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

6 months to
9 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 56 38 38
Rank change year-on-year -18 0 -13
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 2,187 1,863 2,680
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 2.66% 5.39% 4.80%
As % of the System Software category 49.48% 44.52% 49.04%
Number of salaries quoted 1,678 1,435 1,751
10th Percentile £26,750 £26,000 £25,500
25th Percentile £29,500 £28,500 £30,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £37,500 £35,000 £38,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% -7.89% +2.70%
75th Percentile £51,250 £47,500 £52,500
90th Percentile £67,500 £62,350 £61,250
UK median annual salary £40,000 £37,500 £42,000
% change year-on-year +6.67% -10.71% +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 4,420 4,185 5,465
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 5.37% 12.12% 9.80%
Number of salaries quoted 3,321 2,347 3,507
10th Percentile £28,500 £26,500 £27,500
25th Percentile £34,000 £30,750 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £42,500 £49,500
Median % change year-on-year +17.65% -14.14% -0.13%
75th Percentile £67,500 £61,875 £62,500
90th Percentile £81,250 £77,104 £75,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £50,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year +10.00% -4.76% -4.55%

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 9 September 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 9 September 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 -2 529 £32,500 - 124
South East -10 504 £45,000 +12.50% 231
Midlands -32 368 £40,000 +23.08% 111
North West +63 288 £35,000 - 64
South West -34 288 £38,500 +18.46% 92
East of England +2 267 £35,000 - 102
East Midlands -16 191 £37,500 +19.05% 40
West Midlands -40 177 £42,500 +11.84% 71
Yorkshire -35 176 £31,000 +3.33% 35
Scotland +58 113 £32,500 +4.84% 41
Northern Ireland -30 65 £40,000 -23.81% 9
North East -63 65 £37,500 +20.97% 29
Wales -42 62 £45,000 +18.13% 8
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
1 639 (29.22%) Microsoft Exchange
2 504 (23.05%) SharePoint
3 56 (2.56%) IIS
4 18 (0.82%) Confluence
5 15 (0.69%) Skype for Business
6 6 (0.27%) Apache
7 3 (0.14%) nginx
7 3 (0.14%) SAS
8 2 (0.091%) Exchange Server 2013
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%) Tomcat
9 1 (0.046%) WordPress
Applications
1 142 (6.49%) Microsoft Office
2 35 (1.60%) Microsoft Excel
3 9 (0.41%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.18%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 3 (0.14%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.091%) MS Visio
7 1 (0.046%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.046%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.046%) Revit
Business Applications
1 12 (0.55%) Dynamics CRM
2 8 (0.37%) Dynamics NAV
3 6 (0.27%) Raiser’s Edge
4 5 (0.23%) JDE EnterpriseOne
4 5 (0.23%) NetSuite
4 5 (0.23%) Remedy ITSM
5 4 (0.18%) Payment Gateway
5 4 (0.18%) Shopify
6 3 (0.14%) Salesforce CRM
