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 5 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
5 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 51 37 26
Rank change year-on-year -14 -11 +14
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 1,765 1,830 3,601
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 3.85% 5.41% 7.42%
As % of the System Software category 62.57% 43.40% 48.97%
Number of salaries quoted 1,218 1,125 3,200
10th Percentile £26,250 £25,750 £24,250
25th Percentile £28,000 £29,750 £27,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £33,500 £37,500 £35,000
Median % change year-on-year -10.67% +7.14% -4.11%
75th Percentile £47,250 £52,500 £48,750
90th Percentile £60,000 £61,250 £57,500
UK median annual salary £37,500 £42,500 £40,000
% change year-on-year -11.76% +6.25% -1.72%

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 2,821 4,217 7,353
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 6.15% 12.46% 15.16%
Number of salaries quoted 1,966 2,423 6,186
10th Percentile £26,500 £27,500 £26,000
25th Percentile £30,000 £35,000 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £50,445 £46,000
Median % change year-on-year -15.75% +9.66% -3.16%
75th Percentile £61,250 £69,500 £61,250
90th Percentile £75,000 £83,750 £75,000
UK median annual salary £50,500 £57,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -12.17% +15.00% -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 5 February 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 5 February 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 +13 476 £36,000 -15.29% 233
North of England -22 364 £33,000 -12.00% 124
South West +4 296 £32,500 -2.99% 75
Midlands -21 268 £31,500 -14.29% 90
East of England -14 186 £35,000 +7.69% 76
North West -13 167 £37,500 -6.25% 53
East Midlands +13 162 £28,750 -7.26% 43
Yorkshire -10 156 £32,500 - 54
Scotland +4 119 £28,000 -27.49% 22
West Midlands -53 105 £32,500 -18.75% 47
North East -19 41 £31,000 -13.89% 22
Wales +5 38 £34,500 -28.13% 7
Northern Ireland -14 18 £31,750 -39.52% 3
Isle of Man +9 2 £45,000 +91.49% 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
1 510 (28.90%) Microsoft Exchange
2 317 (17.96%) SharePoint
3 24 (1.36%) Exchange Server 2003
4 14 (0.79%) Confluence
5 13 (0.74%) IIS
6 10 (0.57%) Skype for Business
7 8 (0.45%) Exchange Server 2013
8 6 (0.34%) Exchange Server 2007
8 6 (0.34%) Exchange Server 2010
9 3 (0.17%) CMS
9 3 (0.17%) Tomcat
9 3 (0.17%) WebLogic
9 3 (0.17%) WebLogic Portal
10 2 (0.11%) FactoryTalk
10 2 (0.11%) WinCC
10 2 (0.11%) WordPress
11 1 (0.057%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 254 (14.39%) Microsoft Office
2 36 (2.04%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (0.28%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.23%) AutoCAD
4 4 (0.23%) CATIA
5 1 (0.057%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.057%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 20 (1.13%) Dynamics CRM
1 20 (1.13%) Oracle ERP
2 5 (0.28%) NetSuite
