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 19 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 53 40 36
Rank change year-on-year -13 -4 -11
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 2,225 1,860 2,719
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 2.61% 5.41% 4.90%
As % of the System Software category 49.35% 44.25% 49.23%
Number of salaries quoted 1,669 1,413 1,707
10th Percentile £26,750 £26,250 £25,500
25th Percentile £29,500 £28,500 £30,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £37,500 £35,000 £38,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% -7.89% +2.70%
75th Percentile £50,443 £48,750 £52,500
90th Percentile £65,000 £62,500 £61,250
UK median annual salary £40,000 £37,500 £42,500
% change year-on-year +6.67% -11.76% +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 4,509 4,203 5,523
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 5.30% 12.22% 9.96%
Number of salaries quoted 3,330 2,336 3,410
10th Percentile £28,500 £26,500 £27,500
25th Percentile £33,813 £30,750 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £42,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +17.65% -15.00% +0.88%
75th Percentile £67,500 £62,500 £63,688
90th Percentile £81,250 £76,840 £75,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £50,000 £54,000
% change year-on-year +10.00% -7.41% -1.82%

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 19 September 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 19 September 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 -3 538 £32,500 - 167
South East -14 506 £42,500 +13.33% 262
Midlands -34 378 £40,000 +23.08% 146
South West -30 297 £38,500 +18.46% 82
North West +82 293 £34,500 -2.40% 100
East of England +5 263 £35,000 +0.72% 109
East Midlands -16 192 £37,500 +19.05% 53
West Midlands -41 186 £42,500 +7.59% 93
Yorkshire -31 175 £31,000 +3.33% 43
Scotland +51 120 £32,500 +4.84% 43
Northern Ireland -22 70 £39,500 -24.76% 13
North East -59 70 £37,500 +20.97% 27
Wales -48 62 £45,000 +18.13% 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
1 654 (29.39%) Microsoft Exchange
2 513 (23.06%) SharePoint
3 54 (2.43%) IIS
4 18 (0.81%) Confluence
5 16 (0.72%) Skype for Business
6 7 (0.31%) Apache
7 3 (0.13%) nginx
7 3 (0.13%) SAS
8 2 (0.090%) Exchange Server 2013
9 1 (0.045%) Drupal
9 1 (0.045%) HCL Domino
9 1 (0.045%) HCL Notes
9 1 (0.045%) SharePoint Server
9 1 (0.045%) Site Server
9 1 (0.045%) Tomcat
9 1 (0.045%) WordPress
Applications
1 146 (6.56%) Microsoft Office
2 34 (1.53%) Microsoft Excel
3 7 (0.31%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.18%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 3 (0.13%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.090%) MS Visio
7 1 (0.045%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.045%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.045%) Revit
Business Applications
1 12 (0.54%) Dynamics CRM
2 8 (0.36%) Dynamics NAV
3 6 (0.27%) Raiser’s Edge
4 5 (0.22%) JDE EnterpriseOne
4 5 (0.22%) NetSuite
4 5 (0.22%) Remedy ITSM
5 4 (0.18%) Payment Gateway
