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 29 July 2026.

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

6 months to
29 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 371 459 411
Rank change year-on-year +88 -48 +59
Permanent jobs requiring a Systems Administrator 493 230 510
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.48% 0.47% 0.59%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.51% 0.52% 0.62%
Number of salaries quoted 318 157 416
10th Percentile £31,250 £26,950 £30,000
25th Percentile £36,250 £30,000 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £45,000 £45,000
75th Percentile £58,750 £57,500 £52,500
90th Percentile £70,000 £71,750 £65,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £41,000 £45,000 £45,000
% change year-on-year -8.89% - +12.50%

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 95,972 44,419 82,565
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.36% 90.03% 94.80%
Number of salaries quoted 65,619 26,374 56,860
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,500 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £37,500 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year - - -8.33%
75th Percentile £75,000 £75,000 £71,250
90th Percentile £96,250 £96,250 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +5.00% - -5.66%

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 29 July 2026.

Salary histogram for Systems Administrator in the UK

Systems Administrator
Top 16 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 29 July 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 +78 439 £45,000 - 59
UK excluding London +60 368 £41,000 -8.89% 59
London +43 109 £60,000 +9.09% 13
Work from Home -14 91 £55,000 +15.79% 18
Midlands +26 79 £45,000 +50.00% 15
South West -55 74 £35,000 -22.22% 4
North of England +4 63 £45,000 +16.88% 7
South East -14 59 £45,000 - 17
East of England +6 51 £40,000 -11.11% 8
East Midlands +7 46 £40,000 +33.33% 6
Scotland +50 38 £43,500 -27.50% 6
West Midlands -1 33 £50,000 +29.87% 9
Yorkshire -7 32 £45,000 -5.26% 4
North West -2 26 £40,000 +18.64% 3
North East - 5 £47,500 -
Wales -58 4 - - 3

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

For the 6 months to 29 July 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.

1 104 (21.10%) Microsoft
2 102 (20.69%) Linux
3 75 (15.21%) Microsoft 365
4 73 (14.81%) Windows
5 68 (13.79%) Active Directory
5 68 (13.79%) DevOps
6 66 (13.39%) Azure
7 57 (11.56%) Red Hat
8 56 (11.36%) Problem-Solving
9 55 (11.16%) Entra ID
10 54 (10.95%) SQL
11 43 (8.72%) Bash
12 42 (8.52%) Continuous Improvement
13 41 (8.32%) Firewall
13 41 (8.32%) Python
14 40 (8.11%) Microsoft Exchange
15 39 (7.91%) AWS
15 39 (7.91%) Hyper-V
15 39 (7.91%) Windows Server
16 38 (7.71%) CI/CD
17 36 (7.30%) Security Cleared
18 35 (7.10%) Ansible
19 34 (6.90%) DNS
19 34 (6.90%) ERP
20 33 (6.69%) SharePoint
21 31 (6.29%) Git
21 31 (6.29%) Kubernetes
21 31 (6.29%) SaaS
22 30 (6.09%) Vulnerability Management
23 28 (5.68%) SC Cleared

