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 7 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
7 Jul 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 498 403 513
Rank change year-on-year -95 +110 +239
Permanent jobs requiring a Systems Administrator 235 654 465
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 0.39% 0.62% 0.52%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.44% 0.65% 0.57%
Number of salaries quoted 164 536 366
10th Percentile £27,000 £28,250 £28,413
25th Percentile £31,250 £33,966 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £42,000 £45,750
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% -8.20% +1.67%
75th Percentile £57,500 £52,500 £61,250
90th Percentile £70,875 £64,375 £67,500
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 53,714 100,740 80,928
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 89.91% 94.82% 91.28%
Number of salaries quoted 29,328 70,958 54,765
10th Percentile £27,500 £28,501 £32,500
25th Percentile £38,000 £38,750 £44,101
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £52,500 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.76% -12.50% -
75th Percentile £73,708 £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% +4.24%

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 7 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 7 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 -82 217 £45,000 +7.14% 91
UK excluding London -69 183 £45,000 +12.50% 70
Work from Home +55 68 £47,500 +5.56% 53
South West +78 64 £45,000 - 11
South East -14 41 £49,000 -1.51% 19
London +49 39 £55,000 +10.00% 30
North of England -28 38 £40,000 +5.96% 10
North West -30 27 £39,250 -5.42% 5
East of England +26 18 £45,000 +28.57% 16
Midlands +7 15 £32,500 -16.13% 10
Yorkshire +9 11 £47,500 +35.71% 5
East Midlands +8 10 £30,000 -20.00% 7
Wales +36 6 £47,500 -5.00% 1
West Midlands +29 5 £38,500 -3.75% 3
Scotland +24 1 £60,000 +50.00% 3

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

For the 6 months to 7 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 88 (37.45%) Windows
2 87 (37.02%) Linux
3 67 (28.51%) Finance
4 60 (25.53%) Microsoft
5 57 (24.26%) VMware
6 54 (22.98%) Windows Server
7 47 (20.00%) Security Cleared
7 47 (20.00%) Social Skills
8 46 (19.57%) Azure
9 45 (19.15%) Active Directory
10 43 (18.30%) Bash
11 41 (17.45%) DV Cleared
11 41 (17.45%) VMware Infrastructure
12 39 (16.60%) PowerShell
12 39 (16.60%) Degree
12 39 (16.60%) Red Hat
13 37 (15.74%) Python
14 36 (15.32%) Microsoft 365
15 32 (13.62%) High Availability
16 31 (13.19%) Problem-Solving
17 30 (12.77%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
17 30 (12.77%) Firewall
18 28 (11.91%) DevOps
19 27 (11.49%) ERP
19 27 (11.49%) Cisco
20 26 (11.06%) SAP
21 25 (10.64%) Microsoft Office
21 25 (10.64%) Cisco Certification
21 25 (10.64%) Ansible
22 24 (10.21%) SC Cleared

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 (8.51%) SharePoint
2 12 (5.11%) Microsoft Exchange
3 3 (1.28%) nginx
3 3 (1.28%) Tomcat
4 2 (0.85%) IIS
5 1 (0.43%) Confluence
Applications
1 25 (10.64%) Microsoft Office
2 9 (3.83%) Microsoft Excel
3 6 (2.55%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.85%) AutoCAD
4 2 (0.85%) Trello
5 1 (0.43%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 17 (7.23%) SAP S/4HANA
