Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE) formerly Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for permanent job vacancies with a requirement for MCSE qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the salaries offered over the 6 months leading up to 12 May 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 585 507 591
Rank change year-on-year -78 +84 +63
Permanent jobs citing MCSE 131 147 313
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.14% 0.34% 0.32%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.62% 0.85% 1.20%
Number of salaries quoted 48 89 239
10th Percentile - £27,000 £30,000
25th Percentile £25,375 £32,500 £33,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £43,750 £37,500 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year +16.67% -16.67% +8.43%
75th Percentile £64,063 £47,500 £57,500
90th Percentile £75,000 £55,000 £70,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £34,000 £35,000 £40,000
% change year-on-year -2.86% -12.50% -

All Academic and Professional Certifications
UK

MCSE 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 21,094 17,327 26,037
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 23.34% 39.62% 26.94%
Number of salaries quoted 9,020 7,691 17,234
10th Percentile £29,000 £31,250 £28,250
25th Percentile £41,688 £41,250 £38,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £54,296
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% +1.30% -8.79%
75th Percentile £77,500 £73,750 £71,000
90th Percentile £92,500 £91,250 £87,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £53,500 £52,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +2.88% +4.00% -2.63%

MCSE
Job Vacancy Trend

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

MCSE job vacancy trend in the UK

MCSE
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing MCSE.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing MCSE

MCSE
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing MCSE over the 6 months to 12 May 2026.

Salary histogram for MCSE in the UK

MCSE
Top 17 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 12 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 -77 106 £45,000 +24.14% 23
UK excluding London -83 84 £34,000 -2.86% 22
Work from Home +59 79 £51,058 +34.03% 3
South East -6 30 £39,000 -2.50% 4
London 0 27 £62,500 +19.05% 2
Scotland +8 9 £26,150 +2.55% 1
South West -48 9 £26,150 -6.61% 2
Midlands -86 9 £51,058 +45.88% 4
Northern Ireland - 9 - -
North of England -41 8 £42,721 +17.85% 8
North West -4 7 £35,442 +1.26% 8
West Midlands -68 5 £47,500 +35.71% 3
Channel Islands - 5 £75,000 -
East of England -13 4 £34,000 -35.24% 5
East Midlands -43 4 £51,058 +45.88% 1
Wales -33 1 - -
Yorkshire -58 1 £50,000 -

