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

6 months to
7 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 52 74 27
Rank change year-on-year +22 -47 -4
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 165 141 442
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 2.71% 3.98% 6.45%
As % of the System Software category 47.83% 42.99% 50.17%
Number of salaries quoted 137 111 381
10th Percentile £28,600 £28,250 £26,043
25th Percentile £31,250 £32,625 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £40,000 £40,000 £40,000
Median % change year-on-year - - +23.08%
75th Percentile £67,500 £50,000 £53,000
90th Percentile £68,750 £70,000 £56,525
South East median annual salary £40,000 £40,000 £38,000
% change year-on-year - +5.26% +8.57%

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 345 328 881
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 5.66% 9.27% 12.87%
Number of salaries quoted 247 226 734
10th Percentile £29,000 £31,250 £27,825
25th Percentile £35,000 £36,250 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £50,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% - +11.11%
75th Percentile £68,750 £76,125 £67,500
90th Percentile £75,000 £83,750 £85,000
South East median annual salary £57,500 £50,000 £47,500
% change year-on-year +15.00% +5.26% -3.06%

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 July 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 July 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 +13 66 £52,500 +40.00% 23
Buckinghamshire +4 61 £40,000 +6.67% 17
Oxfordshire -14 38 £35,000 -15.66% 10
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 48 (29.09%) Microsoft Exchange
2 38 (23.03%) SharePoint
3 3 (1.82%) Apache
4 1 (0.61%) Confluence
4 1 (0.61%) IIS
Applications
1 6 (3.64%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.61%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 5 (3.03%) Raiser’s Edge
Cloud Services
1 88 (53.33%) Azure
2 82 (49.70%) Microsoft 365
3 51 (30.91%) Entra ID
4 21 (12.73%) AWS
5 10 (6.06%) Google Workspace
6 9 (5.45%) OneDrive
7 6 (3.64%) IaaS
8 5 (3.03%) Azure Sentinel
8 5 (3.03%) Cloudflare
8 5 (3.03%) Power Automate
8 5 (3.03%) SaaS
9 4 (2.42%) GCP
9 4 (2.42%) PaaS
10 3 (1.82%) Amazon CloudWatch
11 2 (1.21%) Mimecast
12 1 (0.61%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 86 (52.12%) Firewall
2 81 (49.09%) DNS
3 40 (24.24%) DHCP
4 38 (23.03%) Wi-Fi
5 31 (18.79%) VPN
6 18 (10.91%) VLAN
7 17 (10.30%) LAN
7 17 (10.30%) Remote Desktop
8 16 (9.70%) SAN
9 12 (7.27%) TCP/IP
9 12 (7.27%) WAN
9 12 (7.27%) Wireless
10 11 (6.67%) NetScaler
10 11 (6.67%) Network Security
11 10 (6.06%) SSL
12 8 (4.85%) iSCSI
12 8 (4.85%) NAS
12 8 (4.85%) Wireshark
13 4 (2.42%) Internet
13 4 (2.42%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (7.88%) SQL Server
2 11 (6.67%) PostgreSQL
3 8 (4.85%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 8 (4.85%) JIRA
2 1 (0.61%) Subversion
General
1 72 (43.64%) Social Skills
2 13 (7.88%) Organisational Skills
3 12 (7.27%) Analytical Skills
4 7 (4.24%) Documentation Skills
5 6 (3.64%) Influencing Skills
6 5 (3.03%) Local Government
7 4 (2.42%) Finance
8 3 (1.82%) Games
8 3 (1.82%) Manufacturing
9 2 (1.21%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 2 (1.21%) Legal
9 2 (1.21%) Retail
10 1 (0.61%) Aviation
10 1 (0.61%) Health Technology
Job Titles
1 51 (30.91%) IT Support
2 30 (18.18%) IT Engineer
3 27 (16.36%) Architect
3 27 (16.36%) Support Engineer
4 25 (15.15%) Senior
5 22 (13.33%) IT Support Engineer
6 20 (12.12%) Analyst
6 20 (12.12%) Applications Architect
7 15 (9.09%) Security Architect
8 14 (8.48%) IT Support Technician
8 14 (8.48%) IT Technician
8 14 (8.48%) Support Technician
9 12 (7.27%) Support Analyst
10 9 (5.45%) IT Analyst
10 9 (5.45%) IT Support Analyst
10 9 (5.45%) Linux Engineer
11 8 (4.85%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 8 (4.85%) Senior Linux Engineer
12 7 (4.24%) Security Engineer
