Job Vacancy Trend Salary Trend Salary Histogram Job Locations Skill Sets
Period
to 16 April 2021

The following table provides summary statistics for permanent job vacancies with a requirement for MCSE qualifications. Included is a benchmarking guide to the salaries offered over the 6 months to 16 April 2021 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE) formerly Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer
UK
6 months to
16 Apr 2021		 Same period 2020 Same period 2019
Rank 464 332 298
Rank change year-on-year -132 -34 -14
Permanent jobs citing MCSE 464 1,023 1,669
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 0.55% 0.91% 1.12%
As % of the Qualifications category 2.65% 4.26% 4.56%
Number of salaries quoted 399 883 1,344
10th Percentile £26,150 £26,250 £24,150
25th Percentile £32,250 £33,375 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £44,870 £45,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -0.29% - +5.88%
75th Percentile £57,500 £58,750 £59,223
90th Percentile £73,750 £71,250 £71,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £40,000 £42,500 £42,500
% change year-on-year -5.88% - +6.25%

MCSE is in the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. The following table is for comparison with the above and provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies with a requirement for academic qualifications or professional certifications.

All Academic and Professional Certifications
UK
Permanent vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 17,489 23,993 36,632
As % of all permanent IT jobs advertised in the UK 20.83% 21.45% 24.64%
Number of salaries quoted 11,833 18,059 26,753
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,000 £26,400
25th Percentile £41,250 £36,250 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £51,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +6.80% +3.00% +5.26%
75th Percentile £72,500 £67,500 £66,250
90th Percentile £86,250 £83,750 £81,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £47,250 £45,000
% change year-on-year +5.82% +5.00% +3.45%

MCSE
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing MCSE as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for MCSE in the UK

MCSE
Salary Trend

3-month moving average salary quoted in jobs citing MCSE.

Salary trend for MCSE in the UK

MCSE
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing MCSE over the 6 months to 16 April 2021.

Salary histogram for MCSE in the UK

MCSE
Top 16 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing MCSE within the UK over the 6 months to 16 April 2021. 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
Job
Vacancies
England -102 438 £44,000 -2.22% 75
UK excluding London -56 342 £40,000 -5.88% 60
Work from Home -65 145 £40,000 -38.46% 14
South East -11 130 £33,000 -26.67% 7
London -97 98 £52,500 +6.06% 18
Midlands +9 87 £37,500 -11.76% 15
North of England -52 67 £44,870 +19.65% 18
West Midlands -7 58 £38,750 +3.33% 9
North West -15 44 £52,500 +29.63% 10
South West -17 40 £42,500 -15.00% 10
East Midlands -2 29 £36,500 -18.89% 6
Yorkshire -36 14 £37,500 -3.85% 5
East of England +43 12 £52,500 +26.51% 7
North East +9 10 £80,000 +146.15% 3
Wales +21 4 £43,750 +16.67% 1
Scotland +4 2 £55,000 - 1

For the 6 months to 16 April 2021, IT jobs citing MCSE also mentioned the following skills in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all permanent job ads with a requirement for MCSE.

1 464 (100.00%) Microsoft Certification
2 330 (71.12%) Microsoft
3 307 (66.16%) Windows
4 265 (57.11%) VMware
5 253 (54.53%) Active Directory
6 250 (53.88%) Microsoft 365
7 221 (47.63%) Azure
8 180 (38.79%) VMware Infrastructure
9 167 (35.99%) Windows Server
10 164 (35.34%) ITIL
10 164 (35.34%) MCSA
11 138 (29.74%) Cisco Certification
12 128 (27.59%) CCNA
13 125 (26.94%) Hyper-V
14 124 (26.72%) Windows 10
15 123 (26.51%) Citrix
16 111 (23.92%) Infrastructure Engineering
17 109 (23.49%) Firewall
18 101 (21.77%) Cisco
19 97 (20.91%) SCCM
20 90 (19.40%) Degree
21 87 (18.75%) MS Exchange
21 87 (18.75%) Linux
22 84 (18.10%) DNS
23 79 (17.03%) Microsoft Office
24 78 (16.81%) SQL Server
25 75 (16.16%) SharePoint
26 74 (15.95%) PowerShell
27 71 (15.30%) SQL
28 66 (14.22%) Problem-Solving

