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 7 December 2025.

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

6 months to
7 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 513 572 415
Rank change year-on-year +59 -157 +259
Permanent jobs requiring a 3rd Line Engineer 141 170 323
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.25% 0.27% 0.64%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.28% 0.29% 0.67%
Number of salaries quoted 134 150 300
10th Percentile £35,000 £35,450 £32,500
25th Percentile £39,250 £36,906 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £47,000 £42,500 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year +10.59% -5.56% -
75th Percentile £53,750 £54,500 £52,500
90th Percentile £57,500 £58,775 £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 50,704 58,391 48,070
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 89.90% 94.00% 95.24%
Number of salaries quoted 31,404 32,367 37,457
10th Percentile £28,250 £32,500 £31,250
25th Percentile £36,250 £42,500 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £58,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -5.17% -3.33% -
75th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £80,000
90th Percentile £92,500 £95,000 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £47,500 £52,500 £52,500
% change year-on-year -9.52% - -

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 7 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 7 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 +70 135 £47,000 +10.59% 93
UK excluding London +64 116 £47,500 +11.76% 83
South East +22 39 £47,500 -1.55% 40
Work from Home +66 34 £51,250 +25.77% 26
East of England +39 29 £47,000 +10.59% 9
London +67 23 £42,500 -10.53% 17
South West +33 21 £52,500 +23.53% 6
Midlands +28 15 £55,000 +22.22% 6
East Midlands +21 10 £55,000 +15.79% 4
North of England +13 8 £41,250 +7.14% 21
West Midlands +20 5 £42,500 -2.86% 2
North West +36 4 £36,000 -10.00% 4
Yorkshire -5 4 £46,750 -15.00% 17
Wales - 3 £35,000 - 2
Scotland - 2 £45,000 -

