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 30 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 46 38 22
Rank change year-on-year -8 -16 +19
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 1,729 2,010 2,594
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 4.11% 5.39% 8.42%
As % of the System Software category 60.67% 44.72% 48.84%
Number of salaries quoted 1,233 1,247 2,302
10th Percentile £26,250 £25,750 £25,500
25th Percentile £28,000 £30,000 £29,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £33,500 £40,000 £37,500
Median % change year-on-year -16.25% +6.67% -
75th Percentile £46,500 £52,500 £51,250
90th Percentile £60,000 £61,250 £59,000
UK median annual salary £36,500 £42,500 £42,500
% change year-on-year -14.12% - +1.29%

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 2,850 4,495 5,311
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 6.78% 12.05% 17.23%
Number of salaries quoted 2,004 2,598 4,407
10th Percentile £26,500 £27,750 £27,000
25th Percentile £30,000 £35,000 £33,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £41,526 £50,000 £47,557
Median % change year-on-year -16.95% +5.14% -1.94%
75th Percentile £60,750 £67,500 £63,750
90th Percentile £77,500 £81,250 £77,500
UK median annual salary £50,000 £57,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year -13.04% +4.55% -1.62%

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 30 December 2025.

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 30 December 2025. 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 +10 465 £36,000 -17.24% 346
North of England -19 341 £32,500 -18.75% 247
South West +5 293 £32,500 -6.47% 132
Midlands -15 274 £31,500 -10.00% 180
East of England -11 210 £35,000 - 146
East Midlands +12 157 £29,000 -10.77% 80
North West -12 150 £35,000 -15.12% 137
Yorkshire -5 145 £31,500 -10.00% 81
West Midlands -45 117 £37,500 - 94
Scotland 0 97 £30,500 -23.75% 43
North East -12 46 £31,000 -17.33% 32
Wales +3 43 £35,000 - 31
Northern Ireland 0 16 £47,750 -9.05% 15
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
1 521 (30.13%) Microsoft Exchange
2 307 (17.76%) SharePoint
3 26 (1.50%) Exchange Server 2003
3 26 (1.50%) IIS
4 17 (0.98%) Confluence
5 16 (0.93%) Skype for Business
6 4 (0.23%) Exchange Server 2013
6 4 (0.23%) Tomcat
7 3 (0.17%) WebLogic
7 3 (0.17%) WebLogic Portal
8 2 (0.12%) CMS
8 2 (0.12%) Exchange Server 2007
8 2 (0.12%) Exchange Server 2010
8 2 (0.12%) FactoryTalk
8 2 (0.12%) WinCC
8 2 (0.12%) WordPress
9 1 (0.058%) BizTalk Server
9 1 (0.058%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 224 (12.96%) Microsoft Office
2 38 (2.20%) Microsoft Excel
3 7 (0.40%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.23%) AutoCAD
4 4 (0.23%) CATIA
5 1 (0.058%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.058%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 31 (1.79%) Dynamics CRM
2 20 (1.16%) Oracle ERP
3 6 (0.35%) Remedy ITSM
4 5 (0.29%) NetSuite
