3rd Line Support Job Trends

Third Line Support
UK

The median Third Line Support salary in the UK is £45,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 18 August 2026.

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

6 months to
18 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 573 432 527
Rank change year-on-year -141 +95 +69
Permanent jobs requiring a 3rd Line Support 216 272 283
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.20% 0.54% 0.34%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.21% 0.61% 0.36%
Number of salaries quoted 190 262 252
10th Percentile £32,150 £35,000 £31,250
25th Percentile £37,500 £37,125 £34,375
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £42,500 £40,000
Median % change year-on-year +5.88% +6.25% -2.44%
75th Percentile £53,750 £48,750 £47,500
90th Percentile £58,750 £57,250 £53,625
UK excluding London median annual salary £44,000 £42,500 £40,000
% change year-on-year +3.53% +6.25% +1.27%

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 100,980 44,926 78,729
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.00% 89.92% 95.05%
Number of salaries quoted 69,058 26,577 52,385
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,250 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £36,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £56,950 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +3.55% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £75,000 £75,000 £72,250
90th Percentile £96,250 £95,000 £91,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £48,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +9.38% -4.00% -6.54%

3rd Line Support
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings featuring '3rd Line Support' in the job title relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised.

3rd Line Support job vacancy trend in the UK

3rd Line Support
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for 3rd Line Support job vacancies in the UK.

Salary distribution trend for 3rd Line Support job vacancies in the UK

3rd Line Support
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing 3rd Line Support over the 6 months to 18 August 2026.

Salary histogram for 3rd Line Support in the UK

3rd Line Support
Top 16 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing 3rd Line Support within the UK over the 6 months to 18 August 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
UK excluding London -122 184 £44,000 +3.53% 15
England -151 180 £45,000 +5.88% 13
Work from Home -53 57 £47,500 +11.76% 3
South East -46 54 £52,500 +26.51% 6
North of England -30 39 £40,000 -5.88% 1
London -57 30 £55,000 +10.00% 1
Midlands -56 26 £41,000 +6.49% 4
South West -78 21 £45,000 +5.88%
Wales - 19 £45,000 -
North West 0 18 £31,500 -21.25%
East Midlands -25 16 £39,250 +1.95% 1
Scotland +8 15 £35,000 - 3
North East -49 12 £40,000 - 1
West Midlands -45 10 £44,500 +18.67% 3
East of England -46 10 £37,500 -21.05% 3
Yorkshire -34 9 £45,000 -5.26%

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

For the 6 months to 18 August 2026, 3rd Line Support 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 Support in the job title.

1 130 (60.19%) Microsoft
2 110 (50.93%) Microsoft 365
3 99 (45.83%) Azure
4 97 (44.91%) Active Directory
5 91 (42.13%) Windows
6 78 (36.11%) Entra ID
7 73 (33.80%) Microsoft Exchange
8 68 (31.48%) Firewall
9 64 (29.63%) SharePoint
10 57 (26.39%) Microsoft Intune
11 49 (22.69%) Windows Server
12 45 (20.83%) SaaS
13 41 (18.98%) Mentoring
14 38 (17.59%) VMware
14 38 (17.59%) VMware Infrastructure
15 36 (16.67%) VLAN
16 35 (16.20%) Hyper-V
16 35 (16.20%) Problem-Solving
17 33 (15.28%) DNS
17 33 (15.28%) Technical Leadership
18 31 (14.35%) Cisco
18 31 (14.35%) Infrastructure Engineering
19 30 (13.89%) DHCP
20 29 (13.43%) SQL
21 28 (12.96%) VPN
22 27 (12.50%) Degree
22 27 (12.50%) ITIL
23 26 (12.04%) Change Management
23 26 (12.04%) Identity Management
23 26 (12.04%) Project Delivery

