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

6 months to
12 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 55 39 36
Rank change year-on-year -16 -3 -3
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 2,161 1,888 3,162
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 2.81% 5.46% 5.28%
As % of the System Software category 50.34% 43.28% 51.56%
Number of salaries quoted 1,660 1,514 2,369
10th Percentile £26,750 £26,000 £24,750
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% +2.04%
75th Percentile £50,443 £47,500 £50,000
90th Percentile £65,000 £60,000 £59,875
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 4,293 4,362 6,133
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 5.58% 12.61% 10.24%
Number of salaries quoted 3,226 2,549 4,505
10th Percentile £28,500 £26,500 £26,250
25th Percentile £33,750 £31,250 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £42,500 £46,958
Median % change year-on-year +17.65% -9.49% -3.53%
75th Percentile £67,500 £62,500 £61,250
90th Percentile £80,000 £77,500 £73,750
UK median annual salary £55,000 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +10.00% - -11.50%

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 12 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 12 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
South East -10 507 £42,500 +6.25% 212
North of England -16 503 £34,000 +9.68% 158
Midlands -27 373 £38,250 +9.29% 92
South West -19 290 £37,500 +8.70% 96
North West +55 269 £35,000 - 101
East of England +1 246 £35,750 +6.72% 79
East Midlands -11 196 £37,500 +19.05% 35
West Midlands -42 177 £42,500 +11.84% 57
Yorkshire -31 175 £30,500 +1.67% 44
Scotland +80 110 £31,500 +1.61% 35
Wales -14 71 £42,500 +11.57% 13
Northern Ireland -14 65 £40,000 -27.27% 11
North East -56 59 £40,000 +29.03% 18
Isle of Man 0 3 £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
1 643 (29.75%) Microsoft Exchange
2 462 (21.38%) SharePoint
3 50 (2.31%) IIS
4 18 (0.83%) Confluence
5 12 (0.56%) Skype for Business
6 7 (0.32%) Apache
7 4 (0.19%) Exchange Server 2013
8 3 (0.14%) CMS
8 3 (0.14%) nginx
8 3 (0.14%) SAS
9 2 (0.093%) Exchange Server 2007
9 2 (0.093%) Exchange Server 2010
10 1 (0.046%) Drupal
10 1 (0.046%) HCL Domino
10 1 (0.046%) HCL Notes
10 1 (0.046%) Site Server
10 1 (0.046%) WordPress
Applications
1 155 (7.17%) Microsoft Office
2 44 (2.04%) Microsoft Excel
3 16 (0.74%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.19%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 3 (0.14%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.093%) MS Visio
7 1 (0.046%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.046%) Revit
Business Applications
1 16 (0.74%) Dynamics CRM
2 10 (0.46%) Dynamics NAV
3 7 (0.32%) Remedy ITSM
4 6 (0.28%) Raiser’s Edge
5 5 (0.23%) JDE EnterpriseOne
6 4 (0.19%) Exchequer
6 4 (0.19%) NetSuite
6 4 (0.19%) Payment Gateway
6 4 (0.19%) Primavera
6 4 (0.19%) Shopify
7 3 (0.14%) Dynamics GP
7 3 (0.14%) Salesforce CRM
8 2 (0.093%) Sage 200
