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 17 September 2026.

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

6 months to
17 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 380 474 369
Rank change year-on-year +94 -105 +55
Permanent jobs requiring a Systems Administrator 520 214 531
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.45% 0.43% 0.68%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.48% 0.48% 0.72%
Number of salaries quoted 317 123 376
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,400 £31,000
25th Percentile £35,000 £30,000 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £45,000 £45,000
75th Percentile £58,750 £56,875 £53,750
90th Percentile £72,500 £69,500 £66,875
UK excluding London median annual salary £43,500 £42,500 £45,000
% change year-on-year +2.35% -5.56% +11.33%

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 107,222 44,266 74,164
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.32% 89.67% 95.25%
Number of salaries quoted 73,597 26,014 44,625
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,250 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,400 £36,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £59,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.27% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £77,500 £75,000 £73,750
90th Percentile £100,000 £95,000 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £47,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year +15.79% -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 17 September 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 17 September 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 +79 450 £45,000 - 95
UK excluding London +61 407 £43,500 +2.35% 60
London +7 98 £56,000 +1.82% 38
South East +1 85 £45,000 - 25
Work from Home -25 85 £55,000 +29.41% 27
South West -69 78 £35,000 -22.22% 8
North of England +1 73 £45,000 +16.88% 12
Midlands +5 66 £45,000 +26.76% 12
Scotland - 51 £43,500 - 1
East of England -3 46 £40,000 -11.11% 2
Yorkshire -9 37 £45,000 -5.26% 9
West Midlands -6 34 £55,000 +29.41% 7
East Midlands -23 32 £41,000 +36.67% 5
North West -10 27 £40,000 +3.90% 3
North East - 9 £47,500 - 1
Wales -67 8 £50,000 +5.26%

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

For the 6 months to 17 September 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.

1 105 (20.19%) Microsoft
2 97 (18.65%) Linux
3 78 (15.00%) Windows
4 72 (13.85%) Active Directory
5 65 (12.50%) Microsoft 365
6 62 (11.92%) Azure
7 61 (11.73%) DevOps
7 61 (11.73%) Entra ID
8 52 (10.00%) Problem-Solving
9 46 (8.85%) Red Hat
10 45 (8.65%) Firewall
10 45 (8.65%) Windows Server
11 42 (8.08%) Bash
11 42 (8.08%) SQL
12 41 (7.88%) CI/CD
12 41 (7.88%) Continuous Improvement
13 40 (7.69%) Ansible
13 40 (7.69%) AWS
13 40 (7.69%) Microsoft Exchange
14 38 (7.31%) Python
15 37 (7.12%) SaaS
16 35 (6.73%) Security Cleared
17 34 (6.54%) DNS
17 34 (6.54%) Hyper-V
18 33 (6.35%) SharePoint
18 33 (6.35%) Vulnerability Management
19 32 (6.15%) Kubernetes
20 29 (5.58%) Terraform
21 27 (5.19%) Mac OS
21 27 (5.19%) PowerShell

