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 17 July 2026.

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

6 months to
17 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 378 462 404
Rank change year-on-year +84 -58 +69
Permanent jobs requiring a Systems Administrator 460 229 605
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.46% 0.47% 0.62%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.49% 0.52% 0.65%
Number of salaries quoted 301 159 498
10th Percentile £31,250 £26,975 £28,879
25th Percentile £35,750 £30,000 £34,563
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £45,000 £43,000
Median % change year-on-year - +4.65% -4.97%
75th Percentile £58,750 £57,500 £52,500
90th Percentile £70,000 £71,500 £65,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £40,000 £45,000 £41,500
% change year-on-year -11.11% +8.43% +3.75%

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 93,213 44,199 93,038
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.22% 89.97% 94.76%
Number of salaries quoted 63,958 26,129 66,038
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,750 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £37,500 £39,390
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £52,550
Median % change year-on-year - +4.66% -12.42%
75th Percentile £75,000 £75,000 £70,250
90th Percentile £95,000 £97,500 £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 17 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 17 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 +71 410 £45,000 - 57
UK excluding London +50 333 £40,000 -11.11% 55
London +49 111 £60,000 +9.09% 8
Work from Home -2 89 £55,000 +15.79% 17
Midlands +30 77 £41,750 +39.17% 7
South West -59 59 £35,000 -22.22% 12
North of England +3 55 £40,000 +3.90% 8
South East -12 54 £45,000 -6.74% 19
East Midlands +25 51 £40,000 +33.33% 5
East of England +17 50 £40,000 -11.11% 6
Scotland +41 36 - - 2
Yorkshire -14 32 £45,000 -5.26% 3
West Midlands +2 26 £45,000 +16.88% 2
North West -1 18 £40,000 +18.64% 4
North East - 5 £47,500 - 1
Wales -55 2 - - 3

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

For the 6 months to 17 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 96 (20.87%) Microsoft
2 85 (18.48%) Linux
3 69 (15.00%) Microsoft 365
4 61 (13.26%) DevOps
5 60 (13.04%) Windows
6 58 (12.61%) Active Directory
7 57 (12.39%) Azure
8 54 (11.74%) Problem-Solving
8 54 (11.74%) SQL
9 50 (10.87%) Entra ID
10 45 (9.78%) Red Hat
11 41 (8.91%) Continuous Improvement
12 39 (8.48%) Firewall
13 38 (8.26%) Bash
14 37 (8.04%) Microsoft Exchange
15 36 (7.83%) Python
16 34 (7.39%) ERP
16 34 (7.39%) Hyper-V
17 33 (7.17%) Security Cleared
18 31 (6.74%) AWS
19 30 (6.52%) CI/CD
19 30 (6.52%) SharePoint
20 29 (6.30%) Windows Server
21 28 (6.09%) VMware
21 28 (6.09%) Vulnerability Management
22 26 (5.65%) Ansible
22 26 (5.65%) DNS
23 25 (5.43%) QA
23 25 (5.43%) SC Cleared
24 24 (5.22%) Configuration Management

