Systems Administrator Job Trends

System Administrator (Sysadmin)
UK

The median System Administrator (Sysadmin) salary in the UK is £45,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 16 April 2026.

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

6 months to
16 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 452 418 439
Rank change year-on-year -34 +21 +84
Permanent jobs requiring a Systems Administrator 289 219 529
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.34% 0.53% 0.56%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.36% 0.59% 0.59%
Number of salaries quoted 232 179 428
10th Percentile £28,000 £27,850 £28,000
25th Percentile £31,250 £41,250 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £50,000 £40,400
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% +23.76% -14.95%
75th Percentile £63,750 £57,500 £50,000
90th Percentile £70,000 £76,250 £58,975
UK excluding London median annual salary £40,000 £50,000 £40,000
% change year-on-year -20.00% +25.00% -3.03%

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 79,387 37,056 88,958
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.59% 89.35% 94.57%
Number of salaries quoted 50,792 23,295 66,136
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £42,500 £38,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £53,795
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +11.53% -10.34%
75th Percentile £75,000 £78,750 £71,250
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -4.76%

Systems Administrator
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Systems Administrator job vacancy trend in the UK

Systems Administrator
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for Systems Administrator job vacancies in the UK.

Salary distribution trend for Systems Administrator job vacancies in the UK

Systems Administrator
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Systems Administrator over the 6 months to 16 April 2026.

Salary histogram for Systems Administrator in the UK

Systems Administrator
Top 15 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Systems Administrator within the UK over the 6 months to 16 April 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 -17 275 £45,000 -10.00% 56
UK excluding London -20 212 £40,000 -20.00% 50
London +20 70 £65,000 +1.96% 14
Midlands +20 69 £32,500 +1.56% 7
Work from Home -20 47 £52,500 +5.00% 29
East Midlands -10 44 £32,500 +1.56% 5
South East -34 43 £53,750 +9.69% 14
North of England -54 33 £36,500 -11.12% 13
East of England -11 31 £49,000 -18.33% 8
South West -84 28 £40,000 -20.00% 6
West Midlands +7 25 £41,250 +32.00% 2
Yorkshire -42 18 £35,000 -33.33% 6
North West -36 13 £36,500 -8.75% 5
Scotland -27 8 £26,000 -48.00% 3
North East - 2 £47,500 - 2

Systems Administrator Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 16 April 2026, Systems Administrator 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 Systems Administrator in the job title.

1 70 (24.22%) Linux
2 56 (19.38%) Problem-Solving
3 43 (14.88%) Microsoft
4 36 (12.46%) DevOps
4 36 (12.46%) Microsoft 365
5 32 (11.07%) Windows
6 30 (10.38%) Azure
7 29 (10.03%) SQL
8 28 (9.69%) Red Hat
9 27 (9.34%) Firewall
9 27 (9.34%) VMware
10 25 (8.65%) Active Directory
10 25 (8.65%) Bash
10 25 (8.65%) iTrent
10 25 (8.65%) Security Cleared
11 24 (8.30%) Python
12 22 (7.61%) DV Cleared
13 21 (7.27%) Analytics
13 21 (7.27%) ERP
14 20 (6.92%) AWS
14 20 (6.92%) Process Improvement
15 18 (6.23%) Ansible
15 18 (6.23%) GDPR
15 18 (6.23%) Terraform
16 17 (5.88%) Infrastructure as Code
17 16 (5.54%) Configuration Management
17 16 (5.54%) VMware Infrastructure
18 15 (5.19%) CI/CD
18 15 (5.19%) CIPD
18 15 (5.19%) Continuous Improvement

Systems Administrator 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:

