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 26 December 2025.

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

6 months to
26 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 498 550 406
Rank change year-on-year +52 -144 +231
Permanent jobs requiring a 3rd Line Engineer 156 153 330
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.26% 0.27% 0.64%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.29% 0.29% 0.68%
Number of salaries quoted 145 134 307
10th Percentile £36,250 £35,500 £31,900
25th Percentile £41,250 £37,125 £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 £58,925 £57,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £47,000 £45,000 £42,500
% change year-on-year +4.44% +5.88% -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 54,223 52,219 48,884
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.45% 93.42% 95.22%
Number of salaries quoted 33,503 27,758 37,761
10th Percentile £28,500 £33,000 £31,250
25th Percentile £36,250 £44,174 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -
75th Percentile £75,000 £78,000 £78,656
90th Percentile £93,750 £97,500 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,500 £50,918
% change year-on-year -4.76% +3.11% -3.01%

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 26 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 26 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 +76 151 £47,000 +4.44% 65
UK excluding London +59 131 £47,000 +4.44% 69
South East +13 43 £47,500 -6.40% 21
Work from Home +54 31 £50,000 +17.65% 24
East of England +32 26 £46,000 +8.24% 7
London +58 25 £43,750 -7.89% 10
South West +26 24 £47,500 +11.76% 5
North of England +25 19 £43,750 +13.64% 21
Yorkshire +2 18 £45,000 -18.18% 17
Midlands +19 15 £55,000 +10.00% 6
East Midlands +1 10 £55,000 +18.92% 3
West Midlands +20 5 £47,000 -6.00% 3
Wales - 4 £40,000 - 9
North West +22 1 £32,000 -20.00% 3
Scotland - 1 £55,000 - 1

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

For the 6 months to 26 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 79 (50.64%) Microsoft
2 70 (44.87%) Azure
3 65 (41.67%) Windows
4 63 (40.38%) Microsoft 365
5 53 (33.97%) PowerShell
6 50 (32.05%) Windows Server
7 49 (31.41%) Problem-Solving
8 48 (30.77%) Active Directory
9 42 (26.92%) VMware
10 40 (25.64%) ITIL
11 37 (23.72%) Firewall
12 36 (23.08%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 36 (23.08%) Microsoft Intune
12 36 (23.08%) Security Cleared
13 34 (21.79%) Entra ID
14 32 (20.51%) Microsoft Exchange
15 29 (18.59%) Customer Service
16 28 (17.95%) Cisco
16 28 (17.95%) Hyper-V
16 28 (17.95%) VMware Infrastructure
17 25 (16.03%) SC Cleared
17 25 (16.03%) Veeam
18 23 (14.74%) ITSM
19 18 (11.54%) DNS
19 18 (11.54%) Linux
20 17 (10.90%) Apple
20 17 (10.90%) DV Cleared
20 17 (10.90%) SharePoint
21 16 (10.26%) DHCP
21 16 (10.26%) Mentoring

