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

6 months to
3 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 59 41 28
Rank change year-on-year -18 -13 +17
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 1,766 1,417 4,408
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 3.06% 5.47% 6.92%
As % of the System Software category 59.20% 45.00% 50.82%
Number of salaries quoted 1,332 1,196 3,800
10th Percentile £26,250 £25,500 £23,750
25th Percentile £28,500 £27,750 £26,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £34,875 £35,000 £35,000
Median % change year-on-year -0.36% - -1.13%
75th Percentile £47,500 £48,750 £48,750
90th Percentile £60,113 £59,750 £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 2,983 3,149 8,674
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 5.18% 12.16% 13.61%
Number of salaries quoted 2,178 2,479 7,189
10th Percentile £27,000 £26,750 £25,750
25th Percentile £31,250 £32,500 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £44,500 £50,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -11.00% +11.11% -5.26%
75th Percentile £62,500 £69,000 £60,000
90th Percentile £77,500 £85,000 £75,000
UK median annual salary £50,000 £57,443 £50,000
% change year-on-year -12.96% +14.89% -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 3 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 3 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 +5 491 £36,000 -15.29% 175
North of England -32 388 £33,750 +3.85% 133
Midlands -32 279 £32,500 -7.14% 78
South West +5 268 £32,500 -5.80% 71
Yorkshire -26 178 £32,500 +8.33% 39
East of England -29 178 £40,000 +23.08% 61
North West -25 175 £37,500 -6.25% 85
East Midlands -24 143 £31,500 +5.00% 36
West Midlands -44 135 £32,500 -11.97% 42
Scotland +20 94 £30,000 -12.11% 26
Wales +8 44 £37,500 -23.63% 14
North East -11 35 £32,000 -3.61% 13
Northern Ireland -29 18 £32,000 -39.05% 2
Isle of Man +2 6 £45,000 +55.17% 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
1 492 (27.86%) Microsoft Exchange
2 344 (19.48%) SharePoint
3 21 (1.19%) Exchange Server 2003
4 14 (0.79%) IIS
5 13 (0.74%) Exchange Server 2013
6 11 (0.62%) Exchange Server 2007
6 11 (0.62%) Exchange Server 2010
7 10 (0.57%) Confluence
8 6 (0.34%) CMS
9 4 (0.23%) Apache
10 3 (0.17%) Tomcat
10 3 (0.17%) WebLogic
10 3 (0.17%) WebLogic Portal
10 3 (0.17%) WordPress
11 2 (0.11%) Skype for Business
12 1 (0.057%) Drupal
12 1 (0.057%) nginx
12 1 (0.057%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 248 (14.04%) Microsoft Office
2 42 (2.38%) Microsoft Excel
3 14 (0.79%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.17%) AutoCAD
4 3 (0.17%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 16 (0.91%) Dynamics CRM
2 8 (0.45%) Oracle ERP
3 7 (0.40%) NetSuite
3 7 (0.40%) Primavera
4 6 (0.34%) Dynamics NAV
5 5 (0.28%) Remedy ITSM
6 4 (0.23%) Dynamics GP
6 4 (0.23%) Exchequer
6 4 (0.23%) Markit EDM
7 3 (0.17%) Oracle EBS
8 2 (0.11%) Alphatax