12 7 (4.24%) Technical Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 23 (13.94%) Regular Expression
2 19 (11.52%) LDAP
2 19 (11.52%) XMPP
3 7 (4.24%) JSON
3 7 (4.24%) JSON Schema
3 7 (4.24%) XML
4 3 (1.82%) HTML
4 3 (1.82%) ODBC
5 2 (1.21%) OpenID
6 1 (0.61%) OAuth
6 1 (0.61%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 27 (16.36%) Driving Licence
2 19 (11.52%) Self-Motivation
3 16 (9.70%) Onboarding
4 13 (7.88%) Management Information System
5 12 (7.27%) PKI
6 6 (3.64%) Cloud Native
6 6 (3.64%) Security Posture
7 5 (3.03%) CCTV
7 5 (3.03%) Cyber Defence
7 5 (3.03%) Security Operations Centre
8 4 (2.42%) Hybrid Cloud
9 3 (1.82%) Data Centre
9 3 (1.82%) Distributed Systems
9 3 (1.82%) Life Science
9 3 (1.82%) Linux Command Line
9 3 (1.82%) Private Cloud
9 3 (1.82%) Public Cloud
9 3 (1.82%) Renewable Energy
9 3 (1.82%) Team-Oriented Environment
9 3 (1.82%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 120 (72.73%) Windows
2 77 (46.67%) Windows Server
3 54 (32.73%) Linux
4 35 (21.21%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 18 (10.91%) Windows 10
6 12 (7.27%) Mac OS
7 5 (3.03%) Windows Server 2019
8 3 (1.82%) Windows 7
9 2 (1.21%) CentOS
10 1 (0.61%) Android
10 1 (0.61%) Apple iOS
10 1 (0.61%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 52 (31.52%) Problem-Solving
2 37 (22.42%) Customer Service
3 36 (21.82%) Cybersecurity
4 31 (18.79%) Continuous Improvement
4 31 (18.79%) ITIL
5 28 (16.97%) SIEM
6 22 (13.33%) Disaster Recovery
7 19 (11.52%) Validation
8 17 (10.30%) High Availability
8 17 (10.30%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 16 (9.70%) Antivirus Management
9 16 (9.70%) Application Security
9 16 (9.70%) Pattern Matching
9 16 (9.70%) Platform Engineering
10 14 (8.48%) Architectural Design
10 14 (8.48%) Root Cause Analysis
11 13 (7.88%) Time Management
12 12 (7.27%) Data Protection
12 12 (7.27%) Resource Management
12 12 (7.27%) Server Management
Programming Languages
1 44 (26.67%) PowerShell
2 16 (9.70%) Python
3 12 (7.27%) Bash
4 7 (4.24%) Shell Script
5 6 (3.64%) Korn
5 6 (3.64%) SQL
6 2 (1.21%) C
7 1 (0.61%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 44 (26.67%) Security Cleared
2 35 (21.21%) DV Cleared
3 29 (17.58%) Degree
4 10 (6.06%) CompTIA Security+
4 10 (6.06%) Microsoft Certification
5 9 (5.45%) SC Cleared
6 8 (4.85%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
7 7 (4.24%) CCNA
7 7 (4.24%) Cisco Certification
8 6 (3.64%) Network+ Certification
9 5 (3.03%) Azure Certification
10 4 (2.42%) CCNP
10 4 (2.42%) Computer Science Degree
10 4 (2.42%) DBS Check
11 3 (1.82%) ICAEW
12 2 (1.21%) RHCE
12 2 (1.21%) RHCSA
13 1 (0.61%) A+ Certification
13 1 (0.61%) CISM
13 1 (0.61%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (10.30%) Cyber Essentials
1 17 (10.30%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 7 (4.24%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
2 7 (4.24%) GDPR
3 5 (3.03%) SLA
4 4 (2.42%) SOC 2
5 3 (1.82%) NIST
5 3 (1.82%) QA
6 2 (1.21%) NCSC
System Software
1 33 (20.00%) vSphere
2 32 (19.39%) Hyper-V
3 21 (12.73%) VMware Infrastructure
4 15 (9.09%) Docker
5 8 (4.85%) Citrix Hypervisor
6 3 (1.82%) Virtual Machines
7 2 (1.21%) Samba
8 1 (0.61%) Terminal Server
8 1 (0.61%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 28 (16.97%) Microsoft Intune
2 11 (6.67%) Kubernetes
3 5 (3.03%) Graylog
3 5 (3.03%) Jamf Pro
4 4 (2.42%) SCCM
4 4 (2.42%) Terraform
5 3 (1.82%) Ansible
5 3 (1.82%) Grafana
5 3 (1.82%) Prometheus
6 2 (1.21%) Single Sign-On
7 1 (0.61%) Autotask
7 1 (0.61%) Failover Clustering
7 1 (0.61%) FortiGate
7 1 (0.61%) SCOM
Vendors
1 117 (70.91%) Microsoft
2 52 (31.52%) VMware
3 27 (16.36%) Red Hat
4 16 (9.70%) McAfee
5 13 (7.88%) Google
6 12 (7.27%) Cisco
6 12 (7.27%) Citrix
7 10 (6.06%) ServiceNow
8 8 (4.85%) Aruba
8 8 (4.85%) Dell
8 8 (4.85%) NetApp
9 7 (4.24%) Fortinet
10 5 (3.03%) Datto
10 5 (3.03%) Palo Alto
10 5 (3.03%) Veeam
11 4 (2.42%) Apple
11 4 (2.42%) Juniper
11 4 (2.42%) SonicWALL
12 3 (1.82%) Meraki
12 3 (1.82%) Oracle