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 19 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 51 61 20
Rank change year-on-year +10 -41 +18
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 152 146 337
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 3.72% 4.31% 7.87%
As % of the System Software category 62.81% 29.20% 44.64%
Number of salaries quoted 122 118 295
10th Percentile £27,305 £25,750 £27,500
25th Percentile £31,375 £29,000 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £35,850 £43,750 £42,625
Median % change year-on-year -18.06% +2.64% +31.15%
75th Percentile £42,313 £57,500 £55,000
90th Percentile £61,250 £64,844 £59,000
South East median annual salary £36,000 £42,500 £40,000
% change year-on-year -15.29% +6.25% +14.29%

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 242 500 755
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 5.92% 14.78% 17.64%
Number of salaries quoted 165 312 570
10th Percentile £30,500 £31,250 £28,980
25th Percentile £31,375 £45,000 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £37,500 £60,000 £54,500
Median % change year-on-year -37.50% +10.09% +21.11%
75th Percentile £58,750 £81,250 £72,500
90th Percentile £73,250 £95,000 £86,375
South East median annual salary £37,500 £57,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -34.78% +15.00% +5.26%

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 19 January 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 19 January 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 -6 58 £32,750 -36.10% 27
Oxfordshire +21 50 £35,000 +21.74% 14
Buckinghamshire +6 44 £37,500 - 20
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 22 (14.47%) Microsoft Exchange
2 14 (9.21%) SharePoint
3 4 (2.63%) IIS
4 2 (1.32%) CMS
4 2 (1.32%) WordPress
Applications
1 45 (29.61%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.66%) Spreadsheet
Cloud Services
1 109 (71.71%) Microsoft 365
2 92 (60.53%) Azure
3 34 (22.37%) Entra ID
4 17 (11.18%) AWS
5 15 (9.87%) Google Workspace
6 12 (7.89%) GCP
7 7 (4.61%) Azure Key Vault
8 6 (3.95%) Azure DevOps
8 6 (3.95%) GitHub
8 6 (3.95%) GitHub Actions
9 5 (3.29%) Mimecast
9 5 (3.29%) SaaS
10 3 (1.97%) OneDrive
11 1 (0.66%) Azure AKS
11 1 (0.66%) Azure Monitor
11 1 (0.66%) IaaS
11 1 (0.66%) PaaS
11 1 (0.66%) Power Automate
11 1 (0.66%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 40 (26.32%) DNS
2 39 (25.66%) DHCP
3 35 (23.03%) Firewall
4 21 (13.82%) VPN
5 19 (12.50%) TCP/IP
6 18 (11.84%) WAN
7 17 (11.18%) LAN
8 14 (9.21%) VoIP
9 9 (5.92%) Wireless
10 5 (3.29%) Wi-Fi
11 4 (2.63%) VLAN
12 3 (1.97%) Ethernet
12 3 (1.97%) SAN
13 2 (1.32%) Cisco ISE
13 2 (1.32%) SSL
13 2 (1.32%) Unified Communications
14 1 (0.66%) iSCSI
14 1 (0.66%) Remote Desktop
14 1 (0.66%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (3.29%) SQL Server
2 3 (1.97%) Data Mining
3 1 (0.66%) Amazon RDS
3 1 (0.66%) Azure SQL Database
3 1 (0.66%) MySQL
3 1 (0.66%) PostgreSQL
3 1 (0.66%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 6 (3.95%) Git
1 6 (3.95%) Jenkins
2 4 (2.63%) JIRA
3 3 (1.97%) Subversion
General
1 77 (50.66%) Social Skills
2 9 (5.92%) Telecoms
3 8 (5.26%) Organisational Skills
4 6 (3.95%) Analytical Skills
4 6 (3.95%) Retail
5 2 (1.32%) Finance
5 2 (1.32%) Legal
5 2 (1.32%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 81 (53.29%) IT Support
2 29 (19.08%) 3rd Line Support
3 28 (18.42%) Support Engineer
4 25 (16.45%) Analyst
4 25 (16.45%) IT Engineer
5 24 (15.79%) Support Analyst
6 20 (13.16%) IT Support Engineer
7 19 (12.50%) IT Analyst
8 18 (11.84%) IT Support Analyst
8 18 (11.84%) IT Support Technician
8 18 (11.84%) IT Technician
8 18 (11.84%) Support Technician
