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

6 months to
27 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 52 39 35
Rank change year-on-year -13 -4 -10
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 2,238 1,859 2,681
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 2.60% 5.37% 4.98%
As % of the System Software category 49.35% 44.57% 48.60%
Number of salaries quoted 1,639 1,392 1,595
10th Percentile £26,750 £26,250 £25,750
25th Percentile £29,500 £28,500 £30,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £37,500 £35,000 £39,500
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% -11.39% +5.33%
75th Percentile £50,382 £48,750 £52,500
90th Percentile £65,000 £62,500 £62,500
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 4,535 4,171 5,517
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 5.27% 12.04% 10.24%
Number of salaries quoted 3,293 2,294 3,218
10th Percentile £28,500 £26,500 £27,750
25th Percentile £34,250 £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 £67,625 £62,500 £63,750
90th Percentile £81,250 £75,000 £76,250
UK median annual salary £55,000 £50,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +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 27 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 27 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 +5 530 £33,475 +3.00% 147
South East -17 512 £42,500 +13.33% 180
Midlands -33 382 £41,000 +26.15% 131
North West +69 289 £35,000 - 89
South West -34 288 £38,500 +18.46% 77
East of England 0 263 £35,000 +1.45% 94
East Midlands -18 193 £38,500 +22.22% 51
West Midlands -38 189 £42,500 +3.66% 80
Yorkshire -27 172 £31,000 +1.64% 41
Scotland +52 118 £32,500 +6.56% 41
Northern Ireland -19 93 £39,000 -25.71% 21
North East -53 69 £37,500 +20.97% 20
Wales -47 61 £45,000 +18.13% 14
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
1 661 (29.54%) Microsoft Exchange
2 514 (22.97%) SharePoint
3 53 (2.37%) IIS
4 17 (0.76%) Confluence
5 16 (0.71%) Skype for Business
6 6 (0.27%) Apache
7 3 (0.13%) SAS
8 2 (0.089%) nginx
9 1 (0.045%) Exchange Server 2013
9 1 (0.045%) HCL Domino
9 1 (0.045%) HCL Notes
9 1 (0.045%) SharePoint Server
9 1 (0.045%) Site Server
9 1 (0.045%) Tomcat
Applications
1 146 (6.52%) Microsoft Office
2 37 (1.65%) Microsoft Excel
3 7 (0.31%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.18%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 2 (0.089%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.089%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.045%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.045%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.045%) Notion
6 1 (0.045%) Revit
Business Applications
1 11 (0.49%) Dynamics CRM
2 7 (0.31%) Dynamics NAV
3 6 (0.27%) Raiser’s Edge
4 5 (0.22%) JDE EnterpriseOne
4 5 (0.22%) NetSuite
4 5 (0.22%) Remedy ITSM
5 4 (0.18%) Payment Gateway
5 4 (0.18%) Shopify
6 3 (0.13%) Salesforce CRM
7 2 (0.089%) Sage 200
7 2 (0.089%) Teamcenter
8 1 (0.045%) Dynamics AX
