Systems Administrator Jobs

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 2 July 2025.

The table below provides salary benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
2 Jul 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 506 398 527
Rank change year-on-year -108 +129 +222
Permanent jobs requiring a Systems Administrator 223 663 458
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 0.38% 0.61% 0.51%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.42% 0.65% 0.56%
Number of salaries quoted 154 543 362
10th Percentile £26,913 £28,000 £28,283
25th Percentile £31,438 £33,966 £34,625
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £42,000 £46,750
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% -10.16% +3.89%
75th Percentile £57,500 £52,500 £62,188
90th Percentile £70,875 £65,000 £68,625
UK excluding London median annual salary £45,000 £40,000 £40,000
% change year-on-year +12.50% - -

All Permanent IT Job Vacancies
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 52,512 102,387 81,388
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 89.85% 94.81% 91.21%
Number of salaries quoted 28,421 72,229 54,035
10th Percentile £27,000 £28,500 £32,500
25th Percentile £38,000 £38,750 £44,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £52,500 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.76% -12.50% -
75th Percentile £73,750 £70,000 £80,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £90,000 £100,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £50,000 £53,000
% change year-on-year - -5.66% +4.95%

Systems Administrator
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings that featured Systems Administrator in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Systems Administrator in the UK

Systems Administrator
Salary Trend

3-month moving average salary quoted in jobs citing Systems Administrator.

Salary trend for Systems Administrator in the UK

Systems Administrator
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Systems Administrator over the 6 months to 2 July 2025.

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 2 July 2025. 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 -112 205 £45,000 +7.14% 360
UK excluding London -68 173 £45,000 +12.50% 217
Work from Home +38 64 £47,500 +5.56% 140
South West +88 59 £50,000 +11.11% 37
London +31 38 £55,000 +10.00% 153
South East -3 37 £49,000 -1.01% 48
North of England -31 37 £40,000 +5.96% 31
North West -10 27 £39,250 -5.42% 15
East of England +25 17 £51,250 +46.43% 36
Midlands -13 15 £32,500 -13.33% 48
Yorkshire +23 10 £52,500 +50.00% 12
East Midlands -1 10 £31,000 -17.33% 29
Wales +46 6 £47,500 -5.00% 5
West Midlands +28 5 £38,500 -0.65% 19
Scotland +35 2 £60,000 +50.00% 8

Systems Administrator Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 2 July 2025, Systems Administrator job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all permanent job ads featuring Systems Administrator in the job title.

1 85 (38.12%) Linux
2 82 (36.77%) Windows
3 65 (29.15%) Finance
4 56 (25.11%) Microsoft
5 54 (24.22%) VMware
6 51 (22.87%) Windows Server
7 46 (20.63%) Security Cleared
7 46 (20.63%) Azure
8 45 (20.18%) Social Skills
9 43 (19.28%) Bash
10 42 (18.83%) Active Directory
11 41 (18.39%) VMware Infrastructure
12 40 (17.94%) DV Cleared
13 39 (17.49%) Degree
13 39 (17.49%) Red Hat
14 38 (17.04%) PowerShell
15 37 (16.59%) Python
16 33 (14.80%) Microsoft 365
17 31 (13.90%) Problem-Solving
18 30 (13.45%) High Availability
19 29 (13.00%) Firewall
20 28 (12.56%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
20 28 (12.56%) DevOps
21 26 (11.66%) ERP
21 26 (11.66%) SAP
22 25 (11.21%) Cisco
22 25 (11.21%) Ansible
23 23 (10.31%) RHCSA
23 23 (10.31%) Cisco Certification
23 23 (10.31%) Microsoft Office

