3rd Line Engineer Job Trends

Third Line Engineer
UK

The median Third Line Engineer salary in the UK is £49,250 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 14 November 2026.

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

6 months to
14 Nov 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 627 522 557
Rank change year-on-year -105 +35 -138
Permanent 3rd Line Engineer jobs 218 142 200
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.18% 0.27% 0.29%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.19% 0.30% 0.31%
Number of salaries quoted 196 137 166
10th Percentile £40,000 £33,750 £34,875
25th Percentile £43,000 £39,250 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £49,250 £47,000 £42,500
Median % change year-on-year +4.79% +10.59% -5.56%
75th Percentile £57,500 £53,250 £52,500
90th Percentile £75,000 £57,500 £55,625
UK excluding London median annual salary £48,500 £47,500 £41,750
% change year-on-year +2.11% +13.77% -5.11%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job adverts matching a recognised job title. The table also shows what proportion of all permanent IT job adverts they make up.

6 months to
14 Nov 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Permanent job adverts in the UK matching a recognised job title 113,211 47,633 64,486
% of permanent job adverts matching a recognised job title 91.78% 89.91% 94.87%
Number of salaries quoted 74,692 29,457 36,303
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,250 £31,250
25th Percentile £41,485 £35,000 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £52,500 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year +14.29% -8.70% -4.17%
75th Percentile £76,500 £73,750 £75,000
90th Percentile £98,750 £92,500 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £46,500 £50,055
% change year-on-year +18.28% -7.10% -4.66%

3rd Line Engineer Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent 3rd Line Engineer job postings 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 3rd Line Engineer jobs over the 6 months to 14 November 2026.

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 3rd Line Engineer jobs within the UK over the 6 months to 14 November 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		 Job Ads
Past 6 Months		 Median Salary
Past 6 Months		 Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year		 Live
Jobs
England -97 208 £50,000 +6.38% 122
UK excluding London -100 196 £48,500 +2.11% 95
South East -48 57 £50,000 +5.26% 39
Work from Home -57 56 £47,500 -5.00% 42
Midlands -44 46 £45,000 -9.53% 20
East of England -54 36 £75,000 +59.57% 8
South West -69 32 £50,000 -4.76% 1
West Midlands -37 26 £45,000 -5.26% 10
London -65 22 £55,000 +29.41% 22
East Midlands -39 20 £48,500 -11.82% 10
North of England -97 15 £45,000 +12.50% 21
Wales -64 10 £45,000 - 5
Yorkshire -28 8 £41,500 -15.74% 4
North West -77 6 £45,000 +25.00% 13
North East - 1 £35,500 - 4

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

For the 6 months to 14 November 2026, 3rd Line Engineer job ads cited 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 3rd Line Engineer job ads.

RankSkillShareJob Ads
1Microsoft52.8%115
2Windows45.0%98
3Active Directory41.7%91
4Microsoft 36541.3%90
5Infrastructure Engineering40.8%89
6Azure40.4%88
7Entra ID39.0%85
8Windows Server32.6%71
9Microsoft Exchange31.2%68
10DNS30.7%67
11DHCP24.3%53
11Firewall24.3%53
13Microsoft Intune23.4%51
14Hyper-V22.9%50
15VMware20.2%44
15VMware Infrastructure20.2%44
17Security Cleared19.7%43
17VPN19.7%43
19SharePoint18.3%40
20Mentoring17.4%38
21Problem-Solving17.0%37
22PowerShell15.6%34
23Root Cause Analysis14.7%32
24VLAN14.2%31
25DV Cleared13.8%30
26Technical Leadership12.4%27
27Cisco11.9%26
27SaaS11.9%26
29TCP/IP11.5%25
30Continuous Improvement11.0%24

3rd Line Engineer Skill Set Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities by Category

The table below expands on the one above by listing co-occurrences one category at a time. It covers the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences in each category.

Job Titles

RankJob TitleShareJob Ads
13rd Line Support Engineer53.7%117
2IT Engineer42.2%92
3IT Support Engineer39.4%86
43rd Line Infrastructure Engineer30.3%66
53rd Line Network Engineer19.7%43
6Network Engineer17.4%38
7Senior Infrastructure Engineer7.8%17
8Senior IT Engineer7.3%16
8Senior IT Support7.3%16
10Senior Network Engineer6.9%15
112nd/3rd Line Support Engineer6.4%14
123rd Line Server Engineer5.5%12
12IT Infrastructure Engineer5.5%12
143rd Line Infrastructure Support5.0%11
14Azure Engineer5.0%11
14Infrastructure Support Engineer5.0%11
14Systems Engineer5.0%11
183rd Line Technical Engineer4.6%10
183rd Line Technical Support4.6%10
18Software Support Engineer4.6%10
132 3rd Line Engineer jobs Nationwide