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

6 months to
3 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 53 38 34
Rank change year-on-year -15 -4 -10
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 2,240 1,857 2,626
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 2.59% 5.37% 4.98%
As % of the System Software category 49.25% 44.90% 48.41%
Number of salaries quoted 1,621 1,376 1,548
10th Percentile £27,000 £26,206 £25,750
25th Percentile £29,625 £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 £63,750 £62,500
UK median annual salary £40,000 £37,500 £42,500
% change year-on-year +6.67% -11.76% +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 4,548 4,136 5,424
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 5.25% 11.96% 10.29%
Number of salaries quoted 3,290 2,246 3,123
10th Percentile £28,500 £26,500 £27,750
25th Percentile £34,693 £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 £67,500 £62,094 £63,750
90th Percentile £80,000 £75,000 £77,250
UK median annual salary £55,000 £50,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +10.00% -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 3 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 3 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 +1 529 £33,750 +3.85% 181
South East -14 519 £42,500 +13.33% 298
Midlands -34 379 £41,000 +17.14% 160
North West +72 289 £35,000 - 105
South West -36 289 £38,500 +18.46% 101
East of England -5 259 £35,000 +4.48% 118
West Midlands -34 193 £42,500 +3.66% 87
East Midlands -16 186 £38,500 +25.20% 73
Yorkshire -32 172 £31,000 +1.64% 54
Scotland +37 118 £32,500 +8.33% 58
Northern Ireland -20 97 £39,000 -25.71% 21
North East -56 68 £37,500 +20.97% 26
Wales -50 59 £45,000 +18.13% 23
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
1 663 (29.60%) Microsoft Exchange
2 511 (22.81%) SharePoint
3 54 (2.41%) IIS
4 17 (0.76%) Confluence
5 16 (0.71%) Skype for Business
6 6 (0.27%) Apache
7 3 (0.13%) SAS
8 2 (0.089%) nginx
9 1 (0.045%) Exchange Server 2013
9 1 (0.045%) HCL Domino
9 1 (0.045%) HCL Notes
9 1 (0.045%) SharePoint Server
9 1 (0.045%) Site Server
9 1 (0.045%) Tomcat
Applications
1 144 (6.43%) Microsoft Office
2 37 (1.65%) Microsoft Excel
3 7 (0.31%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.18%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 3 (0.13%) Notion
6 2 (0.089%) MS Visio
7 1 (0.045%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.045%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.045%) Revit
7 1 (0.045%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 8 (0.36%) Dynamics CRM
2 7 (0.31%) Dynamics NAV
3 6 (0.27%) Raiser’s Edge
4 5 (0.22%) JDE EnterpriseOne
4 5 (0.22%) NetSuite
4 5 (0.22%) Remedy ITSM
5 4 (0.18%) Payment Gateway
5 4 (0.18%) Shopify
6 3 (0.13%) Salesforce CRM
7 2 (0.089%) Sage 200
7 2 (0.089%) Teamcenter
8 1 (0.045%) Dynamics AX
8 1 (0.045%) Sage 50
8 1 (0.045%) SAP EHS
8 1 (0.045%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 1,539 (68.71%) Microsoft 365
2 1,226 (54.73%) Azure
3 1,061 (47.37%) Entra ID
4 190 (8.48%) OneDrive
5 144 (6.43%) AWS
6 90 (4.02%) SaaS
7 61 (2.72%) Power Platform
8 60 (2.68%) IaaS
9 51 (2.28%) Mimecast
10 46 (2.05%) Azure DevOps
11 42 (1.88%) Microsoft Purview
12 41 (1.83%) Google Workspace
12 41 (1.83%) PaaS
13 40 (1.79%) Azure Sentinel
14 36 (1.61%) Power Automate
15 35 (1.56%) Serverless
16 27 (1.21%) Azure Monitor
17 26 (1.16%) Azure ExpressRoute
18 24 (1.07%) Dynamics 365
19 22 (0.98%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 740 (33.04%) DNS
2 632 (28.21%) DHCP
3 548 (24.46%) Firewall
4 409 (18.26%) VPN
5 298 (13.30%) TCP/IP
6 239 (10.67%) VLAN
7 226 (10.09%) Wi-Fi
8 212 (9.46%) WAN
9 208 (9.29%) LAN
