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 27 May 2026.

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

6 months to
27 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 422 448 415
Rank change year-on-year +26 -33 +115
Permanent jobs requiring a Systems Administrator 359 208 582
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.39% 0.49% 0.59%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.41% 0.55% 0.62%
Number of salaries quoted 259 155 479
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,000 £28,000
25th Percentile £35,000 £34,875 £33,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £50,000 £40,420
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% +23.70% -14.95%
75th Percentile £63,750 £57,500 £52,500
90th Percentile £70,000 £70,750 £60,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £40,000 £49,000 £40,000
% change year-on-year -18.37% +22.50% -

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 86,844 37,958 93,943
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.41% 89.30% 94.71%
Number of salaries quoted 57,790 21,252 68,852
10th Percentile £30,000 £29,750 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £40,500 £38,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £57,500 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -4.35% +9.52% -12.50%
75th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £70,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £51,058 £50,000
% change year-on-year -2.07% +2.12% -6.54%

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 27 May 2026.

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 27 May 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 +56 330 £45,000 -10.00% 60
UK excluding London +24 246 £40,000 -18.37% 60
London +46 99 £60,000 +9.09% 11
Work from Home +26 71 £55,000 +10.00% 23
Midlands +30 70 £32,500 -4.41% 12
East Midlands +11 49 £32,500 -3.70% 7
North of England -8 46 £40,000 +3.90% 10
East of England -2 41 £40,000 -30.43% 11
South East -9 40 £60,000 +18.23% 12
South West -90 29 £39,250 -21.50% 12
Yorkshire -22 28 £45,000 -14.29% 8
West Midlands -19 21 £45,000 +26.76% 5
Scotland +10 20 - - 2
North West -15 15 £36,500 -5.19% 1
North East - 3 £47,500 - 1