8 1 (0.045%) Sage 50
8 1 (0.045%) SAP EHS
8 1 (0.045%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 1,542 (68.90%) Microsoft 365
2 1,220 (54.51%) Azure
3 1,042 (46.56%) Entra ID
4 183 (8.18%) OneDrive
5 145 (6.48%) AWS
6 92 (4.11%) SaaS
7 65 (2.90%) Power Platform
8 58 (2.59%) IaaS
9 53 (2.37%) Mimecast
10 46 (2.06%) Azure DevOps
11 42 (1.88%) PaaS
12 41 (1.83%) Microsoft Purview
13 39 (1.74%) Azure Sentinel
14 38 (1.70%) Power Automate
15 36 (1.61%) Google Workspace
16 35 (1.56%) Serverless
17 27 (1.21%) Azure Monitor
18 26 (1.16%) Azure ExpressRoute
19 24 (1.07%) Dynamics 365
20 22 (0.98%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 742 (33.15%) DNS
2 628 (28.06%) DHCP
3 549 (24.53%) Firewall
4 406 (18.14%) VPN
5 297 (13.27%) TCP/IP
6 229 (10.23%) VLAN
7 225 (10.05%) Wi-Fi
8 211 (9.43%) WAN
9 206 (9.20%) LAN
10 160 (7.15%) Wireless
11 138 (6.17%) VoIP
12 94 (4.20%) Network Security
13 72 (3.22%) SAN
14 36 (1.61%) Remote Desktop
15 34 (1.52%) SSL
16 29 (1.30%) Internet
17 23 (1.03%) NAS
18 19 (0.85%) WLAN
19 18 (0.80%) Cisco IOS
20 17 (0.76%) Skype
Database & Business Intelligence
1 104 (4.65%) SQL Server
2 90 (4.02%) Amazon RDS
3 31 (1.39%) Azure SQL Database
4 19 (0.85%) Power BI
5 18 (0.80%) MySQL
6 12 (0.54%) PostgreSQL
7 10 (0.45%) Relational Database
8 6 (0.27%) Crystal Reports
9 4 (0.18%) Data Warehouse
10 3 (0.13%) Data Lake
10 3 (0.13%) Oracle Database
11 2 (0.089%) BusinessObjects
11 2 (0.089%) KNIME
11 2 (0.089%) Neo4j
11 2 (0.089%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 1 (0.045%) Elasticsearch
12 1 (0.045%) Geospatial Data
12 1 (0.045%) NoSQL
12 1 (0.045%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 1 (0.045%) SSDT
Development Applications
1 58 (2.59%) JIRA
2 32 (1.43%) Git
3 9 (0.40%) Jenkins
4 6 (0.27%) Bitbucket
5 5 (0.22%) GitLab
6 2 (0.089%) Artifactory
6 2 (0.089%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 2 (0.089%) Burp Suite
6 2 (0.089%) git-flow
6 2 (0.089%) Metasploit
6 2 (0.089%) NUnit
6 2 (0.089%) Terragrunt
7 1 (0.045%) Carbide.c++
7 1 (0.045%) Flyway
7 1 (0.045%) Ranorex
7 1 (0.045%) Selenium
7 1 (0.045%) Sonatype Nexus
7 1 (0.045%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 1,097 (49.02%) Social Skills
2 281 (12.56%) Analytical Skills
3 138 (6.17%) Legal
4 127 (5.67%) Finance
5 86 (3.84%) Manufacturing
6 83 (3.71%) Organisational Skills
7 79 (3.53%) Law
8 75 (3.35%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 71 (3.17%) Public Sector
10 56 (2.50%) Retail
11 45 (2.01%) Aerospace
12 43 (1.92%) Telecoms
13 35 (1.56%) Documentation Skills
14 23 (1.03%) Advertising
15 13 (0.58%) Automotive
15 13 (0.58%) Local Government
16 11 (0.49%) Games
16 11 (0.49%) Influencing Skills
17 7 (0.31%) Aviation
18 5 (0.22%) Dutch Language
Job Titles
1 838 (37.44%) IT Support
2 545 (24.35%) IT Engineer
3 542 (24.22%) Support Engineer
4 443 (19.79%) IT Support Engineer
5 391 (17.47%) Analyst
6 283 (12.65%) Senior
7 240 (10.72%) Support Analyst
