Systems Administrator Contract Job Trends

System Administrator (Sysadmin)
UK

The median System Administrator (Sysadmin) daily rate in the UK is £400, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 4 October 2026.

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

6 months to
4 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 517 445 365
Rank change year-on-year -72 -80 +61
Contract jobs requiring a Systems Administrator 169 100 199
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.31% 0.30% 0.52%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.34% 0.33% 0.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 69 62 73
10th Percentile £213 £213 £276
25th Percentile £363 £263 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £400 £400 £475
Median % change year-on-year - -15.79% +5.56%
75th Percentile £476 £498 £575
90th Percentile £565 £553 £618
UK excluding London median daily rate £400 £486 £488
% change year-on-year -17.74% -0.26% +8.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 33 3 21
10th Percentile £16.70 £20.90 £13.49
25th Percentile £17.74 £23.08 £15.48
Median hourly rate £20.50 £28.43 £20.00
Median % change year-on-year -27.89% +42.15% -60.98%
75th Percentile £24.16 £31.20 £38.00
90th Percentile £35.00 £31.83 £57.62
UK excluding London median hourly rate £20.50 £24.77 £20.00
% change year-on-year -17.22% +23.83% -60.98%

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 50,330 30,144 35,336
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.12% 90.83% 93.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,591 19,030 21,429
10th Percentile £325 £278 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -0.94%
75th Percentile £636 £623 £638
90th Percentile £736 £725 £741
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £495
% change year-on-year +5.26% -4.04% -1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,999 1,630 1,541
10th Percentile £14.42 £13.75 £14.99
25th Percentile £19.77 £17.30 £20.75
Median hourly rate £41.74 £25.15 £42.91
Median % change year-on-year +65.94% -41.39% -3.57%
75th Percentile £67.50 £51.19 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £68.28 £74.87
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.74 £25.08 £43.00
% change year-on-year +66.44% -41.69% -2.82%

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 4 October 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 4 October 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 4 October 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 -69 136 £400 -5.88% 158
UK excluding London -33 125 £400 -17.74% 115
London -77 35 £388 +10.71% 47
South East -44 29 £243 -52.91% 37
Work from Home -78 25 £420 +12.00% 52
Midlands - 23 £411 - 20
North of England -51 20 £400 -16.52% 23
Scotland -14 15 £375 -25.00% 6
Wales - 14 £468 - 3
East Midlands - 14 £305 - 4
Yorkshire - 13 £400 - 11
East of England -17 12 - - 15
South West -38 12 £425 -13.27% 13
West Midlands - 9 £438 - 16
North East - 5 £400 - 2
North West -46 2 - - 10

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

For the 6 months to 4 October 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 44 (26.04%) Microsoft
2 38 (22.49%) Windows
3 29 (17.16%) Linux
3 29 (17.16%) Security Cleared
4 27 (15.98%) Active Directory
5 25 (14.79%) Windows Server
6 23 (13.61%) Problem-Solving
6 23 (13.61%) SC Cleared
7 21 (12.43%) VMware
8 19 (11.24%) ITIL
9 18 (10.65%) Microsoft 365
9 18 (10.65%) VMware Infrastructure
10 16 (9.47%) Microsoft Excel
11 15 (8.88%) DNS
11 15 (8.88%) Entra ID
11 15 (8.88%) SharePoint
12 14 (8.28%) Cisco
13 13 (7.69%) Hyper-V
13 13 (7.69%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
14 12 (7.10%) Azure
14 12 (7.10%) Microsoft Intune
14 12 (7.10%) Validation
15 11 (6.51%) Collaborative Working
16 10 (5.92%) DHCP
16 10 (5.92%) DV Cleared
16 10 (5.92%) Migration
17 9 (5.33%) Configuration Management
17 9 (5.33%) Data Quality
17 9 (5.33%) Degree
17 9 (5.33%) Microsoft Exchange