Systems Administrator Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 20 (8.97%) SharePoint
2 11 (4.93%) Microsoft Exchange
3 3 (1.35%) nginx
3 3 (1.35%) Tomcat
4 2 (0.90%) IIS
5 1 (0.45%) Confluence
Applications
1 23 (10.31%) Microsoft Office
2 9 (4.04%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (2.24%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.90%) Trello
5 1 (0.45%) AutoCAD
5 1 (0.45%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 17 (7.62%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (2.69%) Dynamics NAV
3 4 (1.79%) Salesforce CRM
4 1 (0.45%) SAP Business ByDesign
Cloud Services
1 46 (20.63%) Azure
2 33 (14.80%) Microsoft 365
3 22 (9.87%) AWS
4 6 (2.69%) Azure Storage
4 6 (2.69%) SaaS
5 5 (2.24%) Entra ID
6 4 (1.79%) Azure DevOps
6 4 (1.79%) Power Platform
7 3 (1.35%) Amazon EC2
7 3 (1.35%) GCP
8 2 (0.90%) GitHub
8 2 (0.90%) Power Automate
9 1 (0.45%) AWS IoT
9 1 (0.45%) Dynamics 365
9 1 (0.45%) IaaS
9 1 (0.45%) Microsoft Purview
9 1 (0.45%) Nutanix
9 1 (0.45%) OCI
9 1 (0.45%) PowerApps
9 1 (0.45%) Sentry
Communications & Networking
1 29 (13.00%) Firewall
2 19 (8.52%) DNS
3 13 (5.83%) LAN
3 13 (5.83%) TCP/IP
4 11 (4.93%) DHCP
5 10 (4.48%) Wi-Fi
6 8 (3.59%) Wireless
7 6 (2.69%) SAN
7 6 (2.69%) VPN
7 6 (2.69%) Wireless Security
8 5 (2.24%) Multicast
8 5 (2.24%) VLAN
9 4 (1.79%) WAN
10 3 (1.35%) Asterisk PBX
10 3 (1.35%) HTTP
11 2 (0.90%) Network Security
12 1 (0.45%) Cisco IOS
12 1 (0.45%) NAS
12 1 (0.45%) NetScaler
12 1 (0.45%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (4.04%) MySQL
2 5 (2.24%) MariaDB
2 5 (2.24%) Relational Database
2 5 (2.24%) SQL Server
3 4 (1.79%) RDBMS
4 3 (1.35%) PostgreSQL
4 3 (1.35%) Power BI
5 2 (0.90%) Amazon RDS
5 2 (0.90%) SAP HANA
6 1 (0.45%) Data Mining
6 1 (0.45%) DB2
6 1 (0.45%) Elasticsearch
6 1 (0.45%) Electronic Patient Records
6 1 (0.45%) GIS
6 1 (0.45%) MS Access
6 1 (0.45%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 9 (4.04%) Git
2 3 (1.35%) JIRA
3 2 (0.90%) GitLab
3 2 (0.90%) Jenkins
4 1 (0.45%) Bitbucket
4 1 (0.45%) Visual Studio
General
1 65 (29.15%) Finance
2 45 (20.18%) Social Skills
3 19 (8.52%) Analytical Skills
4 15 (6.73%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 13 (5.83%) Manufacturing
6 11 (4.93%) Banking
7 9 (4.04%) Public Sector
8 6 (2.69%) Organisational Skills
9 5 (2.24%) Legal
9 5 (2.24%) Retail
9 5 (2.24%) Telecoms
10 4 (1.79%) Documentation Skills
11 3 (1.35%) Law
12 2 (0.90%) Aerospace
12 2 (0.90%) Automotive
12 2 (0.90%) Aviation
12 2 (0.90%) Financial Institution
12 2 (0.90%) Local Government
12 2 (0.90%) Military
12 2 (0.90%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (2.24%) LDAP
2 3 (1.35%) LEMP Stack
2 3 (1.35%) Node.js
2 3 (1.35%) WebSockets
3 2 (0.90%) Middleware
3 2 (0.90%) XML
3 2 (0.90%) XMPP
4 1 (0.45%) FIX Protocol
4 1 (0.45%) FreeSWITCH
4 1 (0.45%) ISPF
4 1 (0.45%) libvirt
4 1 (0.45%) TAPI
Miscellaneous
1 19 (8.52%) e-Learning
2 14 (6.28%) Management Information System
3 12 (5.38%) Data Centre
4 5 (2.24%) Data Structures
4 5 (2.24%) Video Conferencing
5 4 (1.79%) Hybrid Cloud
5 4 (1.79%) Onboarding
5 4 (1.79%) Self-Motivation
6 3 (1.35%) Cloud Native
6 3 (1.35%) Driving Licence
6 3 (1.35%) FMCG
6 3 (1.35%) Life Science
7 2 (0.90%) Cyber Threat
7 2 (0.90%) Cyberattack
7 2 (0.90%) Enterprise Software
7 2 (0.90%) IoT
7 2 (0.90%) Replication
8 1 (0.45%) Linux Command Line
8 1 (0.45%) Public Cloud
8 1 (0.45%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 85 (38.12%) Linux
2 82 (36.77%) Windows
3 51 (22.87%) Windows Server
