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 7 February 2026.

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

6 months to
7 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 458 392 426
Rank change year-on-year -66 +34 +116
Permanent jobs requiring a Systems Administrator 200 341 431
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.31% 0.67% 0.58%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.34% 0.73% 0.61%
Number of salaries quoted 140 209 365
10th Percentile £28,000 £32,000 £26,350
25th Percentile £30,938 £44,277 £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 £50,000
90th Percentile £70,000 £78,000 £60,400
UK excluding London median annual salary £35,000 £50,000 £40,000
% change year-on-year -30.00% +25.00% -5.88%

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 59,224 46,587 70,587
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 91.01% 91.89% 94.95%
Number of salaries quoted 36,943 24,097 55,321
10th Percentile £29,000 £33,500 £28,500
25th Percentile £37,500 £45,000 £39,520
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 £80,000 £73,750
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -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 7 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 7 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 -69 185 £45,000 -10.00% 71
UK excluding London -60 135 £35,000 -30.00% 57
London +6 52 £57,500 -20.69% 22
Midlands +16 42 £31,500 -30.00% 7
Work from Home -31 36 £52,500 +5.00% 25
South West -47 32 £45,000 -10.00% 8
South East -4 28 £52,500 +8.81% 18
East Midlands -6 28 £30,250 -24.38% 2
North of England -33 16 £45,000 +6.80% 13
West Midlands +27 14 £31,500 -33.68% 5
East of England +14 14 £60,000 +50.00% 9
Yorkshire -30 9 £45,000 +38.46% 8
North West +13 7 £45,000 -2.70% 4
Scotland -24 3 £26,000 -45.26% 4

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

For the 6 months to 7 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 54 (27.00%) Problem-Solving
2 52 (26.00%) Linux
3 34 (17.00%) Security Cleared
4 30 (15.00%) DV Cleared
5 27 (13.50%) Windows
6 24 (12.00%) VMware
7 22 (11.00%) Cisco
7 22 (11.00%) Microsoft
8 20 (10.00%) Azure
8 20 (10.00%) iTrent
8 20 (10.00%) SC Cleared
9 19 (9.50%) ERP
10 18 (9.00%) Active Directory
11 17 (8.50%) CCNP
11 17 (8.50%) Cisco Certification
11 17 (8.50%) DevOps
12 16 (8.00%) High Availability
12 16 (8.00%) Innovative Thinking
12 16 (8.00%) Unix
13 15 (7.50%) Red Hat
13 15 (7.50%) SQL
14 14 (7.00%) Analytics
14 14 (7.00%) Python
14 14 (7.00%) VMware Infrastructure
15 13 (6.50%) Bash
15 13 (6.50%) Firewall
15 13 (6.50%) GDPR
15 13 (6.50%) Microsoft 365
15 13 (6.50%) Process Improvement
16 12 (6.00%) AWS