7 2 (0.091%) Exchequer
7 2 (0.091%) Primavera
7 2 (0.091%) Sage 200
7 2 (0.091%) Teamcenter
8 1 (0.046%) Dynamics AX
8 1 (0.046%) Magento
8 1 (0.046%) Oracle Payables
8 1 (0.046%) Sage 50
8 1 (0.046%) SAP EHS
8 1 (0.046%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 1,517 (69.36%) Microsoft 365
2 1,217 (55.65%) Azure
3 981 (44.86%) Entra ID
4 173 (7.91%) OneDrive
5 150 (6.86%) AWS
6 99 (4.53%) SaaS
7 70 (3.20%) Power Platform
8 61 (2.79%) IaaS
9 58 (2.65%) Mimecast
10 47 (2.15%) Azure DevOps
11 46 (2.10%) PaaS
12 41 (1.87%) Microsoft Purview
13 38 (1.74%) Azure Sentinel
14 36 (1.65%) Power Automate
14 36 (1.65%) Serverless
15 29 (1.33%) Google Workspace
16 27 (1.23%) Azure Monitor
17 25 (1.14%) Azure ExpressRoute
18 23 (1.05%) Dynamics 365
19 22 (1.01%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 719 (32.88%) DNS
2 603 (27.57%) DHCP
3 543 (24.83%) Firewall
4 398 (18.20%) VPN
5 282 (12.89%) TCP/IP
6 223 (10.20%) VLAN
7 218 (9.97%) Wi-Fi
8 204 (9.33%) WAN
9 199 (9.10%) LAN
10 151 (6.90%) Wireless
11 138 (6.31%) VoIP
12 95 (4.34%) Network Security
13 74 (3.38%) SAN
14 39 (1.78%) Remote Desktop
15 30 (1.37%) SSL
16 29 (1.33%) Internet
17 24 (1.10%) NAS
18 19 (0.87%) Structured Cabling
19 18 (0.82%) WLAN
20 15 (0.69%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 102 (4.66%) SQL Server
2 91 (4.16%) Amazon RDS
3 32 (1.46%) Azure SQL Database
4 24 (1.10%) Power BI
5 19 (0.87%) MySQL
6 13 (0.59%) PostgreSQL
7 9 (0.41%) Relational Database
8 6 (0.27%) Crystal Reports
9 5 (0.23%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 4 (0.18%) Data Warehouse
10 4 (0.18%) Neo4j
11 3 (0.14%) Oracle Database
12 2 (0.091%) BusinessObjects
12 2 (0.091%) Data Lake
12 2 (0.091%) KNIME
13 1 (0.046%) Geospatial Data
13 1 (0.046%) InterSystems Cache
13 1 (0.046%) RDBMS
13 1 (0.046%) Redis
13 1 (0.046%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 67 (3.06%) JIRA
2 30 (1.37%) Git
3 9 (0.41%) Jenkins
4 6 (0.27%) Bitbucket
5 5 (0.23%) GitLab
6 2 (0.091%) Artifactory
6 2 (0.091%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 2 (0.091%) Burp Suite
6 2 (0.091%) git-flow
6 2 (0.091%) Metasploit
6 2 (0.091%) NUnit
6 2 (0.091%) Terragrunt
7 1 (0.046%) Carbide.c++
7 1 (0.046%) Gatling
7 1 (0.046%) JMeter
7 1 (0.046%) Selenium
7 1 (0.046%) Sonatype Nexus
7 1 (0.046%) Subversion
7 1 (0.046%) Team Foundation Server
7 1 (0.046%) Vagrant
General
1 1,039 (47.51%) Social Skills
2 258 (11.80%) Analytical Skills
3 145 (6.63%) Legal
4 125 (5.72%) Finance
5 83 (3.80%) Manufacturing
6 81 (3.70%) Law
6 81 (3.70%) Organisational Skills
7 76 (3.48%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 67 (3.06%) Public Sector
9 55 (2.51%) Retail
10 44 (2.01%) Telecoms
11 37 (1.69%) Documentation Skills
12 35 (1.60%) Aerospace
13 26 (1.19%) Advertising
14 14 (0.64%) Automotive
15 11 (0.50%) Influencing Skills
15 11 (0.50%) Local Government
16 9 (0.41%) Games
17 7 (0.32%) Aviation
18 5 (0.23%) Dutch Language
Job Titles
1 811 (37.08%) IT Support
2 532 (24.33%) Support Engineer
3 528 (24.14%) IT Engineer
4 431 (19.71%) IT Support Engineer
