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 21 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 52 77 26
Rank change year-on-year +25 -51 -3
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 166 138 394
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 2.65% 3.82% 6.57%
As % of the System Software category 47.70% 39.32% 49.75%
Number of salaries quoted 136 111 334
10th Percentile £28,625 £28,250 £26,250
25th Percentile £31,250 £32,625 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £38,000 £40,000
Median % change year-on-year +11.84% -5.00% +21.21%
75th Percentile £67,500 £50,000 £53,000
90th Percentile £68,750 £70,000 £56,275
South East median annual salary £42,500 £40,000 £38,000
% change year-on-year +6.25% +5.26% +7.34%

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 348 351 792
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 5.55% 9.70% 13.20%
Number of salaries quoted 249 223 655
10th Percentile £29,000 £31,250 £28,700
25th Percentile £36,750 £36,250 £36,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £49,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +12.24% -2.00% +11.11%
75th Percentile £68,750 £75,000 £67,500
90th Percentile £75,000 £83,750 £85,000
South East median annual salary £57,500 £47,500 £48,500
% change year-on-year +21.05% -2.06% -2.51%

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 21 July 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 21 July 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 +28 71 £52,500 +40.00% 24
Buckinghamshire -1 62 £40,000 +6.67% 14
Oxfordshire -17 33 £35,000 -13.58% 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 52 (31.33%) Microsoft Exchange
2 43 (25.90%) SharePoint
3 3 (1.81%) Apache
4 1 (0.60%) Confluence
4 1 (0.60%) IIS
Applications
1 7 (4.22%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.60%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 6 (3.61%) Raiser’s Edge
Cloud Services
1 88 (53.01%) Azure
2 80 (48.19%) Microsoft 365
3 56 (33.73%) Entra ID
4 22 (13.25%) AWS
5 10 (6.02%) Google Workspace
6 8 (4.82%) IaaS
6 8 (4.82%) OneDrive
7 7 (4.22%) Power Automate
8 5 (3.01%) Azure Sentinel
8 5 (3.01%) Cloudflare
9 4 (2.41%) PaaS
9 4 (2.41%) SaaS
10 3 (1.81%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 3 (1.81%) GCP
11 1 (0.60%) Azure Stack
11 1 (0.60%) Mimecast
11 1 (0.60%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 89 (53.61%) DNS
2 88 (53.01%) Firewall
3 47 (28.31%) DHCP
4 39 (23.49%) Wi-Fi
5 33 (19.88%) VPN
6 23 (13.86%) VLAN
7 17 (10.24%) LAN
7 17 (10.24%) Remote Desktop
8 16 (9.64%) SAN
9 14 (8.43%) TCP/IP
9 14 (8.43%) Wireless
10 12 (7.23%) SSL
10 12 (7.23%) WAN
11 11 (6.63%) NetScaler
11 11 (6.63%) Network Security
12 8 (4.82%) iSCSI
12 8 (4.82%) NAS
12 8 (4.82%) Wireshark
13 6 (3.61%) VoIP
14 4 (2.41%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (7.83%) SQL Server
2 11 (6.63%) PostgreSQL
3 8 (4.82%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 5 (3.01%) JIRA
General
1 76 (45.78%) Social Skills
2 13 (7.83%) Analytical Skills
3 12 (7.23%) Organisational Skills
4 7 (4.22%) Documentation Skills
5 6 (3.61%) Influencing Skills
6 5 (3.01%) Finance
6 5 (3.01%) Local Government
7 3 (1.81%) Games
7 3 (1.81%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 3 (1.81%) Manufacturing
8 2 (1.20%) Law
8 2 (1.20%) Legal
8 2 (1.20%) Retail
9 1 (0.60%) Aviation
9 1 (0.60%) Health Technology
Job Titles
1 48 (28.92%) IT Support
2 33 (19.88%) IT Engineer
3 29 (17.47%) Support Engineer
4 27 (16.27%) Architect
5 25 (15.06%) Senior
6 24 (14.46%) IT Support Engineer
7 20 (12.05%) Applications Architect
8 17 (10.24%) Analyst
9 15 (9.04%) Security Architect
10 14 (8.43%) IT Support Technician
10 14 (8.43%) IT Technician
10 14 (8.43%) Support Technician
11 13 (7.83%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 9 (5.42%) Support Analyst
13 8 (4.82%) 3rd Line Support
13 8 (4.82%) Linux Engineer
13 8 (4.82%) Senior Linux Engineer
14 7 (4.22%) Security Engineer
15 6 (3.61%) IT Support Analyst
