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

6 months to
27 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 36 37 21
Rank change year-on-year +1 -16 +25
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 1,825 2,362 2,644
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 4.88% 5.03% 9.03%
As % of the System Software category 58.68% 46.21% 49.93%
Number of salaries quoted 1,381 1,418 2,375
10th Percentile £26,250 £25,925 £25,500
25th Percentile £28,500 £30,000 £29,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £35,000 £40,000 £37,500
Median % change year-on-year -12.50% +6.67% +1.35%
75th Percentile £48,750 £53,000 £51,500
90th Percentile £64,473 £61,900 £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 3,110 5,112 5,295
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 8.32% 10.89% 18.09%
Number of salaries quoted 2,256 2,886 4,425
10th Percentile £26,500 £28,000 £27,000
25th Percentile £30,500 £36,000 £33,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,625 £50,000 £47,557
Median % change year-on-year -14.75% +5.14% -4.89%
75th Percentile £62,500 £65,625 £63,750
90th Percentile £77,500 £80,000 £77,500
UK median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -9.09% - -

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 27 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 27 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 +11 498 £37,500 -13.79% 286
North of England -16 372 £32,500 -23.53% 118
Midlands +8 315 £32,500 -18.75% 109
South West +5 312 £33,000 -8.33% 76
East of England -9 208 £35,000 +1.81% 83
Yorkshire -7 170 £31,250 -26.90% 46
East Midlands +24 164 £28,750 -17.86% 46
West Midlands -9 151 £47,500 +18.75% 63
North West -18 142 £35,000 -17.65% 65
Scotland -24 78 £30,000 -24.48% 22
North East +4 60 £31,000 -17.33% 7
Wales +2 45 £35,000 +2.94% 16
Northern Ireland +6 13 £55,000 +4.76% 7
Channel Islands -1 1 £45,000 -10.00%
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
1 567 (31.07%) Microsoft Exchange
2 309 (16.93%) SharePoint
3 34 (1.86%) IIS
4 30 (1.64%) Confluence
5 26 (1.42%) Exchange Server 2003
6 17 (0.93%) Skype for Business
7 6 (0.33%) CMS
8 5 (0.27%) Exchange Server 2013
8 5 (0.27%) Tomcat
9 3 (0.16%) Exchange Server 2007
9 3 (0.16%) Exchange Server 2010
9 3 (0.16%) WebLogic
9 3 (0.16%) WebLogic Portal
10 2 (0.11%) BizTalk Server
10 2 (0.11%) FactoryTalk
10 2 (0.11%) WinCC
10 2 (0.11%) WordPress
11 1 (0.055%) Office Communications Server
11 1 (0.055%) Oracle Workflow
11 1 (0.055%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 226 (12.38%) Microsoft Office
2 31 (1.70%) Microsoft Excel
3 7 (0.38%) 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 (1.70%) Dynamics CRM
2 15 (0.82%) Oracle ERP
3 6 (0.33%) Remedy ITSM
4 5 (0.27%) Sage 200
5 4 (0.22%) NetSuite
5 4 (0.22%) Visualfiles
6 3 (0.16%) Oracle EBS