5 361 (16.51%) Analyst
6 271 (12.39%) Senior
7 236 (10.79%) Support Analyst
8 219 (10.01%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 197 (9.01%) IT Technician
10 196 (8.96%) Support Technician
11 176 (8.05%) IT Support Technician
12 157 (7.18%) IT Analyst
13 153 (7.00%) 2nd Line Support
14 152 (6.95%) Systems Engineer
15 141 (6.45%) IT Support Analyst
16 103 (4.71%) 2nd Line Engineer
17 94 (4.30%) Architect
18 87 (3.98%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
18 87 (3.98%) Administrator
19 82 (3.75%) 3rd Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 78 (3.57%) Terraform
2 53 (2.42%) LDAP
3 33 (1.51%) SAML
4 30 (1.37%) OpenID
5 27 (1.23%) OAuth
6 21 (0.96%) Regular Expression
7 19 (0.87%) XMPP
8 18 (0.82%) .NET
9 14 (0.64%) Microsoft Graph
10 13 (0.59%) ModSecurity
11 12 (0.55%) HTML
12 11 (0.50%) ARM Templates
13 10 (0.46%) REST
13 10 (0.46%) Web Services
14 7 (0.32%) OAuth2
14 7 (0.32%) SailPoint
15 6 (0.27%) ASP.NET Web Forms
15 6 (0.27%) SOAP
15 6 (0.27%) WinForms
16 5 (0.23%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 297 (13.58%) Driving Licence
2 197 (9.01%) Onboarding
3 126 (5.76%) Self-Motivation
4 86 (3.93%) Legacy Systems
5 83 (3.80%) Hybrid Cloud
6 69 (3.16%) Management Information System
7 68 (3.11%) Data Centre
8 48 (2.19%) PKI
9 44 (2.01%) Security Posture
10 43 (1.97%) Clustering
11 41 (1.87%) Enterprise Software
12 40 (1.83%) Cloud Native
13 36 (1.65%) Replication
14 35 (1.60%) CCTV
15 31 (1.42%) Public Cloud
16 25 (1.14%) iPhone
17 19 (0.87%) iPad
18 18 (0.82%) Video Conferencing
19 17 (0.78%) Social Media
20 15 (0.69%) Enterprise Storage
Operating Systems
1 1,553 (71.01%) Windows
2 905 (41.38%) Windows Server
3 269 (12.30%) Linux
4 262 (11.98%) Windows 10
5 154 (7.04%) Windows Server 2016
6 132 (6.04%) Mac OS
7 91 (4.16%) Windows Server 2019
8 82 (3.75%) Apple iOS
9 57 (2.61%) Android
10 37 (1.69%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 27 (1.23%) Ubuntu
12 24 (1.10%) VMS
13 22 (1.01%) Windows Server 2012
14 7 (0.32%) Debian
14 7 (0.32%) Rocky
15 6 (0.27%) CentOS
15 6 (0.27%) Windows Server 2008
16 5 (0.23%) CoreOS
17 4 (0.18%) Mac OS X
17 4 (0.18%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 791 (36.17%) Problem-Solving
2 556 (25.42%) Customer Service
3 468 (21.40%) ITIL
4 447 (20.44%) Continuous Improvement
5 433 (19.80%) Cybersecurity
6 369 (16.87%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 270 (12.35%) Disaster Recovery
8 266 (12.16%) Mentoring
9 214 (9.79%) ITSM
10 198 (9.05%) Project Delivery
11 189 (8.64%) Identity Access Management
11 189 (8.64%) Service Delivery
12 172 (7.86%) Migration
13 148 (6.77%) Service Management
14 137 (6.26%) Customer Experience
15 132 (6.04%) Collaborative Working
16 131 (5.99%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 129 (5.90%) AI
18 126 (5.76%) Vulnerability Remediation
19 111 (5.08%) Business Continuity
Programming Languages
1 344 (15.73%) PowerShell
2 199 (9.10%) SQL
3 66 (3.02%) Python
4 56 (2.56%) Bash
5 51 (2.33%) Bicep
6 26 (1.19%) R
7 20 (0.91%) Ruby
