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 1 September 2026.

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

6 months to
1 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 380 466 392
Rank change year-on-year +86 -74 +42
Permanent jobs requiring a Systems Administrator 524 221 510
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.48% 0.44% 0.63%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.51% 0.49% 0.66%
Number of salaries quoted 330 137 382
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,700 £30,000
25th Percentile £35,750 £30,000 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £45,000 £45,000
75th Percentile £58,438 £53,750 £52,500
90th Percentile £70,000 £70,000 £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 103,099 44,902 77,500
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.84% 89.81% 95.18%
Number of salaries quoted 70,871 26,693 49,456
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 £74,000 £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 1 September 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 1 September 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 +78 454 £45,000 - 81
UK excluding London +73 400 £43,500 -3.33% 61
London +25 109 £56,750 +3.18% 28
Work from Home -17 88 £55,000 +29.41% 23
South East +2 75 £45,000 - 28
Midlands +11 73 £45,000 +26.76% 7
South West -72 73 £35,000 -22.22% 14
North of England +2 69 £45,000 +16.88% 9
East of England +11 51 £40,000 -11.11%
Scotland - 51 £43,500 - 2
East Midlands +3 37 £42,500 +41.67% 4
Yorkshire -7 37 £45,000 -14.29% 6
West Midlands +8 36 £55,000 +29.41% 3
North West -6 27 £40,000 +3.90% 1
Wales -63 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 1 September 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 (20.23%) Microsoft
2 100 (19.08%) Linux
3 76 (14.50%) Windows
4 71 (13.55%) Active Directory
5 69 (13.17%) Microsoft 365
6 65 (12.40%) Azure
7 63 (12.02%) DevOps
8 60 (11.45%) Entra ID
9 50 (9.54%) Red Hat
10 49 (9.35%) Problem-Solving
10 49 (9.35%) SQL
11 43 (8.21%) Bash
11 43 (8.21%) Continuous Improvement
11 43 (8.21%) Windows Server
12 41 (7.82%) Firewall
12 41 (7.82%) Microsoft Exchange
13 40 (7.63%) AWS
13 40 (7.63%) CI/CD
14 39 (7.44%) Ansible
14 39 (7.44%) Python
15 36 (6.87%) DNS
15 36 (6.87%) Hyper-V
15 36 (6.87%) SaaS
15 36 (6.87%) Security Cleared
16 34 (6.49%) SharePoint
17 33 (6.30%) Vulnerability Management
18 31 (5.92%) Kubernetes
19 28 (5.34%) ERP
19 28 (5.34%) Git
19 28 (5.34%) Terraform

