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

6 months to
11 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 51 43 30
Rank change year-on-year -8 -13 +6
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 2,090 1,789 4,353
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 2.94% 5.32% 5.93%
As % of the System Software category 52.72% 41.37% 52.38%
Number of salaries quoted 1,637 1,429 3,492
10th Percentile £26,500 £26,000 £23,750
25th Percentile £29,000 £28,250 £27,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £37,500 £35,000 £35,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% - -2.78%
75th Percentile £48,750 £48,750 £48,500
90th Percentile £62,557 £61,425 £58,750
UK median annual salary £40,000 £38,500 £37,500
% change year-on-year +3.90% +2.67% -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 3,964 4,324 8,311
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 5.58% 12.86% 11.32%
Number of salaries quoted 3,052 2,562 6,541
10th Percentile £28,000 £26,500 £25,750
25th Percentile £32,500 £31,250 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £47,500 £46,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year +3.26% +2.22% -5.26%
75th Percentile £65,000 £66,250 £60,000
90th Percentile £78,750 £81,250 £72,500
UK median annual salary £52,500 £52,500 £48,925
% change year-on-year - +7.31% -11.05%

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 July 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 July 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 +2 514 £42,500 +6.25% 186
North of England -6 488 £34,000 +6.25% 138
Midlands -30 352 £37,500 +7.14% 56
South West -16 278 £37,500 +8.70% 62
North West +53 246 £35,000 -6.67% 61
East of England +2 235 £35,000 +7.69% 46
Yorkshire -27 190 £32,500 +8.33% 54
East Midlands -6 187 £33,500 +6.35% 33
West Midlands -41 164 £39,500 -0.63% 23
Scotland +79 110 £28,625 -21.03% 42
Wales -4 71 £45,000 +18.13% 13
North East -56 52 £42,500 +32.81% 32
Northern Ireland -26 40 £35,500 -32.38% 17
Isle of Man +4 6 £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
1 604 (28.90%) Microsoft Exchange
2 444 (21.24%) SharePoint
3 40 (1.91%) IIS
4 15 (0.72%) Confluence
5 11 (0.53%) Exchange Server 2013
6 9 (0.43%) Exchange Server 2007
6 9 (0.43%) Exchange Server 2010
6 9 (0.43%) Skype for Business
7 7 (0.33%) Apache
8 4 (0.19%) CMS
9 3 (0.14%) SAS
10 1 (0.048%) Drupal
10 1 (0.048%) nginx
10 1 (0.048%) Site Server
10 1 (0.048%) WordPress
Applications
1 211 (10.10%) Microsoft Office
2 42 (2.01%) Microsoft Excel
3 13 (0.62%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.14%) Adobe Creative Suite
4 3 (0.14%) Spreadsheet
5 2 (0.096%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.048%) AutoCAD
6 1 (0.048%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.048%) Revit
Business Applications
1 17 (0.81%) Dynamics CRM
2 13 (0.62%) Dynamics NAV
3 9 (0.43%) Remedy ITSM
4 6 (0.29%) Raiser’s Edge
5 5 (0.24%) NetSuite
6 4 (0.19%) Dynamics GP
6 4 (0.19%) Exchequer
6 4 (0.19%) Primavera
7 3 (0.14%) JDE EnterpriseOne