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 40 (7.69%) Microsoft Exchange
2 33 (6.35%) SharePoint
3 8 (1.54%) OpenStack
4 4 (0.77%) IIS
5 2 (0.38%) nginx
6 1 (0.19%) Apache
6 1 (0.19%) Confluence
6 1 (0.19%) JBoss
6 1 (0.19%) Moodle
6 1 (0.19%) Tomcat
6 1 (0.19%) WordPress
Applications
1 21 (4.04%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (2.12%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 23 (4.42%) Primavera
2 2 (0.38%) Dynamics NAV
2 2 (0.38%) Elite 3E
3 1 (0.19%) HFM
3 1 (0.19%) iTrent
3 1 (0.19%) SAP HR
3 1 (0.19%) Shopify
3 1 (0.19%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 65 (12.50%) Microsoft 365
2 62 (11.92%) Azure
3 61 (11.73%) Entra ID
4 40 (7.69%) AWS
5 37 (7.12%) SaaS
6 25 (4.81%) OpenShift
7 24 (4.62%) Power Platform
8 22 (4.23%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 21 (4.04%) Power Automate
10 13 (2.50%) Mimecast
10 13 (2.50%) PaaS
10 13 (2.50%) PowerApps
11 12 (2.31%) GCP
12 11 (2.12%) GitHub
13 10 (1.92%) Amazon ECR
13 10 (1.92%) Amazon ECS
14 9 (1.73%) Azure Logic Apps
14 9 (1.73%) Dynamics 365
14 9 (1.73%) GitHub Actions
14 9 (1.73%) Intacct
Communications & Networking
1 45 (8.65%) Firewall
2 34 (6.54%) DNS
3 25 (4.81%) VPN
4 20 (3.85%) TCP/IP
5 18 (3.46%) DHCP
6 13 (2.50%) LAN
7 8 (1.54%) SAN
7 8 (1.54%) WAN
7 8 (1.54%) Wi-Fi
8 7 (1.35%) Network Security
9 5 (0.96%) HTTP
9 5 (0.96%) Internet
9 5 (0.96%) VLAN
10 4 (0.77%) VSAN
11 3 (0.58%) SSH
11 3 (0.58%) Wireless
12 1 (0.19%) FTP
12 1 (0.19%) iSCSI
12 1 (0.19%) SSL
12 1 (0.19%) WireGuard
Database & Business Intelligence
1 14 (2.69%) MySQL
2 10 (1.92%) Elasticsearch
2 10 (1.92%) Power BI
3 3 (0.58%) Amazon RDS
3 3 (0.58%) GIS
4 2 (0.38%) Big Data
5 1 (0.19%) Oracle Reports
5 1 (0.19%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 25 (4.81%) Git
2 15 (2.88%) GitLab
3 8 (1.54%) JIRA
4 2 (0.38%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.19%) Artifactory
5 1 (0.19%) Bitbucket
5 1 (0.19%) Robot Framework
5 1 (0.19%) Selenium
5 1 (0.19%) TeamCity
General
1 81 (15.58%) Finance
2 74 (14.23%) Social Skills
3 36 (6.92%) Analytical Skills
4 27 (5.19%) Retail
5 26 (5.00%) Manufacturing
6 19 (3.65%) Banking
7 14 (2.69%) Billing
8 11 (2.12%) Legal
8 11 (2.12%) Organisational Skills
9 9 (1.73%) Law
10 6 (1.15%) Automotive
10 6 (1.15%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 6 (1.15%) Public Sector
11 5 (0.96%) Pharmaceutical
11 5 (0.96%) Police
12 3 (0.58%) Documentation Skills
12 3 (0.58%) Games
13 2 (0.38%) German Language
13 2 (0.38%) Marketing
13 2 (0.38%) Polish Language
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 29 (5.58%) Terraform
2 5 (0.96%) Middleware
2 5 (0.96%) WebSockets
3 3 (0.58%) Boost C++ Libraries
4 2 (0.38%) OpenID
5 1 (0.19%) CSS
5 1 (0.19%) CSS3
5 1 (0.19%) HTML
5 1 (0.19%) HTML5
5 1 (0.19%) Keycloak
5 1 (0.19%) LEMP Stack
5 1 (0.19%) Node.js
5 1 (0.19%) OAuth
5 1 (0.19%) OAuth2
5 1 (0.19%) OpenTofu
5 1 (0.19%) React
5 1 (0.19%) Redfish
5 1 (0.19%) SAML
5 1 (0.19%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 23 (4.42%) Data Structures
2 17 (3.27%) Clustering
3 14 (2.69%) Social Media
4 12 (2.31%) Operational Technology
5 11 (2.12%) Onboarding
6 10 (1.92%) Private Cloud
7 9 (1.73%) Data Centre
7 9 (1.73%) Hybrid Cloud
7 9 (1.73%) Management Information System
8 7 (1.35%) Self-Motivation
9 4 (0.77%) Housing Association
9 4 (0.77%) PMI
10 3 (0.58%) Embedded Systems
10 3 (0.58%) IoT
