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 17 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 34 36 22
Rank change year-on-year +2 -14 +25
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 1,907 2,342 2,736
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 5.25% 4.94% 8.95%
As % of the System Software category 59.45% 46.83% 49.57%
Number of salaries quoted 1,419 1,355 2,446
10th Percentile £26,250 £26,250 £25,225
25th Percentile £28,500 £30,000 £29,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £35,000 £40,000 £37,500
Median % change year-on-year -12.50% +6.67% +1.35%
75th Percentile £48,750 £53,300 £51,500
90th Percentile £63,750 £62,500 £61,250
UK median annual salary £37,500 £43,250 £41,500
% change year-on-year -13.29% +4.22% +1.22%

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 3,208 5,001 5,519
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 8.84% 10.55% 18.06%
Number of salaries quoted 2,284 2,754 4,564
10th Percentile £26,500 £28,125 £27,000
25th Percentile £30,500 £36,250 £33,210
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £50,000 £47,557
Median % change year-on-year -15.00% +5.14% -4.89%
75th Percentile £62,500 £65,000 £63,750
90th Percentile £77,500 £78,375 £78,750
UK median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -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 17 November 2025.

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 17 November 2025. 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 +7 501 £37,500 -16.67% 346
North of England -12 437 £32,500 -23.53% 153
Midlands +14 317 £35,000 -12.50% 148
South West +9 317 £33,000 -7.04% 123
Yorkshire -2 236 £30,500 -32.22% 58
East of England -7 215 £35,000 - 94
West Midlands -2 159 £47,500 +18.75% 81
East Midlands +21 158 £29,000 -17.14% 67
North West -17 140 £35,000 -14.36% 77
Scotland -25 80 £30,000 -25.00% 40
North East 0 61 £31,000 -13.89% 18
Wales +9 44 £35,000 +5.26% 17
Northern Ireland +10 12 £55,000 +4.76% 13
Channel Islands 0 1 £45,000 -10.00%
South Coast - 1 £59,000 -
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
1 587 (30.78%) Microsoft Exchange
2 316 (16.57%) SharePoint
3 39 (2.05%) IIS
4 32 (1.68%) Confluence
5 26 (1.36%) Exchange Server 2003
6 18 (0.94%) Skype for Business
7 6 (0.31%) CMS
7 6 (0.31%) Exchange Server 2013
7 6 (0.31%) Tomcat
8 4 (0.21%) Exchange Server 2007
8 4 (0.21%) Exchange Server 2010
9 3 (0.16%) Apache
9 3 (0.16%) WebLogic
9 3 (0.16%) WebLogic Portal
10 2 (0.10%) BizTalk Server
10 2 (0.10%) JOnAS
10 2 (0.10%) Office Communications Server
10 2 (0.10%) SharePoint Server
10 2 (0.10%) WinCC
10 2 (0.10%) WordPress
Applications
1 223 (11.69%) Microsoft Office
2 33 (1.73%) Microsoft Excel
3 8 (0.42%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.21%) AutoCAD
4 4 (0.21%) CATIA
5 2 (0.10%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.052%) Autodesk Inventor
6 1 (0.052%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.052%) SOLIDWORKS
