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 30 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 54 43 30
Rank change year-on-year -11 -13 +9
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 1,998 1,688 4,465
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 2.88% 5.36% 5.83%
As % of the System Software category 53.10% 40.48% 51.56%
Number of salaries quoted 1,577 1,344 3,585
10th Percentile £26,500 £25,825 £23,750
25th Percentile £29,000 £28,000 £26,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £37,500 £35,000 £35,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% - -4.11%
75th Percentile £48,750 £48,750 £48,500
90th Percentile £63,750 £61,250 £58,160
UK median annual salary £40,000 £38,500 £37,500
% change year-on-year +3.90% +2.67% -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 3,763 4,170 8,659
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 5.42% 13.25% 11.30%
Number of salaries quoted 2,900 2,462 6,775
10th Percentile £28,000 £26,500 £25,750
25th Percentile £32,250 £31,250 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £47,500 £46,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year +3.26% +2.22% -5.26%
75th Percentile £65,000 £67,500 £60,000
90th Percentile £77,500 £82,751 £72,500
UK median annual salary £52,500 £52,500 £49,500
% change year-on-year - +6.06% -10.00%

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 30 June 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 30 June 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 0 499 £40,000 - 154
North of England -5 482 £34,000 +6.25% 125
Midlands -30 337 £35,000 - 68
South West -16 265 £37,500 +9.49% 61
North West +59 236 £37,500 - 64
East of England +7 233 £35,000 +7.69% 56
Yorkshire -22 194 £32,500 +8.33% 51
East Midlands -3 176 £32,500 +3.17% 40
West Midlands -41 160 £37,500 -3.85% 28
Scotland +83 103 £28,500 -18.57% 26
Wales -10 62 £45,000 +18.13% 15
North East -46 52 £42,500 +32.81% 17
Northern Ireland -22 13 £32,000 -39.05% 13
Isle of Man +4 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
1 562 (28.13%) Microsoft Exchange
2 423 (21.17%) SharePoint
3 38 (1.90%) IIS
4 15 (0.75%) Confluence
5 11 (0.55%) Exchange Server 2013
6 9 (0.45%) Exchange Server 2007
6 9 (0.45%) Exchange Server 2010
7 8 (0.40%) Skype for Business
8 5 (0.25%) Apache
9 4 (0.20%) CMS
10 3 (0.15%) SAS
11 1 (0.050%) Drupal
11 1 (0.050%) nginx
11 1 (0.050%) Site Server
11 1 (0.050%) WordPress
Applications
1 212 (10.61%) Microsoft Office
2 43 (2.15%) Microsoft Excel
3 13 (0.65%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.15%) Adobe Creative Suite
4 3 (0.15%) Spreadsheet
5 1 (0.050%) AutoCAD
5 1 (0.050%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 17 (0.85%) Dynamics CRM
2 13 (0.65%) Dynamics NAV
3 9 (0.45%) Remedy ITSM
4 5 (0.25%) NetSuite
5 4 (0.20%) Dynamics GP
5 4 (0.20%) Exchequer
5 4 (0.20%) Primavera
5 4 (0.20%) Raiser’s Edge
6 3 (0.15%) Salesforce CRM
7 2 (0.10%) Alphatax
7 2 (0.10%) JDE EnterpriseOne
7 2 (0.10%) SAP S/4HANA
