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 8 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
8 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 61 37 29
Rank change year-on-year -24 -8 +16
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 1,790 1,432 4,425
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 3.00% 5.54% 6.87%
As % of the System Software category 58.63% 45.63% 50.75%
Number of salaries quoted 1,358 1,209 3,802
10th Percentile £26,250 £25,500 £23,750
25th Percentile £28,500 £27,750 £26,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £35,000 £35,000 £35,000
Median % change year-on-year - - -1.52%
75th Percentile £47,500 £48,750 £48,750
90th Percentile £60,038 £58,750 £57,500
UK median annual salary £37,500 £40,000 £38,000
% change year-on-year -6.25% +5.26% -5.00%

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 3,053 3,138 8,720
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 5.11% 12.14% 13.54%
Number of salaries quoted 2,242 2,491 7,209
10th Percentile £27,000 £26,750 £25,750
25th Percentile £31,250 £32,500 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £50,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% +11.11% -5.26%
75th Percentile £63,339 £68,750 £60,000
90th Percentile £77,500 £85,000 £75,000
UK median annual salary £51,000 £55,750 £50,000
% change year-on-year -8.52% +11.50% -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 8 April 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 8 April 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 +6 490 £36,000 -10.00% 175
North of England -33 400 £33,250 +2.31% 133
Midlands -37 286 £32,500 -7.14% 78
South West 0 271 £32,500 -7.14% 71
Yorkshire -21 183 £32,500 +8.33% 39
North West -26 182 £37,000 -7.50% 85
East of England -33 178 £40,000 +23.08% 61
East Midlands -26 149 £31,500 +5.00% 36
West Midlands -41 136 £32,500 -7.14% 42
Scotland +28 96 £30,250 -13.57% 26
Wales +4 45 £38,000 -22.61% 14
North East -17 35 £32,000 -3.61% 13
Northern Ireland -28 18 £32,000 -39.05% 2
Isle of Man +2 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
1 494 (27.60%) Microsoft Exchange
2 348 (19.44%) SharePoint
3 21 (1.17%) Exchange Server 2003
4 16 (0.89%) IIS
5 13 (0.73%) Exchange Server 2013
6 11 (0.61%) Exchange Server 2007
6 11 (0.61%) Exchange Server 2010
7 10 (0.56%) Confluence
8 6 (0.34%) CMS
9 4 (0.22%) Apache
10 3 (0.17%) Skype for Business
10 3 (0.17%) Tomcat
10 3 (0.17%) WebLogic
10 3 (0.17%) WebLogic Portal
10 3 (0.17%) WordPress
11 1 (0.056%) Drupal
11 1 (0.056%) nginx
11 1 (0.056%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 246 (13.74%) Microsoft Office
2 43 (2.40%) Microsoft Excel
3 14 (0.78%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.17%) AutoCAD
4 3 (0.17%) Spreadsheet
5 1 (0.056%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 16 (0.89%) Dynamics CRM
2 8 (0.45%) Oracle ERP
3 7 (0.39%) Dynamics NAV
3 7 (0.39%) NetSuite
3 7 (0.39%) Primavera
