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 1 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 39 37 21
Rank change year-on-year -2 -16 +26
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 1,802 2,291 2,652
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 4.78% 5.07% 9.09%
As % of the System Software category 59.63% 45.95% 49.92%
Number of salaries quoted 1,350 1,397 2,385
10th Percentile £26,250 £26,000 £25,500
25th Percentile £28,456 £30,000 £29,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £33,750 £40,000 £37,500
Median % change year-on-year -15.63% +6.67% +1.35%
75th Percentile £48,563 £53,000 £51,500
90th Percentile £63,750 £61,250 £60,000
UK median annual salary £37,500 £42,500 £42,000
% change year-on-year -11.76% +1.19% +2.44%

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 3,022 4,986 5,313
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 8.01% 11.04% 18.20%
Number of salaries quoted 2,182 2,844 4,441
10th Percentile £26,500 £28,000 £27,000
25th Percentile £30,000 £35,750 £33,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £50,000 £47,557
Median % change year-on-year -15.00% +5.14% -4.89%
75th Percentile £62,500 £66,438 £63,750
90th Percentile £77,500 £80,000 £77,715
UK median annual salary £50,000 £55,762 £55,000
% change year-on-year -10.33% +1.39% -

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 1 December 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 1 December 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 +10 491 £37,500 -11.76% 266
North of England -14 370 £32,500 -21.69% 147
Midlands +6 309 £32,500 -13.33% 105
South West +5 306 £33,000 -8.33% 71
East of England -8 205 £35,000 - 87
Yorkshire -7 167 £31,500 -25.88% 48
East Midlands +19 163 £28,500 -18.57% 44
West Midlands -13 146 £43,500 +8.75% 61
North West -13 144 £35,000 -15.66% 86
Scotland -17 80 £30,000 -24.48% 53
North East +2 59 £31,000 -17.33% 17
Wales +8 45 £35,000 +2.94% 25
Northern Ireland 0 13 £55,000 +4.76% 6
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
1 554 (30.74%) Microsoft Exchange
2 306 (16.98%) SharePoint
3 33 (1.83%) IIS
4 27 (1.50%) Confluence
5 26 (1.44%) Exchange Server 2003
6 16 (0.89%) Skype for Business
7 6 (0.33%) CMS
8 5 (0.28%) Tomcat
9 4 (0.22%) Exchange Server 2013
10 3 (0.17%) WebLogic
10 3 (0.17%) WebLogic Portal
11 2 (0.11%) BizTalk Server
11 2 (0.11%) Exchange Server 2007
11 2 (0.11%) Exchange Server 2010
11 2 (0.11%) FactoryTalk
11 2 (0.11%) WinCC
11 2 (0.11%) WordPress
12 1 (0.055%) JOnAS
12 1 (0.055%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 223 (12.38%) Microsoft Office
2 32 (1.78%) Microsoft Excel
3 7 (0.39%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.22%) AutoCAD
4 4 (0.22%) CATIA
5 2 (0.11%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.055%) Autodesk Inventor
6 1 (0.055%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.055%) SOLIDWORKS
6 1 (0.055%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 31 (1.72%) Dynamics CRM
