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 12 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 51 43 30
Rank change year-on-year -8 -13 +6
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 2,093 1,800 4,331
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 2.93% 5.33% 5.91%
As % of the System Software category 52.65% 41.43% 52.29%
Number of salaries quoted 1,643 1,438 3,471
10th Percentile £26,500 £26,000 £23,750
25th Percentile £29,000 £28,250 £27,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £37,500 £35,000 £35,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% - -4.11%
75th Percentile £48,750 £48,750 £48,500
90th Percentile £62,613 £62,238 £58,750
UK median annual salary £40,000 £38,500 £37,500
% change year-on-year +3.90% +2.67% -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 3,975 4,345 8,282
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 5.57% 12.87% 11.30%
Number of salaries quoted 3,065 2,579 6,520
10th Percentile £28,000 £26,500 £25,750
25th Percentile £32,500 £31,250 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £47,500 £46,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year +3.26% +2.22% -5.26%
75th Percentile £65,000 £66,125 £60,000
90th Percentile £78,774 £81,500 £72,500
UK median annual salary £52,500 £52,500 £49,000
% change year-on-year - +7.14% -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 12 July 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 12 July 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 0 514 £42,500 +6.25% 200
North of England -6 487 £34,000 +6.25% 154
Midlands -30 355 £37,500 +7.14% 57
South West -16 279 £37,500 +8.70% 91
North West +48 247 £35,000 -6.67% 73
East of England +3 235 £35,000 +7.69% 49
East Midlands -3 190 £33,500 +6.35% 32
Yorkshire -27 189 £32,500 +8.33% 58
West Midlands -41 164 £39,500 -0.63% 25
Scotland +84 111 £28,625 -21.03% 43
Wales -5 71 £45,000 +18.13% 15
North East -61 51 £42,500 +32.81% 32
Northern Ireland -25 39 £35,500 -32.38% 16
Isle of Man +4 6 £45,000 +30.43%
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
1 608 (29.05%) Microsoft Exchange
2 447 (21.36%) SharePoint
3 40 (1.91%) IIS
4 15 (0.72%) Confluence
5 11 (0.53%) Exchange Server 2013
6 9 (0.43%) Exchange Server 2007
6 9 (0.43%) Exchange Server 2010
6 9 (0.43%) Skype for Business
7 7 (0.33%) Apache
8 4 (0.19%) CMS
9 3 (0.14%) SAS
10 1 (0.048%) Drupal
10 1 (0.048%) nginx
10 1 (0.048%) Site Server
10 1 (0.048%) WordPress
Applications
1 211 (10.08%) Microsoft Office
2 42 (2.01%) Microsoft Excel
3 13 (0.62%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.14%) Adobe Creative Suite
4 3 (0.14%) Spreadsheet
5 2 (0.096%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.048%) AutoCAD
6 1 (0.048%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.048%) Revit
Business Applications
1 17 (0.81%) Dynamics CRM
2 13 (0.62%) Dynamics NAV
3 9 (0.43%) Remedy ITSM
4 6 (0.29%) Raiser’s Edge
5 5 (0.24%) NetSuite
6 4 (0.19%) Dynamics GP
6 4 (0.19%) Exchequer
6 4 (0.19%) JDE EnterpriseOne
6 4 (0.19%) Primavera
