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 18 September 2025.

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

6 months to
18 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 470 376 431
Rank change year-on-year -94 +55 +280
Permanent jobs requiring a Systems Administrator 213 534 388
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 0.43% 0.68% 0.64%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.48% 0.72% 0.68%
Number of salaries quoted 121 378 314
10th Percentile £27,000 £31,000 £28,325
25th Percentile £30,000 £35,000 £34,145
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £45,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year - - -4.26%
75th Percentile £57,500 £53,750 £62,188
90th Percentile £70,000 £69,125 £68,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £45,000 £45,000 £40,420
% change year-on-year - +11.33% +1.05%

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 44,338 74,395 56,728
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 89.65% 95.25% 94.13%
Number of salaries quoted 26,053 44,780 43,966
10th Percentile £28,250 £30,000 £32,500
25th Percentile £36,250 £40,000 £43,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year - -8.33% -
75th Percentile £75,000 £73,750 £80,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £92,500 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £47,500 £50,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -5.00% -4.76% -

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

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 18 September 2025.

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 18 September 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 -91 196 £45,000 -3.23% 77
UK excluding London -76 161 £45,000 - 62
Work from Home +41 82 £42,500 -12.82% 42
South West +61 75 £45,000 -10.00% 7
London -6 36 £55,000 +10.00% 27
South East -9 32 £45,000 -10.00% 24
Midlands -4 18 £35,500 -11.25% 3
East of England -18 18 £45,000 +12.50% 10
North of England -34 16 £40,000 +14.29% 16
East Midlands +7 14 £30,000 -25.00% 1
North West -6 11 £27,000 -40.00% 15
Yorkshire 0 5 £47,500 +46.15%
West Midlands +17 4 £42,500 +13.33% 1
Wales +18 2 £47,500 +18.75% 1

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

For the 6 months to 18 September 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 92 (43.19%) Linux
2 82 (38.50%) Finance
3 63 (29.58%) Windows
4 61 (28.64%) Security Cleared
5 55 (25.82%) DV Cleared
5 55 (25.82%) Microsoft
6 53 (24.88%) Cisco
6 53 (24.88%) High Availability
7 52 (24.41%) Cisco Certification
8 50 (23.47%) SC Cleared
9 49 (23.00%) VMware
10 47 (22.07%) CCNP
11 46 (21.60%) e-Learning
11 46 (21.60%) Innovative Thinking
12 42 (19.72%) Social Skills
13 37 (17.37%) Active Directory
14 35 (16.43%) Windows Server
15 33 (15.49%) Red Hat
16 32 (15.02%) Microsoft 365
17 31 (14.55%) VMware Infrastructure
18 30 (14.08%) Azure
18 30 (14.08%) Problem-Solving
19 29 (13.62%) RHCSA
20 27 (12.68%) CCNA
21 25 (11.74%) Microsoft Office
22 24 (11.27%) Bash
22 24 (11.27%) PowerShell
23 23 (10.80%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
23 23 (10.80%) AWS
23 23 (10.80%) Unix