MCSE
Co-occurring IT Skills by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same job type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 87 (18.75%) MS Exchange
2 75 (16.16%) SharePoint
3 24 (5.17%) Skype for Business
4 14 (3.02%) Exchange Server 2013
5 13 (2.80%) IIS
6 12 (2.59%) Exchange Server 2010
7 9 (1.94%) Exchange Server 2003
8 6 (1.29%) Apache Spark
9 4 (0.86%) Apache
10 3 (0.65%) SharePoint 2013
10 3 (0.65%) WebLogic
11 2 (0.43%) SharePoint 2010
12 1 (0.22%) CMS
12 1 (0.22%) Confluence
12 1 (0.22%) Elasticsearch
12 1 (0.22%) Site Server
Applications
1 79 (17.03%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (1.29%) Gephi
3 4 (0.86%) Microsoft Excel
4 1 (0.22%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.22%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 9 (1.94%) Workfront
2 5 (1.08%) Dynamics CRM
3 2 (0.43%) Oracle EBS R12
4 1 (0.22%) Dynamics AX
4 1 (0.22%) Tradar
Cloud Services
1 250 (53.88%) Microsoft 365
2 221 (47.63%) Azure
3 54 (11.64%) Azure Active Directory
4 50 (10.78%) AWS
5 47 (10.13%) IaaS
6 36 (7.76%) PaaS
7 26 (5.60%) SaaS
8 14 (3.02%) GCP
9 11 (2.37%) Cloud Computing
10 9 (1.94%) OneDrive
11 8 (1.72%) Google Workspace
12 7 (1.51%) Power Platform
13 6 (1.29%) PowerApps
14 3 (0.65%) Power Automate
14 3 (0.65%) Yammer
15 2 (0.43%) Amazon EKS
15 2 (0.43%) Azure ExpressRoute
15 2 (0.43%) Cloudflare
16 1 (0.22%) Amazon ECS
16 1 (0.22%) Dynamics 365
Communications & Networking
1 109 (23.49%) Firewall
2 84 (18.10%) DNS
3 61 (13.15%) SAN
4 52 (11.21%) DHCP
5 45 (9.70%) WAN
6 40 (8.62%) LAN
7 39 (8.41%) TCP/IP
8 30 (6.47%) VPN
9 26 (5.60%) Skype
10 22 (4.74%) Network Security
10 22 (4.74%) VLAN
11 21 (4.53%) MPLS
11 21 (4.53%) Unified Communications
12 20 (4.31%) VoIP
13 18 (3.88%) PBX
14 16 (3.45%) Remote Desktop
15 14 (3.02%) Cisco IOS
15 14 (3.02%) FTP
15 14 (3.02%) SSL
16 13 (2.80%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 78 (16.81%) SQL Server
2 9 (1.94%) Big Data
3 8 (1.72%) Amazon RDS
4 7 (1.51%) SQL Server Reporting Services
5 6 (1.29%) Apache Hive
5 6 (1.29%) Impala
5 6 (1.29%) Relational Database
6 5 (1.08%) SQL Server 2016
7 3 (0.65%) MySQL
7 3 (0.65%) Power BI
8 2 (0.43%) MongoDB
8 2 (0.43%) Oracle Exadata
8 2 (0.43%) SQL Server 2005
8 2 (0.43%) SQL Server 2019
9 1 (0.22%) Azure SQL Database
9 1 (0.22%) MS Access
9 1 (0.22%) Oracle Reports
9 1 (0.22%) SQL Server 2014
9 1 (0.22%) SQL Server Analysis Services
9 1 (0.22%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 11 (2.37%) JIRA
2 8 (1.72%) Bitbucket
3 7 (1.51%) Git (software)
4 6 (1.29%) Bitbucket Server
4 6 (1.29%) git-flow
5 5 (1.08%) Jenkins
5 5 (1.08%) Snyk
6 2 (0.43%) MSI
7 1 (0.22%) AppScan
7 1 (0.22%) Maven
General
1 44 (9.48%) Finance
2 18 (3.88%) Public Sector
3 17 (3.66%) Law
4 16 (3.45%) Legal
5 11 (2.37%) Local Government
6 9 (1.94%) Telecoms
7 7 (1.51%) Financial Institution
8 6 (1.29%) Banking
8 6 (1.29%) Electronics
