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 23 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
23 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 52 41 30
Rank change year-on-year -11 -11 +3
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 2,136 1,823 3,829
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 2.94% 5.38% 5.74%
As % of the System Software category 52.58% 41.81% 52.23%
Number of salaries quoted 1,643 1,455 3,028
10th Percentile £26,550 £26,000 £24,250
25th Percentile £29,000 £28,250 £27,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £37,500 £35,000 £36,298
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% -3.58% -0.55%
75th Percentile £49,625 £48,750 £48,750
90th Percentile £64,900 £62,500 £58,750
UK median annual salary £40,000 £38,000 £38,000
% change year-on-year +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 4,062 4,360 7,331
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 5.59% 12.87% 10.99%
Number of salaries quoted 3,112 2,565 5,706
10th Percentile £28,000 £26,500 £26,000
25th Percentile £32,750 £31,250 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £48,445 £45,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.65% - -5.26%
75th Percentile £65,000 £65,000 £60,000
90th Percentile £80,000 £80,000 £73,500
UK median annual salary £52,500 £51,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +2.94% +2.00% -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 23 July 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 23 July 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 0 508 £42,500 +6.25% 165
North of England -10 487 £33,000 +3.13% 137
Midlands -28 360 £37,500 +7.14% 57
South West -15 298 £37,500 +8.70% 62
North West +53 249 £35,000 - 72
East of England +6 232 £35,000 +4.48% 56
East Midlands -4 193 £35,000 +11.11% 29
Yorkshire -25 183 £31,000 +3.33% 47
West Midlands -42 167 £42,500 +10.39% 28
Scotland +84 112 £29,000 -17.14% 22
Wales -11 74 £45,000 +18.13% 11
Northern Ireland -16 65 £35,500 -30.73% 3
North East -60 55 £40,000 +25.00% 25
Isle of Man +4 6 £45,000 +30.43% 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
1 629 (29.45%) Microsoft Exchange
2 446 (20.88%) SharePoint
3 41 (1.92%) IIS
4 15 (0.70%) Confluence
5 10 (0.47%) Skype for Business
6 9 (0.42%) Exchange Server 2013
7 7 (0.33%) Apache
7 7 (0.33%) Exchange Server 2007
7 7 (0.33%) Exchange Server 2010
8 4 (0.19%) CMS
9 3 (0.14%) SAS
10 1 (0.047%) Drupal
10 1 (0.047%) nginx
10 1 (0.047%) Site Server
10 1 (0.047%) WordPress
Applications
1 198 (9.27%) Microsoft Office
2 44 (2.06%) Microsoft Excel
3 14 (0.66%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.19%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 3 (0.14%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.094%) MS Visio
7 1 (0.047%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.047%) Revit
Business Applications
1 17 (0.80%) Dynamics CRM
2 12 (0.56%) 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%) Dynamics GP
6 4 (0.19%) Exchequer
6 4 (0.19%) Primavera