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 40 (8.11%) Microsoft Exchange
2 33 (6.69%) SharePoint
3 8 (1.62%) OpenStack
4 3 (0.61%) nginx
5 2 (0.41%) Apache
5 2 (0.41%) IIS
5 2 (0.41%) Tomcat
5 2 (0.41%) WordPress
6 1 (0.20%) CMS
6 1 (0.20%) Confluence
6 1 (0.20%) JBoss
6 1 (0.20%) Moodle
6 1 (0.20%) Site Server
Applications
1 14 (2.84%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (2.23%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 13 (2.64%) Primavera
2 8 (1.62%) iTrent
3 3 (0.61%) Elite 3E
4 2 (0.41%) Shopify
5 1 (0.20%) HFM
Cloud Services
1 75 (15.21%) Microsoft 365
2 66 (13.39%) Azure
3 55 (11.16%) Entra ID
4 39 (7.91%) AWS
5 31 (6.29%) SaaS
6 23 (4.67%) OpenShift
7 22 (4.46%) Power Platform
8 18 (3.65%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 18 (3.65%) Power Automate
9 15 (3.04%) Mimecast
10 14 (2.84%) GCP
11 13 (2.64%) PaaS
11 13 (2.64%) PowerApps
12 12 (2.43%) Intacct
13 10 (2.03%) Amazon ECR
13 10 (2.03%) Amazon ECS
13 10 (2.03%) Dynamics 365
14 9 (1.83%) Azure Logic Apps
15 7 (1.42%) GitHub
16 6 (1.22%) Azure DevOps
Communications & Networking
1 41 (8.32%) Firewall
2 34 (6.90%) DNS
3 21 (4.26%) TCP/IP
4 17 (3.45%) LAN
5 16 (3.25%) VPN
6 14 (2.84%) DHCP
7 12 (2.43%) SAN
8 10 (2.03%) Wi-Fi
9 9 (1.83%) HTTP
9 9 (1.83%) Network Security
10 8 (1.62%) WAN
11 7 (1.42%) Internet
12 4 (0.81%) VLAN
12 4 (0.81%) VSAN
12 4 (0.81%) Wireless
13 3 (0.61%) NAS
13 3 (0.61%) SSH
14 2 (0.41%) iSCSI
14 2 (0.41%) Multicast
14 2 (0.41%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 15 (3.04%) MySQL
2 10 (2.03%) Elasticsearch
3 8 (1.62%) Power BI
4 3 (0.61%) Amazon RDS
4 3 (0.61%) GIS
5 1 (0.20%) Relational Database
5 1 (0.20%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 31 (6.29%) Git
2 15 (3.04%) GitLab
3 8 (1.62%) JIRA
4 2 (0.41%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.20%) Artifactory
5 1 (0.20%) Bitbucket
5 1 (0.20%) Robot Framework
5 1 (0.20%) Selenium
5 1 (0.20%) TeamCity
General
1 94 (19.07%) Finance
2 74 (15.01%) Social Skills
3 40 (8.11%) Analytical Skills
4 24 (4.87%) Banking
5 23 (4.67%) Manufacturing
5 23 (4.67%) Retail
6 17 (3.45%) Billing
7 14 (2.84%) Legal
8 11 (2.23%) Law
9 10 (2.03%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 8 (1.62%) Organisational Skills
11 5 (1.01%) Pharmaceutical
12 4 (0.81%) Documentation Skills
13 3 (0.61%) Games
13 3 (0.61%) Public Sector
14 2 (0.41%) Marketing
15 1 (0.20%) Electronics
15 1 (0.20%) Local Government
15 1 (0.20%) Police
15 1 (0.20%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (1.83%) WebSockets
2 7 (1.42%) Middleware
3 3 (0.61%) Boost C++ Libraries
4 2 (0.41%) HTML
4 2 (0.41%) LEMP Stack
4 2 (0.41%) Node.js
4 2 (0.41%) OpenID
5 1 (0.20%) CSS
5 1 (0.20%) CSS3
5 1 (0.20%) HTML5
5 1 (0.20%) Keycloak
5 1 (0.20%) OAuth
5 1 (0.20%) OAuth2
5 1 (0.20%) React
5 1 (0.20%) Redfish
5 1 (0.20%) SAML
5 1 (0.20%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 25 (5.07%) Data Structures
2 21 (4.26%) Clustering
3 14 (2.84%) Data Centre
3 14 (2.84%) Social Media
4 10 (2.03%) Onboarding
5 7 (1.42%) Management Information System
6 6 (1.22%) Operational Technology
6 6 (1.22%) Private Cloud
6 6 (1.22%) Self-Motivation
7 5 (1.01%) Hybrid Cloud
8 3 (0.61%) Embedded Systems
8 3 (0.61%) IoT
8 3 (0.61%) Replication
8 3 (0.61%) Security Posture
9 2 (0.41%) Educational Technology
9 2 (0.41%) Enterprise Software