4 28 (12.56%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 12 (5.38%) Windows 10
6 8 (3.59%) CentOS
6 8 (3.59%) Windows Server 2019
7 7 (3.14%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
7 7 (3.14%) Ubuntu
7 7 (3.14%) VMS
8 5 (2.24%) Mac OS
8 5 (2.24%) SUSE
9 4 (1.79%) Rocky
10 3 (1.35%) Debian
10 3 (1.35%) Oracle Linux
11 2 (0.90%) AIX
11 2 (0.90%) Unix
12 1 (0.45%) Mac OS X
12 1 (0.45%) Solaris
12 1 (0.45%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 31 (13.90%) Problem-Solving
2 30 (13.45%) High Availability
3 28 (12.56%) DevOps
4 26 (11.66%) ERP
5 19 (8.52%) Containerisation
5 19 (8.52%) Innovative Thinking
5 19 (8.52%) Process Improvement
6 18 (8.07%) Continuous Improvement
6 18 (8.07%) Decision-Making
7 16 (7.17%) Time Management
8 14 (6.28%) Mentoring
9 13 (5.83%) Computer Science
10 12 (5.38%) Infrastructure as Code
10 12 (5.38%) Migration
10 12 (5.38%) Project Management
11 11 (4.93%) CI/CD
11 11 (4.93%) Customer Service
11 11 (4.93%) Cybersecurity
11 11 (4.93%) Infrastructure Management
12 10 (4.48%) Agile
Programming Languages
1 43 (19.28%) Bash
2 38 (17.04%) PowerShell
3 37 (16.59%) Python
4 18 (8.07%) SQL
5 4 (1.79%) Perl
6 3 (1.35%) JavaScript
6 3 (1.35%) Shell Script
7 2 (0.90%) Korn
8 1 (0.45%) JCL
8 1 (0.45%) PL/SQL
8 1 (0.45%) T-SQL
8 1 (0.45%) VBA
Qualifications
1 46 (20.63%) Security Cleared
2 40 (17.94%) DV Cleared
3 39 (17.49%) Degree
4 23 (10.31%) Cisco Certification
4 23 (10.31%) RHCSA
4 23 (10.31%) SC Cleared
5 20 (8.97%) CCNP
6 17 (7.62%) ACCA
6 17 (7.62%) BPSS Clearance
7 16 (7.17%) CCAB
7 16 (7.17%) CIMA
8 7 (3.14%) Computer Science Degree
8 7 (3.14%) DBS Check
9 6 (2.69%) Microsoft Certification
10 5 (2.24%) MCSE
11 4 (1.79%) CCNA
12 3 (1.35%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 1 (0.45%) Azure Certification
13 1 (0.45%) NVQ Level 3
13 1 (0.45%) NVQ Level 4
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (8.07%) Data Quality
2 7 (3.14%) PCI DSS
3 6 (2.69%) QA
4 3 (1.35%) GDPR
5 2 (0.90%) Cyber Essentials
5 2 (0.90%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 2 (0.90%) SLA
6 1 (0.45%) DICOM
6 1 (0.45%) HL7
6 1 (0.45%) IFRS
6 1 (0.45%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 42 (18.83%) Active Directory
2 41 (18.39%) VMware Infrastructure
3 15 (6.73%) Docker
4 13 (5.83%) VMware ESXi
5 12 (5.38%) vSphere
6 6 (2.69%) Virtual Machines
7 5 (2.24%) NFS
7 5 (2.24%) Virtual Servers
8 3 (1.35%) Hyper-V
9 2 (0.90%) Postfix
10 1 (0.45%) Corosync
10 1 (0.45%) Kamailio
10 1 (0.45%) KVM
10 1 (0.45%) RHEV
10 1 (0.45%) Time Sharing Option
10 1 (0.45%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 25 (11.21%) Ansible
2 16 (7.17%) Terraform
3 13 (5.83%) Microsoft Intune
4 12 (5.38%) Kubernetes
5 10 (4.48%) Nagios
6 6 (2.69%) Puppet
7 5 (2.24%) Grafana
7 5 (2.24%) Red Hat Satellite
7 5 (2.24%) ZABBIX
8 4 (1.79%) SCCM
9 3 (1.35%) Proxmox
10 2 (0.90%) Jamf Pro
10 2 (0.90%) Prometheus
11 1 (0.45%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 1 (0.45%) Icinga
11 1 (0.45%) Microsoft Clustering
11 1 (0.45%) NetApp OnCommand
11 1 (0.45%) Pacemaker
11 1 (0.45%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 56 (25.11%) Microsoft
2 54 (24.22%) VMware
3 39 (17.49%) Red Hat
4 26 (11.66%) SAP
5 25 (11.21%) Cisco
6 8 (3.59%) Salesforce
6 8 (3.59%) SolarWinds
7 6 (2.69%) Oracle
7 6 (2.69%) Workday
8 5 (2.24%) Progress
8 5 (2.24%) ServiceNow
9 4 (1.79%) Citrix
10 3 (1.35%) IBM
10 3 (1.35%) NetApp
10 3 (1.35%) Veeam
10 3 (1.35%) Yardi
11 2 (0.90%) Aruba
11 2 (0.90%) Atlassian
11 2 (0.90%) Pure Storage
12 1 (0.45%) Kronos