2 7 (2.98%) Dynamics NAV
3 4 (1.70%) Salesforce CRM
4 1 (0.43%) SAP Business ByDesign
Cloud Services
1 46 (19.57%) Azure
2 36 (15.32%) Microsoft 365
3 23 (9.79%) AWS
4 7 (2.98%) SaaS
5 6 (2.55%) Azure Storage
5 6 (2.55%) Entra ID
6 4 (1.70%) Amazon EC2
6 4 (1.70%) Azure DevOps
6 4 (1.70%) Power Platform
7 3 (1.28%) GCP
8 2 (0.85%) Dynamics 365
8 2 (0.85%) GitHub
8 2 (0.85%) Power Automate
9 1 (0.43%) AWS IoT
9 1 (0.43%) Azure Stack
9 1 (0.43%) Google Workspace
9 1 (0.43%) Nutanix
9 1 (0.43%) PaaS
9 1 (0.43%) PowerApps
9 1 (0.43%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 30 (12.77%) Firewall
2 20 (8.51%) DNS
3 14 (5.96%) LAN
4 13 (5.53%) TCP/IP
5 12 (5.11%) DHCP
6 10 (4.26%) Wi-Fi
7 9 (3.83%) Wireless
8 6 (2.55%) SAN
8 6 (2.55%) VPN
8 6 (2.55%) Wireless Security
9 5 (2.13%) Multicast
9 5 (2.13%) VLAN
10 4 (1.70%) WAN
11 3 (1.28%) Asterisk PBX
11 3 (1.28%) HTTP
12 2 (0.85%) Network Security
13 1 (0.43%) Cisco IOS
13 1 (0.43%) Intrusion Detection
13 1 (0.43%) NAS
13 1 (0.43%) NetScaler
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (3.83%) MySQL
2 5 (2.13%) MariaDB
2 5 (2.13%) Relational Database
2 5 (2.13%) SQL Server
3 4 (1.70%) RDBMS
4 3 (1.28%) Power BI
5 2 (0.85%) Amazon RDS
5 2 (0.85%) PostgreSQL
5 2 (0.85%) SAP HANA
6 1 (0.43%) DB2
6 1 (0.43%) Electronic Patient Records
6 1 (0.43%) MS Access
6 1 (0.43%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 9 (3.83%) Git
2 3 (1.28%) JIRA
3 2 (0.85%) Jenkins
4 1 (0.43%) Bitbucket
4 1 (0.43%) GitLab
4 1 (0.43%) Visual Studio
General
1 67 (28.51%) Finance
2 47 (20.00%) Social Skills
3 19 (8.09%) Analytical Skills
4 14 (5.96%) Manufacturing
5 13 (5.53%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 13 (5.53%) Public Sector
6 11 (4.68%) Banking
7 5 (2.13%) Legal
7 5 (2.13%) Organisational Skills
7 5 (2.13%) Retail
7 5 (2.13%) Telecoms
8 4 (1.70%) Documentation Skills
9 3 (1.28%) Automotive
9 3 (1.28%) Law
10 2 (0.85%) Aerospace
10 2 (0.85%) Aviation
10 2 (0.85%) Financial Institution
10 2 (0.85%) Local Government
10 2 (0.85%) Military
10 2 (0.85%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (2.13%) LDAP
2 3 (1.28%) LEMP Stack
2 3 (1.28%) Node.js
2 3 (1.28%) WebSockets
3 2 (0.85%) Middleware
3 2 (0.85%) XML
3 2 (0.85%) XMPP
4 1 (0.43%) FIX Protocol
4 1 (0.43%) FreeSWITCH
4 1 (0.43%) ISPF
4 1 (0.43%) libvirt
4 1 (0.43%) TAPI
Miscellaneous
1 20 (8.51%) e-Learning
2 13 (5.53%) Management Information System
3 12 (5.11%) Data Centre
4 5 (2.13%) Data Structures
4 5 (2.13%) Video Conferencing
5 4 (1.70%) Driving Licence
5 4 (1.70%) Hybrid Cloud
5 4 (1.70%) Onboarding
5 4 (1.70%) Self-Motivation
6 3 (1.28%) Cloud Native
6 3 (1.28%) FMCG
6 3 (1.28%) Life Science
7 2 (0.85%) Cyber Threat
7 2 (0.85%) Cyberattack
7 2 (0.85%) Enterprise Software
7 2 (0.85%) IoT
7 2 (0.85%) Replication
8 1 (0.43%) Linux Command Line
8 1 (0.43%) Public Cloud
8 1 (0.43%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 88 (37.45%) Windows
2 87 (37.02%) Linux
3 54 (22.98%) Windows Server
4 30 (12.77%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 13 (5.53%) Windows 10
6 8 (3.40%) CentOS
6 8 (3.40%) Windows Server 2019
7 7 (2.98%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
7 7 (2.98%) Ubuntu
8 6 (2.55%) VMS
9 5 (2.13%) Mac OS
9 5 (2.13%) SUSE
