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

6 months to
2 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 49 47 23
Rank change year-on-year -2 -24 +12
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 160 153 428
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 3.57% 5.11% 7.57%
As % of the System Software category 65.04% 34.00% 43.72%
Number of salaries quoted 128 121 382
10th Percentile £27,250 £25,750 £26,250
25th Percentile £31,250 £28,250 £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 £55,000
90th Percentile £57,875 £65,500 £59,000
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 246 450 979
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 5.50% 15.03% 17.32%
Number of salaries quoted 168 290 778
10th Percentile £28,000 £28,250 £27,500
25th Percentile £31,375 £45,000 £34,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £37,000 £60,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -38.33% +14.29% +18.91%
75th Percentile £60,000 £81,250 £72,500
90th Percentile £72,500 £95,000 £91,250
South East median annual salary £40,000 £59,125 £47,500
% change year-on-year -32.35% +24.47% -

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 2 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 2 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 -10 59 £32,750 -34.50% 21
Oxfordshire +14 55 £34,000 +15.25% 16
Buckinghamshire 0 46 £37,500 -11.76% 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 27 (16.88%) Microsoft Exchange
2 17 (10.63%) SharePoint
3 4 (2.50%) IIS
4 2 (1.25%) Apache
4 2 (1.25%) CMS
4 2 (1.25%) WordPress
Applications
1 43 (26.88%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.63%) Spreadsheet
Cloud Services
1 115 (71.88%) Microsoft 365
2 94 (58.75%) Azure
3 42 (26.25%) Entra ID
4 19 (11.88%) AWS
5 15 (9.38%) Google Workspace
6 13 (8.13%) GCP
7 7 (4.38%) SaaS
8 4 (2.50%) Azure DevOps
8 4 (2.50%) Azure Key Vault
8 4 (2.50%) GitHub
8 4 (2.50%) GitHub Actions
8 4 (2.50%) OneDrive
9 2 (1.25%) Mimecast
10 1 (0.63%) Power Automate
10 1 (0.63%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 43 (26.88%) Firewall
2 40 (25.00%) DNS
3 35 (21.88%) DHCP
4 23 (14.38%) VPN
5 22 (13.75%) TCP/IP
6 19 (11.88%) WAN
7 18 (11.25%) LAN
8 14 (8.75%) VoIP
9 9 (5.63%) Wi-Fi
10 8 (5.00%) Wireless
11 5 (3.13%) VLAN
12 4 (2.50%) Remote Desktop
12 4 (2.50%) SAN
13 3 (1.88%) Ethernet
14 2 (1.25%) Cisco ISE
14 2 (1.25%) iSCSI
14 2 (1.25%) SSL
14 2 (1.25%) Unified Communications
15 1 (0.63%) Network Security
15 1 (0.63%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (5.00%) SQL Server
2 4 (2.50%) PostgreSQL
3 3 (1.88%) Data Mining
4 2 (1.25%) MySQL
5 1 (0.63%) Amazon RDS
5 1 (0.63%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 7 (4.38%) JIRA
2 4 (2.50%) Git
2 4 (2.50%) Jenkins
3 3 (1.88%) Subversion
General
1 84 (52.50%) Social Skills
2 12 (7.50%) Organisational Skills
3 9 (5.63%) Telecoms
4 8 (5.00%) Analytical Skills
5 5 (3.13%) Retail
6 2 (1.25%) Finance
6 2 (1.25%) Games
6 2 (1.25%) Legal
6 2 (1.25%) Manufacturing
7 1 (0.63%) Health Technology
Job Titles
1 92 (57.50%) IT Support
2 33 (20.63%) Support Engineer
3 30 (18.75%) IT Engineer
4 28 (17.50%) Analyst
4 28 (17.50%) Support Analyst
5 25 (15.63%) 3rd Line Support
5 25 (15.63%) IT Support Engineer
6 20 (12.50%) IT Analyst
6 20 (12.50%) IT Support Analyst
6 20 (12.50%) IT Support Technician
6 20 (12.50%) IT Technician
6 20 (12.50%) Support Technician
7 18 (11.25%) Technical Support
8 14 (8.75%) 2nd Line Support
9 13 (8.13%) 3rd Line Technical Support
10 10 (6.25%) Senior
11 9 (5.63%) 2nd Line Support Analyst
11 9 (5.63%) IT Consultant
11 9 (5.63%) Microsoft Engineer
