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

6 months to
4 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 47 37 23
Rank change year-on-year -10 -14 +19
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 1,710 1,975 2,608
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 4.09% 5.38% 8.16%
As % of the System Software category 61.09% 44.65% 48.50%
Number of salaries quoted 1,214 1,214 2,312
10th Percentile £26,250 £25,750 £25,438
25th Percentile £28,000 £30,000 £29,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £33,500 £40,000 £37,500
Median % change year-on-year -16.25% +6.67% -
75th Percentile £45,563 £52,500 £51,250
90th Percentile £60,125 £61,250 £59,000
UK median annual salary £36,500 £42,500 £42,500
% change year-on-year -14.12% - +1.80%

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 2,799 4,423 5,377
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 6.69% 12.05% 16.83%
Number of salaries quoted 1,959 2,539 4,449
10th Percentile £26,700 £27,750 £27,000
25th Percentile £30,000 £35,000 £33,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £41,500 £50,000 £48,000
Median % change year-on-year -17.00% +4.17% -1.03%
75th Percentile £60,750 £67,500 £63,750
90th Percentile £77,500 £81,250 £77,500
UK median annual salary £50,000 £57,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year -13.04% +4.55% -1.35%

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 4 January 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 4 January 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 +11 455 £36,000 -15.29% 304
North of England -19 338 £32,500 -18.75% 145
South West +7 293 £32,500 -7.14% 83
Midlands -15 271 £31,500 -10.00% 70
East of England -10 206 £35,000 +1.81% 76
East Midlands +20 160 £29,000 -7.94% 36
North West -17 152 £36,000 -11.91% 69
Yorkshire -6 143 £31,750 -9.29% 44
West Midlands -42 111 £37,000 -4.52% 34
Scotland -7 99 £30,750 -23.13% 81
North East -7 43 £31,000 -17.33% 34
Wales +5 40 £35,000 -12.50% 17
Northern Ireland -2 16 £47,750 -9.05% 3
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
1 513 (30.00%) Microsoft Exchange
2 305 (17.84%) SharePoint
3 26 (1.52%) Exchange Server 2003
4 23 (1.35%) IIS
5 16 (0.94%) Skype for Business
6 15 (0.88%) Confluence
7 4 (0.23%) Exchange Server 2013
7 4 (0.23%) Tomcat
8 3 (0.18%) WebLogic
8 3 (0.18%) WebLogic Portal
9 2 (0.12%) CMS
9 2 (0.12%) Exchange Server 2007
9 2 (0.12%) Exchange Server 2010
9 2 (0.12%) FactoryTalk
9 2 (0.12%) WinCC
9 2 (0.12%) WordPress
10 1 (0.058%) BizTalk Server
10 1 (0.058%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 224 (13.10%) Microsoft Office
2 38 (2.22%) Microsoft Excel
3 6 (0.35%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.23%) CATIA
5 3 (0.18%) AutoCAD
6 1 (0.058%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.058%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 30 (1.75%) Dynamics CRM
2 20 (1.17%) Oracle ERP
3 6 (0.35%) Remedy ITSM