8 2 (0.093%) SAP S/4HANA
8 2 (0.093%) Teamcenter
9 1 (0.046%) Dynamics AX
9 1 (0.046%) Magento
9 1 (0.046%) Oracle Payables
9 1 (0.046%) Sage 50
9 1 (0.046%) SAP EHS
Cloud Services
1 1,493 (69.09%) Microsoft 365
2 1,220 (56.46%) Azure
3 940 (43.50%) Entra ID
4 162 (7.50%) AWS
5 155 (7.17%) OneDrive
6 104 (4.81%) SaaS
7 75 (3.47%) Power Platform
8 69 (3.19%) IaaS
9 62 (2.87%) Mimecast
10 54 (2.50%) PaaS
11 48 (2.22%) Azure DevOps
12 39 (1.80%) Microsoft Purview
13 36 (1.67%) Azure Sentinel
14 30 (1.39%) Power Automate
14 30 (1.39%) Serverless
15 27 (1.25%) Azure Monitor
15 27 (1.25%) GCP
16 25 (1.16%) PowerApps
17 24 (1.11%) Google Workspace
18 22 (1.02%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 700 (32.39%) DNS
2 583 (26.98%) DHCP
3 522 (24.16%) Firewall
4 365 (16.89%) VPN
5 255 (11.80%) TCP/IP
6 210 (9.72%) Wi-Fi
7 206 (9.53%) WAN
8 201 (9.30%) LAN
9 199 (9.21%) VLAN
10 133 (6.15%) Wireless
11 129 (5.97%) VoIP
12 89 (4.12%) Network Security
13 82 (3.79%) SAN
14 50 (2.31%) Remote Desktop
15 29 (1.34%) Internet
15 29 (1.34%) NAS
16 26 (1.20%) SSL
17 17 (0.79%) WLAN
18 16 (0.74%) Structured Cabling
18 16 (0.74%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 103 (4.77%) SQL Server
2 100 (4.63%) Amazon RDS
3 32 (1.48%) Azure SQL Database
4 31 (1.43%) Power BI
5 22 (1.02%) PostgreSQL
6 21 (0.97%) MySQL
7 6 (0.28%) Crystal Reports
7 6 (0.28%) Relational Database
8 5 (0.23%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 4 (0.19%) Data Warehouse
9 4 (0.19%) Neo4j
10 3 (0.14%) Oracle Database
11 2 (0.093%) BusinessObjects
11 2 (0.093%) Data Lake
11 2 (0.093%) GIS
11 2 (0.093%) KNIME
11 2 (0.093%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 1 (0.046%) InterSystems Cache
12 1 (0.046%) NoSQL
12 1 (0.046%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 75 (3.47%) JIRA
2 28 (1.30%) Git
3 9 (0.42%) Jenkins
4 6 (0.28%) Bitbucket
5 5 (0.23%) GitLab
6 2 (0.093%) Artifactory
6 2 (0.093%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 2 (0.093%) Burp Suite
6 2 (0.093%) git-flow
6 2 (0.093%) Metasploit
6 2 (0.093%) NUnit
6 2 (0.093%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 2 (0.093%) 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%) Subversion
7 1 (0.046%) Team Foundation Server
7 1 (0.046%) Vagrant
General
1 983 (45.49%) Social Skills
2 253 (11.71%) Analytical Skills
3 144 (6.66%) Legal
4 129 (5.97%) Finance
5 85 (3.93%) Law
6 84 (3.89%) Organisational Skills
7 79 (3.66%) Manufacturing
8 75 (3.47%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 63 (2.92%) Public Sector
10 56 (2.59%) Retail
11 48 (2.22%) Telecoms
12 41 (1.90%) Documentation Skills
13 30 (1.39%) Advertising
14 28 (1.30%) Aerospace
15 14 (0.65%) Automotive
15 14 (0.65%) Local Government
16 9 (0.42%) Influencing Skills
17 7 (0.32%) Games
18 6 (0.28%) Banking
19 5 (0.23%) Dutch Language
Job Titles
1 779 (36.05%) IT Support
2 531 (24.57%) Support Engineer
3 506 (23.42%) IT Engineer
4 415 (19.20%) IT Support Engineer
5 351 (16.24%) Analyst
6 262 (12.12%) Senior