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 (7.82%) Microsoft Exchange
2 34 (6.49%) SharePoint
3 8 (1.53%) OpenStack
4 4 (0.76%) IIS
5 3 (0.57%) nginx
6 2 (0.38%) 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 (3.05%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (2.29%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 22 (4.20%) Primavera
2 3 (0.57%) Elite 3E
3 2 (0.38%) iTrent
4 1 (0.19%) Dynamics NAV
4 1 (0.19%) HFM
4 1 (0.19%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 69 (13.17%) Microsoft 365
2 65 (12.40%) Azure
3 60 (11.45%) Entra ID
4 40 (7.63%) AWS
5 36 (6.87%) SaaS
6 25 (4.77%) OpenShift
7 22 (4.20%) Power Platform
8 20 (3.82%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 18 (3.44%) Power Automate
10 14 (2.67%) GCP
10 14 (2.67%) Mimecast
11 13 (2.48%) PaaS
11 13 (2.48%) PowerApps
12 11 (2.10%) Amazon ECR
12 11 (2.10%) Amazon ECS
12 11 (2.10%) Intacct
13 9 (1.72%) Azure Logic Apps
13 9 (1.72%) Dynamics 365
14 8 (1.53%) GitHub
15 6 (1.15%) Amazon EKS
Communications & Networking
1 41 (7.82%) Firewall
2 36 (6.87%) DNS
3 21 (4.01%) TCP/IP
3 21 (4.01%) VPN
4 18 (3.44%) DHCP
5 15 (2.86%) LAN
6 10 (1.91%) SAN
7 9 (1.72%) WAN
7 9 (1.72%) Wi-Fi
8 7 (1.34%) Network Security
9 6 (1.15%) HTTP
9 6 (1.15%) Internet
9 6 (1.15%) VLAN
10 4 (0.76%) VSAN
11 3 (0.57%) SSH
11 3 (0.57%) Wireless
12 2 (0.38%) Multicast
13 1 (0.19%) DKIM
13 1 (0.19%) DMARC
13 1 (0.19%) WireGuard
Database & Business Intelligence
1 16 (3.05%) MySQL
2 11 (2.10%) Elasticsearch
3 8 (1.53%) Power BI
4 3 (0.57%) Amazon RDS
4 3 (0.57%) GIS
5 2 (0.38%) Big Data
6 1 (0.19%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 28 (5.34%) Git
2 16 (3.05%) GitLab
3 8 (1.53%) JIRA
4 2 (0.38%) 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 91 (17.37%) Finance
2 74 (14.12%) Social Skills
3 36 (6.87%) Analytical Skills
4 25 (4.77%) Manufacturing
4 25 (4.77%) Retail
5 22 (4.20%) Banking
6 16 (3.05%) Billing
7 13 (2.48%) Legal
8 12 (2.29%) Law
9 9 (1.72%) Organisational Skills
10 8 (1.53%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 5 (0.95%) Pharmaceutical
11 5 (0.95%) Police
12 4 (0.76%) Automotive
13 3 (0.57%) Documentation Skills
13 3 (0.57%) Games
13 3 (0.57%) Public Sector
14 2 (0.38%) Marketing
15 1 (0.19%) German Language
15 1 (0.19%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 28 (5.34%) Terraform
2 6 (1.15%) WebSockets
3 5 (0.95%) Middleware
4 3 (0.57%) Boost C++ Libraries
5 2 (0.38%) LEMP Stack
5 2 (0.38%) Node.js
5 2 (0.38%) 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 (4.58%) Data Structures
2 20 (3.82%) Clustering
3 14 (2.67%) Social Media
4 11 (2.10%) Data Centre
4 11 (2.10%) Onboarding
5 10 (1.91%) Operational Technology
6 9 (1.72%) Management Information System
7 7 (1.34%) Private Cloud
8 6 (1.15%) Hybrid Cloud
8 6 (1.15%) Self-Motivation
9 4 (0.76%) PMI
10 3 (0.57%) Embedded Systems
10 3 (0.57%) IoT
10 3 (0.57%) Replication
10 3 (0.57%) Security Posture
11 2 (0.38%) Educational Technology
11 2 (0.38%) Enterprise Software
11 2 (0.38%) Housing Association
12 1 (0.19%) CCTV
12 1 (0.19%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 100 (19.08%) Linux
2 76 (14.50%) Windows
3 43 (8.21%) Windows Server
4 27 (5.15%) Mac OS
5 24 (4.58%) Apple iOS
6 21 (4.01%) Android
6 21 (4.01%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 18 (3.44%) CentOS
8 12 (2.29%) Ubuntu
9 10 (1.91%) Unix
10 8 (1.53%) Debian
11 7 (1.34%) Rocky
12 6 (1.15%) Windows 10
13 4 (0.76%) CoreOS
13 4 (0.76%) Windows Server 2016
13 4 (0.76%) Windows Server 2019
14 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 63 (12.02%) DevOps
2 49 (9.35%) Problem-Solving
3 43 (8.21%) Continuous Improvement
4 40 (7.63%) CI/CD
5 33 (6.30%) Vulnerability Management
6 28 (5.34%) ERP
7 26 (4.96%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 23 (4.39%) Configuration Management
9 19 (3.63%) Change Management
9 19 (3.63%) Identity Management
9 19 (3.63%) Release Management
10 18 (3.44%) Analytics
10 18 (3.44%) Change Control
11 17 (3.24%) Capacity Planning
11 17 (3.24%) Customer Experience
11 17 (3.24%) Infrastructure as Code
12 16 (3.05%) High Availability
12 16 (3.05%) ITIL
12 16 (3.05%) Time Management
13 15 (2.86%) Virtual Environments
Programming Languages
1 49 (9.35%) SQL
2 43 (8.21%) Bash
3 39 (7.44%) Python
4 26 (4.96%) PowerShell
5 7 (1.34%) R
6 6 (1.15%) Go
6 6 (1.15%) JavaScript
7 3 (0.57%) C
7 3 (0.57%) C++
7 3 (0.57%) PHP
7 3 (0.57%) Ruby
7 3 (0.57%) Shell Script
8 2 (0.38%) VBA
Qualifications
1 36 (6.87%) Security Cleared
2 27 (5.15%) DV Cleared
3 26 (4.96%) SC Cleared
4 15 (2.86%) Degree
5 7 (1.34%) AWS Certification
6 6 (1.15%) RHCSA
7 4 (0.76%) CIPD
7 4 (0.76%) DBS Check
7 4 (0.76%) PMI Certification
8 3 (0.57%) HND
9 2 (0.38%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (5.15%) QA
2 15 (2.86%) Data Quality
3 8 (1.53%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 3 (0.57%) Cyber Essentials
5 2 (0.38%) GDPR
6 1 (0.19%) SOC 2
System Software
1 71 (13.55%) Active Directory
2 36 (6.87%) Hyper-V
3 24 (4.58%) Docker
4 14 (2.67%) VMware Infrastructure
5 7 (1.34%) Ceph
5 7 (1.34%) Virtual Machines
6 5 (0.95%) iptables
7 2 (0.38%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (0.38%) 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 39 (7.44%) Ansible
2 31 (5.92%) Kubernetes
3 21 (4.01%) Grafana
4 20 (3.82%) Microsoft Intune
4 20 (3.82%) Nagios
4 20 (3.82%) Nessus
5 17 (3.24%) Prometheus
6 15 (2.86%) Proxmox
7 8 (1.53%) Podman
8 7 (1.34%) Argo
8 7 (1.34%) Check_MK
8 7 (1.34%) Istio
9 4 (0.76%) McAfee ePO
9 4 (0.76%) Puppet
9 4 (0.76%) SCCM
9 4 (0.76%) SCVMM
10 3 (0.57%) Failover Clustering
10 3 (0.57%) Microsoft Clustering
10 3 (0.57%) systemd
11 2 (0.38%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 106 (20.23%) Microsoft
2 50 (9.54%) Red Hat
3 23 (4.39%) VMware
4 21 (4.01%) Salesforce
5 12 (2.29%) Sage
5 12 (2.29%) Splunk
6 11 (2.10%) Rapid7
7 9 (1.72%) SAP
7 9 (1.72%) Veeam
8 8 (1.53%) CrowdStrike
8 8 (1.53%) SolarWinds
9 7 (1.34%) Dell
9 7 (1.34%) SonicWALL
10 5 (0.95%) Concur
10 5 (0.95%) Databricks
10 5 (0.95%) Google
11 4 (0.76%) McAfee
11 4 (0.76%) Meraki
12 3 (0.57%) Cisco
13 2 (0.38%) Sophos