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

6 months to
11 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 57 37 37
Rank change year-on-year -20 0 -12
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 2,195 1,878 2,698
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 2.64% 5.43% 4.83%
As % of the System Software category 49.46% 44.63% 49.05%
Number of salaries quoted 1,678 1,445 1,763
10th Percentile £26,750 £26,094 £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 £51,000 £47,500 £52,500
90th Percentile £67,500 £61,775 £61,250
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 4,438 4,208 5,501
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 5.34% 12.17% 9.84%
Number of salaries quoted 3,325 2,358 3,538
10th Percentile £28,500 £26,500 £27,500
25th Percentile £33,750 £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 £61,250 £62,500
90th Percentile £81,250 £76,840 £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 11 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 11 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 - 97
South East -12 507 £42,500 +11.11% 201
Midlands -39 366 £40,000 +23.08% 101
South West -32 294 £38,500 +18.46% 63
North West +62 288 £35,000 - 54
East of England +4 266 £35,000 - 82
East Midlands -18 190 £37,500 +25.00% 35
Yorkshire -30 176 £31,000 +3.33% 23
West Midlands -42 176 £42,500 +11.84% 66
Scotland +59 115 £32,500 +4.84% 27
Northern Ireland -30 65 £40,000 -23.81% 8
North East -56 65 £37,500 +20.97% 23
Wales -42 62 £45,000 +18.13% 5
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
1 642 (29.25%) Microsoft Exchange
2 507 (23.10%) SharePoint
3 56 (2.55%) IIS
4 18 (0.82%) Confluence
5 15 (0.68%) 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
1 144 (6.56%) Microsoft Office
2 35 (1.59%) 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 (0.36%) 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 1,526 (69.52%) Microsoft 365
2 1,219 (55.54%) Azure
3 987 (44.97%) Entra ID
4 175 (7.97%) OneDrive
5 153 (6.97%) AWS
6 99 (4.51%) SaaS
7 70 (3.19%) Power Platform
8 61 (2.78%) IaaS
9 58 (2.64%) Mimecast
10 47 (2.14%) Azure DevOps
11 46 (2.10%) PaaS
12 41 (1.87%) Microsoft Purview
13 38 (1.73%) Azure Sentinel
14 36 (1.64%) Power Automate
14 36 (1.64%) Serverless
15 29 (1.32%) Google Workspace
16 27 (1.23%) Azure Monitor
17 25 (1.14%) Azure ExpressRoute
18 24 (1.09%) Dynamics 365
19 22 (1.00%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 719 (32.76%) DNS
2 604 (27.52%) DHCP
3 544 (24.78%) Firewall
4 397 (18.09%) VPN
5 282 (12.85%) TCP/IP
6 224 (10.21%) VLAN
7 222 (10.11%) Wi-Fi
8 209 (9.52%) WAN
9 203 (9.25%) LAN
10 153 (6.97%) Wireless
11 138 (6.29%) VoIP
12 95 (4.33%) Network Security
13 73 (3.33%) SAN
14 39 (1.78%) Remote Desktop
15 30 (1.37%) SSL
16 29 (1.32%) Internet
17 23 (1.05%) NAS
18 19 (0.87%) Structured Cabling
18 19 (0.87%) WLAN
19 16 (0.73%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 103 (4.69%) SQL Server
2 91 (4.15%) Amazon RDS
3 32 (1.46%) Azure SQL Database
4 23 (1.05%) Power BI
5 19 (0.87%) MySQL
6 12 (0.55%) 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 66 (3.01%) 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 1,048 (47.74%) Social Skills
