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 9 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
9 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 55 40 35
Rank change year-on-year -15 -5 -2
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 2,173 1,897 3,143
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 2.84% 5.48% 5.29%
As % of the System Software category 50.42% 43.21% 51.56%
Number of salaries quoted 1,673 1,518 2,378
10th Percentile £26,750 £26,000 £24,750
25th Percentile £29,500 £28,250 £28,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £37,500 £35,000 £37,500
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% -6.67% +1.35%
75th Percentile £50,000 £47,500 £50,000
90th Percentile £65,000 £61,250 £59,875
UK median annual salary £40,000 £37,500 £40,000
% change year-on-year +6.67% -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 4,310 4,390 6,096
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 5.64% 12.68% 10.27%
Number of salaries quoted 3,245 2,572 4,520
10th Percentile £28,500 £26,500 £26,250
25th Percentile £33,500 £31,250 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £42,500 £46,500
Median % change year-on-year +17.65% -8.60% -4.12%
75th Percentile £67,500 £62,500 £61,250
90th Percentile £80,000 £77,500 £73,750
UK median annual salary £55,000 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +10.00% - -10.71%

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 9 August 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 9 August 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 -10 513 £42,500 +6.25% 175
North of England -11 509 £34,000 +9.68% 128
Midlands -31 371 £38,000 +8.57% 77
South West -17 292 £37,500 +8.70% 75
North West +56 269 £35,000 - 78
East of England -2 245 £35,000 +4.48% 65
East Midlands -10 197 £37,500 +19.05% 34
Yorkshire -32 183 £31,000 +3.33% 39
West Midlands -45 174 £42,500 +11.84% 43
Scotland +77 110 £31,000 - 21
Wales -21 71 £42,500 +11.57% 10
Northern Ireland -15 65 £40,000 -27.27% 4
North East -56 57 £40,000 +29.03% 17
Isle of Man 0 4 £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
1 645 (29.68%) Microsoft Exchange
2 459 (21.12%) SharePoint
3 50 (2.30%) IIS
4 19 (0.87%) Confluence
5 11 (0.51%) Skype for Business
6 7 (0.32%) Apache
7 5 (0.23%) Exchange Server 2013
8 3 (0.14%) CMS
8 3 (0.14%) Exchange Server 2007
8 3 (0.14%) Exchange Server 2010
8 3 (0.14%) nginx
8 3 (0.14%) SAS
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%) WordPress
Applications
1 165 (7.59%) Microsoft Office
2 45 (2.07%) Microsoft Excel
3 16 (0.74%) 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%) Revit
Business Applications
1 16 (0.74%) Dynamics CRM
2 10 (0.46%) Dynamics NAV
3 9 (0.41%) Remedy ITSM
4 6 (0.28%) Raiser’s Edge
5 5 (0.23%) JDE EnterpriseOne
5 5 (0.23%) NetSuite
6 4 (0.18%) Exchequer
6 4 (0.18%) Payment Gateway
6 4 (0.18%) Primavera
6 4 (0.18%) Shopify
7 3 (0.14%) Dynamics GP
7 3 (0.14%) Salesforce CRM