10 158 (7.05%) Wireless
11 139 (6.21%) VoIP
12 94 (4.20%) Network Security
13 67 (2.99%) SAN
14 36 (1.61%) Remote Desktop
14 36 (1.61%) SSL
15 28 (1.25%) Internet
16 22 (0.98%) NAS
17 21 (0.94%) WLAN
18 20 (0.89%) Cisco IOS
19 17 (0.76%) Skype
Database & Business Intelligence
1 106 (4.73%) SQL Server
2 90 (4.02%) Amazon RDS
3 31 (1.38%) Azure SQL Database
4 18 (0.80%) Power BI
5 17 (0.76%) MySQL
6 12 (0.54%) PostgreSQL
7 11 (0.49%) Relational Database
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
11 2 (0.089%) SQL Server Integration Services
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 Reporting Services
12 1 (0.045%) SSDT
Development Applications
1 55 (2.46%) 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 1,103 (49.24%) Social Skills
2 287 (12.81%) Analytical Skills
3 135 (6.03%) Legal
4 129 (5.76%) Finance
5 86 (3.84%) Manufacturing
6 83 (3.71%) Organisational Skills
7 77 (3.44%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 75 (3.35%) Law
9 69 (3.08%) Public Sector
10 55 (2.46%) Retail
11 48 (2.14%) Aerospace
12 43 (1.92%) Telecoms
13 34 (1.52%) Documentation Skills
14 21 (0.94%) Advertising
15 13 (0.58%) Automotive
16 12 (0.54%) Local Government
17 11 (0.49%) Games
17 11 (0.49%) Influencing Skills
18 7 (0.31%) Aviation
19 5 (0.22%) Dutch Language
Job Titles
1 836 (37.32%) IT Support
2 540 (24.11%) IT Engineer
3 535 (23.88%) Support Engineer
4 435 (19.42%) IT Support Engineer
5 398 (17.77%) Analyst
6 287 (12.81%) Senior
7 239 (10.67%) Support Analyst
8 230 (10.27%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 202 (9.02%) IT Technician
9 202 (9.02%) Support Technician
10 181 (8.08%) IT Support Technician
11 173 (7.72%) IT Analyst
12 154 (6.88%) IT Support Analyst
13 146 (6.52%) 2nd Line Support
13 146 (6.52%) Systems Engineer
14 107 (4.78%) 2nd Line Engineer
15 97 (4.33%) Architect
16 91 (4.06%) Administrator
17 87 (3.88%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
18 81 (3.62%) 3rd Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 76 (3.39%) Terraform
2 63 (2.81%) LDAP
3 37 (1.65%) SAML
4 32 (1.43%) OpenID
5 30 (1.34%) OAuth
6 25 (1.12%) .NET
7 17 (0.76%) Microsoft Graph
8 16 (0.71%) Regular Expression
9 15 (0.67%) REST
10 14 (0.63%) ModSecurity
10 14 (0.63%) SailPoint
11 13 (0.58%) XMPP
12 12 (0.54%) ARM Templates
13 11 (0.49%) ASP.NET Web Forms
13 11 (0.49%) HTML
13 11 (0.49%) WinForms
14 8 (0.36%) OAuth2
14 8 (0.36%) Web Services
15 7 (0.31%) JSON
15 7 (0.31%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 311 (13.88%) Driving Licence
2 203 (9.06%) Onboarding
3 117 (5.22%) Self-Motivation
4 84 (3.75%) Legacy Systems
5 79 (3.53%) Hybrid Cloud
6 69 (3.08%) Management Information System
7 65 (2.90%) Data Centre
8 53 (2.37%) PKI
9 49 (2.19%) Security Posture
10 48 (2.14%) Enterprise Software
11 41 (1.83%) Cloud Native
12 39 (1.74%) Clustering
13 34 (1.52%) Replication
14 30 (1.34%) CCTV
14 30 (1.34%) iPhone
15 23 (1.03%) Public Cloud
16 21 (0.94%) iPad
17 19 (0.85%) Video Conferencing
18 16 (0.71%) Enterprise Storage
18 16 (0.71%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 1,589 (70.94%) Windows
2 914 (40.80%) Windows Server
3 259 (11.56%) Linux
4 256 (11.43%) Windows 10
5 151 (6.74%) Windows Server 2016
6 128 (5.71%) Mac OS
7 83 (3.71%) Windows Server 2019
8 75 (3.35%) Apple iOS
9 60 (2.68%) Android
10 31 (1.38%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 26 (1.16%) Ubuntu
12 23 (1.03%) VMS
13 22 (0.98%) 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 Server 2008
18 3 (0.13%) Mac OS X
18 3 (0.13%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 871 (38.88%) Problem-Solving
2 578 (25.80%) Customer Service
3 487 (21.74%) Cybersecurity
4 469 (20.94%) ITIL
