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

6 months to
17 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 55 44 30
Rank change year-on-year -11 -14 +10
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 1,883 1,611 4,528
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 2.80% 5.41% 5.73%
As % of the System Software category 53.68% 39.72% 51.08%
Number of salaries quoted 1,465 1,259 3,630
10th Percentile £26,425 £25,750 £23,500
25th Percentile £29,000 £27,750 £26,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £35,500 £35,000 £35,000
Median % change year-on-year +1.43% - -4.59%
75th Percentile £47,500 £47,500 £48,500
90th Percentile £64,200 £58,800 £58,053
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 3,508 4,056 8,865
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 5.21% 13.63% 11.23%
Number of salaries quoted 2,670 2,352 6,928
10th Percentile £27,750 £26,500 £25,500
25th Percentile £32,000 £31,250 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £46,080 £46,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year +0.17% +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 £50,000
% change year-on-year - +5.00% -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 17 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 17 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
North of England -2 458 £35,000 +12.90% 102
South East -1 454 £40,000 - 179
Midlands -32 313 £35,000 +1.45% 82
South West -8 265 £35,000 +7.69% 61
North West +54 225 £37,500 - 58
East of England +4 214 £35,000 +7.69% 56
Yorkshire -32 184 £32,500 +8.33% 35
East Midlands -6 162 £32,500 +3.17% 45
West Midlands -42 150 £37,500 +7.14% 37
Scotland +75 100 £29,000 -38.95% 29
Wales +1 60 £45,000 +18.13% 12
North East -49 49 £42,500 +32.81% 12
Northern Ireland -21 13 £32,000 -37.56% 16
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
1 515 (27.35%) Microsoft Exchange
2 391 (20.76%) SharePoint
3 34 (1.81%) IIS
4 16 (0.85%) Confluence
5 11 (0.58%) Exchange Server 2013
6 9 (0.48%) Exchange Server 2007
6 9 (0.48%) Exchange Server 2010
7 6 (0.32%) Skype for Business
8 4 (0.21%) Apache
8 4 (0.21%) CMS
9 3 (0.16%) SAS
10 1 (0.053%) Drupal
10 1 (0.053%) nginx
10 1 (0.053%) Site Server
10 1 (0.053%) WordPress
Applications
1 205 (10.89%) Microsoft Office
2 41 (2.18%) Microsoft Excel
3 11 (0.58%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.16%) Adobe Creative Suite
4 3 (0.16%) Spreadsheet
5 1 (0.053%) AutoCAD
5 1 (0.053%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 17 (0.90%) Dynamics CRM
2 13 (0.69%) Dynamics NAV
3 8 (0.42%) Remedy ITSM
4 6 (0.32%) NetSuite
5 4 (0.21%) Dynamics GP
5 4 (0.21%) Exchequer
5 4 (0.21%) Primavera
6 3 (0.16%) Salesforce CRM
7 2 (0.11%) Alphatax
7 2 (0.11%) SAP S/4HANA
8 1 (0.053%) Dynamics AX
8 1 (0.053%) Magento
8 1 (0.053%) Markit EDM
8 1 (0.053%) Oracle ERP
8 1 (0.053%) Oracle Payables
8 1 (0.053%) SAP EHS
