Systems Administrator Contract Job Trends

System Administrator (Sysadmin)
UK

The median System Administrator (Sysadmin) daily rate in the UK is £438, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 28 June 2026.

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

6 months to
28 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 473 453 383
Rank change year-on-year -20 -70 +83
Contract jobs requiring a Systems Administrator 178 79 207
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.35% 0.26% 0.48%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.38% 0.28% 0.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 81 62 101
10th Percentile £350 £213 £281
25th Percentile £413 £281 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £438 £400 £500
Median % change year-on-year +9.38% -20.00% +17.65%
75th Percentile £476 £488 £575
90th Percentile £538 £510 -
UK excluding London median daily rate £438 £475 £528
% change year-on-year -7.89% -10.04% +24.24%
Number of hourly rates quoted 26 0 45
10th Percentile £17.00 - £11.91
25th Percentile £17.75 - £14.13
Median hourly rate £22.00 - £20.00
75th Percentile £34.62 - £58.49
90th Percentile £35.00 - £59.95
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.25 - £20.00
% change year-on-year - - -61.90%

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 47,123 28,128 40,377
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.40% 92.07% 92.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,580 18,010 25,933
10th Percentile £325 £288 £281
25th Percentile £415 £401 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% -2.33%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £493
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.65% -1.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,165 1,254 2,874
10th Percentile £15.50 £13.76 £12.86
25th Percentile £21.14 £17.31 £16.50
Median hourly rate £43.61 £27.00 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +61.50% -28.00% -14.50%
75th Percentile £67.50 £56.25 £62.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.75 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% -

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 28 June 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 28 June 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Systems Administrator in the UK

Systems Administrator
Top 16 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 28 June 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 -59 134 £438 +2.94% 60
UK excluding London -25 125 £438 -7.89% 57
Work from Home -40 36 £500 +25.00% 17
London -65 36 £438 +25.00% 8
North of England - 24 £438 - 10
Midlands -42 23 £438 -10.26% 9
East of England -14 21 £343 +1.48% 6
Scotland +2 16 £500 +25.00% 4
South East -49 16 £413 -15.82% 15
Wales - 15 £468 -
East Midlands -2 12 £319 -40.48% 4
Yorkshire - 12 £438 - 7
West Midlands -53 11 £438 -7.89% 5
South West -35 10 £350 -26.32% 14
North West - 7 £438 - 3
North East - 5 £438 - 1

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

For the 6 months to 28 June 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 33 (18.54%) Microsoft
2 31 (17.42%) Workflow
3 29 (16.29%) Avature
4 26 (14.61%) Windows
5 23 (12.92%) Security Cleared
6 22 (12.36%) Active Directory
6 22 (12.36%) Linux
7 19 (10.67%) Collaborative Working
7 19 (10.67%) Problem-Solving
7 19 (10.67%) SC Cleared
8 18 (10.11%) Microsoft Excel
9 17 (9.55%) Windows Server
10 15 (8.43%) ITIL
11 14 (7.87%) DNS
12 13 (7.30%) High Availability
13 12 (6.74%) VMware
13 12 (6.74%) VMware Infrastructure
14 11 (6.18%) BPSS Clearance
15 10 (5.62%) Db2
15 10 (5.62%) ERP
15 10 (5.62%) Validation
16 9 (5.06%) Change Management
16 9 (5.06%) Degree
16 9 (5.06%) DHCP
16 9 (5.06%) Dynamics 365
17 8 (4.49%) Hyper-V
17 8 (4.49%) Knowledge Transfer
17 8 (4.49%) System Testing
18 7 (3.93%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
18 7 (3.93%) SharePoint