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 15 (8.88%) SharePoint
2 9 (5.33%) Microsoft Exchange
3 4 (2.37%) JBoss
4 1 (0.59%) Confluence
Applications
1 16 (9.47%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (1.78%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.59%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.59%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 1 (0.59%) Dynamics NAV
1 1 (0.59%) iTrent
Cloud Services
1 18 (10.65%) Microsoft 365
2 15 (8.88%) Entra ID
3 12 (7.10%) Azure
4 7 (4.14%) Dynamics 365
4 7 (4.14%) Power Platform
5 6 (3.55%) Microsoft Copilot
5 6 (3.55%) Microsoft Purview
5 6 (3.55%) Power Automate
5 6 (3.55%) PowerApps
6 3 (1.78%) Veeva
7 2 (1.18%) Google Workspace
8 1 (0.59%) AWS
8 1 (0.59%) Azure Key Vault
8 1 (0.59%) Azure Monitor
8 1 (0.59%) Azure Sentinel
8 1 (0.59%) OneDrive
8 1 (0.59%) SaaS
8 1 (0.59%) SuccessFactors
Communications & Networking
1 15 (8.88%) DNS
2 10 (5.92%) DHCP
3 7 (4.14%) Firewall
4 6 (3.55%) TCP/IP
4 6 (3.55%) WAN
5 5 (2.96%) Kerberos
6 4 (2.37%) Intrusion Detection
6 4 (2.37%) Network Security
6 4 (2.37%) SAN
7 3 (1.78%) BGP
7 3 (1.78%) NAS
7 3 (1.78%) VPN
7 3 (1.78%) Wireless
8 2 (1.18%) MPLS
8 2 (1.18%) Remote Desktop
8 2 (1.18%) SSL
8 2 (1.18%) Wi-Fi
9 1 (0.59%) iSCSI
9 1 (0.59%) VLAN
9 1 (0.59%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (4.14%) Power BI
2 6 (3.55%) SQL Server
3 4 (2.37%) Big Data
3 4 (2.37%) Hadoop
4 1 (0.59%) Db2
4 1 (0.59%) MariaDB
4 1 (0.59%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 2 (1.18%) JIRA
2 1 (0.59%) Git
2 1 (0.59%) Rational Rhapsody
General
1 31 (18.34%) Social Skills
2 24 (14.20%) Public Sector
3 13 (7.69%) Analytical Skills
4 8 (4.73%) Finance
4 8 (4.73%) Organisational Skills
5 4 (2.37%) Law
5 4 (2.37%) Manufacturing
5 4 (2.37%) Police
6 3 (1.78%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 3 (1.78%) Military
6 3 (1.78%) Retail
7 2 (1.18%) Back Office
8 1 (0.59%) Documentation Skills
8 1 (0.59%) Games
8 1 (0.59%) German Language
8 1 (0.59%) Legal
8 1 (0.59%) Polish Language
8 1 (0.59%) Portuguese Language
8 1 (0.59%) Spanish Language
8 1 (0.59%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (1.78%) Software Packaging
2 1 (0.59%) Kafka
2 1 (0.59%) Middleware
2 1 (0.59%) Model Context Protocol
Miscellaneous
1 9 (5.33%) Operational Technology
2 6 (3.55%) BYOD
2 6 (3.55%) Data Centre
2 6 (3.55%) Management Information System
3 5 (2.96%) Clustering
3 5 (2.96%) SCADA
4 4 (2.37%) PKI
5 2 (1.18%) Security Posture
6 1 (0.59%) CMDB
6 1 (0.59%) Data Protection Act
6 1 (0.59%) Driving Licence
6 1 (0.59%) Enterprise Software
6 1 (0.59%) Greenfield Project
6 1 (0.59%) Legacy Systems
6 1 (0.59%) LIMS
6 1 (0.59%) Mobile App
6 1 (0.59%) Onboarding
6 1 (0.59%) Replication
6 1 (0.59%) TM Forum
6 1 (0.59%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 38 (22.49%) Windows
2 29 (17.16%) Linux
3 25 (14.79%) Windows Server
4 13 (7.69%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 7 (4.14%) SUSE
6 4 (2.37%) Mac OS