8 2 (0.092%) Sage 200
8 2 (0.092%) SAP S/4HANA
8 2 (0.092%) Teamcenter
9 1 (0.046%) Dynamics AX
9 1 (0.046%) Magento
9 1 (0.046%) Oracle Payables
9 1 (0.046%) Sage 50
9 1 (0.046%) SAP EHS
Cloud Services
1 1,508 (69.40%) Microsoft 365
2 1,223 (56.28%) Azure
3 944 (43.44%) Entra ID
4 161 (7.41%) AWS
5 154 (7.09%) OneDrive
6 107 (4.92%) SaaS
7 78 (3.59%) Power Platform
8 69 (3.18%) IaaS
9 62 (2.85%) Mimecast
10 54 (2.49%) PaaS
11 48 (2.21%) Azure DevOps
12 39 (1.79%) Microsoft Purview
13 37 (1.70%) Azure Sentinel
14 30 (1.38%) Power Automate
14 30 (1.38%) Serverless
15 29 (1.33%) Google Workspace
16 28 (1.29%) Azure Monitor
17 27 (1.24%) GCP
18 26 (1.20%) PowerApps
19 22 (1.01%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 703 (32.35%) DNS
2 584 (26.88%) DHCP
3 523 (24.07%) Firewall
4 368 (16.94%) VPN
5 257 (11.83%) TCP/IP
6 212 (9.76%) Wi-Fi
7 211 (9.71%) WAN
8 204 (9.39%) LAN
9 202 (9.30%) VLAN
10 131 (6.03%) VoIP
10 131 (6.03%) Wireless
11 87 (4.00%) Network Security
12 82 (3.77%) SAN
13 49 (2.25%) Remote Desktop
14 29 (1.33%) Internet
14 29 (1.33%) NAS
15 27 (1.24%) SSL
16 17 (0.78%) SD-WAN
16 17 (0.78%) WLAN
17 16 (0.74%) Structured Cabling
Database & Business Intelligence
1 105 (4.83%) SQL Server
2 100 (4.60%) Amazon RDS
3 33 (1.52%) Power BI
4 32 (1.47%) Azure SQL Database
5 22 (1.01%) PostgreSQL
6 21 (0.97%) MySQL
7 6 (0.28%) Crystal Reports
7 6 (0.28%) Relational Database
8 5 (0.23%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 4 (0.18%) Data Warehouse
9 4 (0.18%) Neo4j
10 3 (0.14%) Oracle Database
11 2 (0.092%) BusinessObjects
11 2 (0.092%) Data Lake
11 2 (0.092%) GIS
11 2 (0.092%) KNIME
11 2 (0.092%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 1 (0.046%) Geospatial Data
12 1 (0.046%) InterSystems Cache
12 1 (0.046%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 76 (3.50%) JIRA
2 28 (1.29%) Git
3 9 (0.41%) Jenkins
4 7 (0.32%) GitLab
5 6 (0.28%) Bitbucket
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%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
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%) Sonatype Nexus
7 1 (0.046%) Subversion
7 1 (0.046%) Vagrant
General
1 982 (45.19%) Social Skills
2 250 (11.50%) Analytical Skills
3 145 (6.67%) Legal
4 132 (6.07%) Finance
5 88 (4.05%) Organisational Skills
6 87 (4.00%) Law
7 77 (3.54%) Manufacturing
8 74 (3.41%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 63 (2.90%) Public Sector
10 58 (2.67%) Retail
11 47 (2.16%) Telecoms
12 46 (2.12%) Documentation Skills
13 29 (1.33%) Advertising
14 27 (1.24%) Aerospace
15 15 (0.69%) Local Government
16 14 (0.64%) Automotive
17 9 (0.41%) Games
17 9 (0.41%) Influencing Skills
18 6 (0.28%) Banking
19 5 (0.23%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 791 (36.40%) IT Support
2 541 (24.90%) Support Engineer
3 511 (23.52%) IT Engineer
4 423 (19.47%) IT Support Engineer
5 350 (16.11%) Analyst
6 261 (12.01%) Senior
7 225 (10.35%) Support Analyst
