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 21 July 2026.

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

6 months to
21 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 374 459 398
Rank change year-on-year +85 -61 +77
Permanent jobs requiring a Systems Administrator 471 229 562
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.47% 0.47% 0.60%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.50% 0.52% 0.63%
Number of salaries quoted 312 158 461
10th Percentile £31,250 £26,963 £30,000
25th Percentile £36,250 £30,000 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £45,000 £45,000
75th Percentile £58,750 £57,500 £52,500
90th Percentile £70,000 £71,625 £65,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £40,000 £45,000 £42,500
% change year-on-year -11.11% +5.88% +6.25%

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 94,323 44,218 88,743
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.27% 89.88% 94.74%
Number of salaries quoted 64,728 26,167 62,366
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,750 £29,750
25th Percentile £40,000 £37,500 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £54,000
Median % change year-on-year - +1.85% -10.00%
75th Percentile £75,000 £75,000 £71,250
90th Percentile £95,000 £96,250 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +5.00% - -5.66%

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 21 July 2026.

Salary histogram for Systems Administrator in the UK

Systems Administrator
Top 16 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 21 July 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 +94 418 £45,000 - 42
UK excluding London +47 343 £40,000 -11.11% 43
London +63 112 £60,000 +9.09% 9
Work from Home -6 91 £55,000 +15.79% 11
Midlands +28 78 £42,500 +41.67% 7
South West -67 61 £35,000 -22.22% 9
South East -18 57 £45,000 -5.26% 11
North of England +5 55 £42,600 +10.65% 3
East of England +20 51 £40,000 -11.11% 7
East Midlands +16 50 £40,000 +33.33% 3
Scotland +51 38 £43,500 -27.50% 6
Yorkshire -16 32 £45,000 -5.26% 3
West Midlands +3 28 £45,000 +16.88% 4
North West 0 18 £40,000 +18.64%
North East - 5 £47,500 -
Wales -59 3 - - 2

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

For the 6 months to 21 July 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 99 (21.02%) Microsoft
2 88 (18.68%) Linux
3 73 (15.50%) Microsoft 365
4 63 (13.38%) DevOps
4 63 (13.38%) Windows
5 61 (12.95%) Active Directory
6 59 (12.53%) Azure
7 54 (11.46%) Problem-Solving
7 54 (11.46%) SQL
8 52 (11.04%) Entra ID
9 46 (9.77%) Red Hat
10 41 (8.70%) Continuous Improvement
11 40 (8.49%) Firewall
12 39 (8.28%) Bash
12 39 (8.28%) Microsoft Exchange
13 37 (7.86%) Python
14 35 (7.43%) Hyper-V
15 34 (7.22%) ERP
16 33 (7.01%) AWS
16 33 (7.01%) Security Cleared
17 32 (6.79%) SharePoint
18 31 (6.58%) CI/CD
18 31 (6.58%) Windows Server
19 29 (6.16%) VMware
20 28 (5.94%) Ansible
20 28 (5.94%) Vulnerability Management
21 27 (5.73%) DNS
22 26 (5.52%) QA
22 26 (5.52%) SaaS
22 26 (5.52%) Terraform

