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

6 months to
11 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 54 37 35
Rank change year-on-year -17 -2 -11
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 2,251 1,866 2,515
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 2.60% 5.40% 4.93%
As % of the System Software category 49.06% 45.50% 48.06%
Number of salaries quoted 1,599 1,373 1,460
10th Percentile £27,000 £26,050 £25,750
25th Percentile £29,750 £28,500 £30,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £37,500 £35,000 £40,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% -12.50% +6.67%
75th Percentile £50,000 £48,750 £52,500
90th Percentile £65,000 £62,500 £62,500
UK median annual salary £40,000 £37,500 £42,500
% change year-on-year +6.67% -11.76% +6.15%

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 4,588 4,101 5,233
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 5.30% 11.87% 10.26%
Number of salaries quoted 3,281 2,228 2,951
10th Percentile £28,500 £26,500 £28,000
25th Percentile £35,000 £30,750 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £42,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +17.65% -15.00% -
75th Percentile £68,750 £62,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £80,000 £76,250 £77,500
UK median annual salary £55,000 £49,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +12.24% -10.91% -

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 11 October 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 11 October 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 -5 531 £34,000 +4.62% 148
South East -19 523 £42,500 +13.33% 187
Midlands -35 375 £41,750 +19.29% 122
North West +74 298 £35,000 - 79
South West -35 293 £39,000 +20.00% 105
East of England -5 254 £35,000 +4.48% 77
West Midlands -31 195 £42,500 +0.59% 70
East Midlands -9 180 £40,000 +33.33% 52
Yorkshire -29 165 £32,000 +4.92% 51
Scotland +40 115 £32,500 +8.33% 46
Northern Ireland -5 111 £38,500 -26.67% 28
North East -65 68 £36,250 +16.94% 22
Wales -49 58 £41,250 -0.71% 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
1 679 (30.16%) Microsoft Exchange
2 508 (22.57%) SharePoint
3 51 (2.27%) IIS
4 16 (0.71%) Skype for Business
5 15 (0.67%) Confluence
6 9 (0.40%) Apache
7 3 (0.13%) nginx
7 3 (0.13%) SAS
8 1 (0.044%) HCL Domino
8 1 (0.044%) HCL Notes
8 1 (0.044%) SharePoint Server
8 1 (0.044%) Site Server
8 1 (0.044%) Tomcat
Applications
1 139 (6.18%) Microsoft Office
2 41 (1.82%) Microsoft Excel
3 8 (0.36%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.18%) Adobe Creative Suite
4 4 (0.18%) Notion
5 2 (0.089%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.044%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.044%) Revit
6 1 (0.044%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 9 (0.40%) Dynamics CRM
2 6 (0.27%) Dynamics NAV
2 6 (0.27%) NetSuite
2 6 (0.27%) Raiser’s Edge
2 6 (0.27%) Remedy ITSM
3 5 (0.22%) JDE EnterpriseOne
4 4 (0.18%) Payment Gateway
4 4 (0.18%) Shopify
