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 5 March 2026.

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

6 months to
5 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 456 400 433
Rank change year-on-year -56 +33 +103
Permanent jobs requiring a Systems Administrator 226 289 442
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.31% 0.63% 0.56%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.34% 0.69% 0.59%
Number of salaries quoted 175 199 375
10th Percentile £28,000 £33,825 £27,450
25th Percentile £31,250 £45,000 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £50,000 £41,500
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% +20.48% -13.54%
75th Percentile £60,625 £64,375 £51,875
90th Percentile £68,750 £76,250 £61,700
UK excluding London median annual salary £36,500 £50,000 £40,000
% change year-on-year -27.00% +25.00% -5.88%

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 65,777 41,647 74,342
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 91.60% 91.11% 94.66%
Number of salaries quoted 41,594 22,804 57,442
10th Percentile £29,750 £32,500 £28,500
25th Percentile £38,250 £45,000 £39,073
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -8.33%
75th Percentile £75,000 £80,000 £72,624
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -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 5 March 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 5 March 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 -44 215 £45,000 -10.00% 113
UK excluding London -39 160 £36,500 -27.00% 105
London +9 57 £57,500 -20.69% 23
Midlands +28 53 £32,500 -23.53% 17
South East -29 34 £52,500 +7.14% 31
East Midlands -2 33 £32,500 -9.72% 3
Work from Home -28 32 £52,500 -2.33% 69
South West -56 32 £45,000 -10.00% 10
West Midlands +12 20 £37,500 -16.67% 14
North of England -33 20 £36,500 -14.12% 21
East of England +6 18 £57,500 +18.56% 18
Yorkshire -35 11 £40,000 +18.52% 13
North West -17 9 £36,500 -14.12% 4
Scotland -22 3 £26,000 -45.26% 7

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

For the 6 months to 5 March 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 (24.34%) Problem-Solving
2 54 (23.89%) Linux
3 32 (14.16%) Windows
4 29 (12.83%) Security Cleared
5 25 (11.06%) DV Cleared
5 25 (11.06%) Microsoft
5 25 (11.06%) VMware
6 24 (10.62%) DevOps
6 24 (10.62%) iTrent
7 23 (10.18%) Azure
8 19 (8.41%) Analytics
8 19 (8.41%) ERP
8 19 (8.41%) Firewall
8 19 (8.41%) Microsoft 365
8 19 (8.41%) SQL
9 18 (7.96%) Process Improvement
10 17 (7.52%) Active Directory
10 17 (7.52%) Bash
10 17 (7.52%) GDPR
10 17 (7.52%) Python
11 16 (7.08%) Cisco
12 14 (6.19%) CIPD
12 14 (6.19%) Red Hat
12 14 (6.19%) VMware Infrastructure
13 13 (5.75%) Ansible
13 13 (5.75%) AWS
13 13 (5.75%) SC Cleared
14 12 (5.31%) Change Management
14 12 (5.31%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
14 12 (5.31%) Unix

