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

6 months to
21 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 61 38 29
Rank change year-on-year -23 -9 +13
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 1,756 1,448 4,497
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 2.76% 5.44% 6.71%
As % of the System Software category 57.61% 41.08% 50.92%
Number of salaries quoted 1,332 1,232 3,811
10th Percentile £26,250 £25,500 £23,750
25th Percentile £28,750 £27,750 £26,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £35,000 £35,000 £35,000
Median % change year-on-year - - -2.78%
75th Percentile £47,500 £48,750 £48,150
90th Percentile £62,500 £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 3,048 3,525 8,832
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 4.79% 13.25% 13.17%
Number of salaries quoted 2,233 2,496 7,226
10th Percentile £27,500 £26,750 £25,750
25th Percentile £31,250 £32,000 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £47,683 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -5.63% +5.96% -5.26%
75th Percentile £63,750 £68,750 £60,000
90th Percentile £77,500 £83,750 £75,000
UK median annual salary £52,500 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -4.55% +10.00% -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 21 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 21 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 -4 449 £37,000 -7.50% 144
North of England -13 407 £34,000 +3.03% 120
Midlands -47 296 £32,500 -7.14% 69
South West -2 254 £32,500 -6.47% 74
North West -1 200 £37,250 -6.88% 64
East of England -31 178 £40,000 +23.08% 50
Yorkshire -24 177 £32,500 +8.33% 38
East Midlands -34 153 £32,500 +6.56% 40
West Midlands -45 142 £32,500 -11.97% 29
Scotland +38 102 £29,500 -21.33% 31
Wales -2 46 £40,000 +5.00% 12
North East -31 30 £36,000 +8.44% 23
Northern Ireland -34 18 £32,000 -39.05% 20
Isle of Man +2 6 £45,000 +55.17%
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
1 460 (26.20%) Microsoft Exchange
2 353 (20.10%) SharePoint
3 18 (1.03%) IIS
4 14 (0.80%) Exchange Server 2003
5 11 (0.63%) Confluence
5 11 (0.63%) Exchange Server 2013
6 9 (0.51%) Exchange Server 2007
6 9 (0.51%) Exchange Server 2010
7 6 (0.34%) CMS
8 5 (0.28%) Skype for Business
9 4 (0.23%) Apache
10 3 (0.17%) WordPress
11 1 (0.057%) Drupal
11 1 (0.057%) nginx
11 1 (0.057%) Oracle Workflow
11 1 (0.057%) Tomcat
11 1 (0.057%) WebLogic
11 1 (0.057%) WebLogic Portal
Applications
1 227 (12.93%) Microsoft Office
2 40 (2.28%) Microsoft Excel
3 11 (0.63%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.17%) Spreadsheet
5 2 (0.11%) AutoCAD
6 1 (0.057%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 18 (1.03%) Dynamics CRM
2 9 (0.51%) Dynamics NAV
3 8 (0.46%) Oracle ERP
4 7 (0.40%) NetSuite
5 5 (0.28%) Primavera
5 5 (0.28%) Remedy ITSM
6 4 (0.23%) Dynamics GP
6 4 (0.23%) Exchequer
6 4 (0.23%) Markit EDM
7 2 (0.11%) Alphatax
7 2 (0.11%) Shopify
