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

6 months to
5 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 60 38 29
Rank change year-on-year -22 -9 +16
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 1,767 1,428 4,431
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 3.03% 5.53% 6.89%
As % of the System Software category 58.84% 45.39% 50.73%
Number of salaries quoted 1,338 1,205 3,808
10th Percentile £26,250 £25,500 £23,750
25th Percentile £28,500 £27,750 £26,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £35,000 £35,000 £35,000
Median % change year-on-year - - -1.41%
75th Percentile £47,500 £48,750 £48,750
90th Percentile £60,000 £58,750 £57,500
UK median annual salary £37,500 £40,000 £38,000
% change year-on-year -6.25% +5.26% -5.00%

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 3,003 3,146 8,735
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 5.15% 12.17% 13.58%
Number of salaries quoted 2,202 2,487 7,224
10th Percentile £27,000 £26,500 £25,750
25th Percentile £31,250 £32,500 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £50,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% +11.11% -5.26%
75th Percentile £62,500 £68,750 £60,000
90th Percentile £77,500 £85,000 £75,000
UK median annual salary £50,175 £56,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -11.19% +13.00% -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 5 April 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 5 April 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 +7 489 £36,000 -15.29% 175
North of England -31 390 £33,750 +3.85% 133
Midlands -37 283 £32,500 -7.14% 78
South West +2 269 £32,500 -6.47% 71
Yorkshire -24 178 £32,500 +8.33% 39
North West -27 177 £37,500 -6.25% 85
East of England -30 174 £40,000 +23.08% 61
East Midlands -24 146 £31,500 +5.00% 36
West Midlands -43 136 £32,500 -10.96% 42
Scotland +17 94 £30,500 -12.86% 26
Wales +2 44 £37,500 -23.63% 14
North East -13 35 £32,000 -3.61% 13
Northern Ireland -32 18 £32,000 -39.05% 2
Isle of Man +2 6 £45,000 +55.17% 1
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
1 489 (27.67%) Microsoft Exchange
2 342 (19.35%) SharePoint
3 21 (1.19%) Exchange Server 2003
4 16 (0.91%) IIS
5 13 (0.74%) Exchange Server 2013
6 11 (0.62%) Exchange Server 2007
6 11 (0.62%) Exchange Server 2010
7 10 (0.57%) Confluence
8 6 (0.34%) CMS
9 4 (0.23%) Apache
10 3 (0.17%) Tomcat
10 3 (0.17%) WebLogic
10 3 (0.17%) WebLogic Portal
10 3 (0.17%) WordPress
11 2 (0.11%) Skype for Business
12 1 (0.057%) Drupal
12 1 (0.057%) nginx
12 1 (0.057%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 247 (13.98%) Microsoft Office
2 42 (2.38%) Microsoft Excel
3 14 (0.79%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.17%) AutoCAD
4 3 (0.17%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 16 (0.91%) Dynamics CRM
2 8 (0.45%) Oracle ERP
3 7 (0.40%) Dynamics NAV
3 7 (0.40%) NetSuite
3 7 (0.40%) Primavera
4 5 (0.28%) Remedy ITSM
5 4 (0.23%) Dynamics GP