7 3 (0.14%) Salesforce CRM
8 2 (0.096%) Alphatax
8 2 (0.096%) SAP S/4HANA
8 2 (0.096%) Shopify
9 1 (0.048%) Dynamics AX
9 1 (0.048%) Magento
9 1 (0.048%) Oracle Payables
9 1 (0.048%) Payment Gateway
9 1 (0.048%) Sage 200
9 1 (0.048%) SAP EHS
Cloud Services
1 1,481 (70.76%) Microsoft 365
2 1,153 (55.09%) Azure
3 849 (40.56%) Entra ID
4 147 (7.02%) OneDrive
5 140 (6.69%) AWS
6 101 (4.83%) SaaS
7 85 (4.06%) Power Platform
8 62 (2.96%) IaaS
9 59 (2.82%) Mimecast
10 55 (2.63%) PaaS
11 53 (2.53%) Google Workspace
12 45 (2.15%) Azure DevOps
13 35 (1.67%) Microsoft Purview
14 30 (1.43%) Azure Sentinel
15 29 (1.39%) Azure Monitor
16 28 (1.34%) Serverless
17 25 (1.19%) Nutanix
17 25 (1.19%) PowerApps
18 22 (1.05%) Azure Functions
18 22 (1.05%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 702 (33.54%) DNS
2 589 (28.14%) DHCP
3 539 (25.75%) Firewall
4 360 (17.20%) VPN
5 247 (11.80%) TCP/IP
6 211 (10.08%) WAN
6 211 (10.08%) Wi-Fi
7 208 (9.94%) LAN
7 208 (9.94%) VLAN
8 127 (6.07%) VoIP
9 122 (5.83%) Wireless
10 83 (3.97%) Network Security
11 76 (3.63%) SAN
12 48 (2.29%) Remote Desktop
13 30 (1.43%) NAS
14 28 (1.34%) Broadband
15 27 (1.29%) Internet
16 19 (0.91%) SD-WAN
17 17 (0.81%) SSL
18 15 (0.72%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 116 (5.54%) SQL Server
2 102 (4.87%) Amazon RDS
3 47 (2.25%) Power BI
4 31 (1.48%) Azure SQL Database
5 28 (1.34%) PostgreSQL
6 27 (1.29%) MySQL
7 9 (0.43%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 6 (0.29%) Crystal Reports
9 5 (0.24%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 4 (0.19%) GIS
10 4 (0.19%) Neo4j
11 3 (0.14%) Oracle Database
12 2 (0.096%) BusinessObjects
12 2 (0.096%) Data Lake
12 2 (0.096%) Data Warehouse
12 2 (0.096%) KNIME
12 2 (0.096%) Relational Database
13 1 (0.048%) InterSystems Cache
13 1 (0.048%) NoSQL
13 1 (0.048%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 75 (3.58%) JIRA
2 23 (1.10%) Git
3 11 (0.53%) GitLab
4 7 (0.33%) Jenkins
5 5 (0.24%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 4 (0.19%) Bitbucket
7 2 (0.096%) Artifactory
7 2 (0.096%) Burp Suite
7 2 (0.096%) Metasploit
7 2 (0.096%) Subversion
7 2 (0.096%) Terragrunt
8 1 (0.048%) Carbide.c++
8 1 (0.048%) Gatling
8 1 (0.048%) JMeter
8 1 (0.048%) Ranorex
8 1 (0.048%) Selenium
8 1 (0.048%) Sonatype Nexus
8 1 (0.048%) Team Foundation Server
8 1 (0.048%) Vagrant
General
1 910 (43.48%) Social Skills
2 232 (11.08%) Analytical Skills
3 128 (6.12%) Organisational Skills
4 126 (6.02%) Finance
5 103 (4.92%) Legal
6 94 (4.49%) Law
7 69 (3.30%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 69 (3.30%) Manufacturing
8 62 (2.96%) Documentation Skills
8 62 (2.96%) Public Sector
9 48 (2.29%) Retail
10 45 (2.15%) Telecoms
11 28 (1.34%) Advertising
12 23 (1.10%) Games
13 21 (1.00%) Local Government
14 14 (0.67%) Aerospace
15 12 (0.57%) Automotive
16 9 (0.43%) Influencing Skills
16 9 (0.43%) Marketing
17 7 (0.33%) Banking
Job Titles
1 816 (38.99%) IT Support
2 567 (27.09%) Support Engineer
3 530 (25.32%) IT Engineer
4 442 (21.12%) IT Support Engineer
