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

6 months to
8 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 59 90 36
Rank change year-on-year +31 -54 -15
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 169 129 252
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 2.41% 3.30% 5.20%
As % of the System Software category 46.17% 39.33% 45.32%
Number of salaries quoted 137 111 188
10th Percentile £29,000 £28,250 £27,750
25th Percentile £35,000 £33,750 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £37,500 £40,000
Median % change year-on-year +20.00% -6.25% +4.58%
75th Percentile £63,750 £50,000 £52,625
90th Percentile £68,750 £70,000 £56,818
South East median annual salary £45,000 £40,000 £42,500
% change year-on-year +12.50% -5.88% +6.25%

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 366 328 556
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 5.22% 8.40% 11.47%
Number of salaries quoted 257 206 392
10th Percentile £29,800 £31,250 £31,250
25th Percentile £38,500 £36,250 £38,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £45,000 £51,350
Median % change year-on-year +22.22% -12.37% +2.70%
75th Percentile £68,750 £70,000 £72,500
90th Percentile £76,000 £83,750 £83,750
South East median annual salary £60,000 £45,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year +33.33% -14.29% +5.00%

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 8 September 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 8 September 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 +51 84 £47,500 +17.28% 25
Buckinghamshire -1 56 £37,500 - 11
Oxfordshire -33 29 £47,166 +24.12% 5
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 58 (34.32%) Microsoft Exchange
1 58 (34.32%) SharePoint
2 1 (0.59%) Confluence
2 1 (0.59%) IIS
Applications
1 8 (4.73%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.59%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.59%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 6 (3.55%) Raiser’s Edge
Cloud Services
1 97 (57.40%) Azure
2 89 (52.66%) Microsoft 365
3 72 (42.60%) Entra ID
4 21 (12.43%) Google Workspace
5 20 (11.83%) AWS
6 13 (7.69%) IaaS
7 7 (4.14%) OneDrive
7 7 (4.14%) Power Automate
8 6 (3.55%) Azure Sentinel
8 6 (3.55%) Cloudflare
9 4 (2.37%) PaaS
10 3 (1.78%) Amazon CloudWatch
11 2 (1.18%) SaaS
12 1 (0.59%) Azure Stack
12 1 (0.59%) GCP
12 1 (0.59%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 102 (60.36%) DNS
2 89 (52.66%) Firewall
3 66 (39.05%) DHCP
4 42 (24.85%) VPN
5 41 (24.26%) Wi-Fi
6 35 (20.71%) VLAN
7 21 (12.43%) SSL
8 18 (10.65%) TCP/IP
9 14 (8.28%) LAN
9 14 (8.28%) VoIP
10 13 (7.69%) Wireless
11 12 (7.10%) Network Security
12 11 (6.51%) Remote Desktop
12 11 (6.51%) SAN
12 11 (6.51%) WAN
13 8 (4.73%) NetScaler
14 6 (3.55%) NAS
14 6 (3.55%) Wireshark
15 5 (2.96%) iSCSI
16 4 (2.37%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (5.33%) SQL Server
2 6 (3.55%) PostgreSQL
3 5 (2.96%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 3 (1.78%) JIRA
General
1 80 (47.34%) Social Skills
2 15 (8.88%) Analytical Skills
3 7 (4.14%) Finance
4 6 (3.55%) Documentation Skills
4 6 (3.55%) Influencing Skills
5 5 (2.96%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 5 (2.96%) Law
5 5 (2.96%) Local Government
5 5 (2.96%) Organisational Skills
5 5 (2.96%) Retail
6 3 (1.78%) Legal
6 3 (1.78%) Manufacturing
7 1 (0.59%) Aviation
7 1 (0.59%) Billing
7 1 (0.59%) Games
7 1 (0.59%) Legal Technology
7 1 (0.59%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 53 (31.36%) IT Support
2 38 (22.49%) IT Engineer
3 33 (19.53%) Support Engineer
4 29 (17.16%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 29 (17.16%) IT Support Engineer
5 27 (15.98%) Senior
6 24 (14.20%) Architect
7 18 (10.65%) Applications Architect
8 15 (8.88%) Analyst
9 14 (8.28%) Security Architect
10 11 (6.51%) Senior IT Engineer
10 11 (6.51%) Senior IT Support
10 11 (6.51%) Senior Support Engineer
11 9 (5.33%) Infrastructure Support
11 9 (5.33%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
11 9 (5.33%) IT Support Technician