7 226 (10.46%) Support Analyst
8 211 (9.76%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 200 (9.25%) IT Technician
10 198 (9.16%) Support Technician
11 176 (8.14%) IT Support Technician
12 162 (7.50%) Systems Engineer
13 145 (6.71%) 2nd Line Support
13 145 (6.71%) IT Analyst
14 129 (5.97%) IT Support Analyst
15 91 (4.21%) 2nd Line Engineer
15 91 (4.21%) Architect
16 85 (3.93%) 3rd Line Support
17 83 (3.84%) Administrator
18 76 (3.52%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 46 (2.13%) LDAP
2 28 (1.30%) SAML
3 25 (1.16%) OpenID
4 23 (1.06%) OAuth
4 23 (1.06%) Regular Expression
5 19 (0.88%) XMPP
6 12 (0.56%) .NET
7 11 (0.51%) ARM Templates
7 11 (0.51%) Microsoft Graph
8 10 (0.46%) HTML
8 10 (0.46%) REST
9 9 (0.42%) ModSecurity
10 8 (0.37%) JSON
10 8 (0.37%) XML
11 7 (0.32%) JSON Schema
11 7 (0.32%) OAuth2
11 7 (0.32%) Web Services
12 6 (0.28%) Middleware
13 5 (0.23%) ODBC
13 5 (0.23%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 300 (13.88%) Driving Licence
2 181 (8.38%) Onboarding
3 124 (5.74%) Self-Motivation
4 95 (4.40%) Legacy Systems
5 82 (3.79%) Hybrid Cloud
6 68 (3.15%) Data Centre
7 66 (3.05%) Management Information System
8 48 (2.22%) PKI
9 45 (2.08%) Clustering
10 41 (1.90%) Cloud Native
10 41 (1.90%) Enterprise Software
10 41 (1.90%) Security Posture
11 37 (1.71%) Public Cloud
12 35 (1.62%) CCTV
13 34 (1.57%) Replication
14 18 (0.83%) CMDB
15 16 (0.74%) Client/Server
15 16 (0.74%) Enterprise Storage
15 16 (0.74%) iPhone
15 16 (0.74%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 1,539 (71.22%) Windows
2 893 (41.32%) Windows Server
3 293 (13.56%) Windows 10
4 279 (12.91%) Linux
5 159 (7.36%) Windows Server 2016
6 146 (6.76%) Mac OS
7 85 (3.93%) Windows Server 2019
8 79 (3.66%) Apple iOS
9 64 (2.96%) Android
10 45 (2.08%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 23 (1.06%) VMS
12 18 (0.83%) Ubuntu
13 17 (0.79%) Windows Server 2012
14 8 (0.37%) CentOS
14 8 (0.37%) Windows 7
15 6 (0.28%) Debian
15 6 (0.28%) Windows Server 2008
16 5 (0.23%) CoreOS
17 4 (0.19%) Mac OS X
17 4 (0.19%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 735 (34.01%) Problem-Solving
2 528 (24.43%) Customer Service
3 492 (22.77%) ITIL
4 425 (19.67%) Continuous Improvement
5 407 (18.83%) Cybersecurity
6 335 (15.50%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 263 (12.17%) Mentoring
8 259 (11.99%) Disaster Recovery
9 204 (9.44%) ITSM
10 184 (8.51%) Project Delivery
10 184 (8.51%) Service Delivery
11 173 (8.01%) Identity Access Management
12 161 (7.45%) Migration
13 136 (6.29%) Customer Experience
14 132 (6.11%) Vulnerability Remediation
15 131 (6.06%) Service Management
16 126 (5.83%) Collaborative Working
16 126 (5.83%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 122 (5.65%) AI
18 118 (5.46%) Kalman Filter
Programming Languages
1 336 (15.55%) PowerShell
2 194 (8.98%) SQL
3 67 (3.10%) Python
4 59 (2.73%) Bash
5 48 (2.22%) Bicep
6 29 (1.34%) R
7 12 (0.56%) Kusto Query Language
7 12 (0.56%) VBA
8 11 (0.51%) Ruby