2 5 (0.28%) Remedy ITSM
3 4 (0.23%) Markit EDM
4 3 (0.17%) Oracle EBS
4 3 (0.17%) Primavera
5 2 (0.11%) Alphatax
5 2 (0.11%) Dynamics NAV
5 2 (0.11%) Shopify
6 1 (0.057%) Cognos Business Intelligence
6 1 (0.057%) Dynamics AX
6 1 (0.057%) Dynamics GP
6 1 (0.057%) Sage 200
Cloud Services
1 1,232 (69.80%) Microsoft 365
2 964 (54.62%) Azure
3 581 (32.92%) Entra ID
4 124 (7.03%) OneDrive
5 120 (6.80%) AWS
6 90 (5.10%) Google Workspace
7 80 (4.53%) SaaS
8 62 (3.51%) Power Platform
9 39 (2.21%) Azure DevOps
10 34 (1.93%) GCP
11 33 (1.87%) Azure Monitor
12 32 (1.81%) IaaS
13 30 (1.70%) GitHub
13 30 (1.70%) PowerApps
14 28 (1.59%) OCI
14 28 (1.59%) PaaS
15 26 (1.47%) Azure Logic Apps
16 22 (1.25%) Power Automate
17 21 (1.19%) Mimecast
18 18 (1.02%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 654 (37.05%) DNS
2 619 (35.07%) DHCP
3 409 (23.17%) Firewall
4 260 (14.73%) VPN
5 241 (13.65%) TCP/IP
6 180 (10.20%) VLAN
7 162 (9.18%) LAN
8 161 (9.12%) WAN
9 133 (7.54%) Wi-Fi
10 84 (4.76%) Wireless
11 77 (4.36%) VoIP
12 51 (2.89%) Network Security
12 51 (2.89%) SAN
13 46 (2.61%) Remote Desktop
14 44 (2.49%) Broadband
15 24 (1.36%) Internet
16 23 (1.30%) SD-WAN
17 17 (0.96%) Unified Communications
18 16 (0.91%) Ethernet
19 15 (0.85%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 131 (7.42%) Amazon RDS
2 57 (3.23%) SQL Server
3 28 (1.59%) Power BI
4 27 (1.53%) Oracle Database
5 24 (1.36%) Oracle Database 10g
6 13 (0.74%) MySQL
7 11 (0.62%) Azure SQL Database
8 8 (0.45%) PostgreSQL
9 6 (0.34%) Data Warehouse
9 6 (0.34%) Relational Database
9 6 (0.34%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 5 (0.28%) DTS
10 5 (0.28%) GIS
11 3 (0.17%) Data Mining
11 3 (0.17%) Oracle Discoverer
11 3 (0.17%) Oracle Reports
12 2 (0.11%) NoSQL
13 1 (0.057%) FileMaker
13 1 (0.057%) SQL Server Analysis Services
13 1 (0.057%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 67 (3.80%) JIRA
2 28 (1.59%) Jenkins
3 24 (1.36%) Git
4 23 (1.30%) Oracle Forms
5 7 (0.40%) GitLab
6 4 (0.23%) LabVIEW
7 3 (0.17%) Oracle APEX
7 3 (0.17%) Subversion
8 2 (0.11%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
8 2 (0.11%) Visual Studio
9 1 (0.057%) Burp Suite
9 1 (0.057%) Metasploit
9 1 (0.057%) Vagrant
General
1 868 (49.18%) Social Skills
2 227 (12.86%) Analytical Skills
3 144 (8.16%) Finance
4 135 (7.65%) Organisational Skills
5 89 (5.04%) Manufacturing
6 62 (3.51%) Retail
7 59 (3.34%) Documentation Skills
8 58 (3.29%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 55 (3.12%) Law
10 40 (2.27%) Advertising
11 37 (2.10%) Legal
12 33 (1.87%) Games
13 32 (1.81%) Public Sector
14 22 (1.25%) Marketing
15 21 (1.19%) Telecoms
16 15 (0.85%) French Language
16 15 (0.85%) Swedish Language
17 10 (0.57%) Aerospace
18 5 (0.28%) Automotive
18 5 (0.28%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 654 (37.05%) IT Support
2 436 (24.70%) Support Engineer
3 359 (20.34%) IT Engineer
4 304 (17.22%) IT Support Engineer
5 228 (12.92%) Analyst
6 188 (10.65%) 2nd Line Support