10 3 (0.58%) Learning Management System
10 3 (0.58%) Replication
10 3 (0.58%) Security Posture
11 2 (0.38%) Educational Technology
11 2 (0.38%) Enterprise Software
12 1 (0.19%) Distributed Computing
Operating Systems
1 97 (18.65%) Linux
2 78 (15.00%) Windows
3 45 (8.65%) Windows Server
4 27 (5.19%) Mac OS
5 24 (4.62%) Apple iOS
6 21 (4.04%) Android
7 20 (3.85%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 16 (3.08%) CentOS
9 12 (2.31%) Ubuntu
10 10 (1.92%) Unix
11 8 (1.54%) Debian
12 6 (1.15%) Rocky
12 6 (1.15%) Windows 10
13 4 (0.77%) CoreOS
13 4 (0.77%) Windows Server 2016
13 4 (0.77%) Windows Server 2019
14 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 61 (11.73%) DevOps
2 52 (10.00%) Problem-Solving
3 41 (7.88%) CI/CD
3 41 (7.88%) Continuous Improvement
4 33 (6.35%) Vulnerability Management
5 26 (5.00%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 25 (4.81%) ERP
7 20 (3.85%) Analytics
7 20 (3.85%) Configuration Management
7 20 (3.85%) Customer Experience
7 20 (3.85%) Time Management
8 19 (3.65%) Identity Management
8 19 (3.65%) ITIL
8 19 (3.65%) Release Management
9 18 (3.46%) Change Management
10 17 (3.27%) Change Control
10 17 (3.27%) Infrastructure as Code
11 16 (3.08%) AI
11 16 (3.08%) Capacity Planning
11 16 (3.08%) High Availability
Programming Languages
1 42 (8.08%) Bash
1 42 (8.08%) SQL
2 38 (7.31%) Python
3 27 (5.19%) PowerShell
4 8 (1.54%) Go
5 7 (1.35%) R
6 5 (0.96%) JavaScript
7 3 (0.58%) C
7 3 (0.58%) C++
7 3 (0.58%) PHP
7 3 (0.58%) Ruby
7 3 (0.58%) Shell Script
8 1 (0.19%) VBA
Qualifications
1 35 (6.73%) Security Cleared
2 26 (5.00%) DV Cleared
2 26 (5.00%) SC Cleared
3 14 (2.69%) Degree
4 9 (1.73%) AWS Certification
5 6 (1.15%) DBS Check
6 5 (0.96%) RHCSA
7 4 (0.77%) CIPD
7 4 (0.77%) PMI Certification
8 3 (0.58%) HND
8 3 (0.58%) Microsoft Certification
9 1 (0.19%) CompTIA Security+
9 1 (0.19%) Network+ Certification
9 1 (0.19%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 25 (4.81%) QA
2 17 (3.27%) Data Quality
3 8 (1.54%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 3 (0.58%) Cyber Essentials
4 3 (0.58%) GDPR
5 1 (0.19%) Accessibility
5 1 (0.19%) SOC 2
System Software
1 72 (13.85%) Active Directory
2 34 (6.54%) Hyper-V
3 23 (4.42%) Docker
4 14 (2.69%) VMware Infrastructure
5 8 (1.54%) Virtual Machines
6 7 (1.35%) Ceph
7 5 (0.96%) iptables
8 3 (0.58%) VMware ESXi
8 3 (0.58%) vSphere
9 2 (0.38%) Firmware
10 1 (0.19%) NFS
10 1 (0.19%) Slurm Workload Manager
10 1 (0.19%) Virtual Desktop
10 1 (0.19%) Xen
Systems Management
1 40 (7.69%) Ansible
2 32 (6.15%) Kubernetes
3 23 (4.42%) Grafana
4 21 (4.04%) Microsoft Intune
5 20 (3.85%) Nessus
5 20 (3.85%) Prometheus
6 17 (3.27%) Nagios
7 15 (2.88%) Proxmox
8 8 (1.54%) Podman
9 7 (1.35%) Argo
9 7 (1.35%) Check_MK
9 7 (1.35%) Istio
10 4 (0.77%) McAfee ePO
10 4 (0.77%) Puppet
10 4 (0.77%) SCCM
10 4 (0.77%) SCVMM
11 3 (0.58%) Failover Clustering
11 3 (0.58%) Microsoft Clustering
11 3 (0.58%) systemd
12 2 (0.38%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 105 (20.19%) Microsoft
2 46 (8.85%) Red Hat
3 25 (4.81%) VMware
4 19 (3.65%) Salesforce
5 11 (2.12%) Splunk
6 10 (1.92%) Rapid7
6 10 (1.92%) Sage
7 9 (1.73%) SAP
8 8 (1.54%) CrowdStrike
9 7 (1.35%) Dell
9 7 (1.35%) Veeam
10 6 (1.15%) SolarWinds
10 6 (1.15%) SonicWALL
11 5 (0.96%) Concur
11 5 (0.96%) Databricks
11 5 (0.96%) Google
12 4 (0.77%) Cisco
12 4 (0.77%) McAfee
12 4 (0.77%) Meraki
13 3 (0.58%) Okta