Active Directory Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Microsoft Active Directory
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the UK excluding London requiring Active Directory skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 20 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 52 36 27
Rank change year-on-year -16 -9 +14
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 1,814 1,780 3,694
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 3.71% 5.55% 7.33%
As % of the System Software category 62.17% 43.14% 49.05%
Number of salaries quoted 1,268 1,108 3,278
10th Percentile £26,250 £25,750 £24,250
25th Percentile £28,000 £29,000 £27,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £34,000 £37,500 £35,000
Median % change year-on-year -9.33% +7.14% -4.11%
75th Percentile £47,250 £52,500 £48,750
90th Percentile £60,000 £61,250 £57,500
UK median annual salary £37,500 £42,500 £40,000
% change year-on-year -11.76% +6.25% -1.23%

All System Software Skills
UK excluding London

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 UK excluding London.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for system software skills 2,918 4,126 7,531
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 5.97% 12.87% 14.95%
Number of salaries quoted 2,052 2,426 6,322
10th Percentile £26,500 £27,500 £26,000
25th Percentile £30,500 £35,000 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £51,500 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -17.48% +14.44% -5.26%
75th Percentile £62,500 £70,000 £61,250
90th Percentile £76,250 £84,625 £75,000
UK median annual salary £50,000 £57,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -13.04% +15.00% -9.09%

Active Directory
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Active Directory relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Active Directory job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

Active Directory
Salary Trend in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Active Directory.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Active Directory

Active Directory
Salary Histogram in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution for jobs citing Active Directory in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 20 February 2026.

Salary histogram for Active Directory in the UK excluding London

Active Directory
Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Active Directory within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 20 February 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
South East +10 493 £36,000 -15.29% 235
North of England -19 381 £33,750 -10.00% 131
South West +5 300 £32,500 -4.41% 68
Midlands -29 270 £31,500 -14.29% 75
East of England -19 182 £33,375 +1.14% 61
Yorkshire -9 171 £32,500 - 51
North West -16 168 £37,500 -6.25% 71
East Midlands +1 160 £29,000 -4.92% 33
Scotland +11 120 £27,750 -25.00% 30
West Midlands -55 109 £32,500 -18.75% 41
Wales +7 43 £35,000 -27.08% 8
North East -10 42 £31,500 -12.50% 15
Northern Ireland -17 21 £32,000 -39.05% 5
Isle of Man +9 4 £45,000 +91.49% 1
Active Directory
UK