7 3 (0.14%) Salesforce CRM
7 3 (0.14%) Shopify
8 2 (0.094%) Alphatax
8 2 (0.094%) Payment Gateway
8 2 (0.094%) Sage 200
8 2 (0.094%) SAP S/4HANA
9 1 (0.047%) Dynamics AX
9 1 (0.047%) Magento
9 1 (0.047%) Oracle Payables
9 1 (0.047%) SAP EHS
9 1 (0.047%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 1,498 (70.13%) Microsoft 365
2 1,198 (56.09%) Azure
3 899 (42.09%) Entra ID
4 150 (7.02%) AWS
5 148 (6.93%) OneDrive
6 104 (4.87%) SaaS
7 85 (3.98%) Power Platform
8 63 (2.95%) IaaS
9 61 (2.86%) Mimecast
10 53 (2.48%) PaaS
11 43 (2.01%) Azure DevOps
11 43 (2.01%) Google Workspace
12 38 (1.78%) Microsoft Purview
13 33 (1.54%) Azure Sentinel
14 28 (1.31%) Azure Monitor
15 26 (1.22%) Serverless
16 25 (1.17%) Nutanix
16 25 (1.17%) PowerApps
17 24 (1.12%) Power Automate
18 20 (0.94%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 705 (33.01%) DNS
2 590 (27.62%) DHCP
3 523 (24.49%) Firewall
4 350 (16.39%) VPN
5 244 (11.42%) TCP/IP
6 211 (9.88%) WAN
7 206 (9.64%) LAN
8 203 (9.50%) Wi-Fi
9 200 (9.36%) VLAN
10 128 (5.99%) VoIP
11 123 (5.76%) Wireless
12 84 (3.93%) Network Security
13 76 (3.56%) SAN
14 50 (2.34%) Remote Desktop
15 29 (1.36%) Internet
15 29 (1.36%) NAS
16 24 (1.12%) Broadband
17 19 (0.89%) SD-WAN
17 19 (0.89%) SSL
18 16 (0.75%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 116 (5.43%) Amazon RDS
2 110 (5.15%) SQL Server
3 45 (2.11%) Power BI
4 32 (1.50%) Azure SQL Database
5 26 (1.22%) PostgreSQL
6 25 (1.17%) MySQL
7 8 (0.37%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 6 (0.28%) Crystal Reports
9 5 (0.23%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 4 (0.19%) Neo4j
11 3 (0.14%) GIS
11 3 (0.14%) Oracle Database
11 3 (0.14%) Relational Database
12 2 (0.094%) BusinessObjects
12 2 (0.094%) Data Lake
12 2 (0.094%) Data Warehouse
12 2 (0.094%) KNIME
13 1 (0.047%) Metadata
13 1 (0.047%) RDBMS
13 1 (0.047%) Redis
Development Applications
1 75 (3.51%) JIRA
2 23 (1.08%) Git
3 8 (0.37%) GitLab
4 7 (0.33%) Jenkins
5 4 (0.19%) Bitbucket
5 4 (0.19%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 2 (0.094%) Artifactory
6 2 (0.094%) Burp Suite
6 2 (0.094%) Metasploit
6 2 (0.094%) Terragrunt
7 1 (0.047%) Carbide.c++
7 1 (0.047%) Gatling
7 1 (0.047%) JMeter
7 1 (0.047%) Ranorex
7 1 (0.047%) Selenium
7 1 (0.047%) Sonatype Nexus
7 1 (0.047%) Subversion
7 1 (0.047%) Team Foundation Server
7 1 (0.047%) Vagrant
General
1 961 (44.99%) Social Skills
2 251 (11.75%) Analytical Skills
3 136 (6.37%) Legal
4 124 (5.81%) Finance
5 112 (5.24%) Organisational Skills
6 94 (4.40%) Law
7 73 (3.42%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 69 (3.23%) Manufacturing
9 63 (2.95%) Public Sector
10 54 (2.53%) Documentation Skills
11 50 (2.34%) Retail
12 47 (2.20%) Telecoms
13 27 (1.26%) Advertising
14 19 (0.89%) Local Government
15 17 (0.80%) Games
16 16 (0.75%) Aerospace
17 13 (0.61%) Automotive
18 9 (0.42%) Influencing Skills
19 7 (0.33%) Banking
19 7 (0.33%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 799 (37.41%) IT Support
2 557 (26.08%) Support Engineer
3 521 (24.39%) IT Engineer
