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 22 May 2026.

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

6 months to
22 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 417 450 415
Rank change year-on-year +33 -35 +112
Permanent jobs requiring a Systems Administrator 356 210 560
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.39% 0.49% 0.58%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.41% 0.55% 0.61%
Number of salaries quoted 257 160 457
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,000 £28,000
25th Percentile £35,000 £35,000 £33,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £50,000 £40,420
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% +23.70% -16.66%
75th Percentile £63,750 £57,500 £52,500
90th Percentile £70,000 £70,125 £59,700
UK excluding London median annual salary £40,000 £49,000 £40,000
% change year-on-year -18.37% +22.50% -1.84%

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 86,286 38,345 92,039
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.36% 89.33% 94.62%
Number of salaries quoted 57,161 21,611 67,433
10th Percentile £30,000 £30,000 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £41,250 £38,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £57,500 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -4.35% +9.52% -12.50%
75th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £71,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -3.85% +4.00% -6.17%

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 22 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 22 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 +52 328 £45,000 -10.00% 56
UK excluding London +27 246 £40,000 -18.37% 62
London +31 97 £62,500 +13.64% 9
Midlands +28 72 £32,500 - 10
Work from Home +24 69 £55,000 +10.00% 21
East Midlands +11 50 £32,500 +1.56% 5
North of England -21 44 £42,500 +8.28% 11
East of England +8 41 £40,000 -30.43% 10
South East -30 40 £60,000 +18.23% 14
South West -90 29 £39,250 -21.50% 9
Yorkshire -27 27 £45,000 -14.29% 7
West Midlands -8 22 £45,000 +26.76% 5
Scotland +7 20 - - 4
North West -9 14 £36,500 -5.19% 3
North East - 3 £47,500 - 1

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

For the 6 months to 22 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 79 (22.19%) Linux
2 70 (19.66%) Microsoft
3 56 (15.73%) Problem-Solving
4 55 (15.45%) DevOps
5 50 (14.04%) Microsoft 365
6 47 (13.20%) SQL
7 45 (12.64%) Windows
8 43 (12.08%) Azure
9 40 (11.24%) Active Directory
9 40 (11.24%) Red Hat
10 32 (8.99%) Bash
10 32 (8.99%) Entra ID
10 32 (8.99%) VMware
11 31 (8.71%) Firewall
12 29 (8.15%) Analytics
13 27 (7.58%) AWS
13 27 (7.58%) CI/CD
13 27 (7.58%) Process Improvement
13 27 (7.58%) Python
13 27 (7.58%) Security Cleared
14 26 (7.30%) Continuous Improvement
15 25 (7.02%) ERP
16 24 (6.74%) iTrent
17 23 (6.46%) Hyper-V
18 22 (6.18%) Terraform
18 22 (6.18%) Vulnerability Management
19 21 (5.90%) Microsoft Exchange
19 21 (5.90%) VMware Infrastructure
20 20 (5.62%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
21 19 (5.34%) Ansible