Active Directory
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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
1 527 (29.05%) Microsoft Exchange
2 333 (18.36%) SharePoint
3 23 (1.27%) Exchange Server 2003
4 14 (0.77%) Confluence
4 14 (0.77%) IIS
5 12 (0.66%) Exchange Server 2013
6 10 (0.55%) Exchange Server 2007
6 10 (0.55%) Exchange Server 2010
7 4 (0.22%) CMS
7 4 (0.22%) Skype for Business
8 3 (0.17%) Tomcat
8 3 (0.17%) WebLogic
8 3 (0.17%) WebLogic Portal
9 2 (0.11%) FactoryTalk
9 2 (0.11%) WinCC
9 2 (0.11%) WordPress
10 1 (0.055%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 279 (15.38%) Microsoft Office
2 36 (1.98%) Microsoft Excel
3 8 (0.44%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.22%) CATIA
5 3 (0.17%) AutoCAD
6 1 (0.055%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.055%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 19 (1.05%) Oracle ERP
2 16 (0.88%) Dynamics CRM
3 6 (0.33%) NetSuite
3 6 (0.33%) Remedy ITSM
4 5 (0.28%) Dynamics NAV
5 4 (0.22%) Markit EDM
6 3 (0.17%) Oracle EBS
6 3 (0.17%) Primavera
7 2 (0.11%) Alphatax
7 2 (0.11%) Dynamics GP
7 2 (0.11%) Shopify
8 1 (0.055%) Cognos Business Intelligence
8 1 (0.055%) Dynamics AX
8 1 (0.055%) Sage 200
8 1 (0.055%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 1,286 (70.89%) Microsoft 365
2 1,007 (55.51%) Azure
3 607 (33.46%) Entra ID
4 133 (7.33%) AWS
4 133 (7.33%) OneDrive
5 102 (5.62%) Google Workspace
6 89 (4.91%) SaaS
7 69 (3.80%) Power Platform
8 39 (2.15%) Azure DevOps
9 37 (2.04%) IaaS
10 36 (1.98%) GCP
11 35 (1.93%) Azure Monitor
12 30 (1.65%) PaaS
13 28 (1.54%) GitHub
13 28 (1.54%) PowerApps
14 27 (1.49%) OCI
15 25 (1.38%) Nutanix
16 24 (1.32%) Azure Logic Apps
17 22 (1.21%) Mimecast
18 21 (1.16%) Dynamics 365
Communications & Networking
1 670 (36.93%) DNS
2 634 (34.95%) DHCP
3 424 (23.37%) Firewall
4 277 (15.27%) VPN
5 246 (13.56%) TCP/IP
6 186 (10.25%) VLAN
7 171 (9.43%) WAN
8 169 (9.32%) LAN
9 134 (7.39%) Wi-Fi
10 86 (4.74%) VoIP
11 77 (4.24%) Wireless
12 54 (2.98%) Remote Desktop
13 53 (2.92%) Network Security
14 49 (2.70%) SAN
15 46 (2.54%) Broadband
16 26 (1.43%) SD-WAN
17 22 (1.21%) Internet
18 17 (0.94%) Unified Communications
19 16 (0.88%) Ethernet
20 15 (0.83%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 130 (7.17%) Amazon RDS
2 61 (3.36%) SQL Server
3 35 (1.93%) Power BI
4 26 (1.43%) Oracle Database
5 23 (1.27%) Oracle Database 10g
6 17 (0.94%) MySQL
7 13 (0.72%) PostgreSQL
8 11 (0.61%) Azure SQL Database
9 9 (0.50%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 7 (0.39%) GIS
11 6 (0.33%) Data Warehouse
11 6 (0.33%) Relational Database
12 4 (0.22%) DTS
13 3 (0.17%) Data Mining
13 3 (0.17%) Oracle Discoverer
13 3 (0.17%) Oracle Reports
14 2 (0.11%) NoSQL
15 1 (0.055%) FileMaker
15 1 (0.055%) SQL Server Analysis Services
15 1 (0.055%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 71 (3.91%) JIRA
2 25 (1.38%) Jenkins
3 22 (1.21%) Git
3 22 (1.21%) Oracle Forms
4 7 (0.39%) GitLab
5 5 (0.28%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 4 (0.22%) LabVIEW
7 3 (0.17%) Oracle APEX
7 3 (0.17%) Subversion
8 2 (0.11%) Visual Studio
9 1 (0.055%) Burp Suite
9 1 (0.055%) Metasploit
General
1 881 (48.57%) Social Skills
2 229 (12.62%) Analytical Skills
3 149 (8.21%) Finance
3 149 (8.21%) Organisational Skills