9 2 (0.41%) Housing Association
10 1 (0.20%) Cloud Native
10 1 (0.20%) Driving Licence
10 1 (0.20%) Legacy Applications
Operating Systems
1 102 (20.69%) Linux
2 73 (14.81%) Windows
3 39 (7.91%) Windows Server
4 24 (4.87%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 23 (4.67%) Mac OS
6 20 (4.06%) Apple iOS
7 19 (3.85%) Android
7 19 (3.85%) CentOS
8 13 (2.64%) Ubuntu
9 11 (2.23%) Unix
10 8 (1.62%) Debian
11 5 (1.01%) Rocky
11 5 (1.01%) Windows 10
12 4 (0.81%) CoreOS
12 4 (0.81%) Windows Server 2016
12 4 (0.81%) Windows Server 2019
13 1 (0.20%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 68 (13.79%) DevOps
2 56 (11.36%) Problem-Solving
3 42 (8.52%) Continuous Improvement
4 38 (7.71%) CI/CD
5 34 (6.90%) ERP
6 30 (6.09%) Vulnerability Management
7 27 (5.48%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 25 (5.07%) Configuration Management
9 22 (4.46%) Infrastructure as Code
10 20 (4.06%) Analytics
10 20 (4.06%) Change Management
11 19 (3.85%) Identity Management
11 19 (3.85%) Release Management
12 18 (3.65%) Change Control
12 18 (3.65%) ITIL
12 18 (3.65%) Process Improvement
13 17 (3.45%) High Availability
13 17 (3.45%) Time Management
14 15 (3.04%) Capacity Planning
14 15 (3.04%) Patch Management
Programming Languages
1 54 (10.95%) SQL
2 43 (8.72%) Bash
3 41 (8.32%) Python
4 26 (5.27%) PowerShell
5 7 (1.42%) JavaScript
5 7 (1.42%) R
6 5 (1.01%) Go
7 4 (0.81%) PHP
8 3 (0.61%) C
8 3 (0.61%) C++
8 3 (0.61%) Ruby
8 3 (0.61%) Shell Script
9 2 (0.41%) VBA
Qualifications
1 36 (7.30%) Security Cleared
2 28 (5.68%) SC Cleared
3 27 (5.48%) DV Cleared
4 14 (2.84%) Degree
5 10 (2.03%) RHCSA
6 6 (1.22%) AWS Certification
6 6 (1.22%) CIPD
7 3 (0.61%) HND
7 3 (0.61%) Microsoft Certification
8 2 (0.41%) DBS Check
9 1 (0.20%) CCNA
9 1 (0.20%) CCNP
9 1 (0.20%) Cisco Certification
9 1 (0.20%) ITIL Certification
9 1 (0.20%) Linux+ Certification
9 1 (0.20%) MCSE
9 1 (0.20%) PMI Certification
9 1 (0.20%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (5.27%) QA
2 15 (3.04%) Data Quality
3 8 (1.62%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 7 (1.42%) GDPR
5 3 (0.61%) Cyber Essentials
6 1 (0.20%) SOC 2
System Software
1 68 (13.79%) Active Directory
2 39 (7.91%) Hyper-V
3 26 (5.27%) Docker
4 20 (4.06%) VMware Infrastructure
5 7 (1.42%) Ceph
6 6 (1.22%) Virtual Machines
7 5 (1.01%) iptables
8 4 (0.81%) Firmware
9 1 (0.20%) KVM
9 1 (0.20%) NFS
9 1 (0.20%) Slurm Workload Manager
9 1 (0.20%) Virtual Desktop
9 1 (0.20%) Xen
Systems Management
1 35 (7.10%) Ansible
2 31 (6.29%) Kubernetes
3 26 (5.27%) Terraform
4 23 (4.67%) Microsoft Intune
4 23 (4.67%) Nagios
5 19 (3.85%) Grafana
6 18 (3.65%) Nessus
7 17 (3.45%) Prometheus
8 15 (3.04%) Proxmox
9 9 (1.83%) Puppet
10 8 (1.62%) Podman
11 7 (1.42%) Argo
11 7 (1.42%) Check_MK
11 7 (1.42%) Istio
12 4 (0.81%) McAfee ePO
12 4 (0.81%) SCCM
12 4 (0.81%) SCVMM
13 3 (0.61%) Failover Clustering
13 3 (0.61%) Progress Chef
13 3 (0.61%) systemd
Vendors
1 104 (21.10%) Microsoft
2 57 (11.56%) Red Hat
3 28 (5.68%) VMware
4 23 (4.67%) Salesforce
5 13 (2.64%) Sage
6 11 (2.23%) SolarWinds
6 11 (2.23%) Splunk
7 10 (2.03%) Dell
7 10 (2.03%) Rapid7
7 10 (2.03%) Veeam
8 9 (1.83%) SAP
9 8 (1.62%) CrowdStrike
9 8 (1.62%) SonicWALL
10 6 (1.22%) Cisco
11 5 (1.01%) Concur
11 5 (1.01%) Databricks
11 5 (1.01%) Google
11 5 (1.01%) Meraki
12 4 (0.81%) McAfee
13 3 (0.61%) Palo Alto