Systems Administrator Contract Job Trends

System Administrator (Sysadmin)
UK

The median System Administrator (Sysadmin) daily rate in the UK is £500, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 12 January 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
12 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 464 370 396
Rank change year-on-year -94 +26 +186
Contract jobs requiring a Systems Administrator 110 157 204
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.30% 0.50% 0.48%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.33% 0.54% 0.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 57 60 120
10th Percentile £300 £193 £245
25th Percentile £423 £308 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £430 £500
Median % change year-on-year +16.28% -14.00% +33.33%
75th Percentile £548 £588 £575
90th Percentile £614 £650 £603
UK excluding London median daily rate £515 £430 £514
% change year-on-year +19.77% -16.34% +28.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 8 15
10th Percentile £13.90 £21.10 £31.25
25th Percentile £17.50 £21.44 £44.51
Median hourly rate £18.00 £30.50 £49.73
Median % change year-on-year -40.98% -38.67% +136.81%
75th Percentile £18.50 £57.62 £58.66
90th Percentile £26.80 - £67.18
UK excluding London median hourly rate £13.50 £47.37 £55.28
% change year-on-year -71.50% -14.30% +163.24%

All Contract IT Job Roles
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract 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 contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 33,096 29,209 40,038
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.31% 92.69% 93.23%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,909 17,885 26,705
10th Percentile £300 £291 £280
25th Percentile £406 £408 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £618 £638 £638
90th Percentile £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £479 £500
% change year-on-year -0.73% -4.30% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,948 878 1,679
10th Percentile £14.38 £15.52 £14.16
25th Percentile £18.25 £21.05 £18.93
Median hourly rate £26.50 £32.50 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -18.46% -23.53% +28.79%
75th Percentile £60.00 £62.24 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £73.75 £76.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £30.88 £45.00
% change year-on-year -18.54% -31.39% +66.65%

Systems Administrator
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Systems Administrator' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Systems Administrator job vacancy trend in the UK

Systems Administrator
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Systems Administrator job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Systems Administrator job vacancies in the UK

Systems Administrator
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Systems Administrator over the 6 months to 12 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Systems Administrator in the UK

Systems Administrator
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Systems Administrator job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Systems Administrator job vacancies in the UK

Systems Administrator
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Systems Administrator over the 6 months to 12 January 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Systems Administrator in the UK

Systems Administrator
Top 15 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Systems Administrator within the UK over the 6 months to 12 January 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
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England -112 86 £500 +11.11% 54
UK excluding London -105 53 £515 +19.77% 52
London -7 39 £445 +11.25% 10
Work from Home -17 34 £454 +10.06% 17
South West -37 17 £600 +4.35% 2
South East -39 9 £495 +34.69% 13
East of England -19 8 £450 +4.65% 14
North of England -54 7 £525 +10.53% 20
Midlands -48 5 £475 -9.52% 3
East Midlands - 5 £475 - 3
North West -31 4 £479 - 7
Northern Ireland -4 3 £375 +25.00%
Yorkshire -44 3 £525 +10.53% 12
Wales 0 2 - - 3
Scotland -4 2 £275 +42.12% 2

Systems Administrator Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 12 January 2026, Systems Administrator contract 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 contract job ads featuring Systems Administrator in the job title.

1 32 (29.09%) Security Cleared
2 31 (28.18%) Linux
3 30 (27.27%) Windows
4 22 (20.00%) DV Cleared
5 20 (18.18%) Microsoft
6 18 (16.36%) Microsoft 365
7 17 (15.45%) Change Management
8 16 (14.55%) Security Patching
9 15 (13.64%) Continuous Improvement
9 15 (13.64%) Network Management
9 15 (13.64%) Network Security
10 14 (12.73%) SC Cleared
11 13 (11.82%) Active Directory
12 12 (10.91%) Firewall
12 12 (10.91%) Oracle
12 12 (10.91%) Problem-Solving
12 12 (10.91%) Red Hat
12 12 (10.91%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 12 (10.91%) SharePoint
13 11 (10.00%) Microsoft Excel
13 11 (10.00%) VMware
14 10 (9.09%) DNS
15 9 (8.18%) Azure
15 9 (8.18%) Dell
15 9 (8.18%) Microsoft PowerPoint
15 9 (8.18%) PowerShell
15 9 (8.18%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 8 (7.27%) Business Intelligence
16 8 (7.27%) ERP
16 8 (7.27%) ITIL