11 9 (5.63%) Support Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (2.50%) ARM Templates
2 2 (1.25%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 25 (15.63%) Driving Licence
2 18 (11.25%) Self-Motivation
3 11 (6.88%) Onboarding
4 8 (5.00%) Video Conferencing
5 6 (3.75%) Linux Command Line
6 5 (3.13%) Social Media
7 2 (1.25%) Clustering
7 2 (1.25%) Data Centre
7 2 (1.25%) Fibre Optics
7 2 (1.25%) Management Information System
7 2 (1.25%) PKI
7 2 (1.25%) Replication
8 1 (0.63%) Cloud Native
8 1 (0.63%) CMDB
8 1 (0.63%) FMCG
8 1 (0.63%) Smartphone
8 1 (0.63%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 119 (74.38%) Windows
2 70 (43.75%) Windows Server
3 23 (14.38%) Linux
4 14 (8.75%) Windows 10
5 8 (5.00%) Android
5 8 (5.00%) Apple iOS
5 8 (5.00%) Mac OS
6 7 (4.38%) Windows Server 2019
7 4 (2.50%) VMS
8 3 (1.88%) Windows Server 2016
9 2 (1.25%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 2 (1.25%) Windows Server 2012
10 1 (0.63%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 79 (49.38%) Customer Service
2 62 (38.75%) Problem-Solving
3 39 (24.38%) ITIL
4 28 (17.50%) Cybersecurity
5 26 (16.25%) Mentoring
6 16 (10.00%) Customer-Centric Approach
6 16 (10.00%) Customer-Centricity
7 13 (8.13%) Coaching
7 13 (8.13%) ITSM
8 10 (6.25%) Continuous Improvement
9 8 (5.00%) Mobile Device Management
9 8 (5.00%) Network Management
10 7 (4.38%) Data Protection
10 7 (4.38%) Disaster Recovery
10 7 (4.38%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 7 (4.38%) Project Delivery
10 7 (4.38%) Service Delivery
10 7 (4.38%) Task Automation
11 6 (3.75%) Collaborative Culture
11 6 (3.75%) Containerisation
Programming Languages
1 21 (13.13%) PowerShell
2 8 (5.00%) SQL
3 6 (3.75%) Bash
4 2 (1.25%) Python
4 2 (1.25%) T-SQL
5 1 (0.63%) Bicep
5 1 (0.63%) C
5 1 (0.63%) Korn
Qualifications
1 19 (11.88%) Degree
2 16 (10.00%) Microsoft Certification
3 12 (7.50%) Security Cleared
4 9 (5.63%) Microsoft Certified Professional
5 8 (5.00%) A+ Certification
6 7 (4.38%) DBS Check
6 7 (4.38%) SC Cleared
7 5 (3.13%) DV Cleared
8 3 (1.88%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
8 3 (1.88%) MCSA
9 2 (1.25%) CCNA
9 2 (1.25%) Cisco Certification
9 2 (1.25%) ISTQB
9 2 (1.25%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 2 (1.25%) MCSE
10 1 (0.63%) Azure Certification
10 1 (0.63%) CompTIA Security+
10 1 (0.63%) Computer Science Degree
10 1 (0.63%) RHCE
10 1 (0.63%) RHCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (4.38%) SLA
2 6 (3.75%) Cyber Essentials
3 3 (1.88%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 2 (1.25%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 1 (0.63%) GDPR
System Software
1 38 (23.75%) Hyper-V
2 21 (13.13%) VMware Infrastructure
3 10 (6.25%) Docker
4 3 (1.88%) vSphere
5 2 (1.25%) Citrix Hypervisor
5 2 (1.25%) Terminal Server
6 1 (0.63%) Samba
6 1 (0.63%) Virtual Desktop
6 1 (0.63%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (0.63%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 33 (20.63%) Microsoft Intune
2 22 (13.75%) SCCM
3 8 (5.00%) Terraform
4 6 (3.75%) Kubernetes
5 5 (3.13%) Jamf Pro
5 5 (3.13%) SCOM
5 5 (3.13%) SmoothWall
6 2 (1.25%) Ansible
6 2 (1.25%) Failover Clustering
6 2 (1.25%) SCSM
Vendors
1 131 (81.88%) Microsoft
2 28 (17.50%) VMware
3 24 (15.00%) Google
4 11 (6.88%) Cisco
5 10 (6.25%) ServiceNow
6 7 (4.38%) Meraki
7 6 (3.75%) Palo Alto
8 5 (3.13%) Atlassian
8 5 (3.13%) CheckPoint
9 4 (2.50%) Adobe
9 4 (2.50%) Veeam
10 3 (1.88%) McAfee
10 3 (1.88%) Trend Micro
11 2 (1.25%) Citrix
11 2 (1.25%) Dell
11 2 (1.25%) Juniper
11 2 (1.25%) Oracle
11 2 (1.25%) Red Hat
12 1 (0.63%) 3PAR
12 1 (0.63%) HP