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 27 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
27 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 65 45 32
Rank change year-on-year -20 -13 +11
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 1,785 1,526 4,389
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 2.65% 5.39% 6.18%
As % of the System Software category 54.52% 39.04% 50.78%
Number of salaries quoted 1,367 1,173 3,660
10th Percentile £26,325 £25,750 £23,500
25th Percentile £29,000 £27,750 £26,700
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £35,000 £35,000 £35,000
Median % change year-on-year - - -5.07%
75th Percentile £47,500 £47,500 £47,500
90th Percentile £63,400 £58,750 £57,500
UK median annual salary £39,500 £39,000 £37,500
% change year-on-year +1.28% +4.00% -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 3,274 3,909 8,644
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 4.87% 13.80% 12.17%
Number of salaries quoted 2,446 2,257 6,997
10th Percentile £27,750 £26,500 £25,500
25th Percentile £31,525 £31,250 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £46,500 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -3.23% +3.33% -5.26%
75th Percentile £64,750 £67,500 £60,000
90th Percentile £77,500 £83,750 £73,250
UK median annual salary £52,500 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -4.55% +10.00% -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 27 May 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 27 May 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
North of England -7 442 £35,000 +12.90% 96
South East +1 421 £40,000 - 144
Midlands -43 301 £33,500 +3.08% 67
South West -5 245 £35,000 +7.69% 52
North West +46 224 £37,500 - 51
East of England -5 198 £35,000 +7.64% 56
Yorkshire -35 180 £32,500 +8.33% 34
East Midlands -9 158 £32,500 +3.17% 33
West Midlands -61 142 £35,000 - 34
Scotland +65 106 £30,500 -39.00% 13
Wales -5 50 £45,000 +18.13% 12
North East -45 38 £40,000 +25.00% 14
Northern Ireland -26 16 £32,000 -37.56% 2
Isle of Man +2 6 £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
1 463 (25.94%) Microsoft Exchange
2 363 (20.34%) SharePoint
3 28 (1.57%) IIS
4 16 (0.90%) Confluence
5 11 (0.62%) Exchange Server 2013
6 9 (0.50%) Exchange Server 2007
6 9 (0.50%) Exchange Server 2010
7 5 (0.28%) Skype for Business
8 4 (0.22%) Apache
8 4 (0.22%) CMS
9 3 (0.17%) SAS
10 1 (0.056%) Drupal
10 1 (0.056%) nginx
10 1 (0.056%) WordPress
Applications
1 212 (11.88%) Microsoft Office
2 41 (2.30%) Microsoft Excel
3 10 (0.56%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.17%) Adobe Creative Suite
4 3 (0.17%) Spreadsheet
5 2 (0.11%) AutoCAD
6 1 (0.056%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 18 (1.01%) Dynamics CRM
2 13 (0.73%) Dynamics NAV
3 7 (0.39%) NetSuite
4 5 (0.28%) Oracle ERP
4 5 (0.28%) Remedy ITSM
5 4 (0.22%) Dynamics GP
5 4 (0.22%) Exchequer
5 4 (0.22%) Markit EDM
5 4 (0.22%) Primavera
