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 30 November 2025.

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

6 months to
30 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 488 565 420
Rank change year-on-year +77 -145 +266
Permanent jobs requiring a 3rd Line Engineer 144 177 317
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.27% 0.27% 0.62%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.29% 0.29% 0.65%
Number of salaries quoted 137 152 294
10th Percentile £33,750 £35,000 £32,500
25th Percentile £39,250 £36,250 £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 £53,813 £52,500
90th Percentile £57,500 £58,750 £57,208
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 48,825 61,698 48,588
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.25% 94.27% 95.31%
Number of salaries quoted 30,770 34,403 37,837
10th Percentile £28,250 £32,500 £31,250
25th Percentile £35,750 £42,500 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £54,855 £57,500 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.60% -4.17% -
75th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £80,000
90th Percentile £92,500 £95,000 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £47,500 £52,416 £52,500
% change year-on-year -9.38% -0.16% -

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 30 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 30 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 +71 138 £47,000 +10.59% 68
UK excluding London +57 118 £47,500 +11.76% 69
South East +24 37 £47,500 -0.52% 34
Work from Home +78 35 £50,000 +25.00% 25
East of England +48 32 £47,000 +10.59% 10
London +65 24 £42,500 -10.53% 9
South West +38 21 £52,500 +23.53% 7
Midlands +43 16 £52,500 +23.53% 6
East Midlands +32 11 £55,000 +22.22% 2
North of England +30 8 £36,000 - 10
North West +44 5 £32,000 -20.00%
West Midlands +37 5 £42,500 - 4
Wales +12 3 £35,000 - 7
Yorkshire +11 3 £51,000 -7.27% 10
Scotland - 2 £45,000 -

