Active Directory Job Trends in the Thames Valley

Microsoft Active Directory
South East > Thames Valley

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the Thames Valley requiring Active Directory skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 11 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
11 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 48 57 21
Rank change year-on-year +9 -36 +12
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 151 116 477
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 2.92% 4.14% 7.37%
As % of the System Software category 57.85% 34.94% 45.60%
Number of salaries quoted 122 97 426
10th Percentile £27,775 £25,750 £26,250
25th Percentile £31,250 £31,250 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £35,000 £45,000 £41,250
Median % change year-on-year -22.22% +9.09% +26.92%
75th Percentile £44,688 £57,500 £54,500
90th Percentile £68,750 £66,600 £59,000
South East median annual salary £36,250 £41,250 £37,500
% change year-on-year -12.12% +10.00% +10.29%

All System Software Skills
Thames Valley

Active Directory falls under the System Software category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring system software skills in the Thames Valley.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for system software skills 261 332 1,046
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 5.04% 11.84% 16.17%
Number of salaries quoted 175 248 854
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £28,000
25th Percentile £31,488 £42,500 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £40,000 £60,000 £51,000
Median % change year-on-year -33.33% +17.65% +20.00%
75th Percentile £65,000 £82,500 £70,000
90th Percentile £79,000 £95,000 £90,125
South East median annual salary £47,500 £55,000 £46,500
% change year-on-year -13.64% +18.28% -1.59%

Active Directory
Job Vacancy Trend in the Thames Valley

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Active Directory relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley.

Active Directory job vacancy trend in the Thames Valley

Active Directory
Salary Trend in the Thames Valley

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing Active Directory.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing Active Directory

Active Directory
Salary Histogram in the Thames Valley

Salary distribution for jobs citing Active Directory in the Thames Valley over the 6 months to 11 April 2026.

Salary histogram for Active Directory in the Thames Valley

Active Directory
Job Locations in the Thames Valley

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Active Directory within the Thames Valley region over the 6 months to 11 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Berkshire +9 58 £42,500 -10.53% 16
Oxfordshire +2 51 £34,000 -2.86% 12
Buckinghamshire -8 42 £36,000 -24.21% 9
Active Directory
South East

