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 25 May 2026.

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

6 months to
25 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 442 455 373
Rank change year-on-year +13 -82 +92
Contract jobs requiring a Systems Administrator 191 67 200
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.39% 0.23% 0.47%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.43% 0.25% 0.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 96 54 112
10th Percentile £350 £250 £264
25th Percentile £419 £313 £378
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £438 £425 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.94% -15.00% +17.65%
75th Percentile £525 £488 £575
90th Percentile £600 £544 -
UK excluding London median daily rate £438 £450 £550
% change year-on-year -2.78% -18.18% +30.95%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 0 33
10th Percentile £13.50 - £11.77
25th Percentile £17.50 - £15.48
Median hourly rate £22.00 - £24.00
75th Percentile £26.00 - £59.50
90th Percentile £34.62 - £61.27
UK excluding London median hourly rate £18.50 - £24.80
% change year-on-year - - -52.76%

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 44,687 26,578 39,544
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.30% 92.29% 92.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,302 17,300 25,745
10th Percentile £325 £289 £280
25th Percentile £413 £405 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £508 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.99% -3.33% -2.78%
75th Percentile £618 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +5.26% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,943 1,012 2,737
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.00 £12.82
25th Percentile £20.35 £18.13 £16.30
Median hourly rate £42.50 £27.97 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +51.98% -23.38% -18.89%
75th Percentile £66.13 £60.00 £61.30
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.69 £26.34 £40.00
% change year-on-year +65.90% -34.16% -5.88%

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 25 May 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 25 May 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 25 May 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 -30 150 £438 +1.74% 56
UK excluding London -16 129 £438 -2.78% 59
London -62 43 £438 +12.90% 10
Work from Home -15 35 £525 +25.00% 22
Midlands -43 25 £438 -10.26% 11
North of England - 24 £438 - 12
East of England -19 22 £450 +5.26% 9
South West -13 21 £605 +27.32% 10
Scotland +7 14 £500 +25.00% 3
East Midlands -11 14 £319 -40.48% 5
Yorkshire - 12 £438 - 6
South East -55 11 £413 -15.82% 12
West Midlands -57 11 £438 -7.89% 6
Wales - 11 £468 - 5
North West - 7 £438 - 5
North East - 5 £438 - 1
Northern Ireland +2 1 £375 +7.14%

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

For the 6 months to 25 May 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 38 (19.90%) Security Cleared
2 32 (16.75%) Workflow
3 31 (16.23%) Microsoft
3 31 (16.23%) Windows
4 30 (15.71%) Linux
4 30 (15.71%) SC Cleared
5 29 (15.18%) Avature
6 25 (13.09%) Active Directory
7 20 (10.47%) Problem-Solving
8 19 (9.95%) Windows Server
9 18 (9.42%) Microsoft Excel
10 16 (8.38%) Collaborative Working
11 15 (7.85%) DV Cleared
11 15 (7.85%) High Availability
11 15 (7.85%) ITIL
12 14 (7.33%) DNS
13 13 (6.81%) Change Management
13 13 (6.81%) VMware
14 12 (6.28%) BPSS Clearance
14 12 (6.28%) Hyper-V
14 12 (6.28%) VMware Infrastructure
15 11 (5.76%) DHCP
16 10 (5.24%) DB2
16 10 (5.24%) ERP
17 9 (4.71%) Dynamics 365
17 9 (4.71%) Validation
18 8 (4.19%) AWS
18 8 (4.19%) Continuous Improvement
18 8 (4.19%) Degree
18 8 (4.19%) Microsoft 365