9 8 (0.37%) C#
10 7 (0.32%) Java
10 7 (0.32%) Shell Script
10 7 (0.32%) T-SQL
11 6 (0.28%) Korn
12 5 (0.23%) PHP
13 3 (0.14%) VB.NET
14 2 (0.093%) C
14 2 (0.093%) VB
14 2 (0.093%) VBScript
15 1 (0.046%) JavaScript
Qualifications
1 306 (14.16%) Security Cleared
2 215 (9.95%) SC Cleared
3 209 (9.67%) Degree
4 184 (8.51%) Microsoft Certification
5 114 (5.28%) Azure Certification
6 97 (4.49%) DV Cleared
7 90 (4.16%) A+ Certification
8 88 (4.07%) Network+ Certification
9 69 (3.19%) CISM
9 69 (3.19%) CISSP
10 63 (2.92%) Cisco Certification
11 56 (2.59%) CCNA
11 56 (2.59%) DBS Check
12 32 (1.48%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 24 (1.11%) Computer Science Degree
14 23 (1.06%) Microsoft Certified Professional
15 19 (0.88%) AWS Certification
15 19 (0.88%) MCSA
16 17 (0.79%) CompTIA Security+
17 15 (0.69%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 219 (10.13%) Cyber Essentials
2 169 (7.82%) SLA
3 127 (5.88%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 96 (4.44%) PCI DSS
5 52 (2.41%) GDPR
6 49 (2.27%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 27 (1.25%) NIST
8 21 (0.97%) QA
9 14 (0.65%) Data Quality
10 12 (0.56%) Accessibility
11 11 (0.51%) NCSC
12 6 (0.28%) SOC 2
13 4 (0.19%) GRC
14 3 (0.14%) ISAE 3402
14 3 (0.14%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 2 (0.093%) ITGC
15 2 (0.093%) PMO
16 1 (0.046%) 21 CFR Part 11
16 1 (0.046%) ISO 9001
16 1 (0.046%) ISO/IEC 42001
System Software
1 505 (23.37%) Hyper-V
2 379 (17.54%) VMware Infrastructure
3 90 (4.16%) vSphere
4 81 (3.75%) Terminal Server
5 67 (3.10%) Virtual Desktop
6 51 (2.36%) Virtual Machines
7 39 (1.80%) VMware ESXi
8 38 (1.76%) Docker
9 20 (0.93%) Firmware
10 17 (0.79%) Virtual Servers
11 13 (0.60%) Microsoft Virtual Server
12 12 (0.56%) VMware NSX
13 11 (0.51%) Citrix Hypervisor
14 10 (0.46%) BitLocker
15 6 (0.28%) DFS Replication
16 5 (0.23%) NDS
16 5 (0.23%) XenApp
17 4 (0.19%) Squid
18 3 (0.14%) VMware Server
18 3 (0.14%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 568 (26.28%) Microsoft Intune
2 113 (5.23%) SCCM
3 71 (3.29%) Terraform
4 49 (2.27%) Single Sign-On
5 34 (1.57%) Ansible
6 33 (1.53%) Kubernetes
7 31 (1.43%) FortiGate
8 27 (1.25%) WSUS
9 26 (1.20%) Jamf Pro
10 22 (1.02%) vCenter Server
11 19 (0.88%) Proxmox
12 17 (0.79%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
13 16 (0.74%) Active Directory Federation Services
14 15 (0.69%) Failover Clustering
15 13 (0.60%) ZABBIX
16 11 (0.51%) Microsoft Clustering
17 10 (0.46%) SCOM
18 6 (0.28%) Grafana
18 6 (0.28%) Prometheus
19 5 (0.23%) Packer
Vendors
1 1,760 (81.44%) Microsoft
2 559 (25.87%) VMware
3 198 (9.16%) Veeam
4 160 (7.40%) Cisco
5 104 (4.81%) SolarWinds
6 96 (4.44%) Splunk
7 90 (4.16%) Nimble Storage
8 80 (3.70%) Brocade
8 80 (3.70%) Tanium
9 75 (3.47%) Apple
9 75 (3.47%) Meraki
10 71 (3.29%) CyberArk
11 70 (3.24%) Citrix
12 69 (3.19%) ServiceNow
13 53 (2.45%) HP
14 51 (2.36%) Dell
15 48 (2.22%) SonicWALL
16 47 (2.17%) Fortinet
17 45 (2.08%) Red Hat
18 40 (1.85%) CrowdStrike