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

6 months to
22 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 56 36 29
Rank change year-on-year -20 -7 +15
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 1,775 1,528 4,330
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 3.24% 5.66% 7.12%
As % of the System Software category 60.64% 44.60% 50.79%
Number of salaries quoted 1,310 1,198 3,749
10th Percentile £26,250 £25,500 £24,000
25th Percentile £28,500 £28,000 £27,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £34,000 £37,000 £35,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.11% +5.71% -1.27%
75th Percentile £47,500 £50,000 £48,750
90th Percentile £60,000 £60,000 £57,500
UK median annual salary £37,500 £40,000 £38,750
% change year-on-year -6.25% +3.23% -3.13%

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 2,927 3,426 8,525
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 5.34% 12.68% 14.02%
Number of salaries quoted 2,125 2,495 7,071
10th Percentile £27,000 £26,500 £25,750
25th Percentile £31,000 £32,500 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £50,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -15.00% +11.11% -5.26%
75th Percentile £62,500 £69,875 £60,000
90th Percentile £76,150 £85,000 £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 22 March 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 22 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
South East +9 500 £36,000 -15.29% 178
North of England -29 392 £33,500 -3.60% 125
Midlands -33 276 £32,500 -7.14% 75
South West +3 266 £32,500 -7.14% 71
Yorkshire -17 179 £32,500 +8.33% 39
East of England -29 174 £39,152 +20.47% 64
North West -27 171 £37,500 -6.25% 77
East Midlands -15 147 £30,750 +2.50% 35
West Midlands -41 128 £33,000 -12.00% 40
Scotland +16 101 £28,000 -22.22% 30
Wales +6 42 £35,000 -28.72% 11
North East -11 42 £31,500 -4.55% 15
Northern Ireland -31 18 £32,000 -39.05% 2
Isle of Man +4 6 £45,000 +55.17% 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
1 498 (28.06%) Microsoft Exchange
2 347 (19.55%) SharePoint
3 23 (1.30%) Exchange Server 2003
4 14 (0.79%) IIS
5 13 (0.73%) Confluence
5 13 (0.73%) Exchange Server 2013
6 11 (0.62%) Exchange Server 2007
6 11 (0.62%) Exchange Server 2010
7 6 (0.34%) CMS
8 4 (0.23%) Apache
9 3 (0.17%) Tomcat
9 3 (0.17%) WebLogic
9 3 (0.17%) WebLogic Portal
9 3 (0.17%) WordPress
10 2 (0.11%) Skype for Business
11 1 (0.056%) Drupal
11 1 (0.056%) nginx
11 1 (0.056%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 253 (14.25%) Microsoft Office
2 41 (2.31%) Microsoft Excel
3 14 (0.79%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.17%) AutoCAD
5 2 (0.11%) CATIA
6 1 (0.056%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 13 (0.73%) Dynamics CRM
2 12 (0.68%) Oracle ERP
3 7 (0.39%) NetSuite
4 6 (0.34%) Primavera
5 5 (0.28%) Dynamics NAV
5 5 (0.28%) Remedy ITSM
6 4 (0.23%) Dynamics GP
6 4 (0.23%) Markit EDM
7 3 (0.17%) Exchequer
7 3 (0.17%) Oracle EBS