5 4 (0.23%) Exchequer
5 4 (0.23%) Markit EDM
6 3 (0.17%) Oracle EBS
7 2 (0.11%) Alphatax
7 2 (0.11%) Shopify
8 1 (0.057%) Cognos Business Intelligence
8 1 (0.057%) Magento
8 1 (0.057%) Oracle Payables
8 1 (0.057%) Sage 200
8 1 (0.057%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 1,253 (70.91%) Microsoft 365
2 949 (53.71%) Azure
3 623 (35.26%) Entra ID
4 133 (7.53%) AWS
4 133 (7.53%) OneDrive
5 101 (5.72%) Google Workspace
6 85 (4.81%) SaaS
7 80 (4.53%) Power Platform
8 38 (2.15%) IaaS
9 35 (1.98%) PaaS
10 34 (1.92%) Nutanix
11 33 (1.87%) Azure Monitor
12 30 (1.70%) GCP
13 29 (1.64%) Mimecast
14 28 (1.58%) Azure DevOps
14 28 (1.58%) PowerApps
15 22 (1.25%) Microsoft Purview
16 19 (1.08%) Dynamics 365
17 16 (0.91%) OCI
18 15 (0.85%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 625 (35.37%) DNS
2 573 (32.43%) DHCP
3 405 (22.92%) Firewall
4 279 (15.79%) VPN
5 215 (12.17%) TCP/IP
6 194 (10.98%) WAN
7 190 (10.75%) LAN
8 176 (9.96%) VLAN
9 154 (8.72%) Wi-Fi
10 92 (5.21%) VoIP
11 79 (4.47%) Wireless
12 68 (3.85%) Network Security
13 61 (3.45%) Remote Desktop
14 48 (2.72%) Broadband
15 43 (2.43%) SAN
16 28 (1.58%) SD-WAN
17 21 (1.19%) NAS
18 17 (0.96%) SMTP
19 15 (0.85%) Ethernet
19 15 (0.85%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 92 (5.21%) Amazon RDS
2 76 (4.30%) SQL Server
3 49 (2.77%) Power BI
4 24 (1.36%) Oracle Database
5 23 (1.30%) PostgreSQL
6 22 (1.25%) MySQL
7 21 (1.19%) Oracle Database 10g
8 10 (0.57%) Azure SQL Database
9 8 (0.45%) GIS
9 8 (0.45%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 6 (0.34%) Data Warehouse
10 6 (0.34%) Relational Database
11 5 (0.28%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 3 (0.17%) Data Mining
12 3 (0.17%) Neo4j
12 3 (0.17%) Oracle Discoverer
12 3 (0.17%) Oracle Reports
13 1 (0.057%) Cognos Connection
13 1 (0.057%) Cognos Framework Manager
13 1 (0.057%) Redis
Development Applications
1 71 (4.02%) JIRA
2 13 (0.74%) Git
3 11 (0.62%) Oracle Forms
4 9 (0.51%) Jenkins
5 7 (0.40%) GitLab
6 5 (0.28%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 4 (0.23%) LabVIEW
7 4 (0.23%) Subversion
8 3 (0.17%) Oracle APEX
9 1 (0.057%) Burp Suite
9 1 (0.057%) Gatling
9 1 (0.057%) JMeter
9 1 (0.057%) Metasploit
9 1 (0.057%) Vagrant
General
1 793 (44.88%) Social Skills
2 199 (11.26%) Analytical Skills
3 164 (9.28%) Organisational Skills
4 123 (6.96%) Finance
5 77 (4.36%) Manufacturing
6 59 (3.34%) Legal
6 59 (3.34%) Retail
7 56 (3.17%) Documentation Skills
8 55 (3.11%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 55 (3.11%) Law
9 46 (2.60%) Public Sector
10 37 (2.09%) Advertising
10 37 (2.09%) Games
11 30 (1.70%) Telecoms
12 20 (1.13%) Marketing
13 14 (0.79%) Local Government
14 8 (0.45%) Aerospace
14 8 (0.45%) Automotive
15 4 (0.23%) Banking
15 4 (0.23%) General Ledger
Job Titles
1 720 (40.75%) IT Support
2 502 (28.41%) Support Engineer
3 428 (24.22%) IT Engineer
4 369 (20.88%) IT Support Engineer
5 226 (12.79%) Analyst
6 179 (10.13%) 2nd Line Support
