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

6 months to
8 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 45 57 21
Rank change year-on-year +12 -36 +10
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 157 121 469
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 3.06% 4.40% 7.34%
As % of the System Software category 59.25% 35.69% 45.18%
Number of salaries quoted 126 103 421
10th Percentile £27,750 £25,750 £26,250
25th Percentile £31,250 £30,000 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £35,000 £45,000 £42,500
Median % change year-on-year -22.22% +5.88% +30.77%
75th Percentile £43,750 £57,500 £54,500
90th Percentile £68,750 £65,900 £59,000
South East median annual salary £36,000 £40,000 £37,500
% change year-on-year -10.00% +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 265 339 1,038
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 5.17% 12.33% 16.25%
Number of salaries quoted 179 253 849
10th Percentile £29,800 £29,250 £28,000
25th Percentile £31,488 £42,500 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £40,000 £60,000 £51,350
Median % change year-on-year -33.33% +16.85% +17.37%
75th Percentile £65,000 £82,500 £70,000
90th Percentile £78,000 £95,000 £91,250
South East median annual salary £47,500 £55,000 £46,500
% change year-on-year -13.64% +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 8 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 8 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 +13 62 £42,500 -8.11% 16
Oxfordshire +3 53 £34,000 -1.45% 12
Buckinghamshire -7 42 £36,000 -20.00% 9
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 30 (19.11%) Microsoft Exchange
2 19 (12.10%) SharePoint
3 3 (1.91%) Apache
4 2 (1.27%) CMS
4 2 (1.27%) IIS
4 2 (1.27%) WordPress
Applications
1 35 (22.29%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.64%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.64%) Spreadsheet
Cloud Services
1 94 (59.87%) Microsoft 365
2 76 (48.41%) Azure
3 35 (22.29%) Entra ID
4 21 (13.38%) AWS
5 18 (11.46%) Google Workspace
6 11 (7.01%) GCP
7 8 (5.10%) SaaS
8 5 (3.18%) OneDrive
9 2 (1.27%) Mimecast
10 1 (0.64%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 1 (0.64%) IaaS
10 1 (0.64%) PaaS
10 1 (0.64%) Power Automate
10 1 (0.64%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 53 (33.76%) Firewall
2 52 (33.12%) DNS
3 32 (20.38%) DHCP
4 23 (14.65%) VPN
5 22 (14.01%) LAN
6 20 (12.74%) WAN
7 19 (12.10%) TCP/IP
8 14 (8.92%) VoIP
9 13 (8.28%) Wi-Fi
10 11 (7.01%) Remote Desktop
11 10 (6.37%) SAN
12 8 (5.10%) Wireless
13 7 (4.46%) NetScaler
14 6 (3.82%) VLAN
15 5 (3.18%) iSCSI
15 5 (3.18%) Network Security
16 4 (2.55%) NAS
16 4 (2.55%) Wireshark
17 3 (1.91%) Ethernet
18 2 (1.27%) PBX
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (7.01%) SQL Server
2 8 (5.10%) PostgreSQL
3 5 (3.18%) MySQL
4 3 (1.91%) Data Mining
5 1 (0.64%) Amazon RDS
5 1 (0.64%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 8 (5.10%) JIRA
2 3 (1.91%) Subversion
General
1 74 (47.13%) Social Skills
2 15 (9.55%) Organisational Skills
3 10 (6.37%) Analytical Skills
4 9 (5.73%) Telecoms
5 5 (3.18%) Retail
6 3 (1.91%) Games
6 3 (1.91%) Local Government
6 3 (1.91%) Manufacturing
7 2 (1.27%) Documentation Skills
7 2 (1.27%) Legal
8 1 (0.64%) Aviation
8 1 (0.64%) Finance
8 1 (0.64%) Health Technology
8 1 (0.64%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 81 (51.59%) IT Support
2 34 (21.66%) Support Engineer
3 29 (18.47%) IT Engineer
4 25 (15.92%) Analyst
4 25 (15.92%) Support Analyst
5 24 (15.29%) IT Support Engineer
6 21 (13.38%) IT Support Technician
6 21 (13.38%) IT Technician
6 21 (13.38%) Support Technician
7 17 (10.83%) IT Analyst
7 17 (10.83%) IT Support Analyst
8 14 (8.92%) Architect
9 13 (8.28%) 3rd Line Support
9 13 (8.28%) Senior
10 12 (7.64%) Technical Support
11 10 (6.37%) 2nd Line Support
11 10 (6.37%) Applications Architect
11 10 (6.37%) Linux Engineer
12 9 (5.73%) Microsoft Engineer
