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

6 months to
25 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 52 42 31
Rank change year-on-year -10 -11 +2
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 2,143 1,822 3,655
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 2.94% 5.37% 5.65%
As % of the System Software category 52.22% 41.84% 52.09%
Number of salaries quoted 1,644 1,455 2,865
10th Percentile £26,750 £26,000 £24,500
25th Percentile £29,000 £28,250 £27,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £37,500 £35,000 £36,500
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% -4.11% -1.35%
75th Percentile £50,000 £48,000 £49,000
90th Percentile £65,000 £62,350 £58,750
UK median annual salary £40,000 £38,000 £39,500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.80% -1.25%

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 4,104 4,355 7,017
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 5.63% 12.83% 10.85%
Number of salaries quoted 3,124 2,558 5,416
10th Percentile £28,250 £26,500 £26,250
25th Percentile £32,750 £31,250 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £48,750 £45,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year +8.33% - -5.26%
75th Percentile £65,000 £65,000 £60,000
90th Percentile £80,000 £78,825 £72,875
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 25 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 25 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 0 511 £42,500 +6.25% 168
North of England -13 490 £34,000 +6.25% 134
Midlands -28 360 £37,500 +7.14% 66
South West -16 297 £37,500 +8.70% 57
North West +53 251 £35,000 - 71
East of England +8 232 £35,000 +6.01% 62
East Midlands -5 193 £35,500 +12.70% 32
Yorkshire -29 181 £31,000 +3.33% 46
West Midlands -41 167 £42,500 +8.97% 34
Scotland +90 113 £29,000 -6.45% 23
Wales -13 75 £45,000 +18.13% 14
Northern Ireland -15 65 £35,500 -32.38% 6
North East -51 58 £42,500 +32.81% 24
Isle of Man +4 6 £45,000 +30.43% 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
1 629 (29.35%) Microsoft Exchange
2 442 (20.63%) SharePoint
3 43 (2.01%) IIS
4 15 (0.70%) Confluence
5 10 (0.47%) Skype for Business
6 9 (0.42%) Exchange Server 2013
7 7 (0.33%) Apache
7 7 (0.33%) Exchange Server 2007
7 7 (0.33%) Exchange Server 2010
8 4 (0.19%) CMS
9 3 (0.14%) SAS
10 1 (0.047%) Drupal
10 1 (0.047%) nginx
10 1 (0.047%) Site Server
10 1 (0.047%) WordPress
Applications
1 194 (9.05%) Microsoft Office
2 43 (2.01%) Microsoft Excel
3 14 (0.65%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.19%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 3 (0.14%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.093%) MS Visio
7 1 (0.047%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.047%) Revit
Business Applications
1 17 (0.79%) Dynamics CRM
2 12 (0.56%) Dynamics NAV
3 10 (0.47%) 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%) Salesforce CRM
7 3 (0.14%) Shopify
8 2 (0.093%) Alphatax
8 2 (0.093%) Payment Gateway
8 2 (0.093%) Sage 200
8 2 (0.093%) SAP S/4HANA
9 1 (0.047%) Dynamics AX
9 1 (0.047%) Magento
9 1 (0.047%) Oracle Payables
9 1 (0.047%) SAP EHS
9 1 (0.047%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 1,493 (69.67%) Microsoft 365
2 1,204 (56.18%) Azure
3 898 (41.90%) Entra ID
4 154 (7.19%) AWS
5 146 (6.81%) OneDrive
6 105 (4.90%) SaaS
7 84 (3.92%) Power Platform
8 64 (2.99%) IaaS
9 61 (2.85%) Mimecast
10 54 (2.52%) PaaS
11 44 (2.05%) Azure DevOps
12 40 (1.87%) Google Workspace
13 38 (1.77%) Microsoft Purview
14 33 (1.54%) Azure Sentinel
15 28 (1.31%) Azure Monitor
16 27 (1.26%) Serverless
17 25 (1.17%) Nutanix
18 24 (1.12%) Power Automate
18 24 (1.12%) PowerApps
19 21 (0.98%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 707 (32.99%) DNS
2 593 (27.67%) DHCP
3 519 (24.22%) Firewall
4 351 (16.38%) VPN
5 247 (11.53%) TCP/IP
6 213 (9.94%) WAN
7 207 (9.66%) LAN
8 206 (9.61%) Wi-Fi
9 200 (9.33%) VLAN
10 129 (6.02%) VoIP
11 124 (5.79%) Wireless
