4 4 (2.70%) Exchange Server 2003
5 1 (0.68%) Confluence
Applications
1 5 (3.38%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.68%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 5 (3.38%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.68%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 72 (48.65%) Azure
2 66 (44.59%) Microsoft 365
3 36 (24.32%) Entra ID
4 13 (8.78%) AWS
5 7 (4.73%) Power Platform
6 3 (2.03%) Azure Sentinel
7 2 (1.35%) Amazon S3
7 2 (1.35%) Cloud Computing
7 2 (1.35%) OneDrive
8 1 (0.68%) Amazon EC2
8 1 (0.68%) AWS Lambda
8 1 (0.68%) Azure App Service
8 1 (0.68%) Dynamics 365
8 1 (0.68%) Google Workspace
8 1 (0.68%) Mimecast
8 1 (0.68%) PowerApps
8 1 (0.68%) SaaS
8 1 (0.68%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 37 (25.00%) Firewall
2 20 (13.51%) DNS
3 17 (11.49%) DHCP
4 14 (9.46%) VPN
5 13 (8.78%) Wireless
6 12 (8.11%) VLAN
7 10 (6.76%) VoIP
8 9 (6.08%) Cisco IOS
8 9 (6.08%) LAN
8 9 (6.08%) WAN
9 7 (4.73%) Wi-Fi
10 5 (3.38%) IP Telephony
10 5 (3.38%) IPsec
11 4 (2.70%) Internet
11 4 (2.70%) Junos
11 4 (2.70%) SD-WAN
11 4 (2.70%) SMTP
11 4 (2.70%) TCP/IP
11 4 (2.70%) X.400
11 4 (2.70%) X.500
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (5.41%) SQL Server
2 6 (4.05%) Amazon RDS
3 5 (3.38%) Oracle Database
3 5 (3.38%) Oracle Database 10g
3 5 (3.38%) Power BI
4 3 (2.03%) Data Mining
5 1 (0.68%) Azure SQL Database
Development Applications
1 2 (1.35%) JIRA
General
1 37 (25.00%) Social Skills
2 13 (8.78%) Finance
2 13 (8.78%) Marketing
3 10 (6.76%) Law
3 10 (6.76%) Manufacturing
4 8 (5.41%) Public Sector
4 8 (5.41%) Telecoms
5 7 (4.73%) Automotive
5 7 (4.73%) Electronics
6 5 (3.38%) Advertising
6 5 (3.38%) Retail
7 1 (0.68%) Aerospace
7 1 (0.68%) Analytical Skills
7 1 (0.68%) Banking
7 1 (0.68%) Documentation Skills
7 1 (0.68%) Front Office
7 1 (0.68%) Games
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (0.68%) LAMP
Miscellaneous
1 20 (13.51%) Onboarding
2 6 (4.05%) Clustering
2 6 (4.05%) Driving Licence
3 5 (3.38%) Replication
4 4 (2.70%) Enterprise Software
5 3 (2.03%) iPad
5 3 (2.03%) PKI
6 1 (0.68%) BYOD
6 1 (0.68%) FMCG
6 1 (0.68%) Hybrid Cloud
6 1 (0.68%) Legacy Systems
6 1 (0.68%) Management Information System
6 1 (0.68%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 69 (46.62%) Windows
2 54 (36.49%) Windows Server
3 18 (12.16%) Linux
4 12 (8.11%) Windows 10
5 11 (7.43%) Android
6 8 (5.41%) Windows Server 2019
7 7 (4.73%) Apple iOS
7 7 (4.73%) Unix
8 6 (4.05%) Mac OS
8 6 (4.05%) Windows Server 2016
9 5 (3.38%) Solaris
9 5 (3.38%) Windows Server 2003
10 4 (2.70%) HPUX
11 2 (1.35%) Windows Server 2012
12 1 (0.68%) CentOS
12 1 (0.68%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 49 (33.11%) Problem-Solving
2 41 (27.70%) ITIL
3 29 (19.59%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 27 (18.24%) Customer Service
