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

6 months to
25 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 59 42 29
Rank change year-on-year -17 -13 +15
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 1,745 1,437 4,361
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 3.16% 5.51% 7.11%
As % of the System Software category 60.21% 44.67% 50.93%
Number of salaries quoted 1,296 1,190 3,771
10th Percentile £26,250 £25,500 £24,000
25th Percentile £28,500 £27,813 £27,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £34,000 £36,250 £35,000
Median % change year-on-year -6.21% +3.57% -1.41%
75th Percentile £47,500 £50,000 £48,750
90th Percentile £60,000 £60,000 £57,500
UK median annual salary £37,500 £40,000 £38,500
% change year-on-year -6.25% +3.90% -3.75%

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 2,898 3,217 8,563
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 5.25% 12.33% 13.96%
Number of salaries quoted 2,109 2,472 7,098
10th Percentile £27,000 £26,525 £25,750
25th Percentile £31,000 £32,500 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £50,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -15.00% +11.11% -5.26%
75th Percentile £62,500 £69,500 £60,000
90th Percentile £76,250 £85,000 £75,000
UK median annual salary £50,000 £57,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -13.04% +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 25 March 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 25 March 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 +7 490 £36,000 -15.29% 175
North of England -26 390 £33,250 -1.48% 133
Midlands -33 271 £32,500 -7.14% 78
South West +6 263 £32,500 -8.45% 71
Yorkshire -19 179 £32,500 +8.33% 39
North West -26 172 £37,500 -6.25% 85
East of England -33 169 £37,500 +15.38% 61
East Midlands -22 141 £31,500 +5.00% 36
West Midlands -39 129 £32,500 -13.33% 42
Scotland +23 96 £28,000 -17.97% 26
Wales +10 42 £35,000 -28.72% 14
North East -8 39 £31,500 -1.56% 13
Northern Ireland -28 18 £32,000 -39.05% 2
Isle of Man +3 6 £45,000 +55.17% 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
1 493 (28.25%) Microsoft Exchange
2 339 (19.43%) SharePoint
3 23 (1.32%) Exchange Server 2003
4 14 (0.80%) IIS
5 12 (0.69%) Confluence
5 12 (0.69%) Exchange Server 2013
6 11 (0.63%) Exchange Server 2007
6 11 (0.63%) Exchange Server 2010
7 6 (0.34%) CMS
8 4 (0.23%) Apache
9 3 (0.17%) Tomcat
9 3 (0.17%) WebLogic
9 3 (0.17%) WebLogic Portal
9 3 (0.17%) WordPress
10 1 (0.057%) Drupal
10 1 (0.057%) nginx
10 1 (0.057%) Oracle Workflow
10 1 (0.057%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 250 (14.33%) Microsoft Office
2 42 (2.41%) Microsoft Excel
3 14 (0.80%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.17%) AutoCAD
5 2 (0.11%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.057%) CATIA
Business Applications
1 14 (0.80%) Dynamics CRM
2 10 (0.57%) Oracle ERP
3 7 (0.40%) NetSuite
3 7 (0.40%) Primavera
4 5 (0.29%) Dynamics NAV
4 5 (0.29%) Remedy ITSM
