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 29 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
29 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 51 39 33
Rank change year-on-year -12 -6 0
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 2,154 1,832 3,446
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 2.92% 5.36% 5.51%
As % of the System Software category 51.88% 41.97% 51.88%
Number of salaries quoted 1,653 1,462 2,678
10th Percentile £26,750 £26,000 £24,500
25th Percentile £29,250 £28,313 £28,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £37,500 £35,000 £37,500
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% -6.67% +2.74%
75th Percentile £50,000 £48,000 £50,000
90th Percentile £65,000 £62,500 £59,000
UK median annual salary £40,000 £37,500 £40,000
% change year-on-year +6.67% -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 4,152 4,365 6,642
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 5.63% 12.78% 10.62%
Number of salaries quoted 3,159 2,560 5,088
10th Percentile £28,250 £26,500 £26,250
25th Percentile £33,000 £31,250 £31,594
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £45,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% - -5.26%
75th Percentile £65,000 £65,000 £61,250
90th Percentile £80,000 £78,750 £72,725
UK median annual salary £53,000 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +6.00% - -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 29 July 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 29 July 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 -1 508 £42,500 +6.25% 159
North of England -13 494 £33,475 +4.61% 124
Midlands -28 368 £37,500 +7.14% 74
South West -15 301 £37,500 +8.70% 56
North West +51 254 £35,000 - 67
East of England +1 231 £35,000 +4.48% 55
East Midlands -1 197 £36,000 +14.29% 31
Yorkshire -28 183 £31,000 +3.33% 39
West Midlands -42 171 £42,500 +8.28% 43
Scotland +93 113 £29,000 -6.45% 16
Wales -14 75 £45,000 +18.13% 13
Northern Ireland -11 65 £39,500 -24.76% 4
North East -54 57 £41,250 +28.91% 26
Isle of Man +2 5 £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
1 639 (29.67%) Microsoft Exchange
2 447 (20.75%) SharePoint
3 43 (2.00%) IIS
4 17 (0.79%) Confluence
5 10 (0.46%) Skype for Business
6 8 (0.37%) Exchange Server 2013
7 7 (0.32%) Apache
8 6 (0.28%) Exchange Server 2007
8 6 (0.28%) Exchange Server 2010
9 4 (0.19%) CMS
10 3 (0.14%) SAS
11 2 (0.093%) nginx
12 1 (0.046%) Drupal
12 1 (0.046%) Site Server
12 1 (0.046%) WordPress
Applications
1 189 (8.77%) Microsoft Office
2 45 (2.09%) Microsoft Excel
3 15 (0.70%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.19%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 3 (0.14%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.093%) MS Visio
7 1 (0.046%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.046%) Revit
Business Applications
1 17 (0.79%) Dynamics CRM
2 11 (0.51%) Dynamics NAV
3 10 (0.46%) Remedy ITSM
4 6 (0.28%) Raiser’s Edge
5 5 (0.23%) JDE EnterpriseOne
5 5 (0.23%) NetSuite
6 4 (0.19%) Dynamics GP
6 4 (0.19%) Exchequer
