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 10 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
10 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 54 38 35
Rank change year-on-year -16 -3 -11
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 2,244 1,862 2,529
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 2.59% 5.39% 4.93%
As % of the System Software category 49.12% 45.16% 48.16%
Number of salaries quoted 1,601 1,372 1,473
10th Percentile £27,000 £26,050 £25,750
25th Percentile £29,750 £28,500 £30,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £37,500 £35,000 £40,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% -12.50% +6.67%
75th Percentile £50,000 £48,750 £52,500
90th Percentile £65,000 £62,500 £62,500
UK median annual salary £40,000 £37,500 £42,500
% change year-on-year +6.67% -11.76% +6.24%

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 4,568 4,123 5,251
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 5.28% 11.92% 10.23%
Number of salaries quoted 3,276 2,229 2,975
10th Percentile £28,500 £26,500 £27,750
25th Percentile £35,000 £30,750 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £42,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +17.65% -15.00% -
75th Percentile £67,625 £62,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £80,000 £76,250 £77,500
UK median annual salary £55,000 £49,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +12.24% -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 10 October 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 10 October 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 -4 526 £34,000 +4.62% 172
South East -19 520 £42,500 +13.33% 218
Midlands -36 376 £41,000 +17.14% 138
South West -35 293 £39,500 +21.54% 121
North West +67 292 £35,000 - 92
East of England -7 252 £35,000 +4.48% 91
West Midlands -30 194 £42,500 -3.95% 81
East Midlands -12 182 £38,600 +28.67% 57
Yorkshire -27 166 £32,000 +4.92% 62
Scotland +37 117 £32,500 +8.33% 53
Northern Ireland -6 111 £38,500 -26.67% 23
North East -66 68 £36,250 +16.94% 22
Wales -52 58 £37,500 -16.67% 16
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
1 675 (30.08%) Microsoft Exchange
2 509 (22.68%) SharePoint
3 52 (2.32%) IIS
4 16 (0.71%) Confluence
4 16 (0.71%) Skype for Business
5 9 (0.40%) Apache
6 3 (0.13%) nginx
6 3 (0.13%) SAS
7 1 (0.045%) HCL Domino
7 1 (0.045%) HCL Notes
7 1 (0.045%) SharePoint Server
7 1 (0.045%) Site Server
7 1 (0.045%) Tomcat
Applications
1 142 (6.33%) Microsoft Office
2 39 (1.74%) Microsoft Excel
3 8 (0.36%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.18%) Adobe Creative Suite
4 4 (0.18%) Notion
5 2 (0.089%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.045%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.045%) Revit
6 1 (0.045%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 9 (0.40%) Dynamics CRM
2 6 (0.27%) Dynamics NAV
2 6 (0.27%) NetSuite
2 6 (0.27%) Raiser’s Edge
2 6 (0.27%) Remedy ITSM
3 5 (0.22%) JDE EnterpriseOne
4 4 (0.18%) Payment Gateway
4 4 (0.18%) Shopify