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

For the 6 months to 27 May 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 81 (22.56%) Linux
2 72 (20.06%) Microsoft
3 56 (15.60%) Problem-Solving
4 55 (15.32%) DevOps
5 51 (14.21%) Microsoft 365
6 48 (13.37%) Windows
7 46 (12.81%) SQL
8 43 (11.98%) Azure
9 42 (11.70%) Red Hat
10 40 (11.14%) Active Directory
11 33 (9.19%) Entra ID
12 32 (8.91%) Bash
12 32 (8.91%) VMware
13 31 (8.64%) Firewall
14 28 (7.80%) Analytics
15 27 (7.52%) AWS
15 27 (7.52%) CI/CD
15 27 (7.52%) Python
16 26 (7.24%) Continuous Improvement
16 26 (7.24%) ERP
16 26 (7.24%) Process Improvement
16 26 (7.24%) Security Cleared
17 23 (6.41%) Hyper-V
18 22 (6.13%) iTrent
18 22 (6.13%) Microsoft Exchange
18 22 (6.13%) Terraform
18 22 (6.13%) Vulnerability Management
19 21 (5.85%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
19 21 (5.85%) VMware Infrastructure
20 20 (5.57%) 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 22 (6.13%) Microsoft Exchange
2 20 (5.57%) SharePoint
3 4 (1.11%) WordPress
4 3 (0.84%) Apache
4 3 (0.84%) CMS
5 2 (0.56%) Confluence
5 2 (0.56%) nginx
5 2 (0.56%) Tomcat
6 1 (0.28%) Moodle
6 1 (0.28%) Site Server
Applications
1 12 (3.34%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (1.11%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 22 (6.13%) iTrent
2 7 (1.95%) Primavera
3 3 (0.84%) Elite 3E
4 2 (0.56%) Shopify
5 1 (0.28%) HFM
5 1 (0.28%) Oracle 11i
5 1 (0.28%) Oracle EBS
5 1 (0.28%) Oracle ERP
5 1 (0.28%) Teamcenter
5 1 (0.28%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 51 (14.21%) Microsoft 365
2 43 (11.98%) Azure
3 33 (9.19%) Entra ID
4 27 (7.52%) AWS
5 20 (5.57%) Power Platform
6 16 (4.46%) Amazon CloudWatch
7 13 (3.62%) Power Automate
8 11 (3.06%) PowerApps
8 11 (3.06%) SaaS
9 9 (2.51%) Azure Logic Apps
9 9 (2.51%) GCP
10 8 (2.23%) Amazon EKS
10 8 (2.23%) GitHub
10 8 (2.23%) GitHub Actions
10 8 (2.23%) Intacct
10 8 (2.23%) Mimecast
11 5 (1.39%) Amazon ECR
11 5 (1.39%) Amazon ECS
11 5 (1.39%) Dynamics 365
12 3 (0.84%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 31 (8.64%) Firewall
2 19 (5.29%) DNS
3 15 (4.18%) LAN
4 13 (3.62%) VPN
5 11 (3.06%) TCP/IP
6 10 (2.79%) HTTP
7 9 (2.51%) Network Security
7 9 (2.51%) SAN
8 7 (1.95%) Internet
8 7 (1.95%) Wi-Fi
9 5 (1.39%) WAN
10 3 (0.84%) NAS
10 3 (0.84%) SSH
10 3 (0.84%) VLAN
10 3 (0.84%) Wireless
11 2 (0.56%) Multicast
11 2 (0.56%) VoIP
12 1 (0.28%) DKIM
12 1 (0.28%) DMARC
12 1 (0.28%) WireGuard
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (2.79%) MySQL
2 9 (2.51%) Power BI
3 5 (1.39%) Elasticsearch
4 3 (0.84%) Amazon RDS
4 3 (0.84%) GIS
5 2 (0.56%) Relational Database
5 2 (0.56%) SQL Server
6 1 (0.28%) Data Warehouse
6 1 (0.28%) Oracle Database
6 1 (0.28%) Oracle Database 12c
6 1 (0.28%) RDBMS
6 1 (0.28%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 13 (3.62%) Git
2 10 (2.79%) GitLab
3 5 (1.39%) JIRA
4 1 (0.28%) Bitbucket
General
1 72 (20.06%) Finance
2 52 (14.48%) Social Skills
3 28 (7.80%) Analytical Skills
4 20 (5.57%) Banking
5 14 (3.90%) Retail
6 13 (3.62%) Manufacturing
7 11 (3.06%) Law
8 10 (2.79%) Billing
8 10 (2.79%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 8 (2.23%) Legal
10 7 (1.95%) Organisational Skills
11 3 (0.84%) Documentation Skills
11 3 (0.84%) Games
11 3 (0.84%) Public Sector
12 1 (0.28%) Local Government
12 1 (0.28%) Police
12 1 (0.28%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (2.79%) WebSockets
2 7 (1.95%) Middleware
3 3 (0.84%) LAMP
4 2 (0.56%) LEMP Stack
4 2 (0.56%) Node.js
5 1 (0.28%) HTML
5 1 (0.28%) OpenID
5 1 (0.28%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 16 (4.46%) Data Structures
2 13 (3.62%) Clustering