8 228 (10.19%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 196 (8.76%) IT Technician
9 196 (8.76%) Support Technician
10 176 (7.86%) IT Support Technician
11 171 (7.64%) IT Analyst
12 153 (6.84%) IT Support Analyst
13 150 (6.70%) 2nd Line Support
14 148 (6.61%) Systems Engineer
15 106 (4.74%) 2nd Line Engineer
16 98 (4.38%) Architect
17 94 (4.20%) Administrator
18 89 (3.98%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
19 83 (3.71%) 1st Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 77 (3.44%) Terraform
2 62 (2.77%) LDAP
3 35 (1.56%) SAML
4 31 (1.39%) OpenID
5 29 (1.30%) OAuth
6 24 (1.07%) .NET
7 17 (0.76%) Microsoft Graph
7 17 (0.76%) Regular Expression
8 15 (0.67%) XMPP
9 14 (0.63%) ModSecurity
9 14 (0.63%) REST
9 14 (0.63%) SailPoint
10 12 (0.54%) ARM Templates
11 11 (0.49%) ASP.NET Web Forms
11 11 (0.49%) HTML
11 11 (0.49%) WinForms
12 8 (0.36%) OAuth2
12 8 (0.36%) Web Services
13 6 (0.27%) JSON
13 6 (0.27%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 310 (13.85%) Driving Licence
2 204 (9.12%) Onboarding
3 121 (5.41%) Self-Motivation
4 85 (3.80%) Legacy Systems
5 79 (3.53%) Hybrid Cloud
6 70 (3.13%) Management Information System
7 68 (3.04%) Data Centre
8 52 (2.32%) PKI
9 46 (2.06%) Security Posture
10 44 (1.97%) Enterprise Software
11 41 (1.83%) Cloud Native
11 41 (1.83%) Clustering
12 33 (1.47%) CCTV
12 33 (1.47%) Replication
13 28 (1.25%) iPhone
14 24 (1.07%) Public Cloud
15 20 (0.89%) iPad
16 19 (0.85%) Video Conferencing
17 16 (0.71%) Enterprise Storage
17 16 (0.71%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 1,584 (70.78%) Windows
2 917 (40.97%) Windows Server
3 262 (11.71%) Linux
4 261 (11.66%) Windows 10
5 149 (6.66%) Windows Server 2016
6 127 (5.67%) Mac OS
7 85 (3.80%) Windows Server 2019
8 75 (3.35%) Apple iOS
9 59 (2.64%) Android
10 33 (1.47%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 26 (1.16%) Ubuntu
12 24 (1.07%) VMS
13 22 (0.98%) Windows Server 2012
14 8 (0.36%) Debian
15 7 (0.31%) CentOS
15 7 (0.31%) Rocky
16 5 (0.22%) CoreOS
17 4 (0.18%) Unix
17 4 (0.18%) Windows Server 2008
18 3 (0.13%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 854 (38.16%) Problem-Solving
2 575 (25.69%) Customer Service
3 474 (21.18%) Cybersecurity
4 471 (21.05%) ITIL
5 463 (20.69%) Continuous Improvement
6 383 (17.11%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 278 (12.42%) Disaster Recovery
8 264 (11.80%) Mentoring
9 228 (10.19%) Identity Access Management
9 228 (10.19%) ITSM
10 204 (9.12%) Project Delivery
11 192 (8.58%) Migration
12 187 (8.36%) Service Delivery
13 159 (7.10%) Service Management
14 140 (6.26%) Customer Experience
15 139 (6.21%) Collaborative Working
16 132 (5.90%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 129 (5.76%) AI
18 126 (5.63%) Vulnerability Remediation
19 121 (5.41%) Information Security
Programming Languages
1 350 (15.64%) PowerShell
2 194 (8.67%) SQL
3 71 (3.17%) Python
4 55 (2.46%) Bash
5 54 (2.41%) Bicep
6 26 (1.16%) Ruby
7 21 (0.94%) R
8 20 (0.89%) C#
9 15 (0.67%) Kusto Query Language