MCSE
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 9 (6.87%) Microsoft Exchange
2 6 (4.58%) SharePoint
3 3 (2.29%) IIS
Applications
1 74 (56.49%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 2 (1.53%) Fidessa
Cloud Services
1 79 (60.31%) Microsoft 365
2 71 (54.20%) AWS
3 34 (25.95%) Azure
4 6 (4.58%) IaaS
5 5 (3.82%) Entra ID
5 5 (3.82%) Nutanix
6 4 (3.05%) Google Workspace
6 4 (3.05%) Mimecast
7 2 (1.53%) GCP
8 1 (0.76%) Azure DevOps
8 1 (0.76%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 22 (16.79%) SAN
2 11 (8.40%) DNS
3 9 (6.87%) Firewall
4 8 (6.11%) DHCP
5 7 (5.34%) TCP/IP
5 7 (5.34%) VoIP
5 7 (5.34%) WAN
6 6 (4.58%) LAN
7 4 (3.05%) VPN
8 3 (2.29%) 4G
8 3 (2.29%) IMAP
8 3 (2.29%) POP3
8 3 (2.29%) SMTP
8 3 (2.29%) Wi-Fi
8 3 (2.29%) Wireless
9 2 (1.53%) Cisco ASA
9 2 (1.53%) FIX Connectivity
9 2 (1.53%) Remote Desktop
10 1 (0.76%) iSCSI
10 1 (0.76%) Network Security
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (6.87%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 9 (6.87%) JIRA
2 4 (3.05%) Burp Suite
2 4 (3.05%) Metasploit
General
1 90 (68.70%) Social Skills
2 51 (38.93%) French Language
3 21 (16.03%) Analytical Skills
4 17 (12.98%) Legal
5 16 (12.21%) Public Sector
6 10 (7.63%) Swedish Language
7 9 (6.87%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 7 (5.34%) Finance
9 4 (3.05%) Banking
9 4 (3.05%) Retail
10 3 (2.29%) Organisational Skills
11 2 (1.53%) Manufacturing
12 1 (0.76%) Aerospace
12 1 (0.76%) Automotive
12 1 (0.76%) Electronics
12 1 (0.76%) Mandarin Language
12 1 (0.76%) Police
12 1 (0.76%) Social Housing
Job Titles
1 70 (53.44%) Analyst
2 63 (48.09%) Service Analyst
2 63 (48.09%) Service Desk Analyst
3 24 (18.32%) IT Engineer
4 20 (15.27%) Field Engineer
4 20 (15.27%) Field Service Engineer
5 15 (11.45%) Senior
6 13 (9.92%) Lead
6 13 (9.92%) Team Leader
7 12 (9.16%) Service Desk Team Leader
8 11 (8.40%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 10 (7.63%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
10 7 (5.34%) Cloud Engineer
11 6 (4.58%) IT Analyst
12 5 (3.82%) Cloud Infrastructure Engineer
12 5 (3.82%) Infrastructure Services Engineer
12 5 (3.82%) Senior Cloud Engineer
12 5 (3.82%) Support Analyst
12 5 (3.82%) Systems Engineer
13 4 (3.05%) Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (1.53%) .NET
1 2 (1.53%) FIX Protocol
Miscellaneous
1 23 (17.56%) Data Centre
2 20 (15.27%) Analytical Mindset
3 16 (12.21%) Smartphone
4 9 (6.87%) Hybrid Cloud
5 6 (4.58%) Replication
6 5 (3.82%) Management Information System
6 5 (3.82%) Onboarding
7 4 (3.05%) Insider Threat
7 4 (3.05%) Public Cloud
7 4 (3.05%) Security Posture
7 4 (3.05%) Self-Motivation
8 2 (1.53%) Eurex
8 2 (1.53%) Operational Technology
8 2 (1.53%) Video Conferencing
9 1 (0.76%) Fat Client
9 1 (0.76%) Renewable Energy
9 1 (0.76%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 30 (22.90%) Windows
2 18 (13.74%) Windows Server
3 10 (7.63%) Linux
4 4 (3.05%) Windows 10
5 2 (1.53%) Android
5 2 (1.53%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 2 (1.53%) Solaris
5 2 (1.53%) Ubuntu
5 2 (1.53%) Unix
5 2 (1.53%) Windows Server 2016
5 2 (1.53%) Windows Server 2019
6 1 (0.76%) Apple iOS
6 1 (0.76%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 91 (69.47%) Customer Service
2 77 (58.78%) ITIL
3 68 (51.91%) ITSM
4 59 (45.04%) Performance Metrics
5 31 (23.66%) Problem-Solving
6 25 (19.08%) Coaching
7 20 (15.27%) Continuous Improvement
8 13 (9.92%) Disaster Recovery
9 12 (9.16%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 9 (6.87%) Conflict Resolution
10 9 (6.87%) Knowledge Management
10 9 (6.87%) Presales
10 9 (6.87%) Service Management
11 8 (6.11%) Information Security
12 7 (5.34%) Problem Management
12 7 (5.34%) Service Delivery
13 6 (4.58%) Technical Leadership
14 5 (3.82%) Break/Fix
14 5 (3.82%) Cloud Security
14 5 (3.82%) Systems Engineering
Programming Languages
1 6 (4.58%) PowerShell
2 4 (3.05%) SQL
3 2 (1.53%) C#
3 2 (1.53%) Python
3 2 (1.53%) VB.NET
4 1 (0.76%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 131 (100.00%) Microsoft Certification
2 91 (69.47%) Degree
3 59 (45.04%) AWS Certification
4 46 (35.11%) Cisco Certification
5 40 (30.53%) CCNA
6 22 (16.79%) A+ Certification
7 21 (16.03%) Network+ Certification
8 16 (12.21%) BPSS Clearance
9 14 (10.69%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 13 (9.92%) CCNP
11 11 (8.40%) Microsoft Certified Professional
12 9 (6.87%) Azure Certification
13 7 (5.34%) DBS Check
14 6 (4.58%) SC Cleared
14 6 (4.58%) Security Cleared
15 5 (3.82%) CISSP
15 5 (3.82%) MCSA
16 4 (3.05%) CISMP
16 4 (3.05%) GIAC
16 4 (3.05%) LPIC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 59 (45.04%) QA
2 4 (3.05%) Actionable Recommendations
3 3 (2.29%) Cyber Essentials
4 2 (1.53%) COBIT
4 2 (1.53%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 2 (1.53%) GDPR
4 2 (1.53%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 2 (1.53%) SLA
5 1 (0.76%) Accessibility
5 1 (0.76%) HIPAA
5 1 (0.76%) NIST
5 1 (0.76%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 28 (21.37%) Active Directory
2 18 (13.74%) VMware Infrastructure
3 6 (4.58%) vSphere
4 5 (3.82%) KVM
5 2 (1.53%) Hyper-V
5 2 (1.53%) VMware Server
6 1 (0.76%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (0.76%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 7 (5.34%) SCCM
2 4 (3.05%) Microsoft Intune
2 4 (3.05%) Nmap
2 4 (3.05%) Terraform
3 1 (0.76%) AirWatch
3 1 (0.76%) EMC NetWorker
3 1 (0.76%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 95 (72.52%) Microsoft
2 63 (48.09%) ServiceNow
3 26 (19.85%) VMware
4 22 (16.79%) Dell
5 13 (9.92%) Cisco
6 11 (8.40%) Veeam
7 7 (5.34%) Citrix
8 5 (3.82%) Zerto
9 4 (3.05%) Google
9 4 (3.05%) Red Hat
10 2 (1.53%) Adobe
10 2 (1.53%) Bloomberg
10 2 (1.53%) Fortinet
10 2 (1.53%) HP
10 2 (1.53%) ION Trading
10 2 (1.53%) Juniper
10 2 (1.53%) Patsystems
10 2 (1.53%) Reuters
10 2 (1.53%) SonicWALL
10 2 (1.53%) WatchGuard