4 5 (0.28%) Remedy ITSM
5 4 (0.22%) Dynamics GP
5 4 (0.22%) Exchequer
5 4 (0.22%) Markit EDM
6 3 (0.17%) Oracle EBS
7 2 (0.11%) Alphatax
7 2 (0.11%) Shopify
8 1 (0.056%) Cognos Business Intelligence
8 1 (0.056%) Magento
8 1 (0.056%) Oracle Payables
8 1 (0.056%) Sage 200
8 1 (0.056%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 1,268 (70.84%) Microsoft 365
2 957 (53.46%) Azure
3 631 (35.25%) Entra ID
4 136 (7.60%) AWS
5 134 (7.49%) OneDrive
6 101 (5.64%) Google Workspace
7 85 (4.75%) SaaS
8 84 (4.69%) Power Platform
9 40 (2.23%) IaaS
10 36 (2.01%) Nutanix
10 36 (2.01%) PaaS
11 34 (1.90%) Azure Monitor
12 30 (1.68%) Azure DevOps
12 30 (1.68%) PowerApps
13 29 (1.62%) GCP
13 29 (1.62%) Mimecast
14 22 (1.23%) Microsoft Purview
15 19 (1.06%) Dynamics 365
16 16 (0.89%) GitHub
16 16 (0.89%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 629 (35.14%) DNS
2 576 (32.18%) DHCP
3 410 (22.91%) Firewall
4 284 (15.87%) VPN
5 214 (11.96%) TCP/IP
6 197 (11.01%) WAN
7 191 (10.67%) LAN
8 177 (9.89%) VLAN
9 156 (8.72%) Wi-Fi
10 94 (5.25%) VoIP
11 81 (4.53%) Wireless
12 68 (3.80%) Network Security
13 63 (3.52%) Remote Desktop
14 47 (2.63%) Broadband
15 45 (2.51%) SAN
16 28 (1.56%) SD-WAN
17 20 (1.12%) NAS
18 16 (0.89%) SMTP
19 15 (0.84%) Ethernet
20 14 (0.78%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 92 (5.14%) Amazon RDS
2 80 (4.47%) SQL Server
3 52 (2.91%) Power BI
4 26 (1.45%) PostgreSQL
5 24 (1.34%) MySQL
5 24 (1.34%) Oracle Database
6 21 (1.17%) Oracle Database 10g
7 11 (0.61%) Azure SQL Database
8 8 (0.45%) GIS
8 8 (0.45%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 6 (0.34%) Data Warehouse
9 6 (0.34%) Relational Database
10 5 (0.28%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 3 (0.17%) Data Mining
11 3 (0.17%) Neo4j
11 3 (0.17%) Oracle Discoverer
11 3 (0.17%) Oracle Reports
12 1 (0.056%) OLAP
12 1 (0.056%) RDBMS
12 1 (0.056%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 72 (4.02%) JIRA
2 13 (0.73%) Git
3 11 (0.61%) Oracle Forms
4 9 (0.50%) Jenkins
5 7 (0.39%) GitLab
6 5 (0.28%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 4 (0.22%) LabVIEW
7 4 (0.22%) 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
General
1 803 (44.86%) Social Skills
2 201 (11.23%) Analytical Skills
3 169 (9.44%) Organisational Skills
4 123 (6.87%) Finance
5 75 (4.19%) Manufacturing
6 59 (3.30%) Legal
7 57 (3.18%) Documentation Skills
7 57 (3.18%) Retail
8 55 (3.07%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 55 (3.07%) Law
9 50 (2.79%) Public Sector
10 37 (2.07%) Advertising
10 37 (2.07%) Games
11 32 (1.79%) Telecoms
12 19 (1.06%) Marketing
13 14 (0.78%) Local Government
14 9 (0.50%) Automotive
15 8 (0.45%) Aerospace
16 4 (0.22%) General Ledger
16 4 (0.22%) German Language
Job Titles
1 728 (40.67%) IT Support
2 515 (28.77%) Support Engineer
3 437 (24.41%) IT Engineer
4 379 (21.17%) IT Support Engineer
5 231 (12.91%) Analyst
6 183 (10.22%) 2nd Line Support
7 178 (9.94%) Support Technician
