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

6 months to
14 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 66 74 41
Rank change year-on-year +8 -33 -15
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 176 151 217
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 2.32% 3.99% 4.83%
As % of the System Software category 45.01% 46.04% 37.74%
Number of salaries quoted 132 129 151
10th Percentile £29,000 £28,750 £26,250
25th Percentile £36,250 £33,500 £29,875
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £37,500 £38,000
Median % change year-on-year +20.00% -1.32% -10.59%
75th Percentile £53,750 £51,000 £49,750
90th Percentile £68,750 £70,000 £59,750
South East median annual salary £42,500 £37,500 £42,250
% change year-on-year +13.33% -11.24% +4.32%

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 391 328 575
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 5.15% 8.66% 12.80%
Number of salaries quoted 269 211 351
10th Percentile £29,500 £31,250 £28,250
25th Percentile £38,500 £36,250 £36,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £43,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +14.94% -20.91% +4.76%
75th Percentile £68,750 £65,000 £74,000
90th Percentile £72,725 £81,250 £85,000
South East median annual salary £57,500 £42,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +36.90% -23.64% +10.00%

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 14 October 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 14 October 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 +34 93 £45,000 +5.26% 26
Buckinghamshire -13 48 £42,500 +13.33% 12
Oxfordshire -36 35 £47,166 +31.02% 12
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 65 (36.93%) Microsoft Exchange
2 64 (36.36%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.57%) Confluence
Applications
1 10 (5.68%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (1.14%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.57%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 6 (3.41%) Raiser’s Edge
Cloud Services
1 103 (58.52%) Azure
2 100 (56.82%) Microsoft 365
3 85 (48.30%) Entra ID
4 20 (11.36%) Google Workspace
5 13 (7.39%) AWS
6 12 (6.82%) IaaS
7 10 (5.68%) OneDrive
8 8 (4.55%) Azure Sentinel
8 8 (4.55%) Power Automate
9 6 (3.41%) Cloudflare
10 3 (1.70%) PaaS
11 2 (1.14%) Amazon CloudWatch
11 2 (1.14%) Azure Monitor
12 1 (0.57%) Azure Stack
12 1 (0.57%) Copilot Studio
12 1 (0.57%) Microsoft Copilot
12 1 (0.57%) Power Platform
12 1 (0.57%) PowerApps
12 1 (0.57%) SaaS
12 1 (0.57%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 100 (56.82%) DNS
2 81 (46.02%) Firewall
3 74 (42.05%) DHCP
4 47 (26.70%) VPN
5 41 (23.30%) Wi-Fi
6 40 (22.73%) VLAN
7 27 (15.34%) TCP/IP
8 23 (13.07%) SSL
9 18 (10.23%) VoIP
9 18 (10.23%) WAN
10 17 (9.66%) LAN
11 16 (9.09%) Wireless
12 10 (5.68%) Network Security
13 7 (3.98%) Remote Desktop
14 6 (3.41%) SAN
15 4 (2.27%) Internet
15 4 (2.27%) NAS
15 4 (2.27%) NetScaler
15 4 (2.27%) Wireshark
16 3 (1.70%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.70%) SQL Server
2 2 (1.14%) MySQL
2 2 (1.14%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 3 (1.70%) JIRA
General
1 82 (46.59%) Social Skills
2 15 (8.52%) Analytical Skills
3 9 (5.11%) Finance
4 7 (3.98%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 6 (3.41%) Documentation Skills
5 6 (3.41%) Influencing Skills
5 6 (3.41%) Retail
6 5 (2.84%) Law
7 3 (1.70%) Legal
7 3 (1.70%) Organisational Skills
7 3 (1.70%) Public Sector
8 2 (1.14%) Manufacturing
8 2 (1.14%) Police
9 1 (0.57%) Aerospace
9 1 (0.57%) Automotive
9 1 (0.57%) Billing
9 1 (0.57%) Italian Language
9 1 (0.57%) Japanese Language
9 1 (0.57%) Military
9 1 (0.57%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 57 (32.39%) IT Support
2 43 (24.43%) IT Engineer
3 36 (20.45%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 35 (19.89%) Support Engineer
5 31 (17.61%) IT Support Engineer
6 29 (16.48%) Senior
7 14 (7.95%) Architect
8 13 (7.39%) Analyst
8 13 (7.39%) IT Technician
9 12 (6.82%) 1st Line Support
10 11 (6.25%) Infrastructure Support
10 11 (6.25%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
10 11 (6.25%) Senior IT Engineer
10 11 (6.25%) Senior IT Support
10 11 (6.25%) Senior Support Engineer
11 10 (5.68%) Applications Architect