3 12 (3.34%) Data Centre
4 10 (2.79%) Management Information System
5 9 (2.51%) Hybrid Cloud
6 8 (2.23%) Private Cloud
7 4 (1.11%) Replication
8 3 (0.84%) FMCG
8 3 (0.84%) Onboarding
8 3 (0.84%) Security Posture
8 3 (0.84%) Self-Motivation
9 2 (0.56%) Operational Technology
10 1 (0.28%) Cloud Native
10 1 (0.28%) Distributed Computing
10 1 (0.28%) Driving Licence
10 1 (0.28%) Enterprise Software
10 1 (0.28%) Legacy Applications
10 1 (0.28%) Life Science
10 1 (0.28%) Product Ownership
10 1 (0.28%) VLE
Operating Systems
1 81 (22.56%) Linux
2 48 (13.37%) Windows
3 21 (5.85%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 19 (5.29%) Mac OS
4 19 (5.29%) Windows Server
5 16 (4.46%) Android
5 16 (4.46%) Apple iOS
6 11 (3.06%) CentOS
7 8 (2.23%) Ubuntu
8 4 (1.11%) Rocky
9 3 (0.84%) Debian
9 3 (0.84%) Unix
10 1 (0.28%) Windows 10
10 1 (0.28%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 56 (15.60%) Problem-Solving
2 55 (15.32%) DevOps
3 28 (7.80%) Analytics
4 27 (7.52%) CI/CD
5 26 (7.24%) Continuous Improvement
5 26 (7.24%) ERP
5 26 (7.24%) Process Improvement
6 22 (6.13%) Vulnerability Management
7 20 (5.57%) Configuration Management
8 19 (5.29%) Infrastructure as Code
9 15 (4.18%) Release Management
9 15 (4.18%) Service Delivery
10 14 (3.90%) Change Control
10 14 (3.90%) High Availability
11 13 (3.62%) Disaster Recovery
11 13 (3.62%) Identity Management
12 12 (3.34%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 12 (3.34%) Patch Management
13 11 (3.06%) Customer-Centricity
13 11 (3.06%) Mobile Device Management
Programming Languages
1 46 (12.81%) SQL
2 32 (8.91%) Bash
3 27 (7.52%) Python
4 8 (2.23%) Go
5 7 (1.95%) PowerShell
6 3 (0.84%) JavaScript
6 3 (0.84%) PHP
6 3 (0.84%) Shell Script
7 2 (0.56%) VBA
8 1 (0.28%) Perl
8 1 (0.28%) R
8 1 (0.28%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 26 (7.24%) Security Cleared
2 17 (4.74%) DV Cleared
3 14 (3.90%) CIPD
4 11 (3.06%) RHCSA
4 11 (3.06%) SC Cleared
5 8 (2.23%) AWS Certification
6 7 (1.95%) Degree
7 2 (0.56%) Microsoft Certification
8 1 (0.28%) Azure Certification
8 1 (0.28%) BPSS Clearance
8 1 (0.28%) CCNA
8 1 (0.28%) CCNP
8 1 (0.28%) Cisco Certification
8 1 (0.28%) Computer Science Degree
8 1 (0.28%) DBS Check
8 1 (0.28%) ITIL Certification
8 1 (0.28%) Linux+ Certification
8 1 (0.28%) MCSE
8 1 (0.28%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (4.46%) QA
2 15 (4.18%) GDPR
3 13 (3.62%) Data Quality
4 2 (0.56%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 1 (0.28%) SOC 2
System Software
1 40 (11.14%) Active Directory
2 23 (6.41%) Hyper-V
3 21 (5.85%) VMware Infrastructure
4 11 (3.06%) Docker
5 3 (0.84%) Firmware
5 3 (0.84%) iptables
6 2 (0.56%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.28%) KVM
Systems Management
1 22 (6.13%) Terraform
2 19 (5.29%) Ansible
3 18 (5.01%) Nagios
4 17 (4.74%) Kubernetes
5 16 (4.46%) Grafana
5 16 (4.46%) Nessus
6 15 (4.18%) Microsoft Intune
6 15 (4.18%) Proxmox
7 12 (3.34%) Prometheus
8 6 (1.67%) Puppet
9 3 (0.84%) SCCM
9 3 (0.84%) systemd
10 2 (0.56%) Progress Chef
10 2 (0.56%) Red Hat Satellite
11 1 (0.28%) FortiGate
11 1 (0.28%) Jamf Pro
11 1 (0.28%) Podman
11 1 (0.28%) Single Sign-On
11 1 (0.28%) WSUS
11 1 (0.28%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 72 (20.06%) Microsoft
2 42 (11.70%) Red Hat
3 32 (8.91%) VMware
4 13 (3.62%) SolarWinds
5 11 (3.06%) Salesforce
6 10 (2.79%) Veeam
7 8 (2.23%) Sage
7 8 (2.23%) SonicWALL
8 6 (1.67%) ServiceNow
8 6 (1.67%) Splunk
9 5 (1.39%) Cisco
9 5 (1.39%) Rapid7
10 4 (1.11%) Concur
10 4 (1.11%) Databricks
10 4 (1.11%) Meraki
11 3 (0.84%) Dell
11 3 (0.84%) Palo Alto
11 3 (0.84%) SAP
12 2 (0.56%) Atlassian
12 2 (0.56%) Oracle