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 26 April 2026.

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

6 months to
26 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 439 464 382
Rank change year-on-year +25 -82 +121
Contract jobs requiring a Systems Administrator 185 66 209
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.40% 0.22% 0.48%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.43% 0.24% 0.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 94 53 119
10th Percentile £354 £193 £245
25th Percentile £419 £281 £359
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £438 £420 £500
Median % change year-on-year +4.17% -16.00% +17.65%
75th Percentile £538 £490 £575
90th Percentile £600 £585 -
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 31
10th Percentile - £20.90 £11.77
25th Percentile £17.50 £21.13 £17.36
Median hourly rate £18.50 £22.75 £44.00
Median % change year-on-year -18.68% -48.30% -16.19%
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% -16.19%

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 43,137 27,188 40,489
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.31% 92.59% 92.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 26,662 17,796 26,412
10th Percentile £313 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £407 £408
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £517 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.29% -1.52% -2.78%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £488 £475 £490
% change year-on-year +2.63% -3.13% -1.93%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,772 1,030 2,642
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.20 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.48 £18.51 £16.30
Median hourly rate £42.85 £29.24 £35.68
Median % change year-on-year +46.55% -18.05% -20.71%
75th Percentile £65.67 £62.50 £60.00
90th Percentile £78.52 £75.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £28.75 £37.50
% change year-on-year +56.52% -23.33% -11.76%

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 26 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 26 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 26 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 -3 147 £438 +1.74% 51
UK excluding London -6 113 £438 -2.78% 49
London -49 51 £438 +12.90% 16
Work from Home -1 44 £454 +10.73% 32
North of England -43 26 £438 +9.38% 9
Midlands -41 23 £438 -12.50% 8
East of England -18 21 £450 +4.65% 9
South West -19 16 £610 +10.82% 6
Yorkshire -46 15 £438 +9.38% 4
Scotland +12 13 £500 +78.57% 5
East Midlands -26 12 £444 -17.13% 5
West Midlands -52 11 £438 -10.26% 3
South East -61 8 £475 -3.06% 10
North West - 6 £438 - 4
North East - 5 £438 - 1
Wales - 4 £433 - 4
Northern Ireland - 2 £375 -

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

For the 6 months to 26 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 35 (18.92%) Microsoft
2 34 (18.38%) Security Cleared
3 33 (17.84%) Linux
4 31 (16.76%) Workflow
5 29 (15.68%) Avature
6 25 (13.51%) SC Cleared
6 25 (13.51%) Windows
7 22 (11.89%) Microsoft Excel
8 20 (10.81%) Active Directory
9 16 (8.65%) DV Cleared
10 15 (8.11%) High Availability
10 15 (8.11%) Problem-Solving
11 14 (7.57%) Collaborative Working
11 14 (7.57%) DNS
11 14 (7.57%) Microsoft 365
12 13 (7.03%) Windows Server
13 12 (6.49%) Change Management
13 12 (6.49%) Firewall
13 12 (6.49%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 12 (6.49%) Time Management
14 11 (5.95%) Continuous Improvement
15 10 (5.41%) DB2
15 10 (5.41%) ERP
15 10 (5.41%) ITIL
15 10 (5.41%) PowerShell
15 10 (5.41%) Red Hat
16 9 (4.86%) Azure
16 9 (4.86%) DHCP
16 9 (4.86%) SharePoint
16 9 (4.86%) VMware