Application Platforms
1 13 (4.50%) Microsoft Exchange
2 9 (3.11%) SharePoint
3 4 (1.38%) WordPress
4 3 (1.04%) Apache
4 3 (1.04%) CMS
5 2 (0.69%) nginx
5 2 (0.69%) Tomcat
6 1 (0.35%) Confluence
6 1 (0.35%) Site Server
Applications
1 8 (2.77%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (1.73%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 25 (8.65%) iTrent
2 3 (1.04%) Elite 3E
3 2 (0.69%) SAP Business One
3 2 (0.69%) Shopify
3 2 (0.69%) Workday HCM
4 1 (0.35%) HFM
4 1 (0.35%) Oracle 11i
4 1 (0.35%) Oracle EBS
4 1 (0.35%) Oracle ERP
4 1 (0.35%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 36 (12.46%) Microsoft 365
2 30 (10.38%) Azure
3 20 (6.92%) AWS
4 13 (4.50%) Amazon CloudWatch
5 9 (3.11%) Entra ID
5 9 (3.11%) Power Platform
6 8 (2.77%) Amazon EKS
6 8 (2.77%) GitHub
6 8 (2.77%) GitHub Actions
7 7 (2.42%) Mimecast
8 6 (2.08%) GCP
9 5 (1.73%) Dynamics 365
9 5 (1.73%) SaaS
10 4 (1.38%) Power Automate
11 3 (1.04%) Amazon ECR
11 3 (1.04%) Amazon ECS
11 3 (1.04%) Intacct
11 3 (1.04%) Nutanix
11 3 (1.04%) PowerApps
11 3 (1.04%) Veeva
Communications & Networking
1 27 (9.34%) Firewall
2 13 (4.50%) VPN
3 11 (3.81%) DNS
4 10 (3.46%) LAN
5 8 (2.77%) TCP/IP
6 7 (2.42%) HTTP
6 7 (2.42%) Network Security
7 6 (2.08%) SAN
8 5 (1.73%) WAN
8 5 (1.73%) Wi-Fi
9 4 (1.38%) Internet
10 3 (1.04%) NAS
10 3 (1.04%) VLAN
10 3 (1.04%) Wireless
11 2 (0.69%) Cisco IOS
11 2 (0.69%) Cisco ISE
11 2 (0.69%) Multicast
11 2 (0.69%) SSH
11 2 (0.69%) VoIP
12 1 (0.35%) DHCP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (3.11%) Power BI
2 7 (2.42%) MySQL
3 4 (1.38%) SQL Server
4 3 (1.04%) Elasticsearch
5 2 (0.69%) Amazon RDS
5 2 (0.69%) Crystal Reports
5 2 (0.69%) Relational Database
6 1 (0.35%) Data Warehouse
6 1 (0.35%) GIS
6 1 (0.35%) Oracle Database
6 1 (0.35%) Oracle Database 12c
6 1 (0.35%) Oracle Reports
6 1 (0.35%) RDBMS
6 1 (0.35%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 11 (3.81%) Git
2 6 (2.08%) JIRA
3 3 (1.04%) GitLab
4 1 (0.35%) Bitbucket
General
1 45 (15.57%) Social Skills
2 42 (14.53%) Finance
3 24 (8.30%) Analytical Skills
4 13 (4.50%) Retail
5 11 (3.81%) Banking
6 10 (3.46%) Manufacturing
6 10 (3.46%) Organisational Skills
7 9 (3.11%) Law
8 7 (2.42%) Legal
9 6 (2.08%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 3 (1.04%) Billing
10 3 (1.04%) Documentation Skills
10 3 (1.04%) Public Sector
11 2 (0.69%) Military
12 1 (0.35%) Back Office
12 1 (0.35%) Games
12 1 (0.35%) Local Government
12 1 (0.35%) Presentation Skills
12 1 (0.35%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (1.73%) WebSockets
2 4 (1.38%) Middleware
3 3 (1.04%) LAMP
4 2 (0.69%) JSON
4 2 (0.69%) LEMP Stack
4 2 (0.69%) Node.js
4 2 (0.69%) XML
5 1 (0.35%) HTML
5 1 (0.35%) ODBC
5 1 (0.35%) Oracle Fusion
Miscellaneous
1 10 (3.46%) Management Information System
2 9 (3.11%) Hybrid Cloud
3 8 (2.77%) Clustering
3 8 (2.77%) Private Cloud
4 7 (2.42%) Data Centre
5 6 (2.08%) FMCG
6 4 (1.38%) Learning Management System
7 3 (1.04%) Data Structures
7 3 (1.04%) Driving Licence
7 3 (1.04%) iSeries
7 3 (1.04%) Replication
8 2 (0.69%) Onboarding
9 1 (0.35%) Cloud Native
9 1 (0.35%) Distributed Computing
9 1 (0.35%) Legacy Applications
