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

6 months to
31 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 50 37 23
Rank change year-on-year -13 -14 +17
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 1,752 1,884 3,430
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 3.88% 5.45% 7.49%
As % of the System Software category 62.19% 43.85% 48.91%
Number of salaries quoted 1,216 1,144 3,050
10th Percentile £26,250 £25,750 £24,500
25th Percentile £28,000 £29,938 £27,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £33,375 £37,500 £36,000
Median % change year-on-year -11.00% +4.17% -1.37%
75th Percentile £46,500 £52,500 £48,810
90th Percentile £60,000 £61,175 £57,500
UK median annual salary £37,500 £42,500 £40,000
% change year-on-year -11.76% +6.25% -2.44%

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 2,817 4,296 7,013
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 6.23% 12.43% 15.31%
Number of salaries quoted 1,969 2,429 5,878
10th Percentile £26,500 £27,500 £26,216
25th Percentile £30,000 £35,000 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £50,000 £47,302
Median % change year-on-year -15.00% +5.70% -0.42%
75th Percentile £61,250 £68,750 £62,500
90th Percentile £76,250 £83,750 £75,375
UK median annual salary £50,000 £57,500 £52,000
% change year-on-year -13.04% +10.58% -5.45%

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 31 January 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 31 January 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 +12 472 £36,000 -15.29% 256
North of England -24 363 £33,000 -13.16% 130
South West +2 292 £32,500 -2.99% 88
Midlands -21 268 £31,000 -16.97% 81
East of England -15 189 £35,170 +8.22% 84
North West -10 166 £37,500 -9.06% 64
East Midlands +19 163 £28,500 -9.52% 43
Yorkshire -11 155 £32,500 - 55
Scotland +4 114 £29,000 -27.00% 43
West Midlands -50 104 £32,500 -18.75% 38
North East -10 42 £31,000 -13.89% 16
Wales +3 36 £34,000 -29.17% 18
Northern Ireland -10 19 £32,000 -39.05% 1
Isle of Man +9 1 £45,000 +91.49% 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
1 501 (28.60%) Microsoft Exchange
2 312 (17.81%) SharePoint
3 26 (1.48%) Exchange Server 2003
4 15 (0.86%) IIS
5 14 (0.80%) Confluence
6 11 (0.63%) Skype for Business
7 7 (0.40%) Exchange Server 2013
8 5 (0.29%) Exchange Server 2007
8 5 (0.29%) Exchange Server 2010
9 3 (0.17%) Tomcat
9 3 (0.17%) WebLogic
9 3 (0.17%) WebLogic Portal
10 2 (0.11%) CMS
10 2 (0.11%) FactoryTalk
10 2 (0.11%) WinCC
10 2 (0.11%) WordPress
11 1 (0.057%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 244 (13.93%) Microsoft Office
2 35 (2.00%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (0.29%) 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 21 (1.20%) Dynamics CRM
2 20 (1.14%) Oracle ERP
3 5 (0.29%) NetSuite
4 4 (0.23%) Markit EDM
4 4 (0.23%) Remedy ITSM
5 3 (0.17%) Oracle EBS
5 3 (0.17%) Primavera
6 2 (0.11%) Dynamics NAV
6 2 (0.11%) Shopify
