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 28 August 2026.

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

6 months to
28 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 378 471 398
Rank change year-on-year +93 -73 +35
Permanent jobs requiring a Systems Administrator 517 221 516
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.47% 0.44% 0.62%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.50% 0.49% 0.65%
Number of salaries quoted 326 136 401
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,625 £30,000
25th Percentile £35,750 £30,000 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £45,000 £45,000
75th Percentile £57,500 £53,750 £52,500
90th Percentile £70,000 £70,625 £65,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £43,500 £45,000 £45,000
% change year-on-year -3.33% - +12.50%

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 102,724 44,889 79,411
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.88% 89.80% 95.11%
Number of salaries quoted 70,515 26,591 51,705
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,250 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £36,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.55% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £75,000 £74,258 £72,500
90th Percentile £97,500 £95,000 £91,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £47,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year +15.79% -5.00% -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 28 August 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 28 August 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 +78 448 £45,000 - 92
UK excluding London +71 392 £43,500 -3.33% 75
London +36 110 £57,500 +4.55% 27
Work from Home -29 87 £55,000 +29.41% 30
Midlands +23 72 £45,000 +26.76% 6
South West -74 72 £35,000 -22.22% 17
South East -6 71 £45,000 - 32
North of England -2 66 £45,000 +16.88% 15
East of England +9 53 £40,000 -11.11% 1
Scotland - 50 £43,500 - 4
East Midlands -5 37 £42,500 +41.67% 2
Yorkshire -12 36 £45,000 -14.29% 11
West Midlands +1 35 £55,000 +29.41% 4
North West -11 25 £40,000 +10.78% 2
Wales -69 8 £50,000 +5.26%
North East - 5 £47,500 - 4

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

For the 6 months to 28 August 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.

1 106 (20.50%) Microsoft
2 98 (18.96%) Linux
3 77 (14.89%) Windows
4 71 (13.73%) Active Directory
5 70 (13.54%) Microsoft 365
6 65 (12.57%) Azure
7 61 (11.80%) DevOps
8 60 (11.61%) Entra ID
9 50 (9.67%) Red Hat
10 49 (9.48%) SQL
11 48 (9.28%) Problem-Solving
12 43 (8.32%) Continuous Improvement
12 43 (8.32%) Windows Server
13 41 (7.93%) Bash
13 41 (7.93%) Microsoft Exchange
14 39 (7.54%) Firewall
15 38 (7.35%) AWS
15 38 (7.35%) CI/CD
16 37 (7.16%) Ansible
16 37 (7.16%) Python
16 37 (7.16%) Security Cleared
17 36 (6.96%) DNS
17 36 (6.96%) Hyper-V
18 35 (6.77%) SaaS
19 34 (6.58%) SharePoint
20 33 (6.38%) Vulnerability Management
21 29 (5.61%) Kubernetes
22 28 (5.42%) DV Cleared
22 28 (5.42%) Git
23 27 (5.22%) ERP