13 8 (5.10%) Security Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (5.73%) Regular Expression
2 8 (5.10%) LDAP
3 6 (3.82%) XMPP
4 3 (1.91%) JSON
4 3 (1.91%) JSON Schema
4 3 (1.91%) XML
5 2 (1.27%) Web Services
6 1 (0.64%) OAuth
6 1 (0.64%) OpenID
Miscellaneous
1 20 (12.74%) Driving Licence
2 17 (10.83%) Self-Motivation
3 11 (7.01%) Onboarding
4 8 (5.10%) Management Information System
4 8 (5.10%) Video Conferencing
5 6 (3.82%) PKI
6 5 (3.18%) Social Media
7 3 (1.91%) Cloud Native
7 3 (1.91%) Linux Command Line
8 2 (1.27%) Fibre Optics
9 1 (0.64%) Data Centre
9 1 (0.64%) Distributed Systems
9 1 (0.64%) FMCG
9 1 (0.64%) Life Science
9 1 (0.64%) Private Cloud
9 1 (0.64%) Public Cloud
9 1 (0.64%) Renewable Energy
9 1 (0.64%) Security Posture
9 1 (0.64%) Smartphone
9 1 (0.64%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 113 (71.97%) Windows
2 67 (42.68%) Windows Server
3 38 (24.20%) Linux
4 17 (10.83%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 16 (10.19%) Windows 10
6 9 (5.73%) Android
6 9 (5.73%) Apple iOS
6 9 (5.73%) Mac OS
7 5 (3.18%) Windows Server 2019
8 2 (1.27%) CentOS
8 2 (1.27%) Windows Server 2016
9 1 (0.64%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 61 (38.85%) Customer Service
2 55 (35.03%) Problem-Solving
3 39 (24.84%) ITIL
4 21 (13.38%) Cybersecurity
5 12 (7.64%) SIEM
6 11 (7.01%) Data Protection
6 11 (7.01%) ITSM
6 11 (7.01%) Mentoring
7 10 (6.37%) Continuous Improvement
7 10 (6.37%) Customer-Centric Approach
7 10 (6.37%) Customer-Centricity
7 10 (6.37%) Root Cause Analysis
8 9 (5.73%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 8 (5.10%) Application Security
9 8 (5.10%) Mobile Device Management
9 8 (5.10%) Network Management
10 7 (4.46%) Architectural Design
10 7 (4.46%) Coaching
10 7 (4.46%) High Availability
10 7 (4.46%) Server Management
Programming Languages
1 23 (14.65%) PowerShell
2 9 (5.73%) SQL
3 6 (3.82%) Bash
4 4 (2.55%) Python
5 3 (1.91%) Korn
5 3 (1.91%) Shell Script
6 2 (1.27%) C
6 2 (1.27%) T-SQL
7 1 (0.64%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 28 (17.83%) Security Cleared
2 25 (15.92%) Degree
3 18 (11.46%) DV Cleared
4 13 (8.28%) Microsoft Certification
5 8 (5.10%) SC Cleared
6 6 (3.82%) DBS Check
7 5 (3.18%) A+ Certification
7 5 (3.18%) Microsoft Certified Professional
8 3 (1.91%) Computer Science Degree
8 3 (1.91%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
8 3 (1.91%) MCSE
9 2 (1.27%) Azure Certification
9 2 (1.27%) CCNA
9 2 (1.27%) Cisco Certification
9 2 (1.27%) ISTQB
9 2 (1.27%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 2 (1.27%) MCSA
9 2 (1.27%) Network+ Certification
9 2 (1.27%) RHCE
9 2 (1.27%) RHCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (5.73%) SLA
2 7 (4.46%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 6 (3.82%) Cyber Essentials
4 2 (1.27%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 2 (1.27%) GDPR
5 1 (0.64%) QA
5 1 (0.64%) SOC 2
System Software
1 27 (17.20%) Hyper-V
2 21 (13.38%) VMware Infrastructure
3 15 (9.55%) vSphere
4 10 (6.37%) Docker
5 5 (3.18%) Citrix Hypervisor
6 2 (1.27%) Samba
6 2 (1.27%) Terminal Server
6 2 (1.27%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.64%) Virtual Desktop
7 1 (0.64%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 28 (17.83%) Microsoft Intune
2 18 (11.46%) SCCM
3 6 (3.82%) Kubernetes
4 5 (3.18%) Jamf Pro
4 5 (3.18%) SCOM
4 5 (3.18%) SmoothWall
4 5 (3.18%) Terraform
5 3 (1.91%) Ansible
6 2 (1.27%) SCSM
7 1 (0.64%) Autotask
7 1 (0.64%) Failover Clustering
7 1 (0.64%) FortiGate
7 1 (0.64%) Grafana
7 1 (0.64%) Prometheus
7 1 (0.64%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 119 (75.80%) Microsoft
2 35 (22.29%) VMware
3 25 (15.92%) Google
4 11 (7.01%) Red Hat
4 11 (7.01%) ServiceNow
5 10 (6.37%) Cisco
6 9 (5.73%) Citrix
7 8 (5.10%) Meraki
8 7 (4.46%) McAfee
9 6 (3.82%) Palo Alto
10 5 (3.18%) Atlassian
10 5 (3.18%) CheckPoint
10 5 (3.18%) Dell
11 4 (2.55%) Adobe
11 4 (2.55%) NetApp
11 4 (2.55%) Veeam
12 3 (1.91%) Oracle
12 3 (1.91%) Trend Micro
13 2 (1.27%) D-Link
13 2 (1.27%) Juniper