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

6 months to
22 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 56 37 34
Rank change year-on-year -19 -3 -2
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 2,169 1,897 3,076
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 2.76% 5.47% 5.16%
As % of the System Software category 50.06% 43.99% 51.37%
Number of salaries quoted 1,665 1,516 2,248
10th Percentile £26,750 £26,000 £24,735
25th Percentile £29,500 £28,250 £28,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £37,500 £35,000 £37,500
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% -6.67% +1.35%
75th Percentile £51,250 £47,500 £50,000
90th Percentile £67,500 £60,000 £60,000
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 4,333 4,312 5,988
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 5.51% 12.44% 10.05%
Number of salaries quoted 3,260 2,521 4,304
10th Percentile £28,500 £26,500 £26,250
25th Percentile £33,750 £30,750 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £42,500 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year +17.65% -10.53% -4.17%
75th Percentile £67,500 £62,500 £61,250
90th Percentile £80,000 £76,840 £73,750
UK median annual salary £55,000 £49,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +12.24% -2.00% -10.71%

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 22 August 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 22 August 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
North of England -12 515 £33,475 +7.98% 129
South East -6 502 £42,500 +6.25% 229
Midlands -32 366 £40,000 +23.08% 98
South West -21 295 £38,500 +11.59% 81
North West +63 280 £35,000 - 75
East of England 0 253 £35,000 +2.94% 86
East Midlands -13 188 £37,500 +19.05% 32
West Midlands -37 178 £42,500 +11.84% 66
Yorkshire -33 176 £31,000 +3.33% 38
Scotland +71 113 £32,500 +4.84% 28
Wales -25 66 £45,000 +18.13% 8
Northern Ireland -28 66 £40,000 -23.81% 9
North East -55 59 £38,750 +25.00% 22
Isle of Man -1 2 £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
1 635 (29.28%) Microsoft Exchange
2 473 (21.81%) SharePoint
3 52 (2.40%) IIS
4 18 (0.83%) Confluence
5 13 (0.60%) Skype for Business
6 6 (0.28%) Apache
7 3 (0.14%) Exchange Server 2013
7 3 (0.14%) nginx
7 3 (0.14%) SAS
8 1 (0.046%) CMS
8 1 (0.046%) Drupal
8 1 (0.046%) Exchange Server 2007
8 1 (0.046%) Exchange Server 2010
8 1 (0.046%) HCL Domino
8 1 (0.046%) HCL Notes
8 1 (0.046%) Site Server
8 1 (0.046%) WordPress
Applications
1 141 (6.50%) Microsoft Office
2 39 (1.80%) Microsoft Excel
3 13 (0.60%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.18%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 3 (0.14%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.092%) MS Visio
7 1 (0.046%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.046%) Revit
Business Applications
1 14 (0.65%) Dynamics CRM
2 8 (0.37%) Dynamics NAV
3 7 (0.32%) Remedy ITSM
4 6 (0.28%) Raiser’s Edge
5 5 (0.23%) JDE EnterpriseOne
5 5 (0.23%) NetSuite
6 4 (0.18%) Exchequer
6 4 (0.18%) Payment Gateway