4 81 (4.47%) Manufacturing
5 65 (3.58%) Retail
6 63 (3.47%) Documentation Skills
7 59 (3.25%) Law
8 56 (3.09%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 41 (2.26%) Legal
10 39 (2.15%) Advertising
11 36 (1.98%) Public Sector
12 35 (1.93%) Games
13 26 (1.43%) Telecoms
14 22 (1.21%) Marketing
15 12 (0.66%) French Language
15 12 (0.66%) Swedish Language
16 8 (0.44%) Aerospace
16 8 (0.44%) Local Government
17 4 (0.22%) Automotive
Job Titles
1 698 (38.48%) IT Support
2 469 (25.85%) Support Engineer
3 388 (21.39%) IT Engineer
4 334 (18.41%) IT Support Engineer
5 237 (13.07%) Analyst
6 185 (10.20%) 2nd Line Support
7 173 (9.54%) Support Analyst
8 165 (9.10%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 161 (8.88%) Support Technician
10 150 (8.27%) Systems Engineer
11 140 (7.72%) IT Analyst
12 139 (7.66%) Senior
13 123 (6.78%) IT Support Analyst
14 109 (6.01%) IT Technician
15 107 (5.90%) IT Support Technician
16 100 (5.51%) 3rd Line Support
17 94 (5.18%) 2nd Line Engineer
18 93 (5.13%) 1st Line Support
19 85 (4.69%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
20 71 (3.91%) Cloud Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 59 (3.25%) SOAP
2 54 (2.98%) SAML
3 50 (2.76%) OAuth
3 50 (2.76%) OpenID
4 48 (2.65%) LDAP
5 45 (2.48%) REST
6 40 (2.21%) GraphQL
7 27 (1.49%) JSON
7 27 (1.49%) XML
8 24 (1.32%) RESTful
9 19 (1.05%) .NET
10 14 (0.77%) ARM Templates
11 12 (0.66%) CSS
11 12 (0.66%) HTML
11 12 (0.66%) React
12 10 (0.55%) OAuth2
13 9 (0.50%) .NET Framework
14 6 (0.33%) Web Services
15 5 (0.28%) FreeSWITCH
15 5 (0.28%) Microsoft Graph
Miscellaneous
1 273 (15.05%) Driving Licence
2 128 (7.06%) Onboarding
3 117 (6.45%) Legacy Systems
4 82 (4.52%) Self-Motivation
5 67 (3.69%) Enterprise Software
6 43 (2.37%) Cyberattack
7 41 (2.26%) Cyber Threat
8 39 (2.15%) Hybrid Cloud
9 35 (1.93%) Cloud Native
10 34 (1.87%) Data Centre
11 33 (1.82%) Management Information System
12 29 (1.60%) Replication
13 22 (1.21%) Public Cloud
14 18 (0.99%) CMDB
14 18 (0.99%) iPad
14 18 (0.99%) Video Conferencing
15 16 (0.88%) Client/Server
16 15 (0.83%) Clustering
17 14 (0.77%) PKI
18 13 (0.72%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 1,281 (70.62%) Windows
2 798 (43.99%) Windows Server
3 273 (15.05%) Windows 10
4 232 (12.79%) Linux
5 167 (9.21%) Windows Server 2016
6 96 (5.29%) Mac OS
7 72 (3.97%) Apple iOS
8 70 (3.86%) Android
9 64 (3.53%) Windows Server 2019
10 39 (2.15%) Windows 7
11 34 (1.87%) Windows Server 2008
11 34 (1.87%) Windows Server 2012
12 28 (1.54%) Unix
13 23 (1.27%) HPUX
13 23 (1.27%) Solaris
13 23 (1.27%) Windows Server 2003
14 11 (0.61%) VMS
15 10 (0.55%) Windows 8
16 8 (0.44%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
17 6 (0.33%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 677 (37.32%) Problem-Solving
2 571 (31.48%) Customer Service
3 398 (21.94%) ITIL
4 254 (14.00%) Cybersecurity
5 241 (13.29%) Mentoring
6 212 (11.69%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 203 (11.19%) Continuous Improvement
8 184 (10.14%) Migration
9 180 (9.92%) ITSM
10 152 (8.38%) Service Delivery
11 148 (8.16%) Vulnerability Remediation
12 137 (7.55%) Disaster Recovery
13 135 (7.44%) Coaching
14 131 (7.22%) Kalman Filter
15 129 (7.11%) Web Filtering
16 127 (7.00%) Customer Experience
17 121 (6.67%) Incident Management