5 3 (0.13%) Salesforce CRM
6 2 (0.089%) Sage 200
6 2 (0.089%) Teamcenter
7 1 (0.045%) Dynamics AX
7 1 (0.045%) Sage 50
7 1 (0.045%) SAP EHS
7 1 (0.045%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 1,544 (68.81%) Microsoft 365
2 1,226 (54.63%) Azure
3 1,082 (48.22%) Entra ID
4 193 (8.60%) OneDrive
5 138 (6.15%) AWS
6 89 (3.97%) SaaS
7 60 (2.67%) IaaS
8 58 (2.58%) Power Platform
9 52 (2.32%) Mimecast
10 44 (1.96%) Azure DevOps
11 43 (1.92%) Google Workspace
11 43 (1.92%) Microsoft Purview
12 40 (1.78%) Azure Sentinel
13 36 (1.60%) Power Automate
14 35 (1.56%) PaaS
15 33 (1.47%) Serverless
16 27 (1.20%) Azure Monitor
17 26 (1.16%) Azure ExpressRoute
18 22 (0.98%) Dynamics 365
19 21 (0.94%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 747 (33.29%) DNS
2 641 (28.57%) DHCP
3 550 (24.51%) Firewall
4 412 (18.36%) VPN
5 312 (13.90%) TCP/IP
6 243 (10.83%) VLAN
7 230 (10.25%) Wi-Fi
8 201 (8.96%) WAN
9 200 (8.91%) LAN
10 159 (7.09%) Wireless
11 140 (6.24%) VoIP
12 93 (4.14%) Network Security
13 66 (2.94%) SAN
14 41 (1.83%) SSL
15 35 (1.56%) Remote Desktop
16 28 (1.25%) Internet
17 26 (1.16%) NAS
18 22 (0.98%) WLAN
19 20 (0.89%) Cisco IOS
20 17 (0.76%) Structured Cabling
Database & Business Intelligence
1 109 (4.86%) SQL Server
2 88 (3.92%) Amazon RDS
3 30 (1.34%) Azure SQL Database
4 16 (0.71%) MySQL
5 15 (0.67%) Power BI
6 11 (0.49%) Relational Database
7 9 (0.40%) PostgreSQL
8 6 (0.27%) Crystal Reports
9 4 (0.18%) Data Warehouse
10 3 (0.13%) Data Lake
10 3 (0.13%) Oracle Database
11 2 (0.089%) BusinessObjects
11 2 (0.089%) KNIME
12 1 (0.045%) Elasticsearch
12 1 (0.045%) Geospatial Data
12 1 (0.045%) Neo4j
12 1 (0.045%) NoSQL
12 1 (0.045%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 1 (0.045%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 1 (0.045%) SSDT
Development Applications
1 54 (2.41%) JIRA
2 33 (1.47%) Git
3 9 (0.40%) Jenkins
4 6 (0.27%) Bitbucket
5 5 (0.22%) GitLab
6 2 (0.089%) Artifactory
6 2 (0.089%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 2 (0.089%) Burp Suite
6 2 (0.089%) git-flow
6 2 (0.089%) Metasploit
6 2 (0.089%) NUnit
6 2 (0.089%) Terragrunt
7 1 (0.045%) Carbide.c++
7 1 (0.045%) Flyway
7 1 (0.045%) Ranorex
7 1 (0.045%) Selenium
7 1 (0.045%) Sonatype Nexus
7 1 (0.045%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 1,119 (49.87%) Social Skills
2 302 (13.46%) Analytical Skills
3 135 (6.02%) Legal
4 123 (5.48%) Finance
5 85 (3.79%) Manufacturing
6 84 (3.74%) Organisational Skills
7 76 (3.39%) Law
8 73 (3.25%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 63 (2.81%) Public Sector
10 55 (2.45%) Retail
11 51 (2.27%) Aerospace
12 41 (1.83%) Telecoms
13 36 (1.60%) Documentation Skills
14 20 (0.89%) Advertising
15 12 (0.53%) Automotive
16 11 (0.49%) Influencing Skills
17 10 (0.45%) Games
17 10 (0.45%) Local Government
18 7 (0.31%) Aviation
19 5 (0.22%) Italian Language
Job Titles
1 833 (37.12%) IT Support
2 534 (23.80%) IT Engineer
3 527 (23.48%) Support Engineer
4 431 (19.21%) IT Support Engineer
5 406 (18.09%) Analyst
6 287 (12.79%) Senior
