Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate (MCSA) formerly Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for permanent job vacancies with a requirement for MCSA qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the salaries offered over the 6 months leading up to 11 May 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
11 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 679 543 684
Rank change year-on-year -136 +141 +93
Permanent jobs citing MCSA 32 112 204
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.035% 0.26% 0.21%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.15% 0.65% 0.78%
Number of salaries quoted 26 90 158
10th Percentile £27,750 £26,975 £26,750
25th Percentile £31,250 £32,500 £34,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £38,000 £37,500 £43,114
Median % change year-on-year +1.33% -13.02% +1.44%
75th Percentile £50,000 £47,500 £55,000
90th Percentile £57,500 £53,750 £67,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £37,000 £37,500 £40,000
% change year-on-year -1.33% -6.25% -3.61%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
UK

MCSA falls under the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications.

Permanent vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 21,212 17,351 26,025
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 23.46% 39.52% 26.94%
Number of salaries quoted 9,040 7,735 17,227
10th Percentile £29,000 £31,250 £28,250
25th Percentile £41,750 £41,250 £38,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £54,296
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% +1.30% -7.19%
75th Percentile £77,500 £73,750 £71,000
90th Percentile £92,500 £92,500 £87,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £53,750 £52,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +3.37% +4.00% -1.96%

MCSA
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing MCSA relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised.

MCSA job vacancy trend in the UK

MCSA
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing MCSA.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing MCSA

MCSA
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing MCSA over the 6 months to 11 May 2026.

Salary histogram for MCSA in the UK

MCSA
Top 9 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing MCSA within the UK over the 6 months to 11 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
England -118 27 £37,000 -1.33% 18
UK excluding London -141 15 £37,000 -1.33% 13
London -20 12 £35,000 -26.89% 5
Work from Home -8 10 £42,000 +10.25% 2
West Midlands -37 7 £28,500 -18.57%
Midlands -61 7 £28,500 -18.57% 1
North West -10 5 £50,000 +33.33% 8
North of England -69 5 £50,000 +50.38% 8
South East -36 3 £42,000 -6.67% 3

MCSA
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:

