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

6 months to
10 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 54 39 37
Rank change year-on-year -15 -2 -5
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 2,166 1,901 3,134
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 2.82% 5.49% 5.27%
As % of the System Software category 50.38% 43.30% 51.52%
Number of salaries quoted 1,668 1,521 2,367
10th Percentile £26,750 £26,000 £24,750
25th Percentile £29,500 £28,250 £28,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £37,500 £35,000 £37,500
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% -6.67% +2.74%
75th Percentile £50,000 £47,500 £50,000
90th Percentile £65,000 £61,250 £59,875
UK median annual salary £40,000 £37,500 £40,000
% change year-on-year +6.67% -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 4,299 4,390 6,083
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 5.59% 12.68% 10.23%
Number of salaries quoted 3,239 2,569 4,507
10th Percentile £28,500 £26,500 £26,250
25th Percentile £33,750 £31,250 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £42,500 £46,958
Median % change year-on-year +17.65% -9.49% -3.18%
75th Percentile £67,500 £62,500 £61,250
90th Percentile £80,000 £77,500 £73,750
UK median annual salary £55,000 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +10.00% - -10.71%

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 August 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 August 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
South East -9 509 £42,500 +6.25% 207
North of England -9 505 £34,000 +9.68% 167
Midlands -31 371 £38,000 +8.57% 93
South West -17 295 £37,500 +8.70% 100
North West +59 268 £35,000 - 109
East of England -2 244 £35,750 +6.72% 76
East Midlands -8 197 £37,500 +19.05% 38
Yorkshire -36 179 £31,000 +3.33% 43
West Midlands -39 174 £42,500 +11.84% 55
Scotland +79 109 £31,000 - 42
Wales -16 71 £42,500 +11.57% 13
Northern Ireland -13 65 £40,000 -27.27% 12
North East -60 58 £40,000 +29.03% 21
Isle of Man 0 4 £45,000 +30.43%
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
1 645 (29.78%) Microsoft Exchange
2 461 (21.28%) SharePoint
3 50 (2.31%) IIS
4 19 (0.88%) Confluence
5 11 (0.51%) Skype for Business
6 7 (0.32%) Apache
7 5 (0.23%) Exchange Server 2013
8 3 (0.14%) CMS
8 3 (0.14%) Exchange Server 2007
8 3 (0.14%) Exchange Server 2010
8 3 (0.14%) nginx
8 3 (0.14%) SAS
9 1 (0.046%) Drupal
9 1 (0.046%) HCL Domino
9 1 (0.046%) HCL Notes
9 1 (0.046%) Site Server
9 1 (0.046%) WordPress
Applications
1 162 (7.48%) Microsoft Office
2 44 (2.03%) Microsoft Excel
3 16 (0.74%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.18%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 3 (0.14%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.092%) MS Visio
7 1 (0.046%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.046%) Revit
Business Applications
1 16 (0.74%) Dynamics CRM
2 10 (0.46%) Dynamics NAV
3 9 (0.42%) Remedy ITSM
4 6 (0.28%) Raiser’s Edge
5 5 (0.23%) JDE EnterpriseOne
6 4 (0.18%) Exchequer
6 4 (0.18%) NetSuite
