3rd Line Support Jobs

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 13 June 2025.

The table below provides salary benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
13 Jun 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 533 507 697
Rank change year-on-year -26 +190 +161
Permanent jobs requiring a 3rd Line Support 184 455 227
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 0.33% 0.41% 0.25%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.37% 0.44% 0.27%
Number of salaries quoted 180 412 212
10th Percentile £36,250 £31,250 £32,500
25th Percentile £37,500 £34,000 £35,719
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £40,000 £40,942
Median % change year-on-year +12.50% -2.30% -2.52%
75th Percentile £52,500 £45,000 £51,438
90th Percentile £67,500 £52,500 £58,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £42,500 £39,000 £40,000
% change year-on-year +8.97% -2.50% -

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 50,341 104,123 84,329
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 89.94% 94.77% 91.19%
Number of salaries quoted 26,498 73,470 54,978
10th Percentile £27,750 £28,500 £32,500
25th Percentile £39,850 £38,603 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £52,500 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.76% -12.50% -
75th Percentile £73,750 £70,000 £80,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £90,000 £100,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,055 £50,000 £53,500
% change year-on-year +0.11% -6.54% +6.37%

3rd Line Support
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings that featured 3rd Line Support in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for 3rd Line Support in the UK

3rd Line Support
Salary Trend

3-month moving average salary quoted in jobs citing 3rd Line Support.

Salary trend for 3rd Line Support in the UK

3rd Line Support
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing 3rd Line Support over the 6 months to 13 June 2025.

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 13 June 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 -30 181 £45,000 +12.50% 101
UK excluding London -26 149 £42,500 +8.97% 101
Work from Home +39 72 £44,750 +19.33% 51
Midlands +65 52 £48,750 +21.88% 15
South East -27 38 £42,500 +13.33% 29
London +97 34 £52,000 - 24
West Midlands +43 29 £37,500 - 3
East Midlands +54 23 £50,000 +8.11% 12
North of England +17 21 £42,500 +18.06% 21
East of England +34 19 £45,000 +9.09% 7
South West +89 16 £40,000 -8.57% 13
North West +24 14 £42,500 +21.43% 13
Yorkshire +37 6 £45,000 +12.50% 8
Northern Ireland - 2 £52,500 -
Scotland +90 1 £35,000 -12.50% 5
North East +23 1 £40,000 +23.08%

3rd Line Support Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 13 June 2025, 3rd Line Support job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all permanent job ads featuring 3rd Line Support in the job title.

1 123 (66.85%) Windows
2 119 (64.67%) Azure
3 117 (63.59%) Microsoft
4 108 (58.70%) Microsoft 365
5 100 (54.35%) Active Directory
6 89 (48.37%) Windows Server
6 89 (48.37%) Firewall
7 72 (39.13%) Microsoft Exchange
8 68 (36.96%) Social Skills
9 59 (32.07%) Microsoft Intune
10 56 (30.43%) ITIL
11 55 (29.89%) VMware
11 55 (29.89%) PowerShell
12 50 (27.17%) DNS
13 49 (26.63%) Cisco
13 49 (26.63%) Problem-Solving
14 46 (25.00%) WAN
15 45 (24.46%) VMware Infrastructure
16 42 (22.83%) Hyper-V
17 41 (22.28%) LAN
17 41 (22.28%) DHCP
18 34 (18.48%) VLAN
19 33 (17.93%) Meraki
20 30 (16.30%) Windows Server 2019
21 28 (15.22%) AWS
21 28 (15.22%) SQL
21 28 (15.22%) Citrix
22 27 (14.67%) SharePoint
23 25 (13.59%) Windows Server 2016
24 24 (13.04%) VoIP