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 37 (8.04%) Microsoft Exchange
2 30 (6.52%) SharePoint
3 3 (0.65%) WordPress
4 2 (0.43%) Apache
4 2 (0.43%) CMS
4 2 (0.43%) nginx
4 2 (0.43%) Tomcat
5 1 (0.22%) Confluence
5 1 (0.22%) Moodle
5 1 (0.22%) Site Server
Applications
1 13 (2.83%) Microsoft Excel
2 9 (1.96%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 13 (2.83%) Primavera
2 11 (2.39%) iTrent
3 3 (0.65%) Elite 3E
4 1 (0.22%) HFM
4 1 (0.22%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 69 (15.00%) Microsoft 365
2 57 (12.39%) Azure
3 50 (10.87%) Entra ID
4 31 (6.74%) AWS
5 23 (5.00%) Power Platform
6 22 (4.78%) SaaS
7 19 (4.13%) Power Automate
8 18 (3.91%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 14 (3.04%) Mimecast
9 14 (3.04%) PowerApps
10 13 (2.83%) GCP
11 12 (2.61%) Intacct
12 10 (2.17%) Dynamics 365
13 9 (1.96%) Amazon ECR
13 9 (1.96%) Amazon ECS
13 9 (1.96%) Azure Logic Apps
13 9 (1.96%) OpenShift
14 8 (1.74%) GitHub
15 6 (1.30%) Amazon EKS
15 6 (1.30%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 39 (8.48%) Firewall
2 26 (5.65%) DNS
3 15 (3.26%) TCP/IP
4 14 (3.04%) VPN
5 12 (2.61%) LAN
6 10 (2.17%) SAN
6 10 (2.17%) Wi-Fi
7 9 (1.96%) HTTP
7 9 (1.96%) Network Security
8 8 (1.74%) DHCP
9 7 (1.52%) Internet
10 4 (0.87%) Wireless
11 3 (0.65%) NAS
11 3 (0.65%) SSH
11 3 (0.65%) VLAN
11 3 (0.65%) WAN
12 2 (0.43%) Multicast
12 2 (0.43%) VoIP
13 1 (0.22%) DKIM
13 1 (0.22%) DMARC
Database & Business Intelligence
1 14 (3.04%) MySQL
2 9 (1.96%) Elasticsearch
2 9 (1.96%) Power BI
3 3 (0.65%) Amazon RDS
3 3 (0.65%) GIS
4 1 (0.22%) Data Warehouse
4 1 (0.22%) Relational Database
4 1 (0.22%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 18 (3.91%) Git
2 14 (3.04%) GitLab
3 7 (1.52%) JIRA
4 1 (0.22%) Artifactory
4 1 (0.22%) Jenkins
General
1 92 (20.00%) Finance
2 65 (14.13%) Social Skills
3 26 (5.65%) Analytical Skills
4 23 (5.00%) Banking
4 23 (5.00%) Manufacturing
4 23 (5.00%) Retail
5 17 (3.70%) Billing
6 13 (2.83%) Legal
7 11 (2.39%) Law
8 10 (2.17%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 7 (1.52%) Organisational Skills
10 5 (1.09%) Pharmaceutical
11 4 (0.87%) Documentation Skills
12 3 (0.65%) Games
12 3 (0.65%) Public Sector
13 1 (0.22%) Electronics
13 1 (0.22%) Local Government
13 1 (0.22%) Marketing
13 1 (0.22%) Police
13 1 (0.22%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (1.96%) WebSockets
2 8 (1.74%) Middleware
3 3 (0.65%) Boost C++ Libraries
4 2 (0.43%) LEMP Stack
4 2 (0.43%) Node.js
5 1 (0.22%) HTML
5 1 (0.22%) OpenID
5 1 (0.22%) Redfish
5 1 (0.22%) SAML
5 1 (0.22%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 25 (5.43%) Data Structures
2 21 (4.57%) Clustering
3 12 (2.61%) Data Centre
4 10 (2.17%) Onboarding
5 7 (1.52%) Hybrid Cloud
5 7 (1.52%) Management Information System
6 6 (1.30%) Private Cloud
6 6 (1.30%) Self-Motivation
7 4 (0.87%) Operational Technology
8 3 (0.65%) Embedded Systems
8 3 (0.65%) IoT
8 3 (0.65%) Replication
8 3 (0.65%) Security Posture
9 2 (0.43%) Educational Technology
9 2 (0.43%) Enterprise Software
10 1 (0.22%) CCTV
10 1 (0.22%) Distributed Computing
10 1 (0.22%) Life Science
10 1 (0.22%) Product Ownership
10 1 (0.22%) VLE
