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

6 months to
1 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 48 46 24
Rank change year-on-year -2 -22 +14
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 158 154 425
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 3.54% 5.09% 7.55%
As % of the System Software category 64.75% 33.33% 43.37%
Number of salaries quoted 126 122 379
10th Percentile £27,250 £25,750 £26,250
25th Percentile £31,281 £28,250 £30,750
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 £58,125 £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 244 462 980
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 5.46% 15.27% 17.40%
Number of salaries quoted 166 297 778
10th Percentile £29,000 £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% +22.09%
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 1 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 1 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 -14 59 £32,750 -34.50% 27
Oxfordshire +13 54 £34,000 +15.25% 18
Buckinghamshire 0 45 £37,500 -11.76% 21
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 (17.09%) Microsoft Exchange
2 17 (10.76%) SharePoint
3 4 (2.53%) IIS
4 2 (1.27%) Apache
4 2 (1.27%) CMS
4 2 (1.27%) WordPress
Applications
1 43 (27.22%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.63%) Spreadsheet
Cloud Services
1 115 (72.78%) Microsoft 365
2 93 (58.86%) Azure
3 42 (26.58%) Entra ID
4 18 (11.39%) AWS
5 15 (9.49%) Google Workspace
6 12 (7.59%) GCP
7 6 (3.80%) SaaS
8 4 (2.53%) Azure DevOps
8 4 (2.53%) Azure Key Vault
8 4 (2.53%) GitHub
8 4 (2.53%) GitHub Actions
8 4 (2.53%) OneDrive
9 2 (1.27%) Mimecast
10 1 (0.63%) Power Automate
10 1 (0.63%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 43 (27.22%) Firewall
2 40 (25.32%) DNS
3 35 (22.15%) DHCP
4 23 (14.56%) VPN
5 22 (13.92%) TCP/IP
6 19 (12.03%) WAN
7 18 (11.39%) LAN
8 14 (8.86%) VoIP
9 9 (5.70%) Wi-Fi
10 8 (5.06%) Wireless
11 5 (3.16%) VLAN
12 4 (2.53%) SAN
13 3 (1.90%) Ethernet
13 3 (1.90%) Remote Desktop
14 2 (1.27%) Cisco ISE
14 2 (1.27%) iSCSI
14 2 (1.27%) SSL
14 2 (1.27%) Unified Communications
15 1 (0.63%) Network Security
15 1 (0.63%) PBX
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (4.43%) SQL Server
2 3 (1.90%) Data Mining
2 3 (1.90%) PostgreSQL
3 2 (1.27%) MySQL
4 1 (0.63%) Amazon RDS
4 1 (0.63%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 6 (3.80%) JIRA
2 4 (2.53%) Git
2 4 (2.53%) Jenkins
3 3 (1.90%) Subversion
General
1 83 (52.53%) Social Skills
2 12 (7.59%) Organisational Skills
3 9 (5.70%) Telecoms
4 7 (4.43%) Analytical Skills
5 5 (3.16%) Retail
6 2 (1.27%) Finance
6 2 (1.27%) Legal
6 2 (1.27%) Manufacturing
7 1 (0.63%) Games
7 1 (0.63%) Health Technology
Job Titles
1 91 (57.59%) IT Support
2 33 (20.89%) Support Engineer
3 30 (18.99%) IT Engineer
4 27 (17.09%) Analyst
4 27 (17.09%) Support Analyst
5 25 (15.82%) 3rd Line Support
5 25 (15.82%) IT Support Engineer
6 20 (12.66%) IT Analyst
6 20 (12.66%) IT Support Analyst
7 19 (12.03%) IT Support Technician
7 19 (12.03%) IT Technician
7 19 (12.03%) Support Technician
8 18 (11.39%) Technical Support
9 14 (8.86%) 2nd Line Support
10 13 (8.23%) 3rd Line Technical Support
11 10 (6.33%) Senior
12 9 (5.70%) 2nd Line Support Analyst
12 9 (5.70%) Consultant
12 9 (5.70%) Microsoft Engineer
12 9 (5.70%) Support Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (2.53%) ARM Templates