5 465 (20.76%) Continuous Improvement
6 387 (17.28%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 281 (12.54%) Disaster Recovery
8 268 (11.96%) Mentoring
9 237 (10.58%) Identity Access Management
10 231 (10.31%) ITSM
11 207 (9.24%) Project Delivery
12 199 (8.88%) Migration
13 184 (8.21%) Service Delivery
14 161 (7.19%) Service Management
15 144 (6.43%) Customer Experience
16 141 (6.29%) Collaborative Working
17 132 (5.89%) Stakeholder Engagement
18 131 (5.85%) AI
19 127 (5.67%) Vulnerability Remediation
20 126 (5.63%) Information Security
Programming Languages
1 354 (15.80%) PowerShell
2 195 (8.71%) SQL
3 72 (3.21%) Python
4 55 (2.46%) Bash
5 52 (2.32%) Bicep
6 27 (1.21%) Ruby
7 20 (0.89%) C#
8 18 (0.80%) R
9 16 (0.71%) Kusto Query Language
10 12 (0.54%) VBA
11 7 (0.31%) Java
11 7 (0.31%) T-SQL
12 5 (0.22%) Korn
12 5 (0.22%) Shell Script
13 4 (0.18%) JavaScript
13 4 (0.18%) VB.NET
14 3 (0.13%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 3 (0.13%) PHP
14 3 (0.13%) VB
14 3 (0.13%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 304 (13.57%) Security Cleared
2 203 (9.06%) SC Cleared
3 201 (8.97%) Degree
4 192 (8.57%) Microsoft Certification
5 128 (5.71%) Azure Certification
6 121 (5.40%) A+ Certification
7 106 (4.73%) Network+ Certification
8 90 (4.02%) DV Cleared
9 77 (3.44%) CISM
9 77 (3.44%) CISSP
10 66 (2.95%) DBS Check
11 63 (2.81%) Cisco Certification
12 47 (2.10%) CCNA
13 28 (1.25%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 27 (1.21%) CompTIA Security+
15 23 (1.03%) BPSS Clearance
16 20 (0.89%) Computer Science Degree
17 18 (0.80%) AWS Certification
17 18 (0.80%) Microsoft Certified Professional
18 14 (0.63%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 218 (9.73%) Cyber Essentials
2 125 (5.58%) SLA
3 117 (5.22%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 84 (3.75%) PCI DSS
5 60 (2.68%) GDPR
6 43 (1.92%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 33 (1.47%) NIST
8 19 (0.85%) QA
9 18 (0.80%) Accessibility
10 14 (0.63%) Data Quality
11 13 (0.58%) NCSC
12 6 (0.27%) SOC 2
13 4 (0.18%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 3 (0.13%) ISAE 3402
15 1 (0.045%) ISO/IEC 20000
15 1 (0.045%) ISO/IEC 42001
15 1 (0.045%) PMO
System Software
1 503 (22.46%) Hyper-V
2 411 (18.35%) VMware Infrastructure
3 88 (3.93%) vSphere
4 81 (3.62%) Virtual Desktop
5 72 (3.21%) Terminal Server
6 66 (2.95%) Virtual Machines
7 36 (1.61%) VMware ESXi
8 28 (1.25%) Docker
9 25 (1.12%) Virtual Servers
10 22 (0.98%) Firmware
11 13 (0.58%) Microsoft Virtual Server
12 10 (0.45%) BitLocker
12 10 (0.45%) NDS
12 10 (0.45%) VMware NSX
13 8 (0.36%) Citrix Hypervisor
14 4 (0.18%) 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
1 619 (27.63%) Microsoft Intune
2 96 (4.29%) SCCM
3 58 (2.59%) Single Sign-On
4 36 (1.61%) Jamf Pro
5 35 (1.56%) FortiGate
6 33 (1.47%) Ansible
6 33 (1.47%) Kubernetes
7 25 (1.12%) WSUS
8 22 (0.98%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
9 18 (0.80%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 16 (0.71%) Proxmox
11 15 (0.67%) Failover Clustering
11 15 (0.67%) vCenter Server
12 12 (0.54%) ZABBIX
13 11 (0.49%) Microsoft Clustering
14 7 (0.31%) SCOM
15 6 (0.27%) Autotask
15 6 (0.27%) Graylog
16 5 (0.22%) SCVMM
16 5 (0.22%) VxRail
Vendors
1 1,878 (83.84%) Microsoft
2 600 (26.79%) VMware
3 214 (9.55%) Veeam
4 205 (9.15%) Cisco
5 109 (4.87%) Meraki
6 94 (4.20%) SolarWinds
7 87 (3.88%) Splunk
8 81 (3.62%) CyberArk
9 77 (3.44%) Apple
10 75 (3.35%) Nimble Storage
11 72 (3.21%) Brocade
11 72 (3.21%) Tanium
12 69 (3.08%) Fortinet
13 62 (2.77%) SonicWALL
14 60 (2.68%) ServiceNow
15 54 (2.41%) Citrix
16 48 (2.14%) Google
17 47 (2.10%) HP
18 43 (1.92%) Palo Alto
19 41 (1.83%) Dell