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 1 February 2026.

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

6 months to
1 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 464 388 432
Rank change year-on-year -76 +44 +110
Permanent jobs requiring a Systems Administrator 195 345 423
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.31% 0.67% 0.60%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.34% 0.72% 0.63%
Number of salaries quoted 133 209 359
10th Percentile £28,000 £32,000 £26,500
25th Percentile £30,000 £42,500 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £50,000 £41,500
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% +20.48% -17.00%
75th Percentile £61,250 £58,750 £51,250
90th Percentile £70,000 £76,250 £63,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £35,000 £50,000 £40,000
% change year-on-year -30.00% +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 58,000 47,786 67,491
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.88% 92.14% 95.07%
Number of salaries quoted 36,092 24,542 52,929
10th Percentile £29,000 £33,750 £28,750
25th Percentile £37,500 £45,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -8.33%
75th Percentile £75,000 £79,500 £75,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £54,439 £50,000
% change year-on-year -8.15% +8.88% -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 1 February 2026.

Salary histogram for Systems Administrator in the UK

Systems Administrator
Top 14 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 1 February 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 -60 181 £45,000 -10.00% 83
UK excluding London -85 132 £35,000 -30.00% 70
London +13 51 £57,500 -20.69% 16
Midlands +19 40 £31,500 -30.00% 12
Work from Home -26 36 £52,500 +5.00% 22
South West -42 33 £35,000 -30.00% 4
South East +12 26 £51,250 +7.89% 22
East Midlands -4 26 £30,250 -24.38% 6
North of England -28 16 £45,000 +6.80% 19
West Midlands +33 14 £31,500 -33.68% 6
East of England +10 14 £62,500 +41.24% 12
Yorkshire -19 9 £45,000 +28.57% 10
North West +14 7 £45,000 -2.70% 7
Scotland -16 3 £26,000 -48.00% 4

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

For the 6 months to 1 February 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 53 (27.18%) Linux
2 49 (25.13%) Problem-Solving
3 36 (18.46%) Security Cleared
4 32 (16.41%) DV Cleared
5 27 (13.85%) Windows
6 24 (12.31%) Cisco
7 22 (11.28%) SC Cleared
8 21 (10.77%) VMware
9 20 (10.26%) Microsoft
10 19 (9.74%) Azure
11 18 (9.23%) Active Directory
11 18 (9.23%) CCNP
11 18 (9.23%) Cisco Certification
11 18 (9.23%) ERP
11 18 (9.23%) High Availability
11 18 (9.23%) Innovative Thinking
11 18 (9.23%) iTrent
11 18 (9.23%) Unix
12 15 (7.69%) DevOps
13 13 (6.67%) Analytics
13 13 (6.67%) Change Management
13 13 (6.67%) Red Hat
13 13 (6.67%) SQL
14 12 (6.15%) AWS
14 12 (6.15%) CCNA
14 12 (6.15%) Firewall
14 12 (6.15%) GDPR
14 12 (6.15%) Microsoft 365
14 12 (6.15%) Process Improvement
14 12 (6.15%) Python

