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 12 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 47 39 22
Rank change year-on-year -8 -17 +20
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 1,687 1,913 2,673
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 4.02% 5.32% 7.71%
As % of the System Software category 61.59% 44.12% 47.66%
Number of salaries quoted 1,182 1,164 2,364
10th Percentile £26,250 £25,750 £25,250
25th Percentile £28,000 £30,000 £29,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £33,375 £38,500 £37,500
Median % change year-on-year -13.31% +2.67% +1.88%
75th Percentile £45,000 £52,500 £51,250
90th Percentile £60,113 £61,250 £58,750
UK median annual salary £36,500 £42,500 £42,500
% change year-on-year -14.12% - +2.41%

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 2,739 4,336 5,609
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 6.53% 12.06% 16.17%
Number of salaries quoted 1,916 2,466 4,596
10th Percentile £26,750 £27,674 £27,000
25th Percentile £30,000 £35,000 £33,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £41,500 £50,000 £47,779
Median % change year-on-year -17.00% +4.65% -0.36%
75th Percentile £61,622 £67,500 £63,750
90th Percentile £77,500 £81,250 £77,500
UK median annual salary £50,000 £57,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year -13.04% +4.55% -0.12%

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 12 January 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 12 January 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 +12 457 £36,000 -15.29% 276
North of England -19 334 £32,500 -18.75% 181
South West +6 282 £32,500 -5.80% 128
Midlands -16 268 £31,500 -10.00% 115
East of England -13 195 £35,000 +2.37% 112
East Midlands +19 160 £29,000 -4.92% 70
North West -10 150 £36,000 -11.91% 91
Yorkshire -10 140 £32,000 -3.03% 72
West Midlands -44 108 £35,000 -9.68% 43
Scotland -4 102 £30,500 -23.75% 46
North East -6 44 £31,000 -15.65% 21
Wales 0 37 £35,000 - 31
Northern Ireland -5 18 £47,750 -9.05% 9
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
1 490 (29.05%) Microsoft Exchange
2 294 (17.43%) SharePoint
3 26 (1.54%) Exchange Server 2003
4 19 (1.13%) IIS
5 15 (0.89%) Confluence
5 15 (0.89%) Skype for Business
6 4 (0.24%) Exchange Server 2013
7 3 (0.18%) Tomcat
7 3 (0.18%) WebLogic
7 3 (0.18%) WebLogic Portal
8 2 (0.12%) CMS
8 2 (0.12%) Exchange Server 2007
8 2 (0.12%) Exchange Server 2010
8 2 (0.12%) FactoryTalk
8 2 (0.12%) WinCC
8 2 (0.12%) WordPress
9 1 (0.059%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 222 (13.16%) Microsoft Office
2 36 (2.13%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (0.30%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.24%) CATIA
5 3 (0.18%) AutoCAD
6 1 (0.059%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.059%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 27 (1.60%) Dynamics CRM
2 20 (1.19%) Oracle ERP
