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 25 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 47 37 21
Rank change year-on-year -10 -16 +21
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 1,751 2,057 2,556
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 4.12% 5.42% 8.61%
As % of the System Software category 60.23% 44.95% 49.12%
Number of salaries quoted 1,258 1,298 2,282
10th Percentile £26,250 £25,750 £25,500
25th Percentile £28,000 £30,000 £29,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £33,500 £40,000 £37,500
Median % change year-on-year -16.25% +6.67% +0.49%
75th Percentile £47,250 £52,500 £51,250
90th Percentile £60,038 £61,250 £60,000
UK median annual salary £36,500 £42,500 £42,500
% change year-on-year -14.12% - +2.41%

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 2,907 4,576 5,204
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 6.85% 12.06% 17.54%
Number of salaries quoted 2,045 2,686 4,328
10th Percentile £26,500 £27,750 £27,000
25th Percentile £30,000 £35,000 £33,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,000 £50,000 £47,557
Median % change year-on-year -16.00% +5.14% -1.94%
75th Percentile £61,250 £67,500 £63,750
90th Percentile £77,500 £81,250 £77,500
UK median annual salary £50,000 £57,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -12.28% +3.64% -

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 25 December 2025.

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 25 December 2025. 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 +8 473 £36,000 -17.24% 220
North of England -20 345 £32,500 -18.75% 159
South West +5 296 £32,500 -9.72% 84
Midlands -14 281 £31,500 -13.70% 83
East of England -11 210 £35,000 - 88
East Midlands +10 159 £28,500 -16.18% 35
Yorkshire -10 148 £31,500 -10.00% 55
North West -19 148 £35,000 -14.36% 88
West Midlands -32 122 £37,500 -6.25% 48
Scotland -10 96 £30,000 -25.00% 21
North East -2 49 £31,000 -17.33% 21
Wales +5 44 £35,000 +1.45% 22
Northern Ireland 0 16 £47,750 -9.05% 2
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
1 526 (30.04%) Microsoft Exchange
2 304 (17.36%) SharePoint
3 30 (1.71%) IIS
4 26 (1.48%) Exchange Server 2003
5 19 (1.09%) Confluence
6 16 (0.91%) Skype for Business
7 5 (0.29%) Tomcat
8 4 (0.23%) Exchange Server 2013
9 3 (0.17%) WebLogic
9 3 (0.17%) WebLogic Portal
10 2 (0.11%) BizTalk Server
10 2 (0.11%) CMS
10 2 (0.11%) Exchange Server 2007
10 2 (0.11%) Exchange Server 2010
10 2 (0.11%) FactoryTalk
10 2 (0.11%) WinCC
10 2 (0.11%) WordPress
11 1 (0.057%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 227 (12.96%) Microsoft Office
2 37 (2.11%) Microsoft Excel
3 7 (0.40%) 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 32 (1.83%) Dynamics CRM
2 20 (1.14%) Oracle ERP
3 6 (0.34%) Remedy ITSM
4 4 (0.23%) Markit EDM
4 4 (0.23%) NetSuite
4 4 (0.23%) Visualfiles
5 3 (0.17%) Oracle EBS
5 3 (0.17%) Primavera
6 1 (0.057%) Cognos Business Intelligence