5 4 (0.23%) Markit EDM
5 4 (0.23%) Visualfiles
6 3 (0.17%) Oracle EBS
6 3 (0.17%) Primavera
7 1 (0.058%) Cognos Business Intelligence
7 1 (0.058%) Dynamics AX
7 1 (0.058%) Dynamics NAV
7 1 (0.058%) Sage 200
7 1 (0.058%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 1,203 (69.58%) Microsoft 365
2 926 (53.56%) Azure
3 540 (31.23%) Entra ID
4 119 (6.88%) AWS
5 110 (6.36%) OneDrive
6 71 (4.11%) SaaS
7 61 (3.53%) Power Platform
8 52 (3.01%) Google Workspace
9 39 (2.26%) Azure DevOps
9 39 (2.26%) GCP
10 37 (2.14%) IaaS
11 36 (2.08%) PowerApps
12 34 (1.97%) PaaS
13 31 (1.79%) Azure Logic Apps
14 30 (1.74%) Azure Monitor
15 29 (1.68%) GitHub
16 23 (1.33%) Dynamics 365
16 23 (1.33%) OCI
17 22 (1.27%) Azure Sentinel
17 22 (1.27%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 642 (37.13%) DNS
2 603 (34.88%) DHCP
3 399 (23.08%) Firewall
4 259 (14.98%) TCP/IP
5 247 (14.29%) VPN
6 171 (9.89%) VLAN
7 163 (9.43%) LAN
8 161 (9.31%) WAN
9 120 (6.94%) Wi-Fi
10 92 (5.32%) Wireless
11 84 (4.86%) VoIP
12 71 (4.11%) SAN
13 61 (3.53%) Remote Desktop
14 40 (2.31%) Network Security
15 37 (2.14%) Internet
16 20 (1.16%) Broadband
16 20 (1.16%) SMTP
17 19 (1.10%) SD-WAN
18 17 (0.98%) SSL
19 16 (0.93%) Skype
Database & Business Intelligence
1 124 (7.17%) Amazon RDS
2 57 (3.30%) SQL Server
3 29 (1.68%) Oracle Database
4 26 (1.50%) Oracle Database 10g
5 19 (1.10%) Power BI
6 12 (0.69%) Azure SQL Database
7 9 (0.52%) DTS
8 8 (0.46%) MySQL
9 7 (0.40%) Data Warehouse
10 6 (0.35%) Relational Database
11 5 (0.29%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 5 (0.29%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 3 (0.17%) Data Mining
12 3 (0.17%) GIS
12 3 (0.17%) Oracle Discoverer
12 3 (0.17%) Oracle Reports
12 3 (0.17%) PostgreSQL
13 2 (0.12%) NoSQL
14 1 (0.058%) Cognos Connection
14 1 (0.058%) Cognos Framework Manager
Development Applications
1 54 (3.12%) JIRA
2 32 (1.85%) Jenkins
3 28 (1.62%) Git
4 23 (1.33%) Oracle Forms
5 5 (0.29%) Vagrant
6 4 (0.23%) GitLab
7 3 (0.17%) LabVIEW
7 3 (0.17%) Oracle APEX
8 2 (0.12%) Subversion
8 2 (0.12%) Visual Studio
9 1 (0.058%) Artifactory
9 1 (0.058%) Burp Suite
9 1 (0.058%) Metasploit
9 1 (0.058%) Octopus Deploy
9 1 (0.058%) Sonatype Nexus
9 1 (0.058%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
9 1 (0.058%) TeamCity
General
1 858 (49.62%) Social Skills
2 195 (11.28%) Analytical Skills
3 137 (7.92%) Finance
4 107 (6.19%) Organisational Skills
5 98 (5.67%) Manufacturing
6 65 (3.76%) Retail
7 59 (3.41%) Law
8 49 (2.83%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 47 (2.72%) Documentation Skills
10 42 (2.43%) Advertising
11 37 (2.14%) Legal
12 30 (1.74%) Telecoms
13 25 (1.45%) Public Sector
14 19 (1.10%) Games
14 19 (1.10%) Marketing
15 15 (0.87%) French Language
15 15 (0.87%) Pharmaceutical
15 15 (0.87%) Swedish Language
16 9 (0.52%) Aerospace
17 6 (0.35%) Automotive
Job Titles
1 596 (34.47%) IT Support
2 409 (23.66%) Support Engineer