5 4 (0.18%) Shopify
6 3 (0.13%) Salesforce CRM
7 2 (0.090%) Sage 200
7 2 (0.090%) Teamcenter
8 1 (0.045%) Dynamics AX
8 1 (0.045%) Exchequer
8 1 (0.045%) Magento
8 1 (0.045%) Oracle Payables
8 1 (0.045%) Primavera
8 1 (0.045%) Sage 50
8 1 (0.045%) SAP EHS
8 1 (0.045%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 1,548 (69.57%) Microsoft 365
2 1,223 (54.97%) Azure
3 1,012 (45.48%) Entra ID
4 176 (7.91%) OneDrive
5 149 (6.70%) AWS
6 98 (4.40%) SaaS
7 67 (3.01%) Power Platform
8 60 (2.70%) IaaS
9 55 (2.47%) Mimecast
10 48 (2.16%) Azure DevOps
11 45 (2.02%) PaaS
12 40 (1.80%) Microsoft Purview
13 39 (1.75%) Azure Sentinel
14 38 (1.71%) Power Automate
15 36 (1.62%) Serverless
16 32 (1.44%) Google Workspace
17 27 (1.21%) Azure Monitor
18 26 (1.17%) Azure ExpressRoute
19 24 (1.08%) Dynamics 365
20 23 (1.03%) Azure AKS
Communications & Networking
1 732 (32.90%) DNS
2 618 (27.78%) DHCP
3 551 (24.76%) Firewall
4 404 (18.16%) VPN
5 294 (13.21%) TCP/IP
6 228 (10.25%) Wi-Fi
7 227 (10.20%) VLAN
8 211 (9.48%) WAN
9 206 (9.26%) LAN
10 157 (7.06%) Wireless
11 138 (6.20%) VoIP
12 96 (4.31%) Network Security
13 72 (3.24%) SAN
14 35 (1.57%) Remote Desktop
15 32 (1.44%) SSL
16 29 (1.30%) Internet
17 23 (1.03%) NAS
18 19 (0.85%) WLAN
19 17 (0.76%) Cisco IOS
19 17 (0.76%) MPLS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 106 (4.76%) SQL Server
2 91 (4.09%) Amazon RDS
3 34 (1.53%) Azure SQL Database
4 20 (0.90%) Power BI
5 19 (0.85%) MySQL
6 12 (0.54%) PostgreSQL
7 10 (0.45%) Relational Database
8 6 (0.27%) Crystal Reports
9 4 (0.18%) Data Warehouse
10 3 (0.13%) Neo4j
10 3 (0.13%) Oracle Database
10 3 (0.13%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 2 (0.090%) BusinessObjects
11 2 (0.090%) Data Lake
11 2 (0.090%) KNIME
12 1 (0.045%) InterSystems Cache
12 1 (0.045%) NoSQL
12 1 (0.045%) RDBMS
12 1 (0.045%) Redis
12 1 (0.045%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 61 (2.74%) JIRA
2 31 (1.39%) Git
3 9 (0.40%) Jenkins
4 6 (0.27%) Bitbucket
5 5 (0.22%) GitLab
6 2 (0.090%) Artifactory
6 2 (0.090%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 2 (0.090%) Burp Suite
6 2 (0.090%) git-flow
6 2 (0.090%) Metasploit
6 2 (0.090%) NUnit
6 2 (0.090%) Terragrunt
7 1 (0.045%) Carbide.c++
7 1 (0.045%) Gatling
7 1 (0.045%) JMeter
7 1 (0.045%) Ranorex
7 1 (0.045%) Selenium
7 1 (0.045%) Sonatype Nexus
7 1 (0.045%) Team Foundation Server
7 1 (0.045%) Vagrant
General
1 1,067 (47.96%) Social Skills
2 259 (11.64%) Analytical Skills
3 144 (6.47%) Legal
4 128 (5.75%) Finance
5 86 (3.87%) Manufacturing
6 83 (3.73%) Law
7 81 (3.64%) Organisational Skills
8 76 (3.42%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 73 (3.28%) Public Sector
10 55 (2.47%) Retail
11 43 (1.93%) Telecoms
12 41 (1.84%) Aerospace
13 34 (1.53%) Documentation Skills
14 25 (1.12%) Advertising
15 14 (0.63%) Automotive
16 13 (0.58%) Local Government
17 11 (0.49%) Games
17 11 (0.49%) Influencing Skills
18 6 (0.27%) Aviation
19 5 (0.22%) Dutch Language
Job Titles
1 836 (37.57%) IT Support
2 543 (24.40%) Support Engineer
3 539 (24.22%) IT Engineer