8 1 (0.053%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 1,324 (70.31%) Microsoft 365
2 1,034 (54.91%) Azure
3 709 (37.65%) Entra ID
4 140 (7.43%) OneDrive
5 134 (7.12%) AWS
6 91 (4.83%) SaaS
7 83 (4.41%) Power Platform
8 79 (4.20%) Google Workspace
9 56 (2.97%) IaaS
10 48 (2.55%) PaaS
11 43 (2.28%) Mimecast
12 35 (1.86%) Azure DevOps
13 30 (1.59%) Nutanix
14 26 (1.38%) Azure Monitor
14 26 (1.38%) Microsoft Purview
15 25 (1.33%) Azure Sentinel
15 25 (1.33%) PowerApps
16 21 (1.12%) Dynamics 365
16 21 (1.12%) Serverless
17 16 (0.85%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 637 (33.83%) DNS
2 535 (28.41%) DHCP
3 489 (25.97%) Firewall
4 301 (15.99%) VPN
5 197 (10.46%) TCP/IP
6 188 (9.98%) WAN
7 183 (9.72%) LAN
8 176 (9.35%) Wi-Fi
9 167 (8.87%) VLAN
10 110 (5.84%) VoIP
11 86 (4.57%) Wireless
12 76 (4.04%) Network Security
13 75 (3.98%) SAN
14 52 (2.76%) Remote Desktop
15 40 (2.12%) Broadband
16 29 (1.54%) NAS
17 22 (1.17%) Internet
18 20 (1.06%) SD-WAN
19 16 (0.85%) SSL
20 13 (0.69%) NetScaler
Database & Business Intelligence
1 105 (5.58%) SQL Server
2 102 (5.42%) Amazon RDS
3 44 (2.34%) Power BI
4 30 (1.59%) PostgreSQL
5 26 (1.38%) MySQL
6 22 (1.17%) Azure SQL Database
7 9 (0.48%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 8 (0.42%) GIS
9 5 (0.27%) Crystal Reports
9 5 (0.27%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 4 (0.21%) Neo4j
11 3 (0.16%) Oracle Database
12 2 (0.11%) Data Warehouse
12 2 (0.11%) Relational Database
13 1 (0.053%) BusinessObjects
13 1 (0.053%) Data Lake
13 1 (0.053%) KNIME
13 1 (0.053%) Metadata
13 1 (0.053%) RDBMS
13 1 (0.053%) Redis
Development Applications
1 72 (3.82%) JIRA
2 16 (0.85%) Git
3 11 (0.58%) GitLab
4 5 (0.27%) Jenkins
4 5 (0.27%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
5 4 (0.21%) Bitbucket
6 2 (0.11%) Burp Suite
6 2 (0.11%) LabVIEW
6 2 (0.11%) Metasploit
6 2 (0.11%) Subversion
6 2 (0.11%) Terragrunt
7 1 (0.053%) Carbide.c++
7 1 (0.053%) Gatling
7 1 (0.053%) JMeter
7 1 (0.053%) Oracle Forms
7 1 (0.053%) Ranorex
7 1 (0.053%) Selenium
7 1 (0.053%) Team Foundation Server
7 1 (0.053%) Vagrant
General
1 807 (42.86%) Social Skills
2 212 (11.26%) Analytical Skills
3 140 (7.43%) Organisational Skills
4 117 (6.21%) Finance
5 68 (3.61%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 63 (3.35%) Legal
7 62 (3.29%) Manufacturing
8 58 (3.08%) Law
9 57 (3.03%) Documentation Skills
10 55 (2.92%) Public Sector
11 44 (2.34%) Retail
12 35 (1.86%) Telecoms
13 33 (1.75%) Games
14 26 (1.38%) Advertising
15 20 (1.06%) Local Government
16 13 (0.69%) Aerospace
17 9 (0.48%) Automotive
17 9 (0.48%) Influencing Skills
17 9 (0.48%) Marketing
18 4 (0.21%) Dutch Language
Job Titles
1 714 (37.92%) IT Support
2 492 (26.13%) Support Engineer
3 448 (23.79%) IT Engineer
4 373 (19.81%) IT Support Engineer
5 306 (16.25%) Analyst
6 208 (11.05%) Support Analyst
7 183 (9.72%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 182 (9.67%) Senior
9 179 (9.51%) Support Technician
