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 6 November 2025.

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

6 months to
6 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 506 538 432
Rank change year-on-year +32 -106 +295
Permanent jobs requiring a 3rd Line Engineer 143 200 316
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.29% 0.30% 0.60%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.32% 0.31% 0.63%
Number of salaries quoted 138 164 294
10th Percentile £33,750 £34,825 £32,500
25th Percentile £39,250 £36,250 £36,313
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £47,000 £42,500 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year +10.59% -5.56% -
75th Percentile £53,188 £52,125 £52,500
90th Percentile £57,500 £55,875 £56,525
UK excluding London median annual salary £47,250 £42,000 £43,500
% change year-on-year +12.50% -3.45% -3.33%

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 45,153 64,335 50,468
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.08% 95.04% 95.49%
Number of salaries quoted 28,095 36,400 39,152
10th Percentile £28,250 £31,250 £31,500
25th Percentile £35,000 £42,200 £42,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £57,410 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.55% -4.32% -
75th Percentile £73,750 £75,000 £80,000
90th Percentile £92,500 £95,000 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £46,000 £50,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -8.00% -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 6 November 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 6 November 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 +33 137 £47,000 +10.59% 97
UK excluding London +29 123 £47,250 +12.50% 99
Work from Home +34 42 £50,000 +25.00% 41
East of England +43 37 £47,000 +10.59% 11
South East +11 33 £47,500 +5.56% 43
Midlands +43 20 £49,739 +10.53% 5
South West +35 19 £52,500 +16.67% 15
London +35 17 £42,500 -10.53% 28
East Midlands +27 12 £52,239 +9.98% 1
North of England -12 11 £40,000 +12.68% 11
North West +32 9 £40,000 - 10
West Midlands +42 8 £48,750 +17.47% 4
Yorkshire +10 2 £49,250 +21.06% 1
Wales +8 2 - - 12
Scotland +2 2 £45,000 +3.45% 3

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

For the 6 months to 6 November 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 94 (65.73%) Microsoft
2 88 (61.54%) Azure
3 80 (55.94%) Microsoft 365
4 79 (55.24%) Windows
5 71 (49.65%) PowerShell
6 64 (44.76%) Windows Server
7 55 (38.46%) ITIL
8 47 (32.87%) Active Directory
9 45 (31.47%) Microsoft Exchange
10 44 (30.77%) VMware
11 42 (29.37%) Cisco
11 42 (29.37%) Hyper-V
11 42 (29.37%) Microsoft Intune
11 42 (29.37%) Problem-Solving
12 38 (26.57%) Entra ID
12 38 (26.57%) Firewall
13 37 (25.87%) VMware Infrastructure
14 34 (23.78%) Veeam
15 28 (19.58%) Infrastructure Engineering
15 28 (19.58%) Security Cleared
16 25 (17.48%) DNS
17 24 (16.78%) SharePoint
18 23 (16.08%) Customer Service
19 22 (15.38%) Windows Server 2019
20 20 (13.99%) Task Automation
21 19 (13.29%) Degree
21 19 (13.29%) ITSM
21 19 (13.29%) Patch Management
22 18 (12.59%) Mentoring
23 17 (11.89%) Apple

