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 2 January 2026.

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

6 months to
2 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 454 385 431
Rank change year-on-year -69 +46 +109
Permanent jobs requiring a Systems Administrator 183 359 296
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.31% 0.65% 0.57%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.34% 0.70% 0.60%
Number of salaries quoted 116 226 241
10th Percentile £28,000 £31,250 £29,010
25th Percentile £30,000 £41,250 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £50,000 £42,500
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% +17.65% -15.00%
75th Percentile £60,000 £57,500 £54,000
90th Percentile £70,000 £76,250 £68,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £35,000 £50,000 £42,500
% change year-on-year -30.00% +17.65% +1.19%

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 53,612 51,163 49,282
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.49% 93.12% 95.22%
Number of salaries quoted 32,999 26,912 38,093
10th Percentile £28,500 £33,200 £31,250
25th Percentile £36,250 £44,956 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -
75th Percentile £75,000 £78,750 £77,500
90th Percentile £93,750 £97,500 £97,500
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 2 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 2 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 -81 170 £45,000 -10.00% 58
UK excluding London -64 127 £35,000 -30.00% 55
Work from Home -2 47 £42,500 -15.00% 26
London 0 45 £70,000 -3.45% 10
South West -24 45 £45,000 -10.00% 8
Midlands +14 32 £31,500 -30.00%
South East +13 27 £47,500 +5.56% 13
East Midlands -23 18 £30,000 -33.33%
West Midlands +26 14 £31,500 -30.00%
East of England +13 12 £60,000 +50.00% 23
North of England -20 8 £45,000 +12.50% 10
North West +20 5 £45,000 -10.00% 7
Scotland -14 3 £26,000 -48.00%
Yorkshire -22 3 £28,000 -17.04% 2

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

For the 6 months to 2 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 60 (32.79%) Linux
2 48 (26.23%) Security Cleared
3 44 (24.04%) DV Cleared
4 41 (22.40%) Problem-Solving
5 36 (19.67%) Cisco
6 33 (18.03%) SC Cleared
7 31 (16.94%) Cisco Certification
7 31 (16.94%) Windows
8 29 (15.85%) CCNP
8 29 (15.85%) High Availability
8 29 (15.85%) Innovative Thinking
9 28 (15.30%) Unix
10 25 (13.66%) CCNA
10 25 (13.66%) VMware
11 21 (11.48%) Microsoft
12 20 (10.93%) Active Directory
13 17 (9.29%) ERP
14 16 (8.74%) Azure
14 16 (8.74%) VMware Infrastructure
15 15 (8.20%) Change Management
16 14 (7.65%) AWS
16 14 (7.65%) SQL
17 13 (7.10%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
18 12 (6.56%) Microsoft 365
18 12 (6.56%) Windows Server
19 11 (6.01%) iTrent
19 11 (6.01%) Python
20 10 (5.46%) Analytics
20 10 (5.46%) Continuous Improvement
20 10 (5.46%) Cybersecurity

