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

6 months to
4 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 55 41 35
Rank change year-on-year -14 -6 -2
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 2,151 1,873 3,219
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 2.86% 5.44% 5.36%
As % of the System Software category 50.95% 42.67% 51.84%
Number of salaries quoted 1,661 1,494 2,449
10th Percentile £26,750 £26,000 £24,700
25th Percentile £29,500 £28,500 £28,290
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £37,500 £35,000 £37,500
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% -6.67% +1.35%
75th Percentile £50,000 £47,938 £50,000
90th Percentile £65,000 £61,250 £59,750
UK median annual salary £40,000 £37,500 £40,000
% change year-on-year +6.67% -6.25% -

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 4,222 4,390 6,210
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 5.62% 12.76% 10.34%
Number of salaries quoted 3,200 2,571 4,641
10th Percentile £28,250 £26,500 £26,250
25th Percentile £33,500 £31,250 £32,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £45,000 £46,000
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% -2.17% -4.17%
75th Percentile £65,313 £63,750 £60,918
90th Percentile £80,000 £77,500 £73,750
UK median annual salary £54,624 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +9.25% - -9.91%

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 4 August 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 4 August 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 -5 510 £42,500 +6.25% 166
North of England -14 500 £34,000 +6.25% 134
Midlands -30 368 £37,500 +7.14% 86
South West -18 289 £37,500 +8.70% 67
North West +53 262 £35,000 - 75
East of England +1 237 £35,000 +4.48% 59
East Midlands -1 196 £37,500 +19.05% 43
Yorkshire -30 180 £31,000 +3.33% 44
West Midlands -46 172 £42,500 +10.39% 43
Scotland +74 109 £30,000 -3.23% 20
Wales -8 73 £42,500 +11.57% 11
Northern Ireland -14 67 £39,500 -28.18% 10
North East -53 58 £40,000 +25.00% 22
Isle of Man +2 4 £45,000 +30.43%
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
1 632 (29.38%) Microsoft Exchange
2 452 (21.01%) SharePoint
3 47 (2.19%) IIS
4 17 (0.79%) Confluence
5 11 (0.51%) Skype for Business
6 7 (0.33%) Apache
6 7 (0.33%) Exchange Server 2013
7 5 (0.23%) Exchange Server 2007
7 5 (0.23%) Exchange Server 2010
8 3 (0.14%) CMS
8 3 (0.14%) SAS
9 2 (0.093%) nginx
10 1 (0.046%) Drupal
10 1 (0.046%) HCL Domino
10 1 (0.046%) HCL Notes
10 1 (0.046%) Site Server
10 1 (0.046%) WordPress
Applications
1 176 (8.18%) Microsoft Office
2 45 (2.09%) Microsoft Excel
3 16 (0.74%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.19%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 3 (0.14%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.093%) MS Visio
7 1 (0.046%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.046%) Revit
Business Applications
1 16 (0.74%) Dynamics CRM
2 11 (0.51%) Dynamics NAV
3 9 (0.42%) Remedy ITSM
4 6 (0.28%) Raiser’s Edge
5 5 (0.23%) JDE EnterpriseOne
5 5 (0.23%) NetSuite
6 4 (0.19%) Exchequer
