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 12 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 43 42 23
Rank change year-on-year -1 -19 +11
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 163 147 438
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 3.53% 5.23% 7.29%
As % of the System Software category 63.18% 35.17% 43.45%
Number of salaries quoted 130 118 396
10th Percentile £27,700 £25,750 £26,250
25th Percentile £31,281 £29,375 £31,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £35,000 £45,000 £41,000
Median % change year-on-year -22.22% +9.76% +26.15%
75th Percentile £42,500 £57,500 £54,625
90th Percentile £61,375 £65,650 £57,763
South East median annual salary £36,000 £42,500 £37,500
% change year-on-year -15.29% +13.33% +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 258 418 1,008
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 5.58% 14.86% 16.78%
Number of salaries quoted 176 284 822
10th Percentile £29,000 £28,400 £27,750
25th Percentile £31,375 £44,438 £35,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £37,500 £60,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -37.50% +14.29% +23.53%
75th Percentile £61,563 £81,250 £72,500
90th Percentile £73,125 £95,000 £91,250
South East median annual salary £40,000 £57,500 £46,000
% change year-on-year -30.43% +25.00% -1.25%

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 12 March 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 12 March 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 65 £33,500 -33.00% 19
Oxfordshire +14 56 £34,000 +4.62% 13
Buckinghamshire -5 42 £37,000 -15.43% 14
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 31 (19.02%) Microsoft Exchange
2 18 (11.04%) SharePoint
3 4 (2.45%) IIS
4 3 (1.84%) Apache
5 2 (1.23%) CMS
5 2 (1.23%) WordPress
Applications
1 43 (26.38%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.61%) Spreadsheet
Cloud Services
1 110 (67.48%) Microsoft 365
2 86 (52.76%) Azure
3 40 (24.54%) Entra ID
4 20 (12.27%) AWS
5 15 (9.20%) Google Workspace
6 13 (7.98%) GCP
7 7 (4.29%) SaaS
8 4 (2.45%) OneDrive
9 2 (1.23%) Azure DevOps
9 2 (1.23%) Azure Key Vault
9 2 (1.23%) GitHub
9 2 (1.23%) GitHub Actions
9 2 (1.23%) Mimecast
10 1 (0.61%) Power Automate
10 1 (0.61%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 48 (29.45%) Firewall
2 47 (28.83%) DNS
3 35 (21.47%) DHCP
4 24 (14.72%) VPN
5 22 (13.50%) TCP/IP
6 19 (11.66%) LAN
6 19 (11.66%) WAN
7 14 (8.59%) VoIP
8 11 (6.75%) Wi-Fi
9 8 (4.91%) SAN
9 8 (4.91%) Wireless
10 6 (3.68%) Remote Desktop
10 6 (3.68%) VLAN
11 4 (2.45%) NetScaler
12 3 (1.84%) Ethernet
12 3 (1.84%) iSCSI
12 3 (1.84%) NAS
12 3 (1.84%) Wireshark
13 2 (1.23%) Network Security
13 2 (1.23%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (6.13%) SQL Server
2 6 (3.68%) PostgreSQL
3 3 (1.84%) Data Mining
3 3 (1.84%) MySQL
4 1 (0.61%) Amazon RDS
4 1 (0.61%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 8 (4.91%) JIRA
2 3 (1.84%) Subversion
3 2 (1.23%) Git
3 2 (1.23%) Jenkins
General
1 84 (51.53%) Social Skills
2 13 (7.98%) Organisational Skills
3 10 (6.13%) Analytical Skills
4 9 (5.52%) Telecoms
5 5 (3.07%) Retail
6 3 (1.84%) Games
7 2 (1.23%) Documentation Skills
7 2 (1.23%) Finance
7 2 (1.23%) Legal
7 2 (1.23%) Manufacturing
8 1 (0.61%) Aviation
8 1 (0.61%) Health Technology
Job Titles
1 91 (55.83%) IT Support
2 35 (21.47%) Support Engineer
3 30 (18.40%) IT Engineer
4 29 (17.79%) Analyst
4 29 (17.79%) Support Analyst
5 25 (15.34%) IT Support Engineer
6 21 (12.88%) IT Support Technician
6 21 (12.88%) IT Technician
6 21 (12.88%) Support Technician
7 20 (12.27%) IT Analyst
7 20 (12.27%) IT Support Analyst
8 19 (11.66%) 3rd Line Support
9 15 (9.20%) 2nd Line Support
10 14 (8.59%) Technical Support
11 11 (6.75%) Senior
12 9 (5.52%) 2nd Line Support Analyst
12 9 (5.52%) 3rd Line Technical Support
