System Administrator (Sysadmin)
UK

The median System Administrator (Sysadmin) salary in the UK is £40,817 per year according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months to 5 May 2024.

The first table below provides salary benchmarking and summary statistics including a comparison to same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
5 May 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 445 551 665
Rank change year-on-year +106 +114 -185
Permanent jobs requiring a Systems Administrator 537 486 662
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 0.55% 0.47% 0.42%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.58% 0.51% 0.44%
Number of salaries quoted 432 374 500
10th Percentile £28,000 £28,750 £28,750
25th Percentile £33,500 £36,713 £36,625
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £40,817 £47,750 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -14.52% +6.11% +5.88%
75th Percentile £50,313 £62,500 £55,000
90th Percentile £59,500 £75,000 £62,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £40,000 £41,250 £40,000
% change year-on-year -3.03% +3.13% -

All Permanent IT Job Vacancies
UK

The following table is for comparison with the above and includes 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 93,221 94,676 150,515
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.62% 91.51% 96.07%
Number of salaries quoted 66,838 59,581 85,408
10th Percentile £28,500 £32,500 £32,500
25th Percentile £38,500 £45,000 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -12.50% - +9.09%
75th Percentile £71,250 £81,250 £78,750
90th Percentile £90,000 £100,000 £96,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £53,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -5.66% +6.00% +5.26%

Systems Administrator
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings that featured Systems Administrator in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Systems Administrator in the UK

Systems Administrator
Salary Trend

3-month moving average salary quoted in jobs citing Systems Administrator.

Salary trend for Systems Administrator in the UK

Systems Administrator
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Systems Administrator over the 6 months to 5 May 2024.

Salary histogram for Systems Administrator in the UK

Systems Administrator
Top 16 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Systems Administrator within the UK over the 6 months to 5 May 2024. 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 +110 470 £41,500 -13.09% 108
UK excluding London +91 442 £40,000 -3.03% 91
Work from Home +39 140 £45,000 -14.29% 31
North of England +113 124 £35,000 -9.09% 16
South East +34 92 £40,000 - 21
Midlands +70 83 £40,000 +14.29% 19
London +36 73 £49,000 -18.33% 22
South West -46 71 £43,250 -3.89% 20
North West +38 63 £36,407 -23.35% 11
Scotland -35 45 £36,000 -10.00% 3
East Midlands +27 44 £40,000 +25.98% 11
Yorkshire +113 43 £35,000 +7.69% 4
West Midlands +35 39 £37,500 -6.25% 8
East of England +23 23 £30,000 -33.33% 11
North East +8 18 £44,500 +11.25% 1
Wales +16 4 £50,000 -13.04% 2

Systems Administrator Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 5 May 2024, Systems Administrator 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 Systems Administrator in the job title.

1 168 (31.28%) Windows
2 149 (27.75%) Problem-Solving
3 136 (25.33%) Azure
4 132 (24.58%) Microsoft
5 113 (21.04%) Linux
6 112 (20.86%) Active Directory
7 111 (20.67%) Social Skills
8 110 (20.48%) Microsoft 365
9 98 (18.25%) VMware
10 83 (15.46%) SQL
11 76 (14.15%) Windows Server
12 75 (13.97%) Finance
13 63 (11.73%) PowerShell
14 62 (11.55%) DNS
14 62 (11.55%) Firewall
15 57 (10.61%) Degree
16 56 (10.43%) Entra ID
17 55 (10.24%) VMware Infrastructure
18 53 (9.87%) Analytical Skills
19 52 (9.68%) Security Cleared
20 49 (9.12%) Python
21 47 (8.75%) LAN
21 47 (8.75%) WAN
21 47 (8.75%) Cybersecurity
22 46 (8.57%) TCP/IP
23 43 (8.01%) Customer Service
24 40 (7.45%) DHCP
24 40 (7.45%) Microsoft Exchange
24 40 (7.45%) Hyper-V
25 38 (7.08%) ITIL