7 3 (0.14%) Salesforce CRM
8 2 (0.096%) Alphatax
8 2 (0.096%) SAP S/4HANA
8 2 (0.096%) Shopify
9 1 (0.048%) Dynamics AX
9 1 (0.048%) Magento
9 1 (0.048%) Oracle Payables
9 1 (0.048%) Payment Gateway
9 1 (0.048%) Sage 200
9 1 (0.048%) SAP EHS
Cloud Services
1 1,475 (70.57%) Microsoft 365
2 1,152 (55.12%) Azure
3 846 (40.48%) Entra ID
4 147 (7.03%) OneDrive
5 143 (6.84%) AWS
6 101 (4.83%) SaaS
7 85 (4.07%) Power Platform
8 62 (2.97%) IaaS
9 59 (2.82%) Mimecast
10 55 (2.63%) PaaS
11 54 (2.58%) Google Workspace
12 45 (2.15%) Azure DevOps
13 35 (1.67%) Microsoft Purview
14 30 (1.44%) Azure Sentinel
15 29 (1.39%) Azure Monitor
16 28 (1.34%) Nutanix
16 28 (1.34%) Serverless
17 25 (1.20%) PowerApps
18 22 (1.05%) Azure Functions
19 21 (1.00%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 702 (33.59%) DNS
2 589 (28.18%) DHCP
3 538 (25.74%) Firewall
4 358 (17.13%) VPN
5 245 (11.72%) TCP/IP
6 211 (10.10%) WAN
7 210 (10.05%) Wi-Fi
8 208 (9.95%) LAN
9 207 (9.90%) VLAN
10 127 (6.08%) VoIP
11 120 (5.74%) Wireless
12 83 (3.97%) Network Security
13 76 (3.64%) SAN
14 51 (2.44%) Remote Desktop
15 30 (1.44%) NAS
16 28 (1.34%) Broadband
17 27 (1.29%) Internet
18 19 (0.91%) SD-WAN
19 17 (0.81%) SSL
20 15 (0.72%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 116 (5.55%) SQL Server
2 102 (4.88%) Amazon RDS
3 47 (2.25%) Power BI
4 31 (1.48%) Azure SQL Database
5 28 (1.34%) PostgreSQL
6 27 (1.29%) MySQL
7 9 (0.43%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 6 (0.29%) Crystal Reports
9 5 (0.24%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 4 (0.19%) GIS
10 4 (0.19%) Neo4j
11 3 (0.14%) Oracle Database
12 2 (0.096%) BusinessObjects
12 2 (0.096%) Data Lake
12 2 (0.096%) Data Warehouse
12 2 (0.096%) KNIME
12 2 (0.096%) Relational Database
13 1 (0.048%) InterSystems Cache
13 1 (0.048%) RDBMS
13 1 (0.048%) Redis
Development Applications
1 77 (3.68%) JIRA
2 23 (1.10%) Git
3 11 (0.53%) GitLab
4 7 (0.33%) Jenkins
5 5 (0.24%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 4 (0.19%) Bitbucket
7 2 (0.096%) Artifactory
7 2 (0.096%) Burp Suite
7 2 (0.096%) Metasploit
7 2 (0.096%) Subversion
7 2 (0.096%) Terragrunt
8 1 (0.048%) Carbide.c++
8 1 (0.048%) Gatling
8 1 (0.048%) JMeter
8 1 (0.048%) Ranorex
8 1 (0.048%) Selenium
8 1 (0.048%) Sonatype Nexus
8 1 (0.048%) Team Foundation Server
8 1 (0.048%) Vagrant
General
1 912 (43.64%) Social Skills
2 231 (11.05%) Analytical Skills
3 128 (6.12%) Organisational Skills
4 125 (5.98%) Finance
5 102 (4.88%) Legal
6 94 (4.50%) Law
7 70 (3.35%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 68 (3.25%) Manufacturing
9 62 (2.97%) Documentation Skills
9 62 (2.97%) Public Sector
10 47 (2.25%) Retail
11 45 (2.15%) Telecoms
12 27 (1.29%) Advertising
13 23 (1.10%) Games
14 21 (1.00%) Local Government
15 14 (0.67%) Aerospace
16 12 (0.57%) Automotive
17 9 (0.43%) Influencing Skills
17 9 (0.43%) Marketing
18 7 (0.33%) Banking
Job Titles
1 810 (38.76%) IT Support
2 563 (26.94%) Support Engineer
3 526 (25.17%) IT Engineer
4 438 (20.96%) IT Support Engineer