8 169 (9.44%) Support Analyst
9 158 (8.83%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 148 (8.27%) IT Technician
11 144 (8.04%) Senior
12 137 (7.65%) IT Support Technician
13 120 (6.70%) Systems Engineer
14 118 (6.59%) IT Analyst
15 108 (6.03%) IT Support Analyst
16 104 (5.81%) 2nd Line Engineer
17 93 (5.20%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
18 91 (5.08%) 3rd Line Support
19 77 (4.30%) 1st Line Support
20 63 (3.52%) Infrastructure Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 50 (2.79%) LDAP
2 46 (2.57%) SAML
2 46 (2.57%) SOAP
3 43 (2.40%) OAuth
3 43 (2.40%) OpenID
3 43 (2.40%) REST
4 38 (2.12%) GraphQL
5 19 (1.06%) JSON
5 19 (1.06%) XML
6 10 (0.56%) RESTful
7 9 (0.50%) .NET
7 9 (0.50%) Regular Expression
8 8 (0.45%) ARM Templates
9 7 (0.39%) Web Services
10 6 (0.34%) HTML
10 6 (0.34%) XMPP
11 5 (0.28%) CSS
11 5 (0.28%) FreeSWITCH
12 4 (0.22%) OAuth2
12 4 (0.22%) OpenTelemetry
Miscellaneous
1 274 (15.31%) Driving Licence
2 112 (6.26%) Onboarding
3 84 (4.69%) Self-Motivation
4 77 (4.30%) Legacy Systems
5 51 (2.85%) Hybrid Cloud
6 48 (2.68%) Enterprise Software
7 42 (2.35%) Cyberattack
8 39 (2.18%) Cyber Threat
9 34 (1.90%) Public Cloud
9 34 (1.90%) Replication
10 33 (1.84%) Management Information System
11 32 (1.79%) Data Centre
12 24 (1.34%) Cloud Native
13 20 (1.12%) Client/Server
14 18 (1.01%) CMDB
14 18 (1.01%) PKI
15 14 (0.78%) Clustering
16 13 (0.73%) iPad
17 12 (0.67%) Social Media
17 12 (0.67%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 1,278 (71.40%) Windows
2 756 (42.23%) Windows Server
3 309 (17.26%) Windows 10
4 225 (12.57%) Linux
5 143 (7.99%) Windows Server 2016
6 89 (4.97%) Mac OS
7 86 (4.80%) Apple iOS
8 74 (4.13%) Android
9 56 (3.13%) Windows Server 2019
10 39 (2.18%) Windows 7
11 35 (1.96%) Windows Server 2012
12 30 (1.68%) Windows Server 2008
13 29 (1.62%) Unix
14 22 (1.23%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
15 21 (1.17%) HPUX
15 21 (1.17%) Solaris
15 21 (1.17%) Windows Server 2003
16 11 (0.61%) Windows 8
17 7 (0.39%) VMS
18 6 (0.34%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 637 (35.59%) Problem-Solving
2 515 (28.77%) Customer Service
3 443 (24.75%) ITIL
4 270 (15.08%) Cybersecurity
5 213 (11.90%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 198 (11.06%) Mentoring
7 191 (10.67%) Continuous Improvement
8 181 (10.11%) ITSM
9 160 (8.94%) Service Delivery
10 155 (8.66%) Disaster Recovery
11 125 (6.98%) Incident Management
12 121 (6.76%) Vulnerability Remediation
13 119 (6.65%) Migration
14 107 (5.98%) Change Management
15 103 (5.75%) Coaching
16 96 (5.36%) Customer Experience
16 96 (5.36%) Kalman Filter
17 95 (5.31%) Web Filtering
18 94 (5.25%) Identity Access Management
19 85 (4.75%) Asset Management
Programming Languages
1 298 (16.65%) PowerShell
2 132 (7.37%) SQL
3 81 (4.53%) Bash
4 54 (3.02%) Python
5 49 (2.74%) T-SQL
6 20 (1.12%) Perl
7 16 (0.89%) R
8 13 (0.73%) Shell Script
9 12 (0.67%) PL/SQL
10 11 (0.61%) JavaScript
