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

6 months to
30 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 46 55 20
Rank change year-on-year +9 -35 +22
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 163 188 321
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 4.36% 4.54% 9.77%
As % of the System Software category 52.92% 32.08% 52.97%
Number of salaries quoted 140 139 284
10th Percentile £27,250 £26,150 £27,500
25th Percentile £31,375 £31,625 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £36,250 £40,000 £42,500
Median % change year-on-year -9.38% -5.88% +30.77%
75th Percentile £47,813 £52,500 £55,000
90th Percentile £70,000 £60,000 £56,525
South East median annual salary £37,500 £42,500 £42,000
% change year-on-year -11.76% +1.19% +20.00%

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 308 586 606
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 8.24% 14.15% 18.45%
Number of salaries quoted 203 367 509
10th Percentile £30,500 £31,250 £27,500
25th Percentile £33,750 £43,911 £34,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £41,500 £58,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -28.45% +10.48% +9.38%
75th Percentile £62,500 £77,500 £67,500
90th Percentile £77,500 £93,750 £85,000
South East median annual salary £40,250 £55,500 £48,000
% change year-on-year -27.48% +15.63% -4.00%

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 30 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 30 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
Berkshire -21 60 £33,500 -31.53% 37
Buckinghamshire +20 58 £37,500 - 15
Oxfordshire +27 45 £35,000 +1.45% 19
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 (17.79%) Microsoft Exchange
2 17 (10.43%) SharePoint
3 4 (2.45%) IIS
4 2 (1.23%) CMS
4 2 (1.23%) Confluence
4 2 (1.23%) WordPress
Applications
1 41 (25.15%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.61%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.61%) Spreadsheet
Cloud Services
1 117 (71.78%) Microsoft 365
2 96 (58.90%) Azure
3 37 (22.70%) Entra ID
4 26 (15.95%) AWS
5 12 (7.36%) GCP
6 7 (4.29%) Azure Key Vault
7 6 (3.68%) Azure DevOps
7 6 (3.68%) GitHub
7 6 (3.68%) GitHub Actions
7 6 (3.68%) Google Workspace
8 5 (3.07%) Mimecast
9 4 (2.45%) SaaS
10 2 (1.23%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 2 (1.23%) Amazon EC2
10 2 (1.23%) Amazon ELB
10 2 (1.23%) Amazon Glacier
10 2 (1.23%) Amazon S3
10 2 (1.23%) AWS KMS
10 2 (1.23%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 1 (0.61%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 45 (27.61%) DNS
2 42 (25.77%) Firewall
3 40 (24.54%) DHCP
4 20 (12.27%) VPN
5 14 (8.59%) WAN
6 13 (7.98%) LAN
6 13 (7.98%) SAN
6 13 (7.98%) TCP/IP
7 10 (6.13%) VoIP
7 10 (6.13%) Wireless
8 7 (4.29%) iSCSI
8 7 (4.29%) Remote Desktop
9 5 (3.07%) VLAN
10 4 (2.45%) IP Telephony
10 4 (2.45%) Wi-Fi
11 3 (1.84%) Ethernet
11 3 (1.84%) SMTP
12 2 (1.23%) FTP
12 2 (1.23%) HTTP
12 2 (1.23%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 16 (9.82%) SQL Server
2 7 (4.29%) MySQL
2 7 (4.29%) PostgreSQL
3 6 (3.68%) Amazon RDS
4 3 (1.84%) Data Mining
5 1 (0.61%) Azure SQL Database
5 1 (0.61%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 8 (4.91%) Git
1 8 (4.91%) Jenkins
2 2 (1.23%) JIRA
2 2 (1.23%) Sonatype Nexus
2 2 (1.23%) Vagrant
3 1 (0.61%) Subversion
General
1 91 (55.83%) Social Skills
2 9 (5.52%) Analytical Skills
2 9 (5.52%) Organisational Skills
2 9 (5.52%) Telecoms
3 5 (3.07%) Retail
4 3 (1.84%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 2 (1.23%) Presentation Skills
6 1 (0.61%) Finance
Job Titles
1 75 (46.01%) IT Support
2 33 (20.25%) 3rd Line Support
3 29 (17.79%) Support Engineer
4 24 (14.72%) Analyst
5 23 (14.11%) IT Engineer
6 22 (13.50%) Support Technician
7 21 (12.88%) IT Support Engineer
8 20 (12.27%) IT Analyst
8 20 (12.27%) Support Analyst
9 19 (11.66%) Technical Support
10 18 (11.04%) IT Support Technician
10 18 (11.04%) IT Technician