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 32 (20.51%) Microsoft Exchange
2 17 (10.90%) SharePoint
3 5 (3.21%) IIS
4 4 (2.56%) Exchange Server 2003
5 1 (0.64%) Confluence
Applications
1 5 (3.21%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 5 (3.21%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.64%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 70 (44.87%) Azure
2 63 (40.38%) Microsoft 365
3 34 (21.79%) Entra ID
4 11 (7.05%) AWS
5 7 (4.49%) Power Platform
6 2 (1.28%) Amazon S3
6 2 (1.28%) Azure Sentinel
7 1 (0.64%) Amazon EC2
7 1 (0.64%) AWS Lambda
7 1 (0.64%) Azure App Service
7 1 (0.64%) Cloud Computing
7 1 (0.64%) Dynamics 365
7 1 (0.64%) Google Workspace
7 1 (0.64%) IaaS
7 1 (0.64%) Mimecast
7 1 (0.64%) OneDrive
7 1 (0.64%) PowerApps
7 1 (0.64%) SaaS
7 1 (0.64%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 37 (23.72%) Firewall
2 18 (11.54%) DNS
3 16 (10.26%) DHCP
4 14 (8.97%) VPN
5 13 (8.33%) Wireless
6 11 (7.05%) VLAN
7 9 (5.77%) Cisco IOS
7 9 (5.77%) VoIP
8 8 (5.13%) LAN
8 8 (5.13%) WAN
8 8 (5.13%) Wi-Fi
9 5 (3.21%) IP Telephony
9 5 (3.21%) IPsec
10 4 (2.56%) SMTP
10 4 (2.56%) X.400
10 4 (2.56%) X.500
11 3 (1.92%) Ethernet
11 3 (1.92%) Internet
11 3 (1.92%) SAN
11 3 (1.92%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (5.13%) SQL Server
2 6 (3.85%) Amazon RDS
3 5 (3.21%) Oracle Database
3 5 (3.21%) Oracle Database 10g
3 5 (3.21%) Power BI
4 3 (1.92%) Data Mining
5 1 (0.64%) Azure SQL Database
Development Applications
1 2 (1.28%) JIRA
General
1 36 (23.08%) Social Skills
2 13 (8.33%) Finance
2 13 (8.33%) Marketing
3 10 (6.41%) Law
3 10 (6.41%) Manufacturing
4 9 (5.77%) Telecoms
5 8 (5.13%) Public Sector
6 7 (4.49%) Automotive
6 7 (4.49%) Electronics
7 5 (3.21%) Advertising
7 5 (3.21%) Retail
8 2 (1.28%) Analytical Skills
9 1 (0.64%) Aerospace
9 1 (0.64%) Banking
9 1 (0.64%) Documentation Skills
9 1 (0.64%) Front Office
9 1 (0.64%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 1 (0.64%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (0.64%) LAMP
Miscellaneous
1 20 (12.82%) Onboarding
2 7 (4.49%) Driving Licence
3 6 (3.85%) Clustering
4 5 (3.21%) Replication
5 4 (2.56%) Enterprise Software
6 3 (1.92%) iPad
6 3 (1.92%) PKI
7 1 (0.64%) BYOD
7 1 (0.64%) FMCG
7 1 (0.64%) Hybrid Cloud
7 1 (0.64%) Legacy Systems
7 1 (0.64%) Management Information System
7 1 (0.64%) NHS
7 1 (0.64%) YubiKey
Operating Systems
1 65 (41.67%) Windows
2 50 (32.05%) Windows Server
3 18 (11.54%) Linux
4 12 (7.69%) Windows 10
5 11 (7.05%) Android
6 7 (4.49%) Apple iOS
6 7 (4.49%) Unix
7 6 (3.85%) Mac OS
7 6 (3.85%) Windows Server 2016
7 6 (3.85%) Windows Server 2019
8 5 (3.21%) Solaris
8 5 (3.21%) Windows Server 2003
9 4 (2.56%) HPUX
10 3 (1.92%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 49 (31.41%) Problem-Solving
2 40 (25.64%) ITIL
3 36 (23.08%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 29 (18.59%) Customer Service
5 23 (14.74%) ITSM
6 16 (10.26%) Mentoring
6 16 (10.26%) Project Delivery
7 15 (9.62%) Service Delivery
8 13 (8.33%) Business Intelligence
8 13 (8.33%) Disaster Recovery
9 12 (7.69%) Service Management
10 10 (6.41%) Incident Management
10 10 (6.41%) Server Management
11 9 (5.77%) Cybersecurity
11 9 (5.77%) Logistics
12 8 (5.13%) Cloud Security
12 8 (5.13%) Migration
12 8 (5.13%) Problem Management
12 8 (5.13%) Root Cause Analysis
12 8 (5.13%) Service Desk Management
Programming Languages
1 53 (33.97%) PowerShell
2 10 (6.41%) SQL
3 5 (3.21%) Bash
3 5 (3.21%) Python
Qualifications
1 36 (23.08%) Security Cleared
2 25 (16.03%) SC Cleared
3 17 (10.90%) DV Cleared
4 14 (8.97%) Degree
5 12 (7.69%) Cisco Certification
6 10 (6.41%) CCNA
7 9 (5.77%) Microsoft Certification
8 8 (5.13%) DBS Check
9 6 (3.85%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
9 6 (3.85%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 5 (3.21%) ACMT
10 5 (3.21%) HND
11 4 (2.56%) CCNP
12 3 (1.92%) RHCE
13 2 (1.28%) Azure Certification
13 2 (1.28%) Computer Science Degree
14 1 (0.64%) CompTIA Security+
14 1 (0.64%) HP APS
14 1 (0.64%) ITIL Certification
14 1 (0.64%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (9.62%) SLA
2 9 (5.77%) Cyber Essentials
3 2 (1.28%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 2 (1.28%) NIST
4 1 (0.64%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 1 (0.64%) GDPR
System Software
1 48 (30.77%) Active Directory
2 28 (17.95%) Hyper-V
2 28 (17.95%) VMware Infrastructure
3 9 (5.77%) vSphere
4 6 (3.85%) Docker
4 6 (3.85%) VMware ESXi
5 4 (2.56%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (1.92%) Firmware
7 2 (1.28%) Lustre
7 2 (1.28%) Slurm Workload Manager
7 2 (1.28%) Virtual Desktop
7 2 (1.28%) VMware NSX
8 1 (0.64%) BitLocker
8 1 (0.64%) VMware Workstation
8 1 (0.64%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 36 (23.08%) Microsoft Intune
2 13 (8.33%) SCCM
2 13 (8.33%) vCenter Server
3 7 (4.49%) FortiGate
3 7 (4.49%) Jamf Pro
3 7 (4.49%) SCOM
4 5 (3.21%) Autotask
4 5 (3.21%) Kubernetes
5 4 (2.56%) Ansible
6 2 (1.28%) Backup Exec
6 2 (1.28%) SCSM
7 1 (0.64%) Avamar
7 1 (0.64%) Microsoft Clustering
7 1 (0.64%) NetBackup
7 1 (0.64%) Podman
7 1 (0.64%) Puppet
7 1 (0.64%) Red Hat Satellite
7 1 (0.64%) WhatsUp Gold
7 1 (0.64%) WSUS
Vendors
1 79 (50.64%) Microsoft
2 42 (26.92%) VMware
3 28 (17.95%) Cisco
4 25 (16.03%) Veeam
5 17 (10.90%) Apple
6 10 (6.41%) Oracle
6 10 (6.41%) Sophos
7 8 (5.13%) SAP
8 7 (4.49%) Datto
8 7 (4.49%) Juniper
8 7 (4.49%) SolarWinds
9 6 (3.85%) arcserve
9 6 (3.85%) Fortinet
10 5 (3.21%) Remedy
10 5 (3.21%) ServiceNow
11 4 (2.56%) Aruba
11 4 (2.56%) Draytek
11 4 (2.56%) McAfee
11 4 (2.56%) Red Hat
12 3 (1.92%) NetApp