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 July 2026.

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

6 months to
16 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 388 458 405
Rank change year-on-year +70 -53 +77
Permanent jobs requiring a Systems Administrator 460 228 619
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.47% 0.46% 0.61%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.49% 0.52% 0.65%
Number of salaries quoted 301 159 512
10th Percentile £31,250 £26,975 £28,573
25th Percentile £36,250 £30,000 £34,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £45,000 £43,000
Median % change year-on-year - +4.65% -4.44%
75th Percentile £58,750 £57,500 £52,500
90th Percentile £70,000 £71,500 £65,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £40,000 £45,000 £41,500
% change year-on-year -11.11% +8.43% +3.75%

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 93,088 44,174 95,628
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.23% 89.90% 94.75%
Number of salaries quoted 63,779 26,115 68,243
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,750 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £37,500 £38,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year - +4.76% -12.50%
75th Percentile £75,000 £75,000 £70,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £97,500 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +5.00% - -5.12%

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 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 16 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 +75 410 £45,000 - 57
UK excluding London +33 334 £40,000 -11.11% 55
London +39 110 £58,750 +6.82% 8
Work from Home +10 90 £55,000 +15.79% 17
Midlands +41 77 £41,750 +39.17% 7
South West -64 57 £36,750 -18.33% 12
South East +1 56 £45,000 -6.74% 19
North of England 0 55 £40,000 +3.90% 8
East of England +18 51 £40,000 -11.11% 6
East Midlands +4 51 £40,000 +33.33% 5
Scotland +49 36 - - 2
Yorkshire -12 32 £45,000 -5.26% 3
West Midlands -8 26 £45,000 +16.88% 2
North West +3 18 £40,000 +18.64% 4
North East - 5 £47,500 - 1
Wales -57 2 - - 3

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

For the 6 months to 16 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 97 (21.09%) Microsoft
2 87 (18.91%) Linux
3 70 (15.22%) Microsoft 365
4 62 (13.48%) DevOps
5 61 (13.26%) Windows
6 59 (12.83%) Active Directory
7 57 (12.39%) Azure
8 55 (11.96%) Problem-Solving
9 54 (11.74%) SQL
10 50 (10.87%) Entra ID
11 45 (9.78%) Red Hat
12 42 (9.13%) Firewall
13 41 (8.91%) Continuous Improvement
14 39 (8.48%) Bash
15 37 (8.04%) Microsoft Exchange
15 37 (8.04%) Python
16 35 (7.61%) ERP
17 34 (7.39%) Hyper-V
18 32 (6.96%) AWS
18 32 (6.96%) Security Cleared
19 31 (6.74%) CI/CD
20 30 (6.52%) SharePoint
20 30 (6.52%) VMware
20 30 (6.52%) Windows Server
21 28 (6.09%) Vulnerability Management
22 27 (5.87%) Ansible
23 26 (5.65%) DNS
24 25 (5.43%) Configuration Management
24 25 (5.43%) Terraform
25 24 (5.22%) QA