6 4 (0.19%) Primavera
7 3 (0.14%) Dynamics GP
7 3 (0.14%) Payment Gateway
7 3 (0.14%) Salesforce CRM
7 3 (0.14%) Shopify
8 2 (0.093%) Sage 200
8 2 (0.093%) SAP S/4HANA
9 1 (0.046%) Dynamics AX
9 1 (0.046%) Magento
9 1 (0.046%) Oracle Payables
9 1 (0.046%) Sage 50
9 1 (0.046%) SAP EHS
9 1 (0.046%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 1,492 (69.36%) Microsoft 365
2 1,209 (56.21%) Azure
3 922 (42.86%) Entra ID
4 164 (7.62%) AWS
5 153 (7.11%) OneDrive
6 106 (4.93%) SaaS
7 78 (3.63%) Power Platform
8 66 (3.07%) IaaS
9 61 (2.84%) Mimecast
10 53 (2.46%) PaaS
11 46 (2.14%) Azure DevOps
12 39 (1.81%) Microsoft Purview
13 37 (1.72%) Azure Sentinel
14 30 (1.39%) Google Workspace
15 29 (1.35%) Serverless
16 28 (1.30%) Azure Monitor
17 27 (1.26%) Power Automate
18 25 (1.16%) GCP
18 25 (1.16%) Nutanix
19 24 (1.12%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 702 (32.64%) DNS
2 584 (27.15%) DHCP
3 524 (24.36%) Firewall
4 361 (16.78%) VPN
5 254 (11.81%) TCP/IP
6 213 (9.90%) WAN
7 208 (9.67%) Wi-Fi
8 207 (9.62%) LAN
9 198 (9.21%) VLAN
10 132 (6.14%) VoIP
11 131 (6.09%) Wireless
12 85 (3.95%) Network Security
13 82 (3.81%) SAN
14 52 (2.42%) Remote Desktop
15 30 (1.39%) NAS
16 29 (1.35%) Internet
17 26 (1.21%) SSL
18 17 (0.79%) SD-WAN
18 17 (0.79%) WLAN
19 15 (0.70%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 109 (5.07%) SQL Server
2 99 (4.60%) Amazon RDS
3 35 (1.63%) Power BI
4 32 (1.49%) Azure SQL Database
5 24 (1.12%) PostgreSQL
6 23 (1.07%) MySQL
7 6 (0.28%) Crystal Reports
8 5 (0.23%) Relational Database
8 5 (0.23%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 4 (0.19%) Data Warehouse
9 4 (0.19%) Neo4j
9 4 (0.19%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 3 (0.14%) GIS
10 3 (0.14%) Oracle Database
11 2 (0.093%) BusinessObjects
11 2 (0.093%) Data Lake
11 2 (0.093%) KNIME
12 1 (0.046%) Geospatial Data
12 1 (0.046%) InterSystems Cache
12 1 (0.046%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 75 (3.49%) JIRA
2 27 (1.26%) Git
3 8 (0.37%) Jenkins
4 7 (0.33%) GitLab
5 5 (0.23%) Bitbucket
6 3 (0.14%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 2 (0.093%) Artifactory
7 2 (0.093%) Burp Suite
7 2 (0.093%) Metasploit
7 2 (0.093%) NUnit
7 2 (0.093%) Terragrunt
8 1 (0.046%) Atlassian Bamboo
8 1 (0.046%) Carbide.c++
8 1 (0.046%) Gatling
8 1 (0.046%) git-flow
8 1 (0.046%) JMeter
8 1 (0.046%) Selenium
8 1 (0.046%) Sonatype Nexus
8 1 (0.046%) Subversion
8 1 (0.046%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 965 (44.86%) Social Skills
2 246 (11.44%) Analytical Skills
3 141 (6.56%) Legal
4 127 (5.90%) Finance
5 92 (4.28%) Organisational Skills
6 91 (4.23%) Law
7 74 (3.44%) Manufacturing
8 72 (3.35%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 62 (2.88%) Public Sector
10 56 (2.60%) Retail
11 48 (2.23%) Telecoms
12 46 (2.14%) Documentation Skills
13 29 (1.35%) Advertising
14 23 (1.07%) Aerospace
15 17 (0.79%) Local Government
16 13 (0.60%) Automotive
17 10 (0.46%) Games
18 9 (0.42%) Influencing Skills
19 6 (0.28%) Banking
19 6 (0.28%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 791 (36.77%) IT Support
