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

6 months to
2 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 66 39 31
Rank change year-on-year -27 -8 +12
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 1,710 1,454 4,461
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 2.62% 5.35% 6.55%
As % of the System Software category 57.06% 41.94% 50.73%
Number of salaries quoted 1,300 1,228 3,765
10th Percentile £26,250 £25,625 £23,750
25th Percentile £29,000 £27,750 £26,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £35,000 £35,000 £35,000
Median % change year-on-year - - -2.78%
75th Percentile £47,500 £47,500 £47,716
90th Percentile £63,400 £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 2,997 3,467 8,794
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 4.59% 12.75% 12.92%
Number of salaries quoted 2,199 2,466 7,170
10th Percentile £27,500 £26,500 £25,750
25th Percentile £31,250 £31,500 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £47,500 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% +5.56% -5.26%
75th Percentile £63,750 £67,500 £60,000
90th Percentile £77,500 £83,750 £75,000
UK median annual salary £52,500 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -4.55% +10.00% -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 2 May 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 2 May 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 -10 423 £36,500 -8.75% 148
North of England -13 410 £34,000 +3.82% 114
Midlands -47 293 £32,500 -4.41% 71
South West -9 237 £33,000 -1.49% 74
North West +6 203 £37,500 -5.66% 58
Yorkshire -24 178 £32,500 +8.33% 42
East of England -25 176 £40,000 +23.08% 56
East Midlands -29 152 £32,500 +3.17% 32
West Midlands -49 140 £33,500 -4.29% 39
Scotland +36 102 £29,000 -27.50% 21
Wales -1 45 £40,000 +5.00% 16
North East -32 29 £40,000 +22.70% 18
Northern Ireland -31 18 £32,000 -39.05% 6
Isle of Man +2 6 £45,000 +55.17%
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
1 426 (24.91%) Microsoft Exchange
2 344 (20.12%) SharePoint
3 19 (1.11%) IIS
4 13 (0.76%) Confluence
5 11 (0.64%) Exchange Server 2013
6 9 (0.53%) Exchange Server 2007
6 9 (0.53%) Exchange Server 2010
7 5 (0.29%) CMS
7 5 (0.29%) Skype for Business
8 4 (0.23%) Apache
9 2 (0.12%) WordPress
10 1 (0.058%) Drupal
10 1 (0.058%) nginx
Applications
1 213 (12.46%) Microsoft Office
2 37 (2.16%) Microsoft Excel
3 11 (0.64%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.18%) Spreadsheet
5 2 (0.12%) AutoCAD
6 1 (0.058%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 17 (0.99%) Dynamics CRM
2 10 (0.58%) Dynamics NAV
3 8 (0.47%) Oracle ERP
4 6 (0.35%) NetSuite
5 5 (0.29%) Remedy ITSM
6 4 (0.23%) Dynamics GP
6 4 (0.23%) Exchequer
6 4 (0.23%) Markit EDM
6 4 (0.23%) Primavera
7 2 (0.12%) Alphatax
7 2 (0.12%) SAP S/4HANA
7 2 (0.12%) Shopify
8 1 (0.058%) Magento
8 1 (0.058%) Oracle Payables
8 1 (0.058%) Sage 200
8 1 (0.058%) SAP EHS
Cloud Services
1 1,207 (70.58%) Microsoft 365
2 901 (52.69%) Azure
3 644 (37.66%) Entra ID
4 133 (7.78%) OneDrive
5 132 (7.72%) AWS
6 92 (5.38%) Google Workspace
7 90 (5.26%) SaaS
8 89 (5.20%) Power Platform
9 39 (2.28%) IaaS
9 39 (2.28%) Nutanix
10 34 (1.99%) PaaS
11 33 (1.93%) Azure DevOps
12 32 (1.87%) Mimecast
13 31 (1.81%) PowerApps
14 28 (1.64%) Azure Monitor
15 21 (1.23%) Microsoft Purview
16 19 (1.11%) Dynamics 365
16 19 (1.11%) GCP
17 17 (0.99%) Power Automate
18 16 (0.94%) Azure Sentinel
Communications & Networking
1 559 (32.69%) DNS
2 487 (28.48%) DHCP
3 410 (23.98%) Firewall
4 274 (16.02%) VPN
5 192 (11.23%) WAN
6 189 (11.05%) LAN
7 169 (9.88%) TCP/IP
8 151 (8.83%) VLAN
8 151 (8.83%) Wi-Fi
9 101 (5.91%) VoIP
10 83 (4.85%) Wireless
11 62 (3.63%) Network Security
12 60 (3.51%) Remote Desktop
13 56 (3.27%) SAN
14 45 (2.63%) Broadband