4 439 (19.73%) IT Support Engineer
5 372 (16.72%) Analyst
6 279 (12.54%) Senior
7 245 (11.01%) Support Analyst
8 224 (10.07%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 202 (9.08%) IT Technician
10 199 (8.94%) Support Technician
11 180 (8.09%) IT Support Technician
12 169 (7.60%) IT Analyst
13 160 (7.19%) 2nd Line Support
14 152 (6.83%) IT Support Analyst
15 149 (6.70%) Systems Engineer
16 109 (4.90%) 2nd Line Engineer
17 95 (4.27%) Architect
18 94 (4.22%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
19 91 (4.09%) Administrator
20 80 (3.60%) 1st Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 80 (3.60%) Terraform
2 61 (2.74%) LDAP
3 34 (1.53%) SAML
4 30 (1.35%) OpenID
5 29 (1.30%) OAuth
6 23 (1.03%) .NET
7 17 (0.76%) Regular Expression
8 16 (0.72%) Microsoft Graph
8 16 (0.72%) XMPP
9 13 (0.58%) ARM Templates
9 13 (0.58%) ModSecurity
9 13 (0.58%) REST
10 12 (0.54%) HTML
10 12 (0.54%) SailPoint
11 10 (0.45%) ASP.NET Web Forms
11 10 (0.45%) WinForms
12 9 (0.40%) Web Services
13 8 (0.36%) OAuth2
14 6 (0.27%) SOAP
15 5 (0.22%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 306 (13.75%) Driving Licence
2 203 (9.12%) Onboarding
3 124 (5.57%) Self-Motivation
4 85 (3.82%) Legacy Systems
5 80 (3.60%) Hybrid Cloud
6 70 (3.15%) Management Information System
7 68 (3.06%) Data Centre
8 51 (2.29%) PKI
9 46 (2.07%) Security Posture
10 44 (1.98%) Enterprise Software
11 41 (1.84%) Cloud Native
11 41 (1.84%) Clustering
12 35 (1.57%) Replication
13 34 (1.53%) CCTV
14 27 (1.21%) iPhone
14 27 (1.21%) Public Cloud
15 20 (0.90%) iPad
15 20 (0.90%) Video Conferencing
16 16 (0.72%) Social Media
17 15 (0.67%) Enterprise Storage
Operating Systems
1 1,585 (71.24%) Windows
2 915 (41.12%) Windows Server
3 268 (12.04%) Linux
4 265 (11.91%) Windows 10
5 152 (6.83%) Windows Server 2016
6 129 (5.80%) Mac OS
7 89 (4.00%) Windows Server 2019
8 80 (3.60%) Apple iOS
9 58 (2.61%) Android
10 33 (1.48%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 28 (1.26%) Ubuntu
12 25 (1.12%) VMS
13 24 (1.08%) Windows Server 2012
14 7 (0.31%) Debian
14 7 (0.31%) Rocky
15 6 (0.27%) CentOS
15 6 (0.27%) Windows Server 2008
16 5 (0.22%) CoreOS
16 5 (0.22%) Mac OS X
17 4 (0.18%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 827 (37.17%) Problem-Solving
2 574 (25.80%) Customer Service
3 479 (21.53%) ITIL
4 455 (20.45%) Continuous Improvement
5 451 (20.27%) Cybersecurity
6 377 (16.94%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 274 (12.31%) Disaster Recovery
8 264 (11.87%) Mentoring
9 222 (9.98%) ITSM
10 205 (9.21%) Identity Access Management
11 202 (9.08%) Project Delivery
12 191 (8.58%) Service Delivery
13 186 (8.36%) Migration
14 155 (6.97%) Service Management
15 140 (6.29%) Customer Experience
16 135 (6.07%) Collaborative Working
17 133 (5.98%) Stakeholder Engagement
18 127 (5.71%) AI
19 125 (5.62%) Vulnerability Remediation
20 117 (5.26%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 351 (15.78%) PowerShell
2 197 (8.85%) SQL
3 68 (3.06%) Python
4 57 (2.56%) Bash
5 53 (2.38%) Bicep
6 23 (1.03%) R
7 22 (0.99%) Ruby