5 3 (0.13%) Salesforce CRM
6 2 (0.089%) Sage 200
6 2 (0.089%) Teamcenter
7 1 (0.044%) Dynamics AX
7 1 (0.044%) Sage 50
7 1 (0.044%) SAP EHS
7 1 (0.044%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 1,550 (68.86%) Microsoft 365
2 1,234 (54.82%) Azure
3 1,089 (48.38%) Entra ID
4 195 (8.66%) OneDrive
5 139 (6.18%) AWS
6 88 (3.91%) SaaS
7 60 (2.67%) IaaS
8 58 (2.58%) Power Platform
9 53 (2.35%) Mimecast
10 44 (1.95%) Azure DevOps
10 44 (1.95%) Google Workspace
11 43 (1.91%) Microsoft Purview
12 40 (1.78%) Azure Sentinel
13 36 (1.60%) Power Automate
14 35 (1.55%) PaaS
15 33 (1.47%) Serverless
16 27 (1.20%) Azure Monitor
17 26 (1.16%) Azure ExpressRoute
18 22 (0.98%) Dynamics 365
19 21 (0.93%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 746 (33.14%) DNS
2 641 (28.48%) DHCP
3 553 (24.57%) Firewall
4 413 (18.35%) VPN
5 315 (13.99%) TCP/IP
6 246 (10.93%) VLAN
7 230 (10.22%) Wi-Fi
8 201 (8.93%) LAN
8 201 (8.93%) WAN
9 161 (7.15%) Wireless
10 141 (6.26%) VoIP
11 93 (4.13%) Network Security
12 66 (2.93%) SAN
13 41 (1.82%) SSL
14 38 (1.69%) Remote Desktop
15 28 (1.24%) Internet
16 26 (1.16%) NAS
17 23 (1.02%) WLAN
18 21 (0.93%) Cisco IOS
19 17 (0.76%) Skype
Database & Business Intelligence
1 107 (4.75%) SQL Server
2 89 (3.95%) Amazon RDS
3 29 (1.29%) Azure SQL Database
4 15 (0.67%) MySQL
4 15 (0.67%) Power BI
5 11 (0.49%) Relational Database
6 9 (0.40%) PostgreSQL
7 6 (0.27%) Crystal Reports
8 4 (0.18%) Data Warehouse
9 3 (0.13%) Data Lake
9 3 (0.13%) Oracle Database
10 2 (0.089%) BusinessObjects
10 2 (0.089%) KNIME
11 1 (0.044%) Elasticsearch
11 1 (0.044%) Geospatial Data
11 1 (0.044%) Metadata
11 1 (0.044%) Neo4j
11 1 (0.044%) NoSQL
11 1 (0.044%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 1 (0.044%) SSDT
Development Applications
1 54 (2.40%) JIRA
2 33 (1.47%) Git
3 9 (0.40%) Jenkins
4 6 (0.27%) Bitbucket
5 5 (0.22%) GitLab
6 2 (0.089%) Artifactory
6 2 (0.089%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 2 (0.089%) Burp Suite
6 2 (0.089%) git-flow
6 2 (0.089%) Metasploit
6 2 (0.089%) NUnit
6 2 (0.089%) Terragrunt
7 1 (0.044%) Carbide.c++
7 1 (0.044%) Flyway
7 1 (0.044%) Ranorex
7 1 (0.044%) Selenium
7 1 (0.044%) Sonatype Nexus
7 1 (0.044%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 1,122 (49.84%) Social Skills
2 303 (13.46%) Analytical Skills
3 136 (6.04%) Legal
4 125 (5.55%) Finance
5 85 (3.78%) Manufacturing
6 84 (3.73%) Organisational Skills
7 76 (3.38%) Law
8 72 (3.20%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 64 (2.84%) Public Sector
10 55 (2.44%) Retail
11 51 (2.27%) Aerospace
12 41 (1.82%) Telecoms
13 37 (1.64%) Documentation Skills
14 20 (0.89%) Advertising
15 12 (0.53%) Automotive
16 11 (0.49%) Influencing Skills
17 10 (0.44%) Games
17 10 (0.44%) Local Government
18 7 (0.31%) Aviation
19 5 (0.22%) Italian Language
Job Titles
1 835 (37.09%) IT Support
2 535 (23.77%) IT Engineer
3 528 (23.46%) Support Engineer
4 433 (19.24%) IT Support Engineer
5 406 (18.04%) Analyst
6 289 (12.84%) Senior