6 3 (0.17%) Salesforce CRM
7 2 (0.11%) Alphatax
7 2 (0.11%) SAP S/4HANA
8 1 (0.056%) Dynamics AX
8 1 (0.056%) Magento
8 1 (0.056%) Oracle Payables
8 1 (0.056%) Sage 200
8 1 (0.056%) SAP EHS
8 1 (0.056%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 1,251 (70.08%) Microsoft 365
2 959 (53.73%) Azure
3 666 (37.31%) Entra ID
4 140 (7.84%) AWS
5 138 (7.73%) OneDrive
6 89 (4.99%) Google Workspace
6 89 (4.99%) Power Platform
7 87 (4.87%) SaaS
8 47 (2.63%) IaaS
9 40 (2.24%) PaaS
10 38 (2.13%) Mimecast
11 36 (2.02%) Nutanix
12 32 (1.79%) Azure DevOps
13 26 (1.46%) PowerApps
14 23 (1.29%) Azure Sentinel
14 23 (1.29%) Microsoft Purview
15 21 (1.18%) Azure Monitor
15 21 (1.18%) Dynamics 365
16 16 (0.90%) Power Automate
17 14 (0.78%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 579 (32.44%) DNS
2 493 (27.62%) DHCP
3 442 (24.76%) Firewall
4 282 (15.80%) VPN
5 191 (10.70%) WAN
6 186 (10.42%) LAN
7 180 (10.08%) TCP/IP
8 168 (9.41%) Wi-Fi
9 151 (8.46%) VLAN
10 100 (5.60%) VoIP
11 81 (4.54%) Wireless
12 66 (3.70%) Network Security
13 62 (3.47%) SAN
14 59 (3.31%) Remote Desktop
15 43 (2.41%) Broadband
16 28 (1.57%) NAS
17 21 (1.18%) SD-WAN
18 20 (1.12%) Internet
19 15 (0.84%) Unified Communications
20 13 (0.73%) NetScaler
Database & Business Intelligence
1 99 (5.55%) SQL Server
2 76 (4.26%) Amazon RDS
3 45 (2.52%) Power BI
4 30 (1.68%) PostgreSQL
5 24 (1.34%) MySQL
6 12 (0.67%) Azure SQL Database
7 8 (0.45%) GIS
7 8 (0.45%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 5 (0.28%) Data Warehouse
8 5 (0.28%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 4 (0.22%) Crystal Reports
10 3 (0.17%) Neo4j
11 2 (0.11%) Relational Database
12 1 (0.056%) Data Lake
12 1 (0.056%) InterSystems Cache
12 1 (0.056%) KNIME
12 1 (0.056%) Metadata
12 1 (0.056%) NoSQL
12 1 (0.056%) RDBMS
12 1 (0.056%) Redis
Development Applications
1 75 (4.20%) JIRA
2 10 (0.56%) GitLab
3 8 (0.45%) Git
3 8 (0.45%) Jenkins
4 5 (0.28%) Oracle Forms
4 5 (0.28%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
5 4 (0.22%) LabVIEW
6 3 (0.17%) Bitbucket
6 3 (0.17%) Burp Suite
6 3 (0.17%) Metasploit
6 3 (0.17%) Subversion
7 2 (0.11%) Terragrunt
8 1 (0.056%) Gatling
8 1 (0.056%) JMeter
8 1 (0.056%) Vagrant
General
1 750 (42.02%) Social Skills
2 184 (10.31%) Analytical Skills
3 139 (7.79%) Organisational Skills
4 122 (6.83%) Finance
5 66 (3.70%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 64 (3.59%) Manufacturing
7 61 (3.42%) Legal
8 53 (2.97%) Documentation Skills
9 51 (2.86%) Public Sector
10 49 (2.75%) Law
11 45 (2.52%) Retail
12 37 (2.07%) Games
13 31 (1.74%) Advertising
14 30 (1.68%) Telecoms
15 19 (1.06%) Local Government
16 11 (0.62%) Marketing
17 10 (0.56%) Aerospace
18 9 (0.50%) Automotive
18 9 (0.50%) Influencing Skills
19 4 (0.22%) Police
Job Titles
1 678 (37.98%) IT Support
2 471 (26.39%) Support Engineer
3 417 (23.36%) IT Engineer
4 350 (19.61%) IT Support Engineer
5 280 (15.69%) Analyst
6 191 (10.70%) Support Analyst
7 174 (9.75%) Senior