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 37 (8.04%) Microsoft Exchange
2 30 (6.52%) SharePoint
3 4 (0.87%) WordPress
4 3 (0.65%) Apache
4 3 (0.65%) CMS
5 2 (0.43%) nginx
5 2 (0.43%) Tomcat
6 1 (0.22%) Confluence
6 1 (0.22%) Moodle
6 1 (0.22%) Site Server
Applications
1 13 (2.83%) Microsoft Excel
2 9 (1.96%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 13 (2.83%) Primavera
2 11 (2.39%) iTrent
3 3 (0.65%) Elite 3E
4 1 (0.22%) HFM
4 1 (0.22%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 70 (15.22%) Microsoft 365
2 57 (12.39%) Azure
3 50 (10.87%) Entra ID
4 32 (6.96%) AWS
5 23 (5.00%) Power Platform
6 22 (4.78%) SaaS
7 19 (4.13%) Amazon CloudWatch
7 19 (4.13%) Power Automate
8 14 (3.04%) Mimecast
8 14 (3.04%) PowerApps
9 12 (2.61%) GCP
9 12 (2.61%) Intacct
10 10 (2.17%) Dynamics 365
10 10 (2.17%) GitHub
11 9 (1.96%) Azure Logic Apps
12 8 (1.74%) Amazon ECR
12 8 (1.74%) Amazon ECS
12 8 (1.74%) Amazon EKS
12 8 (1.74%) GitHub Actions
12 8 (1.74%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 42 (9.13%) Firewall
2 26 (5.65%) DNS
3 17 (3.70%) VPN
4 15 (3.26%) TCP/IP
5 13 (2.83%) LAN
6 10 (2.17%) SAN
6 10 (2.17%) Wi-Fi
7 9 (1.96%) HTTP
7 9 (1.96%) Network Security
8 8 (1.74%) DHCP
9 7 (1.52%) Internet
10 4 (0.87%) WAN
10 4 (0.87%) Wireless
11 3 (0.65%) NAS
11 3 (0.65%) SSH
11 3 (0.65%) VLAN
12 2 (0.43%) Multicast
12 2 (0.43%) VoIP
13 1 (0.22%) DKIM
13 1 (0.22%) DMARC
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (2.83%) MySQL
2 9 (1.96%) Power BI
3 8 (1.74%) Elasticsearch
4 3 (0.65%) Amazon RDS
4 3 (0.65%) GIS
5 1 (0.22%) Data Warehouse
5 1 (0.22%) Relational Database
5 1 (0.22%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 17 (3.70%) Git
2 13 (2.83%) GitLab
3 8 (1.74%) JIRA
4 1 (0.22%) Artifactory
4 1 (0.22%) Jenkins
General
1 91 (19.78%) Finance
2 65 (14.13%) Social Skills
3 26 (5.65%) Analytical Skills
4 25 (5.43%) Retail
5 23 (5.00%) Manufacturing
6 22 (4.78%) Banking
7 17 (3.70%) Billing
8 13 (2.83%) Legal
9 11 (2.39%) Law
10 10 (2.17%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 7 (1.52%) Organisational Skills
12 5 (1.09%) Documentation Skills
12 5 (1.09%) Pharmaceutical
13 3 (0.65%) Games
13 3 (0.65%) Public Sector
14 1 (0.22%) Electronics
14 1 (0.22%) Local Government
14 1 (0.22%) Marketing
14 1 (0.22%) Police
14 1 (0.22%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (1.96%) Middleware
1 9 (1.96%) WebSockets
2 3 (0.65%) Boost C++ Libraries
3 2 (0.43%) LEMP Stack
3 2 (0.43%) Node.js
4 1 (0.22%) HTML
4 1 (0.22%) OpenID
4 1 (0.22%) Redfish
4 1 (0.22%) SAML
4 1 (0.22%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 25 (5.43%) Data Structures
2 21 (4.57%) Clustering
3 12 (2.61%) Data Centre
4 10 (2.17%) Onboarding
5 9 (1.96%) Hybrid Cloud
6 8 (1.74%) Private Cloud
7 7 (1.52%) Management Information System
8 6 (1.30%) Self-Motivation
9 4 (0.87%) Operational Technology
10 3 (0.65%) Embedded Systems
10 3 (0.65%) IoT
10 3 (0.65%) Replication
10 3 (0.65%) Security Posture
11 2 (0.43%) Educational Technology
11 2 (0.43%) Enterprise Software
12 1 (0.22%) CCTV
12 1 (0.22%) Distributed Computing
12 1 (0.22%) Life Science
12 1 (0.22%) Product Ownership
12 1 (0.22%) VLE