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

For the 6 months to 30 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 (62.50%) Microsoft
2 80 (55.56%) Azure
3 75 (52.08%) Microsoft 365
4 73 (50.69%) Windows
5 66 (45.83%) PowerShell
6 59 (40.97%) Windows Server
7 48 (33.33%) Problem-Solving
8 46 (31.94%) ITIL
9 42 (29.17%) Active Directory
10 39 (27.08%) Microsoft Exchange
10 39 (27.08%) VMware
11 38 (26.39%) Firewall
12 37 (25.69%) Entra ID
12 37 (25.69%) Hyper-V
12 37 (25.69%) Microsoft Intune
13 34 (23.61%) Cisco
14 31 (21.53%) Infrastructure Engineering
14 31 (21.53%) VMware Infrastructure
15 30 (20.83%) Veeam
16 28 (19.44%) Security Cleared
17 23 (15.97%) Customer Service
18 22 (15.28%) DNS
18 22 (15.28%) SharePoint
19 20 (13.89%) ITSM
20 17 (11.81%) Apple
20 17 (11.81%) DHCP
20 17 (11.81%) SC Cleared
21 16 (11.11%) Linux
22 15 (10.42%) Degree
22 15 (10.42%) 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 39 (27.08%) Microsoft Exchange
2 22 (15.28%) SharePoint
3 5 (3.47%) IIS
4 4 (2.78%) Exchange Server 2003
5 1 (0.69%) Confluence
Applications
1 6 (4.17%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.69%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 5 (3.47%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 80 (55.56%) Azure
2 75 (52.08%) Microsoft 365
3 37 (25.69%) Entra ID
4 11 (7.64%) AWS
5 8 (5.56%) Power Platform
6 5 (3.47%) Azure Sentinel
7 3 (2.08%) Cloud Computing
8 2 (1.39%) OneDrive
8 2 (1.39%) PowerApps
9 1 (0.69%) Amazon EC2
9 1 (0.69%) Amazon S3
9 1 (0.69%) AWS Lambda
9 1 (0.69%) Azure App Service
9 1 (0.69%) Dynamics 365
9 1 (0.69%) Mimecast
9 1 (0.69%) SaaS
9 1 (0.69%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 38 (26.39%) Firewall
2 22 (15.28%) DNS
3 17 (11.81%) DHCP
4 13 (9.03%) VLAN
5 12 (8.33%) VPN
5 12 (8.33%) Wireless
6 10 (6.94%) VoIP
7 9 (6.25%) Cisco IOS
7 9 (6.25%) LAN
7 9 (6.25%) WAN
8 7 (4.86%) Wi-Fi
9 6 (4.17%) Internet
9 6 (4.17%) SAN
10 5 (3.47%) IP Telephony
10 5 (3.47%) IPsec
11 4 (2.78%) iSCSI
11 4 (2.78%) SMTP
11 4 (2.78%) TCP/IP
11 4 (2.78%) X.400
11 4 (2.78%) X.500
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (5.56%) SQL Server
2 5 (3.47%) Amazon RDS
2 5 (3.47%) Oracle Database
2 5 (3.47%) Oracle Database 10g
2 5 (3.47%) Power BI
3 3 (2.08%) Data Mining
4 1 (0.69%) Azure SQL Database
Development Applications
1 2 (1.39%) JIRA
General
1 35 (24.31%) Social Skills
2 14 (9.72%) Finance
2 14 (9.72%) Marketing
3 10 (6.94%) Law
3 10 (6.94%) Manufacturing
3 10 (6.94%) Telecoms
4 9 (6.25%) Public Sector
5 8 (5.56%) Electronics
6 7 (4.86%) Automotive
7 4 (2.78%) Advertising
7 4 (2.78%) Retail
8 3 (2.08%) Billing
9 2 (1.39%) Analytical Skills
10 1 (0.69%) Aerospace
10 1 (0.69%) Banking
10 1 (0.69%) Documentation Skills
10 1 (0.69%) Front Office
10 1 (0.69%) Games
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (0.69%) LAMP
Miscellaneous
1 19 (13.19%) Onboarding
2 10 (6.94%) Driving Licence
3 6 (4.17%) Clustering
4 4 (2.78%) Enterprise Software
4 4 (2.78%) Replication
5 3 (2.08%) iPad
5 3 (2.08%) PKI
6 1 (0.69%) BYOD
6 1 (0.69%) FMCG
6 1 (0.69%) Hybrid Cloud
6 1 (0.69%) Legacy Systems
6 1 (0.69%) Management Information System
6 1 (0.69%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 73 (50.69%) Windows
2 59 (40.97%) Windows Server
3 16 (11.11%) Linux
4 14 (9.72%) Windows Server 2019
5 12 (8.33%) Windows 10
6 11 (7.64%) Android
7 7 (4.86%) Apple iOS
7 7 (4.86%) Unix
8 6 (4.17%) Mac OS
9 5 (3.47%) Solaris
9 5 (3.47%) Windows Server 2003
10 4 (2.78%) HPUX
10 4 (2.78%) Windows Server 2016
11 1 (0.69%) CentOS
11 1 (0.69%) Ubuntu
11 1 (0.69%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 48 (33.33%) Problem-Solving
2 46 (31.94%) ITIL
3 31 (21.53%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 23 (15.97%) Customer Service
5 20 (13.89%) ITSM
6 15 (10.42%) Mentoring
6 15 (10.42%) Project Delivery
6 15 (10.42%) Task Automation
7 14 (9.72%) Business Intelligence
7 14 (9.72%) Migration
7 14 (9.72%) Patch Management
7 14 (9.72%) Service Delivery
8 12 (8.33%) Cloud Security
9 11 (7.64%) Disaster Recovery
10 10 (6.94%) Server Management
11 9 (6.25%) Incident Management
11 9 (6.25%) Service Management
12 8 (5.56%) Problem Management
12 8 (5.56%) Programme Management
12 8 (5.56%) Remote Monitoring and Management
Programming Languages
1 66 (45.83%) PowerShell
2 3 (2.08%) Bash
3 2 (1.39%) Python
3 2 (1.39%) SQL
Qualifications
1 28 (19.44%) Security Cleared
2 17 (11.81%) SC Cleared
3 15 (10.42%) Degree
4 14 (9.72%) Cisco Certification
5 13 (9.03%) CCNA
6 12 (8.33%) DV Cleared
7 9 (6.25%) Microsoft Certification
8 6 (4.17%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
8 6 (4.17%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 5 (3.47%) ACMT
9 5 (3.47%) Azure Certification
9 5 (3.47%) DBS Check
9 5 (3.47%) HND
10 3 (2.08%) CCNP
11 2 (1.39%) Computer Science Degree
12 1 (0.69%) AWS Certification
12 1 (0.69%) CompTIA Security+
12 1 (0.69%) HP APS
12 1 (0.69%) MCSE
12 1 (0.69%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (10.42%) SLA
2 11 (7.64%) Cyber Essentials
3 2 (1.39%) GDPR
4 1 (0.69%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 1 (0.69%) HIPAA
4 1 (0.69%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 1 (0.69%) NIST
System Software
1 42 (29.17%) Active Directory
2 37 (25.69%) Hyper-V
3 31 (21.53%) VMware Infrastructure
4 8 (5.56%) vSphere
5 7 (4.86%) Docker
6 5 (3.47%) VMware ESXi
7 4 (2.78%) Virtual Machines
8 2 (1.39%) Firmware
8 2 (1.39%) VMware NSX
9 1 (0.69%) BitLocker
9 1 (0.69%) Dovecot
9 1 (0.69%) Postfix
9 1 (0.69%) Virtual Desktop
9 1 (0.69%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 37 (25.69%) Microsoft Intune
2 12 (8.33%) SCCM
3 10 (6.94%) Backup Exec
4 9 (6.25%) vCenter Server
5 8 (5.56%) Autotask
6 7 (4.86%) Jamf Pro
7 6 (4.17%) FortiGate
7 6 (4.17%) Kubernetes
8 3 (2.08%) SCOM
9 2 (1.39%) SCSM
10 1 (0.69%) Ansible
10 1 (0.69%) Avamar
10 1 (0.69%) Grafana
10 1 (0.69%) Microsoft Clustering
10 1 (0.69%) NetBackup
10 1 (0.69%) Podman
10 1 (0.69%) Prometheus
10 1 (0.69%) Puppet
10 1 (0.69%) Red Hat Satellite
10 1 (0.69%) WhatsUp Gold
Vendors
1 90 (62.50%) Microsoft
2 39 (27.08%) VMware
3 34 (23.61%) Cisco
4 30 (20.83%) Veeam
5 17 (11.81%) Apple
6 12 (8.33%) Datto
7 11 (7.64%) Sophos
8 10 (6.94%) Oracle
9 9 (6.25%) SAP
10 8 (5.56%) Aruba
10 8 (5.56%) Juniper
11 7 (4.86%) HP
12 6 (4.17%) arcserve
13 5 (3.47%) Remedy
13 5 (3.47%) ServiceNow
13 5 (3.47%) SolarWinds
14 4 (2.78%) Fortinet
14 4 (2.78%) Meraki
15 3 (2.08%) Draytek
15 3 (2.08%) Trend Micro