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

6 months to
10 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 62 37 29
Rank change year-on-year -25 -8 +16
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 1,775 1,434 4,470
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 2.95% 5.55% 6.85%
As % of the System Software category 58.43% 45.79% 50.69%
Number of salaries quoted 1,344 1,215 3,837
10th Percentile £26,250 £25,500 £23,750
25th Percentile £28,584 £27,875 £26,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £35,000 £35,000 £35,000
Median % change year-on-year - - -2.78%
75th Percentile £47,500 £48,750 £48,750
90th Percentile £62,125 £58,750 £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 3,038 3,132 8,818
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 5.05% 12.13% 13.52%
Number of salaries quoted 2,224 2,497 7,271
10th Percentile £27,250 £26,750 £25,750
25th Percentile £31,250 £32,500 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £50,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% +11.11% -5.26%
75th Percentile £63,750 £68,750 £60,000
90th Percentile £77,500 £85,000 £75,000
UK median annual salary £51,500 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -6.36% +10.00% -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 10 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 10 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 +2 479 £36,000 -12.73% 175
North of England -30 401 £33,500 +3.08% 133
Midlands -40 283 £32,500 -7.14% 78
South West -2 268 £32,500 -7.14% 71
North West -19 186 £37,500 -6.25% 85
Yorkshire -24 183 £32,500 +8.33% 39
East of England -34 179 £40,000 +23.08% 61
East Midlands -25 146 £31,500 +3.28% 36
West Midlands -46 136 £32,500 -12.96% 42
Scotland +37 95 £30,000 -16.67% 26
Wales 0 46 £38,500 -21.59% 14
North East -24 32 £32,000 -3.61% 13
Northern Ireland -30 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
1 484 (27.27%) Microsoft Exchange
2 345 (19.44%) SharePoint
3 20 (1.13%) Exchange Server 2003
4 17 (0.96%) IIS
5 12 (0.68%) Exchange Server 2013
6 10 (0.56%) Exchange Server 2007
6 10 (0.56%) Exchange Server 2010
7 9 (0.51%) Confluence
8 6 (0.34%) CMS
9 4 (0.23%) Apache
10 3 (0.17%) Skype for Business
10 3 (0.17%) Tomcat
10 3 (0.17%) WebLogic
10 3 (0.17%) WebLogic Portal
10 3 (0.17%) WordPress
11 1 (0.056%) Drupal
11 1 (0.056%) nginx
11 1 (0.056%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 242 (13.63%) Microsoft Office
2 42 (2.37%) Microsoft Excel
3 14 (0.79%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.11%) AutoCAD
4 2 (0.11%) Spreadsheet
5 1 (0.056%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 17 (0.96%) Dynamics CRM
2 8 (0.45%) Oracle ERP
3 7 (0.39%) Dynamics NAV
3 7 (0.39%) NetSuite
3 7 (0.39%) Primavera
4 5 (0.28%) Remedy ITSM
5 4 (0.23%) Dynamics GP
5 4 (0.23%) Exchequer
5 4 (0.23%) Markit EDM
6 3 (0.17%) Oracle EBS
7 2 (0.11%) Alphatax
7 2 (0.11%) Shopify
8 1 (0.056%) Cognos Business Intelligence
8 1 (0.056%) Magento
8 1 (0.056%) Oracle Payables
8 1 (0.056%) Sage 200
8 1 (0.056%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 1,254 (70.65%) Microsoft 365
2 952 (53.63%) Azure
3 632 (35.61%) Entra ID
4 135 (7.61%) AWS
5 133 (7.49%) OneDrive
6 100 (5.63%) Google Workspace
7 85 (4.79%) Power Platform
8 83 (4.68%) SaaS
9 42 (2.37%) IaaS
10 37 (2.08%) PaaS
11 35 (1.97%) Nutanix
12 33 (1.86%) Azure Monitor
13 31 (1.75%) PowerApps
14 30 (1.69%) Azure DevOps
15 29 (1.63%) Mimecast
16 28 (1.58%) GCP
17 22 (1.24%) Microsoft Purview
18 19 (1.07%) Dynamics 365
19 16 (0.90%) GitHub
19 16 (0.90%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 621 (34.99%) DNS
2 567 (31.94%) DHCP
3 407 (22.93%) Firewall
4 284 (16.00%) VPN
5 205 (11.55%) TCP/IP
6 199 (11.21%) WAN
7 192 (10.82%) LAN
8 171 (9.63%) VLAN
9 155 (8.73%) Wi-Fi
10 93 (5.24%) VoIP