8 2 (0.11%) Alphatax
8 2 (0.11%) Shopify
9 1 (0.056%) Cognos Business Intelligence
9 1 (0.056%) Magento
9 1 (0.056%) Sage 200
9 1 (0.056%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 1,256 (70.76%) Microsoft 365
2 969 (54.59%) Azure
3 620 (34.93%) Entra ID
4 135 (7.61%) OneDrive
5 132 (7.44%) AWS
6 102 (5.75%) Google Workspace
7 85 (4.79%) SaaS
8 74 (4.17%) Power Platform
9 38 (2.14%) IaaS
10 34 (1.92%) Azure Monitor
11 33 (1.86%) PaaS
12 32 (1.80%) GCP
12 32 (1.80%) Nutanix
13 30 (1.69%) Azure DevOps
14 29 (1.63%) Mimecast
15 24 (1.35%) PowerApps
16 22 (1.24%) Microsoft Purview
17 20 (1.13%) OCI
18 19 (1.07%) Azure Logic Apps
19 18 (1.01%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 629 (35.44%) DNS
2 587 (33.07%) DHCP
3 416 (23.44%) Firewall
4 286 (16.11%) VPN
5 230 (12.96%) TCP/IP
6 193 (10.87%) VLAN
7 184 (10.37%) WAN
8 180 (10.14%) LAN
9 150 (8.45%) Wi-Fi
10 94 (5.30%) VoIP
11 79 (4.45%) Wireless
12 62 (3.49%) Remote Desktop
13 60 (3.38%) Network Security
14 47 (2.65%) Broadband
15 41 (2.31%) SAN
16 27 (1.52%) SD-WAN
17 17 (0.96%) Internet
17 17 (0.96%) NAS
18 16 (0.90%) Unified Communications
19 15 (0.85%) Ethernet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 92 (5.18%) Amazon RDS
2 73 (4.11%) SQL Server
3 46 (2.59%) Power BI
4 26 (1.46%) Oracle Database
5 23 (1.30%) Oracle Database 10g
6 22 (1.24%) PostgreSQL
7 20 (1.13%) MySQL
8 11 (0.62%) Azure SQL Database
9 8 (0.45%) GIS
9 8 (0.45%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 6 (0.34%) Data Warehouse
11 4 (0.23%) Relational Database
12 3 (0.17%) Data Mining
12 3 (0.17%) Oracle Discoverer
12 3 (0.17%) Oracle Reports
12 3 (0.17%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 2 (0.11%) NoSQL
14 1 (0.056%) Cognos Framework Manager
14 1 (0.056%) Neo4j
14 1 (0.056%) Redis
Development Applications
1 70 (3.94%) JIRA
2 16 (0.90%) Git
3 15 (0.85%) Oracle Forms
4 14 (0.79%) Jenkins
5 7 (0.39%) GitLab
6 5 (0.28%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 4 (0.23%) LabVIEW
7 4 (0.23%) Subversion
8 3 (0.17%) Oracle APEX
9 1 (0.056%) Burp Suite
9 1 (0.056%) Gatling
9 1 (0.056%) JMeter
9 1 (0.056%) Metasploit
9 1 (0.056%) Vagrant
9 1 (0.056%) Visual Studio
General
1 801 (45.13%) Social Skills
2 189 (10.65%) Analytical Skills
3 164 (9.24%) Organisational Skills
4 136 (7.66%) Finance
5 75 (4.23%) Manufacturing
6 63 (3.55%) Retail
7 59 (3.32%) Documentation Skills
8 52 (2.93%) Law
9 50 (2.82%) Legal
10 48 (2.70%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 39 (2.20%) Advertising
11 39 (2.20%) Public Sector
12 37 (2.08%) Games
13 32 (1.80%) Telecoms
14 22 (1.24%) Marketing
15 10 (0.56%) Local Government
16 8 (0.45%) Aerospace
17 6 (0.34%) Automotive
18 4 (0.23%) Banking
18 4 (0.23%) General Ledger
Job Titles
1 710 (40.00%) IT Support
2 495 (27.89%) Support Engineer
3 407 (22.93%) IT Engineer
4 353 (19.89%) IT Support Engineer
5 236 (13.30%) Analyst
6 179 (10.08%) Support Technician
7 174 (9.80%) 2nd Line Support