8 6 (1.29%) Mandarin Language
9 5 (1.08%) Aerospace
9 5 (1.08%) Fire and Rescue
9 5 (1.08%) Retail
10 4 (0.86%) Manufacturing
10 4 (0.86%) Marketing
10 4 (0.86%) Social Housing
11 3 (0.65%) Advertising
11 3 (0.65%) Billing
11 3 (0.65%) Czech Language
12 2 (0.43%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 95 (20.47%) Analyst
2 82 (17.67%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 61 (13.15%) IT Engineer
4 52 (11.21%) IT Analyst
5 45 (9.70%) IT Support
6 41 (8.84%) Systems Engineer
7 38 (8.19%) Support Analyst
7 38 (8.19%) Support Engineer
8 35 (7.54%) Architect
9 30 (6.47%) Consultant
9 30 (6.47%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
10 27 (5.82%) 3rd Line Engineer
11 25 (5.39%) IT Support Analyst
12 19 (4.09%) 2nd Line Support
13 18 (3.88%) Administrator
13 18 (3.88%) Server Engineer
14 17 (3.66%) Applications Engineer
15 16 (3.45%) Service Desk Engineer
16 15 (3.23%) Azure Architect
16 15 (3.23%) Infrastructure Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (2.80%) .NET
2 10 (2.16%) COM
2 10 (2.16%) Web Services
3 6 (1.29%) Elastic Stack
3 6 (1.29%) Kafka
4 3 (0.65%) SAML
5 2 (0.43%) 802.1X
5 2 (0.43%) COM+
5 2 (0.43%) ModSecurity
5 2 (0.43%) SailPoint
5 2 (0.43%) XML
6 1 (0.22%) ASP.NET
6 1 (0.22%) CGI
6 1 (0.22%) HTML
Miscellaneous
1 55 (11.85%) Analytical Skills
2 50 (10.78%) Data Centre
3 32 (6.90%) Clustering
4 28 (6.03%) Private Cloud
5 27 (5.82%) Management Information System
6 23 (4.96%) Hybrid Cloud
6 23 (4.96%) Self-Motivation
7 20 (4.31%) Public Cloud
8 19 (4.09%) Replication
9 13 (2.80%) BYOD
10 9 (1.94%) Client/Server
11 6 (1.29%) Analytical Mindset
11 6 (1.29%) Cyber Kill Chain
12 5 (1.08%) Driving Licence
13 4 (0.86%) Data Protection Act
13 4 (0.86%) EMC VNX
14 3 (0.65%) Fat Client
14 3 (0.65%) iPhone
14 3 (0.65%) Security Operations Centre
14 3 (0.65%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 307 (66.16%) Windows
2 167 (35.99%) Windows Server
3 124 (26.72%) Windows 10
4 87 (18.75%) Linux
5 59 (12.72%) Windows Server 2012
6 37 (7.97%) Windows Server 2008
7 35 (7.54%) Windows Server 2016
8 31 (6.68%) Windows Server 2019
9 26 (5.60%) Windows 7
10 18 (3.88%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 12 (2.59%) Unix
12 9 (1.94%) Android
12 9 (1.94%) Mac OS X
13 8 (1.72%) Windows 8
13 8 (1.72%) Windows Server 2003
14 4 (0.86%) Apple iOS
15 3 (0.65%) Ubuntu
15 3 (0.65%) Windows Vista
16 2 (0.43%) CentOS
16 2 (0.43%) Fedora
Processes & Methodologies
1 164 (35.34%) ITIL
2 111 (23.92%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 66 (14.22%) Problem-Solving
4 56 (12.07%) Disaster Recovery
4 56 (12.07%) Service Management
5 55 (11.85%) ITIL V3
6 48 (10.34%) Project Management
7 37 (7.97%) Migration
8 35 (7.54%) Cybersecurity
9 31 (6.68%) PRINCE2
10 29 (6.25%) Change Control
10 29 (6.25%) High Availability
10 29 (6.25%) Time Management
11 23 (4.96%) Presales
12 22 (4.74%) DevOps
13 21 (4.53%) IT Strategy