6 1 (0.052%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 31 (1.63%) Dynamics CRM
2 14 (0.73%) Oracle ERP
3 6 (0.31%) Remedy ITSM
4 5 (0.26%) Sage 200
5 4 (0.21%) NetSuite
5 4 (0.21%) SAP Business One
5 4 (0.21%) Visualfiles
6 3 (0.16%) Dynamics NAV
6 3 (0.16%) Oracle EBS
6 3 (0.16%) Primavera
7 2 (0.10%) Magento
8 1 (0.052%) Cognos Business Intelligence
8 1 (0.052%) Dynamics AX
Cloud Services
1 1,294 (67.86%) Microsoft 365
2 997 (52.28%) Azure
3 546 (28.63%) Entra ID
4 158 (8.29%) AWS
5 101 (5.30%) OneDrive
6 70 (3.67%) SaaS
7 52 (2.73%) IaaS
8 49 (2.57%) Power Platform
9 46 (2.41%) PaaS
10 37 (1.94%) PowerApps
11 36 (1.89%) GCP
12 33 (1.73%) Google Workspace
13 32 (1.68%) Azure Logic Apps
14 31 (1.63%) Amazon EC2
15 29 (1.52%) Azure DevOps
16 27 (1.42%) Amazon CloudWatch
17 24 (1.26%) Amazon Glacier
17 24 (1.26%) Amazon S3
17 24 (1.26%) Mimecast
17 24 (1.26%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 663 (34.77%) DNS
2 604 (31.67%) DHCP
3 540 (28.32%) Firewall
4 291 (15.26%) TCP/IP
5 242 (12.69%) VPN
6 187 (9.81%) VLAN
7 173 (9.07%) LAN
8 172 (9.02%) WAN
9 136 (7.13%) Wi-Fi
10 98 (5.14%) Wireless
11 96 (5.03%) SAN
12 88 (4.61%) VoIP
13 55 (2.88%) Remote Desktop
14 40 (2.10%) Internet
15 30 (1.57%) Network Security
16 29 (1.52%) SD-WAN
16 29 (1.52%) SMTP
17 21 (1.10%) SSL
18 19 (1.00%) iSCSI
19 18 (0.94%) Kerberos
Database & Business Intelligence
1 148 (7.76%) Amazon RDS
2 92 (4.82%) SQL Server
3 29 (1.52%) Oracle Database
4 26 (1.36%) Oracle Database 10g
5 14 (0.73%) Power BI
6 13 (0.68%) MySQL
7 12 (0.63%) Azure SQL Database
8 9 (0.47%) DTS
8 9 (0.47%) PostgreSQL
9 6 (0.31%) Relational Database
9 6 (0.31%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 6 (0.31%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 3 (0.16%) Data Mining
10 3 (0.16%) Data Warehouse
10 3 (0.16%) Oracle Discoverer
10 3 (0.16%) Oracle Reports
11 2 (0.10%) NoSQL
12 1 (0.052%) Cognos Connection
12 1 (0.052%) Cognos Event Studio
12 1 (0.052%) Cognos Framework Manager
Development Applications
1 69 (3.62%) JIRA
2 47 (2.46%) Git
3 45 (2.36%) Jenkins
4 24 (1.26%) Vagrant
5 17 (0.89%) Oracle Forms
6 5 (0.26%) GitLab
6 5 (0.26%) Sonatype Nexus
7 3 (0.16%) Oracle APEX
8 2 (0.10%) Octopus Deploy
8 2 (0.10%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
8 2 (0.10%) Subversion
8 2 (0.10%) TeamCity
8 2 (0.10%) Visual Studio
9 1 (0.052%) Artifactory
General
1 902 (47.30%) Social Skills
2 195 (10.23%) Analytical Skills
3 115 (6.03%) Manufacturing
4 112 (5.87%) Finance
5 96 (5.03%) Organisational Skills
6 71 (3.72%) Retail
7 70 (3.67%) Law
8 51 (2.67%) Documentation Skills
9 50 (2.62%) Public Sector
10 49 (2.57%) Advertising
11 41 (2.15%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 38 (1.99%) Legal
13 35 (1.84%) Telecoms
14 18 (0.94%) Marketing
15 17 (0.89%) Aerospace
16 15 (0.79%) French Language
16 15 (0.79%) Swedish Language
17 13 (0.68%) Pharmaceutical
18 11 (0.58%) Automotive
19 10 (0.52%) Games
Job Titles
1 619 (32.46%) IT Support