6 1 (0.057%) Dynamics AX
6 1 (0.057%) Dynamics NAV
6 1 (0.057%) Sage 200
6 1 (0.057%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 1,216 (69.45%) Microsoft 365
2 935 (53.40%) Azure
3 539 (30.78%) Entra ID
4 128 (7.31%) AWS
5 107 (6.11%) OneDrive
6 71 (4.05%) SaaS
7 61 (3.48%) Power Platform
8 47 (2.68%) Google Workspace
9 41 (2.34%) IaaS
10 40 (2.28%) Azure DevOps
11 39 (2.23%) GCP
12 37 (2.11%) PaaS
12 37 (2.11%) PowerApps
13 31 (1.77%) Azure Logic Apps
14 30 (1.71%) Azure Monitor
14 30 (1.71%) GitHub
15 24 (1.37%) Azure Sentinel
16 23 (1.31%) OCI
17 22 (1.26%) Dynamics 365
17 22 (1.26%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 646 (36.89%) DNS
2 605 (34.55%) DHCP
3 405 (23.13%) Firewall
4 264 (15.08%) TCP/IP
5 247 (14.11%) VPN
6 172 (9.82%) VLAN
7 168 (9.59%) LAN
8 166 (9.48%) WAN
9 125 (7.14%) Wi-Fi
10 92 (5.25%) Wireless
11 87 (4.97%) VoIP
12 73 (4.17%) SAN
13 61 (3.48%) Remote Desktop
14 40 (2.28%) Internet
15 38 (2.17%) Network Security
16 22 (1.26%) SMTP
17 21 (1.20%) SD-WAN
18 19 (1.09%) SSL
19 17 (0.97%) Broadband
20 16 (0.91%) Skype
Database & Business Intelligence
1 128 (7.31%) Amazon RDS
2 61 (3.48%) SQL Server
3 29 (1.66%) Oracle Database
4 26 (1.48%) Oracle Database 10g
5 19 (1.09%) Power BI
6 12 (0.69%) Azure SQL Database
7 9 (0.51%) DTS
7 9 (0.51%) MySQL
8 7 (0.40%) Data Warehouse
9 6 (0.34%) Relational Database
9 6 (0.34%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 6 (0.34%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 4 (0.23%) PostgreSQL
11 3 (0.17%) Data Mining
11 3 (0.17%) Oracle Discoverer
11 3 (0.17%) Oracle Reports
12 2 (0.11%) GIS
12 2 (0.11%) NoSQL
13 1 (0.057%) Cognos Connection
13 1 (0.057%) Cognos Framework Manager
Development Applications
1 57 (3.26%) JIRA
2 35 (2.00%) Jenkins
3 32 (1.83%) Git
4 23 (1.31%) Oracle Forms
5 8 (0.46%) Vagrant
6 4 (0.23%) GitLab
7 3 (0.17%) LabVIEW
7 3 (0.17%) Oracle APEX
8 2 (0.11%) Octopus Deploy
8 2 (0.11%) Sonatype Nexus
8 2 (0.11%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
8 2 (0.11%) Subversion
8 2 (0.11%) TeamCity
8 2 (0.11%) Visual Studio
9 1 (0.057%) Artifactory
9 1 (0.057%) Burp Suite
9 1 (0.057%) Metasploit
General
1 869 (49.63%) Social Skills
2 195 (11.14%) Analytical Skills
3 135 (7.71%) Finance
4 106 (6.05%) Organisational Skills
5 102 (5.83%) Manufacturing
6 66 (3.77%) Retail
7 61 (3.48%) Law
8 47 (2.68%) Documentation Skills
8 47 (2.68%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 42 (2.40%) Advertising
10 37 (2.11%) Legal
11 31 (1.77%) Telecoms
12 28 (1.60%) Public Sector
13 19 (1.09%) Marketing
14 18 (1.03%) Games
15 15 (0.86%) French Language
15 15 (0.86%) Pharmaceutical
15 15 (0.86%) Swedish Language
16 11 (0.63%) Aerospace
17 7 (0.40%) Automotive
Job Titles
1 606 (34.61%) IT Support
2 416 (23.76%) Support Engineer
3 293 (16.73%) IT Engineer
4 256 (14.62%) Analyst
5 247 (14.11%) IT Support Engineer
6 193 (11.02%) 2nd Line Support
