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

6 months to
7 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 68 75 43
Rank change year-on-year +7 -32 -19
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 168 144 227
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 2.23% 3.75% 4.86%
As % of the System Software category 45.16% 44.17% 38.67%
Number of salaries quoted 132 123 157
10th Percentile £29,000 £28,350 £26,550
25th Percentile £34,688 £34,000 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £37,500 £38,000
Median % change year-on-year +20.00% -1.32% -10.59%
75th Percentile £55,250 £51,000 £52,250
90th Percentile £68,750 £70,000 £59,750
South East median annual salary £42,500 £37,500 £41,500
% change year-on-year +13.33% -9.64% +3.75%

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 372 326 587
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 4.94% 8.49% 12.57%
Number of salaries quoted 262 208 363
10th Percentile £29,500 £31,250 £30,050
25th Percentile £38,500 £36,250 £36,625
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £51,000 £45,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +13.33% -18.18% +4.76%
75th Percentile £68,750 £70,000 £74,000
90th Percentile £72,500 £81,250 £85,000
South East median annual salary £57,500 £43,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year +32.18% -20.91% +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 7 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 7 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 +35 86 £45,000 +5.26% 40
Buckinghamshire -8 52 £42,500 +13.33% 15
Oxfordshire -34 30 £47,166 +31.02% 18
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 63 (37.50%) Microsoft Exchange
2 61 (36.31%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.60%) Confluence
Applications
1 11 (6.55%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.60%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.60%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 6 (3.57%) Raiser’s Edge
Cloud Services
1 95 (56.55%) Azure
1 95 (56.55%) Microsoft 365
2 75 (44.64%) Entra ID
3 19 (11.31%) Google Workspace
4 16 (9.52%) AWS
5 12 (7.14%) IaaS
6 7 (4.17%) OneDrive
6 7 (4.17%) Power Automate
7 6 (3.57%) Azure Sentinel
7 6 (3.57%) Cloudflare
8 3 (1.79%) PaaS
9 2 (1.19%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 1 (0.60%) Azure Stack
10 1 (0.60%) SaaS
10 1 (0.60%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 96 (57.14%) DNS
2 81 (48.21%) Firewall
3 70 (41.67%) DHCP
4 42 (25.00%) VPN
5 40 (23.81%) Wi-Fi
6 37 (22.02%) VLAN
7 23 (13.69%) SSL
7 23 (13.69%) TCP/IP
8 18 (10.71%) VoIP
9 17 (10.12%) LAN
9 17 (10.12%) WAN
10 15 (8.93%) Wireless
11 11 (6.55%) Network Security
12 10 (5.95%) Remote Desktop
13 9 (5.36%) SAN
14 5 (2.98%) iSCSI
15 4 (2.38%) Internet
15 4 (2.38%) NAS
15 4 (2.38%) NetScaler
15 4 (2.38%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (3.57%) SQL Server
2 5 (2.98%) MySQL
2 5 (2.98%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 3 (1.79%) JIRA
General
1 83 (49.40%) Social Skills
2 14 (8.33%) Analytical Skills
3 8 (4.76%) Finance
4 7 (4.17%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 6 (3.57%) Influencing Skills
5 6 (3.57%) Organisational Skills
5 6 (3.57%) Retail
6 5 (2.98%) Documentation Skills
6 5 (2.98%) Law
7 3 (1.79%) Legal
8 2 (1.19%) Local Government
8 2 (1.19%) Manufacturing
8 2 (1.19%) Police
8 2 (1.19%) Public Sector
9 1 (0.60%) Aerospace
9 1 (0.60%) Automotive
9 1 (0.60%) Billing
9 1 (0.60%) Italian Language
9 1 (0.60%) Japanese Language
9 1 (0.60%) Legal Technology
Job Titles
1 56 (33.33%) IT Support
2 42 (25.00%) IT Engineer
3 34 (20.24%) Support Engineer
4 32 (19.05%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 30 (17.86%) IT Support Engineer
6 29 (17.26%) Senior
7 14 (8.33%) Architect
8 13 (7.74%) Analyst
9 11 (6.55%) IT Technician
9 11 (6.55%) Senior IT Engineer
9 11 (6.55%) Senior IT Support
9 11 (6.55%) Senior Support Engineer
10 10 (5.95%) 1st Line Support
10 10 (5.95%) Applications Architect
10 10 (5.95%) Infrastructure Support
10 10 (5.95%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