3 293 (16.95%) IT Engineer
4 251 (14.52%) Analyst
5 246 (14.23%) IT Support Engineer
6 187 (10.82%) 2nd Line Support
7 183 (10.58%) Support Analyst
8 158 (9.14%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 149 (8.62%) Support Technician
10 136 (7.87%) IT Analyst
10 136 (7.87%) Systems Engineer
11 117 (6.77%) IT Technician
12 114 (6.59%) Senior
13 111 (6.42%) IT Support Analyst
14 105 (6.07%) Technical Support
15 103 (5.96%) 3rd Line Support
16 98 (5.67%) IT Support Technician
17 90 (5.21%) 1st Line Support
18 77 (4.45%) 2nd Line Engineer
19 69 (3.99%) Cloud Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 36 (2.08%) SOAP
2 35 (2.02%) LDAP
3 24 (1.39%) OAuth
3 24 (1.39%) OpenID
3 24 (1.39%) SAML
4 23 (1.33%) .NET
4 23 (1.33%) RESTful
5 20 (1.16%) JSON
5 20 (1.16%) XML
6 16 (0.93%) GraphQL
6 16 (0.93%) REST
7 15 (0.87%) ARM Templates
8 14 (0.81%) EDI
9 12 (0.69%) React
10 10 (0.58%) CSS
10 10 (0.58%) HTML
11 9 (0.52%) .NET Framework
12 8 (0.46%) OAuth2
13 5 (0.29%) Microsoft Graph
14 4 (0.23%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 247 (14.29%) Driving Licence
2 171 (9.89%) Onboarding
3 104 (6.02%) Legacy Systems
4 71 (4.11%) Self-Motivation
5 63 (3.64%) Enterprise Software
6 45 (2.60%) Data Centre
7 39 (2.26%) Cloud Native
8 30 (1.74%) Management Information System
9 28 (1.62%) Hybrid Cloud
10 22 (1.27%) Video Conferencing
11 21 (1.21%) PKI
12 20 (1.16%) Clustering
13 19 (1.10%) Cyberattack
13 19 (1.10%) iPad
14 18 (1.04%) Cyber Threat
14 18 (1.04%) Replication
15 16 (0.93%) Client/Server
15 16 (0.93%) CMDB
15 16 (0.93%) Security Posture
16 15 (0.87%) FMCG
Operating Systems
1 1,253 (72.47%) Windows
2 768 (44.42%) Windows Server
3 270 (15.62%) Windows 10
4 222 (12.84%) Linux
5 147 (8.50%) Windows Server 2016
6 91 (5.26%) Windows Server 2019
7 90 (5.21%) Mac OS
8 71 (4.11%) Apple iOS
9 61 (3.53%) Android
10 33 (1.91%) Windows Server 2008
11 31 (1.79%) Unix
11 31 (1.79%) Windows 7
12 26 (1.50%) Solaris
12 26 (1.50%) Windows Server 2003
12 26 (1.50%) Windows Server 2012
13 25 (1.45%) HPUX
14 14 (0.81%) VMS
15 12 (0.69%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
16 5 (0.29%) Amazon Linux
16 5 (0.29%) Windows 8
Processes & Methodologies
1 621 (35.92%) Problem-Solving
2 548 (31.69%) Customer Service
3 359 (20.76%) ITIL
4 221 (12.78%) Cybersecurity
5 207 (11.97%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 190 (10.99%) Mentoring
7 178 (10.29%) Continuous Improvement
8 166 (9.60%) ITSM
9 163 (9.43%) Migration
10 124 (7.17%) Service Delivery
11 116 (6.71%) Incident Management
12 110 (6.36%) Disaster Recovery
13 109 (6.30%) Vulnerability Remediation
14 107 (6.19%) Kalman Filter
15 105 (6.07%) Customer Experience
15 105 (6.07%) Web Filtering
16 103 (5.96%) Agile
17 102 (5.90%) Asset Management
18 101 (5.84%) Coaching
19 100 (5.78%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 271 (15.67%) PowerShell
2 134 (7.75%) SQL
3 55 (3.18%) Python
4 44 (2.54%) Bash
5 27 (1.56%) Java
