Associate Director Job Trends

Associate Director
UK

The median Associate Director salary in the UK is £85,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 11 January 2026.

The table below compares current salary benchmarking and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
11 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 601 670 695
Rank change year-on-year +69 +25 +272
Permanent jobs requiring an Associate Director 41 35 31
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.069% 0.065% 0.055%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.076% 0.070% 0.058%
Number of salaries quoted 7 20 12
10th Percentile £78,750 £62,250 £60,216
25th Percentile £80,625 £65,000 £71,165
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £85,000 £85,000 £74,910
Median % change year-on-year - +13.47% -25.09%
75th Percentile £101,875 £91,741 £88,438
90th Percentile £117,550 £98,500 £112,550
UK excluding London median annual salary £85,000 £85,000 £61,000
% change year-on-year - +39.34% -

All Permanent IT Job Roles
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of permanent jobs in our overall sample.

Permanent vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 53,748 49,914 53,281
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.60% 92.93% 95.28%
Number of salaries quoted 33,232 25,949 41,098
10th Percentile £28,500 £33,500 £30,125
25th Percentile £36,250 £45,000 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +4.35% -4.17%
75th Percentile £75,000 £78,750 £77,500
90th Percentile £95,000 £97,500 £96,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -4.76%

Associate Director
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings featuring 'Associate Director' in the job title relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised.

Associate Director job vacancy trend in the UK

Associate Director
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for Associate Director job vacancies in the UK.

Salary distribution trend for Associate Director job vacancies in the UK

Associate Director
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Associate Director over the 6 months to 11 January 2026.

Salary histogram for Associate Director in the UK

Associate Director
Top 9 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Associate Director within the UK over the 6 months to 11 January 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
England +86 39 £85,000 +17.24% 20
London +57 25 £84,292 +29.68% 8
UK excluding London +43 15 £85,000 - 14
Work from Home +87 14 £113,000 +18.95% 5
South East +41 11 - - 6
Midlands +22 2 £85,000 -1.45% 2
Scotland +1 2 - -
West Midlands +35 1 £85,000 -5.56%
East Midlands -7 1 - - 2

Associate Director Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 11 January 2026, Associate Director job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all permanent job ads featuring Associate Director in the job title.

1 23 (56.10%) Degree
2 21 (51.22%) Agile
3 15 (36.59%) Project Delivery
4 14 (34.15%) AI
5 13 (31.71%) Biotechnology
6 12 (29.27%) Business Development
6 12 (29.27%) Coaching
6 12 (29.27%) Project Management
7 11 (26.83%) Line Management
7 11 (26.83%) Master's Degree
8 9 (21.95%) Active Directory
8 9 (21.95%) CFA
8 9 (21.95%) Continuous Improvement
8 9 (21.95%) Cybersecurity
8 9 (21.95%) Financial Modelling
8 9 (21.95%) Microsoft Excel
8 9 (21.95%) Microsoft Office
8 9 (21.95%) Microsoft PowerPoint
8 9 (21.95%) Proactive Management
9 8 (19.51%) Analytics
9 8 (19.51%) Hematology
9 8 (19.51%) Immunology
10 6 (14.63%) CISM
10 6 (14.63%) CISSP
10 6 (14.63%) Computer Science
10 6 (14.63%) Machine Learning
10 6 (14.63%) Mentoring
11 5 (12.20%) Change Management
11 5 (12.20%) Cyber Resilience
11 5 (12.20%) Risk Management

Associate Director Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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:

Applications
1 9 (21.95%) Microsoft Excel
1 9 (21.95%) Microsoft Office
1 9 (21.95%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 2 (4.88%) Weka
Cloud Services
1 2 (4.88%) AWS
1 2 (4.88%) Azure
1 2 (4.88%) Miro
1 2 (4.88%) Smartsheet
Communications & Networking
1 1 (2.44%) Internet
1 1 (2.44%) TETRA
Development Applications
1 2 (4.88%) JIRA
General
1 14 (34.15%) Finance
2 10 (24.39%) Presentation Skills
2 10 (24.39%) Social Skills
3 9 (21.95%) Billing
3 9 (21.95%) Marketing
4 4 (9.76%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 3 (7.32%) Public Sector
6 2 (4.88%) Documentation Skills
6 2 (4.88%) Pharmaceutical
7 1 (2.44%) Analytical Skills
7 1 (2.44%) Retail
Miscellaneous
1 9 (21.95%) Self-Motivation
2 8 (19.51%) Life Science
3 5 (12.20%) Blockchain
4 4 (9.76%) Hackathon
4 4 (9.76%) Low-Code
5 1 (2.44%) Product Ownership
5 1 (2.44%) Renewable Energy
Operating Systems
1 2 (4.88%) Linux
1 2 (4.88%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 21 (51.22%) Agile
2 15 (36.59%) Project Delivery
3 14 (34.15%) AI
4 13 (31.71%) Biotechnology
5 12 (29.27%) Business Development
5 12 (29.27%) Coaching
5 12 (29.27%) Project Management
6 11 (26.83%) Line Management
7 9 (21.95%) Continuous Improvement
7 9 (21.95%) Cybersecurity
7 9 (21.95%) Financial Modelling
7 9 (21.95%) Proactive Management
8 8 (19.51%) Analytics
8 8 (19.51%) Hematology
8 8 (19.51%) Immunology
9 6 (14.63%) Computer Science
9 6 (14.63%) Machine Learning
9 6 (14.63%) Mentoring
10 5 (12.20%) Change Management
10 5 (12.20%) Use Case
Programming Languages
1 4 (9.76%) Python
Qualifications
1 23 (56.10%) Degree
2 11 (26.83%) Master's Degree
3 9 (21.95%) CFA
4 6 (14.63%) CISM
4 6 (14.63%) CISSP
5 3 (7.32%) (ISC)2 CCSP
5 3 (7.32%) Cisco Certification
5 3 (7.32%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
5 3 (7.32%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
6 2 (4.88%) AWS Certification
6 2 (4.88%) Azure Certification
6 2 (4.88%) Computer Science Degree
6 2 (4.88%) ITIL Certification
7 1 (2.44%) CCSP
7 1 (2.44%) Chartered Engineer
7 1 (2.44%) CISA
7 1 (2.44%) PCI QSA
7 1 (2.44%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (9.76%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 2 (4.88%) GxP
2 2 (4.88%) NIST
3 1 (2.44%) Accessibility
3 1 (2.44%) PCI DSS
3 1 (2.44%) PMO
3 1 (2.44%) QA
System Software
1 9 (21.95%) Active Directory
2 2 (4.88%) Docker
2 2 (4.88%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 2 (4.88%) Kubernetes