6 4 (0.18%) Primavera
6 4 (0.18%) Shopify
7 3 (0.14%) Salesforce CRM
8 2 (0.092%) Sage 200
8 2 (0.092%) Teamcenter
9 1 (0.046%) Dynamics AX
9 1 (0.046%) Dynamics GP
9 1 (0.046%) Magento
9 1 (0.046%) Oracle Payables
9 1 (0.046%) Sage 50
9 1 (0.046%) SAP EHS
9 1 (0.046%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 1,494 (68.88%) Microsoft 365
2 1,220 (56.25%) Azure
3 963 (44.40%) Entra ID
4 159 (7.33%) OneDrive
5 151 (6.96%) AWS
6 103 (4.75%) SaaS
7 73 (3.37%) Power Platform
8 67 (3.09%) IaaS
9 59 (2.72%) Mimecast
10 53 (2.44%) PaaS
11 47 (2.17%) Azure DevOps
12 40 (1.84%) Microsoft Purview
13 38 (1.75%) Azure Sentinel
14 33 (1.52%) Power Automate
15 32 (1.48%) Serverless
16 28 (1.29%) Azure Monitor
17 25 (1.15%) Azure ExpressRoute
17 25 (1.15%) Google Workspace
17 25 (1.15%) PowerApps
18 23 (1.06%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 707 (32.60%) DNS
2 587 (27.06%) DHCP
3 525 (24.20%) Firewall
4 373 (17.20%) VPN
5 261 (12.03%) TCP/IP
6 212 (9.77%) Wi-Fi
7 202 (9.31%) WAN
8 201 (9.27%) VLAN
9 197 (9.08%) LAN
10 139 (6.41%) Wireless
11 131 (6.04%) VoIP
12 96 (4.43%) Network Security
13 80 (3.69%) SAN
14 45 (2.07%) Remote Desktop
15 29 (1.34%) SSL
16 28 (1.29%) Internet
17 27 (1.24%) NAS
18 18 (0.83%) Structured Cabling
19 17 (0.78%) WLAN
20 16 (0.74%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 100 (4.61%) SQL Server
2 99 (4.56%) Amazon RDS
3 33 (1.52%) Azure SQL Database
4 28 (1.29%) Power BI
5 19 (0.88%) MySQL
6 18 (0.83%) PostgreSQL
7 9 (0.41%) Relational Database
8 6 (0.28%) Crystal Reports
9 5 (0.23%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 4 (0.18%) Data Warehouse
10 4 (0.18%) Neo4j
11 3 (0.14%) Oracle Database
12 2 (0.092%) BusinessObjects
12 2 (0.092%) Data Lake
12 2 (0.092%) KNIME
13 1 (0.046%) InterSystems Cache
13 1 (0.046%) NoSQL
13 1 (0.046%) RDBMS
13 1 (0.046%) Redis
13 1 (0.046%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 70 (3.23%) JIRA
2 30 (1.38%) Git
3 9 (0.41%) Jenkins
4 6 (0.28%) Bitbucket
5 5 (0.23%) GitLab
6 2 (0.092%) Artifactory
6 2 (0.092%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 2 (0.092%) Burp Suite
6 2 (0.092%) git-flow
6 2 (0.092%) Metasploit
6 2 (0.092%) NUnit
6 2 (0.092%) Terragrunt
7 1 (0.046%) Carbide.c++
7 1 (0.046%) JMeter
7 1 (0.046%) Ranorex
7 1 (0.046%) Selenium
7 1 (0.046%) Sonatype Nexus
7 1 (0.046%) Subversion
7 1 (0.046%) Team Foundation Server
7 1 (0.046%) Vagrant
General
1 1,002 (46.20%) Social Skills
2 259 (11.94%) Analytical Skills
3 146 (6.73%) Legal
4 129 (5.95%) Finance
5 84 (3.87%) Organisational Skills
6 82 (3.78%) Law
6 82 (3.78%) Manufacturing
7 74 (3.41%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 63 (2.90%) Public Sector
9 56 (2.58%) Retail
10 45 (2.07%) Telecoms
11 40 (1.84%) Documentation Skills
12 34 (1.57%) Aerospace
13 30 (1.38%) Advertising
14 14 (0.65%) Automotive
15 12 (0.55%) Local Government
16 11 (0.51%) Influencing Skills
17 7 (0.32%) Aviation
17 7 (0.32%) Games
18 5 (0.23%) Dutch Language
Job Titles
1 773 (35.64%) IT Support
2 521 (24.02%) Support Engineer
