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

6 months to
30 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 66 82 45
Rank change year-on-year +16 -37 -22
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 171 139 231
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 2.28% 3.67% 4.87%
As % of the System Software category 45.24% 42.51% 39.35%
Number of salaries quoted 136 120 158
10th Percentile £29,000 £28,250 £26,750
25th Percentile £34,688 £33,875 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £37,500 £38,000
Median % change year-on-year +20.00% -1.32% -7.32%
75th Percentile £57,500 £51,000 £52,500
90th Percentile £68,750 £70,000 £57,658
South East median annual salary £42,500 £37,500 £41,000
% change year-on-year +13.33% -8.54% +2.50%

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 378 327 587
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 5.04% 8.64% 12.38%
Number of salaries quoted 266 210 363
10th Percentile £29,500 £31,250 £31,250
25th Percentile £38,500 £36,250 £36,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,250 £45,000 £54,500
Median % change year-on-year +16.11% -17.43% +3.81%
75th Percentile £68,750 £70,000 £73,875
90th Percentile £78,750 £82,500 £85,000
South East median annual salary £58,500 £45,000 £54,500
% change year-on-year +30.00% -17.43% +9.00%

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 September 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 30 September 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 +34 88 £45,000 +11.11% 36
Buckinghamshire -1 54 £42,500 +13.33% 9
Oxfordshire -29 29 £47,166 +31.02% 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 62 (36.26%) Microsoft Exchange
2 61 (35.67%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.58%) Confluence
Applications
1 11 (6.43%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.58%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.58%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 6 (3.51%) Raiser’s Edge
Cloud Services
1 97 (56.73%) Azure
2 96 (56.14%) Microsoft 365
3 76 (44.44%) Entra ID
4 20 (11.70%) Google Workspace
5 16 (9.36%) AWS
6 13 (7.60%) IaaS
7 7 (4.09%) OneDrive
7 7 (4.09%) Power Automate
8 6 (3.51%) Azure Sentinel
8 6 (3.51%) Cloudflare
9 4 (2.34%) PaaS
10 2 (1.17%) Amazon CloudWatch
11 1 (0.58%) Azure Stack
11 1 (0.58%) SaaS
11 1 (0.58%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 98 (57.31%) DNS
2 83 (48.54%) Firewall
3 70 (40.94%) DHCP
4 43 (25.15%) VPN
5 41 (23.98%) Wi-Fi
6 38 (22.22%) VLAN
7 23 (13.45%) SSL
8 22 (12.87%) TCP/IP
9 19 (11.11%) LAN
10 18 (10.53%) VoIP
10 18 (10.53%) WAN
11 15 (8.77%) Wireless
12 12 (7.02%) Network Security
13 11 (6.43%) Remote Desktop
14 9 (5.26%) SAN
15 5 (2.92%) iSCSI
15 5 (2.92%) NetScaler
16 4 (2.34%) Internet
16 4 (2.34%) NAS
16 4 (2.34%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (4.09%) SQL Server
2 5 (2.92%) MySQL
2 5 (2.92%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 3 (1.75%) JIRA
General
1 84 (49.12%) Social Skills
2 14 (8.19%) Analytical Skills
3 8 (4.68%) Finance
4 6 (3.51%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 6 (3.51%) Influencing Skills
4 6 (3.51%) Organisational Skills
4 6 (3.51%) Retail
5 5 (2.92%) Documentation Skills
5 5 (2.92%) Law
6 3 (1.75%) Legal
6 3 (1.75%) Local Government
7 2 (1.17%) Manufacturing
7 2 (1.17%) Police
7 2 (1.17%) Public Sector
8 1 (0.58%) Aerospace
8 1 (0.58%) Automotive
8 1 (0.58%) Billing
8 1 (0.58%) Italian Language
8 1 (0.58%) Japanese Language
8 1 (0.58%) Legal Technology
Job Titles
1 57 (33.33%) IT Support
2 43 (25.15%) IT Engineer
3 35 (20.47%) Support Engineer
4 33 (19.30%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 31 (18.13%) IT Support Engineer
6 30 (17.54%) Senior
7 16 (9.36%) Architect
8 14 (8.19%) Analyst
9 11 (6.43%) Applications Architect
9 11 (6.43%) Senior IT Engineer
9 11 (6.43%) Senior IT Support
9 11 (6.43%) Senior Support Engineer
10 10 (5.85%) 1st Line Support
10 10 (5.85%) Infrastructure Support
10 10 (5.85%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
11 9 (5.26%) IT Infrastructure Engineer
11 9 (5.26%) IT Support Technician
