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

6 months to
24 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 43 53 22
Rank change year-on-year +10 -31 +10
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 158 136 456
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 3.28% 4.96% 7.35%
As % of the System Software category 61.96% 36.07% 44.84%
Number of salaries quoted 125 114 413
10th Percentile £27,750 £25,750 £26,250
25th Percentile £31,250 £31,250 £31,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £35,000 £45,000 £42,500
Median % change year-on-year -22.22% +5.88% +30.77%
75th Percentile £42,500 £57,500 £54,500
90th Percentile £68,750 £65,850 £59,000
South East median annual salary £36,000 £42,500 £37,500
% change year-on-year -15.29% +13.33% +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 255 377 1,017
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 5.29% 13.75% 16.38%
Number of salaries quoted 170 272 833
10th Percentile £28,000 £31,250 £27,750
25th Percentile £31,375 £43,813 £36,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £37,500 £60,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -37.50% +14.29% +23.53%
75th Percentile £62,993 £81,250 £71,250
90th Percentile £72,625 £95,000 £91,250
South East median annual salary £42,500 £57,500 £46,000
% change year-on-year -26.09% +25.00% -3.16%

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 24 March 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 24 March 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 +2 64 £38,000 -20.00% 16
Oxfordshire +13 55 £34,000 +4.62% 13
Buckinghamshire -17 39 £36,500 -18.89% 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 (18.99%) Microsoft Exchange
2 18 (11.39%) SharePoint
3 3 (1.90%) Apache
3 3 (1.90%) IIS
4 2 (1.27%) CMS
4 2 (1.27%) WordPress
Applications
1 39 (24.68%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.63%) Spreadsheet
Cloud Services
1 100 (63.29%) Microsoft 365
2 77 (48.73%) Azure
3 37 (23.42%) Entra ID
4 18 (11.39%) AWS
5 15 (9.49%) Google Workspace
6 12 (7.59%) GCP
7 8 (5.06%) SaaS
8 4 (2.53%) OneDrive
9 2 (1.27%) Mimecast
10 1 (0.63%) Power Automate
10 1 (0.63%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 49 (31.01%) DNS
1 49 (31.01%) Firewall
2 32 (20.25%) DHCP
3 23 (14.56%) VPN
4 20 (12.66%) LAN
4 20 (12.66%) TCP/IP
5 19 (12.03%) WAN
6 14 (8.86%) VoIP
7 12 (7.59%) Wi-Fi
8 9 (5.70%) SAN
9 8 (5.06%) Remote Desktop
9 8 (5.06%) Wireless
10 6 (3.80%) NetScaler
10 6 (3.80%) VLAN
11 4 (2.53%) NAS
11 4 (2.53%) Wireshark
12 3 (1.90%) Ethernet
12 3 (1.90%) iSCSI
13 2 (1.27%) SSL
13 2 (1.27%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (5.70%) SQL Server
2 6 (3.80%) PostgreSQL
3 3 (1.90%) Data Mining
3 3 (1.90%) MySQL
4 1 (0.63%) Amazon RDS
4 1 (0.63%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 8 (5.06%) JIRA
2 3 (1.90%) Subversion
General
1 78 (49.37%) Social Skills
2 13 (8.23%) Organisational Skills
3 10 (6.33%) Analytical Skills
4 9 (5.70%) Telecoms
5 5 (3.16%) Retail
6 3 (1.90%) Games
7 2 (1.27%) Documentation Skills
7 2 (1.27%) Finance
7 2 (1.27%) Legal
7 2 (1.27%) Manufacturing
8 1 (0.63%) Aviation
8 1 (0.63%) Health Technology
8 1 (0.63%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 85 (53.80%) IT Support
2 35 (22.15%) Support Engineer
3 30 (18.99%) IT Engineer
4 26 (16.46%) Analyst
4 26 (16.46%) Support Analyst
5 25 (15.82%) IT Support Engineer
6 21 (13.29%) IT Support Technician
6 21 (13.29%) IT Technician
6 21 (13.29%) Support Technician
7 17 (10.76%) 3rd Line Support
7 17 (10.76%) IT Analyst
7 17 (10.76%) IT Support Analyst
8 14 (8.86%) Technical Support
9 12 (7.59%) 2nd Line Support
10 11 (6.96%) Architect
10 11 (6.96%) Senior
11 9 (5.70%) 3rd Line Technical Support
11 9 (5.70%) Microsoft Engineer
12 8 (5.06%) Applications Architect