4 5 (0.29%) NetSuite
5 4 (0.23%) Markit EDM
5 4 (0.23%) Visualfiles
6 3 (0.18%) Oracle EBS
6 3 (0.18%) Primavera
7 1 (0.058%) Cognos Business Intelligence
7 1 (0.058%) Dynamics AX
7 1 (0.058%) Sage 200
7 1 (0.058%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 1,190 (69.59%) Microsoft 365
2 919 (53.74%) Azure
3 538 (31.46%) Entra ID
4 118 (6.90%) AWS
5 112 (6.55%) OneDrive
6 68 (3.98%) SaaS
7 61 (3.57%) Power Platform
8 53 (3.10%) Google Workspace
9 39 (2.28%) Azure DevOps
9 39 (2.28%) GCP
10 36 (2.11%) PowerApps
11 35 (2.05%) IaaS
12 31 (1.81%) Azure Logic Apps
12 31 (1.81%) Azure Monitor
12 31 (1.81%) PaaS
13 29 (1.70%) GitHub
14 23 (1.35%) Dynamics 365
14 23 (1.35%) OCI
15 22 (1.29%) Power Automate
16 21 (1.23%) Azure Sentinel
Communications & Networking
1 631 (36.90%) DNS
2 596 (34.85%) DHCP
3 391 (22.87%) Firewall
4 250 (14.62%) TCP/IP
5 242 (14.15%) VPN
6 166 (9.71%) VLAN
7 159 (9.30%) LAN
8 157 (9.18%) WAN
9 121 (7.08%) Wi-Fi
10 88 (5.15%) Wireless
11 80 (4.68%) VoIP
12 68 (3.98%) SAN
13 58 (3.39%) Remote Desktop
14 44 (2.57%) Network Security
15 35 (2.05%) Internet
16 21 (1.23%) Broadband
17 20 (1.17%) SD-WAN
18 18 (1.05%) SMTP
19 16 (0.94%) Skype
19 16 (0.94%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 119 (6.96%) Amazon RDS
2 55 (3.22%) SQL Server
3 29 (1.70%) Oracle Database
4 26 (1.52%) Oracle Database 10g
5 19 (1.11%) Power BI
6 12 (0.70%) Azure SQL Database
7 9 (0.53%) DTS
8 8 (0.47%) MySQL
9 7 (0.41%) Data Warehouse
10 6 (0.35%) Relational Database
11 4 (0.23%) GIS
11 4 (0.23%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 4 (0.23%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 3 (0.18%) Data Mining
12 3 (0.18%) Oracle Discoverer
12 3 (0.18%) Oracle Reports
12 3 (0.18%) PostgreSQL
13 2 (0.12%) NoSQL
14 1 (0.058%) Cognos Connection
14 1 (0.058%) Cognos Framework Manager
Development Applications
1 52 (3.04%) JIRA
2 30 (1.75%) Jenkins
3 26 (1.52%) Git
4 23 (1.35%) Oracle Forms
5 4 (0.23%) GitLab
5 4 (0.23%) LabVIEW
6 3 (0.18%) Oracle APEX
6 3 (0.18%) Vagrant
7 2 (0.12%) Subversion
7 2 (0.12%) Visual Studio
8 1 (0.058%) Artifactory
8 1 (0.058%) Burp Suite
8 1 (0.058%) Metasploit
8 1 (0.058%) Octopus Deploy
8 1 (0.058%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
8 1 (0.058%) TeamCity
General
1 847 (49.53%) Social Skills
2 197 (11.52%) Analytical Skills
3 137 (8.01%) Finance
4 108 (6.32%) Organisational Skills
5 95 (5.56%) Manufacturing
6 67 (3.92%) Retail
7 59 (3.45%) Law
8 49 (2.87%) Documentation Skills
8 49 (2.87%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 41 (2.40%) Advertising
10 37 (2.16%) Legal
11 27 (1.58%) Telecoms
12 22 (1.29%) Public Sector
13 20 (1.17%) Games
14 19 (1.11%) Marketing
15 15 (0.88%) French Language
15 15 (0.88%) Swedish Language
16 14 (0.82%) Pharmaceutical
17 9 (0.53%) Aerospace
18 5 (0.29%) Automotive
Job Titles
1 590 (34.50%) IT Support
2 399 (23.33%) Support Engineer
3 290 (16.96%) IT Engineer
4 247 (14.44%) Analyst