5 24 (16.22%) ITSM
6 16 (10.81%) Project Delivery
7 15 (10.14%) Mentoring
8 14 (9.46%) Service Delivery
9 13 (8.78%) Business Intelligence
9 13 (8.78%) Disaster Recovery
10 12 (8.11%) Service Management
11 10 (6.76%) Cloud Security
11 10 (6.76%) Incident Management
11 10 (6.76%) Migration
11 10 (6.76%) Server Management
12 9 (6.08%) Cybersecurity
12 9 (6.08%) Task Automation
13 8 (5.41%) Logistics
13 8 (5.41%) Patch Management
13 8 (5.41%) Service Desk Management
Programming Languages
1 57 (38.51%) PowerShell
2 9 (6.08%) SQL
3 5 (3.38%) Bash
4 4 (2.70%) Python
Qualifications
1 34 (22.97%) Security Cleared
2 22 (14.86%) SC Cleared
3 17 (11.49%) DV Cleared
4 15 (10.14%) Degree
5 12 (8.11%) Cisco Certification
6 10 (6.76%) CCNA
7 9 (6.08%) Microsoft Certification
8 7 (4.73%) DBS Check
9 6 (4.05%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
9 6 (4.05%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 5 (3.38%) ACMT
10 5 (3.38%) HND
11 4 (2.70%) CCNP
12 3 (2.03%) Azure Certification
12 3 (2.03%) RHCE
13 2 (1.35%) Computer Science Degree
14 1 (0.68%) CompTIA Security+
14 1 (0.68%) ITIL Certification
14 1 (0.68%) Linux+ Certification
14 1 (0.68%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (10.14%) SLA
2 9 (6.08%) Cyber Essentials
3 2 (1.35%) GDPR
4 1 (0.68%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 1 (0.68%) HIPAA
4 1 (0.68%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 1 (0.68%) NIST
System Software
1 47 (31.76%) Active Directory
2 31 (20.95%) Hyper-V
3 29 (19.59%) VMware Infrastructure
4 8 (5.41%) vSphere
5 7 (4.73%) Docker
6 5 (3.38%) VMware ESXi
7 4 (2.70%) Virtual Machines
8 3 (2.03%) Firmware
9 2 (1.35%) VMware NSX
10 1 (0.68%) BitLocker
10 1 (0.68%) Dovecot
10 1 (0.68%) Lustre
10 1 (0.68%) Postfix
10 1 (0.68%) Slurm Workload Manager
10 1 (0.68%) Virtual Desktop
10 1 (0.68%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 35 (23.65%) Microsoft Intune
2 13 (8.78%) SCCM
2 13 (8.78%) vCenter Server
3 7 (4.73%) FortiGate
3 7 (4.73%) Jamf Pro
3 7 (4.73%) SCOM
4 6 (4.05%) Kubernetes
5 5 (3.38%) Autotask
6 4 (2.70%) Backup Exec
7 3 (2.03%) Ansible
8 2 (1.35%) SCSM
9 1 (0.68%) Avamar
9 1 (0.68%) Grafana
9 1 (0.68%) Microsoft Clustering
9 1 (0.68%) NetBackup
9 1 (0.68%) Podman
9 1 (0.68%) Prometheus
9 1 (0.68%) Puppet
9 1 (0.68%) Red Hat Satellite
9 1 (0.68%) WhatsUp Gold
Vendors
1 81 (54.73%) Microsoft
2 42 (28.38%) VMware
3 30 (20.27%) Cisco
4 27 (18.24%) Veeam
5 17 (11.49%) Apple
6 11 (7.43%) Sophos
7 10 (6.76%) Oracle
8 9 (6.08%) SolarWinds
9 8 (5.41%) Datto
9 8 (5.41%) Juniper
9 8 (5.41%) SAP
10 6 (4.05%) arcserve
10 6 (4.05%) Fortinet
11 5 (3.38%) Aruba
11 5 (3.38%) Remedy
11 5 (3.38%) ServiceNow
12 4 (2.70%) Draytek
12 4 (2.70%) McAfee
12 4 (2.70%) Meraki
12 4 (2.70%) Red Hat