7 178 (10.07%) Support Technician
8 167 (9.45%) Support Analyst
9 157 (8.89%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 148 (8.38%) IT Technician
11 139 (7.87%) Senior
12 137 (7.75%) IT Support Technician
13 120 (6.79%) IT Analyst
14 118 (6.68%) Systems Engineer
15 110 (6.23%) IT Support Analyst
16 103 (5.83%) 2nd Line Engineer
17 92 (5.21%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
18 91 (5.15%) 3rd Line Support
19 75 (4.24%) 1st Line Support
20 63 (3.57%) Infrastructure Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 50 (2.83%) LDAP
2 46 (2.60%) SAML
2 46 (2.60%) SOAP
3 43 (2.43%) OAuth
3 43 (2.43%) OpenID
3 43 (2.43%) REST
4 38 (2.15%) GraphQL
5 19 (1.08%) JSON
5 19 (1.08%) XML
6 10 (0.57%) .NET
6 10 (0.57%) RESTful
7 9 (0.51%) Regular Expression
8 8 (0.45%) ARM Templates
9 7 (0.40%) HTML
9 7 (0.40%) Web Services
10 6 (0.34%) CSS
10 6 (0.34%) XMPP
11 5 (0.28%) .NET Framework
11 5 (0.28%) FreeSWITCH
12 4 (0.23%) React
Miscellaneous
1 274 (15.51%) Driving Licence
2 111 (6.28%) Onboarding
3 83 (4.70%) Self-Motivation
4 77 (4.36%) Legacy Systems
5 49 (2.77%) Hybrid Cloud
6 48 (2.72%) Enterprise Software
7 42 (2.38%) Cyberattack
8 40 (2.26%) Cyber Threat
9 34 (1.92%) Replication
10 33 (1.87%) Public Cloud
11 32 (1.81%) Data Centre
12 31 (1.75%) Management Information System
13 22 (1.25%) Cloud Native
14 19 (1.08%) Client/Server
15 18 (1.02%) CMDB
16 17 (0.96%) PKI
17 13 (0.74%) Clustering
17 13 (0.74%) iPad
18 12 (0.68%) FMCG
18 12 (0.68%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 1,265 (71.59%) Windows
2 746 (42.22%) Windows Server
3 304 (17.20%) Windows 10
4 221 (12.51%) Linux
5 144 (8.15%) Windows Server 2016
6 90 (5.09%) Mac OS
7 83 (4.70%) Apple iOS
8 72 (4.07%) Android
9 57 (3.23%) Windows Server 2019
10 39 (2.21%) Windows 7
11 35 (1.98%) Windows Server 2012
12 30 (1.70%) Windows Server 2008
13 28 (1.58%) Unix
14 21 (1.19%) HPUX
14 21 (1.19%) Solaris
14 21 (1.19%) Windows Server 2003
15 20 (1.13%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
16 11 (0.62%) Windows 8
17 7 (0.40%) VMS
18 6 (0.34%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 632 (35.77%) Problem-Solving
2 510 (28.86%) Customer Service
3 431 (24.39%) ITIL
4 268 (15.17%) Cybersecurity
5 210 (11.88%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 195 (11.04%) Mentoring
7 190 (10.75%) Continuous Improvement
8 178 (10.07%) ITSM
9 157 (8.89%) Service Delivery
10 155 (8.77%) Disaster Recovery
11 122 (6.90%) Incident Management
12 120 (6.79%) Migration
12 120 (6.79%) Vulnerability Remediation
13 105 (5.94%) Change Management
14 103 (5.83%) Coaching
15 96 (5.43%) Kalman Filter
16 95 (5.38%) Customer Experience
16 95 (5.38%) Web Filtering
17 92 (5.21%) Identity Access Management
18 85 (4.81%) Asset Management
Programming Languages
1 292 (16.53%) PowerShell
2 129 (7.30%) SQL
3 79 (4.47%) Bash
4 51 (2.89%) Python
5 49 (2.77%) T-SQL
6 20 (1.13%) Perl
7 16 (0.91%) R
8 13 (0.74%) Shell Script
9 12 (0.68%) JavaScript