8 209 (9.62%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 200 (9.20%) IT Technician
9 200 (9.20%) Support Technician
10 176 (8.10%) IT Support Technician
11 162 (7.46%) Systems Engineer
12 149 (6.86%) 2nd Line Support
13 146 (6.72%) IT Analyst
14 130 (5.98%) IT Support Analyst
15 93 (4.28%) Architect
16 91 (4.19%) 2nd Line Engineer
17 85 (3.91%) 3rd Line Support
18 83 (3.82%) Administrator
19 76 (3.50%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 46 (2.12%) LDAP
2 29 (1.33%) SAML
3 25 (1.15%) OpenID
4 23 (1.06%) OAuth
4 23 (1.06%) Regular Expression
5 19 (0.87%) XMPP
6 12 (0.55%) REST
7 11 (0.51%) .NET
7 11 (0.51%) ARM Templates
7 11 (0.51%) Microsoft Graph
8 10 (0.46%) HTML
9 9 (0.41%) ModSecurity
10 8 (0.37%) JSON
10 8 (0.37%) Web Services
10 8 (0.37%) XML
11 7 (0.32%) JSON Schema
11 7 (0.32%) OAuth2
12 6 (0.28%) Middleware
13 5 (0.23%) GraphQL
13 5 (0.23%) ODBC
Miscellaneous
1 305 (14.04%) Driving Licence
2 175 (8.05%) Onboarding
3 122 (5.61%) Self-Motivation
4 95 (4.37%) Legacy Systems
5 82 (3.77%) Hybrid Cloud
6 70 (3.22%) Data Centre
7 67 (3.08%) Management Information System
8 50 (2.30%) PKI
9 47 (2.16%) Clustering
10 41 (1.89%) Cloud Native
11 40 (1.84%) Enterprise Software
11 40 (1.84%) Security Posture
12 37 (1.70%) Public Cloud
13 35 (1.61%) CCTV
13 35 (1.61%) Replication
14 19 (0.87%) CMDB
15 16 (0.74%) Client/Server
15 16 (0.74%) Enterprise Storage
15 16 (0.74%) Social Media
16 15 (0.69%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 1,551 (71.38%) Windows
2 898 (41.33%) Windows Server
3 302 (13.90%) Windows 10
4 281 (12.93%) Linux
5 159 (7.32%) Windows Server 2016
6 150 (6.90%) Mac OS
7 87 (4.00%) Windows Server 2019
8 79 (3.64%) Apple iOS
9 65 (2.99%) Android
10 44 (2.02%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 23 (1.06%) VMS
12 19 (0.87%) Windows Server 2012
13 17 (0.78%) Ubuntu
14 9 (0.41%) Windows 7
15 8 (0.37%) CentOS
16 7 (0.32%) Windows Server 2008
17 5 (0.23%) CoreOS
17 5 (0.23%) Debian
18 4 (0.18%) Mac OS X
18 4 (0.18%) Windows 8
Processes & Methodologies
1 736 (33.87%) Problem-Solving
2 537 (24.71%) Customer Service
3 500 (23.01%) ITIL
4 424 (19.51%) Continuous Improvement
5 410 (18.87%) Cybersecurity
6 328 (15.09%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 264 (12.15%) Mentoring
8 254 (11.69%) Disaster Recovery
9 208 (9.57%) ITSM
10 184 (8.47%) Service Delivery
11 181 (8.33%) Project Delivery
12 170 (7.82%) Identity Access Management
13 158 (7.27%) Migration
14 137 (6.30%) Customer Experience
15 132 (6.07%) Vulnerability Remediation
16 130 (5.98%) Service Management
17 126 (5.80%) Stakeholder Engagement
18 125 (5.75%) Collaborative Working
19 123 (5.66%) AI
20 119 (5.48%) Kalman Filter
Programming Languages
1 338 (15.55%) PowerShell
2 194 (8.93%) SQL
3 66 (3.04%) Python
4 61 (2.81%) Bash
5 48 (2.21%) Bicep
6 29 (1.33%) R
7 12 (0.55%) Kusto Query Language
7 12 (0.55%) VBA
8 10 (0.46%) Ruby
9 9 (0.41%) C#
10 8 (0.37%) T-SQL
11 7 (0.32%) Java
11 7 (0.32%) Shell Script
12 6 (0.28%) Korn