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 (2.50%) Microsoft Exchange
2 4 (2.00%) SharePoint
3 3 (1.50%) Apache
3 3 (1.50%) CMS
3 3 (1.50%) WordPress
4 1 (0.50%) Confluence
Applications
1 3 (1.50%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (1.00%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (1.00%) Spreadsheet
3 1 (0.50%) AutoCAD
3 1 (0.50%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 20 (10.00%) iTrent
2 4 (2.00%) Oracle EBS
2 4 (2.00%) Oracle EBS R12
3 2 (1.00%) Dynamics CRM
3 2 (1.00%) SAP Business One
3 2 (1.00%) Unit4 Business World
3 2 (1.00%) Workday HCM
4 1 (0.50%) Oracle 11i
4 1 (0.50%) Oracle ERP
4 1 (0.50%) Shopify
4 1 (0.50%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 20 (10.00%) Azure
2 13 (6.50%) Microsoft 365
3 12 (6.00%) AWS
4 8 (4.00%) Power Platform
5 7 (3.50%) Dynamics 365
6 6 (3.00%) Power Automate
7 5 (2.50%) Amazon CloudWatch
7 5 (2.50%) Amazon EKS
7 5 (2.50%) Entra ID
7 5 (2.50%) GitHub
7 5 (2.50%) GitHub Actions
8 4 (2.00%) SaaS
9 3 (1.50%) Mimecast
9 3 (1.50%) PowerApps
9 3 (1.50%) Veeva
10 2 (1.00%) OCI
11 1 (0.50%) Canva
11 1 (0.50%) GCP
11 1 (0.50%) Nutanix
11 1 (0.50%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 13 (6.50%) Firewall
2 9 (4.50%) VPN
3 8 (4.00%) DNS
3 8 (4.00%) LAN
4 7 (3.50%) Network Security
5 6 (3.00%) TCP/IP
6 5 (2.50%) HTTP
7 4 (2.00%) Cisco IOS
7 4 (2.00%) WAN
8 3 (1.50%) Cisco ISE
9 2 (1.00%) Wireless
10 1 (0.50%) DHCP
10 1 (0.50%) Internet
10 1 (0.50%) Intranet
10 1 (0.50%) VLAN
10 1 (0.50%) VoIP
10 1 (0.50%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (4.00%) SQL Server
2 6 (3.00%) Power BI
3 3 (1.50%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 2 (1.00%) Crystal Reports
5 1 (0.50%) Data Warehouse
5 1 (0.50%) Oracle Database
5 1 (0.50%) Oracle Database 12c
5 1 (0.50%) Oracle Reports
5 1 (0.50%) RDBMS
5 1 (0.50%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 6 (3.00%) JIRA
2 3 (1.50%) Git
3 1 (0.50%) Bitbucket
3 1 (0.50%) GitLab
General
1 40 (20.00%) Finance
2 37 (18.50%) Social Skills
3 20 (10.00%) Analytical Skills
4 11 (5.50%) Organisational Skills
5 9 (4.50%) Retail
6 7 (3.50%) General Ledger
7 6 (3.00%) Manufacturing
8 5 (2.50%) Law
9 4 (2.00%) Banking
10 2 (1.00%) Documentation Skills
10 2 (1.00%) Military
11 1 (0.50%) Automotive
11 1 (0.50%) Back Office
11 1 (0.50%) Greek Language
11 1 (0.50%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 1 (0.50%) Italian Language
11 1 (0.50%) Mandarin Language
11 1 (0.50%) Presentation Skills
11 1 (0.50%) Spanish Language
11 1 (0.50%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (1.50%) LAMP
1 3 (1.50%) Middleware
1 3 (1.50%) WebSockets
2 2 (1.00%) .NET
2 2 (1.00%) JSON
2 2 (1.00%) XML
3 1 (0.50%) Lightning Web Components
3 1 (0.50%) ODBC
3 1 (0.50%) Oracle Fusion
Miscellaneous
1 16 (8.00%) e-Learning
2 9 (4.50%) Management Information System
3 7 (3.50%) Hybrid Cloud
4 6 (3.00%) FMCG
5 5 (2.50%) PKI
5 5 (2.50%) Private Cloud
6 4 (2.00%) Learning Management System
7 3 (1.50%) Data Centre
7 3 (1.50%) Driving Licence
7 3 (1.50%) iSeries
8 2 (1.00%) Self-Motivation
9 1 (0.50%) Legacy Systems
9 1 (0.50%) Onboarding