Application Platforms
1 11 (34.38%) Microsoft Exchange
2 7 (21.88%) SharePoint
3 2 (6.25%) IIS
Business Applications
1 2 (6.25%) Fidessa
Cloud Services
1 16 (50.00%) Azure
2 11 (34.38%) Microsoft 365
3 7 (21.88%) Entra ID
4 3 (9.38%) Microsoft Purview
5 2 (6.25%) AWS
5 2 (6.25%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 12 (37.50%) LAN
1 12 (37.50%) WAN
2 10 (31.25%) DHCP
2 10 (31.25%) DNS
3 7 (21.88%) VLAN
4 6 (18.75%) Firewall
4 6 (18.75%) TCP/IP
5 4 (12.50%) RFID
6 3 (9.38%) FTP
6 3 (9.38%) VoIP
7 2 (6.25%) Cisco ASA
7 2 (6.25%) FIX Connectivity
7 2 (6.25%) Remote Desktop
7 2 (6.25%) SAN
8 1 (3.13%) 3G
8 1 (3.13%) 4G
8 1 (3.13%) ADSL
8 1 (3.13%) Intrusion Detection
8 1 (3.13%) Network Security
8 1 (3.13%) VDSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (28.13%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 4 (12.50%) LabVIEW
General
1 18 (56.25%) Social Skills
2 10 (31.25%) Finance
3 8 (25.00%) Organisational Skills
4 4 (12.50%) Manufacturing
5 3 (9.38%) Banking
5 3 (9.38%) Retail
6 2 (6.25%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 1 (3.13%) Analytical Skills
7 1 (3.13%) French Language
7 1 (3.13%) Military
7 1 (3.13%) Spanish Language
7 1 (3.13%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 9 (28.13%) Analyst
2 6 (18.75%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 6 (18.75%) Support Analyst
2 6 (18.75%) Support Engineer
3 5 (15.63%) IT Support
4 4 (12.50%) Help Desk Analyst
4 4 (12.50%) Help Desk Support
4 4 (12.50%) Help Desk Support Analyst
4 4 (12.50%) IT Engineer
4 4 (12.50%) Technical Engineer
4 4 (12.50%) Technical Support
4 4 (12.50%) Technical Support Engineer
5 3 (9.38%) IT Support Technician
5 3 (9.38%) IT Technician
5 3 (9.38%) Support Technician
5 3 (9.38%) Technical Analyst
6 2 (6.25%) 1st Line Engineer
6 2 (6.25%) 1st Line Support Engineer
6 2 (6.25%) IT Support Engineer
6 2 (6.25%) Project Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (6.25%) .NET
1 2 (6.25%) FIX Protocol
Miscellaneous
1 9 (28.13%) Data Centre
2 7 (21.88%) Social Media
3 4 (12.50%) Driving Licence
4 3 (9.38%) Hybrid Cloud
5 2 (6.25%) Eurex
6 1 (3.13%) Clustering
6 1 (3.13%) Enterprise Cloud
6 1 (3.13%) Enterprise Storage
6 1 (3.13%) Onboarding
Operating Systems
1 23 (71.88%) Windows
2 11 (34.38%) Windows 10
3 8 (25.00%) Windows Server
4 6 (18.75%) Windows Server 2016
5 5 (15.63%) Windows 7
6 4 (12.50%) Linux
7 3 (9.38%) Windows Server 2019
8 2 (6.25%) Solaris
8 2 (6.25%) Ubuntu
8 2 (6.25%) Unix
9 1 (3.13%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 21 (65.63%) ITIL
2 15 (46.88%) Customer Service
3 12 (37.50%) Problem-Solving
4 7 (21.88%) Kalman Filter
4 7 (21.88%) Web Filtering
5 6 (18.75%) Collaborative Working
5 6 (18.75%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 5 (15.63%) Computer Science
6 5 (15.63%) Disaster Recovery
7 4 (12.50%) Change Management
7 4 (12.50%) Cybersecurity
7 4 (12.50%) ERP
7 4 (12.50%) Fintech
7 4 (12.50%) Knowledge Transfer
7 4 (12.50%) Migration
7 4 (12.50%) Project Management
7 4 (12.50%) Server Building
7 4 (12.50%) Service Delivery
8 3 (9.38%) High Availability
8 3 (9.38%) Server Management
Programming Languages
1 9 (28.13%) SQL
2 2 (6.25%) C#
2 2 (6.25%) PowerShell
2 2 (6.25%) Python
2 2 (6.25%) VB.NET
3 1 (3.13%) Java
Qualifications
1 32 (100.00%) Microsoft Certification
2 16 (50.00%) Microsoft Certified Professional
3 13 (40.63%) CCNA
3 13 (40.63%) Cisco Certification
3 13 (40.63%) Degree
4 9 (28.13%) DBS Check
5 7 (21.88%) MCITP
6 6 (18.75%) MCDST
7 5 (15.63%) MCSE
8 4 (12.50%) HNC
9 3 (9.38%) A+ Certification
9 3 (9.38%) Network+ Certification
10 2 (6.25%) Security Cleared
10 2 (6.25%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 1 (3.13%) CISA
11 1 (3.13%) CISM
11 1 (3.13%) Dell Certification
11 1 (3.13%) DV Cleared
11 1 (3.13%) ITIL Certification
11 1 (3.13%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (3.13%) Cyber Essentials
1 1 (3.13%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
1 1 (3.13%) GDPR
1 1 (3.13%) HIPAA
1 1 (3.13%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 1 (3.13%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 15 (46.88%) Active Directory
2 7 (21.88%) Hyper-V
3 4 (12.50%) VMware Infrastructure
4 3 (9.38%) Microsoft Virtual Server
4 3 (9.38%) Virtual Servers
5 1 (3.13%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 9 (28.13%) Microsoft Intune
2 7 (21.88%) Jamf Pro
3 4 (12.50%) Cisco CUCM
3 4 (12.50%) PaperCut
3 4 (12.50%) ServiceCenter
4 2 (6.25%) WSUS
5 1 (3.13%) Microsoft Clustering
Vendors
1 22 (68.75%) Microsoft
2 12 (37.50%) Cisco
3 11 (34.38%) Apple
4 10 (31.25%) VMware
5 7 (21.88%) Dell
6 6 (18.75%) Bloomberg
6 6 (18.75%) Reuters
6 6 (18.75%) Veeam
7 5 (15.63%) Citrix
7 5 (15.63%) HP
8 4 (12.50%) Remedy
9 3 (9.38%) Juniper
9 3 (9.38%) Meraki
9 3 (9.38%) Red Hat
9 3 (9.38%) Ubiquiti
10 2 (6.25%) Adobe
10 2 (6.25%) Draytek
10 2 (6.25%) SonicWALL
10 2 (6.25%) Trayport
10 2 (6.25%) WatchGuard