7 234 (10.40%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 233 (10.35%) Support Analyst
9 207 (9.20%) IT Technician
10 203 (9.02%) Support Technician
11 181 (8.04%) IT Support Technician
12 176 (7.82%) IT Analyst
13 155 (6.89%) IT Support Analyst
14 143 (6.35%) Systems Engineer
15 140 (6.22%) 2nd Line Support
16 108 (4.80%) 2nd Line Engineer
17 99 (4.40%) Architect
18 89 (3.95%) Administrator
19 87 (3.86%) 3rd Line Support
20 85 (3.78%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 76 (3.38%) Terraform
2 64 (2.84%) LDAP
3 41 (1.82%) SAML
4 34 (1.51%) OpenID
5 32 (1.42%) OAuth
6 26 (1.16%) .NET
7 17 (0.76%) Microsoft Graph
8 16 (0.71%) Regular Expression
8 16 (0.71%) REST
9 15 (0.67%) ModSecurity
9 15 (0.67%) SailPoint
10 13 (0.58%) XMPP
11 12 (0.53%) ARM Templates
11 12 (0.53%) ASP.NET Web Forms
11 12 (0.53%) WinForms
12 11 (0.49%) HTML
13 10 (0.44%) OAuth2
14 8 (0.36%) Web Services
15 7 (0.31%) Middleware
15 7 (0.31%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 324 (14.39%) Driving Licence
2 202 (8.97%) Onboarding
3 117 (5.20%) Self-Motivation
4 84 (3.73%) Legacy Systems
5 76 (3.38%) Hybrid Cloud
6 66 (2.93%) Management Information System
7 62 (2.75%) Data Centre
8 54 (2.40%) PKI
9 51 (2.27%) Enterprise Software
9 51 (2.27%) Security Posture
10 41 (1.82%) Replication
11 39 (1.73%) Cloud Native
11 39 (1.73%) Clustering
12 31 (1.38%) iPhone
13 29 (1.29%) CCTV
14 22 (0.98%) iPad
14 22 (0.98%) Public Cloud
15 19 (0.84%) Enterprise Storage
15 19 (0.84%) Video Conferencing
16 16 (0.71%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 1,592 (70.72%) Windows
2 913 (40.56%) Windows Server
3 256 (11.37%) Linux
4 247 (10.97%) Windows 10
5 153 (6.80%) Windows Server 2016
6 127 (5.64%) macOS
7 82 (3.64%) Windows Server 2019
8 72 (3.20%) Apple iOS
9 60 (2.67%) Android
10 29 (1.29%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 28 (1.24%) Ubuntu
12 23 (1.02%) VMS
13 19 (0.84%) Windows Server 2012
14 9 (0.40%) Rocky
15 8 (0.36%) Debian
16 7 (0.31%) CentOS
17 5 (0.22%) CoreOS
18 4 (0.18%) Windows 7
19 2 (0.089%) Windows Server 2008
20 1 (0.044%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 902 (40.07%) Problem-Solving
2 582 (25.86%) Customer Service
3 504 (22.39%) Cybersecurity
4 471 (20.92%) ITIL
5 464 (20.61%) Continuous Improvement
6 396 (17.59%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 285 (12.66%) Disaster Recovery
8 269 (11.95%) Mentoring
9 251 (11.15%) Identity Access Management
10 226 (10.04%) ITSM
11 205 (9.11%) Migration
11 205 (9.11%) Project Delivery
12 173 (7.69%) Service Delivery
13 170 (7.55%) Service Management
14 147 (6.53%) Information Security
15 146 (6.49%) Collaborative Working
16 145 (6.44%) Customer Experience
17 135 (6.00%) Vulnerability Remediation
18 133 (5.91%) AI
19 130 (5.78%) Identity Management
Programming Languages
1 353 (15.68%) PowerShell
2 186 (8.26%) SQL
3 65 (2.89%) Python
4 53 (2.35%) Bash
5 50 (2.22%) Bicep
6 29 (1.29%) Ruby
7 21 (0.93%) C#
8 18 (0.80%) R
9 16 (0.71%) Kusto Query Language
10 12 (0.53%) VBA
11 7 (0.31%) Java
11 7 (0.31%) T-SQL
