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 7 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
7 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 31 36 22
Rank change year-on-year +5 -14 +26
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 1,978 2,365 2,714
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 5.62% 4.92% 8.88%
As % of the System Software category 54.61% 47.16% 49.36%
Number of salaries quoted 1,448 1,370 2,424
10th Percentile £26,250 £26,225 £25,200
25th Percentile £28,500 £30,000 £28,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £35,000 £40,000 £37,500
Median % change year-on-year -12.50% +6.67% -
75th Percentile £48,750 £53,000 £52,063
90th Percentile £63,750 £62,500 £62,500
UK median annual salary £37,500 £42,500 £41,500
% change year-on-year -11.76% +2.41% +0.61%

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 3,622 5,015 5,498
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 10.30% 10.44% 17.99%
Number of salaries quoted 2,325 2,777 4,541
10th Percentile £26,500 £28,125 £26,750
25th Percentile £30,500 £35,750 £33,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £50,000 £48,000
Median % change year-on-year -15.00% +4.17% -4.00%
75th Percentile £62,500 £65,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £77,500 £77,500 £78,250
UK median annual salary £49,250 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -10.45% - -

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 7 November 2025.

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 7 November 2025. 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 +13 516 £37,500 -11.76% 674
North of England -6 485 £32,500 -22.16% 214
Midlands +14 333 £35,000 -12.50% 163
South West +11 299 £32,750 -9.03% 185
Yorkshire +8 256 £30,500 -32.22% 61
East of England +9 232 £33,500 -4.29% 124
West Midlands +6 174 £47,500 +18.75% 82
East Midlands +19 159 £29,000 -17.14% 77
North West -40 139 £33,750 -15.63% 123
North East +12 90 £31,000 -13.89% 31
Scotland -27 80 £30,000 -25.00% 72
Wales +5 39 £35,000 +5.26% 30
Northern Ireland +4 10 £55,000 +4.76% 11
Channel Islands +3 1 £45,000 -10.00% 9
South Coast - 1 £59,000 -
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
1 580 (29.32%) Microsoft Exchange
2 317 (16.03%) SharePoint
3 42 (2.12%) IIS
4 39 (1.97%) Confluence
5 26 (1.31%) Exchange Server 2003
6 18 (0.91%) Skype for Business
7 9 (0.46%) Tomcat
8 6 (0.30%) Exchange Server 2013
9 5 (0.25%) CMS
10 4 (0.20%) Exchange Server 2007
10 4 (0.20%) Exchange Server 2010
11 3 (0.15%) Apache
11 3 (0.15%) JOnAS
11 3 (0.15%) WebLogic
11 3 (0.15%) WebLogic Portal
12 2 (0.10%) BizTalk Server
12 2 (0.10%) FactoryTalk
12 2 (0.10%) Office Communications Server
12 2 (0.10%) SharePoint Server
12 2 (0.10%) WinCC
Applications
1 229 (11.58%) Microsoft Office
2 33 (1.67%) Microsoft Excel
3 9 (0.46%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.20%) AutoCAD
4 4 (0.20%) CATIA
5 2 (0.10%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.051%) Autodesk Inventor