2 17 (0.94%) Oracle ERP
3 6 (0.33%) Remedy ITSM
4 5 (0.28%) Sage 200
5 4 (0.22%) NetSuite
5 4 (0.22%) Visualfiles
6 3 (0.17%) Oracle EBS
6 3 (0.17%) Primavera
7 2 (0.11%) Dynamics NAV
7 2 (0.11%) Magento
7 2 (0.11%) SAP Business One
8 1 (0.055%) Cognos Business Intelligence
8 1 (0.055%) Dynamics AX
8 1 (0.055%) Markit EDM
8 1 (0.055%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 1,264 (70.14%) Microsoft 365
2 965 (53.55%) Azure
3 540 (29.97%) Entra ID
4 150 (8.32%) AWS
5 101 (5.60%) OneDrive
6 74 (4.11%) SaaS
7 57 (3.16%) Power Platform
8 50 (2.77%) IaaS
9 47 (2.61%) PaaS
10 39 (2.16%) PowerApps
11 38 (2.11%) GCP
12 34 (1.89%) Azure DevOps
13 33 (1.83%) Azure Logic Apps
14 30 (1.66%) Google Workspace
15 27 (1.50%) GitHub
16 26 (1.44%) Amazon EC2
16 26 (1.44%) Azure Monitor
17 24 (1.33%) Azure Sentinel
18 23 (1.28%) Mimecast
18 23 (1.28%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 660 (36.63%) DNS
2 610 (33.85%) DHCP
3 452 (25.08%) Firewall
4 284 (15.76%) TCP/IP
5 243 (13.49%) VPN
6 181 (10.04%) VLAN
7 170 (9.43%) LAN
8 166 (9.21%) WAN
9 130 (7.21%) Wi-Fi
10 96 (5.33%) Wireless
11 90 (4.99%) VoIP
12 82 (4.55%) SAN
13 54 (3.00%) Remote Desktop
14 41 (2.28%) Internet
15 34 (1.89%) Network Security
16 28 (1.55%) SD-WAN
17 25 (1.39%) SMTP
18 20 (1.11%) SSL
19 18 (1.00%) Kerberos
20 16 (0.89%) Skype
Database & Business Intelligence
1 139 (7.71%) Amazon RDS
2 74 (4.11%) SQL Server
3 29 (1.61%) Oracle Database
4 26 (1.44%) Oracle Database 10g
5 19 (1.05%) Power BI
6 12 (0.67%) Azure SQL Database
6 12 (0.67%) MySQL
7 9 (0.50%) DTS
8 7 (0.39%) PostgreSQL
9 6 (0.33%) Relational Database
9 6 (0.33%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 6 (0.33%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 4 (0.22%) Data Warehouse
11 3 (0.17%) Data Mining
11 3 (0.17%) Oracle Discoverer
11 3 (0.17%) Oracle Reports
12 2 (0.11%) NoSQL
13 1 (0.055%) Cognos Connection
13 1 (0.055%) Cognos Event Studio
13 1 (0.055%) Cognos Framework Manager
Development Applications
1 62 (3.44%) JIRA
2 43 (2.39%) Git
2 43 (2.39%) Jenkins
3 20 (1.11%) Oracle Forms
4 19 (1.05%) Vagrant
5 4 (0.22%) GitLab
5 4 (0.22%) Sonatype Nexus
6 3 (0.17%) Oracle APEX
7 2 (0.11%) Octopus Deploy
7 2 (0.11%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 2 (0.11%) Subversion
7 2 (0.11%) TeamCity
7 2 (0.11%) Visual Studio
8 1 (0.055%) Artifactory
General
1 888 (49.28%) Social Skills
2 192 (10.65%) Analytical Skills
3 125 (6.94%) Finance
4 110 (6.10%) Manufacturing
5 96 (5.33%) Organisational Skills
6 71 (3.94%) Retail
7 66 (3.66%) Law
8 49 (2.72%) Documentation Skills
9 44 (2.44%) Advertising
9 44 (2.44%) Public Sector
10 41 (2.28%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 36 (2.00%) Legal
12 35 (1.94%) Telecoms
13 18 (1.00%) Marketing
14 16 (0.89%) Aerospace
15 15 (0.83%) French Language
15 15 (0.83%) Swedish Language
16 13 (0.72%) Pharmaceutical
17 10 (0.55%) Automotive
17 10 (0.55%) Games
Job Titles
1 618 (34.30%) IT Support
2 427 (23.70%) Support Engineer