5 4 (0.23%) Dynamics GP
5 4 (0.23%) Exchequer
5 4 (0.23%) Markit EDM
6 3 (0.17%) Oracle EBS
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%) Sage 200
8 1 (0.057%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 1,239 (71.00%) Microsoft 365
2 945 (54.15%) Azure
3 610 (34.96%) Entra ID
4 134 (7.68%) OneDrive
5 131 (7.51%) AWS
6 99 (5.67%) Google Workspace
7 85 (4.87%) SaaS
8 74 (4.24%) Power Platform
9 38 (2.18%) IaaS
10 34 (1.95%) PaaS
11 33 (1.89%) Azure Monitor
12 32 (1.83%) Nutanix
13 30 (1.72%) GCP
14 28 (1.60%) Mimecast
15 27 (1.55%) Azure DevOps
16 24 (1.38%) PowerApps
17 22 (1.26%) Microsoft Purview
18 18 (1.03%) OCI
19 17 (0.97%) Azure Logic Apps
19 17 (0.97%) Dynamics 365
Communications & Networking
1 627 (35.93%) DNS
2 584 (33.47%) DHCP
3 413 (23.67%) Firewall
4 287 (16.45%) VPN
5 225 (12.89%) TCP/IP
6 189 (10.83%) VLAN
7 186 (10.66%) WAN
8 182 (10.43%) LAN
9 155 (8.88%) Wi-Fi
10 94 (5.39%) VoIP
11 79 (4.53%) Wireless
12 62 (3.55%) Remote Desktop
13 61 (3.50%) Network Security
14 46 (2.64%) Broadband
15 40 (2.29%) SAN
16 27 (1.55%) SD-WAN
17 18 (1.03%) NAS
18 16 (0.92%) SMTP
19 15 (0.86%) Ethernet
19 15 (0.86%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 91 (5.21%) Amazon RDS
2 76 (4.36%) SQL Server
3 46 (2.64%) Power BI
4 26 (1.49%) Oracle Database
5 23 (1.32%) Oracle Database 10g
6 22 (1.26%) PostgreSQL
7 21 (1.20%) MySQL
8 10 (0.57%) Azure SQL Database
9 8 (0.46%) GIS
9 8 (0.46%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 6 (0.34%) Data Warehouse
11 4 (0.23%) Relational Database
12 3 (0.17%) Data Mining
12 3 (0.17%) Oracle Discoverer
12 3 (0.17%) Oracle Reports
12 3 (0.17%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 2 (0.11%) Neo4j
13 2 (0.11%) NoSQL
14 1 (0.057%) Cognos Framework Manager
14 1 (0.057%) Redis
Development Applications
1 70 (4.01%) JIRA
2 14 (0.80%) Git
3 13 (0.74%) Oracle Forms
4 11 (0.63%) Jenkins
5 7 (0.40%) GitLab
6 5 (0.29%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 4 (0.23%) LabVIEW
7 4 (0.23%) Subversion
8 3 (0.17%) Oracle APEX
9 1 (0.057%) Burp Suite
9 1 (0.057%) Gatling
9 1 (0.057%) JMeter
9 1 (0.057%) Metasploit
9 1 (0.057%) Vagrant
9 1 (0.057%) Visual Studio
General
1 790 (45.27%) Social Skills
2 191 (10.95%) Analytical Skills
3 164 (9.40%) Organisational Skills
4 130 (7.45%) Finance
5 76 (4.36%) Manufacturing
6 63 (3.61%) Retail
7 57 (3.27%) Documentation Skills
8 53 (3.04%) Legal
9 52 (2.98%) Law
10 47 (2.69%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 39 (2.23%) Public Sector
12 38 (2.18%) Advertising
13 36 (2.06%) Games
14 32 (1.83%) Telecoms
15 22 (1.26%) Marketing
16 10 (0.57%) Local Government
17 8 (0.46%) Aerospace
18 6 (0.34%) Automotive
19 4 (0.23%) Banking
19 4 (0.23%) General Ledger
Job Titles
1 703 (40.29%) IT Support
2 492 (28.19%) Support Engineer
3 406 (23.27%) IT Engineer
4 352 (20.17%) IT Support Engineer
5 227 (13.01%) Analyst
6 181 (10.37%) Support Technician
7 176 (10.09%) 2nd Line Support
