3rd Line Engineer Job Trends

Third Line Engineer
UK

The median Third Line Engineer salary in the UK is £50,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 4 July 2026.

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

6 months to
4 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 529 506 507
Rank change year-on-year -23 +1 +60
Permanent jobs requiring a 3rd Line Engineer 238 170 438
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.25% 0.36% 0.42%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.26% 0.40% 0.44%
Number of salaries quoted 224 154 378
10th Percentile £40,000 £35,000 £31,250
25th Percentile £45,000 £41,250 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £47,500 £42,000
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% +13.10% -11.58%
75th Percentile £58,750 £53,750 £50,000
90th Percentile £62,500 £67,500 £53,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £47,500 £41,250
% change year-on-year +5.26% +15.15% -10.33%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
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 91,032 42,825 99,548
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.14% 89.92% 94.74%
Number of salaries quoted 62,489 24,971 71,621
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,750 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £38,500 £38,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £56,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -1.79% +6.67% -12.50%
75th Percentile £75,000 £76,250 £70,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £97,500 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £51,772 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +3.54% - -5.76%

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 4 July 2026.

Salary histogram for 3rd Line Engineer in the UK

3rd Line Engineer
Top 13 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 4 July 2026. 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 +1 214 £52,500 +10.53% 33
UK excluding London -13 196 £50,000 +5.26% 39
South East +19 84 £52,500 +1.94% 13
Work from Home -15 59 £55,000 +10.00% 15
London -14 42 £55,000 -2.22% 2
Yorkshire -7 27 £47,500 +35.71% 3
North of England -30 27 £47,500 +18.75% 4
Midlands -39 26 £49,000 -2.00% 13
Wales - 24 £45,000 -
East of England -24 21 £49,000 +3.16% 1
East Midlands -25 16 £60,000 +17.07% 7
South West -62 14 £50,000 +14.29% 1
West Midlands -32 10 £45,000 -10.00% 6

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

For the 6 months to 4 July 2026, 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.

1 112 (47.06%) Microsoft
2 110 (46.22%) Azure
3 98 (41.18%) Microsoft 365
4 85 (35.71%) Windows
5 81 (34.03%) Active Directory
6 67 (28.15%) Microsoft Exchange
7 63 (26.47%) Entra ID
8 56 (23.53%) DNS
8 56 (23.53%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 55 (23.11%) SharePoint
10 51 (21.43%) Firewall
10 51 (21.43%) VMware
11 50 (21.01%) Root Cause Analysis
12 48 (20.17%) Windows Server
13 47 (19.75%) Microsoft Intune
14 45 (18.91%) PowerShell
15 44 (18.49%) SaaS
16 43 (18.07%) VMware Infrastructure
17 40 (16.81%) Hyper-V
17 40 (16.81%) Security Cleared
18 38 (15.97%) Technical Leadership
19 35 (14.71%) Azure Certification
20 33 (13.87%) SC Cleared
21 31 (13.03%) Mac OS
22 30 (12.61%) High Availability
22 30 (12.61%) IaaS
23 29 (12.18%) Change Management
24 28 (11.76%) Agile
24 28 (11.76%) Azure AKS
24 28 (11.76%) Azure ExpressRoute