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 (2.21%) Microsoft Exchange
2 4 (1.77%) SharePoint
3 3 (1.33%) Apache
3 3 (1.33%) CMS
3 3 (1.33%) WordPress
4 1 (0.44%) Confluence
4 1 (0.44%) Site Server
Applications
1 3 (1.33%) Microsoft Excel
1 3 (1.33%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.44%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 24 (10.62%) iTrent
2 2 (0.88%) SAP Business One
2 2 (0.88%) Shopify
2 2 (0.88%) Workday HCM
3 1 (0.44%) Elite 3E
3 1 (0.44%) Oracle 11i
3 1 (0.44%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.44%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.44%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 23 (10.18%) Azure
2 19 (8.41%) Microsoft 365
3 13 (5.75%) AWS
4 7 (3.10%) Amazon CloudWatch
4 7 (3.10%) Power Platform
5 6 (2.65%) Amazon EKS
5 6 (2.65%) GitHub
5 6 (2.65%) GitHub Actions
5 6 (2.65%) SaaS
6 5 (2.21%) Dynamics 365
7 4 (1.77%) Entra ID
7 4 (1.77%) Mimecast
7 4 (1.77%) Power Automate
8 3 (1.33%) PowerApps
8 3 (1.33%) Veeva
9 2 (0.88%) GCP
9 2 (0.88%) OCI
10 1 (0.44%) Amazon ECR
10 1 (0.44%) Amazon ECS
10 1 (0.44%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 19 (8.41%) Firewall
2 10 (4.42%) VPN
3 9 (3.98%) Network Security
4 8 (3.54%) DNS
4 8 (3.54%) TCP/IP
5 7 (3.10%) LAN
6 6 (2.65%) HTTP
7 4 (1.77%) Cisco IOS
8 3 (1.33%) Cisco ISE
8 3 (1.33%) WAN
9 2 (0.88%) Internet
9 2 (0.88%) NAS
9 2 (0.88%) SAN
9 2 (0.88%) Wi-Fi
10 1 (0.44%) DHCP
10 1 (0.44%) Intranet
10 1 (0.44%) iSCSI
10 1 (0.44%) Unified Communications
10 1 (0.44%) VoIP
10 1 (0.44%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (3.10%) Power BI
2 6 (2.65%) SQL Server
3 2 (0.88%) Crystal Reports
4 1 (0.44%) Data Warehouse
4 1 (0.44%) Elasticsearch
4 1 (0.44%) MySQL
4 1 (0.44%) Oracle Database
4 1 (0.44%) Oracle Database 12c
4 1 (0.44%) Oracle Reports
4 1 (0.44%) RDBMS
4 1 (0.44%) Relational Database
4 1 (0.44%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 6 (2.65%) Git
1 6 (2.65%) JIRA
2 1 (0.44%) Bitbucket
2 1 (0.44%) GitLab
General
1 39 (17.26%) Social Skills
2 32 (14.16%) Finance
3 21 (9.29%) Analytical Skills
4 9 (3.98%) Organisational Skills
4 9 (3.98%) Retail
5 7 (3.10%) General Ledger
6 5 (2.21%) Banking
6 5 (2.21%) Manufacturing
7 4 (1.77%) Law
8 3 (1.33%) Documentation Skills
8 3 (1.33%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 2 (0.88%) Legal
9 2 (0.88%) Military
10 1 (0.44%) Back Office
10 1 (0.44%) Billing
10 1 (0.44%) Greek Language
10 1 (0.44%) Italian Language
10 1 (0.44%) Mandarin Language
10 1 (0.44%) Spanish Language
10 1 (0.44%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (1.77%) Middleware
1 4 (1.77%) WebSockets
2 3 (1.33%) LAMP
3 2 (0.88%) JSON
3 2 (0.88%) XML
4 1 (0.44%) HTML
4 1 (0.44%) Lightning Web Components
4 1 (0.44%) ODBC
4 1 (0.44%) Oracle Fusion
Miscellaneous
1 8 (3.54%) Management Information System
2 7 (3.10%) e-Learning
2 7 (3.10%) Hybrid Cloud
3 6 (2.65%) FMCG
3 6 (2.65%) Private Cloud
4 5 (2.21%) PKI
5 4 (1.77%) Data Centre
5 4 (1.77%) Learning Management System
6 3 (1.33%) Driving Licence
6 3 (1.33%) iSeries
7 2 (0.88%) Onboarding
