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 6 May 2026.

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

6 months to
6 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 433 439 434
Rank change year-on-year +6 -5 +118
Permanent jobs requiring a Systems Administrator 325 225 530
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.36% 0.52% 0.55%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.38% 0.58% 0.58%
Number of salaries quoted 246 182 432
10th Percentile £28,875 £27,250 £28,000
25th Percentile £35,000 £38,313 £33,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £50,000 £40,817
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% +22.50% -14.52%
75th Percentile £63,750 £57,500 £50,313
90th Percentile £70,000 £70,000 £59,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £40,000 £50,000 £40,000
% change year-on-year -20.00% +25.00% -3.03%

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 84,854 38,887 90,629
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.95% 89.46% 94.55%
Number of salaries quoted 54,818 23,400 66,698
10th Percentile £30,000 £30,250 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £41,250 £38,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £59,000 £52,777
Median % change year-on-year -6.78% +11.79% -12.04%
75th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £71,250
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -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 6 May 2026.

Salary histogram for Systems Administrator in the UK

Systems Administrator
Top 15 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 6 May 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 +40 301 £45,000 -10.00% 53
UK excluding London -1 232 £40,000 -20.00% 54
London +8 83 £65,000 +18.18% 10
Midlands +27 72 £32,500 - 5
Work from Home +13 62 £53,750 +7.50% 17
East Midlands +2 47 £32,500 -3.70% 2
South East -22 42 £56,250 +14.80% 10
East of England +5 36 £44,500 -4.81% 12
North of England -44 36 £45,000 +12.50% 15
South West -74 29 £40,000 -20.00% 6
West Midlands -2 25 £37,500 +15.38% 3
Yorkshire -37 21 £45,000 -14.29% 7
Scotland -7 17 £26,000 -48.00% 3
North West -33 12 £36,500 -7.01% 8
North East - 3 £47,500 -

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

For the 6 months to 6 May 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 80 (24.62%) Linux
2 58 (17.85%) Microsoft
3 57 (17.54%) Problem-Solving
4 49 (15.08%) DevOps
5 43 (13.23%) Microsoft 365
6 42 (12.92%) Azure
7 39 (12.00%) SQL
8 37 (11.38%) Red Hat
9 36 (11.08%) Windows
10 34 (10.46%) Active Directory
11 33 (10.15%) Bash
12 31 (9.54%) VMware
13 30 (9.23%) Firewall
13 30 (9.23%) Security Cleared
14 28 (8.62%) AWS
14 28 (8.62%) Python
15 27 (8.31%) Analytics
16 25 (7.69%) iTrent
17 24 (7.38%) CI/CD
17 24 (7.38%) Process Improvement
18 22 (6.77%) Terraform
19 21 (6.46%) DV Cleared
19 21 (6.46%) ERP
20 20 (6.15%) Ansible
20 20 (6.15%) Continuous Improvement
20 20 (6.15%) Infrastructure as Code
20 20 (6.15%) VMware Infrastructure
21 19 (5.85%) Hyper-V
22 18 (5.54%) Configuration Management
22 18 (5.54%) Entra ID