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 41 (7.93%) Microsoft Exchange
2 34 (6.58%) SharePoint
3 8 (1.55%) OpenStack
4 4 (0.77%) IIS
5 3 (0.58%) nginx
6 2 (0.39%) Tomcat
7 1 (0.19%) Apache
7 1 (0.19%) Confluence
7 1 (0.19%) JBoss
7 1 (0.19%) Moodle
7 1 (0.19%) WordPress
Applications
1 16 (3.09%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (2.32%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 21 (4.06%) Primavera
2 3 (0.58%) Elite 3E
3 2 (0.39%) iTrent
4 1 (0.19%) HFM
4 1 (0.19%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 70 (13.54%) Microsoft 365
2 65 (12.57%) Azure
3 60 (11.61%) Entra ID
4 38 (7.35%) AWS
5 35 (6.77%) SaaS
6 25 (4.84%) OpenShift
7 22 (4.26%) Power Platform
8 18 (3.48%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 18 (3.48%) Power Automate
9 14 (2.71%) GCP
9 14 (2.71%) Mimecast
10 13 (2.51%) PaaS
10 13 (2.51%) PowerApps
11 11 (2.13%) Amazon ECR
11 11 (2.13%) Amazon ECS
11 11 (2.13%) Intacct
12 9 (1.74%) Azure Logic Apps
12 9 (1.74%) Dynamics 365
13 6 (1.16%) Azure DevOps
13 6 (1.16%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 39 (7.54%) Firewall
2 36 (6.96%) DNS
3 21 (4.06%) TCP/IP
4 19 (3.68%) VPN
5 18 (3.48%) DHCP
6 15 (2.90%) LAN
7 10 (1.93%) SAN
8 9 (1.74%) WAN
8 9 (1.74%) Wi-Fi
9 7 (1.35%) Network Security
10 6 (1.16%) HTTP
10 6 (1.16%) Internet
10 6 (1.16%) VLAN
11 4 (0.77%) VSAN
12 3 (0.58%) SSH
12 3 (0.58%) Wireless
13 2 (0.39%) Multicast
14 1 (0.19%) DKIM
14 1 (0.19%) DMARC
14 1 (0.19%) iSCSI
Database & Business Intelligence
1 16 (3.09%) MySQL
2 11 (2.13%) Elasticsearch
3 8 (1.55%) Power BI
4 3 (0.58%) Amazon RDS
4 3 (0.58%) GIS
5 2 (0.39%) Big Data
6 1 (0.19%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 28 (5.42%) Git
2 16 (3.09%) GitLab
3 8 (1.55%) JIRA
4 2 (0.39%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.19%) Artifactory
5 1 (0.19%) Bitbucket
5 1 (0.19%) Robot Framework
5 1 (0.19%) Selenium
5 1 (0.19%) TeamCity
General
1 90 (17.41%) Finance
2 74 (14.31%) Social Skills
3 36 (6.96%) Analytical Skills
4 24 (4.64%) Manufacturing
5 23 (4.45%) Retail
6 22 (4.26%) Banking
7 16 (3.09%) Billing
8 14 (2.71%) Legal
9 12 (2.32%) Law
10 9 (1.74%) Organisational Skills
11 8 (1.55%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 5 (0.97%) Pharmaceutical
12 5 (0.97%) Police
13 3 (0.58%) Documentation Skills
13 3 (0.58%) Games
13 3 (0.58%) Public Sector
14 2 (0.39%) Automotive
14 2 (0.39%) Marketing
15 1 (0.19%) Electronics
15 1 (0.19%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 26 (5.03%) Terraform
2 6 (1.16%) WebSockets
3 5 (0.97%) Middleware
4 3 (0.58%) Boost C++ Libraries
5 2 (0.39%) LEMP Stack
5 2 (0.39%) Node.js
5 2 (0.39%) OpenID
6 1 (0.19%) CSS
6 1 (0.19%) CSS3
6 1 (0.19%) HTML
6 1 (0.19%) HTML5
6 1 (0.19%) Keycloak
6 1 (0.19%) OAuth
6 1 (0.19%) OAuth2
6 1 (0.19%) OpenTofu
6 1 (0.19%) React
6 1 (0.19%) Redfish
6 1 (0.19%) SAML
6 1 (0.19%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 24 (4.64%) Data Structures
2 20 (3.87%) Clustering
3 14 (2.71%) Social Media
4 12 (2.32%) Onboarding
5 11 (2.13%) Data Centre
6 9 (1.74%) Management Information System
7 8 (1.55%) Operational Technology
8 6 (1.16%) Self-Motivation
9 5 (0.97%) Private Cloud
10 4 (0.77%) Hybrid Cloud
10 4 (0.77%) PMI
11 3 (0.58%) Embedded Systems
11 3 (0.58%) IoT
11 3 (0.58%) Replication
11 3 (0.58%) Security Posture