8 1 (0.050%) Dynamics AX
8 1 (0.050%) Magento
8 1 (0.050%) Oracle Payables
8 1 (0.050%) SAP EHS
8 1 (0.050%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 1,409 (70.52%) Microsoft 365
2 1,085 (54.30%) Azure
3 770 (38.54%) Entra ID
4 143 (7.16%) OneDrive
5 141 (7.06%) AWS
6 100 (5.01%) SaaS
7 83 (4.15%) Power Platform
8 66 (3.30%) Google Workspace
9 63 (3.15%) IaaS
10 55 (2.75%) PaaS
11 53 (2.65%) Mimecast
12 42 (2.10%) Azure DevOps
13 30 (1.50%) Azure Monitor
13 30 (1.50%) Microsoft Purview
13 30 (1.50%) Nutanix
14 28 (1.40%) Serverless
15 26 (1.30%) Azure Sentinel
16 25 (1.25%) PowerApps
17 22 (1.10%) Azure Functions
18 21 (1.05%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 669 (33.48%) DNS
2 561 (28.08%) DHCP
3 524 (26.23%) Firewall
4 336 (16.82%) VPN
5 224 (11.21%) TCP/IP
6 204 (10.21%) WAN
7 199 (9.96%) LAN
8 197 (9.86%) Wi-Fi
9 195 (9.76%) VLAN
10 120 (6.01%) VoIP
11 105 (5.26%) Wireless
12 81 (4.05%) Network Security
13 76 (3.80%) SAN
14 51 (2.55%) Remote Desktop
15 35 (1.75%) Broadband
16 29 (1.45%) NAS
17 24 (1.20%) Internet
18 20 (1.00%) SD-WAN
19 17 (0.85%) SSL
20 15 (0.75%) Structured Cabling
Database & Business Intelligence
1 116 (5.81%) SQL Server
2 93 (4.65%) Amazon RDS
3 46 (2.30%) Power BI
4 30 (1.50%) Azure SQL Database
4 30 (1.50%) PostgreSQL
5 27 (1.35%) MySQL
6 9 (0.45%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 6 (0.30%) Crystal Reports
8 5 (0.25%) GIS
8 5 (0.25%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 4 (0.20%) Neo4j
10 3 (0.15%) Oracle Database
11 2 (0.10%) BusinessObjects
11 2 (0.10%) Data Lake
11 2 (0.10%) Data Warehouse
11 2 (0.10%) KNIME
11 2 (0.10%) Relational Database
12 1 (0.050%) InterSystems Cache
12 1 (0.050%) RDBMS
12 1 (0.050%) Redis
Development Applications
1 79 (3.95%) JIRA
2 23 (1.15%) Git
3 11 (0.55%) GitLab
4 5 (0.25%) Jenkins
4 5 (0.25%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
5 4 (0.20%) Bitbucket
6 2 (0.10%) Burp Suite
6 2 (0.10%) Metasploit
6 2 (0.10%) Subversion
6 2 (0.10%) Terragrunt
7 1 (0.050%) Carbide.c++
7 1 (0.050%) Gatling
7 1 (0.050%) JMeter
7 1 (0.050%) LabVIEW
7 1 (0.050%) Ranorex
7 1 (0.050%) Selenium
7 1 (0.050%) Sonatype Nexus
7 1 (0.050%) Team Foundation Server
7 1 (0.050%) Vagrant
General
1 857 (42.89%) Social Skills
2 212 (10.61%) Analytical Skills
3 137 (6.86%) Organisational Skills
4 120 (6.01%) Finance
5 72 (3.60%) Legal
6 70 (3.50%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 67 (3.35%) Manufacturing
8 66 (3.30%) Law
9 63 (3.15%) Documentation Skills
10 58 (2.90%) Public Sector
11 48 (2.40%) Retail
12 42 (2.10%) Telecoms
13 28 (1.40%) Games
14 24 (1.20%) Advertising
15 21 (1.05%) Local Government
16 14 (0.70%) Aerospace
17 12 (0.60%) Automotive
18 9 (0.45%) Influencing Skills
18 9 (0.45%) Marketing
19 6 (0.30%) Banking
Job Titles
1 771 (38.59%) IT Support
2 530 (26.53%) Support Engineer
3 492 (24.62%) IT Engineer
4 408 (20.42%) IT Support Engineer
5 330 (16.52%) Analyst
6 221 (11.06%) Support Analyst
7 196 (9.81%) Senior