9 1 (0.50%) Product Ownership
9 1 (0.50%) Public Cloud
9 1 (0.50%) Replication
9 1 (0.50%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 52 (26.00%) Linux
2 27 (13.50%) Windows
3 16 (8.00%) Unix
4 12 (6.00%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 9 (4.50%) Windows Server
6 4 (2.00%) Android
6 4 (2.00%) Apple iOS
6 4 (2.00%) Mac OS
7 3 (1.50%) CentOS
8 2 (1.00%) Debian
9 1 (0.50%) AIX
9 1 (0.50%) Solaris
9 1 (0.50%) Ubuntu
9 1 (0.50%) VMS
9 1 (0.50%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.50%) Windows Server 2012
9 1 (0.50%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 54 (27.00%) Problem-Solving
2 19 (9.50%) ERP
3 17 (8.50%) DevOps
4 16 (8.00%) High Availability
4 16 (8.00%) Innovative Thinking
5 14 (7.00%) Analytics
6 13 (6.50%) Process Improvement
7 12 (6.00%) Change Management
8 11 (5.50%) ITIL
9 10 (5.00%) Continuous Improvement
9 10 (5.00%) Time Management
10 9 (4.50%) Service Management
11 8 (4.00%) Infrastructure as Code
11 8 (4.00%) Service Delivery
12 7 (3.50%) Accounts Payable
12 7 (3.50%) Cybersecurity
12 7 (3.50%) Data Analysis
12 7 (3.50%) ITSM
12 7 (3.50%) Logistics
12 7 (3.50%) Migration
Programming Languages
1 15 (7.50%) SQL
2 14 (7.00%) Python
3 13 (6.50%) Bash
4 5 (2.50%) Go
4 5 (2.50%) PHP
5 4 (2.00%) PowerShell
6 3 (1.50%) Perl
7 1 (0.50%) JavaScript
7 1 (0.50%) Shell Script
7 1 (0.50%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 34 (17.00%) Security Cleared
2 30 (15.00%) DV Cleared
3 20 (10.00%) SC Cleared
4 17 (8.50%) CCNP
4 17 (8.50%) Cisco Certification
5 11 (5.50%) CCNA
6 10 (5.00%) CIPD
7 9 (4.50%) RHCSA
8 8 (4.00%) Degree
9 7 (3.50%) Microsoft Certification
10 6 (3.00%) AWS Certification
11 4 (2.00%) Azure Certification
11 4 (2.00%) MCSA
11 4 (2.00%) MCSE
12 3 (1.50%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 2 (1.00%) AAT
14 1 (0.50%) A+ Certification
14 1 (0.50%) ACCA
14 1 (0.50%) BPSS Clearance
14 1 (0.50%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (6.50%) GDPR
2 3 (1.50%) QA
3 1 (0.50%) Data Quality
3 1 (0.50%) ISO/IEC 20000
3 1 (0.50%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 18 (9.00%) Active Directory
2 14 (7.00%) VMware Infrastructure
3 2 (1.00%) Docker
3 2 (1.00%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.50%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.50%) KVM
4 1 (0.50%) Virtual Servers
4 1 (0.50%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 11 (5.50%) Ansible
2 8 (4.00%) Microsoft Intune
2 8 (4.00%) Terraform
3 7 (3.50%) Kubernetes
3 7 (3.50%) Nessus
4 5 (2.50%) Grafana
4 5 (2.50%) Prometheus
4 5 (2.50%) Proxmox
5 3 (1.50%) Nagios
5 3 (1.50%) WSUS
6 1 (0.50%) Podman
6 1 (0.50%) Progress Chef
6 1 (0.50%) Puppet
6 1 (0.50%) SCCM
6 1 (0.50%) VxRail
Vendors
1 24 (12.00%) VMware
2 22 (11.00%) Cisco
2 22 (11.00%) Microsoft
3 15 (7.50%) Red Hat
4 7 (3.50%) Oracle
5 5 (2.50%) ServiceNow
6 4 (2.00%) LogicMonitor
6 4 (2.00%) Okta
6 4 (2.00%) SolarWinds
6 4 (2.00%) Workday
6 4 (2.00%) Zscaler
7 3 (1.50%) Bloomberg
7 3 (1.50%) IBM
7 3 (1.50%) Reuters
7 3 (1.50%) Salesforce
7 3 (1.50%) SAP
7 3 (1.50%) Sophos
8 2 (1.00%) Veeam
9 1 (0.50%) Atlassian
9 1 (0.50%) Civica