8 170 (9.58%) Support Analyst
9 155 (8.73%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 139 (7.83%) IT Technician
10 139 (7.83%) Senior
11 130 (7.32%) IT Support Technician
12 126 (7.10%) IT Analyst
13 116 (6.54%) Systems Engineer
14 109 (6.14%) IT Support Analyst
15 97 (5.46%) 3rd Line Support
16 95 (5.35%) 2nd Line Engineer
17 86 (4.85%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
18 77 (4.34%) 1st Line Support
19 61 (3.44%) Infrastructure Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 51 (2.87%) SOAP
2 50 (2.82%) SAML
3 49 (2.76%) LDAP
4 47 (2.65%) OAuth
4 47 (2.65%) OpenID
5 44 (2.48%) REST
6 39 (2.20%) GraphQL
7 23 (1.30%) JSON
7 23 (1.30%) XML
8 16 (0.90%) .NET
9 15 (0.85%) RESTful
10 11 (0.62%) ARM Templates
11 10 (0.56%) .NET Framework
12 9 (0.51%) CSS
12 9 (0.51%) HTML
12 9 (0.51%) React
13 7 (0.39%) OAuth2
13 7 (0.39%) Web Services
14 6 (0.34%) Regular Expression
15 5 (0.28%) FreeSWITCH
Miscellaneous
1 277 (15.61%) Driving Licence
2 118 (6.65%) Onboarding
3 83 (4.68%) Self-Motivation
4 78 (4.39%) Legacy Systems
5 56 (3.15%) Enterprise Software
6 47 (2.65%) Hybrid Cloud
7 42 (2.37%) Cyberattack
8 41 (2.31%) Cyber Threat
9 32 (1.80%) Replication
10 31 (1.75%) Public Cloud
11 30 (1.69%) Data Centre
12 29 (1.63%) Management Information System
13 28 (1.58%) Cloud Native
14 20 (1.13%) CMDB
15 19 (1.07%) Client/Server
16 17 (0.96%) PKI
17 13 (0.73%) Clustering
17 13 (0.73%) iPad
17 13 (0.73%) Video Conferencing
18 12 (0.68%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 1,271 (71.61%) Windows
2 753 (42.42%) Windows Server
3 305 (17.18%) Windows 10
4 208 (11.72%) Linux
5 136 (7.66%) Windows Server 2016
6 92 (5.18%) Mac OS
7 80 (4.51%) Apple iOS
8 74 (4.17%) Android
9 51 (2.87%) Windows Server 2019
10 42 (2.37%) Windows 7
11 33 (1.86%) Windows Server 2012
12 31 (1.75%) Windows Server 2008
13 29 (1.63%) Unix
14 23 (1.30%) HPUX
14 23 (1.30%) Solaris
14 23 (1.30%) Windows Server 2003
15 17 (0.96%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
16 12 (0.68%) Windows 8
17 6 (0.34%) CentOS
17 6 (0.34%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 631 (35.55%) Problem-Solving
2 525 (29.58%) Customer Service
3 422 (23.77%) ITIL
4 267 (15.04%) Cybersecurity
5 215 (12.11%) Mentoring
6 205 (11.55%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 188 (10.59%) Continuous Improvement
8 179 (10.08%) ITSM
9 160 (9.01%) Service Delivery
10 152 (8.56%) Disaster Recovery
11 127 (7.15%) Incident Management
11 127 (7.15%) Migration
12 119 (6.70%) Vulnerability Remediation
13 118 (6.65%) Coaching
14 96 (5.41%) Kalman Filter
15 95 (5.35%) Identity Access Management
16 94 (5.30%) Web Filtering
17 93 (5.24%) Customer Experience
18 89 (5.01%) Asset Management
18 89 (5.01%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 299 (16.85%) PowerShell
2 125 (7.04%) SQL
3 80 (4.51%) Bash
4 51 (2.87%) Python
5 49 (2.76%) T-SQL
6 22 (1.24%) Perl
7 17 (0.96%) Shell Script
8 16 (0.90%) JavaScript
9 15 (0.85%) PL/SQL