6 3 (0.16%) 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%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 1,280 (70.14%) Microsoft 365
2 982 (53.81%) Azure
3 543 (29.75%) Entra ID
4 154 (8.44%) AWS
5 102 (5.59%) OneDrive
6 74 (4.05%) SaaS
7 56 (3.07%) Power Platform
8 52 (2.85%) IaaS
9 48 (2.63%) PaaS
10 39 (2.14%) GCP
10 39 (2.14%) PowerApps
11 33 (1.81%) Azure Logic Apps
12 31 (1.70%) Azure DevOps
12 31 (1.70%) Google Workspace
13 29 (1.59%) Amazon EC2
14 26 (1.42%) Azure Monitor
15 25 (1.37%) Amazon CloudWatch
15 25 (1.37%) GitHub
16 24 (1.32%) Azure Sentinel
16 24 (1.32%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 665 (36.44%) DNS
2 614 (33.64%) DHCP
3 469 (25.70%) Firewall
4 288 (15.78%) TCP/IP
5 245 (13.42%) VPN
6 185 (10.14%) VLAN
7 174 (9.53%) LAN
8 169 (9.26%) WAN
9 133 (7.29%) Wi-Fi
10 96 (5.26%) Wireless
11 92 (5.04%) VoIP
12 89 (4.88%) SAN
13 56 (3.07%) Remote Desktop
14 41 (2.25%) Internet
15 33 (1.81%) Network Security
16 29 (1.59%) SD-WAN
17 25 (1.37%) SMTP
18 20 (1.10%) SSL
19 18 (0.99%) Kerberos
20 17 (0.93%) iSCSI
Database & Business Intelligence
1 143 (7.84%) Amazon RDS
2 85 (4.66%) SQL Server
3 29 (1.59%) Oracle Database
4 26 (1.42%) Oracle Database 10g
5 19 (1.04%) Power BI
6 14 (0.77%) MySQL
7 12 (0.66%) Azure SQL Database
8 9 (0.49%) DTS
9 8 (0.44%) PostgreSQL
10 6 (0.33%) Relational Database
10 6 (0.33%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 6 (0.33%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 3 (0.16%) Data Mining
11 3 (0.16%) Data Warehouse
11 3 (0.16%) Oracle Discoverer
11 3 (0.16%) 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 67 (3.67%) JIRA
2 46 (2.52%) Git
3 44 (2.41%) Jenkins
4 22 (1.21%) Vagrant
5 18 (0.99%) Oracle Forms
6 5 (0.27%) GitLab
6 5 (0.27%) Sonatype Nexus
7 3 (0.16%) Oracle APEX
8 2 (0.11%) Octopus Deploy
8 2 (0.11%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
8 2 (0.11%) Subversion
8 2 (0.11%) TeamCity
8 2 (0.11%) Visual Studio
9 1 (0.055%) Artifactory
General
1 903 (49.48%) Social Skills
2 194 (10.63%) Analytical Skills
3 121 (6.63%) Finance
4 111 (6.08%) Manufacturing
5 95 (5.21%) Organisational Skills
6 74 (4.05%) Retail
7 67 (3.67%) Law
8 49 (2.68%) Documentation Skills
9 46 (2.52%) Public Sector
10 45 (2.47%) Advertising
11 42 (2.30%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 38 (2.08%) Legal
13 35 (1.92%) Telecoms
14 18 (0.99%) Marketing
15 16 (0.88%) Aerospace
16 15 (0.82%) French Language
16 15 (0.82%) Swedish Language
17 13 (0.71%) Pharmaceutical
18 11 (0.60%) Automotive
19 10 (0.55%) Games
Job Titles
1 617 (33.81%) IT Support
2 432 (23.67%) Support Engineer
3 293 (16.05%) Analyst
4 290 (15.89%) IT Engineer
5 238 (13.04%) IT Support Engineer
6 210 (11.51%) Support Analyst
7 201 (11.01%) 2nd Line Support
8 191 (10.47%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 161 (8.82%) IT Analyst