7 188 (10.74%) Support Analyst
8 158 (9.02%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 150 (8.57%) Support Technician
10 140 (8.00%) IT Analyst
11 134 (7.65%) Systems Engineer
12 119 (6.80%) IT Technician
13 114 (6.51%) IT Support Analyst
14 111 (6.34%) Senior
15 107 (6.11%) 3rd Line Support
15 107 (6.11%) Technical Support
16 98 (5.60%) IT Support Technician
17 91 (5.20%) 1st Line Support
18 76 (4.34%) 2nd Line Engineer
19 69 (3.94%) Cloud Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 34 (1.94%) LDAP
2 33 (1.88%) SOAP
3 25 (1.43%) .NET
4 23 (1.31%) RESTful
5 21 (1.20%) OAuth
5 21 (1.20%) OpenID
5 21 (1.20%) SAML
6 20 (1.14%) JSON
6 20 (1.14%) XML
7 15 (0.86%) ARM Templates
8 14 (0.80%) EDI
9 13 (0.74%) GraphQL
9 13 (0.74%) REST
10 12 (0.69%) React
11 10 (0.57%) CSS
11 10 (0.57%) HTML
12 9 (0.51%) .NET Framework
13 8 (0.46%) OAuth2
14 5 (0.29%) Microsoft Graph
14 5 (0.29%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 250 (14.28%) Driving Licence
2 174 (9.94%) Onboarding
3 104 (5.94%) Legacy Systems
4 73 (4.17%) Self-Motivation
5 63 (3.60%) Enterprise Software
6 45 (2.57%) Data Centre
7 40 (2.28%) Cloud Native
8 31 (1.77%) Management Information System
9 28 (1.60%) Hybrid Cloud
10 24 (1.37%) PKI
11 22 (1.26%) Clustering
12 21 (1.20%) Video Conferencing
13 20 (1.14%) Replication
14 19 (1.09%) iPad
15 17 (0.97%) Cyber Threat
16 16 (0.91%) Client/Server
16 16 (0.91%) CMDB
16 16 (0.91%) Cyberattack
16 16 (0.91%) Security Posture
17 15 (0.86%) FMCG
Operating Systems
1 1,281 (73.16%) Windows
2 782 (44.66%) Windows Server
3 275 (15.71%) Windows 10
4 229 (13.08%) Linux
5 149 (8.51%) Windows Server 2016
6 95 (5.43%) Windows Server 2019
7 92 (5.25%) Mac OS
8 69 (3.94%) Apple iOS
9 59 (3.37%) Android
10 33 (1.88%) Windows Server 2008
11 32 (1.83%) Unix
12 31 (1.77%) Windows 7
13 26 (1.48%) Solaris
13 26 (1.48%) Windows Server 2003
14 25 (1.43%) HPUX
15 24 (1.37%) Windows Server 2012
16 19 (1.09%) VMS
17 13 (0.74%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
18 7 (0.40%) Amazon Linux
19 5 (0.29%) Windows 8
Processes & Methodologies
1 625 (35.69%) Problem-Solving
2 557 (31.81%) Customer Service
3 359 (20.50%) ITIL
4 227 (12.96%) Cybersecurity
5 208 (11.88%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 190 (10.85%) Mentoring
7 183 (10.45%) Continuous Improvement
8 167 (9.54%) ITSM
9 165 (9.42%) Migration
10 123 (7.02%) Service Delivery
11 119 (6.80%) Incident Management
12 112 (6.40%) Disaster Recovery
13 109 (6.23%) Vulnerability Remediation
14 108 (6.17%) Kalman Filter
15 105 (6.00%) Customer Experience
15 105 (6.00%) Web Filtering
16 102 (5.83%) Agile
16 102 (5.83%) Asset Management
16 102 (5.83%) Coaching
16 102 (5.83%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 277 (15.82%) PowerShell
2 135 (7.71%) SQL
3 58 (3.31%) Python
4 42 (2.40%) Bash
5 29 (1.66%) Java
5 29 (1.66%) Perl
6 23 (1.31%) PL/SQL
7 22 (1.26%) Shell Script
8 15 (0.86%) JavaScript