10 167 (8.87%) IT Technician
11 154 (8.18%) 2nd Line Support
12 150 (7.97%) IT Support Technician
13 149 (7.91%) Systems Engineer
14 139 (7.38%) IT Analyst
15 123 (6.53%) IT Support Analyst
16 91 (4.83%) 2nd Line Engineer
17 76 (4.04%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
17 76 (4.04%) Architect
18 72 (3.82%) 3rd Line Support
19 70 (3.72%) 1st Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 57 (3.03%) LDAP
2 44 (2.34%) SAML
3 39 (2.07%) OpenID
4 38 (2.02%) OAuth
5 37 (1.96%) REST
6 33 (1.75%) SOAP
7 32 (1.70%) GraphQL
8 22 (1.17%) Regular Expression
9 18 (0.96%) XMPP
10 15 (0.80%) JSON
10 15 (0.80%) XML
11 10 (0.53%) .NET
11 10 (0.53%) ARM Templates
12 8 (0.42%) Microsoft Graph
13 7 (0.37%) Middleware
13 7 (0.37%) Web Services
14 6 (0.32%) JSON Schema
15 5 (0.27%) FreeSWITCH
15 5 (0.27%) HTML
16 4 (0.21%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 257 (13.65%) Driving Licence
2 128 (6.80%) Onboarding
3 97 (5.15%) Self-Motivation
4 91 (4.83%) Legacy Systems
5 77 (4.09%) Hybrid Cloud
6 60 (3.19%) Data Centre
6 60 (3.19%) Management Information System
7 37 (1.96%) Cyber Threat
7 37 (1.96%) Public Cloud
8 36 (1.91%) Cyberattack
9 35 (1.86%) PKI
9 35 (1.86%) Replication
10 34 (1.81%) Clustering
11 29 (1.54%) Cloud Native
12 26 (1.38%) Enterprise Software
13 21 (1.12%) CCTV
13 21 (1.12%) Security Posture
14 16 (0.85%) Client/Server
15 15 (0.80%) Data Structures
16 13 (0.69%) Enterprise Storage
Operating Systems
1 1,360 (72.23%) Windows
2 817 (43.39%) Windows Server
3 295 (15.67%) Windows 10
4 264 (14.02%) Linux
5 161 (8.55%) Windows Server 2016
6 118 (6.27%) Mac OS
7 89 (4.73%) Windows Server 2019
8 75 (3.98%) Apple iOS
9 66 (3.51%) Android
10 38 (2.02%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 34 (1.81%) Windows Server 2012
12 19 (1.01%) VMS
13 13 (0.69%) Windows 7
14 12 (0.64%) Windows Server 2008
15 8 (0.42%) Ubuntu
16 7 (0.37%) Windows 8
17 5 (0.27%) CentOS
17 5 (0.27%) Debian
18 4 (0.21%) Mac OS X
18 4 (0.21%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 640 (33.99%) Problem-Solving
2 472 (25.07%) Customer Service
3 418 (22.20%) ITIL
4 310 (16.46%) Cybersecurity
5 290 (15.40%) Continuous Improvement
6 251 (13.33%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 202 (10.73%) Mentoring
8 189 (10.04%) Disaster Recovery
9 171 (9.08%) ITSM
10 170 (9.03%) Service Delivery
11 149 (7.91%) Migration
12 127 (6.74%) Vulnerability Remediation
13 118 (6.27%) Kalman Filter
14 117 (6.21%) Customer Experience
15 111 (5.89%) Web Filtering
16 110 (5.84%) Project Delivery
17 107 (5.68%) Change Management
18 98 (5.20%) Service Management
19 96 (5.10%) Incident Management
20 95 (5.05%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 317 (16.83%) PowerShell
2 180 (9.56%) SQL
3 85 (4.51%) Bash
4 57 (3.03%) Python
5 43 (2.28%) T-SQL
6 23 (1.22%) Bicep
7 18 (0.96%) R
8 9 (0.48%) C#
9 8 (0.42%) VBA
10 7 (0.37%) Shell Script
10 7 (0.37%) VB
11 6 (0.32%) Java