7 1 (0.057%) Cognos Business Intelligence
7 1 (0.057%) Dynamics AX
7 1 (0.057%) Sage 200
7 1 (0.057%) Visualfiles
Cloud Services
1 1,215 (69.35%) Microsoft 365
2 944 (53.88%) Azure
3 568 (32.42%) Entra ID
4 120 (6.85%) AWS
5 119 (6.79%) OneDrive
6 80 (4.57%) Google Workspace
6 80 (4.57%) SaaS
7 57 (3.25%) Power Platform
8 39 (2.23%) Azure DevOps
9 35 (2.00%) GCP
10 33 (1.88%) IaaS
11 32 (1.83%) Azure Monitor
12 30 (1.71%) GitHub
12 30 (1.71%) PowerApps
13 28 (1.60%) OCI
13 28 (1.60%) PaaS
14 26 (1.48%) Azure Logic Apps
15 22 (1.26%) Power Automate
16 21 (1.20%) Mimecast
17 18 (1.03%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 649 (37.04%) DNS
2 616 (35.16%) DHCP
3 405 (23.12%) Firewall
4 255 (14.55%) VPN
5 244 (13.93%) TCP/IP
6 177 (10.10%) VLAN
7 165 (9.42%) LAN
8 161 (9.19%) WAN
9 134 (7.65%) Wi-Fi
10 86 (4.91%) Wireless
11 75 (4.28%) VoIP
12 53 (3.03%) SAN
13 51 (2.91%) Network Security
14 48 (2.74%) Remote Desktop
15 37 (2.11%) Broadband
16 26 (1.48%) Internet
17 22 (1.26%) SD-WAN
18 16 (0.91%) SMTP
18 16 (0.91%) Unified Communications
19 15 (0.86%) Ethernet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 123 (7.02%) Amazon RDS
2 55 (3.14%) SQL Server
3 29 (1.66%) Oracle Database
4 26 (1.48%) Oracle Database 10g
5 23 (1.31%) Power BI
6 12 (0.68%) MySQL
7 11 (0.63%) Azure SQL Database
8 7 (0.40%) PostgreSQL
9 6 (0.34%) Data Warehouse
9 6 (0.34%) DTS
9 6 (0.34%) Relational Database
10 5 (0.29%) GIS
10 5 (0.29%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 3 (0.17%) Data Mining
11 3 (0.17%) Oracle Discoverer
11 3 (0.17%) Oracle Reports
12 2 (0.11%) NoSQL
13 1 (0.057%) Cognos Connection
13 1 (0.057%) Cognos Event Studio
13 1 (0.057%) Cognos Framework Manager
Development Applications
1 67 (3.82%) JIRA
2 28 (1.60%) Jenkins
3 24 (1.37%) Git
4 23 (1.31%) Oracle Forms
5 7 (0.40%) GitLab
6 4 (0.23%) LabVIEW
7 3 (0.17%) Oracle APEX
7 3 (0.17%) Subversion
8 2 (0.11%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
8 2 (0.11%) Visual Studio
9 1 (0.057%) Burp Suite
9 1 (0.057%) Metasploit
9 1 (0.057%) Vagrant
General
1 856 (48.86%) Social Skills
2 216 (12.33%) Analytical Skills
3 142 (8.11%) Finance
4 129 (7.36%) Organisational Skills
5 90 (5.14%) Manufacturing
6 64 (3.65%) Retail
7 58 (3.31%) Documentation Skills
7 58 (3.31%) Law
8 56 (3.20%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 41 (2.34%) Advertising
10 36 (2.05%) Legal
11 31 (1.77%) Public Sector
12 30 (1.71%) Games
13 22 (1.26%) Marketing
14 21 (1.20%) Telecoms
15 15 (0.86%) French Language
15 15 (0.86%) Swedish Language
16 10 (0.57%) Aerospace
17 6 (0.34%) Pharmaceutical
18 5 (0.29%) Automotive
Job Titles
1 635 (36.24%) IT Support
2 425 (24.26%) Support Engineer
3 341 (19.46%) IT Engineer
4 287 (16.38%) IT Support Engineer
5 229 (13.07%) Analyst
6 190 (10.84%) 2nd Line Support
7 166 (9.47%) Support Analyst
8 156 (8.90%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 152 (8.68%) Support Technician