Operating Systems
1 87 (18.91%) Linux
2 61 (13.26%) Windows
3 30 (6.52%) Windows Server
4 21 (4.57%) Mac OS
4 21 (4.57%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 18 (3.91%) Android
5 18 (3.91%) Apple iOS
6 13 (2.83%) CentOS
6 13 (2.83%) Ubuntu
7 8 (1.74%) Debian
7 8 (1.74%) Unix
8 5 (1.09%) Rocky
9 4 (0.87%) Windows 10
10 1 (0.22%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 62 (13.48%) DevOps
2 55 (11.96%) Problem-Solving
3 41 (8.91%) Continuous Improvement
4 35 (7.61%) ERP
5 31 (6.74%) CI/CD
6 28 (6.09%) Vulnerability Management
7 25 (5.43%) Configuration Management
8 23 (5.00%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 22 (4.78%) Infrastructure as Code
10 21 (4.57%) Analytics
11 19 (4.13%) Change Management
11 19 (4.13%) Process Improvement
11 19 (4.13%) Release Management
12 18 (3.91%) Identity Management
13 16 (3.48%) Change Control
14 15 (3.26%) CRM
14 15 (3.26%) High Availability
15 14 (3.04%) Disaster Recovery
15 14 (3.04%) Patch Management
15 14 (3.04%) Service Delivery
Programming Languages
1 54 (11.74%) SQL
2 39 (8.48%) Bash
3 37 (8.04%) Python
4 21 (4.57%) PowerShell
5 8 (1.74%) Go
6 6 (1.30%) JavaScript
6 6 (1.30%) PHP
6 6 (1.30%) R
7 3 (0.65%) C
7 3 (0.65%) C++
7 3 (0.65%) Ruby
7 3 (0.65%) Shell Script
8 2 (0.43%) VBA
Qualifications
1 32 (6.96%) Security Cleared
2 24 (5.22%) SC Cleared
3 23 (5.00%) DV Cleared
4 14 (3.04%) Degree
5 10 (2.17%) RHCSA
6 8 (1.74%) AWS Certification
7 7 (1.52%) CIPD
8 3 (0.65%) HND
9 2 (0.43%) Microsoft Certification
10 1 (0.22%) Azure Certification
10 1 (0.22%) CCNA
10 1 (0.22%) CCNP
10 1 (0.22%) Cisco Certification
10 1 (0.22%) DBS Check
10 1 (0.22%) ITIL Certification
10 1 (0.22%) Linux+ Certification
10 1 (0.22%) MCSE
10 1 (0.22%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (5.22%) QA
2 15 (3.26%) Data Quality
3 7 (1.52%) GDPR
3 7 (1.52%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 3 (0.65%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (0.22%) SOC 2
System Software
1 59 (12.83%) Active Directory
2 34 (7.39%) Hyper-V
3 20 (4.35%) VMware Infrastructure
4 16 (3.48%) Docker
5 5 (1.09%) iptables
6 3 (0.65%) Firmware
7 2 (0.43%) Virtual Machines
8 1 (0.22%) KVM
8 1 (0.22%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 1 (0.22%) Xen
Systems Management
1 27 (5.87%) Ansible
2 25 (5.43%) Terraform
3 23 (5.00%) Kubernetes
3 23 (5.00%) Microsoft Intune
4 20 (4.35%) Grafana
4 20 (4.35%) Nagios
5 18 (3.91%) Proxmox
6 17 (3.70%) Nessus
7 13 (2.83%) Prometheus
8 8 (1.74%) Puppet
9 4 (0.87%) SCCM
10 3 (0.65%) Failover Clustering
10 3 (0.65%) Microsoft Clustering
10 3 (0.65%) systemd
11 2 (0.43%) Progress Chef
11 2 (0.43%) Red Hat Satellite
11 2 (0.43%) ZABBIX
12 1 (0.22%) FlexNet
12 1 (0.22%) FortiGate
12 1 (0.22%) SCOM
Vendors
1 97 (21.09%) Microsoft
2 45 (9.78%) Red Hat
3 30 (6.52%) VMware
4 23 (5.00%) Salesforce
5 13 (2.83%) Sage
6 12 (2.61%) SolarWinds
7 11 (2.39%) Veeam
8 9 (1.96%) SAP
8 9 (1.96%) Splunk
9 8 (1.74%) Rapid7
9 8 (1.74%) SonicWALL
10 7 (1.52%) CrowdStrike
11 6 (1.30%) Cisco
12 5 (1.09%) Concur
12 5 (1.09%) Databricks
12 5 (1.09%) Google
12 5 (1.09%) Meraki
12 5 (1.09%) ServiceNow
13 3 (0.65%) Dell
13 3 (0.65%) Palo Alto