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 3 May 2026.

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

6 months to
3 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 437 420 421
Rank change year-on-year -17 +1 +140
Permanent jobs requiring a Systems Administrator 322 223 533
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.36% 0.52% 0.56%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.38% 0.59% 0.59%
Number of salaries quoted 247 181 435
10th Percentile £28,000 £27,250 £28,000
25th Percentile £35,000 £37,750 £33,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £50,000 £40,400
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% +23.76% -14.95%
75th Percentile £63,750 £57,500 £50,000
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% -3.61%

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 83,975 37,966 90,660
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.94% 89.30% 94.56%
Number of salaries quoted 54,064 23,403 66,761
10th Percentile £30,000 £30,500 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £41,500 £38,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £59,000 £53,000
Median % change year-on-year -6.78% +11.32% -11.67%
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% -5.21%

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 3 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 3 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 +28 299 £45,000 -10.00% 54
UK excluding London -13 230 £40,000 -20.00% 58
London +27 81 £65,000 +18.18% 10
Midlands +28 73 £32,500 - 7
Work from Home +13 60 £53,750 +7.50% 25
East Midlands +5 47 £32,500 -3.70% 3
South East -20 42 £56,250 +14.80% 11
North of England -52 37 £45,000 +12.50% 17
East of England -1 35 £44,500 -8.25% 10
South West -81 28 £40,000 -20.00% 6
West Midlands 0 26 £32,119 -1.17% 4
Yorkshire -45 22 £45,000 -14.29% 8
Scotland -14 15 £26,000 -48.00% 5
North West -27 12 £36,500 -7.01% 8
North East - 3 £47,500 - 1

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

For the 6 months to 3 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 (24.53%) Linux
2 57 (17.70%) Microsoft
2 57 (17.70%) Problem-Solving
3 48 (14.91%) DevOps
4 42 (13.04%) Azure
4 42 (13.04%) Microsoft 365
5 37 (11.49%) SQL
5 37 (11.49%) Windows
6 36 (11.18%) Red Hat
7 33 (10.25%) Active Directory
8 32 (9.94%) Bash
9 30 (9.32%) Firewall
9 30 (9.32%) VMware
10 29 (9.01%) Security Cleared
11 27 (8.39%) Analytics
11 27 (8.39%) AWS
11 27 (8.39%) Python
12 25 (7.76%) iTrent
13 24 (7.45%) CI/CD
13 24 (7.45%) Process Improvement
14 22 (6.83%) Terraform
15 21 (6.52%) Continuous Improvement
15 21 (6.52%) DV Cleared
15 21 (6.52%) ERP
16 20 (6.21%) Ansible
16 20 (6.21%) Infrastructure as Code
17 19 (5.90%) VMware Infrastructure
18 18 (5.59%) Configuration Management
18 18 (5.59%) Entra ID
18 18 (5.59%) GDPR