6 4 (0.18%) Payment Gateway
6 4 (0.18%) Primavera
6 4 (0.18%) Shopify
7 3 (0.14%) Dynamics GP
7 3 (0.14%) Salesforce CRM
8 2 (0.092%) Sage 200
8 2 (0.092%) SAP S/4HANA
8 2 (0.092%) Teamcenter
9 1 (0.046%) Dynamics AX
9 1 (0.046%) Magento
9 1 (0.046%) Oracle Payables
9 1 (0.046%) Sage 50
9 1 (0.046%) SAP EHS
Cloud Services
1 1,502 (69.34%) Microsoft 365
2 1,222 (56.42%) Azure
3 943 (43.54%) Entra ID
4 161 (7.43%) AWS
5 157 (7.25%) OneDrive
6 107 (4.94%) SaaS
7 77 (3.55%) Power Platform
8 69 (3.19%) IaaS
9 62 (2.86%) Mimecast
10 54 (2.49%) PaaS
11 48 (2.22%) Azure DevOps
12 39 (1.80%) Microsoft Purview
13 36 (1.66%) Azure Sentinel
14 30 (1.39%) Power Automate
14 30 (1.39%) Serverless
15 28 (1.29%) Azure Monitor
16 27 (1.25%) GCP
16 27 (1.25%) Google Workspace
17 26 (1.20%) PowerApps
18 22 (1.02%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 704 (32.50%) DNS
2 585 (27.01%) DHCP
3 522 (24.10%) Firewall
4 365 (16.85%) VPN
5 254 (11.73%) TCP/IP
6 212 (9.79%) Wi-Fi
7 206 (9.51%) WAN
8 201 (9.28%) VLAN
9 200 (9.23%) LAN
10 132 (6.09%) Wireless
11 129 (5.96%) VoIP
12 87 (4.02%) Network Security
13 82 (3.79%) SAN
14 49 (2.26%) Remote Desktop
15 29 (1.34%) Internet
15 29 (1.34%) NAS
16 27 (1.25%) SSL
17 17 (0.78%) WLAN
18 16 (0.74%) Structured Cabling
18 16 (0.74%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 105 (4.85%) SQL Server
2 100 (4.62%) Amazon RDS
3 32 (1.48%) Azure SQL Database
3 32 (1.48%) Power BI
4 22 (1.02%) PostgreSQL
5 21 (0.97%) MySQL
6 6 (0.28%) Crystal Reports
6 6 (0.28%) Relational Database
7 5 (0.23%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 4 (0.18%) Data Warehouse
8 4 (0.18%) Neo4j
9 3 (0.14%) Oracle Database
10 2 (0.092%) BusinessObjects
10 2 (0.092%) Data Lake
10 2 (0.092%) GIS
10 2 (0.092%) KNIME
10 2 (0.092%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 1 (0.046%) InterSystems Cache
11 1 (0.046%) RDBMS
11 1 (0.046%) Redis
Development Applications
1 76 (3.51%) JIRA
2 28 (1.29%) Git
3 9 (0.42%) Jenkins
4 6 (0.28%) Bitbucket
4 6 (0.28%) GitLab
5 2 (0.092%) Artifactory
5 2 (0.092%) Atlassian Bamboo
5 2 (0.092%) Burp Suite
5 2 (0.092%) git-flow
5 2 (0.092%) Metasploit
5 2 (0.092%) NUnit
5 2 (0.092%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
5 2 (0.092%) Terragrunt
6 1 (0.046%) Carbide.c++
6 1 (0.046%) JMeter
6 1 (0.046%) Ranorex
6 1 (0.046%) Selenium
6 1 (0.046%) Subversion
6 1 (0.046%) Team Foundation Server
6 1 (0.046%) Vagrant
General
1 978 (45.15%) Social Skills
2 251 (11.59%) Analytical Skills
3 145 (6.69%) Legal
4 131 (6.05%) Finance
5 87 (4.02%) Law
6 84 (3.88%) Organisational Skills
7 77 (3.55%) Manufacturing
8 74 (3.42%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 63 (2.91%) Public Sector
10 58 (2.68%) Retail
11 47 (2.17%) Telecoms
12 44 (2.03%) Documentation Skills
13 30 (1.39%) Advertising
14 27 (1.25%) Aerospace
15 15 (0.69%) Local Government
16 14 (0.65%) Automotive
17 9 (0.42%) Influencing Skills
18 8 (0.37%) Games
19 6 (0.28%) Banking
20 5 (0.23%) Portuguese Language
Job Titles
1 779 (35.96%) IT Support
2 535 (24.70%) Support Engineer