11 9 (5.26%) IT Technician
11 9 (5.26%) Support Technician
12 8 (4.68%) Security Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (8.77%) Regular Expression
2 14 (8.19%) XMPP
3 13 (7.60%) LDAP
4 5 (2.92%) HTML
4 5 (2.92%) ODBC
5 4 (2.34%) JSON
5 4 (2.34%) JSON Schema
5 4 (2.34%) XML
6 2 (1.17%) Terraform
7 1 (0.58%) OpenID
7 1 (0.58%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 34 (19.88%) Driving Licence
2 13 (7.60%) Self-Motivation
3 12 (7.02%) Onboarding
4 10 (5.85%) PKI
5 8 (4.68%) Management Information System
6 6 (3.51%) CCTV
6 6 (3.51%) Cyber Defence
6 6 (3.51%) Replication
6 6 (3.51%) Security Operations Centre
7 5 (2.92%) Cloud Native
7 5 (2.92%) Hybrid Cloud
7 5 (2.92%) Security Posture
7 5 (2.92%) Team-Oriented Environment
8 3 (1.75%) Data Centre
8 3 (1.75%) EPoS
9 2 (1.17%) Distributed Systems
9 2 (1.17%) Life Science
9 2 (1.17%) Private Cloud
9 2 (1.17%) Public Cloud
9 2 (1.17%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 122 (71.35%) Windows
2 65 (38.01%) Windows Server
3 36 (21.05%) Linux
4 21 (12.28%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 21 (12.28%) Windows 10
5 12 (7.02%) Mac OS
6 10 (5.85%) Windows Server 2019
7 6 (3.51%) Rocky
7 6 (3.51%) Ubuntu
8 4 (2.34%) Android
8 4 (2.34%) Windows Server 2012
9 3 (1.75%) Apple iOS
9 3 (1.75%) Windows 7
9 3 (1.75%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 60 (35.09%) Problem-Solving
2 55 (32.16%) Customer Service
3 43 (25.15%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 42 (24.56%) Cybersecurity
5 38 (22.22%) Disaster Recovery
6 37 (21.64%) Continuous Improvement
7 28 (16.37%) ITIL
8 24 (14.04%) High Availability
9 22 (12.87%) Project Delivery
10 20 (11.70%) Migration
11 19 (11.11%) Kalman Filter
11 19 (11.11%) SIEM
12 16 (9.36%) Business Continuity
12 16 (9.36%) Data Protection
12 16 (9.36%) Validation
13 14 (8.19%) Server Management
14 13 (7.60%) Root Cause Analysis
15 12 (7.02%) Mentoring
15 12 (7.02%) Technical Leadership
16 11 (6.43%) Identity Access Management
Programming Languages
1 55 (32.16%) PowerShell
2 14 (8.19%) Python
3 8 (4.68%) Bash
4 5 (2.92%) Korn
5 4 (2.34%) Shell Script
6 1 (0.58%) SQL
Qualifications
1 40 (23.39%) Security Cleared
2 32 (18.71%) Degree
2 32 (18.71%) Microsoft Certification
3 26 (15.20%) DV Cleared
4 17 (9.94%) CompTIA Security+
4 17 (9.94%) Network+ Certification
5 13 (7.60%) SC Cleared
6 12 (7.02%) DBS Check
7 10 (5.85%) Azure Certification
8 9 (5.26%) CCNA
8 9 (5.26%) Cisco Certification
9 6 (3.51%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 5 (2.92%) A+ Certification
11 4 (2.34%) CCNP
12 3 (1.75%) Computer Science Degree
12 3 (1.75%) ICAEW
13 1 (0.58%) BPSS Clearance
13 1 (0.58%) CCA
13 1 (0.58%) CESG Certified Professional
13 1 (0.58%) Citrix Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (19.30%) Cyber Essentials
2 14 (8.19%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 13 (7.60%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 9 (5.26%) GDPR
5 6 (3.51%) SLA
6 5 (2.92%) NCSC
7 3 (1.75%) NIST
7 3 (1.75%) SOC 2
8 2 (1.17%) QA
9 1 (0.58%) PMO
System Software
1 33 (19.30%) VMware Infrastructure
2 32 (18.71%) Hyper-V
3 26 (15.20%) vSphere
4 7 (4.09%) Docker
5 5 (2.92%) Citrix Hypervisor
5 5 (2.92%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (1.75%) Virtual Servers
7 1 (0.58%) Firmware
7 1 (0.58%) Microsoft Virtual Server
7 1 (0.58%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 56 (32.75%) Microsoft Intune
2 13 (7.60%) Jamf Pro
3 7 (4.09%) Kubernetes
4 6 (3.51%) Graylog
5 3 (1.75%) SCCM
5 3 (1.75%) vCenter Server
6 2 (1.17%) Ansible
6 2 (1.17%) Grafana
6 2 (1.17%) Prometheus
6 2 (1.17%) Single Sign-On
7 1 (0.58%) Autotask
7 1 (0.58%) N-central
Vendors
1 136 (79.53%) Microsoft
2 65 (38.01%) VMware
3 20 (11.70%) Google
4 19 (11.11%) Cisco
4 19 (11.11%) Red Hat
5 17 (9.94%) Apple
5 17 (9.94%) Veeam
6 12 (7.02%) Datto
7 11 (6.43%) Dell
7 11 (6.43%) McAfee
7 11 (6.43%) SonicWALL
8 9 (5.26%) Fortinet
9 8 (4.68%) Aruba
10 6 (3.51%) Citrix
11 4 (2.34%) ConnectWise
11 4 (2.34%) NetApp
11 4 (2.34%) Palo Alto
11 4 (2.34%) ServiceNow
12 3 (1.75%) Juniper
12 3 (1.75%) Meraki