Systems Administrator 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 40 (7.45%) Microsoft Exchange
2 31 (5.77%) SharePoint
3 6 (1.12%) Apache
3 6 (1.12%) Confluence
3 6 (1.12%) Exchange Server 2013
4 3 (0.56%) Exchange Server 2010
4 3 (0.56%) IIS
4 3 (0.56%) Moodle
4 3 (0.56%) Site Server
5 1 (0.19%) CMS
5 1 (0.19%) OpenStack
5 1 (0.19%) Oracle Application Server
5 1 (0.19%) WebLogic
5 1 (0.19%) WordPress
Applications
1 25 (4.66%) Microsoft Office
2 14 (2.61%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.74%) Trello
4 1 (0.19%) 1Password
Business Applications
1 9 (1.68%) Oracle HRMS
2 4 (0.74%) BASE24
2 4 (0.74%) SAP Business One
3 3 (0.56%) iTrent
3 3 (0.56%) Magento
3 3 (0.56%) Unit4 Business World
4 2 (0.37%) Salesforce CRM
5 1 (0.19%) Dynamics CRM
5 1 (0.19%) MetaTrader
Cloud Services
1 136 (25.33%) Azure
2 110 (20.48%) Microsoft 365
3 56 (10.43%) Entra ID
4 36 (6.70%) AWS
5 22 (4.10%) SaaS
6 15 (2.79%) Power Platform
7 14 (2.61%) Dynamics 365
8 11 (2.05%) Cloud Computing
9 10 (1.86%) GCP
10 9 (1.68%) Azure DevOps
10 9 (1.68%) OneDrive
10 9 (1.68%) WhatsApp
11 7 (1.30%) IaaS
12 6 (1.12%) Mimecast
13 4 (0.74%) Slack
14 3 (0.56%) OpenShift
14 3 (0.56%) PaaS
15 2 (0.37%) Azure App Service
15 2 (0.37%) Azure Logic Apps
15 2 (0.37%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 62 (11.55%) DNS
1 62 (11.55%) Firewall
2 47 (8.75%) LAN
2 47 (8.75%) WAN
3 46 (8.57%) TCP/IP
4 40 (7.45%) DHCP
5 18 (3.35%) NAS
6 17 (3.17%) VLAN
7 15 (2.79%) VSAN
8 14 (2.61%) VPN
9 12 (2.23%) Intrusion Detection
10 11 (2.05%) SAN
11 10 (1.86%) Wireshark
12 8 (1.49%) 802.11
12 8 (1.49%) HTTPS
12 8 (1.49%) SSL
12 8 (1.49%) VoIP
13 7 (1.30%) Wi-Fi
14 6 (1.12%) Remote Desktop
15 5 (0.93%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (4.28%) SQL Server
2 14 (2.61%) Power BI
3 13 (2.42%) MySQL
4 9 (1.68%) PostgreSQL
5 7 (1.30%) Crystal Reports
5 7 (1.30%) Ingres
5 7 (1.30%) NonStop SQL
6 3 (0.56%) Amazon RDS
6 3 (0.56%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 1 (0.19%) MariaDB
7 1 (0.19%) Oracle Reports
7 1 (0.19%) RDBMS
7 1 (0.19%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 11 (2.05%) Git
2 8 (1.49%) Vagrant
3 6 (1.12%) AdminStudio
3 6 (1.12%) JIRA
4 2 (0.37%) GitLab
5 1 (0.19%) Bitbucket
5 1 (0.19%) Subversion
General
1 111 (20.67%) Social Skills
2 75 (13.97%) Finance
3 53 (9.87%) Analytical Skills
4 22 (4.10%) Manufacturing
5 18 (3.35%) Retail
6 14 (2.61%) Public Sector
6 14 (2.61%) Telecoms
7 12 (2.23%) Organisational Skills
8 11 (2.05%) Marketing
9 9 (1.68%) Aerospace
10 8 (1.49%) Law
11 7 (1.30%) Pharmaceutical