5 347 (16.58%) Analyst
6 230 (10.99%) Support Analyst
7 224 (10.70%) Senior
8 196 (9.36%) Support Technician
9 194 (9.27%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 187 (8.93%) IT Technician
11 167 (7.98%) 2nd Line Support
11 167 (7.98%) IT Support Technician
12 162 (7.74%) Systems Engineer
13 160 (7.64%) IT Analyst
14 143 (6.83%) IT Support Analyst
15 100 (4.78%) 2nd Line Engineer
16 89 (4.25%) 3rd Line Support
17 84 (4.01%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
18 78 (3.73%) 1st Line Support
19 76 (3.63%) Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 45 (2.15%) LDAP
2 33 (1.58%) SAML
3 28 (1.34%) OpenID
4 25 (1.19%) OAuth
5 23 (1.10%) Regular Expression
5 23 (1.10%) REST
6 19 (0.91%) XMPP
7 18 (0.86%) GraphQL
7 18 (0.86%) SOAP
8 15 (0.72%) JSON
8 15 (0.72%) XML
9 11 (0.53%) .NET
9 11 (0.53%) ARM Templates
10 10 (0.48%) HTML
11 9 (0.43%) Microsoft Graph
11 9 (0.43%) Web Services
12 7 (0.33%) JSON Schema
13 6 (0.29%) Middleware
14 5 (0.24%) FreeSWITCH
14 5 (0.24%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 299 (14.29%) Driving Licence
2 155 (7.41%) Onboarding
3 126 (6.02%) Self-Motivation
4 94 (4.49%) Legacy Systems
5 83 (3.97%) Hybrid Cloud
6 69 (3.30%) Data Centre
7 64 (3.06%) Management Information System
8 49 (2.34%) PKI
9 46 (2.20%) Clustering
10 37 (1.77%) Public Cloud
10 37 (1.77%) Replication
11 33 (1.58%) Security Posture
12 32 (1.53%) Enterprise Software
13 29 (1.39%) CCTV
14 28 (1.34%) Cloud Native
15 26 (1.24%) Cyber Threat
16 22 (1.05%) Cyberattack
17 16 (0.76%) Client/Server
18 15 (0.72%) Data Structures
18 15 (0.72%) Enterprise Storage
Operating Systems
1 1,515 (72.38%) Windows
2 896 (42.81%) Windows Server
3 313 (14.95%) Windows 10
4 273 (13.04%) Linux
5 170 (8.12%) Windows Server 2016
6 143 (6.83%) Mac OS
7 90 (4.30%) Windows Server 2019
8 79 (3.77%) Apple iOS
9 71 (3.39%) Android
10 42 (2.01%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 29 (1.39%) Windows Server 2012
12 26 (1.24%) VMS
13 15 (0.72%) Windows 7
14 13 (0.62%) Ubuntu
15 12 (0.57%) Windows Server 2008
16 7 (0.33%) Debian
16 7 (0.33%) Windows 8
17 5 (0.24%) CentOS
18 4 (0.19%) Mac OS X
18 4 (0.19%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 711 (33.97%) Problem-Solving
2 534 (25.51%) Customer Service
3 471 (22.50%) ITIL
4 374 (17.87%) Cybersecurity
5 364 (17.39%) Continuous Improvement
6 287 (13.71%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 245 (11.71%) Mentoring
8 216 (10.32%) Disaster Recovery
9 194 (9.27%) Service Delivery
10 183 (8.74%) ITSM
11 151 (7.21%) Migration
12 149 (7.12%) Project Delivery
13 126 (6.02%) Customer Experience
14 124 (5.92%) Vulnerability Remediation
15 121 (5.78%) Change Management
15 121 (5.78%) Kalman Filter
16 115 (5.49%) Incident Management
17 114 (5.45%) Web Filtering
18 108 (5.16%) Identity Access Management
19 106 (5.06%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 337 (16.10%) PowerShell
2 199 (9.51%) SQL
3 77 (3.68%) Bash
4 65 (3.11%) Python
5 37 (1.77%) Bicep
6 30 (1.43%) T-SQL
7 27 (1.29%) R