2 258 (11.75%) Analytical Skills
3 144 (6.56%) Legal
4 126 (5.74%) Finance
5 83 (3.78%) Manufacturing
6 82 (3.74%) Organisational Skills
7 81 (3.69%) Law
8 77 (3.51%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 70 (3.19%) Public Sector
10 56 (2.55%) Retail
11 45 (2.05%) Telecoms
12 36 (1.64%) Documentation Skills
13 35 (1.59%) Aerospace
14 26 (1.18%) Advertising
15 15 (0.68%) Automotive
16 11 (0.50%) Influencing Skills
16 11 (0.50%) Local Government
17 9 (0.41%) Games
18 7 (0.32%) Aviation
19 5 (0.23%) Dutch Language
Job Titles
1 821 (37.40%) IT Support
2 537 (24.46%) Support Engineer
3 532 (24.24%) IT Engineer
4 435 (19.82%) IT Support Engineer
5 363 (16.54%) Analyst
6 271 (12.35%) Senior
7 239 (10.89%) Support Analyst
8 219 (9.98%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 200 (9.11%) IT Technician
10 198 (9.02%) Support Technician
11 179 (8.15%) IT Support Technician
12 160 (7.29%) IT Analyst
13 153 (6.97%) 2nd Line Support
14 151 (6.88%) Systems Engineer
15 144 (6.56%) IT Support Analyst
16 104 (4.74%) 2nd Line Engineer
17 96 (4.37%) Architect
18 88 (4.01%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
19 86 (3.92%) Administrator
20 80 (3.64%) 3rd Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 78 (3.55%) Terraform
2 57 (2.60%) LDAP
3 34 (1.55%) SAML
4 31 (1.41%) OpenID
5 28 (1.28%) OAuth
6 21 (0.96%) .NET
7 20 (0.91%) Regular Expression
8 19 (0.87%) XMPP
9 14 (0.64%) Microsoft Graph
10 13 (0.59%) ModSecurity
11 12 (0.55%) HTML
12 11 (0.50%) ARM Templates
12 11 (0.50%) SailPoint
13 10 (0.46%) REST
13 10 (0.46%) Web Services
14 8 (0.36%) ASP.NET Web Forms
14 8 (0.36%) OAuth2
14 8 (0.36%) WinForms
15 6 (0.27%) SOAP
16 5 (0.23%) ODBC
Miscellaneous
1 299 (13.62%) Driving Licence
2 197 (8.97%) Onboarding
3 127 (5.79%) Self-Motivation
4 86 (3.92%) Legacy Systems
5 83 (3.78%) Hybrid Cloud
6 70 (3.19%) Management Information System
7 68 (3.10%) Data Centre
8 47 (2.14%) PKI
9 44 (2.00%) Security Posture
10 41 (1.87%) Cloud Native
10 41 (1.87%) Clustering
10 41 (1.87%) Enterprise Software
11 36 (1.64%) Replication
12 35 (1.59%) CCTV
13 31 (1.41%) Public Cloud
14 25 (1.14%) iPhone
15 19 (0.87%) iPad
16 18 (0.82%) Video Conferencing
17 17 (0.77%) Social Media
18 15 (0.68%) Enterprise Storage
Operating Systems
1 1,558 (70.98%) Windows
2 904 (41.18%) Windows Server
3 266 (12.12%) Linux
4 264 (12.03%) Windows 10
5 154 (7.02%) Windows Server 2016
6 131 (5.97%) Mac OS
7 91 (4.15%) Windows Server 2019
8 81 (3.69%) Apple iOS
9 57 (2.60%) Android
10 35 (1.59%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 27 (1.23%) Ubuntu
12 24 (1.09%) VMS
13 22 (1.00%) 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
1 802 (36.54%) Problem-Solving
2 561 (25.56%) Customer Service
3 470 (21.41%) ITIL
4 448 (20.41%) Continuous Improvement
5 435 (19.82%) Cybersecurity
6 369 (16.81%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 269 (12.26%) Disaster Recovery
8 266 (12.12%) Mentoring
9 214 (9.75%) ITSM
10 200 (9.11%) Project Delivery
11 194 (8.84%) Identity Access Management
12 188 (8.56%) Service Delivery
13 172 (7.84%) Migration