8 2 (0.11%) Shopify
9 1 (0.057%) Cognos Business Intelligence
9 1 (0.057%) Magento
9 1 (0.057%) Oracle Payables
9 1 (0.057%) Sage 200
9 1 (0.057%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 1,249 (70.72%) Microsoft 365
2 947 (53.62%) Azure
3 620 (35.11%) Entra ID
4 134 (7.59%) OneDrive
5 133 (7.53%) AWS
6 100 (5.66%) Google Workspace
7 84 (4.76%) SaaS
8 80 (4.53%) Power Platform
9 38 (2.15%) IaaS
10 34 (1.93%) Nutanix
10 34 (1.93%) PaaS
11 33 (1.87%) Azure Monitor
12 30 (1.70%) GCP
13 29 (1.64%) Mimecast
14 28 (1.59%) Azure DevOps
14 28 (1.59%) PowerApps
15 22 (1.25%) Microsoft Purview
16 19 (1.08%) Dynamics 365
17 16 (0.91%) OCI
18 15 (0.85%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 624 (35.33%) DNS
2 573 (32.45%) DHCP
3 406 (22.99%) Firewall
4 281 (15.91%) VPN
5 216 (12.23%) TCP/IP
6 194 (10.99%) WAN
7 189 (10.70%) LAN
8 178 (10.08%) VLAN
9 154 (8.72%) Wi-Fi
10 92 (5.21%) VoIP
11 81 (4.59%) Wireless
12 67 (3.79%) Network Security
13 61 (3.45%) Remote Desktop
14 48 (2.72%) Broadband
15 41 (2.32%) SAN
16 28 (1.59%) SD-WAN
17 20 (1.13%) NAS
18 17 (0.96%) SMTP
19 15 (0.85%) Ethernet
19 15 (0.85%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 91 (5.15%) Amazon RDS
2 75 (4.25%) SQL Server
3 49 (2.77%) Power BI
4 24 (1.36%) Oracle Database
5 23 (1.30%) PostgreSQL
6 22 (1.25%) MySQL
7 21 (1.19%) Oracle Database 10g
8 10 (0.57%) Azure SQL Database
9 8 (0.45%) GIS
9 8 (0.45%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 6 (0.34%) Data Warehouse
11 5 (0.28%) Relational Database
12 4 (0.23%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 3 (0.17%) Data Mining
13 3 (0.17%) Neo4j
13 3 (0.17%) Oracle Discoverer
13 3 (0.17%) Oracle Reports
14 1 (0.057%) OLAP
14 1 (0.057%) RDBMS
14 1 (0.057%) Redis
Development Applications
1 72 (4.08%) JIRA
2 13 (0.74%) Git
3 11 (0.62%) Oracle Forms
4 9 (0.51%) Jenkins
5 7 (0.40%) GitLab
6 5 (0.28%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 4 (0.23%) LabVIEW
7 4 (0.23%) Subversion
8 3 (0.17%) Oracle APEX
9 1 (0.057%) Burp Suite
9 1 (0.057%) Gatling
9 1 (0.057%) JMeter
9 1 (0.057%) Metasploit
9 1 (0.057%) Vagrant
General
1 793 (44.90%) Social Skills
2 198 (11.21%) Analytical Skills
3 165 (9.34%) Organisational Skills
4 125 (7.08%) Finance
5 78 (4.42%) Manufacturing
6 59 (3.34%) Retail
7 58 (3.28%) Legal
8 56 (3.17%) Documentation Skills
9 55 (3.11%) Law
10 52 (2.94%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 44 (2.49%) Public Sector
12 38 (2.15%) Advertising
13 37 (2.10%) Games
14 31 (1.76%) Telecoms
15 20 (1.13%) Marketing
16 12 (0.68%) Local Government
17 8 (0.45%) Aerospace
17 8 (0.45%) Automotive
18 4 (0.23%) Banking
18 4 (0.23%) Police
Job Titles
1 717 (40.60%) IT Support
2 503 (28.48%) Support Engineer
3 425 (24.07%) IT Engineer
4 367 (20.78%) IT Support Engineer
5 226 (12.80%) Analyst
6 180 (10.19%) Support Technician
7 179 (10.14%) 2nd Line Support
8 167 (9.46%) Support Analyst
