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

6 months to
15 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 57 40 36
Rank change year-on-year -17 -4 -12
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 2,185 1,823 2,667
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 2.62% 5.33% 4.84%
As % of the System Software category 49.58% 44.00% 49.19%
Number of salaries quoted 1,663 1,389 1,715
10th Percentile £26,750 £26,250 £25,500
25th Percentile £29,500 £28,500 £30,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £37,500 £35,000 £38,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% -7.89% +2.70%
75th Percentile £50,443 £48,000 £52,500
90th Percentile £66,000 £62,200 £61,250
UK median annual salary £40,000 £37,500 £42,500
% change year-on-year +6.67% -11.76% +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 4,407 4,143 5,422
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 5.28% 12.11% 9.84%
Number of salaries quoted 3,284 2,287 3,431
10th Percentile £28,500 £26,500 £27,500
25th Percentile £33,750 £31,250 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £42,500 £49,500
Median % change year-on-year +17.65% -14.14% -0.13%
75th Percentile £67,500 £61,875 £62,500
90th Percentile £81,250 £76,840 £75,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £50,000 £53,000
% change year-on-year +10.00% -5.66% -3.64%

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 15 September 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 15 September 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 +4 530 £32,500 - 161
South East -12 500 £42,500 +11.84% 290
Midlands -34 367 £40,000 +23.08% 162
South West -31 294 £38,500 +18.46% 106
North West +76 289 £35,000 - 95
East of England +8 262 £35,000 - 109
East Midlands -13 188 £37,500 +19.05% 55
West Midlands -39 179 £42,500 +7.59% 107
Yorkshire -31 175 £31,000 +3.33% 43
Scotland +53 114 £32,500 +4.84% 50
Northern Ireland -30 66 £40,000 -23.81% 16
North East -60 66 £37,500 +20.97% 26
Wales -47 61 £45,000 +18.13% 14
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
1 644 (29.47%) Microsoft Exchange
2 504 (23.07%) SharePoint
3 54 (2.47%) IIS
4 18 (0.82%) Confluence
5 16 (0.73%) Skype for Business
6 7 (0.32%) Apache
7 3 (0.14%) nginx
7 3 (0.14%) SAS
8 2 (0.092%) Exchange Server 2013
9 1 (0.046%) Drupal
9 1 (0.046%) HCL Domino
9 1 (0.046%) HCL Notes
9 1 (0.046%) Site Server
9 1 (0.046%) Tomcat
9 1 (0.046%) WordPress
Applications
1 143 (6.54%) Microsoft Office
2 34 (1.56%) Microsoft Excel
3 8 (0.37%) 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%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.046%) Revit
Business Applications
1 12 (0.55%) Dynamics CRM
2 8 (0.37%) Dynamics NAV
3 6 (0.27%) Raiser’s Edge
4 5 (0.23%) JDE EnterpriseOne
4 5 (0.23%) NetSuite
4 5 (0.23%) Remedy ITSM
5 4 (0.18%) Payment Gateway
5 4 (0.18%) Shopify
6 3 (0.14%) Salesforce CRM
7 2 (0.092%) Sage 200
7 2 (0.092%) Teamcenter