3 510 (23.51%) IT Engineer
4 413 (19.04%) IT Support Engineer
5 347 (16.00%) Analyst
6 267 (12.31%) Senior
7 223 (10.28%) Support Analyst
8 214 (9.87%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 200 (9.22%) IT Technician
10 194 (8.94%) Support Technician
11 176 (8.11%) IT Support Technician
12 162 (7.47%) Systems Engineer
13 146 (6.73%) 2nd Line Support
14 141 (6.50%) IT Analyst
15 125 (5.76%) IT Support Analyst
16 96 (4.43%) 2nd Line Engineer
17 95 (4.38%) Architect
18 85 (3.92%) Administrator
19 82 (3.78%) 3rd Line Support
20 80 (3.69%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 79 (3.64%) Terraform
2 53 (2.44%) LDAP
3 31 (1.43%) SAML
4 29 (1.34%) OpenID
5 27 (1.24%) OAuth
6 23 (1.06%) Regular Expression
7 19 (0.88%) XMPP
8 13 (0.60%) .NET
8 13 (0.60%) Microsoft Graph
9 12 (0.55%) HTML
9 12 (0.55%) ModSecurity
10 11 (0.51%) ARM Templates
11 10 (0.46%) REST
11 10 (0.46%) Web Services
12 7 (0.32%) JSON
12 7 (0.32%) JSON Schema
12 7 (0.32%) OAuth2
12 7 (0.32%) XML
13 6 (0.28%) SOAP
14 5 (0.23%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 299 (13.79%) Driving Licence
2 192 (8.85%) Onboarding
3 120 (5.53%) Self-Motivation
4 95 (4.38%) Legacy Systems
5 85 (3.92%) Hybrid Cloud
6 69 (3.18%) Data Centre
7 64 (2.95%) Management Information System
8 51 (2.35%) PKI
9 44 (2.03%) Clustering
10 42 (1.94%) Enterprise Software
10 42 (1.94%) Security Posture
11 41 (1.89%) Cloud Native
12 36 (1.66%) CCTV
13 35 (1.61%) Replication
14 34 (1.57%) Public Cloud
15 19 (0.88%) Social Media
16 18 (0.83%) iPhone
17 17 (0.78%) Video Conferencing
18 16 (0.74%) CMDB
18 16 (0.74%) Enterprise Storage
Operating Systems
1 1,536 (70.82%) Windows
2 897 (41.36%) Windows Server
3 276 (12.72%) Linux
3 276 (12.72%) Windows 10
4 161 (7.42%) Windows Server 2016
5 137 (6.32%) Mac OS
6 86 (3.96%) Windows Server 2019
7 81 (3.73%) Apple iOS
8 59 (2.72%) Android
9 43 (1.98%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 24 (1.11%) VMS
11 21 (0.97%) Ubuntu
12 20 (0.92%) Windows Server 2012
13 8 (0.37%) CentOS
14 6 (0.28%) Debian
14 6 (0.28%) Windows Server 2008
15 5 (0.23%) CoreOS
15 5 (0.23%) Windows 7
16 4 (0.18%) Mac OS X
16 4 (0.18%) Rocky
Processes & Methodologies
1 752 (34.67%) Problem-Solving
2 527 (24.30%) Customer Service
3 479 (22.08%) ITIL
4 438 (20.19%) Continuous Improvement
5 412 (18.99%) Cybersecurity
6 352 (16.23%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 267 (12.31%) Mentoring
8 261 (12.03%) Disaster Recovery
9 206 (9.50%) ITSM
10 191 (8.81%) Project Delivery
11 187 (8.62%) Identity Access Management
12 186 (8.58%) Service Delivery
13 170 (7.84%) Migration
14 138 (6.36%) Service Management
15 137 (6.32%) Customer Experience
16 134 (6.18%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 132 (6.09%) Collaborative Working
18 130 (5.99%) Vulnerability Remediation
19 124 (5.72%) AI
20 118 (5.44%) Kalman Filter
Programming Languages
1 345 (15.91%) PowerShell
2 197 (9.08%) SQL
3 67 (3.09%) Python
4 59 (2.72%) Bash
5 52 (2.40%) Bicep
6 27 (1.24%) R
7 13 (0.60%) Ruby
