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 9 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
9 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 56 73 30
Rank change year-on-year +17 -43 -1
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 142 127 447
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 2.50% 3.78% 6.27%
As % of the System Software category 49.48% 40.84% 46.27%
Number of salaries quoted 118 99 395
10th Percentile £29,000 £26,650 £26,250
25th Percentile £31,250 £31,250 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £40,000 £37,500 £40,000
Median % change year-on-year +6.67% -6.25% +23.08%
75th Percentile £68,750 £50,000 £55,000
90th Percentile £69,875 £76,100 £59,000
South East median annual salary £40,000 £40,000 £38,000
% change year-on-year - +5.26% +8.57%

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 287 311 966
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 5.05% 9.27% 13.55%
Number of salaries quoted 210 208 760
10th Percentile £29,450 £28,600 £28,500
25th Percentile £35,000 £36,250 £36,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £50,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% - +11.11%
75th Percentile £68,750 £77,500 £67,500
90th Percentile £77,500 £83,750 £85,000
South East median annual salary £57,500 £50,000 £47,500
% change year-on-year +15.00% +5.26% -2.76%

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 9 June 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 9 June 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 +10 57 £52,500 +54.41% 19
Buckinghamshire +8 51 £40,000 +6.67% 15
Oxfordshire 0 34 £34,000 -15.53% 13
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 34 (23.94%) Microsoft Exchange
2 22 (15.49%) SharePoint
3 3 (2.11%) Apache
4 1 (0.70%) Confluence
4 1 (0.70%) IIS
Applications
1 9 (6.34%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.70%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 73 (51.41%) Azure
2 71 (50.00%) Microsoft 365
3 35 (24.65%) Entra ID
4 19 (13.38%) AWS
5 16 (11.27%) Google Workspace
6 10 (7.04%) OneDrive
7 6 (4.23%) IaaS
8 5 (3.52%) SaaS
9 4 (2.82%) Azure Sentinel
9 4 (2.82%) Cloudflare
9 4 (2.82%) GCP
9 4 (2.82%) PaaS
10 3 (2.11%) Amazon CloudWatch
11 2 (1.41%) Mimecast
12 1 (0.70%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 74 (52.11%) Firewall
2 65 (45.77%) DNS
3 28 (19.72%) DHCP
4 27 (19.01%) Wi-Fi
5 19 (13.38%) VPN
6 18 (12.68%) LAN
7 16 (11.27%) SAN
8 14 (9.86%) Remote Desktop
9 13 (9.15%) WAN
10 11 (7.75%) NetScaler
11 10 (7.04%) TCP/IP
12 9 (6.34%) Network Security
12 9 (6.34%) SSL
12 9 (6.34%) VLAN
13 8 (5.63%) iSCSI
13 8 (5.63%) NAS
13 8 (5.63%) Wireshark
14 7 (4.93%) VoIP
15 5 (3.52%) Wireless
16 2 (1.41%) PBX
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (9.15%) SQL Server
2 11 (7.75%) PostgreSQL
3 8 (5.63%) MySQL
4 1 (0.70%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 8 (5.63%) JIRA
2 1 (0.70%) Subversion
General
1 60 (42.25%) Social Skills
2 16 (11.27%) Organisational Skills
3 10 (7.04%) Analytical Skills
4 6 (4.23%) Influencing Skills
5 5 (3.52%) Local Government
6 4 (2.82%) Finance
6 4 (2.82%) Manufacturing
7 3 (2.11%) Documentation Skills
7 3 (2.11%) Games
8 2 (1.41%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 2 (1.41%) Legal
8 2 (1.41%) Retail
9 1 (0.70%) Aviation
9 1 (0.70%) Health Technology
Job Titles
1 47 (33.10%) IT Support
2 27 (19.01%) Architect
3 24 (16.90%) Support Engineer
4 23 (16.20%) IT Engineer
5 22 (15.49%) Senior
6 20 (14.08%) Analyst
6 20 (14.08%) Applications Architect
7 18 (12.68%) IT Support Engineer
8 15 (10.56%) Security Architect
8 15 (10.56%) Support Analyst
9 14 (9.86%) IT Support Technician
9 14 (9.86%) IT Technician
9 14 (9.86%) Support Technician
10 10 (7.04%) Technical Support
11 9 (6.34%) IT Analyst
11 9 (6.34%) IT Support Analyst
11 9 (6.34%) Linux Engineer
12 8 (5.63%) Senior Linux Engineer
13 6 (4.23%) Platform Manager