8 14 (0.64%) C#
9 12 (0.55%) Kusto Query Language
9 12 (0.55%) VBA
10 7 (0.32%) Java
10 7 (0.32%) T-SQL
11 5 (0.23%) Korn
11 5 (0.23%) PHP
11 5 (0.23%) Shell Script
12 3 (0.14%) JavaScript
12 3 (0.14%) VB
12 3 (0.14%) VB.NET
12 3 (0.14%) VBScript
13 2 (0.091%) Google Apps Script
Qualifications
1 305 (13.95%) Security Cleared
2 206 (9.42%) SC Cleared
3 205 (9.37%) Degree
4 189 (8.64%) Microsoft Certification
5 123 (5.62%) Azure Certification
6 111 (5.08%) A+ Certification
7 101 (4.62%) Network+ Certification
8 100 (4.57%) DV Cleared
9 75 (3.43%) CISM
9 75 (3.43%) CISSP
10 65 (2.97%) DBS Check
11 61 (2.79%) Cisco Certification
12 49 (2.24%) CCNA
13 32 (1.46%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 24 (1.10%) CompTIA Security+
15 23 (1.05%) Computer Science Degree
16 19 (0.87%) AWS Certification
16 19 (0.87%) Microsoft Certified Professional
17 16 (0.73%) MCSA
18 15 (0.69%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 216 (9.88%) Cyber Essentials
2 146 (6.68%) SLA
3 123 (5.62%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 88 (4.02%) PCI DSS
5 56 (2.56%) GDPR
6 42 (1.92%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 28 (1.28%) NIST
8 17 (0.78%) QA
9 15 (0.69%) Accessibility
10 13 (0.59%) Data Quality
11 12 (0.55%) NCSC
12 6 (0.27%) SOC 2
13 4 (0.18%) GRC
14 3 (0.14%) ISAE 3402
14 3 (0.14%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 1 (0.046%) ISO 9001
15 1 (0.046%) ISO/IEC 42001
15 1 (0.046%) PMO
System Software
1 504 (23.05%) Hyper-V
2 396 (18.11%) VMware Infrastructure
3 88 (4.02%) vSphere
4 74 (3.38%) Virtual Desktop
5 73 (3.34%) Terminal Server
6 57 (2.61%) Virtual Machines
7 39 (1.78%) VMware ESXi
8 33 (1.51%) Docker
9 20 (0.91%) Firmware
9 20 (0.91%) Virtual Servers
10 13 (0.59%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 12 (0.55%) VMware NSX
12 9 (0.41%) BitLocker
13 8 (0.37%) Citrix Hypervisor
14 6 (0.27%) NDS
15 4 (0.18%) Squid
16 3 (0.14%) DFS Replication
16 3 (0.14%) VMware Server
17 2 (0.091%) UAG
17 2 (0.091%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 602 (27.53%) Microsoft Intune
2 97 (4.44%) SCCM
3 55 (2.51%) Single Sign-On
4 37 (1.69%) Ansible
5 33 (1.51%) FortiGate
5 33 (1.51%) Kubernetes
6 29 (1.33%) Jamf Pro
7 28 (1.28%) WSUS
8 21 (0.96%) vCenter Server
9 18 (0.82%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 17 (0.78%) Proxmox
11 16 (0.73%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
12 15 (0.69%) Failover Clustering
13 11 (0.50%) Microsoft Clustering
13 11 (0.50%) ZABBIX
14 10 (0.46%) SCOM
15 6 (0.27%) Grafana
15 6 (0.27%) Graylog
15 6 (0.27%) Prometheus
16 5 (0.23%) Packer
Vendors
1 1,812 (82.85%) Microsoft
2 575 (26.29%) VMware
3 202 (9.24%) Veeam
4 173 (7.91%) Cisco
5 92 (4.21%) SolarWinds
6 89 (4.07%) Splunk
7 84 (3.84%) Meraki
8 77 (3.52%) Nimble Storage
9 76 (3.48%) Apple
10 75 (3.43%) CyberArk
11 72 (3.29%) Brocade
11 72 (3.29%) Tanium
12 67 (3.06%) ServiceNow
13 60 (2.74%) Fortinet
13 60 (2.74%) SonicWALL
14 57 (2.61%) Citrix
15 46 (2.10%) HP
16 45 (2.06%) Dell
17 41 (1.87%) Red Hat
18 40 (1.83%) Palo Alto