6 1 (0.051%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.051%) SOLIDWORKS
6 1 (0.051%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 30 (1.52%) Dynamics CRM
2 12 (0.61%) Oracle ERP
3 6 (0.30%) Remedy ITSM
3 6 (0.30%) Sage 200
4 5 (0.25%) Dynamics NAV
4 5 (0.25%) SAP Business One
5 4 (0.20%) NetSuite
5 4 (0.20%) Visualfiles
6 3 (0.15%) Oracle EBS
6 3 (0.15%) Primavera
7 2 (0.10%) Magento
8 1 (0.051%) Cognos Business Intelligence
8 1 (0.051%) Dynamics AX
Cloud Services
1 1,284 (64.91%) Microsoft 365
2 1,063 (53.74%) Azure
3 605 (30.59%) Entra ID
4 161 (8.14%) AWS
5 99 (5.01%) OneDrive
6 68 (3.44%) SaaS
7 53 (2.68%) IaaS
8 48 (2.43%) Power Platform
9 45 (2.28%) PaaS
10 38 (1.92%) Amazon EC2
11 35 (1.77%) PowerApps
12 34 (1.72%) GCP
13 33 (1.67%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 33 (1.67%) Google Workspace
14 32 (1.62%) Azure Logic Apps
15 31 (1.57%) Amazon ELB
15 31 (1.57%) Amazon Glacier
15 31 (1.57%) Amazon S3
15 31 (1.57%) AWS KMS
15 31 (1.57%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 634 (32.05%) DNS
2 571 (28.87%) DHCP
3 554 (28.01%) Firewall
4 285 (14.41%) TCP/IP
5 232 (11.73%) VPN
6 183 (9.25%) VLAN
7 172 (8.70%) LAN
8 171 (8.65%) WAN
9 142 (7.18%) Wi-Fi
10 103 (5.21%) SAN
11 96 (4.85%) Wireless
12 89 (4.50%) VoIP
13 55 (2.78%) Remote Desktop
14 39 (1.97%) Internet
15 32 (1.62%) SMTP
16 29 (1.47%) Network Security
16 29 (1.47%) SD-WAN
17 23 (1.16%) SSL
18 22 (1.11%) NAS
19 21 (1.06%) iSCSI
Database & Business Intelligence
1 140 (7.08%) Amazon RDS
2 105 (5.31%) SQL Server
3 29 (1.47%) Oracle Database
4 26 (1.31%) Oracle Database 10g
5 14 (0.71%) Power BI
6 13 (0.66%) MySQL
6 13 (0.66%) PostgreSQL
7 12 (0.61%) Azure SQL Database
8 9 (0.46%) DTS
9 6 (0.30%) Relational Database
9 6 (0.30%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 6 (0.30%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 3 (0.15%) Data Mining
10 3 (0.15%) Data Warehouse
10 3 (0.15%) Oracle Discoverer
10 3 (0.15%) Oracle Reports
11 2 (0.10%) NoSQL
12 1 (0.051%) Cognos Connection
12 1 (0.051%) Cognos Event Studio
12 1 (0.051%) Cognos Framework Manager
Development Applications
1 76 (3.84%) JIRA
2 54 (2.73%) Git
3 50 (2.53%) Jenkins
4 31 (1.57%) Vagrant
5 15 (0.76%) Oracle Forms
6 8 (0.40%) Sonatype Nexus
7 5 (0.25%) GitLab
8 3 (0.15%) Oracle APEX
9 2 (0.10%) Octopus Deploy
9 2 (0.10%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
9 2 (0.10%) Subversion
9 2 (0.10%) TeamCity
9 2 (0.10%) Visual Studio
10 1 (0.051%) Artifactory
General
1 890 (44.99%) Social Skills
2 172 (8.70%) Analytical Skills
3 116 (5.86%) Manufacturing
4 110 (5.56%) Finance
5 100 (5.06%) Organisational Skills
6 74 (3.74%) Retail
7 73 (3.69%) Law
8 59 (2.98%) Public Sector
9 50 (2.53%) Documentation Skills
10 48 (2.43%) Advertising
11 39 (1.97%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 38 (1.92%) Legal
13 35 (1.77%) Telecoms
14 17 (0.86%) Marketing
15 16 (0.81%) Aerospace
16 15 (0.76%) French Language
16 15 (0.76%) Presentation Skills
16 15 (0.76%) Swedish Language