2 432 (22.65%) Support Engineer
3 323 (16.94%) IT Engineer
4 305 (15.99%) Analyst
5 230 (12.06%) IT Support Engineer
6 222 (11.64%) Support Analyst
7 208 (10.91%) 2nd Line Support
8 200 (10.49%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 164 (8.60%) IT Analyst
10 138 (7.24%) Support Technician
11 137 (7.18%) Technical Support
12 134 (7.03%) Systems Engineer
13 129 (6.76%) IT Support Analyst
14 121 (6.35%) Senior
15 120 (6.29%) 3rd Line Support
16 110 (5.77%) IT Technician
17 103 (5.40%) 1st Line Support
18 86 (4.51%) Infrastructure Support
19 84 (4.40%) IT Support Technician
20 73 (3.83%) Technical Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (1.57%) LDAP
2 25 (1.31%) .NET
3 20 (1.05%) SOAP
4 17 (0.89%) RESTful
5 15 (0.79%) ARM Templates
5 15 (0.79%) JSON
5 15 (0.79%) XML
6 13 (0.68%) SAML
7 12 (0.63%) React
8 11 (0.58%) EDI
8 11 (0.58%) OAuth
8 11 (0.58%) OpenID
9 10 (0.52%) CSS
9 10 (0.52%) HTML
10 9 (0.47%) .NET Framework
10 9 (0.47%) Web Services
11 6 (0.31%) 802.1X
11 6 (0.31%) OAuth2
11 6 (0.31%) REST
12 5 (0.26%) Microsoft Graph
Miscellaneous
1 259 (13.58%) Driving Licence
2 185 (9.70%) Onboarding
3 96 (5.03%) Legacy Systems
4 82 (4.30%) Self-Motivation
5 65 (3.41%) Operational Technology
6 54 (2.83%) Data Centre
7 46 (2.41%) Enterprise Software
8 42 (2.20%) PKI
9 41 (2.15%) Management Information System
10 36 (1.89%) Cloud Native
11 30 (1.57%) Replication
12 27 (1.42%) Hybrid Cloud
13 23 (1.21%) Clustering
14 17 (0.89%) Product Ownership
15 16 (0.84%) Analytical Mindset
15 16 (0.84%) Client/Server
15 16 (0.84%) Security Posture
15 16 (0.84%) Video Conferencing
16 14 (0.73%) Cyber Threat
16 14 (0.73%) FMCG
Operating Systems
1 1,429 (74.93%) Windows
2 838 (43.94%) Windows Server
3 292 (15.31%) Windows 10
4 251 (13.16%) Linux
5 158 (8.29%) Windows Server 2016
6 130 (6.82%) Windows Server 2019
7 125 (6.55%) Mac OS
8 66 (3.46%) Apple iOS
9 49 (2.57%) Android
10 41 (2.15%) Unix
10 41 (2.15%) VMS
11 35 (1.84%) Windows Server 2008
12 32 (1.68%) Windows 7
13 28 (1.47%) Windows Server 2003
14 26 (1.36%) Solaris
15 25 (1.31%) HPUX
15 25 (1.31%) Windows Server 2012
16 22 (1.15%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
17 13 (0.68%) Amazon Linux
18 8 (0.42%) Rocky
Processes & Methodologies
1 649 (34.03%) Problem-Solving
2 563 (29.52%) Customer Service
3 351 (18.41%) ITIL
4 295 (15.47%) Cybersecurity
5 256 (13.42%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 191 (10.02%) Continuous Improvement
7 186 (9.75%) Mentoring
8 167 (8.76%) Migration
9 161 (8.44%) ITSM
10 120 (6.29%) Incident Management
11 114 (5.98%) Kalman Filter
12 110 (5.77%) Service Delivery
13 107 (5.61%) Web Filtering
14 101 (5.30%) Disaster Recovery
15 98 (5.14%) Customer Experience
15 98 (5.14%) DevOps
16 97 (5.09%) Vulnerability Remediation
17 95 (4.98%) Email Filtering
18 91 (4.77%) Vulnerability Scanning
19 89 (4.67%) Coaching
Programming Languages
1 321 (16.83%) PowerShell
2 143 (7.50%) SQL
3 71 (3.72%) Python
4 35 (1.84%) Perl
5 34 (1.78%) Bash