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 16 (4.92%) Microsoft Exchange
2 14 (4.31%) SharePoint
3 4 (1.23%) WordPress
4 3 (0.92%) Apache
4 3 (0.92%) CMS
5 2 (0.62%) Confluence
5 2 (0.62%) nginx
5 2 (0.62%) Tomcat
6 1 (0.31%) Site Server
Applications
1 8 (2.46%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (1.54%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 25 (7.69%) iTrent
2 4 (1.23%) Primavera
3 3 (0.92%) Elite 3E
4 2 (0.62%) Shopify
4 2 (0.62%) Workday HCM
5 1 (0.31%) HFM
5 1 (0.31%) Oracle 11i
5 1 (0.31%) Oracle EBS
5 1 (0.31%) Oracle ERP
5 1 (0.31%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 43 (13.23%) Microsoft 365
2 42 (12.92%) Azure
3 28 (8.62%) AWS
4 18 (5.54%) Entra ID
5 16 (4.92%) Amazon CloudWatch
6 13 (4.00%) Power Platform
7 9 (2.77%) GCP
7 9 (2.77%) Power Automate
8 8 (2.46%) Amazon EKS
8 8 (2.46%) GitHub
8 8 (2.46%) GitHub Actions
8 8 (2.46%) PowerApps
9 6 (1.85%) Azure Logic Apps
9 6 (1.85%) Mimecast
9 6 (1.85%) SaaS
10 5 (1.54%) Amazon ECR
10 5 (1.54%) Amazon ECS
10 5 (1.54%) Dynamics 365
11 3 (0.92%) Amazon EC2
11 3 (0.92%) Veeva
Communications & Networking
1 30 (9.23%) Firewall
2 17 (5.23%) DNS
3 14 (4.31%) LAN
4 13 (4.00%) VPN
5 10 (3.08%) HTTP
5 10 (3.08%) TCP/IP
6 7 (2.15%) Network Security
6 7 (2.15%) SAN
7 5 (1.54%) Internet
7 5 (1.54%) WAN
7 5 (1.54%) Wi-Fi
8 3 (0.92%) NAS
8 3 (0.92%) SSH
8 3 (0.92%) VLAN
8 3 (0.92%) Wireless
9 2 (0.62%) Multicast
9 2 (0.62%) VoIP
10 1 (0.31%) DHCP
10 1 (0.31%) DKIM
10 1 (0.31%) DMARC
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (3.08%) MySQL
2 6 (1.85%) Power BI
3 5 (1.54%) Elasticsearch
4 3 (0.92%) Amazon RDS
5 2 (0.62%) Relational Database
5 2 (0.62%) SQL Server
6 1 (0.31%) Data Warehouse
6 1 (0.31%) GIS
6 1 (0.31%) Oracle Database
6 1 (0.31%) Oracle Database 12c
6 1 (0.31%) RDBMS
6 1 (0.31%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 13 (4.00%) Git
2 9 (2.77%) GitLab
3 5 (1.54%) JIRA
4 1 (0.31%) Bitbucket
General
1 56 (17.23%) Finance
2 46 (14.15%) Social Skills
3 30 (9.23%) Analytical Skills
4 19 (5.85%) Banking
5 12 (3.69%) Manufacturing
5 12 (3.69%) Retail
6 11 (3.38%) Law
7 9 (2.77%) Organisational Skills
8 8 (2.46%) Legal
9 6 (1.85%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 3 (0.92%) Billing
10 3 (0.92%) Documentation Skills
10 3 (0.92%) Public Sector
11 2 (0.62%) Military
12 1 (0.31%) Games
12 1 (0.31%) Local Government
12 1 (0.31%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (2.77%) WebSockets
2 4 (1.23%) Middleware
3 3 (0.92%) LAMP
4 2 (0.62%) LEMP Stack
4 2 (0.62%) Node.js
5 1 (0.31%) HTML
5 1 (0.31%) ODBC
5 1 (0.31%) OpenID
5 1 (0.31%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 11 (3.38%) Clustering
1 11 (3.38%) Data Centre
2 9 (2.77%) Data Structures
2 9 (2.77%) Hybrid Cloud
2 9 (2.77%) Management Information System
3 8 (2.46%) Private Cloud
4 6 (1.85%) FMCG
5 4 (1.23%) Replication
6 3 (0.92%) Driving Licence
6 3 (0.92%) Learning Management System
7 2 (0.62%) iSeries
7 2 (0.62%) Onboarding
7 2 (0.62%) Operational Technology
8 1 (0.31%) Cloud Native
8 1 (0.31%) Distributed Computing
8 1 (0.31%) Enterprise Software
8 1 (0.31%) Legacy Applications