5 243 (14.21%) IT Support Engineer
6 184 (10.76%) 2nd Line Support
7 182 (10.64%) Support Analyst
8 154 (9.01%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 148 (8.65%) Support Technician
10 135 (7.89%) Systems Engineer
11 134 (7.84%) IT Analyst
12 113 (6.61%) Senior
13 112 (6.55%) IT Technician
14 110 (6.43%) IT Support Analyst
15 101 (5.91%) Technical Support
16 100 (5.85%) 3rd Line Support
17 96 (5.61%) IT Support Technician
18 90 (5.26%) 1st Line Support
19 77 (4.50%) 2nd Line Engineer
20 69 (4.04%) Cloud Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 37 (2.16%) SOAP
2 35 (2.05%) LDAP
3 25 (1.46%) OAuth
3 25 (1.46%) OpenID
3 25 (1.46%) SAML
4 23 (1.35%) RESTful
5 22 (1.29%) .NET
6 20 (1.17%) JSON
6 20 (1.17%) XML
7 17 (0.99%) GraphQL
7 17 (0.99%) REST
8 15 (0.88%) ARM Templates
9 12 (0.70%) EDI
9 12 (0.70%) React
10 10 (0.58%) CSS
10 10 (0.58%) HTML
11 9 (0.53%) .NET Framework
12 8 (0.47%) OAuth2
13 5 (0.29%) Microsoft Graph
14 4 (0.23%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 247 (14.44%) Driving Licence
2 169 (9.88%) Onboarding
3 104 (6.08%) Legacy Systems
4 71 (4.15%) Self-Motivation
5 62 (3.63%) Enterprise Software
6 43 (2.51%) Data Centre
7 38 (2.22%) Cloud Native
8 30 (1.75%) Management Information System
9 27 (1.58%) Hybrid Cloud
10 22 (1.29%) Video Conferencing
11 20 (1.17%) Cyberattack
11 20 (1.17%) PKI
12 19 (1.11%) Clustering
12 19 (1.11%) Cyber Threat
12 19 (1.11%) iPad
13 18 (1.05%) Replication
14 16 (0.94%) Client/Server
14 16 (0.94%) CMDB
14 16 (0.94%) FMCG
15 14 (0.82%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 1,226 (71.70%) Windows
2 754 (44.09%) Windows Server
3 264 (15.44%) Windows 10
4 216 (12.63%) Linux
5 145 (8.48%) Windows Server 2016
6 90 (5.26%) Mac OS
7 84 (4.91%) Windows Server 2019
8 71 (4.15%) Apple iOS
9 61 (3.57%) Android
10 33 (1.93%) Windows Server 2008
11 31 (1.81%) Unix
11 31 (1.81%) Windows 7
12 27 (1.58%) Windows Server 2012
13 26 (1.52%) Solaris
13 26 (1.52%) Windows Server 2003
14 25 (1.46%) HPUX
15 12 (0.70%) VMS
16 11 (0.64%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
17 5 (0.29%) Windows 8
18 4 (0.23%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 620 (36.26%) Problem-Solving
2 539 (31.52%) Customer Service
3 359 (20.99%) ITIL
4 211 (12.34%) Cybersecurity
5 203 (11.87%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 190 (11.11%) Mentoring
7 180 (10.53%) Continuous Improvement
8 164 (9.59%) ITSM
9 163 (9.53%) Migration
10 127 (7.43%) Service Delivery
11 113 (6.61%) Incident Management
12 110 (6.43%) Vulnerability Remediation
13 109 (6.37%) Disaster Recovery
14 107 (6.26%) Kalman Filter
15 105 (6.14%) Web Filtering
16 104 (6.08%) Customer Experience
17 102 (5.96%) Agile
17 102 (5.96%) Asset Management
18 101 (5.91%) Coaching
19 100 (5.85%) Email Filtering
Programming Languages
1 267 (15.61%) PowerShell
2 132 (7.72%) SQL
3 53 (3.10%) Python
4 45 (2.63%) Bash
5 25 (1.46%) Java
5 25 (1.46%) Perl
6 23 (1.35%) PL/SQL