8 163 (9.34%) Support Analyst
9 151 (8.65%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 142 (8.14%) IT Technician
11 134 (7.68%) Senior
12 133 (7.62%) IT Support Technician
13 121 (6.93%) IT Analyst
14 115 (6.59%) Systems Engineer
15 106 (6.07%) IT Support Analyst
16 98 (5.62%) 2nd Line Engineer
17 94 (5.39%) 3rd Line Support
18 89 (5.10%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
19 75 (4.30%) 1st Line Support
20 61 (3.50%) Lead
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 49 (2.81%) LDAP
2 48 (2.75%) SAML
2 48 (2.75%) SOAP
3 45 (2.58%) OAuth
3 45 (2.58%) OpenID
4 43 (2.46%) REST
5 38 (2.18%) GraphQL
6 21 (1.20%) JSON
6 21 (1.20%) XML
7 15 (0.86%) .NET
8 13 (0.74%) RESTful
9 9 (0.52%) .NET Framework
9 9 (0.52%) ARM Templates
10 8 (0.46%) HTML
10 8 (0.46%) Web Services
11 7 (0.40%) CSS
11 7 (0.40%) React
11 7 (0.40%) Regular Expression
12 6 (0.34%) OAuth2
13 5 (0.29%) FreeSWITCH
Miscellaneous
1 274 (15.70%) Driving Licence
2 113 (6.48%) Onboarding
3 85 (4.87%) Self-Motivation
4 78 (4.47%) Legacy Systems
5 51 (2.92%) Enterprise Software
6 47 (2.69%) Hybrid Cloud
7 41 (2.35%) Cyberattack
8 40 (2.29%) Cyber Threat
9 33 (1.89%) Replication
10 32 (1.83%) Public Cloud
11 30 (1.72%) Data Centre
12 28 (1.60%) Management Information System
13 26 (1.49%) Cloud Native
14 18 (1.03%) Client/Server
14 18 (1.03%) CMDB
15 17 (0.97%) PKI
16 13 (0.74%) iPad
16 13 (0.74%) Video Conferencing
17 12 (0.69%) Clustering
17 12 (0.69%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 1,256 (71.98%) Windows
2 744 (42.64%) Windows Server
3 301 (17.25%) Windows 10
4 211 (12.09%) Linux
5 135 (7.74%) Windows Server 2016
6 93 (5.33%) Mac OS
7 80 (4.58%) Apple iOS
8 74 (4.24%) Android
9 51 (2.92%) Windows Server 2019
10 42 (2.41%) Windows 7
11 32 (1.83%) Windows Server 2012
12 29 (1.66%) Unix
12 29 (1.66%) Windows Server 2008
13 23 (1.32%) HPUX
13 23 (1.32%) Solaris
13 23 (1.32%) Windows Server 2003
14 18 (1.03%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
15 12 (0.69%) Windows 8
16 6 (0.34%) CentOS
17 5 (0.29%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 631 (36.16%) Problem-Solving
2 516 (29.57%) Customer Service
3 416 (23.84%) ITIL
4 265 (15.19%) Cybersecurity
5 205 (11.75%) Mentoring
6 200 (11.46%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 183 (10.49%) Continuous Improvement
8 180 (10.32%) ITSM
9 158 (9.05%) Service Delivery
10 151 (8.65%) Disaster Recovery
11 126 (7.22%) Incident Management
12 124 (7.11%) Migration
13 119 (6.82%) Vulnerability Remediation
14 113 (6.48%) Coaching
15 96 (5.50%) Kalman Filter
16 94 (5.39%) Web Filtering
17 93 (5.33%) Customer Experience
18 92 (5.27%) Identity Access Management
19 91 (5.21%) Change Management
20 86 (4.93%) Asset Management
Programming Languages
1 293 (16.79%) PowerShell
2 124 (7.11%) SQL
3 79 (4.53%) Bash
4 50 (2.87%) Python
5 48 (2.75%) T-SQL
6 22 (1.26%) Perl
7 15 (0.86%) Shell Script
8 14 (0.80%) JavaScript
9 13 (0.74%) PL/SQL
10 12 (0.69%) R
11 11 (0.63%) Java