2 545 (25.34%) Support Engineer
3 510 (23.71%) IT Engineer
4 426 (19.80%) IT Support Engineer
5 347 (16.13%) Analyst
6 252 (11.72%) Senior
7 222 (10.32%) Support Analyst
8 205 (9.53%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 200 (9.30%) Support Technician
10 197 (9.16%) IT Technician
11 175 (8.14%) IT Support Technician
12 158 (7.35%) Systems Engineer
13 151 (7.02%) 2nd Line Support
14 145 (6.74%) IT Analyst
15 129 (6.00%) IT Support Analyst
16 92 (4.28%) 2nd Line Engineer
17 88 (4.09%) Architect
18 83 (3.86%) 3rd Line Support
18 83 (3.86%) Administrator
19 77 (3.58%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 42 (1.95%) LDAP
2 27 (1.26%) SAML
3 23 (1.07%) OpenID
3 23 (1.07%) Regular Expression
4 21 (0.98%) OAuth
5 19 (0.88%) XMPP
6 13 (0.60%) REST
7 11 (0.51%) .NET
7 11 (0.51%) ARM Templates
7 11 (0.51%) Microsoft Graph
8 10 (0.46%) JSON
8 10 (0.46%) XML
9 9 (0.42%) HTML
10 7 (0.33%) JSON Schema
10 7 (0.33%) OAuth2
10 7 (0.33%) Web Services
11 6 (0.28%) GraphQL
11 6 (0.28%) Middleware
11 6 (0.28%) ModSecurity
11 6 (0.28%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 302 (14.04%) Driving Licence
2 176 (8.18%) Onboarding
3 124 (5.76%) Self-Motivation
4 95 (4.42%) Legacy Systems
5 87 (4.04%) Hybrid Cloud
6 71 (3.30%) Data Centre
7 65 (3.02%) Management Information System
8 50 (2.32%) PKI
9 47 (2.19%) Clustering
10 39 (1.81%) Public Cloud
11 38 (1.77%) Enterprise Software
12 37 (1.72%) Cloud Native
12 37 (1.72%) Security Posture
13 34 (1.58%) Replication
14 33 (1.53%) CCTV
15 16 (0.74%) Client/Server
15 16 (0.74%) Enterprise Storage
16 14 (0.65%) CMDB
16 14 (0.65%) iPhone
16 14 (0.65%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 1,542 (71.69%) Windows
2 898 (41.75%) Windows Server
3 306 (14.23%) Windows 10
4 277 (12.88%) Linux
5 160 (7.44%) Windows Server 2016
6 151 (7.02%) Mac OS
7 86 (4.00%) Windows Server 2019
8 78 (3.63%) Apple iOS
9 67 (3.11%) Android
10 44 (2.05%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 23 (1.07%) VMS
12 20 (0.93%) Windows Server 2012
13 15 (0.70%) Ubuntu
14 10 (0.46%) Windows 7
15 8 (0.37%) CentOS
15 8 (0.37%) Windows Server 2008
16 5 (0.23%) CoreOS
16 5 (0.23%) Debian
17 4 (0.19%) Mac OS X
17 4 (0.19%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 722 (33.57%) Problem-Solving
2 531 (24.69%) Customer Service
3 502 (23.34%) ITIL
4 417 (19.39%) Continuous Improvement
5 405 (18.83%) Cybersecurity
6 321 (14.92%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 264 (12.27%) Mentoring
8 249 (11.58%) Disaster Recovery
9 205 (9.53%) ITSM
10 181 (8.41%) Service Delivery
11 175 (8.14%) Project Delivery
12 160 (7.44%) Identity Access Management
13 154 (7.16%) Migration
14 136 (6.32%) Customer Experience
15 130 (6.04%) Vulnerability Remediation
16 123 (5.72%) Collaborative Working
16 123 (5.72%) Service Management
17 121 (5.63%) Kalman Filter
17 121 (5.63%) Stakeholder Engagement
18 118 (5.49%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 329 (15.30%) PowerShell
2 196 (9.11%) SQL
3 68 (3.16%) Python
4 62 (2.88%) Bash
5 45 (2.09%) Bicep
6 28 (1.30%) R
