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

6 months to
28 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 59 74 29
Rank change year-on-year +15 -45 -1
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 138 121 443
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 2.42% 3.65% 6.59%
As % of the System Software category 48.59% 40.20% 45.76%
Number of salaries quoted 111 92 397
10th Percentile £29,000 £26,938 £26,250
25th Percentile £31,250 £31,250 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £39,000 £40,000 £40,000
Median % change year-on-year -2.50% - +23.08%
75th Percentile £68,750 £52,500 £55,000
90th Percentile £72,500 £75,175 £59,000
South East median annual salary £40,000 £40,000 £37,500
% change year-on-year - +6.67% +7.14%

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 284 301 968
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 4.97% 9.08% 14.40%
Number of salaries quoted 204 201 781
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,750 £29,175
25th Percentile £35,000 £37,250 £36,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £53,750 £52,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +2.38% +5.00% +11.11%
75th Percentile £68,750 £77,500 £68,750
90th Percentile £77,500 £83,750 £85,000
South East median annual salary £55,000 £51,000 £47,500
% change year-on-year +7.84% +7.37% -1.04%

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 28 May 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 28 May 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 +3 51 £52,500 +40.00% 19
Buckinghamshire +14 49 £38,750 +3.33% 12
Oxfordshire -4 38 £34,000 -15.53% 11
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 34 (24.64%) Microsoft Exchange
2 20 (14.49%) SharePoint
3 3 (2.17%) Apache
4 1 (0.72%) Confluence
4 1 (0.72%) IIS
Applications
1 11 (7.97%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.72%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 71 (51.45%) Azure
1 71 (51.45%) Microsoft 365
2 33 (23.91%) Entra ID
3 18 (13.04%) AWS
4 17 (12.32%) Google Workspace
5 11 (7.97%) OneDrive
6 5 (3.62%) IaaS
6 5 (3.62%) SaaS
7 4 (2.90%) Azure Sentinel
7 4 (2.90%) Cloudflare
7 4 (2.90%) GCP
7 4 (2.90%) PaaS
8 3 (2.17%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 2 (1.45%) Mimecast
10 1 (0.72%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 66 (47.83%) Firewall
2 60 (43.48%) DNS
3 26 (18.84%) DHCP
4 21 (15.22%) Wi-Fi
5 17 (12.32%) LAN
6 16 (11.59%) SAN
7 15 (10.87%) VPN
8 14 (10.14%) Remote Desktop
9 12 (8.70%) TCP/IP
9 12 (8.70%) WAN
10 11 (7.97%) NetScaler
11 8 (5.80%) iSCSI
11 8 (5.80%) NAS
11 8 (5.80%) Network Security
11 8 (5.80%) Wireshark
12 6 (4.35%) SSL
12 6 (4.35%) VLAN
12 6 (4.35%) VoIP
13 4 (2.90%) Wireless
14 2 (1.45%) PBX
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (9.42%) SQL Server
2 11 (7.97%) PostgreSQL
3 8 (5.80%) MySQL
4 1 (0.72%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 9 (6.52%) JIRA
2 2 (1.45%) Subversion
General
1 57 (41.30%) Social Skills
2 17 (12.32%) Organisational Skills
3 9 (6.52%) Analytical Skills
4 6 (4.35%) Influencing Skills
5 5 (3.62%) Local Government
5 5 (3.62%) Manufacturing
6 4 (2.90%) Finance
7 3 (2.17%) Games
8 2 (1.45%) Documentation Skills
8 2 (1.45%) Legal
8 2 (1.45%) Retail
9 1 (0.72%) Aviation
9 1 (0.72%) Health Technology
9 1 (0.72%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 47 (34.06%) IT Support
2 24 (17.39%) Architect
3 22 (15.94%) Support Engineer
4 21 (15.22%) Analyst
4 21 (15.22%) Senior
5 20 (14.49%) IT Engineer
6 17 (12.32%) Applications Architect
6 17 (12.32%) Support Analyst
7 16 (11.59%) IT Support Engineer
8 13 (9.42%) IT Support Technician
8 13 (9.42%) IT Technician
8 13 (9.42%) Support Technician
9 12 (8.70%) Security Architect
9 12 (8.70%) Technical Support
10 9 (6.52%) IT Analyst
10 9 (6.52%) IT Support Analyst
10 9 (6.52%) Linux Engineer
11 8 (5.80%) Senior Linux Engineer
12 6 (4.35%) 2nd Line Support