12 10 (0.57%) C#
13 8 (0.46%) VB
14 5 (0.29%) VBA
15 4 (0.23%) Bicep
16 3 (0.17%) PHP
17 2 (0.11%) C
17 2 (0.11%) TypeScript
18 1 (0.057%) Groovy
18 1 (0.057%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 232 (13.30%) Security Cleared
2 175 (10.03%) SC Cleared
3 161 (9.23%) Degree
4 157 (9.00%) Microsoft Certification
5 78 (4.47%) DV Cleared
6 46 (2.64%) DBS Check
7 42 (2.41%) Azure Certification
8 38 (2.18%) A+ Certification
9 37 (2.12%) Cisco Certification
10 35 (2.01%) Microsoft Certified Professional
11 31 (1.78%) CCNA
12 23 (1.32%) Network+ Certification
13 21 (1.20%) ITIL Certification
14 20 (1.15%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
15 19 (1.09%) MCSE
16 18 (1.03%) HNC
17 17 (0.97%) MCSA
18 14 (0.80%) HND
19 13 (0.74%) Computer Science Degree
20 12 (0.69%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 165 (9.46%) SLA
2 144 (8.25%) Cyber Essentials
3 92 (5.27%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 83 (4.76%) PCI DSS
5 50 (2.87%) NIST
6 40 (2.29%) GDPR
7 39 (2.23%) NCSC
8 25 (1.43%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 17 (0.97%) QA
10 9 (0.52%) Accessibility
10 9 (0.52%) Data Quality
11 5 (0.29%) GRC
11 5 (0.29%) PMO
12 4 (0.23%) 21 CFR Part 11
12 4 (0.23%) GxP
12 4 (0.23%) ISO 22301
12 4 (0.23%) ITGC
13 2 (0.11%) Disclosure Scotland
13 2 (0.11%) ISO 9001
13 2 (0.11%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 350 (20.06%) Hyper-V
2 246 (14.10%) VMware Infrastructure
3 75 (4.30%) Terminal Server
4 47 (2.69%) vSphere
5 36 (2.06%) VMware ESXi
6 32 (1.83%) Virtual Desktop
7 24 (1.38%) Virtual Machines
8 17 (0.97%) BitLocker
9 15 (0.86%) Docker
10 11 (0.63%) Firmware
10 11 (0.63%) VMware Workstation
11 10 (0.57%) VMware NSX
11 10 (0.57%) XenApp
12 6 (0.34%) DFS Replication
13 5 (0.29%) Virtual Servers
14 4 (0.23%) Terminal Services
15 3 (0.17%) Citrix Hypervisor
15 3 (0.17%) Lustre
15 3 (0.17%) Microsoft Virtual Server
15 3 (0.17%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 352 (20.17%) Microsoft Intune
2 131 (7.51%) SCCM
3 44 (2.52%) Single Sign-On
4 42 (2.41%) vCenter Server
5 35 (2.01%) Terraform
6 34 (1.95%) Jamf Pro
7 21 (1.20%) FortiGate
8 20 (1.15%) Ansible
9 17 (0.97%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 17 (0.97%) Autotask
10 16 (0.92%) WSUS
11 11 (0.63%) Kubernetes
11 11 (0.63%) SCOM
12 9 (0.52%) Backup Exec
13 8 (0.46%) ZABBIX
14 7 (0.40%) Proxmox
15 6 (0.34%) SmoothWall
15 6 (0.34%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
16 5 (0.29%) SCVMM
17 4 (0.23%) Nagios
Vendors
1 1,266 (72.55%) Microsoft
2 455 (26.07%) VMware
3 156 (8.94%) Veeam
4 110 (6.30%) SolarWinds
5 100 (5.73%) Nimble Storage
6 96 (5.50%) Apple
7 94 (5.39%) Cisco
8 91 (5.21%) Citrix
9 88 (5.04%) Splunk
10 81 (4.64%) ServiceNow
11 79 (4.53%) Google
12 72 (4.13%) Brocade
12 72 (4.13%) Tanium
13 66 (3.78%) HP
14 54 (3.09%) Dell
15 42 (2.41%) Oracle
16 37 (2.12%) Meraki
17 28 (1.60%) Dell Compellent
18 24 (1.38%) SonicWALL
19 22 (1.26%) CrowdStrike