17 13 (0.66%) Pharmaceutical
18 10 (0.51%) Automotive
Job Titles
1 616 (31.14%) IT Support
2 426 (21.54%) Support Engineer
3 318 (16.08%) IT Engineer
4 316 (15.98%) Analyst
5 229 (11.58%) Support Analyst
6 220 (11.12%) IT Support Engineer
7 216 (10.92%) 2nd Line Support
8 207 (10.47%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 171 (8.65%) IT Analyst
10 140 (7.08%) Technical Support
11 135 (6.83%) Support Technician
12 131 (6.62%) IT Support Analyst
13 120 (6.07%) 3rd Line Support
14 119 (6.02%) Senior
14 119 (6.02%) Systems Engineer
15 107 (5.41%) IT Technician
16 101 (5.11%) 1st Line Support
17 95 (4.80%) Infrastructure Support
18 79 (3.99%) IT Support Technician
19 77 (3.89%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 31 (1.57%) LDAP
2 24 (1.21%) .NET
3 21 (1.06%) SOAP
4 16 (0.81%) JSON
4 16 (0.81%) XML
5 15 (0.76%) RESTful
5 15 (0.76%) SAML
6 14 (0.71%) ARM Templates
7 12 (0.61%) React
8 11 (0.56%) EDI
8 11 (0.56%) OAuth
8 11 (0.56%) OpenID
9 10 (0.51%) CSS
9 10 (0.51%) HTML
10 9 (0.46%) .NET Framework
10 9 (0.46%) REST
11 8 (0.40%) Web Services
12 6 (0.30%) 802.1X
12 6 (0.30%) OAuth2
13 5 (0.25%) Microsoft Graph
Miscellaneous
1 247 (12.49%) Driving Licence
2 182 (9.20%) Onboarding
3 86 (4.35%) Self-Motivation
4 82 (4.15%) Legacy Systems
5 73 (3.69%) NHS
6 67 (3.39%) Operational Technology
7 57 (2.88%) Data Centre
8 45 (2.28%) Enterprise Software
8 45 (2.28%) PKI
9 41 (2.07%) Management Information System
10 36 (1.82%) Cloud Native
11 35 (1.77%) Replication
12 25 (1.26%) Clustering
13 24 (1.21%) Hybrid Cloud
14 19 (0.96%) Video Conferencing
15 17 (0.86%) Product Ownership
16 16 (0.81%) Analytical Mindset
16 16 (0.81%) Security Posture
17 15 (0.76%) Client/Server
18 14 (0.71%) Cyber Threat
Operating Systems
1 1,426 (72.09%) Windows
2 809 (40.90%) Windows Server
3 286 (14.46%) Windows 10
4 245 (12.39%) Linux
5 142 (7.18%) Windows Server 2016
6 135 (6.83%) Windows Server 2019
7 128 (6.47%) Mac OS
8 65 (3.29%) Apple iOS
9 49 (2.48%) Android
9 49 (2.48%) VMS
10 45 (2.28%) Unix
11 35 (1.77%) Windows Server 2008
12 32 (1.62%) Windows 7
13 28 (1.42%) Windows Server 2003
13 28 (1.42%) Windows Server 2012
14 26 (1.31%) Solaris
15 25 (1.26%) HPUX
16 23 (1.16%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
17 17 (0.86%) Amazon Linux
18 8 (0.40%) Rocky
Processes & Methodologies
1 640 (32.36%) Problem-Solving
2 551 (27.86%) Customer Service
3 414 (20.93%) ITIL
4 295 (14.91%) Cybersecurity
5 263 (13.30%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 193 (9.76%) Continuous Improvement
7 184 (9.30%) Mentoring
8 154 (7.79%) ITSM
9 149 (7.53%) Migration
10 119 (6.02%) Incident Management
11 111 (5.61%) Service Delivery
12 107 (5.41%) Kalman Filter
13 104 (5.26%) DevOps
14 99 (5.01%) Disaster Recovery
15 97 (4.90%) Web Filtering
16 96 (4.85%) Identity Management
17 87 (4.40%) Agile
18 84 (4.25%) Network Management
19 83 (4.20%) Coaching
19 83 (4.20%) Customer Experience
Programming Languages
1 337 (17.04%) PowerShell
2 144 (7.28%) SQL
