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

6 months to
15 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 58 76 27
Rank change year-on-year +18 -49 +2
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 141 117 446
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 2.50% 3.48% 6.87%
As % of the System Software category 51.09% 37.03% 45.23%
Number of salaries quoted 111 88 402
10th Percentile £28,000 £27,313 £26,250
25th Percentile £31,250 £31,250 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £36,000 £40,250 £40,000
Median % change year-on-year -10.56% +0.63% +23.08%
75th Percentile £58,125 £52,500 £54,875
90th Percentile £68,750 £72,250 £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 276 316 986
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 4.90% 9.39% 15.19%
Number of salaries quoted 190 214 800
10th Percentile £31,000 £30,200 £28,950
25th Percentile £35,000 £38,375 £36,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £55,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% +10.00% +11.11%
75th Percentile £68,750 £82,500 £70,000
90th Percentile £77,500 £90,925 £85,100
South East median annual salary £55,000 £55,000 £47,500
% change year-on-year - +15.79% -

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 15 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 15 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 53 £52,500 +40.00% 26
Buckinghamshire +9 48 £36,500 -18.89% 12
Oxfordshire +4 40 £34,000 -15.00% 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 33 (23.40%) Microsoft Exchange
2 18 (12.77%) SharePoint
3 3 (2.13%) Apache
4 1 (0.71%) Confluence
4 1 (0.71%) IIS
Applications
1 14 (9.93%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.71%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 75 (53.19%) Microsoft 365
2 68 (48.23%) Azure
3 31 (21.99%) Entra ID
4 19 (13.48%) AWS
5 17 (12.06%) Google Workspace
6 11 (7.80%) OneDrive
7 6 (4.26%) SaaS
8 5 (3.55%) GCP
9 4 (2.84%) Azure Sentinel
9 4 (2.84%) Cloudflare
10 3 (2.13%) Amazon CloudWatch
11 2 (1.42%) IaaS
11 2 (1.42%) Mimecast
11 2 (1.42%) PaaS
12 1 (0.71%) Power Automate
12 1 (0.71%) Power Platform
12 1 (0.71%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 64 (45.39%) Firewall
2 59 (41.84%) DNS
3 26 (18.44%) DHCP
4 19 (13.48%) LAN
5 17 (12.06%) Wi-Fi
6 16 (11.35%) SAN
7 15 (10.64%) VPN
8 14 (9.93%) Remote Desktop
8 14 (9.93%) WAN
9 13 (9.22%) TCP/IP
10 11 (7.80%) NetScaler
11 8 (5.67%) iSCSI
11 8 (5.67%) NAS
11 8 (5.67%) VoIP
11 8 (5.67%) Wireshark
12 7 (4.96%) Network Security
13 5 (3.55%) SSL
13 5 (3.55%) Wireless
14 4 (2.84%) VLAN
15 2 (1.42%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (9.22%) SQL Server
2 11 (7.80%) PostgreSQL
3 8 (5.67%) MySQL
4 1 (0.71%) Amazon RDS
4 1 (0.71%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 9 (6.38%) JIRA
2 3 (2.13%) Subversion
General
1 57 (40.43%) Social Skills
2 17 (12.06%) Organisational Skills
3 10 (7.09%) Analytical Skills
4 6 (4.26%) Influencing Skills
5 5 (3.55%) Local Government
5 5 (3.55%) Manufacturing
6 3 (2.13%) Games
7 2 (1.42%) Documentation Skills
7 2 (1.42%) Finance
7 2 (1.42%) Legal
7 2 (1.42%) Retail
8 1 (0.71%) Aviation
8 1 (0.71%) Health Technology
8 1 (0.71%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 1 (0.71%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 52 (36.88%) IT Support
2 24 (17.02%) Support Engineer
3 22 (15.60%) Analyst
3 22 (15.60%) Senior
4 21 (14.89%) Architect
4 21 (14.89%) IT Engineer
5 18 (12.77%) Support Analyst
6 17 (12.06%) IT Support Engineer
7 16 (11.35%) Applications Architect
8 12 (8.51%) IT Support Technician
8 12 (8.51%) IT Technician
8 12 (8.51%) Support Technician
8 12 (8.51%) Technical Support
9 11 (7.80%) Security Architect
10 10 (7.09%) IT Analyst
10 10 (7.09%) IT Support Analyst
10 10 (7.09%) Linux Engineer
11 8 (5.67%) Senior Linux Engineer
12 7 (4.96%) 2nd Line Support
