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 25 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 49 53 20
Rank change year-on-year +4 -33 +21
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 166 195 321
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 4.54% 4.54% 9.64%
As % of the System Software category 53.21% 32.94% 53.23%
Number of salaries quoted 147 140 285
10th Percentile £27,250 £26,200 £26,500
25th Percentile £31,375 £31,250 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £37,500 £40,750 £42,500
Median % change year-on-year -7.98% -4.12% +30.77%
75th Percentile £49,000 £52,313 £55,000
90th Percentile £70,000 £60,000 £56,525
South East median annual salary £37,500 £43,500 £41,000
% change year-on-year -13.79% +6.10% +17.14%

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 312 592 603
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 8.54% 13.78% 18.10%
Number of salaries quoted 214 364 508
10th Percentile £30,500 £31,250 £27,500
25th Percentile £34,000 £43,750 £34,875
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £41,500 £57,500 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -27.83% +9.52% +8.07%
75th Percentile £62,500 £76,563 £67,500
90th Percentile £77,500 £93,750 £85,000
South East median annual salary £41,000 £55,000 £49,000
% change year-on-year -25.45% +12.24% -2.00%

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 25 November 2025.

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 25 November 2025. 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
Buckinghamshire +23 62 £37,500 - 15
Berkshire -28 57 £35,500 -27.44% 40
Oxfordshire +27 47 £35,000 - 23
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 31 (18.67%) Microsoft Exchange
2 17 (10.24%) SharePoint
3 4 (2.41%) IIS
4 2 (1.20%) CMS
4 2 (1.20%) Confluence
4 2 (1.20%) WordPress
Applications
1 40 (24.10%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.60%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.60%) Spreadsheet
Cloud Services
1 122 (73.49%) Microsoft 365
2 100 (60.24%) Azure
3 38 (22.89%) Entra ID
4 27 (16.27%) AWS
5 12 (7.23%) GCP
6 7 (4.22%) Azure Key Vault
7 6 (3.61%) Azure DevOps
7 6 (3.61%) GitHub
7 6 (3.61%) GitHub Actions
7 6 (3.61%) Google Workspace
8 5 (3.01%) Mimecast
9 4 (2.41%) SaaS
10 2 (1.20%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 2 (1.20%) Amazon EC2
10 2 (1.20%) Amazon ELB
10 2 (1.20%) Amazon Glacier
10 2 (1.20%) Amazon S3
10 2 (1.20%) AWS KMS
10 2 (1.20%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 1 (0.60%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 47 (28.31%) DNS
2 43 (25.90%) Firewall
3 41 (24.70%) DHCP
4 20 (12.05%) VPN
5 15 (9.04%) SAN
6 13 (7.83%) TCP/IP
6 13 (7.83%) WAN
7 12 (7.23%) LAN
8 10 (6.02%) Wireless
9 9 (5.42%) VoIP
10 8 (4.82%) iSCSI
10 8 (4.82%) Remote Desktop
11 5 (3.01%) VLAN
12 4 (2.41%) IP Telephony
12 4 (2.41%) SMTP
12 4 (2.41%) Wi-Fi
13 3 (1.81%) Ethernet
14 2 (1.20%) FTP
14 2 (1.20%) HTTP
14 2 (1.20%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 19 (11.45%) SQL Server
2 8 (4.82%) MySQL
2 8 (4.82%) PostgreSQL
3 6 (3.61%) Amazon RDS
4 3 (1.81%) Data Mining
5 1 (0.60%) Azure SQL Database
5 1 (0.60%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 8 (4.82%) Git
1 8 (4.82%) Jenkins
2 2 (1.20%) JIRA
2 2 (1.20%) Sonatype Nexus
2 2 (1.20%) Vagrant
General
1 95 (57.23%) Social Skills
2 10 (6.02%) Analytical Skills
2 10 (6.02%) Organisational Skills
3 9 (5.42%) Telecoms
4 5 (3.01%) Retail
5 3 (1.81%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 2 (1.20%) Presentation Skills
7 1 (0.60%) Finance
Job Titles
1 75 (45.18%) IT Support
2 35 (21.08%) 3rd Line Support
3 29 (17.47%) Support Engineer
4 25 (15.06%) Analyst
5 24 (14.46%) IT Engineer
6 21 (12.65%) IT Support Engineer
6 21 (12.65%) Support Analyst
6 21 (12.65%) Support Technician
7 20 (12.05%) IT Analyst
7 20 (12.05%) Technical Support
8 17 (10.24%) IT Support Technician
8 17 (10.24%) IT Technician
9 16 (9.64%) 3rd Line Technical Support