7 2 (1.18%) Windows Server 2012
8 1 (0.59%) AIX
8 1 (0.59%) Rocky
8 1 (0.59%) Solaris
8 1 (0.59%) Unix
8 1 (0.59%) VMS
8 1 (0.59%) Windows 10
8 1 (0.59%) Windows Server 2016
8 1 (0.59%) Windows Server 2019
8 1 (0.59%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 23 (13.61%) Problem-Solving
2 19 (11.24%) ITIL
3 12 (7.10%) Validation
4 11 (6.51%) Collaborative Working
5 10 (5.92%) Migration
6 9 (5.33%) Configuration Management
6 9 (5.33%) Stakeholder Management
7 8 (4.73%) Change Management
7 8 (4.73%) Continuous Improvement
7 8 (4.73%) ERP
7 8 (4.73%) Project Management
7 8 (4.73%) System Testing
7 8 (4.73%) Workflow
8 7 (4.14%) Business Intelligence
8 7 (4.14%) Disaster Recovery
8 7 (4.14%) Identity Access Management
8 7 (4.14%) Patch Management
8 7 (4.14%) Process Improvement
9 6 (3.55%) Performance Tuning
9 6 (3.55%) Problem Management
Programming Languages
1 5 (2.96%) PowerShell
1 5 (2.96%) SQL
2 4 (2.37%) Bash
3 3 (1.78%) Python
4 2 (1.18%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 29 (17.16%) Security Cleared
2 23 (13.61%) SC Cleared
3 10 (5.92%) DV Cleared
4 9 (5.33%) Degree
5 8 (4.73%) BPSS Clearance
6 5 (2.96%) HND
7 2 (1.18%) Azure Certification
7 2 (1.18%) Microsoft Certification
8 1 (0.59%) CIPD
8 1 (0.59%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
8 1 (0.59%) Microsoft Certified Professional
8 1 (0.59%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (5.33%) Data Quality
2 2 (1.18%) 21 CFR Part 11
2 2 (1.18%) GMP
2 2 (1.18%) GxP
3 1 (0.59%) Cyber Essentials
3 1 (0.59%) GDPR
3 1 (0.59%) HL7
3 1 (0.59%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 1 (0.59%) JSP 440
3 1 (0.59%) SLA
System Software
1 27 (15.98%) Active Directory
2 18 (10.65%) VMware Infrastructure
3 13 (7.69%) Hyper-V
4 5 (2.96%) Docker
4 5 (2.96%) Virtual Machines
5 2 (1.18%) OpenSSH
5 2 (1.18%) VMware ESXi
5 2 (1.18%) VMware Workstation
6 1 (0.59%) NFS
6 1 (0.59%) Oracle RAC
6 1 (0.59%) Slurm Workload Manager
6 1 (0.59%) Terminal Services
6 1 (0.59%) Veritas Cluster Server
6 1 (0.59%) Veritas Volume Manager
6 1 (0.59%) Virtual Desktop
6 1 (0.59%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 12 (7.10%) Microsoft Intune
2 8 (4.73%) SCCM
3 5 (2.96%) Puppet
4 4 (2.37%) Failover Clustering
4 4 (2.37%) Red Hat Satellite
5 3 (1.78%) Ansible
5 3 (1.78%) FortiGate
5 3 (1.78%) SCOM
5 3 (1.78%) Single Sign-On
6 1 (0.59%) Check_MK
6 1 (0.59%) Docker Swarm
6 1 (0.59%) EMC NetWorker
6 1 (0.59%) Grafana
6 1 (0.59%) NetBackup
6 1 (0.59%) Network Intrusion Detection System
6 1 (0.59%) Podman
6 1 (0.59%) Prometheus
6 1 (0.59%) vCenter Server
6 1 (0.59%) WSUS
Vendors
1 44 (26.04%) Microsoft
2 21 (12.43%) VMware
3 14 (8.28%) Cisco
4 9 (5.33%) Red Hat
5 7 (4.14%) Avature
6 4 (2.37%) SAP
7 3 (1.78%) Fortinet
7 3 (1.78%) ServiceNow
8 2 (1.18%) Citrix
8 2 (1.18%) Google
8 2 (1.18%) Juniper
8 2 (1.18%) Meraki
8 2 (1.18%) NEC
8 2 (1.18%) Okta
8 2 (1.18%) Oracle
9 1 (0.59%) Broadcom
9 1 (0.59%) Perforce
9 1 (0.59%) SolarWinds
9 1 (0.59%) Splunk
9 1 (0.59%) Veritas