11 6 (0.32%) Korn
11 6 (0.32%) Kusto Query Language
12 5 (0.27%) JavaScript
13 4 (0.21%) PHP
14 2 (0.11%) C
14 2 (0.11%) PL/SQL
14 2 (0.11%) VB.NET
15 1 (0.053%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 278 (14.76%) Security Cleared
2 187 (9.93%) Degree
3 184 (9.77%) SC Cleared
4 164 (8.71%) Microsoft Certification
5 82 (4.35%) DV Cleared
6 74 (3.93%) Azure Certification
7 57 (3.03%) DBS Check
8 47 (2.50%) A+ Certification
9 41 (2.18%) Cisco Certification
10 39 (2.07%) CCNA
11 36 (1.91%) Network+ Certification
12 32 (1.70%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 20 (1.06%) Computer Science Degree
13 20 (1.06%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 16 (0.85%) CompTIA Security+
14 16 (0.85%) ITIL Certification
14 16 (0.85%) MCSA
15 15 (0.80%) HNC
16 13 (0.69%) MCSE
17 9 (0.48%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 188 (9.98%) Cyber Essentials
2 173 (9.19%) SLA
3 125 (6.64%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 97 (5.15%) PCI DSS
5 58 (3.08%) NIST
6 40 (2.12%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 39 (2.07%) GDPR
8 36 (1.91%) NCSC
9 21 (1.12%) Data Quality
10 20 (1.06%) QA
11 10 (0.53%) Accessibility
12 6 (0.32%) SOC 2
13 5 (0.27%) PMO
14 4 (0.21%) 21 CFR Part 11
14 4 (0.21%) GRC
14 4 (0.21%) GxP
14 4 (0.21%) ITGC
15 3 (0.16%) ISO 22301
15 3 (0.16%) Sarbanes-Oxley
16 1 (0.053%) ISAE 3402
System Software
1 424 (22.52%) Hyper-V
2 322 (17.10%) VMware Infrastructure
3 87 (4.62%) vSphere
4 82 (4.35%) Terminal Server
5 57 (3.03%) Virtual Desktop
6 50 (2.66%) VMware ESXi
7 40 (2.12%) Virtual Machines
8 33 (1.75%) Docker
9 18 (0.96%) VMware NSX
10 15 (0.80%) BitLocker
11 11 (0.58%) Virtual Servers
12 9 (0.48%) DFS Replication
13 8 (0.42%) Citrix Hypervisor
13 8 (0.42%) VMware Workstation
14 7 (0.37%) Firmware
14 7 (0.37%) Microsoft Virtual Server
15 6 (0.32%) XenApp
16 4 (0.21%) Squid
17 2 (0.11%) Samba
17 2 (0.11%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 395 (20.98%) Microsoft Intune
2 106 (5.63%) SCCM
3 40 (2.12%) Terraform
4 38 (2.02%) vCenter Server
5 35 (1.86%) Single Sign-On
6 30 (1.59%) Jamf Pro
7 28 (1.49%) WSUS
8 27 (1.43%) FortiGate
9 26 (1.38%) Ansible
10 24 (1.27%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 22 (1.17%) Proxmox
12 20 (1.06%) Kubernetes
13 14 (0.74%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
14 11 (0.58%) Autotask
15 10 (0.53%) ZABBIX
16 9 (0.48%) Backup Exec
17 8 (0.42%) SCOM
18 7 (0.37%) VxRail
19 5 (0.27%) Graylog
19 5 (0.27%) Packer
Vendors
1 1,426 (75.73%) Microsoft
2 521 (27.67%) VMware
3 185 (9.82%) Veeam
4 112 (5.95%) Cisco
5 109 (5.79%) SolarWinds
6 99 (5.26%) Nimble Storage
6 99 (5.26%) Splunk
7 84 (4.46%) Citrix
8 81 (4.30%) Apple
9 80 (4.25%) Brocade
9 80 (4.25%) Tanium
10 72 (3.82%) ServiceNow
11 60 (3.19%) Meraki
12 59 (3.13%) Dell
12 59 (3.13%) Google
12 59 (3.13%) HP
13 36 (1.91%) McAfee
14 35 (1.86%) Red Hat
15 31 (1.65%) CrowdStrike
15 31 (1.65%) Ubiquiti