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

6 months to
19 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 46 46 23
Rank change year-on-year 0 -23 +12
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 156 158 414
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 3.56% 4.97% 7.65%
As % of the System Software category 65.27% 32.85% 43.81%
Number of salaries quoted 125 124 368
10th Percentile £27,250 £25,750 £26,250
25th Percentile £31,375 £28,188 £30,469
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £35,000 £45,000 £40,000
Median % change year-on-year -22.22% +12.50% +23.08%
75th Percentile £42,500 £57,500 £55,000
90th Percentile £57,149 £65,850 £56,525
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 239 481 945
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 5.45% 15.12% 17.47%
Number of salaries quoted 163 298 745
10th Percentile £30,600 £28,000 £27,500
25th Percentile £31,375 £45,000 £34,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £37,500 £60,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -37.50% +14.29% +18.91%
75th Percentile £59,375 £81,250 £72,500
90th Percentile £73,750 £95,000 £91,250
South East median annual salary £40,000 £60,000 £47,500
% change year-on-year -33.33% +26.32% -

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 19 February 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 19 February 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 57 £33,500 -33.00% 17
Oxfordshire +11 55 £34,000 +18.26% 20
Buckinghamshire +3 44 £37,500 - 26
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 24 (15.38%) Microsoft Exchange
2 17 (10.90%) SharePoint
3 4 (2.56%) IIS
4 2 (1.28%) CMS
4 2 (1.28%) WordPress
Applications
1 43 (27.56%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.64%) Spreadsheet
Cloud Services
1 118 (75.64%) Microsoft 365
2 95 (60.90%) Azure
3 41 (26.28%) Entra ID
4 16 (10.26%) AWS
5 15 (9.62%) Google Workspace
6 12 (7.69%) GCP
7 5 (3.21%) Azure DevOps
7 5 (3.21%) Azure Key Vault
7 5 (3.21%) GitHub
7 5 (3.21%) GitHub Actions
7 5 (3.21%) SaaS
8 4 (2.56%) OneDrive
9 2 (1.28%) Mimecast
10 1 (0.64%) Power Automate
10 1 (0.64%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 41 (26.28%) DNS
2 39 (25.00%) Firewall
3 36 (23.08%) DHCP
4 23 (14.74%) TCP/IP
5 22 (14.10%) VPN
6 19 (12.18%) WAN
7 17 (10.90%) LAN
8 14 (8.97%) VoIP
9 8 (5.13%) Wireless
10 6 (3.85%) Wi-Fi
11 5 (3.21%) VLAN
12 3 (1.92%) Ethernet
13 2 (1.28%) Cisco ISE
13 2 (1.28%) SAN
13 2 (1.28%) SSL
13 2 (1.28%) Unified Communications
14 1 (0.64%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (2.56%) SQL Server
2 3 (1.92%) Data Mining
3 1 (0.64%) Amazon RDS
3 1 (0.64%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 5 (3.21%) Git
1 5 (3.21%) Jenkins
1 5 (3.21%) JIRA
2 3 (1.92%) Subversion
General
1 82 (52.56%) Social Skills
2 11 (7.05%) Organisational Skills
3 9 (5.77%) Telecoms
4 6 (3.85%) Analytical Skills
4 6 (3.85%) Retail
5 2 (1.28%) Finance
5 2 (1.28%) Legal
5 2 (1.28%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 88 (56.41%) IT Support
2 33 (21.15%) Support Engineer
3 29 (18.59%) IT Engineer
4 28 (17.95%) 3rd Line Support
5 26 (16.67%) Analyst
5 26 (16.67%) Support Analyst
6 24 (15.38%) IT Support Engineer
7 20 (12.82%) IT Analyst
7 20 (12.82%) IT Support Analyst
7 20 (12.82%) Technical Support
8 16 (10.26%) IT Support Technician
8 16 (10.26%) IT Technician
8 16 (10.26%) Support Technician
9 15 (9.62%) 2nd Line Support
9 15 (9.62%) 3rd Line Technical Support