8 18 (0.81%) C#
9 15 (0.67%) Kusto Query Language
10 12 (0.54%) VBA
11 7 (0.31%) Java
11 7 (0.31%) T-SQL
12 5 (0.22%) Korn
12 5 (0.22%) PHP
13 4 (0.18%) JavaScript
13 4 (0.18%) Shell Script
13 4 (0.18%) VB.NET
14 3 (0.13%) VB
14 3 (0.13%) VBScript
15 2 (0.090%) Google Apps Script
Qualifications
1 312 (14.02%) Security Cleared
2 208 (9.35%) SC Cleared
3 207 (9.30%) Degree
4 193 (8.67%) Microsoft Certification
5 128 (5.75%) Azure Certification
6 120 (5.39%) A+ Certification
7 108 (4.85%) Network+ Certification
8 96 (4.31%) DV Cleared
9 76 (3.42%) CISM
9 76 (3.42%) CISSP
10 65 (2.92%) DBS Check
11 60 (2.70%) Cisco Certification
12 47 (2.11%) CCNA
13 31 (1.39%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 26 (1.17%) CompTIA Security+
15 24 (1.08%) Computer Science Degree
16 19 (0.85%) AWS Certification
17 17 (0.76%) BPSS Clearance
17 17 (0.76%) Microsoft Certified Professional
18 14 (0.63%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 217 (9.75%) Cyber Essentials
2 137 (6.16%) SLA
3 119 (5.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 85 (3.82%) PCI DSS
5 57 (2.56%) GDPR
6 41 (1.84%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 30 (1.35%) NIST
8 19 (0.85%) QA
9 15 (0.67%) Accessibility
10 13 (0.58%) NCSC
11 12 (0.54%) Data Quality
12 7 (0.31%) SOC 2
13 4 (0.18%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 3 (0.13%) ISAE 3402
15 1 (0.045%) GRC
15 1 (0.045%) ISO/IEC 20000
15 1 (0.045%) ISO/IEC 42001
15 1 (0.045%) PMO
System Software
1 503 (22.61%) Hyper-V
2 414 (18.61%) VMware Infrastructure
3 90 (4.04%) vSphere
4 76 (3.42%) Virtual Desktop
5 72 (3.24%) Terminal Server
6 61 (2.74%) Virtual Machines
7 41 (1.84%) VMware ESXi
8 31 (1.39%) Docker
9 22 (0.99%) Firmware
10 21 (0.94%) Virtual Servers
11 12 (0.54%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 12 (0.54%) VMware NSX
12 10 (0.45%) NDS
13 9 (0.40%) BitLocker
14 8 (0.36%) Citrix Hypervisor
15 4 (0.18%) Squid
16 3 (0.13%) DFS Replication
16 3 (0.13%) VMware Server
17 2 (0.090%) Slurm Workload Manager
17 2 (0.090%) UAG
Systems Management
1 610 (27.42%) Microsoft Intune
2 99 (4.45%) SCCM
3 57 (2.56%) Single Sign-On
4 39 (1.75%) Ansible
5 34 (1.53%) Kubernetes
6 33 (1.48%) FortiGate
7 30 (1.35%) WSUS
8 28 (1.26%) Jamf Pro
9 20 (0.90%) vCenter Server
10 19 (0.85%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 19 (0.85%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
11 17 (0.76%) Proxmox
12 15 (0.67%) Failover Clustering
13 12 (0.54%) ZABBIX
14 11 (0.49%) Microsoft Clustering
15 9 (0.40%) SCOM
16 6 (0.27%) Grafana
16 6 (0.27%) Graylog
16 6 (0.27%) Prometheus
17 5 (0.22%) VxRail
Vendors
1 1,850 (83.15%) Microsoft
2 595 (26.74%) VMware
3 207 (9.30%) Veeam
4 181 (8.13%) Cisco
5 95 (4.27%) Meraki
6 93 (4.18%) SolarWinds
7 89 (4.00%) Splunk
8 80 (3.60%) CyberArk
9 77 (3.46%) Apple
10 75 (3.37%) Nimble Storage
11 72 (3.24%) Brocade
11 72 (3.24%) Tanium
12 66 (2.97%) Fortinet
13 65 (2.92%) ServiceNow
14 61 (2.74%) SonicWALL
15 54 (2.43%) Citrix
16 47 (2.11%) HP
17 45 (2.02%) Dell
18 42 (1.89%) Palo Alto
19 40 (1.80%) Google