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 (3.66%) Microsoft Exchange
1 7 (3.66%) SharePoint
2 2 (1.05%) Confluence
Applications
1 18 (9.42%) Microsoft Excel
2 6 (3.14%) Spreadsheet
3 1 (0.52%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.52%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 1 (0.52%) iTrent
Cloud Services
1 9 (4.71%) Dynamics 365
2 8 (4.19%) AWS
2 8 (4.19%) Microsoft 365
3 7 (3.66%) Azure
4 5 (2.62%) GCP
5 3 (1.57%) Amazon S3
5 3 (1.57%) Entra ID
5 3 (1.57%) IaaS
5 3 (1.57%) Veeva
6 1 (0.52%) Amazon EC2
6 1 (0.52%) Google Workspace
6 1 (0.52%) Power Platform
6 1 (0.52%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 14 (7.33%) DNS
2 11 (5.76%) DHCP
3 7 (3.66%) Firewall
3 7 (3.66%) Network Security
4 6 (3.14%) WAN
5 5 (2.62%) Intrusion Detection
6 3 (1.57%) SAN
7 2 (1.05%) iSCSI
7 2 (1.05%) LAN
7 2 (1.05%) NAS
7 2 (1.05%) TCP/IP
8 1 (0.52%) GSM
8 1 (0.52%) Kerberos
8 1 (0.52%) SSL
8 1 (0.52%) VPN
8 1 (0.52%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (5.24%) DB2
2 7 (3.66%) SQL Server
3 5 (2.62%) Oracle Database
4 2 (1.05%) Data Warehouse
4 2 (1.05%) PostgreSQL
5 1 (0.52%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 2 (1.05%) Git
1 2 (1.05%) JIRA
2 1 (0.52%) Rational Rhapsody
General
1 17 (8.90%) Finance
1 17 (8.90%) Social Skills
2 15 (7.85%) Public Sector
3 12 (6.28%) Banking
4 11 (5.76%) Organisational Skills
5 6 (3.14%) Analytical Skills
6 4 (2.09%) Aerospace
6 4 (2.09%) Fire and Rescue
6 4 (2.09%) Law
6 4 (2.09%) Local Government
6 4 (2.09%) Police
7 3 (1.57%) Retail
8 2 (1.05%) Telecoms
9 1 (0.52%) Electronics
9 1 (0.52%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 1 (0.52%) Manufacturing
9 1 (0.52%) Marketing
9 1 (0.52%) Military
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (1.05%) Oracle Fusion
1 2 (1.05%) YAML
2 1 (0.52%) CSS
2 1 (0.52%) HTML
2 1 (0.52%) Middleware
2 1 (0.52%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 10 (5.24%) Mainframe
1 10 (5.24%) Operational Technology
2 8 (4.19%) Data Centre
3 5 (2.62%) Management Information System
3 5 (2.62%) PKI
3 5 (2.62%) SCADA
4 4 (2.09%) Onboarding
5 3 (1.57%) NHS
5 3 (1.57%) Security Posture
6 2 (1.05%) Legacy Systems
7 1 (0.52%) Clustering
7 1 (0.52%) Driving Licence
7 1 (0.52%) Enterprise Software
7 1 (0.52%) Enterprise Storage
7 1 (0.52%) Learning Management System
7 1 (0.52%) LIMS
Operating Systems
1 31 (16.23%) Windows
2 30 (15.71%) Linux
3 19 (9.95%) Windows Server
4 8 (4.19%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 7 (3.66%) Unix
6 6 (3.14%) zOS
7 4 (2.09%) Ubuntu
8 2 (1.05%) Debian
8 2 (1.05%) Windows Server 2016
8 2 (1.05%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.52%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 32 (16.75%) Workflow
2 20 (10.47%) Problem-Solving
3 16 (8.38%) Collaborative Working
4 15 (7.85%) High Availability
4 15 (7.85%) ITIL
5 13 (6.81%) Change Management
6 10 (5.24%) ERP
7 9 (4.71%) Validation
8 8 (4.19%) Continuous Improvement
9 7 (3.66%) Knowledge Transfer
9 7 (3.66%) Service Delivery
9 7 (3.66%) Time Management
10 6 (3.14%) Configuration Management
10 6 (3.14%) Cybersecurity
10 6 (3.14%) Problem Management
10 6 (3.14%) Security Patching
10 6 (3.14%) System Testing
11 5 (2.62%) Identity Access Management
11 5 (2.62%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 5 (2.62%) Vulnerability Management
Programming Languages
1 7 (3.66%) SQL
2 6 (3.14%) PowerShell
3 3 (1.57%) Bash
4 2 (1.05%) C++
4 2 (1.05%) Python
Qualifications
1 38 (19.90%) Security Cleared
2 30 (15.71%) SC Cleared
3 15 (7.85%) DV Cleared
4 12 (6.28%) BPSS Clearance
5 8 (4.19%) Degree
6 2 (1.05%) HND
6 2 (1.05%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
6 2 (1.05%) Microsoft Certification
6 2 (1.05%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (2.09%) SLA
2 3 (1.57%) JSP 440
3 2 (1.05%) Data Quality
4 1 (0.52%) Accessibility
4 1 (0.52%) COBIT
4 1 (0.52%) HL7
4 1 (0.52%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 1 (0.52%) NIST
System Software
1 25 (13.09%) Active Directory
2 12 (6.28%) Hyper-V
2 12 (6.28%) VMware Infrastructure
3 4 (2.09%) Virtual Machines
4 2 (1.05%) Firmware
4 2 (1.05%) QEMU
4 2 (1.05%) VMware ESXi
4 2 (1.05%) VMware Workstation
5 1 (0.52%) ACF2
5 1 (0.52%) RACF
5 1 (0.52%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 6 (3.14%) Ansible
2 4 (2.09%) SCCM
2 4 (2.09%) Single Sign-On
3 3 (1.57%) Microsoft Intune
4 2 (1.05%) Grafana
4 2 (1.05%) Podman
4 2 (1.05%) Prometheus
4 2 (1.05%) vCenter Server
5 1 (0.52%) EMC NetWorker
5 1 (0.52%) EMC VPLEX
5 1 (0.52%) Failover Clustering
5 1 (0.52%) FortiGate
5 1 (0.52%) Network Intrusion Detection System
5 1 (0.52%) Progress Chef
5 1 (0.52%) SCOM
5 1 (0.52%) WSUS
Vendors
1 31 (16.23%) Microsoft
2 29 (15.18%) Avature
3 13 (6.81%) VMware
4 7 (3.66%) Cisco
4 7 (3.66%) Oracle
5 6 (3.14%) Broadcom
5 6 (3.14%) Red Hat
6 5 (2.62%) Google
7 4 (2.09%) SAP
8 3 (1.57%) Dell
9 2 (1.05%) F5
9 2 (1.05%) Fortinet
9 2 (1.05%) NEC
9 2 (1.05%) NetApp
9 2 (1.05%) NVIDIA
9 2 (1.05%) Okta
9 2 (1.05%) SolarWinds
9 2 (1.05%) Thales
10 1 (0.52%) Splunk
10 1 (0.52%) Trend Micro