10 140 (7.99%) Systems Engineer
11 128 (7.31%) IT Analyst
12 126 (7.19%) Senior
13 109 (6.22%) IT Support Analyst
14 107 (6.11%) IT Technician
15 101 (5.76%) IT Support Technician
16 95 (5.42%) 3rd Line Support
17 92 (5.25%) 2nd Line Engineer
18 91 (5.19%) 1st Line Support
19 82 (4.68%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
19 82 (4.68%) Technical Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 53 (3.03%) SOAP
2 46 (2.63%) LDAP
3 45 (2.57%) SAML
4 43 (2.45%) OAuth
4 43 (2.45%) OpenID
5 35 (2.00%) REST
6 33 (1.88%) GraphQL
7 25 (1.43%) RESTful
8 24 (1.37%) JSON
8 24 (1.37%) XML
9 20 (1.14%) .NET
10 15 (0.86%) ARM Templates
11 12 (0.68%) CSS
11 12 (0.68%) HTML
11 12 (0.68%) React
12 10 (0.57%) OAuth2
13 9 (0.51%) .NET Framework
14 5 (0.29%) EDI
14 5 (0.29%) Microsoft Graph
15 4 (0.23%) Razor View Engine
Miscellaneous
1 259 (14.78%) Driving Licence
2 148 (8.45%) Onboarding
3 111 (6.34%) Legacy Systems
4 74 (4.22%) Self-Motivation
5 66 (3.77%) Enterprise Software
6 40 (2.28%) Data Centre
7 36 (2.05%) Cyberattack
8 35 (2.00%) Cloud Native
8 35 (2.00%) Cyber Threat
9 33 (1.88%) Management Information System
10 31 (1.77%) Hybrid Cloud
11 28 (1.60%) Replication
12 19 (1.08%) Video Conferencing
13 18 (1.03%) iPad
14 16 (0.91%) Client/Server
14 16 (0.91%) PKI
14 16 (0.91%) Public Cloud
15 15 (0.86%) CMDB
16 14 (0.80%) Analytical Mindset
16 14 (0.80%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 1,225 (69.92%) Windows
2 757 (43.21%) Windows Server
3 258 (14.73%) Windows 10
4 225 (12.84%) Linux
5 161 (9.19%) Windows Server 2016
6 84 (4.79%) Mac OS
7 71 (4.05%) Apple iOS
8 68 (3.88%) Windows Server 2019
9 64 (3.65%) Android
10 34 (1.94%) Windows Server 2008
11 33 (1.88%) Windows 7
12 31 (1.77%) Unix
12 31 (1.77%) Windows Server 2012
13 26 (1.48%) Solaris
13 26 (1.48%) Windows Server 2003
14 25 (1.43%) HPUX
15 13 (0.74%) VMS
16 8 (0.46%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
17 7 (0.40%) Windows 8
18 6 (0.34%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 659 (37.61%) Problem-Solving
2 543 (30.99%) Customer Service
3 370 (21.12%) ITIL
4 228 (13.01%) Cybersecurity
4 228 (13.01%) Mentoring
5 205 (11.70%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 189 (10.79%) Continuous Improvement
7 175 (9.99%) Migration
8 169 (9.65%) ITSM
9 143 (8.16%) Service Delivery
10 130 (7.42%) Vulnerability Remediation
11 121 (6.91%) Coaching
12 120 (6.85%) Incident Management
13 119 (6.79%) Disaster Recovery
14 117 (6.68%) Kalman Filter
15 115 (6.56%) Web Filtering
16 113 (6.45%) Customer Experience
17 109 (6.22%) Asset Management
18 108 (6.16%) Email Filtering
19 106 (6.05%) Vulnerability Scanning
Programming Languages
1 292 (16.67%) PowerShell
2 138 (7.88%) SQL
3 70 (4.00%) Bash
4 55 (3.14%) Python
5 39 (2.23%) T-SQL
6 23 (1.31%) Java
6 23 (1.31%) Perl
6 23 (1.31%) PL/SQL
7 22 (1.26%) Shell Script
8 17 (0.97%) JavaScript
9 15 (0.86%) C#
10 11 (0.63%) VB
11 9 (0.51%) Bicep