6 4 (0.19%) Primavera
7 3 (0.14%) Payment Gateway
7 3 (0.14%) Salesforce CRM
7 3 (0.14%) Shopify
8 2 (0.093%) Alphatax
8 2 (0.093%) Sage 200
8 2 (0.093%) SAP S/4HANA
9 1 (0.046%) Dynamics AX
9 1 (0.046%) Magento
9 1 (0.046%) Oracle Payables
9 1 (0.046%) Sage 50
9 1 (0.046%) SAP EHS
Cloud Services
1 1,506 (69.92%) Microsoft 365
2 1,218 (56.55%) Azure
3 913 (42.39%) Entra ID
4 158 (7.34%) AWS
5 150 (6.96%) OneDrive
6 104 (4.83%) SaaS
7 82 (3.81%) Power Platform
8 65 (3.02%) IaaS
9 60 (2.79%) Mimecast
10 53 (2.46%) PaaS
11 45 (2.09%) Azure DevOps
12 39 (1.81%) Microsoft Purview
13 38 (1.76%) Google Workspace
14 36 (1.67%) Azure Sentinel
15 28 (1.30%) Serverless
16 27 (1.25%) Azure Monitor
17 25 (1.16%) Nutanix
17 25 (1.16%) Power Automate
18 24 (1.11%) PowerApps
19 23 (1.07%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 711 (33.01%) DNS
2 595 (27.62%) DHCP
3 522 (24.23%) Firewall
4 357 (16.57%) VPN
5 253 (11.75%) TCP/IP
6 211 (9.80%) WAN
7 205 (9.52%) LAN
8 203 (9.42%) Wi-Fi
9 196 (9.10%) VLAN
10 133 (6.17%) VoIP
11 127 (5.90%) Wireless
12 85 (3.95%) Network Security
13 79 (3.67%) SAN
14 51 (2.37%) Remote Desktop
15 29 (1.35%) Internet
16 28 (1.30%) NAS
17 23 (1.07%) SSL
18 20 (0.93%) Broadband
19 18 (0.84%) SD-WAN
20 17 (0.79%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 116 (5.39%) Amazon RDS
2 111 (5.15%) SQL Server
3 41 (1.90%) Power BI
4 32 (1.49%) Azure SQL Database
5 25 (1.16%) PostgreSQL
6 24 (1.11%) MySQL
7 6 (0.28%) Crystal Reports
7 6 (0.28%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 5 (0.23%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 4 (0.19%) Neo4j
9 4 (0.19%) Relational Database
10 3 (0.14%) Data Warehouse
10 3 (0.14%) GIS
10 3 (0.14%) Oracle Database
11 2 (0.093%) BusinessObjects
11 2 (0.093%) Data Lake
11 2 (0.093%) KNIME
12 1 (0.046%) Geospatial Data
12 1 (0.046%) Metadata
12 1 (0.046%) NoSQL
Development Applications
1 75 (3.48%) JIRA
2 27 (1.25%) Git
3 8 (0.37%) GitLab
3 8 (0.37%) Jenkins
4 5 (0.23%) Bitbucket
5 4 (0.19%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 2 (0.093%) Artifactory
6 2 (0.093%) Burp Suite
6 2 (0.093%) Metasploit
6 2 (0.093%) Terragrunt
7 1 (0.046%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 1 (0.046%) Carbide.c++
7 1 (0.046%) Gatling
7 1 (0.046%) git-flow
7 1 (0.046%) JMeter
7 1 (0.046%) NUnit
7 1 (0.046%) Selenium
7 1 (0.046%) Sonatype Nexus
7 1 (0.046%) Subversion
7 1 (0.046%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 977 (45.36%) Social Skills
2 262 (12.16%) Analytical Skills
3 136 (6.31%) Legal
4 128 (5.94%) Finance
5 101 (4.69%) Organisational Skills
6 91 (4.22%) Law
7 73 (3.39%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 72 (3.34%) Manufacturing
9 61 (2.83%) Public Sector
10 52 (2.41%) Retail
11 51 (2.37%) Documentation Skills
12 47 (2.18%) Telecoms
13 29 (1.35%) Advertising
14 20 (0.93%) Aerospace
15 19 (0.88%) Local Government
16 14 (0.65%) Games
17 13 (0.60%) Automotive
18 9 (0.42%) Influencing Skills
19 7 (0.32%) Banking
19 7 (0.32%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 803 (37.28%) IT Support