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 39 (8.28%) Microsoft Exchange
2 32 (6.79%) SharePoint
3 3 (0.64%) WordPress
4 2 (0.42%) Apache
4 2 (0.42%) CMS
4 2 (0.42%) nginx
4 2 (0.42%) Tomcat
5 1 (0.21%) Confluence
5 1 (0.21%) IIS
5 1 (0.21%) Moodle
5 1 (0.21%) Site Server
Applications
1 13 (2.76%) Microsoft Excel
2 10 (2.12%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 13 (2.76%) Primavera
2 10 (2.12%) iTrent
3 3 (0.64%) Elite 3E
4 1 (0.21%) HFM
4 1 (0.21%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 73 (15.50%) Microsoft 365
2 59 (12.53%) Azure
3 52 (11.04%) Entra ID
4 33 (7.01%) AWS
5 26 (5.52%) SaaS
6 23 (4.88%) Power Platform
7 19 (4.03%) Amazon CloudWatch
7 19 (4.03%) Power Automate
8 15 (3.18%) Mimecast
9 14 (2.97%) GCP
9 14 (2.97%) PowerApps
10 12 (2.55%) Intacct
11 10 (2.12%) Amazon ECR
11 10 (2.12%) Amazon ECS
11 10 (2.12%) Dynamics 365
11 10 (2.12%) OpenShift
12 9 (1.91%) Azure Logic Apps
13 8 (1.70%) GitHub
14 6 (1.27%) Amazon EKS
14 6 (1.27%) Azure DevOps
Communications & Networking
1 40 (8.49%) Firewall
2 27 (5.73%) DNS
3 15 (3.18%) TCP/IP
3 15 (3.18%) VPN
4 13 (2.76%) LAN
5 10 (2.12%) SAN
5 10 (2.12%) Wi-Fi
6 9 (1.91%) DHCP
6 9 (1.91%) HTTP
6 9 (1.91%) Network Security
7 7 (1.49%) Internet
8 4 (0.85%) VLAN
8 4 (0.85%) WAN
8 4 (0.85%) Wireless
9 3 (0.64%) NAS
9 3 (0.64%) SSH
10 2 (0.42%) Multicast
10 2 (0.42%) VoIP
11 1 (0.21%) DKIM
11 1 (0.21%) DMARC
Database & Business Intelligence
1 15 (3.18%) MySQL
2 10 (2.12%) Elasticsearch
3 9 (1.91%) Power BI
4 3 (0.64%) Amazon RDS
4 3 (0.64%) GIS
5 1 (0.21%) Data Warehouse
5 1 (0.21%) Relational Database
5 1 (0.21%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 19 (4.03%) Git
2 15 (3.18%) GitLab
3 8 (1.70%) JIRA
4 1 (0.21%) Artifactory
4 1 (0.21%) Jenkins
General
1 94 (19.96%) Finance
2 66 (14.01%) Social Skills
3 26 (5.52%) Analytical Skills
4 24 (5.10%) Banking
5 23 (4.88%) Manufacturing
5 23 (4.88%) Retail
6 17 (3.61%) Billing
7 14 (2.97%) Legal
8 11 (2.34%) Law
9 10 (2.12%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 7 (1.49%) Organisational Skills
11 5 (1.06%) Pharmaceutical
12 4 (0.85%) Documentation Skills
13 3 (0.64%) Games
13 3 (0.64%) Public Sector
14 1 (0.21%) Digital Health
14 1 (0.21%) Electronics
14 1 (0.21%) Local Government
14 1 (0.21%) Police
14 1 (0.21%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (1.91%) WebSockets
2 8 (1.70%) Middleware
3 3 (0.64%) Boost C++ Libraries
4 2 (0.42%) LEMP Stack
4 2 (0.42%) Node.js
5 1 (0.21%) HTML
5 1 (0.21%) OpenID
5 1 (0.21%) Redfish
5 1 (0.21%) SAML
5 1 (0.21%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 25 (5.31%) Data Structures
2 21 (4.46%) Clustering
3 12 (2.55%) Data Centre
4 10 (2.12%) Onboarding
5 7 (1.49%) Hybrid Cloud
5 7 (1.49%) Management Information System
6 6 (1.27%) Private Cloud
6 6 (1.27%) Self-Motivation
7 5 (1.06%) Operational Technology
8 3 (0.64%) Embedded Systems
8 3 (0.64%) IoT
8 3 (0.64%) Replication
8 3 (0.64%) Security Posture
9 2 (0.42%) Educational Technology
9 2 (0.42%) Enterprise Software
10 1 (0.21%) Distributed Computing
10 1 (0.21%) Driving Licence
10 1 (0.21%) Housing Association
10 1 (0.21%) Legacy Applications