8 1 (0.057%) Cognos Business Intelligence
8 1 (0.057%) Magento
8 1 (0.057%) Oracle EBS
8 1 (0.057%) Oracle Payables
8 1 (0.057%) Sage 200
8 1 (0.057%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 1,233 (70.22%) Microsoft 365
2 926 (52.73%) Azure
3 640 (36.45%) Entra ID
4 138 (7.86%) OneDrive
5 134 (7.63%) AWS
6 97 (5.52%) Google Workspace
7 89 (5.07%) SaaS
8 85 (4.84%) Power Platform
9 42 (2.39%) IaaS
10 37 (2.11%) Nutanix
10 37 (2.11%) PaaS
11 33 (1.88%) Azure Monitor
11 33 (1.88%) Mimecast
12 32 (1.82%) Azure DevOps
13 30 (1.71%) PowerApps
14 23 (1.31%) GCP
15 22 (1.25%) Microsoft Purview
16 19 (1.08%) Dynamics 365
17 17 (0.97%) GitHub
17 17 (0.97%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 598 (34.05%) DNS
2 535 (30.47%) DHCP
3 407 (23.18%) Firewall
4 280 (15.95%) VPN
5 196 (11.16%) WAN
6 192 (10.93%) LAN
7 184 (10.48%) TCP/IP
8 160 (9.11%) VLAN
9 157 (8.94%) Wi-Fi
10 95 (5.41%) VoIP
11 82 (4.67%) Wireless
12 67 (3.82%) Network Security
13 62 (3.53%) Remote Desktop
14 51 (2.90%) SAN
15 47 (2.68%) Broadband
16 27 (1.54%) SD-WAN
17 22 (1.25%) NAS
18 17 (0.97%) Internet
19 16 (0.91%) SMTP
20 14 (0.80%) Ethernet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 86 (4.90%) SQL Server
2 81 (4.61%) Amazon RDS
3 52 (2.96%) Power BI
4 29 (1.65%) PostgreSQL
5 25 (1.42%) MySQL
6 15 (0.85%) Oracle Database
7 14 (0.80%) Azure SQL Database
7 14 (0.80%) Oracle Database 10g
8 8 (0.46%) GIS
8 8 (0.46%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 7 (0.40%) Data Warehouse
10 6 (0.34%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 4 (0.23%) Relational Database
12 3 (0.17%) Neo4j
13 2 (0.11%) Metadata
14 1 (0.057%) Cognos Connection
14 1 (0.057%) Cognos Event Studio
14 1 (0.057%) Cognos Framework Manager
14 1 (0.057%) Data Lake
14 1 (0.057%) Redis
Development Applications
1 71 (4.04%) JIRA
2 10 (0.57%) Git
3 9 (0.51%) Oracle Forms
4 8 (0.46%) Jenkins
5 7 (0.40%) GitLab
6 5 (0.28%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 4 (0.23%) LabVIEW
7 4 (0.23%) Subversion
8 1 (0.057%) Burp Suite
8 1 (0.057%) Gatling
8 1 (0.057%) JMeter
8 1 (0.057%) Metasploit
8 1 (0.057%) Oracle APEX
8 1 (0.057%) Vagrant
General
1 779 (44.36%) Social Skills
2 198 (11.28%) Analytical Skills
3 164 (9.34%) Organisational Skills
4 117 (6.66%) Finance
5 71 (4.04%) Manufacturing
6 63 (3.59%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 60 (3.42%) Legal
8 58 (3.30%) Documentation Skills
9 53 (3.02%) Retail
10 50 (2.85%) Law
10 50 (2.85%) Public Sector
11 37 (2.11%) Games
12 36 (2.05%) Advertising
13 28 (1.59%) Telecoms
14 16 (0.91%) Marketing
15 15 (0.85%) Local Government
16 11 (0.63%) Automotive
17 8 (0.46%) Aerospace
18 4 (0.23%) Dutch Language
18 4 (0.23%) Military
Job Titles
1 695 (39.58%) IT Support
2 495 (28.19%) Support Engineer
3 426 (24.26%) IT Engineer
4 367 (20.90%) IT Support Engineer
5 245 (13.95%) Analyst
6 179 (10.19%) Support Analyst
7 174 (9.91%) 2nd Line Support
8 170 (9.68%) Support Technician