Systems Administrator 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 12 (10.91%) SharePoint
2 4 (3.64%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 11 (10.00%) Microsoft Excel
2 9 (8.18%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.91%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.91%) S-PLUS
Business Applications
1 2 (1.82%) ContrOCC
1 2 (1.82%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.91%) CA PPM
2 1 (0.91%) iTrent
2 1 (0.91%) Magento
2 1 (0.91%) Sage 200
2 1 (0.91%) SAP S/4HANA
2 1 (0.91%) Shopify
2 1 (0.91%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 18 (16.36%) Microsoft 365
2 9 (8.18%) Azure
3 7 (6.36%) Power Platform
4 6 (5.45%) AWS
4 6 (5.45%) Entra ID
4 6 (5.45%) IaaS
5 5 (4.55%) GCP
5 5 (4.55%) SaaS
6 3 (2.73%) PaaS
7 2 (1.82%) Dynamics 365
7 2 (1.82%) SuccessFactors
8 1 (0.91%) Amazon EC2
8 1 (0.91%) Amazon S3
Communications & Networking
1 15 (13.64%) Network Security
2 12 (10.91%) Firewall
3 10 (9.09%) DNS
4 7 (6.36%) DHCP
5 4 (3.64%) SAN
5 4 (3.64%) VPN
6 3 (2.73%) Wireless
7 2 (1.82%) VLAN
8 1 (0.91%) LAN
8 1 (0.91%) Remote Desktop
8 1 (0.91%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (6.36%) Oracle Database
1 7 (6.36%) Power BI
2 2 (1.82%) BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
3 1 (0.91%) MySQL
3 1 (0.91%) Oracle Reports
3 1 (0.91%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 2 (1.82%) Git
General
1 27 (24.55%) Social Skills
2 22 (20.00%) Finance
3 13 (11.82%) Public Sector
4 11 (10.00%) Banking
5 9 (8.18%) Analytical Skills
6 8 (7.27%) Legal
7 4 (3.64%) Fire and Rescue
7 4 (3.64%) Local Government
7 4 (3.64%) Telecoms
8 2 (1.82%) Aerospace
8 2 (1.82%) Documentation Skills
8 2 (1.82%) Financial Institution
8 2 (1.82%) Military
9 1 (0.91%) Electronics
9 1 (0.91%) German Language
9 1 (0.91%) Investment Banking
9 1 (0.91%) Manufacturing
9 1 (0.91%) Marketing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (0.91%) IDoc
Miscellaneous
1 15 (13.64%) PKI
2 9 (8.18%) Onboarding
3 5 (4.55%) Data Centre
4 3 (2.73%) Clustering
5 2 (1.82%) Analytical Mindset
5 2 (1.82%) Data Structures
5 2 (1.82%) Enterprise Software
5 2 (1.82%) Hedge funds
5 2 (1.82%) Legacy Systems
6 1 (0.91%) Enterprise Storage
6 1 (0.91%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 31 (28.18%) Linux
2 30 (27.27%) Windows
3 12 (10.91%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 8 (7.27%) Unix
5 7 (6.36%) Windows Server
6 4 (3.64%) Ubuntu
7 2 (1.82%) Debian
7 2 (1.82%) Solaris
7 2 (1.82%) Windows Server 2016
7 2 (1.82%) Windows Server 2019
8 1 (0.91%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 17 (15.45%) Change Management
2 16 (14.55%) Security Patching
3 15 (13.64%) Continuous Improvement
3 15 (13.64%) Network Management
4 12 (10.91%) Problem-Solving
5 9 (8.18%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 8 (7.27%) Business Intelligence
6 8 (7.27%) ERP
6 8 (7.27%) ITIL
6 8 (7.27%) Knowledge Management
6 8 (7.27%) Time Management
7 7 (6.36%) Data Management
8 6 (5.45%) Infrastructure as Code
9 5 (4.55%) High Availability
9 5 (4.55%) Root Cause Analysis
10 4 (3.64%) Patch Management
10 4 (3.64%) Performance Management
10 4 (3.64%) Performance Optimisation
10 4 (3.64%) Performance Tuning
10 4 (3.64%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 9 (8.18%) PowerShell
2 7 (6.36%) SQL
3 5 (4.55%) Bash
4 3 (2.73%) Python
5 2 (1.82%) Shell Script
6 1 (0.91%) Perl
Qualifications
1 32 (29.09%) Security Cleared
2 22 (20.00%) DV Cleared
3 14 (12.73%) SC Cleared
4 5 (4.55%) BPSS Clearance
5 2 (1.82%) Cisco Certification
6 1 (0.91%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (2.73%) Data Quality
1 3 (2.73%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 2 (1.82%) NIST
2 2 (1.82%) PMO
2 2 (1.82%) QA
3 1 (0.91%) GDPR
3 1 (0.91%) GRC
System Software
1 13 (11.82%) Active Directory
2 7 (6.36%) VMware Infrastructure
3 6 (5.45%) Hyper-V
4 2 (1.82%) QEMU
4 2 (1.82%) Slurm Workload Manager
4 2 (1.82%) VMware ESXi
5 1 (0.91%) GPFS
5 1 (0.91%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 5 (4.55%) Ansible
2 4 (3.64%) Microsoft Intune
2 4 (3.64%) Progress Chef
3 3 (2.73%) EMC NetWorker
3 3 (2.73%) EMC VPLEX
3 3 (2.73%) SCCM
3 3 (2.73%) Single Sign-On
3 3 (2.73%) Terraform
4 2 (1.82%) Grafana
4 2 (1.82%) Podman
4 2 (1.82%) Prometheus
5 1 (0.91%) BladeLogic
5 1 (0.91%) Failover Clustering
5 1 (0.91%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 20 (18.18%) Microsoft
2 12 (10.91%) Oracle
2 12 (10.91%) Red Hat
3 11 (10.00%) VMware
4 9 (8.18%) Dell
5 5 (4.55%) Cisco
5 5 (4.55%) Palo Alto
5 5 (4.55%) SAP
6 4 (3.64%) Fortinet
6 4 (3.64%) Google
6 4 (3.64%) IFS
6 4 (3.64%) ServiceNow
7 3 (2.73%) Brocade
7 3 (2.73%) EMC
7 3 (2.73%) Isilon
8 2 (1.82%) HP
8 2 (1.82%) Intel
8 2 (1.82%) NetApp
8 2 (1.82%) Trend Micro
8 2 (1.82%) Veeam