3 506 (23.36%) IT Engineer
4 417 (19.25%) IT Support Engineer
5 349 (16.11%) Analyst
6 261 (12.05%) Senior
7 223 (10.30%) Support Analyst
8 211 (9.74%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 199 (9.19%) IT Technician
10 198 (9.14%) Support Technician
11 175 (8.08%) IT Support Technician
12 162 (7.48%) Systems Engineer
13 147 (6.79%) 2nd Line Support
14 144 (6.65%) IT Analyst
15 128 (5.91%) IT Support Analyst
16 94 (4.34%) Architect
17 91 (4.20%) 2nd Line Engineer
18 84 (3.88%) 3rd Line Support
18 84 (3.88%) Administrator
19 76 (3.51%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 45 (2.08%) LDAP
2 28 (1.29%) SAML
3 24 (1.11%) OpenID
4 23 (1.06%) Regular Expression
5 22 (1.02%) OAuth
6 19 (0.88%) XMPP
7 11 (0.51%) .NET
7 11 (0.51%) ARM Templates
7 11 (0.51%) Microsoft Graph
7 11 (0.51%) REST
8 10 (0.46%) HTML
9 9 (0.42%) ModSecurity
10 8 (0.37%) JSON
10 8 (0.37%) Web Services
10 8 (0.37%) XML
11 7 (0.32%) JSON Schema
11 7 (0.32%) OAuth2
12 6 (0.28%) Middleware
13 5 (0.23%) ODBC
13 5 (0.23%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 301 (13.90%) Driving Licence
2 176 (8.13%) Onboarding
3 122 (5.63%) Self-Motivation
4 95 (4.39%) Legacy Systems
5 83 (3.83%) Hybrid Cloud
6 70 (3.23%) Data Centre
7 67 (3.09%) Management Information System
8 49 (2.26%) PKI
9 47 (2.17%) Clustering
10 41 (1.89%) Cloud Native
10 41 (1.89%) Security Posture
11 40 (1.85%) Enterprise Software
12 37 (1.71%) Public Cloud
13 35 (1.62%) CCTV
13 35 (1.62%) Replication
14 19 (0.88%) CMDB
15 16 (0.74%) Client/Server
15 16 (0.74%) Enterprise Storage
15 16 (0.74%) Social Media
16 15 (0.69%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 1,545 (71.33%) Windows
2 898 (41.46%) Windows Server
3 296 (13.67%) Windows 10
4 279 (12.88%) Linux
5 159 (7.34%) Windows Server 2016
6 150 (6.93%) Mac OS
7 87 (4.02%) Windows Server 2019
8 78 (3.60%) Apple iOS
9 63 (2.91%) Android
10 44 (2.03%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 23 (1.06%) VMS
12 19 (0.88%) Windows Server 2012
13 17 (0.78%) Ubuntu
14 8 (0.37%) CentOS
14 8 (0.37%) Windows 7
15 7 (0.32%) Windows Server 2008
16 5 (0.23%) CoreOS
16 5 (0.23%) Debian
17 4 (0.18%) Mac OS X
17 4 (0.18%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 733 (33.84%) Problem-Solving
2 530 (24.47%) Customer Service
3 496 (22.90%) ITIL
4 420 (19.39%) Continuous Improvement
5 406 (18.74%) Cybersecurity
6 330 (15.24%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 263 (12.14%) Mentoring
8 257 (11.87%) Disaster Recovery
9 206 (9.51%) ITSM
10 185 (8.54%) Project Delivery
11 184 (8.49%) Service Delivery
12 171 (7.89%) Identity Access Management
13 161 (7.43%) Migration
14 135 (6.23%) Customer Experience
15 132 (6.09%) Vulnerability Remediation
16 130 (6.00%) Service Management
17 125 (5.77%) Collaborative Working
17 125 (5.77%) Stakeholder Engagement
18 122 (5.63%) AI
19 119 (5.49%) Kalman Filter
Programming Languages
1 336 (15.51%) PowerShell
2 194 (8.96%) SQL
3 66 (3.05%) Python
4 60 (2.77%) Bash
5 48 (2.22%) Bicep
6 29 (1.34%) R
7 12 (0.55%) Kusto Query Language
7 12 (0.55%) VBA