3 5 (0.30%) NetSuite
3 5 (0.30%) Remedy ITSM
4 4 (0.24%) Markit EDM
5 3 (0.18%) Oracle EBS
5 3 (0.18%) Primavera
5 3 (0.18%) Visualfiles
6 1 (0.059%) Cognos Business Intelligence
6 1 (0.059%) Dynamics AX
6 1 (0.059%) Sage 200
6 1 (0.059%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 1,165 (69.06%) Microsoft 365
2 907 (53.76%) Azure
3 529 (31.36%) Entra ID
4 118 (6.99%) AWS
5 111 (6.58%) OneDrive
6 68 (4.03%) SaaS
7 64 (3.79%) Google Workspace
8 57 (3.38%) Power Platform
9 39 (2.31%) GCP
10 38 (2.25%) Azure DevOps
11 33 (1.96%) IaaS
11 33 (1.96%) PowerApps
12 32 (1.90%) Azure Monitor
13 29 (1.72%) Azure Logic Apps
13 29 (1.72%) PaaS
14 28 (1.66%) GitHub
15 23 (1.36%) OCI
16 22 (1.30%) Power Automate
17 20 (1.19%) Azure Sentinel
18 19 (1.13%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 616 (36.51%) DNS
2 585 (34.68%) DHCP
3 385 (22.82%) Firewall
4 239 (14.17%) TCP/IP
5 236 (13.99%) VPN
6 160 (9.48%) VLAN
7 155 (9.19%) LAN
8 153 (9.07%) WAN
9 121 (7.17%) Wi-Fi
10 84 (4.98%) Wireless
11 73 (4.33%) VoIP
12 61 (3.62%) SAN
13 58 (3.44%) Remote Desktop
14 45 (2.67%) Network Security
15 33 (1.96%) Internet
16 27 (1.60%) Broadband
17 19 (1.13%) SD-WAN
18 17 (1.01%) SMTP
19 16 (0.95%) SSL
20 15 (0.89%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 118 (6.99%) Amazon RDS
2 52 (3.08%) SQL Server
3 29 (1.72%) Oracle Database
4 26 (1.54%) Oracle Database 10g
5 17 (1.01%) Power BI
6 12 (0.71%) Azure SQL Database
7 8 (0.47%) DTS
7 8 (0.47%) MySQL
8 7 (0.41%) Data Warehouse
9 6 (0.36%) Relational Database
10 4 (0.24%) GIS
10 4 (0.24%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 4 (0.24%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 3 (0.18%) Data Mining
11 3 (0.18%) Oracle Discoverer
11 3 (0.18%) Oracle Reports
11 3 (0.18%) PostgreSQL
12 2 (0.12%) NoSQL
13 1 (0.059%) Cognos Framework Manager
13 1 (0.059%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 60 (3.56%) JIRA
2 30 (1.78%) Jenkins
3 25 (1.48%) Git
4 23 (1.36%) Oracle Forms
5 4 (0.24%) GitLab
5 4 (0.24%) LabVIEW
6 3 (0.18%) Oracle APEX
6 3 (0.18%) Vagrant
7 2 (0.12%) Subversion
7 2 (0.12%) Visual Studio
8 1 (0.059%) Burp Suite
8 1 (0.059%) Metasploit
General
1 837 (49.61%) Social Skills
2 197 (11.68%) Analytical Skills
3 132 (7.82%) Finance
4 107 (6.34%) Organisational Skills
5 92 (5.45%) Manufacturing
6 62 (3.68%) Retail
7 57 (3.38%) Law
8 52 (3.08%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 50 (2.96%) Documentation Skills
10 40 (2.37%) Advertising
11 34 (2.02%) Legal
12 25 (1.48%) Telecoms
13 23 (1.36%) Games
14 22 (1.30%) Public Sector
15 19 (1.13%) Marketing
16 15 (0.89%) French Language
16 15 (0.89%) Swedish Language
17 13 (0.77%) Pharmaceutical
18 10 (0.59%) Aerospace
19 5 (0.30%) Automotive
Job Titles
1 588 (34.85%) IT Support
2 392 (23.24%) Support Engineer
3 286 (16.95%) IT Engineer
4 242 (14.34%) IT Support Engineer
5 235 (13.93%) Analyst
6 184 (10.91%) 2nd Line Support
