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 18 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 49 56 20
Rank change year-on-year +7 -36 +26
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 168 195 324
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 4.70% 4.51% 9.54%
As % of the System Software category 52.66% 33.85% 53.29%
Number of salaries quoted 150 139 289
10th Percentile £27,745 £26,150 £26,250
25th Percentile £31,375 £31,250 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £37,500 £40,000 £42,500
Median % change year-on-year -6.25% -5.88% +30.77%
75th Percentile £50,000 £52,500 £55,000
90th Percentile £70,000 £60,000 £56,720
South East median annual salary £37,500 £45,000 £41,000
% change year-on-year -16.67% +9.76% +17.14%

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 319 576 608
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 8.93% 13.32% 17.90%
Number of salaries quoted 220 351 512
10th Percentile £30,500 £31,250 £27,500
25th Percentile £34,000 £41,881 £34,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £41,500 £57,500 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -27.83% +9.52% +7.35%
75th Percentile £62,500 £75,000 £70,000
90th Percentile £77,750 £92,500 £85,000
South East median annual salary £41,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -25.45% +10.00% -

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 18 November 2025.

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 18 November 2025. 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
Buckinghamshire +26 63 £37,500 - 21
Berkshire -29 59 £40,500 -17.22% 58
Oxfordshire +31 46 £35,000 - 26
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 (20.24%) Microsoft Exchange
2 18 (10.71%) SharePoint
3 4 (2.38%) IIS
4 2 (1.19%) CMS
4 2 (1.19%) Confluence
4 2 (1.19%) WordPress
Applications
1 39 (23.21%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.60%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.60%) Spreadsheet
Cloud Services
1 121 (72.02%) Microsoft 365
2 102 (60.71%) Azure
3 40 (23.81%) Entra ID
4 27 (16.07%) AWS
5 11 (6.55%) GCP
6 7 (4.17%) Azure Key Vault
7 6 (3.57%) Azure DevOps
7 6 (3.57%) GitHub
7 6 (3.57%) GitHub Actions
7 6 (3.57%) Google Workspace
8 5 (2.98%) Mimecast
9 3 (1.79%) SaaS
10 2 (1.19%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 2 (1.19%) Amazon EC2
10 2 (1.19%) Amazon ELB
10 2 (1.19%) Amazon Glacier
10 2 (1.19%) Amazon S3
10 2 (1.19%) AWS KMS
10 2 (1.19%) IaaS
10 2 (1.19%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 47 (27.98%) DNS
2 44 (26.19%) Firewall
3 41 (24.40%) DHCP
4 18 (10.71%) VPN
5 17 (10.12%) SAN
6 12 (7.14%) TCP/IP
6 12 (7.14%) WAN
7 11 (6.55%) LAN
8 10 (5.95%) Wireless
9 8 (4.76%) iSCSI
9 8 (4.76%) Remote Desktop
9 8 (4.76%) VoIP
10 6 (3.57%) IP Telephony
11 5 (2.98%) SMTP
11 5 (2.98%) VLAN
12 3 (1.79%) Ethernet
12 3 (1.79%) Wi-Fi
13 2 (1.19%) FTP
13 2 (1.19%) HTTP
13 2 (1.19%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (11.90%) SQL Server
2 8 (4.76%) Amazon RDS
2 8 (4.76%) MySQL
2 8 (4.76%) PostgreSQL
3 3 (1.79%) Data Mining
4 1 (0.60%) Azure SQL Database
Development Applications
1 8 (4.76%) Git
1 8 (4.76%) Jenkins
2 2 (1.19%) JIRA
2 2 (1.19%) Sonatype Nexus
2 2 (1.19%) Vagrant
General
1 94 (55.95%) Social Skills
2 10 (5.95%) Organisational Skills
3 9 (5.36%) Analytical Skills
4 8 (4.76%) Telecoms
5 4 (2.38%) Retail
6 3 (1.79%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 2 (1.19%) Presentation Skills
8 1 (0.60%) Finance
Job Titles
1 72 (42.86%) IT Support
2 34 (20.24%) 3rd Line Support
3 30 (17.86%) Support Engineer
4 26 (15.48%) IT Engineer
5 24 (14.29%) Analyst
6 23 (13.69%) Support Technician
7 22 (13.10%) IT Support Engineer
7 22 (13.10%) Technical Support
8 20 (11.90%) Support Analyst
9 19 (11.31%) IT Analyst
10 17 (10.12%) IT Support Technician
10 17 (10.12%) IT Technician
11 16 (9.52%) 3rd Line Technical Support
12 15 (8.93%) IT Support Analyst
13 14 (8.33%) 2nd Line Support
14 12 (7.14%) Infrastructure Engineer