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 11 (5.16%) Microsoft Exchange
2 7 (3.29%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.47%) Confluence
3 1 (0.47%) IIS
3 1 (0.47%) OpenStack
Applications
1 25 (11.74%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (3.29%) Microsoft Excel
3 6 (2.82%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (1.41%) AutoCAD
5 2 (0.94%) Spreadsheet
5 2 (0.94%) Trello
Business Applications
1 7 (3.29%) Dynamics NAV
2 4 (1.88%) Oracle EBS R12
3 3 (1.41%) Oracle EBS
3 3 (1.41%) Salesforce CRM
4 2 (0.94%) Dynamics CRM
4 2 (0.94%) SAP S/4HANA
4 2 (0.94%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 32 (15.02%) Microsoft 365
2 30 (14.08%) Azure
3 23 (10.80%) AWS
4 6 (2.82%) Azure Storage
4 6 (2.82%) Entra ID
4 6 (2.82%) Power Platform
5 5 (2.35%) Amazon EC2
5 5 (2.35%) SaaS
6 4 (1.88%) Dynamics 365
6 4 (1.88%) Power Automate
7 3 (1.41%) Azure DevOps
8 1 (0.47%) AWS IoT
8 1 (0.47%) Canva
8 1 (0.47%) GCP
8 1 (0.47%) IaaS
8 1 (0.47%) OCI
8 1 (0.47%) PaaS
8 1 (0.47%) PowerApps
8 1 (0.47%) Serverless
8 1 (0.47%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 16 (7.51%) DNS
2 15 (7.04%) Firewall
3 13 (6.10%) LAN
4 11 (5.16%) DHCP
5 10 (4.69%) TCP/IP
5 10 (4.69%) Wi-Fi
5 10 (4.69%) Wireless
6 7 (3.29%) VPN
7 6 (2.82%) SAN
7 6 (2.82%) Wireless Security
8 4 (1.88%) Asterisk PBX
9 3 (1.41%) HTTP
9 3 (1.41%) Multicast
9 3 (1.41%) Network Security
10 2 (0.94%) WAN
11 1 (0.47%) Internet
11 1 (0.47%) Intranet
11 1 (0.47%) Intrusion Detection
11 1 (0.47%) RTP
11 1 (0.47%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (2.35%) SQL Server
2 3 (1.41%) PostgreSQL
2 3 (1.41%) Power BI
3 2 (0.94%) Amazon RDS
3 2 (0.94%) MySQL
3 2 (0.94%) SAP HANA
3 2 (0.94%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 1 (0.47%) DB2
4 1 (0.47%) MariaDB
4 1 (0.47%) Oracle Database
4 1 (0.47%) RDBMS
4 1 (0.47%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 7 (3.29%) GitLab
2 4 (1.88%) JIRA
3 3 (1.41%) Git
4 2 (0.94%) TeamCity
5 1 (0.47%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.47%) Visual Studio
General
1 82 (38.50%) Finance
2 42 (19.72%) Social Skills
3 16 (7.51%) Analytical Skills
4 14 (6.57%) Manufacturing
5 13 (6.10%) Public Sector
6 11 (5.16%) Banking
7 10 (4.69%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 5 (2.35%) Legal
8 5 (2.35%) Organisational Skills
8 5 (2.35%) Retail
8 5 (2.35%) Telecoms
9 4 (1.88%) Automotive
9 4 (1.88%) Documentation Skills
10 3 (1.41%) Law
11 2 (0.94%) Aerospace
11 2 (0.94%) Aviation
11 2 (0.94%) Local Government
11 2 (0.94%) Military
12 1 (0.47%) Police
12 1 (0.47%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (1.41%) LDAP
1 3 (1.41%) WebSockets
1 3 (1.41%) XML
1 3 (1.41%) XMPP
2 2 (0.94%) .NET
2 2 (0.94%) Middleware
3 1 (0.47%) FreeSWITCH
3 1 (0.47%) ISPF
3 1 (0.47%) libvirt
3 1 (0.47%) Lightning Web Components
3 1 (0.47%) TAPI
Miscellaneous
1 46 (21.60%) e-Learning
2 8 (3.76%) Data Centre
2 8 (3.76%) Hybrid Cloud
2 8 (3.76%) Management Information System
3 5 (2.35%) Data Structures
3 5 (2.35%) Driving Licence
3 5 (2.35%) Video Conferencing
3 5 (2.35%) Virtual Team
4 4 (1.88%) Self-Motivation
5 3 (1.41%) FMCG
5 3 (1.41%) PKI
6 2 (0.94%) Data Protection Act
6 2 (0.94%) IoT
6 2 (0.94%) Onboarding
6 2 (0.94%) Public Cloud
7 1 (0.47%) Cloud Native
7 1 (0.47%) Legacy Systems
7 1 (0.47%) Linux Command Line
7 1 (0.47%) Renewable Energy
7 1 (0.47%) Satnav
Operating Systems
1 92 (43.19%) Linux