5 346 (16.56%) Analyst
6 230 (11.00%) Support Analyst
7 224 (10.72%) Senior
8 195 (9.33%) Support Technician
9 193 (9.23%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 186 (8.90%) IT Technician
11 167 (7.99%) 2nd Line Support
12 166 (7.94%) IT Support Technician
13 162 (7.75%) Systems Engineer
14 160 (7.66%) IT Analyst
15 143 (6.84%) IT Support Analyst
16 100 (4.78%) 2nd Line Engineer
17 87 (4.16%) 3rd Line Support
18 84 (4.02%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
19 79 (3.78%) 1st Line Support
20 76 (3.64%) Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 45 (2.15%) LDAP
2 33 (1.58%) SAML
3 28 (1.34%) OpenID
4 25 (1.20%) OAuth
5 23 (1.10%) Regular Expression
5 23 (1.10%) REST
6 19 (0.91%) XMPP
7 18 (0.86%) GraphQL
7 18 (0.86%) SOAP
8 15 (0.72%) JSON
8 15 (0.72%) XML
9 11 (0.53%) .NET
9 11 (0.53%) ARM Templates
10 10 (0.48%) HTML
11 9 (0.43%) Microsoft Graph
11 9 (0.43%) Web Services
12 7 (0.33%) JSON Schema
13 6 (0.29%) Middleware
14 5 (0.24%) FreeSWITCH
14 5 (0.24%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 296 (14.16%) Driving Licence
2 156 (7.46%) Onboarding
3 125 (5.98%) Self-Motivation
4 94 (4.50%) Legacy Systems
5 87 (4.16%) Hybrid Cloud
6 69 (3.30%) Data Centre
7 64 (3.06%) Management Information System
8 49 (2.34%) PKI
9 45 (2.15%) Clustering
10 40 (1.91%) Public Cloud
11 37 (1.77%) Replication
12 32 (1.53%) Security Posture
13 31 (1.48%) Enterprise Software
14 29 (1.39%) CCTV
15 28 (1.34%) Cloud Native
16 26 (1.24%) Cyber Threat
17 22 (1.05%) Cyberattack
18 16 (0.77%) Client/Server
19 15 (0.72%) Data Structures
19 15 (0.72%) Enterprise Storage
Operating Systems
1 1,512 (72.34%) Windows
2 896 (42.87%) Windows Server
3 315 (15.07%) Windows 10
4 273 (13.06%) Linux
5 170 (8.13%) Windows Server 2016
6 142 (6.79%) Mac OS
7 90 (4.31%) Windows Server 2019
8 79 (3.78%) Apple iOS
9 71 (3.40%) Android
10 42 (2.01%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 29 (1.39%) Windows Server 2012
12 26 (1.24%) VMS
13 15 (0.72%) Windows 7
14 13 (0.62%) Ubuntu
15 12 (0.57%) Windows Server 2008
16 7 (0.33%) Debian
16 7 (0.33%) Windows 8
17 5 (0.24%) CentOS
18 4 (0.19%) Mac OS X
18 4 (0.19%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 709 (33.92%) Problem-Solving
2 534 (25.55%) Customer Service
3 473 (22.63%) ITIL
4 370 (17.70%) Cybersecurity
5 362 (17.32%) Continuous Improvement
6 284 (13.59%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 246 (11.77%) Mentoring
8 217 (10.38%) Disaster Recovery
9 193 (9.23%) Service Delivery
10 187 (8.95%) ITSM
11 151 (7.22%) Migration
12 148 (7.08%) Project Delivery
13 127 (6.08%) Vulnerability Remediation
14 126 (6.03%) Customer Experience
15 124 (5.93%) Change Management
16 121 (5.79%) Kalman Filter
17 115 (5.50%) Incident Management
18 114 (5.45%) Web Filtering
19 108 (5.17%) Identity Access Management
20 106 (5.07%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 336 (16.08%) PowerShell
2 199 (9.52%) SQL
3 77 (3.68%) Bash
4 65 (3.11%) Python
5 37 (1.77%) Bicep
6 30 (1.44%) T-SQL
7 27 (1.29%) R