15 26 (1.52%) NAS
16 23 (1.35%) SD-WAN
17 19 (1.11%) Internet
18 16 (0.94%) Wireshark
19 15 (0.88%) SMTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 90 (5.26%) SQL Server
2 63 (3.68%) Amazon RDS
3 52 (3.04%) Power BI
4 30 (1.75%) PostgreSQL
5 26 (1.52%) MySQL
6 14 (0.82%) Azure SQL Database
7 8 (0.47%) GIS
7 8 (0.47%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 6 (0.35%) Data Warehouse
9 5 (0.29%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 3 (0.18%) Neo4j
11 2 (0.12%) Relational Database
12 1 (0.058%) Data Lake
12 1 (0.058%) InterSystems Cache
12 1 (0.058%) Metadata
12 1 (0.058%) NoSQL
12 1 (0.058%) RDBMS
12 1 (0.058%) Redis
Development Applications
1 69 (4.04%) JIRA
2 8 (0.47%) Jenkins
2 8 (0.47%) Oracle Forms
3 7 (0.41%) Git
3 7 (0.41%) GitLab
4 5 (0.29%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
5 4 (0.23%) LabVIEW
5 4 (0.23%) Subversion
6 1 (0.058%) Burp Suite
6 1 (0.058%) Gatling
6 1 (0.058%) JMeter
6 1 (0.058%) Metasploit
6 1 (0.058%) Vagrant
General
1 748 (43.74%) Social Skills
2 179 (10.47%) Analytical Skills
3 150 (8.77%) Organisational Skills
4 118 (6.90%) Finance
5 67 (3.92%) Manufacturing
6 66 (3.86%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 59 (3.45%) Legal
8 55 (3.22%) Documentation Skills
9 50 (2.92%) Retail
10 49 (2.87%) Law
11 48 (2.81%) Public Sector
12 35 (2.05%) Games
13 33 (1.93%) Advertising
14 31 (1.81%) Telecoms
15 16 (0.94%) Local Government
16 14 (0.82%) Marketing
17 11 (0.64%) Automotive
18 6 (0.35%) Aerospace
19 5 (0.29%) Influencing Skills
20 4 (0.23%) Dutch Language
Job Titles
1 674 (39.42%) IT Support
2 482 (28.19%) Support Engineer
3 418 (24.44%) IT Engineer
4 357 (20.88%) IT Support Engineer
5 248 (14.50%) Analyst
6 175 (10.23%) Support Analyst
7 165 (9.65%) Support Technician
8 160 (9.36%) 2nd Line Support
9 156 (9.12%) Senior
10 152 (8.89%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 141 (8.25%) IT Technician
12 129 (7.54%) IT Support Technician
13 114 (6.67%) IT Analyst
14 101 (5.91%) IT Support Analyst
15 99 (5.79%) Systems Engineer
16 92 (5.38%) 2nd Line Engineer
17 80 (4.68%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
18 73 (4.27%) 1st Line Support
19 70 (4.09%) 3rd Line Support
20 69 (4.04%) Lead
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 49 (2.87%) LDAP
2 46 (2.69%) SAML
3 44 (2.57%) SOAP
4 43 (2.51%) OpenID
5 42 (2.46%) OAuth
6 41 (2.40%) REST
7 36 (2.11%) GraphQL
8 20 (1.17%) JSON
8 20 (1.17%) XML
9 16 (0.94%) Regular Expression
10 12 (0.70%) XMPP
11 10 (0.58%) RESTful
12 6 (0.35%) Web Services
13 5 (0.29%) .NET
13 5 (0.29%) FreeSWITCH
13 5 (0.29%) OAuth2
14 4 (0.23%) ARM Templates
14 4 (0.23%) JSON Schema
14 4 (0.23%) Middleware
14 4 (0.23%) OpenTelemetry
Miscellaneous
1 252 (14.74%) Driving Licence
2 110 (6.43%) Onboarding
3 76 (4.44%) Self-Motivation
4 54 (3.16%) Hybrid Cloud
5 53 (3.10%) Legacy Systems
6 43 (2.51%) Enterprise Software
7 42 (2.46%) Management Information System
8 41 (2.40%) Cyberattack
8 41 (2.40%) Data Centre
9 37 (2.16%) Cyber Threat
10 35 (2.05%) Public Cloud
11 34 (1.99%) Replication
12 27 (1.58%) Cloud Native
13 24 (1.40%) PKI
14 19 (1.11%) Client/Server
15 18 (1.05%) CCTV
15 18 (1.05%) Clustering
16 16 (0.94%) CMDB
17 14 (0.82%) iPad
18 13 (0.76%) Data Structures
Operating Systems
1 1,210 (70.76%) Windows
2 706 (41.29%) Windows Server
3 297 (17.37%) Windows 10
4 205 (11.99%) Linux
5 114 (6.67%) Windows Server 2016
6 92 (5.38%) Mac OS
7 83 (4.85%) Apple iOS
8 69 (4.04%) Android
9 54 (3.16%) Windows Server 2019
10 34 (1.99%) Windows Server 2012
11 31 (1.81%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 14 (0.82%) Windows 7
13 12 (0.70%) Windows Server 2008
14 10 (0.58%) VMS
15 8 (0.47%) Windows 8
16 6 (0.35%) Ubuntu
17 5 (0.29%) Debian
18 4 (0.23%) CentOS