11 83 (4.68%) Wireless
12 66 (3.72%) Network Security
13 63 (3.55%) Remote Desktop
14 47 (2.65%) Broadband
14 47 (2.65%) SAN
15 28 (1.58%) SD-WAN
16 20 (1.13%) NAS
17 16 (0.90%) SMTP
18 15 (0.85%) Ethernet
19 14 (0.79%) IPsec
Database & Business Intelligence
1 91 (5.13%) Amazon RDS
2 82 (4.62%) SQL Server
3 52 (2.93%) Power BI
4 27 (1.52%) PostgreSQL
5 24 (1.35%) MySQL
6 23 (1.30%) Oracle Database
7 20 (1.13%) Oracle Database 10g
8 11 (0.62%) 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
11 5 (0.28%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 3 (0.17%) Data Mining
12 3 (0.17%) Neo4j
12 3 (0.17%) Oracle Discoverer
12 3 (0.17%) Oracle Reports
13 1 (0.056%) InterSystems Cache
13 1 (0.056%) OLAP
13 1 (0.056%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 69 (3.89%) JIRA
2 12 (0.68%) Git
3 11 (0.62%) Oracle Forms
4 9 (0.51%) Jenkins
5 7 (0.39%) 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 (0.056%) Burp Suite
9 1 (0.056%) Gatling
9 1 (0.056%) JMeter
9 1 (0.056%) Metasploit
9 1 (0.056%) Vagrant
General
1 800 (45.07%) Social Skills
2 203 (11.44%) Analytical Skills
3 168 (9.46%) Organisational Skills
4 126 (7.10%) Finance
5 75 (4.23%) Manufacturing
6 60 (3.38%) Legal
7 59 (3.32%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 57 (3.21%) Documentation Skills
9 55 (3.10%) Retail
10 51 (2.87%) Law
10 51 (2.87%) Public Sector
11 37 (2.08%) Advertising
11 37 (2.08%) Games
12 31 (1.75%) Telecoms
13 19 (1.07%) Marketing
14 14 (0.79%) Local Government
15 9 (0.51%) Automotive
16 8 (0.45%) Aerospace
17 4 (0.23%) General Ledger
17 4 (0.23%) Military
Job Titles
1 716 (40.34%) IT Support
2 502 (28.28%) Support Engineer
3 430 (24.23%) IT Engineer
4 371 (20.90%) IT Support Engineer
5 233 (13.13%) Analyst
6 181 (10.20%) 2nd Line Support
7 175 (9.86%) Support Technician
8 171 (9.63%) Support Analyst
9 159 (8.96%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 145 (8.17%) IT Technician
11 143 (8.06%) Senior
12 134 (7.55%) IT Support Technician
13 120 (6.76%) Systems Engineer
14 119 (6.70%) IT Analyst
15 109 (6.14%) IT Support Analyst
16 103 (5.80%) 2nd Line Engineer
17 92 (5.18%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
18 89 (5.01%) 3rd Line Support
19 75 (4.23%) 1st Line Support
20 65 (3.66%) Infrastructure Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 49 (2.76%) LDAP
2 46 (2.59%) SAML
2 46 (2.59%) SOAP
3 43 (2.42%) OAuth
3 43 (2.42%) OpenID
3 43 (2.42%) REST
4 38 (2.14%) GraphQL
5 19 (1.07%) JSON
5 19 (1.07%) XML
6 10 (0.56%) RESTful
7 9 (0.51%) Regular Expression
8 8 (0.45%) .NET
9 7 (0.39%) ARM Templates
9 7 (0.39%) Web Services
10 6 (0.34%) XMPP
11 5 (0.28%) FreeSWITCH
11 5 (0.28%) HTML
12 4 (0.23%) CSS
12 4 (0.23%) EDI
12 4 (0.23%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 267 (15.04%) Driving Licence
2 109 (6.14%) Onboarding
3 80 (4.51%) Self-Motivation
4 76 (4.28%) Legacy Systems
5 52 (2.93%) Hybrid Cloud
6 46 (2.59%) Enterprise Software
7 43 (2.42%) Cyberattack
8 39 (2.20%) Cyber Threat
9 36 (2.03%) Management Information System
10 35 (1.97%) Data Centre
10 35 (1.97%) Replication
11 34 (1.92%) Public Cloud
12 25 (1.41%) Cloud Native
13 19 (1.07%) PKI
14 18 (1.01%) Client/Server
15 17 (0.96%) CMDB
16 14 (0.79%) Clustering
17 13 (0.73%) iPad
18 12 (0.68%) FMCG
18 12 (0.68%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 1,271 (71.61%) Windows
2 749 (42.20%) Windows Server
3 305 (17.18%) Windows 10
4 225 (12.68%) Linux
5 142 (8.00%) Windows Server 2016
6 88 (4.96%) Mac OS
7 85 (4.79%) Apple iOS
8 75 (4.23%) Android
9 57 (3.21%) Windows Server 2019
10 36 (2.03%) Windows 7
11 34 (1.92%) Windows Server 2012
12 29 (1.63%) Unix
12 29 (1.63%) Windows Server 2008
13 23 (1.30%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
14 20 (1.13%) HPUX
14 20 (1.13%) Solaris
14 20 (1.13%) Windows Server 2003
