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 18 July 2026.

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

6 months to
18 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 379 464 400
Rank change year-on-year +85 -64 +71
Permanent jobs requiring a Systems Administrator 462 228 599
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 304 159 492
10th Percentile £31,250 £26,975 £29,750
25th Percentile £35,946 £30,000 £34,688
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £45,000 £43,000
Median % change year-on-year - +4.65% -4.97%
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 £42,000
% change year-on-year -11.11% +7.14% +5.00%

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 93,597 44,099 92,655
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.23% 89.94% 94.77%
Number of salaries quoted 64,237 26,080 65,729
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,750 £29,035
25th Percentile £40,000 £37,500 £39,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £52,806
Median % change year-on-year - +4.15% -11.99%
75th Percentile £75,000 £75,000 £70,250
90th Percentile £95,000 £96,250 £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 18 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 18 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 +60 411 £45,000 - 48
UK excluding London +44 334 £40,000 -11.11% 46
London +54 112 £60,000 +9.09% 8
Work from Home +14 90 £55,000 +15.79% 14
Midlands +28 77 £41,750 +39.17% 8
South West -64 59 £35,000 -22.22% 12
South East -11 55 £45,000 -6.74% 13
North of England -19 54 £40,000 +3.90% 6
East Midlands +24 51 £40,000 +33.33% 4
East of England +18 50 £40,000 -11.11% 7
Scotland +48 36 - - 2
Yorkshire -13 31 £45,000 -5.26% 4
West Midlands 0 26 £45,000 +16.88% 4
North West +6 18 £40,000 +18.64% 2
North East - 5 £47,500 - 1
Wales -56 3 - - 2