8 12 (0.57%) Kusto Query Language
9 11 (0.53%) VBA
10 9 (0.43%) C#
11 7 (0.33%) Shell Script
11 7 (0.33%) VB
12 6 (0.29%) Korn
12 6 (0.29%) PHP
13 5 (0.24%) Java
13 5 (0.24%) JavaScript
13 5 (0.24%) Ruby
14 2 (0.096%) C
14 2 (0.096%) VB.NET
14 2 (0.096%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 284 (13.57%) Security Cleared
2 200 (9.56%) Degree
3 192 (9.17%) SC Cleared
4 182 (8.70%) Microsoft Certification
5 97 (4.63%) Azure Certification
6 85 (4.06%) DV Cleared
7 67 (3.20%) A+ Certification
8 62 (2.96%) Network+ Certification
9 57 (2.72%) Cisco Certification
10 55 (2.63%) DBS Check
11 52 (2.48%) CCNA
12 30 (1.43%) CISM
12 30 (1.43%) CISSP
13 28 (1.34%) Microsoft Certified Professional
14 21 (1.00%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 21 (1.00%) MCSA
15 19 (0.91%) Computer Science Degree
16 14 (0.67%) CompTIA Security+
17 13 (0.62%) CCNP
17 13 (0.62%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 211 (10.08%) Cyber Essentials
2 173 (8.27%) SLA
3 130 (6.21%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 96 (4.59%) PCI DSS
5 47 (2.25%) GDPR
6 43 (2.05%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 40 (1.91%) NIST
8 23 (1.10%) NCSC
8 23 (1.10%) QA
9 21 (1.00%) Data Quality
10 9 (0.43%) Accessibility
11 6 (0.29%) SOC 2
12 5 (0.24%) PMO
13 4 (0.19%) 21 CFR Part 11
13 4 (0.19%) GRC
13 4 (0.19%) GxP
13 4 (0.19%) ITGC
14 2 (0.096%) ISAE 3402
14 2 (0.096%) ISO 22301
14 2 (0.096%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 484 (23.12%) Hyper-V
2 359 (17.15%) VMware Infrastructure
3 103 (4.92%) vSphere
4 82 (3.92%) Terminal Server
5 63 (3.01%) Virtual Desktop
6 50 (2.39%) VMware ESXi
7 47 (2.25%) Virtual Machines
8 34 (1.62%) Docker
9 17 (0.81%) VMware NSX
10 13 (0.62%) Virtual Servers
11 12 (0.57%) Firmware
12 11 (0.53%) BitLocker
13 9 (0.43%) DFS Replication
13 9 (0.43%) Microsoft Virtual Server
14 8 (0.38%) Citrix Hypervisor
15 7 (0.33%) VMware Workstation
16 6 (0.29%) XenApp
17 4 (0.19%) Squid
18 3 (0.14%) VMware Server
19 2 (0.096%) Xen
Systems Management
1 486 (23.22%) Microsoft Intune
2 107 (5.11%) SCCM
3 53 (2.53%) Terraform
4 36 (1.72%) Single Sign-On
4 36 (1.72%) vCenter Server
5 30 (1.43%) Jamf Pro
6 29 (1.39%) Ansible
6 29 (1.39%) WSUS
7 28 (1.34%) FortiGate
8 27 (1.29%) Kubernetes
9 23 (1.10%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 22 (1.05%) Proxmox
11 19 (0.91%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
12 15 (0.72%) Failover Clustering
13 13 (0.62%) ZABBIX
14 11 (0.53%) Microsoft Clustering
15 9 (0.43%) Autotask
15 9 (0.43%) Backup Exec
15 9 (0.43%) SCOM
16 6 (0.29%) VxRail
Vendors
1 1,639 (78.31%) Microsoft
2 555 (26.52%) VMware
3 194 (9.27%) Veeam
4 136 (6.50%) Cisco
5 108 (5.16%) SolarWinds
6 95 (4.54%) Splunk
7 93 (4.44%) Nimble Storage
8 81 (3.87%) Citrix
9 80 (3.82%) Brocade
9 80 (3.82%) Tanium
10 75 (3.58%) Apple
11 74 (3.54%) ServiceNow
12 73 (3.49%) Meraki
13 61 (2.91%) Dell
13 61 (2.91%) HP
14 48 (2.29%) Google
15 43 (2.05%) CrowdStrike
16 40 (1.91%) Ubiquiti
17 39 (1.86%) SonicWALL
18 38 (1.82%) Red Hat