8 1 (0.046%) Dynamics AX
8 1 (0.046%) Exchequer
8 1 (0.046%) Magento
8 1 (0.046%) Oracle Payables
8 1 (0.046%) Primavera
8 1 (0.046%) Sage 50
8 1 (0.046%) SAP EHS
8 1 (0.046%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 1,523 (69.70%) Microsoft 365
2 1,210 (55.38%) Azure
3 991 (45.35%) Entra ID
4 174 (7.96%) OneDrive
5 151 (6.91%) AWS
6 97 (4.44%) SaaS
7 70 (3.20%) Power Platform
8 60 (2.75%) IaaS
9 56 (2.56%) Mimecast
10 47 (2.15%) Azure DevOps
11 45 (2.06%) PaaS
12 41 (1.88%) Microsoft Purview
13 38 (1.74%) Azure Sentinel
14 37 (1.69%) Power Automate
15 36 (1.65%) Serverless
16 30 (1.37%) Google Workspace
17 27 (1.24%) Azure Monitor
18 25 (1.14%) Azure ExpressRoute
19 24 (1.10%) Dynamics 365
20 22 (1.01%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 717 (32.81%) DNS
2 604 (27.64%) DHCP
3 541 (24.76%) Firewall
4 394 (18.03%) VPN
5 281 (12.86%) TCP/IP
6 223 (10.21%) VLAN
6 223 (10.21%) Wi-Fi
7 209 (9.57%) WAN
8 203 (9.29%) LAN
9 150 (6.86%) Wireless
10 139 (6.36%) VoIP
11 96 (4.39%) Network Security
12 71 (3.25%) SAN
13 39 (1.78%) Remote Desktop
14 30 (1.37%) SSL
15 29 (1.33%) Internet
16 22 (1.01%) NAS
17 19 (0.87%) WLAN
18 18 (0.82%) Structured Cabling
19 17 (0.78%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 100 (4.58%) SQL Server
2 90 (4.12%) Amazon RDS
3 32 (1.46%) Azure SQL Database
4 23 (1.05%) Power BI
5 19 (0.87%) MySQL
6 12 (0.55%) PostgreSQL
7 9 (0.41%) Relational Database
8 6 (0.27%) Crystal Reports
9 4 (0.18%) Data Warehouse
9 4 (0.18%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 3 (0.14%) Neo4j
10 3 (0.14%) Oracle Database
11 2 (0.092%) BusinessObjects
11 2 (0.092%) Data Lake
11 2 (0.092%) KNIME
12 1 (0.046%) InterSystems Cache
12 1 (0.046%) NoSQL
12 1 (0.046%) RDBMS
12 1 (0.046%) Redis
12 1 (0.046%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 63 (2.88%) JIRA
2 30 (1.37%) Git
3 9 (0.41%) Jenkins
4 6 (0.27%) 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%) Gatling
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%) Team Foundation Server
7 1 (0.046%) Vagrant
General
1 1,046 (47.87%) Social Skills
2 256 (11.72%) Analytical Skills
3 142 (6.50%) Legal
4 124 (5.68%) Finance
5 84 (3.84%) Manufacturing
6 82 (3.75%) Organisational Skills
7 80 (3.66%) Law
8 75 (3.43%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 70 (3.20%) Public Sector
10 53 (2.43%) Retail
11 42 (1.92%) Telecoms
12 38 (1.74%) Aerospace
13 36 (1.65%) Documentation Skills
14 27 (1.24%) Advertising
15 15 (0.69%) Automotive
16 11 (0.50%) Influencing Skills
16 11 (0.50%) Local Government
17 9 (0.41%) Games
18 6 (0.27%) Aviation
19 5 (0.23%) Dutch Language
Job Titles
1 821 (37.57%) IT Support
2 537 (24.58%) Support Engineer
3 531 (24.30%) IT Engineer
4 434 (19.86%) IT Support Engineer
5 359 (16.43%) Analyst
6 273 (12.49%) Senior
7 237 (10.85%) Support Analyst
8 218 (9.98%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 199 (9.11%) IT Technician