6 30 (1.57%) Java
7 28 (1.47%) Groovy
8 18 (0.94%) VB
9 17 (0.89%) PL/SQL
10 16 (0.84%) JavaScript
10 16 (0.84%) Shell Script
11 13 (0.68%) C#
12 11 (0.58%) Bicep
13 8 (0.42%) Korn
14 7 (0.37%) T-SQL
15 6 (0.31%) VBA
16 2 (0.10%) Go
16 2 (0.10%) TypeScript
17 1 (0.052%) VB.NET
17 1 (0.052%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 261 (13.69%) Security Cleared
2 221 (11.59%) SC Cleared
3 189 (9.91%) Microsoft Certification
4 182 (9.54%) Degree
5 72 (3.78%) DV Cleared
6 56 (2.94%) A+ Certification
7 52 (2.73%) Azure Certification
8 48 (2.52%) Cisco Certification
9 42 (2.20%) CCNA
9 42 (2.20%) DBS Check
10 37 (1.94%) Network+ Certification
11 33 (1.73%) MCP
11 33 (1.73%) MCSE
12 24 (1.26%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 22 (1.15%) MCSA
14 19 (1.00%) AWS Certification
14 19 (1.00%) ITIL Certification
15 17 (0.89%) HND
16 16 (0.84%) BPSS Clearance
17 15 (0.79%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 126 (6.61%) Cyber Essentials
2 120 (6.29%) SLA
3 96 (5.03%) PCI DSS
4 67 (3.51%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 63 (3.30%) GDPR
6 20 (1.05%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 16 (0.84%) NIST
8 7 (0.37%) GxP
8 7 (0.37%) NCSC
9 6 (0.31%) QA
10 5 (0.26%) 21 CFR Part 11
11 4 (0.21%) Accessibility
11 4 (0.21%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 2 (0.10%) Disclosure Scotland
13 1 (0.052%) HIPAA
13 1 (0.052%) IASME
13 1 (0.052%) ISO 22301
System Software
1 396 (20.77%) Hyper-V
2 286 (15.00%) VMware Infrastructure
3 93 (4.88%) Terminal Server
4 72 (3.78%) Virtual Servers
5 52 (2.73%) vSphere
6 51 (2.67%) Virtual Desktop
7 39 (2.05%) Docker
8 34 (1.78%) VMware ESXi
9 33 (1.73%) Virtual Machines
10 17 (0.89%) Firmware
11 15 (0.79%) DFS Replication
12 10 (0.52%) XenApp
13 8 (0.42%) Citrix Hypervisor
14 7 (0.37%) Terminal Services
15 4 (0.21%) Microsoft Virtual Server
15 4 (0.21%) VMware Workstation
16 2 (0.10%) BitLocker
16 2 (0.10%) ISA Server
16 2 (0.10%) VMware NSX
17 1 (0.052%) KVM
Systems Management
1 447 (23.44%) Microsoft Intune
2 156 (8.18%) SCCM
3 70 (3.67%) Terraform
4 36 (1.89%) Ansible
4 36 (1.89%) WSUS
5 35 (1.84%) Kubernetes
6 30 (1.57%) Single Sign-On
7 28 (1.47%) Prometheus
7 28 (1.47%) vCenter Server
8 27 (1.42%) Autotask
9 24 (1.26%) Grafana
10 23 (1.21%) SCOM
11 20 (1.05%) FortiGate
12 18 (0.94%) Jamf Pro
13 13 (0.68%) Nagios
13 13 (0.68%) ZABBIX
14 11 (0.58%) Failover Clustering
15 8 (0.42%) PaperCut
16 7 (0.37%) Active Directory Federation Services
17 5 (0.26%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
Vendors
1 1,417 (74.31%) Microsoft
2 500 (26.22%) VMware
3 182 (9.54%) Veeam
4 170 (8.91%) Cisco
5 120 (6.29%) SolarWinds
6 97 (5.09%) Splunk
6 97 (5.09%) Tanium
7 94 (4.93%) Nimble Storage
8 89 (4.67%) Apple
9 88 (4.61%) Brocade
10 87 (4.56%) ServiceNow
11 65 (3.41%) Citrix
12 56 (2.94%) Google
13 52 (2.73%) Meraki
14 51 (2.67%) Oracle
15 47 (2.46%) HP
16 40 (2.10%) Dell
17 39 (2.05%) SonicWALL
17 39 (2.05%) Sophos
18 33 (1.73%) Red Hat