8 173 (9.69%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 173 (9.69%) Support Technician
9 152 (8.52%) 2nd Line Support
9 152 (8.52%) IT Technician
10 137 (7.68%) IT Support Technician
11 127 (7.11%) IT Analyst
12 115 (6.44%) Systems Engineer
13 111 (6.22%) IT Support Analyst
14 89 (4.99%) 2nd Line Engineer
15 77 (4.31%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
16 70 (3.92%) 1st Line Support
16 70 (3.92%) Architect
17 69 (3.87%) Lead
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 50 (2.80%) LDAP
2 48 (2.69%) SAML
3 43 (2.41%) OpenID
4 42 (2.35%) OAuth
5 40 (2.24%) REST
5 40 (2.24%) SOAP
6 35 (1.96%) GraphQL
7 17 (0.95%) JSON
7 17 (0.95%) Regular Expression
7 17 (0.95%) XML
8 13 (0.73%) XMPP
9 8 (0.45%) Microsoft Graph
10 7 (0.39%) RESTful
11 6 (0.34%) .NET
11 6 (0.34%) ARM Templates
12 5 (0.28%) FreeSWITCH
12 5 (0.28%) Middleware
12 5 (0.28%) OAuth2
12 5 (0.28%) Web Services
13 4 (0.22%) JSON Schema
Miscellaneous
1 240 (13.45%) Driving Licence
2 116 (6.50%) Onboarding
3 79 (4.43%) Self-Motivation
4 67 (3.75%) Hybrid Cloud
5 66 (3.70%) Legacy Systems
6 53 (2.97%) Data Centre
6 53 (2.97%) Management Information System
7 38 (2.13%) Cyberattack
8 37 (2.07%) Enterprise Software
8 37 (2.07%) Replication
9 36 (2.02%) Cyber Threat
9 36 (2.02%) Public Cloud
10 30 (1.68%) Clustering
11 29 (1.62%) Cloud Native
12 27 (1.51%) PKI
13 18 (1.01%) CCTV
14 16 (0.90%) Client/Server
15 15 (0.84%) CMDB
15 15 (0.84%) Data Structures
15 15 (0.84%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 1,272 (71.26%) Windows
2 747 (41.85%) Windows Server
3 287 (16.08%) Windows 10
4 221 (12.38%) Linux
5 129 (7.23%) Windows Server 2016
6 103 (5.77%) Mac OS
7 79 (4.43%) Apple iOS
8 74 (4.15%) Windows Server 2019
9 70 (3.92%) Android
10 34 (1.90%) Windows Server 2012
11 33 (1.85%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 13 (0.73%) VMS
12 13 (0.73%) Windows 7
13 12 (0.67%) Windows Server 2008
14 7 (0.39%) Windows 8
15 6 (0.34%) Ubuntu
16 5 (0.28%) CentOS
16 5 (0.28%) Debian
17 4 (0.22%) Mac OS X
17 4 (0.22%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 589 (33.00%) Problem-Solving
2 450 (25.21%) Customer Service
3 414 (23.19%) ITIL
4 284 (15.91%) Cybersecurity
5 250 (14.01%) Continuous Improvement
6 225 (12.61%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 185 (10.36%) Mentoring
8 171 (9.58%) Disaster Recovery
9 162 (9.08%) ITSM
10 156 (8.74%) Service Delivery
11 115 (6.44%) Change Management
12 112 (6.27%) Migration
13 108 (6.05%) Vulnerability Remediation
14 96 (5.38%) Coaching
14 96 (5.38%) Incident Management
15 94 (5.27%) Service Management
16 93 (5.21%) Project Delivery
16 93 (5.21%) Root Cause Analysis
17 90 (5.04%) Customer Experience
18 89 (4.99%) Kalman Filter
Programming Languages
1 295 (16.53%) PowerShell
2 166 (9.30%) SQL
3 86 (4.82%) Bash
4 64 (3.59%) Python
5 46 (2.58%) T-SQL
6 16 (0.90%) R
7 12 (0.67%) Bicep
8 9 (0.50%) Shell Script
9 8 (0.45%) Java
10 7 (0.39%) VB
11 6 (0.34%) C#
