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 10 August 2026.

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

6 months to
10 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 477 448 435
Rank change year-on-year -29 -13 +11
Contract jobs requiring a Systems Administrator 193 104 137
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.36% 0.31% 0.35%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.39% 0.34% 0.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 85 69 72
10th Percentile £306 £214 £278
25th Percentile £394 £281 £370
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £438 £420 £475
Median % change year-on-year +4.17% -11.58% +14.46%
75th Percentile £476 £490 £575
90th Percentile £533 £548 -
UK excluding London median daily rate £438 £490 £500
% change year-on-year -10.71% -2.00% +20.48%
Number of hourly rates quoted 35 3 22
10th Percentile £16.90 £20.90 £13.49
25th Percentile £17.75 £23.08 £15.48
Median hourly rate £20.50 £28.43 £20.00
Median % change year-on-year -27.89% +42.15% -61.90%
75th Percentile £30.31 £31.20 £45.80
90th Percentile £35.00 £31.83 £58.49
UK excluding London median hourly rate £20.50 £24.77 £20.00
% change year-on-year -17.22% +23.83% -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 49,375 30,298 36,046
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.56% 91.39% 92.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,671 19,217 23,307
10th Percentile £328 £283 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.87%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £727 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,467 1,516 2,023
10th Percentile £15.00 £13.60 £14.16
25th Percentile £20.72 £17.21 £20.50
Median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +67.00% -41.51% +1.18%
75th Percentile £67.84 £53.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £72.63 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.11 £45.00
% change year-on-year +69.26% -44.20% +20.00%

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 10 August 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 10 August 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 10 August 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 -44 152 £438 +2.94% 79
UK excluding London -9 139 £438 -10.71% 66
London -76 41 £438 +9.38% 27
Work from Home -41 35 £425 +6.25% 24
Midlands -25 28 £438 -7.89% 16
North of England -38 28 £438 -8.69% 8
South East -62 23 £525 +1.94% 20
Scotland +3 19 £500 +19.05% 7
East Midlands - 17 £385 - 8
East of England -8 16 - - 3
Yorkshire - 15 £438 - 3
Wales - 14 £468 - 3
West Midlands -44 11 £438 -7.89% 8
South West -45 11 £425 -11.92% 10
North West -39 8 £438 -8.69% 5
North East - 5 £438 -