9 154 (8.72%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 148 (8.38%) IT Technician
11 137 (7.76%) IT Support Technician
11 137 (7.76%) Senior
12 118 (6.68%) IT Analyst
12 118 (6.68%) Systems Engineer
13 108 (6.12%) IT Support Analyst
14 102 (5.78%) 2nd Line Engineer
15 92 (5.21%) 3rd Line Support
16 91 (5.15%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
17 75 (4.25%) 1st Line Support
18 62 (3.51%) Infrastructure Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 50 (2.83%) LDAP
2 46 (2.60%) SAML
2 46 (2.60%) SOAP
3 43 (2.43%) OAuth
3 43 (2.43%) OpenID
3 43 (2.43%) REST
4 38 (2.15%) GraphQL
5 19 (1.08%) JSON
5 19 (1.08%) XML
6 10 (0.57%) .NET
6 10 (0.57%) RESTful
7 9 (0.51%) Regular Expression
8 8 (0.45%) ARM Templates
9 7 (0.40%) HTML
9 7 (0.40%) Web Services
10 6 (0.34%) CSS
10 6 (0.34%) XMPP
11 5 (0.28%) .NET Framework
11 5 (0.28%) FreeSWITCH
12 4 (0.23%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 274 (15.52%) Driving Licence
2 111 (6.29%) Onboarding
3 84 (4.76%) Self-Motivation
4 77 (4.36%) Legacy Systems
5 48 (2.72%) Enterprise Software
5 48 (2.72%) Hybrid Cloud
6 42 (2.38%) Cyberattack
7 40 (2.27%) Cyber Threat
8 34 (1.93%) Replication
9 33 (1.87%) Public Cloud
10 32 (1.81%) Data Centre
11 30 (1.70%) Management Information System
12 22 (1.25%) Cloud Native
13 19 (1.08%) Client/Server
13 19 (1.08%) PKI
14 18 (1.02%) CMDB
15 13 (0.74%) Clustering
15 13 (0.74%) Video Conferencing
16 12 (0.68%) FMCG
16 12 (0.68%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 1,265 (71.63%) Windows
2 746 (42.24%) Windows Server
3 304 (17.21%) Windows 10
4 221 (12.51%) Linux
5 144 (8.15%) Windows Server 2016
6 89 (5.04%) Mac OS
7 83 (4.70%) Apple iOS
8 73 (4.13%) Android
9 57 (3.23%) Windows Server 2019
10 40 (2.27%) Windows 7
11 35 (1.98%) Windows Server 2012
12 30 (1.70%) Windows Server 2008
13 28 (1.59%) Unix
14 21 (1.19%) HPUX
14 21 (1.19%) Solaris
14 21 (1.19%) Windows Server 2003
15 20 (1.13%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
16 11 (0.62%) Windows 8
17 7 (0.40%) VMS
18 6 (0.34%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 629 (35.62%) Problem-Solving
2 511 (28.94%) Customer Service
3 430 (24.35%) ITIL
4 268 (15.18%) Cybersecurity
5 207 (11.72%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 195 (11.04%) Mentoring
7 186 (10.53%) Continuous Improvement
8 177 (10.02%) ITSM
9 158 (8.95%) Service Delivery
10 154 (8.72%) Disaster Recovery
11 122 (6.91%) Incident Management
12 120 (6.80%) Migration
12 120 (6.80%) Vulnerability Remediation
13 106 (6.00%) Change Management
14 103 (5.83%) Coaching
15 96 (5.44%) Kalman Filter
16 95 (5.38%) Customer Experience
16 95 (5.38%) Web Filtering
17 92 (5.21%) Identity Access Management
18 84 (4.76%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 290 (16.42%) PowerShell
2 125 (7.08%) SQL
3 79 (4.47%) Bash
4 50 (2.83%) Python
5 49 (2.77%) T-SQL
6 20 (1.13%) Perl
7 16 (0.91%) R
8 13 (0.74%) Shell Script
9 12 (0.68%) JavaScript