9 12 (0.68%) PL/SQL
10 8 (0.45%) Java
10 8 (0.45%) VB
11 7 (0.40%) Bicep
11 7 (0.40%) C#
12 4 (0.23%) VBA
13 3 (0.17%) PHP
14 2 (0.11%) C
15 1 (0.057%) Korn
15 1 (0.057%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 241 (13.64%) Security Cleared
2 177 (10.02%) SC Cleared
3 163 (9.22%) Degree
4 158 (8.94%) Microsoft Certification
5 82 (4.64%) DV Cleared
6 47 (2.66%) DBS Check
7 44 (2.49%) Azure Certification
8 43 (2.43%) A+ Certification
9 37 (2.09%) Cisco Certification
10 32 (1.81%) Microsoft Certified Professional
11 31 (1.75%) CCNA
12 26 (1.47%) Network+ Certification
13 21 (1.19%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 19 (1.08%) ITIL Certification
15 18 (1.02%) MCSE
16 16 (0.91%) HNC
17 15 (0.85%) Computer Science Degree
18 14 (0.79%) MCSA
19 12 (0.68%) CCNP
20 11 (0.62%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 172 (9.73%) SLA
2 146 (8.26%) Cyber Essentials
3 101 (5.72%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 84 (4.75%) PCI DSS
5 50 (2.83%) NIST
6 39 (2.21%) NCSC
7 38 (2.15%) GDPR
8 25 (1.41%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 17 (0.96%) QA
10 12 (0.68%) Data Quality
11 7 (0.40%) Accessibility
12 5 (0.28%) GRC
12 5 (0.28%) PMO
13 4 (0.23%) 21 CFR Part 11
13 4 (0.23%) GxP
13 4 (0.23%) ISO 22301
13 4 (0.23%) ITGC
14 2 (0.11%) Disclosure Scotland
14 2 (0.11%) ISO 9001
14 2 (0.11%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 355 (20.09%) Hyper-V
2 259 (14.66%) VMware Infrastructure
3 75 (4.24%) Terminal Server
4 49 (2.77%) vSphere
5 40 (2.26%) VMware ESXi
6 28 (1.58%) Virtual Desktop
7 24 (1.36%) Virtual Machines
8 17 (0.96%) BitLocker
8 17 (0.96%) Docker
9 11 (0.62%) Firmware
9 11 (0.62%) VMware Workstation
10 10 (0.57%) VMware NSX
10 10 (0.57%) XenApp
11 6 (0.34%) DFS Replication
12 5 (0.28%) Virtual Servers
13 4 (0.23%) Terminal Services
14 3 (0.17%) Citrix Hypervisor
14 3 (0.17%) Lustre
14 3 (0.17%) Microsoft Virtual Server
14 3 (0.17%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 348 (19.69%) Microsoft Intune
2 128 (7.24%) SCCM
3 42 (2.38%) Single Sign-On
4 40 (2.26%) vCenter Server
5 33 (1.87%) Jamf Pro
5 33 (1.87%) Terraform
6 23 (1.30%) WSUS
7 22 (1.25%) Ansible
8 21 (1.19%) FortiGate
9 18 (1.02%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 15 (0.85%) Autotask
10 15 (0.85%) SCOM
11 11 (0.62%) Kubernetes
12 9 (0.51%) Backup Exec
13 8 (0.45%) Proxmox
14 7 (0.40%) ZABBIX
15 6 (0.34%) SmoothWall
15 6 (0.34%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
16 5 (0.28%) SCVMM
16 5 (0.28%) VxRail
Vendors
1 1,273 (72.04%) Microsoft
2 461 (26.09%) VMware
3 155 (8.77%) Veeam
4 108 (6.11%) SolarWinds
5 100 (5.66%) Nimble Storage
6 95 (5.38%) Cisco
7 94 (5.32%) Apple
8 93 (5.26%) Citrix
9 89 (5.04%) Splunk
10 80 (4.53%) Google
10 80 (4.53%) ServiceNow
11 72 (4.07%) Brocade
11 72 (4.07%) Tanium
12 69 (3.90%) HP
13 60 (3.40%) Dell
14 39 (2.21%) Meraki
14 39 (2.21%) Oracle
15 28 (1.58%) Dell Compellent
15 28 (1.58%) McAfee
16 26 (1.47%) CrowdStrike