12 6 (4.35%) Service Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (12.32%) Regular Expression
2 13 (9.42%) LDAP
2 13 (9.42%) XMPP
3 4 (2.90%) JSON
3 4 (2.90%) JSON Schema
3 4 (2.90%) XML
4 2 (1.45%) OpenID
5 1 (0.72%) OAuth
5 1 (0.72%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 17 (12.32%) Driving Licence
2 13 (9.42%) Management Information System
2 13 (9.42%) Onboarding
3 11 (7.97%) Self-Motivation
4 9 (6.52%) PKI
5 7 (5.07%) Video Conferencing
6 6 (4.35%) Cloud Native
7 4 (2.90%) Cyber Defence
7 4 (2.90%) Security Operations Centre
7 4 (2.90%) Social Media
8 3 (2.17%) Distributed Systems
8 3 (2.17%) EPoS
8 3 (2.17%) Hybrid Cloud
8 3 (2.17%) Life Science
8 3 (2.17%) Linux Command Line
8 3 (2.17%) Private Cloud
8 3 (2.17%) Public Cloud
8 3 (2.17%) Renewable Energy
8 3 (2.17%) Security Posture
8 3 (2.17%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 102 (73.91%) Windows
2 72 (52.17%) Windows Server
3 47 (34.06%) Linux
4 29 (21.01%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 12 (8.70%) Windows 10
6 10 (7.25%) Mac OS
7 7 (5.07%) Android
7 7 (5.07%) Apple iOS
8 4 (2.90%) Windows Server 2019
9 2 (1.45%) CentOS
10 1 (0.72%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 37 (26.81%) Problem-Solving
2 35 (25.36%) ITIL
3 29 (21.01%) Customer Service
4 22 (15.94%) Cybersecurity
5 21 (15.22%) SIEM
6 20 (14.49%) Continuous Improvement
7 17 (12.32%) Root Cause Analysis
8 13 (9.42%) Antivirus Management
8 13 (9.42%) Application Security
8 13 (9.42%) High Availability
8 13 (9.42%) Pattern Matching
8 13 (9.42%) Platform Engineering
8 13 (9.42%) Validation
9 11 (7.97%) Architectural Design
9 11 (7.97%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 10 (7.25%) Coaching
10 10 (7.25%) Data Protection
11 9 (6.52%) Agile
11 9 (6.52%) Resource Management
11 9 (6.52%) Server Management
Programming Languages
1 26 (18.84%) PowerShell
2 12 (8.70%) Bash
3 10 (7.25%) Python
4 6 (4.35%) Korn
4 6 (4.35%) SQL
5 4 (2.90%) Shell Script
6 2 (1.45%) C
7 1 (0.72%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 37 (26.81%) Security Cleared
2 28 (20.29%) DV Cleared
3 25 (18.12%) Degree
4 10 (7.25%) SC Cleared
5 7 (5.07%) CompTIA Security+
5 7 (5.07%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
6 6 (4.35%) DBS Check
6 6 (4.35%) Microsoft Certification
7 5 (3.62%) Computer Science Degree
8 4 (2.90%) Network+ Certification
9 3 (2.17%) ICAEW
10 2 (1.45%) A+ Certification
10 2 (1.45%) CCNA
10 2 (1.45%) Cisco Certification
10 2 (1.45%) ISTQB
10 2 (1.45%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
10 2 (1.45%) MCSE
10 2 (1.45%) RHCE
10 2 (1.45%) RHCSA
11 1 (0.72%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (8.70%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 4 (2.90%) Cyber Essentials
2 4 (2.90%) SLA
2 4 (2.90%) SOC 2
3 3 (2.17%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 3 (2.17%) NIST
3 3 (2.17%) QA
4 1 (0.72%) GDPR
System Software
1 21 (15.22%) Hyper-V
1 21 (15.22%) vSphere
2 18 (13.04%) VMware Infrastructure
3 15 (10.87%) Docker
4 8 (5.80%) Citrix Hypervisor
5 2 (1.45%) Samba
5 2 (1.45%) Terminal Server
6 1 (0.72%) Virtual Desktop
6 1 (0.72%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 22 (15.94%) Microsoft Intune
2 11 (7.97%) Kubernetes
3 8 (5.80%) SCCM
4 7 (5.07%) Jamf Pro
5 4 (2.90%) Graylog
5 4 (2.90%) SmoothWall
5 4 (2.90%) Terraform
6 3 (2.17%) Ansible
6 3 (2.17%) Grafana
6 3 (2.17%) Prometheus
7 2 (1.45%) SCOM
7 2 (1.45%) Single Sign-On
8 1 (0.72%) Autotask
8 1 (0.72%) Failover Clustering
8 1 (0.72%) FortiGate
Vendors
1 97 (70.29%) Microsoft
2 40 (28.99%) VMware
3 21 (15.22%) Red Hat
4 20 (14.49%) Google
5 13 (9.42%) Citrix
6 12 (8.70%) Cisco
7 11 (7.97%) McAfee
8 8 (5.80%) Dell
8 8 (5.80%) NetApp
9 7 (5.07%) Meraki
9 7 (5.07%) Palo Alto
9 7 (5.07%) ServiceNow
10 5 (3.62%) CheckPoint
11 3 (2.17%) Datto
11 3 (2.17%) Oracle
11 3 (2.17%) Veeam
12 2 (1.45%) Atlassian
12 2 (1.45%) D-Link
12 2 (1.45%) Juniper
12 2 (1.45%) SonicWALL