8 15 (0.86%) T-SQL
8 15 (0.86%) VB
9 13 (0.74%) C#
10 11 (0.63%) Bicep
11 10 (0.57%) Groovy
12 5 (0.29%) VBA
13 4 (0.23%) Korn
14 2 (0.11%) TypeScript
15 1 (0.057%) VB.NET
15 1 (0.057%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 238 (13.59%) Security Cleared
2 206 (11.76%) SC Cleared
3 158 (9.02%) Microsoft Certification
4 153 (8.74%) Degree
5 61 (3.48%) DV Cleared
6 50 (2.86%) DBS Check
7 45 (2.57%) A+ Certification
8 42 (2.40%) Cisco Certification
9 40 (2.28%) Azure Certification
10 36 (2.06%) CCNA
10 36 (2.06%) MCP
11 31 (1.77%) MCSE
12 29 (1.66%) Network+ Certification
13 24 (1.37%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 21 (1.20%) ITIL Certification
15 17 (0.97%) MCSA
16 15 (0.86%) CompTIA Security+
16 15 (0.86%) HND
17 12 (0.69%) AWS Certification
17 12 (0.69%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 139 (7.94%) Cyber Essentials
2 125 (7.14%) SLA
3 105 (6.00%) PCI DSS
4 65 (3.71%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 55 (3.14%) GDPR
6 21 (1.20%) NIST
7 17 (0.97%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 13 (0.74%) NCSC
9 12 (0.69%) QA
10 7 (0.40%) GxP
11 6 (0.34%) Accessibility
11 6 (0.34%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 5 (0.29%) 21 CFR Part 11
13 2 (0.11%) Disclosure Scotland
14 1 (0.057%) GRC
14 1 (0.057%) IASME
14 1 (0.057%) ISO 22301
14 1 (0.057%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 351 (20.05%) Hyper-V
2 250 (14.28%) VMware Infrastructure
3 99 (5.65%) Terminal Server
4 50 (2.86%) Virtual Desktop
5 46 (2.63%) vSphere
6 30 (1.71%) VMware ESXi
7 29 (1.66%) Docker
8 28 (1.60%) Virtual Machines
9 18 (1.03%) Firmware
10 13 (0.74%) Virtual Servers
11 6 (0.34%) XenApp
12 5 (0.29%) BitLocker
13 4 (0.23%) Citrix Hypervisor
13 4 (0.23%) Terminal Services
13 4 (0.23%) VMware NSX
13 4 (0.23%) VMware Workstation
14 3 (0.17%) DFS Replication
14 3 (0.17%) Lustre
14 3 (0.17%) Microsoft Virtual Server
14 3 (0.17%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 401 (22.90%) Microsoft Intune
2 139 (7.94%) SCCM
3 65 (3.71%) Terraform
4 40 (2.28%) Single Sign-On
5 32 (1.83%) vCenter Server
6 30 (1.71%) WSUS
7 26 (1.48%) Kubernetes
8 23 (1.31%) Ansible
9 20 (1.14%) SCOM
10 19 (1.09%) Jamf Pro
11 18 (1.03%) Autotask
12 15 (0.86%) FortiGate
13 13 (0.74%) Nagios
13 13 (0.74%) ZABBIX
14 12 (0.69%) Prometheus
15 11 (0.63%) Failover Clustering
16 9 (0.51%) Active Directory Federation Services
17 8 (0.46%) Grafana
18 7 (0.40%) PaperCut
18 7 (0.40%) SmoothWall
Vendors
1 1,335 (76.24%) Microsoft
2 470 (26.84%) VMware
3 178 (10.17%) Veeam
4 145 (8.28%) Cisco
5 136 (7.77%) SolarWinds
6 108 (6.17%) Nimble Storage
7 107 (6.11%) Splunk
8 105 (6.00%) Tanium
9 96 (5.48%) Brocade
10 90 (5.14%) Apple
11 67 (3.83%) ServiceNow
12 65 (3.71%) Citrix
13 56 (3.20%) Google
14 51 (2.91%) Oracle
15 50 (2.86%) HP
16 43 (2.46%) Meraki
17 40 (2.28%) Dell
18 30 (1.71%) SonicWALL
19 29 (1.66%) Red Hat
20 27 (1.54%) Sophos