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

For the 6 months to 10 August 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 39 (20.21%) Microsoft
2 31 (16.06%) Windows
2 31 (16.06%) Workflow
3 29 (15.03%) Active Directory
3 29 (15.03%) Avature
4 27 (13.99%) Security Cleared
5 24 (12.44%) Linux
6 23 (11.92%) SC Cleared
7 21 (10.88%) Problem-Solving
7 21 (10.88%) Windows Server
8 19 (9.84%) ITIL
9 17 (8.81%) DNS
9 17 (8.81%) Microsoft Excel
10 16 (8.29%) VMware
11 15 (7.77%) Collaborative Working
12 13 (6.74%) VMware Infrastructure
13 12 (6.22%) Cisco
14 11 (5.70%) High Availability
14 11 (5.70%) Validation
15 10 (5.18%) Db2
15 10 (5.18%) DHCP
15 10 (5.18%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
16 9 (4.66%) Configuration Management
16 9 (4.66%) Data Quality
16 9 (4.66%) Degree
16 9 (4.66%) Dynamics 365
16 9 (4.66%) ERP
16 9 (4.66%) Firewall
16 9 (4.66%) Hyper-V
16 9 (4.66%) 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 9 (4.66%) SharePoint
2 7 (3.63%) Microsoft Exchange
3 3 (1.55%) Confluence
3 3 (1.55%) JBoss
Applications
1 17 (8.81%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (1.04%) Spreadsheet
3 1 (0.52%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.52%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.52%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 1 (0.52%) iTrent
Cloud Services
1 9 (4.66%) Dynamics 365
1 9 (4.66%) Microsoft 365
2 7 (3.63%) Azure
3 6 (3.11%) Entra ID
4 3 (1.55%) AWS
4 3 (1.55%) Veeva
5 2 (1.04%) Amazon S3
5 2 (1.04%) IaaS
6 1 (0.52%) Azure Key Vault
6 1 (0.52%) Azure Monitor
6 1 (0.52%) Azure Sentinel
6 1 (0.52%) Google Workspace
6 1 (0.52%) OneDrive
6 1 (0.52%) Power Platform
6 1 (0.52%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 17 (8.81%) DNS
2 10 (5.18%) DHCP
3 9 (4.66%) Firewall
4 7 (3.63%) WAN
5 4 (2.07%) Intrusion Detection
5 4 (2.07%) Kerberos
5 4 (2.07%) Network Security
6 3 (1.55%) BGP
6 3 (1.55%) TCP/IP
6 3 (1.55%) VPN
7 2 (1.04%) iSCSI
7 2 (1.04%) LAN
7 2 (1.04%) MPLS
7 2 (1.04%) NAS
7 2 (1.04%) SAN
7 2 (1.04%) SSL
8 1 (0.52%) Broadband
8 1 (0.52%) SSH
8 1 (0.52%) WebEx
8 1 (0.52%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (5.18%) Db2
2 6 (3.11%) SQL Server
3 3 (1.55%) Big Data
3 3 (1.55%) Hadoop
4 2 (1.04%) Data Warehouse
4 2 (1.04%) PostgreSQL
5 1 (0.52%) MariaDB
5 1 (0.52%) MySQL
5 1 (0.52%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 3 (1.55%) JIRA
2 1 (0.52%) Rational Rhapsody
General
1 28 (14.51%) Social Skills
2 21 (10.88%) Public Sector
3 13 (6.74%) Analytical Skills
4 12 (6.22%) Organisational Skills
5 9 (4.66%) Finance
6 4 (2.07%) Law
6 4 (2.07%) Police
7 3 (1.55%) Military
7 3 (1.55%) Retail
8 2 (1.04%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 2 (1.04%) Local Government
9 1 (0.52%) Documentation Skills
9 1 (0.52%) Games
9 1 (0.52%) Legal
9 1 (0.52%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (1.55%) Software Packaging
2 2 (1.04%) Oracle Fusion
2 2 (1.04%) YAML
3 1 (0.52%) CSS
3 1 (0.52%) HTML
3 1 (0.52%) Kafka
3 1 (0.52%) Middleware
3 1 (0.52%) Model Context Protocol
Miscellaneous
1 10 (5.18%) Mainframe
2 9 (4.66%) Operational Technology
3 6 (3.11%) Management Information System
4 5 (2.59%) Data Centre
4 5 (2.59%) Onboarding
4 5 (2.59%) SCADA
5 4 (2.07%) Clustering
5 4 (2.07%) PKI
6 2 (1.04%) Enterprise Software
6 2 (1.04%) NHS
6 2 (1.04%) Security Posture
7 1 (0.52%) CMDB
7 1 (0.52%) Driving Licence
7 1 (0.52%) Greenfield Project
7 1 (0.52%) Learning Management System
7 1 (0.52%) Legacy Systems
7 1 (0.52%) LIMS
7 1 (0.52%) Mobile App
7 1 (0.52%) TM Forum
7 1 (0.52%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 31 (16.06%) Windows
2 24 (12.44%) Linux
3 21 (10.88%) Windows Server
4 10 (5.18%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 6 (3.11%) zOS
6 3 (1.55%) SUSE
7 2 (1.04%) Mac OS
7 2 (1.04%) Windows Server 2012
8 1 (0.52%) VMS
8 1 (0.52%) Windows 10
8 1 (0.52%) Windows Server 2016
8 1 (0.52%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 31 (16.06%) Workflow
2 21 (10.88%) Problem-Solving
3 19 (9.84%) ITIL
4 15 (7.77%) Collaborative Working
5 11 (5.70%) High Availability
5 11 (5.70%) Validation
6 9 (4.66%) Configuration Management
6 9 (4.66%) ERP
7 8 (4.15%) Project Management
7 8 (4.15%) System Testing
8 7 (3.63%) Change Management
8 7 (3.63%) Continuous Improvement
8 7 (3.63%) Knowledge Transfer
8 7 (3.63%) Performance Tuning
8 7 (3.63%) Process Improvement
8 7 (3.63%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 6 (3.11%) Customer Service
9 6 (3.11%) Cybersecurity
9 6 (3.11%) Identity Access Management
9 6 (3.11%) Task Automation
Programming Languages
1 6 (3.11%) PowerShell
2 5 (2.59%) Bash
2 5 (2.59%) Python
2 5 (2.59%) SQL
3 2 (1.04%) C++
Qualifications
1 27 (13.99%) Security Cleared
2 23 (11.92%) SC Cleared
3 9 (4.66%) Degree
4 8 (4.15%) BPSS Clearance
5 5 (2.59%) HND
6 4 (2.07%) DV Cleared
7 2 (1.04%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
7 2 (1.04%) Microsoft Certification
7 2 (1.04%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 1 (0.52%) Azure Certification
8 1 (0.52%) CIPD
8 1 (0.52%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (4.66%) Data Quality
2 4 (2.07%) JSP 440
2 4 (2.07%) SLA
3 1 (0.52%) Accessibility
3 1 (0.52%) COBIT
3 1 (0.52%) Cyber Essentials
3 1 (0.52%) GDPR
3 1 (0.52%) HL7
3 1 (0.52%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 29 (15.03%) Active Directory
2 13 (6.74%) VMware Infrastructure
3 9 (4.66%) Hyper-V
4 4 (2.07%) Virtual Machines
5 3 (1.55%) Docker
6 2 (1.04%) OpenSSH
6 2 (1.04%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (1.04%) VMware Workstation
7 1 (0.52%) ACF2
7 1 (0.52%) Firmware
7 1 (0.52%) RACF
7 1 (0.52%) Slurm Workload Manager
7 1 (0.52%) Terminal Services
7 1 (0.52%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 8 (4.15%) SCCM
2 5 (2.59%) Single Sign-On
3 4 (2.07%) Ansible
4 3 (1.55%) Failover Clustering
4 3 (1.55%) Microsoft Intune
4 3 (1.55%) Puppet
4 3 (1.55%) Red Hat Satellite
4 3 (1.55%) SCOM
5 2 (1.04%) FortiGate
5 2 (1.04%) vCenter Server
5 2 (1.04%) WSUS
6 1 (0.52%) Docker Swarm
6 1 (0.52%) Network Intrusion Detection System
Vendors
1 39 (20.21%) Microsoft
2 29 (15.03%) Avature
3 16 (8.29%) VMware
4 12 (6.22%) Cisco
5 7 (3.63%) Red Hat
6 6 (3.11%) Broadcom
7 3 (1.55%) Oracle
7 3 (1.55%) SAP
8 2 (1.04%) Citrix
8 2 (1.04%) F5
8 2 (1.04%) Juniper
8 2 (1.04%) NEC
8 2 (1.04%) Okta
8 2 (1.04%) ServiceNow
8 2 (1.04%) SolarWinds
8 2 (1.04%) Splunk
8 2 (1.04%) Thales
9 1 (0.52%) Google
9 1 (0.52%) Perforce
9 1 (0.52%) Workday