14 12 (7.14%) Senior
15 11 (6.55%) Consultant
15 11 (6.55%) Infrastructure Manager
15 11 (6.55%) Linux Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (3.57%) ARM Templates
2 2 (1.19%) Web Services
3 1 (0.60%) Azure Blueprints
3 1 (0.60%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 23 (13.69%) Driving Licence
1 23 (13.69%) Self-Motivation
2 15 (8.93%) Onboarding
3 9 (5.36%) Cloud Native
4 8 (4.76%) Management Information System
5 6 (3.57%) Linux Command Line
6 5 (2.98%) Data Centre
7 4 (2.38%) PKI
7 4 (2.38%) Replication
8 3 (1.79%) Virtual Team
9 2 (1.19%) Clustering
9 2 (1.19%) Fibre Optics
9 2 (1.19%) Hybrid Cloud
10 1 (0.60%) CMDB
10 1 (0.60%) FMCG
10 1 (0.60%) Legacy Systems
10 1 (0.60%) Social Media
10 1 (0.60%) Team-Oriented Environment
10 1 (0.60%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 140 (83.33%) Windows
2 82 (48.81%) Windows Server
3 27 (16.07%) Linux
4 17 (10.12%) Mac OS
5 15 (8.93%) Windows Server 2019
6 12 (7.14%) Windows 10
7 11 (6.55%) Apple iOS
8 9 (5.36%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 8 (4.76%) VMS
10 7 (4.17%) Android
11 4 (2.38%) Unix
12 2 (1.19%) Amazon Linux
12 2 (1.19%) Windows Server 2012
12 2 (1.19%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 70 (41.67%) Customer Service
2 51 (30.36%) Problem-Solving
3 39 (23.21%) Cybersecurity
4 37 (22.02%) Mentoring
5 36 (21.43%) ITIL
6 18 (10.71%) Customer-Centric Approach
6 18 (10.71%) Customer-Centricity
7 16 (9.52%) Coaching
8 14 (8.33%) Disaster Recovery
8 14 (8.33%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 10 (5.95%) ITSM
10 9 (5.36%) DevOps
10 9 (5.36%) Project Delivery
11 8 (4.76%) Agile
11 8 (4.76%) Business Continuity
11 8 (4.76%) Servant Leadership
11 8 (4.76%) Server Management
11 8 (4.76%) Time Management
12 7 (4.17%) Observability
12 7 (4.17%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 30 (17.86%) PowerShell
2 14 (8.33%) Bash
3 10 (5.95%) SQL
4 8 (4.76%) Korn
5 3 (1.79%) Python
6 2 (1.19%) Groovy
6 2 (1.19%) Java
6 2 (1.19%) Perl
6 2 (1.19%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 25 (14.88%) Degree
2 19 (11.31%) Microsoft Certification
3 11 (6.55%) Security Cleared
4 10 (5.95%) A+ Certification
4 10 (5.95%) MCP
4 10 (5.95%) SC Cleared
5 6 (3.57%) Azure Certification
6 5 (2.98%) DBS Check
7 3 (1.79%) MCSA
8 2 (1.19%) AWS Certification
8 2 (1.19%) CCNA
8 2 (1.19%) Cisco Certification
8 2 (1.19%) MCSE
9 1 (0.60%) BPSS Clearance
9 1 (0.60%) CCNP
9 1 (0.60%) DV Cleared
9 1 (0.60%) HND
9 1 (0.60%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
9 1 (0.60%) RHCE
9 1 (0.60%) RHCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (5.36%) Cyber Essentials
2 6 (3.57%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
2 6 (3.57%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 5 (2.98%) SLA
4 2 (1.19%) GDPR
5 1 (0.60%) Accessibility
System Software
1 48 (28.57%) Hyper-V
2 32 (19.05%) VMware Infrastructure
3 19 (11.31%) Docker
4 8 (4.76%) Citrix Hypervisor
4 8 (4.76%) Virtual Servers
5 6 (3.57%) Terminal Services
5 6 (3.57%) VMware ESXi
6 3 (1.79%) vSphere
7 2 (1.19%) DFS Replication
7 2 (1.19%) Microsoft Virtual Server
8 1 (0.60%) Virtual Machines
8 1 (0.60%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 44 (26.19%) Microsoft Intune
2 19 (11.31%) SCCM
3 14 (8.33%) Kubernetes
4 11 (6.55%) Terraform
5 4 (2.38%) WSUS
6 3 (1.79%) SCOM
7 2 (1.19%) Ansible
7 2 (1.19%) Failover Clustering
7 2 (1.19%) Grafana
7 2 (1.19%) Prometheus
7 2 (1.19%) SCSM
8 1 (0.60%) Jamf Pro
8 1 (0.60%) Red Hat Satellite
8 1 (0.60%) Single Sign-On
8 1 (0.60%) SmoothWall
Vendors
1 153 (91.07%) Microsoft
2 45 (26.79%) VMware
3 14 (8.33%) Google
4 13 (7.74%) Dell
5 12 (7.14%) Apple
6 9 (5.36%) Red Hat
6 9 (5.36%) Sophos
7 8 (4.76%) ServiceNow
7 8 (4.76%) Splunk
8 6 (3.57%) Cisco
9 5 (2.98%) Barracuda Networks
9 5 (2.98%) HP
9 5 (2.98%) Ubiquiti
9 5 (2.98%) Veeam
10 4 (2.38%) Citrix
11 3 (1.79%) Adobe
11 3 (1.79%) Atlassian
11 3 (1.79%) Juniper
11 3 (1.79%) Trend Micro
12 2 (1.19%) SolarWinds