12 5 (0.22%) Shell Script
13 4 (0.18%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 4 (0.18%) JavaScript
13 4 (0.18%) TypeScript
13 4 (0.18%) VB.NET
14 3 (0.13%) PHP
14 3 (0.13%) VB
14 3 (0.13%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 307 (13.64%) Security Cleared
2 204 (9.06%) SC Cleared
3 198 (8.80%) Microsoft Certification
4 191 (8.49%) Degree
5 133 (5.91%) Azure Certification
6 120 (5.33%) A+ Certification
7 102 (4.53%) Network+ Certification
8 88 (3.91%) DV Cleared
9 78 (3.47%) CISM
9 78 (3.47%) CISSP
10 70 (3.11%) Cisco Certification
11 66 (2.93%) DBS Check
12 53 (2.35%) CCNA
13 30 (1.33%) BPSS Clearance
14 29 (1.29%) CompTIA Security+
15 24 (1.07%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
16 21 (0.93%) Microsoft Certified Professional
17 18 (0.80%) AWS Certification
17 18 (0.80%) MCSA
18 16 (0.71%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 214 (9.51%) Cyber Essentials
2 124 (5.51%) SLA
3 117 (5.20%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 83 (3.69%) PCI DSS
5 53 (2.35%) GDPR
6 40 (1.78%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 35 (1.55%) NIST
8 20 (0.89%) QA
9 18 (0.80%) Accessibility
10 13 (0.58%) NCSC
11 12 (0.53%) Data Quality
12 4 (0.18%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 4 (0.18%) SOC 2
13 3 (0.13%) ISAE 3402
14 1 (0.044%) ISO/IEC 20000
14 1 (0.044%) ISO/IEC 42001
14 1 (0.044%) PMO
14 1 (0.044%) SOC 1
System Software
1 505 (22.43%) Hyper-V
2 411 (18.26%) VMware Infrastructure
3 87 (3.86%) vSphere
4 83 (3.69%) Virtual Desktop
5 72 (3.20%) Terminal Server
6 63 (2.80%) Virtual Machines
7 33 (1.47%) VMware ESXi
8 25 (1.11%) Virtual Servers
9 22 (0.98%) Docker
9 22 (0.98%) Firmware
10 13 (0.58%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 10 (0.44%) BitLocker
11 10 (0.44%) NDS
12 8 (0.36%) VMware NSX
13 5 (0.22%) Citrix Hypervisor
13 5 (0.22%) DFS Replication
14 4 (0.18%) Squid
15 3 (0.13%) NFS
15 3 (0.13%) Slurm Workload Manager
15 3 (0.13%) VMware Server
Systems Management
1 629 (27.94%) Microsoft Intune
2 101 (4.49%) SCCM
3 65 (2.89%) Single Sign-On
4 37 (1.64%) FortiGate
4 37 (1.64%) Jamf Pro
5 31 (1.38%) Ansible
6 29 (1.29%) Kubernetes
7 25 (1.11%) WSUS
8 24 (1.07%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
9 21 (0.93%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 16 (0.71%) Failover Clustering
10 16 (0.71%) Proxmox
11 14 (0.62%) ZABBIX
12 13 (0.58%) vCenter Server
13 11 (0.49%) Microsoft Clustering
14 10 (0.44%) Autotask
15 8 (0.36%) SCVMM
16 6 (0.27%) Backup Exec
16 6 (0.27%) Graylog
16 6 (0.27%) SCOM
Vendors
1 1,903 (84.54%) Microsoft
2 604 (26.83%) VMware
3 219 (9.73%) Veeam
4 213 (9.46%) Cisco
5 112 (4.98%) Meraki
6 99 (4.40%) SolarWinds
7 85 (3.78%) Splunk
8 82 (3.64%) CyberArk
9 81 (3.60%) Apple
10 75 (3.33%) Nimble Storage
11 72 (3.20%) Brocade
11 72 (3.20%) Tanium
12 67 (2.98%) Fortinet
13 62 (2.75%) SonicWALL
14 57 (2.53%) ServiceNow
15 56 (2.49%) Citrix
16 51 (2.27%) Google
17 50 (2.22%) Palo Alto
18 47 (2.09%) HP
19 44 (1.95%) Okta