12 8 (5.06%) Linux Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (4.43%) Regular Expression
2 6 (3.80%) LDAP
3 4 (2.53%) XMPP
4 3 (1.90%) JSON
4 3 (1.90%) JSON Schema
4 3 (1.90%) XML
5 2 (1.27%) Web Services
6 1 (0.63%) OAuth
6 1 (0.63%) OpenID
Miscellaneous
1 23 (14.56%) Driving Licence
2 18 (11.39%) Self-Motivation
3 10 (6.33%) Onboarding
4 8 (5.06%) Video Conferencing
5 6 (3.80%) PKI
6 5 (3.16%) Social Media
7 3 (1.90%) Linux Command Line
7 3 (1.90%) Management Information System
8 2 (1.27%) Fibre Optics
9 1 (0.63%) Cloud Native
9 1 (0.63%) Clustering
9 1 (0.63%) CMDB
9 1 (0.63%) Data Centre
9 1 (0.63%) FMCG
9 1 (0.63%) Replication
9 1 (0.63%) Security Posture
9 1 (0.63%) Smartphone
9 1 (0.63%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 116 (73.42%) Windows
2 70 (44.30%) Windows Server
3 34 (21.52%) Linux
4 16 (10.13%) Windows 10
5 13 (8.23%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 8 (5.06%) Android
6 8 (5.06%) Apple iOS
6 8 (5.06%) Mac OS
7 6 (3.80%) Windows Server 2019
8 3 (1.90%) Windows Server 2016
9 2 (1.27%) CentOS
9 2 (1.27%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 68 (43.04%) Customer Service
2 58 (36.71%) Problem-Solving
3 40 (25.32%) ITIL
4 23 (14.56%) Cybersecurity
5 15 (9.49%) Mentoring
6 13 (8.23%) Customer-Centric Approach
6 13 (8.23%) Customer-Centricity
6 13 (8.23%) ITSM
7 10 (6.33%) Continuous Improvement
7 10 (6.33%) SIEM
8 9 (5.70%) Coaching
9 8 (5.06%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 8 (5.06%) Mobile Device Management
9 8 (5.06%) Network Management
10 7 (4.43%) Data Protection
10 7 (4.43%) Disaster Recovery
10 7 (4.43%) Project Delivery
10 7 (4.43%) Service Delivery
11 6 (3.80%) Process Improvement
11 6 (3.80%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 19 (12.03%) PowerShell
2 9 (5.70%) SQL
3 3 (1.90%) Bash
3 3 (1.90%) Python
3 3 (1.90%) Shell Script
4 2 (1.27%) C
4 2 (1.27%) T-SQL
5 1 (0.63%) Bicep
5 1 (0.63%) Korn
Qualifications
1 25 (15.82%) Security Cleared
2 21 (13.29%) Degree
3 16 (10.13%) DV Cleared
4 14 (8.86%) Microsoft Certification
5 8 (5.06%) SC Cleared
6 7 (4.43%) DBS Check
6 7 (4.43%) Microsoft Certified Professional
7 6 (3.80%) A+ Certification
8 4 (2.53%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
9 3 (1.90%) MCSA
10 2 (1.27%) CCNA
10 2 (1.27%) Cisco Certification
10 2 (1.27%) ISTQB
10 2 (1.27%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
10 2 (1.27%) MCSE
10 2 (1.27%) RHCE
10 2 (1.27%) RHCSA
11 1 (0.63%) Azure Certification
11 1 (0.63%) CompTIA Security+
11 1 (0.63%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (5.70%) SLA
2 5 (3.16%) Cyber Essentials
2 5 (3.16%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 1 (0.63%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 1 (0.63%) GDPR
System Software
1 31 (19.62%) Hyper-V
2 21 (13.29%) VMware Infrastructure
3 13 (8.23%) vSphere
4 7 (4.43%) Docker
5 3 (1.90%) Citrix Hypervisor
6 2 (1.27%) Samba
6 2 (1.27%) Terminal Server
7 1 (0.63%) Virtual Desktop
7 1 (0.63%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.63%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 30 (18.99%) Microsoft Intune
2 21 (13.29%) SCCM
3 5 (3.16%) Jamf Pro
3 5 (3.16%) SCOM
3 5 (3.16%) SmoothWall
4 4 (2.53%) Terraform
5 3 (1.90%) Kubernetes
6 2 (1.27%) Ansible
6 2 (1.27%) SCSM
7 1 (0.63%) Autotask
7 1 (0.63%) Failover Clustering
7 1 (0.63%) FortiGate
Vendors
1 122 (77.22%) Microsoft
2 35 (22.15%) VMware
3 23 (14.56%) Google
4 11 (6.96%) ServiceNow
5 10 (6.33%) Cisco
6 8 (5.06%) Citrix
6 8 (5.06%) Meraki
7 7 (4.43%) Red Hat
8 6 (3.80%) McAfee
8 6 (3.80%) Palo Alto
9 5 (3.16%) Atlassian
9 5 (3.16%) CheckPoint
10 4 (2.53%) Adobe
10 4 (2.53%) NetApp
10 4 (2.53%) Veeam
11 3 (1.90%) Dell
11 3 (1.90%) Oracle
11 3 (1.90%) Trend Micro
12 2 (1.27%) D-Link
12 2 (1.27%) Juniper