2 555 (25.77%) Support Engineer
3 518 (24.05%) IT Engineer
4 435 (20.19%) IT Support Engineer
5 348 (16.16%) Analyst
6 247 (11.47%) Senior
7 225 (10.45%) Support Analyst
8 200 (9.29%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 200 (9.29%) Support Technician
9 193 (8.96%) IT Technician
10 176 (8.17%) Systems Engineer
11 173 (8.03%) IT Support Technician
12 154 (7.15%) 2nd Line Support
13 150 (6.96%) IT Analyst
14 135 (6.27%) IT Support Analyst
15 91 (4.22%) 2nd Line Engineer
16 85 (3.95%) 3rd Line Support
17 83 (3.85%) Architect
18 81 (3.76%) Administrator
19 76 (3.53%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 44 (2.04%) LDAP
2 28 (1.30%) SAML
3 24 (1.11%) OpenID
4 23 (1.07%) Regular Expression
5 21 (0.97%) OAuth
6 19 (0.88%) XMPP
7 16 (0.74%) REST
8 12 (0.56%) JSON
8 12 (0.56%) XML
9 11 (0.51%) ARM Templates
10 10 (0.46%) .NET
10 10 (0.46%) GraphQL
10 10 (0.46%) Microsoft Graph
10 10 (0.46%) SOAP
11 9 (0.42%) HTML
11 9 (0.42%) Web Services
12 7 (0.32%) JSON Schema
13 6 (0.28%) Middleware
13 6 (0.28%) OAuth2
14 5 (0.23%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 301 (13.97%) Driving Licence
2 172 (7.99%) Onboarding
3 124 (5.76%) Self-Motivation
4 111 (5.15%) Legacy Systems
5 86 (3.99%) Hybrid Cloud
6 71 (3.30%) Data Centre
7 67 (3.11%) Management Information System
8 51 (2.37%) PKI
9 47 (2.18%) Clustering
10 38 (1.76%) Public Cloud
11 35 (1.62%) Cloud Native
11 35 (1.62%) Enterprise Software
11 35 (1.62%) Replication
11 35 (1.62%) Security Posture
12 31 (1.44%) CCTV
13 17 (0.79%) Cyber Threat
14 16 (0.74%) Client/Server
14 16 (0.74%) iPhone
15 15 (0.70%) Enterprise Storage
16 14 (0.65%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 1,550 (71.96%) Windows
2 906 (42.06%) Windows Server
3 304 (14.11%) Windows 10
4 290 (13.46%) Linux
5 177 (8.22%) Windows Server 2016
6 151 (7.01%) Mac OS
7 86 (3.99%) Windows Server 2019
8 77 (3.57%) Apple iOS
9 66 (3.06%) Android
10 44 (2.04%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 24 (1.11%) VMS
12 22 (1.02%) Windows Server 2012
13 15 (0.70%) Ubuntu
14 12 (0.56%) Windows 7
15 8 (0.37%) CentOS
15 8 (0.37%) Windows Server 2008
16 6 (0.28%) Debian
17 5 (0.23%) CoreOS
17 5 (0.23%) Windows 8
18 4 (0.19%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 731 (33.94%) Problem-Solving
2 553 (25.67%) Customer Service
3 500 (23.21%) ITIL
4 406 (18.85%) Continuous Improvement
5 404 (18.76%) Cybersecurity
6 310 (14.39%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 265 (12.30%) Mentoring
8 237 (11.00%) Disaster Recovery
9 198 (9.19%) ITSM
10 182 (8.45%) Service Delivery
11 171 (7.94%) Project Delivery
12 168 (7.80%) Migration
13 151 (7.01%) Customer Experience
14 150 (6.96%) Identity Access Management
15 146 (6.78%) Vulnerability Remediation
16 136 (6.31%) Kalman Filter
17 127 (5.90%) Web Filtering
18 120 (5.57%) Change Management
18 120 (5.57%) Collaborative Working
18 120 (5.57%) Service Management
Programming Languages
1 328 (15.23%) PowerShell
2 197 (9.15%) SQL
3 69 (3.20%) Python
4 67 (3.11%) Bash
5 41 (1.90%) Bicep
6 28 (1.30%) R
7 17 (0.79%) T-SQL