10 1 (0.21%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 88 (18.68%) Linux
2 63 (13.38%) Windows
3 31 (6.58%) Windows Server
4 22 (4.67%) Mac OS
5 20 (4.25%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 19 (4.03%) Apple iOS
7 18 (3.82%) Android
8 15 (3.18%) CentOS
9 13 (2.76%) Ubuntu
10 9 (1.91%) Unix
11 8 (1.70%) Debian
12 5 (1.06%) Rocky
12 5 (1.06%) Windows 10
13 1 (0.21%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 63 (13.38%) DevOps
2 54 (11.46%) Problem-Solving
3 41 (8.70%) Continuous Improvement
4 34 (7.22%) ERP
5 31 (6.58%) CI/CD
6 28 (5.94%) Vulnerability Management
7 25 (5.31%) Configuration Management
7 25 (5.31%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 22 (4.67%) Infrastructure as Code
9 21 (4.46%) Analytics
10 20 (4.25%) Change Management
11 19 (4.03%) Identity Management
11 19 (4.03%) Process Improvement
11 19 (4.03%) Release Management
12 17 (3.61%) Change Control
13 15 (3.18%) CRM
13 15 (3.18%) High Availability
14 14 (2.97%) Capacity Planning
14 14 (2.97%) Disaster Recovery
14 14 (2.97%) Patch Management
Programming Languages
1 54 (11.46%) SQL
2 39 (8.28%) Bash
3 37 (7.86%) Python
4 22 (4.67%) PowerShell
5 7 (1.49%) R
6 6 (1.27%) Go
6 6 (1.27%) JavaScript
7 5 (1.06%) PHP
8 3 (0.64%) C
8 3 (0.64%) C++
8 3 (0.64%) Ruby
8 3 (0.64%) Shell Script
9 2 (0.42%) VBA
Qualifications
1 33 (7.01%) Security Cleared
2 25 (5.31%) SC Cleared
3 24 (5.10%) DV Cleared
4 14 (2.97%) Degree
5 10 (2.12%) RHCSA
6 7 (1.49%) CIPD
7 6 (1.27%) AWS Certification
8 3 (0.64%) HND
9 2 (0.42%) Microsoft Certification
10 1 (0.21%) Azure Certification
10 1 (0.21%) CCNA
10 1 (0.21%) CCNP
10 1 (0.21%) Cisco Certification
10 1 (0.21%) DBS Check
10 1 (0.21%) ITIL Certification
10 1 (0.21%) Linux+ Certification
10 1 (0.21%) MCSE
10 1 (0.21%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (5.52%) QA
2 15 (3.18%) Data Quality
3 8 (1.70%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 7 (1.49%) GDPR
5 3 (0.64%) Cyber Essentials
6 1 (0.21%) SOC 2
System Software
1 61 (12.95%) Active Directory
2 35 (7.43%) Hyper-V
3 20 (4.25%) VMware Infrastructure
4 18 (3.82%) Docker
5 5 (1.06%) iptables
6 3 (0.64%) Firmware
7 2 (0.42%) Virtual Machines
8 1 (0.21%) KVM
8 1 (0.21%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 1 (0.21%) Xen
Systems Management
1 28 (5.94%) Ansible
2 26 (5.52%) Terraform
3 23 (4.88%) Kubernetes
3 23 (4.88%) Microsoft Intune
4 22 (4.67%) Nagios
5 20 (4.25%) Grafana
6 17 (3.61%) Nessus
7 16 (3.40%) Proxmox
8 11 (2.34%) Prometheus
9 8 (1.70%) Puppet
10 4 (0.85%) SCCM
11 3 (0.64%) Failover Clustering
11 3 (0.64%) Microsoft Clustering
11 3 (0.64%) systemd
12 2 (0.42%) Progress Chef
12 2 (0.42%) Red Hat Satellite
12 2 (0.42%) ZABBIX
13 1 (0.21%) FlexNet
13 1 (0.21%) FortiGate
13 1 (0.21%) SCOM
Vendors
1 99 (21.02%) Microsoft
2 46 (9.77%) Red Hat
3 29 (6.16%) VMware
4 23 (4.88%) Salesforce
5 13 (2.76%) Sage
6 12 (2.55%) SolarWinds
7 11 (2.34%) Splunk
7 11 (2.34%) Veeam
8 10 (2.12%) Rapid7
9 9 (1.91%) SAP
10 8 (1.70%) CrowdStrike
10 8 (1.70%) SonicWALL
11 6 (1.27%) Cisco
12 5 (1.06%) Concur
12 5 (1.06%) Databricks
12 5 (1.06%) Google
12 5 (1.06%) Meraki
13 3 (0.64%) Dell
13 3 (0.64%) Palo Alto
13 3 (0.64%) ServiceNow