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

6 months to
24 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 64 38 29
Rank change year-on-year -26 -9 +15
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 1,733 1,463 4,492
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 2.71% 5.48% 6.66%
As % of the System Software category 57.56% 41.35% 50.75%
Number of salaries quoted 1,320 1,242 3,804
10th Percentile £26,250 £25,625 £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 £48,000 £48,000
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 3,011 3,538 8,852
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 4.71% 13.25% 13.12%
Number of salaries quoted 2,209 2,511 7,237
10th Percentile £27,500 £26,500 £25,750
25th Percentile £31,250 £32,000 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £47,500 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% +5.56% -5.26%
75th Percentile £63,158 £67,500 £60,000
90th Percentile £76,500 £83,750 £75,000
UK median annual salary £51,900 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -5.64% +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 24 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 24 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 -7 437 £36,500 -8.75% 130
North of England -11 409 £34,000 +3.03% 105
Midlands -49 296 £32,500 -4.41% 63
South West -6 245 £32,500 -5.80% 63
North West -3 200 £37,500 -5.06% 56
Yorkshire -25 180 £32,500 +8.33% 34
East of England -34 176 £40,000 +23.08% 44
East Midlands -36 154 £32,500 +3.17% 32
West Midlands -48 141 £32,500 -7.14% 31
Scotland +32 101 £30,000 -20.00% 24
Wales -2 44 £40,000 +5.00% 8
North East -31 29 £40,000 +20.49% 19
Northern Ireland -26 19 £32,000 -39.05% 19
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
1 448 (25.85%) Microsoft Exchange
2 353 (20.37%) SharePoint
3 18 (1.04%) IIS
4 11 (0.63%) Confluence
4 11 (0.63%) Exchange Server 2013
5 10 (0.58%) Exchange Server 2003
6 9 (0.52%) Exchange Server 2007
6 9 (0.52%) Exchange Server 2010
7 6 (0.35%) CMS
8 5 (0.29%) Skype for Business
9 4 (0.23%) Apache
10 3 (0.17%) WordPress
11 1 (0.058%) Drupal
11 1 (0.058%) nginx
11 1 (0.058%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 223 (12.87%) Microsoft Office
2 39 (2.25%) Microsoft Excel
3 11 (0.63%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.17%) Spreadsheet
5 2 (0.12%) AutoCAD
6 1 (0.058%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 18 (1.04%) Dynamics CRM
2 9 (0.52%) Dynamics NAV
3 8 (0.46%) Oracle ERP
4 7 (0.40%) NetSuite
5 5 (0.29%) Remedy ITSM
6 4 (0.23%) Dynamics GP
6 4 (0.23%) Exchequer
6 4 (0.23%) Markit EDM
6 4 (0.23%) Primavera
7 2 (0.12%) Alphatax
7 2 (0.12%) Shopify
8 1 (0.058%) Magento
8 1 (0.058%) Oracle Payables
8 1 (0.058%) Sage 200
8 1 (0.058%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 1,224 (70.63%) Microsoft 365
2 916 (52.86%) Azure
3 642 (37.05%) Entra ID
4 137 (7.91%) OneDrive
5 132 (7.62%) AWS
6 96 (5.54%) Google Workspace
7 88 (5.08%) SaaS
8 86 (4.96%) Power Platform
9 40 (2.31%) IaaS
10 38 (2.19%) Nutanix
11 35 (2.02%) PaaS
12 33 (1.90%) Azure DevOps
12 33 (1.90%) Mimecast
13 31 (1.79%) Azure Monitor
14 29 (1.67%) PowerApps
15 22 (1.27%) Microsoft Purview
16 21 (1.21%) GCP
17 19 (1.10%) Dynamics 365
18 17 (0.98%) GitHub
19 16 (0.92%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 584 (33.70%) DNS
2 520 (30.01%) DHCP
3 408 (23.54%) Firewall
4 279 (16.10%) VPN
5 194 (11.19%) WAN
6 189 (10.91%) LAN
7 180 (10.39%) TCP/IP
8 156 (9.00%) VLAN
8 156 (9.00%) Wi-Fi
9 97 (5.60%) VoIP
10 84 (4.85%) Wireless
11 66 (3.81%) Network Security
12 61 (3.52%) Remote Desktop
13 51 (2.94%) SAN
14 47 (2.71%) Broadband
15 26 (1.50%) SD-WAN
16 22 (1.27%) NAS
17 18 (1.04%) Internet
18 16 (0.92%) SMTP