11 9 (0.50%) Bicep
12 8 (0.45%) Java
12 8 (0.45%) VB
13 6 (0.34%) C#
14 4 (0.22%) VBA
15 3 (0.17%) Korn
15 3 (0.17%) PHP
16 2 (0.11%) C
17 1 (0.056%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 244 (13.63%) Security Cleared
2 180 (10.06%) SC Cleared
3 167 (9.33%) Degree
4 159 (8.88%) Microsoft Certification
5 84 (4.69%) DV Cleared
6 47 (2.63%) DBS Check
7 46 (2.57%) Azure Certification
8 42 (2.35%) A+ Certification
9 37 (2.07%) Cisco Certification
10 31 (1.73%) CCNA
10 31 (1.73%) Microsoft Certified Professional
11 27 (1.51%) Network+ Certification
12 22 (1.23%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 19 (1.06%) ITIL Certification
13 19 (1.06%) MCSE
14 17 (0.95%) Computer Science Degree
15 15 (0.84%) HNC
16 14 (0.78%) MCSA
17 12 (0.67%) CCNP
18 10 (0.56%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 174 (9.72%) SLA
2 149 (8.32%) Cyber Essentials
3 104 (5.81%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 85 (4.75%) PCI DSS
5 50 (2.79%) NIST
6 39 (2.18%) NCSC
7 38 (2.12%) GDPR
8 27 (1.51%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 17 (0.95%) QA
10 13 (0.73%) Data Quality
11 7 (0.39%) Accessibility
12 5 (0.28%) GRC
12 5 (0.28%) PMO
13 4 (0.22%) 21 CFR Part 11
13 4 (0.22%) GxP
13 4 (0.22%) ISO 22301
13 4 (0.22%) ITGC
14 2 (0.11%) Disclosure Scotland
14 2 (0.11%) ISO 9001
14 2 (0.11%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 358 (20.00%) Hyper-V
2 260 (14.53%) VMware Infrastructure
3 75 (4.19%) Terminal Server
4 50 (2.79%) vSphere
5 41 (2.29%) VMware ESXi
6 28 (1.56%) Virtual Desktop
7 26 (1.45%) Virtual Machines
8 21 (1.17%) Docker
9 17 (0.95%) BitLocker
10 11 (0.61%) Firmware
10 11 (0.61%) VMware NSX
10 11 (0.61%) VMware Workstation
11 9 (0.50%) XenApp
12 6 (0.34%) DFS Replication
13 5 (0.28%) Citrix Hypervisor
13 5 (0.28%) Virtual Servers
14 4 (0.22%) Terminal Services
15 3 (0.17%) Lustre
15 3 (0.17%) Microsoft Virtual Server
15 3 (0.17%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 351 (19.61%) Microsoft Intune
2 130 (7.26%) SCCM
3 42 (2.35%) Single Sign-On
4 41 (2.29%) vCenter Server
5 35 (1.96%) Terraform
6 33 (1.84%) Jamf Pro
7 24 (1.34%) Ansible
8 23 (1.28%) WSUS
9 21 (1.17%) FortiGate
10 18 (1.01%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 15 (0.84%) Autotask
11 15 (0.84%) SCOM
12 14 (0.78%) Kubernetes
13 9 (0.50%) Backup Exec
14 8 (0.45%) Proxmox
15 7 (0.39%) ZABBIX
16 6 (0.34%) SmoothWall
16 6 (0.34%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
17 5 (0.28%) SCVMM
17 5 (0.28%) VxRail
Vendors
1 1,290 (72.07%) Microsoft
2 461 (25.75%) VMware
3 153 (8.55%) Veeam
4 108 (6.03%) SolarWinds
5 100 (5.59%) Nimble Storage
6 96 (5.36%) Cisco
7 94 (5.25%) Apple
8 91 (5.08%) Citrix
9 90 (5.03%) Splunk
10 82 (4.58%) ServiceNow
11 79 (4.41%) Google
12 72 (4.02%) Brocade
12 72 (4.02%) Tanium
13 70 (3.91%) HP
14 63 (3.52%) Dell
15 39 (2.18%) Oracle
16 38 (2.12%) Meraki
17 29 (1.62%) McAfee
18 28 (1.56%) Dell Compellent
19 26 (1.45%) CrowdStrike