12 5 (0.29%) VBA
13 4 (0.23%) R
14 3 (0.17%) Groovy
15 2 (0.11%) TypeScript
16 1 (0.057%) PHP
16 1 (0.057%) VB.NET
16 1 (0.057%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 245 (13.98%) Security Cleared
2 202 (11.53%) SC Cleared
3 163 (9.30%) Microsoft Certification
4 154 (8.79%) Degree
5 67 (3.82%) DV Cleared
6 52 (2.97%) DBS Check
7 42 (2.40%) A+ Certification
8 41 (2.34%) Azure Certification
9 40 (2.28%) Cisco Certification
10 34 (1.94%) Microsoft Certified Professional
11 33 (1.88%) CCNA
12 31 (1.77%) MCSE
13 25 (1.43%) Network+ Certification
14 20 (1.14%) HND
14 20 (1.14%) ITIL Certification
15 18 (1.03%) HNC
15 18 (1.03%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
16 14 (0.80%) MCSA
17 13 (0.74%) Computer Science Degree
18 11 (0.63%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 156 (8.90%) Cyber Essentials
2 136 (7.76%) SLA
3 113 (6.45%) PCI DSS
4 84 (4.79%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 54 (3.08%) GDPR
6 46 (2.63%) NIST
7 33 (1.88%) NCSC
8 16 (0.91%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 12 (0.68%) QA
10 8 (0.46%) Accessibility
11 5 (0.29%) GxP
11 5 (0.29%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 4 (0.23%) 21 CFR Part 11
12 4 (0.23%) Data Quality
12 4 (0.23%) ISO 22301
13 2 (0.11%) Disclosure Scotland
14 1 (0.057%) GRC
14 1 (0.057%) ISO 9001
14 1 (0.057%) PMO
System Software
1 358 (20.43%) Hyper-V
2 239 (13.64%) VMware Infrastructure
3 106 (6.05%) Terminal Server
4 49 (2.80%) Virtual Desktop
5 44 (2.51%) vSphere
6 35 (2.00%) VMware ESXi
7 23 (1.31%) Virtual Machines
8 17 (0.97%) Firmware
9 16 (0.91%) Docker
10 8 (0.46%) BitLocker
11 7 (0.40%) Virtual Servers
11 7 (0.40%) VMware NSX
12 6 (0.34%) VMware Workstation
13 5 (0.29%) XenApp
14 4 (0.23%) Terminal Services
15 3 (0.17%) Lustre
15 3 (0.17%) Slurm Workload Manager
16 1 (0.057%) DFS Replication
16 1 (0.057%) Microsoft Virtual Server
16 1 (0.057%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 362 (20.66%) Microsoft Intune
2 129 (7.36%) SCCM
3 56 (3.20%) Terraform
4 47 (2.68%) Single Sign-On
5 37 (2.11%) vCenter Server
6 25 (1.43%) WSUS
7 21 (1.20%) Jamf Pro
8 20 (1.14%) Ansible
8 20 (1.14%) Autotask
9 18 (1.03%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 18 (1.03%) FortiGate
10 16 (0.91%) Kubernetes
10 16 (0.91%) SCOM
11 10 (0.57%) Nagios
11 10 (0.57%) ZABBIX
12 9 (0.51%) Failover Clustering
13 7 (0.40%) SCVMM
14 6 (0.34%) McAfee ePO
14 6 (0.34%) SmoothWall
15 5 (0.29%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 1,305 (74.49%) Microsoft
2 473 (27.00%) VMware
3 187 (10.67%) Veeam
4 143 (8.16%) SolarWinds
5 120 (6.85%) Nimble Storage
6 118 (6.74%) Splunk
7 111 (6.34%) Cisco
8 110 (6.28%) Tanium
9 104 (5.94%) Brocade
10 84 (4.79%) Apple
11 72 (4.11%) Citrix
12 71 (4.05%) ServiceNow
13 65 (3.71%) Google
14 53 (3.03%) HP
15 52 (2.97%) Oracle
16 40 (2.28%) Dell
17 39 (2.23%) Meraki
18 25 (1.43%) Fortinet
18 25 (1.43%) SonicWALL
19 22 (1.26%) Red Hat