10 139 (7.62%) Support Technician
11 132 (7.23%) Systems Engineer
12 131 (7.18%) Technical Support
13 126 (6.90%) IT Support Analyst
14 121 (6.63%) Senior
15 119 (6.52%) 3rd Line Support
16 113 (6.19%) IT Technician
17 97 (5.32%) 1st Line Support
18 87 (4.77%) IT Support Technician
19 78 (4.27%) Infrastructure Support
20 73 (4.00%) Technical Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (1.64%) LDAP
2 25 (1.37%) .NET
3 20 (1.10%) SOAP
4 18 (0.99%) RESTful
5 15 (0.82%) ARM Templates
5 15 (0.82%) JSON
5 15 (0.82%) XML
6 13 (0.71%) EDI
7 12 (0.66%) React
7 12 (0.66%) SAML
8 11 (0.60%) OAuth
8 11 (0.60%) OpenID
9 10 (0.55%) CSS
9 10 (0.55%) HTML
10 9 (0.49%) .NET Framework
10 9 (0.49%) Web Services
11 6 (0.33%) 802.1X
11 6 (0.33%) OAuth2
12 5 (0.27%) Microsoft Graph
12 5 (0.27%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 263 (14.41%) Driving Licence
2 181 (9.92%) Onboarding
3 96 (5.26%) Legacy Systems
4 81 (4.44%) Self-Motivation
5 51 (2.79%) Data Centre
6 49 (2.68%) Enterprise Software
7 40 (2.19%) Management Information System
8 38 (2.08%) Cloud Native
9 36 (1.97%) PKI
10 28 (1.53%) Hybrid Cloud
10 28 (1.53%) Replication
11 23 (1.26%) Clustering
12 16 (0.88%) Analytical Mindset
12 16 (0.88%) Client/Server
12 16 (0.88%) Security Posture
13 15 (0.82%) FMCG
13 15 (0.82%) iPad
13 15 (0.82%) Product Ownership
13 15 (0.82%) Video Conferencing
14 14 (0.77%) Cyber Threat
Operating Systems
1 1,349 (73.92%) Windows
2 828 (45.37%) Windows Server
3 288 (15.78%) Windows 10
4 251 (13.75%) Linux
5 154 (8.44%) Windows Server 2016
6 124 (6.79%) Windows Server 2019
7 119 (6.52%) Mac OS
8 61 (3.34%) Apple iOS
9 45 (2.47%) Android
10 38 (2.08%) Unix
10 38 (2.08%) VMS
11 35 (1.92%) Windows Server 2008
12 31 (1.70%) Windows 7
13 27 (1.48%) Windows Server 2003
14 26 (1.42%) Solaris
15 25 (1.37%) HPUX
16 24 (1.32%) Windows Server 2012
17 22 (1.21%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
18 12 (0.66%) Amazon Linux
19 8 (0.44%) Rocky
Processes & Methodologies
1 637 (34.90%) Problem-Solving
2 563 (30.85%) Customer Service
3 354 (19.40%) ITIL
4 247 (13.53%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 239 (13.10%) Cybersecurity
6 189 (10.36%) Continuous Improvement
7 182 (9.97%) Mentoring
8 163 (8.93%) Migration
9 161 (8.82%) ITSM
10 122 (6.68%) Incident Management
11 110 (6.03%) Service Delivery
12 109 (5.97%) Kalman Filter
13 107 (5.86%) Disaster Recovery
14 103 (5.64%) Web Filtering
15 98 (5.37%) Vulnerability Remediation
16 97 (5.32%) Customer Experience
16 97 (5.32%) DevOps
17 94 (5.15%) Email Filtering
18 92 (5.04%) Coaching
19 91 (4.99%) Vulnerability Scanning
Programming Languages
1 311 (17.04%) PowerShell
2 139 (7.62%) SQL
3 71 (3.89%) Python
4 34 (1.86%) Bash
4 34 (1.86%) Perl
5 29 (1.59%) Java
6 26 (1.42%) Groovy
7 18 (0.99%) PL/SQL
7 18 (0.99%) VB
8 17 (0.93%) Shell Script
9 15 (0.82%) JavaScript
10 13 (0.71%) C#