8 189 (9.46%) Support Technician
9 186 (9.31%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 181 (9.06%) IT Technician
11 163 (8.16%) 2nd Line Support
12 161 (8.06%) IT Support Technician
13 154 (7.71%) Systems Engineer
14 151 (7.56%) IT Analyst
15 135 (6.76%) IT Support Analyst
16 97 (4.85%) 2nd Line Engineer
17 82 (4.10%) 3rd Line Support
18 81 (4.05%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
19 79 (3.95%) Architect
20 76 (3.80%) 1st Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 51 (2.55%) LDAP
2 38 (1.90%) SAML
3 33 (1.65%) OpenID
4 31 (1.55%) OAuth
5 30 (1.50%) REST
6 25 (1.25%) GraphQL
6 25 (1.25%) SOAP
7 22 (1.10%) Regular Expression
8 18 (0.90%) XMPP
9 14 (0.70%) JSON
9 14 (0.70%) XML
10 11 (0.55%) .NET
10 11 (0.55%) ARM Templates
11 9 (0.45%) HTML
11 9 (0.45%) Microsoft Graph
11 9 (0.45%) Web Services
12 7 (0.35%) Middleware
13 6 (0.30%) JSON Schema
14 5 (0.25%) FreeSWITCH
15 4 (0.20%) boto
Miscellaneous
1 283 (14.16%) Driving Licence
2 138 (6.91%) Onboarding
3 120 (6.01%) Self-Motivation
4 87 (4.35%) Hybrid Cloud
5 86 (4.30%) Legacy Systems
6 67 (3.35%) Data Centre
7 63 (3.15%) Management Information System
8 43 (2.15%) PKI
8 43 (2.15%) Public Cloud
9 42 (2.10%) Clustering
10 37 (1.85%) Replication
11 32 (1.60%) Cyber Threat
12 30 (1.50%) Security Posture
13 29 (1.45%) Cyberattack
13 29 (1.45%) Enterprise Software
14 28 (1.40%) Cloud Native
15 27 (1.35%) CCTV
16 16 (0.80%) Client/Server
17 15 (0.75%) Data Structures
17 15 (0.75%) Enterprise Storage
Operating Systems
1 1,446 (72.37%) Windows
2 864 (43.24%) Windows Server
3 314 (15.72%) Windows 10
4 261 (13.06%) Linux
5 160 (8.01%) Windows Server 2016
6 130 (6.51%) Mac OS
7 93 (4.65%) Windows Server 2019
8 72 (3.60%) Apple iOS
9 67 (3.35%) Android
10 38 (1.90%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 32 (1.60%) Windows Server 2012
12 26 (1.30%) VMS
13 15 (0.75%) Windows 7
14 12 (0.60%) Windows Server 2008
15 9 (0.45%) Ubuntu
16 7 (0.35%) Windows 8
17 5 (0.25%) CentOS
17 5 (0.25%) Debian
18 4 (0.20%) Mac OS X
18 4 (0.20%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 682 (34.13%) Problem-Solving
2 500 (25.03%) Customer Service
3 435 (21.77%) ITIL
4 331 (16.57%) Cybersecurity
5 321 (16.07%) Continuous Improvement
6 268 (13.41%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 221 (11.06%) Mentoring
8 213 (10.66%) Disaster Recovery
9 185 (9.26%) Service Delivery
10 180 (9.01%) ITSM
11 144 (7.21%) Migration
12 133 (6.66%) Project Delivery
13 121 (6.06%) Vulnerability Remediation
14 119 (5.96%) Change Management
15 114 (5.71%) Customer Experience
16 113 (5.66%) Kalman Filter
17 110 (5.51%) Incident Management
18 106 (5.31%) Web Filtering
19 103 (5.16%) Root Cause Analysis
19 103 (5.16%) Service Management
Programming Languages
1 335 (16.77%) PowerShell
2 200 (10.01%) SQL
3 83 (4.15%) Bash
4 61 (3.05%) Python
5 37 (1.85%) T-SQL
6 34 (1.70%) Bicep
7 25 (1.25%) R
8 12 (0.60%) Kusto Query Language
9 10 (0.50%) VBA
10 9 (0.45%) C#
11 7 (0.35%) VB