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 7 (3.83%) Microsoft Exchange
2 3 (1.64%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.55%) Confluence
3 1 (0.55%) OpenStack
Applications
1 6 (3.28%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (1.09%) AutoCAD
2 2 (1.09%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 2 (1.09%) Spreadsheet
3 1 (0.55%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 11 (6.01%) iTrent
2 4 (2.19%) Oracle EBS
2 4 (2.19%) Oracle EBS R12
3 2 (1.09%) Dynamics CRM
3 2 (1.09%) SAP Business One
3 2 (1.09%) Unit4 Business World
3 2 (1.09%) Workday HCM
4 1 (0.55%) Dynamics NAV
4 1 (0.55%) Oracle 11i
4 1 (0.55%) Oracle ERP
4 1 (0.55%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 16 (8.74%) Azure
2 14 (7.65%) AWS
3 12 (6.56%) Microsoft 365
4 7 (3.83%) Power Platform
5 6 (3.28%) Dynamics 365
5 6 (3.28%) Entra ID
6 5 (2.73%) Power Automate
6 5 (2.73%) SaaS
7 3 (1.64%) Amazon EC2
7 3 (1.64%) Mimecast
7 3 (1.64%) Veeva
8 2 (1.09%) OCI
8 2 (1.09%) PowerApps
9 1 (0.55%) Canva
9 1 (0.55%) GCP
9 1 (0.55%) Slack
9 1 (0.55%) SuccessFactors
Communications & Networking
1 7 (3.83%) DNS
1 7 (3.83%) Network Security
2 6 (3.28%) Firewall
3 4 (2.19%) Cisco IOS
3 4 (2.19%) LAN
3 4 (2.19%) TCP/IP
4 3 (1.64%) Cisco ISE
4 3 (1.64%) HTTP
4 3 (1.64%) VPN
5 2 (1.09%) DHCP
5 2 (1.09%) Wireless
6 1 (0.55%) Asterisk PBX
6 1 (0.55%) Internet
6 1 (0.55%) Intranet
6 1 (0.55%) iSCSI
6 1 (0.55%) Multicast
6 1 (0.55%) SAN
6 1 (0.55%) VLAN
6 1 (0.55%) WAN
6 1 (0.55%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (3.83%) SQL Server
2 5 (2.73%) Power BI
3 3 (1.64%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 2 (1.09%) Crystal Reports
5 1 (0.55%) Oracle Database
5 1 (0.55%) Oracle Database 12c
5 1 (0.55%) Oracle Reports
5 1 (0.55%) PostgreSQL
5 1 (0.55%) RDBMS
5 1 (0.55%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 6 (3.28%) GitLab
2 5 (2.73%) JIRA
3 2 (1.09%) TeamCity
4 1 (0.55%) Bitbucket
4 1 (0.55%) Git
General
1 53 (28.96%) Finance
2 30 (16.39%) Social Skills
3 16 (8.74%) Analytical Skills
4 10 (5.46%) Organisational Skills
5 7 (3.83%) General Ledger
6 5 (2.73%) Banking
6 5 (2.73%) Law
7 4 (2.19%) Manufacturing
7 4 (2.19%) Public Sector
7 4 (2.19%) Retail
8 2 (1.09%) Automotive
8 2 (1.09%) Military
9 1 (0.55%) Back Office
9 1 (0.55%) Greek Language
9 1 (0.55%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 1 (0.55%) Italian Language
9 1 (0.55%) Mandarin Language
9 1 (0.55%) Spanish Language
9 1 (0.55%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (1.64%) LAMP
1 3 (1.64%) XML
2 2 (1.09%) .NET
2 2 (1.09%) JSON
3 1 (0.55%) LDAP
3 1 (0.55%) Lightning Web Components
3 1 (0.55%) ODBC
3 1 (0.55%) Oracle Fusion
3 1 (0.55%) WebSockets
3 1 (0.55%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 29 (15.85%) e-Learning
2 7 (3.83%) Management Information System
3 6 (3.28%) FMCG
4 5 (2.73%) Driving Licence
4 5 (2.73%) PKI
5 4 (2.19%) Hybrid Cloud
5 4 (2.19%) Learning Management System
5 4 (2.19%) Virtual Team
6 3 (1.64%) Data Centre
6 3 (1.64%) iSeries
7 2 (1.09%) Data Protection Act
7 2 (1.09%) Self-Motivation