15 6 (3.61%) Senior Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 23 (13.86%) Regular Expression
2 19 (11.45%) LDAP
2 19 (11.45%) XMPP
3 7 (4.22%) JSON
3 7 (4.22%) JSON Schema
3 7 (4.22%) XML
4 5 (3.01%) HTML
4 5 (3.01%) ODBC
5 2 (1.20%) OpenID
6 1 (0.60%) OAuth
6 1 (0.60%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 27 (16.27%) Driving Licence
2 19 (11.45%) Self-Motivation
3 15 (9.04%) Onboarding
4 13 (7.83%) Management Information System
5 12 (7.23%) PKI
6 6 (3.61%) CCTV
6 6 (3.61%) Cloud Native
6 6 (3.61%) Security Posture
7 5 (3.01%) Cyber Defence
7 5 (3.01%) Security Operations Centre
7 5 (3.01%) Team-Oriented Environment
8 4 (2.41%) Hybrid Cloud
9 3 (1.81%) Data Centre
9 3 (1.81%) Distributed Systems
9 3 (1.81%) Life Science
9 3 (1.81%) Linux Command Line
9 3 (1.81%) Private Cloud
9 3 (1.81%) Public Cloud
9 3 (1.81%) Renewable Energy
9 3 (1.81%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 123 (74.10%) Windows
2 76 (45.78%) Windows Server
3 52 (31.33%) Linux
4 35 (21.08%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 20 (12.05%) Windows 10
6 12 (7.23%) Mac OS
7 5 (3.01%) Windows Server 2019
8 3 (1.81%) Windows 7
9 2 (1.20%) Android
9 2 (1.20%) Apple iOS
9 2 (1.20%) CentOS
10 1 (0.60%) Windows Server 2012
10 1 (0.60%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 50 (30.12%) Problem-Solving
2 36 (21.69%) Customer Service
2 36 (21.69%) Cybersecurity
3 32 (19.28%) ITIL
4 30 (18.07%) Continuous Improvement
5 28 (16.87%) SIEM
6 26 (15.66%) Disaster Recovery
7 24 (14.46%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 19 (11.45%) High Availability
8 19 (11.45%) Validation
9 16 (9.64%) Antivirus Management
9 16 (9.64%) Application Security
9 16 (9.64%) Pattern Matching
9 16 (9.64%) Platform Engineering
10 14 (8.43%) Architectural Design
10 14 (8.43%) Data Protection
10 14 (8.43%) Time Management
11 13 (7.83%) Mentoring
11 13 (7.83%) Root Cause Analysis
12 12 (7.23%) Server Management
Programming Languages
1 50 (30.12%) PowerShell
2 17 (10.24%) Python
3 12 (7.23%) Bash
4 7 (4.22%) Shell Script
5 6 (3.61%) Korn
6 5 (3.01%) SQL
7 2 (1.20%) C
8 1 (0.60%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 47 (28.31%) Security Cleared
2 35 (21.08%) DV Cleared
3 31 (18.67%) Degree
4 16 (9.64%) Microsoft Certification
5 12 (7.23%) SC Cleared
6 10 (6.02%) CCNA
6 10 (6.02%) Cisco Certification
6 10 (6.02%) CompTIA Security+
7 8 (4.82%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
8 7 (4.22%) Network+ Certification
9 6 (3.61%) Azure Certification
10 5 (3.01%) DBS Check
11 4 (2.41%) CCNP
11 4 (2.41%) Computer Science Degree
12 3 (1.81%) ICAEW
13 2 (1.20%) RHCE
13 2 (1.20%) RHCSA
14 1 (0.60%) A+ Certification
14 1 (0.60%) CISM
14 1 (0.60%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 22 (13.25%) Cyber Essentials
2 17 (10.24%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 8 (4.82%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 8 (4.82%) GDPR
4 4 (2.41%) SLA
4 4 (2.41%) SOC 2
5 3 (1.81%) NCSC
5 3 (1.81%) NIST
5 3 (1.81%) QA
System Software
1 35 (21.08%) vSphere
2 32 (19.28%) Hyper-V
3 24 (14.46%) VMware Infrastructure
4 15 (9.04%) Docker
5 8 (4.82%) Citrix Hypervisor
6 5 (3.01%) Virtual Machines
7 2 (1.20%) Samba
8 1 (0.60%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 32 (19.28%) Microsoft Intune
2 11 (6.63%) Kubernetes
3 6 (3.61%) Jamf Pro
4 5 (3.01%) Graylog
5 4 (2.41%) Terraform
6 3 (1.81%) Ansible
6 3 (1.81%) Grafana
6 3 (1.81%) Prometheus
7 2 (1.20%) SCCM
7 2 (1.20%) Single Sign-On
8 1 (0.60%) Autotask
8 1 (0.60%) Failover Clustering
8 1 (0.60%) FortiGate
8 1 (0.60%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 119 (71.69%) Microsoft
2 56 (33.73%) VMware
3 27 (16.27%) Red Hat
4 15 (9.04%) McAfee
5 13 (7.83%) Google
6 12 (7.23%) Cisco
6 12 (7.23%) Citrix
7 8 (4.82%) Aruba
7 8 (4.82%) Dell
7 8 (4.82%) NetApp
8 7 (4.22%) Fortinet
9 6 (3.61%) Apple
9 6 (3.61%) Datto
9 6 (3.61%) ServiceNow
9 6 (3.61%) Veeam
10 5 (3.01%) Palo Alto
10 5 (3.01%) SonicWALL
11 3 (1.81%) Juniper
11 3 (1.81%) Meraki
11 3 (1.81%) Oracle