12 84 (3.92%) Network Security
13 78 (3.64%) SAN
14 50 (2.33%) Remote Desktop
15 30 (1.40%) NAS
16 29 (1.35%) Internet
17 23 (1.07%) Broadband
18 21 (0.98%) SSL
19 18 (0.84%) SD-WAN
20 16 (0.75%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 117 (5.46%) Amazon RDS
2 111 (5.18%) SQL Server
3 43 (2.01%) Power BI
4 32 (1.49%) Azure SQL Database
5 26 (1.21%) PostgreSQL
6 25 (1.17%) MySQL
7 7 (0.33%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 6 (0.28%) Crystal Reports
9 5 (0.23%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 4 (0.19%) Neo4j
10 4 (0.19%) Relational Database
11 3 (0.14%) Data Warehouse
11 3 (0.14%) GIS
11 3 (0.14%) Oracle Database
12 2 (0.093%) BusinessObjects
12 2 (0.093%) Data Lake
12 2 (0.093%) KNIME
13 1 (0.047%) NoSQL
13 1 (0.047%) RDBMS
13 1 (0.047%) Redis
Development Applications
1 74 (3.45%) JIRA
2 25 (1.17%) Git
3 8 (0.37%) GitLab
4 7 (0.33%) Jenkins
5 4 (0.19%) 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 (0.047%) Carbide.c++
7 1 (0.047%) Gatling
7 1 (0.047%) JMeter
7 1 (0.047%) NUnit
7 1 (0.047%) Ranorex
7 1 (0.047%) Selenium
7 1 (0.047%) Sonatype Nexus
7 1 (0.047%) Subversion
7 1 (0.047%) Team Foundation Server
7 1 (0.047%) Vagrant
General
1 962 (44.89%) Social Skills
2 255 (11.90%) Analytical Skills
3 135 (6.30%) Legal
4 126 (5.88%) Finance
5 106 (4.95%) Organisational Skills
6 93 (4.34%) Law
7 73 (3.41%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 70 (3.27%) Manufacturing
9 62 (2.89%) Public Sector
10 54 (2.52%) Documentation Skills
11 50 (2.33%) Retail
12 48 (2.24%) Telecoms
13 28 (1.31%) Advertising
14 19 (0.89%) Local Government
15 18 (0.84%) Aerospace
16 17 (0.79%) Games
17 13 (0.61%) Automotive
18 9 (0.42%) Influencing Skills
19 7 (0.33%) Banking
19 7 (0.33%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 795 (37.10%) IT Support
2 556 (25.94%) Support Engineer
3 514 (23.99%) IT Engineer
4 431 (20.11%) IT Support Engineer
5 347 (16.19%) Analyst
6 247 (11.53%) Senior
7 226 (10.55%) Support Analyst
8 202 (9.43%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 199 (9.29%) Support Technician
10 192 (8.96%) IT Technician
11 177 (8.26%) Systems Engineer
12 172 (8.03%) IT Support Technician
13 156 (7.28%) 2nd Line Support
14 151 (7.05%) IT Analyst
15 136 (6.35%) IT Support Analyst
16 93 (4.34%) 2nd Line Engineer
17 86 (4.01%) 3rd Line Support
18 83 (3.87%) Architect
19 77 (3.59%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
19 77 (3.59%) Administrator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 45 (2.10%) LDAP
2 30 (1.40%) SAML
3 25 (1.17%) OpenID
4 23 (1.07%) Regular Expression
5 22 (1.03%) OAuth
6 19 (0.89%) REST
6 19 (0.89%) XMPP
7 13 (0.61%) GraphQL
7 13 (0.61%) JSON
7 13 (0.61%) SOAP
7 13 (0.61%) XML
8 11 (0.51%) ARM Templates
9 10 (0.47%) .NET
9 10 (0.47%) Microsoft Graph
10 9 (0.42%) HTML
10 9 (0.42%) Web Services
11 7 (0.33%) JSON Schema
12 6 (0.28%) Middleware
12 6 (0.28%) OAuth2
13 5 (0.23%) ODBC
Miscellaneous
1 296 (13.81%) Driving Licence
2 172 (8.03%) Onboarding
3 123 (5.74%) Self-Motivation
4 110 (5.13%) Legacy Systems
5 87 (4.06%) Hybrid Cloud
6 70 (3.27%) Data Centre
7 66 (3.08%) Management Information System
8 51 (2.38%) PKI
9 47 (2.19%) Clustering
10 38 (1.77%) Public Cloud
11 35 (1.63%) Enterprise Software
11 35 (1.63%) Replication
11 35 (1.63%) Security Posture
12 32 (1.49%) Cloud Native
13 30 (1.40%) CCTV
14 19 (0.89%) Cyber Threat
15 16 (0.75%) Client/Server
16 15 (0.70%) Cyberattack
16 15 (0.70%) Enterprise Storage
16 15 (0.70%) iPhone
Operating Systems
1 1,533 (71.54%) Windows
2 902 (42.09%) Windows Server
3 302 (14.09%) Windows 10
4 287 (13.39%) Linux
5 179 (8.35%) Windows Server 2016
6 146 (6.81%) Mac OS
7 85 (3.97%) Windows Server 2019
8 76 (3.55%) Apple iOS
9 67 (3.13%) Android
10 43 (2.01%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 25 (1.17%) VMS
12 23 (1.07%) Windows Server 2012
13 14 (0.65%) Ubuntu
14 12 (0.56%) Windows 7
15 9 (0.42%) Windows Server 2008