10 10 (5.95%) IT Support Technician
10 10 (5.95%) Support Technician
11 9 (5.36%) IT Infrastructure Engineer
12 8 (4.76%) Security Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (8.33%) Regular Expression
2 13 (7.74%) XMPP
3 12 (7.14%) LDAP
4 5 (2.98%) HTML
4 5 (2.98%) ODBC
5 4 (2.38%) JSON
5 4 (2.38%) JSON Schema
5 4 (2.38%) XML
6 2 (1.19%) Terraform
7 1 (0.60%) OpenID
7 1 (0.60%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 34 (20.24%) Driving Licence
2 13 (7.74%) Self-Motivation
3 11 (6.55%) Onboarding
4 10 (5.95%) PKI
5 7 (4.17%) Management Information System
6 6 (3.57%) CCTV
6 6 (3.57%) Cyber Defence
6 6 (3.57%) Replication
6 6 (3.57%) Security Operations Centre
7 5 (2.98%) Cloud Native
7 5 (2.98%) Hybrid Cloud
7 5 (2.98%) Security Posture
7 5 (2.98%) Team-Oriented Environment
8 3 (1.79%) Data Centre
8 3 (1.79%) EPoS
9 2 (1.19%) Distributed Systems
9 2 (1.19%) Life Science
9 2 (1.19%) Private Cloud
9 2 (1.19%) Public Cloud
9 2 (1.19%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 120 (71.43%) Windows
2 63 (37.50%) Windows Server
3 35 (20.83%) Linux
4 20 (11.90%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 20 (11.90%) Windows 10
5 12 (7.14%) Mac OS
6 10 (5.95%) Windows Server 2019
7 6 (3.57%) Rocky
7 6 (3.57%) Ubuntu
8 4 (2.38%) Android
8 4 (2.38%) Windows Server 2012
9 3 (1.79%) Apple iOS
9 3 (1.79%) Windows 7
9 3 (1.79%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 60 (35.71%) Problem-Solving
2 55 (32.74%) Customer Service
3 42 (25.00%) Cybersecurity
3 42 (25.00%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 37 (22.02%) Continuous Improvement
4 37 (22.02%) Disaster Recovery
5 27 (16.07%) ITIL
6 23 (13.69%) High Availability
7 22 (13.10%) Project Delivery
8 20 (11.90%) Migration
9 19 (11.31%) Kalman Filter
10 18 (10.71%) SIEM
11 15 (8.93%) Business Continuity
11 15 (8.93%) Validation
12 14 (8.33%) Data Protection
13 13 (7.74%) Server Management
14 12 (7.14%) Mentoring
14 12 (7.14%) Technical Leadership
15 11 (6.55%) Data Privacy
15 11 (6.55%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 54 (32.14%) PowerShell
2 14 (8.33%) Python
3 8 (4.76%) Bash
4 5 (2.98%) Korn
5 4 (2.38%) Shell Script
6 1 (0.60%) SQL
Qualifications
1 38 (22.62%) Security Cleared
2 31 (18.45%) Microsoft Certification
3 30 (17.86%) Degree
4 25 (14.88%) DV Cleared
5 17 (10.12%) CompTIA Security+
6 16 (9.52%) Network+ Certification
7 13 (7.74%) SC Cleared
8 12 (7.14%) DBS Check
9 9 (5.36%) Azure Certification
9 9 (5.36%) CCNA
9 9 (5.36%) Cisco Certification
10 6 (3.57%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 5 (2.98%) A+ Certification
12 4 (2.38%) CCNP
13 3 (1.79%) ICAEW
14 2 (1.19%) Computer Science Degree
15 1 (0.60%) BPSS Clearance
15 1 (0.60%) CCA
15 1 (0.60%) CESG Certified Professional
15 1 (0.60%) Citrix Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 32 (19.05%) Cyber Essentials
2 13 (7.74%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 11 (6.55%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 8 (4.76%) GDPR
5 6 (3.57%) SLA
6 5 (2.98%) NCSC
7 3 (1.79%) NIST
7 3 (1.79%) SOC 2
8 2 (1.19%) QA
9 1 (0.60%) PMO
System Software
1 33 (19.64%) VMware Infrastructure
2 32 (19.05%) Hyper-V
3 25 (14.88%) vSphere
4 7 (4.17%) Docker
5 5 (2.98%) Citrix Hypervisor
6 4 (2.38%) Virtual Machines
7 3 (1.79%) Virtual Servers
8 1 (0.60%) Firmware
8 1 (0.60%) Microsoft Virtual Server
8 1 (0.60%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 55 (32.74%) Microsoft Intune
2 13 (7.74%) Jamf Pro
3 7 (4.17%) Kubernetes
4 6 (3.57%) Graylog
5 3 (1.79%) SCCM
5 3 (1.79%) vCenter Server
6 2 (1.19%) Ansible
6 2 (1.19%) Grafana
6 2 (1.19%) Prometheus
6 2 (1.19%) Single Sign-On
7 1 (0.60%) Autotask
7 1 (0.60%) N-central
Vendors
1 134 (79.76%) Microsoft
2 64 (38.10%) VMware
3 19 (11.31%) Cisco
3 19 (11.31%) Google
4 18 (10.71%) Red Hat
5 17 (10.12%) Apple
5 17 (10.12%) Veeam
6 12 (7.14%) Datto
7 11 (6.55%) Dell
7 11 (6.55%) SonicWALL
8 10 (5.95%) McAfee
9 9 (5.36%) Fortinet
10 8 (4.76%) Aruba
11 5 (2.98%) Citrix
12 4 (2.38%) ConnectWise
12 4 (2.38%) NetApp
12 4 (2.38%) Palo Alto
12 4 (2.38%) ServiceNow
13 3 (1.79%) Juniper
13 3 (1.79%) Meraki