11 16 (9.82%) IT Support Analyst
12 15 (9.20%) 3rd Line Technical Support
13 14 (8.59%) 2nd Line Support
14 12 (7.36%) Infrastructure Manager
14 12 (7.36%) Senior
15 11 (6.75%) Consultant
15 11 (6.75%) Linux Engineer
16 10 (6.13%) IT Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (3.68%) ARM Templates
2 2 (1.23%) Web Services
3 1 (0.61%) Azure Blueprints
Miscellaneous
1 25 (15.34%) Driving Licence
2 21 (12.88%) Self-Motivation
3 12 (7.36%) Onboarding
4 8 (4.91%) Cloud Native
5 7 (4.29%) Management Information System
6 6 (3.68%) Linux Command Line
7 4 (2.45%) Replication
8 3 (1.84%) Data Centre
9 2 (1.23%) Clustering
9 2 (1.23%) Fibre Optics
9 2 (1.23%) PKI
9 2 (1.23%) Video Conferencing
9 2 (1.23%) Virtual Team
10 1 (0.61%) CMDB
10 1 (0.61%) FMCG
10 1 (0.61%) Hybrid Cloud
10 1 (0.61%) Legacy Systems
10 1 (0.61%) Social Media
10 1 (0.61%) Team-Oriented Environment
Operating Systems
1 133 (81.60%) Windows
2 71 (43.56%) Windows Server
3 25 (15.34%) Linux
4 15 (9.20%) Windows Server 2019
5 14 (8.59%) Windows 10
6 13 (7.98%) Mac OS
7 9 (5.52%) Apple iOS
8 8 (4.91%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 8 (4.91%) VMS
9 7 (4.29%) Android
10 2 (1.23%) Amazon Linux
10 2 (1.23%) Unix
10 2 (1.23%) Windows Server 2012
10 2 (1.23%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 72 (44.17%) Customer Service
2 51 (31.29%) Problem-Solving
3 39 (23.93%) Cybersecurity
4 35 (21.47%) Mentoring
5 33 (20.25%) ITIL
6 19 (11.66%) Customer-Centric Approach
6 19 (11.66%) Customer-Centricity
7 15 (9.20%) Coaching
8 13 (7.98%) Disaster Recovery
9 11 (6.75%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 10 (6.13%) ITSM
11 9 (5.52%) DevOps
12 8 (4.91%) Business Continuity
12 8 (4.91%) Project Delivery
12 8 (4.91%) Servant Leadership
13 7 (4.29%) Agile
13 7 (4.29%) Cloud Security
13 7 (4.29%) Observability
13 7 (4.29%) Time Management
14 6 (3.68%) Matrix Management
Programming Languages
1 27 (16.56%) PowerShell
2 13 (7.98%) Bash
3 9 (5.52%) SQL
4 7 (4.29%) Korn
5 3 (1.84%) Python
6 2 (1.23%) Groovy
6 2 (1.23%) Java
6 2 (1.23%) Perl
6 2 (1.23%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 22 (13.50%) Degree
2 18 (11.04%) Microsoft Certification
3 11 (6.75%) Security Cleared
4 10 (6.13%) MCP
5 9 (5.52%) A+ Certification
6 7 (4.29%) SC Cleared
7 5 (3.07%) DBS Check
8 4 (2.45%) Azure Certification
9 3 (1.84%) MCSA
10 2 (1.23%) AWS Certification
10 2 (1.23%) MCSE
11 1 (0.61%) BPSS Clearance
11 1 (0.61%) CCNA
11 1 (0.61%) Cisco Certification
11 1 (0.61%) DV Cleared
11 1 (0.61%) HND
11 1 (0.61%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 1 (0.61%) MCITP
11 1 (0.61%) RHCE
11 1 (0.61%) RHCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (4.91%) Cyber Essentials
2 5 (3.07%) SLA
3 4 (2.45%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 4 (2.45%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 2 (1.23%) GDPR
System Software
1 40 (24.54%) Hyper-V
2 29 (17.79%) VMware Infrastructure
3 18 (11.04%) Docker
4 8 (4.91%) Virtual Servers
5 7 (4.29%) Citrix Hypervisor
6 4 (2.45%) Terminal Services
7 3 (1.84%) VMware ESXi
7 3 (1.84%) vSphere
8 2 (1.23%) DFS Replication
8 2 (1.23%) Microsoft Virtual Server
9 1 (0.61%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 41 (25.15%) Microsoft Intune
2 19 (11.66%) SCCM
3 13 (7.98%) Kubernetes
4 12 (7.36%) Terraform
5 4 (2.45%) SCOM
6 3 (1.84%) Ansible
7 2 (1.23%) Failover Clustering
7 2 (1.23%) Grafana
7 2 (1.23%) Prometheus
7 2 (1.23%) SCSM
7 2 (1.23%) WSUS
8 1 (0.61%) Jamf Pro
8 1 (0.61%) Red Hat Satellite
8 1 (0.61%) SmoothWall
Vendors
1 146 (89.57%) Microsoft
2 40 (24.54%) VMware
3 14 (8.59%) Google
4 12 (7.36%) Dell
5 8 (4.91%) Red Hat
6 7 (4.29%) Apple
6 7 (4.29%) ServiceNow
6 7 (4.29%) Sophos
6 7 (4.29%) Splunk
7 6 (3.68%) Cisco
8 5 (3.07%) Barracuda Networks
8 5 (3.07%) HP
8 5 (3.07%) Ubiquiti
9 4 (2.45%) Adobe
9 4 (2.45%) Atlassian
10 3 (1.84%) Juniper
10 3 (1.84%) Trend Micro
10 3 (1.84%) Veeam
11 2 (1.23%) Citrix
12 1 (0.61%) McAfee