7 175 (10.37%) Support Analyst
8 147 (8.71%) Support Technician
9 145 (8.60%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 132 (7.82%) Systems Engineer
11 129 (7.65%) IT Analyst
12 112 (6.64%) IT Technician
13 109 (6.46%) Senior
14 108 (6.40%) IT Support Analyst
15 99 (5.87%) IT Support Technician
16 96 (5.69%) 3rd Line Support
17 95 (5.63%) Technical Support
18 89 (5.28%) 1st Line Support
19 78 (4.62%) 2nd Line Engineer
20 70 (4.15%) Cloud Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 43 (2.55%) SOAP
2 39 (2.31%) LDAP
3 31 (1.84%) OAuth
3 31 (1.84%) OpenID
3 31 (1.84%) SAML
4 23 (1.36%) GraphQL
4 23 (1.36%) REST
4 23 (1.36%) RESTful
5 21 (1.24%) .NET
6 20 (1.19%) JSON
6 20 (1.19%) XML
7 15 (0.89%) ARM Templates
8 12 (0.71%) React
9 10 (0.59%) CSS
9 10 (0.59%) HTML
10 9 (0.53%) .NET Framework
10 9 (0.53%) EDI
11 8 (0.47%) OAuth2
12 5 (0.30%) Microsoft Graph
13 3 (0.18%) ModSecurity
Miscellaneous
1 242 (14.34%) Driving Licence
2 159 (9.43%) Onboarding
3 104 (6.16%) Legacy Systems
4 69 (4.09%) Self-Motivation
5 61 (3.62%) Enterprise Software
6 42 (2.49%) Data Centre
7 37 (2.19%) Cloud Native
8 32 (1.90%) Hybrid Cloud
9 30 (1.78%) Management Information System
10 26 (1.54%) Cyberattack
11 25 (1.48%) Cyber Threat
12 21 (1.24%) Video Conferencing
13 19 (1.13%) Replication
14 18 (1.07%) iPad
15 17 (1.01%) Public Cloud
16 16 (0.95%) Client/Server
16 16 (0.95%) CMDB
16 16 (0.95%) PKI
17 15 (0.89%) Clustering
17 15 (0.89%) FMCG
Operating Systems
1 1,201 (71.19%) Windows
2 733 (43.45%) Windows Server
3 264 (15.65%) Windows 10
4 210 (12.45%) Linux
5 144 (8.54%) Windows Server 2016
6 88 (5.22%) Mac OS
7 76 (4.51%) Windows Server 2019
8 71 (4.21%) Apple iOS
9 60 (3.56%) Android
10 32 (1.90%) Windows Server 2008
11 31 (1.84%) Unix
12 30 (1.78%) Windows 7
13 27 (1.60%) Windows Server 2012
14 26 (1.54%) Solaris
14 26 (1.54%) Windows Server 2003
15 25 (1.48%) HPUX
16 12 (0.71%) VMS
17 9 (0.53%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
18 5 (0.30%) Windows 8
19 4 (0.24%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 628 (37.23%) Problem-Solving
2 529 (31.36%) Customer Service
3 353 (20.92%) ITIL
4 212 (12.57%) Cybersecurity
5 200 (11.86%) Mentoring
6 193 (11.44%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 178 (10.55%) Continuous Improvement
8 168 (9.96%) ITSM
9 163 (9.66%) Migration
10 126 (7.47%) Service Delivery
11 117 (6.94%) Vulnerability Remediation
12 112 (6.64%) Disaster Recovery
13 111 (6.58%) Incident Management
14 110 (6.52%) Coaching
15 107 (6.34%) Kalman Filter
16 105 (6.22%) Web Filtering
17 104 (6.16%) Customer Experience
18 103 (6.11%) Asset Management
19 100 (5.93%) Email Filtering
20 99 (5.87%) Agile
Programming Languages
1 267 (15.83%) PowerShell
2 132 (7.82%) SQL
3 53 (3.14%) Python
4 51 (3.02%) Bash
5 25 (1.48%) Java
5 25 (1.48%) Perl
5 25 (1.48%) T-SQL
6 23 (1.36%) PL/SQL
7 22 (1.30%) Shell Script