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 21 (5.90%) Microsoft Exchange
2 19 (5.34%) SharePoint
3 4 (1.12%) WordPress
4 3 (0.84%) Apache
4 3 (0.84%) CMS
5 2 (0.56%) Confluence
5 2 (0.56%) nginx
5 2 (0.56%) Tomcat
6 1 (0.28%) Site Server
Applications
1 12 (3.37%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (1.12%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 24 (6.74%) iTrent
2 7 (1.97%) Primavera
3 3 (0.84%) Elite 3E
4 2 (0.56%) Shopify
4 2 (0.56%) Workday HCM
5 1 (0.28%) HFM
5 1 (0.28%) Oracle 11i
5 1 (0.28%) Oracle EBS
5 1 (0.28%) Oracle ERP
5 1 (0.28%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 50 (14.04%) Microsoft 365
2 43 (12.08%) Azure
3 32 (8.99%) Entra ID
4 27 (7.58%) AWS
5 18 (5.06%) Power Platform
6 16 (4.49%) Amazon CloudWatch
7 12 (3.37%) Power Automate
8 11 (3.09%) PowerApps
9 9 (2.53%) Azure Logic Apps
9 9 (2.53%) GCP
10 8 (2.25%) Amazon EKS
10 8 (2.25%) GitHub
10 8 (2.25%) GitHub Actions
10 8 (2.25%) Mimecast
10 8 (2.25%) SaaS
11 7 (1.97%) Intacct
12 5 (1.40%) Amazon ECR
12 5 (1.40%) Amazon ECS
12 5 (1.40%) Dynamics 365
13 3 (0.84%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 31 (8.71%) Firewall
2 19 (5.34%) DNS
3 15 (4.21%) LAN
4 13 (3.65%) VPN
5 11 (3.09%) TCP/IP
6 10 (2.81%) HTTP
7 9 (2.53%) Network Security
7 9 (2.53%) SAN
8 7 (1.97%) Internet
8 7 (1.97%) Wi-Fi
9 5 (1.40%) WAN
10 3 (0.84%) NAS
10 3 (0.84%) SSH
10 3 (0.84%) VLAN
10 3 (0.84%) Wireless
11 2 (0.56%) Multicast
11 2 (0.56%) VoIP
12 1 (0.28%) DHCP
12 1 (0.28%) DKIM
12 1 (0.28%) DMARC
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (2.81%) MySQL
2 7 (1.97%) Power BI
3 5 (1.40%) Elasticsearch
4 3 (0.84%) Amazon RDS
4 3 (0.84%) GIS
5 2 (0.56%) Relational Database
5 2 (0.56%) SQL Server
6 1 (0.28%) Data Warehouse
6 1 (0.28%) Oracle Database
6 1 (0.28%) Oracle Database 12c
6 1 (0.28%) RDBMS
6 1 (0.28%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 13 (3.65%) Git
2 10 (2.81%) GitLab
3 5 (1.40%) JIRA
4 1 (0.28%) Bitbucket
General
1 70 (19.66%) Finance
2 51 (14.33%) Social Skills
3 28 (7.87%) Analytical Skills
4 20 (5.62%) Banking
5 14 (3.93%) Retail
6 13 (3.65%) Manufacturing
7 11 (3.09%) Law
8 9 (2.53%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 8 (2.25%) Legal
10 7 (1.97%) Billing
11 6 (1.69%) Organisational Skills
12 3 (0.84%) Documentation Skills
12 3 (0.84%) Games
12 3 (0.84%) Public Sector
13 1 (0.28%) Local Government
13 1 (0.28%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (2.81%) WebSockets
2 6 (1.69%) Middleware
3 3 (0.84%) LAMP
4 2 (0.56%) LEMP Stack
4 2 (0.56%) Node.js
5 1 (0.28%) HTML
5 1 (0.28%) OpenID
5 1 (0.28%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 16 (4.49%) Data Structures
2 13 (3.65%) Clustering
3 12 (3.37%) Data Centre
4 11 (3.09%) Management Information System
5 9 (2.53%) Hybrid Cloud
6 8 (2.25%) Private Cloud
7 4 (1.12%) Replication
8 3 (0.84%) FMCG
8 3 (0.84%) Security Posture
8 3 (0.84%) Self-Motivation
9 2 (0.56%) Onboarding
9 2 (0.56%) Operational Technology
10 1 (0.28%) Cloud Native
10 1 (0.28%) Distributed Computing
10 1 (0.28%) Enterprise Software
10 1 (0.28%) Legacy Applications
10 1 (0.28%) Life Science
