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 19 April 2026.

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

6 months to
19 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 447 456 384
Rank change year-on-year +9 -72 +117
Contract jobs requiring a Systems Administrator 178 64 206
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.39% 0.22% 0.47%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.42% 0.23% 0.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 90 50 116
10th Percentile £361 £193 £245
25th Percentile £419 £286 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £438 £423 £475
Median % change year-on-year +3.55% -11.05% +11.76%
75th Percentile £538 £489 £575
90th Percentile £601 £575 -
UK excluding London median daily rate £438 £450 £550
% change year-on-year -2.78% -18.18% +29.41%
Number of hourly rates quoted 22 4 30
10th Percentile - £20.90 £11.77
25th Percentile £17.50 £21.13 £17.29
Median hourly rate £18.25 £22.75 £44.00
Median % change year-on-year -19.78% -48.30% -17.87%
75th Percentile £22.00 £23.94 £59.95
90th Percentile £34.18 £24.28 £61.60
UK excluding London median hourly rate £18.50 £22.25 £44.00
% change year-on-year -16.85% -49.43% -17.87%

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 42,592 27,248 40,561
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.22% 92.60% 92.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 26,414 17,867 26,505
10th Percentile £313 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £406 £409
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £515 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.91% -1.90% -2.78%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £745
UK excluding London median daily rate £488 £475 £493
% change year-on-year +2.63% -3.65% -1.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,707 994 2,611
10th Percentile £14.96 £14.55 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.35 £19.00 £16.25
Median hourly rate £41.94 £30.45 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +37.73% -13.00% -22.22%
75th Percentile £65.60 £63.75 £60.00
90th Percentile £77.70 £75.43 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.00 £29.53 £36.27
% change year-on-year +45.64% -18.60% -14.17%

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 19 April 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 19 April 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Systems Administrator in the UK

Systems Administrator
Top 17 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 19 April 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 -12 143 £438 +1.74% 55
UK excluding London -31 108 £438 -2.78% 57
London -26 49 £438 +12.90% 11
Work from Home -9 44 £452 +10.24% 29
North of England -49 27 £438 +9.38% 15
Midlands -52 23 £438 -14.63% 7
East of England -17 20 £450 +4.65% 9
Yorkshire -42 15 £438 +9.38% 6
South West -17 14 £610 +10.82% 7
Scotland +8 12 £500 +156.41% 3
East Midlands -20 12 £444 -17.13% 5
West Midlands -57 11 £438 -12.50% 2
South East -45 8 £475 -3.06% 14
North West - 7 £438 - 6
North East - 5 £438 - 3
Wales - 2 - - 4
Northern Ireland - 2 £375 -

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

For the 6 months to 19 April 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 34 (19.10%) Microsoft
2 32 (17.98%) Security Cleared
3 31 (17.42%) Workflow
4 30 (16.85%) Linux
5 29 (16.29%) Avature
6 24 (13.48%) SC Cleared
7 22 (12.36%) Windows
8 21 (11.80%) Microsoft Excel
9 17 (9.55%) Active Directory
10 16 (8.99%) DV Cleared
11 15 (8.43%) High Availability
11 15 (8.43%) Microsoft 365
12 13 (7.30%) DNS
12 13 (7.30%) Problem-Solving
12 13 (7.30%) Time Management
13 12 (6.74%) Collaborative Working
13 12 (6.74%) Continuous Improvement
13 12 (6.74%) Firewall
14 11 (6.18%) Change Management
15 10 (5.62%) DB2
15 10 (5.62%) PowerShell
15 10 (5.62%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
15 10 (5.62%) SharePoint
15 10 (5.62%) Windows Server
16 9 (5.06%) Azure
16 9 (5.06%) ITIL
17 8 (4.49%) AWS
17 8 (4.49%) DHCP
17 8 (4.49%) ERP
17 8 (4.49%) IaaS