8 15 (0.89%) JavaScript
9 13 (0.77%) C#
10 10 (0.59%) Bicep
10 10 (0.59%) VB
11 5 (0.30%) Groovy
11 5 (0.30%) VBA
12 2 (0.12%) TypeScript
13 1 (0.059%) Korn
13 1 (0.059%) VB.NET
13 1 (0.059%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 226 (13.40%) Security Cleared
2 194 (11.50%) SC Cleared
3 156 (9.25%) Microsoft Certification
4 150 (8.89%) Degree
5 62 (3.68%) DV Cleared
6 50 (2.96%) DBS Check
7 44 (2.61%) A+ Certification
8 40 (2.37%) Cisco Certification
9 37 (2.19%) MCP
10 34 (2.02%) Azure Certification
10 34 (2.02%) CCNA
11 31 (1.84%) MCSE
12 24 (1.42%) Network+ Certification
13 22 (1.30%) ITIL Certification
14 21 (1.24%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
15 18 (1.07%) HND
16 16 (0.95%) HNC
16 16 (0.95%) MCSA
17 13 (0.77%) Computer Science Degree
18 11 (0.65%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 141 (8.36%) Cyber Essentials
2 132 (7.82%) SLA
3 105 (6.22%) PCI DSS
4 71 (4.21%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 54 (3.20%) GDPR
6 36 (2.13%) NIST
7 23 (1.36%) NCSC
8 17 (1.01%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 10 (0.59%) QA
10 7 (0.41%) GxP
11 6 (0.36%) Accessibility
11 6 (0.36%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 5 (0.30%) 21 CFR Part 11
13 2 (0.12%) Disclosure Scotland
13 2 (0.12%) ISO 22301
14 1 (0.059%) GRC
14 1 (0.059%) IASME
14 1 (0.059%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 338 (20.04%) Hyper-V
2 237 (14.05%) VMware Infrastructure
3 97 (5.75%) Terminal Server
4 52 (3.08%) Virtual Desktop
5 39 (2.31%) vSphere
6 29 (1.72%) VMware ESXi
7 25 (1.48%) Virtual Machines
8 20 (1.19%) Docker
9 17 (1.01%) Firmware
10 10 (0.59%) Virtual Servers
11 8 (0.47%) BitLocker
12 5 (0.30%) XenApp
13 4 (0.24%) Terminal Services
13 4 (0.24%) VMware NSX
13 4 (0.24%) VMware Workstation
14 3 (0.18%) Lustre
14 3 (0.18%) Slurm Workload Manager
15 2 (0.12%) Microsoft Virtual Server
16 1 (0.059%) Citrix Hypervisor
16 1 (0.059%) VMware Server
Systems Management
1 381 (22.58%) Microsoft Intune
2 133 (7.88%) SCCM
3 59 (3.50%) Terraform
4 41 (2.43%) Single Sign-On
5 33 (1.96%) vCenter Server
6 27 (1.60%) WSUS
7 20 (1.19%) Ansible
7 20 (1.19%) Jamf Pro
8 19 (1.13%) Kubernetes
9 18 (1.07%) Autotask
9 18 (1.07%) SCOM
10 17 (1.01%) FortiGate
11 12 (0.71%) Nagios
11 12 (0.71%) ZABBIX
12 10 (0.59%) Failover Clustering
13 9 (0.53%) Active Directory Federation Services
14 7 (0.41%) Prometheus
14 7 (0.41%) SmoothWall
15 5 (0.30%) PaperCut
15 5 (0.30%) SCVMM
Vendors
1 1,276 (75.64%) Microsoft
2 455 (26.97%) VMware
3 172 (10.20%) Veeam
4 137 (8.12%) SolarWinds
5 122 (7.23%) Cisco
6 113 (6.70%) Nimble Storage
7 108 (6.40%) Splunk
8 104 (6.16%) Tanium
9 96 (5.69%) Brocade
10 88 (5.22%) Apple
11 66 (3.91%) Citrix
12 64 (3.79%) ServiceNow
13 62 (3.68%) Google
14 52 (3.08%) HP
15 51 (3.02%) Oracle
16 39 (2.31%) Dell
16 39 (2.31%) Meraki
17 27 (1.60%) SonicWALL
18 25 (1.48%) Red Hat
19 24 (1.42%) Fortinet