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 7 (3.93%) SharePoint
2 4 (2.25%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (1.12%) Confluence
Applications
1 18 (10.11%) Microsoft Excel
2 6 (3.37%) Spreadsheet
3 1 (0.56%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.56%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.56%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 9 (5.06%) Dynamics 365
2 4 (2.25%) Azure
2 4 (2.25%) Microsoft 365
3 3 (1.69%) Entra ID
3 3 (1.69%) Veeva
4 2 (1.12%) Amazon S3
4 2 (1.12%) AWS
4 2 (1.12%) IaaS
5 1 (0.56%) Azure Key Vault
5 1 (0.56%) Azure Monitor
5 1 (0.56%) Azure Sentinel
5 1 (0.56%) Google Workspace
5 1 (0.56%) Power Platform
5 1 (0.56%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 14 (7.87%) DNS
2 9 (5.06%) DHCP
3 6 (3.37%) Firewall
3 6 (3.37%) WAN
4 5 (2.81%) Intrusion Detection
4 5 (2.81%) Network Security
5 2 (1.12%) iSCSI
5 2 (1.12%) NAS
5 2 (1.12%) SAN
5 2 (1.12%) SSL
5 2 (1.12%) TCP/IP
6 1 (0.56%) BGP
6 1 (0.56%) Broadband
6 1 (0.56%) GSM
6 1 (0.56%) Kerberos
6 1 (0.56%) LAN
6 1 (0.56%) SSH
6 1 (0.56%) VLAN
6 1 (0.56%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (5.62%) Db2
2 7 (3.93%) SQL Server
3 2 (1.12%) Data Warehouse
3 2 (1.12%) Oracle Database
3 2 (1.12%) PostgreSQL
4 1 (0.56%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 2 (1.12%) JIRA
2 1 (0.56%) Git
2 1 (0.56%) Rational Rhapsody
General
1 19 (10.67%) Public Sector
2 17 (9.55%) Social Skills
3 11 (6.18%) Finance
3 11 (6.18%) Organisational Skills
4 8 (4.49%) Analytical Skills
5 7 (3.93%) Banking
6 4 (2.25%) Law
6 4 (2.25%) Police
7 3 (1.69%) Aerospace
7 3 (1.69%) Local Government
7 3 (1.69%) Retail
8 1 (0.56%) Documentation Skills
8 1 (0.56%) Fire and Rescue
8 1 (0.56%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 1 (0.56%) Legal
8 1 (0.56%) Military
8 1 (0.56%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (1.12%) Oracle Fusion
1 2 (1.12%) Software Packaging
1 2 (1.12%) YAML
2 1 (0.56%) CSS
2 1 (0.56%) HTML
2 1 (0.56%) Kafka
2 1 (0.56%) Middleware
2 1 (0.56%) Model Context Protocol
Miscellaneous
1 10 (5.62%) Mainframe
1 10 (5.62%) Operational Technology
2 6 (3.37%) Data Centre
2 6 (3.37%) Management Information System
3 5 (2.81%) SCADA
4 4 (2.25%) Onboarding
5 3 (1.69%) NHS
5 3 (1.69%) PKI
5 3 (1.69%) Security Posture
6 2 (1.12%) Enterprise Software
6 2 (1.12%) Legacy Systems
7 1 (0.56%) Clustering
7 1 (0.56%) CMDB
7 1 (0.56%) Driving Licence
7 1 (0.56%) Learning Management System
7 1 (0.56%) LIMS
7 1 (0.56%) Replication
7 1 (0.56%) TM Forum
Operating Systems
1 26 (14.61%) Windows
2 22 (12.36%) Linux
3 17 (9.55%) Windows Server
4 7 (3.93%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 6 (3.37%) zOS
6 5 (2.81%) Unix
7 2 (1.12%) Ubuntu
8 1 (0.56%) Debian
8 1 (0.56%) Mac OS
8 1 (0.56%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 31 (17.42%) Workflow
2 19 (10.67%) Collaborative Working
2 19 (10.67%) Problem-Solving
3 15 (8.43%) ITIL
4 13 (7.30%) High Availability
5 10 (5.62%) ERP
5 10 (5.62%) Validation
6 9 (5.06%) Change Management
7 8 (4.49%) Knowledge Transfer
7 8 (4.49%) System Testing
8 7 (3.93%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 7 (3.93%) Time Management
9 6 (3.37%) Continuous Improvement
9 6 (3.37%) Cybersecurity
9 6 (3.37%) Data Analysis
9 6 (3.37%) Identity Access Management
9 6 (3.37%) Process Improvement
9 6 (3.37%) Service Delivery
10 5 (2.81%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 5 (2.81%) Vulnerability Management
Programming Languages
1 7 (3.93%) SQL
2 4 (2.25%) Bash
2 4 (2.25%) PowerShell
2 4 (2.25%) Python
3 2 (1.12%) C++
Qualifications
1 23 (12.92%) Security Cleared
2 19 (10.67%) SC Cleared
3 11 (6.18%) BPSS Clearance
4 9 (5.06%) Degree
5 5 (2.81%) DV Cleared
5 5 (2.81%) HND
6 2 (1.12%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
6 2 (1.12%) Microsoft Certification
6 2 (1.12%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
7 1 (0.56%) Azure Certification
7 1 (0.56%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (2.25%) Data Quality
1 4 (2.25%) SLA
2 3 (1.69%) JSP 440
3 1 (0.56%) Accessibility
3 1 (0.56%) COBIT
3 1 (0.56%) Cyber Essentials
3 1 (0.56%) GDPR
3 1 (0.56%) HL7
3 1 (0.56%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 1 (0.56%) NIST
System Software
1 22 (12.36%) Active Directory
2 12 (6.74%) VMware Infrastructure
3 8 (4.49%) Hyper-V
4 3 (1.69%) Virtual Machines
5 2 (1.12%) Firmware
5 2 (1.12%) VMware ESXi
5 2 (1.12%) VMware Workstation
6 1 (0.56%) ACF2
6 1 (0.56%) Docker
6 1 (0.56%) OpenSSH
6 1 (0.56%) QEMU
6 1 (0.56%) RACF
6 1 (0.56%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 5 (2.81%) Ansible
1 5 (2.81%) Single Sign-On
2 3 (1.69%) Microsoft Intune
3 2 (1.12%) SCCM
3 2 (1.12%) SCOM
3 2 (1.12%) vCenter Server
4 1 (0.56%) Docker Swarm
4 1 (0.56%) FortiGate
4 1 (0.56%) Grafana
4 1 (0.56%) Network Intrusion Detection System
4 1 (0.56%) Podman
4 1 (0.56%) Progress Chef
4 1 (0.56%) Prometheus
4 1 (0.56%) WSUS
Vendors
1 33 (18.54%) Microsoft
2 29 (16.29%) Avature
3 12 (6.74%) VMware
4 6 (3.37%) Broadcom
4 6 (3.37%) Cisco
5 5 (2.81%) Red Hat
6 4 (2.25%) Oracle
7 3 (1.69%) SAP
8 2 (1.12%) F5
8 2 (1.12%) NEC
8 2 (1.12%) Okta
8 2 (1.12%) Thales
9 1 (0.56%) CyberArk
9 1 (0.56%) Fortinet
9 1 (0.56%) Google
9 1 (0.56%) NVIDIA
9 1 (0.56%) Palo Alto
9 1 (0.56%) ServiceNow
9 1 (0.56%) SolarWinds
9 1 (0.56%) Splunk