Operating Systems
1 85 (18.48%) Linux
2 60 (13.04%) Windows
3 29 (6.30%) Windows Server
4 21 (4.57%) Mac OS
5 20 (4.35%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 18 (3.91%) Android
6 18 (3.91%) Apple iOS
7 14 (3.04%) CentOS
8 13 (2.83%) Ubuntu
9 9 (1.96%) Unix
10 8 (1.74%) Debian
11 5 (1.09%) Rocky
12 4 (0.87%) Windows 10
13 1 (0.22%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 61 (13.26%) DevOps
2 54 (11.74%) Problem-Solving
3 41 (8.91%) Continuous Improvement
4 34 (7.39%) ERP
5 30 (6.52%) CI/CD
6 28 (6.09%) Vulnerability Management
7 24 (5.22%) Configuration Management
8 23 (5.00%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 21 (4.57%) Analytics
9 21 (4.57%) Infrastructure as Code
10 19 (4.13%) Change Management
10 19 (4.13%) Process Improvement
10 19 (4.13%) Release Management
11 18 (3.91%) Identity Management
12 16 (3.48%) Change Control
13 15 (3.26%) CRM
13 15 (3.26%) High Availability
14 14 (3.04%) Disaster Recovery
14 14 (3.04%) Patch Management
15 13 (2.83%) Revenue Recognition
Programming Languages
1 54 (11.74%) SQL
2 38 (8.26%) Bash
3 36 (7.83%) Python
4 21 (4.57%) PowerShell
5 6 (1.30%) Go
5 6 (1.30%) JavaScript
5 6 (1.30%) R
6 5 (1.09%) PHP
7 3 (0.65%) C
7 3 (0.65%) C++
7 3 (0.65%) Ruby
7 3 (0.65%) Shell Script
8 2 (0.43%) VBA
Qualifications
1 33 (7.17%) Security Cleared
2 25 (5.43%) SC Cleared
3 24 (5.22%) DV Cleared
4 14 (3.04%) Degree
5 10 (2.17%) RHCSA
6 7 (1.52%) CIPD
7 6 (1.30%) AWS Certification
8 3 (0.65%) HND
9 2 (0.43%) Microsoft Certification
10 1 (0.22%) Azure Certification
10 1 (0.22%) CCNA
10 1 (0.22%) CCNP
10 1 (0.22%) Cisco Certification
10 1 (0.22%) DBS Check
10 1 (0.22%) ITIL Certification
10 1 (0.22%) Linux+ Certification
10 1 (0.22%) MCSE
10 1 (0.22%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 25 (5.43%) QA
2 15 (3.26%) Data Quality
3 7 (1.52%) GDPR
3 7 (1.52%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 3 (0.65%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (0.22%) SOC 2
System Software
1 58 (12.61%) Active Directory
2 34 (7.39%) Hyper-V
3 20 (4.35%) VMware Infrastructure
4 17 (3.70%) Docker
5 5 (1.09%) iptables
6 3 (0.65%) Firmware
7 2 (0.43%) Virtual Machines
8 1 (0.22%) KVM
8 1 (0.22%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 1 (0.22%) Xen
Systems Management
1 26 (5.65%) Ansible
2 24 (5.22%) Terraform
3 22 (4.78%) Kubernetes
3 22 (4.78%) Microsoft Intune
4 21 (4.57%) Nagios
5 19 (4.13%) Grafana
6 17 (3.70%) Nessus
7 16 (3.48%) Proxmox
8 11 (2.39%) Prometheus
9 8 (1.74%) Puppet
10 4 (0.87%) SCCM
11 3 (0.65%) Failover Clustering
11 3 (0.65%) Microsoft Clustering
11 3 (0.65%) systemd
12 2 (0.43%) Progress Chef
12 2 (0.43%) Red Hat Satellite
12 2 (0.43%) ZABBIX
13 1 (0.22%) FlexNet
13 1 (0.22%) FortiGate
13 1 (0.22%) SCOM
Vendors
1 96 (20.87%) Microsoft
2 45 (9.78%) Red Hat
3 28 (6.09%) VMware
4 23 (5.00%) Salesforce
5 13 (2.83%) Sage
6 12 (2.61%) SolarWinds
7 11 (2.39%) Veeam
8 10 (2.17%) Splunk
9 9 (1.96%) Rapid7
9 9 (1.96%) SAP
10 8 (1.74%) SonicWALL
11 7 (1.52%) CrowdStrike
12 6 (1.30%) Cisco
13 5 (1.09%) Concur
13 5 (1.09%) Databricks
13 5 (1.09%) Google
13 5 (1.09%) Meraki
14 4 (0.87%) ServiceNow
15 3 (0.65%) Dell
15 3 (0.65%) Palo Alto