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 10 (5.62%) SharePoint
2 6 (3.37%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (1.12%) Confluence
Applications
1 21 (11.80%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (3.93%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 6 (3.37%) Spreadsheet
4 1 (0.56%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (0.56%) iTrent
1 1 (0.56%) Magento
1 1 (0.56%) Sage 200
1 1 (0.56%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 15 (8.43%) Microsoft 365
2 9 (5.06%) Azure
3 8 (4.49%) AWS
3 8 (4.49%) IaaS
4 7 (3.93%) Entra ID
5 6 (3.37%) Dynamics 365
6 5 (2.81%) GCP
6 5 (2.81%) SaaS
7 3 (1.69%) Amazon S3
7 3 (1.69%) PaaS
7 3 (1.69%) Veeva
8 1 (0.56%) Amazon EC2
8 1 (0.56%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 13 (7.30%) DNS
2 12 (6.74%) Firewall
3 8 (4.49%) DHCP
4 6 (3.37%) Network Security
5 4 (2.25%) SAN
5 4 (2.25%) VPN
6 2 (1.12%) iSCSI
6 2 (1.12%) LAN
6 2 (1.12%) NAS
7 1 (0.56%) Intrusion Detection
7 1 (0.56%) SSL
7 1 (0.56%) WAN
7 1 (0.56%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (5.62%) DB2
2 5 (2.81%) Oracle Database
3 3 (1.69%) PostgreSQL
4 2 (1.12%) Data Warehouse
4 2 (1.12%) SQL Server
5 1 (0.56%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 2 (1.12%) Git
1 2 (1.12%) JIRA
2 1 (0.56%) Rational Rhapsody
General
1 20 (11.24%) Social Skills
2 18 (10.11%) Finance
3 13 (7.30%) Banking
4 12 (6.74%) Public Sector
5 7 (3.93%) Organisational Skills
6 6 (3.37%) Legal
7 5 (2.81%) Local Government
8 4 (2.25%) Aerospace
8 4 (2.25%) Fire and Rescue
8 4 (2.25%) Telecoms
9 3 (1.69%) Analytical Skills
9 3 (1.69%) Retail
10 1 (0.56%) Documentation Skills
10 1 (0.56%) German Language
10 1 (0.56%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 1 (0.56%) Law
10 1 (0.56%) Manufacturing
10 1 (0.56%) Marketing
10 1 (0.56%) Military
10 1 (0.56%) Police
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (1.12%) Oracle Fusion
1 2 (1.12%) YAML
2 1 (0.56%) CSS
2 1 (0.56%) HTML
2 1 (0.56%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 10 (5.62%) Mainframe
1 10 (5.62%) Onboarding
2 6 (3.37%) PKI
3 3 (1.69%) Clustering
3 3 (1.69%) Data Centre
3 3 (1.69%) NHS
4 2 (1.12%) Legacy Systems
4 2 (1.12%) Management Information System
4 2 (1.12%) Security Posture
5 1 (0.56%) Data Structures
5 1 (0.56%) Enterprise Software
5 1 (0.56%) Enterprise Storage
5 1 (0.56%) Learning Management System
5 1 (0.56%) LIMS
5 1 (0.56%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 30 (16.85%) Linux
2 22 (12.36%) Windows
3 10 (5.62%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 10 (5.62%) Windows Server
4 8 (4.49%) Unix
5 6 (3.37%) zOS
6 4 (2.25%) Ubuntu
7 2 (1.12%) Debian
7 2 (1.12%) Windows Server 2016
7 2 (1.12%) Windows Server 2019
8 1 (0.56%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 31 (17.42%) Workflow
2 15 (8.43%) High Availability
3 13 (7.30%) Problem-Solving
3 13 (7.30%) Time Management
4 12 (6.74%) Collaborative Working
4 12 (6.74%) Continuous Improvement
5 11 (6.18%) Change Management
6 9 (5.06%) ITIL
7 8 (4.49%) ERP
7 8 (4.49%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 7 (3.93%) Security Patching
8 7 (3.93%) Service Delivery
9 6 (3.37%) Knowledge Management
9 6 (3.37%) Knowledge Transfer
10 5 (2.81%) Configuration Management
11 4 (2.25%) Disaster Recovery
11 4 (2.25%) Generative AI
11 4 (2.25%) Infrastructure as Code
11 4 (2.25%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 4 (2.25%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 10 (5.62%) PowerShell
2 5 (2.81%) Bash
3 3 (1.69%) Python
4 2 (1.12%) C++
4 2 (1.12%) SQL
5 1 (0.56%) Perl
Qualifications
1 32 (17.98%) Security Cleared
2 24 (13.48%) SC Cleared
3 16 (8.99%) DV Cleared
4 7 (3.93%) BPSS Clearance
5 4 (2.25%) Degree
6 2 (1.12%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
6 2 (1.12%) Microsoft Certification
6 2 (1.12%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (2.25%) SLA
2 3 (1.69%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 3 (1.69%) JSP 440
3 1 (0.56%) Accessibility
3 1 (0.56%) COBIT
3 1 (0.56%) Data Quality
3 1 (0.56%) GDPR
3 1 (0.56%) HL7
3 1 (0.56%) NIST
System Software
1 17 (9.55%) Active Directory
2 6 (3.37%) Hyper-V
2 6 (3.37%) VMware Infrastructure
3 2 (1.12%) Firmware
3 2 (1.12%) QEMU
3 2 (1.12%) Slurm Workload Manager
3 2 (1.12%) VMware ESXi
4 1 (0.56%) ACF2
4 1 (0.56%) GPFS
4 1 (0.56%) RACF
4 1 (0.56%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 7 (3.93%) Ansible
2 5 (2.81%) Microsoft Intune
2 5 (2.81%) Single Sign-On
3 3 (1.69%) SCCM
3 3 (1.69%) Terraform
4 2 (1.12%) EMC NetWorker
4 2 (1.12%) EMC VPLEX
4 2 (1.12%) Grafana
4 2 (1.12%) Podman
4 2 (1.12%) Prometheus
4 2 (1.12%) vCenter Server
5 1 (0.56%) BladeLogic
5 1 (0.56%) Failover Clustering
5 1 (0.56%) FortiGate
5 1 (0.56%) Progress Chef
5 1 (0.56%) WSUS
Vendors
1 34 (19.10%) Microsoft
2 29 (16.29%) Avature
3 8 (4.49%) Red Hat
3 8 (4.49%) VMware
4 7 (3.93%) Oracle
5 6 (3.37%) Broadcom
6 5 (2.81%) Dell
6 5 (2.81%) Google
7 4 (2.25%) Fortinet
7 4 (2.25%) SAP
8 3 (1.69%) Cisco
8 3 (1.69%) Palo Alto
9 2 (1.12%) EMC
9 2 (1.12%) F5
9 2 (1.12%) Isilon
9 2 (1.12%) NVIDIA
9 2 (1.12%) Okta
9 2 (1.12%) ServiceNow
9 2 (1.12%) SolarWinds
9 2 (1.12%) Thales