10 4 (1.70%) Rocky
11 3 (1.28%) Debian
11 3 (1.28%) Oracle Linux
11 3 (1.28%) Unix
12 2 (0.85%) AIX
12 2 (0.85%) Windows Server 2012
13 1 (0.43%) Solaris
13 1 (0.43%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 32 (13.62%) High Availability
2 31 (13.19%) Problem-Solving
3 28 (11.91%) DevOps
4 27 (11.49%) ERP
5 20 (8.51%) Innovative Thinking
6 19 (8.09%) Containerisation
6 19 (8.09%) Process Improvement
7 18 (7.66%) Continuous Improvement
7 18 (7.66%) Decision-Making
8 15 (6.38%) Mentoring
8 15 (6.38%) Time Management
9 13 (5.53%) Computer Science
9 13 (5.53%) Cybersecurity
9 13 (5.53%) Migration
9 13 (5.53%) Project Management
10 12 (5.11%) Customer Service
10 12 (5.11%) Infrastructure as Code
11 11 (4.68%) CI/CD
11 11 (4.68%) Disaster Recovery
11 11 (4.68%) Infrastructure Management
Programming Languages
1 43 (18.30%) Bash
2 39 (16.60%) PowerShell
3 37 (15.74%) Python
4 17 (7.23%) SQL
5 4 (1.70%) Perl
6 3 (1.28%) JavaScript
6 3 (1.28%) Shell Script
7 2 (0.85%) Korn
8 1 (0.43%) JCL
8 1 (0.43%) PL/SQL
8 1 (0.43%) T-SQL
8 1 (0.43%) VBA
Qualifications
1 47 (20.00%) Security Cleared
2 41 (17.45%) DV Cleared
3 39 (16.60%) Degree
4 25 (10.64%) Cisco Certification
5 24 (10.21%) SC Cleared
6 23 (9.79%) RHCSA
7 21 (8.94%) CCNP
8 17 (7.23%) ACCA
8 17 (7.23%) BPSS Clearance
9 16 (6.81%) CCAB
9 16 (6.81%) CIMA
10 7 (2.98%) Computer Science Degree
10 7 (2.98%) DBS Check
10 7 (2.98%) Microsoft Certification
11 6 (2.55%) CCNA
11 6 (2.55%) MCSE
12 4 (1.70%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 1 (0.43%) MCSA
13 1 (0.43%) NVQ Level 3
13 1 (0.43%) NVQ Level 4
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (7.66%) Data Quality
2 7 (2.98%) PCI DSS
2 7 (2.98%) QA
3 3 (1.28%) GDPR
4 2 (0.85%) Cyber Essentials
4 2 (0.85%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 2 (0.85%) SLA
5 1 (0.43%) DICOM
5 1 (0.43%) HL7
5 1 (0.43%) IFRS
5 1 (0.43%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 45 (19.15%) Active Directory
2 41 (17.45%) VMware Infrastructure
3 15 (6.38%) Docker
4 13 (5.53%) VMware ESXi
4 13 (5.53%) vSphere
5 6 (2.55%) Virtual Machines
6 5 (2.13%) NFS
6 5 (2.13%) Virtual Servers
7 4 (1.70%) Hyper-V
8 2 (0.85%) Postfix
9 1 (0.43%) Corosync
9 1 (0.43%) Kamailio
9 1 (0.43%) KVM
9 1 (0.43%) RHEV
9 1 (0.43%) Time Sharing Option
9 1 (0.43%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 25 (10.64%) Ansible
2 16 (6.81%) Terraform
3 14 (5.96%) Microsoft Intune
4 11 (4.68%) Kubernetes
5 10 (4.26%) Nagios
6 5 (2.13%) Puppet
6 5 (2.13%) Red Hat Satellite
6 5 (2.13%) ZABBIX
7 4 (1.70%) Grafana
7 4 (1.70%) SCCM
8 3 (1.28%) Proxmox
9 2 (0.85%) Jamf Pro
10 1 (0.43%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 1 (0.43%) Icinga
10 1 (0.43%) Microsoft Clustering
10 1 (0.43%) NetApp OnCommand
10 1 (0.43%) Pacemaker
10 1 (0.43%) Prometheus
10 1 (0.43%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 60 (25.53%) Microsoft
2 57 (24.26%) VMware
3 39 (16.60%) Red Hat
4 27 (11.49%) Cisco
5 26 (11.06%) SAP
6 8 (3.40%) Salesforce
6 8 (3.40%) SolarWinds
7 6 (2.55%) Oracle
7 6 (2.55%) Workday
8 5 (2.13%) Progress
8 5 (2.13%) ServiceNow
9 4 (1.70%) Citrix
10 3 (1.28%) IBM
10 3 (1.28%) NetApp
10 3 (1.28%) Veeam
10 3 (1.28%) Yardi
11 2 (0.85%) Aruba
11 2 (0.85%) Atlassian
11 2 (0.85%) Pure Storage
12 1 (0.43%) Netskope