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 9 (4.86%) SharePoint
2 6 (3.24%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (1.08%) Confluence
Applications
1 22 (11.89%) Microsoft Excel
2 6 (3.24%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 6 (3.24%) Spreadsheet
3 1 (0.54%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (0.54%) iTrent
1 1 (0.54%) Magento
1 1 (0.54%) Sage 200
1 1 (0.54%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 14 (7.57%) Microsoft 365
2 9 (4.86%) Azure
3 8 (4.32%) AWS
3 8 (4.32%) Dynamics 365
3 8 (4.32%) IaaS
4 7 (3.78%) Entra ID
5 5 (2.70%) GCP
5 5 (2.70%) SaaS
6 3 (1.62%) Amazon S3
6 3 (1.62%) PaaS
6 3 (1.62%) Veeva
7 1 (0.54%) Amazon EC2
7 1 (0.54%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 14 (7.57%) DNS
2 12 (6.49%) Firewall
3 9 (4.86%) DHCP
4 6 (3.24%) Network Security
5 4 (2.16%) SAN
5 4 (2.16%) VPN
6 3 (1.62%) WAN
7 2 (1.08%) Intrusion Detection
7 2 (1.08%) iSCSI
7 2 (1.08%) LAN
7 2 (1.08%) NAS
7 2 (1.08%) SSL
7 2 (1.08%) TCP/IP
8 1 (0.54%) GSM
8 1 (0.54%) Kerberos
8 1 (0.54%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (5.41%) DB2
2 5 (2.70%) Oracle Database
3 4 (2.16%) SQL Server
4 3 (1.62%) PostgreSQL
5 2 (1.08%) Data Warehouse
6 1 (0.54%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 2 (1.08%) Git
1 2 (1.08%) JIRA
2 1 (0.54%) Rational Rhapsody
General
1 22 (11.89%) Social Skills
2 20 (10.81%) Finance
3 13 (7.03%) Banking
4 11 (5.95%) Public Sector
5 9 (4.86%) Organisational Skills
6 5 (2.70%) Legal
6 5 (2.70%) Local Government
7 4 (2.16%) Aerospace
7 4 (2.16%) Analytical Skills
7 4 (2.16%) Fire and Rescue
7 4 (2.16%) Telecoms
8 3 (1.62%) Retail
9 2 (1.08%) Law
9 2 (1.08%) Police
10 1 (0.54%) Documentation Skills
10 1 (0.54%) Electronics
10 1 (0.54%) German Language
10 1 (0.54%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 1 (0.54%) Manufacturing
10 1 (0.54%) Marketing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (1.08%) Oracle Fusion
1 2 (1.08%) YAML
2 1 (0.54%) CSS
2 1 (0.54%) HTML
2 1 (0.54%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 10 (5.41%) Mainframe
2 9 (4.86%) Onboarding
3 6 (3.24%) PKI
4 5 (2.70%) Data Centre
5 4 (2.16%) Clustering
6 3 (1.62%) Management Information System
6 3 (1.62%) NHS
6 3 (1.62%) Operational Technology
6 3 (1.62%) Security Posture
7 2 (1.08%) Legacy Systems
7 2 (1.08%) SCADA
8 1 (0.54%) Data Structures
8 1 (0.54%) Driving Licence
8 1 (0.54%) Enterprise Software
8 1 (0.54%) Enterprise Storage
8 1 (0.54%) Learning Management System
8 1 (0.54%) LIMS
Operating Systems
1 33 (17.84%) Linux
2 25 (13.51%) Windows
3 13 (7.03%) Windows Server
4 12 (6.49%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 8 (4.32%) Unix
6 6 (3.24%) zOS
7 4 (2.16%) Ubuntu
8 2 (1.08%) Debian
8 2 (1.08%) Windows Server 2016
8 2 (1.08%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.54%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 31 (16.76%) Workflow
2 15 (8.11%) High Availability
2 15 (8.11%) Problem-Solving
3 14 (7.57%) Collaborative Working
4 12 (6.49%) Change Management
4 12 (6.49%) Time Management
5 11 (5.95%) Continuous Improvement
6 10 (5.41%) ERP
6 10 (5.41%) ITIL
7 8 (4.32%) Service Delivery
7 8 (4.32%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 7 (3.78%) Knowledge Transfer
8 7 (3.78%) Security Patching
9 5 (2.70%) Configuration Management
9 5 (2.70%) Knowledge Management
9 5 (2.70%) Validation
10 4 (2.16%) Disaster Recovery
10 4 (2.16%) Infrastructure as Code
10 4 (2.16%) Performance Management
10 4 (2.16%) Problem Management
Programming Languages
1 10 (5.41%) PowerShell
2 5 (2.70%) Bash
3 4 (2.16%) SQL
4 3 (1.62%) Python
5 2 (1.08%) C++
6 1 (0.54%) Perl
Qualifications
1 34 (18.38%) Security Cleared
2 25 (13.51%) SC Cleared
3 16 (8.65%) DV Cleared
4 8 (4.32%) BPSS Clearance
5 5 (2.70%) Degree
6 2 (1.08%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
6 2 (1.08%) Microsoft Certification
6 2 (1.08%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
7 1 (0.54%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (2.16%) SLA
2 3 (1.62%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 3 (1.62%) JSP 440
3 1 (0.54%) Accessibility
3 1 (0.54%) COBIT
3 1 (0.54%) Data Quality
3 1 (0.54%) GDPR
3 1 (0.54%) HL7
3 1 (0.54%) NIST
System Software
1 20 (10.81%) Active Directory
2 7 (3.78%) Hyper-V
2 7 (3.78%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (1.62%) Slurm Workload Manager
4 2 (1.08%) Firmware
4 2 (1.08%) QEMU
4 2 (1.08%) VMware ESXi
5 1 (0.54%) ACF2
5 1 (0.54%) GPFS
5 1 (0.54%) RACF
5 1 (0.54%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 7 (3.78%) Ansible
2 5 (2.70%) Microsoft Intune
2 5 (2.70%) Single Sign-On
3 3 (1.62%) SCCM
3 3 (1.62%) Terraform
4 2 (1.08%) EMC NetWorker
4 2 (1.08%) EMC VPLEX
4 2 (1.08%) Grafana
4 2 (1.08%) Podman
4 2 (1.08%) Prometheus
4 2 (1.08%) vCenter Server
5 1 (0.54%) BladeLogic
5 1 (0.54%) Failover Clustering
5 1 (0.54%) FortiGate
5 1 (0.54%) Network Intrusion Detection System
5 1 (0.54%) Progress Chef
5 1 (0.54%) WSUS
Vendors
1 35 (18.92%) Microsoft
2 29 (15.68%) Avature
3 10 (5.41%) Red Hat
4 9 (4.86%) VMware
5 7 (3.78%) Oracle
6 6 (3.24%) Broadcom
7 5 (2.70%) Cisco
7 5 (2.70%) Dell
7 5 (2.70%) Google
8 4 (2.16%) Fortinet
8 4 (2.16%) SAP
9 3 (1.62%) Palo Alto
10 2 (1.08%) EMC
10 2 (1.08%) F5
10 2 (1.08%) Isilon
10 2 (1.08%) NVIDIA
10 2 (1.08%) Okta
10 2 (1.08%) ServiceNow
10 2 (1.08%) SolarWinds
10 2 (1.08%) Thales