7 2 (0.88%) Self-Motivation
8 1 (0.44%) Cloud Native
8 1 (0.44%) Clustering
8 1 (0.44%) Data Structures
8 1 (0.44%) Legacy Applications
8 1 (0.44%) Life Science
8 1 (0.44%) Product Ownership
8 1 (0.44%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 54 (23.89%) Linux
2 32 (14.16%) Windows
3 12 (5.31%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 12 (5.31%) Unix
4 9 (3.98%) Windows Server
5 6 (2.65%) CentOS
6 4 (1.77%) Android
6 4 (1.77%) Apple iOS
6 4 (1.77%) Mac OS
7 3 (1.33%) Ubuntu
8 2 (0.88%) Debian
8 2 (0.88%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.44%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 55 (24.34%) Problem-Solving
2 24 (10.62%) DevOps
3 19 (8.41%) Analytics
3 19 (8.41%) ERP
4 18 (7.96%) Process Improvement
5 12 (5.31%) Change Management
6 11 (4.87%) Infrastructure as Code
7 9 (3.98%) CI/CD
7 9 (3.98%) Configuration Management
7 9 (3.98%) High Availability
7 9 (3.98%) ITIL
7 9 (3.98%) Service Management
8 8 (3.54%) Continuous Improvement
8 8 (3.54%) Time Management
9 7 (3.10%) Accounts Payable
9 7 (3.10%) Business Intelligence
9 7 (3.10%) E-Commerce
9 7 (3.10%) Innovative Thinking
9 7 (3.10%) ITSM
9 7 (3.10%) Service Delivery
Programming Languages
1 19 (8.41%) SQL
2 17 (7.52%) Bash
2 17 (7.52%) Python
3 6 (2.65%) Go
4 5 (2.21%) PHP
4 5 (2.21%) PowerShell
5 3 (1.33%) Perl
6 2 (0.88%) Shell Script
7 1 (0.44%) JavaScript
7 1 (0.44%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 29 (12.83%) Security Cleared
2 25 (11.06%) DV Cleared
3 14 (6.19%) CIPD
4 13 (5.75%) SC Cleared
5 8 (3.54%) CCNA
5 8 (3.54%) CCNP
5 8 (3.54%) Cisco Certification
6 7 (3.10%) Degree
6 7 (3.10%) Microsoft Certification
7 6 (2.65%) AWS Certification
8 5 (2.21%) RHCSA
9 4 (1.77%) MCSA
9 4 (1.77%) MCSE
10 3 (1.33%) Azure Certification
10 3 (1.33%) Microsoft Certified Professional
11 1 (0.44%) A+ Certification
11 1 (0.44%) BPSS Clearance
11 1 (0.44%) ITIL Certification
11 1 (0.44%) Linux+ Certification
11 1 (0.44%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (7.52%) GDPR
2 3 (1.33%) QA
3 1 (0.44%) Data Quality
3 1 (0.44%) ISO/IEC 20000
3 1 (0.44%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 17 (7.52%) Active Directory
2 14 (6.19%) VMware Infrastructure
3 5 (2.21%) Docker
3 5 (2.21%) Hyper-V
4 3 (1.33%) Firmware
5 1 (0.44%) KVM
5 1 (0.44%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 13 (5.75%) Ansible
2 10 (4.42%) Kubernetes
2 10 (4.42%) Terraform
3 9 (3.98%) Microsoft Intune
4 7 (3.10%) Grafana
4 7 (3.10%) Nessus
4 7 (3.10%) Prometheus
4 7 (3.10%) Proxmox
5 6 (2.65%) Nagios
6 5 (2.21%) Puppet
7 3 (1.33%) WSUS
8 1 (0.44%) Progress Chef
8 1 (0.44%) SCCM
8 1 (0.44%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 25 (11.06%) Microsoft
1 25 (11.06%) VMware
2 16 (7.08%) Cisco
3 14 (6.19%) Red Hat
4 5 (2.21%) ServiceNow
4 5 (2.21%) SolarWinds
5 4 (1.77%) LogicMonitor
5 4 (1.77%) Okta
5 4 (1.77%) Salesforce
5 4 (1.77%) Zscaler
6 3 (1.33%) Bloomberg
6 3 (1.33%) Dell
6 3 (1.33%) IBM
6 3 (1.33%) Oracle
6 3 (1.33%) Reuters
6 3 (1.33%) SAP
6 3 (1.33%) Sophos
7 2 (0.88%) Splunk
7 2 (0.88%) Veeam
7 2 (0.88%) Workday