11 10 (5.68%) IT Infrastructure Engineer
11 10 (5.68%) IT Support Technician
11 10 (5.68%) Support Technician
12 8 (4.55%) Security Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (7.95%) Regular Expression
2 13 (7.39%) LDAP
2 13 (7.39%) XMPP
3 5 (2.84%) HTML
3 5 (2.84%) ODBC
4 4 (2.27%) JSON
4 4 (2.27%) JSON Schema
4 4 (2.27%) Terraform
4 4 (2.27%) XML
5 2 (1.14%) ARM Templates
5 2 (1.14%) OpenID
5 2 (1.14%) SAML
6 1 (0.57%) OAuth
6 1 (0.57%) OAuth2
6 1 (0.57%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 35 (19.89%) Driving Licence
2 15 (8.52%) Onboarding
3 13 (7.39%) Self-Motivation
4 10 (5.68%) PKI
5 8 (4.55%) Replication
6 6 (3.41%) CCTV
6 6 (3.41%) Cyber Defence
6 6 (3.41%) Hybrid Cloud
6 6 (3.41%) Security Operations Centre
7 5 (2.84%) Security Posture
7 5 (2.84%) Team-Oriented Environment
8 4 (2.27%) Management Information System
9 3 (1.70%) Data Centre
10 2 (1.14%) ARM Cortex
10 2 (1.14%) Cloud Native
10 2 (1.14%) Distributed Systems
10 2 (1.14%) Private Cloud
10 2 (1.14%) Public Cloud
10 2 (1.14%) Renewable Energy
10 2 (1.14%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 128 (72.73%) Windows
2 68 (38.64%) Windows Server
3 36 (20.45%) Linux
4 18 (10.23%) Windows 10
5 17 (9.66%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 12 (6.82%) macOS
7 10 (5.68%) Windows Server 2019
8 8 (4.55%) Rocky
8 8 (4.55%) Ubuntu
9 4 (2.27%) Android
9 4 (2.27%) Windows Server 2012
10 3 (1.70%) Apple iOS
10 3 (1.70%) Windows 7
10 3 (1.70%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 63 (35.80%) Problem-Solving
2 57 (32.39%) Customer Service
3 46 (26.14%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 45 (25.57%) Cybersecurity
5 38 (21.59%) Continuous Improvement
6 37 (21.02%) Disaster Recovery
7 28 (15.91%) ITIL
8 22 (12.50%) Project Delivery
9 21 (11.93%) Migration
10 20 (11.36%) High Availability
10 20 (11.36%) Kalman Filter
11 18 (10.23%) SIEM
12 16 (9.09%) Mentoring
12 16 (9.09%) Server Management
12 16 (9.09%) Validation
13 15 (8.52%) Business Continuity
14 14 (7.95%) Data Protection
15 13 (7.39%) Vulnerability Remediation
16 12 (6.82%) Platform Engineering
16 12 (6.82%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 55 (31.25%) PowerShell
2 14 (7.95%) Python
3 7 (3.98%) Bash
4 4 (2.27%) Shell Script
5 2 (1.14%) Bicep
5 2 (1.14%) Korn
6 1 (0.57%) SQL
Qualifications
1 41 (23.30%) Security Cleared
2 32 (18.18%) Microsoft Certification
3 31 (17.61%) Degree
4 27 (15.34%) DV Cleared
5 20 (11.36%) CompTIA Security+
6 16 (9.09%) Network+ Certification
7 14 (7.95%) SC Cleared
8 13 (7.39%) DBS Check
9 12 (6.82%) CCNA
9 12 (6.82%) Cisco Certification
10 9 (5.11%) Azure Certification
11 6 (3.41%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
12 5 (2.84%) A+ Certification
13 4 (2.27%) CCNP
14 3 (1.70%) ICAEW
15 2 (1.14%) Computer Science Degree
16 1 (0.57%) BPSS Clearance
16 1 (0.57%) CCA
16 1 (0.57%) CESG Certified Professional
16 1 (0.57%) Citrix Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 32 (18.18%) Cyber Essentials
2 13 (7.39%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 11 (6.25%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 9 (5.11%) GDPR
5 6 (3.41%) SLA
6 5 (2.84%) NCSC
7 4 (2.27%) NIST
8 3 (1.70%) SOC 2
9 2 (1.14%) QA
10 1 (0.57%) PMO
System Software
1 33 (18.75%) VMware Infrastructure
2 32 (18.18%) Hyper-V
3 25 (14.20%) vSphere
4 4 (2.27%) Docker
4 4 (2.27%) Virtual Machines
4 4 (2.27%) Virtual Servers
5 2 (1.14%) Citrix Hypervisor
5 2 (1.14%) Microsoft Virtual Server
6 1 (0.57%) Firmware
6 1 (0.57%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 62 (35.23%) Microsoft Intune
2 14 (7.95%) Jamf Pro
3 6 (3.41%) Graylog
4 5 (2.84%) SCCM
5 4 (2.27%) Ansible
5 4 (2.27%) Kubernetes
6 3 (1.70%) FortiGate
6 3 (1.70%) vCenter Server
7 2 (1.14%) Autotask
7 2 (1.14%) Grafana
7 2 (1.14%) N-central
7 2 (1.14%) Prometheus
7 2 (1.14%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 142 (80.68%) Microsoft
2 66 (37.50%) VMware
3 22 (12.50%) Cisco
4 20 (11.36%) Google
5 19 (10.80%) Veeam
6 17 (9.66%) Apple
7 15 (8.52%) Red Hat
8 13 (7.39%) Datto
9 11 (6.25%) SonicWALL
10 10 (5.68%) Dell
10 10 (5.68%) McAfee
11 9 (5.11%) Aruba
11 9 (5.11%) Fortinet
12 7 (3.98%) Palo Alto
13 6 (3.41%) Meraki
14 5 (2.84%) Citrix
15 4 (2.27%) ConnectWise
15 4 (2.27%) NetApp
15 4 (2.27%) ServiceNow
16 3 (1.70%) CrowdStrike