12 2 (0.39%) Educational Technology
12 2 (0.39%) Enterprise Software
12 2 (0.39%) Housing Association
13 1 (0.19%) Distributed Computing
13 1 (0.19%) Driving Licence
Operating Systems
1 98 (18.96%) Linux
2 77 (14.89%) Windows
3 43 (8.32%) Windows Server
4 27 (5.22%) Mac OS
5 24 (4.64%) Apple iOS
6 21 (4.06%) Android
6 21 (4.06%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 18 (3.48%) CentOS
8 12 (2.32%) Ubuntu
9 10 (1.93%) Unix
10 8 (1.55%) Debian
11 7 (1.35%) Rocky
12 6 (1.16%) Windows 10
13 4 (0.77%) CoreOS
13 4 (0.77%) Windows Server 2016
13 4 (0.77%) Windows Server 2019
14 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 61 (11.80%) DevOps
2 48 (9.28%) Problem-Solving
3 43 (8.32%) Continuous Improvement
4 38 (7.35%) CI/CD
5 33 (6.38%) Vulnerability Management
6 27 (5.22%) ERP
7 26 (5.03%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 23 (4.45%) Configuration Management
9 19 (3.68%) Change Management
9 19 (3.68%) Identity Management
9 19 (3.68%) Release Management
10 18 (3.48%) Change Control
11 17 (3.29%) Capacity Planning
11 17 (3.29%) Infrastructure as Code
12 16 (3.09%) Analytics
12 16 (3.09%) High Availability
12 16 (3.09%) Time Management
13 15 (2.90%) Containerisation
13 15 (2.90%) ITIL
13 15 (2.90%) Virtual Environments
Programming Languages
1 49 (9.48%) SQL
2 41 (7.93%) Bash
3 37 (7.16%) Python
4 27 (5.22%) PowerShell
5 7 (1.35%) R
6 6 (1.16%) JavaScript
7 4 (0.77%) Go
8 3 (0.58%) C
8 3 (0.58%) C++
8 3 (0.58%) PHP
8 3 (0.58%) Ruby
8 3 (0.58%) Shell Script
9 2 (0.39%) VBA
Qualifications
1 37 (7.16%) Security Cleared
2 28 (5.42%) DV Cleared
3 26 (5.03%) SC Cleared
4 15 (2.90%) Degree
5 6 (1.16%) RHCSA
6 5 (0.97%) AWS Certification
7 4 (0.77%) DBS Check
7 4 (0.77%) PMI Certification
8 3 (0.58%) CIPD
8 3 (0.58%) HND
9 2 (0.39%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (5.22%) QA
2 15 (2.90%) Data Quality
3 8 (1.55%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 3 (0.58%) Cyber Essentials
5 2 (0.39%) GDPR
6 1 (0.19%) SOC 2
System Software
1 71 (13.73%) Active Directory
2 36 (6.96%) Hyper-V
3 25 (4.84%) Docker
4 14 (2.71%) VMware Infrastructure
5 7 (1.35%) Ceph
5 7 (1.35%) Virtual Machines
6 5 (0.97%) iptables
7 2 (0.39%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (0.39%) vSphere
8 1 (0.19%) Firmware
8 1 (0.19%) NFS
8 1 (0.19%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 1 (0.19%) Virtual Desktop
8 1 (0.19%) Xen
Systems Management
1 37 (7.16%) Ansible
2 29 (5.61%) Kubernetes
3 21 (4.06%) Microsoft Intune
4 20 (3.87%) Nagios
4 20 (3.87%) Nessus
5 19 (3.68%) Grafana
6 15 (2.90%) Prometheus
7 13 (2.51%) Proxmox
8 8 (1.55%) Podman
9 7 (1.35%) Argo
9 7 (1.35%) Check_MK
9 7 (1.35%) Istio
10 4 (0.77%) McAfee ePO
10 4 (0.77%) Puppet
10 4 (0.77%) SCCM
10 4 (0.77%) SCVMM
11 3 (0.58%) Failover Clustering
11 3 (0.58%) Microsoft Clustering
11 3 (0.58%) systemd
12 2 (0.39%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 106 (20.50%) Microsoft
2 50 (9.67%) Red Hat
3 21 (4.06%) Salesforce
3 21 (4.06%) VMware
4 12 (2.32%) Sage
4 12 (2.32%) Splunk
5 11 (2.13%) Rapid7
6 9 (1.74%) SAP
6 9 (1.74%) Veeam
7 8 (1.55%) CrowdStrike
7 8 (1.55%) SolarWinds
8 7 (1.35%) Dell
8 7 (1.35%) SonicWALL
9 5 (0.97%) Concur
9 5 (0.97%) Databricks
9 5 (0.97%) Google
10 4 (0.77%) McAfee
10 4 (0.77%) Meraki
11 3 (0.58%) Cisco
12 2 (0.39%) Sophos