10 1 (0.28%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 79 (22.19%) Linux
2 45 (12.64%) Windows
3 20 (5.62%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 18 (5.06%) Mac OS
4 18 (5.06%) Windows Server
5 16 (4.49%) Android
5 16 (4.49%) Apple iOS
6 11 (3.09%) CentOS
7 8 (2.25%) Ubuntu
8 4 (1.12%) Rocky
9 3 (0.84%) Debian
9 3 (0.84%) Unix
10 1 (0.28%) Windows 10
10 1 (0.28%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 56 (15.73%) Problem-Solving
2 55 (15.45%) DevOps
3 29 (8.15%) Analytics
4 27 (7.58%) CI/CD
4 27 (7.58%) Process Improvement
5 26 (7.30%) Continuous Improvement
6 25 (7.02%) ERP
7 22 (6.18%) Vulnerability Management
8 19 (5.34%) Configuration Management
8 19 (5.34%) Infrastructure as Code
9 14 (3.93%) High Availability
9 14 (3.93%) Release Management
9 14 (3.93%) Service Delivery
10 13 (3.65%) Change Control
11 12 (3.37%) Disaster Recovery
11 12 (3.37%) Identity Management
11 12 (3.37%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 12 (3.37%) Patch Management
12 11 (3.09%) Data Management
12 11 (3.09%) Mobile Device Management
Programming Languages
1 47 (13.20%) SQL
2 32 (8.99%) Bash
3 27 (7.58%) Python
4 8 (2.25%) Go
5 7 (1.97%) PowerShell
6 3 (0.84%) JavaScript
6 3 (0.84%) PHP
6 3 (0.84%) Shell Script
7 2 (0.56%) VBA
8 1 (0.28%) Perl
8 1 (0.28%) R
8 1 (0.28%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 27 (7.58%) Security Cleared
2 18 (5.06%) DV Cleared
3 15 (4.21%) CIPD
4 11 (3.09%) RHCSA
4 11 (3.09%) SC Cleared
5 8 (2.25%) AWS Certification
6 7 (1.97%) Degree
7 2 (0.56%) Microsoft Certification
8 1 (0.28%) Azure Certification
8 1 (0.28%) BPSS Clearance
8 1 (0.28%) CCNA
8 1 (0.28%) CCNP
8 1 (0.28%) Cisco Certification
8 1 (0.28%) Computer Science Degree
8 1 (0.28%) ITIL Certification
8 1 (0.28%) Linux+ Certification
8 1 (0.28%) MCSE
8 1 (0.28%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (4.78%) GDPR
2 16 (4.49%) QA
3 12 (3.37%) Data Quality
4 2 (0.56%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 1 (0.28%) SOC 2
System Software
1 40 (11.24%) Active Directory
2 23 (6.46%) Hyper-V
3 21 (5.90%) VMware Infrastructure
4 11 (3.09%) Docker
5 3 (0.84%) Firmware
5 3 (0.84%) iptables
6 2 (0.56%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.28%) KVM
Systems Management
1 22 (6.18%) Terraform
2 19 (5.34%) Ansible
3 18 (5.06%) Nagios
4 17 (4.78%) Kubernetes
5 16 (4.49%) Grafana
5 16 (4.49%) Nessus
6 15 (4.21%) Microsoft Intune
6 15 (4.21%) Proxmox
7 12 (3.37%) Prometheus
8 6 (1.69%) Puppet
9 3 (0.84%) SCCM
9 3 (0.84%) systemd
10 2 (0.56%) Progress Chef
10 2 (0.56%) Red Hat Satellite
11 1 (0.28%) FortiGate
11 1 (0.28%) Jamf Pro
11 1 (0.28%) Podman
11 1 (0.28%) Single Sign-On
11 1 (0.28%) WSUS
11 1 (0.28%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 70 (19.66%) Microsoft
2 40 (11.24%) Red Hat
3 32 (8.99%) VMware
4 13 (3.65%) SolarWinds
5 10 (2.81%) Veeam
6 8 (2.25%) Salesforce
6 8 (2.25%) SonicWALL
7 7 (1.97%) Sage
8 6 (1.69%) ServiceNow
8 6 (1.69%) Splunk
9 5 (1.40%) Cisco
9 5 (1.40%) Rapid7
10 4 (1.12%) Meraki
11 3 (0.84%) Dell
11 3 (0.84%) Palo Alto
12 2 (0.56%) Atlassian
12 2 (0.56%) Concur
12 2 (0.56%) Oracle
12 2 (0.56%) SAP
12 2 (0.56%) Workday