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 5 (2.56%) Microsoft Exchange
2 4 (2.05%) SharePoint
3 3 (1.54%) Apache
3 3 (1.54%) CMS
3 3 (1.54%) WordPress
4 1 (0.51%) Confluence
Applications
1 3 (1.54%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (1.03%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (1.03%) Spreadsheet
3 1 (0.51%) AutoCAD
3 1 (0.51%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 18 (9.23%) iTrent
2 4 (2.05%) Oracle EBS
2 4 (2.05%) Oracle EBS R12
3 2 (1.03%) Dynamics CRM
3 2 (1.03%) SAP Business One
3 2 (1.03%) Unit4 Business World
3 2 (1.03%) Workday HCM
4 1 (0.51%) Oracle 11i
4 1 (0.51%) Oracle ERP
4 1 (0.51%) Shopify
4 1 (0.51%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 19 (9.74%) Azure
2 12 (6.15%) AWS
2 12 (6.15%) Microsoft 365
3 8 (4.10%) Power Platform
4 6 (3.08%) Dynamics 365
4 6 (3.08%) Power Automate
5 5 (2.56%) Entra ID
6 4 (2.05%) Amazon CloudWatch
6 4 (2.05%) Amazon EKS
6 4 (2.05%) GitHub
6 4 (2.05%) GitHub Actions
6 4 (2.05%) SaaS
7 3 (1.54%) Mimecast
7 3 (1.54%) PowerApps
7 3 (1.54%) Veeva
8 2 (1.03%) OCI
9 1 (0.51%) Canva
9 1 (0.51%) Nutanix
9 1 (0.51%) Slack
9 1 (0.51%) SuccessFactors
Communications & Networking
1 12 (6.15%) Firewall
2 8 (4.10%) VPN
3 7 (3.59%) Network Security
4 6 (3.08%) DNS
5 5 (2.56%) LAN
6 4 (2.05%) Cisco IOS
6 4 (2.05%) TCP/IP
7 3 (1.54%) Cisco ISE
7 3 (1.54%) HTTP
7 3 (1.54%) WAN
8 1 (0.51%) DHCP
8 1 (0.51%) Internet
8 1 (0.51%) Intranet
8 1 (0.51%) VLAN
8 1 (0.51%) Wi-Fi
8 1 (0.51%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (3.59%) SQL Server
2 6 (3.08%) Power BI
3 3 (1.54%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 2 (1.03%) Crystal Reports
5 1 (0.51%) Data Warehouse
5 1 (0.51%) Oracle Database
5 1 (0.51%) Oracle Database 12c
5 1 (0.51%) Oracle Reports
5 1 (0.51%) RDBMS
5 1 (0.51%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 6 (3.08%) JIRA
2 2 (1.03%) GitLab
3 1 (0.51%) Bitbucket
3 1 (0.51%) Git
General
1 41 (21.03%) Finance
2 35 (17.95%) Social Skills
3 17 (8.72%) Analytical Skills
4 11 (5.64%) Organisational Skills
5 8 (4.10%) Retail
6 7 (3.59%) General Ledger
7 6 (3.08%) Manufacturing
8 5 (2.56%) Law
9 3 (1.54%) Banking
10 2 (1.03%) Documentation Skills
10 2 (1.03%) Military
11 1 (0.51%) Automotive
11 1 (0.51%) Back Office
11 1 (0.51%) Greek Language
11 1 (0.51%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 1 (0.51%) Italian Language
11 1 (0.51%) Mandarin Language
11 1 (0.51%) Spanish Language
11 1 (0.51%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (1.54%) LAMP
1 3 (1.54%) Middleware
2 2 (1.03%) .NET
2 2 (1.03%) JSON
2 2 (1.03%) XML
3 1 (0.51%) LDAP
3 1 (0.51%) Lightning Web Components
3 1 (0.51%) ODBC
3 1 (0.51%) Oracle Fusion
3 1 (0.51%) WebSockets
Miscellaneous
1 18 (9.23%) e-Learning
2 9 (4.62%) Management Information System
3 7 (3.59%) Hybrid Cloud
4 6 (3.08%) FMCG
5 5 (2.56%) PKI
6 4 (2.05%) Learning Management System
6 4 (2.05%) Private Cloud
7 3 (1.54%) Driving Licence
7 3 (1.54%) iSeries
8 2 (1.03%) Data Centre
8 2 (1.03%) Self-Motivation
8 2 (1.03%) Virtual Team
9 1 (0.51%) Legacy Systems
9 1 (0.51%) Onboarding