7 22 (1.29%) Shell Script
8 19 (1.11%) T-SQL
9 15 (0.88%) JavaScript
10 13 (0.76%) C#
11 12 (0.70%) VB
12 11 (0.64%) Bicep
13 5 (0.29%) Groovy
13 5 (0.29%) VBA
14 2 (0.12%) Korn
14 2 (0.12%) TypeScript
15 1 (0.058%) VB.NET
15 1 (0.058%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 230 (13.45%) Security Cleared
2 199 (11.64%) SC Cleared
3 153 (8.95%) Microsoft Certification
4 146 (8.54%) Degree
5 64 (3.74%) DV Cleared
6 51 (2.98%) DBS Check
7 42 (2.46%) A+ Certification
8 40 (2.34%) Cisco Certification
9 36 (2.11%) MCP
10 35 (2.05%) Azure Certification
11 34 (1.99%) CCNA
12 29 (1.70%) MCSE
13 26 (1.52%) Network+ Certification
14 23 (1.35%) ITIL Certification
14 23 (1.35%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
15 16 (0.94%) MCSA
16 15 (0.88%) HND
17 13 (0.76%) Computer Science Degree
17 13 (0.76%) HNC
18 12 (0.70%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 144 (8.42%) Cyber Essentials
2 125 (7.31%) SLA
3 105 (6.14%) PCI DSS
4 70 (4.09%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 54 (3.16%) GDPR
6 31 (1.81%) NIST
7 18 (1.05%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 17 (0.99%) NCSC
9 11 (0.64%) QA
10 7 (0.41%) GxP
11 6 (0.35%) Accessibility
11 6 (0.35%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 5 (0.29%) 21 CFR Part 11
13 2 (0.12%) Disclosure Scotland
14 1 (0.058%) GRC
14 1 (0.058%) IASME
14 1 (0.058%) ISO 22301
14 1 (0.058%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 343 (20.06%) Hyper-V
2 244 (14.27%) VMware Infrastructure
3 99 (5.79%) Terminal Server
4 51 (2.98%) Virtual Desktop
5 43 (2.51%) vSphere
6 30 (1.75%) VMware ESXi
7 25 (1.46%) Virtual Machines
8 22 (1.29%) Docker
9 17 (0.99%) Firmware
10 10 (0.58%) Virtual Servers
11 6 (0.35%) BitLocker
12 5 (0.29%) XenApp
13 4 (0.23%) Terminal Services
13 4 (0.23%) VMware NSX
13 4 (0.23%) VMware Workstation
14 3 (0.18%) Lustre
14 3 (0.18%) Slurm Workload Manager
15 2 (0.12%) Citrix Hypervisor
15 2 (0.12%) Microsoft Virtual Server
16 1 (0.058%) VMware Server
Systems Management
1 397 (23.22%) Microsoft Intune
2 137 (8.01%) SCCM
3 60 (3.51%) Terraform
4 41 (2.40%) Single Sign-On
5 32 (1.87%) vCenter Server
6 29 (1.70%) WSUS
7 22 (1.29%) Kubernetes
8 21 (1.23%) Ansible
9 19 (1.11%) Autotask
9 19 (1.11%) Jamf Pro
9 19 (1.11%) SCOM
10 18 (1.05%) FortiGate
11 13 (0.76%) Nagios
11 13 (0.76%) ZABBIX
12 10 (0.58%) Failover Clustering
13 9 (0.53%) Active Directory Federation Services
14 7 (0.41%) Prometheus
14 7 (0.41%) SmoothWall
15 5 (0.29%) MaaS360
15 5 (0.29%) PaperCut
Vendors
1 1,300 (76.02%) Microsoft
2 468 (27.37%) VMware
3 176 (10.29%) Veeam
4 138 (8.07%) SolarWinds
5 132 (7.72%) Cisco
6 109 (6.37%) Splunk
7 107 (6.26%) Nimble Storage
8 105 (6.14%) Tanium
9 96 (5.61%) Brocade
10 90 (5.26%) Apple
11 65 (3.80%) Citrix
12 62 (3.63%) ServiceNow
13 58 (3.39%) Google
14 51 (2.98%) Oracle
15 50 (2.92%) HP
16 41 (2.40%) Meraki
17 36 (2.11%) Dell
18 29 (1.70%) SonicWALL
19 27 (1.58%) Red Hat
20 24 (1.40%) Sophos