3rd Line Support Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 72 (39.13%) Microsoft Exchange
2 27 (14.67%) SharePoint
3 17 (9.24%) IIS
4 8 (4.35%) Exchange Server 2013
5 1 (0.54%) Office Communications Server
5 1 (0.54%) SharePoint 2010
5 1 (0.54%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 13 (7.07%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 3 (1.63%) Elite 3E
Cloud Services
1 119 (64.67%) Azure
2 108 (58.70%) Microsoft 365
3 28 (15.22%) AWS
4 18 (9.78%) Entra ID
5 11 (5.98%) OneDrive
6 10 (5.43%) Azure Storage
7 9 (4.89%) Azure DevOps
7 9 (4.89%) Azure Monitor
7 9 (4.89%) GCP
8 4 (2.17%) Azure App Service
8 4 (2.17%) Azure Table
9 2 (1.09%) Mimecast
9 2 (1.09%) Nutanix
10 1 (0.54%) Azure Sentinel
10 1 (0.54%) Google Workspace
10 1 (0.54%) IaaS
10 1 (0.54%) Microsoft Copilot
10 1 (0.54%) Microsoft Purview
10 1 (0.54%) PaaS
10 1 (0.54%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 89 (48.37%) Firewall
2 50 (27.17%) DNS
3 46 (25.00%) WAN
4 41 (22.28%) DHCP
4 41 (22.28%) LAN
5 34 (18.48%) VLAN
6 24 (13.04%) VoIP
7 23 (12.50%) SAN
8 22 (11.96%) VPN
9 21 (11.41%) TCP/IP
9 21 (11.41%) Wi-Fi
10 14 (7.61%) Remote Desktop
10 14 (7.61%) SD-WAN
11 12 (6.52%) Internet
12 10 (5.43%) ADSL
13 8 (4.35%) Wireless
14 7 (3.80%) Cisco Firepower
15 6 (3.26%) Wireless Security
16 5 (2.72%) iSCSI
17 4 (2.17%) IP Telephony
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (5.98%) Amazon RDS
1 11 (5.98%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 2 (1.09%) JIRA
General
1 68 (36.96%) Social Skills
2 13 (7.07%) Analytical Skills
2 13 (7.07%) Manufacturing
3 8 (4.35%) Aerospace
3 8 (4.35%) Automotive
4 6 (3.26%) Finance
4 6 (3.26%) Telecoms
5 5 (2.72%) Billing
6 4 (2.17%) Electronics
6 4 (2.17%) Legal
7 3 (1.63%) Law
7 3 (1.63%) Marketing
7 3 (1.63%) Retail
8 2 (1.09%) Banking
8 2 (1.09%) Documentation Skills
8 2 (1.09%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 2 (1.09%) Police
9 1 (0.54%) Advertising
9 1 (0.54%) Organisational Skills
9 1 (0.54%) Public Sector
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (0.54%) FreeSWITCH
1 1 (0.54%) Node.js
1 1 (0.54%) SAML
1 1 (0.54%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 13 (7.07%) Onboarding
2 9 (4.89%) Driving Licence
2 9 (4.89%) Hybrid Cloud
3 8 (4.35%) Replication
4 7 (3.80%) Video Conferencing
5 4 (2.17%) iPhone
5 4 (2.17%) Self-Motivation
6 3 (1.63%) FMCG
6 3 (1.63%) IoT
6 3 (1.63%) Management Information System
6 3 (1.63%) Operational Technology
6 3 (1.63%) Renewable Energy
7 1 (0.54%) AS400
7 1 (0.54%) Clustering
7 1 (0.54%) Smartphone
7 1 (0.54%) Team-Oriented Environment
Operating Systems
1 123 (66.85%) Windows
2 89 (48.37%) Windows Server
3 30 (16.30%) Windows Server 2019
4 25 (13.59%) Windows Server 2016
5 20 (10.87%) Linux
6 12 (6.52%) Windows 10
7 7 (3.80%) VMS
8 5 (2.72%) Android
8 5 (2.72%) Windows Server 2012
9 1 (0.54%) Apple iOS
9 1 (0.54%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.54%) Mac OS X
9 1 (0.54%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 56 (30.43%) ITIL
2 49 (26.63%) Problem-Solving
3 23 (12.50%) Customer Service
4 22 (11.96%) Mentoring
5 20 (10.87%) Change Management
5 20 (10.87%) Cybersecurity
6 18 (9.78%) Task Automation
7 17 (9.24%) Proactive Monitoring
8 16 (8.70%) Infrastructure Management
9 15 (8.15%) Server Building
10 14 (7.61%) Disaster Recovery
10 14 (7.61%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 14 (7.61%) Migration
11 13 (7.07%) Continuous Improvement
11 13 (7.07%) Data Security
11 13 (7.07%) Network Design
12 11 (5.98%) Patch Management
12 11 (5.98%) Storage Management
13 10 (5.43%) High Availability
13 10 (5.43%) Presales
Programming Languages
1 55 (29.89%) PowerShell
2 28 (15.22%) SQL
3 9 (4.89%) C#
Qualifications
1 15 (8.15%) Cisco Certification
2 12 (6.52%) Degree
2 12 (6.52%) Microsoft Certification
3 10 (5.43%) Security Cleared
4 8 (4.35%) A+ Certification
4 8 (4.35%) CCNP
5 7 (3.80%) CCIE
5 7 (3.80%) CCNA
6 6 (3.26%) Network+ Certification
7 5 (2.72%) Computer Science Degree
7 5 (2.72%) DBS Check
8 2 (1.09%) Azure Certification
8 2 (1.09%) CISM
8 2 (1.09%) CISSP
8 2 (1.09%) Master's Degree
8 2 (1.09%) SC Cleared
9 1 (0.54%) DV Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (5.98%) Cyber Essentials
2 8 (4.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 7 (3.80%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 2 (1.09%) SLA
System Software
1 100 (54.35%) Active Directory
2 45 (24.46%) VMware Infrastructure
3 42 (22.83%) Hyper-V
4 13 (7.07%) XenApp
5 11 (5.98%) Terminal Services
6 6 (3.26%) vSphere
7 2 (1.09%) Microsoft Virtual Server
7 2 (1.09%) Virtual Desktop
7 2 (1.09%) Virtual Servers
7 2 (1.09%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.54%) ISA Server
Systems Management
1 59 (32.07%) Microsoft Intune
2 19 (10.33%) SCCM
3 10 (5.43%) Backup Exec
4 9 (4.89%) Terraform
5 6 (3.26%) Autotask
6 1 (0.54%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 1 (0.54%) Ansible
6 1 (0.54%) FortiGate
6 1 (0.54%) Grafana
6 1 (0.54%) Prometheus
6 1 (0.54%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 117 (63.59%) Microsoft
2 55 (29.89%) VMware
3 49 (26.63%) Cisco
4 33 (17.93%) Meraki
5 28 (15.22%) Citrix
6 19 (10.33%) HP
7 17 (9.24%) Aruba
8 13 (7.07%) CheckPoint
8 13 (7.07%) Fortinet
8 13 (7.07%) SonicWALL
8 13 (7.07%) Veeam
9 10 (5.43%) Google
10 7 (3.80%) arcserve
10 7 (3.80%) NetApp
10 7 (3.80%) Palo Alto
11 6 (3.26%) Datto
11 6 (3.26%) Dell
11 6 (3.26%) Sage
12 5 (2.72%) Okta
13 4 (2.17%) Apple