11 6 (0.34%) Korn
11 6 (0.34%) PL/SQL
12 5 (0.28%) JavaScript
13 4 (0.22%) VBA
14 3 (0.17%) PHP
15 2 (0.11%) C
16 1 (0.056%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 238 (13.33%) Security Cleared
2 182 (10.20%) Degree
3 159 (8.91%) Microsoft Certification
4 157 (8.80%) SC Cleared
5 82 (4.59%) DV Cleared
6 56 (3.14%) Azure Certification
7 52 (2.91%) DBS Check
8 47 (2.63%) A+ Certification
9 35 (1.96%) Cisco Certification
10 34 (1.90%) CCNA
10 34 (1.90%) Microsoft Certified Professional
11 32 (1.79%) Network+ Certification
12 21 (1.18%) Computer Science Degree
13 20 (1.12%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 18 (1.01%) MCSE
15 17 (0.95%) HNC
15 17 (0.95%) ITIL Certification
16 16 (0.90%) MCSA
17 15 (0.84%) CompTIA Security+
18 10 (0.56%) CREST Certified
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 164 (9.19%) SLA
2 147 (8.24%) Cyber Essentials
3 113 (6.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 70 (3.92%) PCI DSS
5 62 (3.47%) NIST
6 38 (2.13%) NCSC
7 34 (1.90%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 32 (1.79%) GDPR
9 23 (1.29%) QA
10 21 (1.18%) Data Quality
11 12 (0.67%) Accessibility
12 6 (0.34%) SOC 2
13 5 (0.28%) GRC
13 5 (0.28%) PMO
14 4 (0.22%) 21 CFR Part 11
14 4 (0.22%) GxP
14 4 (0.22%) ISO 22301
14 4 (0.22%) ITGC
15 2 (0.11%) ISO 9001
16 1 (0.056%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 360 (20.17%) Hyper-V
2 284 (15.91%) VMware Infrastructure
3 65 (3.64%) vSphere
4 59 (3.31%) Terminal Server
5 48 (2.69%) Virtual Desktop
5 48 (2.69%) VMware ESXi
6 33 (1.85%) Virtual Machines
7 32 (1.79%) Docker
8 17 (0.95%) BitLocker
9 14 (0.78%) VMware NSX
10 12 (0.67%) Virtual Servers
11 9 (0.50%) DFS Replication
12 8 (0.45%) Citrix Hypervisor
12 8 (0.45%) VMware Workstation
13 7 (0.39%) Microsoft Virtual Server
14 6 (0.34%) XenApp
15 3 (0.17%) Firmware
15 3 (0.17%) Slurm Workload Manager
15 3 (0.17%) Squid
15 3 (0.17%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 371 (20.78%) Microsoft Intune
2 118 (6.61%) SCCM
3 41 (2.30%) Single Sign-On
4 39 (2.18%) vCenter Server
5 35 (1.96%) Terraform
6 31 (1.74%) Jamf Pro
7 28 (1.57%) Ansible
8 26 (1.46%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 25 (1.40%) WSUS
10 22 (1.23%) FortiGate
11 20 (1.12%) Kubernetes
12 15 (0.84%) Proxmox
13 13 (0.73%) SCOM
14 11 (0.62%) Autotask
14 11 (0.62%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
15 9 (0.50%) Backup Exec
16 8 (0.45%) ZABBIX
17 7 (0.39%) VxRail
18 5 (0.28%) SmoothWall
18 5 (0.28%) Tivoli Identity Manager
Vendors
1 1,312 (73.50%) Microsoft
2 454 (25.43%) VMware
3 153 (8.57%) Veeam
4 99 (5.55%) Cisco
5 91 (5.10%) Apple
5 91 (5.10%) SolarWinds
6 87 (4.87%) Citrix
7 80 (4.48%) Nimble Storage
8 76 (4.26%) Splunk
9 74 (4.15%) ServiceNow
10 66 (3.70%) HP
11 65 (3.64%) Dell
12 64 (3.59%) Google
13 56 (3.14%) Brocade
13 56 (3.14%) Tanium
14 54 (3.03%) Meraki
15 36 (2.02%) McAfee
16 34 (1.90%) Red Hat
17 30 (1.68%) CrowdStrike
18 26 (1.46%) Ubiquiti