13 21 (4.53%) Server Management
14 19 (4.09%) Project Delivery
14 19 (4.09%) Server Building
15 18 (3.88%) Customer Requirements
Programming Languages
1 74 (15.95%) PowerShell
2 71 (15.30%) SQL
3 22 (4.74%) Python
4 19 (4.09%) Bash Shell
5 9 (1.94%) C
5 9 (1.94%) T-SQL
5 9 (1.94%) VBScript
6 7 (1.51%) Perl
7 6 (1.29%) R
8 5 (1.08%) C#
8 5 (1.08%) VB.NET
9 4 (0.86%) VB
10 3 (0.65%) Java
11 2 (0.43%) PHP
12 1 (0.22%) JavaScript
12 1 (0.22%) Korn
12 1 (0.22%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 464 (100.00%) Microsoft Certification
2 164 (35.34%) MCSA
3 138 (29.74%) Cisco Certification
4 128 (27.59%) CCNA
5 90 (19.40%) Degree
6 65 (14.01%) MCP
7 62 (13.36%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 59 (12.72%) MCITP
9 48 (10.34%) Security Cleared
10 33 (7.11%) CCNP
11 32 (6.90%) CISSP
11 32 (6.90%) MCTS
12 31 (6.68%) CompTIA Security+
13 28 (6.03%) SC Cleared
14 21 (4.53%) DV Cleared
15 20 (4.31%) SSCP
16 19 (4.09%) Network+ Certification
17 16 (3.45%) CCENT
18 15 (3.23%) RHCE
19 14 (3.02%) CEH
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (3.45%) SLA
2 11 (2.37%) GDPR
3 9 (1.94%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 8 (1.72%) Cyber Essentials
4 8 (1.72%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 5 (1.08%) PCI DSS
6 4 (0.86%) QA
7 3 (0.65%) GRC
7 3 (0.65%) NCSC
8 1 (0.22%) PMO
System Software
1 253 (54.53%) Active Directory
2 180 (38.79%) VMware Infrastructure
3 125 (26.94%) Hyper-V
4 45 (9.70%) vSphere
5 43 (9.27%) VMware ESXi
6 37 (7.97%) XenApp
7 24 (5.17%) XenDesktop
8 19 (4.09%) Virtual Servers
9 18 (3.88%) Microsoft Virtual Server
10 8 (1.72%) Shibboleth
10 8 (1.72%) Veritas Volume Manager
10 8 (1.72%) Virtual Desktop
10 8 (1.72%) Virtual Machines
10 8 (1.72%) VMware NSX
11 6 (1.29%) Apache Flume
11 6 (1.29%) BitLocker
12 5 (1.08%) Docker
13 3 (0.65%) Microsoft App-V
13 3 (0.65%) Terminal Services
14 2 (0.43%) Samba
Systems Management
1 97 (20.91%) SCCM
2 39 (8.41%) Microsoft Intune
3 33 (7.11%) SCOM
4 25 (5.39%) WSUS
5 20 (4.31%) Single Sign-On
6 19 (4.09%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
7 18 (3.88%) NetBackup
8 17 (3.66%) Microsoft Clustering
9 16 (3.45%) McAfee ePO
10 15 (3.23%) Puppet
11 14 (3.02%) Ansible
12 13 (2.80%) Terraform
13 11 (2.37%) Backup Exec
14 10 (2.16%) vCenter Server
15 8 (1.72%) Norton AntiVirus
15 8 (1.72%) SCOrch
15 8 (1.72%) SolarWinds Orion
16 6 (1.29%) HP Data Protector
16 6 (1.29%) Kibana
16 6 (1.29%) Oozie
Vendors
1 330 (71.12%) Microsoft
2 265 (57.11%) VMware
3 123 (26.51%) Citrix
4 101 (21.77%) Cisco
5 45 (9.70%) Veeam
6 35 (7.54%) Red Hat
7 33 (7.11%) Oracle
8 31 (6.68%) SolarWinds
9 30 (6.47%) NetApp
10 25 (5.39%) HP
10 25 (5.39%) Sophos
10 25 (5.39%) Symantec
11 24 (5.17%) McAfee
12 23 (4.96%) Dell
13 21 (4.53%) EMC
14 17 (3.66%) ServiceNow
15 16 (3.45%) Ivanti
16 15 (3.23%) Avaya
17 14 (3.02%) Acme Packet
17 14 (3.02%) Google
78 MCSE job vacancies Nationwide