16 7 (0.33%) CentOS
17 6 (0.28%) Debian
18 5 (0.23%) Windows 8
19 4 (0.19%) CoreOS
19 4 (0.19%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 720 (33.60%) Problem-Solving
2 543 (25.34%) Customer Service
3 493 (23.01%) ITIL
4 403 (18.81%) Cybersecurity
5 398 (18.57%) Continuous Improvement
6 311 (14.51%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 267 (12.46%) Mentoring
8 230 (10.73%) Disaster Recovery
9 193 (9.01%) ITSM
10 184 (8.59%) Service Delivery
11 167 (7.79%) Migration
12 165 (7.70%) Project Delivery
13 149 (6.95%) Customer Experience
14 146 (6.81%) Identity Access Management
15 144 (6.72%) Vulnerability Remediation
16 136 (6.35%) Kalman Filter
17 127 (5.93%) Web Filtering
18 122 (5.69%) Change Management
19 118 (5.51%) Collaborative Working
20 116 (5.41%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 331 (15.45%) PowerShell
2 199 (9.29%) SQL
3 70 (3.27%) Bash
4 67 (3.13%) Python
5 41 (1.91%) Bicep
6 29 (1.35%) R
7 21 (0.98%) 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 (0.33%) Shell Script
11 6 (0.28%) Korn
11 6 (0.28%) PHP
12 5 (0.23%) Java
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
1 308 (14.37%) Security Cleared
2 222 (10.36%) SC Cleared
3 200 (9.33%) Degree
4 175 (8.17%) Microsoft Certification
5 98 (4.57%) Azure Certification
6 91 (4.25%) A+ Certification
7 90 (4.20%) DV Cleared
8 87 (4.06%) Network+ Certification
9 59 (2.75%) CISM
9 59 (2.75%) CISSP
10 58 (2.71%) Cisco Certification
11 56 (2.61%) DBS Check
12 53 (2.47%) CCNA
13 24 (1.12%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 24 (1.12%) Microsoft Certified Professional
14 21 (0.98%) Computer Science Degree
14 21 (0.98%) MCSA
15 14 (0.65%) AWS Certification
15 14 (0.65%) CompTIA Security+
15 14 (0.65%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 226 (10.55%) Cyber Essentials
2 172 (8.03%) SLA
3 128 (5.97%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 112 (5.23%) PCI DSS
5 46 (2.15%) GDPR
6 44 (2.05%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 36 (1.68%) NIST
8 22 (1.03%) QA
9 19 (0.89%) Data Quality
9 19 (0.89%) NCSC
10 10 (0.47%) Accessibility
11 6 (0.28%) SOC 2
12 4 (0.19%) GRC
12 4 (0.19%) ITGC
12 4 (0.19%) PMO
13 3 (0.14%) 21 CFR Part 11
13 3 (0.14%) GxP
13 3 (0.14%) ISAE 3402
14 2 (0.093%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 1 (0.047%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 508 (23.71%) Hyper-V
2 365 (17.03%) VMware Infrastructure
3 97 (4.53%) Terminal Server
3 97 (4.53%) vSphere
4 62 (2.89%) Virtual Desktop
5 51 (2.38%) Virtual Machines
6 48 (2.24%) VMware ESXi
7 35 (1.63%) Docker
8 15 (0.70%) Firmware
8 15 (0.70%) Virtual Servers
8 15 (0.70%) VMware NSX
9 13 (0.61%) BitLocker
10 11 (0.51%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 9 (0.42%) DFS Replication
12 8 (0.37%) Citrix Hypervisor
13 6 (0.28%) XenApp
14 5 (0.23%) NDS
14 5 (0.23%) VMware Workstation
15 4 (0.19%) Squid
16 3 (0.14%) VMware Server
Systems Management
1 539 (25.15%) Microsoft Intune
2 105 (4.90%) SCCM
3 60 (2.80%) Terraform
4 37 (1.73%) Single Sign-On
5 31 (1.45%) vCenter Server
6 30 (1.40%) Ansible
6 30 (1.40%) Jamf Pro
6 30 (1.40%) Kubernetes
7 29 (1.35%) FortiGate
8 27 (1.26%) WSUS
9 21 (0.98%) Proxmox
10 19 (0.89%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
11 15 (0.70%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 15 (0.70%) Failover Clustering
11 15 (0.70%) ZABBIX
12 11 (0.51%) Microsoft Clustering
13 8 (0.37%) SCOM
14 7 (0.33%) Autotask
15 6 (0.28%) Prometheus
15 6 (0.28%) VxRail
Vendors
1 1,708 (79.70%) Microsoft
2 574 (26.78%) VMware
3 210 (9.80%) Veeam
4 147 (6.86%) Cisco
5 123 (5.74%) SolarWinds
6 110 (5.13%) Splunk
7 109 (5.09%) Nimble Storage
8 96 (4.48%) Brocade
8 96 (4.48%) Tanium
9 77 (3.59%) Citrix
10 76 (3.55%) Meraki
11 73 (3.41%) Apple
12 70 (3.27%) ServiceNow
13 69 (3.22%) CyberArk
14 60 (2.80%) Dell
14 60 (2.80%) HP
15 43 (2.01%) CrowdStrike
15 43 (2.01%) Google
16 40 (1.87%) Ubiquiti
17 39 (1.82%) Fortinet