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

6 months to
19 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 50 65 21
Rank change year-on-year +15 -44 +8
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 148 112 479
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 2.77% 3.97% 7.32%
As % of the System Software category 57.14% 34.36% 45.75%
Number of salaries quoted 121 92 424
10th Percentile £28,000 £25,750 £26,250
25th Percentile £31,250 £28,625 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £35,000 £43,750 £40,000
Median % change year-on-year -20.00% +9.38% +23.08%
75th Percentile £53,750 £57,500 £54,500
90th Percentile £68,750 £67,350 £59,000
South East median annual salary £36,500 £40,000 £37,500
% change year-on-year -8.75% +6.67% +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 259 326 1,047
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 4.84% 11.56% 16.00%
Number of salaries quoted 176 240 849
10th Percentile £30,000 £29,650 £27,950
25th Percentile £33,025 £42,500 £36,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £60,000 £51,000
Median % change year-on-year -29.17% +17.65% +15.52%
75th Percentile £65,625 £82,500 £70,000
90th Percentile £77,500 £95,000 £87,500
South East median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £46,500
% change year-on-year -9.09% +18.28% -2.11%

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 April 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 April 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 +5 57 £50,000 +5.26% 11
Oxfordshire -1 46 £34,000 -2.86% 12
Buckinghamshire -5 45 £36,000 -22.16% 19
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 28 (18.92%) Microsoft Exchange
2 18 (12.16%) SharePoint
3 3 (2.03%) Apache
4 2 (1.35%) CMS
4 2 (1.35%) WordPress
5 1 (0.68%) IIS
Applications
1 28 (18.92%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.68%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 83 (56.08%) Microsoft 365
2 68 (45.95%) Azure
3 30 (20.27%) Entra ID
4 19 (12.84%) AWS
5 16 (10.81%) Google Workspace
6 8 (5.41%) GCP
7 7 (4.73%) OneDrive
8 6 (4.05%) SaaS
9 2 (1.35%) Mimecast
10 1 (0.68%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 1 (0.68%) IaaS
10 1 (0.68%) PaaS
10 1 (0.68%) Power Automate
10 1 (0.68%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 56 (37.84%) Firewall
2 53 (35.81%) DNS
3 29 (19.59%) DHCP
4 22 (14.86%) LAN
5 21 (14.19%) VPN
6 17 (11.49%) TCP/IP
6 17 (11.49%) WAN
7 14 (9.46%) Wi-Fi
8 12 (8.11%) Remote Desktop
8 12 (8.11%) SAN
8 12 (8.11%) VoIP
9 9 (6.08%) NetScaler
10 8 (5.41%) Wireless
11 6 (4.05%) iSCSI
11 6 (4.05%) NAS
11 6 (4.05%) Network Security
11 6 (4.05%) Wireshark
12 5 (3.38%) VLAN
13 2 (1.35%) Cisco ISE
13 2 (1.35%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (7.43%) SQL Server
2 9 (6.08%) PostgreSQL
3 6 (4.05%) MySQL
4 1 (0.68%) Amazon RDS
4 1 (0.68%) Data Mining
4 1 (0.68%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 8 (5.41%) JIRA
2 3 (2.03%) Subversion
General
1 70 (47.30%) Social Skills
2 15 (10.14%) Organisational Skills
3 11 (7.43%) Analytical Skills
4 7 (4.73%) Telecoms
5 4 (2.70%) Local Government
5 4 (2.70%) Retail
6 3 (2.03%) Games
6 3 (2.03%) Manufacturing
7 2 (1.35%) Documentation Skills
7 2 (1.35%) Influencing Skills
7 2 (1.35%) Legal
8 1 (0.68%) Aviation
8 1 (0.68%) Finance
8 1 (0.68%) Health Technology
8 1 (0.68%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 71 (47.97%) IT Support
2 31 (20.95%) Support Engineer
3 27 (18.24%) IT Engineer
4 23 (15.54%) Analyst
4 23 (15.54%) IT Support Engineer
4 23 (15.54%) Support Analyst
5 16 (10.81%) Architect
5 16 (10.81%) IT Support Technician
5 16 (10.81%) IT Technician
5 16 (10.81%) Support Technician
6 15 (10.14%) IT Analyst
6 15 (10.14%) IT Support Analyst
6 15 (10.14%) Senior
7 12 (8.11%) Applications Architect
7 12 (8.11%) Technical Support
8 9 (6.08%) 2nd Line Support
8 9 (6.08%) 3rd Line Support
8 9 (6.08%) Linux Engineer