3 288 (15.98%) IT Engineer
4 280 (15.54%) Analyst
5 241 (13.37%) IT Support Engineer
6 206 (11.43%) Support Analyst
7 201 (11.15%) 2nd Line Support
8 183 (10.16%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 155 (8.60%) IT Analyst
10 142 (7.88%) Support Technician
11 129 (7.16%) Systems Engineer
12 127 (7.05%) Technical Support
13 124 (6.88%) IT Support Analyst
14 117 (6.49%) 3rd Line Support
15 116 (6.44%) IT Technician
15 116 (6.44%) Senior
16 96 (5.33%) 1st Line Support
17 90 (4.99%) IT Support Technician
18 72 (4.00%) Infrastructure Support
19 70 (3.88%) Technical Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (1.66%) LDAP
2 25 (1.39%) .NET
3 22 (1.22%) SOAP
4 20 (1.11%) RESTful
5 17 (0.94%) JSON
5 17 (0.94%) XML
6 15 (0.83%) ARM Templates
7 13 (0.72%) EDI
8 12 (0.67%) OAuth
8 12 (0.67%) OpenID
8 12 (0.67%) React
8 12 (0.67%) SAML
9 10 (0.55%) CSS
9 10 (0.55%) HTML
10 9 (0.50%) .NET Framework
10 9 (0.50%) Web Services
11 7 (0.39%) OAuth2
12 5 (0.28%) 802.1X
12 5 (0.28%) Microsoft Graph
12 5 (0.28%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 263 (14.59%) Driving Licence
2 181 (10.04%) Onboarding
3 96 (5.33%) Legacy Systems
4 79 (4.38%) Self-Motivation
5 52 (2.89%) Enterprise Software
6 48 (2.66%) Data Centre
7 40 (2.22%) Cloud Native
8 37 (2.05%) Management Information System
9 33 (1.83%) PKI
10 27 (1.50%) Hybrid Cloud
11 24 (1.33%) Replication
12 22 (1.22%) Clustering
13 16 (0.89%) Client/Server
13 16 (0.89%) FMCG
13 16 (0.89%) iPad
13 16 (0.89%) Security Posture
13 16 (0.89%) Video Conferencing
14 15 (0.83%) Analytical Mindset
14 15 (0.83%) Product Ownership
15 14 (0.78%) Cyber Threat
Operating Systems
1 1,327 (73.64%) Windows
2 815 (45.23%) Windows Server
3 284 (15.76%) Windows 10
4 242 (13.43%) Linux
5 151 (8.38%) Windows Server 2016
6 119 (6.60%) Windows Server 2019
7 108 (5.99%) Mac OS
8 59 (3.27%) Apple iOS
9 44 (2.44%) Android
10 37 (2.05%) Unix
11 35 (1.94%) VMS
11 35 (1.94%) Windows Server 2008
12 32 (1.78%) Windows 7
13 26 (1.44%) Solaris
13 26 (1.44%) Windows Server 2003
14 25 (1.39%) HPUX
15 23 (1.28%) Windows Server 2012
16 21 (1.17%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
17 12 (0.67%) Amazon Linux
18 8 (0.44%) Rocky
Processes & Methodologies
1 634 (35.18%) Problem-Solving
2 560 (31.08%) Customer Service
3 348 (19.31%) ITIL
4 240 (13.32%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 236 (13.10%) Cybersecurity
6 187 (10.38%) Continuous Improvement
7 179 (9.93%) Mentoring
8 163 (9.05%) Migration
9 159 (8.82%) ITSM
10 123 (6.83%) Incident Management
11 105 (5.83%) Disaster Recovery
11 105 (5.83%) Kalman Filter
11 105 (5.83%) Service Delivery
12 100 (5.55%) Web Filtering
13 99 (5.49%) DevOps
14 97 (5.38%) Customer Experience
14 97 (5.38%) Vulnerability Remediation
15 93 (5.16%) Coaching
15 93 (5.16%) Email Filtering
16 91 (5.05%) Vulnerability Scanning
Programming Languages
1 302 (16.76%) PowerShell
2 136 (7.55%) SQL
3 70 (3.88%) Python
4 34 (1.89%) Perl
5 33 (1.83%) Bash
