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

6 months to
7 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 54 64 19
Rank change year-on-year +10 -45 +21
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 144 149 320
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 3.57% 4.32% 8.59%
As % of the System Software category 54.34% 28.88% 45.07%
Number of salaries quoted 116 118 279
10th Percentile £27,525 £25,750 £27,500
25th Percentile £31,375 £31,250 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £36,000 £43,750 £42,796
Median % change year-on-year -17.71% +2.23% +31.68%
75th Percentile £42,563 £55,627 £55,000
90th Percentile £65,329 £62,244 £56,525
South East median annual salary £36,000 £42,500 £41,000
% change year-on-year -15.29% +3.66% +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 265 516 710
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 6.56% 14.96% 19.06%
Number of salaries quoted 159 329 532
10th Percentile £30,500 £31,250 £28,800
25th Percentile £32,750 £45,000 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £37,500 £60,000 £54,500
Median % change year-on-year -37.50% +10.09% +21.11%
75th Percentile £60,000 £81,250 £72,500
90th Percentile £73,750 £95,000 £86,125
South East median annual salary £37,500 £57,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -34.78% +15.00% -

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 7 January 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 7 January 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 53 £32,750 -34.50% 27
Oxfordshire +25 47 £35,000 +18.64% 11
Buckinghamshire +4 44 £37,500 - 17
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 20 (13.89%) Microsoft Exchange
2 12 (8.33%) SharePoint
3 4 (2.78%) IIS
4 2 (1.39%) CMS
4 2 (1.39%) WordPress
Applications
1 45 (31.25%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.69%) Spreadsheet
Cloud Services
1 102 (70.83%) Microsoft 365
2 86 (59.72%) Azure
3 30 (20.83%) Entra ID
4 18 (12.50%) AWS
5 14 (9.72%) Google Workspace
6 12 (8.33%) GCP
7 7 (4.86%) Azure Key Vault
8 6 (4.17%) Azure DevOps
8 6 (4.17%) GitHub
8 6 (4.17%) GitHub Actions
9 5 (3.47%) Mimecast
10 4 (2.78%) SaaS
11 2 (1.39%) OneDrive
12 1 (0.69%) Azure AKS
12 1 (0.69%) Azure Monitor
12 1 (0.69%) IaaS
12 1 (0.69%) PaaS
12 1 (0.69%) Power Automate
12 1 (0.69%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 40 (27.78%) DHCP
1 40 (27.78%) DNS
2 33 (22.92%) Firewall
3 20 (13.89%) VPN
4 18 (12.50%) TCP/IP
4 18 (12.50%) WAN
5 17 (11.81%) LAN
6 14 (9.72%) VoIP
7 9 (6.25%) Wireless
8 5 (3.47%) VLAN
9 4 (2.78%) SAN
9 4 (2.78%) Wi-Fi
10 3 (2.08%) Ethernet
11 2 (1.39%) iSCSI
11 2 (1.39%) Remote Desktop
11 2 (1.39%) SSL
11 2 (1.39%) Unified Communications
12 1 (0.69%) Cisco ISE
12 1 (0.69%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (4.86%) SQL Server
2 3 (2.08%) Data Mining
3 2 (1.39%) MySQL
3 2 (1.39%) PostgreSQL
4 1 (0.69%) Amazon RDS
4 1 (0.69%) Azure SQL Database
4 1 (0.69%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 6 (4.17%) Git
1 6 (4.17%) Jenkins
2 2 (1.39%) Subversion
3 1 (0.69%) JIRA
General
1 73 (50.69%) Social Skills
2 9 (6.25%) Telecoms
3 8 (5.56%) Organisational Skills
4 6 (4.17%) Analytical Skills
5 5 (3.47%) Retail
6 2 (1.39%) Finance
6 2 (1.39%) Legal
6 2 (1.39%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 75 (52.08%) IT Support
2 29 (20.14%) 3rd Line Support
3 26 (18.06%) Support Engineer
4 24 (16.67%) Analyst
4 24 (16.67%) IT Engineer
5 22 (15.28%) Support Analyst
6 19 (13.19%) IT Support Engineer
7 18 (12.50%) IT Analyst
7 18 (12.50%) IT Support Technician
7 18 (12.50%) IT Technician
7 18 (12.50%) Support Technician
8 16 (11.11%) IT Support Analyst
8 16 (11.11%) Technical Support