11 11 (0.60%) Bicep
12 8 (0.44%) Korn
13 7 (0.38%) T-SQL
14 5 (0.27%) VBA
15 2 (0.11%) Go
15 2 (0.11%) TypeScript
16 1 (0.055%) VB.NET
16 1 (0.055%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 247 (13.53%) Security Cleared
2 207 (11.34%) SC Cleared
3 180 (9.86%) Microsoft Certification
4 177 (9.70%) Degree
5 64 (3.51%) DV Cleared
6 52 (2.85%) A+ Certification
7 51 (2.79%) Azure Certification
8 47 (2.58%) Cisco Certification
9 43 (2.36%) DBS Check
10 41 (2.25%) CCNA
11 34 (1.86%) Network+ Certification
12 32 (1.75%) MCP
12 32 (1.75%) MCSE
13 24 (1.32%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 20 (1.10%) MCSA
15 19 (1.04%) AWS Certification
16 18 (0.99%) ITIL Certification
17 16 (0.88%) HND
18 15 (0.82%) BPSS Clearance
18 15 (0.82%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 125 (6.85%) Cyber Essentials
2 122 (6.68%) SLA
3 98 (5.37%) PCI DSS
4 67 (3.67%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 65 (3.56%) GDPR
6 18 (0.99%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 14 (0.77%) NIST
8 7 (0.38%) GxP
8 7 (0.38%) QA
9 6 (0.33%) NCSC
10 5 (0.27%) 21 CFR Part 11
10 5 (0.27%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 4 (0.22%) Accessibility
12 2 (0.11%) Disclosure Scotland
13 1 (0.055%) HIPAA
13 1 (0.055%) IASME
13 1 (0.055%) ISO 22301
System Software
1 387 (21.21%) Hyper-V
2 274 (15.01%) VMware Infrastructure
3 92 (5.04%) Terminal Server
4 53 (2.90%) vSphere
5 50 (2.74%) Virtual Desktop
6 38 (2.08%) Docker
7 33 (1.81%) VMware ESXi
8 32 (1.75%) Virtual Machines
9 17 (0.93%) Firmware
10 15 (0.82%) Virtual Servers
11 14 (0.77%) DFS Replication
12 8 (0.44%) Citrix Hypervisor
12 8 (0.44%) XenApp
13 7 (0.38%) Terminal Services
14 4 (0.22%) Microsoft Virtual Server
15 3 (0.16%) VMware NSX
15 3 (0.16%) VMware Workstation
16 2 (0.11%) BitLocker
17 1 (0.055%) KVM
17 1 (0.055%) Postfix
Systems Management
1 423 (23.18%) Microsoft Intune
2 151 (8.27%) SCCM
3 72 (3.95%) Terraform
4 37 (2.03%) WSUS
5 35 (1.92%) Kubernetes
6 33 (1.81%) Ansible
7 31 (1.70%) Single Sign-On
8 30 (1.64%) vCenter Server
9 26 (1.42%) Prometheus
10 25 (1.37%) Autotask
11 22 (1.21%) Grafana
11 22 (1.21%) SCOM
12 19 (1.04%) FortiGate
13 18 (0.99%) Jamf Pro
14 13 (0.71%) Nagios
14 13 (0.71%) ZABBIX
15 11 (0.60%) Failover Clustering
16 8 (0.44%) PaperCut
17 7 (0.38%) Active Directory Federation Services
18 6 (0.33%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
Vendors
1 1,400 (76.71%) Microsoft
2 481 (26.36%) VMware
3 178 (9.75%) Veeam
4 164 (8.99%) Cisco
5 122 (6.68%) SolarWinds
6 99 (5.42%) Splunk
7 97 (5.32%) Tanium
8 94 (5.15%) Nimble Storage
9 88 (4.82%) Brocade
10 85 (4.66%) Apple
11 81 (4.44%) ServiceNow
12 63 (3.45%) Citrix
13 53 (2.90%) Google
14 51 (2.79%) Oracle
15 48 (2.63%) Meraki
16 47 (2.58%) HP
17 42 (2.30%) Dell
18 37 (2.03%) SonicWALL
18 37 (2.03%) Sophos
19 33 (1.81%) Red Hat