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

For the 6 months to 7 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 83 (58.87%) Microsoft
2 74 (52.48%) Azure
3 68 (48.23%) Microsoft 365
4 67 (47.52%) Windows
5 60 (42.55%) PowerShell
6 53 (37.59%) Windows Server
7 48 (34.04%) Problem-Solving
8 43 (30.50%) ITIL
9 42 (29.79%) Active Directory
10 36 (25.53%) Entra ID
10 36 (25.53%) Firewall
10 36 (25.53%) VMware
11 35 (24.82%) Microsoft Exchange
11 35 (24.82%) Microsoft Intune
12 32 (22.70%) Cisco
13 31 (21.99%) Hyper-V
14 30 (21.28%) Infrastructure Engineering
14 30 (21.28%) Security Cleared
15 27 (19.15%) VMware Infrastructure
16 25 (17.73%) Veeam
17 24 (17.02%) Customer Service
18 21 (14.89%) DNS
18 21 (14.89%) SharePoint
19 20 (14.18%) ITSM
20 19 (13.48%) SC Cleared
21 17 (12.06%) Apple
21 17 (12.06%) DHCP
21 17 (12.06%) Linux
22 16 (11.35%) Mentoring
22 16 (11.35%) 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 (24.82%) Microsoft Exchange
2 21 (14.89%) SharePoint
3 5 (3.55%) IIS
4 4 (2.84%) Exchange Server 2003
5 1 (0.71%) Confluence
Applications
1 6 (4.26%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.71%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 5 (3.55%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 74 (52.48%) Azure
2 68 (48.23%) Microsoft 365
3 36 (25.53%) Entra ID
4 11 (7.80%) AWS
5 8 (5.67%) Power Platform
6 4 (2.84%) Azure Sentinel
7 3 (2.13%) Cloud Computing
8 2 (1.42%) OneDrive
8 2 (1.42%) PowerApps
9 1 (0.71%) Amazon EC2
9 1 (0.71%) Amazon S3
9 1 (0.71%) AWS Lambda
9 1 (0.71%) Azure App Service
9 1 (0.71%) Dynamics 365
9 1 (0.71%) Mimecast
9 1 (0.71%) SaaS
9 1 (0.71%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 36 (25.53%) Firewall
2 21 (14.89%) DNS
3 17 (12.06%) DHCP
4 12 (8.51%) VLAN
4 12 (8.51%) VPN
4 12 (8.51%) Wireless
5 9 (6.38%) Cisco IOS
5 9 (6.38%) LAN
5 9 (6.38%) VoIP
5 9 (6.38%) WAN
6 7 (4.96%) Wi-Fi
7 5 (3.55%) Internet
7 5 (3.55%) IP Telephony
7 5 (3.55%) IPsec
7 5 (3.55%) SAN
8 4 (2.84%) Junos
8 4 (2.84%) SMTP
8 4 (2.84%) TCP/IP
8 4 (2.84%) X.400
8 4 (2.84%) X.500
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (5.67%) SQL Server
2 5 (3.55%) Amazon RDS
2 5 (3.55%) Oracle Database
2 5 (3.55%) Oracle Database 10g
2 5 (3.55%) Power BI
3 3 (2.13%) Data Mining
4 1 (0.71%) Azure SQL Database
Development Applications
1 2 (1.42%) JIRA
General
1 35 (24.82%) Social Skills
2 14 (9.93%) Finance
2 14 (9.93%) Marketing
3 10 (7.09%) Law
3 10 (7.09%) Manufacturing
3 10 (7.09%) Telecoms
4 9 (6.38%) Public Sector
5 8 (5.67%) Electronics
6 7 (4.96%) Automotive
7 4 (2.84%) Advertising
7 4 (2.84%) Retail
8 2 (1.42%) Analytical Skills
8 2 (1.42%) Billing
9 1 (0.71%) Aerospace
9 1 (0.71%) Banking
9 1 (0.71%) Documentation Skills
9 1 (0.71%) Front Office
9 1 (0.71%) Games
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (0.71%) LAMP
Miscellaneous
1 19 (13.48%) Onboarding
2 8 (5.67%) Driving Licence
3 6 (4.26%) Clustering
4 4 (2.84%) Enterprise Software
4 4 (2.84%) Replication
5 3 (2.13%) iPad
5 3 (2.13%) PKI
6 1 (0.71%) BYOD
6 1 (0.71%) FMCG
6 1 (0.71%) Hybrid Cloud
6 1 (0.71%) Legacy Systems
6 1 (0.71%) Management Information System
6 1 (0.71%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 67 (47.52%) Windows
2 53 (37.59%) Windows Server
3 17 (12.06%) Linux
4 12 (8.51%) Windows 10
5 11 (7.80%) Android
6 10 (7.09%) Windows Server 2019
7 7 (4.96%) Apple iOS
7 7 (4.96%) Unix
8 6 (4.26%) Mac OS
9 5 (3.55%) Solaris
9 5 (3.55%) Windows Server 2003
10 4 (2.84%) HPUX
10 4 (2.84%) Windows Server 2016
11 1 (0.71%) CentOS
11 1 (0.71%) Ubuntu
11 1 (0.71%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 48 (34.04%) Problem-Solving
2 43 (30.50%) ITIL
3 30 (21.28%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 24 (17.02%) Customer Service
5 20 (14.18%) ITSM
6 16 (11.35%) Mentoring
6 16 (11.35%) Project Delivery
7 14 (9.93%) Business Intelligence
7 14 (9.93%) Service Delivery
8 12 (8.51%) Migration
9 11 (7.80%) Cloud Security
9 11 (7.80%) Disaster Recovery
9 11 (7.80%) Task Automation
10 10 (7.09%) Patch Management
10 10 (7.09%) Server Management
10 10 (7.09%) Service Management
11 9 (6.38%) Incident Management
12 8 (5.67%) Cybersecurity
12 8 (5.67%) Digital Marketing
12 8 (5.67%) Programme Management
Programming Languages
1 60 (42.55%) PowerShell
2 4 (2.84%) Bash
2 4 (2.84%) SQL
3 3 (2.13%) Python
Qualifications
1 30 (21.28%) Security Cleared
2 19 (13.48%) SC Cleared
3 15 (10.64%) Degree
4 13 (9.22%) Cisco Certification
4 13 (9.22%) DV Cleared
5 12 (8.51%) CCNA
6 9 (6.38%) Microsoft Certification
7 6 (4.26%) DBS Check
7 6 (4.26%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
7 6 (4.26%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 5 (3.55%) ACMT
8 5 (3.55%) Azure Certification
8 5 (3.55%) HND
9 3 (2.13%) CCNP
10 2 (1.42%) Computer Science Degree
10 2 (1.42%) RHCE
11 1 (0.71%) HP APS
11 1 (0.71%) ITIL Certification
11 1 (0.71%) Linux+ Certification
11 1 (0.71%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (10.64%) SLA
2 10 (7.09%) Cyber Essentials
3 2 (1.42%) GDPR
4 1 (0.71%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 1 (0.71%) HIPAA
4 1 (0.71%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 1 (0.71%) NIST
System Software
1 42 (29.79%) Active Directory
2 31 (21.99%) Hyper-V
3 27 (19.15%) VMware Infrastructure
4 8 (5.67%) vSphere
5 7 (4.96%) Docker
6 5 (3.55%) VMware ESXi
7 4 (2.84%) Virtual Machines
8 2 (1.42%) Firmware
8 2 (1.42%) VMware NSX
9 1 (0.71%) BitLocker
9 1 (0.71%) Dovecot
9 1 (0.71%) Postfix
9 1 (0.71%) Virtual Desktop
9 1 (0.71%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 35 (24.82%) Microsoft Intune
2 12 (8.51%) SCCM
3 10 (7.09%) vCenter Server
4 7 (4.96%) Autotask
4 7 (4.96%) Jamf Pro
5 6 (4.26%) Backup Exec
5 6 (4.26%) FortiGate
5 6 (4.26%) Kubernetes
6 4 (2.84%) SCOM
7 2 (1.42%) Ansible
7 2 (1.42%) SCSM
8 1 (0.71%) Avamar
8 1 (0.71%) Grafana
8 1 (0.71%) Microsoft Clustering
8 1 (0.71%) NetBackup
8 1 (0.71%) Podman
8 1 (0.71%) Prometheus
8 1 (0.71%) Puppet
8 1 (0.71%) Red Hat Satellite
8 1 (0.71%) WhatsUp Gold
Vendors
1 83 (58.87%) Microsoft
2 36 (25.53%) VMware
3 32 (22.70%) Cisco
4 25 (17.73%) Veeam
5 17 (12.06%) Apple
6 10 (7.09%) Datto
6 10 (7.09%) Oracle
6 10 (7.09%) Sophos
7 9 (6.38%) SAP
8 8 (5.67%) Juniper
9 7 (4.96%) Aruba
10 6 (4.26%) arcserve
10 6 (4.26%) HP
10 6 (4.26%) SolarWinds
11 5 (3.55%) Remedy
11 5 (3.55%) ServiceNow
12 4 (2.84%) Fortinet
12 4 (2.84%) Meraki
13 3 (2.13%) Draytek
13 3 (2.13%) Trend Micro