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 January 2026.

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

6 months to
16 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 478 383 425
Rank change year-on-year -95 +42 +115
Permanent jobs requiring a Systems Administrator 176 354 310
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.29% 0.66% 0.55%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.32% 0.71% 0.58%
Number of salaries quoted 115 221 264
10th Percentile £28,000 £31,250 £28,000
25th Percentile £29,875 £41,250 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £50,000 £42,250
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% +18.34% -15.50%
75th Percentile £60,000 £57,500 £52,500
90th Percentile £70,000 £76,250 £65,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £35,000 £50,000 £40,282
% change year-on-year -30.00% +24.13% -3.52%

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 55,047 49,557 53,408
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.74% 92.77% 95.24%
Number of salaries quoted 34,113 25,668 41,151
10th Percentile £28,500 £33,500 £30,000
25th Percentile £37,000 £45,000 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +4.35% -4.17%
75th Percentile £75,000 £78,750 £77,500
90th Percentile £95,000 £97,500 £95,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,609 £50,000
% change year-on-year -4.96% +5.22% -5.25%

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 January 2026.

Salary histogram for Systems Administrator in the UK

Systems Administrator
Top 14 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 January 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 -71 163 £45,000 -10.00% 63
UK excluding London -75 121 £35,000 -30.00% 59
London +7 44 £70,000 -3.45% 11
Work from Home -8 40 £42,500 -15.00% 19
South West -31 40 £32,500 -35.00% 3
Midlands +28 35 £31,500 -25.88% 8
East Midlands -9 21 £32,500 -18.75% 5
South East +11 20 £47,500 +2.70% 19
West Midlands +26 14 £31,500 -30.00% 3
East of England +13 12 £65,000 +62.50% 11
North of England -18 11 £45,000 +12.50% 19
North West +11 6 £45,000 -10.00% 11
Yorkshire -19 5 £45,000 +28.57% 7
Scotland -15 3 £26,000 -48.00% 3

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

For the 6 months to 16 January 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 55 (31.25%) Linux
2 45 (25.57%) Problem-Solving
2 45 (25.57%) Security Cleared
3 41 (23.30%) DV Cleared
4 31 (17.61%) Cisco
5 30 (17.05%) SC Cleared
6 26 (14.77%) CCNP
6 26 (14.77%) Cisco Certification
6 26 (14.77%) High Availability
6 26 (14.77%) Innovative Thinking
6 26 (14.77%) Windows
7 25 (14.20%) Unix
8 20 (11.36%) CCNA
9 18 (10.23%) Active Directory
9 18 (10.23%) VMware
10 17 (9.66%) Azure
10 17 (9.66%) ERP
10 17 (9.66%) Microsoft
11 15 (8.52%) iTrent
12 14 (7.95%) Change Management
13 13 (7.39%) SQL
13 13 (7.39%) VMware Infrastructure
14 12 (6.82%) Analytics
15 11 (6.25%) GDPR
15 11 (6.25%) Microsoft 365
15 11 (6.25%) Process Improvement
16 10 (5.68%) AWS
16 10 (5.68%) Continuous Improvement
16 10 (5.68%) Red Hat
16 10 (5.68%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux

