3rd Line Engineer Job Trends

Third Line Engineer
UK

The median Third Line Engineer salary in the UK is £45,250 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 23 November 2025.

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

6 months to
23 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 506 567 412
Rank change year-on-year +61 -155 +284
Permanent jobs requiring a 3rd Line Engineer 143 192 319
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.27% 0.28% 0.61%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.30% 0.30% 0.64%
Number of salaries quoted 136 160 296
10th Percentile £33,750 £35,000 £32,500
25th Percentile £39,250 £36,250 £36,438
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,250 £42,500 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year +6.47% -5.56% -
75th Percentile £53,375 £53,000 £52,500
90th Percentile £57,500 £57,625 £57,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £47,000 £42,500 £42,500
% change year-on-year +10.59% - -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 47,918 64,978 49,607
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.17% 94.53% 95.40%
Number of salaries quoted 30,233 36,784 38,479
10th Percentile £28,250 £31,500 £31,250
25th Percentile £35,536 £42,500 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £53,500 £57,500 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -6.96% -4.17% -
75th Percentile £73,750 £75,500 £80,000
90th Percentile £92,500 £95,000 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £47,500 £51,242 £52,500
% change year-on-year -7.30% -2.40% -

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 23 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 23 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 +59 136 £47,000 +10.59% 67
UK excluding London +65 118 £47,000 +10.59% 65
Work from Home +73 38 £50,000 +25.00% 16
East of England +43 34 £47,000 +13.94% 8
South East +28 34 £47,500 +5.56% 38
London +54 22 £42,500 -10.53% 12
South West +34 20 £52,500 +23.53% 5
Midlands +50 17 £50,000 +11.11% 7
East Midlands +35 11 £55,000 +15.79% 3
North of England +14 9 £40,000 +11.11% 6
North West +47 6 £36,000 -10.00%
West Midlands +41 6 £45,000 +5.88% 3
Wales +15 3 £35,000 - 3
Yorkshire +11 3 £51,000 +9.46% 6
Scotland - 2 £45,000 -

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

For the 6 months to 23 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 90 (62.94%) Microsoft
2 81 (56.64%) Azure
3 76 (53.15%) Microsoft 365
4 75 (52.45%) Windows
5 67 (46.85%) PowerShell
6 60 (41.96%) Windows Server
7 49 (34.27%) ITIL
8 44 (30.77%) Problem-Solving
9 42 (29.37%) Active Directory
9 42 (29.37%) VMware
10 41 (28.67%) Microsoft Exchange
11 40 (27.97%) Firewall
11 40 (27.97%) Hyper-V
12 37 (25.87%) Microsoft Intune
13 36 (25.17%) Entra ID
14 35 (24.48%) Cisco
15 34 (23.78%) VMware Infrastructure
16 32 (22.38%) Veeam
17 28 (19.58%) Infrastructure Engineering
17 28 (19.58%) Security Cleared
18 23 (16.08%) DNS
19 22 (15.38%) Customer Service
20 21 (14.69%) SharePoint
21 20 (13.99%) ITSM
22 17 (11.89%) Apple
22 17 (11.89%) DHCP
22 17 (11.89%) SC Cleared
22 17 (11.89%) Task Automation
22 17 (11.89%) Windows Server 2019
23 16 (11.19%) Linux