10 198 (9.06%) Support Technician
11 179 (8.19%) IT Support Technician
12 160 (7.32%) IT Analyst
13 156 (7.14%) 2nd Line Support
14 150 (6.86%) Systems Engineer
15 144 (6.59%) IT Support Analyst
16 107 (4.90%) 2nd Line Engineer
17 96 (4.39%) Architect
18 91 (4.16%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
19 86 (3.94%) Administrator
20 79 (3.62%) 3rd Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 78 (3.57%) Terraform
2 58 (2.65%) LDAP
3 34 (1.56%) SAML
4 31 (1.42%) OpenID
5 28 (1.28%) OAuth
6 21 (0.96%) .NET
7 18 (0.82%) Regular Expression
8 17 (0.78%) XMPP
9 14 (0.64%) Microsoft Graph
10 13 (0.59%) ModSecurity
11 12 (0.55%) HTML
11 12 (0.55%) SailPoint
12 11 (0.50%) ARM Templates
13 10 (0.46%) REST
14 9 (0.41%) Web Services
15 8 (0.37%) ASP.NET Web Forms
15 8 (0.37%) OAuth2
15 8 (0.37%) WinForms
16 6 (0.27%) SOAP
17 5 (0.23%) ODBC
Miscellaneous
1 297 (13.59%) Driving Licence
2 198 (9.06%) Onboarding
3 125 (5.72%) Self-Motivation
4 86 (3.94%) Legacy Systems
5 82 (3.75%) Hybrid Cloud
6 70 (3.20%) Management Information System
7 66 (3.02%) Data Centre
8 47 (2.15%) PKI
9 44 (2.01%) Security Posture
10 41 (1.88%) Cloud Native
10 41 (1.88%) Enterprise Software
11 40 (1.83%) Clustering
12 35 (1.60%) CCTV
13 33 (1.51%) Replication
14 31 (1.42%) Public Cloud
15 26 (1.19%) iPhone
16 19 (0.87%) iPad
17 18 (0.82%) Video Conferencing
18 17 (0.78%) Social Media
19 15 (0.69%) Enterprise Storage
Operating Systems
1 1,552 (71.03%) Windows
2 902 (41.28%) Windows Server
3 265 (12.13%) Windows 10
4 263 (12.04%) Linux
5 154 (7.05%) Windows Server 2016
6 132 (6.04%) Mac OS
7 89 (4.07%) Windows Server 2019
8 79 (3.62%) Apple iOS
9 58 (2.65%) Android
10 33 (1.51%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 27 (1.24%) Ubuntu
12 24 (1.10%) VMS
13 23 (1.05%) Windows Server 2012
14 7 (0.32%) Debian
14 7 (0.32%) Rocky
15 6 (0.27%) CentOS
15 6 (0.27%) Windows Server 2008
16 5 (0.23%) CoreOS
17 4 (0.18%) Mac OS X
17 4 (0.18%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 799 (36.57%) Problem-Solving
2 564 (25.81%) Customer Service
3 476 (21.78%) ITIL
4 452 (20.69%) Continuous Improvement
5 436 (19.95%) Cybersecurity
6 368 (16.84%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 267 (12.22%) Disaster Recovery
8 266 (12.17%) Mentoring
9 216 (9.89%) ITSM
10 199 (9.11%) Project Delivery
11 196 (8.97%) Identity Access Management
12 188 (8.60%) Service Delivery
13 174 (7.96%) Migration
14 151 (6.91%) Service Management
15 138 (6.32%) Customer Experience
16 134 (6.13%) Collaborative Working
17 133 (6.09%) Stakeholder Engagement
18 128 (5.86%) Vulnerability Remediation
19 127 (5.81%) AI
20 113 (5.17%) Business Continuity
Programming Languages
1 344 (15.74%) PowerShell
2 194 (8.88%) SQL
3 66 (3.02%) Python
4 57 (2.61%) Bash
5 51 (2.33%) Bicep
6 24 (1.10%) R
7 22 (1.01%) Ruby
8 16 (0.73%) C#
9 12 (0.55%) Kusto Query Language
9 12 (0.55%) VBA
10 7 (0.32%) Java
10 7 (0.32%) T-SQL
11 5 (0.23%) Korn
