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 citing Active Directory skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 11 November 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

	6 months to 11 Nov 2026	Same period 2025	Same period 2024
Rank	76	50	47
Rank change year-on-year	-26	-3	-28
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory	166	169	197
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley	2.11%	4.76%	4.59%
As % of the System Software category	42.35%	52.48%	34.74%
Number of salaries quoted	126	151	140
10^th Percentile	£29,000	£27,800	£26,250
25^th Percentile	£36,250	£31,375	£31,250
Median annual salary (50^th Percentile)	£45,000	£37,500	£40,000
Median % change year-on-year	+20.00%	-6.25%	-5.88%
75^th Percentile	£53,750	£51,000	£52,500
90^th Percentile	£67,500	£70,000	£60,000
South East median annual salary	£42,500	£37,500	£43,500
% change year-on-year	+13.33%	-13.79%	+3.57%

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 citing system software skills in the Thames Valley.

	6 months to 11 Nov 2026	Same period 2025	Same period 2024
Permanent vacancies citing system software skills	392	322	567
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley	4.98%	9.07%	13.20%
Number of salaries quoted	262	221	342
10^th Percentile	£29,500	£30,500	£29,900
25^th Percentile	£38,500	£34,000	£40,322
Median annual salary (50^th Percentile)	£50,000	£41,500	£56,525
Median % change year-on-year	+20.48%	-26.58%	+7.67%
75^th Percentile	£68,750	£62,500	£75,000
90^th Percentile	£76,537	£80,000	£92,000
South East median annual salary	£57,500	£41,500	£55,000
% change year-on-year	+38.55%	-24.55%	+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 Salary Trend in the Thames Valley

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 11 November 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 11 November 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	Job Ads Past 6 Months	Median Salary Past 6 Months	Median Salary % Change on Same Period Last Year	Live Jobs
Berkshire	+11	90	£45,000	+11.11%	30
Buckinghamshire	-30	39	£40,000	+6.67%	16
Oxfordshire	-48	37	£47,166	+34.76%	16
Active Directory South East

Active Directory Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the Thames Valley

For the 6 months to 11 November 2026, job vacancies citing Active Directory also mentioned the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all permanent job ads across the Thames Valley region citing Active Directory.

Rank	Skill	Share	Job Ads
1	Microsoft	79.5%	132
2	Windows	71.1%	118
3	Azure	63.3%	105
4	Microsoft 365	61.4%	102
5	Entra ID	57.8%	96
6	DNS	52.4%	87
7	Microsoft Intune	42.2%	70
8	Firewall	41.6%	69
9	DHCP	41.0%	68
10	Problem-Solving	39.8%	66
11	Customer Service	38.0%	63
12	Microsoft Exchange	36.7%	61
12	Windows Server	36.7%	61
14	SharePoint	35.5%	59
15	VMware	33.1%	55
16	VPN	31.9%	53
17	PowerShell	30.1%	50
18	Cybersecurity	27.1%	45
19	VLAN	26.5%	44
20	Infrastructure Engineering	24.7%	41
21	Wi-Fi	24.1%	40
22	Disaster Recovery	22.9%	38
23	Security Cleared	21.1%	35
24	Degree	19.9%	33
25	Cyber Essentials	19.3%	32
25	Microsoft Certification	19.3%	32
27	Hyper-V	18.1%	30
27	TCP/IP	18.1%	30
29	Continuous Improvement	17.5%	29
29	ITIL	17.5%	29

Active Directory Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the Thames Valley by Category

The table below expands on the one above by listing co-occurrences one category at a time. It covers the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences in each category.

System Software

Rank	Skill	Share	Job Ads
1	Hyper-V	18.1%	30
2	VMware Infrastructure	16.3%	27
3	vSphere	12.7%	21
4	Virtual Machines	3.0%	5
5	Virtual Servers	2.4%	4
6	Microsoft Virtual Server	1.2%	2
6	Virtual Desktop	1.2%	2
8	Firmware	0.6%	1