10 12 (0.54%) VBA
11 7 (0.31%) Java
12 6 (0.27%) T-SQL
13 5 (0.22%) Korn
13 5 (0.22%) Shell Script
14 4 (0.18%) JavaScript
14 4 (0.18%) VB.NET
15 3 (0.13%) PHP
15 3 (0.13%) TypeScript
15 3 (0.13%) VB
15 3 (0.13%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 310 (13.85%) Security Cleared
2 208 (9.29%) Degree
3 206 (9.20%) SC Cleared
4 189 (8.45%) Microsoft Certification
5 129 (5.76%) Azure Certification
6 121 (5.41%) A+ Certification
7 107 (4.78%) Network+ Certification
8 92 (4.11%) DV Cleared
9 77 (3.44%) CISM
9 77 (3.44%) CISSP
10 65 (2.90%) DBS Check
11 63 (2.82%) Cisco Certification
12 48 (2.14%) CCNA
13 29 (1.30%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 27 (1.21%) CompTIA Security+
15 22 (0.98%) Computer Science Degree
16 19 (0.85%) BPSS Clearance
17 18 (0.80%) AWS Certification
18 17 (0.76%) Microsoft Certified Professional
19 14 (0.63%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 216 (9.65%) Cyber Essentials
2 128 (5.72%) SLA
3 117 (5.23%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 85 (3.80%) PCI DSS
5 58 (2.59%) GDPR
6 41 (1.83%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 31 (1.39%) NIST
8 18 (0.80%) QA
9 16 (0.71%) Accessibility
10 13 (0.58%) Data Quality
10 13 (0.58%) NCSC
11 6 (0.27%) SOC 2
12 4 (0.18%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 3 (0.13%) ISAE 3402
14 1 (0.045%) ISO/IEC 20000
14 1 (0.045%) ISO/IEC 42001
14 1 (0.045%) PMO
System Software
1 503 (22.48%) Hyper-V
2 413 (18.45%) VMware Infrastructure
3 90 (4.02%) vSphere
4 79 (3.53%) Virtual Desktop
5 72 (3.22%) Terminal Server
6 65 (2.90%) Virtual Machines
7 37 (1.65%) VMware ESXi
8 28 (1.25%) Docker
9 23 (1.03%) Virtual Servers
10 22 (0.98%) Firmware
11 12 (0.54%) Microsoft Virtual Server
12 11 (0.49%) VMware NSX
13 10 (0.45%) NDS
14 9 (0.40%) BitLocker
15 8 (0.36%) Citrix Hypervisor
16 4 (0.18%) Squid
17 3 (0.13%) DFS Replication
17 3 (0.13%) Slurm Workload Manager
17 3 (0.13%) VMware Server
18 2 (0.089%) UAG
Systems Management
1 615 (27.48%) Microsoft Intune
2 96 (4.29%) SCCM
3 54 (2.41%) Single Sign-On
4 35 (1.56%) Ansible
5 33 (1.47%) FortiGate
5 33 (1.47%) Kubernetes
6 31 (1.39%) Jamf Pro
7 27 (1.21%) WSUS
8 22 (0.98%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
9 18 (0.80%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 17 (0.76%) Proxmox
10 17 (0.76%) vCenter Server
11 15 (0.67%) Failover Clustering
12 12 (0.54%) ZABBIX
13 11 (0.49%) Microsoft Clustering
14 7 (0.31%) SCOM
15 6 (0.27%) Graylog
16 5 (0.22%) McAfee ePO
16 5 (0.22%) Nessus
16 5 (0.22%) SCVMM
Vendors
1 1,873 (83.69%) Microsoft
2 598 (26.72%) VMware
3 209 (9.34%) Veeam
4 195 (8.71%) Cisco
5 101 (4.51%) Meraki
6 93 (4.16%) SolarWinds
7 88 (3.93%) Splunk
8 81 (3.62%) CyberArk
9 75 (3.35%) Apple
9 75 (3.35%) Nimble Storage
10 72 (3.22%) Brocade
10 72 (3.22%) Tanium
11 67 (2.99%) Fortinet
12 62 (2.77%) ServiceNow
13 61 (2.73%) SonicWALL
14 53 (2.37%) Citrix
15 45 (2.01%) HP
16 43 (1.92%) Google
16 43 (1.92%) Palo Alto
17 40 (1.79%) Dell