8 10 (0.46%) Ruby
9 9 (0.42%) C#
10 7 (0.32%) Java
10 7 (0.32%) Shell Script
10 7 (0.32%) T-SQL
11 6 (0.28%) Korn
12 5 (0.23%) PHP
13 3 (0.14%) JavaScript
13 3 (0.14%) VB
14 2 (0.092%) C
14 2 (0.092%) VB.NET
14 2 (0.092%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 308 (14.22%) Security Cleared
2 215 (9.93%) SC Cleared
3 205 (9.46%) Degree
4 184 (8.49%) Microsoft Certification
5 113 (5.22%) Azure Certification
6 99 (4.57%) DV Cleared
7 90 (4.16%) A+ Certification
8 88 (4.06%) Network+ Certification
9 69 (3.19%) CISM
9 69 (3.19%) CISSP
10 60 (2.77%) Cisco Certification
11 57 (2.63%) DBS Check
12 54 (2.49%) CCNA
13 32 (1.48%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 23 (1.06%) Computer Science Degree
14 23 (1.06%) Microsoft Certified Professional
15 19 (0.88%) MCSA
16 18 (0.83%) AWS Certification
17 17 (0.78%) CompTIA Security+
18 14 (0.65%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 220 (10.16%) Cyber Essentials
2 170 (7.85%) SLA
3 125 (5.77%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 96 (4.43%) PCI DSS
5 50 (2.31%) GDPR
6 48 (2.22%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 27 (1.25%) NIST
8 20 (0.92%) QA
9 14 (0.65%) Data Quality
10 12 (0.55%) NCSC
11 11 (0.51%) Accessibility
12 6 (0.28%) SOC 2
13 4 (0.18%) GRC
14 3 (0.14%) ISAE 3402
14 3 (0.14%) PMO
15 2 (0.092%) ITGC
15 2 (0.092%) Sarbanes-Oxley
16 1 (0.046%) 21 CFR Part 11
16 1 (0.046%) ISO 9001
16 1 (0.046%) ISO/IEC 42001
System Software
1 504 (23.27%) Hyper-V
2 379 (17.50%) VMware Infrastructure
3 91 (4.20%) vSphere
4 81 (3.74%) Terminal Server
5 66 (3.05%) Virtual Desktop
6 52 (2.40%) Virtual Machines
7 42 (1.94%) VMware ESXi
8 38 (1.75%) Docker
9 19 (0.88%) Firmware
10 17 (0.78%) Virtual Servers
11 13 (0.60%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 13 (0.60%) VMware NSX
12 11 (0.51%) Citrix Hypervisor
13 10 (0.46%) BitLocker
14 7 (0.32%) DFS Replication
15 5 (0.23%) NDS
15 5 (0.23%) XenApp
16 4 (0.18%) Squid
17 3 (0.14%) VMware Server
17 3 (0.14%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 570 (26.32%) Microsoft Intune
2 113 (5.22%) SCCM
3 71 (3.28%) Terraform
4 49 (2.26%) Single Sign-On
5 34 (1.57%) Ansible
6 33 (1.52%) Kubernetes
7 30 (1.39%) FortiGate
8 28 (1.29%) Jamf Pro
9 27 (1.25%) WSUS
10 25 (1.15%) vCenter Server
11 19 (0.88%) Proxmox
12 17 (0.78%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 17 (0.78%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
13 15 (0.69%) Failover Clustering
14 14 (0.65%) ZABBIX
15 11 (0.51%) Microsoft Clustering
16 10 (0.46%) SCOM
17 6 (0.28%) Grafana
17 6 (0.28%) Prometheus
18 5 (0.23%) VxRail
Vendors
1 1,756 (81.07%) Microsoft
2 565 (26.08%) VMware
3 201 (9.28%) Veeam
4 157 (7.25%) Cisco
5 105 (4.85%) SolarWinds
6 96 (4.43%) Splunk
7 90 (4.16%) Nimble Storage
8 80 (3.69%) Brocade
8 80 (3.69%) Tanium
9 79 (3.65%) Apple
10 74 (3.42%) Meraki
11 72 (3.32%) ServiceNow
12 71 (3.28%) Citrix
12 71 (3.28%) CyberArk
13 53 (2.45%) HP
14 52 (2.40%) Dell
15 47 (2.17%) SonicWALL
16 46 (2.12%) Fortinet
17 44 (2.03%) Red Hat
18 41 (1.89%) CrowdStrike