9 12 (0.68%) PL/SQL
10 8 (0.45%) Java
10 8 (0.45%) VB
11 7 (0.40%) C#
12 6 (0.34%) Bicep
13 4 (0.23%) VBA
14 3 (0.17%) PHP
15 2 (0.11%) C
16 1 (0.057%) Korn
16 1 (0.057%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 244 (13.82%) Security Cleared
2 178 (10.08%) SC Cleared
3 161 (9.12%) Degree
3 161 (9.12%) Microsoft Certification
4 84 (4.76%) DV Cleared
5 47 (2.66%) DBS Check
6 44 (2.49%) Azure Certification
7 42 (2.38%) A+ Certification
8 37 (2.10%) Cisco Certification
9 33 (1.87%) Microsoft Certified Professional
10 31 (1.76%) CCNA
11 25 (1.42%) Network+ Certification
12 21 (1.19%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 20 (1.13%) ITIL Certification
14 19 (1.08%) MCSE
15 16 (0.91%) HNC
16 15 (0.85%) Computer Science Degree
16 15 (0.85%) MCSA
17 12 (0.68%) CCNP
18 11 (0.62%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 171 (9.68%) SLA
2 145 (8.21%) Cyber Essentials
3 100 (5.66%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 84 (4.76%) PCI DSS
5 50 (2.83%) NIST
6 39 (2.21%) NCSC
7 37 (2.10%) GDPR
8 25 (1.42%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 17 (0.96%) QA
10 12 (0.68%) Data Quality
11 7 (0.40%) Accessibility
12 5 (0.28%) GRC
12 5 (0.28%) 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 2 (0.11%) Disclosure Scotland
14 2 (0.11%) ISO 9001
14 2 (0.11%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 355 (20.10%) Hyper-V
2 259 (14.67%) VMware Infrastructure
3 75 (4.25%) Terminal Server
4 49 (2.77%) vSphere
5 39 (2.21%) VMware ESXi
6 28 (1.59%) Virtual Desktop
7 24 (1.36%) Virtual Machines
8 17 (0.96%) BitLocker
8 17 (0.96%) Docker
9 11 (0.62%) Firmware
9 11 (0.62%) VMware NSX
9 11 (0.62%) VMware Workstation
10 10 (0.57%) XenApp
11 6 (0.34%) DFS Replication
12 5 (0.28%) Virtual Servers
13 4 (0.23%) Terminal Services
14 3 (0.17%) Citrix Hypervisor
14 3 (0.17%) Lustre
14 3 (0.17%) Microsoft Virtual Server
14 3 (0.17%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 348 (19.71%) Microsoft Intune
2 129 (7.30%) SCCM
3 42 (2.38%) Single Sign-On
4 41 (2.32%) vCenter Server
5 33 (1.87%) Jamf Pro
5 33 (1.87%) Terraform
6 22 (1.25%) Ansible
6 22 (1.25%) WSUS
7 20 (1.13%) FortiGate
8 18 (1.02%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 15 (0.85%) Autotask
9 15 (0.85%) SCOM
10 11 (0.62%) Kubernetes
11 9 (0.51%) Backup Exec
12 8 (0.45%) Proxmox
13 7 (0.40%) ZABBIX
14 6 (0.34%) SmoothWall
14 6 (0.34%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
15 5 (0.28%) SCVMM
16 4 (0.23%) SolarWinds Orion
Vendors
1 1,277 (72.31%) Microsoft
2 463 (26.22%) VMware
3 154 (8.72%) Veeam
4 108 (6.12%) SolarWinds
5 100 (5.66%) Nimble Storage
6 95 (5.38%) Apple
7 94 (5.32%) Cisco
8 92 (5.21%) Citrix
9 89 (5.04%) Splunk
10 79 (4.47%) Google
10 79 (4.47%) ServiceNow
11 72 (4.08%) Brocade
11 72 (4.08%) Tanium
12 67 (3.79%) HP
13 59 (3.34%) Dell
14 39 (2.21%) Oracle
15 37 (2.10%) Meraki
16 29 (1.64%) McAfee
17 28 (1.59%) Dell Compellent
18 26 (1.47%) CrowdStrike