9 14 (9.72%) 2nd Line Support
10 11 (7.64%) 3rd Line Technical Support
10 11 (7.64%) Consultant
10 11 (7.64%) Infrastructure Manager
11 10 (6.94%) IT Consultant
11 10 (6.94%) Support Consultant
12 9 (6.25%) 2nd Line Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (4.17%) ARM Templates
2 2 (1.39%) Web Services
3 1 (0.69%) Azure Blueprints
Miscellaneous
1 23 (15.97%) Driving Licence
2 16 (11.11%) Self-Motivation
3 8 (5.56%) Onboarding
3 8 (5.56%) Video Conferencing
4 6 (4.17%) Linux Command Line
5 5 (3.47%) Social Media
6 3 (2.08%) Cloud Native
7 2 (1.39%) Clustering
7 2 (1.39%) Data Centre
7 2 (1.39%) Fibre Optics
7 2 (1.39%) Management Information System
7 2 (1.39%) Replication
8 1 (0.69%) CMDB
8 1 (0.69%) FMCG
8 1 (0.69%) Hybrid Cloud
8 1 (0.69%) Legacy Systems
8 1 (0.69%) PKI
8 1 (0.69%) Smartphone
8 1 (0.69%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 114 (79.17%) Windows
2 61 (42.36%) Windows Server
3 15 (10.42%) Linux
4 13 (9.03%) Android
4 13 (9.03%) Apple iOS
4 13 (9.03%) Windows 10
5 8 (5.56%) Windows Server 2019
6 7 (4.86%) Mac OS
7 6 (4.17%) VMS
8 3 (2.08%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 2 (1.39%) Windows Server 2012
9 2 (1.39%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 71 (49.31%) Customer Service
2 47 (32.64%) Problem-Solving
3 33 (22.92%) ITIL
4 31 (21.53%) Cybersecurity
5 29 (20.14%) Mentoring
6 18 (12.50%) Customer-Centric Approach
6 18 (12.50%) Customer-Centricity
7 11 (7.64%) Coaching
8 8 (5.56%) ITSM
8 8 (5.56%) Mobile Device Management
9 7 (4.86%) Data Protection
9 7 (4.86%) DevOps
9 7 (4.86%) Disaster Recovery
9 7 (4.86%) Network Management
9 7 (4.86%) Observability
10 6 (4.17%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 6 (4.17%) Network Virtualisation
10 6 (4.17%) Project Delivery
10 6 (4.17%) Servant Leadership
10 6 (4.17%) Task Automation
Programming Languages
1 17 (11.81%) PowerShell
2 8 (5.56%) Bash
3 6 (4.17%) SQL
4 2 (1.39%) Korn
4 2 (1.39%) T-SQL
5 1 (0.69%) Python
Qualifications
1 18 (12.50%) Microsoft Certification
2 14 (9.72%) Degree
3 10 (6.94%) MCP
4 9 (6.25%) DBS Check
5 8 (5.56%) A+ Certification
5 8 (5.56%) Security Cleared
6 4 (2.78%) SC Cleared
7 3 (2.08%) MCSA
7 3 (2.08%) MCSE
8 2 (1.39%) Azure Certification
8 2 (1.39%) DV Cleared
9 1 (0.69%) CCNA
9 1 (0.69%) Cisco Certification
9 1 (0.69%) Computer Science Degree
9 1 (0.69%) HND
9 1 (0.69%) ISTQB
9 1 (0.69%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 1 (0.69%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
9 1 (0.69%) RHCE
9 1 (0.69%) RHCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (4.17%) Cyber Essentials
2 5 (3.47%) SLA
3 2 (1.39%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 2 (1.39%) GDPR
3 2 (1.39%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 33 (22.92%) Hyper-V
2 26 (18.06%) VMware Infrastructure
3 11 (7.64%) Docker
4 3 (2.08%) Virtual Servers
4 3 (2.08%) vSphere
5 2 (1.39%) Citrix Hypervisor
6 1 (0.69%) Terminal Server
6 1 (0.69%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 37 (25.69%) Microsoft Intune
2 20 (13.89%) SCCM
3 10 (6.94%) Terraform
4 8 (5.56%) Kubernetes
5 5 (3.47%) Jamf Pro
5 5 (3.47%) SmoothWall
6 4 (2.78%) SCOM
7 3 (2.08%) Ansible
8 2 (1.39%) Failover Clustering
8 2 (1.39%) SCSM
9 1 (0.69%) Red Hat Satellite
9 1 (0.69%) WSUS
Vendors
1 126 (87.50%) Microsoft
2 36 (25.00%) VMware
3 22 (15.28%) Google
4 8 (5.56%) Cisco
5 7 (4.86%) Dell
6 5 (3.47%) Barracuda Networks
6 5 (3.47%) CheckPoint
6 5 (3.47%) HP
6 5 (3.47%) Meraki
6 5 (3.47%) Palo Alto
6 5 (3.47%) Sophos
6 5 (3.47%) Ubiquiti
7 4 (2.78%) Adobe
7 4 (2.78%) Atlassian
7 4 (2.78%) ServiceNow
8 3 (2.08%) Red Hat
8 3 (2.08%) Trend Micro
8 3 (2.08%) Veeam
9 2 (1.39%) McAfee
9 2 (1.39%) Splunk