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 5 (2.84%) Microsoft Exchange
2 4 (2.27%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.57%) Confluence
Applications
1 3 (1.70%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (1.14%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (1.14%) Spreadsheet
3 1 (0.57%) AutoCAD
3 1 (0.57%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 15 (8.52%) iTrent
2 4 (2.27%) Oracle EBS
2 4 (2.27%) Oracle EBS R12
3 2 (1.14%) Dynamics CRM
3 2 (1.14%) SAP Business One
3 2 (1.14%) Unit4 Business World
3 2 (1.14%) Workday HCM
4 1 (0.57%) Oracle 11i
4 1 (0.57%) Oracle ERP
4 1 (0.57%) Shopify
4 1 (0.57%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 17 (9.66%) Azure
2 11 (6.25%) Microsoft 365
3 10 (5.68%) AWS
4 7 (3.98%) Power Platform
5 5 (2.84%) Dynamics 365
5 5 (2.84%) Entra ID
5 5 (2.84%) Power Automate
6 4 (2.27%) SaaS
7 3 (1.70%) Mimecast
7 3 (1.70%) Veeva
8 2 (1.14%) OCI
8 2 (1.14%) PowerApps
9 1 (0.57%) Amazon EC2
9 1 (0.57%) Canva
9 1 (0.57%) GCP
9 1 (0.57%) Slack
9 1 (0.57%) SuccessFactors
Communications & Networking
1 7 (3.98%) Firewall
1 7 (3.98%) Network Security
2 6 (3.41%) DNS
3 4 (2.27%) Cisco IOS
3 4 (2.27%) LAN
3 4 (2.27%) TCP/IP
4 3 (1.70%) Cisco ISE
4 3 (1.70%) HTTP
4 3 (1.70%) VPN
5 2 (1.14%) WAN
6 1 (0.57%) DHCP
6 1 (0.57%) Internet
6 1 (0.57%) Intranet
6 1 (0.57%) VLAN
6 1 (0.57%) Wi-Fi
6 1 (0.57%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (3.98%) SQL Server
2 5 (2.84%) Power BI
3 3 (1.70%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 2 (1.14%) Crystal Reports
5 1 (0.57%) Oracle Database
5 1 (0.57%) Oracle Database 12c
5 1 (0.57%) Oracle Reports
5 1 (0.57%) RDBMS
5 1 (0.57%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 5 (2.84%) JIRA
2 3 (1.70%) GitLab
3 1 (0.57%) Bitbucket
3 1 (0.57%) Git
General
1 49 (27.84%) Finance
2 30 (17.05%) Social Skills
3 16 (9.09%) Analytical Skills
4 10 (5.68%) Organisational Skills
5 7 (3.98%) General Ledger
6 5 (2.84%) Law
7 4 (2.27%) Banking
7 4 (2.27%) Retail
8 3 (1.70%) Manufacturing
9 2 (1.14%) Military
10 1 (0.57%) Automotive
10 1 (0.57%) Back Office
10 1 (0.57%) Documentation Skills
10 1 (0.57%) Greek Language
10 1 (0.57%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 1 (0.57%) Italian Language
10 1 (0.57%) Mandarin Language
10 1 (0.57%) Spanish Language
10 1 (0.57%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (1.70%) LAMP
2 2 (1.14%) .NET
2 2 (1.14%) JSON
2 2 (1.14%) XML
3 1 (0.57%) LDAP
3 1 (0.57%) Lightning Web Components
3 1 (0.57%) ODBC
3 1 (0.57%) Oracle Fusion
3 1 (0.57%) WebSockets
Miscellaneous
1 26 (14.77%) e-Learning
2 9 (5.11%) Management Information System
3 6 (3.41%) FMCG
4 5 (2.84%) PKI
5 4 (2.27%) Learning Management System
6 3 (1.70%) Driving Licence
6 3 (1.70%) Hybrid Cloud
6 3 (1.70%) iSeries
6 3 (1.70%) Virtual Team
7 2 (1.14%) Data Centre
7 2 (1.14%) Self-Motivation
8 1 (0.57%) Legacy Systems
8 1 (0.57%) Onboarding
8 1 (0.57%) Public Cloud
8 1 (0.57%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 55 (31.25%) Linux
2 26 (14.77%) Windows
3 25 (14.20%) Unix
4 10 (5.68%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 9 (5.11%) Windows Server
6 3 (1.70%) Android
6 3 (1.70%) Apple iOS
6 3 (1.70%) CentOS
6 3 (1.70%) Mac OS
7 2 (1.14%) Debian
8 1 (0.57%) AIX
8 1 (0.57%) Solaris
8 1 (0.57%) Ubuntu
8 1 (0.57%) VMS
8 1 (0.57%) Windows 10
8 1 (0.57%) Windows Server 2012
8 1 (0.57%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 45 (25.57%) Problem-Solving
2 26 (14.77%) High Availability
2 26 (14.77%) Innovative Thinking
3 17 (9.66%) ERP
4 14 (7.95%) Change Management
5 12 (6.82%) Analytics
6 11 (6.25%) Process Improvement
7 10 (5.68%) Continuous Improvement
8 9 (5.11%) DevOps
8 9 (5.11%) Time Management
9 8 (4.55%) Cybersecurity
9 8 (4.55%) ITIL
9 8 (4.55%) Service Management
10 7 (3.98%) Accounts Payable
10 7 (3.98%) Data Analysis
10 7 (3.98%) Logistics
10 7 (3.98%) Migration
11 6 (3.41%) E-Commerce
12 5 (2.84%) Business Intelligence
12 5 (2.84%) ITSM
Programming Languages
1 13 (7.39%) SQL
2 8 (4.55%) Python
3 7 (3.98%) Bash
4 5 (2.84%) PowerShell
5 3 (1.70%) Perl
6 2 (1.14%) PHP
7 1 (0.57%) Shell Script
7 1 (0.57%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 45 (25.57%) Security Cleared
2 41 (23.30%) DV Cleared
3 30 (17.05%) SC Cleared
4 26 (14.77%) CCNP
4 26 (14.77%) Cisco Certification
5 20 (11.36%) CCNA
6 8 (4.55%) CIPD
6 8 (4.55%) Degree
7 7 (3.98%) RHCSA
8 6 (3.41%) Microsoft Certification
9 4 (2.27%) MCSA
10 3 (1.70%) Azure Certification
10 3 (1.70%) MCP
10 3 (1.70%) MCSE
11 2 (1.14%) AAT
12 1 (0.57%) A+ Certification
12 1 (0.57%) ACCA
12 1 (0.57%) AWS Certification
12 1 (0.57%) BPSS Clearance
12 1 (0.57%) CIMA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (6.25%) GDPR
2 5 (2.84%) QA
3 1 (0.57%) Data Quality
3 1 (0.57%) ISO/IEC 20000
3 1 (0.57%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 1 (0.57%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 18 (10.23%) Active Directory
2 13 (7.39%) VMware Infrastructure
3 2 (1.14%) Docker
3 2 (1.14%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.57%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.57%) KVM
4 1 (0.57%) Virtual Servers
4 1 (0.57%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 7 (3.98%) Ansible
2 6 (3.41%) Microsoft Intune
2 6 (3.41%) Nessus
3 3 (1.70%) Terraform
3 3 (1.70%) WSUS
4 2 (1.14%) Kubernetes
5 1 (0.57%) Nagios
5 1 (0.57%) Podman
5 1 (0.57%) Progress Chef
5 1 (0.57%) Puppet
5 1 (0.57%) SCCM
5 1 (0.57%) VxRail
Vendors
1 31 (17.61%) Cisco
2 18 (10.23%) VMware
3 17 (9.66%) Microsoft
4 10 (5.68%) Red Hat
5 7 (3.98%) Oracle
6 4 (2.27%) LogicMonitor
6 4 (2.27%) Okta
6 4 (2.27%) Workday
6 4 (2.27%) Zscaler
7 3 (1.70%) Bloomberg
7 3 (1.70%) IBM
7 3 (1.70%) Reuters
7 3 (1.70%) SAP
7 3 (1.70%) Sophos
8 2 (1.14%) Salesforce
9 1 (0.57%) Atlassian
9 1 (0.57%) Civica
9 1 (0.57%) Google
9 1 (0.57%) SolarWinds
9 1 (0.57%) Veeam