8 12 (0.57%) Kusto Query Language
9 11 (0.53%) VBA
10 9 (0.43%) C#
11 7 (0.33%) Shell Script
11 7 (0.33%) VB
12 6 (0.29%) Korn
12 6 (0.29%) PHP
13 5 (0.24%) Java
13 5 (0.24%) JavaScript
13 5 (0.24%) Ruby
14 2 (0.096%) C
14 2 (0.096%) VB.NET
14 2 (0.096%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 284 (13.59%) Security Cleared
2 199 (9.52%) Degree
3 192 (9.19%) SC Cleared
4 183 (8.76%) Microsoft Certification
5 97 (4.64%) Azure Certification
6 85 (4.07%) DV Cleared
7 68 (3.25%) A+ Certification
8 62 (2.97%) Network+ Certification
9 56 (2.68%) Cisco Certification
10 55 (2.63%) DBS Check
11 51 (2.44%) CCNA
12 30 (1.44%) CISM
12 30 (1.44%) CISSP
13 29 (1.39%) Microsoft Certified Professional
14 21 (1.00%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 21 (1.00%) MCSA
15 19 (0.91%) Computer Science Degree
16 14 (0.67%) CompTIA Security+
17 13 (0.62%) CCNP
17 13 (0.62%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 209 (10.00%) Cyber Essentials
2 177 (8.47%) SLA
3 130 (6.22%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 96 (4.59%) PCI DSS
5 47 (2.25%) GDPR
6 43 (2.06%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 40 (1.91%) NIST
8 23 (1.10%) NCSC
8 23 (1.10%) QA
9 21 (1.00%) Data Quality
10 9 (0.43%) Accessibility
11 6 (0.29%) SOC 2
12 5 (0.24%) PMO
13 4 (0.19%) 21 CFR Part 11
13 4 (0.19%) GRC
13 4 (0.19%) GxP
13 4 (0.19%) ITGC
14 2 (0.096%) ISAE 3402
14 2 (0.096%) ISO 22301
14 2 (0.096%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 485 (23.21%) Hyper-V
2 362 (17.32%) VMware Infrastructure
3 103 (4.93%) vSphere
4 82 (3.92%) Terminal Server
5 63 (3.01%) Virtual Desktop
6 50 (2.39%) VMware ESXi
7 46 (2.20%) Virtual Machines
8 34 (1.63%) Docker
9 17 (0.81%) VMware NSX
10 13 (0.62%) Virtual Servers
11 12 (0.57%) Firmware
12 11 (0.53%) BitLocker
13 9 (0.43%) DFS Replication
13 9 (0.43%) Microsoft Virtual Server
14 8 (0.38%) Citrix Hypervisor
15 7 (0.33%) VMware Workstation
16 6 (0.29%) XenApp
17 4 (0.19%) Squid
18 3 (0.14%) VMware Server
19 2 (0.096%) Xen
Systems Management
1 484 (23.16%) Microsoft Intune
2 107 (5.12%) SCCM
3 53 (2.54%) Terraform
4 36 (1.72%) Single Sign-On
4 36 (1.72%) vCenter Server
5 30 (1.44%) Jamf Pro
6 29 (1.39%) Ansible
6 29 (1.39%) WSUS
7 28 (1.34%) FortiGate
8 27 (1.29%) Kubernetes
9 23 (1.10%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 22 (1.05%) Proxmox
11 19 (0.91%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
12 14 (0.67%) Failover Clustering
13 13 (0.62%) ZABBIX
14 10 (0.48%) Microsoft Clustering
15 9 (0.43%) Autotask
15 9 (0.43%) Backup Exec
15 9 (0.43%) SCOM
16 6 (0.29%) VxRail
Vendors
1 1,635 (78.23%) Microsoft
2 558 (26.70%) VMware
3 194 (9.28%) Veeam
4 135 (6.46%) Cisco
5 108 (5.17%) SolarWinds
6 96 (4.59%) Nimble Storage
7 95 (4.55%) Splunk
8 82 (3.92%) Citrix
9 80 (3.83%) Brocade
9 80 (3.83%) Tanium
10 75 (3.59%) Apple
11 74 (3.54%) ServiceNow
12 73 (3.49%) Meraki
13 64 (3.06%) Dell
13 64 (3.06%) HP
14 49 (2.34%) Google
15 43 (2.06%) CrowdStrike
16 39 (1.87%) SonicWALL
16 39 (1.87%) Ubiquiti
17 38 (1.82%) Red Hat