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 41 (28.67%) Microsoft Exchange
2 21 (14.69%) 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 81 (56.64%) Azure
2 76 (53.15%) Microsoft 365
3 36 (25.17%) Entra ID
4 13 (9.09%) AWS
5 8 (5.59%) 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 40 (27.97%) Firewall
2 23 (16.08%) DNS
3 17 (11.89%) DHCP
4 14 (9.79%) VLAN
5 13 (9.09%) VPN
6 12 (8.39%) Wireless
7 10 (6.99%) VoIP
8 9 (6.29%) Cisco IOS
8 9 (6.29%) LAN
8 9 (6.29%) WAN
9 7 (4.90%) Wi-Fi
10 6 (4.20%) Internet
10 6 (4.20%) SAN
11 5 (3.50%) IP Telephony
11 5 (3.50%) IPsec
11 5 (3.50%) TCP/IP
12 4 (2.80%) iSCSI
12 4 (2.80%) SMTP
12 4 (2.80%) X.400
12 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
2 5 (3.50%) Power BI
3 3 (2.10%) Data Mining
4 1 (0.70%) Azure SQL Database
Development Applications
1 1 (0.70%) JIRA
General
1 35 (24.48%) Social Skills
2 15 (10.49%) Finance
2 15 (10.49%) Marketing
3 11 (7.69%) Manufacturing
3 11 (7.69%) Telecoms
4 10 (6.99%) Law
4 10 (6.99%) Public Sector
5 9 (6.29%) Electronics
6 7 (4.90%) Automotive
7 4 (2.80%) Advertising
7 4 (2.80%) Retail
8 3 (2.10%) Analytical Skills
8 3 (2.10%) Billing
9 2 (1.40%) Games
10 1 (0.70%) Aerospace
10 1 (0.70%) Documentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (0.70%) LAMP
Miscellaneous
1 19 (13.29%) Onboarding
2 10 (6.99%) 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
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 75 (52.45%) Windows
2 60 (41.96%) Windows Server
3 17 (11.89%) Windows Server 2019
4 16 (11.19%) Linux
5 12 (8.39%) Windows 10
6 11 (7.69%) Android
7 7 (4.90%) Apple iOS
7 7 (4.90%) Unix
8 6 (4.20%) Mac OS
8 6 (4.20%) Windows Server 2016
9 5 (3.50%) Solaris
10 4 (2.80%) HPUX
10 4 (2.80%) Windows Server 2003
11 1 (0.70%) CentOS
11 1 (0.70%) Ubuntu
11 1 (0.70%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 49 (34.27%) ITIL
2 44 (30.77%) Problem-Solving
3 28 (19.58%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 22 (15.38%) Customer Service
5 20 (13.99%) ITSM
6 17 (11.89%) Task Automation
7 16 (11.19%) Mentoring
7 16 (11.19%) Patch Management
8 15 (10.49%) Business Intelligence
9 14 (9.79%) Migration
9 14 (9.79%) Project Delivery
9 14 (9.79%) Service Delivery
10 12 (8.39%) Cloud Security
11 11 (7.69%) Disaster Recovery
12 10 (6.99%) Server Management
13 9 (6.29%) Digital Marketing
13 9 (6.29%) Incident Management
13 9 (6.29%) Programme Management
13 9 (6.29%) Service Management
14 8 (5.59%) Problem Management
Programming Languages
1 67 (46.85%) PowerShell
2 3 (2.10%) Bash
3 2 (1.40%) Python
3 2 (1.40%) SQL
Qualifications
1 28 (19.58%) Security Cleared
2 17 (11.89%) SC Cleared
3 15 (10.49%) Cisco Certification
3 15 (10.49%) Degree
4 13 (9.09%) CCNA
5 12 (8.39%) DV Cleared
6 9 (6.29%) Microsoft Certification
7 6 (4.20%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
7 6 (4.20%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 5 (3.50%) ACMT
8 5 (3.50%) Azure Certification
8 5 (3.50%) DBS Check
8 5 (3.50%) HND
9 4 (2.80%) CCNP
10 2 (1.40%) CompTIA Security+
10 2 (1.40%) Computer Science Degree
10 2 (1.40%) Network+ Certification
11 1 (0.70%) ITIL Certification
11 1 (0.70%) Linux+ Certification
11 1 (0.70%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (10.49%) 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 42 (29.37%) Active Directory
2 40 (27.97%) Hyper-V
3 34 (23.78%) VMware Infrastructure
4 8 (5.59%) vSphere
5 7 (4.90%) Docker
6 5 (3.50%) VMware ESXi
7 4 (2.80%) Virtual Machines
8 2 (1.40%) Firmware
8 2 (1.40%) VMware NSX
8 2 (1.40%) XenApp
9 1 (0.70%) BitLocker
9 1 (0.70%) Dovecot
9 1 (0.70%) Postfix
9 1 (0.70%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 37 (25.87%) Microsoft Intune
2 12 (8.39%) Backup Exec
2 12 (8.39%) SCCM
3 9 (6.29%) vCenter Server
4 8 (5.59%) Autotask
5 7 (4.90%) FortiGate
5 7 (4.90%) Jamf Pro
6 6 (4.20%) Kubernetes
7 3 (2.10%) SCOM
8 2 (1.40%) Grafana
8 2 (1.40%) Prometheus
8 2 (1.40%) SCSM
9 1 (0.70%) Ansible
9 1 (0.70%) Avamar
9 1 (0.70%) Microsoft Clustering
9 1 (0.70%) NetBackup
9 1 (0.70%) Podman
9 1 (0.70%) Puppet
9 1 (0.70%) WhatsUp Gold
9 1 (0.70%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 90 (62.94%) Microsoft
2 42 (29.37%) VMware
3 35 (24.48%) Cisco
4 32 (22.38%) Veeam
5 17 (11.89%) Apple
6 12 (8.39%) Datto
7 11 (7.69%) Sophos
8 10 (6.99%) Oracle
8 10 (6.99%) SAP
9 8 (5.59%) Aruba
9 8 (5.59%) HP
10 7 (4.90%) Juniper
10 7 (4.90%) SolarWinds
11 6 (4.20%) arcserve
12 5 (3.50%) Fortinet
12 5 (3.50%) Meraki
12 5 (3.50%) Remedy
12 5 (3.50%) ServiceNow
13 4 (2.80%) Citrix
13 4 (2.80%) Ubiquiti