6 31 (1.72%) Java
7 23 (1.28%) Groovy
8 20 (1.11%) PL/SQL
9 19 (1.05%) Shell Script
10 18 (1.00%) VB
11 15 (0.83%) JavaScript
12 13 (0.72%) C#
13 11 (0.61%) Bicep
14 7 (0.39%) Korn
14 7 (0.39%) T-SQL
15 5 (0.28%) VBA
16 2 (0.11%) Go
16 2 (0.11%) TypeScript
17 1 (0.055%) VB.NET
17 1 (0.055%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 241 (13.37%) Security Cleared
2 201 (11.15%) SC Cleared
3 174 (9.66%) Microsoft Certification
4 173 (9.60%) Degree
5 63 (3.50%) DV Cleared
6 51 (2.83%) A+ Certification
7 50 (2.77%) Azure Certification
8 46 (2.55%) Cisco Certification
9 43 (2.39%) DBS Check
10 40 (2.22%) CCNA
11 34 (1.89%) Network+ Certification
12 31 (1.72%) MCP
12 31 (1.72%) MCSE
13 24 (1.33%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 20 (1.11%) AWS Certification
15 19 (1.05%) ITIL Certification
16 18 (1.00%) MCSA
17 15 (0.83%) BPSS Clearance
17 15 (0.83%) HND
18 14 (0.78%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 124 (6.88%) Cyber Essentials
2 123 (6.83%) SLA
3 98 (5.44%) PCI DSS
4 64 (3.55%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 62 (3.44%) GDPR
6 17 (0.94%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 14 (0.78%) NIST
8 8 (0.44%) QA
9 7 (0.39%) GxP
10 6 (0.33%) NCSC
11 5 (0.28%) 21 CFR Part 11
11 5 (0.28%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 4 (0.22%) Accessibility
13 2 (0.11%) Disclosure Scotland
14 1 (0.055%) HIPAA
14 1 (0.055%) IASME
14 1 (0.055%) ISO 22301
System Software
1 374 (20.75%) Hyper-V
2 265 (14.71%) VMware Infrastructure
3 92 (5.11%) Terminal Server
4 51 (2.83%) vSphere
5 49 (2.72%) Virtual Desktop
6 37 (2.05%) Docker
7 32 (1.78%) VMware ESXi
8 31 (1.72%) Virtual Machines
9 17 (0.94%) Firmware
10 15 (0.83%) Virtual Servers
11 11 (0.61%) DFS Replication
12 7 (0.39%) Citrix Hypervisor
12 7 (0.39%) Terminal Services
13 6 (0.33%) XenApp
14 4 (0.22%) Microsoft Virtual Server
15 3 (0.17%) VMware NSX
15 3 (0.17%) VMware Workstation
16 2 (0.11%) BitLocker
17 1 (0.055%) Dovecot
17 1 (0.055%) KVM
Systems Management
1 413 (22.92%) Microsoft Intune
2 148 (8.21%) SCCM
3 71 (3.94%) Terraform
4 36 (2.00%) WSUS
5 34 (1.89%) Kubernetes
5 34 (1.89%) Single Sign-On
6 30 (1.66%) vCenter Server
7 29 (1.61%) Ansible
8 24 (1.33%) Autotask
9 23 (1.28%) Prometheus
10 22 (1.22%) SCOM
11 19 (1.05%) Grafana
12 18 (1.00%) FortiGate
13 15 (0.83%) Jamf Pro
14 13 (0.72%) Nagios
14 13 (0.72%) ZABBIX
15 11 (0.61%) Failover Clustering
16 8 (0.44%) Active Directory Federation Services
16 8 (0.44%) PaperCut
17 6 (0.33%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
Vendors
1 1,379 (76.53%) Microsoft
2 469 (26.03%) VMware
3 173 (9.60%) Veeam
4 162 (8.99%) Cisco
5 122 (6.77%) SolarWinds
6 98 (5.44%) Splunk
7 97 (5.38%) Tanium
8 94 (5.22%) Nimble Storage
9 88 (4.88%) Brocade
10 84 (4.66%) Apple
11 76 (4.22%) ServiceNow
12 61 (3.39%) Citrix
13 53 (2.94%) Oracle
14 50 (2.77%) Google
15 47 (2.61%) Meraki
16 46 (2.55%) HP
17 39 (2.16%) Dell
18 35 (1.94%) SonicWALL
18 35 (1.94%) Sophos
19 32 (1.78%) Red Hat