9 1 (0.51%) Public Cloud
9 1 (0.51%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 53 (27.18%) Linux
2 27 (13.85%) Windows
3 18 (9.23%) Unix
4 11 (5.64%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 9 (4.62%) Windows Server
6 4 (2.05%) Android
6 4 (2.05%) Apple iOS
6 4 (2.05%) Mac OS
7 3 (1.54%) CentOS
8 2 (1.03%) Debian
9 1 (0.51%) AIX
9 1 (0.51%) Solaris
9 1 (0.51%) Ubuntu
9 1 (0.51%) VMS
9 1 (0.51%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.51%) Windows Server 2012
9 1 (0.51%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 49 (25.13%) Problem-Solving
2 18 (9.23%) ERP
2 18 (9.23%) High Availability
2 18 (9.23%) Innovative Thinking
3 15 (7.69%) DevOps
4 13 (6.67%) Analytics
4 13 (6.67%) Change Management
5 12 (6.15%) Process Improvement
6 10 (5.13%) Continuous Improvement
6 10 (5.13%) ITIL
6 10 (5.13%) Time Management
7 9 (4.62%) Service Management
8 8 (4.10%) Cybersecurity
8 8 (4.10%) Service Delivery
9 7 (3.59%) Accounts Payable
9 7 (3.59%) Data Analysis
9 7 (3.59%) Infrastructure as Code
9 7 (3.59%) Logistics
9 7 (3.59%) Migration
10 6 (3.08%) ITSM
Programming Languages
1 13 (6.67%) SQL
2 12 (6.15%) Python
3 11 (5.64%) Bash
4 5 (2.56%) PHP
4 5 (2.56%) PowerShell
5 4 (2.05%) Go
6 3 (1.54%) Perl
7 1 (0.51%) Shell Script
7 1 (0.51%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 36 (18.46%) Security Cleared
2 32 (16.41%) DV Cleared
3 22 (11.28%) SC Cleared
4 18 (9.23%) CCNP
4 18 (9.23%) Cisco Certification
5 12 (6.15%) CCNA
6 9 (4.62%) CIPD
7 8 (4.10%) Degree
8 7 (3.59%) RHCSA
9 6 (3.08%) Microsoft Certification
10 5 (2.56%) AWS Certification
11 4 (2.05%) Azure Certification
11 4 (2.05%) MCSA
12 3 (1.54%) MCSE
12 3 (1.54%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 2 (1.03%) AAT
14 1 (0.51%) A+ Certification
14 1 (0.51%) ACCA
14 1 (0.51%) BPSS Clearance
14 1 (0.51%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (6.15%) GDPR
2 4 (2.05%) QA
3 1 (0.51%) Data Quality
3 1 (0.51%) ISO/IEC 20000
3 1 (0.51%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 1 (0.51%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 18 (9.23%) Active Directory
2 12 (6.15%) VMware Infrastructure
3 2 (1.03%) Docker
3 2 (1.03%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.51%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.51%) KVM
4 1 (0.51%) Virtual Servers
4 1 (0.51%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 10 (5.13%) Ansible
2 7 (3.59%) Microsoft Intune
2 7 (3.59%) Nessus
2 7 (3.59%) Terraform
3 6 (3.08%) Kubernetes
4 4 (2.05%) Grafana
4 4 (2.05%) Prometheus
4 4 (2.05%) Proxmox
5 3 (1.54%) WSUS
6 1 (0.51%) Nagios
6 1 (0.51%) Podman
6 1 (0.51%) Progress Chef
6 1 (0.51%) Puppet
6 1 (0.51%) SCCM
6 1 (0.51%) VxRail
Vendors
1 24 (12.31%) Cisco
2 21 (10.77%) VMware
3 20 (10.26%) Microsoft
4 13 (6.67%) Red Hat
5 7 (3.59%) Oracle
6 4 (2.05%) LogicMonitor
6 4 (2.05%) Okta
6 4 (2.05%) ServiceNow
6 4 (2.05%) Workday
6 4 (2.05%) Zscaler
7 3 (1.54%) Bloomberg
7 3 (1.54%) IBM
7 3 (1.54%) Reuters
7 3 (1.54%) SAP
7 3 (1.54%) Sophos
8 2 (1.03%) Salesforce
8 2 (1.03%) SolarWinds
8 2 (1.03%) Veeam
9 1 (0.51%) F5
9 1 (0.51%) Rapid7