4 435 (20.37%) IT Support Engineer
5 350 (16.39%) Analyst
6 248 (11.61%) Senior
7 227 (10.63%) Support Analyst
8 198 (9.27%) Support Technician
9 197 (9.22%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 191 (8.94%) IT Technician
11 178 (8.33%) Systems Engineer
12 170 (7.96%) IT Support Technician
13 156 (7.30%) 2nd Line Support
14 153 (7.16%) IT Analyst
15 138 (6.46%) IT Support Analyst
16 92 (4.31%) 2nd Line Engineer
17 88 (4.12%) 3rd Line Support
18 80 (3.75%) Architect
19 76 (3.56%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
20 74 (3.46%) Administrator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 44 (2.06%) LDAP
2 30 (1.40%) SAML
3 25 (1.17%) OpenID
4 23 (1.08%) Regular Expression
5 21 (0.98%) OAuth
6 19 (0.89%) REST
6 19 (0.89%) XMPP
7 14 (0.66%) GraphQL
7 14 (0.66%) JSON
7 14 (0.66%) SOAP
7 14 (0.66%) XML
8 11 (0.51%) ARM Templates
9 9 (0.42%) .NET
9 9 (0.42%) HTML
9 9 (0.42%) Microsoft Graph
9 9 (0.42%) Web Services
10 7 (0.33%) JSON Schema
11 6 (0.28%) Middleware
12 5 (0.23%) OAuth2
12 5 (0.23%) ODBC
Miscellaneous
1 298 (13.95%) Driving Licence
2 169 (7.91%) Onboarding
3 123 (5.76%) Self-Motivation
4 110 (5.15%) Legacy Systems
5 86 (4.03%) Hybrid Cloud
6 70 (3.28%) Data Centre
7 67 (3.14%) Management Information System
8 51 (2.39%) PKI
9 46 (2.15%) Clustering
10 37 (1.73%) Public Cloud
11 35 (1.64%) Enterprise Software
11 35 (1.64%) Replication
12 33 (1.54%) Security Posture
13 30 (1.40%) CCTV
13 30 (1.40%) Cloud Native
14 20 (0.94%) Cyber Threat
15 16 (0.75%) Client/Server
15 16 (0.75%) Cyberattack
16 15 (0.70%) iPhone
17 14 (0.66%) Enterprise Storage
Operating Systems
1 1,528 (71.54%) Windows
2 898 (42.04%) Windows Server
3 305 (14.28%) Windows 10
4 284 (13.30%) Linux
5 176 (8.24%) Windows Server 2016
6 146 (6.84%) Mac OS
7 83 (3.89%) Windows Server 2019
8 76 (3.56%) Apple iOS
9 69 (3.23%) Android
10 41 (1.92%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 24 (1.12%) VMS
11 24 (1.12%) Windows Server 2012
12 14 (0.66%) Ubuntu
13 13 (0.61%) Windows 7
14 9 (0.42%) Windows Server 2008
15 6 (0.28%) Debian
15 6 (0.28%) Windows 8
16 5 (0.23%) CentOS
17 4 (0.19%) Mac OS X
17 4 (0.19%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 723 (33.85%) Problem-Solving
2 550 (25.75%) Customer Service
3 491 (22.99%) ITIL
4 400 (18.73%) Cybersecurity
5 394 (18.45%) Continuous Improvement
6 304 (14.23%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 267 (12.50%) Mentoring
8 227 (10.63%) Disaster Recovery
9 191 (8.94%) ITSM
10 185 (8.66%) Service Delivery
11 165 (7.72%) Migration
12 160 (7.49%) Project Delivery
13 147 (6.88%) Customer Experience
14 144 (6.74%) Identity Access Management
15 143 (6.69%) Vulnerability Remediation
16 137 (6.41%) Kalman Filter
17 128 (5.99%) Web Filtering
18 122 (5.71%) Change Management
19 119 (5.57%) Collaborative Working
20 115 (5.38%) Service Management
Programming Languages
1 333 (15.59%) PowerShell
2 199 (9.32%) SQL
3 71 (3.32%) Bash
4 65 (3.04%) Python
5 39 (1.83%) Bicep
6 29 (1.36%) R
7 23 (1.08%) T-SQL