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 45 (31.47%) Microsoft Exchange
2 24 (16.78%) SharePoint
3 5 (3.50%) IIS
4 4 (2.80%) Exchange Server 2003
Applications
1 6 (4.20%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.70%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 5 (3.50%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 88 (61.54%) Azure
2 80 (55.94%) Microsoft 365
3 38 (26.57%) Entra ID
4 12 (8.39%) AWS
5 6 (4.20%) Power Platform
6 5 (3.50%) Azure Sentinel
7 3 (2.10%) Cloud Computing
8 2 (1.40%) OneDrive
8 2 (1.40%) PowerApps
9 1 (0.70%) Amazon EC2
9 1 (0.70%) Amazon S3
9 1 (0.70%) AWS Lambda
9 1 (0.70%) Azure App Service
9 1 (0.70%) Dynamics 365
9 1 (0.70%) GCP
9 1 (0.70%) SaaS
9 1 (0.70%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 38 (26.57%) Firewall
2 25 (17.48%) DNS
3 17 (11.89%) DHCP
4 14 (9.79%) VLAN
5 12 (8.39%) Wireless
6 11 (7.69%) VPN
7 10 (6.99%) LAN
7 10 (6.99%) WAN
8 9 (6.29%) Cisco IOS
8 9 (6.29%) VoIP
9 8 (5.59%) SAN
10 7 (4.90%) Wi-Fi
11 6 (4.20%) Internet
11 6 (4.20%) iSCSI
12 5 (3.50%) IP Telephony
12 5 (3.50%) IPsec
12 5 (3.50%) TCP/IP
13 4 (2.80%) SMTP
13 4 (2.80%) X.400
13 4 (2.80%) X.500
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (5.59%) SQL Server
2 5 (3.50%) Amazon RDS
2 5 (3.50%) Oracle Database
2 5 (3.50%) Oracle Database 10g
3 3 (2.10%) Data Mining
3 3 (2.10%) Power BI
4 1 (0.70%) Azure SQL Database
Development Applications
1 1 (0.70%) JIRA
General
1 38 (26.57%) Social Skills
2 15 (10.49%) Finance
2 15 (10.49%) Marketing
3 11 (7.69%) Telecoms
4 10 (6.99%) Law
4 10 (6.99%) Manufacturing
4 10 (6.99%) Public Sector
5 9 (6.29%) Electronics
6 7 (4.90%) Automotive
7 5 (3.50%) Billing
8 3 (2.10%) Analytical Skills
8 3 (2.10%) Organisational Skills
9 2 (1.40%) Advertising
9 2 (1.40%) Games
9 2 (1.40%) Retail
10 1 (0.70%) Aerospace
10 1 (0.70%) Documentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (0.70%) LAMP
Miscellaneous
1 20 (13.99%) Onboarding
2 11 (7.69%) Driving Licence
3 6 (4.20%) Clustering
4 4 (2.80%) Enterprise Software
4 4 (2.80%) Replication
5 3 (2.10%) iPad
5 3 (2.10%) PKI
5 3 (2.10%) Social Media
6 1 (0.70%) BYOD
6 1 (0.70%) FMCG
6 1 (0.70%) Hybrid Cloud
6 1 (0.70%) Legacy Systems
6 1 (0.70%) Management Information System
6 1 (0.70%) NHS
6 1 (0.70%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 79 (55.24%) Windows
2 64 (44.76%) Windows Server
3 22 (15.38%) Windows Server 2019
4 16 (11.19%) Linux
5 12 (8.39%) Windows 10
6 11 (7.69%) Android
7 8 (5.59%) Windows Server 2016
8 7 (4.90%) Apple iOS
8 7 (4.90%) Unix
9 6 (4.20%) Mac OS
10 5 (3.50%) Solaris
11 4 (2.80%) HPUX
11 4 (2.80%) Windows Server 2003
12 1 (0.70%) CentOS
12 1 (0.70%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.70%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 55 (38.46%) ITIL
2 42 (29.37%) Problem-Solving
3 28 (19.58%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 23 (16.08%) Customer Service
5 20 (13.99%) Task Automation
6 19 (13.29%) ITSM
6 19 (13.29%) Patch Management
7 18 (12.59%) Mentoring
8 16 (11.19%) Migration
8 16 (11.19%) Service Delivery
9 14 (9.79%) Project Delivery
10 13 (9.09%) Business Intelligence
10 13 (9.09%) Server Management
11 11 (7.69%) Disaster Recovery
12 10 (6.99%) Cloud Security
12 10 (6.99%) Remote Monitoring and Management
12 10 (6.99%) Root Cause Analysis
13 9 (6.29%) Digital Marketing
13 9 (6.29%) Programme Management
13 9 (6.29%) Service Management
Programming Languages
1 71 (49.65%) PowerShell
2 3 (2.10%) Bash
3 2 (1.40%) Python
3 2 (1.40%) SQL
Qualifications
1 28 (19.58%) Security Cleared
2 19 (13.29%) Degree
3 17 (11.89%) SC Cleared
4 16 (11.19%) Cisco Certification
5 15 (10.49%) CCNA
6 12 (8.39%) DV Cleared
7 9 (6.29%) Microsoft Certification
8 8 (5.59%) DBS Check
9 6 (4.20%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
9 6 (4.20%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 5 (3.50%) ACMT
10 5 (3.50%) Azure Certification
11 3 (2.10%) CCNP
11 3 (2.10%) Computer Science Degree
11 3 (2.10%) HND
12 2 (1.40%) CompTIA Security+
12 2 (1.40%) Network+ Certification
13 1 (0.70%) AWS Certification
13 1 (0.70%) HP APS
13 1 (0.70%) Linux+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (9.79%) SLA
2 11 (7.69%) Cyber Essentials
3 2 (1.40%) GDPR
4 1 (0.70%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 1 (0.70%) HIPAA
4 1 (0.70%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 1 (0.70%) NIST
System Software
1 47 (32.87%) Active Directory
2 42 (29.37%) Hyper-V
3 37 (25.87%) VMware Infrastructure
4 8 (5.59%) vSphere
5 7 (4.90%) Docker
6 5 (3.50%) VMware ESXi
7 4 (2.80%) Virtual Machines
7 4 (2.80%) XenApp
8 2 (1.40%) Firmware
8 2 (1.40%) VMware NSX
9 1 (0.70%) BitLocker
9 1 (0.70%) Dovecot
9 1 (0.70%) Postfix
9 1 (0.70%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 42 (29.37%) Microsoft Intune
2 15 (10.49%) Backup Exec
3 14 (9.79%) SCCM
4 10 (6.99%) Autotask
4 10 (6.99%) Jamf Pro
5 9 (6.29%) vCenter Server
6 6 (4.20%) Kubernetes
7 4 (2.80%) FortiGate
8 3 (2.10%) SCOM
9 2 (1.40%) Grafana
9 2 (1.40%) Prometheus
9 2 (1.40%) SCSM
10 1 (0.70%) Ansible
10 1 (0.70%) Avamar
10 1 (0.70%) Microsoft Clustering
10 1 (0.70%) NetBackup
10 1 (0.70%) Podman
10 1 (0.70%) Puppet
10 1 (0.70%) WhatsUp Gold
10 1 (0.70%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 94 (65.73%) Microsoft
2 44 (30.77%) VMware
3 42 (29.37%) Cisco
4 34 (23.78%) Veeam
5 17 (11.89%) Apple
6 14 (9.79%) Datto
7 11 (7.69%) Sophos
8 10 (6.99%) Aruba
8 10 (6.99%) HP
8 10 (6.99%) Meraki
8 10 (6.99%) Oracle
8 10 (6.99%) SAP
9 7 (4.90%) Juniper
9 7 (4.90%) SolarWinds
10 6 (4.20%) arcserve
10 6 (4.20%) Citrix
11 5 (3.50%) Remedy
11 5 (3.50%) ServiceNow
12 4 (2.80%) Fortinet
12 4 (2.80%) Ubiquiti