7 12 (0.56%) Kusto Query Language
7 12 (0.56%) VBA
8 11 (0.51%) T-SQL
9 9 (0.42%) C#
9 9 (0.42%) Ruby
10 7 (0.33%) Shell Script
11 6 (0.28%) Java
11 6 (0.28%) Korn
12 5 (0.23%) PHP
13 2 (0.093%) C
13 2 (0.093%) JavaScript
13 2 (0.093%) VB
13 2 (0.093%) VB.NET
13 2 (0.093%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 299 (13.90%) Security Cleared
2 210 (9.76%) SC Cleared
3 205 (9.53%) Degree
4 180 (8.37%) Microsoft Certification
5 106 (4.93%) Azure Certification
6 94 (4.37%) DV Cleared
7 91 (4.23%) A+ Certification
8 90 (4.18%) Network+ Certification
9 66 (3.07%) CISM
9 66 (3.07%) CISSP
10 60 (2.79%) Cisco Certification
11 57 (2.65%) DBS Check
12 54 (2.51%) CCNA
13 28 (1.30%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 24 (1.12%) Microsoft Certified Professional
15 23 (1.07%) Computer Science Degree
16 20 (0.93%) MCSA
17 17 (0.79%) AWS Certification
17 17 (0.79%) CompTIA Security+
18 14 (0.65%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 217 (10.09%) Cyber Essentials
2 171 (7.95%) SLA
3 126 (5.86%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 96 (4.46%) PCI DSS
5 50 (2.32%) GDPR
6 47 (2.19%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 29 (1.35%) NIST
8 21 (0.98%) QA
9 16 (0.74%) Data Quality
10 13 (0.60%) NCSC
11 10 (0.46%) Accessibility
12 6 (0.28%) SOC 2
13 4 (0.19%) GRC
14 3 (0.14%) ISAE 3402
14 3 (0.14%) ITGC
14 3 (0.14%) PMO
15 2 (0.093%) 21 CFR Part 11
15 2 (0.093%) GxP
15 2 (0.093%) Sarbanes-Oxley
16 1 (0.046%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 505 (23.48%) Hyper-V
2 377 (17.53%) VMware Infrastructure
3 93 (4.32%) vSphere
4 81 (3.77%) Terminal Server
5 63 (2.93%) Virtual Desktop
6 52 (2.42%) Virtual Machines
7 43 (2.00%) VMware ESXi
8 37 (1.72%) Docker
9 17 (0.79%) Firmware
10 16 (0.74%) Virtual Servers
11 14 (0.65%) VMware NSX
12 12 (0.56%) Microsoft Virtual Server
13 10 (0.46%) BitLocker
14 9 (0.42%) Citrix Hypervisor
15 7 (0.33%) DFS Replication
16 5 (0.23%) NDS
16 5 (0.23%) XenApp
17 4 (0.19%) Squid
17 4 (0.19%) VMware Workstation
18 3 (0.14%) VMware Server
Systems Management
1 558 (25.94%) Microsoft Intune
2 107 (4.97%) SCCM
3 66 (3.07%) Terraform
4 43 (2.00%) Single Sign-On
5 32 (1.49%) Ansible
6 31 (1.44%) Kubernetes
7 30 (1.39%) FortiGate
7 30 (1.39%) Jamf Pro
8 26 (1.21%) vCenter Server
8 26 (1.21%) WSUS
9 20 (0.93%) Proxmox
10 18 (0.84%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
11 15 (0.70%) Failover Clustering
12 14 (0.65%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 14 (0.65%) ZABBIX
13 11 (0.51%) Microsoft Clustering
14 9 (0.42%) SCOM
15 6 (0.28%) Autotask
15 6 (0.28%) Grafana
15 6 (0.28%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 1,736 (80.71%) Microsoft
2 563 (26.17%) VMware
3 199 (9.25%) Veeam
4 155 (7.21%) Cisco
5 104 (4.83%) SolarWinds
6 95 (4.42%) Splunk
7 93 (4.32%) Nimble Storage
8 80 (3.72%) Brocade
8 80 (3.72%) Tanium
9 76 (3.53%) Meraki
10 75 (3.49%) Apple
11 73 (3.39%) Citrix
12 71 (3.30%) CyberArk
13 70 (3.25%) ServiceNow
14 59 (2.74%) HP
15 56 (2.60%) Dell
16 44 (2.05%) SonicWALL
17 42 (1.95%) Fortinet
17 42 (1.95%) Red Hat
18 40 (1.86%) Google