7 166 (9.41%) Support Analyst
8 155 (8.78%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 152 (8.61%) Support Technician
10 149 (8.44%) Systems Engineer
11 132 (7.48%) IT Analyst
11 132 (7.48%) Senior
12 114 (6.46%) IT Support Analyst
13 106 (6.01%) IT Technician
14 102 (5.78%) IT Support Technician
15 97 (5.50%) 3rd Line Support
16 92 (5.21%) 1st Line Support
16 92 (5.21%) 2nd Line Engineer
17 82 (4.65%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
18 77 (4.36%) Technical Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 57 (3.23%) SOAP
2 49 (2.78%) SAML
3 47 (2.66%) LDAP
3 47 (2.66%) OAuth
3 47 (2.66%) OpenID
4 39 (2.21%) REST
5 37 (2.10%) GraphQL
6 25 (1.42%) JSON
6 25 (1.42%) RESTful
6 25 (1.42%) XML
7 20 (1.13%) .NET
8 15 (0.85%) ARM Templates
9 12 (0.68%) CSS
9 12 (0.68%) HTML
9 12 (0.68%) React
10 10 (0.57%) OAuth2
11 9 (0.51%) .NET Framework
12 5 (0.28%) EDI
12 5 (0.28%) Microsoft Graph
12 5 (0.28%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 265 (15.01%) Driving Licence
2 142 (8.05%) Onboarding
3 118 (6.69%) Legacy Systems
4 77 (4.36%) Self-Motivation
5 64 (3.63%) Enterprise Software
6 40 (2.27%) Cyberattack
7 39 (2.21%) Cyber Threat
8 36 (2.04%) Data Centre
9 35 (1.98%) Cloud Native
10 34 (1.93%) Management Information System
11 32 (1.81%) Hybrid Cloud
12 27 (1.53%) Replication
13 18 (1.02%) iPad
13 18 (1.02%) Video Conferencing
14 16 (0.91%) Client/Server
14 16 (0.91%) Public Cloud
15 15 (0.85%) CMDB
16 14 (0.79%) Linux Command Line
16 14 (0.79%) PKI
16 14 (0.79%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 1,236 (70.03%) Windows
2 770 (43.63%) Windows Server
3 259 (14.67%) Windows 10
4 231 (13.09%) Linux
5 168 (9.52%) Windows Server 2016
6 88 (4.99%) Mac OS
7 71 (4.02%) Apple iOS
8 66 (3.74%) Windows Server 2019
9 65 (3.68%) Android
10 35 (1.98%) Windows 7
11 33 (1.87%) Windows Server 2008
11 33 (1.87%) Windows Server 2012
12 29 (1.64%) Unix
13 24 (1.36%) HPUX
13 24 (1.36%) Solaris
13 24 (1.36%) Windows Server 2003
14 14 (0.79%) VMS
15 8 (0.45%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
15 8 (0.45%) Windows 8
16 6 (0.34%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 674 (38.19%) Problem-Solving
2 554 (31.39%) Customer Service
3 369 (20.91%) ITIL
4 237 (13.43%) Cybersecurity
5 235 (13.31%) Mentoring
6 203 (11.50%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 189 (10.71%) Continuous Improvement
8 185 (10.48%) Migration
9 167 (9.46%) ITSM
10 143 (8.10%) Service Delivery
11 139 (7.88%) Vulnerability Remediation
12 127 (7.20%) Kalman Filter
13 126 (7.14%) Coaching
14 125 (7.08%) Web Filtering
15 122 (6.91%) Customer Experience
16 119 (6.74%) Disaster Recovery
17 118 (6.69%) Incident Management
18 116 (6.57%) Email Filtering
19 114 (6.46%) Vulnerability Scanning
20 109 (6.18%) Asset Management
Programming Languages
1 297 (16.83%) PowerShell
2 138 (7.82%) SQL
3 74 (4.19%) Bash
4 55 (3.12%) Python
5 44 (2.49%) T-SQL
6 23 (1.30%) Java
6 23 (1.30%) Perl
6 23 (1.30%) PL/SQL
7 22 (1.25%) Shell Script