7 234 (10.43%) Support Analyst
8 231 (10.29%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 206 (9.18%) IT Technician
10 203 (9.05%) Support Technician
11 181 (8.07%) IT Support Technician
12 175 (7.80%) IT Analyst
13 155 (6.91%) IT Support Analyst
14 143 (6.37%) Systems Engineer
15 139 (6.19%) 2nd Line Support
16 106 (4.72%) 2nd Line Engineer
17 99 (4.41%) Architect
18 89 (3.97%) Administrator
19 87 (3.88%) 3rd Line Support
20 84 (3.74%) 1st Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 76 (3.39%) Terraform
2 63 (2.81%) LDAP
3 40 (1.78%) SAML
4 33 (1.47%) OpenID
5 31 (1.38%) OAuth
6 26 (1.16%) .NET
7 17 (0.76%) Microsoft Graph
8 16 (0.71%) Regular Expression
8 16 (0.71%) REST
9 15 (0.67%) ModSecurity
10 14 (0.62%) SailPoint
11 13 (0.58%) XMPP
12 12 (0.53%) ARM Templates
12 12 (0.53%) ASP.NET Web Forms
12 12 (0.53%) WinForms
13 11 (0.49%) HTML
14 9 (0.40%) OAuth2
15 8 (0.36%) Web Services
16 7 (0.31%) Middleware
16 7 (0.31%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 324 (14.44%) Driving Licence
2 200 (8.91%) Onboarding
3 117 (5.21%) Self-Motivation
4 84 (3.74%) Legacy Systems
5 76 (3.39%) Hybrid Cloud
6 66 (2.94%) Management Information System
7 63 (2.81%) Data Centre
8 53 (2.36%) PKI
9 51 (2.27%) Security Posture
10 50 (2.23%) Enterprise Software
11 40 (1.78%) Replication
12 39 (1.74%) Cloud Native
12 39 (1.74%) Clustering
13 30 (1.34%) iPhone
14 29 (1.29%) CCTV
15 22 (0.98%) Public Cloud
16 21 (0.94%) iPad
17 19 (0.85%) Enterprise Storage
17 19 (0.85%) Video Conferencing
18 16 (0.71%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 1,588 (70.77%) Windows
2 916 (40.82%) Windows Server
3 256 (11.41%) Linux
4 246 (10.96%) Windows 10
5 153 (6.82%) Windows Server 2016
6 125 (5.57%) Mac OS
7 82 (3.65%) Windows Server 2019
8 73 (3.25%) Apple iOS
9 61 (2.72%) Android
10 29 (1.29%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 28 (1.25%) Ubuntu
12 23 (1.02%) VMS
13 19 (0.85%) Windows Server 2012
14 8 (0.36%) Debian
14 8 (0.36%) Rocky
15 7 (0.31%) CentOS
16 5 (0.22%) CoreOS
17 4 (0.18%) Windows 7
18 2 (0.089%) Mac OS X
18 2 (0.089%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 900 (40.11%) Problem-Solving
2 577 (25.71%) Customer Service
3 503 (22.42%) Cybersecurity
4 467 (20.81%) ITIL
5 461 (20.54%) Continuous Improvement
6 390 (17.38%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 285 (12.70%) Disaster Recovery
8 268 (11.94%) Mentoring
9 249 (11.10%) Identity Access Management
10 228 (10.16%) ITSM
11 206 (9.18%) Migration
12 205 (9.14%) Project Delivery
13 174 (7.75%) Service Delivery
14 169 (7.53%) Service Management
15 146 (6.51%) Collaborative Working
16 145 (6.46%) Information Security
17 144 (6.42%) Customer Experience
18 134 (5.97%) AI
18 134 (5.97%) Vulnerability Remediation
19 129 (5.75%) Identity Management
Programming Languages
1 353 (15.73%) PowerShell
2 188 (8.38%) SQL
3 65 (2.90%) Python
4 53 (2.36%) Bash
5 50 (2.23%) Bicep
6 29 (1.29%) Ruby
7 21 (0.94%) C#
8 18 (0.80%) R
9 16 (0.71%) Kusto Query Language
10 12 (0.53%) VBA