12 6 (1.12%) Automotive
13 5 (0.93%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 4 (0.74%) Legal
14 4 (0.74%) Local Government
15 3 (0.56%) French Language
15 3 (0.56%) Health Technology
15 3 (0.56%) Italian Language
15 3 (0.56%) Spanish Language
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (1.86%) EDI
2 8 (1.49%) 802.1X
2 8 (1.49%) Software Packaging
3 7 (1.30%) HTML
3 7 (1.30%) REST
4 5 (0.93%) CSS
5 4 (0.74%) Oracle GoldenGate
6 3 (0.56%) JSON
6 3 (0.56%) Web Services
6 3 (0.56%) XML
7 2 (0.37%) .NET
7 2 (0.37%) ASP.NET
7 2 (0.37%) ASP.NET MVC
7 2 (0.37%) Itk
7 2 (0.37%) LDAP
7 2 (0.37%) Oracle Fusion
7 2 (0.37%) SAML
7 2 (0.37%) SPFx
8 1 (0.19%) Keycloak
8 1 (0.19%) PHP-FPM
Miscellaneous
1 34 (6.33%) Management Information System
2 20 (3.72%) Data Centre
2 20 (3.72%) Self-Motivation
3 16 (2.98%) PKI
4 12 (2.23%) Onboarding
4 12 (2.23%) Wiki
5 7 (1.30%) VAX
6 6 (1.12%) Cloud Native
6 6 (1.12%) Cyberattack
6 6 (1.12%) Learning Management System
6 6 (1.12%) Life Science
7 5 (0.93%) Client/Server
7 5 (0.93%) Cyber Security Posture
7 5 (0.93%) Security Posture
8 4 (0.74%) Clustering
8 4 (0.74%) Driving Licence
8 4 (0.74%) Replication
9 3 (0.56%) Enterprise Storage
9 3 (0.56%) Linux Command Line
9 3 (0.56%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 168 (31.28%) Windows
2 113 (21.04%) Linux
3 76 (14.15%) Windows Server
4 36 (6.70%) Windows 10
5 31 (5.77%) CentOS
6 30 (5.59%) Windows Server 2019
7 29 (5.40%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 29 (5.40%) Windows Server 2016
8 26 (4.84%) Unix
9 20 (3.72%) Ubuntu
10 17 (3.17%) Windows 7
11 15 (2.79%) Debian
12 14 (2.61%) Mac OS
12 14 (2.61%) Windows Server 2012
13 13 (2.42%) Android
13 13 (2.42%) Apple iOS
13 13 (2.42%) Windows Server 2008
14 11 (2.05%) SUSE
15 6 (1.12%) VMS
16 4 (0.74%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 149 (27.75%) Problem-Solving
2 47 (8.75%) Cybersecurity
3 43 (8.01%) Customer Service
4 38 (7.08%) ITIL
5 32 (5.96%) Patch Management
6 31 (5.77%) Computer Science
7 28 (5.21%) ERP
8 24 (4.47%) DevOps
8 24 (4.47%) Disaster Recovery
9 23 (4.28%) Agile
10 22 (4.10%) Collaborative Working
10 22 (4.10%) Project Management
11 20 (3.72%) Migration
12 18 (3.35%) Time Management
13 17 (3.17%) Roadmaps
14 16 (2.98%) CRM
14 16 (2.98%) Data Management
14 16 (2.98%) High Availability
15 15 (2.79%) Business Transformation
15 15 (2.79%) Information Security
Programming Languages
1 83 (15.46%) SQL
2 63 (11.73%) PowerShell
3 49 (9.12%) Python
4 37 (6.89%) Bash
5 21 (3.91%) Perl
6 15 (2.79%) Shell Script
7 4 (0.74%) C#
8 3 (0.56%) AWK