18 4 (0.23%) Mac OS X
18 4 (0.23%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 565 (33.04%) Problem-Solving
2 458 (26.78%) Customer Service
3 414 (24.21%) ITIL
4 258 (15.09%) Cybersecurity
5 213 (12.46%) Continuous Improvement
6 201 (11.75%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 183 (10.70%) Mentoring
8 161 (9.42%) ITSM
9 151 (8.83%) Disaster Recovery
10 145 (8.48%) Service Delivery
11 115 (6.73%) Change Management
12 100 (5.85%) Coaching
13 98 (5.73%) Incident Management
13 98 (5.73%) Vulnerability Remediation
14 97 (5.67%) Migration
15 92 (5.38%) Time Management
16 89 (5.20%) Identity Access Management
17 86 (5.03%) Root Cause Analysis
18 85 (4.97%) ERP
19 80 (4.68%) Service Management
Programming Languages
1 260 (15.20%) PowerShell
2 152 (8.89%) SQL
3 82 (4.80%) Bash
4 62 (3.63%) Python
5 46 (2.69%) T-SQL
6 16 (0.94%) R
7 12 (0.70%) Shell Script
8 10 (0.58%) Bicep
9 9 (0.53%) PL/SQL
10 8 (0.47%) Java
11 7 (0.41%) VB
12 6 (0.35%) Korn
13 5 (0.29%) JavaScript
14 3 (0.18%) C#
14 3 (0.18%) PHP
15 2 (0.12%) C
Qualifications
1 213 (12.46%) Security Cleared
2 173 (10.12%) Degree
3 151 (8.83%) Microsoft Certification
4 139 (8.13%) SC Cleared
5 72 (4.21%) DV Cleared
6 48 (2.81%) DBS Check
7 40 (2.34%) A+ Certification
8 39 (2.28%) Azure Certification
9 35 (2.05%) Cisco Certification
10 31 (1.81%) Network+ Certification
11 30 (1.75%) CCNA
11 30 (1.75%) Microsoft Certified Professional
12 25 (1.46%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 20 (1.17%) Computer Science Degree
14 18 (1.05%) MCSE
15 17 (0.99%) HNC
15 17 (0.99%) ITIL Certification
16 12 (0.70%) MCSA
17 11 (0.64%) CCNP
17 11 (0.64%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 158 (9.24%) SLA
2 126 (7.37%) Cyber Essentials
3 104 (6.08%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 60 (3.51%) PCI DSS
5 51 (2.98%) NIST
6 39 (2.28%) NCSC
7 35 (2.05%) GDPR
8 30 (1.75%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 21 (1.23%) QA
10 19 (1.11%) Data Quality
11 11 (0.64%) Accessibility
12 5 (0.29%) GRC
12 5 (0.29%) PMO
12 5 (0.29%) SOC 2
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 (0.12%) ISO 9001
14 2 (0.12%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 317 (18.54%) Hyper-V
2 254 (14.85%) VMware Infrastructure
3 55 (3.22%) vSphere
4 51 (2.98%) Terminal Server
5 46 (2.69%) Virtual Desktop
5 46 (2.69%) VMware ESXi
6 31 (1.81%) Virtual Machines
7 28 (1.64%) Docker
8 17 (0.99%) BitLocker
9 11 (0.64%) VMware NSX
10 9 (0.53%) VMware Workstation
11 8 (0.47%) Citrix Hypervisor
12 7 (0.41%) XenApp
13 6 (0.35%) DFS Replication
14 5 (0.29%) Terminal Services
15 4 (0.23%) Virtual Servers
16 3 (0.18%) Firmware
16 3 (0.18%) Lustre
16 3 (0.18%) Microsoft Virtual Server
16 3 (0.18%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 336 (19.65%) Microsoft Intune
2 117 (6.84%) SCCM
3 41 (2.40%) Single Sign-On
4 40 (2.34%) vCenter Server
5 34 (1.99%) Terraform
6 32 (1.87%) Jamf Pro
7 25 (1.46%) Ansible
7 25 (1.46%) WSUS
8 23 (1.35%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 19 (1.11%) FortiGate
10 17 (0.99%) Kubernetes
11 14 (0.82%) SCOM
12 11 (0.64%) Autotask
12 11 (0.64%) Proxmox
13 9 (0.53%) Backup Exec
13 9 (0.53%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
14 7 (0.41%) VxRail
15 5 (0.29%) SmoothWall
15 5 (0.29%) Tivoli Identity Manager
16 4 (0.23%) SCVMM
Vendors
1 1,224 (71.58%) Microsoft
2 411 (24.04%) VMware
3 121 (7.08%) Veeam
4 92 (5.38%) Cisco
5 90 (5.26%) Apple
6 89 (5.20%) Citrix
7 85 (4.97%) SolarWinds
8 75 (4.39%) Nimble Storage
9 73 (4.27%) ServiceNow
10 70 (4.09%) HP
11 69 (4.04%) Dell
12 68 (3.98%) Splunk
13 66 (3.86%) Google
14 48 (2.81%) Brocade
14 48 (2.81%) Tanium
15 45 (2.63%) Meraki
16 35 (2.05%) McAfee
17 30 (1.75%) CrowdStrike
17 30 (1.75%) Red Hat
18 27 (1.58%) Dell Compellent