2 63 (29.58%) Windows
3 35 (16.43%) Windows Server
4 23 (10.80%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 23 (10.80%) Unix
5 10 (4.69%) Windows 10
6 7 (3.29%) VMS
7 5 (2.35%) Windows Server 2019
8 4 (1.88%) Debian
8 4 (1.88%) Ubuntu
9 3 (1.41%) AIX
9 3 (1.41%) Windows Server 2012
10 2 (0.94%) Solaris
10 2 (0.94%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
11 1 (0.47%) CentOS
11 1 (0.47%) Mac OS
11 1 (0.47%) Mac OS X
11 1 (0.47%) Oracle Linux
11 1 (0.47%) Windows Server 2016
11 1 (0.47%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 53 (24.88%) High Availability
2 46 (21.60%) Innovative Thinking
3 30 (14.08%) Problem-Solving
4 19 (8.92%) DevOps
4 19 (8.92%) ERP
5 14 (6.57%) Containerisation
5 14 (6.57%) Mentoring
5 14 (6.57%) Time Management
6 13 (6.10%) Migration
7 12 (5.63%) Cybersecurity
8 11 (5.16%) Project Management
9 10 (4.69%) Customer Service
9 10 (4.69%) Infrastructure as Code
9 10 (4.69%) ITIL
9 10 (4.69%) Service Delivery
10 9 (4.23%) Agile
10 9 (4.23%) Change Management
10 9 (4.23%) Root Cause Analysis
11 8 (3.76%) Change Control
11 8 (3.76%) Data Management
Programming Languages
1 24 (11.27%) Bash
1 24 (11.27%) PowerShell
2 22 (10.33%) Python
3 13 (6.10%) SQL
4 4 (1.88%) Shell Script
5 2 (0.94%) Korn
5 2 (0.94%) Perl
6 1 (0.47%) JCL
6 1 (0.47%) PL/SQL
6 1 (0.47%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 61 (28.64%) Security Cleared
2 55 (25.82%) DV Cleared
3 52 (24.41%) Cisco Certification
4 50 (23.47%) SC Cleared
5 47 (22.07%) CCNP
6 29 (13.62%) RHCSA
7 27 (12.68%) CCNA
8 18 (8.45%) Degree
9 7 (3.29%) MCSE
9 7 (3.29%) Microsoft Certification
10 6 (2.82%) DBS Check
11 5 (2.35%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 4 (1.88%) ACCA
13 3 (1.41%) BPSS Clearance
13 3 (1.41%) CIMA
13 3 (1.41%) Computer Science Degree
14 2 (0.94%) AAT
14 2 (0.94%) Azure Certification
14 2 (0.94%) CCAB
15 1 (0.47%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (2.82%) QA
2 5 (2.35%) Data Quality
3 4 (1.88%) PCI DSS
4 2 (0.94%) SLA
5 1 (0.47%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (0.47%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 1 (0.47%) GDPR
5 1 (0.47%) IFRS
5 1 (0.47%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 37 (17.37%) Active Directory
2 31 (14.55%) VMware Infrastructure
3 9 (4.23%) VMware ESXi
4 8 (3.76%) Docker
5 7 (3.29%) vSphere
6 5 (2.35%) Hyper-V
6 5 (2.35%) Virtual Machines
7 2 (0.94%) KVM
7 2 (0.94%) Virtual Servers
8 1 (0.47%) Corosync
8 1 (0.47%) Kamailio
8 1 (0.47%) Time Sharing Option
8 1 (0.47%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 16 (7.51%) Ansible
2 13 (6.10%) Microsoft Intune
3 12 (5.63%) Terraform
4 5 (2.35%) Nagios
5 4 (1.88%) Kubernetes
6 3 (1.41%) Grafana
6 3 (1.41%) Puppet
6 3 (1.41%) ZABBIX
7 2 (0.94%) Red Hat Satellite
7 2 (0.94%) SCCM
8 1 (0.47%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 1 (0.47%) Icinga
8 1 (0.47%) Pacemaker
8 1 (0.47%) Podman
8 1 (0.47%) Progress Chef
8 1 (0.47%) Prometheus
8 1 (0.47%) Salt
8 1 (0.47%) VxRail
Vendors
1 55 (25.82%) Microsoft
2 53 (24.88%) Cisco
3 49 (23.00%) VMware
4 33 (15.49%) Red Hat
5 8 (3.76%) Oracle
5 8 (3.76%) Salesforce
5 8 (3.76%) Workday
6 6 (2.82%) SAP
6 6 (2.82%) ServiceNow
7 5 (2.35%) SolarWinds
8 4 (1.88%) Citrix
8 4 (1.88%) Progress
9 3 (1.41%) IBM
10 2 (0.94%) NetApp
10 2 (0.94%) Yardi
11 1 (0.47%) LogicMonitor
11 1 (0.47%) Okta
11 1 (0.47%) Rapid7
11 1 (0.47%) Sage
11 1 (0.47%) Zscaler