9 154 (8.77%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 148 (8.43%) Senior
11 143 (8.14%) IT Technician
12 131 (7.46%) IT Support Technician
13 118 (6.72%) IT Analyst
14 114 (6.49%) Systems Engineer
15 107 (6.09%) IT Support Analyst
16 100 (5.69%) 2nd Line Engineer
17 89 (5.07%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
18 82 (4.67%) 3rd Line Support
19 80 (4.56%) 1st Line Support
20 66 (3.76%) Lead
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 50 (2.85%) LDAP
2 46 (2.62%) SAML
2 46 (2.62%) SOAP
3 43 (2.45%) OAuth
3 43 (2.45%) OpenID
3 43 (2.45%) REST
4 38 (2.16%) GraphQL
5 20 (1.14%) JSON
5 20 (1.14%) XML
6 12 (0.68%) Regular Expression
7 10 (0.57%) RESTful
8 8 (0.46%) XMPP
9 7 (0.40%) Web Services
10 5 (0.28%) .NET
10 5 (0.28%) ARM Templates
10 5 (0.28%) FreeSWITCH
11 4 (0.23%) JSON Schema
11 4 (0.23%) Middleware
11 4 (0.23%) OAuth2
11 4 (0.23%) OpenTelemetry
Miscellaneous
1 258 (14.69%) Driving Licence
2 110 (6.26%) Onboarding
3 77 (4.38%) Self-Motivation
4 68 (3.87%) Legacy Systems
5 53 (3.02%) Hybrid Cloud
6 45 (2.56%) Enterprise Software
7 43 (2.45%) Cyberattack
8 39 (2.22%) Cyber Threat
8 39 (2.22%) Management Information System
9 36 (2.05%) Data Centre
10 35 (1.99%) Public Cloud
11 33 (1.88%) Replication
12 26 (1.48%) Cloud Native
13 22 (1.25%) PKI
14 20 (1.14%) Client/Server
15 17 (0.97%) Clustering
15 17 (0.97%) CMDB
16 14 (0.80%) iPad
17 13 (0.74%) CCTV
18 12 (0.68%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 1,249 (71.13%) Windows
2 732 (41.69%) Windows Server
3 305 (17.37%) Windows 10
4 210 (11.96%) Linux
5 134 (7.63%) Windows Server 2016
6 91 (5.18%) Mac OS
7 84 (4.78%) Apple iOS
8 73 (4.16%) Android
9 57 (3.25%) Windows Server 2019
10 34 (1.94%) Windows Server 2012
11 28 (1.59%) Windows 7
12 27 (1.54%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 25 (1.42%) Windows Server 2008
14 19 (1.08%) Unix
15 14 (0.80%) HPUX
15 14 (0.80%) Solaris
15 14 (0.80%) Windows Server 2003
16 9 (0.51%) Windows 8
17 7 (0.40%) VMS
18 5 (0.28%) Debian
Processes & Methodologies
1 602 (34.28%) Problem-Solving
2 481 (27.39%) Customer Service
3 435 (24.77%) ITIL
4 260 (14.81%) Cybersecurity
5 208 (11.85%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 194 (11.05%) Continuous Improvement
7 190 (10.82%) Mentoring
8 176 (10.02%) ITSM
9 156 (8.88%) Service Delivery
10 153 (8.71%) Disaster Recovery
11 116 (6.61%) Change Management
12 114 (6.49%) Incident Management
12 114 (6.49%) Migration
12 114 (6.49%) Vulnerability Remediation
13 101 (5.75%) Coaching
14 93 (5.30%) Customer Experience
15 92 (5.24%) Identity Access Management
16 89 (5.07%) Kalman Filter
17 88 (5.01%) Time Management
17 88 (5.01%) Web Filtering
Programming Languages
1 282 (16.06%) PowerShell
2 148 (8.43%) SQL
3 82 (4.67%) Bash
4 59 (3.36%) Python
5 49 (2.79%) T-SQL
6 16 (0.91%) R
7 13 (0.74%) Perl
8 12 (0.68%) Shell Script
9 10 (0.57%) Bicep
9 10 (0.57%) PL/SQL
10 8 (0.46%) Java
10 8 (0.46%) VB
11 6 (0.34%) JavaScript