8 12 (0.56%) Kusto Query Language
8 12 (0.56%) VBA
9 7 (0.33%) C#
9 7 (0.33%) Ruby
9 7 (0.33%) Shell Script
10 6 (0.28%) Korn
10 6 (0.28%) PHP
11 5 (0.23%) Java
12 4 (0.19%) VB
13 3 (0.14%) JavaScript
14 2 (0.094%) C
14 2 (0.094%) VB.NET
14 2 (0.094%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 302 (14.14%) Security Cleared
2 217 (10.16%) SC Cleared
3 202 (9.46%) Degree
4 174 (8.15%) Microsoft Certification
5 96 (4.49%) Azure Certification
6 91 (4.26%) A+ Certification
7 88 (4.12%) DV Cleared
8 87 (4.07%) Network+ Certification
9 58 (2.72%) Cisco Certification
9 58 (2.72%) CISM
9 58 (2.72%) CISSP
10 56 (2.62%) DBS Check
11 53 (2.48%) CCNA
12 24 (1.12%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 22 (1.03%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 21 (0.98%) MCSA
15 19 (0.89%) Computer Science Degree
16 14 (0.66%) CompTIA Security+
17 13 (0.61%) AWS Certification
17 13 (0.61%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 226 (10.58%) Cyber Essentials
2 170 (7.96%) SLA
3 129 (6.04%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 112 (5.24%) PCI DSS
5 46 (2.15%) GDPR
6 45 (2.11%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 37 (1.73%) NIST
8 22 (1.03%) QA
9 20 (0.94%) Data Quality
9 20 (0.94%) NCSC
10 10 (0.47%) Accessibility
11 6 (0.28%) SOC 2
12 5 (0.23%) PMO
13 4 (0.19%) GRC
13 4 (0.19%) ITGC
14 3 (0.14%) 21 CFR Part 11
14 3 (0.14%) GxP
15 2 (0.094%) ISAE 3402
15 2 (0.094%) Sarbanes-Oxley
16 1 (0.047%) ISO 22301
System Software
1 503 (23.55%) Hyper-V
2 362 (16.95%) VMware Infrastructure
3 97 (4.54%) Terminal Server
4 96 (4.49%) vSphere
5 62 (2.90%) Virtual Desktop
6 49 (2.29%) Virtual Machines
7 46 (2.15%) VMware ESXi
8 34 (1.59%) Docker
9 15 (0.70%) VMware NSX
10 14 (0.66%) Virtual Servers
11 13 (0.61%) BitLocker
11 13 (0.61%) Firmware
12 10 (0.47%) Microsoft Virtual Server
13 9 (0.42%) DFS Replication
14 8 (0.37%) Citrix Hypervisor
15 6 (0.28%) VMware Workstation
15 6 (0.28%) XenApp
16 4 (0.19%) NDS
16 4 (0.19%) Squid
17 3 (0.14%) VMware Server
Systems Management
1 535 (25.05%) Microsoft Intune
2 105 (4.92%) SCCM
3 57 (2.67%) Terraform
4 38 (1.78%) Single Sign-On
5 31 (1.45%) vCenter Server
6 30 (1.40%) Jamf Pro
6 30 (1.40%) Kubernetes
7 29 (1.36%) Ansible
7 29 (1.36%) FortiGate
8 27 (1.26%) WSUS
9 21 (0.98%) Proxmox
10 19 (0.89%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
11 15 (0.70%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 15 (0.70%) Failover Clustering
12 14 (0.66%) ZABBIX
13 11 (0.51%) Microsoft Clustering
14 8 (0.37%) Autotask
14 8 (0.37%) SCOM
15 6 (0.28%) Backup Exec
15 6 (0.28%) VxRail
Vendors
1 1,699 (79.54%) Microsoft
2 572 (26.78%) VMware
3 209 (9.78%) Veeam
4 147 (6.88%) Cisco
5 123 (5.76%) SolarWinds
6 110 (5.15%) Splunk
7 109 (5.10%) Nimble Storage
8 96 (4.49%) Brocade
8 96 (4.49%) Tanium
9 79 (3.70%) Citrix
10 76 (3.56%) Meraki
11 73 (3.42%) Apple
12 70 (3.28%) CyberArk
13 67 (3.14%) ServiceNow
14 60 (2.81%) Dell
14 60 (2.81%) HP
15 45 (2.11%) Google
16 44 (2.06%) CrowdStrike
17 39 (1.83%) SonicWALL
17 39 (1.83%) Ubiquiti