13 6 (4.23%) Senior Service Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (14.08%) Regular Expression
2 16 (11.27%) LDAP
2 16 (11.27%) XMPP
3 4 (2.82%) JSON
3 4 (2.82%) JSON Schema
3 4 (2.82%) XML
4 2 (1.41%) OpenID
5 1 (0.70%) OAuth
5 1 (0.70%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 22 (15.49%) Driving Licence
2 13 (9.15%) Management Information System
2 13 (9.15%) Onboarding
3 11 (7.75%) Self-Motivation
4 9 (6.34%) PKI
5 6 (4.23%) Cloud Native
6 4 (2.82%) Cyber Defence
6 4 (2.82%) Hybrid Cloud
6 4 (2.82%) Security Operations Centre
6 4 (2.82%) Security Posture
6 4 (2.82%) Video Conferencing
7 3 (2.11%) Distributed Systems
7 3 (2.11%) EPoS
7 3 (2.11%) Life Science
7 3 (2.11%) Linux Command Line
7 3 (2.11%) Private Cloud
7 3 (2.11%) Public Cloud
7 3 (2.11%) Renewable Energy
7 3 (2.11%) Social Media
7 3 (2.11%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 107 (75.35%) Windows
2 75 (52.82%) Windows Server
3 50 (35.21%) Linux
4 32 (22.54%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 12 (8.45%) Mac OS
5 12 (8.45%) Windows 10
6 5 (3.52%) Android
6 5 (3.52%) Apple iOS
6 5 (3.52%) Windows Server 2019
7 2 (1.41%) CentOS
8 1 (0.70%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 40 (28.17%) Problem-Solving
2 32 (22.54%) ITIL
3 29 (20.42%) Cybersecurity
4 28 (19.72%) Customer Service
5 24 (16.90%) SIEM
6 22 (15.49%) Continuous Improvement
7 17 (11.97%) Root Cause Analysis
8 16 (11.27%) Antivirus Management
8 16 (11.27%) Application Security
8 16 (11.27%) Pattern Matching
8 16 (11.27%) Platform Engineering
8 16 (11.27%) Validation
9 15 (10.56%) High Availability
10 14 (9.86%) Architectural Design
10 14 (9.86%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 13 (9.15%) Disaster Recovery
12 12 (8.45%) Resource Management
12 12 (8.45%) Server Management
13 10 (7.04%) Coaching
13 10 (7.04%) Data Protection
Programming Languages
1 28 (19.72%) PowerShell
2 12 (8.45%) Bash
3 10 (7.04%) Python
4 6 (4.23%) Korn
4 6 (4.23%) SQL
5 4 (2.82%) Shell Script
6 2 (1.41%) C
7 1 (0.70%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 39 (27.46%) Security Cleared
2 31 (21.83%) DV Cleared
3 26 (18.31%) Degree
4 9 (6.34%) CompTIA Security+
5 8 (5.63%) Microsoft Certification
5 8 (5.63%) SC Cleared
6 7 (4.93%) DBS Check
6 7 (4.93%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
7 6 (4.23%) Network+ Certification
8 4 (2.82%) Computer Science Degree
9 3 (2.11%) CCNA
9 3 (2.11%) Cisco Certification
9 3 (2.11%) ICAEW
10 2 (1.41%) Azure Certification
10 2 (1.41%) CCNP
10 2 (1.41%) RHCE
10 2 (1.41%) RHCSA
11 1 (0.70%) A+ Certification
11 1 (0.70%) CCIE
11 1 (0.70%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (9.86%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 9 (6.34%) Cyber Essentials
3 5 (3.52%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 4 (2.82%) SLA
4 4 (2.82%) SOC 2
5 3 (2.11%) NIST
5 3 (2.11%) QA
6 2 (1.41%) GDPR
7 1 (0.70%) NCSC
System Software
1 24 (16.90%) Hyper-V
1 24 (16.90%) vSphere
2 17 (11.97%) VMware Infrastructure
3 15 (10.56%) Docker
4 8 (5.63%) Citrix Hypervisor
5 2 (1.41%) Samba
6 1 (0.70%) Terminal Server
6 1 (0.70%) Virtual Desktop
6 1 (0.70%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 23 (16.20%) Microsoft Intune
2 11 (7.75%) Kubernetes
3 8 (5.63%) Jamf Pro
4 4 (2.82%) Graylog
4 4 (2.82%) SCCM
4 4 (2.82%) Terraform
5 3 (2.11%) Ansible
5 3 (2.11%) Grafana
5 3 (2.11%) Prometheus
5 3 (2.11%) SmoothWall
6 2 (1.41%) Single Sign-On
7 1 (0.70%) Autotask
7 1 (0.70%) Failover Clustering
7 1 (0.70%) FortiGate
7 1 (0.70%) SCOM
Vendors
1 101 (71.13%) Microsoft
2 43 (30.28%) VMware
3 24 (16.90%) Red Hat
4 19 (13.38%) Google
5 13 (9.15%) Cisco
5 13 (9.15%) Citrix
5 13 (9.15%) McAfee
6 8 (5.63%) Dell
6 8 (5.63%) NetApp
7 7 (4.93%) ServiceNow
8 6 (4.23%) Meraki
8 6 (4.23%) Palo Alto
9 5 (3.52%) Datto
9 5 (3.52%) Veeam
10 4 (2.82%) Apple
10 4 (2.82%) SonicWALL
11 3 (2.11%) Aruba
11 3 (2.11%) CheckPoint
11 3 (2.11%) Oracle
12 2 (1.41%) Atlassian