8 1 (0.55%) Enterprise Storage
8 1 (0.55%) Legacy Systems
8 1 (0.55%) Onboarding
8 1 (0.55%) Public Cloud
8 1 (0.55%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 60 (32.79%) Linux
2 31 (16.94%) Windows
3 28 (15.30%) Unix
4 13 (7.10%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 12 (6.56%) Windows Server
6 3 (1.64%) CentOS
6 3 (1.64%) Debian
6 3 (1.64%) Windows 10
7 2 (1.09%) Ubuntu
7 2 (1.09%) Windows Server 2012
8 1 (0.55%) AIX
8 1 (0.55%) Android
8 1 (0.55%) Apple iOS
8 1 (0.55%) Mac OS
8 1 (0.55%) Solaris
8 1 (0.55%) VMS
8 1 (0.55%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 41 (22.40%) Problem-Solving
2 29 (15.85%) High Availability
2 29 (15.85%) Innovative Thinking
3 17 (9.29%) ERP
4 15 (8.20%) Change Management
5 10 (5.46%) Analytics
5 10 (5.46%) Continuous Improvement
5 10 (5.46%) Cybersecurity
5 10 (5.46%) DevOps
6 9 (4.92%) Migration
6 9 (4.92%) Process Improvement
6 9 (4.92%) Time Management
7 8 (4.37%) ITIL
7 8 (4.37%) Service Management
8 7 (3.83%) Accounts Payable
8 7 (3.83%) Data Analysis
8 7 (3.83%) Data Protection
8 7 (3.83%) Logistics
8 7 (3.83%) Mentoring
9 6 (3.28%) Containerisation
Programming Languages
1 14 (7.65%) SQL
2 11 (6.01%) Python
3 8 (4.37%) Bash
4 6 (3.28%) PowerShell
5 3 (1.64%) Perl
6 2 (1.09%) PHP
7 1 (0.55%) Shell Script
7 1 (0.55%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 48 (26.23%) Security Cleared
2 44 (24.04%) DV Cleared
3 33 (18.03%) SC Cleared
4 31 (16.94%) Cisco Certification
5 29 (15.85%) CCNP
6 25 (13.66%) CCNA
7 9 (4.92%) Degree
8 8 (4.37%) Microsoft Certification
9 7 (3.83%) RHCSA
10 6 (3.28%) CIPD
11 5 (2.73%) MCSE
12 4 (2.19%) MCSA
13 3 (1.64%) Azure Certification
13 3 (1.64%) MCP
14 2 (1.09%) AAT
14 2 (1.09%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
15 1 (0.55%) A+ Certification
15 1 (0.55%) ACCA
15 1 (0.55%) AWS Certification
15 1 (0.55%) CIMA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (4.37%) GDPR
2 6 (3.28%) QA
3 1 (0.55%) Data Quality
3 1 (0.55%) ISO/IEC 20000
3 1 (0.55%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 1 (0.55%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 20 (10.93%) Active Directory
2 16 (8.74%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (1.64%) Hyper-V
4 2 (1.09%) Docker
4 2 (1.09%) Virtual Machines
4 2 (1.09%) vSphere
5 1 (0.55%) KVM
5 1 (0.55%) Virtual Servers
5 1 (0.55%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 9 (4.92%) Ansible
2 6 (3.28%) Microsoft Intune
3 4 (2.19%) Nessus
3 4 (2.19%) Terraform
4 3 (1.64%) WSUS
5 2 (1.09%) Kubernetes
5 2 (1.09%) Puppet
6 1 (0.55%) Nagios
6 1 (0.55%) Podman
6 1 (0.55%) Progress Chef
6 1 (0.55%) Salt
6 1 (0.55%) SCCM
6 1 (0.55%) VxRail
Vendors
1 36 (19.67%) Cisco
2 25 (13.66%) VMware
3 21 (11.48%) Microsoft
4 9 (4.92%) Red Hat
5 7 (3.83%) Oracle
6 4 (2.19%) LogicMonitor
6 4 (2.19%) Okta
6 4 (2.19%) Workday
6 4 (2.19%) Zscaler
7 3 (1.64%) Bloomberg
7 3 (1.64%) IBM
7 3 (1.64%) Reuters
7 3 (1.64%) SAP
7 3 (1.64%) Sophos
8 2 (1.09%) Salesforce
9 1 (0.55%) Atlassian
9 1 (0.55%) Civica
9 1 (0.55%) Google
9 1 (0.55%) SolarWinds
9 1 (0.55%) Veeam