18 117 (6.45%) Email Filtering
19 114 (6.28%) Vulnerability Scanning
20 107 (5.90%) Asset Management
Programming Languages
1 306 (16.87%) PowerShell
2 139 (7.66%) SQL
3 81 (4.47%) Bash
4 58 (3.20%) Python
5 50 (2.76%) T-SQL
6 22 (1.21%) Perl
6 22 (1.21%) PL/SQL
7 21 (1.16%) Java
7 21 (1.16%) Shell Script
8 20 (1.10%) JavaScript
9 16 (0.88%) C#
10 10 (0.55%) VB
11 6 (0.33%) Bicep
11 6 (0.33%) R
12 5 (0.28%) VBA
13 2 (0.11%) Groovy
13 2 (0.11%) TypeScript
14 1 (0.055%) Korn
14 1 (0.055%) PHP
14 1 (0.055%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 256 (14.11%) Security Cleared
2 210 (11.58%) SC Cleared
3 162 (8.93%) Degree
4 158 (8.71%) Microsoft Certification
5 67 (3.69%) DV Cleared
6 53 (2.92%) DBS Check
7 45 (2.48%) Azure Certification
8 39 (2.15%) Cisco Certification
9 37 (2.04%) A+ Certification
10 32 (1.76%) CCNA
10 32 (1.76%) Microsoft Certified Professional
11 30 (1.65%) MCSE
12 21 (1.16%) ITIL Certification
12 21 (1.16%) Network+ Certification
13 18 (0.99%) HND
14 17 (0.94%) HNC
15 16 (0.88%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
16 13 (0.72%) MCSA
17 11 (0.61%) CCNP
18 10 (0.55%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 174 (9.59%) Cyber Essentials
2 137 (7.55%) SLA
3 120 (6.62%) PCI DSS
4 85 (4.69%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 53 (2.92%) NIST
6 49 (2.70%) GDPR
7 40 (2.21%) NCSC
8 19 (1.05%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 13 (0.72%) QA
10 8 (0.44%) Accessibility
10 8 (0.44%) Data Quality
11 4 (0.22%) 21 CFR Part 11
11 4 (0.22%) GxP
11 4 (0.22%) ISO 22301
11 4 (0.22%) PMO
11 4 (0.22%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 3 (0.17%) ITGC
13 2 (0.11%) Disclosure Scotland
14 1 (0.055%) GRC
14 1 (0.055%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 388 (21.39%) Hyper-V
2 247 (13.62%) VMware Infrastructure
3 114 (6.28%) Terminal Server
4 46 (2.54%) Virtual Desktop
5 43 (2.37%) vSphere
6 41 (2.26%) VMware ESXi
7 23 (1.27%) Virtual Machines
8 15 (0.83%) Docker
9 13 (0.72%) Firmware
10 11 (0.61%) BitLocker
11 9 (0.50%) VMware NSX
11 9 (0.50%) VMware Workstation
12 6 (0.33%) Virtual Servers
12 6 (0.33%) XenApp
13 4 (0.22%) DFS Replication
13 4 (0.22%) Terminal Services
14 3 (0.17%) Lustre
14 3 (0.17%) Slurm Workload Manager
15 1 (0.055%) Microsoft Virtual Server
15 1 (0.055%) VMware Server
Systems Management
1 369 (20.34%) Microsoft Intune
2 134 (7.39%) SCCM
3 52 (2.87%) Terraform
4 45 (2.48%) Single Sign-On
5 44 (2.43%) vCenter Server
6 29 (1.60%) Jamf Pro
7 20 (1.10%) Autotask
8 19 (1.05%) Ansible
9 18 (0.99%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 18 (0.99%) WSUS
10 16 (0.88%) FortiGate
11 15 (0.83%) Kubernetes
12 11 (0.61%) SCOM
13 10 (0.55%) ZABBIX
14 9 (0.50%) Backup Exec
14 9 (0.50%) Failover Clustering
15 8 (0.44%) Nagios
16 7 (0.39%) SCVMM
17 6 (0.33%) McAfee ePO
17 6 (0.33%) SmoothWall
Vendors
1 1,327 (73.15%) Microsoft
2 498 (27.45%) VMware
3 202 (11.14%) Veeam
4 153 (8.43%) SolarWinds
5 134 (7.39%) Nimble Storage
6 127 (7.00%) Splunk
7 116 (6.39%) Tanium
8 112 (6.17%) Brocade
9 100 (5.51%) Cisco
10 88 (4.85%) Apple
11 81 (4.47%) Google
12 79 (4.36%) Citrix
13 72 (3.97%) ServiceNow
14 61 (3.36%) HP
15 48 (2.65%) Oracle
16 46 (2.54%) Dell
17 35 (1.93%) Meraki
18 24 (1.32%) SonicWALL
19 22 (1.21%) Dell Compellent
19 22 (1.21%) Fortinet