3 78 (3.94%) Python
4 39 (1.97%) Perl
5 36 (1.82%) Bash
6 35 (1.77%) Groovy
6 35 (1.77%) Java
7 19 (0.96%) JavaScript
8 18 (0.91%) VB
9 15 (0.76%) PL/SQL
10 14 (0.71%) Shell Script
11 13 (0.66%) C#
12 11 (0.56%) Bicep
13 9 (0.46%) Korn
13 9 (0.46%) VBA
14 6 (0.30%) T-SQL
15 2 (0.10%) Go
15 2 (0.10%) TypeScript
16 1 (0.051%) VB.NET
16 1 (0.051%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 261 (13.20%) Degree
2 260 (13.14%) Security Cleared
3 219 (11.07%) SC Cleared
4 193 (9.76%) Microsoft Certification
5 111 (5.61%) DBS Check
6 74 (3.74%) DV Cleared
7 60 (3.03%) A+ Certification
8 51 (2.58%) Azure Certification
9 46 (2.33%) Cisco Certification
10 43 (2.17%) CCNA
11 37 (1.87%) Network+ Certification
12 35 (1.77%) MCP
12 35 (1.77%) MCSE
13 23 (1.16%) MCSA
14 22 (1.11%) ITIL Certification
15 21 (1.06%) AWS Certification
15 21 (1.06%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
16 19 (0.96%) HND
17 15 (0.76%) BPSS Clearance
17 15 (0.76%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 118 (5.97%) SLA
2 111 (5.61%) Cyber Essentials
3 81 (4.10%) PCI DSS
4 69 (3.49%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 63 (3.19%) GDPR
6 20 (1.01%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 17 (0.86%) NIST
8 7 (0.35%) GxP
8 7 (0.35%) NCSC
9 6 (0.30%) QA
10 5 (0.25%) 21 CFR Part 11
11 4 (0.20%) Accessibility
11 4 (0.20%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 2 (0.10%) Disclosure Scotland
12 2 (0.10%) ISO 22301
13 1 (0.051%) HIPAA
13 1 (0.051%) IASME
System Software
1 373 (18.86%) Hyper-V
2 292 (14.76%) VMware Infrastructure
3 77 (3.89%) Terminal Server
4 72 (3.64%) Virtual Servers
5 55 (2.78%) vSphere
6 48 (2.43%) Virtual Desktop
7 44 (2.22%) Docker
8 37 (1.87%) VMware ESXi
9 33 (1.67%) Virtual Machines
10 20 (1.01%) DFS Replication
11 16 (0.81%) Firmware
12 12 (0.61%) XenApp
13 9 (0.46%) Citrix Hypervisor
14 7 (0.35%) Terminal Services
15 4 (0.20%) Microsoft Virtual Server
16 3 (0.15%) VMware Workstation
17 2 (0.10%) BitLocker
17 2 (0.10%) ISA Server
17 2 (0.10%) VMware NSX
18 1 (0.051%) KVM
Systems Management
1 470 (23.76%) Microsoft Intune
2 153 (7.74%) SCCM
3 73 (3.69%) Terraform
4 39 (1.97%) Ansible
5 37 (1.87%) WSUS
6 36 (1.82%) Kubernetes
7 35 (1.77%) Prometheus
8 31 (1.57%) Grafana
8 31 (1.57%) Single Sign-On
9 28 (1.42%) Autotask
9 28 (1.42%) vCenter Server
10 23 (1.16%) SCOM
11 22 (1.11%) Jamf Pro
12 20 (1.01%) FortiGate
13 13 (0.66%) Nagios
13 13 (0.66%) ZABBIX
14 11 (0.56%) Failover Clustering
15 8 (0.40%) PaperCut
16 7 (0.35%) Active Directory Federation Services
16 7 (0.35%) SmoothWall
Vendors
1 1,486 (75.13%) Microsoft
2 492 (24.87%) VMware
3 182 (9.20%) Cisco
4 172 (8.70%) Veeam
5 100 (5.06%) SolarWinds
6 94 (4.75%) ServiceNow
7 87 (4.40%) Apple
8 83 (4.20%) Splunk
9 81 (4.10%) Tanium
10 76 (3.84%) Nimble Storage
11 72 (3.64%) Brocade
12 68 (3.44%) Citrix
13 62 (3.13%) Meraki
14 56 (2.83%) Google
15 52 (2.63%) Oracle
16 47 (2.38%) HP
17 43 (2.17%) Sophos
18 41 (2.07%) SonicWALL
19 38 (1.92%) Dell
20 33 (1.67%) Red Hat