11 9 (5.33%) IT Technician
11 9 (5.33%) Support Technician
12 8 (4.73%) 1st Line Support
12 8 (4.73%) IT Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (12.43%) Regular Expression
2 19 (11.24%) XMPP
3 17 (10.06%) LDAP
4 5 (2.96%) HTML
4 5 (2.96%) JSON
4 5 (2.96%) JSON Schema
4 5 (2.96%) ODBC
4 5 (2.96%) XML
5 3 (1.78%) Terraform
6 2 (1.18%) OpenID
7 1 (0.59%) OAuth
7 1 (0.59%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 28 (16.57%) Driving Licence
2 16 (9.47%) Self-Motivation
3 14 (8.28%) Onboarding
4 10 (5.92%) Management Information System
5 9 (5.33%) PKI
6 6 (3.55%) CCTV
6 6 (3.55%) Cyber Defence
6 6 (3.55%) Replication
6 6 (3.55%) Security Operations Centre
7 5 (2.96%) Cloud Native
7 5 (2.96%) Hybrid Cloud
7 5 (2.96%) Security Posture
7 5 (2.96%) Team-Oriented Environment
8 4 (2.37%) Data Centre
9 3 (1.78%) Distributed Systems
9 3 (1.78%) Life Science
9 3 (1.78%) Private Cloud
9 3 (1.78%) Public Cloud
9 3 (1.78%) Renewable Energy
9 3 (1.78%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 124 (73.37%) Windows
2 69 (40.83%) Windows Server
3 44 (26.04%) Linux
4 28 (16.57%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 21 (12.43%) Windows 10
6 13 (7.69%) Mac OS
7 10 (5.92%) Windows Server 2019
8 5 (2.96%) Rocky
8 5 (2.96%) Ubuntu
9 3 (1.78%) Windows 7
9 3 (1.78%) Windows Server 2012
10 2 (1.18%) Android
10 2 (1.18%) Apple iOS
11 1 (0.59%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 54 (31.95%) Problem-Solving
2 44 (26.04%) Customer Service
3 41 (24.26%) Cybersecurity
4 39 (23.08%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 38 (22.49%) Disaster Recovery
6 37 (21.89%) Continuous Improvement
7 28 (16.57%) ITIL
8 25 (14.79%) SIEM
9 22 (13.02%) Project Delivery
10 21 (12.43%) High Availability
11 19 (11.24%) Validation
12 17 (10.06%) Kalman Filter
12 17 (10.06%) Migration
12 17 (10.06%) Server Management
13 16 (9.47%) Antivirus Management
13 16 (9.47%) Business Continuity
13 16 (9.47%) Data Protection
13 16 (9.47%) Pattern Matching
13 16 (9.47%) Platform Engineering
14 15 (8.88%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 56 (33.14%) PowerShell
2 16 (9.47%) Python
3 9 (5.33%) Bash
4 5 (2.96%) Korn
4 5 (2.96%) Shell Script
5 2 (1.18%) SQL
Qualifications
1 46 (27.22%) Security Cleared
2 34 (20.12%) Degree
3 31 (18.34%) DV Cleared
3 31 (18.34%) Microsoft Certification
4 17 (10.06%) CompTIA Security+
5 15 (8.88%) Network+ Certification
6 14 (8.28%) SC Cleared
7 11 (6.51%) DBS Check
8 10 (5.92%) Azure Certification
9 9 (5.33%) CCNA
9 9 (5.33%) Cisco Certification
10 7 (4.14%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 4 (2.37%) CCNP
11 4 (2.37%) Computer Science Degree
12 3 (1.78%) A+ Certification
12 3 (1.78%) ICAEW
13 1 (0.59%) CISM
13 1 (0.59%) CISSP
13 1 (0.59%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (19.53%) Cyber Essentials
2 15 (8.88%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 14 (8.28%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 8 (4.73%) GDPR
5 7 (4.14%) SLA
6 5 (2.96%) NCSC
7 4 (2.37%) SOC 2
8 3 (1.78%) NIST
8 3 (1.78%) QA
9 1 (0.59%) PMO
System Software
1 34 (20.12%) VMware Infrastructure
2 33 (19.53%) vSphere
3 32 (18.93%) Hyper-V
4 10 (5.92%) Docker
5 5 (2.96%) Citrix Hypervisor
5 5 (2.96%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (0.59%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 52 (30.77%) Microsoft Intune
2 12 (7.10%) Jamf Pro
3 8 (4.73%) Kubernetes
4 6 (3.55%) Graylog
5 3 (1.78%) Ansible
5 3 (1.78%) Grafana
5 3 (1.78%) Prometheus
5 3 (1.78%) SCCM
5 3 (1.78%) vCenter Server
6 2 (1.18%) Single Sign-On
7 1 (0.59%) Autotask
7 1 (0.59%) Failover Clustering
7 1 (0.59%) FortiGate
Vendors
1 132 (78.11%) Microsoft
2 70 (41.42%) VMware
3 24 (14.20%) Red Hat
4 22 (13.02%) Google
5 17 (10.06%) Cisco
6 16 (9.47%) Veeam
7 15 (8.88%) Apple
7 15 (8.88%) McAfee
8 12 (7.10%) Datto
9 11 (6.51%) SonicWALL
10 10 (5.92%) Dell
11 8 (4.73%) Aruba
11 8 (4.73%) Citrix
11 8 (4.73%) Fortinet
12 6 (3.55%) NetApp
13 4 (2.37%) ConnectWise
13 4 (2.37%) Palo Alto
13 4 (2.37%) ServiceNow
14 3 (1.78%) Juniper
15 2 (1.18%) Meraki