8 12 (0.56%) Kusto Query Language
8 12 (0.56%) VBA
9 8 (0.37%) C#
9 8 (0.37%) Ruby
10 7 (0.32%) Shell Script
11 6 (0.28%) Java
11 6 (0.28%) Korn
12 5 (0.23%) PHP
13 3 (0.14%) JavaScript
13 3 (0.14%) VB
14 2 (0.093%) C
14 2 (0.093%) VB.NET
14 2 (0.093%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 311 (14.44%) Security Cleared
2 223 (10.35%) SC Cleared
3 199 (9.24%) Degree
4 176 (8.17%) Microsoft Certification
5 101 (4.69%) Azure Certification
6 92 (4.27%) DV Cleared
7 89 (4.13%) A+ Certification
8 85 (3.95%) Network+ Certification
9 61 (2.83%) CISM
9 61 (2.83%) CISSP
10 58 (2.69%) Cisco Certification
11 56 (2.60%) DBS Check
12 53 (2.46%) CCNA
13 26 (1.21%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 24 (1.11%) Microsoft Certified Professional
15 21 (0.97%) Computer Science Degree
16 20 (0.93%) MCSA
17 16 (0.74%) AWS Certification
18 14 (0.65%) CompTIA Security+
19 13 (0.60%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 230 (10.68%) Cyber Essentials
2 170 (7.89%) SLA
3 126 (5.85%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 112 (5.20%) PCI DSS
5 49 (2.27%) GDPR
6 44 (2.04%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 33 (1.53%) NIST
8 21 (0.97%) QA
9 18 (0.84%) Data Quality
10 17 (0.79%) NCSC
11 9 (0.42%) Accessibility
12 6 (0.28%) SOC 2
13 4 (0.19%) GRC
13 4 (0.19%) ITGC
13 4 (0.19%) PMO
14 3 (0.14%) ISAE 3402
15 2 (0.093%) 21 CFR Part 11
15 2 (0.093%) GxP
15 2 (0.093%) Sarbanes-Oxley
16 1 (0.046%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 508 (23.58%) Hyper-V
2 369 (17.13%) VMware Infrastructure
3 97 (4.50%) Terminal Server
3 97 (4.50%) vSphere
4 62 (2.88%) Virtual Desktop
5 51 (2.37%) Virtual Machines
6 46 (2.14%) VMware ESXi
7 36 (1.67%) Docker
8 16 (0.74%) Firmware
9 15 (0.70%) Virtual Servers
9 15 (0.70%) VMware NSX
10 13 (0.60%) BitLocker
11 11 (0.51%) Microsoft Virtual Server
12 9 (0.42%) Citrix Hypervisor
13 8 (0.37%) DFS Replication
14 6 (0.28%) XenApp
15 5 (0.23%) NDS
15 5 (0.23%) VMware Workstation
16 4 (0.19%) Squid
17 3 (0.14%) VMware Server
Systems Management
1 546 (25.35%) Microsoft Intune
2 106 (4.92%) SCCM
3 61 (2.83%) Terraform
4 39 (1.81%) Single Sign-On
5 31 (1.44%) Ansible
6 30 (1.39%) Jamf Pro
6 30 (1.39%) Kubernetes
7 29 (1.35%) vCenter Server
8 28 (1.30%) FortiGate
9 26 (1.21%) WSUS
10 21 (0.97%) Proxmox
11 19 (0.88%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
12 16 (0.74%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 15 (0.70%) Failover Clustering
13 15 (0.70%) ZABBIX
14 11 (0.51%) Microsoft Clustering
15 8 (0.37%) SCOM
16 7 (0.32%) Autotask
17 6 (0.28%) Grafana
17 6 (0.28%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 1,720 (79.85%) Microsoft
2 574 (26.65%) VMware
3 210 (9.75%) Veeam
4 151 (7.01%) Cisco
5 122 (5.66%) SolarWinds
6 111 (5.15%) Splunk
7 109 (5.06%) Nimble Storage
8 96 (4.46%) Brocade
8 96 (4.46%) Tanium
9 77 (3.57%) Meraki
10 76 (3.53%) Citrix
11 75 (3.48%) Apple
12 70 (3.25%) ServiceNow
13 68 (3.16%) CyberArk
14 59 (2.74%) HP
15 57 (2.65%) Dell
16 44 (2.04%) Google
17 41 (1.90%) CrowdStrike
17 41 (1.90%) Red Hat
17 41 (1.90%) Ubiquiti