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 23 October 2026.
The table below compares current salary benchmarking and summary statistics with the previous two years.
| 6 months to 23 Oct 2026 |
Same period 2025 | Same period 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | 386 | 490 | 346 |
| Rank change year-on-year | +104 | -144 | +75 |
| Permanent Systems Administrator jobs | 553 | 179 | 483 |
| As % of all permanent jobs in the UK | 0.46% | 0.36% | 0.70% |
| As % of the Job Titles category | 0.50% | 0.40% | 0.73% |
| Number of salaries quoted | 340 | 93 | 332 |
| 10th Percentile | £30,000 | £28,750 | £31,250 |
| 25th Percentile | £35,000 | £30,000 | £35,515 |
| Median annual salary (50th Percentile) | £45,000 | £45,000 | £50,000 |
| Median % change year-on-year | - | -10.00% | +12.96% |
| 75th Percentile | £58,750 | £57,500 | £55,000 |
| 90th Percentile | £75,500 | £72,500 | £73,750 |
| UK excluding London median annual salary | £40,000 | £45,000 | £45,000 |
| % change year-on-year | -11.11% | - | +7.14% |
All Permanent IT Job Roles
UK
For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job adverts matching a recognised job title. The table also shows what proportion of all permanent IT job adverts they make up.
| 6 months to 23 Oct 2026 |
Same period 2025 | Same period 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Permanent job adverts in the UK matching a recognised job title | 111,319 | 44,214 | 65,925 |
| % of permanent job adverts matching a recognised job title | 92.21% | 89.77% | 95.38% |
| Number of salaries quoted | 75,105 | 26,119 | 37,592 |
| 10th Percentile | £30,500 | £28,128 | £31,250 |
| 25th Percentile | £41,250 | £35,000 | £41,592 |
| Median annual salary (50th Percentile) | £59,000 | £52,500 | £56,252 |
| Median % change year-on-year | +12.38% | -6.67% | -6.25% |
| 75th Percentile | £76,250 | £73,750 | £75,000 |
| 90th Percentile | £98,750 | £95,000 | £95,000 |
| UK excluding London median annual salary | £55,000 | £45,497 | £50,000 |
| % change year-on-year | +20.89% | -9.01% | -4.76% |
Systems Administrator Job Vacancy Trend
Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent Systems Administrator job postings relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised.
Systems Administrator Salary Trend
Salary distribution trend for Systems Administrator job vacancies in the UK.
Systems Administrator Salary Histogram
Salary distribution for Systems Administrator jobs over the 6 months to 23 October 2026.
Systems Administrator Top 16 Job Locations
The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in Systems Administrator jobs within the UK over the 6 months to 23 October 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 |
Job Ads Past 6 Months |
Median Salary Past 6 Months |
Median Salary % Change on Same Period Last Year |
Live Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| England | +82 | 478 | £45,000 | - | 130 |
| UK excluding London | +77 | 425 | £40,000 | -11.11% | 73 |
| London | -23 | 106 | £56,000 | +1.82% | 52 |
| South East | +10 | 98 | £45,000 | - | 18 |
| South West | -56 | 86 | £35,000 | -22.22% | 22 |
| Work from Home | -52 | 84 | £50,000 | +11.11% | 44 |
| North of England | -3 | 74 | £45,000 | - | 11 |
| Midlands | -7 | 74 | £40,000 | +12.68% | 10 |
| Scotland | - | 48 | £43,500 | - | |
| West Midlands | -3 | 46 | £38,000 | -20.00% | 10 |
| Yorkshire | 0 | 38 | £45,000 | +5.88% | 5 |
| East of England | -13 | 38 | £40,000 | -11.11% | 8 |
| North West | -5 | 29 | £47,500 | +5.56% | 6 |
| East Midlands | -25 | 28 | £41,000 | +36.67% | |
| Wales | -60 | 8 | £50,000 | - | 3 |
| North East | - | 7 | £39,250 | - |
Systems Administrator Skill Set Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities
For the 6 months to 23 October 2026, Systems Administrator job ads cited 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 Systems Administrator job ads.
| Rank | Skill | Share | Job Ads |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Microsoft | 18.1% | 100 |
| 2 | Linux | 17.4% | 96 |
| 3 | Windows | 14.3% | 79 |
| 4 | Active Directory | 13.0% | 72 |
| 5 | Azure | 11.0% | 61 |
| 5 | Entra ID | 11.0% | 61 |
| 5 | Microsoft 365 | 11.0% | 61 |
| 8 | DevOps | 10.8% | 60 |
| 9 | Problem-Solving | 9.8% | 54 |
| 10 | Windows Server | 9.4% | 52 |
| 11 | Continuous Improvement | 8.5% | 47 |
| 11 | Firewall | 8.5% | 47 |
| 13 | Ansible | 8.1% | 45 |
| 13 | CI/CD | 8.1% | 45 |
| 15 | Security Cleared | 8.0% | 44 |
| 16 | Bash | 7.2% | 40 |
| 17 | DNS | 6.9% | 38 |
| 18 | AWS | 6.7% | 37 |
| 19 | DV Cleared | 6.5% | 36 |
| 19 | Microsoft Exchange | 6.5% | 36 |
| 19 | Python | 6.5% | 36 |
| 19 | SaaS | 6.5% | 36 |
| 23 | Red Hat | 6.3% | 35 |
| 24 | SQL | 6.0% | 33 |
| 25 | Kubernetes | 5.8% | 32 |
| 25 | VPN | 5.8% | 32 |
| 27 | Hyper-V | 5.6% | 31 |
| 28 | ERP | 5.4% | 30 |
| 29 | Infrastructure Engineering | 5.2% | 29 |
| 29 | Terraform | 5.2% | 29 |
Systems Administrator Skill Set Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities by Category
The table below expands on the one above by listing co-occurrences one category at a time. It covers the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences in each category.
Job Titles
| Rank | Job Title | Share | Job Ads |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Administrator | 99.8% | 552 |
| 2 | IT Systems Administrator | 24.1% | 133 |
| 3 | Senior Systems Administrator | 14.1% | 78 |
| 4 | Linux Systems Administrator | 9.6% | 53 |
| 5 | Systems Support | 5.8% | 32 |
| 6 | Systems Engineer | 5.1% | 28 |
| 7 | DevOps Administrator | 4.2% | 23 |
| 7 | Network Administrator | 4.2% | 23 |
| 9 | Senior IT Administrator | 3.8% | 21 |
| 10 | Business Systems Administrator | 3.6% | 20 |
| 11 | Senior Linux Systems Administrator | 3.4% | 19 |
| 12 | Technical Administrator | 3.1% | 17 |
| 13 | Systems Support Engineer | 2.9% | 16 |
| 14 | Linux Systems Engineer | 2.5% | 14 |
| 15 | Dynamics 365 Administrator | 2.4% | 13 |
| 16 | DevOps Systems Engineer | 2.2% | 12 |
| 16 | Linux DevOps Administrator | 2.2% | 12 |
| 16 | Linux DevOps Engineer | 2.2% | 12 |
| 16 | Linux/Unix DevOps | 2.2% | 12 |
| 20 | Cloud Administrator | 2.0% | 11 |