2 2 (1.27%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 25 (15.82%) Driving Licence
2 18 (11.39%) Self-Motivation
3 10 (6.33%) Onboarding
4 8 (5.06%) Video Conferencing
5 5 (3.16%) Linux Command Line
5 5 (3.16%) Social Media
6 2 (1.27%) Clustering
6 2 (1.27%) Data Centre
6 2 (1.27%) Fibre Optics
6 2 (1.27%) Management Information System
6 2 (1.27%) PKI
6 2 (1.27%) Replication
7 1 (0.63%) Cloud Native
7 1 (0.63%) CMDB
7 1 (0.63%) FMCG
7 1 (0.63%) Smartphone
7 1 (0.63%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 117 (74.05%) Windows
2 69 (43.67%) Windows Server
3 22 (13.92%) Linux
4 14 (8.86%) Windows 10
5 8 (5.06%) Android
5 8 (5.06%) Apple iOS
5 8 (5.06%) Mac OS
6 7 (4.43%) Windows Server 2019
7 4 (2.53%) VMS
8 3 (1.90%) Windows Server 2016
9 2 (1.27%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 2 (1.27%) Windows Server 2012
10 1 (0.63%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 79 (50.00%) Customer Service
2 61 (38.61%) Problem-Solving
3 38 (24.05%) ITIL
4 28 (17.72%) Cybersecurity
5 26 (16.46%) Mentoring
6 16 (10.13%) Customer-Centric Approach
6 16 (10.13%) Customer-Centricity
7 13 (8.23%) Coaching
8 12 (7.59%) ITSM
9 10 (6.33%) Continuous Improvement
10 8 (5.06%) Mobile Device Management
10 8 (5.06%) Network Management
11 7 (4.43%) Data Protection
11 7 (4.43%) Disaster Recovery
11 7 (4.43%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 7 (4.43%) Project Delivery
11 7 (4.43%) Service Delivery
11 7 (4.43%) Task Automation
12 6 (3.80%) Collaborative Culture
12 6 (3.80%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 21 (13.29%) PowerShell
2 7 (4.43%) SQL
3 6 (3.80%) Bash
4 2 (1.27%) T-SQL
5 1 (0.63%) Bicep
5 1 (0.63%) C
5 1 (0.63%) Korn
5 1 (0.63%) Python
Qualifications
1 18 (11.39%) Degree
2 16 (10.13%) Microsoft Certification
3 11 (6.96%) Security Cleared
4 9 (5.70%) Microsoft Certified Professional
5 8 (5.06%) A+ Certification
6 7 (4.43%) DBS Check
7 6 (3.80%) SC Cleared
8 4 (2.53%) DV Cleared
9 3 (1.90%) MCSA
10 2 (1.27%) CCNA
10 2 (1.27%) Cisco Certification
10 2 (1.27%) ISTQB
10 2 (1.27%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
10 2 (1.27%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 2 (1.27%) MCSE
11 1 (0.63%) CCIE
11 1 (0.63%) HND
11 1 (0.63%) Network+ Certification
11 1 (0.63%) RHCE
11 1 (0.63%) RHCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (4.43%) SLA
2 6 (3.80%) Cyber Essentials
3 3 (1.90%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 2 (1.27%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 1 (0.63%) GDPR
System Software
1 38 (24.05%) Hyper-V
2 21 (13.29%) VMware Infrastructure
3 9 (5.70%) Docker
4 3 (1.90%) vSphere
5 2 (1.27%) Citrix Hypervisor
5 2 (1.27%) 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 (20.89%) Microsoft Intune
2 22 (13.92%) SCCM
3 8 (5.06%) Terraform
4 6 (3.80%) Kubernetes
5 5 (3.16%) Jamf Pro
5 5 (3.16%) SCOM
5 5 (3.16%) SmoothWall
6 2 (1.27%) Ansible
6 2 (1.27%) Failover Clustering
6 2 (1.27%) SCSM
Vendors
1 130 (82.28%) Microsoft
2 28 (17.72%) VMware
3 23 (14.56%) Google
4 11 (6.96%) Cisco
5 9 (5.70%) ServiceNow
6 7 (4.43%) Meraki
7 6 (3.80%) Palo Alto
8 5 (3.16%) Atlassian
8 5 (3.16%) CheckPoint
9 4 (2.53%) Adobe
9 4 (2.53%) Veeam
10 3 (1.90%) McAfee
10 3 (1.90%) Trend Micro
11 2 (1.27%) Citrix
11 2 (1.27%) Dell
11 2 (1.27%) Juniper
11 2 (1.27%) Red Hat
12 1 (0.63%) HP
12 1 (0.63%) Oracle
12 1 (0.63%) SolarWinds