8 3 (0.56%) JavaScript
8 3 (0.56%) sed
9 2 (0.37%) PHP
9 2 (0.37%) T-SQL
10 1 (0.19%) ActionScript
10 1 (0.19%) Java
10 1 (0.19%) Korn
10 1 (0.19%) tcsh
10 1 (0.19%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 57 (10.61%) Degree
2 52 (9.68%) Security Cleared
3 21 (3.91%) Computer Science Degree
4 18 (3.35%) DV Cleared
5 15 (2.79%) Microsoft Certification
6 12 (2.23%) CCNA
6 12 (2.23%) Cisco Certification
7 8 (1.49%) CCNP
7 8 (1.49%) HNC
8 7 (1.30%) MCSE
9 6 (1.12%) MCSA
9 6 (1.12%) RHCE
10 5 (0.93%) RHCSA
11 4 (0.74%) AWS Certification
12 3 (0.56%) DBS Check
12 3 (0.56%) HND
12 3 (0.56%) Network+ Certification
12 3 (0.56%) SC Cleared
13 2 (0.37%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
14 1 (0.19%) AWS Certified SysOps Administrator
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (3.17%) Cyber Essentials
2 12 (2.23%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 7 (1.30%) QA
4 5 (0.93%) GDPR
4 5 (0.93%) ISO 9001
5 4 (0.74%) Accessibility
6 3 (0.56%) PCI DSS
6 3 (0.56%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 1 (0.19%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 1 (0.19%) SLA
System Software
1 112 (20.86%) Active Directory
2 55 (10.24%) VMware Infrastructure
3 40 (7.45%) Hyper-V
4 21 (3.91%) vSphere
5 20 (3.72%) Docker
6 15 (2.79%) VMware ESXi
7 9 (1.68%) Virtual Servers
7 9 (1.68%) VMware NSX
8 7 (1.30%) XenApp
9 5 (0.93%) Virtual Desktop
10 4 (0.74%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 2 (0.37%) Microsoft App-V
11 2 (0.37%) Postfix
11 2 (0.37%) Virtual Machines
12 1 (0.19%) Dovecot
12 1 (0.19%) KVM
12 1 (0.19%) Lustre
12 1 (0.19%) NFS
12 1 (0.19%) Shibboleth
12 1 (0.19%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 25 (4.66%) Microsoft Intune
2 23 (4.28%) Ansible
3 21 (3.91%) SCCM
4 14 (2.61%) Single Sign-On
5 8 (1.49%) Failover Clustering
5 8 (1.49%) Puppet
6 7 (1.30%) EMC VPLEX
6 7 (1.30%) Nagios
6 7 (1.30%) WSUS
7 6 (1.12%) McAfee ePO
7 6 (1.12%) Progress Chef
7 6 (1.12%) SCVMM
8 5 (0.93%) Terraform
9 4 (0.74%) Jamf Pro
9 4 (0.74%) Kubernetes
10 3 (0.56%) Check_MK
10 3 (0.56%) HAProxy
10 3 (0.56%) Microsoft Clustering
11 2 (0.37%) Prometheus
11 2 (0.37%) systemd
Vendors
1 132 (24.58%) Microsoft
2 98 (18.25%) VMware
3 25 (4.66%) Oracle
3 25 (4.66%) Red Hat
3 25 (4.66%) Veeam
4 18 (3.35%) Cisco
4 18 (3.35%) Citrix
5 10 (1.86%) Epicor
5 10 (1.86%) HP
6 9 (1.68%) Dell
6 9 (1.68%) SAP
7 7 (1.30%) Centreon
7 7 (1.30%) EMC
7 7 (1.30%) Sybase
8 6 (1.12%) Apple
8 6 (1.12%) McAfee
9 3 (0.56%) Autodesk
9 3 (0.56%) BT
9 3 (0.56%) Fortinet
9 3 (0.56%) Salesforce