13 5 (0.23%) PHP
14 3 (0.14%) JavaScript
14 3 (0.14%) VB
15 2 (0.092%) C
15 2 (0.092%) VB.NET
15 2 (0.092%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 310 (14.27%) Security Cleared
2 216 (9.94%) SC Cleared
3 205 (9.43%) Degree
4 182 (8.38%) Microsoft Certification
5 112 (5.15%) Azure Certification
6 100 (4.60%) DV Cleared
7 90 (4.14%) A+ Certification
8 89 (4.10%) Network+ Certification
9 69 (3.18%) CISM
9 69 (3.18%) CISSP
10 61 (2.81%) Cisco Certification
11 57 (2.62%) DBS Check
12 55 (2.53%) CCNA
13 32 (1.47%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 23 (1.06%) Computer Science Degree
14 23 (1.06%) Microsoft Certified Professional
15 19 (0.87%) MCSA
16 18 (0.83%) AWS Certification
17 17 (0.78%) CompTIA Security+
18 14 (0.64%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 221 (10.17%) Cyber Essentials
2 169 (7.78%) SLA
3 125 (5.75%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 96 (4.42%) PCI DSS
5 50 (2.30%) GDPR
6 48 (2.21%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 28 (1.29%) NIST
8 20 (0.92%) QA
9 14 (0.64%) Data Quality
10 13 (0.60%) NCSC
11 11 (0.51%) Accessibility
12 6 (0.28%) SOC 2
13 4 (0.18%) GRC
14 3 (0.14%) ISAE 3402
14 3 (0.14%) ITGC
14 3 (0.14%) PMO
15 2 (0.092%) Sarbanes-Oxley
16 1 (0.046%) 21 CFR Part 11
16 1 (0.046%) GxP
16 1 (0.046%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 505 (23.24%) Hyper-V
2 379 (17.44%) VMware Infrastructure
3 92 (4.23%) vSphere
4 81 (3.73%) Terminal Server
5 65 (2.99%) Virtual Desktop
6 52 (2.39%) Virtual Machines
7 43 (1.98%) VMware ESXi
8 38 (1.75%) Docker
9 19 (0.87%) Firmware
10 17 (0.78%) Virtual Servers
11 14 (0.64%) VMware NSX
12 13 (0.60%) Microsoft Virtual Server
13 11 (0.51%) Citrix Hypervisor
14 10 (0.46%) BitLocker
15 7 (0.32%) DFS Replication
16 5 (0.23%) NDS
16 5 (0.23%) XenApp
17 4 (0.18%) Squid
17 4 (0.18%) VMware Workstation
18 3 (0.14%) VMware Server
Systems Management
1 570 (26.23%) Microsoft Intune
2 115 (5.29%) SCCM
3 71 (3.27%) Terraform
4 49 (2.25%) Single Sign-On
5 35 (1.61%) Ansible
6 33 (1.52%) Kubernetes
7 30 (1.38%) FortiGate
8 28 (1.29%) Jamf Pro
8 28 (1.29%) WSUS
9 25 (1.15%) vCenter Server
10 19 (0.87%) Proxmox
11 18 (0.83%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 17 (0.78%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
13 15 (0.69%) Failover Clustering
14 14 (0.64%) ZABBIX
15 11 (0.51%) Microsoft Clustering
16 10 (0.46%) SCOM
17 6 (0.28%) Autotask
17 6 (0.28%) Grafana
17 6 (0.28%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 1,757 (80.86%) Microsoft
2 566 (26.05%) VMware
3 201 (9.25%) Veeam
4 158 (7.27%) Cisco
5 105 (4.83%) SolarWinds
6 97 (4.46%) Splunk
7 90 (4.14%) Nimble Storage
8 80 (3.68%) Apple
8 80 (3.68%) Brocade
8 80 (3.68%) Tanium
9 75 (3.45%) Meraki
10 72 (3.31%) Citrix
10 72 (3.31%) ServiceNow
11 71 (3.27%) CyberArk
12 53 (2.44%) HP
13 52 (2.39%) Dell
14 46 (2.12%) SonicWALL
15 45 (2.07%) Fortinet
16 44 (2.02%) Red Hat
17 41 (1.89%) CrowdStrike