10 11 (7.05%) Consultant
11 10 (6.41%) IT Consultant
11 10 (6.41%) Support Consultant
12 9 (5.77%) 2nd Line Support Analyst
12 9 (5.77%) Infrastructure Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (3.21%) ARM Templates
2 2 (1.28%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 24 (15.38%) Driving Licence
2 20 (12.82%) Self-Motivation
3 10 (6.41%) Onboarding
4 8 (5.13%) Video Conferencing
5 5 (3.21%) Linux Command Line
5 5 (3.21%) Social Media
6 2 (1.28%) Clustering
6 2 (1.28%) Data Centre
6 2 (1.28%) Fibre Optics
6 2 (1.28%) PKI
6 2 (1.28%) Replication
7 1 (0.64%) CMDB
7 1 (0.64%) FMCG
7 1 (0.64%) Smartphone
7 1 (0.64%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 118 (75.64%) Windows
2 71 (45.51%) Windows Server
3 19 (12.18%) Linux
4 13 (8.33%) Windows 10
5 8 (5.13%) Android
5 8 (5.13%) Apple iOS
6 7 (4.49%) Mac OS
6 7 (4.49%) Windows Server 2019
7 5 (3.21%) VMS
8 3 (1.92%) Windows Server 2016
9 2 (1.28%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 83 (53.21%) Customer Service
2 61 (39.10%) Problem-Solving
3 35 (22.44%) ITIL
4 31 (19.87%) Mentoring
5 26 (16.67%) Cybersecurity
6 16 (10.26%) Customer-Centric Approach
6 16 (10.26%) Customer-Centricity
7 15 (9.62%) Coaching
8 11 (7.05%) ITSM
9 10 (6.41%) Continuous Improvement
10 8 (5.13%) Mobile Device Management
10 8 (5.13%) Network Management
10 8 (5.13%) Task Automation
11 7 (4.49%) Data Protection
11 7 (4.49%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 6 (3.85%) Disaster Recovery
12 6 (3.85%) Project Delivery
12 6 (3.85%) Root Cause Analysis
12 6 (3.85%) Service Delivery
12 6 (3.85%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 20 (12.82%) PowerShell
2 5 (3.21%) Bash
2 5 (3.21%) SQL
3 2 (1.28%) T-SQL
4 1 (0.64%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 17 (10.90%) Microsoft Certification
2 15 (9.62%) Degree
3 10 (6.41%) Microsoft Certified Professional
4 9 (5.77%) A+ Certification
4 9 (5.77%) DBS Check
4 9 (5.77%) Security Cleared
5 4 (2.56%) SC Cleared
6 3 (1.92%) DV Cleared
6 3 (1.92%) MCSA
7 2 (1.28%) CCNA
7 2 (1.28%) Cisco Certification
7 2 (1.28%) ISTQB
7 2 (1.28%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
7 2 (1.28%) MCSE
8 1 (0.64%) CCIE
8 1 (0.64%) CompTIA Security+
8 1 (0.64%) Computer Science Degree
8 1 (0.64%) HND
8 1 (0.64%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
8 1 (0.64%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (3.85%) Cyber Essentials
1 6 (3.85%) SLA
2 2 (1.28%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
2 2 (1.28%) GDPR
2 2 (1.28%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 41 (26.28%) Hyper-V
2 21 (13.46%) VMware Infrastructure
3 7 (4.49%) Docker
4 3 (1.92%) vSphere
5 2 (1.28%) Terminal Server
6 1 (0.64%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (0.64%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 32 (20.51%) Microsoft Intune
2 23 (14.74%) SCCM
3 9 (5.77%) Terraform
4 5 (3.21%) Jamf Pro
4 5 (3.21%) Kubernetes
4 5 (3.21%) SCOM
4 5 (3.21%) SmoothWall
5 2 (1.28%) Ansible
5 2 (1.28%) Failover Clustering
5 2 (1.28%) SCSM
Vendors
1 133 (85.26%) Microsoft
2 29 (18.59%) VMware
3 23 (14.74%) Google
4 11 (7.05%) Cisco
5 8 (5.13%) ServiceNow
6 7 (4.49%) Meraki
7 6 (3.85%) Palo Alto
8 5 (3.21%) Atlassian
8 5 (3.21%) CheckPoint
9 4 (2.56%) Adobe
9 4 (2.56%) Veeam
10 3 (1.92%) McAfee
10 3 (1.92%) Trend Micro
11 2 (1.28%) Juniper
12 1 (0.64%) 3PAR
12 1 (0.64%) Citrix
12 1 (0.64%) HP
12 1 (0.64%) SolarWinds
12 1 (0.64%) Zscaler