8 9 (6.08%) Security Architect
9 7 (4.73%) Microsoft Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (8.11%) Regular Expression
2 10 (6.76%) LDAP
3 8 (5.41%) XMPP
4 4 (2.70%) JSON
4 4 (2.70%) JSON Schema
4 4 (2.70%) XML
5 2 (1.35%) Web Services
6 1 (0.68%) OAuth
6 1 (0.68%) OpenID
Miscellaneous
1 20 (13.51%) Driving Licence
2 13 (8.78%) Onboarding
2 13 (8.78%) Self-Motivation
3 10 (6.76%) Management Information System
4 8 (5.41%) PKI
4 8 (5.41%) Video Conferencing
5 4 (2.70%) Cloud Native
5 4 (2.70%) Social Media
6 3 (2.03%) Linux Command Line
7 2 (1.35%) EPoS
7 2 (1.35%) Fibre Optics
7 2 (1.35%) Security Posture
8 1 (0.68%) Clustering
8 1 (0.68%) Data Centre
8 1 (0.68%) Distributed Systems
8 1 (0.68%) Life Science
8 1 (0.68%) Private Cloud
8 1 (0.68%) Public Cloud
8 1 (0.68%) Replication
8 1 (0.68%) Smartphone
Operating Systems
1 107 (72.30%) Windows
2 66 (44.59%) Windows Server
3 39 (26.35%) Linux
4 22 (14.86%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 16 (10.81%) Windows 10
6 9 (6.08%) Android
6 9 (6.08%) Apple iOS
6 9 (6.08%) Mac OS
7 3 (2.03%) Windows Server 2019
8 2 (1.35%) CentOS
9 1 (0.68%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 49 (33.11%) Customer Service
2 48 (32.43%) Problem-Solving
3 34 (22.97%) ITIL
4 19 (12.84%) Cybersecurity
5 15 (10.14%) SIEM
6 12 (8.11%) Continuous Improvement
6 12 (8.11%) Root Cause Analysis
7 10 (6.76%) Application Security
7 10 (6.76%) Data Protection
8 9 (6.08%) High Availability
8 9 (6.08%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 9 (6.08%) Mentoring
9 8 (5.41%) Antivirus Management
9 8 (5.41%) Architectural Design
9 8 (5.41%) ITSM
9 8 (5.41%) Pattern Matching
9 8 (5.41%) Platform Engineering
9 8 (5.41%) Server Management
9 8 (5.41%) Validation
10 7 (4.73%) Customer-Centricity
Programming Languages
1 21 (14.19%) PowerShell
2 8 (5.41%) SQL
3 7 (4.73%) Bash
4 4 (2.70%) Korn
4 4 (2.70%) Python
4 4 (2.70%) Shell Script
5 2 (1.35%) C
5 2 (1.35%) T-SQL
6 1 (0.68%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 30 (20.27%) Security Cleared
2 24 (16.22%) Degree
3 22 (14.86%) DV Cleared
4 8 (5.41%) Microsoft Certification
5 7 (4.73%) SC Cleared
6 4 (2.70%) A+ Certification
6 4 (2.70%) DBS Check
7 3 (2.03%) Computer Science Degree
7 3 (2.03%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
8 2 (1.35%) ISTQB
8 2 (1.35%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 2 (1.35%) MCSE
8 2 (1.35%) Microsoft Certified Professional
8 2 (1.35%) Network+ Certification
8 2 (1.35%) RHCE
8 2 (1.35%) RHCSA
9 1 (0.68%) CCIE
9 1 (0.68%) Cisco Certification
9 1 (0.68%) CISM
9 1 (0.68%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (5.41%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 8 (5.41%) SLA
2 5 (3.38%) Cyber Essentials
3 2 (1.35%) GDPR
4 1 (0.68%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 1 (0.68%) QA
4 1 (0.68%) SOC 2
System Software
1 22 (14.86%) Hyper-V
2 18 (12.16%) VMware Infrastructure
3 17 (11.49%) vSphere
4 11 (7.43%) Docker
5 6 (4.05%) Citrix Hypervisor
6 2 (1.35%) Samba
6 2 (1.35%) Terminal Server
7 1 (0.68%) Virtual Desktop
7 1 (0.68%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 24 (16.22%) Microsoft Intune
2 15 (10.14%) SCCM
3 7 (4.73%) Kubernetes
4 4 (2.70%) Jamf Pro
4 4 (2.70%) SCOM
4 4 (2.70%) SmoothWall
4 4 (2.70%) Terraform
5 3 (2.03%) Ansible
6 1 (0.68%) Autotask
6 1 (0.68%) Failover Clustering
6 1 (0.68%) FortiGate
6 1 (0.68%) Grafana
6 1 (0.68%) Prometheus
6 1 (0.68%) SCSM
6 1 (0.68%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 109 (73.65%) Microsoft
2 35 (23.65%) VMware
3 21 (14.19%) Google
4 14 (9.46%) Red Hat
5 11 (7.43%) Citrix
6 10 (6.76%) ServiceNow
7 9 (6.08%) Cisco
8 8 (5.41%) McAfee
9 7 (4.73%) Meraki
10 6 (4.05%) Dell
10 6 (4.05%) NetApp
10 6 (4.05%) Palo Alto
11 5 (3.38%) CheckPoint
12 4 (2.70%) Adobe
13 3 (2.03%) Atlassian
13 3 (2.03%) Oracle
14 2 (1.35%) D-Link
14 2 (1.35%) Juniper
14 2 (1.35%) Veeam
15 1 (0.68%) ConnectWise