9 16 (9.64%) IT Support Analyst
10 14 (8.43%) 2nd Line Support
11 12 (7.23%) Consultant
11 12 (7.23%) Infrastructure Manager
11 12 (7.23%) Linux Engineer
12 11 (6.63%) IT Consultant
12 11 (6.63%) Support Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (3.61%) ARM Templates
2 2 (1.20%) Web Services
3 1 (0.60%) Azure Blueprints
Miscellaneous
1 25 (15.06%) Driving Licence
2 22 (13.25%) Self-Motivation
3 13 (7.83%) Onboarding
4 9 (5.42%) Cloud Native
5 8 (4.82%) Management Information System
6 6 (3.61%) Linux Command Line
7 4 (2.41%) Data Centre
7 4 (2.41%) Replication
8 2 (1.20%) Clustering
8 2 (1.20%) Fibre Optics
8 2 (1.20%) Hybrid Cloud
8 2 (1.20%) Virtual Team
9 1 (0.60%) CMDB
9 1 (0.60%) FMCG
9 1 (0.60%) Legacy Systems
9 1 (0.60%) PKI
9 1 (0.60%) Social Media
9 1 (0.60%) Team-Oriented Environment
9 1 (0.60%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 137 (82.53%) Windows
2 75 (45.18%) Windows Server
3 27 (16.27%) Linux
4 15 (9.04%) Windows Server 2019
5 14 (8.43%) Mac OS
5 14 (8.43%) Windows 10
6 10 (6.02%) Apple iOS
7 9 (5.42%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 8 (4.82%) VMS
9 7 (4.22%) Android
10 3 (1.81%) Unix
11 2 (1.20%) Amazon Linux
11 2 (1.20%) Windows Server 2012
11 2 (1.20%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 73 (43.98%) Customer Service
2 50 (30.12%) Problem-Solving
3 40 (24.10%) Cybersecurity
4 38 (22.89%) Mentoring
5 36 (21.69%) ITIL
6 19 (11.45%) Customer-Centric Approach
6 19 (11.45%) Customer-Centricity
7 16 (9.64%) Coaching
8 13 (7.83%) Disaster Recovery
9 12 (7.23%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 10 (6.02%) ITSM
11 9 (5.42%) DevOps
12 8 (4.82%) Business Continuity
12 8 (4.82%) Project Delivery
12 8 (4.82%) Servant Leadership
12 8 (4.82%) Time Management
13 7 (4.22%) Agile
13 7 (4.22%) Cloud Security
13 7 (4.22%) Observability
13 7 (4.22%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 28 (16.87%) PowerShell
2 14 (8.43%) Bash
3 10 (6.02%) SQL
4 8 (4.82%) Korn
5 3 (1.81%) Python
6 2 (1.20%) Groovy
6 2 (1.20%) Java
6 2 (1.20%) Perl
6 2 (1.20%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 24 (14.46%) Degree
2 19 (11.45%) Microsoft Certification
3 10 (6.02%) MCP
4 9 (5.42%) A+ Certification
5 8 (4.82%) Security Cleared
6 7 (4.22%) SC Cleared
7 5 (3.01%) Azure Certification
7 5 (3.01%) DBS Check
8 3 (1.81%) MCSA
9 2 (1.20%) AWS Certification
9 2 (1.20%) MCSE
10 1 (0.60%) BPSS Clearance
10 1 (0.60%) CCNA
10 1 (0.60%) Cisco Certification
10 1 (0.60%) DV Cleared
10 1 (0.60%) HND
10 1 (0.60%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 1 (0.60%) MCITP
10 1 (0.60%) RHCE
10 1 (0.60%) RHCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (5.42%) Cyber Essentials
2 5 (3.01%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
2 5 (3.01%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 5 (3.01%) SLA
3 2 (1.20%) GDPR
4 1 (0.60%) Accessibility
System Software
1 45 (27.11%) Hyper-V
2 30 (18.07%) VMware Infrastructure
3 19 (11.45%) Docker
4 8 (4.82%) Citrix Hypervisor
4 8 (4.82%) Virtual Servers
5 4 (2.41%) Terminal Services
6 3 (1.81%) VMware ESXi
6 3 (1.81%) vSphere
7 2 (1.20%) DFS Replication
7 2 (1.20%) Microsoft Virtual Server
8 1 (0.60%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 42 (25.30%) Microsoft Intune
2 18 (10.84%) SCCM
3 14 (8.43%) Kubernetes
4 12 (7.23%) Terraform
5 3 (1.81%) Ansible
5 3 (1.81%) SCOM
5 3 (1.81%) WSUS
6 2 (1.20%) Failover Clustering
6 2 (1.20%) Grafana
6 2 (1.20%) Prometheus
6 2 (1.20%) SCSM
7 1 (0.60%) Jamf Pro
7 1 (0.60%) Red Hat Satellite
7 1 (0.60%) SmoothWall
Vendors
1 151 (90.96%) Microsoft
2 41 (24.70%) VMware
3 14 (8.43%) Google
4 13 (7.83%) Dell
5 9 (5.42%) Red Hat
6 8 (4.82%) Apple
6 8 (4.82%) Sophos
6 8 (4.82%) Splunk
7 7 (4.22%) ServiceNow
8 6 (3.61%) Cisco
9 5 (3.01%) Barracuda Networks
9 5 (3.01%) HP
9 5 (3.01%) Ubiquiti
10 4 (2.41%) Atlassian
10 4 (2.41%) Veeam
11 3 (1.81%) Adobe
11 3 (1.81%) Citrix
11 3 (1.81%) Juniper
11 3 (1.81%) Trend Micro
12 2 (1.20%) SolarWinds