10 13 (0.73%) Java
11 12 (0.68%) C#
12 11 (0.62%) R
13 8 (0.45%) VB
14 5 (0.28%) VBA
15 4 (0.23%) Bicep
16 2 (0.11%) C
16 2 (0.11%) PHP
16 2 (0.11%) TypeScript
17 1 (0.056%) Groovy
17 1 (0.056%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 235 (13.24%) Security Cleared
2 178 (10.03%) SC Cleared
3 160 (9.01%) Degree
4 159 (8.96%) Microsoft Certification
5 81 (4.56%) DV Cleared
6 46 (2.59%) DBS Check
7 43 (2.42%) Azure Certification
8 37 (2.08%) A+ Certification
8 37 (2.08%) Cisco Certification
9 35 (1.97%) Microsoft Certified Professional
10 31 (1.75%) CCNA
11 22 (1.24%) Network+ Certification
12 21 (1.18%) ITIL Certification
13 20 (1.13%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 18 (1.01%) HNC
14 18 (1.01%) MCSE
15 17 (0.96%) MCSA
16 14 (0.79%) HND
17 12 (0.68%) CCNP
17 12 (0.68%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 163 (9.18%) SLA
2 145 (8.17%) Cyber Essentials
3 91 (5.13%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 83 (4.68%) PCI DSS
5 52 (2.93%) NIST
6 41 (2.31%) GDPR
7 40 (2.25%) NCSC
8 26 (1.46%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 16 (0.90%) QA
10 9 (0.51%) Accessibility
10 9 (0.51%) Data Quality
11 5 (0.28%) GRC
11 5 (0.28%) PMO
12 4 (0.23%) 21 CFR Part 11
12 4 (0.23%) GxP
12 4 (0.23%) ISO 22301
12 4 (0.23%) ITGC
13 2 (0.11%) Disclosure Scotland
13 2 (0.11%) ISO 9001
13 2 (0.11%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 354 (19.94%) Hyper-V
2 248 (13.97%) VMware Infrastructure
3 75 (4.23%) Terminal Server
4 47 (2.65%) vSphere
5 39 (2.20%) VMware ESXi
6 35 (1.97%) Virtual Desktop
7 24 (1.35%) Virtual Machines
8 17 (0.96%) BitLocker
9 15 (0.85%) Docker
10 11 (0.62%) Firmware
10 11 (0.62%) VMware Workstation
11 10 (0.56%) VMware NSX
11 10 (0.56%) XenApp
12 6 (0.34%) DFS Replication
13 5 (0.28%) Virtual Servers
14 4 (0.23%) Terminal Services
15 3 (0.17%) Citrix Hypervisor
15 3 (0.17%) Lustre
15 3 (0.17%) Microsoft Virtual Server
15 3 (0.17%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 360 (20.28%) Microsoft Intune
2 135 (7.61%) SCCM
3 44 (2.48%) vCenter Server
4 43 (2.42%) Single Sign-On
5 37 (2.08%) Terraform
6 35 (1.97%) Jamf Pro
7 21 (1.18%) FortiGate
8 19 (1.07%) Ansible
9 18 (1.01%) Autotask
10 17 (0.96%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 16 (0.90%) WSUS
12 11 (0.62%) Kubernetes
12 11 (0.62%) SCOM
13 9 (0.51%) Backup Exec
13 9 (0.51%) ZABBIX
14 7 (0.39%) Proxmox
15 6 (0.34%) SmoothWall
15 6 (0.34%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
16 5 (0.28%) Nagios
16 5 (0.28%) SCVMM
Vendors
1 1,283 (72.28%) Microsoft
2 459 (25.86%) VMware
3 158 (8.90%) Veeam
4 110 (6.20%) SolarWinds
5 100 (5.63%) Nimble Storage
6 96 (5.41%) Apple
6 96 (5.41%) Cisco
7 92 (5.18%) Citrix
8 88 (4.96%) Splunk
9 82 (4.62%) Google
9 82 (4.62%) ServiceNow
10 73 (4.11%) Tanium
11 72 (4.06%) Brocade
12 66 (3.72%) HP
13 53 (2.99%) Dell
14 44 (2.48%) Oracle
15 36 (2.03%) Meraki
16 28 (1.58%) Dell Compellent
17 25 (1.41%) SonicWALL
18 22 (1.24%) CrowdStrike