9 17 (11.18%) Technical Support
10 15 (9.87%) 2nd Line Support
11 12 (7.89%) 3rd Line Technical Support
12 11 (7.24%) Consultant
12 11 (7.24%) Infrastructure Manager
13 10 (6.58%) IT Consultant
13 10 (6.58%) Support Consultant
14 9 (5.92%) 2nd Line Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (3.95%) ARM Templates
2 2 (1.32%) Web Services
3 1 (0.66%) Azure Blueprints
Miscellaneous
1 24 (15.79%) Driving Licence
2 17 (11.18%) Self-Motivation
3 9 (5.92%) Onboarding
4 8 (5.26%) Video Conferencing
5 6 (3.95%) Linux Command Line
6 5 (3.29%) Social Media
7 2 (1.32%) Cloud Native
7 2 (1.32%) Clustering
7 2 (1.32%) Data Centre
7 2 (1.32%) Fibre Optics
7 2 (1.32%) Replication
8 1 (0.66%) CMDB
8 1 (0.66%) FMCG
8 1 (0.66%) Hybrid Cloud
8 1 (0.66%) Legacy Systems
8 1 (0.66%) Management Information System
8 1 (0.66%) PKI
8 1 (0.66%) Smartphone
8 1 (0.66%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 117 (76.97%) Windows
2 64 (42.11%) Windows Server
3 15 (9.87%) Linux
4 13 (8.55%) Windows 10
5 12 (7.89%) Android
5 12 (7.89%) Apple iOS
6 8 (5.26%) Windows Server 2019
7 7 (4.61%) Mac OS
8 6 (3.95%) VMS
9 2 (1.32%) Windows Server 2012
9 2 (1.32%) Windows Server 2016
10 1 (0.66%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 75 (49.34%) Customer Service
2 53 (34.87%) Problem-Solving
3 34 (22.37%) ITIL
4 31 (20.39%) Cybersecurity
5 30 (19.74%) Mentoring
6 18 (11.84%) Customer-Centric Approach
6 18 (11.84%) Customer-Centricity
7 12 (7.89%) Coaching
8 10 (6.58%) ITSM
9 8 (5.26%) Mobile Device Management
10 7 (4.61%) Data Protection
10 7 (4.61%) DevOps
10 7 (4.61%) Network Management
10 7 (4.61%) Observability
10 7 (4.61%) Task Automation
11 6 (3.95%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 6 (3.95%) Network Virtualisation
11 6 (3.95%) Project Delivery
11 6 (3.95%) Servant Leadership
11 6 (3.95%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 17 (11.18%) PowerShell
2 7 (4.61%) Bash
3 6 (3.95%) SQL
4 2 (1.32%) T-SQL
5 1 (0.66%) Korn
Qualifications
1 18 (11.84%) Microsoft Certification
2 15 (9.87%) Degree
3 10 (6.58%) MCP
4 9 (5.92%) A+ Certification
4 9 (5.92%) DBS Check
4 9 (5.92%) Security Cleared
5 4 (2.63%) SC Cleared
6 3 (1.97%) DV Cleared
6 3 (1.97%) MCSA
7 2 (1.32%) Azure Certification
7 2 (1.32%) ISTQB
7 2 (1.32%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
7 2 (1.32%) MCSE
8 1 (0.66%) CCNA
8 1 (0.66%) Cisco Certification
8 1 (0.66%) CompTIA Security+
8 1 (0.66%) Computer Science Degree
8 1 (0.66%) HND
8 1 (0.66%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
8 1 (0.66%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (3.95%) Cyber Essentials
1 6 (3.95%) SLA
2 2 (1.32%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
2 2 (1.32%) GDPR
2 2 (1.32%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 34 (22.37%) Hyper-V
2 25 (16.45%) VMware Infrastructure
3 10 (6.58%) Docker
4 3 (1.97%) vSphere
5 2 (1.32%) Terminal Server
5 2 (1.32%) Virtual Servers
6 1 (0.66%) Citrix Hypervisor
6 1 (0.66%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 37 (24.34%) Microsoft Intune
2 22 (14.47%) SCCM
3 9 (5.92%) Terraform
4 7 (4.61%) Kubernetes
5 5 (3.29%) Jamf Pro
5 5 (3.29%) SCOM
5 5 (3.29%) SmoothWall
6 2 (1.32%) Ansible
6 2 (1.32%) Failover Clustering
6 2 (1.32%) SCSM
Vendors
1 132 (86.84%) Microsoft
2 35 (23.03%) VMware
3 23 (15.13%) Google
4 9 (5.92%) Cisco
5 7 (4.61%) ServiceNow
6 5 (3.29%) Atlassian
6 5 (3.29%) CheckPoint
6 5 (3.29%) Dell
6 5 (3.29%) Meraki
6 5 (3.29%) Palo Alto
7 4 (2.63%) Adobe
7 4 (2.63%) Barracuda Networks
7 4 (2.63%) HP
7 4 (2.63%) Sophos
7 4 (2.63%) Ubiquiti
8 3 (1.97%) McAfee
8 3 (1.97%) Trend Micro
8 3 (1.97%) Veeam
9 2 (1.32%) Juniper
10 1 (0.66%) Red Hat