11 5 (0.23%) PHP
12 4 (0.18%) Shell Script
12 4 (0.18%) VB.NET
13 3 (0.14%) JavaScript
13 3 (0.14%) VB
13 3 (0.14%) VBScript
14 2 (0.092%) Google Apps Script
Qualifications
1 306 (14.00%) Security Cleared
2 208 (9.52%) Degree
3 207 (9.47%) SC Cleared
4 193 (8.83%) Microsoft Certification
5 124 (5.68%) Azure Certification
6 117 (5.35%) A+ Certification
7 105 (4.81%) Network+ Certification
8 94 (4.30%) DV Cleared
9 76 (3.48%) CISM
9 76 (3.48%) CISSP
10 67 (3.07%) DBS Check
11 62 (2.84%) Cisco Certification
12 49 (2.24%) CCNA
13 31 (1.42%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 25 (1.14%) CompTIA Security+
15 23 (1.05%) Computer Science Degree
16 19 (0.87%) AWS Certification
17 17 (0.78%) Microsoft Certified Professional
18 15 (0.69%) ITIL Certification
18 15 (0.69%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 215 (9.84%) Cyber Essentials
2 139 (6.36%) SLA
3 117 (5.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 85 (3.89%) PCI DSS
5 56 (2.56%) GDPR
6 40 (1.83%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 29 (1.33%) NIST
8 16 (0.73%) QA
9 15 (0.69%) Accessibility
10 13 (0.59%) Data Quality
10 13 (0.59%) NCSC
11 6 (0.27%) SOC 2
12 4 (0.18%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 3 (0.14%) ISAE 3402
14 2 (0.092%) GRC
15 1 (0.046%) ISO 9001
15 1 (0.046%) ISO/IEC 42001
15 1 (0.046%) PMO
System Software
1 499 (22.84%) Hyper-V
2 398 (18.22%) VMware Infrastructure
3 84 (3.84%) vSphere
4 75 (3.43%) Virtual Desktop
5 72 (3.30%) Terminal Server
6 57 (2.61%) Virtual Machines
7 40 (1.83%) VMware ESXi
8 31 (1.42%) Docker
9 21 (0.96%) Firmware
10 19 (0.87%) Virtual Servers
11 12 (0.55%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 12 (0.55%) VMware NSX
12 10 (0.46%) BitLocker
12 10 (0.46%) NDS
13 8 (0.37%) Citrix Hypervisor
14 4 (0.18%) Squid
15 3 (0.14%) DFS Replication
15 3 (0.14%) VMware Server
16 2 (0.092%) Slurm Workload Manager
16 2 (0.092%) UAG
Systems Management
1 605 (27.69%) Microsoft Intune
2 95 (4.35%) SCCM
3 55 (2.52%) Single Sign-On
4 37 (1.69%) Ansible
5 33 (1.51%) Kubernetes
6 32 (1.46%) FortiGate
7 29 (1.33%) Jamf Pro
7 29 (1.33%) WSUS
8 20 (0.92%) vCenter Server
9 19 (0.87%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 17 (0.78%) Proxmox
10 17 (0.78%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
11 14 (0.64%) Failover Clustering
12 11 (0.50%) Microsoft Clustering
12 11 (0.50%) ZABBIX
13 9 (0.41%) SCOM
14 6 (0.27%) Grafana
14 6 (0.27%) Graylog
14 6 (0.27%) Prometheus
15 5 (0.23%) VxRail
Vendors
1 1,812 (82.93%) Microsoft
2 577 (26.41%) VMware
3 203 (9.29%) Veeam
4 174 (7.96%) Cisco
5 92 (4.21%) SolarWinds
6 89 (4.07%) Splunk
7 86 (3.94%) Meraki
8 80 (3.66%) CyberArk
9 78 (3.57%) Apple
10 77 (3.52%) Nimble Storage
11 72 (3.30%) Brocade
11 72 (3.30%) Tanium
12 68 (3.11%) ServiceNow
13 63 (2.88%) Fortinet
14 61 (2.79%) SonicWALL
15 53 (2.43%) Citrix
16 49 (2.24%) HP
17 46 (2.11%) Dell
18 42 (1.92%) Palo Alto
19 39 (1.78%) Red Hat