19 14 (0.81%) Ethernet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 86 (4.96%) SQL Server
2 71 (4.10%) Amazon RDS
3 52 (3.00%) Power BI
4 29 (1.67%) PostgreSQL
5 25 (1.44%) MySQL
6 13 (0.75%) Azure SQL Database
7 10 (0.58%) Oracle Database
7 10 (0.58%) Oracle Database 10g
8 8 (0.46%) GIS
8 8 (0.46%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 6 (0.35%) Data Warehouse
10 5 (0.29%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 3 (0.17%) Neo4j
11 3 (0.17%) Relational Database
12 1 (0.058%) Data Lake
12 1 (0.058%) Data Mining
12 1 (0.058%) InterSystems Cache
12 1 (0.058%) Metadata
12 1 (0.058%) NoSQL
12 1 (0.058%) Redis
Development Applications
1 69 (3.98%) JIRA
2 9 (0.52%) Git
3 8 (0.46%) Jenkins
3 8 (0.46%) Oracle Forms
4 7 (0.40%) GitLab
5 5 (0.29%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 4 (0.23%) LabVIEW
6 4 (0.23%) Subversion
7 1 (0.058%) Burp Suite
7 1 (0.058%) Gatling
7 1 (0.058%) JMeter
7 1 (0.058%) Metasploit
7 1 (0.058%) Vagrant
General
1 770 (44.43%) Social Skills
2 187 (10.79%) Analytical Skills
3 158 (9.12%) Organisational Skills
4 115 (6.64%) Finance
5 69 (3.98%) Manufacturing
6 62 (3.58%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 58 (3.35%) Legal
8 57 (3.29%) Documentation Skills
9 51 (2.94%) Retail
10 48 (2.77%) Law
10 48 (2.77%) Public Sector
11 37 (2.14%) Games
12 36 (2.08%) Advertising
13 29 (1.67%) Telecoms
14 16 (0.92%) Local Government
15 15 (0.87%) Marketing
16 11 (0.63%) Automotive
17 7 (0.40%) Aerospace
18 4 (0.23%) Banking
18 4 (0.23%) Military
Job Titles
1 692 (39.93%) IT Support
2 495 (28.56%) Support Engineer
3 426 (24.58%) IT Engineer
4 367 (21.18%) IT Support Engineer
5 242 (13.96%) Analyst
6 176 (10.16%) Support Analyst
7 173 (9.98%) Support Technician
8 169 (9.75%) 2nd Line Support
9 152 (8.77%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 150 (8.66%) Senior
11 146 (8.42%) IT Technician
12 134 (7.73%) IT Support Technician
13 114 (6.58%) IT Analyst
14 106 (6.12%) Systems Engineer
15 104 (6.00%) IT Support Analyst
16 96 (5.54%) 2nd Line Engineer
17 85 (4.90%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
18 79 (4.56%) 3rd Line Support
19 78 (4.50%) 1st Line Support
20 68 (3.92%) Lead
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 49 (2.83%) LDAP
2 46 (2.65%) SAML
2 46 (2.65%) SOAP
3 43 (2.48%) OAuth
3 43 (2.48%) OpenID
3 43 (2.48%) REST
4 38 (2.19%) GraphQL
5 20 (1.15%) JSON
5 20 (1.15%) XML
6 12 (0.69%) Regular Expression
7 10 (0.58%) RESTful
8 8 (0.46%) XMPP
9 7 (0.40%) Web Services
10 5 (0.29%) .NET
10 5 (0.29%) ARM Templates
10 5 (0.29%) 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 (14.89%) Driving Licence
2 113 (6.52%) Onboarding
3 77 (4.44%) Self-Motivation
4 60 (3.46%) Legacy Systems
5 54 (3.12%) Hybrid Cloud
6 44 (2.54%) Enterprise Software
7 43 (2.48%) Cyberattack
8 39 (2.25%) Cyber Threat
8 39 (2.25%) Management Information System
9 37 (2.14%) Data Centre
10 35 (2.02%) Public Cloud
11 33 (1.90%) Replication
12 26 (1.50%) Cloud Native
13 22 (1.27%) PKI
14 19 (1.10%) Client/Server
15 17 (0.98%) Clustering
16 16 (0.92%) CMDB
17 14 (0.81%) CCTV
17 14 (0.81%) iPad
18 12 (0.69%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 1,236 (71.32%) Windows
2 720 (41.55%) Windows Server
3 302 (17.43%) Windows 10
4 201 (11.60%) Linux
5 124 (7.16%) Windows Server 2016
6 91 (5.25%) Mac OS
7 84 (4.85%) Apple iOS
8 73 (4.21%) Android
9 55 (3.17%) Windows Server 2019
10 34 (1.96%) Windows Server 2012
11 26 (1.50%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 24 (1.38%) Windows 7
13 21 (1.21%) Windows Server 2008
14 14 (0.81%) Unix
15 10 (0.58%) HPUX
15 10 (0.58%) Solaris
15 10 (0.58%) Windows Server 2003
16 9 (0.52%) Windows 8
17 7 (0.40%) VMS
18 5 (0.29%) Debian
Processes & Methodologies
1 589 (33.99%) Problem-Solving