5 27 (1.56%) Perl
6 23 (1.33%) PL/SQL
7 22 (1.27%) Shell Script
8 18 (1.04%) T-SQL
9 15 (0.87%) JavaScript
10 13 (0.75%) C#
10 13 (0.75%) VB
11 11 (0.64%) Bicep
12 7 (0.40%) Groovy
13 5 (0.29%) VBA
14 3 (0.17%) Korn
15 2 (0.12%) TypeScript
16 1 (0.058%) VB.NET
16 1 (0.058%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 236 (13.65%) Security Cleared
2 205 (11.86%) SC Cleared
3 154 (8.91%) Microsoft Certification
4 149 (8.62%) Degree
5 63 (3.64%) DV Cleared
6 51 (2.95%) DBS Check
7 43 (2.49%) A+ Certification
8 41 (2.37%) Cisco Certification
9 37 (2.14%) Azure Certification
10 36 (2.08%) MCP
11 35 (2.02%) CCNA
12 30 (1.74%) MCSE
13 29 (1.68%) Network+ Certification
14 24 (1.39%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
15 22 (1.27%) ITIL Certification
16 16 (0.93%) MCSA
17 15 (0.87%) HND
18 13 (0.75%) CompTIA Security+
18 13 (0.75%) Computer Science Degree
19 12 (0.69%) HNC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 142 (8.21%) Cyber Essentials
2 123 (7.11%) SLA
3 105 (6.07%) PCI DSS
4 68 (3.93%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 53 (3.07%) GDPR
6 28 (1.62%) NIST
7 17 (0.98%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 16 (0.93%) NCSC
9 11 (0.64%) QA
10 7 (0.40%) GxP
11 6 (0.35%) Accessibility
11 6 (0.35%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 5 (0.29%) 21 CFR Part 11
13 2 (0.12%) Disclosure Scotland
14 1 (0.058%) GRC
14 1 (0.058%) IASME
14 1 (0.058%) ISO 22301
14 1 (0.058%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 350 (20.24%) Hyper-V
2 251 (14.52%) VMware Infrastructure
3 99 (5.73%) Terminal Server
4 50 (2.89%) Virtual Desktop
5 45 (2.60%) vSphere
6 30 (1.74%) VMware ESXi
7 25 (1.45%) Docker
8 24 (1.39%) Virtual Machines
9 18 (1.04%) Firmware
10 11 (0.64%) Virtual Servers
11 6 (0.35%) XenApp
12 5 (0.29%) BitLocker
13 4 (0.23%) Terminal Services
13 4 (0.23%) VMware NSX
13 4 (0.23%) VMware Workstation
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
15 1 (0.058%) DFS Replication
Systems Management
1 401 (23.19%) Microsoft Intune
2 139 (8.04%) SCCM
3 62 (3.59%) Terraform
4 41 (2.37%) Single Sign-On
5 32 (1.85%) vCenter Server
6 29 (1.68%) WSUS
7 24 (1.39%) Kubernetes
8 21 (1.21%) Ansible
9 20 (1.16%) SCOM
10 19 (1.10%) Jamf Pro
11 17 (0.98%) Autotask
11 17 (0.98%) FortiGate
12 13 (0.75%) Nagios
12 13 (0.75%) ZABBIX
13 10 (0.58%) Failover Clustering
14 9 (0.52%) Active Directory Federation Services
14 9 (0.52%) Prometheus
15 7 (0.40%) SmoothWall
16 6 (0.35%) PaperCut
17 5 (0.29%) MaaS360
Vendors
1 1,320 (76.34%) Microsoft
2 471 (27.24%) VMware
3 178 (10.29%) Veeam
4 139 (8.04%) Cisco
5 137 (7.92%) SolarWinds
6 109 (6.30%) Splunk
7 107 (6.19%) Nimble Storage
8 105 (6.07%) Tanium
9 96 (5.55%) Brocade
10 91 (5.26%) Apple
11 65 (3.76%) Citrix
12 64 (3.70%) ServiceNow
13 58 (3.35%) Google
14 51 (2.95%) Oracle
15 50 (2.89%) HP
16 41 (2.37%) Meraki
17 39 (2.26%) Dell
18 30 (1.74%) SonicWALL
19 28 (1.62%) Red Hat
20 26 (1.50%) Sophos