8 18 (1.02%) JavaScript
9 15 (0.85%) C#
10 10 (0.57%) VB
11 7 (0.40%) Bicep
12 5 (0.28%) VBA
13 4 (0.23%) R
14 3 (0.17%) Groovy
15 2 (0.11%) TypeScript
16 1 (0.057%) PHP
16 1 (0.057%) VB.NET
16 1 (0.057%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 253 (14.33%) Security Cleared
2 210 (11.90%) SC Cleared
3 163 (9.24%) Microsoft Certification
4 158 (8.95%) Degree
5 65 (3.68%) DV Cleared
6 54 (3.06%) DBS Check
7 42 (2.38%) Azure Certification
8 41 (2.32%) A+ Certification
9 39 (2.21%) Cisco Certification
10 32 (1.81%) CCNA
11 31 (1.76%) MCSE
11 31 (1.76%) Microsoft Certified Professional
12 26 (1.47%) Network+ Certification
13 20 (1.13%) HND
13 20 (1.13%) ITIL Certification
14 18 (1.02%) HNC
15 17 (0.96%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
16 14 (0.79%) MCSA
17 12 (0.68%) Computer Science Degree
18 11 (0.62%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 165 (9.35%) Cyber Essentials
2 132 (7.48%) SLA
3 120 (6.80%) PCI DSS
4 83 (4.70%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 54 (3.06%) GDPR
6 50 (2.83%) NIST
7 37 (2.10%) NCSC
8 15 (0.85%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 11 (0.62%) QA
10 8 (0.45%) Accessibility
11 5 (0.28%) Data Quality
11 5 (0.28%) GxP
11 5 (0.28%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 4 (0.23%) 21 CFR Part 11
12 4 (0.23%) ISO 22301
13 2 (0.11%) Disclosure Scotland
13 2 (0.11%) PMO
14 1 (0.057%) GRC
14 1 (0.057%) ISO 9001
14 1 (0.057%) ITGC
System Software
1 367 (20.79%) Hyper-V
2 235 (13.31%) VMware Infrastructure
3 114 (6.46%) Terminal Server
4 51 (2.89%) Virtual Desktop
5 45 (2.55%) vSphere
6 37 (2.10%) VMware ESXi
7 23 (1.30%) Virtual Machines
8 16 (0.91%) Docker
9 15 (0.85%) Firmware
10 11 (0.62%) BitLocker
11 7 (0.40%) Virtual Servers
11 7 (0.40%) VMware NSX
11 7 (0.40%) VMware Workstation
12 5 (0.28%) XenApp
13 4 (0.23%) Terminal Services
14 3 (0.17%) Lustre
14 3 (0.17%) Slurm Workload Manager
15 2 (0.11%) DFS Replication
16 1 (0.057%) Microsoft Virtual Server
16 1 (0.057%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 367 (20.79%) Microsoft Intune
2 129 (7.31%) SCCM
3 55 (3.12%) Terraform
4 48 (2.72%) Single Sign-On
5 40 (2.27%) vCenter Server
6 24 (1.36%) Jamf Pro
7 23 (1.30%) WSUS
8 20 (1.13%) Ansible
8 20 (1.13%) Autotask
9 18 (1.02%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 17 (0.96%) FortiGate
11 16 (0.91%) Kubernetes
11 16 (0.91%) SCOM
12 10 (0.57%) ZABBIX
13 9 (0.51%) Failover Clustering
13 9 (0.51%) Nagios
14 7 (0.40%) SCVMM
15 6 (0.34%) Backup Exec
15 6 (0.34%) McAfee ePO
15 6 (0.34%) SmoothWall
Vendors
1 1,311 (74.28%) Microsoft
2 478 (27.08%) VMware
3 195 (11.05%) Veeam
4 153 (8.67%) SolarWinds
5 128 (7.25%) Nimble Storage
6 126 (7.14%) Splunk
7 117 (6.63%) Tanium
8 112 (6.35%) Brocade
9 105 (5.95%) Cisco
10 86 (4.87%) Apple
11 72 (4.08%) ServiceNow
12 71 (4.02%) Citrix
13 70 (3.97%) Google
14 53 (3.00%) HP
15 50 (2.83%) Oracle
16 40 (2.27%) Dell
17 38 (2.15%) Meraki
18 24 (1.36%) Fortinet
18 24 (1.36%) SonicWALL
19 22 (1.25%) Okta