11 7 (0.31%) Java
11 7 (0.31%) T-SQL
12 5 (0.22%) Shell Script
13 4 (0.18%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 4 (0.18%) JavaScript
13 4 (0.18%) TypeScript
13 4 (0.18%) VB.NET
14 3 (0.13%) PHP
14 3 (0.13%) VB
14 3 (0.13%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 305 (13.59%) Security Cleared
2 202 (9.00%) SC Cleared
3 197 (8.78%) Microsoft Certification
4 194 (8.65%) Degree
5 133 (5.93%) Azure Certification
6 121 (5.39%) A+ Certification
7 103 (4.59%) Network+ Certification
8 88 (3.92%) DV Cleared
9 78 (3.48%) CISM
9 78 (3.48%) CISSP
10 69 (3.07%) Cisco Certification
11 66 (2.94%) DBS Check
12 52 (2.32%) CCNA
13 29 (1.29%) BPSS Clearance
13 29 (1.29%) CompTIA Security+
14 25 (1.11%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
15 20 (0.89%) Microsoft Certified Professional
16 18 (0.80%) AWS Certification
16 18 (0.80%) MCSA
17 16 (0.71%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 214 (9.54%) Cyber Essentials
2 122 (5.44%) SLA
3 114 (5.08%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 83 (3.70%) PCI DSS
5 53 (2.36%) GDPR
6 40 (1.78%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 34 (1.52%) NIST
8 20 (0.89%) QA
9 18 (0.80%) Accessibility
10 13 (0.58%) NCSC
11 12 (0.53%) Data Quality
12 4 (0.18%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 4 (0.18%) SOC 2
13 3 (0.13%) ISAE 3402
14 1 (0.045%) ISO/IEC 20000
14 1 (0.045%) ISO/IEC 42001
14 1 (0.045%) PMO
14 1 (0.045%) SOC 1
System Software
1 505 (22.50%) Hyper-V
2 411 (18.32%) VMware Infrastructure
3 88 (3.92%) vSphere
4 82 (3.65%) Virtual Desktop
5 72 (3.21%) Terminal Server
6 64 (2.85%) Virtual Machines
7 33 (1.47%) VMware ESXi
8 25 (1.11%) Virtual Servers
9 22 (0.98%) Docker
9 22 (0.98%) Firmware
10 13 (0.58%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 10 (0.45%) BitLocker
11 10 (0.45%) NDS
12 8 (0.36%) VMware NSX
13 5 (0.22%) Citrix Hypervisor
13 5 (0.22%) DFS Replication
14 4 (0.18%) Squid
15 3 (0.13%) NFS
15 3 (0.13%) Slurm Workload Manager
15 3 (0.13%) VMware Server
Systems Management
1 627 (27.94%) Microsoft Intune
2 100 (4.46%) SCCM
3 63 (2.81%) Single Sign-On
4 37 (1.65%) FortiGate
4 37 (1.65%) Jamf Pro
5 31 (1.38%) Ansible
6 29 (1.29%) Kubernetes
7 25 (1.11%) WSUS
8 24 (1.07%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
9 21 (0.94%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 16 (0.71%) Failover Clustering
10 16 (0.71%) Proxmox
11 14 (0.62%) ZABBIX
12 13 (0.58%) vCenter Server
13 11 (0.49%) Microsoft Clustering
14 10 (0.45%) Autotask
15 8 (0.36%) SCVMM
16 6 (0.27%) Backup Exec
16 6 (0.27%) Graylog
16 6 (0.27%) SCOM
Vendors
1 1,893 (84.36%) Microsoft
2 601 (26.78%) VMware
3 216 (9.63%) Veeam
4 213 (9.49%) Cisco
5 112 (4.99%) Meraki
6 99 (4.41%) SolarWinds
7 85 (3.79%) Splunk
8 81 (3.61%) CyberArk
9 79 (3.52%) Apple
10 75 (3.34%) Nimble Storage
11 72 (3.21%) Brocade
11 72 (3.21%) Tanium
12 67 (2.99%) Fortinet
13 62 (2.76%) SonicWALL
14 57 (2.54%) Citrix
14 57 (2.54%) ServiceNow
15 50 (2.23%) Google
16 48 (2.14%) Palo Alto
17 46 (2.05%) HP
18 43 (1.92%) Okta