14 149 (6.79%) Service Management
15 137 (6.24%) Customer Experience
16 134 (6.10%) Collaborative Working
17 133 (6.06%) Stakeholder Engagement
18 128 (5.83%) AI
19 127 (5.79%) Vulnerability Remediation
20 112 (5.10%) RBAC
Programming Languages
1 343 (15.63%) PowerShell
2 197 (8.97%) SQL
3 65 (2.96%) Python
4 56 (2.55%) Bash
5 51 (2.32%) Bicep
6 26 (1.18%) R
7 20 (0.91%) Ruby
8 16 (0.73%) 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
12 4 (0.18%) Shell Script
12 4 (0.18%) VB.NET
13 3 (0.14%) JavaScript
13 3 (0.14%) VB
13 3 (0.14%) VBScript
14 2 (0.091%) Google Apps Script
Qualifications
1 308 (14.03%) Security Cleared
2 208 (9.48%) SC Cleared
3 206 (9.38%) Degree
4 191 (8.70%) Microsoft Certification
5 123 (5.60%) Azure Certification
6 114 (5.19%) A+ Certification
7 103 (4.69%) Network+ Certification
8 97 (4.42%) DV Cleared
9 75 (3.42%) CISM
9 75 (3.42%) CISSP
10 65 (2.96%) DBS Check
11 61 (2.78%) Cisco Certification
12 49 (2.23%) CCNA
13 31 (1.41%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 25 (1.14%) 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 (0.68%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 215 (9.79%) Cyber Essentials
2 146 (6.65%) SLA
3 122 (5.56%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 87 (3.96%) PCI DSS
5 56 (2.55%) GDPR
6 42 (1.91%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 28 (1.28%) NIST
8 17 (0.77%) QA
9 15 (0.68%) Accessibility
10 13 (0.59%) Data Quality
11 12 (0.55%) NCSC
12 6 (0.27%) SOC 2
13 4 (0.18%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 3 (0.14%) GRC
14 3 (0.14%) ISAE 3402
15 1 (0.046%) ISO 9001
15 1 (0.046%) ISO/IEC 42001
15 1 (0.046%) PMO
System Software
1 503 (22.92%) Hyper-V
2 398 (18.13%) VMware Infrastructure
3 87 (3.96%) vSphere
4 74 (3.37%) Virtual Desktop
5 73 (3.33%) Terminal Server
6 57 (2.60%) Virtual Machines
7 39 (1.78%) VMware ESXi
8 32 (1.46%) 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
12 9 (0.41%) NDS
13 8 (0.36%) Citrix Hypervisor
14 4 (0.18%) Squid
15 3 (0.14%) DFS Replication
15 3 (0.14%) VMware Server
16 2 (0.091%) UAG
16 2 (0.091%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 605 (27.56%) Microsoft Intune
2 97 (4.42%) SCCM
3 56 (2.55%) Single Sign-On
4 37 (1.69%) Ansible
5 33 (1.50%) FortiGate
5 33 (1.50%) Kubernetes
6 28 (1.28%) Jamf Pro
6 28 (1.28%) WSUS
7 21 (0.96%) vCenter Server
8 19 (0.87%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 17 (0.77%) Proxmox
9 17 (0.77%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
10 15 (0.68%) Failover Clustering
11 11 (0.50%) Microsoft Clustering
11 11 (0.50%) ZABBIX
12 10 (0.46%) SCOM
13 6 (0.27%) Grafana
13 6 (0.27%) Graylog
13 6 (0.27%) Prometheus
14 5 (0.23%) Packer
Vendors
1 1,823 (83.05%) Microsoft
2 577 (26.29%) VMware
3 202 (9.20%) Veeam
4 175 (7.97%) Cisco
5 92 (4.19%) SolarWinds
6 89 (4.05%) Splunk
7 86 (3.92%) Meraki
8 79 (3.60%) CyberArk
9 77 (3.51%) Nimble Storage
10 75 (3.42%) Apple
11 72 (3.28%) Brocade
11 72 (3.28%) Tanium
12 67 (3.05%) ServiceNow
13 62 (2.82%) Fortinet
14 60 (2.73%) SonicWALL
15 57 (2.60%) Citrix
16 46 (2.10%) HP
17 45 (2.05%) Dell
18 41 (1.87%) Red Hat
19 40 (1.82%) Palo Alto