13 6 (4.26%) 3rd Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (11.35%) Regular Expression
2 12 (8.51%) LDAP
2 12 (8.51%) XMPP
3 4 (2.84%) JSON
3 4 (2.84%) JSON Schema
3 4 (2.84%) XML
4 2 (1.42%) OpenID
5 1 (0.71%) OAuth
5 1 (0.71%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 15 (10.64%) Driving Licence
2 13 (9.22%) Management Information System
2 13 (9.22%) Onboarding
3 11 (7.80%) Self-Motivation
4 10 (7.09%) PKI
5 8 (5.67%) Video Conferencing
6 6 (4.26%) Cloud Native
7 4 (2.84%) Cyber Defence
7 4 (2.84%) Security Operations Centre
7 4 (2.84%) Social Media
8 3 (2.13%) Distributed Systems
8 3 (2.13%) EPoS
8 3 (2.13%) Life Science
8 3 (2.13%) Linux Command Line
8 3 (2.13%) Private Cloud
8 3 (2.13%) Public Cloud
8 3 (2.13%) Renewable Energy
8 3 (2.13%) Virtual Team
9 2 (1.42%) Security Posture
10 1 (0.71%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 104 (73.76%) Windows
2 70 (49.65%) Windows Server
3 47 (33.33%) Linux
4 28 (19.86%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 13 (9.22%) Windows 10
6 9 (6.38%) Mac OS
7 7 (4.96%) Android
7 7 (4.96%) Apple iOS
8 4 (2.84%) Windows Server 2019
9 2 (1.42%) CentOS
10 1 (0.71%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 41 (29.08%) Problem-Solving
2 36 (25.53%) ITIL
3 34 (24.11%) Customer Service
4 21 (14.89%) SIEM
5 20 (14.18%) Cybersecurity
6 19 (13.48%) Continuous Improvement
7 17 (12.06%) Root Cause Analysis
8 12 (8.51%) Antivirus Management
8 12 (8.51%) Application Security
8 12 (8.51%) Pattern Matching
8 12 (8.51%) Platform Engineering
8 12 (8.51%) Validation
9 11 (7.80%) High Availability
9 11 (7.80%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 10 (7.09%) Architectural Design
10 10 (7.09%) Coaching
10 10 (7.09%) Data Protection
11 9 (6.38%) Agile
12 8 (5.67%) Test Automation
12 8 (5.67%) Time Management
Programming Languages
1 26 (18.44%) PowerShell
2 12 (8.51%) Bash
3 10 (7.09%) Python
4 6 (4.26%) Korn
4 6 (4.26%) SQL
5 4 (2.84%) Shell Script
6 2 (1.42%) C
7 1 (0.71%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 37 (26.24%) Security Cleared
2 25 (17.73%) DV Cleared
3 24 (17.02%) Degree
4 10 (7.09%) SC Cleared
5 7 (4.96%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
6 6 (4.26%) CompTIA Security+
7 5 (3.55%) Computer Science Degree
7 5 (3.55%) DBS Check
8 4 (2.84%) Microsoft Certification
9 3 (2.13%) Network+ Certification
10 2 (1.42%) A+ Certification
10 2 (1.42%) ISTQB
10 2 (1.42%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
10 2 (1.42%) MCSE
10 2 (1.42%) RHCE
10 2 (1.42%) RHCSA
11 1 (0.71%) CCIE
11 1 (0.71%) CCNA
11 1 (0.71%) CISSP
11 1 (0.71%) ICAEW
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (7.09%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 5 (3.55%) SLA
3 4 (2.84%) SOC 2
4 3 (2.13%) Cyber Essentials
4 3 (2.13%) QA
5 2 (1.42%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 1 (0.71%) GDPR
6 1 (0.71%) NIST
System Software
1 21 (14.89%) Hyper-V
2 20 (14.18%) vSphere
3 18 (12.77%) VMware Infrastructure
4 15 (10.64%) Docker
5 8 (5.67%) Citrix Hypervisor
6 2 (1.42%) Samba
6 2 (1.42%) Terminal Server
7 1 (0.71%) Virtual Desktop
7 1 (0.71%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 22 (15.60%) Microsoft Intune
2 12 (8.51%) SCCM
3 11 (7.80%) Kubernetes
4 6 (4.26%) Jamf Pro
5 5 (3.55%) Terraform
6 4 (2.84%) Ansible
6 4 (2.84%) Graylog
6 4 (2.84%) SmoothWall
7 3 (2.13%) Grafana
7 3 (2.13%) Prometheus
7 3 (2.13%) SCOM
8 2 (1.42%) Single Sign-On
9 1 (0.71%) Autotask
9 1 (0.71%) Failover Clustering
9 1 (0.71%) FortiGate
Vendors
1 101 (71.63%) Microsoft
2 39 (27.66%) VMware
3 20 (14.18%) Google
3 20 (14.18%) Red Hat
4 13 (9.22%) Citrix
5 10 (7.09%) Cisco
5 10 (7.09%) McAfee
6 8 (5.67%) Dell
6 8 (5.67%) NetApp
7 7 (4.96%) Meraki
7 7 (4.96%) ServiceNow
8 6 (4.26%) Palo Alto
9 5 (3.55%) CheckPoint
10 3 (2.13%) Atlassian
10 3 (2.13%) Oracle
11 2 (1.42%) Adobe
11 2 (1.42%) Datto
11 2 (1.42%) D-Link
11 2 (1.42%) Juniper
11 2 (1.42%) Veeam