2 473 (27.29%) Customer Service
3 428 (24.70%) ITIL
4 261 (15.06%) Cybersecurity
5 203 (11.71%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 199 (11.48%) Continuous Improvement
7 190 (10.96%) Mentoring
8 171 (9.87%) ITSM
9 154 (8.89%) Service Delivery
10 152 (8.77%) Disaster Recovery
11 114 (6.58%) Change Management
12 110 (6.35%) Incident Management
13 106 (6.12%) Vulnerability Remediation
14 104 (6.00%) Migration
15 100 (5.77%) Coaching
16 90 (5.19%) Identity Access Management
16 90 (5.19%) Time Management
17 85 (4.90%) Customer Experience
17 85 (4.90%) ERP
18 83 (4.79%) Service Management
Programming Languages
1 273 (15.75%) PowerShell
2 147 (8.48%) SQL
3 81 (4.67%) Bash
4 60 (3.46%) Python
5 49 (2.83%) T-SQL
6 16 (0.92%) R
7 12 (0.69%) Shell Script
8 11 (0.63%) Bicep
9 9 (0.52%) Perl
9 9 (0.52%) PL/SQL
10 8 (0.46%) Java
10 8 (0.46%) VB
11 5 (0.29%) JavaScript
11 5 (0.29%) Korn
12 3 (0.17%) C#
12 3 (0.17%) PHP
13 2 (0.12%) C
13 2 (0.12%) VBA
14 1 (0.058%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 219 (12.64%) Security Cleared
2 172 (9.92%) Degree
3 154 (8.89%) Microsoft Certification
4 153 (8.83%) SC Cleared
5 77 (4.44%) DV Cleared
6 47 (2.71%) DBS Check
7 43 (2.48%) A+ Certification
8 42 (2.42%) Azure Certification
9 35 (2.02%) Cisco Certification
10 33 (1.90%) Network+ Certification
11 30 (1.73%) CCNA
12 29 (1.67%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 26 (1.50%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 18 (1.04%) Computer Science Degree
14 18 (1.04%) MCSE
15 16 (0.92%) HNC
15 16 (0.92%) ITIL Certification
16 12 (0.69%) CCNP
16 12 (0.69%) MCSA
17 9 (0.52%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 165 (9.52%) SLA
2 133 (7.67%) Cyber Essentials
3 102 (5.89%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 67 (3.87%) PCI DSS
5 52 (3.00%) NIST
6 40 (2.31%) NCSC
7 36 (2.08%) GDPR
8 29 (1.67%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 17 (0.98%) QA
10 15 (0.87%) Data Quality
11 10 (0.58%) Accessibility
12 5 (0.29%) GRC
12 5 (0.29%) 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 (0.12%) ISO 9001
15 2 (0.12%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 326 (18.81%) Hyper-V
2 260 (15.00%) VMware Infrastructure
3 59 (3.40%) Terminal Server
4 51 (2.94%) vSphere
5 45 (2.60%) VMware ESXi
6 39 (2.25%) Virtual Desktop
7 31 (1.79%) Virtual Machines
8 26 (1.50%) Docker
9 17 (0.98%) BitLocker
10 11 (0.63%) VMware NSX
11 10 (0.58%) VMware Workstation
12 8 (0.46%) XenApp
13 7 (0.40%) Citrix Hypervisor
14 6 (0.35%) DFS Replication
15 5 (0.29%) Terminal Services
16 4 (0.23%) Virtual Servers
17 3 (0.17%) Firmware
17 3 (0.17%) Lustre
17 3 (0.17%) Microsoft Virtual Server
17 3 (0.17%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 338 (19.50%) Microsoft Intune
2 118 (6.81%) SCCM
3 40 (2.31%) Single Sign-On
4 39 (2.25%) vCenter Server
5 34 (1.96%) Terraform
6 31 (1.79%) Jamf Pro
7 24 (1.38%) Ansible
7 24 (1.38%) WSUS
8 21 (1.21%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 19 (1.10%) FortiGate
10 16 (0.92%) Kubernetes
11 15 (0.87%) SCOM
12 12 (0.69%) Autotask
13 10 (0.58%) Proxmox
14 9 (0.52%) Backup Exec
15 8 (0.46%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
16 6 (0.35%) VxRail
17 5 (0.29%) SmoothWall
17 5 (0.29%) Tivoli Identity Manager
18 4 (0.23%) SCVMM
Vendors
1 1,242 (71.67%) Microsoft
2 432 (24.93%) VMware
3 132 (7.62%) Veeam
4 93 (5.37%) SolarWinds
5 90 (5.19%) Apple
5 90 (5.19%) Cisco
5 90 (5.19%) Citrix
6 84 (4.85%) Nimble Storage
7 78 (4.50%) ServiceNow
8 76 (4.39%) Splunk
9 70 (4.04%) Google
9 70 (4.04%) HP
10 68 (3.92%) Dell
11 56 (3.23%) Brocade
11 56 (3.23%) Tanium
12 42 (2.42%) Meraki
13 33 (1.90%) McAfee
14 29 (1.67%) CrowdStrike
15 28 (1.62%) Dell Compellent
16 26 (1.50%) Oracle