9 1 (0.35%) Life Science
9 1 (0.35%) PKI
9 1 (0.35%) Product Ownership
9 1 (0.35%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 70 (24.22%) Linux
2 32 (11.07%) Windows
3 13 (4.50%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 10 (3.46%) CentOS
4 10 (3.46%) Windows Server
5 8 (2.77%) Android
5 8 (2.77%) Apple iOS
5 8 (2.77%) Mac OS
6 6 (2.08%) Ubuntu
7 5 (1.73%) Unix
8 2 (0.69%) Debian
8 2 (0.69%) Rocky
8 2 (0.69%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.35%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 56 (19.38%) Problem-Solving
2 36 (12.46%) DevOps
3 21 (7.27%) Analytics
3 21 (7.27%) ERP
4 20 (6.92%) Process Improvement
5 17 (5.88%) Infrastructure as Code
6 16 (5.54%) Configuration Management
7 15 (5.19%) CI/CD
7 15 (5.19%) Continuous Improvement
8 13 (4.50%) Service Delivery
9 9 (3.11%) AI
9 9 (3.11%) Business Intelligence
9 9 (3.11%) Change Management
9 9 (3.11%) Time Management
10 8 (2.77%) Cloud Security
10 8 (2.77%) Infrastructure Automation
10 8 (2.77%) ITIL
10 8 (2.77%) Observability
10 8 (2.77%) Patch Management
11 7 (2.42%) Containerisation
Programming Languages
1 29 (10.03%) SQL
2 25 (8.65%) Bash
3 24 (8.30%) Python
4 8 (2.77%) Go
5 6 (2.08%) PowerShell
6 5 (1.73%) PHP
7 3 (1.04%) JavaScript
7 3 (1.04%) Perl
8 2 (0.69%) Shell Script
8 2 (0.69%) VBA
9 1 (0.35%) R
9 1 (0.35%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 25 (8.65%) Security Cleared
2 22 (7.61%) DV Cleared
3 15 (5.19%) CIPD
4 8 (2.77%) AWS Certification
4 8 (2.77%) SC Cleared
5 7 (2.42%) Microsoft Certification
6 6 (2.08%) RHCSA
7 5 (1.73%) Degree
8 3 (1.04%) Azure Certification
8 3 (1.04%) MCSA
8 3 (1.04%) MCSE
9 2 (0.69%) Microsoft Certified Professional
10 1 (0.35%) A+ Certification
10 1 (0.35%) BPSS Clearance
10 1 (0.35%) CCNA
10 1 (0.35%) CCNP
10 1 (0.35%) Cisco Certification
10 1 (0.35%) Computer Science Degree
10 1 (0.35%) ITIL Certification
10 1 (0.35%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (6.23%) GDPR
2 5 (1.73%) QA
3 2 (0.69%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 1 (0.35%) Data Quality
4 1 (0.35%) ISO/IEC 20000
System Software
1 25 (8.65%) Active Directory
2 16 (5.54%) VMware Infrastructure
3 14 (4.84%) Hyper-V
4 9 (3.11%) Docker
5 3 (1.04%) Firmware
6 2 (0.69%) iptables
7 1 (0.35%) KVM
7 1 (0.35%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 18 (6.23%) Ansible
1 18 (6.23%) Terraform
2 15 (5.19%) Kubernetes
3 13 (4.50%) Grafana
3 13 (4.50%) Proxmox
4 11 (3.81%) Microsoft Intune
4 11 (3.81%) Nagios
4 11 (3.81%) Prometheus
5 10 (3.46%) Nessus
6 5 (1.73%) Puppet
7 3 (1.04%) WSUS
8 2 (0.69%) Red Hat Satellite
8 2 (0.69%) systemd
9 1 (0.35%) FortiGate
9 1 (0.35%) Podman
9 1 (0.35%) Progress Chef
9 1 (0.35%) SCCM
9 1 (0.35%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 43 (14.88%) Microsoft
2 28 (9.69%) Red Hat
3 27 (9.34%) VMware
4 8 (2.77%) SolarWinds
5 7 (2.42%) Cisco
5 7 (2.42%) Veeam
6 6 (2.08%) ServiceNow
7 5 (1.73%) SAP
7 5 (1.73%) SonicWALL
8 4 (1.38%) Meraki
8 4 (1.38%) Oracle
8 4 (1.38%) Salesforce
8 4 (1.38%) Splunk
9 3 (1.04%) Dell
9 3 (1.04%) IBM
9 3 (1.04%) Palo Alto
9 3 (1.04%) Rapid7
9 3 (1.04%) Sage
10 2 (0.69%) Okta
10 2 (0.69%) Zscaler