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 (4.97%) Microsoft Exchange
2 14 (4.35%) SharePoint
3 4 (1.24%) WordPress
4 3 (0.93%) Apache
4 3 (0.93%) 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 (2.48%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (1.55%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 25 (7.76%) iTrent
2 3 (0.93%) Elite 3E
2 3 (0.93%) Primavera
3 2 (0.62%) Shopify
3 2 (0.62%) Workday HCM
4 1 (0.31%) HFM
4 1 (0.31%) Oracle 11i
4 1 (0.31%) Oracle EBS
4 1 (0.31%) Oracle ERP
4 1 (0.31%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 42 (13.04%) Azure
1 42 (13.04%) Microsoft 365
2 27 (8.39%) AWS
3 18 (5.59%) Entra ID
4 16 (4.97%) Amazon CloudWatch
5 13 (4.04%) Power Platform
6 9 (2.80%) GCP
6 9 (2.80%) Power Automate
7 8 (2.48%) Amazon EKS
7 8 (2.48%) GitHub
7 8 (2.48%) GitHub Actions
7 8 (2.48%) PowerApps
8 6 (1.86%) Azure Logic Apps
8 6 (1.86%) Mimecast
8 6 (1.86%) SaaS
9 5 (1.55%) Amazon ECR
9 5 (1.55%) Amazon ECS
9 5 (1.55%) Dynamics 365
10 3 (0.93%) Veeva
10 3 (0.93%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 30 (9.32%) Firewall
2 16 (4.97%) DNS
3 13 (4.04%) LAN
3 13 (4.04%) VPN
4 9 (2.80%) HTTP
4 9 (2.80%) TCP/IP
5 7 (2.17%) Network Security
5 7 (2.17%) SAN
6 5 (1.55%) Internet
6 5 (1.55%) WAN
6 5 (1.55%) Wi-Fi
7 3 (0.93%) NAS
7 3 (0.93%) SSH
7 3 (0.93%) VLAN
7 3 (0.93%) Wireless
8 2 (0.62%) Multicast
8 2 (0.62%) VoIP
9 1 (0.31%) DHCP
9 1 (0.31%) DKIM
9 1 (0.31%) DMARC
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (3.11%) MySQL
2 6 (1.86%) Power BI
3 5 (1.55%) Elasticsearch
4 3 (0.93%) 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 (4.04%) Git
2 8 (2.48%) GitLab
3 5 (1.55%) JIRA
4 1 (0.31%) Bitbucket
General
1 55 (17.08%) Finance
2 47 (14.60%) Social Skills
3 29 (9.01%) Analytical Skills
4 18 (5.59%) Banking
5 13 (4.04%) Retail
6 12 (3.73%) Manufacturing
7 11 (3.42%) Law
8 9 (2.80%) Organisational Skills
9 8 (2.48%) Legal
10 6 (1.86%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 3 (0.93%) Billing
11 3 (0.93%) Documentation Skills
11 3 (0.93%) Public Sector
12 2 (0.62%) Military
13 1 (0.31%) Games
13 1 (0.31%) Local Government
13 1 (0.31%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (2.48%) WebSockets
2 4 (1.24%) Middleware
3 3 (0.93%) 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 10 (3.11%) Clustering
1 10 (3.11%) Data Centre
1 10 (3.11%) Management Information System
2 9 (2.80%) Data Structures
2 9 (2.80%) Hybrid Cloud
3 8 (2.48%) Private Cloud
4 6 (1.86%) FMCG
5 4 (1.24%) Replication
6 3 (0.93%) Driving Licence
6 3 (0.93%) 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 79 (24.53%) Linux
2 37 (11.49%) Windows
3 17 (5.28%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 14 (4.35%) Mac OS
5 13 (4.04%) Android
5 13 (4.04%) Apple iOS
6 12 (3.73%) CentOS
6 12 (3.73%) Windows Server
7 8 (2.48%) Ubuntu
8 4 (1.24%) Unix
9 3 (0.93%) Debian
9 3 (0.93%) Rocky
10 2 (0.62%) Windows 10
11 1 (0.31%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 57 (17.70%) Problem-Solving
2 48 (14.91%) DevOps
3 27 (8.39%) Analytics
4 24 (7.45%) CI/CD
4 24 (7.45%) Process Improvement
5 21 (6.52%) Continuous Improvement
5 21 (6.52%) ERP
6 20 (6.21%) Infrastructure as Code
7 18 (5.59%) Configuration Management
8 14 (4.35%) Service Delivery
8 14 (4.35%) Vulnerability Management
9 11 (3.42%) High Availability
10 10 (3.11%) Containerisation
10 10 (3.11%) Disaster Recovery
10 10 (3.11%) Patch Management
11 9 (2.80%) AI
11 9 (2.80%) Customer-Centricity
11 9 (2.80%) Cybersecurity
11 9 (2.80%) Release Management
12 8 (2.48%) Time Management
Programming Languages
1 37 (11.49%) SQL
2 32 (9.94%) Bash
3 27 (8.39%) Python
4 8 (2.48%) Go
5 7 (2.17%) PowerShell
6 4 (1.24%) PHP
7 3 (0.93%) JavaScript
7 3 (0.93%) 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 29 (9.01%) Security Cleared
2 21 (6.52%) DV Cleared
3 15 (4.66%) CIPD
4 13 (4.04%) SC Cleared
5 9 (2.80%) RHCSA
6 8 (2.48%) AWS Certification
7 5 (1.55%) Degree
7 5 (1.55%) Microsoft Certification
8 3 (0.93%) Azure Certification
9 1 (0.31%) A+ Certification
9 1 (0.31%) BPSS Clearance
9 1 (0.31%) CCNA
9 1 (0.31%) CCNP
9 1 (0.31%) Cisco Certification
9 1 (0.31%) Computer Science Degree
9 1 (0.31%) ITIL Certification
9 1 (0.31%) Linux+ Certification
9 1 (0.31%) MCSA
9 1 (0.31%) MCSE
9 1 (0.31%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (5.59%) GDPR
2 13 (4.04%) QA
3 7 (2.17%) Data Quality
4 3 (0.93%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 1 (0.31%) ISO/IEC 20000
5 1 (0.31%) SOC 2
System Software
1 33 (10.25%) Active Directory
2 19 (5.90%) VMware Infrastructure
3 18 (5.59%) Hyper-V
4 12 (3.73%) Docker
5 3 (0.93%) Firmware
5 3 (0.93%) iptables
6 2 (0.62%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.31%) KVM
Systems Management
1 22 (6.83%) Terraform
2 20 (6.21%) Ansible
3 18 (5.59%) Kubernetes
4 16 (4.97%) Grafana
4 16 (4.97%) Nagios
5 15 (4.66%) Nessus
6 13 (4.04%) Microsoft Intune
6 13 (4.04%) Proxmox
7 12 (3.73%) Prometheus
8 6 (1.86%) Puppet
9 3 (0.93%) systemd
9 3 (0.93%) WSUS
10 2 (0.62%) Progress Chef
10 2 (0.62%) Red Hat Satellite
11 1 (0.31%) FortiGate
11 1 (0.31%) Jamf Pro
11 1 (0.31%) Podman
11 1 (0.31%) SCCM
11 1 (0.31%) Single Sign-On
11 1 (0.31%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 57 (17.70%) Microsoft
2 36 (11.18%) Red Hat
3 30 (9.32%) VMware
4 11 (3.42%) SolarWinds
5 8 (2.48%) Veeam
6 6 (1.86%) ServiceNow
6 6 (1.86%) SonicWALL
6 6 (1.86%) Splunk
7 5 (1.55%) Cisco
7 5 (1.55%) Rapid7
8 4 (1.24%) Meraki
8 4 (1.24%) Salesforce
9 3 (0.93%) Dell
9 3 (0.93%) Palo Alto
9 3 (0.93%) Sage
10 2 (0.62%) Citrix
10 2 (0.62%) IBM
10 2 (0.62%) Oracle
10 2 (0.62%) SAP
10 2 (0.62%) Workday