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

For the 6 months to 18 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 (21.00%) Microsoft
2 86 (18.61%) Linux
3 71 (15.37%) Microsoft 365
4 62 (13.42%) DevOps
5 60 (12.99%) Windows
6 59 (12.77%) Active Directory
6 59 (12.77%) Azure
7 54 (11.69%) Problem-Solving
7 54 (11.69%) SQL
8 51 (11.04%) Entra ID
9 46 (9.96%) Red Hat
10 41 (8.87%) Continuous Improvement
11 39 (8.44%) Bash
11 39 (8.44%) Firewall
12 38 (8.23%) Microsoft Exchange
13 37 (8.01%) Python
14 34 (7.36%) ERP
14 34 (7.36%) Hyper-V
15 33 (7.14%) Security Cleared
16 32 (6.93%) AWS
17 31 (6.71%) CI/CD
17 31 (6.71%) SharePoint
18 29 (6.28%) Windows Server
19 28 (6.06%) VMware
19 28 (6.06%) Vulnerability Management
20 27 (5.84%) Ansible
21 26 (5.63%) DNS
21 26 (5.63%) QA
22 25 (5.41%) Configuration Management
22 25 (5.41%) 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 38 (8.23%) Microsoft Exchange
2 31 (6.71%) SharePoint
3 3 (0.65%) WordPress
4 2 (0.43%) Apache
4 2 (0.43%) CMS
4 2 (0.43%) nginx
4 2 (0.43%) Tomcat
5 1 (0.22%) Confluence
5 1 (0.22%) Moodle
5 1 (0.22%) Site Server
Applications
1 13 (2.81%) Microsoft Excel
2 9 (1.95%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 13 (2.81%) Primavera
2 11 (2.38%) iTrent
3 3 (0.65%) Elite 3E
4 1 (0.22%) HFM
4 1 (0.22%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 71 (15.37%) Microsoft 365
2 59 (12.77%) Azure
3 51 (11.04%) Entra ID
4 32 (6.93%) AWS
5 23 (4.98%) Power Platform
5 23 (4.98%) SaaS
6 19 (4.11%) Amazon CloudWatch
6 19 (4.11%) Power Automate
7 15 (3.25%) Mimecast
8 14 (3.03%) GCP
8 14 (3.03%) PowerApps
9 12 (2.60%) Intacct
10 10 (2.16%) Amazon ECR
10 10 (2.16%) Amazon ECS
10 10 (2.16%) Dynamics 365
10 10 (2.16%) OpenShift
11 9 (1.95%) Azure Logic Apps
12 8 (1.73%) GitHub
13 6 (1.30%) Amazon EKS
13 6 (1.30%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 39 (8.44%) Firewall
2 26 (5.63%) DNS
3 15 (3.25%) TCP/IP
4 14 (3.03%) VPN
5 12 (2.60%) LAN
6 10 (2.16%) SAN
6 10 (2.16%) Wi-Fi
7 9 (1.95%) HTTP
7 9 (1.95%) Network Security
8 8 (1.73%) DHCP
9 7 (1.52%) Internet
10 4 (0.87%) Wireless
11 3 (0.65%) NAS
11 3 (0.65%) SSH
11 3 (0.65%) VLAN
11 3 (0.65%) WAN
12 2 (0.43%) Multicast
12 2 (0.43%) VoIP
13 1 (0.22%) DKIM
13 1 (0.22%) DMARC
Database & Business Intelligence
1 15 (3.25%) MySQL
2 10 (2.16%) Elasticsearch
3 9 (1.95%) Power BI
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 19 (4.11%) Git
2 15 (3.25%) GitLab
3 8 (1.73%) JIRA
4 1 (0.22%) Artifactory
4 1 (0.22%) Jenkins
General
1 93 (20.13%) Finance
2 66 (14.29%) Social Skills
3 26 (5.63%) Analytical Skills
4 24 (5.19%) Banking
5 23 (4.98%) Retail
6 22 (4.76%) Manufacturing
7 17 (3.68%) Billing
8 14 (3.03%) Legal
9 11 (2.38%) Law
10 10 (2.16%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 7 (1.52%) Organisational Skills
12 5 (1.08%) Pharmaceutical
13 4 (0.87%) Documentation Skills
14 3 (0.65%) Games
14 3 (0.65%) Public Sector
15 1 (0.22%) Electronics
15 1 (0.22%) Local Government
15 1 (0.22%) Marketing
15 1 (0.22%) Police
15 1 (0.22%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (1.95%) WebSockets
2 8 (1.73%) Middleware
3 3 (0.65%) Boost C++ Libraries
4 2 (0.43%) LEMP Stack
4 2 (0.43%) Node.js
5 1 (0.22%) HTML
5 1 (0.22%) OpenID
5 1 (0.22%) Redfish
5 1 (0.22%) SAML
5 1 (0.22%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 25 (5.41%) Data Structures
2 21 (4.55%) Clustering
3 12 (2.60%) Data Centre
4 10 (2.16%) Onboarding
5 7 (1.52%) Hybrid Cloud
5 7 (1.52%) Management Information System
6 6 (1.30%) Private Cloud
6 6 (1.30%) Self-Motivation
7 5 (1.08%) Operational Technology
8 3 (0.65%) Embedded Systems
8 3 (0.65%) IoT
8 3 (0.65%) Replication
8 3 (0.65%) Security Posture
9 2 (0.43%) Educational Technology
9 2 (0.43%) Enterprise Software
10 1 (0.22%) CCTV
10 1 (0.22%) Distributed Computing
10 1 (0.22%) Life Science
10 1 (0.22%) Product Ownership
10 1 (0.22%) VLE
Operating Systems
1 86 (18.61%) Linux
2 60 (12.99%) Windows
3 29 (6.28%) Windows Server
4 21 (4.55%) Mac OS
5 20 (4.33%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 18 (3.90%) Android
6 18 (3.90%) Apple iOS
7 15 (3.25%) CentOS
8 13 (2.81%) Ubuntu
9 9 (1.95%) Unix
10 8 (1.73%) Debian
11 5 (1.08%) Rocky
12 4 (0.87%) Windows 10
13 1 (0.22%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 62 (13.42%) DevOps
2 54 (11.69%) Problem-Solving
3 41 (8.87%) Continuous Improvement
4 34 (7.36%) ERP
5 31 (6.71%) CI/CD
6 28 (6.06%) Vulnerability Management
7 25 (5.41%) Configuration Management
8 24 (5.19%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 22 (4.76%) Infrastructure as Code
10 21 (4.55%) Analytics
11 20 (4.33%) Change Management
12 19 (4.11%) Identity Management
12 19 (4.11%) Process Improvement
12 19 (4.11%) Release Management
13 16 (3.46%) Change Control
14 15 (3.25%) CRM
14 15 (3.25%) High Availability
15 14 (3.03%) Capacity Planning
15 14 (3.03%) Disaster Recovery
15 14 (3.03%) Patch Management
Programming Languages
1 54 (11.69%) SQL
2 39 (8.44%) Bash
3 37 (8.01%) Python
4 21 (4.55%) PowerShell
5 7 (1.52%) R
6 6 (1.30%) Go
6 6 (1.30%) JavaScript
7 5 (1.08%) PHP
8 3 (0.65%) C
8 3 (0.65%) C++
8 3 (0.65%) Ruby
8 3 (0.65%) Shell Script
9 2 (0.43%) VBA
Qualifications
1 33 (7.14%) Security Cleared
2 25 (5.41%) SC Cleared
3 24 (5.19%) DV Cleared
4 14 (3.03%) Degree
5 10 (2.16%) RHCSA
6 7 (1.52%) CIPD
7 6 (1.30%) AWS Certification
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 26 (5.63%) QA
2 15 (3.25%) Data Quality
3 8 (1.73%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 7 (1.52%) GDPR
5 3 (0.65%) Cyber Essentials
6 1 (0.22%) SOC 2
System Software
1 59 (12.77%) Active Directory
2 34 (7.36%) Hyper-V
3 20 (4.33%) VMware Infrastructure
4 18 (3.90%) Docker
5 5 (1.08%) 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 (5.84%) Ansible
2 25 (5.41%) Terraform
3 23 (4.98%) Kubernetes
3 23 (4.98%) Microsoft Intune
4 22 (4.76%) Nagios
5 20 (4.33%) Grafana
6 17 (3.68%) Nessus
7 16 (3.46%) Proxmox
8 11 (2.38%) Prometheus
9 8 (1.73%) Puppet
10 4 (0.87%) SCCM
11 3 (0.65%) Failover Clustering
11 3 (0.65%) Microsoft Clustering
11 3 (0.65%) systemd
12 2 (0.43%) Progress Chef
12 2 (0.43%) Red Hat Satellite
12 2 (0.43%) ZABBIX
13 1 (0.22%) FlexNet
13 1 (0.22%) FortiGate
13 1 (0.22%) SCOM
Vendors
1 97 (21.00%) Microsoft
2 46 (9.96%) Red Hat
3 28 (6.06%) VMware
4 23 (4.98%) Salesforce
5 13 (2.81%) Sage
6 12 (2.60%) SolarWinds
7 11 (2.38%) Splunk
7 11 (2.38%) Veeam
8 10 (2.16%) Rapid7
9 9 (1.95%) SAP
10 8 (1.73%) CrowdStrike
10 8 (1.73%) SonicWALL
11 6 (1.30%) Cisco
12 5 (1.08%) Concur
12 5 (1.08%) Databricks
12 5 (1.08%) Google
12 5 (1.08%) Meraki
13 4 (0.87%) ServiceNow
14 3 (0.65%) Dell
14 3 (0.65%) Palo Alto