3rd Line Support 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 73 (33.80%) Microsoft Exchange
2 64 (29.63%) SharePoint
3 4 (1.85%) Exchange Server 2007
3 4 (1.85%) Exchange Server 2010
3 4 (1.85%) Exchange Server 2013
4 1 (0.46%) Confluence
Applications
1 4 (1.85%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 7 (3.24%) Unit4 Business World
2 3 (1.39%) Fidessa
2 3 (1.39%) Remedy ITSM
3 2 (0.93%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 110 (50.93%) Microsoft 365
2 99 (45.83%) Azure
3 78 (36.11%) Entra ID
4 45 (20.83%) SaaS
5 19 (8.80%) Mimecast
6 11 (5.09%) Google Workspace
7 9 (4.17%) OneDrive
8 7 (3.24%) AWS
8 7 (3.24%) Boomi
8 7 (3.24%) iPaaS
8 7 (3.24%) Workato
9 4 (1.85%) Power Automate
10 3 (1.39%) IaaS
10 3 (1.39%) Power Platform
11 2 (0.93%) Azure Stack
12 1 (0.46%) Google Docs
12 1 (0.46%) PaaS
12 1 (0.46%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 68 (31.48%) Firewall
2 36 (16.67%) VLAN
3 33 (15.28%) DNS
4 30 (13.89%) DHCP
5 28 (12.96%) VPN
6 21 (9.72%) Wireless
7 20 (9.26%) TCP/IP
8 15 (6.94%) LAN
9 14 (6.48%) WAN
10 13 (6.02%) Wi-Fi
11 12 (5.56%) VoIP
12 8 (3.70%) Network Security
13 7 (3.24%) SD-WAN
14 4 (1.85%) DMZ
14 4 (1.85%) SAN
14 4 (1.85%) Wireshark
15 3 (1.39%) FIX Connectivity
15 3 (1.39%) ICMP
15 3 (1.39%) PBX
15 3 (1.39%) Remote Desktop
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (4.63%) SQL Server
2 2 (0.93%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 24 (11.11%) JIRA
2 1 (0.46%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 72 (33.33%) Social Skills
2 22 (10.19%) Legal
3 14 (6.48%) Finance
4 12 (5.56%) Analytical Skills
5 9 (4.17%) Public Sector
6 8 (3.70%) Documentation Skills
7 6 (2.78%) Telecoms
8 5 (2.31%) Manufacturing
9 4 (1.85%) Organisational Skills
10 3 (1.39%) Banking
11 2 (0.93%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 1 (0.46%) Law
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (4.63%) .NET
1 10 (4.63%) Web Services
2 3 (1.39%) FIX Protocol
Miscellaneous
1 19 (8.80%) Driving Licence
2 14 (6.48%) Self-Motivation
3 12 (5.56%) Onboarding
4 10 (4.63%) Video Conferencing
5 7 (3.24%) Enterprise Software
6 4 (1.85%) Cyber Threat
7 3 (1.39%) Eurex
8 2 (0.93%) Management Information System
8 2 (0.93%) Replication
9 1 (0.46%) Clustering
9 1 (0.46%) Data Centre
9 1 (0.46%) Enterprise Cloud
9 1 (0.46%) Hybrid Cloud
9 1 (0.46%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 91 (42.13%) Windows
2 49 (22.69%) Windows Server
3 22 (10.19%) Mac OS
4 21 (9.72%) Linux
5 15 (6.94%) Windows Server 2016
6 14 (6.48%) Windows Server 2012
7 9 (4.17%) Windows Server 2019
8 5 (2.31%) Windows 10
9 4 (1.85%) Windows Server 2008
10 3 (1.39%) Apple iOS
10 3 (1.39%) CentOS
10 3 (1.39%) Rocky
10 3 (1.39%) Solaris
10 3 (1.39%) Ubuntu
10 3 (1.39%) Unix
10 3 (1.39%) VMS
11 2 (0.93%) Android
12 1 (0.46%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 41 (18.98%) Mentoring
2 35 (16.20%) Problem-Solving
3 33 (15.28%) Technical Leadership
4 31 (14.35%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 27 (12.50%) ITIL
6 26 (12.04%) Change Management
6 26 (12.04%) Identity Management
6 26 (12.04%) Project Delivery
7 25 (11.57%) Incident Management
7 25 (11.57%) Workflow
8 22 (10.19%) Disaster Recovery
8 22 (10.19%) Root Cause Analysis
9 21 (9.72%) Continuous Improvement
9 21 (9.72%) Cybersecurity
10 18 (8.33%) Customer Service
11 17 (7.87%) Remote Monitoring and Management
12 16 (7.41%) ITSM
13 14 (6.48%) Business Continuity
13 14 (6.48%) ERP
13 14 (6.48%) Kalman Filter
Programming Languages
1 29 (13.43%) SQL
2 23 (10.65%) PowerShell
3 18 (8.33%) R
4 10 (4.63%) C#
5 7 (3.24%) T-SQL
6 6 (2.78%) Python
7 5 (2.31%) Bash
8 4 (1.85%) COBOL
8 4 (1.85%) Java
9 3 (1.39%) JavaScript
9 3 (1.39%) Perl
9 3 (1.39%) Ruby
10 1 (0.46%) Google Apps Script
Qualifications
1 27 (12.50%) Degree
2 22 (10.19%) Microsoft Certification
3 20 (9.26%) CCNA
3 20 (9.26%) Cisco Certification
4 19 (8.80%) Security Cleared
5 18 (8.33%) SC Cleared
6 16 (7.41%) Azure Certification
7 7 (3.24%) MCSA
8 4 (1.85%) AWS Certification
8 4 (1.85%) Microsoft Certified Professional
9 3 (1.39%) CCNP
10 2 (0.93%) Computer Science Degree
11 1 (0.46%) DV Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 22 (10.19%) Cyber Essentials
2 21 (9.72%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 3 (1.39%) GDPR
3 3 (1.39%) SLA
4 2 (0.93%) PCI DSS
5 1 (0.46%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
System Software
1 97 (44.91%) Active Directory
2 38 (17.59%) VMware Infrastructure
3 35 (16.20%) Hyper-V
4 10 (4.63%) Virtual Desktop
5 7 (3.24%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (1.39%) Firmware
7 1 (0.46%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 57 (26.39%) Microsoft Intune
2 14 (6.48%) Autotask
2 14 (6.48%) Jamf Pro
3 9 (4.17%) Proxmox
3 9 (4.17%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
4 4 (1.85%) Iperf
5 2 (0.93%) MaaS360
5 2 (0.93%) Single Sign-On
6 1 (0.46%) FortiGate
6 1 (0.46%) Terraform
6 1 (0.46%) WSUS
Vendors
1 130 (60.19%) Microsoft
2 38 (17.59%) VMware
3 31 (14.35%) Cisco
4 18 (8.33%) CrowdStrike
4 18 (8.33%) SonicWALL
5 14 (6.48%) HP
6 13 (6.02%) Fortinet
6 13 (6.02%) Meraki
7 11 (5.09%) Google
8 10 (4.63%) Aruba
8 10 (4.63%) Datto
8 10 (4.63%) Ubiquiti
9 8 (3.70%) Veeam
10 6 (2.78%) Sophos
11 5 (2.31%) Apple
11 5 (2.31%) Palo Alto
11 5 (2.31%) ServiceNow
12 4 (1.85%) ConnectWise
12 4 (1.85%) Ruckus Wireless
12 4 (1.85%) Yealink