12 5 (0.28%) Korn
13 3 (0.17%) C#
13 3 (0.17%) PHP
14 2 (0.11%) C
14 2 (0.11%) VBA
15 1 (0.057%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 232 (13.21%) Security Cleared
2 175 (9.97%) Degree
3 166 (9.45%) SC Cleared
4 153 (8.71%) Microsoft Certification
5 82 (4.67%) DV Cleared
6 47 (2.68%) DBS Check
7 42 (2.39%) A+ Certification
8 40 (2.28%) Azure Certification
9 35 (1.99%) Cisco Certification
10 32 (1.82%) Network+ Certification
11 30 (1.71%) CCNA
12 28 (1.59%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 24 (1.37%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 18 (1.03%) Computer Science Degree
14 18 (1.03%) MCSE
15 16 (0.91%) HNC
15 16 (0.91%) ITIL Certification
16 12 (0.68%) CCNP
16 12 (0.68%) MCSA
17 9 (0.51%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 172 (9.79%) SLA
2 140 (7.97%) Cyber Essentials
3 104 (5.92%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 75 (4.27%) PCI DSS
5 51 (2.90%) NIST
6 39 (2.22%) NCSC
7 38 (2.16%) GDPR
8 28 (1.59%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 17 (0.97%) QA
10 15 (0.85%) Data Quality
11 10 (0.57%) Accessibility
12 5 (0.28%) GRC
12 5 (0.28%) PMO
13 4 (0.23%) 21 CFR Part 11
13 4 (0.23%) GxP
13 4 (0.23%) ISO 22301
13 4 (0.23%) ITGC
14 3 (0.17%) SOC 2
15 2 (0.11%) ISO 9001
15 2 (0.11%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 337 (19.19%) Hyper-V
2 262 (14.92%) VMware Infrastructure
3 67 (3.82%) Terminal Server
4 52 (2.96%) vSphere
5 44 (2.51%) VMware ESXi
6 39 (2.22%) Virtual Desktop
7 33 (1.88%) Virtual Machines
8 25 (1.42%) Docker
9 17 (0.97%) BitLocker
10 11 (0.63%) VMware NSX
11 10 (0.57%) VMware Workstation
12 8 (0.46%) XenApp
13 7 (0.40%) Citrix Hypervisor
14 6 (0.34%) DFS Replication
15 5 (0.28%) Firmware
15 5 (0.28%) Terminal Services
16 4 (0.23%) Virtual Servers
17 3 (0.17%) Lustre
17 3 (0.17%) Microsoft Virtual Server
17 3 (0.17%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 338 (19.25%) Microsoft Intune
2 121 (6.89%) SCCM
3 40 (2.28%) Single Sign-On
4 39 (2.22%) vCenter Server
5 35 (1.99%) Terraform
6 32 (1.82%) Jamf Pro
7 25 (1.42%) Ansible
8 24 (1.37%) WSUS
9 20 (1.14%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 20 (1.14%) FortiGate
10 16 (0.91%) Kubernetes
11 15 (0.85%) SCOM
12 13 (0.74%) Autotask
13 10 (0.57%) Proxmox
14 9 (0.51%) Backup Exec
15 8 (0.46%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
16 6 (0.34%) VxRail
17 5 (0.28%) SCVMM
17 5 (0.28%) SmoothWall
17 5 (0.28%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 1,257 (71.58%) Microsoft
2 448 (25.51%) VMware
3 139 (7.92%) Veeam
4 101 (5.75%) SolarWinds
5 92 (5.24%) Nimble Storage
6 90 (5.13%) Apple
6 90 (5.13%) Citrix
7 89 (5.07%) Cisco
8 83 (4.73%) Splunk
9 81 (4.61%) ServiceNow
10 72 (4.10%) Google
11 71 (4.04%) HP
12 68 (3.87%) Dell
13 64 (3.64%) Brocade
13 64 (3.64%) Tanium
14 42 (2.39%) Meraki
15 34 (1.94%) McAfee
16 31 (1.77%) Oracle
17 28 (1.59%) CrowdStrike
17 28 (1.59%) Dell Compellent