12 6 (0.30%) Korn
12 6 (0.30%) PHP
12 6 (0.30%) Shell Script
13 5 (0.25%) Java
13 5 (0.25%) JavaScript
14 3 (0.15%) Ruby
15 2 (0.10%) C
15 2 (0.10%) VB.NET
15 2 (0.10%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 274 (13.71%) Security Cleared
2 198 (9.91%) Degree
3 183 (9.16%) Microsoft Certification
4 181 (9.06%) SC Cleared
5 93 (4.65%) Azure Certification
6 84 (4.20%) DV Cleared
7 57 (2.85%) DBS Check
8 51 (2.55%) Cisco Certification
9 47 (2.35%) CCNA
10 46 (2.30%) A+ Certification
11 34 (1.70%) Network+ Certification
12 32 (1.60%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 21 (1.05%) MCSA
14 20 (1.00%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
15 19 (0.95%) Computer Science Degree
16 16 (0.80%) HNC
17 14 (0.70%) CompTIA Security+
17 14 (0.70%) ITIL Certification
18 13 (0.65%) MCSE
19 12 (0.60%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 191 (9.56%) Cyber Essentials
2 181 (9.06%) SLA
3 133 (6.66%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 88 (4.40%) PCI DSS
5 48 (2.40%) NIST
6 47 (2.35%) GDPR
7 43 (2.15%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 30 (1.50%) NCSC
9 22 (1.10%) QA
10 21 (1.05%) Data Quality
11 9 (0.45%) Accessibility
12 6 (0.30%) SOC 2
13 5 (0.25%) PMO
14 4 (0.20%) 21 CFR Part 11
14 4 (0.20%) GRC
14 4 (0.20%) GxP
14 4 (0.20%) ITGC
15 3 (0.15%) ISO 22301
16 2 (0.10%) ISAE 3402
16 2 (0.10%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 456 (22.82%) Hyper-V
2 350 (17.52%) VMware Infrastructure
3 99 (4.95%) vSphere
4 74 (3.70%) Terminal Server
5 63 (3.15%) Virtual Desktop
6 50 (2.50%) VMware ESXi
7 48 (2.40%) Virtual Machines
8 34 (1.70%) Docker
9 17 (0.85%) VMware NSX
10 14 (0.70%) BitLocker
11 12 (0.60%) Firmware
12 11 (0.55%) Virtual Servers
13 9 (0.45%) DFS Replication
14 8 (0.40%) Citrix Hypervisor
15 7 (0.35%) Microsoft Virtual Server
15 7 (0.35%) VMware Workstation
16 6 (0.30%) XenApp
17 4 (0.20%) Squid
18 3 (0.15%) VMware Server
19 2 (0.10%) Samba
Systems Management
1 428 (21.42%) Microsoft Intune
2 105 (5.26%) SCCM
3 48 (2.40%) Terraform
4 36 (1.80%) vCenter Server
5 33 (1.65%) Single Sign-On
6 30 (1.50%) Jamf Pro
7 29 (1.45%) FortiGate
8 27 (1.35%) WSUS
9 26 (1.30%) Ansible
10 24 (1.20%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 23 (1.15%) Kubernetes
12 22 (1.10%) Proxmox
13 16 (0.80%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
14 11 (0.55%) Autotask
14 11 (0.55%) Failover Clustering
15 10 (0.50%) ZABBIX
16 9 (0.45%) Backup Exec
16 9 (0.45%) SCOM
17 7 (0.35%) Microsoft Clustering
18 6 (0.30%) VxRail
Vendors
1 1,542 (77.18%) Microsoft
2 538 (26.93%) VMware
3 180 (9.01%) Veeam
4 124 (6.21%) Cisco
5 101 (5.06%) SolarWinds
6 91 (4.55%) Nimble Storage
7 87 (4.35%) Splunk
8 82 (4.10%) Citrix
9 77 (3.85%) Apple
10 76 (3.80%) ServiceNow
11 72 (3.60%) Brocade
11 72 (3.60%) Tanium
12 65 (3.25%) Meraki
13 64 (3.20%) Dell
14 62 (3.10%) HP
15 53 (2.65%) Google
16 39 (1.95%) CrowdStrike
17 36 (1.80%) McAfee
18 34 (1.70%) Red Hat
18 34 (1.70%) SonicWALL