12 9 (5.52%) Microsoft Engineer
13 8 (4.91%) Linux Engineer
14 7 (4.29%) Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (1.84%) JSON
1 3 (1.84%) JSON Schema
1 3 (1.84%) LDAP
1 3 (1.84%) Regular Expression
1 3 (1.84%) XML
2 2 (1.23%) ARM Templates
2 2 (1.23%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 26 (15.95%) Driving Licence
2 18 (11.04%) Self-Motivation
3 11 (6.75%) Onboarding
4 8 (4.91%) Video Conferencing
5 5 (3.07%) Linux Command Line
5 5 (3.07%) PKI
5 5 (3.07%) Social Media
6 3 (1.84%) Management Information System
7 2 (1.23%) Clustering
7 2 (1.23%) Data Centre
7 2 (1.23%) Fibre Optics
7 2 (1.23%) Replication
8 1 (0.61%) Cloud Native
8 1 (0.61%) CMDB
8 1 (0.61%) FMCG
8 1 (0.61%) Security Posture
8 1 (0.61%) Smartphone
8 1 (0.61%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 120 (73.62%) Windows
2 71 (43.56%) Windows Server
3 31 (19.02%) Linux
4 16 (9.82%) Windows 10
5 9 (5.52%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 8 (4.91%) Android
6 8 (4.91%) Apple iOS
6 8 (4.91%) Mac OS
7 7 (4.29%) Windows Server 2019
8 3 (1.84%) Windows Server 2016
9 2 (1.23%) CentOS
9 2 (1.23%) VMS
9 2 (1.23%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 74 (45.40%) Customer Service
2 61 (37.42%) Problem-Solving
3 41 (25.15%) ITIL
4 28 (17.18%) Cybersecurity
5 19 (11.66%) Mentoring
6 16 (9.82%) Customer-Centric Approach
6 16 (9.82%) Customer-Centricity
7 14 (8.59%) ITSM
8 10 (6.13%) Continuous Improvement
9 9 (5.52%) Coaching
10 8 (4.91%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 8 (4.91%) Mobile Device Management
10 8 (4.91%) Network Management
11 7 (4.29%) Data Protection
11 7 (4.29%) Disaster Recovery
11 7 (4.29%) Project Delivery
11 7 (4.29%) Service Delivery
11 7 (4.29%) SIEM
12 6 (3.68%) Process Improvement
12 6 (3.68%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 22 (13.50%) PowerShell
2 9 (5.52%) SQL
3 5 (3.07%) Bash
4 3 (1.84%) Python
4 3 (1.84%) Shell Script
5 2 (1.23%) C
5 2 (1.23%) T-SQL
6 1 (0.61%) Bicep
6 1 (0.61%) Korn
Qualifications
1 20 (12.27%) Degree
1 20 (12.27%) Security Cleared
2 15 (9.20%) Microsoft Certification
3 12 (7.36%) DV Cleared
4 8 (4.91%) Microsoft Certified Professional
4 8 (4.91%) SC Cleared
5 7 (4.29%) A+ Certification
5 7 (4.29%) DBS Check
6 4 (2.45%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
7 3 (1.84%) MCSA
8 2 (1.23%) CCNA
8 2 (1.23%) Cisco Certification
8 2 (1.23%) ISTQB
8 2 (1.23%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 2 (1.23%) MCSE
8 2 (1.23%) RHCE
8 2 (1.23%) RHCSA
9 1 (0.61%) Azure Certification
9 1 (0.61%) CompTIA Security+
9 1 (0.61%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (5.52%) SLA
2 6 (3.68%) Cyber Essentials
3 5 (3.07%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 2 (1.23%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 1 (0.61%) GDPR
System Software
1 34 (20.86%) Hyper-V
2 21 (12.88%) VMware Infrastructure
3 10 (6.13%) Docker
4 9 (5.52%) vSphere
5 3 (1.84%) Citrix Hypervisor
6 2 (1.23%) Samba
6 2 (1.23%) Terminal Server
7 1 (0.61%) Virtual Desktop
7 1 (0.61%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.61%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 33 (20.25%) Microsoft Intune
2 22 (13.50%) SCCM
3 6 (3.68%) Terraform
4 5 (3.07%) Jamf Pro
4 5 (3.07%) Kubernetes
4 5 (3.07%) SCOM
4 5 (3.07%) SmoothWall
5 2 (1.23%) Ansible
5 2 (1.23%) Failover Clustering
5 2 (1.23%) SCSM
6 1 (0.61%) Autotask
6 1 (0.61%) FortiGate
Vendors
1 127 (77.91%) Microsoft
2 33 (20.25%) VMware
3 24 (14.72%) Google
4 11 (6.75%) Cisco
4 11 (6.75%) ServiceNow
5 8 (4.91%) Meraki
6 6 (3.68%) Citrix
6 6 (3.68%) Palo Alto
7 5 (3.07%) Atlassian
7 5 (3.07%) CheckPoint
8 4 (2.45%) Adobe
8 4 (2.45%) Veeam
9 3 (1.84%) Dell
9 3 (1.84%) McAfee
9 3 (1.84%) NetApp
9 3 (1.84%) Oracle
9 3 (1.84%) Red Hat
9 3 (1.84%) Trend Micro
10 2 (1.23%) D-Link
10 2 (1.23%) Juniper