8 12 (0.55%) Kusto Query Language
8 12 (0.55%) VBA
9 9 (0.41%) C#
10 7 (0.32%) Java
10 7 (0.32%) Shell Script
10 7 (0.32%) T-SQL
11 5 (0.23%) Korn
11 5 (0.23%) PHP
12 3 (0.14%) JavaScript
12 3 (0.14%) VB.NET
13 2 (0.092%) C
13 2 (0.092%) VB
13 2 (0.092%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 315 (14.52%) Security Cleared
2 215 (9.91%) SC Cleared
3 203 (9.36%) Degree
4 189 (8.71%) Microsoft Certification
5 121 (5.58%) Azure Certification
6 103 (4.75%) DV Cleared
7 97 (4.47%) A+ Certification
7 97 (4.47%) Network+ Certification
8 75 (3.46%) CISM
8 75 (3.46%) CISSP
9 61 (2.81%) Cisco Certification
10 60 (2.77%) DBS Check
11 53 (2.44%) CCNA
12 34 (1.57%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 23 (1.06%) Computer Science Degree
14 22 (1.01%) Microsoft Certified Professional
15 21 (0.97%) CompTIA Security+
16 19 (0.88%) AWS Certification
16 19 (0.88%) MCSA
17 15 (0.69%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 223 (10.28%) Cyber Essentials
2 162 (7.47%) SLA
3 125 (5.76%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 96 (4.43%) PCI DSS
5 54 (2.49%) GDPR
6 48 (2.21%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 28 (1.29%) NIST
8 19 (0.88%) QA
9 13 (0.60%) Accessibility
9 13 (0.60%) Data Quality
10 12 (0.55%) NCSC
11 6 (0.28%) SOC 2
12 4 (0.18%) GRC
13 3 (0.14%) ISAE 3402
13 3 (0.14%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 1 (0.046%) ISO 9001
14 1 (0.046%) ISO/IEC 42001
14 1 (0.046%) ITGC
System Software
1 505 (23.28%) Hyper-V
2 382 (17.61%) VMware Infrastructure
3 89 (4.10%) vSphere
4 81 (3.73%) Terminal Server
5 72 (3.32%) Virtual Desktop
6 54 (2.49%) Virtual Machines
7 38 (1.75%) VMware ESXi
8 37 (1.71%) Docker
9 20 (0.92%) Firmware
10 19 (0.88%) Virtual Servers
11 14 (0.65%) Microsoft Virtual Server
12 12 (0.55%) VMware NSX
13 10 (0.46%) BitLocker
13 10 (0.46%) Citrix Hypervisor
14 5 (0.23%) DFS Replication
14 5 (0.23%) NDS
15 4 (0.18%) Squid
15 4 (0.18%) XenApp
16 3 (0.14%) VMware Server
17 2 (0.092%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 583 (26.88%) Microsoft Intune
2 109 (5.03%) SCCM
3 57 (2.63%) Single Sign-On
4 38 (1.75%) Ansible
5 35 (1.61%) Kubernetes
6 32 (1.48%) FortiGate
7 28 (1.29%) Jamf Pro
8 26 (1.20%) WSUS
9 22 (1.01%) vCenter Server
10 18 (0.83%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 18 (0.83%) Proxmox
11 16 (0.74%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
12 15 (0.69%) Failover Clustering
13 12 (0.55%) ZABBIX
14 11 (0.51%) Microsoft Clustering
15 10 (0.46%) SCOM
16 6 (0.28%) Grafana
16 6 (0.28%) Graylog
16 6 (0.28%) Prometheus
17 5 (0.23%) VxRail
Vendors
1 1,786 (82.34%) Microsoft
2 562 (25.91%) VMware
3 201 (9.27%) Veeam
4 160 (7.38%) Cisco
5 101 (4.66%) SolarWinds
6 97 (4.47%) Splunk
7 88 (4.06%) Nimble Storage
8 80 (3.69%) Brocade
8 80 (3.69%) Tanium
9 79 (3.64%) Meraki
10 74 (3.41%) CyberArk
11 72 (3.32%) Apple
12 70 (3.23%) ServiceNow
13 66 (3.04%) Citrix
14 53 (2.44%) SonicWALL
15 51 (2.35%) Fortinet
16 46 (2.12%) Dell
16 46 (2.12%) HP
17 43 (1.98%) Red Hat
18 37 (1.71%) Palo Alto