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 67 (28.15%) Microsoft Exchange
2 55 (23.11%) SharePoint
3 4 (1.68%) Exchange Server 2007
3 4 (1.68%) Exchange Server 2010
3 4 (1.68%) Exchange Server 2013
Applications
1 5 (2.10%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (1.26%) SPSS
Business Applications
1 3 (1.26%) Oracle EBS
1 3 (1.26%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.42%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 110 (46.22%) Azure
2 98 (41.18%) Microsoft 365
3 63 (26.47%) Entra ID
4 44 (18.49%) SaaS
5 30 (12.61%) IaaS
6 28 (11.76%) Azure AKS
6 28 (11.76%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 28 (11.76%) Azure Key Vault
6 28 (11.76%) Azure Storage
7 24 (10.08%) Mimecast
8 11 (4.62%) Google Workspace
9 7 (2.94%) OneDrive
10 5 (2.10%) AWS
11 3 (1.26%) Power Platform
12 2 (0.84%) Power Automate
13 1 (0.42%) GCP
13 1 (0.42%) Google Docs
13 1 (0.42%) PaaS
13 1 (0.42%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 56 (23.53%) DNS
2 51 (21.43%) Firewall
3 22 (9.24%) VPN
4 21 (8.82%) DHCP
5 19 (7.98%) VLAN
6 14 (5.88%) Wi-Fi
7 12 (5.04%) TCP/IP
7 12 (5.04%) Wireless
8 11 (4.62%) SAN
9 9 (3.78%) LAN
10 8 (3.36%) WAN
11 5 (2.10%) Network Security
12 3 (1.26%) DMZ
12 3 (1.26%) Wireshark
13 2 (0.84%) BGP
14 1 (0.42%) Ethernet
14 1 (0.42%) Internet
14 1 (0.42%) IPsec
14 1 (0.42%) OSPF
14 1 (0.42%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (4.62%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 20 (8.40%) JIRA
2 1 (0.42%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 43 (18.07%) Social Skills
2 30 (12.61%) Law
3 20 (8.40%) Legal
4 16 (6.72%) Public Sector
5 6 (2.52%) Analytical Skills
6 5 (2.10%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 5 (2.10%) Organisational Skills
7 2 (0.84%) Documentation Skills
7 2 (0.84%) Finance
7 2 (0.84%) Telecoms
8 1 (0.42%) Banking
8 1 (0.42%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (2.52%) .NET
2 3 (1.26%) 802.1X
2 3 (1.26%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 12 (5.04%) Driving Licence
2 10 (4.20%) Video Conferencing
3 8 (3.36%) PKI
4 7 (2.94%) Enterprise Software
5 5 (2.10%) Onboarding
6 4 (1.68%) Clustering
6 4 (1.68%) Self-Motivation
7 3 (1.26%) CMDB
7 3 (1.26%) Cyber Threat
7 3 (1.26%) Hybrid Cloud
8 2 (0.84%) Data Centre
8 2 (0.84%) Security Posture
9 1 (0.42%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
9 1 (0.42%) Life Science
Operating Systems
1 85 (35.71%) Windows
2 48 (20.17%) Windows Server
3 31 (13.03%) Mac OS
4 25 (10.50%) Linux
5 14 (5.88%) Windows Server 2016
6 12 (5.04%) Windows Server 2012
7 9 (3.78%) Windows Server 2019
8 7 (2.94%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 5 (2.10%) Apple iOS
9 5 (2.10%) Windows 10
10 4 (1.68%) Windows Server 2008
11 1 (0.42%) Android
Processes & Methodologies
1 56 (23.53%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 50 (21.01%) Root Cause Analysis
3 38 (15.97%) Technical Leadership
4 30 (12.61%) High Availability
5 29 (12.18%) Change Management
6 28 (11.76%) Agile
6 28 (11.76%) Containerisation
6 28 (11.76%) ITIL
6 28 (11.76%) Load Balancing
7 26 (10.92%) Incident Management
7 26 (10.92%) Mentoring
8 24 (10.08%) Problem-Solving
9 22 (9.24%) Project Delivery
10 20 (8.40%) Identity Management
10 20 (8.40%) Workflow
11 17 (7.14%) Problem Management
12 16 (6.72%) Kalman Filter
12 16 (6.72%) Web Filtering
13 15 (6.30%) Continuous Improvement
13 15 (6.30%) Customer Service
Programming Languages
1 45 (18.91%) PowerShell
2 23 (9.66%) SQL
3 19 (7.98%) R
4 7 (2.94%) Bash
4 7 (2.94%) T-SQL
5 6 (2.52%) C#
6 5 (2.10%) Python
7 3 (1.26%) Shell Script
8 2 (0.84%) Bicep
9 1 (0.42%) Google Apps Script
Qualifications
1 40 (16.81%) Security Cleared
2 35 (14.71%) Azure Certification
3 33 (13.87%) SC Cleared
4 9 (3.78%) CCNA
4 9 (3.78%) Cisco Certification
5 8 (3.36%) DV Cleared
5 8 (3.36%) Microsoft Certification
6 6 (2.52%) Degree
7 5 (2.10%) DBS Check
8 3 (1.26%) AWS Certification
8 3 (1.26%) MCSA
8 3 (1.26%) Microsoft Certified Professional
9 2 (0.84%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 22 (9.24%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 7 (2.94%) Cyber Essentials
3 3 (1.26%) SLA
4 2 (0.84%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 81 (34.03%) Active Directory
2 43 (18.07%) VMware Infrastructure
3 40 (16.81%) Hyper-V
4 14 (5.88%) Virtual Desktop
5 9 (3.78%) vSphere
6 3 (1.26%) Docker
6 3 (1.26%) Microsoft Virtual Server
6 3 (1.26%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (1.26%) Virtual Servers
7 2 (0.84%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.42%) Firmware
8 1 (0.42%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 47 (19.75%) Microsoft Intune
2 28 (11.76%) Kubernetes
3 16 (6.72%) Jamf Pro
4 14 (5.88%) Autotask
4 14 (5.88%) Proxmox
4 14 (5.88%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
5 7 (2.94%) WSUS
6 3 (1.26%) Failover Clustering
6 3 (1.26%) Iperf
6 3 (1.26%) Microsoft Clustering
6 3 (1.26%) Terraform
6 3 (1.26%) vCenter Server
7 1 (0.42%) Ansible
7 1 (0.42%) FortiGate
7 1 (0.42%) SCCM
7 1 (0.42%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 112 (47.06%) Microsoft
2 51 (21.43%) VMware
3 27 (11.34%) Cisco
4 19 (7.98%) CrowdStrike
5 15 (6.30%) Fortinet
5 15 (6.30%) HP
6 14 (5.88%) SonicWALL
7 13 (5.46%) Veeam
8 12 (5.04%) Google
9 11 (4.62%) Datto
9 11 (4.62%) Meraki
10 10 (4.20%) Aruba
10 10 (4.20%) Ubiquiti
11 7 (2.94%) McAfee
12 5 (2.10%) Apple
12 5 (2.10%) ConnectWise
13 4 (1.68%) Dell
13 4 (1.68%) ServiceNow
14 3 (1.26%) Palo Alto
14 3 (1.26%) Ruckus Wireless