Active Directory
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the Thames Valley 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 29 (19.21%) Microsoft Exchange
2 18 (11.92%) SharePoint
3 3 (1.99%) Apache
4 2 (1.32%) CMS
4 2 (1.32%) WordPress
5 1 (0.66%) IIS
Applications
1 34 (22.52%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.66%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 89 (58.94%) Microsoft 365
2 72 (47.68%) Azure
3 34 (22.52%) Entra ID
4 21 (13.91%) AWS
5 17 (11.26%) Google Workspace
6 10 (6.62%) GCP
7 7 (4.64%) SaaS
8 5 (3.31%) OneDrive
9 2 (1.32%) Mimecast
10 1 (0.66%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 1 (0.66%) IaaS
10 1 (0.66%) PaaS
10 1 (0.66%) Power Automate
10 1 (0.66%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 51 (33.77%) Firewall
2 50 (33.11%) DNS
3 30 (19.87%) DHCP
4 22 (14.57%) LAN
4 22 (14.57%) VPN
5 19 (12.58%) TCP/IP
5 19 (12.58%) WAN
6 14 (9.27%) VoIP
7 12 (7.95%) Remote Desktop
7 12 (7.95%) Wi-Fi
8 11 (7.28%) SAN
9 8 (5.30%) Wireless
10 7 (4.64%) NetScaler
11 6 (3.97%) iSCSI
12 5 (3.31%) Network Security
12 5 (3.31%) VLAN
13 4 (2.65%) NAS
13 4 (2.65%) Wireshark
14 3 (1.99%) Ethernet
15 2 (1.32%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (7.28%) SQL Server
2 9 (5.96%) PostgreSQL
3 6 (3.97%) MySQL
4 3 (1.99%) Data Mining
5 1 (0.66%) Amazon RDS
5 1 (0.66%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 8 (5.30%) JIRA
2 3 (1.99%) Subversion
General
1 72 (47.68%) Social Skills
2 16 (10.60%) Organisational Skills
3 10 (6.62%) Analytical Skills
4 8 (5.30%) Telecoms
5 5 (3.31%) Retail
6 3 (1.99%) Games
6 3 (1.99%) Local Government
6 3 (1.99%) Manufacturing
7 2 (1.32%) Documentation Skills
7 2 (1.32%) Legal
8 1 (0.66%) Aviation
8 1 (0.66%) Finance
8 1 (0.66%) Health Technology
8 1 (0.66%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 75 (49.67%) IT Support
2 32 (21.19%) Support Engineer
3 27 (17.88%) IT Engineer
4 24 (15.89%) Analyst
4 24 (15.89%) Support Analyst
5 22 (14.57%) IT Support Engineer
6 19 (12.58%) IT Support Technician
6 19 (12.58%) IT Technician
6 19 (12.58%) Support Technician
7 16 (10.60%) IT Analyst
7 16 (10.60%) IT Support Analyst
8 14 (9.27%) Architect
9 13 (8.61%) Senior
10 12 (7.95%) 3rd Line Support
10 12 (7.95%) Technical Support
11 10 (6.62%) 2nd Line Support
11 10 (6.62%) Applications Architect
11 10 (6.62%) Linux Engineer
12 8 (5.30%) Microsoft Engineer
12 8 (5.30%) Security Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (5.96%) Regular Expression
2 8 (5.30%) LDAP
3 6 (3.97%) XMPP
4 3 (1.99%) JSON
4 3 (1.99%) JSON Schema
4 3 (1.99%) XML
5 2 (1.32%) Web Services
6 1 (0.66%) OAuth
6 1 (0.66%) OpenID
Miscellaneous
1 20 (13.25%) Driving Licence
2 15 (9.93%) Self-Motivation
3 11 (7.28%) Onboarding
4 9 (5.96%) Management Information System
5 8 (5.30%) Video Conferencing
6 6 (3.97%) PKI
7 5 (3.31%) Social Media
8 4 (2.65%) Cloud Native
9 3 (1.99%) Linux Command Line
10 2 (1.32%) Fibre Optics
11 1 (0.66%) Data Centre
11 1 (0.66%) Distributed Systems
11 1 (0.66%) FMCG
11 1 (0.66%) Life Science
11 1 (0.66%) Private Cloud
11 1 (0.66%) Public Cloud
11 1 (0.66%) Renewable Energy
11 1 (0.66%) Security Posture
11 1 (0.66%) Smartphone
11 1 (0.66%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 108 (71.52%) Windows
2 64 (42.38%) Windows Server
3 38 (25.17%) Linux
4 18 (11.92%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 17 (11.26%) Windows 10
6 9 (5.96%) Android
6 9 (5.96%) Apple iOS
6 9 (5.96%) Mac OS
7 4 (2.65%) Windows Server 2019
8 2 (1.32%) CentOS
9 1 (0.66%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 57 (37.75%) Customer Service
2 52 (34.44%) Problem-Solving
3 39 (25.83%) ITIL
4 20 (13.25%) Cybersecurity
5 12 (7.95%) SIEM
6 10 (6.62%) Continuous Improvement
6 10 (6.62%) Data Protection
6 10 (6.62%) ITSM
6 10 (6.62%) Mentoring
6 10 (6.62%) Root Cause Analysis
7 9 (5.96%) Customer-Centric Approach
7 9 (5.96%) Customer-Centricity
8 8 (5.30%) Application Security
8 8 (5.30%) High Availability
8 8 (5.30%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 8 (5.30%) Mobile Device Management
8 8 (5.30%) Network Management
9 7 (4.64%) Architectural Design
9 7 (4.64%) Disaster Recovery
9 7 (4.64%) Server Management
Programming Languages
1 23 (15.23%) PowerShell
2 8 (5.30%) SQL
3 7 (4.64%) Bash
4 4 (2.65%) Korn
4 4 (2.65%) Python
5 3 (1.99%) Shell Script
6 2 (1.32%) C
6 2 (1.32%) T-SQL
7 1 (0.66%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 28 (18.54%) Security Cleared
2 23 (15.23%) Degree
3 18 (11.92%) DV Cleared
4 10 (6.62%) Microsoft Certification
5 8 (5.30%) SC Cleared
6 5 (3.31%) A+ Certification
6 5 (3.31%) DBS Check
7 3 (1.99%) Computer Science Degree
7 3 (1.99%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
7 3 (1.99%) Microsoft Certified Professional
8 2 (1.32%) ISTQB
8 2 (1.32%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 2 (1.32%) MCSE
8 2 (1.32%) Network+ Certification
8 2 (1.32%) RHCE
8 2 (1.32%) RHCSA
9 1 (0.66%) CCIE
9 1 (0.66%) Cisco Certification
9 1 (0.66%) CISM
9 1 (0.66%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (5.30%) SLA
2 7 (4.64%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 6 (3.97%) Cyber Essentials
4 2 (1.32%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 2 (1.32%) GDPR
5 1 (0.66%) QA
5 1 (0.66%) SOC 2
System Software
1 24 (15.89%) Hyper-V
2 20 (13.25%) VMware Infrastructure
3 15 (9.93%) vSphere
4 11 (7.28%) Docker
5 6 (3.97%) Citrix Hypervisor
6 2 (1.32%) Samba
6 2 (1.32%) Terminal Server
7 1 (0.66%) Virtual Desktop
7 1 (0.66%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 26 (17.22%) Microsoft Intune
2 17 (11.26%) SCCM
3 7 (4.64%) Kubernetes
4 5 (3.31%) Jamf Pro
4 5 (3.31%) SCOM
4 5 (3.31%) SmoothWall
5 4 (2.65%) Terraform
6 3 (1.99%) Ansible
7 2 (1.32%) SCSM
8 1 (0.66%) Autotask
8 1 (0.66%) Failover Clustering
8 1 (0.66%) FortiGate
8 1 (0.66%) Grafana
8 1 (0.66%) Prometheus
8 1 (0.66%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 113 (74.83%) Microsoft
2 33 (21.85%) VMware
3 23 (15.23%) Google
4 12 (7.95%) Red Hat
5 11 (7.28%) ServiceNow
6 10 (6.62%) Cisco
7 9 (5.96%) Citrix
8 8 (5.30%) Meraki
9 7 (4.64%) McAfee
10 6 (3.97%) Dell
10 6 (3.97%) Palo Alto
11 5 (3.31%) CheckPoint
12 4 (2.65%) Adobe
12 4 (2.65%) Atlassian
12 4 (2.65%) NetApp
12 4 (2.65%) Veeam
13 3 (1.99%) Oracle
13 3 (1.99%) Trend Micro
14 2 (1.32%) D-Link
14 2 (1.32%) Juniper