8 1 (0.31%) Life Science
8 1 (0.31%) Product Ownership
8 1 (0.31%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 80 (24.62%) Linux
2 36 (11.08%) Windows
3 18 (5.54%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 14 (4.31%) Mac OS
5 13 (4.00%) Android
5 13 (4.00%) Apple iOS
6 12 (3.69%) CentOS
6 12 (3.69%) Windows Server
7 8 (2.46%) Ubuntu
8 4 (1.23%) Unix
9 3 (0.92%) Debian
9 3 (0.92%) Rocky
10 1 (0.31%) Windows 10
10 1 (0.31%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 57 (17.54%) Problem-Solving
2 49 (15.08%) DevOps
3 27 (8.31%) Analytics
4 24 (7.38%) CI/CD
4 24 (7.38%) Process Improvement
5 21 (6.46%) ERP
6 20 (6.15%) Continuous Improvement
6 20 (6.15%) Infrastructure as Code
7 18 (5.54%) Configuration Management
8 14 (4.31%) Service Delivery
8 14 (4.31%) Vulnerability Management
9 11 (3.38%) High Availability
10 10 (3.08%) Containerisation
10 10 (3.08%) Customer-Centricity
10 10 (3.08%) Disaster Recovery
10 10 (3.08%) Patch Management
11 9 (2.77%) AI
11 9 (2.77%) Cybersecurity
11 9 (2.77%) Performance Monitoring
11 9 (2.77%) Release Management
Programming Languages
1 39 (12.00%) SQL
2 33 (10.15%) Bash
3 28 (8.62%) Python
4 8 (2.46%) Go
5 7 (2.15%) PowerShell
6 4 (1.23%) PHP
7 3 (0.92%) JavaScript
7 3 (0.92%) Shell Script
8 2 (0.62%) Perl
8 2 (0.62%) VBA
9 1 (0.31%) R
9 1 (0.31%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 30 (9.23%) Security Cleared
2 21 (6.46%) DV Cleared
3 15 (4.62%) CIPD
4 14 (4.31%) SC Cleared
5 10 (3.08%) RHCSA
6 8 (2.46%) AWS Certification
7 5 (1.54%) Degree
8 4 (1.23%) Microsoft Certification
9 3 (0.92%) Azure Certification
10 1 (0.31%) BPSS Clearance
10 1 (0.31%) CCNA
10 1 (0.31%) CCNP
10 1 (0.31%) Cisco Certification
10 1 (0.31%) Computer Science Degree
10 1 (0.31%) ITIL Certification
10 1 (0.31%) Linux+ Certification
10 1 (0.31%) MCSE
10 1 (0.31%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (5.54%) GDPR
2 13 (4.00%) QA
3 7 (2.15%) Data Quality
4 3 (0.92%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 1 (0.31%) SOC 2
System Software
1 34 (10.46%) Active Directory
2 20 (6.15%) VMware Infrastructure
3 19 (5.85%) Hyper-V
4 12 (3.69%) Docker
5 3 (0.92%) Firmware
5 3 (0.92%) iptables
6 2 (0.62%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.31%) KVM
Systems Management
1 22 (6.77%) Terraform
2 20 (6.15%) Ansible
3 18 (5.54%) Kubernetes
4 17 (5.23%) Nagios
5 16 (4.92%) Grafana
6 15 (4.62%) Nessus
7 13 (4.00%) Microsoft Intune
7 13 (4.00%) Proxmox
8 12 (3.69%) Prometheus
9 6 (1.85%) Puppet
10 3 (0.92%) systemd
10 3 (0.92%) WSUS
11 2 (0.62%) Progress Chef
11 2 (0.62%) Red Hat Satellite
12 1 (0.31%) FortiGate
12 1 (0.31%) Jamf Pro
12 1 (0.31%) Podman
12 1 (0.31%) Single Sign-On
12 1 (0.31%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 58 (17.85%) Microsoft
2 37 (11.38%) Red Hat
3 31 (9.54%) VMware
4 12 (3.69%) SolarWinds
5 8 (2.46%) Veeam
6 6 (1.85%) ServiceNow
6 6 (1.85%) SonicWALL
6 6 (1.85%) Splunk
7 5 (1.54%) Cisco
7 5 (1.54%) Rapid7
8 4 (1.23%) Meraki
8 4 (1.23%) Salesforce
9 3 (0.92%) Dell
9 3 (0.92%) Palo Alto
9 3 (0.92%) Sage
10 2 (0.62%) CrowdStrike
10 2 (0.62%) IBM
10 2 (0.62%) Oracle
10 2 (0.62%) SAP
10 2 (0.62%) Workday