15 10 (0.56%) Windows 8
16 7 (0.39%) VMS
17 6 (0.34%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 626 (35.27%) Problem-Solving
2 510 (28.73%) Customer Service
3 439 (24.73%) ITIL
4 271 (15.27%) Cybersecurity
5 213 (12.00%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 196 (11.04%) Mentoring
7 188 (10.59%) Continuous Improvement
8 178 (10.03%) ITSM
9 164 (9.24%) Service Delivery
10 155 (8.73%) Disaster Recovery
11 121 (6.82%) Vulnerability Remediation
12 120 (6.76%) Incident Management
12 120 (6.76%) Migration
13 107 (6.03%) Change Management
14 102 (5.75%) Coaching
15 98 (5.52%) Customer Experience
16 96 (5.41%) Kalman Filter
17 95 (5.35%) Web Filtering
18 93 (5.24%) Identity Access Management
19 87 (4.90%) Time Management
Programming Languages
1 294 (16.56%) PowerShell
2 133 (7.49%) SQL
3 82 (4.62%) Bash
4 56 (3.15%) Python
5 49 (2.76%) T-SQL
6 19 (1.07%) Perl
7 16 (0.90%) R
8 12 (0.68%) PL/SQL
8 12 (0.68%) Shell Script
9 10 (0.56%) JavaScript
10 9 (0.51%) Bicep
11 8 (0.45%) Java
11 8 (0.45%) VB
12 5 (0.28%) C#
13 4 (0.23%) Korn
13 4 (0.23%) VBA
14 3 (0.17%) PHP
15 2 (0.11%) C
16 1 (0.056%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 242 (13.63%) Security Cleared
2 180 (10.14%) SC Cleared
3 169 (9.52%) Degree
4 159 (8.96%) Microsoft Certification
5 84 (4.73%) DV Cleared
6 50 (2.82%) DBS Check
7 44 (2.48%) A+ Certification
7 44 (2.48%) Azure Certification
8 36 (2.03%) Cisco Certification
9 30 (1.69%) CCNA
9 30 (1.69%) Microsoft Certified Professional
10 29 (1.63%) Network+ Certification
11 23 (1.30%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
12 18 (1.01%) Computer Science Degree
12 18 (1.01%) ITIL Certification
12 18 (1.01%) MCSE
13 15 (0.85%) HNC
14 13 (0.73%) MCSA
15 12 (0.68%) CCNP
16 9 (0.51%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 173 (9.75%) SLA
2 149 (8.39%) Cyber Essentials
3 106 (5.97%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 83 (4.68%) PCI DSS
5 50 (2.82%) NIST
6 41 (2.31%) GDPR
7 39 (2.20%) NCSC
8 27 (1.52%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 17 (0.96%) QA
10 13 (0.73%) Data Quality
11 9 (0.51%) 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 3 (0.17%) SOC 2
15 2 (0.11%) ISO 9001
15 2 (0.11%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 353 (19.89%) Hyper-V
2 260 (14.65%) VMware Infrastructure
3 75 (4.23%) Terminal Server
4 49 (2.76%) vSphere
5 43 (2.42%) VMware ESXi
6 29 (1.63%) Virtual Desktop
7 27 (1.52%) Virtual Machines
8 22 (1.24%) Docker
9 17 (0.96%) BitLocker
10 12 (0.68%) VMware NSX
11 11 (0.62%) VMware Workstation
12 9 (0.51%) Firmware
12 9 (0.51%) XenApp
13 6 (0.34%) Citrix Hypervisor
13 6 (0.34%) DFS Replication
14 4 (0.23%) Terminal Services
14 4 (0.23%) Virtual Servers
15 3 (0.17%) Lustre
15 3 (0.17%) Microsoft Virtual Server
15 3 (0.17%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 349 (19.66%) Microsoft Intune
2 129 (7.27%) SCCM
3 42 (2.37%) Single Sign-On
4 41 (2.31%) vCenter Server
5 34 (1.92%) Jamf Pro
5 34 (1.92%) Terraform
6 25 (1.41%) Ansible
7 23 (1.30%) WSUS
8 21 (1.18%) FortiGate
9 19 (1.07%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 15 (0.85%) Kubernetes
10 15 (0.85%) SCOM
11 14 (0.79%) Autotask
12 9 (0.51%) Backup Exec
13 8 (0.45%) Proxmox
14 6 (0.34%) SmoothWall
14 6 (0.34%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
14 6 (0.34%) ZABBIX
15 5 (0.28%) SCVMM
15 5 (0.28%) VxRail
Vendors
1 1,279 (72.06%) Microsoft
2 460 (25.92%) VMware
3 151 (8.51%) Veeam
4 108 (6.08%) SolarWinds
5 100 (5.63%) Nimble Storage
6 94 (5.30%) Cisco
7 93 (5.24%) Apple
8 92 (5.18%) Citrix
9 91 (5.13%) Splunk
10 81 (4.56%) ServiceNow
11 77 (4.34%) Google
12 72 (4.06%) Brocade
12 72 (4.06%) Tanium
13 70 (3.94%) HP
14 63 (3.55%) Dell
15 38 (2.14%) Oracle
16 37 (2.08%) Meraki
17 29 (1.63%) McAfee
18 28 (1.58%) Dell Compellent
19 27 (1.52%) CrowdStrike